...and Here We Go With The Anons. I'm Not Posting Any Of You, But I Am Going To Say This One More Time.

...and here we go with the anons. I'm not posting any of you, but I am going to say this one more time. Please tell me where in my previous posts I was actually trying to convince anyone what any of the member's sexualties may be.

I'll paste the relevant bit but my specific point is that when you engage in shipping discourse along the lines of '____ member doing ____ action can ONLY be because their attraction is ____', that's when erasure happens. No matter what behavior and sexuality you're discussing.

Specifically I'd like to talk but ace-aro erasure. Now, before any of you jump on me, I AM NOT SAYING THAT I THINK ANY OF THE MEMBERS ARE ASPEC. I just want to remind you that when you make sweeping statements like 'you only have to look at them to know', you are implicitly stating that anyone who chooses to partake in similar actions could ONLY be doin so because of an attraction.

And thus lies the erasure of all aspecs. Statements like these prescribe what actions we are allowed to take or not take. I realize all identities exist on a spectrum but the ace-aro spectrums are so vast, there can be very little in common between two individuals that utilize these labels. I know I personally will affinities for differing sub-lables nearly day-to-day. So umbrella statements in general set me on edge but any that draw conclusions about someone's sexuality based solely on an outside perspective of their actions? Nope, I can't vibe with that.

This conversation is not limited to the BTS fandom and frankly applies to the entirety of society but alas, it's all too typical in ace-aro spaces.

I also find it interesting that all of you include links to Twitter posts as well. I'd invite you to stand on the strength of your own arguments. Unless you're pointing to an expert in the fields of sexual behaviors and identities or direct quotes from the members themselves, there is absolutely no reason to point to another individual's opinions. I'm not on Twitter for a reason and I'm definitely not going to go look up other ppls opinions if you clearly didn't read what the post you're responding to is stating.

Seriously, y'all I can't believe it's been a year. This was just a passing idea I had that I assumed already existed on tumblr and when I couldn't find one, decided to just make it myself.

It's the one year anniversary of this blog!

Thank you to everyone that's been a part of this! I may have made some mistakes along the way but I'm happy to say I never missed a day!

In honor of this momentous occasion, I have a gift for y'all, but you gotta answer today's poll question first!

My gift to you is a new blog: @bts-trivia

Unlike here, where the polls are completely subjective, the questions there do have correct answers that will be posted in the reblogs once the poll closes. Head on over to test your expertise!

LAST CALL: What is your initial ranking of Neva Play?

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It's trivia time!

Time to put your Bangtan knowledge to the test! Who thinks they've got what it takes? Unlike @bts-polls , the polls here do have a correct

hey, i was curious about something from ep 6. jimin talks about filming with the kids for sgmb, and jungkook says he saw the video. but sgmb was filmed the day before they left for tokyo, and their conversation was just a few days after that. there’s no way the finished product was done by then, right? (especially considering that music video wasn’t scheduled to come out for many months) can we assume jungkook is talking about some other video of jimin and the kids or maybe some raw footage? the timeline is just interesting to me!

Hi anon,

While there's really no way for us to know, I do have a couple of suspicions. But first, I would always recommend if any specific wording seems to stick with you abut anything the members say, please remember that they do speak in a language that often doesn't have a 1:1 translation to English. I don't have anyone to point you at since I don't spend any time in BTS social media outside of tumblr but I believe there are some army translators out there that can corroborate the translations.

Now, onto the video in question. There are a couple of hints I've gleaned over the years regarding BTS's work process and access to monitoring their own footage. In case you're not aware, the raw data on the big ol' fancy cameras is quite large and it takes some doing to get that data moved to here it needs to be for editing.

But we all know how involved BTS is with monitoring their own content after most takes. How many times do we see 3J asking for one more take in that Butter dance practice?? So we know they will utilize the monitor station to review directly after takes. But I've seen them point a lower quality camera at one of those monitors and watch the output later. You can see this type of footage in the SGMB shooting sketch as well. Here's a quick bit:

We see the entire cast gathered around a monitor but then it cuts to a camera recording the monitor. That means there is a person pointing a camera at the monitor itself. My theory is this extra footage is uploaded to some shared location for ease of review while the actual footage takes whatever time it requires to properly manage the quality. I would also assume that all of the members have access to this shared space to review whatever they'd like.

All just theories though. I know there are a few of you that have reached out to me who actually work in film and I'd be curious to know if this sounds realistic or not.

https://www.tumblr.com/curio-queries/761200900525195264/are-you-sure?source=share

i think hybe uses their own crew for probably most things. then they gather all the footage and distribute it to the teams or companies that manage each project. movies, docuseries, shows, behind the scenes etc etc

I don't think I explained myself well on that post as I've had additional chats with a few of you about this. Thanks for sending this in anon! I'll compile what I've been discussing with some of you in messages so if this sounds familiar, it's probably from a chat you have with me.

The reason the inclusion of this footage sticks out to me is because the final product was NOT a hybe-only release. There were other companies involved in both AYS and JKs documentary. AYS being distributed by Disney and Jks doc by Trafalgar Releases. The BTS production machine previously handled pretty much everything in-house.

The all-in-house methodology must have lasted pretty far into the AYS project though for this specific footage to be shared between them.

It helps us fill in some of the gaps about what the Disney deal might have entailed. With as proprietary as Disney famously is, if they'd been involved in the project from the beginning, there would have been more barriers to cross-project sharing.

Hopefully, that helps explain why I was so thrown by the footage. It's definitely been status quo for past BTS projects, but these ones involving other companies could have disrupted that practice.

https://www.tumblr.com/curio-queries/763213581731921920/i-just-read-your-i-am-still-review-and-it-makes-me?source=share

I agree with this anon. As a big RM/NJ fan i'm hoping for a different style of docu, more mature, more artistic, more like a movie. Maybe just not made by BH? I watched JKs "I am still" in a rather quiet cinema in my small country (glad for that) and i have to admit i was happy i didn't pay more than 17 €. There was not much i hadn't seen yet, and half of it were the songs from his Golden gig in Seoul which i saw too. Thank God I love JK very much and he is a sight for sore eyes to see 😍

But it also gave me the impression he is "not there" yet. He (and BH i guess) want to portraite him as the new pop idol and he can be that ofcourse, but... imo he can be much more (if he wants to) He gave us many beautiful songs and GCF so he is way more artistic than this. They should use that, and just like anon i hope they will after MS.

I also agree that Jimin chose to take that road, more artistic, more pourring out of himself/what he went thru and kept that also in his docu. FACE still is top.

And well yeah the baggy clothes... a bit too much smt. Love to see them in those suits again 😍

Sorry, not much of a question, but I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Thank you for sending this in anon.... before y'all read the rest of my thoughts, I wanna warn you I went on a TANGENT. Not that I think this was the main point of your message but apparently I wanted to talk about it. Below the cut to save our feeds:

I don't think i necessarily agree on the idea that jk is not fully developed. I think he is just currently better as a team player focusing on his particular area of expertise. I've been wanting to do a deep-dive into this idea that everyone thinks all artists should also be successful solo acts and I just plain don't think that's true. Such thinking can diminish the absolute majesty that is different people coming together for one goal.

Jimin made a very brief comment during the infamous Festa dinner about not seeing himself as a solo artist but instead as a member of a team. And boy chapter 2. It's like ppl suddenly thought the goal was to prove that the members are only valuable if they're also successful solo artists. NOPE.

I don't think some of you realize just how difficult cohesive teamwork is. Let alone teamwork that's so incredibly artistic? And that's been largely fueled by members themselves. Yes, they definitely have had their external guideposts but there's still a good portion that's had to have been driven by their wants, needs, goals, and work ethic.

I've said it from the beginning but one of the things I'm most excited to see when they return as a complete team is how their dynamic is going to change now that some members have stepped into roles they previously bypassed. There's going to be a new status quo and I'm so interested to see how it all lands.

...well that was tangent, I'll stop there. Definitely not negatively directed at you anon, but thanks for getting the juices flowing!

Are You Sure?!

Episodes 5 & 6 Notes

It was very fortuitous that I've been so busy over the last couple of weeks as I really needed both of these episodes together to make sense of my thoughts. This post is definitely far more conceptual than my last ones so if you're up for it, click on though the cut!

AYS's Main Character?

I would like to propose that AYS has a main character OTHER than the individual humans we're following along on screen. (I warned you, this post was going to be conceptual.) And the main character is the relationship itself, how each of the members relate to one another.

Here's Google's AI overview on what this concept means:

A story can center on the relationship between characters as the primary protagonist, with the dynamic and evolution of that connection acting as the main driving force of the narrative, rather than the individual characters themselves.

Key points to consider:

Relationship-centric stories: Many genres, particularly romance, often focus heavily on the relationship between the main characters, exploring its complexities, challenges, and growth throughout the story.

No single protagonist: In such cases, the "character" is the bond between the individuals, not just one person's perspective or journey.

Exploring the dynamic: The narrative would then focus on how the relationship changes, adapts, and reacts to external situations or internal conflicts.

Examples:

"Before Sunrise": The entire plot revolves around the single night encounter between two strangers, with the developing connection being the central focus.

"Brokeback Mountain": The story primarily explores the forbidden love between two cowboys, highlighting the complexities of their relationship in a restrictive environment.

"Steel Magnolias ": A group of girls in a small town in Louisiana experience grief together, including weddings, fatal illnesses, and the loss of loved ones.

Now before anyone comes for me saying I'm just pitching an argument for xyz fanwar, please note that I included the above just to illustrate the concept of a non-person main character rather than stating any of the above are comparisons to the individual member's relationships. We're talking about a show that was produced and distributed for entertainment, nothing further.

Episode 5

My main feeling after finally being able to watch episode 5 was overall unsettled. There was something sticking with me about that episode and I could NOT figure out what it was.

I knew I was feeling like the entire episode was stretched well beyond what the footage wanted for a complete episode. I'm all for getting to spend more time with our fellas but the Jeju trip would have benefited from being cut down to 2 episodes rather than 3, in my opinion.

There was just a whole lotta nothing happening. The guys eat, travel around a little bit, and eat some more. I had some vague thoughts about how I could quantify some data for y'all to explain this point but then it was time for the next episode...

vs. Episode 6

And what an absolutely lovely breath of fresh air this episode was. I know there have been some Run eps that I review with a smile on my face throughout the whole episode but AYS6?? That was 73 minutes of pure bliss.

So I started thinking about what must be different between the two eps. The guys eat, travel around a little bit, and eat some more...wait, that's exactly what I said about ep 5! Lol

But I think the main difference between the two is episode 6's plot points continually focus on the relationships between the members, while 5 falls a little stagnant.

Some examples:

JM/cat & JK/dog. I'm ALWAYS down for more footage of BTS with pets but this is frankly too much time spent on these scenes. It's honestly footage I would have expected in the bonus content instead of the main product. It's not just an establishing beat or a setup for a callback, this is supposed to be a scene but since it doesn't contribute to the journey of the main character aka the relationships. It could maaaybe work if they'd cut it to highlight the juxtaposition of how JM is calm with the cat vs JKs energy with the dog but that would have shortened the time it occupied and they were clearly trying to keep absolutely everything in that would lengthen the episode.

JKs stew. The ONLY thing that ties this plot point into the narrative of this show (other than it happening while he's in Jeju and Jimin is nearby) is the offhand comment he made that Jimin would like it while he was in NY. I'm going to talk more about this footage below but this was absolutely crucial for this whole beat making it into the episode. This is also why the footage of JM eating it and randomly taking off his shirt was kept in. The cut they chose is actually pretty bad story-wise but they used it anyway. We hear JM saying how much he loves it and how glad he is that JK is a good cook. It ties all of this time we spent watching JK do something alone back into the real main character of the show (the members' relationships between eachother in different circumstances).

Anyway, I won't belabour the point any further. With Tae constantly disappearing from scenes and the slightly diminished lack of focus on the member's relationships, episode 5 left me on an odd note.

A Little Production Note

I was completely thrown by the footage of JK in NY that we got this episode. But not for the reasons you may be thinking. (I do wonder if the anon that was sending in asks about the financing behind the documentaries is still around because we're getting into some of tidbits finally.)

So, all along we've been trying to sus out as much as we can, just a few details about how AYS came to be. We've had some hints but the inclusion of this footage may be another indicator.

The facts as we know them:

AYS is distributed by Disney.

Jungkook's documentary is being distributed by Trafalgar Releasing NOT Disney (at least not now, maybe it'll make it onto streaming after cinematic release but who knows?)

Questions due to the footage of JK in NY:

Was this footage captured as part of JKs documentary?

If so, when was it pulled to be utilized for AYS? Did the editors find it or were the writers involved?

We know that HYBE gathers behind-the-scene content without always having a full plan of how it will be used. But there are times where it did seem intentional for a specific purpose. Where did JKs Golden footage fall in?

Once upon a time, production houses would make deals with distributors about quantities of projects that would be delivered. Was that the case with the Disney deal or has every single project been negotiated separately and we only heard about it once there was a confirmed quantity. Somewhere in the middle perhaps?

And that's all I've got to say for now. I do have some more thoughts about things I've gleaned during these last couple of episodes but it'll likely keep until the end.

Anyway, this footage bumped me because it broke the rules of cross-project production. They got away with it for JKs SEVEN footage in ep 1 because they likely were using the same production crew since it was literally the same day so it doesnt feel like they're'breaking the wall'. But the NY-Jeju crews could have been completely different.

Editing to add further clarification to this point in this ask.

On a sidenote, do y'all remember the last time we got footage of jikook in a hotspring?? I'll jog your memory if not, it was in BV:4 and they 'washed each other's faces'. I can't even imagine what we're about to see in episode 7.

Link to my AYS MasterList