sua & hyuna: faith, god, and the great anakt
the concept of god is fundamental to alien stage. the segyein manufacture a deity called the great anakt to manage, control, and exploit human belief. in my clematis, sua and mizi ruminate on faith in god: "from the moment humanity left the universe, we all forgot about god. / but if belief in god is human, and all a human can do is believe [...]." although religion has changed from humanity's time on earth, their belief in a strength beyond their own enables them to overcome tragedy, hardship, and abuse. this faith must not (cannot?) be eradicted, as hope provides the psychological groundwork necessary for human beings to survive extreme conditions; however, it must be carefully managed and strategically harnessed, or else it has the capacity to disrupt segyein power.
in their preliminary interview, sua describes the great anakt as an entity that observes the children's talents. like God, the great anakt is all-powerful and omniscent, possessing the ability to surveil its subjects without condition or restraint. mizi remarks that failed alnst champions return to the great anakt, referencing the religious indoctrination the children underwent at the garden. this indoctrination soothes humans' fear of death, incentivizes contestants to perform well to remain worthy of anakt's salvation, and characterizes participation as a noble, honorable act.
God is approached by the cast in different ways. sua can't fully offload her fear of death onto mizi, so she uses faith to manage it. awaiting her performance on the stage ("standing on the edge of the cliff"), she prays for the strength to face her own death ("take away the small and weak me"). sua uses faith in the great anakt as a palliative measure against her fear of oblivion.
the only true reward for the obedient children of anakt is death, but sua can't accept that, which is why she maintains her faith into her last days. there must be an afterlife, a miracle, some kind of savior that will ferry her away from the void. sua uses god as a way to control her fear of death, in the same way she uses mizi. it is perfectly in line with sua's conformist personality to use faith to process (and eventually carry out) her fate.
hyuna shares a belief in god. unlike sua, however, whose obedience she prays will win her salvation, hyuna feels abandoned by god in the same way she is abandoned by her guardian. phan is mysterious even to other segyein, and fully engrossed in his academic pursuits. hyuna does not know or understand him; he is characterized to her only by his absence, which cultivates her hatred toward him and contributes to her feeling othered and alone.
neglected and abused by the authority figures in her life, hyuna thinks of herself as a deviant. in "drunk & party," she sings, "i'm a bone, i'm a sinner, i'm a broken devil / a ghost, a shadow destroying this heaven / you can make a silver bullet / but you can't stop me / 'cause i've got nothing to lose". here, hyuna positions herself against god: she is the sinner to the saint, the devil to the angel, the monster to the mortal. she is the "shadow destroying [...] heaven," a defiling force that shatters the order of segyein society through the cursed power of the deviant. she has nothing to lose by committing herself to this cause, not a lover she can rely on, nor a father, nor a brother, nor a god. god is characterized to hyuna only by his absence, and she uses it to fuel her way forward. it's not a healthy idea to have about yourself, but when has hyuna been anything but a beautiful, self-contradicting mess?
belief in god is harnessed by the segyein to manage human beings. however, this belief is appropriated by sua and hyuna in accordance with their upbringings, personalities, and goals. however, both sua and hyuna rely upon god for the strength to fulfill their destinies: sua in compliance with god, and hyuna in defiance of him.
