You can’t have the cake and eat it too. You can’t cry “company/any other third party made them do it” at every given opportunity and then wonder why people don’t really care about giving idols the credit they deserve.
For me at the beginning of an idol’s career they do indeed have minimal agency. And are indeed puppets. They are meant for a younger audience and are akin to Disney stars.
But if you’re idol is 7, 8, 10 years into their career and you cry “company” at every given chance, I do indeed side eye you. The way I see it there’s only one of two options
1. The idol is so spineless and accepting of their circumstances that they don’t mind having no agency even at their big age
Or
2. They do things fully knowing the consequence and/or they are just plain dumb.
IMO 1 is actually far worse than 2. So i always find it fascinating when fans rather claim their favs don’t have an iota of free will rather than accept the possibility they are humans who make mistakes.
Anyway end essay.
