Let me start by saying I'm feeling tired today, so if this isn't especially eloquent I apologize! I've been wanting to discuss this for a while, and today feels like a good time. Let's talk about how this series functions as a "MAP" of the Soul, shall we?
When Map of the Soul: Persona was released, it was met with confusion by many critics and some ARMYs, who found it to be so seemingly "light" or "bubblegum" that they felt it was inconsistent with the trajectory down which BTS has been going for some time now.
I personally found this assessment not only shocking but amazingly short-sighted. Anyone who looks at the tracklist and lyrics for MOTS:P for more than ten minutes should be able to see that it begins "light" and ends "heavy" - you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see it.
The first track of MOTS:P is Intro: Persona. Very obviously, this track is meant as an introduction not just to this album but to the era, and the lyric content confirms this. You can read my analysis of the track here, if you'd like.
Following Intro: Persona, we launch fully into the first "thought" of the era with Boy With Luv. If we are to discuss the MOTS era with an approach that takes BTS's intentions into account, we have to note immediately that this era is directly tied by its name to Jung's theories. Jung's Model of the Psyche is not linear; rather, it is made up of overlapping circles that connect around and through each other, interacting at points both conscious and unconscious. Many, many ARMYs and Jungians have provided complex analyses of this diagram and what it might mean for BTS, so I don't want to reinvent that wheel. But what I do think is important to note here is that by naming the first album of this series Map of the Soul: Persona, BTS is essentially beginning by placing themselves at the outer rim of the upper circle here.
If we accept that MOTS: Persona is intended to begin at the point furthest to the outside edge of this Jungian model, this tells us the songs at the start of the MOTS:P album should reflect 1. "Outer World" perceptions of BTS and 2. The 'persona' BTS projects toward society. And, in fact, this is exactly what we see. The tracks "Boy With Luv" and "Mikrokosmos" perfectly represent BTS's persona.
Boy With Luv presents the "boy band/idol" candy-colored, perfect image the majority of the world sees and expects to see when it looks at BTS. Mikrokosmos represents the beautiful relationship of BTS and ARMY in which we are lights to ourselves, to each other and to our shared universe. This is the "ideal" of this relationship - it is the persona that they choose to present as the "best" of their experience as idols.
I think it's important to note once again that in Jung's model, "persona" is not positive or negative as long as it is brought into a balance of self-understanding. Persona is only dangerous when it entirely dominates or controls the person.
From Boy With Luv and Mikrokosmos, we begin already to see a shift take place. Far from being simple, Make It Right as a track reflects an inner turmoil that is already beginning to emerge; would they need to "Make It Right" if nothing was wrong? But at this point, they are still expressing a desire to "fix" what is wrong, and a belief that it is possible to be the hero for someone else - in this case, ARMY. Home is a reversal of this exact same concept - in it, BTS is expressing their own feelings of isolation and "lostness", but presents an image of ARMY as their "Home" or their safe place - these are, again, the versions of themselves and of ARMY that they consciously choose to focus upon. This is the "perfect world" version of this universe and this relationship - one in which everything can be fixed and love always wins. These are not lies, but the problem with this "perfect world" is that it cannot be sustained without an unhealthy rejection of Shadow. The outer "persona' cannot exist in a positive sense if Shadow is not acknowledged, and in these tracks we begin to see that shadow appear.
BTS has spoken often about the idea of BTS and ARMY being one, and they see ARMY as intrinsically linked to the Persona they are presenting to the world. But in Make It Right and Home, they are already traveling from Persona toward Shadow, although not yet acknowledging it.
This brings us to Jamais Vu. Honestly, anyone who claims to think MOTS:P is a "light" album has clearly never taken the time to read the lyrics to this song. Although it employs the metaphor of playing a video game, its sentiments are incredibly heartbreaking. In my opinion, Jamais Vu is the true beginning of the Shadow making its presence known. BTS is revisiting scenarios of Boy With Luv, Mikrokosmos, Make It Right and Home, but with vastly different results. Where there was joy, there is sadness.
Where there was triumph, now they are unable to find a solution. They are faced with the same challenges, both external & internal, they've walked through a million times, but this time they cannot find a remedy. This is the breakdown of the Persona, but they explicitly state their desire to escape the Shadow.
It's so fascinating that at any given time BTS is exploring both their external experience of their career and the internal experience of their own personalities and selves, while also performing a kind of philosophical contemplation of a topic or idea. One of the pitfalls that it's so easy to stumble into when analyzing their lyrics is to assume meaning that isn't there. Particularly because BTS is such a consciously vulnerable group of artists, I often find myself hesitating to make too many assumptions about their intentions in writing songs. However, as we look at their lyrics in MOTS:P, even just from a purely linguistic standpoint we can see the surfacing and resurfacing of Shadow even as they would prefer to remain in the functionally more "perfect" world of their Persona.
If Jamais Vu is a desperate cry to escape the Shadow in favor of the Persona, Dionysus dials this sentiment up to an anguished 11 and puts desire into action. In Dionysus, BTS's Persona becomes larger than life almost literally (and in their performances and VCRs connected with the song, it is done absolutely literally). Faced with the encroaching Shadow beginning to emerge in Jamais Vu, they reject it completely in favor of entirely embracing the persona of the "Artist", elevating themselves to the level of the gods of Mount Olympus in the process.
If Boy With Luv is the pinnacle of their "Idol" persona, Dionysus is the pinnacle of BTS's "Artist" persona. Immersing themselves in creative power and desire, they revel in it to the point of drunkenness; as Yoongi says in his verse, "Art at this level is over-drinking".
MOTS:P begins with an introduction to the era and the "classic" presentation of BTS as Idols with Boy With Luv, and it ends with BTS consciously choosing to embrace the most brash, most extreme, most seemingly arrogant persona they can - that of the godlike Artist.
Then, into this moment of extremity when BTS is consciously choosing to present themselves at the full height of their power and their creative intensity, comes Interlude: Shadow.
The first thing that has to be noted about Interlude: Shadow is that it's not another Intro. MOTS:P had no Outro, and therefore the narrative begun in it has not reached its conclusion; many of us had already guessed this, but the fact that Shadow is Interlude: Shadow is confirmation of this.
An Interlude, traditionally, is a pause between the acts of a play. It also can refer to something that is performed during an intermission at the theater. If we approach Dionysus as the end of Act I of the Map of the Soul journey, then Interlude: Shadow is meant to act as the transitional moment between Act I and Act II.
If Map of the Soul was a play, Interlude: Shadow would act as the pause between acts; in it, Yoongi as the main speaker "comes to his senses" and finds himself teetering at the pinnacle of achievement. This is not only an obvious reference to the position of BTS in the world, but also reflects the theme of drunkenness that was used throughout Dionysus:
Picture a person who has become entirely intoxicated (in this case on art) to the point of passing out, who then wakes up with a hangover and realizes that their position is incredibly dangerous.
It's not a stretch to claim that Interlude: Shadow is meant to be the pause between acts of the Map of the Soul play, because Yoongi also references this "pause" in his lyrics (see image). Confronting the reality of his position, he stops to think before he makes his choice.
Again, I don't want to get too far into the weeds of what the "real life" situation for BTS is, but the lyrics here are directly connected to Yoongi's poem "What A Relief" from one of their early 2018 Run episodes, seen below,
and also to his comments at their 2018 Festa Bangtan Dinner, in which he explicitly discussed his own struggle with fear at the end of 2017, following their rise to dominance and performance at the 2017 AMAs. (See this article for details)
The themes of Interlude: Shadow are so directly similar to both of these examples from Yoongi that I do not believe it is overstepping to assume that the struggle depicted in the track reflects BTS's struggle in late 2017-early 2018, and the choice they had to make at that time. For any new ARMYs who may not be aware, at the end of 2018, BTS openly acknowledged that they had faced a real crisis as a group at the beginning of 2018, and even considered disbanding at that time because of what they were experiencing. They chose to continue on together, but not before taking an extended time of contemplation where they fully explored their feelings about their situation, before going on a trip together as a group, without cameras present. I might be wrong, but I believe that is the "pause" Yoongi is referencing here:
However, Yoongi does not stop at the pause; he keeps going, and so did BTS. Rather than running away from it, in Interlude: Shadow they begin to directly interact with the Shadow, recognizing explicitly for the first time in the MOTS series that Shadow is part of themselves.
RM's comments at the Map of the Soul press conference in 2019 are extremely important to bring into this discussion - asked about their experience as artists and creatives, he reframed the question and emphasized their awareness that Shadow cannot be avoided or gotten rid of, but rather they must "be friends with" their Shadow.
In Interlude: Shadow, Yoongi takes the first step toward the possibility of this - they cannot become friends with their Shadow if they refuse to acknowledge that it exists and is part of who they are. In this track, Yoongi acknowledges the Shadow and interacts with it directly; in the end, the distorted voice that speaks seems to be his Shadow itself, addressing him directly in a monologue that feels like the establishment of Rules of Engagement in a war.
Interlude: Shadow does its job as the performance between acts in the Map of the Soul era - it begins in exhaustion and ends with engagement. It marks the full transition from the avoidant, strident expression of Persona in Dionysus to the raw wrestling with Shadow in Black Swan.
Before I get into discussion of Black Swan, I have to point out that we don't know yet where Black Swan falls positionally in the album, and I do think that's somewhat key, given how much the series seems to depend on a running narrative (see everything above). However, even without the tracklist being available, I believe the content of the track speaks clearly enough about where in this process of individuation it lies. First, let's look at the press release comments about the track, which state the intent quite clearly:
The lyrics of Black Swan are very poetic and complex, and deserve attention far beyond what I can give them here, so I recommend looking at the work done to translate and explain them here by doolsetbangtan.
If we are going to analyze Black Swan, we also have to look at the art film, which has choreography that also helps to further unravel the meaning of the track.
Black Swan is, whether in the album or simply in how it has been presented to us as part of this comeback, our first look at the process of BTS exploring their relationship to Shadow. The driving force of the track is the fear of losing love for music and for their art; in the art film, the central figure is overwhelmed by this fear, held back by it, before breaking free of it and descending downward (literally, in the film) to a point of full engagement with Shadow. What is extremely important about this is that this is a conscious choice to engage with the unconscious - this is the real process of exploring the Shadow.
One aspect of Black Swan which I haven't seen discussed by many people is that it is clearly describing a dream experience. Jungian analysis often addresses the topic of dreams, and Shadow is often part of this discussion. If we look at the imagery used in Black Swan, of silent screams, running but going nowhere, sinking as if in a trance, distortions of time and sensory experiences, all of this is common to dream experiences. The confrontation of the Shadow in a dream state and the choice to engage with it fully then lead to this:
The feelings of powerlessness, fear, hopelessness, lack of agency, lack of passion, lack of awareness of time...all of this changes suddenly as the speaker awakes and resolves not to be "dragged away" again; taking control of the situation, he "shouts out with ferocity".
At this point, as we look toward the next track release and the release of the Map of the Soul: 7 album, we have been led into Act II of this drama - BTS, as the central figure of the narrative, has chosen to face Shadow and is engaged fully with it. What remains to be seen is how they will convey their process of engagement; how they will show us the way they are working to, as RM put it, "make friends with" their Shadow and become fully integrated as humans and artists. I want to emphasize once again that all of this is not fully linear; to attempt to plot a straight line from A to Z would be pointless, because we are talking about the complexities of human experience. Life is more complex than that, and the music of BTS always reflects life. But whatever this journey holds next, it is worth our time.
BTS's album Map of the Soul: 7 can be preordered HERE
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