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love yourself: tear  [1/3]

A HOLISTIC THEORY AND EXPLANATION OF HYYH 花樣年華, WINGS, & LOVE YOURSELF 起承轉結 SERIES.

Intro: Me

Hello friends! I am a 24-year old Jungkook-biased ARMY with a career background in medicine, nursing, sociology, and psychology. It was interesting to see BTS take a direction that actually overlapped with what I got my degree for. I have been following BTS since the beginning of 2015 and I was there when the very first theories started surfacing. 

With all due respect, I’ve seen some good theories here and there, but I notice there is a lot of “fluff” and “fillers” in some. I’ve also noticed some theories only look at one side of the whole picture. Some even sound like they contrast each other but are really saying the same thing in a different way. I understand the reason why people get so confused is because BTS likes to put a lot of double meanings into their work -- typical of rappers (Did you see my bag? lol) and because of what I finally cracked about the whole series. Not to mention that they use Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and English in all of their works.

Over the years, I have seen the story and clues unfold, and I think I now have enough information. I will now share a concise holistic theory of the whole HYYH, Wings, and LY series, and what BTS and BigHit are really trying to convey as a whole. I will be using some scientific words here and there but I will it explain it in common language. I will also link the videos, some at specific times, and other evidence of what I will be discussing at that moment. Buckle up and prepare your brains!

YEAR 2015

Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa 花樣年華: The Most Beautiful Moment In Life Part 1 & 2 and Prologue

Ever since I NEED U, Prologue, & RUN came out in 2015, people started making theories left and right but didn’t have the evidence we do now (I was guilty of this lol). What BTS really did at that time is set up a very good foundation for a storyline, as we can now deduct because BigHit keeps referring to them. The purpose of I NEED U, Prologue, & RUN is to isolate Jin in many ways to convey to the audience that he is the protagonist. This is why he holds the camera-- it’s his memories we are viewing. Please note that no one is “alive” or “dead” out of any of the members. In fact, they can actually be considered as both. Hang on to this thought! I will support this later. Also, note that everybody except Jin commits suicide in some form in I NEED U. This will be important later as well.

What a lot of new ARMYs don’t know about this era is that when the original video for Prologue was released, BigHit attached a French song called “Je Ne Regrette Rien” at the ending credits. This song is used to wake up the characters in the movie Inception after they travel in dreams. The credits then end with a scene of Jin in his truck by the sea as he reached for a polaroid picture in his dashboard compartment. He then sees he is alone in the picture despite Suga being behind him when they took it. His expression looked stunned.

BigHit re-uploaded the video after some months and replaced it with an instrumental of their own song, ‘House of Cards,’ because of copyright. Jin’s scene was also completely deleted. However, they did use the phrase “Je Ne Regrette Rien” everywhere for their RUN comeback pictures. If you go to BigHit’s channel and watch Prologue again, it will not have the scene I just described above. (I did manage to get a copy of the original Prologue here: link).

Now you may ask why did they also have to cut the scene out if it was only the song that was copyrighted? You’re not alone, ARMYs everywhere are asking. This is because the song signifies that Jin is not awake, in some shape or form, and therefore, it is played to wake him up. Without the song, they have to delete the scene since it is where he “woke up.” This leads us to the next era, WINGS.

YEAR 2016

WINGS

The whole idea of the WINGS series is SELF-ACTUALIZATION. This is a term that psychologists actually use in the field. In layman’s terms, when you reach self-actualization is when “you found yourself.” The term is mostly used when discussing about personality development; how we form our personality with the influences of our genes and our environment. Now, there are a lot of big-name psychological theories about personality development that were constructed by famous psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Myers-Briggs, but the most relative one that BTS uses is constructed by Carl Jung called The Jungian Theory of Personality. The Jungian Theory is a BIG theme in the book Demian, which WINGS is based on. 

The Jungian Theory basically states that every person is born with various personality archetypes, and the goal is for us to merge all of them together in our unconscious to be able to find our one true personality-- to find ourselves. You can think of archetypes as a template for your personality. There are many different “templates” but the most famous archetypes are called the shadow, the wise old man, the child, the mother, the animus, and the anima. Notice anything? There are 6 archetypes. Jin is our protagonist that needs to merge all of these 6 archetypes together, manifested as the other members, to form his true self. (You can search up more about the characteristics of these archetypes if you want, it may help you in psychology class. Note that some use ‘egos’ and ‘persona’ instead of ‘archetypes’ in some textbooks). 

Based on Carl Jung, these archetypes have to be integrated to form your final personality, which he calls the Self. Jin is the Self, trying to merge all of them together in his unconscious. The other members are symbolized in WINGS as the 6 lily petals and Jin’s room is his unconscious. We can see him struggling to merge all of them together in his solo short film Awake. Interesting that they decided to call it Awake right? There were other clues in Jin’s Awake that say this is true since his room was filled with items that symbolize the other members (i.e. the apple, the piano, the painting, etc). 

The other members’ scenes are also expressions of them inside his unconscious trying to integrate. Hence, why they were trying to communicate with each other through the letters, the phone calls, whistles, and the items that symbolize the each member appear in other member’s short films. The moment when Jin finally finds how to integrate them all together is when he will be “awake”-- he reached self-actualization, he found himself. Now this is why I say that none of the members are “alive” or “dead” because in a sense, they are all “alive” because they are a part of Jin’s unconscious, but they are all also “dead” because they are only archetypes. I’ll leave it to you guys to say it how you want.

If you read the book Demian, the protagonist, Sinclair, goes through stages in his life where he goes through one archetype to the next in order to find himself. However, in order to do that, he has to be exposed to the evils in the world to mature. This is what Intro: Boy Meets Evil and Blood, Sweat, and Tears are about. Here is a good summary of the plot that relates to the members but obviously it will make more sense if you read the book yourself. This is written by my friend Tekeyia Hinton:

“Jin started out as a carefree and reckless boy (Jungkook) then something happened and he didn't want to tell his family about it because they're perfect and he's not, so he lies to them (Jimin). Then he figures he's already bad for lying might as well just delve into other things that aren't "good" so he keeps getting worse. He feels different, he's a sinner (V). He then finds a love so powerful that he wants to change for the better, he wants to stop sinning. He wants to replace the love and purity that his family represented for the new love/devotion he finds (Suga). He starts to reflect on his current situation and how he's hurt people in the past because of his actions. He's in a state of transitioning; he wants to take responsibility for his actions but at the same time he's still young, making poor decisions and just trying to find his own path (RM). His new love has high hopes for him but he's content being a dreamer because things will just happen eventually if he just lives his life. He begins to lose control because he's doing nothing. He must act or fall in with the rest of the crowd like people tend to do. He also falls in love with Demian’s mother (J-Hope). He loses his chance with his love and soon realizes that in order to truly be alive, he must act in the present moment or he's not living at all. Life is full of both happy and sad moments, but he is alive. Jin is now a man and he is awake.”

Pertaining to the logo of WINGS, notice how the circles that symbolize each member integrates with another but Jin’s circle never integrates with anybody else’s circle. Plus, the fact that all the circles don’t integrate as a single circle symbolizes that Jin has not yet reached self-actualization. 

Phew! That’s a lot right? WINGS incorporated a lot of things in the series including seven short films, the album, the logo, and a book. A BOOK! It really is a handful. Now unto the next!

YEAR 2017

Love Yourself: Her 承

BigHit introduced the Love Yourself Series with another prologue, The Highlight Reels. I can tell you now that BigHit gave us A LOT of clues here. 

What I’m about to say next is REALLY IMPORTANT! This is what I cracked about the whole series. What makes this era really confusing is that they further personified Jin’s archetypes to the point that they feel more real, making them have their own history and feelings for each other. In other words, they made a storyline of how the different archetypes will integrate manifested as the other members interacting with each other. They basically made a storyline within a storyline, so there is a theory within a theory. This is the reason why I say we have been looking at everything from only one perspective, because there are two layers to this whole series. (Edit: this theory is now proven true, BigHit released a statement that they have been putting the initials BU, that stands for Bangtan Universe, at ending credits for short films and at the bottom of pictures if they relate to the story line)

The storyline within a storyline is a huge headache because as you might already know, the storyline is patchy. The “bigger storyline” is Jin’s real past, but the “storyline within” happens in Jin’s unconscious, personified by the members trying to meet each other. The storyline within are the events where we see Suga getting mad, RM riding a bus, Jungkook in a wheelchair, V vandalizing, Jimin & J-hope dancing, and Jin preparing for a date. They even released the HYYH notes in the Her albums to extend each person’s history. 

Despite the patchiness of the timeline, we can deduct what the ending will be. The end goal is for Jin to meet all of the other BTS members by the sea, and according to his HYYH note, only then will he accept himself and be happy. (The storyline of his past will be revealed on my next blog in detail with the use of the HYYH notes and the Highlight Reels timeline. This includes Jungkook’s accident, Yoongi’s drunkenness, Jimin’s illness, J-hope’s fake illness, Taehyung’s family history, Jin’s secret, etc. I’m just trying to convey the bigger picture here). 

They confused us more by trying to introduce another concept of maturity on top of the Jungian Theory of Personality. They now introduced the Chinese phrase ‘起承轉結', which is beside the title of the Highlight Reels video. It is basically a description of how any kind of storyline typically goes when you read a book or watch a movie. A storyline has a beginning, a development, a turning point, and an end.

起 (qi) means the beginning, 承 (chéng) means development, 轉 (zhuǎn) means turning point, and 結 (jié) means end. 

Now stay with me here! This Chinese phrase is also paired with the word ‘WHAT’ and the following Intros. (The phrase BOY MEETS WHAT was shown at the end of the Fire music video). Here’s what they all stand for.

起 - Wonder (Intro: Euphoria)

承 - Her (Intro: Serendipity)

轉 - Answer (Intro: Epiphany)

結 - Tear (Intro: Singularity)

Now, the one who deciphered this is not me but it has a strong evidence considering Intro: Euphoria came out titled as it is and these words were shown at the Melon Music Awards. Plus, the chorus of their song Outro: Her has these words in the lyrics. 

Anyways, the same kind of theme applies in the Highlight Reels, just expressed in a different way. The 6 members are still archetypes of Jin. There was something significantly different about the Her era than the others...there are girls! BigHit incorporated girls in Her because they want to show that love and relationships DEVELOP (承) us into who we are. Furthermore, the Jungian Theory also states that within each male is a female, and within each female is a male. In other words, there is a balance between masculinity and femininity in each person’s personality according to Carl Jung. 

Notice that throughout the whole video that the members are again trying to meet each other? NOW AT THIS POINT, J-hope and Jimin have already integrated together but the others still have yet to do it. This is because 承 is the DEVELOPMENT of the archetypes integrating together. They are at an intermediate state. At final Love Yourself 結, Intro: SINGULARITY is when Jin finally does this. They will all become a SINGLE being, Jin’s Self.

Now that we have established that the girls are a personification of the various girl archetypes, why are they there? These girls can be seen as “helpers” to the boys in order for them to meet each other. The paired members either have not yet integrated, are about to integrate, or have already integrated. Pair V & RM get separated from the girls, signifying that they are not able to integrate yet. Jungkook sees Suga’s girl performing at the hospital because they are about to integrate. Pair J-hope & Jimin only have one girl because they already have integrated together. By the end of the scene, their girl collapses and they try to save her in order for J-hope and Jimin to stay together. Notice that after the girl collapses, Jimin and J-hope once again part ways. As for Jin’s girl, she dies. Her death is very significant since Jin has not been able to meet all of his personalities together and lost his opportunity to do so with the girl’s help. 

One big clue that BigHit gave in Highlight Reels that the girls are archetypes of Jin’s unconscious is the scene where Jimin and the girl bump into each other. If you watch closely, J-hope and the girl were practicing in the studio by themselves and Jimin practices in the SAME studio but at a DIFFERENT time. J-hope’s and the girl’s room is brightly lit whereas Jimin’s room is dark. All of a sudden, the girl and Jimin crashed into each other, as if all three of them were in the same room at the same time. But the preceding scenes told us that they were NOT. 

After a few days of releasing the first Her video, BigHit released a statement that further supports that the 6 members as archetypes of Jin. Even explicitly telling us more that the members are acting as their ‘false selves.’ These selves of Jin have formed as a coping mechanism for him to handle stress in the past. Again, these “selves” of Jin are the other members trying to cope at different points of Jin’s life.

At the end of the Highlight Reels video is where we turn our direction back to HYYH era and the theory of time travel emerges. Jin was seen to travel back in time to stop the lily flowers from falling over his table. There are hints of parallel universes because of this from Spring Day to Japanese Blood, Sweat, and Tears where Jungkook’s and Jimin’s present-selves and past-selves meet respectively. When Jin lost his ability to integrate his personalities together, he realizes he must have done something wrong in the past. This is when he metaphorically travels back in time to correct something. And that leads us to Love Yourself 起 Wonder.

YEAR 2018

Love Yourself: Wonder 起 

If you’re at this point by the way, thanks for reading it! It took a lot to write this and you should give yourself some ARMY points lol.

Now, it is important to note here that Love Yourself: Wonder 起 comes before Love Yourself: Her 承. The 起 (beginning) comes before the 承 (development). BigHit said that there was a reason why they introduced Her first before Wonder and I now know why. The scenes that unfolded in Her is the present, but Wonder is the past. Wonder acts as a prequel to Her. At this point in the series, Jin will go back in his unconscious and his memories to try to correct something in his past; he will go back to the beginning 起. But what was Jin’s past? (Again, the storyline of his past will be revealed on my next blog in detail).

We do know that Jin’s past resembles what happens in Demian. Remember in Demian that Sinclair, Jin, went through a different archetype at different points of his life. When he was an innocent child, he was Jungkook. When he first lied, he was Jimin, When he sinned more and more, he was V. When he found his first love, he was Suga. When he felt lost, he was RM. When he falls in love with Demian’s mother, he was J-hope. 

At those different stages of Jin’s life where he was another BTS member, his archetypes commit suicide because at those points in his life, he has not found happiness. His archetypes were not able to accept who they were at that point-- who Jin was at that point of his life. This is important to note because Jin, the Self, will try to save all of them in order for them to integrate, and for him to reach self-actualization. When his archetypes died in his past is when Jin’s girl dies in the present. Despite other theories, I strongly believe that he is not trying to save his friends by time traveling, he is trying to save his archetypes, parts of himself, in order to find himself.

In Intro: Euphoria, we see how Jin goes back time and he saves them in various ways. He saves Namjoon by picking up the $20 dollar bill Namjoon was supposed to light up in the gas station. Somehow, Jungkook was saved and was able to save Suga from the fire. J-hope was also saved and he stops V from killing his dad. Finally, Jin saves V through the camcorder. The camcorder signifies his memories and the past phases of his life. He goes up to the platform to where V was, reversing his mistake by reversing the camcorder. 

I predict that Love Yourself 結 Answer Intro: Epiphany will be the big turning point in the series, not only because ‘起承轉結’ said so, but also because Jin reverses something that was not supposed to be reversed. He was only supposed to save his archetypes from committing suicide at those points in his life, but not change the events of his life. He changed what happened to V, avoiding him to sin, but in order to mature, you need to be exposed to evil and sin. No one matures without sinning. This is further supported by leaving Jimin alone in the hospital, signifying his first lie, his first sin. Jin altered what he does in the bad phases of his life, erasing his sins, through his ‘bad’ archetype’s life. This is why it is called Wonder and Euphoria. By erasing his bad deeds, Jin’s world is “happy,” without evil and sins. At the end of the video, he smiles as though he thinks he has integrated all his archetypes, symbolizing the white outfits and the coming together by the sea. However, it is a folly. 

I also predict that Love Yourself 結 Answer Intro: Epiphany is where Jin will find out that in order to truly find yourself, you have to accept your past mistakes and leave it at that. Your mistakes are part of who you are. Only then can you truly be happy and love your imperfect self. Jin going back to save his archetypes in the past from committing suicide symbolizes that things get better even at worst of points of your life. Again, at the fourth and final Love Yourself, 結 Tear Intro: Singularity, is when Jin finally integrates his archetypes, becoming one, himSELF. Only then will he be able to mature into a man. Going back to the HYYH era, “Je Ne Regrette Rien,” means “I regret nothing.” Kinda cool how it all ties together right?  This is BigHit’s overall message all laid out in a complex but beautiful manner, so brew it and sip it lol.

Right now, the only theory I’ve seen that I don’t think is plausible is that Jin sacrifices himself or Jimin in order to save his friends, assuming his friends are actual real people. This is a big no no for me. If you broaden your perspective about BigHit and BTS as a whole and not just this particular series, they advocate for mental health and participate in the UNICEF Anti-Violence Campaign. They would NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER, send a message to their audience in ANY WAY to kill themselves or sacrifice others no matter how interesting it may be that the story plays out that way. I cannot feel strongly enough about this.

Outro: Insights

SO THAT’S IT! ALL THOSE 3 YEARS OF BEING A DETECTIVE ARMY HAS FINALLY PAID OFF! I literally had an epiphany (no pun intended) and wrote this for 5 hours straight. You can reblog or like if you found it insightful to help other confused ARMYs in distress lolol. BTS and BigHit are really very unique artists as seen by this long convoluted brain-wrecking series, don’t you think? lol. I will make a theory about the storyline within the storyline and maybe also more in depth about each era in detail. Thanks for reading. Again, give yourself some more ARMY points since reading this goes to show how dedicated you truly are!

“You'll like BTS music if you listen without prejudice” -Suga (2017)

I don’t like BTS because they are the next boy group. I like BTS because they’re not afraid to address social issues that exist in the world today. 방탄소년단 (Bangtan Sonyeondan) means protecting people, mostly the youth, from prejudice and oppression. Here are my top socially-charged BTS songs:

N.O.

criticizes the school structure, mostly of Korea, making the youth only value themselves through grades and trapping them by promising false hope. It encourages the youth to rebel against the broken system as it does not guarantee people success and happiness in their lives.

“Who is the one who made us into studying machines? They classify us to either Being number one or dropping out They trap us in borders, the adults There’s no choice but to consent Even if we think simply, It’s the survival of the fittest Who do you think is the one who makes us step On even our close friends to climb up? What?

The grown-ups confess That we have it so easy They say that we are happier than our portion Then how do you explain my unhappiness? There’s no conversation topics beside studying Outside, there are so many kids like me, Living the life of a puppet Who will take responsibility?”

No More Dream

criticizes young people for not having the willpower to fulfill their own dreams and the older generation for judging the youth for not knowing what they want to do with their lives, thinking that forcing them into a dream will solve the problem.

“Sick of the same day, the repeating days Grown-ups and my parents keep instilling confined dreams to me Number one future career is a government worker? It’s not a forced dream, a ninth inning relief pitcher Throw a fast ball at the waste of time that is night study sessions Rebel against the hellish society, dreams are a special pardon Ask yourself about your dream profile Become the main subject of your life that has always been suppressed”

Bapsae

criticizes the older generation for comparing the new generation to their time, but ignoring their problems and the context of their struggles that the older generation didn’t have. It also depicts the unjustified growing gap between the upper class and the lower class.

“At my part time job, it’s “all for experience”. At school, there’s the teachers. My superiors use violence. In the media they go on about “the generation that’s given up.”

I’ve got a crow-tit’s legs, and you have a stork’s legs. They all say their legs are worth a million bucks. My legs are shorter, so how do you expect me to keep up? They say it shouldn’t matter since we’re coming from the same place. Never, never, never.”

*A crow-tit is a type of bird with very short legs and is being compared to the strides made by a stork, which has very long legs*

Can You Turn Off Your Cellphone?

criticizes people obsessing over their phones and investing their self-worth on social media instead of spending time on their actual relationships. 

“Could you turn off your cell phone? Or put it in your pocket? Everyone says it’s smart And the times have gotten better but we’re rushing twice as much Sometimes, I miss the times when people talked face to face Communication increased but between us is a noisy silence”

21st Century Girls

empowers girls and women to believe they are beautiful and enough, and that their opinions and decisions in life are valid and important.

“You worth it you perfect Deserve it just work it You look elegant, elegant also you’re pretty, pretty You shine, shine. You’re the truth and the reason

Don’t ever be scared Whatever people say, you’re okay (Alright) You are strong You say yes or no yes or no”

Go Go

criticizes consumerism culture, where people would blow off money for a good time and use phrases such as ‘YOLO’ to rationalize their irresponsible behavior.

“Worked hard to get my pay Gonna spend it all on my stomach Pinching pennies to spend it all on wasting it Leave me be, even if I overspend Even if I break apart my savings tomorrow Like a crazy guy

Woo there’s no tomorrow There’s already a mortgage on my future Woo spending my money even more Friends, wassup Do you want some?”

Spine Breaker

criticizes youth who financially abuse their parents, demanding things that they want but not need, and ignoring or dismissing their parents’ hard work and health.

“What’s going on? Are you falling behind on the trend? You whined and complained to get it, did I strike a nerve? In the padded jacket, your greed fills it up Even after seeing your parents’ curved spines, you’re so coldhearted You complain that all your friends have it and that they should buy it for you (Ayo baby) stop being so immature You won’t freeze just because you don’t have that jacket Fill your head with good sense before it’s too late”

Am I Wrong

criticizes people who are apathetic to the current social problems that exist in the world today and who are uninterested to try to change the world the better, only selfishly thinking about their own lives.

“The world’s goin’ crazy How about you how bout ya You think it is okay I don’t think it’s that okay Have ears but don’t listen Have eyes but don’t see Fish live in all our hearts Its name is selfish selfish

If what you see on the news is nothing to you If that comment is nothing to you If that hatred is nothing to you You’re not normal, you’re abnormal”

Not Today

empowers underdogs to pursue what they want to do and encourages them to ignore the people who put them down because of their lack of privilege.

“All the underdogs in the world A day may come when we lose But it is not today Today we fight!

Throw it up! Throw it up! Throw away the fear in your eyes Break it up! Break it up! Break the glass ceiling that traps you Turn it up! (turn it up!) Burn it up! (burn it up!) Till the day of victory (fight!) Don’t kneel, don’t break down That’s (do) not today!”

*The term ‘glass ceiling’ is an acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities*

Pied Piper 

criticizes obsessive “stan culture” and BTS fans in a good way, telling them that devoting too much time over them, or any idol, is unhealthy and should prioritize their personal lives. Calling themselves as the ‘Pied Pipers’ is an expression that following BTS, or any other group, is a double-edged sword.

“Stop Now stop watching and study for your test Your parents and director hate me Video clips, pictures, tweets V app, Bon Voyage I know, you can’t help what you like But stop, interpret the music video later You have so many pictures of me in your room anyway It’s not just one hour, it’s a whole year that’ll disappear So this song is an award I’m giving to you Good

Follow the sound of the pipe, follow this song It’s a bit dangerous but I’m so sweet I’m here to save you, I’m here to ruin you You called me, see? I’m so sweet Follow the sound of the pipe”

Analysis of BTS Love Yourself 轉 Tear 'Singularity' Comeback Trailer and Lyrics.

Intro: Singularity

BigHit introduces Love Yourself: Tear 轉 with a trailer called Singularity. Kim Taehyung presents the theme of the next comeback which will express the dark, mysterious, toxic, agonizing, contemplative, and even destructive side of finding yourself, loving yourself, and loving someone else. 

The slow R&B song displays a sensual and sultry vibe that tastefully accentuates Taehyung’s soulful and baritone voice. The lyrics of the song and the music video conveys his feelings of losing himself to appease another, most likely but not exclusively, a lover. The other can also be interpreted as the people and the world around him. For simplicity, I will be referring to the other as a lover, but the following explanations can still be applied if the other is the people or the world around him!

Coat Rack

The scene starts off with Taehyung and the coat rack, symbolizing his lover (or the people and the world around him).

Immediately, there is a depiction of an unhealthy push-and-pull relationship. He takes her hand but sharply snaps out of it.

However, she captivates him back.

But then again, he tries to leave.

“A sound of something breaking I awake from sleep A sound full of unfamiliarity Try to cover my ears but can’t go to sleep The pain in my throat gets worse Try to cover it I don’t have a voice Today I hear that sound again”

Taehyung realizes there is a problem between them symbolized by the sound that won’t let him sleep. He copes with it by ignoring it and avoiding to speak out, even though it continues to bother him.

White Masks

Several white masks come out from Taehyung that symbolizes parts of himself or his fake selves.

He plays with them and tries to select which one would please his lover. 

The flower he holds represents his love and he tries to match it with a fake self that would gain her love.

He finally chooses one and covers himself with it.

Memory Room and Frozen Lake

There’s many scenes of Taehyung inside a room covered in newspaper and flowers. 

He’s seen cherishing and absorbing its ambience.

The room represents the memories and events of their relationship. (If it was the world, then it represents the news and events of the world). In the room, there is a small pool of water, which represents the lake in the lyrics. 

“I suddenly run to the lake There’s my face in it”

On the surface of the water, he sees his face, his reflection. He sees his true self in midst of their deceitful relationship.

“A thick ice has formed Please don’t say anything Reach my hand out to cover the mouth”

When the lake water freezes, he is unable to see his reflection anymore. He loses his identity slowly in exchange for love, and she reinforces to suppress it.

“A crack again on this frozen lake I dumped myself into the lake Over the winter lake I was thrown“

He describes how he threw himself in the lake, trapping himself inside as it freezes. However, the crack in the ice symbolizes his realization of acting untruthfully.

“But in the end, spring will come someday The ice will melt and flow away” 

An inevitable day will come when his true self cannot be concealed anymore and the ice will again turn into water. 

He may or may not want his true self back, but regardless, he will see his own reflection again. 

One day, he must choose between his lover (flowers/room) or himself (water/reflection). He realizes that the love that he tries to gain or has gained is fake and does not and will not last. His lover does not love him, she loves his fake self. 

Smeraldo Flower

The Smeraldo flower makes its comeback!

From the past comebacks, we know that the Smeraldo flower means the ‘truth that cannot be told,’ which in this context, is his true self.

He holds it as he chooses a fake self for his lover, signifying his lie.

But it will eventually burn in the end. He will not be able to continue with the facade and must either choose himself or his fake love and fake lover.

“Have I lost myself Or have I gained you”

“Tell me if my voice isn’t real If I shouldn’t have thrown myself away Tell me if even this pain isn’t real What I was supposed to do back then”

These ending lyrics are the most depressing and ominous out of the whole song. He realizes his problem and regrets throwing himself away for her but at the same time, he continues to look for her and becomes reliant on her opinions as she now makes him who he is. He now only finds himself in her and his self-concept will only be molded by her, as evidenced by him asking her what to feel, what to think, and what to do. The push-and-pull relationship becomes a toxic cycle that traps him without easy escape as he gradually loses himself more and more. 

Outro: Thoughts

I honestly did not expect BigHit to turn this dark and this deep for this comeback but I am glad they are going darker and deeper than the oceans. BTS has been addressing social issues relevant to youth since debut, especially youth in their teens and 20′s. The Love Yourself series focuses on the psychological struggle with identity and finding love, appropriately fit for people in their teens and 20′s as the BTS members are within this age group.

There are dangerous aspects of love, and losing one’s self is only one of them. There are existing partners out there that are captivating but manipulative in a way that they know how and when to turn on their charms to seduce another. There are also others who are insecure in themselves that they base their self-worth on their relationships and may sabotage their relationship themselves. 

There are also people who mold themselves into someone else because they do not love themselves, and therefore think that others don’t as well. It becomes a coping mechanism to put on a mask to hide the shame of who they really are. Yet, in doing so, they confuse their true self and their fake self eventually that it becomes mentally, emotionally, and socially damaging.

In order for love to be true, loving yourself and having confidence in who you are is essential before you can fully give yourself to another person or love other people around you. You must find yourself first before you can find yourself in another. 

Love, whether romantic or not, is a double-edged sword. It is addicting like a drug and uses the same chemicals and mechanisms in the brain as drugs do. That’s why it makes us do crazy irrational things and why it’s hard to give it up. We try to find so many ways to seek true love that sometimes we sacrifice ourselves or parts of ourselves in order to gain it. Love for one’s self is essential and lack thereof may develop in an evil concept of the world that may cause awful decisions and bitter behavior. Love is not just a beautiful thing that can bring the most happiness, but it can also be destructive and bring the most pain. 

MY THEORIES ARE CORRECT!

The interviews of BTS so far have proven my theories right, especially Singularity! ♥ 

“Fake love does not last”

“If you’re not true to yourself, you will lose that love”

“It’s not just a relationship between people but also with yourself”

“We want to show the dark side of love”

“But in love, we should be able to take off the mask and be true to who we are”

-RM (2018)

FAKE LOVE THEORY

I stayed up all night for Fake Love to drop and it was worth it! Before I get into the theories, I just want to say I am REALLY proud of the boys. They have come this far and now they are taking the U.S. by storm. They’re only going to get bigger after the BBMAs and it makes my heart so full.

Intro: Brief Summary of Past Theories

Fake Love is a song about losing one’s self to please another in order to gain their love. When the first teaser came out, I theorized that Jungkook was going to go through each persona, which are the other members, and I was right! You can view that theory here.

I am a huge believer that all the boys are manifestations of one person at each stage of life, exposed to a particular kind of evil, and must overcome them. There are LOTS of clues from the WINGS era about this. It’s in Demian, it’s in the short films, the music videos, and they are even explicitly stated in the concert WINGS VCR’s. Here are just some examples of quotes from the VCR:

“The boy walks, with not one but seven hearts. Seven beats and one strides forward. Altered perspective and one is seven.”

“Two worlds back to back, Relentlessly merge into one. Now the seven boys are on the road, Seven but One. Seven boys with one heart. One boy with seven hearts, One and Seven, a reflection of each other.“

Remember my pandora box theory about Jungkook’s box and key? Greek mythology believed that evil originated from Pandora’s box and she released different kinds of evil such as greed, envy, hatred, pain, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death. The myth conveys the message that hope is the only thing that humans can hold onto in an evil world. Jungkook will now start his journey to maturity through the exposure to the dark and evil side of life, paralleling the myth. He first stumbles into the shop seeming naive to the place but the others knew how to make a transaction right away. Jungkook receives a key from the Magic Shop because he does not have a fear to trade. This is because in Demian and WINGS, Jungkook is the persona that represents the young innocent boy naive to the evils of the world and therefore has no fear. He is the BEGINNING of a man’s life. Concluding from all the past videos and short films, Jin is the PRESENT, and everyone else represents a stage of life in between Jungkook and Jin (You can view in detail how I concluded that here). Therefore, Jungkook receives a key instead that would start his journey to maturity by going through each persona in the shop, which are the other members, exposing himself to evil.  This leads us to the story of the music video.

THE MAGIC SHOP AND LOVE MAZE

The members are in a building or in the Magic Shop in their respective rooms except Jungkook. It actually seemed like a maze with obstacles in the music video and this is not the first time BTS has referenced mazes (Young Forever). 

He experiences what the others members are experiencing in each room. Everything, especially their fears. He experiences them acting untruthfully to themselves, hiding themselves in order to gain love. Jungkook is the members and the members are Jungkook. 

This is reflected in the acting...

...and in the choreography. (Edit: as I saw more of the choreography, Jungkook actually mirrors more members other than J-hope, which are RM, V, and Jin.)

FEARS

The members’ fears are those ones that prevent them from being themselves because the world might not love them from who they are. Their fears are of course related to their WINGS solos and the HYYH notes. 

Jin - fear of the truth

J-hope - fear of abandonment

Jimin - fear of being caught in a lie

Taehyung - fear of being like his abusive father

RM - fear of being lost in life

Suga - fear of losing his music

(*Note that some of these might not be accurate because we don’t have everything from the HYYH notes yet).

THE TRUTH PROTECTED

In the beginning, we see Jin closing the curtains on Jungkook. It’s as if he’s preventing him from seeing his room and seeing his fears, perhaps even preventing his child persona from evil. 

Jin is then seen protecting a Smeraldo flower, which we now know represents ‘a truth that cannot be told.’ The flower can represent lots of things that are untold, however, in this context, it is the truth to one’s self. Jin protects his flower with extra care as evidenced by the glass case. His room then explodes and the flower turns into sand, and when this happens, the truth is unveiled. BUT WHY SAND? I took a while to figure this out but I will explain it later.

Something important to note is that the members are all trying to keep something out of their rooms and/or lock themselves in. 

J-hope keeps his door from opening. 

Suga has barricades on his windows and the fireplace. 

Jimin closes the faucet. 

They are trying to keep the evil that they fear out of the rooms. Out of sight and out of mind. However, we know many times from WINGS and Demian that someone cannot mature without exposure to evil. They themselves want to be perfect and they want their love to be perfect (”I wish love was perfect as love itself”). They deny all the bad things in themselves and the bad things that comes with love. Hence, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

This is also reflected in the choreography.

And in the set (the hands are the actions of covering your eyes, ears, & mouth)

THE ANSWER

However, when Jungkook finally finishes going through all of the personas, he realizes the truth and the importance of staying true to yourself depicted by the sand that he picks up with the shadow of the flowers flying away. He realizes that the truth, which may be the evil and the bad in themselves, cannot be contained any longer. It will eventually be uncovered, it will not last. They have to face their fears, the good and the bad in themselves and in love, in order to mature. (Edit: This statement is now proven true through their behind the scenes shooting of Fake Love).

We saw from Jin’s case that when the flower turns into sand, the truth is unveiled. Now, Jungkook unveils all of the members’ truths after living their experiences and carrying it with him. Also, this scene is reminiscent of the  sea/beach where the members want to meet each other again according to the HYYH notes. The sand and the water represents the beach, and all of the members reaching the beach together means the merging of all the personas together as I’ve said stated before in my holistic theory. This is why the flower turns into sand in particular. The merging of the personas is symbolic of when a man becomes WHOLE, finds himself, finds his answer, and ready to find real love.

Back to the theory, after Jungkook unveils the truth is when the evil that they were trying to keep out, gets in their rooms. This is metaphorically depicted with...

Snickers flooding in J-hopes room. 

Fire exploding in Suga’s room. 

Water flooding in Jimin’s room.

V’s phone starting to flicker the words “Save Me/I’m Fine” (Zoom in to see).

RM seeing his fake reflection

In addition to the explosion in Jin’s room. 

It is very reminiscent of the interlude of Blood, Sweat, and Tears. After Jin kisses the statue, signifying a lie that cannot be told, all hell breaks loose. However this time, after Jungkook uncovers the truth, all hell breaks loose. 

THE NEXT STEP

Jungkook uncovers the secret passage to Jin’s room, which is found to have already exploded with rubble on the floor, with 6 coat hangers, and a hooded figure. The room and the figure symbolizes the world and its evils and the coat hangers symbolize the other boys, who have been exposed to evil. There are 6 coat hangers in total. Remember that the boys are all personas of one person at each stage of life according to WINGS and Demian. Jungkook has now been exposed to the evil world and surpassed it by going through each persona.

This figure can also be seen as the shopkeeper of the Magic Shop. He waits for Jungkook in the end after giving him the key, to trade him a fear of the world. I’m not exactly sure what this fear would be but from the theme of the era, it would have to be losing yourself. Since the members are personas of himself, it can also be that he is afraid to lose parts of himself which are the other members, hence his WINGS song Begin. Losing one’s self tumbles into losing one’s love.

Outro: Conclusion

The whole point of all the eras is to convey the message of finding yourself and loving yourself. The last thing that is important to note in the music video is that Jungkook ends up in the room that Jin was in at the beginning. He ends up in the present and who Jin is. He’s now maturing to find the answer and is now ready to take on the world to find real love.

“Fear is another name for hope.

Tears are another way to smile.

The boy smiles.

He can smile when he is whole.

The boy walks on." 

- WINGS VCR (2017)

TEAR Hobi was custom fit for our destruction.

Hoseok is the highest quality man I’ve ever seen

...Andamos na mesma direção

Mas esse lugar é o nosso último

Costumávamos falar sobre o pra sempre

Mas estamos quebrando um ao outro

Achei que tivéssemos o mesmo sonho

Mas esse sonho se tornou apenas um sonho

Meu coração está se rasgando, apenas o incendeie

Para que a dor e os sentimentos não permaneçam...

_ BTS ( Tear )