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nightswithkookmin · 3 years

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Hey Goldy,

feel free to disagree but i was thinking about the whole jimin wanting to bulid muscles thing and i remembered blood sweat and tears era....the whole thing back then was that he was pushing himself to look like what an idol is 'supposed' to look like. so right now him trying to bulid muscles might be bcuz he wants to look more like a perfect idol and just have the kind of body that is expected of him as an idol. this is similar to many female idols trying to be really skinny to fit in with the toxic standards of being an idol. so more so than toxic masculinity i guess we should be worried about him conforming to toxic idol body standards.

If you don't mind, I agree with you.

Your point is equally part of the discourse: unrealistic male body standards, strict and toxic beauty standards for idols, toxic masculinity- I think they are all intersectional cousins living on the same continent. It don't mean they are mutually exclusive or that the presence of one excludes the other.

Jimin could very well be grappling with all of these at once we will never know- much like headache. You think it's just your head, next you know you feeling cold too, then you're dizzy, puking, passing out and explaining to your doctor why you're gay but think your period is late. Then you find out you're not pregnant but you wish you were because what you've been diagnosed with is far worse than being pregnant by a phantom Male who probably might have raped you when you were passed out even though you hate men and it's like WHAT ARE WE EVEN HERE ON EARTH FOR?!

Not that any of that happened to me.

As I said in the last post, I think skinny and androgymasculine is the body standard for men in Kpop. Most male idols who get cosmetic surgery or makeup do not do it to enhance their traditional masculine features. They try to look soft and feminine- especially around the jaw so it looks more oval and feminine.

When any of the members gain body weight they are immediately placed on a diet- whether or not that is healthy is another issue to debate on. You know what I think.

Fans and antis alike blatantly call the members fat and complain about their appearance, that they look chubby or fat even though sometimes it's just the bulkiness that comes from building muscles.

Much like Jimin defending Jungkook when a fan called him fat. He explained it was muscle not fat. What's wrong with being fat?

The fatphobia and fat shaming in Kpop is one conversation I sincerely don't think y'all are ready for, given recent events. Didn't Suga, the lady from Twice and one guy from Enhypen come under such vicious attacks for being fat in recent times?

People were making fun of her for being 'fat' and some assumed initially she was pregnant or something of the sorts- allegedly. Can't verify the source or identify how recent this was.

That this piece was written by someone called I love BTS is not ironic, the main irony is that the lady being fat shamed for showing her biceps and belly had just returned from a hiatus during which she had sought psychological treatment for her mental health.

The things these Idols do to maintain the looks we see on screen is outrageous and really worrying- to some of us at least. Jungkook recently saying he didn't eat anything for about 5 days when they filmed the butter MV gave me palpitations. I hope they stop glorifying these things as if it's something to be proud of. It's disconcerting at best. But what do I know, I have to leave people to make their own choices I'm told.

If I choose to harm myself because I feel pressured by my work environment it's not a choice it's oppression. Just saying.

And yes, people can CHOOSE to do bad things to themselves. it don't make those bad choices right and that's the nuance of the conversation we are having.

And I hope people who fat shame the boys know and understand the risks they take and how hard they work to meet these beauty and body standards- IT'S RIDICULOUS.

Jimin calling himself fat is not a choice. It's him cracking under the pressure of Idolhood. Like I said, he is prone to these things. And saying he is mature now and so he cannot be affected by these pressures is obtuse and toxically positive.

If you've been paying attention to Jimin for sometime now since On Era last year, he's not been talking positively about his body especially whenever they talk about his early days and when they've reacted to their debut.

He's talked about how his body looked so great then as compared to now- even though it was ON ERA and he looked pretty buffed- relatively speaking.

RM felt his biceps and told him his body now was ok. Seems to me whatever is going on with him and his view of his body now didn't just begin. Something is just acting as catalyst and bringing it all up to the surface.

He's comparing himself to his debut days and thinking that masculine aesthetics- which he himself said was a trap for him and was glad he had overcome that, "hurry up and be me now" - he's backpedaling to say that looks better than his present look.

Towards the end of 2020 we saw him proudly sporting Illucebra Arcanus- male and female adjectives, the bigender symbol, and proudly comparing his body to a flower because he says it was delicate.

But it seems to me he is struggling internally with identifying himself or trying to fit into these labels external to him. Not to be psychoanalytic or anything. I think I talked about this in one of my blogs. A florist described him as delicate during Run and he's since been using that word to describe his features. I think he wears his internal struggles on his identity on his sleeves which is very typical of people with dual like gender identities or identities that exist on a spectrum ranging from one form to the other rather than being gender A or B- sometimes those identities conflict.

He's on a journey to self discovery I'd say and that includes deciding for himself what he is rather than bending to the labels of what people think he is or should be.

Androgyny can be attained by make up, or clothes- it can be fashion or trend but it is also a valid form of identity.

All these songs they write about persona, ego, map of the soul... these are very Carl Jung in nature and it's not far fetched to assume they dabble in these things and learn from it to shape their own understanding of who they are- Jimin pays attention to these things and if you are a huge fan of his you'd know which moments I'm referring to.

Non of these however exempts him or preclude him from having toxic notions of masculinity I'm afraid.

It's like assuming gay people can't be homophobic or black people can't be racist.

I don't know why people are struggling to wrap around that Jimin struggles with toxic masculinity tendencies when he has addressed that very issue himself on several occasions- I'm simply putting a name to it. Toxic masculinity don't mean he is a toxic person or man. A toxic man can have toxic masculinity on top of his toxicity.

A woman can be a perpetrator of toxic masculinity if they are prone to expecting men to behave in a certain way that is harmful to men and other women.

These are the people who call skinny, effeminate men weak and gay and expect or encourage men to be heroes, and violent and aggressive and even nurture those traits in their men.

I do agree with Jimin pushing himself to look like the perfect idol in the past- I did, have and will continue to condemn that choice he makes from time to time just as I condemn the toxic masculinity now.

It's interesting how you see him bending to the pressures to look as an idol in kpop as a problem and articulate it well but fail to see that an ad which is pro manly men would have a similar effect on him to push him to look a certain way which is opposite of how he looks naturally- especially when he's been questioning himself for quite some time now.

If fat shaming causes idols to loose weight, there's a shaming that causes effeminate men to want to bulk up. And if the former is fatphobia and can be internalized, the later is toxic masculinity and can be internalized too.

If an idol loosing weight to meet a strict standard is not about their choice and personal body preference, skinny men gyming to bulk up isn't so much about choice either. It's nuanced in that way and those two can be happening together at the same time.

I'm ok if he is not feeling pressured to look a certain way- whether skinny or buff. If it's his choice and his alone it is not toxic masculinity or internalized fatphobia.

I loved reading your POV. Thank you.

Signed,

GOLDY

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sanstropfremir · 3 years

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Hey, in honor of A.C.E. coming back soon would you mind talking about their outfits and makeup in their Favorite Boy comeback (or really any of their outfits/make up cause their stylists is a god and deserves a kiss on the forehead)? They have some of my favorite styling of any boy group currently. Undercover Byeongkwan in the black and yellow crop top with the pony tail lives in my mind rent free and I’m not complaining. I especially loved the mesh of modern and traditional in Fav Boys.

yes!!!! ok be prepared people this is basically a love letter to a.c.e's stylist, whoever you are please my dms are open i just wanna talk (and maybe also get married, your choice)

(also this is really long because there's a lot of pictures, so sue me)

ok there's three main things i want to touch on here that are all contributing factors in a.c.e aesthetics hitting every time: colour theory, silhouette, and pattern matching. alright let's go!

colour theory

so i won't explain all of colour theory because i’m not as good as i should be with the actual theory, but here’s the basics. colours are divided into groups: primary, secondary, and tertiary. here’s a fun diagram i stole from google:

in centre you have the primary colours (red/blue/yellow), then you have the secondary colours, made from mixing the primary colours (orange/green/violet), and then the tertiary colours are made from mixing the primary and secondary colours (yellow orange/red orange/red violet/blue violet/blue green/yellow green). there are some commonly associated schemes that are known to ‘look good’ to the human eye:

complementary, where you pair two colours directly opposite each other on the wheel (red/green, blue/orange, purple/yellow)

analogous, which is a base colour with accents from the colours directly next to it (red base, orange/violet accent),

triadic - either base colour with accent colours equidistant from it (green/orange/violet), or base colour with split complementary (violet base, yellow green/yellow orange accent)

tetradic - this is essentially a combination of two or more of the previous, usually a double complementary or an analogous triad with a complimentary accent (red/green with red violet/yellow green, orange/blue with yellow orange/blue violet)

now there’s a lot more getting into tone, value, and saturation, but these are the basic hue combinations that we most commonly see. kpop styling sometimes veers wildly from these rules, but they aren’t hard and fast so it usually isn’t a big deal. plus a lot of styling is supposed to be a bit visually overwhelming anyways, so i’m not exactly counting it against anyone. but what makes a.c.e’s styling look so nice, even though it often isn’t that complicated, is that they always stick to a specific palette. like i went all the way back through their instagram and ALL their public appearances are coordinated:

even their dance practice videos, of all things!

this is especially true with their performance costumes:

i'm not saying anything really revolutionary here, most groups get colour matching down correctly, but a.c.e's stylists have really nailed down matching the tone and saturation as well as the hue. here's a couple of examples from concept photos:

complementary - full saturation green base, desaturated red (pink) as accent

analogous - full saturation violet, pink, and magenta with desaturated and black accents

triadic - all desaturated

complementary - full saturation red base, varying degrees of desaturation for accent colours

this is fun, let's do some more! this time from their performance costumes:

analogous (monochrome) - full saturation yellow green, desaturated accents

tetradic (analogous with complementary accent) - full saturation red, desaturated violet/red/blue, desaturated green as accent)

triadic (equidistant) - full saturation red/blue with desaturated yellow, desaturated accents

tetradic (double complementary) - full saturation red/green as main pair, desaturated blue/orange as secondary pair, full saturation yellow as accents

starting to see it? you can do this with pretty much any of their styling; i've watched a lot of their performances and i don't think i've seen a single one that didn't follow a really strict colour palette. (ok there were like two savage stages that were not quite as good, but you can tell the stylist was trying to bring them in line with the current 4th gen styling and it didn't work so it didn't last).

costume colours and lighting

this is an important aside in relation to the mvs. whoever edits their mvs is really good at colouring. a big part of colour theory is tone, which is how 'warm' or 'cool' a colour is. it's super important in lighting; the colour wheel is split in half, with yellow through red-red violet categorized as warm, and yellow green through blue and violet as cool. a really easy way to visualize this in lighting is through the light from different types of lightbulbs: led lights are cool toned (they are often slightly bluish), and old style halogen lights are warm toned (they are amber tinged). tones are a thing that kpop videos seem to have a fleeting relationship with; sometimes they're used effectively and sometimes they are not. a big thing that a lot of kpop mvs do is really quickly switch tones in colouring, without connecting the intentions of the colours. here's some examples: ateez's fireworks mv, and oneus' no diggity mv. the fireworks mv has this really weird desaturated balance between warm and cool tones specifically in the interior shots, where they somehow managed to overblow both at the same time, which ends up making it look like they were trying really hard to make a cool tone yellow. you can actually feel your eyes relax in that first shot that takes them outside, because the balance is much more natural. and the no diggity mv.... i love it but it's so chaotic. everything is on high saturation all the time and there's no real limitation on the palette, established connection between colours or arc in the colour story, so the cuts between colours and shots feel more random than intentional. now lets look at some a.c.e mvs in comparision, first: undercover. for starters there's an immediate establishement of red and white/black, with a mild green accent. then it continues to a stronger green/teal, with brown as an extension of red (same undertone). there's a colour shift at the first chorus, where they are in the analogous full saturation violet/pink outfits that i mentioned previously, but they actually desaturate and de-value the hues with edit in order to have it match the tone of the room. the second colour shift is for the second rap break, with byeongkwan and wow in yellow main on black and white backgrounds, but that same level of yellow saturation only appears at the rap break specifically, it's absent from the rest of the mv. and then there's a third colour shift on the last chorus, where they pump up the blue and magenta in order to emphasize the climax of the song.

second, for something a bit crazier: goblin. it follows almost the same pattern as undercover; starting with a strong establishment of red/white/black, but then it jumps into full saturation green and teal as the other main colours. again there's a colour switch at byeongkwan's second rap break, and after than we start to see that deeper saturation blue and pink/purple more, but the main colours are still red/white/black.

ok that's enough about colour, now let's talk about

silhouette

this is maybe a little bit more vague and difficult to describe, but whatever. silhouette is pretty much exactly the way it sounds, it's the overall shape of the body. clothing and body type play equal roles in how silhouette is perceived, but clothing can do a lot to either disguise or transform the body. now there isn't really that much variation in body type in kpop; it's a microcosm of small differences between a lot of very fit people, which has been normalized as "default" by society at large for the last while. i'm not going to get into body politics here, because we all know that kpop dudes are not the median average male body type, but they are for the sake of what we've been socialized to think of as looking attractive so the rest of this is going to operate from that assumption. and when you have five dudes who are pretty smack in the middle of that slight variation (none of them are the largest nor the thinnest, they're all about the same middling height), you've got pretty much free reign to put them in whatever you want and they'll still look hot. kpop styling has a dubious relationship to actual wearable clothing, but it is all costuming so it's not necessary for it to be wearable everyday clothing. but since view in 2015 there's been a dramatic increase in "normal" clothing as performance costume, and the thing about normal contemporary clothing is that it's actually very difficult to style in a convincing way. because it's the trends that the general public is the most familiar with, it's the easiest for them to pick apart where the flaws are. this is all preface to say that there are often common silhouettes that are popular with specific trends. in 2012-2013 there was that sweater tucked into circle skirt with big scarf trend, in the 2007 was like baggy everything and layered tshirts, etc, and 2018-2019 was big colourful patterned shirts. sound familiar? it should, take me higher came out in summer 2018! now there's a debate here (like with most pop culture and celebrity) whether or not kpop is following trends or setting them, and both points are true, but personally i'm of the opinion that kpop is kind of a median between the two; it's not setting trends because it's often taking directly from the fashion industry and/or other popular culture, but it is popularizing them in a way that said trend may not have otherwise. there's a lot of digressions in this section but i'm hoping this will help you see my point.

using take me higher as a specific example, you can clearly see that a.c.e is sticking to a specific silhouette within the group, which is a boxy/loose upper with a fitted lower. which you can see really clearly in this stage, this stage, this stage, this stage, and honestly pretty much every stage for this comeback. sometimes they'll have a slight variation where one of them is wearing a longer shirt, but otherwise it's pretty consistent. this is actually a really common silhouette for them, because it puts emphasis on their specific style of choreo, which is fast footwork. you can see it to the extreme in their main cactus styling, which goes the whole nine yards, fully making their legs the focus and going so far as to embellish them:

this silhouette also shows up for callin', where they're wearing boxy hip cut bomber jackets, and for the majority of the undercover styling, which is cropper military(ish) jackets. and it's shaping up to be similar for higher, so i'll talk more about it when i get there.

they have a consistant look for the goblin stages too, which is hanbok over a tight fitted underlayer. each of their hanbok are different cuts, which you can see with wow's cropped jacket and skirt combo, but it makes the same shape as the others. and in the goblin mv, most of their looks take a traditional silhouette and pair it with modern fabrics and patterns, and combining modern accessories with modernized traditional ones.

sticking to an internal silhouette is not the common mode for most boy group stylings at the moment. there's usually an adhesion to a specific colour scheme, but i have not noticed the same kind of care taken to silhouette. there's usually an adhesion to a member specific shape, but the general shape of the group is not usually as considered. you can see it in ateez's fireworks styling (yes i'm going to use it again, the styling was very weird and i never really talked about how weird it is). in the intro you've got tight pants, loose pants, short jackets, suit jackets, AND a long jacket. and then it's the same kind of variety in the rest of their outfits. if anyhting i'd say the emphasis was meant to be on shoulders, because of the point choreo; and yunho, hongjoong, san, and wooyoung all have some kind of shoulder padding, but that's only half the group. and the stage outfits are not any better. there's the infamous ketchup packet outfit, this naruto themed styling, this inexplicable bdsm football themed styling, and whatever this snakeskin theme is meant to be. it's all over the place! there's some performer specific shapes (hongjoong with the shoulder pads and hip length jacket, san with crop top, yeosang sleeveless) but if you were to just look at the shape of the outfits regardless of colour and pattern, you'd have no way to tell if they were all in the same group.

ok now lastly, let's quickly talk about

pattern matching and texture

this section won't be as long, but i wanted to cover it because even though it's a small and subtle thing, it does a lot in the visual long run. the general rule with patterns is that you don't combine patterns of the same size. this is kind of hard to explain without a visual reference so here's a few examples:

(not my photos, these are from scott schuman's blog the sartorialist)

small check, even smaller pinstripe

mid-size print on pant, large print on scarf

small shirt stripe, mid-size print on tie, mid-large print on scarf

small print on zip jacket, mid-size on scarf, large plaid on jacket

like all fashion and like everything else i've talked about here, this isn't a hard and fast rule, but it does generally look the most harmonious. a.c.e really nails this in the take me higher stages, which you can see here:

(in addition to using different pattern sizes, they're using different colours as well to make it less visually busy)

(bonus! see if you can name the type of colour stories!)

the goblin stages utilize a combination of texture and pattern matching, where the hanbok are a mix of different fabrics (raw silk, embroidered satin, organza) with different patterns, overtop plain underlayers, or when they aren't in hanbok their outfits are very heavily embellished to add visual interest, but are unpatterned fabrics.

in conclusion: good and cohesive colour stories, emphasis on uniform silhouettes and variety in patterns and textures. they also are very specific with accessories, and use them to emphasize key features.

ok! i think that's all i want to cover for this post, because this is already so long. but i've started on the write up for higher already, so i might get into some of my points here in more detail because i'll be talking about one specific thing instead of like......all of it.

#ace w #this ended up being mostly about take me higher because everything about the stages for take me higher is SO GOOD #seriously i watched like all of the stages and they all hit #also it's the type of contemporary design that i specialize in so of course it appeals to me #i say as im in the middle of designing a heighted modern styling for a show with a limited colour palette......#the higher writeup might take a few days #but i dont think it's going to be as long as this so hopefully not #a.c.e stylist please dm me i love you #a.c.e #kpop analysis #group analysis #general design questions #kpop questions #answers #text #i didn't say very much about the cactus styling because everything about it is perfect #no notes #10/10

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kutemouse · 4 years

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Hey! Can you do crisis talk with yoongi? Like, their conversation getting less and less and yoongi realized it and change. I hope you can understand, love you! Fluff angsty?

Disclaimers: The above gif was made and edited by me, kutemouse. That is why I’ve posted this under the tag #btsgif. Feel free to use this gif however you want, just please give me credit for the edit. The gif and the title of this drabble are from the mv and song, “I Need U” by BTS.

Hi kutie! I understood perfectly (I hope), thank you for your request! I love the way you put it as a “crisis talk!” 😂 Believe me, any hard conversation with Yoongi would definitely be a crisis in my book. I love writing angst for Yoongi as well, it just comes so naturally with him as I imagine him to be a brooding, hard-working somewhat-introvert who only lets loose around people he really knows and loves. Anyway, hope you like! 💜

Age Recommendation: 16+

Warnings: Angsty angst, swears, Yuqi from (G)I-DLE magically appears, Yoongi being an asshole, crying, some yelling.

Word Count: 1,550

“Because of you, I’m becoming ruined.

I don’t wanna stop, I don’t want you anymore.

I can’t do this, this sucks.

…

I’m sorry (I hate you)

I love you (I hate you)

Forgive me.”

~ “I Need U” by BTS

Translation I used can be found here.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

I Need U Girl (Yoongi Drabble~Angst, Fluff)

Yoongi stood as still as a statue, hands shoved in his pockets. If he even breathed, he was afraid you’d hear him, whip open the door, and scold him for even daring to be there. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but he understood why it was what it was. He pushed you away, after all. It all started that fateful night when he was trying to work and you were being your usual goofy self.

“Yoongi, oh my god, look at this meme,” you giggled, placing your phone in front of his face.

Yoongi paused what he was doing for a few seconds to read it, then gave out a half-hearted laugh. “Wow, that’s… that’s funny.”

A couple minutes later, you were watching a Youtube video and you laughed out loud, the sound reverberating off the walls into his head. That was when the frustration started to well up. You knew he was working, couldn’t you be quieter?

It was when you started humming as you scrolled through your phone that he completely lost it. “Y/n!” he barked, causing you to jump. “Can you please stop?”

“Sorry,” you muttered.

But that wasn’t enough to quell the destructive flame of Yoongi’s rage. He had a bad day today. BigHit’s producers rejected his latest submission for a new album track, telling him it was too raw, too rough, and he needed to majorly clean it up before submitting it again.

And if that wasn’t enough, practice between the BTS members also went badly. It was like they were totally out of sync. After two full hours of nothing but trying and failing to learn the new choreography, Hobi threw his hands up and said there was no point. They’d just have to come back tomorrow and hope it went better.

On top of all that, Yoongi went to a cafe to pick up a coffee, thinking it would cheer him up, and some asshole bumped into him, causing his drink to spill everywhere. When he came home, you cooed over him and did your best to clean him up and make him feel better, but unfortunately, everything you did had the exact opposite effect. Yoongi felt smothered by your antics, and when he sat down to work, the apartment seemed too small for the both of you.

Long story short, life was shit, everything had gone to shit, everything was shit, and now, Yoongi was sick of your shit. “Y/n, you know I’m trying to work!” he growled.

You held up your hands. “I said I was sorry.”

“That’s not good enough! Look, you need to leave. I need some space, I need to finish this, so please, just… just leave.”

You stared at him, open-mouthed. Was he serious? You and Yoongi had been dating for a year now, and you knew there were going to be some bumps in the road when you moved in together a month ago, but you never expected this.

“Fine,” you said, getting up. “I’ll leave.” You pulled on some pants, grabbed a jacket and purse, and went out the door. Yoongi huffed and tried to get back to work, but his attention was all over the place now. After another unsuccessful hour, he gave up and started to get ready for bed.

You still hadn’t come home when he crawled under the covers, so he shot you a text.

Yoongles ❤️ (11:34pm): Hey, I’m sorry. You can come home now.

You didn’t respond, and Yoongi ended up falling asleep. The next morning, he found you asleep on the couch, still fully clothed, your body curled up around yourself the way you used to curl up against him.

Ever since that night, you slowly began to pull away from Yoongi, but the sad part was, he didn’t even realize it ‘til yesterday. He knew you were more distant than usual, but he shrugged it off as a side-effect of the fight, thinking you’d get over it. He hadn’t noticed how your laughter didn’t come as often, or how your hugs and kisses were getting more and more brief. He didn’t heed the warning signs, like how you didn’t make love anymore, or how you seemed to be spending more time with friends than with him.

Yesterday, though, he looked around and realized he hadn’t seen you in almost a week. You had texted him each night, letting him know you were sleeping over at your best friend’s house, so he knew where you were, but that didn’t comfort him any. In fact, it served to drive home just how much he fucking missed you. Missed your scent, missed your laugh, missed the way you included him in everything you did. He even missed the way your hair stuck up in every direction in the morning and how husky your voice sounded when you just woke up. He missed the way you’d stand there in nothing but one of his t-shirts, cooking breakfast as he tried not to stare. He missed everything about you, and he wanted it back no matter how badly he screwed up.

Which left him here, standing at the front door of your best friend’s house, wondering how in the hell he could make this right. Yoongi gathered his courage, raised his fist, and knocked.

He heard shrieks of laughter, one of which was unmistakable yours, when Yuqi threw open the door. “Food is–”

She stopped short when she saw Yoongi standing there instead of a delivery person. Yuqi put her hands on her hips, tossing him a ferocious glare. Uh-oh. If Yuqi was mad, it meant you had told her your boyfriend was being a jackass. “Is Y/n here?” Yoongi said, trying not to let her death-glare bother him.

“She is.”

“Can I see her?”

“That depends.”

“Yuqi,” your voice said, appearing from behind her. “I’ve got this.”

“Fine. I’ll just be down the street picking up a coffee.”

She grabbed her purse and left, pushing past Yoongi roughly. He gave her back an incredulous look before turning to you. “Hi,” he said timidly.

“Hi.”

“Can I come in?”

You nodded and stepped back to let him in. Yoongi twisted his hands around each other, trying to think of how to begin as you both settled onto Yuqi’s couch. “How have you been?” he asked.

“Fine.”

If Yoongi had asked that question at any other time, you would’ve answered with a full paragraph, gesturing and all. The way you only gave him that single syllable let him know you were hurt, and he hung his head as he realized he was the reason for that hurt.

“Are you gonna come back home today?” he mumbled.

You crossed your arms. “That depends.”

“On what?”

“On if you want me back home.”

“Of course I want you back home.”

“Do you? Did you even notice I was gone?”

“Of course I fucking noticed!”

You winced and Yoongi instantly regretted his sharp tone. “Sweetheart, please. I know I’ve been a total ass, and there’s no excuse in the world I can give for that. Despite what’s going on at work or in other areas of my life, I should always treat you with kindness and respect.”

You let out a choked sob, and Yoongi looked up to see your eyes filled with tears. “I did it for you, you know,” you croaked. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore, so I decided to put some distance in between us. I thought maybe if I did that, the break-up would be less painful.”

Yoongi’s eyes went wide as he realized just how extensive the damage he’d done was. He was afraid you’d push him away, but at this point, he didn’t care. He came and sat next to you, wrapping you in his arms which, of course, only made you cry harder. “Shhhh,” he murmured soothingly, rubbing circles on your back. “Sweetheart, please. Don’t cry. I don’t want to break up with you. I love you.”

“I love you, too,” you sniffled.

You drew apart and Yoongi smiled as he looked into your beautiful, watery eyes. “I’m sorry for being such a jerk.”

You coughed out a laugh. “It’s okay. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions.”

“Let’s get your stuff and get you home, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

You spent the next few minutes texting Yuqi, letting her know you worked things out and were heading back home, and gathering your things. As you were looking for a shirt you misplaced, Yoongi suddenly grabbed you and spun you around, causing you to shriek.

He pressed his lips to yours, claiming your mouth in a way only he could. “I couldn’t wait another second,” he murmured as he drew back.

You wrapped your arms around his neck. “I never want you to wait to kiss me again.”

“I never will.”

He kissed you again, fervently, passionately, and you groaned as he brushed his tongue along your bottom lip. “Maybe when we get home, I can continue making this up to you,” Yoongi said breathlessly, cocking an eyebrow.

You smirked. “Maybe.”

Shortly after that, you both left, fingers intertwined the same way your souls were intertwined. Every day after that, Yoongi never failed to let you know how much he loved you and wanted you in his life.

#bts #bts drabble #drabble #yoongi drabble #suga drabble #min yoongi #suga #bts suga #bts yoongi #yoongi #i need u #angst drabble #angst #fluff drabble #fluff #i need u girl #min suga #gidle yuqi #bts gif

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behind-the-screen-of-bangtan · 5 years

Text

The Hip-Hop culture

This post is part of the TSU. It belongs to the third part: Socio-political reflection.

Here are the different parts that will be developed in this post:

Album structure

References to hip-hop in the music

References to hip-hop lyrics

References to hip-hop in MVs and concepts

Being hip-hop

Album structure

While the notion of album structure is not specific to hip-hop, the way BTS organized their works was heavily influenced by the genre.

All of BTS’ albums are structured. Most of the times, we’ll find an intro that’s used in the comeback trailer video, as well as, interludes, and outros. You can find such tracks in several genres of music but it’s something that was heavily used in 90s hip-hop albums, for example, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic.

Concerning the intros, it was explained in the WINGS Concept Book that the boy doing the intro of an album is the guide in this era. Until now, we’ve had:

RM: School trilogy, Persona

Suga: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life

J-Hope: Wings

Jimin: Her

V: Tear

Jungkook/Jin: Wonder/Answer

By checking the lyrics of those different songs, we see that they indeed talk about the main theme of their album and thus introduce us to the world forming the era. Typically, while “Intro: Skool Luv Affair” is about defining love, “Intro: What Am I to You?” is tainted by the doubts of the boy whose love is not returned.

The interludes are usually in the middle of the album - the notable exception being “Interlude: Wings” that ends WINGS and makes the bridge with You Never Walk Alone, in which it evolves into “Outro: Wings”. There are two more interludes. The first one is in 2 Cool 4 Skool and has the particularity to be the only BTS track with no lyrics, it’s only music. The second one is in Dark & Wild and this time it has the least lyrics of all of BTS songs: it’s just Jungkook repeating “What are you doing?” the name of the interlude. Dark & Wild’s interlude makes the separation between the “dark” part and the “wild” part (src).

Almost all albums end with an outro - 2 Cool 4 Skool and Love Yourself 承 Her having the particularity to have two hidden tracks after theirs. It seems the outros can have two purposes: they can conclude the era (”Epilogue: Young Forever”) or open the path towards the new one. A very concrete example of the second case is O!RUL8,2?’s outro “Outro: Luv in Skool”. The song is sampled in Suga’s verse in Skool Luv Affair’s intro (src), which is the next song in BTS’ discography after this outro. This way, the two albums connect with each other.

Several albums are also rhythmed by two other types of songs that are typical of hip-hop: skits and cyphers.

The skits are little comedic plays. They usually serve to fill time but in BTS’ albums, they rather give a glimpse of the boys’ thoughts and lives. The skits have already been discussed in the post about the autobiographic references. If you’re curious, you can learn more about the history of skits here and about their decrease here.

Cyphers are initially improvised performances where rappers compete against each other and tell their story (src). The BTS cyphers are a bit different since they are written in advance and the boys aren’t competing against each other but they still use them to explain their stories and settle accounts with haters. You can learn more in the post about BTS’ relationship with haters and fans.

The intros, interludes, and outros structure the albums just like the 起承轉結 organizes the whole Love Yourself series. Once this frame is set up, the boys can embroider their message on it clearly and efficiently with the other songs. That’s what allows them to consider complex themes and to explore them. It also makes the whole album worth listening, so we can have the full story.

On a side note, the choice to release albums rather than several singles has proven to be safer for the sales. You can refer to this thread by Odie for details: part 1, part 2, part 3.

Lastly, a CuriousCat Anon pertinently pointed out that the choice of starting BTS’ discography with the school trilogy could remind of Kanye’s West College trilogy (made of The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation). Indeed, both series are the first albums released by their artist, and both include lyrics about the artists’ personal life but also about the problems faced by their generation. Also, just like BTS brought socially conscious music in the heavily commercial K-pop world, Kany West linked the socially conscious underground hip-hop with the commercial popular hip-hop. The two projects were planned by their artists since the beginning and both evolved with the situation (BTS added the sequel Dark & Wild while Kanye West changed what was supposed to be the fourth album of a quadrilogy into 808s & Heartbreak, an album influenced by the heavy changes that happened in his private life at that time).

References to hip-hop in the music

The first seconds of the first song in the first BTS album is a reference to hip-hop. Indeed the beginning of “Intro: 2 Cool 4 Skool” is a sample of Epik High’s “GO”, from their 2003 album, Map of the Human Soul.

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“No More Dream”, the title track of 2 Cool 4 Skool, was intentioned to “revive the gangster rap hot in the 90s with the emotion of 2013″ (src). RM cited Dr. Dre’s “Deep Cover” as an example. Actually, through its structure and its music, the whole 2 Cool 4 Skool single could be considered as a 90s hip-hop release.

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“N.O”, the next title track, from O!RUL8,2?, is “an exciting trap music” (src) and “Boy In Luv” in Skool Luv Affair has old school hip-hop’s strong beat and rock sound”(src). The title tracks are not the only hip-hop songs. The whole school trilogy is heavily influenced by the genre. It started changing with Dark & Wild and its rock sound. The boys then started exploring other types of music but without forgetting hip-hop.

Another element typical to hip-hop music, even though it’s not exclusive to it, is the sampling. BTS used samples at different levels. “Coffee” and “Am I Wrong” are complete reinterpretations of existing songs: “Coffee” by Urban Zakapa and “Am I Wrong” by Keb’ Mo’. Another notable cover from Bangtan is “Born Singer”, a song based on “Born Sinner” by J.Cole. Not only is the music originally hip-hop, the lyrics tell the story of the boys and their relation to music - something that relates to the authentic feeling of hip-hop. “Lie” just use a short extract of “La Vida Breve” by Manuel de Falla. “Not Today” and “War of Hormone” have just one particular sound (the yell of the crazy German kid and a sound effect from Super Mario). You can find a quite decent list of the samples used in BTS songs on Who Sampled. While those samples can be seen as homages or inspiration sources, there are two samples with more meaningful use.

“Outro: Tear” uses the same piano as in the Highlight Reel video. It allows linking the two even though the Highlight Reel was released before Love Yourself 承 Her. On a BU related note, it’s interesting to point that the Notes released with Love Yourself 轉 Tear correspond with the events shown in the Highlight Reel, notably on the 30 August.

The other occurrence is even more impressive. “I’m Fine”, the second main track in Love Yourself 結 Answer is an ambigram of “Save Me”, the second main track in 화양연화 Young Forever. A lot of elements, be it in the music or the lyrics, mirror each other between the two songs. It shows the progression of the message, from a cry for help to the ability to stand on their own, while staying the same: the boys didn’t change, they evolved.

References to hip-hop in lyrics

Bangtan referenced their models in several texts, notably “길” (Road/Path) and “힙합성애자” (Hip Hop Lover). We heard the names of:

American rappers

Eminem

Jay-Z

Nas

Gang Starr

Black Star

Eric B

Rakim

Pete Rock

CL Smooth

The Notorious B.I.G.

Tupac

Mac Miller

Kanye West

Kendrick Lamar

A$AP Rocky

Korean rappers:

Garion

Epik High

Dynamic Duo

Verbal Jint

Debut albums:

Nas’ Illmatic

Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle

Pharell Williams’ In My Mind

KRS-One’s KRS-One

The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die

Dr. Dre’s The Chronic

J.Cole’s Cole World

“길” (Road/Path) and “힙합성애자” (Hip Hop Lover) are also the occasion for the rap line to tell their story and how they discovered hip-hop.

We can add Epik High’s “Fly” mentioned in “Skit: Circle Room Talk”. The white shirt and red necktie Suga talked about are a reference to the MV and to the album cover for “Fly”.

As the lyrics are the part Bangtan is the most invested in, what we have here are the most personal references to hip-hop for the boys.

References to hip-hop in MVs and concepts

Opposite to the lyrics, the boys probably have a lot less to do with all the hip-hop references that can be found in the MVs but they’re still interesting nonetheless.

Both photo concepts for 2 Cool 4 Skool and O!RUL8,2? are inspired by Gangsta rap but with the influence of 2013 fashion.

In the MVs, little nods to hip-hop artists can be seen:

“Can i kick it”, the title of a song by A tribe Called Quest, written on a shelf in “Boy in Luv” JP

The cover of Mos Def’s The New Danger is in the cubicle in “Boy In Luv”

“You think big, you get big in”, a citation from The Notorious B.I.G. is written on the blackboard in “Boy in Luv” JP

Nas’ Life is Good is in “Danger” next to RM

J. Cole on the cover of Billboard in the set of Short Film #4 FIRST LOVE but that actually only appears in Short Film #1 BEGIN and Short Film #2 LIE

There are also several posters about initiatives related to hip-hop:

It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop, a book about the social and political issues faced in the hip-hop field, is in the yellow bus of “No More Dream”

The Temple Of Hip Hop logo can be seen on a custom poster, still on the bus. The Temple Of Hip Hop is a non-violent organization defending the hip-hop culture

In the comeback trailer for O!RUL8,2? several elements you can associate with hip-hop (radio, mic...) assemble together with the BTS logo to form a sort of Bangtan-style hip-hop temple

Hip Hop vs War, a festival against can also be seen in the back of the bus

The Hip Hop Re:Education Project, an album made by young people from New York, is in the hallway in ”Boy In Luv”

Rhythm & Poetry, a documentary about hip-hop in Australia

Lastly, some elements are not hip-hop per se but still relate to the hip-hop culture. It’s the posters from SNEEZE magazine (details in this post) and the graffitis, notably the ones from the JnJ crew that could be seen in “No More Dream”(you can see the list in the glossary).

Being Hip-Hop

Reading articles about hip-hop and its history, there’s a notion that quickly stand out: there’s a whole difference between being hip-hop and doing hip-hop. Simply doing hip-hop without searching to understand the culture, just by imitating what’s been done, is usually very badly perceived and seen as cultural appropriation. Another important element is the idea of authenticity, someone should be sincere about their story and passion.

Interestingly, BTS has been labeled as fake by default because they’re not black Americans and worst, they’re k-pop idols. Add a few mistakes due to youth and ignorance, American Hustle Life, which as any self-respecting reality show put the emphasis on problematic stereotypes and I’ll let you imagine the result. All these problems are discussed in the article “Respect must be earned: BTS’ journey towards gaining its stripes in black America”. You’ll note that no one considered teaching them before hating on them and that everything was taken from an American point of view.

Which is probably where lies the problem since BTS are Korean idols. I won’t develop the subject since I’m not a professional but you can refer to this Vulture article and this one from Medium to know more about K-hip-hop (the Wikipedia page is also well written). You can also read Elliot Sang’s analysis of “Hip Hop phile” to know more about the complicated relationship between Asia and the black culture.

In summary, hip-hop was slowly imported in South Korea after the war. At first, it was dancers then rappers slowly appeared. Two names completely changed the game in the 90s and can be considered as the founders of K-hip-hop: Drunken Tiger and Seo Taiji & Boys. Those two groups helped the development of Korean hip-hop, which later evolved into the K-pop we’re familiar with under the influence of Seo Taiji & Boys.

The members of BTS grew up under the influence of those two groups - as well as all the acts they namedropped in their songs. Hip-hop was something normal for them, totally part of their own culture and not a foreign thing. Concerning RM and Suga, it has actually been a full part of their teenagehood (see baepsayed super complete posts about the pre-debut of RM and Suga for more details). So when Suga says during their first showcase that BTS “will do the most authentic hip-hop music” (in comparison to other idol groups), it’s not a selling argument, it’s the truth. Another argument in favor of the authentic feeling is the goal of the group: protecting the youth of prejudice and denouncing the unfairness of society. The third point doesn’t come from the boys themselves but from their own models: Drunken Tiger (now Tiger JK) and Seo Taiji have acknowledged them. RM featuring on Drunken Tiger’s Timeless and BTS participating to Seo Taiji’s 25th birthday concert is extremely meaningful. And you can add Suga’s collaborations with Dynamic Duo and Epik High. Garion also revealed in an interview they loved BTS and they were thankful for their song “Mutu” inspired RM to start rapping. For a more complete list of interactions between BTS and the K hip-hop scene, you can refer to this thread by @smollyoongs_.

From the Korean point of view, BTS has to be one of the most authentic hip-hop acts possible. Even though pure hip-hop can be mainly felt in the school trilogy era, BTS remained true to their selves when it comes to their lyrics and their passion. As for the sounds, you can still feel a strong hip-hop influence in the rappers’ solo releases. If you want to read more about BTS and authentic hip-hop, you can check this Twitter thread with screenshots of the book Hanguk Hip Hop by Myoungsun Song, in which BTS is included.

I’ll conclude the post with three more articles, the first one appreciating RM’s solo works from 2015, the second about RM being both a k-pop and hip-hop artist and the third about Suga and his storytelling talent. That’s just some more proof that the boys are being acknowledged for their talent and sincerity.

People can criticize as much as they want, the fact remains that BTS has been accepted by the founders of K-hip-hop and by music professionals, they are an authentic hip-hop group.

#BTS #TSU #Hip-Hop #Socio-political narrative

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dangerliesbeforeyou · 6 years

Photo

BTS RAPLINE TRIPTYCH PAINTING~

<- So Far Away -> Awakening <- Daydream ->

- - 23ish Hours later and it is complete! - -

Now starts a very long explanation (which I will try to keep as concise & understandable as possible but... well, you know me lol that probably won’t happen lol) as to what the rapline’s solo mixtapes and this triptych means to me...

I’ll start at the beginning, which isn’t the first piece I created (which was J-Hope’s painting), but actually the final piece I made; Suga’s.

Suga’s mixtape maybe spoke to me, personally, the most out of all of them; the roughness of the tracks, along with the raw and meaningful lyrics are some of the most emotionally charged tracks Bangtan have produced.

I named Suga’s piece ‘So Far Away’, which is the final track on the album, and one of my personal favourites. Not only is it Suran’s haunting vocals that add a really dream-like feel to the track, but the lyrics really give the concept of a ‘journey’ of self-love (which is a big overall theme of this triptych).

A sense of something in our pasts being so far away from who and where we are now, but also the idea that the place we want to go also seems so far away in the distance... It’s the beginning of a journey, and the beginnings of anything are always difficult.

The imagery to accompany this is more subtle than the others, since the imagery in the two music videos released during this album (Agust D (title) and Give It To Me) are less about this more ‘melancholic’ theme. So I went with the colour scheme of the music videos (darker greens, turquoises and blues, with bursts of yellow, orange and red as part of the flames and dramatic lighting). I also used the glimpse of a ladder we see in Agust D (ladders are steeped in lots of traditional symbology, and I also wanted something angular and red to contrast nicely with the green background, so I won’t go into too much about that).

And although the music videos are quite dark, I wanted to keep the light and clouds around the moon (which I’ll get to in a minute) bright. And although I feel like I could have made it a touch darker, I like the overall vibe of the piece, as it doesn’t feel too gloomy.

(Important thing to mention, I didn’t create this triptych to psychoanalyse everything in the Rapline’s mixtapes which may or may not relate to their mental health. This piece is a wholly personal piece, with using my own emotional responses to the mixtapes as a way to look at recovering and learning to love yourself...)

The oversized clothes (with a big focus on the folds of the clothing) was inspired by the Spanish Surrealist artist Remedios Varo, who I only discovered recently but immediately fell in love with her dream-like paintings. In particular, this piece was inspired by the first panel in her own triptych she painted between 1961-62.

This piece (called Toward the Tower) was another starting basis for background styles and colour-schemes, as well as the more stylised (but detailed) figures, clothing and buildings. The piece is Varo’s own commentary on life in a convent, and the ideas of entrapment and freedom (which are continued throughout the triptych). And although this differs greatly from my own triptych, I think the way in which Varo approached the artworks and theme are something I wanted to emulate in my own piece.

Now onto the moon iconography I included. Now, because I initially started with J-Hope, who I made into the Sun was more of an after thought, this idea only really came about because of that. But as soon as I made that choice, I realised how perfect it would be to have Suga be his seemingly ‘opposite’: the moon.

The moon gets its ‘power’ (so to speak) from the light of the sun, and the gravity that binds it to our planet and allows it to control tides and effect seasons (I think... Look, I don’t pretend to know everything about the moon, ok, I just think she’s beautiful and doing a great job...). So the idea behind this is that in fact to start a journey of self-love or recovery, we often have to look to others for advice and support. (This may be actually seeking out help from a professional, chatting to a friend or family member, or simply discussing your thoughts openly to a diary or something similar...). We need to make an effort to share our burden with ‘others’, even if it is difficult.

(I don’t pretend to know everything, or anything, about dealing with mental health, by the way. But I do know a bit about learning to love yourself, and dealing with moving on from a rough patch... Basically, I’m only speaking from my personal experiences so please don’t come for me....)

I think Yoongi, along with the Agust D mixtape, fit perfectly with the concept of the moon. A big part of this is the cycles of the moon, and the very nature of change and movement which that encompasses. I went with a full moon in the sky, as it usually indicates the end of the cycle (i.e. the end of your difficult past) and suggests the start of a new one (i.e. the start of a brighter future).

The flames are mainly a crossover from Rm’s piece, although fire is a big theme in Suga’s music videos (and personality in general). Though I will go more into the fire in Rm’s piece...

The final thing I want to talk about for Suga’s part is the lyrics I included on the ribbon. I decided instead of trying to wade through all the songs on each mixtape to find the perfect lyric, I’d instead take the lyrics from their more reason Trivia tracks on the Love Yourself: Answer album.

Suga’s, which is called Seesaw (and is my personal favourite, I might add), speaks of a kind of ‘seesaw’ battle that exists between himself and someone (or something?) else. I’ll admit, I haven’t looked into the reasoning or real meaning behind the song, but I was drawn to the lyrics: 니가 없는 이 시소 위를 걸어 니가 없던 처음의 그때처럼 (I’m walking on this seesaw without you just like the beginning when you weren’t here). I interpreted this as the ‘you’ representing the version of yourself that you want to be, versus the version of yourself that you are at that point in time... The precariousness of walking on a seesaw and trying to balance public personas and internal monologues is a very poignant theme, even to people like you or me. There’s also a sadness to the lyrics, the idea that the situation feels hopeless, like it was before. It’s a cycle, perhaps, of self-hatred (something we all get into now and again). And, just like on a seesaw, one step in the wrong direction and we can easily fall back into old ways and viewpoints of ourselves...

Primarily, Suga’s piece is a beginning. The beginning to one of the most difficult journeys we take in life; the journey to loving ourselves.

The next piece is actually not Rm, despite his being the central panel. Obviously, the colours and imagery are supposed to flow into each other in the order they are presented, but I decided half way through that it made more sense in terms of my message to have J-Hope’s be the actual ‘second panel’.

So, here is where I’ll talk about the very first piece of this triptych I created; J-Hope and ‘Daydream’.

The whole idea of creating a triptych for the rapline’s mixtapes came to me as soon as J-Hope had released Hope World. I love the stark contrast between each of the member’s styles, both musically and aesthetically, as well as the way that they all reflect an overall ‘bangtan’ feel.

And actually out of all the music videos, ‘Daydream’ is probably one of my favourites. The whole vibe, use of colour, editing style, and the way it works seamlessly with the song is basically perfection, and it fits with J-Hope’s personality and music style brilliantly as well. And although the album itself didn’t speak to me as much as the other two member’s had; it still really showcases the talent and diversity of J-Hope’s music ability.

Right, now to my artwork... So I was obviously inspired heavily by the Daydream music video, both in the aesthetics and symbolism (aka the fish). It also fits perfectly with the surrealist style I was going for. The overall brightness of the mv was perfect for the sense of ‘hope’ I was trying to portray in this piece.

So this was based on the very last panel of Varo’s triptych, which is called ‘The Escape’.

Much as the title suggests, the final panel is an escape up into the mountains. It suggests a climb away from dark storm clouds into the light. And my own interpretation in my piece was definitely based on this sense of freedom. But to fit with both J-Hope’s mixtape (aka the Blue Side outro track which deserved a full song!!!!!!), my own personal connections and also to fit with the aesthetics of Varo’s piece, I wanted to include the element of blue and the storm clouds.

The main reason behind this is to reflect the fact that even if someone appears happy on the outside, there’s always a chance something darker and melancholic... This doesn’t undermine or make the happiness you may see or feel any less real, it’s just important to acknowledge that hardships exist and are all a part of life... Going through tough times, having ‘scars’, shows that you have survived!

The lyrics I used from his Trivia: Just Dance reflect this idea too. They translate roughly as ‘my dreams that once had no answer, now become something we can relate to’... Also, the position of Hoseok’s head (which was partly just because I really like the reference image because he look beautiful to be quite honest), looking away as if towards the future, fits with this concept too.

I think I wanted this piece to mainly be the dream of recovery, the dream version of yourself... The bright sunshine in your life that you hope one day will be reality... Putting it and Suga’s either side of the Rm central piece helps it to reflect the idea of Past - Present - Future. Not necessarily in a chronological sense, but more the way in which they react and connect to eachother.

The final piece of the series is the central Rm panel, which is also the one with the most symbology.

I actually did this one as a part of a collab with other artists to celebrate Namjoon’s birthday (it had to the hashtag ‘infinitereasonstolovejoonie’ and it was the cutest thing ever!!!).

Ok so there’s a lot to breakdown with this piece, so I’m going to start first with the reference I used for Rm’s head. I knew I wanted to use something from the Joke music video, because I really loved the straitjacket look coupled with the extreme chiaroscuro used in the mv. Unfortunately, most of the reference images were really bad quality (since they were mostly just screencaps), as well as them being difficult to draw angels, making it all the more of a battle for me to draw... I like that I made him look down, purely because it both contrasts with Suga and J-Hope, and also in the way it suggests both defeat and hope. Defeat, in the way looking down is linked with shame, and hope in the idea that it could almost suggest that Rm is about to look up...

The background also links to these contrasting ideas. The dark blue and stormy clouds, mixed with the flashes of lightening help to create a sense of the phrase of ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. This idea was mainly my own invention, since most of the references (including the music videos and Varo’s paintings) didn’t include lightning. The colourscheme was vaguely inspired by both the Joke music video as well as Varo’s central panel.

Titled as ‘Embroidering Earths Mantel’, it is probably the piece I took the least inspiration from out of the three. Varo’s piece shows the girls in the convent she had known to be trapped and forced to work, a hooded figure in darker clothes overseeing them... This sense of danger and being unable to escape was the main concept I took away from this... Another thing that I took from this was the use of the yellow in contrast to the dark and stormy sky (which I chose to do flames, which were taken from the Awakening music video).

Speaking of the Awakening mv, I decided to only really use the flames from the aesthetics, but still use the name as the title of the piece. ‘Awakening’, much like Rm’s looking down head, is evocative of moving from one state (being asleep/looking down) to another (being awake/looking up). It’s not awake, it’s not final or definitive. It’s a transitional period.

Put in the centre of Suga and J-Hope’s pieces, Rm’s represents the ‘present’. A time when you’re working through recovery, or where you’re beginning to learn to love yourself. It’s not an easy or particularly ‘happy’ time, and it often contains a lot of hardships and difficult to decisions.

I thought this fitted the best with Rm, who is the leader of BTS. He has to carry a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, which I represented literally in my piece with the 6 lightbulbs/microphones that drip onto his shoulders (this imagery was inspired by both the Do You music video, as well as the album cover). Another interpretation, and probably the one I was aiming to be more prominent, was the idea that although being a leader means he is responsible for a lot of the groups public image/etc, the other members aren’t a burden, but instead act as an anchor for his strength... You can almost see the ‘drips’ acting as puppet strings; the other members lifting him up when times get tough.

This links back to the idea of the moon I talked about in Suga’s piece. Although recovery and learning to love yourself, or whatever it is you’re dealing with, can’t be solved immediately just because you have a loving family or friends, having a person you trust to talk to can help you deal with things a lot easily then trying to go it alone... This is probably one of the most difficult things in dealing with mental health struggles, since most of us are really reluctant to ask for help in fear of being an annoyance to others... We always make excuses that our problems, whatever they may be, aren’t worthwhile discussing or talking about since everyone has their own problems and you don’t want to burden them even more...

(And although this is advice that I rarely take myself, I just want to say Your problems are not worthless, you are not a burden to others, and you deserve to be happy!)

The final part of Rm’s piece is the lyrics I chose from his Trivia: Love. 너 땜에 알았어 왜 사람과 사랑이 비슷한 소리가 나는지 ‘I found out because of you Why “person” (saram) and “love” (sarang) sound similar’. I chose this both because I wanted it to fit with a ‘reason to love joonie’ (i.e. his brilliant lyric writing skills), and also for the way it relates to my own experiences.

The ‘person’ in my case is less an actual singular being, and more the art community online and the k-pop fandom... So without going into details, the last few years haven’t been the easiest for me, so having the k-pop community to enjoy memes with, listen to and get excited about music with and to be artistically inspired by really helped me get through feeling lonely and down... And although I’ve (luckily) never had any horrific experiences, I know that a lot of people who like k-pop and are a part of community have (or are having them), and having k-pop around has helped them survive the most difficult situations...

I wanted this triptych to both a personal and universal piece, something people can relate to and understand (as well as be able to appreciate on a purely aesthetic level)....

I hope that everyone who has taken time to read this ridiculously long essay about this piece get’s this sense of inclusion, which is something I truly admire about BTS in particular...

Just remember, if you’re going through a difficult time, things really will get better! Recovery, Life, Self Love; it’s all a journey that there’s no guidebook to...

And to quote BTS’s ‘Young Forever’:

~~Dream : Hope : Keep Going : Keep Going~~

Thank you for reading!

[this piece is available on my redbubble btw]

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mybiasisquiet · 7 years

Text

Red Velvet’s Bad Boy MV (Music Video Analysis)

The views presented in this theory are a part of my own individual interpretation of the video, which means they are subject to error. Lyrics taken from kpopviral.

The Treachery of Images: I’ve just posted an analysis for Peek-A-Boo, which deals heavily on the inversion of male fantasy. The theme carries over into this video. Though the title is “Bad Boy,” no boys are present. The focus on the video is entirely femininity, which makes sense when taking into consideration that the term “bad boy” is almost always defined in opposition to the “good girl.” Take Grease for example. Sandy is a good girl who has met a bad boy, and the film concludes with her transformation over into a bad girl. In this dichotomous presentation of femininity (meaning girls are only either innocent or corrupted), the bad boy is the means by which the girl is transformed. Good girls are seduced by bad boys, and ruined.

Here, however, Red Velvet has more agency than that. The lyrics address the bad boy in question as they attempt to seduce him.

You must be confused, you can’t even imagine

You can try to get away but there’s no room at all

The answer’s decided, you follow me naturally

I choose you, I already chose you

Though they play out both the roles of the “innocent” and the “corrupted” they ultimately seek to destroy the constraints these images place upon them.

As the video opens, the members sit in an empty hot tub while wearing school girl uniforms. The uniforms are typical of representations of young girls, both used to show innocence and eroticism, so we are introduced early to the dichotomy at hand. The image of the hot tub, as well, is suggestive, though empty. The voyeurism of girls (even clothed) in a hot tub is disrupted by the falling snow, and the book.

The theme of voyeurism is present throughout the video, especially as the camera essentially “intrudes” upon the private setting of Joy and Seulgi in bed, confiding in one another. These voyeuristic and homoerotic elements play into the male fantasy of what happens at sleepovers, acted out by the camera.

Like with the snow, this image is interrupted by the inclusion of the book.

The book cover reads “Ceci n’est pas de la levre,” mimicking Rene Magritte’s famous painting The Treachery of Images. The text translates to “this is not a pipe,” which appears paradoxical at first. However, it is not a pipe, but the image of one. Though the book’s French is not correct, it should say something along the lines of “these are not lips.” What it stamped on the cover are not lips, but the image of lips.

The treachery of images is that we forget they are images. We believe them so wholly that we take representation as truth. This theme is central to the understanding of the video. We must remember what we are seeing isn’t trustworthy: it’s just an image. This is so brilliantly put in terms of femininity with lipstick rather than the male-coded pipe.

What we see throughout the video are not true images of femininity, but constructed images and conceptions. This can extend beyond the theme of femininity I’ve focused on, to just the simple image of being in the public eye. An “idol image” is not a complete and full person, though people often make this mistake.

Here we come upon one of the main settings of the video. A red bed sits in the middle of a road in an icy place. Four of the members lie in bed. (I think Joy is missing, but there’s no reason I can think of why Joy specifically would be missing, so I’m going to assume it’s not important.)

This scene presents a set of contradictions. The setting is cold, while the bed is a symbol of rest and comfort. There’s a suit case, and a street, which imply movement and temporary stasis, but the bed, again, implies permanence. Cold versus comfort, temporariness versus permanence in this dream-like setting communicate their conflicted emotions concerning the images rendered of them. They are uncomfortable and comfortable at once, tempted both to stay and to leave.

The girls sleeping in the bed, again, tie into a voyeuristic theme. Their unconscious state makes them vulnerable, as if they are unaware of the camera and lack the agency to break free of the watchful gaze of the camera.

In black and white, suggested to be on a different time line than my previous screenshot, Seulgi walks toward the bed alone with a suit case in hand. This symbolizes her entrance into this isolated and emotional landscape. The suitcase indicates her intention to stay, at least for a while, before the eventual decision to leave.

Much of the video takes place in this setting. The girls are dressed in stark contrast to their earlier sleep over attire. Where that was the image of innocence and soft femininity, here they display something closer to the “bad girl” image.

This setting is also decorated with female mannequins. They are approximations of the female form (a representation and not a truth), and they are idealized and commercialized objects meant to sell clothing. These mannequins represent the battle of representational and true female identity--they present an ideal body but are not an actual body. Where women are often made over into idealized, commercialized objects (typical in the k-pop industry especially), we must remember that the image of such women are only images, and that people exist behind them.

Additionally, though I haven’t captured this in the screenshot, the platform on the back is on wheels, again suggestive of impermanence.

This is the third key setting of the video. With tables and a staircase and a front door, the room appears at first to be a home. However, there is a luggage cart in the corner, revealing the potential domestic setting to be a hotel lobby. The hotel carries on the theme of impermanence, and ties back to the suitcase Seulgi carries.

Here Yeri displays the sleep over image of soft femininity.

She presses the typewriter key and the screen ripples.

She falls into this “bad girl” image--the transformation complete in one moment. She is the innocent made corrupted at the press of a key.

Throughout the video, the girls whisper in each other’s ears. They confide in one another, but we do not hear what is said. The camera (often pictured in this video as a polaroid) captures images and is unconcerned with the things they say. The image of femininity is unconcerned with actual thoughts and speech of women--they can speak and confide in each other in private circles, but they are not meant for public speech. Yeri’s utilization of the typewriter implies an attempt at language, at communication, which amounts to the act of rebellion. The desire to be heard is the “corrupting” force.

The members sit around a table in the hotel setting. They have the books on plates, and they read the books despite the blank pages. As will be seen a few screenshots later, the only book with text in it is the book with the lips on the cover. The reading of the blank books signifies the expectation to swallow empty ideas because they are presented in a convincing light. The books are physical, real, and from the opposite side you can believe they contain knowledge, though the inside is blank. These books give the image of knowledge without knowledge.

Only the book in Wendy’s hands is effective. The other books still read “this is not a lip” on the cover, and this statement can be taken literally. True, there are no lips on the cover. The paradox doesn’t work here. Only paired with the image of the lip can the book call attention to the treachery of images and communicate true understanding and knowledge.

The five of them walk with destructive items in their hands--bats, spray paint, etc. We see these items appear throughout the video. Keep in mind for later

Wendy, having possessed the book that called attention to the treachery of images, has a camera placed before her. She burns it, destroying the thing capable of capturing images. In the destruction, she alerts the others of the problem with the structured images, as Seulgi and Joy are entranced and fan the flames.

Despite burning the camera, the images remain, as five polaroids are tucked into the book. One for each member, these polaroids represent the conceptions and images that surround them. Though they have destroyed the camera, there is a certain sentimentality in saving the images--they’ve grown attached to them. They hide them away for safe keeping in the very book that condemns their treachery. They know the danger of the image, but it is not entirely constrictive. It’s familiar, just as the bed is comforting, just as they might be tempted to stay. This is another instance of the struggle of whether to break free from the image or not.

The girls begin to destroy both the mannequin and the hotel setting. This destruction, especially through vandalistic means such as graffiti, is a “bad girl” action. At first, the destruction appears simply rebellious and typical of the personas they embody.

Additionally, Wendy knocks the camera out, sending it spinning. This calls attention to the fact that we are watching the video through the lens of a camera. The things we are seeing are mere representational images.

The mannequins, as well, have been knocked over, and all they represent as been displaced.

Irene covers Yeri’s ears in the approximation of hear no evil. The eldest protects the youngest. This reflects the fear of influencing young girls, a fear that reveals the belief in their inherent corruptibility.

Fun fact: they used to think women were so impressionable that if they looked at something bad while pregnant, it could lead to a deformity in the child.

The assumption of being so easily influenced supposes they lack the agency to interpret the information they hear correctly.

Seulgi stands in the black and white bed setting, aiming gun at seemingly no one.

As Wendy burned the camera, she now holds a lighter.

Seulgi squirts strawberry syrup onto a white cake and the stuff drips over the sides. On first glance, it looks like blood, which is a purposeful mislead. It’s hard to catch the edge fo the bottle in Seulgi’s hand. We are supposed to think it’s blood when it is nothing more than syrup.

Unlike in Peek-A-Boo where we see violence practiced, Yeri shooting the crossbow and cutting the boy’s cheek, Irene slicing Seulgi’s cheek, all of the violence in this video is sublimated. Seulgi points a gun but it’s at no one and she never pulls the trigger. We see the shocking image of blood and it’s revealed to be nothing more than syrup. Irene poses with bolt cutters, but we never see them used. We see Irene and Yeri posing with spray cans, but the destruction is in the background already performed. Later, when the room burns, we only catch a glimpse at the flames. The destruction and violence are shown in glimpses and never in full--subverted.

This plays into the treachery of images, how little we see and do not see, and how much we can assume with just the glimpse of a thing.

Seulgi stands on the table, blowing fake money. The fake money is the illusion of luxury and not the thing itself. Though she dispenses it, none of the girls reach for it. Later, they stand under it in marvel, as it were falling snow, but they do not collect it. They understand it is worthless.

Wendy sleeps with her head down. Behind her, a member passes by while a shadow hand reaches out. A second later, Wendy’s eyes open. This connects to the sublimated violence, being unaware and stalked. It also calls attention to the theme of sleeping and waking-what happens while you sleep and what is necessary to wake to awareness.

Earlier, Seulgi had the gun pointed at no one. I think it’s necessary to point out that Seulgi very clearly has the gun pointed at the viewer, at the camera. She has aimed her gun toward the constructed image.

Where they were asleep previously, the girls sit up in bed and they seem aware of the snow for the first time. Their agency is expanding.

Here, more voyeuristic and posed images of homoeroticism play out. Irene and Joy are frozen in a near kiss. They coyly whisper in one another’s ears. This is not a natural closeness. Yeri and Seulgi look knowingly into the camera, calling attention to the fact that this is for the benefit of the camera.

Seulgi picks up the suitcase and leaves.

The bed in this setting, an object of permanence, is replaced by a car. It’s an object of agency, giving them the ability to come and go as they please.

Wendy tosses her lighter, and the place goes up in flames. The setting indicative of their bad girl image is destroyed.

They demonstrate the agency to come and go, to preserve and to destroy.

The video ends as the girls open their eyes, staring up at the camera while still dressed as innocents. In the end, they present their own individual identities, unified by the innocence of the sleep over setting and the graffiti on the floor. Though they perform the destructive act, which is a “bad girl” thing, they end the video in complete awareness and in the state of innocence, navigating between the two roles in the suggestion of unity. They are capable of both goodness and individual will. The act of destruction was not simply vandalism typical of one role, but the expression of will and individuality. They destroy the image that would divide female identity in half. They can destroy and preserve and be good. They can be awake and aware and innocent. They aren’t good girls gone bad, they’re simply girls capable of complexity and agency.

#red velvet #bad boy #the perfect red velvet #kpop #wendy #irene #yeri #joy #seulgi #analysis #SM entertainment #kpop theory #comeback

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ramirei · 7 years

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Assertion of the Heart - introduction + preparation 1 + 2

Takamizawa Arisa is eager to make friends and fit into class at her junior high school. However, she doesn’t fit into the girl groups and the only person she talks to is Enomoto Kotarou who sits in the seat behind her. Though she feels close to Miura Karen, a fellow classmate who doesn’t fit in class, she was scared of being singled out by her peers. Shibasaki Ken, Kotarou’s friend, takes notice of the conflicted Arisa but – “It’s too boring to hate all the time.” What awaits Arisa as she takes a step forward in her own way!?

Find the masterlist with all the chapters here!

Please support Honeyworks by purchasing the novel here! (CDJapan is also a good alternative)

We finally get Arisa’s story after wondering about it for so long!! This time, we’re going back in time to their junior high school years before they were all friends, so this is gonna be interesting. If you’re wondering why I’m posting this as a double chapter, though this novel has way more chapters than the other novels, a majority of them are also way shorter than usual. I’m going to be posting them as double chapters, but preparation 9 and preparation 10 will be getting their own individual posts as they’re much longer chapters.

introduction

She took a step forward, pushed by the words of someone she saw on TV. Opening the classroom door, she yelled in a loud voice, “You can’t let things go on like this!”

The cries that spilled from her heart may go nowhere. Even so, please reach someone.

Please –

Enomoto Kotarou Born November 29, Sagittarius, blood type O. 7th grader. In the soccer club. Arisa’s classmate. Has an unrequited love for Setoguchi Hina, his childhood friend from another class. His older sister Natsuki is a 9th grader in the same junior high school.

preparation 1

Today was her third day since starting junior high school.

Everything was different from when she was in elementary school; Takamizawa Arisa couldn’t get used to it at all. At the same time, she failed to join any girl groups and even now was alone in class.

This time for sure, I won’t fail! Arisa told herself while heading towards the classroom.

The hallways were full of students playfully running around. She was just about to bump into someone when, flustered, she stepped to the side.

“That was dange…” She started, about to admonish them in a loud voice, but restrained herself by tightly placing strength in her stomach.

She had just decided to not stand out and behave herself in junior high school. If she spouted everything that was on her mind, then it would only become a repeat of what happened in elementary school.

She paused briefly, then walked along the corners of the hallway as much as possible.

It wasn’t like Arisa had a reserved personality. Rather, she was someone that liked talking and sometimes she envied seeing girls happily gathered together. However, she had poked her nose into other people’s affairs and had unintentionally spoken harshly during elementary school, which ended up with her often being left out by her peers.

Due to that, she also ran into constant problems with her classmates.

After becoming a junior high school student, she was supposed to have grown up slightly from her past mistakes. She couldn’t have it be the same as it was before.

Arisa stopped walking and tightened the grip she had on her bag, I will definitely make friends!

She couldn’t say something like she couldn’t do it after being moved to tears by her mother when she had told her on the day of the entrance ceremony, “It’d be nice if you’re able to make friends.”

Her grandfather, a Shinto shrine priest, even gave her a full-blown prayer, “With all respect, please allow Takamizawa Arisa to make 100 friends…!” Though she was painfully embarrassed when he had read the ritual prayer out loud in a booming voice, that only meant how worried her grandfather was as well.

Arisa took a deep breath and told herself not to say anything uncalled for. Besides, she also had to not poke her nose into other people’s businesses. She needed to prevent people from thinking badly of her as much as she could.

She tried practicing her smile in front of the classroom entrance, but, because she wasn’t used to it, her cheeks went stiff and she only managed to lift a corner of her mouth.

No, no, this isn’t right… it’s kinda scary…

If she didn’t smile more naturally, refreshingly, or pleasantly, then it seemed as if it would have the opposite effect and people would retreat from her with a bang. If only she could be like the girl she saw on TV in the pudding commercial the other day and smile refreshingly!

But, it’s not like I can smile like that! Yes, that was what her mind shot back at her.

“Yo, Takamizawa. What’re you doing?”

Arisa’s shoulders stuttered in surprise at suddenly being talked to. Behind her was a male student by the name of Enomoto Kotarou and who was also her classmate.

“B-But I’m not doing anything…?” She responded, playing it off.

Kotarou hummed at her reply and looked towards the classroom. He then looked back at Arisa, “You ain’t gonna go in? The classroom.”

“I’m going in! You don’t have to tell me…” Even though she said this, she stood, unmoving, and hesitated in front of the entrance.

Her back was pushed with a clap and Arisa entered the classroom staggering. Kotarou laughed slightly, then entered the classroom.

“Enomoto!” At being called, he stopped walking and immediately entered the other conversation.

Arisa followed him with her eyes while walking towards her seat.

“I’m Enomoto Kotarou. I’m good at soccer so I intend to join the soccer club. My goal is to become a regular and go to nationals!” That was what he said when he did his self-introduction during homeroom on the day of the entrance ceremony. After declaring his self-confidence, he had smiled widely and did a peace sign.

…He has a good memory, remembering my name.

Though Kotarou sat in the seat directly behind Arisa, they have never had a direct conversation. That was why she hadn’t expected him to talk to her naturally like that.

The other boys gathered around Kotarou in no time and it became lively to the point it was noisy. Kotarou likely also only knew a few people from the same elementary school. Despite that, by the third day after starting school, he brazenly secured his position as one of the popular boys. Even though they started from the same place with few friends, it felt like a huge gap had widened between them before they had even reached halfway through the track.

Not bad… Enomoto. Arisa looked at Kotarou with a sharp, challenging expression in her eyes while quietly pumping herself up with a sense of rivalry. One hundred friends… even if it doesn’t go as planned, I gotta start from one person first!

♦ ♦ ღ ♦ ♦

Enomoto Kotarou was joking around with the boys when he felt someone’s gaze on him. He turned around, going, “Huh?”

The moment their eyes met, Arisa sullenly turned away.

Wha, why, was I being glared at? Was it because she didn’t like that he had talked to her?

It was usual for girls to be in a bad mood, so it was no use for him to pay any mind to it, but… Kotarou scratched his head and remembered the kinds of girls he was usually around.

Still, I don’t understand Takamizawa, man.

He had never once seen her talking with other girls. Kotarou became curious as he ignored the conversation of the boys around him and looked at Arisa once more. Kotarou casually averted his gaze since he was definitely being glared at.

For now, it might be better if I don’t look at her… He didn’t quite understand it, but he would let sleeping whatevers be. *

* Kotarou is thinking of the proverb “let sleeping dogs lie” but he doesn’t remember it properly.

Yamamoto Koudai Born November 7, Scorpio, blood type A. 7th grader. Classmates and friends with Ken. Acquainted with Kotarou. Silent and loves books. Hit the nail on the head with those words. *

* These words: “Shibaken, you’re nice to girls. It’d be nice if you were nicer to me, too…” (from the Heart no Shuchou MV)

preparation 2

“Hey, Koudai.” Shibasaki Ken called to Yamamoto Koudai in the seat behind him, leaning his chair over. It was lunch break.

Koudai, reading with an expressionless face like he always did, didn’t try at all, not even a bit, to look at Ken. He probably completely saw through the fact that it wasn’t anything important.

“It’s seriously soooo boring. Hey, do you have anything interesting to talk about?” Ken said with both hands behind his head.

Koudai dropped his gaze from his book and audibly sighed, “None. Rather, why are you using my name without honorifics?”

“Ain’t it fine? We’re classmates, aren’t we? You can skip the honorifics with me, too.” Ken said lightheartedly while smiling.

In reply, Koudai pushed his glasses up and returned to reading. It seemed like he didn’t feel like continuing the conversation any further.

Ken turned, facing his body towards Koudai instead, and stubbornly called out to him, “Hey, heeeeeey,” he continued, “What’re you reading? Is it interesting?”

“Whether or not it’s interesting is up to the individual.” Koudai replied in a flat tone while his chin was rested in his hand.

“Hmmm. Then, is it an erotica?” Ken asked, taking a peek at the thick book that Koudai was reading.

“The Karamazov Brothers by Dostoyevsky. If you’ll read it, I’ll lend it to you.”

“Ah, my bad. I have absolutely no interest. So, that whatever Brothers, what kind of story is it?”

“If you’re not interested, then there’s no point in asking. Anyway, why are you talking to me?” Koudai closed his book with a plop and finally looked up, probably because he had lost his concentration.

“It’s fine, ain’t it? Help me kill time.” He replied with a smile.

Koudai said, “Seriously?” with a dumbfounded expression.

Koudai was an acquaintance Ken made after starting junior high school. So far, they have yet to find a common ground. Both their personalities and hobbies didn’t match at all. You might say that Koudai, who was taciturn and loved books, and Ken, who had a flashy appearance and features, were polar opposites in just about everything. If they had not been in the same class or if their seats weren’t in front and back of each others’, then they would probably hardly talk to each other. There were several other people in class that they could get along with. Despite that, the reason Ken had dry conversations like this with Koudai was simply because it was troublesome for him to move seats. Since he was using the other person to kill time, anyone would’ve been fine. That was why Ken was quick to make Koudai, who sat behind him, his partner. With that reason, Koudai became the person Ken talked to the most ever since the entrance ceremony once they realized it.

“Well, you’re bothering me.”

“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, it’s not a rule that we can’t use our phones in class or anything, right? Hey, Koudai. You don’t feel like running for student council president?”

“I don’t understand what you’re asking at all with that question.”

“Become the student council president and get rid of the cell phone use ban. The whole school would be happy, y’know? I’ll even give you my sincere vote.”

“It doesn’t feel like it’s completely sincere. Don’t go forcing people into things. Why don’t you run for it yourself?

“’Cause that kind of thing is impossible for me. I don’t wear glasses.”

“Running for student council president doesn’t require you to wear glasses.”

“But when you think of a student council president, ain’t it obvious they gotta have glasses? Like a sign of their trustworthiness?” He said with a laugh.

Koudai answered with a face that said, “What?”

Ken didn’t hate these irrelevant and somewhat engaging conversations. Although Koudai thought it was bothersome, if Ken pitched a ball for a conversation, he would usually catch the ball and sincerely reply back. That was why, without realizing it, even he started to want to throw that ball.

“Ah… it’s too boring. Hey, Koudai. Do you have something fun…”

“That’s why, why don’t you just read a book? I said that earlier.”

Ken turned his eyes towards the door while not paying any attention to Koudai’s troubled voice.

“Seriously, don’t follow me!”

“I’m going back to my own classroom, too!”

He nonchalantly followed the two exiting the classroom and arguing with each other with his eyes. That’s a girl from our class, right? The other person with her was probably a boy from another class. They were a pair that were often seen together.

“Hey, Koudai. That girl earlier with the huge chest…”

“That’s Setoguchi.” Koudai corrected him while pushing his glasses up, his eyebrows furrowed.

Setoguchi Hina was quite on the cute side even amongst the other girls and her name often came up in gossip amongst the boys. On the other hand, he knew nothing about the boy.

“I wonder who that guy was that went out together with Setoguchi with the huge chest.”

“Oh, Enomoto…”

“You know him?”

“He was in the seat next to me during the committee meeting.” Koudai looked towards the door the two went out of and tilted his head, “I think his name was Kotarou?”

When Ken rested both elbows on top of Koudai’s desk, he leaned forward slightly. “Then that Enomoto? Who is he? Is he Setoguchi’s boyfriend? You mean the two of them are dating?”

“Well, who knows… they’re often together, huh.”

“Doesn’t he come to our class every day, that guy? To see Setoguchi.”

“Isn’t that fine?” Koudai immediately attempted to return his gaze to his book.

Enomoto… huh.

Setoguchi Hina didn’t consider him as a companion at all and it was almost rather pitiable how she was treating him so harshly. Despite that, he wasn’t discouraged and kept turning up.

I wonder what kind of relationship they have?

The corners of his mouth slightly lifted as he lightly pulled Koudai’s sleeve two or three times. “Hey, aren’t the two of them interesting?”

“What are you scheming? Stop it.”

Ken laughed, “C’mon.” He stood up while stared at by Koudai’s disapproving eyes. “Let’s go tease them a little.”

“Can you not get me involved?”

“This will definitely be more interesting than the whatever Brothers!” Ken said as he pulled Koudai by his arm, an unamused expression on his face, and headed towards the back door of the classroom.

Just as Ken brought Koudai out with him into the hallway, Kotarou was about to enter his own classroom.

“Heeey, Enomoto.” Ken called out with a smile while keeping a grasp on Koudai’s arm.

Kotarou looked back and said, “Who are you again?” and furrowed his eyebrows slightly. He then looked over at Koudai next to Ken. “You know Yamamoto?”

“…Sorry, Enomoto. I said it was better if he laid off it and more or less warned him.” Koudai said to Enomoto with a slight shrug.

“What’re you talking about? Warned?”

“Ahh, don’t worry ‘bout it. It’s between us.” Ken stepped forward and smacked Kotarou’s shoulders as Kotarou looked at him with a suspicious look on his face.

“This flashy guy is your friend, Yamamoto?”

“No, not at all. Just a classmate.”

“Don’t be cold like that! Aren’t we friends? Anyway, it’s still lunch break, so why don’t we have a talk on the roof?” Ken said with a smile.

In response, Kotarou’s expression became more and more annoyed, “Don’t go deciding things on your own. I still haven’t done my math homework. Yamamoto, do something about him!”

“Impossible ‘cause I’m a victim, too.”

“If it’s homework, why not just make Koudai let you copy his? I was thinking ‘bout doing that, too.” Ken laughed while pushing both by their backs.

“Y’know… did you not think about the fact that I might not have done it?” Koudai made a dubious face while moving his glasses in his hand as if in habit.

“Deepening our friendship is important, too, ain’t it? ‘Specially since we’ve gotten to know each other like this!”

“I don’t want to do anything like getting to know you. Let go!” When Kotarou raised his voice, the girls that happened to pass by started giggling.

“Guys sure get along well.”

“Looks like they’re having fun.”

The three of them suddenly stopped walking after hearing those comments. They waited until the girls left, then all looked at each other.

“You’ve made them misunderstand, saying that we look close!” Kotarou lowered the tone of his voice, embarrassed.

Ken smirked and pulled Kotarou’s shoulder towards him, “Enomoto. Which girl was your type? I might be pretty interested in the girl with the long hair.”

“Huh!? How the hell should I know.”

“Oh, come to think of it, you have Setoguchi, don’t you?”

“Stu….pid, I didn’t say anything!” Kotarou staggered backwards while hiding his red face with his arm.

He’s easy to read. Holy crap. Wow, this is fun. Ken endured his desire to laugh out loud and moved his hand to his mouth, “Why don’t we just become friends?”

“Huh? Why should we? I don’t want to!”

“I mean, isn’t it better if you have an excuse to come to our classroom?”

“…What are you scheming?”

“Well? I wonder?”

Enomoto Kotarou. He’s interesting as expected. The two of them might unexpectedly be able to get along well. Ken took the two of them along towards the roof as he thought this.

#honeyworks #heart no shuchou #assertion of the heart #vocaloid novel #translation #rei's translations #kokuhaku yokou renshuu #takamizawa arisa #enomoto kotarou #shibasaki ken #yamamoto koudai

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btstheory-finishi · 7 years

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BTS complete theory: Blood Sweat & Tears Jap. ver.

This whole theory is about BTS and their music videos, short films, solos, lyrics. The pictures of the boys are ALL FROM THE MUSIC VIDEOS. I do not own them.

I will only explain their meanings and connections.

(There are mentions of death, suicide etc. If you are uncomfortable with that, then I would not recommend reading this.)

I will post the explanation to each mv separately but please be careful to follow the order of the explanations because otherwise it won’t make sense at all.

Read BTS complete theory: Awake Solo + Short Film first.

BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS JAPANESE VERSION: Please note that they’re in the world in between now, just like in the BST Korean version. (if you’re confused and forgot what that is then go back to BST Korean version explanation) [Ah, I know this might be random right now but just to remind you: Colours always have two meanings, positive or negative. So, if you ever were/are confused as to why I used one colour for two completely opposite things where they have two opposite meanings, it’s because colours can be negative or positive and judging from the situation and how it would make sense I choose the positive or negative interpretation. (like if we see someone dying and there is red then it wouldn’t mean lust and passion but death – I just made up that example btw) Also: the reason why I am explaining the mv here and not right after the k-ver is because there are many things in this mv, which are connected to the short films etc.]

Anyways, continuing:

Jungkook lying on a white bed with his hands crossed like a corpse (=> his death is indicated)

He then wakes up, sits up and we see that he also has a window in his room (just like Jin). window + white bed = death

Jimin is in a room with blue light and looks around confusedly. Why the blue light?

The reason why we see this blue with Jimin is because of Suga’s manipulation. Healing, tranquillity, relaxation, less stress – Suga’s words (his temptations) make him feel that way. The apple proves that he is being tempted right now. Even in Blood Sweat & Tears k-ver we see that Jimin is being manipulated by Suga. They’re in the same room and Jimin is holding the apple and Suga the blindfold. The only difference between the k and the j ver is the fact that there is no blindfold. That is because what we are seeing right now is inside Jimin’s mind (proof will come), which is why we also see that light blue (since it represents what Jimin is feeling). But Jimin hasn’t completely fallen for Suga’s manipulation, because the apple isn’t bitten. Him biting it would mean that he completely accepts everything. But he’s only holding it – it is as if he’s still hesitating a bit. If he wouldn’t be doing that, then he would have already bitten the apple. But still, the fact that the whole room is blue and the only thing that’s left to do is biting the apple shows just how close Jimin is to giving in.

I am breathless the beauty is real

Behind V, we see Jimin, Jungkook, Jhope, Jin and Rapmon (maybe Suga is also there but we don’t see him) but they are not moving. Jimin and Jungkook look kind of shocked whereas V looks almost blank and seems as if he’s tired of everything. I will come back to thiiiis.

Jungkook’s wings are still small. His wings aren’t fully grown because he may have died and gotten his wings but he isn’t ready to fly to god yet, meaning that, in this scene, Jungkook still hadn’t decided which path he should take. These wings were also seen on the envelope, which Jungkook sent to Rapmon in his short film.

I know these might not be HQ but this is the best I could do :/

This is the same picture from BST korean ver.

And in the j-ver, we again see him looking at it.

He’s watching the fight between the good and bad (fallen) angels. Like, Jin is not only looking at the painting but he really is observing the fight. The fight between the boys. Because we also have “the good” (for ex. Jhope) and the bad (for ex. V) and Jin is watching the fight between them.

Once he looks at the painting through that thing, he sees it in red. Jin watches the fight between good and bad, that’s why: RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.

Throughout this mv, we see scenes from the k-version. Probably to kind of show that there is a connection between that certain scene in the k and what is shown in the j versions.

What did that statue mean?:

He watches the fight between good and evil, then suddenly, he sees the wings. But the difference between the BST k-ver and the j-ver is the colour. In the j-ver that statue is surrounded by the colour red, which emphasizes the fight between good and evil, because the statue is supposed to be the evil that tempts whereas red is supposed to show the fight against that temptation.

We also see this:

I believe that there are many ways to interpret this scene. V removing his hands from Jin’s eyes and then the statue appearing is one of the last moments of the fight between angels and fallen angels (in BST k), so the reason why in the j-ver, it’s the exact opposite (V covering his eyes) is because the fight is being rewound. Like, in BST k we see the fight between angels and fallen angels (angel tries to ward off the evil from the fallen angel whereas the fallen angel tries to turn the angel evil) and we also see how it ends (Jin seeing the statue and giving in to the temptation as the last one). So by showing in the j-ver that everything from that moment (Jin seeing the statue etc) is being rewound, indicates that we again see the fight also in this mv.

I will leave out a few scenes but I will come back to the later on.

Rapmon and Jungkook sitting together (just like how they shared one room in the k-ver).

Then Rapmon takes the drink and starts to move towards Jungkook.

This is the same drink from the k-ver, where Rapmon drinks it:

In BST k, the colour looks darker at first, but that’s because it still hasn’t completely mixed with the water yet. But then the colour slowly starts to get lighter.

Rapmon drinks it, meaning that he gives in to the temptation since this drink is something like the apple and is supposed to tempt you to sin.

But in the j-ver, we se him offering it to Jungkook.

(back to that later) Then, we see Jimin using a mixer to make juice out of an apple (lol):

If you pay attention to this scene in the mv, you’ll notice that it’s an apple. But then it turns green:

Meaning that this drink, which Rapmon drinks in BST k and offers it to Jungkook in BST j, is the apple. What does the colour mean again?:

This is from BST:

But the difference is the colour. Jungkook is surrounded by the colour magenta.

What does magenta mean?:

Right after that scene, we see this:

Jungkook drinking from Rapmon. He’s drinking the juice (apple). But did you notice the change of the background?: At first when they were sitiing in the room, the colours in the bg were like this:

(the green frame is for the emotion the drink will make you feel) Rap Monster’s side is blue.

It is blue because he has already fully given in to the temptation of sinning and has turned evil.

Whereas Jungkook’s side is red. RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain. Meaning that Jungkook doesn’t actually want to accept that drink, probably because he knows that it isn’t supposed to be anything good. But he still does since it’s his “brother” who offered it to him. Like, I think, the reason why Jungkook doesn’t do anything and just drinks it is because he believes that Rapmon wouldn’t do anything to harm him. Because we know that Rapmon is like the “brother” who is supposed to care for all of them etc, which, I think, is why he accepts. And right after drinking it:

The red part disappears and everything turns the same blue.

Then we see him lying here in the back thingy (lol) of that car. It is Jin’s car.

RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.

That car is surrounded by all these colours that represent Jungkook’s emotions. I think the fact that it’s Jin’s cars shows the effect his death had on Jungkook => That’s why the colours red and dark blue. But then, after drinking the juice, the light blue starts to push these emotions away and another colour appears:

But then we see more red:

RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain. => meaning that for a second Jungkook tries to fight against that temptation/against the drink. (more to that will come). But in the end:

It disappears again and we mainly see light blue and magenta, meaning that the drink/temptation “wins”.

Now this progress, which is shown with the colours is also shown in another way: At first, Jungkook has negative thoughts because of Jin’s death, drinks the drink. Then, as seen a few scenes before:

The light blue slowly surrounds him. But then, just like in the colour progress:

We see Jungkook’s defiance against the temptation/the drink:

Jungkook running into the bathroom. ORANGE: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity. I think, Jungkook regrets listening to Rapmon, which is why:

He tries to vomit. We see these colours:

(I’ll talk about why Suga is there later on)

I think this is supposed to show that the “drink” starts to affect him. (meaning that he starts to give in) And then he pushes Suga away. That is not something Jungkook would do. It’s not as if Suga did or is doing anything bad to him, so why would Jungkook push him away? To be honest I was a bit confused as to why he did that since the boys mean the world to Jungkook, I mean, I know he just pushed him away but still, it’s not something Jungkook would do (if you remember the Begin lyrics then you’ll know what I mean). Well, I don’t think that Jungkook was like “Yee bro stop shaking me it’s kind of annoying” But what if this might show that the drink starts to kick in? Because first of all, the scene before that (pic above) also indicated that. And we said that if you drink this drink, apple => temptation to sin, then you give in to the temptation and start to sin. By sinning I mean things like harming people, maybe doing drugs – everything to get rid of the negative emotions. Because once you start to get rid of them, you’ll feel better (that’s why Namjoon etc are surrounded by the colour blue) So, Jungkook pushing away Suga might be his first step towards that path. By pushing him he could momentarily let out the frustration that he is feeling (this would also explain why we see the colour orange in the bathroom because orange = frustration etc) (if you’re confused as to why Suga is there – I will explain later)

He looks so beautiful

Jin suddenly stops for a second, probably because he saw how Jungkook lost the fight against evil.

See how the corner is starting to turn light blue? Jungkook stops fighting and the drink completely affects him.

Just like at the end of the “colour progress (I don’t know what to call this loool)”, the temptation/drink wins.

Now I will explain the scenes in which we saw Jimin (I skipped them until now) (also this might be a bit confusing so please read carefully): Sooo, remember how in BST k-ver Suga manipulated Jimin?:

As said here, the fact that Jimin is holding the apple and still hasn’t bitten it, means that he is still hesitating. The small bit of hope and innocence inside of him is holding him back. And in Lie we see this:

So, there are many things that prove us that deep down, Jimin still has a small, innocent part in him that is against Suga – or better said – against what Suga is trying to do to him.

And this is shown in the j-ver. Here, as said before, we see what is happening inside of Jimin’s mind:

So, basically this scene shows us that the manipulation has started and that there still is something that holds Jimin back from giving in (just like in BST k-ver, Lie, etc) And at the beginning of the BST j-ver we see this:

This Jimin above is supposed to be the “second Jimin”, the small innocent part of Jimin. That’s why we see him breaking free from Suga, or better said, breaking free from his manipulation. Which again is why we have the red light surrounding them since RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain. Meaning that the small innocent part of Jimin is deifying Suga etc. Then Jimin starts running away.

We also see the piano right behind Suga, which reminds us of Jungkook (more to that will come). Then we see Suga in the same room as Jimin (I am assuming that it’s the same room since we see the same background):

Them being in that same room proves that the manipulation has already started. (=> was also like that in BST k-ver.)

As the mv goes on, we see the small, innocent part of Jimin again:

Now that he is far away from Suga, we don’t see red anymore.

Right after that scene we see the other Jimin, who is being manipulated:

Then Jimin looks up from the apple:

And after that, we see the innocent Jimin again but this time he is seen with a very light blue:

You might wonder But Rapmon and Jungkook, who are supposed to be evil, are also seen with the colour light blue and this is Jimin’s good part, why is there blue??? But you see, light blue doesn’t mean good or evil. It’s just a colour for an emotion:

Both evil and good can feel it, but for different reasons. (Evil/bad reason: Like Rapmon and Jungkook after giving in to the temptation or like the Jimin who is being manipulated.) But right after the Jimin who is being manipulated is shown, this innocent part of Jimin is seen with the colour light blue (reduced stress, relaxation etc.) because he realises that the Jimin who is still under Suga’s manipulation, hasn’t completely given in since the apple isn’t bitten. Because the innocent part of Jimin wants to stop his other part from being manipulated. This sounds so weird but I hope you understand what I’m trying to say.

That’s why, in the next scene, we see him covering his mouth:

It’s as if he’s somehow trying to tell Jimin not to bite it. That’s why in the next scene:

Jimin only looks at the apple again, hesitating a bit more. Now the thing is, we know that Suga, in a way, forced Jimin to believe the things he said. But deep down, even this Jimin doesn’t want to, which is why he is hesitating. He believes that there is still something innocent in him left and he wants that something to find him and save him from Suga. Because he alone can’t run away from Suga since this Jimin has already come in contact with evil (the apple in his hand) and he can’t escape.

(Ah btw, I know that there are still a few scenes in the mv that I left out. But I will explain them later on, just like how I did with Jimin) Now, before I explain the next scene: Remember how this happened in BST k-ver: (‘ll just add screenshots of the explanation)

These were the screenshots from my BST k-ver explanation.

So basically, Jhope is trying to free V from his evil “side/part” We also see that in the j-ver:

Jimin and Jungkook are holding V. The fact that we see the two of them do that means that: 1. This scene happened way before Jungkook drank that drink because otherwise he wouldn’t help Jhope ward of the evil inside of V. 2. This is the Jimin before the manipulation started. The Jimin who is completely innocent. That’s why he’s wearing the same as the innocent Jimin from “Suga’s manipulation time”. Because Jimin has to be innocent to want to help Jhope.

And the person holding that ?dart? is Jhope since a few moments later we see him wearing the same. Ah also: In this situation and also in V’s case the colour means:

Since Jhope is trying to get rid of the evil for him. In the next scene, a moment from the k-ver is shown, which should indicate that there is a connection between the k and j-ver.:

Jhope preparing himself.

Jin is watching the fight between the angel and the fallen angel. Jhope and V.

rUDE

Again, Rapmon only watches what Jhope does (since he turns his head towards the direction the arrow comes from). He doesn’t help V. Also: the colour:

Moving on:

This scene is again from the k-ver:

RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.

In BST j-ver., we see that scene from the point of view of an angel who is fighting against evil because: There is a thin sheet that separates blue and red. So basically, V’s, as seen in the k-ver., close to being engulfed by darkness and that thin sheet is what is keeping him from doing so. For the “angels” (Jhooope), everything under that sheet is calm and there is peace, but what’s beyond defies against the angels. And in in BST k-ver:

Meaning that V is being engulfed by darkness. For the angels, this would mean that he leaves the “good side” (calmness and peace) and is surrounded by red, which automatically means that he has started defying against the angels (he has become evil). That’s why in the k-ver they use black because black is usually associated with evil.

Jhope shooting the arrow. (left => warding off evil)

In the middle we see light blue, which represents Jhope’s arrow.

And on both sides, we see red and green: Now, the meanings of these colours are from Jhope’s point of view and since he shoots the arrow to ward off the evil inside of V, they represent evil. (because after he attacks V, instead of blood we see the colours – but I already explained that above with the screenshots)

RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.

Also:

The thing with warding off evil is again indicated a few scenes later. Anyways, in the end, all of that means that Jhope shoots the evil out of V. (This again proves that Jhope is the angel and that this mv really is about the fight between good and evil)

my heart

Jhope is surrounded by light blue:

I think by now it is obvious that Jhope is an angel.

We also see things like the piano or Jungkook’s blanket, which may indicate that Jhope is thinking about them. Also, do you see the yellow light?: YELLOW: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide. This shows the even though he’s strong and calm, he’s still affected by Jin’s death. But of course, compared to the blue light, the yellow one is tiny.

Same with Rapmon and Jungkook. But for them the reason why we don’t see it (or when we do its very small) is because they let it out by sinning. Unlike Jhope, of course. His hope is what keeps these thoughts from getting stronger.

Beautiful.

Hoseok is comparing those two times. And we can see how much everything has changed. How much they all changed, well, almost all of them. Jhope is still the same.

Then this happens:

What is he looking at? The fight between him and V. Now, let me tell you, there are 3 main scenes about V that are very important. The thing is, we don’t see them one after another, instead their order is mixed. I’ll explain them in the right order:

1. The scene where Jhope shoots V.

2. V acting weird (at the beginning of the mv)

3. The fight.

Of course, I have proof for all of that.

1 => I already explained everything about the 1. scene. It’s basically just about how Jhope “shoots the evil out of V” lol

2 => now this is the interesting part. I’ll explain the scene in the beginning:

So first of all, I LOVE THIS SCENE !!!! !!! !!! !!! !!!

Anyways. We know that Jungkook and Jimin were the ones who held V. And Jhope “shot” him. Now, after that, we see this:

They look shocked? Scared? And they aren’t holding V anymore. Apart from that:

We see Jhope’s hand. And if you watch the mv, you’ll notice from his arm that he already shot the dart. Like, you know, when you move your arm forward and the let go of the dart? His arm is exactly like that.

All of these indicate that this scene comes after Jhope threw that dart. But what exactly happened after he did that? As it is shown in not only the k but also in the j version, that “arrow”- or that dart - warded off the evil inside of V. In both the k-ver and the j-ver, we see how colours, representing evil, come out of V. So basically, when Jhope strikes someone, the evil inside of that person leaves and colours represent that. But in the j-version, it is not only colours that come out, but something else too:

V. Jhope wanted to ward of the evil inside of him but V himself is wholly evil, that’s why not only colours but also V are seen. He is wholly evil because he killed someone. Let me explain: Do you remember how frightened and uncomfortable V looked during the time Jimin and Jungkook were holding him?

But now, right after V is hit with that dart, everything and everyone has stopped. And the only one moving is V, whose attitude and expressions have changed completely.

He seems tired, as if he has just woken up. Maybe, this is supposed to indicate that th evil inside of him has fully awakaned and gotten out? I am not so sure tho. Also: The light blue shows us that he is calm, unlike the V from before. On top of that, he is surrounded by colours:

Jhope managed to ward off the evil. He wanted the evil to go away. That’s why V is gone and Jimin’s and Jungkook’s arms are empty. And that’s why, from V’s point of view, no one else is moving. It kind of seems like V is in a different dimesnion and he, as the evil, is the only one who can move. And the reason why he has to leave is because Jhope “forced him to do so” by striking him with that dart, or better said, with that arrow.

3 => the fight between Jin and V. Jin is always the one who watches the fight between good and evil. But only with V is he standing right there as the “fight” happens. (at the beginning when Jm & JK held him) When not only colours but V himself leaves, Jin is the only one who notices. Which concludes into this:

The fight. But before I explain why they fight, isn’t it weird that only Jin notices and fights against him? I actually thought that but then I remembered this:

Jin is the only one doing this. He is the only one who has a clear view over everything. When Jungkook turned evil, he put away that thingy (wth do u call that again)

probably realising that everythig’s going completely wrong. So when he sees just how bad V’s situation (him being completely evil) is, he decides to do something, anything. I am assuimg that in this fight, Jin tries to bring the normal V back since because of Jhope, all evil isnide of V is out (and has control). Jin starts hitting V, as said before, trying to bring the normal V back.

But he apologises, either because of the fact that he is hurting him or because of how Jin (his suicide) is the reason why V’s life turned out like this and how its come as far as V becoming so evil. But V is not normal. It is not the V that Jin knows, but it’s the evil inside of him. That’s why:

This expression. It is again proof that this V and the V from before Jhope shot him, are not the same. This one is pure evil.

And that is why he attacks Jin.

Do you really think that the usual V, who was abused by his dad, would even think about harming Jin, the one who helped him during that abuse? Of course not. There are multiple things in this theory, which show us just how much he loves and treasures Jin. And this again proves that the V we see is not the usual V. And the fact that V attacks Jin or even “kills” him (actually Jin can’t be killed since he is already dead and this is just the world in between) shows us that he is completely controlled by evil.

Moving on. Remember how I said this:

And after that Jungkook gave in to the temptation and chose Abraxas’ path (= evil path) That’s why:

We know that the window is here so that after death, you can fly to God, but just like Jin, Jungkook can’t fly out of that window since they both choose Abraxas. So instead of flying out of it, he brakes it and:

He flies to Abraxas.

And Rapmon watches him.

You see that thing in his hand? It could be this:

Otherwise it wouldn’t really know why he would suddenly hold that??? Like ?????

Pink:

The evil V passes these emotions as a lone wolf. I think this scene is supposed to show what he has been through.

Because during his worst time, when he was feeling physically weak, over-emotional, over-cautious, was having emotional neediness or unrealistic expectations etc, he had no one who was there with him (=> lone wolf). He wanted Rapmon but he didn’t come.

Until he arrives at the abyss.

Just like in BST k-ver. Him arriving there shows us that he’s close to fully becoming a fallen angel. Since in the k-ver, we see how after he jumps, he doesn’t have wings.

BUT the wings he looses are the wings with wich you fly to the God that only accepts good, not Abraxas. That’s why in the trilogy:

He gets new wings. And with these, he can fly to Abraxas. Btw, I am pretty sure you’ve noticed that most scenes have the same meaning as the ones in the k version since almost the same is descried/shown.

In the k-ver, in all of the scenes of V, which come after him being shot, it’s the evil V

Here V “covered” Jin’s eyes but it was more like: After their fight, Jin realises that there is nothing he can do anymore – he can’t save V, plus all the others are also starting to turn evil, which is why he gives also gives in. But what happened with V was the thing that “convinced” him to take the evil path. If he couldn’t turn V back to normal, then no one can. Even if the others were to choose the good path, its already too late for V. That’s why the hesitation he was feeling disappears and since V was the trigger for that, he closes his eyes, which makes Jin unable to see the good path.

Anyways, back to the j-ver: I am skipping some scenes again, but will come back to them.

What was seen as darkness before, is now green:

Why is the house red? RED: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain. I think this is supposed to show that he defies against the angels. Because: From the house’s “pint of view”:

The sky looks black, indicating evil. Then we see Jungkook, who has given in and has lost the fight against evil:

Smoke is coming out, meaning that Jungkook’s mind is clouded (just like Suga’s in the k-ver)

NOW, to my second favourite scene (I actually love every second of this mv but wtvs): Remember how the innocent Jimin ran away from Suga etc.? If you don’t exactly remember the details of that explanation, then it would be better if you’d go back and re-read it, but if you don’t feel like you need to do that, then that’s okay too 😊. Anywayss:

The innocent Jimin that ran away from Suga is here again. Where you may ask? Wait a sec.

And Jimin looks as if he is realising stuff.

Our innocent Jimin looks at the door.

Until now, the Jimin who was being manipulated by Suga, has always believed that there still was something innocent in him and he has always wanted that something to find him and save him.

That “something” being the innocent Jimin that represents all of his hopes and memories, which are the things that would hold him back from giving in. And this is the moment, in which the innocent Jimin is about to find him. But then:

Suga covers his eyes, making Jimin unable to see the innocent Jimin, unable to find his innocence and his hopes.

Jimin dropped the apple, he was ready to fight against the temptation, all he needed to do was to see him because once he sees him, it means that he found the innocent Jimin – or better said, that he himself was found and saved by his innocence and hopes. LIE:

So the reason why the Jimin who is being manipulated by Suga, “lost” his innocence and hopes in the first place, is because Suga kept telling him => Don’t be like a prey, be smooth like a snake.

The me who was innocent => He wants his innocent and hopeful self to be found because that the only thing that can save him from Suga. His hopes for the happy times to come back – this is what would make him reject evil.

He alone cannot escape because, he lost his innocence and hopes in the lie (the things that Suga tells him) that he is living. And he wants that the innocence and hopes are found again.

And this is where his innocent/hopeful self starts to talk. He wants the other Jimin (the one who is being manipulated) to want his innocence and his hopes back, because only when he still does that it means that he can be saved from Suga.

The me who is lost and astray => as said before, because of what Suga said, this Jimin is lost in the lie. I know that until now i never mentioned that we had “two people” talking in Lie, but even if I did that before BST JAP VER, it definitely wouldn’t make sense so I had to wait

This is still the innocent Jimin who is talking because:

You always come my way

Since because of Suga:

His innocence is again lost and astray in the lie that the temptation (the evil) promises. And

Once more will the innocent Jimin try to reach out for the other one.

But in the end:

The innoncent Jimin is still there but the lie is getting bigger and bigger and in the end it even swallows up the innocent Jimin:

Now, let’s come to Suga. There is still one thing I have to say about him:

I explained in BST k-ver why he manipulated Jimin:

So basically, Jungkook was the trigger.

Then in the world in between, during the time he was manipulating Jimin, we see him worrying about Jungkook in this scene:

sO CUTE Now, I believe that you can interpret this scene in many ways but I’ll just tell you what I think is most likely. We know that Jungkook is in something like a trance since this is right after he drank the drink and gave in to the temptation. But I don’t think Suga knows that that happened, which is he is worried since Jungkook is acting weird. But then, Jungkook starts to “become evil”, in the sense of: he starts to get rid of his negative thoughts by doing something bad. I already explained this so I’ll just add a screenshot:

Suga only wanted to help Jungkook, but then he pushed him away.

Maybe he thought that Jungkook blamed him for his death or hated him? Because I know and can say for sure that we never really see Suga and Jungkook interacting in both the k and j ver, while looking evil. What I’m trying to say is, I really don’t think that Suga knows right away that Jungkook gave in to the temptation because there is nothing that indicates that. And even in the j ver, when Jungkook falls and lies on the ground, having become evil, Suga is not there anymore to witness that. In fact, he leaves right after Jungkook pushes him because this is the last scene in which they’re seen together. Only at the end in the k-ver, where they show how the boys (besides Jin) all leave through one entrance – so basically the end of the fight/everyone having become evil – might be the time where Suga finally realises that Jungkook is evil. So I am assuming that before that ending scene in the k-ver, Suga wasn’t aware of the fact that Jungkook had started to become evil, which was the reason why he pushed Suga away. That’s why Suga thought that Jungkook might hate him for the fight they had, which is why he felt even worse. Now that again could be the trigger for him trying extra hard to manipulate Jimin, so that, as said before, he never has to go through the same.

You might wonder but why can Jungkook and Suga get in touch when Jungkook is dead and Suga is still alive? But don’t forget that this is the world in between. This is where you choose if you want to be evil or not. And as said in the k.ver:

By happening in mind, I don’t mean that they are connected in their mind or whatever, I mean that the place they are in is imaginary. They are together but in an imaginary world – the world in between.

But now you might think but if Yoongi and Jungkook are together, why would Yoongi still feel bad and manipulate Jimin. Jungkook is with him so where is the problem? Apart from the fact that Suga thinks that Jungkook hates him, they can’t stay in this world in between together and even when they all choose the same path, they cannot be together until Suga dies too. Because right after they make a decision its back to “their normal world” but since they all chose Abraxas, in the end they will be together.

Lol I don’t think you wondered about that but if you did yaaay I hope I cleared it up :D

We see this right after the innocent Jimin disappears. But here he is just putting down that thing, whereas when it came to V it already wasn’t there.

What I mean is: This is after Jungkook turned evil:

After V:

And after Jimin:

This is the order according to the mv but it isn’t correct because after V, he already doesn’t have that thing anymore. So the correct order would be: Jungkook, Jimin and V => and this makes sense because as said before, V is the last trigger for Jin to not hesitate to choose the evil path.

Sorry for the weird ass lines :’)

There are reflections, meaning that Jin is in something like a mirror room?

But the ground of that room starts to crack meaning that Jin finally decides. Now to this:

And yellow is supposed to represent the way he is:

So, this is the way Rapmon saw himself. Probably because he couldn’t help V.

But then:

And behind that poor, distorted self-image is V (that picture is supposed to represent V). Rapmon sees himself as a person like that because of the fact that he couldn’t help V.

So he destroys that image of himself, which tells him that he is all of these band things above. This might be because he chooses the evil path since that path allows you to let out all negativity by doing bad things. And we know that Rapmon chose that path so that might be the reason why he’s shown with these wounds after breaking the mirror.

This indicates that V really jumps down and even in the k-ver we see him doing that.

The room is empty, probably because Jimin has chosen evil. But we still see a little bit of red on the ground in front of the door where the innocent Jimin stood and also in front of the sofa.

ORANGE: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity.

We know that there was blue because Jimin was being manipulated but what Jimin was actually feeling deep down was frustration and that can also be seen in the song Lie.

ORANGE: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity. We also already know that Rapmon was frustrated etc because of his self-image which is why he broke it.

After breaking it: green

It’s the same background. V was standing at the abyss, ready to jump down. Just like Jin. I think the hole is supposed to represent the darkness in which he and his innocence is being sucked in after choosing the evil path.

Did you notice how he is surrounded by “darkness”. Before we saw him with loooots of blue light but now it’s just the wings. And as said before, small wings are usually a sign that you haven’t completely decided to which god you should fly.

But Jhope is supposed to be the angel, that’s why he “shot” V, he already knows his path. But now that even Jimin has chosen the other path, Jhope doesn’t know anymore. If he goes the good path, he will forever be alone since he couldn’t help any of the boys. But the other path is evil. Jhope doesn’t know anymore. That’s why, because of the darkness, the blue wings have “shrunk”, meaning that he is not sure what to do. But we know that in the end, he decides to go with the boys.

The glass breaks and blue light starts to appear. Meaning that Jin chose the evil path. Now, I know that there is still a last scene in this mv and I can also explain that scene but not right now because it is connected to Spring Day. So, we will be moving to YOU NEVER WALK ALONE Meaning that

Wings is FINISHI FINISHI

Next: BTS complete theory: Spring Day

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kthyunngg · 8 years

Text

Spring Day Theory

So I’m no pro at this and this is purely based off of my interpretations so if there’s anything you don’t agree with or would like to add on, please feel free to do so! :D

Spring Day - Omelas:

It’s quite obvious that the concept/inspiration for the Spring Day MV is based off the short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” The most significant passage of this short story is probably the last one where it states that those who have seen the child may or may not walk away from Omelas in hopes to find someone even better than this presumed utopia. I strongly believe that the members are walking away from their utopia as scene in scenes of the video. They go from this happy environment, parties and innocence, but then you see that the members seem to “grow tired” from their life or it seems like something is bothering them as they aren’t smiling at the cake. That’s sort of like the trigger point to leave. They know that they can’t live in this illusion for long, so they get on the train and leave. The train takes them to different destinations in life, but somewhere along the way, members start to question if they will ever really find this place.

Also, there are several scenes where you see the members just standing in front of the motel. I think this signifies the lingering feeling they have and the uncertainty to leaving Omelas. One scene that still kind of puzzles me is Jin’s scene where he’s standing at the bottom at what seems like a stairwell. I think this might have something to do with him being the older member. Slowly, but surely, he’s realizing that there are a lot of problems with holding onto the temporary youth. Tae and Jin also make the same hand gesture (when they hold their hands out into a frame). This shows that they’re one of the members who are more aware of what’s happening around them and they’re slowly breaking out of the illusion.

Fire/Not Today - Youth

The song Fire is about living your youth without any regrets. The video itself may seem like it doesn’t make sense, but after some people have pointed out that the hooded figure at the beginning of the video looks like the black hooded figures in the teaser for Not Today, it got me thinking. The hooded figures are those who are from Omelas. At the time of Fire, the members have already managed to reach one of their destinations where they are living quite peacefully. Yoongi sees the black figure and knows that he/she’s from Omelas. The hooded figures are probably trying to get the 7 members to come to Omelas, but the members are persistent and they run away (hence the few seconds from the Not Today teaser)

this isn’t too solid yet because the video for Not Today hasn’t been released yet, but it makes some sense.

Run - Youth (cont’d)

Like the name of the song, they’re running. However in the music video, you notice that the members are a lot more mischievous. Running away from cops, partying, stuff like that. They’re slowly stepping into the world of temptations and sin. They still believe that this is what’s best for them and with the freedom that they’re feeling, it seems like they’re slowly reaching their new utopia.

Also, from the music video, I feel like part of it is from Jungkook’s memory. Especially that part where they’re originally partying but it pans back out to just Jungkook; not to mention the fight he and Yoongi had. This leads into I Need U.

I Need U - Suffering

There’s a drastic difference from the previous topic of youth and carelessness. In Need U, it seems like the members are more grown up and grown apart. Somewhere along their journey the members have all experienced some sort of hardship. Tae with his parents, Hoseok with depression, Yoongi with the suicidal thoughts, etc. Despite all the hardships, Jin is always in the back supporting the group no matter what. He being the oldest, he probably anticipated these changes or he’s mature enough to hold it together and hide what he’s truly thinking. Unlike the other theories, I don’t necessarily think that Jin or any of the members are physically dead, but maybe mentally in a sense. Jin was always there to hold the group together, but because he is the oldest, his mindset must have changed earlier than the other members (if this even makes sense).

WINGS (Short Films) - Temptations

In all the short films, you notice how each member seems to be going through some sort of suffering. The whole concept for the short films are very dark and they have a sad tone to it. Everyone seems to have hit their ultimate low. From the young boys who just wanted to leave Omelas to a better place that is free from sin and suffering, they somehow managed to reach the exact opposite. Stepping outside of their illusion of the utopia, they all realized and experienced that there is not such thing. Sin is everywhere and once you sin once, you can’t go back. There’s no escaping it; there is no way out.

Blood, Sweat & Tears - Demian

I’ve noticed that environment for Spring Day and Blood, Sweat & Tears resemble each other somewhat. Demian is about Sinclair who grows up and recounts his life and how each time, he takes a step further into the “other world,” the world that’s tainted with evil. The whole WINGS album, sort of focuses on that idea of succumbing to the temptations. You notice that the setup for Blood, Sweat & Tears is a lot more luxurious than Spring Day, but they both portray this sort of illusion type of world. Following the short films, you notice that the there is a constant theme in the MV for BS&T, covering the eyes/distractions. Jimin’s eyes are blindfolded and his eyes are covered at the beginning of the dance. Jin’s eye’s are covered by the member’s hands and later Tae’s hands. Namjoon drinks some sort of alcohol (supposed to be absinthe) which is known to have high hallucinogenic effects. After all the suffering and hardships that the members have been through, they can’t take it any more. They need some sort of distraction. This is where their new utopia is. The fabricated lie of a perfect universe. All members seem to have fallen into this trap except for one; Jin. Jin always seems to be the odd one out in the music videos, but that’s because he’s becoming more aware of the surroundings (later becomes AWAKE). Tae, who has fully succumbed into the darkness, the “other world” as proposed by Demian, tries to pull Jin back into the illusion, hence the hands over Jin’s face. He tries to block away whatever truth Jin is starting to see.

And that’s about it!

I know a lot of it probably doesn’t make sense and it’s probably just a bunch of blabber, but I just tried to tie most of the music videos together.

I hope this helped or maybe added some insight into your own interpretations of this whole ongoing concept!

Please feel free to add in what you think! (and sorry that it’s so long)

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