Retconning Weakens Starcraft 2 Story

[RussianSpy27]

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[RussianSpy27]

I completely agree with you about Tassadar. We're going to have to wait and see, I suppose. You also make a good point about Zeratul/hybrids and meeting with Duran.

By the way, speaking of Duran, I will be disappointed if Narud is indeed Duran because (1) Unless he is a shape-shifter, he was a cool Black character in SC1...so now he's white? Come on! and (2) It would be a very childish symbolism play that everyone caught onto fast. The writers are not exactly aiming at the Pre-K market, I suppose.

I am not convinced about the UED though. I'm not arguing that with the way WOL was written, many of BW events had no place there. Indeed, with the given WOL story, they probably did not have a place in that campaign.

I'm arguing, however, that the DECISION of the writers to write the script of WOL as to evade events of Brood War made it lazy writing and inconsiderate to the awesome expansion and its significant lore and character development. They essentially decided to ignore Brood War's history, which is simply not impressive and an insult to the fans.

[Hawki]

There's actually a few more mentions of the Brood War-such as the very first cutscene. There's also the fact that BW is covered quite extensively in the WoL manual. Don't know why it wasn't in the loading sequence though...

...again, this might be to do with what was featured. Shakuras didn't really appear in WoL bar a flashforward, so there goes the protoss campaign. The UED doesn't factor into the trilogy, so there goes the terran campaign. The cerebrates are dead along with the Second Overmind, so there goes the zerg campaign. In contrast, we have Mengsk's accendance and Kerrigan's betrayal as factors, the Overmind's defeat and invasion of Aiur as factors, and the whole Raynor's experience with the protoss as factors in WoL. Vanilla is simply more relevant to the storyline.

I don't think BW has been forgotten. If anything, sometimes I feel it gets more relevance than it should, given how more destructive the Great War was (or at least seems to be). From writing experience, there's a limit as to how much you can reference past events without coming off as pretentious.

Edit: Narud. I actually suspect he may not be Duran. It was said there's a "connection" between the two. Now Blizzard couldn't confirm that he was indeed one and the same, but I forget where I read it, the entymology of "Duran" and "Narud" are oppsoites. It's as if he's being set up as Duran's opposite in a sense, depending on how you look at it.

Or he's one and the same. If so, nice idea, but pretty obvious.

Second Edit: Should get back to revision. Sorry to leave off like this. I guess BW is the outstanding issue, but...I dunno, just didn't seem to bother me as much as others. Again, subjective.

[RussianSpy27]

Picture DuGalle's wife Helena, with a tear on her cheek, running to the President of the UED with a copy of her husband's light speed email as the only piece of evidence that surfaced after no one came back from the fleet. This in turn makes the UED government seriously fear the aliens and (not just for propaganda) send a huge retaliatory force back into the C.Sector.

To me, it seems like a very logical and plausible move given what we learned about the UED in BW. (If President Obama were to send an expeditionary force to Mars because Aliens were spotted there and no one came back, can you imagine the panic and arms race we'd have? But anyway, that fear was already shown in the ending of the Terran BW campaign, because it's only natural).

So, why does the UED not have a place in the trilogy? It would not have a place, simply because the writers chose to write WOL in a way that would not give them space, which in turn contradicts the natural foreshadowing of events that happened in Brood War.

Moreover, if we look at "In Utter Darkness" mission. Zeratul states that Terrans are no more and Protoss are the only ones left to fight the Hybrids. If the hybrids came to anhielate the whole galaxy, wouldn't the UED be involved too? Duran, BTW, knew to stick to the UED right away in BW in order to further his plans.

[Louis]

BW was ignored because it is irrelevant to WoL. BW was given a detailed recap in the SCII manual. Conclusion is that Andrew need to find something better to whine about than the lack of BW in WoL. Besides, BW kind of resolved itsself. Everyone in WoL were in the same place that they were at the end of BW (which happens to be the same place they were at at the end of SC... goes to show how irrelevent BW was) and the UED were destroyed. The UED wanted the overmind, the overmind dies, the UED have to reason to come back even if they could. Also, I really hope that Blizzard DO retcon significant parts of BW. I mean, c'mon, a psi disruptor on Tarsonis.... that Arcturus "but you said that revenge was secondary to the UED" Mengsk failed to find despite months of searching? Seriously? sigh...

The word terran happens to include Earth by the way, not just the k-sector. Which mean that Earth has already been defeated. I suppose that the lack of UED could be cleanly and easily explained by the Hybrids attacking Earth between BW and WoL and destroying or incapacitating them so that they're out of the picture. "but that's bad/lazy/lame writing". yeah, I don't agree, sorry.

[RussianSpy27]

I'm sorry but destroying a beautiful expansion that shaped lives of every character of the saga is beyond lazy writing. It's absolutely irresponsible.

If they do include a storyline about the earth getting destroyed, then guess what, at least it'll make sense - but let that storyline happen first. Now let's recap how Brood War shaped everyone's lives:

1) Kerrigan murders High Judicator Aldaris of the Auir Protoss, brings Zerg to Shakuras and becomes responsible for death of multitudes when the Khalis and Uraj were activated and everything not within the Temple burned.

2) The UED, a powerful totalitarian Earth regime which sole existence originated as a response to alien presence in the sector, invades and takes over the Zerg overmind. The entire planet earth later learns of the event and how the UED prevented an alleged future invasion - the UED take up opening cinematic and the Terran finalle.

3) Kerrigan, in need to ascertain control of the Broods, blackmails the Protoss into killing the new overmind and causes the death of the head of all Dark Templar and hence all Protoss, since all of them were at Shakuras.

4) Kerrigan orchestrates the death of Raynor's close friend, Fenix, shattering Jim's remenant of positive emotions toward her.

5) Samir Duran uses each faction as pawns in order to insure that he can safely build his deadly hybrids. (The only point alluded to in WOL).

6) Kerrigan destroys the remnant of the UED's expeditionary force, destroying every single ship, but not before Admiral DuGalle composes a letter to his wife, explaining that news of their defeat reached Earth already.

Let me tell you, that ever since Brood War ended, I wanted nothing less than to see what the UED's next plan would be in retaliation for the defeat. BW writers have done such an AWESOME job with the UED and the great emotional scene at the end of the game, that one can only ask for a continuation!

I understand that there is an analogy of UED as Great Britain and K-Sector as the United States that were eventually let alone, but the presence of deadly aliens that served as the foundation for the UED's origin changes the situation completely. The only logical and natural progression of Brood War's events is for UED to "Strike Back" - yes I love Empire Strikes Back.

The good news is that Heart of the Swarm might be a perfect place for the writers to do so, given that it might have taken the Earth 4 years to amass a huge armada and re-invade the sector.

[Hawki]

To each his own I guess. I didn't really feel any need for the UED to return in the near future. In a way, the discovery of aliens served its purpose, completely solidifying its rule over Earth. Launching a war of conquest against aliens 60,000 light years away that have no idea where you reside doesn't seem to promise many net benefits. Also, the UED coming in in the midst of a conflict is esentially a repeat of BW. 'Sides, it's been explicitly stated that Earth will play no role in the trilogy, so don't get your hopes up.

Probably thinking too far ahead, but I think the UED would best be reserved for a hypothetical SCIII-distinguished as a faction, along with fleshing out and actually depicting the galaxy's other sapients. Given the UED's apparent xenophobia, it would make for a good combination. Still, I think storywise, most of Blizzard's focus will be on Diablo and its new MMO in the near future.

Edit: Technically, the term "terran" really only refers to K-sector humans. It's more or less a cultural thing, as explained in Uprising.

[RussianSpy27]

To each his own I guess. I didn't really feel any need for the UED to return in the near future. In a way, the discovery of aliens served its purpose, completely solidifying its rule over Earth. Launching a war of conquest against aliens 60,000 light years away that have no idea where you reside doesn't seem to promise many net benefits. Also, the UED coming in in the midst of a conflict is esentially a repeat of BW. 'Sides, it's been explicitly stated that Earth will play no role in the trilogy, so don't get your hopes up.

Probably thinking too far ahead, but I think the UED would best be reserved for a hypothetical SCIII-distinguished as a faction, along with fleshing out and actually depicting the galaxy's other sapients. Given the UED's apparent xenophobia, it would make for a good combination. Still, I think storywise, most of Blizzard's focus will be on Diablo and its new MMO in the near future.

SC3? Brother, that's light years away on its own.

Kerrigan knows where earth is and I wouldn't be surprised if other zerg/hybrids didn't know by now.

I understand what you're saying about repeat of Brood War, but now that Hybrids are involved, they could modify the story. Hell, let earth be destroyed, as another poster suggested. That would offer something new to sci-fi as we usually do not see Earth destroyed by aliens.

Anyway, you have a point and maybe I'm being overly nostalgic, but I thought the original BW writers put a lot of thought and emotion into the game. Just take a look at the script along with a person nicknamed "Magic"'s comments on it, extrapolating beautiful historical allusions and analysis of the characters and the story. - http://samods.org/node/199

[NeverConvex]

...I think the UED would best be reserved for a hypothetical SCIII-distinguished as a faction...

I rather like this idea. It would provide plenty of time for Blizzard to produce some new, distinctly UED human-controlled units, too, to distinguish the UED's tech from the tech of the K-sector terrans.

[Louis]

Right, I don't know what the lore definition of terran is, but the dictionary definition means "from earth". Look it up. And I'm quite sure that terran culture does not apply to zeratul.