Spin Off: From the Witness

Halazia

For a full recap of the Fever Series, Treasure Series, and The World ep. 1: Movement, please refer to Ateez Storyline: Updated December 2022. To find out my theory on where all of the Japanese releases fit into the storyline, refer to The World Ep. Paradigm post.

Ok, let’s get into the surprise “filler” song. Can we just start with the “mindblown-ness” of finding out Halazia was released as a FILLER between albums that Ateez didn’t expect to do so well? WHAT?!?! It may be my new favorite Ateez song.

The Lead Up

Before we get straight into the song, let’s discuss the torture Ateez put us through leading up to its release.

First up was another QR code that led to this short teaser:

So it seems like Ateez likes to drop QR teasers related to their anarchist storyline while they are not in South Korea because this happened with Movement as well.

We then got a notice from Ateez saying there would be a video uploaded on Youtube so all of us who were awake, tuned in. Let’s just say, I was on Scener while it was going on and it was 30 minutes of nonsense in that chat. Counting bells, listening to bird chirps, and analyzing wind volume. It was a lot! Then it was DELETED!! Even with all of that, I still missed SO MUCH so I am eternally grateful for Eterniteez for summarizing all of the details for those of us who didn’t have eagle eyes during that 30 minutes.

My Take Aways

• ASMR rain on standing water with bouts of wind gusts intermixed

• A bell toll every 3 minutes (10 in total)

• A light shining down on the scene

• Writing appearing and then disappearing on the walls:

  • “Hearts Awakened Live Alive”

  • “It’s just me myself and I”

• 2 Morse Code Messages:

  • “It’s Me”

  • “Zia” and “Be the Light” (in Korean morse code)

• Music playing faintly sounding like the music from the ending scene of Guerilla

• KQ comments:

  • “Stay Focused”

  • “Do you hear that?”

  • “Have you seen it?”

  • “There’s no turning back, goodbye.”

• Birds chirping

• 8 bluebird feathers falling down

This was also seen!!

Another fun fact is that the location of the film was actually an abandoned mall in Thailand called THE NEW WORLD!! Thanks, @park_seong_hwa for sleuthing out that in line with Ateez lore tidbit!!

The next day we got this image:

Which led to a series of images on Instagram with extra messages. @atzxmxxshx was nice enough to analyze the images for us.

I couldn't upload the original video so I took a screen recording of it for y'all. All credit to @atzxmxxshx:

Sadly, at this point I went on a cruise and didn’t have internet access for almost two weeks, so I missed everything else before the comeback. I had a couple of days to play catch up but probably still missed stuff. Here is what I got: the Instagram post got an additional row of images:

And a Prologue was dropped!!

Y’all I had NO TIME to analyze this before the comeback because I had to prep Bugs and votes and everything else, so I am just going to loop this in with the music video and also say, “WTF is “The world lost gravity”? Where did that come from?” I did note the references to Yeosang being captured by the Android Guardians after he destroyed the cromer. I will connect that later. Oh and also, my new dog very much chose a bias with this Prologue. She has good taste!

Diary Entries

Before we get to the music video, let’s talk about the Diary entries that came along with this release. Oh wait, there weren’t any!! Sorry, I am still salty about that. I NEED diary entries! Y’all, they were so cute when they were explaining the book from their album where the diary entries would normally be.

• Hongjoong: “You guys, looking at this album doesn’t it remind you of anything? It’s like a book. When we released our teaser video, there was a picture of a note. WITNESS! That was uploaded. The secret thing is that when you open it, it looks like that witness’s note. Everyone gets to have a witness’ note! The blue feather is a bookmark for the note. If you look inside there are these underlines around the pictures like the note! You can use it as a diary. Use it however you want and then just put this in between [talking about the feather]. It looks pretty.”

• Yunho: “The reason for the stickers is you can decorate the note.”

That’s nice guys, but I would rather have more clues to your lore. Instead we got Professor Hongjoong’s Ateez Storyline Special Lecture that left me with more questions than answers but I am still grateful to Sandorokis for adding English subtitles for the masses.

My Take Aways

• Ateez in A dimension and Z dimension do not have similar roles.

• The Spin Off takes place in the same universe that has been in progress until now but it is a separate story from a different point of view.

• Once The World series ends, Ateez will be 50% through their storyline and will be the end of the first chapter [we have just started The World series so we are currently still less than 50% through the storyline]. The second chapter will not disconnect or change the storyline.

• The cromer is not the only ancient artifact.

• Desert = in the desert there are no roads, directions, or signs. Ateez is walking towards the direction they want to go. The desert is the background that reflects Ateez’s situation in that way.

• Android Guardians are the extrajudicial organization that carries out the decisions of Z dimension’s central government. An Android Guardian manipulates the human brain and is a combination of machines.

• Dreams are often referenced due to the cromer using dreams as a method of contact. Thunder will be further explored in The World Ep.2.

• There is NO Ateez member who is hiding something in secret.

Halazia Music Video

First Impressions

I am just going to list what I noticed here and then talk about it more when I start analyzing everything.

• Yellow dust, yellow flags, yellow/gold confetti. YELLOW, YELLOW, YELLOW!!

• Some of the scenes are out of focus or have smoke obscuring the view

• The scarecrow looks like Halateez

• Wooyoung has the Halteez fedora and then burns it

• The location for the duet between Wooyoung and San looks like the set of Answer where Ateez and Halateez sat down for their delicious meal together but the set of when the Android Guardian was there after it was destroyed. Also, their choreography has some captured hands moves.

• Yunho looks like he was inside a turned cromer with the rocks in his goblet (that reminded me of San making a toast like Thunder in Answer) floating up similar to how the sand in a cromer would move to the other side of the cromer when it was turned

• Most sets have musical nods (e.g., a broken piano and speakers) around the periphery

• One of Jongho’s eyes has a gleam to it that was added in post production

• Yeosang is in chains!! That boy is always captured!

• Seognwha glitches when he is standing with his arms out in front of the scarecrow

• The base of the scarecrow has the word “Freedom” spray painted on it. It also has poles like people are going to carry it (I’m getting Ark of the Covenant vibes from the poles)

• The people in blue are everywhere and they are just standing there. They remind me of the people in the Movement trailer

• One of the floating orbs is captured and the only one who can bring it back down is San, who then absorbs its energy

• The four people at the end are similar to the person in white at the end of the Prologue but do not remind me of the boy at the end of Guerilla. I think they are different.

Making of and Reaction to Halazia:

We didn’t get much from the making of video but Hongjoong did try to tease a couple of things. “So today, for me I’m done with my solo video shoot. My solo cut today with this mysterious number! I can’t tell you guys yet but I was with the mysterious number to film my part.”

And “Our fans know about the Halateez clothed scarecrow. It’s quite symbolic. Halateez is a scarecrow with that background we are dancing in front of.” We also got a clearer shot of the base of the Scarecrow. I saw the word “Freedom” in the music video but missed the anarchist symbol and "Future". And look at all of that yellow dust and confetti on the ground!

In the reaction video Wooyoung pointed out Yuhno is in the cromer, Hongjoong pointed out Jongho’s eyes, and Yoesang said something was falling from the sky (referencing the yellow gold confetti). When they saw the “cookie”, which I am assuming is what they are calling the scenes that come after the music video ends, they had the following conversation:

• San: “It’s them!” [looking back at Hongjoong] “It’s them alright.”

• Yeosang: “Who are they?”

• San: “You’ll find out.”

• Yeosang: “Are they watching us from up there?”

• Wooyoung: “I think so.”

• San: “They’re leaving now.”

• Wooyoung: “They’re going? Where are they going?”

• San: “Maybe back home”

Jongho then said he was curious about what the circle is and Hongjoong said, “I already explained it” while Wooyoung told him to ask Hongjoong hyung. Jongho said he was asking so the fans would know too and then Hongjoong apologized for scolding him. [cute] Jongho then asked again and San said he didn’t really know, that he just pulled because they told him to. Poor Hongjoong having to continuously be the member who understands the lore and explain it to his members.

Symbolism

Before we figure out the storyline, we need to work through all of the symbolism that is in this music video, starting with the name of the song itself. Halazia, like Atiny, is a combination of two words, “Hala” which stands for “Hearts Awaken Live Alive” and “zia”. The Bump.com, a baby naming site, says this about Zia, “Of Latin origin, Zia also has roots in Italian, Arabic, and Hebrew, where its unanimous definition is one of radiance and magnificence.” It means, “splendor”, “light”, and “shine”. This aligns well with the lyrics:

“Be the light, oh, Halazia”

Also, @jorwani_ gave us this factoid about Halazia:

The first main visual we see in the music video is the amazing Halateez scarecrow. To a farmer, scarecrows symbolize the death and resurrection of the crops.

When you consider this symbolism with the text from the Prologue:

“The world lost gravity and the people lost emotion. People did nothing but wait for “them” to return. All while knowing that “they” would never appear again. Amidst this desolate hope the great sound of a bell resonated through the air and a new Eight made their appearance.”

This leads me to believe the Halateez scarecrow is representing the death of Halateez and resurrection of the movement through Ateez (the new eight).

We then need to consider all of the religious undertones in this song’s performance, and music video. First of all you have the sign of the benediction, which translates from Latin to mean ‘speak well’. This is used at the end of church service as a prayer and blessing. Webster also says a benediction can be something that promotes goodness or well being or an expression of good wishes.

A 2016 blog post titled, “Christian Hand Signs”, on Mythology and the Seasons went into detail about the sign of the benediction. You see Ateez making this sign with their right hands, which is based on ancient Greek and Roman views of hand meaning. “The right is in the future, it is part of our cultural heritage as a sign of progress. The left is the past, it is backwards and underdeveloped. This is why The right hand is used and why when giving Benediction it is from left to right with the right hand.”

The fingers have significant meaning based on Palmistry where each finger is assigned a particular planet. The blog post continues, “the hand of benediction like this; The father, Saturn (Middle finger) represents the father (God), his son Jupiter (Index finger) represents the son (Jesus), and the holy spirit is Venus, which is the divine female…And the Child the index finger is in between the Father, the tallest/highest finger, and the mother, the lowest finger of the hand. The Father being father sky and the mother (Venus) being mother earth. And in between them both is their son. Jesus, in this case of the hand of benediction.”

Additional Christian imagery is Seonghwa’s pose in front of the scarecrow, where he is standing like Jesus on the cross, to indicate the sacrifice Halateez made to save the citizens of Strictland and the resurrection of their mission through Ateez. Not to mention the Ark of the Covenant vibes I was geting from the base of the scarecrow.

There are also those amazing bells we hear throughout the song that sound like church bells. Church bells are typically rung to call worshipers to a church service, to announce fixed times of prayer throughout the day, and on special occasions like weddings or funerals. I think here they are marking Halateez’s funeral.

On the other side of religion, you get Avatar. I blame the release of Avatar: Way of Water around the same time as Halazia for this connection, but I had just rewatched Avatar and I couldn’t get this scene out of my head when I saw the Ateez’s MBC Performance Practice. I even made a comparison video for my friends because they couldn’t see it, but LOOK:

So in Avatar, the Na’vi, the native people of Pandora, worship the goddess Eywa, whom they sometimes refer to as the Great Mother. Eywa governs all the Na’vi people over the entirety of their planet and even the animals worship her. Eywa is a biological presence on their world that the Na'vi and the animals can literally talk to through connecting to the Tree of Souls located in different parts of Pandora. The way the Na’vi chant as they worship reminded me of how BBTrippin started the MBS performance of Halazia. Just one more nod to the way Halateez were most likely viewed as saviors to those they broke out of Strictland’s control loop.

This brings us to all of the bluebird references. We first see 8 (the exact number is debated between 7 and 8 but I slowed the video down shot by shot and counted. It’s 8) blue bird feathers falling down in the 30 minute ASMR video, the hidden letters in the instagram pictures spelling out BLUEBIRD, there is a code behind Hongjoong in the Prologue and also the music video: 22152984 which if you have the number represent letters, comes to an approximation of bluebird (2 B, 21 U, 5 E, 2 B, 9 I, 8 H, 4 D = BUE BIHD), a blue bird feather bookmark was included in the album, and then of course, Yeosang’s MVP/scene stealing line:

“Mm, the little blue bird that lost its voice. I can hear the whispers. The beginnings of a deep echo. The voice that will overturn the world.”

Oh, who am I kidding, I think we need a picture of that moment for the sake of posterity.

So let’s talk about bluebirds. Around the world, bluebirds have a wide variety of associations and meanings, all of which carry positive connotations. Some believe the bluebird is a symbol of joy and hope; others, that good news will be arriving soon. Others think that bluebirds represent a connection between the living and those who have passed away. In Chinese mythology, bluebirds were messengers of Xi WangMu, the Mother Goddess of the West. Seeing a bluebird was a sign that she was near and watching over you.

In Korea, bluebirds were considered messengers of the gods from the spirit world. There is even a traditional Korean folk song called, 새야 새야 파랑새야 which translates into “Bird, Bird, Bluebird”. The song was written to tell the story of a Korean general, Bong-Joon Juhn, who lead an unsuccessful uprising against corrupt rulers and invading Japanese troops in the late 19th century. The Sejong Cultural Society provided this story, “[Bong-Joon Juhn’s] nickname was the Green Bean General. Legend says that he was a Korean version of Robin Hood; after attacking corrupt officials and seizing their treasures, he then distributed them to the poor commoners. He was very popular and many commoners joined his army. His army swept through large parts of the Korean peninsula before Korean rulers requested the Japanese army to intervene. Juhn’s army, equipped with spears and arrows, was no match against the westernized gun-wielding Japanese army, and in 1895 Juhn was captured and hanged. Korean commoners sang this song to lament General Juhn’s death and the failed coup d’état, and it is said the widows of Juhn’s army sang this song to their babies as a lullaby.”

Here is an updated version made for the show, Nokdu Flower, which was made about this conflict. I obviously need to go watch that drama now.

My Theory

Before I get into this, I need to give a special shout out to my loretiny friend, Carey, and my Atiny sisters in the trenches, Daisie, Morticia, and VK. I spent so much time kicking ideas around with them when the music video first came out that some of their ideas have solidified in my head at this point. So this theory was mostly developed in the trench with my sisters and then brought to the masses in this post.

If you take into account all of the images of the Déjà Vu/Say My Name period of Ateez’s storyline from the Prologue, you can roughly place Halazia during the time when Ateez met Halateez in the Android Guardian’s bunker and then Yeosang was held captive there after he destroyed the cromer and sent the rest of Ateez back to Universe A. I know there are people who think this is an entirely different story, but if you take into account Hongjoong’s comment in his “class”, “The Spin Off takes place in the same universe that has been in progress until now but it is a separate story from a different point of view,” this could be a spin off from that point in the story and told from the perspective of the people trapped in the Android Guardian’s bunker, including Yeosang.

When I think of spin offs, I think of tv shows where one character from the original show moves away and gets their own show like the short run of Joey as a spin off of Friends or the successful run of Angel as a spin off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or The Vampire Diaries that had The Originals as a spin off and the Legacies as a spin off of The Originals. (Either vampire shows like spin offs or I watch too many vampire shows so only see those spin offs but I digress.) In each of these examples, it is a key character who starts the spin off, so it would track that Yeosang could be the key character of Halazia/Spin Off: From the Witness.

Working off of this theory, I hypothesize Halazia is Yeosang’s perspective of the time he was separated from Ateez similar to how Turbulence is Ateez’s perspective of that time. In the Turbulence music video, the rest of Ateez were shot in blue shades and were all separated in their individual grief for Yeosang while he was shot in yellow shades to emulate the yellow smoke of Strictland. Now in Halazia, we have yellow dust, flags, and confetti to portray the yellow smoke Yeosang and the other captives of the Andriod Guardians had to breathe in while their memories were slowly being removed and burned for the Android Guardians to consume. This also aligns with Yeosang being chained in Halazia, because he is imprisoned and singing about a blue bird who portrays the unsuccessful uprising against corrupt rulers (Halateez and Yeosang have now been captured after Halateez’s uprising).

Reviewing past diary entries I had some additional thoughts. Yeosang’s diary entry from Fever: Epilogue stated he was held in the glass prison without any light seeing lines of Resistance fighters standing in front of his prison with their biological energy stolen covered in black fabric. Jongho’s diary from Fever Ep. 3 described the lost voice of the Grimes girl as a blue bead with condensed energy inside. The 008 entry of the dairy in The World Ep. 1 describes the Android Guardian’s bunker as a facility for reeducating the maladjusted, a place to dispose of people who rebelled against the government and other things that stimulate peoples’ emotions like art and music. I believe the people in blue on the outside of most of the scenes are the Resistance fighters and citizens who had rediscovered their emotions, then considered maladjusted by the government, whose biological energy was being stolen. I think the floating orbs San and the people in blue are trying to bring back down to earth could represent the biological energy that was stolen. So that means that Yeosang was witnessing the biological energy of the people who either fought alongside Halateez or were saved by Halateez, the people in blue, being stolen. Consider these lyrics from Halazia to represent this theory:

“Please let me take real breaths. Let me dance a real dance. Let me dream a real dream and let me feel all these senses. Even love has been swallowed up when waves are made here in this place. This movement that will last forever.”

Yeosang’s Epilogue diary also stated he was in so much pain that he wished his emotions would be stolen or that the Android Guardians would just kill him. What would cause that kind of pain? Were others in captivity also feeling that way? Was losing biological energy and/or memories a slow process? If I were losing my essence whether that be memories, emotions, or biological energy, I would try to hold on to myself.

“No more, keep control. No more, keep your soul. No more, keep control. Clear the darkness, oh, Halazia.”

If the people in blue are the Resistance fighters and citizens who rediscovered their emotions, they could possibly have placed Halateez on a pedestal and worshiped them. We know Halateez was also captured by the Android Guardians and the Prologue talked about the people waiting for “them” to return knowing “they” wouldn’t so we can assume they were killed by the Android Guardians or that their biological energy was also stolen. I believe the individual shot of the Ateez members surrounded by the people in blue represent the worship and death and mourning of the original Halateez. This tracks with the religious imagery.

My next question was “Why do the orbs float? What is up with the Prologue saying that the world lost gravity and the people lost emotion?” My friend, Carey, has the answer for that one. She thinks emotions are what “ground” you. So not having emotions, they lost their grounding, aka gravity. I know, I have smart friends! Which means that San bringing the orb back down to earth, allowed him to reabsorb the biological energy trapped inside of it and establish emotions aka gravity.

San bringing the orb down at the end of Halazia means there is still hope. Like the Prologue says, “Amidst his desolate hope the great sound of a bell resonated through the air and a new Eight made their appearance.” Per the shots in the Prologue of Say My Name, Ateez did return to save Yeosang.

They announced to Left Eye and the remaining Black Pirates/resistance fighters that they had returned through Morse code. The movement was not dead, a new eight had come to resurrect it (connecting the resurrection imagery). The little blue bird that lost its voice (Bong-Joon Juhn’s version of blue bird symbolism) but the beginnings of a deep echo of the voice that will overturn the world could be heard, hope, which is also symbolized by a blue bird.

Another cool discovery in the trench was a similar chord progression in both Halazia and Utopia.

Utopia was the dream, the place they have been searching for, just out of reach. Halazia continues that dream. Hope has remained even through despair.

I think that message of hope is a good place to end this analysis. I wanted to gift y’all with an AMAZING edit of all of the live Halazia stages by my girl Linquel to end this post.

See y’all in the next comeback. Hopefully we will get some answers about the people in white at the end of the Prologue and the music video since San hinted that we will find out about them soon!

UPDATE: Spin Off: From the Witness Epilogue

Well friends, we can’t sleep on Ateez. Just when I thought I was getting a brain break, they threw out an epilogue!

So what do we learn from the epilogue? There are three main things I took away from it, especially when considering the epilogue with the “cookie” from the music video and the prologue. 

1. The visitors in white are preceded by a blue bird flying in the sky. We see the blue bird before getting a glimpse of them in all three videos. I didn’t notice it at first but when I went back to watch them all, there it was.

2. Seonghwa can see the visitors in white. He sees the visitor in the prologue and is the one who follows him into the abandoned building and finds all four of them in the epilogue. None of the other members are shown to see the visitors in any of the videos. 

3. The visitors leave the same “be free” bracelet behind that the dancing girl leaves behind for Seonghwa in the Diary Film. 

So what do these things tell us? Let’s start with why it is Seonghwa who can see the visitors in white. I think the answer is the bracelet they leave behind. If you consider Seonghwa’s mentality in the Diary Film, he was the most like the citizens of Strictland, who value productivity over all. He was constantly tied to his “to do” lists and only broke free of them when he saw someone dancing. Even though this took place in Universe A, he could be considered the first person to be broken out of the control link through seeing the freedom that comes from dance. The bracelet the girl dancer leaves behind for him is a reminder that freedom should trump productivity. Maybe the visitors in white leaving the bracelet behind again, this time in Universe Z/Strictland is a reminder to recommit to the cause of freedom. Putting this even more into context, Seonghwa is also the person who frees Yeosang from the Android Guardians’ bunker. So someone who has been set free mentally from the control link by the power of the arts then set someone free physically from control of the Strictland government.

The blue bird that proceeds the visitors also flies into view during the quieter portions of the videos. Let’s put this imagery into the lyrics about the blue bird,

“Mm, the little blue bird that lost its voice. I can hear the whispers. The beginnings of a deep echo. The voice that will overturn the world.”

So we see the blue bird flying, hear the quiet that could be considered whispers that then leads to the visitors who are reminding Seonghwa about the freedom cause. That is the voice that will overturn the world. So do I know who these visitors are? No. But I think I do have an idea of what they want. If Halazia really is Yeosang’s perspective during captivity, a time when he and the black pirates  are losing all hope, then the blue bird following visitors in white have come to remind him and the others what the stakes of their cause is. The freedom of a whole civilization.