A Gem!

🎀Mizuena 💔

my theory: Sua’s hair length is symbolic for how emotionally close she feels to Mizi. the longer Sua’s hair is, the closer she feels to Mizi.

in alnst, Sua’s hair was long during mizisua’s very early friendship in childhood. for most of the time Sua had short hair, she was hiding what she knew of the aliens and the alien stage from Mizi, as well as Sua’s plan to die in round 1. in a way, Sua wasn’t emotionally honest to Mizi and thus no longer “close” to Mizi as they grew up. in the end, alnst Sua died with short hair because even until her final moments, she could not bear to reveal her biggest secret to Mizi, essentially never becoming close to Mizi again even in death.

in zomst, Sua had long hair as a child when she was close friends with Mizi. subsequently, for most of the time young adult Sua was shown with short hair, she had grown increasingly apart from Mizi. after joining the zombie stage, Sua’s hair grew out again, when she could be by Mizi’s side again. even if that closeness was presumedly one sided, Sua was able to feel emotionally close to Mizi again.

now i know there are holes in this theory, such as how to explain Sua’s short hair for most of her life training alongside Mizi when they were presumedly still close. but this is how far my brain can take me for now and i just had to get the thought process out. now watch me get it all wrong in record time /lh

I really loved Zombie stage and couldn’t help but draw them!! I loved the animation and the entire first episode. I loved how it showed how Toxic these two are properly and I can’t wait to watch the rest!

ivantill's 'first glance' is a scene we see in r6 as a transition between till and ivan's part of the song. it places them on the same level, and then immediately separates them again as the video continues.

there is a lot to be said about this scene, but a popular sentiment i don't understand is that there is eye contact in this scene. in fear of sounding like tiktok, till is not looking at ivan in this scene. he probably sees him in the crowd, but there is no special moment of connection. ivan sees him out of the corner of his eye - there's nothing special on his end either. this is a moment that neither of them remember.

i feel this mundanity is the point. it's contrasted directly with mizisua's 'first glance', where they immediately find interest in each other through their visual difference, ie, mizi sees a valued but fragile girl, and sua sees a valued but animated girl - their antithesis. additionally, this works towards the aesthetics of the tale they've spun around themselves, that everything that happens was fated from the beginning. (they ascribe their helplessness to fate in order to control it, in a sense. but this is not what this post is about.)

similarly, as children, mizisua and ivantill look at each other from two sides of a glass. but where mizisua express a desire to erase this boundary, there is nothing about ivantill that draws them to each other at first glance. this contrast is important.

it's even expressed through the setting of these scenes. mizisua are caught in the expanse of space - it's romantic and fantastical. ivantill are being sold in a shop - they are exposed to their reality of cruelty without romanticisation. (both of these scenes expose how humans are exploited in the alnst world, but for a second in mizisua, it's obfuscated.)

broadly, ivantill's first glance positions them in a similar but contrasting place. till is restrained and caged in glass. ivan is outside the glass, but he is not free either. this is one of the themes that is integral to both characters - freedom, and later, rebellion.

it also exposes their pasts, and how they have diverged despite being at the same place at this very specific point in time. till was birthed in a human editing shop (domesticated) and ivan came from the slums (wild). till is discounted, and ivan is bought by the highest bidder. as subversion, till is the violent one, and ivan is the subdued one. as further subversion, till keeps to himself, while ivan is a troublemaker. they are opposites in every conceivable way - two sides of the same coin.

or

“moral quandary of fully understanding how disgusting the former experience was that any personal interest in the sexualized image of a woman leads you to wonder if you’re like those same men and are directly contributing to the cycle of objectification” other daughter (Hyuna)

All is to say wasn’t expecting this season to start off real close to home to such personal horrors lol

in the art school au art, luka and till are the only two characters without hearts as pupils. while both of them are very much in love like the rest of the cast (they are still heartstruck), they differ because their relationship with love itself is tenuous.

for luka it's obvious. in sacred light, he begs a dead woman to teach him the meaning of love. he has never been shown love, so he doesn't understand unburdened affection. in his floriography bio, he is represented by the purple rose, an uneasy love. he reads books to try understand the concept of it, and fails. alnst argues that love is a human concept: without any peers, luka is doomed to struggle alone, loveless.

till's insecure love is driven by his fear of abandonment. he loves his own constructed fantasy of mizi, and remains ignorant of his love for ivan - he must not be vulnerable. mi vida loca conveys this paradoxical struggle: he wishes desperately to love and be loved, but he remains too terrified of it despite declaring it as his driving conviction.

while alnst presents that love without hurt doesn't exist, lukatill stand out because they remain blind to the harm they cause.

it is no coincidence that the object of their outward affections are women - this is illustrated by ruler of my heart. in the song, the female muse is reduced to an object that simultaneously represents a man's strength and weakness - the strength required of possession, and the weakness of the heart. they do not afford women humanity or autonomy: they are accessories, and as muse, they are tools to power. they can present the aesthetics of pitifulness (hyuna's jaded cover; mizi suppressed into harmonies), but there is no pity extended to them. lukatill's versions are also the only ones that feature the catcall whistle at the beginning, ie, a signifier of misogynistic violence.

hand - love as possession. empty hand - unfulfilled love. therefore, heartless - loveless.

this is an example of the end result of when emotional immaturity is afforded to men. it is no disadvantage to them to be unlikable to their peers, and so they are not punished for not being empathetic, rather, it's even an expectation of masculinity that they aren't. this enables their disregard of others - luka's disgust for his clones, and other humans by extension; till's deliberate ignorance of everyone but himself. both of these act as self preserving measures, and for it, they make it to the final round of alien stage.

to succeed in a system you have to embody its values. they are the ideal competitors alien stage breeds: they possess an equal amount of talent for art and drive to survival. this exceptionality is cultivated at the cost of the lives and humanity of others. misogyny is only the first and most universal building block of the dehumanisation required when survival means dominance. the woman is love, emotion, weakness; the man must be strength, possessor, heartlessness.