i think it's better to answer all of you in the same post, because all your ideas are connected and i would repeat myself if i had to answer every person one by one, so please read everything! it happens, that blingers become lockets, but it's like... how it works for all the others too. I mean, i think it's normal that some people "change" their bias after a period of time, maybe because they got to know all the members better or they saw shinee live, or any reason really. BUT when it comes to lockets becoming blingers (or liking jonghyun to some extent) the number is weirdly high. That's at least something I've noticed during the years, and i'm glad it doesn't seem like i'm the only one wondering about it here X'D OBVIOUSLY there are korean fans that do that too - changing their mind and finding another member more attractive than the first they thought was, and OBVIOUSLY this happens for korean lockets becoming blingers too, but it doesn't happen as strangely frequently as it happens among international fans, that's what i ment to say (and actually individual fandom here are a real issue. fans are really faithful). pomonam said it could be because of jongkey, and i do think it has some influence but sometimes they don't even ship jongkey the best. sometimes they really love onkey (for example) but jonghyun and key end up being their biases, so it can't be only that. I do believe it has something to do with it, because people usually like a couple because they particulary like those two members, but i would say it's not the cause but the consequence... kindredseoul: "For me, it’s the bad boy/crusader for peace & love thing he has going. " you mean jonghyun, right? XD is someone still believing in his bad boy image though? i think people went over it after ring ding dong era or something lmao i do believe jonghyun is a wonderful person and he has a special tag for that in my blog (the beautiful people tag is like for him only), so i CAN totally understand what his charm is, but i wasn't wondering why people find him special (because who doesn't?) but why lockets especially seem to like him THAT much more... squireconrad: "Well, as you know, I’m an international Locket with zero Jonghyun feels. So if you solve the mystery, let me know! XP" you're like one of the few lockets i know that has zero feelings for jonghyun lmao but taking you as an example is also true that it's difficult to find international lockets that are JUST lockets. i mean, obviously everybody here is a shawol, so we obviously love them all, but most lockets have a double bias. Like "my ultimate bias is key but there's also jonghyun/minho/onew/taemin, then all the others". seems horrible to write like this, but you all get what i mean X'D this happens more with the other members too, but i do know a lot of flames and mvps that are actually ONLY flames and mvps, while as I'VE experienced i know almost no locket who's only a locket. To be honest i've been wondering a lot about all of these things before coming to korea too, but way more now that i'm in korea, because i had the occasions to be litteraly surronded by lockets, speak with them, ask other international fans who have been in korea for months or years, and even if you don't want to notice them, you end up seeing a whole lot of differences beetwen the international fandom and the korean one. Not only for the obvious things, but for how they perceive the members too. Especially Kibum. maybe it's because i'm a locket so i pay more attention to him and fans reactions towards him but here in korea it's just different... i don't know how to explain it, but i think the major difference is that korean fans don't question any of their sexualitties or their manliness or anything releated, so i feel like if you take this away from international fans, you take away 3/4 of the kibum they know, while korean fans pay attention to other things about him. I've met a lot of international lockets telling me they can't look at kibum as a man or think of him romantically but since the first day surronded by lockets here i could feel that this is not the case in korea (and he's actually more popular than i could ever imagine) - i have to be honest, at the beginning i was a bit surprised lmao it's because i was not used to it, their reactions are different from international fans reactions. so that's why when kibum-it says: "to be honest bummie is the most unmanly besides taemin. And i like manly guys a lot." i know this is what most international fans feel like, but i also think that it's not the same in korean fans eyes. actually there are a lot of people still telling me how manly minho is, for example, sometimes i read comments like "but minho wouldn't do that, he's supposed to be the manly one", but seriously guys, minho is like the girliest one of them all LMAO he doesn't care to appear manly at all and just goes around aegyoing people and calling them yeobo and wanders around the stage as a ballerina. do you get what i mean? i don't want to say he's absolutely never manly, just that as a human being he has his manly moments and his girly moments, they all do. WE all do. And koreans boys (or maybe idols?) especially really don't care about this kind of things, because as i said, girls don't really question manliness, so any act that could be perceived as "girly" by international fans it's just cute and adorable for korean fans... this got really long and i don't even know if i got my point through, but anyway, i'm really glad to the people who answered me. it's really endearing to get the differences among the fandom *_*
