What if SC1/BW was remade as DLC for SC2?

[ragnarok]

Given the fact that you always considered those fics largely BS anyway.....

[Mislagnissa]

Given the fact that you always considered those fics largely BS anyway.....

Have you read Queen of Blades? I don't know anything about writer Aaron Rosenberg's past or future works, but it is embarrassingly bad and I wouldn't be surprised if he is now ashamed of writing it.

Have you read StarCraft: Evolution? It was written by Timothy Zahn, famous for writing the Thrawn trilogy in the Star Wars universe. Evolution does not flatter his skills as a writer.

Metzen bad narrative choices hamstring any other writer who tries to play with his toys. Rationalizing the plot contrivances does not make them any less artificial.

If I gave the impression that I think the fics are BS... that is mistaken. Hamstringing is not the same. I can enjoy a few sometimes.

I liked the fanfic "Birth of a Queen" by Lord22, which adapted Episode 2. Although that might have more to do with the fact that it liberally mocked the Queen of Blades character. Otherwise the lack of tension due to the predictability of retelling the same two decades old plot stifles most of my potential enjoyment.

The plot of SC1, much less the sequels, relies on massive plot contrivances that don't make sense except as artificial plot contrivances. Events happen because the plot requires it to happen. Characters act to further the plot rather than according to their motivations. It doesn't help that there were clearly a ton of rewrites during development and the manual that came with the game doesn't explain things due to inconsistencies.

But I could ignore the bad plot. What I cannot ignore are all the fanboys treating it like scripture. Any time you question it as less than sensible, you get shunned as an evil heretic who can't see how amazing and super special Kerry is.

It's no surprise that I liked "Birth of a Queen" for eloquently articulating why Queen of Blades was never as awesome as fanboys make her out to be.

This constant obsession with Kerry for the last two decades has gone nowhere. Two decades of fanboy whinging and nothing to show for it besides maybe HunCraft but nobody seems to care about that.

If, on the other hand, the Overmind had been focused on harvesting humans in mass for experimentation...

It's basically the End War, except during the First War period. The hybrids are human/zerg hybrids in this case but it's the same basic idea of galactic conquest behind them.

[ragnarok]

I never read Queen of Blades, I already had the story from SC1, I didn't see the point to fill in the holes via that.

Evolution on the other hand I did read, and I didn't think it was BS.

[KaiserStratosTygo]

I really do not understand how people do not empathize with Kerrgan, her behavior is very human in the situation she is in, people are not perfect, nor do they apply logic all the time or act under standards and less when they do not get emotional support. they justify any fault even if it is a lack of congruence, her section of the story basically shows that she is :an antihero is and her campaing is a revenge story


I can agree on that although while we are talking about a universe of fiction and not a monolithic narrative body of a novel, looking to go past to extend the tradition by creating newthings instead of working on the material already built becomes very common with protoss

Hard to empathize with a character that when given multiple chances to do the right thing or just not get involved, she decides to betray all of her allies, toy with two populations of species (Terrans and Protoss) and commit multiple gencoides to kill one dude.

[ragnarok]

Hard to empathize with a character that when given multiple chances to do the right thing or just not get involved, she decides to betray all of her allies, toy with two populations of species (Terrans and Protoss) and commit multiple gencoides to kill one dude.

I keep telling you stratos, if you've been kicked around your whole life, you'd see almost EVERYONE to be just like that. Trust me, I've lived it, I know what that feels like.

[Mislagnissa]

Hard to empathize with a character that when given multiple chances to do the right thing or just not get involved, she decides to betray all of her allies, toy with two populations of species (Terrans and Protoss) and commit multiple gencoides to kill one dude.

I keep telling you stratos, if you've been kicked around your whole life, you'd see almost EVERYONE to be just like that. Trust me, I've lived it, I know what that feels like.

The situation is contrived from the start because Metzen arbitrarily wrote the zerg as a plot device, arbitrarily gave Kerry control over the zerg, and ignored that any free-willed people existed in the universe outside of the main characters.

If the zerg were a swarm intelligence as they were in earlier drafts of the lore, then the Kerry situation would never have happened.

[ragnarok]

You make it sound like you absolutely need them to be a swarm intelligence

[Mislagnissa]

You make it sound like you absolutely need them to be a swarm intelligence

Metzen destroyed their agency very early on when he decided to rewrite them from a gestalt consciousness managing logistics to an easily subverted master/slave dynamic with plot device powers.

I'm fine with terrans and protoss using tech to enslave zerg. That said, I think they work better if they have their own agency rather than always mindlessly obeying anyone holding the remote.

[ragnarok]

It's why I didn't mind the Cerebrus zerg skins and what the Cerebrus program was doing to the zerg in the aftermath of LotV. Still, it'd be neat to see the zerg have something more than just mindless slaves to kill and assimilate.

[Mislagnissa]

It's why I didn't mind the Cerebrus zerg skins and what the Cerebrus program was doing to the zerg in the aftermath of LotV.

I never said I minded the Cerberus skins, nor the idea of enslavement with technology. Indeed, I think they are appropriate for campaigns set during the first war.

Still, it'd be neat to see the zerg have something more than just mindless slaves to kill and assimilate.

I suspect you and I have very different ideas for what that entails. I think QoB and the brood moms sabotaged the concept of the zerg by turning them into shallow Saturday morning cartoon villains and nonsensical space hippies. I prefer to write the zerg as fundamentally incapable of peace due to their purity of essence. Like the devouring swarm civic in Stellaris.

Even the primal zerg and Abathur don't do much to save the concept since they're just as short-sighted as the brood moms. The Overmind and cerebrates could plan on the scales of millennia, and had more complex and far-reaching motives than "promote a constant state of stagnant pointless conflict with no higher purpose or goal in mind." They were conquerors who sought perfection by consuming the strongest species and over countless millennia specialized their civilization/ecosystem to better pursue that overarching goal.

Again, like the devouring swarm civic in Stellaris.

Also, we already have the mecha zerg for all your mindless slave needs. The zerg swarm deserves better treatment than that.

Which reminds me... I just realized that I could preserve QoB's canon arc without sabotaging the zerg swarm's agency by placing her in charge of mecha zerg instead. Not sure why I would do that considering all the other reservations I have regarding her arc, but it might come in handy during brainstorming.