Alien Stage Sideblog!

Cross section.

Not as polished as some of my other work, but I got possessed by an idea at 11pm and had to execute it

Mizi <3

Alt filter versions below the cut

you know how with ivan they keep emphasizing his image as a “perfect man” and how that is just his image, not how he truly is

his round 6 styling is the most obvious to this… putting him in that suit with slicked back hair (which the rain undoes during the round)

his image has always been along these lines too, just changing superficially over time. like he goes from class prince when he was younger to a sort of boy-next-door fantasy (a more grounded image to contrast luka’s ethereal prince vibes but still firmly “idol”)

he’s aware of his popularity and why it’s that way but you can tell he doesn’t like it

obviously he’s playing up being humble here but whenever he does that awkward laugh in the interview it just feels like he let some of his true feelings slip

instead he really admires till’s expressiveness and how he never stops struggling and stays true to himself even when giving in would be so much easier, which ivan doesn’t (he “can’t”) except for those precious moments alone with till, his whole self is “fake” and that disgusts him

the lyrics to nowhere express all this quite clearly… “he’s smooth, flexible, quite easy” “laugh because he can’t do anything” “a rigid dream and hope seeped in black tint” “an existence like dust, I can’t stand to look at it” “with that revolting tooth” (it’s the whole song but you get the idea) he can’t stand his current existence, he can’t dream of something different or do anything to change it, all he does is let himself be molded by other’s expectations

so... with all this i really thought transfem ivan was a super obvious reading

…............but considering I’ve seen exactly zero other people suggest this that probably sounds like a complete nonsequitur. well i may just dumb be as fuck (likely because what do i know about this) but im running with it anyway

my point is more I think he would be much happier if he decided to live as a woman for various reasons, but of course considering it’s ivan the process to even approach this conclusion would take 30 years and more than a few miracles

also his feelings to mizi and sua… with sua, he envies her relationship with mizi, but he also just wants to connect with her. naturally he goes about this in the worst possible way as always but that desperate desire for some sort of connection was real... but there's no way he could be similar to her, right

and with mizi, he can’t deal with how “bright” she is. which we know isn’t exactly accurate, but the outwardly bubbly girl that mizi presents herself as is something he… ...no wonder it’s painful

sure there are non transgender explanations to these things but what if it was that and also this huh. you can't prove im wrong

(all this isn't even getting into how his aesthetic in not in-universe stuff tends to be more cutesy, totally unlike what the segyein market him as)

…I really feel so strongly about this that whenever he gets grouped in with the guys it bothers me… there was a fanart of him with mizi sua hyuna and someone was like who invited the guy lol and I just. hey… let him be… he can be what he wants… don’t tell him that he can’t he’s already telling himself that….... (this is a fictional character.png)

(if anyone’s somehow read this far and is now wondering about the pronouns. uhm. look i can’t even commit to those for myself if i give noncanon ones to fictional characters i will throw up and die. sorry)

hyuna and luka both exhibit some androgyny, which is especially interesting as they are the m/f couple of the series. you'd normally expect them to more rigorously follow gender roles than the m/m and f/f pairs, but mizisua and ivantill are almost exclusively feminine and masculine respectively. alnst subverts this expectation, though not without still commenting on the power dynamic inherent to heterosexual relationships.

note: they are specifically not gnc. they still conform. both of them are within acceptable range of presentation for their gender. I would argue no characters are gnc since they do not have the autonomy for it.

besides the obvious visuals, their androgyny is defined by:

luka's infantilisation. he is the 'prince' of the stage, emasculated, and his image is crafted to look powerless to segyein yet lording over other humans. he is feminine, in the way femininity is equated to weakness. he is passive, seemingly fragile, and a tool to his father's ends.

hyuna's forced maturity. she is described as an "old man" character for her capacity to be cold and serious when it comes down to it. she must be masculine, in the way masculinity is strength and power. without anyone else to stand for her, she has to stand for herself, then others as well. it is her independence, to her detriment.

this is also reflected in their segyein guardians. phan is the absent father archetype, despite (possibly) being female, and heperu's vicarious abuse is most reminiscent of how mothers can become enmeshed with their children. these are typical roles due to gender stereotyping: men as emotionless and women as emotional.

all this does not mean that luka (or even hyuna) does not express misogyny. luka clearly does, especially over hyuna, and there is a conversation to be had about how hyuna treats mizi. there is still a power imbalance between genders that can't be resolved easily, and alnst does not shy away from showcasing it within hyuluka's relationship.

as alluded to, this gender presentation mainly comments on maturity surrounding oppressive standards of masculinity and femininity. it highlights hierarchies of power: power/powerless is mature/immature, adult/child, man/girl. it is no coincidence that luka's presentation is forced onto him (femininity as oppression) and hyuna's presentation is a demonstration of her autonomy (masculinity as liberation).

Stop pretending to be righteous Neither you nor I deserve to be saved

but Luka's never acted righteous

so she was thinking of Hyuna even there...

sua is shown to be sensitive about her appearance regardless of the intention or content of the comments directed at her. in official material, she becomes depressed and self-conscious when a classmate compliments her on her small face

the way the compliment is phrased bothers sua, because its intended effect occurs by way of comparison. generosity to the recipient depends on the speaker's self-criticism. the compliment elevates sua while sinking the speaker's status, which reminds sua of her relationship with her sisters—in a competitive environment where nigeh's favor was currency used to purchase social standing and to avoid punishment, positive feedback incurred their jealousy. sua apologizes to her classmate and takes responsibility for her perceived negative feelings about her own failure (having a large face), which echoes the ways she was made responsible for her sisters' "shortcomings" and resultant anger. sua's success threatened their standing, and they made her the subject of abuse in both anticipation and retaliation of their displacement.

i took sua's classmate's comment "i was trying to cheer you up" as her predicting that sua would be upset by the photo due to her sensitivty about her appearance. her compliment is an attempt to accommodate sua's emotional needs. however, it falls short because sua is tight-lipped about her relationships with her sisters and with nigeh and the breadth of the damage it does to her psyche. even positive comments dredge up memories of her sisters' harsh criticisms. there is no way for her to anticipate sua's true needs because she doesn't share them. this is a pattern seen also in her relationship with mizi; even when she's jealous over till and ivan taking mizi's attention, she refuses to admit it, and mizi has to guess what she's done to upset her. while it's almost certain sua never explicitly divulged her sensitivity (especially to someone outside the main group), i do find it plausible that it was readily observed by her classmates in a school wherein everyone is constantly together.

sua's older sister implements her knowledge of sua's sensitivty as a tool to foster her dependence on her (sua says, "back then, you were all i had. and that's why you scared me"). i won't get into it now but i really believe that it was, in some part, because she wanted to protect her sister from the horrors of the garden (though this love is complicated by jealousy, possessiveness, and deep resentment). she understand that sua relies on her, and specifically remarks on her appearance and physical habits when she mentions mizi to remind sua of that reliance. she comments that sua is "stupid" and "unkempt," disorderly and poorly groomed. she points out one of sua's nervous habits and implies that it diminishes her value—that her truest, most natural self is a blight to be masked or erased. sua becomes aware of herself here, and further constructs her persona by carefully regulating her self-expression. by forcing an association between hope (sua's aspiration to meet mizi, her view of their mother as "happy" or pleased) and fear (criticism of her appearance, reminders of death), sua's sister sets the groundwork for sua's habits of being closed-off, withholding, and possessive of her few joys

by the comic's end, sua insists that anakt garden wasn't the hell her sister proposed it was, because mizi loved her there. sua pities her sister because she never experienced the warmth real love gave her, even if sua herself met a violent demise. tamsyn muir's "it's finished, it's done. you can't take loved away," etc etc