[Note: This series originally started as a project on Reddit. You can find an explanation of what Bible Study is all about here.]
Happy Sunday! Today we begin looking at Yunho's page, and consider what it tells us about Yunho's character growth thus far.
Bobby: I'm ready
GD: Are we on Yunho?
Bobby: We are. Which is very timely as I've re-entered my Yunho era
GD: Let me re-read through this and then we can truly begin
[GD re-reads the entry]
I have many thoughts but shall we begin with where we are in the story thus far?
Bobby: Certainly. I love a recap
01: where are we in the story thus far?
Bobby: Would you like to take this one or shall I?
GD: I think you did last time, so let me give an attempt and you can perhaps steer me correctly if I go adrift
At the end of our last diary, the members had been split into two parties. One was going to find the Grimes girl's voice, and the other to find Left Eye. At the end of that diary, we saw Yunho and Jongho both in mortal peril, as Jongho started to hallucinate and Yunho began confronting Left Eye. But, Yeosang is able to break Jongho out of the hallucination before he runs off the cliff in the trash cave and lends him his mask. We then learn that the Grimes girl has found her voice again.
I've left out all we learned about the world of Z because I forgot it tragically. Except that they now go to school for 40 years and live for 200.
Bobby: One thing I think we both settled on was that the Second Industrial Revolution had started long before Z's rise to power
Also we know emotions are being traded for energy which has strengthened the economy
Or like, emotions are being transformed into energy, which is being traded
GD: Which I will probably never understand how that works, and I will just have to make my peace with that
Bobby: We all will. The Intern will never reveal her secrets
I do have a new thought.
A half a thought
GD: To this page or to past pages? Or the intern generally
Bobby: Past pages; the world building
But I've theorized that memories and emotions are being used interchangeably
And I think perhaps my thinking has been wrong.I'm wondering now if the memory beads are, like the yellow smoke, a byproduct of the process of turning emotions into energy
It doesn't matter because we'll never know for sure, but it's a thought that I'm thinking
GD: That's interesting. So they don't mean to have these memory beads, but they do exist.
There is normally a lot of memory tied up with our emotions
Bobby: Right. And it would explain why the beads seem to be regarded as useless
GD: Trash. The waste of our economy
Bobby: I wonder if the beads will show up in any future diaries/MVs or if we're just leaving them behind like the yellow smoke
GD: Well, if your theory is right, the beads would be a product of their setting, just like the yellow smoke. People wouldn't be living near the run off, so as long as they're blending with the rest of society, it's likely those things won't be around. It's when they go to the outskirts we might see them again
Bobby: We shall see. Maybe in November
02: thoughts on the page
GD: My first thought is that the intern had fun again and that's nice
there is a lot of imagery in this entry, and it also feels like a lot of symbolism, which is, I think, why the translation feels a little wonky in places
Bobby: Yes, the description of things hitting the bat feels backwards
GD: But the "broken pieces scattered into the air" reminds me of either Fever Road or the diary film, I can't remember which, when you see the broken glass separating the members
Bobby: Diary film
Also Jongho's scene in Guerrilla; San's in SMN--if we're counting glass and mirrors as the
same thing
GD: I think that makes sense
It's interesting to me the idea of shattering here.. because normally shattering would be a bad thing, but we sort of have a mirroring in this scene where Left Eye's bravado shatters at the end
Like, he breaks free of what's holding him. Break the wall, and all that
Bobby: The text notes that his hallucination starts to fade away, but the hallucination isn't what was holding him
Like--if you put yourself into a cage, the cage isn't the thing that's keeping you
GD: Yeah, it sort of gets me back into the question of, does your mental state affect how much the smoke affects you?
Like if you can overcome your guilt, can you see slightly through the smoke more... let it have less power over you.
It's interesting that they don't mention Yunho wearing a gas mask, and he seems largely unaffected by the smoke
Bobby: I think they mention that they've moved to a place where the smoke is less dense?
Yes--at the end of Yunho's entry in pt. 2
GD: Less dense, but not nonexistent? Or did they move clear away
Bobby: No. Definitely still there. It says they moved to a place where the smoke was less severe, not completely gone
GD: Well the density does seem to have a relationship to the hold that the smoke has on people, so perhaps that was enough, but you know me, I like the idea that he broke down his own walls with Yunho's help
Which kind of gets me to my next Thought on this page
Bobby: That's sort of my point though--it wasn't really the smoke
GD: Which is that, Left Eye needed someone else, just as Jongho needed someone else. It can't be done alone.
Bobby: Thematic
Specifically, he needed someone who understood
Like, I don't think that if Hongjoong had taken point on this mission that he would have been able to talk Left Eye down like Yunho did. Because he didn't get it.
GD: I agree
Bobby: It's interesting to me that Yunho wasn't afraid of Left Eye at all when the other members clearly were. It's like he knows Left Eye isn't actually trying to harm him? (Or maybe he knows he's too drunk, idk)
It makes me wonder if Yunho had also dealt with a lot of anger after his brother's death
Bobby: Of course not. The diaries give us like 5% of the story. Either way, the visual of Yunho coolly standing his ground when Left Eye comes after him is very good and this Yunho stan approves
GD: And interestingly not normally even the action packed 5%. We skip the action in favor of world building and character moments. Action is mostly left to our imaginations unless the action corresponds with a character moment, like for Yunho here
Bobby: We definitely see that shift once we get to World, but it makes sense for Fever to focus on characters rather than plot
GD: I really also like the "fell to the floor like a lifeless toy"
It sort of reminds me of this idea that every person is in furtherance of the regime? I'm not sure why because the metaphor doesn't really extend perfectly.
But the idea that they're all just cogs in the machine.. like the regime is using them for their purposes? Like I said.. the metaphor doesn't extend perfectly out.
Bobby: It makes me think more that he's entirely powered by his guilt and anger. And when that gets drained out of him, he has no energy. Until he finds new meaning and purpose to pursue--i.e. helping Ateez rescue the Black Pirates
GD: That makes sense
Bobby: I'm very interested in this "unexplainable emotion" Yunho feels on top of pity
GD: I assumed it was some sort of... connection? or acknowledgement of his pain?
Bobby: Yeah--I wouldn't normally call understanding an emotion, but that's what I'm thinking
He says at the end he feels like he's looking in a mirror
GD: It's very nice that Yunho has found ATEEZ and has this new found family, but from this, it seems like perhaps Yunho hasn't been able to really share much about what he's been through--or at the very least, hasn't felt that they understood what he's been through
Bobby: I feel like he and Mingi would really understand each other--and we see that later--but I get the feeling neither has really opened up about their loss. For very different reasons I think
GD: You know, we see that a lot of them have not been completely truthful up to this point, which is perhaps why they all fell apart in Fever Pt.1. They had this shared goal, but maybe that was the only connection they'd built to each other.
I remember Jongho lamenting that he hadn't realized what he wanted until it was gone
And I think you and I have talked about how going through Pt.2 is what sort of starts to build more of those deeper connections to each other.
Bobby: When you say that they haven't been truthful, I think that's true--but I don't think it's a purposeful misleading. More like they just don't know what their truths are yet. That's what's being revealed to them in their adventures
GD: Right
So when I say "truthful" I mean more that... they have not felt comfortable sharing much of their past/who they are with each other
And as you say, that could be because they don't really know who they are yet
I am not sure I have many more thoughts on the page
Well I have one more
Bobby: Then let's praise and prayer
After your one more
GD: I think it does a nice balance between vulnerability and strength. Yunho appears to embody both, and I like that.
More of a half thought
Bobby: Yunho is Great
GD: The true thought
Bobby: Oh I had a thought earlier
But now I've forgotten what it was
All I remember is it had something to do with Yunho playing a good psychopath
And I remember that one redditor who said they were scared of him
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, who knows) I don't remember what any of the connective tissue was
03: praise and prayer
Bobby: So let's praise and prayer
GD: My praise is....
Is it too passive aggressive to say that it's ATEEZ being the biggest group not from the big 4?
If so, I will say that I'd like to praise HoHong for their good MC work. I think they have a very natural chemistry in that Yunho has a warm presence and Hongjoong is endlessly curious, so together they make excellent interviewers and hosts.
Bobby: Can truth be passive aggressive?
After every Ateez performance, I will always be grateful that their performances speak for themselves. Even down a member, they just outshine everyone else.
Secondly, I find it amusing when Atinys have a common enemy that prompts them to deal with haters in often hilarious fashion. For instance, the thread about how Ateez has privilege because they are funded by NASA actually
GD: I didn't read that thread but it does seem delightful
I like all of the threads that are like "Ateez invented kpop and music and also concepts"
Bobby: It's out there and as absurd as you can imagine
Be the Light
GD: Halazia
And that is it for today! We will be back next week to dive deeper into Yunho's page and discuss his relationship to the members and Left Eye.
And as a spoiler, we will also be posting a very special Anniversary Event and Giveaway later this week, so stay tuned!
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