I can’t stop thinking about how the zombification in Alien Stage Au: Zombie Stage works, and the purpose of it.
We can assume that the contestants and spectators are human from the start, and the loser of each round zombifies some part of themselves as punishment.
First, I wanna cover what it means to be a zombie. Typically, we use “zombie” to refer to an undead being, which doesn’t really help until we narrow the scope even more.
Of undead beings, they usually start alive, get infected with something specific, then are supposed to die but has not for whatever reason. This usually strips away rationality and emotion the original being had, keeping their body “alive” while their “soul” is removed from the equation.
This is reinforced by the dead rats with their exposed guts that keep appearing on screen, as well as the brief clips at the beginning that shows an immobile rotted person and children in chains running around and laughing.
Yet, this poses the question of Sua, Ivan, and maybe Mizi and how they retained at least some control over their bodies. Sua seems perfectly aware of what’s happening around her, albeit through rose-tinted glasses. Ivan seemed to have been idle, waiting or preparing for something at the end of Candy Scar, which supports the fact that he has at least some control of his faculties.
I have a hard time pinpointing Mizi since her expression generally appears frozen onto her face from the zombification, worsened by her missing eyes. You can sort of tell how that corner of her mouth moves weirdly due to it, which makes me wonder if the shiny stuff is like a cover or a solid chunk that’s part of her.
If it’s a solid chunk, it wouldn’t be a stretch to wonder what happened to her brain behind the zombified part. As seen when the helper people helped(?) Mizi up onto presumably a spinning board, she looked remarkably limp on her own.
That could be due to her lost sight, or perhaps is a sign of something more, a lack of thought behind her eyes maybe? Like I said, her single facial expression she keeps and the weirdly bouncy moves she can maintain almost gives me the impression that everything is muscle memory.
Something else that could corroborate this hypothesis is the (presumed) off-screen zombie attack right before she “gains” her face zombification. Due to the scene framing and its setting in a residential district, it could be interpreted that the incident was accidental (not part of the Zombie Stage production).
That incident could obviously lead to unintended consequences as it wasn’t in a controlled environment, but as much as I would like to make a conclusion, it’s currently hard to say.
Next, although part of the zombification process of humans is up in the air, one might be able to argue that even under the shiny stuff, the zombification is an active, unstoppable process.
What this means specifically is that either that solid cover is unable to contain the infection fully (maybe it spreads underneath it), or that the solid-looking bits are part of the infection itself.
My evidence if shaky, but I recall that the scene where Sua finds Mizi with her face taped up has significantly less of her face zombified. Then, in the performance, we can see that the majority of her face ends up infected.
Sua on the other hand, while we don’t exactly see this on screen, starts the Candy Scar performance with very human-looking shoulders and arms. Yet, in the teaser and album cover, she appears with an infected shoulder, of which we glimpse has been sacrificed after her loss in Candy Scar.
Yet, despite the clean cut one might assume it is, we can see that it’s anything but, spanning onto the top of her shoulder and down to her shoulder blade. And, the edge of the patch looks veiny, organic even.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that someone decided to graft more infection than the initial “allocated space.”
Do I have an answer? No lol
Will this drive me insane? Oh yeah definitely
- how are Mizi’s eyes intact/uninfected?
- why is there a heart on the infected parts of Mizi’s face?
- what will be the fate of our main cast?
- could Hyuna be concealing infected parts as well?
- what is the importance of infecting idol contestants as a punishment? (in world significance)
- what the fuck happened for society?
- what is the timeline of Mizi’s (and Sua’s?) idol career and the zombie apocalypse?
- why did Mizi make that shocked expression? (And how come Sua didn’t?)
