#bruh............

Tubbo had the exact same reaction I did to seeing the Best International Streamer nominations.

Streamer Awards Voting

EX-FUCKING-CUSE ME??!!!!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I MEAN, I KNEW IT WAS GONNA HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER BUT DAMN

I HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED READING RAY'S ARC AND THEN THEY DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

“You must rest and recover, Valeera. You have great gifts, child, and your friends will need you by their sides if they are to survive. But choose your course carefully. No one’s destiny is fixed for good or ill.”

“Why... me...?” “The eternal question, my child. That is but one of the many answers you must discover.”

“I don’t have his [Refthra’s] gift.” “You have your own talents, Valeera, as your ability to ferret out the council’s secrets shows. But you also have your burdens.”

VALEERA’S DESTINY

          According to the Aegwynn quotes above from World of Warcraft: The Comic, Valeera has some kind of destiny. She has great gifts and burdens that are specific to her and a course between light and dark that she needs to judiciously navigate. I doubt Aegwynn means the Light and the dark, as Aegwynn doesn’t have anything to do with these herself, so she’s likely using “light and dark” as an allegory for good and evil, which accords with her mention of “redemption” and “good or ill”.

          Now, I don’t think Valeera’s destiny is anywhere near as immense as that belonging bigger characters in Warcraft. But, I think the evidence points to this destiny being at least somewhat important. If this was all Aegwynn said on the matter, I would be tempted to brush it off as someone trying to be reassuring and maternal. Except that it’s Aegwynn that says it, and she’s hardly maternal or comforting. It’s also one of the first things Aegwynn says to Valeera, and its apparently deemed vital enough that it cannot wait to be told for Valeera to recover from her skirmish. Even after the trio leave Theramore, Aegwynn appears to be monitoring Valeera quite closely and to be heavily invested in her wellbeing and survival. She uses her diminished powers to save Valeera’s life from across the Great Sea and attempts to temper Valeera’s bitterness towards Broll and Varian. I don’t see Aegwynn doing that for just anyone, which suggests to me that Valeera’s fate has implications for people other than Valeera herself, and potentially beyond those close to her as well.

          The stickiest part of this for me is that Aegwynn’s words suggest that Valeera is currently grappling with choices between good and evil. But this scene occurs fairly early in the comic, when Valeera hasn’t really done anything yet. This is before she gets possessed by Kathra’natir, before she siphons fel, before she even goes overboard with arcane. We see Valeera do reckless but brave things, such as leaping into battle or between her friends and an adversary. We’ve seen her shout down Broll regarding his criticism of the blood elves, silently plot to murder Reghar (deserved tbh), trick her new master into falling from his wyvern, and decide to follow Varian to protect him from the assassins tailing him. She’s a mess of pride and rage, which are not desirable personality traits, but she isn’t doing anything really good or evil. The only kind of evil thing she does is to vindictively siphon Broll’s druid magic from him for his criticism of Valeera and other blood elves. All of her behaviour is just kind of thoughtless and reactive.

          That’s my second problem with Aegwynn’s comment about the “war” of light and dark within Valeera. Up until this point, Valeera has never acted indecisively. She has never been written as actually considering the choices she is making. They’re not even depicted as choices, just shit she does. Maybe that’s the point Aegwynn is making when she says that Valeera needs to “choose your course carefully”, because until now Valeera has not done anything carefully. But even so, the idea that Valeera is experiencing some kind of internal conflict at that point in her life just doesn’t hold water for me.

          The only other explanation I have is that Aegwynn’s comment has a future orientation, even though she has never prophesised about anything before. There are some choices that Valeera makes in the future in the comic that could be construed as a choice between good and evil, such as her use of arcane and fel. While I have some feelings about using arcane being perceived as inherently evil (for one, it’s an absurd comment for a mage to make lol), the way Valeera pursues her addiction is not good. She’s told repeatedly that she needs to be careful, and she repeatedly denies that she has a problem and siphons more than she can handle. She also siphons arcane directly from people, actually killing at least one of them, for no reason other than that her withdrawals are causing her pain and she wants it to end. She’s acting selfishly and irresponsibly, and it takes her down a path towards siphoning fel ------because it’s there, because she’s in pain, and because she just cannot help herself.  Although Valeera doesn’t curse herself with the mark of Kathra’natir, her use of fel facilitates it. Vendellin recognises that Valeera has been using fel, that she likes it, that she wants more, and hey let’s fuck up this baby blood elf a bit more.

          If this is the course Aegwynn is referring to, then Valeera has failed to heed her suggestion to think carefully about her actions. But Valeera does redeem herself, renouncing her behaviour once she is given a good reason to do so and beginning to seriously consider her choices. Valeera deliberately starves herself of arcane and fel to weaken Kathra’natir enough that she can control him. Moreover, when she decides to siphon arcane from Meryl while fighting Cho’gall, she displays hesitance in doing so and has second thoughts almost immediately, despite how critical it was that she do it. Whereas previously Valeera did not put any thought into her actions, now she recognises that the decision she is making is difficult, that there is no good course to take, but decides that giving herself to Kathra’natir is better than the only alternative: letting Cho’gall kill her, Meryl, and Med’an.

          To me, Aegwynn does not seem to be indicating that Valeera’s destiny is one fixed event, but a series of choices that will lead her down either a good course or an evil one. The single act of sacrificing herself to Kathra’natir is not her destiny. Nevertheless, Kathra’natir is a substantial hurdle to holding to a “good” course. It also fits with what Aegwynn says to Valeera in the quotes above. Kathra’natir states that Valeera has “strength that even she is unaware of”, suggesting that another individual could not have controlled him like Valeera did. It is specific to her. As well, the choice to accept Kathra’natir’s bargain was made explicitly to save Meryl and Med’an from Cho’gall (“I give myself to you… if you will save me and the others”) ------ it’s a good choice and also one Valeera thinks critically on before she makes it. This is also something that Aegwynn should be invested in (even though it is not nearly on the same level as what happened with Medivh), and it is something Aegwynn aids Valeera in doing.

          Valeera seems to be on a good path now, but if Kathra’natir represents one obstacle on Valeera’s course, then it stands to reason that there should also be others but Blizzard doesn’t care enough about Valeera to remember that she had a relationship with Jaina before BfA so that’s never going to happen now lol.