Ron Does Stuff

It’s a new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The World, and we’ve got minty Fresh from the first season of Drag Race Philippines competing! Full disclosure: I am expecting her not to win this thing, because look at Marina Summers last season. It’s not happening!

First to enter the UK Main Stage is Kate Butch. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch her season, but she looks great! Heard she was a crowd favorite as well, so let’s see whether she’s the designated winner of the season.

Fontana is next from Drag Race Sverige, which really needs a second season, because I loved it! She looks good, but then again it’s expected from Fontana. Let’s see how she fares outside of Sweden.

Drag Race Thailand‘s Gawdland is up next and she’s making sure that she starts off with a good impression with her outfit. We do see the Marina Summers influence after she calls for the chopping of the colonizers. Let’s be honest here, Marina did it first.

Kababayan Zahirah Zapanta from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 6. From the way her entrance is shot though, I think the producers have marked her for an early exit. It’s a good thing there’s two more Filipino queens coming!

Next to enter is Drag Race Germany‘s The Only Naomy and I do not know anything about her since I didn’t watch the German franchise. Looking forward to know her in this season!

Drag Race legend Mariah Balenciaga is up next and does she really need an introduction? When she brought up that it’s been 15 years since her original season my bones audibly creaked because I watched that season as it aired. I was downloading torrents because that was the only way I could watch RuPaul’s Drag Race all the way here in the ~Global South~. I hope the production doesn’t Mayhem Miller her!

Sminty Drop is also back and with new lips! She’s ready to leave that iconic sad twerk behind and replace it with a happy twerk. Let’s see if that happens for her this season!

Minty Fresh is up next! Gawdland is already piling the pressure by telling her that Marina Summers did so well the last time, not knowing the whole drama between Marina and Minty from before. But Marina and Minty are all patched up now from what I’ve heard? Not really sure. I do think that the production might do a ~wenk wonk~ and make it look that Marina was a fluke and send Minty home early.

Serena Morena from Drag Race Mexico season one is up next and I honestly do not remember her! The montage of runway looks from her original season isn’t helping me either. Is she going to be an early out?

We then get the third Filipina queen in Melinda Verga, and while I did not watch her season, I’ve learned all about her via social media osmosis. Let’s see what she gets up to in the United Kingdom! She’s already so funny in the confessionals.

The first Maxi Challenge is the RuRuVision Song Contest and…well, the queens don’t always do well with a minute and a half song and dance performance. It can get tiring really quick! But let me take this opportunity to shout out my two most favorite Eurovision performances.

Once their in the Werk Room, The Only Naomy is feeling a little insecure, but it does look like she’s got a friendly connection with her closet neighbor, Fontana. They have a nice little talk about pronouns and it’s sweet. And of course the Filipinas are bonding.

The colonizers — the United Kingdom and the United States — are also having their colonizer group chat. I would say that the OG colonizers, the United Kingdom, are more likely to succeed, since this is their show after all.

The next day, Mariah is absolutely the most politically aware queen, just as she was during her season of All Stars. I’m really glad she did that season of All Stars because we didn’t really get to see that side of her during her original season of Drag Race.

RuRuVision starts and Fontana is up first. Maybe I need to rewatch the Swedish version because I remember her being more energetic than this? But the queens look impressed so maybe I am hyping the past performances up too much in my brain.

Just as I thought would happen, I am already tired by the second performance, which is Gawdland. Nothing against her! But usually with things like these, the songs sound really similar to one another and it’s hard to feel hyped up for each one. Gawdland does level it up at the end when she shoots the sparklers into her mouth.

Zahirah does shake things up a little with her performance, but I think the judges are going to unfavorably compare her with the first two high-energy performances. Melinda also sings, and boy oh boy, the Filipino queens are already being hobbled. It’s all up to you, Minty!

The Only Naomy goes the La Grande Dame route and makes fun of herself but…I think it didn’t go as demented as it could? Mariah is definitely not going the Mayhem route. Gawdland thought it was ~different~, but I thought it was good enough for her to stick around for another episode.

Sminty might just be a top performance because she smartly references her iconic sad twerk and she actually made me laugh! I actually thought Minty’s outfit was an impediment to her performance, but she managed to twist it positively when she brought out the lasers.

Kate Butch is starting to look like the designated winner because that performance was so fun. And self-deprecation that works! She is in this to win it! Also, Serena might just save herself from a bottom placement after metaphorically electrocuting her pussy. Ru and Mariah had fun!

The runway starts and Gawdland’s outfit is delicious. I don’t know if The Only Naomy’s outfit looks good or she just makes it look good because of her proportions, but I did sorta like it. Minty’s outfit also looked good, but I don’t think it was ~exotic~ enough for the Western judges, if that makes sense? Especially since Serena follows her with a ~Mexican~ outfit.

Zahirah, Melinda, Mariah, Minty, and Serena are the safe queens, so at least the Filipino trio lives to fight another day. No one is going home this episode, though, and the remaining queens are the top queens. So does this mean the safe ones are the bottom queens? The shade of it all.

With the positive critiques, I really think the season is for Kate to lose. Back in the Werk Room though, Zahirah is thinking she should have been on the top. And as much as I want to gas up my Filipina queens…it wasn’t a top-worthy performance. And she’s really itching for a fight by pushing the top and bottom narrative when everybody else was being diplomatic. They’re really making the Filipino queens the villains this season! Is this revenge for the ~passionate~ Marina Summers fans from the last season?

It’s Gawdland and Fontana battling for the win this episode, and I think that the production did this so we could have an energetic first lip sync. Personally, I thought it should have been Kate in the top. I think Fontana won this lip sync and I am correct!

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