a real feat! lots of these articles had something new and interesting to say, but a lot of it felt a little surface-level - confined by the limits of such a collection. i would love to see some of these ideas expanded on in full-length papers.

a lot of these were more personal than i thought they would be - some were even nearly entirely accounts of personal experiences and how bts and bts fandom affected them. interesting, still, but not what i was looking for or what i'd expected here.

it was really fun to take a dive back into army culture from another side. i've been a fan since 2015 so i've seen pretty much everything described or mentioned in this collection happen in real-time, which made reading this quite the experience. i would recommend this to any bts fan mature enough to handle some more critical looks at fandom and the group. nothing really critical is said here - a shame, i think - but all the same i know some people are more sensitive than they perhaps might feel. so yeah, it would have benefited from a starker look at fandom culture without such a serious focus on the upsides of it. undoubtedly it's important to emphasise that Not All BTS Fans Are Like That, but some are and it's also deeply important to analyse why fandom culture facilitates such behaviours. it would have at least been interesting to see someone talk about this less-loved aspect!

yeah. next time, a little less biased (ha ha) look at fandom and perhaps more diversity in topics would be beneficial.