On the surface it's a happy ending. Boy gets girl and you get the feeling they will live happily ever after.
However I do not believe this is the case. What struck me at the end of the campaign is, what is gonna happend to the Zerg without their leader?
Zeratul's vision shows the Zerg being enslaved by the mutants, due to what Raynor believes the death of Kerrigan. I believe the real reason is rather that they free her of her infestation.
With that being said, how do you believe the story will progress? My current theory is something along the lines of Kerrigan going back to being infested, to save the world by controlling the Zerg.
Spoilers ahoy! It might be easier just to add spoilers to the title itself, as that's pretty much all this thread is gonna be. + Show Spoiler +
I feel like Kerrigan will still be controlling the zerg. I doubt she'll still be infested fully, as that would defeat the whole point of Wings of Liberty and make her go all bloodthirsty again. I think instead she'll be controlling the Zerg in her current state and bending them towards taking down Arcturus for vengeance and the Hybrids, who will undoubtedly become a much larger threat.
After all, if the campaign is anything like Wings of Liberty, she'll need other characters to interact with, and since the Cerebrates are all dead that falls to people like Raynor and Valerian. I predict that those two, at least, will play quite a large part in the Zerg campaign.
On July 28 2010 17:05 TheTuna wrote: Spoilers ahoy! It might be easier just to add spoilers to the title itself, as that's pretty much all this thread is gonna be. + Show Spoiler +
I feel like Kerrigan will still be controlling the zerg. I doubt she'll still be infested fully, as that would defeat the whole point of Wings of Liberty and make her go all bloodthirsty again. I think instead she'll be controlling the Zerg in her current state and bending them towards taking down Arcturus for vengeance and the Hybrids, who will undoubtedly become a much larger threat.
After all, if the campaign is anything like Wings of Liberty, she'll need other characters to interact with, and since the Cerebrates are all dead that falls to people like Raynor and Valerian. I predict that those two, at least, will play quite a large part in the Zerg campaign.
wow I have to say your theory is actually something that sounds like it'll be. I'm impressed that one I can actually see blizzard doing and am really curious on to how it will continue. I hope Kerrigan gets her red hair back though
Okay, I think we can dispense with the spoiler tags now.
Agreed! Tentacle hair is just weird on human kerrigan, and it's totally illogical since the rest of her body underwent an equally traumatic reversal. Another thing to note is that the secret mission strongly hints that Duran may be cooperating with Mengsk to create Hybrids; the mission, for those who haven't played it yet, is a facility raid on a dominion lab that's creating hybrids, much like Dark Origins. Afterwards, Horner points out that Mengsk couldn't possibly know how to do that...but who do we know that does? Hmmm....
So yeah, Duran in Heart of the Swarm for sure, I think.
I agree with those of you who say that Kerrigan will probably still be in control of the Zerg. The first expansion will be a zerg campaign but it will also be centered around Kerrigan(or her fate at least). Unless Kerrigan is in control of the zerg then who else would you play? Also by letting Kerrigan still control the zerg and letting her be the main character in the expansion they can bring some of the characters along from WoL. I'm guessing there will be an alliance between Raynor and his men and Kerrigans zerg. Kind of like how Raynor was a big character in the Protoss campaign in Starcraft 1.
You are given hints when the campaign ends that "Arcturus is still in power..." which would suggest that his downfall is also the center of the second campaign. Kerrigan wanting revenge on Arcturus obviously supports this.
Another possibility would be that we play as Duran or something. But then it wouldn't really be a zerg campaign. It would be more of a Hybrid campaign and the Protoss mission told us that the zerg or at least Kerrigan is in some way responsible for defeating the Hybrids. It would be silly to have a campaign centered around the hybrids that ends with defeat for the player. In all campaigns in Starcraft history so far you start out as an underdog and end the final mission with a deciding victory of some form. If Kerrigan is supposed to defeat the Hybrids then it will have to happen in the next campaign and you will be playing as the victor.
@ OP, Wow I never thought of it like that, that's pretty mindboggling now and after the game being beat on release date I am now thirsty for the expansion already -_-. Need to ladder get my mind off things
On the mission "Media Blitz you are supposed to take control of 3 broadcast buildings. If you look on the map however there is a lone "island" at about the 5 o'clock position which you access by a bridge. On the island you will find a science facility. Destroy it to unlock the secret mission.
Note that you can't do this if you already completed the campaign and choose the mission in the list. You have to do it while being on the campaign before going to Char. I still had an auto save from media blitz since I did it pretty late.
If were to make any sort of sense of Zeratul's visions, we have to assume she can still control the zerg or Raynor just basically said fk it and doomed everyone despite knowing what would happen
I found the story very good and interesting. With the ending however I'm totally unsatisfied. There are so many questions unanswered. What's up with the Xel'Naga now? What happens with the federation? What with Raynor and Kerrigan? I know it's gonna be answered in the upcoming expansions, but for me personally it just wasn't an "epic" ending. I also expected a bigger ending sequence as in BroodWar. It just kinda sucks that we now have to wait such a long time to find out how the story will proceed
I hated the ending, it was the worst possible option they could have went with. + Show Spoiler +
They converted possibly one of the most notorious villains of our lifetime back to the good side without giving her any depth at all throughout the entire campaign. It's untapped potential that now can't ever be used later on. The only way Blizzard can salvage this mistake has to be in the expansion, giving zerg leadership characters that are equally as creative and interesting. That's going to be a tough challenge, because in Broodwar Kerrigan was awsome, outsmarted everyone and had incredible power to her. There's a lot more that could've been done with her in these games. She was a chaotic factor in Starcraft's storyline and a big part in why the story was so memorable.
Something I noticed about the ending, Kerrigan was human, a bullet would have killed her, but being carried naked through Char, the most inhospitable planet in the game wouldn't? Blizzard writers need to be set on fire, between the nerdy dialogue (space elves) and horrible plot twists, they're ruining this franchise. gl salvaging it.
On July 30 2010 12:52 Rah wrote: I hated the ending, it was the worst possible option they could have went with. + Show Spoiler +
They converted possibly one of the most notorious villains of our lifetime back to the good side without giving her any depth at all throughout the entire campaign. It's untapped potential that now can't ever be used later on. The only way Blizzard can salvage this mistake has to be in the expansion, giving zerg leadership characters that are equally as creative and interesting. That's going to be a tough challenge, because in Broodwar Kerrigan was awsome, outsmarted everyone and had incredible power to her. There's a lot more that could've been done with her in these games. She was a chaotic factor in Starcraft's storyline and a big part in why the story was so memorable.
Something I noticed about the ending, Kerrigan was human, a bullet would have killed her, but being carried naked through Char, the most inhospitable planet in the game wouldn't? Blizzard writers need to be set on fire, between the nerdy dialogue and horrible plot twists, they're ruining this franchise. gl salvaging it.
You're really nitpicking that hard? I'm no lore expert, but I think a direct bullet to her head would have killed her before too
On July 30 2010 12:52 Rah wrote: I hated the ending, it was the worst possible option they could have went with. + Show Spoiler +
They converted possibly one of the most notorious villains of our lifetime back to the good side without giving her any depth at all throughout the entire campaign. It's untapped potential that now can't ever be used later on. The only way Blizzard can salvage this mistake has to be in the expansion, giving zerg leadership characters that are equally as creative and interesting. That's going to be a tough challenge, because in Broodwar Kerrigan was awsome, outsmarted everyone and had incredible power to her. There's a lot more that could've been done with her in these games. She was a chaotic factor in Starcraft's storyline and a big part in why the story was so memorable.
Something I noticed about the ending, Kerrigan was human, a bullet would have killed her, but being carried naked through Char, the most inhospitable planet in the game wouldn't? Blizzard writers need to be set on fire, between the nerdy dialogue and horrible plot twists, they're ruining this franchise. gl salvaging it.
You're really nitpicking that hard? I'm no lore expert, but I think a direct bullet to her head would have killed her before too
It's not that we're angry because Kerrigan reversed her infestation but because it happened too soon without any more depth analysis on her devious side. If you look at it from a person's perspective who has alot of knowledge on the events of Brood War, she really was the evil "Queen Bitch of the Universe" who you'd hate to have any involvement with rather than some zombified fool gets PO'd over everything around her. And Mengsk, seriously, where has all of your charisma gone to? 4 years ago, you were the biggest Terran scumbag in the universe with only a few people who know it.
Just because she's human doesn't mean she can't still control the zerg. The next expansion IS a zerg expansion, and they're going to need a leader. Also, just because she's no longer "infested" doesn't mean she's necessarily good or has forgiven Mengsk. She's been free from the overmind's control since 1998, but that hasn't kept her from being a bitch to everybody. If you really think about it, nothing has changed, except she's hotter now.
My idea was, when you go to visit the Overminds "corpse" you notice the zerg still linger around it, why? If kerrigan had control of them they should have just left it to die, however you notice its body is also throbbing, thats an awful long time for something to still be moving isnt it? 4 years?lol?
Channeling energy or not You couldnt kill a Cerebrate without a Dark Templar doing it itself, if the Overmind could be recreated from a shitload of Cerebrates why would it die to a Carrier crashing into it?
Furthermore it Didnt kill Tassadar as he says "I havent experienced death nor will i ever" orsomething along those lines.
IMO the Overmind isnt really dead, and it will be leading the swarm in HOTS
On July 30 2010 14:02 arb wrote: My idea was, when you go to visit the Overminds "corpse" you notice the zerg still linger around it, why? If kerrigan had control of them they should have just left it to die, however you notice its body is also throbbing, thats an awful long time for something to still be moving isnt it? 4 years?lol?
Channeling energy or not You couldnt kill a Cerebrate without a Dark Templar doing it itself, if the Overmind could be recreated from a shitload of Cerebrates why would it die to a Carrier crashing into it?
Furthermore it Didnt kill Tassadar as he says "I havent experienced death nor will i ever" orsomething along those lines.
IMO the Overmind isnt really dead, and it will be leading the swarm in HOTS
Really interresting. Sounds possible.
In before the whole invasion and later death of the Overmind was a big con from Tassadar to get a HUGE yard (aka the entire Aiur). Where he and the Overmind chill and play online poker all day.
On July 30 2010 14:02 arb wrote: My idea was, when you go to visit the Overminds "corpse" you notice the zerg still linger around it, why? If kerrigan had control of them they should have just left it to die, however you notice its body is also throbbing, thats an awful long time for something to still be moving isnt it? 4 years?lol?
Channeling energy or not You couldnt kill a Cerebrate without a Dark Templar doing it itself, if the Overmind could be recreated from a shitload of Cerebrates why would it die to a Carrier crashing into it?
Furthermore it Didnt kill Tassadar as he says "I havent experienced death nor will i ever" orsomething along those lines.
IMO the Overmind isnt really dead, and it will be leading the swarm in HOTS
Wasn't there something about Tassadar learning to merge dark and light powers to imbue his carrier with super duper destructivenessnessness?
On July 30 2010 14:02 arb wrote: IMO the Overmind isnt really dead, and it will be leading the swarm in HOTS
Didn't Blizzard state that HotS will be focused around Kerrigan and the development of the Zerg empire? I would lose my entire faith in Blizzard if it wasn't focused around her.
a giant FUUUU on the ending really. I enjoyed my zerg lead by a ruthless personification of evil. What now?! What now?! I am a headless zergling spazzing!
Obviously zerg will be fighting hybrid in HOTS i just hope that after Kerrigan easily defeats those inferior evils she turns back to overtaking the galaxy. Protoss can try and stop her in part 3.
Very anti climatic that in mere 4-5 missions on char, Raynor, his crew and some Dominion troops manage to go to freaking Char a planet made of lava and infested with Zerg manage to defeat them, and reverse Kerrigan back to human without any significant losses.
Stark contrast to UED, Protoss with Raynor and Dominion at tne end of Brood War couldnt do the same.
On July 30 2010 12:17 FlopTurnReaver wrote: I found the story very good and interesting. With the ending however I'm totally unsatisfied. There are so many questions unanswered. What's up with the Xel'Naga now? What happens with the federation? What with Raynor and Kerrigan? I know it's gonna be answered in the upcoming expansions, but for me personally it just wasn't an "epic" ending. I also expected a bigger ending sequence as in BroodWar. It just kinda sucks that we now have to wait such a long time to find out how the story will proceed
I really agree with you. I played the campaign, and during the campaign, I was so looking forward to figure out how all this is gonna end. Oh boy was the ending boring. I was also looking forward to an epic ending like the old starcraft. It took quite some hours to play the entire singleplayer, and the reward for doing it felt like a rip off. The game itself is very polished and nicely executed, but the storyline we have been given was thin.
On July 30 2010 18:32 Raevin wrote: Very anti climatic that in mere 4-5 missions on char, Raynor, his crew and some Dominion troops manage to go to freaking Char a planet made of lava and infested with Zerg manage to defeat them, and reverse Kerrigan back to human without any significant losses.
Stark contrast to UED, Protoss with Raynor and Dominion at tne end of Brood War couldnt do the same.
I know, but keep in mind the artifact was their secret weapon that could get rid of any big incomming zerg swarm if it got too big.
I loved the ending, i was 100% sure they would do another retarted BW plot twist right in the end so kerrigan stayed Zerg, but they didn't, she was saved(for now) It almost feels like reverse psychology, im so used to "What ai Twiiiist" moments in blizz cames, that the the happy ending came as a suprise. And they already said that she is the main character in HotS
+ Overmind > Kerrigan why so little love for that big lovely brain blob?
On July 30 2010 18:41 SmoKim wrote: I loved the ending, i was 100% sure they would do another retarted BW plot twist right in the end so kerrigan stayed Zerg, but they didn't, she was saved(for now) It almost feels like reverse psychology, im so used to "What ai Twiiiist" moments in blizz cames, that the the happy ending came as a suprise. And they already said that she is the main character in HotS
+ Overmind > Kerrigan why so little love for that big lovely brain blob?
On July 29 2010 03:18 Ganches wrote: The ending.....was incredibly weird... + Show Spoiler +
If were to make any sort of sense of Zeratul's visions, we have to assume she can still control the zerg or Raynor just basically said fk it and doomed everyone despite knowing what would happen
.
Did he say that Kerrigan had to control the swarm? Don't think so. If Kerrigan died, the universe would be doomed. Transformed to human != dead.
Curious about next expansion. I really hope it's very Zerg-like though, would be cool to have same type of campaign, just in another setting. Instead of upgrades and research you'd have evolving etc.
I have a feeling that they will pause the plot about Hybrids though, saving it until the last game. Protoss are the manliest race after all.
My guess: Wings of Liberty: Rescuing Kerrigan Heart of the Swarm: Destroying the Dominion Legacy of the Void: Destroying the hybrids
On July 30 2010 18:32 Raevin wrote: Very anti climatic that in mere 4-5 missions on char, Raynor, his crew and some Dominion troops manage to go to freaking Char a planet made of lava and infested with Zerg manage to defeat them, and reverse Kerrigan back to human without any significant losses.
Some troops?!
Don't know about you but I had a 200/200 supply army (that died about 5x times) and a Xel Naga artifact to help me!
On July 30 2010 18:29 Supamang wrote: I thought that in SC:BW, Jim Raynor vowed to kill Kerrigan himself after Kerrigan killed Fenix. I guess he forgot.
Yeah... I really thought they were going to put some actual TENSION as to what Raynor wanted to do vs. what he would do to save the universe, but... then... apparently (according to the CE making of video), Starcraft is about a love story... What. The. Hell? Seriously, they can NOT have replayed SC:BW before making this game (even though they explicitly claim to have done so). I am very sad. I think that other than this one glaring flaw, I've calmed down a bit, and the story is pretty okay.
Zerg needed a face for the expansion and Kerrigan was the obvious choice since she's the only one that can communicate with both zerg and terrans. Her being "cured" is a convenient plot device to take away her power and make her start over from zerglings again in the expansion
For some reason at the start cutscene of the campaign I was all like KERRIGAN I WISH YOU WERE HUMAN AGAIN And at the end I was like, remember the BW campaigns were you did all the missions for kerrigan while she trash talked everyone, that was fun as fuck. God damn it. Seriously, If I saw the start cutscene then the end I bet I woulda been so happy. I also was a bit >.> at the cliche ending of him calling the helpless little girl (killed billions of people and the whole army of the UED) in his arms like a big strong man. Lol. But It was still cool.
I'm betting here - the Zerg campaign will feature Kerrigan slowly regaining control over the Zerg, with a lot of planets to visit to regain certain 'strains', a few sidequests that revolve around getting certain items, and a tiny bit of storyline at the end of the campaign. The Protoss campaign is the one I'm REALLY looking forward to, I feel the Zerg won't be exceptionally epic, and mostly a prolonged ZvZ with some old fan-favorites like Lurkers, Scourge, Devourers and maybe some 'hero' units like the Brutalisk and such.
On July 30 2010 17:41 Sfydjklm wrote: a giant FUUUU on the ending really. I enjoyed my zerg lead by a ruthless personification of evil. What now?! What now?! I am a headless zergling spazzing!
I feel like this person.
You took the Overmind away from me, and now the Queen of Blades.
I guess if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. Where can I find an infestor?
I actually agree with the guy on the first page about how Kerrigan will be involved. But did any of you notice that Dr. Narud could be Duran? Plus, the ending was soooooo unsatisfying. One of the first faces of StarCraft 2, who actually had a big part in the game died.....RIP Tychus, that guy was so badass. One thing was, I wanted to play WoL also hoping that I could exact revenge on Kerrigan for killing Fenix and Duke. What happened to Raynoy saying he would one day kill her? WTF
Did people really expected Raynor to kill Kerrigan? I personally never saw human-Kerrigan and The Queen of Blades as the same person. Can you blame her for what she's done while infested? It's clear they are shifting the villain role to the Xel'naga (or whatever) and I'm fine with that, because I never saw the zerg as evil anyway.
Tychus was a big part.... wtf. Just cause he had a lot of dialog didn't mean he was a big part. He was just a pain in the butt grunt that played one small part (dying! while trying to save his butt from mengsk).
And WTF BLIZZ. I am so pissed at that ending. Half the dominion army does what no combined ued/protoss/dominion army could before? Seriously... I don't care if you have an artifact....
And is anyone else remotely pissed at how the campaign played out story wise.
Ie the whole lets go around doing stuff for money and no other reason. There was no motivation to get those artifacts apart from money for over half the campaign. In that time zerg invade and we still go after money missions. Why wasn't there more interaction between kerrigan and raynor. Especially seeing as they talked plenty before. Why wasn't it revealed earlier that the artifacts could stop kerrigan. Would make more sense than .... do it for money while everything you fight for is put on hold.
And if you are the son of mengsk wanting to use raynor why would you not use a com to chat with him when in range of his ship instead of letting him board you and slaughter your troops before he comes into your room to kill you? And what retarded space captain goes and attempts boarding a ship without trying to hail it or cripple it first? 3 battle cruisers and he didn't think to hail them first or shoot? Nope just board. Who writes this retardation?
I look forward to how they solve it all. But I don't have a lot of faith for the quality of the story based off this. I am sure they will wrap it up neatly... but I just think its going to be very..... unbelievable (unbelievable for even that universe, for those who say its starcraft its not real).
I did love the cinematics.... they were purdy. And zeratul and kerrigans interaction was great. Just need more major players interacting rather than this obsession with grunts chatting away.
On July 30 2010 21:59 Bobgrimly wrote: Tychus was a big part.... wtf. Just cause he had a lot of dialog didn't mean he was a big part. He was just a pain in the butt grunt that played one small part (dying! while trying to save his butt from mengsk).
And WTF BLIZZ. I am so pissed at that ending. Half the dominion army does what no combined ued/protoss/dominion army could before? Seriously... I don't care if you have an artifact....
And is anyone else remotely pissed at how the campaign played out story wise.
Ie the whole lets go around doing stuff for money and no other reason. There was no motivation to get those artifacts apart from money for over half the campaign. In that time zerg invade and we still go after money missions. Why wasn't there more interaction between kerrigan and raynor. Especially seeing as they talked plenty before. Why wasn't it revealed earlier that the artifacts could stop kerrigan. Would make more sense than .... do it for money while everything you fight for is put on hold.
And if you are the son of mengsk wanting to use raynor why would you not use a com to chat with him when in range of his ship instead of letting him board you and slaughter your troops before he comes into your room to kill you? And what retarded space captain goes and attempts boarding a ship without trying to hail it or cripple it first? 3 battle cruisers and he didn't think to hail them first or shoot? Nope just board. Who writes this retardation?
I look forward to how they solve it all. But I don't have a lot of faith for the quality of the story based off this. I am sure they will wrap it up neatly... but I just think its going to be very..... unbelievable (unbelievable for even that universe, for those who say its starcraft its not real).
I did love the cinematics.... they were purdy. And zeratul and kerrigans interaction was great. Just need more major players interacting rather than this obsession with grunts chatting away.
it's not retardation. it's called courage/badassness
Alright, so Infected Kerrigan is the mascot of Legacy of the Swarm, but was that just to protect the secrecy of the ending? Also, what has Kerrigan done to redeem herself in a way that would make 99% of the Terran not want to kill her?
The end felt like Bioshock 2's end. However, while Bioshock 2 was a self-contained story that was beautiful and well thought out, Starcraft 2 still has to fill 2 expansions worth of games.
It would be like if in Half Life 2 you ended by sending the bad guys into space. It's just too soon.
Another random thing is that the different choices you can take in the game doesn't effect the ending at all...it would have been cool to simply disarm Tychus and have a drawn out fist-fight between the two characters if you had had the best ending. And the bad ending would have been the default one in the actual game.
So after the last trailer, discovering that there is a "Sarah Kerrigan as human"-portrait and Dr. Hanson talking about finding a cure for the infested colonists, you could see that ending coming from a mile away.
And since you could hear Arcturus voice in the Intro, Tychus was even more obvious than he already was.
I would have liked to get more information/stuff with/about Tosh and Mira Han, because they seemed damn interesting.
Also I dearly hope that Kerrigan won't control the Zerg now. Why? Because she is human? Yes she is a psionic and maybe has still a connection to the swarm, but it shouldn't be enough to control a vast amount of Zerg. But the main reason why I don't like this idea: boring. I mean... I just can't imagine to the see Zerg being controlled by one "Ghost". I'd rather see blizzard introduce some new & awesome Zerg characters.
On July 30 2010 23:04 Noocta wrote: The only problem with the ending is that it feel so easy. Raynor come on Char, kill everything, activate the artefact and voila job is done.
I mean, it's Char, the home world of zerg and Zerg had never been so powerfull. It feel silly.
obviously its meant so that zerg badassery can be rediscovered in heart of the swarm.
On July 28 2010 17:14 TheTuna wrote: Okay, I think we can dispense with the spoiler tags now.
Agreed! Tentacle hair is just weird on human kerrigan, and it's totally illogical since the rest of her body underwent an equally traumatic reversal. Another thing to note is that the secret mission strongly hints that Duran may be cooperating with Mengsk to create Hybrids; the mission, for those who haven't played it yet, is a facility raid on a dominion lab that's creating hybrids, much like Dark Origins. Afterwards, Horner points out that Mengsk couldn't possibly know how to do that...but who do we know that does? Hmmm....
So yeah, Duran in Heart of the Swarm for sure, I think.
I wonder if maybe the tentacle hair is because she lost her hair during the transformation. I have never seen a hairy zerg before, so it makes sense that she would have become bald. Therefore the hair that you see is clearly some sort of robotic extension (which they look like), and it would make sense that they are still there despite the fact that she transformed back.
Its just the same as the Twilight "saga", he hasn't been able to put his wee wee in her so he's all nuts and sacrificing the universe for her.
Think the problem is two fold: 1) this simply was not epic, eva, the zerg never filled the screen and the protoss 'more than we've ever seen' was a two baseing turtler. Certainly not worth 10 odd years wait. Just seems like the engine couldn't live up to the cut scene's. They even try and get around it with the whole 'there's millions here but their all hiding in the platform while we blow them up' thang. Its just a sequel, nothing else, not worth the wait.
2) we've had Mass Effect*. The whole 1 ending and "everything you do is good" thang, you can hire story writers you know ! Kill the colonist ? ow their all zerg and doc is too (+1 plot whole with her still talking btw & no crew infected though she's been their ages) Save the colonists ? no, no zerg 'ere and megnsks rule is further broken. Spectrers - your saving political prisioners and a few psyhco's who'll help you Ghosts - you just stopped spectres who would kill 'millions'
If this had been Mass Effect there would be consequences in the next game, these alternative paths would have meaning ! For instances the colonists turn out to be zerg after all and you sacrifise another world to them. All we can actually hope for is "here's a look in raynor's ship here's the stuff on the wall ain't we clever, thats called 'continuitity don't ya know"
On July 28 2010 17:14 TheTuna wrote: Okay, I think we can dispense with the spoiler tags now.
Agreed! Tentacle hair is just weird on human kerrigan, and it's totally illogical since the rest of her body underwent an equally traumatic reversal. Another thing to note is that the secret mission strongly hints that Duran may be cooperating with Mengsk to create Hybrids; the mission, for those who haven't played it yet, is a facility raid on a dominion lab that's creating hybrids, much like Dark Origins. Afterwards, Horner points out that Mengsk couldn't possibly know how to do that...but who do we know that does? Hmmm....
So yeah, Duran in Heart of the Swarm for sure, I think.
I wonder if maybe the tentacle hair is because she lost her hair during the transformation. I have never seen a hairy zerg before, so it makes sense that she would have become bald. Therefore the hair that you see is clearly some sort of robotic extension (which they look like), and it would make sense that they are still there despite the fact that she transformed back.
Sadly I think she's not bald because that we make her a fetish not hot. Screw lore we've got posters to make !
tbh though I think its just a nod to us thats she's not completely human therefore still connected to the zerg, whether she's in charge or not is left to be seen.
How about, ala the Overmind, she was letting Raynor set off the device just against the zerg gene's so she had to put up some resistance but she could cripple it with bad decisions so he could win ?
On July 30 2010 21:18 exnomendei wrote: I'm betting here - the Zerg campaign will feature Kerrigan slowly regaining control over the Zerg, with a lot of planets to visit to regain certain 'strains', a few sidequests that revolve around getting certain items, and a tiny bit of storyline at the end of the campaign. The Protoss campaign is the one I'm REALLY looking forward to, I feel the Zerg won't be exceptionally epic, and mostly a prolonged ZvZ with some old fan-favorites like Lurkers, Scourge, Devourers and maybe some 'hero' units like the Brutalisk and such.
This sounds about right. In the bonus campaign from Sc, where you save Stukow from the infestation (with a Protoss-made cure btw, wonder where this is gone), he loses all power he had over his tiny Zerg swarm. Given that Kerrigan possesses some psyonic powers, it's reasonable to assume she'll lose some, but not all control, and will at first have to slowly regain everything.
Of course, she had the old Mengsk against her, as well as half the Dominion, so probably she'll team up with Raynor and rebuild a Zerg empire. Maybe they'll somehow revive the Overmind, too, or consult him or something like that. Then they'll wage war against the Dominion / Duran / the Hybrids. I'm a bit lost, as to why Kerrigan should be the key to saving the galaxy, yet her campaign is no the last. I guess it makes sense, though, since the Protoss are on the other hand easily the most persistent in working against their own extinction / against the Hybrids. (Zerg didn't have one to care except the Overmind, and Terrans are always fighting amongst themselves anyways.)
One question that remains is, on whose side the prince is standing. Since he played so much a role in what lead to the opportunity for Tychus to kill the archenemy of Arcturus Mengsk / the Hybrids, he might be involved with one of those. Maybe Tychus' "employer" just got lucky, though. So either there will be Valerian fighting alongside Raynor and Kerrigan against the Dominion in order to become the next ruler, or his assault will be the very first one to escape from.
Gameplaywise, I read somewhere, that HOTS will be about leveling "her" up, so that goes well in vain what has been said: Regain power for her, etc.
ps: I also miss the Overmind (what a humble being!), and also I miss Kerrigan's red hair In Sc, I did'nt find her particularly attractive, but that Tarsonis cutscene and Raynors picture of her really got me!
On July 30 2010 12:52 Rah wrote: I hated the ending, it was the worst possible option they could have went with. + Show Spoiler +
They converted possibly one of the most notorious villains of our lifetime back to the good side without giving her any depth at all throughout the entire campaign. It's untapped potential that now can't ever be used later on. The only way Blizzard can salvage this mistake has to be in the expansion, giving zerg leadership characters that are equally as creative and interesting. That's going to be a tough challenge, because in Broodwar Kerrigan was awsome, outsmarted everyone and had incredible power to her. There's a lot more that could've been done with her in these games. She was a chaotic factor in Starcraft's storyline and a big part in why the story was so memorable.
Something I noticed about the ending, Kerrigan was human, a bullet would have killed her, but being carried naked through Char, the most inhospitable planet in the game wouldn't? Blizzard writers need to be set on fire, between the nerdy dialogue (space elves) and horrible plot twists, they're ruining this franchise. gl salvaging it.
Nobody said anything about Kerrigan coming back to the good side. She might well still be a baddie.
* Kerrigan back to human. It's too happy as an ending, Starcraft one always had bittersweet (at best) endings. Well, ok, unless you're the Zerg then your endings are made of win but when you consider they are evil marauding alien motherfuckers extroadinaire then I guess it counts as a sad ending (unless you want all the humans to get killed, you fucker).
And what did we get? Some guy we KNEW was a traitor from the first fucking cutscene got murdered? That Mengsk is still Emperor, despite the fact the ending was clearly about NOT killing Kerrigan? The fact that the Zeratul missions were optional and had no input in how the ending went, despite the fact they were fucking awesome?
* All the characters are 2 dimensional, which is frustrating. When I saw the original stuff for Jimmy, I thought "yay, we're gonna have a dark brooding jimmy, look how depressed he is! It's like Watchmen in space!" (hopefully). Instead we got a cardboard cutout hero, with shitty cliched lines to boot! Also contradictory. Kerrigan is a dull villain, Swann's moustache has more character then him (most epic mo since Capt Price, albeit), the rod up Matt Horner's butt has a rod up it's own butt, Prince Valerian looked like he wanted to channel Ozymandias but spluttered, and Warfield felt like token black dude.
Tychus is entertaining, and is probably the best thoguht out character. Yeah, we know he's gonna be a traitor, but at least he was a fun one. Had all the game's best lines ("brother, that is the single greatest creation in mankind's history" is my personal favourite) and everything. Thumbs up for character, thumbs down for how they worked him in.
- Numerous plot holes. So, Emperor Mengsk's plan to destroy Kerrigan is to:
* ignore all the specialist commandoes he has, like the entire ghost/spectre academy. Fuck those guys, so useles. * ignore his massive Dominion fleet, that one he's been pouring shittons of money into, in favour of his other arch nemesis. * decide against trying to recreate the psi-disruptor, because that didn't completely buttfuck the Zerg last time. How hard could it be to make one of those with like 8 trillion well paid scientists at your back?
Ok, so the plan is to use those Xel'Naga artifacts (wish they had a better name) instead. Fair enough. But instead of concentrating a massive effort to go get them, he just tries and get his other arch nemesis to do it. WHAT THE FUCK? HEY, I GOT A GREAT IDEA, I WANT SOME POTATOES FROM THE STORE. I'M GONNA GET MY BUDDY TIMMY THE SHITBAG TO GET THAT GUY I HATE TOMMY THE FUCKHOLE TO GET SOME POTATOES AND HOLD ONTO THEM FOR A WHILE, SO I CAN GET MY SON TO BEFRIEND TOMMY FUCKHOLE AND GRADUALLY STEER THEM ON THE PATH OF SOME SWEET POTATOE MASH.
It's very stupid.
I also think it's stupid that he has a constant feed from Tychus's suit and doesn't decide to:
* stop him from piloting the Odin to wreck all his shit * stop Raynor from broadcasting damning evidence as to his corrupt nature, thus inciting massive rebellions all over. * track raynor and destroy him and take the artifacts from him. * and decides to not act surprised when anything like all that happens. t
The other thing I didn't like is that a lot of the jokes are well, more stupid gags then well scripted humour. They're funny but they don't really fit the context, it's a bit too cartoonish for what we'd want from SC2!
All that said, the presentation and execution was fucking outstanding, the level design is superb and the Zeratul missions are like the Chernobyl levels from MW1; unexpected, very different and completely fucking awesome.
As a huge fan of Blizzard lore in general. This was their absolute worst game ever made. (story wise).
If you went back and read the script for this entire game. You could put all of Kerrigans lines into one sentence "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE JIM"
Give me a fucking break. If you went back and played BW, Kerrigan is absolutely NOTHING like she is in this game. She didn't use RAW strength in numbers or brute force to accomplish what she wanted. The whole "I'm all powerful" was not even part of her character. She was more of a Loki archetype.
I don't have a problem with her being de-infested really, but the way her character was carried over was embarrassing. The ending leaves open a lot of possibilities, but I'll get to those later. The Tychus thing was incredibly obvious. FFS, the trailer from 2007 has Mengsk's voice talking to him while he's being locked in his suit.
As far as predictions go, Kerrigan is going to become a commodity, lots of people will be after her, from Moebius (FOR SCIENCE) to vengeful characters of the other races. Raynor will side with her and fuck up his own good name which will lead to the raiders being in disarray again and will also give Mengsk ammunition. That's all I'd guess, they don't hint at anything really. I have no idea when Duran is going to show up again, and I have no idea what Space Arthas is even doing in this game.
I thought they did a good job of keeping Raynor's character (as one dimensional as it is) in tact, Kerrigan became completely uninteresting this game. She was by far the best character in Broodwar... I don't have a problem with the setup really, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for part one. If part two ends up as vacuus I will basically be mega bummed out.
Note: It has nothing to do with Kerrigan's voice acting. I actually thought she was the best one. However, she is out of place because every other VA is SO PG-13 that she doesn't fit. As much as I like Clotworth and his passion for the character, the 160710th time Raynor delivers a line in the EXACT same fashion, it starts to become noticeable. Basically, the writing was terrible this game. Games like Mass Effect set a pretty high standard these days...
On July 30 2010 23:04 Noocta wrote: The only problem with the ending is that it feel so easy. Raynor come on Char, kill everything, activate the artefact and voila job is done.
I mean, it's Char, the home world of zerg and Zerg had never been so powerfull. It feel silly.
I see a lot of posts talking about how it's stupid how Raynor has done what the other groups combined failed to do in Broodwar. Personally I don't find this too unbelieveable as Raynor is probably one of the best tacticians in the Starcraft universe, and possibly the best at adapting in the moment, a key thing you need to fight against zerg. Before the final battle he took out a key strategic resource of the zerg, making their army half as effective, and terran has a much easier time countering one thing. Imagine playing that mission on brutal with both air and nydus worms coming down on you. Also yes he had the artifact to help, and all that he needed to do was hold out there, defend for the whole mission until the artifact charged up. Not to mention he had a few tech upgrades that they didn't back in Broodwar. So I think the last missions played out pretty solidly, it's just the ending that was bad. If you don't think the battle on Char was epic enough raise the difficulty to brutal and gl
You can't create this dark, gloomy, brooding, gritty universe in SC1, then leap right into the sequel and everyone farts rainbows at the end. I felt bad for poor Stukov. I didn't feel jack fucking diddly for Tychus.
Although Tychus was working for Mengsk, I think it's clear that Mengsk was working for Duran. Therefore Tychus was inadvertently working for Duran. If what Zeratul says is true. then Kerrigan is key to stopping the hybrids. Duran works to create the hybrids, and we know that Mengsk is doing it as well. Even Raynor knows that Mengsk shouldn't be able to do that, so obviously there's a connection there.
Which begs the question, how much sway does Duran have over the entire Dominion? I think it'd be awfully neat to find out that Mengsk has been a pawn of some higher group this whole time. Perhaps even brainwashed or something, which caused his change from cool freedom fighter to diabolical super asshole.
Further, Kerrigan is still going to be in charge of the Swarm, unless what Blizz said about HoS was wrong. And it makes sense too, considering the idea is that Kerrigan needs to regain her power, and the game will focus on her evolution. I believe that she's going to realize that she's needed to save the Universe, and will either willingly go back to the Swarm, or perhaps try to control them through her Ghost abilities. If it's the later though I won't be a fan, the whole awesomeness that is Kerrigan is from the fact that she's cool and evil.
Lastly, I question whether the final cutscene was what Zeratul was talking about, with Raynor "holding her life in his hands." I think there's more to that. I think Kerrigan is going to go nuts again, Raynor's not going to be able to take it, and something is going to happen where the two face off. Raynor can either kill her and survive, but he won't be able to do it, and die in the process. I really think that by the end of the trilogy, Raynor will die. I kind of think he needs to die for Kerrigan, and I think when the time comes, Kerrigan won't care, because she'll be all evil again.
Last paragraph is just random babbling and thoughts. But yeah, that's my take. Overall I was disappointed with the dialogue, and I kind of didn't want to see Kerrigan convert back to human. But until the last part is expanded upon and we see where Blizz is taking it, I'll hold my judgement.
Mengsk has always been a bumbling fool personality wise. In the original Starcraft he had Raynor and the commander to win his battles for him, before they'd been around him enough to realize what an asshole he was. It didn't take too long for him to drop hints on that either. He did have smart (although ruthless) tactics once in a while when he discovered something he could use like the psi emitters. The one line Mengsk line that sticks with me the most from Broodwar is
(Raynor and Fenix are talking about whether or not they can trust their new ally Kerrigan, their prisoner Mengsk chimes in)
Mengsk: If you ask me, she's completely untrustworthy.
Raynor: Shut up Meg (edit:Mengsk), if I wanted your damn opinion I would've beat it out of ya.
Obviously Mengsk was as biased and hypocritical as it gets in that argument, so the fact that he thought he could sway their decision was rediculous, not to mention they didn't like him to begin with. He's not too bright a character, he's mostly been lucky to get the position he's in from what I've seen (and to be alive, he was offworld for both the assassination of his entire family and the nuclear bombardment of Korhal). He does make some good tactical moves sometimes to gain power, but they're usually immoral actions that no one else would have taken, and only when he's lucky enough to be given the right resources to do this.
I'm kinda disapointed too that we don't see Duran at all and by the fact that Protoss don't have the same feeling as in Starcraft 1. I mean, it's like Protoss don't even know about the battle on Char, they are away dealing with Hybrid. Okay, why not. But apart of the Selenis / Doc dilenm, we don't interract with protoss all that much. ( because protoss missions are protoss dealing with their own problem )
I miss to see protoss fleet burning zerg and them being the major fire power of the universe.
On July 31 2010 01:10 Copes wrote: Lastly, I question whether the final cutscene was what Zeratul was talking about, with Raynor "holding her life in his hands." [...]
Interesting idea, though I think, given all the build-up, it's quite likely not referring to something else. I mean, Tychus was talking about killing Kerrigan all the time, so the conflict and the decisions didn't come exactly out of nowhere. Also, by reverting the infestation, he kinda saved her life on a whole other level. If she had carried on to be the Queen of Blades, she certainly would have eventually lost (like Zeratul hinted) and then have been killed by her allied enemies, because there would have been nothing else to be done with her. Thinking about it, that seems to be the key point. After all, Kerrigan had just started a great war against the Dominion - against the whole sector. A second alliance between, say, Raynor, a Valerian-lead Dominion and Protoss forces including Zeratul could have killed her and doomed the universe.
On July 31 2010 01:45 Rah wrote: Mengsk has always been a bumbling fool personality wise. In the original Starcraft he had Raynor and the commander to win his battles for him, before they'd been around him enough to realize what an asshole he was. It didn't take too long for him to drop hints on that either. He did have smart (although ruthless) tactics once in a while when he discovered something he could use like the psi emitters. The one line Mengsk line that sticks with me the most from Broodwar is
Well yea, as the leader of a rebellion force, you tend to have officers go out to do the jobs you assign them. That's kind of how it works.
(Raynor and Fenix are talking about whether or not they can trust their new ally Kerrigan, their prisoner Mengsk chimes in)
Mengsk: If you ask me, she's completely untrustworthy.
Raynor: Shut up Meg (edit:Mengsk), if I wanted your damn opinion I would've beat it out of ya.
Obviously Mengsk was as biased and hypocritical as it gets in that argument, so the fact that he thought he could sway their decision was rediculous, not to mention they didn't like him to begin with. He's not too bright a character, he's mostly been lucky to get the position he's in from what I've seen (and to be alive, he was offworld for both the assassination of his entire family and the nuclear bombardment of Korhal). He does make some good tactical moves sometimes to gain power, but they're usually immoral actions that no one else would have taken, and only when he's lucky enough to be given the right resources to do this.
Ignoring the fact that Mengsk was 100% right, of course they said that to him. Mengsk was their prisoner. There's really nothing in BW to say that he was the bumbling fool that Blizzard turned him in to. You really can't argue against the fact that they ruined both Mengsk and Kerrigan as good characters.
Everyone seems to think that Kerrigan is human again. I highly doubt she's turned into a damsel in distress. After the power she had with the Zerg, how's to say she doesn't want it back? Also consider that the games in SC start you off with weak units and you slowly get more - I suspect HoTS will be about Kerrigan trying to come back to her full Zerg queen strength
On July 31 2010 04:08 Kwidowmaker wrote: Everyone seems to think that Kerrigan is human again. I highly doubt she's turned into a damsel in distress. After the power she had with the Zerg, how's to say she doesn't want it back? Also consider that the games in SC start you off with weak units and you slowly get more - I suspect HoTS will be about Kerrigan trying to come back to her full Zerg queen strength
I was thinking what human Kerrigan said in the end of that "All-In" mission hinted that she wasn't too happy as a zerg even with all that power. She seemed to want Jim to save her.
Thinking back on the Broodwar story I remembered something that could possibly justify why Kerrigan's so dumbed down in this sequal. One crucial factor is missing, the cerebrate, you. In Broodwar Kerrigan got brilliant results but overall was arrogant and reckless in her methods. She would throw you into impossible scenarios and obviously to beat the game you'd need to win. So her high risk, high reward tactics rose her to the top by the end of Broodwar. Now the story is that she killed all the cerebrates, including the one that brought her to the top before. Maybe her risks are finally catching up with her and she's epic failing all over in SC2. Who knows, but something to think about.
I hate the ending to this game. Worse fucking possible ending ever. Like seriously, WHAT THE FUCK. Kerrigan is one of the greatest bad guys in video game history and they fucked the whole thing right up. Either Jimmy or Zeratual should of killed her at the end of the protoss campaign.
I was so looking forward to going on a rampage with the queen bitch of the universe in the expansion. My dreams have been shattered.
I think they didn't really emphasize the rebellion thing i felt like just a guy running errands the whole game. There wasn't much of a war going on and you didn't really do anything to gain any of the weapons you got, Swann just kinda came up with schematics out of nowhere. I wish you could raid weapon depots to get your tanks and new weapons and save planets from the zerg or liberate them from the dominion to get a bigger following instead of just being handed a fleet at the end of the game by some character that just came out of nowhere and happens to want a similar thing as you.
The campaign did a good job of introducing new players into the universe though and it was fun to play through but it just didn't to justice to the backstabbing dark nature of the of the original.
On July 31 2010 07:15 Sailence wrote: I think they didn't really emphasize the rebellion thing i felt like just a guy running errands the whole game. There wasn't much of a war going on and you didn't really do anything to gain any of the weapons you got, Swann just kinda came up with schematics out of nowhere. I wish you could raid weapon depots to get your tanks and new weapons and save planets from the zerg or liberate them from the dominion to get a bigger following instead of just being handed a fleet at the end of the game by some character that just came out of nowhere and happens to want a similar thing as you.
The campaign did a good job of introducing new players into the universe though and it was fun to play through but it just didn't to justice to the backstabbing dark nature of the of the original.
Aye, my thoughts exactly. All the more reason why I dont understand why they didn't take the single player approach like Mass Effect - With dialogue options, time-sensitive missions and being able to specifically choose the storyline you wanted. (Which btw, ended up working spectacularly in the sequel for M.E.)
I guess I am one of the few guys who actually liked a happy ending. Well, happy in the fact that Raynor killed one of his best friends who turned traitor, Mengsk is still firmly in charge and it's pretty clear the Prince is just as likely to turn Jim and Sara in to further his own gains then do anything to help them out. But at least Sara is no longer mostly infested.
I really liked the campaign, I enjoyed the details put in it and yeah no I don't want time sensative and overly rpg elements in my RTS. I don't want to worry about checking a guide to do missions in the right order to see everything I want or I end up missing a critical upgrade or unit late into the campaign.
I think the most important thing is that I'll put money that the ending of Heart of the Swarm is going to be called "too dark and sad" by the folks who called this ending too happy. It's just a hunch but hey it panned out in Empire Strikes back.
On the mission "Media Blitz you are supposed to take control of 3 broadcast buildings. If you look on the map however there is a lone "island" at about the 5 o'clock position which you access by a bridge. On the island you will find a science facility. Destroy it to unlock the secret mission.
Note that you can't do this if you already completed the campaign and choose the mission in the list. You have to do it while being on the campaign before going to Char. I still had an auto save from media blitz since I did it pretty late.
Oh damn. I totally saw that thing in that area and was first thinking "good place for a secret", but then once I scouted, "WTF it's just another normal building :\" and didn't bother to destroy it, lol.
On July 31 2010 06:07 Mastermind wrote: I hate the ending to this game. Worse fucking possible ending ever. Like seriously, WHAT THE FUCK. Kerrigan is one of the greatest bad guys in video game history and they fucked the whole thing right up. Either Jimmy or Zeratual should of killed her at the end of the protoss campaign.
I was so looking forward to going on a rampage with the queen bitch of the universe in the expansion. My dreams have been shattered.
Did you even play the crystal missions?
Oh, and nobody every said anything about Kerrigan being a good guy now. She's still got free will, and the tentacles in her hair indicate she's still at least part Zerg.
To echo what alot of people have said, I didn't like the Hollywood happy ending. I really hate the idea of Kerrigan becoming one of the good guys and the Overmind trying to save everyone all along. Kerrigan was a really badass villain, manipulating and backstabbing everyone. Now I'll probably have to sit through an expansion's worth of emo-Kerrigan crying about all the atrocities she committed as a Zerg.
Also, this isn't just about WoL, but all of Starcraft - I'm getting pretty tired of all the deus ex machinas everywhere. The enemy has overwhelming forces, but no worries, I have this artifact/Xel'Naga temple/dark templars/psi disruptor/medics that can drug the Overmind/etc. to magically solve all my problems.
I understand not every campaign can be about massing units and killing stuff, but every single campaign so far has ended with something like that. Even the Zerg invasion of Aiur, which should have been about overwhelming numbers had you looking for some random temple (don't really remember the exact storyline).
I personally love the look of new kerrigan's hair, but I think it seems a bit unrealistic. I say a bit, because a lot of unrealistic things happen, and this is certainly one that could.
One thing to note about it though, is that it's quite similar to protoss "hair", and perhaps it has some significance in that sense - maybe that is the explanation as to how she could still have enhanced psionic powers, or possibly control zerg or things after being changed.
On July 28 2010 17:05 TheTuna wrote: Spoilers ahoy! It might be easier just to add spoilers to the title itself, as that's pretty much all this thread is gonna be. + Show Spoiler +
I feel like Kerrigan will still be controlling the zerg. I doubt she'll still be infested fully, as that would defeat the whole point of Wings of Liberty and make her go all bloodthirsty again. I think instead she'll be controlling the Zerg in her current state and bending them towards taking down Arcturus for vengeance and the Hybrids, who will undoubtedly become a much larger threat.
After all, if the campaign is anything like Wings of Liberty, she'll need other characters to interact with, and since the Cerebrates are all dead that falls to people like Raynor and Valerian. I predict that those two, at least, will play quite a large part in the Zerg campaign.
I share your opinions guys. The ended was fucked up, and just watered down the plot by a lot. I wanted her redeemed but not in WoL dammit, I wanted it to happen in Legacy of the Void Ray. The ending turned out to be such a buzzkill ;/ buttfuck!
HotS will pretty much be like a few people said, about her getting back her powers in a more RPG-like fashion. Is she now on Raynor's side? Yeah probably. Why? Because nowadays Blizz writing is so transparent, shallow and 2-dimensional.
I liked Kerri when she was the cunning, devious and very smart character. She used her intelligence to win, not the YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE COME HERE JIM, GIEF SOJ ARTEFACTS NAO" brute strength.
Think about it. In BW she knew a great threat was looming just over the horizon. She let everyone live, so she could play another round of Chess with their fates. I also don't like how Jim was ready to sacrifice everything and everyone just to get her deinfested. In BW he made it pretty clear he wanted to kill her.
Did anyone else find it counter intuitive to deinfest her just to make sure she'll survive? I though Zeratul made it pretty clear - she needed to be at the head of the zerg swarm if they wanted to have any chance of survival against the hybrids. And WTF is up with Tassadar. He said he never died, so he's not a ghost. I predict he will guide Zeratul to ultimately defeating the Dark Voice. Thats is, if he doesn't kill the DV himself. I canalready see Tassadar being Medievh.
Anyone else notice the Moebius scientist being called NARUD which is DURAN spelt backwards? Is he manipulating junior? Will junior become Arthas in space?!?!?!? And didn't Duran just succeed is getting rid of The Queen of Blades - the only person who poses a threat to the DV - while manipulating everyone?
And how is Duran manipulating Senior Mengsk to have him bioengineer hybrids in his fucking labs? ;/ Or maybe it was one of Duran's labs discovered by the Dominion much like the one discovered by Zera at the end of BW?
I think the game would have had so much more to it if they spent more time developing things. Everything could have stayed exactly the same ending-wise and it could have been great.
The first problem was that you could choose what order to do things in. That's great and all, but I did media blitz after starting to work for Valerian, not cool. I think the story would have been so much more epic of you sold the relic to Valerian and ended up finding out from Zeratul that you would have to go back and stop Valerian and the Terran from using it to kill kerrigan. Three-way battles are what made starcraft interesting and we really didn't have any here.
I also think that the Protoss' involvement was lackluster at best. Sure, the fanatics guarding the artifacts made for great filler, as did the Haven protoss, but I think that it would have been better if they integrated some sidestory involving Kerrigan hunting the protoss and going after that prophesy instead of just sticking it in those few missions with Zeratul.
I think the coolest part of the game was the idea of the hybrids, the fact that the overmind was actually a slave to something, and the implication that Kerrigan was somehow working towards the end of the universe (there were a few lines where she asked people to just accept that during the mission for Moebius). This could have really been played up, and extended to maybe give a little more on the dynamic between Kerrigan and the overmind. The overmind mission hinted at a purpose for Kerrigan, but all we saw of kerrigan were some used-up lines and throwing zerg around. There was no fear, no sense of purposes, and no concrete goals for her, so any mystery in what her purpose will be was simply lost due to the fact that everything in SC2 was so incredibly black and white.
Anyways, I was hoping for some sort of ending that happened just before kerrigan finished doing something important and also just before something else killer her, but all we got was her sitting there laughing at the artifact and then getting smoked by it.
Think this was briefly mentioned in this thread that there wasn't that much Duran, and i think someone else pointed this out but Dr. Narud is just Duran backwards.
I think that Kerrigan is still connectted to the zerg an that wierdly enough compassion will drag her back to them. Kerriggan is the heart of the swarm she is the sole creature that can make the zerg retain order amongst themselves. Without Kerrigan the zerg will destroy themselves and the galaxy will fall to the hybrids, so Kerrigan must become a Zerg again and lead all 3 races. I also think that in some way shape or form the original overmind will return(pre-enslavement overmind). This would allow for Kerrigan to make the swarm strong enough to fight the hybrids head on(and hopefully win)
I think it might be premature to say that Kerrigan is 100% 'good' now just because her body infestation/mutation was somewhat reversed. All we know is that she was incapacitated by the blast from the artifact and calls Raynor "Jim," sort of endearingly. She may yet retain not only the power to control the swarm, but also the fury of the Queen of Blades. Worse yet, she may have developed a split personality due to all the trauma she's gone through that could switch at inopportune moments. (like when she is exposed to Mengsk or his son)
Plus we can assume that her infestation is not of the "normal"sort. If the Overmind was really grooming her to be the next zerg leader i find it hard to believe that her turning to the good side is a one-shot deal.
On July 31 2010 09:24 Morayfire73 wrote: Think this was briefly mentioned in this thread that there wasn't that much Duran, and i think someone else pointed this out but Dr. Narud is just Duran backwards.
Yup, I believe Duran aka Dr. Narud aka The Fallen One is going to be the new bad guy. Also note that prince Valerian is the leader of the Möebius Foundation the same one that has released the dark entity at KL-2, which may or may not be the same as Duran and seems to be an eternal enemy of Xel'naga.
Kerrigan had to turn human to allow more epic and badass enemies to take her place. At least I hope so.
"Duran: "Magnificent isn't it?"
Zeratul: "What? Who are you?"
Duran: "I've had many names throughout the millennia, young prodigal. You would know me best as Samir Duran."
Zeratul: "Kerrigan's consort! Is this part of her twisted schemes?"
Duran: "No. Young Kerrigan could not have engineered this grand experiment. Although her rebirth into the Zerg Swarm has sped up my progress, I can assure you that this endeavor is quite beyond her narrow understanding."
Zeratul: "If you are not her pawn, then what are you?"
Duran: "I am a servant of a far greater power. A power that has slept for countless ages. And is reflected in the creature within that cell."
Zeratul: "Have you any conception of what you've created here? Do you have any idea what this... this Hybrid is capable of?"
Duran: "Of course I do. This creature is the completion of a cycle. Its role in the cosmic order was preordained when the stars were young. Behold the culmination of your history."
Zeratul: "All I behold is an abomination."
Duran: "Your violence, young prodigal, is typical. As is your inability to comprehend the greater scheme of things. You can destroy all of the specimens here. It will do you no good. For I have seeded the Hybrid on many, many worlds. You will never find them all before they awaken... And when they do... your universe will be changed... forever.""
I don't see why no one has any love for the story. It is completely fine. YES it is not the absolute best, even though they have had a decade to hammer it out, but it is going somewhere and y'all are stupid if you think we don't have another MONSTER plot twist coming.
Obviously the Xel'Naga will end up being defeated... like Blizzard is going to put out a game where you battle for 3 expansions and then the universe gets destroyed anyways. The end of BW was point A, now we are at point B, and the path to point E, where we whip the eternal baddies, is a long way off.
I mean, go back to SC (not SC1, I hate that it gets retro-fitted a number). Who saw Kerrigan getting infested coming? BOOM. Headshot, what a twist. I mean, who ever imagined that you'd see her again and that she wasn't just a casualty of war? And BW? It was a double-cross fest and once the dust settled we found out that everyone was either getting killed, infested or trying to take over the world, cept Jim, BUT WAIT Duran isn't really infested, double you tee eff?
Give the guys a little credit. They put us through the works the last time around, I am sure they have some awesome craziness yet to come.
Also, discussing why Kerrigan was all sneaky last time and not this time? Remember how she was fighting was originally under the Overmind's control (kinda) and then fighting with cerebrates for control, and after all was said and done, she got total control at the end of BW, looked around, said "Fuck it, big air" and wiped out the UED, Sons of Korhal, and Protoss all at the same time. She is doing that now, how is that any different than before?
The problem is they had such a great story with tons of character development and multiple points of views developing the story. This time it was one point of view with a few not very deep characters from what we've seen and i can really see it changing judging from this game alone unless it gets changed pretty drastically and loses the feel of it being all filler until the final few missions.
I was kinda hoping the girl news reporter was going to take off her shirt at some point..... But I digress. I was really expecting Duran to pop out of the last Protoss vision mission and be all "THE CYCLE IS COMPLETE, UNIVERSE ECT." but no
Dr. Narud was just an old scientist with nothing going on for him. I was really eager to battle some hybrids other than that Maal guy but I guess they have to keep something at arms reach from us to sell the two last games.
On July 30 2010 12:52 Rah wrote: I hated the ending, it was the worst possible option they could have went with. + Show Spoiler +
They converted possibly one of the most notorious villains of our lifetime back to the good side without giving her any depth at all throughout the entire campaign. It's untapped potential that now can't ever be used later on. The only way Blizzard can salvage this mistake has to be in the expansion, giving zerg leadership characters that are equally as creative and interesting. That's going to be a tough challenge, because in Broodwar Kerrigan was awsome, outsmarted everyone and had incredible power to her. There's a lot more that could've been done with her in these games. She was a chaotic factor in Starcraft's storyline and a big part in why the story was so memorable.
Something I noticed about the ending, Kerrigan was human, a bullet would have killed her, but being carried naked through Char, the most inhospitable planet in the game wouldn't? Blizzard writers need to be set on fire, between the nerdy dialogue and horrible plot twists, they're ruining this franchise. gl salvaging it.
You're really nitpicking that hard? I'm no lore expert, but I think a direct bullet to her head would have killed her before too
It's not that we're angry because Kerrigan reversed her infestation but because it happened too soon without any more depth analysis on her devious side. If you look at it from a person's perspective who has alot of knowledge on the events of Brood War, she really was the evil "Queen Bitch of the Universe" who you'd hate to have any involvement with rather than some zombified fool gets PO'd over everything around her. And Mengsk, seriously, where has all of your charisma gone to? 4 years ago, you were the biggest Terran scumbag in the universe with only a few people who know it.
I hated Kerrigan in broodwar, need overmind back. =(
On July 30 2010 21:58 sashkata wrote: Did people really expected Raynor to kill Kerrigan? I personally never saw human-Kerrigan and The Queen of Blades as the same person. Can you blame her for what she's done while infested? It's clear they are shifting the villain role to the Xel'naga (or whatever) and I'm fine with that, because I never saw the zerg as evil anyway.
Its not necessarily that people expected Raynor to kill Kerrigan or that they werent able to see that Kerrigan was only doing these things because of the infestation. Its that it makes for an incredibly sappy ending if there is a miracle cure and a hero carrying his girl off into the sunset. They also forfeited a great opportunity for some character development by not letting Jim Raynor have to struggle between the choice of wishing there was a way to cure Kerrigan and realizing that she had to be put down to save the universe. When she became the "key" to stopping the hybrids, it was too much of a deus ex machina (at least for me) that allowed for the flowery ending.
I think that Blizzard has no qualms about giving us an unhappy ending, so ultimately, regardless of what happens in HotS, the universe is completely fucked because Raynor turned Kerrigan human again just to get some.
Moral of the story: Think with your head, not your dick.
It's not like Kerrigan has anyone to blame though. If she is now human again and has her old personality back, while retaining any memories of being the zerg leader, she'll probably be like Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and wonder if it was anything about her character that led her to being chosen by the Overlord. She is now responlsible for billions of deaths in her infested form, but I don't see how her old self is to blame in any way. She was left abandoned by Mengsk and couldn't have done anything differently to have saved those lives. It would make sense to me if she basically blamed Mengsk for what she did as infested Kerrigan and if she was one of the prime instigators for bringing Mengsk to justice.
On August 01 2010 06:47 Ryuu314 wrote: I think that Blizzard has no qualms about giving us an unhappy ending, so ultimately, regardless of what happens in HotS, the universe is completely fucked because Raynor turned Kerrigan human again just to get some.
Moral of the story: Think with your head, not your dick.
First and foremost priority for her saving the universe seems to be she's alive. Maybe the Overmind's plan didn't work out perfectly or was just reliant on someone reverting her infestation in the first place; you wouldn't think the Queen of Blades was better at handling the situation at hand than a turned-human-again Sarah Kerrigan who still holds (or regains) control over the Swarm, anyways.
On August 01 2010 06:33 iloahz wrote: so Tychus is dead right? who exactly did he make a deal with to kill kerrigan?
On July 31 2010 09:24 Morayfire73 wrote: Think this was briefly mentioned in this thread that there wasn't that much Duran, and i think someone else pointed this out but Dr. Narud is just Duran backwards.
On August 01 2010 06:47 Ryuu314 wrote: I think that Blizzard has no qualms about giving us an unhappy ending, so ultimately, regardless of what happens in HotS, the universe is completely fucked because Raynor turned Kerrigan human again just to get some.
Moral of the story: Think with your head, not your dick.
Nah, she's still got some badass psionic power, that wasn't her zerg infestation result.
Hmm. As I read through this thread I came to think about one thing in the protoss part. (Apart from Protoss being proud nutcases) They were bent on not letting kerrigan to the prophesies. Now why were kerrigan there to start with.
I think that Kerrigan just as zeratul had a run in with Duran and his hybrid factory (due to looong time since I played BW I can't comment on the duran - mengsk part). Assuming this she would be as nervous as zeratul. Duran also told zeratul that there was alot of complexes around the galaxy. Being trapped in the korpulu sector, Kerrigan must have realised that the Protoss mystics would have thought of something by now. What beats me however is how she found out of the Prophesies since it seemed to be a quite long lost knowlage that they even existed.
What bugs me though is why she would launch a devestating attack on the Dominion (She left the protoss be right) while she was searching for some protoss profecy. Why not attack the toss instead, though they lost Auir one can guess they're prone to live on a planet after all.
To the ending part. I agree on those who think she's not magically good guy now (though she was magically turned into bad guy), the hair bugged me since it didn't seem fitting. If she was completly human again, why just make her bald.
Moving on the the artifact. Once again something makes no sence here. All Toss are connected to the Khala (apart from the dark templars) or hunted to death. Why would the Tel Darim who guarded some gas be guarding all the artidfacts? Being a couple of thousands years old one would think they had figured out that the pieces fit togheter.
I was suprised that the Mobious foundation(always think of the science vessel there) managed to gather enough info on the artifact specificly able to wipe out zerg? That could also be a rather important piece of the story, since Mr Dark voice wanted to bring darkness to all that (assuming sex) he brought light to(indicating he's alone?). He constructed an artifact specificly to kill zerg (base dna perhaps?) and reverse some infestation or two. Knowing the zerg would be the dominant race, did Mr Darkvoice write the prophecy?
Fumbling a bit in the dark here, but i thought the zeratul story was that BW twist some are talking about!
I'm so glad I read all the comments before commenting.
Yeah, the story's kind of... sappish. It was very good overall, but like the movie Inception the people were motivated by... greed. Yeah, other than Cobb everybody in Inception did it for the money, and in WoL everybody does it for... the money. Like seriously, is there no better motivation?
Retro-inserting a love story between Kerrigan and Raynor? I didn't see that coming. They met for all of like, three missions (though yeah that can be a long time), and he's thinking lovey-dovey stuff about her and she about him? And that becomes the primary motivating factor through SCII? Yeah, let's just forget bitchy Kerrigan of BW who had Jim swearing to kill her. That doesn't go through the four years to SCII? Alcohol gotcha there, Jimmy.
2D characters in general with zero to little plot development. Raynor is, as somebody already mentioned, a cardboard cutout of a hero, who spouts the same lines (even though they get me; I'm a sucker for dramatics) and inspires confidence in his dudes while at the same time spending all of his free time in the Cantina (I found it funny that it always led off with like "25/31/17/2 hours and 12 minutes later..." and then you find him sitting there. Sad about Tychus, and very confused at all the plot holes Blizzard left regarding him. Obvious 'traitor' (even though he didn't really betray Jimmy: the only person that viewed the crystal / talked to Zeratul was Raynor himself?) and obviously a lot of people wanted to kill Kerrigan. Still though, shame to have him dead since I liked him. All of your supporting cast?
Horner:
...the rod up Matt Horner's butt has a rod up its own butt...
^Lololol so good. Regardless, Horner didn't change in any way. He was just like "Hi I'm here standing straight up and ready to execute orders. Once in a while I'll argue against some crazy shit but for the most part I'm going to do what I'm told." Swann is just around to be a mechanic, and nothing else, and to be honest I half expected Stetson to be an evil little kid. I mean he's growing Protoss and Zerg shit in the basement and is very excited when you bring him new stuff in a kind of... mad scientist way. Hanson either wants to fuck Jim or becomes a 98.3% Zerg creature in the duration of one short mission (would have been cooler to not have found her and have her pop up later randomly trashing some no-namer on the ship).
The hybrids are so lulz. Fuck Maal, by the way. Dude destroys my Photon cannons so easily, but at least everything else was easily wiped out. Favorite mission was definitely the solo Zeratul one. Never have I ever felt more like a ninja.
And the Char section? Seriously. Dues Ex Machina can go to hell. I also thought it would have been really cool had Warfield been infested after he got poisoned. It at least would have made the mission seem more harrowing and enjoyable.
Regardless, I had fun while playing the campaign itself. It's just afterward when I sat down to think about it I began to find problems. I know some people are talking about how the original SC campaign had twists that spanned the three separate races, but even then each campaign was a story in itself. I could have lived with just the first Terran campaign from SC, and the Zerg part was kind of meh (transition), and just the Protoss. Hopefully Blizzard will develop in HotS.
So glad I didn't buy this game and just played it as a "Guest" loooooooooool. 7 hours my ass, unlimited playtime for the win. And no, I don't give a damn about your achievements.
What would you prefer? You got the artifacts along with half the dominion army,landed and engaged Kerrigan,only to cause her to run? I think those "stalemates" in which the story doesn't move are stupid.
Look at the campaign by itself, don't worry about the next one. I'm sure blizzard knows exactly what they're doing.
As for the development of the story itself, I thought it made sense. Why would one flagship even THINK about going after artifacts to destroy the zerg? Makes more sense that they got artifacts in order to get money to bring mensk down but then found out it can save Kerrigan and they were ONLY able to pull this off with dominion assistance even with the artifacts.
Also, I'm sorry if you don't like happy endings or love stories but remember you're not the only person that bought this game.
TL,DR: This was a great way to end the campaign, and if you plan to reply to this message make sure you read all of it to decrease the chances of saying something stupid and immature.
On August 01 2010 09:16 Kelorienne wrote: I thought the ending was cute...
What would you prefer? You got the artifacts along with half the dominion army,landed and engaged Kerrigan,only to cause her to run? I think those "stalemates" in which the story doesn't move are stupid.
Look at the campaign by itself, don't worry about the next one. I'm sure blizzard knows exactly what they're doing.
As for the development of the story itself, I thought it made sense. Why would one flagship even THINK about going after artifacts to destroy the zerg? Makes more sense that they got artifacts in order to get money to bring mensk down but then found out it can save Kerrigan and they were ONLY able to pull this off with dominion assistance even with the artifacts.
Also, I'm sorry if you don't like happy endings or love stories but remember you're not the only person that bought this game.
TL,DR: This was a great way to end the campaign, and if you plan to reply to this message make sure you read all of it to decrease the chances of saying something stupid and immature.
I would have preferred Tychus shooting her in the face and saying something like. "Now time to chew bubblegum." But sadly Kerrigan is now the key to saving the universe, lame...
I'm all happy for Jim but Kerrigan back to normal (good) and with the expansion coming I'm guessing she will be leading at least some of the zergs. Does that mean zerg is good now? :O I know zerg only follow their leader so they aren't really bad or good but they just don't strike me as someones who save lives and fights against the evil.
Oh well maybe it's just a ruse and she is still evil and betrays everyone like she did in bw, that would be really cool.
She was kinda lame compared to bw, so tamed and "oh I will kill you rar rar.." No real depth to her.
Tychus Don't leave us. You were the best character in the whole game and they had to kill you Sad sad day.
The story is subpar at best. Hope they will do better in expansions BUT I still liked the sp. It had some great missions to it. Just too bad the story wasn't just as good.
It's always little sad seeing your beloved starcraft story going in direction you don't want it to go. This was little too happy for my taste (Happy for them, I'm still crying for the death of Tychus)
This was 26 (29) missions. How long was each campaign in SC? About that long. Think about the development over a SINGLE campaign. I'd say they did a fair job.
SC Terran campaign: @ Beginning: Jim is a hero, Mengsk is a dick, Kerrigan is cool. @ Middle: Jim is a hero, Mengsk is a dick, Kerrigan is dead. @ End, Jim is a hero, Mengsk is a dick, Kerrigan is Zerg.
It's not like we ever saw much development in anyone BESIDES Kerrigan.
On August 01 2010 10:59 Sleight wrote: Another point people seem to be overlooking.
This was 26 (29) missions. How long was each campaign in SC? About that long. Think about the development over a SINGLE campaign. I'd say they did a fair job.
SC Terran campaign: @ Beginning: Jim is a hero, Mengsk is a dick, Kerrigan is cool. @ Middle: Jim is a hero, Mengsk is a dick, Kerrigan is dead. @ End, Jim is a hero, Mengsk is a dick, Kerrigan is Zerg.
It's not like we ever saw much development in anyone BESIDES Kerrigan.
You are so correct. Everyone seem to compare WoL to the entire SC + BW storyline. I guess Blizzard is to blame for being sneaky bastards wanting to score as much cash as possible. Dividing the game into multiple expansions.
I think blizzard took a huge shit on the Starcraft plot in WoL because...
1. WTF is with all the side missions? everything but char, the artifacts and memories dose not effect the main plot at all.
2. WTF is with the hybrids. it seems like blizz pulled that out of their ass. there was non of that shit in SC1.
3. Plot holes. Plot holes. Plot holes. So Tychus was ordered to get the artifacts by Mengsk then meet with his son that betrayed his fathers orders. then he asked Jim not go after his girl... WTF! I'M SO CONFUSED.
I did think the missions were fun but the plot was just awful.
On August 01 2010 15:07 Spaceninja wrote: 2. WTF is with the hybrids. it seems like blizz pulled that out of their ass. there was non of that shit in SC1. .
Did you actually play through the story of SC1? The hybrids were honestly what I was most excited to see in this game and the most curious about. I'm mad I have to sit around for the next game to learn about those bastards.
On August 01 2010 06:47 Ryuu314 wrote: I think that Blizzard has no qualms about giving us an unhappy ending, so ultimately, regardless of what happens in HotS, the universe is completely fucked because Raynor turned Kerrigan human again just to get some.
Moral of the story: Think with your head, not your dick.
Nah, she's still got some badass psionic power, that wasn't her zerg infestation result.
Fine, let me elaborate.
Kerrigan did originally have some nice psionic power, but her psionic power was originally pretty much equivalent to the power of the stronger ghosts and spectres in the game. Her becoming infested allowed her to tap in further into her power (along with the raiding of that one science vessel). But most importantly, her infestation allowed her to control the swarm, while, most importantly, being a independent being. She was able to control the swarm because of the whole hive mind thing that the Zerg has. Her being infested basically allowed her to be part of that hive mind.
However, when she was turned back human, she maintains her ghost powers, but I think that her control over the swarm would largely be lost as the cognitive and biological differences between Terran and Zerg may be too vast.
I doubt anyone read my previous post in this thread but ill continue my short rant anyways. Had blizz not included any of that artifact bullshit, the story would have been 10x better. Just give Raynor a proper meeting with selendis and zeratul. Let the female doctor be someone important aboard the hyperion whose purpose is to pull raynor away from his thoughts on kerrigan. Make kerrigan mortal (why is she made out to be so powerful? this isn't warcraft, there are no godlike characters. kerrigan is deadly because she's cunning). Flesh out the inner struggle kerrigan has with what's left of her humanity (why is she gone for 4 years?) through conversations with raynor (in select missions). Have a mortal encounter between mengsk and kerrigan. Have raynor save kerrigan and bring her aboard the hyperion (the situation calls for it) against his better judgement. Continue in heart of the swarm. The meeting with selendis could have used a good pre-rendered cinematic as well. Shame shame shame. Lack of epic pre-rendered cinematics = fail. We've all seen the kerrigan vs zeratul cinematic.
Edit: Also wanted to add that raynor had good relations with the protoss in sc1. I was disappointed that we did not have any proper protoss allies and instead are forced to fight these fanatical protoss known as tal da reem.
On August 01 2010 15:07 Spaceninja wrote: 2. WTF is with the hybrids. it seems like blizz pulled that out of their ass. there was non of that shit in SC1. .
Did you actually play through the story of SC1? The hybrids were honestly what I was most excited to see in this game and the most curious about. I'm mad I have to sit around for the next game to learn about those bastards.
Ok i do remember a secret mission with dark archons and hybrids, and stuff about the zelnaga, but i still say WTF to the plot line.
On August 01 2010 15:41 SushiBoat wrote: I doubt anyone read my previous post in this thread but ill continue my short rant anyways. Had blizz not included any of that artifact bullshit, the story would have been 10x better. Just give Raynor a proper meeting with selendis and zeratul. Let the female doctor be someone important aboard the hyperion whose purpose is to pull raynor away from his thoughts on kerrigan. Make kerrigan mortal (why is she made out to be so powerful? this isn't warcraft, there are no godlike characters. kerrigan is deadly because she's cunning). Flesh out the inner struggle kerrigan has with what's left of her humanity (why is she gone for 4 years?) through conversations with raynor (in select missions). Have a mortal encounter between mengsk and kerrigan. Have raynor save kerrigan and bring her aboard the hyperion (the situation calls for it) against his better judgement. Continue in heart of the swarm. The meeting with selendis could have used a good pre-rendered cinematic as well. Shame shame shame. Lack of epic pre-rendered cinematics = fail. We've all seen the kerrigan vs zeratul cinematic.
Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
mind == blown
Though I'm neither so sure Blizzard thought everything out that deep nor whether she really is a full Xel'Naga now. She would certainly be philosophically, but in the end, nothing entirely new seems to have been created (so speaking of her as the first "reborn" Xel'Naga is relatively weird), since she (probably) regained her old personality.
Kerrigan, the once cunning "Queen Bitch of the Universe" went way out of character into an arrogant, get pissed off on everything around her kind of person. Her only excuse for that character transition is that she stayed low for 4 years after Brood War that it becomes a psychological effect on her not being able to express her cunning charisma towards the Terrans and the Protoss. So I guess Blizzard didn't really fuck up all the characters, personality-wise.
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
I really liked that. Very interesting read But why didn't the artifact blow up all the terrans?
You are so correct. Everyone seem to compare WoL to the entire SC + BW storyline.
Not even close, more happens in the Terran BW 8 missions campaign than in SC2 29 missions.
A whole new "race" is introduced with UED, we get introduced to the Admiral, Stukov and Duran, we get find new things out about the Zerg aswell, we have big twist, betrayal and good ending, all in 8 missions mind you. Those are 3 rather important characters, high ranking characters.
In SC2 you get introduced to characters that really dont matter, Horner, Swann, Ariel none of them matter, infact they have no influence or power, they belong in a World of Starcraft MMO giving out random quests to kill 20 Hydras over in that cave.
Though I'm neither so sure Blizzard thought everything out that deep nor whether she really is a full Xel'Naga now. She would certainly be philosophically, but in the end, nothing entirely new seems to have been created (so speaking of her as the first "reborn" Xel'Naga is relatively weird), since she (probably) regained her old personality.
Well, in the same way that a hybrid is not an infested protoss, Xel'Naga!Sarah is not an infested terran. You are very correct, though, the current Sarah Kerrigan is not all that special; she's as weak as a newborn. The analogy we can use is that an adult me is stronger than a newborn Jaedong, but when the Jaedong grows up it's gonna kick ass.
I imagine Blizzard will dance around the subject of her true species in Heart of the Swarm as she comes into the fullness of her power as a Xel'Naga. In this way, we as the player really do get into the heart of the prophecy without even knowing it: we first play Raynor, who must redeem her in order to trigger her Xel'Nagadom, and then Kerrigan herself, who has to become a being that embodies power like the Xel'Naga do, even though she doesn't realize what she is. She has the potential; now she has to bring it.
I really liked that. Very interesting read But why didn't the artifact blow up all the terrans?
Well, my initial conclusion was that, since zerg have purity of essence but not form, the artifact will try to convert them and end up just killing them with the trauma of attempted rapid evolution. The same thing would probably happen to any protoss who got near the pulse. However, since terrans do not exemplify either purity of form (hero ghosts are an exception) or purity of essence, the artifact wouldn't consider them candidates and thus not affect them, much as it doesn't affect the rocks around it. To the xel'naga, humans are as low as rocks. =)
On July 28 2010 17:14 TheTuna wrote: Okay, I think we can dispense with the spoiler tags now.
Agreed! Tentacle hair is just weird on human kerrigan, and it's totally illogical since the rest of her body underwent an equally traumatic reversal. Another thing to note is that the secret mission strongly hints that Duran may be cooperating with Mengsk to create Hybrids; the mission, for those who haven't played it yet, is a facility raid on a dominion lab that's creating hybrids, much like Dark Origins. Afterwards, Horner points out that Mengsk couldn't possibly know how to do that...but who do we know that does? Hmmm....
So yeah, Duran in Heart of the Swarm for sure, I think.
On July 28 2010 17:14 TheTuna wrote: Okay, I think we can dispense with the spoiler tags now.
Agreed! Tentacle hair is just weird on human kerrigan, and it's totally illogical since the rest of her body underwent an equally traumatic reversal. Another thing to note is that the secret mission strongly hints that Duran may be cooperating with Mengsk to create Hybrids; the mission, for those who haven't played it yet, is a facility raid on a dominion lab that's creating hybrids, much like Dark Origins. Afterwards, Horner points out that Mengsk couldn't possibly know how to do that...but who do we know that does? Hmmm....
So yeah, Duran in Heart of the Swarm for sure, I think.
You do realize hair is dead cells right?
Just throwing this out there, but maybe her hair isn't physiologically the same as Terran hair. =P I'd guess that related to her ability to telepathically control the zerg, and she keeps them so that in HotS, she'll still be able to do some zergy goodness.
How come no1 has ever discussed if Mengsk is actually Duran?
I mean.. He is to blame that Kerrigan got infested. Duran told Zeratul that kerrigan being infested had sped up his progress, and in sc2 u clearly see that the dominien have hybrids!
They have never been seen at the same time.. ever!
Besides, Acturus seems so damn sneaky, just like duran!
Judging from Blizzard's... attempt at writing a half decent story for SCII, I'd take a guess and say that they are not possibly clever enough to come up with something as complex as what OP has stated.
Imo, Heart of Swarm is going to be fairly obvious: Kerrigan is now "normal" but is haunted by dreams/visions/etc of the future she has already seen and goes through a mental breakdown because she doesn't want to rule the Zerg but learns to love them somehow and uses them. Raynor possibly kidnapped, maybe gimped, but never enough to be out of action (for long) or dead.
Legacy of the Void: Surprise, Zeratul has been busy looking for technology his ancestors left behind (Colossus/Mothership, anyone?). Again. And he's finding it. Except it's more powerful/dangerous/mysterious than what he thought. Together with the other two races, they stand up against the hybrids. And save the Universe.
Because if you really think about it, even the Overmind is saving the universe nowadays. Yeah...
* Kerrigan back to human. It's too happy as an ending, Starcraft one always had bittersweet (at best) endings. Well, ok, unless you're the Zerg then your endings are made of win but when you consider they are evil marauding alien motherfuckers extroadinaire then I guess it counts as a sad ending (unless you want all the humans to get killed, you fucker).
And what did we get? Some guy we KNEW was a traitor from the first fucking cutscene got murdered? That Mengsk is still Emperor, despite the fact the ending was clearly about NOT killing Kerrigan? The fact that the Zeratul missions were optional and had no input in how the ending went, despite the fact they were fucking awesome?
* All the characters are 2 dimensional, which is frustrating. When I saw the original stuff for Jimmy, I thought "yay, we're gonna have a dark brooding jimmy, look how depressed he is! It's like Watchmen in space!" (hopefully). Instead we got a cardboard cutout hero, with shitty cliched lines to boot! Also contradictory. Kerrigan is a dull villain, Swann's moustache has more character then him (most epic mo since Capt Price, albeit), the rod up Matt Horner's butt has a rod up it's own butt, Prince Valerian looked like he wanted to channel Ozymandias but spluttered, and Warfield felt like token black dude.
Tychus is entertaining, and is probably the best thoguht out character. Yeah, we know he's gonna be a traitor, but at least he was a fun one. Had all the game's best lines ("brother, that is the single greatest creation in mankind's history" is my personal favourite) and everything. Thumbs up for character, thumbs down for how they worked him in.
- Numerous plot holes. So, Emperor Mengsk's plan to destroy Kerrigan is to:
* ignore all the specialist commandoes he has, like the entire ghost/spectre academy. Fuck those guys, so useles. * ignore his massive Dominion fleet, that one he's been pouring shittons of money into, in favour of his other arch nemesis. * decide against trying to recreate the psi-disruptor, because that didn't completely buttfuck the Zerg last time. How hard could it be to make one of those with like 8 trillion well paid scientists at your back?
Ok, so the plan is to use those Xel'Naga artifacts (wish they had a better name) instead. Fair enough. But instead of concentrating a massive effort to go get them, he just tries and get his other arch nemesis to do it. WHAT THE FUCK? HEY, I GOT A GREAT IDEA, I WANT SOME POTATOES FROM THE STORE. I'M GONNA GET MY BUDDY TIMMY THE SHITBAG TO GET THAT GUY I HATE TOMMY THE FUCKHOLE TO GET SOME POTATOES AND HOLD ONTO THEM FOR A WHILE, SO I CAN GET MY SON TO BEFRIEND TOMMY FUCKHOLE AND GRADUALLY STEER THEM ON THE PATH OF SOME SWEET POTATOE MASH.
It's very stupid.
I also think it's stupid that he has a constant feed from Tychus's suit and doesn't decide to:
* stop him from piloting the Odin to wreck all his shit * stop Raynor from broadcasting damning evidence as to his corrupt nature, thus inciting massive rebellions all over. * track raynor and destroy him and take the artifacts from him. * and decides to not act surprised when anything like all that happens. t
The other thing I didn't like is that a lot of the jokes are well, more stupid gags then well scripted humour. They're funny but they don't really fit the context, it's a bit too cartoonish for what we'd want from SC2!
All that said, the presentation and execution was fucking outstanding, the level design is superb and the Zeratul missions are like the Chernobyl levels from MW1; unexpected, very different and completely fucking awesome.
I love everything that you wrote in here. So true. <3
I really liked that. Very interesting read But why didn't the artifact blow up all the terrans?
Well, my initial conclusion was that, since zerg have purity of essence but not form, the artifact will try to convert them and end up just killing them with the trauma of attempted rapid evolution. The same thing would probably happen to any protoss who got near the pulse. However, since terrans do not exemplify either purity of form (hero ghosts are an exception) or purity of essence, the artifact wouldn't consider them candidates and thus not affect them, much as it doesn't affect the rocks around it. To the xel'naga, humans are as low as rocks. =)
hahaha ok, that's good. It's an interesting theory. It's probably going to be better than what they would come up with. I'm not entirely sold on Kerrigan being purity of form, but it's a minor thing. It would still be awesome.
For those who want to get up to speed with the original Starcraft and Brood War story without playing those games again, I found a complete script of both games with a bonus rant/commentary:
Funny thing no one (or at least few) has thought about that Kerrigan has to face trial. She destroyed a lot of terran planets and was wanted dead by everyone before the "All in" mission.
I finished the game earlier today. I really loved the ending. I was rooting for Raynor the entire game - up until the ending.
What Raynor did to Tychus was completely wrong. He left him to rot in prison for many years. And Raynor should never have killed him. What we didn't see was where Raynor shot him, maybe Tychus is still alive? Still, I think Kerrigan should have died in place of Tychus.
Kerrigan won her freedom but it came at a price. It came at the expense of the life of Tychus and many, many other humans who didn't deserve to die.
The storyline is too happy - unless it turns out that the whole artefact plan was Duran's Xanatos Gambit to take out Kerrigan's influence over the Zerg. So my theories:
1. Mengsk is dumb because he is being mind-controlled by Duran.
2. Kerrigan is fail because she realized that being Queen Bitch is boring and without Duran her tactics just suck. At the end of BW, after Duran disappears, the final mission is all about brute strength.
3. I think Raynor did want to kill Kerrigan at the end - remember that sidearm (not his rifle) that he kept one bullet in. He was going to use it on either Kerrigan or Mengsk. But guess he wanted to kill the Queen of Blades, not some naked redhead. Plus dooming the universe as well.
4. Deinfesting Kerrigan was Duran's plan all along. Even though Tychus failed to kill her, her hold on the zerg has probably been severely weakened.
5. Pure speculation but if Duran is in charge of Mengsk then Raynor siding with Kerrigan is going to be exactly what he wants.
EDIT: Given that Blizzard has taken input into the game from fans so far, maybe they'll do so for the next campaign? I really hope so.
On August 01 2010 21:52 caewil wrote: 3. I think Raynor did want to kill Kerrigan at the end - remember that sidearm (not his rifle) that he kept one bullet in. He was going to use it on either Kerrigan or Mengsk. But guess he wanted to kill the Queen of Blades, not some naked redhead. Plus dooming the universe as well
just wanted to quote you for this, even though i noticed the 1 bullet, i didn't think of that, nice spotted
Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
I skimmed through most of this, but I don't think most if anyone in here is arguing that turning Kerrigan into flesh is going to doom the Universe. In fact, if you read most posts, it's fairly clear we're complaining because this is so obvious, sappy, deus ex machina-like, etc, etc.
On August 01 2010 21:52 caewil wrote: 3. I think Raynor did want to kill Kerrigan at the end - remember that sidearm (not his rifle) that he kept one bullet in. He was going to use it on either Kerrigan or Mengsk. But guess he wanted to kill the Queen of Blades, not some naked redhead. Plus dooming the universe as well
just wanted to quote you for this, even though i noticed the 1 bullet, i didn't think of that, nice spotted
Ok, here goes- First of all (as most of you) I assume Kerrigan will still, at least partly, be in control of the swarm. Judging from the WoL campaign, her objectives will be keeping the prophecy from coming true and probably kicking Arcturus' ass for revenge.
Concerning the Swarm itself, things might go in a different direction. In Zeratuls vision of the overminds thoughts, the overminds sees the Zerg as "slaves". Even though it's not made clear whose slaves the zerg are supposed to be, chances are that he means the zerg are enslaved by the Xel Naga via the prime directive to destroy/infest/assimilate (hi Borg) all life and the Protoss in particular. One can imagine that the Overmind intended to free his "people" from this (self-)destructive way of life that is enforced on them. However, since the Zerg are, as far as I can remember from Starcraft 1, actually small mindcontroling parasites, it sure will be interesting to see what kind of vision the Overmind (or Blizzard) has for the future of the Zerg "civilisation".
Here is my very interesting theory for the next expansions :
After the de-infestation of Kerrigan Duran sends his hybrids to enslave the Zergs, somehow a multalisk escapes and prays for the forgotten Multalisk god to help its people. The god, whom they called "the destroyer of worlds" in ancient time ,angered by Duran's act, decides to descend from the sky with 11 multalisks to save the Zerg. His 11 multalisks stack together and completely eradicate the Hybrids. He then himself leads the Zerg army to wave war against the Terran Dominion and the Hybrids.
Duran quickly disappears with all the hybrids, leaving Mengsk alone to fend off the new Zerg threat. When the destroyer of worlds attacks Korhal, Mengsk's fleet is crushed to dusk. When all seems lost the Hyperion arrives and saves Mengsk because Valerian offered Raynor the blueprint of his secret project : "The Ultimate Weapon" in exchange for Mengsk's life. Raynor's force soon builds the Ultimate Weapon and with it fending off the destructive power of the Multalisk god, the universe becomes balanced again. (The Zerg cannot attack because the Ultimate Weapon builds 5631623264632514632536236646 missile turrets on each Terran core world)
While the Terran and the Zerg fought each other, Duran opened a direct assault on Shakuras with his Hybrid army. The Protoss retreated to the Xel Naga temple and Zeratul used a sacred dagger to summon the Dark Templar God. Right in the moment the Hybrids entered the temple The God appeared with 12 corsairs and 12 dark templars and instantly killed Duran. He then proceeds to lead the Protoss to join the on-going battle between the Ultimate Weapon and the Destroyer of Worlds...
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
I don't see where you got the idea that we think raynor screwed up everything. He clearly did what he was supposed to do. Not kill kerrigan. I appreciate the effort in trying to explain the direction blizz has gone, but that doesn't make up for the fact that the first part could have been much more than it was. A 3 game campaign has to have a myriad of plot devices to keep the player interested. You can't just have the first part be dull, make no hints as to what might happen in the second game, and just promise the player that the next game will actually have a better plot. Blizz did not actually make this promise, but in your explanation you try to defend blizz for things that were never hinted at. Instead, they chose to include filler missions, which, in my mind, tells me that the writers didn't have anything to flesh out and that the plot is heading straight for nowhere.
Edit: Of course, blizz still has the opportunity to do a 180 as WOL didn't really get that far in its own story to do any serious damage.
Some remaining questions I have regarding the single player.
Zaratul said Kerrigan must not die, not to be reversed back to human. So why did Raynor do that? Did he really do it just to get some?
Who exactly did Tychus make a deal with to kill Kerrigan? Is Tychus dead?
A few of the cinematics shots in the reveal trailer with Tychus, I don't think I've seen them again in any of the single player cinematics, such as the scene with Terran spaceship and the scene with mutas, are those scenes created just to appear in the sc2 announcement trailer?
On August 02 2010 02:39 iloahz wrote: Some remaining questions I have regarding the single player.
Zaratul said Kerrigan must not die, not to be reversed back to human. So why did Raynor do that? Did he really do it just to get some?
Who exactly did Tychus make a deal with to kill Kerrigan? Is Tychus dead?
A few of the cinematics shots in the reveal trailer with Tychus, I don't think I've seen them again in any of the single player cinematics, such as the scene with Terran spaceship and the scene with mutas, are those scenes created just to appear in the sc2 announcement trailer?
The intro movie...aka "Hell, it's about time!" was changed for the release. And in it it's Mengsk talking to Tychus. You can clearly hear it's his voice.
It's kind of a silly argument to say "mengsk had ghosts, specters, the Odin, a fleet, and he wasn't doing anything to kill kerrigan wtf?". Did you watch the ending cinematic? He was playing his enemies! As much as he hates Raynor, he's not so blinded by it that he doesn't realize the mans strengths. So he sent Tychus, the biggest badass in the prison system and personal friend of Jim's to get the job done. Mengsk is incredibly smart and adept at playing people: why send a fleet or dozens of secret operatives when you can get your enemies to accomplish your goals for you?
I'm hoping kerrigan is still evil. Except now without all that exoskeleton she can fit into that tight ghost suit. Mmmmmm. It'll suck if she turns good. Not interesting at all. Best and most iconic character in the series gone.
The one part that pissed me off was the Tychus/Jim relationship. Particularily when Horner is like "yo boi Thycus got a kill switch" and Jim is like "word.". Even after their big fight Jim doesn't confront him. WTF? Thats not some geeky bullshit technicality, thats just retarded. Oh so theres a gun against his head? Someone is forcing him to do something? Cool beans lets go get some artifacts (duyuuuuumb name). And Tosh is trying to play it all cool like he didn't see the first cinematic "Jiiiimmmy someone on the ship is gonna betray youu, ohhgabooga, I don't know who cause I didn't see the opening cinematic". Retarded.
Otherwise the story was cool, the opening half was slow, but overall it was decent.
3. I think Raynor did want to kill Kerrigan at the end - remember that sidearm (not his rifle) that he kept one bullet in. He was going to use it on either Kerrigan or Mengsk. But guess he wanted to kill the Queen of Blades, not some naked redhead. Plus dooming the universe as well.
I'm pretty sure that one bullet was for Mengsk since when Raynor boarded that dominion ship he found who he thought was Mengsk and pulled that pistol on him but it turned out to be his son.
I feel like playable races in Blizzard games are never purely evil... The orcs and the undead both end up being good guys in War 3 and TFT (undead may be more like anti-heroes, but still). I'm betting that the situation will be similar with Kerrigan.
My prediction is that kerrigan's job in Heart of the Swarm will be to gain control over the rampant swarms of zerg around the galaxy, and most likely fight Mensk a lot along the way (he's probably going to try and control the swarms as well.) He will probably be the main enemy next expansion, since it is too early the be fighting head on with the hybrids.
I liked the ending. It is a good departure from the normal "expensive victory"/straight up depressing endings Blizz seems to be a fan of. Also, obviously there are still 2 parts left, for all of you who can stand happiness
and another thing: For those of you asking why it only took half a fleet to take out char, it is obviously because of the artifact. This should go without saying. They only had to take out a relatively small number of zerg to get to the main hive cluster and then neutralized the rest with the artifact. Capturing the planet without that would have been infinitely more difficult.
It happens in all blizzard games. You think a certain race is evil, turns out the true evil is something else and everyone must unite to defeat that evil.
what i dont get is if mengsk had control of Tychus the whole time, why didnt he just make him shoot backstab Raynor... it obviously has something to do with megnsk not really caring about raynor in the first place and just wanted kerrigan for some unspecified reason
On August 02 2010 05:45 RifleCow wrote: It happens in all blizzard games. You think a certain race is evil, turns out the true evil is something else and everyone must unite to defeat that evil.
On August 02 2010 06:08 perfectflaw72 wrote: what i dont get is if mengsk had control of Tychus the whole time, why didnt he just make him shoot backstab Raynor... it obviously has something to do with megnsk not really caring about raynor in the first place and just wanted kerrigan for some unspecified reason
Probably Duran doesn't care about Raynor, but obviously cares about killing Kerrigan since she is "the key".
I honestly was expecting Blizzard to do something creative like having Tosh actually be Duran, which I 100% believed was what going to happen. Instead I got this shoddy space cowboy story. I was paying so little attention towards the end, that I didn't even notice Dr. Narud's name, since he was so switfly introduced and left behind.
The thing that really annoys me is there's all these Xel'naga artifacts conveniently used for any plot device without an easy explanation. If the Xel'naga had so many Zerg destroying devices (the Uraj and the Kalas and that temple, whatever the crap it was that was assembled in this campaign), then why did they ever lose to the Zerg in the first place? Because they conveniently broke the artifacts up into pieces? Good grief.
For all those wondering, Tychus Findlay is dead. the cinematic didn't show were he got shot because blizzard is aiming for a 13 year old audience. it says in the epilogue
The victory came at a heavy cost: Tychus Findlay is dead, and Arcturus Mengsk remains secure on his throne.
On August 02 2010 07:53 zer0das wrote: The thing that really annoys me is there's all these Xel'naga artifacts conveniently used for any plot device without an easy explanation. If the Xel'naga had so many Zerg destroying devices (the Uraj and the Kalas and that temple, whatever the crap it was that was assembled in this campaign), then why did they ever lose to the Zerg in the first place? Because they conveniently broke the artifacts up into pieces? Good grief.
I don't think the Xal'naga lost to the Zerg, your thinking of the Protoss.
"The Overmind sent its minions into space, attacking the unsuspecting xel'naga. Despite the ancient race's best efforts, it was overwhelmed as the zerg crashed into the hulls of its ships. Within a few hours the zerg laid waste to the xel'naga fleet. The greater whole of the xel'naga were consumed by the raging, genetic whirlwind of the zerg, and the Overmind gained their knowledge and insights."
I seem to remember a pretty similar telling of the story either from the campaign or the manual of BW. The Xel'naga revealed themselves to the protoss before they had sufficiently developed and so accidentally started the aeon of strife, the xel'naga left due to their disgust at protoss violence and frustration at their failure. The protoss never attacked the xel'naga - this is backed up further by the level of reverence that the protoss have for them.
"The Overmind sent its minions into space, attacking the unsuspecting xel'naga. Despite the ancient race's best efforts, it was overwhelmed as the zerg crashed into the hulls of its ships. Within a few hours the zerg laid waste to the xel'naga fleet. The greater whole of the xel'naga were consumed by the raging, genetic whirlwind of the zerg, and the Overmind gained their knowledge and insights."
I seem to remember a pretty similar telling of the story either from the campaign or the manual of BW. The Xel'naga revealed themselves to the protoss before they had sufficiently developed and so accidentally started the aeon of strife, the xel'naga left due to their disgust at protoss violence and frustration at their failure. The protoss never attacked the xel'naga - this is backed up further by the level of reverence that the protoss have for them.
"The Overmind sent its minions into space, attacking the unsuspecting xel'naga. Despite the ancient race's best efforts, it was overwhelmed as the zerg crashed into the hulls of its ships. Within a few hours the zerg laid waste to the xel'naga fleet. The greater whole of the xel'naga were consumed by the raging, genetic whirlwind of the zerg, and the Overmind gained their knowledge and insights."
I seem to remember a pretty similar telling of the story either from the campaign or the manual of BW. The Xel'naga revealed themselves to the protoss before they had sufficiently developed and so accidentally started the aeon of strife, the xel'naga left due to their disgust at protoss violence and frustration at their failure. The protoss never attacked the xel'naga - this is backed up further by the level of reverence that the protoss have for them.
"Protoss science and psionics advanced at a fast rate, but so did their pride and egos, causing the tribes to drift apart. The protoss began to shy from their xel'naga teachers as they grew suspicious of their interests and cultivated unsubstantiated rumors about them. The tribes began to lose the connection to their psychic link.
The xel'naga, saddened at the lost opportunity, made ready to leave Aiur. Seeing this as a betrayal, some protoss attacked them, killing many hundreds of them, even attacking their ships as they left.
The xel'naga abandoned many artifacts, including an underground city and khaydarin crystals. The Shelak Tribe safeguarded many more portable artifacts.
The protoss then fell into a state of madness in which they raged and whimpered. Each protoss felt great self-hatred over their abandonment by the xel'naga, and the madness was a symptom of this. The tribes held a love/hate relationship with the xel'naga and felt great hatred toward other tribes."
Also, in regards to another post about Zerg being purity of essence because they are a hive mind in part is simply not true. The Protoss were also a hive mind of sorts, or at least have the Khala, which you can see at
"In their quest to create the perfect lifeform the xel'naga returned to Aiur, one of their engineered worlds, and discovered the protoss. The protoss possessed many favorable traits but most distinct of all was their psionic link, a form of instinctive telepathy that enabled them to communicate with one another and work together efficiently even in large groups. The xel'naga saw the protoss as suitable for further elevation."
Oddly, the connection that the Zerg had was forced upon them by the Xel'naga because the cooperation of the Protoss wasn't strong enough
"The zerg were "created" by the xel'naga on Zerus. The xel'naga were searching for a counterpart to merge with the protoss, gifted with the purity of form, and continue their lifecycle. In the zerg they found a worthy candidate for the purity of essence. To prevent a similar fragmentation and regression experienced by the protoss during the Aeon of Strife, the xel'naga subordinated all the zerg to a single entity: the Overmind. The ancient species attempted to keep their presence a secret from the Swarm, but eventually the Overmind became aware of them and ordered the zerg to attack. The xel'naga were driven from Zerus, and the zerg gained knowledge of the protoss."
the overmind is dead. It got killed in Aiur by Tassadar yes? Then Kerrigan was able to take over since there was nothing higher ranked than her. or so i thought...
On August 02 2010 05:45 RifleCow wrote: It happens in all blizzard games. You think a certain race is evil, turns out the true evil is something else and everyone must unite to defeat that evil.
Yep. And it's starting to get old.
Or we're starting to get old . I didn't care much for the ending, but after all the speculation in this thread i'm hyped again!
It might be important to note that kerrigan didn't immediately take control of the swarm after the death of the overmind, a good proportion of the BW zerg campaign was her taking control of it. Furthermore, the re-creation of the overmind would have lost her control, even though she had re-asserted herself. It could be that the Kerrigan is only "hijacking" the hive mind. If this is the case, then its still possible for Kerrigan to run the swarm, and also gives the possibility of a more powerful psionic to do the same.
I can't believe Chris Metzen is getting paid to write this storyline . . .
I mean, if they included Jake Ramsey from the Dark Templar trilogy things might've been less predictable and more engaging then simply rounding up a bunch of bloody artifacts, but alas they did not. No word of other interesting novel characters either. Not even a snippet of Eathen Stewart's fate as Kerrigan's failed experiment, nor even a mentioning of Ulrezaj. All we get is possibly a minor allusion to Duran, whose lacking appearance was a serious let down.
Combine all these fails with Zeratul's absolute abysmal voice actor and utterly cliched dialogue, along with Tychus' predictable behavior and subplots from Dr. Hanson and Tosh that go nowhere, and you have an awful mess of a storyline. I should've known the three parter was a money scam. So many pointless missions that contribute virtually nothing to the actual story arc. I'm not sure if I can trust Metzen with Heart of the Swarm, it could just be the same shit, different universe all over again from WC3.
It doesn't help either that they added two, (count em), TWO 1 v 1 maps in the release version. Plenty of 3 v3 and 4 v 4 maps, but which style of maps do you think are actually relevant for tournaments?
On August 02 2010 10:41 Blanke wrote: It doesn't help either that they added two, (count em), TWO 1 v 1 maps in the release version. Plenty of 3 v3 and 4 v 4 maps, but which style of maps do you think are actually relevant for tournaments?
Thats because there was only one of 3v3 and 4v4... they needed to have a semi-even map pool for 1v1 2v2 3v3 and 4v4.
EDIT: also whats stopping people from making their own maps for tournaments? or using maps others made?
On August 02 2010 10:41 Blanke wrote: It doesn't help either that they added two, (count em), TWO 1 v 1 maps in the release version. Plenty of 3 v3 and 4 v 4 maps, but which style of maps do you think are actually relevant for tournaments?
Thats because there was only one of 3v3 and 4v4... they needed to have a semi-even map pool for 1v1 2v2 3v3 and 4v4.
EDIT: also whats stopping people from making their own maps for tournaments? or using maps others made?
They certainly can make their own maps, but they wont be included in the ladder system. You'll find that most tournaments will stick by the ladder maps, which are getting quite repetitive.
EDIT: I'm actually finding the current custom maps to be extremely lacking. Red Tower TD, whoop de doo. Some lame Special Forces adaptations too. Why must Blizzard design the custom map pool so differently from WC3? I miss Random Micro Arena from BW. That shit was fun.
On August 02 2010 10:41 Blanke wrote: All we get is possibly a minor allusion to Duran, whose lacking appearance was a serious let down.
I completely agree. The whole time I was thinking that Tosh was going to be Duran. But then he just turned out to be the token Jamaican? And apparently there was a Dr. Narud? Which spelt backwards is Duran? I remember a scientist form Moebius, but I was barely paying enough attention at that point to really notice any details like that.
Combine all these fails with Zeratul's absolute abysmal voice actor and utterly cliched dialogue,
Not to mention he only had like 5 lines. 3 of which had been revealed since like 2008.
It doesn't help either that they added two, (count em), TWO 1 v 1 maps in the release version. Plenty of 3 v3 and 4 v 4 maps, but which style of maps do you think are actually relevant for tournaments?
Blizzard makes some pretty shoddy maps anyway. At least for SC, they have. What do most of the current ladder maps boil down to? Huge open areas with small chokes into bases which lead to sitting around for half an hour waiting for a massive 1a2a battle that settles the game. Even at the top level, this is what you see most of the time. I can't wait to get some real maps like heartbreak ridge or Final destination et al in SC2 fashion that allow for, you know, like, micro, harassment, and stuff.
I'm suprsised no one has mentioned the fact that the overmind was being guarded and was moving around(after 4 years...) on one of the missions. Why would the zerg(under Kerrigan) be guarding the corpse of the overmind? To me it means that the overmind is alive somehow(took dark templars to kill a celebrate...so I doubt that you can kill the overmind without one, even if it's a carrier that hits it). It would also open the way for a more interesting situation where Kerrigan may need to reseruct the overmind and bring him to his original(non-slave) state or watch the hybrids take over the swarm. Or the overmind will fight her for the swarm and take a large portion of it(she is presumably weaker in her connection but should be part zerg since she survived on char without any clothing or protection.
[QUOTE]On August 02 2010 12:14 alsowikk wrote: To me it means that the overmind is alive somehow(took dark templars to kill a celebrate...so I doubt that you can kill the overmind without one, even if it's a carrier that hits it.[QUOTE]
That's because Tassadar was taught by Zeratul the ways of the Dark Templar. He's the only known protoss to merger both the way of the Khala and the Dark Templar.
i predict that HoTS will start off with a clip about how happy kerrigan and Raynor are. Kerrigan will then have some permission or dream that the overmind is still alive and needs her to help defeat the hybrids. Kerrigan will then come to Raynor with sappy eyes and tell them she needs to rejoin the zerg to defeat the Hybrids. Raynor with /sadpanda face will say ok, and there will be a sappy scene where their hands break apart and fingertips touch for the last time. Kerrigan then returns to the zerg and begins her mission to defeat the Hybrids.
I'm not gonna lie, the entire time I watched the ending I was thinking whether or not she was gonna permanently keep the hair.... As for the plot, not a lot happened tbh. The most interesting plot development was a flashback. + Show Spoiler +
Tassadar's not dead and Kerrigan dying from mysterious circumstances (not necessarily avoided by killing tycus). I hope they don't drag out 2 games saving Kerrigan from drivebys and stuff all about keeping her alive.
Just finished all-in on brutal today. The missions were hella fun but frankly this story was terrible. Literally nothing happens throughout ~75% of the campaign where you're just raiding random planets to get money. Tosh/Hanson was ok but nothing was built on them. In fact as I was trying to beat the final mission again and again, I realized how bad the storyline was because i literally knew nothing before that mission. That final mission + zeratul flashback IS the complete storyline. And not to mention the numerous plot holes of how Tychus is supposed to be employed by Mengsk but still goes around doing all that shit like hijacking the Odin. You can smell his betrayal coming a mile away just from the prologue and his conflicting ideals with Raynor's in the first few missions. Now I begin to understand why people label this game as marketed for 12 year olds.
Basically the entire storyline can be summed up as: Raynor teams up with Mengsk's son to "uninfest" Kerrigan; Tychus is killed because, despite the obvious plot holes, is actually working with Mengsk all along.
The cliffhanger ending is a big problem for me. This is a full game and in my opinion the storyline should be complete even if you only bought that one game. If you look back at BW or WC3, you'll see what I mean. In each game, the story offered a good and complete ending even if you only bought vanilla (Overmind dies/Legion is defeated, world is saved). Here in SC2 I am given a fucking cliffhanger ending as to what Kerrigan's allegiances are, what Valerian's motives are, what happens to Mengsk, and Zeratul's prophecy. WoL may be the length of 3 campaigns but its actual story is pretty much only that of 1. Albeit I expected this to happen because of Activision greed.
Ok so here is my go on what happened and is going to happen:
Duran got to Arcturus, told him about the ability to change kerrigan (or at least offered him an opportunity to get rid of her). Archy releases Findlay and introduces Duran aka. Dr.Nurad to his son Valerian, knowing that he wants to succeed his father and will turn Kerrigan for him, so Findlay (who is trustful because of "good old times" and will be on jimmies side when it happens) can kill her. This also explains Archys rather dry response to Valerian:"You've been way over your head!" because Valerian got played BIG TIME!
Sadly Raynor interferes by killing Findlay (yes one might doubt that hes dead but the mainscreen says he is...) and turning kerrigan rather then killing her, therefore undoing the prophecy because the hybrids will lose the control over the zerg due to kerrigan in the future
now to Heart of the swarm
Kerrigan now back in her human form is still able to control a small amount of zerg to regain the reign over all Zerg. But the Zerg are endagered of beeing enslaved by the hybrids of Duran. Kerrigan is able to fight the Hybrids with Raynors help and can regain the Zergthrone.
The Mengsks father son complex is at its peak. Valerian (fan of the newschick) is the hero of the universe because he got rid of Pirate Raynor and the weapon of mass destruction Queen of Blades (Raynor planned to escape with Kerrigan far far away so why not use this moment) and dethrones Arcturus (possibly killing him because raynor decided against revenge when he killed Findlay with the Arcturus-bullet to save kerrigan). [This also makes for an excellent opening cinematic: Just use the reporterchick to tell Raynor and Kerrigan are gone, Valerian dethroned Mengsk etc.]
Duran however, prepares for the big hybrid invasion to destroy the new heir and everything else. End of Hots with evil smile of either the revealed Dark voice or an evil german accentish kinda laugh by Dr.Narud (servant to a higher force).
LotV
Meanwhile Zeratul, guided by jedighost Thassadar, had to reunite the shattered tribes of his race while gathering the help of ancient thingies like the collossi (depending on what awesome shadow of the collossus robots the toss will get). On his way he also fights Durans/dark voices Hybrids to gain control of his clan.
When Zeratul finally is ready with all the protoss we are where we ended in HotS. At the great hybrid invasion of Archys former empire. Valerians imperial forces halfway overrun get a little help of Raynor who already knows their commander who he saved in battle.... The commander gets killed so Raynor gets the job done by taking his place as commander of valerians forces (prolly together with Matt Horner who does not particulary like the idea but fights for the greater good --> Survival of human race).
The Zerg and Protoss led by Kerrigan and Zeratul fight together with the terrans to defeat the dark voice/durans hybrids. In the final moment of truth when the bad boy (duran or whatever leads the hybrids in battle) is about to die he/she or it turns to kerrigan or zeratul and says:" This would not have been possible without the help of the Xel'Naga!" (Pointing at Raynor aka. the Terrans/Humans)
1. By the end of the 3rd game we will all be in awe over this story.
2. The missions in this game are by far and away the greatest RTS missions ever made.
3. The game is realy really fun.
4. The story isn't really 'that' bad when you consider it's only purpose was to reintroduce us to the current state of things and leave us with a cliff hanger of what will happen with Kerrigan.
5. About the "taking out Char" so easily thing, who gives a fuck. They had half the Dominion fleet, which has been built for years and years to fight the zerg (and Raynor), and the artifact. You might want to overlook that but they even said we'd get overrun easily without it.
I will give you one thing tho... the dialogue left much to be desired. I really think the voice actors did a great job but the lines they were given were bad most of the time. I suppose I also wish they would of made Kerrigan more of the "smart terror" she was in the first games. I miss the overmind so much .
Either way, everyone chill out and realize you just experienced one of the best PC experiences in the last decade. Plus there is still the multiplayer :D.
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
This post makes me feel MUCH better about both Blizzards ability to tell a complicated story as well as the future expansions. Must read (really big on the spoilers tho).
I would love to see Valerian obtains some weird whispering sword (or gun) from Char and returns as a hero just to kill his father. Mengsk : "What are you doing, my son ?" Valerian : "Succeeding you, father" (Kill Mengsk) Mengsk : "AAAHHHH" (Die)
Some weird voice begin to speak : "This empire SHALL fall, and from the ashes SHALL arise a new monster that WILL shake the very foundation of the UNIVERSE"
On August 02 2010 18:41 kmdarkmaster wrote: I would love to see Valerian obtains some weird whispering sword (or gun) from Char and returns as a hero just to kill his father. Mengsk : "What are you doing, my son ?" Valerian : "Succeeding you, father" (Kill Mengsk) Mengsk : "AAAHHHH" (Die)
Some weird voice begin to speak : "This empire SHALL fall, and from the ashes SHALL arise a new monster that WILL shake the very foundation of the UNIVERSE"
looool
Pft don't mock that cinematic. That entire scene still sends chills down my spine and is one of the greatest things i've ever seen in a video game.
Prince Valerian is an interesting character. He doesn't seem pure but at the same time he seems much better than his father (which isn't hard to do I suppose). I'm guessing in the next game Kerrigan will finally kill Mengsk (who is probably under Durans control) in one of the last levels. This will then set up the last game where the Dominion is an ally of the Zerg and Raynor (and hence Zeratul and the protoss) against the comming hordes.
Though I'm neither so sure Blizzard thought everything out that deep nor whether she really is a full Xel'Naga now. She would certainly be philosophically, but in the end, nothing entirely new seems to have been created (so speaking of her as the first "reborn" Xel'Naga is relatively weird), since she (probably) regained her old personality.
Well, in the same way that a hybrid is not an infested protoss, Xel'Naga!Sarah is not an infested terran. You are very correct, though, the current Sarah Kerrigan is not all that special; she's as weak as a newborn. The analogy we can use is that an adult me is stronger than a newborn Jaedong, but when the Jaedong grows up it's gonna kick ass.
I imagine Blizzard will dance around the subject of her true species in Heart of the Swarm as she comes into the fullness of her power as a Xel'Naga. In this way, we as the player really do get into the heart of the prophecy without even knowing it: we first play Raynor, who must redeem her in order to trigger her Xel'Nagadom, and then Kerrigan herself, who has to become a being that embodies power like the Xel'Naga do, even though she doesn't realize what she is. She has the potential; now she has to bring it.
I really liked that. Very interesting read But why didn't the artifact blow up all the terrans?
Well, my initial conclusion was that, since zerg have purity of essence but not form, the artifact will try to convert them and end up just killing them with the trauma of attempted rapid evolution. The same thing would probably happen to any protoss who got near the pulse. However, since terrans do not exemplify either purity of form (hero ghosts are an exception) or purity of essence, the artifact wouldn't consider them candidates and thus not affect them, much as it doesn't affect the rocks around it. To the xel'naga, humans are as low as rocks. =)
. Hats hats hats... I hope you are employed by blizzard or they have someone equally inventive on their team. I so hope that. Best possible explanation for the worst turn in the story I have seen, I could forgive all the badly written dialogue and wasteful side quests/missions if the main story becomes as good as that.
For some wierd reason I see the overmind being a kay to the equation. I know that everyone is saying, but alsowikk Kerrigan is the key! Kerrigan may be the key, but what does that key unlock? Simply put I think that Kerrigan needs to reseruct the overmind and free him(or since he's moving around he is somewhat alive still). The other possibility I see is that the overmind made Tassadir a hybrid! How? When the Zerg destroyed the Xel' naga it is possible that the zerg rememberred where it was, combine that with kerrigan being able to accomplish her own goals it could easily be a part of her plan AND a way to keep the overmind alive.(a Xel'naga Kerrigan would be even scarrier then the current one and it owuld explain why Tassidar didn't die)
EDIT: I was thinking that the whole Xelnaga cycle competeles Zeratul's question of whether they will save or destroy. The truth is, they do both at once. They destroy the races with purity of form and essence but turn them into Xel'naga and "save" them from death.
I hope Blizzard realizes that they have 4 years of Zerg inactivity to account for.
My thought is that during that time the queen bitch of the universe cooperated with Duran, but eventually got betrayed - because he seemed smarter than she is (plus she is/was a woman) -, and went on to destroy Mengsk who in turn was cooperating with Duran to make hybrids.
+1 internets to On_Slaught who said this about Mengsk:
(who is probably under Durans control)
Also: the Xel'Naga. I think that they will be saviors and rally the three races to fight against the hybrids when the end cometh. They should act like Medivh eventually... maybe not. But cool new units yay.
This discussion made me hard. Off to order StarCraft books!
Though I'm neither so sure Blizzard thought everything out that deep nor whether she really is a full Xel'Naga now. She would certainly be philosophically, but in the end, nothing entirely new seems to have been created (so speaking of her as the first "reborn" Xel'Naga is relatively weird), since she (probably) regained her old personality.
Well, in the same way that a hybrid is not an infested protoss, Xel'Naga!Sarah is not an infested terran. You are very correct, though, the current Sarah Kerrigan is not all that special; she's as weak as a newborn. The analogy we can use is that an adult me is stronger than a newborn Jaedong, but when the Jaedong grows up it's gonna kick ass.
I imagine Blizzard will dance around the subject of her true species in Heart of the Swarm as she comes into the fullness of her power as a Xel'Naga. In this way, we as the player really do get into the heart of the prophecy without even knowing it: we first play Raynor, who must redeem her in order to trigger her Xel'Nagadom, and then Kerrigan herself, who has to become a being that embodies power like the Xel'Naga do, even though she doesn't realize what she is. She has the potential; now she has to bring it.
Well, my initial conclusion was that, since zerg have purity of essence but not form, the artifact will try to convert them and end up just killing them with the trauma of attempted rapid evolution. The same thing would probably happen to any protoss who got near the pulse. However, since terrans do not exemplify either purity of form (hero ghosts are an exception) or purity of essence, the artifact wouldn't consider them candidates and thus not affect them, much as it doesn't affect the rocks around it. To the xel'naga, humans are as low as rocks. =)
I can confirm that this is false, but very close to the truth. If you talk to Hanson after doing the first Crystal mission, she will explain that the artifact is attempting to draw as much power into itself as possible, and thus would (she speculates) destroy any Protoss or Zerg that came within its proximity. So, humans are basically rocks, but because they have almost no energy in them, not for these reasons. I have no idea why (for example) Tosh isn't completely destroyed by the thing if it is based on these power concerns, but it is just Hanson's speculation.
Not doing the Haven mission until when you absolutely have to has made the entire story much more enjoyable for me (because of her presence on board), and I suggest anyone interested in lore do the same on their next play through.
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
This post makes me feel MUCH better about both Blizzards ability to tell a complicated story as well as the future expansions. Must read (really big on the spoilers tho).
Though I'm neither so sure Blizzard thought everything out that deep nor whether she really is a full Xel'Naga now. She would certainly be philosophically, but in the end, nothing entirely new seems to have been created (so speaking of her as the first "reborn" Xel'Naga is relatively weird), since she (probably) regained her old personality.
Well, in the same way that a hybrid is not an infested protoss, Xel'Naga!Sarah is not an infested terran. You are very correct, though, the current Sarah Kerrigan is not all that special; she's as weak as a newborn. The analogy we can use is that an adult me is stronger than a newborn Jaedong, but when the Jaedong grows up it's gonna kick ass.
I imagine Blizzard will dance around the subject of her true species in Heart of the Swarm as she comes into the fullness of her power as a Xel'Naga. In this way, we as the player really do get into the heart of the prophecy without even knowing it: we first play Raynor, who must redeem her in order to trigger her Xel'Nagadom, and then Kerrigan herself, who has to become a being that embodies power like the Xel'Naga do, even though she doesn't realize what she is. She has the potential; now she has to bring it.
I really liked that. Very interesting read But why didn't the artifact blow up all the terrans?
Well, my initial conclusion was that, since zerg have purity of essence but not form, the artifact will try to convert them and end up just killing them with the trauma of attempted rapid evolution. The same thing would probably happen to any protoss who got near the pulse. However, since terrans do not exemplify either purity of form (hero ghosts are an exception) or purity of essence, the artifact wouldn't consider them candidates and thus not affect them, much as it doesn't affect the rocks around it. To the xel'naga, humans are as low as rocks. =)
. Hats hats hats... I hope you are employed by blizzard or they have someone equally inventive on their team. I so hope that. Best possible explanation for the worst turn in the story I have seen, I could forgive all the badly written dialogue and wasteful side quests/missions if the main story becomes as good as that.
Thanks, guys. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Sorry, I don't work for Blizzard (though one can hope...), but I do write, so I have some understanding of how stories are structured. Blizzard wants to set up all these assumptions in our heads and then knock 'em down in order to blow us away - hell, I was blown away when the artifact actually WORKED, because I totally thought they'd follow their usual pattern and give us a phyrric victory or Bad End, but this end was actually really hopeful and empowering for the players.
Though I'm neither so sure Blizzard thought everything out that deep nor whether she really is a full Xel'Naga now. She would certainly be philosophically, but in the end, nothing entirely new seems to have been created (so speaking of her as the first "reborn" Xel'Naga is relatively weird), since she (probably) regained her old personality.
Well, in the same way that a hybrid is not an infested protoss, Xel'Naga!Sarah is not an infested terran. You are very correct, though, the current Sarah Kerrigan is not all that special; she's as weak as a newborn. The analogy we can use is that an adult me is stronger than a newborn Jaedong, but when the Jaedong grows up it's gonna kick ass.
I imagine Blizzard will dance around the subject of her true species in Heart of the Swarm as she comes into the fullness of her power as a Xel'Naga. In this way, we as the player really do get into the heart of the prophecy without even knowing it: we first play Raynor, who must redeem her in order to trigger her Xel'Nagadom, and then Kerrigan herself, who has to become a being that embodies power like the Xel'Naga do, even though she doesn't realize what she is. She has the potential; now she has to bring it.
Well, my initial conclusion was that, since zerg have purity of essence but not form, the artifact will try to convert them and end up just killing them with the trauma of attempted rapid evolution. The same thing would probably happen to any protoss who got near the pulse. However, since terrans do not exemplify either purity of form (hero ghosts are an exception) or purity of essence, the artifact wouldn't consider them candidates and thus not affect them, much as it doesn't affect the rocks around it. To the xel'naga, humans are as low as rocks. =)
I can confirm that this is false, but very close to the truth. If you talk to Hanson after doing the first Crystal mission, she will explain that the artifact is attempting to draw as much power into itself as possible, and thus would (she speculates) destroy any Protoss or Zerg that came within its proximity. So, humans are basically rocks, but because they have almost no energy in them, not for these reasons. I have no idea why (for example) Tosh isn't completely destroyed by the thing if it is based on these power concerns, but it is just Hanson's speculation.
Not doing the Haven mission until when you absolutely have to has made the entire story much more enjoyable for me (because of her presence on board), and I suggest anyone interested in lore do the same on their next play through.
You raise a good point, renshank. On the other hand, Ariel Hanson didn't speculate as to the purpose of the device, only that it blows up protoss and zerg as a side effect of its energy system. It's a distinct possibility that the theories are not mutually exclusive.
After doing some research on the Dark Voice, I'm convinced it's the KL-2 entity rather than a xel'naga (or possibly the KL-2 entity possessing the corpse of a xel'naga). The way it asked those Dark Templars to become its harbingers rings uncannily close to the Dark Voice's own "Go, my harbingers!"
It seems to me that yes the KL-2 entity is the Dark One who was created by Duran. Terran seem to be the "wild card" in the Xel'Naga's plan for the universe.
I would assume/agree that Kerrigan will be to protagonist in HotS. I'm thinking something along the lines of she was helping Duran for the last four years and now that she is somewhat "humanized" she sees the "evil" he was doing. Now she will be trying to convince other zerg, destroying the hybrids, & thus creating conflict with dominion Terran who are creating hybrids. I think Zerg vs Protoss will only be a very small part of the story. Perhaps near the ending Kerrigan will portray some purity of _____(hope/heart?) that lets the Xel'naga reconsider terran as a race thus completing the mind(Toss), body(Zerg), and soul(Terran)?
I would also assume that Zeratul will be the protagonist in the final expansion. I think that he, along with Raynor and Kerrigan will put an end to the hybrids and perhaps find the Xel'naga once and for all. I think that this will also be PvT(Dominion) and PvZ(Non-Kerri forces, Likely Duran controlled) while they finalize what ever it is this story is about. PvP will be the least of it all & probably only against the lunatic guardians on the Xel'Naga artifacts.
As a side note, I've never read any SC literature, only played the games.
I'm currently replaying the campaign and I noticed: Tassadar looks exactly like "The Dark Voice" only with blue eyes instead of red ones.
So I have this crazy theory: Tassadar kind of "merged" with the Overmind during the attack - resulting in this kind of hybrid leader (purity from protoss & zerg). He shows Zeratul the vision of defeat and tells him in that vision, that Kerrigan is the key to victory for the good guys. So we were helping the hybrids in letting Kerrigan live (and in the future she may be used by them, only to be swayed back to the light by Raynor etc... and with that action the hybrids fall anyways).
I honestly cannot figure out how the prophecy fits in my theory though :/
It makes me think on why there has been ZERO word on what humans are... so I'd like to throw in this spanner in the works... what if humans are ALSO Xel'Naga creations which they abandoned because they never thought we would "work ourselves out" quickly enough for their purposes... but suddenly we're now good enough for it?
I do believe it will be all about Kerrigan trying to gain control over the zerg again in her human state. too bad, imo, i wish i could play an evil character again
I tried to read through all the pages but didn't manage to get through, so sorry if i repeat someone erlier, but here is my take on whats gonna happen next.
Tychus was only wounded by Jim at the very end, so he survives and kills Jim in the beggining of the sc2 hots story. Kerrigan in revengefor Jim's death starts to regain her Zerg powers and will hunt down Tychus. After finding Tychus and killing him she will find out who is behind all this and will go after Mengsk Duran, and will face the Hybrids. She will manage to kill Mengsk, who betrayed her in the very first game. The game ends there with a cutscene of some superhybrid being formed... and thats where the protoss come into play.
On August 02 2010 23:51 2shellbonus wrote: I tried to read through all the pages but didn't manage to get through, so sorry if i repeat someone erlier, but here is my take on whats gonna happen next.
Tychus was only wounded by Jim at the very end, so he survives and kills Jim in the beggining of the sc2 hots story. Kerrigan in revengefor Jim's death starts to regain her Zerg powers and will hunt down Tychus. After finding Tychus and killing him she will find out who is behind all this and will go after Mengsk Duran, and will face the Hybrids. She will manage to kill Mengsk, who betrayed her in the very first game. The game ends there with a cutscene of some superhybrid being formed... and thats where the protoss come into play.
Sorry but the epilogue text do say Tychus really is dead. :/
The reason to why they didn't show a close up shootout between two humans is the PEGI rating which for starcraft 2 is 13years.
It's like, they can show alot of spatter if the characters are some weird unbelievable monster. But if it is a human with good graphics (aka look pretty real) they can't show alot of blood nor executions or it would be rated alot higher. In Europe this wouldn't really be a problem but I heard rumors about the US having quite some people being very strict with these things.
On August 02 2010 23:51 2shellbonus wrote: blahblah...
Sorry but the epilogue text do say Tychus really is dead. :/
The reason to why they didn't show a close up shootout between two humans is the PEGI rating which for starcraft 2 is 13years.
It's like, they can show alot of spatter if the characters are some weird unbelievable monster. But if it is a human with good graphics (aka look pretty real) they can't show alot of blood nor executions or it would be rated alot higher. In Europe this wouldn't really be a problem but I heard rumors about the US having quite some people being very strict with these things.
Well, that's true, but Tychus might have just laid low or whatever, but in any case, in order for us, the players, to seize control of Kerrigan, we would need the first game lead (Jim) to be dead or somehow not avaliable to us.
If its not Tychus, perhaps Mengsk (father or son) betray him and kill him.
Lol, Tychus the King of Blades o.O I just hope this doesn't be a repeat of Wc3, Valerian kills Mengsk for the throne and the Hybrids are the legion and the races unite. I always thought that Zerg were the awesome killers and Hybrids were some kind of danger and now Overmind was not evil. (kinda)
i havent read through all of this yet, but there is one thing that struck my mind after finishing the campaign...
remember the cinematic where zeratul fought kerrigan? The 2 of them were talking about the prophecy and Kerrigan was like: "yeye old fool, when the end comes... i shall embrace it!"
what if she let raynor change her back on purpose to execute some twisted evil plan?
On August 03 2010 01:03 AT_Tack wrote: i havent read through all of this yet, but there is one thing that struck my mind after finishing the campaign...
remember the cinematic where zeratul fought kerrigan? The 2 of them were talking about the prophecy and Kerrigan was like: "yeye old fool, when the end comes... i shall embrace it!"
what if she let raynor change her back on purpose to execute some twisted evil plan?
Maybe it's me hearing it wrong, but I thought she said "I will embrace it last"
On August 03 2010 01:32 TrickyCat wrote: I have to agree with AT_Tack. I think Kerrigan let Raynor change her back on purpose. As the joker would say "Its alll part of the plan."
With how pathetically one-dimensional Kerrigan is in SC2, you really think Blizzard actually thought her character out enough to do something like that?
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
Raynor wakes up on the Hyperion flying as fast as the Battlecruiser can and we learn that the Zerg got drained by the Hybrids and the Hybrids overan and drained the Protoss, then destroyed all of humanity.
On August 03 2010 01:32 TrickyCat wrote: I have to agree with AT_Tack. I think Kerrigan let Raynor change her back on purpose. As the joker would say "Its alll part of the plan."
With how pathetically one-dimensional Kerrigan is in SC2, you really think Blizzard actually thought her character out enough to do something like that?
If Hats Hats Hats is correct about what that artifact did to her, then it would make sense to want this to happen. It would also bring back some of the deception she was known for in BW. Last, it would help explain why Char was taken so "easily."
I don't know on what basis people are saying Char was taken. It's defenses aren't invincible and can be penetrated - in SC both Raynor and Duke managed to get to the surface to try to rescue Kerrigan. After defeat Raynor and some of his people manage to survive there, same with Tassadar and Zeratul. Later in Protoss campaign random Terran fleet (survivors of Duke's forces?) attacks Protoss because they violate their airspace or some shit. There are no signs of conquring Char this time. Fleet in the orbit is getting owned so hard people get dropped everywhere randomly, burning pieces and even entire buildings keep falling in every mission set on the surface and in the last cinematic; when playing the mission on the space platform, if you move your screen to edges of the map, things can be seen burning in the atmosphere and crashing.
Zerg flyers and Nydus worms can't be taken out both because there is no time, Raynor says himself defending won't be possible and then we learn that it's possible because the artifact can wipe out zerg every few minutes.
Was Aiur retaken by Protoss after Tassadar's sacrifice? I mean there is big bang in both cases and zerg can't be seen in cinematics but it doesn't they aren't there. If artifact could be used anywhere to conquer entire planet then they wouldn't have to be close to major hive cluster - it wasn't meant to deal with entire Swarm but with it's leader because Swarm neads leader or it becomes just a collection of beasts that can be easily turned against each other - after Zasz was killed there was no need to manipulate it's Breed into attacking other Zerg. And we are never told before Char missions that it's about conquering Char but about doing something with Kerrigan.
Maybe I'm the only one here but I loved the SP. Sure I would have made it a bit different, but we did not create this game so just sit back and enjoy a good tale instead of going all sour because blizzard didn't agree with your perceptions.
I can't wait to see the kind of hurt a Kerrigan/Raynor double team will put on mengsk. I'm pretty sure that kerrigan, human form and all, still wants revenge from the guy that left her to be turned into a monster.
I speculate kerrigan was in a similar state of mind to the overmind. In the Zeratul missions, tassadar speaks of the overmind as born with "reason, but not free will", controlled by an "overriding directive" to destroy the protoss. Kerrigan, in her encounter with zeratul, speaks about the coming of the Xel'Naga and her desire to meet oblivion in it. It is seems that she intended to fight both terran and protoss to pave the way for the arrival of the hybrids.
Now that she is human, that "overriding directive" seems gone, but, judging from her hair, she still is at least part-zerg. If so, this is going to be creepy. She might look human-ish now but she is still the de-facto leader of the swarm. Will raynors raiders hang out with zerglings in the cantina now?
On August 02 2010 23:51 2shellbonus wrote: blahblah...
Sorry but the epilogue text do say Tychus really is dead. :/
The reason to why they didn't show a close up shootout between two humans is the PEGI rating which for starcraft 2 is 13years.
It's like, they can show alot of spatter if the characters are some weird unbelievable monster. But if it is a human with good graphics (aka look pretty real) they can't show alot of blood nor executions or it would be rated alot higher. In Europe this wouldn't really be a problem but I heard rumors about the US having quite some people being very strict with these things.
Well, that's true, but Tychus might have just laid low or whatever, but in any case, in order for us, the players, to seize control of Kerrigan, we would need the first game lead (Jim) to be dead or somehow not avaliable to us.
If its not Tychus, perhaps Mengsk (father or son) betray him and kill him.
Actually, all it would take was for the story to be told for a different perspective. Jim will probably have his hands full with Mengsk while Kerrigan does some fruity shit like regaining her identity. Actually, I predict that the first few missions will be vs Mengsk, then you start jumping all over the place rounding up stray critters and putting down protoss fanatics, then we'll have a few missions at the end that actually relate to the story (probably resulting in Arthas wtfpwning his pops and lettin us know that he's been working for the UED all along).
Looking forward to more fun missions, at this point not expecting a groundbreaking story.
I think it's fair to say that the Zerg right now are at least temporarily leaderless...but they're also very scattered right now, and it's going to be impossible to take control of all of them at the same time, I think. Kerrigan will still have the power to take over Zerg, but she'll be VERY vulnerable right now; the only person she really has on her side is Jim Raynor. Pretty much every person in the Koprulu sector is going to want her dead, including the Dominion, the Protoss, and the Hybrids.
Right now, I'm thinking that HotS will be about Kerrigan trying to not get killed by the Dominion, aggrieved Terrans and Protoss, and the Dark Voice's minions while trying at the same time to reassert control over the Zerg one hive cluster and Brood at a time, and possibly even get revenge on Mengsk...while the hybrids are also busy taking over the Zerg, and trying to kill her as well. Sounds like fun, eh?
One of the most famous quotes from bw from Raynor is that he vowed he will avenge Fenix's death, and kill infested Kerrigan. This bothered me because now it is revealed by Zaratul's vision that Kerrigan cannot be killed. But then I thought about it, by reversing Kerrigan back to human form, infested Kerrigan is effectively "killed". I mean infested Kerrigan and human Kerrigan are two completely different beings, at least that's what Raynor thinks, ie if someone is infested he's essentially dead. So in a sense, Raynor didn't really turn back on his words.
Also, keep in mind that the "hair" on Protoss is psionic tendrils, which are the source of psionic power; so the fact that Kerrigan maintains those may mean she still has some of her infested Psionic power.
I speculate kerrigan was in a similar state of mind to the overmind. In the Zeratul missions, tassadar speaks of the overmind as born with "reason, but not free will", controlled by an "overriding directive" to destroy the protoss. Kerrigan, in her encounter with zeratul, speaks about the coming of the Xel'Naga and her desire to meet oblivion in it. It is seems that she intended to fight both terran and protoss to pave the way for the arrival of the hybrids.
Now that she is human, that "overriding directive" seems gone, but, judging from her hair, she still is at least part-zerg. If so, this is going to be creepy. She might look human-ish now but she is still the de-facto leader of the swarm. Will raynors raiders hang out with zerglings in the cantina now?
Yeah, I agree with this. I think that, as long as she was Infested, she was affected to at least some extent by the directive implanted by the Dark Voice into the Zerg...so she couldn't have fulfilled the prophecy.
However, I don't think she'll be able to be the sole leader of the Zerg anymore; she's reduced in power significantly, and if she wants to save the Zerg, she's going to have to build up that power, and use it take over the Zerg piece by piece...before the Hybrids do so. Hence the touted "RPG" nature of this campaign. Raynor will be with her, I think...but I greatly doubt that anyone besides him is going to accept her or be okay with helping her or even letting her live. Maybe Matt Horner...but even that's pushing it. Kerrigan's going to be pretty weak, and almost totally without allies.
Personally, I think the ending was a lot better than many people think. Once you think it over, it's actually really cool and REALLY interesting, with lots of potential for the future.
On August 03 2010 21:16 Sueco wrote: I speculate kerrigan was in a similar state of mind to the overmind. In the Zeratul missions, tassadar speaks of the overmind as born with "reason, but not free will", controlled by an "overriding directive" to destroy the protoss. Kerrigan, in her encounter with zeratul, speaks about the coming of the Xel'Naga and her desire to meet oblivion in it. It is seems that she intended to fight both terran and protoss to pave the way for the arrival of the hybrids.
Now that she is human, that "overriding directive" seems gone, but, judging from her hair, she still is at least part-zerg. If so, this is going to be creepy. She might look human-ish now but she is still the de-facto leader of the swarm. Will raynors raiders hang out with zerglings in the cantina now?
Kerrigan had completely free will in BW, and there's absolutely nothing to explain the shift besides a terrible script. Technically, there's nothing saying you're wrong, but at the same time absolutely nothing says you're right.
Kerrigan had completely free will in BW, and there's absolutely nothing to explain the shift besides a terrible script. Technically, there's nothing saying you're wrong, but at the same time absolutely nothing says you're right.
She has free will, yes, but she's still Infested...that is, she's still affected by her Zerg-y parts. She can do what she wants, but the desire to destroy or assimilate the Protoss and Terrans and take over is still strong within her nature...and it is this desire which was implanted in the Overmind originally by the Dark Voice.
So she's not controlled by anyone...but merely influenced, affected by the fact that she's a Zerg originally infested by the Overmind. Now that's no longer the case.
On August 04 2010 04:57 Captain Peabody wrote: Also, keep in mind that the "hair" on Protoss is psionic tendrils, which are the source of psionic power; so the fact that Kerrigan maintains those may mean she still has some of her infested Psionic power.
I speculate kerrigan was in a similar state of mind to the overmind. In the Zeratul missions, tassadar speaks of the overmind as born with "reason, but not free will", controlled by an "overriding directive" to destroy the protoss. Kerrigan, in her encounter with zeratul, speaks about the coming of the Xel'Naga and her desire to meet oblivion in it. It is seems that she intended to fight both terran and protoss to pave the way for the arrival of the hybrids.
Now that she is human, that "overriding directive" seems gone, but, judging from her hair, she still is at least part-zerg. If so, this is going to be creepy. She might look human-ish now but she is still the de-facto leader of the swarm. Will raynors raiders hang out with zerglings in the cantina now?
Yeah, I agree with this. I think that, as long as she was Infested, she was affected to at least some extent by the directive implanted by the Dark Voice into the Zerg...so she couldn't have fulfilled the prophecy.
However, I don't think she'll be able to be the sole leader of the Zerg anymore; she's reduced in power significantly, and if she wants to save the Zerg, she's going to have to build up that power, and use it take over the Zerg piece by piece...before the Hybrids do so. Hence the touted "RPG" nature of this campaign. Raynor will be with her, I think...but I greatly doubt that anyone besides him is going to accept her or be okay with helping her or even letting her live. Maybe Matt Horner...but even that's pushing it. Kerrigan's going to be pretty weak, and almost totally without allies.
Personally, I think the ending was a lot better than many people think. Once you think it over, it's actually really cool and REALLY interesting, with lots of potential for the future.
Execution could have been better, though.
Agree,i cant wait to see what happens,when the protoss learn whats happened,now that they can actually approach her without her swarm,they wont let her atrocities go by the way side.....so it will be Raynor and Kerrigan against the whole universe.....the protoss,Mengst certainly wont sit idly by after this,but what will Valerian do is unpredictable......he might help them.....cant wait..
Execution,no freaking way in hell????!!!!........How could you
Kerrigan had completely free will in BW, and there's absolutely nothing to explain the shift besides a terrible script. Technically, there's nothing saying you're wrong, but at the same time absolutely nothing says you're right.
She has free will, yes, but she's still Infested...that is, she's still affected by her Zerg-y parts. She can do what she wants, but the desire to destroy or assimilate the Protoss and Terrans and take over is still strong within her nature...and it is this desire which was implanted in the Overmind originally by the Dark Voice.
So she's not controlled by anyone...but merely influenced, affected by the fact that she's a Zerg originally infested by the Overmind. Now that's no longer the case.
Actually, WoL specifically says that Kerrigan's creation was the Overmind's defiance because she was free of what controlled the Overmind. Furthermore, she's never had that desire to destroy/assimilate Protoss and Terrans. She had the drive to kill them because she wanted power.
1) Raynor runs around the galaxy picking up new units and technologies. Ends with a climactic battle where he cures Kerrigan with some device or another.
2) Kerrigan runs around the galaxy picking up new Zerg strains and evolutions. Ends with a climactic battle between her and Mengsk
3) Zeratul runs around the galaxy picking up Protoss technology and uniting the Protoss tribes Ends with a climactic battle with all three races united against the hybrids.
Somebody probably leaves a foreboding message before they disappear into space, or everybody blows up or something.
It is my belief that kerrigan still has hair due to two reasons.
1) Hair cells and exoskeletons (shells) are dead cells, little different from the surrounding non living material, aka they would never revert back to human. The hair would have been formed from a zerg metabolism, causing it to grow from things that the zerg eat and process instead of humans. This would create the hair she has now.
2) The rest of her exoskeleton (most obviously the wings) would have been connected by living muscles and tendons that are not found in humans, when kerrigan reverted to human, these vanished and therefore the rest of the exoskeleton would have just fallen off, having nothing to attach to. If raynor looked around in the fog he would probably have found the wings.
Hair focales are human enough and therefore the hair still has an anchor point.
On August 04 2010 07:08 bb33 wrote: It is my belief that kerrigan still has hair due to two reasons.
1) Hair cells and exoskeletons (shells) are dead cells, little different from the surrounding non living material, aka they would never revert back to human. The hair would have been formed from a zerg metabolism, causing it to grow from things that the zerg eat and process instead of humans. This would create the hair she has now.
2) The rest of her exoskeleton (most obviously the wings) would have been connected by living muscles and tendons that are not found in humans, when kerrigan reverted to human, these vanished and therefore the rest of the exoskeleton would have just fallen off, having nothing to attach to. If raynor looked around in the fog he would probably have found the wings.
Hair focales are human enough and therefore the hair still has an anchor point.
Or the artists just wanted to make her look 'cured' and not completely cured. They probably figured the wings, the grey skin or the glowing eyes were probably not the best features to leave her with.
Does everything in fantasy story-telling really need a full-blown scientific explanation?
Most of the time its just an art thing, and then they make up some half-assed explanation afterwards.
One possibility is that she's not completely human. After all, she does have the infested hair still. The only clues we have to her being human is Valerian's word, which isn't reliable, and the fact that Kerrigan says "Jim... Jim...", which also isn't reliable, as she knows Jim won't kill her if he thinks she's human.
Almost definitely she will still have some control over the zerg, and I agree with the large number of people who have postulated that she will be trying to build up her powers and forces via the "RPG" format blizz has alluded to in the past. I like the argument that the Protoss will be upset and attempt to kill her, and I suspect a lot of the beginning could be KvZ to gain control of rogue hives (like in BW) and KvP to escape extermination. I think later on you've got a great fight against the Dominion and likely the Tal'darim, who seem to be working for the Xel'naga (?).
I think it's pretty clear that the Mobieus Foundation are not good upstanding people as they seem to be behind a lot of the action in WoL. The Narud/Duran thing is just more evidence of that. I don't think Duran is the Fallen One because he says in BW that he is working for someone. It makes sense to me that the Fallen One is a banished Xel'naga.
Finally, I'm very interested in Valerion's role. Clearly, he's going to be important. I could see him as being a pseudo-ally against Arcturus. I think Valerion wants to succeed to the throne sooner rather than later, so he has an incentive to help out Jim. The question is whether Valerion is in on the Mobieus Foundation's ulterior motives. I could see him being betrayed by Duran, but I could also see him as a much more cunning and ruthless villain than Arcturus. I think Arcturus at this point in the story is a pretty washed up villain. Jim and Valerion did a number on him with Media Blitz and the fact that half the fleet is now destroyed. So, I don't expect he's going to be the main villain in HotS. I bet he'll be defeated rather early on (1/4 - 1/3rd through?).
All in all, there have been some really cool ideas presented in this thread! Hopefully, some of it will be true, but also hopefully Blizz can throw in some unexpected turn. We'll have to revisit this thread when HotS comes out.
The ending really wasn't horrible at all. I mean, sure the depth of Kerrigan's development and change from QoB into human could've been better, and Tychus (one of the major characters) could have had a more satisfying end instead of just being shot off screen, but I think we're all just suffering from let-down syndrome. The campaign's game design was superb, and the ending wasn't bad, we just expected a lot more. Nonetheless, I hope the expansion will take fan response into consideration and make the ending more epic.
On August 04 2010 09:09 Aznleeman wrote: The ending really wasn't horrible at all. I mean, sure the depth of Kerrigan's development and change from QoB into human could've been better, and Tychus (one of the major characters) could have had a more satisfying end instead of just being shot off screen, but I think we're all just suffering from let-down syndrome. The campaign's game design was superb, and the ending wasn't bad, we just expected a lot more. Nonetheless, I hope the expansion will take fan response into consideration and make the ending more epic.
Well to me here's my thoughts on the ending...
Final 3 missions = omg epic. Just totally what the last 3 missions would be. I even liked the dialog on the final 3 missions (like Raynor's speech). Kerrigan's transformation = I don't have a problem with how this was portrayed, but I don't like that it happened. I liked Kerrigan for what she had become and I don't want to see it just get wiped away. One of the coolest parts of SC/BW was getting to play the bad guys in addition to the good guys. Tychus = A waste of time and space kinda. You knew his betrayal was coming all game (I knew it from the opening cinematic). To have it come in the last 1 minute seemed more like a formality than a good plot point.
Basically the only problem I have with the ending is what it means going forward (big evil hybrids must die, kerrigan is no longer a cool evil character, etc.) Taken alone the ending was incredibly epic and the assault on char is hands down one of the best sequences of missions in an RTS ever (I'd even call it the best outright).
Blizzard can easily win me back over. I'd really want the following though...
1. Something bad happens to Raynor and company at the start while still on Char. Like zerg have taken down the Dominion forces and everything goes to hell except that Kerrigan's control of swarm helps to save her. 2. The hybrid story arc comes to a conclusion in HotS and the Protoss campaign is about something else like a final confrontation with human-but-evil kerrigan or the Protoss' struggle to remain a race as a result of stuff that happens in HotS.
I agree with Logo that it would be nice to see the hybrid/xel'naga arc end in HotS. A huge assumption that I've read everywhere people are discussing HotS and LotV is that it won't be until the end of LotV that all the current cliff hangers will be dealt with.
Certainly, there is time to finish the current story as well as add (and possibly finish) new developments. At the end of SC's campaign, mengsk was comfortably in power, leaving two big questions: how would the protoss survive with Aiur decimated, and what would Kerrigan do, free from the will of the overmind?
Well, in just one expansion, BW, Blizzard managed to answer more than just those two questions. In addition to finding out that the protoss escape to Shakuras and Kerrigan eventually becomes the most powerful force in the Koprulu sector, an entirely new factor, the UED, is introduced to dismantle Mengsk's seemingly entrenched rule.
With the addition of the UED, we are given a fully fleshed out story (with a beginning and an end) about new characters, Alexi and Stukov. Furthermore, Duran is introduced and there are hints of the hybrid arc, adding to the list of completely new developments from the original SC campaign.
Again, Blizzard did all this with just one expansion. It now has the space of two expansions to work with, which is roughly the time it took for Blizzard to introduce prince Arthas and tell the story of his spiral into insanity, then chronicle his ascension from death knight to Lich King. (Keep in mind, there were five additional campaigns to these two stories RoC and TFT.) The point being, maybe we should be expecting a lot more than just settling the scores with Mengsk and the Voice.
Now I realize that Wings of Liberty was far from the pace of SC and Brood War, but it's possible that Blizzard just wanted to set up a few key plot pieces (Kerrigan becomes human, Valerian is introduced, the prophecy/overmind vision is introduced) before letting the bullets fly in HotS and LotV. Wishful thinking perhaps, but still possible.
As a side note, a lot of people have been complaining that Valerian is Space Arthas and it's too obvious what all the characters will do. I think it might be pretty cool if just as the player has been given enough exposure to Valerian to begin to suspect he might have plans to usurp his father, Mengsk has him killed. I wouldn't even expect it.
Could be,but its unlikely i think blizz had already thought the story of sc2 out,before they decided to split it into 3 campaigns.Instead of 1 campaign with the 3 races,they decided to expand the core events and the depth of the character motivations.Now since WOL is out and they have yet to start on the expansion,they may have decided to add events,instead of expanding on those planed ahead of schedule.After all the story of sc2 was in flux not long before the release so who knows?
I dont think Valerian will prove to be evil and manipulative,like Arthas...they just come from a diff place and have diff personalities.After all why would he emulate his father when he spent most of hos youth without him...
I dont think Valerian will prove to be evil and manipulative,like Arthas...they just come from a diff place and have diff personalities.After all why would he emulate his father when he spent most of hos youth without him...
Because a frosty cursed Gauss Rifle tells him to do so!
i didn't like a lack of an explanation for why Kerrigan didn't expand after kicking everyone's ass in Brood War... after crippling your enemies, only a morally righteous person or a complete idiot would let them get away and grow stronger so they can threaten you later, she attacked the dominion and the Protoss right after brood war while she was in a tactically superior position... In brood war, Kerrigan was painted as very clever and a great strategist, in WoL she is painted as a moron...
On August 04 2010 14:11 DocSnyder wrote: I dont think Valerian will prove to be evil and manipulative,like Arthas...they just come from a diff place and have diff personalities.After all why would he emulate his father when he spent most of hos youth without him...
i bet you that at first Valerian appears good, and even Jim supports him and then once he's in power he becomes evil and corrupt like his father...
On August 04 2010 09:09 Aznleeman wrote: The ending really wasn't horrible at all. I mean, sure the depth of Kerrigan's development and change from QoB into human could've been better, and Tychus (one of the major characters) could have had a more satisfying end instead of just being shot off screen, but I think we're all just suffering from let-down syndrome. The campaign's game design was superb, and the ending wasn't bad, we just expected a lot more. Nonetheless, I hope the expansion will take fan response into consideration and make the ending more epic.
i am not a huge avid gamer, but when i compare the story of sc2 to stories in books or movies that i like, it is complete and utter crap. it might be good by the standards of the gaming industry or more specifically the rts genre; but that doesn't lower my standards, if someone wants to entice me with a story, its going to have to meet my standards; sc2 did not. Do i look at games for good stories? no. did i expect sc2 would have a good story? no. but i didn't get sc2 for the story...
Sorry if it's been said, don't have time to read every post,
Some of you seen to be annoyed with the fact Kerrigan had no back story in WoL, and she was just overthrown easily. For one of the biggest threats in the galaxy and a key figure in Starcraft lore it seems she deserved more, and i agree.
In HoTS, the events may not actually take place AFTER the events in WoL, we might be treated with what Kerrigan was doing or facing DURING the events in WoL. It would explain why we were never told much about her or her intentions, she obviously wanted the artifact for herself but i don't think it's stated why.
And then we have the Protoss campaign where it's only up to them to kill the hybrids directly after Raynor "saves" Kerrigan.
On August 04 2010 09:09 Aznleeman wrote: The ending really wasn't horrible at all. I mean, sure the depth of Kerrigan's development and change from QoB into human could've been better, and Tychus (one of the major characters) could have had a more satisfying end instead of just being shot off screen, but I think we're all just suffering from let-down syndrome. The campaign's game design was superb, and the ending wasn't bad, we just expected a lot more. Nonetheless, I hope the expansion will take fan response into consideration and make the ending more epic.
Well to me here's my thoughts on the ending...
Final 3 missions = omg epic. Just totally what the last 3 missions would be. I even liked the dialog on the final 3 missions (like Raynor's speech). Kerrigan's transformation = I don't have a problem with how this was portrayed, but I don't like that it happened. I liked Kerrigan for what she had become and I don't want to see it just get wiped away. One of the coolest parts of SC/BW was getting to play the bad guys in addition to the good guys. Tychus = A waste of time and space kinda. You knew his betrayal was coming all game (I knew it from the opening cinematic). To have it come in the last 1 minute seemed more like a formality than a good plot point.
Basically the only problem I have with the ending is what it means going forward (big evil hybrids must die, kerrigan is no longer a cool evil character, etc.) Taken alone the ending was incredibly epic and the assault on char is hands down one of the best sequences of missions in an RTS ever (I'd even call it the best outright).
Blizzard can easily win me back over. I'd really want the following though...
1. Something bad happens to Raynor and company at the start while still on Char. Like zerg have taken down the Dominion forces and everything goes to hell except that Kerrigan's control of swarm helps to save her. 2. The hybrid story arc comes to a conclusion in HotS and the Protoss campaign is about something else like a final confrontation with human-but-evil kerrigan or the Protoss' struggle to remain a race as a result of stuff that happens in HotS.
Personally, I was thrilled with Kerrigan's transformation. And if Blizzard goes back into its doom and gloom method of story telling and kills off Raynor or re-zergs her, I won't buy the expansions. I'm disgusted with their normal story telling.
As for the Queen of Blades thing....who says she still doesn't hold the title? Nothing anywhere says that the QoB has to be Zerg, after all.
I agree with everyone who said the ending was lame and that the entire storyline seemed cliche and weak. Things that the characters did was way out of character (like help out psychopaths like Tosh and kill protoss to steal artifacts for money?). I was really hoping to get more into Raynor vs. Dominion action but half the game we just kept killing those asshole Tal'darim.
Tychus could have been an okay character, but really? We only used him for 2 missions so we didn't really care when he bit the dust. Shouldn't we care about characters when they die? At the very least, they should have made Tychus out to be a good guy deep down or something to draw on our emotions. He was just an annoying asshole all game long, and not even a smart coniving one at that.
Kerrigan's behavior was also a huge dissapointment as others said. She was totally outplayed everywhere and seemed to be a stupid peon boss the whole game. They went to Char, homeworld of the zerg, and she was just like, 'well great, they brought me what I wanted!'. Great time to run into battle dear. Her voice acting was also pretty weak.
All in all, the missions were really fun, but the entire story and wtf ending was really weak. Everyone was acting out of character. Oh, they also showed us 95% of the cinematics already in their stupid trailers. Does no one else feel cheated by that?
How some of the plot holes and such could be explained. Blizzard will never do this though. Also, I haven't fully thought this through so there could still be gaping holes.
1. Dead Tassadar Ghost? Overmind is good? Hybrid threat can only be staved off by Kerrigan? A deception. Kerrigan orchestrated this, revealing herself to Zeratul. Note that the protoss prophecy does not name Kerrigan as a saviour or anything... only the Overmind's vision leads him to this belief. She wants Zeratul to believe that she is needed so that he can go to Jim Raynor... 2a. The existence of actual hybrids does not invalidate this. Remember, the best lie has a kernel of truth within it. Kerrigan may have discovered the existence of such hybrids and merely used it as part of her ploy.
2. Lame Duck Kerrigan? An easy invasion of Char? All part of the deception. She was able to read minds as a ghost, she's probably still able to read Jim's mind. She knew of the artifact and what it was capable of (or, she had her own minions within the Moebius corp). She wanted Jim to come 'save' her. Thus she allows him to establish a foothold while easily cleaning up everything else. She wasn't that incapacitated by the artifact. Had Jim intended to let her die, she probably would have had some well protected surviving units shred the marines around her.
3. Mengsk's dumb villainy. A lot time before the events of SC, Mengsk learns of a prophecy. He scoffs at such things, but recalls it. The prophecy basically states that Sarah Kerrigan will become his greatest asset and his greatest liability. So long as she lives, he will never achieve his goals. This is why he abandons her on Tarsonis, once he thinks he has achieved his goal. This is why he ignores Jim Raynor (an annoyance, but marginalized via his use of media), but sends Tychus to stick around and eliminate Kerrigan.
This resolves three/four annoyances about the plot and characterization, Kerrigan is still badass, everyone is happy.
anyone in here remember the small figure of kerrigan at the bottom of the "new" classic battle.net site which said: "Help me Jim Raynor, you're my only hope!". This was back in 2007 shortly before they revealed SC2 I think.
edit: It's still there: www.classic.battle.net. click that thing at the bottom and rest your mouse above it.
On July 28 2010 17:05 TheTuna wrote: Spoilers ahoy! It might be easier just to add spoilers to the title itself, as that's pretty much all this thread is gonna be. + Show Spoiler +
I feel like Kerrigan will still be controlling the zerg. I doubt she'll still be infested fully, as that would defeat the whole point of Wings of Liberty and make her go all bloodthirsty again. I think instead she'll be controlling the Zerg in her current state and bending them towards taking down Arcturus for vengeance and the Hybrids, who will undoubtedly become a much larger threat.
After all, if the campaign is anything like Wings of Liberty, she'll need other characters to interact with, and since the Cerebrates are all dead that falls to people like Raynor and Valerian. I predict that those two, at least, will play quite a large part in the Zerg campaign.
Pretty good theory. At the end she is not completely human. She still has those protoss-like dreads. The Overmind created her to have increased psionic ability than being human and for some purpose due to the hybrids in his vision. She would have to fully retain her increased psionic ability after going back to human or this whole plot point makes no sense.
I had some issues with the events, but my biggest beef is how cliched the execution was. It's like they focused on doing these cheesy moments rather than trying to tell a solid story, and developing characters. And often the cliched lines didnt even fit and came off forced.
The direct consequence is the lack of significant or memorable characters and moments. There's a couple, but the rest are pretty forgettable. It might be because some characters may or may not have died, depending on your choices, so they really felt like temporary filler characters. Remember what assholes Edmund Duke, or Aldaris were?
semi-related note: Was Tosh modeled after this guy? lol
Maybe it's nostalgia, or the fact that I was a kid and easier to impress when sc1/bw came out haha. I still remember most of the Tassadar speech and Dugalle's letter to his wife, down to intonations. Umm "Lets kick this revolution to overdrive"...? blech
That said, I'm glad they didnt kill Kerrigan off Yeah pretty sure she can still control the zerg. I was thinking partway through that they'd rip off their own Arthas plot, and make Valerian steal zerg control(King of blades?). Its not like they havent recycled and snowballed plots between SC and WC before hehe
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
Dude... mind = blown. Unfortunately, most of the time, fan speculation is far better than what actually comes. :-\ And where did you get all this info? Besides the games themselves I've only read the game manual. I should check out the books/comics sometime.
Also, what's up with Tassadar becoming more powerful than we can possibly imagine? And in SC1, the Overmind clearly states he wants to go to Aiur to become "perfect" I had assumed he wanted to assimilate the protoss.
On August 02 2010 14:11 writer22816 wrote: Just finished all-in on brutal today. The missions were hella fun but frankly this story was terrible. Literally nothing happens throughout ~75% of the campaign where you're just raiding random planets to get money. Tosh/Hanson was ok but nothing was built on them. In fact as I was trying to beat the final mission again and again, I realized how bad the storyline was because i literally knew nothing before that mission. That final mission + zeratul flashback IS the complete storyline. And not to mention the numerous plot holes of how Tychus is supposed to be employed by Mengsk but still goes around doing all that shit like hijacking the Odin. You can smell his betrayal coming a mile away just from the prologue and his conflicting ideals with Raynor's in the first few missions. Now I begin to understand why people label this game as marketed for 12 year olds.
Basically the entire storyline can be summed up as: Raynor teams up with Mengsk's son to "uninfest" Kerrigan; Tychus is killed because, despite the obvious plot holes, is actually working with Mengsk all along.
The cliffhanger ending is a big problem for me. This is a full game and in my opinion the storyline should be complete even if you only bought that one game. If you look back at BW or WC3, you'll see what I mean. In each game, the story offered a good and complete ending even if you only bought vanilla (Overmind dies/Legion is defeated, world is saved). Here in SC2 I am given a fucking cliffhanger ending as to what Kerrigan's allegiances are, what Valerian's motives are, what happens to Mengsk, and Zeratul's prophecy. WoL may be the length of 3 campaigns but its actual story is pretty much only that of 1. Albeit I expected this to happen because of Activision greed.
Yeah, it seems to me they had enough story for a typical 10 mission terran campaign. When they decided to split it into 3 separate expansions that 10 mission campaign suddenly needed to be stretched... thin. A lot of it was side missions that had little to do with the plot. At least Hanson missions were a direct result of the newly revived zerg invasion.
I'm hoping that when they do the expansions there is more of a sense in urgency in the missions. The delinear nature of the whole campaign just kind of made the story fall flat in some areas as there was never a plot sensitive reason to do a lot of the missions. For instance it’s possible to go rescue the colonists who have been asking for help since the start of the game right before you go invade char and they would be no worse for wear despite the fact that they have been under Zerg attack the whole game.
My hope is when they do HotS they make it more linear so that they can cross reference things that have happened in other missions. Like with the Zeratul missions and piercing the shroud, both contained hybrids but Raynor could never say "That hybrid is just like the one from Zeratul’s memory crystal!" or vice-versa all because it’s possible to do either mission without having done the other
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
Absolutely dead on. I'm gonna save this out to my Protoss archives, as this will prove out to be the 2nd best prophecy related to SCII.
Kerrigan and Jim are a fated couple, the SCII story tellers basically raped our faces with foreshadowing on the notion that Jimmy will not make it though the series -- and like any great love story Kerrigan, too, will have to fall likely in some symbolic fashion to honor Jim and his love for her. Fear not, Horner will carry the torch on with a heavy heart, as Jim and Sarah will have taught him the true meaning of sacrifice / freedom. In fact, I believe the next SC franchise will be built around the 'sith' and 'jedi' in training (Matt Horner and Mengsk Jr.) -- any guesses as to what will drive a wedge between them so as to create another eipc saga the likes of SC:BW and SCII?
Not sure if this has been mentioned before but does anyone think that the final mission of legacy of the void will be a harder version of In Utter Darkness where you actually have to defeat Dark Voice and the hybrids?
On August 01 2010 16:47 Hats Hats Hats wrote: Okay, since a lot of people seem to think that Raynor screwed over the universe with his shenanigans, I'll explain Blizzard's angle here. They want you to think that the galaxy is screwed because of what he does, but it's the complete opposite. Zeratul's prophecy is carefully worded to be interpreted incorrectly. Actually,
If Raynor had not used the artifact on Kerrigan, the universe would be screwed. Allow me to explain. This explanation also covers why Kerrigan's still got head tentacles.
Zeratul knows "the xel'naga are returning," but he wonders if it's "to save...or to destroy?" We're supposed to assume that the latter is going to happen, but both of Zeratul's options are wrong. The xel'naga aren't going to return to save or destroy, they're going to save AND destroy.
What do we know about the xel'naga?
1. They have cyclical lifespans whereby two species, one with purity of form, the other with purity of essence, fuse over millions of years to create a superspecies with both purity of form and purity of essence. (The novels confirm this)
2. They created the Protoss and Zerg as one of their many candidate 'successor' xel'naga; if the P and Z fuse, they might become xel'naga. Keyword 'might.' The xel'naga eventually reached the conclusion that the Protoss weren't good enough - this implies very heavily that xel'nagaization is a delicate and complex process that requires a good margin of luck. After all, the xel'naga created thousands, perhaps millions, of species.
3. Thus, the entire purpose of the xel'naga in this galaxy was to create a successor species.
4. The xel'naga considered the protoss to possess purity of form. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of form' is 'kicks ass and has insane psychic powers' - basically, incredible individual power.
5. The xel'naga considered the zerg to possess purity of essence. Therefore, we know that their definition of 'purity of essence' is 'perfectly unified and endlessly adaptive' - basically, incredible communal power.
The power of the individual turned to the purpose of the whole - that is a xel'naga. Knowing this, we can deduce the purpose of the xel'naga artifact. Why does it deinfest Kerrigan and blow up the zerg? Answer: it's not trying to do that. It's trying to fulfill the purpose of its creators. It's a tool that turns proto-xel'naga into xel'naga. The process is extremely draining; even the immortal Kerrigan is helpless, so mere minions like zerglings and shit just get blown up when the artifact tries to change 'em. Also, due to her immense psionic power, the artifact needs to reach full charge to penetrate her defenses and affect her.
Why does Kerrigan qualify as a xel'naga candidate? Well, she used to kick ass and possessed incredible psychic powers (remember when she meets raynor she effortlessly reads his mind). She qualifies for purity of form. After she's infested, she obviously qualifies for purity of essence. However, because infestation is an imperfect process, her zerg side was way stronger than her terran side; her components aren't in harmony like the xel'naga's were. The artifact balances that out. It doesn't turn her into a terran - it turns her into a perfect fusion of an elite terran ghost and a zerg. A being with both purity of form and purity of essence. A xel'naga.
With Kerrigan's apotheosis, the xel'naga have returned to this universe. Kerrigan is the galaxy's only hope because she is a xel'naga. Raynor didn't subvert the prophecy - he completed it.
Absolutely dead on. I'm gonna save this out to my Protoss archives, as this will prove out to be the 2nd best prophecy related to SCII.
Kerrigan and Jim are a fated couple, the SCII story tellers basically raped our faces with foreshadowing on the notion that Jimmy will not make it though the series -- and like any great love story Kerrigan, too, will have to fall likely in some symbolic fashion to honor Jim and his love for her. Fear not, Horner will carry the torch on with a heavy heart, as Jim and Sarah will have taught him the true meaning of sacrifice / freedom. In fact, I believe the next SC franchise will be built around the 'sith' and 'jedi' in training (Matt Horner and Mengsk Jr.) -- any guesses as to what will drive a wedge between them so as to create another eipc saga the likes of SC:BW and SCII?
Why does everyone assume that Kerrigan is the one who will stop the hybrids? She isn't the strongest Zerg by any means. In fact there is one zerg who had to be killed because she couldn't retain free will when he existed...the overmind.
Now I know everyone is going WTFBBQ alsowikk that is so stupid! But hear me out on this. The overmind's "corpse" was pulsating when Zeratul visitted it, besides the zerg guarding it when it has no value to them dead. And since Tassadar never used dark energy on it he couldn't really kill the overmind. This is all on top of the fact that the mission briefing for "In utter darknes" is given...by the overmind! I know this sounds wierd but why would these things be happenning if the overmind was a rotting corpse? Why would it understand it's people are being enslaved if it is a dead pile?
This makes me believe that heart of the swarm is about kerrigan reviving the overmind. She has to become more powerfull to fight the hybrids that attempt to take over the swarm and enslave the overmind once again. The Overmind made Kerrigan as a way to find a loophole in his instructions, but since the overmind has revived twice why can't he be brought back and kerrigan is the bodyguard? This would give kerrrigan an interesting role in the story has she will be taking a frontline position most likely as the "field general" of the swarm, and the overmind will provide new species of zerg and upgrades.
EPT
![[image loading]](http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/8840/asplannedrd3.jpg)
