The Trickster Theory: We were the ones fooled in BST MV

This theory explains how in the Blood, Sweat and Tears MV, we were the ones who were actually "tricked" by Taehyung.

First, I'll have to explain archetypes and what their roles are. Carl Jung identified four archetypes of the human psyche:

1. The Self

2 The Shadow

3. Anima

4. The Ego

Blood, Sweat and Tears was a plethora of references. Citing from Icarus to The Fall of the Rebel Angels. But I think, this video mainly uses the shadow archetypes.

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Brief explanation:

The shadow is the first one to be met in our self discovery. It is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego personality. The side of you that you do not want to show or something you may not even be aware of. To assimilate it to your conscious personality, you have to be able to acknowledge it as part of yourself.

The resistance of the shadow are bound up by projections. The difficulty lies in recognizing that the flaw is not on the other person you are projecting to but in yourself. After all, it is very hard for anyone to come to terms with the possibility that they may be wrong about anything.

Recognition of the shadow is deflected through projections and these projections are created by the Maya, the "Spinning Woman" who creates illusion by her dancing. She is also closely associated with the mother whose loving relationship with her son creates a sense of happiness, safety and love. However, this is an illusion and a false sense of peace. For as long as the boy is with his mother, he is never obliged to face the world.

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From the start, we see imagery of the mother or a veiled woman. This represents the creation of a false sense of safety through a mother's (fake) love.

There were also multiple shots of Jin in between two doors possibly to show that he is torn between good and evil, light and darkness

Jin is also looking at a painting called "Fall of the Rebel Angels" by Pieter Bruegel. This could also a call back on their School Trilogy personas where they were rebels against the school system and society in general.

I have several notes on the other boys which I will address on a different post as I'd like to focus on the Trickster Theory on here.

So, we can say that for this video, Jin is the central character who is torn between good and evil and the one who has to discover his own shadow. From how they behaved, we concluded that the boys failed this test as one by one they fell for their own temptations. (Note: I still have no idea what Yoongi's weakness is supposed to be - he was just in a room???) And that even Jin in the end, is fooled as he kissed the winged statue and proceeds to crumble.

BUT! If that was the case, I couldn't understand how they could proceed to the anima, another archetype, if they weren't able to become conscious (not consumed by) of their shadow. It didn't make sense to me so I went ahead and rewatched the video.

And I realized, someone else who has been under the veil this whole time?

Taehyung

Is it safe to say that he was part of the illusion? I think so. Even more, his character has had a peculiar relationship with Jin, especially when you think about how it is his "sin" that Jin had chosen to intervene in. If his reason for travelling in time is correcting his mistakes, how come he didn't go to the time when he told the principal about their secret place? Why does he always circle back to Taehyung?

I concluded that Taehyung is a projection of Jin's darkness in this video. Something that he feels guilty about that he chose to project to others. But Taehyung isn't just any projection. The closest I could guess was that he represents the Trickster Archetype also known as Saboteur who serves as a catalyst towards the path of the fool which could eventually lead to self discovery.

At the end of the video, we see BTS running outside. They revert to acting carefree after giving in to their temptations, accepting the false safety created by the illusion. JIn stays behind looking back and Taehyung starts walking towards him to cover his eyes.

Taehyung covers Jin's eyes as they both stay back.

And what do we see in the next scene? The statue of a dark winged angel. Take note that in this scene this is from the perspective of the viewer.

I believe this is where the trickery starts. We open our eyes to the next scene of a winged statue in front of us. (You could literally see Taehyung moving his hand away from the camera as if he really was covering our eyes)

Jin walks up to the statue:

I don't think it's coincidence that from this angle, Jin looks like he has wings. My theory is that he is. That is him recognizing his own shadow.

We are thrown off from this by the next image of Taehyung being unveiled and revealing scars on his back as if he had wings before.

But my theory is that, this is part of the trick. That Taehyung is fooling US into thinking that Jin is about to do something wrong. But he ends up kissing the statue. I've asked myself why would they end it that way until I thought that it was probably Jin's way of accepting is dark parts and his insecurity,

And right after that, all hell broke loose! Jin looks to the mirror and possibly realizes that none of this illusion is real and looks at himself in the mirror.

You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star

We also see the image of the mother crack which to me, signifies that the illusion has been broken

Jin looks at himself in the mirror and at the flower seeing that what he was seeing was not a true reflection. (I'm not sure if that's supposed to be the smeraldo flower)

And starts to see the cracks (flaws) in himself.

In contrast to Jimin whose eyes were also covered, but in his case, green liquid starts falling down his face. We'll have to keep in mind that Jimin's solo song in this album is titled Lie and this could be him still denying his own shadow.

So in conclusion, I think JIn was successful in bringing his own shadow into consciousness contrary to him succumbing to evil and being destroyed by it. We were all led to think that it was Taehyung who was leading them to temptation, but he was the one who "opened our eyes" while making us think that it was Jin he tricked.

Also take note that they referenced Icarus through Jungkook. And one of the themes around Icarus' story is hubris which could possibly be us thinking we've figured out everything.

Narrative - wise, it makes more sense for Jin to have discovered his own shadow, being true to the concept of self discovery.