I'll take care of you as if you're my own

When K-Pop Demon Hunters released, I think it's safe to say most people had generally low expectations because it seemingly came out of nowhere (even the studios kind of didn't expect much from it, but that's another post). Do you want to know who was more likely to be keeping tabs on this movie though? Fans of Korean media. K-Pop fans, and arguably K-drama fans, were a big portion of the people who watched this movie in the first place and then started bringing KPDH's existence to people's attention. They had a higher level of urgency to watch the movie because it's something they're already invested in, which also correlates to the movie meeting their desires more. Most people who had seen the movie, and thus were discussing the movie, ahd their expectations met.

Then...it breached containment. First it reached general animation fans. A lot of animation fans appreciated the visuals, but had issues with other parts of the story. Now that the movie has reached a wider audience, one that it caters less to, the discussion is shifting towards more critique. But we're still in the generally early stages of this trend.

Where things take a nose dive is when KPDH reached its full-blown virality status. There are two factors that were at play in the case of KPDH, one that connects to the larger trend, and one more specific to KPDH. The first factor is that the initial crowd that had been frantically discussing it online had stopped talking about it with as much fervor. Korean media fans still loved the movie, but more of their discussions about the movie were occurring offline or in more restricted online spaces (think forums and chatrooms outside the mainstream). The initial critics and more casual fans, however, were still discussing the movie in more mainstream spaces. This is worsened by the general populace filling the space of the super fans.

Additionally, KPDH experienced The Frozen Effect upon reaching the mainstream, one that is arguably still in effect a full year later. The Frozen Effect is when a piece of animated children's media becomes so popular that it becomes inescapable to all members of the general public. A big indicator of The Frozen Effect is when a song from that media reaches pop radio. For Frozen, it was Let It Go, and Encanto experienced this to a lesser extent with We Don't Talk About Bruno. KPDH had this accelerated even further because the characters singing songs like How It's Done, Soda Pop, and the seemingly unstoppable Golden are musicians in-universe.

Before I continue with this portion, I feel the need to acknowledge my own bias. Frozen is my favorite movie of all time. Let It Go is my favorite song of all time. Which is why it pains me to discuss this next part of The Frozen Effect. Many perceive these songs to be overplayed, and it's understandable considering the rampant noise pollution that radio stations playing these songs contribute. Additionally, caretakers of children who have to hear these songs on loop, with tiny vocals to match, get irritated. The result of The Frozen Effect is that people's opinions of both the soundtrack and the movie as a whole gets dragged down by the annoyance of an earworm.

So, you've got annoyed parents who want their 5-year-old to stop singing Golden and people who would have never watched the movie if not for its virality status venting their frustrations and critiques online. Additionally, some people turned away from the media due to it being perceived as too mainstream, too cringe, or both...somehow. Some valid criticisms are made in this portion as well, which I don't want to discount. The overall result is that casual fans of the movie begin to have their opinions swayed to not enjoying the movie as much either. This is when hatred of the film reaches its all-time high. Even if a piece of media is genuinely awful, the final opinion will almost never be worse than this period of hatred.

Unfortunately, this is where the timeline gets fuzzy. The length of time it takes for people's opinions about a piece of media to mellow out depends on a few factors that are largely audience dependent. If the accrued audience has a short attention span, or if the media's virality was somewhat contained, opinions will mellow out fairly quickly. However, if the people engaging in the media are largely tweens or teens, it will take longer for people to begin viewing the media with more nuance. During this period, some small children that initially weren't partaking in discussions about the media might begin to turn their backs on the media and bully those who enjoy it in an attempt to seem more mature. This happened with a lot of people who grew up with Frozen, and I predict will unfortunately happen with KPDH...doesn't keep me from hoping it doesn't happen though.

However long it takes though, people DO eventually chill out. Part of why this happens is that the conversation about the media in question has largely faded from mainstream site aside from its most dedicated fans. People are no long being inundated with extremely positive or extremely negative opinions about the piece of media. When people engage with discussions about the media offline, people tend to not be as harsh about it because the discussions are with people closer to them. Nostalgia also plays a role in this, as the length of time that needs to pass before people get nostalgic seems to be ever shrinking (another post for another day). People will often come to the consensus that the piece of media is good, or even great, but still in the general category of average. I don't think we've reached this point with KPDH fully yet, because it is still fairly viral, but I have noticed a reduced harshness towards people who enjoy the movie.