I have finally noticed the cat. You know, the cat. Haven't seen it? Don't feel bad. It's pretty hidden. (Most of the time.) Let me explain. +U --- I'll start with the +U, because that is where it is the most prominent. Most people, by now, have noticed the Odd-Eyed Cat. It has shown up in just under 50% of TXT's videos so far. They've referenced it in teasers and in lyrics. It's obviously an important factor. I believe its first appearance in the +U was in the music video for Nap of a star, when Yeonjun runs directly into the Odd-Eyed Cat. (Which, for ease of writing, I will now be referring to as the OEC.) He seems afraid of it and backs up warily. When he does, a slit appears across his throat. He runs away. The only other thing I could find from The Dream Chapter : Star that might relate to the OEC was a line in Cat & Dog: "In my monochromatic world, you are red and blue." I'd like to point out the color of the trees in the clearing at the end of the NoaS music video. Red and blue. I'd also like to point out that these colors are heavily associated with Taehyung in the BU. (Singularity MV) After that, the OEC vanished and didn't return again until the next comeback. It plays a much larger role in The Dream Chapter : Magic, specifically in the music video (short film, really) for Magic Island. The trailers were already dropping hints for days before the video even debuted. The way the trailers were set up was quite conducive to spoilers and hints. Each one of the five videos was styled after an Instagram post, and each one featured a different member, mostly using clips from the music video itself. The first three trailers were relatively cat-free. (Although Soobin's trailer does include the hashtag #songofastar, perhaps referencing Nap of a star again.) In Hueningkai's trailer, however, one of his hashtags read #oddeyecat. The clip featured him running in a red, white, and blue blur of filtered color. It's difficult to explain, so here's a snapshot. Then, we reach the video itself. There's a reason MOA tease people about it being a BigHit Movie™. The video is thirteen minutes long. Long as it is, the OEC actually appears for only a few seconds. Near the three-quarters mark (Run Away, anyone?) in the video, the boys accidentally set the forest on fire. Yeonjun notices and stands up to run out of the forest, dragging the other four behind him. Before they can leave, however, they come across a set of train tracks. The headlights of the train are colored oddly for a moment--one blue, one green--before switching to normal headlight colors. (Although one still looks brighter than the other, but we'll let that slide for now.) At the very end of the video, there is some interesting narration. I'll add the screenshot with the translations here, but I'll leave it up to everyone's interpretation. Is the OEC talking to them? The lyrics of Magic Island also briefly mention the OEC. Although these specific lines are not in the actual music video itself (which seems an odd decision to me), they are still quite obviously referencing the OEC. "Someone called my name / That cat whose eyes were different colors Reflected in those eyes was me who is still weary / But I can't sleep, I can't collapse." And that's pretty much it for now (Jan. 10th, 2020) in the +U. But the BU has been running for six years longer. And there's way more than I thought there was. (Although, considering I didn't know it existed, that's not hard to do.) UPDATE: (July 7th, 2020) TDC:Eternity has arrived and killed us all, as seemingly this stupid cat wishes to do to the boys. Let's dive. It all started with the Concept Trailer for Eternity, in which Soobin is steadily growing further and further apart from the boys. About halfway through the video, Soobin stands up from the table and looks across the room. When the camera pans out, we can see two blue and green colored lights. When he walks to the side a little bit, the lights disappear, but when he walks back, they reappear again. Soobin then attempts go crawl over the table, but a glass box materializes around him. Could the OEC be the cause of this box? I'd like to point out that the eyes are on opposite sides here from the way they are normally placed. If you scroll up and down this post, you'll see that the eyes are always blue on the left, green on the right. But here, they're green on the left, and blue on the right. Moving on, the next video to feature a cat was, unsurprisingly, PUMA. The OEC does not make a direct appearance in this video, as I don't believe it's part of the official +U. However, cats are quite often referenced throughout the video, as well as one's shadow quite literally jumping across the wall about halfway through. There's also this interesting shot of Soobin at the very end of the video. Take from that what you will. Finally, there is 'Eternally.' Similar to Magic Island, for the length of this video, you would think the cat would have more screentime, but no. (#OECDeservesBetter) The only one that sees the cat is, again, Yeonjun. (Once again, note the blue on the left green on the right pattern.) At the very end of his section (soon after he sees the cat), there is a line of dialogue. Could it be possible he is talking about the OEC? We also see what could possibly be what the OEC is capable of. Later in the video, during Taehyun's segment, there is imagery of Yeonjun with purple...well, blood, all over him. It appears as if there's a smear or a slash across his throat, which is very similar to what happened in NOAS. At the very end of the video we get another notice to "Remember my name." I still believe this could possibly be talking about the OEC, or perhaps the Star, or maybe even Soobin. Or the ghost girl. There are many more possibilities now. For a deeper dive, see my Eternally - +U Analysis and Theories series. BU --- It's hard to tell exactly what in the BU could be considered related to the OEC. It's been running for a longer period of time, but there are seemingly fewer references than the +U. That being said, when I started looking for this cat to gather information for the post, I realized there was way more than I thought there had been. It looks like the first reference to a cat of any kind is in the Love Yourself Highlight Reel. (The one that's thirteen minutes long.) If you look in the back at the bus station behind Namjoon when he exits the bus, you can make out the words "cat + tro" or "cat t tro." Unfortunately, the rest of the word is covered by a big blue smear. The next reference I saw is a bit of a stretch, but these spotlights in MIC Drop look like the headlights of the train when they turned normal-colored in the Magic Island +U video. Remember how I said one headlight was brighter than the other? Serendipity has a fair bit of cat-related items in it. For one, later on in the music video, Jimin is holding a cat. It doesn't look quite like the same cat as before, but it is a cat. Cats are also referenced in the lyrics: "I'm your calico cat / Here to see you." Even though RM has already explained why the lyrics are in there, I thought I would include it here anyway, simply because I'm trying to put all the cat information in one place. It may mean nothing. BTS WORLD --- In the mobile game BTS WORLD, there are many references to cats. The first is in RM's side plot, called ANOTHER STORY. In the beginning, there is a cat that is mewling loudly outside of Namjoon's study. You end up taking care of the cat with Namjoon and a young girl, Jiyoung. The second reference is in Jin's ANOTHER STORY. The young girl, Areum, tells Seokjin to find her cat. When you ask what it looks like, Areum responds, "White and fluffy...?" That matches the description we have of the OEC. (Granted, the whole point of this chapter is that the cat does not exist, but let's gloss over that, shall we?) The last one is a bit of a stretch. In a phone call from Seokjin that you receive at a certain point in the game, he mentions that he stayed late at the practice room, even after everyone else had gone home. After talking for a few minutes, Seokjin thinks he hears something. You respond, "what is it, a practice room ghost?" This is very similiar to what Yeonjun and the rest of the TXT members discuss in their text message conversation in the Magic Island music video, where Yeonjun mentions that a "practice room ghost" has been recently spotted. Could it be that the practice room ghost is the cat? [NOTE: As of Feb. 11, I have not finished any of the side stories. There may be more info, but I haven't seen it yet.] UPDATE: (July 7th, 2020) I do not believe the texts nor the BTS World conversation were talking about the OEC. I believe they were talking about the ghost girl that appears in TXT's MV 'Eternally.' Still important, just not about the OEC. SAVE ME WEBTOON --- There are two mentions to the OEC in the SAVE ME webtoon that I saw. The first is after Seokjin returns from the U.S. and has just met Namjoon is prison. Seokjin goes down to the beach, and the OEC talks to him while weaving around his legs, asking "If you could turn back time, do you believe you can straighten out the errors and mistakes and save everyone?" Seokjin accepts, thinking he can, and the cat vanishes. The second mention is in episode 13 after Seokjin loses Jimin at the construction site. He wakes up back in his bed (again) and the OEC pounces around the room, asking the same question from before. (Although Seokjin's answer is much more dejected this time... "I used to believe I could.") BTS UNIVERSE STORY --- As of right now, the OEC has not actually been mentioned in-game. However, BANGTANTV as well as BTS Universe Story's YT channel both posted a game trailer a couple of weeks before the game dropped, and it included some references to the OEC. The trailer shows Seokjin on an island (perhaps Magic Island?) on May 22nd, Year 22. He speaks to the OEC on this island, and the conversation goes as follows: OEC: Hello. Long time, no see. SJ: Tell me how to save Namjoon. OEC: Find the Map of the Soul. That's the only way you can end all of this. SJ: The Map of the Soul? What's that? OEC: But there will be a price to pay. (maybe the oec only appears as an actual cat on magic isaldn and that's why it's been in a bunch of different places) The OEC also shows up later in the video, when we see Jungkook's accident. (See The Notes segment down below for more info.) After he is hit, the cat walks over to him and asks, "Are you sure you still want to live?" VCRs --- I cannot find any mention of a cat in any of the VCRs so far. I am planning on going back to rewatch them soon, and if I find anything, I will update this post. Keep an eye out! THE NOTES --- DISCLAIMER: I cannot find any direct references to the cat, so the following is just my theory. In Jungkook's note from May 22, Year 22, he says: I felt like my body was floating in the air, but the next minute, I was lying on the hard ground. I couldn't feel anything for some time. My entire body felt so heavy that I couldn't even lift my eyelids. I couldn't swallow or breathe. As I fell into a semi-conscious state, I grew warmer and warmer and my body shook all over. An undefinable pain and thirst instinctively forced my eyes open. Something shimmery caught my eye, which felt dried out as if filled with sand. At first, I thought it was a light, but it wasn't. It was bright, big, and blurry. It hung in the air motionless. I kept staring at it for a while, and it began to take shape. It was the moon. The world appeared upside down. My head must've been tilted back. In that world, the moon was also upside down. I tried to breathe by coughing, but I couldn't move. A cold fit swept over my body. It was frightening. I tried to open my lips but couldn't utter a word. My vision kept fading even though my eyes were open. Someone asked me a question as my consciousness grew dimmer and dimmer. "It'll more painful to live than to die. Do you still want to live?" To me, that voice summons images of the OEC. I honestly think that in some way the OEC talked to him as well, which would explain a little bit about how he seems to be becoming a larger character in the BU. In conclusion, the Odd-Eyed Cat quite obviously plays a large role in both the Bangtan Universe and the TXT Universe. What role it plays, now, that is what we need to figure out. Best of luck, MOARMY!!! <3 - Ilona O'Connor
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