I ended up watching gp999 ep 10

[miltokki]

despite the train wreck that was episode 9, I'm apparently a masochist and subjected myself to watching the next episode...

I actually forgot about the stream, so I missed the shoot performance, and half of the utopia performance but then again I feel like I didn't miss much? it's weird, maybe it's because it wasn't with a live audience? but this "creation" mission where the girls are given a song of their own, it felt underwhelming - like they were covering someone else's song, and that they were doing it lifelessly. on other produce shows (including the ones in china), these stages are designed beautifully as if the girls are making a debut. but in this episode, there was no effort towards the design, with the same old effects they've been using since episode 1.
this brings me to the obvious issues that i immediately picked up on:

• the girls look tired. actually I watched an uploaded video of liana qiao's (one of the eliminated contestants) livestream on a chinese platform. she mentioned several things about the evil editing, and the overworking of the girls. they'd film for like 20 hours with no breaks, the girls get sick and mnet uses that to their creative advantage. in qiao's case, they made it look like she was crying because her twin sister wouldn't get the moves right. why am I bringing this up? some of the girls are looking so worn out, and it's more obvious now that most of the other trainees have been eliminated. I actually think chaehyun and su ruiqi are unwell, and now mnet are using it to evil edit ruiqi because they are closeted sinophobics.
• the talent pool has never looked so dry. it's getting dull, and the performances are getting lacklustre because the really good above average trainees have been eliminated, or kicked out by mnet. a song (utopia) dedicated to the show's top vocalists just sounded like "A song". it's a shame. and I can't believe they voted out shana from the vocal song. one of the best vocalists remaining on the show. it makes no logical sense. a great vocalist and a member of the top9. and they kept yeseo. yeseo is a good performer and dancer but her vocals are just okay. she would've been perfect in u + me = love but oh well. I won't complain about shana being in the winning team together with my bae suyeon.
• the songs. don't get me wrong, in every produce show, there is always one song that is objectively bad, and one song that is significantly better or the one that goes viral (for example, "Monday to Sunday" vs "move" or "u got it" in pdx101) but this time, for the first time, all the songs were objectively mediocre in my opinion, with "snake" being the one that should sound best to me, but just fell flat in the performance (it was probably the way mnet edited it). i say this while everyday I hear "baem baem baem" in my head everyday.
• the sinophobia. oh come on. this show is more of a drama on how c trainees are bullies that terrorise the other trainees and how the k trainees go through character development and learn to stand up to the c trainees, and how they protect the j trainees who otherwise don't know what to do with themselves. it's so frustrating to watch, especially when you realise that the Chinese trainees came onto this show expecting to suffer a bit, just to actualise their dreams. it started with yaning, then with liang qiao, yale and the cai bing terror arc and now su ruiqi. for the c trainees, they've only ever had two options: bully or untalented. they couldn't do the bully arc with xiaoting so they tried the untalented route and it didn't work. I will not be surprised to watch them push xiaoting from first place to maybe second in favour of their favourite. it breaks my heart.

this is getting depressing so I'll just move on to the performances I did watch, and the rest of the show.

utopia
I don't quite know where they're going with the chaehyun arc, I find it quite unnecessary and I cannot tell whether they're trying to sabotage her or not. I think she's tired to be honest. Also I feel so bad for bora and her fans. you can tell she was meant to be eliminated a long time ago, but mnet have been stringing her along because she plays two important roles: she's probably the best vocalist on the show, so they need her to deal with the issue of lacklustre performances mentioned above. and she trains the other girls (I will not get into my anger over my discovery that the so called mentors actually never see the girls. I no longer take their comments seriously, and I'm sad to say I can't look at sunmi the same way anymore with her remarks leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. again, maybe it's evil editing). but yeah bora is getting used by mnet and they'll discard her when they're done.

u + me = love
it's just a pop song. but I was rooting for this team since jeongmin was in it before she left, and because suyeon got kicked into it. I'm so happy to see her in the spotlight as the center because DESERVED and she's been so so underrated throughout the show. her getting kicked out from team snake really irked me because I actually think she suits the concept the most, even more than all the other girls. I really don't want to fall into haterism but she was better suited than xvz qnlrba but no mnet and probably the girls had this belief that they couldn't function without a leader that could teach them the moves step by step, DESPITE the fact that individually, all these girls are more than capable of doing it themselves. qnlrba wasn't meant for team snake, she didn't even want to be in team snake, but mnet was gonna make her look good at the expense of the other girls looking bad so yeah. it's okay. suyeon killed it in u + me = love, got a good edit, won, and she was in a team with a good ambiance for the very first time, and she was with mashiro, shana and kotone my baes. so what more could I ask for? they did really well, and mashiro is a great leader, the best on the show despite what mnet is trying so hard to disprove imo.
note: youngeun rubs me off the wrong way.

snake
before jumping into how mnet did the c trainees so dirty, I would like to profess my love for shen xiaoting. she can step on me and I'd be extremely grateful. hikaru slays as usual, but once again she never wins. can you believe she's never been on a winning team? goes to show that mnet can't touch her. anyway, I think they were supposed to win, but they're a predominantly Chinese team, completely save for one Korean member who happens to be their leader. a bit concerning to both sides considering the obvious language barrier. but yeah, this means that mnet were obviously out to sabotage them because how could they resist? I believe that ruiqi is unwell, and now they're making her look like a monster. they've given up on cai bing now that she's guaranteed elimination. one week before the performance, the mentors (who NEVER checked up on them beforehand (I think only mihawk did and that was once to team u+m)) decided that it was the best idea for them to switch main vocals, and so yaning and ruiqi had just a week to relearn and master completely different parts, and with the added pressure, and ruiqi being unwell, it was a train wreck. now they both look bad. the grounds for changing main vocals was the way ruiqi sang "baem baem baem" that was too dull for the mentors. the part she switched to also had the same "baem baem baem" in it so what was the point?? a solid performance is better than a botched one. the mentors made a mess, and watched it with disappointed faces and I felt so irked. kudos to xiaoting for covering up the mistakes with her awesome performance. they can't bring her down. also can you tell the mentors just #dislike ruiqi? I still enjoyed the performance regardless and it's the only one I rewatched after the show. but I can't watch it because yaning's mistake throws me off. LIKE THIS COULD BE ANOTHER RUMOR WITH THE WAY XIAOTING ATE BUT THAT MISTAKE RUINS IT T__T

there's one last mission before the finals and it's the "o.o.o" mission where they make groups of 9 and they perform the theme song. I saw the performances on youtube but refused to watch when I saw that mnet put all the popular trainees in one group. ruins the fun.

haven't done this in a while but here's my ideal top 9

• kim suyeon
• ezaki hikaru
• shen xiaoting
• sakamoto mashiro
• nonaka shana
• su ruiqi
• fu yaning
• kim dayeon (this is looking ironic I know)
• kim chaehyun (she's a great singer... no other reason)

by the way this looks, the chances of me stanning the final group are slim, especially since it's not likely that my ult pick suyeon will make it. might just become a hikaru/xiaoting/mashiro/shana solo stan, you know, while waiting for jeongmin, suyeon and jia that I'll support for life.

so am I going to watch the next episode? even if I say no, I'll most likely still watch it. I am anyway, after the suyeon resurrection edit I'm definitely gonna hope it remains in the long run, without entering the cursed zone of angel editing where you end up disliking her