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Characters / Ru Pauls Drag Race Season 16

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WARNING: Contestants are listed in order of elimination and there are unmarked spoilers on this page, potentially including spoilers for previous seasons.


Main (RuPaul, hosts and judges)

RuPaul's Drag Race (USA) seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16

Drag Race around the world:

Canada | Chile | Down Under | France | Holland | Italy | Mexico | Philippines | Spain | Thailand | UK | USA

All Stars & Vs. the World

All Stars (USA) | Canada vs. the World | UK vs the World

All names, ages, and locations stated are at the time of filming.


Hershii LiqCour-Jeté (14th)

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Age: 33
From: Los Angeles, California

"I... did not prepare for this."


  • Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Her Ball looks ended up causing her elimination. While her "Mother Goose" look was fine enough, her Mother Nature-themed "Significant Mother" look didn't scream "Mother Nature" and her "Call Me Mother/Father Eleganza" look was basic and had an unflattering shade of pale green that washed her skin out. Hershii placed in the bottom two where she was eliminated by Geneva.
  • Mythology Gag: Describes her "Made You Look" runway (a brown dress) as "it's chocolate", which prompts the infamous chocolate bar sound effect from Season 14 to play. Happens again when she’s eliminated; she drops the chocolate quote as her exit line and the sound effect plays her out.
  • One Degree of Separation: She's the drag sister of Kornbread "The Snack" Jeté.
  • Punny Name: Hershii's name is a combination of the chocolate brand Hershey and her pronouns in drag – "her" and "she."
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: She crashes out in last place, but with the premiere being in two parts and nobody getting eliminated in the first episode, we did get two episodes to know her.

Mirage (13th)

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Age: 28
From: Las Vegas, Nevada

"I hope you trash bags are ready to lose!"


  • Broken Tears: Mirage does not take her elimination well. After losing the lip-sync against Geneva, Mirage breaks down into tears on the runway to the point that Ru had to calm her down. By the time Mirage did leave, she was too broken to give an exit line. *
  • Filming for Easy Dub: During her lip-sync against Geneva to Cher's "Dark Lady", Mirage evidently doesn't know the words to the song, so she tries to hide it with her dancing, however, both the judges and the other queens see right through it. Even her stunts lead to a Wardrobe Malfunction near the end, and Mirage ends up being sent home.
  • One Degree of Separation: She's close friends with Season 15 runner-up Anetra and name-drops her during her song for the talent show.
Chill, I never put my hands on you
I'll call up Anetra, she'll chop you in two
  • Only One Name: Performs as Mirage Amuro off the show.
  • Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: What made it so baffling that Mirage didn't know the lyrics to "Dark Lady" is that the song has been a drag staple for decades.
  • Signature Move: Much like Anetra's duck walk, Mirage comes packaged with one: heel clacking, wherein she clacks her heels against each other or the floor on beat with a song.

Amanda Tori Meating (12th)

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Age: 26
From: Los Angeles, California

"Wait a second! This place doesn't have a bidet."


  • Aborted Arc: For the few episodes she appeared in, there was a lot of focus on the rivalry between her and Plane Jane; Plane saw Amanda's drag as not being up to par with everyone else's as well as the show's standards in general, and Amanda took issue with Plane's constant unwarranted jabs at her and some of the other queens. However, due to Amanda's early exit, the feud goes unresolved, with Amanda being used as a punchline for the few times she's mentioned by the others before returning for the last two episodes.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Many of the other queens (particularly Plane Jane) looked down on Amanda throughout her time on the show, with them seeing her makeup as sloppy and her outfits as basic. However there were also some queens who were friendly with her and even stood up for her when she was being picked on, such as Dawn, Morphine, and Plasma.
  • Multiboobage: Her "Ruveal Yourself" runway has her sporting three glittery purple boobs.
  • Punny Name: "A mandatory meeting."
  • Running Gag: Her entrance and first runway looks get poked fun at even after she leaves due to the crunchy makeup worn in both of them. A picture of the former gets used in Team Sapphira’s presentation for the corporate seminar challenge in a slide with other scary things.

Geneva Karr (11th)

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Age: 30
From: Brownsville, Texas*

"Viva Mexico, Karr-brones*!"


  • Big Beautiful Woman: One of three this season, alongside Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Megami.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Being from Mexico, she sometimes peppers some Spanish into her sentences.
  • Punny Name: Uses her surname Karr as the basis of multiple puns during her time on the show, including a Spanish-language pun as her entrance line and a few jokes based around actual cars.
  • Rule of Three: After ending up in the bottom twice and surviving both lip-syncs, she was sent home the third time by Mhi'ya.
  • Self-Applied Nickname: Fond of calling herself "la diva más Latina"*.
  • Signature Move: Geneva clearly has a fondness for the splits, as she does them at least once in every episode she appears in.
  • Spicy Latina: As the first Mexican-born queen to appear on a US season, Geneva presents herself as a stylish diva whose drag is mainly based around her Mexican background.
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Her entrance look is a sparkly dress with the Mexican flag printed on it.

Megami (10th)

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Age: 34
From: New York City, New York

"A goddess amongst men."


  • Big Beautiful Woman: One of three this season, alongside Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige and Geneva Karr.
  • Beware the Quiet Ones: Megami is repeatedly underestimated throughout her time on the season, which carries over into the Lalaparuza where she is singled out by many of the queens as being the "weakest" lipsyncer out of them all... She proceeds to prove them all wrong, winning 3/4 lipsyncs, two of which were against Dance Battlers Amanda Tori Meating and Mhi'ya Iman Le Paige, the latter of whom sent her home originally and was one of the lipsync assassins of the season. She ultimately makes it all the way to the final round, and while she doesn't take home the prize she still gives Morphine a run for her money.
  • Crazy-Prepared: She comes to the Lalaparuza with a different routine planned not just for every possible song, but every possible matchup. As a result, her lipsyncs all have a very unique and refreshing quality to them, ultimately giving her the upper hand against some of the other queens who are better dancers than her but tend to rely on the same tricks over and over.
  • Informed Attribute: During her entrance, she talks about how she's loud and funny because she's a Latina from Brooklyn. Throughout the competition though, we see that she's more quiet and unsure of herself than anything else.
  • My Greatest Second Chance: Megami was ultimately one more victim of this season's vicious lipsync assassins, doomed to be overshadowed...until the Lalaparuza with the eliminated queens. Much like Silky Nutmeg Ganache, she performs so well that, even though she doesn't win in the end, she more than earns back any respect lost with previous underwhelming showings.
  • Proud to Be a Geek: Calls herself a "geek chic goddess", gets her name from a JRPG, and started drag as a cosplayer.
  • Shout-Out: Her name comes from Shin Megami Tensei I, which she cites as her favourite JRPG.
  • Shrinking Violet: Is quite reserved and quiet compared to her other competitors.

Xunami Muse (9th + Miss Congeniality)

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Age: 34
From: New York City, New York

"The natural disaster has arrived."

  • Bad Impressionists: For Snatch Game, she decides to go out of the box with a variation on the Tooth Fairy with the "Gold Tooth Fairy". Unfortunately, the impression fall flat for being unfunny and awkward. This landed Xunami in the bottom that week where she was eliminated.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Or diverted, as it were. Xunami admits she could hurl a variety of agitated names at Plane Jane, but didn't "because I want to fuck [you]".
  • Flat Character: Xunami is a stunning queen with a gorgeous mug, and she really knows how to walk the runway. When it comes to the challenges however, she tends play it low-key and thus fails to stand out much. While this allows her to coast by in the RPDR Live and Rusical challenges, there's no saving her in the Snatch Game where it becomes immediately clear that she didn't develop much of a character at all for the "Gold Tooth Fairy" other than being a stereotypical businesswoman.
  • Generation Xerox: Inverted, in that nearly everything about Xunami is different from Kandy, her drag mother of Season 13. Kandy was loud and abrasive while Xunami made friends much more easily. Kandy was a runner-up who spent a lot of time bouncing between high and low placements, while Xunami set a record for safe placements before being eliminated mid-season. Even Xunami's name is a direct contrast, with 'tsunami' being a term for a terrifying disaster while 'candy' is a term for sweets.
  • Irony: She is older than every immediate member of her drag family, including Kandy, Aja, and Dahlia Sin.
  • Nice Girl: Compared to her boisterous and brash drag mother, Xunami was much nicer, did not start or involve herself in any drama, and generally got along well with everyone. This made her one of two queens to be voted Miss Congeniality this time around. Notably, due to her DACA status making it difficult for her to leave the country, she decides to give away the Spain trip she won from one of the mini challenges to Hershii.
  • One Degree of Separation: She's the drag daughter of Kandy Muse.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: Her name is pronounced "Tsunami", but spelled with an X.

Plasma (8th)

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Age: 24
From: New York City, New York

"Darling, why give blood when you can sell Plasma?"


  • Achilles' Heel: While Plasma is a great actress and a master of comedy, her sewing skills leave a lot to be desired. Her "Welcome to the Dollhouse" look and her "See You Next Wednesday" looks were criticized for being loose-fitting and unflattering. While the former caused Plasma to place low, the latter put her in the bottom two against Dance Battler extraordinaire Mhi'ya.
  • All Gays Love Theater: Especially Barbra Streisand. As an added bonus, her reference pools are much older than contemporary gay culture much to the judges’ delight. She also says she's a fan of The Sound of Music. Naturally, Plasma easily wins the annual Rusical with her performance as "Mariah Grande".
  • The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest this time around, though she claims to be a 65-year-old woman inhabiting the body of a 24-year-old.
  • Fanboy: A massive fan of Barbra Streisand, even for a drag queen. It is especially noticeable in Episode 4 where, after begrudgingly accepting a Barbra Streisand inspired role, confessional cuts shows her extensively rambling about how she was such an inspiration for her.
  • Gorgeous Period Dress: Her style of drag is heavily based on 1930's fashion.
  • Motor Mouth: She talks a lot and she talks fast. The editing team had fun with this when she goes on an overly long tangent on Barbra Streisand in one of her confessionals.
  • Silk Hiding Steel: While normally effervescent and cheerful with everyone, she has no problem going head to head with Plane Jane when she tries bullying the other queens.

Mhi'ya Iman Le'Paige (7th)

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Age: 35
From: Miami, Florida

"The queen of flips. I don't set the bar, I flips it."


  • Achilles' Heel: Mhi'ya is a phenomenal performer and, while her acting and comedy skills leave much to be desired, she proves in the Snatch Game that she has what it takes to pull through. However, she is totally ill-equipped to handle the season's many design challenges. Even with Sapphira helping her on all of them, her taste level just isn't quite there and she ends up in the bottom three for all of them.
  • Acrofatic: A certain amount of spryness is commonplace on Drag Race, but Mhi'ya whips out acrobatics and stunts typically thought to be the realm of much thinner queens with the grace and ease of a gymnast, and she's rightfully proud of it.
  • Big Beautiful Woman: One of three this season, alongside Megami and Geneva Karr.
  • Dance Battler: Undoubtedly the season's lip-sync assassin. Despite landing the bottom more times than she's been safe, she consistently churns out stunning performances whenever she's made to lip-sync, with her stunts and flips saving her bacon on multiple occasions.
  • Death or Glory Attack: Decides to go with a completely made up character for Snatch Game instead of an existing character. Much to everyone's surprise, including Ru, she's able to banter back and forth with everyone and receives high praise from the judges during deliberations.
  • The Dreaded: Mhi'ya's reputation as the "Queen of Flips" makes her the queen that absolutely nobody wants to have to lipsync against.
  • Nice Girl: Apart from Megami, no one seemed to have any conflict with Mhi'ya.
    • She's quite shady towards her Miami sister, Morphine, outright stating in their first episode together that she does not find Morphine's drag impressive and the two continue to act quite catty towards one another up until Morphine finally sends her packing. However, given that they knew each other prior to the show, it's likely this was just playful cattiness on both their parts.
  • Punctuation Shaker: Makes liberal use of punctuation marks in her drag name, which lends it an exotic quality.
  • Rule of Three: Averted. The third lipsync is usually a guaranteed axe for any queen, and she was pitted against Plasma, who had a much stronger track record with no bottom placements and two wins and was an accomplished stage queen. The lipsync was even set to Gaga's "Bloody Mary"note  as if to underscore this...but Mhi'ya outperforms the curse and stays.
    • Four Is Death: That being said, she couldn't avert it here, as she was sent home by Morphine, but at least she did put up a good fight.
  • Red Baron: Known as the "Queen of Flips" due to her signature backflips.
  • Shrinking Violet: She's a lot more subdued than her cast members and has been called out by Ru and the judges for it. Snaps out of it by Snatch Game much to the judges' delight.
  • Wardrobe Malfunction: Threw her cape over Morphine during her final lipsync while taking it off. Morphine responded with a Breast Attack.

Dawn (6th)

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Age: 24
From: Brooklyn, New York

"Rise and shine, motherfuckers... it's Dawn."


  • Always Second Best: It's very clear that she could have won any of this season's many design challenges had she not been cast in the same season as Q and Nymphia Wind.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: On the receiving end of this when she has to lip sync against Morphine to a Megan Thee Stallion song.
  • The Gadfly: Dawn has something of a mischievous streak and enjoys being shady on occasion. She tries to prod at Plane Jane by making a comment about one of her outfits, and maintains a shit-eating grin on her face even as Plane gives her an earful for it.
  • Older Than She Looks: While she's already quite young at 24 (tied with Plasma and Plane Jane as the youngest queens this season), out of drag her naturally round facial features and twink physique makes her look more like a young teenager at most.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Despite placing a respectable top 6, she didn’t win a single challenge and mostly coasted by on safe placements. Not only were there queens with 3 and 4 wins under their belt by the time she went home, but even some of the queens who went home before her had won more than she did (particularly Plasma, who won two challenges).
  • Pointy Ears: Frequently wears fake pointed elf ears as part of her fantastical style.
  • Standard Fantasy Races: Bosco has demons, Irene has aliens, and Dawn has elves—her look, while ranging from standard to Cloud Cuckoo Lander, has a strong tendency to evoke fantasy elves.
  • Textile Work Is Feminine: She's a seasoned seamstress with a good eye for both concepts and construction.

Morphine Love Dion (5th + Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses)

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Age: 27
From: Miami, Florida

"The beauty and the booty is here, a darlo todo*!"


  • Bad Impressionists: For Snatch Game, Morphine decides to go with famous fraudster Anna Sorokin. While she does have the accent down, her jokes fell flat and came across as awkward. Morphine landed in the bottom two that week.
  • Dance Battler: As far as lipsyncs are concerned, Morphine shares the same track record as Mhi'ya in managing to send three girls home before finally being eliminated, and was the one responsible for sending Mhi'ya home. She then goes on to win the Lipsync Lalaparuza near the end of the season.
    • By the end of the season, Morphine lipsynced against half of the season 16 cast, beating all of them except for Sapphira Cristál who beat her twice. She also currently holds the record for having lipsynced the most times in a single season of Drag Race, having surpassed Jasmine Kennedie's previous record of 7 lipsyncs with 8 lipsyncs.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Morphine absolutely demolishes poor Dawn in their lipsync late in the season. Q remarks that the song choice, Megan Thee Stallion's "Body" made the task of going up against Morphine, the body queen of the season and a bona fide assassin, a Foregone Conclusion.
  • Femme Fatale: The concept of her talent show, extremely latina and evoking the deadly grace of one.
  • Four Is Death: Similar to Mhi'ya, it took four lip-syncs before she was eliminated.
  • One Degree of Separation: Fellow contestant Plane Jane is her drag sister.
  • The Protagonist: An interesting example. While Morphine didn’t win any challenges or make it to the finale, she had the most confessionals of the season, an incredibly flattering edit despite being in the bottom a lot, the title of lip-sync-assassin assassin, and the crown of "Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses".
  • Shout-Out: Her entrance look is a dragged up take on a red carpet look by singer Kali Uchis.
  • Silent Snarker: Goes for this in lip-syncs, boredly stifling a small yawn mid-battle with Mhi'ya and absentmindedly checking her nails while still pulling off perfect moves against another opponent.
  • Spicy Latina: Morphine's persona is a saucy Latina Femme Fatale, often referencing her Nicaraguan heritage in her drag and referencing Latina celebrities. The aforementioned Kali Uchis in particular is one of her biggest inspirations.
  • Stripperiffic: Will take any opportunity to showcase her surgically enhanced rear when on the runway.

Q (4th)

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Age: 27
From: Kansas City, Missouri

"'Q' the music, because the show is about to start!"


  • Always Second Best: Has placed second for three episodes in a row which starts getting on her nerves. Finally acquits herself when she wins the doll design challenge.
    • While she does manage to bag a second win for the "neo-goth" design challenge, she ultimately falls right back into this during the last stretch of the season, losing to either Sapphira or Plane Jane over and over despite receiving positive critiques in many of the challenges.
  • Boob-Based Gag: Denied. Q clearly had a breastplate reveal planned for the Lalaparuza smackdown (as evidenced by her taking part of her top off when she left the stage), but didn't get a chance to use it during the performance thanks to her opponent Megami choosing Janet Jackson's "What About" as the song, a song about domestic abuse where a reveal like Q's would likely have been seen as tasteless. Morphine lampshades in a confessional that Megami likely picked that song because she knew it would hinder Q.
  • The Fashionista: An incredibly accomplished seamstress and designer, and one of the most impressive runway queens of the season.
  • I Can't Dance: Mentions early on that she has trouble picking up choreography. Bites her in the padded ass when she has to lip sync against Sapphira Cristál for the win on her first episode.
  • One-Letter Name: The first in herstory, as her name is just Q.
  • Shout-Out: Her 80s runway is inspired by the works of Keith Haring. She explains that it’s meant to honor people living with AIDS and HIV, as Q herself is HIV-positive.
  • Sore Loser: Tends to react unhappily when she misses out on a win she feels she deserves. When Sapphira wins the corporate presentation challenge, Q lets her know to her face that she thinks she didn’t deserve it.
  • Textile Work Is Feminine: Her outfits are elaborate, high fashion, and all made by her.

Plane Jane (3rd)

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Age: 25
From: Boston, Massachusetts

"Fasten your seatbelts, 'cause this plane always goes down."


  • The Ace: Boasts one of the most impressive track records of the season along with Sapphira, having won 4 maxi-challenges, multiple high placements, and only landing in the bottom once near the end of the season.
  • All for Nothing: Deliberately places Nymphia in last place during Rate-A-Queen because she's her strongest competition at that point and wants to secure the immunity potion for herself.... Only to end up using the potion on Nymphia in the end.
  • Alpha Bitch: She positions herself as the 'villain of the season' right off after her entrance, self-describing herself as the resident bitch and delivering mean (and sometimes justified) quips to her competitors.
    • Spends part of the memoir challenge still reading other queens who had by then been eliminated from the show and gets called on it from the judges.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Reads Hershii, Geneva and Plasma in fluent Russian.
  • Boob-Based Gag: Fond of wearing large breastplates and using them for comedy, such as in her lipsyncs and her talent show performance.
  • Bookends: The first and last episodes she competed in before the finale had her winning a lipsync, during which she used her breastplate for comedic effect (albeit not on purpose the first time).
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: The other queens start warming up to Plane when she admits that her abrasive and overly-critical personality comes from being raised by a strict Russian immigrant father and is a mask for her insecurities.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: Gleefully screwed over Nymphia during the rate a queen talent show. Come the finale, Plane is unceremoniously eliminated in third place, while Nymphia goes on to win the crown.
  • Manipulative Bastard: In her first episode, right after declaring to her competitors that she plans to use the rate-a-queen system fairly, she has no qualms to use it strategically by ranking Nymphia last (her main competition) and secures herself to the first spots.
  • My Greatest Failure: Was a competitive ballroom dancer (as in, classical ballroom rather than voguing) in her youth, but dropped out when a male classmate said it was "gay," which Plane regrets to this day.
  • One Degree of Separation: Fellow contestant Morphine Love Dion is her drag sister.
  • Punny Name: Her name is a pun on "Plain Jane".
  • Sensual Slavs: Of Russian-Jewish heritage, she introduces herself as a "Russian doll" after her entrance. She also taps into this trope when she wins Snatch Game as Serbian popstar Jelena Karleuša.
  • Sex Comedy: Plane has a rather vulgar and lewd sense of humor in drag, taking nearly every other opportunity to make some kind of sex-based punchline whenever she can and often using Boob Based Gags. This does work to her advantage in comedy-based challenges and performances like the Snatch Game, her talent show act, and some of her runway looks.
  • Sore Loser: Plane does not take the idea of losing or being in the bottom well at all. When the possibility of it comes up during the political anthem challenge, she goes on an angry rant about how great her drag is and how it doesn't deserve to be anywhere near the bottom two. By the time she actually does land in the bottom with Q, she doesn't handle that any better and goes on another rant about how she doesn't deserve it.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: She doesn't bring it up nearly as often as Nymphia does, but Plane still tends to be associated with hamburgers due to her memorable "Burger Finger" number from her talent show.
  • Wardrobe Malfunction: During her lipsync for the win against Geneva, one of her fake boobs slips out of her shirt. She notices it only much later with over-exaggerated embarrassment.

Sapphira Cristál (runner-up + Miss Congenitality)

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Age: 35
From: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"I think this place is haunted."


  • The Ace: Sapphira is very well rounded and polished, excelling in multiple areas of the competition such as performance, fashion, and comedy. By the time the top three are confirmed, she's tied with Plane at four maxi-challenge wins, as well as having the most mini-challenge wins (three) and being the first queen on a regular US season to win three maxi-challenges consecutively.
  • Beautiful Singing Voice: Is a trained opera singer with a six-octave vocal range.
  • Boob-Based Gag: During her first lip sync 'to the win', she grinds on the floor letting her breastplate boobs bounce up and down to the ground making everyone laughs to tears. She ends up winning the lip sync.
  • Color Motifs: Befitting her name Sapphira, she wears a lot of blue during her time on the show.
  • Costume Porn: Her runway package stands out wig and shoulders above the rest of the cast in terms of maximalism and presentation. In fact, her look for the "I Can Buy Myself Flowers" runway had to be modified before she went on the runway because the whole look could not fit through the door.
  • Determinator: Sapphira auditioned for the show eleven times before she finally got on. Just to put that into perspective, she was auditioning for the show years before most of the other queens on the season even started doing drag! However, she never let it deter her and reminds us how having over a decade of experience in drag before getting casted can really pay off. Even though she ultimately loses the crown to Nymphia in the end, her patience and determination are still well rewarded with an absolutely stellar run on the show.
  • Fun with Subtitles: Her Talent Show performance of Puccini aria "O mio babbino caro" makes hilarious use of this, mistranslating the Italian lyrics to comically horny effect.
  • Impractically Fancy Outfit: Her original looks for the makeover challenged involved beautiful geode inspired gowns; however, the challenge also required a brief choreographed dance routine for the queens to perform with their partners. Sapphira found out early on that they could barely move around them and had to go for her backup looks, which where read as lacking cohesion and put her in the bottom two.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Sapphira and Plane, as the two winners of the split premier challenges, were each given an Immunity Potion that they can take once to gain immunity from elimination (or can give to their competitors). During the doll challenge, Sapphira was so full of self-doubt that she opts to drink her potion, but she instantly regrets it when she sees the baffled look on the judges' faces. Her outfit may not have been a winner, but it was still a solid "Safe" and wouldn't have landed her in the bottom. Sapphira realizes too late that she wasted her potion. Fortunately, she had since been performing well enough not to fall below safe, up until the last episode the potions could be used.
  • Nice Girl: One of two queens to be voted Miss Congeniality this season, and the first US finalist to receive the title since Nina Flowers all the way back in Season 1.
  • Recursive Crossdressing: Presents a dragged up take on the legendary James Brown for Snatch Game, much to Ru's delight.
  • Shout-Out: For her “Faster Pussycat, Wig! Wig!" runway, she presents a dragged up take on Dr. Evil from Austin Powers.
  • Team Mom: Unsurprisingly as the "veteran" queen of the season, it doesn't take very long for Sapphira's motherly instincts to start coming out, whether it'd be acting as a voice of reason during tense moments or using her own precious time to help out Mhi'ya throughout the season's many design challenges.

Nymphia Wind (winner)

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Age: 28
From: New York City, New York*

"Bananas."


  • Asian Speekee Engrish: Invoked and Played for Laughs for her character in the corporate seminar challenge, who has a thick stereotypical Asian accent. She still makes it funny to listen to, and it probably helps that she’s actually from Taiwan.
  • Banana Peel: Deploys (and slips on) one of these when first entering the Werk Room.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's a cheerful banana-obsessed Cloudcuckoolander, but she's also a very skilled seamstress and performer.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: Both in and out of drag, easily one of the strangest personalities on the show.
  • Color Motifs: In a similar fashion to Canada's Drag Race Season 1 and UK vs. the World Season 1's Lemon, yellow is a reoccurring color in her drag style, right down to her confessional look.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: As the season progresses, her competitors slowly start to realize that beneath her goofy exterior, she’s actually a highly talented Drag Race contestant who excels at both design and performance.
  • Dance Battler: You'd be forgiven for underestimating Nymphia in the final two lip-sync with Sapphira Cristál, as Nymphia had never been in the bottom before (plus, Sapphira had fairly recently blown poor Morphine off the stage through sheer charisma). However, her dancing experience that manifested in the girl group challenge returns with a vengeance, as after two outfit reveals — one of which releases balloons everywhere — she quite literally dances circles around Sapphira, and tears up every inch of that stage with splits and cartwheels. Simply keeping pace with Sapphira's inimitable stage presence is no mean feat, but Nymphia overachieves, and it wins her the crown, making her the first person of East Asian descent to do so.
  • The Fashionista: One of the runway queens of the season with an elevated package. She is no slouch in the design portion as well, presenting couture level drag during the Ball challenge that leaves the judges stunned and nets her first win of the season.
  • Incoming Ham: Debuts in the second premiere by slipping on a Banana Peel, getting back up, whipping open her coat and waggling a banana at the camera like a Gag Penis. That's a new one.
  • Kabuki Theatre: Performs a Taiwanese variant during her talent show, incorporating Taiwanese imagery and folk dance, including some impressive water sleeve choreography.
  • Shout-Out: "Nymphia" is the Japanese name of the Pokémon Sylveon.
  • That Came Out Wrong: Claims to be a deity here to "spread yellow fever" (because of her fondness for the color), but immediately realizes that's a disease in addition to the racial overtones and asks if she's allowed to say it.
  • Toilet Humor: Is quite fond of using the "Wind" part of her name as a fart joke. Not only does she name her memoir in the book challenge "Breaking Wind", but she also was the one who suggested going all in on this for the bathroom design challenge.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: To say that bananas are a staple of Nymphia's drag would be an understatement. They show up in many of her outfits, she references them frequently in her confessionals and her conversations with other queens, and she's even been dubbed "Banana Buddha" by her fanbase back in Taiwan, who she in turn calls "banana believers".

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