With the Grammys 2023 now done and dusted, the South Korean music act’s fans have expressed their take on the snub, and moved on to better things like indulging themselves with BTS music videos or music streaming parties. Taking a U-turn, we’re once again diving into the multi-faceted playlist of videos that initially started out as chapters of a long-running story that came to be known as the Bangtan Universe (BU).
Coming out with various episodes of the storyline across several platforms like a webtoon, game, book of ‘Notes’, short films like the entire Wings chronology and the Love Yourself Highlight reels, and other videos like the Prologue, Epilogue: Young Forever, BTS Universe Story ‘MAP OF THE SOUL’ and more add on to the pieces of the puzzle.
In a way, the Spring Day video, too, has been roped in as a part of this particular universe. Taking inspiration from Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, certain visual elements are a direct nod to the short story. While it’s additionally claimed to be honouring the real-life Sewol Ferry Tragedy, it’s alternately also interpreted to be a piece in the same time-travel loop governing the Bangtan Universe.
Although we’ve left all these eras in the past, they clearly never get old and it’s never too late to indulge yourself with the never-ending theories that tie the whole story together in the fans’ minds. If you’ve read the The Most Beautiful Moment in Life or HYYH Notes before, then you may know that the actual plot is quite vividly worded on the book’s pages, further proving that these chapters are marred with a dark fictional reality that’s fuelled by tensions, domestic abuse, deaths, etc, but it all ends with the boys and their friendship giving a new meaning to the concept of ‘found families’.
Blood Sweat and Tears
Still powered by one of the most powerful choreographies of the group to this date, Blood Sweat and Tears finds a small room to pull in distinctive symbols that push you to dwell on their meaning.
The video is quite open in terms of depicting the boys’ fall to temptation (commonly symbolised by the image of an apple, an allusion to the Adam and Eve origin story), the next phase of their adolescent lives that was initially kickstarted by The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, commonly known as the HYYH era. Greek myths also find their ground among these theories, with one of them being about the Fall of Icarus.
Blood Sweat and Tears Japanese ver
With a more psychedelic side to it, the Japanese version of the Blood Sweat and Tears video has some similar scenes as the Korean edition, almost as if presenting a parallel universe to the same picture. The presence of wormholes becomes more apparent here, straightaway relating to time travel. Ending with a familiar scene of the original BU plot, Jin is seen visiting RM at the petrol pump station as well.
I Need U
Run
Nothing can ever come close to the Queen of queens. Run‘s glory still remains untouched, both as a song and as a music video defining the HYYH episodes. With this, the story visually builds on the cracks developing in the septet’s friendship, and how their personal lives and setbacks endanger the one good thing they’ve built over the years that makes their lives worth living – their bond.
Capturing the rebellious phase each of their characters go through, it initiates the series of falling ‘House of Cards’ as the characters strive to run away from their present burdening circumstances, both mentally and physically, and ultimately find refuge in each other, but that too can’t hold on for long.
Film Out
The latest direct addition to the same list is Film Out, after which the group started focussing more on dance-based videos. With an ample number of references to the life-shattering consequences of time travel, the video sheds light on everything falling apart around the septet while time slips away.
Various portals to different timelines, or perhaps even alternate parallel universes are vividly pictured in the video. While Jungkook can sense the impending doom at hand, Jin still fails to accept help from the other members, believing it all to be his sole responsibility. The Japanese song itself speaks loud and clear about one’s loss of a loved one and the memories they leave behind.
It all goes hand in hand as Jin constantly seems to be looking from the outside in, but it’s too much of a toll on him with each attempt that he makes to save everyone around him, that in the end, when V extends his hand out, it’s Jin’s room that’s left in shatters, the same vision as the Fake Love MV.
Epiphany
Different versions of Jin’s characters are seen through this video’s course. With time-twisting sequences like the rain going backwards, it reminds us of the many times Jin has tried to go back and fix the timeline. However, this constant back and forth tussle with time has only left him wearier and exhausted as nothing goes as per his plans and things somehow always end badly for his friends.
Fans have often regarded the message of the song and its lyrics, “I’m the one I should love”, as a final reminder for himself that things can’t be changed, and this is when he draws the curtains as well, almost as if shutting the doors to the time-travelling chapter of his identity.
But again, it’s all up for speculation since even with the notebook in hand, in contrast to the previous times, he still puts on the same blazer before heading out, which could mean that he just can’t seem to give up on his friends and this chase of setting things right.
Fake Love
While Fake Love doesn’t overtly hint at being another angle of the same picture, it takes a more symbolic route to imply the same. The recurring sight of the Smeraldo flower has led the entire Love Yourself saga with its correlation to Jin’s narrative. The teasers for this song convey the Magic Shop concept in a better way, as each member can be seen trading an object for another, all of which are there in the Highlight reels as well.
What’s even more interesting is that some of these items being turned in by the members are actually their respective defining elements from the Wings era – RM’s broken piece of a mirror (Reflection), Jimin’s painting from Lie and more – again highlighting that it’s all a continuation of the same story.
Euphoria : Theme of LOVE YOURSELF 起 Wonder
The initial seconds of the video take us back to the Run and I Need U eras, peeking into the happenings of the original plot that left the previous chapter on a bloody note. The overall visuals of this release largely focus on the budding friendship shared between the group of seven friends, but it’s all mostly a representation of their wishful thinking since things weren’t actually in place as they’ve been depicted here.
Charting out on a bubbly course, the video contrasts the underlying angsty hints of the time loop their characters are all trapped inside. The last few moments switch to a more solemn tone with Jin filming the rest of the members, and the story makes more sense if you’ve read the NOTES.
Do you have your own set of theories to share? What do you think of the chronology of events within this storyline? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
You can read the Save Me webtoon here, which graphically spells out a specific timeframe of the Bangtan Universe. Also, check out the K-pop group’s songs on Spotify.
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