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Welcome to the first episode of The Fan Attic Podcast where I'll be discussing assorted topics revolving K-Pop bi-weekly!

Our first episode we talk about the Seunghan and Kyungjun situation. Remember, this is a safe space for intelligent thought provoking sharing of ideas so let's keep the conversations civil!

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Aine

Ohhhh, the Fan Attic!! Wasn't that the name of the podcast you and Jarod from ReacttotheK used to do? I was sad when that one suddenly stopped, it was fun and silly.

noshi

whaa, super excited!

WiseSmellyLegs

Yes, it was! Jarod… that was the dude, who played THE ORIGINAL RUNESCAPE (deep cut reference)😎😎

Ebony Coco

Interestingly, Kyungjun is one of the idols I think came away from RTK with a number of new friends. I kept seeing on Twitter translations from lives/posts of other contestants talking about befriending him and exchanging numbers and how nice he is. Like you, I think Kyungjun is a people pleaser, but rather than him not being one to say "No," he instead says it but in an indirect way, and I think there's just a pattern of people maybe not listening to that and assuming his roundabout "Nos" are just hesitant Yeses. There's a particular scene in RTK that made me think this even before the announcement of him leaving the group because his body language reminds me so much of myself, especially when I was younger and would do this a lot. I've also noticed this before because I've watched basically all of their content that they've done since debut, but those moments didn't really give me pause like the RTK one. It's just something about it, and everything that came after, that while watching it made me think he was done. I also think he may have struggled with so much focus being on his face, just based on his body language when people/hosts from shows would bring it up. It obviously could just be that he's shy from getting compliments, and I'm misreading it, and also, things are edited, but I wonder if, like Hyunjin from Stray Kids have talked about, he disliked the attention for his visuals taking center stage rather than his talents/anything else. Either way, it's sad to me that he's left because I personally do think he added a lot as his tone, both when rapping and singing, was one of my favorites in the group.

Lia

totally agree with what you said about seunghan he needs to put his mental health first because i cant imagine anyone being mentally okay after that. i think a big playing factor into why people are mad at sm is because we never saw seunghan back with the members or just in general within the two days that he was back because the members were overseas. people think that if others saw him with the members that would have made the public reception better. also wonbin actually wrote a letter regarding seunghan saying that the fans should welcome him back him and the members tried hard convincing seunghan to comeback to the group to which some fans disregarded. the whole situation is so sad the members were all sad about the news of him leaving and i hope the best for seunghan thats all, but i cant help but be selfish and want him to continue with riize when hes ready

jessie

Picky picky what a nice throwback!

WiseSmellyLegs

I wish you would have talked about KyungJun later on, so I could speak more straight to the point. But I guess you will talk about it later on anyway, at least you might place a comment here and there during Road to Kingdom. For now I can comment only on the aspect of his personality, which is a factor I have been pointing out all the time since LOUD. As you said once the group was formed… PSY was super biased and he could not let go his former trainees, which I understand, again… as you said, it would have been immoral to cut them from the debut if they were loyal to him the whole time. But here comes the thing… Out of his 5 trainees put into LOUD Junhyeok was my only pick. Then SungJun got me later on, but still I truly started to like him through the second watch and although I started to like him more and more, there were other contestants with the “LOUD factor”. (For example Yoon Min, who PSY wanted to cast, but he could not because he decided to save his trainees, so he did not have many/more seats left). But alright… based on the members he put into Team P Nation, it was understandable to keep him because of his vocal skills being better compared to pretty much every one except Junhyeok, obviously. Then although I still think keeping Yedam over HyunSoo would have been better choice, because although HyunSoo was more versatile, Yedam would have catched up by now (as we know thanks to One Pact) + he would have pushed forward the group dancing-wise (although that was supposed to be Koki’s role, but well… 😅😅), I kind of changed/you “re-shaped” my point of view by the statement of him being the solid rock of the group, who grounds them together (the Lee Know of this group.) But when it comes to TaeHun and KyungJun, PSY’s main reason was the loyalty to them, because they have been with P Nation even sooner than Jessi, HyunA and Dawn joined. Like literally a few weeks after it was launched. Well, he did not say this was the reason, but he said that by the end and that explained everything that had happened. AND! TaeHun used to be a trainee under The Black Label, which was at the time YG’s subsidiary and apparently he admired PSY, so he left right after PSY left and created P Nation. And that is truly fully understandable reason to keep TaeHun. But when it comes to KyungJun, he did not join P Nation like this. Sure… he might have joined also really early on, but because… sorry to say this like this… because of pure luck. So… since PSY must have known by the time of LOUD coming to its end that KyungJun still does not have it, he should not have cast him back. I vividly remember reaction of a P Nation worker there in the room saying: “Ah… I knew he would do that” (meaning not even putting him on hold and straight up casting him back). With all of this I am trying to say although I respect his decision and I don’t feel any bad blood towards him (to be honest I fully understand his decision based on what you, PD, mentioned yourself) I cannot deny that this will harm the group. Right after their debut Junhyeok went on hiatus, which affected the group obviously (him being the “JungKook” of this group) and now the second most favorite member (I assume he is the second one after Junhyeok), who is also the second rapper, therefore having a lot of lines in their songs, because it has only been him or EunHwi regarding rap parts, leaves the group for good. I highly recommend watching the “What Makes Me MOVE?” videos while you watch Road to Kingdom, because it provides really good insight of what they have been through until now and what the show means for them. I don’t know how to phrase this, so it does not sound like a hate towards him… I just worry about the future of The New Six and I cannot help myself, but think about it from the perspective that since there has been hints for this to happen all the time, rap focused members like Daniel Jikal or Kim Dong Hyun could have stayed and they would have pushed the group forward in this regard because of their passion for rap, whereas KyungJun was rather “an idol/assigned rapper”. Regarding him enlisting at this young age… I think it is fully his own choice and most likely because he wants to gain time to figure out what to do with his life. From what I know from Korean men regarding enlisting if they view it as a beneficial thing, it is in cases when they don’t know yet what to do, therefore it does not really bother them career/study-wise and they use the time there to think things through. Here are short (one minute long) Identity Films released along with the documentary videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOvTYycww7TQVW9O-P7TrqqFHFup-SuTH&si=3bfYDLFnOgJO9yGk And here is What Makes Me MOVE?: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOvTYycww7TTc8iHluTkNFrmQtNNABMZv&si=szcTW6Em31hnjbSt

WiseSmellyLegs

Regarding SeungHan… Riize will always be the group I will feel confused about. Confused in the way of having mixed emotions and being unsure how to feel. The whole idea of removing NCT and upcoming NCT members from NCT made me feel sad. But since SeungHan was right after Shohei (who at least now finally debuted with SM’s trot group MYTRO) the one, who caught my eye, I was kind of interested in Riize. But with his hiatus, I suddenly started to be truly just a casual Riize listener. With him coming back, I went back to their discography to catch up on everything I did not pay attention enough and then… I did not have enough time to do so, because he suddenly got out of the group (again, but this time for good). And the whole situation makes me feel… I JUST DON’T KNOW!! Obviously I don’t want to ruin Riize’s career just because of some mentally ill haters, so I wish good for Riize anyway, but let’s be honest… this whole weird feeling will never go away and to all of that we have to consider the fact that the members themselves wanted SeungHan back. Therefore now their relationship with those “fans” is… I don’t know… it just feels fake. Sure, it is not like the whole Korean fandom hated SeungHan, but they are the majority for the reason of this happening and well… they are the ones, who attend music shows and fan related events, which are mainly held in Korea. Since SeungHan stayed with SM, I wonder if he debuts as a soloist. Like… what else is the reason to keep him there? On the other hand… how do they promote fully Korean idol as a soloist for the global stage/market? Like… this is completely different case, but with Lucas SM could make his solo focused on the market/fans outside of Korea, but you cannot do this with SeungHan and I am not sure if there is any point to try their luck in the Korean market… This whole situation… I just don’t know, guys… Recently I found out that SM originally wanted NCT Tokyo to be formed of SungChan, Shotaro, Shohei, SeungHan, EunSeok (these ones were official, so nothing new) AND Sion and Yushi. But because Shohei got injured, they changed their plans top to bottom and decided to create Riize of most of the members and they used Yushi and Sion as the fixed members for NCT Tokyo/Wish in NCT Lastart. Obviously the original line up was not meant to have the “early NCT Dream-like concept” as NCT Wish has now. The original vision was to have them more mature like WayV, which makes sense based on the dance performance they had together, which happened around the time of introducing the 3 new members into the “NCT system/realm”: https://youtu.be/sUt2R8w36zI?si=ArYOWHuAN8rvFuCA And since I found out about the original plan, I have been thinking how things could have been different. Sure, I like NCT Wish, but I am annoyed by the fact that it will take time for people to consider this unit equally to other “grown up units” + the original NCT Tokyo formation would have debuted way earlier, therefore they might have been included in the NCT 2023 album, so they would have been “easier to receive by fans” + obviously no members would have left NCT and possibly this whole thing would not have happened, because let’s be honest, it all happened because of someone not wishing him good and sure… that might have happened if he debuted in NCT Tokyo, but I dare to say SM’s new boygroup (Riize) had way more spotlight than new NCT unit, therefore those “anti SeungHan people” might have not cared that much.

Elizabeth

To add on about kyungjun: I wonder if the street casting factor has something to do with this too. Since his visuals was a big draw to him and they really pushed for his unique looks, did he feel like he was not talented in general? Bc of the fact that all that psy talks about with him? Obviously, this is an assumption. I believe he was talented

Liv

WEKI MEKI IM SO PICKYYYYY 💕💕✨✨ 😂 so unexpected but Iconic — I will always stand by Weki Meki

Lia

regardless if seunghan wants to come back to riize or pursue a solo career, i just hope he achieves his original dream of performing. i think so many people want him back in riize, which rightfully so, because seunghan has stated before that riize is his dream. but i also agree about putting his mental health first. i hope he's surrounded by people who care about him and i also hope the remaining riize members are able to bounce back. what i am sure of is that the fandom will never be the same again, there will always be a divide for briize. recently some new news has been out about hybe being part of the issue and people have not been happy

cy

Seunghan's situation was just horrible all round, he's only 21 and those photos of him were likely taken when he was a teenager doing... normal teenager things? From a cultural perspective having a girlfriend or smoking as a teen might be seen as rebellious, but even then nothing could have warranted the hate he received. Timing was really unfortunate in this case, all those rumours about him started predebut and I'd imagine that a senior idol with a more loyal fanbase would be less affected by this. Riize also promoted as 6 for such a long time comparatively and gained a lot of their fanbase since then and maybe the response would have been less harsh if he came back sooner. Parasocialism is a double-edged sword in that you get more fans and profit off it, but this culture causes fans to act in abnormal ways and ends up harming the artist. I think that the antis who organised and paid for those wreaths should be lawfully punished, but who knows if they can even be prosecuted. I hope Seunghan has an easier life moving forward, being a trainee and committing to being an idol must have been a big part of his life and I hope he can move forward with time. Kyungjun on the other hand, I don't know what to feel about this whole situation. TNX will definitely suffer as a group, but on a personal level, I hope he is doing okay. It sounds like he has decided that being in the spotlight is not for him and knowing what he has shown on camera, I'd agree with that. I hope this doesn't make me sound like an anti but what you said for Kyungjun (in that his departure isn't an extreme loss of talent) made me think about TNX as a group as well. Sure, Junhyeok is a great singer and Hwi is a great producer and rapper, but I find that the other members (while they are good, and I like them personally) aren't extraordinary. Career-wise I'm pretty worried for them ngl, the kpop boy group market is saturated and I love their music but I feel like they haven't really showed their uniqueness/musical direction. I really really wish they could change my mind on that though :(

memewei

there has been many cases of such lately... what has been going on with suga and jessi too... im not sure how to even begin... the whole situation is just absurd. i just dont understand how people could gang up against an artist without having all of the facts right? how can people invalidate an artist's whole career just like that???? :(

Arin

It’s funny, I heard about Kyungjun’s departure through you. This was a first. But yeah, his actions are a bit confusing. He lived in Australia for 10 years. I’m pretty sure he has citizenship. He could have easily just opted out and went “home” but he’s choosing to stay in Korea. I think he wanted to escape honorably. Leave but on a respected note. I think after the military, he’s done. We’re not getting a Soojin, Wonho, BI, moment out of him. This is it. Without spoiling RTK, it’s a bit beautiful he was the first voice we heard from The New Six in ‘Move’ and with his (presumably) last performance, he got the final lines before he departed

formoftherapy

This. Beautiful people (let’s face it Kyungjun’s face card rivals like Ricky and Xinyu) are still PEOPLE. Tying someone’s worth repeatedly to one thing, especially something superficial, ESPECIALLY extremely shy people is a recipe for bad news. It’s why I try so hard to be careful about Ricky & Xinyu & Xiaoting praise. I think we all know, and very publicly people have already constantly praised their incredible beauty. I’m not blind. But I really try to focus on what they bring to the table as performers and humans and not add more fuel to that conversation.

formoftherapy

If we talk about choosing idols who weren’t ready, I agree, Daniel Jikal would have been a better investment for this group IN THE LONG RUN.

memewei

the *alleged* rumour spreading of other labels' artists

Parker David

And don't you worry, I'll talk about Kyungjun more but I wanted to give my first impression on the situation before we delve deeper thru RTK2

Parker David

OK so I did a quick Google search and I'll say this for now: I'll wait until a credible news source reports this. The only publications that mentions this seem to be other "rumor" spreading sites. I don't trust publications that don't cite sources. "This happened at this legal place" also shouldn't be alleged, if something came out in court that wouldn't just be alleged, it would be factual.

memewei

fair. im skeptical about it but with all the noise on social media, im not sure how to feel about everything. i just want to support the artists i love and their music... also thought i would say, i love this podcast already :) i look forward to the next one!!

Lilac Kaur

The one word i would use to describe the seunghan is DISGUSTING. The audacity that people have to think that your idol owes you anything more than good music and entertainment is entitlement on a whole new level. I think parasocial relationships aren’t inherently bad bcus its s system if support for both parties involved in on way or another, but this level is toxicity gives them a bad reputation. Also, i believe i heard somewhere that it is illegal to send funeral wreathes to someone who hasn’t passed away is illegal? But dont quote me on tht. Also idk how long the wreathes were there for but i feel like removing the wreathes swiftly would have been helpful (again idk if they were or not) the fact tht seunghan visited and saw them with his own eyes just breaks my heart. On the kyungjun situation: on a personal level, i feel such a connection to tnx purely bcus i was watching loud as it was being broadcasted. But i supported kyungjun bcus i saw so much of myself in him, the extreme shyness but the drive for transformation on stage. I always saw the way he was portrayed as the “pretty boy” frame but never as a talented singer and im sure that messes with an individuals mind a lot. Personally i rlly liked the way he rapped on tnx and the grit he had in songs like move and i really wanted him to stick around and nurture his talents, but tht could be the personal bias talking. I rlly wish companies think long and hard before they debut ppl just by their looks bcus ofc that can get them in the spotlight but its takes a lot more for them to stay. Damn this situation makes me rlly emotional I hope both these boys are able to live a better and happier life, regardless of what they choose to do from now on.

Ebony Coco

HYBE's CEO just apologized for the documents, so they're definitely real, which is WILD. https://m.newsen.com/news_view.php?uid=202410291243132410&r=1 https://www.soompi.com/article/1699137wpp/hybe-ceo-releases-official-statement-regarding-internal-document-with-malicious-comments-about-k-pop-artists https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-10-29/entertainment/kpop/HYBE-CEO-apologizes-for-controversial-internal-document/2165857

memewei

DAMN. that is actually wild af... well... they cant just end it at the apology right...?

poptart2003

In terms of tnx i was also thinking imagine if Daniel joined since kyungjun departed. A group with both Daniel and hwi in it together would be crazy but i know during the show he said being in a group isn't for him, so he is currently under the company as a solo artist