Drama abounds on Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale.
The Filipino franchise’s spin on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars dropped its first episode on August 13, introducing the world to some of the strongest Asian drag queens as they go toe-to-toe for the grand prize of P2 million (35,000 US dollhairs). That first episode is currently WOW Presents Plus’ most-watched premiere.
But, just like every iteration of RuPaul’s Drag Race, keeping a gaggle of drag queens in closed, confined quarters and making them compete is a recipe for drama. Alliances are quickly emerging, confessional scenes are becoming more revealing, and, while there haven’t been any major breakout fights yet (think Jiggly Caliente vs. Lashauwn Beyond on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4), there’s still plenty of time before the season finale.
While the latest season continues to unfold, we’re rounding up some of the villains (villains?!?) or the players who are making the biggest splash (derogatory) on Slaysian Royale.
This list will be updated weekly as new episodes of Drag Race Philippines: Slaysian Royale are released.
Arizona Brandy
As was expected, Arizona Brandy (Drag Race Philippines Season 2) did Kitty Space (Drag Race France Season 2) pretty dirty in Episode 4.
The episode started off with an icy heart-to-heart between the two drag queens, particularly because Kitty had wanted to send Arizona home last week. The Vietnamese-French queen claimed that it hadn’t been personal and that she had only wanted to eliminate the Filipino queen in order to save fellow contestant Ivory Glaze from going home. Arizona said that it was all water under the bridge. However, she then proceeded to spend her confessional venting about how eliminations should be based on “track record,” not “friendship.”
Well, the tables definitely turned when Kitty landed in the bottom two with Bernie (Drag Race Philippines Season 2). Arizona ended the episode on top as the Lip Sync Winner, giving her the power to send one queen home. For all her harping about track records, Miss Brandy chose to save her Filipino sister Bernie. Kitty Space sashayed away.
Yuhua
Okay, we’re only a few episodes in, but Yuhua (RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10) has steadily shown that she isn’t afraid to pick a fight when she feels like it. In Episode 2, Yuhua has had enough of Sum Ting Wong (RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Season 1) micromanaging their group’s choreography for the maxi challenge. When Sum Ting Wong makes a side comment that she had to keep changing the choreography because Yuhua couldn’t keep up, the Chinese-American drag queen bites back and says that Sum Ting Wong knew that their group didn’t have natural dancers. The two get into a small fight while doing their makeup; although Yuhua tries to get Ivory Glaze (Drag Race Down Under Season 3) to take her side, Ivory chooses to sit this one out.
Another honorable mention of Yuhua being, well, Yuhua, was when she told Kitty Space that she didn’t expect her to make it to the top two in Episode 3. After telling the other queens in the Werkroom that she thought Kitty Space’s skirt looked “cheap as fuck,” Yuhua reneges and gets all the others to applaud Kitty when she enters the room and reveals that she’s one of the top two drag queens of the week. “I found it kind of fake,” said Kitty in her confessional. “They kind of took away my big moment.”
Sum Ting Wong
While more of a micromanager than a villain, Sum Ting Wong did get icy with some of her fellow contestants, especially when it came to getting choreography right. Beyond her tete-a-tete with Yuhua, Sum Ting Wong and Kitty Space clashed heads when they were rehearsing their dance for the week’s maxi challenge. “While we were doing this, Sum Ting Wong was, like, doing this other thing, and this, and this,” said Kitty in her confessional. “I was like, ‘Sum Ting, can’t you just wait? Like let’s just first do the blocking, then the choreo.”
Arizona Brandy and Bernie’s Runway Looks
We can’t blame Arizona Brandy and Bernie for not trying with their outfits in Episode 5. For the week’s maxi challenge, the queens were tasked with dressing and styling a guest Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), whom they’d then walk with on the runway.
Arizona and Bernie tried, but their outfits — a shout-out to the femme villains of 1980s teleseryes — were essentially just sheer fabric stretched over bodysuits. Not even their OFW Hermhie’s callback to that infamous Cherie Gil line — “You’re nothing but a second-rate, trying hard copycat!” — could save their looks.
The Show Format
Although it makes sense that Drag Race Philippines’ iteration of All Stars would include more Filipinos — five out of the 12 starting drag queens all formerly competed on Drag Race Philippines — it does create a tension between the Filipino and non-Filipino contestants. We see this first in Episode 2, when Khianna, after winning the Mini Challenge, gets to pick the drag queens she wants to be part of her group for the maxi challenge. She chooses all of the Filipino queens, leaving the international queens to form their own group.
What’s more, there’s clearly a lot of favoritism going on among the Filipino queens when it comes to saving their Filipino sisters. The two times that Filipino contestants ended up in the precarious bottom two (Arizona Brandy and Bernie), the Filipino top two winners of the week (Viñas Deluxe and Arizona Brandy) chose to save them. As of writing, we’re only five episodes in, but four non-Filipino queens have already been sent home. While we’ll just have to wait and see what comes next in the show, it’s looking like the final top four contestants will most definitely hail from the Philippines.
