#Guardian Unsha

[shakingparadigm]

[nottoonedin]

Okay it might be just me but does Unsha kind of sound like a disappointed father figure in the interview? Like he sounds almost fond of Ivan?

Like?? He doesn't even pick out Ivan because of his talent, he focused on how different and extraordinary his eyes looked? Could just be because he wanted to impress his wife but you'd want an entertaining pet no? (Also side note Ivan being a Valentine's Day present..)

He was only disappointed? If it were Urak or Herperu who had their pets give up on stage I'd say they'd be pissed. Reminds me of the phrase commonly used by parental figures: "I'm not mad. Just disappointed." Calling Ivan an "ambitious kid" comes off almost endearing?

Something something parents learning from their children. A mentor learning from their student. Or something.

Do you guys think. He's moving on from human pets because. Because he knows there will never be another one like Ivan. Like Ivan is special (to him) in a way?

Then again, you can also take the interview as Unsha talking about Ivan like a business partner. Because that's how they viewed their relationship. But it'd be kind of unheard of having a pet human as an (almost) equal?

(Let me be delusional okay Ivan Unsha father-son relationship PLEASE-)

Edit: Should probably add that I'm not saying Unsha is a GOOD father figure. He reminds me more of a neglectful father. Probably not as abusive as Urak and Heperu, but he definitely pushed Ivan and had high expectations for him (I don't think Ivan would willingly have that daily schedule if it weren't for Unsha's gain).

[crustyfloor]

Guardian Unsha found dead in a ditch after investing so much money into his golden child Ivan just for him to go fuck up, lose, and publicly embarrass Unsha by throwing the round for and kissing his rival's pet-human on live television

[ivantill-i-kms]

!!!????!?? CUTE??? OLD MAN YAOI IS REAL????

And then you remember that Unsha has a wife 😂

Cr: t4tivantill on twt

[lether]

一鼓作气放下拟人三只

[k9punkout]

Unsha saying that he thinks its "cute" how hard Urak tries to impress others was bad enough but what on earth is this.

uransha canon??

honestly, i think urak's walking on eggshells in the business world due to his class and origins. that's probably why he feels the need to impress others who are more seasoned in the field and prove his worth.

he's actually rather similar to heperu in terms of wanting to achieve superiority in a universe that deems them inferior, it's just that urak's goals are more money-oriented than self-satisfactory.

[atrophiedemotion]

The interviews got me curios about Unsha's wife now. I wonder if she was fond of Ivan and if she was sad when he died. She probably was since he was speficially given to her but I wonder if she cared about him as his own being and not just because he was hers. Maybe when his adoption day comes around we can get a comic about Ivan being given to Unsha's wife?

ahh hello, thank you for the ask!! im sorry this took so long but rest assured i have been Thinking about this (i wrote little notes for my response while at work pondering over it lmao)

i think a gifting comic would be very interesting! the way unsha talks about picking ivan out as a gift definitely feels like unsha was thinking more about what their wife would like than anything else. it feels like, from that, that she probably was fond of ivan- but probably more like. a very pretty fish you have in your fish tank, if that makes sense. someone else pointed out that it's likely she was the alien with the flowers in the background of the frame in black sorrow where child ivan has a singing trophy, and i really like that theory. if it is her, it'd show that she does admire him and his abilities.

some of the segyein seem to see humans in a very similar way to the pets we as people have but with even less understanding of them. i think it'd make sense for unsha's wife to 'adore' ivan in the way someone would somewhat shallowly love a pampered poodle? id love to believe she cared about him as his own being but i honestly just don't think most aliens have that capacity simply because of how different they are biologically. (not to mention the fact that ivan was certainly never himself around any of the aliens. hard to deeply care about a fabrication, even if you're not aware of it- but that's another topic regarding ivan's relationship with unsha that ive been thinking about)

[chirpycloudyrobin]

tw body horror / description if desecration of (fictional) corpses but

i wonder if it's a thing w the aliens to taxidermy their fave pets or some shit

like walk w me here

shine likely loved mizi as much as an alien could and was probably sad that her own pet was sad at sua's death so imagine she bought sua's body from nigeh (who prollie doesnt give that much of a shit) to turn sua into a doll for mizi so at least mizi would have her sua with her, right ?

and then on unsha's side... taxidermying ivan's body as a keepsake. maybe as a doll to put on display for his wife. or maybe as a trophy for his first venture into the human pet business like how some people keep models of their first successful work kind of thing.

are u getting my vision ? 🧍

[shakingparadigm]

It seems like Unsha is.... fairly tame? At least compared the horrendous feats of Urak and Heperu. He almost seems more grounded compared to them? Unlike Urak and Heperu, who are obssessed with winning to the point of trying over and over again, Unsha accepts his loss gracefully and moves forward with other things.

Ivan was a gift to Unsha's wife for her birthday. He chose children based off of their potential, and when Ivan showed the most promise he gave him full investment. Instead of forcing out Ivan's talent through more heavily abusive means (nurturing, it seems to be called), he brings Ivan to success through sponsorships, methodical marketing and exposure. Unsha considers the things he learned from being with Ivan and takes interest in what Ivan's thoughts might have been before death. He says that despite everything, Ivan was worth the investment and worth the loss.

I'm not trying to say that Unsha was a "good parent", he was neglectful to Ivan's personal needs and worked him relentlessly among other things. There definitely could have been more diabolical actions that haven't been revealed yet. He undoubtedly viewed Ivan as a product that he needed to sell (a businessman in all areas), but it's just interesting to note his differences and train of thought. Much to think about.

[agoniesreprisal]

it's so funny to go back to my drafts every now and then... like wdym nvantis was supposed to be a mafia boss and not an influencer

[ivan-alnst-official]

Wanna know what else was surprising? A certain flag I found in your closet one time.

Urak I want my husband back (Till) GIVE HIM BACK

I don't have him currently.

[junebluues]

the real reason unsha and urak had beef thanks plip for putting the idea of them as good luck babe in my head

[ivantill-i-kms]

I think it's quite interesting that Urak has a higher rate for Till than Unsha for Ivan ...

Is it because Unsha neglects Ivan? I mean it states that while he didn't abuse Ivan like Urak did to Till, he doesn't really care about Ivan that much either, just viewed him as an investment...

[lether]

[muchanmocha]

:0 Checked just now and didn't realize this Patreon post is free access! You can find it here.

I'll quote it directly then! (I usually try to paraphrase or summarize if it's a locked post)

"While Anakt Garden appears to be a music academy on the surface, it also functions as a training facility to produce ALNST champions, conducting cruel experiments to create exceptional pet-humans. We wanted to depict the idol training process as part of this experimental narrative." (Patreon)

The wording here to me implies the "cruel experiments" in particular are not openly knowledged (different from harsh training which is to be expected from an prep school for a competition). It sounds like they're taking advantage of the enclosed environment to conduct immoral practices for the sake of results as part of their effort to maintain their reputation.

Guardians like Urak and Unsha who are part of the underworld definitely know what's going on due to their insider knowledge, and active involvement in the industry in Urak's case.

Most guardians would presumably not pay enough attention to care, like Nigeh and Phan, or perhaps can guess but are leaving the methods to the school.

Heperu is a different species altogether and their control freak behavior means they definitely knows and adds their own training on top of whatever the school offers. Heperu would probably judge the school's methods as "not enough" or "not tailored enough" for their pet-human.

And then there are guardians like Shine. While no one else would care more about their kid's wellbeing over their results like Shine does, I can see others paying special care to their pet-human's condition after investing all that money in them.

We also don't know much about the segyein human rights activists. Only that they exist. If they have any level of influence or power in society, putting aside how it'll mar the school's reputation, it'll only bring trouble to Anakt Garden to be open about their unsavory practices. The fact that there are legal and illegal auctions and human editing shops means some regulations do exist. But again, most of this is extrapolation because we just don't have enough information to confirm anything haha

Something else that's interesting!

I think there's a purposeful mirroring in the audience experience with Anakt Garden's reputation.

It's not until Round 6 that we're fully clued into how bad it is in Anakt Garden. In the commentary it's mentioned that they wanted to use this round as a chance to show "just how much the pet humans feared Anakt Garden" and it's well reflected in the shocking intro which contrasts to the videos preceding it. Sure we got the sense that it wasn't all rainbows and sunshines unlike the impression we got from Round 1, but we didn't know how bad it really was until the intro of Round 6 laid it out for us.

Similarly outside the videos, we had a lot of wholesome or angsty content sprinkled in dark undertones, but nothing was upfront about it until the medical horror series which, again, came very late in the timeline of Alnst content.

This overall trend seems to reflect how Anakt Garden looked good on the surface whether to us or to the general in-universe populace, but hides a dark underbelly. Even the place modeled after "paradise" was still hell for humans.

Misc Thoughts on Guardian Shine

Continuation of this thread

@axopii-i (Hope you don't mind me answering on a separate post due to length)

@plushieray2 (Tagging in case you're interested!)

Note: A lot of the following is much more speculative and subjective than my usual posts, aka they're just my personal takes until we get info that gives us more context to work on

As an add-on, I'd also like to point out that as a long-lived (potentially immortal) race, Shine might share a different relationship with death than we do.

Not only would this mean their understanding/perspective on it might differ from ours, this fundamental difference can be part of the reason why they will never be able to truly empathize with Mizi as a segyein to a human, no matter how much they love her.

Just as we can't fathom what death means to Shine. Shine can't fathom what death means to humans.

"Why would Shine send Mizi to Anakt Garden when they treat the children so horribly?"

I think the simple answer is Shine doesn't know.

There's a Patreon post on the creation process of the medical horror art that talks about how Anakt Garden is a musical academy "on the surface" but also trains and conducts cruel experiments to create ALNST champions. This wording, "on the surface," implies that the unsavory aspects of the school are not exactly talked about, brushed over if not outright covered up. What promotional material we see for Anakt Garden also supports this, only depicting the children with happy caretakers in a bright and clean environment.

Regarding the shock collars — only Till is subjected to any upgrade to the basic collar and it's done due to his aggressive behavior. As far as the basic collar goes, it looks like it's standard for all pet-humans across their society and not necessarily an Anakt Garden thing. (We see Ivan wearing it before he was enrolled.)

Regarding the brainwashing — we call it brainwashing but it would never be overtly recognized as such in-universe. Likely subtext that's acknowledged for those in the know, but never actually stated or portrayed as such.

Sending Mizi to Anakt Garden is like sending your kid to the most prestigious private school in the country. You trust their reputation. You kinda don't know what goes on within those walls. But you know what they show you and advertise to the outside world.

I think at most, Shine would hear about how "respecting the Great Anakt will be given a lot of importance in her lessons," how "her mental wellbeing will be monitored with the utmost care," and how "the best education in the world will prepare her for Alien Stage, including a gentle introduction to the concept of death." All very nice sounding and nothing to raise a guardian's concerns.

Additionally the fact that Mizi remained largely unaware of the darker parts of Anakt Garden because of Sua, meant that Shine was too.

If their child comes back every break unharmed, with as much enthusiasm as ever, and nothing she talks about raises any red flags, then why would they be concerned that there's something horrible going on in the school that they don't know about? Even if there's something sus, Mizi who wouldn't know any better won't say anything as to not worry Shine (or risk being taken out of school and parted from not only her dream, but Sua who has become synonymous to it, and her other friends who have become like family to her.)

(It doesn't help that bc it looks like Shine has chosen not to involve themselves with the world, in my head I lowkey equate them with a long-lived hermit just recently coming out of their cave to catch up on modern technology bc their daughter became a Kpop idol and they want to support her lol.)

This is 100% just a personal opinion but I don't think Shine had any specific desire to preserve Mizi's innocence — I feel like that's a very Sua-specific thing.

I think in many ways Shine was a normal parent. They wanted their daughter to grow up safe, happy, and healthy.

I don't think they saw Mizi's Round 5 breakdown coming at all. I'll go even further to say I think seeing Mizi break down like that hurt them more than it would've to see Mizi shot in the neck for a painless death.

Because if Mizi died on Alien Stage at least she was still able to achieve the dream she treasured so much, the dream that brought her so much joy every day. She would've died fulfilling the thing she wanted most in life.

But Mizi breaking down like that? For Shine that'll be like Till's horror, hands against the glass, combined with Ivan's reaction, combined with a mother's heart on top of that. Absolutely brutal.

Even more brutal is the slap in the face that told them that this was wrong. They made the wrong choice. They supported a decision that utterly destroyed the one little lifeform they adored and wanted to protect more than anything.

Bonus:

"Our goal was to evoke a sense of fear that resonates with you, stemming from a society that prioritizes results and achievements over human compassion."

Guess who's tagged #compassion?

Guardian Shine is a being that contradicts the society they exist in in more ways than you can count.

[k9punkout]

source

so... Urak's insecure about his appearance because it's somewhat humanoid.

it could be that his species is closely related to humans, which could be why he's labeled as "born from the low class."

however, he worked his way up the power ladder by tormenting the very humans he's so genetically close to. experimenting on them, torturing them, using and exploiting their bodies and voices, selling them, ruining their lives, killing them off, and overall treating them as nothing more than property to do with as he pleases.

it's almost as if he needs something to set himself apart from them/blames the human race for all his childhood hardships and the lack of respect he receives.

theres also something very vital to be said about how the most humanoid of the aliens is also the cruelest.