#loopd theory

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Okay, so LOONA seem to have put lots of emphasis on looping in their discography:

ViVi, Kim Lip, Yves and Olivia Hye have casette tapes in their MV

Girl Front shows the girls experience looping properties

Jinsoul’s rap mentions ‘the endless cycle’

And then I thought, if only ViVi’s memories weren’t erased, then the timeline would probably be clearer.

Then it hit me: what if everyone’s memories were being erased, keeping the timeline in its loop?

This could be why the LOONAVERSE is referred to as a Mobius Strip- a constant but unstable loop, as no one is allowed to develop.

So let’s walk through the timeline:

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STAGE 1 (SCL - E):

We start off with Everyday I Need You, where ViVi, an android, comes across Jinsoul near the beginning of Sweet Crazy Love and ‘releases her from her basement’ (making ViVi the one who took out Jinsoul’s earphone), which causes the release of Jinsoul’s rain (in Singing In The Rain) to make the memories of 1/3 (Heejin, Hyunjin, Haseul, ViVi) be erased (in Rain 51db). Meanwhile, Chuu and Go Won, clueless and in OEC world, give Hyunjin a bracelet; just as one side goes up while the other goes down on a SeeSaw, Hyunjin falls from OEC world to Earth while Chuu and Go Won return to Eden.

Hyunjin, while happy to have helped Chuu and Go Won, mourns her removal from OEC world in Around You. However the bracelet is actually a bakoneko in disguise (shout out to @pinksrs, who inspired this detail), and as the animal’s influence grows stronger, Heejin and Hyunjin find each other. Later, they can’t get the other out of their mind, and they share a dream (I’ll Be There).

After some time, Heejin discovers her power to bring out colours in ViVid, allowing Jinsoul to awaken her ODD eye; as atonement for erasing her memory, she gives ViVi her own ODD eye to help her navigate the world. As Hyunjin, a primary colour, is absent, Kim Lip’s red and Jinsoul’s blue combine to make Choerry, the purple girl, to fill in her place. Kim Lip goes off to work on her own powers in Eclipse.

STAGE 2 (LCM - L&L):

Choerry is just hanging out with her friends, Haseul and Yeojin; while her colour has been added to her, she is still on Earth. Jinsoul travels there to leave a cherry, and when Choerry eats it, she is transported to OEC’S world, where an alternate version of herself teaches her how to use her powers over the events of Love Cherry Motion.

Meanwhile in New, Yves has doubt about being in Eden. She creates an apple by combining the attributes of two girls: Yeojin and Kim Lip. However in doing this, she traps Yeojin, seperating her from 1/3, and causes antagonism between her and Kim Lip.

At this point, 1/3 are in a pretty bad mood; Heejin’s power makes her feel isolated, Hyunjin is cut off from her home, Haseul has just lost Yeojin and Choerry, and ViVi’s android status leaves her practically apathetic. Thankfully, as they contemplate on the past events in Sonatine, they are close enough together that Heejin releases their colours, which ViVi’s ODD eye senses. Later that night, they share a dream through Everyday I Love You; Yeojin, who is trapped elsewhere but is granted the power to join their dream, attempts to make contact with them. This dream, actually a memory of ViVi buried deep down, is set off by Yves’ arrival onto Earth, as she has eaten her apple.

After seeing each other in the dream, 1/3 are drawn together and come up with the idea to start a track team. Some time passes in Love&Live, during which Heejin discovers that ViVi is an android, until ViVi has a realisation when she sees Hyunjin, the former OEC girl now in 1/3, with her colour while running; she unplugs herself, willing to lose her ODD eye, and runs until it runs out of energy; she loses it and becomes human again, in time to come across Yves.

STAGE 3 (GF - HA):

As ViVi and Yves spend time together (cough fall in love cough) in New, they travel to Eden to spend more time together. Meanwhile Girl Front starts to happen; Kim Lip and Jinsoul look for the new OEC girl, while Choerry looks for all 12 of LOONA. On her way, she finds the locations of a few, including Hyunjin and Yeojin, and she throws a map for Haseul to find in Let Me In. Haseul discovers that she has the power to save Yeojin (as Haseul and Yeojin’s signature animals are a bird and a frog respectively, I based this bit on this piece of Taiwanese folklore).

In The Carol, Heejin manages to combine the attributes of Haseul’s animal and Hyunjin’s colour to create the yellow bird necessary for Yeojin’s escape (the gift she holds in the MV which appears later). Meanwhile, the OEC girls unite, but as they look for the others, Yves (and ViVi) pass by, and Choerry follows Yves to yyxy world (as seen in Starlight) where ViRryVes spend The Carol 2.0 together; during this, Yves convinces Choerry to help the other yyxy girls fall to Earth, in exchange for allowing Choerry to also return; missing Haseul and Yeojin, Choerry agrees.

This increases Kim Lip’s dislike of Yves, and now she also fears losing another OEC girl. In order to preserve OEC, during the end of Girl Front, she tries to go back in time to reverse the events which led to Choerry meeting ViVi and Yves; however she doesn’t realise that she does not erase the events but only the memories of those events from herself- in fact she erases all of her memories up to and including Sweet Crazy Love, so she loses knowledge of her ODD eye.

Using her (love cherry) magic, Choerry takes the properties from the apple Yves gave her (as fruits from the Rosacae family allow one to fall from Eden) and give them to Go Won’s pineapple. However, Choerry comes across Yeojin, trapped in yyxy’s world. Choerry manages to come across Hyunjin, who gives her the present (briefly seen in Kiss Later) to free Yeojin; however, still angry at Yves for trapping Yeojin, she causes Yves’ original apple to be ‘corrupted’- as soon as Kim Lip and Yeojin are ‘reset’, Yves will be brought back to Eden. As soon as she has given the fruit to Go Won in One&Only, Choerry returns herself to Earth, inadvertently erasing her memory as she does so, and also losing her own ODD eye.

During Love4Eva, Yves only has three fruits with her, so she prepares to leave Eden with Go Won and Chuu, believing that Olivia Hye does not want to join them and not wanting to waste the fruits.

STAGE 4 (E - E):

In Egoist, Olivia is distraught by this betrayal; in Kiss Later, Yeojin senses this and empathises, having also been hurt by Yves. She refuses to eat the fruit that will let her escape until Jinsoul provides more cherries for Yeojin to eat in order to allow Olivia Hye to have her blood plum. However, ViVi still remains in Eden; in anger, Olivia Hye transforms ViVi into an android, removing her from Eden in the process.

Meanwhile, Chuu and Go Won land in OEC world, memories both wiped; Chuu is woken up by the presence of Haseul’s bird returning from Eden with Yeojin and Jinsoul. Chuu sets off to look for another yyxy member. As Yeojin is returned to Earth, Yves is taken back to Eden. My Melody shows Haseul celebrating Yeojin’s return, while My Sunday features Heejin and Hyunjin together (cough on a date). Meanwhile, Jinsoul tries to convince Olivia Hye to let go, but in her anger, Olivia Hye erases Jinsoul’s memories of having an ODD eye, keeping the ability locked away and plunging the world into black and white. As Egoist ends, Olivia Hye is found by Heejin, who consoles her and helps her return to Eden at the cost of her memories. Before she returns however, Olivia Hye offers Heejin a colour buried deep inside of her: bright pink.

And the cycle begins again: OEC look for their colours, ViVi tries to become human, 1/3 finds their place in the world, Yves feels weary of Olivia Hye, and yyxy feels the urge to leave Eden.

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So how does LOONA unite?

Well, they unite by breaking free from the loop, so eventually memories don’t get erased.

In the Hi High (1/3) version (where Hi High takes place within OEC), Egoist doesn’t happen because before Olivia Hye goes on her rampage, Jinsoul (and the rest of OEC) give her a way to Earth, where Yves is surprised but gladly welcomes her. ViVi stays human and keeps the knowledge of how to go beyond. My Melody changes to take place during Hi High, where Haseul and Yeojin retain what they learnt in Let Me In and Eden respectively. Chuu and Go Won thank Hyunjin by offering her their yellow (since orange and green contain that colour) to her, letting her find and rejoin OEC. Kim Lip finds Heejin by sensing her colour, and together LOONA soar into the sky.

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