History YMMV / BTSUniverse

** Jimin and whatever happened in the Arboretum. His scenes in "I NEED U" show him in a bathtub, he's constantly associated with water, and his reaction to colliding with a fellow dancer in the ''Highlight Reels'' and the ''Notes'' is to automatically go to the bathroom and [[OutDamnedSpot scrub his hands clean until they bleed]]. He freezes up at best and has seizures at worst whenever his TraumaButton is triggered. This has led some fans to wonder if what happened in the Arboretum [[spoiler:was an instance of sexual abuse]].

** Jimin is an [[IllGirl Ill Boy]] with a controlling, emotionally abusive mother, and has a trauma regarding some sort of incident that happened to him as a kid in the Arboretum. His frequent seizures caused by his trauma have seriously affected his life: he's been often admitted into hospitals, meaning that he had to transfer schools many times and was unable to make friends until he met Hoseok. After he has a seizure while in company of Hoseok, he's taken to the hospital and loses contact with Hoseok and the rest. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that he's been forced to live in the hospital for 2 years since, with no friends and unable to do anything other than pace around inside the building, all because his parents didn't want to take care of him anymore - when confronted, his mother victimizes herself and blames him for not being able to get better. Jimin's mental illness had only worsened in the meantime before April 11th, and he had to face it all alone.]]

* HoYay: [[HoYay/{{BU}} Has its own page]].

** Jungkook is a young, wide-eyed boy whom Namjoon describes as "a young kid who never received affection". He was abandoned by his father (who claimed that the world became too much to bear), left with his mother who has become cold and uncaring since, and he's mistreated and/or ignored by his stepfather and stepbrother. He's implied to be severely depressed [[spoiler:with a tendency to SelfHarm]] and has the rest of the group as his {{Only Friend}}s [[(of which he secretly thinks of as family)]], with the classroom they all shared being the only constant element in his life. He blames himself for the incident that [[spoiler:got Yoongi expelled]], as it happened because [[spoiler:Yoongi tried to defend him]], and is the most affected by the group's falling out. In April 11th (''after'' [[spoiler:he reunited with Yoongi for the first time in 2 years]]), he's in a state where he's hit the DespairEventHorizon, with his best and at the moment only friend having become TheAlcoholic and kicking him out. Jungkook thinks no one would miss him if he died, wanders alone at night, purposefully gets into a fight with strangers, and is DrivenToSuicide.

** Jungkook is a young, wide-eyed boy whom Namjoon describes as "a young kid who never received affection". He was abandoned by his father (who claimed that the world became too much to bear), left with his mother who has become cold and uncaring since, and he's mistreated and/or ignored by his stepfather and stepbrother. He has the rest of the group as his {{Only Friend}}s, with the classroom they all shared being the only constant element in his life. He blames himself for the incident that [[spoiler:got Yoongi expelled]], as it happened because [[spoiler:Yoongi tried to defend him]], and is the most affected by the group's falling out. In April 11th (''after'' [[spoiler:he reunited with Yoongi for the first time in 2 years]]), he's in a state where he's hit the DespairEventHorizon, with his best and at the moment only friend having become TheAlcoholic and kicking him out. Jungkook thinks no one would miss him if he died, wanders alone at night, purposefully gets into a fight with strangers, and is DrivenToSuicide.

** Yoongi has an obsession with fire [[spoiler:due to his mother dying in a fire he survived]]. He develops an unlikely friendship and CommonalityConnection with Jungkook, but [[spoiler:defending him from a violent teacher after the teacher finds them skipping class together gets Yoongi expelled from school]]. By the time the main plot starts, he's implied to have been kicked out of home by his FantasyForbiddingDad and moves from cheap motel to cheap motel to spend the night, becoming TheAlcoholic, never shown to have any contacts except Jungkook days prior to April 11th, becoming DrivenToSuicide and (in the original series of events) succeeding. He seems to have developed SurvivorsGuilt as a result of the incident with his mother, being immensely scared of getting others or himself hurt by having them rely on him; he avoids other people so he won't have to, but Jungkook gets hurt anyway.

* ArchivePanic: ''At the very least'' 6 music videos, 10+ teasers/trailers/short films, 12 different sets of ''HYYH: The Notes'' are necessary to understand the story. ''Webcomic/SaveMe'', however, might be a partial solution to this.

* DieForOurShip: Surprisingly [[AvertedTrope averted]] with the girls from the ''Highlight Reels'', at least on Twitter. Even though ships like [=Yoongi/Jungkook=] are pretty popular and the girls appear as companions and possible love interests to the boys while the main group is separated, the general reaction to the girls was quite positive, including fans looking up the actresses and drawing fanart. Shin Ryujin (the girl appearing in [[spoiler:Jimin and Hoseok]]'s section in the short films) even got some support from [=ARMYs=] in the idol-survival reality show ''MIXNINE''.
* EpilepticTrees: The plot is notorious for being a MindScrew, relying a lot on symbolism and, due to being largely an AmbiguousSituation, leaving enough space for all kinds of WildMassGuessing. The ''Highlight Reels'' and the ''Notes'' can act as a MindScrewdriver, but only partially, and the way hints have been found in all kinds of extra content (even selfies) gives reason to be paranoid about ''anything'' being a clue to the BU story.
** Is Jin dead in "I NEED U"? Is he the only one alive? Are ''all'' of them dead?
** Is TimeTravel involved? Is Jin and/or Taehyung a DimensionalTraveler?
** How much of it all is real, particularly "I NEED U", "RUN", "Epilogue: Young Forever", "Euphoria" and the Highlight Reels? "RUN" implies that the limits of reality and illusion are blurring even for the characters.

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: In "Prologue", when the boys jump down on the empty pool to gather around Taehyung, there's a FunnyBackgroundEvent where Jungkook asks Yoongi for help to jump down... only for Yoongi to keep walking, gesturing for the younger to just jump by himself. Jungkook just stares at him dumbfounded for a moment before he jumps down anyway.
** Despite its much darker implications in regards to the story, "Prologue" has some moments of the boys just being their goofy selves, like Jungkook pushing Yoongi while the older is sitting on a skateboard - with the latter screaming -, or the boys playing buck buck with Namjoon suffering [[GroinAttack consequences]].

%%* {{Narm}}: A minor example. A bit of a running joke has been made of how what Namjoon goes through in the videos appears to be far less life-threatening than the others, to ArsonMurderAndJaywalking levels. This applies to both "I NEED U" (literally Arson, Murder, and Dropping a Cigarette) and [[https://twitter.com/euphriae/status/898205001394335744 the "Highlight Reels"]].
* TheProducerThinksOfEverything: While the story and characters are inspired by BTS' music and the members themselves, {{Foreshadowing}} for events and revelations in the story has been found in 4-year-old installments of the series, pre-2015 albums, and even commercials and ''selfies''. Fans have learned to become suspicious of ''anything'' to the point of paranoia.

*** It's also set to end on April 11th, both a significant date for the story and a day before the release of the album ''MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA''.

** Nothing ever seems to go right for Jin. He accidentally causes [[spoiler:Yoongi to be expelled]], he gets the idea of going to the beach (leading to the end of "Prologue"), and seems to feel incredibly guilty over this, becoming TheAtoner. Even when he meets a girl and goes on a date with her, trying to prove to himself that he is a good person, [[spoiler:she gets killed by a passing car, ''right in front of him'']]. In "Fake Love", he tries desperately to protect a Smeraldo flower from incoming destruction, but the flower turns into ash.
** Yoongi has an obsession with fire [[spoiler:due to his mother dying in a fire he survived]]; he seems to have developed SurvivorsGuilt as a result, being immensely scared of getting others or himself hurt by having them rely on him. He avoids other people so he won't have to, but Jungkook gets hurt anyway.
** When he was seven, Hoseok [[spoiler:was abandoned by his mother in an amusement park, with her disappearing after telling him to close his eyes and count to ten]]. He was traumatized to the point that, a few years later, he fainted after being asked to count to ten in front of the class. Even in the present, he fears being abandoned.
** Namjoon's family lives in poverty, and he has issues of self-doubt. He becomes a reliable big brother figure for Taehyung and the younger members, but Namjoon himself doubts his ability to act as such. His failure at helping Taehyung leaves him feeling extremely guilty.
** Jimin is an [[IllGirl Ill Boy]] with a controlling mother, and has a trauma regarding some sort of incident that happened to him as a kid in the Arboretum. His frequent seizures have seriously affected his life: he's been often admitted into hospitals, meaning that he had to transfer schools many times and was unable to make friends until he met Hoseok.
** Taehyung lives with his sister and his father, who's often drunk and physically abuses both. As seen in "Prologue" and ''HYYH: The Notes'', Taehyung hides suicidal thoughts due to his desires to [[spoiler:kill his father]] (which he realizes in "I Need U" to defend his sister), his guilt over them, and his fear that his father's violence runs through his veins.
** Jungkook is a young, wide-eyed boy whom Namjoon describes as "a young kid who never received affection". He's mistreated by his stepfather and his family, and has the rest of the group as his {{Only Friend}}s, with the classroom they all shared being the only constant element in his life. He blames himself for the incident that [[spoiler:got Yoongi expelled]], as it happened because [[spoiler:Yoongi tried to defend him]], and is the most affected by the group's falling out. After a certain point (''after'' [[spoiler:he reunited with Yoongi for the first time in 2 years]]), he thinks no one would miss him if he died; he wanders alone at night, purposefully getting into a fight with strangers, leading to his fate in "I NEED U".

''For YMMV tropes related to'' The Notes'', go [[YMMV/TheMostBeautifulMomentInLife here]].''