Existing outside of their formal chain of command or diplomatic structure, and just being a completely autonomous person who just so happens to work closely with Anduin Wrynn is a very stable premise, imo.
This is satire, right?
O.o no? A big part of Valeeraās whole thing is she bluntly refuses to take sides between Alliance and Horde, as she does not feel either faction as ever done her anything good. Her loyalty to Anduin comes from her ties to Varian back in their gladiator-slave days.
Right but Anduin is the head of the Alliance, and things that negatively impact the Alliance negatively impact Anduin.
Look, if they want an actual neutral group spying on the Horde for the betterment of the world, just use the Shado Pan or something. And, hey, they can stick a few of them in Stormwind too, for good measure.
I do not understand the instinct to conflate those relationships. Anduin is not the Alliance, philosophically speaking. I understand that heās the leader, but thereās really not even a fine line there. Sometimes he will want things or want to do things that are not in the Allianceās best interest, or not in the Allianceās best interest right away.
While he can ask her to do Alliance things like spy on the Horde, he could also ask her to do something that he could not normally do as the leader of the Alliance, such as spy on someone within the Alliance, or move through neutral territory as a non-partisan actor. He could ask her to steal Taliaās diary to see if sheās writing about him. Sheās a fixer.
My point is that she serves a really interesting role as someone who doesnāt need to have a pvp flag attached to her.
So long this āAnduinās sword holderā disappears from Zuldazar. But I am also very annoyed that theyāre shoving Wrynnās spy to the middle of Hordeās capital without option to kick her out.
I was throwing bottles at her each month to move from troll capital but she didnāt get a clue
If you say youāre neutral but you serve a faction leader, youāre not actually neutral. Anduin being the leader is the entire point of why itās so bizarre that the game is seemingly trying to push her as a neutral (or horde?) character. You canāt separate Anduin from his role. And as long as Valeera serves him, she should be treated as a member of his group.
Well itās nice to know that the Alliance can canonically impose its will on the Horde now. Why else would we allow an Alliance asset to parade herself in the Hordeās capital?
Weāre talking about Anduin here - heās never going to desire anything that isnāt in the best interests of the Alliance. The only disagreement is over what actually is (or isnāt) in the best interests of the Alliance.
And, no, being someoneās personal fixer but simply not waving around an Alliance banner does not automatically make someone neutral.
An Alliance asset is likely the head of the new Horde Council.
I mean, two things. Oneāwe donāt really know that. There is already a growing rift between Tyrande/Genn and Anduin. I personally donāt expect much to come of it, but weāll see. He may utilize Valeera against them if he feels he canāt use Shaw, for instance.
Two, understand that Iām the kind of person who believes that not waving around an Alliance banner is absolutely the kind of thing that makes you neutral, or at least neutralish, or neutral enough. WoW isnāt really interested in telling these sorts of stories, which is fine, but off the top of my head I can easily envision a scenario in which Baine or Gallywix asks Valeera to be removed from Orgrimmar, but Lorāthemar intercedes and declines. We already know, canonically, that Lorāthemar has strong feelings about the āsons and daughters of Silvermoonā being allowed their birthrights and so itās not a stretch at all for him to insist she be allowed a place in the Horde capital.
Iām not sure what that storyline would be for, but it would be a cool way to tell a story about how the factions wonāt always be cleanly demarcated.
Gallywix is gone and Baine will never oppose Anduin. Valeera was Baineās courier even.
Also, sheās been standing around in DazāAlor uncontested, which presumably means somehow Talanji didnāt kick her out. And if Talanji wonāt, why would the others?
This expansion alone has shown more than anything that Anduinās concerns are not the concerns of the Alliance as a whole. And can, in fact, be detrimental to them. Like when he threw actual, living members of the Alliance under the bus to rebuild a long dead Human kingdom. Or spent the entire back half of the expansion fretting over āhealingā the Horde, and helping them believe in themselves (or some cac), instead of pursuing (much less, achieving) anything even remotely resembling justice for two entire member-states of the Alliance.
I mean, I donāt know. As I saidāthey donāt have a real reason to because sheās a blood elf.
(Also, look, I just want a scene where Valeera and Anduin talk about girls. Is that too much to ask? Blizz???)
Honestly, I think Valeera is the worst kind of āneutralā character. Her words say that sheās not alliance, but her relationship with the Wrynn family put her opposite of the horde. Both factions should reject her and sheād have to rely on immunities just to be allowed to remain in Stormwind and maybe Silvermoon, but not as a figure for anyone to trust, other than Anduin.
Youāre right. From the Alliance perspective she has flaky loyalty at best and doesnāt even care about their interests so why is she allowed in their cities and privy to their inner workings? Worst kind of neutral indeed.
That makes me feel real hopeful for the futureā¦
Ehā¦ itās not surprising. Sheās more than likely there on Anduinās behalf, like Baine is in SW on the Hordes. Valeera was the go between for Anduin and Baines correspondence.
Head pats anyway.