Valanice

[maestro]

I think [Valanice's] role in the game as an NPC actually adds a lot more intrigue to the plot.

So I take it then that the story revolves around some mystery surrounding Valanice, and that Valanice is privy to some information that the three playable characters don't have.  The goal of the three playable characters is to solve the mystery in order to help Valanice in some way.

Actually, I think that most of this has been stated already in various other threads, but it does seem to fit in with what you said about Valanice's status as an NPC.

Furthermore, it makes perfect sense from the point of view of the structure of the official KQ games.  In all of the official KQ games, either one member of the Royal Family was on a quest to help another member or members or a future spouse, or a non-member was on a quest to save the kingdom.  So it seems logical that one member must "sit it out" as it were in order to be the beneficiary of the quest.  KQ7 was sort of an exception, as the two players were on a quest to find each other and return to Daventry.  Although here, rescuing Edgar ended up being part of the quest, so if Rosella marries Edgar, then KQ7 will no longer be an exception.

If you think that this is worthy of further discussion/speculation and want to move/copy some of these posts to the Plot section, they go right ahead.

[Yonkey]

I definitely think this is worthy enough for its own thread.

Since we're legally allowed to use the official KQ backstories in our game, keep in mind the events that happened with her in KQ2.

Valanice definitely plays a huge role in this game.  I wouldn't say the only goal of the game is to help her, because there are actually a number of different goals depending on the Part, Chapter and even the series of events within a Chapter.   Anyway, I don't want to reveal any spoilers, so I'll just talk about what is already public and known. 

One of the screenshots is called Valanice's Secrets and displays both her and Graham, but with her back facing Graham, implying that whatever secret she has, it's big enough to hide from her own husband. 

Then, we have her Wallpaper which clearly shows her in fear or something big and the caption reads "A Queen with Too Many Secrets". 

Next, go to the Music section and listen to Valanice Falls.  The title of the track alone indicates something "unpleasant" happening to Valanice, but the music also does a great job at telling her story.

Finally, look at the comments Cesar made about Valanice, during the chat we had on KQ9.org's 2nd Birthday:

"I can't talk much about her without spoiling the game, but I will only say that her weakness is that, being too fragile and weak."

and

"...the things she will find, and her journey during this game, will NOT be a very pleasant one."


Heh, and although I didn't reveal any spoilers whatsoever, I feel as if I have, so I'll let everyone else speculate away...

[maestro]

Okay, so I'll speculate some more.

If Valanice has some deep, dark secret, then it's either something she herself did or something that a relative of hers did.  Since she could not be faulted for something someone else did, then it's probably something that she herself did.

There is a chapter in the story about the young Valanice, so it's probably something that she did when she was young.  She might have done it for a bad motive or she might have done it for a good motive.  My guess is that she did it for a good motive.  My guess is that she had to help out someone, probably one or both of her parents, but, in order to do so, she had to do something bad.

Okay, so what was the bad thing that she did?  She might have had to work as a prostitute to earn money to help her parents.  But I find it highly unlikely that Phoenix would put something like that in a story.  She might have stolen something, but that wouldn't have been interesting enough to make an entire game revolve around.  The most likely scenario is that she hurt someone in some way by some act of dishonesty, but is such a way that it helped her parents.  So my best guess is that she probably violated someone's trust in some way which, at the time, may have seemed insignificant, but, over time, proved to have harmed the person severely.  Furthermore, she may have learned later that the person who was harmed had a great significance which had been unknown to her before.

Okay, so those are my speculations.  Anyone else want to take a shot?

[Zelly]

Those are really good ideas. I agree that she must have done something to someone in the past, which didn't seem like such a bg deal at the time, but now there's a price to be paid, and she is ashamed of whatever happened so she hasn't told anyone, not even Graham.

Perhaps one of her actions inadvertantly caused someone to be cursed, captured, of even worse killed, and now someone is out for revenge against her, and due to the connection to her against her family.

 

Or I could just be over tired and making no sense what-so-ever.

[Deloria]

No Zelly, you are making sense. I like that idea

[Zelly]

Okay, I'm never too sure about whether or not I am.

In fact I know for a fact that quite often I don't. 
At least not when I reread my post at a later time.

[Deloria]

I think it's interesting that Shadrack was involved with Valanice's kidnap. Do you think he ordered it done?

[Zelly]

Could be.....

Possibly he's the one that her actions hurt in some way or another, and that's why he's the big baddie (at least I think he is) of TSL.

I wonder if I'm even close...

[Jafar]

She turned his older brother into a cat! It all makes sense now!

[Deloria]

Then you're lucky you didn't meet Valanice

[Zelly]

But I like Valanice, she's one of my favorite characters.

[maestro]

After sleeping on it, I thought of a couple of more possibilities.  Perhaps it involves a prophecy of some sort.  In that case, it might not have anything to do with anything that Valanice herself did.  Or, as Zelly pointed out, there may be a curse on her or someone else.  The prophecy or curse might involve her children.  So perhaps she knows about something bad that will happen to her children but that she is unable to prevent.

There are numerous possibilities for the origin of the prophecy or curse.  Her parents might have done something bad, so a curse was put on their children.  Valanice might have offended Hagatha in some way, leading Hagatha to put a curse on her.  Or she might have entered into some Faustian bargain in her youth, resulting in the prophecy or curse.

[Elessar]

She might be related to some of the bad guys, and they were or are using her for their own ends. Maybe that's why she is married to Graham...

[Mage26]

Im new to the forums, but I love King's Quest and have been a fanatic supporter of TSL.

Well, I never played KQ2 and Im wondering if we know why Valanice was locked away in the tower in the first place?

[Yonkey]

Welcome!

Well, I never played KQ2 and Im wondering if we know why Valanice was locked away in the tower in the first place?

Yes, we will.

[Rosedragon]

In KQ2 the book says that Hagatha was jealous of Valanice's beauty and goodness, and locked her up so no one could se her.  It seems like Valanice did nothing wrong to deserve being locked in the tower, she was the victim of an evil and jealous witch. But of course, there is probably more to the story, and we will learn the real reason Valanice was imprisoned for in TSL.

[maestro]

Welcome!

Well, I never played KQ2 and I'm wondering if we know why Valanice was locked away in the tower in the first place?

Yes, we will.

Aha!  Since you answered in the future tense, I take it that we will learn something new about why Valanice was locked in the tower.

The question now is whether you accept the backstory in the KQ Companion, particularly the explanation as to why she was locked in the tower.  If you accept that explanation, yet we will learn something new regarding why she was locked in the tower, then either there was a second reason, beyond her beauty and goodness, or there will be an elaboration of the first reason, such as what she did to be so good.  Are you at liberty to tell us whether you accept the KQ Companion's explanation and backstory, or is that question sufferable?

If her goodness was one of the reasons that she was locked in the tower, then that destroys my theory that her secret is something bad that she did.  In that case, her secret might be something that she did while she was in the tower.  However, since she had no freedom to do much of anything while in the tower, her confinement being much like solitary confinement in prison, then that doesn't seem to be a likely explanation.

On the other hand, if she was locked in the tower for something bad that she did, then that could be her secret.  However, since Hagatha is a villain, it doesn't seem likely that she would have locked Valanice in the tower for doing something bad.

So, we have the following facts:

• Valanice has a deep, dark secret.
• Deep, dark secrets are of something bad.
• A bad person imprisoned her.
• If a bad person imprisons someone else, it's unlikely to be for something bad that that person did.

The only reasonable conclusion we can draw from these facts is that Valanice is neither completely good nor completely bad.  She was probably a basically good person who was compromised in some way.  That makes sense because, for example, the mafia doesn't take out contracts on good people who mind their own business, but on people who have crossed them in some way.  So that's probably what happened to Valanice.

[Deloria]

Yes, but surely Graham would have noticed after 22 years of marriage that his wife was somewhat evil. And she doesn't seem so in the least in KQ7.

[maestro]

I didn't say she was somewhat evil.  I said that, perhaps, she was a basically good person who was compromised in some way.

For example, suppose that, out of financial desperation, you have to borrow money from a loan shark.  When you are unable to pay back the money, he threatens to break your kneecaps.  So you steal money to pay back the loan shark.  Would that make you somewhat evil?  Would people notice your evilness on a day-to-day basis?  No, but it still might haunt you decades later that you stole the money.

So maybe it happened that Valanice, out of desperation, needed a favor from Hagatha, but was unable to return the favor.  Or, after discovering how evil Hagatha was, she did not want to return the favor.  In retaliation, Hagatha locked her up.  That is something that would haunt her but would not make her somewhat evil.

[TribeHasSpoken]

So, we have the following facts:

• Valanice has a deep, dark secret.
• Deep, dark secrets are of something bad.
• A bad person imprisoned her.
• If a bad person imprisons someone else, it's unlikely to be for something bad that that person did.

The only reasonable conclusion we can draw from these facts is that Valanice is neither completely good nor completely bad.  She was probably a basically good person who was compromised in some way.

Unfortunately, the only possibility that I can deduce from those facts is that Valanice appeared in a "Girls Gone Wild" video during Spring Break and was grounded for life.