Jimin's Cake - Tumblr Posts

As information unfolds...

I have not expressed my thoughts in detail about the conversations involving how the different BTS solo promotions have occurred. I was not planning to, but after reading several conversations recently, I finally decided to document my overall thoughts with the information we know up to this point. It is important to realize that new information may be presented at any time that would give more clarity to our thoughts about a given situation. At least hopefully.

So each member of BTS has presented solo work, most in album form and some in individual songs (Jin, JK [so far]). Because the company, nor the members, provide extremely transparent communication, fans are most often left to form their own conclusions based on what they do see. Sometimes the outcomes meet expectations, and sometimes they don't. Without information, the conclusions drawn could be closer to correct or way off base and closer to wrong. As new information becomes aware, people should reassess their original thoughts and form updated conclusions. No harm, no foul -- unless while expressing your thoughts, the disappointment and anger causes you to spew negativity and divisiveness, AND the people hearing your thoughts are not considerately accepting of others' observations and thoughts. So it's not just the people telling their thoughts that can be negative, it is also the people hearing the thoughts that can create negativity.

Lately, I have been hearing conversations implying that those who expressed their views prior to new information coming out were wrong to do so. Those same people are saying that not only were the others proven 100% wrong, but they never should have stated their thoughts in the first place. My problem with this is many are acting like the new information proves that the answer was 100% this way or that way. That's not true at all. The people expressed their thoughts based on the facts that were available at the time and expressed their conclusion about it then. The other people thought there may be more to the story, and they either suggested other possible conclusions or chose to not form a conclusion at that time. The problem is that many on both sides felt the need to also criticize any differing views rather than to just simply express their own thoughts.

So the topic is Jimin's celebration cake for being the first ever Korean soloist to debut #1 on Billboard's Hot100 chart. I was one who noticed the lack of cake but didn't make a huge public declaration about it. Some were angry about the cake representing all that seemed to have gone wrong with Jimin's album promotions. In their anger, some were hostile and their attitude was not helpful or productive. However, it was alright for all of those who felt that way to express their feelings (minus the hostility). Once Jimin's documentary was announced, we saw that there, in fact, was a cake & banner to celebrate the achievement. Great. So Jimin had what looked like a cake. (For a later conversation: Jimin doesn't like sweets and cakes, and they have a lot of cakes over time, so I feel they use decorative models for celebration purposes sometimes. Based only on my speculation and how it looked. Re: JMs 2023 birthday "cake" was a breakable candy cake with pictures inside.)

For those who feel that the cake picture proves all those with opposing thoughts completely wrong, I feel that the late date for the cake reveal could have possibly been for damage control also. Possibly. After all, JM shows up on each birthday and blows out candles on a cake that he doesn't eat because he knows it's important to fans. Tae made a note to mention why he wasn't celebrating with cake. They heard the feedback, I'm pretty sure. They either didn't do the cake or they didn't post the picture at that time. Either way, how were fans supposed to know that? They weren't, so people expressed their feelings about it. They felt, along with everything else that was neglected, the lack of a cake was yet another slight. Seeing the picture now doesn't negate their feelings and conclusions for back then.

With now seeing the cake and what looks like the type of hairstyle he had back at that time, it looks fairly legit, and those people should now have the maturity AND space to say, "Ok. I'm glad I was wrong and Jimin did, in fact, get celebrated with a cake for the Hot100 achievement." They also have the right to say that the presence of a cake doesn't fix many of the other avoidable issues with his album rollout and promotions. So this revelation does not disprove the overall concerns of the people who mentioned the lack of celebration (It was never fully about the cake itself for most anyway.), yet some are acting as though it proves everything. I do agree that the hostility in communicating about this topic could have been better on all sides.

For those who felt offended that everyone didn't jump on your bandwagon about the missing cake and agree with your conclusion right away or at all, the other side has a point in not jumping to quick conclusions without knowing if there is more information to explain what you are seeing. It could be helpful and save some emotional strain, if others' views are considered as possibilities and to allow time to reveal more information before fighting so angrily about something that is not fully certain. The eventual outcome of this situation supports that direction for future events. In other words, both sides have room for points and for growth.

Finally, I read a post today that very nicely expressed that Jimin may have read about fans' disappointment and internalized it. It was a very good point to keep in mind how your comments can be taken. While many were well-intentioned about defending Jimin, there certainly were underlying meanings that could be taken to suggest that Jimin made mistakes and didn't do enough. I agree but have 2 new thoughts to add to consideration.

1) Of the many things the company should learn from this experience is that they should have guided and helped the guys more than it appears (especially the Maknae who had never done albums/mixtapes before). If Jimin slipped on creating, promoting, and rolling out this album, it was possibly because he didn't know enough information. He'll know more next time by default. (Re: Suga on Suchwita had said that when doing solo work, each member is responsible for setting up their own promotions. Why?)

2) Jimin has shown that he is intelligent enough to learn from his experiences. I trust that he is the type to understand why concerns and support for him were expressed and learn from it and use it to inform his actions about future projects. He, in fact, expressed how surprised he was for all the love and support he received for this album. I think he is emotionally intelligent enough to tell the difference between the true destructive haters and those who cared for him but expressed themselves in a passionate way.

Still, we can learn from this situation ourselves and do better. After all, there is always room for improvement. Our Park Jimin models learning, reflecting, and growing to us all the time. Let us try to be more like Park Jimin in this way.