#v.devil analysis

Part One: Now then, where were we? 

At the end of TBONTB, the monarchs are approaching monumental, pitch-black gates made of skulls and desperate, reaching hands. 

I can’t not interpret this as the gates of Tartarus, considering the Greek mythology in the canon lore already. Tartarus, however, is at the lowest depths of the underworld, and so my interpretation is that, while they reclaimed their souls from the necklace, they awoke physically in a realm beyond the underworld, and now have to make their way out of this psychological nightmare to breathe free the air, as it were. Through Tartarus, through Hell, this is not because I played 80 hours of Hades in the last three months but it might have a little to do with that. Stay with me. (Though if anyone is wondering, YES Leedo would be Zagreus, but that’s not why we’re here today)

Part Two: Devil is in the Detail 

What an opening formation. The imagery is not 100% clear to me, but I feel as if this entire opening formation sequence is dual-wielding imagery of a crown (much like the killing part of TBONTB), but also the gates of Tartarus. 

Look at this transition once Hwanwoong ascends to the top of the formation, and how the hands all come out, similar to the gates above. I’ll be damned if this is supposed to invoke anything else.

Rewinding a bit, this framing of Seoho being resuscitated and borne by their hands is stunning. Seoho’s journey in the TBONTB choreography merits its own post entirely, because there are a lot of moments that seem to be telling a story for him particularly, and this is just a continuation of that. 

Ravn and Leedo being separated for the rap line part seems like an obvious utilitarian choice, and I agree that it is. However, before we prepare to dismiss all “pairings” as serving the progression of the song itself, I have another theory that ties together a lot of the inciting moments of choreo. I promise you this is going to sound like A Reach, but that’s just how my mind works and if you enjoy it I’m glad.

Leedo, Hwanwoong, and Xion are the monarchs who have absolved themselves by the events of 반박불가, and fully reclaimed their souls as well as their conscience. Seoho and Ravn, not so much. They have a lot of work to do to free their conscience - especially Seoho. Oh, lord, especially Seoho. Keonhee is an extremely interesting case, as he seems to have a foot firmly in both sides, More on that later. 

For further paranoid conspiracy theorist proof of this, please note that their outfits in the choreography videos symbolically reflect this:

Light, Light, Light/Dark, Dark, Dark/Lightish, Light

If you need more convincing, may I point out that Leedo, Hwanwoong, and Xion are the only members who got those wonderful “all clothed in white” shots in the back half of the 반박불가 MV? I tried to make a gif, and I did make a gif, but Tumblr doesn’t want to post it in this text post.

(you rn)

The most interesting moments of loreography in DiitD are the following: 

1. These lotus hands. Again, the imagery, I die!! Keonhee is coming into his own, his character is blooming, expanding his consciousness, going sicko mode with the realization that he has power in the underworld. 

2. Directly following this, Seoho offers a hand to Keonhee and literally drags him down (again, the light/dark dichotomy of Keonhee), while the two good good boys Hwanwoong and Xion are back there just trying to maintain balance so they can get through this Hell/Tartarus thing. 

3. Good ol’ ONEUS Summoning Circle, but wait this time I think it’s actually meaningful beyond the imagery. Seoho is at the center because he has the vocal line, yeah obviously, but he stays there much longer than is objectively necessary without a formation change. This isn’t common in ONEUS choreography. As much as they love their Summoning Circles, they tend to move on to other formations quickly. This one has meat on its bones, and I think what’s happening here, loreography wise, are the other monarchs banding together in an attempt to save Seoho from the darkness. But Seoho is powerfully dark, y’all, even going so far as to overpower them in the moment above. 

4. This is flame imagery. Seoho has been engulfed in flames despite everyone’s best efforts. 

5. At the last minute, he gets yeeted via backflip back into Hell/Tartarus

6. Keonhee takes the initiative in going back for him...

7. We’re back in Hell, that’s just great. Thanks, Seoho. You’re lucky we love you and your extremely disturbed conscience. 

With this in mind, you can probably get way ahead of me, here. 

Part Three: 반박불가 

Perhaps not remarkably, the title track doesn’t have nearly as many loreography beats as DiitD. However, we know it’s part of the lore, and this was made abundantly clear simply with that opening move...

This is where we left off TBONTB, but not exactly. There is a slightly different formation of dancers here, which suggests it’s not picking up exactly where TBONTB left off, but rather that this is a cue to let casual fans know, explicitly: yes, this is a continuation of the TBONTB story. 

Some moments don’t have choreography allusions, but they are loud in the MV, such as:

- “Youngjo, would you stop playing with flowers, our lead vocalist is going to Hell.” Ravn, who barely scraped out of Hell last time, ostensibly with Leedo’s help according to the rap line break in the choreography, has a rough time of it in the 반박불가 MV, but Hwanwoong isn’t going to let him fall back into toxic behaviors and lose himself to that psychological prison again. Hwanwoong drags Ravn back out of Hell, but not before Ravn successfully makes contact with Seoho. Obviously, Ravn would be the one to make contact, because Ravn’s still a little on edge about his own conscience and can easily backslide if he wants to. Who does he find down there? Seoho.

- Keonhee, who led the charge to return to Hell, is staying on task but seems to be the chief of operations to Hwanwoong’s chief of intelligence here, exercising his newfound sicko mode. Those two are certainly working hardest at keeping the servants of darkness in check down in the depths so they can make a quick break for it. 

- Leedo’s actually having a grand time fighting his own demons - or rather, smirking at them and realizing that nah, he’s good. He can use his guilt and regret to motivate him towrd good things now. 

- Xion is literally just above all of this and can move between Hell and Earth with ease, so he’s just waiting to see if he has to pull any Fallen God-Prince cards here to save his friends. 

Now, for the key loregraphy moments. It’s obvious that 1Million was choreographing for a new direction in the ONEUS style, here, so it’s nearly bereft of the usual lyricism and formations, but they’re definitely there. Unsurprisingly they almost all deal with Seoho. 

1. God, this moment whips. They’re all working to free Seoho and lock the gates behind them, with Keonhee giving Seoho one final push. That’s not a normal choreography move. That is storytelling and it sticks out like a beautiful sore thumb with an entire sonnet written on it. 

2. With Seoho on lock, now Ravn may break out. He does so rather easily, but it’s not without Hwanwoong’s help. Please notice that Keonhee and Seoho are the two BEHIND him, and what that symbolizes. 

3. This fucking bridge. It’s amazing with the loreography. First of all we have Keonhee, and the Summoning Circle is using the same imagery/texture that was formerly used to represent engulfing fire. Uh-oh.

4. Keonhee reaches out...

... but gets dragged under.

5. (excited football commentator voice) but who’s that on the outside making it to the surface, literally with the support of the other monarchs? IT’S SEOHO (cheers)!!

And Seoho finishes things out in the center, as well he should because he got us into this mess.

Part Four: What just happened to Keonhee

I’m so angry at this post-MV stinger. It took me forever to wrap my brain around what is being suggested here, because I thought “hey wait, the red lighting represents darkness/hell, doesn’t it?? DOESN’T IT?? RBW???? I thought we just GOT OUT OF HELL????

So I leave the final interpretation in everyone's individual hands, but the thought that occurred to me today was: 

What if this entire scenario was a test of resolve and camaraderie, an illusion, a trick by the Devil (or that donger Helios, whatever). What if Keonhee was the only one who saw through this, and the only one who genuinely made it to Earth at the moment he appeared to have been dragged back to Hell? Because, as we know, Keonhee is a tactical genius, a monarch among the monarchs, and all his visual imagery in the MV suggested a sort of power cabal. 

What if he realized that they weren’t all strong enough to face the challenge of breaking this cycle, so he schemed to leave them behind, but leave them safe in the illusion, while he struck out with the power of God and anime on his side.

Leedo’s symbolism took me some thinking. There are the obvious themes of time running out, with the last grains of sand running through the hourglass, the pocket watch, etc. In the fancafe teaser card, the image of a blank clock face seems superimposed on his chest, near his heart. As opposed to the others in the “warm” color spectrum of teasers (Hwanwoong and Ravn), Leedo is only backlit in red, and the stormy black-grey background brings to mind a foreground of discord, mystery, and strife for which passion is only an underpinning. But most all, it brings to mind SMOKE. Where Ravn’s teaser images made me think “fire, in its purest form”, Leedo is the byproduct of fire, of passion and heartbreak. He’s gone through it, and he’s scarred by it. That seems to be the elemental influence we’re dealing with here.

I also have to point out that colors on the hourglass are inverted in a photo negative effect. While that seems like it could have been a color scheme choice, I have to follow all these threads where they lead, and point to the lyrical theme of MANY songs in the storyline thus far: turning back time.

The clock over the heart, the inverted hourglass, the swirling clock face in the background of the oracle card: it all spells regret and the inability to let go, to me. Reliving the same thing, in ones own heart. Wanting to go back, but being unable to. In TBONTB, and even CBH, we saw Leedo as a very emotional figure, and this is no different. He was exhibiting a lot of anger in a tub of BLOOD, being held in that giant hand. I’m formulating a theory that the symbolism of hands represents the “relationship”/experience itself that led to this heartbreak on the lyrical theme, but I’m not quite there yet. However, with even the whisper of that reading in mind, Leedo was, more than anyone else, held in the palm of his own heartbreaking experience, getting angrier and angrier about it.

Hell, you could even interpret the heartbreak as a non-romantic one if we move into the overt symbolism of the visual story arc Leedo never wants to lose anyone else, again. The human child, the ones who trusted him as a monarch, his past self.

The clock in his heart rewinds, the clock in his heart resets. In his MV teaser the unifying factor in all the scenes is the irreverence. He’s Jokerfied, and it’s not just the suit. Where Ravn was bringing to mind images of self-destruction, Leedo’s flaming wings have big avenging angel energy, his wild animal behavior in the paintball scenes brought to mind a man who can no longer be controlled and laughs in the face of being hurt. “I dare you” vibes.

That scream? That growl?

Again, for posterity even though I already went off about this in my decidedly more unhinged rants yesterday and earlier today: Seoho’s MV teaser was so good with the symbolism it messed me uuuuuuup. So looking at his teaser cards and putting the pieces together has me smiling ear-to-ear.

First, let’s talk about the color symbolism: blue and black. In the fancafe teaser, Seoho is almost entirely enshrouded in black. With this, and then with the official teaser card, the moon is providing the only light, but none of it seems to be reaching Seoho himself. Now, I’m going to go about this treating the fact that it’s ONEUS and the moon is a big meta deal as an addition to these thoughts rather than the basis for them. What do we know about the moon in relation to the storyline of CBH and TBONTB? Well, when it turned red it was an evil portent. Seoho’s teaser cards are in the blue spectrum, and this moon appears to subverting the red moon, high above the kingdom (ostensibly that of the monarchs). A blue moon, which holds its own significance and symbolism, though nothing especially concrete. A blue moon is thought to lend power to the magical and divine, because it’s a very rare occurrence.

So then there’s Seoho’s oracle card symbol: the spinning top, which represents balance, life and death, and is used extensively in divination and rituals since ancient times. You can also see that its image is reflected, with the reflection being faint but definitely highlighted. The spinning top isn’t the only symbol here, though. There’s an amorphous encroaching darkness splattered here and there.

Taking all this together, it seems Seoho is out here representing themes of light and dark, contrast, reflection, and temperance. Or, at least, the attempt at those things. Even the element represented on his card, any way you look at it, is moonlight. A light that cuts through the darkness, by its very nature. A contrast of two things. I know K-Pop stans like to misuse this word a lot, and I’m one of those K-Pop stans, but I’m using it in its purest definition here: DUALITY.

That encroaching amorphous darkness keeps needling at me, and I think that’s what we’re seeing in the MV teasers. Darkness is taking over a bit, and Seoho is absolutely thriving in it. 

Burn that effigy... (possibly, an effigy of himself?) 

Gaze on in creepy fascination...

Stomp all over those rose petals. There are six bags hanging from the ceiling here, but Seoho only tears open one, and proceeds to eat the rose petal heart (take that as my interpretation of the following screenshot with a grain of salt, but I MAINTAIN MY CLAIM lol).

Okay... there’s a lot going on here, symbolically. First of all, the element that’s all over his card is water. He’s half-submerged in water, and there are waterfalls drowning the other chess pieces in the full teaser. What does water represent? As a water sign I could just toss my hair and be like “um, the best things,” but water is traditionally a symbol of cleansing, renewal, life. Beyond that, though, especially in astrology, water is all about adaptability, depth of emotion, and resilience. I’m going to focus on resilience, adaptability, and renewal for Keonhee a little later. But let’s look a little more at the other symbols here first, because they’re crucial. 

Being half submerged on his fancafe pre-teaser makes me think of someone halfway between death and rebirth. There is another chess piece - the rook, specifically, floating in the water next to him. Contrary to what many people think, the rook does not represent a castle among the chess pieces. Its etymology (it comes from the Persian word for “chariot”) as well as its movement on the chessboard represents a war chariot. 

Movement. Dynamism. Moving straight ahead into battle.

What in the world, then, is a piece representative of movement and progress n doing floating in the water - the water that represents renewal and emotional depth? Perhaps this means the Keonhee’s character in this storyline is unable to completely move forward until he can complete his renewal, and accept life.

What has he accepted instead? Well, there’s that symbol in his oracle card itself, which took me OUT the first time I saw it. It’s the King, which is the piece in chess that has the least potential for movement (it can only move one space at a time), but the most power (the game ends if a King is captured).

Then, we look at the final teaser posted to ONEUS Twitter, and we can see that not only is the rook joined by the queen under the waterline (if we’re considering that the overarching lyrical theme is one of love lost, this makes sense), but here also the King is fully submerged. 

Skkrrrtttt. Rewind. Let’s think about how we saw Keonhee in TBONTB. He started out blindfolded in flowers, in a way that suggested innocence to me - ignorant of certain things, but with symbols of purity obscuring his vision. He took off the blindfold, the screen turned red, and next thing we know he’s being brought back to life by Xion, despite what appears to be a struggle. To stay alive? To stay dead? I don’t want this to turn into an analysis of TBONTB, but keep in mind that Keonhee seems to have had the most blatant struggle between life and death, even before this comeback. By the end of the TBONTB video, he’s donning the crown. Even among the monarchs, he is the supreme.

So now we have Keonhee as king. AND BOY DO WE EVER HAVE KEONHEE AS KING. Every single thing about his MV teaser screams power, superiority, and control. Let’s not forget, though, that in order to move forward and progress, Keonhee, the king, needs to allow himself to be fully reborn. What is he still clinging to, that keeps him only half-submerged, half-cleansed? Is it the power? Is it the control? LET GO, MAN.

In his teaser you also see Keonhee seemingly in possession of the symbols that, in TBONTB, were larger than life and holding the six monarchs in their clutches. The hand, the bust, even the moon/sun itself (at least that’s how I’m choosing to interpret the sphere he’s holding). 

This dude’s control is so tight on everything around him that he even has the keepers of the flame at his command, surrounding him but obviously waiting for his word.

We see something in Xion’s teaser cards that we haven’t yet seen from the others. Colors - the splendor of nature, of butterflies and flowers and the blue, blue sky. In contrast with the others, it drives home how dark and myopic their teaser cards and symbolism are. But we are, after all, talking about five monarchs whose souls are imprisoned beyond an unreachable sun. 

So how is Xion the one with color, with life, with the vibrant Sun as his element? 

Let’s get to that in a minute. First let’s talk about the chalice. 

The chalice is an exhaustingly prevalent symbol throughout art and divination, spanning eras of humankind, and with different meanings along the way. In the Gothic and Carolingian periods, a chalice represented the rejection of evil, and the service of the just and holy. For Pagans and Wiccans, it represents fertility and the womb of the Goddess. The Tarot suit of Cups concerns emotions and relationships, and is associated with water and feminine mystique. 

So what does a full chalice mean? Well, there’s a common reading of the chalice as a vessel for breath. Breathe in, and the chalice fills. Breathe out, and the chalice is empty. 

“I will survive Even darkness can’t stop us I breathe in breath in You’re like oxygen to me Wait for me...”

--- “Dead or Alive”

Another possible reading of the full chalice is childbirth, or the presence of one’s own child. So who might be divining the machinations of the six monarchs, possibly employing fortune tellers to pull oracle cards and cast runestones in the hope of finding where they disappeared to and what they’re planning?

Why Helios, of course, who grieved the loss of his son, Phaethon.

Phaethon, who was allowed to drive the chariot of the sun for one (1) day, but lost control of the fire-breathing horses and was struck down to Earth by Zeus.

Phaethon, whose father Helios was sus that Phaethon even was his son, until apparently he went and fell to Earth. Now he’s all “oh, my son, I miss my son and I’m grieving, boo hoo.”

Helios, your son is doing fine and he’s found a wonderful clan of vampy (and vampiric!) monarchs to settle in with, and toss around a little of his sun prince power in the process. 

Each of the fancafe pre-teasers seem to call to mind a specific element. With Keonhee, we had water. So what do we have for Ravn? Well, the colors are dark red, black, with golden hues underneath it all - representative of passion but also darkness. Images seem to be burning away - most specifically, his image. The element here is fire - a force of death, of destruction, of passion. This ties to my theory that Ravn’s character in this storyling is self-destructive when he follows his passion, and allows himself to be engulfed in this, maybe even thrives in it. Think about TBONTB, where Ravn’s particular vice as a monarch seemed to be wrath (so much killing! Sir!). Turning that wrath on himself, perhaps, is what we’re seeing now.

All of his teasers are thick with roses, as well. His oracle card is, itself, a red rose. His MV teaser is full of red roses. Now, red roses are a complex symbol, but context clues usually tell the story. They can mean the obvious Western literary symbol of romance, passion, and the way beauty can be dangerous (what with the thorns and all), but roses can also stand for devotion to secrecy and high defenses. I’m choosing to interpret this as romance and passion all the way down - it’s a Ravn thing, after all. I also note the thorny vines in the fancafe pre-teaser, encircling the main figure. Those lend credence to the “beauty and passion being destructive” reading

The way Ravn’s shots are framed, more than any other member, make it appear that he is being actively consumed by fire, by passion. Trapped behind the flames, burned by them, possibly thriving in them. 

From the beginning Hwanwoong’s teaser cards seemed weird to me, until I started to understand the elemental symbolism in these cards. Once I arrived at that, I better understood what was going on here. Feathers, bright white by which Hwanwoong is obviously shadowed - this is Air in the open sky. Hwanwoong is above it all, he is going with the wind and wherever it takes him. Air is movement, air is transportive, and less popularly air is representative of knowledge and awareness (starts singing badly over a kazoo rendition of “In the Air Tonight” as Hwanwoong clips play). I’m not going to go too much into the VERY unusual image of Woong they elected to use for the fancafe teaser, because I know these were repurposed for these teasers from other shoots and aren’t pertinent in and of themselves.

Okay I’m going to level with you all. I spent about ten minutes on the Fish and Wildlife Service dot gov website, using their Feather Atlas Finder tool to try and determine what feather is in the background here, and it’s at this point that I was like “oh my god who gives a shit? No one at RBW is thinking this deeply about anything, and if they ARE they’re not being good enough at selling us on a Jaden Jeong/EXO-esque treasure hunt of symbols, so I’m the clown.” I’m Am Clown and don’t trust me. Anyway, thus ends my brief crisis of faith, I’ll get back to having fun with this now but I hope you can laugh along with me.

Anyway it’s probably a hawk feather. A wing feather, specifically. We’re moving on because I’m not going to read too much into that.

I really feel like the dreamcatcher image is important to discuss here. Specifically I was wondering “why isn’t the feather the image in his oracle card, then?” Well, in dreamcatchers, the feathers serve as ladders or slides down which the good dreams move to the person sleeping beneath. The function is important to note here, along with the element of air being discussed. The feathers in the background of Hwanwoong’s teaser are not hanging idly. They are floating away, on the wind. Good dreams, cast to the reaches.  

The dreamcatcher itself is representing the filtering of good and bad dreams, the knowledge (like air) and protection.

Hwanwoong’s teaser is replete with symbols of surveillance and observation - televisions, CCTV cameras. He stands on a bank of speakers and is the one wielding the flame actively as a tool.