>>79789Oof that's rough. I mean honestly at this point if you take the wig and the dress off, Ru's just a republican at this point. I agree with everything you've said here except that I don't think this or anything else will end it anytime soon. It's become more of a cashcow than ever and no one's gonna let that go anytime soon, especially not Ru.
I think part of the issue is the existence of RPDR itself honestly. In the earlier seasons there were queens who had worked and had full careers and history and personality before DR. All the queens coming up and competing nowadays have come up with their careers and personalities shaped directly with RPDR in mind. If you're a working drag queen and you're not working towards RPDR as your end goal then there's basically no point in even being a drag queen. They come in with catchphrases and merch and hundreds of thousands of followers already because at the end of the day the only thing that really matters now is who can afford the most expensive wigs and costume pieces. It has nothing to do with who actually did better at in the show overall because whoever can do the most reveals and jump splits and wig tosses is going to win no matter what, there's no real stakes there.
It's all too polished now. The reason some of those earlier seasons were so charming was because of how rough everything and everyone was. Shangela and Latrice came in basically only ever having done drag a handful of times and were actually able to compensate with their charisma. Everything was drunk and messy and hard front and hot glued together. I think they need to bring back more of the sewing/DIY challenges to weed out the girls who are just instagram fish sugarbaby twinks. It's kind of the great equalizer.
You know you've really run the gamut when "cosplay queen" is even a category that's boring and stale. Rock M. just looks like Trixie wearing Kim's outfits.