adding on to your rant (i agree so hard) about queerbaiting, other members have also clearly participated in queer culture! eg. hanbin has an extensive background in ballroom dance, more specifically waacking, some voguing and also tutting. hao also has a very clearly queer-rooted past and even members who don't seem to have that have shown interest or commented on a queer topic; like taerae being good friends with woongki, seowon and park hanbin on boys planet or guyvin exposing wakeone's "no coming out in that way" policy, meaning they've probably had a discussion about it. to see more about zb1's true personalities, i'd ideally suggest watching behind the scenes but that is quite a lot of work, so the next best things are for sure idol human theater, halmyungsoo, thekstarnextdoor, baby cloud and maybe idol radio? hehe i'm very much enjoying these zb1 focused uploads since there are so few who do the variety reactions :) thank you
and also something that's less known from pre debut is yujin cross dressing! I think it's so stupid to accuse real people of queerbaiting especially with a group like this with supportive members
I think the best way to get to know each member and their personality without committing to Boys Planet straight away (completely understandable, its a lot) is going to be with Camp Zerobaseone. That has three parts and its also a bit of a time commitment but a lot more chill. I also second the comment that recommended the two kstarnextdoor episodes (part 1 and 2, the members are split in half, one half of the group in each episode, both pretty short) as I feel like thats also a pretty easy way to get to know them. Edit: One of the good things about Boys Planet though is that there are quite a few groups coming out of that show now! Theres the other project group, EVNNE thats made up of a few fan favourites that didnt quite make it in, TIOT and TOZ and apparently more coming very soon! If you ever want to get into even more groups, Boys Planet is useful for connecting you with those members too. But definitely don't force yourself to watch it, as you said, its long and a big commitment and honestly a big emotional rollercoaster.
jiwoong is probably one of the goofiest members of the group, u can see it especially in his own variety show he has here on youtube called detective boy kim jiwoong
Totally understand the hesitation on watching a show like Boys Planet. It a hefty time investment not to mention an emotional investment when you start to grow attached to certain trainees throughout the show but don't make it in to the final group. But it is a good show and I've re-watched it several times since it ended. Which is funny because I initially wasn't going to bother watching it because I didn't want to invest in another temporary group or get attached to trainees who didn't make the cut, but I stumbled upon a few tiktoks (including Ricky's "Young & Rich, Tall & Handsome intro) and it reeled me in. But yeah, watch it only if you're ready for a survival show. :)
I'll probably end up doing it eventually tbh, but it'll be after i get to know all the members cause I really like knowing the back stories and full story of the group and history, it just makes me love the groups more.
Just to give you a little context about Matthew saying that Hanbin is like an avocado to him because having Hanbin in his life makes him healthy, it is because Hanbin is his first older friend when we came to Korea. They trained together for a long time in cube and they were together in a dorm as well. It was Hanbin who always had talked to Matthew whenever Matthew feels like he want to give up and just go back to Canada. Also, Hanbin really treats Matthew like a younger sibling even if they're just a year apart. They've done a lot together prior to boys planet and even decided to join boys planet together. Hanbin really had a great impact in Matthew's life to the point that Matthew considers Hanbin as his role model.
I think hat's korean is probably better than Matthew and Ricky at least in terms of vocabulary so I think he's just introverted. Like even in Boys Planet when he had a lot of Chinese trainees around him he was still very reserved and kept to like a circle of very few people along with Yujin who also didn't get close to anyone who wasn't under his company other than Hanbin and Jiwoong who immediately adopted him lol. While people like Taerae, Gyuvin, and Gunwook became bffs with like half of the contestants.
About Boys Planet, basically the Top 30 are all debuting in different project groups or permanent groups because every trainee that got more than 5sec of screen time became that beloved.
The cosmopolitan interview is kinda outdated, this was still when they were getting to know each other. Jiwoong is actually one of the goofest and silliest members , he even got his own variety show because of it. There's a lot of ZB1 content and i can't wait for you to react to it.
The way jiwoong is the goofiest in the group beside than gyuvin lmao, he just seem reserved and calm in interviews but during reality shows he became hella competitive and random
