idk if people just aren't familiar with chinese entertainment industry but
it is rly rly hard to be a famous actor in china
there's two pools: 1. rigorously trained and 2. originally famous. yes, jun was a child actor and has a lot of experience, but actors in china go through so much extensive selection and schooling...china has several big well-known and successful acting universities and they're incredibly difficult to get into. he doesn't really fall under the category of serious actor unless he really does get into the central academy of drama lol. on the other hand, he's not famous enough/doesn't have a big enough following to garner box offices.
the sort of roles available to jun are like the intouchables drama, net dramas, or small parts in bigger productions. yes it's possible for him to gain popularity off things like that, but these things rely on chance and serious company support. look, jun's mandarin is not 标准, he doesn't enunciate, he would get lots of criticism, he's... he could possibly achieve it but he would need to work so hard and pledis would have to seriously get their shit together and so much good fortune would have to befall him and whatever drama/movie he's cast in etc. i think him getting small gigs would still be great, but there's a difference between these smaller parts and "being a famous actor". for him to be a kyungsoo would require all the chips to fall in exactly the right ways...
that's sort of
maybe going off track from the topic at hand
but the idea that jun can be a famous actor in china whether or not he's in svt is just like...it's so far from consideration at this point...let's just try to get jun acting at all again before we start talking fame...

anyway i don't actually think the8 is following kris/lu/tao at ALL. it was extremely obvious that kris was not enjoying exo/SM before he left, plus they were always harassed a lot more by company and fans and had a lot more serious health concerns that were never addressed whereas pledis actually let (forced) the8 (to) sit out for a month to recover (jenny pointed out this is the bare minimum and pledis should not be praised for it but i was #relieved as an ex-smdicksucker). ultimately, i don't think xmh's headed in that direction. that's not the point. my point was that IF he did b3tray, i think xmh has way more space to expand and gain fans and commit to being a solo artist in china, which is a thought based on who xmh is, his abilities, and my observations of the chinese entertainment industry. i want him to get super popular if possible, i want him to gain tons and tons of fans through ip2, i don't care if as a result he's more popular than jun or the rest of svt combined in china, i don't care if it brings him a lot of gaein or akgae fans, i accept that as part of his journey...i like xmh enough and in specific enough ways that i am highly in support of him and his personal growth even if it's at detriment to others. he is, to me, not someone who needs other people. i see him as a single star, someone meant for solos, sort of in the way that i'm grateful cxk never ended up a TF boy bc i think while he's probably lonely, cxk definitely suits being a soloist and his 19 million fans attest to that. frankly, this the8 thing is something that all my jun fan friends disagree with me on, which i completely understand but in part it's why i tweeted those comments in the first place and why we're here at all...

just so we're clear, you aren't me. so it's really presumptuous of you to assume you would know how i would respond if jun left. if jun left it would go counter to half the things i love about him. in my mind, jun is unbearably 乖, he's fiercely committed to his own, and he's said it himself that he stayed in svt bc he loves the members, that's his M.O, that's at least part of why i love him. i love jun and in the specific ways that i support him and his personal growth, i don't think his development could ever be achieved at expense of others. i think that would cause him to implode, because i see him as someone whose growth is inherently tied to his ability to make connections with other people, because he doesn't thrive alone, because he doesn't like standing alone, because i cannot for the life of me ever see him as a soloist. i also explained that he would have a serious grind ahead of him if he wanted to go into acting instead of performing, and putting that together obviously it wouldn't make sense to me for him to go in the direction of b3traydoling. that's why i would be shocked and upset and would not support his future pursuits should he decide to leave svt mid-contract. whether or not that makes sense to you doesn't matter to me, but don't act like you can speak for me when i'm perfectly fine to think for myself, thanks.