Why do you suppose Episode II would have been like without Kerry?

[Turalyon]

Getting closer, Rag... but we're specifically talking about Misla putting forth psionic Zerg strains in his reimagined version of Episode II in Sc1. I then said that would be odd because the Zerg never had any species with the sort of psionics it wanted assimilated into the Swarm before Sc1 started (like you said above) and that assimilation seems to take a lot of time.

[ragnarok]

Getting closer, Rag... but we're specifically talking about Misla putting forth psionic Zerg strains in his reimagined version of Episode II in Sc1. I then said that would be odd because the Zerg never had any species with the sort of psionics it wanted assimilated into the Swarm before Sc1 started (like you said above) and that assimilation seems to take a lot of time.

Actually you're wrong about the zerg never having any psionics prior to Kerrigan as the Overlords had levitation, which qualified as some sort of psionic power. Again it makes me wonder if the Overmind just never found the proper species despite millennia.

[Nissa]

Actually you're wrong about the zerg never having any psionics prior to Kerrigan as the Overlords had levitation, which qualified as some sort of psionic power. Again it makes me wonder if the Overmind just never found the proper species despite millennia.

No. Floating overlords is not psionic. Telekinetic, perhaps, but only perhaps. It has never been explained why overlords hover, but there is no reason to assume that this is due to psionics. Indeed, given that the Zerg were trying to assimilate humans for psionic powers, as that's the whole reason why the Zerg were there,it is most logical to assume that the levitation is not psionic in nature.

[Mislagnissa]

Telepathy, telekinesis, etc are all different kinds of pyschic powers or psionics. Lots of races are a psychic. Psychic powers may be replicated with technology. Psychic waves operate similar to radio waves and may be applied for detection, communication, etc in the same way.

The Zerg always had psychic powers, particularly telepathy. What they did not have were psychic powers powerful enough to compete with the Protoss' ability to warp reality to their whim. Terrans have the potential to do so within a few generations and genetic tinkering.

My suggestion is paraphrased from someone else's long explanation, linked in my sig. The basic idea is that the "hive worlds" campaign(s) would start off as a series of research and evolution missions where millions of captured human psychics are transformed into horrible monsters. While the primordial Zerg millenia ago had to spend generations, the modern Zerg mutate orders of magnitude faster. The experiments produce massive amounts of coherent psychic emissions, which lure the dark templar adventurers who were previously investigating the source of the deep space probes. They test themselves against isolated groups of Zerg, then Zeratul or Artanis (the dark templar, not the executor) has the bright idea to target a brain bug.

Long story short, the Zerg send fleets to fight the entire Protoss empire across the hundreds of worlds, hidden nomads and ancient ruins it encompasses. Meanwhile, the Terran Dominion is dealing with internal strife and the Zerg broods left behind to exterminate them before they pose an existential threat.

Enough fodder for a never ending franchise. I could go on, but the original source explains things in better detail.

[ragnarok]

No. Floating overlords is not psionic. Telekinetic, perhaps, but only perhaps. It has never been explained why overlords hover, but there is no reason to assume that this is due to psionics. Indeed, given that the Zerg were trying to assimilate humans for psionic powers, as that's the whole reason why the Zerg were there,it is most logical to assume that the levitation is not psionic in nature.

Hmmm, I always thought they did this because the Overmind wanted better psionic abilities for the swarm, not just limited to the Overlord's hovering and their telepathy

[Turalyon]

Actually you're wrong about the zerg never having any psionics prior to Kerrigan as the Overlords had levitation, which qualified as some sort of psionic power. Again it makes me wonder if the Overmind just never found the proper species despite millennia.

I didn't say "any" psionics.

"...the Zerg never had any species with the sort of psionics it wanted assimilated into the Swarm before Sc1..."

[ragnarok]

I didn't say "any" psionics.

"...the Zerg never had any species with the sort of psionics it wanted assimilated into the Swarm before Sc1..."

And in many ways that felt strange to me: that for almost 3000 years the Overmind went about assimilating species, and it wasn't until only a few years prior to the events of SC1 that he found the proper psionics. I felt maybe the Overmind was a bit too picky, sometimes you have to take what you can get

[Turalyon]

And in many ways that felt strange to me: that for almost 3000 years the Overmind went about assimilating species, and it wasn't until only a few years prior to the events of SC1 that he found the proper psionics. I felt maybe the Overmind was a bit too picky, sometimes you have to take what you can get

Watsonian explanation: Well, it's obvious that it was a rare trait, otherwise it would have what it wanted by the time SC1 started, assaulted the Protoss directly and ignored the Terrans completely.

Doylist explanation: Well, that's just the given conceit/setup of the narrative. The quicker you realise that all fiction is composed of such things (like tropes), the better off you'll be.

[ragnarok]

Doylist explanation: Well, that's just the given conceit/setup of the narrative. The quicker you realise that all fiction is composed of such things (like tropes), the better off you'll be.

Tell me something Tura, since you mentioned tropes: how much did you look at TV tropes (which has stuff for games as well) for the SC2 lore? I went there and like DarthYam I felt some of what they said there made some sense. Obviously other things were total BS, but still