"Even the drag queens are playing Elden Ring," says Elden Ring's self-proclaimed Bimbo Mage. And she's right. I first stumbled upon Trashly (who streams the game in full drag) on TikTok, where she's gone viral multiple times for her hilarious stream clips. The video I saw has over 2.5 million views - in it, she uses mimic tear to transform into a chair and float through a dungeon, quipping at the NPCs fighting each other instead of her. "I'm just a chaiiiiiir," she drawls, "Don't mind meeeee."
Trashly isn't new to streaming (she gained popularity through her Dead By Daylight playthroughs), but she is new to Elden Ring. The game has provided her with an entirely new fanbase - and a new set of challenges. Trashly, like many other Elden Ring players new to FromSoftware titles, is getting through the game by relying on magic. "I want to look fabulous and flowy and cast my spells from afar," she tells me during our conversation. And boy, does she.
The bimbo mage
Trashly (who is a software developer by day) plays Elden Ring exactly how I do: with the help of her friends and her magic. As of writing, her current build has her Intelligence at 60, Vigor at 32, and Mind at 27, and she's rocking spells like Carian Slicer, Glintblade Phalanx, Rock Sling, Glintsone Arc, and more. "I'm playing the way I want to play. I want to wear cool clothes. I don't want to wear the ugly helmets that cover my gorgeous purple face," Trashly insists, referring to her Tarnished's design, which includes vibrant purple skin, giant red lips a la queer icon Amanda Lepore, and blue and green eyeshadow. "I think there's some chess involved in the melee combat where you have to learn the moves and respond to those, and if I can just shoot spells from afar that's how I enjoy playing."
Years ago, Trashly tried playing Dark Souls 3 and found it so frustratingly difficult she quit after a few hours. She was so worried Elden Ring would be the same way that she only planned to stream it "as a joke" once or twice. "I got the disc version of Elden Ring so I could resell it," she laughs, "I was so convinced I wasn't gonna like it." But Elden Ring's open world offered so much variety and Trashly's Twitch chat provided heaps of advice that she soon grew comfortable with her mage build and began streaming it every week - as well as playing it in her spare time.
I think casting spells is more fun and fabulous
Trashly
"I think casting spells is more fun and fabulous," she responds when I ask why she chose the mage class. "I watch other streamers and they get really excited about a new axe, and i feel like that's how I feel when I get a new spell, I'm like 'oh, is this a moon? That's so cool'!" But Trashly acknowledges that her heavily magic-leaning build handcuffs her in certain situations. "I'm not that healthy - I have my intelligence way up but I die with just a sneeze from an enemy," she admits. "Even if you go through the whole game as a bimbo mage, it's still difficult - honestly there are several bosses that are in close quarters where bimbo magic doesn't work well at all."
Recently, instead of her wig, the crypts have been giving Trashly a headache. "I need to be able to run away far and shoot from afar and I can't in crypts. There was this snail or slug that kept spawning this guy and you had to kill the guy to be able to attack the slug at the end of this crypt - it was very frustrating," Trashly explains. But that doesn't stop her from using her magic whenever and wherever she can. "When I watch other streamers play this they'll be like, 'Oh I think I can do this without summoning spirit ashes' and I'm like 'What, why? Why would you want to?!'."
Elden queen
Trashly's foray into Elden Ring has been supported by her Twitch chat and her newfound followers, who flocked to her streams after the aforementioned TikTok went viral. "I've had more people than ever before for a non-DBD game, which is where my main audience comes in and enjoys watching me," she explains. "I definitely noticed that there are more people than usual for my Elden Ring streams, and people were coming in and enjoying it. I think it's a combination of my stats not being awful, and that I really like playing it. I'm enjoying it."
It also helps that Trashly is wildly funny during her streams, and that her particular brand of drag queen humor naturally lends itself to Elden Ring playthroughs. A second TikTok of Trashly using the mimic tear chair technique references a beloved meme in LGBTQIA+ circles where singer Shawn Mendes tells his then-girlfriend Camilla Cabello that her outfit is "giving Cher." The title of Trashly's second Elden Ring chair TikTok? "Giving chair again." Trashly is a fascinating example of the crossover between the gaming and queer communities, and her success points to the treasure trove you can uncover by tapping into and exploring that subculture.
Plus, streaming provides an excellent platform for drag queens, both before the COVID-19 pandemic and during it. Trashly started streaming because she works full time, and couldn't do drag in the more stereotypical way: at nightclubs. "I play video games every day after work, so why don't I just do drag and play video games on Twitch?" she says about her decision to stream. "So I started doing that in the fall of 2016. I used Twitch as a platform to get better at doing drag and better at performing, because in a way, streaming is performing. It's just a different type of way to perform in drag."
I ask Trashly if she's noticed a recent increase in the overlap between gaming and LGBTQIA+ communities. "Queer people have always been playing video games, I think that it's just the more popular streamers put forward in gaming are those very straight, masculine, screaming men who are bringing in that type of audience as well," she points out. "We've always been there, but we see what's being put forward and we don't see ourselves there. It's important to see yourself represented somewhere that you want to be, otherwise you don't think you belong."
The cult of the Bimbo Mage ("everyone can be a Bimbo Mage," Trashly promises me), is yet another example of Elden Ring's approachability, and Trashly's success streaming it is a brilliant example of how members of the LGBTQIA+ community feel more welcome in a game world that has previously felt pretty damn straight.
But perhaps the most important question Trashly answers for me during our sitdown is this: which Elden Ring character would she like to do a drag cosplay of? "Rennala!" Trashly says right away. "Queen of the full moon, staring at that baby like I stare at my Taco Bell when I'm drunk. I love her ridiculous hat, I feel like that is drag."
Elden Ring players are shaping the meta in real-time and there is no easy mode.
