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Twitch streamer Rachel "Valkyrae" is considered to be one of the most prominent streamers in today's landscape. She is often recognized for her gaming and "Just Chatting" streams, where she interacts with her viewers and responds to comments. Interestingly, some of her comments while Just Chatting have opened her up to some controversy and backlash online.These comments usually stem from her reacting to drama involving some of her close industry contemporaries, like Blaire "QTCinderella," with whom she hosts the Wine About It podcast, and political commentator Hasan "HasanAbi" Piker.Looking at Valkyrae's biggest drama involvements in 2025 so farRachel's clips have appeared in drama news across the popular streaming subreddit, r/LivestreamFail. This subreddit has become a sort of hub for creators and fans alike to review the latest controversies the streaming world has to offer.Due to some of her comments, Valkyrae has received backlash from streamers and netizens online, leading to a few apologies. This article will look at her most significant scandals in 2025 so far.1) Valkyrae suggests that QTCinderella received backlash partly for "being so white"In late October 2025, QTCinderella received a wave of backlash online after she suggested that her association with racist or "hateful" people does not mean she shares their ideologies or character traits:"I will never believe that if I'm kind to a hateful person, that means I agree with them. If I'm around a racist person... I'm just not racist, I'm not. Me? I'm not. They? Are. Yes, but how am I supposed to help them?"Essentially, QT aimed to express that hate should not be fought with hate, considering that route does not lead to a fruitful solution. Valkyrae took note of all the backlash QTCinderella received and pointed out that a part of it was due to her podcast co-host's skin complexion:"I was like, 'You're also the Whitest woman I know, and it also is just, you know, you being so White, it just doesn't help.' It doesn't help. Like, I know her. I know her heart. It's just because she wants to help, but I feel like there's ways we can do it better."This led to multiple fans accusing her of racism and attempting to start a "race war."2) Valkyrae criticized for defending HasanAbi amidst the CollarGate controversyOn October 7, 2025, clips of HasanAbi allegedly shocking his dog, Kaya, with a shock collar after she moved slightly off her designated place, went viral online. Users across the internet called out Piker for animal abuse, claiming that he does not appropriately care for his dog.Hasan responded, saying that the collar's capability extends to a "vibrate" mode and no more.Before Piker's response, Rachel commented on the situation, and while acknowledging that the clip "looked bad," she mentioned that such outrage would be better displaced towards the Israel-Palestine conflict:"But yeah, it's kind of crazy... you would think that this kind of outrage we would have seen it towards, like, the genocide and stuff, but you know, the priorities in this world are not where they should be."This statement received criticism online, with many saying that one can be concerned about two social issues at the same time. Valkyrae responded to these negative comments, saying:"of course you can care about more than one thing at once! I do see now how this comes off as deflecting and takes away from the topic at focus which I wish I could go back and reword it all or atleast mention it far later in conversation."3) Valkyrae receives backlash for contacting Asmongold for adviceAfter her statements defending HasanAbi went viral, Rachel seemingly reached out to controversial commentary streamer Zack "Asmongold" for advice on how to handle the backlash.When certain netizens caught wind of her attempt to seek advice from Asmon, she was criticized for associating with a controversial personality. One of Asmon's major controversies happened in October 2024 after he reportedly trivialized the plight of Palestinians in the Israel-Palestine conflict. This led to a large group of left-wing activists calling him out.In response to the backlash, she apologized to her fanbase, saying that she should have been more "aware":"I apologize to my community. It was probably so hurtful and so jarring. I'm under a rock, and that's my fault. I think everyone, including myself, should be more aware of, you know, what's going on in the world."4) Valkyrae's charity giveaway selection process receives backlash on r/LivestreamFailr/LivestreamFail reacts to Valkyrae's charity giveaway process (Images via r/LivestreamFail/Reddit)Coming up to Thanksgiving season, Rachel announced that she will be conducting a "charity giveaway" for members of her community. While discussing this on stream, she mentioned that she would be "preemptively picking people" to weed out "rotten people":"Not a single dime is going to anyone that is racist... I'll be checking logs. I'm also, premptively picking people, and premptively having a naughty list."This selection process led multiple r/LivestreamFail members to call her a "fraud."5) Valkyrae says she feels "gross" about streaming on TwitchOn October 27, 2025, during her stream where she addressed the backlash toward QTCinderella, Valkyrae mentioned that her feelings about Twitch have shifted drastically. This statement was made about a week after Emiru's case of sexual assault at TwitchCon San Diego 2025, where a deranged fan aggressively made contact with Emiru during a meet and greet with no prior consent.In her stream on October 27, Rachel said:"I feel like streaming is just so gross. I feel like because I'm a streame,r it's just gross. Part of me feels like I kind of want to quit streaming on Twitch and just only be on YouTube again. Like just it just feels gross. Like I feel gross just being around it, being associated with it."Streamer Felix "xQc" criticized these comments, suggesting that there are bad apples across every major platform in entertainment:"Chat, there there's people that are bad in all industries respectively, right? like right that there's people that are bad in the movies, in Hollywood... it's not really a thing in streaming only."In other news, Valkyrae suggests that she's been made a "villain" amidst recent controversies and indicated that certain people want her "to just die."
