It's the school holidays and I was extremely bored, so here's a break down of Loona's new teaser video.
Recently, kpop girl group Loona released a teaser for their upcoming comeback. This marks the end of the current Midnight Festival era and the continuation of the Loonaverse theory, a theory that has been added to since 2016 when the first member was revealed. Because I am a massive Loona fan and also enjoy over-analyzing things, this is a short breakdown of what the teaser tells us about the current state of the Loonaverse.
What is the Loonaverse and who is Loona?
Loona is a kpop group consisting of twelve members. The group debut on August 18th, 2018, however, the group has a long history of pre-debut activities which began way back in September of 2016. Over the course of 2 - 3 years, Loona would reveal each member one-by-one through a series of solo songs, and the now well known "who's next girl?" teaser photos. Alongside releasing solo music, each girl - with the exception of one - would be sorted into 1 of 3 subunits*: Loona 1/3, Odd Eye Circle, and YYXY (Youth Youth by Young). As each member was revealed, they would add to the lore of the Loonaverse until eventually, all twelve members came together in 2018 when the full group officially debut with the title track "Hi High" and mini-album "++".
*A subunit is a mini-unit within a group. Typically only consists of a few members that release music separately from the main group.
The Loonaverse is the universe Loona's music videos take place. The universe takes place on a Mobius strip and consists of three plains with two of the plains being mirrors of each other. Earth and Eden are opposites of each other alongside each girl being opposite of another (i.e girl no.2 will be opposite of girl no.11). The theorized bridge between these two worlds is where the Odd Eye Circle unit is located. Loona 1/3 is located on Earth while YYXY is located in Eden, or at least they were. Throughout the years, Loona has added to the lore of the Loonaverse through references, metaphors, lyrics, juxtaposition, locations, colors, and pretty much any other form of film technique you could possibly think of.
The Loonaverse originally began with the members separate and their pre-debut days tell the story of how they found each other and came together in "Hi High". For their second release, "Butterfly", there was less lore in the music video and more in the teasers. The teasers showed that the members of YYXY had left Eden and were on Earth and looking for each other. "So What" brought in a new, darker era for Loona in which we were shown an alternative timeline which we can call the dark moon timeline. This is because, at the start of the second teaser, we see a moon turn and show the other side along with the words "The back of the moon" which is what we call the dark side of the moon. Throughout the teasers and music video, we see a world in which the members never found each other. At the start of the music video we see the 12th member, Oliva Hye, hold a torch and set fire to the moon along with a white feather on the ground. This white feather represents 3rd member Haseul (her animal is a dove) which signifies her revival. In her music video, she kills an alternate version of herself, so we can assume that the timeline we're in is the one where her alternative self will come back to life. This would also explain her absence from the last two releases which were actually due to her being on a mental health hiatus. Their latest release "Why Not" has very little lore in both the teasers and music video and is mostly full of references to past music videos. Most of what we do see, however, is repeated in the new teaser so I'll just talk about it there.
Also, note, each member has an animal and color that represents them. So above I mentioned Haseul's animal is a dove so, whenever we see a dove or white feather, it represents Haseul. Alongside doves, Haseul's color is green, therefore if we see green we can safely assume it's Haseul. In the new teaser, we see another animal - a butterfly - which represents 11th member Gowon who mirrors 2nd member Hyunjin. Because butterflies represent rebirth, Gowon is previously shown to be trying to revive alternative Haseul. Alongside animals and colors, each unit has it's own assigned thing or place. For the members of Loona 1/3, it's a place (Haseul's is Iceland), Odd Eye Circle's is an odd eye and a superpower, and YYXY is fruits. We see apples appear in the teaser so we know it's Yves as apples are her representative fruit.
The actual teaser
In Loona tradition, on December 30th, 2020, Loona released a teaser for their upcoming comeback temporarily named "New Moon". Loona has a tradition of releasing new teasers to mark the end of promotions for their latest release, and during astronomical events which, in this case, is the new moon.
Just note there are quite a few flashing scenes in this teaser.
The teaser first begins with two scenes from the end of "Why Not?" in which we see 11th member Gowon floating in space looking down at Earth, and 2nd member Hyunjin looking up from Earth. In this teaser, it's revealed the two were looking at each other which makes sense as the two members mirror each other. Then, Hyunjin looks down at a butterfly which represents Gowon as it is her representative animal. The scene then cuts to a burning butterfly which references the first teaser for "So What" which at the time was nicknamed "Burn". As of now, there aren't many theories on what burning butterflies represent in the Loonaverse. (Above photo is of the butterfly in the "Burn" teaser).
In my opinion, I believe it represents one of the member's efforts in preventing Gowon from reviving the Loonaverse. Due to butterflies symbolizing rebirth, and the fact Gowon has been shown previously trying to revive the Loonaverse, one member is possibly preventing that by trying to burn Gowon. If that becomes true, it will most likely be 12th member Oliva Hye who is doing this. Olivia Hye's solo, "Egoist" showcases her anger which is later revealed to be because the three other members of YYXY escaped Eden without her in YYXY's music video for "Love4eva". Oliva Hye is apart of the subunit
YYXY and represents, the final Y in the unit name and logo (left) which show's she is more removed from the unit due to failing to leave Eden. "Egoist" also shows Olivia Hye's fall from Eden and is uses darker colors associated with anger such as red. This contrasts with the other three solo songs for the other members of YYXY where brighter colors are used more often. Throughout the music video, motifs within Loona and YYXY music videos are seen burning such as the uniforms worn by the YYXY girls, a bed, a wolf toy (which is Oliva Hye's animal), and a cassette tape (above right). It's theorized by some that cassette tapes within the Loonaverse represent a member's memories and that by burning them, Olivia Hye is erasing her memories of the Loonaverse and Eden. Another reason for why it may be Olivia Hye preventing the Loonaverse from reviving is that at the start of "So What" she sets fire to the moon/Loonaverse. This follows the pattern of Olivia Hye destroying things associated with the Loonaverse in an effort to destroy it. I don't know if that makes sense but hopefully, it sort of makes sense.
The next set of scenes we see is associated with 9th member Yves and 5th member ViVi. Although these two members don't mirror each other, they are constantly seen together. The first shot of cars is a reference to the "Why Not?" music video in which Yves is surrounded by cars. Then, a series of shots from Yves' music video for her solo "New", more specifically, the scenes she shares with ViVi. In "New", Yves is shown rollerskating and holding hands with ViVi which many believe are the events showcased in ViVi's solo "Everyday I Love You". In ViVi's music video she is seen roller-skating with a boy, supposedly on a date, however, the scenes are hazy, over-saturated, and dream-like and it is widely accepted that this is most likely because ViVi doesn't actually remember the date. In another scene, we see ViVi next to a stack of 5 cassette tapes with 4 of them having the faces of the first 4 members on the cases. The 4th cassette tape has ViVi's face on it and she is shown listening to it implying she is trying to remember something. In "New" Yves is also seen listening to ViVi's cassette tape, however, the case seems to be cracked which would also symbolize how ViVi's memories are cracked. These two scenes imply she is trying to remember a broken memory and explains why the scene with the boy is dream-like. It's fully believed by many that the rollerskating scene in "New" is the reality of this dream-like memory and that the man ViVi is seen rollerskating with is actually Yves. Although this is just one theory, many theories link back to this. We also see ViVi with brown hair instead of her iconic pink/orange hair. Because pink-haired ViVi is believed to be android ViVi and orange hair represents either her pre-android days or post-android days, the brown hair means she is fully human again. She is also seen to be surrounded by apples, Yves' fruit, which mirrors scenes of Yves in "New".
Also, I should probably mention that it's widely theorized that ViVi was originally apart of Odd Eye Circle, however, something happened to cause her to end up on Earth. This is supported by the fact she is the only member outside of Odd Eye Circle with an Odd Eye, and that she *represents the 1 in Loona 1/3. Because she is on Earth instead of the world she's supposed to be (Odd Eye Circle's), she's an android (which is shown in "Love&Live") with fragmented memories of the past. Through the events of "Love&Live" where she learns to love and live, she begins the process of becoming human.
*We know this because of teaser photos released
Android ViVi in "Love&Live"
Our third batch of scenes shows fire and water alongside 1st girl Heejin and Olivia Hye. Due to the Mobius strip being an infinite loop, Heejin not only mirrors Olivia Hye, but the Loonaverse as a whole starts and ends with the two. Fire and water are opposite elements and are most likely there to represent how Heejin and Olivia Hye may be against each other. Due to Heejin being the first girl, many theorize Heejin is some sort of God within the Loonaverse while Olivia Hye is more representative of a character such as Lucifer who opposes God. In "Egoist", Olivia Hye is seen falling from Eden down to Earth and meeting Heejin, meaning the Mobius strip is complete, and things have come full circle. Opposing ideologies of Olivia Hye and Heejin are also shown in "Egoist" using clothing. Heejin is wearing white while Olivia Hye wears black, the two colors are opposites of each other, similar to the clips of fire and water. This would also lean into the God and Lucifer theory mentioned before. The scene of Heejin flashes over and lines up with the end scene of "So What" in which Olivia sets fire to the moon/Loonaverse. We also see the scene of Heejin and Olivia Hye hugging from "Egoist" briefly.
Olivia Hye and Heejin at the end of "Egoist"
Our final batch of scenes includes 10th girl Chuu and 3rd girl Haseul. We see a clip from the end of "Why Not?" in which Chuu is standing on a car looking at the sky. Off to the side, we see what looks like a shooting comment but is actually later revealed to be a plane crashing. This is proven in the next set of clips and it's revealed that the plane crashed in Iceland due to the next clip being of Iceland. Iceland is Haseul's representative place and where she filmed her music video for her solo "Let Me In" in which she kills her alternative self. The music video specifically takes place in a plane wreckage that can be found in Iceland which would line up with the plane crash. Another way we know this is referencing Haseul is the green light that flashes as the clip of Iceland is shown. The scene cuts back to Chuu and then to a clip of Haseul as the green flashing light appears. Many are saying that the clip of Haseul looks familiar and may be an old clip, however, I haven't seen anyone state where the clip is from and I, personally, don't know either.
What does this mean for the Loonaverse?
As of now, I'm unsure. However, it could possibly mean the reunion of ViVi and Yves and the long-awaited return of Haseul. The fact that as of now this new era is known as "New Moon" means that we may see the birth of a new Loonaverse, meaning Gowon's efforts succeded, or a new turn in the concept/musical direction for Loona. Knowing Loona though, we most likely won't have another teaser for a couple of weeks however, I'm extremely excited, especially with the possibility of all 12 members coming together again.
On another note, personally, I could talk about analyzing everything Loona's released, and maybe, one day, I will. Just because nearly everything I mentioned could be elaborated on if you were to focus on just one music video/subunit at a time, and also there would be a lot to cover and this just scratches the surface of the Loonaverse theories. I also am unsure if anything in this post is anywhere close to making sense but that's ok.
My name is Fiona and I'm from the Summer Learning Journey. Thanks for sharing your post about Loona's new teaser video. What a detailed and interesting post - ka pai!
Everyone who participates will receive a certificate and a digital badge for their blog and there are some great prizes up for grabs for our most active bloggers. It's also a lot of fun! You can register here.
Mā te wā - I can’t wait to see more of your posts over the summer.
Kia ora Molly,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Fiona and I'm from the Summer Learning Journey. Thanks for sharing your post about Loona's new teaser video. What a detailed and interesting post - ka pai!
Have you tried the blogging activities for this year’s Summer Learning Journey site?
Everyone who participates will receive a certificate and a digital badge for their blog and there are some great prizes up for grabs for our most active bloggers. It's also a lot of fun! You can register here.
Mā te wā - I can’t wait to see more of your posts over the summer.
Fiona (SLJ).