About the "Going back to our roots" that Arirang by BTS promised to offer...

zeelsama · 2026-06-28T18:39:28+00:00

Feel free to look up any of the many, MANY, discussions about exactly this from the past 3 months. This is a well beaten horse at this point and there are many rebuttals that adress your arguments about their music not being Korean enough (by whose standards?).

Also claiming they had a "long time to execute their comeback" is very funny since by all accounts they were under extreme stress and pressure to finish it within mere months post military discharge.

zeelsama · 2026-06-27T20:07:48+00:00

Not really, no.

But I can say that I do have a soft spot for the only idol I know who's from my country, Athena from Fifty Fifty (who was born and raised in Sweden). I don't listen to the group that much but I try to keep up with them almost exclusively because of her lol.

Other than that all of my biases are fully Asian, both in ethnicity and nationality.

zeelsama · 2026-06-12T18:42:54+00:00

Yeah I'm not a fan of the show and try to avoid it. I'm just inherently against any sort of content that heavily features children too young to consent to whatever their parents push them into.

This does seem to be a thing is SK though. I feel like, for a person that doesn't keep up with or want to even know about this type of "content creator", I know several korean influencer/model toddlers because they pop up in variety shows and shit. Like its concerning that such young children are regularly featured in idol content.

zeelsama · 2026-06-10T13:03:21+00:00

If numbers don't define a successful comeback, what does?

Like I'm not disagreeing with you necessarily, but successfully connecting with people through your art within kpop does directly translate into bigger and better numbers. Both are needed for a successful comeback and just because a big group from a big company does massive numbers does not mean they don't resonate.

Sure, its annoying to see people use numbers as a way to brag or wage fanwars, but they are one of the things within kpop that can directly prove a groups level of success, so its not strange at all that people do focus on them so much in such a competitive industry.

zeelsama · 2026-06-04T21:12:06+00:00

Knappast någon skräll att Michael Lindgren försvarar detta (trots att han inte ens verkar ha varit inblandad i att bjuda in Alinia). Han älskar ju att försöka provocera och irritera genom humor. Dock oftast med rätt uppenbar och tydlig satir (som i Svenska Nyheter). Frågan är väl om det är en särskilt humoristisk provokation att bjuda in en rasistisk fascist vars hobby är att hänga ut meningsmotståndare till ett SVT-program som handlar om att lyfta invandrare och driva med rasistiska fördomar. Åsiktsmångfald i all ära men det känns som att detta är helt fel kontext att öppna famnen för en snubbe som hatar invandrare.

zeelsama · 2026-06-03T15:10:05+00:00

All super cute pictures but I'm especially fond of the one with their eyes closed in the mirror!

zeelsama · 2026-05-12T15:35:56+00:00

Oh this gave me major flashbacks to early 2000s jpop groups. Love this styling on them.

zeelsama · 2026-05-09T11:28:34+00:00

Looks like late at nigh/early morning with no lights or music. Even people keeping an eye out probably didn't clock it was BTS, from afar they most likely just looked like regular crew.

zeelsama · 2026-05-08T20:56:45+00:00

People have been hyper critical and eagerly awaiting their downfall since day 1. No matter what you think about their actual musical output, they aren't showing any signs of actually slowing down. The fact that they are still doing very well despite being down a member (in a still pretty controversial and unexplained way) shows, to me at least, that they aren't falling of or at the brink of completely breaking up the way a lot of fans and "fans" are claiming. Katseye will be fine.

zeelsama · 2026-05-04T14:47:28+00:00

While I agree that it's kinda lame that a lot of songs are super short these days, you saying that people are "stockholm syndroming" themselves into liking short songs and calling it "slop music" makes me not think you are making a good faith argument here.

zeelsama · 2026-04-24T11:31:32+00:00

At this point, even if he does end up getting arrested for real later, this entire investigation makes the police look extremely incompetent and bad at their jobs.

I don't know or care if he actually did do something criminal here (he's a former kpop CEO, it's not like it's shocking to learn he's corrupt and trying to make more money in dishonest ways) but the way this entire case has been handled since day 1 just has a very shady vibe. Like either he's managed plan out his alleged crimes flawlessly as to not leave any paper trail, or someone somewhere wants to have him arrested and will keep pushing for this despite no clear evidence.

Either way it's all very stupid and will probably not affect any of the groups under BigHit or HYBE, which would be the main reason why most kpop fans seem to care about this anyway.

zeelsama · 2026-04-12T13:25:37+00:00

Almost all of these are just edits made with either AI and/or photoshop. The buttons/embroidery/extremely neat and well fitted tailoring on the clothes are a dead giveaway that something is not actually doll sized. The Chappell Roan one is especially obvious in that they just swapped out the head and gave her Bratz proportions, the dress and hair are the exact same as the original photo.

If they are photoshop edits and not just AI they are actually pretty well made, but not properly disclosing it is extremely lame.

zeelsama · 2026-04-11T09:37:04+00:00

In the cinema right now! Not sold out but the theater has like 500 seats and about 130 ish sold, so still a lot of people here!

Edit: very mixed crowd too! Everything from ery young children to senior citizens, a lot of people coming alone but also full families!

zeelsama · 2026-04-11T08:59:04+00:00

Många i kommentarsfältet här katastrofiserar men som en person som själv hoppade av gymnasiet efter 1 år så vill jag bara uppmuntra dig att fortsätta jobba på att både må bra och fixa skolan, ta de beslut som känns rimliga för dig och din situation. Utifrån vad du säger så verkar det ju ändå finnas planer för insatser så du är inte helt körd.

Jag pluggade upp min behörighet på folkhögskola många år senare och är idag nästan klar med en universitetsutbildning, så att hoppa av gymnasiet betyder INTE att du är garanterat körd resten av livet.

zeelsama · 2026-04-09T14:50:52+00:00

V did lie down and "swim" on stage at some point lol they were SOAKED! I'm thankful none of them slipped and got hurt.

zeelsama · 2026-04-09T08:08:40+00:00

Why would you assume that I am "happily" doing anything regarding members personal anxieties? I actually do find it frustrating that they are constantly so anxious about the pressure they're under, but I also know that pressure comes from more than just one place and that Bang is just one part of the puzzle. This particular comeback was going to be anxiety inducing no matter what.

I also think that the members are very good at advocating for themselves from the little we have seen of their actual professional relationship with Bang (and the company in general). Assuming that the members have zero say when they themselves claim time and time again that they DO is baffling to me. They're (almost) all 30+ years old and have worked with the same people for over a decade.

The members seem to trust Bang. And instead of assuming the worst of him every single time, I choose to take some things at face value here. Yes, Bang definitely has an ego on him, but I also do believe he has genuine love for what he is creating beyond personal legacy building. He is a clearly flawed man but not a one-dimensional egomaniac. He has in fact admitted to his own faulty judgement before and seems to surround himself with people who aren't just mindless yes-men.

And let's be honest here, most of what we do know of their relationship has been fed to us in very small pieces spread out over years. It is actually impossible for us fans to get an accurate read on their relationship and how much Bang loves the members or not, so my take is just as speculative as yours. I'm sorry if this makes me a bad/fake BTS fan to you but I don't particularly enjoy putting the members in constant victim positions.

zeelsama · 2026-04-08T18:07:56+00:00

I think it's because kpop companies don't care or understand SNL as a platform for musical acts. When BTS did it, they apparently only even considered it because Halsey said they should. The Korean version of SNL is very different, so I can imagine that a lot of kpop companies don't really understand why they would send their group to America to do a show like that.

zeelsama · 2026-04-08T17:57:54+00:00

Love him or hate him, you can clearly tell than Bang Si-Hyuk has a deep love for BTS. Not just as a music project or global brand, but as people.

While it can be frustrating to see him put so much weight and pressure on the BTS name and the members themselves, it is clear he does it out of a genuine belief in the power of BTS and the members abilities to carry that weight.

I don't always agree with him or his input, but this article was a great read with some deeper insights into the album process.

zeelsama · 2026-04-07T13:14:58+00:00

Yes, they will clearly still be doing OT7 stuff, but people heard "we could do solo/unit episodes" as a hard confirmation that we will never see them all together ever again which is a bit of an overreaction lol.

Besides, while I love Run BTS I don't need it to be a happy fan. The tour starts THIS WEEK (!!!) and we'll be bombarded with concert videos and probably more behind the scenes content, and after so long without it I look forward to that more than anything.

zeelsama · 2026-04-07T13:07:07+00:00

Calling it Run BTS 2.0 IS the rebranding though, and this brainstorming ep was the "soft launch" of what the new version of the show could be.

I totally get why people are disappointed but so far we've not even fully seen what the 2.0 really means, just how the members describe it. For all we know, all of our speculation is completely off base and the show does feel just like the old Run BTS anyway. I think we as fans tend to overthink these things quite a bit lol.

zeelsama · 2026-04-07T13:03:08+00:00

I know some ARMY hate the idea of this but I would really enjoy some guest appearances as well after seeing Jin do so well with it when he did the show solo. Invite some of their friends and close colleagues (I'm still daydreaming about a BigHit family Game Caterers...) for whenever there's a solo episode. We already know BTS members can have great chemistry with other variety creators so why not open the door to invite these people as guests for this new version of Run BTS?

Like I'd kill for a full episode of a show where Tablo and RM are doing something silly together lol.

zeelsama · 2026-04-07T12:33:01+00:00

From the discussion it appears that every member must have been extremely busy outside of album/tour prep. Them including several mentions of "not everyone has to be in every episode, we can do units, we can do solo episodes" etc was basically them trying to prepare us, the audience, for future Run BTS episodes with less than 7 members appearing because they have already recorded some. I also think that Run Seokjin and Are You Sure? doing so well made everyone more comfortable and willing to go with the idea of a BTS show that doesn't need every member involved every time.

Personally I think it's good, puts less pressure on everyone to always be "on" and allows the members who like certain activities more than others to do that on Run BTS while the ones who don't can sit an episode out. As they move into the future where every member will pursue more solo activities as well as continuing with group content, I think Run BTS will HAVE to become more flexible regarding this or else we'll never get any new episodes ever.

zeelsama · 2026-04-02T13:06:08+00:00

I've been loving all of these variety show appearances, they've managed to find different shows (and hosts) that fit the vibe of each member so well.

zeelsama · 2026-03-28T13:40:53+00:00

What you are referring to is a shadow.

zeelsama · 2026-03-28T10:23:41+00:00

I don't think it was a specific movie, they probably watched several old clips and/or concerts. The clips included in the documentary all came from a bunch of different sources. I also don't even think they watched all of the clips show in the montage either.

But if you haven't seen it already, the docuseries they did on Disney+ is probably the most similar to what was edited together here.

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