Archive Panic: They have many TV and radio show appearances and seven reality shows before they established "Memoria" as their fixed show, almost twenty official music videos, over a hundred songs, many live performances and much more. There are six years of content to catch up after all.
"Rough" was the most downloaded song from 2016 on Gaon, yet it didn't win any song of the year award.
MAMA invited them to their award show just one time, that was their peak in 2016. Even then, they had to share their stage with another group.
Not just fans become confused during the award season when they don't win or are even nominated to best female dance group awards since they are known for their choreography and dancing, especially when girl groups weren't as dance-focused as them.
The most infamous one in the fandom was at 2019 Seoul Music Awards (one of the five main awards from South Korea). The group had digital points and voting numbers backing them up, but still didn't win a Bonsang. Fans then made a spreadsheet and tried to get a clarification, but nothing happened. In 2021, SMA went as far as deleting half of the in-app votes with a questionable justification and breaking any remaining motivation from the fandom.
Awesome Music: You will read in Korean forums the known praise "just trust and listen", even calling them "godjachingu". The music plays a big role in the wholesome image, now with its own page.
Broken Base: There are discussions about which song should be the title track every comeback, but it happened especially during "Summer Rain" and "Crossroads" eras. "Rainbow" bringing new fans and "Labyrinth" stages being more watched than the title track itself added fuel to the discussion.
The girls jokingly said "Me Gustas Tu" was filmed in Umji's grandmother's house, just following the script as their music videos follow a story. Some fans took it seriously to this day. Umji officially denied when asked about it on Weverse.
An article revealed that So Sungjin (Source Music's CEO) mortgaged his house for GFRIEND's debut, and after it, he borrowed money from his wife's family for the first comeback promising that "if not this time, it's over", but thankfully "Me Gustas Tu" was a hit. This led fans to say that "My Buddy", last track from Flower Bud (2015), was going to be their goodbye song after disbandment — but God Never Said That.
Internationally, and media outlets didn't help, it's believed that Eunha was a BigHit Entertainment trainee, but there isn't any proof of that. Only Sinb was confirmed since another BigHit trainee mentioned her as being known for her dancing skills during their training period.
Another misconception was created when they shared a funny story about going to the bathroom of a building near Source Music, they installed a lock just because the girls kept using it. People assumed it was BigHit Entertainment, but it was the Cosmopolitan building. Some of these misconceptions come from how close the companies used to operate even before the merger, Source Music used to move to BigHit's old buildings and their debut EP was even recorded there (as it can be seen in the album credits).
Epileptic Trees: The continuous storyline didn't have story books containing the lore until 2020, which led fans to theorize from the smallest details to give it a meaning. You can peek at their Wild Mass Guessing page for this matter.
As basically the only fair criticism they could receive during their early days, "all their songs sound the same" was something repeated incessantly. The group maintained a signature sound and started to branch out after established it, but this turned into a Flanderization of their identity, tarnishing the perception that people have of the group. No wonder the fans are fed up, so better not say anything remotely similar near them.
The group reached stardom under an unknown company, making it something that fans are very proud of. That's why being acquired by a bigger company could be bittersweet for many as their achievements and own work started to be dismissed from then on.
Fan Nickname: Some notable examples are Yennie, doll-rin or anything ending with -rin for Yerin and Omuji or Thumbelina for Umji.
Friendly Fandoms: A relationship between fandoms can change overnight and there are several segments of a fandom that will have different attitudes towards each other but here are some notable stories:
BTS. They are both groups from small companies that succeeded in the industry and worked together in a Smart Uniform CF, turning "Wednesday Family" in a running joke between the fandoms that also have shared moments such as the hashtags "#armysandbuddiespartyinjail" and "#DisownedByKpopStanTwtParty".
The fandom has a good relationship with Seventeen and Astro's fanbases, as the girls are close to these groups and have showed it publicly. Helped by Seventeen's Seungkwan being an unapologetic fan and Sinb and Astro's Moonbin being Childhood Friends. Their group of friends is called "98-line squad" (Moonbin, Seungkwan, Ungjae, Umji, Sinb and Suji).
When under the same company as TXT, fans expected interactions and since then have a good relationship. Helped by Soobin posting "Summer Rain" as song recommendation on their Weverse and Umji participating of a radio show with Taehyun and Huening Kai where they endearingly gushed about her.
Funny Moments: The group is known as beagle-dols for a reason, there are channels dedicated to them such as leadersowon. A highlight of 2020 was their discussion about people having "one butt or two butts" becoming viral between other idols.
The group received a lot of hate in their debut, good part of it was directly to the youngest member Umji, that during "Rough" promotions even started to hide her face behind her hair. Something similar happened to Yerin's crying during their first music show win, she was criticized because it looked "fake", making her trying to not cry in future occasions. When the members talk about the past, they always have a wistful tone even if it was their most successful eras.
"Stairs in the North" is a song that acknowledges it. The stairs is an analogy that they breathlessly climbed to the top (when their first comeback's success rocketed them to stardom and fame), and now even if they aren't at the top anymore (they stepped down), they can finally enjoy the climb at their own pace.
The falling accident that went viralnote They performed in a bug-infested, wet and slippery stage. The group was praised for their professionalism, but the unsafe stage that got them physically hurt and its safety issue is never addressed. is a sensitive topic that keep being brought up whenever they go. The group established themselves as one of the most known girl groups, which makes it looks purposely mean. The girls talked about being uncomfortable, cried while remembering it in broadcasts... To worsen the situation, in a 2020 interview, Yuju revealed that some people even asked her if they faked it.
Yuju (2017)¹: The falling itself isn't really painful. My thought is that getting up was definitely the right thing to do. When people compliment me for that, I wonder if I even deserve that praise anymore. I try to never forget my attitude from that day. It's an unforgettable stage.
I Knew It!: Fans speculated a lot about Source Music and BigHit's connections way before the acquisition. The CEOs are great friends, co-managed a group together in the past, and the companies openly supported each other on many occasions. There was also a theory that BTS, GFRIEND and Mamamoo always released a new album in order and never promoted them at the same time, fans speculated that it was an alliance between small labels.
LGBT Fanbase: Their songs are always played in Seoul's Pride Parade and the members always make appearances in "female idols loved by the Korean sapphic community" lists.
Memetic Mutation: GFRIEND's curse.note A good announcement happens every time that people badmouth the group. It happened so many times that it turned into a joke and buddies made a Yu-Gi-Oh!card◊.
Moment of Awesome: Sinb dancing in front of a burning tree in "Apple" and Yuju pole dancing in "Mago" even staying on top of a huge disco ball were big jaw dropping moments of 2020.
Narm Charm: Their early content regarding its low-budget, especially the styling. "Glass Bead" and "Me Gustas Tu" music videos specifically are said to look like school projects, but still very loved regardless of that. It was part of their journey to stardom and still a wholesome display of friendship between girls during their high school years.
The tone for the concept photos "Broken Room" and "Tilted" from Song of the Sirens (2020) are very unsettling in different ways as well as "Twisted" from Labyrinth (2020). The photos build the imagery for some of the songs from the respective albums like "Eye of the Storm", "Room of Mirrors" and "Labyrinth".
Some "Apple" stages used symbols like a reversed pentacle, fire (yes, fire), an eerie scenario transformation with Ominous Visual Glitch and others.
Their disbandment could be considered that since even non fans and journalists were caught by surprise. The contract being discussed wasn't a known information as it was still far away from their debut date and the schedule was going normally until the information about them leaving the company leaked, and the company cleared it.
The way their company treated their disbandment so unceremoniously. On top of that they had a series of issues with the refunds. First, they wanted to do it with in-app cash, after being called out and ask fans to fill a form, the personal data of some users was leaked. After trying to solve discretely, journalists picked up one more time and they finally apologized formally. To this day many couldn't find a way to get refunds due bank and currency issues and just gave up. Fans weren't expecting such an insensitive and stingy attitude from the company.
Fans also became very wary with HYBE due the acquisition being the newer change in the big picture and easier to blame. It didn't help that they never acknowledged the situation with the group leaving or the refunds. This way, withdrawing from any responsibility after fans were getting used to the idea of a "HYBE family" being pushed (some Korean fans had already booked tickets to the exhibition from the HYBE Insight Museum when the news broke out).
The Producer Thinks of Everything: They often use Foreshadowing in their performances anticipating what comes next, like their 2019 SBS Gayo stage called Une Journée Au Jardin hinting at Labyrinth (2020). An example of their long-term thinking is Yerin's birthday taken in consideration for the date in her cassette tape from "Time for the Moon Night", later it was revealed that the girls were Childhood Friends in their fictional story.
Values Dissonance: In January of 2021, Sowon uploaded some photos on Instagram and Weverse that featured her posing with a mannequin from Cafe Zino, which is a popular place in South Korea and the place where they filmed a VCR for their Comeback Show. Later fans noticed the mannequin was wearing a Nazi uniform, causing a firestorm on the internet. She deleted the photos, but the damage was done and the company released an apology. It wasn't well accepted internationally, but Koreans praised that they owned up for the mistake.
The group received strong backlash from the international side. The influx of misinformation being spread and added continuously on social media sites didn't help. After the statement, people were still upset and say that the apology was not good enough and did not adequately address the issue.
However, the Korean side believed it was a genuine accident and that Sowon, who had apologized about the issue, could just move on. Some even used the situation to share their rage about people overseas not treating Rising Sun flag imagery with the same importance.
and seven reality shows before they established "Memoria" as their fixed show, almost twenty official music videos, over a hundred songs, many live performances
