#((the first part is the og action post for this past event. and then it Twists

[jimin-bangtan]

Chameleon Park Jimin 6

My Chameleon Park Jimin (PJM) Series (<link) [Parts 1-5] discusses the emotional, physical, & professional growth, adjustments, and changes Jimin has endured and experienced during his BTS journey, as I see it.

In my earlier posts, I had explained how Jimin had become a lightning rod for widespread, unexplained hate and criticism. Prior to releasing his first solo album FACE, online posters would ridicule Jimin for not having many writing credits - and for many other reasons, whether true or not. During BTS's "hiatus", Jimin was about to unintentionally demolish yet another foolish argument against him.

When Jimin had realized he was feeling lost and going through some issues during the pandemic quarantine, he finally approached his bandmates and explained his distress. They told him they had already noticed his situation and were giving him space to sort it out. They also gave him the advice to put his feelings into music.

Jimin then reached out to PDogg, a veteran BigHit producer, to ask for assistance in locating songs.  PDogg, instead, suggested that Jimin work with an in-house team to write his own songs for his story.  Jimin agreed and thus created the unusually small, 4-member Smeraldo Garden Marching Band (SGMB) production team and eventually his 1st solo album FACE, which honestly and openly poured out his raw emotions of despair and triumph.

The Situation

I have mentioned in the past that Jimin had previously been more open and shared quite a bit online with fans. I have described how Jimin gradually withdrew from social media, likely due to the unexplained harassment he received pretty much continually. His fans understood his choice and his circumstances, but also missed hearing from him.  By this time, closer fans had learned that when Jimin was working, he was even less visible in person and on social media, which during the hiatus meant next to no contact.

During Jimin’s work silence, fans still put out requests for his appearance or communication in order to vent and to let Jimin know that he was missed. Fans comforted themselves by knowing that whatever new project he was working on would be interesting, surprising, and well worth the wait. Humor was one way that fans managed the “Jimin droughts” they were collectively enduring.

In spite of the lack of direct fan contact through social media, fans were very excited when Jimin was occasionally seen through other means during this time. In January of 2023, Jimin shocked everyone with the release of a song collaboration (Vibe) with the idol he had always admired and hoped to work. The idol in question is an OG KPop singer/dancer, Taeyang of Big Bang. The project was a success, giving both of them their first solo Hot100 chart appearances. But Jimin’s year ahead was action-packed, and there was more success to come.

Closer to the release of FACE, when Jimin was even busier preparing for his debut promotional performances, fans can thank Jung Kook (JK) for occasional glimpses of Jimin that I don’t think would have occurred otherwise. BTS members at times pop in each other’s chats during Live fan sessions for brief interactions. When JK was doing lengthy Lives early in 2023, Jimin would pop in to say hello. Even though the encounters were brief, fans were excited to have encountered Jimin at all.

Before and after Jimin’s FACE debut, he was also seen when supporting other friends’ or members’ projects or completing his own Dior and Tiffany & Co. ambassador obligations. Event photos and magazine layouts were published fairly frequently. The fans were so desperate for every Jimin appearance that the magazines sold out immediately, and his Paris fashion show attendance produced massive, record-breaking crowds.

After his FACE promotional period, Jimin was seen briefly when leaving and returning to Korea via Seoul’s airport, but the public wasn’t sure why. Now that his promotions were done, what could he be doing now?

The Analysis

During this time, when Jimin was seen in public, outside of work, he remained dressed in his new comfortable, baggier style, with his wardrobe often displaying clothing from his Dior ambassadorship. On occasion, he was seen at the enlistment day of his members, as well as friends, who had left before him.  Jimin often arrived in his new baggy clothes, bucket hat, cloth mask, and shaggy hair to see off his members and friends. Gone were the different hair colors and sleek cuts. No more were the fitted jeans and the dangling earrings as well as most other jewelry and accessories.

Later in the year, the company released Jimin’s FACE documentary [trailer]. [See my Jimin’s Production Diary post.] Each member had recorded the process of creating their solo albums, which was later cleverly released as additional material. Fans finally got to see what Jimin had been doing during those silent spans of time. Jimin’s documentary showed the personal process of Jimin deeply involved in creating, writing, & recording his own songs and lyrics.

Jimin was very pleased with the process and the products his team created. His transformation, from the difficult experiences explained in FACE, was showing itself in how relaxed and content he appeared while both preparing and performing his work. In the documentary and other behind the scenes footage [trailer], it could be seen that Jimin also displayed strong, but considerate, leadership while writing and producing songs as well as contributing to choreography [full]  and video direction [full].  In the past, Perfectionist Jimin did not seem comfortable with this type of exposure, and therefore it was rarely revealed or provided.

There was a time, I have explained, when Jimin was very hard on himself and spoke in rather negative terms about himself and his work.  His perfectionism caused him to never seem pleased with his efforts and his results, even if others thought his outputs were stellar.  All he had been through and all the difficulties and pain he had faced, both physically and emotionally, often came out in his words, but mostly toward himself.

Strangely, Jimin was commonly known as an energetic, enthusiastic, pleasant, & supportive person.  It seems that the entire process of facing himself and his issues really was transformative to his feelings and attitude about himself.  The peace he had achieved was now being seen all over his appearance, speech, attitude, and emotions. The current behind the scenes footage [full] shows an artist who is peaceful, light, confident, and happy. There was even a noticeable improvement from his 1st solo album presentations to what was later discovered to be his 2nd solo album work, even though the music for both was created at the same time.

In reading many comments about Jimin’s journey, there has been a good number of people who have stated that they aren’t pleased with how Jimin’s appearance and behavior have changed so much from the Jimin of the past to the Jimin we are seeing today. I also had to consider the changes I was observing, which was likely an inspiration for me to sort out my own thoughts in my writing. However, as I stated before, I came to the conclusion that the past Jimin might have looked colorful and stylish, but inside there had been anguish.

The anguish revealed itself with the tears, anger, or personal criticisms we had become accustomed to seeing on occasion. The current Jimin is happier, more relaxed, more positive, and appears more accepting and tolerant of himself. He also seems less concerned about some of the public’s negative thoughts about him, his work, or his decisions.

At first, Jimin’s new hiatus style was hit or miss, but in time, it improved to him looking very nice but very different from the Jimin of old. Still, as in the early days, Jimin is the member who has changed the most from his arrival at BigHit and from his early stage persona for both professional and personal reasons. That’s why even with the updated circumstances, he was still Chameleon Park Jimin to me at that time.  He was still changing, and I was still trying to figure out exactly who he was or if this was, in fact, the new normal for Jimin.

Perhaps he is still sorting that out as well, and perhaps the time in the military will play a part in his figuring out more of his real life and stage identities, whether they end up being two separate parts he displays when appropriate or one unified identity for both stage and life. With the hiatus period still in progress, more changes in Jimin were yet to be revealed in 2023 and 2024.

To be CONTINUED in Part 7: Vocal decisions, Tony Montana 2.0, Jimin's persistence…

[kitkatt0430]

What’s your favorite episode of Leverage/Leverage Redemption so far? You’ve inspired me to re-watch it for the 3rd time and it always blows my mind that every episode is SO GOOD.

It's really hard to choose a favorite for Leverage and it's sequel because, as you said, it's just SO GOOD. All of it. Even the 'worst' episodes of this show are light years better than a lot of shows 'best' episodes. It's amazing.

I rambled about the OG show and episodes here. And might do a similarly rambling post once i'm in S2 of Leverage Redemption and refreshed my memories of the newer episodes a bit. I've only watched them once, after all, while I've watched the original Leverage... a lot.

Like you said, the episodes are all SO GOOD. While I might skip around a bit while watching Star Trek or an Arrow-verse show or Stargate... Leverage? Every episode is watched. There isn't a single episode that makes me even go 'meh' because they're all '!!!!' types. Which makes it so hard to pick favorites.

However, if I had to pick two episodes from the two shows - one from each - that tie into each other extremely well, I'd have to go with The Van Gogh Job and The Jackal Job.

The Van Gogh Job from S4 the OG show was unique when it first aired, though S5 did a similar type of episode with The DB Cooper Job. While the main plot of the episode in the present was being told, there were events in the past that were pertinent to their job in the present being told in flashbacks where the actors who made up the main cast played entirely different characters in the past. Of the two flashback style episodes in the original show (not counting the Rashomon Job which was a flashback episode, it was just that all the flashbacks were to the main cast's own past so it was a different flavor of flashback ep) this first one was definitely the superior of the two.

There was so much going on in the episode that it was pretty unflinching about discussing. Racism and interracial relationships is front and center in this episode. Leverage has a pretty prominent interracial relationship going on between Parker and Alec Hardison already, but this episode was pretty frank about how these kinds of relationships have been historically treated in the United States. How black people have been historically treated.

While Beth and Aldis are still playing a very likable couple who are very much in love, the episode really plays with expectations about the other actors. Christian is put in the position of Charlie's supervising officer who treats him well enough but still makes racist decisions because they're easier on him than doing what's right. Timothy plays a sheriff who protects Charlie when he sees injustice in front of him, but refuses to stand up to the status quo that would potentially see Charlie lynched for just falling in love with a white woman who loved him back. Gina plays their one ally, who attempts to help Dorothy run away with Charlie. And in the end, it's fear of navigating that prejudiced world which holds Dorothy back from taking that final step to run away with Charlie.

The whole episode is an unflinching look at how bad prejudice towards black people was in the forties and fifties... but also how bad it still is today, though that part is subtler. The whole episode is heartbreaking because Charlie and Dorothy never get any resolution to their parting. Charlie traveled the world and returned too late. Dorothy who never left her home town had already passed away. And while they can speculate about her actions regarding the Van Gogh and the Wurlitzer, Charlie will never be able to hear it from her directly that she still loved him as he still loved her.

The Jackal Job is a similarly themed episode. Like the Van Gogh Job, it features flashbacks to a secondary plot where the main cast actors play new roles. Most notably, Gina plays the part of the legendary grifter they're trying to help in the present. A woman who fell in love with another woman, who was in an abusive situation. These two woman run away together and raise a child together. And if not for the prejudice of the times, would have no doubt chosen to get married. As it was, they gave one another power of attorney over each other. As close to legal marriage as they could manage at the time.

It's prejudice and abuse that drives them apart and keeps them apart for decades. And once again the episode is unflinching in it's examination, juxtaposing a much maligned queer relationship alongside an abusive but 'acceptably heterosexual' relationship. And while, yes, queer relationships can be abusive too, the question the episode subtly asks is if the abusive relationship is more acceptable for being a straight one than the loving one is for being queer... then the problem isn't really with the people in the loving relationship but the ones who judge them for loving 'wrong'.

The Jackal Job doesn't just tackle bigotry towards queer people, however. It also tackles ageism and ableism in the form of the abuse that Stella is facing from the conservatorship she's been placed under. Her alzheimers has made her an unreliable witness in crimes being perpetrated against her by the very person who was appointed to take care of her. And she was being gaslit over her mind playing tricks on her during a time when her mind was essentially playing tricks on her. It's a horrifying position for her to be in with no one on her side until Breanna discovers what's going on and brings the team in to help.

One of the inspirations for this episode was likely the fight over Nichelle Nichols conservatorship, which was making headlines at the time. Given the show's close ties to Star Trek, it seems extremely likely that this episode was written specifically to shine a light on Nichelle's circumstances at the time.