---- Drag Race Edgic ----

So let’s talk about who I think is winning. I feel like first I should mention the people I think are going far based on these two episodes. If the final 6 is not some sort of combination of Eureka, Blair, Asia, The Vixen, Miz Cracker, Aquaria and Monet, i’ll be shocked. Right now I think Asia is the winner just because she’s getting a lot of positivity but it’s too early for me to lock that pick in.

So let’s talk about the edits of our final 4 and what I think of their chances of winning. I’ll go in alphabetic order starting with.....

Bebe- Coming into the season, Bebe’s persona was the person who already won Drag Race and could do it again. I believe in the first episode Rupaul talked about how Bebe could get to the end and become the first 2 time winner. Ever since that I felt like Bebe is getting to the end because if Bebe went out of the competition in 5th place, there wouldn’t really be emphasis on the possibility of her getting to the end again. The focus would be more on how she already won Drag Race in my opinion. However, nothing about the way Bebe is edited indicates she even has a chance to win the competition. In my power rankings that I might do after I finish all of this blabbering, Bebe is 4th out of 4. She’s been constantly undermined in the edit, multiple queens have commented on her holier-than-thou/bougie attitude and in this most recent episode she was painted as someone who thinks she has no flaws and even got compared to Milk (who got a super negative edit!). Also, she’s had the least amount of confessionals from my data and almost always that person doesn’t wins. I just don’t see her winning but honestly, I wouldn’t mind the win lol. 

Kennedy- I think Kennedy is getting a redemption edit. Season 7 was the first season I did edgic for and I remember when I was watching at that time, Kennedy was painted as being kind of bitter towards the younger competitors without much reason/incentive. This season we’re getting a lot of emotional content from Kennedy. These past 2 episodes have really nailed that in. She talked about being a social outcast as a child and how that related to her situation with Milk. During that whole Milk drama, the edit sided with Kennedy 100%. This past episode she talked about how after her season she felt like a second thought and wasn’t popular with the fans. She talked about how that made her feel and talked about how her goal for this season is to get to that place where she is the first thought. That scene was edited as really positive and it showed a different side to Kennedy. I just think her edit is not developed enough and if she was winning, I think she’d be more complex and we would’ve got more of the relationship she had with Chi Chi throughout the season. There just hasn’t been a clear, concise story for Kennedy that would explain her journey to the crown.

Shangela- This one is going to be a doozy, lol. A lot of her edit has focused on this sort of Game of Thrones, alliance building, strategic side of Shangela. She’s been the most complex in terms of fleshing out her relationships with the others and how that’s going to get her to the end. I said before I had a feeling this is going to backfire on her as she is the only person talking this strategically while the others are talking more about social bonds and relationships. It seems like this could shaft her as watching the preview for next week shows the eliminated queens sitting on a couch across of a chair. 

Also, I looked up the description of the finale on my tv guide and the episode is called “A Jury of Their Queers” which basically implies to me that there is a jury portion to this season and they’ll have some sort of power. As a Survivor and Big Brother fan, I immediately think the jury will decide the winner from a final 3 (since 7 votes including the 4th place queen make it so there can’t be a 3 way tie) but something about that to me seems.... too obvious and too powerful. There would be no point of having Rupaul aside from eliminating the 4th placer (Since that happened last All-Stars with Roxxxy). I think we might get the inverse where the jury eliminates our 4th placer and the top 3 lip-sync to win. Now that’s where this gets tricky because it could go either way for shangela depending on if this jury is thinking about social bonds or competition performance. If the jury feels shafted by Shangela or isn’t that close to her, we might see her leave in this spot. 

Recounting the relationships/alliances Shangela has made, most of those people are not on the jury. We saw her bond in the beginning with Chi Chi and Kennedy but Kennedy is in the top 4. Chi Chi however, could be vote that would keep Shangela since she is less bonded to Bebe or Trixie. Her other relationship we’ve seen in-depth is with Trixie who also is in the top 4 with her. Morgan is a personal friend of Shangela but the edit hasn’t really touched upon that and even if we assume Morgan doesn’t vote to eliminate Shangela, the other 4 jurors could and Shangela still goes home. But this could all be for nought and all of Shangela’s talk about alliances could be what helps her get through this jury portion. She could’ve been talking so strategically because we needed to see how she out-maneuvered the twist. I think it’s a toss-up at this point on how this jury twist (will even work) will affect Shangela’s game. 

Trixie- I put Trixie as my winner pick episode 1 and I feel like her edit has stayed consistent the whole way through. Her whole story is about how she’s coming back for redemption and how she has proven herself outside of the competition but never within the competition. She’s had a good amount of complexity and we do get a lot of inside about Trixie and who she is. We see her insecurities and how she views her position in the competition. That episode where Chi Chi went home really solidified to me, that our winner was either Shangela or Trixie. I think where Trixie’s edit stands out from Shangela’s is that whenever there was negativity towards Trixie, positive SPV (second-person visibility aka how others talk about a contestant) was given to balance it out. While in episode 2, we could’ve gotten more of that to balance out the negativity attributed to Shangela. It just seems like edit is more careful to shield Trixie than it is to shield Shangela. I just feel like we wouldn’t get this story of Trixie wanting to prove herself worthy in Drag Race this whole season if she just gets eliminated by the jury at 4th or shares a runner-up placement. There would be no resolution to that storyline that’s been set up this whole way through. Also, I think that most of the jury likes her. The only person she’s had any beef with during the season was Shangela and she’s in the finals with Trixie. I can’t really see Aja, Milk or Thorgy voting her out over Bebe or Kennedy. Also the weird confessional Morgan gave about how Trixie is a little grand was placed to give doubt on the winner. 

My power rankings for this final 4 would be:

Trixie

*GAP*

Shangela

*GAP*

Kennedy

*BIG GAP*

Winner Picks-

Trixie- She is so present on the season at this point and we’re getting this redemption story of her correcting the wrongs she made in Season 7. No negativity, consistent visibility and decent development give her such an edge. She has a recognizable storyline in this season that hasn’t ended.

Aja- I still think her edit is good. She didn’t get a lot of screen time in this episode but the thing that is giving me warnings on her is the fact that her conflict with Kennedy/Chi Chi has seemed to go away with no acknowledgement from the show. I think the next episode will make or break her.

Kennedy- So Kennedy is my last pick just because I can’t completely rule her out. She got some weird negatively-tinged vibes in the premiere but now she’s being made to be pretty sympathetic in this beef with Milk. Like Aja, I think her edit needs to pick up while Trixie’s falters for her to remain a contender.

Queens of Interest-

Thorgy- What a bizzare edit huh? I was really conflicted on OTTM or CPM and even though I felt like the vibe she was given was more OTT but her confessionals leaned more CP. The show did a pretty bad job at hiding that she was rigged out lol.

Aja- Most of her confessionals and content were shifted toward growth and change. She really developed herself this episode as the dark horse of the season. I can see her going in that almost to the end spot (6-4) so I think she’ll be around for a while.

Bebe- A lot of her narrative in the premiere was focused on being a previous winner of the show and potentially making it the end twice and being the 2nd winner. This makes me think she’s going to end just because they wouldn’t really emphasize this idea if Bebe leaves early in the competition.

Bendelacreme- She’s getting the messy edit. Aja’s confessional after Morgan was told to sashay away (I can’t even remember that ever happening before?? Plz correct me if wrong tho!) buried her. It just took the 2 minute monologue Bendelacreme had about eliminating Morgan and disproves it completely. The confused faces on the safe queens as she’s explaining her decision just makes her look horrible and if she wins there was no reason to do that. Her decision to take out Morgan would’ve been shielded. There wouldn’t be a confessional from Milk about how Bendelacreme is basically trying to put on a front of being always congenial. That doesn’t mean she won’t be here at the end, that could happen but from this premiere, she’s not going to win imo.

Chi Chi- They did her dirty smdh. Her entrance outfit was beautiful and Trixie Mattel ass had no right to try and say it was reductive (*coco voice* with that same makeup you’ve been running on the runway every single time. no hate on trixie lol). Her time feels very short on this season and it’s sad because she could’ve had a great arc, she was one of the only girls that was right there at the end and just had their time cut short in her original season. She was presented as saying she was changed but not actually being changed from her original season. I can see her being an early boot.

Kennedy- I think she’s going to be set up as a late season antagonist. I think right now we’ll be getting the messes of Milk, Thorgy and Chi Chi while Kennedy will rise around the time the returnee challenge comes. I think she’ll get a lot of mixed tones and there’ll be some positivity to help humanize and rationalize her like Roxxxy in Season 5. She didn’t get that much visibility as well and there could be a few reasons for this. Firstly, she was safe so there was not a lot that needed to be shown in order for the story of the episode/season to make sense. Secondly, it seems like the edits of the early boots (which i’ll deem as Milk, Thorgy and Chi Chi) will take center stage in these first few episodes and if Milk gets a lot of confessionals/screen time that means someone else has to get less, which happens to be Kennedy. Lastly, I think Kennedy is going far like I stated in the beginning of her breakdown. The editors know she is going be here for a while, so they know they can afford to not show her as much to focus on the other characters. If she went out early they likely wouldn’t have done this because they need to have enough content to reasonably explain why Kennedy gets eliminated. Also, it seems like a rivalry/feud between her and Aja is brewing. We saw it a few times in this premiere and I feel like it’ll only grow. Sidenote, I loved how she snatched Shangela “we’re not talking about that though.” lmfaoo <33.

Milk- She’s getting a cocky/bratty edit. She’s going to be presented as pretentious, conceited and rude. I think she’ll get a lot of negativity and probably gets an OTTN exit. Not much to say really except it’s better than her in Season 6 lol.

Shangela- Her content was a lot more focused on commenting on the others but with this challenge there wasn’t really a lot of opportunities to develop her. I think right now she’ll go far and she has a decent presence in this premiere. Her chances of winning really depend on how her edit goes from here.

Thorgy- She’s getting the delusional, batshit insane edit where she comes across as very bitter and one-dimensional. I wonder how many times Bob will be mentioned this season just because of Thorgy lol. She also might be shown as thinking she should’ve won every challenge and the judges are rigging against her.

Trixie- Trixie is getting a redemption arc but in a different way than Aja. Whereas Aja is trying to prove that she has grown and changed into this better queen, Trixie’s narrative is more focused on correcting her past mistakes and making her second chance in Drag Race count. Aja is shifted more towards growth while Trixie is shifted more towards redemption. Trixie got a lot of confessionals this premiere despite being a relative non-factor in the events of the competition. Her being so present while being safe is giving me hints that Trixie might be winning? It just feels like she was shown a lot when she didn’t need to be. Granted, she is very popular outside of the show and this visibility could be due to that fact but it doesn’t seem like that to me.

Morgan- She got a really strong edit for a first boot (at least compared to Coco). A lot of the action this episode revolved around her, her strategy of eliminating the stronger person in the bottom and how it affects her relationship with Bendelacreme, ultimately leading to her elimination. I think out of any of the people i’m predicting leave early, she’ll come back because she had a lot of fleshed out relationships with the other queens. She also has the most drama that would arise if she returns. I think i’m a bit conflicted on her tone, i’ve seen people think her tone was negative but it doesn’t come across that way. Take this confessional she has on her strategy: “My strategy for sending girls home isn't shady.... it's honest. This is a game and you have to play to win it and I love these girls, but I'm here to win.” Morgan gets to explain herself and says how what she is doing is not villainous, it’s what has to be done in order to win. The next confessional (which comes from Aja) confirms this when Morgan’s strategy is deemed to be a good one but critiques the fact that Morgan vocalized it. It puts more blame on Morgan telling the queens rather than Morgan thinking this way. So in that way I don’t see it as negative and if anything I think she would be mixed since got some positive SPV on how good at preforming she is and what threat she is. I might rewatch one more time though to check to see if she was actually mixed tone.

Winner Picks

Trixie- Feels very strong in both content and visibility. Is being shown when not needed.

Bebe- Good amount of development for someone who only is introduced 1/4 into the episode. Lots of positivity on the threat that she is in the competition.

Aja- Feels more like a growth arc but she is very developed and if she won I don’t her edit this episode would’ve differed much.

Shangela- I think she could make it very far but a lot her edit will depend on if she can become more complex or if the other contenders get flaws in their edits. But out of everyone else not in the top 3 picks, she has the best edit.

So let me preface this by saying my original thoughts on season 5. I did this so I could help figure out any potential biases I had about this season/the characters in it. Watching this season after the tone/complexity snooze fest that was season 9 was refreshing, it made me miss how the characters weren’t afraid of their edit or their portrayal on TV. When I watched this season I was an Alaska fan and honestly I thought Jinkx was kind of annoying at some points lol. But maybe since the time has passed I gained an appreciation for Jinkx and definitely can see how she won. 

Figuring out those biases helped me to fairly assess the edgic of each contestant. With that being said there are still a few ratings i’m a bit iffy on which are listed below:

Lineysha’s overall edgic was MORM but now looking at her chart, I think UTRM fits better since her visibility only went above a 2 in her boot episode. Her literally not talking in the challenge she wins is both hilarious and sad.

I’m unsure if Roxxxy should be MORP2 or OTTP2 in Epsiode 8. I put MORP2 since her confessionals were somewhat complex and she didn’t feel that one-dimensional to me (since that episode helped us gain more sympathy for Roxxxy and helped fleshed out her personality and what makes her tick etc.)

There were some things that were sort of redeeming of the immense negativity Roxxxy received in Episode 12, like her apologizing to Jinkx on the main stage after she was mean to Jinkx. But I felt like those things couldn’t overcome (I almost used the word that shares its name with that Cheeto in the oval office ew 😷😷) all of the other negativity she was exuding throughout the episode.

In the same episode, I was unsure if Alaska should be OTTP, but I went with OTTM since her performance in the dance was really the most heavily focused on in either filming parts and was basically all about how Alaska is fucking everything up and isn’t hitting the mark like she should be. It was way more focused on than Roxxxy’s struggle with the comedic courtroom scene.

At this moment all I can really discuss is how Sasha won and how this changes things in Drag Race. To the best of my knowledge from here on tumblr, this is the first episode solely produced and constructed to be shown on VH1. The reunion which aired first was chronologically the second produced after the crowning. This contrasts to the whole season which was produces and constructed to be shown on Logo but instead got switched over to VH1. From what I’ve gathered though twitter, tumor etc. is that this episode’s twist was thought of by VH1. This all may seem like useless information but this is actually the key to how Sasha won with the edit she had. 

Originally the whole season was gonna be aired on Logo and presumably without VH1’s interference, this twist wouldn’t have occurred  and our crowning would have been the season 4-8 style of crowning we’ve become accustomed to. However, with VH1 changing how the finales are done AFTER the season has been edited and our final 4 is locked and solid, the room for an outcome being different from the intended one was there (especially with how this twist worked) like it was with this season.So considering all of this, this is how Sasha could win with her edit. She didn’t get a shit edit on purpose, the editors just didn’t know she was gonna win which is a HUGE reason why edgic for this season shouldn’t be taken seriously. In Survivor and every season of this show before this season, the editors knew who was going to win the season when they edited it and they thought they did as well with this season and that Shea was gonna be the winner. But with an eleventh hour twist that changed the entire story the editors worked on 12 episodes to convey, there wasn’t much they could’ve done to prevent this (aside from re-editing the season after knowing the twist VH1 had in mind.)

How is this going to change the next season and its edgic though? Well, it depends on if this twist is staying or not. If it does stay, I could see a lot more even development of our final 4 so that any of the 4 can be seen as a viable candidate to win and not to have this Sasha situation again. We might see a lot less villains in the end as well since production wouldn’t want a villain/negatively edited contestant to win the season and be called “America’s Next Drag Superstar.” However, this twist could create enough controversy where there’s an uproar over Shea’s loss and how this twist essentially negates anything that happened in the competition, theoretically giving someone with 4 bottom 2 lip syncs the win over someone who won 5 challenges. If there is a public outcry over this result, I could see VH1 reverting back to the previous crowning style and maybe just implementing twists into the actual competition so there’s no shock over the winner.

Shea and Trinity are the two queens I can consider at this point so let me dive into how i’m weighing one against the other at this point through editing and then i’m going to talk about each queen’s individual edgic strip and what I feel about it.

Shea has been a pick since episode 1 and she’s been the top pick since episode 6 and I’ve never considered Trinity until about Farrah’s boot. To me Trinity had a lot of storylines that didn’t get resolutions we saw from her perspective like with Eureka. Shea has had fleshed out relationships like with Sasha and Nina and up to this episode (10) she has barely gotten any negativity and none that was actually done to show Shea in a negative light. There’s just a lack of complexity in her confessionals both in development of her as a contestant and in the content of the actual confessionals.

Recently we’ve been getting a storyline of Shea and Trinity being the frontrunners in the competition which has me thinking that either Shea or Trinity will be in the top 3. In my opinion, this show does not want to have a close winner. This show doesn’t want another Raven and Tyra situation where the fans say the winner didn’t deserve the win. Even though the like to advertise their top 3s as being a close draw, through the edit it was easy to tell that Bob would win over Kim, that Bianca would win over Adore etc. Having Shea and Trinity in the finals together makes it seem like there will be another Tyra situation if Shea wins over Trinity. As of right now Trinity has more visibility and confessionals than Shea and I think most of the fanbase would rally for Trinity. I could be wrong however and the show could have Trinity win over Shea, especially if the next two episodes bury Shea in the edit. But also they could just have Shea win over Trinity for the shock factor for people not really paying attention to the story being told with each queen. I don’t have much else to say on that so let’s move onto their individual strips and I’ll try to go over the big moments each queen has had in their story.

SHEA

So Shea has had a lot of MORs and this episode is her first CP and even then I think I was kind of stretching it too. I think If I rewatch the season I can make some changes in her chart and there might be a couple of other CPs I can put in for her but really her edgic is not bad compared to others in the final 5 with her. Consistent content and screen time help her case a lot because if she wasn’t going far or even the winner the editors wouldn’t be inclined to show her every episode especially since she’s not an OTT character like Alyssa Edwards. She got a prolonged streak of positivity in the middle episodes like her talking about her battles with an ED. I think her strip is fine but there’s just some more complexity left to be desired.

TRINITY

Trinity’s strip is more varied and toned than Shea’s. Starting in episode 1 her and Eureka’s feud was given a mini Alyssa and Coco treatment that lasted through the talk show challenge. Weirdly, she was UTR after Eureka’s departure although this may have been if Trinity didn’t have such nice things to say about Eureka and her DQ. We do know more about her as a person and about her personal/family life than we do with Shea which is a plus in her corner. She also is more developed than Shea having 5 CPs to (currently) Shea’s 1, although most times she’s developed as a character with mixed tone rather than positive or toneless development. The next two episodes will tell which one of these will win if they do end up in the finals together in my opinion.

So that’s it for this week!

Alexis- She was very OTTN this episode, they butchered her in the editing lol. alol @ her dragging Tamar Braxton.

Nina- Not much for her in the episode. Why couldn’t her edit stay like her episode 1 T_T

Peppermint- Her story about being in Russia gave her positive tone and helped to humanize her even more but other than that she only set up the storyline of the 2 people left who didn’t have wins (herself and Farrah) being the ones to win the challenge and get eliminated. She didn’t really expand on it other than stating she wants to win the challenge. I think she might be in the top 3 but I think she’ll definitely make it to 4, it seems like they’re setting it up with her positive edit.

Sasha- She is starting to emerge but it’s kind of like what’s happening with Peppermint too. I’m more certain she’ll be at the end (final 3) because of these last couple of episodes. We’re starting to see a developed persona/contestant emerge but it’s too late in my opinion to be who the winner is pushed to be. I think it’s like what they did last year to Naomi Smalls to make her seem like a threat to win by final 3 but it wasn’t something done throughout the season to give us a consistent well-developed story.

Shea- Yet another MOR rating lol. No way she doesn’t end up as a MOR lol. I kind of want to rewatch her content to see if I was being too strict on giving her a CP in a couple of episodes. I think in the last couple of episodes she will emerge more and give us a well-rounded character. She was established as a front-runner this episode too so that’s also something that helps her edit.

Trinity- I really like her and I think she is also being developed as a threat coming down to the wire like Shea. I think however with how her edit is going, I can easily see her getting CPNs and OTTNs at the end and I kind of see her in the 4th place spot as well.

Valentina- For her getting these episodes without a lot of content while people like Shea who aren’t as charismatic still get consistent content it’s a huge worry. I think next episode is make it or break it for her.

Farrah- Ugh i’m gonna miss her so much <3. Kimora and Farrah for All-Stars 3 <333. The M tone is something i’m debating but I think it fits since she was in that mess with Alexis about the reading challenge but we were shown her realizing she made a mistake and apologized. Her roast was really awkward though so i’m conflicted tbh. 

Also, enjoy this bop! #FarrahForAllStars3