#I've watched this rusical like 5 times already

[nsstress]

queen of the rusical!

[cakesexuality]

5 through 9 💖

Disclaimer 1: I think a lot of these are gonna be from more recent seasons but I promise you that I have watched every English-language season, some multiple times

Disclaimer 2: I have only watched English-language seasons, as I don't have access to Holland, Italia, or España and haven't gotten around to Thailand yet

5. Favourite winner?

I don't know if I have a single favourite winner, but I do have a few winners that I really like

Even though there's only been 2 seasons so it's maybe too early to establish a pattern (and maybe I'm just biased as a Canadian), Canada seems to be really good at either picking a satisfying winner or giving a satisfying winner's edit, however you want to see it. I fell in love with Icesis from the first words out of her mouth in her Meet The Queens ("I am here to make... a friend... just a single friend"). I'd already heard of Priyanka through social media before CDR1 was announced and even though I didn't get to watch the season when it aired, it still felt completely correct to me for Pri to get the crown, although I wouldn't have been any more or less mad if it went to Rita (or Scarlet if she'd had any wins by the finale). I think I like Icesis and Priyanka equally.

For normal US seasons, I think my favourite winner is Jinkx. I've got some of her songs on my Spotify playlists and I like watching her Cool Mom series from time to time, and she's one of the few queens where I went into the finale hoping she'd win and I ended up being right about my predictions (as opposed to when I wanted them to crown Kim... or Alexis... or Pep... or Juju...)

For US All-Stars winners, I'd say Trixie. I watch a lot of her videos on her YouTube channel and she's where I learned to do drag makeup. I describe my own drag look as "an emo, bargain-bin version of Trixie Mattel" since my makeup is based on hers and the only wig I have happens to be blonde.

And then there's obviously not any choice rn with international All Stars winners but I still love Blu. I was literally in tears at the end of the finale bc I enjoy her so much and I know how much she cares about what she represents as a queer Northern Irish public figure. I've been rooting for her since the UK1 Meet The Queens and is the queen I picked as my header when the cast of UKVTW was announced (well, it was originally Lemon, but I changed it to Blu after a couple days bc I'd just had a yellow theme for Christmas, but don't tell Blu that... maybe we could've had an AU where I kept the Lemon banner and she won instead).

6. Favourite Miss Congeniality?

Once again, I don't have a particular favourite, bc we have so many to pick from and so many of them are so fantastic. My personal favourites that I can think of are Pandora Boxx, BenDeLaCreme, Katya Zamo, Heidi N Closet, Blu Hydrangea, and Bimini Bon Boulash. Some others that I think were really good choices for MC were Latrice Royale, Monet X Change, and Nina West. (Doesn't mean anybody I didn't mention is undeserving, probably just that I can't quite remember them at the moment.)

7. Most underrated season?

I feel like I tend to agree with the broader fandom on what is or isn't a good season, so I'm not sure if I have an "underrated" season, unless we count how I don't think US7 was "bad" but just that it was more weird bc it didn't have some of the Drag Race staples like opening the season with a photoshoot + design challenge or having a proper ball, and it had a lot of fashion queens with hardly any design challenges for them to show off those skills (imagine if UK2 had Veronica with no Rusical or if US6 had Bianca with no stand-up challenge). However, without US7, we might not have the icons that are Katya and Trixie or that moment of Pearl's infamous "Is there something on my face?"

Otherwise, I'd stretch this question to mean "a season I think had more potential and could have been better" like UK3, which put all of its eggs in one basket and was screwed when that basket busted her knee in the first episode, or DU1, which had a lot of errors made by production such as handpicking the cast instead of doing an open call and casting someone with a known history of performing in raceface and trying to make Kita and Elektra the villains when they were 2 of the most likeable queens.

8. Most underrated queen?

We have again run into the problem of "I can't pick just one" but I feel like I have some faves who just aren't liked by a large portion of the fandom, such as Daya Betty or Kandy Muse or Yvie Oddly.

9. Favourite host?

I'm going to say something that's perhaps controversial yet brave (but won't be a surprise to anyone who already knows my opinions about him) but anybody EXCEPT RuPaul. He's his own little package of problems that I won't unpack today, but I enjoy everyone else more. I haven't watched Thailand yet but from what I saw on UKVTW I guess it's now law that I must see more of what kind of entertainment Pangina Heals has to offer me. I like CDR1's method of using a guest host every week and it was fun seeing people like Mary Walsh and Elisha Cuthbert do the "start your engines" bit and while CDR2 didn't do that, understandably due to COVID most likely, they at least changed things up each week by having Brooke do it slightly differently, like "May the best drag queen EEE 🔪 EEE 🔪 EEE 🔪 win!"