The reason Jungkook (BTS) was mentioned the most in the Itaewon controversy: Because he’s the most popular or because of his fandom?
It has been 2 days since Dispatch published an exclusive article about the Itaewon controversy, where 4 famous idols Jungkook (BTS), Cha Eunwoo (ASTRO), Jaehyun (NCT) and Mingyu (SEVENTEEN) gathered during social distancing. During the time COVID-19 pandemic raging in the world, and Itaewon is also a new outbreak in Seoul, this incident has worsened their perfect images in the public eye.
If you visit online forums, community groups, social media, .. in the world with the posts about this topic, you can easily read many comments criticizing the 4 male idols. But among them, it is clear that Jungkook is the one receiving the most criticisms, whether from netizens or fandoms of other groups.
Questions have been raised about why Jungkook is the one who got attacked the most in this scandal. Many people think that is because compared to the other 3 idols, Jungkook used to be involved in other serious issues before. Meanwhile, fans of the “golden maknae” of BTS confirmed that their idol is the most famous in the 4 involved in the incident, causing him to bear the most blame.
However, for those who have been following Kpop for a long time and have witnessed many fanwars, they think that the main reason Jungkook being criticized more than the other 3 idols is because of BTS’s fandom. It’s undeniable that ARMY is the most powerful fandom in Kpop today, with so many supporting projects that many people admire and envy. But in certain situations, particularly this time of Jungkook’s scandal, many ARMYs’ actions have annoyed other fandoms.
When the controversy just broke out, instead of quietly waiting for a response from the agency, many ARMYs strongly denied Jungkook’s involvement with many reasons like their “baby” was busy at the gym, going to the farm, … and did no have time to go to bars or clubs. When the rumor was confirmed, they told each other to trend the hashtags … praising their idol, and keywords like “Jungkook Best Boy”, “We Love Jungkook”, … appearing at that time just made everyone shake their heads.
Not only that, from Korea to international, ARMY’s arguments to defend their idol has been condemned by many other fandoms, especially when they also drag unrelated artists into the controversy just to cover up for Jungkook. Cha Eunwoo, Jaehyun, Mingyu were suddenly turned into “bad friends” by ARMYs, seducing and dragging their idol into doing the wrong thing. Yugyeom (GOT7) and other 97 line idols who did not go to Itaewon were also criticized by ARMY, some even said that these idols were not called out by Dispatch because they are… unpopular. Irene (Red Velvet), Jennie (BLACKPINK), … are also accused by many BTS fans of not complying with social distancing.
Therefore, many believe that ARMYs themselves are the biggest reason that made Jungkook be criticized more than others in this controversy. Many netizens claimed that it was time for fans to stop overly protectingand defending their idol, stop seeing Jungkook as a “baby” that needs to be protected when he is 23 years old and most importantly they should how to acknowledge their idol’s mistake at the right time so he could learn from it.
