Topic pretty much says it: Is there any way to kill Valerica, either through regular game or mod? It has always seemed to me that she is a major loose end left from the Dawnguard plot line. Yes, one can leave her in her purple-hued abode and never return to visit, but it seems it would make more sense to eliminate all traces of that family, with the exception of the dear daughter Serana whom we can convince to return to the mortal fold.

As I seem to understand the quest line, Valercia's now the plaything of the Unseen Masters.

Why would we want to kill her? She was on our side; her motive was always to protect Serana and thwart Harkon.

She was on the side of Molag Bal when the ritual was performed that turned Serana into a vampire.

What kind of mother would allow a demon to [censored] her child?

Some evil chars would just kill anybody, because he is alive. Or just destroy everything, simply because it exists.

Some chars will think of themself as being good, and kill every vampire.

Personally, I like to think that the dovakin sends her to the Collage of Winterhold, where she teaches conjuration.

Also, every new member of the thief-guild and the dark-brotherhood is send to the collage. They should get a training in illusion, and all that want to can become Vampires. So they can use illusion to improve their sneak-skills.

Not exactly, since she can leave the Soul Cairn - she isn't bound to it like Durnehviir. If you go back into the Cairn after finishing the questline, and tell her, she takes up residence in her study(the room with the Portal).

Glargg, I usually really like your comments, but I have to disagree with you here.

She was never on "our side." She is a servant of Molag Bal, who gave not only herself but also her daughter to Molag Bal to become daughters of Coldhabour. She is a necromancer who opened a portal to the Soul Cairn to become a more powerful necromancer. It backfired on her, but her intent was hardly a good one.

She opposes Harkon, not because she does not work for the Vampire kind, but because she thinks Harkon's plan would backfire on vampires and wind up getting them eliminated. So she shut her own daughter in a crypt for several centuries with the scroll. This same daughter that she told you was expected to give herself to Molag Bal to be violated, cause that is what her family was into. Serana herself says in the Soul Cairn that she now realizes that her mother was no better than her father, they both just used her as a pawn in their own power scheme.

And the Dawnguard are vampire hunters. Valerica as a Vampire Lord is one of the worst of her kind, and is still a daughter of Coldharbour, so she could still be used to make the prophecy about eternal night come true. I don't recall that Harkon was the only one who could make that happen -- rather, he was just the one who wanted to make it happen.

So from many angles, leaving Valerica 'alive' at the end of this storyline seems to me to be a mistake. I can see that Serana may be an exception, and if played right Serana can be converted to cure her vampirism. But Valerica, not so much. Seems to me that a real Dawnguard type, a vampire hunter, would go back to the Soul Cairn once Harkon was ended (or even before that), and make sure that Valerica was also terminated.

But still, no one has answered my original question: does anybody know a way to do it? Is there any way to kill Valerica?

Loose ends that need tidying up. You could say the same about Serana if she refuses to accept the cure.

Console commands if you're on the PC otherwise you're out of luck, I imagine.

Well argued. I appreciate your reasoning on it.

I think I've completed that quest line four times, and none of my characters have been "real Dawnguard types," I guess. They've been more driven by expediency; as the guards say, "Something has to be done about these vampire attacks." I've started a few characters that I intended to be "Vampire Hunters," but I kind of lose interest in single-minded characters. I'm sure I could come up with one that I'd like, though; it might be fun.

IIRC, I think Davy pretty much has your answer. I tried in one of my playthroughs, but unfortunately my memory svcks at times.

Yeah, I think that is what I wound up doing. Taking her essential flag off through console commands. It was interesting in Oblivion that you could eliminate some NPCs after they were no longer quest givers. Such as Relmyna Verenim. Too bad Skyrim didn't do the same in many cases, including Rolff Stone-Fist

I figure its just lazy programming from Bethesda and there is internal evidence Dawnguard was rushed. So not so surprising.

With Rolff Stone-fist Hearthfires kids will comment that Rolf told them not to go to the Grey Quarter as its "not safe there". Interestingly theres a condition on their dialogue that checks to see if he's dead or not. Just another of those unfinished/missed things I guess.

If Dawnguard was considered rushed I think they still did a fairly decent job with that one. It is a fair size DLC respectively.

Or perhaps part of content that had to get pulled due to hardware limitations of console systems

With a wooden stake and a mallet.