I want to first state I never disliked her. I always liked her & defended her when the show first started and people said she’d only be voted for because she’s Kai’s sister, when she didn’t even get the chance to prove herself
I however saw her progress throughout the show, and despite originally condemning them because one of them. She didn’t show much on the show, and I’m not even talking about in form of just technical talent, but in terms of star quality. It really started to become obvious that her brothers group fandom (mixed with Koreans voting for anyone but foreigners) was why she got into the top 9 let alone #2
Knowing Yurina, Ruiqi, & Yaning had such high chances to where at least 2/3 could’ve made it without the dumb system for the last round, yet got snuffed out the lineup annoyed me cuz they showed so much (not to mention would’ve added legitimacy to this being a multinational GG) & yet a fandom of their bias voted hard for his sister cuz she’s his sister, cuz let’s be real that was what happened
With that said, what happened happened and there’s not much point in latching onto it. Also just because she didn’t show much throughout the show, doesn’t mean she can’t show much after debut
Sohye wasn’t good at all during P101, barely showed any improvement when she got added to IOI, yet showed tons of improvement after debuting in IOI
My main criticism towards her was that while she wasn’t untalented, she had the stage presence of a rock. But I noticed her being better with it as time went on, so she could def get better at it when the time comes
I do believe she’ll prove herself and show how much of a star she truly is & can truly be. And who knows, looking back we’ll see the criticism as silly & notice she may become one of the best idols to come out in the new Gen & in general
Def look forward to when that point comes. Cuz if I stan Kep1er, I’m gonna be here for OT9, not OT8 & shading her constantly