Why are EXO’s fans so crazy?

So, as you might have noticed, SM Entertainments youngest creation EXO suffers from a severe case of fan madness. Like in every other fandom one comes across a variety of different ships, fanfiction, fanedits. But in most cases, fanworks stay within the boundaries of its own fandom. It’s just EXO’s fandom in particular which oversteps the border.

In Korea it’s gotten to the point where EXO is getting more (rather questionable) reputation on behalf of their outraging fans, who flock together in front of every possible. If you walk down a street in Korea and you ask random citizens whether they know EXO, it’s unlikely you’ll get a response right away. However if you mention their fandom, the craziness, the sasaengs, the overcrowded, stampede-like scenarios at airports/fansign events/ broadcasting facilities, one might raise a brow.

This could probably be one of the possible reasons why many Exotics become such devoted hardliners. Oppa is not doing well, there we will support him! We know this reaction very well already by other Fandoms such as ELFs and Sones. And this reaction is normal for every fan. What makes the difference is surely the severity of their actions.

In comparison to EXO’s fandom, ELFs and Sones (which are known to create quite a hassle from time to time) have learned how to keep a low profile and that outrageous fan-behavior (monstrosity) only leads to bad reputation and could eventually become a threat to Oppa’s or Unnie’s career.

And this very knowledge seems to be completely absent within some parts of the EXO fandom territory.

Me and my co-author B-Slap have often discussed this topic and we came to the conclusion that quite possibly some fans (young and comparatively new to K-Pop) have decided to stan (stalk) EXO the very second SM revealed the first teaser.

They might have thought something along the lines “Oh, SM is gonna debut a new group. I’ve already missed Oppa’s/Unnie’s debut. So this time I’m their fan right from the inception. I’m gonna be a real fan!”

You see, both of us are or have been part of big K-Pop fandoms and what we often see or hear is the great discussion about who’s a real fan and who’s not. Especially ELFs sometimes share radical points of view. “Promise to believe”, “Everlasting Friends”, “either you love all members or you’re not a real fan”, “vote for MAMA or you’re not a real fan”, stuff like this. And it’s certainly not fun to stan a group only to have to read some pretentious bullshit like that. So it’s easy to let go when the next big game is being presented on a silver platter.

Perhaps, those new kids on the big sapphire, pink or pearlescent sky blue blocks wanted to be such a steady and firm part of one fandom that they decided to focus on EXO just to claim that “they have been there right from the start” and can judge others for not being a fan as long and as fanatically as they’ve been.

Naturally, some of these kids saw some crazy crap happening in their fandom, thinking that’s what real fans do and thus decided to simply copy what they saw and intensify it as a matter of loyalty towards EXO (fanfiction, fanedits etc.). Only it isn’t.

Really, it’s perfectly understandable to stan a group comprising 12 young, talented and gorgeous looking young men (perfect boyfriend material). But not in this manner.

Written by P.Phantom