Thread by @poursomesuga

THE KING
THE COMMONER
THE COP
THE CRIMINAL

a thread on the cyclical personas of #haegeum and #daechwita

first, a quick plot summary of each.

daechwita: there are 2 characters, the KING and the COMMONER. when the commoner is brought in by the king for execution, the king is unaware the commoner has conspired with his executioners to use that opportunity to murder the king instead.

haegeum: the story of the CRIMINAL and the COP. the cop hunts the criminal down for murder & theft, and when he is caught, the criminal burns his own cash. the cop takes him captive and gives the signal to execute, but the criminal produces a gun and shoots the cop instead.

in daechwita, the king can be interpreted as the ego of yoongi's success and the rage that fueled him to get there. the king is a wrathful conquerer, and he has earned his throne by enacting "off with their heads" upon the enemies he defeated to claim it.

in one of his lives after the release of d-2, yoongi himself confirmed that the blonde agust d, the king (and presumably even the blonde agust d of the first mixtape) represents anger.

in that same live, he also mentioned that the black-haired agust d represents another part of himself, and he would reveal that to us in the next installment, which we have now with haegeum.

this black-haired agust d has a scar across his right eye, visible on both the COMMONER of daechwita and the COP of haegeum. this is presumably the same character, only now he has switched from something of a protagonist, to instead being the villain in this new installment.

in haegeum, the COMMONER/COP now becomes the parallel to the KING: ruling over his kingdom as ruthless, corrupt, ambitious—a personification of yoongi's greed.

the transformation of the COMMONER into the COP is critical. in daechwita, the commoner rebels against the king to represent yoongi overthrowing the fury and ego that had fueled him. but now the *commoner/cop is the one who needs to be overthrown*.

enter the CRIMINAL. he steals wealth from a rival, and he is confronted by the commoner/cop—but instead of fighting for the money, the criminal *burns* it. he turns away from greed, rails against it, and then murders the corrupt cop, just as the commoner had murdered the king.

yoongi has once again killed his rage, his hubris, his greed, and his thirst for power.

and now, at last, he is free.

...or is he?

the last scene, and particularly its last frame, are so important. because the way he raise his gaze, the way his hair falls into his face, the CRIMINAL looks oddly familiar.

the strand of hair almost looks like...a scar over his right eye.

it's as if the criminal is destined for the same fate as the commoner before him: to become the cop, to become the king.

because, perhaps, the greed, anger, hubris, and a thirst for power are things that can never be *truly* killed, at least not permanently.

maybe instead of a linear journey to defeating these vices, it is a recurrent one.

it is a cycle of recognizing these things within ourselves and rooting them out, again and again, whenever they begin to grow in strength.

yoongi uses these four characters to explore that cyclical struggle against these vices, perhaps even as a commitment to continually pursue freedom from them.

#haegeum #daechwita @BTS_twt

(obligatory note that this is of course my own interpretation, and there will be many others out there with their own nuances that are just as valid. the best part of yoongi's music is how it speaks to each of us in very personal ways — happy streaming everyone!)

+ADDING ON

the more i reflect on this, the more i think the fading of the scar from KING ➡️ COMMONER ➡️ COP is worth mentioning. the cycle goes on, but its like every time the anger + greed are killed, they’re just a littleeee bit less prominent or strong in their reincarnation.

meaning: this may be an ongoing battle, but there is value to every time it is fought and won. perhaps the CRIMINAL is indeed destined for the same fate as the others before him, but something is still won in his victory.

in other words, even if it is a continual cycle of facing the vices that hold us hostage, subduing them gets a little easier each time we try. and though we can never defeat them permanently, there can be worthwhile progress made in this cycle.

#haegeum #daechwita @BTS_twt