“Allow me to introduce you to the original you.”

Uchiha clan/Senju clan

(Also here on AO3)

Izuna was blindfolded. He hated being blindfolded.

Alright, so he’d made a little bit of a mistake. Maybe he’d been just a tiny bit too reckless, sneaking around the borders of the Senju camp, trying to gather some information the Uchiha could use in their future attacks. His Sharingan should have given him an early warning, but Izuna supposed the Senju clan must have grown sneakier with their traps lately, because he hadn’t seen this one coming – probably the work of that tricky asshole Tobirama. Now Izuna was stuck here, blindfolded with a cloth covered in chakra seals, hands tied with more of the same to prevent him from weaving signs, waiting for Butsuma Senju to decide what to do with him. From the reputation of the Senju clan, Izuna had actually expected to be executed immediately – he wasn’t certain what had stayed Butsuma’s hand, but by logic, they had to be keeping him only long enough to interrogate him. Which meant that, at fourteen, he might be spending his last night on earth alone and tied up in an enemy camp. But it was fine; it was all fine; he was just going to wriggle out of these bindings and be on his way, no problem. Just as soon as he could loosen this stupid blindfold.

“Quit moving,” hissed a sudden voice in the darkness.

Izuna went still, just for a second, his heart pounding in surprise – and then, just to be contrary, resumed his squirming with renewed vigor. The voice above him sighed. Abruptly, Izuna’s wrists were seized and held still despite his thrashing; in an instant Izuna felt the cords binding his hands tighten and then go slack. Before he could fully register his freedom, his blindfold was torn away as well to reveal a face in the murky darkness in front of him. Brown hair cut to the shoulders, brown eyes and an anxious expression: Izuna recognized him instantly as the Mokuton user Senju Hashirama, oldest son of Butsuma and one-time friend of Izuna’s brother.

“Put me under a genjutsu so I can talk to you,” demanded Hashirama in a whisper, and Izuna immediately activated his Sharingan. Once inside his genjutsu, Hashirama would be under Izuna’s control – no matter the Senju boy’s intentions, he would be powerless in Izuna’s world. Just to confuse him, Izuna shaped the genjutsu world to mirror the real world, making use of the bare glimpse he’d be afforded in the darkness – and as a final touch, Izuna replicated himself until the room was packed with Izuna clones, all armed with kunai pointed at Hashirama’s throat.

“That’s much more comfortable,” said the real Izuna, twirling an illusory kunai in his hand.

Hashirama held up his hands to show he meant no harm, though they both knew he could do no harm to Izuna now even if he wanted to. “Relax, Izuna,” he said. “I’m here to help you escape.”

“Thanks,” Izuna replied, and held his kunai idly out in front of him. The clones surrounding them all leveled their kunai in unison, Sharingan spinning in myriad pairs of eyes. “But I’m not interested in walking into any more traps today. So tell me – why, exactly, would you help me?”

Despite the thicket of knives surrounding him – fake knives, of course, but their bite would feel quite real – Hashirama looked serious but unafraid. “I’m betraying my father to do this,” he said. “But I don’t want the conflict between our clans to escalate the way it would if we killed Tajima’s son.”

“Please,” scoffed Izuna, “You’ve already killed my younger brothers. What would killing me matter?”

Hashirama actually flinched visibly at this, but held his ground and replied steadily, “I’ve lost brothers to the Uchiha, too. I know how it feels. That’s exactly why I want this killing to stop.”

“So you’re sparing me out of pity? Is that it? Try a better lie, Senju.”

“I’m serious,” said Hashirama, eyes fixed on Izuna amid the throng of clones. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Izuna snorted in disbelief and directed his army of clones to move in closer; Hashirama didn’t react, even as the nearest kunai blades began to gently brush his skin. “Let’s say I believe you,” Izuna said, watching Hashirama with Sharingan-enhanced eyes for the barest hint of a tell, anything that would reveal his true intentions. “Letting me go buys you nothing from me. I’m your enemy, and that means once I get back to my clan, I’ll get right back to trying to destroy yours. You let me go now, and one day I might kill your father, or your brother.” He jabbed his kunai out, stopping a hairs’ breadth from Hashirama’s eye. “I might kill you. So tell me, why would you do this?”

“Don’t be so sure of yourself,” Hashirama breathed, and for a moment Izuna could feel his chakra pressing against the genjutsu, not quite enough to break it, but enough to let Izuna know he wasn’t as fully in control as he had thought. Feeling dizzy, Izuna backed up a step, and his line of clones lowered their weapons. Then, in the blink of an eye, Hashirama was back to normal, looking as harmless and placid as ever. “You’re right,” he told Izuna. “If I let you go, you might kill me or my family, one day. Or, if I don’t let you go, your father and brother might come here and kill us all in vengeance. All these things might happen, or they might not. There’s only one thing I know for absolutely certain: if I let you die now, Madara will lose his last remaining brother.”

“And what do you care if he does?” demanded Izuna, shaken.

“He doesn’t deserve that,” said Hashirama, simply.

So it was about Madara – and really, Izuna could have guessed that. He didn’t understand what kind of strange obsession Hashirama had with his brother, but he also couldn’t spot a lie anywhere in Hashirama’s insane reasoning. “Fine. What did you want to tell me?”

“You have about ten minutes before the next guard shows up. There’s a gap in our patrols due east, so head that way until you’re out of the trees. Sunrise is in two hours. Think you can make it?”

That probably meant Izuna should head due west instead, and avoid whatever trap was laid for him – but as if reading his mind, Hashirama said, “If they catch you, they’ll make you tell how you escaped, and then we’ll both be dead. You can trust what I’m saying. Oh, and you’d better punch me in the face or something on your way out.”

“Sure,” said Izuna, relishing the thought. “I’ll make it nice and convincing.”

Hashirama grimaced – it probably wasn’t hard to tell what Izuna was thinking, that time. “Leave me in a nice genjutsu at least, will you? And…give your brother a message for me. Tell him – ” He paused, biting his lip in thought. “Tell him: ‘we’re still the same’”.

“Whatever,” Izuna muttered, having absolutely no desire to get in the middle of whatever was going on between his brother and the obviously crazy, unfairly powerful heir to the Senju clan. He was going to have to keep a closer eye on Madara after this, that was for certain. Izuna saluted lazily, threw out a casual, “See you on the battlefield, Senju,” and melted away, back into the real world.

Hashirama’s instructions turned out to be legitimate, and though Izuna did manage to make it back to his clan, he never did deliver Hashirama’s message. But years later, on a cratered battlefield, when Izuna felt his life draining slowly through the ragged wound in his belly and watched Hashirama extend a hand to Madara, he would remember this conversation and answer his brother’s desperate look with a single nod of assent.

---

Tobirama thought he’d concealed his presence perfectly. But had had to grudgingly admit, as he held his hands in the air in surrender, that the bodyguard of the Tsuchikage – Mū, he remembered – put him to shame on that score.

“Don’t try anything, Konoha spy,” said Mū, from behind the wrappings covering his mouth. Tobirama wondered if those wrappings had anything to do with the way he disappeared so entirely, fooling even Tobirama’s finely honed sensory abilities.

“I’m not a spy,” Tobirama protested tiredly, knowing as he said it that it was probably futile. Alright, he’d been sneaking around the outskirts of Iwa territory, but only to make sure the newly-formed village wasn’t trying to do anything stupid – like collecting additional tailed beasts to add to their arsenal. “There’s no need for us to fight; I’ll leave of my own free will.”

Mū’s eyes, practically the only part of him left uncovered by the wrappings, narrowed in suspicion. “Your presence here is in violation of the agreement between our two nations.”

“A mistake on my part,” Tobirama acknowledged. “Won’t happen again.”

“No,” said Mū, “It won’t.”

A tiny dot of bright white light appeared between Mū’s hands, and in the blink of an eye expanded into a glowing white cube… and Tobirama finally recognized the deadly Jinton wielded by the Tsuchikage. Shit, he thought, trying to keep his panic at bay – had he known that Mū could do that? – and in the instant he had before the jutsu was released, he cast his senses out, searching desperately for a Hiraishin tag near enough for him to reach. There was nothing, nothing for him to jump to – he reached for one of his tagged kunai, knowing that by the time he managed to throw it, he would already be reduced to dust – there was a bright flash of light, and Tobirama had only enough time to regret that his life would end in such a stupid way –  

The next thing he felt was the sensation of being suddenly and violently lifted into the air. Surprised to find himself alive, Tobirama realized he was inside of a bright blue, gigantic fist, suspended in the air; directly below, a perfectly square crater now marked the spot where Tobirama had been standing a moment before.

“Mū of Iwagakure, I believe,” said a voice from above him.

Tobirama groaned inwardly. Relieved though he was that he’d been rescued, he was less than delighted to find that his rescuer was none other than Uchiha Madara.

“Uchiha Madara…-sama,” said Mū, looking as though the honorific tasted bad in his mouth. Tobirama immediately felt a little better: the upside of being rescued by Madara was that now Mū had to deal with him, too. Tobirama knew from bitter experience it wasn’t easy to stare down an enemy when said enemy was towering over you from inside of a glowing, blue, half-skeletal Susano’o. Nevertheless, Mū tried his best. “You’re trespassing on our territory!”

“Trespassing? Me?” said Madara, almost completely deadpan. “I was simply on my way back from the peace negotiations I was conducting with your Tsuchikage. Negotiations we all want to succeed – isn’t that right, Mū? So,” he continued, giving the Iwa shinobi no chance to reply, “You will overlook this little incident, and Konoha will overlook the fact that you tried to kill the Hokage’s younger brother.”

He couldn’t quite tell, but Tobirama thought Mū was grinding his teeth behind those bandages. Still, there was nothing he could do; no shinobi in their right mind, aside from his brother – and there was honestly a debate there to be had about whether Hashirama really had a right mind – would cross Uchiha Madara without very good reason. Eventually, Mū dipped his head and said grudgingly, “…Very well. But if I catch you in Iwa territory again, I won’t be so lenient.”

“Yes, yes. Run along, now,” Madara replied. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Mū.” Not that Tobirama knew for certain, but he was pretty sure whatever concealment trick the Iwa shinobi had been working earlier was enough to fool the Sharingan. However, the abilities of the Uchiha were still mysterious to the clans outside of Konoha – and even Tobirama, who had been fighting against the Sharingan all his life, really had no idea what kind of grotesque jutsu Madara could perform with that Mangekyō of his. In any case, Madara’s veiled threat seemed to work: Mū leaped into the trees behind him instead of melting into his surroundings the way he had before, and Tobirama could feel his chakra moving rapidly away.

Before Tobirama could do or say anything, the blue fist holding him up abruptly evaporated, dumping him unceremoniously on the ground. Dusting himself off, Tobirama looked over at his rescuer in annoyance, only to see Madara down on one knee, clutching his eyes with one hand, the remnants of the Susano’o dissipating around him. Tobirama took an uncertain step in his direction. “Are you…alright?”

“I’m fine,” snapped Madara, though he certainly didn’t look it. He managed to get to his feet, unsteadily, and when he finally brought his hand away from his face, Tobirama could see both hand and face were smeared with blood. A chill ran down his spine: more confirmation, as if he needed it, that the Mangekyō was as poisonous to its users as it was to everyone else. Although, on the other hand…that jutsu had just saved his life. Tobirama had his beliefs, but before all else, he had to acknowledge the facts.

“…Thanks for your help,” he managed to grit out.

Madara looked as uncomfortable to be thanked as Tobirama was to be thanking him. “Yeah, well. I only did it for your brother, so don’t go thinking you can count on it. Can we just get out of here?”

“By all means,” said Tobirama, relieved, and jumped into the trees, Madara following closely behind. They headed in the direction of Konoha, but it was slow going, with Madara still shaky on his feet as they leapt through the branches. Ordinarily, Tobirama would have ignored him. Even with the founding of the village, it was difficult to forget the injuries Uchiha and Senju had done to one another in the past – and Madara had never been able to overlook the fact that Tobirama had nearly killed his younger brother. But Tobirama’s curiosity overcame his better judgement and made him ask, “Did that jutsu always take so much out of you?”

Madara, concentrating on his footing, only grunted in reply. That was all Tobirama had expected to get, but to his surprise Madara told him, “It gets worse every time. Eventually I’ll go blind from it.”

“Huh…and you wasted one on me?” Antagonizing Madara like this was a bad idea, but…it was also pretty entertaining.

His travel companion spared a moment to shoot a bloody glare in Tobirama’s direction. “Like I said, it wasn’t for you,” and then added almost to himself: “I don’t want to find out what losing his last brother would do to Hashirama.”

Now that, somehow, was both completely out of character for Madara and also completely what Tobirama would expect from him when it came to Hashirama. And with that thought, a large number of anomalous observations suddenly clicked into place, forming a satisfying but also entirely horrifying conclusion. “You must really love my brother,” Tobirama said, before he could think about what he was saying.

He was treated to the sight of Madara completely missing his landing on the next branch and plummeting ungracefully through the canopy. Tobirama, one hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing, peered down to see Madara standing sideways on the trunk, glaring at him. “Tobirama, if you say one more word about that, especially to your brother, I will trap you in a genjutsu until you die of old age!”

Tobirama had to force down laughter again, and wondered if this was what it felt like to go insane. Much as it turned his stomach to think of an Uchiha – particularly this one – pining after his brother, he was deeply enjoying this new leverage he suddenly exerted. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he called down, trying unsuccessfully to keep the amusement out of his voice. Really, he should be considerably more horrified – but then, he’d already more or less come to terms with the way Hashirama was around Madara, the ridiculous lengths he was willing to go to for his childhood friend. Discovering this was almost a relief; in some ludicrous way, it made a lot of sense.

While Tobirama was pondering this, Madara gained the high branches again and set off towards Konoha, not looking at Tobirama or waiting for him to follow. Trailing behind him, Tobirama considered something completely novel for him: voluntarily helping Madara. On the one hand, it would destroy his new leverage; on the other hand, watching his brother and Madara trip over themselves trying to figure this out would probably be unbearable. It was going to happen, inevitably, of that much Tobirama was certain; he could at least hasten the process. And – well, Madara had just saved his life.

“Hey, Madara,” he called ahead of him. No response. “You know he’s in love with you, too.”

At that, Madara’s shoulders stiffened, a little, but he didn’t turn around, and his only response was a gruff, “I told you to shut up about it.”

He’d probably just made things worse – oh, well. Tobirama wondered if Izuna had already come to the same conclusion as him; Izuna, of all people, would definitely share this mix of revulsion and amusement. Tobirama resolved to have a chat with him when they returned to Konoha. If he had to deal with the inevitable fallout of this disaster in the making, it would at least be nice to have a cup of tea with someone while watching the whole thing unravel.

BnHA Bonus Rant # 5: All for One for All

Okay guys, so ever since I first read chapter 217, I’ve been thinking about certain One for All things and going “hmm” a bunch. Like so:

hmmm.

hmmm.

hmmmmmmmmm.

And like. I’ve had these bits and pieces of some kind of theory for a while now, and I think I’m finally ready to try and put them together.

So I’m gonna try to make this as straightforward as possible. First off, here’s the “official” story as far as we have been told:

AFO steals a “power-stockpiling” quirk from User X and gives it to his brother (henceforth referred to as Lil Bro).

The power-stockpiling quirk fuses together with Lil Bro’s own latent quirk, which happens to be a passing-down quirk similar to All for One.

The newly created quirk, One for All, allows the user to stockpile power within the quirk and then pass the quirk on to a new user, who in turn can then pass it on to another user, and then another, etc., all the while accumulating more and more power.

Fast-forward a century or two. All Might, the eighth user of OFA, passes the quirk down to a new successor, Midoriya Izuku. Izuku eventually becomes the first user to unlock another secret power hidden within OFA this whole time -- the ability to use the past users’ quirks.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. 

Anyway, so that’s basically it. This is what we’ve been led to believe up till this point.

So now, here’s my alternate take.

AFO steals what he believes to be a minor strength-enhancing quirk from User X. However, upon stealing it, he realizes he’s fallen victim to one of the classic blunders: namely, that if a quirk relies on some kind of “stockpiled resource” so to speak, he can only steal the quirk itself, and not said resource along with it. Much like another quirk-copier we know of:

So now AFO is stuck with some useless quirk that does fuckall for him, and wondering what to do with it. And then a light bulb goes off in his head. Of course! He has an annoyingly rebellious brother he’s been meaning to try and persuade to see things his way... by force, if necessary.

He doesn’t want to give his brother anything too strong, of course. Ostensibly out of kindness and concern for Lil Bro’s fragile state, but in reality he probably just didn’t want him to ever be able to oppose him.

But a quirk like this? One that doesn’t actually do anything? That’s pretty much perfect. He can force his brother to submit to him without ever granting him any actual power. So he gives Lil Bro this supposedly useless quirk, thinking that this is the moment when he’ll finally succeed in getting his brother to join him.

But instead, two things happen which AFO did not expect. Two things which, quite unknown to him, will ultimately work to seal his doom.

Let’s backtrack for a sec and examine just what that power-stockpiling quirk is. It’s actually pretty powerful stuff! Basically it seems like it gradually stores up someone’s power over time and then lets them use that accumulated power in bursts.

But as we now know thanks to Deku, that’s not all that it stores up.

Okay, so now just… hear me out.

All for One steals User X’s quirk. Unbeknownst to AFO, upon being stolen, said quirk immediately goes to work doing what it’s been designed to do: stockpiling the power of its current user. It no longer has the accumulated power of User X, because as we made note of earlier, power can’t be transferred through that method. It is, however, still a perfectly fine quirk, and it’s got a new user now. And so as far as the quirk is concerned, it’s back to business as usual. It’s accumulating power once again, this time from a new wielder: All for One.

So that is Thing # 1 That All For One Does Not Expect.

And here’s Thing # 2.

Like I said -- you can’t transfer accumulated power through stealing or copying or otherwise duplicating someone else’s quirk. For whatever reason, it just can’t be done.

But.

A WILD LOOPHOLE APPEARS ohhhhhh shit.

Listen, I don’t know why this is, but it is, though. We already know; we’ve seen it in action. One for All can be transferred from user to user with its power bundled in free of charge. It’s the only quirk we’ve seen thus far that’s capable of doing that. It is possibly unique in this. But it only works if the user wills the power to be transferred. Otherwise it will not happen. And All for One, in his arrogance and hubris, did in fact willingly grant this power to his younger brother.

So here, finally, is what I’ve been trying to get at. I don’t think Lil Bro actually ever had a quirk after all. I think our boy really was quirkless. That passing-down quirk he supposedly had? The one that supposedly fused together with the power-stockpiling quirk to create One for All?

Well, I think said fusion actually took place when AFO was still in possession of the quirk. In other words, I think One for All actually is All for One.

We have a quirk that stockpiles its users’ power and “quirk factors.” All for One was in possession of that quirk. It stockpiled his power. It stockpiled his quirk. And then without realizing it, he passed that power on to his younger brother. The quirk, along with whatever power it had accumulated from him.

One for All is literally All for One. The power to grant quirks from one person to another comes directly from AFO’s power. No other quirk has the ability to do that. We have copy abilities and shapeshifting abilities and clone abilities, and all of these are capable of duplicating others’ quirks to some extent. But none of these powers is capable of granting quirks to other people. The only abilities we have seen that are capable of that are One for All, and All for One. That’s not a coincidence.

Know what else isn’t a coincidence? The fact that Deku all of a sudden possesses multiple quirks. Not temporarily, but permanently and with no apparent restrictions other than his own ability and stamina. Again, that’s a power we’ve only seen in the hands of one other individual before now.

Yeeeeeeeeah.

So yeah. That’s my theory. This entire time, One for All has not actually been an “offshoot” of All for One, but is in fact All for One itself. And AFO has, ironically, been the originator of OFA this whole time. He is the first wielder of OFA. His brother is the second.

Oh hey wait, yeah. So about that. You know how All Might has been really fucking reluctant to bring up the topic of All for One, even now that he’s finally been ~defeated~ and locked up in Tartarus? Like, remember that one panel I was going “hmmmm” at earlier? “I didn’t want to raise that point…”

Well I think that might be because...

Which would mean... well...

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah.

So yeah, Deku. Hate to break it to you kid, but you might in fact have a certified evil dude currently taking up residence in that big ol’ hero brain of yours.

“But makeste,” you point out, “we’ve already seen the other vestiges and none of them look like AFO, and also there are only eight of them and if AFO was included, wouldn’t that make it nine?” All of which are good points which I will acknowledge. But in turn please consider:

(1) AFO has a gazillion quirks, including at least one that’s capable of altering his physical body and appearance (namely, whatever de-aging quirk he’s using). He could be invisible. He could be in disguise. He could in fact even be in disguise as a certain explosive boy whom Deku instinctively trusts! That one’s a bit out there, I admit, but frankly all of the theories related to That Silhouette are pretty out there so I’m willing to roll with it. But my point is basically that there are lots of possibilities here.

And (2), we don’t actually know jack shit about the past users of OFA. We only know Deku is the ninth because each user apparently kept count, because at least they were capable of doing that much. But All Might doesn’t know anything about any of the users prior to number six (whom he only had a vague description of, not even a name), so at some point all of that history was lost. It’s possible that they were keeping track of it but then Shimura or someone else purposely destroyed the information and didn’t pass it along to Toshinori in order to keep the other predecessors’ families safe. She gave up her own family for the same reason, so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

But my point being, we don’t actually know that there were in fact eight users following Lil Bro. There may well have only been seven, and they just assumed there were eight because everyone caught at least a vague glimpse of the Vestiges once or twice during their time, and they all counted a certain number of people, and so they assumed (quite correctly) that that’s how many past generations of OFA there were. Their only mistake was thinking that Lil Bro was the first, rather than the second.

What else. -- Oh, the thing with OFA being passed down via DNA transfer rather than by touch can probably be handwaved, tbh. That may have been because Lil Bro only received a little bit of AFO’s power and not the full-blown deal initially. Or it could just be that since saying “here, eat my hair” did work, they never thought to question whether it could be passed down via other methods too. But in either case, it may well be that Deku is capable of doing the touch thing and much more now that AFO has been churning about deep within OFA’s core for a couple centuries, and has, just like the other quirks, gradually been growing stronger this whole time. It may well be that All for One 2.0, Version: Deku is finally ready to rumble.

And if so? If he is? Well then that may just be the perfect solution to this whole damn mess. How do you stop a villain with unlimited power? Particularly if he does finally obtain a healing factor quirk at some point in the game and is restored to his former glory? There’s really only one way I can think of: give him a taste of his own medicine. Fire Lord Ozai style. Set a thief to catch a thief. Poetic fucking justice.

So that’s about it, I think. This is my current theory about OFA and AFO. This also means that, just in time for Father’s Day, I’m now pretty sure that AFO is not in fact actually Deku’s dad (and I may possibly owe @addermoray a beer). Or at least, the one theory probably isn’t true if the other is. So yeah, congratulations Deku, you get to pass on all of the I’m-secretly-the-son-of-my-greatest-nemesis angst after all! In exchange, you get my-greatest-nemesis-is-currently-inhabiting-part-of-my-soul angst instead. Heh. Have fun with that there, kiddo.

EXO OBSESSION MV Reaction + Theories (191127)

EXO dropped their long awaited OBSESSION MV today! I woke up early to watch it but still didn’t manage to get this post out before I had to leave for work so it’s now 10pm PST and I’m just now posting this.

First Impressions

Love the song, love the dance, don’t super love the MV

The track is such an earworm. “I want you, I want you want you” has been running through my head all day. My favorite parts are Suho and Chanyeol’s exchange at 0:36 and Chanyeol’s rap at 1:11. I love hearing the rappers sing, which happens pretty often in the rest of the album as well. The line distribution is fairly even and I feel like Sehun really shines, which is long overdue.

I really love the choreography as well. The movements are so sharp and controlled; the boys always dance so well. The beginning of the dance makes a big impact, where Chanyeol rises from his knees and they all slowly rise up. I also really like the group dance with Kai in the center at 3:12.

I’m not in love with the videography. I think it’s still really good, especially the close up shots, but it’s just wasn’t what I was expecting based on the teaser. I was expecting more action and less “member in a box”, though I do admit that it’s difficult to film a person and his non-existent-in-real-life clone in the same frame.

Theory

EXO and X-EXO are one being. The Red Force exists within EXO and they are fighting themselves.

(I feel like this theory is apparent to a lot of people in the MV but I just want to cover why I found it to be true.)

When the track list for OBSESSION first came out, someone mentioned that the song title “Jekyll” made them think X-EXO and EXO might be the same being, and EXO is fighting the Red Force within themselves, based on the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

Many aspects of the OBSESSION MV make this seem like the case.

What first made me think this theory is true is X-Kai’s appearance around 1:37. His skin is extremely pale and white, giving him a phantom-y look, and making it seem to me as if he doesn’t actually exist.

The most prominent clue starts at 1:50, when Sehun shoots an arrow at X-Sehun. However, at 1:52, we see that the arrow has pierced Sehun instead. 

Throughout the MV, we see Chen playing chess with X-Chen. However, at 2:25, Chen appears at the chess table alone.

Suho’s floating body (0:36) reminds me of movies such as Dr. Strange, where someone has an out-of-body experience and is looking at themselves from the outside.

The lyrics also make it seems as if EXO and X-EXO are one being. Based on the lyrics I think that X-EXO manifests themselves in EXO at night, which is why perhaps the initial teaser says “new beings” were discovered. It reminds me of EXO’s werewolf concept back with wolf, because werewolves manifest themselves at night (on a full moon depending on the myth). It also relates to Jekyll and Hyde:

Jekyll's transformed personality, Hyde, was evil, self-indulgent, and uncaring to anyone but himself. Initially, Jekyll controlled the transformations with the serum, but one night in August, he became Hyde involuntarily in his sleep.

Wikipedia

0:20 “As the night makes me blink, you snuck in again” - Baekhyun

0:31 “Oh you’re the bad dream kill. You keep possessing me” - Kai

0:55 “A vicious cycle of nightmares, I’ll end it now.” - Kai

1:19 “When I fall asleep with one eye open, you permeate without a sound, the phantom” - Chanyeol

2:02 “When I open my eyes like yet I’m still asleep” - Sehun

3:09 “It’s me looking at myself in the mirror” - Chen

When the MV teaser video came out, I translated Sehun’s ending ment as “Disappear from me”. It seems that EXO wants X-EXO to leave, and vise versa. 

In the ending scene of the MV, we see fire slowly engulfing a planet, a symbol that the Red Force is winning.

Connection to Marvel - Extremis Serum

This comeback concept especially gave me a lot of Marvel vibes. As I mentioned in a previous post, X-EXO reminds me of X-Men. 

In the MV, glowing red streaks appear on EXO and X-EXO skin (2:08, 2:50, 3:04, 3:05). A similar situation appeared in the Iron Man series. In Marvel, Extremis is a serum that alters one’s DNA.  

If the user's body chooses to accept it, the user will gain regenerative healing abilities, making them able to heal all wounds, including previously-amputated limbs or even psychological damage. When regenerating body parts, the wounds take on the appearance of burning embers while growing back the lost body part, in a matter of minutes, and cooling into regular flesh, blood, and bone. Extremis also enhances physical performance, granting superhuman strength, reflexes, and overall higher resilience. 

Marvel Fandom

In Marvel, the Extremis serum was used by evil forces to create a group of superhuman soldiers.

Other Interesting Notes

In the MV, it seems like to me that X-Suho is trying to drown Suho, which is interesting because Suho’s power is water and if he can control it well, he shouldn’t be able to be drowned, an indication that perhaps X-Suho is stronger.

EXO Timeline

Based on the Marvel tie-ins, the only plausible theory I have right now is when EXO was kidnapped and experimented on by the Red Force in Lucky One, the Red Force tried to inject evil into them. Perhaps it only worked on 6 members.

Unfortunately, I can’t find enough information in the OBSESSION MV to tie it into much of the existing EXO plot. (We know Baekhyun is special somehow, but it’s not demonstrated in this MV. Why do the members point their guns at each other in Love Shot? etc.) The theory that X-EXO exists within EXO throws a knife in the clone theories that were created when the OBSESSION teaser image was first released. However, based on the OBSESSION MV content, I really think that X-EXO and EXO are the same people. We’ll have to wait until the next comeback to see what else the storyline brings :)

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