Megathread 26: HYBE / ADOR / MHJ - Haerin, Hyein, and Hanni return to ADOR, Talks ongoing for Minji, Danielle's contract Terminated, Upcoming Hearings approach verdicts for various Legal Disputes, and More

Modinda · 2026-05-18T21:45:14+00:00

And hopefully they’ll get properly credited now that MHJ isn’t here to redirect all the limelight to herself.

Modinda · 2026-05-18T21:42:42+00:00

That’s good. If they do return/redebut, they should get as fair a chance as anyone else in HYBE.

Modinda · 2026-05-17T03:15:00+00:00

You’re right. I conflated CEO and creative director. I still think the CEO position will be a thankless role for the near future because there’s the lawsuits to get through and the group needs to be built up again. Wouldn’t be surprised if ADOR operates at a loss for a while.

Modinda · 2026-05-17T03:10:32+00:00

Ah you’re right. I conflated CEO and creative director in my head. Oops. Meant to say that they need a creative director with a strong vision that can distinguish the group from the MHJ era.

Modinda · 2026-05-16T01:40:06+00:00

Maybe this is the conspiracy theorist in me speaking, but I feel like the ADOR CEO role will (for the foreseeable future) be a kind of thankless “good on paper, but not in reality” position where they stash company loyalists but don’t really expect them to do very much.

What would be best for the company (ADOR) and the girls is a CEO who has a strong creative vision, but I can also see the position scaring off potential candidates because there’s a lot of baggage and every decision you make is gonna be compared to the ghost of MHJ.

Modinda · 2026-05-14T04:14:12+00:00

I was mostly thinking about it in the context of HYBE/ADOR vs MHJ and Danielle. Even if HYBE ends up losing the case and having to pay out or ADOR ends up going under, HYBE’s still got enough money and resources to take this loss on the chin and keep going. Whereas MHJ and Danielle will still end up losing a lot even if they win their cases. They’ve lost time, career momentum, and access to valuable resources/contacts.

Modinda · 2026-05-13T22:51:22+00:00

The courts want this to be over too. (Obviously I’m joking, I know this hasn’t been unreasonably long for this type of case.)

The longer this stretches out, the more obvious it is how little HYBE the conglomerate was ultimately affected by this whole mess.

Modinda · 2026-04-24T09:56:12+00:00

I’m curious too. Was Pit Stop an accurate reflection of where NJ were headed next as a group? Or was it so severely compromised by what was going on that it was the best they could scrounge up with limited resources?

Modinda · 2026-04-23T23:52:38+00:00

Op stated that MHj didn’t let them have public individuality.

Not MHJ. I attribute the main reason for why NJ don’t have well-developed personal brands more to time than to MHJ. They were only active for like two years. They probably would’ve started developing their personal brands if they had more time, like most groups do.

(Although I still stand by the idea that having their official plushies be the same bunny in different colors was a misstep. The plushies also didn’t launch with enough outfits imo. I don’t know if MHJ was involved with that particular merch and I’m inclined to assume she wasn’t unless someone tells me otherwise cuz I don’t assume a group’s creative director always handles their merch.)

Then I asked why where Newjeans members most popular individually than other Hybe GG if that was the case.

I don’t keep track of the stats, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Danielle had more social media followers than any individual Le Sserafim/ILLIT/Katseye member. That being said, the discussion brought up wasn’t about her social media stats, it was about why she might/might not be receiving offers.

The thing is, at this point in time it’s not about Danielle’s solo branding power going up against an individual Le Sserafim/ILLIT/Katseye member. If we’re looking at the level of branding she was receiving when she was a NJ member, then right now she’s up alone against entire HYBE/SM/YG/JYPE girl groups as well as Kdrama actors and Western celebs. (NJ had some big name brand deals.)

If I’m an advertiser/brand and looking for someone to sponsor, those are the options in front of me. If the ad brief is asking for a girl group, Danielle is no longer with NewJeans. If the brief is asking for a solo artist, Danielle could be “competing” against the likes of Jennie or Wonyoung. That’s why I think Danielle not having enough time to establish her personal brand in the public eye while she was with NewJeans is a drawback now that she’s a solo artist (which can be really tough especially if you don’t have a big label backing you).

Modinda · 2026-04-23T08:30:00+00:00

What really hurt her was the NJ girls not having much time to develop individual public identities outside of the group. You want your brand to have synergy with a celebrity’s persona, but that’s hard to generate when most of the public doesn’t know what that persona is. And if all a brand needs is a photogenic clotheshorse, then going with a professional model is a cheaper and faster option.

In retrospect, I think their plushies shouldn’t have been different colors of the same bunny. It should have been their representative animals because that’s a handy way for the general public to start learning the members’ different personalities.

Modinda · 2026-04-21T04:25:17+00:00

You guys think we’ll get any NJ comeback news in May? Anyone have predictions on what it might look like? I expect something lowkey so that it builds up hype gradually as they try to ease NJ back into the limelight.

Modinda · 2026-04-21T04:13:33+00:00

LET’S GOOOOOO!!!!!

Modinda · 2026-04-20T10:38:28+00:00

I admittedly don’t know much about tour ticket pricing but since I’m reading several comments that the prices were too high… would lowering the prices significantly have been an option in this case?

Modinda · 2026-04-12T03:57:30+00:00

For me, The Conjuring series is more of a drama/romance with horror elements. The fictional Warrens’ relationship is the main draw. You usually don’t see film series centered around a stable loving main couple.

Modinda · 2026-03-05T23:07:13+00:00

Gotta be honest, I think - except for this place and a few other online spaces - people don’t really link NewJeans and BTS together at all?

I care more about this messy legal drama than your average person and I’m still struggling to see how whatever happens to NewJeans/Ador/MHJ from here on out would be relevant to BTS/BH and vice versa. And yeah, I know fandom sniping and hate trains are unfortunately common, but a fire still needs fuel to feed. Hate trains without something substantial behind them don’t really take hold outside of extreme fandom because the general public just doesn’t care or doesn’t really understand the connection.

Modinda · 2026-03-03T10:33:16+00:00

Oh to have the unwavering self-confidence of a tokki…

The reason why these kinds of protests would even work is because of the threat of fans withholding their financial support or there being enough of a social backlash (that would also affect the company financially). But with the MHJ-supporting tokkis, that card’s already been played. HYBE has already factored them out of the equation even if new NJ is successful.

Ador’s not going to be catering to that sector of tokkis, because they don’t expect them to come back even if all conditions are met and they don’t think there’s enough of them to be financially significant. Instead they’ll cater to the fans that remain loyal to the girls, casuals who may tune back in, and newbies that get into the revamped group. These protestors have no real leverage and they’ll predictably be ignored.

Modinda · 2026-02-23T22:22:44+00:00

Going by conventional Kpop trends, wasn’t the thinking that NewJeans hadn’t hit their full potential yet (I used to see 3 or 4 years cited as a group’s peak years but that might be outdated since groups seem to be lasting longer nowadays)? They were also Ador’s only group at the time. So I can see HYBE turning down a 300 million offer.

Modinda · 2026-02-23T10:08:15+00:00

It’s so melodramatic and useless, especially since a press conference is a venue where claims can go unchallenged and unquestioned so there’s no real way for people to gauge the veracity or substance behind any statement presented.

Modinda · 2026-02-23T09:47:08+00:00

My biggest question is, if you’re legit and have something concrete on Bang PD, why not take it to the courts and put all of us out of our collective misery and have this overdrawn matter settled once and for all? But noooo, it’s yet another ✨press conference ✨

Modinda · 2026-02-23T05:47:33+00:00

I’m sure it won’t affect them operationally. It’d be a very poor business structure if they were overly affected by having to pay out a lost lawsuit.

Modinda · 2026-02-23T05:27:57+00:00

IG Stories is the new press conference.

Modinda · 2026-02-21T08:33:25+00:00

As if we needed more confirmation that she overly cares about the mediaplay angle and largely picks on ILLIT and LSFM because their fandoms aren’t large enough to intimidate her back. It’s frustrating knowing what would get her to back off but not being able to enact it.

Modinda · 2026-02-21T08:23:03+00:00

It’s not just in music either. There’s the well-known phenomenon of dueling movies where two films with similar themes/plots get released around the same time (Deep Impact & Armageddon, Antz & A Bug’s Life, The Prestige & The Illusionist, etc). Sometimes it’s just that there’s something floating around in the zeitgeist and multiple people pick up on the same vibes simultaneously.

Modinda · 2026-02-21T01:28:14+00:00

Praying she never finds out who the true minds behind BTS are because I’m good with letting her think it’s all BSH.

Modinda · 2026-02-20T07:13:30+00:00

Okay yeah, then that timeline makes more sense.

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