So, I just finished reading Dawn of the Aspects by Richard A. Knaak, and the lore in the novel was very interesting but left me with this question in mind. For some context, most of the book takes place from Kalecgos point of view as he sort of ‘lives’ in Malygos’ body and experiences the events of the rise of Galakrond and his defeat at the hands of then Proto-Drake Aspects. Throughout the book we see Malygos basically being the main character of the plot, being the leader of the dragons and setting the plans in motion, even being the first one to make contact with Tyr, in comparison, Alexstrasza barely does anything or have a meaningful character moment (which sadly happened in Dragonflight as well). So what I don’t understand is how she was chosen over Malygos to lead dragonkind when the aspects were elevated into True Dragons? I’d love to see your takes on this or any lore that might explain it as admittedly I haven’t read War of the Scaleborn yet and it could maybe touch on this subject.
It is odd.
This wasn’t originally a question, because Alexstrasza being queen long predates Dawn of the Aspects being written. But once it was written, Malygos being the central figure in their fight does raise questions about why Alex was chosen instead. If I had to guess maybe she was seen by the titans as a more parental figure? Given how she treated Ysera in DotA.
Watsonian assumption: Alexstraza’s goals left her best suited to keeping an eye on the Dragonflights and the world as a whole, while Malygos, Noz, and Ysera all had duties that required them to hard focus on protecting one specific thing (and Nefarian was Nefarian).
Doyalist assumption: Alex was already the point woman for the dragonflights, blizzard worked backwards from there
Could also be that the dragons are generally more matriarchal as a society? There doesn’t seem to be much evidence of this, mind you, but perhaps that was Tyr’s design for the, ‘True,’ Dragons?
Sure, Malygos, Nozdormu, and Neltharion all became the leaders of their individual flights, but given the events, there wasn’t a solid reason to choose anyone else.
Talonixa did become in charge of the dragon resistance against Galakrond, so perhaps that could be the case.
That is true, Talonixa had a key role in the story. That does make me wonder then, why not Ysera instead? The story had a big focus on her character arc, struggles and also interacting with Tyr a lot, while Alexstrasza mostly just looked after her. Apart from Jaina briefly seeing through her eyes, Alexstrasza doesn’t really do much.
isnt she just the strongest by far next to deathwing
Malygos did try to nominate himself but the rest looked at him and shouted…“NERD!”
Prior to the Dragonflight Expansion there was nothing that signified Alexstrasza was the leader of the dragons. Yes she was “Dragon Queen” but all the dragon aspects seemed to be equal in terms of authority. That none of them actually bowed down to her authority.(in other words dragon queen was a title more so then an actual position)
And this would likely go back to the fact that the other dragon aspects(except deathwing) did not exist back in Warcraft 2 and Blizzard probably thought Dragon Queen was a cool title and gave it to Alex.
^she was the strongest by far which is something. it would take multiple of the others to kill her because she actually controls more than just life. she also did crazy stuff like rez bolvar.
interesting. so there was one bad dragon and one good one at war or something?
but that supports her as the leader because she was the original ultimate dragon boss on the good side.
She is basically a goddess if you think about it, im surprised we dont have a religion for her.
Justified tbqhwys.
From my understanding, even prior to their elevation it was Neltharion (Deathwing) and Malygos who were the strongest proto-drakes of the pre-aspects — besides Galakrond of cause who surpassed them all at the time until his defeat …
Neltharion
When the aspects were elevated into their power to help with their tasked roles by the titans, that power scale didn’t really change all too much as Neltharion was stationed with the defence of Azeroth; whereas Alexstrasza was tasked with the defending of life itself.
Neltharion became even stronger too, when later empowered by the dark powers of the old gods.
Later on, with the plot of the Dragon Soul – Neltharion became even more stronger yet again as the other aspects essentially nerfed themselves with its creation in accordance to his instructions.
Malygos
Alexstrasza wasn’t necessarily stronger or weaker than Malygos – otherwise they would had just gone toe-to-toe in the Mage-Wars back in Wrath. 
That being said, his magic was unpredictable and tremendously powerful – even later on in-spite of his insanity that had taken root since the majority of his flight was wiped out to the brink of extinction from Neltharion (Deathwing) and his brood via their unpredictable & devastating betrayal.
Nozdormu
Has the power of time on his side, but we rarely see him confront issues head on – He was generally depicted as more of a tactician than a front-line fighter.
Although, to be fair in his defence – He was afk / MIA quite a lot, so perhaps he just didn’t get time to shine
Ysera
Similar to as per above with Nozdormu, Ysera was somewhat afk — via sleeping & traversing the dream; so we didn’t really get to see the full extent of her power “in the prime” so to speak.
Alexstrasza
Alexstrasza would come close to Neltharion’s raw power though I’d say – as stated, dealing with the magic of Malygos may prove risky although that’s not to say that Alexstrasza wouldn’t be a force to be reckoned with.
Magic shenangans aside though, looking mostly @ Neltharion (Deathwing) VS Alexstrasza, she had actually thought that they may be equally matched and took that gamble in a duel — However hadn’t known that Deathwing was still empowered by the old gods; thus the direct battle between them was halted for the time.
Given Alexstrasza was tasked with safeguarding life itself, I’d wager that ‘life’ would include the life of her kin – regardless of what flight they reigned from; thus such an unbiased duty would suit her for guiding them into what’s best for the many & simply not the few.
Additionally, like others pointed out →
Which in correlation to what I wrote above, is a fair point.
It’s not necessarily about pure power. Aman’thul likely knew of the vital role mortals would end up playing when it came to the defense of Azeroth and knowing that Alexstrasza was a Violence as a last resort type of leader, they needed someone who could led the Dragonflights AND mortals against whatever happens to be threatening Azeroth at the moment.
Even the Dragons knew to choose the gender most suitable for leadership. 