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Posted by jennywill Monday, November 30, 2015

'You Must Live On': My theory for BTS 'Run' MV

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So BTS has finally released "Run," which is super, super pretty, but� I feel like we just have more questions than answers. With that in mind, here's my own two cents to all the various theories popping up. Jin is the only one alive. He lives in his memories, and the others, especially V, tries to keep him alive � but fails in the end.


First, we know that Big Hit and BTS have been planning the two HYYHs for a long time, so I think it's fair to go back to their 'BTS Begins' posters when Big Hit
:�"#BTS concert solo posters! Everyone is smiling brightly, but doesn't Jin look so serious? We want to know what the hidden story is!"�


Here is the photo in question, where Jin's taking pills. (The others were painting or playing games and otherwise having fun.)�





So from here, we already knew Jin was being singled out. Next, let's head to "I Need U." Everyone died in this MV, except V and Jin. Rap Monster dies at the gas station, Jimin drowns himself, Suga burns to death, Jungkook is hit by the car, and J-Hope overdoses. For now, we don't have reasons to believe V dies (he kills someone else), and Jin only gets a flower blossoming on his heart.


Okay, but let's focus here on Jin, because even here he seems to be the slightly odd one out.




The lilies he has are white lilies, which as many people probably know, symbolize innocence and purity but are also widely associated with death. For Koreans this is even more so because Koreans have a thing called death by white lilies, where the overwhelming scent of white lilies can kill someone trapped in a room full of them. So we already have Jin not yet dead but connected strongly to death starting from "I Need U".


Now let's move onto the Prologue which follows logically from "I Need U" (it's after V killed the other guy and calls for help).




From the beginning, we see only 6 members � V and the 5 that come to him after he calls for help.�


Where's Jin? Oh � filming. Throughout the Prologue, Jin spends most of his time filming, so a lot of the time we're seeing the MV through his point of view� further proof that these are his memories � or even hallucinations, caused by drugs he's taking in the concert photos. Throughout the Prologue, we see Jin more filming than actually participating in hanging out with the guys. But here's something odd about the way Jin's introduced in the Prologue � Jungkook seems surprised to see him.




It sure seems like a "Hey, it's been a while!" and the others seem incredibly happy to see him.




Hey, butterfly! Okay, I didn't get the butterfly because gifing takes a lot of effort. Anyway, as many know, butterflies are symbols of death souls, and they're around Jin a lot. That's his face after filming the butterfly � he looks pretty concerned for a guy who was just filming his friends goofing around, and perhaps this is the first point where we see Jin kind of jolt back into reality that things aren't quite what he thinks it is. In other words, the points where he realizes he's dreaming. Also, we see in teaser images that Jin is the only one with real butterflies � Jungkook has a butterfly kite and a butterfly shirt print, and Rap Monster has a butterfly tattoo. Not to mention on Jin's teaser images on Instagram, he was tagged #Psique � or Psyche, the goddess of souls.


All right, so now we've so far established: Everyone except Jin and V died in the prologue, and Jin is so far very connected to death and souls.�Let's continue on, which leads us to Rap Monster's scene:




The mirror reads (sorry for my bad cap) "?? ??? ??", or "Must live on" � a message from Rap Monster to Jin.




This is the scene where Jin asks the others if they want to "Go here", and the others agree. Where 'here' is, we don't really know � we only get the sense that it's the beach from the silhouette we get to see in the polaroid. Anyway, on the beach, Jin once again spends most of his time filming the others (and himself, sometimes, on the beach). He takes a photo of the other 6, where he's not included, and the beach scene ends with them all just gathered around the truck. Later on at the gas station, Rap Monster takes a photo of Jin and Suga and stows it away. And then back on the beach, V jumps off the� lookout point? Whatever it is, he jumps off of it, and end of prologue.


Or you think.


At the end of credits, we get Jin sitting in his truck looking out into the sea, and then remembering the polaroid that Rap Monster stowed in his glove compartment. He pulls it out and�




There's no Suga. Only himself. So Jin was hallucinating or dreaming this entire time, imagining he was with all his friends when he wasn't. And now we also see the way V died � he committed suicide by jumping. Jin jolted awake when he realized his dreams didn't quite match up to the way he wanted it to, with all of them alive and happy.


Okay, continuing onward to "Run".


First, we have V striking an X across Jin's chest � meaning he's the one different, and the one that's not supposed to be there with all of them (dead). Later, we have Jin building up a house of cards, only for V to break it down. Let's take a hint from BTS' Outro � "House of Cards". According to them, the house of cards is something they're trying to be happy in even though they know it'll break.�


Jin knows the dream is breaking and he knows it's making things worse but he can't help it because he wants to hold on for as long as he can. Jin actually looks directly into the camera for this, and it's one of the rare time someone does for no reason other than to connect to the viewer. V wants Jin to wake up from the dream, and Jin does, for a short moment.




Later on, when Jungkook and Suga are fighting and Suga breaks the glass that flows into Jin's house of cards falling, Jin tilts his head like he realizes something is off.




Another time when someone looks into the camera is for Jungkook, who's actually dreaming up the party scene that he's just observing with a dull look on his face. We know it's him dreaming because he transfers through various scenes while he sits � the last transition is when Jin looks up at him on the grass, and we find Jungkook sitting on top of the truck. This is another scene where Jin is singled out. He stays in the truck and the rest of them, once the police (we think, anyway, since we don't actually see why they started running) come, they run off and leave Jin behind until Jin catches up and picks them back up.


This, at the end, I think is the point where Jin dies. They run off and leave him behind � as in they're dead and he's still alive, but Jin catches up. V, who has been struggling in the water this entire time, stops and looks at the camera. �And in the ending scene, Jungkook looks like he's unsure for a while � but ends up smiling. And then V finally gets up from his water.




How about the ending scene? With Jin not in Jimin's polaroid?�The way I see it,�the reason Jin wasn't in the photo was that he wasn't dead. But Jimin burns it because now Jin is with the rest of them.



I had a few extra pet theories - Jin is actually the only one alive, and then he sacrifices himself to bring the others back alive and is wiped from the other's memory, but there is literally no proof of this and that's me just guessing. Other theories say Jin is actually the only one dead, and "Run" is how things turned out because the others can't cope with his death.


Either way, we'll never really get an answer unless Big Hit decides to explain everything (or release another MV that just adds more theories). What were your theories?


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