I feel like a Hyo!pimp

[greywing]

So you want to know if Hyo is a brand name whore? uyeni identified this handy-dandy bag as a Balenciaga . . . and I almost had a heart attack when I plugged it into google. Boys and girls, if you want this girl, you better work! $$$ (Hyo's beloved pink backpack, which we saw her touting around on "Infinity Challenge" and then in that behind-the-scenes

Comments

[arbitrary_greay]

No comment on any of the fashion stuff. I'll stick with my comfort-first principle of clothing, thank you very much. XD

Also curious about HyoSica theory.

Seo:
Eh, I think it just means that Seo has even higher walls than Sica. And yes, I'd say those walls are coming down more lately. If you compare her expressions and participation in shows from before to now there's a startling difference.
In terms of the 'real' Seo, you can definitely see her coming out in GGTS and some HB episodes where it's just SNSD and the camera crew. I could tell that she was also making a real effort to be herself at the beginning of her first WGM ep.(Haven't watched the other eps in depth yet) But the self she showed there was so quirky with her politicians-worship and love for self-improvement books, even I found it weird. It makes me wonder then if the new friendly personality she's been showing lately on shows is just a carefully crafted persona like how Sunny idols, because it does rather contrast with the super-quirky Seo I saw in WGM.

Regarding piano: Nit-picky of me, but I disagree with you. The pieces we've seen her play aren't meant to be played with sweeping romantic changes of dynamics, their difficulty lying in their rhythms instead. As a perfectionist she would want to be able to deliver the right notes and rhythms at high tempos first over any emotional nuances to the music, and with those kinds of pieces I can testify from personal experience that it's extremely hard to convey any sort of emotion when you're trying to land the juxtaposition of a 6-note pattern in the right hand with a 4-note pattern in the left, or making sure that every accent in a fast dissonant chord pattern gets its due. In addition, the sound quality we've gotten for those pieces hasn't been stellar, as well as their locations(gigantic arena, echo-y practice room) having pretty shitty acoustics, so some of the more subtle dynamic shifts were probably lost.

But yes, I do love that she is so amusingly dominant, and you can tell that the other members do too. I don't know how much of Maknae on Top is them indulging her and how much is her overpowering them. XD

[greywing]

I really need to watch Seobaby's WGM episodes, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if there's persona crafting going on--there always has been? She's allowed herself to kind of float in the background and be the wallflower. She's never really felt a need to assert herself and she hasn't really had to, so now that she is being spotlighted she's probably very self-conscious (perhaps even to a degree greater than she usually is).

How do you feel about her playing/expressions when she accompanied TRAX?

Probably a combo. I always find it interesting that TaeYeon is one of the most . . . openly exasperated with SeoHyun. The longer-trained trainees, who literally watched SeoHyun grow up and grew up alongside her as her unnis, perhaps had more exposure and more familiarity with this kid's quirks and obstinacy?

[arbitrary_greay]

You can't even really hear her during the TRAX songs (or the Kim Taewoo song), so I consider it inconsequential and haven't ever paid attention during those types of performances. And effort exerted does parallel technical difficulty, so even for a perfectionist like her there's only so much you can do expression-wise with those kinds of simple arrangements without changing the piece itself.

I think that's Taeyeon being able to act her age instead of being "SNSD's leader umma" because Tiffany seems to love and possibly enforce Seo's quirks, and Tiffany has apparently been the de-facto leader figure, with all of her monitoring and mothering. Plus Taeyeon has such a good sense of entertainment timing and she always responds to Seo with the perfect reaction to propel a show along, so it might be that as well.

Seo's new persona is so...I don't want to say bland, but it seems very carefully built to be universally appealing. Too carefully built even, as Yoona and Taeyeon's popularity does stem from the large contrast between their professional and dorky sides.
The thing is, Seo is like Hyo (and Takahashi Ai as well, I'd say) in that their dorky sides don't have the impeccable timing or relatability that the other members have, so their "real selves" come out more awkward than endearing. Even I was half-cringing when Seo went all "I view this politician dude as my role model, I read so much about his accomplishments and I felt ashamed of how little I had done with my life and resolved to do more" in WGM, and I like quirkiness!