Content warning: sexual assault, suicide, mental illness. Major spoilers for “Alien Stage.”
The Korean webseries “Alien Stage” has gripped and crushed the hearts of many — especially Gen Z — with its subtle and not-so-subtle visual, audio and written storytelling. It follows the lives of six fleshed-out characters who were forced to perform in a singing competition where the losers die.
As revealed in the first episode, all of the enslaved population of humans known to exist are held captive on an extraterrestrial planet by the alien race of Segyein. With this dystopian backdrop, “Alien Stage” focuses on the characters’ battles with vices internally as well as romantically. I am of the opinion that “Alien Stage” can reflect the ugly side of something as sacred as love tainted by the abusive systems of exploitation even in our world — primarily, the dangerous pitfalls of how not to love.
Director of “Alien Stage,” VIVINOS, has a track record of portraying toxic relationships in her animations for the sake of horror. Most of her works prior to “Alien Stage” were short films, but this series has the longest runtime — and highest popularity — of all the creations under her belt.
The four main characters of “Alien Stage” meet up and develop relationships together as kids at the music education prison Anakt Garden to train and become professional singers. The first two characters introduced are the shy, lonely and studious Sua and the seemingly confident and bold Mizi. The next two characters are the sensitive and artistic Till and the over-enthusiastic yet somewhat stoic Ivan (whose adoption day is Valentine’s Day).
Sua and Mizi were inseparable growing up ever since Mizi initiated conversation with her. One could say they had become extremely codependent. In a world where their lives were entirely commodified and thus left without comfort nor education on how to take care of their social-emotional health, they felt no other choice but to cling onto each other.
Anxious attachment styles and codependency permeate into relationships mainly from complexities like past experiences, especially in childhood. The need to be loved and paid attention to candevelop into an unhealthy or even toxic relationship. “Alien Stage” highlights this well.
In Sua’s case, she was incredibly obsessive and intense about her love for Mizi. This culminated into sacrificing herself in her match with Mizi: a planned and calculated duty she burdened herself with and rehearsed constantly. Mizi eventually revealed that she knew about Sua’s plan the entire time, and although it hurt her to know this, she didn’t do anything to stop Sua.
In Ivan’s case, he would go at any length to get Till’s attention. He would get himself beaten up by Till and enjoy it because Till was paying attention to him.
Furthermore, Ivan forces his love onto Till in his final moments through his own sacrifice, so he will die without regrets. He forcefully kisses and, in order to get shot and killed by security, stranglesTill.
Losing people you know in your life— especially people close to you — is extremely hard to cope with. Mizi develops an intense self-loathing and makes her problems everyone else’s. This is emphasized by how she sabotaged the revolutionaries’ mission in “KARMA” to shoot at rocket in the sky to find help and physically hurt other people.
Till hallucinated Ivan in the webcomics “Scars” and “Remember Everything” in part due to the weight of the forceful kiss and ultimate sacrifice by Ivan. Unlike Mizi, however, Till comes to terms with these facts and decides to forgive Ivan for what he did.
What “Alien Stage” is trying to convey to the audience is that unhealthy coping mechanisms and relationships can ruin lives even if they feel good to do in the moment. Unhealthy relationships are, at best, not talked about enough, but at worst, glorified such as in the media. College students are not exempt from this. Most pieces of media only show the pretty parts, but “Alien Stage” also doesn’tshy away from the macabre.
It can be extremely dangerous to glorify things that are unhealthy within ourselves or our relationships, but I would like to tell a story about how I got into “Alien Stage.” Please bear with me.
At the Rainbow Center last semester, I met someone and we celebrated our favorite media together. I asked him about the Ivan plush and he recommended that I should watch “Alien Stage.”
After watching the “Alien Stage” YouTube videos, I realized how much Sua’s character comforts me with my own flaws as a friend, girlfriend and person. If anything, Sua inspires me to be better than she was and not fall into the same traps as she did.
When I told my friend this, he told me he really related to Ivan not only because he’s very talkative but also because of his need for attention. I realized that we’re a lot alike, uniting under these systems and pasts outside of our control. But unlike these characters, we process and cope with them together.
The purpose of art is to share and inspire, changing our worldviews and mobilizing us to change things across the board. Having art you can relate to — and share with others — can be of immense comfort, especially when we’re surrounded by it. “Alien Stage” may be an extremely depressing piece of media, but it helps us connect with others who also resonate with the themes and, hopefully, strive to be socially healthier and self-aware inside these oppressive systems we find ourselves in. Hopefully we can change more than only ourselves.