#qanda

Yeah, I'm sure that played into it! Thank you for addressing this, actually - I completely forgot to bring these moments up in my long-ass rant last night!

I believe I know which clip you're talking about regarding Seonghwa - it's also from 'Code Name Is Ateez' during the 'Pirate King' recording (video is timestamped):

I understand why someone would think this is really harsh, but looking at the full recording of everyone, you can tell Eden did give a lot of compliments and encouragement to the members, but the problem right here was that (1) he wasn't used to working with inexperienced artists - he was a solo act usually working in collaboration with other artists years into their careers and (2) Seonghwa was far from confident in his own abilities at the time, so he was easily discouraged and stressing out at points where the other members would center themselves upon receiving critique. (Personally, I would've had a goddamn panic attack in Seonghwa's shoes, so this is really painful to watch for me too.)

So do I think Eden could've handled this a whole lot better? Absolutely! But judging who he is now and has been since based on how he handled his first ever recording session with Ateez seems weird to me. It was simply unfortunate circumstances aligning that put a stressed and anxious teen in the recording booth opposite a producer who had yet to learn how to adapt to working with someone who struggles in this way and needs a softer approach.

Regarding San, I assume you're talking about this voice-only live he did during the 'Crazy Form' era:

However, this is another circumstance that was taken and ran with by the fandom.

Ateez's vocal coach - they had singing and dancing lessons a lot during their early days - must've taught San to make the correct adjustments fairly quickly, otherwise he would've needed surgery to remove polyps or cysts which would've meant withdrawing from activities for a while. However, since that never happened, it means his condition was still in the range of being treatable with non-invasive methods, which I'm sure both him and everyone else who knew about this was grateful for.

Mind you, this type of condition can also be aggravated by caffeine, allergies, catching a cold, etc. so it's possible it wasn't even just pure vocal strain which led to this. It could've been several intense recording sessions, yes, but it could've also been been their first ever tour taking a toll on him, their vocal lessons pushing him too hard, or it could've been either of the three in combination with a respiratory infection or cold - we simply don't know.

Now one more thing I want to say here is: I'm not trying to downplay how immensely hard Ateez had it in their early years - far from it. They had it rough (like really super fucking rough) and they've been super outspoken about it for a long time now and KQ doesn't seem to mind - they let them share whatever they wish to share. Hongjoong especially has told many stories in both lives and interviews, all from his early days at KQ - his loneliness, his worry that he was being deceived, his fight for a right to learn the skills he needs to achieve his dream, and more.

What I'm trying to get across with these long posts is that it's important to look at context and think critically. I want Atiny to see and treat Eden as a human being, just as I want them to listen to the members when they speak instead of picking up on a single quote or moment and running amok with it to push any sort of narrative. That's really all.

A question from April 14th. At first I thought this was asking about a robot with the power to control plant growth, like what if Wood Man, Plant Man, or Noble Mandrago from MM Zero 4 could make plants grow more efficiently. But then I re-read the question and saw it's about a character causing things and people to grow. Whoops. I don't recall any Mega Man characters with the power to grow or shrink things. Obviously a furry that's into size change would probably name a character like that Macro Man, Micro Man, Shrink Man or maybe Size Man? But since this is about growing things and not shrinking them, yeah, I guess a name like Growth Man could maybe work. "Size Man" sounds lame but to me, that name makes it more clear the robot's ability is to change the size of things. "Growth Man" sounds more vague, like it could be plant growth, growing new body parts, growing the economy, etc. Hmm, imagine Dr. Wily reprograming an economics robot named Growth Man to fight Mega Man using the power of an economic recession.