Retconning Weakens Starcraft 2 Story

[Kimera757]

Kimera, I agree that governments abandon failed missions. Yet, here, UED is actually afraid of the alien threat. It's not merely an imperialistic mission that they undertook and then decided to abandon, but a move of a pre-emptive survival strike. Whether the higher-ups genuinely believed so or not, that was the official propaganda, so we can take it at face-value. You're right about the point that a full-fledged attack may not be the best choice.

In the case of the UED, they have many more reasons to be threatened by the mysteriously powerful double-alien force that exterminated its expedition - even if they may not want to pull a Mark Anthony and engage in a full-sledged attack and be involved in more subtle ways.

Yet, for UED to not be involved in any way, to disappear and essentially be forgotten in the sequel to BW would be to undermine and retcon the entire awesome story.

Okay, I agree with that. I just don't think a full-scale invasion is in the cards.

If we think about it, everything in BW, everything (except the story of how Protoss survived by relocating to Shakuras) had to do with the UED in one way or another.

I thought it was a zerg civil war, with the UED acting as a massive wild card/spoiler force. But yes, that means the UED played an important role.

I'm more upset about Duran and Dark Origin only being vaguely mentioned, if at all.

So what would I have done? I would have included the abbreviated BW story, in its entirety, in the installation voice (without details of the second overmind perhaps, but certainly the general overview about the UED and Zeratul's discovery - to explain what the whole deal with hybrids is about).

I agree.

[RussianSpy27]

A person nicknamed "Magic" had done a super terrific job compiling scripts of SC and BW and providing in depth personal commentary that includes everything from literary analysis to word etymology. I think you'll enjoy it:

Starcraft: http://samods.org/175

Brood War: http://samods.org/195

~RS

[Quirel]

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.

Yes. A woman with, in all likelihood, zero political power getting the UED to strike back. After the UED KNOWS what went wrong, and that their sole chance of controlling the Zerg went down with the second Overmind. They had long-range sensors they were studying the Korprulu sector with, they have the reports from the fleet up until the last Battlecruiser went down with all hands, they can do the math. At the moment, I believe that whatever factions in the UED that favored either a complete clusternuking of the sector or a more direct and unyeilding approach are reaping the returns on their position, and have enough political power to prevent another UED venture until victory is absolutely assured. Say, ten years, full production.

But seriously, think about your premise for a second. The ONLY piece of evidence that surfaced after NO-ONE comes back is the light-speed E-mail DuGualle sent? Hell, I think that would be the very LAST thing that would be sent via FTL transmission. A suicide note is something you have one of your subordinates or lifelong friends deliver. In the meantime, we know that the UED has the probes they were studying the sector with, and we have common sense telling them that they wouldn't send a general off to collect the ultimate weapon without keeping close tabs on him. He might be a little more political than you think.

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).

If Mr. Obama has enough clout and tech to get us to Mars, I'd like to know why the mountains on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border aren't a smouldering mound of glass at the moment.

More seriously, if we land an expeditionary force of Marines on Mars, we would actually have satellites and spy cams orbiting the planet. The Marines wouldn't disappear into thin air, and if they did, there's something called a Relativistic Kill Vehicle propelled by Project Orion, guaranteed to make Mars an uninhabitable rock once more.

But that's not a good analogy, what you posted. First of all, we'd have to have a pretty good idea of what a third of Martian life-forms are like. Second, we'd have to be invading to seize an artifact that would control another third of the population. And then we'd have to know that the artifact ceased to exist, and the whole reason for invading is gone.

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.

Because they were gullible, they didn't know the territory, and they had a cargoship full of dumb muscle to help him. And they could easily be played off the other factions.

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...

In case you haven't noticed, Mengsk's charisma is inversely proportional to how much opposition he's up against. Kerrigan balks at the use of Psi-Emitters, he directly orders her between a rock and a hard place. Raynor breaks off with a lot of his troops and his flagship, and we have his iconic "I will rule this sector or see it burned to ashes." moment. I think that Kerrigan turning on him much earlier than he expected, slaughtering his forces, and then killing his right-hand man is worth a minor Blue Screen of Death.

In the infamous words of Artemis Fowl...
"Lollipops!"

[RussianSpy27]

Yes. A woman with, in all likelihood, zero political power getting the UED to strike back. After the UED KNOWS what went wrong, and that their sole chance of controlling the Zerg went down with the second Overmind. They had long-range sensors they were studying the Korprulu sector with, they have the reports from the fleet up until the last Battlecruiser went down with all hands, they can do the math. At the moment, I believe that whatever factions in the UED that favored either a complete clusternuking of the sector or a more direct and unyeilding approach are reaping the returns on their position, and have enough political power to prevent another UED venture until victory is absolutely assured. Say, ten years, full production.

But seriously, think about your premise for a second. The ONLY piece of evidence that surfaced after NO-ONE comes back is the light-speed E-mail DuGualle sent? Hell, I think that would be the very LAST thing that would be sent via FTL transmission. A suicide note is something you have one of your subordinates or lifelong friends deliver. In the meantime, we know that the UED has the probes they were studying the sector with, and we have common sense telling them that they wouldn't send a general off to collect the ultimate weapon without keeping close tabs on him. He might be a little more political than you think.


If Mr. Obama has enough clout and tech to get us to Mars, I'd like to know why the mountains on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border aren't a smouldering mound of glass at the moment.

More seriously, if we land an expeditionary force of Marines on Mars, we would actually have satellites and spy cams orbiting the planet. The Marines wouldn't disappear into thin air, and if they did, there's something called a Relativistic Kill Vehicle propelled by Project Orion, guaranteed to make Mars an uninhabitable rock once more.

But that's not a good analogy, what you posted. First of all, we'd have to have a pretty good idea of what a third of Martian life-forms are like. Second, we'd have to be invading to seize an artifact that would control another third of the population. And then we'd have to know that the artifact ceased to exist, and the whole reason for invading is gone.


Because they were gullible, they didn't know the territory, and they had a cargoship full of dumb muscle to help him. And they could easily be played off the other factions.


"Lollipops!"

The part about Helena was more of a dramatic effect...oh well, I guess I did a bad job at that and the Obama analogy. Thanks for pointing that out...I should try to be better next time.

Anyhow, I feel like your responses do not disagree with my points.

What you're saying is that (1) UED Government knew about the defeat through more serious sources than a suicide letter (goes even better against the argument that UED is out of the picture because BW closing text suggests no one lived to return to Earth and tell the story).

(2) I am not sure if it would take ten years or less, but my point was that the UED would not be about to abandon the K-Sector filled with viscous, all consuming aliens, which they believe could attack Earth.

As such, to completely leave the UED out of the storyline is, in my opinion, an inconsiderate move to what was established in BW and should hopefully be remedied in future expansions.