ARMY Can’t Help But Be Reminded Of BTS While Watching K-Drama “Extraordinary Attorney Woo”
Spoiler Alert
New TV Station, ENA‘s first-ever K-Drama, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, is turning out to be the next big hit of 2022.
The drama, starring actress Park Eun Bin, has become an overnight success due to word-of-mouth. Everyone is in love with the heartwarming story about an attorney on the Autism Spectrum.
About an autistic 27-year-old lawyer. Due to her high IQ of 164, impressive memory, and creative thought process, the brilliant Woo Young Woo graduated at the top of her class from a prestigious law school.
— IMDb’s plot description
Aside from the lovable characters and skilled writing, viewers are especially impressed with the CGI for the whales.
CG for EAW is top tier, those scenes with whales felt and looked so real 😲#ExtraordinaryAttorneyWoo #ExtraordinaryAttorneyWooEp3pic.twitter.com/KpAIVhHzGP
— Eunbining 🐳 (@eunbinzone) July 6, 2022
If you haven’t seen the K-Drama yet, you might be wondering how whales are included in the storyline.
The main character, Attorney Woo, loves whales. Her entire bedroom is decorated with whales, and she frequently finds connections to whales in everyday conversations, spouting facts, especially to her colleague Lee Jun Ho (Kang Tae Oh).
youngwoo: 🐳🐋🐋💙🐳🐋🐳💙🐳
junho: ☺️☺️🥰🤗☺️🤗🥰🥰🤗#ExtraordinaryAttorneyWoo#ExtraordinaryAttorneyWooEp3 pic.twitter.com/BYd9RhEbKq— s. 🐳 (@krwbin) July 6, 2022
In the drama, whales occasionally appear via her imagination to bring her comfort or when she has a “Eureka!” moment rather than a lightbulb.
living for atty. woo’s 🐋🐳 eureka moments#ExtraordinaryAttorneyWooEp3 #ExtraordinaryAttorneyWoo #ParkEunBin pic.twitter.com/WSBDj37YXF
— hyotteok ᰔᩚ 🐳 (@hyotteokfilms) July 7, 2022
Still, the whales can’t help but remind us of something else…
ARMY (BTS‘s fandom) is especially reminded of BTS due to the inclusion of whales in the K-Drama. Since the first episode, it put many in mind of the K-Pop group due to the symbolism of whales.
@sopehobi #kdramas #extraordinaryattorneywoo #kdramaaddict #bts #btszerooclock
Over the years, whales have become an icon in the BTS fandom, along with purple hearts.
Seeing this whale as Young Woo's imaginary friend reminds me so much of BTS' whalien and how it gives comfort whoever needs it. ♡ #ExtraordinaryAttorneyWoo pic.twitter.com/G0ZuswsD5Q
— Yoongi's 🍊 (@yoongiverse_93) July 5, 2022
In 2015, BTS released “Whalien 52” for the album The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2. It is “a song about the loneliest whale in the world,” the 52-hertz whale. Other whales are unable to hear its voice because of its unusually high frequency.
BTS’ song Whalien 52 is a metaphor for their own artistry, their own loneliness, and the feeling that comes with talking but never being heard, questioned but never understood.
It is simultaneously being the loneliest whale in the world that sings too high to be heard and being an alien — Whalien 52.
— Fawzul Himaya Hareed
Many years later, BTS continues to reference the Whalien 52. From their illustrated video for We Are Bulletproof; The Eternal…
…to most recently in their self-designed mobile game BTS Island: In the SEOM.
There’s even merchandise of an adorable purple whale!
And BTS’s Jin is a fan of whales himself.
The scenes in Extraordinary Attorney Woo, though, especially remind us of one of the TinyTAN videos. In it, a girl, representative of ARMY, is shown struggling in her mundane life…
…until one-day TinyTAN appear and bring to life the whale on her T-Shirt to take them on an adventure.
BTS has the whale in their content as a metaphor and a reminder to both them and ARMY that they are not alone.
Naturally, it feels so appropriate that whales are included in Extraordinary Attorney Woo.
i started watching extraordinary attorney woo last night and it's one of the best dramas this year. seeing this edit gave me goosebumps. everytime they show the whale, it reminds me of bts.. pic.twitter.com/GLd0EDlDyv
— d⁷ 🃏 (@gcfjguk) July 11, 2022
So, an ARMY (@teteverry on Twitter) edited the BTS song “00:00 (Zero O’Clock)” over the scene of Attorney Woo riding on public transportation with her headphones on when a whale appears in the background.
zero o’clock ft. attorney woo 💜 pic.twitter.com/lGzGfayoDs
— tete luvr ✨ (@teteverry) July 3, 2022
Since then, the video has been reposted across social media and gone viral with 488K views at the time of writing.
im sobbing 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/hDvj8GUbHH
— bts quotes archive⁷ (@btsqtsarchive) July 11, 2022
It would be amazing if “00:00 (Zero O’Clock)” or “Whalien 52” appeared in the drama somehow.
