LOONAVERSE THEORY: Love & Live & Evil

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Loonaverse Theory: part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 (current)

Love&Live

"Love&Live" introduces an unexpected girl to us, the android Vivi. She is characterized by her stoic demeanor, colored hair and unnatural athletic skills, which marks her as an outsider. However, she is not treated as such: although the other girls are suspicious of power, she is still welcomed to the team, passed both snacks and the baton.

Vivi, on the other hand, is not so content, she watches the other girls with a jealous eye as they chat, laugh together and consume nourishment. But Vivi is not hateful, she is confused: she wonders why she is so different.

Vivi wants what the other girls find to be a nuisance: she wants to run out of breath.

Is Vivi a useless member? Read: Wow! These 5 Girl Group Members are USELESS

In "Love&Live," 1/3's world is defined by hard concrete buildings and numbers. The girls are constantly silhouetted by their school building, whose windows create lines after lines. Similarly, the sport team's manicured track has a high contrast with blues, browns and grassy greens. The girls themselves are athletic, strong and focus on a collective, structured running event.

The video is set in a school, the perfect place for any ambitious or meticulous girl. They sing of love like it is homework that can be "solved, one by one." The baton pass they play also illustrates their systematic lifestyle. But, Vivi does not covet the girls because they are smart or bright or perfect; she is interested when they break down. Vivi is completely enamored with the point at which the numbers stop and humanity begins.

Vivi wishes to be organic, like the girls she watches. By viewing it from an outsider's perspective, the audience can learn to appreciate qualities within themselves that have been taken for granted.

This side of the loonaverse values goodness, innocence and systems. However, the most systematic of them all does not fit in. Even though she is a perfect being in a perfect world, she in unhappy. Vivi does not fit in because she is missing the undefinable quality of humanity that lets us bond, create and dream. But, she believes she can gain it by turning off her battery. After she does this, begins running and does not stop, the audience has to wonder: is this suicide?

In a world with no faults, running out of breath is perhaps the only achievable high. Despite the training involved in running, the human girls all do it on a regular basis; for some reason, they find it worth it. Is it worth even death?

As her charger dies we wonder if it is the end for her. Luckily, it is not. Forgive me for being cliche, but this is actually her beginning.

By striving and wishing, doubting herself and then reflecting, Vivi may have had humanity all along. She is not human, but she has formed valuable and meaningful bonds, dreamed a seemingly impossible dream and pushed herself to her physical limits. She has learned and gone through a journey, and now she has a story. And what is more essentially human?

Sonatine

"Sonatine" is a lyrically dense song. Blockberry's YouTube describes the song as "filled with pain and worries in the process of love, in the opposite characteristics of the prior record" (1). According to cannon, the opposite of live is not death or lip syncing, but evil.

In "Sonatine," LOONA 1/3 sings about fate but also the unknown: they know what is coming, but they do not know the "secret within a secret" of when. They "don't know if it will be 1 minute or 1 second" (2), but they do know "it will work out/be aligned" (1, 3). Becoming "aligned" is alludes to things like planets that are mapped out or puzzle pieces that are meant to fit together. Both of these allegories fit the creation of the loonaverse and the foreshadowing of Odd Eye Circle.

Related on good and evil: The Oh My Girl Music Video that Ushered in A Spiritual and Cultural Revolution

As stated in the video's description, "Sonatine" is a spell. In the videos, the girls of LOONA 1/3's interests are all finally akin, and they have become a collective with the same dream. They take on the role of wise sages, calling heroes for help. But, why can't they help themselves?

Well, how are heroes ever chosen? Why were humans called to Narnia to save it? Why did Voldemort choose Harry and not Neville? Why couldn't Gandalf carry The God Damned Ring? And I don't know anything about Game of Thrones but just why?

LOONA 1/3 has the same questions, too many questions in fact: "What is your password? May I know?" (1), "Actually, maybe I'm curious of too many things about you" (2). All of these things will be answered in time but, like us, they are anxious and impatient for it.

Finally, they sing about the universe they have helped create. When the timing is right, "if the night when you can't sleep crosses with mine" (2), then "a new world will open up to me" (1). This can be referring to the start of a relationship, like Girls' Generation's "Into the New World," but with Loona, I think it is probably more literal. The surprising notion in this lyric to me is that the Loona girls might be meant to meet in a "new world," as opposed to existing separately, but alongside each other in a Mobius strip.

Of course, we always knew they were going to debut as 12, but which aspects of which worlds will be taken into the "new world," and what is the meaning of such a world?

Yes, the Girl Front, we love a proper foreshadow

Unlike "Love & Live," "Sonatine" demonstrates pain and loneliness: "just like that... just like that I look at the stars alone," Haseul stutters (2). Separated from her other half "the twinkling stars become meaningless," Heejin laments (1). The song ends on the same melancholy note, almost seeming unfinished. LOONA 1/3 has stepped away from their familiar, systematic world, into the mysterious unknown of the metaphorical forest. And, as we learned in "Let Me In," "one does not venture deep into the forests without good reason." For some reason, LOONA 1/3 feels wrong with their current state. Perhaps it is because Yeojin is lost, or maybe because they are missing their other two thirds. We will have to see how they sing when they are all together.

The citations reflect translations taken from different sources, in order to get the most accurate, yet readable meaning from the song:

1. Official Music Video
2. The highlighted comment (MUCH THANKS TO THIS FRIEND)
3. Inkigayo performance