#xu shihuan

[thebvbbletea]

Introducing 'POLARIX'

[staryinghao]

there was a system bug on iqiyi's vip card selection today that showed the current rankings.. rumours only though

[x1uizy]

(⚠️spoilers for startlight boys finale!⚠️)

i somehow guessed 7/9 like two weeks ago (i say as if 5 weren't predictable)

the lineup is....alright. it seems that neither xingxing or daeul wanted to debut (xingxing kept saying no apparently and daeul kept making an X with his hands...?) so this is...interesting. im thrilled that zai made it in, i really wasn't expecting much but he was quite safe in the end. im a bit sad for daeul and xingxing but what can you do at this point...the most surprising part to me were the top 9 candidates actually (and hangyuls rank but im valiantly ignoring it). yoojun was definitely on the way up but i wasn't expecting rank 10...i wonder if hangyul fans tried to save him (and zai, maybe)? given the way this group was looking i think xilong wouldve fit well, but clearly he dropped quite a bit. i also haven't talked about congb, but i think he was kind of screwed over by the show being so short & all of the trainees who came in with large fanbases. i dont think he fits the top 9 but i wouldve been super happy to have him. anyways, ill do some brief member by member commentary:

shao ziheng: clear center from day 1, im glad he got it

junhyuk: my heart was beating so loudly when he wasnt called, i didnt realize he had so many rich fans since i never saw his name when galaxy donations were popping up. im proud that he's #2 but also still confused lmfao. im so happy that i didnt really have to worry about him on this show but the fear when 6 - 4 were called and he wasnt there kind of made up for that 😭

xu shihuan: i dont hate him but him being top 3 is annoying, sorry. i hope his family buys a lot of albums. also annoying that the ppl who do paid votes dont even start early to give the rest of us time to adjust to that person being in the top 9. like 37 to 3 just doesn't look good my guy

xinche: im a xinche supporter sorry. the problem that a lot of nugu groups run into is that they have a lot of talent and no stan attractors and well. that will not be a problem here. i almost expected them to be more of a variety group than a music group (unfortunately) and xinche's bond with hangyul, junhyuk, and zai especially will come in handy. plus, another rich fanbase. do i like his rank? no. is he ready to be a musician? no. but i think he'll be very popular and an asset to the team

pentor: there's not much to say about pentor. i love him, i think he's great, im glad he's debuting, that week where he dropped a bunch was scary, but all was corrected in the end. i think he'll be a great idol (again), i almost just wish he was on a better show actually. he seems to have a good bond with everyone so im not *expecting* issues, but i hope he doesnt run into an issues being the only thai member/only member without others who speak the same language. i know his mandarin is pretty good though so that's great. wow, more to say than i thought

hangyul: his rank bothers me but i suppose this proves that his fans are poor but dedicated. from to 2 to 6 does kind of make sense with the paid votes, i just had no idea that junhyuk's fans were richer 😭 tbh with his enduring popularity from the unit till now i think hangyul will still socially be treated like a top 3/5 member. plus he has a good shot at being the leader which will help his visibility

zai: my boy made it 😭 i wasnt scared about my main main picks bc i couldnt conceptualize them not making it but i was voting for zai like my life depended on it. i liked him ever since that pic of him in that hat dropped (i was having grandiose visions of an exo 2.0 and he was giving chanyeol) but then realizing just how close he was to hangyul and especially junhyuk made me a bit more desperate 😭 i almost bought firefly votes for him and the only reason i didnt is because iqiyi kept buffering lmfaoooo.

donghwa: so uhm. did the slb 9 pick make anyone realize that f4 isnt real or what 😭 anyways hes talented and im not mad at him debuting but i did stop voting for him in r1 because i was uncomfortable with his past. idk how that's gonna impact the team in the future. i think the prodction shouldve switched to highlighting han jeongwoo once calls not to vote for ydh started getting a lot of attention but by then "f4" was already locked in. we'll just have to see i guess. also lowkey, im not a hater but some of the things he does makes me side eye a little but that'll hopefully go away lmfao

lee daeul: kind of already said my piece but i feel sort of bad for him. at the same time, if he didn't wanna debut he should've dropped out instead of thinking that there wasn't a chance. to be blunt, and I've said this before: this was not the show for daeul. he needed to find a company (now we know that 143 is absolutely awful-boycott madein, support gaeun- but theoretically that shouldve been a good place for him if they hadnt dropped him, which didnt really make sense in the first place) and train for a bit before making a debut in a cuter group that gets to wear sweaters a lot. instead he is here. i think he would be more popular in a standard korean group so this probably wont do his career many favors. unfortunate

polarix as a whole: i like a lot about this lineup. this could go well or this could go poorly and it all depends on the company. if they dont get gen1e'd (activities in china only for the chinese members while the rest get nothing) and they dont get classy'd (trapped in a money laundering scheme) and they dont get loona'd (stuck in a contract where they cant profit) and they dont get uniq'd (where the market doesn't know where to put them and thus they dont get many group opportunities) and theyre not just straight up unpopular, it could be okay! i hope a company that wants a successful group takes them. money is super important but wanting your group to promote and do well is pretty much even more important and that's the true killer of so many groups. pls promote them well. whatever company they end up under 😭🙏

[thebvbbletea]

'POLARIX' Final Lineup!

[thebvbbletea]

It's POLARIX's photo time 📸

[staryinghao]

rankings leaked?? (translated under cut. this is just a rumour but a pretty credible rumour i think..)

shao ziheng

han gyul

lee junhyuk

zai (zhai jun'an)

yoo jun

xu shihuan

yang donghwa

duan xingxing

xin che

pentor

he xilong

congb

hong sungmin

eden

minjae

ling qi

sheng qi

doha (contenders: doha, sun jiayang, hikari, han jeongwoo)

[staryinghao]

have not finished watching ep 6 of SLB yet but here are ranking spoilers (from the last week):

sun yinghao dropped to third ok break my heart i guess 💔 no hate to szh but MY GUY

why is zhang jijun fifth GET HIM OUT GET HIM OUT

dxx dropping two places.. chinese fans must be happy

yang donghwa ninth,, f4 SWEEP

michael wu is 10th.. yeah his fans have been buying votes like crazy you can see them buy the gifts when you watch on the app

LET'S GO ZAI LET'S GO KEEP RISING UP!!!!

xu shihuan 35th.. what is bro too scared to buy votes anymore (/j DO NOT COME AT ME)

[x1uizy]

starlight boys post-elim thoughts (link to old thread)

⚠️ contains spoilers ⚠️

honestly, this is abnormal for me but my top 9 really hasn't changed much: liu guanyou, sun yinghao, shao ziheng, lee hangyul, pentor, duan xingxing, zai, & yang dongwha, with some wiggle room for 9th.

of course, zai (20th) and yang dongwha (16th) aren't fully in the running, with zhang jijun (8th), noh minjae (9th), lee daeul (10th), he xi long (11th), hong sungmin (12th) congb (13th), xu shihuan (14th), yoojun (15th), wang kun (17th), lingqi (18th) and sun jiayang (19th) in the mix.

some relevant vote counts (without benefits*):

zhang jijun: 688,894

noh minjae: 650,336

yang dongwha : 399,145

zai: 356,251

*benefits are pretty much useless except to tiebreak the last elimination spot. in this round, neither eden nor choi junho got benefits though so it didn't matter, but if choi junho's team had won he would've made it instead of eden.

*because i find it interesting here are the instances where to wouldve made a difference in rank:

lee daeul (10) & noh minjae (9)

zai (20) & han jeongwoo (21)

etani hikari (26) & syo (27) - particularly interesting that their votes were sooooo close, only 2k off. if hikari's team had lost, syo would have gotten 26th with a 3k gap

kris (34) & phoom (35)

eden (36) & choi junho (37)

anyways 4-pick is bound to shake things up so we'll have to see what happens, but it seems unlikely right now that dongwha or zai will catch up to the debut seats. my primary hope is that top 7 stays the same, even if the ranks change.

thoughts on ranks 8 - 21

zhang jijun: intl fans have no idea who this man is 😭 i learned that hes an actor with over a mill on weibo & his fans might try to get him all the way to the finals but then drop him at the last minute. welcome back lu yuting & lelush.

noh minjae: i like him but it doesnt feel like the right group for him. he's talented but he doesnt fit. i wont be mad if he makes it and i think it could be interesting for him to play off of liu guanyou. but hangyul & minjae didnt make sense in a group together the first time around, this time is worse lmfao

lee daeul: once again, not the group for him. i think his one pick will be pretty strong moving forward but he probably needs to get his ass to modhaus for bripleS idk

he xilong: love him actually. he doesnt match the final group but he doesnt actively detract either. i think he could work. i want him to gain more confidence on stage & its a shame that we dont have enough rounds to see him grow

hong sungmin: talented but i cant get into him. his rapping tone was kind of unpleasant in r1 & even though i know he's better than that it kinda ruined things for me

congb: i like him but i think a different group would work for him. i think he & daeul would do better in kpop and i really dont think that's where this group is fully headed

xu shihuan: i know very little about him but if i couldnt have any of my picks in 9th I'd probably pick him, just image wise. saying this makes me miss ryou kaito.

yoojun: im enjoying him on this show but i dont know what to do with him. i think he's really coming off well but im not sure where he can go from here. can he act? become a streamer?? idkkk. he's too talented onstage but im not sure if this is enough for him to be successful

yang dongwha: still torn on him. i think the bullying scandal has hurt his main base & im not sure if he'll be able to overcome it. it's a shame though that the production clearly had a plan and it's not panning out. i wish they had recruited more people who fit their desired image

wang kun: i liked him more on asy, it's kind of a shame. you know who needed to be on this show? gemini. he would've been solid top 8 & that group would've been diverse & sooo iconic.

lingqi: talented but i can't get into him

sun jiayang: voted for him for storyline reasons but the bubble will probably pop this round

han jeongwoo: i like him but im not sure where he fits. with dongwha's fans kind of wavering i think he's the clearest replacement but they haven't given him as much of a storyline as i might have expected. i think his one pick is likely pretty low, yikes

other people im watching & thinking about: hikari, syo, & xinche.

voting list

this is my shaky voting list. hangyul & junhyuk are staying no matter what, but idk about zai and he xilong. i would be so happy if they made it but i also feel like there's no chance...we'll see after the interim i suppose

me voting for he xilong instead of dongwha or jeongwoo seems contradictory to my top 9 but here's why it's not! It's because [TRAIN PASSES] so that makes perfect sense, right?

voting hangyul for millionaire center. annoying that you can only vote one person per one position per day. i though i did it wrong at first because it looks like you should be able to fill all of the positions. it'd be nice if it was more like the difference between regular & vip votes, where everyone can fully vote once and vip just get extra votes.

this gets into structure a bit but because they've condensed the rounds voting is kinda...off. like normally you might expect 9-6-3-1 but theyre probably gonna do 9-4-1. if i could vote for 6. syo & pentor (worried he might drop) would probably round out my list.

thoughts on the show/ the show's structure

im torn about some things. i think its good that they're being a little more creative with the structure of the survival show, which hasn't changed much at all really from produce 101, but i think you run into some danger when you start taking things away instead of adding.

im in agreement with the masses on the first mini elimination- it was cruel and unnecessary, and cut some talent that would probably still be here today. but one review i saw brought up the point that it has probably had a more positive than negative impact on the show - people heard about it and were shocked, and ironically that made them more interested in watching the show and more dedicated to supporting the boys. and then this is my own addition, but eliminating that small number of trainees in the beginning allowed them to cut a whole round & save money (assuming that the original song round is one of the most expensive rounds in a typical survival show). so from a production stance, it was a net positive, even if it's not as fun for fans to watch.

while I've been following the show closely, im not actually watching at 100% like i usually do. i was looking forward to the original song round but now that it's just the finale...eh. im not expecting to be impressed by next round either. the only question is vocals and honestly this show doesnt have very many. they have a bunch of performers who happen to be solid singers or rappers, but few dedicated vocalists. while i dislike that in general, i think this group being a performance/dance group makes sense for some reason.

honestly my favorite non-performance content in survival shows will always be watching their dynamics in the practice room. so this sports day does absolutely nothing for me and there's a good chance i won't watch it. there's a reason why sports day content is usually interspersed with the elimination! it does not need it's own episode!! i think they could've come up with some other creative content to fill that space. if i think of something ill make another post (<- unlikely)

listened to millionaire and pretty dirty boy and uhm. millionaire is the better song but the choreo is soooo ridiculous it looks like that stupid frog dancing meme that popular when i was in like. high school or something 😭 and pretty dirty boy just isnt that good of a song idk. maybe ill change my mind about where hangyul is going. also its so annoying that project 7 made you vote for 35 people every single time but starlight boys wont let us do up to 18. both of them should let you leave blank spaces but you should def be able to vote for more than 1 person for starlight boys. i actually know people on this show!!

a lot of people seem to still think that this will be a kpop group & that what knetz think of the lineup will matter. can i ask why you think that? 🎤. this is qcyn4 i would be soooo surprised if the don't release anything in chinese/if they don't promote in china. there's not even a korean person challenging for center like 😭 it seems clear to me that hosting the show in korea was just a way to get around the survival show ban in china, lmfao. if anything, i think they could do an xg type thing where they sing in english, but i doubt that. i think the final group will be most like exo, with a foot in korea and i foot in china, but more firmly planted in china. HOWEVER. there's a horrible rumor that they'll be managed by podol and i just refuse to believe that iqiyi would waste a group like that. but with so many podol trainees it feels...probable. idk. even the hypothetical makes me want to vomit. #freebae173 #fantasyboys #freeclass:y #free anyone who has ever been associated with mbk.

in conclusion im sad about them condensing the rounds. i dont think itll be damning but i also hope they dont do it again.

[staryinghao]

SLB FIRST RANKING SPOILERS!!

i don't like. her emceeing. where is the suspense where is the FUN!!

starting with 150k votes is so much MORE than i expected. icb they're eliminating 20 people

35: phoom!! liked him in sorry sorry.. his glasses sealed it

34/33: kris and kingston. no real impression of them sorry

32: chen xuanyou!! my guy!! 跳舞侠 <3

31: michael WU let's go canadian boy

30: (went up to 218k??) pong? wait my only impression of him is sleeping in sorry sorry 😭 laos boy fighting i guess

interlude to call their parents OKAY I SEE HOW IT IS. hurting my feelings as usual.

29: ke mingkai

28: nam son

27: SYO LET'S GO!!! LET'S GO!!!!!!!!! i hope he goes FAR

26: (survival show veteran 回锅肉) hikari... from first in live voting to 26th?? oh man Oh Man bro is disappointed

25: everyone knows it's sun jiayang WAIT IT'S SHENG QI???????? OKAY SLAY I GUESS

24: ivan "i can do this all day" chen mingxuan (my bad impression of him from ep 2 has not faded sorry)

23: xin che!! he made it!! oh he's talking about the way people think of him (just visuals no talent).. it's okay i am rooting for him all the same

22: do ha.. oh he looks disappointed

21: han jeongwoo BRO THE ENTIRE PLACE CHEERING FOR HIM (his ranks dropped though..sigh)

20: probably zai they just showed him being baited yep it's zai!! my guy <3

VISUAL RANKING!!!!!!!!!! i hope syh wins SKFJSI i think it could be possible,, duan xingxing and phoom are kinda funny,, so many of them are picking themselves HELP

3rd with 4 votes: yang donghwa (WHY WAS HE ARM WRESTLING WITH LEE SEUNGHI??), sun yinghao!! (should be first but ok.. picked himself too lmao <3), han gyul (the clips they're showing are SO cute)

2nd: xin che!! expected haha (WHO IS HE CALLING OPPA LMAOOOO)

1st with 15 votes??: shao ziheng expected that too (he's kinda funny HELP)

kopiko ad break i see how it is.. i love kopiko though

19: sun jiayang.. higher than i thought given the amount of shit i see about him on weibo DJSKIX

18: ling qi!! he's come so far from idol producer to fantasy boys and this

17: wang kun HE'S come so far from asia super young help

16: yang donghwa LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!! gotta keep voting for him

15: yoo jun!! but from 2nd in live voting to 15th.. like hikari

14: xu shihuan wait i am really starting to Get his looks like yeah i see why you would like him (绝不退赛!! no withdrawing now!!)

13: congb?? nice. boys planet fans how are you feeling

12: hong sungmin!! hey!!

11: was in top 9 in the first week.. dropping OUT of top 9.. oh man he xilong

10 (this place is always really sad but maybe it's because i bias bi wenjun and got traumatised by it): lee daeul. again boys planet fans how are you guys feeling

okay why are they arm wrestling

also i just saw on weibo that huang jialiang is already streaming HE IS SO FUNNY wait did he get eliminated . WHO IS GOING TO MAKE ME LAUGH NOW

WHY IS SYO SHIRTLESS!!!!!!!!!

ling qi having a whole crisis about losing KEJFKS <3

9: min jae!!! good for him omg omg

8: ZHANG JIJUN???? 短剧哥????? ACTOR?????? also lmao sun yinghao telling him to only cry why he's giving his speech BUT LIKE IF HE DEBUTS. WILL I BE HAPPY

7: lee junhyuk!! ok their suspense is getting a LOT better. the comparisons.. i think top 9 are quite secure it's just who gets which specific place

6: duan xingxing! from here i think it's going to be the same as it's been for the past week.. unless shao ziheng pulls off an upset

5: pentor!!! yay smiley guy :D his seat is soooo centre core too

4: shao ziheng and han gyul AND THEY'RE SITTING TOGETHER wait. omg it's han gyul.. he and junhyuk are back in the places they sat in the intro round <3

fried chicken + advice break. i love yoon and eric and eunbi <3

they don't need to announce who the top 3 are.. everyone knows

why did they announce second first. okay sure

2: SUN YINGHAO!!! <3 🌟 i am so so proud of him i wholeheartedly believe he will go so so far. (also. dxx's face. sir don't look so openly pissy when your ex-groupmate places above you. also applies to lgy)

3: shao ziheng, 1: liu guanyou!!!

46勺 <3 (liu guanyou was 4th in ixform, sun yinghao 6th, and 勺/spoon is read shào same as shao ziheng's surname)

and 36: eden!!! i have heard a lot about him so i'm glad he made it.. the older brother of this show fr fr

next ep: sports championship (for real this time)! i may hate starlight boys but at the end of the day you'll catch me going back to it.

[staryinghao]

starlight boys p03:

xu shihuan with 1.43m votes

he is going to get cancelled to hell and back 🚬 he really did it.

first one to cry.. idt he expected this either..

我的人生我会自己选择 我的天空我会自己点亮 (i'll choose my own life, i'll light up my own sky)

[staryinghao]

watched starlight boys ep 3, forgot to post :[ spoilers under cut

also i can't believe starlight boys is featured in the KGMAs i feel like a proud parent (my 小糊秀..) watch them on 16 nov! the next ep is being aired early just for that i think

i disagree with both the winning teams,, ok i saw on weibo that chk chk boom was better than guerrilla live so maybe it's just a filming thing,, and butter and glitch mode were both hot messes so whatever

newfound appreciation for lee junhyuk

ALSO justice for lee junhyuk i know the guerrilla narrative was all about lee daeul but i wanted to see more of him :(

pentor was literally the only person keeping the butter group together. i stan!

idk if y'all know but there was a HUGE drama over xu shihuan's fancam views bc they shot up to like. 9 million overnight and everyone was calling its bluff bc he was beating out liu guanyou (neil) AND shao ziheng AND everyone else. like he shot to first from thirty-something place. anyway it's back to normal now but,, i watched it and like. can he sing. actually.

the drama over being polaris!! wow. that's crazy. hijiri made himself really unlikable with that bit i'm sorry

kinda sad that sun yinghao didn't get to dance his girl group dances but oh well from the fancams they made it masc anyway.. can't believe bian shiyu pulled all three ixform boys!! the sheer audacity (positive)

sun yinghao next episode :3 that's my guy