[Finale Spoiler] Finale discussion

[Eligor]

One thought I had is that the WoL storyline would've been much better had the basic events and motives been arranged to create more tension. Had Raynor been captured by Valerian in the middle of the campaign when his focus is fully on dealing with Mengsk (and truly captured, with the Mengsks in a position of power, not Raynor pointing a gun to Valerian's head). Valerian offers to release Raynor and provide him with assistance in dethroning his father on the condition that he "de-infest" Kerrigan for him (preferably by means of Dominion science rather than a Xel'Naga artifact, it stands to reason that the Dominion tried to develop some sort of Infestation vaccine and not too preposterous to have them succeed (with the vast resources at Mengsk's disposal)), Tychus is sent by Arcturus alongside him to see to the job being "done properly" (kill Kerrigan). The Mengsks are working together, though Valerian really does plot against his father, however he doesn't care that much whether Kerrigan lives or dies (that's his father personal vendetta) and sees Raynor as another potential opportunity rather than instrumental to his plans. The whole plot would've made much more sense. Once released Raynor would've been visited by Zeratul who warns him not to kill Kerrigan, and the rest of the missions would've focused on the Zerg invasion and Kerrigan (potentially Hybrids too), that would've been the place to put in the Hanson missions as well, since that's when the themes they're truly pertinent to emerge. There would've even been place for another Protoss storyline there. In the light of SUCH events the ending would've actually made sense, and wouldn't have felt as an out of the blue deus ex-machinae non-resolution.

[pure.Wasted]

Agreed, from an emotional perspective the scene is much stronger showing her alone and giving up, when all reasonable hope is lost. Yes, it would have been more realistic, had there been a group of marines around, but it wouldn't have been as effective in conveying abandonment and helplessness.

Think of it as poetic license.

No one said those Marines would have to survive the entirety of the cinematic. Just imagine an entire minute added in at the beginning. By the minute's end, they all die.

"Why bother?" To add depth to both the scene and Kerrigan's character, for one thing. To give Tricia more opportunity to make Kerrigan her own. To more fully demonstrate what was going on to those who never played SC1, so they don't get the impression that Kerrigan WAS completely alone.

[phazonjunkie]

It's easy to offer praise when the creators' ideas fit in with one's own and, conversely, critical when it doesn't. It's why I don't want to criticize WoL just because the story Blizzard presented isn't the one I imagined but rather because it's poorly told and felt inconsistent with the story we knew.

This.

I might have gone a different route with various aspects of the story, and there were quite a few inconsistencies that'll most likely require some 'Saving Throws' in the next installment(s), it's hard to find fault with the overall presentation.

[unentschieden]

so they don't get the impression that Kerrigan WAS completely alone.

Why not? Why aren´t we complaining that it´s on the ground and not a Space platform? Why not show some Protossremains?

What is important is the emotional content not the accuracy to SC. Adding dying Marines merely adds "justification" to Mengsks desicion (I think he wanted to get rid of her as she wasn´t needed anymore - but that is just speculation and if it´s the case it should have been shown better), while one point of the scene is to show how much of a monster he is.

[pure.Wasted]

Why not? Why aren´t we complaining that it´s on the ground and not a Space platform?

Retcon.

Why not show some Protossremains?

Because that would do absolutely nothing to add to the scene, other than confuse people who aren't intimately familiar with what happened. Adding a couple of Marines to Kerrigan's side would confuse... no one. That's where you expect Marines to be, next to Terran characters in a war.

What is important is the emotional content not the accuracy to SC. Adding dying Marines merely adds "justification" to Mengsks desicion (I think he wanted to get rid of her as she wasn´t needed anymore - but that is just speculation and if it´s the case it should have been shown better), while one point of the scene is to show how much of a monster he is.

If anything, the way the cinematic is NOW justifies Mengsk's actions. As you said he wanted to get rid of Kerrigan. If she's alone, his crime is small. Now imagine that he's leaving a DOZEN people we can see behind, just to spite her alone? Betraying one character? That's cold. But leaving many to die just to get at the one? That's ruthless.

As I mentioned, there would have been other reasons, including allowing Tricia to fully re-interpret the character through new material as opposed to just echoing Glynnis's work emotion-for-emotion.

Is any of this necessary? Not at all. I'm a huge fan of the cinematic as things are. I'm just saying it could have been better and backing that up with examples that work.

[Norfindel]

Agreed, from an emotional perspective the scene is much stronger showing her alone and giving up, when all reasonable hope is lost. Yes, it would have been more realistic, had there been a group of marines around, but it wouldn't have been as effective in conveying abandonment and helplessness.

Think of it as poetic license.

I agree. There were like 1 million Zerglings, Mutalisks, Hydras, and who knows what else. No one could single-handedly take them down.
She could had tried to take as many as she can with her, but realistically, that would be 1 Zergling, because she was completely surrounded, so it was much better handled as it was.

It's a very similar scene from BW intro.

[Omeganian]

Doing #2 makes all of WoL worthless. Having her deinfestation simply not take makes WoL 29 missions of nothing happening.

Ever tried applying the same logic to the original Protoss campaign? You know, the one where the entire campaign is an attempt to save Aiur and destroy Overmind, Aiur still falls, and the Overmind is quickly recreated.

[pure.Wasted]

Ever tried applying the same logic to the original Protoss campaign? You know, the one where the entire campaign is an attempt to save Aiur and destroy Overmind, Aiur still falls, and the Overmind is quickly recreated.

Yes, but at the beginning of the campaign Aiur hasn't fallen yet. At the beginning of WOL, Kerrigan IS infested.

[Nicol Bolas]

You know, the one where the entire campaign is an attempt to save Aiur and destroy Overmind, Aiur still falls, and the Overmind is quickly recreated.

Adding to what pure.Wasted has said, the "Overmind" was quickly taken control of by the UED. And it also died again during the campaign.

Lastly, most people don't consider the new "Overmind" to have been a good idea, in terms of plot and writing.

[broodmywarcraft]

Adding to what pure.Wasted has said, the "Overmind" was quickly taken control of by the UED. And it also died again during the campaign.

Lastly, most people don't consider the new "Overmind" to have been a good idea, in terms of plot and writing.

Thinking about that makes me go back to a Dark Knight quote, reformatted:

"You either live a villian or you die long enough to see yourself become the hero"

I guess this applies to Blizzard games in general.