seungminion · 14d
i was thinking the other day - i wonder why moatwt in general is not super accepting of rps/f. i see some other people in moa rps spaces sharing this sentiment too, it's just weird to me bc i rmbr when i was really into other kpop fandoms it didn't really seem like a "separate" thing but on moatwt it's kinda different? i wonder if it's because the fanbase tends to be kind of younger/teens (im 20s for reference)? it's especially weird since txt are known to be kinda fruity and stuff (lol). idk if this experience is relatable or just a me thing? (also my hot take - it's much more normal to ship members with each other than to like...ship them with yourself)
sorry for dumping all this on your retro! curious if you have any thoughts on this?
i’ve had this discussion with several different authors on this platform, so i’ve been privileged with a lot of different opinions on the topic - here’s mine. purely based on observation, you’re right. i do think the online portion of the fan base tends to skew younger than other groups around the same era (skz or ateez, for example.) i also think that while minors debuting in kpop is definitely not a new thing, bighit did a lot to make sure that txt’s first few comebacks were very “safe” since 2/5 members were minors at the time. that seems like a much larger percentage of the group than skz or ateez, who debuted with (i think) only 1/8 being minors. thus, they had a more mature image from the start. for better or for worse, i think that really set the tone of the fan base for txt. with blue hour being by and large the song that got txt famous, the fanbase isn’t used to seeing the group through a more “mature” lens.
while fanfiction isn’t inherently sexual, i think it’s gotten that reputation, and blue hour happened to intersect pretty perfectly with covid. as we all know, that’s when everyone was inside - and the people who otherwise might be participating in things outside of fandom turned to the internet. my theory is that what you might call the “normies” came to kpop, and thus to txt - people who are not used to fandom and fanfiction.
in addition, i think txt’s image is more “palatable” to people who aren’t comfortable with sexy concepts. despite songs like the killa and srr, txt still has more of a pure image than other groups of a similar era. that means that people who might be more on the religious side or just younger people in general might feel more comfortable stanning txt.
overall, i think the fandom just kind of failed to mature with the group. fanfiction has always been and will be a fundamental part of fandom, and im particularly interested to see how things unfold in the wake of hybe yaoigate and txt’s break - to see if fanfiction starts to be more widely accepted when the constant flow of company content diminishes. sorry for the long answer, but this is a fascinating topic to me hahaha
