Road to Kingdom Season 2: Ace of Ace

The New Six
song: Phobia
Ace: Hwi

Tempest
song: Maniac
Ace: Lew

The New Six were the clear winner here. Even though Phobia was a side track with no official choreography, the creative stage direction was very similar to the style Stray Kids is known for, which I think made it a really successful cover overall. I loved the visual of the black hands reaching out. I felt like Tempest's vocals were not striking enough to pull off Maniac and I think they should have chosen a different song.

8Turn
song: Future Perfect
Ace: Yungyu

Younite
song: Bite Me
Ace: Eunsang

Another clear winner: Younite. It seemed that the members put in a lot of effort to come up with ideas for this stage, and it ended up being a really unique and engaging performance. Eunsang was fantastic and I think he will definitely be one of the most memorable Aces. The final scene where he emerges as the dark angel was awesome. The other members also did well, especially the vocals sounded perfect. 8Turn's performance was good too - I liked their dance break and thought Yungyu did well portraying a rebellious attitude - but it just wasn't enough to beat Younite.

Oneus
song: Kick It
Ace: Hwanwoong

The CrewOne
song: Watch It
Ace: Seunghwan

Cravity
song: Sugar Rush Ride
Ace: Hyeongjun

Almost forgot that ATBO is The Boyz' junior! Having TBZ themselves + their company to help with planning their cover was a major advantage! Apparently they made a mistake during the performance, but overall it was awesome, I loved the gothic aesthetic + vampire theme and could feel my eyes turning into hearts while watching lol 😍 I didn't realize Geonu had such good vocals but I was really impressed! Seunghwan did really well and I don't think he was too overshadowed. I do think it's really important to visually differentiate and highlight the Ace. Unfortunately it didn't help Seunghwan's ranking this time, but it may have given Hwanwoong and Eunsang an edge over Hyeongjun.

The other teams' performances were really good as well. I liked Oneus' Kingsman concept and appreciated their strong vocals. I disagree with the show's narrative that Hwanwoong carried the others, I think all the members did well and they all had incredible energy. I liked Cravity's focus on the hands in the choreography. I think having Taeyoung with Hyeongjun a lot and not visually differentiating them was not a great decision because it made Taeyoung seem like the Ace. As for vocals, Woobin was good but the team as a whole was not as impressive as Oneus and The CrewOne. I don't think Cravity deserved the win here and they basically won on popularity. Likewise, The CrewOne being very low was not deserved at all, but I'm hopeful their ranking will improve as more people learn who they are.

song: Tic Tac
Aces: Jaeyun, Myungho

8Turn went with their debut song and an ancient Egyptian theme, with Jaeyun as Anubis (god of the dead), Myungho as a deceased pharaoh, and the other members as spirits. Motivated by being in last place, they focused on improving their concept and making sure the Aces stood out this time.

song: Love or Die
Aces: Junhyeok, Kyungjun

TNX's performance progressed from a beautiful Swan Lake ballet-like theme to fiery passion at the end. Their use of ladders as props was very cool. However, not only were all the members dressed very similarly but the Aces were not separated enough, so it was rather confusing.

song: Love or Die
Aces: Minhee, Taeyoung

I liked Cravity's performance much better this time! The prop setup was relatively simple, relying a lot on the background visualizer instead, but the result was beautiful! They had a cool theme of being lightkeepers in the dark, and the ending with a thick shower of rose petals was especially striking ❤️ Taeyoung has a lot of charisma and is a good choice for Ace.

song: Waterfall
Aces: Eunsang, Woono

Younite made the bold choice to go with a refreshing and cheerful performance because they felt it reflected their identity better. While it was very nice, I felt like the different parts of the performance didn't really go together - Eunsang gets submerged in a waterfall, then they're doing a bright retro musical, then they're on the beach with fireworks, then they're back doing a musical but with different colors and candy canes??? Woono and Eunho are both adorable tho 💕

song: Get Away [Just B] x Attitude [ATBO]
Aces: Jimin, Junseok

I love Geonu's pep talks 😄 The CrewOne went with a Harry Potter school theme with magic tricks included in the choreography. I don't know much about Harry Potter but it looked really cool and all the members showed off their talents well. Jimin somehow made it through on an injured ankle! I somewhat disagree with the other groups' criticism that it didn't express their identity. I think it's not hard to extrapolate the ideas of independence and teamwork from the performance.

song: Eye of the Tempest x Can't Stop Shining
Aces: Hanbin, Hyuk

During the other groups' performances, MNet kept cutting to poor Lew looking like a deer in the headlights over and over 🤣 For this round Tempest went with an Alice in Wonderland theme. Visually it was not my style, but the members did well and had great cheerful energy. The moment of Hyuk dancing in the fairy dust was really memorable.

song: No Diggity
Aces: Hwanwoong, Seoho

Oneus went with a Mad Max theme where they were the battle musicians from Fury Road. You know, the bad guys... their identity is the bad guys?? lol... Anyway it was not my style, too crazy and over the top. Seoho's vocals were impressive though.

song: Sherlock [Shinee]
Ace: Junseok

The CrewOne chose a military theme with inspiration from the movie Saving Private Ryan. Their storyline was a mission to rescue Jimin, who injured his ankle in their last performance. They "pushed the limit" the most out of all the groups, including a helicopter rope entrance, a tank, and a plane crash! It was like watching a movie!

song: Jopping [SuperM]
Ace: Hyuk

Tempest chose a cyberpunk theme with inspiration from The Matrix. Hyuk did great considering he had pneumonia (!?!) Unfortunately there was a mistake at their big moment, but it looked like it was more the crew's fault than his. Overall it was still a really cool stage.

song: Armageddon [aespa]
Ace: Eunsang

Younite went for a post-apocalyptic theme, depicting themselves as a new breed of humans that are able to defeat zombies. One thing I loved about this stage was the way they used the backup dancers. Great choreography and creative stage direction. All the members were fully in the zone and gave fire performances 🔥 I also appreciated that they had a positive attitude while preparing rather than stressing out about their position.

8Turn went with the story of Narcissus oh but Narcissus is good actually we're so original 🤓 I hate the celebration of narcissism in Korean culture. Healthy self-esteem is good; narcissism is an abusive personality disorder that destroys people's lives 🖕

song: Luna
Ace: Seoho

Oneus went for a traditional Korean theme with hanbok, fans, and a storyline of doomed love between a human and a half-monster from Korean mythology. I'd say they pushed their limit with sheer quantity and variety of fans 😂

song: Overdose [Exo]
Ace: Serim

Cravity portrayed the concept of overdose with the members being addicted to some kind of toxic gas, as well as thick black venom seeping through their veins. The venom effect was accomplished with magnetic fluid and while that was cool, as well as the burning tree at the end, I felt like there wasn't much that expressed the concept of pushing the limits in some way, like in the other groups' performances.