Are you raising an adorble Aqir larva? Guess what?! When it’s a Shadowbarb Drone, you cruelly stab four of its eyes out so you can mount it

One of the hidden-but-not-super-hidden aspects of patch 8.3 was the quest line that ultimately rewards player with a really cool Aqir mount. In it, players must find a Voidtouched Egg and then raise it into a fully grown Aqir. It’s really cool! You even get to name your little buddy. (Anyone who doesn’t choose “Fluffy” is wrong — yes, even you, Reginald fans.) But it turns out, there’s a very cruel aspect to raising your little Aqir that isn’t well known: When you make Fluffy your mount, you stab bolts into most of its eyes.

Alright, I don’t have a large following, but I would like to make a short thread requesting @Blizzard_Ent make a slight change to an existing game model for the Shadowbarb Drone Mount. Below are 2 in game models, the left is the pre-mount model, the right is the mount model pic.twitter.com/qJFa5Gi5AT

— Demonchibix (@GamingChibix) February 15, 2020

I first learned of this via DemonChibix on Twitter. In a thread calling for the mount to receive a model change, DemonChibix points out how horrific a process earning the Shadowbarb Drone actually is for your little pet. In it, it’s noted that the model for Aqir Drones — in their non-mount forms — have six eyes (three on each side), while the mount models have only one eye on each side as a result of the saddle that players attach to them. It can be technically explained by examining the other Aqir mount from 8.3 and viewing it as a recolor. But in the context of Fluffy, it just feels cruel — more importantly, it feels wrong.

I’ll be honest, it’s not something I’d noticed before seeing that tweet, but now that I have, I really, really do not want to complete this quest line. I love Fluffy. This little Aqir is my tiny companion, and I’ve been raising it since it was an egg, trying to figure out what it takes to make it grow properly and healthily. The idea of all of that ending with me cruelly stabbing bolts through four of Fluffy’s six eyes is heartbreaking. Even me, in all of my Old God-loving, Void-worshiping, Sylvanas-stanning cruelty can’t get behind this. It’s not right.

As it stands, though, I don’t have a choice if I want the Shadowbarb Drone mount. Maybe Blizzard will change it, maybe they won’t. But the knowledge that my cute little Fluffy will one day feel like Papa Mitch has betrayed it all for the sake of another mount in his collection is painful. Please, Blizzard, end this cruelty. Change the mount’s model.

Do it for Fluffy.