Ok so it's been a few months since I posted this video and since then, I've only posted 1 more semi-related video. I'm still getting comments on one particular aspect about this video, that being my comments on shipping. My thoughts on that aren't necessarily to do with people shipping non-canon pairs, as I know that's something that occurs in most fandoms and ofc I'm alright with that. My reasoning for it being a problem in a show like Alien Stage is because of the heavy importance on the psychological aspects of the relationships in the show, and also the fact that they're mostly queer relationships. I touched on that a bit in my latest video which was on queer relationships in media, but I will be making another video responding to some thoughts and opinions people had on this video soon.

I suspect many misinterpretations come from the purity culture that has developed within fandom. People want to categorize these characters as either good or bad when that’s an extremely reductive way to interpret any media.

To get it out of the gate the kiss is NOT MUTUAL, Till clearly pushed away and didn’t want it, Ivan is at fault for that. It’s SO werid when people overwrite it as a “big romantic moment.” Like— no? They’re on a stage singing for their lives with the impending doom of either them dying or their friend dying. This scene is clearly meant to be tragic and uncomfortable, and I find it so weird when IvanTill shippers paint it as something it’s not.

Do I still ship Ivan and Till? Yep. Does that make the kiss more “romantic?” Absolutely not.

I’m happy that Alien Stage got as popular as it is, but I really miss when the fandom for it and Vivinos was smaller. It bugs me so much the weird things people (mostly kids) have said about this show. The Ivan and Mizi slander are so… Ugh. And now that the new series, Zombie Stage, has been announced, I see a bunch of people online calling it a horrible cash grab with no purpose that makes the point of the original Alien Stage weaker. Personally, I think that doing a similar, but different story with the same characters actually STRENGTHENS the original point of the series. The entertainment industry takes advantage of people over and over again. People are hurt and pushed down by those more powerful over and over again. These same tragic stories play out over and over again. It’s a protest against problematic and inhumane practices in the entertainment industry. It reminds me vaguely of one of Vivino’s previous animations about the cruelty of animal testing.

I’m so out of loop from the fandom that I didn’t even know people misinterpreted these things.

Other than that I always interpreted Till’s view of Mizi as a “she’s his god” kind of way. Cause to me it felt like he was always idolizing her, and saw her as his one bright light in the darkness of the world. I can see it being familial too tho

THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING LUKA OMMMMGGGGGGGG. People don't care to understand him just because he's "really evil"

Few people remember but before Cure came out alnst had one of the best communities here on YouTube. All the comments were full of character analysis and fun theories multiple people complemented, now the fandom is unbearable to be around. There's not a week where I don't see death threats from someone in that fandom.
It's a shame since Vivimos has been one of the best indie horror artists of this platform for some years now and the happiness we all may have felt at seeing her reach grow banished when they started to mess with her personal relationships

my initial thoughts during that scene was discomfort, especially seeing how much till struggled to push ivan away, it immediately struck me as something i shouldn't romanticize, so color me surprised with how much people loved that scene during it's debut...

I think anyone with common sense can see that the kiss was NOT mutual and WAS blatantly assault. The intentions behind it by Ivan might have been good but that does not make the action itself okay

The tragedy of Alien Stage is the fact that none of the characters truly got to live their life. Ivan never got the chance to truly feel like he could ever be more than just a burden, Luka was raised to be “perfect”, Hyuna lost her brother without being able to save him, Mizi wanted so bad to be in control that she lost the one she loved most, Sua gave up everything, and Till only ever began to heal after those he cared about were dead or gone. It’s a tragic story where all the main characters are made to be human with very obvious mistakes and flaws. It’s easy to say from an outsider’s perspective their actions lead to their tragedy but none of these characters are perfect victims. However, they are still victims of their circumstances. If they had that chance to live as they should’ve, maybe things could’ve at least been a story worth smiling about. No one in Alien Stage is a perfect victim much like how in many cases we find victims who’ve done wrong themselves. Does this mean the victim deserved it? No. I ship the characters not because they were romantic in their tragedy but for what could’ve been.

Never seen a person shipping mizitill, it feels like a myth

I listened to what you said:


None of them are ever healthy. I don't they never were. Sure they had moments of being peaceful but their trauma gets in the way somehow😭

Opinion before watching the video (while knowing almost nothing about Alien stage) : Black haired guy kisses blue haired guy, when blue haired guy clearly doesn't want to be kissed, which is bad . Black haired guy then tries to kill blue haired guy, but it seems to be because he knows if he pretends to kill blue haired guy, then he himself will be killed (as seen by the way he smiles at the end when he is stabbed). Which means either black haired guy wants to be killed or it's a sacrifice to save blue haired guy's life in a way. The fact that black haired guy kissed blue haired guy before pretending to kill him seems to point in the "it's a sacrifice" direction, because that means maybe black haired guy wanted to show blue haired guy that he loved him, but knew he didn't have time to do it any other way. Which still doesn't make the forced kiss okay.

as an ivantiller i acknowledge that ivantill fans sometimes dumb their relationship down and mischaracterize them, but so do anti-ivantillers as you said 😭 like bro its so much worse

I always saw Mizi and Till’s relationship as Till having a crush on her, but in a way where he idolizes her and sees her as a sort of “salvation” for his future, therefore also wanting her to be a part of that future (misinterpreted by two as having a crush/wanting her romantically, but mainly to fill in the gap that losing his family made), while Mizi always saw him as a close friend and nothing more and even sometimes feeling uncomfortable or wanting to put distance between them because of how Till sees her

This is a very good argument in terms of fandom discourse. It really does seem a lot like for many this is really their „baby‘s first queer art“ and it causes a lot of discourse that feels jarring.

The most baffling thing for me is just the way people wanna argue for canon when the 2 main relationships are queer canonically wich makes sense since a lesbian couple made this. And Vivinos makes a lot of queer art on her channel too. To argue Mitzi as straight especially confuses me since her grieving the murder of her girlfriend is like the theme of the show. As well as her having to deal with men forcing themselves on her constantly. I also feel like her hair being shot short by a bullet the moment she escaped could have been a metaphor for her gaining freedom of expression and going back to her child self before being taken by the aliens since she also had a pixie as a child. I particularily like the reading that she might have been a butch lesbian who felt like femininity was forced on her or alternatively that stripping herself of that femininity helped her escape from that prison. Not to mention that Ivan, being gay or bi himself would naturally be friends with her since they share the queer experience and so they‘d naturally get along in that regard. Meanwhile Till‘s implied objectification and abuse by the aliens made him obsess with Mitsi because she had no interest in men. You know, the thing that is the opposite of how the aliens felt about men who violated him. Also a commonly known issue in the K-pop industry being male idols being abused or sexually exploited by managers etc. Till attached so strongly to her because she was the only person that didn‘t hate him and also didn‘t wanna date him. It totally makes sense. Meanwhile I also think that Ivan was weaponized by the aliens to force himself on Till as a marketing ploy. The crystal heart thing to me felt like symbolism of manifactured love because of how violating and scary it looks to have someone push a glass heart into your mouth that shatters from the pressure. It very much seems like a metaphor for how violating and violent it feels to be forced to fake intimacy for these perverse aliens. And since the aliens love to violate Till for their gratification „taming the wild boy into submission“ being what they market him as, it also shows that him and Ivan also had to grapple with the same issue of feeling like their romance was forced on them much like Mitsi and Sua. But Ivan flipped the script knowing they‘d turn on him for it to save Till and also let him know that his genuine love for him wasn‘t rooted in the violating forceful harrassment they made him do to him in the previous kissing scenes.

I have a hard time hating Ivan because of this. He‘s clearly dissociative and I do feel like his sacrifice for Till was the moment Ivan could overcome this dissociation to finally do a selfless act for someone he cared a lot about. Mitsi and Ivan were kind of in the same position and he probably noticed Sua planning to lose because he planned to lose too if he ever had to face Till in the battles. He kinda became Till‘s Sua but I also like that Ivan is the more assertive type meanwhile the wlw couple has the survivor be the assertive one. There‘s so many parallels between them and I really love that about the show. It‘s just so nuanced. It‘s almost tragic seeing people so hung up in all these hot takes and fandom drama they totally forget to actually think deeper about the series.

I feel like media literacy of the canon is important but also I despise how this fandom hates on anything that is not canon compilant (which is a big part of fanfic culture, like common creating aus is what fandoms thrive on). I mostly see it with my favorite rarepair Ivan x Luka, it is such a cool ship to explore. Like both of them suffer from unrequited love and imagining that they grow closer because of it and exploring those feelings is just neat.
Additionally it doesn't erase any sexualities, Ivan is a gay man and Luka is in canon only showed with straight pairing but it's not as clearly shown as Ivan or Mizi and in my own personal opinion he is very demiromantic coded.
I just wanted to rant a bit about all the hate I see under any IvanLuka fanart.

Late but. Peoples' media literacy is a huge reason that I don't ever want to post like comics with deep messages on the internet, just stand-alone art. i know I'm nobody unlike Vivinos but it's just so frustrating as a creative to watch people bastardize, demonize, misinterpret things in the media they consume. It kinda just sucks that want to create out of me because it would be really demoralizing if this happened with something I created.

And god forbid you have a Morally Grey character that isn't good 24/7, suddenly they're a horribly written villain instead of using any thinking power to the nuance of why that character did whatever they did and acknowledgement that it's still a bad action, not that the character is bad because they're not 100% good. The 'It's not that deep' of it all.

I remember when KARMA first came out, I was reading the comments and came across a person who said that Mizi deserved to be called a "witch" for her actions (stopping the rocket and making it crash). I still remember it now because of how disgusted and confused I was that someone would say this. If anyone was in the same situation as her, losing all your friends, your lover and everything you continued living for, then god forbid you make an irrational decision when everything in your life comes crumbling down. I hate this fandom to my very core because the amount of fans who don't use any braincells or critical thinking when watching the show, or don't go back and look at past episodes to fact check their opinions is awful.

1:10 Honestly, as a person that barely was in the Alien Stage fandom, only on the side, i always interpreted this scene as this guy trying to leave the game on his own terms, expressing his love, even though it was creepy and then trying to make them both dead so basically the tournament would be ruined but failing to do so.