The victorious

[PhanttoM]

Interesting theories. I just hope it's not a cliche W3 story, where all of the races join forces against an new comon enemy (xel'naga or some new evil), that would be the worst story ever for SC2

Oh how I hope not - I'm still going through that horrible cliche for every Sonic the Hedgehog game. (A game that I've followed and played since childhood)

I just expected it to end without ending, revealing something epic, but not finishing the tale of Starcraft.

I'm hoping for the same, as it wouldn't be StarCraft without these 3 races fighting each other.
Leaders and subfactions can change, but the threat if either race.

I find it hard to vote, but as the poll stands I'll eventually vote either none or other

[Gradius]

I hope the current story arc ends. The races are very low on their numbers; protoss seem to be headed towards extinction. If the current story arc ends in SC2, we can start off StarCraft III like 2000 years later, when the current heroes have faded into myth/legend. All their numbers would be revitalized and we could have battles on much larger scales. I just don't see SC3 happening with the forces that have already been picked bone-dry battling even further.

Here is the sort of ending I'd like to see:

1) Koprulu Terrans are all killed. Say, Kerrigan just randomly decides on their extinction.
2) The Protoss, enraged at this genocide, and suddenly wary of their own extinction, have been backed against the wall for the last time. They devise a plan to break the Zerg swarms. After discovering some sort of way to disrupt Zerg communications (aka Psi Disruptor), the fleet of the executor warps in to Char's high orbit and glasses the planet down to the mantle.
3) Kerrigan escapes. Nobody gets their revenge.
4) Protoss come to dominate their part of space and Kerrigan takes some surviving Drones with her so that they can start replicating on the fringe ends of the galaxy.
4) SC3 is 2000 years later and it would be Protoss vs. UED vs. Swarm. Kerrigan would be only character returning, as she is immortal.

Alternatively, Kerrigan would be killed by Zeratul, and her son/daughter would lead the rest of the Zerg in SC3.

[The_Blade]

I sort of agree with Gradius. Every race is like fighting in a little box and 2 have to hide or die in order for this chapter to be over.

Wings of Liberty:
-Michael Liberty makes an appearance in the middle of the game with the Raynor's Riders.
-Tychus keeps Raynor looking for the protoss "artifacts"
-Mengsk has gone mad thoughout the years but he is still a genious.
-Mengsk nukes an entire planet where he was supposed to trap both kerrigan and raynor but fails.
-After some regrouping, Raynor hits the Dominion fleet over the destroyed planet, with the help of Artanis.
-A massive swarm of zerg starts moving into this coordinates from every direction.
-Mengsk spots that kerrigan herself is traveling with this swarm and activates his personal capital ship capabilites when she is about to destroy his ship.
-As the crushing psi-disruptor crashes with kerrigan's control over the zerg, the colosal zerg swarm start to go rampage over everything around them.
-The psi-disruptor is so powerful it inflicts damage to the protoss themselves, and Artanis is forced to retreat.
-Mensk moves into a small Nighthawk and captures the passed out Kerrigan.
-Then he moves into the hyperion's decks, and captures Raynor and Tychus as they both attempted to scape in a dropship.
-Hornet and Liberty flee with some other crewmen.
-The zerg swarms crush every ship and then start fighting each other.
-Kerrigan, Raynor and Tychus (chained) meet Mengsk in some room within Tarsonis. Kerrigan has been trapped into an external neural inhibitor similar to the ones ghosts use, but a lot more powerful.
-Mengsk orders that Raynor and Thychus should now be excecuted. Guards take them away and into some other room.
-Mangsk talks with Kerrigan for a while and then Valerian enters the room.
-Valerian stabs Mengsk with the family sword and then starts talking about some "stuff"
-Kerrigan just laughs at him and then Valerian does but with a creepy laugh that reminds her about duran. Eventually he clocks away but releases Kerrigan from her chains. She stabs the air looking for him with no luck. Kerrigan looks as scared as a little girl.
-On the next scene, a terran walks into the public view hanging area.
-Kerrigan (Still with the neural inhibitor armor) manages to scape the building just to stare at a strange looking dark sky and some sort of odd mothership.

[Triceron]

If the current story arc ends in SC2, we can start off StarCraft III like 2000 years later, when the current heroes have faded into myth/legend.

By then the Protoss and Zerg wouldn't exist, if you've read Twilight. They would have fulfilled their birthright, for better or for worse.

[Gradius]

By then the Protoss and Zerg wouldn't exist, if you've read Twilight. They would have fulfilled their birthright, for better or for worse.

We don't know what will happen in SC2. And even 2000 years might not be enough if the cycle is uninterrupted, since Zamara said the cycle merges the two species over time so vast that they can barely grasp it. 2000 years is just two lifetimes for Protoss, which is long, but not that long.

[Norfindel]

My SC3 storyline prediction:
- The Hybrids take control of the swarm and further mutate it using Protoss DNA, finally fulfilling the desires of the Overmind. Kerrigan was likely deinfested or killed in SC2.
- The Protoss discover the true power of the combined dark/light energy.
- The UED realizes it's time to end this threat, and sends the big guns to the Koprulu sector, taking control of the Terran worlds.

[Pandonetho]

4) SC3 is 2000 years later and it would be Protoss vs. UED vs. Swarm. Kerrigan would be only character returning, as she is immortal.

lol I can't help but imagine the UED destroying the Zerg with a further 2000 years of technological advancements. The Protoss would be a massive threat too with 2000 years of advancements. I just can't see evolution being anywhere near as potent and technological advancements.

[The_Blade]

lol I can't help but imagine the UED destroying the Zerg with a further 2000 years of technological advancements. The Protoss would be a massive threat too with 2000 years of advancements. I just can't see evolution being anywhere near as potent and technological advancements.

Yet the protoss technological improvements are rather slow... By then they might regroup the galactic motherships and restore their rule over Aiur, but I don't think they might have a mayor technological improvement. Probably in the art of controling the universe energies but not technology.

[Visions of Khas]

If SC3 follows an Aftermath/Legacy-style plot, where the setting is set hundreds of years later and most all heroes are replaced, then I'd want some serious role reversals. Like, the Protoss, fed up with the whole slow extermination think, become the baddies, the Zerg somehow take on a more benevolent tone, and Humanity is the biggest threat/ally anyone could have.

[Gradius]

lol I can't help but imagine the UED destroying the Zerg with a further 2000 years of technological advancements. The Protoss would be a massive threat too with 2000 years of advancements. I just can't see evolution being anywhere near as potent and technological advancements.

True, but the premise behind my scenario though is that the Zerg are hiding & replicating on the other fringe end of the galaxy, so they wouldn't be preparing for it - just like the Protoss weren't really preparing their military for the Zerg before the events of SC. Protoss & UED are separated by 60000 light years as well.

Yet the protoss technological improvements are rather slow... By then they might regroup the galactic motherships and restore their rule over Aiur, but I don't think they might have a mayor technological improvement. Probably in the art of controling the universe energies but not technology.

How are the Protoss technological improvements slow? They created immortals, phoenix, disruptors and not to mention phase prisms, which can convert beings into energy and store them on a crystal lattice and back again. Nope, no progress over the last 4 years at all.

People seem to think that Protoss tech is just "different" and not necessarily more advanced than Terrans. It's not. Protoss tech is both more advanced & different, and Protoss intellect is far above that of humans.

And it's not all due to Xel'Naga help. You have to understand how something works in order to reverse-engineer it. Any xel'naga technology they had would have been useless (except maybe for motivational purposes). The conclave hid the xel'naga ships anyway; Adun didn't even know they had one left. The Protoss emerged from a stone age level at 500 bc. and had Colossus tech while we were still in the middle ages.