Original Post: May 15, 2022

For this, I focused on a timeframe over the next year, and a lot of what came through here was focused on performance or image and public perception. Loyal Heart and Eros on the left are what BigBang, as a group, is projecting right now or is going to be projecting and it’s bizarre.

First off, Loyal Heart is directed towards old fans, people who have supported them for a long time. In the image, there are two separate owls reflecting each other, showing how two different parties see eye-to-eye, operate in sync, and have a lot of trust in each other. However, the issue here is that, for them, these are not two separate owls, they are an old and a new version of the same owl. Essentially, what I saw with Loyal Heart is this attempt to convince older fans that they are, in some sense, still the same people that they were the last time they were performing and working all together. It seems like a matter of marketing.

Then, alongside that, with Eros, you have this strange attempt to appeal to a wider, newer audience, and it’s very focused on… well… Eros. Sex appeal, or some other very superficial aspect. It’s like they’d be really glamming things up, or really putting on the visuals of everything in order to “seduce” people into looking their way. Because of this, they have an odd mix of deep, yet a bit inauthentic, emotional connection mixing with this more superficial and sexual or seductive (??) display.

It’s just not all lining up and I don’t think it will land the way they’re hoping it will.

On the right side, the first two major arcana cards, Temperance and Strength, represent the attempt to balance and project the current individuals (emotional and mental authenticity of each member) as well as the projection of the old versions of themselves as people and performers. Strength, connecting to Leo and the 5th House, is focused on really driving up the performance and focusing on the external display. So, Temperance reflects Loyal Heart while Strength reflects Eros. Again, it’s such an odd way of doing things, I would have to assume that they’re either having conflicting ideas with each other or with the company when it comes to how they would want to approach returning to the public eye on a grander scale.

The other two major arcana cards, The Hermit and Judgement, represent the two sides of the audience that they’re trying to appeal to. The Hermit made me a little sad as it is connected to the fanbase that has been there for a long time, the side that is willing to watch and support anything they do. However, it’s like The Hermit is trying really hard to find that old spark in what they are observing in Temperance and Strength, or Loyal Heart and Eros. They’re watching but it just doesn’t feel the same.

Judgment is pretty straightforward. It almost gives me this feeling of throwing BigBang to the dogs with them getting torn apart from being put up in front of people who… more or less don’t care to see old acts returning. If they do care to see it, they’re more judgemental from the perspective of someone used to seeing new things from new people, rather than old people trying to pretend they are something new. It’s just a lot of harsh criticism and hate, which could even reach critical media or poor reviews depending on how that goes.

Based on all of this together, it seems like either they, as a group, the company themselves, or both of them were a bit desperate to thrust the group back into the position they were in the last time they were making and releasing music. Rather than just allowing them to return, there’s this odd “miscommunication” that has occurred or will occur where it’s not what was expected or anticipated by anyone, and it might not go exactly as planned.

Of course, as I said with The Hermit, there is still a large enough and loyal enough fanbase there that can give them the numbers they need, so success on that end is ensured to some extent. It’s just that their reputation could be a bit scuffed afterward.