Plothole resolution in the Starcraft universe

[topsecret221]

Wikis are subjective because people who didn't write the original material write the wikis. Those people can draw the wrong conclusions from things that have said or been said, or wikis only state what we know about something. Just because it has the word "wiki" in the title doesn't make it a fact.

[Pr0nogo]

Okay, but that the directive overrides everything is a fact; Blizzard's stated that themselves through numerous titles (the game, a book here and there, etc.).

[topsecret221]

Which book? (I haven't read a couple of them, but I don't remember the Directive being mentioned in the many that I have read)

But yes, unfortunately Blizzard enforces the Directive.
Let's hope they can make it something cool and feel at home in the universe in the upcoming expansions, saving it from what it feels like now: a cop out to take the story in a new direction.

[Shadow Archon]

Not to be a fanboy, but the only plot holes I can think of in the games' story are:

A) Not enough explanation why the UED lost interest. They literally have the FTL capacity to jump to the Korpulu Sector under a month and have better tech than the other Terrans.

B) How Raynor defeated Selendis. One Super Carrier alone defeated an entire squadron of BCs, how could Raynor handle a fleet alone? This was not believable while his small assaults on the Dominion/Tal'Darim were.

That's about it.

Also, how can there be Retcons if there is no canon hierarchy? Because of that, all canon is equal, those originally stated and newer sources, thus each creating their own bubble of interpretation of the events in question.

[Pr0nogo]

Not enough explanation why the UED lost interest. They literally have the FTL capacity to jump to the Korpulu Sector under a month and have better tech than the other Terrans.

Not only is there "not enough explanation", the only mention of the UED at all is in a mercenary's tooltip. Hmm. The loading screen when you install the game doesn't even talk about Brood War at all - it's entirely ignored.

How Raynor defeated Selendis. One Super Carrier alone defeated an entire squadron of BCs, how could Raynor handle a fleet alone? This was not believable while his small assaults on the Dominion/Tal'Darim were.

His assaults on the Dominion were very rarely believable; General Warfield (and by extension, Mengsk) were downright clueless as to what Raynor was doing at every turn, despite Tychus being a double agent. Not only did Raynor not fail once throughout the entirety of Wings of Liberty, he also had to go up against an established and (purportedly) skilled general who had command of forces that vastly outnumbered and outgunned the Raiders - and the Dominion had a spy within his ranks. You can't tell me that Raynor only succeeded because the Emperor let him; why would Mengsk let Tychus rampage through the streets of Korhal and allow Raynor to broadcast a message that would ruin the esteemed Emperor's reputation? It's not related to Valerian's betrayal at all, considering he's royally (lerl) pissed off about that.

Also, how can there be Retcons if there is no canon hierarchy? Because of that, all canon is equal, those originally stated and newer sources, thus each creating their own bubble of interpretation of the events in question.

Don't go there. You might as well say that SCII takes place in a different universe than SC:BW and SC:BW takes place in a different universe than SC vanilla because of different lore aspects. No, the lore should fit together as seamlessly as possible with only the retcons that are necessary to improve the telling of the story, not to make it easier on the storywriters.

[Shadow Archon]

Not only is there "not enough explanation", the only mention of the UED at all is in a mercenary's tooltip. Hmm. The loading screen when you install the game doesn't even talk about Brood War at all - it's entirely ignored.

Agreed. Thought the Terran have shown the industry to make the recovery believable.

His assaults on the Dominion were very rarely believable; General Warfield (and by extension, Mengsk) were downright clueless as to what Raynor was doing at every turn, despite Tychus being a double agent. Not only did Raynor not fail once throughout the entirety of Wings of Liberty, he also had to go up against an established and (purportedly) skilled general who had command of forces that vastly outnumbered and outgunned the Raiders - and the Dominion had a spy within his ranks. You can't tell me that Raynor only succeeded because the Emperor let him; why would Mengsk let Tychus rampage through the streets of Korhal and allow Raynor to broadcast a message that would ruin the esteemed Emperor's reputation?

Because in the end, reputation can be fixed. His domination of the sector is now complete. The Dominion has the most power in the sector with the Zerg's splinter and the Protoss bickering. Through death or not of Kerrigan, he manipulated Raynor to remove the Zerg threat and did so that Raynor has the credit. If Kerrigan goes on a murderous rampage, it will be on him. Mengsk is a sociopath, he does not care for another life than his own. If he has to rule the sector as an iron tyrant and not as a benevolent ruler, so be it.

It's not related to Valerian's betrayal at all, considering he's royally (lerl) pissed off about that.

Simple, he lied. Tychus knew about Mobius and was pushing Raynor towards it, therefore Mengsk knew everything about it.

Don't go there. You might as well say that SCII takes place in a different universe than SC:BW and SC:BW takes place in a different universe than SC vanilla because of different lore aspects. No, the lore should fit together as seamlessly as possible with only the retcons that are necessary to improve the telling of the story, not to make it easier on the storywriters.

It should, but it doesn't. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but calling it a retcon is a cop out. You can explain some of these things with logic and the knowledge of the setting.

[Pr0nogo]

Agreed. Thought the Terran have shown the industry to make the recovery believable.

No idea what you're talking about here. Recovery? What recovery? Dominion recovery? The fact is, the Dominion was in shambles and in four years it built back up to what it is in SCII - which is not the biggest of concerns. What is stunningly retarded is how the UED are completely ignored, despite almost destroying the Terran Dominion. There is no reason for Mengsk to censor the UED - he could turn it into a massive propaganda campaign. "We destroyed the oppressors from Earth!" It'd sound a lot better than half of his existing propaganda, which only fools would buy into; it's worse than religious dogmatic shit that plagues southern America (and the Czech).

Because in the end, reputation can be fixed. His domination of the sector is now complete. The Dominion has the most power in the sector with the Zerg's splinter and the Protoss bickering.

The Protoss are brotoss; they aren't bickering. The only faction that's not joined with the Daelaam Protoss is the Tal'darim, and they up and die after Raynor exterminates all or most of them (including their leader) in a righteous American colonial genocide.

Through death or not of Kerrigan, he manipulated Raynor to remove the Zerg threat and did so that Raynor has the credit. If Kerrigan goes on a murderous rampage, it will be on him. Mengsk is a sociopath, he does not care for another life than his own. If he has to rule the sector as an iron tyrant and not as a benevolent ruler, so be it.

You're forgetting that Tychus was Mengsk's agent and was meant to kill Kerrigan, ensuring that she didn't go on a murderous rampage. Therefore, if the Emperor had sacked Char with the entire Dominion fleet (as it's obvious that half of the Dominion fleet and a rabble of space cowboys can do it just fine and with relatively minimal casualties to boot), he could have won a victory against the Zerg and an even bigger victory against political and paramilitary opponents like the Raiders; he'd be hailed as the one who put an end to Zerg aggression in the sector. Letting Raynor be hailed as the hero only to exact his plan through Tychus anyways is foolish; Mengsk has nothing to gain from this method.

Simple, he lied. Tychus knew about Mobius and was pushing Raynor towards it, therefore Mengsk knew everything about it.

Again, Mengsk has nothing to gain by doing that. I'm willing to understand how the Emperor knew the threat of the Queen of Blades and enlisted Tychus as a hitman to rid the threat, and that by doing so he lost many an opportunity to knock Raynor out of the fight. I don't think that that was the best way of doing it - again, he could have just sacked Char altogether, after his fucking son's corporation put together an artifact that the Dominion could have grabbed in a much easier and more efficient fashion, without the risk of the plan turning sour due to Tychus' eventual incompetence - but I'm willing to give the twisted, fucked, retarded plot of SCII some ground. It's not plausible at all, however, that Mengsk would be stupid enough to not only go through with the inefficient, lengthy, slow, and failure-bound plan, but to additionally let his reputation lower down a notch or ten and let Raynor take the credit for something he could have done much quicker.

It should, but it doesn't. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but calling it a retcon is a cop out. You can explain some of these things with logic and the knowledge of the setting.

As you and I have clearly demonstrated, these are not things you can explain with logic - these are things that are torn apart by logic. They aren't retcons, either; they're just piss-poor ways to handle the plot and background lore.

Some things that are called 'retcons' are indeed not retcons and can indeed be explained - but if their explanation is backwards, hackneyed, and/or downright retarded, then a better method of execution should have been opted for.

[Hawki]

No idea what you're talking about here. Recovery? What recovery? Dominion recovery? The fact is, the Dominion was in shambles and in four years it built back up to what it is in SCII - which is not the biggest of concerns. What is stunningly retarded is how the UED are completely ignored, despite almost destroying the Terran Dominion. There is no reason for Mengsk to censor the UED - he could turn it into a massive propaganda campaign. "We destroyed the oppressors from Earth!" It'd sound a lot better than half of his existing propaganda, which only fools would buy into; it's worse than religious dogmatic shit that plagues southern America (and the Czech).

The UED's been used in propaganda before, their remnants being labelled as "racial traitors" along with the UP (and presumably KMC). They also served as the scapegoats for the actions of Project Shadowblade.

The Protoss are brotoss; they aren't bickering. The only faction that's not joined with the Daelaam Protoss is the Tal'darim, and they up and die after Raynor exterminates all or most of them (including their leader) in a righteous American colonial genocide.

Even if the Khalai and Nerazim are joined through the Daelaam, tensions still exist. Come LotV, they've completely fragmented into their tribes and the like.

[DarthYam]

I remember how in one interview it's state that that the only reasons they triumphed were a.) that most of kerrigan's fleet wasn't at char (it actually says at one point that most are on route back, and the heart of the swarm blurb says that most were on rout back when kerrigan was dezergified, resulting in an intrenicene blood bath that wiped most of them out.
b.) They had the artifact. Without it they were fucked regardless of the size or Kerrigan's forces.

Even with the artifact, they may well have been crushed before the artifact went off if most of her forces where actually on char. Also, In Gates of hell the attempts at landing are divided and scattered, and it's only because Raynor rallies them that it doesn't devolve into a wholesale slaughter. Raynor has been in multiple battles with the zerg, and he has a better understanding of Kerrigan than warfield does. It was actually stated that Valerian wanted Raynor beause he had better experience fighting Kerrigan herself.

You also ignore that

a.) considering that Raynor later had spies of his own, and psychics, keeping in contact every single second would be counterproductive.

b.) mengsk may have been watching tychus when it came time that tychus was in position, but I doubt he was monitoring him 24/7. He probably only started having a tighter leash after Media Blitz.

c.) what little plot details for Legacy of the Void are out state that the protoss are starting to drift off and succumb to tribalism. Also, even if they were able to somewhat work together, 1000 years of distrust and bad blood is not just going to vanish overnight. The whole fucking point is Zeratul has to reunite them to save them from going extinct.

d.) Bringing up the novels might be cheating but in then of them it's implied tthat the Taldarim are pawns of the Dark Voice (their master ulrezaj is stated to be working for some "boss" and his development of hybrids points to the DV) and the time we meet the protoss leaders they are still bickering. Also, Raynor did try to get the artifacts without bloodshed. The Tal'darim tried to murder him in response the first two times they crossed paths, and finally in both other cases they happened to arrive at the same time and come to blows

[Shadow Archon]

No idea what you're talking about here. Recovery? What recovery? Dominion recovery? The fact is, the Dominion was in shambles and in four years it built back up to what it is in SCII - which is not the biggest of concerns.

I believe someone else had a problem with that.

What is stunningly retarded is how the UED are completely ignored, despite almost destroying the Terran Dominion. There is no reason for Mengsk to censor the UED -

There's nothing saying they are. Nova deals with UED remnants in the book and there are still some out there like Stukov.

he could turn it into a massive propaganda campaign. "We destroyed the oppressors from Earth!" It'd sound a lot better than half of his existing propaganda, which only fools would buy into; it's worse than religious dogmatic shit that plagues southern America (and the Czech).

He could, but that is really of little concern considering what propaganda he now has, defeating the Zerg who were the ones who kicked the UED to the curb.

The Protoss are brotoss; they aren't bickering.

Not according to LotV.

Singleplayer

The campaign will focus on Zeratul as its main character.[9]

The protoss campaign will be based on diplomacy as the protoss factions splinter.[10] The player will work with different protoss tribes[11] and sects, helping leaders of some sects which will anger others.[12] Using units from one side may preclude using units from the other side[10] and alienating one or another sect may cut the player off from part of the campaign.[12] The ultimate goal of the campaign is to unite the various tribes into a viable, unified force that can ensure the protoss' survival.[13]

Plus we see how fragile the Daelaam are in Twilight from the council room and the still uneasiness with the Dark Templar and the Khalai.

Tal'darim, and they up and die after Raynor exterminates all or most of them (including their leader) in a righteous American colonial genocide.

Uh, no. The Tal'darim have always been fanatic enemies of the Daelaam and Terrans where they are spotted. Killing them is not genocide, but simply war. There is also no known way exactly how the battle went seeing most of it was under game mechanics. All we know is that the Tal'darim attacked the Terrans on site to protect the artifacts for the Fallen One and that Raynor defeated them. They are not indians or Navi seeing as how many of those missions could have gone.

You're forgetting that Tychus was Mengsk's agent and was meant to kill Kerrigan, ensuring that she didn't go on a murderous rampage. Therefore, if the Emperor had sacked Char with the entire Dominion fleet

Impossible. Most Zerg forces were in Dominion space at this point.

(as it's obvious that half of the Dominion fleet and a rabble of space cowboys can do it just fine and with relatively minimal casualties to boot),

No, most of the Terrans were dying and without the artifact they would have been crushed at the final stand. Not to mention the majority of Zerg forces headed on their way back to slaughter them.

he could have won a victory against the Zerg and an even bigger victory against political and paramilitary opponents like the Raiders;

No he couldn't.

he'd be hailed as the one who put an end to Zerg aggression in the sector. Letting Raynor be hailed as the hero only to exact his plan through Tychus anyways is foolish; Mengsk has nothing to gain from this method.

Simple. Have Raynor as the person responsible for harboring the worst mass murderer in the sector and supporting her. There's just an unlimited amount of potential at manipulating that to make Raynor the bad guy, especially since we see a Dominion fleet and spec. forces just rape Raynor's Raiders in the teaser.

Again, Mengsk has nothing to gain by doing that. I'm willing to understand how the Emperor knew the threat of the Queen of Blades and enlisted Tychus as a hitman to rid the threat, and that by doing so he lost many an opportunity to knock Raynor out of the fight.

Tychus was the sugar on top. Eliminating her with the artifacts is just as good because it still splinters the Zerg.

Raynor is no true threat seeing as what he does in HotS.

I don't think that that was the best way of doing it - again, he could have just sacked Char altogether,

That was always beyond his power.

after his fucking son's corporation put together an artifact that

His son's? Sure, he may think so, but obviously it was truly Mengsk;s seeing as he knew what it was and it's job seeing as he makes Tychus rub Jimmy towards that direction.

the Dominion could have grabbed in a much easier and more efficient fashion, without the risk of the plan turning sour due to Tychus' eventual incompetence - but I'm willing to give the twisted, fucked, retarded plot of SCII some ground.

Please, the Dominion forces were focused on defending the core worlds. There's no way they could have gone after the artifacts themselves. You give them way too much credit. Remember, Zerg had no problem trashing Tarsonis, the UED, the Protoss, and all of those folks. The Dominion is an ant to the Zerg, and they never even were after them in SC2 to begin with.

It's not plausible at all, however, that Mengsk would be stupid enough to not only go through with the inefficient, lengthy, slow, and failure-bound plan,

Didn't fail according to SC2.

but to additionally let his reputation lower down a notch or ten and let Raynor take the credit for something he could have done much quicker.

He couldn't have done it and letting Raynor do it was a plausible set to make the evidence turned against him null and void. The evidence here is that Raynor inserted that clip and that now he's harboring the Queen of Blades. Mengsk can spin that in his favor to the populace.

As you and I have clearly demonstrated, these are not things you can explain with logic - these are things that are torn apart by logic. They aren't retcons, either; they're just piss-poor ways to handle the plot and background lore.

Some of them are, but most of them aren't.

Some things that are called 'retcons' are indeed not retcons and can indeed be explained - but if their explanation is backwards, hackneyed, and/or downright retarded, then a better method of execution should have been opted for.

Unless you interpret it that way. I don't see SC2 that bad at all.