Alien Stage Theory - Blog Posts

honeybeetlejuice

3 weeks ago

Each alien stage character might have an instrument that symbolizes them in the instrumentals (theory below)

credits to my friend @chuuburar1n for adding some points and also helping me figure out what instruments are in some songs ^^

Basically to start, in each song with a character, an instrument is present for them, and that instrument goes in and out to fit the music. More on that later, but let me list them real quickly. I'll elaborate on each, dw!

Mizi - Piano

Sua - Violin

Till - Electric Guitar

Ivan - Drums (all songs have, but more prominent in his songs)

Luka - Violin, but instrument changes when mimicking

Hyuna - No set instrument

My Clematis

To start with my clematis, in the instrumentals, it's a piano and violin duet. Not out of the ordinary, per se, these are two commonly paired together instruments. However, what leads me to believe piano is Mizi and violin is Sua is the monologue sequence where only Mizi is speaking, there's only piano then. That's the only part in the song where there is, as it's the only part where they're not singing together. And, after Sua dies, the instrumentals come to a brief halt. When they start again, the piano remains similar, yet the violin is in a lower pitch sorta? (I don't play violin, im unaware of terminology, sorry ;-;) Because Mizi is alive and Sua is not. This one is a stretch but yeah.

EDIT: @chuuburar1n has informed me the lower pitch violin is a cello. So the violin does actually cease when Sua dies. Thank you Charly 🙏

Sweet Dream

I'm writing this out after an hours work, and realizing I completely forgot to listen to sweet dream's instrumentals and take notes.. No sweet dream, sorry! :( I'd love to see what others find if anyone else analyzes it ^^ /gen

Unknown (Till The End)

Anyway, onto Unknown. Unknown, there isn't much to really say, as it's a solo song, and most of my notes are around duet songs. However, one thing of note, is that Till is quite obviously electric guitar, and in this song, it's accompanied by piano. Mizi's instrument if my theory is correct. They're both instruments of accompaniment, so this choice to use them together interests me. In other songs in Alien Stage, the guitar is accompanied by drums, generally. This one is also a stretch, though.

Black Sorrow

Black Sorrow, there's prominent drums, which is what I believe to be Ivan's instrument based on this song and Cure. I had a hard time figuring out instruments for this one, but my friend (Thank you, Charly :]) said he heard cymbals and guitar which is typical to be paired with drums. Not much else to note.

Ruler of My Heart

Ruler of my Heart contains Piano, Violin, Drums, and possibly another instrument I can't really identify. Piano is present in all songs involving Mizi in some sort of way, as aforementioned in My Clematis. Not only that, but it takes the spotlight (although other instruments are present) when Mizi is beating up Luka. Violin also makes sense, because not only is it Luka's instrument, but it's also Sua's. And he's constantly mimicking others to try and manipulate people so, y'know, he can win. And his instrument changes with each song. More on that in other songs. I claim Violin is also his instrument as it makes his way into every song he's been in so far (Ruler of my Heart, Blink Gone, Wiege). Drums, i don't take any note of as they're present in literally every song, and at this point, neither Mizi nor Luka have any involvement with Ivan.

All-In

There's less instruments in All-In then there is in other songs. Drums, occasional guitar, and other sounds created by non instruments, like clicking and clapping. Adding to my point that I think Hyuna has no set instrument, why? Because she has no hallmark instrument in all her songs, yet also, she's a rebel, she's the only one of main cast free from the competition when introduced, hence why she lacks a signature instrument if that makes sense? It's a stretch, I know. My friend also pointed out that it could be because the rebels are out of alien stage so they don't have much musical equipment or the proper setting to make music. Hence the present of the non-conventional productions of sound to add, and the lack of instruments.

Cure

Cure's two prominent instruments are electric guitar and drums. Electric guitar is more prominent when Till sings. When Ivan begins to sing, the drums are not there at first, leaving just piano, then pick up and are more prominent. And when they both sing, they (as in Electric Guitar and Drums) both are prominent, unlike when the other's instrument is in the background of the other's part, accompanying. Also, when Ivan dies, the drums stop, leaving only electric guitar. Only the guitar, Till is left, and the drums, Ivan, aren't around anymore. I believe an instrument stopping or changing in a duet of instruments symbolizes a death generally, as it's present here, My Clematis, and somewhat in Wiege.

Blink Gone

This is where I get my Luka changing instruments motif. In Blink Gone, there is guitar, drums, piano, violin, and xylophone. Guitar picks up when Till sings, but Luka? When he sings, violin doesn't pick up, although it's played in the song by Luka, Piano does. I was stuck on this, but my friend then suggested the instrument change to represent how he mimics and changes to manipulate others. Yet it's not his true instrument. And I think that works really well. The one i believe is his true instrument, Violin, is present only at the end of the song, when it's clear he's winning. What's also worth noting is that the drums become more prominent in the parts where Till is thinking of Ivan. The end part with the Xylophone I don't have much to note on the symbolism behind it, maybe that it symbolizes childhood/innocence, I've heard people say it symbolizes Till's heartbeat? But although it does slow, you never hear it come to a halt, it just cuts out, which is why TILL IS ALI- (/j, I didn't use this in my evidence for why he's alive bc of how iffy it is. Go check out my Till is Alive theory if you want actual decent points on why I think he's alive lmao.)

Wiege

There's another point why I think Violin is Luka's instrument, and it's because this is what symbolizes him, when he isn't mimicking and he's being more true to himself when he's with Hyuna. Also, fun fact, the morse code in the beginning translates to 'ALIVE.' Because he feels alive when he's with Hyuna. Anyway, wiege has violin, piano, xylophone, and some sort of string instrument. I've talked about in the previous song how xylophone can symbolize childhood, when times were better. There's also just violin and accompanying instruments here because Hyuna doesn't have a set instrument. This is where I got iffy on my theory, because when Hyuna dies, Luka's instrument fades out, not any others. But I've realized it's a mix of how Hyuna has a lack of instrument, and Luka only feeling alive when he has HER. When Hyuna dies, he feels like he's died too; dying inside. Maybe he's still surviving, but is he really living?

I think I've covered everything and all my points and all. I don't know, I've been working on this for two hours, so my brain feels like mush. AuDHD be damned, i guess. Whether you choose to agree with me on these points is up to personal intereptation of the storyline! And if you read this far, thank you :)

Why i genuinely think Till is Alive, because I'm tired of people thinking I'm joking

I have been working on this since November, help-

From a narrative standpoint, killing off Till would not be the right decision for writing. Each character dies and has a person to grieve them and experience growth based around their loss. Sua was grieved by Mizi, Hyuna will be grieved by Luka, and for Ivan, his person was Till. But if Till was dead only a few hours later, how could he recieve that character growth? I think if Till was dead, that wouldn't be good writing, and I'd be quite annoyed if he is dead.

This is slightly an add on to previous point, but the standees pretty clearly confirm it to me. Sua, Ivan, and Hyuna are all gray scaled and have angel wings. The others are in color and grieving their losses. If till was dead, wouldn't he also be an angel? It reinforces my long standing belief of him living.

There was no after-death comic like with Sua, Ivan, or Hyuna. It does not feel like he is supposed to be dead.

The things used to monitor heart rate in their ears, you can catch Mizi taking it out if you watch closely enough. Hence, sort of a way to fool the aliens into thinking they're dead, if that makes sense?

Also, at the end of round 7, his portrait flickered out and glitched. Others portraits went immediately out. Maybe it's because, I don't know, a heartbeat was still detected until she took out the monitor?

He didn't bleed out like the others did, you don't see a pool of blood, leaving me to believe the neck wound isn't that deep and can be treated. As long as it didn't pentrate the platsyma muscle he has good odds. (You guys do not wanna know how much I've researched neck wounds for this.)

His leg is still upright, which if he's dead, wouldn't really work? I mean there has to be blood flowing still for his leg to be up. He very well could just be unconscious, a multitude of factors would make fainting likely.

At the end of Wiege, Mizi's arms are over his face when they weren't before. Leading me to think, what if he opened his eyes and she's trying to hide it from the aliens? ALSO, my friend pointed out, if you turn up your volume at the end of wiege, YOU CAN LITERALLY HEAR A HEARTBEAT.

Art symbolism. In one piece of official art, he looks away from the camera while the others look at it. Maybe I'm delusional but it helps me believe he's alive even more. Also, in the art they posted after round 7, there's a red thing coming from his neck that looks like something used in a blood transfusion. Also the all-in cover art has a red bandage where he was shot.

Looking through my notes, I do have more evidence but it's sorta iffy. So these are my main points.

I really hope yall appreciate my theory and get what I mean because I started this theory November 19th. It's March 17th. Crazy.

TW: SA, CHILD EXPLOITATION, TALK OF BEAUTY STANDARDS & DIET CULTURE

I've heard people talk about Alien Stage being a metaphor for the idoling industry, but no one really goes in depth that I've seen. I also have a bit of experience and have done tons of research on the entertainment industry for my own career as an actress (who's currently looking for their first acting job. No, this isn't to try to be scouted, it's just to clarify i am not super experienced-)

So here's everything I could find that parallels. I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors, my cat is laying on my arm right now and will not move-

The treatment of the contestants by aliens in alien stage, resembles the way people treat idols in media in our reality. People fan and obsess over their stage personas, yet behind closed doors they are horribly mistreated and abused.

Trauma and tragedy is exploited. In real life, talent shows and the like will make contestants use something bad that's happened to them to gain sympathy points from the audience. In Alien Stage, do I genuinely even need to explain? That show is a massive amount of tragedy, and Mizisua was almost definitely put together in round one for a reason -- to play with the aliens' feelings.

The way aliens exploit pet humans for fame and use them, is similar to the way parents/guardians exploit their children as child actresses. Children are trained from a young age to fit this standard and be entertainment for us.

SA is extremely common in the entertainment industry. Tons of people in the industry, especially producers and directors, end up being fucking creeps who sexually abuse the people they work with. I can name a plentitude of cases. I am not a victim of this myself so I cannot speak for victims, but it is something that absolutely happens. And in Alien Stage, Luka and Till (I've also heard Ivan?) have both been implied to be sexually abused, meaning it's probably not uncommon in that world either.

Insane beauty standards. IRL as an actor, you are fatshamed, every part of your body and appearance is nitpicked, you absolutely have to fit a beauty standard. Many people are extremely insecure, plastic surgery is common too. Not to mention, diet culture runs fucking rampant. People often are put through insane and risky diets. This is especially bad in the idoling industry. Then in Alien Stage, you can probably take note of multiple characters, but I'm going to focus on Luka for this point. Luka's eating habits are canonically strictly managed, and he isn't allowed to eat much. Not to mention, Luka, and likely other characters were literally fucking BRED FOR THIS?? Like its implied they quite literally kept making him again and again until they found one that fit their standard, resulting in all his issues as well.

Dare I say no privacy. The humans in alien stage are quite literally watched by aliens 24/7, allowed no freedom or privacy. In real life, maybe it isn't exactly this for actors, but people dig into their personal lives and allow them no privacy. People doxx information and stalk actors, to the point where there's been cases of people having to move houses because of crazy fans. When people ask to stay out the spotlight, people find them anyways.

May be forgetting some stuff, but my point is that Alien Stage is a metaphor for the entertainment industry, especially the idol industry. We are the real life aliens, if you think about it.

I honestly wish people talked about it more. It's so important to the show yet I feel like it's overshadowed by the romance aspects. That or it's a lack of media literacy. I'm honestly unsure.