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canyouhearthevoices · 2 years ago

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ATEEZ Theory TidBits Episode 13 - What did ‘THE WORLD EP 1: MOVEMENT’ contribute to the storyline?

Ateez’s 10th official release. This time they actually had a decent break between albums - an unusual 7 months. The album began their new era of THE WORLD, which had the same concept as their performance of ‘RHYTHM TA - The Awakening of Summer’ on KINGDOM - a dystopian futuristic world based on 1984, where the population are brainwashed into all being exactly the same and ATEEZ have to fight against this with the power... of music and dance. Okay, stereotypical, but it’s stereotypical for a reason.

In this post;

Materials in the album

Additions to the storyline

The album name

Track breakdown

Reactions from the fandom

Important motifs and storyline elements which were added

My perspective on the storytelling and quality (from a screenwriting kid)

Conclusions

The album was fascinating to me. Its place in the storyline is contested in my mind by angel-Yeosang and demon-Hongjoong, so I am a little confused at times. I of course love the gothic inspirations of 1984, but find that yet again, ATEEZ’s limitations in English names are on full display - A teenager Z made a very unappreciated comeback, and ‘Strictland’ is about as bad a name for this world as could possibly be created. Luckily, the music and dance are still slaying.

Full discussion below the line.

Materials

Just the most important stuff, because, as always, almost everything ATEEZ does contributes to the storyline in some way.

Album - physical, with three versions including Diary ver.

MVs - Guerilla

Dance practice/choreo videos, or other performances, for ‘Guerrilla,’ ‘Cyberpunk,’ ‘Sector 1,’ ‘The Ring,’ and ‘New World’ - bringing back ATEEZ having a choreo for almost every song on their album

The regular contents; teasers, reaction videos, vlives and so on.

Logbook roughly 80 onwards (ongoing).

Additions to the storyline

MOVEMENT introduced a new era - and a new universe. This is interesting, because I would have assumed one of two things about universe in ATEEZ’s storyline - 1, that TREASURE, FEVER, and THE WORLD were all in different universes, or 2, that TREASURE was one universe and FEVER and THE WORLD were a different one. But Hongjoong’s segment on SHOWTERVIEW for this comeback suggests that FEVER and TREASURE were in the same universe, and that THE WORLD is in a different one, which just.... what the hell, Joong? Not only does this confuse everything I have already written about the storyline, but it also makes no sense with the evidence we have been given. I don’t understand how TREASURE and FEVER are supposed to exist in the same universe, unless ATEEZ want to establish that one universe can hold multiple timelines, and the whole theme of FEVER - the new world. How is it a ‘new world’ if it’s literally the same world...? But perhaps my upcoming dives into the diary entries and people’s thoughts on them will shed some light on this. Although I don’t have a lot of hope - it seems to me that ATINY have a habit of trying to make ATEEZ’s storyline a very strict timeline of very specific events, like a police report, rather than the semi-abstract non-linear narrative that it is.

But we’ll see how that goes.

The album name + meaning

It’s very interesting let me tell you that. THE WORLD makes me think of the ‘new world’ from the FEVER albums. I would first assume that they have now reached this new world (thus why it becomes the world, but this doesn’t make sense, because the FEVER teasers includes phrases like ‘from the new world,’ which suggested that they had already reached it. Which in turn suggests that this is either another new world, or that this is perhaps the same world that is seen in a different light (a theory that my head has entertained quite a bit). The group finds out about the truth of their world and how bad it actually is - thus it goes from being the exciting adventure of the ‘new world’ to just ‘the world’ that is less idealistic and that they need to fix. Alternatively, it’s just a new world, and since the new world is the only one they have ever known at this point, it just is ‘the world’ to them.

In contrast to THE WORLD, MOVEMENT is very easy to understand - not only are ATEEZ moving forward in both the storyline and the real world as artists and creatives, but they are also creating a literal movement in the storyline - freeing people from the brainwashing of the government and leading the cultural rebellion with their art and music.

Track breakdown

Propaganda - I don’t really know what I can tell you about this one. It’s all in the name. It was literal propaganda and was using subliminal messages to worm its way into the mind of ATINYs and kpop fans everywhere.

Guerrilla - Literally ATEEZ describing how they’re going to use guerrilla warfare to fight the government.

The Ring - ATEEZ literally got the ring of power from Lord of the Rings and are now using it for whatever purpose they see fit. The ring could well be a symbol representing the Cromer. Or maybe it is just a ring. Who knows.

New World - ATEEZ are building up the power to continue their movement - like a literal gathering storm. I like imagining them performing this while cosplaying Volibear from League of Legends. Or maybe you can imagine Volibear with Hongjoong’s face or something. Wow, something I never want to imagine again.

Cyberpunk - I love it. It’s 10000% gothic 1984-style, with the lies that the government built up, the ideas of appearing and disappearing, poison and ice, and basically just the essence of a surveillance society.

Sector 1 - The second part of ‘Answer’ over two years later. Dang, that’s good preparation. ATEEZ are diving into the dark depths of this world they live in and finding the truth while discovering new emotions that they’ve never been able to feel because of the brainwashing of the government. Also, live vocals Jongho.

Reactions from the fandom

Well, as we would expect whenever Seonghwa exposes his shoulders, everyone liked it. I think most people were less impressed with the album and more impressed with how well it had been planned and how far in advance it had been teased. We had always known that ATEEZ teased things in advance, especially songs for their next album at the end of MVs, but we had never seen the song that had made up the mysterious music at the end of ‘Answer’ - until now. This two and a half year gap between songs really astounded a lot of people, including myself. But we always knew that ATEEZ had planned things in advance. There was even a one-year gap between the KINGDOM performance of RHYTHM TA that introduced the concept, and the actual album.

But let’s put ATEEZ’s insanity aside, because we all know, and have known for years, that both ATEEZ and ATINY are insane. The album was very well received. Everyone liked the additions to the story and I think the general consensus was that this concept change was a good one. It didn’t hurt that they were on tour too - only hyped up more excitement for it.

Important motifs and storyline elements which were added

The skin masks of European dudes ATEEZ use as disguises for some reason

‘Strictland’ was introduced in the MVs and officially

Same with all of the motifs from RHYTHM TA - like the vault break concept, the brainwashing of the population, masks, and the like

ATEEZ’s rebellious phase

The Guardians made a return

My semi-professional perspective of the storytelling, production and production values, etc

Although it isn’t my favourite in concept or music (and those fake-leather plasticy clothes they put the boys in look so uncomfortable), I think ATEEZ made a really good choice with this album. And a lot of it comes down to how well they planned it. And this is in five main ways.

They introduced the Guardians at the end of ‘Answer,’ which made us wonder about who they were and what they were doing. This is also when the intro music for ‘Sector 1′ was revealed, which also increased hype.

RHYTHM TA was done in the relatively safe space of KINGDOM, which allowed ATEEZ to experiment with their concepts. This allowed them to introduce the concept for THE WORLD in a place that wasn’t so attached to album sales and reception, and thus created a ‘soft’ introduction to the concept for the fandom - by the time THE WORLD came around, we were already exposed and used to this concept, so it didn’t bother anyone even though it was quite a big change.

‘Deja Vu’ used a sci-fi aesthetic and concept which didn’t fit the rest of FEVER era. Although it had relevance to the storyline of that era, it also eased ATINY and the general kpop community further into the new concept.

Fever eXtended edition which reintroduced the Guardians and ATEEZ’s hideout.

‘Don’t Stop’ was the final nail in the coffin of the immortal vampire who will rise from the dead. It rehashed the heist concept from RHYTHM TA, and the long-term exposure over more than a year to all of these concepts made sure that when the final change came around, no one was really surprised.

Interestingly, this album is the start of a new series, but doesn’t include an intro track - PROPAGANDA serves this purpose, but isn’t labelled as one, and thus, to me doesn’t really count. Now, this is when I get speculative.

We had TREASURE - and there was a mysterious ‘hala’ version of ATEEZ. And then we had FEVER, which I and many others thought must have been HALAteez, but there are indications (such as HALAteez appearing separately in the diary film and ‘Deja Vu,’ and in the Diary entries) that suggest that FEVERteez are separate from HALAteez. And, yes, in a few years I may look stupid for suggesting this, but I think it’s very possible that HALAteez are the ATEEZ in THE WORLD. I have a few reasons, and some are considerably better than others. Why don’t we start with the most stupid.

‘THE WORLDTEEZ’ doesn’t sound very good. But we don’t need to call then THE WORLDTEEZ, because we already know their name - it’s HALATEEZ.

Similarly, why do we need an intro track to introduce us to this new group when we already know so much about them from KINGDOM, TREASURE and FEVER?

The actions of the Black Pirates described in the Diary entries, such as appearing and giving flyers against the government to civilians, are done in THE WORLD.

The Guardians first appeared with HALAteez.

We already know that THE WORLD ATEEZ hide their identities often with masks and other things, which is a HALAteez motif.

Speaking of, in RHYTHM TA, which is literally THE WORLD, Hongjoong was putting on his black pirate hat as he stole the Cromer at the end of the stage - he was literally transforming into a black pirate, but was still the same person.

But either way, and as much as this is the direction I neither wanted or expected, I think this worked out well for them, and I tentatively (with no further information and material other than the album, will say that it was the logical next step in their storyline).

Quality of the album

Why do I keep including this segment? We all know that ATEEZ’s albums have great quality and production values, and make their often limited budget go far. And this one was no different. I would say that the performances and styling were hampered a bit (or in the case of the styling, a lot) by the world tour they were in the middle of, and it doesn’t take a degree in anything to know that ATEEZ are once again overworked. And as much as I wish that wasn’t the case, in the end, it is something they discuss with their company, and, either way, they are killing it.

Conclusions

ATEEZ are reaching their Divergent era. And I don’t know how to feel about that. On the bright side, they’ve created a much more compelling story than Divergent, so I suppose we should be grateful for that.

#ateez #atiny #ateez theories #ateez theory tidbits #the world #the world ep 1 #the world ep 1: movement #movement

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