[Official] SPARTACE COUPLE KimJongkook-SongJiHyo

[htttt]

Watched EP302, there are some sweet spartace moments, which has been discussed widely in main spartace fanbases. 
I can somehow sense that probably the PD is trying to revive MC. MC was made to do the fishing mission together. During the mission, there were captions like  어부 커플 (fisherman couple), 부창부수 (an Korean idiom means a wife to follow a husband's lead, but in the latest episode, it meant the reverse).
Not sure how is this related to the end of WAIL, the last episode was aired yesterday. But if the PD were to bring back MC, why showed us the spartace moments in the last few episodes. This really confused me. Really hope Jihyo and the PD will make the right move.

[dragonlovers]

Watched the episide. Feels like PD is trying to push MC again...even they are not in the same team, they are doing the mission seperately from others. The 'pop up' wordings used to describe them are also more on the couple side. As we know that HaHa is afraid of catching chicken from pervious episode (JH helped him to catch a chicken at last even JH and HaHa were not in the same team), I originally think that he will be assigned to catch fish... Nevertheless, we still need to watch few more episodes to identify where the show is heading.

Nice to see the way JK comforted JH. When my close friend (male friend) comforted me before, he pat my shoulders and grab my hand but never grab with both hand and rub on me. I would definitely feel strange if he did so. It is really an act to show that they are closer than being just close friends. So I was a bit suprise when JK takes initiative to do that, especially in front of carema.

[Guest athoughtcloud1]

Agree with you both @htttt and @dragonlovers. They didn't use the word 'Monday Couple', but there were a few things there that made me wonder whether there was going to be an attempt to start a re-packaged Monday Couple concept. There was no need for JH and Gary to do the fishing mission alone. Not only is Haha really aftaid of catching hens, he was the winner in the last fishing mission they did (in the dangerous unanimity race). Wouldn't it have made better sense to have a HaGa faceoff? Then there was all that  romantic BGM when their mission was going on. At the end of the mission, Gary asks JH 'what are you doing next week?' , then says 'I will face you again next week" and when she leaves in the boat, repeats "I will see you next week".  Wonder whether JH is going to be positioned as this great rival Gary can't beat to put them in more future missions together.  In the last two episodes, Gary and JH have been paired up for their missions (the last one was understandable, but this one happened though they were on two different teams and didn't really need to do it alone).

During the name-tag ripping, Gary brings up their past as the Monday couple as the reason why he doesn't want to rip JH's name-tag (Gary hasn't mentioned MC in a couple of episodes now - so this seemed to me a way of getting linked up with JH again by talking about their common past). We have to wait and watch. I really hope these are just stray remarks and do not mean anything big. If RM will do MC again, it won't be a full out cheesy MC (since that route is closed and the k-netz see it as fake), but a more subtle one where there will be enough interactions for the MC fandom to remain happy (even if JH doesn't say anything, just the fact that Gary is happy to do missions with her will be enough?). RM is taking in new crew like the new sub-PD, so I hope they don't stick to old concepts again. I have no problems with Gary and JH doing missions together, but just don't put them together all the time. The only logical reason why perhaps Haha was not sent to do the fishing mission was coz he was needed there to make the parts with the guest more entertaining. So I will give this episode some benefit of doubt and watch the future episodes closely.

The saddest thing even with SA on the same team was that the missions which she did with her team didn't get aired. Once the fishing mission was done, she was on the farm with her team. But we never got to see any of her interactions with her own team members there. I wish they had made use of the existing team combinatons instead ( I would have loved to see Haha with spartace - they have worked together well in the past).

I wish the PD had introduced the 'pepper-bomb' concept in a name-tag ripping where only the members were there. Having inexperienced guests in an already daunting name-tag ripping with new rules does lead to anti-climactic situations like this (none of the RM members were even trying to rip each other's tags and then bam! it ended). Again, problems with the editing remain. The members were made to do many missions for this episode, but only a few made the cut (I can't really believe nothing happened on the farm mission that was worth airing ). 

[linzer03]

@athoughtcloud1 I agree with pretty much everything you said. I think they spent way too long on certain missions only to not show others. I'm not a fan of this episode (though it did have its funny moments) for that reason. I also don't like it when the cast split up for too long and they didn't show the mission where the cast were altogether.

I thought the rivalry thing between MC was interesting. Them going out on the boat together may have been planned by the staff or KG and SJH may have chose to go together for the benefit of the guest. The only real answer to our questions about the return of MC is "time will tell" - but in the meantime, we can speculate. It's possible that part of the reason we're seeing MC is because old habits die hard. Even if the PD wanted to get rid of MC, he can't obliterate it entirely. It's a huge part of RM's history (as we saw in the 300 episodes). KG is used to Monday Boyfriend as part of his character and saying semi-flirtatious things to SJH in front of the RM cameras may be habit more than anything else. Him saying "see you next week" could really just be two friends/coworkers saying goodbye and we're making a way bigger deal out of it than we should have. But right after the brain scans of MC, KG and SJH might have been overly conscious of their interactions and now we're seeing that overly-consciousness fade. They have spent a lot of time standing together and being on the same team on RM over the past few years so things like that are probably habit/natural to them even when they're not being instructed to do so by a PD. 

KG and SJH were each others primary dynamic in the cast for so long that its probably difficult for them to suddenly lose that partnership. Think of the Love and War episode where the cast members were given meaningful pairings. YJS and KJK, which makes sense, I would have picked them as each others most meaningful partner among the cast. LKS and JSJ, whose characters were helped a lot by the creation of the Easy Brothers. SJH and KG, who are the Monday Couple and have existed since the early episodes. HH is the only one paired outside the cast (with his wife), but I think HH doesn't have a significant partner to his character in the way that the others do, but HH has good dynamics with all of the cast members. But KG and SJH have always been each others go-to since the early days. In a way, their dynamics with the rest of the cast has suffered because they've been forced to rely so heavily on one another. KG had Monday Couple (with SJH) and Ugly Brothers/Two Kids/Rivals (with HH). Those are his only named dynamics. SJH has more pairings with Monday Couple (with KG) Candy Alliance (with YJS), KwangMong Siblings (with LKS), HaHyo Siblings (with HH). Her and KJK don't actually have a named alliance (maybe Ace Team) and neither does she and JSJ despite being partnered so often. We've seen in 2015 her relationships with the other members like Candy Alliance and HaHyo suffer because she spends so much time with KG for MC. Because of the brain scans that ended MC, SJH and KG lost their primary dynamic on the show.

They might be confused as to what they're supposed to be in front of the cameras. Are they MC even though its been proven they have no romantic feelings for each other? They can't be "Monday Siblings" after the last six years. They can't even really be the ex-Monday Couple, because MC didn't end with a break up or one of hem moving on. Compare now to when news of SJH dating her CEO came out. When the news of the CEO first appeared, KG acted like an ex-boyfriend, who got drunk and mourned the end of his love line. The whole exes thing defined SJH and KG's dynamic in RM for awhile. In this case, however, their relation ended because of a brain scan. How are they supposed to act now? What is their relationship? "Lifelong friends" as they said in the 300 episode? That's not an interesting relationship to viewers. The captions in this episode could even be seen as the editors falling into old habits because they don't know what MC is anymore. Perhaps the editors were at first all aboard the"no MC" train, but after the 300 episodes where MC returned, the editors are a bit less clear on the "no MC" thing and are going back to their old habits where KG and SJH are a "couple". What else do they call MC? 

[dragonlovers]

Overall, the saddest part of this episode is the members are split up for too long and lots of the missions were not aired. After re-watching the episode, found that in the first part of the show, white team had little air time for doing mission when comparing to the huge proportion of blue team, even there is a guest (pity for the guest...) Even though there are funny moments in the car, I think the focus should be on the game instead. They worked very hard for the challenges but most of them are not aired.

Also, with the shortened broadcast time (around 70 mins), it is hard to balance the screen time of members when they are split into 3 different parts. As the challenges JH/ Gary did with their teams didn't get aired, it may be odd for audience that members are seperated even in the same team, especially the portion is 3:1 but not 2:2. In fact, my mum (who watched running man with me for the first time) asked me why the lady (JH) is not doing the challenge with her own team...

Hence I hope the PD and casts can work harder on this aspect.

[IVY YEO]

Episode 302 - I love the SA interaction and JK smile when JS teased JK because of JH.

I have a feeling that the PD is testing on the rating..since the rating is dropping they have to try different methods to bring the rating back. If not mistaken, because of seasick and that's why they send JH to fishing but I think that is only an excuse. Although there is no teasing between MC while they are on the boat, but being together already give viewer a hope that MC is coming back. (Rating is poor on this episode) 

Pity the guest get fewer aired time and most of the aired time was on blue team in the beginning. It's funny but we also want to see what white team did.

Yeah, with shorter broadcast time, the PD really have problem with editing. It is really hard to balance their screen time and not all the games that they played will be aired.

Hopefully with the NEW PD, they can give us something different and not something old.

[aschae]

Maybe I'm just imagining things...

but where have I seen that smile before??

Was it back in 2013 when JH won the Excellence award?

Or was it back in 2012 when JK called JH from KAIST?

Maybe there were more occurrences of that very particular smile between 2013 and 2016; these are just the ones I recall at the moment.

Like I said, I could just be imagining things...

 

...but something feels oddly familiar...

 

 

Edited June 7, 2016 by aschae
first time posting pictures...

[seabear11]

3 hours ago, aschae said:

Maybe I'm just imagining things...

 

Your pictures aren't posting pal. Interested to see what you're trying to post, maybe share the links? even if you do it through PM i would appreciate it. 

I a 100% agree the episode was definitely cut short. I feel like it should have been made into 2 episodes, but then again with the way the name tag was ripped so quickly maybe that was the initial plan to have 2 episodes but due to the nature of the game they couldn't. I'm sure RM PDs and staff are smart enough to know the more screen type idol group gets they better ratings it is for them. It's just a series of unfortunate events.You can't ask the cast to fake the name tag ripping cause if people found out, more people would be outrage at that compared to a shorter episode. 

I dont think people should jump into any conclusions yet in regards to the MC. I understand why Gary and Ji Hyo were picked for the fishing mission. Haha is well known to be very good at taking care of celebrities. Look at the all the idol numbers he has on his phone, i think the dynamic of the guest KJK and SJH wouldnt be as fun as it would be with Haha. You can't really have the guest doing fishing as it's not really that entertaining. KJK not sure if he gets sea sick or maybe the motion of the boat on the water could make his back hurt but he's obviously out of the equation. PD is catering towards what would be a more fun screening for the show. In addition, i feel the main problem is that they need to create Gary a new character, SJH has always been the ace, goddess of luck, "bad ji hyo"as well as part of the MC couple. SJH has more links to the cast and more essential character within it. Gary had peaceful gary at the start of the show, "KJK and the kidss" and random mr capable, more recently squid but not really sure if that can be a character. He needs MC alot more than SJH does. I guess you could argue he always gets the pretty female guest, which has been constant throughout the show. Nowadays female actress or idols tend to pick YJS or LKS anyway if they had a choice. Sometimes KJK too but i like to think in my deluded mind they know he's with SJH so less people pick him. 

If i'm a 100% honest, if we were to lose a member of the group, gary would be the first choice tbh. Before i would have said JSJ but you always need a weak character it provides more entertainment, i used to hate it how if you were on the same team as him. it's almost a 100% guaranteed lost. But he provides with comic relief alongside LKS. He's part of the betrayer squad, he's basically the old uncle of the group. YJS is obviously untouchable, KJK is Mr capable, Haha like i touched upon earlier is the one who makes idol feel the most comfortable, also has multiple characters, LKS - betrayer, rising star in korea, "asia prince", mr unlucky. Gary is the one person who doesn't have his own identity or an essential image or character of the group. This is by no means saying Gary should be kicked, i love all the cast members. It's just finding Gary a new character. I for one can't really think of any. I guess like someone has mentioned before, *if we were to get a new member joining the cast. She could be gary new "love line" although i dont think a lot of people would be happy with that. 

I for one wouldn't be surprised at all if we see or hear gary considering leaving RM once again. It's not good for his image to just be always refer to as a squid, or the ugly one of the group. And unless the PDs can think of a new character, he may choose to focus on his music. 

We saw in the latest episode, RM got a new female PD, maybe she'll be able to provide more characters and ideas that will improve RM for the better. Next week episode looks a lot better, an individual mission if i'm not mistaken so probably won't see a lot of interaction between KJK and SJH but fingers cross. 

 

 

 

 

[aschae]

2 hours ago, seabear11 said:

Your pictures aren't posting pal. Interested to see what you're trying to post, maybe share the links? even if you do it through PM i would appreciate it.

 

Awww crap. Thank you for letting me know. I need to upload them to a different website altogether (was using Google, but that obviously isn't working). I will work on it and repost asap.

[aschae]

Maybe I'm just imagining things...

but where have I seen that smile before??

Was it back in 2013 when JH won the Excellence award?

 

Or was it back in 2012 when JK called JH from KAIST?

 

Maybe there were more occurrences of that very particular smile between 2013 and 2016; these are just the ones I recall at the moment.

Like I said, I could just be imagining things...

 

...but something feels oddly familiar...

 

[tofi_stv]

 @htttt @dragonlovers @linzer03 

@athoughtcloud1  I tthink RM PDs and staff are trying different concepts and pairings, including revisiting old ones (MC) because they are bewildered by the ratings not picking up in spite of the change of time slot. Unfortunatelly. For me, it made sense they sent Haha to the chickens because he is affraid of them (for comedy purposes). Also JH and G fished together before (and it was funny). G specifically used past tense when talking about MC, so I don't think they will revive MC, at least not as it was during 2015-2016. Maybe they are tring to bring it back to its roots i.e. G making awkward and hilarious attempts towards JH, as it was during 2010-2013. I don't know... nothing seems to work in terms of ratings. They should try new pairings for JH, but I don't think they will, because that kind of change would be too big and they might be thinking that they will alienate whatever is left of RM hard-core viewers.

 

[hazel tusi]

On Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 11:52 PM, linzer03 said:

kelly023 on IG posted a timeline of KJK's stay in LA. The Dodgers games (5/15 and 16) were obviously the big events he went to, and other than the 5/19 post there has been no other evidence that he's in LA. KJK uploaded a photo in the last few hours, but that was of the Dodgers game and therefore took place in 5/15 or 16. Kelly023 pointed out that in the 5/19 photo KJK is wearing the same hat as the 5/12 photo so its possible that the picture was taken then but posted on 5/19 (he' wearing a black hoodie in the first pic so we don't know what this shirt underneath looked like). We really have to wait until the end of the trip to know but its possible that he left LA after the Dodgers game. Jkt1ny uploaded frequently at the beginning of KJK's vacaton with the longest gap being a day in between posts. But it's been three days since jkt1ny uploaded a pic of KJK. I also noticed that when KJK uploaded his most recent pic he used the hashtag #OnlySleptForTwoHours. He's over his jetlag by this time so why only two hours of sleep? Flight to catch? Most likely he's still in LA (as a spartace fan, I of course want to believe they meet up but they might not), but since we haven't yet had any more posts of KJK in LA from jkt1ny, its possible that KJK went to Hawaii.

Hi I'm new here.  I just  want to say, I know what color of his underneath In The black hoodie, its a white shirt.  I saw it somewhere in instagram. Sorry for my english

[Chii Le]

It's been a while since I last came here 

I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that MC is not gonna start again just because WAIL ended. Gary is definitely showing improvement as he's making jokes out of his own character and not out of MC. His efforts show a new level of maturity and respect towards Jihyo as a showbiz partner and a co-worker. Honestly, his flirting and skinship sometimes came off as disrespectful, especially when Jihyo obviously wasn't happy to play along. Her rejection, in return, must have been hurtful to him and their camaraderie as well. I'm just relieved that in the past few weeks, Gary seemed to have truly moved on from the Monday boyfriend persona and Jihyo didn't become avoidant.

That said, I'm not thrilled that the writing has MC built in for missions (episodes 300 and 302). The intention is confusing. On one hand, Jihyo and Gary were professional about teaming up or competing against each other. They made an effort not to be awkward, however (un)successful that may be, it's baby steps toward a normalized friendship. The editing was also kept from forcing a romantic narrative - there were no pink caption, no romantic background music, and no CG effects. On the other hand, why pair up unwilling participants who are just not that comfortable around each other? Even the casts did not address the past loveline between the two, which means this is a delicate subject that will need A LOT of time and good humor to work out. Let's be real, the loveline was no longer well received domestically, it caused both parties and the rest of the casts a huge amount of discomfort. Heck, every time they tried to reason with juvenile fans, they got a ton of hate. For some reasons, the writing and direction just prematurely forced Jihyo and Gary to prove that they are good, even when they are still uncomfortable about pairing up/facing off.

It's like there wasn't a meeting of the mind. The PD team decided one thing, Jihyo and Gary did their job but clearly showed they were not interested in playing the parts, and the editing just showed all that awkwardness because there isn't any good way to edit that.

*Throw my hands up for Spartace moments last episode!*

[assyl4]

RM Insta posted this

 

Funny thing is, they usually address them as 'Commander and Ace' but now? It's Spartace! ❤❤

[nichecz]

Annyeonghaseyo! ^^  Probably this is my "real" post here. . So, let me start.

Quote

On ‎29‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 0:49 PM, linzer03 said:

I've seen some comments about KJK hitting SJH with the pillow too hard, but seriously what do you expect him to do here? He's matched up against her for a pillow fight. He can either 1) let her win, 2) hit her once and get it over with, or 3) not hit strongly and drag out the game until she falls off. [..]  I'm sure he knows she can handle it, and actually being able to hit her shows how close KJK and SJH are, because if it was a female guest you know he wouldn't do it. For whatever reason, KJK couldn't let SJH win so he had to choose between options 2 and 3. 3 would require him to drag out the game and hit her multiple times, whereas with 2 he can hit her with the pillow once and get it over with. She was laughing when it was over so obviously she wasn't that upset about it or hurt.

 

 

@linzer03The first time that I watched the clip, I had the same feeling about the way that KJK hit SJH. Too hard. And like you wrote, KJK just had a few options and between them (in my pov) the number 1 is “OUT” because the “funny element”. He couldn’t let her win, as a variety show, they should always pick the funniest opition, and KJK against the other members is always funny, and besides that, in the end he is the one who should win those kinds of games, “The Comander”, right? And if I could choose between the last two, I would rather the second option too, because the idea of see KJK (a real gentleman) hitting SJH (uri Ace) repeatedly times is not cool, even in a soft way witha pillow (and if it was KJK, LKS would be the one doing that with her). We know that SJH can handle a lot, so does KJK. Like @athoughtcloud1 said, maybe, KJK wasn’t able to measure his strength. But after watch again I was like  “was it really that hard?”. Please, correct me if I’m wrong, but, it’s look like SJH slightly lifted her leg to “help” the fall. (It’s just something that I notice, but I don’t know how to be sure about.) I already read a lot of comments about the scene but nobody said something about this, so, can be just my imagination. ( I happy that in the end he gave her the better room. )

 

1 hour ago, assyl4 said:

RM Insta posted this

 

Funny thing is, they usually address them as 'Commander and Ace' but now? It's Spartace! ❤❤

About the “spartace” caption at the BTS photo on instagram, when I saw the photo, I swear that my heart just skipped a beat. I’m so happy and excited about it. Big change guy! At the same time that I feel happy, I’m also a bit worried about this. In the begining just the hawk eyes fans could notice them, and spartace was “BTS couple”, and we start to love and believe about feeling between them because of it. Because we notice something that they were trying to "hide", they didn’t need to show us, you know. But now, KJK shows more skinship with SJH, and SJH admited through actions that he is the one that she trust and need. And this is awesome, but the way that they act now, spreading all over the world how close they are, it is a little bit too fast. A few months ago KJK barely interacted with her on the FM. I’m worried that they are “hurrying” up the things to do fan service. They know that we exist, they know that MC is recieving so much hate from the domestics and international views. The people start to see the awkwardness and force between G* and SJH because the show. I just read a comment about how the show is doing (#spartace) this to show to the fans that SJH is a member of the family, that she is close to them (and KJK), not to creat a new loveline, in other words,to convince us that they are "just friends". Anyway, what I what to say is that Ihope that the attencion that spartace is receiving now don’t mess up the thing between them.
 

 

 

[WanZ]

I get you worries @nichecz as I can't help but have my doubts too sometimes... especially after reading others doubt! Lol...

But I doubt too, that JK and JH are consciously trying to do fan service. We all know they are really close in general from many pics through the years showing so, regardless the interaction is shown in RM episodes or not.

Obviously the interaction between JK-JH is approved by the not-so-new-PD to be posted in their official RM ig from early this year. The pics are constant too... in the sense that they are continuous and not a one time occasion. Back when the official love line is tagged in their pic as MC, our SA pic is tagged as JK and JH, doing this and that... Early in May we get labeled as 'Cutie Couple', and now we have 'Spartace' in June. All the while, this progression is opposed to the love line. Now, any JH and KG pics are labeled as JH and KG doing this and that.

I see this as a good thing... because nothing so obvious is done (yet) in RM that seems to push both as the new couple. What happens BTS is nothing new to us SA fans because we always know JK and JH are affectionate 'like that'. One more thing is, I have faith in JK and JH not to pull a wool over our eyes... I just believe that JK and JH both, are better than that. Whatever there is between them, 'faking it' is not one of it.

 

[Guest athoughtcloud1]

1 hour ago, nichecz said:

About the “spartace” caption at the BTS photo on instagram, when I saw the photo, I swear that my heart just skipped a beat. I’m so happy and excited about it. Big change guy! At the same time that I feel happy, I’m also a bit worried about this. In the begining just the hawk eyes fans could notice them, and spartace was “BTS couple”, and we start to love and believe about feeling between them because of it. Because we notice something that they were trying to "hide", they didn’t need to show us, you know. But now, KJK shows more skinship with SJH, and SJH admited through actions that he is the one that she trust and need. And this is awesome, but the way that they act now, spreading all over the world how close they are, it is a little bit too fast. A few months ago KJK barely interacted with her on the FM. I’m worried that they are “hurrying” up the things to do fan service. They know that we exist, they know that MC is recieving so much hate from the domestics and international views. The people start to see the awkwardness and force between G* and SJH because the show. I just read a comment about how the show is doing (#spartace) this to show to the fans that SJH is a member of the family, that she is close to them (and KJK), not to creat a new loveline, in other words,to convince us that they are "just friends". Anyway, what I what to say is that Ihope that the attencion that spartace is receiving now don’t mess up the thing between them.
 

I don't think there is a reason to worry. The way I see it SBS insta has been aware of the existence of a Spartace fanbase from last December, so they cater to our interests from time to time. But lately, they have been posting a spartace pic almost every episode. Earlier, when they put spartace pic, they were hesitant about referring to them as "spartace" since it is not a combo name that is official, so they put "cutie couple". At that time, for KookSoo, they had tagged them as "KookSoo couple". But then they have used "KookSoo" as a combo name on RM, so it is no big deal. The difference I see this time is that they are starting to acknowledge that "Spartace" is KJK and SJH"s  popular fandom name though it is something which the fans have created. I know it will seem like properly official only if RM uses it during broadcast in one of their captions, still, it feels good to have the unofficial name for our fandom which has been existing for so many years now getting acknowledged in this way. I wonder who were the first fans to start using it.

Now as to the question whether this points to any attempt on the RM team to highlight spartace more and more, I am not that sure. SBS RM insta  posts preview pics basically to ignite the curiosity of the viewers for the coming episode. They know spartace fandom is sizeable and therefore try to make sure we tune in by posting some spartace pic as preview (in all likelihood, we might not get to see this scene or it might be cut from a shot where all the RM cast are interacting with each other).  But I don't think what they do needs to be seen as reflective of the policy of the RM team per se. From the way things are with Gary and JH yet to find their equation and attempts being made to define Gary's role better, the last thing they would do is to create another loveline. I don't think JH and KJK will be willing to play along anyway (at this point). The maximum I see with regard to spartace is for some of their onscreen interactions not to be edited out. That is what has been happening during the previous episodes. If you notice, the moments in both the previous episodes were spontaneous ones and not ones which were set up. The episode 301 seemed to be the more visible one while the episode 302 SA moment was more a moment caught by the hawk-eyed SA fans. Anyway, some of the unedited SA moments that RM is giving us now, I suppose, are meant to give the spartace fans something to cheer about (another reason why they are even getting aired is coz MC is no longer what it used to be). However, it doesn't affect the overall cast dynamics (anyway, other than us, the average RM fan wouldn't even notice these things or even when they notice, would see it as part of RM family interactions). So, I don't think we need to panic about SA becoming a loveline just yet. If that were the case. they would have sent JK and JH on that fishing mission together instead of  JH and Gary. They would also not have edited out their group mission. I really don't think the RM team are trying to create any new loveline at this point. If they send JH and JK on missions together or highlight their interactions more, then we can say something is afoot. For now, just wait for sbs_insta to put a KwangMong or even MC pic to balance things out now that they have given spartace fans a reason to cheer! Also, let's wait and see whether  they use 'spartace' again to refer to their combo on sbs insta.

Regarding SA being more open about their interaction, I don't think it is coming across as 'too fast'. Once the average RM fan starts noticing something between SA, I would say they are going somewhere with it. But till now, that hasn't happened. Unless RM actively tries to insinuate that something is going on between SA with pink captions and what not, I don't think the average RM fan would even notice anything shippable between SA. But I think it is important for SA to become more and more visible and open about their interactions in case of a future scenario where they want to declare. That process is just starting for me (and I sincerely hope that happens without too many roadblocks).

[WanZ]

On 11 June 2016 at 2:29 PM, athoughtcloud1 said:

Regarding SA being more open about their interaction, I don't think it is coming across as 'too fast'. Once the average RM fan starts noticing something between SA, I would say they are going somewhere with it. But till now, that hasn't happened. Unless RM actively tries to insinuate that something is going on between SA with pink captions and what not, I don't think the average RM fan would even notice anything shippable between SA. But I think it is important for SA to become more and more visible and open about their interactions in case of a future scenario where they want to declare. That process is just starting for me (and I sincerely hope that happens without too many roadblocks).

 

Thank you for saying that! This is what I want to write but I'm afraid it will sound too delusional LOL... but it's true nevertheless. JK has said he will announce his marriage in RM, thus exposing to the great masses of RM audience the close interaction between them little by little, is the right track to it ~ assuming that is the case. It's like the product advertisement on the television, how they play into our subconscious mind without us realizing it. As always, hoping and praying everything good goes their way.

[Guest athoughtcloud1]

Had made this post sometime back, but didn't get time to post. I can see that some of the posters like @Chii Le and @seabear11 have kind of touched upon some of the things I wanted to say.

@linzer03 I agree with much of what you said. I know it has been hard for MC to find their equation again. You could see how conscious they were of their interactions in front of the camera during the last couple of episodes. That is something that will only slowly get resolved. In the meantime, I was getting to enjoy seeing Gary out of the MC, having to interact more with the other members (instead of his comfort zones like MC or HaGa) and there was even one moment during the taste mission in episode 300 where I felt he was getting comfortable with the new equations. So while I would want JH and Gary to find their equation again, I don't want to see them being forced to fall back into the old patterns. If I were the PD, I would have made Gary enter new combinations before trying to re-define the MC relationship.  I thought they were getting there. Only when Gary is out of MC will he actively try to find combinations with the rest of the guys (I thought the recent combination of Suk Jin and Gary in the Unlucky Hand episode was interesting, especially when they went to interview their guest). GaeKwang too has its potential! Now with WAIL going off air, I don't want the team to go lazy thinking they can repackage MC in some way and thus take care of Gary's positioning on the show. There are also the fanmeets in August, so that could be a temptation. Ony if Gary becomes part of other popular combinations will MC as a romantic concept come to an end in its entirety because the team won't then need to fall back upon it.That has always been the reason why MC has been revived through the years even when JH was in a real relationship because the team did not know how to position Gary without it. It is also the reason why I think they have done so many Gary-centric episodes in these 6 years.

I actually thought if the PD wanted, he could have used Gary as a foil to the unlucky trio in this episode and test out whether Gary's luck could rub off on them. That is how team combinations get built, right? Since much of what made the segments of the unlucky trio interesting was as to whether any of them had enough luck not to pull out a no chance card, having Gary as the relatively lucky member among them could have led to some fresh banter. Instead, they chose to stick with the same combination.

If RM is thinking of a longer future, then they should invest in developing new team equations that may require careful planning and nurturing at this stage. I hope they show the courage to experiment more instead of sticking to the tried and tested formulas.Saw some k-netz reaction on the last episode where they were complaining about the need for experienced people on the RM PD team since they said the cast were working really hard. Coming back to MC, I really don't think JH is suffering  much with the loss of MC since as the lone female member, there is something she brings to the show that the others are unable to. She also has good partnerships with almost all the male members in the team, so she can be put in any team. I wish they would go with the MC friendship concept since JH looked more comfortable doing the mission with Gary in episode 300 (where you could see how their long years of team work have made them help out each other) than in this episode. That could also be because other members were also present in the last episode while in this episode, MC were sent off alone again.

This episode had so many things packed into it that they had to edit out most of it. The missions were all kind of interesting. I think they aired the fishing mission only because MC was involved since we have seen such missions before on RM. On the other hand, they could have aired some of the farm mission since that is something novel on RM. Instead of splitting up the 300th episode, I wish they had split this episode up. They could have ended with the farm missions all complete  after making them cook something with the ingredients and choosing a winner out of the two teams. The nametag ripping seemed so anti-climactic since it had nothing to do with the ingredient-collecting mission they did earlier. If you remember, the episode where JYP guested had a very simple end mission of delivering the noodles. But the teams had to do all sorts of mini-missions on the way that made it interesting. What I have observed with the last two episodes is that they try to go for a grand final mission which ends up half-baked.

I agree with you @dragonlovers. I was also wondering why the white team's missions didn't get much airing time though they had the guest. I love the banter, but isn't RM about games?

@WanZ Agree with you. That has been my feeling all through. In the fortune telling session of the X-man episode, JK talks about getting married in 2017. If the fortune-teller's statements regarding JH meeting a man in 2016 (who was not to be found among the RM men since they were all 'weird' according to him) can be taken as indicative of her doing WAIL (i.e. as scripted fortune telling where the fortune-teller knew beforehand about JH being invited for a dating show), then JK's statement that he will get married in 2017 came at a point when he knew JH was gonna do WAIL (and thus possibly end MC). So hopefully, the waiting period won't be that long.

[Guest athoughtcloud1]

Did not know SBS insta edited their previous caption to put in "Spartace". Seems quite a conscious decision then.

cre: as tagged

JH is pouting here. Is she complaining against "Jong Kook Oppa"? She usually has that face when she says JK Oppa is too strong or can do anything. The next episode's theme seems interesting. Hope we get a good episode!