Personal sideblog, free from having to abide by the thought process of others. Minors can interact, but don't expect me to censor myself if you get offended by the content on this blog.
So something I wanna add to the fact we get another kiss....
When it was ALNST, everyone was going mad wanting to have this happen. Y'know who also would probably have wanted this for this universe?
FANS.
We as fans wanted it before, now we get it again from the start. But why is that?
We wanted it
What do the in-universe fans want?
The girls. We literally played into Vivinos' hand this time. Do you know how much sexual fansart is out there from the original ALNST for all three pairings?? Especially of MiziSua and IviTill? Don't get me wrong, I like my tasteful piece now and then, but that's exactly what's being toyed with in ZMBST. Mizi is sexualized from the start, something we all did ourselves for the original universe. Not only is Vivinos portraying the darkness of the kpop industry, they're shoving our own darkness back at us.
i recently spoke to someone who was wondering if mizi was wearing something on her face in zombie stage. they cited the weirdly perfect/specific heart shape as a reason why they thought it had to be a visor of some kind. i disagree with this for practical reasons—that absolutely is her face, you can see the rot around her mouth feeding into it—but the specific shape is definitely still odd. after thinking on it, my interpretation of it has turned out to be this:
making the rot where mizi’s eyes used to be heart-shaped is an extremely important symbolic design choice that does not need to make logical sense.
actual analysis of this choice below:
throughout the video, mizi’s eyes are more or less the only window into how she’s actually feeling, especially when she’s doing her idol work.
just like her agency was taken from her in life with all the fanservice she was made to do, it was also taken from her in death with the removal of her eyes, the only thing that showed her emotions for what they really were. the one thing that would have given a hint to her being unsatisfied is removed to further the image of “perfect idol mizi”, even when she’s a singing, dancing corpse.
this alone is pretty horrifying and that’s an understatement. but the character design choice to put a heart where mizi’s eyes used to be is just as important as the decision to remove them at all. it holds similar meaning.
i’m sure i don’t have to point out that hearts generally equate to love, especially in a nearly entirely visual piece of media. the placement of the heart over the eyes, though, takes mizi’s agency away from her yet another time. the expressions “heart eyes” and “look of love” are relevant here. figuratively, when she still has her eyes, we see mizi give this to sua.
in the second photo, if you look quickly or from a distance, it even looks like the highlights in her eyes are heart-shaped. this is mizi looking at someone she genuinely loves, with figurative “heart eyes” that portray her truest emotions, just as they do in the rest of the video.
then mizi is bitten and infected. her eyes are removed and auctioned off. and where they used to be, she’s left with…
…literal heart eyes. and this time, when she’s barely even mizi anymore, she doesn’t get to give them to sua like she would have chosen to. no, whoever’s behind zombie stage chooses who she directs them to now.
so, who’s getting the “look of love” from mizi as she is currently?
the group of people she was sexualized and sold to, the group of people for whom she’s been exploited at every turn in both life and death, the group of people we know she hates doing this for more than anything—her adoring fans.
being marketed to this exact kind of audience forced all of mizi’s control over her life away from her, ruined her mental state, and even ended up destroying her relationship with sua by extension. and now, she’s a zombie being made to sing and dance for them forever, and to look at them with the same “heart eyes” that were only meant to be for sua. this kind of marketing works best when the fans can develop a parasocial relationship with the idol, after all, believing that they love you just as much as you love them. putting a heart where mizi’s eyes once were forces her back into the same position she was in in life, performing for men and playing to their preferences. only this time, there’s no way for her true feelings to peek through anymore. all that’s left is—
—that “look of love”.
now, this could all still be true and valid analysis even if that heart shape were a visor or covering of some sort. but i personally believe the point about mizi’s agency being taken from her becomes much weaker if the shape is a removable object. it’s important that this is her true face (haha. get it?) and not a visor because this is no longer the mizi we know. we can see it in her unresponsiveness to sua, how she barely knows she’s performing with someone else at all, how her focus is singlemindedly on giving her loyal and loving audience the performance they deserve. that’s common knowledge at this point, sure, but if this shape is a visor, it undercuts the severity of that. our mizi would never look at this audience that way, not when they’re getting enjoyment out of her exploitation, out of sua’s exploitation. if that heart is something she (or anyone, really) can just take off, it creates an implication that she can go back to being our mizi. that she can stop looking at the audience that way, that she can stop being “perfect idol mizi”.
and she can’t. she couldn’t in life, she can’t in death.
making the heart removable in any way gives mizi some of her agency back. and we can’t have that. not when perfect idol mizi sells so well and makes the audience so happy! she can’t go back.
the new VIVINOS video is out and before I lose it about my girlies I wanna take a second to talk about the message in itself.
the metaphors in the AU this time around are really really great. The way idols "rot" the longer they stay in the industry and (literally) lose parts of themselves along the way, which instead of being mourned for it's only treated as another piece of merchandise. They're literally walking dead because it kills them from inside out and, at some point, they become "zombies" with no life or will of their own anymore.
Even in death they're no different than objects. Their existence is solely to serve as entertainment for others and will receive no respect whatsoever until the very end.
You actually see this happening irl when idols pass away (especially when it's suicide) where the company will milk the hell out of the tragedy for attention, selling out the "last memory" aka merch that idol left behind and people will eat it up without actually taking a moment to think that an actual human being lost their life.
VIVINOS is really good at bringing up and developing themes that others are too scared of and they do it in a way that actually makes you take the time to stop and pay attention to the real meaning of the video. It's just so awesome, I have no more words. Absolutely masterpiece I can't wait for more.
I absolutely loath the fact that tribal casinos can get away with practically whatever they fucking want...
My workplace has fucking mold. Graveyard shift did a fucking mold kit they got online and it came back with white, black, and pink splatter molds. It's caused by the shitty wall mounted AC unit they put in our room.
I, as someone with asthma, a history of getting sick with bronchitis and pneumonia throughout my life, have tachycardia issues that require medication, and anemia, literally am having all of those issues exacerbated by the spores that are coming from the damn AC unit.
But I went to my doctor to get X-rays. I want to make sure my health isn't compromised. They send off a note wanting me to not be in the room due to the mold.
HR? Hah, fuck me. I'm allowed to work literally all day and get pulled in only an hour before I was supposed to get off. I get told that if my doctor doesn't want me in the room then I can't work. I get talked to with the tone of a parent scolding a child for having gone to my doctor over a mold kit that was bought on Amazon, get told that grave shift is not qualified to even be doing a mold test of the room, get told how they can't even prove that the mold is actually from the room due to that because if they aren't qualified to do the mold test then how do we know they didn't fuck it up and contaminate the petrie dishes, and that I'm not allowed to return until we get the results of the X-rays. I also get told that if the doctor wants me to have accomodations and they can't meet them, then due to having taken the allocated 13 weeks of FMLA during Jan-March of 2025 for my mental health that any leave of absence over this mold situation will get denied and that they can't guarantee to hold my job position.
I legit was worried for my health and got told I could lose my job for it.
And because it's tribal casino, it's THEIR land. State laws don't apply. Only a select few federal laws and guidelines have to be followed. Outside of that, the tribe gets to make the rules.
I fucking hate this. I hate that they can just pull this type of bullshit.
