Early premier BTS Blood Sweat & Tears

Pretty good brief synopsis (without BU stuff) except the statue is not a fallen angel. It’s the God Abraxis, who is the essence of both good and evil. Jin (our erstwhile main character) is embracing the true nature of life by symbolically leaving his innocence behind (kiss) and accepting that life is really in the duality. Afterwards he begins to crack open like an egg to reveal a new, more complete/whole self. His expression is a bit melancholy as he leaves his childhood and his innocence behind and accepts darkness as a part of the world and of himself. Both Abraxis and the egg are mentioned by RM in the Wings short films.

Nanci B. Kuykendall

I think at some point BTS decided they love to startle the audience with cut scenes. Be it this, Vs stabbing his father in I Need You, and in upcoming vids (let’s not spoil which ones) just to make people scream out “what is happening right now” and almost every single reactor I’ve watched has the Blood Sweat and Tears post vid trauma of “I don’t understand what happened /what was that / what does it all mean?” So welcome to the club lol. But more seriously it’s brilliant the song the most symbolism filled video I’ve ever seen, the lyrics, the music and choreography are all chefs kiss perfect. They never leave you bored that’s for sure.

Maria Chavez

I am wheezing

MM

The one time youtube algorythm did me good was recommending Blood Sweat and Tears mv for me it was my first encounter with BTS and ive never looked back :) (it really knew how to hook me, art buff and music lover)

Oh perfect thank you!

React to Blood Sweat & Tears: What Does it All Mean? by Don't Worry I'm Not Afraid channel...it's a big help

Evelyn L

This was great. I laughed at your reaction when Jin kissed the statue, I felt that same sense of uneasiness when I first saw that part too. Your description of the MV as religious, sexual and creepy was very apt. It’s a stunning video isn’t it? Lyrically the song describes the feeling of temptation so well (knowing the grail was poisoned but drinking it anyway). Couple more random thoughts - I initially felt the same way as you about the song but after I listened to it a few times it really grew on me. And the choreography is so good, can’t wait till you see the dance practice.

Frances

I’ll see what I can do.

Hey Jim, I see you couldn't wait for Wings album after the teasers. I was excited to start it too. But surprised when you uploaded this. Let the confusion start! LOL!

Joy14

Nice to have this reaction so soon. Can wait for this album. Remember that at the end of Save me MV, there was the phrase "BOY MEETS .....". It was V jumping, you got it right! I'm with you in not understanding anything, (that's when we see you're a true reactor), I was just like you the first time. Just a few heads up about Wings album, each short video you saw represents one of the members' stories in the BU which also has solo songs for the first time, but also the lyrics represent an aspect of real struggles for the members in some way. They did an amazing job linking all these together. The WINGS album is a more experimental album with all members participating in creating solo songs. Maybe you could have a look at this preview before reacting to the album https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYtTNo1Yhnw&t=64s

PamTan

This comment left to another reactor - hope they don't mind me passing it on - I think they summed up the MV well................... comment attached below: The mv is tied to the theme of the temptation (the neon signboard ), but that's not all the meaning, it's not just the metaphorical story about how we always want bad things. the MV and the whole concept of Wings album and its short films - in another words the whole era is based on symbolism connected to the Herman Hesse's book Demian, where the main character (MC) explores his psyche while growing up (spoken lines in this MV and short films are quotes from the book). Theme goes along with coexistence of 'dark' and 'light' in our lives. MC was taught to see only the good side of the world, which is wrong, because the world isn't perfect and has bad side too. One can't live fully embracing just the good. You should accept both. The quote from the book that i really like is MC's thoughts: 'Why are only pleasant things attributed to the God if he created the whole universe? Are not both the light and dark sacred?'.The visuals of mv follow this theme: boys grew up and now facing new temptations to overcome or succumb to it thus they are acting defiantly, as if trying to seduce the viewer. There's a lot of pieces in the MV that are full of symbolism: every picture, statue, sound, object • an apple which means sin both in the religion and the book. Jimin is connected to an apple specifically, but they also all have an apple on their plate in the last supper scene • green color also plays the role of a bad things like a devil's blood or a poisonous absinthe reputed to be a hallucinogen and banned in some countries. Namjoon is connected to the absinthe, his lines are "But your wings are wings of the devil. In front of your Sweet is bitter bitter" . behind the sweetness of the drink (absinthe is often drunk with sugar) lies its real essence of bitterness. it symbolises succumbing to temptation and denying the real world in favor of an illusion • a blindfold that keeps one from seeing the worlds as it is - then when blindfold is gone you see green tears  • Black and white doors on the sides of the “The Fall of the Rebel Angels” picture that can be representing the inner fight of good and evil . “The Fall of the Rebel Angels” itself depicts the fall into hell of angels who rebelled against God, they turn into ugly monsters and good angels give them battle. In fact, this is the main idea of the struggle between good and evil, the choice of your side in this battle. there were also sculptures of an angel and a demon on the sides of background in the set for the choreo  • behind Jungkook's back is a painting of Icarus. I think everyone is familiar with Greek mythology and is aware that Icarus was presented with wings, but he could not resist the temptation and flew too close to the sun, causing the wax in his wings to melt so he fell. The story echoes the ideas of the song and the title of the album itself: "WINGS". Behind Tae when he jumps from the balcony is "The Fall of Icarus" too  • a kiss of a fallen angel as an acceptance of a darker side and resolution of the inner chaos. Above the mirror in the MV there's a Nietzsche quote  (who also has a lot to do with the book's ideology): 'You must have a chaos inside you to give birth to a dancing star'. It's a reference to Nietzsche's ideas about a superman - a creature who, in his power many times surpasses an ordinary person, denies fear and regret, and uncompromisingly follows the chosen path, being the creator of his own destiny. The superman is described in his book "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and the ideas from there closely connect with "Demian"; MC in the book has a few mentors, with help of who he learns life - and you can see that in the beginning of the MV every younger member is paired up with older one + Yoongi playing organ is a direct reference to the one of MC's mentors. Jin is an observer just like the MC in the book. You also can notice that the rest of the boys in pairs are divided into 'good' and 'bad': • Namjoon drinking absinthe and subverting yet innocent Jungkook into it (he has the candle with the green wax that jungkook later "eats", and they both lay in Namjoon's room with green dust ) • Jimin having an issue with temptation (holding apple) and Yoongi trying to save him from it (closing his eyes with a hand or a blindfold)  • Tae being the fallen angel himself and Hoseok representing hope and shooting a colourful arrow to him . I think Hoseok's theme is more prominent in the Japanese version of the mv (it's COMPLETELY different, but be careful, Japanese releases can get blocked). J-hope also has the statue of Pieta, that has the meanings of piety, compassion  I would say that especially from Jimin-Yoongi pairing in this mv you can tell that there's no answer what is right: good or evil. The apple is the sin, but the sin is the part of the world. Neglecting it and being blindfolded prevents you not only from "bad" things but from living a life and being yourself: the blindfold holds Jimin to a closed door and doesn't let him go the Nietzsche quote also give a hint that hiding from bad may actually be worse then the bad itself, because without accepting all sides of self one can't reach their full potential. and BTS has a whole another era talking about exploring one's self So the story is about exploring the world in its good and bad in order to explore your own self and become something greater

Becca L

IKR🤣🤣🤣, Jim makes me laugh hard at times with his comments - my only wish is that I hadn't taken a mouthful of coffee just as he said that - I am now mopping up coffee that came out of my nose as I desperately tried not choking with laughter... UGH!!

Becca L

The whole WINGS concept is heavily based on Hermann Hesse's "Demian". To put it shortly it's about "realization of self". To make everything even more confusing BTS decided to to tie it with the BU... I've seen and read everything related to BU and believe me, it still confuses me to this day. I know the overarching story but I still have so many questions about the whole thing. DO NOT worry if you don't get something. Some things will be answered in the future and others will remain as a theories. I don't think there is a one person that has answers to EVERYTHING that happens in the BU.

Maya

"You need some moisturizer" had me laughing so hard 😂😂 I'm dead

Tk