BTS Reveals “Map Of The Soul” Was Originally Intended To Be A Trilogy

In an interview with MTV, the BTS members have revealed something fans suspected all along: Map of the Soul: 7 was supposed to be a trilogy.

When the tracklist for Map of the Soul: 7 was released, many ARMYs were surprised to see most of the songs from Map of the Soul: Persona repackaged onto the new album. After all, it didn’t fit with the trilogy theory fans had come up with after Persona’s release.

Map of the Soul: Persona was based on the theories of Carl Jung, who thought that the human psyche was made up of various components: primarily persona, ego, shadow, and anima. As such, when Persona dropped, many fans believed there’d be at least two more albums based on the other aspects of the psyche.

ARMYs were still convinced of this theory when BTS dropped “Interlude: Shadow” and “Outro: Ego”, believing that meant the third part of the supposed trilogy would center on anima. However, fans were left confused when the Map of the Soul: 7 tracklist revealed that the album was a repackage, making Persona and 7 a duology.

However, BTS has now revealed what fans suspected the whole time: this album series was intended to be a trilogy. RM told the hosts of MTV’s Fresh Out Live that the group initially planned to release three parts of Map of the Soul: Persona, Ego and Shadow.

So, why did they choose to combine the ego and shadow concepts into one album? RM didn’t say. But in another interview with Variety, he did share some light on one reason why they made this album a repackage.

RM confessed that while the members had dreamed of being this successful, they never thought it would actually happen.

We wanted to get big, we wanted to go as high as we could, but we never expected this kind of energy, this kind of reaction all over the world.

— RM

Their rise to superstardom was so rapid and unexpected, they never had time to consider how far they were coming until now. So, making this album a ‘reboot’ served as a way for the group to take a look at their own journeys over the past 7 years—hence the title, Map of the Soul: 7.

One day, we woke up and we were like, “Where are we?”… The reboot is the best way to reflect ourselves and figure out ourselves again: Where are we? What are we doing? Who were we in the past? And [who are we] right now? That’s how it happened.

— RM

And ultimately, BTS decided that the most important thing is the quality of the albums, not the quantity.