HENRY CAVILL LEAVES THE WITCHER AS GERALT AND THE VERY NEXT DAY JOEY AND MADELEINE ANNOUNCE THEY’RE GONNA RELEASE A NEW ALBUM SOON, KING AND QUEEN SHIT THEY GOT OUR BACKS 👏🏻👑

rafe cameron dating a swiftie

lol lowkey wrote this just for me but just in case there's fellow swifties out there who also happen to be rafe girls, here ya gooooo <3 i also need to replenish my creative juices w a nap so… yeah :) promise i’ll have another fic up soon!!

pairing: bf!rafe x swiftie!reader

context: you're a swiftie dating rafe cameron.

words: 325

warnings: reader's a MAJOR swiftie

you didn't even have to ask for eras tour tickets. rafe immediately got them for you when it was announced, and used ward's card to do it.

speaking of the eras tour, he 100% went with you.

and you definitely got him to dress up as "the heartbreak prince". he didn't put up as much of a fight as you thought—anything to make you happy.

"why do you listen to this shit?" "shut up rafe!"

he's taylor's biggest hater and will NEVER admit to listening to her with you in the car.

he definitely knows the words to a few songs though.

you hiding your smile when he begins singing along to taylor in the car.

always making him slow dance to taylor swift songs with you in the kitchen—he loves it more than he'll ever admit.

you singing and screaming taylor's saddest songs like you guys are broken up.

rafe getting annoyed when you do.

"we're not broken up, you know."

while he "hates" her, he never misses a new album listening party with you.

will gift you every single one of her vinyls and even get you a record player to play them in.

gets you swiftie merch during every drop.

folklore's lowkey his favorite album.

his favorite songs are "wildest dreams" and "style".

"tall and handsome as hell, huh?"

him grinning ear to ear at you as you sing along to her love songs in the car—he likes to think you sing them just for him.

rafe standing outside your window with a speaker playing taylor swift when you get mad and stop talking to him.

"you're such a swiftie boyfriend, you know that?" "shut the fuck up, no i'm not."

him knowing the names of all her albums just because he likes to buy them for you.

he always puts on the stolen versions and you always scold him for it.

"this isn't taylor's version." "oh my god what's the difference?"

reblogs and comments are deeply appreciated <33

Redacted Bois and Which K-pop Groups They’d Stan

Idk if there are a lot of K-pop+redacted fans there are out there but I made this for funsies 😋🫶🏼

David is more of a casual listener, but whenever he’s working out or doing yard work, he listens to EXO. He got really into it when he was younger and bought one of their albums. He then played it for a whole month. Angel was trying not to laugh when he accidentally played Monster on the speakers near the pool (they secretly liked it tho).

Asher definitely listens to Block B. He likes to blast their music anytime, anywhere. On the way to the grocery store? Absolutely banging to Very Good. Cooking? Accidentally burning the food to Nalili Mambo. Trying to get Babe’s attention? Passionately singing Her. He just gets really hyped when he listens to them.

Milo is secretly an aghase and could talk about GOT7 for hours if you ask him about it. He's really passionate about them and their music. Sometimes he uses Teenager or If You Do as entrance music, like sitting on the bed waiting for Sweetheart to come in. He was pretty upset when they announced that they won't be actively making music together, but he still enjoys all of their solo projects/music.

Vincent is a huge ENHYPEN stan. Their whole concept is vampires but despite that, Vincent really likes their music. He and Lovely started watching their survival show and then became obsessed with them once they debuted. He knows the point dance from each title track and learned the Bite Me partner choreo with Lovely.

Sam listens to Girls’ Generation as a guilty pleasure. He accidentally clicked on the music video for Gee back in 2008 and has followed them ever since. He was pretty embarrassed when Darlin’ caught him listening to it, but he was able to convince them to listen to it with him.

Gavin doesn’t really stan a certain group but likes a lot of solo artists, specifically Taemin, Kai, and Hwa Sa. He just feels so connected to their music and actively follows their releases. He was listening to some of their music one day, Freelancer asked what he was listening to, he showed them and they liked it too. They've definitely listened to Mmmh by Kai while making out. he is mr rover and he is coming over

Lasko doesn't listen to really big groups in the industry and instead likes the K-bands more, specifically Day6. He gets into his feels when he listens to them (especially since i hc that hes a hopeless romantic). He learned Korean just so he could sing Congratulations and Zombie even though theres an english ver.

Damien got really into SHINee in high school. He was kind of a toxic stan though 💀. He would get into fights on Twitter and (almost) physical fights at school. He would stay up until 3 am to start streaming music the moment the MVs would drop and then yell at people online to start streaming. But don't worry, he's calmed down now. He gets pretty nostalgic when Sherlock plays on shuffle.

Huxley really liked GFRIEND and supported them in any way that he could, such as streaming, buying albums, and voting them for MusicBank. He tried to show Damien their songs and played Rough but Damien wasn't really into it. He was devastated when they disbanded and Damien had to comfort him for a whole week. He's just such a wholesome girl group stan, it's adorable.

Caelum likes to dance and sing to a lot of PENTAGON and SEVENTEEN songs, even though he doesn't know what the lyrics mean. His favorite songs are Naughty Boy and Pretty U, respectively. Both groups have a lot of members, but he doesn't know all of them. He likes to watch the MVs with Freelancer and point out the few members he does know.

Elliott likes TXT's more chill songs like Fairy of Shampoo and Ghosting. He's a very relaxed fan when it comes to them. He knows all the members and their songs but isn't super active in the community or when it comes to buying merch. Whenever a new album comes out he'll listen to it for about a week and then put his favorites into a playlist. Sunshine started liking them because of him and probably asked him to make a dreamscape that was a TXT concert.

Blake isn't really into it but randomly listened to Love Scenario by iKON and cried to it after looking up the lyrics. He had it on repeat for a whole week.

Guy fell into the “I just want to know their names” trope with TWICE and BTS. He thought it would be funny if he randomly/ironically knew the members’ names and ended up being a HUGE stan of both. Bought every album, lightstick, and a lot of official merch. He’s been to a lot of their concerts and literally screams the fan chants. He biases Jin and Dahyun and has their photo cards in his phone case, as well as an RJ sticker.

Geordi saw NewJeans in a Coca-cola advertisement, decided to check out their music, and ended up really liking their music. It introduced him to K-pop and he casually listens to a lot of groups, but NewJeans is his ult. Their songs are really catchy so they end up playing in his mind 24/7, sometimes somehow mixing with the Tetris theme. He likes all of their songs but his current favorites are Super Shy and ASAP.

00. [name]’s broke bitches — KING OF MY HEART

name lastname

— a third year at teyvat university and an acting major from a wealthy family; self-proclaimed “first scara fan”. they are the one who pays for everything in the friend group because everyone else is broke or on the verge of being so. they are childhood friends with kazuha and went to high school with yoimiya. [name] has a part-time job at a café on campus, but never seems to be too busy for their friends. though the public knows of their existence, their identity as an heir to their family’s wealth is unknown. their sister and her wife currently manage the corporation. 

hu tao

— a second yeat at teyvat university and a mortuary science major; she says she’ll take over wangsheng funeral parlour after she graduates and promotes it’s business whenever she can (mostly during exam season). she and [name] met during high school and they became friends. hu tao is anothe rballadeer fan and gets her merch and albums from [name]. because she doesn’t pay for the things she gets from [name], she feels a little guilty for leeching off of their money. hu tao is unaware that [name] is the child and an heir of the [lastname] family. in this setting, [lastname] happens to be a popular last name. 

naganohara yoimiya

— a third year at teyvat university and a business major; she decided to major in business because she wanted to be able to help her family’s business. she helps her father out with the fireworks shop in her free time. she and [name] met in high school and have stated close friends since then. she is yet another balladeer fan who gets spoiled with gifts by [name[. yoimiya and lumine have been dating since first year at teyvat uni. 

lumine

— a third year at teyvat university and an education major; she and aether once met [name] at 3am in the vonvenience store [name] worked at during high school. they met again during orientation at teyvat uni. the twins have been fans of scaramouche since around his debut and have stayed constant fans of his work. the twins are the only ones who sometimes pay for their merch. lumine has a part-time job at the university’s library, she also volunteers at the public library in their city. she and yoimiya have been dating since first year at teyvat uni. 

aether

— a third year at teyvat university and education major; he has been dating xiao since their high school days, however, they didn’t go to the same school. aether has a job at a café on campus; it’s not the same one [name] works at. he’s been a fan of scaramouche since debut, but has been following him since before then. he met pre-debut scaramouche through xiao; he doesn’t realize that he actually met him though. 

venti

— a fourth year at teyvayt university and a music major; he does covers on youtube for money which have gone viral a couple of times. venti produces his own music and has been scouted by a few companies since his time in high school. he is currently under FAVONIUS Entertainment. Venti became friends with [name] through the twins; the two of them are drinking buddies and have the highest alcohol tolerance out of the group.  

KING OF MY HEART!

 masterlist — next

for this act, the characters are between the ages of 20-24

[name] has a job because they don’t want to feel as if they rely on their family’s wealth for everything

[name] likes to spoil their friends with gifts; however, this quality of theirs has been taken advantage of by past friends and classmates

i am BEGGING tumblr not to hide my posts from tags again pls 😭

SUMMARY The week after your third year at Teyvat University, the world famous idol, the BALLADEER, drops an album out of nowhere leaving his fans in shambles! You thought that was it until he announces he’s going on tour through Teyvat, or... more specifically, your city. But the real icing on the cake is what’s revealed by Teyvatch right on New Year’s Eve during the concert’s after party. Oh my, what a scandal!

TAGLIST open! @sakiimeo @lazy-sanns @meigalaxy @scrmgf @ihatehomes @babyrizzy @alwaysmentallyill @vivinsoul​ @kimiesstuff @yuaenri @richxelle @lightlyfeatheredquailqin @gojoandelsalovechilde @asahiiinaa @nambii @thenightsflower

if your @ is white, it means i can’t tag you! it might help to check around your settings

01.07.2023 — @arcydonia​

Hi, Baby ARMY! Welcome! First Time With BTS?

Maybe you're a new ARMY and maybe you're not sure what the hell an ARMY is or why BTS has one. That's a total lie, we all know why BTS has an entire ARMY. And yes it is all caps. I MEAN LOOK AT THEM OKAY

"Funny", you may be thinking to yourself, "I only wanted to learn their names." TOO LATE YOU ARE ONE OF US NOW. Top L to R: Jung Hoseok (J-Hope, Hobi); Jeon Jungkook (Jung Kook), Min Yoongi (SUGA, Agust D, NOT MY CAT) Bottom L to R: Kim Taehyung (V), Park Jimin (JIMIN or Park MFing Jimin or Sir), Kim Seokjin (Jin), Kim Namjoon (RM) Welcome, Adorable Representative MC for Youth member. (Leave them alone, English is not their first or even second language.) KAYSO HERE IS STUFF YOU NEED TO BE ARMY: Nothin'. Maybe an internet connection or a phone. A streaming service (free) is good if you don't need to be buying CDs. That is IT. BTS is actually quite supportive of ARMY and provides us with tons of free stuff!

If you are ARMY and you are reading MY blog you are already down the rabbit hole because I ain't shit. But in case this hellsite doesn't get enough done for you, here are a few places to go:

First, Weverse and its damnable Weverse Shop. Two apps, both free UNTIL YOU GET BIT BY THE MERCH BUG or desperately need to see In The Soop 1 and 2 or all the Bon Voyages or concerts - because many of those things are available for purchase through Weverse. It's the official retail arm of this Bangtan Sonyeondan Shit and It. Is. Fun. Hit that media tab and enjoy the free RUN: BTS and posts and then if you wanna buy, you can do that. (Unless you're in the UK and a select few other places, because Weverse Global does not ship globally. WEIRD.) You'll need a free account, use the same one for both apps by getting Weverse first and then loading the Weverse Shop and using your Weverse ID to log in. Here's a whole ass tutorial on how to load and use Weverse and the Shop from Youtube.

Weverse has a basic post-and-comment style format but it is also the avenue BigHit uses for official announcements and the guys sometimes show up and post pics, comment or make their own posts. If you get a notification that says "Special for Your Username" it's.... NOT. Sorry kids. We all see our own user name in there. And the first time we saw it we all went "ME?!" Then we have VLive. VLive is basically a video platform the guys use to chat with us. All those Lives and random videos you see getting translated are from... VLive. You can see them later on youtube, but it's so fun to be awakened at 3 AM because your phone tells you someone is Live. And you DON'T KNOW WHO until you get into the app.

THAT ISN'T A VIDEO YOU GOTTA GO TO VLIVE FOR THAT. They are arranged by date, usually. Pro tip: If you are watching a VLive NEVER ASK THEM TO SPEAK A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE IT'S FUCKING RUDE. And whatever you do, LEAVE YOUR SHIP OUT OF THEIR SPACES. That goes for every platform they're on, but specifically Weverse, VLive and Instagram. These are grown ass adult men who are not Barbie dolls and do not want to hear what you think about Taekook or Yoonmin FFS. The official places to buy merch are at Weverse or at the major online retailers. Right now Target has PROOF on preorder for the US. NOTE: You cannot use the Global Weverse Shop and have album sales count for Billboard rank. They don't get credit. Use the US shop, Amazon, Target, whatever for Billboard numbers and THEN if you NEED the preorder photocard and you're willing to drop a hundred bucks or so for it, you can preorder PROOF as a package deal from Global. CONFUSED YET? JUST WAIT. Hey Youtube.

WE WATCH ORIGINAL CONTENT IN THIS HOUSEHOLD for what? TRUTH AND CONTEXT. That means if you use Youtube, use it for music videos, fan music vids, comedy, and entertainment. But don't take it seriously and DO watch the source material either on Bangtan TV (Official) or VLive/Weverse. Beware the Edited Relationship Analysis videos!! DON'T DO IT. Edits are fine, they are fun. And one day we will do a whole "why Jaya has a crush on DT Parker" post. I recommend Cameron Philip's Dubs series if you're not easily offended. Wonsummerknight, amazing. Tons of great content out there from some awesome creators. BUT

BEWARE THE taekook-lives. That woman makes her money by dissing BigHit and playing Jimin as a whore and Jungkook and Taehyung as unstable, controlled puppets of an evil corporation AND SHE CHARGES PEOPLE FOR THIS SHIT AND THEY PAY HER FOR IT. NO. She and Dave Discii are the bane of any decent ARMY's peaceful Youtube existence. AVOID. The Larrys of this fandom live under their tuneless bullshit umbrella and WE DON'T DO THAT HERE because WE ARE ADULTS with FUNCTIONING CEREBRUMS. And TikTok is.. it's TikTok, it's FINE. It ain't gospel. Neither is Twitter and @BTS_twt has pretty much deserted the bird app AND YET WE WAIT and kvetch and bitch and moan and cry, but Twitter is a good place to get new info if you're not scared of toxicity and fan wars. Good memes sometimes, too. And NSFW fan edits, I dunno, I see 'em sometimes. It's good for info and not taking things personally.

(I mean they're not wrong, just sayin) And INSTAGRAM - here are the guys' official accounts as of just now, go follow ALL 7 and enjoy!

I'm told there is a Facebook but do we use that anymore? Like, at all? I don't so Bad ARMY Me or w/e but I really don't care. I think I've talked long enough, baby ARMY. Go find some cool stuff to look at. OH!! WAIT!! THE FANCHANT!!

You can't call yourself an ARMY until you can do the fanchant!

Learn it, live it, love it, LOUDLY. There. My work (for now) is done.

don’t want to get too in the weeds about the will-they-won’t-they of mcr doing anything past this tour or making any significant announcements. but i do have some thoughts. first of all, of course i don’t want this to be the end - i don’t want to be completely cynical. but given the lack of confirmation i’m trying to keep my expectations in check. yes, it seemed like there was a through-line with the stage outfits and drumheads. yes, the “burning heavens building hells” phrasing on the japan merch seemed indicative of a theme. yes, there were musical expansions on noise jam and sleep. but to me those things aren’t evidence or clues that there’s an album or an era or even new songs when there’s been total silence from the band. in the past when they were being cryptic about new releases, the question was never if the releases actually existed - just what true nature of the releases would be. i’m thinking of the black parade’s funeral procession and temporary name change. i’m thinking of danger days’ radio/video mixer with desert footage and ‘horse with no name’ replacing the band’s website leading up to the na na na trailer. i’m thinking of the X flag marketing for may death never stop you. and while the foundations drop was a surprise, they did post those in-studio clips beforehand indicating that they were in fact working on something - we just didn’t know what. the outfits/drumheads, merch, and noise jams don’t point to new stuff, they point to an expanded tour aesthetic. and the tour is over now. idk man i don’t want to harsh mellows or bum anyone out but i don’t think they were trying to send covert signals, i think gerard just had some new ideas for the live show over the tour break and implemented them for the last leg.

I agree it's too early for rep TV, but her dancers are posting black hearts everywhere

And also... I was in the crowd on Nov 12th. I'm the "eldest" swiftie I know, so everyone I talked to (I'm talking about friends/acquaintances) and gave my opinion on the Nov 10th theory wasn't really happy with what I had to say, but I never believed she would announce it that day. Everyone really hoped she would (even really "new" fans)

The feeling I got from that is that we just want to be a part of things. We wanna be a part of the rerecording history. She's touring latam for the first time, and chances are she won't come back (for reasons I can describe if needed). She'll do Mexico again, but it's unlikely she'll do Argentina/Brazil again. And we all know that. We just want announcement like the US got (twice), and like Asia will probably get and Europe too.

I understand the whole conversation about demanding too much too often from her. I really do and I think it's a very valid point and something to be discussed. I miss when there were less of us and more interested in her actual music. But please understand we don't mean harm. We never got tour dates before this, we don't get merch (shipping is crazy expensive and they let you buy one of each only so you can't even pool in money with friends to share shipping costs), and we just wanna feel like we're part of her story too.

I know you haven't said anything but I needed to put this opinion out there and maybe someone will read it and understand what's going on.

Thank you for reading 🩵

hi, thank you for sharing.

i do understand all of this, i really do, and im going to try phrasing this in a way so i don’t come off rude.

i understand that you want to be apart of re-recording history but i still think latam is apart of it (correct me if i’m wrong). but you guys got to be there when 1989TV dropped and also so many other fun moments (like chiefs on the screen). and i can’t speak on taylor returning to latam because i’m not from there and don’t want to step over the line (and i don’t think it has anything to do with the whole T4F fiasco since that was the stadiums fault and taylor wouldn’t blame brazil on that). but a majority of the people i’m seeing turn out the theories are swifties from the states who are counting her steps in the reputation set and using math to prove reputation is next. if she did announce reputation tonight i’d 100% eat my words and be excited about it as i love reputation. but i still think at the end of the day it’s an INSANE thing to ask of taylor to announce another album. we ready got two this year, one last year, a whole concert movie, and so much more. and even before midnights i saw people complaining that we hadn’t gotten any new taylor announcements and how was anyone supposed to go on if we didn’t get one (when we had gotten two surprise albums not even a year ago).

again i get what you’re saying and do not want to come off as rude or mean in anyway. being a city that she announced something that big at is a thing to remember, but i don’t think it’s right to ask her to keep announcing and releasing stuff just to make a moment and be remembered. she’s literally just a person at the end of the day and she’s still doing everything to make this a memorable concert experience for everyone there. just because latam may not get a re-recording announcement doesn’t mean it’s not anyway less apart of the history of the re-recordings like any other place.

again, thank you for sharing your opinion and telling me this as it did give me a different view on this. but i don’t think she’ll announce it tonight as it’s still crazy close to 1989tv and she’s allowed to let her projects breathe.

i hope you have a good night 🫶🏻

what are your thoughts on whether they will drop an album/documentary/live performance dvd and if they will tour again?? i feel really sad bc them playing fake your death seems like a final goodbye again but some ppl are looking at it as a positive and i can't seem to get there it feels pretty permanent that they are gone forever again :( (ik they're not done touring bc japan & australia but you know what i meaaaaaaaan)

at this point i don't think there's an album. from the beginning since the reunion was announced i didn't think there would be an album. i thought there would be just the one tour where they got to do their real farewell on their own terms. and then just fade into the background. but then after foundations dropped adn we got the new swarm merch when tour started in may i was like 'ok no there must be an album'. but im back to thinking no album. i know im an outlier. if there is an album ill just be pleasantly surprised but im fine without it. and im pretty certain that there is nothing recorded right now.

as far as documentary, they have been filming for it. i was interviewed. i know other people who were interviewed. i watched beemer record the entire stage set up at riot fest while alkaline trio were on. i dont know if/when we will see it. but there is footage FOR a documentary that exists.

live dvd i think we will get? i don't see why else they would have recorded a few of the LA shows. but a recording of multiple shows stumps me. i feel like they would have just picked one, you know? probably the last one since it wasnt album-centric. idk. i mean they definitely have the footage for a live dvd so i guess its just time will tell if we get it.

as far as another tour in the future. i really don't know. i WANT it. i want it so bad. and i know they had enough fun on this tour to want to do it again. gerard said so more than once. but he also hinted at not knowing if there's a 'next' tour. i know that because this one isnt over yet, theres no way they have another one planned. and they have other obligations to attend to before they could tour again. but i want them to not just be Done with every fiber of my being. i cant think about sunday as my last mcr show ever. but i think whether or not the mcr reunion Ends in march is like 50/50 right now.

The new era might be a Danger Days sequel

So this has a lot to do with merch drops as well which are more so circumstantial and could be for the album's 10th anniversary, except that would be a year late, bc we got a shit ton of merch drops for Danger Days last year. The masks and stuff all came out in 2021, not 2020.

We also just got Killjoys National Anthem and the TV show that was announced but haven't heard anything else about yet last year. Why would there be such a huge focus on Danger Days after the anniversary, while National Anthem did come out during 2020 that can be argued being for the 10th anniversary. More on National Anthem specifically later.

The rest is more speculative and connecting some dots that may or may not be linked.

Killjoys: California features the character the Phoenix Witch called the Phoenix Witch and there may be an analog to her in National Anthem in issue 4, but is left unnamed, if that's who it's supposed to be the phoenix is symbolic of life after death, the Ash (foundations) of Decay bring back the phoenix to new life.

Going towards the comics I also feel like I have to bring up the costume Gerard wore at MK1, the Moon Knight, and possibly an I'm Not Ok album art ref, basically I think this is BL/ind in some sort of compacity. There are a number of striking similarities to what we have seen from BL/ind

I think the outfit he is wearing is pretty similar to the draculioids and I can't remember what the other mask is called, but the main thing that gets me is the black boots and the mask, white suits are uncommon as well but that could just be that Gerard was watching too much Moon Knight, this whole thing could just be Gerard cosplaying Moon Knight for all we know. The mask looked familiar and to me, it looks like a torn-up version of the last image, and if it does take place after Killjoys California that could make a lot of sense. Spoilers for the comic, but at the end of California, Battery City is pretty much destroyed by Destorya and people are free from BL/ind from what we know, that might be the backdrop of the show.

Speaking of Destorya, we have Gerard yelling Rats a lot in concert, rats are mentioned a number of times in Danger Days and its associated canon, such as the lyrics of Destorya and again in Mastas of Ravenkroft, both of which are being played on tour. Honestly the fact Mastas is being played at all makes me very curious if this is a Danger Days concept. But reats are again mentioned in the backdrop of the show

Beyond rats we also have Swarms of bugs, mainly flies. We don't really know what Swarm means yet, it could be a tour name or it could be an album title, or something else entirely. But the imagery of the fly is brought up a number of times on the tour merch, as well as mentioned in National Anthem.

In National Anthem we actually saw a familiar face, Tommy Chow Mein, and you know what his head was? A fly. Tommy has always been associated with bugs in Danger Days lore but it's awfully convenient that between Gerard's post with him in the fly mask, Tommy Chow Mein specifically being depicted with a fly when his twitter avatar was an ant, and this new tour iconography, are all flies.

Is any of this definitive proof? Absolutely not, it's just speculation on my end that I've been thinking about since we first saw the Swarm merch. I keep on noticing little tidbits so I might change this post or add onto it later, but I figure I'd share it because I thought the similarities were interesting and Im always down for more Danger Days related content.

Do you think the leak was on purpose? I'm not sure why everyone is convinced it was just because it's happened in the past. Like mistakes can actually happen. I understand the promo behind getting an album getting leaked but what purpose would it serve to leak the titles, album name, artwork and date. When Harry leaked the album, we talked about it non stop for 2 months before the release. Harry never mentioned it, other than that tweet from Sony to draw attention to it. So lines were drawn and people who were against the leaks didn't listen, the rest of us did. But Louis didn't ignore the leak so that we could continue talking about the info we got. He tweeted he was gutted and immediately everyone stopped posting about it cause they were so upset that Louis was upset. So what would have been the point of it. To get it trending for a day? On top of Amazon's music sale for a day? It's gone now, no trace of it for a random person to stumble upon it on the chart. This just doesn't seem like something Louis would do intentionally. He spent 2 years tweeting about having faith in the future. He flashed it for a second at his festival last year. All that mysterious teasing lead up all that just for the title to be casually dropped? He's so meticulous with merch details like using the checkered print in his posters and then wearing the shirt in his cover art. Everything he did had a purpose. Oh and please is not cause a twarrie decided that 🏁 means bg is ending. The checkered is 28 programme too. This is all designed months and maybe years in advance. I bet he's gonna sing a new song at his festival and normally everyone would be freaking out about LT2 coming and asking when etc. but now everyone knows it'll be here in 3 months. Like ok? And if the leak was intentional, now he's gotta pretend it never happened? That makes no sense. I honestly think either someone on his team or amazon screwed up and he was genuinely gutted by it. He probably had so much planned for the rollout. Announcing the date and album title etc. Remember when the harrys house video announcement dropped? How excited we were? A leak just makes it hard to tease things. And I understand that it takes multiple people to get an album on Amazon set up but it doesn't mean that one person can't screw it up by accidentally releasing it.

Okay. I think a lot of people have really strong opinions on that topic and I’m slightly bored of the entire thing, to be honest. I understand where you’re coming from, and I don’t entirely disagree with you. But I think that’s the kind of situation we will only get the full picture and answers with a little bit of time, I feel like a lot of the assumptions you (and, I mean, all of us) are making are just based on several other “what ifs”.

I don’t think that is impossible that it was a mistake. But I do think that’s very unlikely. In a very practical way, we’re talking about like four or five different scenarios here of what could have happened. And we have no context. So that’s really all I have to say about it, let’s wait and see what’s up next. If it was in fact a “fake leak”, I’m sure it will become very clear in their next marketing move, like it was with Harry’s “leak”. And uh… that may be an unpopular opinion and I feel bad to even feel that way, but I kind of hope it was just a mistake… because I’m tired of everything being staged and fake somehow. Everything is always so fishy when it comes to Louis’ career, and that sucks.

BPP, I feel like Hybe hasn’t been taking care of the optics of their business. They’ve been weathering a lot of controversies non stop this year from karmys to iarmys (gp and kpop fand in general too tbh) and now they’ve priced the Proof Collectors ed for almost 300 usd. It feels like any time now, ARMY is going to blow up 😭 like, I don’t know wtf they’re PR/marketing department is doing.

I’m broke so there was never any chance for me to buy this or their other merch but I don’t even think a lot of Armys except for the richest can comfortably drop the money for this, especially since the fotobooks are still ongoing…

**

Hi Anon,

Let's laugh a little first:

(A $300 repackage of an anthology album. I wonder if anyone reading my blog still remembers my rant about the BE Essential money grab album. It's not random that the byline of this blog is: "A fun place to watch the fandom implode.")

*

Anon, I agree with you.

I don't want to ramble on in a long-form post filled with links and sources etc, and someone has asked me a similar question before, so I'll repurpose some of that answer into this to explain how (1) on one hand, the nature of most 'controversies' HYBE/Big Hit has weathered this year are such that no amount of PR etc would matter.

Like for example, even for the Vegas concerts when HYBE invited several journalists for the press conference in the US, offering a blanket invitation to every news outlet in Korea so no broadcasters were favoured and HYBE covered transit and other expenses for journalists equally.. The very first thing Juwon Park (a k-journalist with ties to YG) tweeted about it, was a link to an antitrust whistleblower website while 'thinking out loud' that HYBE's actions were illegal (they weren't). She deleted that tweet after two of her own colleagues told her it's not and asked how she as a journalist wouldn't know that and asked why she would pose such an incendiary legal question to fans on Twitter.

This is the same journalist who the first thing she tweeted about Proof was questioning the inclusion of Filter on the album and incorrectly asserting Bobby Jung was solely responsible for writing the song.

This is also the same journalist who the first thing she tweeted in response to news of BTS visiting the White House to talk about racism and hate crimes towards Asians and Asian Americans, the first thing she said on the matter was assert that BTS had no right to speak on the subject given they have never gone to the Blue House in Korea to advocate against discrimination. She blocked ARMYs carefully responding to her concerns and retweeted ARMYs calling her a Cardi B lyric.

Should we talk about BTS's 2022 Festa Dinner, where Korean journalists had no excuse of 'wrong subtitles' to explain how they blatantly mischaracterized everything BTS said. Because BTS were crystal clear in Korean, they never indicated they’re disbanding, they simply reversed priorities, and yet, k-media managed to get every single point wrong. K-media went on so many tangents my mom called me within hours laughing about the headlines. A lot of the k-media reports were blatant fabrications. It’s why RM’s letter on Weverse the following day was written so strongly - there was naked malicious intent in the way many media reports went, and the schneduafraude towards the group (for something many other groups have announced without incident) was palpable.

The point is, several of the controversies faced by the brand/company are entirely manufactured and maintained by a hostile press environment that's also lucrative. And let's not pretend k-pop stans are fans of anything connected to BTS anyway.

In the case of the 2022 Festa Dinner for example, one criticism I can give to the company is that perhaps HYBE underestimated the need for a written statement or the need to do damage control (because BTS were crystal clear in Korean - nothing needed clarifying for the media and yet), but I’ve written before how k-media is typically uncharitable towards BTS, to the point that media commentators and music critics in Korea including Kim Young-dae, have noticed that trend and talked about it.

There's also the fact that many industry insiders still view HYBE as an outsider that must be dethroned - and that's not an exaggeration but me paraphrasing a real Korean investor research report on k-pop companies. So in addition to typical bad quality control, there’s real business interest in creating the impression of incompetence and all that at HYBE, regardless of what the facts actually are.

The fact is Hybe/BTS do not fully have the privilege their position should in theory afford them, meaning that anything positive they do is underplayed, and any negative thing they do is overblown. Even a decent PR firm would fail in this situation. At the same time the company itself has legitimate (in my opinion at least) issues.

This is all on one hand.

*

(2) On the second, HYBE in general gives me the impression of a company that has grown too big too quickly. The fact Jimin’s mail was stolen and leaks have only gotten more prevalent since LY Tear, tells me that quality control is a bigger problem now despite the team supposedly having more resources. I understand the business rationale behind the hasty acquisitions in 2020/21, but sometimes, during M&A due diligence, quality control issues slip through the cracks and hurt the acquiring company later on. Not all of HYBE's subsidiaries are run as well as Big Hit with BTS, and many of these companies have legacy k-pop staff and cultures, meaning some of the endemic problems in the industry are more likely to be found in these companies as well.

HYBE also buys into the philosophy that greed is good. A $300 Collectors album is reasonably priced for a group like BTS imo. But, not to repeat my rant about the BE essential album, this particular album is a 'collectors' album... of an anthology album... which is in itself an artist-selected collection album... and it will not count for charts, explicitly at the label's request. Lol.

*

I've said before I'm not the sort of hobbyist that collects things, so this album never held any appeal for me. I'm also not going to even attempt justifying another person's purchases of fan material (for the people who do buy this album) because that's an absurd thing to do. It's their money - good luck to them. I think people are going to do what they always do: buy it if they want and not buy it if they don't. Despite all the chatter and discourse about fans burdened/pressured to buy merch, everybody just ends up doing what they want anyway. As I said to another anon who asked about HYBE's merch prices, expect more things like this, because BTS is now at a level that these economic choices are possible.

...

I agree an exceptional PR team wouldn't hurt, but so long as the boys themselves are fairly insulated from this, I don't mind seeing corporates put on the spot. I like seeing the bigwigs squirm. HYBE has serious issues they need to fix and should know this is a commonly held opinion.

As far as stunts and promotion goes, I think the Azoffs have very old school tactics that are, in my opinion, cheap, outdated, and lazy. So I’m not that optimistic that it will change.

What do you mean ? What are those tactics and what do you have better in mind?

Before I answer this, my disclaimer is that I’m nothing more than a fan with lots of opinions. I’m no PR expert.

What I mean is that Father Azoff has some very specific ideas about celebrities that I can only assume he’s passed on to Azoff Jr because it seems like that’s how Harry is marketed. Those ideas are that celebrities should be these untouchable gods that you worship because they have a lifestyle that is completely unattainable to a regular person. That may have been true before the dawn of social media but in my opinion, it isn’t now. I think a lot of people are drawn to the human side of celebrities and social media provides a way for fans to connect with their faves.

I also think they’ve leaned into and relied too heavily on his public (fuck boy) image and love life to promote him. They cater to the part of the fan base that wants to fuck him and can’t bear the thought that he could be anything besides a straight man whore that will take you backstage and make your wattpad fantasy come true.

Need to promote something? Just have him get papped coming out of the gym looking annoyed or start a rumor about him and some skinny white woman. If the fandom gets pissed about something (think Holivia stunt shit), drop an unseen or bts video, announce tour dates or mv, etc. That way, people forget about whatever fuckery occurred and still spend their money on concert tickets, merch, Pleasing, or whatever else they’re pushing.

They don’t seem to promote his achievements much, though. Or address/explain controversial things…other than clarifying that he did not spit on Chris Pine. Everything else…crickets.

Personally, I’m not here for that shit. If I was interested in a typical rock star, I could get that with anyone. I’m here for his music and Harry the person…cute, kind, quirky, funny, dorky. I’d rather see glimpses of his personality and humanity with emphasis on his talent and music. I know he values his privacy and avoids social media but look how he practically broke the internet with the “accidental” selfie. Everyone loved that.

He could do things like that, promote himself, and do fan service without sacrificing his personal life. I think about things like Niall dancing to his own song on TikTok, Lewis Capaldi with his hilarious content, an occasional selfie or joke. When he’s promoting a new album, it’s Howard Stern, it’s Corden, etc. I’d just like to see him branch out a bit and do some different things that showcase his talent and personality rather than the same old interviews and…who’s Harry hooking up with this week?

Again, just my opinion.

so the tiktok showing they've been working on the album from roughly december to march the photoshoot metadata shows its from april lol makes me think about all the random merch drops we've had and everyone freaking out over it meaning 1989 tv or speak now tv when all this time she was gearing up to release a new album and we haven't even seen merch for that yet just vinyls and this special clock I mean you know what tay maybe idm capatalism when it comes to you get that money girl 💅

Selling music is her job! It's not unusual that we haven't had anything other than vinyls and cds yet - there's plenty of time for her whole plan to roll out. They're focusing on pre-orders just now so that they can get the physical media ready to go first week and aim for that 1m.

Maybe there was a plan to release one of them earlier and things changed.

Maybe she hadn't told UMG (who I think deal with the merch) she was working on a new album and they were doing their own thing.

Maybe she thought that if she released absolutely nothing all summer people would be going bonkers.... as they probably would. Remember she announced the RED TV date super early - at least partly because rumours were going absolutely mental.

Okay, the concert is officially done. And the only announcement that was made is that we’re getting a Jin single next before anyone else drops a full album.

Now what. Not posing that as a question because frankly we all know what’s going to happen next and maybe that plays into some of Namjoon’ vague yet not really that vague comments and posts. He keeps repeating to us that they have something to say, they’ll say it soon, but trust them, stay with them.

Like yes, okay, how am I supposed to take this messaging though? Most people aren’t going anywhere no matter what happens in regards to military enlistment. Like yeah I think it sucks they might have to leave for over a year to do it but why would that make me less of a fan who comes back when they do? Like only the weakest fans will abandon them based on something that is mandatory and they have no control over. I’ll still listen to the music, I do that for all my favorite artists including ones that don’t even make music now, that’s how people listen to stuff normally anyway...

And the opposite is even more true, like if they do get exempt that’s great news in a different way because it means they can dedicate themselves to music instead and maybe rework a future of performances they currently can’t plan BECAUSE the future is so uncertain. At least ideally that would be the case, since it’s been made pretty clear music has fallen to the wayside for HYBE when it comes to BTS focusing more on shows and commercials and merch and games and webtoons instead.

So yeah, just have to wait to see what comes next. It’s about the only thing we can do now.

Every once in a while it really hits me that. Woah. I’m mutuals with my favorite band. And they followed me first! I listened to them for the first time because I saw they’d been following me for a while and were about to release a new song so I figured I’d give it a try. That was Ramblings of a Lunatic, which hit me a lot harder than I was prepared for some random band on tumblr to. That’s when I followed back.

I watched as they dropped the rest of the ep, then another, and their first studio album. I saw the posts for every tour, lamenting the existence of the Atlantic separating me from the shows I longed to see. I watched with bated breath as they announced a tour in the US, praying they’d at least come close to my state, nearly crying when there it was, Detroit, MI. I remember being so scared to ask my mom if we could go, because the show was at a bar and I was seventeen. I remember freaking out the day before the concert in my graphic design class, scrambling to get the stickers I made for them cut out before it’d be too late. I got a bag, a shirt, a pin, an album, and a picture with my favorite band. I’ve been meaning to print that out and get it framed. I framed the post card I got from my first order from their merch store. I was so scared to mess up the cd that I burned a copy to play in the car. I got the album and the bag signed, and Iain started to sign the album twice so now there’s a T next to George’s signature. And they follow me on tumblr.

I know I’m just rambling (like the song wow) at this point but hey, it’s midnight and I get to ramble about bands. They don’t interact with me, aside from replying to one dm and reblogging one post, but that doesn’t matter. They’re a whole band after all, and I’m some kid who reblogs funny video game art all day. I know in the grand scheme of it all, it doesn’t really mean anything. But still, it means something to me.

I’m mutuals with my favorite band on tumblr.

I know full well I’m not the only person growing frustrated with these “Easter eggs”. It genuinely used to be fun, but all the theories and the stringing is along just for “limited” merch that’ll restock in a few months is getting old. Honestly, I think it’s a little rude to tell fans to “meet me at midnight” when most of us are working adults or students who can’t just stay up for a 50 second video announcing a single track title.

Like I said, it used to be fun. I enjoyed connecting the dots when the new album was fully announced. Now, I’m just tired. I personally don’t appreciate being constantly strung along for underwhelming videos and announcements. I know she doesn’t have to do any of this, and I don’t fully blame her. But I do blame her marketing team for doing pointless countdowns for overpriced merch that doesn’t arrive for months, if at all. I hate that everything is so unnecessarily hyped up just for views. When folklore and evermore dropped with only a sixteen hour heads up, that was fun. Announcing Midnights during an acceptance speech was fun. And while I know that these videos are meant to be fun, I feel like they all knew we hoped for a lead track announcement since that’s typically how it works, and instead, we only got one short video telling us a track title with no word on when to expect a single.

They’re all doing their jobs wonderfully, marketing with incredible skill. But at the end of the day, you eventually get tired of being toyed with when they know you’ll take the bait.

Anyways, that’s my frustrations being let out. Enjoy the rest of your night…