This is a f(x) post

[whatonemore]

As you all know,F(x) is a rookie group.I've been observing F(x) thus far and I think it's interesting to note the difference in the fans' love in the international arena so far vs screentime.As F(X) is a young group,it's popularity for the members have not yet reached the state of SNSD where underrated members would have trouble climbing up the

Comments

Finally got the time~

[arbitrary_greay]

Victoria: I agree that it seemed like Victoria was gonna become an underdog so sudenly her appearing everywhere was a surprise. She does have the most schedule flexibility though as the other members are still in school. I wonder if she drinks...
I like Victoria's dancing. XD Yeah, it's not as defined but like you said it's just from her training. So it means that she doesn't hit hard on the locking like Luna does and I don't think she can pop but on the other hand she's got the balletic grace that eludes most of the non-SM/YG idol dancers, and I'd say she might even be more graceful than Yuri. She could definitely pull off the ballad portion of Hyo's Shanghai solo, even though she'd bring a more airy feel to it where Hyo was earthy. But yeah, Nu ABO's dance doesn't fit her style, other than her lightness giving a more carefree diva-ness to the song's heavy beats.

Amber: Yeah, Nu ABO has been the first time I'm not annoyed by Amber's rapping.
Ooh, I didn't think about the Taiwan boyish-member trend connection! Japan does usually have a token boyish member but they tend to also be underdogs rather than frontgirls. Of course, f(x) is peculiar since their most popular members may not be able to frontgirl from the language barrier.
At the very least Amber will become a Yuri-type: popularity based on da pairings. XD After all, what Yuripairing fic have you seen where she isn't the male-figure, despite Yoonyul and Soori pointing to the opposite? Plus Amber can hang out with the boy idols without instantly setting off the fangirl jealousy red flags, so she should haven't as many anti problems.

Luna: <3<3<3
I see her more like a Hyo that didn't get stomped on by the business(yet), but I'm Sooyoung biased. XD I do agree that she has been the most outgoing member of f(x) though, what with taking over the talking on Hello f(x) and her rendition of Eurachacha there being the most earnest, joyful, and endearing thing I've ever seen.(Whereas apparently everyone else in SM beside Hyo is embarrassed about their audition song.)

Mmmm, your second paragraph perfectly embodies my "respect vs. devotion" theory. I'd think she'd be able to win more fans just if she was able to make more variety appearances, but I don't think I've even seen an article for her about their Radio Star appearance, sigh.

Re: Finally got the time~

[arbitrary_greay]

Sulli: I thought she was going to be their silvertongue character with how much damage control she does on Inki as an MC, but on Hello f(x) that side of her was nowhere to be seen. I think she'd be a method actor but she hasn't learned to keep her "pro mode" on or to cultivate her natural personality. She was quirky, but not in a concrete way like SNSD is, and I still can't quite get a handle on her non-pro mode personality. You are right that she does have that high level of self-confidence kind of?(I definitely got that vibe during the Thai lesson in Hello f(x)) Except that it most certainly was not present during her japanese fail at the BoF promo event, poor thing. XD
Yeah, I did kind of get a divaness too off of her journal entry. But it did come off as a backhanded insult of the wota worshipping attitude. <3 So agree about how it's not that she takes pride in her looks.

Krystal: I think both Krystal and Sulli haven't learned to exaggerate their personalities to really make it in variety. Krystal has that sarcastic air but I haven't seen her pull out any epic quips, whereas some of Jessica's HMF insults warm my snarkheart. The most likely explanation for this is a combination of their younger age and inexperience, as Hyuna had similar problems on IY.
The other explanation is likely some self-projection on my part, but I noticed that f(x) humor as a whole is very dysfunctional. Yes, the language barrier would contribute to this, but you'd think it would drive the korean natives to make more conventional easy-to-understand jokes. But instead their jokes are even more roundabout than usual. Since both of them give me smarty-pants vibes, it might be that they're the type that don't like the easy joke, so they purposely take their banter up a level, not stating the obvious and skipping to making fun of the original punchline. But to the regular outsider those skipped steps aren't so apparent so the humor just comes off as very random and quirky overall. The way Krystal's obversations/commentary is never the obvious one either makes me think that.

I believe that multiple sources have said that Krystal is not very idolly, almost tomboyish?

Re: Finally got the time~

[whatonemore]

Sulli: I get the feeling that a lot of her self love comes from her self awareness of her own prettiness.She isn't afraid to admit that she likes attention for being pretty,lol.

I also get the feeling that she's probably either bold/adventurous or even rebellious (or at least you can always interpret it this way).In this way she doesn't have the typical traits you'd expect of her,though she's probably bratty/diva-like as you said.

Hm.F(x) has a dysfunctional sense of humour?xD Never thought of it that way.I get what you're talking about though.Or maybe it's like what the ~meaning of F(x)~,changing around the X easily or whatever (bs-ing here,lol).

http://www.youtube.com/user/t2ssubs#p/a/u/2/xsVjpvSAi0o--> Vic's wgm subbed.Too tired to comment right now so I'll leave you to it.:P

Re: Finally got the time~

[arbitrary_greay]

It's kind of like how Yoona is aware of her popularity and why she has that popularity. Unlike Yoona though, Sulli hasn't learned to parley that awareness into comedy. With the journal reading it was Krystal making the funny inflections. Sulli will need to be careful in the future with how she handles that awareness because unlike Gyuri it does come off more genuine, and the narcissistic character really only works when people recognize it as an act.

If you compare GGTS to Hello f(x) GGTS has much more traditional comedic timing and jokes in general. SNSD are just like korean comedians in their style, where f(x) make jokes like your everyday friends-group, with emphasis on inside jokes or things pertaining to them only. None of them have done real imitations of other korean celebrities, other than Victoria, and hers can really be just filed under a general aegyo heading. I haven't watched 2NE1TV yet, but from what I can tell they also have the same kind of quirky humor as f(x) that comes from people who aren't TV personality types. The best example is that SNSD is constantly pointing out the contrast between their behavior and what the SNSD idol image is, but with f(x) and 2NE1 they take that behavior for granted and treat it as normal.

Post it on ffa! Besides, I have to finish watching Painter of the Wind first. :3 Up through ep 10 and counting.

Re: Finally got the time~

[whatonemore]

Krystal:I think Krystal expresses her snarks better on UFOS (like ChangMin?Oh SM magnaes<3).Right now Krystal still hasn't yet established her personality to shine compared to the rest of F(x) yet though.

But she herself said her attitude was kind of like " I won't bother to explain myself unless necessary",not sure how this works around this,but yeah.

Luna: Yes,but I remember reading a recent article on how Luna is a F(X) member that "warms your heart" or something like that.In that you don't notice her immediately,but the way she tries hard and her enthusiasm (Star King?) is really endearing.

Obviously then Luna fits into your "Respect vs devotion" theory.

Amber: Yeah,SME had obviously placed Amber in F(X) for strategic reasons-in that somewhere in the future,they probably are going to go to China.(I hope Luna doesn't get forgotten bcoz Baidu-ers are obsessed with the rest,lol).Another plus:She knows chinese.

Plus already Amber is doing that rap song with Danson tang that I didn't check out.Now that I think about it though,whilst i thought Vic/Amber would only be really popular in China/TW,but they've established themsleves sooner than I thought.Sulli is also popular in China though.

Amber isn't like Ella of S.h.e though,who despite her tomboy-ish appearance,as the other members' tease her about it,she apparently has huge assets.I suppose the fact that Ella is kind of a tomboy but who really is not makes Amber more gender-bending.Plus,Ella's personality is more sunshiney/likeable,whilst Amber really seems guy-ish and takes more time to get used to.

Sorry for bringing out the comparison randomly,lol.

Re: Finally got the time~

[arbitrary_greay]

I won't bother to explain myself unless necessary

This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Pointing out the obvious wastes the time that could be spent making another joke building on the obvious, which is more creative anyway.(Or in the case of anime, pointing out the obvious wastes the time that could be spent advancing the fucking plot, INUYASHA I'M LOOKING ATCHU) Krystal never makes the obvious observation(unless she's doing one of those obligatory idol speeches) because why point out what everyone knows when you could point out something not so transparent and possibly teach someone something?

Besides, from personal experience blind-siding your friends with humorous non-sequiturs is pretty damn satisfying. You get to see their reactions, control the conversation flow, and hold an air of mystery around yourself. :3 Sometimes it's unintentional though, since without explaining the intervening steps of how I got from A to B it would appear to be a non-sequitur.

Definitely Amber's placement in f(x) has paid off big time. It got them pre-debut hype and exposed f(x) as "not just another girlgroup", and definitely the the Taiwan connections like with their endorsing the chinese Lollipop phone and this Danson gig.(I've heard neither song yet XD)
Yeah, it's interesting that they're really shilling Amber as a true tomboy. While the main tomboy figures of H!P and AKB48 do have their fellow members swooning over them and teasing them about their manliness, oftentimes you'll get stories from them that are all about saying "but actually behind the scenes they are girly", like the reverse of them manning up Jokwon to balance his fabulous divaness on variety shows. But with Amber they're going all the way with saying how she's boyish irl.

It seems to me that Luna is the one who really loves her job whole-heartedly where the others(except maybe Victoria) are still a little uneasy with it. Maybe Sulli and Krystal have seen too much of the dark side of idolling, but Luna's been training with them just as long so that's not it. With Amber of course it would be unease with how shallow and appearance-oriented the business is. In other words, Krystal Sulli and Amber are all visibly suppressing parts of themselves where Luna and Victoria aren't. Which is why Luna reminds me so much of Hyo before some bastard told her to tone down the attitude, I guess.

Re: Finally got the time~

[whatonemore]

Yeah,plus tomboy members usually seem to always express desires to be more feminine and girly (SooRi?).

I remember Sica talking about how Krystal's always asking her stuff and all that,so they're probably nervous,but then again SME's debuted groups have gotten more reserved and "manufactured" and "careful" since Shinee (even if I love them).I expected Sulli to be kind of all cheerful and everything,but Luna is the one with this personality in the group.

Did you ever watch the episode during the early days where the girls' went on Chin Chin and got their personalities dissected by a Psychologist?I think the guy said some interesting stuff,but I can't remember half of them.

After watching WGM though,Victoria also seems quite bubbly and random/sporadic (sp) than Luna.

Re: Finally got the time~

[arbitrary_greay]

I think it was ...eva? that said that Suju and SNSD were built around personalities to sweept the variety shows, take the MC/DJ jobs, etc, whereas DBSK, CSJH, Shinee, and f(x) are performance oriented. f(x) getting all of these non-music gigs seems to be an anomaly, but then again apparently their manager is one of SNSD's old ones so he has more variety connections anyway? But that might help explain why they seem more manufactured and careful: they weren't meant to be personality powerhouses.

f(x) or SNSD? Both can be found at ssfclassics on YT, in part 8.
The guy confirms Amber to be a tomboy, Sulli to not use her cuteness and a little narcissistic, and Krystal to be a smarty-pants. XD
Awww, he says Luna has low confidence nowadays but is compensating by working hard to change herself.
And Victoria is the practical type, who leads by stubborness rather than charisma. XD

Re: Finally got the time~

[whatonemore]

So...I read this fanaccount which made me pretty sad:

- the p.s. part is about how pempengco (is that charice? lol) came out to sing, and some lady asked fx's luna to sing. Then luna sang.. and she wasn't very good (her voice isn't in good condition or something) and the lady (the fan calls her 조여사님 idk who that is lol) said that "sure enough fx is no good, do not go overseas" .. and then luna cried. anyways, the jongkey part is this: later jonghyun said that luna sang very well, then he grabbed key's hand and walked over there and said "right?"

Unfortunately,though I can't figure out why,Luna seems to suffer from Luna's self esteem is pretty low.It isn't just a lack of confidence for her,unfortunately.Luna seems too affected easily by what others say,like how she started skipping lunch and going a lot to the gym even now when she got all the "fat" and "muscle" comment (and the stupid SK personal trainer "oh..you don't work out enough"...then why does luna have muscle?!).

I think her self esteem must be really low already and seeing Charice belt out notes while her voice wasn't in good condition must have been a trigger point for her D:

I dunno,but I hope gurl gets herself some self esteem,don't want her to become like Sica with her ED ._.

Maybe is just me,but since you have a SooYoung bias,doesn't SooYoung have pretty low self esteem these days too?D: Damn Korea for making perfectly good looking people feel ugly about themsleves.ugh.

Sorry for posting if this appears twice in your inbox,just remove the other one since this
is the edited version :)

I've to say I'm pretty disappointed by the choreography,and the girls seemed to be lacking charisma in this performance.