One of the most fun parts about LOONA as a group with an underlying story is participating in that story, usually by theorizing. This page, however, will be designed to collect details about the events we see in the LOONAverse and how they are connected, and which tropes apply to them and string them together. If you noticed something about LOONA that no one else has, put it here—but it must be something everyone can see and confirm, not anything on which YMMV. Theories themselves will go in Wild Mass Guessing/LOONA.
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"Earth" era
"ViViD"
- In several shots, color can be seen bleeding off of the walls.
- There is a specific hallway introduced using the Vertigo Effect, so that the viewer can see a variety of colored crystals floating through the air around HeeJin. She obviously sees them, but it isn't until the end of the video that her eye settles on a crystal colored bright pink—her own designated color.
"Around You"
- A cat breaks a vase, and when HyunJin investigates, she finds a bracelet at her door, causing her to smile.
- A man is seen at the climax of the video and receives prominent focus, yet his face is never seen. This would seem to be the love interest she sings about.
- In the 10 minute film version, the video ends with Hyunjin, wearing the cat head, sitting on a bench with Heejin sitting not too far next to her.
"Let Me In"
- HaSeul arrives at the Solheimasandurnote plane crash site in Iceland. No one is driving the car that takes her there.
- There are several hanging feathers and dreamcatchers inside the car.
- There are two HaSeuls in the video: one we see normally, and one we see with short blonde hair, wearing a feathery dress.
- HaSeul finds diamonds on the ground, and later uses one as ammunition when slaying the other version of her with a slingshot. This is a metaphor for stars in the sky, and later, a "shooting star".
- White line images of a small bird, a paper airplane, and a diamond flash back and forth across the screen several times. A paper airplane can be seen floating to the ground.
- Images of diamonds commonly flash by in freeze-frame spritzes, and they mimic motifs and visual metaphors used later, such as hanging over HaSeul's head like the chandelier in "Kiss Later" and "One&Only", and placed over her left eye in the style of ViVi's robot-enhanced eye or Kim Lip and JinSoul's ODD Eyes.
"Kiss Later"
- When Frog Face pins YeoJin to a wall to give her a gift, an egg can be seen frying on a stove. This is a Visual Metaphor for her embarrassment.note
"Love&Live"
- ViVi easily outperforms the human girls in anything physical, being much faster at track and much more competent at basketball. However, she seems to lack social skills, and does not integrate well into the group.
- While the other girls drink from juice boxes, ViVi does not. She may not be able to enjoy food and drink or process them through her body.
- ViVi seems to rely on her battery charge to stay active, but after running off the track and allowing it to die, she doesn't go sprawling or collapse, but merely looks winded.
"Everyday I Love You"
- Unlike the love interests of HyunJin and YeoJin, we see the love interest's face very clearly in this video. This is important later.
- This video is stated to be a recreation of ViVi's memories from her time as human, with some details possibly incorrect. This does not merely include the true identity of the man in white, but the other LOONA members who make cameos: HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul (who features as the rap), and YeoJin. They would have been children in the 90s when this took place, if they'd even been born yet—so it is likely ViVi is subconsciously replacing faces she cannot remember with people she knows in present day.
- This is the first appearance of a camera as used within actual events. HaSeul holds a camcorder and records the girls skating, and ViVi uses a camera to snap shots of her crush.
- This also marks the first appearance of cassette tapes. ViVi selects one bearing her own song from a stack containing cassettes for the other four members.
- There is a disco ball in several prominent shots. This may be a Visual Metaphor for the moon.
- The text ViVi receives at the end reads "I'll be back tomorrow" in Korean text.
- Yves' music video shows her going on a roller skating date with Vivi, implying that her man in white might not have even been a man at all.
"Sonatine"
- Each individual shot of the members has them in their own locations.
- HeeJin is in a high-rise rooftop with a view of a skyscraper behind her. A street full of cars is occasionally visible.
- HyunJin is positioned before a large Ferris Wheel.
- HaSeul is positioned in a balcony with a glowing restaurant sign behind her.
- ViVi is standing in a populated alleyway.
- After two of ViVi's individual shots, there is an odd cutaway to the window of a car door. In the first, the window is tinted, leaving only the distorted reflection of the street against it. In the second, a shot fades by of the same window no longer tinted, revealing ViVi drifting off behind it.
"Middle Cosmos" era
"Eclipse"
- Several shots show Kim Lip in a pitch-black darkness, lit in deep red by a halo around her head.
- In terms of actual events, not much happens-beyond these halo clips and the scenes of an owl passing by, the only thing we see is Kim Lip entering the abandoned studio, dancing to the song, and then leaving the studio.
- The camera is almost always spinning, revolving around Kim Lip. When it is doing this, it is always moving the same direction, moving to the right while remaining trained on her.
- Kim Lip goes through five successive outfits. Only in the first and last is she always shown alone, with no backup dancers.
- The final iteration of Kim Lip is always shot from below, lit in deep red.
"Singing In The Rain"
- JinSoul is the first member since HyunJin to interact with an actual living version of her signature animal. The blue betta fish in her bag is given focus many times and is clearly significant in some way.
- JinSoul is consistently shown imprisoned, either behind bars of some sort or in a large tank.
- At the end of the video, once the blue betta is placed back in its tank, JinSoul breaks free of her containment, and the rain finally comes down.
"Love Cherry Motion"
- Choerry is initially shown having fun with HaSeul and YeoJinClick for why this doesn't make sense . However, the location changes twice in the MV, each after Choerry bites a cherry: she is once shown in an abandoned building where she walks from out into a vast green field littered with mirrors, and later the same field, but vibrantly purple.
- This marks the first time shadows have been used to hide LOONA members' faces. Choerry, Kim Lip, and JinSoul are shown heavily shadowed in the first beat drop as they dance. In the second beat drop, they start off shadowed, but reveal their faces before the end.
- This marks the first time we see Choerry upside down, and shots like this are her Calling Card from then on.
- With Choerry, "ODD" is complete. She and JinSoul are the two moons forming the "D"s, and Kim Lip is the moon forming the "O", as displayed by the opening animatics (Kim Lip's being the only one to expand to full halo).
"Girl Front"
- The tape recorder appears again. Kim Lip plays it at the beginning, and at the end, it stops and begins playing backward.
- Kim Lip spends most of the MV running. There are several times where she looks at herself, even shooting herself at one point with her finger gun. Choerry is also able to contact her reflection. However, JinSoul does not interact with herself.
- This marks the first time JinSoul undergoes her Visual Metaphor. In several shots, she is placed against the sun, casting her in shadow, playing out her sin of swallowing the sun.
- Immediately after are follow-up shots of Choerry upside down.
- Choerry's map bears stickers for 1/3's + YeoJin's animals, as well as an apple, a penguin, and a butterfly. Judging by the stickers she places, she succeeds in finding HyunJin and YeoJin.
- Choerry is seen against the Ferris Wheel, like HyunJin was, and folds her map into HaSeul's paper airplane. The group are also seen using the same yellow truck HaSeul used to get to Iceland.
- In a dimly lit void, a shadowed girl runs a ring around the three ODD girls. The identity of this girl is a mystery, but confirmed to be an as-of-then unrevealed member of LOONAnote
- The above scene marks another appearance of the tape recorder, as seen in the extended version of that scene shown in "LOONATIC".
- The girls wear rubber bracelets twisted to resemble the classic depiction of a Mobius strip.
"Sweet Crazy Love"
- Several shots flash by too fast to follow every once in a while. Slowed down, they can be seen to include: blood running down a face, an owl's eye, JinSoul with half her face in shadow, someone placing eyedrops into her right eye, water rings against glass, and an eye test. A new shot is added in the final set of these flashing stills in color: a solar eclipse, when Kim Lip awakens her eye.
- Despite Kim Lip being the member most attention is drawn to concerning her ODD Eye, it is worth noting that it is actually JinSoul who awakens her eye first.
- Two shadow figures are seen. One stands in a stairwell and touches her shadow, and the other slides down against a wall, hugging her knees. Although they resemble Choerry, they are both pitch-black silhouettes, so it is impossible to know for surenote .
- JinSoul's ear bud is pulled out on the train, by what seems to have been a ghost. "Egoist" shows through juxtaposition that it was Olivia Hye, and she returns the favor.
- The alleyway Kim Lip dances in has several neon signs that bear different words in Korean. They say such things as "Mobius", "LOONATIC", "Starlight", and "Dark Side of the Moon".
- There are two appearances of a butterfly: once in the eye test, accompanied by a bird and an airplane as well as broken rings, and once against the alley wall Kim Lip leans against (there are two in the latter, one black and one white).
- Kim Lip runs by a number of posters bearing the image of the moon when chasing Choerry. There at first appear to be only 10, but there are actually 12—two are in shadownote .
- The whole MV is described as an origin story, and takes place before "Eclipse", where Kim Lip visits at the end.
"Eden" era
"new"
- Yves stands at a crane machine bearing a large circular red button and a set of three buttons in red, blue, and purple. She lifts a frog plush and an owl plush note from the group of prizes.
- Yves is consistently shown someplace high. After biting the apple in the second chorus, we revisit a scene from "Everyday I Love You", where Yves roller skates with ViVi. This implies that the latter is from Eden and the love interest seen in EDILY was Yves.
- Yves uses scissors to literally cut ties to her name (tags bearing her name fall to the floor).
- Yves remains destructive; she golfs the apples and the plushes, drops apples off of buildings, and drops and spills yogurt. The reason for this is unknown.
- Yves steps out of the white converse and into a more feminine black high heel. The former are associated with ODD Eye Circle and the latter are associated with yyxy, beginning with her.
- Yves performs a balancing act on a parking lot bumper. This is a Visual Metaphor for "toeing the line", a way of saying one has to stick to a closely-defined set of rules.
- ViVi is noticeably blonde, not pink-headed. This may have been the way she appeared back when she was human.
- The elevator shows the floor numbers 9, 8, and 5 in descending order. Members 9, 8, and 5 appear in the MV.
- In the penultimate shot, Yves drops an apple, which Choerry catches.
"Heart Attack"
- Chuu becomes the latest girl to hold the camera, using it all throughout the video to capture shots of Yves.
- Yves does not appear intent on acknowledging Chuu. She looks her in the face several timesnote , but never bothers to indulge her antics.
- Chuu practices Yves' dances in a mirror and mimicks her golfing scenes by putt-ing her own penguin plush.
- The apple is clearly intended to represent Chuu's own heart, growing in size and being gifted (repeatedly, and without success) in a variety of ways to Yves.
- The novel Yves reads is called "Aphrodite Means Death", written by John Appleby and published by Penguin Works.
- The reference to the Little Match Girl at the end consists of Chuu watching through a window as she sees herself finally loved by Yves, eating her own signature strawberry. At the end, Chuu wakes up on Earth, awoken by HaSeul, meaning this event was real or part of it concerning her eating the strawberries was.
"One&Only"
- Go Won bears an uncanny resemblance to a porcelain doll—pale-skinned, dark-haired, cherry red lips, and a little too perfect.note
- Go Won's Living Shadow dances, runs, and dons a crown, all without Go Won herself initiating. This is representative of her true self attempting to shine through.
- The chandeliers are a Visual Metaphor for Go Won's crown, as is the pineapplenote .
- Choerry appears early in the MV, upside down and bearing the apple from "new". Once she enters, Yves and Chuu also enter the video and are able to chase Go Won.
- The table at the end bears twelve chairs, one for each member, and four fruits: cherries for Choerry, apples for Yves, strawberries for Chuu, and a pineapple for Go Won herself. Chuu is looking at Yves across from her—Yves is looking at Go Won. Go Won is looking at the other end of the table, where the twelfth member would sit.
- In the dancing scenes post-pineapple, two of the backup dancers are out of sync. They stay still while others dance and perform their dance moves more slowly.
- Go Won hides under a veil just before eating her fruit. This is representative of her chrysalis.
- The butterfly is representative of rebirth and transformation in many cultures, and the specific species associated with Go Won is the papillon ulysses, or the blue emperor.
"Egoist".
- Olivia Hye, running counter to Yves, is initially shown in low places before climbing to higher ones.
- The shirt Olivia wears reads "MASCULINE".note
- The rap break features JinSoul, who is again shown imprisoned, and behind her reads Chinese text saying "fallen angel". One such angel is the Abrahamic Lucifer or Helel, aka the Devil, who is associated with the sun. The sun takes heavy prominence in this video, setting below the horizon.
- The claw machine returns, but this time it drops the wolf plush.
- Olivia gets her own Calling Card, hereafter referred to as the bleeding screen: the scene becomes over-saturated with red until it fades out completely. It returns in "love4eva".
- Olivia sets fire to the mattress as well as several effects associated with Yves.
"love4eva"
- Chandeliers appear several times over Yves, Chuu, and Go Won, but not over Olivia Hye. This is again a Visual Metaphor related to acceptance of the true self and rejection of Eden: this means that 3 of the 4 girls are already rebelling, but Olivia Hye has not.
- The "God" figure (the headmistress) finds Yves' dirty socks, realizing she's left the boarding school when she wasn't supposed to.
- Olivia tries to follow the fleeing girls at the end, but she gets lost and is forced to return to the school alone.
- While Yves and Chuu run away, Go Won looks back at Olivia, playing out the yyxy insignia.
[++] era
"favOriTe"
- Choerry appears upside down the one time.
- The circle of light the girls dance on may represent the full moon.
- YeoJin splits from the group and travels to the edge of the circle in the second chorus, half shadowed. Why?
"Hi High"
- In a split second scene where Choerry and Kim Lip meet up, a metal container can be seen, colored Eden green, bearing a butterfly symbol.
- Flashes going by inbetween scenes show the camera following markings on the road reading "1 X 1". X1X would be released on New Year 2019.
- "101", a number on the steel machine behind Kim Lip, receives a large amount of focus, for unknown reasons.
- JinSoul remains alone for the entire video. She also is framed against the sun again.
- The dimly lit void from "Girl Front" returns, with ODD Eye Circle now encircling Olivia Hye.
- HeeJin looks up at the moon at the beginning, and it is a narrow crescent. When Olivia Hye joins, it has waxed into a full moon.
- The words that flash across the screen bear a message in several languages, declaring that by fate, the 12 girls of LOONA have come together.
- The girls' mission is to run. As they meet each other, all twelve girls are seen running at some point or another.
[X X] era
Teasers
- The "X X" teaser is clips from "Hi High" being played in reverse, with the beginning of the song also played in reverse. This is also the first time we see the "+ +" rotate into "X X".
- "X1X" is completely in black and white, with only a few instances of color being shown; flashes of orange and purple for Yeojin and Choerry respectively. We also see several visual effects and overlays for other members, such as VHS static for ViVi, glitch static for Jinsoul, strobe effect for Olivia, what appears to be snow for Chuu, and the image of a butterfly over Go Won's mouth and on Kim Lip's back.
- In "XIIX", Go Won is shown to be in Iceland, the location of Haseul's solo MV "Let Me In". After she fails to catch up with a moving vehicle and passes out, another Go Won appears, walks to the crashed airplane site where Haseul was at, and finds a white bird feather. She crushes it in her hands, and when she opens them, still images of butterflies flying out of her hands quickly flash on the screen as she looks up to the sky.
- The phrase in Icelandic which is shown at the end of the video translates to "Fly like a butterfly."
- In "XIIIX", Olivia awakens at the foot of a spiral staircase. Along with her walking up the staircase, we also see her run out of a tunnel, then ripping off the choker around her neck.
- In this teaser, we also see three girls who appear in the "Butterfly" music video; the dancer girl with the afro, the girl holding the camera, and the girl with the butterfly tattoo standing at the balcony.
- In "XIVX", Yves walks out into the streets of Hong Kong and starts dancing, later joined by Chuu.
Butterfly
- Many reoccurring visual symbols from the group's previous music videos appear throughout the video, such as the cassette player, the converse, and the apple.
- Alongside the special teaser titled "For all LOONAs around the world", a diverse variety of women are represented in the music video, from women of color, women of different body types, social class, religion, and even a girl with crutches. All of this supports the group's ultimate message of female empowerment by saying no matter who you are, you have the ability to fly like a butterfly and reach your goals.
- In one scene, a group of students begin to stand on their desks and look towards the sky.
- There are several instances of women dancing freely; some of them are out in public areas doing so.
- One woman run towards a brick wall and kicks it, showing her desire to break down the walls in front of her to fly.
- There are a couple of instances where a woman removes a jacket or shawl, almost like a butterfly emerging itself from its cocoon.
- One girl is standing over the cityscape, looking down from above at the view below her feet.
- Several women are running by the end of the video, another common visual motif in LOONA's music videos, and again tying to the girls' desires to reach their dreams. One girl is running on a concrete road, but then runs off the track by the end of the song.
- There are three girls wearing eyepatches, mirroring the visual motif of ODD EYE CIRCLE.
[#] era
Teasers
- The "#" teaser calls back to scenes in the "X X" teasers (namely "XIIX", "XIIIX", and "XIVX") and "Butterfly" music video. Go Won in Iceland, Olivia in Paris, Chuu looking for Yves in Hong Kong, and several of the girls who appeared in the music video such as the students in red tracksuits from Hong Kong. Alongside that, we get images of a butterfly burning, and a swarm of butterflies flying above rising smoke and ember, before a sudden cut of TV static, ending the teaser on a bird's eye view of the black sand beach in Iceland.
- This is also the first teaser that doesn't start with LOONA's signature logo.
- In "#1", after the same bird's eye view shot of Iceland from the last teaser, we get another cut of TV static and quick black and white closeup shots of the LOONA 1/3. After this, Heejin opens her eyes, and she's shown to be floating in the sky while a single repeating piano note fades in. Heejin takes a step in midair, and the note changes from a C to a C#.
- "#3" only shows the back sides of the members, contributing to this comeback's theme being "the back of the moon". ViVi wears a bandana covering her mouth like a graffiti artist and is holding a can of spray paint, Hyunjin and Choerry are standing in front of a line of tuk tuks, Jinsoul is on a subway train with an unknown group of girls (later shown in the MV proper to be other members), Chuu and Go Won are holding hands behind their backs, Yves is in a dance practice room, Yeojin is at a school with a group of students running towards her, Heejin is standing in front of a billboard, and Olivia is standing on the other side of that same billboard, but at night.
- All the members slowly turn their heads to look behind them, except for Kim Lip, Yves, and Yeojin.
- The special teaser "To all LOONAs around the world" has a woman narrating in English: "The moon does not shine by itself. The moon reflects the light of the sun. The moon orbits around the Earth, always showing the same side. So... No one knows what is on the back of the moon."
So What
- Just like in the "To all LOONAs around the world", the music video starts off with a woman narrating: "Do not accept the fate of the moon. Get off the track. Reveal to the world the hidden side. Burn yourself."
- Olivia is standing in a dark area, holding a torch. Once its lit, she holds it up to the sky before throwing it and setting the area around her on fire. This coupled with the image of the burning moon suggests that she just set the moon on fire. There are also balls of fire falling from the sky to Earth after she does so, which the members watch, and at the very end, Olivia sees white bird feathers on the ground burn before restoring themselves.
- Hyunjin and Choerry are always shown together, wearing identical clothing and their movements almost always mirroring each other.
- Chuu and Go Won are seen running down a hallway at one point, until Go Won stops and turns around to look at the camera, waiting for it to catch up to her before turning back around.
- Yves is in a dance studio with several ballerinas, her all black clothing and hip hop dancing making her stand out from everyone else in the room.
- Yeojin is shown in a school setting, acting rebellious by swinging her school bag around, and later standing in front of a group of other students as if leading them.
- In one of the scenes on the subway, Olivia can be seen ripping off her choker in a similar manner to when she did in the XIIIX teaser.
- ViVi is isolated from the rest of the group and the majority of her scenes shows her wearing a bandana over her mouth.
- Several shots in the music video have a VHS static overlap on them.
- There is a brief shot of a fence with the words "Make it burn" being set on fire.
- At the end of the final chorus, the word "BAD" is shown three times before at the very end turning into "FREE".
[12:00] era
Teasers
- The teaser for "12:00" shows twelve locations that are all associated with LOONA and one of their music videos: Budapest (yyxy's "love4eva"), Paris (Heejin's representative location), Hong Kong (ViVi's native country and representative location), Taipei (Yeojin's representative location), Bangkok ("So What?"), Reyjavik (Iceland, Haseul's representative location), London ("The Carol"), Auckland (New Zealand, LOONA 1/3's "Love & Live"), Tokyo (Hyunjin's representative location), Prague (LOONA 1/3's "Love & Evil"), Los Angeles (Odd Eye Circle's "Girl Front"), and finally, Seoul.
- The clock counts down one minute before midnight in Korea, while the other locations show that country's time relative to Korea.
- The audio snippet playing during the teaser is a recording from the Apollo 13 spacecraft that looped around the moon and landed back on Earth on April 17, 1970.
Why Not
- Olivia's solo scenes feature her standing in the middle of a road as a car drifts around her, creating a perfect circle where she stands at the center. The car also has a lightning pattern that resembles a wolf.
- Two instances occur where Heejin stands in front of lightning. One is her standing in front of a neon sign resembling a lightning storm, and another is her in a field while a storm brews behind her. Then a meteor falls from the sky similar to the ending of "So What" and crashes to the ground, causing an explosion near Heejin.
- Choerry is once again shown hanging upside down on top of a mirror.
- Kim Lip is shown in an open field as three orbs of light circle her. She appears confused and scared at first, but later becomes more confident and towards the end, she starts to levitate in the air.
- Jinsoul is in a telephone booth as raindrops falling in the sky slowly come to a halt in midair.
- The set during Yves, Chuu, Olivia, and Choerry's dance scene appears to be a trashed supermarket isle. Yeojin is later shown here by herself as cans float in midair around her.
- Heejin and Hyunjin's duet dance scene is in black and white, with Heejin in a black suit and Hyunjin in a white suit.
- Olivia is shown with a group of unknown girls. A brief flash shows a pair of wolf eyes similar to "Egoist" before she opens her eyes and the car lights come on. Towards the end of the video, the shadowed girls around Olivia now have glowing red eyes similar to what Olivia had in the solo music video.
- For a brief second, Jinsoul flashes her Odd Eye to the camera. She's also standing in front of a neon sign that says "With all LOONAs around the world".
- Yves is shown in an alley way surrounded by empty cars. ViVi also appears in that same alley, sitting in the driver's seat of one of them.note
- Chuu is another member shown in front of a car, dancing in an open field with flower petals flying in the air. Later, she stands on top of the car as she looks at the sky, seeing a large ball of fire burning. Whether it is the sun or the burning moon from "So What" is unclear.
- The other "LOONAs" from around the world make another appearance in this video, beginning to dance after the clock strikes midnight for the second chorus.
- During the bridge, the girls are all shown dancing in a circle on the moon around a campfire. The entire scene is also in reverse.
- The colored smoke/powder makes a reappearance here. Go Won is shown surrounded by blue smoke, and towards the end, the girls are all playing with colored powder together.
- ViVi stands in the alley where Yves was as multiple red apples float in midair around her.
- The three orbs of light that circled Kim Lip now multiply into twelve, hovering a now empty field which has turned purple and begin to float higher into the pitch black sky.
- A girl is scene floating high above the Earth as a massive hurricane forms below.note
- At the end of the song, Hyunjin is shown alone as a butterfly flies away from her and she looks down to find one of her shoes is missing.
Star
- Kim Lip sits in front of a spinning wheel in one shot of the video. This is a reference to the story of "Sleeping Beauty".
- At one point, Yeojin and Go Won have their arms linked together in a way similar to a Moebius strip.
- Chuu is seen jumping off a platform similar to what Olivia did in "Hi High".
- During Yves' solo dance, the members behind her form the image of an apple tree.
