StarCraft Campaign Thoughts and Impressions

[FanaticTemplar]

Two possible reasons why OM didn't take Kerrigan was because the Dark Templar were there. The OM and cerebrates are vulnerable to them - they are more of a threat than the Aiur Protoss so it has to utilise its greatest weapon to keep them at bay while it assaults Aiur. The OM also probably read from Zertaul's mind that there were no Dark Templar on Aiur, hence the rush to attack it before the dangerous DT could get there and stop them.

Could be, but the Overmind felt that it needed Kerrigan to overcome the Protoss before it ever even learned of the Dark Templar. Still, it is the most reasonable explanation I can think of, so I'll probably go with it.

Second reason (possibly mutually exclusive to above) is that because OM only chanced upon Kerrigan at New Gettysburg it was protective of its investment. Afterall, it took like 4 missions or so for the damn thing to grow - it didn't want all that effort to go down the toilet. Maybe Kerrigan was representive of a one-of-a-kind of prototype that needed to be safeguarded until the OM could mass-produce her raw abilities or something.
You also have to consider that it never specifically sought her, she just happened to be abandoned by these humans who were happening to fight their enemies. And coincidentally, Kerrigan happened to fit what it ideally wanted. The OM could not be assured that it could find another one again to risk losing it a potentially dangerous battle.

No, the Overmind did specifically seek her out. Not 'her', Sarah Kerrigan, but 'her' an extremely powerful human psychic. That's the whole point behind the Psi Emitters, to abuse the Overmind's seeking out of Terran psychics by creating a 'Ghost call', so to speak. And the reason it specifically sought her out was to use her against the Protoss. The Overmind considered her the determinant in the struggle between the Swarm and the Protoss.

Kerrigan was not THAT important to the Overmind.

Well, yes she was, actually. The Overmind couldn't find a way to counter the might of the Protoss, and this drove him to the verge of despair. It quite literally considered Kerrigan the Swarm's only hope against the Protoss. She was that important to it.

ONE) In Abomination of Blades, the Overmind WANTS Kerrigan to join him on Auir in the frontlines, but Kerrigan CONVINCES the Overmind to let her stay.

That explanation makes me cringe. I beg of you to allow me to ignore it.

TWO)If the Overmind wanted to die, than why was he trying to escape at the end of Starcraft?

I'm not sure what you're talking about. I don't remember the Overmind ever wanting to escape Aiur?

[Eivind]

In the epilogue of Vanilla SC, it says that, when the Overmind dies, Kerrigan senses that the time of her true ascension has come. Even then, she was planned to be their leader, not just a weapon of the Zerg, which was, at least how I see it, the true story of Brood War.

[Turalyon]

Could be, but the Overmind felt that it needed Kerrigan to overcome the Protoss before it ever even learned of the Dark Templar.

That's still true in a sense. DTs are still Protoss and they are the only ones capable of causing great harm to the OM - in a sense, Kerrigan was fulfilling her duty to overcome the Protoss, as was intentioned by the OM.

No, the Overmind did specifically seek her out. Not 'her', Sarah Kerrigan, but 'her' an extremely powerful human psychic. That's the whole point behind the Psi Emitters, to abuse the Overmind's seeking out of Terran psychics by creating a 'Ghost call', so to speak. And the reason it specifically sought her out was to use her against the Protoss. The Overmind considered her the determinant in the struggle between the Swarm and the Protoss.

Well, yes she was, actually. The Overmind couldn't find a way to counter the might of the Protoss, and this drove him to the verge of despair. It quite literally considered Kerrigan the Swarm's only hope against the Protoss. She was that important to it.

You're right in that the OM was seeking that "something" to help in its war against the Protoss, but for Kerrigan to be coincidentally exactly what it needed was something of pure luck on the part of the OM. You have to question why the OM was unsuccessful in finding a "Kerrigan" prior to the Terran mission New Gettysburg and why it would stop searching for more "Kerrigan's" after it found her. This speaks of Kerrigan's uniqueness, but it also can explain the OM leaving her behind because Kerrigan could be the only psychic Terran that it can properly assimilate. If I was the OM, I would be hesitant to use something which I was almost despairing that I would never find in the first place and then potentially lose it (forever possibly) in a titanic battle which could go either way.

Besides, the OM did not want Kerrigan in the sense as an individual, it wanted to integrate the psionic potential so it could try to make psionic warriors of its own to combat the Protoss. The assimilation of Kerrigan was not the "be-all, end-all" - it was most likely the first step in distilling the psionic potential from her such that it could be mass-produceable later. Assimilating Kerrigan was just a prototype/first stage experiment, if you will, and not something it'd want to risk on the battlefield until her "uniqueness" was guaranteed to be replicable in it's armies.

In the epilogue of Vanilla SC, it says that, when the Overmind dies, Kerrigan senses that the time of her true ascension has come. Even then, she was planned to be their leader, not just a weapon of the Zerg, which was, at least how I see it, the true story of Brood War.

You seem to be reading too much into that "true ascension" bit. The above is only true because the OM is dead. If it wasn't dead, I would doubt that Kerrigan was always destined to be the Zerg 'leader' - she would still be totally subservient to the OM.

Her 'ascension' is only possible because of the freedom that the OMs death grants. However, Kerrigan's self-serving nature hints that she cares little for the Zerg in actuality, at least not in the way the OM did. Her ascension is just that, hers not Zerg in general. The Zerg are just a means to her own personal end.

[Eivind]

You seem to be reading too much into that "true ascension" bit. The above is only true because the OM is dead. If it wasn't dead, I would doubt that Kerrigan was always destined to be the Zerg 'leader' - she would still be totally subservient to the OM.

Her 'ascension' is only possible because of the freedom that the OMs death grants. However, Kerrigan's self-serving nature hints that she cares little for the Zerg in actuality, at least not in the way the OM did. Her ascension is just that, hers not Zerg in general. The Zerg are just a means to her own personal end.

I completely disagree. Yes, it's true because the Overmind is dead. That's the point. Overmind dies in the same game as Kerrigan is infested. She wasn't destined to be their leader, no one said that. But the Overmind wanted her to be, and that was exactly what was beginning to happen even before Brood War. By the end of that game, she is exactly that, and that's how WoL starts.

I don't understand what her personal interests have to do with anything. What I'm pointing out is that Kerrigan was more than a weapon. She was a replacement for the Overmind, should it die. This is why she was given more free control than the Cerebrates.

[broodmywarcraft]

Well, yes she was, actually. The Overmind couldn't find a way to counter the might of the Protoss, and this drove him to the verge of despair. It quite literally considered Kerrigan the Swarm's only hope against the Protoss. She was that important to it.

What I mean is that she was important enough to show him that the Terrans were proven potential assets to him. The protoss could never hope to kill the Overmind or his cerebrates so they were not an existential threat to the Zerg, only a superficial threat that continued to frustrate him. Kerrigan was hoped to be the beginning of a future frontline unit that could finally tip the balance in favor of the Zerg. But the moment the Overmind found Auir, she was put on the back burner. If she was THAT important, he'd have taken her with him, but left her to tackle the dark templar instead. He only wanted her because he couldn't find Auir at the time, and that was the Protoss's prime advantage.

That explanation makes me cringe. I beg of you to allow me to ignore it.

The whole book is cringe inducing. But it's the true cannon according to Metzen so...yeah, I really would like to ignore it...

I'm not sure what you're talking about. I don't remember the Overmind ever wanting to escape Aiur?

During the climax cinematic where Tassadar sacrifices himself, you see the Overmind opening a portal in an attempt to escape.

I don't understand what her personal interests have to do with anything. What I'm pointing out is that Kerrigan was more than a weapon. She was a replacement for the Overmind, should it die. This is why she was given more free control than the Cerebrates.

As was said previously Eivind, she was meant to be a weapon against the Protoss, that's it. The Overmind and the cerebrates would continue to rule over the Zerg. She was given more free will because she was an experiment for the Overmind. A whole new fighting force that had the unique ability to think rationally and this fascinated him. I tend to think that if the battle dragged on, he may very well have made them replacements for the Cerebrates at least. But we'll never know.

[Eivind]

Where do you get all this from?

[broodmywarcraft]

Where do you get all this from?

These are all assumptions and claims I've made through reading the manual and playing the original game.

Am I correct?

I'd like to think so...

[FanaticTemplar]

You're right in that the OM was seeking that "something" to help in its war against the Protoss, but for Kerrigan to be coincidentally exactly what it needed was something of pure luck on the part of the OM. You have to question why the OM was unsuccessful in finding a "Kerrigan" prior to the Terran mission New Gettysburg and why it would stop searching for more "Kerrigan's" after it found her. This speaks of Kerrigan's uniqueness, but it also can explain the OM leaving her behind because Kerrigan could be the only psychic Terran that it can properly assimilate. If I was the OM, I would be hesitant to use something which I was almost despairing that I would never find in the first place and then potentially lose it (forever possibly) in a titanic battle which could go either way.

I really don't understand this. The Overmind was despairing of defeating the Protoss without Kerrigan, so it dumps a lot of energy into finding Kerrigan, how does it make sense to then go and try to defeat the Protoss without Kerrigan? It's like setting off on a journey to throw the One Ring down Mount Doom and leaving the Ring back home because you don't want to risk it falling into the wrong hands.

What I mean is that she was important enough to show him that the Terrans were proven potential assets to him. The protoss could never hope to kill the Overmind or his cerebrates so they were not an existential threat to the Zerg, only a superficial threat that continued to frustrate him. Kerrigan was hoped to be the beginning of a future frontline unit that could finally tip the balance in favor of the Zerg. But the moment the Overmind found Auir, she was put on the back burner. If she was THAT important, he'd have taken her with him, but left her to tackle the dark templar instead. He only wanted her because he couldn't find Auir at the time, and that was the Protoss's prime advantage.

That's exactly my point. The manual tells us that she is that important, but the resolution of Overmind counters that. I mean, if we go for the retroactive approach, it is all meaningless because after all, the Overmind left her behind so she could prevent his vision of In Utter Darkness from being realised.

During the climax cinematic where Tassadar sacrifices himself, you see the Overmind opening a portal in an attempt to escape.

Interesting, I'd never looked at that lightsource that way. I imagine it could be, but there's really no set up for it, up until Tassadar's sacrifice, the Overmind was winning, and I doubt he expected to die by Void High Speed Collision. I don't know, I'm not comfortable assuming it wanted to escape.

[Eivind]

I find the escape to be farfetched too. It was the Void energies that Tassadar summoned.

I think everything happened... the way Blizzard said it did. The Overmind was given a directive, tried to bypass that by infesting Kerrigan, the Overmind died, Kerrigan sensed her time has come (she could feel the disconnect of the Overmind many light years away), Kerrigan was given control of the Swarm, and finally she conquers the sector. Brood War ends, Kerrigan learns some information which we do not know of, WoL begins.

[broodmywarcraft]

Interesting, I'd never looked at that lightsource that way. I imagine it could be, but there's really no set up for it, up until Tassadar's sacrifice, the Overmind was winning, and I doubt he expected to die by Void High Speed Collision. I don't know, I'm not comfortable assuming it wanted to escape.

Hm...after watching the cinematic where the Zerg transport to Auir and Tassadar's sacrifice, I'm inclined to agree it was the void energies.

But that wouldn't need any explaining or retconning to make sense. The Overmind simply grew overconfident and didn't expect that sacrifice from Tassadar.

As far has he's concerned, the Dark Templar were trapped on Char by Kerrigan. His dream of unifying the Protoss and Zerg was coming true, and the Protoss forces laid broken and unable to strike a critical blow as was shown by Fenix's futile attack.

Yet a combined force of Terran and Protoss finally overcame him.

That's a well written, well executed plot line if you ask me.