Golden Child - Wannabe MV analysis

Hello, I'm Mitzie and I'm here with my first post with the Golden Child team ♡ I'm very happy for being accepted into the team and hope I can help to spread the love for these precious artists ♡

#goldennessproject

      Golden Child came back on November 18 with a

      beautiful album, changing the concept we

      associated them with. Wannabe itself is one of the

      most aesthetics MVs I saw this year, the scheme

       of colors (black and gold, white, black and red) and

      sets that are presented in the MV had been truly

      mesmerizing and intriguing for me. And I couldn't

      help but try to understand and express what it

      makes me feel, and so the idea of this blog was

      born.

      First I want to say that there is a verified theory on

      youtube here, I thought about what I’m about to

       share before I watched this, but there are some

      elements that overlap and also some that are

      completely different, so I wanted to clarify and also

      link to it because is very interesting.

       And now, here we go with my thoughts about the

      MV and lyrics.

      There is one particular scene that made a great

      impact when I first watched the teasers:

      Jibeom and TAG with their hands covered in liquid

      gold looking blankly ahead, they being absolutely

      entranced by it.

      First thing that came to my mind watching the gold

      in their hands was King Midas myth, so I will briefly

      talk about it.

  ꧁ Midas was a king who had basically everything

         he could wish for and a beautiful daughter he

         loved, but despite all that, his greatest happiness

         was provided by gold. So when the opportunity

         came to him to ask for a wish to the God

         Dionysius, he wished for everything he touched

         to become gold. From the moment he finally was

         granted that, he was delighted to see everything

         turning into gold by his mere touch, but he soon

         realized that everything meant literally everything,

         as the food he was about to eat, and the flower he

         wanted to smell turned into gold too. And his

         wish became a curse after he turned his own

         daughter into gold after hugging her, realizing that

         he already had all what made him happy before,

         and gold just was a false idea of happiness and

         perfection. (Source ☆ )꧂

     It also made me think about the name Golden Child,

     which was chosen for the group to represent a

     successful and perfect child that only comes once

     every hundred years, so they were named with the

     mindset to lead the kpop industry for a century (as

     said by their CEO) (yes, it’s cringy).

      So these two thoughts kept coming to me while

      watching the MV, and after reading the lyrics, I felt

      them in a certain way. I don’t know if it was the

      intention of the creators of the song and concept,

      but here I go.

Perfection

     The song starts with them talking about being in

      a depressed state, darkness, despair, sadness filling

     them. The only thing that seems to help them

     overcome this darkness is the idea, the fantasy of

     this perfect person they are thinking about. They

     want to see this person, they want to hear their

     melody, they want to dance to their rhythm. They

     want to be this person and want to open their eyes

     as this person. I think this person they want to be is

     represented by them singing in the black outfits in

     two different settings, the golden background and

     the chandelier and trees background. This perfect

     person is seen walking down a golden path, the

     ideal path. And perhaps the upside down trees and

     the chandeliers hanging almost at ground level are

     there to represent a twisted reality, as the upside

     down smile from this person they talk about in the

     lyrics.

Stage

     They are also seen with a black and red outfit. For

     me red represents stages, just like how when you

     are in a stage the opening curtains are red, and also

     how you get there walking down a red carpet

     (probably this is a bit of a stretch but it made me

     think of that). So it could be representing their stage

     personas, another side of them.

Troubled Reverie

     Another setting is the room and corridor one. When

     they are all together in the room, they seem to be in

     a daze, probably day dreaming about this perfect

     person. Their reverie is so powerful that they don’t

     seem to notice that there is actually a storm

     unfolding around them. The storm intensifies in the

     rap portion, when they are obsessively talking about

     wanting to be this person.

     Also when they are with the white outfits, they are

     portrayed looking longingly outside, to were the light

     comes from, but they don’t seem to notice that the

     light actually comes from the lightnings of a storm,

     that you can see when they are dancing in those

     suits. The idea of perfection is actually tainted and

     troubling, which is represented by the storm.

Imperfection

     Near the end they are approaching this perfect

     image they have in their minds, the images are

     dripping with gold, this gold that represents

     perfection. But actually the images break into

     pieces in front of them, turning finally into

     themselves, representing the ideal self they want

      to be, the ideal image they have of themselves.

     You can see how they struggle to reach this ideal,

     running towards it despite all the chaos coming

     from its broken pieces. The idea of perfection can

     not stand for much longer.

Open your eyes

     The idea of all being a fantasy is complemented

      by the choreography, playing a lot with covering

       and uncovering their eyes, representing the state

      when they are dreaming about this golden idea

       and also how they want to wake up, finally turning

      into this fantasy, or perhaps finally waking up into

      reality.

    So for me the final message is that they are

    dreaming about being perfect, being the Golden

    Childs, but that this perfection is actually tainted,

    that’s why all the gold you see doesn’t have a

     definite shape, is like a splash of painting in one

    scene, liquid gold that you can’t hold in the other,

    dripping gold in the dark busts, and exploding gold

    near the end. The gold, this idea of perfection, is only

    in their eyes, I think their eyes turn gold while being

    possessed by this idea. They think of it as

    perfection, when it actually isn’t, so as Midas, when

    they actually touch it and turn into the golden

    person, they realize it’s not what they were

    expecting, this perfection comes with a darker side,

    represented by the storm and exploding pieces near

    the end, the perfection can actually be a curse and a

    hindering in your real life, if you don’t wake up and

    realize where you are now and your reality.

    Another message I got from it, is that sometimes

     we as fans look at our idols or perhaps any person

    around us with the idea of perfection, wanting to

    escape different problems and situations from our

    daily lifes while following their seemingly perfect

    lifes. There is a delicate equilibrium where

    everything can go downhill for us too, finding this

    balance and recognizing that they are not perfect

    and enjoying the happiness and comfort they give

    us while living our own lifes being encouraged by

    them but not blinded by them is something we all

    should think about.

     I hope this made sense. I just wanted to write a bit

     of what I’ve been thinking while watching this so

     many times because I love it so much. Golden Child

     really surprised me with this comeback, because I

     wasn’t expecting this change of concept from

     them, they always had bright songs and a positive

     and healing message, and this turned to be so dark

     the more I thought about it :_)

Thank you for reading, and if you have other thoughts about this I would love to know about them♡

* cover and dividers made by me, pictures used are from Wannabe teaser images and MV screenshots*