Story issues

[zergkiller44]

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" 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.

[ragnarok]

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.

No, but he WAS an agent to Amon, as explained in the DT Saga.

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.

It was originally designed (I think) to be a way to awaken the original Xel'Naga, and they would then defeat Amon. But Amon killed them before this could happen.

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!

I was fine with the ending if it just showed Kerrigan didn't keep her Xel'Naga powers. That should have been the case, since Ouros did say he was transferring the last of his essence into her. Thus Ouros's strength is only a shadow of what it once was, and even if Kerrigan survived the confrontation with Amon, she should have lost all those power anyway.

For such an ending you're suggesting, I too felt the same way. The problem was that Kerrigan never once asked Raynor to move on to find someone else, she probably just assumed he would. But the last cutscene showed he simply couldn't let her go. It was one of the reasons she came back to Mar Sara to retrieve him. It was obvious she still had a duty to uphold to him

[DarthYam]

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" 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.

I disagree on Kerrigan lacking agency. It was simply a bit of both. Yes Amon's taint and the infestation were major factors, but Blizzard still made it clear or implied that a large part of it was simply that her own inner darkness was amplified. The infestation simply surpressed things like compassion and empathy while amplifying things like rage, sadism, desire for revenge.

Another thing is that when you get down to it Kerrigan being completely in control didn't really make a lick of sense. In the first game she's a killer but she has admirable traits (she opposes using the Zerg on the confederacy even though they're the people who made her life hell for years as a young girl, she genuinely wants to build a better future). In brood war she's pretty much a cartoon villain. She does over the top evil actions on people who never hurt her (the protoss never hurt her other than tassadar out smarting her and raszegal and the other dark templar didn't do diddly).

Or as Chocopaw from team liquid put it.

Right at the beginning you rightfully find Kerrigan to be a complex character. Now why would a complex human, given great powers, immediately turn into a comicbook super villain? Even if we accept your claim that the mind of the being that was the Queen of Blades was not mostly the work of the Overmind and still very much the human being Sarah Kerrigan, why would she completely forsake the possibility of salvation, the hope of ever experiencing affection or love again? If she always was the psychotic being you make her out to be she wouldn't have been able to experience a connection with Jim - and even the loyalty and devotion to Mengsk, who pretty much was a father figure for her.
Now I understand the fascination with the brood war character, she certainly was a badass villain, but what I'm trying to say is that Blizzard is not far off the road here, that this is not the work of "evil new bliz" but very much attached to the sc1 storywork already. The salvation comes of course in the unlucky form of a deus ex machina plot device, yet Kerrigans transformation is absolutely believable. There she is again, the young woman that experienced deep distress on Antiga prime, facing the ethical conflict between sacrificing millions of lives and the command of her savior who (apparently) always knows whats best and cares deeply about her. That is not the reaction of a cold blooded killer.


While someone else pointed out that

Kerrigan before Mengsk Betrayal was an idealist, despite being a killer, despite being having been abused, she fought to make sure nobody would suffer her fate.

Going from complex individual to "BWA HA HA I'M EEEEEVVVVVIIIILLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!" and arbitrary acts of sadism and cruelty is just shitty writing. If anything there were implications that Zerg mutagen compromised her agency long before Amon entered even if it was as simple as "it simply surpressed her morality". Also Blizzard in the q and a confirmed that

Answer: The Queen of Blades and Sarah Kerrigan are not quite the same person. The Queen of Blades is essentially Sarah Kerrigan under the influence of some devastating forces: incredible power, a dominating level of psi energy, and the presence of Zerg mutagen from the cellular level up.

To be clear, the Queen of Blades is not a separate entity that possessed Kerrigan. Kerrigan is (certainly in her mind) responsible for the terrible things she's done. She has immense guilt for those actions, but she was not completely in her "right mind" in Brood War.

All of that is a roundabout way of saying the Queen of Blades felt no need to kill Mengsk. She did not see him as a threat. Sarah Kerrigan, on the other hand, knows that Mengsk wants her dead, and she very much holds a grudge for his abandoning her on Tarsonis.


In short, it's a little of both. She wasn't entirely in control (outside factors influenced her) but she did have some degree of agency.

[ragnarok]

Or as Chocopaw from team liquid put it.

Right at the beginning you rightfully find Kerrigan to be a complex character. Now why would a complex human, given great powers, immediately turn into a comicbook super villain? Even if we accept your claim that the mind of the being that was the Queen of Blades was not mostly the work of the Overmind and still very much the human being Sarah Kerrigan, why would she completely forsake the possibility of salvation, the hope of ever experiencing affection or love again? If she always was the psychotic being you make her out to be she wouldn't have been able to experience a connection with Jim - and even the loyalty and devotion to Mengsk, who pretty much was a father figure for her.
Now I understand the fascination with the brood war character, she certainly was a badass villain, but what I'm trying to say is that Blizzard is not far off the road here, that this is not the work of "evil new bliz" but very much attached to the sc1 storywork already. The salvation comes of course in the unlucky form of a deus ex machina plot device, yet Kerrigans transformation is absolutely believable. There she is again, the young woman that experienced deep distress on Antiga prime, facing the ethical conflict between sacrificing millions of lives and the command of her savior who (apparently) always knows whats best and cares deeply about her. That is not the reaction of a cold blooded killer.

Interesting, I didn't think about it like that with trying to relate it in Antiga Prime and everything. However the whole Ouros matter was still meh. It wasn't exactly explained WHY the hell Amon kept Ouros alive for so long. If it's to humiliate, I can somewhat see it, but that'd also imply Amon's arrogance, not realizing Raynor, Kerrigan, and Artanis would even make it this far.

The problem here lies with her actions in HotS with the whole revenge part. This was what Gradius telling people before: back on Antiga Prime, Kerrigan specifically said that no one deserved to have the Zerg unleashed on them like that, yet she did exactly that in HotS on the Dominio industrial worlds and everything, and only on the Moros in that whole game did she finally try to distance herself from the crimes.

[zergkiller44]

Very good points Darth...you may have changed my mind a little!

I guess it still just comes down to clarity...so much of the StarCraft story has to be inferred that it leaves a lot ambiguous. Though I'm still not entirely sure how much of the Queen of Blades' actions are a result of Amon's influence vs "natural" Zerg savagery vs Kerrigan's own demons, and we'll probably never know entirely. I guess you can chalk it up to "going to the dark side"...the infestation brought out the worst in her but she's still responsible.

[TheProgramer]

tl:dr:bwtlyktidribisa (too long - didn't read - but wanted to let you know that I didn't read it because I'm self absorbed

[drakolobo]

5)drugs(terracine sundrop) and pure selfishness

[Nissa]

All I wanted from SC2's plot was to feel the same way I did when playing SC/BW -- like there was danger around every corner, political interests were at stake, and character emotion had massive impact on the fate of the Sector. And consequences. Consequences on top of consequences.

In other words, I wanted science fiction, not fantasy.

[ragnarok]

All I wanted from SC2's plot was to feel the same way I did when playing SC/BW -- like there was danger around every corner, political interests were at stake, and character emotion had massive impact on the fate of the Sector. And consequences. Consequences on top of consequences.

In other words, I wanted science fiction, not fantasy.

Then after your Aldaris fanfic, I hope you can write your own version of SC2, maybe even continue on from the Another World.

[Nissa]

Then after your Aldaris fanfic, I hope you can write your own version of SC2, maybe even continue on from the Another World.

Oh! Lol, I forgot you'd read that. Nah, I'm sort of redoing SC2 with my Aldy fanfic, anyway. Sort of. But that's in the future. Maybe one day Blizzard will hire me to write for the reboot of SC2. Hopefully.