Hi everyone,
I first want to acknowledge that many of us may have had a particularly difficult week. That racist illustration of the boys… the shootings that have happened around the world (e.g. Myanmar and Atlanta just to name a few), the way the boys were treated at the Grammys… not to mention the surge of covid deaths in some countries in the world… It has just been shocking, depressing and horrendous.
Thus I hope you’re all okay. If you’re not, please do reach out to speak to someone or seek help. Let’s also all check up on each other and give each other love and support. I’m sending everyone who is reading this all my love and hugs.
Without further ado, let’s get started on this analysis.
Welcome back everyone to the last song of the trilogy. We are finally here!
As we discussed all the way back in this post, we identified and discussed why this group of songs make up the trilogy and why we need to study them in the given order:
We then studied Euphoria and Trivia 起: Just Dance and discussed how they act as prequels (i.e the ‘Beginning’ or ‘起’) to this wonderful trilogy.
If you have been following me on this journey and especially on Twitter, you would have seen me harp on and on about why we must take on an OT7 approach, why we much analyse songs in a certain order, and why we must analyse each song as each song is a piece of a puzzle that will fit together to reveal continuous storylines.
This is entirely consistent with what Namjoon said in his Vlive after talking about Answer: Love Myself. Have a listen:
The fact I didn’t know Namjoon said this about the albums before I started my blog is further evidence that the patterns and structure of the Love Yourself albums is intentional and logical, and that the truth will simply reveal itself if you apply consistent unbiased logic to analysing the Love Yourself albums.
Alright – you ready for the last chapter? 갑시다!
Assumed Knowledge & Assumptions
I have written this post assuming you know:
- my theory, that all of the songs in LY albums are connected and reveal storylines when read in a specific order; and
- Joon, Yoongi and Hobi’s stories discussed in my blog so far.
New Readers
Hello there and welcome to my blog! I’m sorry to say that if you haven’t read any of the above posts… I may lose you in the detail as my lyrical analyses are built on existing knowledge!
This is simply because all of the songs are interconnected and need to be read in a specific order for it to make sense, just like a book.
If you’re wondering where to start, please start here.
Please also note the assumptions I apply when I analyse songs.
Enjoy! 😊
1. Namjoon’s VLive
First, let’s take a look at what Namjoon said about Answer: Love Myself from 45.46 of his Vlive.
1a. The writers of Answer: Love Myself
Namjoon said:
“Hoseok, Yoongi and I said it was hard to write the rap lyrics. But we managed to do that”
and
“Bobby Chung wrote most parts of the lyrics…The lyrics were so perfect. I’ve never seen lyrics that I don’t need to correct… I think the lyrics were better because I didn’t participate.”
This significance of this is that we can only analyse the rap lyrics from Hobi’s, Yoongi’s and Namjoon’s point of view. I have assumed that they have naturally rapped the lyrics they substantially wrote.
The rest of the lyrics can only be analysed from a general point of view as it is not based on Hobi’s, Yoongi’s or Namjoon’s experience. It is based on what Bobby Chung knows about BTS’ experience and the story BTS wanted to tell.
The fact that Namjoon felt that the lyrics were perfect also indicates to us that he lyrics Bobby Chung wrote resonated with him.
Consistently with my previous blogs, since the speaker could be Bobby Chung and others, I will use the “the speaker” and the pronoun “they/them”
1b. Namjoon’s perspective
Namjoon said:
“If we can’t change the world, we need to change ourselves. I can love myself when he or she does this to me. That’s the saddest thing… I guess that’s the thing my friends, I, some parts of me and many people wander to find the answer. Some people seek the answer from (their) relationship. From their girlfriends or boyfriends. When their partner says they’re pretty, or they love them or like them, they feel they are worthy of enjoying a life. When I say something, I seek positive responses, I want to get praises… then, I feel satisfied.”
We can see that Namjoon’s comments are consistent with what we already know about him.
It is not surprising to us that his comments are specifically related to his desire to seek love and validation from a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, and how he needs to be able to love himself “when he or she does” something to him (e.g. break up with him).
1c. How Namjoon’s brain works
Namjoon said:
“I only changed several letters and pronunciation to make it sound better and easier to sing.”
This is further evidence that Namjoon pays close attention to, and plays with pronunciation of words.
이렇게 ‘Always’.*
*I really hope everyone understood my wordplay and reference…
1d. 起承轉結
Namjoon said:
“When you hear it by opening your heart, you will realise this song has a perfect four parts, beginning, development, turn and conclusion.”
This means that we should analyse the lyrics consistently across the four parts to enjoy its deeper meaning and poeticness of the song’s structure.
We’ve discovered so far that the concept of 起承轉結 has been applied to BTS’ journey as follow:
- 起 – Being about meeting each other and “Her” and the start of their journey as idols.
- 承 – About falling in love with “Her” and the beginning of their fake selves to earn “Her” love.
- 轉 – About the tears and problems they faced from loving “Her”, caused by their fake selves.
- 結 – About their realisation that the love between them and “Her” can only be real if they can love their true selves first. In this part, we see BTS taking their first conscious steps to loving themselves.
The concept of 起承轉結, as we will soon see, is applied in Answer: Love Myself on a subset of BTS’ journey told in the ‘結’ section as follow:
- 起 – Being about the first conscious step in their journey to loving themselves: Confronting their real selves.
- 承 – Being about the process of learning to love themselves through forgiveness and acceptance.
- 轉 – Being about their turning points where their attitudes towards themselves and their motivations change.
- 結 – Being about the conclusion that they are on their ongoing journey of learning to love themselves.
Ready? 来! 一起起吧！
2. 起
I open my eyes in the darkness
When the sound of my beating heart feels unfamiliar,
I face you in the mirror
The fear-ridden eyes asking a long-pending question
The song begins with the speaker waking up in the darkness hearing the sound of their beating heart.
We can see how this mirrors the beginning of I’m Fine where the lyrics go “I open my eyes under the painfully blue sky… and my heart pounds.” The lyrics “the fear-ridden eyes asking a long-pending question” represents the moment where the speaker fearfully face their true selves and ask the long awaited question: “Who are you?”
Further, another meaning for ‘起’ in Chinese is to get up, wake up or to start. A fitting poetic and literal way to begin the song.
The lyrics convey to us the following message: That the first step to loving yourself is to wake up to reality and face your true self.
3. 承
Yoongi raps the following verse:
Loving myself might be harder
Than loving someone else
Let’s be honest and admit what we have to admit
That your standards are more strict when they are applied to you
The thick tree rings in your life*
That is also a part of you, that is also you
So let’s forgive yourself now
Our lives are too long for us to throw it away
Trust me in the maze
Once winter passes, spring will come again
We can see that Yoongi, like many of us, applied strict standards to himself. We can infer from the lyrics that Yoongi used to beat himself up if he didn’t live up to the standards he had set for himself and that forgiving himself for the mistakes he did was not something he practised.
The lyrics “the thick tree rings in your life” have the following meaning according to doolset lyrics:
A tree ring, or a growth ring, is a layer of wood produced during one tree’s growing season. A tree gains a ring after each winter it endures. The longer a growing season is, the wider the corresponding ring is. “The wide growth ring in your life” therefore seems to mean a hardship or a dark period you have managed to go through in your life.
Answer: Love Myself – Doolset lyrics
Assuming Doolset lyrics is right, the metaphor of a tree is used to symbolise Yoongi’s growth and the natural cause and effect of life events that have and will shape his “tree rings” to make Yoongi uniquely him.
We can see Yoongi openly acknowledging to himself that there will be good and bad times, and that this cycle will continue for the rest of his life (“once winter passes, spring will come again” ). We can see Yoongi’s character development as he accepts the existence of the cycle and thus, the need to “forgive yourself now” and “trust [himself] in the maze.”
The use of a maze is a fittingly metaphor for life. Just like in a maze, we never know what is around the corner and it can feel endless. It will, at many times, make us feel lost, desperate and helpless. More than likely, we will end up going round and round in circles and arriving at the same spot again and again.
But… suddenly out of nowhere… we may be greeted by the exit. Death, or if you wish to interpret it another way, the end of this chapter in your life and start of another one.
All of us are stuck in the maze of life. You’re not the only one suffering, so be kind and trust yourself.
The following lyrics are then sung by JK and Jimin:
I try to hide myself from the eyes of the cold night
I tossed and turned, but…
Maybe I fell in order to take the place of those countless stars
The target of thousands of bright arrows is me alone
At the start, the speaker rejects and fears the cold night. The lyrics convey to us a sense of vulnerability and uncomfortableness as we imagine the speaker hiding themselves underneath their bedsheets tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.
However, the speaker has an epiphany. What if the speaker is meant to be a bright and beautiful star in the cold night? Maybe the speaker is exactly where they need to be, and this downfall (“maybe I fell” ) is simply what is required for a star to be born.
The lyrics are simply about Hope.
Maybe falling and suffering the pain from “thousands of bright arrows” is what needs to happen for us to become a bright and beautiful star.
4. 轉
4a. Namjoon
Namjoon raps the following lyrics:
Perhaps there might not be the answer
Perhaps this might not be an answer
Loving myself should not require anyone else’s permission*
I’m still looking for myself again
But I don’t want to die anymore
*Translated per Namjoon’s Vlive
Namjoon, like the philosopher that he is, philosophises about “The Answer” of loving yourself. He philosophises that “loving yourself” may not be the answer to happiness and everything, nor may there actually be a “right” answer.
But in any case, whether it is the right or wrong answer, or whether you agree or disagree that “love myself” is “The Answer”, “loving myself should not require anyone else’s permission.” As discussed above in Section 1, this is particularly significant to Namjoon as Namjoon used to rely on his lover’s compliments for self validation.
This is a big change of character given the entire narrative of Namjoon’s story has been centred around his lover and his need for validation from “Her”. In the above lyrics, Namjoon does a 180 and proclaims that he no longer requires his lover telling him how amazing he is for him to love himself. Namjoon in Answer: Love Myself no longer needs his lover’s approval or permission.
Next, Namjoon says: “I’m still looking for myself again, but I don’t want to die anymore.”
We can see that this is consistent to what we know about Namjoon from the previous blogs, being that he was confused and missing his “real” self, and that he deeply contemplated death.
For Namjoon, this is his 轉 (turn, twist or reverse). He has done a 180 in two things:
First, he has gone from needing validation from his lover to not needing validation from his lover.
Second, despite feeling that he hasn’t really “found himself”, Namjoon has gone from wanting to die to not wanting to die anymore.
Namjoon then raps:
Me, who was sad
(슬프던 me)
Me, who was hurt
(아프던 me)
Me, who will be more beautiful
(더 아름다울 美)
The word 美 is not a Korean character, it is a Chinese character and means “beautiful”. As Doolset lyrics noted, Namjoon doesn’t pronounce 美 the Chinese way (měi), he uses the Korean pronunciation of a Chinese character (me), so that it rhymes with the English word “me”.
Namjoon executes a brilliant wordplay across three languages by speaking a Chinese character in Korean to rhyme it in English.
We can also see the references to (Outro): Tear in the above lyrics. In (Outro): Tear, Namjoon’s lyrics were particularly centred around (crying) tears (as oppose to for example, Hobi, that was centred around fear). This can be seen in the above lyrics where Namjoon grows from someone who is filled with sadness and emotional hurt (i.e. crying tears) to someone who will be more 美 (me*).
*To be interpreted as “me” (i.e. Namjoon’s true real self) and “美” (i.e. beautiful)
4b. Hobi
Hobi raps the following lyrics:
Yes, knowing that there is beauty
is the way to loving myself
What I need the most
is to take the steps and walk for myself
is to act for myself
is the attitude towards myself
That is happiness for me
I’ll show you what I got
I’m not afraid because that is my own existence
Love myself
Similar to Namjoon, the above lyrics reflect Hobi’s turning point (轉). We previously observed that Hobi’s story is centred around his fear of losing ARMY’s love and his dream of being a successful idol, to the point he would do anything just to try and win ARMY’s love.
Hobi in Answer: Love Myself realises that his actions and decisions have all along been influenced by what he thought ARMY wants from him, and what he thought ARMY loves about him. Hobi does a 180 and tells ARMY that from now on, he is going to put himself first and do what is right by him first, in order to be able to give ARMY his best real self “what I need the most is to take the steps and walk for myself… act for myself... I’ll show you what I got.”
The lyrics “I’m not afraid because that is my own existence” reflects Hobi’s maturity as he comes to realise that he will never please everyone, and he does not need to be afraid of that. It is his happiness (“happiness for me” ) that is the most important as in the end, he is responsible for his own life and “own existence.”
Hobi’s twist (轉) is that he goes from fearing to be himself and losing ARMY’s love and his dreams, to being unafraid and living for himself.
5. 結
From the start of the beginning
and until the end of the end
there is only one answer
Why do you keep trying to hide under your mask
when even the scars made by your own mistake mark your constellations
You’ve shown me I have reasons
I should love myself
I answer with all my breath and all the path I’ve walked along
Inside me, there’s still
my clumsy self
You’ve shown me I have reasons
I should love myself
I answer with all my breath and all the path I’ve walked along
Yesterday’s me, today’s me, tomorrow’s me
(I’m learning how to love myself)
Without exception, all together, they are all me.
The speaker continues their use of stars as metaphors to convey to us that BTS and ARMY are bright beautiful stars that light up and dazzle the galaxy and the cold night sky “the scars made by your own mistake mark your constellations”.
The speaker comforts themselves and us that our scars are what make our constellations uniquely us, and as Hobi rightly said, “there is beauty” in them.
The featuring of “my clumsy self” in the lyrics again reiterates the meaning that BTS (and all of us for that matter) will continue, “from the start of the beginning and until the end of the end” , fall and hurt themselves. This is simply what it means to be human.
The speaker repeats to themselves “I should love myself” and “I’m learning how to love myself” throughout the song, conveying to us clearly that the speaker has not yet mastered the skill of being kind and loving to themselves. They know that this is the right thing to do, but they are still learning how to truly love themselves.
This distinction is important to note as it enables us to realise that this is a continuation from I’m Fine and IDOL where we observed that behind all of the positive lyrics, there is an underlying theme of ongoing pain and struggle.
More importantly, this distinction enables us to realise that “Answer: Love Myself” is not really the end as it ends on the ongoing journey of BTS learning (not learnt) how to love their true selves.
This is why it does not have the expected prefix of 結 like Trivia 起: Just Dance, Trivia 承: Love and Trivia 轉: Seesaw.
Quite simply, this is not the end.
Author’s Thoughts
The end of the first trilogy means we are half way there! Can you figure out what is coming up next?
As I hinted across many blogs… there is a 轉 coming. Just following the signs… 😉
As always, thank you thank you for reading and being so patient with me. Remember to retweet, share, follow me on Twitter and subscribe!
If you would like to guess what happens next and make new friends, please join discord and go to Blog > Analysis to chat about it!
Borahae! 😊
💜 G
Lyric sources: Doolset lyrics and Genius lyrics
Please note I made some minor updates where I thought things could be expressed better. These minor updates do not result in any substantial change in meaning.
Disclaimer:
As per my first author’s note, please, no hate!
I do not have a shipping or individual bias, I love all seven members equally and I do not write my blogs because of a particular personal desire for one of them. I reached my conclusion on Joon and Jin being together based on the lyrics, logic and patterns as I have discussed in all my posts (i.e. I did not ship Namjin first, and then started trying to find things to prove my point). I genuinely enjoy all ships because I enjoy watching the different chemistries between the boys.
It does not matter one bit to me if they are straight, gay, intersex, a skrull, a mutant or if they could lay eggs. I love them wholeheartedly (as a sister who would love her younger brothers) for their individual selves.
This theory of Answer: Love Myself is based on my interpretations of its lyrics. Please enjoy.