D-2 & the constancy of change & the paradox of the human experience - a thread where I overuse the words "change" and "cycle" quite a bit prob, I have no idea, I didn't plan this

So, I've referred to Moonlight plenty of times as the perfect introduction to D-2, the perfect +

+ transition from Agust D to D-2, an homage both to his journey to where he is now in both lyricism & sound as well as laying the groundwork of the themes he's going to explore through the mixtape. The analogy of moonlight is perfect on so many levels it makes me want to marry +

+ this song. Moonlight symbolizes change as well as constancy - it's a cycle denoting change as it goes through its phases, while also being an inevitable fact of life. While Yoongi's life has changed since he started out in Daegu & now arrived at a "penthouse in Hannam the Hill"

+ an upward journey, he oscillates between wondering if he would go back if he could, if he deserves the labels attached to his name now, thinking that he's earned his success & these are his just rewards, being both rewarded & tormented by his inspiration. He remarks that +

+ the moonlight is just the same - the cycle of battling his inspiration & motivation wanes and waxes the way the moon does & this has remained a constant despite his now higher (literally & figuratively) station in life. Moonlight is peppered with references to his older lyrics+

+ denoting again that yes, like the moonlight, though 3 years have passed, though aspects of his self have changed, some things remain the same. "Changes are fated to happen to everyone / Perhaps how we change is what our undertaking is about" - a theme which carries over +

+ into the rest of mixtape, delineating how Yoongi's experience and the human experience is one just like Moonlight - the paradox of both constancy and change. +

+ in Daechwita Yoongi speaks as the king who was born a slave, who has climbed to the top & is now speaking from that height. In Agust D we followed his journey to said pinnacle, clawing his way up through sheer tenacity & talent; now at the top, while playing the part of the +

+ king who has rightfully earned his throne, born a tiger as he is, a flicker of a deeper awareness peeks through - "Yeah what would come next, I suddenly realise where I am, the current situation where I have nothing above me" +

+ in Moonlight his journey is upward; in Agust D, his journey is upward - but what comes after you reach the top? "I, who has only been looking up, now would like to just look down, and put my feet on the ground like that". His desires come full circle; having reached the top +

+ he wishes to feel grounded again. This reminds me of Tony Montana - after the torment & triumph of The Last, Yoongi dons the identity of a fictional kingpin who also fought his way to the top; yet despite this persona he adopts there seems to be a sense of self awareness +

+ that Yoongi is in fact donning a persona - a kingpin, a king etc - almost as though in a bid to appear invincible and unflappable to all those who wish him wrong, the people he addresses in Daechwita & WDYT https://twitter.com/anotherunperson/status/1294656742547009537?s=19 +

+ the theme of change as a constant appears again in WDYT - Yoongi references "a big house, big car, big ring" but as his listeners we know how the context varies from NMD, from Home, from Shadow. I think it's interesting that he says he wishes to go +

+ "higher, higher, even higher, so high that you can't even see me, uh" when the track just before it he expressed a wish to have firm ground beneath his feet. Again, it makes me think of Tony Montana - here he is putting on a specific front to address specific people +

+ we, his fans & his listeners, have enough context from his music, most recently Interlude Shadow, that the height Yoongi has reached frightens him. It's almost as though he refuses to show a shred of vulnerability to ppl he knows are awaiting it like vultures. He also calls +

+ back to The Last : "the ten zeroes in my bank account, it's the money I loaned with my youth as collateral"

Again, a flicker of a deeper sense of awareness pushes through. While shutting down those who wish him & his team ill while also wishing for a slice of his success +

+ he reminds them that he paid a price for where he is now, he has had to change, and he completely owns his success while having no patience for those who would desire what he has traded his youth to have like a parasite. +

+ now that he's done with the ppl he's calling out in both Daechwita & WDYT, we step a little deeper with Strange. Immediately after flexing symbols of wealth & success Yoongi shows a deep sense of awareness of how these things are meaningless & transient +

+ I have a whole other thread going into cycles and time and transcience re: Strange here, so I won't repeat myself because this is alr super long, but to condense the meta brilliance of Strange, it tackles straight on the idea of how transient + https://twitter.com/anotherunperson/status/1300051085822812163?s=19

+ we are in the grand scheme of things, how we are inevitably caught in this endless cycle of climbing up the social hierarchy only for everyone to end up on the same level some day, as dust. "capital injects morphine called hope with dream as collateral" coming right after +

+ Yoongi mentioning that he bartered his youth for his success, and the contrast between namgi discussing the pointlessness of materialism & the social constructs that bind us in an endless cycle, contrasts so beautifully with his biting & pointed lyrics in WDYT.../chefs kiss +

+ Strange's commentary on "everything is dust" going on to 28 feels like a microscope zooming in. From the distant concept of one day becoming nothing, Yoongi slips into the breath-hitching, throat-constricting panic of realising "perhaps, I'm gradually becoming an adult" +

+ where he compares himself to Peter Pan in Moonlight, a character who never ages, the realization that one is getting older marks another sign of change, an inevitable one - age. "I can't remember/ what are the things that I hoped for/ now I'm scared/ where did the fragments +

+ of my dream go?"

It's heartbreaking, to realise that you've lost a sense of self, but like the cycles of the moon, growing up is an inevitability wrapped up in change. Where before he uttered his devotion to a dream like a prayer in So Far Away +

+ now he bemoans no longer knowing what it is.

It's heartbreaking, & it's growing up. I adore that Yoongi didn't try to stretch or copy the themes he explored in Agust D - he allowed his mindset to evolve as is only natural, and let that bleed into his mixtape, into this track +

+ my favourite most heartbreaking lines from this song "for just one day / without any concerns / for just one day / without any worries / to live, to live, to live" - the beginnings of the realization of a new humbler dream, born from this older, more experienced Agust D +

+ the beginnings to the answer of the question of what comes next, once there's nowhere left to go from the top.

He also specifically refers to change - "I thought I'd change when I turned 20/ I thought I'd change when I graduated / Shit, like that, that when I become 30/ +

+ "yeah so what changed with me"

I love that we get the sense of him figuring out this change of self & aspirations as an ongoing process - he says "perhaps I'm becoming an adult" not that he already is one, not that he already has the answers - there's more change to come +

+ and then we get to Burn It, & this time it's not inevitable change - it's deliberate change. It's taking control of your own life & forcing a change.

The theme of losing sight of yourself in 28 is carried over ["there's someone in the mirror that you don't know"] +

+ but now Yoongi is choosing to let go of his past & what defined him in the past. He references Han, "the weakness, hatred, loathing, & even rage" of his past, which we've tasted through his previous music, in Agust D, in Intro HYYH etc., but where perhaps that's what he +

+ needed to propel him forward, now he no longer recognizes the person in the mirror, and chooses to "face you in the deepest place" and burn it away. I love that he's not discarding his past but acknowledging that he has grown & changed from who he used to be +

+ and that holding on to those things are keeping him from moving forward & discovering a new sense of self. It aligns perfectly with what he's said about being a lot more relaxed with his music, having let loose more, and that it's not a bad feeling +

+ "whether it would become a blazing sun / or the ashes left behind after being burnt / always the choice and decision is yours to make" - change caused by choice, which could potentially end with the beginning of a new cycle, or the continuation of this one +

+ from the panic of growing older, to choosing to face & move past one's previous self, comes People, the place of acceptance. "people change - like I have" he sings, light & airy. The entirety of People balances the themes of the cyclical nature of life & the constancy of change

+ so so beautifully. "when it's not there, you wish it is/ when it's there, you wish it's not/ who said that human's are the animals of wisdom,/ to my eyes, it's obvious that they are the animals of regret" +

+ It's human nature to wish for what we can't have, it's human nature to change. Yoongi's acceptance of it embodies the point of this thread, the analogy of moonlight - change is an inevitability, it's what it means to be human. I love that he compares it to the ebb & flow of +

+ water - water which nourishes but also alters the shape of the landscape, water which takes many forms but itself is part of a greater, bigger cycle. +

+ just as he says that our ordinary is his extraordinary, he gives us a peek of his ordinary in Honsool.

From the very beginning we get the notion of a repetitive cycle, his ordinary "today as well, I finish the work for the day and come home right away" +

+ his days blur together between work & exhaustion, almost to the point of indifference - "well, it doesn't matter anyway, / tomorrow will come & go again, I who is like this, & you who's like that, we just endure through the day I guess" +

+ time is passing by, but just as there are moments of brightness like being at peace with the knowledge that change is a given, there are also those dark nights without any moonlight where the absence of change is what keeps you held fast in place, unmoving, stuck +

+ It's fascinating & heartbreaking that Yoongi describes the feeling of intoxication saying "Now I'm feelin' like I'm flyin" - the very thing he pleaded with us not to let him in Shadow, the opposite of his desire to feel grounded having reached the top +

+ there are so many instances of the dual existence of these desires & emotions in D-2, contradicting perhaps, but human, because ultimately, Yoongi is growing, & changing, & as he grows & changes he's figuring out the answers as much as the next person +

+ we get an expression of that very duality in Set Me Free - he sings "Set me free, knowing that it won't go the way I want / Set me free, knowing that it's not what I want"

As he sings "why, why...?" my heart breaks, because this song is the embodiment of existential ennui +

+ what is the point? What am I doing? Why am I doing it? I just want to be free, even though I don't know what that means, even though I know it's not possible. Set me free, bc as he says in People, we humans tend to want what we can't have. Another cycle, +

+ and finally, we come full circle, almost literally, to Dear My Friend. Yoongi speaks about the memories circling him, wondering whether he has changed, or his friend has changed, concluding that they both have changed, but that he is still unable to let go of his memories +

+ that he still wonders if things would have been different if he had acted different. Just as he sings in People, like all the rest of us, he is an animal of regret. "it's not because of that time that we've changed / it's all so transient" - the crux of the matter +

+ very very meta considering the themes of change explored throughout the entirety of this mixtape, how inevitable it is, how unpredictable it is, how much we are helpless against it yet propelled by it.

"what would it have been like" the final lines of this mixtape +

+ almost feel like Yoongi circling himself into this loop as he continues to change, coming back here just as certainly as the moon moves through its phases. It brings us full circle too, having explored Yoongi's rise to the top, his contradicting & coalescing feelings of where +

+ to go from there, & ultimately, in some way, cycling through ourselves as we listen and relisten to the mixtape.

D-2 is so personal to Yoongi, yet I think this is one of the reasons why it feels so personal to the people who listen to it - it's so deeply human +

+ it doesn't purport to have the answers, but rather explores different states of being, side by side, a reminder that you can hope & wish for contradicting things, you can wish to land but also to fly, you can be aware that people change but still hurt from it, you can be proud+

+ of your accomplishments & still be filled with doubt & uncertainty bc of it. It's all human. It's all Min Yoongi. It's life. +

+ disclaimer - all interpretations & opinions are mine. I'd be surprised if anyone actually reached the end of this monstrosity, which I tried to plan multiple times, gave up, tried to freestyle, regretted halfway through, and now roughly an hour later am signing off on [end]

The translations I referenced are all by the wonderful @doolsetbangtan https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com/d-2/ 

++ adding on to this but the cyclical nature of life & constancy of change plays in pretty significantly when you consider Yoongi starts off the mixtape by wishing to feel grounded, & in Shadow begged not to fly & therefore risk falling, but by Set Me Free, he wishes to fly +

+ again. The birds we hear chirping away represent that true freedom, of being able to go where they wish, not bound to a linear journey. His desires have come full circle again, but also taken a different shape. Change, forever a constant, like the cycles of the moon.