PRODUCE101 FINAL – Thoughts and Overwhelming Emotions
It took me literally two whole days to force myself to sit down and start writing about Produce 101′s last and final episode. If you’ve read my previous blog posts about Produce 101, you might know who my biases were. And even though I knew that not all of my favorites will make it into the final boy group, I was still pretty shocked about last Friday’s results. I can’t believe I’m in such pain – just because of a stupid survival program. Well, yes, I am – and that’s why I was not able to share anything about my personal feelings yet. Anyway, here’s what my happy but also broken self thinks about this so-called mess.
This is what WANNA ONE should have looked like – in my opinion.
I’ve mentioned in my previous article that I do not believe that everyone I want to will make it into the group. Let’s try to be realistic: All those countless fans of the show have different opinions. Some hate trainees who are loved by others (and vice versa).
The one I loved probably the most was Kang Daniel. Please, I even wrote a whole post just about his limitless sexiness. Of course it was him I want to see a center of WANNA ONE.
But when BoA announced his first place, I couldn’t really focus. I was so bothered about the fact that so many other names weren’t mentioned yet – and there was just only one single member-slot, and one of my biases left.
Three trainees of Produce 101 had my die-hard support – and there was only one of them I was really really worried about – and that was Yoon Jisung. When BoA finally made clear that Jisung was part of the group, I started screaming like crazy. My baby did it! And all worries went away in an instant.
Although I’ve wanted every single one of the PLEDIS’ trainees to join WANNA ONE, I was completely aware of the fact that neither Dongho nor Minki wouldn’t make it. I also believed – despite his incredible skills – that Samuel wouldn’t be able to be a member the final group.
Samuel should have been part of WANNA ONE – definitely. But his decreasing popularity left enough doubt in my mind… and my unsettling feeling about this trainee was right.
My guts were also right about Dongho and Minki – but what the hell… Jonghyun!? NO FUCKING WAY! When BoA revealed his 14th rank, I started to cry like the worst piece of fan girl shit.
Is this a joke? How can someone who was number one recently drop to rank 14? I never – NEVER – thought that Jonghyun wouldn’t be part of Produce 101′s boy group. I was quite sure about Dongho and Minki’s failure, and I felt slightly uneasy about Minhyun – but NEVER about Jonghyun.
I felt so numb after realizing that Minhyun was the only member of NU’EST who made it into WANNA ONE – even though my ultimate bias turned out to be center – I wasn’t happy at all. I should have been happy, right? Daniel got the position I’ve wanted for him – but I couldn’t celebrate.
Now there are three other things that worry me AFTER Produce 101′s final.
The last and final member who joined WANNA ONE was Han Sungwoon. I am a fan – of course I’m a fan! I freaking love HOTSHOT! Everyone should love HOTSHOT! And that’s why I didn’t want him to be part of this new group. Don’t get me wrong! I was so happy for him because he is without any doubt one of those guys who deserved it the most – thanks to his ambition, insane skills and hard work.
But since his HOTSHOT buddy Noh Taehyun had to leave the show, I thought it would be better if also Sungwoon would just drop out as well, and go back to supporting his original group. Through Produce 101 both trainees received a lot of attention – which was good publicity for their company and boy group.
Now Sungwoon won’t be able to be part of HOTSHOT for over one and a half years. Does this mean they will start to promote without him? Or do they have to wait for Sungwoon to return? Maybe they’ll disband anyway. Who knows…
Just worse seems to be this current NU’EST situation. Only Minhyun turned out to be part of WANNA ONE. What does this mean? I thought that at least Jonghyun would be able to join him. And that meant that three members of NU’EST were left: Aron (if you don’t know him, please check him out – he’s hot as fuck), Baekho aka Dongho and Ren aka Minki. Sounds like a pretty cool sub-unit, right?
We have the oldest member and rapper, the main vocalist, and the maknae. I would have been able to live with that. But with only Minhyun in WANNA ONE – who won’t be able to do any kind of promotion with NU’EST until the end of 2018 – there’s not really a chance for NU’EST to form a proper sub-unit or to promote without leaving a member out, right?
I still can’t get over the fact that Jonghyun is not the leader of this new group. It literally breaks my heart – and this was also the reason why I wasn’t able to write anything about this topic until now. My heart and soul needed time to realize what’s going on.
Every time I’ve opened Tumblr, I started to cry because way too many of you shared passionate posts about Jonghyun and the disappointment of the loss of his leader position of WANNA ONE. I can’t believe that this affects me so much – but yes, it does!
Poor Jonghyun, of course. But what about Minhyun?
I try to be as honest as possible – and please, don’t get me wrong. I am happy that Minhyun received so much love from national producers. But I think it would have been better if he didn’t join WANNA ONE. Things would be much easier that way.
The third and last fact that worries me the most is the current member line up of WANNA ONE.
I like every single one of them. However, the age gaps between all those trainees and future idols aren’t exactly small. Come on! Look at Jisung who is already 26.
But it’s not only a variety of ages that bothers me – it’s more their different images.
While Guanlin is with his 15 years the maknae of WANNA ONE, he still looks pretty mature and would fit a masculine concept very well. The same goes for Woojin, who is only 17.
However, I am not sure what to do with Jihoon, Jinyoung and Daehwi. Well, I know that it was extremely obvious that Jihoon is going to join the final group. But I still can get rid of this “unfitting” feeling.
With Daniel as center I think that WANNA ONE will have a more sexy and mature concept instead of a boyish and cute one.
Okay, okay… Daehwi can still spread a certain mature and elegant vibe which he proved during Never. Even Jinyoung showed in the final episode as center of Hands On Me that he is able to slightly pull off the sexy side of himself. But what about Jihoon?
This is only my personal opinion. If you see things differently, I totally respect that. I’m just some old bitch who experienced various boy and girl group debuts over a decade of being into K-Pop.
But Jihoon didn’t suit the Boy in Luv concept, and he didn’t fit into the Get Ugly group. As beautiful and good looking and of course talented he might be, he still looks like a grade schooler – even though he is older than Daehwi, Guanlin, Woojin and Jinyoung.
This is not his fault of course. No one can blame him for his innocent appearance. Girls even love it, and that’s why he placed second! But next to all the other members of WANNA ONE… I’m not sure how the final concept of this group will look like.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he is able to pull off a mature image – which I would love to see. Daehwi is almost able to do it while Jinyoung is not so bad at acting all sexy, elegant and stuff. I am only really worried about Jihoon. I just want to say: Come on, boy… prove this ahjumma wrong!
Yesterday, Brave Entertainment announced that Kim Samuel will debut solo soon (I thought he already did, but okay…) which is in my opinion a really bad idea. Brave – with its usual badass and mature concepts – would be easily able to form a fantastic boy group.
For example BIGSTAR are freaking dope – btw good job for putting them on ice, Brave Brothers. As main dancer of a boy group, Samuel would easily stand out. A solo career seems a little bit too risky if you ask me.
Final words… I am happy for every single one who got into WANNA ONE. Not all of my biases made it – and that’s okay. I think it’s rather ridiculous to bash Mnet or Koreans for this final member line up. Think about it… is it really Mnet’s fault? Is it really the voters’ fault?
Fact is – being sad, disappointed or angry doesn’t help. The pain of seeing your favorite trainee lose will go away soon. And that’s why I finally kicked my own ass to write this down – to end this topic. Produce 101 Season 2 is over! Deal with it! It won’t come back! The 11 trainees who will debut are fixed. All we can do is support WANNA ONE – with or without your bias.
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