u/Ok-Consideration3737

Apparently the met gala fan page that many are taking as the gospel used to be a troll account and regularly dragged artists like Cardi b before they had a rebrand. Neither vogue, nor the actual met gala even follow this page. The way so many people are talking about manon (hypothetically, huge emphasis on hypothetically, cause that whole essay was fanfiction) advocating for more rest period, you would think that they were Katseye managers themselves.

There have been so many “insiders” sharing tea from Reddit, to tiktok, to Facebook, to instagram, I genuinely don’t know why people are choosing this specific one to believe. It’s genuinely weird how much people being starved for answers will turn into them just believing things that have so little credibility backing them. It turned from “I spent a little bit of time around the girls” to “sweet yoonchae always turns to mother Sofia (not sophia but sofia) whenever she has a problem” like sir how would you know that?

The fact is, is that when you have a physically demanding job + irregular work hours that go against your body’s natural clock, it is imperative that rest is a priority. There are really people saying “that’s just how the industry is” as if said industry doesn’t have a long history of physical, mental, and all other types of exploitation and a long line of serious injuries like herniated disc’s and chronic illnesses.

It’s weird to speak in certainties like “the girls were getting fed up, the company couldn’t take it anymore” cause you don’t even know if those events happened. None of us are have any sort of insight into their internal structure, none of us are tagged in their outlook messages, and none of us know these girls beyond the internet.

Like that thought is so dystopian to me lol. That we as fans have to pay extra money to actually hear songs made from the music act we’re supporting. This was literally my reaction: “Unloveu was co-written and produced by Lara” 😁… “-and will be released as a Target exclusive bonus track” 🙄😩

Now I gotta go through all the work of pirating it (aka continuously searching on tiktok for leaks). Like yea “business is business”… but ima still complain about it tho lol. Whether it’s from the people that love their pop side and shit on their edm side, or their edm side that shits on their pop side, these girls get so much shit for music that they don’t even get a hand in making. Now they have a chance to be judged by their own artistry and majority of Katseye fans won’t even be able to hear it (at least until they potentially put it on streaming).

I feel this for both sides, the ot5s, the solos, the ot6s, everyone. The radio silence from hxg is very frustrating, but acting like this situation has been just the biggest, abysmal mess when majority of that feeling is from speculation, and the fans themselves is weird to me. It’s like because we all want answers, people take it upon themselves to be the internet detective that’ll crack the case, but then get frustrated when the deep dives ultimately result in more confusion.

Like do we need an entire post about their backtrack that wasn’t even re-recorded recently and is being used as evidence that she’s completely gone? Like how is a backtrack going to give us any clues or clarification on her member status? Or the one post literally titled “are we gonna discuss this” and it’s just a deleted repost on insta that wasn’t even up for a full minute.

The people saying they’re shading manon for not liking the version of the mean girls choreo she didn’t even come up with. The people going through all their instagrams and literally camping out on them for any sign of a deleted post or them unfollowing someone or monitoring their likes, I mean this genuinely, it must be exhausting, and for a lot of peoples own goods they should take a step back.

This isn’t me saying people should move on from manon, like lots in here want, just not over analyze eeverything when it comes to the situation. Cause when you actually say a lot of these thoughts out loud they sound ridiculous. The girls don’t like manon and have apparently never liked her cause they don’t like the mean girls choreo? (which they’ve said before during the bc tour when manon was right there). Manons attention seeking for deleting a repost of a story (not even an actual story but a repost), that wasn’t up for a full minute? Daniela hates her and the company wants her to replace manon cause checks notes.. they have similar fashion and the company reassigned her parts to her?

Wanting to support ot5 is valid, wanting all six back is valid, not really caring about the outcome and just wanting a clear answer is also valid. What I don’t really feel is valid is getting all conspiratorial over the smallest of social media activity.

If they add new people it’s definitely gonna be to keep the group as four and not five like some people hope. They’ve probably already done the branding and storyboards for four members and just popping in a new person is easier than redoing everything as three or five.

Now I may get flogged for this because Ezrela is like the princess of the dream academy sub and lots of people here want her… but she just doesn’t really have star quality to me. I loved watching her in pop star academy but not really for her pop star journey and more so she seemed like a cool person. Majority of her experience came from cover dancing so it’s obviously understandable that that’s the way she performs, but it’s because of that I couldn’t really feel a spark from her. She was very very girl next door and also tooo relatable to exude “well rounded” performer energy, but clearly I’m in the minority and lots of people want her so she does have an ability to captivate.

I’m of two minds with the new potential member possibly being from world scout. Not because they would be “a leftover” like some people have been saying but because they all seemed to have gotten the Adela treatment where the company isn’t upfront about what they’re really looking for and consequently give them bs critics that they heavily internalize. Like saying that Ayana blended TOO much after telling her for weeks she needed to, or telling jayla that her star quality just wasn’t showing even though everyone watching disagreed. But I would also love if jayla, Ayana, rinka, rira, honoka k, or really any of them got another chance.

I’ve been thinking this with all the posts like “Katseye will be just fine without manon, look they’re bigger and better than ever” (which side note, is a point that bugs me cause it kinda ignores the fact that the momentum they have now was building since early last year as a 6 member group), but many of the cracks in their brand have existed way before the hiatus and are bigger than any one of the girls. You try to critique the excessive brand deals or music, specifically its longevity, and people immediately pull out the stream numbers and chart placements. But imo it is a valid point to bing up.

Katseye is becoming a large pop culture force ( it literally hit me that the nostalgia I had for staying up late to watch fifth harmonies tour vlogs in first grade is the same nostalgia that kids now will have with Katseye) but the music doesn’t match that level of impact. I can’t imagine their biggest songs like touch or gabriela holding up artistically in five years let alone ten. But on the other hand, they (all six) have accomplished so much in such a short time despite that, that it feels almost necessary to give them their flowers, like “damn y’all really did that with the lyrics ‘hottie hottie like a bag of takis’ while being dragged up and down the timeline.” Buuuutt giving them their props sometimes feels co-signing the marketing decisions of the company. This situation has created a weird dissonance where a lot of fans don’t really know how to navigate engaging with the content. Do I stream to block out the noise of the racist haters who can’t leave them alone, or do I boycott to show the label that labubu dubai music isn’t the main dish we want Katseye to serve? Alas Katseye reminds us that there’s ultimately no ethical consumption in capitalism lol.

The results of the world scout show have been out for a few days now but im still floored that Sakura was chosen, not in a hateful way, but simply that she didn’t fit even one logistical aspect of the group. (None of this is shade towards Sakura btw).

Editors really stitched her up by highlighting what staff said they were looking for the final member. Saying stuff like we need someone who’s debut ready, we need someone who will bridge the skill gap between the contestants and prelude girls, them emphasizing the final member needing to be vocally competent; it all set expectations that they kneeew she didn’t fit. For fans to spend so many weeks analyzing what criteria the final piece would be judged on (dance, singing, concept suitability, etc) just for them to throw it all away at the end and say “but girl has some real potential,” is innanee.

They had to overlook sooo much just to debut her. The five year gap between her and the members, the groups work activities being limited cause she’s still a minor, her inability to properly bond with them because of the maturity gap and language barrier, her dropping out in elementary school and having the critical skills of a third grader, her lack of training meaning she won’t add any sort of support to Samara in vocals, Emily in dance, or Lexie in center presence. Her selection really defies the entire “finding the perfect piece to fit our puzzle” narrative that tbh from a tv storyline pov and musical integrity pov there was no payoff for.

Idk her personally, but her commitment to the idol industry is something that the judges, if they had a serious bone in their bodies, would’ve considered. She only decided to pick up this career recently on a whim after watching a lesserafim performance. She wasn’t even yearning or working for this for at least a few years like the other contestants, she could very well realize in a few years or hell even after they release their first song, that not just a global group, but entertainment as a whole isn’t for her. Then this little baby’s gonna be stuck in an airtight contract for who knows how long. Another thing that worries me is that if fans are right that they’ll mainly promote in Japan, she’ll be the groups de facto leader/communicator. That’s so much pressure for a teen to handle as she will literally have the groups whole brand reputation on her shoulders during interviews and variety segments without the others being able to offer support. This doesn’t feel like favoritism anymore cause they are in no way, shape, or form looking out for the well being of Sakura.

We’ve known the results for a few days now and somehow im still floored that Sakura was chosen, not in a hateful way, but simply that she didn’t fit even one logistical aspect. (None of this is shade towards Sakura btw).

They really stitched her up with all the branding they were doing for the final member with the comments made throughout the show. Saying stuff like we need someone who’s debut ready, we need someone who will bridge the skill gap between the contestants and gg2, them emphasizing the final member needing to be vocally competent; it all set expectations that they kneeew she didn’t fit. For fans to spend so many weeks analyzing what criteria the final piece would be judged on (dance, singing, concept suitability, etc) just for them to throw it all away at the end and say “but girl has some real potential,” is innanee.

They had to overlook sooo much just to debut her. The five year gap between her and the members, the groups work activities being limited cause she’s still a minor, her inability to properly bond with them because of the maturity gap and language barrier, her dropping out in elementary school and having the critical skills of a third grader, her lack of training meaning she won’t add any sort of support to Samara in vocals, emily in dance, or Lexie in center presence. Her selection really defies the entire “finding the perfect piece to fit our puzzle” narrative that (from both a tv storytelling and music integrity pov) there was no payoff for.

Idk her personally, but her commitment to the entertainment industry is something that deserved serious consideration. She only decided to pick up this career recently after watching a lesserafim? performance. She wasn’t even yearning or working for this for at least a few years like the other contestants, she could very well realize in a few years or hell even after they release their first song, that not just a global group, but entertainment as a whole isn’t for her. Then this little baby’s gonna be stuck in an airtight contract for who knows how long. Another thing i haven’t seen many people talk about is that if we’re right that they’ll mainly promote in Japan, she’ll be the groups de facto leader/communicator. That’s so much pressure for a teen to handle as she will literally have the groups whole brand reputation on her shoulders during interviews and variety segments without the others being able to offer support. This doesn’t feel like favoritism anymore cause they are in no way, shape, or form looking out for the well being of Sakura.

I don’t know where this mentality from some fans came from that Katseye specifically and further more Manon are just these drama magnets, and that once she’s gone all their problems will disappear, (not referring to the company’s rage bait tactics but the members themselves). The way people interact with Katseye now is how it’s always been for girl groups. It’s not the members attracting toxic attention, it’s just the fact seeing groups of beautiful woc achieving career highs is triggering for some people, so they have to twist the groups image to fit their narratives.

Fifth Harmony had intense shipping between members that ruined their friendships and fan competition. LittleMix had internal friction and comparisons too, not to mention all these groups facing some form of label mistreatment. And all of manons “drama” isn’t even her, it’s just people projecting their frustration for some of her fans onto her. I felt like I was getting whiplash when fans were (rightfully) saying that Daniela shouldn’t be held accountable for her fathers behavior, but would turn around and say “I’m losing sympathy for manon” over hundreds of thousands of strangers she doesn’t even know.

It’s literally been proven during this hiatus that fans will find drama no matter what. There was that stupid thing where people were saying yoonchae was shading Daniela during mean girls of latam cause she dared to smile at her. Or the backlash after pinky up where ALL of the members solo stans were active and attacking each other (mostly Dani) for the line distribution and screen time. It’s unfortunate, but whether manons in or out, misogyny will always be prevalent in how people treat girl groups.