Introduction: In every BTS album, there is a story being told to the audience, the story involving seven young boys trying to find themselves by going through obstacles such as young love, friendship, and family. They also go through more serious topics that are less talked about such as depression, loneliness, and suicide. The Wings album was heavily influenced by the novel, Damien by Hermann Hesse, which can be seen in many of the music videos, more specifically the Blood, Sweat and Tears, music video that talks about how the darkness is trying to tempt the boys in choosing the path of evil. There are many more religions represented within the music video, some being Abraxas, Icarus, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ. The song and music video are both talking about temptation, but they are not connected. “Even my blood, sweat and tears. Even my body, heart and soul. I know that it’s all yours. This is a spell that’ll punish me…” (1:28) and “Peaches and cream, sweeter than sweet. Chocolate cheeks and chocolate wings. But your wings are the devil’s. There is a bitter next to your sweet” (1:38), these lyrics are from Jin’s point of view and talks about a girl who is tempting Jin to sin, but everything about her makes Jin love her even more, which makes it difficult for him to resist, being a punishment.

Jin/Damien: At the beginning of the music video, the younger members were paired with one of the older members and are seen to be messing around with each other, this is connected to the novel called Damien by Hermann Hesse. Every member was paired with another except for Jin who is the oldest in the group, he is seen standing by himself, staring at the painting called The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Bruegel. The painting shows the first battle between good and evil, heaven and hell. As Jin continued to stare at the painting, the camera zooms out to show that he is between two doors, the black door represents the pathway of evil while the white door represents the pathway of good (0:09-0:46). In the scene where the members at sitting around a table, Jin is shown to be sitting at the head of the table, and in front of each member is an apple and a chalice, both symbolizing temptations. The sky that surrounded the members was different colors, mostly yellow, violet, orange, and red, these colors represent depression, inferiority, lack of self-worth, and aggression. This scene represents another part of the novel, Damien, where it is Sinclair’s confirmation day, marking the end of his childhood. The last lesson Sinclair was taught in class was the last supper, which is why the members are sitting around a table. Before Jin could take a sip from the chalice, he stops and looks to his left to see J-hope shooting an arrow towards V trying to save him, this helps remind Jin of what is good and what is evil, no longer giving into temptation (2:36-2:45). RM is heard quoting Damien during the music video, which was “He too … was a tempter; he, too, was a link to the second, the evil world with which I no longer wanted to have anything to do…” (4:06). In this part of the novel, Sinclair was finally free from his bully, all because of Damien, but Damien did not want Sinclair to remember him as the one who helped him fight off his bully because he did not want to be connected to evil. As Jin stood up on the table and slowly let go of a balloon, which symbolizes letting go of one’s childhood. Once a balloon is out of reach, it will never come back, meaning that his youth is never coming back which is a part of growing up (4:02-4:18).

J-hope/Frau Eva: When J-hope is first shown in the music video, he is seen sitting on a chair in the middle of a bath surrounded by black water as he stares at an arrow in his hand, playing with it. Behind him is Michelangelo’s statue of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus Christ after the crucifixion, but the statue behind J-hope is not complete, meaning that the boys are still trying to figure out who they are and whom they want to be. Since J-hope is not submerged in the black water, it shows that he has his thoughts under control, unlike the rest of the members. When J-hope shot an arrow towards V, it was not meant to hurt him, but to save him by warding off the evil within V (1:51-1:58). Through this action, J-hope is shown to still have hope that they could get through this without choosing the path of evil. Even though J-hope too has these dark and depressing thoughts in his head, he still tries his best to help out his friends, especially V who has fallen more into the darkness, which is why he represents Eva, Damien’s actual mother, and Sinclair’s motherly figure.

V/Abraxas/Damien: When J-hope shot V with the arrow, he did not feel any pain because he was under a veil that symbolized protection and hides his pain (2:03-2:13). In the Wings album storyline, V hid the problems he was having with his abusive father from the members, and because of that they never knew what was happening to V at home. After killing his father, V is seen to be jumping off a balcony in front of the painting called, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel. After melting his wings from flying too close to the sun, Icarus fell into the ocean and died. V’s character in the storyline represents Icarus when he jumped off a platform near the ocean and drowned in another music video (3:19). In this scene, he is portrayed as Abraxas when the veil is lifted off of V, showing two marks on his back where his wings should be. That the end of the novel, Damien gives Sinclair a kiss on the lips, which is shown towards the end of the music video when Jin kisses the large statue that has V’s wings. This kiss symbolizes Sinclair and Jin’s acceptance of themselves, embracing the world of both good and evil (4:44-5:33).

Conclusion: Towards the end as Jin walks towards a mirror, above it is a quote from Fred Rich Nietzsche that says, “You must have chaos inside you to give birth to a dancing star.” As Jin stares at his reflection, beside him are two flowers, lilies, which represent rebirth, and his friends and liatris, also known as the blazing star, these two flowers represent the two worlds that he has accepted. After facing chaos and hardships, the members were finally able to find themselves and learned that hardships are a part of growing up and maturing. At the end of the video, Jin’s face starts to crack, meaning that he too found himself and is ready to show the world who he truly is (5:45-6:03).