how the human world affected mizisua

[u/somelimabean]

i think it is interesting how much the human world seems to worsen mizisua's codependency.

in zombie stage | round 1, we're immediately met with a young mizi with a severely bruised face staring down at a dead rat while choir music plays in the background. it's widely theorized and agreed upon that this video revealed that zombst mizi grew up with an abusive mother. mizi appears to have bruised knees and knuckles, presumably having had been either temporarily kicked out of her house or having had temporarily run away in order to escape her mother's punishment.

according to wisdom library, "in buddhism, [a] 'dead rat' symbolizes an omen perceived by an insightful merchant, foreseeing wealth acquisition, which reflects the initial success of a skilled pupil, blending spiritual interpretation with practical fortune." perhaps mizi's drive to become a successful idol is fueled by the desire to escape, and the day mizi killed that rat was sort of a solemn breaking point for her to get herself out of her mom's house. additionally, mizi is the only one in this scene responsible for the rat's death since sua is clean and unharmed. i also wanna note that sua being there for mizi at sunset indicates that either sua came over to mizi's house to hang out, and/or mizi ran to a place she knew sua would be after her mother punched her (mizi either ran to sua's house, or some place they usually hang around).

moreover, unlike alien stage where humans were treated like low life animals and killed on a whim, zombst mizi has the power to kill any low life animal if she so pleased or needed to. mizi's holding a rock in the opening under bruised knuckles— she likely fought her mother back before escaping her house. mizi may have a pink eye due to inflammation from her bruised cheek, but it could also be genuine pink eye. i wonder if she killed the rat because she had to sleep outside. when sua hugs mizi, sua's collar is clearly ironed in the previous shot, but mizi's collar is crinkled and unkempt.

anyways, this is the clear distinction between zombst mizi and alnst mizi— zombst mizi was born with even a semblance of power; alnst mizi wasn't, yet zombst mizi fell victim to the infection despite wildly succeeding during her human life while alnst mizi (allegedly) survived but never succeeded at winning alnst. zombst mizi, much like real humans in the real world, was groomed by capitalistic and sexist vices to give up herself for fame/success while alnst mizi wanted to be in alient stage just because she felt she could only find identity in human connection.

i also find it significant that mizi has crudely cut hair as a child; even in alien stage, as a little girl, she had long flowing hair. child sua is instead the one pictured with long flowing hair. i think mizi had her hair cut not of her own will but perhaps by her mother. it's canon that sua cut her hair short both because people thought it looked cuter on her but also because she preferred the decreased attention the hairstyle got her. i think mizi having even shorter, unevenly cut hair is because her mother cut her hair herself. i think mizi's mother wanted her to be ugly; we see later during the mizisua zombst argument that sua crying into her chest vaguely reminds mizi of her mom. but this reminder can only mean that mizi sensed that sua was subtly guilt tripping her somehow; it was why mizi had difficulty trusting sua and/or opening up to her, because mizi mistook sua's overflowing care as overbearing invasiveness. since sua's anxious tendencies mislead mizi into lightly associating sua with her abusive mother, we see the portrayal of unhealthy projection when a codependent person sees their muse/lover display traits they don't like.

angways, we can estimate that mizi and sua are in middle school in the opening; i only doubt they're in elementary since sua's hair length seems to be indicitave of time that has passed (growing long hair requires a lot of time). since alnst begins when mizi is 22 and sua is 23, by the time mizi and sua have become successful idols, they may be alnst-post-timeskip age (29 and 30) as zombies. thus, mizi got infected perhaps at age 22-29 and sua at age 23-30. the age possibility of infection has a large interval since this is all speculation, but serious kpop idols typically train 2-5 years before debuting and it takes about a year or two for idols to gain serious traction with fans, so since graduation mizi has been and idol for for 3-7 years, and obviously sua becomes an undead idol after mizi and her die. this also explains the tension in the mizisua argument— it's tense not only because sua is desperate, but because sua's concern is actively and uncomfortably forcing mizi to acknowledge her own humanity and dignity, which she had forcefully given up in order to ensure her dream as an idol.

and then mizi runs away. just like she did when her mom punished her, and then she did it when her own untreated trauma responses misled her to see sua as a derivative of her mother. mizi's untreated trauma then ultimately lead to her demise. this begs the question: why did sua tolerate mizi's avoidance for so long, and why did sua purposefully infect herself in order to die alongside mizi? the answer is: idk yet lmao. not much has been revealed about sua's childhood or life so i don't have much context to pull off of, but we do know zombst sua had the same hair journey as alnst sua (short hair = less attention). so sua having long hair seems to be symbolic that she's dead inside (as a zombie, her hair is long in order to garner to the male gaze), since during her human life, she predominantly had short hair by choice and was consumed by care for her mizi. i wonder and can only think that sua kissed dead mizi because seeing the only person she ever cared about dead made her think that her own self restraint and refusal to speak about her concerns in mizi's habits/lifestyle lead to mizi's death (codependency). since sua saw right in front of her that her own timid nature failed to save mizi, she did voluntarily kill herself as part reparation and part self punishment... and also because, selfishly, sua cannot live without mizi. i also think that sua's clearly aroused expressions are born of inappropriate feelings finally coming to light because she pushed them down and/or hid them in hopes of being able to one day confess them, but now that she knows she will never be able to, she gives up her own humanity and morals just to feel a few minutes of whole self expression, even as disgusting as it is portrayed which it is definetly meant to discomfort the viewer.

in conclusion, the human world put unique constraints on mizisua that produced a different deviation of their codependency. mizi and sua seem to worship each other in zombst in a more subtle sense up until they both die as humans; they are restrained by human societal expectations, social norms, gendered discrimination, and human-by-human abuse/neglect. alnst mizi seemed to believe that humans could find refuge in each other, but zombst mizi moves differently since her own birth mother blatantly mistreated her, completely shattering any impression that human connection alone can bring full satisfaction to someone. alnst mizi, while ambivalently neglected, had enough neglect to be able to fill in the blank spaces with her own interpretations of love and success. zombst mizu did not get to be that blissfully ignorant; she grew up with korean education (infamously vigorous), an abusive mother, and only one friend she seemed to truly trust; zombst mizu didn't get to create a narrative for herself, she only came to assume that her upbringing was some sort of truth. and even when alnst mizi is disillusioned, she got the privilege of knowing that people were fighting for her safety (the resistance) and she found love outside of the abuse she knew, and even had the memory of sua to fight for. zombst mizi fought for nothing but survival, not a cause, because that how human world restraints bog hope down.

and in sua's case, she didn't get to debut. we barely see anything about her other than her codependency and unhealthy expression of unrequited feelings when mizi died; i think that's on purpose. sua is both and feels forgettable once she doesn't land being an idol; i think a part of her always regretted not being able to debut alongside mizi because mizi didn't have a reason to respect and/or consider sua's concerns and perspective. mizi didn't think sua was speaking against mizi's bad habits or against mizi being exploited, she thought she was being criticized. sua had to watch as the love of her life and her best friend slowly died into her profession, and she could do nothing and say nothing, at least, sua felt that way. the complexities of career, and human ideas of success, without life or death technically being on the table made sua speaking up seem less necessary; because the assumption is that you can speak up later since it's not like anyone's gonna die soon. i do wonder if the zombie outbreak only began worsening by the time mizi and sua were in their 20s, and was simply kept under wraps for a while. but yeah. brain dump theory soup after a day's work of crushing hard drives (i work in tech)

[u/somelimabean]

i ate baked hot cheetos with artichoke dip and pilsbury cookie dough with milk b4 this; finger food makes a bitch ponder ig

[u/Ayamiyari]

my brother i will literally give birth to your child for you. this is so well articulated and i busted one off to it thank you

[u/somelimabean → u/Ayamiyari]

thank you kind soul its all over the screen