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The Magic Shop & Pandora’s Box Theory [Fake Love Teaser 1]
BTS (방탄소년단) 'FAKE LOVE' Official Teaser 1 officially dropped. The Magic Shop is explicitly stated as “a psychodramatic technique that exchanges fear for a positive attitude.” Psychodrama is often used in group therapy workshops in mental hospitals or other mental facilities to help patients gain insight into their own lives.
However, the “Magic Shop” is a coined term from the book Into the Magic Shop by Dr. Doty, which was quoted before as seen above for their performance at KBS Gayo Daeshukje 2017. In the book, Dr. Doty met Ruth, an owner of a magic shop and “a woman who taught him a series of exercises to ease his own suffering and manifest his greatest desires. Her final mandate was that he keep his heart open and teach these techniques to others. She gave him his first glimpse of the unique relationship between the brain and the heart.” Her techniques include relaxing the body, taming the mind, opening the heart, and clarifying your intent. More details of her techniques linked here.
In the teaser, the boys are exchanging items from the WINGS era, that symbolizes their fear, for items from Highlight Reels, that symbolizes a positive attitude. These items also references to the girls that helped them gain this positive attitude, just like Ruth did for Dr. Doty.
Jin is exchanging his earpiece for a ?
Jhope is exchanging his snickers for a cake
Namjoon is exchanging his glass shard for a hairband
Jimin is exchanging his forest photo for an umbrella
Suga is exchanging ? for a lollipop
V is exchanging ? for a backpack
(some of Jin’s, Suga’s, and V’s items were not shown).
Jungkook is the only one that did not exchange something for an item but instead got a key. This is because in the WINGS era and in the book Demian, Jungkook symbolizes Sinclair when he was an innocent boy naive to the evils of the world. He had no fear of the world because he was not exposed to it yet.
This teaser also references to the story of Pandora’s box. If you don’t know, the story of Pandora’s box is from Greek mythology that explains how evil was spread to the world. The Greeks believed that the world was once pure and innocent until Pandora, a curious girl, opened a box that was given by Zeus but she was instructed never to open it. When she did open it, evil things were released such as greed, envy, hatred, pain, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death. She tried to close the box, but the only thing that was left in the box was hope. The myth conveys the message that hope is the only thing that humans can hold onto in an evil world.
In relation to the teaser, Jungkook’s key opens up to a room full of dirt, rubble, coat hangers and a hooded figure. The room and the figure symbolizes the world and its evils and the coat hangers symbolize the other boys, who have been exposed to evil. There are 6 coat hangers in total. Remember that the boys are all personas of one person at each stage of life according to WINGS and Demian. Jungkook is now exposed to the evil world and must surpass it, going through each persona, in order to find himself and mature. The coat hangers symbolize the personas of the Self because in Singularity, Taehyung uses it to dance with himself.
Just a reminder that BigHit officially declared that in Highlight Reels, the boys were acting not as themselves because they FEARED that they will not be loved for who they are. They gained fake love since the world, including themselves, did not like them for who they are, but for who they were acting to be. This time, the boys are exchanging their fears for a positive attitude in hopes to find real love, real love for their true selves. The book Into the Magic Shop teaches how you can change your life by first changing what’s within yourself, losing your fears of being judged and hated, and having a positive attitude to break free from your fake self to gain real love.
Here are my past theories of WINGS and LY: Her. Please read it so it would make more sense. THEY’RE ALL RELATED!
FAKE LOVE THEORY
I stayed up all night for Fake Love to drop and it was worth it! Before I get into the theories, I just want to say I am REALLY proud of the boys. They have come this far and now they are taking the U.S. by storm. They’re only going to get bigger after the BBMAs and it makes my heart so full.
Intro: Brief Summary of Past Theories
Fake Love is a song about losing one’s self to please another in order to gain their love. When the first teaser came out, I theorized that Jungkook was going to go through each persona, which are the other members, and I was right! You can view that theory here.
I am a huge believer that all the boys are manifestations of one person at each stage of life, exposed to a particular kind of evil, and must overcome them. There are LOTS of clues from the WINGS era about this. It’s in Demian, it’s in the short films, the music videos, and they are even explicitly stated in the concert WINGS VCR’s. Here are just some examples of quotes from the VCR:
“The boy walks, with not one but seven hearts. Seven beats and one strides forward. Altered perspective and one is seven.”
“Two worlds back to back, Relentlessly merge into one. Now the seven boys are on the road, Seven but One. Seven boys with one heart. One boy with seven hearts, One and Seven, a reflection of each other.“
Remember my pandora box theory about Jungkook’s box and key? Greek mythology believed that evil originated from Pandora’s box and she released different kinds of evil such as greed, envy, hatred, pain, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death. The myth conveys the message that hope is the only thing that humans can hold onto in an evil world. Jungkook will now start his journey to maturity through the exposure to the dark and evil side of life, paralleling the myth. He first stumbles into the shop seeming naive to the place but the others knew how to make a transaction right away. Jungkook receives a key from the Magic Shop because he does not have a fear to trade. This is because in Demian and WINGS, Jungkook is the persona that represents the young innocent boy naive to the evils of the world and therefore has no fear. He is the BEGINNING of a man’s life. Concluding from all the past videos and short films, Jin is the PRESENT, and everyone else represents a stage of life in between Jungkook and Jin (You can view in detail how I concluded that here). Therefore, Jungkook receives a key instead that would start his journey to maturity by going through each persona in the shop, which are the other members, exposing himself to evil. This leads us to the story of the music video.
THE MAGIC SHOP AND LOVE MAZE
The members are in a building or in the Magic Shop in their respective rooms except Jungkook. It actually seemed like a maze with obstacles in the music video and this is not the first time BTS has referenced mazes (Young Forever).
He experiences what the others members are experiencing in each room. Everything, especially their fears. He experiences them acting untruthfully to themselves, hiding themselves in order to gain love. Jungkook is the members and the members are Jungkook.
This is reflected in the acting...
...and in the choreography. (Edit: as I saw more of the choreography, Jungkook actually mirrors more members other than J-hope, which are RM, V, and Jin.)
FEARS
The members’ fears are those ones that prevent them from being themselves because the world might not love them from who they are. Their fears are of course related to their WINGS solos and the HYYH notes.
Jin - fear of the truth
J-hope - fear of abandonment
Jimin - fear of being caught in a lie
Taehyung - fear of being like his abusive father
RM - fear of being lost in life
Suga - fear of losing his music
(*Note that some of these might not be accurate because we don’t have everything from the HYYH notes yet).
THE TRUTH PROTECTED
In the beginning, we see Jin closing the curtains on Jungkook. It’s as if he’s preventing him from seeing his room and seeing his fears, perhaps even preventing his child persona from evil.
Jin is then seen protecting a Smeraldo flower, which we now know represents ‘a truth that cannot be told.’ The flower can represent lots of things that are untold, however, in this context, it is the truth to one’s self. Jin protects his flower with extra care as evidenced by the glass case. His room then explodes and the flower turns into sand, and when this happens, the truth is unveiled. BUT WHY SAND? I took a while to figure this out but I will explain it later.
Something important to note is that the members are all trying to keep something out of their rooms and/or lock themselves in.
J-hope keeps his door from opening.
Suga has barricades on his windows and the fireplace.
Jimin closes the faucet.
They are trying to keep the evil that they fear out of the rooms. Out of sight and out of mind. However, we know many times from WINGS and Demian that someone cannot mature without exposure to evil. They themselves want to be perfect and they want their love to be perfect (”I wish love was perfect as love itself”). They deny all the bad things in themselves and the bad things that comes with love. Hence, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
This is also reflected in the choreography.
And in the set (the hands are the actions of covering your eyes, ears, & mouth)
THE ANSWER
However, when Jungkook finally finishes going through all of the personas, he realizes the truth and the importance of staying true to yourself depicted by the sand that he picks up with the shadow of the flowers flying away. He realizes that the truth, which may be the evil and the bad in themselves, cannot be contained any longer. It will eventually be uncovered, it will not last. They have to face their fears, the good and the bad in themselves and in love, in order to mature. (Edit: This statement is now proven true through their behind the scenes shooting of Fake Love).
We saw from Jin’s case that when the flower turns into sand, the truth is unveiled. Now, Jungkook unveils all of the members’ truths after living their experiences and carrying it with him. Also, this scene is reminiscent of the sea/beach where the members want to meet each other again according to the HYYH notes. The sand and the water represents the beach, and all of the members reaching the beach together means the merging of all the personas together as I’ve said stated before in my holistic theory. This is why the flower turns into sand in particular. The merging of the personas is symbolic of when a man becomes WHOLE, finds himself, finds his answer, and ready to find real love.
Back to the theory, after Jungkook unveils the truth is when the evil that they were trying to keep out, gets in their rooms. This is metaphorically depicted with...
Snickers flooding in J-hopes room.
Fire exploding in Suga’s room.
Water flooding in Jimin’s room.
V’s phone starting to flicker the words “Save Me/I’m Fine” (Zoom in to see).
RM seeing his fake reflection
In addition to the explosion in Jin’s room.
It is very reminiscent of the interlude of Blood, Sweat, and Tears. After Jin kisses the statue, signifying a lie that cannot be told, all hell breaks loose. However this time, after Jungkook uncovers the truth, all hell breaks loose.
THE NEXT STEP
Jungkook uncovers the secret passage to Jin’s room, which is found to have already exploded with rubble on the floor, with 6 coat hangers, and a hooded figure. The room and the figure symbolizes the world and its evils and the coat hangers symbolize the other boys, who have been exposed to evil. There are 6 coat hangers in total. Remember that the boys are all personas of one person at each stage of life according to WINGS and Demian. Jungkook has now been exposed to the evil world and surpassed it by going through each persona.
This figure can also be seen as the shopkeeper of the Magic Shop. He waits for Jungkook in the end after giving him the key, to trade him a fear of the world. I’m not exactly sure what this fear would be but from the theme of the era, it would have to be losing yourself. Since the members are personas of himself, it can also be that he is afraid to lose parts of himself which are the other members, hence his WINGS song Begin. Losing one’s self tumbles into losing one’s love.
Outro: Conclusion
The whole point of all the eras is to convey the message of finding yourself and loving yourself. The last thing that is important to note in the music video is that Jungkook ends up in the room that Jin was in at the beginning. He ends up in the present and who Jin is. He’s now maturing to find the answer and is now ready to take on the world to find real love.
“Fear is another name for hope.
Tears are another way to smile.
The boy smiles.
He can smile when he is whole.
The boy walks on."
- WINGS VCR (2017)
House Of Cards || K.SJ || 7
WILD WAVES & SEA SERPENTS
Pairing : Kim Seokjin X Reader
Genre : Angst & fluff
Summary : When a war threatens the world of Mythica, the four greatest tribes are forced to work together in order to defeat the darkness. You and Jin are from two different tribes, two different backgrounds and are expected to stand together in order to save everyone you love. Will you two put aside your diffrences in order to save the world or will you fail?
Wordcount: 0.9k
Info Chapter | House Of Cards Masterlist | Next
The ocean is wild, the waves crash against the rocks aggressively, the sand on the beach beneath Jin and you is darkened due to the stormy weather.
It's opposite to what Jin expected, overall, it's opposite of Jin and Sapphire, who's still managing to stay in the air.
Jin's pulled out of his toughs as Beansprout lets out a loud roar and folds his wings, dropping towards the waves.
To Jin's horror, Sapphire does the same and follows.
" Sapphire no!" Jin yells, terrified of the tough of crashing into the waves.
Beansprout spreads his wings last minute.
And Sapphire almost crashes into the dragon, with Jin barely managing to stay on her back due to her not wearing any tack.
A moment later they're flying over a wild grassy mountain, the wind not going down in the slightest.
The both of you land there, and Jin can finally take a look at your face.
The usual gentle look on your face is somewhat gone, it's still the same, but instead there's a wild look in your eyes and your hair's a mess but all together, you look comfortable with the situation.
In other words, you look wild, and Jin feels himself blush as he realizes that he likes the hot look you're currently wearing without you realizing.
" So, you ready?" You ask him, tilting your head to the waves who're crashing so hard against the rock mountain you're standing on that the both of you manage to get wet.
Jin looks at you with his wide bambi eyes. A scared look in his eyes.
" Ready for what?" He meeps out.
You laugh wholeheartedly at him.
" To get in touch with your element in it's most raw form." You smile.
Jin gulps, rethinking his decision, maybe he should go back to the dragon tribe and let the teacher's teach him?
No. We can do this. Sapphire shares her toughs as she looks at the wild untamed ocean.
" Okay, let's do this."
-
Sapphire was right. She could do this.
But she was also wrong, with how Jin was almost getting sucked into the depths ocean, it seemed as if this wasn't really this thing.
He's also rethinking his choice of letting you teach him. You're not being the best mentor, you're kind of just screaming at him to stop being a wimp and do something.
And he's kind of about had it with you and your screaming.
" Will you stop?!" He screams back at you in his anger, making an odd movement with his arm, which is followed by a wave at water.
You blink at him in your drenched state while he gulped.
She's not randomly gonna blast something back at me right? Jin worried silently as he blinked back at you.
He managed to breath again ( he didn't even realize he was holding it in) when your surprised expression was replaced with a happy one, a big smile making it's presence on your face.
" Jin! You did it! You managed to use Sapphire's magic!" You gushed.
Jin blinked before a smile also made it's way to his face.
I told you we could do this. Sapphire told him, and he was sure that if horses could smile, she'd be smiling.
" Yeah. I geuss we can. Sorry for splashing you tough." Jin directed the last part to you.
You merely grinned at him.
" It's cool, I was trying to get you there anyway."
Suddenly a roar was heard, one which was not Beansprout's.
All of you looked at the ocean, and you peeped down from the cliff you stood on.
Beneath you had appeared a large whirlpool.
" Damn! Did you two make this?" You asked as you looked at the wild rounding waves.
No, we did not. She's got to get out of there. It's another creature. Sapphire said as she neighed.
Beansprout seemed to get her hint as he flew down from where he was chilling in the air.
He was however, too late as a huge sea serpent suddenly arose from the ocean, it's green eyes trained on you. It obviously saw you as an enemy.
You stumbled back in suprise, slipping as you didn't manage to keep your balance.
To Jin's confusion, you didn't try to get up either. You simply stared back at the beast while staying down.
Beansprout landed down behind you, protectively curling his body around yours, but not attacking or even threatening the serpent, just staying low like you did.
Jin watched in amazement as the huge sea serpent lowered it's head to you, the size of it's head only already the half the size of Beansprout's body.
He watched as you carefully stood up and neared the serpent, who seemed just as cautious in approaching you.
He's left perplexed when you show the creature your hand, and even more when it sniffs your hand before gingerly touching it.
It breathed out a huff of water before moving back, gently retreating back into the depths of the ocean.
" How did you do that?" Jin asked after a moment.
You smiled at him in an unusual way, instead of the warmth he was used to it was now filled with what seemed to be... Sadness?
" Not all creatures who appear to be mean are actually bad. Just like how people who can act nice are often awful." You say, your eyes stone like.
Jin didn't really know how to respond to that.
" Let's head back. I'm sure that you can train by smaller water sources considering you managed to splash me whitin a day."
