Random Thoughts Thread

[sandwich_bird]

Never thought much about it before but Duran had to fake being infested and fake being mind controlled. The implications of this are huge. From that point on, if Duran is a Xel-Naga, then the XN have to be gods because that skill is basically godlike.

Also, it would have REALLY shocked Kerrigan to notice his disappearance since that's not technically possible if he's infested and doesn't die.

[Turalyon]

Is being a master in the art of deception a god-like ability compared to known abilities of manipulating space and time like the Protoss can? We know that Xel'naga are apparently good at duping people (see Ouros/"Tassamind" thing and presuming Zeratul isn't as senile as he seems to be), so Duran being able to do this to Kerrigan, isn't that remarkable in hind-sight.

[Visions of Khas]

I can only assume that for Kerrigan to believe Duran was mind controlled and infested, he would somehow have to let her peer through his eyes, be privy to his every thought, and physically infect his body with zerg material, all the while retaining some form of autonomy.

So Im thinking that either Duran had some overriding portion of his psyche sequestered away ( I'm thinking some Dune mentat shit); or his body was in many ways a puppet he controlled from the Void, only "loaning" the strings to Kerrigan until he felt it was time to resume control.

In other words, Space Magic.

[sandwich_bird]

Is being a master in the art of deception a god-like ability compared to known abilities of manipulating space and time like the Protoss can? We know that Xel'naga are apparently good at duping people (see Ouros/"Tassamind" thing and presuming Zeratul isn't as senile as he seems to be), so Duran being able to do this to Kerrigan, isn't that remarkable in hind-sight.

Creating a tass force ghost is one thing but simulating being a part of someone, that's a whole other level of deception. To me it's as much space magic as creating wormholes and what not.

or his body was in many ways a puppet he controlled from the Void, only "loaning" the strings to Kerrigan until he felt it was time to resume control.

That would be my preferred explanation since it's the simplest. The only problem is that it's implied in SC2 that he is a shapeshifter so Duran, the black man, would have been his own body. Then again, it's unclear if he is resurrected in the void in LotV after dying in HotS or if he never died at all and was perhaps controlling some sort of shapeshifting pawn. Hopefully it's the later. I don't like the idea of a self contained mind inside a mind controlled mind. The concept is cool but in this case it brings too many questions.

[sandwich_bird]

Another thought: Did psi-emitters overrode the overmind's command? Or did he simply allow the zergs affected to follow the signal. If the former, it could have been used against the zerg in multiple ways (eg: lure them somehwere, nuke the place).

[Gradius]

Another thought: Did psi-emitters overrode the overmind's command? Or did he simply allow the zergs affected to follow the signal. If the former, it could have been used against the zerg in multiple ways (eg: lure them somehwere, nuke the place).

In SC Evolution it’s the former and that’s actually a tactic they use.

[ragnarok]

Never thought much about it before but Duran had to fake being infested and fake being mind controlled. The implications of this are huge. From that point on, if Duran is a Xel-Naga, then the XN have to be gods because that skill is basically godlike.

Also, it would have REALLY shocked Kerrigan to notice his disappearance since that's not technically possible if he's infested and doesn't die.

That was nothing new for him to fake being infested and all that. It wasn't until the LotV epilogue we knew just WHAT Duran was. Therefore, all you had to do was introduce another alien species that can fool the zerg, you didn't need Duran to be a Xel'Naga or anything like that.

Hell, it took the end of the BW just for Kerrigan to know he wasn't who he claimed to be.

[Turalyon]

Creating a tass force ghost is one thing but simulating being a part of someone, that's a whole other level of deception. To me it's as much space magic as creating wormholes and what not.

It kinda depends on whether Kerrigan is aware of/feels Duran as being part of her or for any Zerg really. She's not the Overmind afterall and possible only exerts control over her minions like a puppeteer would. She moves some strings and the puppet behaves as expected but she doesn't really know if that the puppet can move or think on its own?

As to the force ghost thing, you'd would think that Zeratul, in all his experience, would be more wary and suspicious of "Tassadar" coming out of nowhere. He's slightly incredulous that Tassadar is alive at all but believes him nonetheless in the end. You'd hope that this was because Zeratul sensed from the force ghost that it was doing something else to identify itself as Tassadar beyond just saying it was Tassadar because otherwise you'd assume Zeratul is just dumb/senile/gullible (which is not in-character). Now we know that it was Ouros the whole time and that he was a Xel'Naga - it could be that he and his kind are adept in fooling others into being other people when they are really not. It's that or Xel'Naga can do something akin to Jedi Mind tricks or something. They can do whatever things the plot wants from them afterall.

Another thought: Did psi-emitters overrode the overmind's command? Or did he simply allow the zergs affected to follow the signal. If the former, it could have been used against the zerg in multiple ways (eg: lure them somehwere, nuke the place).

The former is the definitive lore answer but that doesn't sit comfortably to me since it's overtly conceited/plot-devicey/Doylist in conception. The latter makes more sense on a Watsonian level. The Overmind didn't really care about the engagements and losses it was incurring in its attempts to get its determinant. It allowed the Protoss to hamper its initial infestation process, was holding its full forces back and was more interested in watching how the Terrans and Protoss would react.

Also, were it not for the Overminds goal of finding a Terran psionic as a determinant, there is no other lore reason given as to why Zerg would even be attracted to Psi-emitters - which are nothing more than Ghost psi-signals writ large and broadcasted - at all.

[Turalyon]

Another thought just occured to me in regards to Duran in SCBW.

He is apparently revealed to be "infested" and in league with Kerrigan in the Queen of Blades campaign, but what does his state of infestation look like? Are we to assume that Duran was "infested" the whole time when he was in the Iron Fist (UED) campaign? If so, this begs the question of when the Zerg were able to infest humans yet somehow retain all their human features/physical appearance.

I mean, we can explain it away as Duran being some other advanced being as it's revealed in Dark Origins, but this doesn't explain his human appearance from the Zerg or Kerrigan's POV since all infested Terrans we've seen are irreversibly and physically warped in someway. Afterall, Kerrigan is the prime example of the most powerful and successful infested Terran and she still looks like a frickin' bug monster. How does Duran not look like this but still be considered infested? The only answer I have to this is that maybe Duran wasn't infested per se but just mind-controlled (or rather "thought-to-be" given his greater status) like Raszagal was.

[Nolanstar]

Could be that the infestation was done more subtly, below the surface and keeping the dermal layer and ocular organs intact. Could also be "infested" with various parasitic organisms rather then grafting and growth of zerg tissue and HEV.