What kind of retcons do you think will justify the plot of StarCraft 3?

[Mislagnissa]

Tl;dr Much as how StarCraft 2 retconned the entire backstory of StarCraft 1, I fully expect that StarCraft 3 will retcon the entire backstory of StarCraft 2. What do you suppose the writers would come up with to justify whatever the plot of StarCraft 3 would be?

Longer version: This was originally a reply to a post in another thread, but I thought it was tangential enough to spin off into a new thread.

For now. I'm still hoping sometime in the future they'll get back to Ulrezaj and why he named the Aiur protoss he converted as Tal'darim too, and how much Ulrezaj knew about Amon, and so on.

There's no actual way to continue the StarCraft story. The magical happily ever after ending resulted in everyone sitting around a campfire singing kumbaya. This despite the fact that the Protoss murdered billions of people when they glassed dozens of worlds, the Zerg are biologically hardwired to eat everything that is not them, and Terrans have been in a constant state of war since they came to exist.

Even if the story were continued somehow, probably by repeatedly resurrecting and killing Amon/Overmind/whoever, it would be a waste of time. The story has always been embarrassingly bad and can only get worse from here. The Protoss and Zerg are bland and boring; they exist solely to support the human characters. Even if they had actual personalities they would amount to no more than funny looking humans because the bad writing destroyed everything that previously set them apart (the Khala and the Overmind).

Furthermore, StarCraft 3 would undoubtedly retcon everything yet again. Blizzard has already shown they don't care about continuity at all, what with retconning the Terran population so that suffering several years of constant apocalyptic war makes no dent in their economy. I wouldn't be surprised if SC3 resurrects the Overmind and the Khala without explanation, introduces a new antagonist out of nowhere (who is retconned into always existing), introduces time travel, or otherwise renders the setting unrecognizable.

What they definitely will not do is go off on some random tangent with the primal zerg or taldarim just because Raynor and Kerry's story arc is over, because the last thing Blizzard cares about is continuity. The Taldarim and Primals are boring and unpopular. Raynor and Kerry are the main characters, because StarCraft was retconned into being all about these two sociopathic, mass-murdering deranged lovebirds. So of course StarCraft 3 will revolve around them, or more accurately completely new characters who happen to share their names and likenesses (since Blizzard cannot write consistent characters).

[Gradius]

Taldarim are actually pretty damn popular. That's why the war chest has Tal'Darim protoss units and why the co-op Alarak commander is killing it. They even threw him into Novert Ops for fan service.

I hate the primals, but the Dehaka co-op commander is doing well too. :/

Anyway, I can think of a dozen plotlines for potential conflict, but the universe is forever tainted IMHO.

[ragnarok]

Taldarim are actually pretty damn popular. That's why the war chest has Tal'Darim protoss units and why the co-op Alarak commander is killing it. They even threw him into Novert Ops for fan service.

I hate the primals, but the Dehaka co-op commander is doing well too. :/

Anyway, I can think of a dozen plotlines for potential conflict, but the universe is forever tainted IMHO.

Then go to Blizzard and tell them to just redo the whole SC2 trilogy, Gradius.

Dehaka in coop is good, but in terms of the game itself he could have been better, I disliked his constant essence obsession

[drakolobo]

Tl;dr Much as how StarCraft 2 retconned the entire backstory of StarCraft 1, I fully expect that StarCraft 3 will retcon the entire backstory of StarCraft 2. What do you suppose the writers would come up with to justify whatever the plot of StarCraft 3 would be?

Longer version: This was originally a reply to a post in another thread, but I thought it was tangential enough to spin off into a new thread.

There's no actual way to continue the StarCraft story. The magical happily ever after ending resulted in everyone sitting around a campfire singing kumbaya. This despite the fact that the Protoss murdered billions of people when they glassed dozens of worlds, the Zerg are biologically hardwired to eat everything that is not them, and Terrans have been in a constant state of war since they came to exist.

Even if the story were continued somehow, probably by repeatedly resurrecting and killing Amon/Overmind/whoever, it would be a waste of time. The story has always been embarrassingly bad and can only get worse from here. The Protoss and Zerg are bland and boring; they exist solely to support the human characters. Even if they had actual personalities they would amount to no more than funny looking humans because the bad writing destroyed everything that previously set them apart (the Khala and the Overmind).

.

because ypur supposed ending singing kumbaya is far from the real thing, end starcraft 2 raised a cold war essentiary, factions officially in truce, with sub factions here and there do not agree. nova is an extremist independent paramilitary group by its leader, Alarak cares much for the presence so any action against him brings a multiplied response, really exaggerated and nothing diplomatic. stukov is a lord of the deads or we know what to expect, dehaka is now king of zerus and really do not know to wait for him if he plans to make hunts galactic level, terrans are already fractioned enough, the rest of the protoss are a the defensive, niadra hates the protoss by inheritance, abathur the last vestige of the original zerg acts out of sight of zagara, while she is playing to obey what mommy kerrigan says

[Mislagnissa]

Taldarim are actually pretty damn popular. That's why the war chest has Tal'Darim protoss units and why the co-op Alarak commander is killing it. They even threw him into Novert Ops for fan service.

I hate the primals, but the Dehaka co-op commander is doing well too. :/

Anyway, I can think of a dozen plotlines for potential conflict, but the universe is forever tainted IMHO.

Then Alarak and Dehaka will be the main characters of their respective campaigns. They will probably have their personalities rewritten into bipolar psychopaths.

With retcons, you don’t need to think about the logic and implications of your plot. I fully expect SC3 to follow identical structure to SC1 and SC2. The conflict of the campaigns will be called either the Third Great War or the Second End War. In the terran campaign we rebel against the evil empire (confederacy, dominion, xel’naga) using a deus ex machina (psi-emitter, enslaved zerg, xel’naga artifact), in the zerg campaign we try to conquer our enemies (aiur, koprulu, mengsk) but get constantly sidetracked by side missions (chrysalis, civil war, enslavers, etc), and in the protoss campaign we fight off the zerg by killing their space satan leader (overmind, feral zerg, amon) with a deus ex machina (twilight templar, xel’naga temple, xel’naga essence).

Kerry gets infested again, Raynor rebels against the newest evil empire, whatever. Their love story will be the main focus of the plot, again.

Maybe, I don’t know, another race is introduced as the enemies/allies/creators/children/whatever of the xel’naga and become the new villains or something.

All the damage caused by the previous wars is ignored as if it never happened. The Terran and Protoss infrastructure and economies, if not fully functional, are retconned to even higher numbers than before. Like, I don’t know, Chau Sara is now covered in a giant megacity, Aiur has giant golden rings built around it for docking ships, and the new Zerg home world is a planet-sized hive.

The Khala is either brought back with a cheap explanation about nerve cord grafting, the harm caused by its absence is ignored, or its importance/existence is replaced or retconned away.

It doesn’t matter if previous characters were killed off, since they can easily be resurrected by zerg infestation, purifier mind uploads, xel’naga space magic, etc. Several characters have died at least once, such as Stukov, Fenix, Amon, the Overmind, the Cerebrates… If Kerrigan was retconned with the power of resurrection, then there’s no reason why the Overmind and the Cerebrates cannot too. They could even be retconned with a special power that lets them ignore the dark Templar attack too, it could be retconned to being temporary, or it could work like Amon so that the Zerg cannot be permanently killed except in the Void by a xel’naga.

I would not be surprised if they resurrected the Overmind again to be the new big bad evil guy and retconned Amon into a good guy who was trying to stop the Zerg from eating everyone but ended up being mind-controlled by the Overmind and blah blah blah the Sargeras and Eredar fiasco all over again. They might even pull a Frozen Throne and make the Overmind an inherited position that must always rule the Zerg. The bizarre thing is that such retcons would actually return the Overmind to the status it had in SC1.

Then go to Blizzard and tell them to just redo the whole SC2 trilogy, Gradius.

The story problems date back to StarCraft 1 when Metzen rewrote the Zerg campaign to include an extended Kerrigan cameo. Everything after the first set of campaigns was sloppily made up on the fly. This is why I switched to Enumerate as a framework for building stories, since it outlines the major phases and political ramifications of a full-scale galactic war from beginning to end; the intention is that this backdrop would support any number of custom campaigns in any period.

Custom campaigns based on canon typically go on bizarre tangents, rehash canon, or rewrite the rules. For example, there are at least two or three campaigns which resurrect and then immediately kill the Overmind. Another campaign makes the purifiers/mobius/whoever into the new big bad and disposes of them just as quickly. By far my favorite is the poorly translated Polish custom campaign "Proditor," which pretty much throws canon rules out the window in order to tell its story. It depicts a whole faction of infested Protoss (or at least, infestation succeeding on the first try with no preparation), Zerg betraying Zerg despite being united by the Overmind, and other impossible events.

Dehaka in coop is good, but in terms of the game itself he could have been better, I disliked his constant essence obsession

Speaking of which, I fully expect the primal zerg, the definition of essence, etc to be retconned yet again.

because ypur supposed ending singing kumbaya is far from the real thing, end starcraft 2 raised a cold war essentiary, factions officially in truce, with sub factions here and there do not agree. nova is an extremist independent paramilitary group by its leader, Alarak cares much for the presence so any action against him brings a multiplied response, really exaggerated and nothing diplomatic. stukov is a lord of the dead or we know what to expect, dehaka is now king of zerus and really do not know to wait for him if he plans to make hunts galactic level, terrans are already fractioned enough, the rest of the protoss are a the defensive, niadra hates the protoss by inheritance, abathur the last vestige of the original zerg acts out of sight of zagara, while she is playing to obey what mommy kerrigan says

StarCraft Evolution showed that six years went by without a single war, even though the six years before that had no less than four or five wars. Even if what you say is true, I fully expect Blizzard will forget all about it and pull something out of their ass that involves loads and loads of retcons and another space satan who is responsible for the previous space satans.

[Visions of Khas]

By far my favorite is the poorly translated Polish custom campaign "Proditor," which pretty much throws canon rules out the window in order to tell its story.

Looks like somebody hasn't played the Antioch Chronicles or Odyssey.

[Mislagnissa]

Looks like somebody hasn't played the Antioch Chronicles or Odyssey.

You forgot Flame Knives. The Kharnikhan Empire were Tal'darim before it was fashionable.

Also, I just wrote a satirical passage of what might pass for background lore in a hypothetical StarCraft 3 exposition section. The frightening thing is that this doesn't sound all that far-fetched, despite my attempt to be clearly absurdist. Let me know what you think.

The Story So Far, of StarCraft 3

In the beginning, the xel’naga created the universe. They created the zerg in the Zerus Galaxy and the protoss in the Aiur Galaxy with the intent that the two races would eventually merge and become the next generation of xel’naga, like sperm fertilizing ova. However, the xel’naga Amon discovered that the zerg were evil and would eventually assimilate the universe in pursuit of perfection. He tried to stop them, but they infested and consumed him. Then, using his knowledge, they killed and ate all the other xel’naga. With their new infinite power, they went on to conquer billions of galaxies before sending a token fleet to eat the newly discovered Koprulu galaxy ruled by the Protoss Empire and finally achieve their fabled perfection.

Meanwhile, enclaves of Protoss in other galaxies formed their own great Empire billions of years ago. From these Protoss descended numerous colonies. During the Aeon of Strife, a multi-galactic war lasting billions of years, many colonies forgot their origins and believed themselves alone in the universe. The Koprulu Empire, ruling the Koprulu Galaxy, was one such empire. The Zerg, however, remained unaware of the Protoss Empires at large.

The control brain of the Koprulu expeditionary fleet, the Overmind, was killed and defeated by the twilight Templar Tassadar. This left the swarms in the Koprulu galaxy feral and easy prey. The Overmind’s daughter, Kerrigan, swiftly took command and tried to continue her father’s goal. Then the xel’naga Duran, who escaped the great devouring, appeared and deceived her into helping him make Zerg/Protoss hybrids who would destroy the Zerg.

Using the ancient psychic magic of the xel’naga, Duran resurrected Amon free of Zerg control. Amon used his psychic magic to enslave the Protoss and Zerg, with the intention of creating an army of hybrids to defeat the Zerg who ruled the universe outside the Koprulu galaxy. However, he did not know that the Overmind could see the future and had already planned Amon’s demise.

Amon and Duran were killed, allowing the Koprulu galaxy to return to its previously peaceful ways. Since the Overmind was dead, the Zerg in the Koprulu galaxy forgot their mission and, having little in the way of independent thought, decided to retreat into a life of silent contemplation.

Concerned by the fact that billions of years passed without a peep from the Koprulu galaxy, the Zerg Emperor has sent another Overmind to investigate the Koprulu galaxy. Meanwhile, the Protoss Empire has discovered numerous Zerg creatures exploring the borders of their rule and sent fleets to investigate. One such fleet arrives in the Koprulu galaxy…

[Visions of Khas]

Well, I think we legit have a myriad of ways to create a StarCraft III. We know nothing about the UED or the inner workings of the Umojan Protectorate. The Tal'Darim and Primal Zerg may be the keys for a successful fusion of Protoss and Zerg. Some Ta'Darim still have nerve cords, so perhaps they can learn how to tap the Khala. Between Dehaka's Packs, Stukov's Infested, and Zagara's semi-independent Broods, the Zerg are highly fractured and can go in any direction. Killing Arcturus Mengsk cannot undo decades of systemic corruption. The Daelaam have becomes just as much individuals as terrans. The Purifiers contain unknown centuries of knowledge, experience and perspectives. And there are still things to learn about the Void and the Xel'Naga's origins.

I think there is a treasure trove of possibilities. But I'm just as pessimistic as any of you about Blizzard's ability to harness and focus that potential.

[Mislagnissa]

Well, I think we legit have a myriad of ways to create a StarCraft III. We know nothing about the UED or the inner workings of the Umojan Protectorate. The Tal'Darim and Primal Zerg may be the keys for a successful fusion of Protoss and Zerg. Some Ta'Darim still have nerve cords, so perhaps they can learn how to tap the Khala. Between Dehaka's Packs, Stukov's Infested, and Zagara's semi-independent Broods, the Zerg are highly fractured and can go in any direction. Killing Arcturus Mengsk cannot undo decades of systemic corruption. The Daelaam have becomes just as much individuals as terrans. The Purifiers contain unknown centuries of knowledge, experience and perspectives. And there are still things to learn about the Void and the Xel'Naga's origins.

I think there is a treasure trove of possibilities. But I'm just as pessimistic as any of you about Blizzard's ability to harness and focus that potential.

To be honest, all of those suggestions sound really boring compared to my satirical epic space opera. I can see why retcons are so attractive to Blizzard. Without the UED and Duran and Amon coming out of left field, you never could have continued the plot of StarCraft 1. Same thing here.

EDIT: I am being sarcastic. The problem is that you are thinking about logically following existing plot threads, whereas Blizzard is thinking about what would make for an epic story. Therefore, StarCraft 3 is obligated to shoehorn yet another galactic apocalypse. This requires making up a new faction from nowhere because the existing factions cannot do that.

[Turalyon]

Sc3 literally could be anything and it'd be "justified". The retcons and how they were used, set a precedent that just about anything can happen and nothing, not even the games internal history (recent or otherwise), can be taken for granted. It's at the point where I won't even bat an eyelid now if it were "revealed" that Xel'Naga are some time-travelling, future descendent of Terrans or whatever other outlandish idea that anyone else can come up with.

For all the quirks in BW and Sc1 story, there was always a feeling of verisimilitude, consequence and finality to some of the things that were happening there that we just don't get in Sc2. The retcons, amongst other things, in SC2 make it seem like things just happen for the sake of happening or worse, that there's obvious authorial intervention going on. All of this breaks one's immersion into that story. Not only that, any sense of tension that can be mustered seems manufactured rather than being naturally emergent such that while the stakes are definitely bigger and should carry weight, they ultimately ring hollow and false. Part of it is also due to the hyper-inflated importance of the old named characters and the grandiosity of having to revolve stories around such "big name" characters. That people were more interested in "unimportant" side characters like Tychus, Abathur and Alarak makes me wonder at how differently the story would've turned out and been received if it focused on building up new characters as the leads.

After Sc2, I have no interest in Sc3 in terms of its "main" story any more. They'll probably tap into a villain that's less esoteric and will garner more nostalgia pangs (looks at UED) or they might actually make the Protoss, in some form (Tal'darim?), the antagonist this time. Either way, I won't care for it since it'd still reek of "sequel for the sake of sequel" no matter how long it takes before it is eventually released. It's funny in a way since I was one of a very rare few who actually didn't want a sequel and was cynical of Sc2 right from the get-go way back when. I was hoping that I wasn't going to be vindicated - but alas, it was not to be. Still, whilst I've never read the EU novels (and still most likely won't), I'm still interested in the universe and the smaller things that can happen within it like those short stories and tangents that had nothing to do with the core/original game characters and story. In terms of "story", I felt they were actually the best thing that ever came close to capturing that old Starcraft feel throughout this entire time.