zergkiller44
11-14-2015, 03:26 PM
This post is the epitome of TL;DR but whatever…writing it all down was therapeutic made me feel a lot better. :-)
(HUGE STORY SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY)
As a huge lore fan, now that StarCraft 2 has ended I have some thoughts (oh so many thoughts). As a whole I really did love returning to the Koprulu sector and getting to revisit so many of my favorite characters. I thought many of the missions were incredibly inventive and I loved the "feeling" of playing each race; customizing my armies, commanding a ship, getting to know my crew, choosing which planet to go to, learning the intricacies of each race, etc.
That having been said, I found the story…lacking in many ways. A lot of the right intentions were there, but there are tons of logic gaps, confusing moments, and baffling choices. Part of this stems from that fact that in the SC1 days there was a lot less detail between each mission, so we were forced to fill in a lot of the gaps ourselves. Also we were younger then and more forgiving, though I do still think the stories/character motivations in the early games hold together much better. Another reason for this stems from the fact that Blizzard seemed to know broad strokes of the SC2 story, but also was making up a lot as they went along. Yet at the end of the day I'd rather have great gameplay with lackluster story than a great story with lackluster gameplay, though I wish we could have had both of course!
Anyway, here we go! Here's some stuff that bugged me or had me curious.…
1) Zeratul never says goodbye to Raynor - I expected my favorite shadowy Protoss to die at some point, but it was a shame that he never said farewell to his human friend, since I always got the sense, even from the SC1 days, that the two were buddies. Playing through SC1 I never got the sense that Raynor and Artanis really knew each other very well (Raynor stayed behind on Aiur when we were first introduced to Artanis in Brood War). I know it's been retconned that we are Artanis in the first Protoss campaign, but it certainly never felt that way. Also, I would have liked to see Zeratul's sanctuary planet with pink skies. :-)
2) Were the Purifiers responsible for the Chau Sara purge? - Is it implied now that the Purifiers were the ones to cleanse Chau Sara of the Zerg way back in SC1? Just curious.
3) Nova - Few characters have been pushed so hard by Blizzard that I care so little about. I guess I'm excited to learn more about her in Shadow Ops, but because we never got a game from her (and I haven't read her book) boy do I find her character uninteresting, yet Blizzard keeps forcing her on us from every angle. The only semi-interesting thing about her is, if you talk to Matt Horner on the Hyperion (assuming you sided with Tosh), you discover Nova was lying about how "dangerous" Spectres are; so we know Nova can be manipulative and ruthless which is kind of neat, but other than that I know nothing about her.
4) How do the Zerg "work"? - This is something that's actually bugged me since the days of Brood War that is only made more unclear by the later games; originally each Zerg brood was controlled by a Cerebrate, all of which did the bidding of the Overmind through psionic telepathy. Zerg would be drawn to Psi Emitters and repelled/sent into confusion by Psi Disruptors…fine.
In Brood War, after the Overmind is killed, we see "feral Zerg" on Aiur and elsewhere. I guess Cerebrates run these broods? If you kill the Cerebrate the Zerg…go still and stop moving? Kerrigan is secretly working to gain control of these broods, and manipulates everyone else to help her. The UED throws a huge wrench in her plans by controlling the new young Overmind, but she is able to turn the tide with the help of everyone else whom she then betrays and becomes "Queen Bitch of the Universe" (favorite StarCraft moment ever!).
Then in SC2, we learn that Amon is controlling lots of the Zerg too…when did this start? Did Kerrigan feel it? Was Kerrigan part of it before she was "cleansed"? Are there such thing as a "naturalized" Zerg brood then at all? It just gets muddy.
As for primal Zerg, my memory is hazy, butt they were supposed to be worm-like creatures that would parasitize other organisms, correct? And the Xel'Naga then seeded them with intelligence? I guess this isn't quite undone by the constantly competing Primal Zerg in HOTS, although Zerus definitely was described as an "ash world" in the original manual and not a Permian forest, but oh well.
5) Tal'darim nerve cords - Amon corrupts the Khala and is able to control the greater whole of Khalai Protoss, but luckily the Dark Templar are able to escape because they have severed themselves from the Khala. The Purifiers escape because they're…dormant robots (OK…). Unless I'm mistaken, don't the Tal'darim have nerve cords? How the heck did they escape? Alarak is cool as hell, but you'd think the Tal'darim more than anyone would be under Amon's control. I guess they're not part of the Khala then?
6) Ulrezaj - He is not a Tal'darim right? Or has no connection to them? Just a renegade splinter group of angry Dark Templar? Doesn't really matter, but I was curious.
7) The artifact - Hoo boy is this thing confusing! I honestly never quite understood what the reasoning behind how this thing worked were. First it's used to de-infest Kerrigan, then later to send Amon back to the void. Yet at times it also seems to be making Amon stronger or helping him, right? Also it acts as a compass for some reason, leading you right to him…it really is just the "deus ex machina of the week" isn't it? I guess the "good" Xel'Naga left it behind to try to help their cause but it's never entirely clear what this device is all about.
8) Bhekar Ro temple - To those who have read Shadow of the Xel'Naga, what the hell was going on here? Was that phoenix energy creature a different Xel'Naga, absorbing Protoss and Zerg and "ascending"? Sure seems like it, but it doesn't add up with Amon's corruption of the two races, or the process being a "natural cycle." Not to mention all the phoenix creatures Zeratul saw surrounding the wormhole (that he then entered!!) in the Dark Templar trilogy.
9) No archon character - It was awesome to see two high templar merge in the opening cinematic, but it would have been nice to see an archon aboard the Spear of Adun, since they've been around since SC1!
10) Prophecies - Personal opinion, but I usually think "prophecies" are a sign of lazy writing. Rather than have characters enact their own choices, just make up some "prophecies" to get the plot moving instead (worst offender of this is Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie…UGH)! I was OK with some vague whispering about Xel'Naga returning and all that, but once the prophecies started showing images of Kerrigan herself and others I started to roll my eyes…just how much of the Xel'Naga's plan was foretold anyway? Combine this with the fact that the prophecies seem to blur/change ("In Utter Darkness" doesn't really resemble the final standoff with Amon at all) and I found it all pretty hokey and sloppy.
11) Mengsk as the villain - Arcturus is the main antagonist for both WOL and HOTS. It generally makes sense for HOTS, but for WOL I think this was a misstep, even ignoring the fact that as a villain Mengsk generally feels pretty ineffective. In theory Raynor and Mengsk both start with the same motivations at the beginning of HOTS…they want to see Kerrigan dead (remember Raynor's epic speech in Brood War?). A far more interesting (and straightforward) story would be to see Raynor side with Mengsk for a common goal, and only change his mind when Zeratul offers him another option…then Raynor breaks off from Mengsk to strike out on his own and save Kerrigan, angering the emperor. You could even characterize the two as foils for each other…during their early missions you see Mengsk is willing to do far worse, darker things than Raynor is to get what he wants.
This is a jump, but why not make Narud "work" for Mengsk too? Mengsk could be totally aware of the hybrids (but keeps them a secret from Raynor at first) because he sees them as a way to destroy Kerrigan, not realizing the full extent of Narud's plan. All this would also give you a chance to actually see Mengsk as evil, so when you do kill him in HOTS it's far more satisfying. It is true that "siding with Mengsk but then changing his mind" is similar to Raynor's arc back in Rebel Yell but maybe that's OK.
12) Confusion about Narud/Duran - So what was he at the end of the day? Another lesser Xel'Naga? Just a being Amon created to do his bidding? There's a rule in writing about "economy of characters" and I wonder if it wouldn't have been simpler to make Narud/Duran literally just be Amon at the end, but let's just honor Blizzard's wishes for now.
My bigger question is what Narud/Duran's plan was the whole time. Back in Brood War, it makes sense that he's secretly working for Kerrigan because he doesn't want the UED to get control of the Zerg, and once Kerrigan controls the Zerg he abandons her to do his own thing.
Yet in Dark Origin he tells Zeratul how Kerrigan's reemergence into the swarm "has certainly sped up my progress." Isn't Kerrigan's creation a bad thing for them? Or maybe not, since she's still under "Amon's control" at this point…I don't know.
Later on Narud is helping Raynor obtain artifacts, I guess because he wants control of them…but that means he helps Raynor in his quest to de-infest Kerrigan, which seems like a really stupid move on his part, since this frees her from Amon's grasp, right? And he also has Raynor obtain artifacts by fighting the Tal'darim, another faction that works for Amon! Also, it certainly seems like he really wants this de-infestation to happen, because otherwise he wouldn't necessarily care if Kerrigan got control of the artifacts or not (she's already under Amon's control…right?!). The more I think about it the more confusing it gets…just what the hell was he trying to accomplish throughout WOL?!?! None of it adds up.
Also, it would have been nice to just once see Narud "turn into" Duran (maybe in his battle with Kerrigan at Skygeirr, startling her) just to 100% confirm what everybody already knew, instead of just having Zeratul mention it offhand during a prologue mission.
13) When/how did Amon's plan go down? - I actually generally like the idea of Amon as this "fallen from grace" Lucifer-type character. But I'm not 100% sure how is plan actually worked in the ancient past…did the original Xel'Naga have any hand in the creation of the Zerg and the Protoss, or was it entirely his doing? Did the originals "start" the project and Amon went under-their-noses and corrupted the races through a backdoor? All this is even more murky considering the original manual makes no mention of the Xel'Naga "life cycle" in the first place. Also it makes me feel bad for the Protoss that their entire culture is based on a lie.
14) Xel'Naga appearance - It's hard to come up with an answer to "what does a Xel'Naga look like?" that pleases everyone, but I thought "Lovecraftian space whales (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceWhale)" was a tad disappointing. Weirdly I would have been happier never seeing them at all, or just some vague nebulous cloudy shape with eyes or something. They're supposed to be otherworldly…the minute you see them they stop being so! Or (and they half went there) do the same route as the film Contact and have them appear as forms "we can understand." They sort of did this with the vision of "Tassadar" when Zeratul goes to Aiur…maybe they should have committed to this? Although the counterpoint is that this possibly could have been more confusing.
14) Form and essence - I'm weirdly OK with Kerrigan being the key to saving the universe and sacrificing herself, but it's how they did it that I find baffling. We are told Xel'Naga need both "form" and "essence" from a new species to continue on their life cycle. Form is represented by the Protoss, essence by the Zerg…yet both of these traits have never really been defined in any way. I guess "form" is how the Protoss "look" while "essence" is how the Zerg behave? But it feels weird that the Zerg's perfect "essence" is…kinda terrible right? And besides, we now know (I think) that both these races were corrupted by Amon anyway.
Yet when Kerrigan merges with Ouros, it is his essence and her form…what?! I thought the Zerg had the essence? Was it her human form then? Why not just grab her waaaaay back in the day before the Zerg even infested her (or at least right after the artifact had de-infested her)? Also side note, but did the Xel'Naga create humans in the first place? I guess they did since they apparently created all life in the universe now.
I've seen others try to explain this one but it always just comes off as unclear and confusing.
15) The "mega-happy" ending - I don't hate the ending as much as some do, but I think it could have been better. A lot of this may come from how I read events in my head in the original StarCraft story, but to me the Raynor/Kerrigan relationship never seemed like a "true love story" of two people who deserved to be together in the end (don't forget that the classic Romeo and Juliet "star-crossed lovers" ended in tragedy!). To me this has always been more of a story of remorse and redemption for Raynor; he cared about Kerrigan, but through his actions he let her fall to the Zerg. Since then he's always tried to find a way to undo what he feels partially responsible for. At the same time I also felt like Kerrigan really did need to pay for the countless lives she has has destroyed (more on this problem next).
To me the ending to SCII needed to be a bit more bittersweet rather than letting Kerrigan and Raynor walk off into the ambiguous sunset. Let Kerrigan "undo herself" to save the universe…let Raynor have one last "vision" with her…and then…
…show that Raynor has moved on. He's living on a temperate world somewhere, far away from all the wars and battles. Maybe he's got a nice life going with Ariel Hansen or something (assuming she wasn't killed in this version). Raynor is happy and his demons are conquered. Fade to black!
16) The Kerrigan of SC1 has no agency - To me this is the biggest, and possibly most unforgivable, mistake of the entire series. Unlike many of my other ideas, this would require an entire rewrite to fix but I think it's incredibly important.
De-infesting and immediately re-infesting Kerrigan is hugely problematic (on an aesthetic level I also think her second infestation should have had a different "look" but that's really just a minor note). Yet by de-infesting her, as I read it, it means the Queen of Blades was essentially another slave to Amon before the artifact "freed" her. Suddenly all her motivations in Brood War are rendered moot; it wasn't her fault she was a monster, that was just the corrupted Zerg talking!
What I loved about Brood War was that it all hinged on the question…what is Kerrigan all about now that she is free of the Overmind? For a while it seemed like perhaps she had changed for the better, and I loved that it ending with a resounding,"Nope, you've all been played!" Kerrigan was a master manipulator and the ultimate big bad of the Koprulu sector…how awesome! It's a total Empire Strikes Back ending that left me wondering for over a decade, "What are Raynor, Mengsk, Zeratul, and the others going to do about this…?"
Then SCII basically says, "Well no…she wasn't clear in the head because the Zerg were corrupted by Amon." What? To me this is an awful story retcon that undoes so much of what her character was about, to a far worse degree than "Han shot first," for example. Now we apparently know the Kerrigan of Brood War was really a mindless drone, and all her wonderful manipulations meant nothing. In addition it more or less lets her "off the hook" for all those she's killed (Fenix!). Shameful, Blizzard…it appears you've undone all the motivation behind the most iconic character you've ever created.
17) Leave the UED out of it - This is just a small thing I wanted to mention that I think Blizzard did right. So many fans kept clamoring "bring the UED back!" but I'm glad they didn't return. They were fun, but their story was told, and told well. It's a classic tale of hubris…they arrive in the Koprulu sector expecting to dominate everyone, and they wind up running with their tail between their legs and get destroyed; it's complete and concise.
I'm totally OK with Infested Stukov though…that was great.
(HUGE STORY SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY)
As a huge lore fan, now that StarCraft 2 has ended I have some thoughts (oh so many thoughts). As a whole I really did love returning to the Koprulu sector and getting to revisit so many of my favorite characters. I thought many of the missions were incredibly inventive and I loved the "feeling" of playing each race; customizing my armies, commanding a ship, getting to know my crew, choosing which planet to go to, learning the intricacies of each race, etc.
That having been said, I found the story…lacking in many ways. A lot of the right intentions were there, but there are tons of logic gaps, confusing moments, and baffling choices. Part of this stems from that fact that in the SC1 days there was a lot less detail between each mission, so we were forced to fill in a lot of the gaps ourselves. Also we were younger then and more forgiving, though I do still think the stories/character motivations in the early games hold together much better. Another reason for this stems from the fact that Blizzard seemed to know broad strokes of the SC2 story, but also was making up a lot as they went along. Yet at the end of the day I'd rather have great gameplay with lackluster story than a great story with lackluster gameplay, though I wish we could have had both of course!
Anyway, here we go! Here's some stuff that bugged me or had me curious.…
1) Zeratul never says goodbye to Raynor - I expected my favorite shadowy Protoss to die at some point, but it was a shame that he never said farewell to his human friend, since I always got the sense, even from the SC1 days, that the two were buddies. Playing through SC1 I never got the sense that Raynor and Artanis really knew each other very well (Raynor stayed behind on Aiur when we were first introduced to Artanis in Brood War). I know it's been retconned that we are Artanis in the first Protoss campaign, but it certainly never felt that way. Also, I would have liked to see Zeratul's sanctuary planet with pink skies. :-)
2) Were the Purifiers responsible for the Chau Sara purge? - Is it implied now that the Purifiers were the ones to cleanse Chau Sara of the Zerg way back in SC1? Just curious.
3) Nova - Few characters have been pushed so hard by Blizzard that I care so little about. I guess I'm excited to learn more about her in Shadow Ops, but because we never got a game from her (and I haven't read her book) boy do I find her character uninteresting, yet Blizzard keeps forcing her on us from every angle. The only semi-interesting thing about her is, if you talk to Matt Horner on the Hyperion (assuming you sided with Tosh), you discover Nova was lying about how "dangerous" Spectres are; so we know Nova can be manipulative and ruthless which is kind of neat, but other than that I know nothing about her.
4) How do the Zerg "work"? - This is something that's actually bugged me since the days of Brood War that is only made more unclear by the later games; originally each Zerg brood was controlled by a Cerebrate, all of which did the bidding of the Overmind through psionic telepathy. Zerg would be drawn to Psi Emitters and repelled/sent into confusion by Psi Disruptors…fine.
In Brood War, after the Overmind is killed, we see "feral Zerg" on Aiur and elsewhere. I guess Cerebrates run these broods? If you kill the Cerebrate the Zerg…go still and stop moving? Kerrigan is secretly working to gain control of these broods, and manipulates everyone else to help her. The UED throws a huge wrench in her plans by controlling the new young Overmind, but she is able to turn the tide with the help of everyone else whom she then betrays and becomes "Queen Bitch of the Universe" (favorite StarCraft moment ever!).
Then in SC2, we learn that Amon is controlling lots of the Zerg too…when did this start? Did Kerrigan feel it? Was Kerrigan part of it before she was "cleansed"? Are there such thing as a "naturalized" Zerg brood then at all? It just gets muddy.
As for primal Zerg, my memory is hazy, butt they were supposed to be worm-like creatures that would parasitize other organisms, correct? And the Xel'Naga then seeded them with intelligence? I guess this isn't quite undone by the constantly competing Primal Zerg in HOTS, although Zerus definitely was described as an "ash world" in the original manual and not a Permian forest, but oh well.
5) Tal'darim nerve cords - Amon corrupts the Khala and is able to control the greater whole of Khalai Protoss, but luckily the Dark Templar are able to escape because they have severed themselves from the Khala. The Purifiers escape because they're…dormant robots (OK…). Unless I'm mistaken, don't the Tal'darim have nerve cords? How the heck did they escape? Alarak is cool as hell, but you'd think the Tal'darim more than anyone would be under Amon's control. I guess they're not part of the Khala then?
6) Ulrezaj - He is not a Tal'darim right? Or has no connection to them? Just a renegade splinter group of angry Dark Templar? Doesn't really matter, but I was curious.
7) The artifact - Hoo boy is this thing confusing! I honestly never quite understood what the reasoning behind how this thing worked were. First it's used to de-infest Kerrigan, then later to send Amon back to the void. Yet at times it also seems to be making Amon stronger or helping him, right? Also it acts as a compass for some reason, leading you right to him…it really is just the "deus ex machina of the week" isn't it? I guess the "good" Xel'Naga left it behind to try to help their cause but it's never entirely clear what this device is all about.
8) Bhekar Ro temple - To those who have read Shadow of the Xel'Naga, what the hell was going on here? Was that phoenix energy creature a different Xel'Naga, absorbing Protoss and Zerg and "ascending"? Sure seems like it, but it doesn't add up with Amon's corruption of the two races, or the process being a "natural cycle." Not to mention all the phoenix creatures Zeratul saw surrounding the wormhole (that he then entered!!) in the Dark Templar trilogy.
9) No archon character - It was awesome to see two high templar merge in the opening cinematic, but it would have been nice to see an archon aboard the Spear of Adun, since they've been around since SC1!
10) Prophecies - Personal opinion, but I usually think "prophecies" are a sign of lazy writing. Rather than have characters enact their own choices, just make up some "prophecies" to get the plot moving instead (worst offender of this is Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie…UGH)! I was OK with some vague whispering about Xel'Naga returning and all that, but once the prophecies started showing images of Kerrigan herself and others I started to roll my eyes…just how much of the Xel'Naga's plan was foretold anyway? Combine this with the fact that the prophecies seem to blur/change ("In Utter Darkness" doesn't really resemble the final standoff with Amon at all) and I found it all pretty hokey and sloppy.
11) Mengsk as the villain - Arcturus is the main antagonist for both WOL and HOTS. It generally makes sense for HOTS, but for WOL I think this was a misstep, even ignoring the fact that as a villain Mengsk generally feels pretty ineffective. In theory Raynor and Mengsk both start with the same motivations at the beginning of HOTS…they want to see Kerrigan dead (remember Raynor's epic speech in Brood War?). A far more interesting (and straightforward) story would be to see Raynor side with Mengsk for a common goal, and only change his mind when Zeratul offers him another option…then Raynor breaks off from Mengsk to strike out on his own and save Kerrigan, angering the emperor. You could even characterize the two as foils for each other…during their early missions you see Mengsk is willing to do far worse, darker things than Raynor is to get what he wants.
This is a jump, but why not make Narud "work" for Mengsk too? Mengsk could be totally aware of the hybrids (but keeps them a secret from Raynor at first) because he sees them as a way to destroy Kerrigan, not realizing the full extent of Narud's plan. All this would also give you a chance to actually see Mengsk as evil, so when you do kill him in HOTS it's far more satisfying. It is true that "siding with Mengsk but then changing his mind" is similar to Raynor's arc back in Rebel Yell but maybe that's OK.
12) Confusion about Narud/Duran - So what was he at the end of the day? Another lesser Xel'Naga? Just a being Amon created to do his bidding? There's a rule in writing about "economy of characters" and I wonder if it wouldn't have been simpler to make Narud/Duran literally just be Amon at the end, but let's just honor Blizzard's wishes for now.
My bigger question is what Narud/Duran's plan was the whole time. Back in Brood War, it makes sense that he's secretly working for Kerrigan because he doesn't want the UED to get control of the Zerg, and once Kerrigan controls the Zerg he abandons her to do his own thing.
Yet in Dark Origin he tells Zeratul how Kerrigan's reemergence into the swarm "has certainly sped up my progress." Isn't Kerrigan's creation a bad thing for them? Or maybe not, since she's still under "Amon's control" at this point…I don't know.
Later on Narud is helping Raynor obtain artifacts, I guess because he wants control of them…but that means he helps Raynor in his quest to de-infest Kerrigan, which seems like a really stupid move on his part, since this frees her from Amon's grasp, right? And he also has Raynor obtain artifacts by fighting the Tal'darim, another faction that works for Amon! Also, it certainly seems like he really wants this de-infestation to happen, because otherwise he wouldn't necessarily care if Kerrigan got control of the artifacts or not (she's already under Amon's control…right?!). The more I think about it the more confusing it gets…just what the hell was he trying to accomplish throughout WOL?!?! None of it adds up.
Also, it would have been nice to just once see Narud "turn into" Duran (maybe in his battle with Kerrigan at Skygeirr, startling her) just to 100% confirm what everybody already knew, instead of just having Zeratul mention it offhand during a prologue mission.
13) When/how did Amon's plan go down? - I actually generally like the idea of Amon as this "fallen from grace" Lucifer-type character. But I'm not 100% sure how is plan actually worked in the ancient past…did the original Xel'Naga have any hand in the creation of the Zerg and the Protoss, or was it entirely his doing? Did the originals "start" the project and Amon went under-their-noses and corrupted the races through a backdoor? All this is even more murky considering the original manual makes no mention of the Xel'Naga "life cycle" in the first place. Also it makes me feel bad for the Protoss that their entire culture is based on a lie.
14) Xel'Naga appearance - It's hard to come up with an answer to "what does a Xel'Naga look like?" that pleases everyone, but I thought "Lovecraftian space whales (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceWhale)" was a tad disappointing. Weirdly I would have been happier never seeing them at all, or just some vague nebulous cloudy shape with eyes or something. They're supposed to be otherworldly…the minute you see them they stop being so! Or (and they half went there) do the same route as the film Contact and have them appear as forms "we can understand." They sort of did this with the vision of "Tassadar" when Zeratul goes to Aiur…maybe they should have committed to this? Although the counterpoint is that this possibly could have been more confusing.
14) Form and essence - I'm weirdly OK with Kerrigan being the key to saving the universe and sacrificing herself, but it's how they did it that I find baffling. We are told Xel'Naga need both "form" and "essence" from a new species to continue on their life cycle. Form is represented by the Protoss, essence by the Zerg…yet both of these traits have never really been defined in any way. I guess "form" is how the Protoss "look" while "essence" is how the Zerg behave? But it feels weird that the Zerg's perfect "essence" is…kinda terrible right? And besides, we now know (I think) that both these races were corrupted by Amon anyway.
Yet when Kerrigan merges with Ouros, it is his essence and her form…what?! I thought the Zerg had the essence? Was it her human form then? Why not just grab her waaaaay back in the day before the Zerg even infested her (or at least right after the artifact had de-infested her)? Also side note, but did the Xel'Naga create humans in the first place? I guess they did since they apparently created all life in the universe now.
I've seen others try to explain this one but it always just comes off as unclear and confusing.
15) The "mega-happy" ending - I don't hate the ending as much as some do, but I think it could have been better. A lot of this may come from how I read events in my head in the original StarCraft story, but to me the Raynor/Kerrigan relationship never seemed like a "true love story" of two people who deserved to be together in the end (don't forget that the classic Romeo and Juliet "star-crossed lovers" ended in tragedy!). To me this has always been more of a story of remorse and redemption for Raynor; he cared about Kerrigan, but through his actions he let her fall to the Zerg. Since then he's always tried to find a way to undo what he feels partially responsible for. At the same time I also felt like Kerrigan really did need to pay for the countless lives she has has destroyed (more on this problem next).
To me the ending to SCII needed to be a bit more bittersweet rather than letting Kerrigan and Raynor walk off into the ambiguous sunset. Let Kerrigan "undo herself" to save the universe…let Raynor have one last "vision" with her…and then…
…show that Raynor has moved on. He's living on a temperate world somewhere, far away from all the wars and battles. Maybe he's got a nice life going with Ariel Hansen or something (assuming she wasn't killed in this version). Raynor is happy and his demons are conquered. Fade to black!
16) The Kerrigan of SC1 has no agency - To me this is the biggest, and possibly most unforgivable, mistake of the entire series. Unlike many of my other ideas, this would require an entire rewrite to fix but I think it's incredibly important.
De-infesting and immediately re-infesting Kerrigan is hugely problematic (on an aesthetic level I also think her second infestation should have had a different "look" but that's really just a minor note). Yet by de-infesting her, as I read it, it means the Queen of Blades was essentially another slave to Amon before the artifact "freed" her. Suddenly all her motivations in Brood War are rendered moot; it wasn't her fault she was a monster, that was just the corrupted Zerg talking!
What I loved about Brood War was that it all hinged on the question…what is Kerrigan all about now that she is free of the Overmind? For a while it seemed like perhaps she had changed for the better, and I loved that it ending with a resounding,"Nope, you've all been played!" Kerrigan was a master manipulator and the ultimate big bad of the Koprulu sector…how awesome! It's a total Empire Strikes Back ending that left me wondering for over a decade, "What are Raynor, Mengsk, Zeratul, and the others going to do about this…?"
Then SCII basically says, "Well no…she wasn't clear in the head because the Zerg were corrupted by Amon." What? To me this is an awful story retcon that undoes so much of what her character was about, to a far worse degree than "Han shot first," for example. Now we apparently know the Kerrigan of Brood War was really a mindless drone, and all her wonderful manipulations meant nothing. In addition it more or less lets her "off the hook" for all those she's killed (Fenix!). Shameful, Blizzard…it appears you've undone all the motivation behind the most iconic character you've ever created.
17) Leave the UED out of it - This is just a small thing I wanted to mention that I think Blizzard did right. So many fans kept clamoring "bring the UED back!" but I'm glad they didn't return. They were fun, but their story was told, and told well. It's a classic tale of hubris…they arrive in the Koprulu sector expecting to dominate everyone, and they wind up running with their tail between their legs and get destroyed; it's complete and concise.
I'm totally OK with Infested Stukov though…that was great.