Part 1: Introduction

A screenshot from the Hi High music video. The silhouette of Jinsoul is standing looking up at the sky. The background is silhouettes of buildings around her in front of a gray cloudy sky.

"butterfly effect

noun

a situation in which an action or change that does not seem important has a very large effect, especially in other places or around the world"

- Cambridge English Dictionary



Hello! My name is Simon, and welcome to this absolute behemoth of a project: The Butterfly Effect: A Guide to the Loonaverse. This is the first part of this site's Story section, where I will be presenting and analyzing every piece of Loonaverse-related content I can find in order of release. I highly suggest you read this in order, as each part will build on the ones before it and will be written as such.

Doing a widescale analysis like this is a huge undertaking, one which is motivated entirely by passion for this story and a desire to make it accessible to as many people as possible. As it says across the site, this is specifically geared towards total newcomers, including people who've never touched K-Pop in their life.

LOONA were the group to get me into K-Pop, primarily because of the Loonaverse story. My goal with this site is not to turn people into K-Pop fans (I'm not one of the crazy ones I swear) but rather into Loonaverse fans. This story has always been so interesting to me, and I'd hate for it to go overlooked just because it's told via a music genre that's often given a bad rep. This site is purely focused on the lore, and I will only be bringing up things pertaining to the group itself if it's relevant to the story. I'd ask that whatever preconceived notions you have about K-Pop, put them aside and experience the Loonaverse as just what it is: a story.

With that out of the way, this introduction exists to establish some rules about how this walkthrough will work, and further explain how the Loonaverse functions before we get into the actual analysis. If you're already familiar with LOONA, you're more than welcome to jump right into Part 2, but I would still recommend reading this part.

A cropped screenshot from the Girl Front music video. Choerry is holding a white paper map in front of her and looking around to the left. She has long brown hair and is wearing a blue denim jacket, a black shirt, and large hoop earrings. She is walking in front of a light pink wall, and there is a powerline behind her. The sky is a clear gray.

First, I highly suggest reading The Basics page. It provides basic information about who LOONA are and what the Loonaverse is. I won't be repeating all that here, so go give that a look first.

Something I would like to stress right off the bat is that there is no one "correct" interpretation of the Loonaverse. As a story, it is intentionally vague and built around symbolism, which means everyone has their own ideas about what it is and what it means. It was also told across many years, with involvement from many different people, and was cut short due to the failings of LOONA's company. If you're going into this expecting a story with a solid resolution and answers to its many questions, then you are going to be disappointed. I want to make that very clear up front so you know what you're getting into lol.

Going along with that, this walkthrough will not be focused on "what the creator intended." I do usually place importance on that when it comes to other stories, but with a lack of concrete answers and how vague the Loonaverse is, I don't think discussing if a theory aligns with Jaden Jeong's unknown vision is worth it. Discussing the different ways the story can be interpreted is, in my opinion, a far better use of time.

With that in mind, I'd also like to firmly state that I am primarily a positive person. Rather than lamenting over missed opportunities in the story or tearing down other people's theories, I would much rather focus on the positive aspects of the Loonaverse. That goes for anything that happened behind the scenes too; like I said before, I will only be talking about the lore on this site. There are plenty of resources online that discuss the real members of LOONA, Jaden Jeong, and BlockBerry Creative, and I implore you to seek those out if that's something you're interested in. But that is not something I will be discussing here.

A cropped image of the members of Loona, from the official Japanese website. The members are all wearing black and white dresses and looking out at the viewer. They are sitting in bright yellow chairs in a circle. The background is a white void.

Now, let's talk about the actual format of this walkthrough. Each part has its own page, with buttons at the top and bottom to let you go back to the previous page or continue to the next one. I have divided the parts based on what I think makes the most sense. I've taken into consideration the amount of content to talk about, how much I think I'll have to say about it, and what material makes sense to pair together, all while keeping things in release order. Each part won't necessarily contain just one release.

For each music video, I will first cover all the promotional material released beforehand. I will then cover the music video itself, including the visuals, the lyrics, the choreography, and anything else that may be relevant to the lore. I will then cover any related releases, such as the other songs on the corresponding album, and then move onto the next. The extremely important live Cinema Theory event will also be covered, as well as the few concerts I've deemed relevant enough to mention.

All the content I'll be discussing will be provided on this site. Videos, music files, and images will all be either directly embedded or linked.

Something I want to make clear is that I am by no means an expert on all things LOONA. I am a huge fan and consider myself well-versed in this subject, but my knowledge is limited and there may be things I miss or fail to mention. I joined the fandom in 2018, right after the release of Hi High, so I do not have firsthand experience with the rollout of anything before that. If I get anything wrong, or if there's something I missed that you'd like to me to discuss, please let me know via the Comments page!

I am going to try and keep this section somewhat focused; as in, I'm not going to go on long personal rants, derail the analysis with memes, or spend 50 paragraphs talking about how much I love LOONA. I'm not going to only allow myself to speak 100% formally either, or forbid myself from cracking jokes, but I do want to prevent this from turning into just an extension of my Tumblr lol.

I'm also going to try and keep this analysis fairly neutral. I will be discussing all matter of theories, and while I will certainly share my opinion on them, I will try to not be too biased towards the ones that I personally like. That is one of the main reasons I decided to create this site. Many resources for Loonaverse information either explain things through the lens of preexistent theories, or just straight up state theory as fact. I want this site to be a neutral resource, where people can learn what there is to know from an objective point of view, hear about a variety of theories without bias, and then come to their own conclusions based on what resonates with them most.

A cropped image of Yves and Vivi from the new music video. They are sat on benches facing each other, in front of a small bowling alley. They are illuminated by bright green and red lights. Yves is wearing her yellow plaid yyxy uniform, while Vivi wears a green sweater and black pants. Yves has long black hair, and Vivi has long blonde hair. They are both in the process of putting on white roller skates. Behind them are bowling lanes, with neon lights and pins set up in each lane. There is a large LED sign on the wall that reads 'Yves' in red cursive text. The wall is black.

Something I also want to mention considering this introduction's nature is that this is probably the most text-heavy this section will ever get. I tried to add some images to spice things up for this page but trust me, most of what we have to talk about is visual, so there will be plenty of images to break up the walls of text on literally everything other page.

One last thing I'd like to mention for newcomers is that the Loonaverse, like many stories, starts a bit slow, but gets more interesting and complex as it goes along. I'd liken it to the beginning of any classic "other world" story; before we get into the crazy fantasy sci-fi stuff, we've got to establish the regular, familiar world first.

While the first music videos are more mundane compared to what comes later, they are still just as important to the story overall. But if they don't particularly stand out to you, please don't take that as indicative of the entire story as a whole. LOONA is particularly known for their diversity in sound and aesthetics across their large discography; a video near the beginning and a video near the end may look and feel completely different. Do as you wish of course, but I would suggest that you continue reading even if you aren't hooked right away. You may miss something really wonderful :)

Alright, that's basically all I have to say before we dive in. I've already spent 2 whole months working on this site as of writing this! Building the site, writing the other sections, watching countless concerts and theory videos... After all that work, I'm really excited to finally get into the actual analysis, so let's not waste any more time!

Click the "Next" button to head on over to Part 2 and start your journey through the Loonaverse! 🌙