02BB7: Actual Reality

Metro Manila Community Quarantine - Day 943

While keeping up with social media today, I'd periodically find myself wondering if last night really happened. Is Precious Paula Nicole really the Philippines' first Drag Race Superstar? But it is all real and we couldn't be prouder of her and everything she's accomplished thus far. And I'm seeing an appropriate spike in YouTube on my channel for a lot of the performances that I've recorded over the years. 

Welcome to the Precious Paula Nicole fandom, Drag Race Philippines, fans! We've been celebrating her awesomeness practically since the beginning of her career and we're happy to have you join us. 

I just hope that we'll continue to see her. With her winning the crown, she's going to be in demand more than ever. But more importantly, I know that she's going to try to map out a trip to visit her family overseas, and she's totally earned that. We'll continue to support her as best as we can, but it won't mean we aren't going to miss how things were beyond all this craziness. And I feel the same way about all the other queens who joined Drag Race. We've already seen a significant shift in how often they've been performing at O Bar, but we'll take things one step at a time. At least we know that both Precious and Turing will be at O Bar for the big Halloween event.

I want to cram in some work-related certification work before bed, but I'll take a bit more time to talk about Kudo Hina from Mr. Sunshine, our current K-Drama. 

This show is a bit longer than some of the others we've watched and the whole historical drama setting makes for more involved watching. And this particular character has been particularly memorable - and not just because she's particularly well-dressed versus most of the other characters. As we often enjoy breaking down TV characters using RPG systems, she's clearly a major social character with an extensive network of contacts. Sure, she has bonus fencing skills for the heck of it, but the rest of her social powers are pretty nuanced. She intimidates without being intimidating - instead, she uses knowledge and secrets as leverage when dealing with other characters on the show. And her being the owner of the hotel puts her in the perfect position to gather any number of secrets from visitors to Joseon.

We just finished episode 20 and this was one of her BEST episodes EVER. I won't go into details because spoilers, but I just love how unflappable she is despite whatever the writers throw her way. And not only does she remain cool, calm, and collected, but she immediately has a solution for any problem. But she's not perfect and the episode also shows how she can be vulnerable when someone has leverage against her.

I keep telling Tobie that I'm going to create an RPG character patterned after her sometime - I just need to wait for the right game.