Run BTS: 017 | Arcade Olympics Part 1

Run BTS: 017 | Arcade Olympics part 1

Original Air Date: 11 APR 2017

Episode Length: 20:35

Total Parts: 2 YouTube English Subtitles: Yes

Title Song: Blood Sweat & Tears

Synopsis: Gaming at an arcade

Production: The coverage of the games is a little rough, not sure if they just didn't get it or decided to edit it out in favor of focusing on the guys. This is definitely one of those episodes that casual viewers could easily get lost and only watch for the guys and not the show itself. I don't really understand how they compensated for the different difficulties on the DDR game but whatever.

Endearment: I think this episode is meant to feel like the giys are just hanging out at n arcade but something is definitely off for me, not sure what it is. I don't love it or hate it.

Winner/Loser: See the final part

Best Cheater: none

Member Moments:

RM: RM is legit, he knew exactly how to be an entertainer on the basketball game and then he was able to put his money where his mouth was when they tried to tell him he was just bad. We love a triumph!

JN: So proud of Jin for his DDR victory! Dancing king!

YG: Yoongi losing the basketball game, what more to say.

JH: Hobi losing the dancing game....what more to say??

JM: I've always wondered if JM was under the weather during these episodes, he's doing a good job of masking but there are hints that he's not entirely feeling his best.

V: Not gonna lie, I cringe at the thought of barefoot DDR. maybe the staff cleaned it before they started but you have no idea what's been on those things. More power to you V!

JK: JKs first encounter with the basketball game...you shall meet again! and you will absolutely conquer! ;)

Bonus Content: ok, the bonus content definitely feels like we're just hanging out at an arcade.

CQ Rank: 2.5

(CQ Eval Date: 29 SEPT 2023)

Check out this post for my Masterlist of all episodes and descriptions of how I'm evaluating these.

Previous Episode: 016

Next Episode: 018

I rewatched them all yesterday. It's so great to see JKs skills and intentions change throughout these videos. Tokyo still carries such emotional impact, though. Perfect song, excellent editing choices and I'm definitely biased toward the subject! 😉

LAST CALL: Generally how do you feel about watching reactors to BTS content?

Jimin's Production Diary: a rambling review

A few notes before we get into this:

I have not seen either Hobi's or Suga's documentaries, yet.

My friends and family hate watching shows and movies with me as I'm very critical. I honestly gave up watching most fictional storytelling content about five years ago because it frustrates me how much I'm frustrated with it. (Unless I'm on a plane, it's the only time that tend to watch any movies/shows. In Sept, I watched The Pez Outlaw - fascinating traditional-style documentary!)

Despite what I'm about to detail, I did enjoy watching all of the content surrounding Jimin's Production Diary and am very happy we got what we did.

THE INTRO: Set the Stage.... or Don't...?

The first two minutes of the Jimin's Production Diary (hereafter referred to as JPD) are clips of the very film that we're about to see, mixed with some that we don't see at all...so basically a Trailer. Now I know I'm in the minority when it comes to opinions on if Previews and Trailers just spoil things but two minutes?? At the beginning of the film we've paid to see? That seem excessive! I'm sure this is a trend on streaming platforms to convince audiences to not click away but I gotta say, I hate it. Jimin himself was confused by it during his live watchthrough.

We switch to an extremely brief meeting between Jimin and the team (hereafter referred to as SGMB), clearly gathering together to talk about the past events. They lead in by bringing up the timeline...And that's all we really get as far as what lead to the start of the documentary. I mean, credit to the editors, it was a perfect line about how Jimin would mess around on the keyboard, cut to the scene where he comes up with a melody they try for the Face-Off intro. It establishes the flow of how the rest if the film will progress - we'll be going through the clips of Jimin's contributions to the album, broken up by song but unless I'm mistaken, we don't see any more footage from this meeting for the rest of the film. I believe we hear a few more lines of it as voiceover but it's not clear. I don't know, it just sets me on a weird tone with this film. We establish the typical interview footage scene with the entire SGMB, so it gives us the impression that what is about to unfold will cover a wider perspective than just Jimin's but we never see any more of it. We go straight to the timeline and old footage.

As we are accustomed to with our beloved JM, he doesn't like telling us the reason why he does most things. There could be many reasons for this, the one that I like the most is that it doesn't predispose the audience to any specific conclusion beyond what meaning we get from the content itself. In my opinion, this is great for art...less so when you're trying to recount history (...but that's a whole debate into politics that we won't go into today!). Either way, the audience of JPD either needs to already know the circumstances, output, and conclusions of the event surrounding this album or they just need to be fine with missing context. (If you're interested in some tiny tidbits regarding the initial direction and overall vision of FACE, be sure to watch the last few minutes of the JPD commentary.) Which brings me to:

CRITICAL POINT # 1 : HYBE does not produce content to inform, they produce content to entertain.

Audiences should set their expectations as such and remember that even though we may feel like we're 'getting the scoop', we are only being given just enough to entertain us. (Sidenote: this is one of the keypoints I evaluate in my Run BTS watchthroughs BECAUSE I got frustrated very early on with how poor of a job their content does when it needs to be informative).

Some points that could have been covered in JPD to give better context:

Jimin deciding to make an album at all.

Jimin deciding to use the specific timeline and subjects in his album. We know it covers what he went through during the pandemic according to interviews he gave during promotions. Clips of those interviews would have been easy footage to insert.

Were these decisions made before he started talking to the team?

The little bit of behind the the scenes for the BE album showed BTS having a themes and keyword discussion extremely early in the project where they were outlining some rough ideas for the album regarding song quantity, general feeling and potential units. Did a similar process occur with FACE?

At what point where the other guys in the team brought in? Jimin only mentions PDOGG at the beginning.

How far did they progress before they decided to start filming for the documentary? From what we can see, most of the footage was self-captured and they even joked about the team being camera-minders during the Quiz Show so it was definitely by design that we got as much footage as we did; that doesn't just happen by accident.

(More on helpful context later)

What's the problem with this? Not much actually, provided the viewer isn't under the impression that they are being educated. We've come a long way from the general public only associating documentaries with National Geographic films about lions stalking prey but there is still the perception of factual evidence being revealed when watching one. And while I wouldn't classify anything in JPD as a lie, there's absolutely a bias at play here more than just selecting a favorite band member. I actually love that the title is Diary rather than Documentary, it's far more accurate. This film is a log of Jimin's highlights during this portion of the album process. The problem comes when people conclude that because that's all we see, that's all that happened. We see very little of the work that the rest of the SGMB did unless it's hyping up one of Jimin's contributions. In fact, we're never really introduced the the team and what their contributions and responsibilities are.

During the Live watchthrough,  Jimin referred to himself several times as the 'Idea Bank'. And yes, we absolutely have seen that in him over the years. I love that about him! He is very willing to contribute ideas (which honestly is a skill in its own and shouldn't be downplayed) but the other important parts of any creative process are implementation and editing (something I obviously didn't do here, this post is looong). Once an idea occurs, there may need to be some discussion on how to implement it and also edit out the items that don't serve the whole purpose. The rest of the SGMB demonstrated over and over the ability to take in Jimin's ideas, translate them into a workable format and edit it down. Jimin said it himself during the commentary, 'your discernment is amazing'.

Which brings me to one of the main wars I've seen waged in the JPD discussions: Namjoon's involvement. We see one tiny portion of a conversation with no context before or after. Jimin gave us a little more context during his watchthrough. This specific conversation happened after the team thought they were ready to finalize the lyrics but Namjoon sent them back to the drawing board. (I have vivid memories of English teachers giving me similar advice - usually in poetry units. 'Yes, you rhymed but it doesn't actually mean anything').  There is absolutely more to RMs contribution to be listed in the credits than this one conversation. What we saw here was him giving the team instruction to focus more on the overall direction and intent first to give better support to the labor of lyrics. The irony here is I see the same issue with the structure of JPD.

CRITICAL POINT # 2 : Jimin's Production Diary has little to no direction.

Not every documentary film will flow like a three act play with a classic 'hero's journey' type of storyline but it's very clear that this film was put together by an editing team aftrr the fact and not a director. There was no real narrative structure, journey, or storyline. It was just a portion of the process a very engaging individual went through with a handful of guys to create the music for an album. Something that could have helped would have been having an outsider interview the team, someone with training in putting together a narrative for film to help lead the stories and memories to a conclusion.

Again I go back to questioning the intent and goals discussed when it was decided to capture footage. This must have been a beast for the team to edit, not just due to quantity of footage like Jimin joked about during his Live watchthrough but with sheer lack of direction.

The main emotional journey I experienced as a viewer was when we'd start to hear the melodies and lyrics that would make it into the final version. But that requires the audience to come into this film not only knowing the output but being familiar with it to recognize it amongst other sounds being presented. That's a big ask for any subject matter, let alone in a process we don't regularly see or experience.

WANT TO HAVE A DRINK: The lost song. I don't expect to pick up everything in any film on first watchthrough,  especially if it's not in my native language. But it was only after Jimin's Live watchthrough did I realize there was a whole section for this scrapped song. This would have been a great point to highlight jn the developmental arc but it's basically disregarded.

One final tangent before I wrap this up:

SIDE POINT: Original development lyrics are not some hidden treasure trove of true meaning.

It's interesting to see where the thought processes wandered through until the conclusion that is the released version but those lyrics should not be used as weapons against others to determine the one-true-meaning. The artist changed them for a reason. And different versions will absolutely carry different weight amongst individuals but please remember that the development process is lengthy and artists are usually just trying whatever they can think of to get to the point they'd like their work to be, with many steps along the way.

CONCLUSION (I thought this post would last forever)

JPD contains very insightful footage of Jimin's journey in stepping into parts of the music development process that he may not have been so involved in prior. I'm very intrigued to see if it's something he's interested in further developing, both as part of BTS and in any future solo efforts. Like I said at the beginning, I'm very grateful to have seen it but I am not encouraged by any future 'documentaries' the company will be releasing.

Finally! it's done. I feel in a much better place to wrap up the analysis post I started in April comparing Like Crazy to the movie but it's been so long, I need to watch it again. We'll see how long that takes me!

If anyone actually read any portion of this, let alone the whole thing, you are amazing and deserve all the blessings of blonde-Jimin in your life! 💜

Ooh, I have aspec thoughts on this. Calling on @aspec-kpop !

Through my aspec journey, I've become more comfortable with the idea that my 'crudeness' acceptance is different from most of my peers but can also vary hugely depending on whom I'm with and the context. (I have one group of friends that is continually shocked at the innuendo-type jokes I can make.)

I've noticed that the allo people in my life don't have the same flexibility/understanding when ppl around them have different lines in the sand when it comes to crudeness.

I've been wondering, though, if my willingness to accept other's viewpoints in where the line is is because aspecs don't have the option to not. There's such a huge variability within the aspec community that it would be more bizarre to find someone that perfectly aligns with you than not!

So when I hear about things like this anon is saying, I'm instantly in that mindset of seeing it as someone else's level of acceptable crudeness rather than my own. (As long as it's not illegal behavior at least).

What do y'all think?

Hello! I need your opinion on this because I feel like I’m going insane and you are a sane army.

There’s a video from Jimin’s latest docu content where he shows the producers his comfortable position which is with his ass sticking out.

I find the things people were saying about this video concerning to say the least if not SH.

Hundreds of people were calling Jimin an omega…he is not a fanfic character, he is a human being

And were making veeery sexual “jokes” than in my opinion crossed so many lines while at the same time they were playing victim because they knew they were in the wrong

I can’t believe how normalized this is for all the members but more so Jimin. People were saying in the quotes that he is number one omega on ao3 like what?!?!

I like when the guys act sexy too, but this wasn’t Jimin acting sexy. This was him doing something with no sexual purpose, but this fandom is obssesed with sexualizing everything they do like Yoongi jumping on that bed.

All of this reeks of shipper influence, ''omega'' being a bullshit term only owned by fanfiction now, and you're right, he's not a character in a fanfiction, but that's not gonna stop shippers from seeing him as one and then treating him as one...Trying to rationalize the irrational won't do any good, not for me, or you anon.

The overall sexualization problem is a more complex issue that I don't even know how to talk about honestly. Because there are definitely appropriate times to sexualize them, when they are literally providing sexualized content (think CK for JK, or Namjoon posting workout videos shirtless) 'cause that's the reaction they want, they know that's the reaction they'll get. But we all think they're sexy all of the time too, just in different ways, because that's just how attraction works. There's definitely a line though between being like ''oh they're sexy, I'm attracted to them and want to talk about how sexy they are'' and ''omg they're so sexy let me talk about them like they're a sex toy'' that definitely borders on SH. I think plenty of people know where that line is and how to not cross it, and then you have people who don't and cross it, or they don't care where it is because they'll hide behind excuses as to why it doesn't matter ''they're famous so who cares'' ''I'm not being serious it's just a joke'' ''they'll never see it so I can say whatever I want'' etc. etc. again, I'd apply a lot this to shippers...

It's definitely weird, I'm not interested in engaging with that kind of thing (real shipping of the members), I try to avoid it by blocking ship names I know for a fact are more 'serious' and less 'duo' like Jik**k and Taek**k which saves me seeing a ton of bullshit. I also have ABO terms and a LOT of fanfiction terms blocked too. Basically just doing a lot of filtering to avoid things I don't wanna see...

as an entire queer trans allosexual i think it's weird when other allosexuals don't like the term allosexual for themselves. it just means not asexual. smacks of cis people who scream and howl and pee their pants about being called cis

QUICK COMBO: DREAM GLOW | YES OR NO | STAY

My thoughts on this QC:

This combo is so cute!! It tells an adorable little story of a main character that starts out with big dreams in Dream Glow, finds 'the one' and falls in love in Yes or No and then wants to be with them forever in Stay. the musical transition between all three is just so lovely as well, nice upbeat, happy songs (which is not generally my norm, gotta satisfy my emo roots every few tracks 😉).

The BTS World OSTs are vastly underrated imo so this was nice to be able to bring one of them back with Dream Glow.

Stay was one of the first subunits tracks that I latched onto in my journey and I still regularly seek it out.

Yes or No has actually surprised me on Golden. Easily my favorite track JK has released this year. I just need to get over my current cold so i can sing along with it!

Listening Links: