I’m going to be returning to the military soon. As I’m unsure of my future posting (hopefully it’s an admin job due to my physical condition), I might not be able to update this blog often, which means that I might take even longer than usual to post my analysis. I’m truly sorry about that; but it can be quite draining to do them sometimes and I have a bad habit of procrastinating. Life is also going to be more packed (transitioning back to military life, catching up with friends, re-building my fitness etc.) so I might be inactive from this blog for a while, especially during the LOONA droughts. I seek your understanding on this !!
Also I’ve corrected an error in my analysis about ViVi. Her cassette tape is NOT BROKEN, the “cracks” are actually tree branches (as seen from this image). This means that EILY, an MV constructed from ViVi’s memories, is in no way flawed. Luckily, this does not affect anything else.
Lastly, I’m working on a massive Kim Lip theory. It’s probably going to be the only comprehensive theory on the Internet that you can find about her. Unfortunately, as Lip does not appear in many MVs, I’m not confident enough to present the theory yet as most of it is speculation. *Hopefully* there is more of Lip in the next comeback to add more credit to my theory !!
It’s time to explain the OT12 MVs !! I felt that I needed to post this because Butterfly just felt so... dry. Looking at my analysis also doesn’t portray how I see these 2 MVs in the context of the lore, since it often just points out similar themes. I believe that all of the MVs tell a story, and it’s therefore my job to try and weave a story for all of you. So far, the OT12 MVs doesn’t fit any of the story arcs that I’ve proposed for each sub-unit, which is why I have to explain them individually. I’m feeling lazy and so I’m not going to cite my evidence, hence if you don’t understand what I mean, you’ll need to refer back to the MVs.
Hi High
I find this a rogue MV amongst all of the MVs released thus far. I call it “rogue” because the events occurring in it are the complete opposite of what has been observed in each sub-unit’s arc.
1/3 was schoolmates in Love&Live. YeoJin was lost in a forest
HeeJin and HyunJin, who are supposedly best friends in the lore as well, are found at different places by Kim Lip and Choerry respectively
HaSeul is mysteriously with YeoJin in a grassland (not a forest). If you follow my theory about YeoJin being lost in Eden, this means that YeoJin wasn’t lost after all
ViVi is the only member wearing the school tracksuit. In Idol Radio, ViVi said that she became a human after running out of battery. However, she is only shown to be running throughout the MV, which likely means that she is still an android and hasn’t run out of battery
OEC was reunited in Girl Front
JinSoul was missing throughout the MV. Lip and Choerry clearly agreed to split up and find the other LOONA members, but JinSoul is not with them, nor is she trying to find a LOONA member
yyxy was planning to defy Eden in love4eva. Olivia was not invited
Olivia was at the top of the structure looking down at Yves, who was smiling at her. Contrast this to Egoist, where Yves was looking down at Olivia with contempt (after letting go of her hand)
Olivia was having fun with the other yyxy members, even though it was very clear that they did not want to hang out with her in love4eva
Chuu and Go Won walked out of a forest, which could be the same forest in love4eva. I’m inclined to believe that they haven’t defied Eden. On the other hand, I think Olivia was the one who defied Eden first, like Yves did in the yyxy storyline. The setting where she met OEC felt like OEC’s world, with the black background portraying space and the light on the floor portraying a nebula / galaxy. Afterwards, she was transported back to Eden. If that is true, it means that the destination after defying Eden has been changed too (to OEC’s world)
What does this mean? This could mean that Hi High was something that didn’t happen as the teaser of [X X] showed everything in Hi High playing in reverse / getting re-winded. This could also mean that there could be a possible mirror dimension, where everything occurs in the opposite manner. The former is likelier the case, but I’m not dismissing the latter simply because Jaden Jeong has proved to be very capable of handling complexity.
Butterfly
The most important element in this MV are the non-LOONA girls. They represent these girls, although I’m not sure how this will play out in the future. There are tons of references but no actual plot to the MV. The teasers also seem unrelated to the MV. Things to take note would be to remember and spot if these non-LOONA girls continue to appear in MVs. Also, the teasers and MV indicate the start of a yyxy-centric arc (+ HaSeul + Kim Lip too??). Hopefully, the next comeback will have more content for me to work with.
A lyrical analysis of Colors, a track in the [X X] album
Translation taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGxLAh-1xTY
Lyrics:
“Tell me your taste
I cannot take my eyes off the purple colour” – HyunJin’s lines could be referring to Choerry
“As if it were something
Reflections in the mirror” – Choerry’s lines could be referring to her mirror image, HyunJin
“I will find you” – JinSoul’s lines could be referring to her finding YeoJin, who is lost in a forest
“Draw a deeper hue of blue” – Go Won’s line could be referring to JinSoul
“Look at me
Look at my heart” – JinSoul’s response to Go Won’s line above
“Colour me some more
You and I” – Yves’s lines could be directed to Chuu
“As if it were already fated” – Chuu’s response to Yves’s lines above
“Even if you do not know – HeeJin
You are like a magnet – ViVi
Pull me – HeeJin” – These lines could be referring to HeeJin finding ViVi
“Redly – HaSeul
Hotly – Kim Lip
My heart is like this perhaps – HaSeul
Is this love? – HaSeul and Kim Lip” – These lines could be referring to HaSeul’s and Kim Lip’s relationship
“I go I go I go I go I go I go – YeoJin
I go I go I go I go I go I go - ViVi” – This line could be referring to YeoJin disappearing into the forest, and ViVi leaving 1/3
Pairings (these pairs sing throughout most of the song, with a few exceptions):
[00:09] Cut of a vehicle driving along a road in the desert, ++ in a white circle while a blue butterfly flies around, the camera zooming in into a girl that is looking out of an overhead bridge, a white butterfly, an image of a girl with XX and then ++ in black covered across her eyes
The vehicle driving along the road in the desert could be the yellow truck in Girl Front
The girl on the edge of the platform could be a reference to Olivia Hye in Hi High
[00:13] Static, then cut of a butterfly that is burning, with 4 white butterflies at the 4 corners of the burning butterfly
Blue, purple and red(?) light can be faintly seen beside the burning butterfly (OEC)
[00:18] Cut of girls in school uniforms running up the stairs and an image of a class taken in the basketball court
The background looks extremely similar to the basketball court in Love&Live / You and Me Together
[00:21] The girls lie on the ground in a position similar to the foetal position, with some being in close proximity to others, while the scene turns red
The girls lying on the ground, with some in pairs and triplets
[00:26] The camera zooms in to a girl holding a plastic bag filled with water and a fish in it, while she stares at the goldfish swimming in the glass tanks
The girl holding the plastic bag with a fish could be a reference to JinSoul in Singing in the Rain
[00:27] Cut of Olivia wearing a choker and looking around while near a spiral staircase, Go Won wearing a jacket
Olivia is still wearing a choker, which means XIIIX has not occurred yet
Go Won wearing a jacket could be the Go Won that is lying on the ground in XIIX
[00:29] Something heavy drops to the ground, creating dust and many blue butterflies start flying about
[00:30] The screen splits into half, horizontally
The top half and bottom half of the screen is not connected when it is split
Other observations / Unanswered questions:
The burning butterfly could be a reference to Olivia burning things in Egoist
The burnt papers could also be a reference to Olivia burning things in Egoist
XIIIX is the last of 4 teasers released before Butterfly. It may or may not be linked directly to Butterfly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vQNdHx4wMM
Visual symbols:
[00:34] Yves is dancing in the middle of an intersection in the street with the words “Illusion Hairdress” behind her
The sign behind Yves could be linked to the change in hairstyles / hair colours amongst the other LOONA members, and could mean that they are illusions
[00:42] Chuu is wearing a jacket with “STANDARD” on it and is walking in an alley in a monochrome scene
I’m not too sure about its symbolism
[00:46] Cut of a monochrome scene of the back view of someone looking at the sun and turning slightly to the right
The monochrome scene could be a reference to Sweet Crazy Love / X1X
I already did !! I’m not sure if you guys have seen it yet but it’s released along with the analysis for X1X and XIIX. Tumblr has been quite buggy for me lately; I hope that the same does not happen to y’all !!
X1X is the first of 4 teasers released before Butterfly. It may or may not be linked directly to Butterfly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEaZHQdWLEU
Visual symbols:
[00:10] A flash of orange light and a cut of YeoJin looking at the camera and partially covering her left eye
[00:12] A flash of purple light and a cut of Choerry looking at the camera and right eye is covered by her hair
YeoJin and Choerry are the only members to have a flash of light in their colour
[00:15] Cut of JinSoul looking at the camera and placing her hand near her left eye coming into focus after a series of blur frames
The blur frames in JinSoul’s cut could be a reference to Sweet Crazy Love
[00:24] Cut of Chuu turning to the right to face the camera, with white particles surrounding her
The white particles could be a reference to the snow in Heart Attack
[00:28] Cut of Go Won with a white butterfly at her mouth twice
I’m not too sure about its symbolism
[00:31] Cut of Go Won hugging herself and turning to look away from the camera while in a pose similar to Kim Lip’s
The similar pose by Kim Lip and Go Won could be a reference to One&Only (Go Won’s red veil)
[00:33] Cut of a butterfly on Go Won’s back
The white butterfly is positioned such that Go Won looks like she has grown butterfly wings
Other observations:
Olivia, ViVi and HaSeul are the only members that did not look at the camera. This is similar to Chuu not looking at the camera in youth youth by young
YeoJin, JinSoul and ViVi appear to try to cover their left eye
Kim Lip’s and Choerry’s right eye is not visible at all
In Butterfly, LOONA sing about overcoming obstacles and being flying free like a butterfly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEOCbFJjRw0
Visual symbols:
[00:20] Cut of a girl wearing a hijab holding a pair of Converse sneakers
The girl with the hijab could be a reference to any LOONA member as they wear their Converse sneakers in Hi High
Alternatively, the girl with the hijab could be a reference to any OEC member / Yves
[01:21] Cut of a girl dancing on an overhead bridge
[00:22] Cut of red light illuminating a girl holding a cassette tape
The girl dancing on an overhead bridge is the girl holding a cassette tape and could be a reference to Kim Lip
[02:06] The girl with the jacket is holding herself in an alley
[02:38] Cut of a girl walking out from a tunnel while removing her jacket and throwing it aside once she is out
The girl with the jacket could be a reference to Go Won in One&Only
[02:28] The girl wearing a school uniform is looking at the sky from within a building in the day
The girl looking at the sky could be a reference to Olivia in Egoist
[02:34] Cut of a girl dancing under a bridge is suddenly blurred
The girl dancing under the bridge could be a reference to Olivia
The blur could be a reference to what happened to JinSoul in Sweet Crazy Love
[02:43] Cut of a girl biting a red apple
The girl that bit a red apple could be a reference to Go Won
[02:45] Cut of a girl putting down her camera to look at something
The girl holding a camera could be a reference to Chuu
[02:47] Cut of a girl dropping an apple from a building
The girl that dropped an apple from a building could be a reference to Yves
[03:30] Cut of a girl with white hair sitting in a forest with red apples fallen on the ground beside her
The girl with white hair could be a reference to HaSeul
[03:32] Cut of 3 girls wearing eyepatches, with 2 of them using it to cover their left eye and the other using it to cover her right eye
The 3 girls wearing eye patches could be a reference to OEC
[03:45] Cut of a girl dancing on a road in the desert, followed by a cut of Kim Lip
The desert could be the same desert in Girl Front
The girl dancing in the desert could be a reference to Kim Lip
[03:53] Cut of a girl with a bandaged ankle swinging her crutch like a golf club while standing on a taxi, followed by a cut of Yves
The girl swinging the crutch like a golf club could be a reference to Yves
[03:56] Cut of water splashing
The water splashing could be a reference to Singing in the Rain
[04:02] Cut of the girl in the desert, the girl with the hijab, the girl with the jacket and the girl dancing under the bridge running
The girls representing Kim Lip, Go Won and Olivia are going somewhere
Interpretations:
Each girls represents a LOONA member
Some LOONA members have 2 girls representing them as it has been revealed that there are 2 of them (e.g. Go Won (XIIX) and Olivia Hye (Egoist))
Other observations / Unanswered questions:
HaSeul’s hair is cut short
ViVi’s hair is dyed orange
Kim Lip has red highlights on one side, at the end of her hair and white highlights on the other side
Choerry’s hair is purple
Olivia has blue highlights on the ends of her hair
Yves is the only member that has 2 girls representing her and it has not been revealed that there are 2 Yveses yet
“ODD EYE CIRCLE was born at the opposite end [of 1/3].”
What does this mean?
“With the story of three moons gathering to form a full circle, Kim Lip, JinSoul, and Choerry decide to stand at the frontlines to save the world, under their slogan ‘Girl Front.’”
What is OEC saving the world from?
“The intro track ‘X X’ foreshadows that the album is completed at the opposite side of where [+ +] is.”
This could be a reference to the difference in both MVs, as Hi High featured members of LOONA while Butterfly featured strangers that bear resemblance to certain LOONA members
“‘Colors’ has the LOOΠΔ universe dissolved into the track, desiring for each other’s colors and dye each other to become love portrayed with a drop beat.”
Refer to my analysis of Colors for more !!
“LOOΠΔ collides fate into destiny to create coincidence.”
I’m terribly sorry for not updating this blog despite posting a month back that I’ve started on analysing Butterfly. Part of the reason why was because the LOONA drought hit me quite hard and I temporarily lost interest and I apologize for that. It’s great that the girls can take time to rest (especially dear HaSeul !!) and recharge for a potentially gruelling and packed schedule from their next comeback onwards.
Aside from that, another reason why I was hesitant on updating was because I felt a disconnect between the teasers and Butterfly. I’m not entirely sure how the teasers fit into the current lore that we know of, hence I’m not confident in presenting their analysis without getting people confused. With that said, I’ll deviate from the usual order in which I post (which is based on the release dates of the videos) for this era because there is a lot of new (unexplained) content in this era. I hope that the order will help to indicate what you should expect from LOONA, lore-wise, for the next comeback. Additionally, I will also do a lyrical analysis of Colors, which apparently contains hints about the LOONAVERSE.
Just to add on to that last point, you might have noticed that I have not done any lyrical analysis for any of their songs thus far. In fact, I’ve even skipped analysing favOriTe. The thing is, I’m not a fan of subjectivity. I like my storyline to be clean and coherent. Interpreting these lyrics is far more subjective than interpreting the symbols in the MVs. On the same note, I don’t clearly know if favOriTe is even considered part of the LOONAVERSE (although I believe that it is; considering that BBC made an MV for it). Anyway, I do have a master document detailing all of my work thus far. Inside it contains a lyrical analysis of almost all the MVs (with the exception of Butterfly if I remember correctly) as well as an analysis of favOriTe. Are you guys interested in them? If so, I’ll post them separately another time
I just wanted to share that I’m really excited about potential developments that could occur within my interpretation of the LOONAVERSE
I did a thorough analysis of Butterfly and I think I’ve found a new way to look at the MV (asides from the everyone-is-a-part-of-LOONA view). There are actually many hidden references to the LOONAVERSE in plain sight and I feel that the purpose of this MV would be to help catalyze future growth in the story within the LOONAVERSE because there are links to many other MVs through recurrent symbols and there are some irregularities that I’ve picked up (and I hope will be addressed in the next comeback thanks BBC !!)
Do wait for the release of the analysis once it’s ready !!
Oh and I’ve checked and edited a bit of information. The plushies that Yves picked from the claw machine is a frog and a penguin an owl. I have no idea how this is gonna play out in the future considering that they keep neglecting Lip’s storyline now but just keep that in mind !! It has no effect on my interpretation so no worries though
Spoiler: I have a feeling yyxy’s already complicated storyline is going to get even more love in the next comeback :)
I can’t believe this blog has more than 50 followers now WOW. In case you are unaware, I have been taking a hiatus as I’m currently serving in the military. However, I’m currently on a long-term medical leave and am awaiting a medical review, which is why I have the time to come back here
Anyway, some thoughts about LOONA !! It’s a shame that they didn’t get to win their first music show award with Butterfly, given that a lot of unfortunate incidents happened to them. Personally, I still preferred Hi High over this as I just don’t really like KPOP songs that are based around their EDM / choreography, although I loved the synchronization during the dance breaks at the chorus. The message behind it is wonderful though !!
As for the LOONAVERSE theories, I might spend some time to work on the content I have in [X X] and [#]. I’m not confident that I can produce much after skimming through the teasers and MV of [X X] / Butterfly, and I hope that [#] (and maybe, LOONA the ballad?) will give me more stuff to work with. It has also been at least 3 months since I last updated this blog and it’ll take some time for me to familiarise myself with my theories again HAHA but I’ll try my best to post a little to keep you guys interested (and updated) with my theories !!
P.S. I realized that a lot of theory speculation by Orbits happen mostly on Twitter and not tumblr. I guess I could join in the conversation there but everything will be so messy HAHA I kinda wish more people would use this platform sometimes
I’m back !! I was inactive from tumblr for the past week as I was spending time with my friends and studying some Korean. Just in case you’re wondering, I’ve graduated late last year after finishing my A-levels and I’m currently waiting for my results to be released. As such, I’m studying Korean to pass time productively and it helps reduce my reliance on English subtitles whenever I’m watching a show HAHA. Also, Korean is quite similar to Mandarin (which I am a fluent speaker in) and I believe I can be proficient in it in a few years !!
Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be able to churn out an analysis of LOONA’s comeback quickly after it is released on 31st Jan. Chinese New Year occurs the week after and I’ll be busy celebrating it (it’s technically 15 days long but most of the festivities occur from the eve to the 5th day). In the following week after that, I’m going to be conscripted into the military. I could try to post it within 3 days after the comeback drops if there’s nothing much to it but realistically that most likely won’t be the case. Which means my analysis will probably be posted 3 weeks after and I’m really sorry about that T_T
It’s time for me to give some credit to a few people who have given me inspiration in coming out with these theories. Out of the many theories I have read, their ideas have been adapted into my work and hope you guys can check them out !! Of course, their interpretations differ greatly from mine and I hope it exposes you to various perspectives. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how you want to view the LOONAVERSE.
Thanks to:
K-POP Nine (Blogger): Trains being the possible way to enter Eden
