Thread by @poursomesuga

THE START OF A CYCLE AND THE CREATION OF A KING

a thread on #amygdala, #daechwita, and #haegeum as a trilogy

yoongi told us that he envisioned these as connected stories that we should watch together, and though amygdala was released last, it marks the chronological starting point of the series by showing us an origin for the first two episodes.

in amygdala, we see yoongi both in a dark room on a couch, and on the streets of seoul on a motorcycle. when motorcycle yoongi gets hit by a car, the yoongi in the room flinches, and a blade appears in his hand.

yoongi tries to hold his hand back from cutting his face, his arm shakes from the effort—but he loses the battle and makes the slash.

we then see a rapid-fire succession of difficult memories represented by fleeting images as yoongi pleads for his amygdala to help him forget.

the story of trainee yoongi injuring his shoulder in a biking accident is well-known bangtan lore. he was delivering food to make an income and collided with a car, which nearly prevented him from continuing on as an idol.

in the mv, this memory serves as a turning point for yoongi. something breaks within him in that moment, to the point that it creates an emotional scar so visceral it becomes embodied as an *actual* scar on the yoongi within the room.

the scar is then also connected to other moments of his deeply personal trauma as they flash across the screen in rapid images and are shared with us in his lyrics.

and in this moment of living and reliving trauma, a king is born.

the result of that trauma is the madness of the #daechwita king: violent and vicious, ruthlessly ambitious and angry.

but he is also a *conquerer*, and he sits atop a throne. yoongi's trauma has hurt him, but it has also played an important role in fueling him to success.

ultimately though, the king is murdered by his adversary, the commoner. black-haired and face-scarred, the commoner represents yoongi's attempt to take back control over the fury & ego that consumed him.

we leave daechwita presuming that is successful, until we get to haegeum.

in haegeum, the black-haired agust d with a face scar is back, but this time as a corrupt cop with parallels to the mad king.

the persona that yoongi's trauma has created has not, in fact, been killed for good.

his anger, his greed, his lust for power—they drive the cop agust d as they had driven the king.

yoongi is telling us that the journey to defeating these vices is a recurrent one. it is a cycle of recognizing these things within ourselves and rooting them out again and again.

as suggested by @jiminsfangs, right before the cop's death, we see him smirking as though he knows this will not be his final end.

it's the same smirk of the embodiment yoongi's trauma in amygdala.

and trauma, not coincidentally, can work on a *cycle* of trigger & response.

over time, as he kills the parts of himself borne of trauma, he gets better at it, and the scar fades.

on the final character, it does not appear at all, and is only hinted at in the last frame, with his hair falling over his eye where the scar had once been.

what this tells us: even though trauma is always waiting to be reborn, and even though we may not be able to permanently kill the personas it creates within ourselves...

every time we face it (whatever that may mean), we get stronger, and it gets weaker. we heal.

this series also tells us that, perhaps, this trauma helped make us who we are—for worse, yes, but also for the better. it can break us down just as it can fuel us. this is a messy truth, but survival often is a messy thing.

and in the end, all we can do is keep pursuing this cycle of growth, and hope to someday become better versions of ourselves for it.

#amygdala #daechwita #haegeum

(and as usual, here to add: this is my own interpretation, what i personally take away from this powerful trilogy. but i know that it speaks differently to each of us, which makes it all the more special!)