T.O.P Recent Interviews & Popularity

[RussianRoulette]

Not really my usual content here but this was something i've been following and wanted to give a shout out.
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After retiring from the industry and his group, and staying silent since his drug scandal in 2016, at the end of December Choi Seunghyun, aka T.O.P from Big Bang, has made his comeback to the industry as Thanos in season 2 of Squid Game.

While his return and role as Thanos has met with a lot of criticism in Korea, TOP's return has been accepted pretty warmly pretty much everywhere else on the planet with his character Thanos becoming the most popular character in all of season 2.

I honestly don't think I can even explain just how popular Thanos has been blowing up on international social media.

His dancing in the Mingle part of the show got Bang Bang Bang trending again, and his two dance moves in that scene started a whole dance challenge on Tiktok that Netflix had to later address and make an official squid game dance challenge based on it:

Spoiler

This is the dance challenge that Netflix tried to start:


Though this was the OG dance challenge choreo that started trending all over tiktok and instagram reels:
(I just picked whatever video showed up first as the example)

I also want to shout out really quick here that I am low-key laughing my ass off over the fact that out of all the Big Bang members T.O.P is the one who started a Tiktok dance challenge

Partially related to this, in Japan the Japanese version of Fantastic Baby started to get popular again around November-December when T.O.P's rap part in the song started trending again (partially due to Squid Game and partially due to Big Bang's MAMA performance this past awards season making their songs popular again, though only T.O.P's parts are blowing up).
(Also for the record, the dance challenge was created in April, I will be linking the original dance creator's video, but the dance grew up significantly at the end of the year.)

That dance challenge to the clip of T.O.P's rapping was literally so popular that it made Fantastic Baby the 7th most played song on Tiktok Japan in 2024:

Spoiler

Originally T.O.P was refusing to participate in any interviews and promotions of Squid Game season 2 in order to not let his controversial past affect the show, but due to international demand he has recently broken his silence and started to participate in promotions for the show.

He had his first interview in 11 years with the Korea Times in which he talked about getting the squid game role, his life, his goal to share music again, and his wish to one day have a peaceful less dramatic and stable life.

There was also a second interview that was netflix related that I keep seeing clips of everywhere but I can't find the whole video of it?
(Its the one where he is in this brown and red striped suit).

This seems to be an article version of that interview though for anyone who wishes to read it.

This is a twitter translation video I found, though i'm not sure if they are the original interview or not:

Spoiler

These past few days he also finally started to be interviews and promoted on Netflix's SNS's accounts. He is being promoted on Netflix's main accounts and a bunch of the country based Netflix accounts as well except for Netflix Korea.

It started with an introduction video posted on all the accounts and a video where they had him rank all of the most memorable Thanos moments:

They also changed the account's descriptions to be Thanos related, and you have the option to choose Thanos as your profile icon for Netflix now.
(For some side context: in the preview of the Squid Game icon drop it was just a few characters and Thanos wasn't included, but when they dropped the full Squid Game icon lineup on Netflix they included him and some other characters as well. Cause of this i'm not sure if they originally thought to include him or threw him in last minute cause of his popularity?)

Spoiler

And yesterday they dropped an additional 10 minute video of him talking and explaining all of the Thanos scenes in the series:


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His clothes for his interviews have been getting attention too. I stopped following Kpop fashion years ago but people are saying he's wearing a lot of Alexander Wang?
I'm not sure if a stylist is styling him or if he's styling himself but personally I just think it's nice how they've been been putting him in a lot of red to match the netflix logo red ‍♀

I was never really into Big Bang though many of my friends were. I always sort of felt bad for how rough T.O.P had it, you can tell how nervous he is in these interviews and how he's shaking like a leaf, so i'm happy he's getting getting tons of love and support internationally.

He seemed so nervous to take on the role of Thanos. I wonder if anyone on netflix predicted he would become the most famous character/person this season? I almost low-key feel like they should be sending him to do all the American promotions and stuff because Thanos has entirely overshadowed the front man and main character guy at this point, and I think T.O.P speaks some English so he might do well?

Anyway, congrats to T.O.P! I hope you continue to have a successful comeback (internationally at least) in the future!
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[kyom ✦ kyom ✦ pom]

THEY COULD NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU MY LOVE

 

[RussianRoulette]

THEY COULD NEVER MAKE ME HATE YOU MY LOVE

TOP GET BEHIND ME I WILL FIGHT THE KNETZ

 

[Polaris_Tae]

It's great to see!
The guy was dragged through the coals and cancelled for what was literally a personal crisis and a call for help ;-;
I'm glad to see he's doing better and participating in things he enjoys after such a long time out of the spotlight


He was always my favorite Big Bang member and the way he outright dropped [Redacted] after burning sun was great to see.
Throw the literal trash where they belong and don't be so wishy-washy about it like a certain other Big Bang member was.

 

[choively]

Oh so he was an IDOL??? *no idea* but he do looked like one.

 

[RussianRoulette]

Spoiler

I also want to shout out, I’m low-key swooning over him in that grown suit he looks so handsome there

He was always my favorite Big Bang member and the way he outright dropped [Redacted] after burning sun was great to see.
Throw the literal trash where they belong and don't be so wishy-washy about it like a certain other Big Bang member was.

What?

Also, TOP’s trending on TikTok in general, but something I’ve seen international fans praise him for is his visible distain for *him*. People have done fan compilations and apparently he had been giving *him* the stink eye and such for many years? Though someone told me *he* was not supposed to be in the group in the first place (someone else was?) so the members didn’t really like him in general?

 

[kyom ✦ kyom ✦ pom]

Spoiler

I also want to shout out, I’m low-key swooning over him in that grown suit he looks so handsome there

His dandy style has always been so sexy

What?

Also, TOP’s trending on TikTok in general, but something I’ve seen international fans praise him for is his visible distain for *him*. People have done fan compilations and apparently he had been giving *him* the stink eye and such for many years? Though someone told me *he* was not supposed to be in the group in the first place (someone else was?) so the members didn’t really like him in general?

TOP always hated him for a number of reasons. He found to be *him* to arrogant and disrespectful. Toward the end, I think he started seeing how slimy *he* was and almost always dodged supporting *his* businesses.

 

[Gyujin]

Though someone told me *he* was not supposed to be in the group in the first place (someone else was?) so the members didn’t really like him in general?

Hyunseung from Beast

 

[RussianRoulette]

His dandy style has always been so sexy

TOP always hated him for a number of reasons. He found to be *him* to arrogant and disrespectful. Toward the end, I think he started seeing how slimy *he* was and almost always dodged supporting *his* businesses.

1. His suits are iconic.
I miss the 2nd Gen kpop colorful suit trend. Someone bring it back, It was fun!

Slightly unrelated:

Spoiler

NCT's Haechan and Ateez's Jongho constantly get nagged by people on the internet for never showing skin. While other members have no issue not wearing a shirt or having exposed skin they are usually fully covered so they get criticized a lot for being prudish which I think is ridiculous. Just like how people advocate for female idols not to want to have skin exposed I think male kpop idols should have the choice whether or not to show skin as well.

A lot of people act like them never wanting to show skin is a new concept and this has never really been seen in kpop before which is why they're so weird? But looking at TOP, isn't he kind of the first idol to be conservative dressing like them? (Though Haechan and Jongho will wear shorts and short sleeves sometimes where TOP does not).

Back in 2nd and maybe even 3rd gen I feel like showing abs and stuff in kpop was not so common so people never really noticed if idols liked to wear a lot or not a lot of layers? But I feel like the sexy concept is so heavily pushed in this 4th/5th gen of kpop for boy groups now that abs are pretty much expected in every comeback and teaser by every member.

I feel bad for idols.

2. I never knew this, I feel like I am learning so much from all of you today so thank you

I am impressed by his judge of character then if even back then he was catching on that *he* was trash.