beautiful but dangerous

The Greeks and Romans had their own backstory for the fish constellation. Rather over what it ruled, lands and territory.

"Pisces lies toward the north wind. It also lies toward the zone of the Red Sea, having not a few islands under its control, above which lie India and the so-called Indian Ocean. In its eastern parts Pisces touches Parthia, the land of the Indies, and the Eastern Ocean; in its northern parts, Scythia. In its western parts it washes with its waves Myosormos, Orthosormos, and the surrounding cities."

"The following zones are subject to Pisces: to the front, the Euphrates and the Tigris; to the middle, Syria and the Red Sea, India, mid-Persis and the neighboring lands; to the tail, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Borysthenes river; to the tie of the Northern Fish, Thrace; to that of the Southern Fish, Asia, Sardinia."

~ Now let's look over to India. What more could be divulged about Pisces? As they call it, Meena, sanskrit word meaning 'fish'. The BPSH narrates the primary traits of the water sign, deemed the birth sign of Goddess Lakshmi.

Meena resembles a pair of fish , one tailed with the head of the other.

This rashi is strong at night.

It is a watery Rashi and is predominant with Sattva-Guna (pure)

It denotes resoluteness and is a water-resorter.

It is footless and has a medium build.

It rules the North and rises with both head and back.

It is ruled by [Jupiter].

Another ancient text, Parashara, details piscean characteristics as follows:

They are very happy when they can spend their money to help others through charitable causes.

These persons are not steady .

They may change from one profession to another.

The married life of a Meena native is generally happy but they have a jealous nature."

(also note, i use trauma very lightly here, i am not speculating anything about jimin's life experiences or mental health, i am just going off things he has said publicly and using the term 'trauma' as a way to describe the long lasting impact of idol culture and being in the public eye, smt other celebrities have mentioned being traumatic)

basically i see filter as a continuation of lie. like the rest of wings, lie is a really complexe song with multiple messages but the central theme of is the feeling of loss of self and identity, struggling to make peace with a persona and your "purest" self. as much as it is about losing your sense of self, it is about falling into temptation and losing yourself to something bigger than you can control. something in particular that stands out to me though is this line from the genius translation: "you want me / i've lost my way / you want me." to me, this is very reminiscent of the theme of filter - a much lighter, upbeat song at first glance. the main theme of filter is jimin's versatility as an artist and his ability to morph himself at one's demand to, most importantly, please the audience. but the language (at least in the genius translation) is surprisingly aggressive compared to lie's desperate tone and despite the vibrance of the song. filter is not just about pleasing but about owning. a lot of people have interpreted lie as jimin struggling with his idol persona and personal sense of self, and to meet the expectations of fans. filter talks of not only gaining the approval of the listener, but of entrancing them, of using compliance as a means of taking control. "don't even think of turning your head away," he says, "you'll be wanting only me / because you are the one who made me." if lie says "please save me from myself and from what you want from me" then filter says "you want to own me? fine, how do you want me? i'll be better. i'll be awful." filter is about regaining control, taking back all the demands, about using a disconnect from self to become more than yourself. and mostly it is about taking that fractured sense of identity, that hardship and that trauma back, pulling the entitlement out from other people's feet and wearing it like you were made for it.

i think i've spoken on here a few times about filter deserving a horror concept. filter to me has a self-awareness so profound that it is haunting. sunmi's noir comes to mind; it has the same self-awareness, the same coy, tongue-in-cheek message on public personas, social media, and playing into one's part in that problem. i saw a post on here the other day that i cant find for the life of me that went something like "there are two ways we label incredible things. if we like it, it's magic. if we don't , it's horror." filter and noir both have that element of magic at first glace, they're both incredible performances with dazzling quad colourful concepts, filter probably more so because of the lighter vibe and because sunmi is less shy about getting to the point. but as you peer closer, the elements of horror, the tragedy of trauma and the victory that allows for the irony, can be seen. filter is neither entirely a tragedy or a tale of triumph, and that's what makes it horror. filter is about coming out of trauma, about turning around, looking it in the face and deciding "i own this now. i will control it. and i will make it abominable"

anyway. tldr: