The disbandment of GFriend, which stayed in the top tier for a while, made some noise but the careers of the members all stalled.
None of the members are now 'secure'. Viviz showed up in the Queendom 2 with a bunch of juniors. The leader has no permanent jobs, and Yerin and Yuju are just floating around here and there.
GFriend had many friends when they were at the top. Now hardly any remain - the late Moonbin, a longtime friend of SinB, was practically the last remaining friend of GFriend who was kinda known, and his death means GFriend has lost its last connection to the big leagues.
GFriend was practically the best known come-from-behind success story from a minor company, and its end was probably one of the saddest.
Basically, what minor company idols can trust their owners anymore , especially when GFriend, who was put into Hybe, the biggest of all, was treated that way?
All the talking heads who raise the point of the 'ingratitude' of Fifty Fifty members ignore this fact. If they had remained loyal to the Attrakt owner, whom they hardly know about , a fate not like GFriend awaited.
Yuju of GFriend , whose duet with Loco was the only song to make the annual melon top 10 by a girl group (member) , was ordered to sing duets with Sunyool of Up10tion, since its owner was a friend of GFriend's owner; then she was put into a duet with a chap named Jihoo, about whom not much is known. The last time I heard, Sunyool is trying to become a trot singer, and Jihoo is now a singing instructor for the general public. In other words the owner of Source put her into duets which were unlikely to increase her value, and that impact still remains now. Yuju is never going back even if there is a reunion ; she appears to be happy to be by herself.
The owner of Attrakt would have ordered the same thing to Aran.
Given that the Attrakt owner was eager to reveal plans for his new boy group , even though he thoroughly ruined Hot Shot and Ha Sungwoon, the members had reasons to be concerned. Everything they earn would be going to suit the passion of the owner they hardly have seen, and they would be put around everywhere like GFriend, with an end not too different from them.
Younger people now are no longer that ignorant, and they know their values. The outdated notion of duty and hierarchy do not really fly to these born-after-2000 generation. Given the less than stellar history of the Attrakt owner, who would the members trust more ? The owner who had failed with a known quality singer Ha Sungwoon, or the director who did give them an international hit?
I have no stake in this game, and frankly speaking I don't really mind who wins. I am upset that even now FF is not paying filial duty to a certain old singer. However, with every minor group act having seen what happened to GFriend, they will never trust their owners ever again.
