[EN] The Story Behind KARMA

Hello, this is Vivinos.
This month, we’ve prepared some behind-the-scenes content from KARMA.
From the initial planning to the final commentary, we’ve included it all — we hope you enjoy it at your own pace.

The initial planning of KARMA

▲ Image board created during the initial planning phase of KARMA

The first ending I imagined was this
Mizi stands at the front, leading the rebels, singing a song of hope for humanity.

Behind her, the rebels fall one by one while protecting her.
But Mizi doesn’t back down. She stays in the center of the stage, strong until the end.
She carries on Hyuna’s mission and finally launches the rocket to complete it.

Script that was planned at the time.

Sua,
the world turned out to be much harder
than we ever talked about.
(Anakt Mizi and Sua reaching their hands toward the sky)

Funny thing about people...
We crave connection more than anything—

(Ivan looking at Till)

But even the smallest cut makes us draw back.
And somehow, we always end up hurting each other.
(Luka and Hyuna over bloodstains)

But still...

The feeling of standing with both feet on the ground,
The heaviness you feel when you take a deep breath—

And...
even those times when you hate yourself,
you realize those feelings are yours too.

It’s scary,
but also filled with hope.

I don’t believe in God anymore.

I’m going to move forward—
past you.

In My Clematis, Mizi once called Sua a god, but now she no longer believes in that god — which was just an obsession and an illusion from her past. Instead, she dreams of the future together with the people right in front of her.

The story was heading toward a pretty typical ending, but as we worked through each video, the team and I really grew attached to the characters. We felt their pain and joy so strongly, almost like they were real people. That made us start asking ourselves something.

“If Mizi’s final song of hope only saves Luka and Mizi, what happens to the others who died? Do they just suffer and then get forgotten? Wouldn’t that be too sad?”

After this thought came up, we couldn’t bring ourselves to follow the original plot close to Mizi’s character anymore.

Hyuna was always a strong, noble person who had plenty of time and opportunities to mature and experience love after escaping. But Mizi, a normal human being, went through so much abuse and despair in such a short time, it didn’t make sense to the team that she would suddenly become strong overnight.

So we decided to accept Mizi’s feelings exactly as they were in this situation.

This is how we came up with the plan we have now.

'What would someone think if they had never experienced love or protection in a healthy environment and had to watch their friends and companions die?'

We’ve all felt hopeless and blamed ourselves when there’s no one else to blame.

After losing again and again, you start to believe nothing will ever change. You begin to think it’s all your fault. Sometimes, this makes you feel like you have some control — like if you change, things might get better someday. That small hope can keep you going.

If you believe you did something wrong and this is your punishment, the pain feels like it makes sense. This feeling of control can actually be comforting.

I’ve felt this too before.

Mizi feels so guilty that just living seems selfish. Because of that, she makes a sudden, emotional choice.

Final concept of KARMA

Here are some notes I wrote during the early stages of pre-production (planning)

KARMA

Even the Segyein, with all their intelligence and advanced technology, couldn’t control one thing 'human belief'.

People create gods and imagine new worlds to escape from pain. This strange, emotional need to believe in something almost like a mutation was something the Segyein couldn’t stop.

In the end, this part of human nature became too big to ignore and caused the disaster on the Alien Stage.

극의 흐름과 이미지 전환

Story Flow
From cold and technological → to raw and emotional

Visual Transition
From tightly controlled, machine-like images → to explosive images of human nature

It was important to show, through these visual changes, the consequences (karma) coming back around.

Mizi turning away from Sua’s death, the Segyein’s cruelty how they used and hurt humans, and treated their pain as entertainment

all of it finally breaking loose at once.

This was KARMA — a story where all consequences come full circle.

On Love and Pain

Just like the line “My god, my universe,” the Alien Stage is filled with elements that reflect faith and devotion.

We included these elements because we believe that believing in a god and loving something deeply is one of the most irrational yet most noble things humans can do. It doesn’t follow science or logic, and that’s exactly what makes it so powerful.

Even the Segyein, with all their advanced science and intelligence, struggled to understand faith. In fact, the Alien Stage itself was built as a result of them using that faith to control humans successfully.

But humans were far more complicated than the Segyein had imagined too layered, too emotional to be used as mere entertainment.

Humans can love and hate at the same time.

They can sacrifice and still be selfish.

That’s what makes them human. Throughout Alien Stage, we tried to show those layered relationships.

Near the end of Alien Stage, all those parts of human nature — love, pain, guilt, and faith — build up and finally explode.

In that moment, the power shifts from the Segyein to the humans.

About Mizi’s narration scene

As you may have seen in Weekly Alien Stage, the values of Mizi and Hyuna are in conflict.

As you can see in the Weekly Alien Stage, Mizi and Hyunah had very different values.

Hyuna believed in thinking carefully about the cost of sacrifice. She wanted to move forward for the greater good and the future. But Mizi wanted revenge now. She wanted to fix the past and make up for everything that went wrong.

Hyuna had already felt the pain of loss—just like Mizi. That’s why she tried to lead Mizi and, at times, control her.

Hyuna always told Mizi things like
“Love means sacrifice and forgiveness.”
“Hope only matters when you choose to believe in it, even in weakness.”

But when Mizi saw how noble Hyuna’s love was, she often blamed herself for not being the same.
She even felt disgusted with herself.

To Mizi, Hyuna was someone she relied on, but also someone she sometimes wanted to break down.

In the end, when Hyuna died, Mizi blamed her with all the wrong thoughts she had been holding inside.

She tried to find faults in Hyuna to prove that her own thoughts were right.
She didn’t want to accept that Hyuna’s death was seen as something that had to happen.

Also, Mizi even denies Hyuna’s desire for freedom.
In Wiege, this is shown as Mizi rejecting the meaning of what Hyuna said.

She feels like,
“Even if freedom is given, people would still feel lonely.”

This scene comes from the question
If freedom comes, will this pain really go away?
In today’s world, are people truly happy?

The Anakt children in the garden, healing each other’s wounds.

Faith is when, in pain, people start to see each other like gods and depend on them.
This is like how Mizi sees Sua as her god,
and how Ivan gives all his love meaning through Till.

The characters on the Alien Stage who couldn’t truly grow and lost their lives.

Mizi’s guilt for surviving while others died.

Unhealthy relationships built up in a harsh and exploited environment.

Because we are beings who can’t live without loving but also without taking from others.'

We often think that loving someone means fully respecting their freedom. But actually, that’s not quite true.
To live together, we naturally get involved in each other’s choices and actions, and we have expectations.

That doesn’t mean it’s all bad, though.

Humans can’t live completely alone.

That’s why humans feel lonely.
No matter how close we are, we can’t be fully understood or fully owned by someone else.

But it’s this loneliness that makes us human.
Because we have these needs for each other, the word “love” exists.

Love isn’t the opposite of complete freedom.
It means accepting each other’s imperfections.

This was the message I wanted to share in Alien Stage.

About Till’s survival

Hyuna was the one with the values of a true “main character.”
Mizi was a fake main character, and actually had the values of a villain.

In the deleted narration, there are questions about Mizi’s actions.

Why do the strong try to crush the weak?
Why isn’t what’s right the same for everyone?
And can we really blame all the fault on the weak?

But Mizi’s final thoughts and choices were wrong, and they caused many to suffer.
Because of that, she faces the karma of becoming a witch and breaks the cycle of wrong love.

At the same time, she also gave the Segyein their own karma,
scared them, and sent a warning to humanity.

Where did this original sin begin, and can these lives overcome a problem with no clear answer?

When this question comes up, Till appears wearing a mask.
Mizi and Hyuna’s values come together and continue through Till.

Hyuna’s sense of justice and Mizi’s compassion will join with Til to dream of hope and boldly move forward.

The reason Till lost his voice for a while was to give him freedom.

Till loved singing since he was young, but in the Anakt Garden, it was also a way to protect himself from outside dangers.

He used art and song to express everything, which helped him feel better and made him less aware of reality.

Now, Till will leave the Anakt Garden, and he won’t need to sing to live anymore.
He will notice the world around him, meet new friends, have new experiences, and grow more mature.

Initial Documents

Concept Sketch

One of the early concepts that was later canceled is the witch Mizi who leads the children.

In All-in, Mizi follows Hyuna to break free from the painful cycle of her past and move forward into the future.

The cutting of her long hair into a shorter style symbolizes this change.

But in the end, she can’t forget the children who died in Anakt Garden, so her hair grows back again.

This is a concept art that dramatically expresses Till’s inner pain, fitting the title "KARMA."

It's my initial image board. I usually start by sketching and presenting this to the team to help convey the overall mood and atmosphere.

I remember saying,
“Mizi’s karma for ignoring Sua’s pain comes down from the sky in a terrible, hopeless way!”

This scene shows the painful side of love.
Mizi, stuck not in the future but in memories of the past, becomes attached again to the Anakt children from before.
It hurts a lot, but inside that pain, she also feels comfort and love.

Thank you.

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Translation: Jenna Kang