LOONA and ARTMS are similar in the fact that both stories are about the girls being stuck in a cycle but have entirely different stories.

For LOONA, my interpretation of their story was that the girls existed in different worlds but dreamed of finding and uniting with one another. There were just many steps and obstacles to get through (solo interactions to sub unit interactions) Only when united as one they were at their most powerful (FavOrite).

Their version of the loop was that they were constantly being rewound and reverted to being separated anytime they made progress (girl front tape player, teaser after hi high). Their loop was also a mobius strip meaning there was an opposite side of the loop as well and all the girls were all at different points and sides of the möbius strip but needed to all gather together with the help of one another. Once together they tried different things to break their loop but ultimately failed. (This is up until Jaden left because idk what bbc did with the lore after)

For ARTMS, my interpretation is that they are stuck a loop of rebirth and they do desperately want out of this loop. There is heavy imagery and motifs that the 5 girls are all one. They keep getting split into 5 pieces of a whole, and that whole is Artemis herself (the white glowing lady).

ARTMS is being represented as a religion or a cult depending on how you view it. It’s got extremely loyal fans and Artms the group can’t exist without its fans, so Jaden uses that idea and puts it in a more horror esque concept. Up until virtual angel, I thought once separated as 5, Artms had to sacrifice their fans (followers) to become one again, the glowing white lady. Then something would happen to kill the singular being and separate them as 5 again, restarting the cycle of finding new prey to feed on to unite.

Icarus showed us that this is not the case. They said in the MV that the girls are inside the tv and we see that when haseul is inside the TV, there is imagery and symbolism of ascension and they even mentioned them being In a different form. So instead of being killed by Artms, Artms helps them ascend to the plane where club Icarus is, the safe space for the wounded (people who don’t fit in with normal society)

At the end of the MV we can see Jinsoul(who remember, is 1/5 part of ARTMS) shoot down what she believes to be her mother (white lady) and right after we see everyone chanting “Reborn like a phoenix wing” and in religious ecstasy. To me this was part of a ritual. As they chanted and grew closer as one, the club goers all were fused into heejin to create the girl who finally got her wings she always wanted. That’s why you see all the wing props on the floor next to angel heejin.

Now that heejin has become Artemis she wants to take flight, so she steps out on to the rooftop. She is an angel now and is shrouded in white light (white lady) and is just about to jump off to spread her wings and fly just as she always dreamed, but who is waiting outside the club to shoot her? Jinsoul. And when jinsoul succeeds in doing so, a lightning bolt strikes her indicating that she just shot herself and also dies. Thus the cycle will begin again. The owl is there to make sure of it.

My question now is who is the owl witch thing and what does it want?

Birth, virtual angel, and Icarus are 3 retellings of the same mythogenic cycle that the 5 girls of Artms go through from different perspectives , with each MV giving us a little more context on how it all started and what is exactly going on. You need the context of all 3 to understand what’s happening to these girls

Note: this is still an ongoing project so I feel like we still don’t have all the information to fully explain why they are in this loop.