The influence of Peter Pan on ATEEZ's storytelling has been simmering at the back of my mind when I came across statements that ATEEZ were supposed to have stage names (and I hope Veterantiny can confirm or correct me please!) such as Pan for Hongjoong and Lucky for Jongho (???) It didn't help that Honjoong has fine elfin features, but I digress XD
So imagine my delight when I came across Taya's videos which I'll be linking in a bit. Taya's framework uses the Peter Pan story juxtaposed with the movie Inception, and the Moebius Strip model. I really enjoyed Taya's use of not the just the MV and Diary books, but also lyrics, track order, concert performances and choreography. To me, this is so far the most comprehensive storyline theory and does not veer away from the overarching themes of identity, ambition, friendship and youth that ATEEZ has been exploring thus far (prepare tissues) :
What I find interesting in her framework is that Taya doesn't necessarily try to find a linear storyline. The TREASURE series is the most linear story that we have, and even then, the Taya's videos suggest to put Ep. 2: Zero to One as the first installment.
My personal takeaway from these is that the FEVER series, in its non-linear storytelling and dream-like presentation, only serves to fill in the motivations of ATEEZ and HALATEEZ, and help explain the events of TREASURE through parallel universes or events (eg. FIREWORKS and DEJA VU happening at the same time, anyone? :D) AND time loops (eg. PRECIOUS' ending verses are TREASURE the song's opening verses) or how we might be exploring the feelings of longing for the past or hoping for the future (eg. TURBULENCE ending with WAVE's intro.)
Which brings me to...: we haven't gotten an answer to ANSWER's outro music yet, since it's foreshadowing what's to come after; and the FEVER series that came after ended up being... what's happened before. The Real did not end with a mysterious outro though, so I feel that whatever we're getting after will be picking up from ANSWER.
TL;DR -- I love reading everyone's theories and takes on the ATEEZ media and here's my attempt at contributing to the discussion :D
I’ve recently gotten into The lost boys movie fanfiction the one with David, Dwayne, Paul and marko, and I was wondering if there is any LB crossover with Peter Pan fanfics? I think it would be awesome if there’s one where Peter meets the boys, I’m curious as to weather the boys would want to turn Peter and what Peter would think of them,
It's been a long time since I've seen any theories revolving around Peter Pan. It's one of my favourite stories of all time. One of my favourite theories was the one that depicted that Peter Pan is the true villain of the story, while Captain Hook was the misunderstood hero. After all, in the original novel, Peter Pan was a MUCH darker character than the less sociopathic version we saw in the Disney adaptation.
So after going back to the novel once again, since I've spent my time reading Captain Hook novels like Captain James Hook and the Curse of Peter Pan, Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook and Hook's Tale, I decided to jump back into the original to revisit Neverland. One thing that definitely caught my attention was the haunting realization that the Lost Boys have forgotten who they once were, and slowly John and Michael were beginning to forget as well.
This had me thinking on what could be the cause of this. One could quickly assume that it's just the nightmarish effects of Neverland, since it IS a magical place. However, the more I thought about it, the more I began to stray away from that logical conclusion.
Peter Pan is well-known for kidnapping children. He snatches them from their homes and families by promising them a home where they will never grow up. However, this is a lie. When they go to Neverland, Peter Pan begins to slowly drain the child's youthful spirits, which is their memories of their past, to the point that they've become mindless children who follow him without question. Once they've outlived their purposes, Peter discards them and finds more children to prey on. This youthful spirit goes to Peter so he can remain a boy forever. It's not a simply magical thing that comes for free, it's something that needs to be taken.
One line from the book that perfectly sums up Peter Pan in what he does to the boys is that once they grow older, he "thins them out". Which means, he kills them. This is proof that the children, besides Peter, DO age regardless. The reason why the Lost Boys we see in the original novel are not killed yet is because they're probably more recent ones. There have been MANY more before but once their youth (memories) had been drained by Peter, they were nothing but dry cows so they grew up and were either killed by Peter or they escaped and became pirates.
So for this I'm basically taking two theories about Neverland, and combining them to make something new.
The first theory is that Pan never wants his Lost Boys to grow up, and so once they do, he kills them as they no longer fit into his ideal version of Neverland. This theory generally points to Captain Hook and the other pirates being former Lost Boys who grew up and escaped before Pan could kill them. So by this theory, Hook is the good guy and Pan is the villain.
The second theory is that Neverland is a sort of afterlife for children who died young, and so Pan brings them to Neverland so they can have a proper whimsical childhood they were denied in this life.
I realized that these two theories could mesh quite nicely if Neverland isn't just an afterlife, but more of a waypoint on the way to the regular afterlife. So children die, are brought by Pan to Neverland, where they are given a fantastic chance at a full childhood, and then, when they grow up, Pan "kills" them, sending them along to the regular afterlife, Heaven. Captain Hook figured out that Pan was killing children and escaped without figuring out that the children were supposed to die once they've grown up. They got their chance at childhood, and now it's time for them to move on. So now Pan and Hook are locked in their conflict, both of them having the best intentions for the Lost Boys, but only Pan knowing the truth, and Hook would never listen to him long enough to entertain the idea.
https://preview.redd.it/w66z1pdisgk31.jpg?width=1385&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51127b282dfe12d2ae784cbfa58296b3cc7bf5f8
Here me out, look at their basic designs and then look Oko's ability and what Rufio/Lost Boys do
Make a Food Token? (What does Rufio/Lost boys do at the big feast?)
"Oko is from a plane ruled by Fey" (Never-ever land is majority inhabitated with Fey (tinkerbell and her ..fey sisters?)
What can he shapeshift into?
Oko seeks out hypocrisy wherever he finds it…but by his own definition which often leads to quite cruel “pranks.”
(Sounds like a Lost boy to me)
You saw it here first here folks, Peter Pan is confirmed in Eldraine. lmao
Single-handedly.
