lulua

Before I get attacked, please just know that this isn't the best. It's my first essay and I was having a bit of trouble putting my thoughts into words so please let me know if I got any information incorrect. All art used is official. This contains spoilers!

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The two face characters of Alien Stage are most well known as Mizi and Sua. Some may argue their relationship is toxic, some may say it’s due to the environment and neither is completely wrong. Before delving into the relationship as a whole, it’s important to understand them separately-something Sua couldn’t do.

The “main character” of this series is essentially Mizi. Her iconic pink, flowing hair is her most recognizable feature, undoubtedly. Voiced by rubyeye, her voice presents as a deep, rich sound that can shift from sweet to raspy in seconds. By looking at Mizi’s statistics for singing on the website and artbook, you can see she is more well-rounded than some other characters. Mostly all her stats are under 4.0, with the exception of her relatively high mental strength and low star potential. Mizi’s backstory and original thoughts when entering Alien Stage were explained in the comic, My fragile god, fading fast. The eighth page shows Mizi with tears and blood streaking her face. In her hands, she is holding what is explained to most likely be her mother. The alien, who is most likely Shine, says, “Oh no, looks like they got crushed by accident.” The aliens are clearly not sentient beings, therefore have no empathy for Mizi. The guardian that takes Mizi in, by the name of Shine, appears to trap her in some sort of aquarium where she is actually taken care of unlike other human-pets. Due to the highly sheltered environment, Mizi grew up a bit unaware of her surroundings and as a result, a very optimistic person. For reasons not entirely explained, Mizi ends up in Anakt Garden to train for the competition. Personally, I believe Mizi was essentially “tricked” into thinking that by death, she was just returning to her home, and maybe a part of that isolated Mizi even would rather experience death than be alone. Even if Mizi did know the consequences, she seems like she wants to escape the isolated life Shine set up for her desperately.

Upon Mizi’s entrance to Anakt Garden, it is unveiled in that same comic that Mizi also wanted to go because she felt like she’d, “be at peace being in a place where she’s not the one being crushed.” The comic then switches to an image of Sua, likely the first time Mizi saw her. Mizi finishes, “but a place where I could crush someone.” On top of the descriptions of Sua, it is most likely Mizi thought she could dominate a frail pretty girl with soft appearances. Here, you can see what Mizi gets out of the relationship. Mizi gets someone to control because she felt like she had no control in her life. Mizi having control of another being's life (Sua) makes her feel more powerful and grounded. This is very obviously not a healthy thing, even if it was primarily due to the wrongings of Shine, even though Shine didn’t think they were doing anything wrong.

Mizi’s personality is highly optimistic, naive and cheerful during her time at Anakt Garden. Deep down, this was a facade she put up, not only to save herself but to help others. It is shown throughout the series that Mizi has deep love for all her friends, Till, Ivan, and most importantly, Sua. In the comic, The Witch’s Decision, Mizi says Ivan and Till “are my family as well” showing her love for her friends, even after everything that happened. After Sua sacrifices herself for Mizi, Mizi starts to gain survivor's guilt, altering her thoughts. When Mizi witnesses Till “die” in front of her, it becomes her breaking point. She starts to imagine Sua saying things Mizi now thinks of herself. All these events are shown in the famous comic depicting Mizi and Sua’s relationship, The True Face. In that same comic, Mizi’s inner thoughts in the form of Sua say, “Throwing me away wasn’t enough…So you ditched all your other friends too.” This is very obviously not exactly what happened. Mizi never wanted her friends to die, nor did she completely use them either. Mizi wouldn’t have even been crying if she had simply used them, yet she shed tears at every one of her friends' deaths. In The True Face, she continues to let her thoughts take over, “Well, you did great, playing dumb so you could survive. I’m so proud of you.” Mizi’s way of coping with trauma is by acting optimistic and naive, as said earlier. Her recently developed survivor’s guilt is what’s the cause for these thoughts. If all your friends died, mostly thinking of or protecting you, you would have these same thoughts as Mizi. So, no, Mizi didn’t actually use her friends. If anything, Sua was the selfish one for leaving Mizi alone. Mizi’s survivor's guilt and the partial truth also takes form in the last video of the main series, Karma. Mizi admits she had seen Sua practicing her death nightly, and never said anything about it because she didn’t want to upset her. Mizi also says that, “No matter how much I think about it.. maybe I just wasn’t as desperate as her.” Going back to Mizi’s way of coping, it seems to me that Mizi knew that someone was going to die, and with Sua’s resistance to Mizi leaving her, and Mizi not wanting to die, what else would she really have done? Towards the middle of Karma we see Mizi and Sua getting in a fight immediately before heading on stage. I like to assume that this is most likely when Mizi confronted Sua about her death. As seen, Sua immediately makes Mizi be quiet about it, and then smiles at it.

Now, moving more into Sua’s character, Sua proves that Mizi was not the only reason their relationship was so toxic. Sua is described as a distant, gentle-looking person. She has become the face of Alien Stage, as she was the first planned and all characters are based off her. This can be seen in Sweet Dream and Vivinos’ and Qmeng’s Q and A sessions. She comes off as gentle and a bit cold at first, but later becomes much more possessive. Before diving into Sua’s actions and personality, it is important to know her stats. Despite her angelic, airy voice, Sua’s stats only give her a 2.5 for vocals (out of 5.0) which is relatively low compared to the other characters. It can be noticed that her stats lean away from stamina, talent, mental strength, and even a bit of vocals, leaning more towards visuals and star potential. Sua could be best described as fitting the Korean beauty standard, pale skin, dark black hair, and soft, doll-like features. In the MIZISUA music video and Heavenly Garden, Sua’s backstory can be pieced together. Her guardian, Nigeh, essentially collected human-pets with similar looks-Black hair and pale skin girls. Out of Sua’s many “sisters,” Sua became the favorite overtime. It is even implied that her sisters bullied her often for being the favorite. Her “sister” Hia, originally tried to convince Sua to not go to Alien Stage, and revealed the truth about the snow that falls there being children's ashes. Hia seems to be a caring sister within the first few pages, but later she goes so far to tell Sua, “you’re already so stupid. What if you just up and die in that place? You poor thing, Sua” which is accompanied by an almost possessive smile. One of the things that seemes to traumatize Sua a lot was the sudden disappearance of Hia. It was rumored Nigeh disposed of her because of numerous reasons. This gave Sua a fear of abandonment.

The important thing to note from Sua’s backstory is that she was treated inhumanly (similar to Mizi) and it left Sua cold and distant, with almost nothing to live for (which is where she separates from Mizi.) When Sua met Mizi, Mizi became an almost god she lived for. Sua became possessive of Mizi. When Mizi tried to tell Sua her trauma in Heavenly Garden, Sua immediately dismissed it by essentially saying her trauma was worse, “At least you don’t get dragged around like me. Must be nice, right?” After this, Mizi slaps Sua, which will be dived into later. To sum it up, Mizi became the light in Sua’s life when Sua was devoid of emotion. Mizi became her reason to live, but due to this, Sua refused to see Mizi’s struggles and only accepted her as a perfect being. Sua didn’t care about how Mizi would feel when she chose to sacrifice herself, only how she couldn’t live without Mizi. Sua developed a sort of savior-complex, thinking she was going to become a god in Mizi’s life for saving her, ignoring the consequences it would have on Mizi. Because Sua didn’t live as long, there simply isn’t much more to her character and she doesn't have much content.

The other thing to be noted could be how Ivan saw Sua. Ivan is extremely smart and observant, and even noticed some of Mizi’s true intentions for Sua. Ivan found out Sua’s plan to die, and looking back on it during Cure, even compares his sacrifice to his. He says, “But my situation is better than hers. Because I know you won’t care that much about me.” This comment may have more to do with Ivantill, but it shows that Ivan was able to notice how Sua’s sacrifice was essentially cruel and self-centered in the end.

Moving on to the main part, Mizisua as a whole is generally toxic, though it could have had potential under different circumstances. Mizi not being interested in Sua or the opposite way isn’t an issue. When Mizi is confronted about dating another guy, she says, “That’s kinda gross” (The True Face) and throughout the series, Sua’s obsession with Mizi would prevent that. Going back to the slapping scene in The True Face, it portrays how unhealthy their relationship is. When Sua says Mizi’s trauma isn’t as bad as hers, Mizi’s immediate reaction is to slap her. This is by no means a good reaction, even though she immediately apologizes for it. It’s even implied Sua and Mizi get into more fights than that in that same comic where Mizi says, “We did get into a fight recently…” As said earlier, Sua leaving Mizi because Sua didn’t want to deal with the pain isn’t quite a good sacrifice. Even Ivan’s was a more genuine sacrifice. In the end, Mizi saw Sua as something to dominate, that she has the potential to crush, while Sua saw Mizi as a god without faults.

In conclusion, Mizi and Sua’s relationship is heartfelt, yet never healthy. The trauma caused by the aliens that was inflicted on both Mizi and Sua enabled them to not be able to work out as a couple. In another life, without trauma, this ship may have worked, but would it really have been healthy? Mizi and Sua’s dynamic is a great representation of human’s true intentions and motives in relationships, and how they’re never truly pure, even if they work out just fine.