Possible links:
BUB UniverseHYYH SeriesHYYH UniverseBTS UniverseBangtan UniverseBTS Music Video Universe
The BU (vaguely named so by Big Hit Entertainment, likely meaning "BTS Universe" or "Bangtan Universe"), is an on-going storyline comprised mainly of a series of Concept Music Videos (plus video teasers/short films and additional content) found in Korean boy group BTS' videography, starting from 2015. Not all of the music videos they release are part of the BU - the ones that unquestionably are have a "BU belongs to..." disclaimer in the video description -, but even then, it's not unlikely that they're still connected somehow. The series includes:
- The 화양연화 or HYYH (Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa, or The Most Beautiful Moment in Life) series
- HYYH: Part 1
- HYYH: Part 2
- HYYH: Young Forever
- WINGS
- The LOVE YOURSELF series.
- LOVE YOURSELF: Her
- LOVE YOURSELF: Tear
Here, each one of the members plays a fictional character both named after and partly inspired by their real-life counterpart (with the members themselves having input in the story), but at the same time being completely distinct; the characters all were in the same school at one point, they all live in an environment where Adults Are Useless (and often highly abusive), and each has very serious issues and traumas of their own. While all characters get their focus, the closest thing to a protagonist seems to be Jin, who is trying to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and fix the series of events that led to the group's separation (and the resulting tragedy befalling the rest of the members), with Taehyung being the closest thing to an antagonist.
Also, the series is a complete Mind Screw. With a bad case of Teasing Creators, a story told in Anachronic Order, and lots and lots of symbolism, half the fun of watching the series is making or following up on theories regarding what it's actually going on in the story; so far, deals with the Devil as well as Time Travel and/or dimension hopping seem to be involved. Maybe.
The storyline (which also went on to inspire other larger-storyline video series for other Kpop artists) is closely linked to the general narrative and themes present in BTS' music: HYYH deals with the struggles of youth, growing up, and facing the future; WINGS is about facing temptation, as well as a Whole-Plot Reference (both album and videos) to Herman Hesse's Demian; and LOVE YOURSELF, which has as a main theme the idea of trying and failing to love and be loved while covering the darker, truer side of yourself. Likewise, the characters deal with school and societal pressures, family and mental health issues, lack of self-esteem, and so on. Some songs also reference events and concepts from the story.
There's also lots of other content with additional information and clues. This includes the HYYH Notes, a collectible series of text narrations (from the point of view of each one of the characters at key moments of the story) found in the LOVE YOURSELF (Her and Tear) physical albums. Other clues for both concepts and key events have been found in other music videos and trailers, concept pictures, tour VCRs, live shows and even commercials. Most notably, a 2017 selfie uploaded on BTS's Twitter (of Jin holding some flowers, with "Smeraldo" as the only caption) led to the discovery of an entire blog
(now closed) of a flower shop dedicated to a fictional flower named Smeraldo, site revealed to have been up since 2015.
WARNING: This series contains some violent/possibly triggering content, including murder, depression, suicide and physical/emotional abuse by parents and figures of authority. The first video of the series has a censored version for a reason, y'know.
The videos that are explicitly part of the series - therefore a must-watch in order to understand the story - are (in order):
- I NEED U (Original version). Music video. The very first one. Make sure to watch the original, uncensored version, as the normal version cuts a lot of key information due to violent/possibly triggering scenes.
- 화양연화 on stage : prologue. Short film.
- RUN. Music video.
- Epilogue: Young Forever. Music video.
- WINGS teasers: a series of teasers/short films for each of the solo songs of the then upcoming WINGS album, and therefore for each of the seven members/characters. These are:
- 1. Begin (Jungkook)
- 2. Lie (Jimin)
- 3. Stigma (V/Taehyung)
- 4. First Love (Suga/Yoongi)
- 5. Reflection (RM/Namjoon)
- 6. Mama (J-Hope/Hoseok)
- 7. Awake (Jin)
- 1. Begin
- Blood, Sweat and Tears. Music video.
- 2017 BTS LIVE TRILOGY EPISODE III THE WINGS TOUR Trailer. Trailer for the WINGS Tour.
- Blood, Sweat and Tears (Japanese ver.). Japanese version of the song and music video, with original scenes and imagery.
- LOVE YOURSELF Highlight Reels. A series of short films originally released in 4 parts (起, 承, 轉, and 起承轉結), with the 4th - in the link - also compiling the previous parts into one 13-minute video.
- Euphoria : Theme of LOVE YOURSELF 起 Wonder. Short film and music video for Euphoria, song that has yet to be released in an album.
- 'FAKE LOVE' Official Teaser 1. Contains a key scene not present in the following music video, which is...
- FAKE LOVE. Music video.
- HYYH Notes: Booklets with narration from each one of the characters at different points in the story, found in the physical albums of LOVE YOURSELF: Her and LOVE YOURSELF: Tear, revealing key plot points and backstory. Each version of the albums (L, O, V and E, for Her, and Y, O, U and R for Tear) contains different Notes, and you need to read all to get a complete sense of the story.
- The albums themselves contain elements that tie lyrically or conceptually into the story; most notably, the title songs, the Intros and Outros, the solos in WINGS, and the song "The Truth Untold", which references the story of the Smeraldo, found in the flower shop website.
- The comeback trailers (mainly "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life", "Boy Meets Evil", "Serendipity" and "Singularity"), which contain the intro songs for each of their corresponding albums, introduce the concept and themes of the album and symbolically tie into the storyline.
- I NEED U (Japanese ver.) and RUN (Japanese ver.). Japanese versions of both songs and music videos, with original scenes and imagery (though is mostly references and gives hints of the story rather than actually advancing the plot).
This series provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: The boys don't live exactly in the best environment, with all the adults (both parents and teachers) present being either negligent, abusive, or absent.
- Anachronic Order: There's not a completely clear order for the videos and the HYYH Notes (though the latter and the Highlight Reels contain some key dates), adding to the Mind Screw nature of the series.
- Arc Words: "You need to survive."
- Breaking the Fellowship: After the trip to the sea, they all went on separate ways.
- Deal with the Devil: A recurring theme (along with Set Right What Once Went Wrong), seen especially in WINGS, though what the deal consists of is not explicitly stated.
- Former Friends Photo: The Polaroid pictures of the trip to the sea, particularly the one with all seven boys together in the truck (see the page image), are recurring elements in the series.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: While they are all friends, certain relationships (Namjoon and Taehyung, Jimin and Hoseok, and Yoongi and Jungkook) are noticeably stronger. Some (or all) of them, though, might possibly even be Implied Love Interests.
- Lonely Together
- Mind Screw: The series relies heavily on symbolism and a lot of key elements are implied, to the point that many fan theories center around trying to figure out what is going on. Each new piece of information just creates more questions.
- Missing Mom: Yoongi's mother died in a fire. Taehyung's also seems to be dead or missing. Hoseok's abandoned him when he was four.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: A recurring theme. Jin is seemingly trying to fix things and avoid his friends' fates in "I NEED U" and "Prologue", possibly through Time Travel or dimension hopping. He seems to achieve it in "Euphoria", but it's unclear whether it's a real scenario, an ImagineSpot, or a LotusEaterMachine.
- There Are No Therapists: All of the characters seem to be suffering from depression, neglect, or some sort of trauma. They only have each other until they separate.
- TropeTitle: List of tropes that are fixtures of the series.
- TropeTitle: Any tropes in which the show is already cited can be retrieved from the Wiki if you text-search in a separate window on the program name.
Episodes of this series provide examples of:
- The guidelines for listing show-level tropes apply to this list, too. Alphabetical by trope title.
- List of tropes that are only seen in a single episode or a small handful of episodes.
- Tropes about episodes, like Bottle Episode, are prime examples.
- This list may also include tropes relating to a secondary or tertiary character or location.
- Abusive Parents
- Jungkook's parents seem to ignore him, which leads him to emotionally depend on his friends, who are all older than him.
- Taehyung's father has physically abused both of his children while drunk, even to the point of strangling his son.
- Downplayed/implied for Yoongi and Jin. Yoongi's father is incredibly strict, to the point that there must absolutely no sound in the house after a certain hour. Jin is implied to be very afraid of his father.
- See Parental Abandonment for Hoseok.
- Cooldown Hug: In "RUN", Jungkook attempted this when Yoongi started drunkenly trashing the room. When it didn't work (only getting pushed to the floor), Jungkook tried punching him instead. It didn't work, either.
- Deal with the Devil: Jungkook's HYYH Note, released on Twitter in 2018, states that he made a deal with someone to stay alive after the car crash, even if this meant life will be more painful.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Taehyung jumps off a watchtower to the sea in "Prologue", and describes his suicidal thoughts in the HYYH Notes in Tear.
- In "I NEED U", Hoseok overdoses, Yoongi sets himself on fire and Jimin seemingly attempts to drown himself in the bathtub.
- According to the HYYH Notes, Jungkook gets to a point that he thinks no one needs or wants him, so he almost throws himself off a building; it's also revealed he got purposefully beaten up in "I NEED U". Right before getting hit by a car in the same video, Jungkook is seen simply staring at the incoming vehicle, unmoving.
- Former Friends Photo: Both Jimin and Jin are seen with one. Jimin burns his.
- It's All My Fault
- Both Namjoon and Jin blame themselves for Taehyung's fate.
- There was an incident where a teacher walked into the room where Jungkook and Yoongi were in, leading to Yoongi getting beaten up while defending Jungkook. Both Jin (who pointed the teacher to the room thinking there wasn't anyone there) and Jungkook blame themselves for Yoongi getting expelled from the school as a result.
- Yoongi feels very guilty over Jungkook's car accident, to the point that he can't even see him when he gets to the hospital and uncharacteristically ends up in tears. He seems to want to avoid being relied on, as he thinks he'll only get others hurt, which might have to do with how his mother died.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: It's unclear if "Epilogue: Young Forever" - where the group happily reunites after getting out from individual mazes - is merely symbolic, an Imagine Spot, or this trope. Same goes for "Euphoria": while Jin seems to have been able to prevent tragedy, both the song lyrics and the video hint at the happiness being temporary or merely an illusion.
- Parental Abandonment: Hoseok was abandoned by his mother at 4 years old, left alone in the middle of an amusement park with only a candy bar left. He's been deeply traumatized since.
- Self-Immolation: Yoongi is seen dumping gasoline and setting the room (and himself) on fire in "I NEED U".
- Self-Made Orphan: Taehyung fatally stabs his father with a bottle to defend his sister in "I NEED U".
- The Stinger:
- After the credits of "Prologue" (in the version that got deleted before Big Hit posted the final one), Jin looks at the photo he took with Yoongi at the gas station... and sees Yoongi has disappeared (or rather, been burned off) from the picture.
- At the end of the uplifting "Euphoria" video, an ominous text appears, followed by a flashback to Jungkook's accident in "I NEED U"
- Time Travel: It's implied in the Highlight Reels that Jin is capable of this. Some characters even mention having a feeling of Déjà Vu in the HYYH Notes.
