what a year for my little kpop bubble! captain, it's february

[moriendum]

life has been keeping me tired busy so I'm still mostly staying in my little bubble of favorites, but even that has been... eventful lately. so lemme write down some random recent thoughts.

• oneus signed with another company AS FIVE!!! not super surprised that they decided to stick together, but kinda surprised that rbw has been so accomodating at the same time? simply put, I think rbw just doesn't have much to lose letting them go (they're not the bigger earners, rbw clearly has no interest in investing in them anymore, whatever dumbass plans rbw has don't include them...). even then, I'm still very pleasantly surprised that they let them keep their name AND sold their entire IP to the new company. that's amazing. I think onf did something similar recently too, right? I think I saw something about that.

• ...and sorry to make everything about tbz but that only makes me more mad at ist for being so fucking greedy until the end, and at fuckass deobis for making such a fuss about onehundred wanting to buy tbz's IP. I know right now we're all watching the onehundred boat sink, but in pure business terms, the former company selling the IP gives the group a lot more wiggle room for setlists and future music/merch releases than having to pay royalties forever. now essentially tbz is chained to two sinking boats, because their name and music are still owned by ist (or whoever tf bought ist's catalog, I don't remember the name), so yeah. may all ist directors and ceos suffer through stepping on legos and kicking furniture with their pinkies for the rest of their miserable lives, amen!

• I actually liked the sound for idle's new song!! at the same time, though... I don't mean to sound hateful, I like the group and the girls, but god, is this the most bare minimum commercial song trying to appeal to the lgbtq+ community I've seen in a while lol I always roll my eyes at "you're from the right or from the left". is this REALLY the right time for "we're all human regardless of political opinions, let's all be friends <3" statements? fuck the right, bro. anyway, the song is nice to listen to, and I like the vibes/editing in the MV. it's just a pity that it's so shallow when it could've really been something interesting.

• with them split into different agencies and doing different things, I haven't been able to keep up with mamamoo's activities but whenever I get a glimpse of what they're doing, I get happy for them. hwasa enjoying huge success is amazing! proof that all they need is the right opportunity to make it really big. also, solar looked so cute for the sugar musical!!! god, imagine seeing her in a musical... the dream...




• I've realized that unfortunately, if I want to be informed about some idols like the purplekiss girls I should probably be more active on instagram... sighs... I opened it these days to discover kittib is now super religious ??? idk if I want to keep opening that app?????? it's either instagram or reddit in some cases, though.

• wjsn is HAVING A COMEBACK????????????? no idea if they're promoting it but there's even gonna be an mv which is... more than I was expecting at this point, wow.

• needless to say, tbz's situation is so depressing and infuriating... I was scared that this year wasn't gonna be as easy as deobis were hoping for at the turn of the year, but man, I wasn't counting on the company sinking completely and taking their artists with them. I'm sure tbz will find a way out of this hell, they're resilient af and they want to be on stage, but I'm a little scared about the circumstances... if they'll be able to stay together at all, or if this is the beginning of the end... whatever the case, I'm staying with them through it all. I love you, boyz.

Comments

[moriendum]

oh, deobi friend... it's bad T__T I don't know how much you've seen already since some stuff has been coming out since last year, but I'll try to cover most things sort of in chronological order:

(1) last year the news reported 100 hasn't been paying their artists (specifically naming tbz, taemin, and exo cbx, but I'd wager it's all of them)
(2) around the same time the news claimed 100 has failed to pay for album production costs for their artists AND concert/performances expenses. also news that a "big company that provides communication services, album sales, concert production" was suing cha gawon for failure to pay. (some people assumed it's weverse, but could be fromm, too, which tbz uses more than weverse.)
(3) the 100 ceo (cha gawon) and the former cco (mc mong) have been on the news a lot, for all sorts of things, and imho it's so messy some of it is likely false, but not all of it (allegations that mc mong and cha gawon had an affair, that someone in her family is trying to frame her/blackmailing her for one of her companies, that she sent mc mong millions of dollars regularly, that mc mong gambled away 100's money, that he has been accused of paying for sex work, that she's being investigated for tax fraud, etc etc)
(4) the news reported 100 hasn't been paying tv channels for comeback stages (so kbs, sbs, mnet etc). and also some variety shows (like kbs' idol human theater), and hairstylists, stylists, etc. the articles had a dramatic tone of "will the 100 artists be able to promote like this???"
(5) eric went on fromm to say he was so "frustrated deep inside" that he couldn't eat and it was hard to breathe. (in the meantime, kevin has gone silent for weeks on fromm, sunwoo has barely communicated either, repeating twice that he hasn't been leaving the house lately.) next day, jacob says he can't talk much on fromm because "he's got a lot on his mind".
(6) not tbz but related: viviz tells fans not to wait for them this year, that they likely won't be able to release a lot of content for now (they're in bpm, under 100).
(7) eric comes back on fromm a couple days later and says tbz and deobis are forever, that our love will conquer everything, asks us not to leave them...
(8) kevin comes back on fromm and says essentially that he hasn't been communicating because he has no good news to share and doesn't know what to say, doesn't want to promise us a future he doesn't know will happen, but is grateful for all the memories we've made so far...
(9) in the past couple days the news reported 100 hasn't been paying their employees' lawful benefits nor the company's rent.

so to sum it up, there are a lot of deobis afraid the worst might happen, and others trying to be optmistic but still agreeing that this is a really rough patch tbz are going through. there was a rumored concert for april that eric pretty much confirmed in lives, but we don't know if that's happening anymore :( (some extra info for the full picture is that chanhee is currently preparing for his musical debut, younghoon just filmed a variety show, Q launched a personal youtube channel... juyeon and hyunjae have been pretty quiet in general, but hyunjae was in macau filming things recently and juyeon is attending the next balenciaga show! so the members are active and/or communicating with deobis, for the most part.)

and I know you don't use twitter, but if you want to see eric's and kevin's messages in full, the @/deobi_text account translated everything!

[greetingsfrommaars]

oh... i see... i saw some of the stuff about mc mong previously, but damn i missed a lot 😭 i feel like just a year ago i was feeling so optimistic and now we're here... thank you for the explanation though, super clear and helpful :') it's good to hear the members are doing some stuff! i guess i'll hold tight and see what happens.

ah yeah not being on twitter works so well until it doesn't. most of the time it's chill, and then sometimes it's very stressful because it's hard to tell what's going on 😅 i did see a screenshot of a message from kevin on tumblr, but it was so foreboding without context (foreboding with context too tbh). also sometimes eric really makes me go "oh, eric" out loud T,T

[moriendum]

also sometimes eric really makes me go "oh, eric" out loud T,T SAME!!! oh, eric T_____T it must be so painful for him...

but yeah, it's crazy to think we were all so hopeful and optimistic literally a year ago... we had just had the b land, tbz princesses, the new album was coming... sighs. a small update is that apparently (?) the members have deliberately stopped using fromm. younghoon is using instagram stories to give his daily "bbangdam bbangdam" messages, jacob announced he'll be using discord to communicate for the time being (but updating his fromm bio to let us know when he'll be online, so he can access it), and eric just hasn't been online in a couple days. those three were the most frequent users, alongside chanhee, who sent messages normally on february 13. he hasn't been back yet so I'm not sure if they're all really stopping with fromm or what... jacob and eric also opened personal weibos! randomly lol

if you ever need screenshots or links on twitter, feel free to ask me! you can dm me on discord too, I can send you through there (I'm the door emoji person lol). I completely understand not using twitter and I also know how much it sucks that the entire kpop fandom is still there :( by god, we WILL leave that godforsaken place someday...

[greetingsfrommaars]

oh interesting... especially the weibos lol. i remember seeing that eric wrote a handwritten new year's letter in chinese (among other languages) and being genuinely impressed, so i'm curious to see what will come of that.

aw thank you!! :') i will keep it in mind! i actually do remember that you're the door emoji because when i joined the server i was like "oh yeah, i remember the post explaining this" lol. one day we will all be free of the former bird app...

[moriendum]

"one day we will all be free of the former bird app..." and then eric AND kevin joined twitter 😭 LOL I think that's a pretty strong indicator that they're not gonna be using fromm anymore... although chanhee is still using it normally. very strange days in deobiland, but very happy ones too because at least the members are trying their best to stay in touch with us :') <3

[greetingsfrommaars]

lol yeah i was just thinking i feel so rich in tbz youtube channels now, which at least is a website i use! i miss when there were more cross-posting fan blogs on tumblr... as you say, strange days, but they do seem to be keeping busy :')