#Yes this is about alien stage

[iri-desky]

Ah yes, how to kiss a boy...

● Walk towards him.

● Gently cup his face as he finally looks towards you after years of being the one watching when he's not.

● Suddenly kiss him with vigor as you hold his face your hand, resisting his attempts to pull away.

● Finally pull away and give him another, sweeter, truer, short kiss.

● Proceed to pull back and wring your hands around his neck.

● Kiss him again as you watch the scales fall into your favor, as least for you, not to others

● Pull away and continue to wring his neck as you are racked with bullets unto your sides, staining your White Coat of Death red

● Give him one final smile as blood drips from your mouth and you finally collapse, letting go of his neck with the last thing you see being him finally looking at you and actually seeing you in full for the first and last time of your adult lives

● Hit the ground and slowly bleed out, thus solidifying your lifeless corpse as a permanent stencil in his brain that will haunt him years to come alongside the idealized image of his childhood unrequited love that was forever lost the moment that she watched a loved one die the same way and go further distant after going missing several weeks ago presumptively never go be seen again, thus becoming a shadow that follows him as he chases an unretrievable light that you tried to be for him but he denied. You become a ghost that trails behind him that represents who you truly were in life before the moment you died, a gruesome reminder and manifestation of his regret and the heavy reality he faces which strongly contrasts the rosy-lensed personification of a past he can't go back to and yet is still is a very real perception of a human compared to a fairy tale he made in his head. And after all that, become exactly what someone you now forgot warned you you'll become if you did this, a haunting reminder that will curse him for years to come while you die and he lives on as he becomes a victim of your shallow emotions

And maybe survive idk

[prettybbychim]

just tryna settle in w my boys this evening and its just instant

emotional damage

[insomaniacat]

what if i just exploded myself

[ivanttakethis]

Till uses his microphone stand in Round 6 to act as his anchor, his sense of stability, his last lifeline to a world he's pretty much given up on.

It gives him something to focus on to drown out the crowd and the rain (and probably even Ivan). On stage, it's one of the only things he has complete control over.

But then it’s taken away.

When Ivan threw his microphone stand away, he threw Till's away too.

The kiss. The sacrifice. The silence that followed.

Till lost his anchor. He’s completely unmoored.

In Round 7, he doesn’t get that stability back. With a headset instead of a microphone stand, Till lacks any sort of control.

He has nothing to hold onto. Nothing to ground him.

Idle hands are the devil’s playthings…

[shakingparadigm]

TOP 3

[dropswand]

MIZI IN ROUND 7 MY BELOVED

She is Till's ray of hope on this round. He resigned himself to dying, he gave up practically. Choked in regret and misery, he was alone- Mizi was missing, likely dead and is dead.

The way his eyes light up ans he regains vitality. He was overwhelmed and felt truly alone, like in Rouns 6 he resigned hinself to dying. But this time, it felt like he was mentally at the brink too, because of round 5 and 6.

Seeing Mizi was like a wake up call to him- a spark and miracle. The push he needed to snap put of it.

He loves Mizi.

It may not be reciprocated, romantically, but the care is mutual.

The round is practically over though, but Till has regained his spark- the same spark that makes him able to fight aginst aliens and win for a few seconds before they put him on a leash again.

And Luka realises this.

Till is driven by emotions, and in the blink of an eye can drastically change actions and make multiple moves when motivated and charged.

This scene shows how Mizi and Till are eachothers final hopes.

This round is called Final, not for it being the end of this alien stage- not with out special guests here. But it's the end of what these 2 jad left.

Alien stage is cruel, and it presented multiple instances of false hope. It repeats again and again.

With tbe aliens believing Ivan would win, until he gave it up and in a blink was gone.

With Mizi and Sua beleiving they could tie, and the brief second they felt they did, until in a blink Mizi got 1 more point and Sua was gone.

For Hyuna, who once had both her brother and Luka one moment and seemingly the next lost it all, and by the hands of someone she trusted. Evrrything she had, gone seemingly in a blink.

Hope is fleeting in alien stage. And I feel like it's why the things in the back are also temporary means of happiness shown repeatedly- such as the shooting stars Ivan enjoys and finds peace in, and the flower crown that had its own background story in the mvs with Mizi and Till. Thsy taper off and die or pass eventually. But they're watched carefully by wide eyes.

It repeated, that joy and hope lost in the matter of seconds.

Blink, gone.

Except, Mizi and Till didn't blink. They watched, eyes wide and focused, and perhaps its thar focus and consumation of hope and emotion that doomed them to barely meet eachothers hands and escape the shot in the crowd.

There is no hope, in a cruel alien stage.

And it's ironic that as always, Till feels like he's won for a few seconds when acting against the aliens, only to lose to them a moment later. This time it's permanent.

[rockwgooglyeyes]

It's This Moment (or Nothing)

One of the biggest things that I have run into over the past day with Blink, Gone is the way that it feels incomplete and that is something I still stand by. This could be something completely purposeful, meant to illustrate that the round wasn't ever going to be a legitimate competition anyways, intended from the beginning as a lure for Hyuna and Mizi, to add extra emotional effect to the cliffhanger, or perhaps it really is one half of a wider whole (in a more localized sense than it being one part of the whole series, anyways). I don't really know which I think is more likely, at this point, because I'm not sure enough about any of my theories on that front to make real predictions. I still believe that Mizi will end up on her own when this all finished, all of the people she ever loved dead and gone, the bodies littered at her feet.

With the "special guests" I presume that Hyuna and Mizi will be forced to go up against each other. My friend Zen, (@verdantlights) said that hy thinks that it'll end up being a Hyunaluka round where Hyuna is set to win and then a Hyunamizi round where Hyuna is set to lose (edited because i got the order wrong and zen corrected me lmao). I agree with the idea that, at this point, it's damage control. They successfully lured Mizi (and by extension, Hyuna) in with Till, killed Till and now they're going to make their hostages perform for their lives, as is their brand.

One of the most interesting parts of Blink Gone, for me, is how this was presumably all planned from the start. Zen mentioned something that made me realize this yesterday, that this is the 50th season of Alien Stage. There's no way they would let it get this rowdy with rebels and disrupted rounds unless they were letting it happen, because it was planned from the start, because they were trying to tie up loose ends (Hyuna). Not only that but this round in particular was undoubtedly planned from the beginning, with the amount of preparation that went into it (the giant billboards of Ivan, the chanting of the crowd, the song itself). Till was ranked 2, it was always going to end up this way, Luka's superiority reinforced and his opponent dead on the floor. (btw I'm coming back to Luka. There's gonna be another fucking post just you wait). The way that they used Till's triggers against him, they drugged both of the performers but only gave Till enough to last him halfway through, forced Till to perform against Luka right after Round 6, where he lost one of the people in his life that was most important to him, and then rubbing salt into his horrible fresh wounds.

This is also one of the only rounds where Mizi is one of the POV characters that we have no mentions of Sua, at all. Perhaps that's merely because Mizi wasn't the focus and by extension, neither was Sua, but in another way, you could argue that it's because someone else was busy haunting the narrative: Ivan.

It kinda fucking hurts that the only way we really got to see Ivan was two ways- a direct flashback to the kiss from CURE, a explicit representation of the trauma that Ivan left Till with, and the billboards/Luka manipulations where he mimics Ivan in order to get Till on the back foot. And the thing is, it works. Ivan, despite his every intention otherwise, has become a trauma for Till, the way he thought he never could. To a degree, I was happy about this, because it proved Ivan wrong, that he would just be forgotten in a blink, but it hurts as well, because him only being used as a weapon against Till only reinforces his beliefs about himself that he is a monster and a negative impact on others. He would view himself being used against Till as a bad thing, that he hurt Till when he never intended to, rather than seeing it for what it is- an explicit sign that he was far more important to Till than he previously thought.

(Also something driving me up a wall right now is the way that one of my friend's described the lyrics of Blink, Gone as being in reference to the way that one moment Ivan was there, and the next he was gone, because Till took advantage of Ivan's presence and didn't know how much he needed it until it was gone and I'm sorry I'm going to go scream some more now.)

One thing I've talked about with friends a lot the past day is the way that, if Till is truly dead, then what was Ivan's character even for? And while narratively, it wouldn't make sense to kill TIll here with all of the potential he has and where his arc is going, one thing that @pwippy pointed out to me is how it makes a lot of sense thematically. Alien Stage is a universe full of suffering and pain for humans, forced to perform until they literally die on stage, all for the entertainment of the audience. It's not even meant as a way of exerting control or oppressing them, though it serves that purpose, because why would the seygein bother to oppress something that can't even fight back? Why go to the trouble of controlling something that is just a pet, whose cries are the fuel for a new age?

For Till to die now, reaching out for this glimmer of light when he is an animal caged, surrounded by enemies and bombarded with triggers of his suffering and pain, it would only be fitting. Another confirmation that life isn't fair, especially not in a system that is actively working against you and your attempts at happiness. Yet another sign that none of them were supposed to live very long, that even if they won, they wouldn't be around for much longer anyways. Now, it wouldn't necessarily be in character for Till, as he wants to live and he wants to fight, but he got to see one of the people he loved most in his dying moments, just like Sua and Ivan did. (Thank you this post for grabbing me by the throat and squeezing). In this world of pain and suffering, perhaps death is a mercy. If Till is truly dead, then he no longer a tool for his oppressors, he is free of their control. For Ivan and Sua both of their deaths were mercies to them- Ivan was able to die for the one he loved, as was Sua, and neither of them were forced to live in a world without their beloved.

So, while it might not be in character for Till to die, it makes sense within the themes and the established mechanisms of the universe, and it hammers home just how much more Mizi has to lose, even at this point where she thinks she's lost it all.

Mizi, who at the beginning, was the only one of these characters filled with innocence and hope, Mizi, the apparent protagonist of this story- at the end, she will be alone and she will know the true lengths of cruelty, with all that which she has ever loved destroyed.

[azuremist]

[unisongakikoeru]

this tweet helped me realize that yes, when mizi appears and till reacts positively to her, he does seem panicked (or at least something similar) from...losing control of the situation. because yes luka is someone who likes to have control, isn't he? especially on stage, because...it's the only place he can have, feel this control. this pretty much confirms it, already telling us a lot about luka's character

toying with mizi gave him control. toying with till gave him control. and it may explain why he looks somewhat ecstatic(?) in this frame— he's relishing in it

(let's also not forget if he loses, he literally dies, which makes it an easy motivation to win, even if it means playing dirty. let's also not forget he literally doesn't know anyone else aside from hyuna, so he also simply doesn't care about them, why would he?)

it also ties back to how he wants to make hyuna his, have control over her to protect her— just like how the aliens "protect" him by having control over him. it's...kinda all he knows

[crustyfloor]

Till's piece from the event is a very honest depiction, but I want to examine it in more detail since it looks so interesting.

For one, I find the headpiece confusing, I was hesitant on this point in the last post I made covering this I assumed the headpiece Till is wearing (separate from the headphones) was this device.

There isn't even a name for that device, but it's been theorized that it serves a similar function have the collars pet humans have, but affects the pet humans in some way.

I believe it's a behavioral management device since there is an emphasis on the brain when it's shown. And just based on the design itself. I think the purpose of it is similar to a shock collar.

Till in this environment looks familiar, he has that focused expression that he always has when he's writing music, like he's in a daze. Since this is a practice in a controlled environment I think he might actually be handling an instrument this time around (hence the headphones). Till has a natural passion for music, the environment of Anakt Garden also appears more calm than what he goes through with Urak so he looks very much in his element.

But despite how calm, and focused he looks outwardly, his collar shows orange.

Till is giving with his expressions even around the aliens, so if he was feeling bad (I would suspect as much seeing the fresh experiment patches..) I believe it would look more obvious, but the difference threw me off a bit. I could be reaching (definitely) But given how unruly his behavior can be, and how much effort the aliens are putting into finding ways to subdue him I think they used that device to mellow him out so that they could properly monitor him.

The collar being orange gives me the impression that he's not as calm as he looks but the headpiece is keeping him in a 'sedated' state(?)

Red - Condition in the negatives, energy depleted, feeling bad. overall horrible state.

Orange, yellow - to a lesser extent, more like if you're feeling skittish, nervous, (think of this mode as feeling under the weather)

Green - Good, calm, happy, normal and a healthy mode.

(Translation by kh47uo on Twitter)

This behavior could also show desensitization, as he had likely been conditioned to not be phased nor show weakness in front of the aliens even if he feels bad, a way of tolerating. But this is just me trying to make sense of whatever that head gear was... he could've also been sedated beforehand (banging my head against the concrete)

Also interesting to me that we weren't shown Till doing other things, like dancing, or singing. I think it's a testament to Anakt's (And Urak's) priorities as they have Till build on his music skills, his strongest skill. It's probably because that's all he has to offer is his music (His grades in every other subject are a mess.). So building that to its greatest potential before anything is important. But it's a reminder of the situation, he's not so intense about his craft because of his inclination to it. He doesn't make music simply because he likes it, he does it because it's what he has to do to survive. Despite doing what he is naturally driven to do, he looks like he has had his life drained out of him.

Urak (the bastard) knows that for sure. Appearances, and 'decent' skills can get you far but overwhelming passion and skill can put you farther above all the rest, it's exactly why Luka is the best in his league, and why Urak pushes Till to his limits to surpass that even with such destructive means.

[mintjeru]

the rendering here accurately reflects my post-round 7 mental state: a mess

open for better quality | no reposts

[thecraftyninjacat]

feeling normal about ivan alien stage, who only ever caused the one he loved suffering until the very end. ivan alien stage, who sacrificed himself for someone who died maybe not even half an hour later in the arms of the person he truly loved

[smlld]

Studying about depression + drawing the one that gave me depression

[cirrusoftheclouds]

Hey can this blonde twink perish already

[ivanttakethis]

Personally, I think Ivan should’ve been at the club.

[shakingparadigm]

they are sooooo cute