Why does Garam still have so much impact?

No hate to her I’m curious. Most idols that left groups people forgot right away but she gets hit tweets daily, people spending money on her birthday. With so little time in the group, how is her impact bigger than a lot of other idols?

because Mean Girls is still a cultural icon

1) she’s pretty and has an innocent, unassuming vibe (plus her soft singing voice) that draws out people’s protective streak on a subconscious level

2) she was wronged by hybe’s mishandling of the scandal and she was the target of many lies and baseless rumors, which gained her sympathy from people who felt she didn’t deserve the backlash she got

3) basically she’s become a semi-symbol for people who felt mistreated by the system and supporting her is a way to stick it to management that they fucked up by letting her go

Well HYBE has a lot of company stans, and there was a bunch who was riding for her and the other ssera girls the moment they were revealed.

Fast forward to now, its literally people living off of the "ideation" of her. They can't let her go because they look at her as "someone who could've been" and also because she's "pretty".

So yeah, its people just living off of her potential that she had and again, off of " what she could've been", so they created this image in their minds about her still being a idol and still being "famous" pretty much.

This is literally the best answer, cuz there's literally nothing else that could be the reason.

They've known the girl for 2 weeks, and even then she didn't get much screen time either. And its a lot of token stanning too, cuz they feel bad for her etc etc.

Quote from I’m on the NEXT… LEVEL (24)

because Mean Girls is still a cultural icon

Except in this case it’s the opposite of mean girls because the other girl actually turns out to be the perpetrator or the “mean” girl, Garam’s action was a retaliation. And it wasn’t a physical altercation, only verbal. It paints a much different picture from what it initially looked like from the narrative fabricated by the other side and third parties. Which is another factor that made people feel even more sympathy for Garam and want to support her. She was telling the truth the whole time but was sabotaged by others to look like the only guilty person while the other party claimed innocence. People want injustice like this dealt with and now supporting Garam is their only way

I think she's a symbol. Imo she gets so much support not (only) because of her visuals or talent (which we didn't get to see a lot of) but because she's been the victim a huge injustice. So in a way I guess her fans try to make up for how much her company failed her.

she was soooo pretty and charming. Tbh she was the only one in LSF that stood out to me, now I just get a bad vibe from them.

Quote from Kwangya resident (743)

she was soooo pretty and charming. Tbh she was the only one in LSF that stood out to me, now I just get a bad vibe from them.

Weird because she and Eunchae were the only ones that lacked stage presence and didn't stand out to me when they first debuted and Garam was also the only one who gave me bad vibes with her "ice queen" persona. Funny how that works out

KPop stans love a good victim story, they also love to get the chance to be amateur investigators and saviours. I saw two of them referring to their "dossiers" on twitter this week.

If K-pop fans can spend on pre-debut albums with neither the idols nor songs known, 2 weeks is more than enough time to get emotionally invested.

To any non-fan, fan behaviour is bizarre. So within fandoms, why does it matter how bizarre it is to get invested in such a short-term idol?

Garam has also become a symbol of unfair treatment, a scapegoat for the company to play it safe.

So supporting her gives the emotional satisfaction of saying f-you to a corporate entity.

In any case, good for her, maybe she will have a popular career after all - if not in Kpop then elsewhere.

Afterall, Hwayoung is doing well.

Because like a meme they won't die

You know how Bahiyyih gained a ton of fans just because she was getting picked on and now there's people claiming that she's the savior of kpop? Its the EXACT Same thing here. And some people got so emotionally invested in defending her that they can't back down.

It's because people project onto her and they fall into one of two camps... a) she was unfairly targeted because haters be jealous and b) she bullied people because they deserved it. Both of these mentalities are incredibly prevalent in stan culture. I see this a lot in Nicki Minaj stans too. If you have a victim complex, you can project onto Garam. If you have a mean girl complex, you can project onto Garam.