Zerg were better off with the Overmind

[Arkalis]

The Overmind would have worked well hidden in a distant world, controlling everything telephatically but without revealing his position (sorta like Lich Kng in WC3)

[Rake]

Kerrigan's part in the campaign doesn't even have to involve her talking with lots of other zerg characters. Because she is mobile she can talk with any other character during her campaign. We have already seen her talking with Zeratul.

On a side topic, do you think Kerrigan will suffer a big reversal to reduce her forces for the Heart of the Swarm? I only ask that because for all other campaigns you start with just a subset of the forces you can get and I have trouble seeing how they could justify that for Kerrigan without having her face massive losses.

[pure.Wasted]

On a side topic, do you think Kerrigan will suffer a big reversal to reduce her forces for the Heart of the Swarm? I only ask that because for all other campaigns you start with just a subset of the forces you can get and I have trouble seeing how they could justify that for Kerrigan without having her face massive losses.

Actually, precedent already exists for Blizz starting a race off strong, then making them weak afterwards: Undead campaign in TFT.

Either that, or they can give the first missions more of an RPG slant, so by the time you really get into base building it makes sense to have access to... well, everything. So there's definitely options for keeping Kerrigan at full power.

[Hawki]

I'd say she suffers losses by the end of Wings of Liberty-as each campaign leads directly into the next, that sets the stage for her having to rebuild the zerg.

[Aldrius]

Honestly, I've seen brainwashed Kerrigan. And while I enjoyed the character, I think they moved on at the right time. Because really, she was brainwashed in Uprising, she was brainwashed in Rebel Yell, she was brainwashed in the Overmind.

And what does she do when she's not brainwashed? She lies, she kills, and she makes everybody but herself feel guilty about it.

It's that kind of vicious, villainous bastardy that I just love. It's the kind of spiteful, bitter bastardy behaviour that brainwashed Kerrigan could never give us, because brainwashed Kerrigan is a puppet following orders. She may say the words, but the intention behind them is not her own.

Brainwashed Kerrigan wouldn't have killed Aldaris and told Zeratul and Artanis how they were playing straight into her hands, knowing full well that they would continue to do so anyway, because it was the best course of action.

One of the most beautiful things about the Brood War campaign, in my opinion, is how Kerrigan constantly manages to make herself the lesser evil. The acceptable risk. She's bad, but the UED is worse, the Overmind is worse. And both of those threats are far more imminent than she is.

And that's the kind of subtelty that I don't think brainwashed Kerrigan could ever give us. She's just a puppet, or an unfeeling monster, or a guilt-ridden young woman with identity issues.

Brood War Kerrigan on the other hand is just one, nice, complete, messed up ball of deadly. And that's so much more appealing to me.

Overmind on the other hand is just too competent, too powerful, too driven. It's never going to give up, and if you have people showing it up, it stops being this deadly, mysterious, powerful thing. That's one of the things that made Tassadar's sacrifice so strong, just how INTIMIDATING the Overmind was.

But the Overmind served it's purpose. Unfortunately, it has little more to offer other than more of the same. And for a unit in such a key, PROTAGONIST role, that's not good.

Also, another good Kerrigan quote:

"Kerrigan: Ah yes, you're referring to your vaunted Psi Disrupter. It won't last you forever. Sooner or later, I'll destroy it. Then I'll show you what the Zerg are really capable of. Oh, and by the way Admiral, your friend Stukov was twice the man you were. I'm glad you saved me the trouble of killing him. "

Just like... "Yeah, you killed your friend, you bastard." but in such a deliciously bitter way. And I like the layers there, that one could look at it as Kerrigan enforcing herself on Dugalle, in a negative way. Guilt being a big part of her motivation in Rebel Yell.

It's like the comparison between Mengsk and Dugalle. Sure Mengsk made an intimidating, passionate, imperialistic schemer. But Dugalle was just such a broken, flawed, weak man. So moral, and yet so weak. So different from Mengsk and yet so the same.

[Norfindel]

She was not brainwashed under the command of the Overmind. She just cannot go against the Overmind. Hell, she even looked as she would go against a Cerebrate. That's plenty of free will.

The character was just stupid at that stage. I don't know why, probably Blizzard wasn't too sure about what to do with her (and they said it themselves, she was going to be there just to be Raynor's girl on the beginning).

She used to pursue her own goals, also. Remember that some Cerebrate was suspicion on her as she seemed more worried about unlocking her full psi powers than following orders, then the Overmind says that she's an agent of the swam, and all that.

.

[Kimera757]

The Overmind would have worked well hidden in a distant world, controlling everything telephatically but without revealing his position (sorta like Lich Kng in WC3)

The Lich King had lots of mobile, intelligent and interactive minions. Eg not cerebrates. No, it doesn't work.

[Confalone]

Now that you mention WC3 though Kerrigan really just seems like a Sylvanas clone, or I suppose it's the other way around since WC3s story was highly derivative of SC

[Norfindel]

The Lich King had lots of mobile, intelligent and interactive minions. Eg not cerebrates. No, it doesn't work.

Nobody says they have to be exclusively Cerebrates. If Kerrigan can make intelligent infested terrans, the Overmind surely could.

[Aldrius]

She was not brainwashed under the command of the Overmind. She just cannot go against the Overmind.

She was brainwashed.

She still had a personality, but she was brainwashed.

She used to pursue her own goals, also. Remember that some Cerebrate was suspicion on her as she seemed more worried about unlocking her full psi powers than following orders, then the Overmind says that she's an agent of the swam, and all that..

And then he said she was as bound to him as any Cerebrate.

I.e.: Brainwashed.

Now that you mention WC3 though Kerrigan really just seems like a Sylvanas clone, or I suppose it's the other way around since WC3s story was highly derivative of SC

Kinda... there are a lot of differences.

The 'hero turned villain by torture' is hardly a device that StarCraft invented. Sylvanas has a bit more tunnel vision than Kerrigan for one thing.

Actually, Sylvanas is just really poorly defined in general.