What other ways could the xel'naga been drawn like?

[Mislagnissa]

Admittedly in the aftermath of WoL there were a lot of people who weren't too happy that the game was trying to imply that the Overmind was not the bloodthirsty monster SC1 portrayed him as. Given what the SC1 manual said, it certainly wasn't what I had been expecting.

To have the whole "space gods" introduced, again, I feel it was just Blizzard's way to find a way to put the Xel'Naga into the picture.

They never needed the xel'naga to return. The xel'naga were just a plot device to explain the origins and relation of the zerg and protoss. The backstory could have been written without them. In fact, if the backstory had been written without them then I think the story would have gone in a completely different direction that may or may not have been better than what we got. Or, more cynically, Blizzard would have retconned them into the story if the zerg and protoss had previously been established as independent.

I should probably get back to writing my reboot narrative fanfiction rather than constantly criticizing Blizzard. Feel free to critique what little I published so far, maybe make suggestions as to where the plot should go. I have an outline sketched out for the major events on the small scale and the sector scale, but the nitty gritty isn't set in stone and I've already veered off my outline and had to edit it more than a few times.

[ragnarok]

As I said, I'd have accepted it just fine for the Xel'Naga to return via flashbacks. A lot of people I talked to back on the battlenet forums said they'd accept that, as long as there's no PHYSICAL appearance for the Xel'Naga to return. Even making Duran a Xel'Naga in the epilogue was something I didn't want. Amon and Duran could have both been enemies to the Xel'Naga and that's it. Then, you could have had them use Xel'Naga tech for their own selfish goals.

[Mislagnissa]

As I said, I'd have accepted it just fine for the Xel'Naga to return via flashbacks. A lot of people I talked to back on the battlenet forums said they'd accept that, as long as there's no PHYSICAL appearance for the Xel'Naga to return. Even making Duran a Xel'Naga in the epilogue was something I didn't want. Amon and Duran could have both been enemies to the Xel'Naga and that's it. Then, you could have had them use Xel'Naga tech for their own selfish goals.

I always felt that adding a 4th race was a distraction from the premise of the three races fighting each other and themselves. The UED and evil xel'naga were never anything more than a ham-fisted excuse for the three races to team up against them even though that violates the basic premise and discards the original grey morality. I can accept alliances on a case-by-case basis, but not as the main conflict of the franchise.

[ragnarok]

For the BW, I initially felt that Blizzard introduced the UED in BW (ignoring Kerrigan's goal for ruling over the zerg) as a means to drag out Mengsk's rule over the Dominion because of his sheer dumb luck he was able to stay on the throne (as a new enemy forced others to push him to the back burner)

[Visions of Khas]

To get things back on track: Anthony Jones was an illustrator hired on by Blizzard several years ago and contributed concept art for the Protoss-Zerg Hybrids. He published his sketches on ArtStation just yesterday. Have a look:

[drakolobo]

great work

[Gradius]

That looks amazing...

[Turalyon]

One of them looks like the Sc2 Queen. Which concept came first?

[Visions of Khas]

One of them looks like the Sc2 Queen. Which concept came first?

I'd say the queen. I don't think they expanded on the hybrid concepts until after the main three were cemented.

[Robear]

All of these are concepts he did for Legacy of the Void. He already had the hybrids and all unit designs from the previous expansions to draw on.

He also is the guy who did the LotV cinematic zealot, high templar and archon armor concepts.