honestly i still haven’t fully decided how i feel yet to get in the soup about it in this way but….i feel like ultimately there is some relief probably in knowing there’s a bit of security there. things are changing still but not as much as they could be?

but i don’t really know because i don’t know what they thought was going to happen. obviously they’ve known the final outcome longer than we have, but who knows how long (or not long) certain plans have been in place. were they surprised by anything? was this a long time coming? i’m sure they’ve been talking about it the whole time. but i think their reactions are kind of dependent on what they expected to happen in the first place. i also think they’ve both changed so much since boys planet and since their respective debuts. i’m sure they would have been happy to debut together still but i don’t know that it was like a priority or goal in any way. they’re more used to being idols without each other than with.

so i think idk probably some level of happiness and relief, maybe bittersweetness in there too. i don’t know what they thought the “after” would look like so it’s hard to really think about what their reactions to the reality would be. but the last times we heard about them hanging out it was like a couple times right back to back so i bet they were talking about it a lot then.

honestly i don’t think i have anything new to say because like…i genuinely think the last time i watched group content for real was in 2023 😭 i did watch a comp on tiktok recently that was just mattbin in 2025 and it did make me feel 8000 emotions but i don’t think any of them are new. i guess it does just feel crazy that as much as they always wanted to debut together and as much as we’ve always talked about them staying together it still feels kind of crazy that they actually did make that happen despite everything. like despite everything it IS still mattbin.

in terms of things i hope to see…idk if i have anything about mattbin specifically but i am really curious what the group dynamic overall is going to look like going forward and how it’s going to change. i’m also really curious about what the music will sound like. the two biggest factors for how much i’m ultimately going to keep up with the future of the group are the vibes and the music so yeah just very curious to see how they end up going! their music never really did anything for me before outside of a handful of songs so i stopped trying but who knows that could change now that the member comp is different or it could not haha

hm i really don’t know. first of all there hasn’t actually been a confirmation on taerae yet, i do think it’s safe to assume he will stay as his options are kind of bleak if he leaves but they haven’t actually said anything yet and i’m not really sure how they handled his contract since he’s the only one who was already with wakeone originally.

but assuming he does stay we were talking earlier about if they did some kind of hybrid band concept that could be really fun…idk if gunwook plays any instruments but he could learn right. i think that would suit them well. otherwise i really don’t know because i think they have good chemistry as people but i can’t really picture what the three of them would do performance wise. like taerae’s dancing has, as far as i’m aware, improved enough for him to really keep up but i think it’s different when you’re in a group of 9 vs potentially…3? but i also don’t think wakeone would leave them as 3 even if hanbin and jiwoong leave. i don’t know what their plan is but 3 is a really hard number. i will tune in though and am curious regardless of what happens…

my hope is that they’re allowed to freely mention each other at least…. i mean they were together somewhat recently (we assumed anyway though we still haven’t gotten that challenge lol) and hanbin DID mention his name casually when talking about vocals but yeah just… if they could casually refer to each other going forward that would be great. another vlog would be even more ideal. i still think it would be fun if they let hanbin branch his asmr series out more like the original after mom’s series and let him bring his friends on because a phaerae episode would be so awesome. but i don’t think anything is going to happen to them. they’ve endured through everything else, they will continue to endure. phaerae is forever

i mean most survival shows kind of necessitate that you prioritize your one pick over any thought of group composition or harmony and of course everyone watches survival shows differently but in the end even if you’ve been considering the composition of the overall group over the course of the show, it still comes down to your one pick. there’s that saying that’s like the second you start worrying about your second favorite, your bias dies. so even when you are considering it, you’re 1) probably considering it based around your one pick and who would suit them and 2) not necessarily going to be in agreement about any of that with the thousands of other people voting with THEIR one pick in mind. so it doesn’t matter if the group is oops all dancers and there’s no one who can sing or there’s someone who is kind of just there on visuals or whatever the case may be because the priority is carrying your one pick until the end.

that same fostered loyalty throughout the show is also why a lot of times survival show groups struggle to create a unified fandom in the aftermath as well because it’s hard to put down the mentality of fighting for your bias in everything even after the fight is over and especially with temporary groups there IS the looming knowledge that you are probably, in at least some capacity, going to have to do it again when the first contract is up so it often remains a “every man for himself” vibe.

with created groups there tends to be more thought put towards the overall group vs the individual. obviously this is not always true, but in comparison to survival show groups overall group composition is weighed more heavily than the individual parts that make it. even when a created group is crafted around debuting a specific trainee.

there are typically specific roles a company will look to fill depending on the goals and image they have in mind for the group. honestly you can see that even in the way groups get rigged (or in the case of bp where voting could not be rigged explicitly, through editing and other means).

honestly idk i think both methods have their pros and cons and there are groups that were made via survival shows that have successful compositions and groups that were created solely by the company that don’t. but i think in general the format of most survival shows makes it more difficult to create a harmonious group composition vs a company curating and pulling from a specific pool of trainees to create a group that way.