All BTS Notes: Chronological Order

Note Theories Explained

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Meaning of Epiphany, and Purpose of Love Yourself

As you may already know, they like to reference novels through plot, metaphors, symbolism and more. In the Wings era it was all about Demian, and now this theory is about "Amor Fati", and the philosophies tied to Friedrich Nietzsche. It was also revealed that Bang PD loves the book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" which is a novel based of the philosophies, according to Namjoon it was like a bible to BigHit's CEO in college. In order to understand all this properly, we have to get into the details. I promise this will all connect and make sense in the end. 

It is essentially the exploration of the philosophical terms lightness, weight and eternal return.

All of this is originated from the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and his idea or concept of eternal return. 

Eternal return dictates that all things in existence recur over and over again for all eternity. This is to say that human history is a preset circle without progress, the same events happening over and over again without the possibility of improvement or change in fate. Time is cyclical rather than linear. 

This is where the philosophical term weight comes in. There are positives and negatives to this existence.

If eternal return was reality, existence would become 'weighty' because it stands fixed in an infinite cycle. The negative is that you are doomed with eternity. The positive is that Nietzsche said that eternal return gives our lives with a sense of weight, or meaning. This fact prevents one from believing things to be fleeting and worthless. 

Now the opposite, lightness. It has pros and cons also.

If eternal return were now impossible, humankind would experience an "absolute absence of burden." or the philosophical term lightness.  Nietzsche says, "What happens but once, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all" It's definitely an interesting perspective. If we live only once, then we can never compare the decisions we make to any alternatives. And if we can never compare different outcomes, we can never know if the decisions we made are correct or not, which means we can never judge them properly or take responsibility for them.

Lightness may seem at first to be a sweet deal – no responsibility, no judgment, no meaning. Sounds like fun – at first. But eventually, we would like for our lives to mean something. We want them to have weight and significance, because we want them to matter.

On the contrary, It's scary, almost paralyzing, to think about eternal return. But on the other hand, it means our lives have meaning, significance, weight. And we can learn to love that.

This brings us to Amor Fati

Amor fati, or the love of one's fate. To embrace eternal return is, roughly speaking, to love one's fate. Namjoon has mentioned this term in an interview. 

Themes of fate and destiny run through this album. Have you always believed you have a set path?

RM: Nietzsche... one of his famous phrases was amor fati, or 'love your fate'. Let's say, me who is born in Korea, and you, Taylor who is born Australia, we can't change that, we cannot have the same life. Amor fati isn't just saying leave everything to fate, but to first accept things we can't change. Love our fate, and our environment, then (think) we could do something with fate and turn directions. We're on some path that's set since we're born, but I still believe we can change some things. So I believe in my faith but I still don't believe in my fate (laughs).

So how does this all tie together?

Jin was choosing between living a life of weight or lightness. Or in simpler terms, continuing with the consequences of his mistakes or trying to redo things. Which he chose to repeat and try to fix his mistakes, as shown in the Highlight Reels Narration. (You can read them in this book.) The Reels express that he wanted to be able to save his friends, but it was the same outcome every time. The narration makes much more sense when you look at it after learning this. Jin didn't want to live a life of lightness, but he couldn't deal with the weight either. So things brings us to what Love Yourself: Answer holds. The final quote in the highlight reel was:

"There are places that can't be reached no matter how many seasons repeat. In the end, what we have to face is breaking through yet another storm. Loving without fear. Hesitancy and farewell. Living as who I am."

This shows that Jin is taking a step towards pursuing Amor Fati. Epiphany means a sudden revelation, which is Jin's solo track in Answer. Jin sort of has a sudden realization of how he should live his life. Amor Fati is essentially the "Answer."

Love Yourself = Amor Fati = Love yourself through everything, through both the victories and mistakes you have made. Acceptance of what your future can hold, and what your past has given you.

Now for how the newest notes fit in. Whew, finally.

Jin sends a message to himself in the cabinet, because of the memory loss associated with his time travel. The letter chronicles all of his past mistakes and Jin realizes that trying to constantly go back and fix things is not the answer but acceptance and learning to love yourself is.

Answer will be about a sense of contentment in one's life and an acceptance of it, such that one could live exactly the same life, in all its minute details, over and over for all eternity.

Jin's father perhaps couldn't do this. Hence, he failed at keeping his friends safe alive and lost all of his memory eventually. But if Jin wants to keep his memories intact and stop with the time travelling which Tae wants him to do, he must understand that even his mistakes are part of him, something he must learn to accept and love. Which brings me to the last lines of the notes:

"The thought occurred to me that maybe none of this was by chance. Maybe I had to come to this place in the end. Only then I could I find the meaning of my mistakes and blunders, and the pain and anxiety that we suffered as a result. I was, for the first time, able to take the first step to find the map of my soul."