Kerrigan should hate the Confederacy more

[Gradius]

Because one led directly to her being responsible for killing billions for one.

Becoming the Queen of Blades is worse than all the Confederacy did combined.

Not really. The Confederates created the ghost program, psi emitters and brought the zerg to the k-sector. They're the ones who first exposed her to zerg. Everything can be pinned on them.

Arcturus obviously didn't know he'd create the queen of blades.

Or that she doesn't remember it at all...

Seriously. It's never brought up.

Given a neural inhibitor was involved with her memories at the time, we can't really say one way or the other.

It's brought up in uprising. The neural inhibitor didn't make her forget her history.

Not really?

The more she remembers what she did as the Queen of Blades, the more she'll likely blame Mengsk.

Why not the Overmind? Why not herself? Either way, sure it's his fault (indirectly), but that still shouldn't justify unleashing zerg on human planets from her perspective.

It is pretty irrational.

People aren't rational 24/7, especially after emotional trauma.

Well that's too bad because Kerrigan is portrayed as intelligent military commander and a skilled assassin who can keep her emotions in check after dealing with emotional trauma.

Nobody is privy to us seeing her transition through the game.

They do kind of freak out when they see her re-infested though.

As well they should. But it's amazing how fast they get over it.

This depends upon when you mean.

If you are talking about her actions before HotS, they don't blame Sarah for that.

During HoTS.

Right after Wings when they are leaving Char, before her amnesia kicked in.

If you're talking about here actions during HotS.

No, they don't care.

Raynor, Matt, and Valerian all were fine when they slaughtered Tal'Darim when it was convenient.

Raynor and Matt were fine with causing a massive uprising in the Dominion while the Zerg were slaughtering billions and even attacking Dominion core worlds.

They apparently don't give a damn that she's killing tons of Dominion military and whatnot in HotS. They don't know about Kaldir, but that's about it.

That's a problem.

...Yes?

I just quoted that.

She says she's not the Queen on Phaeton, finds out Jim's "Dead", goes to the Leviathan, meets Abathur,and then states "I am the Queen of Blades!"

Sorry, I thought you were implying that she doesn't consider herself the queen of blades at the beginning of the game. That's a fast turn-around time back to being evil though.

That's the point. Think about it.

To a human mind-set it is completely insane. Why on earth would she say that from a Watsonian perspective?

The Zerg are just killing machines with no personal intelligence. Seeing the Zerg be slaughtered by the billions does not evoke any form of sympathy by Kerrigan in Liberty's Crusade when she is fully human. She didn't even think the Confederacy deserved to be attacked by them.

To her now? With her memories as the Queen of Blades coming back in?

It isn't irrational or stupid. She feels everything the Zerg feels when she controls them. The Zerg are an extension of herself and are seen as her children when she was the Queen of Blades.

The hive mind is making her think less like a human and more like the Zerg as a whole. Remember, Zagara considers this a moral action.

So, yeah, at that time Kerrigan was slaughtering the Protoss for her own survival and possibly for revenge from the Zerg they killed.

She jumps to the defense of billions of Zerg the Protoss killed rather than the Terran lives lost due to Protoss Purification when Lasarra says she'll be slaughtering thousands of colonist.

Kerrigan by human standards is no longer sane. It seems after Kerrigan started gathering the Swarm, the hive mind warped her priorities.

Ok, well that's not consistent with her being treated like some sort of reformed anti-hero by the writers.

*Spares Warfield's men.
*Spares civvies on Korhal.
*Ends human experimentation.

Those make no sense from a zerg PoV, so which one is she? Plus we're expected to root for her because she's fighting the bad guys (Amon, Mengsk), which is like rooting for Hitler because he attacked Stalin. It's not consistent whatsoever.

Well, yeah.

There's no longer an Amon/Overmind influence on her though.

She also is sparing lives more.

I really don't see much difference. She spared plenty of lives in BW too (Zeratul, Mengsk, Raynor, rest of sector, etc).

Well, Kerrigan post-artifact still had Zerg Mutagen in her...

...Since we are talking about Kerrigan from HotS.

You know how the Zerus Spawning pool completely gets on your nerves?

Well, Kerrigan still had Zerg mutagen in her body present from the original Overmind/Chrysalis infestation.

Given that she looks practically the same as the Queen of Blades in either manifestation, only with slight differences in her face, and with the cut idea that her left-over Zerg cells would have reinfested her back into the Queen of Blades anyways, my current head canon is that the Zerus Spawning pool was working with the leftover cells from the last time Kerrigan was infested.

Otherwise, she wouldn't survive.

Her psionics were still boosted beyond Psi-10 post-artifact, and her Zerg cells were active given she was still becoming more powerful psionically with the whole RPG aspect.

Given that was the big deal when Kerrigan was infested in SC1, I think that's a proper explanation for why the Zerus Spawning Pool managed to do such a massive improvement over the last Queen of Blades.

It makes more sense than the Overmind's work being inferior to the first spawning pool if you assume the Primal Queen of Blades was only possible because of what the Overmind originally did to Kerrigan.

Well alright.

[Shadow Archon]

Not really. The Confederates created the ghost program, psi emitters and brought the zerg to the k-sector. They're the ones who first exposed her to zerg. Everything can be pinned on them.

I disagree.

They aren't the ones that used the Emitters to unleash the Zerg on the capital of the biggest Terran world in the sector.

Or the ones that deliberately abandoned her to the Zerg in the first place.

Arcturus obviously didn't know he'd create the queen of blades.

Which is completely irrelevant to the fact that he did when it comes to the blame game.

It's brought up in uprising. The neural inhibitor didn't make her forget her history.

This is what it states:

“You were a Ghost, a Confederate soldier. Before you
became a soldier, a chip—called a ‘neural inhibitor’—
was implanted in your brain. Part of the function of the
inhibitor is to repress memory. The rest of your memory
loss is due to the drugs administered during the experiments.
We have removed the chip, and the drugs’ effects
are not permanent. I believe that with time, and
patience, and the proper guidance, you may regain your
memories. All of them.”

"May" regain your memories.

It isn't a clear thing if she will or not.

Why not the Overmind?

Well, he's already dead. Can't really get revenge on a dead guy.

Why not herself?

She does blame herself.

She definitely did in Flashpoint.

However, she's not suicidal, so she didn't kill herself.

She just self-destructed her chance at being human again and threw herself back into the Zerg's embrace.

Either way, sure it's his fault (indirectly), but that still shouldn't justify unleashing zerg on human planets from her perspective.

It doesn't justify it alone.

The fact that the targeted planets were mainly Dominion military and industrial centers were probably excuses for her as well. The Raiders did destroy places like Castanar, Valhalla, and put the entire Dominion through civil unrest, so, it's not like our heroes shy away from collateral damage.

Do we even know what the Terran death count is from her rampage in HotS? She killed billions in the first days of her attack in Wings.

Well that's too bad because Kerrigan is portrayed as intelligent military commander and a skilled assassin who can keep her emotions in check after dealing with emotional trauma.

Yes.

Emotional trauma involving normal combat.

The trauma here goes beyond that.

In flashpoint, before she gets her amnesia, she's in a complete wreck for remembering how every single person of the billions she killed died. She could feel their bodies get ripped apart by the Zerg.

And then suddenly the corpses rose up, their faces rotting or bloody or disfigured. Not just from that day but from every day she had dealt death as a human and as the Queen of Blades. Every man, woman, and child who had fallen since the moment she had become first a ghost and then the queen of the zerg—their mother—now lifted gore-covered hands to her, some pleading for her to return what she had ripped from them, some demanding vengeance for lives cut far, far too short.

They were a sea of ripped and bleeding flesh. She looked, dazed, as they flooded every corner of her vision and beyond. Dozens . . . hundreds . . . thousands . . . millions . . . billions . . .

. . . and two—mother and daughter . . . .

Their screams of agony and rage and fear filled her throat, and Sarah Kerrigan gave voice to them all.

Hell, she was questioning why Raynor abandoned his promise to kill her from Brood War too.

“That I’m still a monster?” Sarah tore her hand from Jim’s and grasped one of the long, snake-like tendrils that still served as hair. “This is human? I escape the certain death that Arcturus planned for me, only to become the queen of the zerg. Infested. Remade, cell by cell. And you’ve brought me back to hand me over to his son? Why didn’t you just kill me when you could, Jim? Why didn’t you? You promised you would . . . . ”

Kerrigan went asleep for four years, and woke back up to being a person who was objectively worse than Hitler.

So, yeah.

I can understand why she snapped and blamed Mengsk for what she did as the QoB.

As well they should. But it's amazing how fast they get over it.

Yeah.

They do jump back too quickly for my tastes.

That's a problem.

Only if you assume they are suppose to be completely never-do-anything-wrong competently white-not-black good guys.

Raynor and Tychus were thieves and are partially responsible for the death of dozens of people in Devil's Due, which is just a few years before SC1 for example.

Sorry, I thought you were implying that she doesn't consider herself the queen of blades at the beginning of the game. That's a fast turn-around time back to being evil though.

Well, at least she's not as evil as Mengsk now.

He has the higher death toll if you follow the clean slate everyone else gives her post-Wings.

Though I don't want to say she's full on evil really.

Yes, she slaughtered thousands of Protoss colonists to save her own life. Yes, she sent Broods to destroy Dominion worlds.

She has done horrible things.

But, she's not immoral enough to be "evil" yet for me.

Ok, well that's not consistent with her being treated like some sort of reformed anti-hero by the writers.

*Spares Warfield's men.
*Spares civvies on Korhal.
*Ends human experimentation.

Those make no sense from a zerg PoV, so which one is she?

Well, I said she has a warped mind-set.

Not a completely converted one.

She isn't full Queen Bitch anymore.

She dances back and forth between being Zerg and Human.

Without the Overmind/Amon influence anymore, Kerrigan has more control of herself.

...So, I guess I'm saying Kerrigan's Bi-Polar.

Just between Zerg and Human rather than manic and depressive.

Plus we're expected to root for her because she's fighting the bad guys (Amon, Mengsk), which is like rooting for Hitler because he attacked Stalin. It's not consistent whatsoever.

Eh...

Not quite.

Kerrigan's not Hitler here. Mengsk is.

And, well, I always have supported Super Stalin against Warlock Hitler.



This isn't the first time we've played a villain who thought they were right in their actions in Starcraft.

The Overmind's Cerebrate, Kerrigan's Cerebrate, and the UED Captain.

Hell, I know dozens of people on another site that think the UED are the only good guys in Starcraft, are pissed they lost in Brood War, and wish they dominated the entire sector.

I really don't see much difference. She spared plenty of lives in BW too (Zeratul, Mengsk, Raynor, rest of sector, etc).

Well, motive for one.

She let them live in Heart of the Swarm out of mercy.

In Brood War, she only let people live for her own sick amusement. Killing Zeratul would have been a gift at the moment for example.

Raynor's the exception, but that happened in SC1 right after she popped out of the Chrysalis.

As for the sector, she already was planning to invade it eventually given her big speech at the end.

Kerrigan as of HotS has no such ambitions.

[Turalyon]

There's an underlying question that hasn't really been fully addressed yet: What makes you think the artifact shifted Kerrigan's personal views to that of her pre-infested Sc1 self/removed all her character development from Sc1/BW?

Her limp reasoning and/for her actions alone in HotS would seem to suggest otherwise. Besides, people often fail to see that pre-infestation Kerrigan was already a morally conflicted character to begin with since she can somehow justify personally assasinating a small number of people for small gains under Mengsk's orders but not accept the killing of a larger number of people for larger gains under Mengsk's orders. I can understand why a staunch and consistent consequentialist/utilitarian (not that I am one myself, mind you) like Mengsk would want to get rid of someone like that.

[Nissa]

Pg 283 Mal says to Mengsk "It’s ’cause of you that traineeshave their memories wiped when they graduate." They're talking about Kerrigan.

Ah, must have missed that, but I'm not sure how much that confirms, because Nova mentioned losing her memories before Mengsk officially took over.

My grandparents actually lived in Stalin's labor camps. They hate Stalin.

Wow, they must have interesting stories. But uh, so far as pre-infested Kerrigan is concerned, just because she hates someone doesn't mean she would unleash Zerg on them. Particularly since uninvolved civilians are likely to be around.

Not necessarily. She was abducted as a kid. She knows what normal is. Even then, upon getting out, she'd hate the Confederacy even more, yes?

Uh, when you're abducted as a kid you don't know what normal is. She'd have to be at least puberty age before being able to reason mostly properly about what happened to her, and even that hinges a lot on her previous experience and knowledge. Besides, it was my point she'd know better upon getting out. Because Mengsk is the one who freed her, she'd have a greater respect and trust for him. She had no such basis of trust with the Confederacy.

"I just don't think anyone deserves to have the zerg unleashed on them."

Exactly.

Either way the evidence still points to the fact that the Confederates treated her worse. Mengsk is not special because he targeted her specifically.

Objectively, perhaps. But it's not about objectivity, particularly when the person involved is a woman with no real childhood, and the only people she trusted ultimately failed to save her from becoming Zerg.

Fair enough. I get the emotional argument behind this. But I still expect Kerrigan to react according to her morals. The betrayal sucks, but it still doesn't outweigh what the Confederacy did to her, and she didn't need to destroy multiple planets in HoTS.

Surely the Zerg-y genes did something to her morality. Zerg are more aggressive than natural animals, so Zerg probably have some sort of hormonal genetic component that would affect the way Kerrigan thinks.

Sure, but why the massively different reactions between SC1 and HoTS?

Baaaaaaaaad writing! That, and high turnover/changing the voice actress ensured that the people involved were less familiar with Kerrigan as a character.

[Gradius]

There's an underlying question that hasn't really been fully addressed yet: What makes you think the artifact shifted Kerrigan's personal views to that of her pre-infested Sc1 self/removed all her character development from Sc1/BW?

It's irrelevant because:
1) She should still hate the Confederacy more. You're all trying to convince me that it's reasonable for her to hate Mengsk, but I never disagreed with that.
2) Her character development still doesn't support the fact that she would hate Mengsk more than the Confederates. The Queen of Blades left Mengsk alive just to toy with him, but when Kerrigan got her humanity back she had nightmares about being the QoB, and it doesn't make sense that she'd turn into a mass murdering monster just because her boyfriend died.

If you all want to argue that she's now an unreasonable sociopath and so messed up that we can't expect any consistent or believable character development on her part, then that's acceptable too.

[Shadow Archon]

It's irrelevant because:
1) She should still hate the Confederacy more.

Based on?

You're all trying to convince me that it's reasonable for her to hate Mengsk, but I never disagreed with that.

Sure.

But Mengsk is the only one to betray her.

And Mengsk's betrayal is directly responsible for her becoming the Queen of Blades.

Those two acts outweigh what the Confederacy did to her.

Not to mention, hate as an emotion is a completely subjective experience.

You can't really say "Someone should hate this more."

2) Her character development still doesn't support the fact that she would hate Mengsk more than the Confederates.

I disagree.

The Queen of Blades left Mengsk alive just to toy with him,

Yes?

but when Kerrigan got her humanity back she had nightmares about being the QoB,

Yes?

and it doesn't make sense that she'd turn into a mass murdering monster just because her boyfriend died.

Of course not.

She turns into a mass murderer again when she regains her memories as the Queen of Blades from a result of recreating the Hive Mind Hierarchy with her on top.

Later on in the campaign, Kerrigan directly tells you that she remembers all about the UED, when in the beginning said she remembers nothing as the Queen of Blades.

It's no longer just the Queen of Blades persona or just the Kerrigan persona.

It's both.

[Nissa]

It's irrelevant because:
1) She should still hate the Confederacy more. You're all trying to convince me that it's reasonable for her to hate Mengsk, but I never disagreed with that.
2) Her character development still doesn't support the fact that she would hate Mengsk more than the Confederates. The Queen of Blades left Mengsk alive just to toy with him, but when Kerrigan got her humanity back she had nightmares about being the QoB, and it doesn't make sense that she'd turn into a mass murdering monster just because her boyfriend died.

If you all want to argue that she's now an unreasonable sociopath and so messed up that we can't expect any consistent or believable character development on her part, then that's acceptable too.

From what you're saying, HotS seems to be the problem. Kerrigan's actions in that game were very much out of character. While I firmly feel that she would hate Mengsk more (keeping in mind that the Confederacy isn't around to hate on), not until HotS was she the sort of person that allowed her emotions to make her do incredibly stupid things. If Kerrigan really was as in love with Raynor as HotS claims, she never would have gone on her BW killing spree.

Let me see if I have this right. Are you saying that if Kerrigan was willing to attack Korhal in HotS, she should have been more vengeful to the Confederates earlier? Or somehow her hatred of the Confederacy should have manifested itself in some other way?

If you're saying that Kerrigan is blaming too many of her problems on Mengsk, I'll certainly agree with that. There was a line in HotS something like "The killing won't stop until Mengsk is dead." This line is pretty unbelievable, particularly since Kerrigan at that point had just killed a couple guys, not to mention having torn up Valerian's lab on a whim. She's clearly still a monster, and doesn't realize it yet. Best I can guess is that Kerri's humanity and zerg parts are still battling each other. That, and no one ever bothered to make her consistent with her past self.

[Shadow Archon]

That, and no one ever bothered to make her consistent with her past self.

The problem here is that the writers at Blizzard are big believers of having all of the EU and the main story entwined. James Waugh, the writer of LotV, oversaw the Frontline novels, and the recent project with the short stories and Project Blackstone.

So...the novels that cemented "Raynor and Sarah are in love" and explored/expanded on their characters in Starcraft 1 and 2?

If you don't read the novels or ignore them, you are essentially missing part of the character development.

It's pretty much to the point if you want to enjoy Starcraft as a story, the EU is practically a reading requirement.

[Gradius]

Based on?

The vast amount of evidence in my OP that you are ignoring for some reason:

Mengsk
1) Tried to kill her on Tarsonis.
2) Attacked her in BW after she betrayed him.
3) Hunted her and tried to kill her at the beginning of HoTS.

Confederacy:
1) Kidnapped her from her parents at a young age.
2) Because she wouldn't cooperate they threatened to kill her father with cancer amongst other things, and inadvertently caused his death.
3) Years of mental torture and slavery. Forced her to kill people. Lost her youth and humanity.
4) Implanted with a neural inhibitor (which Mengsk removed from her).
5) Did experiments on her with the zerg.
6) Tried to kill her MULTIPLE times when she was in the Sons of Korhal. Hunted her longer than Mengsk ever hunted her.

But Mengsk is the only one to betray her.

Yeah that means nothing to me. Your distinction that it's automatically worse because it's a betrayal is completely arbitrary.

And Mengsk's betrayal is directly responsible for her becoming the Queen of Blades.

So what? It's 10 years of mental torture vs. one action. Yeah, the Queen of Blades killed lots people, so did the psi emitters. Yeah, Mengsk indirectly turned her into the QoB, so did the Confederates and Psi Emitters.

Those two acts outweigh what the Confederacy did to her.

No. They don't.

Not to mention, hate as an emotion is a completely subjective experience.

You can't really say "Someone should hate this more."

I can juxtapose one set of crimes vs. another and use basic logic to deduce which one is worse.

I disagree.

Based on what? Because the writers said so?

Yes?

Yes?

"Her character development still doesn't support the fact that she would hate Mengsk more than the Confederates. "

Of course not.

She turns into a mass murderer again when she regains her memories as the Queen of Blades from a result of recreating the Hive Mind Hierarchy with her on top.

Later on in the campaign, Kerrigan directly tells you that she remembers all about the UED, when in the beginning said she remembers nothing as the Queen of Blades.

It's no longer just the Queen of Blades persona or just the Kerrigan persona.

It's both.

You're switching goalposts again. This discussion isn't about why she decided to become a mass murderer for no reason, it's about the fact that her character development doesn't support such an overblown reaction to one guy (Mengsk) trying to kill her, when she's dealt with all that before. Her having the Queen of Blades persona doesn't explain anything. The Queen of Blades left Mengsk alive and was preparing to fight Amon, not him. She also invaded the sector for artifacts, not for revenge against Mengsk.

From what you're saying, HotS seems to be the problem. Kerrigan's actions in that game were very much out of character. While I firmly feel that she would hate Mengsk more (keeping in mind that the Confederacy isn't around to hate on), not until HotS was she the sort of person that allowed her emotions to make her do incredibly stupid things. If Kerrigan really was as in love with Raynor as HotS claims, she never would have gone on her BW killing spree.

Let me see if I have this right. Are you saying that if Kerrigan was willing to attack Korhal in HotS, she should have been more vengeful to the Confederates earlier? Or somehow her hatred of the Confederacy should have manifested itself in some other way?

If you're saying that Kerrigan is blaming too many of her problems on Mengsk, I'll certainly agree with that. There was a line in HotS something like "The killing won't stop until Mengsk is dead." This line is pretty unbelievable, particularly since Kerrigan at that point had just killed a couple guys, not to mention having torn up Valerian's lab on a whim. She's clearly still a monster, and doesn't realize it yet. Best I can guess is that Kerri's humanity and zerg parts are still battling each other. That, and no one ever bothered to make her consistent with her past self.

The Confederates are gone, but if they were still around in HoTS, I think she'd have attacked them instead of Mengsk. Her actions in HoTS are way out of character IMO.

If you don't read the novels or ignore them, you are essentially missing part of the character development.

It's pretty much to the point if you want to enjoy Starcraft as a story, the EU is practically a reading requirement.

Disagree. The novels only provide more information for Blizzard to fail to keep track of and contradict. My favorite examples are Selendis being intelligent in the books and an idiot in the actual game. Or the stupidity of having to fight Mira Han when you consider the fact that she's best friends with the Raiders in Flashpoint.

I don't think the game writers read the books and I wouldn't recommend for any new fans to get into the books either.

[Shadow Archon]

The vast amount of evidence in my OP that you are ignoring for some reason:

Which again don't outweigh Arcturus' betrayal or her becoming the Queen of Blades because of what Arcturus did.

Not to mention Arcturus used her to kill billions on Tarsonis with the Emitters.

Yeah that means nothing to me. Your distinction that it's automatically worse because it's a betrayal is completely arbitrary.

Well, we are talking about emotions here.

Emotions are arbitrary.

So what? It's 10 years of mental torture vs. one action.

One action on one day can mean more than ten years worth of actions.

Yeah, the Queen of Blades killed lots people, so did the psi emitters. Yeah, Mengsk indirectly turned her into the QoB, so did the Confederates and Psi Emitters.

And Kerrigan blames Mengsk for those.

Not the Confederacy.

No. They don't.

I can juxtapose one set of crimes vs. another and use basic logic to deduce which one is worse.

When it comes to which one has a larger emotional impact with a third party?

No, you really can't.

Based on what? Because the writers said so?

No.

I feel what Arcturus did to Kerrigan was worse because of it leading to her becoming the Queen of Blades and the deaths of billions.

If Kerrigan cares more about other lives than herself, than that's exactly why she'll hate Mengsk more than the Confederates.

"Her character development still doesn't support the fact that she would hate Mengsk more than the Confederates. "

Again.

That's Kerrigan Pre-infestation and Queen of Blades Pre-Artifact.

Kerrigan Post-infestation and Post-Artifact is not the same person as both of these character.

You're switching goalposts again. This discussion isn't about why she decided to become a mass murderer for no reason, it's about the fact that her character development doesn't support such an overblown reaction to one guy (Mengsk) trying to kill her, when she's dealt with all that before.

No, I'm not.

My answer is to both issues.

The artifact directly changed her mental-state thus changing her character.

The memories of the Queen of Blades being filtered in changed her character.

Her having the Queen of Blades persona doesn't explain anything.

It explains everything.

The Queen of Blades left Mengsk alive and was preparing to fight Amon, not him. She also invaded the sector for artifacts, not for revenge against Mengsk.

And by HotS, Kerrigan as the Queen of Blades hates what she has done as the Queen of Blades as stated by Flashpoint.

She is not the same pre-artifact anymore.

Disagree. The novels only provide more information for Blizzard to fail to keep track of and contradict. My favorite examples are Selendis being intelligent in the books and an idiot in the actual game.

No argument here.

Haven's canon mission sucked.

The Hyperion should have been destroyed by a Protoss Fleet, and that should have been that. "Raynor's just that good" is a stupid horrible response from the writing team when asked how the hell was it possible for him to win.

Choice B should have been canon, and is my head canon as far as I'm concerned.

But, I was specifically talking about the character development of Raynor or Kerrigan.

Those are major things.

Not minor things, which Selendis and Have are.

Or the stupidity of having to fight Mira Han when you consider the fact that she's best friends with the Raiders in Flashpoint.

I don't really see how it's stupid considering we are taking about Mira. She's Starcraft's Yandere.

It's clear that one of her favorite things to do when the Raiders pop by Dead Man's Rock is to spend time with Matthew.

Whatever prolongs her time with Matthew, she will go with that option. If she just gave them Orlan, he would be gone, and that would be it.

If this means withholding help, which she did for cash in Wings and for her own amusement in Swarm, or actually helping, Flashpoint, then she will go with it.

To me, Mira being that flippant is in-character.

I don't think the game writers read the books

They do.

They go through an intense editing process with the main writer of the books, short stories, and manga.

I had a great time with the story, even though it involved one of the most rigorous editorial processes I’ve ever had my work run through. The Blizzard folks — especially James Waugh, Cameron Dayton, and Cate Gary — know their craft and their audience, and I appreciated every bit of the help. When millions of eyes may read a story like this, it pays to be both thorough and patient.

Q: What are your names and roles at Blizzard Entertainment?

Micky: Micky Neilson, publishing team lead.

James: James Waugh. I'm a senior story developer at Blizzard.

Q: What is your role in the development of Blizzard manga or the content within the manga?

Micky: It was the responsibility of the publishing team to develop the stories that were featured in the manga. In the very beginning, with The Sunwell Trilogy, it was actually Chris Metzen working directly with TokyoPop and Richard Knaak. For the first few Warcraft: Legends and StarCraft: Frontline volumes, I collaborated with TOKYOPOP and the various authors to develop the stories. By the time Legends 2 and Frontline 2 came around, Rob Tokar had taken on a prominent role (he was the creative development team lead for a time), and later James Waugh came on board. Rob and James's help in outlining and developing was incredibly valuable. Our publishing team grew over the course of the various volumes, and eventually, for purposes of story development, I approached the process the way a showrunner might for a TV program: we basically had a writers' room. Three or four of us would read a pitch or a script, and we'd get together and talk it out, always striving to make each and every story the best it could possibly be.

James: We were immensely hands on with the development of the manga. Each story, no matter how small, became an essential component to the overall franchise narratives. We wanted to make sure that they were relevant tales, expanded the IP, and told an entertaining story. For many of them, either Micky or I outlined the stories and distributed the outlines to writers to script. The "Fear the Reaper" story in Frontline 4 is a good example. Micky thought that the readers would like to see a reaper vs. a dark templar. Reapers are tough bastards, but Mick had an idea that one of them had a daughter who would factor in. To me this sounded like a Western about trying to escape your past, and so we jammed on a concept that essentially became a redemption story about a former reaper who is trying to start a new life, but that past comes back to haunt him. Very much like Marlon Brando's One-Eyed Jacks in spirit. I wrote one of my better outlines, got feedback from Micky, and then shipped it off to all-star writer David Gerrold of Star Trek fame. David loved it. The beauty about this sort of collaboration is that the writers know that we're gonna get a story that is relevant to our franchise, and they know exactly the boundaries they can create within. They're not swimming around in the dark. David, being the talent he is, added his own flavor to the characters, his own nuance. These outlines work much like rules in poetry do -- their restrictions force the writers to be even more inventive with their scripts because they have to create within the confines of what matters to our IPs.

We also took several pitches where we didn't do the outlines, and we nurtured the ideas to make sure they would be quality stories and relevant. Our franchises are rich with lore, theme, and tone, and we want to have as consistent a voice as possible.

Flashpoint Interview

Blizzard is directly involved with the books and EU.

and I wouldn't recommend for any new fans to get into the books either.

*shrug*

I would recommend Liberty's Crusade, I'Mengsk, and some of the short stories.