Thread by @army_society

(Analysis Explanation Thread)

WINGS Short Films: The Loss of Innocence and Pain of Growing Up

**Trigger Warning**

This thread contains mentions and images of blood, death, depression, and various mental illnesses.

WINGS era was mainly inspired and based off of the book, Demian, which is essentially a story about a boy’s growth from childhood to adulthood from the perspective of that same boy as an old man, reflecting upon his past and the various episodes of his childhood that led to a

profound change in his worldview. Similarly, the WINGS short films represent the different stages of life. There are seven short films in total and they each together tell the story of one boy who goes through all these in his journey to becoming a man. docdroid.net/P7UwA98/demian…

“The one boy with not one but Seven hearts. Seven beats and one stride forward. Altered perspective and one is Seven" - WINGS Tour VCR

https://twitter.com/rwapmon/status/981937480554475520?s=20

WINGS Short Film #1 - BEGIN

“The realms of day and night. Two different worlds coming from two opposite poles mingled during this time."

– 'Demian', Herman Hesse

In the first WINGS short film, BEGIN, Jungkook is awakened from a dream, which represents the start of the boys’ journey. The reality that he wakes up to is not very pleasant, perhaps even like a nightmare, as indicated by objects burning and being stained with blood.

He seems to be confused and in denial with everything that’s happening around him. In the book, Demian, the world was split between two realms: day/light and night/darkness. In WINGS, this could be the world of childhood (light) and adulthood (darkness).

Adolescence is where these two worlds meet. BEGIN shows Jungkook being exposed to this darkness for the first time.

Prior to WINGS, the HYYH era depicted a more “carefree” side of youth. The WINGS short films show that one cannot stay young forever, that eventually one would

need to face the consequences of their actions, and that the reality of the world is that pain is a part of it , just like how yin and yang coexists together.

In The Notes, Jungkook relied heavily on his hyungs. It’s safe to say that he was probably the most devastated when they

stopped communicating with each other. As the youngest, he was the one who had to endure going through years of adolescence on his own, without the care and guidance of anyone. The hyungs became his family, his world, they were his reason to “begin”.

WINGS Short Film #2: LIE

“My parents' house made up one realm… This realm was familiar to me in almost every way - mother and father, love and strictness, model behavior, and school.”

– 'Demian', Herman Hesse

In LIE, Jimin is in isolation, seemingly taking a psychological assessment which barely elicits a response from him. From The Notes, we know that Jimin has been institutionalized, largely because his parents didn’t want to deal with his “disorder”, though we know that his

seizures started after he witnessed something at the arboretum.

In Demian, apples were the object of Sinclair’s lie. This got him into trouble, because after claiming to have stolen apples to impress other boys, Kromer reveals that there was a reward up for the culprit.

Sinclair has sworn that his story was true, and now he’s “caught in a lie” with no choice but to give Kromer the amount being offered as reward for the apple sack thief.

The apple also has a biblical meaning as a “forbidden fruit” or “fruit of knowledge”. That knowledge comes at a price - the loss of paradise. The lyrics in LIE even mention a “snake”, & ask for his “innocence” & “laughter” back. Again, this shows a loss of innocence & suddenly

realizing that what was once a beautiful paradise is actually filled with ugliness that one was just blissfully unaware of. Once you have seen that side of the world, there’s no going back to the “paradise” you used to know. This could also represent how the illusion of safety

was shattered. All Jimin ever wanted was to feel normal & to feel like he belongs somewhere. He didn’t want to let his illness get in the way of his happiness, so he decided to hide the truth about his illness from everyone in order to conform to society & be considered “normal”.

His parents ended up leaving him in the hospital, he lost contact with the boys, and he chose to stay because the hospital was “convenient” for him. In essence, his condition is like a “lie” to conceal the truth of what happened to him.

WINGS Short Film #3: STIGMA

“It was the first fissure in the columns that had upheld my childhood, which every individual must destroy before he can become himself. Such fissures and rents grow together again, heal and are forgotten, but in the most secret recesses they

they continue to live and bleed.”

– Demian, Herman Hesse

In STIGMA, Taehyung was seen being arrested for spraying graffiti on public property. From The Notes, we know that he had one of the roughest childhood, as his mother abandoned his sister and him while their father physically abused his sister and him. We also know that he often

blames himself for what happened, so much so that in The Notes, the girl that he met sprayed over their old graffitis with the message “It’s not your fault”.

In Demian, Sinclair made up a lie about stealing apples, which caused him to get into trouble. He felt very guilty about

this, and felt that he deserved punishment for that misdeed. He eventually gets punished, although for a different reason, when his father comes home and beats him for his muddy boots.

Taehyung carries a lot of guilt, as he has somehow convinced himself that he’s the reason why

their mother left, and why his sister often gets beaten. This is why he’s constantly acting out, and often ends up in the police station. He’s burdened with the “stigma” of being the reason why others leave and the cause of others’ pain.

WINGS Short Film #4: FIRST LOVE

“There are numerous ways in which God can make us lonely and lead us back to ourselves. This was the way He dealt with me at that time.”

– Demian, Herman Hesse

In FIRST LOVE, Yoongi breaks into a music store and sits at a piano. He seems to want to play something, but can’t. Suddenly he hears a melody, so he leaves the music store and the piano behind to follow the strange sound. On the road, he narrowly dodges getting hit by a car,

but the car ends up crashing at the music store instead and setting the piano on fire.

In Demian, it was while staring at the burning music store that he finds himself thinking of his dreams and also reminiscing his past. In The Notes, we know Yoongi barely escaped when their

house caught on fire. He was so distracted at the time that he didn’t realize that his mother was still inside, so she perishes in the fire. Burdened with the guilt of his mom’s passing in the burning fire, Yoongi grew distant from everyone and fell into a deep state of

depression. The piano is a symbol for his first love - possibly his mom, his music, or his dreams - which has supported him through all the tough times that he’s faced throughout his life, but also eventually shunned out.

Later on, Yoongi plays the piano again, mostly for Jungkook - maybe that’s why the melody that he heard was similar to Begin? He’d do this in the abandoned classroom where they would all hangout. For a period of time after they lost contact from each other, Yoongi found it hard

to make music again, but that changed when he decided to sober up and complete his music after a drunken night walking in the mountain. He was lonely before he met the boys and they also led him back to his “first love”.

WINGS Short Film #5: REFLECTION

“The other realm, however, overlapping half our house, was completely different… a loud mixture of horrendous, intriguing, frightful, mysterious things, including slaughterhouses and prisons, drunkards and screeching fishwives, calving cows,

horses sinking to their death, tales of robberies, murders, and suicides.” – Demian, Herman Hesse

In REFLECTION, Namjoon is sitting on the floor of his container holding a piece of paper. We later discover that this is the same bird artwork in BEGIN, which Jungkook had put into an envelope, so perhaps Namjoon received this from Jungkook. We also see the same bird in flight

against a red background both in BEGIN and REFLECTION. He later tattoos an image of the bird onto his arm and burns the artwork afterwards.

The WINGS short films tell the story of one boy and the stages in his journey of growing up. Namjoon at the stage of REFLECTION receiving a

letter from Jungkook at the stage of BEGIN, could represent Namjoon reflecting upon all the memories and obstacles he’s faced thus far. The act of tattooing the image of the bird onto his arm represents how significant the first stage of the journey has been for him.

He drops the burning artwork into a liquid, then has a drink and closes his eyes, sinking to the floor. As we hear the sound of an unanswered phone call, variations of colors begin to flow up his arms from where his tattoos are. We can see several writings, one seemingly derived

from a quote from Demian that goes, “If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself.”

When he opens his eyes, he sees the message he wrote on the mirror, a reminder for him to not give up, “We must survive”. We see this phrase appear in On Stage: Prologue as well as in The Notes, a reminder not only for his friends, but also himself to stay strong and persevere.

In a way, he’s also reborn after he opens his eyes, as Carl Jung has once mentioned that human beings are born three times. The first is the physical birth, second occurs with the development of the ego, and the third is spiritual consciousness. REFLECTION may pertain to that

second stage, as mirrors reflect your ego - your sense of identity, who you associate yourself with the most.

Namjoon stands up and walks into a hall of mirrors, the endless versions of himself making it more daunting. Then he covers his ears as the mirrors shatter, a

representation of his loss of sense of identity. His friends and family all looked up to him as the responsible adult, but he knew this wasn’t the truth as he couldn’t even support himself.

Namjoon then hears the sound of a phone ringing. He then runs towards a phone booth,

attempting to answer the phone call, but the phone booth is locked. We can assume that the person on the other end of the line is Taehyung, as we saw him calling someone at the beginning of On Stage: Prologue, and whispering “hyung”.

In The Notes, Namjoon’s family moved to a rural village where he met a boy who reminded him of Taehyung. Namjoon and this other boy were both delivery boy and saw each other as competitors with their jobs. However, the boy unfortunately passed away from a delivery accident while

riding his scooter in the heavy snow. Namjoon was supposed to make that delivery but was unable to do so due to a family emergency, so he felt intense guilt as if it were his fault.

Following the accident, he decides to return to Songju without telling his family. Since then,

he had always been reluctant to pick up his phone, as he didn't want to confront his parents. The locked phone booth represents Namjoon’s regret for not helping his friends earlier, for not rushing to answer the call in time.

His time away from those important to him both shattered his sense of identity and helped rebuild it. Though at the time it felt like an escape from the burden of caring for others, it gave him time to think things over, ultimately serving as a time for “reflection”.

WINGS Short Film #6: MAMA

“With a face that resembled her son's, timeless, ageless, and full of inner strength, the beautiful woman smiled with dignity. Her gaze was fulfillment, her greeting a homecoming. Silently I stretched my hands out to her.” – Demian, Herman Hesse

In MAMA, Hoseok is in isolation when a doctor checks in and pills start to flood into his room. He takes one, and a scene with a cocktail glass filled with pills similar to that in LIE is shown. This was quickly followed by his left eye showing Taehyung’s graffiti of Abraxas, as

shown in STIGMA.

Suddenly, his pristine white room is splattered with paint, and scattered with pills and feathers. Drawing of eyes, scribbled handwriting, and large wings were also shown very quickly. He tears the room apart then passes out, only to wake up with the door

unlocked and the painting right outside his door. He admires the painting, takes a bite of his chocolate bar, but as soon as he leaves, the painting changes into that of Eva (as signified by the signature on the bottom right of the painting).

In The Notes, Hoseok was abandoned by his mother in an amusement park and she left him only with a chocolate bar. He’d often see his mother in other people, such as in his dance partner, and the lady he unknowingly chased while he was hospitalized with Jimin.

In Demian, an older Sinclair sees a woman at a park with whom he becomes infatuated. She’s the representation of his ideal woman, and while they haven’t met, Sinclair changes his ways for the better. He goes on to paint her portrait, but realizes that the completed painting

resembles Demian. We later learn that the woman is actually Demian’s mother, Frau Eva. Her character constantly protected Sinclair, who eventually learns that both Demian and Frau Eva are within him.

After looking at the painting and taking out his snickers bar, Hoseok may have finally come to realize that he doesn’t need to find his mother in order to be happy. This is why it’s such a significant moment when he eats the snickers bar. For years, he kept the snickers bar with

him as a memory of his mother, yet now he eats the snickers bar and overcomes his fears, accepting the truth. Finally, he has come to accept his mother is not just a physical figure, but also a concept that will always be intertwined with him and within him.

Abraxas is a god of both good and evil, while the painting bears both feminine and masculine qualities. This can be related to the idea of yin-yang, of Anima and Animus. Yin or Anima relate to the feminine qualities, while the yang or Animus relate to the masculine qualities.

In Sinclair’s case, it could be said that Demian is his “idealized self”, similar to the manifestation of an Animus for a woman. His ideal woman, Frau Eva, can be a representation of his Anima. We can also note that he first met her when he was going through some troubled times,

and despite no interaction, she effected a positive change in him - similar to the effect of the Anima (or Animus).

You may have also noticed that MAMA is the only song in the WINGS album that is completely capitalized.

This is because MAMA most likely is an abbreviation for My Anima My Animus. Hoseok eventually learns how to deal with the abandonment and he learns to go through life even without his “mama”.

WINGS Short Film #7: AWAKE

“The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who will be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.”

– Demian, Herman Hesse

In AWAKE, Jin has his polaroid camera with him and the symbols associated with the other six members are scattered across the floor. Jimin’s apple and Namjoon’s mirror can be found in the dining room. Yoongi’s brown piano, Hoseok’s Eva painting, and Taehyung’s vandals are found

in the bedroom. Lastly, Jungkook’s sparrow hawk is hung at the end of the hallway. The god Abraxas is also the wallpaper pattern in the hallway.

A sparrow was also shown to be flying, similar to the one we see in LIE. In Demian, the older Sinclair often dreamt of a sparrow hawk, which is a symbol for freedom but also of tumult. The phrase “breaking free” in itself connotes one needs to “break” or as the quote states, to

“destroy”, something. A similar scene can be found in BEGIN and REFLECTION, both the bird in flight and the beginnings of a storm. In AWAKE, that storm seems to have settled and the bird is more peaceful in its flight.

In The Notes, Jin carried around a polaroid camera to document memories with the boys. This was the camera that they used to take a photo on the day they went to the beach.

At the end of the film, the same symbols that appear in his polaroid photos are those of the six members.

This could be a documentation of the different stages of life, as represented by the six boys.

(Shown through Jungkook painting, Taehyung being interrogated by the police, Yoongi and the memory of paino melody, Namjoon's tattoo, Hoseok's medical records, & Jin's polaroids)

With Jin, the transformation from boy to man is complete. After seeing the good and the bad sides of the world, he no longer thinks of it as a “paradise”, he is now “awake”.

Jin also sings about how he might not ever be able to fly, but he will continue to try, even if it means struggling a lot throughout the way. This represents how Jin understands what true self love is now, and he understands that self-love is a lifelong journey & even if he can

never fully come to love himself completely, he will keep trying day by day to learn to love himself even more.

》WINGS Pairings and Logos Explanation 《

In WINGS, we see a new set of pairings that is different from the HYYH pairs. This can be seen on how the individual circles combine to form the four circles in the final logo of WINGS.

Jungkook and Namjoon (WINGS short films 1 and 5) form the first circle.

Jimin and Yoongi (WINGS short films 2 and 4) form the second circle.

Taehyung and Hoseok (WINGS short films 3 and 6) form the third circle.

Jin (WINGS short film 7) has the fourth circle to himself.

Jungkook and Namjoon both share a sense of guilt for not being able to care for those that depended on them the most. Both of them distanced themselves from their families, and are more attached to the other boys. Jungkook felt his hyungs were his family, while Namjoon also

leaves the lights on in his trailer every night to make sure the boys would know they are welcome to come by. Both are loners, they need the boys as much as, if not more than, the boys needed them. Namjoon even left behind his own family to return to Songju.

The difference was the Namjoon was much better in handling the isolation than Jungkook. Though he thought about his friends often, he managed to find work and stay alive, while the loneliness consumed Jungkook.

Jimin and Yoongi are both running away from something, preferring to isolate themselves rather than be a “burden” to anyone else. The memories that they are trying to forget are hindering them from any progress. Mentally, Jimin is trapped in that arboretum, while Yoongi is

swallowed by his sadness that even his music is affected.

Both of them have gone through traumatic experiences that they often go back to and continue to haunt their present lives. The difference was that Jimin knew that eventually, he would need to face what happened to him

at the arboretum and make peace with that, while Yoongi chooses to live in denial and to drown his sorrows with alcohol and cigarettes.

Taehyung and Hoseok both are yearning for their mothers, who abandoned them as children. Both are aware that their mothers will not come back, but they still hold out some hope anyway. They both channel their pain through art. Taehyung through his graffiti, Hoseok through his

dance. They also constantly put on an act that everything is fine, even when things are not. Both of them terribly miss their mothers. The difference was that Taehyung acknowledges that his mother must have had a reason for leaving them and just hopes for her happiness, while

Hoseok still goes on hoping that one day he may meet his mother again.

Jin is alone, as he was in the HYYH pairs. However, he always carries with him a part of each of the members. Whether in HYYH or in WINGS, he is always the culmination of the interactions of the other six

boys, who need to teach each other how to deal with the similar dilemma that they’re faced with.

If you've made it this far, congratulations! Thanks for reading our explanation thread on the WINGS short films, and we hope you enjoyed :)