i’d love to hear your thoughts on riize’s red flags or i guess their imperfections in a relationship, if you don’t mind the “negativity”
because i imagine sungchan having high standards, like he’s a perfectionist who envisions a perfect relationship/perfect wifey material but that causes more problems because he expects you to be a certain way, he cares about social image & appearances, etc…!!!! like if you were to enjoy clubbing he’d be lowkey judgy but feel guilty because he doesn’t WANT to have these judgements (wbk he’s a woke healthy-masculinity feminist king BUT… he got that virgo in him) sorry for the yap
this blog is a safe space for yappery so no need to apologize at all 🙂↕️ funny enough i already had a post like this in the drafts so im happy to answer :)
hopefully no one gets mad at me for this! i’m basing it off my perception of the members and things i’d likely consider a red flag if i were to engage with them irl. ofc i can only go off of how they present themselves / what we’ve heard them say in content, which could be completely inaccurate as we know idols are often told to act in certain ways that may not truly reflect who they are. as a fanfiction writer, it's in my nature to take small moments / traits of the members and amplify them exponentially, while adding on additional assumptions from my own life experience, so if it seems like i'm over analyzing / making a big deal out of small things, it's because i very much am, and therefore this post should not be taken too seriously. i should also say that i love all the members and this is not me attacking them or assigning moral value to them. (i'm also an overthinker so maybe this is way too much of a disclaimer for what may be considered a tame post lol)
with that out of the way let’s get into the analysis 🤓
RIIZE - POTENTIAL RED FLAGS
ANTON
at times anton gives me major fuckboy energy 😂 particularly as he’s grown in his confidence more over the years of being a riize member, it seems like he’s realized how much of a catch he is to so many people and is liberal + deliberate in doing certain things that he knows will rile the fans up (like posting unprovoked pictures of his veiny hands for example). in the context of a relationship, i feel like he might be someone who flirts with a lot of the women he interacts with, but who plays coy about it after, saying stuff like, "but that's just my personality," and "i didn't even know i was flirting." even just the way he's so casual about being shirtless on camera + that one clip where he got so shy when told he's the member that appeals to women the most shows how aloof he can be sometimes when it comes to his own behavior. getting him to commit and be tied down seems like a challenge in itself. there's a video (HERE at 14:55) where you can hear a bunch of female staff in the background laughing at something he does, and just watching it, i got the feeling that he really enjoys and feeds into it whenever he is getting a lot of attention from others, and in this case, those "others" being women. he also seems like a major tease who would not give straight answers in regards to how he truly feels about you.
on another note, the riize members have also dubbed anton as the most sensitive member and/or the member who gets upset the most, which in addition to his age, has me wondering about his maturity level / ability to handle conflict. I think he could be someone that has a tendency of saying hurtful things when he’s upset and shrugging off any of the responsibility for it. there was a moment in a riize vlog where anton called sungchan and eunseok lazy for not coming with the rest of the members to eat in chicago (HERE at 22:04). shotaro had brought up that sungchan would probably be upset at him for saying that, but anton doubled down on it anyway. very innocuous moment that shouldn’t be read into too deeply, especially because they were all smiling and laughing + i doubt sungchan would be upset if he even saw it, but still, one might interpret that as an example of anton being unapologetically snide towards others when he feels justified in his convictions.
SOHEE
i’m gonna bring a little bit of astrology analysis into this one. sohee is technically a scorpio but i personally consider him on the cusp of scorpio and sagittarius since his birthday is on the 21st. a big sagittarius trait in my opinion is being brutally honest to others in a way that comes across as mean, and not really caring about how others react to your honesty because “they should be able to handle the truth,” and/or “they should appreciate that i’m being honest with them.” a big scorpio trait in my opinion is being petty / holding things against people for unreasonable amounts of time. i sometimes see these traits in sohee, especially the brutally honest piece. in a previous post i also discussed how he suffers from the neat freak + picky eater combo, which tells me that he can be very particular when it comes to what he wants. in a relationship, he may expect you to be a manic pixie dream girl who fits all of his standards which may feel like a lot of pressure / limiting. i can also see him being nitpicky and causing small issues to snowball into irrationally big ones. at times, he can be quite stubborn and expect a lot from others because he feels like “if i can easily do this, why can’t you do it too?” this tends to be a trait of super talented people as well because since talent comes so inherently to them, they can’t comprehend why others may struggle with the things they easily excel at. for these reasons, sohee may also have trouble compromising and handling conflict. he may have some growing to do in terms of his openness to other ways of living / behaving / thinking.
WONBIN
wonbin can at times come off as someone with a low self-esteem, particularly if you notice the way he completely talks down on himself whenever he makes minor mistakes on stage. he has that perfectionist, “i'm never good enough,” kind of attitude, which i think could have several repercussions in a romantic relationship. for one, he might always assume that those around him hate him, and therefore be self-sabotaging in that he’ll presume an issue is there even when it isn’t. he seems like he’d be a very skittish partner; the moment he senses a conflict arising, rather than handle it maturely, he’d find some excuse to leave the relationship in order to protect himself from potential rejection and hurt. the mindset is almost like, “i’m going to hurt you before you can hurt me.” wonbin’s ability to truly enjoy romantic connection may often be dampered by his constant thoughts and worries about his partner’s perception of him. he’s the type of friend to leave a hangout and spend the rest of the night hyperfixating over all the embarrassing things he said and the jokes he made that no one laughed at. and again, with the fear of rejection in mind, he might hide his true emotions from his partner with the thought that he’d be judged for having them. so all in all, he could be an emotionally unavailable sort of guy who comes across as a fuckboy but really just has a lot of feelings that he doesn’t know how to healthily deal with.
SUNGCHAN
sungchan seems like someone who could demand a lot from his partner in order to feel loved by them. it's almost like in his eyes, he’s either your number one person or he’s nothing at all. he’s either the center of your attention or just another stranger to be ignored. he views nearly all things within a relationship in this same black and white way (a mindset which, in itself, is kind of a red flag). to bring up astrology once again, his virgo sun may cause him to feel this competitive urge to be the most important person amongst all the people in your life, and his leo venus could make him sort of self-centered in desiring to be constantly praised and pampered. as his partner, you may find yourself on the receiving end of several "tests" from him, questions like, "am I the best person you've ever been with?" or "are you sure you want to be with me for the rest of your life?" that he poses in order to confirm your continued interest in him. it's very possible that there is no right way to respond in these situations because even if you answer him affirmatively, he may believe you in the moment, and yet, he's never going to stop wondering whether you truly love him or not, even after years of being together and plenty evidence. sungchan can also be very sensitive towards anything he perceives as you sidelining him. to that end, i see him as someone who could be very jealous and possessive. something as simple as you engaging in a long conversation with another man could be considered a betrayal in his eyes. he'd even be so upset as to go and flirt with another girl in a manner 10x worse than you did just so that he can make you understand even a fraction of the same disregard and pain he felt. all it all, i could see it being exhausting trying to please sungchan and remain in compliance with his impossible standards. but what's sort of fair about him is that he will never hold you that a standard that he isn't willing to hold himself. everything he expects from you is what he already does himself.
EUNSEOK
i mention this in literally everything i write about eunseok, and so it is at the risk of sounding like a broken record that i assert, once again, that this man is painfully nonchalant. as his girlfriend, it would be easy to assume that he doesn't care about you because he's seemingly incapable of expressing love in overt or loud ways. he’s like a school child in that his method of flirting is being mean. in his mind, it should be obvious that by giving you any form of attention, he’s showing you how much he likes you, because when he dislikes or is ambivalent towards something, he won’t engage with it at all. he doesn’t realize that it is a rather unique thing to be a person who is very boundaried when it comes to what he likes and doesn’t like. so it will not even come across his mind that he is not being a sufficiently affectionate or loving boyfriend because just the fact that he chooses to still see you everyday should be proof enough. he justifies himself with remarks like, “if i didn’t like you, why would i still be with you?” and “if i didn’t want to be with you, i’d just say that.” he approaches all forms conflict like this: logically without consideration of the messy, emotional parts of love, which may be frustrating to deal with. furthermore, he wouldn’t have a lot of patience for a partner who has non-verbal ways of showing that they’re upset. he has the attitude of, “if you don’t tell me, i’m not going to try to read your mind,” which again, may come off as disinterest. you could literally throw the most obvious tantrum and he still won’t acknowledge it at all until you put your issues into words. stubbornness, then, could be said as another red flag of his.
SHOTARO
i'm having such a hard time thinking of a moment in which shotaro did or said something that triggered my red flag alarm lol, but what i will say is that in my IRL interactions with people like shotaro, it is almost always the most cheerful and kind people who are the WORST to get upset, because they will go off on you with the same intensity as their kindness usually is. in his everyday efforts to be a good person, he likely suppresses a lot of his negative feelings, and so when they're provoked to finally come out, it's in a volcano-like manner. almost like a switch going off, he could become a totally different person in his rare moments of genuine anger. he may find himself saying cruel, nasty, and out-of-character things. i see him as being especially sensitive to situations where he feels like his kindness has been taken for weakness. another potential red flag is that he may come off as clingy or hyper-dependent. he's almost the opposite of eunseok in that he expresses his love in nearly every way possible; it literally oozes from his being, and at times that could feel overwhelming. if you're sick, he'll insist on getting in bed with you and cuddling anyway. if you're out of town, he'll want to spend the whole day on the phone with you. if you're upset, he wants to know what's wrong and fix it immediately. he views his capacity for love as his best trait, so it may be hard for him to understand why a person would be hesitant to receive such overflowing love.
