pocky

Madoka chan

https://t.me/protivnaya_risuet

To me, this is the thesis of Alien Stage. For each duo and in more ways than one.

For Ivantill, Till might never have loved Ivan romantically, though we do have indications he may have. Either way, he didn’t love Ivan the same way Ivan loved Till. He didn’t obsess over Ivan the way Ivan did Till. He didn’t want to accept Ivan’s sacrifice the way Mizi accepted Sua’s sacrifice, but Ivan forced it on him. Till’s love was different from Ivan’s, but does that really matter? It was love, too.

Interestingly enough, Luka has both Hyuna and Hyunwoo’s hearts. Despite everything, Luka lived. Hyunwoo initiated the fight between them, and Luka reacted violently, which led to Hyunwoo’s death. Luka was shot at, and Hyuna took the bullet, killing her. Luka has lived in spite of everything because of their deaths. Hyuna loved Luka, but her sacrifice was one made partially out of revenge. Luka may have loved Hyunwoo when they were friends as kids, but he still killed him. He may have loved Hyuna, but he still hurt her. But it was love. Nonetheless, it was love.

And, of course, Mizisua. Mizi didn’t love Sua in a way that propelled her to sacrifice herself for Sua. Sua’s love was the kind that made it impossible for Sua to live without Mizi. If you recall their mental strengths, Sua’s is extremely low while Mizi’s is strong. Mizi knew Sua couldn’t handle if Mizi died. Mizi underestimated just how much Sua’s death would ruin her, but she was willing to bear it so Sua didn’t have to bear losing her. She might not have been willing to die for Sua, but she gave Sua a gift, too. She let Sua give Mizi her sacrifice. And that’s love. That was love.

Even Mizi’s monologue about Hyuna is riddled with the weight of this theme.

Mizi is bitter because Hyuna fought for so long for humanity—a wider concept than Mizi can perhaps even comprehend, having lived isolated and then in ANAKT her whole life. She fought for something that seemed to mean so much, and then she threw it all away for Luka, a man who Mizi seems to loathe and whom she thought Hyuna loathed too.

Mizi is angry because Hyuna’s love, Hyuna’s sense of justice, required sacrifice. For humans, and for Luka. Mizi’s lingering bitterness over Sua’s decision transfers to Hyuna, because why? Why does your love demand you to die for it for nothing?

But it wasn’t for nothing.

Because even though Sua sacrificed herself for Mizi, and Hyuna risked her life to save her and then died for Luka only ended in Mizi’s death by her own hand—Luka either dying and being replaced or continuing to be imprisoned by the aliens for entertainment—

Even if Hyuna’s love for humanity and belief in their freedom only led to children in museum displays rather than stages—

It mattered.

Mizi still destroyed the competition that ruined her and Sua. She still cemented Ivan’s sacrifice by saving Till.

Hyuna still got her justice. She stopped running. Even if Luka remains trapped, his life still means something.

This is the moment where Sua understands. She understands that Mizi has been in the know all along. I think she kind of knew the whole time this is the moment where it is confirmed, because Mizi is probably trying to stop her. Look at her. She lost the one and only reason to get on that stage. All of her practice rendered worthless.

So she puts her hand over Mizi's mouth.

She's asking for silence. She's putting an end to the conversation. She doesn't want Mizi to try and save her, because saving her is her whole reason of being. She's asking for ignorance. And Mizi is great at it.

So she agrees.

She's going to keep pretending.

And that's the only way Sua gets her smile back.

we start off with a shot of sua watching past alien stage performances to practice dying for mizi, and mizi seeing her do so. then mizi claims that she knew all along but let her go through with it.

she even goes to say that the reason she didn’t stop sua was because she just wasn’t as desperate for her as sua was for mizi

followed by a shot of mizi looking VERY desperate for sua.

this is where i think mizi’s unreliability as the narrator comes into play. because by the end of the episode, it’s revealed that mizi DOES run towards sua to stop her from practicing her own death and they embrace

i think there’s a reason that this scene was delayed to the end and it was just because mizi’s view of herself by that point of the story was extremely skewed. i think that mizi hatched the plan with sua to try and tie with a duet after she catches sua plotting to sacrifice herself.

that’s why this scene at the start of the episode has them fighting right before the competition. mizi finds out that sua never planned on going with their duet, and fights her on it. to which sua probably tries to reassure her once more that she will not be sacrificing herself (and she lied.)

and let’s be honest. if mizi really wasn’t as desperate for sua, would she really look at her like this?

and then it will cut to a flashback of mizi so overwhelmed by her adoration for sua's face that her collar goes red, and then you'll see her reaction to Till and hyuna's deaths to be to bomb the stadium. every breath mizi takes longer than sua is filled with agony and conflict, and somehow mizi has convinced herself that she was inherently a predator to those she outlived just because she feared death

and they knew it

and it didn't stop them from trying anyway

even if they were meant to fail