A lot of posters here (I’m convinced mostly trolls) keep praising Helya like she’s the ultimate unsung hero of Warcraft, a poor innocent cinnamon roll that never did anything, and basically defend everything she does as good and justified based on her sad backstory.
I know for people who are trolling, no argument will change anything because they don’t even believe what they’re saying. But for the few well-meaning people who fell for the meme, I hope this post disabuses you of the notion that Helya is anything but a hateful, selfish villain who is everything she claims to hate.
Let’s start with her tragic backstory, because it’s the only “good” thing about her. Then I’ll explain why it doesn’t matter.
Helya was Odyn’s adopted daughter, and at some point the two apparently got along alright. That all changed when Odyn fell out with the other Keepers, angry that they gave the Dragons power and authority, with the apparent blessing of the Titans themselves. He quit as his job as Prime Desginate and went into seclusion, deciding to build his own private army to serve as a “superior” defensive force for Azeroth. Helya was apparently all in on this as well, since she’s the one who originally created Skyhold by ripping off a piece of Ulduar. Things seemed peachy until Odyn decided he wanted his own Val’kyr to revive the slain warriors of the Shadowlands to fight for him. But nobody volunteered, so Odyn started threatening to make them become Val’Kyr. This enraged Helya, who saw this as an unjust act of indentured servitude, while Odyn was stubbornly convinced what he was going was for the “greater good” of Azeroth, and to defy him was to assure the world’s destruction. Though more cynical folks (including and especially Helya herself) would argue this was more about Odyn desperately trying to retain some fraction of the control and authority he lost after he fell out with the Keepers. The argument escalated and, in a fit of rage, Odyn struck down Helya and revived her as the first Val’kyr. She apparently still had free will because she “habored resentment” towards him afterwards, and for good reason because it’s a pretty terrible thing to do.
Then, Loken came along and started working with Helya. Keep in mind, Loken is an evil and malicious Keeper who was working with the Old Gods, and did everything he could to turn them against each other and take over, so any time his influence is involved, things get very fishy. Together two turned Skyhold into a prison, overthrew Odyn, freed the remaining Val’kyr who didn’t wish to serve Odyn (either some remained or new ones were made, and for the most part they seem quite free and even disagree with Odyn and act against him if they don’t believe he’s right) and Helya gained a new realm all to herself, Helheim, where her and her fellow Val’Kyr were totally free of Odyn.
And if Helya actually were the sweet and soft cinnamon roll that her fanboys claim she is, this is where the story would end, a triumphant and happy ending! Except the story keeps going, and after this point, Helya never does a single decent thing for anyone ever again.
Fuming with bitterness and hatred, Helya’s body and realm warp into a twisted, demonic form. She is completely free of Odyn at this point, doesn’t have to follow any of his orders and her mind is her own (barring the possibility of Old God corruption but nothing is concrete on that yet) and what does she do with her newfound power and freedom? She starts KIDNAPPING PEOPLE and BRAINWASHING THEM TO BE HER SLAVES. Her entire realm becomes a nightmarish hellworld where people are tortured, killed and forced to fight for her amusement. Her victims are trapped in an endless loop of killing each other, getting tortured and doing her bidding.
In other words, everything she ever claimed to hate about Skyhold, except a million times worse. People actually enjoy being in Skyhold. It’s a fun place. Nobody makes you fight, you fight when you want to or you have to defend it. Nobody gets tortured, and everybody gets to eat, drink and party as much as they like. Helheim is a place of neverending misery and pain with no joy or mirth to be found anywhere. Helya willfully and happily inflicts this pain and suffering on people for her own power and amusement. And even though she defeated Odyn, trapped him for ten thousand years and one, her heart is so filled with hateful, bitter resentment that she spends centuries coming up with harebrained schemes to punish him and his followers even more. She becomes so consumed with revenge that she starts using innocent souls as weapons and slaves in a neverending war to get back at her dad, who she has more in common with than differences from.
The core difference between Helya and Odyn is that Odyn, at best, has noble intentions and extreme methods. At worst, Odyn wants a personal bro-club that he gets to make all the rules for. Helya does nothing for anyone but herself, and does horrible things to everyone around her out of sadistic hate, with no noble purpose in mind.
She also teamed up with the Jailer, but I gotta tell 'you, talking about Shadowlands lore feels like talking about the worst and most boring WoW fanfic ever written so I’m not going to do a deep dive into it. I’ll just sum it up as “she worked with the Super Devil in Super Hell to destroy all of existence just because she wanted to be in the inner circle when he took over.”
So overall: no, Helya isn’t a poor, innoncent victim. She’s an absolute monster. Having a sympathetic backstory doesn’t absolve you of all the horrible things you do afterwards. It doesn’t make it okay for you to be evil, abusive and tyrannical and it doesn’t mean you’re a good person. She’s a morally reprehensible, evil, selfish, self-driving megalomaniac who is so filled with hate and greed that it literally turned her into a demon. She has zero remorse for anything she’s done and deserves no sympathy or praise whatsoever. If she ever gets a redemption arc, it will take a LOT to make up for the thousands of years she spent being a horrible person.
Being a victim of trauma doesn’t give you the right to inflict trauma on others.
