#they do rock/metal anyway but some of their bsides are pop

[the-one-who-lambs]

46 (for wrappy ask game)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIET ILY BESTIE

Playlist for all the songs I used lyrics of for titles this year... A grand total of 2 songs both by Dreamcatcher and who is shocked

Starlight: Narinder decides it's finally time to confront his old demons. Narinder and Shamura reuniting, follower bishop AU from before Relics of the Old Faith update.

Deja Vu: Shamura wondered how much of what they saw in the present Narinder was a flashback, and how much was delusion. They hoped, for everyone’s sake, that these would pass.

This song AND MY GOD THE FUCKING MUSIC VIDEO. The solemn piano in the verses and then the knockout orchestral-rock chorus. The banquet scene and the cut to emptiness. The sword held out, dropped, picked up again by the hand of the one it was originally pointed at. This is SO Bishop family coded, especially between Narinder and Shamura who were implied to be very close, I'm chewing this forever.

[bomnun]

dumping a lot of annoying thoughts abt hui and ptg right now

it seems like the only thing i can predict correctly are music show wins, which, to be fair is just math and rigging patterns, but im going to do some serious handwaving and guesswork again becausei cant let things go so

according to shinwon, everyone’s decisions right now, “hoetaek hyung too and jinho hyung too” were made because they love pentagon so much. (from about 1:09 in this video translation by twitter user taeksite covers most of what this guess is based on. this is also related to the jinhui instagram thing btw). nothing about individual desires or wants for oneself (which would be fine, mind you), unlike yujin from clc who said gp999 was her last shot at performing on stage because clc had been formally dismissed, since people keep saying the situations are equivalent. not to mention the fact that hui spent his entire enlistment period accompanying pentagon to various schedules and practice, and constantly wrote about wanting to meet universe again. (and i really don’t believe this to just be “”fanservice””, or whatever, if outsiders want to interpret it as that. there was no need for him or pressure on him to accompany the members everywhere and write letters like that.)

hui’s competition profile states pentagon’s “just do it yo!!” is his favorite song; the song he and shinwon wrote together which is titled after shinwon’s/pentagon’s catchphrase, about their many struggles predebut and still then in 2018 when it was released (english translation). (as non-universe discovered two days ago, it was the first pentagon bside to be streamed to #1 on bugs for pentagon’s fifth anniversary celebration project). further implying that this is something done for the group. his purpose on the show being “rather than rank, it’s about proving” also implies that the main purpose of this might not be redebuting, but once again proving to cube (🙄) they’re worth giving the bare minimum support. that said, i definitely think supporting hui as much on the show as possible is the right idea, since we have no idea at what point they’ll have considered him to have “proven” himself. unless people are told to not vote for him, at this rate he could be #1 in the debut team...(and is that something we’re supposed to try to achieve or not?)

pentagon were initially supposed to have a comeback instead of this. in august, kino and jinho apparently stated that the comeback period had been decided. in september-october, there were many pictures and stories of members recording or being in the studio. there were even press articles (based on information given by companies) that pentagon would be coming back in the second half of 2022. i believe (once again just guessing) that changgu’s ‘pop rocks’ asmr video and kino’s appearance as ‘heavy metal’ on masked singer were both pre-comeback promotion and concept spoilers. (..two very different genres, but, in kpop theyd both just be considered ‘rock’ anyway). in october it went as far as another idol, kwon eunbi, wishing pentagon luck on their upcoming album. at the end of hui’s post-enlistment vlive, he tells us to look forward to pentagon’s comeback. (currenly unable to find a video or link of this as the keywords are so common)

i’ve previously stated that the timeline is very confusing. the boys planet 999 application period ended in august, and the final lineup was decided “mid-november”. hui’s military discharge was november 18th. it appears that he was specifically added without auditioning, within days after returning from the military, which, obviously, makes me wonder why. here’s where the serious guessing that could be very wrong comes in. i’ve already presented that his purpose is “rather than rank, it’s about proof”, and that when shinwon discussed the recent events, he did not once use phrases like “hui wanted” or “the members wanted” in relation to any of this. it’s about “choosing, for the sake of pentagon”; possibly that cube has specifically demanded this. cube has a track record of always doing mnet’s bidding, sending contestants to almost every season of their survival shows, and doing nothing about chowon getting rigged out of izone, for example. btob were invited to kingdom and seem to have not been 100% sure about participating (?).  monsta x declined their invitation to join, and after that, starship entertainment artists were no longer allowed to promote on mcountdown or similar mnet activities for a year, and it’s suspected these things are related. so, my guess is, mnet were aware gp999 underperformed and kepler aren’t getting the massive results produce groups got; the novelty of the revamped show and the lower public interest in boy groups won’t help them get numbers, and yujin’s arc last year did pull in a lot of viewers, so they tried to create a scenario that’s even more extreme. cube always does what they’re asked of mnet anyway, and it’s not like they put any effort into pentagon, as they’re always holding back their music and keeping their releases sparse when they have thousands of unreleased songs ready to go. (not an exaggerated figure. kino recently said he has 300 unreleased songs and he’s just one member.)

based on shinwon’s words (and how people describe hui’s audition videos. both fans and non-fans. i personally haven’t felt able to watch and analyze yet.) it does not seem like it’s something hui as an individual really wanted to do, and more like something he was talked into doing. he seems to have no interest in leaving the group currently, nor does it seem to be happening, as he’s still in their seasons greetings, performs with them on awards shows and festivals (during the boys planet 999 training camp...lol) and on the 28th he released a demo together with wooseok calling himself captain of five senses, captain being what pentagon members occasionally call him instead of leader and five senses beiong their second mini album. he appears in the new years’ greetings they just released, saying the time spent together with universe in 2022 was too short, and he hopes there will be more of it in 2023. i’m still wondering how hard cube pushed this and if mnet specifically asked for hui (why though) or any pentagon member would’ve done and hui said he’d do it. i’m also entertaining the possibility that he chose to be the one participating because, regardless of whether 100k+ sales per album, #1 on digital (gaon/circle/bugs/genie/itunes) and physical (gaon/circle/oricon), sold out concerts and merch, famous songs are considered “enough” in today’s kpop industry hui is the most famous and recognized out of them, and him in there makes it look completely absurd.

(absolutely just opinions in this paragraph)

i still think this treatment is absolutely disgusting. if cube is so done with them, why can’t they just let them sit out their contracts instead of humiliating them like this when they don’t appear to want it? but then, i guess idle would lose their mama privileges they don’t even want next year, so it’s not worth the risk to them xx or they want to keep hui longer while the rest make it out somehow... i assume theyve been told theyll be given a comeback if hui proves whatever cube wnats proof of.

there’s more to be said about all of this, and, as you may be able to tell, i’m spiralling a litle. it’s mostly speculation. feel free to tell me what you think is going on!