SC1 and BW Sci-Fi Tropes and Legacy – Protoss

Heartland

Sweden24580 Posts

December 08 2016 10:09 GMT

Welcome to the latest and last part of my three-part series on the use of sci-fi tropes in vanilla sc1 and Brood War. This time around we’re going to look at Protoss which I think is one of the most interesting in terms of the difference in inspiration from the other two races. As I’ve talked about before Terran and Zerg are heavily reliant on the Alien and Starship Troopers series. Protoss, on the other hand, is quite different. Let’s go take a look, shall we?

Protoss is heavily indebted to Babylon 5 for inspiration. In particular Protoss are based off of two races, the Mimbari and the Vorlons. I’d argue that the Vorlons are the main inspiration for the early part of vanilla Starcraft. Basically the Vorlons are an ancient race which represents Order, they are locked in eternal war against their opposites called the Shadows which represent – that’s right – Chaos. Let’s compare the opening plot of vanilla Starcraft to the Vorlon plot:

PROLOGUE:

In the decade since the end of the Guild
Wars, the oppressive Terran Confederacy has
stood unchallenged in its supremacy over
colonized space.

All of that changed four days ago when a
large alien fleet emerged from warp-space and
laid waste to the unsuspecting Confederate
colony of Chau Sara.

The Confederacy, fearing that the alien fleet's
next target will be the colony of Mar Sara,
has sent you to intervene. Acting as
Magistrate, you are to safeguard the
colonists and keep their panic from
escalating any further.

Wikipedia gives this general entry of what the Vorlons are up to:

By the time of the series, the Vorlons and Shadows have long since lost sight of the original goal. The intent of both elder species was to encourage the growth of younger species through the competition of order and chaos. The conflict metamorphosed into a game for military (rather than ideological) dominion. The Vorlons began to treat the younger species as pawns. This outlook took an extreme shift following the death of the first Ambassador Kosh Naranek, ending with a move to eliminate all worlds touched by the Shadows by means of a planet killer, a huge ship that could reduce a planet to rubble with a single shot.

Indeed, these planet-killers appear to suddenly destroy planets later found out to be corrupted by the Shadows in a similar way in which Protoss fleets totally destroy the Zerg-infested Confederate colonies. Protoss does not have a special "planet killer"-ship in vanilla SC and BW but a similar unit appears later on in Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. The trope is the same however.

In this frame we can see that Zerg and Protoss take the role of Vorlons and Shadows. Further, Vorlons are telepathic and locked in massive suits, the fact that Vorlons hide their features differs from Protoss however. The general look of Protoss is more akin to Minbari of Babylon 5 and the Eldar in Warhammer 40 000. Both these races are part of the “ancient enigmatic psyker race” trope.

The Starcraft 1 and Brood War campaigns generally follow how Minbari, Vorlons and Eldar develop – that their pride leads to their fall, that a few of them see some mercy for the weaker human race and fight their arrogant racist brethren.

[image loading]

Minbari

Eldar

The fact that Protoss are so much more bulky and physically strong in comparison to Eldar and Minbari is interesting. The trope is usually portrayed as nimble, dexterous and refined rather than massive and powerful. Perhaps this is just an interesting take on the trope which breathes new life into it or perhaps it’s due to what I believe is the strangest conceptual inspiration for Protoss yet:

[image loading]

Predator is a movie about an alien hunter which is both portrayed as a beast, a barbarian (complete with all the trappings of honour) and a high tech sci-fi creature. I began to realize this as one thing that has always confused me has been the snarling noises that Zealots make in Brood War:

Why is it that this Mimbari/Protoss/Vorlon-inspired trope makes beastial noises? I believe that here the inspiration from Predator shines through. The cloaking which Protoss units are capable of also start to make sense if we think about it through the lens of Predator.

(I can't find the movie as stand-alone, it starts at 1:10)

Do you agree? Not agree? Would you like to add something? Would you like me to try and get into Starcraft 2 inspiration as well? Give me some feedback!

154 Posts

December 08 2016 15:02 GMT

There's a lot of + Show Spoiler [Ra in the Protoss] +

like the fact that he had a warp gate too

not to mention interceptors and + Show Spoiler [pyramid-like structures] +

slow, epic soundtracks, distorted voice and no problem with blowing up an entire planet. But mainly the history of Ra, as deciphered by Daniel Jackson, has the mineral he's mining, which all of his technology is based on, play a central role. + Show Spoiler [Plus] +

Obviously Tassadar's noble death is the exact oposite of Ra's:

yet looks pretty similar

And in return there's a lot of Starcraft in SG-1.

intotheheart

Canada33091 Posts

December 09 2016 00:11 GMT

I definitely enjoy that sort of trope in SciFi though, since I find it's a good warning to what may happen if we ignore their example. Was Babylon-5 the first series with this idea? I don't keep up with a lot of SciFi.

Heartland

Sweden24580 Posts

December 09 2016 08:09 GMT

Thanks N0! That's a good point that I had overlooked.

IntoTheHeart: Which trope do you mean?

154 Posts

December 09 2016 11:24 GMT

Yeah, it's amazing how many similarities there are between Stargate the movie, Stargate the TV series franchise and the Starcraft franchise. You could make a point of DTs having originated from + Show Spoiler [ this scene] +

Either those soldiers, pretty damn similar to the starcraft variety in demeanor btw., were pretty damn high to warrant such hideous display of combat, or the + Show Spoiler [Anubis-head DT] +

guy was partially or completely cloaked, and the producers just lacked or weren't happy with the cgi.

I thought SG-1 came out later but the first season actually ended before the release date of starcraft vanilla, and the second season premiered before the release of broodwar. So the question is which came first.. the Arbiter or + Show Spoiler [the Nox] +

, + Show Spoiler [Garshaw] +

Garshaw of Belote x Yosuuf
[image loading]

is a Grand Councillor of the Tok'ra, and known as the 'most hunted Goa'uld of all time. The System Lords have a similar animosity towards the Tok'ra to that of the Conclave towards the Dark Templar.

and + Show Spoiler [Nirrti] +

who first appears in 1997, but only later is revealed to have developed the + Show Spoiler [Reetou] +

cloaking technology, when trying to frame Teal'c for an attempted assassination, in 1999

or the Matriarch, Raynor + Kerrigan or + Show Spoiler [Jackson x Sha'uri] +

I see an obvious similarity between her and infested Kerrigan from the broodwar loading screen
[image loading]

She gets abducted and infested by the Goa'uld in the pilot episode of SG-1. It's a stretch but you can equate Kerrigan's psychic ability to that of Sha'uri's ability to read the symbols, in terms of rarity.

, the badassery of a Cattlebruiser or an + Show Spoiler [Asgard Morthership] +

Airdate: 29th of August 1997

c3rberUs

Japan11286 Posts

December 10 2016 00:11 GMT

Oh so that's probably where the Protoss took their Egyptian-esque look. Also, the sound effects are so StarCraft lol.

The last video clip are unmistakably the inspiration for khaydarin crystals.

Also, the design and fell of the Protoss may have also had an influence on Halo's Sangheili race.

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