I know that officially, Red Velvet music videos don't follow a storyline, unlike, say, LOONA or EXO in their early days. But you could really make a case for RV MVs being connected (like that thread someone did about how Peek-A-Boo showed the RV cult killing men, but in the Bad Boy MV their targets are now women... bisexual murder queens!).
Now, the trailer for their upcoming CB, Psycho, hints at Greek mythology. Also maybe that one of them (Seulgi) is a ghost... and her shadow is of a witch.... There are a lot of possible interpretations, and I'm not dedicated enough right now to form a cohesive one.
But here are more or less my interpretations of their vague lore:
I like the siren interpretation, although they don't entirely fit the mythological descriptions. (The sirens were aloof and wouldn't even look at their victims, but in Peek-A-Boo they actually engage with and play with their male victim... more like succubi.) So I like to think they're not really one or the other, but they are some sort of evil supernatural creature. I say supernatural with certainty because do y'all see these unnatural neck-twists (starting from 1:11)? This is not normal human activity.
Irene is revealed to actually be the puppet-master in the Rookie MV, although at first she acts like she's just another member trapped in this horrible, overly colorful world.
In the RBB MV, she's also shown fucking with Seulgi in a similar manner. In Umpah Umpah, which has been recently reborn in stan circles as "the song that may or may not be about them drowning their lover/s," Irene also has scenes where she peers into a fish tank with the same stoic/blank expression.
As for their theorized romances with each other (I'm talking the characters, not shipping the actual RV members with each other), they seem like an eerie hybrid of sisterhood/love interests to me? Like maybe they just sometimes get lonely and feel like only they can understand each other, being... evil immortals, after all. (In Russian Roulette they try to kill each other. Repeatedly. But don't die or even get injured. And in Peek-A-Boo, Seulgi's scar from Irene purposely slashing her cheek with a razor immediately heals, so... I'm thinking immortal. Or at least nigh-indestructible supernatural creatures.)
I like this bit of someone else's past Peek-A-Boo theory, where the girls want to stop being evil. Maybe that's why they seem to really try, no matter how awkwardly, to connect with the white dude in Peek-A-Boo. But as Russian Roulette, RBB, etc. show, they still torment each other. They can't seem to find happiness and love anywhere. Anyway, I stan! Of course it should go without saying that I don't think the real women playing these characters are soulless supernatural entities, but I love dark lore. And personally love the theory that Umpah Umpah is about drowning a guy. Bisexual murder queens, truly.
What are your own opinions? Or can you help me think of a name for these siren-ghost-succubus-vampire-witch entities that the RV characters are? I'm thinking I should mix Korean and French because they're a South Korean group + their official fandom name derives from French. Hmm.
Now, the trailer for their upcoming CB, Psycho, hints at Greek mythology. Also maybe that one of them (Seulgi) is a ghost... and her shadow is of a witch.... There are a lot of possible interpretations, and I'm not dedicated enough right now to form a cohesive one.
But here are more or less my interpretations of their vague lore:
I like the siren interpretation, although they don't entirely fit the mythological descriptions. (The sirens were aloof and wouldn't even look at their victims, but in Peek-A-Boo they actually engage with and play with their male victim... more like succubi.) So I like to think they're not really one or the other, but they are some sort of evil supernatural creature. I say supernatural with certainty because do y'all see these unnatural neck-twists (starting from 1:11)? This is not normal human activity.
Irene is revealed to actually be the puppet-master in the Rookie MV, although at first she acts like she's just another member trapped in this horrible, overly colorful world.
In the RBB MV, she's also shown fucking with Seulgi in a similar manner. In Umpah Umpah, which has been recently reborn in stan circles as "the song that may or may not be about them drowning their lover/s," Irene also has scenes where she peers into a fish tank with the same stoic/blank expression.
As for their theorized romances with each other (I'm talking the characters, not shipping the actual RV members with each other), they seem like an eerie hybrid of sisterhood/love interests to me? Like maybe they just sometimes get lonely and feel like only they can understand each other, being... evil immortals, after all. (In Russian Roulette they try to kill each other. Repeatedly. But don't die or even get injured. And in Peek-A-Boo, Seulgi's scar from Irene purposely slashing her cheek with a razor immediately heals, so... I'm thinking immortal. Or at least nigh-indestructible supernatural creatures.)
I like this bit of someone else's past Peek-A-Boo theory, where the girls want to stop being evil. Maybe that's why they seem to really try, no matter how awkwardly, to connect with the white dude in Peek-A-Boo. But as Russian Roulette, RBB, etc. show, they still torment each other. They can't seem to find happiness and love anywhere. Anyway, I stan! Of course it should go without saying that I don't think the real women playing these characters are soulless supernatural entities, but I love dark lore. And personally love the theory that Umpah Umpah is about drowning a guy. Bisexual murder queens, truly.
What are your own opinions? Or can you help me think of a name for these siren-ghost-succubus-vampire-witch entities that the RV characters are? I'm thinking I should mix Korean and French because they're a South Korean group + their official fandom name derives from French. Hmm.
Last edited:
