#techa talks

HIS MONITOR IS RED

HIS HEART IS BEATING FASTER THAN THE RHYTHM HE NORMALLY CONTROLS IT TO BE

and despite everything, she still knows him so well, still knows that he's going to do something reckless and stupid.

and despite everything, in the face of danger, she still runs to throw herself in front of him, to shield him with her own body.

and despite everything, he's still emotionally immature, still has the same blissful ignorance of a child, might have saw the risk of death and was still fixated on her.

and because of everything, they'll never get their happy ending in this universe.

it's generally agreed that alien stage can be interpreted as a metaphor for the kpop industry, and as someone who did tons of studying (because of my 3d fav) on how performances work in c-ent, i noticed some things on my nth rewatch of blink gone

meta-wise, the colors in the mv are green (to represent till) and purple (to represent luka). this combo works really well for the song, but is there an in-universe explanation to the lighting? yep:

take a look at the scoreboard. even in-universe, green represents till and purple represents luka. taking the idol theme more literally, we can also assume that these are their official colors. i went back to the TOP 3 video and well well well guess what appears during luka's part

the lightsticks, the projected neon signs, the same kind of mask (?), the stadium lights. we can reasonably assume that this purple is luka's official fan color and represents support for him.

and guess what color almost all of the crowd is repping during round 7 through lightsticks and masks?

that's right, overwhelmingly purple. don't forget that the winners of each round of alien stage are decided by live in-house voting, and audience members will always be biased towards who they're a fan of. remember that luka is insanely popular and already won a season, so his fanbase would be larger, more developed, and more devoted.

till was, for a lack of better words, cooked. he was doomed to lose from the start, because how can a few of his fans outvote the majority?

i've seen some people theorize that the result was rigged, and i completely disagree: you cannot fake support on this large of a scale. "oh, but the color of the lightsticks are controlled by the organizers" then explain the masks, a clear fandom symbol

also, from my experience in survival shows, vote counts in the final round are usually hidden until the results are announced, which explains the wobbliness of the scoreboard bars like they're inflatable tube men in front of a car or mattress dealership.

an alternative explanation to the lightsticks is that it represents the current vote, but i'm not inclined to believe this theory because, again, the masks. like real-life idol performances, i think that this is just a show of support from the audience.

back to the meta: mizi's appearance in the crowd is a reinvigoration of determination in till, and in terms of color, she is a break of bright green among the sea of purple. she not only stands out because she's someone he loves, she is visually a breath of fresh air for him.

do you think, in those last moments, he was not only happy to see her alive in front of him but to also see her wearing his color?

in this part where they're reaching out to each other, the pink-purple light that seems to be shining from mizi is representative of how she's a beacon of hope for till. in-universe, however, till is just moving towards the audience, the close proximity of the lightsticks illuminating his face with color.

mizi and till are surrounded by this vibrant purple, a symbol for luka. even with mizi's more pink-ish radiance, they are literally in his territory, at the mercy of the system that he has been through and learned to play along with.

the same can't be said about luka when he sees hyuna again:

the warmth of his fan color disappears, replaced by a colder indigo. the audience, his fans, the aliens that he knows how to use to keep himself alive mean nothing to him right now. it's this cold feeling of shock that makes him so unsure of how to react.

in this moment, he is no longer luka the performer, luka the idol, luka the twice winner of alien stage—he's just luka. he's vulnerable to emotion, an unfamiliar thing, and he's so painfully human.

luka: (sees hyuna) holy shit it's you... mizi: till is literally dying behind you luka: this ain't about him

another detail: these shots were never shown in the mv so i'm assuming they're taken by in-universe cameras (see the red flashes in the audience), especially because of the angle (downwards pointing perspective)

刘宇 · 《广寒宫》

twinkposting on main because i love this stage too much. also including the thumbnail because it's too cute to leave out

the bgm on this (source) is swapped to the og song, but here's a fancam with the live audio

刘宇 · 《怎叹》

[fancam source] // [official video]

怎叹呐山有木兮 那木有枝 心悦君兮啊君不知 可是前世与你错过太多事

[rehearsal fancam] // [another fancam]

he learned this in half an hour for a cctv performance and the little spin at 3:47 was improvised 🥹 he's so skilled at what he does and loves i'm crying

—to pink when he spots mizi in the crowd

and then of course we have luka going "wtf man i thought you were gay 🙄 anyways"

the fact that ji'ke is strong and bold despite the odds against her as an east asian woman with darker skin? the fact that she's still bright and cheerful and full of love? the fact that colorism doesn't stop her from being feminine and proud?

the fact that liu yu is ~174 cm and specializes in splits/flexibility? the fact that he's been dancing since he was 4 and was shaped to be in the performance arts? the fact that he's continued 21 years of dance despite chronic pain and health setbacks?

the fact that these two sung a duet about not being in the right time now but eventually having a dream-like future with each other?

hyuluka irl

also is luka still friends w hyuna in this au??? or hyunwoo??? I'm curious honestly since he still seems to be a little manipulative w the whole imitating sua gimmick,,, ANYWAY THANK YOU VERY MUCH I love ivlk and I love the hs au so this au is amazing to me

i'm so sorry this ask was from last year but it's been sitting in my drafts 😭 HELLO i've always had a thing for blonde x black haired rarepairs

as someone who did tournament debate, i've definitely wanted to throttle quite a few of my opponents and i'm glad mizi gets to experience it <3

i think a surprisingly good choice i made was that sua doesn't care about luka's behavior. obviously canon!sua would make him regret it, but aa!sua (as in anakt academy au) was kind of based off of my friend with schizoid pd; the only part she really cared about was miz, which is on brand for her

sua: you beat him up and got in trouble because you thought he was making a mockery of me? mizi: yes... 🥺 sua: aww honeyyy 🥺💞 luka, still with a black eye: i'm literally right here sua: mizi my love let's get boba

sua is also the vice captain of the school's math contest team, which luka is the captain of, so she already knows what he's like from watching him make other teams cry lmao

(by the way sua and luka in this au are the schizoid & schizotypal passive-aggressive solidarity i never knew i needed)

yep luka and the hyuns are still friends! albeit they're a little bit more distant/awkward now compared to their oblivious younger years

yknow that one friend who's definitely a flawed person but you still like having them around? that's kind of the dynamic hyuna has with luka, where she would be chill with him hanging out in her dorm room in silence but would refuse to let him talk to her new friends (mizi) (she heard that the two have already met fist to face)

hyunwoo and luka, on the other hand, completely ignore each other in public (sometimes they make awkward eye contact and immediately look away) but fall into a familiar dynamic when they're alone or with a few close friends

in this au hyunwoo and luka met first (and here i'm slipping in a tiny bit of unrequited lukawoo propaganda), and hyunwoo introduced him to his sister in hopes that they'd all be friends together. that clearly didn't work out and he kinda regrets letting luka get too close because they both have dirt on each other and their lives overlap too much

till: i saw golden bitch over there looking at you, do you two know each other? hyunwoo, slightly sweating: who? luka? nah luka, materializing behind him: remember that time we were in fifth grade and you ate mud because i told you it was chocolate flavored