#jinmin analysis

warning, big mess ahead 

NOTE: i think i just experienced a moment of clarity when i went back and combed through this entire set of Hanryu Pia magazine interviews (among my faves, no question). it spans 2014-15, with a bunch of 1-on-1 member segments and it really refreshed their dynamics for me (makes me want to go back and edit some of my other rambles now AH). tl;dr i’ll be referencing it a lot and it’s a good read!

back on track with a bit of background – if i could start with a very generalized way to look at their earlier dynamics (before going into how their relationships shifted), i want to address that although the members formed friendships based on interests/personality/etc., i feel like their bonds were also initially pretty affected by where they fell into certain ‘categories’/spectrums, like these:

earliest to join bts –> latest to join

hyung-line vs. maknae-line (which is very close to #1)

vocal-line vs. rap-line vs. dance-line

music-line vs. performance-line (very close to #2 and #1)

etc. etc.

…. you’re probably like, this is common sense LOL but i guess i didn’t really think about how much they had to live in these labels, how jin + jungkook, for example, were vocal-line and had a similar training schedule, and as a result got closer by hanging out after classes together. but in a broader sense the labels became identities, and also affected the way they viewed each other; like for hyung-ln as long-time trainees, they likely felt more distant from maknae-ln, who we know hadn’t experienced the same hardships and didn’t handle as much of the responsibility. jin was out there making sure everyone was alive, namjoon and yoongi were in charge of discipline and musical drive, yoonseok were taking turns accompanying each other to the hospital… i think they really felt that gap in experience up through debut, because in 2013 interviews sugamon especially were always talking about how angry/tired they were during trainee limbo. honestly i’m not sure how much of that was to market a “hard”/“hiphop” image, but they also weren’t lying about those difficulties? and there seems to be a communication gap between hyung-ln and maknae-ln as well (all ‘jin being childish’ aside). for ex., in one of the Hanryu Pia 2015 interviews, hoseok and namjoon were paired up to talk and joon admitted the maknae-ln couldn’t sense his bad moods the way the hyung-ln could. extra interesting because age seems to trump training time here –– even though jungkook and jin joined around the same time, jk was not on the same wavelength.

i guess my conclusion from this is a lot of member relationships that may have shifted started from there, and that maybe in a generalized way, some members who got closer were able to like, overcome whatever initial differences they had, including age gap, talent specialties, relationship history?

if we go into specific relationships – i apologize if any of these were already on your mind btw – i think maybe namjin had somewhat of a rocky(?) start, since they referred to each other as complete opposites and didn’t understand how the other person worked, but they clearly got closer after talking with one another and were mature enough to overcome their differences. and now they’re married! :) i also think jinmin have gotten much closer – partially based off of how jin apparently used to nitpick at them a lot like a mom lmao and jimin wasn’t a fan of it, but now jimin’s become jin’s portable laughing track and jin adores him for it and throws cheesy pick-up lines at him probably every day, so there’s that too! i’m mentioning jin a lot, but since jin didn’t start dorming with everyone until later i think it’s understandable that he took some time to get closer with the younger members.

(EDIT: i wanna mention minjoon too, who have always been kinda close bc they relate to each other about self-esteem/motivation issues, but i think they’ve probably gotten closer? they seem to talk to each other about their troubles often and that kind of intimacy builds over time)

i think some of our conceptions of who was close with who also comes from how much we knew about them debut era vs. now –– like imo jikook were always pretty close (though i agree, definitely closer now), but we just didn’t see it as much early on and it’s taken some time for their dynamics to shine through. same thing for sope, and vmon and taejin too, and hey, taejin got an onscreen indirect kiss and sope’s bringing hwaggae tango to dancing with the stars, so i’m patiently waiting for bighit to up the game @ bts_twt call me for details