The ReVerse Archive

    I.  Introduction

     

    Red Velvet doesn’t belong to KWANGYA - they have their own universe and it’s called The ReVe Universe (aka the ReVerse). In literal terms, the timeline of The ReVe Festival (2019 ~ present) is going in reverse.

     

    ReVe - which means dream in French - is a part of our fandom name ReVeluv and The ReVe Festival Trilogy, as well as the name of our little robot guy ‘Reve the Robot’. This 'dream/fantasy' concept will link to The Simulation Theory which includes dolls, doll houses, and the possible identity of Reve.

     

    Reve the Robot was introduced in the 2018 REDMARE Concert, as a robot designed by Seulgi and named by Yeri. It appeared in the VCR as a toy robot and also as a costume, when IRENE wore its head. (We also see this imagery in the teaser for Feel My Rhythm)

     

    The theory that IRENE is Reve.

    II. Prologue

     

    In the latest (and upcoming) comeback ‘The ReVe Festival 2022: Feel My Rhythm”, we are introduced to The ReVe Festival Prologue, a 'special live' that will be held for 2 days on 19th and 20th March. It marks the beginning of 'Feel My Rhythm' era, which is set to be released on 21 March 2022. 

    'The ReVe Festival Prologue' Poster

    In the poster, we can see five girls heading to a door - actually, multiple doors. If you observe closely, there are four 'entrances' in the poster. The first entrance is the door to the Red Room (1st concert), the second is the door to Redmare (2nd concert) and the third is to La Rouge (3rd concert) 

     

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    Concert Posters - Red Room, REDMARE, La Rouge

     

    Note the multiple entrances in the Red Room poster and the amusement park in the REDMARE poster (also in the concert VCR for) which hints The ReVe Festival.

    III. ReVerse Theory

     

     

    We start off with The ReVe Festival Day 1: Zimzalabim, released on 19 June 2019 (06.19).

    In ReVe Festival Finale, the teaser showed Irene fishing up a clock - which reads '6:19' - the release date for Day 1.

    When you fish, you are rotating the reel backwards, much like how time is going backwards in the ReVerse.

    The clock from Irene's teaser in Finale.

    Also, though Zimzalabim was the first title track to be released and Day 1 is the first of the three festivals in RVF trilogy, Zimzalabim is the last on the RVF Finale album tracklist (#15) [disregarding La Rouge, a special track]. Psycho (RVF Finale), on the other hand, was #1 on the tracklist followed by Umpah Umpah (RVF Day 2) at #9.

    Another hint is in the teasers. Following the reverse theory, if we look at the teasers from Finale first, we have an announcement/notice poster (horrifyingly looks like a missing persons poster too) followed by luggage tags in Day 2, and invitation tickets in Day 1. In that order, Red Velvet sees the poster, travels, and reaches their destination. 

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    Credit to @rvblancs

    Don't be afraid of the dark, the fireworks will light up the sky.

     

    We see this quote in the poster for Finale, and where do we see fireworks? Right to the very beginning of the festival - Zimzalabim (Day 1).

     

    If you listen to the whole narration of The ReVe Festival, the story makes sense from the reverse order too.

     

    At Chapter 15: Zimzalabim, this is the narration.

    Zimzalabim~ The magic word summons bells and drums that line up and form a parade. Reve follows the musical notes through the parade and comes across a secret, magical space. The entrance reads, 'Think of a wish and keep on saying 'Zimzalabim'!"


    We are brought back to what Reve means once more - and it means dream. Everything that has happened - the amusement park in Zimzalabim, the vacation house and beach in Umpah Umpah, the stage set in Psycho - none of it was reality. You can rewatch all the MVs embedded below and you'll notice that: 

    • They were all boxed in for a reason in Zimzalabim - the rooms, the lift etc. The never ending ladders, the merry-go-round horse Yeri was riding in the sky, the roller coasters that just kept going - everything was an illusion.
    • Umpah Umpah was pretty obvious - they were excited to go for a vacation but ended up at a fake city and a fake beach. Heck, the car is bigger than the buildings and it throws me off. Fake waves, fake sand, fake sky, fake lighthouse.

    • In Psycho MV, you'd think it was pretty realistic but you'll realise that all the sets are connected. The train cabin and the room Seulgi and Yeri were in, the 'stages' they were performing at (which were just at the first and second level) and more you can see from 2:50 onwards [You even see Yeri walking away from the rest of the 'sets'/ 'rooms' they were in with a black umbrella and the fireworks in the background.]

     

     

    It's even been pointed out that the teaser/intro for Psycho is in reverse.

     

    And also at the end of Automatic (2015) MV...

    Is it safe to say that the ReVerse does not only apply to The ReVe Festival, but also to the whole of Red Velvet's discography?

    One more thing from the Zimzalabim narration: Musical notes. 

    Feel My Rhythm Teaser Schedule

    Feel My Rhythm, the 'Prologue' to The ReVe Festival, has the 'musical notes' that were mentioned in the Zimzalabim narration.

     

    The musical sheet above is August Wilhelmj's 1871 arrangement of Bach's Suite No. 3, Movement 2 for violin and piano known as 'Air on the G string' or 'Celebrated Air.' [according to ReacttotheK] 

     

    Coincidence or not, Bach was born on March 21 (Old Style calendar), the day that Feel My Rhythm will be released.

     

    Feel My Rhythm will be released on March 21, 3.21. It depicts how the time is going back, from 3 (Finale), 2 (Day 2), to 1 (Day 1). 

     

     

    You can play a music box by rewinding it with a key - which also symbolizes the reversal. 

    IV. The Simulation Theory

     

    Red Velvet will make you believe in fairytales.

     

    In the first calmato teaser for Feel My Rhythm, the girls are ballerinas on musical boxes. Minusculed to the size of the toy figurines around them, the doll theory is born. 

    Feel My Rhythm Teaser #1 - calmato.

     

     

    This theory (credits to @thotvelvet) reveals who Reve really is - a little girl from the 1900s as the inscription on the wall in the teaser above states 'Since 1888'.

    In case the tweet embedded goes missing in future, 

     

    Red Velvet aren’t real in their own lore... Reve is a little girl living in the early 1900s and RV are her toys. Putting on her robot head signifies her entering her fairytale land & the story Wendy narrated was her journey to find 5 girls.. her most prized possessions.

    Red Velvet’s entire universe is actually composed up of stories made up within a 10-year-old girl’s imagination.. all featuring her 5 favourite dolls.

    This explains why the cat is so big in the Queen’s Mystic General Store ‘Closed’ video.. in reality the cat is normal sized. Red Velvet are just dolls.

     

    In Ice Cream Cake, we see the huge white cat from Queen's Mystic General Store being the core of the storyline. Both Irene in the Queens Archive (Perfect 10) as well as Queendom, and the white cat has odd-eye (heterochromia). Myths about heterochromia include magic - specifically witch eyes. And in Queendom, the girls were witches (with Yeri being a trainee witch). 

     

     

     

    Doll Houses and Red Velvet: almost every MV seems like a doll house now. And every MV concept now seems like a fantasy that the little girl Reve has came up with:

    From the fun and colorful Dumb Dumb where the girls were literal dolls, the quirky outer-space adventure with the flower dude in Rookie - probably represents the pure, innocent and lively imagination of the little girl.

    Darker themes like Peekaboo (a murder game), Russian Roulette (where what is seemingly harmless - turns deadly) that reflects the harshness of our society.

    Realistic human themes like One of These Nights (loss and desire to meet a loved one who slipped away) Psycho (accurate depiction of an unhealthy and toxic relationship).

    And of course, the whole festival that she dreamt about. 

     

    We don't know what Reve's age is even though we call her the little girl (because that is what she is in the teaser), because the box is over her head and we don't know her real face. Regardless of her age, the DIY robot box head seems to see through the harsh realities of society through her creative imagination - from innocence to darkness. 

     

    So Reve the robot... isn't a robot as we perceived.

    The Red Shoes

     

    In Irene's calmato teaser, she is the only one wearing red/pink shoes while the others are wearing white - just like the little girl Reve in the teaser above. A tiny cat figurine that appears on the table the girls are seating on in all the other teasers is missing in Irene's teaser too - proving further that Irene was the white cat personified.

     

     

    Something strange I thought about was also La Rouge's narration: where 'red shoes' pause in front of Reve while she is dancing and Reve goes giddy. In La Rouge, the lyrics go:

     

    Though the whole song has a romantic connotation, the verse above where it went 'On the count of three' and 'Seeping deep like a dream' was very relevant to the narration where it goes '1,2,3' and then Reve feels giddy, as if seeping into a dream.

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    It can honestly go both ways:

     

    1. IRENE is the original Reve. That night, the little girl with the red shoes puts her in a trance and counts to three, before taking over her body and becoming Reve.

     

    2. The original Reve is the little girl. Irene puts her in a trance and counts to three, making her fall into a dream and in that dream, Irene becomes Reve.

     

    #2 is the more possible explanation because:

    • Irene smiled with triumph when she took off her Reve robot head in the Redmare VCR
    • She also has 'magic' as she's a witch in Queendom, and she can transform into the odd-eyed white cat. 

    The Red Shoes (1948)

    [credits to @filterofthesoul for quoting this!]

     

    The film tells the story of a young ballerina who joins an established ballet company and becomes the lead dancer in a new ballet called The Red Shoes, based on the fairy tale. Her desire to dance conflicts with her need for love, ultimately leading to her death. 

     

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    The Red Shoes (1845)

     

    A fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen with a surprisingly dark theme. It's a fable about a young girl who puts on a pair of red slippers that will not allow her to stop dancing; she must dance and dance, in a grotesque mockery of happiness, until she is dead.

     

    Behance

    Then we have Yeri who is the only one with the flower on her dress wearing stockings, and dons a braided double bun hair - The little girl has a red ribbon on her outfit, stockings and braids too.

    And in her moving calmato teaser, her music is the only one slowed (eerie...) and her eyes are the only ones that move - the other members eyes are completely still. 

     

     

    So there is also a possibility that Yeri might be the little girl too :o

     

    And after reading the theory of Red Velvet being dolls, I now realise why the opening scene of Peekaboo was so strange; their limb positions were placed in the same way we would play with dolls.

     

    Peekaboo


    Updating in progress ... check back for more in future!

     

     

     

     

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