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[로드 투 킹덤 : ACE OF ACE] CHALLENGE 2 ANALYSIS - EPISODE 5

INTRO - 0:00

THECREWONE - 0:36

TEMPEST - 26:10

ONEUS - 53:52

ENDING THOUGHTS - 1:18:09

OUTRO - 1:20:38

[로드 투 킹덤 : ACE OF ACE] CHALLENGE 2 ANALYSIS - EPISODE 5

Comments

You don't have to worry about the Oneus and Ateez comparisons really bothering anybody because the two groups are close, and they share Mingi as a member. (Context: Oneus and Ateez were on Weekly Idol together and had to split into two teams for a game. Two even the teams, Mingi joined Oneus since he was the Member of Ateez at the time who was closest to members from Oneus. They later joked about it when Oneus were on Idol Radio and Yunho and Hongjoong were the MCs by saying that Mingi was slacking as a member of Oneus because he hadn't been showing up for practices/work lol.) I get the concern, though, because some fans can be crazy about their favorite groups/idols being compared to others. ETA: You already know now since you've watched the show, but just ading for others just in case, Hwanwoong is center for that part because that's his position for that part of No Diggity's outro. Even non-fans would expect him to be there as they always perform No Diggity when they perform at multi-group concerts like Kcon and other ones like it, and Hwanwoong in center there always ends up getting the attention of even non-fans.

Ebony Coco

As for ONEUS, I have this problem with them were I always think they are choosing the wrong song (except with who got the joker). So even though they did a good job, it's hard form me to rank them high. Lastly, now that I know you have seen the episode I can finally talk about TNX. I actually really liked their stage and how they re-worked the song. But after seeing what they did with the aces, I instally knew why they were elimitated. (I also think they ranked last on group as well because of the female dancer - as we all know koreans usually don't like that). I felt terrible for them to be eliminated because I think they are really good performers and have so much more to show us. At least the result of the ace battle was super close and they didn't get eliminated because "the other teams voted strategically". My top 3 performances are: CRAVITY, TNX and 8TURN. My top 3 aces are: CRAVITY's, 8TURN's and The CrewOne's.

ashe

Hi Jess! Thank you for your analysis. Unfortunally I had to watch yesterday's episode while not feeling well emotionally, so I had a hard time appreciating the stages. So I'm glad I was able to watch them again from a different perspective. Originally, I liked Tempest because it felt so joyful but now that you say it, there were a lot of things going on and I wouldn't place it as high as I would before. I personally didn't like that much that a lot of the groups choose to have movie concepts. Not only because sometimes if you don't know them you don't understand it; but because this time the theme was "identity" (unlike other times were it was "my song"). Because of that, after reading a comment on Younite's performance being their/Eunsang's story, I appreciated their performance more. As a LUVITY, I wish more people from other fandoms could come to your reactions/analysis (since I notice it's mostly us, at least here in patreon) and share their perspective so we can understand more every stage. I also think, after your analysis, that The CrewOne were also trying to share their story: them being two groups that came together as one in the end. So I really apreciate that almost half of the groups understood what IDENTITY actually meant.

ashe

So my brain has been dealing nothing but No Diggity for the past week and yesterday watching this performance didn't Help. Let me provide some context and my own thoughts like I'm exorcising them from my brain. 😂 I watched the broadcast version of this first and it completely coloured my initial understanding of ONEUS' narrative in the opposite direction - but NOT in a way that detracted anything from the performance thankfully. Basically, that Hwanwoong was also cuffed to the war car was not clear to me in the broadcast version so he read like the warband leader to me - and I interpreted the rest of the performance as Seoho being a challenge to his rule and basically taking over the warband by the end of the performance. 😂 Funnily enough, Mad Max: Fury Road is one of my favourite movies of all time and my knowledge from the movie should have made me assume Hwanwoong was also a prisoner!! But I always prefer to let performances speak for themselves so I let stuff like movie knowledge go by the side and this time it worked against me. 🤣 So, Fury Road: I say this performance was not just a Mad Max concept but specifically a Fury Road concept because of all the details unique to that movie. The skull insignia, the war car design, the graffiti, the cliff side, the skull sandstorm, etc. are all details from the movie. I loved how they incorporated that and once the full cam version came out and I was able to see the intended first scene properly and later the graffiti reveal... I was shooketh. 😭 The context from the movie is this: The main cast (alongside Mad Max himself) are all subservient to a specific war gang leader - the main lead is one of his "generals" (named Furiosa, one of the best Charlize Theron performances ngl) and the others are all his "wives" (read: slaves). The movie's main plot is about how the general and the wives plan and run away together, and the realization that they can't run but they CAN go back, defeat him and liberate everyone else. One of the other most iconic (but nameless) slaves of this war gang is actually a faceless electro guitar player chained to the top of a car that plays guitar solos from his flamethrower guitar. (It's one of the most iconic visuals from the movie.) This is why I should have clocked Hwanwoong as a prisoner too despite not seeing that he was chained like the rest of the group but oh well. 😂 Now, I think the intended storyline IS basically that Hwanwoong, Keonhee, Leedo and Xion are slaves of the war gang, and Seoho has come back to save them all. The dynamics actually fit eerily well with Fury Road as the "core" liberator cast can be divided up into three: the outsider who was captured recently (Mad Max), the villain-turned-hero (people who USED TO fight for the leader, but turned against him: Imperator Furiosa + one "war boy" - basically a slave warrior), and enslaved prisoners who liberate themselves (the "wives"). So, Seoho is the first category, Hwanwoong is the second category (I mean, the guitarist in the movie was definitely NOT a warrior, but in this performance Hwanwoong just looks more in charge + fits better that way to the narrative), and Keonhee, Xion and Leedo are the final category. About the graffiti in particular: Another iconic part of the Fury Road story is the graffiti the "wives" leave behind in their prison room for the villain to find: "WE ARE NOT THINGS". It is basically the one-sentence summary of the movie's entire point about personhood in the face of dehumanization. "No Diggity" was the title track of their first album, titled DEVIL. (DEVIL was titled that as the inversion of LIVED, the previous release, the EP where the title track was TO BE OR NOT TO BE.) So, them working *that* iconic side of Fury Road and incorporating them into this performance's storyline AND their discography really gave me chills because it just all fit so well... (Am I crying because it also reminds me of Dreamcatcher's OOTD > JUSTICE duology story??? SHUT UP.) As you already experienced, none of this context ended up being necessary for the performance to read as intended and I am SO glad. And I am SO proud of Seoho in particular because of how smoothly he handled all the mishaps he had. Becoming off-balance while on the grill (a damn GRILL like COME ON) and keeping himself stable as he sung??? Climbing so forcefully on that car and making it shake enough to have the flag drop but still keeping the finale timing??? And like THAT wasn't enough, I saw that he was messaging with some fans (on Fromm I think) after the broadcast and he told them more about the handless flip he did from on his back to go back to crouching position in the beginning (0:36 in the fullcam). Apparently, he WASN'T supposed to fall on his back in that moment but he quickly did that flip to get back into proper position??? Seoho??? Please??? (He said in the messages that it's dangerous to do without proper knowledge and practice and that no one should try it at home and I'm just I CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE WANTING TO BUT THANK U! 😭 I need to see the dance practice NOW to see if it really was completely unplanned like I'm not calling Seoho a liar but I need this confirmed, my brain doesn't accept, maybe there was some misunderstanding in the translations or something. 😭) Side-note on his vocal stability by the way: He was on King of Masked Singer recently and they asked about the very supported high notes he can effortlessly do... and he said that because he loves sports and acrobatic stuff, he practices singing while playing soccer, jumping around and/or PLANKING. I was just. 🙊 Yeah, I've seen the abs, that tracks now. Talk about a core of steel.

Eafiu

TL;DR incoming

Eafiu


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