~ Episode 9: No Limit (3) ~

Hello everyone! Today we're meeting up again to talk about the 9th episode of the popular TV show "Kingdom Legendary War". Last week we saw the performances of Stray Kids and Ikon. In this week's episode we'll see the remaining performances of round 2 of "No Limit" from SF9, BtoB, Ateez and The Boyz. This article will be split into two parts: The first one will be about commenting the performances, and the second will be about commenting the finale tracks that were released a couple of days ahead of the show’s finale.

No Limit round 2: Performances (pt. 2)

The Boyz

This time, The Boyz performed their own version of EXO's "Monster". The highlight of this performance was a... diamond snake. Yeah, I have no other words to qualify that thing so please bear with me. I honestly didn't grab the concept of that performance. I could see no link between the song itself and the performance. Yes, The Boyz are amazing performers and their choreography was amazing. But is that a "No Limit" worthy performance? In my humble opinion, no. I wouldn't call that performance a "No Limit" performance, because they just relied on a giant prop, and that's it. They didn't show a skill we didn't know they had, they haven't done a collaboration stage that only them could do, they haven't sang a song that only them could sing, etc. I maybe am a bit harsh on that one, but we're getting close to the finale, and at this point of the competition everyone is good at everything. You have to distinguish yourself from the others with unique performances, performances that only YOU can do, and here it was a performance that any other group could've done. 

BTOB

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is "Blue Moon" cinema version starring BTOB and (G)-IDLE's Miyeon. Seriously, this performance was so pleasant to watch! I catched myself smiling all the time. Now the song arrangement in itself is not that surprising because the original song already had that jazzy almost musical vibe. However, they did accentuate the musical aspect with the sets, the costumes, and the storyline. I was maybe expecting a little bit more choreography-wise, but I still found that performance amazing. Good job BTOB!

ATEEZ

Ah... Ateez. I've known Ateez since their debut, and I've watched them grow up. I know what these guys are capable of and it frustrates me so much every time they perform! Look, the idea of mixing two songs that have nothing to do with each other is a tough challenge, and I applaud the audacity and risk they have taken, and bringing a choir or whatever it is called is a good idea too. HOWEVER, it really felt like watching the same performances over and over again... I'm not saying that they're bad performers, they have an amazing energy on stage. But they keep doing the same concept! It's good to have a continuous storyline but you have to keep showing something new every time, and here it's like we're not moving from the starting point. And maybe it's because I like the original version so much but it felt like "Ode to Joy" was too different to be mixed with "Answer". And this is why it frustrates me, because I know what they are capable of. 

SF9

I'm proud to say that the caterpillar transformed into a majestic butterfly. This performance is the performance I've been dying to see from SF9. I think they were still uneasy with the competition format, because the performances on that show are not just regular performances, they are shot in a very specific way, and they have multiple constraints. But this performance was really worth the "No Limit" title. First, choosing "Move" from Taemin (whom I consider being the incarnation of art) is a bold move in itself. Second, the human tree at the start had a great impact. Third, the chorus. Give me something that's sexier than that. Fourth, Zuho's rap and his iconic line "I'm the male version of Venus". That line is still stuck in my head until now. Fifth, the whole colours concept. They start with black & white and they finish with a palette of colours. If that's not genius, I don't know what it is. Last but not least,  SIR YOO TAEYANG. That song was made for him. That's it, I'm done :)

 

No Limit round 2 final results & my personal ranking

After a long third round, the groups can finally rest a bit (if I felt like this round was long, I cannot imagine how tiring it was for them). It was announced on episode 8 that team Mayfly was the winner of the 3 battles, making ATEEZ, Stray Kids and BtoB win 15,000 points each. Now for the second round of round 3 (remember that round 3, "No Limit", was divided into 2 rounds), here are the final results:

First place: SF9

Second place: Stray Kids

Third place: BtoB

Fourth place: The Boyz

Fifth place: Ikon

Sixth place: ATEEZ

On my twitter account (if you'd like to follow me, you just have to click here), I asked you guys what was your favourite performance of this episode, and your answer was, with 43% of the votes: SF9.

Here's my personal ranking for the second round of "No Limit", it's a bit similar to the official one, except for the last three positions:

First place : SF9

Second place: Stray Kids

Third place: BtoB

Fourth place: Ikon

Fifth place: Ateez

Sixth place: The Boyz

It hurts me to place Ateez and The Boyz that low, but for this round, I wouldn't qualify their performances of "No Limit" for the reasons I gave earlier. 

 

My opinion on the finale tracks

Stray Kids' "Wolfgang"

The song is a very powerful song full with electronic sounds and a lot of autotune as many other Stray Kids songs. I really like the melody at the start and in the pre-chorus with that sort of electric guitar (I don't know if that's really an electric guitar but it sounds like it), but I find the song too rap-centric, not really leaving space for vocalists to shine. I also wished the chorus was more melodious instead of having growls and howls. I do imagine them doing a very powerful stage with a lot of details as they've been doing it since the beginning of the competition. For now I'm not very fond of the song, but the performance might surprise me. 

SF9's "Believer"

Among all the finale tracks, this song sounds the most Kpop to me. It's good in the sense that more people are inclined to like it, but it's also dangerous because it's a sound that has been already done in the past and I'm afraid the performance won't be of a big scale. It's a strategy that I respect, I just don't want them to go back in their comfort zone, because what they've shown us this week was pure genius and I don't want to be disappointed by a too mainstream performance. 

The Boyz's "Kingdom Come"

"Kingdom Come" is not that different from "Checkmate" if you listen closely to the song. It has that "Battle" vibe they had in "Checkmate". I wonder if they're going to go for a similar performance or not, but Checkmate's performance was really amazing, so I wouldn't be mad to have a 2.0 version. I think it was a pretty hard journey for The Boyz to still outdo themselves when they did that in every round of "Road to Kingdom". I'm still very proud of them at the end of the day, and I'm sure I'll enjoy that last performance from them.

Ateez's "The Real"

This song has an "oriental" touch that I find really interesting, it reminds me a bit of "Pirate King" (their debut song) and "Answer" as well. I'm happy that Mingi's voice in it, but I'm sad he didn't participate in the show at all. I'm starting to miss him a lot, he's been absent since November 2020. I really hope they include new elements in the stage that would make the stage more interesting and innovative, something different than the usual pirate elements.

Ikon's "At Ease"

This song screams Ikon from start to end. YG artists have a very distinct signature sound and this song is no exception. What I really like in this song is the pre-chorus (with June's amazing vocals), and the chanting right before the drop. And the last portion of the song? That's what I meant by very distinct signature sound. I don't know what the performance will look like, but I'm very excited. 

BtoB's "Show and Prove"

The beginning of the song reminds me of the song "The greatest show" from the greatest showman, and so I can picture them doing a very theatrical stage. Imagine a mix between their "Missing you stage" and their "Blue Moon" stage. I don't know if that makes sense but anyway. That song is just amazing, and they have the perfect balance between vocals and rap! It's not an all-rap song, but it's not an all-vocals song either. Every member gets to shine, and I seriously cannot wait to watch the performance. I'm sure they'll do something grand and beautiful.

I ran a poll on my instagram again, and I was shocked by two things: first, the amount of people who voted, and second, the gap between the winner and the other groups! There were 4,790 votes (twitter doesn't allow a poll to have more than 4 options so I made 2 polls with a total of 4,790 votes), and the winner is, with 79%, *DRUMROLL*... BTOB! I don't know if it's because most of the people who voted were fans of BtoB, but the gap was really important, and I do agree with you at the end of the day, even though I'm an ikonic, an atiny, a stay, a fantasy, and a The B at the same time. 

That's it for Kingdom Legendary War episode 9. I'll see you next week for the debrief of the finale! It kind of felt short now that I look back on everything, but everything has to come to an end at some point. Take care until then!

Love, Swan

 

Sources: Mnet's official YouTube channel, LQ Kpop YouTube channel.

~ Episode 8: No Limit (2) ~

Hello everyone! Today, we'll debrief the 8th episode of Mnet's Kingdom. In this episode we conclude the first part of round 3 "No Limit" with the vocal battles of team Mayfly (ATEEZ, Stray Kids, and BtoB) vs. team It's One (Ikon, SF9, The Boyz). We also start the second part of round 3 with the performances of Ikon and Stray Kids. I previously commented that team It's One was my personal winner for the rap and dancing battles (while team Mayfly officially won these two battles), so now I'm going to comment the vocal battle, as well as the performances of round 3, part 2. 

I. No limit round 1: The vocal battle

Let's start with team It's One for the vocal battle. June and Jinhwan from Ikon, New and Sangyeon from The Boyz, and Inseong and Jaeyoon performed their version of Taeyeon's "Spark". I have to say that I'm impressed by Sangyeon's and Inseong's vocals. I already knew the timber of June and Jinhwan from Ikon and knew they would stand out the most from the start, but I was impressed by the overall level of this team. They really did no mistakes honestly, the performance was perfect, but the emotional dimension was missing, and that's what made the difference. 

Moving on to team MayFly. The vocal team is composed only of main vocals: Eunkwang from BtoB, Jongho from Ateez, and Seungmin from Stray Kids. I think this performance was magical, it literally made me travel to another planet. I cried watching that performance, but they were tears of happiness. Seeing artists enjoying singing on stage is a beautiful thing to see. Eunkwang was smiling throughout the whole performance, he was so happy to guide his teammates as the performance went along, and we could sense that strong chemistry between the three members. This is my favourite performance of the whole competition hands down. I enjoy it when idols rap and dance, but singing has always been my sensitive point. I'm a sucker for vocals and harmonies, and god knows how heavenly those harmonies sounded. 

Conclusion of the first round of "No limit", team MayFly (Ateez, Stray Kids and BtoB) won all three battles. I find the voting system for this round boldly unfair. In what way a member of TRI.BE and Son Dongpyo are "experts"? Dongpyo is a baby, and TRI.BE just debuted. Yes, Donghae and Shinwon from Super Junior are experts, but not the others. I'm really pissed at Mnet for that. 

II. No limit round 2: Performances

Ikon

Ikon opened the second part of the third round "No Limit". In last week's preview, we were teased with Blackpink's LISA appearing on the show. Indeed, the queen herself featured on Ikon's version of Pretty Savage. I'm glad they went for a b-side, plus that song really fits the vibe of YG groups in general: powerful, sassy and energetic. I loved the song re-arrangement and the choreography, and the member's attitude is always ON POINT. I also love how they renamed the song to "classy savage". I wish we had seen Lisa on stage WITH Ikon (she appeared on a separate stage, she was just surrounded by back-up dancers), but the queen still nailed her part. I mean, it's really hard to find mistakes at this point, because all the groups are talented and they're all getting better and better because they're getting used to the competition now. I really have nothing bad to say about this performance.

Stray Kids

Moving on to Stray Kid's version of Blackpink's Ddu Du Ddu Du, mashed up with their hit "God's menu". To be honest, I really got confused at first with what seemed to be a giant rice cooker, and then I read somewhere that they were making references to the movie "Deadpool". If they were, I'm sorry but I never saw that movie ^^' That being said, I'm glad they transformed the whole song and turned it into theirs, not only by incorporating the "DU DU DU" part of God's Menu, but also by writing whole new rap verses and changing some of the lyrics of God's menu (e.g Felix's "5 star Michelin" part). That performance hyped me up like I never was before. The first thing that shocked me (in a good way) was Changbin's "drrr drr" and whatever else he says after that, combined with a pretty high pitch. The second thing that impressed me was I.N's dancing skills. Not only our Maknae (youngest) did some workout (damn his biceps, when did he have the time to build them), but he left a strong impression on me even though it was only for a couple of seconds. Lastly... the whole last part of the performance, from the appearance of the tank to the "STRAY KIDS WORLD DOMINATION!". I absolutely loved that stage, I found myself smiling like an idiot and just popping and vibing to that performance.  

I won't give a personal ranking for now because ranking only 2 performances over 6 would be unfair, so I'll wait until next week at least before giving my personal favourites. 

III. Episode 9 preview

Next week, we'll have four remaining performances: Ateez, SF9, The Boyz, and BtoB. BtoB's stage seems to have a jazz/musical vibe featuring (G)-Idle's Miyeon. Ateez is going to perform their title track "Answer", and it seems like they're going to do a ... "crossover"? I don't know what that means, nor who is that person on stage with them. SF9 is going to perform Taemin's move (I'm curious how they'll turn a soloist song to a group song), and The Boyz is going to perform EXO's "Monster". 

That's it for the debrief of Mnet's Kingdom episode 8! I'll see you guys next week for the debrief of episode 9. Until then, take care!

Love, Swan

 

Sources: Mnet's official YouTube channel.

~ Episode 7: No Limit (1) ~

Hello everyone! This time, we're going to debrief episode 7 of Mnet's Kingdom Legendary War. Before we start, I just wanted to tell you that I didn't debrief episode 6 because it was the "sports day" episode, and although I enjoyed it very much (the interactions between the groups were wholesome), I really didn't have the time to write about it. Plus, there were no performances, so I decided not to publish an article. Now, this week is the start of the penultimate round: Round 3, "No Limit". This round will be divided into two parts: The first part is the "No limit" between the groups. The groups have been mixed up (Ateez, Stray Kids and BtoB vs. The Boyz, Ikon and SF9) and will compete in dancing battles, singing battles, and rapping battles. For episode 7, we were shown the rapping and dancing battles, leaving the singing battle for next week (more on that in the last part of the article). So, I will first talk about the performances (I will provide my own personal favourites for each battle, but the official winners haven't been announced yet), and then we'll talk about the preview for next episode (which was a bit surprising to be honest). 

There are still people who are not understanding that this article engages me and myself only, and that the opinions I state here are mine, not anyone else's. And yes, I do have the right to be disappointed, angry, sad, etc. So please, keep in mind that this article is made of my PERSONAL OPINIONS. 

Without any further due, let's start!

I. No limit round 1: The battles 

1. Rap battle

This rap battle opposed 2 teams: Mayfly (3RACHA a.k.a Han, Changbin and Bangchan from Stray Kids, Hongjoong from Ateez, and Minhyuk from BtoB) and It's One (Bobby from Ikon, Sunwoo from The Boyz, and Hwiyoung from SF9). This battle was, to say the least, on fire. Both teams had extremely talented rappers. They all were relaxed on stage, making it seem easy (but we all know it wasn't). Let's start with It's One.

 

"It's One" team performed a song called "Full Dash". I wasn't surprised to see Bobby smiling and having fun all the time, because that's how was from the start and will still be. This man was born to rap on stage. Now I was amazingly surprised by Hwiyoung (whom I didn't know before to be honest). He nailed the opening of the performance, he was relaxed and his moves were natural. I just wished the track didn't have that much polishing (or autotune if you prefer). And, of course, Sunwoo. I knew what Sunwoo was capable of, and I'm glad he just showed it to the whole world in this performance. This kid (because he's born in 2000, just like me) is monstrously talented. What impressed me the most is that I enjoyed the performance without there being any props or any extravagant special effects. And in my opinion that's what makes a performer a good performer. A person that can fill the stage by his own presence. And they did that. 

Moving on to Mayfly. Mayfly is composed of Changbin, Han, Bangchan (a.k.a 3Racha), Minhyuk and Hongjoong. They performed a song called "물감놀이" (that translates into "Colours"). Once again the flow of the rap was seamless, but there's more melody to this song (the autotune is a bit too much in this song, more than "Full Dash" and we all know that they all can sing really well). I really appreciated Bang Chan's verse in English. I liked how they also used props (especially the face masks). Minhyuk's entrance was the key point of the performance, and the contrast between this (expensive) man and the huge paint brush he was carrying was hilarious. 

The mood of Mayfly's performance was more colourful and powerful (with some un-seriousness at the end which I love) while It's One's performance was really cool, sexy with a slight touch of fun. If I had to choose one winner, it would be ... drumroll... It's One with "Full Dash". Although I had fun with "Colours" (and everyone has amazing talent at this point), Full Dash was a bit more structured and it felt like watching "Show me the money" (a famous rap competition) once again. They had the Swag and seemed to have fun at the same time, it was the right balance between being relaxed and in control. But I think what made this battle really interesting is that all the participants are monster rappers. They ALL are amazing rappers. The difference is really small. 

2. Dance Battle

For the dance battles, we once again had team It's One (composed of Juyeon from The Boyz, Donghyuk from Ikon, and Taeyang from SF9) against team Mayfly (Felix, Lee Know, I.N, Yeosang, Yunho, Wooyoung, San, Seonghwa, and Peniel). Let's start with It's One and their version of EXO's "MAMA".

The song arrangement and the performance were perfectly in sync. I think they found the perfect concept for them. The historical themed performance had so much impact whether through the choreography, the facial the outfits or the facial expressions. Speaking of which, I was really amazed by this team's facial expressions and presence on stage, especially Donghyuk's. They really owned the stage and did their thing, it almost felt real, like it was taken from a historical drama scene. And just for that, they already won, because they made me travel. 

Moving on to MayFly's version of EXO's "Wolf". First of all, wolf is a pretty unconventional song to begin with. It has very heavy electronic sounds and very powerful (and high) vocals (small parenthesis, I already miss Baekhyun already, and I also miss Chen's vocals T-T). So, I was taken aback with the remake that was relatively "light" compared to the original, and removed that "heaviness" (especially in the chorus) that was at the essence of the song and of the choreography. Plus, the difference in number here is a bit too much, almost putting this team at a disadvantage. The more people you have on stage, the harder it is to be synchronised and to all have the same level of energy. And to be 100% honest with you, it was obvious that Peniel was a bit struggling to keep up the pace (and it's totally normal, considering that 4th generation idols were trained for this kind of performances when 3rd generation idols were not). I did enjoy this stage, don't get me wrong, but the performance wasn't consistent.

So, you might have already guessed who won this dancing battle for me, and yes it is It's One with their performance of EXO's Mama.

I asked you all on Twitter (follow me @baek_swan) to vote for your favourite performances for the rap & dancing battles. For the rap battle, 49 people voted, and the winner is, with 61.2% of the votes, team It's One with "Full Dash". For the dancing battle, 47 people voted, and the winner is, with 51.1% of the votes (really tight!), team It's One with "MAMA". 

II. Preview of episode 8

Next week we'll have the singing battle. Mayfly's team will interpret IU's "Love poem" and the preview sounds promising (the song in itself is already beautiful, and with amazing vocalists like Eungkwan, Jongho and Seungmin I'm sure we'll get something unforgettable), while It's One team will interpret Taeyeon's "Spark". They curiously insisted on the results of the singing battle, leading us to think that the results will be "surprising" (not the first time they do that, and I won't start thinking about different scenarios, let's just wait for the actual episode lol). 

Next week is also the start of part 2 of round 3. This time, there will be no limits to the genre, you can collaborate with someone and do a featuring, basically you can go crazy. What we know for now is that Ateez will have a powerful and crazy stage (like they always do, I wonder what crazy idea they came up with this time), that BtoB will have a jazz performance featuring Miyeon from (G)-Idle (in case you didn't know they are from the same company Cube entertainment), that we'll see abs in Stray Kid's and SF9's performances, that The Boyz will have a sleek choreography, and that Ikon will perform Blackpink's "Pretty Savage" featuring Lisa herself. I had previously heard rumours about Lisa appearing on the show, but I only trust what I see and there wasn't any hint or proof at Lisa participating so I ignored it. Now that we know it's true I am ... hyped up. Seriously, I cannot wait to see that stage. 

That's it for the debrief of Kingdom Legendary War episode 7! I'll see you all next week to debrief episode 8, and until then take care!

Love, Swan

 

Sources: Mnet's official YouTube channel.