Read on Twitter
i find it very discouraging to see fans refer to the chess concept and the b&w color coding as random after ngda........ yes, there might be time constrictions on his projects, but taemin always works with a very clear conceptual drive
when you think back to criminal/act 1 and idea/act2, you can see 2 opposite ideas. criminal& #39;s lyrics portrays the "you" as an evil that corrupts, which is visually represented in the music video + photoshoot
in the photoshoot, the concept was presenting taemin& #39;s corruption. he was both the innocent and the suspect, because the story presented was about him reaching a low. those weren& #39;t 2 different characters, it was the same character presented in its 2 contrasting qualities
a very underrepresented line from criminal happens to be my favorite one, which goes "my hands holding yours that stabbed me / are not clean either". it highlights how those 2 personas were sides of the same character, the corrupted innocent
meanwhile, the lyrics in idea presents the "you" as a goodness that redeems. literally, a messiah, an absolute value, a virtue. it contrasts criminal not only in its color scheme and visual ascension, but also in the imagery it borrows from to symbolize the story.
while criminal relies on biblical imagery, evoking superstition and mysticism, idea uses philosophic allegories, which evokes rationality and logic - also opposing values.
taemin ascends in idea, no longer a corrupted innocent but a redeemed sinner, but there& #39;s a sense of wrongness. not only is he portrayed to reject the concept of "ideal" or "heaven" in the music video, but in the lyrics we can see the hypothetical messiah is not what he seeks
from the sarcastic juxtaposition of "you are my messiah" and "you are killing me", to the conclusion of the song "on the night i cut you out from my heart / finally i open my eyes" (which is expressed visually through his earthly freeing on the mv)
and i say ALL THIS when talking abt advice bc i think the "you" in criminal and idea are the same, rather than a linear narrative. to illustrate this, think of the concepts in dialectic. criminal is a hypothesis, idea as an antithesis and advice as a synthesis
criminal and idea are about him battling with this "you" that haunts him. either as something that found him as an innocent and destroyed him, or something that found him as a sinner and redeemed him, two ways of rationalizing the same object
and while i haven& #39;t read the advice lyrics (bc i didn& #39;t find them yet 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧍‍♀️" title="Staande vrouw" aria-label="Emoji: Staande vrouw">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧍‍♀️" title="Staande vrouw" aria-label="Emoji: Staande vrouw">https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧍‍♀️" title="Staande vrouw" aria-label="Emoji: Staande vrouw">), the descriptioms seem to center around the idea of warning against making an antagonist of people? which fits, but also is supported in the chess theme
chess is literally centered on two exactly symmetrical and perfectly opposite forces, black and white. navigating this power struggle is a synthetic, deductive act. advice is basically the logical conclusion to criminal and idea, not only bc it& #39;s b&w, but bc of their narratives
this is significant bc clearly ngda means something to him, and he clearly wanted to give it an epilogue through advice, which follows the conclusion of their artistic, lyrical and visual clues very well. it& #39;s anything but random, it& #39;s full of intent
https://twitter.com/taeminggu/status/1394474019504726024">https://twitter.com/taeminggu...
i wouldn& #39;t be surprised if the "you" he refers to is himself, which is supported by songs like pinocchio and identity. specifically, rather than himself, his idol self, which encompasses his career, his work, his art, and the consequences of it
