I'll be assessing some early hints by BigHit (also known as BigHint).
Earlier I looked at the first of three hints: BTS Begins. Here I'll look at the second one.
HINT 2: NEVERLAND
BigHit gifted us the next hint through their instagram page where they revealed the concept photos for 화양연화 pt.
While writing my theory for the complete HYYH and Wings era (still working on it) I went through old concept photos and something strange stuck out to me in their hashtags on instagram.
It's the hashtag #NEVERLAND which is used on a few of their promotional photos.
Now I've seen a few theories mention this, but if you know me and my theories, you'll also know that I always go into depth with my theories, so here it is.
Now as soon as I saw this it sort of clicked for me. I'm a huge Peter Pan nerd and have read all published biographies about its author J.M. Barrie. In high school I even wrote an essay about the symbolism in Peter Pan and Wendy.
Neverland is more than just a fictional place where lost boys play pirates and Indians, and more than just the place where a there lives flying boy who can't grow up.
Neverland, or never neverland, as it was originally called, was a place that young J.M. Barrie invented after his older brother, David, died in an ice skating accident two days before turning 14. Barrie's mother was devastated at David's death, but she began to find comfort in the thought that David would be a young boy forever and would never grow up and leave her.
Never neverland was the place J.M. Barrie imagined his brother had gone to in death. It wasn't like heaven or hell, it was an island, unique to each child, where lost boys (dead children) went to be young forever.
Why does Peter Pan never grow up?
Simply put: he can't, because he is dead. He can only continue to live as a young boy, forever and ever.
Same goes for the six lost boys he plays with. In the book 'Peter and Wendy' by J.M. Barrie, it is said:
"When children died he [Peter Pan] went part of the way with them so that they should not be frightened."
The more I thought about the hashtag of Neverland, the more it made sense in relation to the HYYH era.
In the music videos, BTS have fun whenever they're together. They get up to all sort of mischief, exactly like Peter and the Lost Boys do in Neverland. They get in trouble in the same way too, not with pirates but with the police.
They live as if there is no tomorrow, eat whatever they want, go to bed late, and party all night long, and get into all sorts of trouble without thinking about the consequences and as if they don't have parents at home, waiting for them. Exactly like the Lost Boys.
That's Peter and the Lost Boys, but there is another character in the story of Peter Pan: Wendy Darling.
Wendy is only a visitor in Neverland and she realises that Neverland isn't the real world. She quickly realises that something is wrong about this place that seems to swallow time and go on in the same routine eternally.
Exactly as Jin begins to realise that something isn't quite right in his world...
Wendy is not just the mother figure in the story (possible Eva reference..?) she is also the voice of reason and she makes Peter realise the truth of his world. She makes him realise that Neverland is not the real world.
At least for a while, because Peter is a forgetful boy who doesn't realise that time passes by, and he doesn't want things to change.
Wendy knows that she can't stay in Neverland and must go back home with her brothers, and so she does, although Peter wants to keep her in Neverland forever.
Every few years Peter comes back to take Wendy away to Neverland again. Then suddenly he stops. For many many years Peter suddenly doesn't come back to get Wendy, and when eventually he does show up again, not even realising how long has gone by since his last visit, Wendy is already an old woman.
Peter cries and gets very sad that Wendy has grown up.
His illusion of his world is broken.
I think that somewhere deep down Peter realises that there's something wonderful about growing up, something that he can never ever do.
BigHit's clue of Neverland makes me think that the boys have died (The Lost Boys) and that they befriended each other in Neverland, after dying (or that they never even existed in the first place, and are only part of Jin's fictional world). Together they all have fun and forget about the bad things.
As has been pointed out by Army theorisers before me, the Neverland hashtag is only present on 6 photos on BigHit's instagram.
Only Jin doesn't have a photo with the tag #Neverland. Why?
Because Jin is Wendy; someone who is in Neverland for a short time, observing (filming), but someone who doesn't really belong there.
Jin also comes to the realisation that only he is real (real here meaning either alive or creating new memories, depending on what theory you believe).
This is mostly shown in the scene where he sits in the car and takes out the photo that Rap Monster took of Suga and Jin earlier in the MV. When he looks at it again, Jin is the only one to appears in the photo.
Now before I leave you to ponder on all of this I just want to remind you of one little thing:
Other than Jin, Jungkook seems to me to be a key figure in the HYYH era. Why?
Peter Pan can fly.
"You just think wonderful thoughts and they lift you up in the air."
Peter famously says this to Wendy.
I feel like Jungkook serves as the Peter Pan in the story. He seems to be more knowledge about his world and Jin's condition than the any of the others.
Okay that's it, I'm done for today
Read More:
Theory : BigHint 1 : Begins
Part one of this theory. We examine clues that Bighit left for us in old promotions, specifically during the Begins concert.