Former Monsta X member Wonho has been cleared of all charges

[Tixy]

I am really happy for him, and it's great to see that he has been supported by Starship behind the scenes all this time, but some of the replies here are kinda strange to me. It's not the alleged weed use from like all those years ago that did Wonho in, it was the special larceny reveal. The special larceny charge was very much real, Seohee and Daeun did not lie. He could have survived the weed part, it's possible even in kpop to recover from a drug scandal. His career wasn't ruined because of that, so it's really strange to me to zero in on that, when that was the lesser of the issues for the Korean public. He also allegedly stole stuff from his friend with whom he was living, which also arguably got him more hate than the weed.

I think this further proves that, despite Wonho's troubled past, he successfully turned a new leaf when he joined Starship and he kept clean ever since. That should be celebrated in itself, without being disingenuous and trying to erase Wonho's past. I hope to see more of him going forward!

[Tixy]

33 minutes ago, azure said:

The whole juvie thing might be a pill too tough for Korea to swallow...

...so if he wants to return to the music industry, he should release an EP and announce an international tour ~ cause I'm sure he'd be able to sell out concert halls in many big cities all over the world.

Just a clarification: he never went to a juvie. South Korean system tends to only punish the ring leader if the offenders are minors, so Wonho was allowed to walk free. Still, he did participate in a special larceny, and I do agree with you that that is likely to be just too much for the Korean public based on how we've seen them treat him so far.

[Tixy]

48 minutes ago, azure said:

Thanks for clarifying.

It's a good thing he did that interview today as it'll give netizens less ammunition to go in on him when there isn't as much confusion on what he did in his past.

If he gets to rejoin the group, I think they'll do fine in terms of album and concert sales. The biggest question mark would be if they could still attract lucrative endorsement deals.

The interview was really great. It struck a good balance between humanizing Wonho's situation, as well as him taking personal responsibility for his mistakes. I really hope that it's enough to start a momentum of shifting the Korean opinion about him.

In the best case scenario right now, his return to MX would not make them loose existing fans. However, every group's goal is to continue growing bigger and bigger, and at this moment, I feel like Wonho returning would halt that. I think that right now all options are on the table between Starship and Wonho. It's too soon to say anything, so they'll have to continue working on rehabilitating Wonho's image while gauging the public's reaction.