They took Starcraft, a story about the struggle of survival for 3 alien races and turned it into a love story between Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan? Am I just looking at the story the wrong way? I feel like every major plot point is overshadowed by this "romance" story between Jim and Sarah.
Am I the only one who thinks Starcraft 1 was superior in the story? The dark atmosphere, the ambience and the wicked feel of the universe. From protecting the chrysalid that was changing Kerrigan to Sam Duran's secret mission on the moon. Every mission told an awesome story that focused on awesome characters but also told a broad story about the race and universe. In Starcraft 2 it really feels like the only characters are Jim and Kerrigan. Mengsk Junior seems like just a plot device and so does Mengsk himself. Does anyone remember Brood War?
Yea it was freaking epic.
I'm just disappointed that they took one of the coolest game universes and pretty much watered and dumbed it down hollywood fashion to appeal to a broader audience. But maybe this is just me? Am I just feeling too nostalgic?
I actually disagree with your interpretation here. I don't think it's a love story, it's certainly a relationship story between two leaders but I think that's a plot device rather than the story. Everything is overshadowed by the Xel'Naga, the fallen one and the prophecy, the petty squabbles between the terran, protoss and zerg and any personal stake seems quite secondary and so far I think they've actually done a relatively decent job.
I especially liked the way this was shown at the end of HotS. Sure mengsk is (probably) dead, Kerrigan and Raynor have an opportunity to see each other again briefly, but that moment is immediately overshadowed by what is to come. Kerrigan especially seemed aware of that, making sure the swarm would leave her petty revenge behind and go and face the real threat regardless of the outcome.
Sure the first story was epic, but without the second it's just another war.
On March 24 2013 23:04 Iyerbeth wrote: I actually disagree with your interpretation here. I don't think it's a love story, it's certainly a relationship story between two leaders but I think that's a plot device rather than the story. Everything is overshadowed by the Xel'Naga, the fallen one and the prophecy, the petty squabbles between the terran, protoss and zerg and any personal stake seems quite secondary and so far I think they've actually done a relatively decent job.
I especially liked the way this was shown at the end of HotS. Sure mengsk is (probably) dead, Kerrigan and Raynor have an opportunity to see each other again briefly, but that moment is immediately overshadowed by what is to come. Kerrigan especially seemed aware of that, making sure the swarm would leave her petty revenge behind and go and face the real threat regardless of the outcome.
Sure the first story was epic, but without the second it's just another war.
'<3 of the Swarm' .. sums up to a better love story than twilight ..
Honestly, the worst the graphics and the less complicated the story the better we remember it. It left more to the imagination. Full HD cutscenes where we actually see someone's representation of Kerrigan messes with what we think it should be. To be honest, I thought Mensk, Kerrigan, and Raynor were minor characters in the SC universe. At least part 3 will have more Protoss.
On March 24 2013 23:04 Iyerbeth wrote: I actually disagree with your interpretation here. I don't think it's a love story, it's certainly a relationship story between two leaders but I think that's a plot device rather than the story. Everything is overshadowed by the Xel'Naga, the fallen one and the prophecy, the petty squabbles between the terran, protoss and zerg and any personal stake seems quite secondary and so far I think they've actually done a relatively decent job.
I especially liked the way this was shown at the end of HotS. Sure mengsk is (probably) dead, Kerrigan and Raynor have an opportunity to see each other again briefly, but that moment is immediately overshadowed by what is to come. Kerrigan especially seemed aware of that, making sure the swarm would leave her petty revenge behind and go and face the real threat regardless of the outcome.
Sure the first story was epic, but without the second it's just another war.
'<3 of the Swarm' .. sums up to a better love story than twilight ..
Yes, because the story of heart of the swarm was carried by the lives of two individuals. I'm not sure how you think that invalidates my point that the romance between those two is a story telling device, rather than the actual story which is clearly something else though?
You're literally judging a book by it's cover (title).
SC has never had a great story. At least not in the games. In BW there were some missing missions. Fenix dies before the second level. There was a never released Terran mission that explained how Raynor and Tassadar met. Tassadar let himself be captured only to be freed the next level which I felt was stupid.
This map was later recycled into one of the enslavers missions. I played through all of the Enslavers missions and they were alright. Unlike fanmade maps they had a Blizzard level of quality. The origianl Terran mission taught you how to do drops and showed how Tassadar and Jim met. Another casually skipped story detail.
HotS did a good job teaching newbs to the SC universe how to play. How to handle feeder allies (last level), expand, siege, and defend and how to use all the various units.
I'm starting to see what you're talking about now. The Starcraft Universe was left messed up. Kerrigan got infested even though she was a good person, and Stukov, a modern day Hector got killed by Duran. I have a feeling that the writers wanted to close Starcraft on a good note and to do that, Kerrigan would need to regain her humanity, Duran would have to live, and Raynor and Kerrigan would have to get back together.
They had to reneg on Raynor's pact to kill Kerrigan by showing Raynor what the future would be like if Kerrigan died. They also had to set up a big raid boss, Amon, to build up hype for LotV and to have a common enemy in the last game. The betrayals, and ad hoc alliances in the original BW, while great for storytelling, are probably not good for closing a story with a happy ending.
I guess the storywriters at Blizzard had a decision to make as to whether they wanted to close the story on a happy note. If they wanted it to have a happy ending they needed to do a lot of things to make sure Raynor and Kerrigan got back together and they didn't have time to have more betrayals because that would just introduce more bad guys.
On March 24 2013 23:04 Iyerbeth wrote: I actually disagree with your interpretation here. I don't think it's a love story, it's certainly a relationship story between two leaders but I think that's a plot device rather than the story. Everything is overshadowed by the Xel'Naga, the fallen one and the prophecy, the petty squabbles between the terran, protoss and zerg and any personal stake seems quite secondary and so far I think they've actually done a relatively decent job.
I especially liked the way this was shown at the end of HotS. Sure mengsk is (probably) dead, Kerrigan and Raynor have an opportunity to see each other again briefly, but that moment is immediately overshadowed by what is to come. Kerrigan especially seemed aware of that, making sure the swarm would leave her petty revenge behind and go and face the real threat regardless of the outcome.
Sure the first story was epic, but without the second it's just another war.
Yea I guess it's not a total love story, and it is about the Xel Naga and the fallen.
At the same time, I miss the... friction? of Starcraft 1. Jim and Kerrigan seem so eager to work together which is unrealistic considering all the crap they've done to each other.
On March 24 2013 23:52 Burrfoot wrote: Honestly, the worst the graphics and the less complicated the story the better we remember it. It left more to the imagination. Full HD cutscenes where we actually see someone's representation of Kerrigan messes with what we think it should be. To be honest, I thought Mensk, Kerrigan, and Raynor were minor characters in the SC universe. At least part 3 will have more Protoss.
I think this is also true. The more Blizzard seems to amp up the production value and cheesy dialogue (Kerrigan actually tells Jim that she loves him. WTF.) the less we can put ourselves into it.
sex sells.... except they can't even put in nudity, so the story just becomes ridiculous. lol
if u think about it, the stuff Jim and Sarah says are the type of lame lines that people use in porns. Boring filler material (that kind of half makes sense) until the XXX starts, except there is no XXX so its just pure filler.
On March 24 2013 23:04 Iyerbeth wrote: I actually disagree with your interpretation here. I don't think it's a love story, it's certainly a relationship story between two leaders but I think that's a plot device rather than the story. Everything is overshadowed by the Xel'Naga, the fallen one and the prophecy, the petty squabbles between the terran, protoss and zerg and any personal stake seems quite secondary and so far I think they've actually done a relatively decent job.
I especially liked the way this was shown at the end of HotS. Sure mengsk is (probably) dead, Kerrigan and Raynor have an opportunity to see each other again briefly, but that moment is immediately overshadowed by what is to come. Kerrigan especially seemed aware of that, making sure the swarm would leave her petty revenge behind and go and face the real threat regardless of the outcome.
Sure the first story was epic, but without the second it's just another war.
Yea I guess it's not a total love story, and it is about the Xel Naga and the fallen.
At the same time, I miss the... friction? of Starcraft 1. Jim and Kerrigan seem so eager to work together which is unrealistic considering all the crap they've done to each other.
That's actually quite true. I think Blizz did try to show that friction at a couple of points in the campaign, but overall I'd have to agree.
how the fuck did a guy like jim raynor go from hanging with badasses like fenix, tassadar, and zeratul, to hanging around people like matt horner and that scientist girl from the colony? my goodness, wasn't he chilling with the protoss at the end of bw, cuz he hates mengsk and the ued?
and what happened to kerrigan, as she calls herself, the queen bitch of the universe who has no trouble backstabbing, manipulating people, and owning it up with the swarm doing whatever the hell she wants? she went from that, to being portrayed as some damsel in distress who needs to be saved by jim raynor? come the fuck on.
On March 24 2013 23:52 Burrfoot wrote: Honestly, the worst the graphics and the less complicated the story the better we remember it. It left more to the imagination. Full HD cutscenes where we actually see someone's representation of Kerrigan messes with what we think it should be. To be honest, I thought Mensk, Kerrigan, and Raynor were minor characters in the SC universe. At least part 3 will have more Protoss.
Final Fantasy X and X-2?
It's not the graphics, it's how the story conforms to your view of what should happen, and since you've developed this idea of what the characters should be like and what they should do, when the actual game/story does something different, you dislike the intrusion. You've built up the story in your mind and now it feels wrong.
On March 25 2013 06:45 ieatkids5 wrote: and what happened to kerrigan, as she calls herself, the queen bitch of the universe who has no trouble backstabbing, manipulating people, and owning it up with the swarm doing whatever the hell she wants? she went from that, to being portrayed as some damsel in distress who needs to be saved by jim raynor? come the fuck on.
"She was in love with Raynor since he saved her from being the Queen of Blades" >.>
Her focus was on that, and then she realized there was something even more important. i.e., she's no longer that Queen of Blades anymore. She's a zergy human.
On March 25 2013 06:45 ieatkids5 wrote: and what happened to kerrigan, as she calls herself, the queen bitch of the universe who has no trouble backstabbing, manipulating people, and owning it up with the swarm doing whatever the hell she wants? she went from that, to being portrayed as some damsel in distress who needs to be saved by jim raynor? come the fuck on.
"She was in love with Raynor since he saved her from being the Queen of Blades" >.>
Her focus was on that, and then she realized there was something even more important. i.e., she's no longer that Queen of Blades anymore. She's a zergy human.
i know, im disappointed that blizz decided to go that route.
On March 25 2013 06:45 ieatkids5 wrote: and what happened to kerrigan, as she calls herself, the queen bitch of the universe who has no trouble backstabbing, manipulating people, and owning it up with the swarm doing whatever the hell she wants? she went from that, to being portrayed as some damsel in distress who needs to be saved by jim raynor? come the fuck on.
"She was in love with Raynor since he saved her from being the Queen of Blades" >.>
Her focus was on that, and then she realized there was something even more important. i.e., she's no longer that Queen of Blades anymore. She's a zergy human.
i know, im disappointed that blizz decided to go that route.
it's good because if you think about it, lotv only has 20ish missions and if kerrigan and jim relationship is still unresolved or she stayed as evil, then lotv will have too much focus on them. protoss had always been very subtle in their appearance in wol and hots, lotv is gonna focus on them and the xelnaga very closely, there aren't enough missions to cover anything else
On March 24 2013 23:04 Iyerbeth wrote: I actually disagree with your interpretation here. I don't think it's a love story, it's certainly a relationship story between two leaders but I think that's a plot device rather than the story. Everything is overshadowed by the Xel'Naga, the fallen one and the prophecy, the petty squabbles between the terran, protoss and zerg and any personal stake seems quite secondary and so far I think they've actually done a relatively decent job.
I agree, the real story is about the Xel'Naga and all that, but still HotS focuses so much on Kerrigan and her emotions and her development. What I think the crux of the problem (or, why a lot of people don't like the story as much as they did sc1 and bw) is that, if I may use an analogy, HotS is like a "behind the scenes" DVD of your favorite band working on their next album. Sure it's nice to see what they went through during that time, but what you're probably more interested in is the album itself. The analogy is a bit weird maybe, but Kerrigan's development is the "behind the scenes story", and the bigger picture with the Xel'Naga is the album.
So even if the story itself is great in its own right, and we really care about Kerrigan and Jim, it's not what a lot of people expected. We want the epic story, the twists and turns, betrayers and martyrs and all that good jazz.
On March 24 2013 23:04 Iyerbeth wrote: I actually disagree with your interpretation here. I don't think it's a love story, it's certainly a relationship story between two leaders but I think that's a plot device rather than the story. Everything is overshadowed by the Xel'Naga, the fallen one and the prophecy, the petty squabbles between the terran, protoss and zerg and any personal stake seems quite secondary and so far I think they've actually done a relatively decent job.
I agree, the real story is about the Xel'Naga and all that, but still HotS focuses so much on Kerrigan and her emotions and her development. What I think the crux of the problem (or, why a lot of people don't like the story as much as they did sc1 and bw) is that, if I may use an analogy, HotS is like a "behind the scenes" DVD of your favorite band working on their next album. Sure it's nice to see what they went through during that time, but what you're probably more interested in is the album itself. The analogy is a bit weird maybe, but Kerrigan's development is the "behind the scenes story", and the bigger picture with the Xel'Naga is the album.
So even if the story itself is great in its own right, and we really care about Kerrigan and Jim, it's not what a lot of people expected. We want the epic story, the twists and turns, betrayers and martyrs and all that good jazz.
That's actually an awesome analogy, lol. I can definately see what you mean.
EPT
