SEVENTEEN Fans Come To S.Coups’s Defense For Dancing Despite Injury That Exempted Him From Enlistment

SEVENTEEN leader S.Coups had a lot of scrutiny and criticism directed towards him when it was announced that he would be exempted from military service earlier this year due to the ACL injury he got in August 2023. This criticism came despite the fact that his injury was deemed a Grade 5 during physical examination, which automatically makes him exempt from enlistment regardless of his desire to or not to.

He was on hiatus from the group due to his injury for several months, and had to undergo surgery during his recovery process as well. It wasn’t until March that S.Coups was able to rejoin some of SEVENTEEN’s group activities, albeit at a limited amount so as not to risk reinjury.

However, a short clip from one of the group’s performances from late March has recently gained attention online for some reason. The clip itself isn’t included in the post, which was made on a Korean forum, but the screenshot appears to show S.Coups jumping high during a performance while the other members are just standing. It gives the appearance that the idol is able to jump and dance and move just fine, which has made some people begin criticizing him again for “avoiding” military enlistment.

Comments from some Korean netizens on the post are highly critical, and the original poster had scathing words for S.Coups too.

• “He claimed that his knee is so bad that he had to get exempted from the army, but he’s able to dance and jump like that at the concert? Seriously he probably sees citizens like f*ckers. I wonder who’s behind him There’s not a single article covering this, which is questionable, meanwhile, other idols get sworn at for serving public service.”

• “I thought that even if he went on stage during the next year, he would only stand and sing, but I was genuinely surprised.”
• “He can jump after surgery?????”
• “It’s selective pain!”
• “I’ll have to report it to the Ministry of Defense. I have a herniated disc and a bad knee, but I’ve been on active duty.”
• “The exemption from military service benefits should be re-examined.”
• “If you can jump this much, why can’t you do public service?”
• “I’m speechless. Why did the other kids go?”

However, when seeing the clip in full, it appears that the screenshot was taken maliciously out of context. S.Coups didn’t jump that high to begin with, and it turns out he was just a beat ahead of the other members in the choreography. Others shared that he actually took a lot of breaks and was careful for the majority of the performance, and that this clip was no indicative of the whole show.

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Many fans have come to his defense in this matter, reminding people that it was the military itself, and not S.Coups, that refused to let him enlist.

Some fans do think that he could have taken it a little easier due to the harsh criticism he’d already received for the military exemption, but it’s possible he was just so excited to be on stage again that he couldn’t help himself!

How do you feel about this situation?