Last Updated on March 19, 2023 by BTS 101

BTS makes truly beautiful MVs. You should absolutely watch them all! We’ll include a full list of all official videos at the end of this unit.

But unlike other bands that just make pretty videos, several of BTS’ videos – especially from the Most Beautiful Moment in Life era – are tied together to tell a fictional story known as the BTS Universe.

The concept here is that the seven members live in an alternate universe where they never formed the band. Instead, they met in school when they were all assigned to clean out an old storage room as punishment for not meeting uniform guidelines. There, they quickly bonded and formed a secret club where they’d meet, make music, talk and laugh together – and put away their troubles, as each one was hiding a pretty tragic and awful home life that the others didn’t know about.

In this universe, the boys eventually drift apart due to pressure from their varied back stories, and each one falls deeper into their own problems. This eventually leads to some of them reaching a crisis point – death, jail, or commitment to a hospital – and it’s all bad. Luckily (or possibly not?), a magical cycle begins where Jin cycles through time, constantly jumping back over the same three month period over and over again, attempting to solve the boys’ problems and lead them all to a happy ending.

The story is still unfinished, despite showing up in multiple music videos and supporting works, as well as being featured in “notes” – short stories that were released with several of their albums – and an online webtoon called Save Me. The story was eventually turned into a video game called BTS Universe where you can play out scenarios with these alternate universe characters, and now will possibly be made into a kDrama called Youth (although it’s been delayed several times).

Does this mean we’ll finally get our BTS Universe happy ending? It’s not clear, but one thing we can say is that the alternate timeline story is pretty engrossing, and most of the fandom is very strongly attached to the story. Every new release of any BTS video gets combed over in detail looking for clues to the BTS Universe storyline, even if it is not officially labelled as BTS Universe content. ARMY always has hope!

Want to get to know the BTS Universe story? Have tissues handy, then check out these official videos and resources.

Official BTS Universe MVs and other videos

Save Me Webtoon

You can get the actual webtoon online in some places but a great way to read it is via these “filmed” versions that someone recorded and put on YouTube.

The Notes

There are two full-length books available: The Notes 1 and The Notes 2. These are compilations of smaller notebooks with short stories that were issued through various BTS channels in Korean only. The Notes 1 contains stories that were originally released online via Twitter posts, through the Wings concept book, with the HYYH Art Toys, or inserted with the three Love Yourself releases. The Notes 2 collects the stories that were released with MOTS releases.

You can purchase the books online if you look around – they’re crazy expensive because they are out of print now. English translated versions are available.

You can also find PDF scans of both books online if you go digging because ARMY are awesome; plus the Twitter Account @bt_notes spent some time back in 2019 compiling and scanning in several of the notes to that time on their account.

Other places to find translated versions of the notes include:

BTS Universe video game

A video game based on the BTS Universe was released in 2020. You can play out scenarios as the BU characters and try to lead them to your own happy ending.

The BTS Universe game allows you to write your own scripts and program the characters to do basically anything you want, so there’s no question that many ARMY are living out their best imaginary lives in the game! Not much that goes on there can be considered canon, but there are some official “visual novels” that are known collectively as “I’m Fine” that retell the major stories from the BU and have a few additional details. So far none of the video game content seems to reveal major new information but there’s definitely the potential to round out or even close out the story on this platform. 

Smeraldo Flower Shop Blog

This content is pretty tangential, but there is a fictional flower that shows up in the BU that is called the Smeraldo Flower (looks like a bluish-white lily, you may see Jin with Smeraldo flowers at various points).

In the summer of 2020, around the time of the release of the BU video game, there was an official BigHit fictional online blog called the Smeraldo Flower Shop where a fictional flower store owner made a series of posts, first trying to find the flower, then announcing it had been found and that he’d be stocking it. The blog is still online as of summer 2021 but the last post (from September 2020) says it will no longer be updated. But the story is kind of a fun read!

The Cafe ARMY blog has translations of all posts from the Smeraldo Flower Shop.

List of all Official MVs

Just want to see some pretty pictures? Here’s a list of all BTS official MVs – watch them on YouTube on the Hybe Labels channel.

  • Waste It On Me (Steve Aoki track featuring BTS – they are not actually in the video) 
  • My Universe MV – a collab with Coldplay from their Music of the Spheres album

There are also official videos for several of RM, SUGA, and j-hope’s mixtape tracks, and some MVs for the vocal line solo tracks, too. You can find these all on YouTube on the Bangtan TV or HYBE channels:

Lastly, before a big comeback, BTS usually releases at least one, sometimes two teasers for their title songs. These teaser clips sometimes contain shots that aren’t in the main MV, and are things of beauty in themselves. Check out our full list of MV teasers here.

Bangtan Bomb Dance Practices

Bangtan TV is BTS’ YouTube channel where they release behind-the-scenes clips, making-of videos, rehearsal clips, and sometimes alternate camera views of their TV and concert performances. Videos released on Bangtan TV are called “Bangtan Bombs” and there are literally hundreds on their channel going all the way back to 2012. More on that in a future unit!

In the meantime, here are links to some of their best-known dance practice videos – Bangtan Bombs that are videos of them rehearsing the choreo prior to filming a MV or a live performance. Many of these are very good – with the steady, one-shot camera POV they are often even better than the actual MV or live performance in terms of seeing their cool choreo and synchronization at work.

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