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INTRO - 0:00

ONEUS REACTION - 1:53

H.O.T. VERSION - 6:42

ONEUS ANALYSIS - 11:17

TOO REACTION - 24:03

TVXQ VERSION - 28:42

TOO ANALYSIS - 34:16

VERYVERY REACTION - 45:40

SEVENTEEN VERSION - 49:56

VERYVERY ANALYSIS - 53:19

GOLDEN CHILD REACTION - 1:07:59

SHINHWA VERSION - 1:12:16

GOLDEN CHILD ANALYSIS - 1:16:22

ONF REACTION - 1:32:46

SHINEE VERSION - 1:37:32

ONF ANALYSIS - 1:43:47

PENTAGON REACTION - 2:03:59

BLOCK B VERSION - 2:08:07

PENTAGON ANALYSIS - 2:11:59

THE BOYZ REACTION - 2:33:31

TAEMIN VERSION - 2:39:17

MOVE COMPARISON 1 - 2:42:51

THE BOYZ ANALYSIS - 2:44:28

MOVE COMPARISON 2 - 3:02:56

THE BOYZ ANALYSIS CONT. - 3:07:36

OUTRO - 3:13:37

Files

ROAD TO KINGDOM EP 2/3 PERFORMACE ANALYSIS

Comments

Eafiu

Okay, first off, wow, sorry for the almost 1400-word essay. I just can’t shut up about this round apparently. Can’t wait to see the actual episodes for the conception of these performances. My ranking is: Golden Child, PENTAGON, TO1, Oneus, The Boyz, ONF, Verivery. Our rankings are different obviously but I actually agree with all your analyses. The reason my rankings are slightly different comes down to my individual music preferences – like, if I just don’t like the song itself, even if the performance is technically immaculate, I may not get as invested as I did with a song I like much better. It’s why Oneus is behind TO1 for example despite Oneus being the one group I know and stan out of this RTK roster! I just love Rising Sun much much more than Warrior’s Descendant and TO1 did the cover justice as much as Oneus did their cover. Honestly, Oneus is the perfect showcase of what I mean: Their song choice, the way they executed the concept, the way they executed the cover performance, the prop work, the staging; all of those were spot on. And they are the one group I have a personal fan attachment to. But I just don’t like school concepts or aesthetics! (And sometimes I just don’t like a super busy set either prop-wise. They will actually subvert it completely in a future episode with LIT and I can't wait.) So, although I appreciated their work, I don’t feel a deeper connection with it. Whereas with TO1, despite also seeing that it was not as refined as others’ performances, I really loved them because the song was right up my alley and I *really* loved all the portraits they did with their choreo and how it worked with the song's meaning. I just felt that sun rising basically. If I had to be an objective judge though, I’d have to put my music preferences aside and rank Oneus third and TO1 fourth. Sadly, I was also disappointed with Verivery's choice because their navy concept just had absolutely nothing in common with the song's meaning, vibe or dance style, and it really broke my immersion. I am not too familiar with SEVENTEEN or the song itself so I don't know if it's better or worse for me since from the intro scene I expected something more militaristic and the song kicked into... you know, not that. (I did love their drowning-in-sea scene though, that was so cute. But it was also a perfect example of the disconnect between concept and performance: it was kind of comedic and cute and would have been perfect for a fun summer bop. But we are in navy outfits and the song started with a battle map??? I’d expect a more aggressive or tragic scene from the set-up.) It's wild how Golden Child basically turned around my comment comparing them with Verivery in the previous round: This time it was Verivery that started with an intro that was disconnected from the rest of the performance whereas Golden Child was IMMACULATE when it came to concept cohesion? Like, that performance put a smile on my face with how beautiful and fitting everything was. (I GASPED at the intro wing scene and I was already primed right there with the feathers and ballet-esque moves and the vibes that this would go a Swan Lake route, WITHOUT KNOWING NEITHER ORIGINAL OR THE EPISODE CONTEXT, BEFORE THE ACTUAL SWAN LAKE SAMPLE MELODY EVEN KICKING IN, PERFECT.) Between them and TO1, I was basically SPOILED for beautiful portraits/scenes. Since I didn’t know the original song either, I loved how the performance pulled from Swan Lake imagery and I wasn’t sure yet how much of it was there in the original already. After seeing the original having so very little of it? UGH, I LOVED Golden Child’s choice. Their arrangement made the rap sections so beautifully placed too – the ANGST of them was so delicious. With ONF, I am so conflicted. Their arrangement was very much my thing, completely catering to me, and the song itself in general wasn’t super out of line with it… except the chorus? Which is, you know, a big deal? I think when the general mood of the track is this angsty and gothic here, having such a bright chorus kills the momentum. I was so invested in the beginning but by the second chorus especially, I was completely out of it. Shinee’s own performance did not have that added disconnect at all, so I’m going to chalk it up to ONF’s production decision. (Haha, I wrote this bit before your analysis started and you said the same thing so we agree.) So, even though I found them cleaner and found especially their beginning scenes just as captivating as TO1’s, they ranked below TO1 in my book. PENTAGON did such a good example of covering something while changing the concept of the performance but keeping the essence completely intact: The song loses nothing of its unhingedness and rebellion while being different to what Block B did with it. (I’m a metalhead, I have to represent.) This may sound weird but, in my mind, it’s like a horizontal cover? Like, it moved sideways in its plane and is still in line with the original while being distinct. (Oneus was also like that but with less distance from the original – they still added a lot of new performance elements that worked perfectly, but the song wasn’t wholly changed. While Golden Child did it vertically in my mind’s eye; it completely changed the level of the original and made it different from all angles. Of course, I also loved it more but that’s my own preference too – with the song choice by Oneus and PENTAGON it’s a very “why fix what’s not broken” situation to me whereas I think T.O.P required a little fixing for me if that makes sense.) (By the way, in that pause you had with the pink-haired PENTAGON member, I also thought about Ryuk from Death Note before you said it lmao. And unrelated, every time Very Good’s chorus started I was like “Damn, Verivery missed the opportunity to do this.” I mean, this is not a criticism obviously, it’s just funny. I haven’t seen the episode yet either so I don’t even know if the songs/people to cover were group choices or random draws.) With The Boyz, I am as conflicted as I was with ONF. I really liked the gentleman thief with the calling card concept choice (made me soooo want to rewatch Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne… I was obsessed with that anime as a kid and it’s my first exposure to stories where the thief protagonist announces what they are going to steal beforehand). I also think it fit the vibe of the track they chose so there wasn’t as big of a mismatch as ONF and Verivery had. Also, stealing the crown was so witty for the show’s concept in general. Still, there is a big “BUT…” here for me and it’s just… Taemin. Like, obviously they couldn't and shouldn't just replicate Taemin since he is the solo feature and they have to turn it into a group thing. But Taemin’s performance is still super particular and while The Boyz paid homage to it and were so strong as a unit with some great scenes, it just wasn’t enough for me. Maybe it’s because I’m not really fluent in dancing but what they did felt too far away from Taemin to me as a lay-person audience without being just as hitting as Taemin as a soloist so nothing about the changes justified themselves to me as a watcher. So, I can’t help but feel they were overshadowed by Taemin and I think they still would have been overshadowed by Taemin if they tried to replicate him perfectly, even if they all came close to it! It’s like, changing it felt pointless to me since the changes themselves were not as interesting, and replicating it perfectly would also have felt pointless, so why choose this? I’m very interested in the decision stage of this once I get to the episode itself. I think that’s where it went wrong and why I ranked them just behind Oneus. And, well, I can’t even comment about the biting aspect since as I said I am looking at it from a layperson’s perspective because that’s what I am. I also loved the table scenes a lot by the way.

kali

so for the boyz, i know they are hands on when it comes to concept! i know they’re 100% involved when it comes to creating the idea for the stage, however with their choreography i know they usually have a team that works with them, so i honestly don’t know who would’ve put the stunts in there 😭 i can’t remember if any of the members chose it or if it was the choreography team, but regardless i wish they had done it in a way that made it their own or just completely did a different stunt! now a little note i noticed about their concept/performance is i feel like they possibly referenced michael jackson a bit in the beginning with all the layering sounds! it reminds me of the you rock my world mv, at the beginning of the fight scene. i think they possibly did this because taemin is constantly called the “mj of kpop” !

JessReacts764

I am VERY curious about the behind the scenes for The Boyz.... These types of things happen with using inspired stunts, and so I hope that I won't be doing many more "move comparisons" for the future for them or anyone in the show! They still did a great job ! And I can totally see the MJ influence which makes sense with Taemin!