Valerie Harper

> Thank you... everycreature, for lifting my head out of the dark fog. (...) I was so lost in the midst of my despair and lust for power that I forgot who I was. (...) Unfortunately, I'm not going to survive. (...) You know... You're a very special Puella Magi. Melody, please keep fighting. Even if your friends die, you have to stay strong. For your friends. For your Pokémon. For me, and the other past magical warriors. Never give up, okay, and take care of Nicole and Katrina for me, will you?
>
> - Valerie Harper, before passing away and becoming a Perserver

**Valerie Harper** (Japanese: **お隣 琴音** *Otonari Kotone*) is one of the main characters of *Magicae Amicitie et Harmoniae: Cherry Magica.* She is the co-leader of the Harmonic 9 and later an antagonist in the present-day arcs under the name **Queen Vera** (Japanese: **クイーン ベラ**) before ultimately redeeming herself and finally ascending to her Preserver form.

## Bio

### Appearance

**Valerie** has green eyes, freckles, and chest-length brown hair worn in odango buns combined with pigtails. Her Harmony Mark is a gold lyre. After she gets Stage 3, the lyre gains a halo on top, and her hair is sparkly, slightly longer, and gains a fade of white. As a civilian, she wears a white cloth-like garment with a ribbon tied around the waist and wooden geta sandals.

In her **magical girl** form, her eyes remain unchanged and her hair becomes two blonde knee-length braids in each version, adorned with two gold music note clips on her head, flower-shaped hairties, and star earrings. On her back is a pair of white fairy wings. Her Harmony Gem, shaped like a teardrop, is located on her collar while her Elemaximum Gauge is on her left breast. Her terminal/phone is in a carrying case on her waist.

* She initially has a white collared T-shirt like top with a silver shirt underneath, a gold waistband with a winged heart gem on it, and a white skirt reaching her ankles. She has pale blue flats with gold bows, and white layered armwarmers with pale pink and yellow ruffles.
* After gaining Stage 3, her outfit changes. Her layered armwarmers change to long white and gold ones resembling Cure Lovely's in *Happiness Charge Pretty Cure*, while her skirt gains a slit on the right side and she now has silver tights underneath, and the sleeves of her top become puffy. Her flats are now white ankle boots (with the heels - but not the rest of the soles - being gold) with the bows being moved to the top and are now larger and light blue. Her belt is now pale pink while the winged heart has been replaced with several sky blue heart gems and her earrings are now four-pointed stars while her gold hairclips remain in note shapes but the circular portion is shaped like a star. Her wings also become a bit pointier.

In her **Stage 5** form, (???)

In her **Elemaximum** form, she gains a white robe. (???)

In her **Rainbow Power** form, (???)

When achieving **Harmony Mark Magic**, (???)

As **Queen Vera**, her hair remains brown but is wavy and worn down, and no longer has its fade or sparkles while she also lacks her Harmony Mark. Her eyes turn blue and she has black eyeliner and lipstick. She wears a dark purple long-sleeved dress with a bright blue collar, wavy bright blue cape-like fabric on her back, and a crisscrossing blue belt with a white letter "V" on her waist. Her footwear is rarely seen due to the length of her dress, but is shown to be a pair of black wedge heels. She also has a dark purple headband-like crown on her head with the tips being blue, and the crown has a white V on it.

### Personality

Valerie is a caring and friendly girl who loves to sing and play music and is also cheerful and sunny, though she is not quite as energetic as Cherry. She is also very helpful as she enjoys cheering her friends up when they are feeling down and also doesn't hesitate to give stuff to those in need at the cost of herself, although she becomes depressed when she can't help. Despite not representing the Element of Laughter like Jasper, she does seem to have a bit of a jokester side to her. She especially cares a lot for Cherry as the two are best friends, though they sometimes tease each other. However, she is sometimes insecure about herself, such as having to complete requirements to earn upgrades since she is already a good person and doesn't understand why she should have to prove it. Sadly, this ultimately shatters her faith in good and causes her to become extremely bitter and power-hungry.

As Queen Vera, she is bitter, ruthless, and cruel, and has a strong desire for power to fulfill her ultimate goal of ruling the Multiverse alongside the AoTA. She is very arrogant and overconfident, but rarely directly confronts the heroes, instead sending her minions to do it instead. While she appears to be a caring boss to her minions, she in fact doesn't really care about them much and only sees them as tools to help her in her goal. Deep down, however, beneath her arrogant and cruel exterior, Queen Vera is shown to be quite insecure and believes that what she is doing is all to prove that she is a good person who deserves to be praised and rewarded (although she has taken it to obsessive levels and has become consumed by her desire for power), but feels that it is too late to turn back. In Part 2 of "The Ending of the End," after seeing the heroes' enormous rainbow beam of friendship magic and their Stage 5 upgrades, she finally realizes the error of her ways when she sees that their upgrade requirements are not pointless because she sees the immense power of their friendship and remembers having her powerful Stage 5 upgrade with her friends by her side and realizes she could have kept that and proven she was a great Magi if she had just kept the bonds with her friends (especially Cherry) instead of trying to take over the whole Multiverse and rule it.

After redeeming herself before passing away, she admits to the Magis that she was so lost in her jealousy and lust for power that she forgot who she was. She then thanks them for "getting [her] head out of the dark fog," tells Melody to keep fighting even if her friends die, and doesn't seem to mind that she will die shortly (despite a few of them begging her not to go), especially since as Celeste, she does her best to atone for her misdeeds.

### Relationships

* **Cherry Lovedream**: Her best friend, until Valerie becomes bitter, ditches her, and turns evil at the end of *Cherry Magica*. At the end of "The Ending of the End" and in the series finale, however, they have since reconciled.
* **Event Horizon, Demencia, Necrosis,** and **Black Hat**: Queen Vera's four servants. While she appears to be a nice, caring boss to them, she in fact doesn't really care about them and only sees them as tools to help her conquer the Multiverse. After she redeems, however, Black Hat and Demencia have already been purified into thin air and never see the error of their ways, while she asks the Magis to take care of her two redeemed servants (Katrina and Nicole) and finally calls them by their proper names.
* **The AoTA**: Her bosses and close friends. She appears to genuinely care about them as friends, especially since they agreed to rule the Multiverse together with her.

## Items

* **Power Necklace**
* **Harmony Gem** *(is stored in Magical Warrior System app when unused)*

## Magical Abilities

As a magical warrior, Valerie possesses enhanced physical abilities such as speed, strength, agility and invulnerability to physical damage. Her magic aura is white in color.

## Magical Warrior

Valerie is a Sound Elemental who represents the Element of Generosity, and her theme color is white. Her weapons are a harp, a rubber Torchic, and a flute.

### Attacks

* **Harmony Choir** - Valerie's main purification finisher. It borrows power from Akira.
* **Aria Strum** - One of her damaging sub-attacks.
* **Sakura Melody Shower** - A purification attack that she must perform with Cherry Lovedream. It borrows power from Akira and Ayame.

## Forms of Address

 Cherry Lovedream | Yuuna-san (友奈さん)
 Michelle Brooks | Mizuki-chan (みゆきちゃん)
 Bryce Forrest | Hayashi-kun
 Akari Berliz | Shō-san (ショウさん)

## Taking care of

### Dream Pixies

* Akira - A cat-like Dream Pixie who is colored white. She is Valerie's first Dream Pixie, and transforms her ordinary harp into a magic weapon harp (as opposed to creating one like in most cases).

### Pokémon

* Wakana - A Fennekin that Valerie befriended after becoming a magical girl in "Sprouting."
* Twinkle - A Torchic that Valerie befriended in "The First Magi Team" who refuses to evolve.

## Trivia

*For this character's tropes, see here.*
* After *Cherry Magica*, she becomes a semi-immortal dark sorceress named **Queen Vera**. However, she returns to her civilian appearance and realizes the error of her ways in "The Ending of the End" when she sees the huge rainbow friendship beam and realizes the heroes' upgrades are powered by their friendship. She unfortunately then dies from her injuries, though at the end of the episode, she and her friends (who have reconciled in the afterlife) are seen as spirits watching the Magis eat donuts and discuss the future before smiling at each other and fading away back to the afterlife. In the series finale, she has since reconciled with her friends and is seen alive with her Power Necklace and Harmony Gem (in its phone) again.
* As an error in her debut chapter, she refers to Cherry as "Cherry-*chan*." This error was fixed in the next chapter.
* Valerie is the first "Traitor Magi" in the series, the second being Arcturus Porter I.
* Her first Dream Pixie, Akira, bears a resemblance to Opal the cat from *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*.
* In the series finale, she is confirmed to work as a choir teacher.
* Even as Queen Vera, she remains a talented singer, as shown in the MAeH equivalent chapter of "The Hour of Doomsday" where she sings to Melody about how she claims she's royalty. This is due to the effects of her wish remaining even after she became evil and lost her Chosen One status, as Incubators (obviously Kyubey in this case) are unable to revoke or reverse the effects of a wish once it is granted, and the fact that she made the wish legitimately when she was still heroic.
* Whenever the Magis get glowing eyes, her eyes glow gold (since her irises being white would look off) and her pupils are shaped like music notes.
* Valerie's flats in Puella Magi form look similar to Cynthia's flats in her Puella Magi form. However, it is purely coincidental both in-universe and out-of-universe.
* Her slow descent into madness resembles somewhat Sayaka's descent into madness in *Puella Magi Madoka Magica*.
* It was confirmed that her redemption in "The Ending of the End" and jumping into the Magic of Friendship blast is fully by her own choice since she realizes she could have been a powerful Hero to protect creaturekind if she had remained friends with the others, and despite having lost her Chosen One status after her betrayal, she still ascends to her Preserver form as a reward for her genuine change of heart. Her death is also due to the writers wanting to give her a peaceful closure to her story, just like said chapter ends the present-day Magis' story.
* It is unknown what happens to her Pokémon after she turns evil, despite them begging her to reconsider. They are seen with her again in the Law of Cycles retcon, however.
* It is implied that the AoTA (who are confirmed to work as her mission control/benefactors) created Demencia and Black Hat for her and also built Necrosis for her.