Before I start, this post is only me ranting about how much I appreciate Mark, not me clowning him or the opposite; claiming he's the best/putting down others.

I've been thinking about saying this for a long time but whenever Mark isn't on stage, I don't get any idol vibes from him. He's pretty awkward, has trouble explaining things from time to time, has some cute and very common verbal tics (repeating "like" at least 5-10 in one sentence, he has this habit in both English&korean), is embarrassing, his humor is like that one friend that just randomly says jokes that are so unfunny you still start laughing, he's so easy to tease (by both NCT&NCTzens) and he's perhaps the only idol that I've heard farts a lot lmfao that's on NCT for exposing the poor boy though.

The way he speaks and laughs makes me really feel like he's hardly ever putting up a persona, which is something we know most idols gotta do. Mark still seems to be keeping himself from swearing, etc but most of the time, he doesn't look like an idol trying to be relatable and funny while keeping a perfect image, but just a regular (huh) boy you could've had as your unfunny and chaotic classmate but that happens to be one hell of a talented idol. Of course this is also mainly thanks to him being Canadian (and young) but I've never felt as "close" (not literally) and related to an idol as much as Mark.

I'm sorry for not being done talking yet lmao but this also makes it look like he's almost always genuine with his words, and that being happy and energetic most of the time is also not a persona, but just him being himself. He seems to be enjoying every part of being an idol (except sasaengs & mistreatment obviously) and has never even hinted to being done with SM putting him in every unit and now SuperM.

I just love him for being such a flawed, awkward but happy kid and I hope that both NCTzens and SM staff will never ruin this for him.

TL;DR : Mark is full of "non-idol" traits (his speech patterns, his silly humor, the way he laughs at the silliest things in such a genuine way,...) and seems to be one of the most "raw" and real idols. It doesn't look like he has an image to maintain (if he did, he failed at it) and the way he's always so bright and excited seems to be just Mark being Mark, not any kind of persona.

Edit: a very dumb spelling mistake 💀