One Day at a Time: 3 Theories We Want to Banish (and 3 We Want to Happen Instead)

Welcome to our One Day at a Time series in which we count down to ATEEZ's fifth anniversary! As part of our special giveaway event, you can comment on each post for an additional entry into the giveaway being held on Instagram. If you want your comment to count as an entry, make sure to include your Instagram username in your comment.

There is nothing we love more than spending hours talking about ATEEZ lore.

And hours is not an exaggeration. Often we spend at least 4 hours on the weekend discussing the intricacies of ATEEZ's world and lore, so we feel at least semi-qualified to comment on The State of the Lore.

And today, we will offer you the 3 theories that we are tired of hearing, and give you our 3 pet theories instead.

banished forever

1. sirens

I feel I have done my civic duty in thoroughly debunking the sirens.

Highlights: sirens don't scream; sirens weren't originally even mermaid-like

While essentially harmless, it doesn't have any support and doesn't make sense with what we absolutely know is true about the lore (that which comes from the Holy Writ)

2. a member is a traitor

Speaking of things that don't make sense. . .

Everything we know from the actual text contradicts this narrative. Yeosang forsook his own family to stay with his friends. Everything Wooyoung does is to keep the group together. He risks his own life to retrieve the Cromer and save Yeo. He's the one who brought in multiple members of the group. Yes, the MVs do have some imagery that seems to suggest something dark is going one (Woo in HH and DV), but we have to remember that the MVs are just artistic representations of the themes that we see in the diaries. The diaries are literal; the MVs are figurative. So, perhaps the MVs just show us that there will be A traitor, but not necessarily one of the 8. In fact, it seems far more likely for them to be betrayed by someone from Strictland who would actually benefit from the betrayal. ATEEZ aren't even from here.

3. it's all a dream

No theory makes me more upset than this one.

If it's all a dream, then it's only one person's dream. Which means that only one of them (probably Hongjoong) has experienced all of this story. Which puts him in a position of isolation because only he can understand what he's been through.

There is a dark and gritty Alice in Wonderland adaptation in which Alice and the White Rabbit fall in love during their adventures. But for Alice to break out of Wonderland, she has to travel back in time. So, when she makes it back to before her adventures, only she remembers what happens. The White Rabbit has no idea. So all the relationship they built over the course of the movie is lost. The movie tries to play it off like "Oh, they'll still be together; Alice will just pursue him, it will be fine" but it's not fine. Only she has the memories and we know from The Giver that bearing the memories is a lonely job.

Also, it feels like it trivializes the very real and important themes that they're developing throughout the story if none of this is actually happening. If we remove the stakes, then what's the point?

lore dreamscape

This probably comes as no surprise, but it turns out there are way more than 3 things we want to see from the lore. And asking us to choose is a crime. So instead, we've broken our dreamscape into 3 broad categories.

1. actual theories

For people who have spent as much time with the Diary books as we have, we actually have surprisingly few real theories. Part of that is that a lot of our larger theories have come to pass (like Be Free Girl will come back an be important), but the other part is that we've spent so much time reading the Diaries in the last year that we've found they don't leave out as much as we once thought. But here are some of our actual theories about things left open in the lore:

• the smoke/mist affects people with unprocessed trauma differently (GD's)

• the smoke/mist is an unintended consequence of burning memories

• the Grimes girl lost her memory of how to speak, not her ability to speak

• the industrial revolution happened many years prior to Z's reign

• Left Eye supported Z's regime because of the pain he felt at losing his daughter, but turned against them when he realized he was still unhappy (GD's)

2. story loose ends

These are not theories as much as they are things we think should happen in order to tie up the story neatly. Both of us have English teacher backgrounds, so these are more related to what we think would make a sound narrative.

• Halateez should be dead

• Yeo's dad should have a counterpart in Z's universe that the members must confront

• Z is revealed to be Henry Jo

3. things we just want

These are unimportant (or maybe extremely important) to the actual narrative, but we still want them because we think they'd be cool. Or fun. Or both.

• it's revealed that Bobo is in fact the stuffed animal pinned to San's jacket during Celebrate (this is really just for GD) or we at least get closure on who Bobo is

• the Grimes siblings are revived

• ATEEZ actually get on a boat

• Be Free Girl is actuallly Left Eye's daughter from the other world

• a zombie uprising

• Don't Stop is circled back to and connected to the wider lore

• Thunder ends up helping ATEEZ

---

Our lore dreamscape is ever evolving, and at least right now, an Alice in Wonderland themed comeback is also on that list. What's on your list? Any theories you hate? Anything you want to see before the story closes? Let us know!