As I was thinking today, I realised how bts has been carrying out a huge humiliation ritual since the start of their career. Probably a lot of you figured this out, idk, just wanted to get this epiphany I had out ig, lol. Remember how armys always cry about what they and bts had to go through during their debut days? It was all a humiliation ritual, the sajaegi accusations, the plagiarism accusations, break wings project, everything. All started when bts copied bb and exo concept. Its amazing, bts really put themselves through the ringer for this and continue to do so. Every major success of theirs has followed an industry death or humiliation ritual. Like how, they were ridiculed when they first tried to make it into the USA back in 2017. And no doubt they will win the Grammys too, by hook or crook.
Exo on the other hand, too went through a lot of criticism, being called sm first flops, their biggest mistake and all, but their company never let them go through a lot of humiliation, probably cause the founder lsm has direct relationship with the Rothschild family. But the lack of rituals is what cost them the position of top bg and that went to bts. Though exo is still the second most popular group of this generation.
The long standing rivalry btwn their fans helps a lot to maintain their popularity. None of them have ever really called out the toxic portion of their stans and the fights they have on twt. Bc the energy benefits them. They reap this energy to use for their rituals and climb the fame ladder.
Now I see the same thing with superm.. The group has been hated since before debut. Even after debut, armys (and some news outlets) have spread hate against them or tried to ruin their rep, their fans have been tirelessly defending them. And now they have no. 1 on bb. Breaking bts records.. Watch out for the next comebacks of super m.. They might be bigger hits bc of the energies obtained from many of the biggest fanbases on kpop, or maybe not. It's hard to tell.
That's all I had in my mind, please dont clown me if this seems like a rant. Just wanted to get this off of my chest.
Tl;dr bts career has been a big humiliation ritual, nothing else.