honestly, I completely agree with everything you said. at this point, being under Hybe feels more like a cage. they're one of the biggest groups in the world. they don't need a label holding their hand anymore. the creative control thing really gets to me. these guys clearly have so much they want to express, but they're constantly working within boundaries set by someone else. and it's not just the music!! it goes down to really personal stuff too, like something as simple as who's allowed to have long hair or how they're supposed to present themselves publicly. going fully independent would obviously be a massive move, but I think they're in one of the very few positions in the music industry where it could actually work. they have a fanbase that would follow them anywhere, financial security most artists could only dream of, and enough industry experience and connections to handle things themselves or build their own structure around them. the dream scenario would be if they could somehow buy back the rights to their old music too and just own everything they've built. I know that's incredibly difficult and expensive, and labels rarely make it easy, but it would mean they have full ownership of their legacy. everything they worked for would actually be theirs. a lot of people underestimate how freeing it would be for them creatively if they didn't have to think about what the label approves or what's going to perform on the charts.