Recently, news revealed that the upcoming drama based on the BTS Universe would be titled YOUTH and played by seven roo...
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Recently, news revealed that the upcoming drama based on the BTS Universe would be titled YOUTH and played by seven rookie actors. Although news of the drama gained attention, it quickly received criticism after fans found out that they would be using the members’ real names in the drama.
Hashtags and requests to Big Hit Entertainment were made, urging them to change the characters’ names to fictitious ones.
Before we get into the reasons as to why K-netizens’ don’t think it’s such a good idea to use BTS’s real names, here’s a bit of background information for those that might not be familiar with the BTS Universe (BU).
Just as the diagram states, the BTS Universe can be divided into three different types. The first being music videos and video content. In this type of content, the members themselves appear in the video. The second is webtoon, books, and games where the storyline is expressed through words and pictures. The third type is a drama where a third-person party acts out the members of BTS.
The first type shows short scenes with indirect metaphors that express the precarious and uneasy youth so it isn’t that stimulating. Also, because the members appeared directly in the videos, many fans’ reactions were positive and felt that it was a part of the theories for the storyline.
But in the second type with webtoons, books, and games, the storyline begins to unravel a more detailed universe. At this point, the characters become more specific such as members making extreme choices, sons of lawmakers, remarried families with stepbrothers, dead girlfriends, etc. Although many fans might be a bit surprised at the detail of the storyline, they still accepted it as more theories and connected it to the BTS Universe. The second type was also mostly seen by fans only so it was possible to pass on seeing it if need be.
But for the third type with drama, it seemed to have crossed some boundaries. By using an active idol group’s real names for a drama that depicts the BU storyline by actors that aren’t BTS that is to be aired to the public doesn’t seem like such a good idea.
People who watch dramas but don’t know anything about BTS or the storyline will watch this drama and misunderstand the storyline to be the actual story of the members, making it hard to distinguish reality from fantasy.
By using their real names, it will cause all future articles written about the drama to be explained using their real names, making it seem like the members were actually a part of all the unfortunate narratives that took place in the storyline.
One might think, “Then just change the name of the character now.” Of course, that would be better than what it is now, but it doesn’t change the foundation. As long as Big Hit continues to call it the ‘BTS Drama’, all the roles in the drama are directly and indirectly connected to the BTS members.
It has been several days since fans have been speaking up on this matter and Big Hit still has yet to release a statement.
