Wake Up, The World

Ateez's July Comeback Announcement

What we know so far: (See full recap in Ateez Storyline: What (I Think) We Know So Far).

On a sleepy morning in April I was relaxing in bed before getting up to meet my friends for Aussie Bruch (I am not Australian, but one of my best friends is, and we make the 45 minute pilgrimage to a few towns over to eat authentic Australian breakfast food everyone once in awhile) when I came across this tweet:

Which lead me to this secret video:

I'm sorry, WHAT!!??!!

Did Ateez really just announce their next comeback using a (still) unlisted video that can only be found via the powers of social media or a QR code on this poster magically posted through the world?

Did that really just happen?? This is my first new era comeback so I had no idea they have done mysterious comeback announcements prior to now. Can I just say, they are EVERYTHING!! Have I talked of my love of escape rooms on this blog yet? I mean, I guess you can tell I like to piece together clues as I have devoted an entire blog to it, but come on! This stuff is like catnip to me.

Also, the new logos, nice!!

I wanted to write a post about it that day and was bummed that I hadn't finished working through the storyline yet, but there is an order to things so I waited. Then I thought, what if they release more clues? So I waited some more. Now I am ready to theorize.

What the Video Tells Us

Ok, let's take this thing shot by shot.

We start in a room filled with recording equipment and a ton of wires. The "On Air" sign is turned on indicating the message we are about to see is broadcasting to the world. We then see an Android Guardian relaying the message, "There is a disease in the heart of man. The disease is human emotion."

The screen then turns to "snow", representing an outside force trying to break into the broadcast.

The "snow" turns red, an anarchy color, before a new message appears:

We then see a new Ateez logo with, what I think is someone saying "Ateez" and "accept" but I am not 100% sure, and a July release date.

What We Already Know

The message from the Android Guardian is the exact same message that begins Ateez's Kingdom performance of Rhythm Ta (The Awakening of Summer). If you remember, my theory behind that stage is that it is a "prequel" to the entire storyline where Halateez steals the original cromer from their government's vault. Here is the video of that performance if you need a refresher:

This also made me think of the VCR for their XR Show Fever:

In this VCR, Halateez are breaking into a broadcast of the same Android Guardian message with Hongjoong's Rhythm Ta (The Awakening of Summer) speech about opening your eyes to freedom. A message (open your eyes) we often hear in Ateez lore. This VCR also has the anarchist blimp spreading their leaflets to the masses.

Additionally, if you remember back to my post about Don't Stop, in their making of that music video, they referenced Rhythm Ta's van scene and Yeosang asked again if we think they are Ateez or not. At the time, I wondered if they were just messing around or giving us a hint for something. I think they were dropping a hit to this comeback!!

Something else they have been doing on Twitter is posting images of Ateez "from the manager's perspective":

Now I am a relatively new Atiny (not quite a year in) but I don't ever remember a time where this many tweets in a row, or any tweets actually, have been from the manager's point of view. So here is my theory. I think this upcoming comeback will be from Halateez's point of view. I think we are going to see them in their world, forming their anarchists groups, the Black Pirates, to fight the government's rule over their citizens. Ateez's first era was them already part of the fight, their second era was how they got into the fight, I think their third era will be why they need to fight (from Halateez's perspective ) and how Halateez started the fight. I hope I'm right because those would be some amazing visuals in their music videos and I can just hear some "loosing their emotions" songs already.

Just because I have watched her theories for every other video, I wanted to add Bookish Theories' take on things. as of the writing of this post, I have not yet watched her theory because I really wanted to try my hand at coming up with my own theory first. Nw let's watch her theory together.

Bookish Theories' Theory:

My Takeaways

• She found an anarchy symbol in the background of the recording studio

• She thinks Yeosang was saved by the Black Pirates (I don't think this is true since we have the diary entries which say that Seonghwa is the one who gets him out of the glass box)

• She talks about the logos showing an H and A intersecting along with Ateez broken in two and talked about how this fight may take place across both dimensions

Final Thoughts

Y'ALL!!! I think I did a pretty good job of theorizing on my own!! I am finally getting this stuff!! Nothing Bookish Theories said was any more revolutionary than what I said. Sorry, just a little excited here. I am sticking with my theory. I think this next comeback will be from Halateez's perspective and will portray the beginning of their revolution (or at least their side of things). I CAN'T WAIT!! Hurry up, July!!