they’re eating tteokbokki

After watching the movie I did a quick dive on Korean mythology and Folklore and I think I found something interesting that might be where they go should it get a sequel. First things first though I am not an expert so if I'm off based with my assumptions tell me. Also spoilers.

The first thing I found out is the Korean mythology doesn't really seem to have demons as we typically view them and how the movie presents them. BUT the way they are designed is a shoe in for Dokkaebi. While they might look like what we in the west associate with demons the Dokkaebi are actually more similar in nature to the Fae. They are not typically depicted as malicious but rather mischievous. There are several sub categories of Dokkaebi and some are more typically evil but on the whole they are more likely to prank a human than kill one. And this sent me down a rabbit hole of thought, What if this is on purpose?

The movie tells us these demons have been attacking humans forever but that its all in service to Gwi-Ma. So what if he's forcing them to go against their own nature to do this? That he is controlling them in one way or another? That would explain why they are not all that adapt at fighting like none are really a challenge. However they are very good at disguising themselves which would track with their mythological roots. Like even the Saja Boys all of them seem to actually enjoy messing with Huntrix like the variety show scenes legit felt like a Looney Tunes bit. Which again would make sense given their roots.

And speaking of the Saja Boys they take on the appearance of Jeoseung Saja the Korean take on the concept of a grim reaper if thats truly what they are and its not just a costume then that's kinda weird right? Jeoseung Saja reap souls taking them to be judged but can also help them resolve unfinished business and can take bribes to extend a persons life. Again these are neutral figures. Why fight for Gwi-Ma?

Another option for what Jinu specifically might be is a Gwishin a type a ghost with unfinished business and are typically vengeful because of it. Actually the "water demons" we see in the bathouse are more than likely Mul Gwishin or water ghosts, who themselves drowned and then do the same to others.

But what I am finding here is that these creatures are natural and a part of the world deeply connected to humans. So this is my theory:

What if the Honmoon was only meant to be temporary? If Gwi-Ma took control of these creatures that were forced to act outside their true nature making him stronger, then the original hunters would only be forced to fight them to protect humans. I think the Honmoon was a bandage to reduce Gwi-Ma's ability and strength so that one day he could be destroyed and thereby those under his control freed. However over the centuries this original purpose was lost to time along with the knowledge of what the demons really are.

This could be why Rumi's mom connected with a demon. She could have begun to question things and sought out a demon for answers and well then came Rumi. (Dokkaebi are said to have children with humans who supernatural powers.)

recruit four demon members and somehow convince them to join his boyband BEFORE getting Gwi-Ma's approval

taught them how to do different, but synchronized poses on cue

watch over and learn the evolution of modern kpop music, culture, fashion, and fandom

song lyricist & choreographer where he wrote (atleast) two singles and planned every move and expression.

made sure some of the choreo was memorable and easy enough to replicate and go trending

design brand collaterals like the soda cans, billboards, train displays, posters, ad videos, light sticks, oh and the logo too

basically a social media manager to create, edit, and schedule their social media posts

plan a photo and video shoot with the saja boys

record a studio version of soda pop and release it on streaming platforms

publicist where he basically booked them to the variety show, created a PR campaign and all to create hype for their first debut show in public to have some audience (the huntrix girls noted that there were more people than usual in the area before the saja boys' first performance)

gave the boys PR training

booked an entire stadium for the midnight concert

did a kpop boyband bootcamp to wrangle four demons into becoming the perfect idol to act, sing and dance

probably did a 1on1 for each saja boy too to create and establish their character

wanted to share euni cho's norigae designs here for the folks who don't use twitter 🥰 their caption:

Norigae designs for #KPOPDEMONHUNTERS 🎀 Norigae are traditional Korean decorative pendants — the Huntrix girls rock cute, modernized versions, while their mentor Celine, from an older generation of hunters, keeps it classic in traditional style.

(the zoey and rumi charms on mira's norigae 😭💕 SHE LOVES HER GIRLS!!!)

I loved them so much! 😭✨

His story could only end in tragedy because of the choices he made, falling in love doesn't change that.

Media literacy is truly dead.

I mean Im just looking forward to the switch up come next week, where everyone is gonna start saying rumi has bad friends. Can't wait for everyone to start talking crap about mira and Zoey (you know it coming, yall love hating women).

The moment someone said that all of the songs that the saja boys sang ate the girls songs up, I knew we were cooked. Like how can you listen to golden and this is what it sounds like, and say soda pop was better.

Oh yes, you heard me right-- I've only got this theory and another one in the works, but I might think of some other things to hyperanalyse eventually!!

(Contains potential spoilers for the movie!!)

And warning, as my inner analyst comes out, and I start speaking both formal and casual back and forth-- XD Andd-- I uhh, I'm sorta writing this in one go, so if I start repeating myself, I'm sorry lol XD

The Starting Stage Outfits:

Something I really loved about the HUNTR/X's design is how they balanced looking both uniform and unique! And you can REALLY see that with their outfits at what I'm pretty sure is the beginning of the movie.

I like how they establish Rumi as being different to Mira and Zoey (more on this soon), as they put all their yellow around their lower parts of their designs, whilst Rumi keeps it to her jacket.

I especially love how the designers chose purple for Rumi's hair as it's almost complimentary on the colour wheel against the yellows of her jacket, so there's a really high contrast of colours in her design which again, helps her stand out from the two. She seems to have a more rectangular shape in her design (the jacket, the short pants, the bulky platform boots), and rectangles have often been associated with 'sturdiness'. And judging what we've heard about Rumi, this matches her perfectionist personality.

It's interesting that her hair is the one thing that's not 'rectangular', but it still matches her perfectionist personality as it's super high up (which can at times be uncomfortable). Hair symbolism is a lot of fun- but I'm getting ahead of myself, I swear I'll come back to this later on in the post.

Zoey's outfit features very baggy trousers, which goes well with her round buns. Round shapes are often associated with 'good' characters and safety. In this case, I'm pretty sure it captures her fun goofy personality. She's also different from Rumi and Mira who both sport boots. She instead wears sneakers, which potentially indicates that she values comfort over what's aesthetically pleasing. This theory is further corroborated by how she's the only one of the two who hasn't dyed her hair (assuming she wasn't a brown haired aha).

Mira on the other hand has a "very sharp" (not super sharp honestly, but noticeable enough) design with the sharp half pigtails in her hair and sharp sidebangs in her fringe. Her skirt has a very triangular sharp which further exacerbates her sharp design, and whereas Rumi has much bulkier boots (which I assume would be easier to walk in, but don't quote me, sneakers all the way lol), she wears "pointed" boots (not the sharp ended kinda ones you see in high-heel pumps). I think this is indicative of her seemingly more harsh personality...? We haven't seen too much of these girls, so I can't be too sure about this note lol.

A little crumb of a much bigger theory I'm going to talk about, but I also like how Mira and Zoey have black in their tops, whereas Rumi wears white. Once again, making her stand out.

The HUNTR/X's Awards Outfits

So this one I can't really talk about without getting into my bigger theory but, the there's more shape language in this with the 'belts' for the girls! Zoey's got these half-round jewellery (??) stuff that connect her belt. Whereas Mira's got a long fabric knot thingy (I'm sorry I don't know the name 😭) which kindaaa calls to her triangular shape language.

Honestly, Rumi's is the most obvious one, with her rectangular belt.

(EDIT: These outfits are not to be confused with these ones

because if I acknowledge this version of their outfits, everything I'm about to say will be undone- LOL XD)

Pyjamas:

Nothing too much to note, but I love how Mira and Zoey both have purple in their pyjamas, indicating what might likely be a subconscious show of their love and respect for Rumi.

Okay, onto our favourite bad boy band:

The Saja Boys:

On Wednesdays, we wear pink yellow. Except if you're Jinu--

I'M SORRY- there's not much I can really analyse since we don't know too much about these boys. But I find it interesting how these guys copied the HUNTR/X by all of them (except Jinu) wear yellow + pink together what I assume to be their public debut.

Love that Jinu's the only one who didn't dye his hair. I like to think he tricked the other four into thinking he was going to dye it, but then backed out immediately after the others did it. "Actually, as the leader of this team, I don't need to dye my hair. It.... uhh- makes me stand out. Yeah!"

Saja Boys After Watching Mean Girls

Jinu finally got the memo that you need to MATCH your bandmates.

Nothing TOO much to say just that if you look carefully Jinu's shirt patterns have got a tiger stripe design! These guys aren't very subtle.

Notice how now suddenly, the boys are all wearing pink... they're starting to all look the same in terms of uniform. But hey, there's still some distinction in their outfit styles!

The Boys After Watching Wednesday ON Wednesday:

Nothing too much to say again (this one is likely gonna be saved for my next theory in a different post), but their tiger markings are starting to show off in their outfits!

"Okay, it looks like our fans don't we care if we're demon-looking, so long as we're hot and can sing enough, they'll love us regardless lol":

Notice how now these guys are completely uniform, and they now kinda lose their individuality (apart from their hair WHICH, mind you is mostly covered by their hats).

I really like how what I'm pretty sure is going to be their final outfits in the battle, they're all pretty much the same. Any of their personalities in their outfits are just gone. It's likely that it's not considered important to them anymore, since they think they're gonna win.

It's really noticeable in the trailer how when they're in their Jeoseung Saja fits, they're really unindistinguishable for each other, especially in the dark.

It could indicate the Saja Boys' way of thinking, a more 'collective mind' sorta thing. Maybe they put aside some of their own wants and desires in pursuit of pleasing whoever the Big Bad is. (assuming Jinu isn't. And let's be real, it likely isn't him). Isn't it suspicious how we don't have any of the other Saja Boys names but Jinu? Maybe they're all gonna go nameless until the very end of the film.

We all know that identity is going to be one of the main themes of Kpop Demon Hunters, so for the Saja Boys to slowly strip themselves of their identities in favour of unity is really interesting!

THEORY TERRITORY:

Okay now we're into the meat of this post. The part I was the most excited to write for and decided to make this entire post on a dime.

So there's this theory floating around that SPOILERSSS! LAST CHANCE!!

Rumi might possibly be a demon! Or half! And I'm not gonna go into all these specifics about that, since plenty of people have already done that buttt- It's been noted that Rumi tends to cover her arms and neck with her outfits, which is pretty visually obvious ^^

So you know how I mentioned hair symbolism? I think the fact that Rumi has her hair up in a high braided ponytail, it's supposed to symbolise how 'trapped' she is in trying to make herself look utterly perfect. The hairstyle is very likely painful (it looks kind of tight) but it stops her hair from running wild everywhere. Just like how Rumi might be trying to hold back on being her true self.

But you know what's not too visually obvious? The OTHER ways Rumi's character outfits are always just slightly different to the other girls. Let's bring back those outfits again!

This could be coughed up to how Rumi is the leader and therefore, she must always have her outfit be different to the other girls, but I find it very intriguing how it's around the upper area, which is where Rumi always hides her skin the most (potentially due to having demonic marks there), is where she always seems to differentiate from the other girls.

And in this set of outfits case, not only is Rumi the only one wearing white compared to the other girls who wear black on their shirts, but she's the only one wearing the yellow in that area too!

Although, we do see a hint of black on her jacket!

We see this again in their awards outfits:

Notice how Mira and Zoey both wear black shirts, whilst Rumi wears a white shirt?? And how she's the only one with a black jacket. Again, this could possibly just to help her stand out. But I'm wondering if it's symbolic of how she's got a 'good' heart deep inside, but her 'outside' nature as potentially being a demon distracts from that.

And I think there's something to be said about Mira and Zoey having white on the outside, but black on the inside too! Perhaps it's symbolic of how they too are struggling too with appearances, though in their case it's more metaphorical. They want to appear perfect on the outside, but deep down, they have all these 'imperfections' which they consider to be bad, so they do their best to hide them with the white (perfection).

Alternatively, the black could be symbolic of their lives as Hunters. Rumi believes her job as a hunter to be everything, hence why she has a black jacket, it's all consuming her, wrapping itself against her tightly. Whereas with the girls, it's more of their 'inner selfs' and they're a bit more comfortable with it....? If I'm making any sense.

Now this one is really interesting. (I know I've said interesting like a hundred times already) Notice how when the girls first see the Saja Boys, Rumi is all consumed in pink, which is what I'm pretty sure is the Saja Boy's theme colour. And this time, Rumi's covered in black alongside the pink. And she's once again, visually separated from Mira and Zoey who both wear white.

And hey, Rumi's not the only one who does this sorta stuff! Jinu, the leader of the Saja Boys (a fun foil in designs), whilst not as obviously, also differentiates himself from the group. He's the only one who doesn't initially match the Saja Boys in their supposed debut. And if not for Abs Saja (believe me, I'm going to get into that guy next time!!!) he'd be the only one wearing short sleeves, actively promoting his demonic marks in comparison to Rumi who distracts everyone with her big hair (vs Jinu's natural hair colour) and covers her upper body up (verse Jinu who doesn't wear long sleeves)

Anyway, there might be more I have to say, so I may end up editing this later on, but I hope y'all enjoyed the analysis XD AND- I may end up making a following post to this when the movie comes out!

shitty sketch

"...Which is why-- I'll make a world where that won't need to be true."