#week later and im still salty about shiryu and ivan

[knize-strachkvas]

okay so i decided i'll update this with every other episode so it's time for ep5&6.

first, i need to admit that my initial plan not to get attached went out of the window after i fell in love with nam seunghyun. it's all his fault. even before i watched the fifth episode i made an account on idol+ so i could vote :)) yes, im ashamed of myself but as i said, its all about not let the red flags in. what can i say. i'm very invested now.

so ep5. it was very underwhelming episode for me. they sprinted through the elimination announcement and i would be pissed about the ranking if i wasn't prepared from all the produce season i watched before.

the fact that ksoul got even higher ranking then before makes me physically ill. but with all the people noticing his very questionable attitude i have hope he will be gone. my theory is, that the editors are giving him so much screen time so we can hear all the shit he is saying behind the camera and get rid of him as fast as possible. also him dancing thunderous right in front of lino, saying how he loves the song and then dancing the choreo wrong is a pure comedy. especially when a few weeks prior he was openly hating the song and not wanting to be on the team. pick a struggle my dude srsly. (on the other hand, one member of my defenestration club is out so that's a good start)

now, the 3rd semester mission. the fact that they always do some sneaky little mission that is a clue for the main mission of the semester is cool. the way they chose the team this time was chaotic but made the teams more interesting. (the only bad thing is that they made it easy for the popular trainees to gather in one team or the less popular trainees to stick with the more popular trainees - which to be fair is a pretty good strategy especially when the whole team gets the benefit this time).

so this is my top 12 post ep5. seunghyun and jinho are my bestest bbies, i love them the normal amount i swear. also myungjae has special place in my heart.

(so a little side note. before watching ep6 i found out that both ivan and shiryu left the show. in both cases, i understand why they did that and im extremely salty. with the way they treated ivan (and lingqi), i don't blame him he wanted to get away. and shiryu is the best dancer with the best education there, an actual adult and just a good trainee overall and people ignoring him bc he is not that popular? uugh i am angry. you could see that the other trainees were looking up to him and took him as one of the best dancers there :)

also side note no.2, why the fuck we can still vote for them in the app? like do they think we will not know who left even when the ep was not aired yet? lol ok. anyway i need to pick two other trainees to put in my top12)

a week later and i just watched ep6 and idk, maybe i'm just getting way too tired of the whole thing but i was not really impressed. im still angry at all the people voting for literal kids that should be at school and not going through this whole circus. all the people during the live performances voting for the youngest trainees and ignoring all the talented 18+ trainees have a special place in hell srsly. im pissed, im salty and, most importantly, im so fucking done with this whole bullshit lol (i will still watch it tho bc i hate myself and as i said, im invested. and im not able to shut up)

anyway, the performances. the songs were all good but i don't think that performing a song produced by one of the mentors there was fair to the team. if all of the picked songs were produced by some of the mentors, who would be monitoring the team and giving them useful advice- that would be cool. but there was only one song like that which was just unfair. the amount of pressure? no, thank you :)

i watched them all right after the stages were released and shoot out team was my favourite. the fact that they were all pushed out of their picked teams and ended up in this one is funny to me bc they were really good. (my favs jinho, seunghyun and myungjae in one team again lol)

shiryu deserved so much better and everybody there knew it. the audience being oh so shocked when he ranked low WHEN THEY WERE THE REASON FOR IT?? fuck you srsly (one of the trainees saying that it was a popularity ranking (not skills ranking) was so right)

ksoul chosing rap position and then having like two (really bad) lines was the karma i was waiting for. he was so fucking salty when they were dividing the lines :)) (and then ending in 2nd place bc people there are stupid lol) on the other hand, hyunbin was the best team leader, trying to make the team work as a whole. you can clearly see he knew what he was doing.

alsoo hyeonggeun winning the rap position is THE redemption ark ever. i would not be surprised if the boy is going to be in the final line up. he is amazing and he deserves the best

okay think thats it for this round. i dont remember who will be eliminated and who left but im waiting to be very disappointed. this is my current top12. i added jaemin and minseo after shiryu and ivan were so rudely taken away from me. (i still think that there are so many good choices. talented trainees that are not minors and are not walking red flags. but for some reason people are so adamant to vote for minors and ksoul...why) honourable mention of ep6 is ha seokhee. i have no idea why. like i cant remember why he stood out to me but when i was putting together the ranking, his name rang a bell...who knows why but it did. so, you go ha seokhee !

so under the influence of local anaesthetics and pretty strong painkillers, i made the very questionable decision to watch fantasy boys. it was a mistake and you're going to suffer with me.

first things first. i dont think the editing is bad? surprisingly it doesn't look like they are trying to evil edit some trainees? which is surprising and it also shows how low the bar is lmao (im looking at you mnet).

the first two eps were okay. they showed a lot of performances without evil editing them that much? i hated the way they made myungjae look incompetent but he was the only one used for the drama value? i think? as i said i was not really focused while i was watching it lol. also the way they sorted them to the grades using the id card was very dramatic and i like the idea

the most questionable thing is the dorm situation. that one trainee saying it look like the squid game room was not far from the truth lmao. them sleeping in one big room is just creepy, especially when they don't really switch the light off during the night in the halls?? i would not be able to fall asleep in such an open space. and them having to spend their free time there? nope NOPE :D

their idea for the visual battle was cool. them knowing only the visual concept and choosing without knowing the song was evil. and the songs seemed equally impactful. whoever chose them did a good job.

now the participants. maybe im just way too old but why does it seems like the majority of the trainees have an extremely huge ego? i know that this is survival show and pretending you are better than you actually are and creating an interesting persona is literally part of their job but boiiiii its so annoying? i have zero interest in stanning a 15yo who thinks they're best at absolutely everything while lacking a basic human decency. idk im just not vibing with this attitude. most of the teams had very bad teamwork bc they are all self-centric and not able to cooperate with the rest of the team. they are all there to become a part of a boy group. that's literally an endless group project where you need to be in close proximity with your teammates 24/7. sounds like hell but as far as i know they all went there willingly.

mentioning annoying participants, it's time for the defenestration team, also known as the participants somebody should throw out of the window as the human garbage they are. the honourable members of this excellent team are the stealer team (except for ivan, ling qi and wooseok) and ksoul. the stealer team is here for obvious reasons. they are a bunch of xenophobic idiots. yes, if you're already debuted idol in korea and you can't speak korean at all - that would be a problem. but neither of the chinese boys was already debuted idols and they still have time to perfect their korean. they were just a bunch of insecure meanies who were jealous that some foreign kids were better than them. and with ksoul. god, i can't stand the kid. well....kid. uhm how old is he really? that's the real question here lmao. anyway, ksoul is an annoying, arrogant and self-centred jerk that does not have an ounce of will to cooperate in his body. that boy is not fit to be in a boy group consisting of 12 members. he needs to be permanently the centre of attention, being the best and not having any competition. having him in a team would be a punishment to the rest of the team.

other trainees i would love to talk about santa and yacht (no i will not call him yaya). wabi sabi what the actual fuck. why. i have so many questions. (ksoul immediately knowing who they are was the only funny thing ksoul did on that show). with santa, i kinda get it. he is good, his skills on the same level as some of the other trainees and there is a potential for him to blend together perfectly. but yacht? he is the oldest here and his skills are lacking in every way possible. i read somewhere that yacht is there just to accompany santa and that sounds about right to me. them leading the global voting even before the 1st ep airing just showed that having a solid fanbase (consisting mainly of bl fans) can do a lot. the ranking was not deserved at ALL, especially yacht's. (would also like to mention that being on a survival show and having to communicate constantly in a language you're not familiar with is hard and all the foreign trainees are brave for going for it. the stealer team situation just proves it. and the fact that they actually show it there is a miracle.)

right now (ep4) this is my top 12. surprisingly, after only 4 episodes, there are a lot of trainees that are a good choice for the debuting team. it's more about not letting the red flags (aka the defenestration team) debut and not giving them more attention than is necessary. top3 caught my attention during 1st episode (i knew junwon from &audition), the rest of them did great during the visual battle, especially jinho, seunghyun and myungjae.

okay that's it for now. can't believe i now need to watch eight (?) more episodes. i love to make myself suffer :))