REACTION to QUEENDOM 2 EP.04 (Patreon)

Lots of thoughts below!

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It's kind of wild how much my personal rankings change from watching live to just a couple hours later when I've had time to process and re-watch things. I think each time a new stage comes on when I'm watching live, I'm so impressed and blown away that it kind of screws with where my preference is. That and when you have performances this good, my personal ranking is gonna change every few hours anyway.

But aside from that here are some thoughts on each performance from this round:

WJSN - theirs, alongside Loona's, is the one that has the most re-watchability for me and I think that'll remain the case even with the three new performances. Like I said in the beginning, after ep 3 I went through and dug into the story side of the performance and the details are simply incredible. So much thought has gone into each of their performances and it blows me away. Also, they easily served my favorite vocals of this round (along with Hyolyn of course). Yeonjung is simply a beast but that one Seola moment before the first chorus has me by the throat as well. Throw in the fact that my bias absolute destroyed her dance solo? Yeah, I'm a happy bean. I will say that on first watch the brightness of Navillera vs. the darkness of the concept was a bit jarring but that feeling went away on following watches and I love how the remixed Navillera and made it their own.

LOONA - what even is there to say? This thing was a masterpiece. As a big ol' theatre nerd I was living my best life. They really showed off why they're so confident in performance and gave us the most fun, energetic and entertaining stage. This will be a stage that goes down in history for this show, much like the iconic Destiny & Egotistic stages from Q1.

Brave Girls - the underdog lover in me is rooting so hard for these girls. I've really come to love them and their performances in such a big way and I think it's such a shame that they aren't seeing the success they want in the vote. Especially given that their performances have been excellent. You can tell they were struggling a tiny bit vocally towards the end because of their condition but all things considered, the fact that they pulled off a really quite grand production of a stage is so impressive. I loved the concept, I loved what they did with MVSK and I think they're really showing that they're so much more than just Rollin'

VIVIZ - this is actually a situation where much of my thoughts from watching the episode live, remain the same even after. The concept was incredible, the stage craft was awesome to watch, the choreo, the mix of the song, THE STYLING, all of it stunning and it felt so good to see that fire lit in their eyes (especially SinB and Umji dear god) as that was the one thing missing for me in the last round. But I did miss that vocal punch. Eunha did an incredible job, they all sounded great especially considering the intensity of that choreo, their live was no joke. But I think I'm too used to getting slapped in the face by Yeonjung and Dawon's vocals on that chorus and that's a big part of what makes the song for me. Viviz *destroyed* on the verses, I loved the rap segment etc etc, I just personally missed that punch in the chorus

Kep1er - man... I am so freaking glad no one got seriously hurt. And I'm also unbelievably proud of their professionalism. Both Yujin and Dayeon handled their respective mishaps so well all things considered and I absolutely did not notice anything amiss while watching it that first time so big big big kudos there. As for the performance itself, man I had so much fun. The way they created this whole world to play in was amazing, I loved how they used the stage and how each member had a little moment to shine. Also, on its own, I adore the mix of the songs. Blending rollin' into the chorus was very big brain and I really enjoyed it. But in the context of the competition and the other performances, I do think (kinda similar to Viviz) it lacked a little bit of that extra punch. The verses and dance break really served something special (Xiaoting truly a goddess amongst us) but I do feel the chorus could have more of a kick

Hyolyn - I mean........ queen shit. As far as remixes for the respective songs goes, what she did with So What was by far and a way my favorite of the bunch. And you wanna talk about giving a vocal punch? F me running. The passion and hard work she delivers is both incredibly inspiring and also quite terrifying lmao. I think if I were to think of one tiny critical thing to say I guess it would be that I didn't adore the choreo on her part *as much* as the previous performance but it's like the most negligible difference. The concept was amazing, the hoop work was super cool and she is honestly just a master at work and it's incredible to see. I think if we're gonna be as objective as possible (which is not very possible bc we're all only human but still), she gave the most solid performance and was very deserving of the win again.

As for my *personal* ranking... again this feels like something that could change every few hours depending on my mood but I think currently, in terms of personal favorites I would list it as:

• Loona
• WJSN
• Hyolyn
• Kep1er
• Brave Girls
• VIVIZ

Once again though wanna reiterate, everyone absolutely killed it, everyone is a winner here - especially us who get to watch it lmao - and so rankings like this really don't mean anything. I have all the love and respect possible for all these contestants and I'm so freaking pumped for the next round!

Let me know your own thoughts too!

- Kaia