Kerrigan and Zeratul's Encounter: Method Behind Madness?

[Turalyon]

The Overmind seemed like he had to justify his intentions to his "programming", effectively lying to his internal controls. This meant he had to come up with a plan that "looked right" but would not accomplish the Dark Voice's goals.

Baldly stating his plans to the cerebrates wouldn't make for a good cover up, IMO.

I can't see how the Overminds plan to commit suicide would ever fit with its "programming". Sc1 never elaborates why the Overmind wanted to manifest on Aiur - we now know that it was to commit suicide. How does the Overmind justify this to his "programming" (which I would assume would want to preserve the Overmind's existence as much as possible to enact its endgame - killing Protoss) though? Putting itself at great risk would never "look right" to its "programming".

It seems strange that this programming seems so strong in compelling it to kill Protoss yet not strong enough to prevent it from risking self-harm and possible death.

Even if so, it seems the Overmind didn't want to, since it didn't actually want to create hybrids.

I have to go back to this quote you made. So let's get this straight:

The "programmed" Overmind wants to kill all Protoss. But doesn't it want to assimilate Protoss in Sc1? It seems quite emphatic about assimilating Protoss even if it is just an implanted directive. I think the "programmed" Overmind does want to create Hybrids. So, you must be talking about the "real" Overmind. Or, may be there are two divisions of the "programmed" Overmind that wants to kill or assimilate Protoss. What a convoluted mess! (By the way, Blizzard sure love having characters with split personalities)

So now we have the "real" (original, unblemished, natural or whatever) Overmind wanting to "free" the Zerg using some "psionic saviour". Free the Zerg from what? Mental slavery? Their own aggressive nature? If it's the former, there's no point - the original Zerg nature is to assimilate and grow even without being enslaved or having an overriding directive. The Overmind would've still wanted to assimilate the Protoss based on its natural instinct. If it's the latter, that's a retcon - the original Zerg organism has always been aggressive to a degree. They naturally adapted themselves to burrow into other animals flesh and hijack them.

[Alex06]

The sources say it might contain protoss DNA (or terran DNA). The source wasn't sure, and so the wiki page isn't sure. Blizzard might not have made up their mind about it, either.

Actually, IIRC, the official SC2 website describes the Queen as possibly having Protoss DNA.

On the other hand it could be a nice journey for her character (not that I have faith that it will be).


Where does the manual say they use a virus? As far as I can see the only reference to infestation is for some of the queen's abilities, which use "spores" and "a parasitic bio toxin". The first time the term virus was used was in the short story StarCraft Hybrid. There's obviously more than one way to infest something in SC, and maybe the process in hybrid was more along the lines of assimilation. As for her hair, hair is dead cells anyway, so there's not really any reason for the artifact to do anything to it.

But yes, the Blizz writers do think that an infestation by virus can be removed with nanobots in resurrection IV, which isn't any more bizarre than Kerrigan's deinfestation. I doubt the artifact's function is as simple as "kill all zerg cells" though.

Hell, if it has to be a DNA-changing virus that does the infestation, then I contend that Kerrigan's original infestation in SC that you all seem to think was fine, is actually impossible. Not all DNA is the same, different parts code for different things in different species. There is no way for the Zerg to find which part codes for what just by looking at it. What if you get other tiny changes such as different replication mechanisms, or left handed vs. right handed DNA? True, the Xel'Naga did leave the Zerg instructions for assimilating races that they helped to guide, but humans weren't one of those.

I know a few things about genetics. I think what happened to Kerrigan and Stukov is that, in some way, the Zerg genes were inhibited, thus preventing their expression. As a result, they became human again, but it has to be kept in check or something like that. The same thing is done in the PS3 series, "Resistance", to prevent a human from turning into a Chimera (It comes from a virus that mutates the DNA of a human and turns it into an "alien").

[Kimera757]

Actually, IIRC, the official SC2 website describes the Queen as possibly having Protoss DNA.

Key word in bold. Possibly, hence why I said "unsure".

I can't see how the Overminds plan to commit suicide would ever fit with its "programming".

It could "justify" the plan. It didn't tell anyone it would commit suicide, it simply needed to take risks.

How does the Overmind justify this to his "programming" (which I would assume would want to preserve the Overmind's existence as much as possible to enact its endgame - killing Protoss) though? Putting itself at great risk would never "look right" to its "programming".[/quote]

I disagree. The Overmind suggested it needed to be physically present on Aiur to oversee the assimilation/hybridization of the protoss.

It seems strange that this programming seems so strong in compelling it to kill Protoss yet not strong enough to prevent it from risking self-harm and possible death.

The task the programming set was difficult and risky. The Overmind in fact believed it couldn't defeat the protoss without psionic help. (Or so it claimed, anyway.)

The "programmed" Overmind wants to kill all Protoss. But doesn't it want to assimilate Protoss in Sc1? It seems quite emphatic about assimilating Protoss even if it is just an implanted directive. I think the "programmed" Overmind does want to create Hybrids. So, you must be talking about the "real" Overmind. Or, may be there are two divisions of the "programmed" Overmind that wants to kill or assimilate Protoss. What a convoluted mess! (By the way, Blizzard sure love having characters with split personalities)

I think the programming is almost like a sentient "program" that can still be fooled. Or like how the Lich King was enslaved by the Burning Legion, but was still able to do things like get Arthas to kill Mal'Ganis. (It wasn't being constantly monitored, or something like that.) Hmm... when people say Blizzard likes to reuse plots, maybe they're not kidding

So now we have the "real" (original, unblemished, natural or whatever) Overmind wanting to "free" the Zerg using some "psionic saviour". Free the Zerg from what? Mental slavery? Their own aggressive nature? If it's the former, there's no point - the original Zerg nature is to assimilate and grow even without being enslaved or having an overriding directive. The Overmind would've still wanted to assimilate the Protoss based on its natural instinct. If it's the latter, that's a retcon - the original Zerg organism has always been aggressive to a degree. They naturally adapted themselves to burrow into other animals flesh and hijack them.

The Overmind probably would have wanted to assimilate the protoss, except the Overmind knew (from its vision) that assimilating them was a bad idea. Since it had intelligence, it would have decided not to, but it did not have (much) free will.

[Sheliek]

. . .

The sources say it might contain protoss DNA (or terran DNA). The source wasn't sure, and so the wiki page isn't sure. Blizzard might not have made up their mind about it, either.

That, and it's entirely possible the queens could in fact be hybrids. The moment I read it, I thought 'That's gonna be important, isn't it?'

[Norfindel]

How would the Queens be Hybrids? That wouldn't make any sense. Hybrids are supposed to be insanely powerful, why would you create an Hybrid that cannot really do much?

[Sheliek]

How would the Queens be Hybrids? That wouldn't make any sense. Hybrids are supposed to be insanely powerful, why would you create an Hybrid that cannot really do much?

They wouldn't mention the possibility of the queens being partly protoss if they didn't have at least some plan for that info.

[Gradius]

Pretty sure that the source of any ideas of the Queen having both DNA is that its mouth looks Protoss, which is ofc a stupid reason.

[Kimera757]

So maybe Blizzard used artwork as a lore source again.

[Sheliek]

So maybe Blizzard used artwork as a lore source again.

They've done that before?

[Turalyon]

It could "justify" the plan. It didn't tell anyone it would commit suicide, it simply needed to take risks.

An unnecessary risk - the Overmind was invulnerable up to the point he decided to manifest himself. This should ring alarm bells in its "programming" as you'd think the "programming" would also have a sense of self-preservation. How else would you expect the "programming" to fulfill its function? Like I said, the "programming" is strong enough to do something but not others which is strange considering self-preservation should be part of its overall function to [insert preferred verb] the Protoss.

The Overmind probably would have wanted to assimilate the protoss, except the Overmind knew (from its vision) that assimilating them was a bad idea. Since it had intelligence, it would have decided not to, but it did not have (much) free will.

You've touched on a contradiction here on the nature of the Overmind and its programming. Does the Overmind want to assimilate or kill the Protoss? Or is it the programming that wants to assimilate or kill the Protoss? Or is it that the Overmind wants to assimilate the Protoss and the programming wants to kill the Protoss? Or is that the Overmind wants to kill the Protoss and the programming wants to assimilate the Protoss? Or is it they both want the same thing but at different degrees? Or maybe the Overmind does not want to kill or assimilate Protoss at all - it's just the programming.

Your description of the Overmind's true motivation is flitting back and forth between those notions I described above. It's still very confusing because when I go back to play Sc1, I don't know whether some parts are the programming or the 'real' Overmind that's "talking" to me.

One last thing, I also don't understand your concept of "(much) free will". It's like saying someone is partially intelligent, partially sad, partially fat, partially pregnant etc. You either are something, something else entirely or are not at all. Tassadar explicitly says the Overmind has no free will - so all these suggestions about the Overmind making these decisions you've described to fool its programming is somewhat contradictory.

The Overmind suggested it needed to be physically present on Aiur to oversee the assimilation/hybridization of the protoss.

This is speculation and I can do that, too. For example: The Overmind's victory speech upon successfully landing on Aiur could just be an exultation about how strong his Zerg are and that this success is going to be a forerunner for its ultimate success over the Protoss (which, in pre-WoL terms anyway, meant their assimilation) and nothing more.