Bangtan Universe Starter Guide
If you’re new to BTS’s fictional universe, it can be overwhelming. There’s a lot of content to catch up on, and even if you’re familiar with the storyline, it can get confusing. This guide aims to give you a place to start!
What is the Bangtan Universe?
The Bangtan Universe (abbreviated BU) is a fictional universe created by BigHit that serves as a vehicle for storytelling. Beginning with BTS’s music video “I Need U” (released April 29, 2015), BTS began to portray characters in some of their videos. As the storyline progressed and BTS became more successful, the storyline branched out to other platforms. As you’ll see, there is BU-certified content in music videos, short films, a webtoon, a book, and the HYYH Notes.
What are the HYYH Notes?
HYYH stands for “hwayangyeonhwa” (화양연화), which was the trilogy of albums released prior to WINGS. Loosely translated, the meaning of HYYH is “the most beautiful moment in life.” This series is where the BU got its start. HYYH Notes are bits of narrative text that originally appeared as tweets and small booklets with the release of Love Yourself: HER. After releasing the first note on BigHit’s official Twitter, four booklets were released, one for each version of the HER album. While some information in the four booklets overlapped, the content varied slightly. Therefore, fans needed to read each version’s booklet in order to get all the information. A note was released on Twitter prior to the TEAR and ANSWER albums as well. The Love Yourself: TEAR and Love Yourself: ANSWER albums also contained four new booklets each. After this trilogy, HYYH The Notes Book 1 was released. The content covered some of the notes already released and provided some additional content. With the release of Map of the Soul: Persona, we got four new booklets with new information. MOTS: 7 also contained new booklets. A second book, HYYH The Notes Book 2, was also released, which contains mostly new information.
While the HYYH The Notes Books 1 & 2 were released in English, the small note booklets were not. I have translated the HYYH notes here. Each note contains a date and an entry for the specified character, almost as if we’re reading diaries. The story was never technically finished, leaving open the possibility of more content in the future. HYBE previously announced a drama that would star other actors in BTS’s roles.
Why create something like the BU?
It’s likely BigHit wanted to focus on a long-term storyline with multiple moving parts. Creating the BU gives the BTS members a chance to explore various stories and experiences while also allowing the members to separate themselves from their characters. For example, the characters that BTS embody in the BU experience traumas such as physical and mental/emotional abuse, abandonment, and suicide attempts; the BU allows BTS to examine some darker experiences of youth and growing up, even if it’s not something they went through personally. The BU also allows BTS and their creative team to provide additional story details that would be impossible with just music videos. The expansion of content into additional short films, narrative text, and a webtoon are examples of this. Transmedia stories, stories that span multiple types of media but all are tied together, are a great way to engage audiences, allowing fans to become an active part of the story.
Suggested Content Plan
Below is my suggestion for what order to read or watch the BU content. Of course, this content can be consumed in any order, and you may wish to interact with it in chronological order. This is just one example of a content plan that I hope will make sense.
*Note: The BU touches on some sensitive topics such as physical abuse, suicide and suicidal ideation, alcohol abuse, and homicide. Please use caution, and if you’re worried about some of the content, please check with a friend before diving in.*
Videos give the least amount of narrative, so they’re best viewed as partial visual representations of the storyline. This playlist contains the videos that are marked as canon. Watching the videos first will give you a basic outline of the story, which can then be filled in with the Notes and other materials. I recommend re-watching the videos after you learn more.
Save Me Webtoon
You can read or watch my summary of the entire story here. Contains some cross-references and discussion.
Read the webtoon on Naver here. (15 Episodes)
HYYH The Notes Books 1 and 2
The HYYH Notes provide most of the narrative for BTS’s BU storyline. They are best read in chronological order; however, this gets messy since Notes were released in the albums and in two separate books. I recommend reading Book 1, then Book 2, and then reviewing the Notes from the albums (even though these overlap).
The books appear to be out of print and no longer available directly from BigHit/HYBE. Below I have a summary I created of Book 1 (the Notes that do not appear in the album books) and a link to Book 2.
Summary of HYYH Book 1 Notes (what’s new and not included in HYYH Notes from the albums)
HYYH Notes English Translation
contains translations of Notes from the Love Yourself and MOTS series albums HER, TEAR, and ANSWER Notes
summaries of all the notes from albums and the books, in chronological order
Book 2 is still being added!
Smeraldo Blog
The Smeraldo blog mysteriously appeared before the Love Yourself: HER comeback. It provides some background story related to the fictional smeraldo flower, which makes an appearance in the BU. (Seokjin also tweeted a photo with the fictional flower, a month before the album released.)
The blog made several posts in 2017, which were later deleted and reuploaded in 2018 with slight changes. The posts were again deleted and reuploaded in 2020, with a few changes.
You can read or watch my summary of the Smeraldo content here, which also has a timeline of the blog uploads and changes to the posts over the years.
This content is not absolutely necessary for understanding the BU, but it does provide an additional layer. It also ties the BU to the real world, despite the storyline being fictional.
Ready for more?
If you’re interested in learning more about the BU, this page has links to content I’ve created that considers, breaks down, or discusses the BU content in some way. There are also some videos that explain the storyline so far. This section is being updated regularly as I continue to build the site!