the direction zombie stage is taking has me sooo geeked you don't understand. the aliens being a metaphor for the korean entertainment industry as a metaphor was always prevalent in the original alien stage, whether it be in the form of luka and till's human experimentation, or sua being pressured into maintaining her perfect doll-like image and visuals for mass appeal. however, in zombie stage, which projects real-life sensibilities onto the characters, its so interesting to see how many of the pairings are going to end up playing out.
for starters, the aliens in alnst value voices and singing capabilities more because they cannot sing themselves, coupled with the fact that they view humans as pets. sua, who played into this doll character for marketing, was very popular in alnst, even more so than mizi, being featured in a lot of the in-universe promo for the series. additionally, homosexuality isn't necessarily frowned upon, but bioessentialist beliefs are still perpetuated even amongst many of the human characters, a subject that mizi regards with disgust in the "true face" comic. lastly, rebellion is a huge driving force for the story and is heavily condemned, yet is often exploited for marketing, in the case of till, who is incredibly popular, albeit controversial.
in zombie stage however, mizi is the one who ends up being exploited for her body in the kpop industry, rather than sua. her treatment there draws comparisons to many actual kpop idols, in particular jeewon, formerly of cignature (who is now in latency so please go support her!!), who was heavily sexualized by c9 entertainment in music videos and festivals like waterbomb, which mizi as an idol is shown to be attending. her sexuality is also exploited for fanservice in zombie stage, kissing sua for the audience's (mostly grown men) gratification. i really appreciate how vivimeng wrote their dynamic in regard for the context of their upbringing.
now that we know how the characters will be approached however, i'm curious to see how certain alien stage dynamics will be approached in zombie stage. till is in no way a good match for the idol industry, but ivan and luka--who in-universe are the most popular contestants and are depicted being as idols in the school (albeit trainees) and actor aus--are. while the core of mizi and sua's dynamic stayed the same in zombie stage, the commentary about the weaponization of sex and sexuality to predatory audiences is exclusive to this au. this makes me wonder what kind of commentary that till and ivan as characters will encompass. a lot of mizi and sua's main conflicts were interpersonal in alien stage, whereas ivan and till's was more societal. this leads me to believe that ivantill will focus on the harshness of the inner workings of the industry itself, turning the conflict between both of their segyeins into the competition between entertainment industries, till's abuse (experimental and sexual) being turned into commentary on harsh training methods and company abuse, so on and so forth.
i have absolutely no way of knowing what will happen to hyuluka, other than luka being patient zero for the zombie breakout and hyuna happening to know him at some point. i do think hyuna is definitely going to be turned at some point by luka, but again, i have no idea of what will happen. luka may be commentary about how senior idols in the entertainment industry are often deemed too old and discarded for the next young actor, though i will admit that sentiment is usually applied to girls more often than boys so i digress.
either way i hope you enjoyed reading this mad ramble and let me know what you guys think! i would love to hear from y'all about where the story is going in your opinion!!
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