In February, LOONA made their long awaited return with their new song So What. With fun and empowering lyrics playing off of a strong and epic beat, it had to come with just as epic of a video. Personally, I believe that LOONA lived up to those standards.
Throughout the years before their debut as a group, LOONA released music a little differently in comparison to their KPOP colleagues. Each member of the group appeared individually at first, debuting with a solo of their own as well as a music video. This continued as a pattern, stopping occasionally to make subunits with the debuted girls. What makes LOONA stand out even more than this strange way of coming together, is that the group has its own intricate world in which they’ve created a web of stories through their music videos.
Coined as the “Loonaverse” LOONA uses lore to tell each member’s individual story. They take on characters, separating their true selves from their personalities within the Loonaverse. Fans or “Orbits” take the time to look through these music videos on a complex level, creating theories and storylines by doing this. It has become an essence as to who LOONA are as a group, and has brought in a big chunk of their audience.
In their previous comeback, Butterfly, the Loonaverse was shown through women from around the world reenacting popular scenes from these music videos. However, no new stories were told within it, and it had Orbits concerned for the future of the Loonaverse. When it was announced in August that LOONA’S longtime creative director quit, fans were more distressed than ever before. However, once the first teaser for the comeback was released on December 14th, fans were immediately put at ease.
In the Teaser, first member, Heejin, is seen stuck in the air on her way up from what fans speculated was her jumping at the end of the High Hi music video. She is also in one of the outfits well known from their Butterfly era. It was clear that LOONA was going to continue incorporating the Loonaverse into their Music Videos.
In the So What music video, fans were please when twelfth member Olivia Hye was seen stood with a torch, a call back to their teaser for a project called burn, a track fans assumed was the song that was going to be used before their creative director quit. Throughout the music video, it shows Olivia Hye’s build up to throwing the torch, and essentially lighting the Loonaverse on fire. Fire fills the sky and the moon is seen to be set ablaze. Throughout the video, there are other easter eggs at every turn, whether it be the subway from a subunit ODD EYE CIRCLE’S Sweet Crazy Love, or the ballet studio from Yves’ solo New. Sprinkled around the So What video of course is crisp choreography and powerful performances that make LOONA the group that can do it all.
But don’t stop watching when the song is over. At the end of the video, there is even more lore placed perfectly to make the audience want more. The camera pans to a white feather burning until suddenly it isn’t. In fact, the feather is still perfectly in tact. There are many theories already just from this scene alone, but one thing is for sure among multiple fans: this is symbolic of Haseul, LOONA’s third member who had taken a hiatus from this era to get help for her anxiety symptoms. It was the perfect ending for this video, bringing everything LOONA is to an ending that has Orbits ready for the next video.
kchat 