#9
Alaska
“I’ll give you $10,000 if you let me stay.”
A few people will be thinking 'what the ****?' at Alaska being so low, but the fact of the matter is that I did not enjoy her presence in the competition this time around. Chad Michaels lost fans because of how obvious his inevitable win was, and I guess this time it annoyed people even more because the same scenario happened with Alaska. I know it may seem unfair to think poorly of them instead of the producers or Ru himself, but I found Alaska irritating throughout most of the season as a result of her arrogance and hypocrisy. Even before her infamous fall from grace with most of the fans. The main point of Alaska for me this season: 'Was I ever really a fan in the first place?'
I think a lot of people went into season 5 wanting to love Alaska because of the situation between her and Sharon. Alaska basically auditioned for every single season of Drag Race and failed to make it on each time, whereas Sharon auditioned her first time for season 4 and made it onto the show...and won. With a great fan base already behind her, Alaska was a frontrunner during season 5. Then, Rolaskatox happened. I always liked Alaska during season 5, but I was and have never been a fan of Rolaskatox as a group. Alaska was given a really good edit that made it appear that she was a poor soul that was trapped in this alliance, and wanted to breakthrough and become a star in her own right. Her fans stayed loyal, and due to her kooky personality, use of catchphrases, and timing of her season ("season 5 hit it out of the park"); she became royalty within drag culture.
Although I liked Alaska, I never really loved her on during her original season. That was until her post-show career, that's when I saw how talented and smart Alaska really is. Season 5 never outwardly revealed just how intelligent and hard-working she can be. She was more of a care-free and kind-spirited talent that had enough charisma and determination to see her do well in challenges. In terms of the competition, most people would agree that Jinkx was the underdog of season 5. However, I think Alaska was equally, if not more of an underdog than Jinkx. Only Rolaskatox came between Alaska and that position, but she ended up winning regardless because she won the hearts of the Drag Race nation. Her spot as a future all-star was blatant.
I think with All Stars 2, we got to see how calculating Alaska really is. It was a far more honest representation of Alaska. This may be a consequence of letting fame get to her head, or it might just be the viewers being fickle enough to want to find another underdog to root for against Alaska and her obvious trail to victory. To the point where they tried to find fault with her over the littlest things. However, the format of this season brought out a competitive and game-centric side to a majority of the queens, and Alaska came off looking the worst in terms of how it had an impact on her likability.
If this was a ranking in regard to who did well in the challenges, then Alaska would obviously be near the top. However, the queens success in challenges does never (and probably will never) influence how much I like them. I never resented the fact that Alaska did well, and her triumph was justified most of the time. It just came across quite bland and uninspiring to watch as a viewer. Not to mention the fact that Alaska won the majority of lip-syncs, thus being the person to send home the most queens. Her decisions started off righteous. Afterwards, Rolaskatox came back into full force.
If Roxxxy was the tail of the Rolaskatox snake this season, and Detox was the body, then Alaska was slithering head of the serpent. A dramatic change of events from season 5, that I do not think fans of the show saw coming. Things turned sour during episode 6 where Alaska, yet again, won a lip-sync against Katya. She decided to send Tatianna home over Roxxxy, despite being one of the ringleaders in suggesting that the person who does the weakest in the challenge and receives the worst critique should go home. I ould not be bothered with Alaska's hypocrisy had she not come across genuinely pathetic in her reasoning. It was never amusing to hear "Roxxxy gave me this t-shirt I am wearing, how can I send her home?” I would have had more respect had she just said "Roxxxy is too close of a friend, I'm not sending her home", or "Roxxxy is obviously doing really badly, so it's best for me if I keep her." Toying with someone's position in the competition left a bad taste in my mouth, and she's lucky Tatianna is a graceful as she is because that could have been real ugly.
Then, the breakdown. You know you've made yourself look really bad, if the fans of the show forget that Phi Phi had just ****ed up her entire stint on Drag Race and look at you as the true villain of the season. Everything about that tantrum just revealed a side of Alaska that was obviously being kept hidden. It's almost like she knew she was going to win this season, so she was angry at the thought of being cut last minute. It was good to watch in retrospect of how entertaining it was, and that she was finally in a position of defeat despite sending many queens home beforehand. Desperation was evident, and she just made herself look terrible. I understand that to come so far and not get to the finale after doing so well would be devastating, but there are ways of handling things and she did not do a good job of maintaining this lovable person we were all supposed to be rooting for.
Her win was such an anti-climax to quite an enjoyable season. She deserved it, but I can't say I was happy to see her win. When I am watching reality TV I want the unexpected to happen, and this whole season felt like it went out of its way to build Alaska up, but then strangely knock her down at the last minute...to then just give her the win anyway? It did not really make sense from an audience's viewpoint, and Alaska came off looking worse than anyone this season, and it's opened a can of worms about how brat-like she is in real-life. She did mention as such in the makeover challenge. Hmm. Can’t say I really cared for any of her performances in the main challenges enough either to be honest.
Best moment: Her performance during her first lip-sync against Katya. The kitten-heeled shoe <3
Worst moment: The breakdown is an obvious one, but her reaction to Adore's quit was not cute. Her elimination of Tatianna > Roxxxy probably takes it though.
Still in the running: Coco Montrese, Adore Delano, Phi Phi O'Hara, Tatianna, Alyssa Edwards, Roxxxy Andrews, Katya Zamolodchikova & Detox Icunt