RM and his superpower: destruction on contact

RM is BTS's leader, writes thoughtful lyrics, is known for his love of books and art, and can give a speech at the United Nations without breaking a sweat. But hand him something breakable? That takes some serious thought first. RM has carried the unofficial reputation of BTS's "God of Destruction" for years now.

The nickname didn't come from one single incident. Things just kept piling up. Older BTS content has a whole collection of moments where RM knocks something over, tears it, or takes it apart, often with the facial expression of someone who doesn't understand what just happened either. One classic is the moment he shook a phone booth door during filming, and the phone itself simply ended up on the floor.

Even TV shows weren't safe. During a BTS appearance on Weekly Idol, the members were given a task to tear pages off a calendar as fast as possible. RM managed to tear his before the game had actually started. He didn't win the challenge, but he perfectly demonstrated why he has the nickname.

Sunglasses have also proven to be a fairly risky object in his hands. In one well-known moment, he was just trying to handle a pair when part of the frame came off in his hand. As usual, his reaction is the best part: he stares at what he's done, confused, for a few seconds, as if trying to figure out whether the glasses maybe just decided to give up on life themselves.

Over time, it became clear the same thing happens at home too. On Run BTS!, he told the story of taking apart pieces of the shower cabin to clean the bathroom, then breaking one while trying to put it back. The other members didn't seem particularly surprised. Once RM starts a story with "I was trying to fix" or "clean something," you can already roughly guess how it ends.

One of the most famous "God of Destruction" moments, though, didn't involve an object at all, it involved Jungkook. During a performance of Fake Love, RM grabbed his shirt as part of the choreography and pulled a bit harder than intended. The shirt gave way, Jungkook finished the rest of the performance with considerably more of it open than the wardrobe team had originally planned, and the fandom got footage that's still being shared years later.

Then there's his legendary history with AirPods. RM once admitted he'd lost so many pairs that even the other members were caught off guard when they heard the number. On one live he said he was already on his 34th pair, after which the internet quite reasonably started calculating how much money he'd handed Apple over the years.

The funniest part is that RM has long since accepted his reputation. The members tease him about it, fans compile his best moments, and he doesn't even try to pretend it's some huge injustice. When something breaks in his hands, RM often looks just as surprised as everyone watching him.

"God of Destruction" might sound a little dramatic for a man mostly waging war against sunglasses, AirPods, and objects clearly never engineered for Kim Namjoon-level handling. But after this many years of evidence, the nickname is hard to take away from him.