Thread by @MoonieJoonieee

Breaking down the masterpiece that is Trivia: Love by #RM. Namjoon doesn't just showcase masterful wordplay, but also striking visuals and valuable lessons in the art of loving. Here I split it in 3 parts: to feel love, to give love, to keep love. +
#namjoon #RMverse @BTS_twt

"The Art of Loving" is actually the name of a book by social psychologist Erich Fromm. Namjoon recommended this book on the fancafe back in the Love Yourself era. I'll be using a few quotes from the book as references in this thread +
#RM #방탄소년단알엠 #김남준

The premise of Trivia: Love, and of the book, is that love is not easy, and truly experiencing it requires us to focus on learning how to give love, and not just how to receive love (or be loved). It is all about the act of loving. +

The first verse of Trivia: Love starts by Namjoon trying to rationalize what love is, describe it. But love is not tangible, it is a FEELING that engulfs us. Namjoon is a master at similes and metaphors, with vivid descriptions that fuel our imagination! +
#RMverse #RM

Namjoon uses these beautiful visualisations of moon and sunrises, fingernails, and trees to make us feel the grand and natural state of love. His choices of words (like the two for 'memories' in Korean) carefully craft meaningful comparisons to the feeling of love. +

The quote from The Art of Loving that matches this verse is the following. Feeling love, being surrounded by it, not only makes us love the other person, but also love the whole world, and love ourselves. From person to love. +
#RM #RMverse

From live to love, from person (사람 saram) to love (사랑 sarang). From the stiffness of straight lines, to the flowy curves of feeling and being in love. +
#RM #RMverse

The chorus of Trivia: Love is the core of the message of the song: being in love makes us better, from just a person to a love. Namjoon's wordplay between person and love in Korean, live and love in English, is perhaps one of his greatest. +
#RM #RMverse

It's quite interesting to explore Namjoon's mind and his views on language. Trivia: Love actually shows us really well how he visualizes words! It turns out he's been thinking about this wordplay since WINGS era, here in this 2016 vlive! +
#RM #방탄소년단알엠 #RMverse

Since then he's also explores the live/love parallel in English, as he revealed here in this LY Tear era interview! Remember Trivia: Love features on LY Answer 👀
#RM #방탄소년단알엠 @BTS_twt

So let's look at the geometry and visuals of the chorus of Trivia: Love. The visualizations of words Namjoon gives are really striking, he erodes and sits on characters to change their meaning, that's just amazing! +
#RMverse

The second verse of Trivia: Love focuses on the other person, giving love to them, being a part of them. The quote I chose from The Art of Loving is the following. Giving love is not about giving up something for someone else, but expressing all that makes you you. +
#RMverse

In the second verse, Namjoon expresses his desire to become a part of this other person. Not giving up who he is, but actively wanting to be a part of their life, experiencing the feeling of oneness when in love. Once again, he uses extraordinary imagery to make his point. +
#RM

Just like the previous verse played with the Korean language as something tangible to cut and twist and sit on, Namjoon here does the same with the English alphabet! He wants I and U together, so he curses at letters and jumps over them like they were physical things! +
#RM

I want to spend a little more time on this part. Namjoon is so clever to send the letter O to backing vocal, such that the main vocal makes a rhyme between 멀지만 (meoljiman) and letters MN in English! +

At the same time, sending "O" to backing vocal also separates PQRST, which are interestingly the names of the nodes on a heart electrocardiogram! +

The final verse (or bridge) of Trivia: Love is what I call the "keeping love" section. This is where insecurities come out. The Art of Loving speaks a lot on the very human need to overcome separateness, loneliness, through love. +

In the final verse of Trivia: Love, Namjoon is very honest about his desire to keep love, to make it longlasting, to overcome his loneliness. He's willing to give all his love for the other person, and wants to keep love in return. This is the climax of his love wordplay +
#RM

Namjoon unleashes his full arsenal of wordplay here:
Person (saram)
Love (sarang)
Blue (parang)
Wind (baram)
Pride (jarang)
Much (mana)
The repetition also gives a sense of a chant to put all his energy and love into, a chant to make the other person stay. +

The phrase "You're my wind" in particular reminded me of this lyric from Everythingoes (from #RMono playlist). You need to go into the wind (take risks, persevere) in order to erode person (사람) into love (사랑). +
#RM #방탄소년단알엠 #RMverse @BTS_twt

That's not all, in his 2nd Muster ending message back in early 2016, Namjoon said that whenever he feels the wind, he thinks of ARMY. To Namjoon, the wind itself is a symbol of love and support, and we see this imagery, this part of his thoughts, back into Trivia: Love. +
#RM

In summary, Trivia: Love is a peek into Namjoon's working mind, full of visualizations of nature and tangible language building blocks. Not only that, it teaches us to love love, to grow in it, and seek to give love as an expression of life. I live so I love 💜 +
#RM #RMverse

I also feel that the augmented reality visuals chosen for Trivia: Love stages are really fitting, this is how Namjoon sees the world. There are words and characters and letters floating all around him, he touches, and kicks and presses them together and apart to mold his pieces!

Go give this masterpiece a full listen, and remember that to fully love, one needs to first learn to love oneself 💜
open.spotify.com/track/6aHCXTCk…

I hope you've enjoyed this thread on Trivia: Love! As usual here are some pictures of my work process, I'll open a new poll soon for a new #RMverse thread! 💜💜