steph

- kai is very humble. he once said he doesn’t think he ranks in the top 6 talented members in exo, and he never brags whenever he gets called a great dancer. watch how he reacts when exo wins awards and i think it’s obvious to anybody how much those awards mean to kai, how grateful he is towards everybody who helped him along the way and how humbly he accepts those awards. i feel like kai won’t let fame get to his head.
- he’s inspirational. i like to say: the best bias is the bias that makes you want to be better
- he used to be so uncomfortable with fanservice that every time he did some, you knew that it was genuine. i think kai is an extremely genuine person.
- he may not show his love for his fans through fanservice a lot but he shows it in other ways: when he was severely injured, he always pretended that the injury didn’t bother him… when the other members would try to help him off the stage or get up (because his back weakened him), he’d brush them off to stop them, saying “the fans are watching!” he didn’t want the fans to see him like that and worry.
- he thinks like a person 10 years older than he actually is. that’s why i love reading his quotes, interviews, and messages. he may not /say/ much but his writing shows that he’s a deep thinker. he thinks a lot. of the message he’s written, this is probably one of my favorites: http://exok-trans.tumblr.com/post/71799193414/from-exo-k-140101-kai-it-is-exo-kai his words are very moving to me?? ;~;
- “every day is a good day to better yourself” — he practices what he says. he’s always trying to improve himself not only in dancing, but in all areas of being an idol — whether it’s singing, mcing, beatboxing, or just speaking more. he’s not a singer; he’s a rapper and a dancer and used to barely get a line in exo’s songs but, still, he tried to get better in singing and even tried singing live on radio. it’s not something you’d expect a non-main vocal member of a group would do ;u; i don’t care if he’s not actually the “world’s best singer.” he still tries and he still challenges himself. he makes me really proud because of that.
- i think he has a very interesting philosophy: talent is meaningless without hard work; hard work is meaningless without passion. you have to /want/ to put hard work into honing your talent for your talent to get you anywhere; you can’t just rely on talent alone. he believes that if you had put in as many hours as he did practicing his dance, you would be as good as him. but only a person who loves dancing as much as he does, would put in as many hours as he did practicing his dance. http://kairisma.tumblr.com/post/76915547382 i guess this is what makes him really interesting to me (plus the fact that he's a thinker)

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part 2: http://ask.fm/aerism/answer/115686271665

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- he has so much mental strength!! i love how he always has a pretty clear vision on his life, his dreams, and his goals. “if you forget why you started something, then it becomes a stress to you. so that’s why, i try to remember why i started singing and dancing. i try to think, “i started it because of this and that,” and try to get a hold of my mind.” when there are times i feel like giving up, i remember: “i’d rather bend than break.”
- he works so hard TT___TT
- he’s a dreamer, but he’s not a naive dreamer. in an interview, he was asked, when you climb to the top of the mountain, what do you see? kai answered, “when i climb to the top of the mountain, i’ll see the next mountain. and the next mountain after that.”
- since he’s such a big dreamer, it really makes me so proud when i see him realizing his dreams. i think what makes stanning kai so exciting for me is watching him get closer and closer to realizing his dream step by step.
- he has a very soft heart, a heart that is easily touched ;~; http://kairisma.tumblr.com/post/88242892202 http://kairisma.tumblr.com/post/73271521019
- 131114 melon music awards — he prayed and cried harder for his best friends in shinee to win artist of the year than for himself and exo to win song of the year. he was so happy for shinee you would’ve thought that he had won artist of year himself. he has a really good heart ;~~~;
- i think he’s pretty open-minded. he understands and appreciates how hard it was for chinaline to get used to korean food, and on hello counselor, a guy talked about how he disliked how his girlfriend farts and burps freely, but kai said he didn’t think it was a problem at all.
- watching him dance is like watching magic happen *___* the first and only time i saw him perform in person, it was like discovering who kai is all over again. he’s just so magical ;___;
- HE’S SO ADORABLE ALKDFDSLKJ;ADFKA;SDF (especially when he’s embarrassed haha)
- when i look at pictures or watch videos of him, i just feel so happy. as if happiness were some sort of warm golden liquid that’s filling up my heart and bubbling over the edge. this is how kai makes me feel, warm bubbly happiness. and pride, lots of pride. no other idol makes or has made me feel this way. when he smiles, or when he gets that bright light in his eyes, all i want is for him to be that happy, always. as a fan, if i can make him happy by supporting him, then that’s all the reason i need to be a kai stan. so i guess this is the main reason why he is my ultimate bias ;u;

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this is not an exhaustive list!! i’m sure that there are more haha

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hmmmmm i think i would sooner call chanyeol and chen counterparts than chen and baekhyun too, but i don’t think chanyeol and chen are that similar either. you’re right that they’re both positive people (or at least they try to be), and i think this is their greatest similarity. i wouldn’t say chanyeol is funny without trying or that his jokes don’t leave a bad taste in the mouth because he’s definitely made poor jokes before. they’re both positive, not in their humor or jokes, but in the way they carry themselves/the way they choose to live their lives. chen is more effortlessly/subconsciously positive, whereas chanyeol actively works on being more positive (that’s his philosophy: he likes to be happy and “laugh like an idiot” even when things are hard — but this is what also earns him his reputation of being fake, which chen notably doesn’t have, exactly for this reason), although that’s not to say he doesn’t already have a naturally positive disposition.

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they’re both bright, enthusiastic people. chen strikes me as somebody who’s very eager to learn. remember in exo showtime, when he learned how to be a barista? he was such a happy student haha. and he put so much effort into learning how to pronounce mandarin correctly and how to increase his mandarin listening comprehension (sobs ;u;). chanyeol is an eager learner too: he gives 100% effort into everything he does. it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know how to do something; he’ll still try.

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going back to what i said about chanyeol’s philosophy, i think that’s another difference between him and chen. chen is more carefree and laid-back than chanyeol is. a little happy go lucky. whereas chanyeol is more purposeful in the decisions he makes and the paths he takes in life. that’s the essence of his happy virus philosophy — life throws him curveballs and most other people would feel down but, gdi, park chanyeol is still going to smile. he doesn’t let chance control his life; he controls it himself. i think this also explains why he has more ambition than chen does.

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i think they both like to take care of people too. i’ve always found chen to be really compassionate but chanyeol is too, but chen more so than chanyeol though. kai and sehun have mentioned before that chanyeol has taken really good care of them. i especially remember laws of the jungle: there was only one female in the entire cast and in one episode, she expressed to the other cast members that she felt uncomfortable when they all treated her like a guy. all the other men didn’t understand, but chanyeol was the one who stepped in and defended her ;u; although i can’t recall a specific moment right now, i seem to remember chen defending people like this in interviews before… eager to care, both of them. (continued: http://ask.fm/aerism/answer/115387698609)

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and related to this, they’re both comfortable being in the leader position, although i think chanyeol is more proactive about it (see: “captain chanyeol” directing everybody in the gymnastics game at happy camp) while chen is just as willing to be in the backseat.

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the largest difference between chanyeol and chen is, i think, their sensitivity to other people. it’s different kinds of sensitivities. i’ve already talked about how chen is sensitive to other people’s feelings. chanyeol, on the other hand, is highly sensitive to other people’s criticism. i think that chanyeol is the type of person who obsessively monitors comments about him on the internet to see what people think of him. remember the series of instagram posts that he deleted just because he made an english spelling mistake and i-fans kept correcting him in the comments? remember how quickly deflated he was in the bowling episode of showtime when he sucked at bowling, even as he was trying to make a joke out of his fail? chanyeol is both at his best and at his worst when he’s in a room full of people. best, because he’s the most comfortable when he’s not alone — he loves being with other people; he’s always saying how he doesn’t like to sleep/travel/etc alone. but also the worst because if those people around him doesn’t approve of him in some way, he’d feel discouraged really really really fast. i think chanyeol gets discouraged very easily in these “little” ways. (tangent: for the big things, like becoming an idol and following his dreams, he isn’t. he finds a way to make the best of the situation he’s given. ex: when he entered sm he wanted to be in a band like trax; when he was told he wasn’t going to be in a band, he simply found something else he was good at — rapping — rather than quit sm.) i don’t think chen is like this. i think chen is fine either alone or with other people; he doesn’t crave other people’s presence like chanyeol does.

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(so is chanyeol similar to baek in this respect? yeah, a little, but not too much. i don’t think baek craves other people’s presence like chanyeol does, although he does “need” feedback (so to speak) from other people. to me, chanyeol actually loves being around other people just for the sake of being around other people. baek, not necessarily. you’ll often hear that baekhyun was “born to be an entertainer/performer” — i think baekhyun likes to be /in front of/ people; he gets that feedback from the audience. also, i think there are very slight and subtle differences between how chanyeol and baek feeds off of other people’s reactions. for example, think of chanyeol in any competition. it’s very likely for chanyeol to be extremely competitive, imo. think of the oven radio episode where the rappers had a rap battle — chanyeol wasn’t good at freestyling but he still has pride in being a rapper. he knows he’s good at rapping. compare that with baek in the singing competition. (continued: http://ask.fm/aerism/answer/115387724465)

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baek’s role is a singer, as chanyeol’s role is a rapper, but baek doesn’t have as much… confidence? i don’t think chanyeol would have wanted to give up before he had even tried. in fact, isn’t that what people complain about chanyeol the most — the fact that he tries too hard?)

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earlier i said that chanyeol wanted other people’s approval for the sake of simplicity, but i think it’s much more than that. he just wants other people to be happy. when other people are happy, then he’s happier. i think that’s why some of his jokes tend to be self-deprecating. sehun once said that chanyeol likes to make other people laugh so much that sometimes he’d go as far as hurting himself to coax that laugh out of them. chanyeol is somebody who’s eager to please, no matter what “role” he is given — think about how chanyeol fits the “role” that’s given to him in exo (as an idol and hyung) vs in laws of the jungle (as a maknae) vs in roommate (as one of the youngest and a hoobae to a senior in the music industry, shin sungwoo). i mean, as idols, of course all of exo change themselves in some way to fit their roles, but i think chen would not change himself /as much/ to fit other people’s needs. i think the way chen carries himself automatically makes people feel good just by being around him, whereas, again, chanyeol isn’t a natural like that and has to work on it a bit. this all goes back again to chenyeol being both positive people.

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jfc why is this so long lmao sorry this turned more into chanyeol discussion than chenyeol… can you tell my headcanon for chanyeol is way more developed than my headcanon for chen haha. also of course for sake of comparison there’s a bit of generalization here; there are (probably) exceptions to the examples i’ve provided and, as before, this is not meant to be comprehensive in any way!

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urrrrrgh i hope we don’t get an extra long final battle arc like the deicide chapters lol. i have noticed that kubo has picked up the pacing — battles that would have lasted 10 chapters in the ss or hueco mundo arc now take 4 chapters (i may be exaggerating but you get the idea). for the final battle of this arc, idk… i feel like it could be really long again just because — if i remember correctly — kubo said that this is supposed to be the last arc of the entire series. if that’s true, kubo has a lot of loose ends to tie up. that means the final battle is probably going to be extra long (to out-do the other final battles; this is the /final/ final battle, you don't want it to be anticlimatic) and it can be extra long for story-telling/back stories/explanation to, like i said, tie up all the loose ends. for example, doesn’t aizen have to be brought back into the story somehow lol… (idk maybe not). and halibel and grimmjow too! i don't mind all the tying up of loose ends to finish the entire series, but i hope the final battle itself won't be long.

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i’m sure ishida is still a “good guy,” although if there’s one thing that this series has shown is that almost everybody has good and bad sides to them. ishida’s friendship is very, very important to ichigo — i think that’s why ishida’s “betrayal” gets almost as much emphasis as rukia’s “betrayal” (when she willingly goes back to soul society with byakuya and renji and tells ichigo to don’t come after her). the last chapter showed it was raining when ichigo found out ishida had gone to the quincy’s side! and as always the rain, in bleach, is a signal that: *flashing lights* THIS IS AN IMPORTANT SCENE, ICHIGO IS IN EMOTIONAL TURMOIL *flashing lights.* ichigo and ishida’s friendship has been built up so much over the series, i doubt that this is the way that their friendship would end (or that their friendship will end at all).

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i think it was implied in one of the other chapters that ishida had ulterior motives to joining the quincy? he wanted to get revenge for his mother’s death, who died during yhwach's killing spree of the “impure” quincies? i’m not exactly sure how ishida plans on getting revenge for his mother’s death by joining the quincy king but he’s a smart guy, i’m sure he has a plan lol. i got the impression that ishida joined yhwach in order to get on the inside and then planned on betraying yhwach from there — but the plan was thwarted (a little?) when yhwach performed that ceremony that carved a letter on ishida’s soul, thereby binding ishida to yhwach and preventing any betrayal whatsoever??? i’m still so confused as to why yhwach chose to name ishida his successor. but anyway, i’m sure that by the end of the arc ishida’s motives and plans will come to light and ichigo will be like “well why didn’t you just tell me this earlier, i could’ve helped you, idiot!” and ishida will push up his glasses indignantly, “well you never asked, and you’re the real idiot around here…!!” haha

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well i can tell you which one i picked out of the three haha. i picked cbkai!

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the main reason why i picked cbkai is because i like cbkai’s photos a lot. toffeemilk and studio j’s photos aren’t as good imo. cbkai has photos from the beginning of mama era and they’re still pretty high quality. toffeemilk and studio j’s photos may be good now but they weren’t as good in mama era. (there’s some charm to see how a fansite’s photography improves over time as you flip through a photobook, though, i guess.) my pet peeve about studio j is that she tends to lighten her pictures a lot and it makes kai and her pictures look so washed out. on the other hand, cbkai’s photos are usually very high quality, very clear, and very vibrant.

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as for the entire cbkai set? well, it’s not the best kai photobook i’ve ever seen. there are some things i like about it and some things i dislike. overall i think it met expectations, but it didn’t amaze and went above and beyond like, say, a mr. destiny/hyper beat/esprit photobook would. not that i was expecting it to, anyway, lol.

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the gifts: like i said, the main reason why i bought cbkai is because i like how vibrant her photos are, so i was a little disappointed to see that for some reason, the photos printed a little darker on the postcards and the fan than how they appear on the computer screen. it’s not a big deal though; they’re still very good photos. i love the poster (although maybe that’s just because it’s technically a kaixing pic — even though yixing is cropped out haha — and i’m a kaixing shipper lol). i feel like there could have been slightly more attention to detail? for example, cbkai used a sticker on the tin case rather than printing the “stunning scene” logo directly onto the tin case (this is how most fansites do it though). the “stunning scene” logo uses a purple galaxy pattern for the font on the back of the postcards and photocards; i wonder why cbkai didn’t carry over the same pattern for the logo on the photobook, which uses a grungy texture pattern instead (and which i don’t like as much).

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the photobook: the cover design is very simple: dark gray and the logo. only if you look really closely you can see that there’s some paint splatter design behind the logo. i like that the photobook comes with a book jacket because then i don’t need to worry about scratches — but the negative side to having the book jacket is that it’s the book jacket that has the silver foil and not the photobook cover itself lol. another curious thing about the cover is that the front cover and the back cover look exactly the same; i feel like there was some wasted opportunity there. (continued: http://ask.fm/aerism/answer/115265503409)

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