yestoday | Entries tagged with artist: hyolyn

At last, this grueling journey has come to an end. It's probably evident by now that I absolutely did not end up getting up early last Thursday to watch the final live (because this post would've been out ages ago if I did). I tried my best to avoid spoilers on Twitter until I watched it, though. I was semi-successful.

(I did find it amusing how, not one, not two, but three of these groups simultaneously dropped their official comeback announcements that very midnight immediately after the final livestream closed. Not only that, Kep1er's and LOONA's release dates coincidentally happened to be the same.)

Well, I must admit that, in the end, I did not end up watching the full thing. I took one look at asianembed.io, saw the whopping three hours and four minutes timestamp, closed my eyes, exhaled a long and exhausted sigh, and dipped without a second going by. I'm sorry, Mnet, I am not watching all that.

(Okay, this not completely the truth or, rather, it's misleading: I did decide immediately, when I laid eyes on the length, that I will not be watching the full episode. However, I did not click away close the tab instantly, like how the previous paragraph appeared to imply. I played the first thirty minutes or so while I finished up my daily Genshin commissions and spent away my accumulated resin, and then I stopped watching it, deciding it was about time I start writing what I can for this so that I can have one less task off my shoulders. By the way, absolutely nothing worth of note happened in those thirty whole minutes of the episode, anyway—to no one's surprise, of course.)

So, here we are.

First off, here are the track rankings first, as I promised last time.

From what I'm hearing, this final album can be divided evenly into two categories: noise music and non-noise music.
↳ The noise half consisting of:

Hyolyn - Waka Boom (My Way) [feat. LEE YOUNGJI]
Kep1er - The Girls (Can't turn me down)
LOONA - Pose

↳ The remainder—which spans across a variety of different genres—are:

WJSN - Aura ; the chillstep electronica enchantment
VIVIZ - Red Sun! ; the whimsical bossa nova-type
Brave Girls - Whistle ; the nostalgic tropical house mix

As a known equal enjoyer of both categories, this separation does not make the individual ranking any easier. It does, however, declare a constituent for which I can more easily quantify my partialities to each song. In other words, there's a lot going on in my mental rubric when reviewing music that would be a waste of time to attempt to explain, but this helps me even out in deciding which criteria set is in needed when I bother to dissect a tune.

(I also just thought it was an interesting observation because it very much emphasized each artists' energy line and highlighted their primary style… except LOONA. No, sorry, even after So What and PTT (Paint the Town), I still do not associate them with noise music. My internal attachment to their early songs is still too vigorous, even after all this time.)

Anyway, I'm quite keen on… all of these songs! This is a very satisfactory tracklist. I was thoroughly pleased upon my first listen. I went through the album fully a total of two times before the final episode, so any streaming votes I naturally casted were even for all of them. (I'm still a neutralist—despite the behavior I may or may not have displayed throughout my BTOB rampage during the ungodly Kingdom phase. That was not me; that was my evil twin… That was the Melody demon wedged in my brain clawing its way to the surface. He is resting peacefully throughout Queendom, though, so this is all of my unaligned ground in real.) After the episode aired, though, I allowed myself to listen freely. That was when I began my intricate buildup of these scattering tenets.

Purely based off my own attraction to the song—my music taste and my bias towards the overarching vibe—the ranking would look like this:

1. Whistle
2. The Girls (Can't turn me down)
3. Aura
4. Waka Boom (My Way) [feat. LEE YOUNGJI]
5. Red Sun!
6. Pose

But, to do a proper ranking, we'll have to take a deeper look into the technicalities and decentralize the personal feelings. While, most of the time, I'll find that my own bias reflects my thoughts on the song's overall quality, there will indeed be some differences. That will be obvious very soon here, in the official song ranking of the Queendom 2 final album.

Final (Music)

1. Whistle. I got jumpscared in the most unexpected way when I first heard this LMAO… are you telling me the first like didn't sound exactly like "WE ALL LIE…" I heard the Sky Caste theme for a split second, and I jumped. Anyway, that's not the point, sorry; that was just a jocular anecdote. Although I will admit that this song didn't stand out to me from the get-go (besides my Sky Castle war flashback), it grew on my exponentially each time I listened to it after. The more details I noticed and the more vibes I absorbed, the more vibrant this entire tune flared in my brain.

I've always been a tropical house lover; I'm sorry for being a basic bitch, but I have to admit that the summery EDM wave in K-Pop a few years ago was utterly my shit. What ultimately sealed the deal for me was the evident incorporation of legato strings in Eunji's rap after the first chorus and the bridge. Now, that is not something you often hear with the splashy pops of tropical house percussion. For the lack of an English word coming to my mind: 不愧是 Brave Brothers! I had no doubt there was going to be something genius in here the moment I heard "Brave Sound" at the beginning, but what I was expecting was not this. I think that was what made it particularly special and fit into the grandiose mold of a Queendom finale. With the violin in action, the entire atmosphere seemed to click into place for me. I see this as something to be played over SISTAR's Lonely music video.

Also, out of the six songs here, I think this one coincided most with the sound of the original artist, and I appreciated that! While that factor does not have any direct affect on these rankings, I think it did indirectly sway me a touch, as I had a nostalgic basis to draw upon. I feel like I'm back in 2017… I can imagine I'm on nugu twt… and this being my meaningfully-obscure-song-of-the-month that I would fancam the fuck out of on Twitter.

Hooks: 9
Production: 9.5
Longevity: 9
Bias: 10
RATING: 9.4

2. The Girls (Can't turn me down). Girls. Girls. Girls. Girls. Alright: I know what you're thinking, but JUST HEAR ME OUT. So, this is a rugged and turbulent song, and it sounds objectively awful… at first. When you really focus in on it, though, I swear it's not as shitty as its surfaces noises (and this statement isn't even the result of Stockholm Syndrome or brainwash—I came to this conclusion on, approximately, my third listen. Usually, if a song turn out to be a grower, it takes plenty more listens than that for the effect to begin taking root in me).

I feel like the laser beam/electrified plucking sounds weren't really necessary at the drop immediately. I would've rather the drop slide directly into the "Can't turn me doooo-ow-ow-ow… ow-ow-ooowowowown," and then, maybe, have the zappy laser beams come in after as a post-chorus breakdown—but whatever; it worked for the second chorus with the rhythmic rapping over it ("GOTTA KEP ONE!" [Mark Lee vibing GIF]). That makes up for it enough for my happiness. God, I know many people hate this one, but that is genuinely the only major complaint I have about it. Like, the vocal game was just fine in this, too, but it simply had the misfortune of letting the flourish it had be overshadowed by the more than distracting instrumentals. I loved the hooks; the melodies all sounded purposeful, that they were actually inserted at their positions with foresight. The underscores of brass in the first verse also struck a chord just right in my brain! It reminded me of the iconic loop in Red Velvet's RBB (Really Bad Boy).

While, yes, my bias points definitely racked this song up at least a solid two places (seeing how close some of the final ratings in following are), I will thoroughly justify my stance til the end! This is actually something I can see myself listening to regularly. Come on, guys, it's not that bad… These girls were born into the noise music generation; let's cut them some slack here—especially when this is good noise music.

Hooks: 9
Production: 8
Longevity: 8.5
Bias: 9.5
RATING: 8.75

3. Red Sun!. It's safe to say this was the most distinct out of the six, being the only one that didn't contain heavy elements of EDM. Bearing a near identical title (and now that I think about it, they kind of exhibit a somewhat similar sound, as well) to Brave Girls' previous round performance, save an exclamation mark, Red Sun! is a fresh and eccentric topping for this tracklist. It's a wonderful oasis of sunshine indie, storybook afternoons among British gardens, and whimsical tea parties in the midst of all this seriousness, isn't it?

And I loved this fantastical tang; it's something that they—as VIVIZ—haven't done yet, but they know it all too well from their earlier days. It was a surprise to hear this from them but also didn't feel unfamiliar at all. I can see this as the girls trying to keep in touch with their orchestral GFRIEND origins but not without the addition of a twist to unique to their new name—a twist that reminds me an awful lot of several pieces from IU's Modern Times album, which have clearly drawn inspiration from many movements of world jazz and bits of warm Caribbean chord progressions. Hmm… I think I'd like to compare Red Sun! to Havana, in particular.

See, after all this praise, I just hate to admit that this simply isn't my favorite genre, even back when I forced myself to consume massive amounts of Lee Jieun's music (for culture). I swear I love it dearly and will never skip it if it comes on. This may not be my most ideal sound but I still hold it deeply close to my heart. Plus, Eunha's high notes make me feel floaty and free, and the vocals are unmatched—so dreamy.

Hooks: 9
Production: 9
Longevity: 8.5
Bias: 8.25
RATING: 8.7

4. Aura. Okay, so this has to arguably the most basic song here—by that, I mean it sounds like it could be a typical title track for them and doesn't in particular hold the flair of grandeur I would expect for a Queendom finale—but the thing is: that doesn't undermine this song at all. While I'm typing all this, I haven't checked out the stages themselves yet (as to not let that have any influence on my opinions here), but I can see this being the framework of a wonderful performance. It has the storytelling laced in it naturally. I have high hopes for WJSN's final stage… I hope it takes full advantage of what this song is providing for them.

Aura is a rather tamed song, to be honest—almost ambient at parts if not for the crystal vocals piercing through and the soft drive of a marching snare. It uses the same whistling effect as Brave Girls' Whistle, but that supplement is, unfortunately, conceivably less requisite in this song. (I almost wish it wasn't inserted at all, so the deep and misty immersion wouldn't be shattered by a conspicuous high tone that calls for your attention.) I liked the hook very much: it was mysterious and alluring. I want to say it was, above all, "cosmic," but that isn't precisely true. More than spacey—despite the cosmological dialogue in courtesy of Seola at the beginning—I was gathering a stronger dark fairytale vibe. Let's say these keywords, and see if they resonate with anyone else's initial interpretation of this song: a curse, a kingdom, a monarchy, a myth, a secret spell, a chance.

The thing is, I know this should be my type of song, but there's just something inconceivable that offsets it from my cherished prime spot; I just can't put my finger on it. There was something imperfect about the chorus to my ears. Maybe I wanted it to have a harder drop and, therefore, a more amplified rush at the song's highlight?

Hooks: 8.5
Production: 8
Longevity: 8
Bias: 9
RATING: 8.4

5. Waka Boom (My Way) [feat. LEE YOUNGJI]. Getting this off my chest first: that chuckle at the beginning was so hot. Other than that, this being the first song I heard impressed me a lot. This song is still energetic through and through—that's without a doubt. It's the kind that seems hilariously messy but conveys clearly that the disorder is the joy of it all: it catalyzes your brain juices and triggers a node that lets your limbs run loose. This genre was my ultimate shit at one point; back in my earlier K-Poppie days, this type of pure electrolyte fueled my life essence.

Hence, I'm just as shocked that it would end up this low on the list, but I think I'm able to pinpoint why this time… I hate saying it like this, because I don't want to seem like I'm targeting her or blaming her alone, but Youngji's rap ruined the whole flow for me. Like, I was so into it! The bass drum was swelling, the referee whistle was going at it, Hyolyn was belting, but then, the wonderful foliage of meshed sounds faded back for a sudden change in tone. It wasn't unpleasant or anything. just offsetting, and I feel that cutting back had a negative impact on the carnival hype it had been building up.

I like it for its obtrusiveness and its hardy effect, truly, but the composition has its weaker points and is definitely not the best work to sprout from this subgenre of my beloved disorientingly-noisy music. All in all, though, it has what it needs to make its moment in a competition! I think Hyolyn made a wise choice to close off her Queendom 2 run with a bang as prominent as this.

Hooks: 8
Production: 8.5
Longevity: 8
Bias: 8.5
RATING: 8.25

6. Pose. Oh my god, listen, I actually love the instrumental. This could been a whole banger if they took the arrangement down a different route. The hooks just weren't doing it… Actually, were there even full-on hooks? The yelling-for-a-chorus trick feels like an overused joke nowadays, and this statement isn't even directed specifically to this song. These power-chants can nestle just fine into some anthems, but I'm getting the impression that producers have been getting too carefree with throwing this formula around; it's simply not one that works for every hype tune out there.
Interestingly enough, Pose was also noticeably rap-heavy. Inherently, that isn't bad, of course, but it's just so unlike them—LOONA has never done this before. I can't say I'm not a little downtrodden. I can make a fairly backed inference that this was definitely not what the people were expecting—or wanting—from them. I sure as hell wasn't looking for something like this in them. I'm a little bewildered as to why they decided to fumble their bag like this. LOONA have phenomenal voices: a much stronger vocal game worthy of being exhibited—especially for this final round—than what this style allowed them to show! I wish they took advantage of their intrinsic astral elegance rather than conforming to the 4th Gen. hip-hop masses. It felt as if it was deliberately restricting their potential.

To sum it up, this song held the energy of a more toned down modern-age NCT 127 title track. Perhaps that prompts its potential as a grower (as NCT songs always are)… but for now—although I don't despise it—it's a solid last place out of these six, for me. It simply does not seem to suit LOONA and their esteemed abilities.

Hooks: 8
Production: 9
Longevity: 7
Bias: 8
RATING: 8

Now for the stages—yes, finally. I began writing the above song reviews on June 5th. It is currently June 9th, a week after the final aired, and I am finally taking my first watch of all of the stages. I was going to watch them yesterday, but I ended up "accidentally" pulling an all-nighter due to binge reading this gargantuan, life-altering, heart-shattering VIXX fic (that you may have seen me mention in some previous entries… Perhaps, we'll hear more about my more-than-a-week-long sleep deprived journey through this magnificent 257k-word maelstrom of heartache and headache, in further depth on a future 记录 post, or something). Anyway, the point is that I was in no way the sane headspace to think properly, much less evaluate performances, and I didn't want the experience of my first time witnessing them to be dimmed by an anesthetizing sleepy haze.

Final (Performances)

1. VIVIZ. The last minute solidified my decision. I need to give immense credit to the creativity gone into the usage of the umbrella props—especially at the part with the 3x2 display where dancers opened and closed them and then rotated positions to reveal SinB! That was wonderful to my brain—like, I felt a sense of happiness akin to if I was a baby being played peek-a-boo to. And I thought that was going to be the peak of it, but a stupendous wave of euphoria crashed on me at the bridge (bubbles!) and continued to come in tides after. When Eunha struck that killing note, I nearly cried for whatever mysterious reason. The concept was lovely, and the bits of acting that went with it were endearing. The quaint choreography was a fresh sight, as well. It was all so, so cute. Above all, it stood out amongst the others for being so bright and airy and quaint!

2. Kep1er. Hikaru is truly unbeatable. But, besides her (because I could go on forever about her, and I need to distract myself quickly like this), there were several components of this that stacked up to determine its final placing here, and I will to go through them. First: they made really good use of the stage, the spread and transitions from place to place opportune. Two: creative prop utilization again! Particularly, I took note of Chaehyun being lifted up and turned on the chair and Yujin and Bahiyyih walking on them as they were placed. Three: the raw energy was unmatched—perhaps it has something to do with this group being the youngest here and therefore still brimming with unreleased passion to prove themselves to the world, but the expressions and fiery vocals were top notch. Four: Hikaru (but we know this) and Youngeun—both of them were the powerhouse cells that gripped attention to this performance.

To be honest, it was kind of saddening how immediately noticeably this stage was a step up from the previous two (WJSN and Hyolyn, no offense) while I was skipping through the full episode trying to watch these in order since Mnet doesn't have it on YouTube somehow.

3. LOONA. Okay. For a hot moment, it was very difficult for me to see anything else besides Hyejoo until I mentally shook myself awake… Jesus Christ, she is so hot. I really liked the dance break, and I liked the ending pose twist—that was cute. Now that I think about it, I surprisingly don't have much to say, yet my gut is solid on their placement here. Was I that swayed by their attractiveness…? No, there's a reason. While the bulk of the choreography itself didn't appeal to me all that much, each of them held impeccable charisma here and are—as we all already know—undeniably magnificent dancers. I also think that, out of the groups that used the elevating platform trick (which was… every group), their incorporation had the mightiest effect.

On an unrelated note, though, he camerawork somehow made it feel like a Kingdom or Road to Kingdom stage… I think it had something to do with the diagonal view at Heejin and Jinsoul's first rap and it panning to the other side of the stage for Hyunjin's part. I don't know, but something about that motion gave me uncanny déjà vu to a boy group stage—perhaps ATEEZ's Wonderland (Symphony No.9 "From The Wonderland)" performance?

4. Brave Girls. I couldn't keep a smile from my face. This, of course, wasn't nearly as impressive choreographically as some (LOONpler) and prop-wise in others (VIVIZ), but oh dear, did it have its charms. What really piqued my interest about this was the surprise dance break! That was not in the streaming song, and I knew immediately due to the sheer amount of times I listened to it already. The sudden twist to a Latin-inspired sound was definitely compelling. Accompanied by the lace they magically whipped out, it made a riveting interlude. I fell in love with Yuna right then and there when she snatched the fabric out of the air. The proceeding dance in the shimmery golden confetti was also a delight! That may have been my favorite part, alongside Minyoung's wondrous vocals, of course.

5. WJSN. Ah… They get bonus points for the choreography; that was mesmerizing, but not much else about this performance was a stunner. As it turns out, I was wrong: there wasn't a phenomenal telling storybook embedded under this song, after all—the performance was just as subdued as the tune itself. It's a pity, because I really saw a lot of potential in what this could have been. Back to the positives, though: the dance was exceptional at more points than I can designate. I also enjoyed the backdrops; they were mystical and ethereal and fitting.

6. Hyolyn. I'm not sure how this happened—maybe, she's getting worn out by now, too, and running out of idea fuel. Maybe, she's resigned, knowing that Mnet won't let her win anyway. Whatever the case, this was simply… underwhelming? I didn't not enjoy it, obviously, but I've never felt this bored by a Hyolyn stage. It had its highlights, yes. Although this stunt has been done multiple times before, I think that's the highest elevation I've ever seen a Kingdom/Queendom act fall from. That, alone, is impressive (and crazily courageous of her), yes. Ironically, Lee Youngji's entrance and verse was my favorite section of the performance, despite it being my least favorite part in the song itself. She brought the extra flavor and zest this stage desperately needed by now. Still, even with the supplementary force of Youngji's dancing and rapping, it wasn't enough to breathe the captivation and resplendence that the earlier Hyolyn stages were known for into this one. The ending was clever, though—I caught the reference of the setting coming full circle to her tropically spirited performance in the first round.

I never noticed how much shorter these could get if I got my thoughts on the song itself away first… Then again, maybe I'm just tired of writing by now because I had half of these stage reviews written down (and freshly out of my initial thoughts, as I jotted it down right after I watched these), but the page reloaded and none of it saved. Starting from scratch wasn't even as bad as the feeling of my heart dropping to my stomach at that initial moment of realization, but whatever. At least I have one more lesson under my belt on saving regularly on any material created on a computer.

Last but not least, for the final time, here are my mom's and sister's list: a conclusion to end this entry saga.

Mom:

1. Brave Girls
2. Hyolyn
3. LOONA
4. Kep1er
5. WJSN
6. VIVIZ

Sister:

1. Brave Girls
2. VIVIZ
3. LOONA
4. Kep1er
5. Hyolyn
6. WJSN

「 — opening + round one — round two — round three: part one — round three: part two — final — 」

✦ Current Music: HELLO GLOOM - Falling
✦ Current Watch: 그냥인터뷰 이창섭ㅣ쌍꺼풀 수술 후,이틀만에 나타나 처음 보인 행동은?

Alright, alright, let's go, let's go. I'm fully caught up on this show for once in my life, and I intend on doing the same with these reviews. No foreword because I haven't slept adequately for two nights and counting after picking up this new 200k word VIXX fic that I'm only a fifth of the way done with.

On this topic, Starlights are batshit insane good writers; it literally drives me nuts. This is in which I find can a new VIXX fic that changes my fucking life quite credibly every month—at the very least. No, because, at this point, I need to devise a masterplan to recruit the select Pulitzer Prize VIXX authors into the Melody fandom and start helping revive the forsaken BTOB tag. We're starving here… Please… VIXX and BTOB are, like, besties… Please do this for them; we need you so bad… It's barren as fuck over here.

Ahem. Back to the girls. I'll keep it short.

Round Three: Part Two

1. LOONA. I knew they would have their redemption arc on my rankings. These outfits are gorgeous; it's the perfect display of simple elegance. And Yeojin! Yeojin, my sweet angel, stole the spotlight. I understood their intention of wanting to keep close to the original song, but I do wish that the first chorus would've had more of a special twist to it. (The second chorus sounded wonderful, though.) As for the setup, the props were well-designed and distinct, the background selections were mystical. Of course, I can't forget about their unrivaled synchronization, even including the backup dancers. The spiderweb part is also something that definitely shouldn't go undiscussed: while it could've had a smoother transition, it was enchanting nonetheless and expanded eloquently on the theme.

Okay, but on a personal note, maybe there was a bit of emotional lean involved in my decision, as well… I love this song and have many baby Orbit memories with it, and hearing it on here just made me so sentimental. These girls have seriously come so far… I love them so much. (I suddenly just had a fleeting image of Hi High being performed here and got a head rush.)

2. WJSN. I saw highly mixed reviews of this on Twitter. Honestly, I thought it was great! The camerawork did them dirty, though; I would have liked to see the curtain fall head on. The beginning was singularly amazing—I was actually wondering when a Queendom act would pull a more unique take on utilizing the environment, such as the synced backdrop choreography they displayed here. Although the stunts were thrilling and fantastic, the sheer amount of them cramped into one performance did make it a bit overwhelming. Then again, that isn't bad for this performance, I believe: the explosive spectacle could be what they were going for; after all, this was meant to be a bit of a showbiz extravaganza. I thought it was, overall, an enjoyable performance, a grand sight to behold. And, oh, it was nice to see my beloved Bona back on stage again.

3. Brave Girls. This was really nice. The Cinderella concept was clever—starting from the bottom and reaching the top through pure dedication and endurance, and now, they're here putting on a ball for the biggest idol competition show on Mnet. It's not just that; they put their all into this, and the underlying message was palpable. This was them pouring their hearts and souls out, not knowing whether it would be a farewell song or not. It was sincere and heart-grippingly sweet. I also think this performance aligned with the "FANtastic" concept the best out of the contenders. The VCRs themselves took up too much of the total timeframe for my liking, and for that, I nearly bumped them down to 4th place. Nearly. But then, I decided they deserved bonus points for the raw vocal category. The harmonization at the end easily shifted them up at least one solid position on this list.

4. Hyolyn. She is so good at setting up a scene, bringing an atmosphere, immersing the audience in her show. See, this is a brand new concept we haven't seen from any Queendom or Kingdom performance yet! That's what I like to see! (Okay, maybe I am a little bit influenced by my adoration for the personally-declared ingenuity of AOA's original Good Luck concept.) Hyerim's cameo was incredibly touching, especially after seeing her fangirl journey and how her aspirations led her to the dream she's living now. But for the performance, it added a heartwarming factor, which left this performance tender, but not exciting, per se. And, yes, this is the lowest Hyolyn has even been on my rankings… Though, I can't even say I feel disappointed in her this round or anything, either, since I in fact loved this. It simply did not compare to some others nor exceed her previous performances.

5. Kep1er. There wasn't anything phenomenal in this, to be fair. The gigantic wings were a nice touch, however. Dayeon's voice took me by surprise, too—she can seriously do everything. Of course, this wouldn't be level anywhere near the original's splendor in any department, but I deem it an acceptable remake, at least. I just feel like they could have done a more meaningful song for fans—like Shine, or maybe even O.O.O (if that wouldn't be awkward)! I know a fan recommended the song, but it still felt out of place among the other performances. This arguably coincided with the "FANtastic" theme the least out of everything this round.

6. VIVIZ. This feels harsh, but it simply did not bring anything to the table. There's one thing I have to note first: their vocal game was noticeably weaker here… what happened, besties? I wasn't sure if it was a mic issue or something, because they're typically on the game in that field. It's alright, though. That's not the centerpiece of my judgment. Eunha had a nice high note, anyway. The reasoning for their track selection was sweet, it really was: this will the first time Na.Vs/Buddies see their debut performed in person. The concept and format were nothing unseen before, though, and it lacked a true punch. The cheerleading stunts were cool, and the dance break was great. I just really have no meaningful impression of any of it after it ended. Either way, they worked hard! I'm sure this was a momentous sensation—to hear fans' real-time cheer on their re-debut—and I'm really happy they went with this.

I feel like I was meaner here than usual… I didn't mean to, I swear! Maybe, it's because I'm sleepy as hell, and Genshin Impact is still under maintenance (my Yelan is so close, yet so far). Can I make it up to them by streaming… all of their finale songs an equal amount of times so that it actually doesn't benefit any group and is pointless to actually do, yet I feel the need to contribute in some way or form so this guilt doesn't swallow me whole. I love them all, I promise!

Now, the big question is whether I should wake up early to catch the final episode live or not… I have yet to decide. I better make that decision soon, though.

Once again, here are my mom's and sister's!

Mom:

1. WJSN
2. Brave Girls
3. Kep1er
4. LOONA
5. Hyolyn
6. VIVIZ

Sister:

1. Brave Girls
2. WJSN
3. Hyolyn
4. LOONA
5. Kep1er
6. VIVIZ

「 — opening + round one — round two — round three: part one — round three: part two — final — 」

✦ Current Music: CIX - 20
✦ Current Watch: [IU's Palette] SEVENTEENIU are friends now (With SEVENTEEN) Ep.12

The much too delayed vocal and dance unit rankings—from yours truly—have arrived.

One foreword (also serving as a life update), and then I'll get to it: I just graduated—today, this afternoon. It was the worst thing ever. I hated the process; I found it pointless and unnecessarily lengthy. I get it's tradition; I get it's ceremonial, but what I don't get was how overhyped the event itself was… I felt nothing. I felt nothing besides the desire to not want to be there at that moment, but alas! I don't mean to intentionally sound like a cynical, unsociable emoboy, but I am resolved to think that there were no constituents of that whole event that made it truly worth going to—for two hours, in 85 degrees weather—besides, perhaps, sating my parents with some awkward photos.

Here, I proceed to unnecessary rambling that has nothing to do with the topic at hand

So, okay, it could have been worse, but I can list an extensive index of factors that made it an unenjoyable experience: having to sit in the football field for the whole afternoon, being cooked under a blazing sun that just so happened to be the hottest of this whole week, all while covered in the ugly gown and more layers of formal attire (what's the point of wearing that if we're draped in a fancy trash bag, anyway?), constantly having to readjust my cap because that thing would try to escape me any time the most minuscule breeze passed by, listening to the pretentious student council girl present her long shit poem (I need to point out this really specific thing that irked me from it. One part went something along the lines of "But it wasn't // But it's not". I hope you can see how uncomfortable this made me. What about parallelism? What about form? The second line was clearly set up to be "But it isn't", following the contraction of the previous line's "wasn't". That had me bothered for the entire rest of the time she spoke, up until I succumbed to the daze of the raking heat again), listening to the other slightly-less-pretentious student council girl give a speech on this school's accomplishments, and—perhaps the worst of it all—I missed the BTOB KCON Chicago Premiere livestream.

We technically weren't allowed to bring our phones, but it's not like they did security checks or anything. The issue was that my dress pants did not have pockets and neither did my suit. (They both have faux pockets, and that made me so mad… god, you sewed on an opening already, why not just make it a real? If this design doesn't include pockets, then don't put on the damn fake ones! What was the purpose!) In the end, I shoved my phone in my underwear, and it worked out very well. I hope Ilhoon and Hyojin in my phone case enjoyed the pleasant view of my cock they had during the whole march to the stadium and the waiting hours.

If we weren't supposed to bring our phones, we most definitely weren't allowed to be listening to music. Guess who slipped an AirPod in his left ear halfway through the march. My sneaky, slippery ass; that's right. I originally was not brave enough to pull something like that until I saw a gay looking person in the line across from me clearly have one in. (I'm, like, certain they're gay, and not because of a functioning gaydar, but because I swear they were the person with an Interactive Introverts jacket yesterday at graduation practice.) Anyway, since I knew I probably wouldn't be able to reach for my phone anytime soon when I got to the stadium, I punched shuffle on BTOB's entire discography, and I let it roll. That music channeling to the one side of my ear was probably the only thing keeping me alive in that field for the following two scorching hours. My mom later told me that the whole fam could see me swaying and vibing all the way from their nosebleed seat at the very, very edge of the bleachers. I was not aware I was that conspicuous. Sorry, the Beats' Japanese songs were playing, and I had no sense of what was going on around me by that time.

Prior to me spacing out, though, was the nervous fretting over my walk up to the front for my diploma and the handshakes with four old men in a row. My cap was already loose because of my tiny head, and it kept nearly flying off whenever a gust of wind approached even when I was sitting in my seat. (In fact, it did fall off as soon as I stood up.) I was fearing for my life I was going to lose it as soon as I stepped up there, in front of the not-superabundant, but still quite plentiful amount of seniors and the crowd of their families. Another thing I was anxious about was my AirPod getting discovered. I originally intended to take it out when it was time for me to walk up, but One Sip was playing, and I couldn't just stop it. (Where are my fellow Christmas album lovers in the middle of May!) I thought that AirPod was pretty well hidden behind a chunk of my hair though, so it would probably be fine, right? Despite my want to write a funny plot twist right now, it actually went just fine. I thought I heard an ostentatiously loud kazoo when my name was called, only to later find out my cousins brought an airhorn. (They also told me they almost screamed "Genshin master." I am ceaselessly glad they did not.) By the time I got back to my seat, it was Beautiful to Me playing. And that's the story of how I was listening to One Sip while receiving my diploma.

Oh, also, when I sat down, I managed to take a quick peak at my phone. The BTOB KCON Chicago Premiere livestream on YouTube started twenty minutes ago. Gritting my teeth, I coolly closed my phone and stuffed it back in my underwear. By the time I was free, the stream was archived private. Let me in?!

On a completely unrelated note to anything mentioned, I am on day 15 of both my Duolingo and Drops streaks. I wanted to pick these back up to review a bit for a Korean placement assessment, as I'm hoping to test out of the elementary class (and only the elementary class). Besides that, I figured I'd just see how long I can keep it going this time. My previous streak record on Drops was 46 days. I doubt I'll beat that, but who knows.

Now that that's done and over, we're back to the topic. This half-round of Queendom 2 culminated to be the most difficult performances to rank, so far. I suppose this isn't an exceptional circumstance, as there were only three to choose from for each, so each placing held a lot more impact. But still, I encountered some of the most dilemmatic verdicts I've had to decide for throughout this season, and I still don't feel I have enough justification for some of these choices… so, please, go easy on me; I'm insecure about my rankings for this one, as well.

For the record, I made all of my final decisions before viewing the official results. I feel this is a needed disclaimer, this time, before reading onwards because… well.

Round Three: Part One - Vocal

1. 우주를 품은 은하 (Galaxy That Embraces the Cosmic); VIVIZ and WJSN. Let's start with the vocals themselves, then move on to the other components of this stage. It was Yeonjung's voice that took the cake for this one. Each part was well-distributed among the girls. I think choosing Eunha for the killing "네가 좋아" of the bridge was an ingenious move; she's a fairy (and, I've never made this connection until now, but Eunha embodies Jieun's aura perfectly. Maybe that's why they so unhesitatingly decided on her). Yeonjung unarguably outshined; oh, she was scintillating. She, alone, tied the final knot to render this unbeatable for me. I love what Eunha said: "Her voice just explodes like a refreshing soda"—because those power sustains! That high note! I saw fireworks burst into bouquets before me. While Soobin had the weakest prominence, she still made her solo section memorable with her elegance (her flip of her dress in the wind!). I know she had some trouble with the high key during preparations, but her practice paid off, and she managed to keep her own space afloat between these two great scene-stealers. All three of them had a boldly outlined significance to the performance. (Soobin was on thin ice—the boldness of the ink was fading—but she still managed to maintain her relevancy. I love you, Soobin!)

As for the other elements I wanted to note: I love this song—perhaps that had a subconscious influence on my ultimate preference towards this. This song has began reminding me of Sunyoul, due to the sheer amount of times I've listened to his cover, so when I was watching the episode and heard them settling on this song, I impulsively perked up. When they performed it, I was even more overjoyed to hear they were able to replicate the same, exact uplifting energy of the original song! I also thought the stage setup was very attractive. Yeonjung on the swing, the pinwheels, Eunha between the blooming trees… they're so pretty. (I later found out that this was not a universal opinion, though—for example, my mom thought it was "太花了，太粉了"。And, okay, I respect that, too.)

2. 33; Hyolyn and Brave Girls. Choosing between this and 우주를 품은 은하 was the hardest thing I've done in my life. This is a performance to prove that simplicity has the potential to be just as powerful as any incorporated degree of complexity. The storytelling was clear, even with minimalist effects—even with just the two of them. (This is essentially the opposite of 우주를 품은 은하's stage brandishing—which is ironic, considering it was these two stages that caused the most strenuous quandary for me.)

Their voices go surprisingly well together, despite the contrasting timbres. Minyoung's throat clearly still wasn't in the best condition and was therefore unable to reach her maximum potential during the stage—which is a shame, but she pulled it off alright. I imagine the high note was what would've been the most worrying moment, but she hit it! During the harmonization, Hyolyn kept her on track, and mostly everything went discernibly smoothly. It was all very sweet, from Hyolyn encouraging her throughout the recording phase to Hyolyn guiding her through the duet. This makes it sound like Hyolyn was hard carrying this entire stage, but I swear I appreciated Minyoung's performance, as well—especially knowing that she was fucked over with COVID-19 not even that long ago. Anyway, the final hug was what got me; it was so precious and so intimate. It's so raw… yet so mellow and warm. They poured their entire youths into it; you could hear in Hyolyn's voice how personal this was. There was just so much emotion packed into this, and of course, part of it was thanks to Jiyoung's original lyrics, but their arrangement—and execution of it—was tremendously powerful. Hyolyn knew what she was doing when setting this up. I love Hyolyn because she always as a set vision on what she wants and will work her ass off to produce her visualized, unshakable result. If it wasn't clear to the viewers already, Exy's words spilled the precis: "I think that's why she wanted to perform with someone her age. They were looking back at each other's youth."

3. 해와 달 (Sun and Moon); LOONA and Kep1er. The harmonization was the glory act of this performance, truly. God, it was beautiful. For so many people, it was arranged wonderfully; their blend is amazing. Chaehyun's vocal control and technique is seriously phenomenal for her age. Unfortunately, I could not remember much else from this performance after it ended. Don't get me wrong, it had its emotional effect on me; everyone was crying, and I understood why. It was the radiant pureness of it all. I was near moved to tears by the end, as well. (Youngeun's serendipitous tear drop will go down in history. Actually, Youngeun in this, in general, will. I had always associated her with the dance position, and yet, she proved to be a perfect match for this job. She is the exemplar of an all-rounder.) This also ended up enabling me go and watch multiple EXO Planet stages of this song, a couple days later—for old times' sake. Many feelings were felt.

Round Three: Part One - Dance

1. 퀸이 나 (Queen Is Me); Brave Girls and LOONA. If there's anything consistent about me, I happen to always be a sucker for camera filter effects. Resultantly, this was gripping to my brainworms from the get-go. It was reminiscent of Brave Girls' MVSK stage—the neo noir, the femme fatale—and you know how badly down I was for that performance. Anyway, Hyejoo, I love you. She was remarkable at expressing what this song represented, and her visuals were indescribably immaculate for a concept like this. Eunji was inexplicably the cornerstone of all this, typing every portion together with her talent. Everyone just looked so good. (Though, I do think they fucked up Yves's makeup a bit—she looked more like a flower fairy than a sexy nocturnal cat—but that's besides the point.)

Perhaps this one gained particular favor because it was so different from the other two: it's more focused on slow, controlled movements and sleek charm rather than the wilder appeal of KA-BOOM! and Purr. This type of graceful and fluent dance is arduous to get fully synchronized, simply due to the lack of sharp movements and a defined beat integrated into each move, as every component slides into each other like one fluid motion; hence, the angles and tilts of your limbs are extra emphasized here, and any small deviation will appear to be a major obtrusion. Even with an increased difficulty on that part, they looked really uniform and organized. Monika's tiger coaching was fruitful, indeed.

2. Ex-it; Hyolyn and WJSN. The compatibility of these three shocked me. Perhaps the former-labelmate-synergy kicked in when Hyolyn stepped foot back into Starship, because that harmony was unmatched. The blend of the props and outfits with the background was thought out with clever consideration. The neon accents reminded me of TO1's Hard Carry from Road To Kingdom! I need to say something, though… Yeoreum definitely stole the spotlight in this—yes, even from Hyolyn. Yeoreum, my little rapper… my fierce, little slayer who devoured. Eunseo deserved more screen time, though. I'm so proud and impressed of the Wujus for transitioning to this unfamiliar concept so well; I imagine after having done predominantly elegant and bubbly dances for six years and suddenly switching up to something intense and aggressive like this must be a trip. Of course, I don't doubt their dancing ability to pull off a new style of choreography, but being able to emanate the right energy and set a brand new type of atmosphere is something that comes less easily without a solid timespan of practice and adjusting. They did great, though! The final product still ended up just fine! There were no particular straying vibes; nothing felt forced or ostentatiously out of place from them. They can't come perfect, but oh, did I love Yeoreum's feisty energy. They were totally giving La Chica's daughters. Also, for the record, this is my favorite song out of the three originals for the dance units.

3. KeV1Z; VIVIZ and Kep1er. Okay, listen. This was great. Xiaoting ate. Hikaru has some of the best expression mastery I've ever seen for a rookie, and that finesse was so effectively utilized. Eunbi's energy was unparalleled; she understood the assignment. Umji was fantastic, too, despite her tribulations. The part with her and Dayeon was satisfactorily synchronized. This was just all just fine, but somehow, I did not feel hyped at all after watching it. This feels unfair, even to me, as I can't actually come up with an actual negative attribute to justify their placing at this final position. I simply was not feeling it—no matter how unprincipled this sounds. Maybe they were sabotaged by the choice of song…

So, yeah, I was quite surprised when the real results turned out to be identical as my own. Like, I swear I didn't look at it beforehand and let it influence me! But, then again, it's not like that was extremely unlikely. There's plenty less combinations for a three by three arrangement than the original six by six.

(This whole review also took an extremely long time to type, for some reason. It took four whole sittings across the span of three days. I don't want to think I'm losing motivation already, but I might just be hitting some kind of… um, thinking slump? It's not even a writing slump—I have ideas, and I want to write—it's just that I cannot remember any of the words or phrases I want to use half of the time, and it frustrates me to hell and back.)

Just like last time, here are my mom's and my sister's rankings for each, because why not?

Mom:

Vocal

1. 33; Hyolyn and Brave Girls
2. 해와 달 (Sun and Moon); LOONA and Kep1er

3. 우주를 품은 은하 (Galaxy That Embraces the Cosmic); VIVIZ and WJSN

Dance

1. Ex-it; Hyolyn and WJSN.
2. KeV1Z; VIVIZ and Kep1er.
3. 퀸이 나 (Queen Is Me); Brave Girls and LOONA.

Sister:

Vocal

1. 33; Hyolyn and Brave Girls
2. 우주를 품은 은하 (Galaxy That Embraces the Cosmic); VIVIZ and WJSN
3. 해와 달 (Sun and Moon); LOONA and Kep1er

Dance

1. 퀸이 나 (Queen Is Me); Brave Girls and LOONA.
2. Ex-it; Hyolyn and WJSN.
3. KeV1Z; VIVIZ and Kep1er.

「 — opening + round one — round two — round three: part one — round three: part two — final — 」

✦ Current Music: B.I X Soulja Boy - BTBT (feat. DeVita)
✦ Current Watch: GFRIEND's MIC in BONGCHUN - Glass Bead, Me Gustats Tu, Rough, TRUST, NAVILLERA,

Sorry, I unfortunately can't be normal and get straight to the point. I have to be annoying and give a several-paragraph foreword before doing anything. I do apologize; I cannot shut up (but only literarily).

Yeah, anyway, as I was saying: I watched Episode 2 and Episode 3. I was not too unsatisfied with the official final rankings for Round One. Hyolyn getting the full 10k points flat was wild; my girl is crazy. Although the rankings are fairly different from my own, it's acceptable and believable. WJSN placing second put my heart at ease, at least; I feel less bad.

Speaking of whom, I wanted to note that I did not notice the hourglass breaking at all when I watched the WJSN performance on its own, and that was probably on me… because it turned out even my mom said she saw it. I like to think I'm a fairly observant person, so I'm not quite sure how I managed to miss that heart-stopping moment completely—something to do with the Wujus' faces and my inability to take my eyes off of their features, I propose. Well, at least here is a solid confirmation that the prop mishap did not affect my ranking for them.

Oh, one thing that had me acting like the Dongpyo-squinting-and-pretending-to-clean-his-eyes-in-disbelief video was Hyolyn criticizing VIVIZ's performance for not leaving a "strong impact." Miss Ma'am, were you not the one shedding tears in the waiting room earlier?

Practice outfit Heejin is so hot. Casual clothes Haseul is so fine. Are LOONA going to have a way to make up last round's points? I can't remember if they addressed that... but, like, I doubt they would leave them at a multiple thousands of points disadvantage for the show's remainder, right? You know, especially taking into account the scary Orbits and their tendency to riot.

[Time jump.]

I watched Episode 4! With much effort—due to the amount of homework and fatigue I had accumulated this week, but I did it! I'm caught up all the way now. Who else cheered?

Eunha is my baby, for real. I also, just earlier today, found out her stage name means "galaxy" while on my biweekly inspection of ONEWE lyrics. I don't know how—in my five years of being a Buddy—I did not retain that information before. (Or, if I did at some point, why I didn't latch onto it and managed to forget about it until now.)

Anyway, I'll save my supplementary shit for later. I have but one last thing to say: Brave Girls deserved better.

Round Two

1. Brave Girls. Bitch! I was shocked and appalled when they ended up last place, but that petty rant can be commenced at a later juncture. This concept was everything. Yes, it's not like it was completely brand new, but at this point I think I'm going to have to give up my unofficial theme-originality criteria for these Queendom 2 rankings—since it's dawning upon me that, perhaps, nearly everything that the groups here can possibly come up with has already been done before; I will have to accept that there isn't much left that the girls can do that is unique (unless you're a brilliant, unrivaled genius like Hyolyn... god damn).

Brave Girls took a common trope and refurbished it into something way more revitalizing. Their energy was spot on aligned with the concept, and the story they wanted to tell was integrated suavely and conveyed with utmost zest! This was one of the best usages of props and stage setups I've seen in the entire four seasons of this series. The girls breathed in life, and invented a whole alternate universe to be inlayed, into that performance. It was so good; I kept smiling because I loved it so much and was sinking in how immense of a glow-up it was from their previous stage (which was fun but, frankly, lacking stimulus). They are so hot. I was shaking and trembling from chills the bulk of the time watching. When the saturation returned onto the screen, I was literally so hooked. I'm insanely proud of them for powering through with their COVID-fucked throats and gifting us this flawless wonder. Yuna was killing it everywhere I looked. Yujeong was hitting those moves like rent was due, and she managed to end up paying five years ahead with it. The ending backdrop animation transpired so perfectly in-sync with the falling money—it was like some next-level optical illusion. That was some Nævis magic. And the cards projected above them! We love you, graphic designer. This stage was magnificent to my eyes; I will be watching on repeat. (Genshin-infested brainworm afterthought: this would be like Yelan-core, if her color scheme was warmer—if she was a Pyro or Geo?)

2. Hyolyn. The multiple previews and making process that was shown before the performance's airing built up a shit ton of anticipation, and I became genuinely worried that she would end up being my number one again, which will result in the virtue of my rankings being doubted (by no one but myself, because I know nobody is reading this shit, lmao) for upholding some form of Star1 bias. I mean, I am a Star1, but I solemnly swore I will not, to the best of my ability, allow any fandom or ult bias slip into these rankings that isn't evenly spread amongst them all. Amen.

Ahem. God, her voice... her voice. My heart was palpitating. She is ludicrously hot; I was about to pass out. The transition to Paint The Town was infinitely well-arranged, and that left an impact on me simply because of how many abhorrent song merges we've seen recently in some of the other performances. With the focus on those vocals and that live belting, I think it's safe to say the climax(es) of the performance would be defined as the jaw-dropping high notes and growl notes. The starting scene was unarguably creative and a sight to behold; I can only imagine being the audience seeing it in person. But, a minuscule backfiring effect of it was that it overshadowed other important parts of the performance, specifically the beginning—before we manage to recover from the reaction of shock. Of course, it was an instantly engraved impression, but I have an idea to make the intro even more memorable beyond the unexpected stunt: the suggestion of incorporating a hoop into the choreography during bits of the first section. This way, that prop can even serve as a longer reoccurring theme and, overall, help the performance feel more neatly stitched together. But anyway, that wasn't even a nitpick; that was just a vision I had on what could have possibly made this masterpiece even better. Hyolyn knows how to hype a crowd, and that was really what sealed the deal at the end. What's a more effective way to commit a show to everyone's heads than to get their brain juice flowing directly into the music's and dance's energy? Hongseok called her Beyoncé if she was Korean. I resonated with that statement. The one, singular thing I can point out in this performance that I did not take fancy to was the neon green backdrop during the first chorus of So What. That did not match any of the color palettes in use nor was associated with the Catwoman concept. I'm not sure what went on there. The flaming "I'M SO BAD" text at the end was glorious, though. That damned green was probably the only thing that resulted in her placing below Brave Girls on this list: one trifling flaw versus no flaws—it had to be like this. (In a way, I'm kind of glad she had one attribute I disliked, otherwise these first two places would have been that much harder to determine, and a mental collapse would be in session.)

3. VIVIZ. Theirs was my second most anticipated performance after Hyolyn's. The glimpses of their outfits shown during the cuts of the trio sitting in the waiting room were indubitably eye-catching. I still think they have the most stunning costumes yet. I need to kiss that designer, actually. The performance itself was every ounce as lively and flamboyant as the outfits and makeup were set up to be. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, as the overall flow did feel a very fast-paced and borderline dizzying. The amount of cuts to different locations all over the stage was a tad disorienting, maybe even overwhelming. But the thing is, that may have been the point: a dazing, intense whirl of roses and flamenco. While I do wish they had more organization in the sequential structure of the performance, rather than throwing everything at us at once, but that's not extremely detrimental or anything. Though it left the performance without a real climax (since the majority of song felt like the climax), the flurried rush didn't take away from the enjoyment and striking quality of the stage too much, especially if you're just here to see some epic dancing and visuals.

The dance formations were breathtaking; they were perfectly ideal for something like this and incredibly impressive for being pulled off by only three members with the support of backup dancers. (The list of people I need to kiss grows: besides the designer, we are now adding VIVIZ Unnatural stage's choreographer.) I'm sure we were all a bit crestfallen when Eunha's lifted fan kick visibly didn't turn out as successful as planned, but that's okay; the distributed emphasis throughout the whole performance (that I talked about earlier) works in their favor here, and that little part doesn't stand out as much as she probably thinks—since the entirety of the song was spellbinding from start to finish, resulting in our attention being dispersed evenly among the whole thing. So it's okay, Eunha! You did fine! Overall, the surface-level visual appeal of this stage—the props, the outfits, the theme, the colors, the petals—was bewitching on its own. So ignoring the more meticulous analysis, I can firmly say that it was a charm to witness!

4. LOONA. Here it is: our Kingdom/Queendom season's token musical themed performance! I love the lighthearted musical concepts that this show provides—they have a lot of leeway in how they can be executed, and it's a joy to see how the group interprets it each time (I enjoyed all of the past instances I can think of right now: VERIVERY's Beautiful-X, BTOB's Blue Moon, and Lovelyz's Wow, the lattermost being unforgettable because it made me physically start weeping from the raw wholesomeness.) LOONA placing the dance break at the start, rather than closer to the end, was unique remix on the typical structure that these performances usually conform by, so that was nice to see! Not to mention, that choreography was great, as well—it had all of the effervescence this concept required. The costumes were cute—I noticed that the rapid outfit change feature seems to be a popular trend among this Queendom season; I can also see that trick getting old soon, if the upcoming rounds continue to incorporate it, but LOONA used it effectively by making it a core focus, rather than a randomly inserted stunt. This works well for the storytelling element of a musical concept. Hyejoo slayed. Yeojin ate. Chuu's expressions are perfect, my little actress. Gowon and Haseul are adorable. Hyunjin is so pretty.The selected song being Shake It was so essential to this; I can't imagine there being a better-fitting song. Shake It was tailored to this stage, and this stage was tailored to Shake It. I literally have nothing bad to say about this. It seriously pains me how they somehow ended up in the lower half of the list, still. They deserve higher—I thought they would be at least second place after I finished watching this, but that was before I saw remaining stages... I think, the top three just spoke to me more. I swear I loved Shake It, and I love LOONA so much. The competition is just harsh as hell this season. I have evidential hope that they will be within the upper rankings in one of these near future rounds to come!

5. WJSN. Ah... there is a convoluted mix of feelings revolving about this subject of matter in me. I am super conflicted because there are multiple very good parts in this beautiful mess. I don't hate it. I most certainly do not hate it. To address the elephant in the room first: yeah, the song and concept were a catastrophic mismatch—I'm not going to spend too much time berating that, because I'm sure others have already done that part in roasting through and through. The stares in the audience were akin to being parallel to the live reactions on Lovelyz's season one Ah-Choo stage... which is not exactly a good thing. I don't understand why they didn't go with Apple, the perfect complement for a sexy witchy concept? Or maybe even MAGO could've suited it with the right arrangement. Sure, Navillera is iconic and loved by all, but there was really no point in using it if you've decided to butcher the instrumental. Oh well, I could see where they were coming from though—like the butterfly animations to relate back to the origin of the word 'navillera'—and horrible song choice aside, they ate, for the most part! The beginning and ending scenes were well-developed: the intro reminded me of ONF's The We Must Love, and I have a feverish attachment to that performance for... reasons. So, I'm going to have to ask you to excuse me on this one slip of external personal bias. Yeoreum's solo dance break was phenomenal though; that's my baby! In fact, I did like a lot of the dance breaks in this. The Wujus reinterpreted Navillera into a distinctly hardcore choreography-focused performance, which is, like... okay. Great—not what I would have liked to see for Navillera specifically, but—like, alright! We'll go with it: so, Navillera is a banger noise song now with powerful dance breaks. The dancing was great. My noise music lover ass even quite enjoyed the instrumental (though, the yelling was a bit extra, LMAO). They had a very good formula for a stage; unfortunately, the solvent was volatile with the solute—the base substance was incompatible. I imagine I could have loved this performance a fat ton if Navillera wasn't the song it was interwoven with. Sorry, I said I wasn't going to use this time complain about the song choice like everyone else, but I ended up turning back to that at the end anyway, didn't I. Whatever, I'm still rooting for these girls. Like LOONA, I have hopes for them to shoot back up the ranks.

6. Kep1er. What was going on here... Okay, you know what, let's start off with a positive note: here are the things I liked! The bubble hoop idea was unarguably the most notable aspect of this whole thing. Hikaru is so talented; I have immense admiration for her. She and Dayeon ate. Yeseo is cute. The equipment used at the dance break to help make the choreography look floaty and weightless like they were underwater was creative. That's it, I think. Um... good job to the girls; I can tell they prepared hard. The fault lies more in the... composition itself, rather than their skill—or their mishaps—so don't worry about that. See, overall it was cute and cheerfully summery (my sister called it 'the beach one'), but the framework was wack as hell. Rollin' was not necessary. That forced switch-up was so uncalled for; I was borderline traumatized by it—and this is coming from a Next Level and O.O enjoyer.

I would like to clarify that their unfortunate placement in this ranking was not affected by Yujin's or Dayeon's accidents to any significant extent. Yujin's was not that obvious, as she didn't have any center dancing parts: at the dance break itself, she was located at the edge of the formation where no one's attention is really directed to, so I don't think it had much negative impact on the performance as a whole! As for Dayeon, I highly respect her professionalism and reflexes to recover so quickly and reach her spot just in time for the final pose. It's a shame that she fell at the very last moment, though, right when it was almost over. While, these incidents didn't affect my personal judgment, I can understand how guilty they both felt, knowing that they couldn't showcase their absolute best… I want to hug them. </3 But, anyway, as I was saying, this mashup was despicable. There were no real outstanding sections besides the two seconds of the bubble hoop feat. Most of it was bland, to say the least, and agitatingly awkward, to say the most, which should be a difficult label to achieve on a song this bubbly and easygoing, yet alas. They really tried it with this concept. I can tell there was a vision, but it did not work out. This is so mean to say, but I feel the need to be candid: on this list, there is a very thick wall between WJSN's 5th and Kep1er's 6th place.

I need to learn some self-constraint and stop making these ridiculously long. Even besides time and energy issues, I should really be making these posts about the same length just for consistency's sake, but my brain says "no!" I'm growing increasingly worried that the evaluation for Round Three will be even longer... This is just a forewarning; however, I will be consciously trying my best to limit the paragraph lengths.

On another note, for fun, here are my mom's and my sister's rankings!

Mom:

1. Hyolyn (THE HEELS?! "她唱歌方面实在没人能跟她比。她真的是很全面……"）
2. LOONA
3. WJSN
4. VIVIZ (He didn't pick [Eunha] up properly. It was the guy's fault.)
5. Kep1er
6. Brave Girls

Sister:

1. Hyolyn ("I like this one. She's not shaking her butt.")
2. LOONA ("The party one!")
3. VIVIZ
4. Kep1er (It reminds her of Barbie.)
5. WJSN
6. Brave Girls

「 — opening + round one — round two — round three: part one — round three: part two — final — 」

✦ Current Music: VERIVERY - Wish U were here
✦ Current Watch: All Hallow's Eve Festival (ASMR)

Here it is, the obligatory and the inevitable: my roundly Queendom 2 (2022) personal rankings, updated in live time as I catch up every week. And, hopefully, none of Twitter will ever discover these.

This season of the Queendom/Kingdom saga did not draw me in like that to begin with—I don't ult any of these groups (or, well... further clarification on VIVIZ's position as we go on)—but, as a good, loyal, and FOMO-plagued K-Pop stan, I am of course keeping up. I am using 'keeping up' loosely; I'm already two episodes behind :yeshoney:. It's just a little grueling because Mnet's editing has been palpably getting more and more 啰嗦, whatever the English word is. The episode lengths are an exhausting timespan, but it's fine. I'll get through it eventually. Mnet-show-watching certainly does contribute to my goal of preventing any thought from occurring in my head, anyway.

I didn't have any strong feelings on the lineup when it was announced, even though my prediction was utterly wrong. (No Apink? No Weeekly? Seriously?) Everyone here was still pretty expected and not unreasonable. Except for Kep1er. They were unreasonable. Yet, they were the most expected, from my eyes. In fact, I'm pretty sure they were one of the only ones I had predicted correctly—after seeing Mnet shove TO1 onto Road To Kingdom, I was absolutely sure the planet girls were going to show up here. This will be of a great benefit to their publicity and, overall, their career, of course, but I can't help but feel a twinge of heartache for the girls having to go through the stress of two survival shows back to back... my poor Kepies. :( Sorry, off topic.

Ahem. I have a strong foresight that either LOONA or WJSN will be in the top 2, perhaps even both of them. I know their performance prowess. I know their synchronization and formation techniques and thematic stage familiarity! They're basically trained for everything Queendom is about; they have the utmost potential to do well on this show. They're built for this! I was excited to see it! Which is why some of my reactions to their performances on these first two (one and a half?) rounds kind of confounded me.

With that said, I stan all of these groups (and their former groups, in some cases), I love all of these women, I hold no acrimony to any of these people, and the opinions listed here are likely recovered from my first or second impression; they are viable to change at any time. Let's begin!

Opening

1. VIVIZ. Alright, I have to admit I love their choreographies (as VIVIZ) more than their music (as VIVIZ). And exactly that reason alone is how they took the crown for my ordering of the preliminaries. This sounds a little unfair saying it like this, but clearly live singing isn't a factor that is contended in this round. (How many of them were singing, save Hyolyn belting the best part of 9LIVES for the first ten seconds of hers?) VIVIZ's preliminary stage had clear elements of Bop Bop in it, presenting themselves strong as a newfound trio instead of their staple mystical, dreamy concepts of the past. While I, uh, do not listen to Bop Bop regularly, I appreciate it for the artistry and their new take on the then-current retro trend (now undergoing the shift into a new wave of a punk rock trend). Avoiding the high, scintillating synths most other recent retro songs offered, they took a more lighthearted and groovy route. I will say, it is not exactly my thing, but I have respect for it. Once again, I love the choreography; it's so satisfying to watching. I am so sorry; this was not meant to turn into a Bop Bop song review. Back to the point: the electric themes and lighting effects were eye-catching to me, and the smart and fluid camerawork sealed the deal. This stage passed my vibe check easily! And please ignore my whole half paragraph that was not about it at all.

2. WJSN. Sorry, the Secret nostalgia hit instantaneously. I had to give a couple bonus points for the intro PV...? (or was it just a filter effect? It might have been an effect, now that I think about it.) It's elegant and ethereal. It encapsulates Save Me, Save You's mystical essence just the way it was meant to. The dance was like clockwork, graceful and controlled with smooth transitions; it all was very well put together. The outfit change was the icing on the cake for me, though. I also noticed they lifted the moon at the end, albeit not in sync with the background, but I thought that was a fun touch lmao. I'm always for using the backdrop as props if it ends up looking good. And so, the space girls, declared the official start of the Star Wars.

3. Brave Girls. The suits look good! I don't care if your mother thinks thinks it looks like "trot fashion"! I think they look great; the sparkly blazers are speaking to me. They devoured this choreography. This style is not something they typically do, so it was a fresh and charming sight to behold. All eyes on Eunji!

4. Kep1er. Amazing choreography, truly. Who did Mnet hire for them; I need to find out. I was This was an expected song choice, and a excellent decision for the introductory round. It's a clever outfit choice that alludes to them graduating their first survival show... and immediately onto the second one. The grind never stops for them, for real. They're really powerful performers! I don't have much else to say.

5. Hyolyn. A fantastic performance in every aspect, but that was expected, wasn't it? This is miss SISTAR Hyorin herself, after all. For this starter round, she was able to show all of herself off in the most characteristic way she could, and it was fantastic on its own. But there wasn't any pizzaz? It was great, but nothing gave 'Queendom'; nothing gave competition. Anyway, I highly respect her talent for being able to dance in those stilted, thin ass heels.

6. LOONA. Hmm. No, look, I'm surprised they're this low, as well. You saw the anticipation I had for them! It was just plain? Unbearably so, for LOONA. I was expecting more from them, given all that they're (deservingly) hyped up to be, and you know I must have been bored if even favorite-song-bias for Satellite wasn't able to help bump them higher. I guess it was just underwhelming for a Queendom performance; that's all. Nonetheless, they still showcase their stellar synchronization across all members and ever-stunning stage presence. Yeojin is so cute, by the way.

Round One

1. Hyolyn. Colors, concept, stage arrangement, props—everything was well-planned to the core. She is so hot. Summer queen indeed, I can't imagine anyone else pulling off a stage like this as well as the SISTAR token all-rounder. And the smirk... she is so hot. I'm not going to lie, I love her so much, but I would not have pegged her to be frontrunner of this show. I know she's not winning—Mnet is not letting her win—but this first round has succeeded in impressing me to the fullest. Of course, this doesn't mean I ever underestimated her. God, never; I know what she can do. I hope she takes maximum advantage of all facets of her ability every chance she gets on this show.

2. Kep1er. Oh, the stage design is insane. This remix hits. And Hikaru! Hikaru, my beloved. They impressed me a lot with this. I saw their outfits on Twitter before watching, and the similarity in palette to LOONA's made me a bit weary... and it didn't make it better that they looked like LOONA's outfits but more... boring. So that didn't raise any levels of expectations. But this surpassed everything. I was so blown away, and both my mom and sister agreed this was in their top two and first place favorite respectively. It was so energetic and, once again, well-choreographed. I will figure out who Mnet got them for their choreographies after this. (And I know Exy was fuming after this, seeing what vroom vroom vroom skrrt could have been like if CRAVITY slayed it. [/JOKE. FOR LEGAL REASONS, I AM LUVITY. I LOVE CRAVITY. TAEYOUNG IS MY FRIEND.])

3. VIVIZ. Emotional impact. Oh, emotional impact. One of my favorite aspects of this stage is actually the assisting performers: the backup dancers and the instrumentalists. The dancers holding lights was innovative and evocative, and on the second watch, my sister pointed out them forming a moon at Umji's part during Time For The Moon Night. When the orchestra switched to the oh-so-familiar Rough melody, I started bawling. The thing is, I knew as a fact I would cry during this, because even before it started, as I was watching the episode, I was tearing the fuck up at their commentary and reflections and the montage shown. (I saw Hyuna crying at this too, and if she sobbed, there's no way my mere mortal soul is surviving this. I was damn well aware of the certain doom ahead of me.) At the end, Eunseo expressing how proud she was of Eunbi hurt a very raw spot in my heart, too. And when she explained the numbers in the back of the stage, I cried harder. And, ah, yes, here it is—this must be the ex-GFRIEND ult in me speaking. (If I tell you where the height of my emotionality peaked was when they called Sowon, when they said she would often rewatch their concert videos.)

4. Brave Girls. I like the colors. This was fun. The concept kind of confused me (note: I'm watching this without having seen episode 2 yet, so if they explain it in there, I do not have knowledge of it as of yet), but overall they had the energy and knew how to convey it. Though, I assume it has something to do with their military men fans. Overall, it didn't feel that united of a stage—theme-wise—but they were having fun, and so was I! How much of that happiness was contributed from Yujeong's big 眯眯 smile has currently not been calculated.

5. LOONA. I know, this is so sad. I hate putting them this low, and it's shocking to me too, considering I had almost full bets that the moon girls—and Wuju—would be serving the most objectively good stages of this season, the moment they were confirmed for it. Now, there's decisively nothing bad about this performance, but every Queendom/Kingdom season has had a historical concept stage; I'm getting a bit bored. Even Yves's fighting scene has been overused, and well beyond just historical concepts, as well. Hyejoo's hair untying part was its redemption, though. Also, I give bonus points for being sexy, because I'm just a wee little whorish lad, and they got a solid amount of those. However cliché this stage may be, they're amazing in skill as always. (Random: my sister asked if the song was about mass murder LMAO? I guess they never did specify that they weren't painting the town with blood.)

6. WJSN. Yes, It hurts me seeing them down at ground bottom, too. It was too reminiscent of their intro stage, yet they had an extra three minutes to add onto it and somehow managed to make it lamer. I don't know, maybe my standards have become too high. Saying this in the gentlest manner possible, it was simply dull... There was nothing new, nothing we haven't seen before from them or from the previous seasons. Maybe the it's the outfits, too, that are boring me—maybe that was a reason for my preliminary LOONA verdict, as well. I'm blaming the clothes. Bland ass plain white clothes... I know there's lighter, more intricate designs on them, but no one's seeing all that when they're throwing it back and blasting high notes everywhere! At least make the fabric, I don't know, more wispy or iridescent! Integrate some contrasting hues! Anyway, the dance break was nice. I liked both of them. Yeoreum, my beloved. And I do like this remix of the song.

That it's for today, I'll update this every time I get the chance—hopefully roundly—until the end of the show. I pray there aren't typos everywhere. I have not slept in over 24 hours. I spent all night and all day writing a song on BandLab. Goodnight, nonexistent comrades reading this. Let me CSS some colored highlights into this for my newly-enforced strict journal formatting rules, and then I am clocking out.

「 — opening + round one — round two — round three: part one — round three: part two — final — 」