#I'm second play thru I'm more deliberate in my choices

[jmdbjk]

Domodachi

Had some stuff going on these past few days but I finally got to watch the most recent RPWP MV: "Domodachi". The symbolism was too literal for me to just let it pass without commenting.

Young person, living his young person life, two innocent boys riding bikes. The Boy on Bike perhaps represents our Namjoon or a version of his journey.

It's dusk. Maybe a little late for young ones to be out. Where are they going?

Drummer dude is not drumming until Boy is even with him, then commences to bang away. The ever-present drumbeat going on in life.

The road turns from a gravel road to a paved road. Gravel road=rural, less sophisticated, simpler life. Paved road=urban, complicated, faster life.

An adult enters the scene and allows Boy to proceed. Younger boy is held back. Coming of age when not ready, immature mind getting swept away into adult spaces and places.

Boy on Bike continues on willingly.

Lyric: "I be slippin thru all kinda bullshit"

Boy rides through some sketchy dark place looking for something familiar and encounters other young people playing a ball and cup game, pass the ball to the other, but the image begins upside down, not really what it seems.

When I saw the cups I thought it was adults drinking until the images turned upright and I saw it was kids.

Lyric: "Ima lead ya to the heaven, play the pipe All my friends wanna get around in 0's (I interpret that as zeros as in lots of zeros behind a dollar sign) All my friends wanna take another pose (I interpret that as "posing" as something they are not)

Kids who might not be who they seem, young people perhaps looking for something more, something they might not be ready for. He is swept away with them.

Boy is thrust into a swirling confusion of adults pointing in all different directions. Boy is confused, doesn't know what to do.

A hand comes out of nowhere and snatches him out of the confusion.

A benign guide. Someone of similar age that guides Boy past the chaotic and slightly violent version of the world he finds himself in. Shows him the way to safety through a tunnel.

Lyrics: "We're all friends, let's dance here (I'll dance right now)"

But then Boy's world turns into some rat-race train-wreck nightmare. He's overwhelmed amongst the adults putting pressure on him from all sides.

Lyrics (Little Simz rap): "Watch I'ma go all out for my hitta I already told them I'm a gorilla Simz and RM, man it don't get bigger"

All those lines COULD rhyme with the obvious word instead of "hitta" if it was a western rapper's song. But a deliberate choice was made here. That's my take on that.

The train enters a tunnel and it gets dark, slam on the brakes, time to slow this train down and try to get control but it all crashes.

I did snort-laugh when I saw this train driver/person, Namjoon said "fuck you mothafuckin asshole Korail dipshit who shared personal info."

The train crashes and the eye of the lurking monster is there searching for its next victim.

The friend appears again to guide him away.

I think the benign friend of same age is himself. His wits, his will, his mind. He climbs the fence, not a difficult barrier to overcome. He's still able to be on both sides.

He exits the dark place, back to his previous life. His young friend is waiting. But when he gets there, Boy realizes he cannot go back.

He has lived too much, seen too much. He can't go back to where he was before. Sad but true. Innocence stripped away. He stops just short of the gravel road and turns around and leaves behind his youth and innocence.

That's what I got out of it from the second watch of this MV. After that second time, I also realized how prescient this is because of all the bullshit going on over at the Hybe building: "Mothafuckas wanna bigger growl, motherfuckas wanna take control... "

Anyway.

FESTA!!!!! BEAR HUGS FROM JIN!!!!! Oh wait, sorry, "light" hugs from Jin. He doesn't want to accidentally crush any ARMYs with his gigantic arms.

[kindahoping4forever]

It always makes me so sad when I see people demand different songs that are not on the setlist to the point where they almost bully the band into playing them 😬 I went to see them in Düsseldorf and it was such a great show! My friend and I were so happy with the setlist because it felt inherently 5SOS (idk if that makes sense haha we just felt like it represented who the band is very well) ☺️ I get that people have very strong emotional connections to certain songs, but so does the band and it seems like they are very deliberate with their song choices. The shows of this tour especially are so thought through and everything seems to be connected with the visuals and everything, that it somehow feels wrong to disrupt that. And it’s not a bad show just because they don’t play the songs you might want them to play 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes, I agree with all of your points! From the very first show, I was so blown away by the set list - I feel like it's an impressive overview of their entire discography thus far and it's incredible how well the songs flow and transition together, even ones from different eras! And yes, the staging elements like the lights and visuals make it even more apparent just how tailored and fine tuned the whole production is. I really do think it's their best show yet and I say that as a hard YB/MYT era stan 😌

It'd be impossible for them to make everyone happy all of the time, so complaints about the setlist come with the territory and I think they know that - the thing that's wild to me about the people who flipped out when Talk Fast/Beside You/Lover of Mine started fluctuating is that you can bet those songs were removed with good reason (The combined total time of those three songs is about the same amount of time of their live arrangement of Blender plus Me Myself and I, both mid-tour additions to the set. Obviously we don't know if that's the reason for that switch over but it would make sense that with the set approaching 30 songs now, they would want to start evening it out, especially in light of Ashton's hospitalization, I'm sure they're being mindful of how much energy they're exerting during an already exhausting show 🤷🏻‍♀️), it's not like they just stopped playing them on a whim.

My whole thing with the Pizza debacle is just how disrespectful it is? Like yes, we have a Very Specific relationship with this band and we like to tease each other back and forth but yelling over them (even after they adamantly tell you no we're not playing that) to the point that they can't get thru their speeches is rude and inappropriate in any context. (Not to mention how awful it must be for them as artists who have two full albums of songs they're proud of, that they've never gotten to play live and people are still more interested in demanding a joke song from when they were kids 🙃)

They gave in and "spontaneously" played Pizza 5 times on this tour (before Cincinnati) and each time with increasing reluctance in my opinion. (I watched a live stream of Chicago and I believe the way I described the performance to someone was "defeated") Adding it to the set isn't a fun victory or a bit, they clearly decided that sacrificing the 40 seconds it takes to play the song is easier than the show being disrupted for minutes on end while people riot for it. And that... kind of sucks lol 🤷🏻‍♀️