StarCraft & Atmosphere

[Turalyon]

Fred Tatusciore is a skilled and prolific voice actor, but he lacks that incisive bite Jack Ritschel had.

Even so, I don't think that even the late Jack Ritschel could've breathed life into the abysmal dialogue Zeratul was given in Sc2.

I kinda cheered when "Zeratul" died. In an ironic way, because the death scene was so stupid.

He died giving Artanis a very important hair-cut.

Also, while we're complaining about SC2, one of my worst gripes about SC2 was that it had nothing to do with WoL and HotS. I grant that some here may consider that a plus, but it just goes to show that nobody had a plan from the beginning. Nothing from the previous games really built into LotV, creating a narrative. It's just one random thing after another, plus a bunch of reactions from fan complaint.

I actually ranted about this very thing back before HotS had been released and then again afterward/before LotV's release. The Xel'Naga stuff in LotV is ostensibly what Sc2 was supposed to be all about and what Sc1/BW was leading toward but you could hardly tell given that WoL and HotS were more about Terran affairs for the whole time.

Just like WoL had a yawning void of a middle in its narrative, the SC2 trilogy when seen as one work, had a yawning void in the middle of its narrative (HotS), too. I remember saying at the time that in order to avoid such an issue, HotS needed to finish the Terran angle quickly (ie: kill Mengsk) and then transition to the Hybrid/Xel'Naga/Amon stuff to give it appropriate weight and connective tissue to make it a connected trilogy.

[DonnyZeDoof]

You know back when they first announced that StarCraft II was going to be a trilogy they released a lot of promotional material that tended to depict Raynor, Kerrigan and Zeratul:





I think initially Zeratul was supposed to be the main character of the Protoss campaign but somewhere down the line, Blizzard decided to change it to Artanis. Do you guys think that was worth it? I mean whose character would you rather see ruined: Zeratul or Artanis?

[ragnarok]

He died giving Artanis a very important hair-cut.

That's physically, Tura. Something tells me (given how you disliked the story) that to you, he died WAY before that.

[Visions of Khas]

You're right Donny, Zeratul was supposed to be the protagonist but they switched to Artanis.

I kinda wish we saw more of Artanis being "young and brash" with some defeats under his belt to curb his arrogance. But instead he's another inexplicably brilliant commander like Raynor.

[ragnarok]

You're right Donny, Zeratul was supposed to be the protagonist but they switched to Artanis.

I kinda wish we saw more of Artanis being "young and brash" with some defeats under his belt to curb his arrogance. But instead he's another inexplicably brilliant commander like Raynor.

It's more because he learned to adapt in time. I partially felt that was Amon's strategy: that in the end the Protoss people would NEVER learn.

[Turalyon]

I think initially Zeratul was supposed to be the main character of the Protoss campaign but somewhere down the line, Blizzard decided to change it to Artanis. Do you guys think that was worth it? I mean whose character would you rather see ruined: Zeratul or Artanis?

I remember Grad talking about this before LotV came about and how the general storyline LotV posited would make more sense if Artanis was the lead. I agreed. Zeratul was never a leader or your typical hero-general afterall. He was just an adventurer going at it alone and trying to make do, so to have him front LotV uniting all Protoss through diplomacy and leading armies would've been odd. Then, it was announced that Artanis would be the protagonist of LotV. Coincidence?

Artanis is serviceably adequate in the main role but he's your kinda bland, everyday "hero" that you see a dime-a-dozen everywhere else in fiction. I would've liked to see what a proper story revolving around Z would've been like since it would've been harder to write for and therefore, potentially more creative. However, given the poor quality of writers at Blizzard, I'd imagine that if Z was the lead, it would've still turned out largely the same as the LotV that we did get but with surface alterations.

I kinda wish we saw more of Artanis being "young and brash" with some defeats under his belt to curb his arrogance. But instead he's another inexplicably brilliant commander like Raynor.

I suppose that's what the EU was for? Either way, no one plays games or a character in games just to be a loser (as Blizz themselves attest) and given the extent of the threat the Protoss are arrayed against, there's no error margin for any actual "defeats" from which Artanis can just learn a lesson without dire ramifications. You can thank the inclusion of an overblown antagonist that is Amon for that.

[ragnarok]

I suppose that's what the EU was for? Either way, no one plays games or a character in games just to be a loser (as Blizz themselves attest) and given the extent of the threat the Protoss are arrayed against, there's no error margin for any actual "defeats" from which Artanis can just learn a lesson without dire ramifications. You can thank the inclusion of an overblown antagonist that is Amon for that.

This is to show Artanis did learn in the years from SC1 and BW. It's rare to have a leader who never learns anything, it's only a shame Amon wasn't smarter.

[DonnyZeDoof]

I remember Grad talking about this before LotV came about and how the general storyline LotV posited would make more sense if Artanis was the lead. I agreed. Zeratul was never a leader or your typical hero-general afterall. He was just an adventurer going at it alone and trying to make do, so to have him front LotV uniting all Protoss through diplomacy and leading armies would've been odd.

Well wasn't Zeratul the leader of the group of Dark Templar on Char that were killing the Cerebrates?

I think Zeratul can work as a leader of small Dark Templar factions. I'm not sure if he can act as a supreme leader of the Protoss.

[Visions of Khas]

I really wish they had hired David Kaye to perform Zeratul. I'd say it's pretty spot-on. Fred's Zeratul really sucks.

[Turalyon]

I think Zeratul can work as a leader of small Dark Templar factions. I'm not sure if he can act as a supreme leader of the Protoss.

That's exactly the problem. LotV was initially billed as the main character playing the diplomatic game to try and rally all the disparate forces together to fight the big bad. The character that is Zeratul is well defined as being more of a loner and is therefore to "small" to have the role of being a leader of all the unified Protoss. Of the two, Artanis is the better fit for this role.

I really wish they had hired David Kaye to perform Zeratul. I'd say it's pretty spot-on. Fred's Zeratul really sucks.

Eh, Sc2's Zeratul really sucks in general, not just his voice.