Drake's LotV Review/Recap [SPOILERIFFIC]

[FanaticTemplar]

I wish they'd kept writing their Raynor/Kerrigan romance instead of this.

[Nissa]

I wish they'd kept writing their Raynor/Kerrigan romance instead of this.

You joking or does somebody need a smack?

[FanaticTemplar]

You joking or does somebody need a smack?

I am absolutely serious. Writing their little romance thing kept them somewhat focused on the present and future, and on developing established character dynamics. Even back in Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, the parts I hated most were the ones dealing with Amon and his Hybrid - the Protoss prophecy missions, the Primal Zerg... Zeratul really became the harbinger of awful, awful things, incidentally. It's when they were developing their new cosmic threat of the week that they really brought the hatchet to existing lore with unprecedented zeal. Hell, in this story obsessed about the Xel'naga, they actually retconned the Xel'naga out of the existing story!

Or, hey, this whole 'Endless Cycle' thing that the entire story revolves around and superceded all interesting interactions in the setting? Before playing this game, I had a list of three things that I absolutely did not wish to happen in this game, but feared actually would. Least likely of those was that they would have to 'reawaken the Xel'naga' by fusing a Primal Zerg and a Protoss - I thought Kerrigan and Zeratul - to create a new Xel'naga. I'm counting this one as having happened even though the Kerrigan'naga was formed without Protoss essence. How do you destroy your entire lore to build up to this, and get it wrong? This isn't some old lore that was just retconned to exclude the Protoss, everything about the Cycle of Rebirth was created for StarCraft II. And they still couldn't get it right. Nevermind what they did to the old lore.

I can actually admire their bravery in moving forward with their Protoss - it's always tempting to stick with the existing material and never change, slowly stagnating away any interest in the concept - but such a move has to involve two things: respect for the past and an interesting new direction. They did neither of those things. You can't respect the past if you're retconning it all into being terrible so you can justify moving away from it, and what did we get from our 'new' Protoss in exchange for everything we lost? They're "united"? Original StarCraft gave us that story already, and it was better because Tassadar had to actually confront his own people and society, rather than just have them mind-controlled away by some stupid god. They're more worshipful of the military than ever before, subsuming all castes into the Templar and replacing their government with military authorities? Not only am I not certain that replacing a conservative theocratic regime with a military junta is an actual move forward, but the Protoss were already heavily into that warrior culture junk.

Honestly, what did we get from this change? What are our 'new' Protoss?

No, I have a headcanon where Wings of Liberty happened, and one where some elements of Heart of the Swarm make it through, but there is very little in this game that I intend to acknowledge.

[ragnarok]

You joking or does somebody need a smack?

Not all of us supported the ending of killing her and go, "Raszagal sends her regards, may you burn in hell for all eternity."

Even your fic on ff.net didn't support that.

[Nissa]

Your logic is infallible, Fanatic, but I submit that the romance was about as bad. The natural way that the Raynor/Kerrigan relationship went in SC (that is, from friends, distrustful allies, outright enemies) was part of the tragedy. It was a personal representation of all the Sector-wide antagonism. I dunno, unless you wanna argue that if you pretend SC1 doesn't exist, the romance in and of itself could possibly work.

I honestly hate the end of the Khala. The Khala was never really clarified, not even in the novels. Sure, they claim that it makes Protoss "united" or something like that, but we have no idea what that really means -- it's never clear what the difference between the Khala and ordinary telepathy is. Getting rid of it effectively destroys a huge chunk of undiscovered narrative potential. I wanted to see Judicator characters be more than cheap antagonists, and get to be really complex. Unfortunately, that will never happen, because Blizz is so in love with the Dark Templar that anyone who isn't, has to be one. Laaaame.

Edit: Again, Rag, no idea what you're talking about.

[ragnarok]

Your logic is infallible, Fanatic, but I submit that the romance was about as bad. The natural way that the Raynor/Kerrigan relationship went in SC (that is, from friends, distrustful allies, outright enemies) was part of the tragedy. It was a personal representation of all the Sector-wide antagonism. I dunno, unless you wanna argue that if you pretend SC1 doesn't exist, the romance in and of itself could possibly work.

I honestly hate the end of the Khala. The Khala was never really clarified, not even in the novels. Sure, they claim that it makes Protoss "united" or something like that, but we have no idea what that really means -- it's never clear what the difference between the Khala and ordinary telepathy is. Getting rid of it effectively destroys a huge chunk of undiscovered narrative potential. I wanted to see Judicator characters be more than cheap antagonists, and get to be really complex. Unfortunately, that will never happen, because Blizz is so in love with the Dark Templar that anyone who isn't, has to be one. Laaaame.

Edit: Again, Rag, no idea what you're talking about.

This is why I'm hoping there'll be Protoss DLCs to explain how the Khala began. LotV would seem to imply Amon had a hand in its beginnings, contradictory to the DT Saga and what was written there.

[Drake Clawfang]

Well, it's not fully clear the Khala will never return. I doubt every single Protoss in existence across the sector had their cords severed, and newborns may still have them. For all we know come SC3 we could be seeing the dramatic irony of a reversal in attitudes: cutting your nerve cords is the norm, and those that keep their nerve cords and the Khala are the outcasts and pariahs.

I'm reminded of South Park's take on alcoholism, and that an alcoholic that never drinks never conquered their addiction, because they're still afraid of alcohol and it controls their life. True discipline is having a drink now and then, but knowing to stop before it becomes a problem. So it could be with the Protoss: is enforced rejection of the Khala any better socially than enforced acceptance of it?

[ragnarok]

Well, it's not fully clear the Khala will never return. I doubt every single Protoss in existence across the sector had their cords severed, and newborns may still have them. For all we know come SC3 we could be seeing the dramatic irony of a reversal in attitudes: cutting your nerve cords is the norm, and those that keep their nerve cords and the Khala are the outcasts and pariahs.

I thought Amon's actions corrupted EVERY Protoss who still had the chords. That was implied from what he was telling Zeratul (when he was in control of Artanis's body)

[Drake Clawfang]

I thought Amon's actions corrupted EVERY Protoss who still had the chords. That was implied from what he was telling Zeratul (when he was in control of Artanis's body)

Amon corrupted the Khala, but then they expelled him from it; before they all cut their cords, the Protoss came to their senses in the final cinematic once the Keystone went off.

[FanaticTemplar]

Your logic is infallible, Fanatic, but I submit that the romance was about as bad. The natural way that the Raynor/Kerrigan relationship went in SC (that is, from friends, distrustful allies, outright enemies) was part of the tragedy. It was a personal representation of all the Sector-wide antagonism. I dunno, unless you wanna argue that if you pretend SC1 doesn't exist, the romance in and of itself could possibly work.

I agree to an extent. The devolution of their relationship in Brood War was pretty good, and there's that bit in True Colors where you get the impression that Kerrigan realises how much she's lost and might even regret it, it's one of the occasional parts in Brood War I really liked. If they'd continued from that and had Raynor actually end it, that would have been a perfectly acceptable, reasonable and tragic conclusion to their character relationship. I never expected Raynor to stay on that angry high from the very moment after Kerrigan's betrayal, I expected him to feel sad about having to kill Kerrigan, but it was still something he had to do.

Using the Xel'naga Artifact to liberate her was a pretty clunky way to change that direction. In-universe, it makes perfect sense that Raynor would seize on this opportunity once he becomes aware of it, but from the narrative framework, it's a massive derailment. If that were all there was to it, I'd agree that the romance plotline was as bad as Legacy of the Void. But Kerrigan was never that important in Wings of Liberty, she mostly matters in how she affects other characters (Kerrigan has sadly never had much characterisation of her own and mostly served as a vehicle for other characters' development, I think this may be due to how abruptly and drastically her personality keeps changing with each game). Saving Kerrigan may be a bad direction for Raynor's relationship with her, but it's a great idea for showcasing how guilty he feels for not being able to stop Mengsk. She's a shorthand for the millions who died on Tarsonis because of Raynor's failure. Raynor is not just trying to save the woman he loves, he's trying to absolve himself from the guilt he feels for facilitating Mengsk's rise for power, something that's stated straight out in Dangerous Game: "Even you've gotta realise that treacherous bitch cannot be saved... and neither can you." I feel it's such a great line that it entirely justifies Mengsk's involvement as antagonist, despite his otherwise petty or ridiculous priorities and mystifying plans. And that in turn leads to Tychus' arc, where he realises how important this is to Raynor and becomes desperate to prevent him from reaching that goal, because he realises that then he'll either have to destroy his friend, or die. And the choice he makes in the end. I honestly think that if Kerrigan and Raynor's ending from Legacy of the Void had happened here, with them vanishing into the sunset, leaving Matt Horner to continue the fight against Arcturus and Zagara to rebuild the Swarm, I would have been perfectly happy with the Terran story of Wings of Liberty.

Meanwhile, in Heart of the Swarm, the use of Raynor is mostly to get Kerrigan in a rage-fueled quest for vengeance against Mengsk, and that's actually the driving force for most of the plot. Honestly the romance elements feel pretty awful, because they're superfluous: this is the story that should have happened after StarCraft: the Overmind is dead, the Swarms are in disarray, and a newly freed Kerrigan must rebuild the Swarm to take her revenge against Mengsk for betraying her. My perpetual frustration with Heart of the Swarm was that it was a story that was two games late. So while I agree that the romance was awful in that game, it doesn't feel like it's the driving force of the plot. Honestly, they should probably have Raynor actually get killed and not try to make Kerrigan heroic, and again, this would probably have been great with me.

So you see, while both stories had their problems, I think Wings of Liberty turned out pretty good nonetheless, and can see Heart of the Swarm also being good if any of a few things had been different. But I can't see any way I would be interested in Legacy of the Void. After Heart of the Swarm, I was angry because they screwed up. After Legacy of the Void, I'm sad because I have no interest in heading in the direction they're going.

I honestly hate the end of the Khala. The Khala was never really clarified, not even in the novels. Sure, they claim that it makes Protoss "united" or something like that, but we have no idea what that really means -- it's never clear what the difference between the Khala and ordinary telepathy is. Getting rid of it effectively destroys a huge chunk of undiscovered narrative potential. I wanted to see Judicator characters be more than cheap antagonists, and get to be really complex. Unfortunately, that will never happen, because Blizz is so in love with the Dark Templar that anyone who isn't, has to be one. Laaaame.

Aldaris is honestly one of my favourites. He actually had one of the best arcs in StarCraft. And I keep seeing people who loved Alarak for being such a douchebag to Artanis, and I can almost see it, but Alarak is too external and his character is too limited, he just feels like a jerk to me. Aldaris being a douchebag to Artanis in The Stand though, that I loved. You can see it in how he has to be humble and tolerant to Zeratul and Raszagal even though this is all new to him, then Artanis shows up and says something stupid, and you can just see it in Aldaris' eyes - "now this guy, this guy I can be completely condescending to."

Incidentally, in retrospect I totally should have seen the Khala's end coming. After Heart of the Swarm, I called the Primals - the good Zerg who had never been corrupted by Amon - "Zerg Dark Templar". I had no idea how right I was.

Amon corrupted the Khala, but then they expelled him from it; before they all cut their cords, the Protoss came to their senses in the final cinematic once the Keystone went off.

I mean, it's possible now that Kerrigan'naga has destroyed Amon. But with how thorough they've been with the Purity of Essence retcon, I feel like the writers at Blizzard are of the opinion that the Khala itself was wrong, independent of Amon.