ATEEZ Lore in 5 Minutes
Jun. 14th, 2025 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhysianaATEEZ lore in 5 minutes (originally edited down from a fannish summary idrilka sent me, which I then tailored for a non-fan getting ready to taking her daughter to the Toward the Light concert, with links to all the relevant MVs added. Admittedly if you watch all the MVs, this takes a lot longer than 5 minutes to work through...):
-(The main thing to understand is all their MVs exist in an interconnected alternate universe and they have essentially role-playing character versions of themselves for it.)
-The story starts with them as teenagers meeting and hanging out at an abandoned warehouse, making music and dancing etc. There are some moments of teenage angst and heartbreak. And then a dude dressed in all black and a fedora comes to him in what Hongjoong initially thinks is a dream and leaves him an hourglass (called the cromer, which is also the thing in their lightsticks) which can shift dimensions and time travel depending on the phase of the moon. Relevant video giving all their character backstories here: Diary Film
-They eventually meet their counterparts from another dimension (dimension Z, as opposed to dimension A, where the original ATEEZ are from) that have been dubbed by the fandom as Halateez (because they first appear in HALA HALA) and the name stuck officially). As it turns out, dimension Z is a dystopian world where all art, music and emotion has been banned and people are being brainwashed into obedience
so Halateez basically recruit ATEEZ to help them fight against the dictatorship while they're being pursued by the white guardians (the guy from the beginning/end of the Answer MV).
-A lot of stuff happens. Yeosang gets stuck in the wrong dimension/wrong time several times, once at the end of Deja Vu (and that's the Yeosang we see in the glass box in Say My Name) and then again in The Real.
-Fireworks is their first arrival in dimension Z. Eventually they get fully dragged into the resistance (Guerrilla).
-Halazia is its own thing from before and right after ATEEZ arrive in dimension Z and tells the story of how dimension Z lost gravity and people lost emotion, but then the arrival of ATEEZ made people hopeful again hence the album title Spinoff: From the Witness.
-In the Outlaw album era, they're infiltrating the most important center of brainwashing among the population, the Prestige Academy, so it's a whole stakeout/infiltration operation, as seen in Bouncy. (Yeosang and Seonghwa have their little smuggling operation smuggling peppers because when people want to feel something, anything, eating a whole spicy pepper will probably do the trick.) At the end of Bouncy they successfully infiltrate the Prestige Academy and Hongjoong kills the person in charge and that brings us to the Ep. Fin: Will trailer where you can see they have more control over some of the city, but at the same time there's still resistance from the regime. (That's where we were at the time my friend wrote this explainer.)
-(my addition) The MV for that next album, the final one in their The World arc, was Crazy Form, which directly follows from Bouncy with all the resistance stuff. This is what had just come out when they developed their current concert, and all their stage sets/interpretive dance breaks relate to the dimension Z resistance.
-(return to my friend's notes) If you ever have a moment and want to understand a bit more about the lore, including some stuff i haven't mentioned, i really recommend the zero: fever diary film (linked at the beginning) and the world: movement trailers (1, 2, 3), and the spin off: from the witness prologue and epilogue.
*There is a time jump between the end of The World arc and the Golden Hour arc and the MVs are less obviously related.
This summary does leave out most of the stuff from their Treasure arc, which was the more lighthearted time when they were flying around on their interdimensional pirate ship learning about the power of friendship (primary example: Illusion), but that's less relevant to the Toward the Light concert's storyline.)
-Also, I realized all of that still doesn't really explain Seonghwa's sword and the giant kraken tentacles, because those are actually from their legendary Kingdom competition show performance (assignment: incorporate a piece of classical music into your song and make a performance; they had lost the previous round and were MAD about it): Wonderland Symphony No. 9 (Upon rewatch I remember Seonghwa originally had a rifle, but it was changed to a signature sword for every subsequent performance.)
-(The main thing to understand is all their MVs exist in an interconnected alternate universe and they have essentially role-playing character versions of themselves for it.)
-The story starts with them as teenagers meeting and hanging out at an abandoned warehouse, making music and dancing etc. There are some moments of teenage angst and heartbreak. And then a dude dressed in all black and a fedora comes to him in what Hongjoong initially thinks is a dream and leaves him an hourglass (called the cromer, which is also the thing in their lightsticks) which can shift dimensions and time travel depending on the phase of the moon. Relevant video giving all their character backstories here: Diary Film
-They eventually meet their counterparts from another dimension (dimension Z, as opposed to dimension A, where the original ATEEZ are from) that have been dubbed by the fandom as Halateez (because they first appear in HALA HALA) and the name stuck officially). As it turns out, dimension Z is a dystopian world where all art, music and emotion has been banned and people are being brainwashed into obedience
so Halateez basically recruit ATEEZ to help them fight against the dictatorship while they're being pursued by the white guardians (the guy from the beginning/end of the Answer MV).
-A lot of stuff happens. Yeosang gets stuck in the wrong dimension/wrong time several times, once at the end of Deja Vu (and that's the Yeosang we see in the glass box in Say My Name) and then again in The Real.
-Fireworks is their first arrival in dimension Z. Eventually they get fully dragged into the resistance (Guerrilla).
-Halazia is its own thing from before and right after ATEEZ arrive in dimension Z and tells the story of how dimension Z lost gravity and people lost emotion, but then the arrival of ATEEZ made people hopeful again hence the album title Spinoff: From the Witness.
-In the Outlaw album era, they're infiltrating the most important center of brainwashing among the population, the Prestige Academy, so it's a whole stakeout/infiltration operation, as seen in Bouncy. (Yeosang and Seonghwa have their little smuggling operation smuggling peppers because when people want to feel something, anything, eating a whole spicy pepper will probably do the trick.) At the end of Bouncy they successfully infiltrate the Prestige Academy and Hongjoong kills the person in charge and that brings us to the Ep. Fin: Will trailer where you can see they have more control over some of the city, but at the same time there's still resistance from the regime. (That's where we were at the time my friend wrote this explainer.)
-(my addition) The MV for that next album, the final one in their The World arc, was Crazy Form, which directly follows from Bouncy with all the resistance stuff. This is what had just come out when they developed their current concert, and all their stage sets/interpretive dance breaks relate to the dimension Z resistance.
-(return to my friend's notes) If you ever have a moment and want to understand a bit more about the lore, including some stuff i haven't mentioned, i really recommend the zero: fever diary film (linked at the beginning) and the world: movement trailers (1, 2, 3), and the spin off: from the witness prologue and epilogue.
*There is a time jump between the end of The World arc and the Golden Hour arc and the MVs are less obviously related.
This summary does leave out most of the stuff from their Treasure arc, which was the more lighthearted time when they were flying around on their interdimensional pirate ship learning about the power of friendship (primary example: Illusion), but that's less relevant to the Toward the Light concert's storyline.)
-Also, I realized all of that still doesn't really explain Seonghwa's sword and the giant kraken tentacles, because those are actually from their legendary Kingdom competition show performance (assignment: incorporate a piece of classical music into your song and make a performance; they had lost the previous round and were MAD about it): Wonderland Symphony No. 9 (Upon rewatch I remember Seonghwa originally had a rifle, but it was changed to a signature sword for every subsequent performance.)
