Firestar

oh it would suck for them, I was just saying business-wise, those are the few people who have large enough fanbase in countries where out artists do fine, so if they REALLY wanted to come out they could and their career would survive at a decent level (though in the unlikely event they did, I bet they would move to LA or NYC honestly, and move to an American label).

There are probably a handful of Idols popular enough internationally to do it and survive (Basically the more popular BTS members, and maybe Jennie, Rose Lisa from BlackPink, not sure about Jisoo, she seems more popular in Korea and her English isn't that great) in that if they got boycotted/dropped by Korean audiences and TV, they could just do English songs and sell internationally where it doesn't matter as much.

That looks like the haircut they gave Nana in "into the ring" to try and ugly her up from gorgeous to merely pretty. Why would you give a person that haircut in real life?

lol, the best part is... 1. It's not even the same time 2. Jennie was uploading the Rolling Stone shoot that released that day, it's not like she went digging for a photo. K-Netz.... might actually be more delusional than I-Netz.

I think the victim likely has little to lose other than it makes it more likely she gets hit under Korean law for defamation, because it isn't a public document. There is a reason that her lawyers have threatened to release it, they know it's quite bad for HYBE. I'm sure there could be something vaguely negative about her in there, but I'm pretty sure it isn't anything particularly serious given her lawyers' willingness to bring it up, her lack of any discipline, and HYBE's vague and ever shifting allegations/insinuations. If there were really something very bad for her in there she wouldn't risk it, and HYBE would be far more direct and specific, that they started soft pedaling all their allegations when the lawyers said "we'll release it if we have to" tells me that it's nowhere near as bad as they insinuated with the "molka" stuff. Edit- My general thought is that at every step of this the victim has been able to provide ample evidence that what she had been saying was true, that she has had numerous people come forward (some using their actual names) to back up her claims about Garam, and nothing she has said has been even brought into any real doubt. On the other hand, HYBE has repeatedly made assertions that were quickly disproven, outright lied until presented with evidence, and in all ways shown that nothing they say can be trusted, they haven't even been able to rally together people to defend Garam from her past (a huge red flag) by name. Anything HYBE claims should be given zero weight unless they back it up with real evidence.

Lol, your absolute dedication to pushing the "molka" angle is amazing. The accuser would have many reasons to settle on a deal, in that she has nothing to gain at this point. She wanted an apology, they refused, she exposed them, they threatened her with lawsuits, she dropped a warning shot of evidence, it made national news, the department of education backed her up, HYBE has shown zero evidence for their claims that Garam was also a victim, in fact they keep backsliding it more and more, while going from "she never bullied anyone" to "ok, she did, but it wasn't that bad".... the victim is winning, but.... there is no real end game beyond going to court, winning and getting.... nothing, while taking abuse from the crazy stans. Her best move now is to wring out a settlement that includes a public apology, lawyers' fees... and maybe some money for her suffering. HYBE will eventually cave is my guess, and they'll be trying to pay more money for a mealy worded half apology that might let them keep Garam.

It's just 10000 filters and tools, she doesn't look like that in real life I'm sure, even if she had some surgery. You can tell from where there were harder backgrounds that got warped by the body manipulation, like the commenter noting the snacks, and the lack of any texture on her face.

Do you not remember the story of YG and his wife? They claim they started dating when she was 20, but he tells stories about seeing her in a show (her sister was giving a house tour) when she was in her 2nd year of middle school ( so like literally 13 or 14) and then recruiting her when she was 16. He also talked about how he didn't really try to promote her group because he didn't want her to be popular. https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/netizens-disapprove-yang-hyun-suk-love-story/

I think the catalyst for her IG silence might actually have been the shippers going nuts and forcing her friend (Deb Never) to lock her account, and some going nuts in the comments of hers too. Since then she's only posted the contracted stuff (photoshoots and her vlog) that she has to. Seemed like a passive aggressive response to people blowing up her friends with hate which she's complained about in the past.

Some of it might be that bully is used as a translation for some words that have more nuance, but honestly... being consistently verbally abusive is definitely bullying. Especially when it's also in a context of bragging about doing physically violent acts to others as a way to intimidate.

Netizens seeing difficult Choreo: "Oh no what about their health" Netizens seeing their 5000th story about how a teenager is living on water and 5 crackers a week: "oh she worked so hard on her body, what a great job!"

A lot of those read as BTS stans being angry at the idea that they get BTS comparison from being at HYBE (see the one about them being Source for example).

https://www.allkpop.com/article/2022/05/kim-shin-young-personally-refutes-baseless-dating-rumors-with-former-oh-my-girl-member-jiho KSY came out pretty aggressively denying it, which is good (since I'm almost certain it wasn't true, she's just close with a lot of idols), it probably wouldn't impact here, but for a group like OMG that is still growing into the mainstream it could be damaging in Korea.

Probably a lot of factors, but among them are high pressure for results and a society that strongly enforces power structures in terms of personal relations and class (ie. the age stuff, family/clan power, etc.)

I really doubt they missed it, they just didn't care. Most times these kinds of scandals get buried quick because nobody wants to take the fan abuse and the costs of the lawsuits. The company likely figured that either: 1. Nobody would come forward at all. 2. If someone did they would disappear once the lawsuit came down, and once the Stans started harassing and threatening them. That's usually how it goes. I'm sure there are loads of idols out there with just absolute garbage behavior in their past and present, that the companies are able to hide. I mean, think about the male idols who didn't have any consequences for things until they got caught up in larger scale criminal investigations that their company tried but failed to bribe/threaten their way out of. You can get away with an awful lot if you have a big company behind you.

Pretty sure the puppy thing was just the standard edgelord Korean comedian nonsense and probably not real. The APink Bomi thing was such a weird "scandal" considering they are close friends supposedly. I don't know enough more about her, but my general read has always been that she's just a standard Korean comedian on air, and probably slightly less terrible than the guys since the female idols seem to all like her off-air.

Company stans, the true bottom of the stan barrel.

It's definitely been speculated before, but OMG doesn't have much in the way of intra-group shipping and they don't seem to do a lot of queerbaiting fanservice, also... they just weren't all that popular until recently, or more so they just weren't as noticed as they are post-Queendom, so it all combined to be kind of under the radar.

I wouldn't read much into that, it's the netizen classic move of "oh I don't have a problem with this thing... just with,...X", you know they don't have a problem with a person being gay... just that they are dating this person, or even for straights... "oh I don't have a problem with this person dating, but....." or "It isn't because she's Chinese, but....." Many of those people would definitely have a problem with them being gay, they just couch it in deflected other criticism so they can't be called out.

Probably makes it more likely they renew, or already have but aren't announcing yet, it's the kind of concession you get from the company in negotiating whether you'll stay on. Not allowing personal Instagram for their girl group members is definitely a control thing by JYP, limits their earning potential to only what the company provides, and undercuts their ability to develop outside the group.

Depends, her parents are probably super-rich and it's a business transaction. She wasn't a long-time trainee, she was added to the company then almost immediately put in the planned debut group, that makes me think he parents have money/power and HYBE has reasons outside of the group for keeping her around.

HYBE responded and specifically did not deny it is a real document, just vaguely mentioned some possible justification, I think it's fair to assume that document is real, now what that means in terms of severity of actions taken, what the circumstances are, no idea, but the document is almost certainly real we can assume at this point because if it wasn't HYBE would have called that out immediately. They seem to be going for the "she was bullied too, so her actions were a response, she's the real victim" defense here. Or really more accurately, the "We have lots of money and we plan to sue everyone into submission" strategy, but maybe it goes far enough and more information comes out that proves her side is true.

I'm not sure what you mean here. I don't think they are going to flee and skip out on military duty. I think that the most likely thing that happens is they get an exemption. If they don't get an exemption they will almost certainly serve. What we were discussing was, if they get the exemption, and it turns out HYBE (and the gov't) misjudge public reaction and the backlash to an exemption is more severe than expected and more long lasting... the company won't care that much, they'll still make tons of money overseas. That lack of a massive downside is why the company and members are so willing to take bad press as they actively campaign for exemption.

that was a controversial one, but he did win physical, and by a decent margin (1063-572)

Oh I doubt it's what the want, it's just the worst case scenario. What they want and expect is that the company will use money and influence to get them out of military service, it will all blow over and they'll continue on with little change. That's honestly the most likely result, followed by having to serve, but it's pretty clear from the recent moves that the Korean market for obvious reasons (it's relatively small) is less important to their success, so if they did have problems there they could deal with it.