Yes, day three of the Bangtan Blog.  If you're in, great. If you're not, okay.  As I  mentioned in the previous two in this series,  BTS takes their music videos very seriously and intertwines a plotline or references to the plot line in several of them.  Not all of the videos have references to the plotline.  Some of them are heavy on plot, some are just hints, and some have no references at all.  They've made videos just to look cool, too, after all.  And they're all amazing (as long as you don't watch the early ones.  Those are....cringey). So, with no prompting from you, here are my top six favorite BTS videos.

6.  I Need U.

This one is almost all plot.  The basic gist of the video is that they're happy when they're together.  They're able to avoid their vices, overcome their problems, and face up to their flaws.  There's a lot that happens in this video.  You see J-Hope take the drugs for his narcolepsy (that was psychologically inflicted when his mother left him), you see Jimin nearly drown in the bathtub, you see RM's terrible job, you see Jin's struggle with the loops, you see Jungkook's self loathing, and you see the apartment that Suga is about to set on fire.  Oh, and you see V MURDER HIS FATHER.  So that might not be a good one to show to the children.

5.  Idol.

This was my first BTS video I ever saw, first song I ever heard.  So I'm a little partial to it.  This one has no discernible plot hints in it as far as I can tell.  If I'm right, this is the response to critics who said that BTS have become too "western" and that they're trying not to be Korean.  So, what do you do? You make the most KOREAN MUSIC VIDEO EVER.  I showed you the original, not the one with Nicki Minaj.  Not that there's anything wrong with her, it's just... her verse didn't have anything to do with the song. It's almost like somebody just copied and pasted her in.

4.  Dope.

This one is just fun.  They dress up in different work outfits and dance.  Nothing wrong with that.  This one was a bit of a surprise hit for them - look at the views. Over 461 Million.  It's probably because of Jimin's red hair.  Just sayin'.

3.  Fake Love.

This video is just beautiful.  It has so many little references to the plotline, adds a few more, and it's very symbolic.  It doesn't hurt that it's a catchy as hell song and the choreography is impressive. I showed you the extended version so you can get all the good little details like Jungkook always watching one of the members.

2.  DNA.

This is probably one of the most colorful and cheerful music videos I've ever seen.  Yes, one of their darkest videos (Fake Love) came out after this one.  They're not above going to both extremes.  It's just the right amount of scenery, dancing and effects.

1.  Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Buckle up, buttercup, cos shert is going down. There's a LOT going on in this video, and it's amazing. I admire the attention to detail here.   This video is filled with references to the book I mentioned in the other post, Damien. For example, right after RM reads the passage of the book - it cuts to Suga playing an organ.  In the book, there's a scene where the protagonist, Sinclair, reaches out to a man who works at a church (If I remember rightly he's a cleaner) for advice.  The advice/guidance, that Sinclair doesn't take, is given while the cleaner is playing the organ.  Wanna guess what song he's playing? Yeah, it's the same one Suga is miming to in the video.

Also, there are a lot of references to art,  sculpture, and philosophy.   Stuff you wouldn't even notice unless someone pointed it out to you. I'll give you TWO  examples so I don't go overboard.

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You see this shot? That's J-Hope in the fountain in front of a sculpture.  What sculpture is it? It's Michaelangelo's Pietà, which is of  Mary, the  mother of Jesus, holding him after the Crucifixion. And guess who's got a huge Mother problem in the plotline?  Yep.

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And in this shot, we see Jin walking up to the mirror.  Above the mirror we see some writing. It's in German.

"Man muss noch Chaos in sich haben, um einen tanzenden Stern gebären zu können."

It's a quote from a book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.  It translates to  "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."

And now, we can't look at the Korean version without looking at the Japanese version, where some MORE sherty nonsense goes down.

This one has more references to the actual plotline than the Korean version, and less references to Damien. There's a lot of time travel hinting in this one, and you see more of Jungkook's peer pressure problem (when RM forces him to drink and it makes him sick).  The big hints though, are towards the end.  At 3:08 Jimin is wandering the halls, and walks into a room to encounter himself - or an alternate timeline self.

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Then, as there's a glitch in the timeline, Jimin is dragged back through the cosmos. Everything starts cracking and breaking, and Jin, our time traveler, is standing right next to the hole. And the painting he was looking at the beginning of the Korean video, which is 'The Fall of the Rebel Angels' by Peter Bruegel the Elder. It depicts a huge battle of angels and demons fighting in Revelation.The archangel Michael and his angels are shown driving the rebel angels from Heaven, and battling demons, half-human and half-animal monsters.   Not at all symbolic of the struggle of good and evil in a person, right?

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Then, we reset.  We see RM at his crappy job and someone pulls up... who is it? Jin the time traveler, of course.  Which takes us right back to "I Need U".

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IS YOUR MIND BLOWN YET?  I don't know what else to tell you if it's not.

This is more than anything we had as kids, people.  This is complex stuff.  And I didn't even point out everything. This is definitely abbreviated. Do you get a little bit of why I would be interested in this kind of thing? It's almost like a puzzle, but with dancing and music.

Bangtanily yours,

Behka

 

 

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