ENHYPEN’s “FATE” and “FATE+” Storytelling
ENHYPEN’s “FATE” and “FATE+” Storytelling
How ENHYPEN’s updated “FATE” concert differed from the older version while maintaining the same deep messages.
You can read my original “FATE” tour recap from 2023 here, but below is a version of that mixed with remarks about 2024’s “FATE+” tour!
Part One: Setting the Scene
The “FATE+” live show picked up right where the message of the “MANIFESTO” tour left off, with an opening video that showed the members entering a new world - although “reborn” might be a more apt description than “new,” since the members’ video and Webtoon characters are vampires who have been alive for centuries!
The opening concert video showed a moon swallowed up by flames, followed by bloody scenes that left no doubt as to whether or not ENHYPEN would take on their vampire roles during the show. Their supernatural skills were on full display throughout their entrance and the opening number, “Drunk-Dazed,” a song with the music video setting being the vampires’ old stomping grounds.
In the concert’s introduction video, the boys appeared in princely attire, seated for an elegant banquet. After a flash of light, all decorum was out the window, and they messily feasted on bloody food and drinks. In a nod to the bloody party that takes place both in the “Drunk-Dazed” music video and in DARK MOON: THE BLOOD ALTAR, the boys raised their blood-filled goblets in a toast, red flower petals raining down on them. The word “FATE” spliced across the screen, as the screen faded to black and was replaced with an image of iron gates with butterflies in front of them. Light streamed out of a gap in the stage, and the members rose up one by one through underground platforms. The last few members came from behind “the iron gates,” and the screen split in two and was pulled back to reveal them standing on risers.
Lots of details from the opening video came to life on stage: The red flower was physically in SUNOO’s hand, JUNGWON held up a pocket watch like the one from the video (his character’s time-turner), and the members conjured up real flames with mere waves of their arms. Continuing to casually flex magic powers, all of the imagery disappeared with a literal snap of NI-KI’s fingers. A moment later, the screen was reanimated, in a vivid swirl of blue, red, and gray. That scene included a stunning, blue-green full moon, eerie shadows in the distance, trees bending in the wind due to a storm, and a shower of red sparks matching the color of the lights outside an old castle. All the colors suddenly converged onto the iron gates, leaving the surrounding scene all gray. With one more flash of light, the members walked up the runway and got into formation for the opening number, “Drunk-Dazed.”
Starting the night’s storytelling with “Drunk-Dazed” and an immersive look at the vampires’ old residence was a last hurrah of sorts, as the vampires prepared to start over elsewhere.
2024 Changes: While this opening largely played out the same as it did in 2023, attention was drawn to different props. The audience’s attention this time was drawn the most to JAKE’s envelope and JAY’s bow sans arrows. JAKE tossed his envelope (which bore the seal of Decelis Academy, the boarding school ENHYPEN’s vampire characters attend while cosplaying as full humans) as it burst into flames, matched by ones on the stage that were hot enough to feel from seats close and far. JAY then discarded his bow, getting rid of another remnant of time spent in the magical realm. Whether interpreted as gestures of severing ties with their pasts more generally or of their pasts as pretenders, they showed a desire to bury the past. NI-KI once again turned the room pitch-black with a snap of his fingers, though, letting the audience know that the “moving on” premise would not stop their supernatural skills from showing themselves!
Part Two: Seeking and Struggling
Having stepped into a new realm, the members sang a song about navigating the unfamiliar in a take-charge way with “Blockbuster.” That song is about keeping a story on one’s own terms and trusting that a “The only way out is through” mentality will pay dividends. “There’s no fixed road, I just choose my crossroads,” they sing.
One asset for handling life’s inevitable crossroads: companionship, which made “Let Me In (20 CUBE)” the perfect follow-up. Then, in “Flicker,” they compared the chance to find a life partner to a “flicker” of light that needs to be seized before it’s too late. The following performance of “FEVER” channeled the same anguish as the music video does. That video shows the members failing to escape the clutches of an evil, black fog, making it look like they are sucked into a black hole.
This portion of the show was centered around a missed opportunity, while the following portion’s theme was vowing to not let that happen again.
2024 Changes: Added on to the end of this section was an abbreviated performance of “Still Monster.” With lyrics like “I want you to hold me tight,” “Without you / I’m empty,” and “I’ve been forgiven so many times / Still a monster,” the song reveals the inner monologues of ENHYPEN’s vampire characters. They rely on human connections to feel whole and worthy, and this self-awareness is shared with the show’s previous songs, making “Still Monster” a fitting continuation.
Part Three: Redefining Reality
Fresh resolve was apparent with the choice to perform “Future Perfect (Pass the MIC)” next, a song from MANIFESTO : DAY 1 in which they sing about freeing themselves from the old world’s thought confines.
The “Future Perfect (Pass the MIC)” music video involves turning back time, making “Blessed-Cursed” a thematically appropriate follow-up. “Blessed-Cursed” reflects on the days of being stuck in a mental “enclosure,” hence the performance’s use of jail cell bars for a background.
These two performances’ story was that of freedom, then regression paired with a desire to become free once again. “In this fake blessing… I wanna be… on my way,” they sang, as well as “I don’t know [the] answers / I just go my own way.” “Blessed-Cursed” also includes a lyrical reference to The Matrix, whose theme of a simulated reality was conveyed on stage through hologram-like images. The members appeared on the big screen like ghosts, translucent versions of themselves. It was surreal to watch the members be physically present in the room and singing about leaving a lasting impact of their own choosing while seeing them on screens appearing as just flimsy apparitions.
Part Four: Craving Connections
The next phase of the story kicked off with “Attention, please!” Both the 2D paint and the above-stage spotlights lit up in a range of colors, as the members sang about looking for someone willing to hold their hands while heading down a challenging but worthwhile path.
Showing their true colors to the world stayed a focus of the next song, “ParadoXXX Invasion.” “The color in my dream is [a] paradox / It’s better than your reality,” they sang. They embraced a world where they “are free” and “Illogic is logic.”
ENHYPEN’s setlist so far told a story about growing more comfortable living outside of society’s expectations, and this do-over life seemed to continue progressing with the emotionally open next few songs. With an acoustic guitar and floral background, four of the members sang “TFW (That Feeling When).” More love songs followed: “Just A Little Bit,” “10 Months,” and “Polaroid Love.”
There was a starkly symbolic moment during “Just A Little Bit.” While singing lyrics like “It bothers me that you’re here / Just a little bit… Breaking down my world,” backgrounds formed a contrast matching the song’s. They sang about fearing falling deeper in love with someone and later regretting being so emotionally open, while the main screen maintained a peaceful meadow picture and the side screens went dark. HEESEUNG appeared on the side screens playing the piano, lit up by the glow of audience members’ phone flashlights. A song about lingering hesitation when it comes to love was sung while a source of light in the darkness emerged from many other people.
2024 Changes: The new and improved version of this part of the show maintained the powerful juxtapositions of the original version but made several straightforward changes.
HEESEUNG did not ask the crowd to hold up lights during “Just A Little Bit” this time. Literally and metaphorically, he did not rely on mere mortals to light his way! He played piano while two bandmates sang and stood near him, fellow “monsters” his character stopped casting aside.
Further showing the characters made peace with their past selves: reminders of their days spent playing magical “Nightball” games on Decelis Academy’s campus. They wore prep-school-esque attire while standing in front of a “Nightball court” backdrop and casually tossing and catching a ball with each other while performing “Tamed-Dashed.” They started carrying themselves with more confidence in a setting from the magical realm from which they initially tried to run.
They departed from their lore for a few songs and did so forgivably. The crowd was ecstatic to hear their cover of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful,” and their performance of “One and Only” (a song made overtly for Pokémon) was the epitome of adorable, because they danced with people in Pikachu costumes!
Part Five: Embracing Emotions
At this point in the show, ENHYPEN acknowledged the role of community in self-confidence. The next song focused on being more confident because of hyping up others, rather than at the expense of doing so. They sang “SHOUT OUT,” a song filled with lyrics about making sure others feel free too: “Shake the world together;” “A voice that grows as one.” Ironically, they sang a message of life getting more colorful with companionship while performing with black and white images. The screens were simply covered in “SHOUT OUT” repeatedly, in bold letters.
ENHYPEN’s message is about how feeling whole and feeling like a piece of a larger unit are not mutually exclusive. After all, that is the meaning behind their hyphen-inspired band name! This sentiment was epitomized well through the next song, “Go Big or Go Home,” which mixed moments that were focused on group synchronization with ones focused on different audience members.
ENHYPEN’s characters dared to dream and to love, and it seemed to have paid off, but the next section of the show focused on the drawbacks of such intense feelings.
2024 Changes: The “SHOUT OUT” stage was the same as before but came between “One and Only” and the “What Makes You Beautiful” cover. Inserting “SHOUT OUT” between those just-plain-fun songs made it seem like the group wanted to reassure the audience that they would never stray from their storyline for too long!
Part Six: Facing Fate
The theme of fate and power being granted to those who deserve it is what ENHYPEN’s DARK BLOOD era is focused on, which is perhaps why, in the next intermission video, the scenes that showed the members writhing in pain and otherwise distraught outnumbered the scenes that showed them floating in water, as if undergoing soul-cleansing.
It dawned on ENHYPEN that they had started to resemble (the evil character in their Webtoon) Dardan too much; they became “Drunk with arrogance” (as they sing in “Chaconne”) and felt like they suffered from a never-ending curse. They had lost sight of the reasons they wanted to love in the first place. They sang about the emotional bills coming due (“The price of parting keeps getting more and more expensive”) while under a golden chandelier during “Bills,” and they covered more of the risks that come with romance in “CRIMINAL LOVE” (notably, a song released specifically to go with the Webtoon) and “Sacrifice (Eat Me Up).”
2024 Changes: This segment of the show is where much of its soul came from, so it was fortunately not changed much. The main difference was replacing “Sacrifice (Eat Me Up)” with “One In A Billion,” but the latter conveyed the same message as the former. “One In A Billion,” another song released specifically for the Webtoon, was on ENHYPEN’s debut U.S. tour setlist but omitted from the “FATE” one. Bringing it back for “FATE+” both showed how much ENHYPEN have grown as performers and reiterated the consistent themes in their work, including futile resistance towards fate and balancing vampire cravings (like blood) with human cravings (like love). Wrestling with their mortal and immortal halves was also represented through props, such as roses next to blood-stained cloth.
Another key change to this part of the show: NI-KI’s solo dance at the start of “Chaconne,” described below.
“Bite Me”
The last song was “Bite Me,” a song whose music video ends with a message on the screen about being “willing to give up… power and eternity” to “gladly accept… destiny” and be there for a loved one.
The members walked back up to the risers, letting the other screens close behind them with the image of a red moon. The “doors” sealed shut, as did their fates.
2024 Changes: The major change to this final segment was prefacing “Bite Me” with DARK BLOOD’s intro, the aptly-titled “Fate.” “Fate” is a powerful, scene-setting combination of spoken and sung poetry. A vivid, haunting instrumental is the soundtrack for comments like “Love became greed and erased itself,” “A love wrapped in blood / Erased by arrogance,” and “Absolute power… I ran toward that.” Just as the other parts of ENHYPEN’s story have mixed moments of self-reflection with actions taken as a unit, the solo monologues in the intro’s first half played before the members, standing on a raised platform in the middle of a coffin-shaped runway, sang as one voice. They all fell to their knees at the same time, pointer fingers stretched toward the sky.
As detailed previously, ENHYPEN’s characters find strength in letting down their guards; human traits are what correct their worst vampire impulses, and signs of mortality are what give them gratitude for relationships and an incentive to live every day with purpose. The desire to cherish the present moment before it flies away is touched on in one of the songs that follows “Bite Me” on DARK BLOOD, “Chaconne”:
“The greater the privileged position in life, the more disruptive it feels when Death takes one’s ego down a few pegs! This is why ENHYPEN sing about falling into a pit of despair; after attaining riches, it is very jolting when they are reminded that those material things have offered them no extra protection from Death.”
ENHYPEN’s characters feel simultaneous rushes of intense pain and fear alongside freedom and joy when they are humbled, stripped of the “higher than humans” status they used to hold in their Webtoon and music videos. That realization that they are just like everyone else triggers a tidal wave of emotions that words do not do justice to, so it was smart for NI-KI to channel that tidal wave into a solo dance instead! He prefaced their “Chaconne” performance with a remarkable routine. It conveyed the necessary multitudes in everything from facial expressions to his movements’ fluidity, and the black-and-white filter on his big-screen image added necessary drama.
After NI-KI danced “the Dance of Death / Drunk with arrogance” in “Chaconne,” the group sang about the “Bills” coming due and the need to accept “Fate.”
Closing with “Karma”
An “Everything will happen as it was meant to” ethos remained for the last song, “Karma.” In that song, ENHYPEN express their firm belief that a relationship is destined to last eternally: “In the next life… I’ll definitely visit you… Together forever.” ENHYPEN’s characters take comfort in knowing they have good “Karma” and will encounter the love they were always meant to someday, a clear contrast from their insatiable urges and desperation shown in the opening video. The characters’ newfound maturity and contentment had a fitting representation in ENHYPEN’s energizing finale.
2024 Changes: While “Karma” was once again part of the encore, the rest of the remaining songs were newer, from ORANGE BLOOD. They sang the English version of “Sweet Venom,” a song that shares the deceptive depth of “Bite Me.” It is a flirtatious crowd-pleaser for sure, but its value in this specific show comes from its lyrical context. ENHYPEN agree to “give up Heaven if [they have] to” and talk about feeling “So alive, [they] could die” over a crush. Like they sing in “Karma,” they really “Don’t give a what” now! They dive headfirst into their mortal side, focusing on living in the “right now,” as they sang in the second encore song, “Orange Flower (You Complete Me).” They realize “the curse disappears” when “you complete [them]” and “shine on [them];” their appreciation for fate deepens as they start seeing the benefits of going with it. In sum, ORANGE BLOOD is the part of their story when they start seeing the benefits of downgrading their egos and embracing what makes them human.
The intro track on ORANGE BLOOD, “Mortal,” played during a pre-encore video. The members appeared just as serene as they had in an earlier video (that was played during both the “FATE” and “FATE+” shows), only without the signs of wealth and royalty. The “FATE” tour video in which they looked the most content showed them in Heaven, surrounded by colorful flowers while wearing princely attire and engaging in leisure activities. In the new “FATE+” video where they looked just as content, they were still surrounded by bright flowers (less hues, but more saturated ones than before) and still spent leisure time together. They just did so in casual clothes and while enjoying nature; they enjoyed being “Mortal” without the status symbols they used to depend on for a sense of pride.
2023’s Conclusion
The “MANIFESTO” live show told a story of realizations, and the “FATE” live show told a related story about applying those realizations to the world around them. With time, determination, and a strong moral compass that keeps them aware of their obligation to help and connect with others (in other words, to serve as a metaphorical hyphen), ENHYPEN’s characters have learned they can handle whatever life has in store for them next.
2024’s Conclusion
The “FATE+” show definitely expressed the same life lessons as the older version of the show, but it did so with stronger and more nuanced character development. The members’ multimedia storytelling remains admirably intricate yet, at the end of the day, simple: It is about finding and celebrating what really matters in life.
Just as they do with every music video and album, ENHYPEN’s live shows continue to tell profound stories through eye-catching characters and performances. Whether channeling their mortal or immortal selves, ENHYPEN use those roles as vehicles through which to assess what elements of one’s past are worth remembering; what really matters in one’s present moment; and how making peace with one’s inner “monster” can lead to a “Future Perfect,” as their final encore song put it.
For more on ENHYPEN’s story, check out these 17 Carat K-Pop podcast episodes!
The ultimate guide to ENHYPEN’s Webtoon
Stream on Apple Podcasts here!
The ultimate guide to DARK BLOOD
Stream on Apple Podcasts here!
The ultimate guide to MANIFESTO : DAY 1
Stream on Apple Podcasts here!
A guide to their story’s mythology references
Stream on Apple Podcasts here!
An overall guide to the ENHYPEN Music Video Universe