World of Warcraft's latest The War Within trailer has players simping hard for big baddie Xal'atath—and I'm not exactly surprised

World of Warcraft: The War Within is shaping up to be, well, pretty dang good—as pointed out by recent MMO-enjoyment-whirlpool victim and fellow PC Gamer staff Fraser Brown, the game's experiencing a bit of a golden age.

This is for a few reasons: Dragonflight rolled up its sleeves and tended to some much-needed housekeeping, there are a ton of different ways to play now, and Mists of Pandaria: Remix is both massively complained about and also really busy which, you know, isn't ideal, but a love-hate relationship is better than a hate-hate one.

Speaking of hate-hate relationships, the upcoming expansion's central antagonist, Xal'atath, appears to be everyone's new parasocial goth girl crush.

If that sentence gave you psychological whiplash—first off, sorry, second off, I don't get to decide who the internet thirsts for, I only get to talk about it. Take it up with the general public's draw towards women who want to kill them slowly, not me.

The driving force behind this most recent bout of thirst for Xal'atath is a new story teaser posted to the game's YouTube channel, titled Shadow and Fury. In it, several important characters (Alleria Windrunner, Anduin Wrynn, Jaina Proudmoore, Magni Bronzebeard, and Thrall) all suffer existential crises at the hands of an ominous voice over from Xal'atath herself. Happens to the best of us.

What's really set people stammering «mommy, sorry», however, is Xal'atath's smirk at the end of the trailer which—in fairness—is downright deviously animated. Among the initial quote-tweet response over on Twitter, one user writes: «SHE FLEW THE MOTHERPLANE INTO THE C*NTAGON». This has added two new very exciting words to my vocabulary, and let me tell you, I cannot wait to upset my friends with them in casual conversation.

Players are fanning themselves over on the game's subreddit, as well. «Oh sh*t, here I go simping again,» writes one player. «I can fix her,» adds another, who absolutely can't. «I for one welcome our new knaifu overlord,»