shakti (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
markohmark) wrote2020-12-15 08:49 am
markohmark) wrote2020-12-15 08:49 am
i-land thoughts (part 1) + txtha tinhatting
some [well, a lot] of iland thoughts and some txtha tinhatting inside. i’ve only watched about halfway through episode 7, aka i know the lineup for part 2 but haven’t seen any part 2 dynamics yet. disclaimer that this is 100% my opinion, everything in kpop is fake, if you disagree with me that’s great but please don’t hate me <3 just talk to me instead <3 i love disagreeing with people and actually discussing things instead of getting passive-aggressive cc asks <3
I. SHOW STRUCTURE
what i like
> the ground/i-land concept in the first place. it was nice that there weren’t eliminations every week and that people could have redemption arcs even if they literally failed super hard at first… like imagine if jake got sent home after the first challenge lol that would be a rip.
> the teamwork challenges were nice i think — i just like it when people have to work together >_<
> trainee voting — ultimately i was so torn on this but i think the trainee voting is what makes the show frustrating but also very entertaining… nothing like politics to get people riled up!!
what i dislike
> lol why are the vocals so bad. like i feel like the vocals on p101 s1/2 were decent and then after that every survival show just decided that it was socially acceptable to triple the amount of autotune they used?
> screentime divisions were really… something else. like there aren’t even that many trainees but i would say around 6-8 trainees just never stood out to me x___x
> non-linear cliff hanger editing — THIS WAS SO ANNOYING. like they would fast forward to something at the end of the episode and then backtrack at the brginning of the next episode? record of youth also did this when i was watching and like… i legitimately don’t get it. it’s so weird
> i think i had more things i disliked but u know what… i got over it. watching things at 1.25x speed tends to help with that
TRAINEES
i-land top 12
> heeseung // what can i say he’s my w*fe. also i just think he has a crazy amount of pressure put on him/the other trainees have very high expectations of him, so it’s really remarkable that he hasn’t (yet) let them down wrt performing. also it’s really obvious that he isn’t as suited to being a leader and i kind of like how he’s one of the elder hyungs but not… super into machinations? like he’s willing to be a leader, but only if other people really want him to be -- he doesn’t advocate for himself that much but is flexible/talented enough to just fill in the gaps that people want him to fill. and that’s really impressive to me!! also just watching his live stages is so… he’s really an amazing performer T___T. kinda dying @ how he’s #1 in india...
> daniel // HELP I LIKE HIM SO MUCH. part of it is like my natural predisposition to like the english-speaking trainees but also he’s just very endearing/talented/works very hard. i feel like he was way more talented than a lot of the trainees in iland but then was just relegated to ground because of his age or something? x__x i wish i had more to say about him but i do genuinely root for him so much… whenever i was running in the basement & he showed up i’d be like “omg daniel my son”
> sunghoon // now that i know he’s #1 in china i can understand what type of visuals he has… or, rather, i was trying to describe the type of visuals he has and was getting confused. but no it’s just the cxk/idolpro/nine-percent flowerboy perfect nose-job look. HE PULLS IT OFF SO WELL! he’s honestly pretty dependable as well and while i already knew his figure-skating backstory, i’m interested in the part where he said he was antisocial/had trouble talking to other people. i think i like him a lot because of his mannerisms for some reason they seem very familiar to me? maybe it’s the xstj connection idek <3
> sunoo // i am obsessed with his idolsona & how it’s different from everyone else’s on iland. like he doesn’t seem to get along with the majority of the people on iland (hence getting voted off multiple times) but he really knows how to appeal to the camera with his reactions/having an actual visible personality… he’s genuine but it’s a calculated genuineness, and it’s really unpredictable to the other trainees i think, which is interesting. and he’s so cute too!
[wall]
> ni-ki // wow i didn’t really have that many positive nor negative feelings about him at first but his leader-of-ground redemption arc really got to me! i also like how he isn’t filtered in criticizing people older than him and doesn’t really hold back—it’s so cute to see him arguing with daniel LOL cuz they’re both like… literally fourteen years old. anyways. he’s such a talented dancer and it was really heartwarming to see him help others as part of the team and take on leadership so well!! another person who actually has a personality ❤️
> jay // jay is like. asdf i don’t know how to say it… he has a lot of pride but at the same time that’s what makes him relatable. he’s also a lot kinder than i expected and even if he comes off as kind of strong/opinionated at times i actually really like the moments that he has in the show [helping other members, massage narrative, helping lead in ground, etc.] i think there’s a weird disconnect where he’s better/more experienced than the newer trainees/trainees his age but he isn’t on the level age-wise or ability-wise of the older hyungs?
> jungwon // JUNGWON IS SO PERFECT TO ME [well why is he so low in my rankings? um] he’s another really dependable and talented trainee… and i liked him a lot especially during episodes 2-3 i think? but then i found other people more interesting, honestly. he’s one of my favorite people to watch while performing <3
> jake // again, he’s cute but also kind of boring to me ;; i’m ranking him over taki specifically because of the ulteractions he has with sunghoon… the bedsharing bestfriendisms of it all. it’s cute. also again i have a soft spot for english-speaking idols and also hypnotized myself into thinking jake’s voice in the intro sounded decent so… here we are. no words. i looked up his mbti while writing this and im kinda surprised he’s an istj?? woah the jakehoonery
> taki // SO ENDEARING!! he doesn’t get as much attention and umm i’m not the biggest fan of watching taki/k “gummery” but he is really sweet and i find it so funny that niki is younger than him but taki is the one who gets babied more because he looks younger. he’s also pretty talented ^_*
[wall]
> hanbin // he didn’t get a lot of screentime but when he did get screentime he was very charming?! also i’m kinda confused by why he’s so popular on the iland subreddit but maybe i’ll understand when i watch part 2...
> geonu // i liked him a lot at first because he’s one of the few people who’s good at singing and similar to niki he has high standards for the thing that he’s good at. however they didn’t show a lot of screentime of him during the later episodes in part 1 so there’s just not a lot of data to go off of.
> k // umm. well he’s certainly talented and the age range on this show truly kills me… he doesn’t come off as that likable nor does he come off as super unlikable yet, although i’m predisposed to being biased against him because i’ve heard things about his scandals (?). in terms of the show though i feel like a lot of screentime is focused on him and literally there are a lot of scenes where A) he’s crying or B) someone’s crying on him but i don’t feel that sympathetic (?) will elaborate more in dynamix section.
favorite flop trainees
> ej // i just like the dynamic he had with sunghoon and jake… the 02line bffery… also daniel clinging to ej vs ej voting him out… it really reminds u that they have an age gap of 4 yrs despite daniel looking ambiguously older than his age
DYNAMIX?
general thoughts
oh god first of all i hated the dynamics in iland sometimes. there was something genuinely intolerable about watching the age/experience-based hierarchy that was established there. like k & seon & heeseung were kind of just ruling over iland? and while i understand k/heeseung leadership [even if i think they are both not that well suited to it], seon being so involved with the machinations of part switching and so on despite NOT ACTUALLY BEING GOOD annoyed me so much. like i still don’t get why people never voted him off. speaking more about the k-heeseung-seon dynamic in general, i’m really glad that heeseung was the only one out of the three of them to debut because he was definitely the most mild/passive out of the iland hyungline and considering the wide age-range of the other participants it really throws off the group’s balance otherwise. there is something about an 8 yr age gap [between niki and k] that gives me the heebie jeebies
on the other hand the ground narrative was really heartwarming and compelling <3 something about seeing the younger yet still talented people being sentenced to ground just because they’re born after 02/their name isn’t jungwon and then assuming larger roles and responsibilities (taki, niki, sunoo, daniel) GOT TO ME! like i feel like ground was just A) older flops B) younger talented trainees and C) non-korean members. also maybe it was just the editing but people did genuinely seem more cohesive and willing to work as a team down there, especially overcoming a hierarchy type of system. meanwhile at iland there’s just like [insert politics] [insert heeseung taking the fall for things] [insert product placement]
shipping
> sunghoon/jake — they are the only actual pair of friends who have stood out to me so far (besides niki/taki but i am not shipping fifteen yr olds so. anyways). THE BED SHARING? the “jake is cute”? also sunghoon saying that he’s not good with people and jake saying that he didn’t have any friends when he came to korea and then both of them becoming besties with each other… woah. maybe it’s valid.
> sunghoon/heeseung — crickets. sunghoon looks up to heeseung but so does all of iland so there isn’t much here. will i still continue to tinhat? of course! nothing like a older feeler vs younger thinker pairing
> jay/heeseung — ALSO crickets, although i have reason to believe they’re closer than i thought. i’m honestly kind of confused by jay’s relationships with other people.
> sunoo/sunghoon — the iconic kitchen scene happened, and… that’s it. and the kitchen scene literally was just sunghoon being like ❤️jake❤️ meanwhile sunoo is like “i will improve on my cuteness” HELP? i will continue to tinhat these two because A) i like it when people aren’t close B) i’m obsessed with the idea of sunoo triggering sunghoon’s bisexual awakening and then sunghoon proceeding to pine after sunoo uselessly. SUNOO DESERVES THE PINING
> i’m honestly just a sunghoon multishipper and that’s okay <3
friendship
> heeseung & jungwon — heeseung clearly favors jungwon out of all of his dongsaengs and that’s honestly pretty valid… it is so cute to me. >_<
> 02-line [sunghoon, jake, ej] — i really liked watching them together, they seemed like such natural friends? it was really nice. kind of wondering where jay fits in with all of this. like i said earlier i kind of feel like he’s in this weird in between position — like sunghoon/jake pranked jay afair?
random other things
> i find it interesting that jay is a lot easier to approach than heeseung and k? like literally half the trainees in iland were like “jay pls help me” and then he just… did it. like heeseung has his favorite (jungwon) and k has his favorites (taki and jungwon) but i guess jay is both experienced enough to be able to give advice to people yet, as 02-liner, isn’t so old that he’s unapproachable. IDK im just confused by him <3
> looking forward to seeing the niki/k/taki interacts. i still remember when k and niki were trash-talking heeseung together lol (?) & both of them individually seem more attached to taki/taki adores both of them so… it should be interesting to see the interactions in iland
TINHATTERY
i’m going to admit that this was the main reason i got into enhypen in the first place… i was just interested in shipping heeseung with taehyun. but now i’ve seen the error of my ways and also conned myself into stanning enhypen in the process so??? jokes on me?
beomgyu/heeseung
here is a list of facts and then i will follow it up with some unhinged commentary. credits to dw user girlrock for basically coming up with half of this herself.
facts:
> heeseung joined bighit february 2017 (3 yrs 1 month before his march 2020 iland interview)
> beomgyu was recruited by bighit in february 2017, and then joined bighit/was added to the txt lineup in march 2017 (see this primer for txt’s timeline)
> beomgyu and heeseung are the same age (born in 2001)
> the txt members who have mentioned being close with him are kai and taehyun
> heeseung said that it was difficult to congratulate txt members when they were going to debut & that his path to debut took a lot longer than he expected
> kai and taehyun both joined bighit in 2016, so they had much more experience than heeseung at the time of txt’s formation. same with yeonjun and soobin in terms of having more experiences and also being older.
hypotheses:
> heeseung joined bighit just as txt was getting formed (people going through debut evaluations, etc), but because he was such a new trainee, he wasn’t considered for the lineup
> kai and taehyun mentioning that they’re close to heeseung… well in terms of the other txt members, beomgyu is one of the best at getting to know others, soobin isn’t interested in meeting new people at all basically, and yeonjun. well he’s kind of old
major tinhatting:
> what if — heeseung was resentful that this ~natural beauty~ perfectfaced boy from daegu who didn’t know how to dance made the txt lineup over him through his visuals and guitar knowledge?
> even though he tries to focus on himself and improving what he can improve (whether that’s his outward appearance, through a nose job and veneers, or through honing his skills and practicing until dawn), heeseung kind of has a perfectface chwebeomgyu complex. and maybe that’s ok
> meanwhile beomgyu is so focused on his own life (he took a gap year to focus on training, he was out here walking taehyun to middle school and befriending soobin, etc) that he doesn’t really notice/register heeseung
> okay random but beomgyu also practiced until dawn. was everyone out there just practicing until dawn. like imagine beomgyu & heeseung both practicing late at night, working so hard at what seem to be different things but are actually the same thing deep down… perfectionists… and heeseung making sure that their paths don’t cross?
> i am not immune to the enfj/infj pairing, yes i use mbti while shipping sue me!!
> i am not immune to the bbb-isms of chwebeomgyu having a perfect face @ birth and heeseung investing in a modified face while training, there is quite literally nothing more compelling than the combination of resentment and attraction. especially when it’s on the end of someone like heeseung, who’s consciously focused on his own self-improvement/working on his flaws/becoming the perfect idol and doesn’t seem to hold grudges…?
i am so crazy yet so free.
taehyun/sunghoon
yeah, so these two don’t know each other at all from what i know. so what follows is only a hypothetical explanation of why i like the two of them together…
> taehyun is an estp vs sunghoon who’s an istj… not to be an mbti shipper once again but i feel like that gives them some common ground but at the same time they can push e/o out of their comfort zones
> an example of this would be taehyun’s natural extroversion and desire to converse with people vs sunghoon not really getting along with people as easily and being introverted
> why do i feel like taehyun’s straightforwardness would contrast really well with sunghoon x__x
> they are both kind of athletic, have matching nosejobs, both 02-line
> kind of wondering how taehyun would fit in with the rest of enha 02-line? like first of all he has a lot more training experience than some of them, which might put him in a jay sort of situation… but also i feel like his personality matches well with sunghoon <3
> look. sometimes it’s ok to just 2pick-ship your faves i think. it just [gestures] makes sense
heeseung/taehyun
i already wrote a bit about why i shipped heeseung/taehyun here, even though i didn’t know that much about heeseung at the time. i feel like they’re similar in a lot of ways wrt the positions they fill as an idol (dependable, all-rounder, good at singing), but at the same time they obviously approach it in such different ways (taehyun estp, heeseung infj) and that’s fascinating to me. their canon dynamic is not as compelling to me as beomseung, even if they canonically actually know each other. but i would like to see them in the context of being on the same survival show together because i’m interested in how they would interact w/ each other while fulfilling somewhat similar roles.
kai/sunoo
not my 2pick, it’s actually kaia’s 2pick, but i see the appeal anyways. some reasoning:
> they are both [gestures at the gay end of the hypothetical enha/txt kinsey scale] Like That, except in different ways, and that’s really cute to me.
> the contrast between sunoo, nugu flop gg stan & produce 48 lover, and kai, who has basically never been into kpop before he auditioned for bighit, is so funny to me
> they are both amazing @ aegyo & not afraid to be cute. like please someone save sunoo from the anti-aegyo crowd that is the rest of enhypen…
> not to sound unhinged but again 1) sunoo needs to be pined after 2) someone please save sunoo from the heterosexuality of everyone else
> they have the same mbti. not to be an mbti shipper once again but i feel like they’d get along really well ^_^... i just want sunoo to be appreciated by other people ok
taehyun/beomgyu/heeseung
look there is something about taehyun exerting control over both of his 01-line hyungs that is immensely appealing to me <3 in a hypothetical bighit boygroup that was just (beomgyu, heeseung, taehyun, jay, kai, jake, sunghoon) i feel like taehyun would have a fun time influencing beomseung and getting them to do what he wants as leader.
also taehyun as someone who would bridge the hypothetical gap/dispute between beomseung who don’t exactly see eye to eye is… interesting. taehyun saying something like “heeseung-hyung, you two have more in common than you might think?” the fact that confronting someone who’s like you is, in fact, more difficult than dealing with people who are completely different? um. yep
taehyun/heeseung/sunghoon
not much to say here. quoting my older dreamwidth post:
in conclusion: sorry for this insanely long-winded iland post, i have a lot of thoughts clearly. <3
I. SHOW STRUCTURE
what i like
> the ground/i-land concept in the first place. it was nice that there weren’t eliminations every week and that people could have redemption arcs even if they literally failed super hard at first… like imagine if jake got sent home after the first challenge lol that would be a rip.
> the teamwork challenges were nice i think — i just like it when people have to work together >_<
> trainee voting — ultimately i was so torn on this but i think the trainee voting is what makes the show frustrating but also very entertaining… nothing like politics to get people riled up!!
what i dislike
> lol why are the vocals so bad. like i feel like the vocals on p101 s1/2 were decent and then after that every survival show just decided that it was socially acceptable to triple the amount of autotune they used?
> screentime divisions were really… something else. like there aren’t even that many trainees but i would say around 6-8 trainees just never stood out to me x___x
> non-linear cliff hanger editing — THIS WAS SO ANNOYING. like they would fast forward to something at the end of the episode and then backtrack at the brginning of the next episode? record of youth also did this when i was watching and like… i legitimately don’t get it. it’s so weird
> i think i had more things i disliked but u know what… i got over it. watching things at 1.25x speed tends to help with that
TRAINEES
i-land top 12
> heeseung // what can i say he’s my w*fe. also i just think he has a crazy amount of pressure put on him/the other trainees have very high expectations of him, so it’s really remarkable that he hasn’t (yet) let them down wrt performing. also it’s really obvious that he isn’t as suited to being a leader and i kind of like how he’s one of the elder hyungs but not… super into machinations? like he’s willing to be a leader, but only if other people really want him to be -- he doesn’t advocate for himself that much but is flexible/talented enough to just fill in the gaps that people want him to fill. and that’s really impressive to me!! also just watching his live stages is so… he’s really an amazing performer T___T. kinda dying @ how he’s #1 in india...
> daniel // HELP I LIKE HIM SO MUCH. part of it is like my natural predisposition to like the english-speaking trainees but also he’s just very endearing/talented/works very hard. i feel like he was way more talented than a lot of the trainees in iland but then was just relegated to ground because of his age or something? x__x i wish i had more to say about him but i do genuinely root for him so much… whenever i was running in the basement & he showed up i’d be like “omg daniel my son”
> sunghoon // now that i know he’s #1 in china i can understand what type of visuals he has… or, rather, i was trying to describe the type of visuals he has and was getting confused. but no it’s just the cxk/idolpro/nine-percent flowerboy perfect nose-job look. HE PULLS IT OFF SO WELL! he’s honestly pretty dependable as well and while i already knew his figure-skating backstory, i’m interested in the part where he said he was antisocial/had trouble talking to other people. i think i like him a lot because of his mannerisms for some reason they seem very familiar to me? maybe it’s the xstj connection idek <3
> sunoo // i am obsessed with his idolsona & how it’s different from everyone else’s on iland. like he doesn’t seem to get along with the majority of the people on iland (hence getting voted off multiple times) but he really knows how to appeal to the camera with his reactions/having an actual visible personality… he’s genuine but it’s a calculated genuineness, and it’s really unpredictable to the other trainees i think, which is interesting. and he’s so cute too!
[wall]
> ni-ki // wow i didn’t really have that many positive nor negative feelings about him at first but his leader-of-ground redemption arc really got to me! i also like how he isn’t filtered in criticizing people older than him and doesn’t really hold back—it’s so cute to see him arguing with daniel LOL cuz they’re both like… literally fourteen years old. anyways. he’s such a talented dancer and it was really heartwarming to see him help others as part of the team and take on leadership so well!! another person who actually has a personality ❤️
> jay // jay is like. asdf i don’t know how to say it… he has a lot of pride but at the same time that’s what makes him relatable. he’s also a lot kinder than i expected and even if he comes off as kind of strong/opinionated at times i actually really like the moments that he has in the show [helping other members, massage narrative, helping lead in ground, etc.] i think there’s a weird disconnect where he’s better/more experienced than the newer trainees/trainees his age but he isn’t on the level age-wise or ability-wise of the older hyungs?
> jungwon // JUNGWON IS SO PERFECT TO ME [well why is he so low in my rankings? um] he’s another really dependable and talented trainee… and i liked him a lot especially during episodes 2-3 i think? but then i found other people more interesting, honestly. he’s one of my favorite people to watch while performing <3
> jake // again, he’s cute but also kind of boring to me ;; i’m ranking him over taki specifically because of the ulteractions he has with sunghoon… the bedsharing bestfriendisms of it all. it’s cute. also again i have a soft spot for english-speaking idols and also hypnotized myself into thinking jake’s voice in the intro sounded decent so… here we are. no words. i looked up his mbti while writing this and im kinda surprised he’s an istj?? woah the jakehoonery
> taki // SO ENDEARING!! he doesn’t get as much attention and umm i’m not the biggest fan of watching taki/k “gummery” but he is really sweet and i find it so funny that niki is younger than him but taki is the one who gets babied more because he looks younger. he’s also pretty talented ^_*
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> hanbin // he didn’t get a lot of screentime but when he did get screentime he was very charming?! also i’m kinda confused by why he’s so popular on the iland subreddit but maybe i’ll understand when i watch part 2...
> geonu // i liked him a lot at first because he’s one of the few people who’s good at singing and similar to niki he has high standards for the thing that he’s good at. however they didn’t show a lot of screentime of him during the later episodes in part 1 so there’s just not a lot of data to go off of.
> k // umm. well he’s certainly talented and the age range on this show truly kills me… he doesn’t come off as that likable nor does he come off as super unlikable yet, although i’m predisposed to being biased against him because i’ve heard things about his scandals (?). in terms of the show though i feel like a lot of screentime is focused on him and literally there are a lot of scenes where A) he’s crying or B) someone’s crying on him but i don’t feel that sympathetic (?) will elaborate more in dynamix section.
favorite flop trainees
> ej // i just like the dynamic he had with sunghoon and jake… the 02line bffery… also daniel clinging to ej vs ej voting him out… it really reminds u that they have an age gap of 4 yrs despite daniel looking ambiguously older than his age
DYNAMIX?
general thoughts
oh god first of all i hated the dynamics in iland sometimes. there was something genuinely intolerable about watching the age/experience-based hierarchy that was established there. like k & seon & heeseung were kind of just ruling over iland? and while i understand k/heeseung leadership [even if i think they are both not that well suited to it], seon being so involved with the machinations of part switching and so on despite NOT ACTUALLY BEING GOOD annoyed me so much. like i still don’t get why people never voted him off. speaking more about the k-heeseung-seon dynamic in general, i’m really glad that heeseung was the only one out of the three of them to debut because he was definitely the most mild/passive out of the iland hyungline and considering the wide age-range of the other participants it really throws off the group’s balance otherwise. there is something about an 8 yr age gap [between niki and k] that gives me the heebie jeebies
on the other hand the ground narrative was really heartwarming and compelling <3 something about seeing the younger yet still talented people being sentenced to ground just because they’re born after 02/their name isn’t jungwon and then assuming larger roles and responsibilities (taki, niki, sunoo, daniel) GOT TO ME! like i feel like ground was just A) older flops B) younger talented trainees and C) non-korean members. also maybe it was just the editing but people did genuinely seem more cohesive and willing to work as a team down there, especially overcoming a hierarchy type of system. meanwhile at iland there’s just like [insert politics] [insert heeseung taking the fall for things] [insert product placement]
shipping
> sunghoon/jake — they are the only actual pair of friends who have stood out to me so far (besides niki/taki but i am not shipping fifteen yr olds so. anyways). THE BED SHARING? the “jake is cute”? also sunghoon saying that he’s not good with people and jake saying that he didn’t have any friends when he came to korea and then both of them becoming besties with each other… woah. maybe it’s valid.
> sunghoon/heeseung — crickets. sunghoon looks up to heeseung but so does all of iland so there isn’t much here. will i still continue to tinhat? of course! nothing like a older feeler vs younger thinker pairing
> jay/heeseung — ALSO crickets, although i have reason to believe they’re closer than i thought. i’m honestly kind of confused by jay’s relationships with other people.
> sunoo/sunghoon — the iconic kitchen scene happened, and… that’s it. and the kitchen scene literally was just sunghoon being like ❤️jake❤️ meanwhile sunoo is like “i will improve on my cuteness” HELP? i will continue to tinhat these two because A) i like it when people aren’t close B) i’m obsessed with the idea of sunoo triggering sunghoon’s bisexual awakening and then sunghoon proceeding to pine after sunoo uselessly. SUNOO DESERVES THE PINING
> i’m honestly just a sunghoon multishipper and that’s okay <3
friendship
> heeseung & jungwon — heeseung clearly favors jungwon out of all of his dongsaengs and that’s honestly pretty valid… it is so cute to me. >_<
> 02-line [sunghoon, jake, ej] — i really liked watching them together, they seemed like such natural friends? it was really nice. kind of wondering where jay fits in with all of this. like i said earlier i kind of feel like he’s in this weird in between position — like sunghoon/jake pranked jay afair?
random other things
> i find it interesting that jay is a lot easier to approach than heeseung and k? like literally half the trainees in iland were like “jay pls help me” and then he just… did it. like heeseung has his favorite (jungwon) and k has his favorites (taki and jungwon) but i guess jay is both experienced enough to be able to give advice to people yet, as 02-liner, isn’t so old that he’s unapproachable. IDK im just confused by him <3
> looking forward to seeing the niki/k/taki interacts. i still remember when k and niki were trash-talking heeseung together lol (?) & both of them individually seem more attached to taki/taki adores both of them so… it should be interesting to see the interactions in iland
TINHATTERY
i’m going to admit that this was the main reason i got into enhypen in the first place… i was just interested in shipping heeseung with taehyun. but now i’ve seen the error of my ways and also conned myself into stanning enhypen in the process so??? jokes on me?
beomgyu/heeseung
here is a list of facts and then i will follow it up with some unhinged commentary. credits to dw user girlrock for basically coming up with half of this herself.
facts:
> heeseung joined bighit february 2017 (3 yrs 1 month before his march 2020 iland interview)
> beomgyu was recruited by bighit in february 2017, and then joined bighit/was added to the txt lineup in march 2017 (see this primer for txt’s timeline)
> beomgyu and heeseung are the same age (born in 2001)
> the txt members who have mentioned being close with him are kai and taehyun
> heeseung said that it was difficult to congratulate txt members when they were going to debut & that his path to debut took a lot longer than he expected
> kai and taehyun both joined bighit in 2016, so they had much more experience than heeseung at the time of txt’s formation. same with yeonjun and soobin in terms of having more experiences and also being older.
hypotheses:
> heeseung joined bighit just as txt was getting formed (people going through debut evaluations, etc), but because he was such a new trainee, he wasn’t considered for the lineup
- feel free to contrast this with beomgyu’s almost immediate add on to the txt lineup
> kai and taehyun mentioning that they’re close to heeseung… well in terms of the other txt members, beomgyu is one of the best at getting to know others, soobin isn’t interested in meeting new people at all basically, and yeonjun. well he’s kind of old
- so maybe heeseung isn’t exactly the closest with beomgyu but probably had opportunities to interact with him, and he avoided it
major tinhatting:
> what if — heeseung was resentful that this ~natural beauty~ perfectfaced boy from daegu who didn’t know how to dance made the txt lineup over him through his visuals and guitar knowledge?
> even though he tries to focus on himself and improving what he can improve (whether that’s his outward appearance, through a nose job and veneers, or through honing his skills and practicing until dawn), heeseung kind of has a perfectface chwebeomgyu complex. and maybe that’s ok
> meanwhile beomgyu is so focused on his own life (he took a gap year to focus on training, he was out here walking taehyun to middle school and befriending soobin, etc) that he doesn’t really notice/register heeseung
> okay random but beomgyu also practiced until dawn. was everyone out there just practicing until dawn. like imagine beomgyu & heeseung both practicing late at night, working so hard at what seem to be different things but are actually the same thing deep down… perfectionists… and heeseung making sure that their paths don’t cross?
> i am not immune to the enfj/infj pairing, yes i use mbti while shipping sue me!!
> i am not immune to the bbb-isms of chwebeomgyu having a perfect face @ birth and heeseung investing in a modified face while training, there is quite literally nothing more compelling than the combination of resentment and attraction. especially when it’s on the end of someone like heeseung, who’s consciously focused on his own self-improvement/working on his flaws/becoming the perfect idol and doesn’t seem to hold grudges…?
i am so crazy yet so free.
taehyun/sunghoon
yeah, so these two don’t know each other at all from what i know. so what follows is only a hypothetical explanation of why i like the two of them together…
> taehyun is an estp vs sunghoon who’s an istj… not to be an mbti shipper once again but i feel like that gives them some common ground but at the same time they can push e/o out of their comfort zones
> an example of this would be taehyun’s natural extroversion and desire to converse with people vs sunghoon not really getting along with people as easily and being introverted
> why do i feel like taehyun’s straightforwardness would contrast really well with sunghoon x__x
> they are both kind of athletic, have matching nosejobs, both 02-line
> kind of wondering how taehyun would fit in with the rest of enha 02-line? like first of all he has a lot more training experience than some of them, which might put him in a jay sort of situation… but also i feel like his personality matches well with sunghoon <3
> look. sometimes it’s ok to just 2pick-ship your faves i think. it just [gestures] makes sense
heeseung/taehyun
i already wrote a bit about why i shipped heeseung/taehyun here, even though i didn’t know that much about heeseung at the time. i feel like they’re similar in a lot of ways wrt the positions they fill as an idol (dependable, all-rounder, good at singing), but at the same time they obviously approach it in such different ways (taehyun estp, heeseung infj) and that’s fascinating to me. their canon dynamic is not as compelling to me as beomseung, even if they canonically actually know each other. but i would like to see them in the context of being on the same survival show together because i’m interested in how they would interact w/ each other while fulfilling somewhat similar roles.
kai/sunoo
not my 2pick, it’s actually kaia’s 2pick, but i see the appeal anyways. some reasoning:
> they are both [gestures at the gay end of the hypothetical enha/txt kinsey scale] Like That, except in different ways, and that’s really cute to me.
> the contrast between sunoo, nugu flop gg stan & produce 48 lover, and kai, who has basically never been into kpop before he auditioned for bighit, is so funny to me
> they are both amazing @ aegyo & not afraid to be cute. like please someone save sunoo from the anti-aegyo crowd that is the rest of enhypen…
> not to sound unhinged but again 1) sunoo needs to be pined after 2) someone please save sunoo from the heterosexuality of everyone else
> they have the same mbti. not to be an mbti shipper once again but i feel like they’d get along really well ^_^... i just want sunoo to be appreciated by other people ok
taehyun/beomgyu/heeseung
look there is something about taehyun exerting control over both of his 01-line hyungs that is immensely appealing to me <3 in a hypothetical bighit boygroup that was just (beomgyu, heeseung, taehyun, jay, kai, jake, sunghoon) i feel like taehyun would have a fun time influencing beomseung and getting them to do what he wants as leader.
also taehyun as someone who would bridge the hypothetical gap/dispute between beomseung who don’t exactly see eye to eye is… interesting. taehyun saying something like “heeseung-hyung, you two have more in common than you might think?” the fact that confronting someone who’s like you is, in fact, more difficult than dealing with people who are completely different? um. yep
taehyun/heeseung/sunghoon
not much to say here. quoting my older dreamwidth post:
bighit nosejob line, also taehyun teaching heeseung & sunghoon to weaponize their aegyo <3 i love that <3 or even better. taehyun teaching sunghoon how to aegyo so that BOTH of them use it on heeseung. BYE I HAVE JUST ENDED MYSELF!?can you tell i just ship any permutation of taehyun x beomgyu x heeseung x sunghoon? x__x tunnel vision for real.
in conclusion: sorry for this insanely long-winded iland post, i have a lot of thoughts clearly. <3
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> “nothing like politics to get people riled up!!” help. it’s true
> literally i-land knew that they couldn’t mediaplay with ~shocking bad vocal moments~ à la produce voice cracks because no one on the show can sing ever but it’s just SO…. WHY. LOL. the combination of bighit autotune with not having any vocal coaches with none of the trainees being good singers with the show focusing solely on performance rly kills me
> re: trainees love reading your thoughts on this!! even though heeseung is kind of just in the middle for me in enhypen i do have a lot of respect for him and find him charming and i enjoy how much you like him <3 the mathyung performance of it all despite the fact that he probably wasn’t ready for that when he joined bighit in 2017 and when he came to i-land he was like wait these kids legitimately have no idea what they’re doing? it’s clear that he shoulders a lot of pressure regardless of whether people put it on him but i also like that he doesn’t actually want to be doing most of those things LOL
> DANIEL MY SON <3333333 I CANNOT BELIEVE HE IS 8 FUCKING YEARS YOUNGER THAN ME…. he is so sweet and i do hope he can debut soon-ish (hopefully by then i will not be in k-pop fandom anymore. wtheck. i can’t take this) i agree that objectively he’s just like more hard-working/talented than a lot of i-landers? idk i felt like he never let anyone down but he just had a hard time connecting with people because he was so much younger but he wasn’t really the kind of maknae that is easily babied either because he was also tall and actually a threat. lol. once again the politix of teenage boys
> sunghoon istj bighit nosejob <3 sunghoon perfect idol who doesn’t actually understand idolhood but just wants to a sustainable job <3 sunghoon who is just there to be pretty and score in the 90th percentile without any fuss <3 park sunghoon <3
> HELP IDK WHY I’M RESPONDING TO YOUR TRAINEE THOUGHTS ONE-BY-ONE LIKE THIS???? okay i just want to say that i love your sunoo reading so much and we’ve discussed him enough that i don’t have to say more but he’s truly just the cutest and most endearing to me x___x him fully owning his idolsona despite the fact that he was just a normal high school kid obsessively watching pd48 a year before??? love that he was like well maybe i am a victim of h*****ia / i-land politix but i will simply repurpose my grounder narrative and appeal to the global producers. yas king <3
okay i have to stop with this comment because you don’t deserve to suffer like this but NIKI PERSONALITY NIKI REDEMPTION ARC <3 also i’m glad you can relate to jay despite my agendas i honestly do understand why he appeals to people asdfhlkfdlh. also i literally forgot about the ej/sunghoon/jake 02line bffery and i remembered that’s what killed me when i was watching T___T i do love ej even if he was VILLAINIZED
> re: dynamix lol i totally agree i was a grounder fan from beginning to end (which is a 3-day time range since i binged the show)… heeseung is the only one from the i-land “clique” i was really rooting for because it did seem to me that he was kind of just being implicated because he was dependable/objectively good LOL. “they’re born after 02/their name isn’t jungwon” is killing me. but yes i love how the ground kidz were genuinely all supportive?? I WAS LIKE YOU GUYS ARE ALL FLOPPING BUT YOU DESERVE BETTER??? btw i was a boombayah team 2 stan during pd48.
> re: shipping ISN’T IT CRAZY HOW JAKE IS ACTUALLY OBJECTIVELY CUTE TO SUNGHOON LIKE THAT’S REAL. the way sunghoon grew up figure skating around like a bunch of teenage girls and is just an istj and then suddenly meets this kind of awkward puppydog from australia during a high-stress survival show and is like. yes <3 the fact that sunghoon is still trying to understand what fanservice is makes me inclined to believe that their bond is #real
> jay bringing heeseung on his weird rich boy maldives trip. well
> heeseung & jungwon IS interesting to me because you can tell that jungwon is honestly valued as like an “i-lander” the whole time despite his age and i understand how he became leader. like he’s just an assertive person and you can tell heeseung is like oh jungwon is cute but mostly he’s dependable and mature and actually talented so i can lean on him.
> re: TINHATTERY <3333333 WHY DID IT TAKE ME SO LONG TO GET TO THIS PART OF THE COMMENT. ok but it makes me scream how when beomgyu joined he was like “do i need to learn how to dance or like practice singing or something????” and they were like nah dw dude we’ll teach you and then he was like “i felt scammed because the moment i got there they were like YOU’RE DEBUTING.” meanwhile heeseung >
> anyway love your beomseung thoughts.
> i find it impossible that txt don’t know jay/sunghoon at ALL AND YET???? like i know the 2018 bighit building wasn’t that big. what goes on. it’s so funny how soobin literally is just like “yeah i made a gc with the enhypen babies” and doesn’t seem to acknowledge bighit line at all so i doubt soobin knew them well but hmmm i’m surprised tyunning haven’t spoken about jayhoon. i want the lore to reveal itself. anyway despite the lack of canon material you know i’m just crasy over the taehoon au possibilties so thank u for these thoughts. “why do i feel like taehyun’s straightforwardness would contrast really well with sunghoon x__x” RIGHT. i want the olympics au T___T
> sunkai enfp line <3 everything you wrote here <3 you’re amazing to me
screams sorry i accidentally wrote an entire essay???????? this was sooo delightful to read though i’m kind of obsessed. THANK YOU DW USER MARKOHMARK FOR YOUR SERVICE. CRIES.
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ANYWAYS.
> literally i-land knew that they couldn’t mediaplay with ~shocking bad vocal moments~ à la produce voice cracks because no one on the show can sing ever EXACTLY... i knew u warned me that the vocals would be bad but srsly just thinking abt it makes me d*e inside. so i refuse to think about it <3
> i love how on the trainees section u started off individually commenting on each of my commentary but then u were like "help this will get too long" LIKE I APPRECIATE UR COMMENTARY ALWAYS! um anyways.
> agreed on loving heeseung both 1) taking on responsibility but 2) not actually liking/being naturally well-suited to leadership... like watching the show made me glad he wasn't the leader of enha. LOL
> RE: DANIEL HELP he just had a hard time connecting with people because he was so much younger but he wasn’t really the kind of maknae that is easily babied either because he was also tall and actually a threat. why did u sum it up perfectly... like srsly i wish he had more close friends but then i was thinking abt it and like... THE FOUR YEAR AGE GAP IS HARD! unrelated but i absolutely lost my mind @ the fan letters daniel got from like 13 yr old girls calling him "oppa" JBKSFAHLNJ:M daniel he is so endearing to me...
> sunghoon who is just there to be pretty and score in the 90th percentile without any fuss <3 park sunghoon <3 agreed. the skating/vr episode + the CHAMBER 5/PRETTY U CONTENT + the jakehoon "he's like a golden retriever" is making me lose my shit rn
> also im starting to like jay more and more kaia... IM SORRY but the LETTERS???? "heeseung is my turning point"?? the HONEY DRINKING? HE CALLED SUNOO PRETTY? THE WAY HE ALWAYS LOSES WHEN HE GOES UP AGAINST HEESEUNG? idk im a jaypologist. srry
> it did seem to me that [heeseung] was kind of just being implicated because he was dependable/objectively good LOL same... literally every episode i was like "why do i like heeseung so much when i always root for the underdog" meanwhile every week k is terrorizing someone new in the "good" team. LIKE
> YEAH THE JAKEHOONERY IS SO STRONG?? i dont even know what to do about it like i haven't had a single real thought about jake in my life meanwhile sunghoon and jake r like. besties. help
> i’m surprised tyunning haven’t spoken about jayhoon. i want the lore to reveal itself. why is this literally me... 02line interacts WHEN.
THANKS FOR THE ESSAY as always i love the kaiamentary <3