THE LOONAVERSE
Sofía Leal
LOOΠΔ is a South-Korean girl group with 12 members under the label Blockberry Creative,
also known as BBC. The group has been recognized by its innovative formula of making a band,
each member was revealed by months, each having an album and music video. The total group is
divided by sub-units (1/3, OEC & yyxy also known as EDEN unit). Each member has a
representative color and animal, but, for what? Although K-pop groups are commonly known by
their music style, or their music video’s visual work, LOOΠΔ has another complexity level,
bringing into the industry a brand new story line, which in need to comprehend it, one must
understand “basic” concepts of quantum physics in string theory, Mobius strip, religious
allusions and deep symbolism. The lore of Loona is intricate, the creative directors of BBC made
every image and lyrics absolutely deliberate, for the sake of understanding it and if desired,
interpret it in various ways.
“The 'Loonaverse' is the alternate universe LOOΠΔ lives in (…) their releases are an story
told by music introduced to the world, one after another, to expand the Loonaverse.” (BBC,
2017. Eclipse era). In this story, the girls have the objective of reuniting and form their circle,
complete the construction of the moon, as each one of them represents a moon phase as well.
Each sub-unit forms a smaller circle, and then, when they have encountered by small groups,
they will be able to unite as a whole. Each sub-unit has their own complications throughout the
process and different themes, however it still manages to connect with the others, no matter how
troublesome and challenging it is. By the reason of what was mentioned before, firstly it will be
explained the complexity of the Loonaverse as a whole and then, the most specific features of
each part of this story.
In February of 2018, BBC officially posted the photo of a
Mobius strip, surrounding a moon and with the names of the subunits in each twist. The Mobius Strip, (Fig. 1) also known as the
twisted cylinder, is a one-sided loop surface model developed in
1858 by the mathematician, August Ferdinand Mobius, who stated
that if an object moved through the strip, in the first round it will
end up upside-down from the point were it started, in the other side
of the band, and in the second round they will eventually get back
to the starting point, the objects are indistinguishable from their Fig. 1. The Mobius Strip.
math.hcm.edu
own mirror image. In synthesis, an object must travel twice to get to
their starting point. Back to the LOOΠΔ Mobius, it was mentioned
that it surrounded a moon, meaning that the Mobius is the pattern of orbit around the moon that
the characters must follow, making it hard for every member to meet and find the correct moon
phase. As we speak, they are searching a specific kind of moon construction.
Taking into account their song “Rendezvous 18.6y” (LOOΠΔ yyxy, 2018). Precisely, the
sidereal motion of the moon is 18.6 years. The sidereal period is the time in which a celestial
body within our solar system revolutes in respect of one
specific star (Fig. 2), the sidereal period of any planet
can be calculated if the synodic period is known. The
synodic period is the time required for a planet to return
to the same position in relation to the sun and earth. In
the case of the moon, this sidereal phenomenon is in
relation to the desired stars background. When this
sidereal motion completes one cycle, the moon will
manifest another phenomenon called the lunar standstill,
the moon won’t have a literal standstill, however, it will
stay lower for a certain amount of time from our earth’s
point of view. Once again, in synthesis, the sidereal
Fig. 2. Siderial motion 18.6 years.
motion is the time that the moon requires to pass in front
Star-Child NASA site.
of a certain star twice after 18.6 years. This is
unquestionably related to the Mobius strip, “an object must travel twice to get to their starting
point.” as it was mentioned before. If the Mobius model represents the orbit around a moon, that
needs specifically 18.6 years, the characters must have to travel twice through the Mobius, wait
twice for the specific moon, plus the time it will take to
encounter the others. However, it hasn’t entered to
discussion the possibility that the Mobius strip is
the shape of the Loonaverse. Our universe carries
a total of 0 net energy, and it’s because of it’s flat
shape, which also gives our universe the nature
of expanding increasingly but decreasing it’s
expansion rate through time, it will eventually
Fig. 4. Twinfish Video Analized.
(Fig 4.2ofisuniverse.
how the planes
stop when time reaches infinity. An spherical or Fig. 3 Geometry
Abyss.uoregon.edu
unfold)
hyperbolic universe (Fig. 3) will collapse on
itself or expand in an extremely fast rate because
of it’s positive or negative net energy. Any other universe that isn’t flat wouldn’t have the perfect
conditions for life to emerge, at least, as we know life.
With that being said, a Mobius shaped universe would
have an overflow of positive or negative energy, making
it impossible to arrange life. This takes us again to the
idea of the Mobius as the orbit pattern. But, If the
Mobius can’t be the universe, How is the Loonaverse
shaped? For this, we must understand the concept of the
Fig. 5. Inspirehep.net. Traversable
string theory, a controversial concept that involves
wormholes in standard genral
relativity.
gravity, energy and quantum physics; the study of
modern physics that explains the behavior of particles in
a subatomic level, these particles can not be seen by the naked eye or even the strongest
microscope by the cause that the light waves are too large to encounter one of these particles, this
creates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, we know for sure that sub-atomic particles exist
and make up the well-functioning of our universe, although we can not see them. The theory
emerged from the principle of the Point particle, which stated that particles such as electrons
have zero dimension, meaning that they are a single point, however, this was found to be
inaccurate because gravity wasn’t involved in it, so scientist passed to the first dimension, a line
or a string is more complex than a single point. The string theory states that different particles
can be the result from different types of vibrations made by a string, similar of how string
instruments function; A different vibration will make up a different note. Nonetheless, the
complications of the string theory came up with the complexity of other dimensions being
involved, at least 6 dimensions must have been excluded for finally making the theory
successful. Going Back to the Loonaverse, it is known for a fact that the Loonaverse isn’t our
same universe, thus, it must have a different dimension, that however, must have similar
properties as our own planet, leading to the inference that the Loonaverse could be between the
fourth or fifth dimension. This would enable the possibility of having such mythical features that
the storyline has such as superpowers, gods, cyborgs, fruits, and fallen angels. In the fifth
dimension there is another world that would have similarities and differences between our world
and the new one, both would have the same beginning (The Big Bang), the universes would be
placed by layers (Fig. 4). Through the storyline, we can appreciate that the sub-units have each a
different layer, 1/3 being normal earth; OEC being a ‘between’ scenario and the yyxy being
something similar to heaven or paradise, if there were three worlds, it would be coherent that the
characters descended from the heaven to normal earth through wormhole. As the general
relativity theory suggests, a wormhole would be possible between layers if there is an overflow
of mass of an object, in this case no singularity would be needed, because the objective is to
connect two worlds, making an almost instant bridge, one edge would be the black hole and the
other would be a white whole, but if a human travelled through this bridge, it would immediately
die. To survive this method of transportation the correct wormholes to use would be traversable
wormholes (Fig. 5) and for this, the string theory must be accurate. If the big bang occurred with
the string theory features, space-time quantum fluctuations at the smallest scales (Even smaller
than atoms) would have created many traversable wormholes. Perhaps, this is not the reality of
our universe, but in fact, it is the reality of the Loonaverse. These three worlds that were
mentioned just before will be called Planes, they are actually a division in the Mobius, which
follow the same orbit at the same time, and are able to have traversable wormholes to travel
through.
Now, we know how the Loonaverse is fixed in the physics aspects, we can get into a brief
explanation of the religion allusions and the more in-depth story. As it was mentioned, the group
has three planes, 1/3 is the earth, as we know it, this plane is identic to our planet. The OEC, is
the between universe, almost a limbo, things look like they’re upside down, they are unsettling,
but in this plane is where the members of the OEC sub-unit struggle to find each other. Finally,
the yyxy plane, or the EDEN, is the most important plane within the symbolism aspect, which is
formed by 4 girls. First, we’ll settle up the context; The girls are in the garden of Eden,
represented by a school, Yves, (Her name makes a direct allusion to Eve from the Genesis book)
asks her self if it really is a bad thing to disobey god (New – Yves. 2018). In this world, their god
isn’t the catholic god as we know, it’s not specified, and BBC remains religiously neutral as it
was confirmed, they just used the Genesis story for symbolism and for a modern reformation’s
sake and interpretation of youth. Yves wants to leave Eden, she can only do this once she bites
into her forbidden fruit, which she will acquire if she learns to love herself, thus, she will be
exiled to earth. The objective is to spread her message through rebellious influence so she can
take others with her, which she will eventually accomplish. The Eden Girls did not know about
who where on earth, but they felt attracted with curiosity to getting to earth. Once they all get
here, they will do their best to find each other in the correct moon construction.
In conclusion, the complexity of the Loonaverse is now partly unveiled. Such an intricate and
perplexing universe causes a huge curiosity, and when it’s fully explained in the character’s
storyline it becomes like a novel-worthy idea. It was deliberately matured by the Creative
director of BBC, Jaden Jeong, an idea which involves all types of symbolism and science, a
process that was so carefully made to portray remarkable and marvelous messages to the youth
around the world such as the empowerment of rebellion; Anger, wrath, desire to destroy at times.
But in its pure core, the Loonaverse tries to explain the concept of love in their story line and the
complexity of one person’s heart. Loona represents love, towards one self, towards things, and
towards others, all this through the emotions in the melodies of their songs. The fixation of the
Loonaverse opens up the curiosity of the youth to learn more, encouraging them to understand
brand new concepts in an enjoyable way, it is a mind-opener. Beyond any doubt the Loonaverse
builds up, not knowledge precisely, but the impulse of wanting to learn more.
References:
 Twinfish (2018. 27 October). The Loona Theory - Every Video Analyzed (Part 1):
Introduction. (Video File) Retrieved from https://youtu.be/vwUchIBKYKA
 Williams C. (N.D) brilliant.org. Mobius Strip. Retrieved from
https://brilliant.org/wiki/mobius-strips/
 Editors Encyclopaedia Britanica. (2008. 16 November) Siderial Period. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/science/sidereal-period
 Kurgezagt (2018. 28 August) Explaining Wormholes – Breaking space-time. Retrieved
from https://youtu.be/9P6rdqiybaw
 Kurgesagt (2018. 1 March) Explaining string theory. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/Da2h2B4faU
 Alderson E. (2018 18 May) Medium Science. The Ten dimensions, simplified. Retrieved
from https://medium.com/@Ella_alderson/the-ten-dimensions-simplified-b261e54fc31c
 University of Oregon (N.D) Uoregon.edu. The geometry of the Universe. Retrieved from
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/cosmo/lectures/lec15.html
 Clive Price M. (N.D) aleph.se. Traversable Wormholes: Some implications. Retrieved
from https://www.aleph.se/Trans/Tech/Space-Time/wormholes.html