A theory about “Trivia 承: Love” – Part 2

Hello everyone, welcome to Part Two of my theory on “Trivia 承: Love”.

Previously in Part 1, I discussed:

• why Trivia 承: Love is a love song dedicated to Jin; and
• the hidden messages that you may not have noticed.

In Part 2 below, I will discuss:

• why there is a prefix “Trivia 承:” in the song title; and
• the significance of the order of “Trivia 承: Love” in the album.

Now as a new ARMY member, I’ve always wondered what the deal was with this whole prefix thing (e.g. “Trivia 承”), why there are so many versions of the “Love Yourself” album, and why some songs appear in the first album and not in the last. I read many articles about it and none of them sat well with me.

We won’t be able to tackle all of those questions in this post because that would be information overload, but they will come together piece by piece as we work through it together.

1. Why the Prefix?

So first let’s understand why this song has a prefix attached to its title: “Trivia 承: Love”.

I’m going to tackle the first bit: “Trivia”.

I believe Namjoon specifically chose the prefix “Trivia” because he is inviting us, the listeners, to guess who his Love is.*

*Note: The same theory applies for Seesaw, but again… this will need to be covered in a different post.

Next, he chose the specific character “承” which has trilingual meanings in Korean, Chinese and Japanese. “承” can mean “support” or “carry”, but I think the meaning that best fits this interpretation is the meaning “due to“.

In other words, I believe that Namjoon is trying to say to us:

“ARMY, let’s play a little Trivia. Have a guess. I am in Love, this love has smoothed out my rigidities. Who do you think this is due to…?”

Now in Part 1, we have established that the person Namjoon is referring to is Jin. However, I think Namjoon has left us more clues to enjoy.

2. The significance of the song’s order in Love Yourself: 結 Answer

The song “Trivia 承: Love” is the 6th song in the Love Yourself: 結 Answer Album and I don’t think this is a coincidence. The next song after this is “Her”, another track written by Namjoon.

Now I’m not going to go into a deep dive analysis of “Her” because that is a whole essay in itself, but there are three lines in “Her” that are of relevance to you now:

“You’re the answer
I call you her, her
Cause you’re my tear, tear“.

I discuss the significance of each line in turn below:

1. “You’re the answer”

To me, this line is simply further confirmation from what we’ve already discussed previously: That this person (that Namjoon calls “Her”) is the answer to his Trivia game;

2. “I call you her, her”

There are two things about this line I wish to discuss:

1. The oddity of specifically stating someone’s gender; and
2. The significance of assigning someone a name.

The oddity of specifically stating someone’s gender

When I first listened to the song, I found the lyrics “I call you her, her” strange and awkward because… if I was singing about my lover who was a girl, I would have simply used the pronoun “her” directly in the lyrics (e.g. “I called her today”) because… obviously she is female. I wouldn’t think to point out that detail or clarify her gender.

Unless… this person isn’t.

The act of having to state specifically that you’re assigning this person the pronoun “her”, implies that maybe, this person isn’t obviously female.

The significance of assigning someone a name

The significance of names in Namjoon’s work are discussed in this video by NamJin Home. In summary, Namjoon loves this Korean Poem ‘Flower’, and the poem explores the significance of being assigned a name, or calling a name, as a Name defines you.

In the above lyrics, by assigning the pronoun “Her” to this person and calling this person “Her”, Namjoon is effectively defining this specific person, “Her”.

Therefore, whenever Namjoon refers to a “Her” or a “woman” in his lyrics, he is referring to the same person, the person he has specifically assigned this pronoun to.

3. “Cause you’re my tear, tear”

In true BTS style, BTS have played on the word “Tear” multiple ways. I believe this line in “Her” directly references their song “Tear”, and I drew the idea to compare the lyrics between the two songs because they share one thing common:

“Her” and “Tear” are both “Outro” tracks for the Love Yourself: 承 Her and Love Yourself: 轉 Tear album respectively.

In their song “Outro: Tear”, “Tear” has the meaning of tear(s) (e.g. tears when you’re crying) and tear, (e.g. tearing your heart out). “Tear” is pronounced ambiguously (sounding both like tear(s) and tear) and it is pronounced with an obvious heavy ‘T‘ sound.

In the song “Her”, it is not clear whether the author is referring to the meaning of tear(s) or tear. I personally think it is both (which I discuss further below), but what I find most interesting about the use of “Tear” in this song is that it is pronounced with a heavy “D” sound to suspiciously sound like the word “Dear“.

Go ahead and listen to the way Tear is pronounced in both songs and tell me if you think I’m dreaming, “Tear” sounds like “Dear” especially in the second chorus of “Her”.  I have recorded a snippet of each song for you to listen below:

After listening to Namjoon use the word Ddaeng in a gazillion ways in the song Ddaeng, I have no doubt that Namjoon is doing this intentionally. This person called “Her” is Namjoon’s Dear, Tear(s) and Tear.

Helpfully, Namjoon reinforces my theory that this is the case. He mentions a person was “once my dear” in his first verse in “Tear”.

Now we know from Suga’s interview from the Break the Silence episode[1] that the song “Tear” was written for the members. In this context, the reference to “Tear” is symbolic to BTS members exclusively. For that reason, I believe Namjoon is referring to one of the BTS members.

It is also a good time for me to flag that I believe “Tear” contains the plot for two stories – one about the BTS members, and one about Namjoon and Jin’s relationship. But this will have to be discussed in a separate post along.

Now if we assume all of the above are correct, everything just make so much more sense. Since “Tear” has multiple meanings, it wouldn’t be surprisingly if “Her” has a multiple meanings as well. After all… given the stigma of gays (particularly in Korean society), and the fact that kpop stars are restricted from revealing who they are dating, it would not be surprising that Namjoon would have experienced both tears and the feelings of being torn apart from dilemmas and inner self conflict due to his secret love for Jin.

In summary, I believe Namjoon is trying to tell us this: Jin, the one who I have assigned the name “Her” to, my dear who tears me apart and causes me tears, is the person I’m singing about in Trivia 承: Love.

Thanks ARMY and please feel free to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! In the next post, I will show you the secret pattern in the Love Yourself albums.

Remember, to see how everything ties together, please read my overarching theory and my blog in chronological order! A list of all my blog posts in chronological order can be found here.

x G
(Follow me on Twitter: @btsgtheories)

[1] https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/features/bts-break-silence-suga-reveals-wrote-outro-tear-members-reason-quite-emotional/