Analysis - Crimson Pierces the Twilight

 Analysis - Crimson Pierces the Twilight

People should take the time to appreciate the cultural subtleties of what seems like an incredibly straightforward Video game MV.

Check this out, then read on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwrQzU1f99c

To give some general context, this is a character music video for Zenless Zone Zero. It's an introduction piece to create some mystery, and also a tone piece about the character, Some characters have rock ballads, some have rap mixes, Qingyi's is this one.

Qingyi is a style of Battle Android, but they gave her a warfare package that came from before the fall (before the half-collapse of a bunch of civilization and technical things from a golden age). That warfare package gives her all of her fighting abilities.

In this video though she's partially hallucinating possible memories from that ancient warfare system of being a Chinese noblewoman. Specifically referencing a poem by Bao Zhao, The "Red silk rope" (a reference to Zhu Yuan's hair) and the Ice Jade Pot (Qingyi). It's about two women who find in each other the strength to stand against corruption and societal decline.

Qingyi is very selfless in the game, she often sacrifices herself because she knows as a Battle Android she isn't 'alive' (although others dispute this) and if she is damaged or destroyed, people will just rebuild her. But every time they do the memories fracture a little more, which she doesn't tell anyone.

Her whole side story is about questioning "Humans and the way they attach emotions and values to objects".

And for another fun reference, Zero one zero, zero zero one is 010001 which is the hexagram Water Thunder Tun, in the I Ching it means being surrounded by lots of obstacles that you don't know how to get through, and losing any sense of success because what that looks like isn't clear. Except that she knows she has a friend, in Zhu Yuan.

Crimson (Zhu Yuan) Pierces the Twilight (Difficulty, or obstacles, or perhaps Qingyi's misgivings about her sense of self...)

All that in a 3-minute video.