#because they've already got all the member solos to highlight

[starryalpacasstuff]

Clearly the people at JYPE have no idea what the fans want because so far I have seen pretty much near unanimous consensus that Bounce Back would've been a better choice for a title track

[dearweirdme]

https://www.tumblr.com/dearweirdme/765612861976412160/httpsxcompannchoastatus1850937301146472850s?source=share

In terms of Taenope, it's not relevant but it is condemning in showing how the company is willing to throw Tae under the bus for their own agenda and evidence to support the belief that they've been doing so for a while now

Especially when there's already a laundry list of complaints about his treatment from the company---like Heffen waiting TWO days after his album release to tweet about it or H/ybe 'conveniently' underestimated the stock required to fulfil his largest fanbase's preorders and then trying to blame VBar for the fuck up only for QueenV to pull out the receipts that they gave the heads up for estimated preorders two whole months before his release date. Someone please tell me how a corporation who's dealt with the group's biggest releases manages to 'accidently' fuck up like that?

And I know the fandoms fave counter when people try to highlight how weird and dismissive that company is when it comes to Tae's music and career is 'why would H/ybe screw their own product?'

But H/ybe knows the group is their bread and butter and we've all praised Tae's stubbornness and self assurance enough to be able to understand why H/ybe might want to put him in his place and keep him there.

Something is the milk is not clean when it comes to Tae's relationship with that company---or more specifically, their relationship with him.

Hi anon!

Oh, absolutely!

Tae’s treatment has been wrong from the start. Who knows why? Maybe just a personal dislike from BangPd, it can actually be that simple. He was made to be the hidden member before debut. Which must’ve been excruciatingly hard, because not only did he have to watch his other members already function as a group, part of him must’ve thought his place wasn’t safe. After debut, he was made out to be the ditzy weird one… not being taken seriously. He’s constantly been the member that was made to look weird, which is exceptionally cruel to do to someone who’s actually struggling with that. His mental health issues were made to be a talking point in a show that also aimed to cement it in people’s heads that the person he was closest to was actually distant. To this day Tae is made to be the outsider.

We all know the things mentioned are just a top of the iceberg. I don’t mean to say other members don’t also take shit from the company. I think the company sees all of them as products and has no trouble using them the way they please.. it’s just always in different ways. But I agree that Tae has it worst. And I cannot help but also connect it to him and Jk.

I think Tae and Jk’s relationship made Tae the most vulnerable member in BTS. I think it’s been used against both of them, but the company is imo more invested in making money of Jk than of Tae.

Taennie wasn’t needed, it was something the company wanted. I think they got inspired by Gurumi, possibly YG contacted them and they saw profit in there. It’s meant constant fandom conversation for years, also covering part of solo era (which is a tricky time). It’s also secured a cover for Tae and simultaneously Jk’s queerness. Tae and Jk’s feelings on this don’t matter to the company. It’s money and power.

[ilhoonftw]

another loooong bitubi Affairs update for your pleasure(?): 4tob is doing a concert and 2 out of 3 dates overlap with both of subie's solo tour dates in suwon. 4tob announced their dates a month after ticketing for subie ended, so if you already have tickets for subie you have to cancel to see 4tob, yike

kmels were furious, not only for the implied disrespect against subie/fans who now have to choose subie vs 4tob, but for pouring fuel on the dumpster fire that's the fandom right now lmao

there were also fights about whether it's even a big deal to have clashing concerts, people saying it's nbd because it's just a few tour dates (suwon is subie's hometown show though...), and inevitable since the group is split between agencies.... others saying yes it's actually weird and uncommon for CONCERTS (as opposed to smaller schedules) to overlap within an idol group

AND there's a debate about whether 4tob should have a unit name. the argument is that subie/yook are bullied for 'disloyalty' every time 4tob promotes without them, and nonfans ask if they've left since it says bitubi but there's only 4 of them lmao. a separate name could help alleviate confusion and the blame game, I guess. kwang said before that they decided not to make one, but fans in favor say it should be reconsidered since subie/yook got so much hate this year

bitubi company then released a statement saying 4tob are ~protecting~ the bitubi name (many kmels hated this bc it's exactly how subie/yook antis talk) so they won't use a unit name, and that they'd planned the winter concert back when they made the company (but in july/august kwang said there was nothing in december and ticketing opened very late). it pissed off fans even more and I hear many of them are pretty much boycotting, while a lot of (korean) subie-biased ot6 stans quietly became solo stans

so now the 4tob concert is flopping, there's literally a third of the floor tickets left for all 3 days and I think it's only ~2k seats total per day 😬 additionally, bitubi company apparently really needs $$$ and jacked up ticket prices, adding ₩200k photo op/soundcheck packages like in overseas shows (which kmels are absolutely insulted by)

now there's a whole bitubi company stans vs haters divide, I'd say 95% of the haters are kmels, haters tend to be ot6 stans because most subie/yook solo stans gave up on the whole thing (but I think the fandom keeps trying to paint solo stans as the shit-stirrers...)

this all sounds so stupid written out, melody is even more in shambles than when I last wrote to you a few weeks ago lol. the fandom atmosphere is awful, some kmels seem to feel it's almost as bad as when runie left because holy shit has bitubi ever sold that poorly, and there's no resolution in sight :/

p.s. I'm 90% sure bitubi company's latest single cover art is AI lol

p.s.s. sorry this was so long!! I swear it underwent an editing process. don't feel you have to answer if it's too much!

yooo i always appreciate these, i don't mind the length! don't worry about it, thank you so much for taking the time to write this 🫡🥰

i hate to say this but i knew something like this is gonna happen... i'm checked out from the fandom news bc i stopped using twitter so this is brand new information™ like holy shit what a clusterfuck

it makes zero sense, is this self-sabotage??? who is giving bitubi company bad business advice hmmmmm

promoting after leaving og agency with everyone having a different agency (as in for example 7 members 7 agencies) must be easier than having 4 people in one agency named after og group and 2 others flying solo

even senior groups like shinhwa had hard time running their own company (was it 2 years ago that eric and dongwan were beefing on ig lmao) and i would go as far as to say they always had larger and more reliable fanbase. i always prayed on highlight downfall and tbh their numbers look okay but i wish there was an 'adjust to inflation' calculator for kpop albums...

now that () decided to continue being in blue box i bet there's a % of fans that regret that btob left... they have to build their own company from the ground up and it's not like "parent" agency isn't fully established if you ask me, it's backed by samsung iirc but samsung ain't doing too well right now so. pentagon is a different case cause cube gave up on them right at the start of 2022 and those who left are better off, they didn't hold big concerts or anything, meanwhile btob as more successful group had more to lose and welp

yea it does look ai-generated :((

[itsclydebitches]

One thing I will always be upset about was the whole Ironwood group battle. Putting aside my opinion that he should have put up more of a fight, how do the writers justify the group winning in the commentary? "It was really important for this team to have a victory after kind of getting dunked on by Neo in volume 7.” Wow, what nonsense. It totally makes sense now why they had the B-Team fight him, because they felt bad about them losing and believed that they needed a win.

Yeah, I've mentioned before that the winning on its own doesn't bother me. I'm of the opinion that unless your story has a really OP fighter (or a trick up their sleeve), 5 vs. 1 should result in the group winning. Especially when one member of the group, Winter, is an adult on par with Ironwood and they're all getting the drop on him. A good example of the reverse is the Tyrian battle. Yes, Ruby's team has numbers on their side, but at that point in the story they've had a single year of training and a couple weeks of backpacking. Tyrian, in contrast, is a fully trained adult who would become known for both his skill and his blood-lust. Part of the point of that battle isn't just to introduce one of Salem's henchmen, but to establish how very weak our heroes are compared to the obstacles they need to overcome. If Qrow hadn't been trailing behind, Ruby would have been kidnapped and JRN may have wound up dead, establishing that, in Volume 4 of a 10+ Volume series, they have a long way to go. So that all works for me.

What doesn't work is Neo.

If we've done a good job of establishing that only incredibly skilled fighters combined with comparatively inexperienced groups fighting them will result in a win for the individual... what does that say about Neo vs. JNOR? I've brought up frequently that this is a problem, but the point still stands. Neo runs circles around (or "dunked on") the team who, at this point, is not meant to be weak and inexperienced anymore. Maria goes on to run circles around Neo. Neo then takes Yang out with a single hit. Ruby solos Neo for most of the fight. And JNOR, who couldn't land a single hit on Neo, take out Ironwood, a huntsmen, headmaster, and general.

None of that makes any sense and the frustrating thing is that with just a bit of tweaking, I would very much buy most of these interactions. Give me a 5 vs. 1 and emphasize that Ironwood is both exhausted (he's been fighting Salem for two days straight) and coming off of another fight with Watts where he lost a limb. Balance this by having the group almost succeed in taking Neo down, resulting in her transforming into the guard as a means of necessary escape. This is no longer the train battle where Neo can dance around one hero (Yang) with complete ease. They've grown as fighters and she's dealing with four of them. Get rid of the Neo vs. Maria fight because it added nothing to the Volume and actively hurts Maria's characterization. Push Yang's fall a bit and let her take a couple of bad hits so that it make sense when her aura breaks. There, things make a bit more sense now.

The fact that the commentary discusses JNORW winning because they needed a victory after a loss just highlights how the fights are not written based on internal logic. It's the same thing with the Team RWBY vs. Ace Ops fight: we're told that they won because the plot needed them to, not because that made any sense in-world (and then the writers tried to cover that up with a 'We won because we're a team' speech which ignores that they... didn't fight as a team). It's a bad idea to make Ironwood the final boss battle when your real Big Bad is right there. It's a bad idea to give the final boss battle to the B-Team, most of whom already got to fight the Big Bad while the A-Team sat in the mansion. It's a bad idea to make that battle so short that fans are both underwhelmed by it and questioning whether that really showcased Ironwood's abilities. It's a bad idea to then immediately have him escape his captivity, start another final battle, this one fought by none of the 8 protagonists, and ending it with him dying off screen, with fans so unsure about the outcome that they'll pay additional money to get some confirmation.

All of that is a mess, but on top of it we don't even get some semblance of justification for the group's win here. If the writers had just said that Ironwood lost because he's at the end of his rope and it's 5 on 1, then I agree. Everything else is still a problem, but that at least makes sense. Instead, we get another indicator that they're just kinda picking wins and losses out of a hat. They aren't approaching this with, "We thought JNORW should win because of this context and these circumstances..." but rather just because they haven't had a win in a while. So much of what the writers say in this commentary highlights their disinterest in following the story rules they came up with, either because they're ignoring them (Ambrosius), or they never factored into their thought process to begin with (JNORW).

You know, lots of fans are talking about Kiersi's tweet and I do have to wonder how much of this mindset has influenced the writing of recent Volumes. Obviously RT is far from the only writers enamored with a 'Surprised your audience!' focus, but just because lots of other writers are doing it doesn't make it a good idea. If they really are rejecting their initial ideas to instead choose something they think will be shocking, then it's not wonder so much of RWBY doesn't make sense. They're not choosing the outcomes that are a logical result of what's come before, they're choosing the opposite in an effort to surprise us... and the opposite, usually, is an illogical path to pursue.