#love money fame svt

[chamelis]

anjali dear,, im so sorry you had to go through this,, esp from the idols you love and support. i have not been keeping up ŵ svt as much as before but just from reading the trans alr had me shocked that they would make a joke like that. u have every right to get upset, every right to voice ur frustration, for they clearly had no reason to do that. and i have seen enough of racist jokes about your culture, even the BP mv threw me off as i was a set decorator once in my bollywood film project.

hi dear, thank you so much. you're right, it's terribly shocking that theyd say something like that especially when they've been vocal abt their "appreciation" for indian culture before. i still remember how hard i smiled when i saw vernon talk about how much he loves this one indian curry in an "inside seventeen" episode. how he frequently visits an indian restaurant near his family home, how he's taken some of his members there.

some part of me truly thinks that they meant no harm and that theyll hopefully learn their mistake and be more aware from now on. it does seem probable. but the other part of me just has no expectations anymore, bc ultimately, these are a group of rich and famous celebrities that will sadly continue to have a fanbase whether they truly care about fighting racism and being anti racist or not.

and we has fans have absolutely no way of ever knowing that. the best we can do is talk about it within the fandoms and make sure that the fans, at least, are aware of the idols' wrongdoings yknow?

im sorry i didnt even realise how long that got fhdkdne but anyways thank you for this. i feel like im being selfish but also as an indian and a long-term fan of seventeen i guess this just hit really really close to home. stuff like the BP mv issue as u mentioned, and all the other shit we've been seeing from kpop idols, it's just started to affect me less and less bc im no longer shocked, im just disappointed and i think "yep, theres another group that are ignorant with their actions".

i guess all we can do is keep speaking up until we're heard. and keep remembering that we cant ever trust people with money and fame to live up to our expectations :(

[aijee]

hello! i’m the anon who left the 6-part ask regarding mg a few months ago (i refer to those asks bc i’m back to drop more thoughts about mg and might touch on what i previously said). i wrote this whole thing disregading word count, believing i could drop it all in one go because i managed to log in to my tumblr, but it seems i still have to break it up… lmao i don’t know how many parts this will be or if i could post it all tonight, but i will signify the very end with “6-part anon” :)

Cont’d with response under the cut (I made some executive decisions about where the paragraphs break lol so it’s not all one block of text):

they want to be famous; that part just came along with the package. then i read in your bts post, you see mg as more wrapped up in entertainment, having star power with a bright personality, liking the limelight. reading that, i do agree, but i guess ive never thought of that before. i think wanting to be a star and wanting to be in the spotlight can seem self-centered. i hope im not coming across like im judging everyone who wants to be famous as “bad” because that’s not what i’m trying to do, but i think it’s safe enough to say that wanting to be famous means wanting people’s attention on you. i’m trying to tread carefully but i suppose i am saying that on the surface, wanting to be a big star can seem a little selfish in the sense that you want to boost your image, present your best self at all times, want people’s eyes on you and want them to think good things about you. combining those general thoughts about wanting to be a star, with my thoughts about mg in particular, is interesting to me.

i’ve always seen him as someone so selfless, so lovely, so considerate towards others. throughout idotsc, you’ve written him throughout as someone so amiable, liked by everyone, and also selfless and considerate. and in chp 7, his reaction twds the pictures is... well, I think they’re pretty true to character, and again i think it shows selflessness. then the ‘Love Languages’ text that OP had written— while, of course, OP doesn’t know him and everything is an assumption to a certain degree, I think their writing summarizes in one place what I observed about mg through the content available to the public: he constantly gives to people around him, exhibiting sincerity, words of gratitude and acts of service. at the same time, i definitely agree with what you said about his star quality, so i think that was the first time i really stopped to examine my thoughts about stardom and how some things may not be mutually exclusive.

“stardom” also makes me think about his recent incident, because of course, such incidents are definitely a potential consequence of fame. during that time i’ve also come across several opinions saying that they’re not surprised if a current idol was a past bully… i don’t remember exactly what people said but i think it was somewhere along the lines of, if they were so confident and cocky since predebut, then they might have had the qualities of a bully. something like that. i think from the outside looking in, it may be easier to equate star quality with a diva attitude/disregard twds others.

one thing i’d like to add is sth that a famous person said abt fame, and why they value it more than money, bc if they meet a fan, the look on the fan’s face upon meeting them gives them a feeling money can’t buy. and i suppose from this angle, being a star seems selfless. with svt too, they expressed how meaningful it is to them that theyre able to bring us so much joy. i think from the outside looking in, it may be easier to equate star quality with a diva attitude/disregard twds others. one thing i’d like to add is sth that a famous person said abt fame, and why they value it more than money, bc if they meet a fan, the look on the fan’s face upon meeting them gives them a feeling money can’t buy. and i suppose from this angle, being a star seems selfless. with svt too, they expressed how meaningful it is to them that theyre able to bring us so much joy.

i hope this all makes sense; i had lots of thoughts and wanted to try to write them. i struggled to understand why one would want to be a star, and went in circles questioning if i thought it was more selfish or selfless, and what one’s true motives might be behind wanting fame. ik u implied u embrace long writing bc you also write in length, but i’m less eloquent than you are so i hope this was fine! thank you again for having a space where people could offload their thoughts :) ~6-part anon~

There’s a lot to unpack here, isn’t there! A buffet of food for thought, for sure. I can’t possibly respond to everything written here because there’s just so many points, so I’ll write a few points. As always, take what I write with a grain of salt.

I don’t think there’s anything bad or inherently wrong with pointing out that, hey, people who are interested in a profession necessarily tied to a public image probably to show off or want attention. These things are perfectly natural to want, even for people who aren’t celebrities, because we’re (1) inherently social creatures and a lot of our survival is contingent on external success, and (2) we are brought up to feel validation from others, especially in an age where our lives are much more on display. But I can see why “selfishness” may be thrown in the mix because we often look down on attention-seekers and “popular” people, many of whom exhibit arrogant/tone-deaf behaviors. On the other hand, it’s understandable that an idol with a big public image necessitates putting their best foot forward all the time to maintain good opinion of them and to earn more money, frankly.

I’ve probably repeated myself too many times, but something I’ve been grappling with recently is this black-and-white mindset/judgment system we often have of others (very much exacerbated by social media, e.g. witch hunts). Bad is bad, good is good. I’ve thought this way for a long time of myself in an upbringing that always punished/looked down on bad behavior (or what was considered behavioral flaws, like speaking out against elders, swearing as a femme person, etc.) rather than acknowledging that “bad” behavior can be exhibited by people who also do and act “good.” In short, while I can only speak from my perspective, I think we’re programmed to subconsciously seek behavioral perfection for a number of reasons: we were raised that way by family; and/or society; we feel judged by the presence of social media and greater access into our lives; accessibility to celebrities and “perfect” public figures makes us judge ourselves by comparison; education systems that poorly address internal learning as well as external learning, etc.

In Mingyu’s case, there’s nothing wrong with seeing and continuing to see him as all those good qualities in my opinion. There’s nothing wrong with grappling with potential past problematic behaviors of your faves, as long as you’re critical and open-minded about the parties involved (which is rarely ever a fanbase at large, but the skewed authority of a fanbase is a different can of worms). Idols are human, which means dealing with the good and bad that comes with interacting humans. Contrary to popular belief (and I write this sarcastically), people CAN change. People should be ALLOWED to change. Characters are static. People are not. And it’s sad to say that this is still an issue in the K-Pop world. 

As hard as it sounds, a person who bullied others in the past could still have good or pure intentions for becoming an idol. They could still feel fulfillment from making others happy; is that a bad thing? I personally don’t think so. Or maybe a person’s intentions for becoming an idol could be mixed good or bad, who the fuck knows? Not us. Honestly, I firmly believe that we fans don’t have the right to make definitive moral judgments of idols in the first place because we don’t know them personally. That, and people are extremely complex and hard to categorize, as much as we want to because it’s easier to do so. People are messy. Real life teaches us that more than the Internet does imo.

In any case, I don’t think selfishness and selflessness are mutually exclusive in the same way a person can be both good and bad. I learned that language, too, is a powerful vehicle that influences how we think. In that vein, with how compartmentalized definitions are in specific words, perhaps we think that their existence/practice is separate, i.e. being “selfish” is never being “selfless” because each word’s definition exists solely in their respective word and not the other (hopefully that makes some sense).

TL;DR: I think wanting attention and validation from others is okay and not inherently a bad thing, and people are fucking messy and rarely good without the bad (and vice versa).

Pretty sure I rambled a ton as well and probably didn’t hit that many points that you offered, anon. You ended up putting me on a thought train as well!

[bluehcvrs]

oh it didn't sound argumentative at all! there's rumors of two new big hit girl groups debuting sometime soon which is gonna be fun considering we already know big hit just wanted sakura because of the hype around her lmfao i love big hit groups but i don't trust that company one bit. they're becoming the disney of kpop and trying to monopolize on everything. ALSO i don't know why source music and big hit wanted to co manage a girl group after the glam situation ??? it doesn't add up to me lol

i've seen some rumours as well, but one of them is always about the female version of i-land which like.... i've scoured every news article about it & none of them actually link it to bighit?? and the only similarity is the fact you vote through an app ( see below ) so idk how much i actually believe any of them. i know at the end of i-land it said they were auditioning girls, but like... the timeframe between that & whenever girls planet 999 starts airing seems pretty tight?? especially considering mnet announced girls planet 999 in january. i know enhypen spent some time after i-land training as well, but you can't deny this feels rushed & is just more ammo in the 'bighit don't care about women' agenda if girls planet 999 is affiliated with them. but also glam are entirely why i don't think he trusts women anymore, bc like... with the exception of gfriend, every subsidiary that they've acquired only has male artists ( obvs pledis has svt & nu'est and koz has zico, dvwn & penomeco ) and the two groups they've since debuted have also been boy groups. just say u hate women & go??

but yeah i've talked at length ( not so much here, but on my old blog ) about how bighit are clearly monopolising the industry but no one cares because they only acquire """smaller""" companies. except... you know... seventeen are arguably bts' biggest competition ( because they can't exactly acquire sm ent so seventeen are the next biggest after nct ). i know the fair trade commission has to approve any & all mergers and acquisitions, but we live in a world where bribes are exchanged & people in power get what they want whether it's lawful or not. as long as they keep targeting smaller companies, then i think they'll keep getting approved, until there aren't really any other options left?? idk the whole thing is shady & adds into why i don't trust them with minors.

i get that they're trying to recreate the same rags to riches origin story that bts had with txt & enhypen, but it's just neglectful?? to house them, especially when some members are still children, without basic furniture?? whenever i see photos of txt eating off the floor in their first dorm because bighit didn't give them a table, it makes me so mad?? i saw clips of enhypen's dorm tour and people were gassing up the fact that bighit gave them a flatscreen TV, but once again, no furniture to go with it?? they were all sat on the floor watching it because bighit couldn't provide them with a sofa because...? reasons i guess? much the same as putting all of enhypen in one bedroom. i appreciate that bts were all crammed into one room, but bighit make SO MUCH MONEY now that stuffing all 7 of enhypen into one room is just irresponsible?? no one will buy a rags to riches story from them, or txt, because they come from bighit and everyone is aware of how much money they make, so like... why try? why bother? you can tell me it's normal for groups to be stuffed together like that, but let's examine groups from companies that have similar kinds of income;

stray kids - 8 members, 3 bedrooms

exo - i'm not sure about when there were 12, but i know there were 5 rooms between 10 of them after kris & luhan left

treasure - 12 members, 12 rooms across 3 dorms

no one is saying they have to live in a palace, but cramming them all into one room when they make the kind of money they do is lazy?? i live with 4 other people currently and we all have our our room & we make our landlord a LOT less money than bighit makes from their various groups. i just really can't stand bighit or bang sihyuk or the decisions he / they make. i'm not a oneit by any means but like.... anyone with sense can tell it's shady as hell that bighit said x1 were only famous because of pdx101 UNLIKE txt who earned their fame through hard work ( that is almost a direct quote ) just because txt & x1 were nominated for the same award, and then months later come out with i-land... a survival show... god i just really hate bighit

[violin-and-schoolwork]

love (joshua ff)

for: @hearteu33 as a little payback

words: 725 (i wrote this in twenty minutes, cut me some slack)

disclaimer: i do not own joshua, svt, jess, or any of the individual pictures used in the aesthetic i put together!

Wedding days were always considered special and the day that many claimed was the centerpiece in one’s life. That was true and perhaps that reality combined with the growing ecstasy and nervousness was what was making Joshua so giddy.

“I don’t ever recall seeing you as bouncy as Hoshi after having a dozen donuts from that time,” Jeonghan laughed, looking as ethereal as ever in that dark blue suit of his, “Stop wiggling around, you’ll crinkle your suit.”

He couldn’t help it but his heart was beating so fast that he couldn’t even form words properly.

“I wanna see Jess,” he managed out, rocking back and forth in his chair. The creaking sounds echoed in the dressing room.

“Look, they’re all either guarding the door outside or surrounding Jess’s room. Y’know, the groom and the bride shouldn’t see each other before the wedding and all that lovely jazz,” his friend laughed, “And I don’t think you can even go anywhere in that condition. Coups could probably restrain you with an eyelash.”

“It’s not fair that I’m not allowed to see her when I’m getting married to her,” he replied, pouting a little. Jeonghan adjusted his buddy’s bowtie again before stepping back.

“Save the excitement for when the actual ceremony begins,” he said, “I wonder if Jess has any cute friends.”

Joshua started tuning him out, his mind instantly traveling to his fair lady. It seemed like such a dream to him. The thought of spending a lifetime with someone he loved was something he always wanted.

“Josh? Joshua? You still there?” Jeonghan asked, waving a hand in front of his face. The male gave a jolt, nearly having fallen out of his seat had it not been for Jeonghan grabbing him at the last second.

“As I was saying, Mr. Lovesick,” he chuckled, “Tell me again how you proposed to her. Maybe talking about it from the start will calm your nerves. Well, it’ll keep you occupied at least.”

It seemed like an idea to go off of. He collected his scattered brain.

“I proposed to her at the park’s fountain where we first met. I was making a wish by throwing in coins and I had hoped that I would find something more substantial in life than money and fame,” he gushed, hearts practically dripping from his twinkling eyes.

“Fair enough,” Jeonghan commented quietly.

“And when I threw my coin, I overshot and accidentally hit someone’s hand,” Joshua giggled, his cheeks flushed with color at the mere thought, “I’m sure you can guess who that was. But anyway, I had everything planned for a bit but I was always so nervous to carry it out.”

His friend nodded as Joshua pressed his hands to his heart.

“I got the ring months before and I tucked it away and looked at it every night before bed and… One day, I just knew that it was today and everything was perfect. The fountain was alone for us, the sky was clear and wonderful,” he mused, “So I asked her. And she said yes. Oh, Jeonghan, I couldn’t forget any detail even if I tried. It’s so breathtakingly irreplaceable!”

His friend squeezed his shoulder lightly, murmuring, “You are such a romantic. Come on them. Let’s go to the hall so you can finally tie the knot with Jess. You two were made for each other.”

-

He didn’t even know how he managed to get himself down the aisle. His legs practically turned into putty the moment he saw her, smiling shyly and pecking his cheek, dressed finely in her wedding gown.

Heck, even Aphrodite would have gone home crying if she saw Jess.

And the way she held his arm so tightly as they waltzed down the carpet, petals graciously thrown on by Chan, the baby of the group. The exchanging of vows, where inside jokes and giggles and confessions were all made and he let himself speak from his heart.

“…Then I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

He could see her mouth a small ‘I love you’ before he just let himself loose and lean into her, wrapping her up entirely in his arms and pressing his lips onto her face and neck and cheek and wherever he could touch while everyone else cheered.

The night sky glistened beautifully as their rings on their fingers.

the night never stops there.