bingo

Was pleasantly surprised by an extremely intense homoerotic relationship (every panel with those two feels like they’re two lines away from ramming into each other’s genitalia like a particle accelerator) and the cutest little guy to ever be drawn on paper

But truthfully, the BIGGEST surprise (bc sexual tension between two male characters in manga is not that shocking) was Guts’ little self being so full of guilt???? So emotionally turbulent? So cute? Can we get a petition going for all who were misled by the Guts phonk edits being hyped by comments going “hes just like me” thinking he was just a sad man with a big sword and hard feelings? I feel he would thoroughly enjoy playing with spinning tops

But like.. on a completely different note, can they start electrocuting sohee’s hair again? I check in every like 4 months and they keep his hair straightened DOWN. Being reaal safe (and boring) with the average korean male cut. Please bring back the mess it was so much more interesting and suited his face more thanks

Anywho, sohee you are still great even if i dont gaf anymore.

And the way people keep flip flopping between calling newjeans victims of MHJ’s grooming, to saying they’re villians for following MHJ. How are you calling them vicitms of grooming then victim-blaming in the same fucking sentence?? What the fuck?? What the fuck????

What really sent me was the apology from the company; so unabashed in defending a literal minstrel show under the veil of taking inspiration from a community that couldn’t even be mentioned in the statement. Then to top it all off the inspiration for the hiphop theme were not hiphop groups or artists, but random black men on the street with backward caps on. Are we fr???

I’m glad someone else agreed with that part. I do absolutely despise LSM, i’ve been a follower of SM groups for years and I hate soo many of his decisions over time. But honestly, the current SM management is by far the worst its ever been. Its like any good parts of the former management left were just thrown out the window and the artists are reaping the consequences. The already small amount of protection artists got is down to zero now. LSM always stuck with his artists (for better or worse). But he would especially stand with his artists when the parasocial freaks were going insane over relationships, which is precisely what happened with seunghan. Ontop of that he had great concepts/visions for groups that often times succeeded and set those groups apart from their peers. I would much rather have LSM’s old ass come back than whatever the hell is going on in that company right now. He’s a piece of shit, but I doubt he would’ve let this escalate this far.

SM doesnt understand that riize will never be a proper “global group” if they dont listen to the voices of global fans. if thats the case, stop promoting them as such. Stop giving them global brand deals, stop doing tours here, stop coming to the west entirely. Just stick to your own business and its warped perception of what makes a “good idol.”

Y'all want global groups, global recognition, get into the western market, chart on billboard, want k-pop to be taken serious and elevate it but you can't do basic shit right and you're outdated as fuck. You want foreign recognition but dont wanna deal with foreign sensibilities. A group aiming for global success while simultaneously basing all their decisions on local outrage will never work.

And this isn’t setting a new precedent, its only cementing the precedent thats existed in the industry for decades. SM has always enabled crazed fans and bullies for decades now instead of taking action and protecting their artists. This is unfortunately very on brand for them (however I still do think lsm would’ve kept seunghan but alas).