zombie stage spoilers if y'all gaf. i'm running my mouth about mizisua. i haven't looked into a lot of the extra content so a lot of things i talk about here may be confirmed or disproved, but i'm only engaging with the videos at the moment.
ZOMBIE STAGE R1 AND ITS ALLEGORY
i think this was a great take on the nature of the idol industry! i would expect no less from vivimeng. even though alien stage does have flaws, i think that it's truly an amazing piece of media. its intricacies have always fascinated me.
as for zombie stage itself, WOW. WOW WOW WOW!!! i am Amazed. the allegory here is made more obvious in its relatability, because the audience is essentially comprised of only creepy, parasocial, HUMAN men, and the setting is much more grounded in reality than alien stage's was.
there are many shots in which mizi is sexually exploited to appeal to her fanbase. she did not have much of a say, and her managers dictated what she could and could not do. obviously. there is an emphasis placed on her body in music videos and advertisements both:
much of her persona is dependent on how she looks. her attractiveness is played up for the sake of monetary gain. like always, there is something to be said about the patriarchy. mizi was always shown to only love women, yet she was somehow always tied to men. for her status to be elevated, she was dumbed down to a titillating, coquettish version of herself, one that was inauthentic. and it made her miserable.
her value was diminished to be based in only her looks, and her passion and talent went disregarded. she had to make good music, yes, but that was not the focus of her marketing. she had to be captivating. due to the way her management team went about it, the only people she captivated were... men.
when she and sua auditioned after their graduation, they were very excited to perform. mizi, initially, was the only one accepted out of the two of them, so sua delegated herself to supporting her. she watched as her happiness was sucked away and she became a shell of her former self. what once was a source of creativity and a drive through which to channel her talent morphed into something that only drained her in every sense of the word.
they seemed to disagree on a lot of things, which was a point of tension in their relationship. sua, probably - and very understandably - did not like the way the industry handled her partner. mizi was clearly very stressed, and her behavior escalated when she was put under increasing pressure. she did not hear sua out because it would be very difficult to simply leave. even before she was zombified, she was hardly alive. she was scraping by with a job that made her miserable, and she was in a relationship that was on the verge of failing.
sua took up mizi's spot on stage after she was attacked by a zombie and therefore unable to continue her career, since their dual act only came to fruition after they were both undead. she found where mizi was being kept, and came to see her, and presumably let herself be bitten. even if it somehow was an accident, she definitely wouldn't complain about it.!! she said that she wanted to be with her forever.
their codependency transcends universes. similar to their base universe, mizi... did not behave as if she wanted sua as badly as sua wanted her. that doesn't mean that she loved her any less, obviously, but that difference is another thing that made them so unhealthy. sua idolized (heh) her and placed her on a pedestal. her obsession far outweighs mizi's love for her.
i love it. waiter, waiter, more of this!!!
zombie stage's running focus is that they both continue being idols even after they're quite literally dead. they're zombies. in reality, the industry would probably do something like that if it they could find a way to make it socially acceptable lol.
much of their viewers are men who, famously, reduce women to objects, which deprives them of their personhood. this is particularly true for women who are very famous. there's a reason that hyuna is the only one in the crowd who seems to gaf.
since mizisua's marketing was cutesy and appealing, everything was fine. they were rotting and you could see their bones but it was totally fine. with idols in real life, the problems are just as obvious. many fans will overlook the glaring issues because they think they're cute or they like the music. most of the time, their ignorance is rooted in the fact that their favorite members are attractive. that is not to say that it goes entirely unacknowledged, but the industry is upheld due to that mindset being common. i truly believe it would cease to function if this were not the case.
i will come back to this periodically, since i have a lot to say. a lot of this wasn't eloquently put, sorry. i had to get it out of my system before i exploded
