A Guide to DARK MOON : THE BLOOD ALTAR

A condensed summary of my notes from the episode of 17 Carat K-Pop that covers ENHYPEN’s Webtoon!

These notes are for paying subscribers only, but you can enjoy the corresponding podcast episode and article for free! 

“ENHYPEN’s Epic Tales”

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Stream the episode on Anchor or another streaming service here!

A deep dive into what makes DARK MOON : THE BLOOD ALTAR such an incredible extension of ENHYPEN’s storytelling:

Note: I work hard on these notes and the corresponding episodes! PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THE INFORMATION IN THESE NOTES WITHOUT CREDITING ME AND MY NEWSLETTER/PODCAST!

The characters

• Heeseung: Heli, who can communicate telepathically

• Jake: Jino, who has fire-related powers

• Sunoo: Shion

• Sunghoon: Solon

• Jay: Jaan

• Jungwon: Jakah

• Niki: Noa

• Sooha: a princess in a past life

• Chris: Sooha’s one and only childhood friend, who was murdered by vampires

• Dardan: the ultimate power-hungry villain who loathes Heli for wooing Sooha and disrupting his quest for absolute power to start a superior race

• Marge: the principal at the boarding school the boys were raised in, which they liken to a prison; they viewed her as a captor, not someone trying to protect them

• Trisha and Trenna: PR for and front-facing leaders of Automnal’s mayor’s campaign and public activities 

• The werewolf students who attend the rival school

• Solon: a member of the boys’ friend group who hides the fact he’s a mutt; has some werewolf blood in him

The settings 

• Riverfield: the town where the 2 rival schools are located

• Vamfield House: the orphanage Marge kept the boys in for over a century

• Automnal: a vampires-only town that seems awfully elitist!

• A mansion in the woods that the boys go to for their “birthday party” every year; an apparent gift from a “long-time sponsor”?

• Decelis Academy: a “No Vampires Allowed” boarding school where the boys pretend to be humans

• Sunshine City: the rival school that werewolves attend

• The Square: an on-campus (or just nearby?) weekend hangout spot for Decelis students

• The Railgun: the bar next to a storage room where werewolves who are used as test subjects are secretly kept

• The Blood Altar: a place in Hivernal that’s on a literal pedestal where a magic ritual can commence; where Dardan tries to obtain absolute power

The main plots/problems

• Stopping Dardan from attaining full power

• Sooha struggling to reconcile all the assumptions she has always believed about vampires (since they mercilessly murdered her friend) with the friendly and good character of the Decelis boys she hangs out with (who have always tried to prove not all vampires are the same)

• Keeping their vampire identities under wraps at Decelis

• The vampires learning their true origin story over time

• Werewolf Khan and vampire Heli’s rivalry over Sooha

• The struggle to live out the prophecy of being Sooha’s, aka the reincarnated princess’s protectors

Big-picture themes the story tackles

• Prejudice and sense of superiority above other groups

• What it truly means to feel human emotions like love

• Absolute power corrupting absolutely, and the truly eternal sources of power coming from selfless acts and attitudes; self-interested quests are destined for eventual failure

• The struggles but necessity of joining forces with those you first judge by their covers

• The crucial need for trust/openness in relationships

• The innate human desire to know one’s own story, have past memories, hold onto a sense of self and greater purpose

• The ways immortality complicates efforts to feel like one’s life has purpose and a specific goal

• What and who make life truly worth living

Stay tuned for a “TL;DR” breakdown of each episode in a future “cheat sheet”!

Tie-ins between the Webtoon and the album DARK BLOOD

Quotes as part of album teasers 

• “Intoxicated by my own might, I’ve strayed from your light. This mystical strength, destined to last beyond time’s seam. Oblivious to the illusion’s hold, I danced on.”

• “It had been my false belief that everything was mine.”

• “I became a cursed being who couldn’t even die, but merely wander. You erased me. I struggled in the deep, terrifying darkness that was worse than hell.”

• “Crystal clear, the meaning of sacrifice now near. Fate’s iron grip, where you and I together stand. I will be your shield, forevermore, even if it costs all that I knew.”

“Fate”

• “Love became greed and erased itself… trapped me in ruins like the deep sea / Oblivion / Where did that terrible curse come from? / Who inflicted this cruel punishment? / Now I realized / The fate that I devoted my life to / How could I forget? / The sign… It rises like a bright sun that clears the darkness / Fate is in my hands again / Feeling the power flowing like blood… I’m calling you desperately / I’ll never forget it now / Everything was the power I received from you / I grew up in an eternity that will soon return to you.”

• “A love wrapped in blood / Erased by arrogance, it’s over / I lost everything / Become an undead monster”

“Bite Me”

• The final text on the MV screen: “ I am willing to give up my trifling power and eternity to you as long as I can protect you. I will gladly accept the destiny I chose.”

“Sacrifice (Eat Me Up)”

• “The endless pain and thirst / The destiny of punishment / My arrogant oblivion and illusion / Swallow the river of Lethe / So dangerous / Full of darkness… But here you are… shining light”

• More on that Lethe reference in part 2!

“Chaconne”

• “Brighter than the sun / That’s just me / Monster”

• “Dancing the ‘Dance of Death’ / Drunk with arrogance”

• “If this moment is a curse, it won’t stop”

• More on the “Dance of Death” in part 2!

“Bills”

• “The right price I only learned through tears… The time piles on top of the love that needs to be repaid / The price of parting keeps getting more and more expensive”

• “One day, the invoice that you stuck on me / The pain that became my share / I’m sure I paid for it… it’s not paid”

• “Loneliness grows like a snowball… How much must it hurt / Til I can pay it all back”

“Karma”

• “In the next life… I’ll definitely visit you… Together forever”

Stay tuned for part 2 of these notes, out next week!

Catch up on my other artist-specific guides below!