#I also made a graphic poking fun at the whole 'civil war' thing lol

[daesungindistress]

Now that you bring it up past anons, I don't think how I'll ever get over how everything went down. I found kpop through Bigbang right at the 10 year anniversary mark, and learned that I started out at the top. Learning how powerful Bigbang was all those years was euphoric. Buy then it was like watching the fall of an empire, and it's just been cataclysmic. Nothing but scandals a country's worth of immense hatred and a fandom civil war! I'm loyal beyond rationality, but good grief I want to experience good days as a vip for once, because from Last Dance era onward feels like I'm constantly burning 😭😭😭

Sorry I'm dramatic, but every experience is tainted and somebody needs to hit the refresh button QUICKLY

See, this is what happens when I reply to anons in a regular fashion -- you all start talking to each other through me. What do y’all think I am, a VIP conduit 😭

lol I’m just playing. And it’s better than y’all fighting through me, which is one of a few reasons why I’ve stopped responding to OT5 provocations here. But yeah... the fall of an empire... and what a fall it was. First there was SR and Burning Sun starting in late winter and ramping up in spring. When he left, a surprising number of people were sure it spelled the end for BB. Then another YG group lost a member (iKON) because of Burning Sun; Han Seo Hee, though I think we can all agree she’s a snake, claims the handling of Burning Sun and the whistleblower situation re: the chats emboldened her to speak up about her dealings with Hanbin. Of course, this brought her past with TOP from several years prior back to the public’s attention. Great. Then YG lost its founder to similar accusations as SR -- and soon after, its CEO. Then another BB member came under scrutiny, and at that point all I could do was hold my breath, wait out the gunfire, and hope for the best.

2019 was a fun year, huh? All this while fending off OT5s whose modus operandi is turning a blind eye.

Coincidentally, my favorite band ever, who’s been around exactly as long as BB, went independent in 2019 and spent the year working on a war-themed album, which, when completed, was also coincidentally scheduled to be released on the same day BB were set to play the first weekend at Coachella in April 2020 -- though with COVID lockdowns going into effect they were able to fast-track the release date and get their music to fans a week ahead of schedule. A perk of being independent, I guess.

Anyway, in June, around the time things were heating up again with YG and related parties, this group dropped a single called The Evening Hate. And there’s this part in the bridge that I thought summed up the situation surprisingly well:

like cinders it rains

we fall, we fall

an empire in flames

we crawl, we’re crawling out

It’s pretty heavy, so for those who aren’t into that sort of thing there’s a far softer and very pretty alternative version here.

Anyway, in terms of warfare, BB aren’t in the trenches anymore, so where are they? Hiding in the woods or something. Waiting for an opportune moment to reveal themselves and announce their presence again. As a reformed team of four, of course.

The thing is... when it comes to comeback stages, nothing beats Coachella. That was it for them, that was what they needed to pull them onto their feet and propel them back into, what... relevancy? Tragically, it’s gone down in history as a false start. Or really, no start at all. Our starting line keeps getting pushed back, pushed back, pushed back, our flower road walled off until another, kinder spring.

The world is still struggling with COVID, yes, and Korea in particular seems to have its hands full with a third wave that’s proving more severe than the first two. I follow a few kpop news accounts on Twitter and every day is filled with updates on this or that music show, pre-recording, online concert, etc involving a staff member who tested positive for COVID, and suddenly everything’s halted, production put on hold, and all the members of these idol groups are undergoing testing and self-isolating with their agencies announcing the results. Blackpink was supposed to stream an online concert at the end of this month, but unsurprisingly, that too has been postponed. In conclusion, this is no time for BB to attempt to be active. No time for their grand, long-awaited comeback. No time at all.

They will rise again, it’s just a question of when, where, and how.

we are fighting to survive

from the ashes we ignite

we live, we die

we fall, we rise

You know, I had a dream once that BB came back with an album called RESTART, but hey, REFRESH works too.