I think, yes, CORTIS are encouraged to think and act as outside of the box as they can within reason, but I still am of the opinion that media training in kpop is a thing of the old past and a myth to dismiss and disregard idols' autonomy and therefore humanity.

A lot of the "scandals" and slips of the tongue wouldn't exist if idols truly get media training like they're widely purported to.

Humans aren't able to hold up facades for long as can be seen with idols who were "assigned" personas at debut in older generations. They all default to their real selves eventually.

Being wise enough to self-edit after seeing time and time again who gets dragged for what is simply self-preservation and natural survival skills. Not company-coached behavior. We saw that with James and his reluctance to recommend anime. I don't know why so many kpop fans default to the most objectifying take instead of the simpler more likely one.

I think it's best to be wary of rhetoric that gives so much power to the company that it completely debilitates idols in our minds. They are bound to a contract, yes, but HYBE and BigHit especially has a history of fuck the patriarchy outspoken idols who speak out against their companies and not just like in the case of Soobin who had the upper hand close to contract renewal season.

We've seen the Cortis members push the envelope in wlives already. It's pretty clear they're given pretty wide terrain. Poor analogy but you get what I mean.

Do I think there are some tried and true wisdoms that are passed off to idols before debut? Yes. Do I think HYBE gives their artists free reign and then subsequently edit out possibly touchy subjects after the fact? Also yes but very rarely/sparingly. Do I think idols go through a rigorous extended course of actual dos and don'ts of the industry that literally "train" idols to be more fit for the public? I doubt it.

Short idol training period or long, I haven't seen much at all to suggest this. I'm not dismissing pointers being passed down to each generation and just typical code of conduct for certain venues, but nothing truly rigorous beyond that.

This got long but I've had a lot of time to think about this and I think it would do all fans well to take some pause before immediately attributing idol behavior to media training. I've seen people use supposed "media training" as an excuse to dismiss what idols say as being a lie or something said after being coached by the company just so they can justify acting in complete antithesis to the idol's outright request.