Non EXO fans : What do you think is the relationship between rest of SM Vs EXO?

Exo has more of a p private friendship they don't openly share these things often, but you see glimpses. Mark, Taeyong Johnny and Jaehyun are close to exo and are close friends with a few of them mark is close to xiumin, Johnny suho Chanyeol and sehun. Taeyong baekhyun and later kai. Everyone already knows about the close relationship between SHINee and Exo.

As an x-exol do i have the right to talk

Well exos are reserved people. I dont think they are close with other sm groups, other than a few members it's most likely nothing more than a sunbae hoobae or business relationship.

But exos also dont like to show off so even if they are close behind the scenes we may not know

Hmm..I wouldn't use reaction videos as a metric of closeness. Those reaction videos when they try and pair artists from other groups is random as hell and I always imagine that some artists may opt out of having people do them. (And there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind who reacts.)

I know you said no EXO-Ls but I'm also an NCTzen. I think it's a little bit of a false perception. Like I saw people complaining that other groups didn't do challenges/vids for EXO member's solos, but then I didn't see other members of EXO necessarily doing them either?

(I know why…I’m just making the point that maybe other people also don’t want to do that stuff or even that the EXO member said they didn’t want it. There seems almost like a menu of cb options to choose from for older artists.)

I can't speak for other SM groups, but what I do see is that NCT at least are both hardcore EXO fanboys and super giggly shy around them. They know all the dances and sing all the songs and reference them all the time and when they talk about members it is with great respect and awe. They seem like cool uncles.

Like Sungchan and Jungwoo both did the Peaches challenge with Kai and were really nervous.

Sunghcan: "Today I did the Peaches challenge with Kai sunbaenim
It was really nice how he kindly taught me directly ㅋㅋ
From today I’m living a successful life
That's right, I've been a fan since elementary school. He taught me the choreo personally in the waiting room. I really like Kai sunbaenim so it was kind of amazing but I was also nervous while doing it with him."

Or Suho and Doyoung's love fest..

There's a great sequence in NCT Dream's show 7Illin in the Dream, where the members are waiting for Baekhyun's new album to come out (Bambi) and then completely losing their shit over it. This is after singing and dancing to Candy. They're so cute.

Or when the Neos visited Sehun and Chanyeol on their video set and were so excited and wanting to please them by bringing donuts for them and the crew.

Or my favorite where they hype Baek on his first win, but he must know them, because he doesn't go directly to TY or Mark here.

Or here where they're singing his song to him and he says NCT fighting

That is a very long answer, I know, but I think sometimes, particularly with younger groups, they are a little awed by them to be friends. LOL.

I mean, the age gap here..Suho is 25 in this first shot while NCT Dream is 14-17.

I can only imagine this effect is further magnified for groups like aespa who didn't do any of the SMTown tours and things that at least NCT members had.

That said, I thought Johnny and Sehun are friends, as well as Baekhyun and Doyoung and Baekhyun and Taeyong.

(As I was looking through video clips - Suho and Jaehyun seem friendly. He seems to often go out of his way to hug and greet him in many clips, on and off air. I mean here he doesn't even acknowledge Jungwoo to get to Jaehyun. I mean, relatable. I love Jungwoo but would knock him over to get to Jaehyun too. It makes sense tho because at one point, Jaehyun was the maknae of NCT and the older NCT members still treat him that way..)

Last thought: knowing that EXO is rather private, there's probably lots going on we don't know? Some of the NCT members are too.

Sorry but exols did embarrassed themselve with some of the narratives they tried to pull yesterday.

Reaction vids started as an initiative by SHINee managers during DCM era. They even got people from outside SM to react to SHINee stuff. Other SM teams tried to do some of the similar things for other SM groups but never as much as SHINee.

On to the topic of friendship, Suho is close to Minho and Kai to Taemin since trainee days.

Watching people deny any friendship and support is funny when Suho said Minho was the first person who contacted him and congratulated him for his album.

People trying to police adult men friendship with each other generally gets a kick out of me.

As you said, they are reserved people, so It's hard to read them and easy to misinterpret their actions and relationships with others. Non-fans doubt even the friendship between the members, let alone with other groups.

I'm an exol, but im giving my opinion anyway

Quote from laleria

I only know about Baekhyun and Taeyong being friends: playing together, Baekhyun sending photos to TY from aquarium, doign songs together.

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and heckling Doyoung LOL

EXO has always given me the impression of group members who are just in a business relationship. But it is clear that they are friends with the Shinee members and some NCT members.

I am EXO-L, Shawol and SONE and from my perspective it looks like this.

(I hope everything will be understandable as my English is not very good)

I think SM separated EXO from the rest of the groups (especially the g-groups) in 2015-2016 when there were dating scandal from Krystal and Taeyeon. Before, they had tons of integrations with other SM idols. I have the impression that it was largely influenced by the behavior of the EXO-L themselves. Before 2015, EXO and SNSD had a lot of collaborations and integrations.

EXO has little integration with other SM artists, but when there are any official integrations, SM idols get hate for it, because "SM wants to promote another group through EXO".

Taeyeon saw the musical Suho and posted a photo of him on instagram, but had to remove it because she started getting death threats. Taeyeon often posts photos of other SM heroes and promotes their comeback on instagram, but I remember that only when she posts something related to EXO does she get hate.

Recently, SJ, on the tenth anniversary of EXO, greeted them and they were cheated for it.

SJ, on the 10th anniversary of EXO, sent them greetings and congratulations but they got hate for it.

When Karina appeared with Kai in the ad, it was cheated (EXO also had a lot of commercials with other SM artists during their debut, but there was no such hate on them from other SM fandoms.)

The MV reaction videos were the brainchild of SHINee and SHINee's managers. During the promotion, DCM asked other artists if they would record a reaction to their MV. Then some groups started doing this too.

Also it was with the tiktok challenges. HYO started doing this in SM. When she saw an artist (even when she just saw him in the SM building), she asked if he would dance with her. Then other groups started doing it too. a few LSM tiktokos started with HYO. The LSM asked for it, he agreed, and then several other groups did as well.

I think EXO has a lot of friends in SM, but often doesn't show it in public.

Xiumin and Changmin from TVXQ

They had a program together

Xiumin and Mark from NCT

Mark got headphones for his birthday from Xiumin. "Young & Free" was Xiumin's idea. He wanted a song with MARK.

Suho and KYUline

Suho and SHINee (lived together before his debut and was due to make his SHINee debut)

Sehun has a lot of friends, but we usually learn about it from others, e.g.

Lai Kuan-lin (Wanna One)

Johnny (Johnny is friends with all EXO members and was about to make his debut with them)

Shotaro (NCT) - Shotaro and Sehun were seen together in a restaurant and Sehun was surprised that Shotaro made his debut

Donghae (SJ)

Kai and The Padding Squad (Wanna One and Hotshot's Sungwoon, Shinee's Taemin, BTS 'Jimin, Vixx's Ravi and Hotshot's Timoteo).

Baekhyun and Heechul (SJ) and Taeyong (NCT)

Playing games together.

Chanyeol and Yaesung (SJ)

As there are SMTOWN concerts they often go together,

Yaesung asked Chanyeol to participate in his album (Confession)

D.O, Chen and Ryeowook (SJ)

Quote from byakuyav

EXO has always given me the impression of group members who are just in a business relationship. But it is clear that they are friends with the Shinee members and some NCT members.

This kind of opinion should be left in 2013. EXO got that kind of reputation among non fans (and haters) for idk which reason. MYbe because they are not up in our face about their friendships? I am not sure.

EXO members hang out together a lot outside of their group schedule. We get constant updates about that.

Quote from dummi

but somehow I just cant think of how EXO fits in.

It is called middle child behavior

Quote from quarkie

People think that about NCT too. I think it's just part of the "SM narrative" because I've also seen it about Red Velvet. I remember they were on some program a couple of years ago talking about how they still live together because they like each other's company and they're used to each other and people talking about how it was just a fake story to make them look close.

Yeah, RV members talked how they like living with each other because everyone respects each other boundaries and because they know each other so well. I think that is true friendship there, they don't have to be in your face to prove that they are friends.

Quote from sveznalica

This kind of opinion should be left in 2013. EXO got that kind of reputation among non fans (and haters) for idk which reason. MYbe because they are not up in our face about their friendships? I am not sure.

EXO members hang out together a lot outside of their group schedule. We get constant updates about that.

I mean, you're a fan, so that's normal. But the OP was asking non-fans' opinions. I just shared my impressions based on what I watched at award ceremonies and some programs.^^

Quote from byakuyav

I mean, you're a fan, so that's normal. But the OP was asking non-fans' opinions. I just shared my impressions based on what I watched at award ceremonies and some programs.^^

Yeah but it's time we leave that kind of opinions in 2013.

Quote from ISaidISaid

I feel like exo have been burnt by their fans esp kfans a lot so even if they’re BFFs they don’t bother sharing lol.

They are probably traumatized ngl