• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

RuPaul's Drag Race All-Stars Season 2 |OT| Let's Get All-Started!

Status
Not open for further replies.

Shizuka

Member
No one can say it wasn't deserved, that's for sure. I'm still a huge Alaska fan and I hope she wins over the world now.
 

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
No one can say it wasn't deserved, that's for sure.
Yeah that's true.
Disappointed katya didn't win, but I'm not shocked or mad that Alaska won it.

Overall this was an amazing season and I loved the format they used for it. Can't wait for the next all stars.
 
Well that was weirdly anticlimactic. Alaska put the work in and is the most dedicated to being a Ru girl and the whole Drag Race brand IMO, so I'm happy she won. Katya is a goddess but I think she can do even more outside of the microcosm of drag. Anyone that's watched her Periscopes knows she's brilliant. She'll be fine.
 

mantidor

Member
omg I think there is a soccer game going on and the moment it was announced the result someone screamed at the top of his lungs how pissed he was and I thought it was about Drag Race lol, but it was a goal I think, it might have been an actual Drag Race fan though, it's Brazil anything is possible. :p

This gif will get rounds around here (it already has):

giphy.gif


I find those heteros fighting over soccer ridiculous,
it's completely childish, it's just a game!
I would never do such a thing

*cue Rupaul Drag Race*

Fucking RuPaul, SELLOUT! And you shut the fuck up.
 

Shizuka

Member
Honestly, we were all (or most of us) ranking Alaska as the #1 most polished, most successful and most deserving contestant of the show. She'll get the snake emojis (I sent her one or two last week), but I'm sure the hate will dissipate and she'll get to enjoy her moment.
 

Shizuka

Member
Katya getting sandbagged w/ Diana was so, so shady and blatant. As well as the B2 appearance in the skits.

My biggest issue that week was that it was the only bottom 2 of the competition. It was clearly manufactured to save Alaska from the bottom.
 

kirblar

Member
My biggest issue that week was that it was the only bottom 2 of the competition. It was clearly manufactured to save Alaska from the bottom.
Oh, sorry, I meant when she randomly got thrown into the bottom when they did the 2-person videos.

That and Detox's (only) bottom appearance were both silly.
 

royalan

Member
Winner: Alaska

Real Winner(s) (raise them booking fees gurls yaaaassss): Alyssa, Tati, Katya

Yawn: Detox, Ginger, Roxxxy

Oh-That's-Right-You-Were-Here-Oh-Well-Never-Liked-You-Anyway: Party(?)

Loser: Phi Phi O'Gurl Bye

...Coco?
 

Wilsongt

Member
Winner: Alaska

Real Winner(s) (raise them booking fees gurls yaaaassss): Alyssa, Tati, Katya

Yawn: Detox, Ginger, Roxxxy

Oh-That's-Right-You-Were-Here-Oh-Well-Never-Liked-You-Anyway: Party(?)

Loser: Phi Phi O'Gurl Bye

...Coco?

Girl, Ginger is slaying right now with music. She is working with some top people in the music industry on that album she just released. She may have gotten the Candy who? edit in All Stars, but gurl has a future ahead of her.

As for Katya, her fanbase will keep going while someone else is now damaged goods.
 

Jinfash

needs 2 extra inches
Winner: Alaska

Real Winner(s) (raise them booking fees gurls yaaaassss): Alyssa, Tati, Katya

Yawn: Detox, Ginger, Roxxxy

Oh-That's-Right-You-Were-Here-Oh-Well-Never-Liked-You-Anyway: Party(?)

Loser: Phi Phi O'Gurl Bye

...Coco?
Man, Tati was so good this season.

I wish she stayed for a few more episodes at the expense of RoZzzy. And would have been okay with her in the top, even winning. Can't wait to see her next month!
 

Wilsongt

Member
Man, Tati was so good this season.

I wish she stayed for a few more episodes at the expense of RoZzzy. And would have been okay with her in the top, even winning. Can't wait to see her next month!

She definitely earns the prize for biggest Rudemption of the season. Going from that girl that talked down to Raven and couldn't throw shade to someone's face to even more gorgeous fish and could dish it with the best of them. By far the biggest improvement of all of the girls and I am so glad that they brought her back.

All of the other girls were pretty much at the same level that they were on their season, with the exception of Alyssa who probably increased her fanbase even more and Katya who finally brought it all to the table.
 

royalan

Member
I'm so happy for and proud of Tati earning the adoration of a new audience. I would love for the next All Stars season to feature more pre season 4 girls.

I love the show in general, but those early seasons were really special for me coming up as a young(er) gay. I know Raven, JuJuBee and Raja's fame has persisted, but still...

I want the new audience to get to experience all of them.

FILbL2U.gif
 

B-Dex

Member
Katya DESTROYED that challenge. Endless possibilities.... This rigga morris is BS. I hope their's a social media uproar.
 

mantidor

Member
Katya DESTROYED that challenge. Endless possibilities.... This rigga morris is BS. I hope their's a social media uproar.

This is what is really weird about this finale. I thought that if they were going to crown Alaska they would've done some rudemption edit or something, but Alaska came off as even more unlikable, her body paint wasn't that good, her final look wasn't memorable at all. This was just meh, and they still crowned her.

Like, even crowning Detox would have been more interesting, I was expected to be gagged but I'm just underwhelmed.

And rest at ease people are fuming everywhere, to say people are not pleased is an understatement.
 
I'm so happy for and proud of Tati earning the adoration of a new audience. I would love for the next All Stars season to feature more pre season 4 girls.

I love the show in general, but those early seasons were really special for me coming up as a young(er) gay. I know Raven, JuJuBee and Raja's fame has persisted, but still...

I want the new audience to get to experience all of them.

FILbL2U.gif
I want to see the growth in Ongina and Delta in particular. Post season 3, I'd love to see April Carrion, Trinity K. Bonet, and Trixie Mattel too now that they've honed themselves more.
 
The right queen won, even though Katya will walk away from this a megastar. So proud of my Russian hooker. There was no way her win would have been justified despite her amazing showing in the last few episodes.

Never thought Alaska would be the one people didn't root for, lol. She's not only the best queen out of this season, but probably any season.
 

royalan

Member
The right queen won, even though Katya will walk away from this a megastar. So proud of my Russian hooker. There was no way her win would have been justified despite her amazing showing in the last few episodes.

Never thought Alaska would be the one people didn't root for, lol. She's not only the best queen out of this season, but probably any season.

Eh, the only thing that keeps Alaska from being the best for me is her fashion. It's low rent Born This Way era Lady Gaga.

And her comedy is so one-dimensional. She's sarcastic...and that's it.

And she's not really likable anymore. She takes to drag like a STEM major.

And if we're going to criticize Dax's padding why has NOBODY EVER CRITICIZED ALASKA'S CONSISTENTLY HORRIBLE PADDING? HER HIPS LOOK LIKE THEY BELONG TO TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE.
 
Alaska's win made me feel nothing. But I guess I'm kind of glad that being as focused as she was, she at least got what she wanted, otherwise it might be a kind of a bummer.

Alaska does treat drag like a STEM major, this season I kind of feel like we peeked behind the curtain and realized there was less wonder there than we/I thought.
 

Monocle

Member
The right queen won, even though Katya will walk away from this a megastar. So proud of my Russian hooker. There was no way her win would have been justified despite her amazing showing in the last few episodes.
I'm so happy for her. She got a second chance to show the brilliance and humor that set her apart, qualities she couldn't fully showcase on her season, and now there can be no doubt she's a top tier queen.

I agree her win would have been unjustified, and I don't think she was robbed at all. She showed up and did exactly what she needed to do to prove herself. She will be a big success after this, I guarantee it.

Never thought Alaska would be the one people didn't root for, lol. She's not only the best queen out of this season, but probably any season.
The backlash is embarrassing. Alaska earned her success. Multiple rejections from RPDR's earlier seasons, watching her boyfriend get on the show (and then win!) before she did, making it to the top 3 of her season and just barely falling short, and then honing her character and building her brand with perhaps the most intense work ethic of any queen in Drag Race history before finally earning the crown on All Stars 2.

Alaska deserves this. Her breakdown in the penultimate episode was ugly and graceless, but hardly disqualifying or unforgivable. She hasn't exactly shown a long pattern of bitterness and entitlement. Quite the opposite. She had a very low, very human moment, and then recovered. Recovered enough to take the crown and mock her own pettiness as the world saw her tantrum for the first time. She could have refused to own it, but instead, like the class act she is, she leaned into the criticism and publicly accepted that she made a mistake.

If that's not good enough for some people, they can fuck off. Holding celebrities to unrealistically high standards is childish and petty. One dumb screw-up does not erase years of doing all the right things, and if you think it does, back that shit up with a decent argument or take a seat.

Speaking of taking a seat, Roxxxy is such a flop. She had no business being in the top 4. Crown her Top A-Lister Groupie and let her fade into obscurity. To me, at this stage, she's totally stale. Why didn't more people notice that she was already scraping her personal ceiling by the end of her season?
 
Possibly the biggest injustice was that no one read Alaska on her splotchy-ass body paint. That was rough. Seriously though, her run on AS2 has also just seriously been completely devoid of all the charm and likeability she showed in season 5. She spent the whole show being a challenge-winning robot who occasionally recited tired RPDR memes while almost everyone else was way more interesting than her week in and week out. The most noteworthy thing she did was act like a brat over landing in the bottom once, ffs. She may have deserved the crown, but she did not make for good TV on her predetermined road to it. I remain ungagged and underwhelmed.

Man, I almost forgot coco was in this season.

Coco's run in AS2 was slightly memorable if only for her new and exciting memes.
 

mantidor

Member
Alaska's fall from grace is mostly due to the Rolaskatox disaster, had anyone but Roxxxy made the top 4 her winning would have been more welcomed, tantrum and all. It was really shady of the producers to cast all of them again, but they also made all the wrong decisions, and they justified them in the worst way possible.

Also, both producers and Rolaskatox made the grave mistake of understimating Tatianna. When they eliminated Alyssa twice they knew to have the waterworks ready, because they knew eliminating a popular queen was not going to be well recieved, but they really didn't even contemplate the possibility of Tatianna being so well liked, this made basically all the audience to root for Katya after it was her against Rolaskatox. As Tati would say, choices.


Alaska won the crown, but lost the game.
 

royalan

Member
Possibly the biggest injustice was that no one read Alaska on her splotchy-ass body paint. That was rough. Seriously though, her run on AS2 has also just seriously been completely devoid of all the charm and likeability she showed in season 5. She spent the whole show being a challenge-winning robot who occasionally recited tired RPDR memes while almost everyone else was way more interesting than her week in and week out. The most noteworthy thing she did was act like a brat over landing in the bottom once, ffs. She may have deserved the crown, but she did not make for good TV on her predetermined road to it. I remain ungagged and underwhelmed.



Coco's run in AS2 was slightly memorable if only for her new and exciting memes.

Bingo
 
Alaska winning was already predetermined so I was already bored with the episode. I'm in some ways okay with her won even though I wanted Katya to win. Roxxy being on the stage with 3 fierce girls who she shouldn't even be sharing the stage for just upset me. Either way, congrats to Alaska but I'm over it and ready for the next season. This was a very underwhelming season tbh. Full of cute gags here and there but it felt that the winner was already decided fron episode one and we were just watching how it was going to play out.
 

royalan

Member
If that's not good enough for some people, they can fuck off. Holding celebrities to unrealistically high standards is childish and petty. One dumb screw-up does not erase years of doing all the right things, and if you think it does, back that shit up with a decent argument or take a seat.

Oh honey sweetie boo boo kitty but it does. It absolutely does. To think otherwise is to suddenly be strangely ignorant of how reality tv (and especially THIS show) works.

We ALL say this about every season, lets not play dumb now: the real winners are the ones who come on the show and remember that IT'S A SHOW. Who are aware of the rules and are adept at playing the game beneath the game. It's especially true here because this is an All Stars season; this ain't none of these girls' first time at the rodeo. They know how this goes down.

Season 5 Alaska seemed to know that. To know how important decorum and looking like you're having fun and enjoying the process is to a drag queen's life post Drag Race. All Stars Alaska was a borderline unlikable bot who only seemed to care about winning the crown and keeping her totally-not-on-but-so-on Rolaskatox buddies around at the cost of her reputation. But honey ask Sharon, ask TYRA. That crown is not what gets you booked.

It's the reason why the REAL winner, and BEST queen, to ever grace Drag Race is Two-Time Winner Alyssa Fucking Edwards. Who has had, across all seasons, the best mix of C.U.N.T., and a true genuine sense of having fun, not caring too much, and enjoying the simple fact that she's HERE. Alyssa will be remembered fondly. So will Tati. So will Katya. But above all, years after Drag Race has aired its last season, it'll be Alyssa Edwards people think of enough to talk about. That girl's a lot smarter than people give her credit for.

Alaska will have to be careful about where she parks her car when she goes to gigs. But she got that crown, though. And I'm sure Detox and Roxxxy will have her back...lol

There's your argument. Salt and pepper's on the counter.
 
Possibly the biggest injustice was that no one read Alaska on her splotchy-ass body paint. That was rough.

Just... why? Why did she even paint herself blue? I kept expecting it to lead somewhere or be some sort of gag or something but she was just... blue and streaky. It was just another part of what amounted to a very weird and underwhelming finale. It would have been so great if Alyssa and Tati had been up there instead.
 

mantidor

Member
You know Alaska is smart, I know she will turn it around somehow, in retrospective you can see that some parts of the Poundcake album and her videos were preemptive damage control, she knew she screwed it up, so she was making amends with some of the queens already, and is owning her snake emojis. It's still going to be a lot of work, her likability took a big hit.
 

Shizuka

Member
My issue with the finale is that it was the most uneventful one in years. The finale itself was a lackluster episode, let alone being the finale.
 
Owwww Royalan with the tea. When Alyssa went home, it was a travesty to the entire show and reaffirmed that Alaska was going to win. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

I'm a stan and I don't care but Alyssa Edwards is the true Queen and Phi Phi was dumb af to think that Alyssa was getting specific favoritism but did not read into Alaska who really was. Ugh...
 
That was kind of sad tbh. Obvious and I guess she deserved it but completely unfulfilling if you're not an Alaska subscriber.

Meh. This season started off so good. Onto season 9 I guess.
 

Monocle

Member
Oh honey sweetie boo boo kitty but it does. It absolutely does. To think otherwise is to suddenly be strangely ignorant of how reality tv (and especially THIS show) works.

We ALL say this about every season, lets not play dumb now: the real winners are the ones who come on the show and remember that IT'S A SHOW. Who are aware of the rules and are adept at playing the game beneath the game. It's especially true here because this is an All Stars season; this ain't none of these girls' first time at the rodeo. They know how this goes down.

Season 5 Alaska seemed to know that. To know how important decorum and looking like you're having fun and enjoying the process is to a drag queen's life post Drag Race. All Stars Alaska was a borderline unlikable bot who only seemed to care about winning the crown and keeping her totally-not-on-but-so-on Rolaskatox buddies around at the cost of her reputation. But honey ask Sharon, ask TYRA. That crown is not what gets you booked.

It's the reason why the REAL winner, and BEST queen, to ever grace Drag Race is Two-Time Winner Alyssa Fucking Edwards. Who has had, across all seasons, the best mix of C.U.N.T., and a true genuine sense of having fun, not caring too much, and enjoying the simple fact that she's HERE. Alyssa will be remembered fondly. So will Tati. So will Katya. But above all, years after Drag Race has aired its last season, it'll be Alyssa Edwards people think of enough to talk about. That girl's a lot smarter than people give her credit for.

Alaska will have to be careful about where she parks her car when she goes to gigs. But she got that crown, though. And I'm sure Detox and Roxxxy will have her back...lol

There's your argument. Salt and pepper's on the counter.
One moment really doesn't change everything tho. At least not the kind of moment she had, which was about her personal failure rather than anything really nasty like attacking someone else (hi Phi Phi) or directly insulting her fans. I'm sorry but bleating "It's reality TV henny!" doesn't give you or anyone license to be fucking irrational and purposefully misinterpret an event that couldn't be more clear cut: a hyper-ambitious person reacting badly to an imminent threat to a long term goal with special personal value. A person, I'll remind you, who has shown remarkable self-awareness before and after her mistake.

Alaska hasn't lost any of the skills that made her such a success to begin with. She's already picked herself up, made amends with her friends, and carried on with her career. The people who can't move on can feel free to form a small obnoxious contingent that clings to a grudge that has nothing to do with them. The rest of us will continue to enjoy a world class entertainer in her prime.
 
"The rest of us"

Like the 10% of drag race fans that didn't want Katya to win lmao. You can continue acting as if everything is fine but Alaska fucked up with the tantrum and I don't think a lot of people have accepted her "apology" (which she then promptely undid with her "I needed to be here" speech). Also the way she blamed Rolaskatox for it... sad!
 

Monocle

Member
"The rest of us"

Like the 10% of drag race fans that didn't want Katya to win lmao. You can continue acting as if everything is fine but Alaska fucked up with the tantrum and I don't think a lot of people have accepted her "apology" (which she then promptely undid with her "I needed to be here" speech). Also the way she blamed Rolaskatox for it... sad!
Time will tell, won't it? Bookmark this thread.
 

royalan

Member
"The rest of us"

Like the 10% of drag race fans that didn't want Katya to win lmao. You can continue acting as if everything is fine but Alaska fucked up with the tantrum and I don't think a lot of people have accepted her "apology" (which she then promptely undid with her "I needed to be here" speech). Also the way she blamed Rolaskatox for it... sad!

This.

I mean, don't get me wrong Monocle, I completely understand your viewpoint and it's certainly logical. But I don't think you're acknowledging how big the backlash against Alaska has been for weeks. And the thing that's disappointing about it is that the backlash was predictable. The girls themselves acknowledged there would be backlash if they played favorites in episode 1. And not only did Alaska eliminate a popular queen people have been wanting to see for years twice, she did it because Roxxxy lent her a shirt. I mean, she had to have known this was going to happen the second she did that.

And we can't really force a rational argument on what is very much an emotional response to how the show played out.
 

mantidor

Member
This season would have been perfect had the producers given Katya her very deserved lipsync win, seriously, she air guitar with her leg to Cherrybomb, sorry but Alaska lost that one.

With Katya winning, Roxxxy would have been gone, but she would have her rudemption, this also means either Tatianna or Alyssa would have got into the top 4, the playfield would have been more even, and everyone would have been ok with Alaska winning.

But no, the show had a giant hard on for Rolaskatox for some bizarre reason, and it backfired spectaculary for everyone involved.
 

Rayis

Member
The moment that cemented Alyssa as the winner of the game was when she decided to eliminate Ginger but keep Katya, I would have never thought of something like that.
 
I mean, the Alaska backlash is bullshit. She was forced to have blood on her hands because she kept winning. Katya skirted around the responsibility of eliminating a fellow contestant because her lip syncs were generally bad. I wouldn't be surprised if she threw those lip syncs to avoid eliminating a beloved queen, which makes her strategy quite successful. I'm sure if she bested Alaska a few times she wouldn't be as unanimously rooted for going into the finale. The show's format makes it impossible for someone to slay the competition without also souring a viewer or two who has to see their favorite queen sashay away.

This is where Drag Race splits into two different shows for people. Is it a reality competition that rewards contestants for winning challenges? Or is it a popularity contest that's meant to foster likable talent and launch careers? The show started incorporating public input after season 3 and since has tried to align challenge wins and public favorability as best they can. This is meant for the purpose of launching the right careers while also keeping the integrity of "the competition." All-Stars 2 flips the script so much that it makes it REALLY hard for those two things to align. I think keeping that in mind is important as we go back to the standard format with season 9.

I'm not sure what WOW can learn from this season that can be applied next time. Yeah Alaska's win isn't particularly exciting (doesn't help that we all predicted she'd win anyway (because we knew she'd be brilliant)), but it's important to differentiate "not exciting" and "not deserved."
 

royalan

Member
I mean, the Alaska backlash is bullshit. She was forced to have blood on her hands because she kept winning. Katya skirted around the responsibility of eliminating a fellow contestant because her lip syncs were generally bad. I wouldn't be surprised if she threw those lip syncs to avoid eliminating a beloved queen, which makes her strategy quite successful. I'm sure if she bested Alaska a few times she wouldn't be as unanimously rooted for going into the finale. The show's format makes it impossible for someone to slay the competition without also souring a viewer or two who has to see their favorite queen sashay away.

This is where Drag Race splits into two different shows for people. Is it a reality competition that rewards contestants for winning challenges? Or is it a popularity contest that's meant to foster likable talent and launch careers? The show started incorporating public input after season 3 and since has tried to align challenge wins and public favorability as best they can. This is meant for the purpose of launching the right careers while also keeping the integrity of "the competition." All-Stars 2 flips the script so much that it makes it REALLY hard for those two things to align. I think keeping that in mind is important as we go back to the standard format with season 9.

I'm not sure what WOW can learn from this season that can be applied next time. Yeah Alaska's win isn't particularly exciting (doesn't help that we all predicted she'd win anyway (because we knew she'd be brilliant)), but it's important to differentiate "not exciting" and "not deserved."

The only part of this I don't buy is the Tatiana elimination. Alaska could have DEFINITELY played that a lot better than she did. Roxxxy had earned her bus fare home by that point, but if Alaska was still set on Keeping her she could have kept her horrible reasoning to herself. Going out of her way to talk up how amazing Tati is.....buuut Roxxxy let me borrow this shirt so sorry gurl bye! Again!

That elimination was played horribly, and that's when the backlash started. And that wasn't the show. That was Alaska willing to step into the role of villain for the sake of a friendship. Which is fine, but here's the fallout.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom