BTS’ reach has gone from music to art, to television, and now to books. They aren’t worldwide famous for nothing at this point, and there’s no stopping their impact from hitting the world even harder.
Can you even imagine how much BTS has inspired so many people, that an author decided to literally name one of the characters in her book after one member? Yup, unimaginable, until recently that is. BTS’ leader RM, real name Nam-joon, was recently found out to have inspired a character for Korean-Kiwi author Graci Kim’s latest book, The Last Fallen Moon.
Graci Kim is a Korean-Kiwi diplomat turned New York Times bestselling author who first tried her hand at writing in 2021 with her first title, The Last Fallen Star as part of her The Gifted Clans series. The Korean mythology-inspired book series had garnered positive reviews from critics, and was even called a “sparkling yarn” by Entertainment Weekly, featured by TIME Magazine, and has even got Disney Channel thinking about making it into a live-action series.
Now you might be asking, where does RM fit into all this? Well, this is where it gets all interesting.
While Graci Kim is still relatively new to her field, this did not stop her from making an impression on renowned author Rick Riordan who promoted her newest book on his Twitter account. And this is where ARMYs went into a frenzy: the character introduced in his Tweet.
“Meet Namjoon…!” read Riordan’s Tweet, who introduced a new dragon character from Graci Kim’s newest book, The Last Fallen Moon. Graci Kim also replied to Riordan’s Tweet, addressing ARMYs by saying, “Hey army! Namjoon has dragon eyes…” in reference to BTS’ RM’s features.
Hey army! Namjoon has dragon eyes… 🥹🥹 I heart him so much he made his way into my books. I hope you like them too! Start with book 1 though: #TheLastFallenStar ⭐️ In this Korean witch world, singing BTS songs open secret portals. You’re welcome 😘💕 https://t.co/LMLTBuBgMH
— Graci Kim (mostly updates) (@gracikim) June 22, 2022
And almost inevitably, “MEET WHO” suddenly trended on Twitter that day. Yes, they were by ARMYs who were shook by this revelation.
Lmao not "meet who" trending in the RM topic 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/eiSi8w1nBm
— namjoon loops ʳᵖʷᵖ (@loopsofnj) June 23, 2022
MEET WHO? I’d love to meet Namjoon, with his dragon eyes 🥰#RM https://t.co/r52gxh2k21 pic.twitter.com/WWnQlB9tSf
— Kelly La Road⁷⁼¹🦉 (@KellyLaRoad) June 22, 2022
MEET WHO https://t.co/RhmixPltOP pic.twitter.com/ptofbiofPH
— RC – The RM Minimalism (@RCRMVN) June 23, 2022
So this is the reason why MEET WHO is trending under RM😭 https://t.co/ipbbbJu4sG pic.twitter.com/ftjLLEoaDx
— 7 ʳᵖʷᵖ (@queky_) June 23, 2022
https://twitter.com/bangtngrl/status/1539810717552939009?s=20&t=NYosPAezDXF99kfwaGhErA
This wasn’t the first time that Graci Kim incorporated the 7-member band in her books, and when being interviewed by The SpinOff, she recounted a part of her book where the characters had to chant BTS’ “Fake Love” to break a glamour. “Can we avoid BTS? No,” said Kim in her interview.
Obviously, BTS’ impact and influence aren’t stopping at all or skidding to a halt. To be honest, they’ll just keep on growing and breaking through the West at this point.
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