QUICK COMBO: LETTER | SPRING DAY | YOU NEVER WALK ALONE

QUICK COMBO: LETTER | SPRING DAY | YOU NEVER WALK ALONE

My thoughts on this QC (below cut):

Wasn't planning to make a combo post today but the of my state of mind and the Playlist made it need to happen. I'm generally not one to show emotion but if I'm on the cusp of expressing my feelings and need help pushing myself to get it out, music absolutely helps me follow through with it.

I think this combo is pretty self-explanatory and I don't really want to share any of my deeper feelings here today but I will say one thing:

How come NO ONE ever talks about You Never Walk Alone??? I only found out about that song in my initial journey after playing BTS World. There's a screen you can open and it will play an endless loop of the backing/instrumental of YNWA and sometimes I just open that because it's so absolutely lovely. I adore this song and I fond it a shame that it's not mentioned more. (It's the only reason I'm spending a ridiculous amount of money for a hoody that I may never actually wear but that's beside the point!)

💜💜💜

Listening Links:

Go find Letter, the album version.

what’s the first song on ur wrapped playlist that starts with the first letter of ur name

Run BTS: 025 | Game King

Original Air Date: 31 OCT 2017 Episode Length: 25:43 Total Parts: 1 YouTube English Subtitles: No, there's Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese though Title Song: Blood Sweat & Tears

Synopsis: Playing PC games. Divided into two teams with Yoongi as the MC.

Production: This one is disappointing. The first rule of video game let's plays is the audience needs to see what the player sees. We spend a lot of this episode not seeing the screen or not knowing who's screen we're seeing. Not a terrible concept but this wasn't the best execution.

Endearment: This episode was designed to rely on the guys' personalities, and I don't think they've quite got the hang of focusing on both pc games and entertainment at this point. They're not the worst I've ever seen, but they definitely improve in the years to come.

Winner: JH, RM, V

Loser: JN, JK, JM

Best Cheater: none? if there was one, we'd have no idea since we rarely see what's on screen.

Member Moments:

RM: aw, cute lil dance moment with Hobi

JN: Jin can get so sassy sometimes! 'who are you?!'

YG: Interesting that Yoongi would rather host than play. He's definitely got a feel for hosting already.

JH: The Jimin-Hobi standoff at the beginning was so great.

JM: Jimin, you should know, the one who suggests the punishment is far more likely to receive it!

V: V is taking this first game very seriously. too bad i don't have a clue what's going on, I'm sure he's very good....

JK: Why was JK standing with JM when he gave his little losing speech??

Bonus Content: none

CQ Rank: 1.5

(CQ Eval Date: 22 OCT 2023)

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

Previous Episode: 024

Next Episode: 026

Did y'all know today (06 Dec) is Microwave Oven Day?

Here's a reminder of this gem of a moment. Excellent comedic timing JK!

Run BTS: 021 | Board Game Competition

Original Air Date: 30 MAY 2017 Episode Length: 18:27 Total Parts: 1 YouTube English Subtitles: Yes Title Song: Blood Sweat & Tears

Synopsis: Playing board games in a Chicago hotel room.

Production: Very simple shoot, they just had to prep the right boardgames and get enough coverage for cuts. I wonder if this was the original plan if they were filling. All those games are easily acquired in the States at the time.

Endearment: The success of this episode completely relies on the guys to make it entertaining. I think they did an alright job but as someone with considerable time in the board game hobby, these are not the kinds of games usually used for entertainment to outside viewers beyond highlighting the personalities of the players.

Winner: Was there a winner?? The JN, RM, JK, V team was clearly winning but the teams kinda broke apart during uno. Hobi won that though...idk

Loser: JM

Best Cheater: none

Member Moments:

RM: Namjoon gets shushed for being lout...and then everyone is immediately louder.

JN: Jin's overconfidence in this episode! He yanked those tongs apart and didn't expect them to snap?? He dumped so much water on those beads!

YG: Yoongi's English is so cute!

JH: Grandmother!!

JM: Jimin absolutely made the ending so satisfying by letting Yoongi pick a new card.

V: Poor Tae, his first foray into not understanding the rules of Uno. One day he'll get it...maybe...

JK: JK's little Uno victory was adorable.

Bonus Content: none. Aren't there interviews from one of the documentaries filmed on this day? The room and the outfits look familiar to me but I get all of those documentaries mixed up...I should probably rewatch them all after my Run BTS rewatch.

CQ Rank: 2.5

(CQ Eval Date: 02 OCT 2023)

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

Previous Episode: 020

Next Episode: 022

Prompted by a comment from -@jikook-married , I have more thoughts...(crazy, right?!?)

First, here are screenshots of the credits for all* of the GCFs:

*tumblr is being so weird with this, I had to leave off the 3J one but trust me, it's just a title card.

So...draw whatever conclusions you would like from this, this is what I'm getting:

The only GCFs that have any amount of detailed credits are Tokyo and Budapest. Tokyo shows just how excited and proud he was of his work. It also reassured us that this film was comjbg from him and fully contained what he wanted us to see. Budapest is a clear line that someone else was involved.

The other thing I've always noted with the GCF title cards was when he specifically had those secondary cards to highlight when the GCF was part of the promo for the seasonal packages. Again, showing us that there may be a little more at play behind the scenes.

Frankly, I'm feeling very much like I did in my rambling review of Jimin's Production Diary. I'm very grateful we got the footage we did but there's enough weirdness in the surrounding context to leave me unsettled.

Am I reading too much into this? Probably

Did I go looking for more confirmation bias to help me feel better about my negative opinions? More than probably

Overall, I'm just disappointed.

(I have attempted to post this update SIX times now and tumblr keeps eating them...why tumblr, whyyy???)

GCF in Budapest

I have thoughts... but first a link, please have your own first impressions without any influence.

So...I don't know what it has been about the Golden promo period but there's literally nothing that hasn't given me mixed feelings. Nothing that I absolutely love or hate and this GCF is right along with it. And overall, that just makes me sad. I spent years being excited for whatever JK would finally give us if he ever did a proper solo project and I'm just kinda bummed overall.

What did I love?

'Directed by Jung Kook'.

Seeing JK when he's more playful. Always a serotonin boost!

JKs camera work, I just love the insight he has on camera placement and framing to help tell the story he wants to tell.

Yes or No. Still the only track I actually love from Golden so it's nice to hear it featured!

What bothered me?

'Edited by HYBE'. Bro... so much of GCF's charm and storytelling comes from the edit itself. (And not to nitpick but HYBE is a company...not an editor, so this means there were either multiple editors, or they're purposely trying to not have us associate any actual humans with this film other than JK. I also think they want ARMY to use the logic that HYBE is basically BTS and thus this work is basically completely JK's too... it's not, it's definitely not).

No English subs yet. I get it, I really do but it's a bummer.

The amount of camerawork by someone else. It's not uncommon for JK to include footage with someone else holding the camera but once we get to the gym scenes, the majority is from the perspective of someone else holding the camera, not JK. Which again, there's nothing wrong with that per se but it absolutely feels more like a bangtan bomb or episode rather than a GCF. This is also when we stop getting establishing shots and B roll. Again, nothing wrong with it but that's one of the fundamentals of a GCF for me.

There was so much dialogue that the song was interrupted pretty continuously. JK did that previously as a storytelling device which just further supports the feeling that this is bangtantv content and not a GCF.

Basically, I think I would have had very little issue with this if it wasn't packaged as a GCF. It feels a whole lot more like JK's camping vlog from a few years ago. Loved that, had no issues with it whatsoever.

...the irony is not lost on me that the only song from Golden that I love is Yes or No while my overall experience with this era is....maybe??