Kpop survival show that is totally unnecessary.

I personally didn't enjoy this show at all and didn't see the point behind it airing.
To start with the groups they casted...
I know that Msnake had problems casting groups and got rejected by various groups so I kind of understand the messy line-up.
But in my opinion they should just have stopped after Road to Kingdom finished.
I feel bad for The Boyz, as they worked hard to win RTK but I just couldn't see in how far any of the groups that participated in Kingdom have gained anything from Kingdom.
The groups, beside The Boyz, Ateez and Stray Kids, had absolutely nothing to do with each other and I think one could see that.

Starting with BtoB.
I really love Btob as a group and I love their music...But why were they in this show?
They are a 10 year old group that has found their unique music style and place in the industry. They don't really need new fans because they have a loyal fandom.
So what did they gain?
Maybe they did have an amazing chemistry with the Mayfly Team, yeah, but they were a little out of place because of their vocal focused performances. I still loved all their performances but wished a group that needs more attention could have competed on Kingdom instead.

I'm very sorry, but I didn't see why iKON was on this show.
They didn't seem to have the motivation to prepare for the stage and had an overall vibe of simply being there to show that they are still there.
I wasn't impressed by their performances at all and thought that they aren't taking this show seriously.
After their Classy Savage performance which featured Blackpinks Lisa I lost hope of them having a nice stage.
Them bringing Lisa into the game without creatively changing Pretty Savage and her part greatly disappointed me.
It seemed like they were trying to gain fame of Blackpinks success without doing much for it. (Sorry If I understood it wrong, but that's the impression they made on me...)

For SF9...I feel truly sorry for them.
I didn't see why FNC made them participate while they have tons of individual schedules.
They were definitely good and I enjoyed their performances quite a lot. The thing with SF9 was (for me), that because of all their individual scheduels they didn't have enough time to practice together which I think is really sad.
I feel like SF9 deserved a lot better and did a better job than what the ranking gave them.

Coming to The Boyz.
This may be a bit biased as I really loved and enjoyed their performances in RTK and Kingdom.
I feel bad for them being compared to their past performances and getting so muc pressure form everone to be just as good as they were on Road to Kingdom.
They didn't have a proper pause from promotions and survival shows for the last year and it personally broke my heart to see them ranking so low throughtout the whole show.
They didn't deserve to be treated like this after working so hard to earn a spot in Kingdom.

I do sincerely love Stray Kids, their music and performances but I didn't enjoy them as much as I wished to.
I actually don't know how they got all the money for the props and insane stage designs which stood out in Kingdom for all groups but especially fot Stray Kids.
This grand stage design and mass of dancers made their performances seem a bit messy to me and sometimes I couldn't grasp what was going on.
I know that they are going through a though period because of the whole thing with Hyunjin but I expected something that showcases their obviously existing talents more than something showy and centered around two to three members.
Not saying that their performances were bad or that they didn't work hard, they definitely were amazing.

Last , but not least, Ateez.
I wanna start by saying that I think that they are amazing performers and that I'm rarely disappointed by them.
Their stages on Kingdom were grand. Maybe to grand for their own good?
I'm not sure how to say this but I feel like they tried to keep a storyline with this hourglass but sadly they kind of failed to portray the connection despite it being shown at the start or end of their stages.
They had various concepts but for once I wished that they didn't try to do so much..?
i personally could't connect their performances and couldn't enjoy them fully because there was something going on in every corner of the stage, which isn't directly bad.
I just wished they could have had more clear concepts, especially in the final and 3rd round.

Overall I must say that I think that the idea the program was made with. the "Legendary War" thingy was terrible.
I like watching Road to Kingdom and Queendom because they were easy going and not focused on the ranking.
The ranking was also incredibly messy and extremely weird. Why exactly did they have to annouce every single category on it's own and not just the ranking alltogether?
The tenison this method created wasn't only bad for the artists who had to see their name jump from place to place but also for the fans who just worked hard to give their groups great results.
Additionally I didn't get the whole system with the points because the final ranking was totally different from the ranking in the previous round.
Did they add the points they earned in all the rounds to the streaming ranking and final voting ranking or did they just add th final streaming and voting?
Another thing that greatly annoyed me was the stretched episodes bad editing overall.
Some groups got all the screentime while other groups or members got shown for like a second in each episode or only got screentime when they made a mistake on stage.
Other that the Mayfly Team which was made of Skz, Ateez and Btob I didn't feel the chemistry between the teams.
The team It's One seems truly awkward and made me feel like they don't really want to work with each other because they went into the show with different mindsets.
Bobby was too easygoing which was shown in the rap collab with Bobby, Sunwoo and Hwiyoung while Sunwoo was just fanboying and Hwiyoung was either tired or didn't agree to the concept that Bobby kind of forced onto their unit.

This leads me to my final conclusion that the teams didn't really fit each other and that this show had a way too competive vibe which compeletly destroyed the atmosphere of this show.
They should have stopped after Road to Kingdom.

But congratulations to the winnners and fans and thank god that this hell of a show is finally over.
Btob andMelody, iKOn andikonic, SF9 andFantasy, Stray Kids and Stay, The Boyz and Deobi and Ateez and Atiny...
You worked hard.
Good job to everyone

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Disappointed but not suprised

Honestly, after hearing that there will be a second season I wondered what it would be about as I thought that S1 ended on a good note without any plot left to discuss. I didn‘t have the highest of expectations going into this season, even though the cast is incredible and I love seeing a lot of them act.
I personally think that in terms of the storyline this season was quite one dimensional, not going into the detail of why the bad guys are doing their stuff, nor having a explanation for the very overpowered Ma Juseok. The close bond and history of lots of the new characters relationships remained questionable for me, for the expeption of Dohwi and Jaeyoul.
Something I really liked about S1 was the fact that the characters seemed to be genuinely close to each other and that closeness not being based of one single event in their past like it was for Mun and Juseok. Over time I got very bored of the endless „Juseok is good because of the incident with my grandmother“ and then them being as close as family. Also the bad guys, especially Pilkwang did not seem like they had any purpose exeot being bad. No reason for their action, not insight in how they got so strong and havent ben noticed, nothing at all. I feel like Gelly got a little better with her attachment thingy and rivalry eith Hana, but Pilkwang lacked any relevance other than being super strong.
Another thing that got really really repetitive is the use of telekinesis. Like, I get that it is the new strong power and so on but all the choking and throwing each other around got old real quick. I must admit at this point that I wasn‘t half as invested in the fighting scenes as I was in S1 ans that the final fight and summoning felt extremely underwhelming to me.
Additionally, Wigens daughter and the new counter and guide guy could have been explored way better by putting more context into their situations and more substance to their characzer other than being comedic relief.

Other than that I think that the OSTs were great (although I prefer the S1 ones a little personally) and despite the underwhelming and boring writing the acting was, as expected very nice.

I just hope that they won‘t go through with another season, though it seems like there will be another one.

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