Nova: Covert Ops [SPOILERS]

[ragnarok]

I'm pretty sure the idea that psi emitters only work because the Overmind was looking for psychic humans is just fanon. All we know for a fact is that "zerg are attuned to the psionic emanations of ghosts" and psi emitters transmit psionic signals across worlds. If they only work because the Overmind is looking for ghosts, they wouldn't have worked at all in the BW. Baby Overmind is not the same character as the original Overmind, and the zerg switched their attention away from looking for psychic terrans right after they found Kerrigan.

But is that only because the Overmind willed it because he knew the infestation would be successful on her?

[JamesGoblin]

Oh, I see now. You're making some fanon up and deciding to believe it's true without any basis. Should've said so.

Even if this were true, we're talking about the Zerg still being attracted to psionics as of events after Sc2, where neither Kerrigan nor the Overmind are there to have such influence over the Zerg. Why the Zerg are still attracted by Psi Emitters when they have no underlying reason for still doing so, is stil left unanswered.

I strongly prefer having such "little" question marks over a situation in which there would be no place for controversy, or at least speculation.

[Nissa]

I will pipe up and say that yeah, some explanation of the psi emitters would be nice. It does seem clear in SC that the psi emitters attract the Zerg purely because of their desire for a psychic. It's the explanation that makes the most sense.

[Gradius]

The psi emitters are supposed to lure Zerg to their signals. In fact, the dialogue in that mission implies you'd have to lure the Zerg to your base to exert control over them. Instead it acts like "bring the Emitter to the Zerg to control them."

That's gameplay vs. lore segregation. Did you really want to play that mission with zerg chasing your SCV back to your base? The emitters still do what they always do according to the lore/dialog, lure zerg to their signals.

Not to mention that, once the Disruptor was shut down, the need for the Emitters either way should be gone.

They cut the primary power generator. There's going to be other secondary generators.

Keep in mind the source of where this information comes from. It's from a limited perspective - the Terran perspective. The Terrans know that Zerg are attuned to psionics but not the why of it. Since the audience member is more clued into the situation and know about the history of the Zerg and the Overmind's intent, it's strongly suggested that the Overmind is the most likely answer. Sure, you can still deride it as fanon for us to assume that this is so but it's a better guess than the Terrans because we know more about the circumstances than they do.

It's kinda like how Mengsk attributes the Zerg as a weapons test/creation of the Confederates. The audience knows he's wrong because the audience has priveleged information that Mengsk does not. Also, Terrans can be wrong about the nature of certain technologies as evidenced in LotV, where Karax "corrects" the Terrans misinterpretations in WoL of what the Keystone was and was not capable of. Just because Terrans can observe that Zerg are being attracted to psionics, doesn't mean that Zerg are inherently attracted to them.

Besides, if we can't take implicit cues as being acceptable reasons for things,then we shouldn't really be complaining about the Overmind retcon in general because the Overmind's metaphysical free will was only implicitly suggested...

That's fine but it's just not a theory that fits the facts. The zerg switched from hunting for psionic terrans at the end of the terran campaign. You have to do some serious mental gymnastics to explain why the emitters still work after the Overmind is dead or after they're not even looking for terrans anymore. The much simpler theory is that zerg are simply attracted to psi emitters, whether it's Kerrigan or a random ghost channeling into them or not.

Well, the Psi Emitters in BW don't work exactly like they did in Sc1 afterall. This could be attributed to the fact that the baby Overmind is not in full power over the Swarm nor completely conscious but is still wanting to find a psionic individual since Kerrigan is not under the control of this baby Overmind yet. The Zerg, under some feeble control of this new Overmind, are still somewhat attracted to psionic emanations but only to a limited degree. The difference in the state of the Overmind between Sc1 and BW may further explain why the Emitters have to be so close to the Zerg in BW whereas one could attract Zerg from great distances before n SC1

The reason why I can speculate on this at all is because we don't know the parameters and motivation of this baby neo-Overmind.

Meh. I can't prove it wrong obviously, but it just seems like stretching to me due to the reasons above.

I will pipe up and say that yeah, some explanation of the psi emitters would be nice. It does seem clear in SC that the psi emitters attract the Zerg purely because of their desire for a psychic. It's the explanation that makes the most sense.

SC1 makes it pretty clear that zerg are just attracted to psi emitters. There's no need to make things more complicated than they need to be.

[Nissa]

SC1 makes it pretty clear that zerg are just attracted to psi emitters. There's no need to make things more complicated than they need to be.

I agree. Hence my confusion on why you guys are bothering to argue about this.

[Visions of Khas]

Hence my confusion on why you guys are bothering to argue about this.

Hi. You seem new around here. That guy over there? Yeah, that's Gradius.

[ragnarok]

I will pipe up and say that yeah, some explanation of the psi emitters would be nice. It does seem clear in SC that the psi emitters attract the Zerg purely because of their desire for a psychic. It's the explanation that makes the most sense.

Hence the reason why the defenders of man needed ghosts. If you had read Liberty's Crusade, it was explained that the psi emitters to destroy the Confederacy on Antiga Prime wouldn't have worked without Kerrigan present.

[Turalyon]

That's fine but it's just not a theory that fits the facts. The zerg switched from hunting for psionic terrans at the end of the terran campaign. You have to do some serious mental gymnastics to explain why the emitters still work after the Overmind is dead or after they're not even looking for terrans anymore. The much simpler theory is that zerg are simply attracted to psi emitters, whether it's Kerrigan or a random ghost channeling into them or not.

The Zerg still being attracted to emitters "after the Overmind is dead or after they're not even looking for terrans anymore" is a problem that originates in BW (that and the emitters somehow gain the inexplicable ability to convert Zerg into Kerrigan's control ). Sc1 and it's manual gives us the reason why the Zerg are attracted to psionics only to have BW seemingly say "nope, there's no reason for the attraction really. It just is". Amongst other things regarding the treatment of the Zerg in BW, this "fact" assists in rendering everything to do with the Zerg race in BW into nothing more than mere plot device (I can at least take some solace that they sort of won at the end of BW ).

However, the fact that a neo-Overmind exists at all in BW actually helps alleviate this problem since it helps to maintain the actual reason behind the Zerg attraction to psionics. That the attraction of the Zerg to the emitters is noticeably weaker in BW matches with the weakness of the neo-Overmind. No mental gymnastics involved here and still in keeping with the "facts" available.

Now, we have the new Nova missions presenting the very same problem again but this time with no perceivable out... yet.

Either way, the reasoning behind saying that it's correct and OK that the Zerg was always just attracted to the Psi emitter for no reason (even when there was one in Sc1, with an 'out' in BW) because Covert Ops says so is akin to saying that it's correct and OK that the Overmind was always metaphysically enslaved because WoL says so. And yet, I believe you would disagree with the latter and not the former. Curious.

[Gradius]

The Zerg still being attracted to emitters "after the Overmind is dead or after they're not even looking for terrans anymore" is a problem that originates in BW (that and the emitters somehow gain the inexplicable ability to convert Zerg into Kerrigan's control ).

There's no problem. Kerrigan already controls zerg and can convert zerg to her control. The psi emitters are needed to cancel out the effects of the psi disruptor, which are preventing her from doing so. They're two devices with opposite yet simple functions: one enhances zerg signals, the other weakens them.

Sc1 and it's manual gives us the reason why the Zerg are attracted to psionics only to have BW seemingly say "nope, there's no reason for the attraction really. It just is".

Where does BW say that? Kerrigan is channeling hive-mind orders through the emitter to lure zerg away from the psi disruptor's signal. Why wouldn't zerg respond to Kerrigan's orders?

However, the fact that a neo-Overmind exists at all in BW actually helps alleviate this problem since it helps to maintain the actual reason behind the Zerg attraction to psionics.

If "the actual reason behind the Zerg attraction to psionics" is "they're looking for a terran psychic" that's actually a whole new host of problems considering they've stopped doing that last game and the character that instigated this motivation is dead.

How is this supposed to work exactly anyway? The baby Overmind is sending out orders to hunt for terran psychics when it's not even grown and has much bigger problems like the disruptor, or the UED pacifying it with drugs? Wouldn't its mental bandwidth be better spent on uniting the swarms, retaking control of Kerrigan, or otherwise securing its position? If you're saying the orders to hunt for human psychics is a vestigial genetic memory from the old Overmind, wouldn't that be highly inefficient to have the swarm led by a character that's not even conscious? Isn't this contradicted by the fact that Daggoth is taking temporary control of the swarm in the baby Overmind's stead? Why would Daggoth care about finding more psychic humans? He has bigger problems and can't control the one psychic human that's already in the swarm.

That the attraction of the Zerg to the emitters is noticeably weaker in BW matches with the weakness of the neo-Overmind. No mental gymnastics involved here and still in keeping with the "facts" available.

...or it's due to the psi disruptor. Much simple explanation and in fact the whole point of the plot device.

Now, we have the new Nova missions presenting the very same problem again but this time with no perceivable out... yet.

The out is the same as in SC1, that "zerg are attuned to the psionic emanations of ghosts". It's just natural, and the reason why Kerrigan became such a powerful leader when infested.

Either way, the reasoning behind saying that it's correct and OK that the Zerg was always just attracted to the Psi emitter for no reason (even when there was one in Sc1, with an 'out' in BW) because Covert Ops says so is akin to saying that it's correct and OK that the Overmind was always metaphysically enslaved because WoL says so. And yet, I believe you would disagree with the latter and not the former. Curious.

So now I have to buy into every random hypothesis that someone presents even though there are simpler explanations, or else I'm being hypocritical in not wanting jarring 180-degree retcons? Come on... I don't think that's how it works. :P

[ragnarok]

So now I have to buy into every random hypothesis that someone presents even though there are simpler explanations, or else I'm being hypocritical in not wanting jarring 180-degree retcons? Come on... I don't think that's how it works. :P

Gradius, at some point you have to start seeing which retcons are minor are which are just too much