Hey guys. Today I will be talking to y’all about Road to Kingdom. I will be giving my general thoughts on the show as well as showing my ranking for every round leading up to who I personally would have liked to see win in the end. Further, this will obviously not be spoiler free, so if you have not seen the show then stay away if you don’t want to be spoiled.
If you prefer to read my opinions instead of watching the video the rest of this post will basically be my exact script from the video (so no need to both watch and read). I know some people may prefer it that way so I decided to be nice to y’all.
My relationship to the groups
I am not a stan of any of the groups, and before starting the show I could only name tops 1-2 members per group, and there were several groups where I could name no one. I had also never heard of TOO, which I think was the case for a lot of people. I have listened the most to Pentagon, but have downloaded songs from all the groups except for The Boyz and TOO. So I can’t say that I had a super strong bias going in.
My ranking and judging
I made my own rankings for every round as I was watching, and when it was time to eliminate someone I combined the rounds’ rankings and made my own elimination ranking as well. I even weighted my rankings in the rounds that counted less or more, such as the collaboration round and the final comeback round. Look at me go. Now, how did I go about making my rankings? I couldn’t judge them on how well they were dancing, as it all looked good to me, and I don’t know enough about dance to tell the difference. Also, pretty much no one was singing live so good singing couldn’t really be a factor. So what ended up being the most important to me were three things. Number 1: How memorable the performance was. Aka did it stand out to me in the end? Number 2: the choice of concept. And number 3: how well they executed the concept. If they told me they were going to do a cool concept and then came up short that definitely counted against them. Other factors such as if the performance was more uneven in that some parts were kind of boring, and if all the cool moves were done by back-up dancers would also sometimes count against that performance. Good acting could definitely work in their favour.
General thoughts on show
Now I will give you some of my general thoughts on the show, before moving into my rankings in the different rounds.
Is this a dance competition?
First of all, I kept thinking to myself: “what exactly are they competing in?”. Clearly most if not all performances (except for the main vocals’ performance in the last episode) were mostly if not completely lip-synced. This makes sense since their dances were so insane. However, I think kpop generally has put too much emphasis on dance over vocals, which makes both kpop in general and this show feel like a dance competition. We already have dance shows, so I would have liked to hear more vocals on this show.
How much help are they getting?
I feel like what made a group win a round was cool choreography, a strong concept and a good rearrangement. And if I am not wrong, not all of the groups did any of that themselves. We see some groups work on choreography or rearrangement themselves, but we see other groups clearly getting outside help. I would have liked the show to be clearer on if everyone is getting this help or not, and what the rules are concerning this. I got the feeling that whoever had the best resources would win. I think pretty much any of the groups could have executed any of the performances, which means it was really the choreographers and producers competing.
The contestants are too similar
The previous point is especially true because as I was watching the show I had a hard time keeping the groups straight. They felt really similar to me. I brought this up in my last video, and a couple of people got mad in the comments. I was not trying to say that all boy groups in k-pop are the same, as I think some people took it, but the groups that competed in Road to Kingdom, as well as a fair number of others, give me very similar vibes. Almost none of the performances felt like they could only have been done by only that group. Compare this to Queendom, where pretty much every performance felt unique to that group. I don’t know if this is partly because the groups on Queendom were more well-established, but I think it could partially also be just the difference between boy groups and girl groups. I still argue, even if it made people angry last time, that when you compare boy groups to girl groups, boy groups are more similar to each other. I think that may have hurt the show, as I never felt that one group had a distinct thing going on that no one else could possibly do.
Less interactions between groups compared to Queendom
This show definitely felt less personable between the groups. Compared to Queendom we got way less interaction between the groups. I mean, that’s fine I guess, but I think the bonding between groups was a lot of people’s favourite part of Queendom. I would have liked to see more of that, and I at least hope to see it on Kingdom.
Unfair voting system?
I’ve seen people critiquing the voting system in some of the earlier rounds. I don’t mind that the groups themselves got to vote, as it is interesting to see their point of view. I do have to agree that the temptation to vote tactically, and for example put The Boyz lower, must have been large though. I like that they got fans from all the groups’ fan clubs to vote, but I do agree that 20 per fan club was maybe too few. And given that it was online there was really no reason that they couldn’t add more people. I don’t think it was a terrible voting system, but it wasn’t perfect either.
Potential for multiple winners
Okay, I will end on a positive note before moving into the rankings, so you don’t think I hated the show. I liked that there was the possibility of two groups moving on to Kingdom, even if it didn’t end up that way. It made it so that no group could ever give up, and it kept up the suspense right up until the end. That was a good choice, and I’d like them to keep that if they ever make another season. Or a Road to Queendom maybe?
Rankings
Now we move into the ranking portion of this post. I will be showing you my rankings for round 1, round 2, the collaboration round, round 3, my initial ranking of the comeback songs at first listen, and my ranking of the final performances. Also interspersed will be the first and second elimination rankings and a final ranking of what I think the final standing should have been. This will also reveal who my ideal winner would have been. I won’t explain every choice, but hopefully it will make sense based on the criteria I presented earlier in the video.
Ranking round 1
7. Verivery – Mansae
6. Oneus – Warrior’s Descendant
5. Golden Child – T.O.P.
4. TOO – Rising Sun
3. The Boyz – Danger
2. Pentagon – Very Good
1. ONF – Everybody
Ranking round 2
7. Oneus – Lit
6. TOO – Magnolia
5. Golden Child – Wannabe
4. The Boyz – Reveal
3. Pentagon – Shine + Spring Snow
2. ONF – We Must Love + Moscow Moscow
1. Verivery – Photo
First elimination ranking
1. ONF
2. Pentagon
3. The Boyz
4. Verivery
Tie for 5. TOO
Tie for 5. Golden Child
7. Oneus
So, this was my total ranking after the first two rounds. You can see that ONF had so far impressed me the most, and they were the leader in my heart. My choice for elimination was Oneus, which surprised me quite a bit. They were one of the groups that I had the strongest positive impression of going in to the show, but they really didn’t blow me away in either of the first two rounds. They did good, but others did better. As you may know though, Golden Child ended up being eliminated. They were not my number one choice, but I was okay with it.
Collab round ranking
3. Verivery & TOO – On
2. Pentagon & ONF – Kill This Love
1. The Boyz & Oneus – Heroine
Ranking round 3
6. Oneus – Be Mine
5. ONF – It’s Raining
4. Verivery – Gogobebe
3. The Boyz – Shangri-la
2. TOO – Hard Carry
1. Pentagon – Follow
Second elimination ranking
1. Pentagon
2. ONF
3. The Boyz
Tie for 4. Too
Tie for 4. Verivery
6. Oneus
At this point ONF had dropped a little in my eyes, and Pentagon were now my overall leaders. Once again, my choice for elimination was Oneus, even though their performance was my favourite in the collaboration round. I can’t quite put my finger on what it was that wasn’t clicking for me with Oneus… I think I found their performances too simple? Yet also too convoluted? It is really hard for me to say, and even if I liked their performance when I first saw it, I always ended up ranking them low. Of course, we know that TOO was the group that was actually eliminated. It was a little sad, but I was mostly proud of them for making it that far.
Comeback song ranking – first listen
5. Verivery – Beautiful-X
4. Oneus – Come Back Home
3. ONF – New World
2. The Boyz – Checkmate
1. Pentagon – Basquiat
Comeback round ranking
5. Oneus – Come Back Home
4. Verivery – Beautiful-X
3. ONF – New World
2. The Boyz – Checkmate
1. Pentagon – Basquiat
Final total ranking
1. Pentagon
2. The Boyz
3. Onf
4. Verivery
5. Oneus
Pentagon were my leaders going into the final round, and as they were my favourite in the comeback round (which counted for a lot of points) they ended up being my overall ideal winner. I am not at all surprised that The Boyz ended up winning though, as they had dominated in the early rounds, and have a slightly stronger fandom with more voting power than some of the other groups.
My rankings compared to theirs
In the first round my ranking was really similar to what it ended up being on the show, but after that I really lost my touch. I overrated some groups, and underrated others, when you compare it to how they ended up doing on the show. So I’d like to take some time now, before my concluding remarks, to touch on that.
Most “overrated”
I by far most overrated Pentagon. They were the group overall that I was the most off of where they actually ended up ranking. The only time I put them lower than they ended up being was in the collaboration round, which counted for less points anyway. I also overrated TOO a far amount, especially in round 3. I thought their performance of Hard Carry worked really well, but clearly people disagreed.
Most “underrated”
I most underrated Oneus and The Boyz. Oneus was my pick for elimination both times, but they never ended up getting the boot. I especially underrated them in round 2, where I ranked their performance of Lit last, and then it ended up being second. It really didn’t hit me the way it hit others, it seems. I also consistently underrated The Boyz, if not by as much as Oneus. The only time I ranked them first was in the collaboration round, which was the only time they didn’t come first or second. Except for that round I consistently ranked them about 3rd, but then they won with a really large margin, so I was clearly way off.
Most “correctly” rated
I most correctly rated Verivery, with only a slight hint of overrating. I was also fairly on the money for Golden child, who I slightly overrated, and ONF, who I slightly underrated.
Conclusion
I feel like this video may have come across as really negative of the show, but I actually did enjoy it. I didn’t enjoy it nearly enough as Queendom, which I was obsessed with, but it was a fun watch nonetheless. And while The Boyz wasn’t my ideal pick for the winner they did really impress me, and I will absolutely be cheering them on on Kingdom. I am super excited to see who else will go on Kingdom. I have no idea what caliber of group we will see. I just hope that we get to see more separate identities on Kingdom, so I don’t have to take notes to remember who’s who.
I realise this post is a bit weird, since it is just a slightly edited video script, but I hope that it was still of some use for the readers in the audience.
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