(THEORY) The ACTUAL Story Timeline Sequence of the BTS Universe and The Two Realms it's Separated Into.
SO, I’ve been theorizing for a while about the order of the MVs, and I’ve always felt like the order of the MVs are just… so out of order that it didn’t make sense to me. Then, after I did some deeper research on Jungian theology, and also reading the book “Demian”, and then also going back to watch all the BTS MVs, shortfilms, and highlight reels again, I noticed that there was a pattern:
The BTS Universe was split into two major realms:
The “Dream Realms” and the “Reality Realms”.
My theory is that the MVs in these two realms happen simultaenously and often cross over each other throughout the BU storyline.
Dream Realms includes MVs that depict surrealistic settings/situations (such as BS&T and Boy with Luv).
Reality Realms includes MVs that depict the reality situations happening to the boys in real life, mostly based off of “The Notes” (such as RUN and I NEED U):
Now, you may think the BU storyline begins at prologue,
but, it actually begins… with Singularity and DNA.
Well, Taehyung’s solo, Singularity, may be about creating a persona to cover up one’s pain, but it could also be referring to “Singularity” on a scientific spectrum: “Initial Singularity”.
Initial Singularity is where everything started. Before the Big Bang and the universe exploded, there was only singularity.
And guess where the DNA mv setting is? A Galaxy/Universe
And GUESS WHAT HAPPENS IN DNA?
The beginning of the Universe. The beginning of the BU storyline, begins with Singularity ending, leading to the creation of the universe with DNA.
In DNA, Hoseok and Namjoon sings,
“The evidence of destiny given to me, You’re the source of my dream”.
Like I said before, BU is separated into Dream and Reality realms.
DNA is the “source of my dream”
This is where it all BEGIN. (WINGS shortfilm #1: BEGIN).
Now most of you may already know that WINGS is based off of the book “Demian” (if you haven’t read Demian yet, you can read the summary here: https://sparknotes.com/lit/demian/sum ).
Demian presents the reflections of an older man on his childhood.
HYYH is about the journey of the boys growing up and losing their innocence, about how they learn to leave their childhood behind, which is very similar to that of what is depicted in the book “Demian”.
So, just keep in mind that each shortfilm from WINGS depicts a different stage in the boys’ growth from their childhood to adulthood.
Anyways, now we move on to “School days”, AKA Lie + No More Dream + N.O.
During this time, the boys are probably in elementary school. This is when they begin to hide their true feelings and begin to create their own personas in order to perhaps meet their parents or society’s standards of who they’re supposed to be. In real life, they may seem fine, but in their mind/dreams, that’s where their true thoughts and feelings come to life. As shown through N.O., No More Dream, and Lie, you see how the boys really feel about their life and school. They dislike the education system and the way they’re being forced to learn through regurgitating information.
They are conflicted about their identity and their future, being told by their parents that they need to study and work hard for a future that they might not really actually want for themselves, and aren’t even completely sure of yet. There’s so many different possibilities that the boys dream of, such as perhaps becoming a race car driver or a detective. But again, they have no REAL dream or concept of their future. They don’t know.
In LIE, Jimin also lies about his traumatic childhood and the murder he witnessed at the arboretum of one of his classmates, Choi, when he was very young. In traditional asian society, especially for boys, emotions and feelings aren’t really talked about openly.
Also with the fact that Jimin’s parents were never around to support him that much, since he was always pretty much staying in the hospital due to his mysterious illness that causes him to have seizures, he felt that to seem normal, he would have to hide his feelings from others.
Now uh…. this is where we get to the teenage years, where the boys are in high school
and uh… this is where they, let’s be honest, start to get horny :))))))))), as seen through their superficial love for girls in Boy in Luv, Danger, and War of “Hormone”.
Boy in Luv portrays the boys reality, as depicted in The Notes, the boys would hang out in a old empty classroom and spend time together there, and this is seen in the Boy in Luv MV.
You can also tell if it’s the dream or reality realm based off of their outfits. In the case of Boy in Luv MV, the boys are all wearing pretty much the same student uniforms and sneakers. Typical of that of a normal highschool student in real life.
Danger and War of Hormone though… THAT’s what the boys are really thinking about in their minds and dreams.
As shown through their dramatic expressions when they see a cute girl walk by and the odd black and white with the excpetion to the red and green colors in the MV, and the boys dancing in a metro station? singing about why the girl they like won’t answer their text and talking and why the girl is ignoring them:
Anyways, as the boys grow up,
this is where we get to the discord era, where everything begins to fall apart, but also where the boys begin to discover who they really are.
In the original prologue, Jin took a picture with some of the other boys with his polaroid. But then, at the end of the prologue when jin took out the same polaroid picture from the previous night before, he realized that his friends wasn’t in the picture.
Of course afterwards bighit deleted this scene & we never actually know why bighit deleted it.
But this leads me to question…. if Prologue was actually a a dream? perhaps Jin’s dream?
If so, then Taehyung never actually jumped into the sea, and um this might actually be true.
In prologue, we see Taehyung climb up a tall platform and jump down, supposedly starting the butterfly effect and starting off the entire HYYH story.
At the very beginning of Euphoria MV, we see the exact same scene of taehyung jumping down from the platform into the sea.
And at the very end, who do we see on the platform instead?
Jin, holding a camera and pointing it down to the boys:
But then HERE’S THE THING.
Jin’s camera falls down off of the platform and then it the next scene directly cuts to Taehyung falling into the water???
And the right after Jin is shown again, standing on top of the platform:
If you’ve watched all the MVs, you’ll notice that the two characters who always stands out the most are always Jin and Taehyung. Jin films/records everything with his polaroid or camcorder, and Taehyung always seems to be the outcast of the group.
But the one thing that makes me believe that Jin is the only character to exist throughout the entire storyline, is because of “Demian”, Jungian theology, and also the fact that Jin is usually ALWAYS watching everyone from a outsider’s perspective.
At the end of the book “Demian” (which was the book WINGS was based off of, as I mentioned earlier), the main character Sinclair realizes his two friends: Eva and Demian, are actually not real people.
He realizes that Eva and Demian are actually WITHIN him.
Eva and Demian, are actually Sinclair’s Anima and Animus (which I’ll talk about later when we get to the highlight reels).
So anyways, to break the confusion you might have right now. What I’m saying is that Euphoria and Prologue are happening simultaneously at the same time. Jin & Taehyung might be jumping into the water at the same time (cuz they might be the same person teehee).
And now, we get to I NEED U and Stigma.
I NEED U is the reality realm and Stigma is the dream realm, as I NEED U, despite portraying each of the boys’ struggles, I NEED U is really mainly about Taehyung & his struggle after murdering his father by accident to protect his sister from their abusive drunkard father.
Because in I NEED U taehyung killed his father, in Stigma he gets caught by the police and gets sent to jail for the murder of his father:
Now we get to what I was talking about earlier: the boys meeting their animas in the higlight reels.
Each of the girls the boys spend time together in the highlight reels is their anima. In Jungian theology, a person possess both anima and animus within themselves, however the boys are only being introduced to the feminine side of their personality and psyche right now, so they haven’t learned that the ultimate goal of individuation (which is pretty much the end of the BU storyline), is to learn to balance their anima and animus.
Anyways, we move on to Fire and Fake Love. So, if you’ve read my theory about “Dionysus’ Magic Shop Deal with Abraxas”, you’ll know that Dionysus might actually be the owner of the Magic Shop in Fake Love.
Since Dionysus is the god of ectsasy and wine, guess what?
The “temporary happiness” that the boys traded for with their anima objects in Fake Love, is actually sweet poison (aka drugs/alcohol).
Wonder why Japanese BS&T looks so weird? Like the boys are tripping or something? Yup! It’s drugs and alcohol that’s making the boys go wheewhoo psycho. It’s also why Jungkook threw up in Japanese BS&T lol:
I mean what did you think they were doing having a party in RUN? With the red SOLO cups? Those SOLO cups are usually used to pour alcohol in for parties.
In RUN furniture was all over the place, there were writings all over the wall, and it was chaotic.
RUN is the reality realm, while BS&T is the dream realm. BS&T portrays what’s going through the boys minds while they’re partying and getting drunk on “sweet poison that’s sweeter than sweet”:
That’s why in Japanese BS&T in the very beginning we see HYYH Taehyung looking all sleepy as if he had just woken up from a hangover.
And remember when I told you that there are cross overs between the reality realms and the dream realms? yeah, here it is:
Anyways, so then this is where we move on to the REFLECTION stage.
This is when the boys start to realize that doing drugs and drinking away their pain might not actually help them get out of this cycle of despair and misery, so they begin to reflect upon their ego and shadow.
They start thinking to themselves “hmmm something needs to change” (which is also the first step to realizing they need to love themselves!), and this is where we’ll eventually reach Epiphany, when Jin finally learns that he’s the one he should love in this world.
THIS BOI IS LITERALLY LOOKING INTO THE MIRROR! HIS REFLECTION! LIKE DO YOU SEE THE CONNECTION HERE?!
Alright anyways once Jin finishes singing with his amazing vocals (king seokjin vocals yes). This leads us to the Real Love stage aka turning from lust and love on the outside (which we saw in boy in luv) into love on the inside.
At this stage, Just One Day is the reality realm and Boy With Luv + Lights is the dream realm.
Just One Day has very similar lyrics to boy with luv, talking about how gently and nice they want to treat the girls they like:
We also know that Just One Day is the reality realm because the boys are wearing school uniforms just like they did in Boy in Luv And guess what? Boy with Luv is a reference to Boy in Luv.
Alright so anyways, so Boy with Luv is what goes on inside of the boys’ heads during Just One Day, singing about the girls they like in a gentle and soft way. Now, we can’t talk about Boy with Luv without taking about Lights MV though, because Lights is a sequel to Boy with Luv.
Lights is essentially what happens after the boys enter the Persona theater. You can think of the theater as a person’s persona, while the inside of the theater is how a person actually feels. Also through the lyrics, it’s quite obvious the connections between BWL and Lights.
Alright! Now we move on to the Harmony era aka the stage where the boys’ Anima and Animus finally come together at peace with one another, and the boys finally learn to balance both their anima and animus. This can be seen through MAMA and Serendipity.
Remember when I told you that WINGS is based off of the book “Demian”? And how at the very end the main character realizes that his two friends, Eva and Demian, were actually his Anima and Animus?
When Hoseok saw the painting (from Lie, since Jimin and hoseok are close friends because they always spent time together at the same hospital) turn into the mother hugging child picture, he came to realize that he didn’t need to depend on anyone else to feel loved and normal.
He’s spent most his entire life missing his mother and letting the pain of his mother abandoning him when he was younger suffocate and manipulate him into believing he is ill. When he finally learned to balance his anima and animus, he felt complete.
MAMA = My Anima My Animus
This is why MAMA is the only song in the entire WINGS album in all caps. It’s a acronym for My Anima My Animus.
The “Her” in Love Yourself: Her Album.
The idea of finding oneselve’s anima and balancing your anima and animus can also be seen through Jimin’s solo Serendipity.
In serendipity, Jimin sings about his anima (since he’s a boy and represents animus). This boy LITERALLY sings
“You are me, I am you”. “Cuz you love me, and I love you.”
Jimin has finally learned to love himself.
This is also why, in Love Yourself Highlight Reel ‘承’, you see each boy and their girls having a good time together, interacting with each other and everything seems to be peaceful and happy. Heck, even Jungkook is playing the piano with yoongi again!
In chinese the word “承” means “to understand”, so at this stage, the boys have finally understood the true meaning of self love.
But of course, even when you do understand the true meaning of self love, that doesn’t mean you have necessarily ACHIEVED self love. There will still be more challenges and hardships to face and overcome. This can be seen in Love Yourself Highlight Reel '轉’, when things start to go wrong. Each boy ends up leaving the girl they liked. The anima and animus starts to become unbalanced again.
But, this doesn’t go on forever, because one day, you WILL learn to finally truly love yourself. The idea of the process of individuation is when you finally complete the map of the soul and become one with your soul, you’ll become your own god and finally break out of they cycle of reincarnation.
We know Jin has reached the final stage of self love and process of individuation, because in AWAKE, we see him dropping the apple (aka the sweet poisonous apple from snow white). He let’s go of the materialistic things that he used to hold on to to help him feel less painful.
Also from the wallpaper in AWAKE, we see the pattern of Abraxas: The ALL POWERFUL GOD who is beyond heaven and hell. He is beyond time and space:
The bird painting Jin was staring at, that was Abraxas’ messenger:
Anyways, this is when we reach the last step before Jin goes “bye bye” forever and becomes a god and leaves the cycle of reincarnation: Young Forever.
Ever noticed why Jin is so far behind from all the other boys in Young Forever?
Exactly. He’s the only real character throughout the entire storyline. Young forever is Jin looking back at all of his memories from his life and letting go of the past that had been troubling him for so long.
I mean seriously! It says “2015.04.29 ~ FOREVER” at the beginning of Young Forever.
You can see this as Jin or BTS’ way of saying, even after I’m gone, we’ll always be in your memories and heart forever. Sort of a reference to when BTS disbands.
Epilogue is defined as “A section or speech at the end of a book or play that serves as a comment on or a conclusion to what has happened.”
And you see this comparison in similarity from AWAKE as well. Where the photos of an important item that symbolizes each stage of Jin’s life is laid out across the floor and in Young Forever how strips of picture films are shown across the screen of Jin and his “friends”:
“We cried a lot and laughed a lot but it was so beautiful”.
The most beautiful moments of life (HYYH)… is life itself.
This is BTS’ way of saying…
“We had a lot of fun memories together and it was all so beautiful, but it’s time to leave. We love you forever, goodbye.”
