#i just think that its a bit overkill to try and drown your popstar boys to get them to feel a specific and nuanced emotion

[sanstropfremir]

okay, so i watched the entire kingdom ep. and it made enjoy sf9's performance more. initial watch i didn't know they were referencing tbz's danger where they stole the crown and that sf9 was stealing it from them in this cover. i was confused like ateez when they kept asking wait what is happening and like oh is that what this means? i think there were a lot of moving parts and although they were more cohesive compared to the other groups, it did fall a bit flat for me at the end (like you mentioned). supposedly they referenced new world (kmovie) - i never watched it but luckily the overall concept and storyline of their stage was easy to understand. i liked the different outfits each member wore!! i think that was my favorite thing about their performance, despite it being all different it was still cohesive and highlighted each member. i'm still :( about their use of guns in the choreo. i felt like during some parts, the members did not know what to do with them and it just felt awkward. it was okay during their group dance but still, i felt like they could have used it more.

ahh thank you for coming back!!! i love hearing what other people think of the stages since i have such a specific viewpoint and i overlook things all the time! 

i also watched the full episode yesterday and somehow, mnet actually did a pretty good job of showing the level of effort and detail that sf9 put into their stage! actually calling up and getting lessons from not just an actor but a musical theatre actor was like, possibly the best decision they could have made, because he basically told them everything i’ve been yelling about to my lil audience of 5 here. acting lessons > drowning. this stage is massive improvement for them, especially since it's only the second(!) time they've worked on something of this scale (the first was last round’s stage). and they've still got room to grow, which is perfect. the fact that they're taking this silly pop song competition as a serious opportunity to improve their skills is really admirable and shows they have a real respect for the work that goes into the industry of entertainment. but i also hope that they don’t take the whole rankings nonsense to heart because its rigged as fuck and not worth the stress. i also hope we get to see them expand into that confidence they exude a little more and do a stage more lighthearted, where they get to visibly have fun, because ikon really does have the right idea in that you truly can't take this trash fire of a program that seriously.

i think there’s an important difference to note here in how sf9 approached applying theme to their stage versus how tbz is applying theme. sf9 applied genre first, and then lightly referenced specific films on top of that basic foundation, whereas with tbz they start with a name brand and have to build down from there. i vaguely hit on kind of this point in my review but if you have a strong genre foundation it’s easier for the audience to suspend their disbelief, because they can draw on what they understand the tropes to be from their own references, and then if you did want to add some easter eggs in over the top, they aren't necessary for viewer understanding but for those who recognize them it’s a fun lil dopamine hit. if you start from a specific reference, you then either lose your audience right away because they don't know what’s happening, or you’re constantly fighting against the audience’s ability to draw a direct comparison between the two. now you can purposefully use an audiences’ perception of particular reference or genre to subvert their expectations, like in the 2018 robin hood movie with jamie foxx and taron egerton. is it a good movie? absolutely not, it's garbage, but it does have some spectacular takes on medieval fantasy costuming that are fascinating and it successfully manages to look nothing like every other robin hood movie ever made. is it mostly over the top and very “makes you think” meme? yes, but the impulse is in the right place and also this is the first example i thought of because i was thinking about quilted flak jackets yesterday, so sue me. and yes if you are wondering i do purposefully watch bad movies for fun.

as far as the gun choreo, i totally agree with you. i mentioned this when talking about minhyuk’s sword choreo but the physical and figurative weight of a weapon are integral to how it operates in space. some of the gun choreo looks awkward because a) the guns themselves are being used a bit carelessly to how we (as predominantly western viewers) are accustomed to seeing them, and b) they’re obviously fakes and not heavy enough, so the members’ movements aren’t in sync with what we expect their movements to be because our brains understand what it means to move with weight. it's like how you can tell someone is pretending to drink out of an empty paper cup, because their movements reflect that the cup is too light. acting the weight of something is a very difficult skill and there’s a reason mime schools exist, so i wasn’t expecting that level from sf9 at all and i thought they did well regardless of the visual tip off. in comparison, let's use the gun choreo in the ateez stage, because i’m still not over it and i want an excuse to watch it a few more times. why did we not find what seonghwa did awkward or out of place, especially when they used a shotgun sound effect for a rifle and we all know you can't load a bolt action rifle by spinning it around? because the gun itself is a proper weighted replica. also the orange tip, which is required on replica stage weapons. but look at the difference in speed in how the dancers move with their rifles versus how seonghwa moves with his. look at the visible thud that it makes when it hits his shoulder. it really is the smallest details that can make or break the experience. also something something camp has a wider threshold of suspension of disbelief. also the gun choreo had a specific intention within the narrative yadda yadda. sf9 was missing some of that specific intention in a few places, so there could have been some changes to give the guns more weight (literally and figuratively).

also yes sf9 has a killer styling team so far and i’m curious to see what they bring out next!!