KWANGYA 101
A new and improved guide to aespa’s universe and the broader “SMCU”!
Related podcast episodes:
“aespa and KWANGYA 101”
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Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts here!
Stream this episode elsewhere here!
“aespa and KWANGYA Guide, Vol. 2”
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Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts here!
Stream this episode elsewhere here!
“aespa Short Film 3 Recap”
Stream this episode on Spotify here!
Stream this episode on Apple Podcasts here!
Stream this episode elsewhere here!
Note: I work hard on these notes and the corresponding podcast episodes! PLEASE DO NOT SHARE THE INFORMATION IN THESE NOTES WITHOUT CREDITING ME AND MY NEWSLETTER/PODCAST!
The aespa / SM Entertainment Universe: A Glossary
ae (pronounced “I”): Humans’ avatars; digital alter egos who are predicted to coexist more and more seamlessly with humans in the future
Not every human has familiarity with their ae, but the number of people who do keeps growing “exponentially,” as described in “Ep. 01”
Part of the reason some people have not been able to recognize their aes yet: They are made up of their digital footprints; they take on the traits and appearances of what humans give them data-wise through social media posts, which can be downright unrecognizable compared to who humans are offline
The professor in the “Ep. 01” short film: “ae, made up of digital information, [take the forms] of ourselves. The existence of ae transcends the real world and the digital world” (emphasis mine); “ae is one’s self and is not one’s self at the same time.”
Black Mamba: The creature working against aes, always trying to disrupt harmonious relationships between aes and humans
Butterflies are its kryptonite
As long as humans keep putting data into the digital world, Black Mamba stays alive; even regrows a head after getting it chopped off in one video!
Code Black: The turn-of-the-century erasure of all connections between digital and physical selves that had just begun to form
Key line in “SMCU: The Origin”: “It is time to recall the history that [has] taken place in our universe;” presumably refers to the pre-2000s version of KWANGYA
EQ: I made up this nickname for the unnamed character who resembles an Evil Queen!
She causes SYNKOUTS, allegedly to teach humans a lesson
She can unleash Black Mamba and kidnap the butterflies at will
My theory is that the statue that slowly crumbles as naevis takes shape in her main origin story video is a statue of EQ and the same as the one BoA damages in “Girls (Don’t you know I’m a Savage?)”
EVO: “Evolution;” in my opinion, this term is used synonymously with “synchronicity;” refers to aespa and their aes learning to fully exist together (ex. “Black Mamba”: “I’m the aespa, there can’t be two”)
The FLAT: The “resting place” for aes; like the “sleep mode” characters in a computer or video game enter once you log out
The Force: Refers to the paths between dimensions
Hana: The main character in naevis’s origin story videos who builds a relationship with naevis
An example of a pre- “Code Black” relationship that connected the FLAT and REAL WORLD - a relationship that ended upon “Code Black” but that naevis somehow still has faint memories of decades later
KOSMO: The level above KWANGYA (which I theorize refers to a higher level of subconsciousness, an additional layer of dreaming)
“SMCU: The Origin”: “In the beginning, there was KWANGYA. Beyond that was KOSMO.”
KWANGYA: A world that is neither a dream nor reality; a world that formed as the internet did, growing over time and more thoroughly solidifying the presence and looks of aes over the years; a data-constructed world of mysterious origins and with a location you can’t find on a map
The three rules of KWANGYA: Follow the butterflies to not get lost, never take from KWANGYA (“You shall not covet what belongs to KWANGYA”), and “Never look back”
naevis: The name “A1” gave itself to further a relationship with the human on the other side of the keyboard, Hana (“naevis Origin Story Ep 2.”: “A1 decided on a name for itself in order to converse with the girl”)
Presumably sounds like “novice” for a reason; “novice” refers to someone new/inexperienced, like “A1” is when it connects to “REAL WORLD”
“The First Chapter of naevis”: “In 1991, at the dawn of global internet connectivity, emerged naevis - one of two artificial intelligences born amidst the digital wilderness, KWANGYA;” safe to assume that the other form of AI referenced here as coming from KWANGYA are the aes
Remember that aes are NOT the same as naevis; aes are versions of people that can jump into REAL WORLD for periods of time but mostly stay in the FLAT dimension; naevis is an avatar who seeks to make REAL WORLD a new home (or at least a better home for humans)
What aes and naevis have in common: They both are created out of the personal data internet users give them
“Existence precedes essence,” as it is summed up in the first aespa short film; the “existences” are “A1” and the like; the “essences” are humans/aespa members
naevis is determined to help the humans, and she is on the evil characters’ target list both for that and for disobeying and leaving FLAT
P.O.S: “Portal of Synk”? Unclear what it stands for in this story, but regardless, it refers to the portal that enables things from the “FLAT” / “digital wilderness” that is KWANGYA to change forms and enter “REAL WORLD”
Opening the portal requires certain skills or access (which NINGNING has)
“The First Chapter of naevis”: “naevis manifests herself through the opened P.O.S”
REAL WORLD: Used to refer to the world of humans
Rekall Time: Time spent getting to know one’s ae
SYNK: The way to communicate with aes; prevented by blackouts caused by Black Mamba (and perhaps other villains to be revealed later)
SYNKDIVE: Kind of the opposite of a SYNKOUT; when aes and humans sync up really perfectly; the sought-after state of “EVO”
SYNKOUT: When the ability to SYNK is disrupted on a massive scale; kind of like when the WiFi is down
The main cause of SYNKOUTS: Accumulated power of all the negative data that humans put into the world (ex. hateful social media comments)
EQ claims responsibility for SYNKOUTS and says she causes them because humans have not been handling aes properly/respectfully/as intended: “I was created in KWANGYA, made by [the] insatiable desires of humans… Rumors, impersonations… hate comments. All I did was imitate what you humans have been doing all this time… That’s why I triggered the SYNKOUT. To protect KWANGYA and aes from humans, and to prove that they can exist without humans.”
aespa’s Characters
GISELLE
Gives the presentation about the “Existence precedes essence” concept
Has a professor who is either a robot or some other being not of the “REAL WORLD”
Main power involves the “taking a picture” hand gesture, which generates force fields
KARINA
Main power: superhuman strength from a robotic arm; another giveaway that she’s in superhuman mode: when at least one eye glows red
Both a power and an obstacle: seeing visions; sometimes, they turn out to just be hallucinations Black Mamba has put in her head
Handles snakes (but not Black Mamba, obviously)
NINGNING
Main power is her tech savviness; can open the portal to the “digital wilderness”
Brings butterflies from 2D to the 4D world (when working as a team with ae-NINGNING)
WINTER
Main power: swordsmanship
Rides a hovercraft
MAJOR MV and short film moments to remember
“Next Level” MV: They all stand in front of the “Tree of Life” at the end, glitching and turning into their aes
“Savage” MV: Both KARINA and WINTER separately smash glass; both naevis and the human aespa members (in separate videos) have been trapped in glass boxes
“Girls” MV: The entire time, a shadowy character watches the aespa members in a CCTV room; video ends with that character disintegrating into a pile of pixels
“Next Level” short film: KARINA realizes ae-KARINA has a sinister motive: Her interpretation of “There can only be one of us” is NOT that they’ll SYNK and become one harmonious being, but that ae-KARINA will survive and human KARINA cannot and will not; KARINA tries to delete all her ae’s data upon realizing this and does not seem to succeed; pixels reform to resemble that shadowy figure from the “Girls” MV again
“Girls (Don’t you know I’m a Savage?)” short film: NINGNING asks a control room operator, a fellow “SMCU” character (MINHO?), to overwhelm the system with data on purpose in an attempt to kill off EQ (which does NOT work); also note in this short film that EQ unleashes clones to attack the aespa members, a potential plot twist to keep an eye out for in future videos
Catch up on my other artist-specific guides below!
Billlie (Parts One, Two, Three, and Four)
Billlie: April 2023 theory updates
ENHYPEN (Parts One and Two, plus a guide to their Webtoon and the ROMANCE : UNTOLD era)
KAI (and a 2023 update)
KWANGYA and the SMCU (Parts One and Two)
LE SSERAFIM (Parts One and Two)
LOONA (plus: 17 ways to explain their popularity)
SEVENTEEN (Parts One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine)
Something Wicked This Way Comes, ENHYPEN, and TXT
Stray Kids (plus separate guides to the MAXIDENT, 5-STAR, and ATE eras)
TXT January 2023 story updates
The Name Chapter: FREEFALL theories
minisode 3: TOMORROW three-part guide
TXT (Parts One and Two, plus a 3-part guide to The Star Seekers)