The first scene of ITZY’s Girls Will Be Girls music video shows a huge flock of crows. Just afterwards, however, are these creatures shown in closer detail— they are large eyeballs with wings.
I immediately recognized these creatures as flyeyes from maplestory.1 Given the early-2000s prevalence of Maplestory in Korea, I do not doubt the creative team had this exact sprite on their moodboard. However, I was still wondering if this particular depiction of a flying eyeball had other cultural influence and symbolism.
It seems that in America, most know this creature from mid-20th century illustrations by Von Dutch and later Rick Griffin. Griffin’s version seems to be more prevalent, due to his work for the rock band the Grateful Dead.
Michael Bukowski has also asked this same question, specifically using the name ‘eyewing’.
Floating eyeballs sans-wings are another variant:
- Marvel’s Shuma-Gorath
- Dungeons & Dragons’ Beholder
- Kirby’s Kracko, Zero, and 0²
- The Iglulik Inuit’sIssitôq2
Footnotes
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Flyeyes are exclusive to a map called The Passage. ↩
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See also: Intellectual culture of the Hudson Bay Eskimos book page 176 & 192 (Rasmussen, 1930) ↩