Q&A #10

[Gradius]

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/8226551

Get out the lube, and spread your ass-cheeks, because Kindregan has decided to screw us again. Another batch of uninformative Q&A, oh and there's the tiny tidbit that SC:G is not canon.

And Tassadar is actually trapped at the Overmind site. Turns out that ascension to a higher plane of existence is overrated. :P

[Hawki]

I'm not sure why I'm typing here, since these threads usually devolve into debates about the quality of WoL, or lack of it. Anyway:

-Technically evading the question about Adun. I think the notion of repeated history was hammered in long ago via the DTS. Actually would say Khas fits into the pattern as well.

-Tassadar...I don't...I can't...

You know, this bugs me. Why? Because it seems that either the writers didn't know exactly what Tassadar was, or they're altering lore because so many people were peeved off by it. Looking at Tassadar in the game, I never got the sense of him being some demi-god, or being tied to the Overmind's site. Just a protoss who had a kind of mandate to become a 'ghost' via the manner of his death, and protoss lore in general, fitting in with Anak'Sun concept (hopefully expanded on in LotV) and the like. Not necessary to the plot, but not detrimental either. Now, with every post about what he is/what he does/what he'll do varying...I just don't know anymore. En Taro Tassadar and all that...maybe I should say En Taro Adun though. At least his death wasn't needlessly complicated.

-Why does a user think any question about the Dark Voice will be answered? And why is he/she asking questions already asked.

-I like the idea of choices being referenced admittedly, even if I go by A canon, or what I see as de facto canon (long story, homepage covers it better). Not sure why Hanson isn't being referenced though. Since she tries to look at the ihan crystal in her infested ending, I assumed Kerrigan was directing her, ergo, I would have thought it would have come up.

-Debates about lore are good Brian. Giving me the sense that those debates are still going on in key areas of said lore isn't.

-Can we learn...what?! You played WoL! Why are you asking about WoL, whether you can learn about...I...

...ugh. Then again, the notion of the protoss being ready for a re-emergence does seem to tie-in with the recent unit lore, but...LotV is meant to start with scattered protoss and the like. What gives? Another thing that's been changed?

-UED post...meh. At least it does at least confirm they have spying systems, and not some of the...other, ideas, I've seen users throw out over the years.

-Oh that's right, Ghost isn't canon. Despite the fact that Ghost is a sub-series...was novelized...formed the basis of lore in and outside WoL...but no...not canon...gah!

Okay, some things I can understand. The zerg/Mar Sara thing. Protoss laying eggs isn't necessarily canon either. But like the RPG, it's stupid to write something off as being non-canon when it's formed the basis of so much that distinctly is.

So yeah. Merry Christmas and all that.

[Gradius]

FYI, these questions seem to be picked primarily from the massive thread that they posted a long time ago specifically for gathering questions. Why Kindregan picks things that are already answered/obvious....I have no idea.

[Visions of Khas]

The choices with Tosh and the lava tunnels and infested platform on Char are both referenced in Heart.

Huh, that's interesting. Even more so considering I thought they were eliminating player choice in the campaign progression and plot choices.


I'm not terribly upset at Tassadar being tied to the Overmind. I alwasy thought the two somehoe merged into one entity; that Ghost Tassadar was relaying the memories of one of its prime components, the "Overmind Side" of itself. But really, I don't see getting upset over Tassadar being bound to that location when, well, come on, Tassadar came back as a ghost! How can you get any more irritated?

Hm, it might be interesting to explore the Tassadar/Overmind convergence in detail in the future. Perhaps they merged harmoniously? Or the two battle each other on some astral plane of existence, where Tassadar prevents the Overmind from retaking the Swarm and the OM prevents Tassadar from helping the Protoss with information. Perhaps the two entities agreed on only one thing: Giving Zeratul access to that Prophecy would prepare both their species for the Hybrids.

[Gradius]

Hm, it might be interesting to explore the Tassadar/Overmind convergence in detail in the future. Perhaps they merged harmoniously? Or the two battle each other on some astral plane of existence, where Tassadar prevents the Overmind from retaking the Swarm and the OM prevents Tassadar from helping the Protoss with information. Perhaps the two entities agreed on only one thing: Giving Zeratul access to that Prophecy would prepare both their species for the Hybrids.

I saw a post on battle.net which suggested that they're not fighting, but working together and that the Overmind gave Tassadar the knowledge he absorbed from the Xel'Naga over Zerus. That way, Tassadar can fulfill his role of "messiah" and help bring about the next cycle.

[Hawki]

The Overmind and Tassadar merging could have been interesting...as in, an example of what awaits the protoss and zerg in the far future or something. Problem is, from a personal perspective, I got the sense of the Overmind being dead, dead, dead. Tassadar, being what he is, was the means of providing the memories that Zeratul needed (logic hole of not knowing about them aside...a line of dialogue, anyone)? But Tassadar and the Overmind battling on a higher plane, the fate of creation at stake, the initiation of the Final Sanction, to become creatures of pure conciousness...insert Doctor Who music...

...yeah, it may not seem like it, but even I have my limits.

[Visions of Khas]

I guess it would be kind of funny and ironic if the Overmind has been assimilated by Tassadar, who simply uses its memories to aid both species.

I suppose I was also thinking they may try to create a parallel between the Tassadar/Overmind convergence and the Arthas/Lich King entity.

So, do we call him the Overdar? Tassamind?

[Hawki]

It's not really a good comparison. Long story short, Ner'zhul was originally the Lich King, merged with Arthas to create a merged being, only for a three-way war of sorts to rage in the entity's mind between Ner'zhul and Mathis, with Arthas in the middle. Who ends up 'killing' Ner'zhul and Mathis to become a Lich King that's him and him alone.

Tassadar and the Overmind though? I dunno. As mentioned, got more the sense of Tassadar kills Overmind, gains access to its memories, 'ascends' akin to Adun due to his merging of Khala and Void energies. Simple enough, fits in with the protoss ethos, a race capable of accessing memories of their ancestors and forming bloody archons. The Overmind itself, I never got a sense of it factoring in beyond its legacy. Though who knows, maybe Kerrigan will see the ghost of the Overmind in HotS.

Um, yay?

[Turalyon]

Eh, it's best not to go too deep into it. Kindregan's short reply on the matter of Tassadar is not particularly insightful nor does it even tempt us to draw such insight (it seems he doesn't know what to make of it himself, really).

We can fanwank the real reason for Tassadar's appearance/importance in WoL till the end of time. At the end of the day, Tassadar in WoL is only special in the sense that he is a plot device to get us from point A to point B. That is all.

--

As to the confirmation of not including the Hanson choice in HotS, makes we wonder about whether Blizz finally realised how much of a can of worms it opened up if the path of helping Hanson is considered canon and purposefully chose not follow it up in HotS because of it. Not only do we have to justify Raynor's weak force actually defeating a fully specced Protoss armada but we would then have to face the prospect and fallout incurred by the fact the Raynor has taken good Protoss lives (the Tal'Darim are justified because they're bad, bad Protoss)! If that's not enough, we'd also have the creation of an infestation cure, which makes us wonder why it wasn't used on Kerrigan at WoL's end and perhaps de-fangs the Zerg in terms of their horror factor going into HotS (you know, the Zerg expansion where one would presumably do Zergy things like infesting). Of course, if we did kill Hanson and burned the population of Haven, the story pretty much ends there and we don't really need a follow-up in HotS because ultimately it's just another world that was expunged of Zerg taint and nothing along that particular choice (helping Selendis) makes it anymore different/special than many other presumably similar activities going on in the Sector.

[TcheQuevara]

They answered another of my questions (the one about lore discussion) and complimented it again. Hey guys, Blizzard listens to me. I'm probably the reason why they're doing all those instand-retcons Hawki is so glad about

I liked Tassar better as a misterious being. I didn't like him being revealed like that at all - seemd limited. But having him somehow merged or chained to the Overmind is better than a Tassadar Ghost, like Vision of Khas already said. Limited, yeah. You can't go higher than your apotheotic sacrifice. Of course anything you do after that seems lower in comparison. But this, specifically, is actually good. This feels gory and even a little wrong. Tassadar being chained to the Overmind somehow... this is a testament of how great the Overmind was, that even the Twilight Messiah, even megatons of psionic energy couldn't just vanish it to the stratosphere.

But it makes me think: if Tassadar and Overmind are chained/merged/linked, how could the Overmind be reborn just a while after? If it was the actual Overmind who was reborn, was Tassadar linked to it too? Was that the Second Overmind a separate entity? Was it just as (potentially) powerful as the original Overmind, just less experienced, or was it a "lesser" Overmind, without all its majesty and god-defying will power? I believe it was a slave to the Dark Voice too (since Kerrigan didn't trust Cerebrates), but how was the "all consuming directive" inherited from the original OM to the Cerebrates, and from them to the second OM?