Finally, the Dread MV would release as the finale to the ARG as a whole.
The prelude video would be shown in the livestream before the actual MV drop as well as a sort of “pair.” I could only imagine the confusion on behalf of the people who had no idea this was all occurring.
- Thematically, even for those uninvolved, this still honors the overarching theme of “Psychowarrior;” confronting yourself to face an ultimate problem. This is represented through Phae and Reven, both of them being a half of the same coin in a sense, they are both exploited by Mark who appears to represent those with unregulated power that this capitalistic system can create.
Like with part 1, here are more takeaways of mine:
Speculative rant (warning: long, again)
- On Marks' presentation, he appears to be presenting events within the ARG, even foreshadowing the events to happen later in the MV? Which I'm not quite sure what to make of. "We think so you don't have to" is quite on-the-nose with issues we face related to consumerism and modern AI with how we are now being fed streamlined information and entertainment.
- The section with the stop-motion animation still confuses me to this day, and can have multiple interpretations. The head appears to take on the likeness of Sydney/Phae/Reven.
- There are many quick frames that seem to draw parallels Mark and Revens in this MV. I find this important to note since it appears to be an intentional choice.
- The segment during the fight between Mark, Reven, and Phae is deliberately mind-boggling. On one hand they don't appear to even be in an enviroment that resembles anywhere on earth--with Phae and Reven traversing this very enviroment until Mark enters. You can assume Phae ended up here by taking the same substance that Raven did, which is an altered form of contact created by Angel as seen previously. The first segment of the fight when Mark enters also has this "generated by Plato II" stamp which only makes you wonder more about the exact nature of this technology. Once this massive version of Mark is defeated, Phae and Reven fuse and proceed to finish him off.
- Despite everything, the final few seconds of the MV show them all laughing at eachother and gesturing, before cutting away to Phae after xe was shot. This is strange within itself and makes it feel as though everything that happened was not real.
- There are two articles out there on the development of this music video, too, that I find interesting to read. One of which contains concept art and behind-the-scenes material. [X], [X]
I do have to add though; This was very thrilling to see for everyone involved, even myself despite being confused as I’d only joined mid-way during Act II.
As you could imagine; this felt like a big payoff. It is also funny that today, this MV is the most open indicator of this ARG occurring.
(As a bit of an extra, I also want to provide a [summary] that Sweet had shared of the overall ARG to help with understanding.) - I would conclude this here, but there's one or two additional things to occur that I didn't know quite where to add. The next two pages cover them.
![[summary]](https://file.garden/aiDArXaSGigyN1p_/II%20Sky%20Parts/sweetsummary.png){kind=link}