1. oH MY god i just woke up and read the comic and went "i need to see kurov's take on this" and scrolled ur blog,, how r we feelingg
2. kinda related but i saw ur tag on how the csa is more obvious with other characters than sua and i'm sure u were referring mostly to till (or ivan tbh) but it reminded me of how i've seen a lot of ppl reference a specific art of luka that heavily implies he dealt w sexual abuse (by hepuru most likely) and i've been searching for it but HAVEN'T FOUND IT. i mean i have plenty of evidence to have it in my belief system already but i was wondering if u would happen to know what art that would be,,
AA I'm so flattered you thought to ask me!! I have a lot of thoughts but I'll get to the second point first.
I was mainly referring to Till + Ivan but on second thought I'm unsure if we can count Till's as csa considering the start of his sexual abuse is kind of ambigious? I might be forgetting something here. I do read the karaoke scene to imply that it has happened before, but the canon basis for it is fickle. Ivan I definitely read as having gone through CSA because of the lyrics of Nowhere though. For Luka/Heperu, there's quite a few illusts/comics that make me think of CSA but I'm not sure if I could point to one specifically? Here are my guesses
TL by whatafruit
First one because it shows how touchy Heperu is while also highlighting their strength disparity, second one honestly for... vibes?? Obv that second one has a lot of other things to unpack besides that, but your post comparing it to the Karaoke scene Till did things to my perception of it LOL. Like you said though, there's already a lot of implications of CSA with Luka, I'm just not sure I could point to One in particular.
Under the cut for the first one! [Warning, some stuff I say may read as bashing zombie stage]
AUGH I HAVE A LOT OF THINGS TO SAY BUT I'LL BE HONEST, NOT A LOT OF GOOD ONES...
First of all, we have never gotten this explicit of a dialogue from Sua before. She went from haunting the narrative in Alien Stage to straight up Narrating in Zombie Stage. One thing I love about this is that Zombie Stage seems to be flipping the narrative by putting us in the shoes of the dead characters more often than the survivors of Alien Stage. Zomst Round1 looks like it's Mizi centric because of, well, how much of the video is spent looking at her body, but at the end of the day we focus SO MUCH on how that impacts Sua. We see her act and react so much more than we did in Alien Stage, and especially more than we did in ALNST Round1. I think the teaser showing Hyuna focus and the last clip being Ivan implies that the dead trio are going to have more agency or at least more of their inner worlds explored this time. In any case, Sua really needed it. THAT BEING SAID, I don't think I like the way we're doing Sua in this comic...
Murder-kill mentioned in the replies to this post that the more direct approach to the dialogue may be because the story was so misinterpreted by the fandom in its first run, but that's honestly really depressing in my opinion. I want to assume that that is not the case when I analise it
In the replies of that same post both lazybiird and I have talked about it a bit already, but I really think that this creates a bit of a plothole. Not that the characters are OOC, but I can't imagine how they're going to rectify this argument.
Sua is being manipulative here. Mizi offers to pay her financially for a place to stay (very normal) and Sua offers that the payment for Mizi's stay be to remain being the person Sua "really likes".
This is in character, this is the same exact Sua who would sacrifice herself for Mizi in ALNST. This is the same character that worked So Hard to keep Mizi in the image of innocence that she loved. But it's also a terrible offense for Mizi. In ALNST, Mizi
Needed the sacrifice more (She needed to win the round more than she needs a room)
Could suspend her disbelief enough to ignore Sua's behaviour (In this version, Sua verbalises it directly and it's acknowledged by Mizi as soon as it happens)
Was in an enclosed space in which she already knew she didn't like anyone better than Sua (in Zomst she's obviously not living in a place like Anakt Garden and can therefore make other friends. What's more is that even if she can't stop being friends with her because Sua's saviour complex works and she actually lends Mizi a room, Mizi could have ditched Sua entirely after becoming famous. Instead, they remain tethered together despite their arguments.)
Could purify Sua in her head more because her behaviour was self-sacrificial (This Sua doesn't seem to be losing anything by letting Mizi stay with her, and is in fact gaining a pet girlfriend.)
I think that during this argument, Mizi is in the right no matter how many layers of insecurity and mean words she puts it behind, calling Sua a pushover first, manipulative second, and calling herself a beggar (leech, parasite, negative connotations) first, pet (powerless, victim?) second. She's lashing out, but in no way is it uncalled for considering what Sua is saying/doing.
The physical thing they're arguing over here is that Mizi currently doesn't have the finance to support herself, and wants to rely on Sua until she does. Sua, by not asking for the money back, implies that she either doesn't trust Mizi to fulfill her goals, or doesn't want Mizi to fulfill her goals. Either way, she's looking down at Mizi from a place of privilege. She's the one with the money, and she wants to keep Mizi as a pet. Mizi's disturbed reaction is entirely justified.
This all makes sense, but the part that bothers me is that this argument should be detrimental if it didn't get resolved. It should ruin their friendship completely. And in the comic, it seems like it didn't get resolved. The scene ends with the kiss, and then we're back to their zombie selves, implying that that kiss has sealed their fate into being together here. But why? Mizi doesn't take the bait here, she doesn't hit Sua when Sua says "hit me instead" and then explains that that would make her understand Mizi's pain. Seemingly, Mizi has left this argument feeling patronised (pet) and stripped of her agency, only to have Sua then confirm the latter part by taking off her glasses (hindering her sight) and initiating a kiss.
One could say that the later kiss being so connected to this one, and that kiss having been what made Sua into a zombie, point to Sua having "shared Mizi's pain" here, but that's straight up not what the dialogue is saying, and it still doesn't let Mizi have a choice in the matter. I don't see why this Mizi wouldn't just fuck off the moment she could, and she certainly could after becoming an idol! Sua keeps this infantalising behaviour well into ther adulthood by taking away Mizi's cigarette like a chiding parent, I'm sure Mizi could have gotten sick of it any day now.
Idk, at the end of the day, Stageverse is a web series about toxic love, so of course I don't expect Mizi to hightail it as soon as Sua shows some toxicity, but honestly it was way more believable in Alien Stage than it was here. All of that being said, I should also mention that so far, I've been disappointed with the overly explicit nature of zomst in general, so obviously I had a bone to pick with this instance of Sua just laying her entire bare heart on the floor
