Awakening of Summer, Symphony No. 9 (Into the Wonderland), Wave Overture, and Answer Ode to Joy
What we know so far: (See final Treasure recap in Zero: Fever Part.1 (Part 1) and the Diary Film recap in Zero: Fever Part. 1 (Part 2)) Ateez gathered as friends and spent time together in a warehouse where they sang, danced, and hung out. They became each others' support systems and encouraged eachother to go after their dreams and escape the pressure the adult world was placing on them. A series of events occurred and the warehouse was locked up (by who we now know was Yeosang's father) and everyone was separated. That is when Hongjoong broke in and met Halajoong in a dream. He was gifted a Cromer and told about the other diminsion where Halateez is from. The Cromer remained after he woke up and he used it to bring the boys back together again and then transported Ateez to Strictland. There they fought the Android Guardians (the same AI who have captured the men in the black fedoras, Halateez) and lost the Cromer while trying to save Wooyoung. They met the Grimes siblings who have told them about Strictland's central government and the resistance fighters, the Black Pirates. They split up to talk to Left Eye and discover where the Android Guardians' bunker is so they can retrieve the Cromer and to find the Grimes girl's stolen voice. While going after her voice, Jongho fell victim to the yellow smoke and started to hallucinate he was playing the same basketball game he was injured in, thinking he was experiencing déjà vu. Yeosang went after him and saw him running towards a cliff.
I knew the Kingdom stages had a bunch of the same imagery as the music videos I had been seeing, but it wasn’t until I started really getting into the storyline that I realized Ateez was actually using them to provide more context to us! Yeah, I know…MIND BLOWN!! I think the stages (other than The Real) are, in essence, a mini summary of their storyline. So I’m going to show these in the storyline order and not the order of the show so I can tell what I think they are protraying throughout Kingdom. I found an article about Awakening of Summer that helped me out with some of my Awakening of Summer theories. Other than that, most of this will actually be my theories so sorry if I am on the wrong track.
Let’s start with The Awakening of Summer which was their third performance but based on the storyline, it comes first. In fact, I believe this is the start of the entire Ateez storyline but I will get to that more later on.
Based on what we now know about Strictland from Seonghwa’s diary entry, the central government believes human emotions are to blame for crimes and terrorism so they want to control human emotions by enacting an advanced technology bill and banning the arts.
The Awakening of Summer starts with the shot of an eye in tv screnes symbolizing the advanced technology/AI that is watching over people. It then zooms in and we see things representing the arts gathered in one place and signs prohibiting art, dance, and music:
Based on Analyzing Ateez's Performance on Kingdom - A Revolution in Stage Performance by Sara-Masoudi, the article I found, the message over all of this is referring to a line from the movie Equilibrium that states, “After WW3, those of us who survived knew mankind could never survive, so we have created a new arm of law to seek out and eradicate the true source of Man’s inhumanity to Man. His ability to FEEL.” So from this scene we automatically know we are in Strickland.
They then move to a shot in a van of Ateez that is set up like a shot from the Netflix show, Money Heist (down to Seonghwa checking in nail polish like “Tokyo” fixing her lipstick). In Kingdom, serval members of competing groups actually talked about how they were emulating Money Heist! They then add masks (which is our key that this version of Ateez is actually Halateez) and exit the van with an anarchy symbol on it.
They start dancing around with other masked people (the resistance maybe) some of whom have their hands chained and one who has a bomb strapped to him indicating how the people of Strickland feel. Halateez is free because they are still feeling. We get to part where Wooyoung tears a newspaper but if you look closely, the newspaper has a picture of Halateez on the front page with the caption, “The Central Government Declares the Black Pirates as Terrorists”. As a reminder, Halateez are the men in the black fedoras and the Black Pirates are the entire resistance group.
We then get to the Money Heist part of the stage where they are seen breaking into the vault where all of the things representing the arts are being stored.
Halajoong then starts taking to the people of Strictland, “People! Open your eyes for our lives! Keep your mind! Now is the time for freedom if we try! Listen look write! OPEN YOUR EYES!!” Also, if you notice, there is smoke coming from behind him. I think here he is referring to the fact that the yellow smoke that caused hallucinations is controlling them and the people need to open their eyes (remember in Crescent and Illusion/Wave?) to the truth and fight for their freedom. Also, look at what is written on his podium: Hearts Awakened Live Alive (HALA HALA!!!!)
The stage ends with the REAL reason they broke into the vault, Halajoong stealing the Cromer!
This tells us that Awakening of Summer is, right now, the first event in their entire storyline. It was how Halateez and the resistance got the Cromer to begin with. It also makes more sense of why the Android Guardians are after it, because it is their own tech that Halateez stole and is using to communicate to Ateez.
This brings us to Symphony No. 9 “From the Wonderland”:
We are back on the pirate ship which, for me, represents actual Ateez and we see Halajoong taking the Cromer and giving it to Captain Hongjoong. I think this is representing the part in the Dairy film where the handoff takes place. Hongjoong is now ready to turn the Cromer to gather the boys, set sail, and lead Ateez into battle.
Also, take a look at what the Cromer is sitting on. The compass rose, with the tree on fire from Strictland (Fireworks) and the scroll that says, From the New World, a reference to the Anarchist theory from FixOn8.
Similar to how the Wonderland story is telling us about their storyline at the same time as telling the Alice in Wonderland story, this stage’s subplot is Pirates of the Caribbean so a lot of the imagery is related to that. What I did notice was the backup dancer colors. The ones in white were helping Ateez while the ones in black were fighting against them. I find that interesting considering that Halateez’s main color is black while the Android Guardians’ main color is white. I don’t really have a theory for this, but I do know the ones in black are holding on to Wooyoung and he was the one in Strictland who was captured by the Android Guardians in the forest so maybe it is a reference to that.
We then move into Wave Overture:
Here you see them sailing but battle worn. Hongjoong is frustrated and they are all injured.
However, they remind themselves not to worry about their injuries and keep fighting the good fight. This stage ends with San running towards the revived group holding the torch from the Fireworks concept teaser with the flag from the bugle in Say My Name attached to it. He triumphantly thrust it into the air to signify they are not done yet. They have been called for a specific purpose and their hearts are on fire to fulfill it.
Which brings us to Answer Ode to Joy:
This stage probably has the most things I didn’t originally know about so grab hold.
It starts back in the museum from Say My Name with Yeosang in a box. What we now know about Yeosang being in a box is that, of the boys, he was the most trapped by his parents and his letter to his father in the diaries was the first time he was able to escape that trap. That happened in the Fever Road epilogue when Hongjoong used the Cromer. We see an Android Guardian keeping guard and then the Cromer inside a full moon which tells us someone is using it to travel across dimensions. The Halateez then joins him in the box with the Cromer and they turn it together signalizing Yeosang’s escape. The Android Guardian, finding an empty box, probably realizes he got out using the Cromer which is what sparks his anger.
They then show us scenes of Ateez and Halateez in mirror raising their glass like thunder, toasting, dancing together, etc. I think this either symbolizes them working together or, because there is a big white line down the middle of the platform, it is maybe showing that the battle is now happening in both places so it might represent Halateez’s original fight and Ateez’s current fight on two different timelines (Halateez’s past and Ateez’s current).
We then move into a flashback sequence form the previous stages. Yeosang looks like San climbing the rope to open the vault in “Awakening of Summer”, you have the Yunho and Seonghwa characters from “From the Wonderland” with Halateez handing them weapons, and Halateez giving a mask to one of the resistance fighters who helped the break into the vault. To me this represents Halateez’s supporting Ateez through the whole process (possibly through sending subliminal messages through the Cromer).
Then several different fighting scenes occur with the Android Guardians in which it looks like Ateez is winning because they are able to bring back music through La Poem who are wearing similar uniforms to the ones Halateez wore in the Wonderland music video and comeback stages.
The reintroduction of the arts to awaken emotion does not go over well with the Android Guardians, however, and an epic battle ensues between Ateez/Halateez and the Android Guardians. Ateez/Halateez eventually win but only Ateez is left standing.
Does that mean that will be how the entire storyline ends? Not sure. But that is what Kingdom is telling me based on the information I have so far.
Final Thoughts
If I am correct about my Kingdom theory, an epic battle between Ateez/Halateez and the Android Guardians has either already happened in Answer, or will be happening at some point in the future. Can I also just say I absolutely LOVE that they used Kingdom to further their storyline. Who does that? Ateez, obviously!! They are AMAZING!!
P.S.: I hope I did an OK job on my first stab at a storyline theory without my usual theorists for research.