Zerg were better off with the Overmind

[Kimera757]

As others have said, the Overmind is both iconic AND fundamentally flawed. If the Zerg remained no more than this alien threat lurking somewhere in the darkness, then the Overmind would be a perfect character to have at its head. Unfortunately, we have to play through 20+ missions of a campaign centered around the Zerg, and 20+ missions that don't have dramatic, personal relationships at its core is just not something that interests people on a purely human level.

This!

It didn't help that, except Kerrigan, all of the Overmind's minions (cerebrates) were basically mini-Overminds, also incapable of interacting with the environment or other characters.

[Norfindel]

As others have said, the Overmind is both iconic AND fundamentally flawed. If the Zerg remained no more than this alien threat lurking somewhere in the darkness, then the Overmind would be a perfect character to have at its head. Unfortunately, we have to play through 20+ missions of a campaign centered around the Zerg, and 20+ missions that don't have dramatic, personal relationships at its core is just not something that interests people on a purely human level.

Terran, Protoss, or Zerg, the characters in the campaigns have to be identifiably human... and while that necessarily diminishes the feeling of "alienness" for the Zerg, there's really no easy way around it.

That's why most stories are about multiple characters. The Overmind can be the intangible evil, while Kerrigan can add more interaction and emotion.
Take for example The Lord of the Rings. Sauron is an invisible enemy, but his presence is very obvious all over the book. He commands others, that in turn talk to other people and fight. Sauron doesn't needs to.
Interaction with the Overmind is assured over all the Zerg campaign, anyways.

[pure.Wasted]

That's why most stories are about multiple characters. The Overmind can be the intangible evil, while Kerrigan can add more interaction and emotion.
Take for example The Lord of the Rings. Sauron is an invisible enemy, but his presence is very obvious all over the book. He commands others, that in turn talk to other people and fight. Sauron doesn't needs to.
Interaction with the Overmind is assured over all the Zerg campaign, anyways.

You know how half of ROTK is about Frodo and Sam? There's a reason there isn't another half of ROTK floating around somewhere told from Sauron's perspective. Unfortunately, there IS a half (or rather a third; let's get our maths straight here!) of SC2 that's going to be told from the Zerg's perspective, and that just wouldn't do.

Now Kim does suggest an interesting point (one I'd been toying with while writing my first post here) -- that's, what would happen if we took the Overmind, but replaced the Cerebrates with actual characters. Could we, essentially, strike up a balance? I don't know... maybe! But it's hard to imagine the Overmind controlling 10 different Kerrigan-like characters. As un-Swarmy as the current Zerg might be, that seems somehow even more wrong.

[mr. peasant]

It almost certainly can. However, the setup would be more akin to a Standard Royal Court, with the top Cerebrates competing against one another; vying for the Overmind's favour, larger broods and pursue their own agendas (or more likely, push for their preferred strategies over the others' since they have largely the same goals). Like Daggoth, each Cerebrate would likely grow their own elite strain of Zerg or develop unique evolutions. Younger Cerebrates would fall under the command of these older Cerebrates, performing specific functions such as information gathering or overseeing individual hive clusters/battles. The Overmind would of course foster this competitiveness as it is the natural order of things (survival of the fittest) in which the best would lead its swarms.

[newcomplex]

That's why most stories are about multiple characters. The Overmind can be the intangible evil, while Kerrigan can add more interaction and emotion.
Take for example The Lord of the Rings. Sauron is an invisible enemy, but his presence is very obvious all over the book. He commands others, that in turn talk to other people and fight. Sauron doesn't needs to.
Interaction with the Overmind is assured over all the Zerg campaign, anyways.

That would require Kerrigan rebelling from the Overmind, that would be the only plot point that could possibly work. Which would bring us to the EXACT SAME POINT. We would have to regurgitate that same blizzard plot for like the fourth time lol.

Kerrigan playing a wholly subservient role to the domineering overmind would result in a very boring campaign.

The only way this would work is if

#1 Kerrigan just goes off and does her own stuff
#2 The stuff she does actually is relevant.

That basically necessitates a rebellion of some sort from the Overmind. Otherwise, if she ever discovered anything of interest regarding the ultimate fate of the universe, the Overmind would intervene.

It almost certainly can. However, the setup would be more akin to a Standard Royal Court, with the top Cerebrates competing against one another; vying for the Overmind's favour, larger broods and pursue their own agendas (or more likely, push for their preferred strategies over the others' since they have largely the same goals). Like Daggoth, each Cerebrate would likely grow their own elite strain of Zerg or develop unique evolutions. Younger Cerebrates would fall under the command of these older Cerebrates, performing specific functions such as information gathering or overseeing individual hive clusters/battles. The Overmind would of course foster this competitiveness as it is the natural order of things (survival of the fittest) in which the best would lead its swarms.

But that suffers from the same problem that this is trying to solve. The Cerebrates aren't magistrates, they were never portrayed as magistrates. They could be like that, as it isn't really directly conflicted by anything, but splintering the Brood into like ten factions and placing Kerrigan in the control of any of them would also cause the broods to lose a lot of there "otherness". The zerg don't infight, they don't conflict with each other, they are (were) legion. Plus, how would this campaign end? It would make for a terrible 30 mission campaign if Kerrigan just helps, she would have to play a central role, and the only central role as outlined by my previous post she could play would be to rebel against the overmind. Which brings us to the same problem, except even worse, because now we don't even have a justification for it because the zerg campaign just ended lols.

[Kimera757]

That's why most stories are about multiple characters. The Overmind can be the intangible evil, while Kerrigan can add more interaction and emotion.

There were more than two bad guys in LotR. Saruman, anyone?

It almost certainly can. However, the setup would be more akin to a Standard Royal Court, with the top Cerebrates competing against one another; vying for the Overmind's favour, larger broods and pursue their own agendas (or more likely, push for their preferred strategies over the others' since they have largely the same goals). Like Daggoth, each Cerebrate would likely grow their own elite strain of Zerg or develop unique evolutions.

That doesn't solve the problem of cerebrates being unable to interact with the environment or non-zerg. Kill 'em off. Replace 'em with queens. Then it might work.

[mr. peasant]

But that suffers from the same problem that this is trying to solve. The Cerebrates aren't magistrates, they were never portrayed as magistrates. They could be like that, as it isn't really directly conflicted by anything, but splintering the Brood into like ten factions and placing Kerrigan in the control of any of them would also cause the broods to lose a lot of there "otherness". The zerg don't infight, they don't conflict with each other, they are (were) legion. Plus, how would this campaign end? It would make for a terrible 30 mission campaign if Kerrigan just helps, she would have to play a central role, and the only central role as outlined by my previous post she could play would be to rebel against the overmind. Which brings us to the same problem, except even worse, because now we don't even have a justification for it because the zerg campaign just ended lols.

Multiple characters with different personalities and/or motivations would by definition produce interpersonal conflict where as having multiple characters with identical, uniform personalities and motivations would result in the same problem of having just the Overmind. Also, it should be worth mentioning that the Overmind itself specifically specified that the older/greater Cerebrates commanded whole broods whilst younger Cerebrates (such as the player) had specific functions in mind. They are then taken under the wing of these older Cerebrates where the younger Cerebrates coordinate specific fractions of the older Cerebrates' broods during specific missions. All of this is canon.

As for the 'infighting' and individual personalities, the Overmind actively condoned this by keeping Kerrigan's free will, indulged in her personal desires (e.g. allowing her to infiltrate the Amerigo in order to access her full powers much to the protests of Zasz) and actually wanted the Cerebrates to learn from her (it's in the mission briefing of said mission). So, the natural progression in that would be for the Cerebrates to exercise their already present independent thought in order to develop different plans in order to achieve the Overmind's goals. They would prioritise things differently and would seek out more resources to better their odds of further success.

As for how the campaign could play out, I'd imagine the player would control Kerrigan, who lacking a brood ofher own, would choose which Cerebrates' plans she wants to advance (and as a reward, slowly ekk out a brood of her own). The more one Cerebrate gains favour from the Overmind, the more the others would grow more desperate to warrant their continued existence. As a result, they might start undermining said Cerebrate or take unnecessary risks in their missions. When this happens, or if they prove to idle, the Overmind would come down on said worthless Cerebrates; relieving them of their broods and ordering them eradicated (hence, allowing for Zerg vs Zerg missions).

[TWD]

The zerg was better off under the overmind simply because that new shrill voice commanding "we require more minerals" is just plain irritating. Before it was like "ok overmind I understand". Now it's like "shut up witch, I know what I'm doing!"
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Avandia Class Action

[Taoo]

The thing about Kerrigan and the Overmind is that you can not prove that Kerrigan would not have done what she did, if the Overmind was still alive. I agree that The Swarm clearly lacked subterfuge, which might be why the Overmind assimilated Kerrigan, to gain just that.

(alternative theory; The Overmind knew what Tassadar would do, thus luring Tassadar into a trap where in the moment Tassadar went BOOM, the Overmind assmiliates with Tassadar and escapes to the nether world that all protoss memories live in!)

As for when the majority of the Protoss race died I would say after the Overmind died. It could not have been before because the Judicators’ do not view the Zerg as a big enough threat to avoid infighting (Aldaris), nor throw their full force behind Tassadar before Tassadar kicks their ass. Further the Overmind was very weak for the first time since it was created because it now was corporeal, so if it still was warping-in units, aggression would not be high on it's list.

(off-topic) I have always assumed that the reason why the Overmind turned corporeal was because it needed all its genetic codes at hand to begin the assimilation process. But I do not really know why, since Duran did not have any issues (needing a corporeal Overmind) with creating Hybrids that we know off. Why do you think he went corporeal and lost such a huge advantage?

[Norfindel]

That would require Kerrigan rebelling from the Overmind, that would be the only plot point that could possibly work. Which would bring us to the EXACT SAME POINT. We would have to regurgitate that same blizzard plot for like the fourth time lol.

Kerrigan playing a wholly subservient role to the domineering overmind would result in a very boring campaign.

The only way this would work is if

#1 Kerrigan just goes off and does her own stuff
#2 The stuff she does actually is relevant.

That basically necessitates a rebellion of some sort from the Overmind. Otherwise, if she ever discovered anything of interest regarding the ultimate fate of the universe, the Overmind would intervene.

You guys have little imagination. Kerrigan following the commands of the Overmind doesn't have to result in the story been boring. It has absolutely nothing to do.
For example: if the Overmind were alive, could order Kerrigan to do exactly what she's doing, having absolutely no impact on Kerrigan, except that the Overmind could still be around. I mean, she doesn't need to be as inconsequential as in vainilla SC by any means.

(off-topic) I have always assumed that the reason why the Overmind turned corporeal was because it needed all its genetic codes at hand to begin the assimilation process. But I do not really know why, since Duran did not have any issues (needing a corporeal Overmind) with creating Hybrids that we know off. Why do you think he went corporeal and lost such a huge advantage?

Probably was required for the great experiment to run. Remember: the Overmind required a temple to be cleansed, and a harvested Khydarin crystal to be put there to use the energy of the place, and all that.