Luci

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"they don't know 'bout us" has climbed the ranks and it's now my favorite song in the album. I swear it's not just because it's the song Jimin was the most involved in making. Or maybe it is because of that. But not in the sense that I like it just because it's Jimin's, but more so that one of the (many) reasons Jimin is my favorite is because his music has always been my favorite.

I also love that Jimin has these specific things he does with his music (like using choirs), and the one that you can recognize in TDKAU is the intro. He loves having uniques intros that set the mood for the song and immerse you in it. Face-off has the creepy carnival music. Like Crazy has the spoken dialogue from the movie of the same name. Alone has the alarm going off. Showtime is technically separate from SGMB but it comes right before it and in the MV it's actually used as the intro. In a similar way you could see Dive as another intro to Like Crazy (and Dive is a great example of how Jimin likes to really immerse the listener in the feelings and headspace of the experience the song is talking about).

TDKAU has this intro that in my first listen I actually thought was a sample of a real old song. I imagine this old recording type of sound is supposed to harken back to that first recording of Arirang done in the US in 1896 (the story that was being referenced in that animation that was released before the album). So this is a nice way to tie the song to the Arirang concept. Since the rest of the song doesn't really have much to do with this concept, the intro, outro, and repeated "They don't—" vocal fragment that you hear all throughout the song do the job of carrying that theme instead. It also does what I mentioned before, it sets the mood and immerses you in this context of an old song, an old story.

Honestly, I really wish we could've seen the making of this song in the documentary. It's such a shame that we saw nothing at all.

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"Please" rose in my ranking as well, it's now at second place. It just sounds so good. It reminds me of Home, which is one of my favorite BTS songs.

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Sorry to "Like Animals" and "Normal", you are now third and fourth respectively. I don't like them less than before, I just like TDKAU and Please more now.

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I've gone back and forth on whether or not "Swim" is a good choice of title track (and I think the members themselves might have done the same thing).

It's a good song and it would've be perfectly good as a b-side but now that some time has passed my opinion is that it's just not strong enough to be BTS's first title track in years. And I don't think it's just the song, the music video and the performance really don't help much.

It really boils down to what Jimin said, that this isn't the type of song people expect from BTS because the group has been mostly known for strong songs with high-energy performances and Swim just isn't that. And like he said, the way they explained and showed the song (by which he means the music video, performance and the song's connection to the rest of album and it's theme) was lacking. So a lot of what they meant for the song to convey didn't properly reach the audience, which is why the reaction ended up being somewhat underwhelming.

I think Swim could've been a good title track for a different artist, or that it could've worked in a context like the one Life Goes On had. But after their last two title tracks were already lower energy, after 6 years since they last had a hard hitting title track with an impressive choreography and interesting music video, after 4 years of hiatus, after so much anticipation, and as the title track of an album like Arirang, I just don't think Swim works the way it needed to.

But I still really like the song. Though I actually like Jimin's remix of "Swim" more than the original and I promise I'm not just being biased.

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"Into the Sun" did grow on me more after the live performance, just like I predicted it would. I still would have preferred if they either used a different effect or dialed down the one they did use, but I'm now able to put that aside and focus on how much I like the song underneath that effect.

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I haven't change my thoughts on "Merry Go Round" and "Body to Body", still like them just the same.

The only addendum is that BTB probably should've been the title track even though I like Swim more. But I mean, I like Pied Piper way more than DNA but I hardly think it should've been the title track instead. Really, BTS's title tracks are rarely my favorite songs in their respective albums, but despite that I still agree with all their choices for title tracks with the exception of Yet To Come and Swim (though I disagree with YTC way more than Swim). That's because a title track has a very specific job, it's not just about being a good song. And I think BTB would've accomplished that job better than Swim did.

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"One More Night" has also grown on me. I don't know why BTS are such haters of this song. Maybe they just need to listen to it more like I did and their opinions might change. At least they finally performed it, even if it was only for two concerts.

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A new entry: "Come Over". It's not my favorite but I do like it and I don't really get why it isn't included in the album. At least it's finally on streaming platforms now.

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The MV and performances for "2.0" did make me like the song more. It's still not very high on my ranking but at least it's not last anymore. Honestly, I like "2.0", "Aliens" and "FYA" around the same amount and I could switch their placement around depending on the day.

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Unfortunately the MV for "Hooligan" did nothing to improve my feelings on the song. Actually it's last in my ranking now. Not because of the MV or anything, I just like every other song more. Also, yes, I am annoyed that they're promoting this song so much when it's my least favorite.

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New Ranking

they don't know 'bout us

Please

Like Animals

Normal

Swim (preferably Jimin's remix)

Into The Sun (preferably live)

Merry Go Round

Body to Body

One More Night

Come Over

Aliens

FYA

2.0

Hooligan

As you can see I strongly prefer the second of half of the album, which is quite unfortunate considering the first half is the one BTS seems to care about more. It's just my luck that my two least favorite songs would be the ones (aside from Swim) that they decided to give MVs, choreos and promotion to. At least it seems there's going to be an MV for Merry Go Round. Maybe Normal will eventually get the MV I could've sworn it was going to have (the MV for Swim had a reference to Normal and there is a mini vinyl with only Swim and Normal in it so I really thought Normal was going to be the second single). I know better than to hope for TDKAU to get anything, instead I'll just count myself lucky that it wasn't excluded from the tour setlist like poor One More Night.

Overall, I really like Arirang but I don't absolutely love it. It's around the middle in my ranking of all of their albums, so it's not my favorite but it's not my least favorite either.

For reference:

HYYH Pt.2

LY Tear

Wings

Dark & Wild

MOTS 7

Arirang

HYYH Pt.1

LY Her

BE

Skool Luv Affair

MOTS Persona

O!RUL8,2?

2 Cool 4 Skool

(I'm not including albums that are made up of mostly repeated songs like Wake Up, Young Forever, Answer, Proof, etc.)

From all the different translations I've seen, the situation seems to be this:

They were talking about Jimin's hair. Tae said Jimin could pull off pigtails and Jin says he should do it but Jimin's reaction indicates he doesn't really love the idea. Then Hobi says that Jin had pigtails for PTD On Stage in Vegas and Yoongi says something (it's hard to hear what) that prompts Jimin to share that staff told him fans have started calling him unnie instead of oppa (presumably because of his hair), which Jimin seems to find funny, but not in a bad way, based on how he laughs and smiles. Then Yoongi says that Jimin being called unnie is suspicious and Jimin asks what's suspicious about it in an offended (but not very seriously) tone. My (possibly wrong) interpretation of this is that Yoongi is jokingly saying that he's suspicious that Jimin is actually an unnie, aka is a woman, and Jimin seems jokingly offended by that suspicion.

Two other moments are Jimin saying he's going to grow his hair until it's as long as the AI Rapunzel edits fans make (unclear if he's serious or not, but I sure hope he is) and him finding it funny but not offensive to be called Rapunzel's little sister.

What I gathered from all of this is that: a) Jimin does not want to do pigtails (rip to taejin's hopes and dreams), b) Jimin is not offended by fans jokingly calling him words normally exclusively used for women (like unnie and sister), and c) despite that, Jimin doesn't actually want his identity as a man to be questioned. So basically, he isn't bothered by feminine terms but he still very much so identifies as a man and not a woman.

Now let's talk about whole manly thing.

In the Face Production Diary fanmeet Jimin picks up this rack thing and fans start calling him manly while laughing. After he sits back down, he gives the fans this short lesson about good communication skills where he says that they shouldn't laugh while calling someone something. He also mockingly imitates them calling him manly and gives it a thumbs down. To me the main conclusions here are that Jimin thinks you shouldn't laugh while complimenting someone because it may sound like you're making fun of them and also that he thinks it's silly to think picking up something and showing physical strength is manly. From this situation alone you can't really know how he personally feels about being called manly.

However, earlier that same year, during the promotion of the Face album itself, Jimin went to this radio interview show and at one point he's asked about drinking and says he can handle alcohol well, which makes the fans present there start calling him manly but he denies it and very directly says he isn't manly. To be more specific the word they used is 상남자. That word is actually the original Korean name for Boy In Luv (the old one not the pink one, that would be Boy With Luv).

(Aside: Boy With Luv being that pink and featuring a woman is a very purposeful contrast to Boy In Luv, and it's why they have almost the same name. It's essentially BTS saying “we had some not-so-great ideas back in the day, but we know better now”. It's the same thing they did with War of Hormone versus 21st Century Girl. It's no coincidence that both Boy In Luv and War of Hormone are from 2014, because BTS didn't have the healthiest portrayal of masculinity back in 2013/2014, which is something I'll mention again later.)

So if you listen to Boy In Luv with translations and watch the MV that's kinda the vibe of what the word means. To explain more, it means manly man, real man or macho man, basically just a very masculine and tough guy. It's used a lot online, often in a joking or even mocking way because it describes a very exaggeratedly masculine man, which a lot of people (especially young people) find to be silly. So it's very unsurprising that Jimin would disagree with being called that.

This is also the same word Namjoon used for Jimin in the recent live with the two of them plus Hobi and Tae. Tae used a different term (테토남, aka testosterone man) which is kinda like an alpha guy. They were calling Jimin this based on the fact he normally doesn't eat dessert and sweet things. Obviously, those terms don't fit Jimin, especially not because of something like not eating dessert, but I'm pretty sure that's the whole joke. It's obviously very silly to think not eating dessert is manly, and to say that about Mr. What-the-heck-is-man himself is even more silly.

In fact, I think a good amount of the fans in the radio interview and in the fanmeet were using those terms jokingly, especially because, as I said before, they are often used like that online. Just like with eating dessert, it's also silly to think picking up a lightweight-looking rack and being able to drink a lot of soju means someone is a real man.

There's also that one video of Jimin talking about his past self and how he used to have to pretend to be a strong man and he's glad he doesn't have to do that anymore. It's not a coincidence that a song from that era would literally be named Manly Man (as I mentioned, that's the actual name of Boy In Luv) because early in their career BTS did have an exaggerated masculine image and Jimin, more so than the other members, was especially responsible for upholding that image.

An example of that is when all the members didn't want to lift their shirts to show their abs during No More Dream so the choreography was changed so they wouldn't have to do it anymore but Jimin's part was kept the same even though he was uncomfortable with it and asked to not have to do it (and let's also consider how on top of making him uncomfortable, having a body like that in the first place would require a lot of strict working out and dieting and he was doing all of this at 17).

Having to pretend to be this type of man would naturally not feel great for a guy that isn't actually some super manly macho man and is instead someone who seems to like masculinity in moderation, who seems to be perfectly fine with more feminine things and who, as Taemin said and Jimin agreed, has a gender-neutral charm.

My opinion about this whole topic is that Jimin most likely only identifies as a man and does like masculinity but not the hyper and toxic kind. He also seems to not want to be restricted to only masculinity and isn't afraid to be androgynous and even feminine. Basically, he's most likely a cis but gender-non-conforming man.

Now, I could be wrong and he could not be cis at all. I'm very aware that his ability to actually confirm something like that is very limited, and as such, expecting him to do it would be naive. And that is why I say that this is only my opinion and not a fact.

What is more factual, however, is that Jimin has shown many times that he does not conform to gender stereotypes. So the people insisting he's some macho guy who would hate to be associated with anything feminine are almost certainly completely wrong, while the people speculating he may not be cis are only just probably, but not certainly, wrong.

There's also the fact that misgendering a presumably cis guy (therefore someone who would not be as heavily affected by misgendering as trans and non-binary people are) is very much not on the same level as being borderline, if not straight up, transphobic, homophobic and misogynistic.

Yes, there are absolutely fans who take it too far (in particular, shippers' tendencies to force heteronormativity and misogyny on what would be a gay couple is beyond frustrating to me), but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like calling a guy an omega (which he is unlikely to even find out about) is worse than saying very bigoted things (which queer fans are forced to see in what they hoped would be a safe and accepting fan community).

But instead of competing to see who's worse in each extremity, why don't we all just go to the middle? Let's have some nuance and just agree that we shouldn't make conclusive statements about the gender identity of someone we ultimately don't know, but that we also shouldn't try to force Jimin into a stereotype he has clearly shown he doesn't fit, all while ignoring the parts of him you don't like and pretending like he's the one who doesn't like it to justify what are actually just your own prejudiced ideas.

This can't be real...

Every day I see Jimin he reaches a new level of beautiful. Like these are some unprecedented levels of absolutely gorgeous stunning breathtaking pretty pretty so so pretty.

This man... He knows what he's doing. Cause what is this shirt choice? What is that last picture?