Jaehyun and his Doyoung

I saw many Korean fans mentioning the poison (dart) frog, and how it fits Tae because he likes frogs.

There is no Japanese stork (they have the Oriental stork, but it is almost identical to the White stork). Did you mean the Javanese stork? The lesser adjutant?

Hm, the wings of the jet do have white, so my last guess is the Japanese crane then, lol. It is the iconic bird everyone knows, afterall.

Yuta's fans seem to like that there is glitter. I don't understand the choice of colours for neos, but, seems like, the designs were not completely random.

I liked the idea of one fan that DoWoo's jets were in stealth mode on the wide shot from behind (in the teaser). That's why they didn't have colours. Ah, and I also appreciate that the jets in their open form have the star shape - a connection to "bulgasari".

Wait, come to think of it, Jae's is not just fuxia, it's a mix of pink and purple swirls. An accidental Blueberry and Peach combo? Haha.

SM staff actually does a good job of sorting eras into folders on YT (reels became a problem, though, making the lists too long). So if you missed a roll out, you can binge it using those playlists. Convenient for solos especially.

Fans are saying because of the new contract 127 got budget. It's not exactly that. A photoshoot against a green screen or a wallpaper screen in a moc jet cockpit in a studio costs almost the same as any other photoshoot against a white screen. The difference is in the planning and the best talent allocation. Time needed to book better photographers and outsource 3D jet models, as well as creatives with fresh ideas and good grasp on concepts.

Yes, all toxic solo stans behave the same. Same words, same tactics, same phrases. Doyoung just didn't have them before, it was truly peaceful in his corner (and TaeDo corner) in comparison to today. He was not an ace, he was not an underdog, he was not a visual. He was a 2nd place vocalist and was not interesting for a certain type of k-pop fans.

Can you see the difference? Pictures like the one on the left shouldn't leave the working computers. I don't know what the socmed/bts promotional material staff was thinking. How apathetic or blind one must be to green light such images. Yes, avid fans will love any new image, but, objectively, it is a bad photograph of an idol not looking his best. I took Haechan as an example, but all other neos had bad photographs uploaded that day.

I'm not tired of repeating I do not fathom how SM, a company with 30 years of experience, still can't understand that everything should be on a certain level, that there needs to be a person supervising and quality checking every product (posters, teasers, clothes) produced for a comeback. Just today we got a cool teaser with a mix-up of neos' emojis (the rose and the cherries for Tae and Yuta).

I mean... it's viscerally painfull. The right is neo, with a strong link to 2 Baddies (racing cars->jets, the acid colour scheme) and a chance throwback to Regular-Irregular (the muted airial city view). The left? - garbage.

Why are they so reactive? Like i dont understand? Sometimes a discourse on twitter starts without even mentioning dy and suddenly, the moment dy is mentioned these ppl doesnt hesistate to blow it out of proprtion. It’s embarassing honestly. And i’m just glad big, older accs are not engaging directly in any of it. But if they do, it might be my last straw in the fandom. And i really dont like the words best vocalist. It’s too absolute and i cant sit very well with that knowing how much work he puts on, how his condition fluctuates sometimes. I know fans want to praise him but do it outside of fandom war please. It’s just distasteful at this point. Cant they just ignore? Thing is i can really count how just a handful of ppl who are reactive to these fan wars but now they’re making other doppus to become ‘braver’ to talk shit to other ppl. Can’t believe there were days that our fandom is very very at peace. Like we were just happy with whatever content we have of dy and it’s like we’re having the same mindset as him to just work hard and be consistent. Now, the pedestal is becoming more higher and the ppl in fandom is trying to make him as untouchable.

i know it’s just impossible to have everyone behaves online but honestly they’re making it veryy hard for international fans to get into dy. It’s as if they dont want ppl outside of korea to get into him. “It’s fine dy is big in korea and japan” yes it’s not false (i think he’s just barely breaking out of that kpop circle into other genre like musical and variety so it’s very fragile still) but shouldnt it be natural that we as fans promotes and makes outside ppl engage with him? Like is it hard to be kind so ppl would find it easier to explore the fandom? As a fan, it’s not like i want him to be famous all around the world but i just want outside ppl to at least have nice interaction or encounter with dy or extension of him (fans).

Will be dropping some dy edits soon ✌🏼

I feel you, anon. I have to supress myself and not drag the topic here, only sometimes allowing myself snide shady comments.

The development is very unfortunate, I agree with you that such behaviour not only worsens the climate in the fandom itself, it alienates potential Doyoung fans.

The situation is not unique. I see this conduct in relation to every neo and almost every group. The posts about Doyoung just appear before you and me more because of our search history. There are more solo stans and there are more fanwars that need fodder to be invented. An unrelated to singing example is clothes. My bias is mistreated because he/she wore a duller dress/long pants. Your group is a copycat of mine because your bias wore a similar dress to mine.

You know how kids in school pick out a trait of a child and use it to bully him/her? Anything: height, freckles, stutter, absence of a parent, eligability for a free lunch, etc. "The best singer" is the same idea but in reverse. Taeyong's solo stans look down on anyone who doesn't write their own songs (singing is not important, producing is). For Yuta's fans others can't sing rock, so are no match for him. Of course, charting is "a talent". And, depending on a situation, a chart is selected to answer one's needs (Billboard 100, Spotify, Melon, music show wins, etc).

So yeah, in short, the situation is not unique to Doyoung. He just "became of notice" and started to attract people who like to use idols for squabbles. And, as you said, these people look for posts to react to, invent a reason, go extra mile and search OP's history for "damaging information".

What can be done to turn the tide? For real Do's fans to not be swayed by this wave, for them to not become like the perpetuators? The only solution is to offer an alternative. In other words, create a wave/movement of your own. Write and support Doyoung positive and Doyoung "welcoming" twits. Spread edits that highlight him as a singer, visual, kind friend paired with non-confrontational annotations. "This is such a beautiful song" or "His voice helps me go through the day" instead of "the only idol who can sing". Do not antagonise a potential passerby, lure with safety to their pre-established opinions.

Involve Doyoung in more discussions/lists of good vocalists in k-pop. He really progressed only in recent years, so is not widely known, he is still judged by his older performances. Think of how Ten is universally known as a good dancer, so noone questions his skills in the NCT fandom even when people have differing preferences (Jisung, Mark, Taeyong). Unfortunately, it is a lost battle to argue with fans online about vocal skills of idols. Many will say utmost rubbish with absolute conviction in them being right. It is a bias of false easiness of the topic, of sorts? People don't argue with scientists about quantum physics, but they will about the shape of the Earth or the human evolution. Hence "my bias sounds pleasant to me = he is a great vocalist".

Another issue is that people in general became less tolerant of other people's personal opinions. They are taught to react to any inconvenience, any perceived hurt and slight. It is expected that Doyoung won't be as attractive as an idol in comparison to others for many Westerners, especially from US. Be it his looks, his mannerism, his sassy nature, or his solo songs and genres he prefers. The language barrier is an obstacle, the type of the melody barrier is as well. Yeah, people are being dumb in the way they reply ("ballads are boring"), but it is reflective of their insufficient level of education/maturity, not of Doyoung. It's like a person on the Internet saying that classical music is boring. Is there a need to prove the classical music is way more advanced art than a simple pop-tune? No.

Call 127 teasers take place in the past (the clothes, the screen ratio, the colour grading, Jaehyun handing out of circulation banknotes to the fridge seller). call127.com site also looks like those from 90-s. Separate windows instead of a continuous layout. The site loads super slowly and overbears my laptop (which is a bug on the programmer's side, there is nothing to process for my graphics card). Kind of reminiscent of slow internet, though, heh.

When you open the site you are (temporally) "logged in" with your location being taken. Yesterday it was the country that was reflected in the chat, today it is the city of the internet provider (my guess, I'm in a small country right now and the capital was shown for me, but I see that for larger countries non-capital cities are being shown as well). Fans are connecting to the global command centre and calling 127. The members receive the incoming call on their receivers.

Alpha, Bravo, Charlie comes from the NATO phonetic alphabet. Informed gibberish, heh.

Call 127 teasers look to be the continuation of Deities of Seoul. The deities wanted to infiltrate the human society, this time they are already integrated (special/sleeping agents). Not as weird loners stuck in dingy shops, but as part of the commonfolk, living the neighborhood.

There is also a connection to NCIT (double-life and secret computer/informtics related roles) and The momentum (special agents): every neo gets a new role. Haechan - informant, Jaehyun - negotiator, Yuta - detective. "The boy named DY" (manhwa series) reference appeared on the 1st day of teaser releases, and I think Jungwoo will get the spotlight during the second half (he only got a chibi sticker and initials so far).

What I liked is that there was a personal reference to neos themselves. Jaehyun, obviously, his solo work and "Dandelion" MV look. Yuta strongly reminded me his role of Hayate in a tv-series "Cool Doji Danshi". Doyoung played a highschooler in "Midnight Cafe", and DY is, seemingly, a highschooler (writings on the cover indicate so).

Jaehyun (and the other neos) doing the kiki do you love me challenge in 2026 lol. Throwback to the 180724 vlive during Jaedo's honeymoon era.

TT link, YT link

Stripes, berets, bunny bandana ears, silk blouses, striped suits, gray suits, leather trousers, sequence trousers, pants with the most belts/chains/accessories (you'd think it be Taeyong or Yuta, but nah, Do gets his more often), crop tops unzipped/unbuttoned at the bottom, tops with big bold graphics, turtlenecks, harnesses, long belts with a free hanging end.