Twitch streamer Valkyrae recently opened up her complicated relationship with her brother, who recently passed away.
In the past week, popular Twitch and YouTube streamer Valkyrae has made waves in the community after making some controversial comments regarding her late brother, who died recently. During the initial stream where Valkyrae brought up the subject, she didn't seem to be grieving all too much, and she went live just a day after the death occurred. This was, in large part, due to the fact that Valkyrae didn't have a relationship whatsoever with her brother.
In fact, the streamer seemed to harbor ill will towards her brother even after his death. This led to her fans and the streaming community as a whole arguing over whether Valkyrae should have shown more compassion when reacting to her brother's passing.
Valkyrae shocks fans with indifferent comments about her brother's death
All of this began on Feb. 21 when Valkyrae went live, as usual, and brought up the fact that her brother, named Mark, had died the day before. While many fans in her stream chats showed empathy for her situation, the streamer didn't take those empathic messages in the way that fans expected.
Instead, Valkyrae spoke for several minutes about her brother, citing an alcohol problem that was the main cause of his death. While she said she felt bad, she also stated she harbored a lot of resentment towards her brother, as the two didn't have a relationship, and that was primarily her brother's fault.
However, after explaining some of the background between the siblings' relationship, Valkyrae made a controversial comment about his passing:
"I shouldn't have to forgive him just because he died.”
This drew the majority of the community's attention, as some argued that family should be able to forgive each other while others agreed with Valkyrae's stance on the matter. While the streamer eventually said she forgave her brother, her initial comments were what stuck with the community. Her mother was the one to get a statement of regretfrom her, as Valkyrae said: My mom was, like, crying on the phone yesterday to me. And then she was like, 'You should forgive him.' And I was like, 'Well, yeah, I guess I have to because he's dead! Like, I don't know, this fricking sucks!'"
Valkyrae responds to backlash over her comments
A few days after the dust had settled, Valkyrae made some additional comments about the whole situation on a podcast. She opened up more about why she was so reluctant to forgive her brother for his behavior when he was alive, stating:
"If he would have just like called or apologized, just even an apology for something minor… It’s hard when you care, and the other person doesn’t."
Naturally, people are going to grieve for a loss in their own way. It appears that, since Valkyrae never had a true relationship with her brother, she doesn't feel she suffered much of a loss, thus leading to her more casual grieving. No one truly knows the situation other than her, but it is still jarring to hear comments like hers following a family death, explaining the community's reaction.
