The pitch so far sounds great. It tries to give each side their own cultures and stuff. It even takes the idea of zerg-worshipping cultists from the otherwise forgotten Insurrection licensed expansion.
I’m curious why it’s a mod for SC1 tho. SC1 has terrible mod support. Why not a SC2 mod? Eh, whatever. I’ll probably watch LPs on YT anyway
The pitch so far sounds great. It tries to give each side their own cultures and stuff. It even takes the idea of zerg-worshipping cultists from the otherwise forgotten Insurrection licensed expansion.
I’m curious why it’s a mod for SC1 tho. SC1 has terrible mod support. Why not a SC2 mod? Eh, whatever. I’ll probably watch LPs on YT anyway
SC1 has terrible mod support, but it's map and mission editor is extremely powerful, and easy to use. If you're not intending to change the units' visuals or audio, and stick to mechanical changes (damage values, ROF, health, etc), SC1 is a much easier platform to develop new campaigns for.
This project is actually fairly old, too. There are no timestamps on the page itself, but you can see youtube videos on it from 2018. I don't know how far they went with it, though. Doesn't look like they ever got to their own campaign after remixing the OG campaigns.
"Mod Support" is a bullshit term invented by marketers. You don't need any support from the company at all for a game to be emminently moddable and for it to develop a strong modding community. All you need is for the software to be accessible and for people with decent programming know-how to create their own tools or use the ones the company did to alter the game.
All of the original Starcraft's technology is by now easy to modify and edit, and the basic editor is already quite powerful. Modified communitiy editors and custom launchers have existed for over fifteen years. Any computer can run it, and anyone with a basic understanding of how the file formats work can pick it up and get right to work. Damn sight better than the limited, bloated, convoluted and useless SC2 editor.
"Mod Support" is a bullshit term invented by marketers. You don't need any support from the company at all for a game to be emminently moddable and for it to develop a strong modding community. All you need is for the software to be accessible and for people with decent programming know-how to create their own tools or use the ones the company did to alter the game.
All of the original Starcraft's technology is by now easy to modify and edit, and the basic editor is already quite powerful. Modified communitiy editors and custom launchers have existed for over fifteen years. Any computer can run it, and anyone with a basic understanding of how the file formats work can pick it up and get right to work. Damn sight better than the limited, bloated, convoluted and useless SC2 editor.
It doesn’t seem to get any long-form criticism, but I think SC1 was pretty bad too. It has some interesting ideas and the manual while clearly in need of proofreading definitely painted an interesting picture (tho I preferred the contemporary website’s description of the terrans as factious colonies jockeying for power Game of Thrones-style), but the game plot feels like huge waste of the premise. Don't get me wrong, the art direction and general atmosphere is great, and the gameplay is amazing as ever, but the actual writing is just bad.
Probably the single biggest criticism I can levy is that the premise is about the three races fighting each other, but the plot of the campaign doesn’t actually do much with that. In fact, they all team up at the end to fight the real big bad. Every time.
This isn’t great storytelling. It’s not just because the game came out in 1998, either. Planescape: Torment came out in 1999. Blood Omen came out in 1996. I know the RTS genre isn’t known for its storytelling, but Blizzard RTS is apparently the most story-driven yet it seems extremely overrated to me.
Oh, yeah. The story for Starcraft was always crap. Late 80s-early 90s sci-fi at its finest, with a dash of western for spice. It was entertaining, for sure, but it was crap.
I'm actually going to go on the opposite and say that SC1's story was as good as Brood War's, and in some instances, it was even better.
By which I mean the characters weren't as concussed and the battles were more meaningful by the end.
A lot of people give the SC1 Terran campaign a lot of flak, but I actually quite enjoy it. It was a good subversion of the standard "DA REVOLUTION" campaign where you fight alongside Space Che Guevara, only to realize that he's as much a piece of shit as the real Che Guevara and he starts using genocide devices to wipe out the opposition so that he can create his own oppressive empire on the carcass of the Old Confederacy. It's actually a good history lesson for people who are too dumb to realize that revolutions often end up betraying their ideals most of the time, with the likes of the French Revolutionaries and the Communists being far worse than the inept crowned heads that they replaced. Considering how many people even back in the 90s were falling for this socialist revolution shit, it was nice to see a game utterly go to town and wreck the notion of the noble revolutionary and show the ugly truth that in many cases, the revolutionaries can be worse than the governments they're trying to replace.
In Rebel Yell, they replaced an inept Confederacy that was willing to stand back and let the Zerg do their dirty work with an oppressive empire that the player unwittingly helped build, which twists the knife further in the player's gut. You don't spend that much time fighting the aliens because that was the point: your asshole leader just wants to use the alien invasion as an excuse to overtake and destroy the previous government, so he can justify creating another oppressive regime that people will have to rally to in order to protect themselves from the alien threats.
SC1's Zerg Campaign was also a good rush for an RTS player. You basically see the Zerg from the inside, with the Overmind and the Cerebrates running things, and realize that they're very much a professional military force, perhaps more efficient than the other two races. They're basically Prussian xenomorphs, where the entire race IS the army, and the army acts with military precision, which is new considering that most xenomorph portrayals up to that point like 40K's Tyranids and the Xenomorphs from Aliens all act very animalistic, then in comes this xenomorph race that's as professional as Frederick the Great, with their own goals of creating the Ultimate Life Form by merging their race with the Protoss.
The best part about the Zerg campaign in SC1 is that you get to play the classic bad guys whose actions will be felt for years to come, with some nice enjoyment of playing as the hunter instead of the hunted. Not only do you humiliate those Dominion punks who twisted your efforts in the last campaign, not only do you stalk some losers in a science vessel that's reminiscent of the Alien movies, not only do you go Veni, Vidi, Vici on some arrogant Protoss commander, but you waltz into the home of the most powerful race in the game and literally desecrate and level their Holy of Holies so that your leader can park his fat ass on its ruins. Even all the way up to Brood War, Wings of Liberty, and Heart of the Swarm, your actions will shape the galaxy for years to come, with the Protoss still hurting from the ass-raping you gave them in this campaign. Literally everything that happens to the Protoss from then on in was a result of your actions, and that is what made the Aiur invasion missions for the Zerg campaign in SC1 feel so sweet.
And of course, the Protoss campaign in SC1 was the standard Lord of the Rings-style campaign of you getting disparate factions to join together and defeat a dark lord. You get to play with the race that has the nicest toys, and yet you also see how this mighty race has its weak points which you get to see firsthand, as the Protoss seem too set in their ways to change. This part of the game has some of the best battles and set-pieces as you fight against both your fellow Protoss who are angry that you went against their most sacred traditions as well as the full might of the Zerg Swarm. The only idiotic thing for me is why Tassadar opted to go full AN HERO instead of just launching an assault to mask Zeratul coming in to stab the Overmind, but I suppose the game needed a nice send-off to end its main campaign, and a ninja sneaking past some xenomorphs in the middle of a battle to stab a giant brain wouldn't be as epic as a warship being covered in psychic energy, crashing into the core of the enemy army.
All in all, it was a good, fun time.
Brood War is a bit schizophrenic in the campaign quality. Oh, the gameplay is fine, but the story breaks down as it goes on. We see the Protoss in the first campaign of the game just seeking refuge, yet there's no plan to retake Aiur from the Zerg, despite the fact that the Zerg are probably vulnerable after the loss of the Overmind. Why they didn't just plan to kill the rest of the Cerebrates while evacuating their people to Shakuras is beyond me. I was even half-expecting Kerrigan to offer them their homeworld back in exchange for helping her gain control of the Zerg Swarms and killing all the Cerbrates, but nada. They just accept this deal from Kerrigan without asking for much in return.
Then when Aldaris throws a hissy fit, neither Kerrigan nor the Protoss approach the problem logically. Kerrigan could have gotten him to pipe down about his discovery of Kerrigan psychically manipulating the Dark Templar Matriarch Raszagal in exchange for giving him control of Aiur so that her alliance with the Protoss doesn't get sabotaged, and the other Protoss could have just tried talking with him, by having Artanis go up to him and ask why he's rebelling, especially when Zeratul noticed that something was wrong with the Matirarch when she ordered Aldaris' death. I suppose it does have its value, as they redeemed Judicator Aldaris in what must be the most back-handed way of doing so, by having him smell rats on the ship and be killed before telling the truth.
Still, the Protoss felt rather indecisive in this campaign, especially since at one point, THEY HAD THE NEW OVERMIND WITHIN THEIR SIGHTS. What was stopping Zeratul from killing it there, especially since it was within their power to assault it directly? This especially gets even more annoying as the next campaign rolls in.........
The UED campaign was the best in Brood War, if only because it's just pure Starship Troopers. You crush Mengsk by the balls, which is cathartic to those who are still sore over his betrayal of you and Kerrigan in SC1, you fight the Zerg, and go to their homeworld and mind-rape their new boss.
This is why it feels rather annoying that the Protoss in Brood War didn't just kill the Overmind when they were in Char; they were there, they had access to the Dark Templar, they could get close enough to assault the Overmind and disable the nearby Zerg, so what was stopping a Protoss Arbiter from teleporting Zeratul in so he can stab the damn thing? You're telling me that the mighty Protoss, who now have both Light and Dark Templar energies by their side, as well as Kerrigan's Zerg forces backing them up, couldn't finish off a filthy creature that they've already kicked around and disabled, yet some hairless apes from some mudball on the far side of the galaxy using crude warships and power armor managed to mind-rape and enslave half of the race that took Aiur from the Protoss?
If anything, it goes to show how cool the UED is when they managed something that neither the Dominion nor the Protoss could; be the first outsiders to take control of the Zerg ever since the Zerg broke off their shackles and killed off the Xel'Naga.
(Yes, I see the manual's events as canon, SC2's retelling of the Zerg origin story is just a mess)
Last and most definitely least, we have the Zerg campaign, also known as "How to piss away all the political clout you've managed to scrounge up, 101." People keep acting as if Kerrigan is some kind of brilliant chessmaster, but all she did outside of defeating the UED was ensure that the Terran Dominion and the Protoss would return to fight her again. It's like reverse Littlefinger; instead of using your wit, charm, and influence to get everyone to respect and trust you, you ensure that they'll all hate you and want you dead in the end.
Oh sure, Kerrigan talks a good game about how they should all team up to defeat the UED who are totes going to enslave them all, then she BETRAYS HER ALLIES BEFORE THE UED ARE DEFEATED. Yeah, real genius there. I can understand keeping Mengsk powerless, but why kill General Duke? Why not just convince Duke that he'd make a better leader for the Dominion and have him help Kerrigan kill Mengsk for vengeance? Considering that Kerrigan can CLOAK, killing Mengsk would have been trivial. Then she could just put Duke in as the new ruler of the Dominion and blame UED Assassins for Mengsk's death. And of course, killing Fenix and his Protoss was an act of idiocy that makes Jar-Jar Binks look like Sun Tzu by comparison. Burning bridges with a nation that has done you no wrong, especially one with fancy technology and the only means to kill your rivals, is complete bullshit.
Then Kerrigan has her brood kidnap the Matriarch Raszagal to get Dark Templar allies, which would have been unnecessary IF SHE STILL HAD FENIX AS HER ALLY. (Really, all she would have to do is have Raynor and Fenix ask Zeratul for some Dark Templar to go help fight the Zerg, and Zeratul would have complied.) Then after she has Zeratul kill the new Overmind (which he should have done TWO CAMPAIGNS AGO) instead of having Raszagal return to the Protoss and work as a Manchurian Candidate whom she can use to manipulate the Protoss from behind the scenes, Kerrigan parades around her control of Raszagal in front of Zeratul like a saturday morning cartoon villain. Which means that she will have more meaningless battles against the Protoss for the next two levels, both of which were annoyingly hard. Had she not turned against Fenix and revealed her control of Raszagal, she could have used their help in crushing the UED once and for all once her control of the Zerg was secure. She could have also given them back Aiur, since it doesn't benefit the Swarm to occupy that place, and it would ensure that a Protoss-Zerg alliance would last against any would-be threats from the Dominion or from Earth.
And of course, in her final battle with the UED, Dominion and Protoss, she only opts to finish off the UED forces, whose admiral was already suing for peace. Instead of using her victory to win some concessions out of the UED, she massacres them all to the last man. All the while, sparing the Protoss and Dominion forces who would obviously seek vengeance since Mengsk would be pissy over Duke's death and Artanis was pissed off over the deaths of Raszagal and Fenix. If she was going to go full villain, she should have finished off these Protoss and Dominion clowns after wiping out the UED, and she could either put puppet rulers that would keep both the Protoss and the Dominion under her control, or she could wipe them out once and for all. But for some reason she didn't, even though it makes no sense. The Protoss still have a fleet that can glass any planet the Zerg are on, and the Dominion are still led by the same asshole who made Kerrigan's life a living hell. Why she didn't finish him off after he tried to kill her, despite her sparing him on Korhal, is beyond me. Fenix is too dangerous to keep alive, but Mengsk isn't? Is that a joke?
This is why I'm not so much against the idea that Kerrigan was corrupted by some unknown force which was fucking with her free will after she got infested. None of her moves after the Overmind's death made any sense. So when Wings of Liberty came around with the idea that Kerrigan was corrupted by some evil influence, I was all for it, because not only did she act in contrast to how she was before she was infested, but post-Overmind Kerrigan's actions aren't even logical from a villain's perspective. She gave up control of the Protoss leadership just to gloat at Zeratul? She burned bridges and got people to hate her, but she didn't finish off her enemies when she had the chance? It makes no fucking sense. So the idea that she was tainted and she wasn't thinking straight actually served as a good explanation for all the horrible, non-pragmatic shit she was doing in Brood War. It was easier to explain it away as her being "corrupted by the Dark Side", as she seemed to revel in the sadistic carnage and torment over any sense of pragmatic thinking. Especially when she wiped out Fenix and paraded her mind-control over Raszagal in front of Zeratul. That's the kind of sick shit that some other Sith Lord who's drunk on the Dark Side would do, not a pragmatic general who seeks to conquer the galaxy. Even Palpatine would have told her to lay off on her pointless evil.
When I was playing the SC1 Zerg Campaign, I felt a sense of pride as I was playing as this character who was in the Overmind's inner circle, one of his chosen children. We were crushing anything that came up against us, and my finest hour in the invasion of Aiur was a crowning achievement and a good way to end the Zerg campaign. I spent the Brood War campaign watching as this petulant bitch pissed away every advantage we gained and every victory I won by ordering me to attack our allies and leaving me to fix things when both them and the UED counter-attacked against us. SC1's Zerg Campaign made me feel like a real supervillain. Brood War's campaign made me feel like a glorified sanitation worker, cleaning up after Kerrigan's messes.
Since we're all here in the habit of saying what Starcraft should have been, here's my ideal version of Brood War: Kerrigan goes to Aldaris after the latter discovers her "influence" over the Matriarch, and convinces him to keep quiet about it so that once she retakes control of the Zerg swarms, she will give him Aiur in return. The idea of getting back his homeworld would be enough to buy the Judicator's silence. After the Xel'Naga temple scours Shakuras of Renegade Zerg, Aldaris leans on Zeratul to have him loan Dark Templar to Kerrigan to "rescue" Jim Raynor and Fenix on Aiur by killing the Cerebrates there so that Kerrigan can get the local Zerg forces to leave the Protoss homeworld, allowing both the Khalai and Dark Templar Protoss to return to their planet, with Kerrigan "influencing" the Matriarch to give all power in the new Protoss government to her new pal Aldaris, which ensures his cooperation.
Then, when the UED crushes the Dominion forces on Korhal and takes control of the renegade Zerg Overmind on Char, Kerrigan has Zeratul go on a commando raid to destroy the Psi Disruptor while the combined might of the Protoss fleet and Kerrigan's Zerg retake Korhal from the UED, putting Duke in charge while keeping Mengsk locked up, so that Kerrigan can always have a laugh at his expense.
Then, after defeating the UED on Char and killing the second Overmind, Kerrigan and her Protoss allies force Admiral Gerard DuGalle to bow to her authority. This then leads to a cutscene ending where we see the UED fleet return home, proclaiming that they have won control of the Koprulu Sector. DuGalle presents a captured Sarah Kerrigan, bound with manacles, a gag, and a shock collar, to the UED leadership back on Earth, as the "prize of the wars in the Koprulu Sector". Kerrigan growls like a chained animal and struggles against her bonds while getting shocked again and again, and her glare is pointed at the UED leaders who stare at this weird mix of human and Zerg DNA.
But it's all a ploy, as cloaked shadows begin to move in behind the UED leaders-Zeratul and his Dark Templar. They activate their warp blades, slice apart all the UED leaders, and a bomb goes off in the government building. The very next day, Dugalle is giving a speech about how the last remnants of Mengsk's terrorist forces killed the UED leaders, but they've been dealt with, and he's there to lead humanity into the new future as the new UED Prime Minister, his new position that was awarded to him for securing peace and "pacifying" the Koprulu Sector.
Dugalle then goes back inside the rebuilt government building, and we see Kerrigan, sitting on the office chair for the Prime Minister of the UED, flanked by Zeratul, Raynor, and Aldaris. Kerrigan pulls a Darth Maul circa Mandalore and rules the UED through Dugalle, who kneels before his new queen, and says that he is going to pick new cabinet members for his new administration. Kerrigan warns him that he should choose wisely, as she will hold him personally responsible if any of them fail. When he asks her if she needs anything else, she replies "Go. Rule my people." Kerrigan then sits back, taking in all she has accomplished. Through Aldaris, she now has a permanent alliance with the Protoss, who are eternally grateful for her giving them back their ancestral home. Through Dugalle, she now controls the human UED government, and all of its colonies and armies. Through Duke, she controls the Dominion. She directly controls the Zerg Swarm, giving her personal control of the largest military force in the galaxy.
Kerrigan then has a private moment with Raynor, as she pops a bottle of champagne and shares it with her old friend, who marvels at how she's taken control of everything; the Protoss see her as a heroine who helped restore their Empire to its rightful glory by giving them back their homeland, both the UED and the Dominion are ruled by her puppets, she now has direct control of all Zerg forces, the man who betrayed her is now behind bars for life, and the galaxy is now under her feet. "Not bad for a psychic girl who was once used as a tool!" says Kerrigan, who wishes that her parents were there to see her full triumph, to see the little girl they once nurtured now ruling the galaxy.
She then talks to Raynor about a project which she discovered that Duran was doing behind her back thanks to her Dark Templar spies, and she then talks about how she used Duran's data and used Zerg DNA to fix Fenix's mangled body, saying that creating a master race of Protoss/Zerg hybrids was the Overmind's plan, and now, they have the chance to attain that perfection; the mixing of Purity of Essence with Purity of Form. Fenix then walks in on the two of them, his body fully repaired with Zerg DNA, with psychic power coursing through him, the first of their Hybrid soldiers. Kerrigan then tells Raynor to "behold the future", as Fenix glows with the majestic light of psychic energy, and the story ends there, with Kerrigan on the cusp of achieving what the Overmind and the Xel'Naga sought all those years ago; the creation of the "ultimate life form."
Couple issues with your analysis about the BW campaign. First, the Protoss as a people are shattered, the invasion of their home world almost certainly devastating their numbers for generations, not to mention their industrial capacity. Remember how everything gets warped in from Aiur in the campaign? Yeah... Add in the shit the Zerg did and they probably don't want it back due to its defilement. "Why the hell would we want that place back? And who the hell are you to hand it back considering you helped ruin it for us?" Remember, the higher-level Zerg do indeed have some level of independent thought, even if they all obey the Overmind in the end. The Overmind itself says that Kerrigan is as bound to her as any Cerebrate, implying she has the same level of autonomy as one.
As to the Zerg campaign itself, did you ever consider that its a literal revenge fantasy for her? That maybe she is still somewhat human under what she's become, and is just drunk on her own power? "I'm still queen bitch of the universe" is not exactly a humble remark. As to the UED, I see no reason for her to have any love or trust in the UED and their peace attempts given what the Confederacy and Mengsk did to her. Expecting Human Empire No. 3 to not ass-fuck her is a little much, IMO. On the other hand with the Protoss, its literally nothing personal with them, which is why she's willing to have them fuck off once she's used them to gain her power. Hell, having Mengsk owe her his life must be one of the most painful things that man can experience, even with his own arrogance and sense of self-importance.
I'm actually going to go on the opposite and say that SC1's story was as good as Brood War's, and in some instances, it was even better.
By which I mean the characters weren't as concussed and the battles were more meaningful by the end.
A lot of people give the SC1 Terran campaign a lot of flak, but I actually quite enjoy it. It was a good subversion of the standard "DA REVOLUTION" campaign where you fight alongside Space Che Guevara, only to realize that he's as much a piece of shit as the real Che Guevara and he starts using genocide devices to wipe out the opposition so that he can create his own oppressive empire on the carcass of the Old Confederacy. It's actually a good history lesson for people who are too dumb to realize that revolutions often end up betraying their ideals most of the time, with the likes of the French Revolutionaries and the Communists being far worse than the inept crowned heads that they replaced. Considering how many people even back in the 90s were falling for this socialist revolution shit, it was nice to see a game utterly go to town and wreck the notion of the noble revolutionary and show the ugly truth that in many cases, the revolutionaries can be worse than the governments they're trying to replace.
In Rebel Yell, they replaced an inept Confederacy that was willing to stand back and let the Zerg do their dirty work with an oppressive empire that the player unwittingly helped build, which twists the knife further in the player's gut. You don't spend that much time fighting the aliens because that was the point: your asshole leader just wants to use the alien invasion as an excuse to overtake and destroy the previous government, so he can justify creating another oppressive regime that people will have to rally to in order to protect themselves from the alien threats.
SC1's Zerg Campaign was also a good rush for an RTS player. You basically see the Zerg from the inside, with the Overmind and the Cerebrates running things, and realize that they're very much a professional military force, perhaps more efficient than the other two races. They're basically Prussian xenomorphs, where the entire race IS the army, and the army acts with military precision, which is new considering that most xenomorph portrayals up to that point like 40K's Tyranids and the Xenomorphs from Aliens all act very animalistic, then in comes this xenomorph race that's as professional as Frederick the Great, with their own goals of creating the Ultimate Life Form by merging their race with the Protoss.
The best part about the Zerg campaign in SC1 is that you get to play the classic bad guys whose actions will be felt for years to come, with some nice enjoyment of playing as the hunter instead of the hunted. Not only do you humiliate those Dominion punks who twisted your efforts in the last campaign, not only do you stalk some losers in a science vessel that's reminiscent of the Alien movies, not only do you go Veni, Vidi, Vici on some arrogant Protoss commander, but you waltz into the home of the most powerful race in the game and literally desecrate and level their Holy of Holies so that your leader can park his fat ass on its ruins. Even all the way up to Brood War, Wings of Liberty, and Heart of the Swarm, your actions will shape the galaxy for years to come, with the Protoss still hurting from the ass-raping you gave them in this campaign. Literally everything that happens to the Protoss from then on in was a result of your actions, and that is what made the Aiur invasion missions for the Zerg campaign in SC1 feel so sweet.
And of course, the Protoss campaign in SC1 was the standard Lord of the Rings-style campaign of you getting disparate factions to join together and defeat a dark lord. You get to play with the race that has the nicest toys, and yet you also see how this mighty race has its weak points which you get to see firsthand, as the Protoss seem too set in their ways to change. This part of the game has some of the best battles and set-pieces as you fight against both your fellow Protoss who are angry that you went against their most sacred traditions as well as the full might of the Zerg Swarm. The only idiotic thing for me is why Tassadar opted to go full AN HERO instead of just launching an assault to mask Zeratul coming in to stab the Overmind, but I suppose the game needed a nice send-off to end its main campaign, and a ninja sneaking past some xenomorphs in the middle of a battle to stab a giant brain wouldn't be as epic as a warship being covered in psychic energy, crashing into the core of the enemy army.
All in all, it was a good, fun time.
Brood War is a bit schizophrenic in the campaign quality. Oh, the gameplay is fine, but the story breaks down as it goes on. We see the Protoss in the first campaign of the game just seeking refuge, yet there's no plan to retake Aiur from the Zerg, despite the fact that the Zerg are probably vulnerable after the loss of the Overmind. Why they didn't just plan to kill the rest of the Cerebrates while evacuating their people to Shakuras is beyond me. I was even half-expecting Kerrigan to offer them their homeworld back in exchange for helping her gain control of the Zerg Swarms and killing all the Cerbrates, but nada. They just accept this deal from Kerrigan without asking for much in return.
Then when Aldaris throws a hissy fit, neither Kerrigan nor the Protoss approach the problem logically. Kerrigan could have gotten him to pipe down about his discovery of Kerrigan psychically manipulating the Dark Templar Matriarch Raszagal in exchange for giving him control of Aiur so that her alliance with the Protoss doesn't get sabotaged, and the other Protoss could have just tried talking with him, by having Artanis go up to him and ask why he's rebelling, especially when Zeratul noticed that something was wrong with the Matirarch when she ordered Aldaris' death. I suppose it does have its value, as they redeemed Judicator Aldaris in what must be the most back-handed way of doing so, by having him smell rats on the ship and be killed before telling the truth.
Still, the Protoss felt rather indecisive in this campaign, especially since at one point, THEY HAD THE NEW OVERMIND WITHIN THEIR SIGHTS. What was stopping Zeratul from killing it there, especially since it was within their power to assault it directly? This especially gets even more annoying as the next campaign rolls in.........
The UED campaign was the best in Brood War, if only because it's just pure Starship Troopers. You crush Mengsk by the balls, which is cathartic to those who are still sore over his betrayal of you and Kerrigan in SC1, you fight the Zerg, and go to their homeworld and mind-rape their new boss.
This is why it feels rather annoying that the Protoss in Brood War didn't just kill the Overmind when they were in Char; they were there, they had access to the Dark Templar, they could get close enough to assault the Overmind and disable the nearby Zerg, so what was stopping a Protoss Arbiter from teleporting Zeratul in so he can stab the damn thing? You're telling me that the mighty Protoss, who now have both Light and Dark Templar energies by their side, as well as Kerrigan's Zerg forces backing them up, couldn't finish off a filthy creature that they've already kicked around and disabled, yet some hairless apes from some mudball on the far side of the galaxy using crude warships and power armor managed to mind-rape and enslave half of the race that took Aiur from the Protoss?
If anything, it goes to show how cool the UED is when they managed something that neither the Dominion nor the Protoss could; be the first outsiders to take control of the Zerg ever since the Zerg broke off their shackles and killed off the Xel'Naga.
(Yes, I see the manual's events as canon, SC2's retelling of the Zerg origin story is just a mess)
Last and most definitely least, we have the Zerg campaign, also known as "How to piss away all the political clout you've managed to scrounge up, 101." People keep acting as if Kerrigan is some kind of brilliant chessmaster, but all she did outside of defeating the UED was ensure that the Terran Dominion and the Protoss would return to fight her again. It's like reverse Littlefinger; instead of using your wit, charm, and influence to get everyone to respect and trust you, you ensure that they'll all hate you and want you dead in the end.
Oh sure, Kerrigan talks a good game about how they should all team up to defeat the UED who are totes going to enslave them all, then she BETRAYS HER ALLIES BEFORE THE UED ARE DEFEATED. Yeah, real genius there. I can understand keeping Mengsk powerless, but why kill General Duke? Why not just convince Duke that he'd make a better leader for the Dominion and have him help Kerrigan kill Mengsk for vengeance? Considering that Kerrigan can CLOAK, killing Mengsk would have been trivial. Then she could just put Duke in as the new ruler of the Dominion and blame UED Assassins for Mengsk's death. And of course, killing Fenix and his Protoss was an act of idiocy that makes Jar-Jar Binks look like Sun Tzu by comparison. Burning bridges with a nation that has done you no wrong, especially one with fancy technology and the only means to kill your rivals, is complete bullshit.
Then Kerrigan has her brood kidnap the Matriarch Raszagal to get Dark Templar allies, which would have been unnecessary IF SHE STILL HAD FENIX AS HER ALLY. (Really, all she would have to do is have Raynor and Fenix ask Zeratul for some Dark Templar to go help fight the Zerg, and Zeratul would have complied.) Then after she has Zeratul kill the new Overmind (which he should have done TWO CAMPAIGNS AGO) instead of having Raszagal return to the Protoss and work as a Manchurian Candidate whom she can use to manipulate the Protoss from behind the scenes, Kerrigan parades around her control of Raszagal in front of Zeratul like a saturday morning cartoon villain. Which means that she will have more meaningless battles against the Protoss for the next two levels, both of which were annoyingly hard. Had she not turned against Fenix and revealed her control of Raszagal, she could have used their help in crushing the UED once and for all once her control of the Zerg was secure. She could have also given them back Aiur, since it doesn't benefit the Swarm to occupy that place, and it would ensure that a Protoss-Zerg alliance would last against any would-be threats from the Dominion or from Earth.
And of course, in her final battle with the UED, Dominion and Protoss, she only opts to finish off the UED forces, whose admiral was already suing for peace. Instead of using her victory to win some concessions out of the UED, she massacres them all to the last man. All the while, sparing the Protoss and Dominion forces who would obviously seek vengeance since Mengsk would be pissy over Duke's death and Artanis was pissed off over the deaths of Raszagal and Fenix. If she was going to go full villain, she should have finished off these Protoss and Dominion clowns after wiping out the UED, and she could either put puppet rulers that would keep both the Protoss and the Dominion under her control, or she could wipe them out once and for all. But for some reason she didn't, even though it makes no sense. The Protoss still have a fleet that can glass any planet the Zerg are on, and the Dominion are still led by the same asshole who made Kerrigan's life a living hell. Why she didn't finish him off after he tried to kill her, despite her sparing him on Korhal, is beyond me. Fenix is too dangerous to keep alive, but Mengsk isn't? Is that a joke?
This is why I'm not so much against the idea that Kerrigan was corrupted by some unknown force which was fucking with her free will after she got infested. None of her moves after the Overmind's death made any sense. So when Wings of Liberty came around with the idea that Kerrigan was corrupted by some evil influence, I was all for it, because not only did she act in contrast to how she was before she was infested, but post-Overmind Kerrigan's actions aren't even logical from a villain's perspective. She gave up control of the Protoss leadership just to gloat at Zeratul? She burned bridges and got people to hate her, but she didn't finish off her enemies when she had the chance? It makes no fucking sense. So the idea that she was tainted and she wasn't thinking straight actually served as a good explanation for all the horrible, non-pragmatic shit she was doing in Brood War. It was easier to explain it away as her being "corrupted by the Dark Side", as she seemed to revel in the sadistic carnage and torment over any sense of pragmatic thinking. Especially when she wiped out Fenix and paraded her mind-control over Raszagal in front of Zeratul. That's the kind of sick shit that some other Sith Lord who's drunk on the Dark Side would do, not a pragmatic general who seeks to conquer the galaxy. Even Palpatine would have told her to lay off on her pointless evil.
When I was playing the SC1 Zerg Campaign, I felt a sense of pride as I was playing as this character who was in the Overmind's inner circle, one of his chosen children. We were crushing anything that came up against us, and my finest hour in the invasion of Aiur was a crowning achievement and a good way to end the Zerg campaign. I spent the Brood War campaign watching as this petulant bitch pissed away every advantage we gained and every victory I won by ordering me to attack our allies and leaving me to fix things when both them and the UED counter-attacked against us. SC1's Zerg Campaign made me feel like a real supervillain. Brood War's campaign made me feel like a glorified sanitation worker, cleaning up after Kerrigan's messes.
Since we're all here in the habit of saying what Starcraft should have been, here's my ideal version of Brood War: Kerrigan goes to Aldaris after the latter discovers her "influence" over the Matriarch, and convinces him to keep quiet about it so that once she retakes control of the Zerg swarms, she will give him Aiur in return. The idea of getting back his homeworld would be enough to buy the Judicator's silence. After the Xel'Naga temple scours Shakuras of Renegade Zerg, Aldaris leans on Zeratul to have him loan Dark Templar to Kerrigan to "rescue" Jim Raynor and Fenix on Aiur by killing the Cerebrates there so that Kerrigan can get the local Zerg forces to leave the Protoss homeworld, allowing both the Khalai and Dark Templar Protoss to return to their planet, with Kerrigan "influencing" the Matriarch to give all power in the new Protoss government to her new pal Aldaris, which ensures his cooperation.
Then, when the UED crushes the Dominion forces on Korhal and takes control of the renegade Zerg Overmind on Char, Kerrigan has Zeratul go on a commando raid to destroy the Psi Disruptor while the combined might of the Protoss fleet and Kerrigan's Zerg retake Korhal from the UED, putting Duke in charge while keeping Mengsk locked up, so that Kerrigan can always have a laugh at his expense.
Then, after defeating the UED on Char and killing the second Overmind, Kerrigan and her Protoss allies force Admiral Gerard DuGalle to bow to her authority. This then leads to a cutscene ending where we see the UED fleet return home, proclaiming that they have won control of the Koprulu Sector. DuGalle presents a captured Sarah Kerrigan, bound with manacles, a gag, and a shock collar, to the UED leadership back on Earth, as the "prize of the wars in the Koprulu Sector". Kerrigan growls like a chained animal and struggles against her bonds while getting shocked again and again, and her glare is pointed at the UED leaders who stare at this weird mix of human and Zerg DNA.
But it's all a ploy, as cloaked shadows begin to move in behind the UED leaders-Zeratul and his Dark Templar. They activate their warp blades, slice apart all the UED leaders, and a bomb goes off in the government building. The very next day, Dugalle is giving a speech about how the last remnants of Mengsk's terrorist forces killed the UED leaders, but they've been dealt with, and he's there to lead humanity into the new future as the new UED Prime Minister, his new position that was awarded to him for securing peace and "pacifying" the Koprulu Sector.
Dugalle then goes back inside the rebuilt government building, and we see Kerrigan, sitting on the office chair for the Prime Minister of the UED, flanked by Zeratul, Raynor, and Aldaris. Kerrigan pulls a Darth Maul circa Mandalore and rules the UED through Dugalle, who kneels before his new queen, and says that he is going to pick new cabinet members for his new administration. Kerrigan warns him that he should choose wisely, as she will hold him personally responsible if any of them fail. When he asks her if she needs anything else, she replies "Go. Rule my people." Kerrigan then sits back, taking in all she has accomplished. Through Aldaris, she now has a permanent alliance with the Protoss, who are eternally grateful for her giving them back their ancestral home. Through Dugalle, she now controls the human UED government, and all of its colonies and armies. Through Duke, she controls the Dominion. She directly controls the Zerg Swarm, giving her personal control of the largest military force in the galaxy.
Kerrigan then has a private moment with Raynor, as she pops a bottle of champagne and shares it with her old friend, who marvels at how she's taken control of everything; the Protoss see her as a heroine who helped restore their Empire to its rightful glory by giving them back their homeland, both the UED and the Dominion are ruled by her puppets, she now has direct control of all Zerg forces, the man who betrayed her is now behind bars for life, and the galaxy is now under her feet. "Not bad for a psychic girl who was once used as a tool!" says Kerrigan, who wishes that her parents were there to see her full triumph, to see the little girl they once nurtured now ruling the galaxy.
She then talks to Raynor about a project which she discovered that Duran was doing behind her back thanks to her Dark Templar spies, and she then talks about how she used Duran's data and used Zerg DNA to fix Fenix's mangled body, saying that creating a master race of Protoss/Zerg hybrids was the Overmind's plan, and now, they have the chance to attain that perfection; the mixing of Purity of Essence with Purity of Form. Fenix then walks in on the two of them, his body fully repaired with Zerg DNA, with psychic power coursing through him, the first of their Hybrid soldiers. Kerrigan then tells Raynor to "behold the future", as Fenix glows with the majestic light of psychic energy, and the story ends there, with Kerrigan on the cusp of achieving what the Overmind and the Xel'Naga sought all those years ago; the creation of the "ultimate life form."
Feels like a waste to quote such a huge post for such a small point, but here we are.
Let me clarify this: I think SC1's story is better than Brood Wars, but I still like both. At the same time, I think the entire franchise suffers terribly from having incompetent writers at the helm. Chris Metzen is fantastic at coming up with iconic ideas and writing fun dialogue but he is not a good writer when it comes to large-scale stories. So StarCraft is a bit like Reverse Star Wars: great dialogue and fun story beats, but a main story that makes no sense if you stop to think about it.
Take Kerrigan, for example. In SC1/BW she's a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain. Simple as that. She exists to motivate the plot and generate conflict, because the Zerg are, by that point in the franchise's development, The Bad Guys. And it worked great for that game. It was a stupid but entertaining and unpretentious little story. And then SC2 rolled in, Blizzard was already balls-deep in Redemption Arcs with World of Warcraft, and they knew people lapped those up. So, suddenly, Kerrigan isn't just evil because Infested people are evil. She had some "dark entity" manipulating her. Which is fucking stupid. The Zerg as directed by the Overmind (and subsequently Kerrigan) cannot be seen as anything other than evil: they're the Tyranid-expies, devouring/infesting everything in their path is already evil. Retconning Amon and the Xel'Naga into everything was completely unnecessary.
Also, whoever thought Zerg politics would be fun to watch/interact with needs a smack upside the head. Same for whoever thought Kerrigan (who may I remind you did A TON of evil shit she never actually made up for) being the Angelic Savior of the Universe was a good idea.
(What I'm saying is, Metzen deserves many smacks upside the head.)
Couple issues with your analysis about the BW campaign. First, the Protoss as a people are shattered, the invasion of their home world almost certainly devastating their numbers for generations, not to mention their industrial capacity. Remember how everything gets warped in from Aiur in the campaign? Yeah... Add in the shit the Zerg did and they probably don't want it back due to its defilement. "Why the hell would we want that place back? And who the hell are you to hand it back considering you helped ruin it for us?" Remember, the higher-level Zerg do indeed have some level of independent thought, even if they all obey the Overmind in the end. The Overmind itself says that Kerrigan is as bound to her as any Cerebrate, implying she has the same level of autonomy as one.
Couple problems with that-the Khalai Protoss are so attached to Aiur that THEY DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO LEAVE. Zeratul had to persuade Aldaris that defending Aiur is a lost cause. So if Kerrigan offered to have the Zerg leave Aiur, they'd be more than happy to have her as an ally. They were already happy with her helping them recover some crystals. If she gave them back their homeworld, that would be the cherry on top of the cake that would seal the deal for an alliance.
Also, Kerrigan had nothing to do with the ruination of Aiur. That was all due to the Overmind and the other cerebrates. Kerrigan was all the way back on Char during the war on Aiur, and she didn't go to Aiur until after Aldaris, Zeratul, and the others left.
Also, despite its ruined state, the Protoss DO want Aiur back. Even LOTV confirms it, and Brood War even had the Khalai Protoss like Aldaris HATING the very idea that they have to leave.
As to the Zerg campaign itself, did you ever consider that its a literal revenge fantasy for her? That maybe she is still somewhat human under what she's become, and is just drunk on her own power? "I'm still queen bitch of the universe" is not exactly a humble remark. As to the UED, I see no reason for her to have any love or trust in the UED and their peace attempts given what the Confederacy and Mengsk did to her. Expecting Human Empire No. 3 to not ass-fuck her is a little much, IMO. On the other hand with the Protoss, its literally nothing personal with them, which is why she's willing to have them fuck off once she's used them to gain her power. Hell, having Mengsk owe her his life must be one of the most painful things that man can experience, even with his own arrogance and sense of self-importance.
Not really. What did the Protoss do to her, exactly? Last I checked, she was only fighting them because the Overmind told her to. Yes, Tassadar humiliated her, but Tassadar went full AN HERO and was dead, and she DID get her revenge back in SC1 when she annihilated the Protoss forces on Char and drove Zeratul and his buddies underground. I can understand her uniting the other factions against the UED because the UED are an unknown threat. I can even understand her turning on Mengsk because he's a threat. But why keep Mengsk alive, when he's the genius who abandoned her to all this hell, but Fenix is too dangerous to keep alive for her? Fenix was just her boy-toy's best friend. Mengsk was the asshole who manipulated and abandoned her. It would be more logical for her to kill or imprison Mengsk and leave Fenix and his Protoss alone. That way, if she needs a cerebrate killed, she can lean on Fenix for a favor and have him ask Zeratul for some Dark Templar assassins.
Mengsk and the Protoss basically became more vengeful towards her. Kerrigan sparing them after she screwed them over was completely stupid. The UED was on one knee, already asking for mercy, while both Mengsk and the Protoss promised Kerrigan that they WILL be back and they WILL kill her. Expecting the people whom she betrayed not to ass-fuck her in the future, ESPECIALLY when they promised to, is a little much, don't you think? The fact that the Protoss can come back any time and glass Char and any world Kerrigan owns keeps them as a threat to her swarms, whereas the UED are so far back on Earth that putting them on hold and finishing off the Protoss and the Dominion first would have been far more logical.
Feels like a waste to quote such a huge post for such a small point, but here we are.
Let me clarify this: I think SC1's story is better than Brood Wars, but I still like both. At the same time, I think the entire franchise suffers terribly from having incompetent writers at the helm. Chris Metzen is fantastic at coming up with iconic ideas and writing fun dialogue but he is not a good writer when it comes to large-scale stories. So StarCraft is a bit like Reverse Star Wars: great dialogue and fun story beats, but a main story that makes no sense if you stop to think about it.
Take Kerrigan, for example. In SC1/BW she's a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain. Simple as that. She exists to motivate the plot and generate conflict, because the Zerg are, by that point in the franchise's development, The Bad Guys. And it worked great for that game. It was a stupid but entertaining and unpretentious little story. And then SC2 rolled in, Blizzard was already balls-deep in Redemption Arcs with World of Warcraft, and they knew people lapped those up. So, suddenly, Kerrigan isn't just evil because Infested people are evil. She had some "dark entity" manipulating her. Which is fucking stupid. The Zerg as directed by the Overmind (and subsequently Kerrigan) cannot be seen as anything other than evil: they're the Tyranid-expies, devouring/infesting everything in their path is already evil. Retconning Amon and the Xel'Naga into everything was completely unnecessary.
Also, whoever thought Zerg politics would be fun to watch/interact with needs a smack upside the head. Same for whoever thought Kerrigan (who may I remind you did A TON of evil shit she never actually made up for) being the Angelic Savior of the Universe was a good idea.
(What I'm saying is, Metzen deserves many smacks upside the head.)
I still like Brood War too, despite its flaws, and as I said, I just attributed Kerrigan's bloodlust and irrational decisions due to her being drunk on the Dark Side like some Sith Lord. They've done stupid things in the past because of the Dark Side overpowering them, and the Overmind and its cerebrates are drunk on the dark side of the psionic powers, so it makes sense that Kerrigan was tainted by that influence and turned into a sadistic nut. Still, I would have preferred her to be the pragmatic kind of evil like Palpatine, instead of a sadist like Ramsay Bolton. And of course, Aldaris' redemption arc and the UED campaign was fun to watch.
Kerrigan was a standard villain in SC1 because logically, the Overmind controlled her. In Brood War, she made irrational decisions that can only be explained away through bloodlust and vengeance for the sake of vengeance, so it's not that much of a stretch to think that some dark power had gotten a hold of her, although retconning it to be Amon was a bit much, I'd have just said that it was the dark influence of the Overmind instead, since the latter did control her when she was infested.
I would have accepted the "Saviour Kerrigan" archetype if it was actually done well. Like say, they followed a Revan-style story a la KOTOR instead and she's trying to atone for all the evil shit she's done. Maybe she uses her immense psychic powers to purify the Khala of Amon's influence, and that gets the Protoss to forgive her, while she saves the Dominion from a Hybrid invasion with her Zerg broods and that gets the Terrans to forgive her. At least make it logical for the differing factions to actually forgive her and accept her.
The Zerg as directed by the Overmind (and subsequently Kerrigan) cannot be seen as anything other than evil: they're the Tyranid-expies, devouring/infesting everything in their path is already evil. Retconning Amon and the Xel'Naga into everything was completely unnecessary.
the biggest issue with hacks and current writers is that they get the lessons wrong, either due to stupidity or ignorance, and then built their own stupid shit on that already crappy foundation. take MUH EVIL for example, I highly doubt zerg/tyranids/xenomorphs/whatever see themselves as evil, if they even waste time to ponder the morality of their actions to begin with. they simply exist and are what they are - same way an ant hive isn't "evil" protecting and expanding it's nest, even if we as highly intellectual beings probably disagree in it's inhumane methods. but here's the fun fact: ants aren't human. neither are zerg/tyranids/xenomorphs/whatever.
it's like a tard hears about the fable of the scorpion and the frog, and instead of taking the lesson of sometimes creatures (or rather people, since that's the fucking point of a fable) acting upon their nature even to their own downfall, they go full reddit with "but akshually...". it's one of hacks biggest hallmark to see "meaning" where there is none, and then try to retroactively inject that into characters and scenarios that worked perfectly fine for their purpose, and that's why the basis of vanilla SC1 worked so great.
don't get me wrong, you can explore the backstory of a character to some degree if the motivations make sense to begin with (another thing hacks constantly fuck up, see "muh menks/kerrigan conflict"), because a characters goals must come from somewhere, and most of the time the conflict itself stems from different opinions how to achieve those goals - but with a simple alien enemy there is no motivation besides it's nature to live and reproduce to keep "living".
the biggest issue with hacks and current writers is that they get the lessons wrong, either due to stupidity or ignorance, and then built their own stupid shit on that already crappy foundation. take MUH EVIL for example, I highly doubt zerg/tyranids/xenomorphs/whatever see themselves as evil, if they even waste time to ponder the morality of their actions to begin with. they simply exist and are what they are - same way an ant hive isn't "evil" protecting and expanding it's nest, even if we as highly intellectual beings probably disagree in it's inhumane methods. but here's the fun fact: ants aren't human. neither are zerg/tyranids/xenomorphs/whatever.
it's like a tard hears about the fable of the scorpion and the frog, and instead of taking the lesson of sometimes creatures (or rather people, since that the fucking point of a fable) acting upon their nature even to their own downfall, they go full reddit with "but akshually...". it's one of hacks biggest hallmark to see "meaning" where there is none, and then try to retroactively inject that into characters and scenarios that worked perfectly fine for their purpose, and that's why the basis of vanilla SC1 worked so great.
don't get me wrong, you can explore the backstory of a character to some degree if the motivations make sense to begin with (another thing hacks constantly fuck up, see "muh menks/kerrigan conflict"), because a characters goals must come from somewhere, and most of the time the conflict itself stems from different opinions how to achieve those goals - but with a simple alien enemy there is no motivation besides it's nature to live and reproduce to keep "living".
You know what's the stupidest part of SC2's story? They literally didn't need Amon or the Xel'Naga to make any of it work. Kerrigan's entire character arc could have happened due to internal conflict instead of an external "dark force". It would just be her being torn apart by her human mind and emotions, in conflict with the biological Zerg imperative to expand, consume and assimilate. Let's go by campaigns here:
Wings of Liberty. This one stays basically the same. Kerrigan subconsciously contacts Jim Raynor asking for help, but consciously she's still the Queen Bitch of the Zerg, doing the Zerg thing. Consume, assimilate, all that. Raynor still blows the chitin right off her, and then shoots Tychus. Maybe add some foreshadowing, someone wondering whether there may still be some humanity left in Kerrigan.
Heart of the Swarm. Kerrigan is human again, but the Scourge must always have a Lich King the Swarm needs its Queen. The Zerg, being led by the Broodmothers Kerrigan created between SC1 and SC2 to replace the Cerebrates, are lashing out into Terran and Protoss space. After Kerrigan watches a particularly gruesome Zerg raid caught on tape, she decides that she has plenty to atone for, and since she's the only one who can rein in the Zerg. And she better be quick, before the Queens finish fighting against one another and all gather under a single Overqueen.
The whole Zerus subplot gets axed, same with Infested Stukov and the talking Zerg characters. Kerrigan should be the only "Zerg" with the sentience and ability to speak. The others would be either communicating psionically in simple Abathur-speak if they're smart enough, or acting like the non-sentient animals they are. Instead, Kerrigan gets a small group of humans (maybe a Protoss along the way) to serve as her companions, to ask questions about how the Zerg work (gotta make the fluff nerds happy) and to be moral centers as she gradually re-infests herself and struggles to assert her humanity over the Zerg drive. It has to be clear that it's a fight between her mind and her increasingly alien biology. And yes, in the end she invades Korhal, rescues Raynor and kills Mengsk, and she leaves with her swarm to find and subdue the last splinter swarms still on the loose.
Legacy of the Void. Seriously, just ditch Amon. The Hybrids can be Terran experiments, and the story being about the Protoss attempting to reunite their fractured civilization through civil war and Terran and splinter Zerg interference is already plenty good. If you really want to feature Kerrigan's redemption, you could have the Khalai Protoss (the player faction) finally getting over themselves and asking for her help defeating the Void-powered Protoss antagonists who wanted to wield its terrible powers to scour the Sector of all non-Protoss life. Kerrigan thinks about sacrificing herself, but realizes her penance of holding the reins of the Swarm is eternal, and survives that final battle.
There. No prophecies, no extant Xel'Naga, none of the stupidity that is the Primal Zerg (the Zurg were fucking worms before being uplifted, all the "Primal" Zerg breeds weren't native from Zerus), Kerrigan still gets to be the penitent waifu in chitin dominatrix gear, Mengsk still gets his comeuppance, Raynor remains a cuck pining over a redhead he never had any chance with.
Had the two of them not gotten betrayed by Mengsk, it would have happened. The campaign was doing a good job of establishing a relationship. Remember, this was the 1990's, where you had actual men rescuing women instead of fedora-tipping m'ladyers thinking they're sexy. To quote Kerrigan:
That white-knight attitude suits you. Just not- not now.
And if we assume Liberty's Crusade as canon, his pursuit of her is less about M'lady and more about the daughter the Confederacy took from him, which is far more understandable.
Had the two of them not gotten betrayed by Mengsk, it would have happened. The campaign was doing a good job of establishing a relationship. Remember, this was the 1990's, where you had actual men rescuing women instead of fedora-tipping m'ladyers thinking they're sexy. To quote Kerrigan:
And if we assume Liberty's Crusade as canon, his pursuit of her is less about M'lady and more about the daughter the Confederacy took from him, which is far more understandable.
Sure, that's fair. I think I'm a bit salty because in SC2 Raynor had this whiff of loserdom to him that he just couldn't shake off. I couldn't like him there as much as I liked him in SC1.
Sure, that's fair. I think I'm a bit salty because in SC2 Raynor had this whiff of loserdom to him that he just couldn't shake off. I couldn't like him there as much as I liked him in SC1.
that's just waifu-fagging tho. you can see the same with sylvanas which is the bestest greatest hottest bitch on the planet and the whole universe - nothing else can compete, least of all a canon love interest when there's a writer to self-insert.
which is pretty ironic, because dudes want to save the girl, girls want to be saved (no matter what feminists say). there's a reason that stuff worked as long as it did.
You know what's the stupidest part of SC2's story? They literally didn't need Amon or the Xel'Naga to make any of it work. Kerrigan's entire character arc could have happened due to internal conflict instead of an external "dark force". It would just be her being torn apart by her human mind and emotions, in conflict with the biological Zerg imperative to expand, consume and assimilate. Let's go by campaigns here:
the thing even the writers forget, and is the same as sylvanas - they're just a random ass character unlucky enough to end up where they are. there was a good chance they could've died, and then what? and being a random ass character, what does make so special? that's when they try to put in meaning that never was there, and instead of dealing with shit that happened and go from there it's suddenly about prophecies and plot points that could've never happened otherwise. maybe I'm just fucking tired of the whole MUH FATE MUH DESTINY schtick, because in the end it means the characters had never any agency on their own.
the biggest issue with hacks and current writers is that they get the lessons wrong, either due to stupidity or ignorance, and then built their own stupid shit on that already crappy foundation. take MUH EVIL for example, I highly doubt zerg/tyranids/xenomorphs/whatever see themselves as evil, if they even waste time to ponder the morality of their actions to begin with. they simply exist and are what they are - same way an ant hive isn't "evil" protecting and expanding it's nest, even if we as highly intellectual beings probably disagree in it's inhumane methods. but here's the fun fact: ants aren't human. neither are zerg/tyranids/xenomorphs/whatever.
it's like a tard hears about the fable of the scorpion and the frog, and instead of taking the lesson of sometimes creatures (or rather people, since that the fucking point of a fable) acting upon their nature even to their own downfall, they go full reddit with "but akshually...". it's one of hacks biggest hallmark to see "meaning" where there is none, and then try to retroactively inject that into characters and scenarios that worked perfectly fine for their purpose, and that's why the basis of vanilla SC1 worked so great.
don't get me wrong, you can explore the backstory of a character to some degree if the motivations make sense to begin with (another thing hacks constantly fuck up, see "muh menks/kerrigan conflict"), because a characters goals must come from somewhere, and most of the time the conflict itself stems from different opinions how to achieve those goals - but with a simple alien enemy there is no motivation besides it's nature to live and reproduce to keep "living".
I basically just saw the Zerg as seeking perfection in their own, brutal way. They want to be the perfect life form, they need that sweet, sweet Protoss DNA, and they're willing to kill everything in the galaxy just to get it. The Overmind probably thinks that by creating this perfect life-form, he can give birth to something that can be better than what came before, so it's just a search for perfection on his part. He's using the humans as catspaws to defeat the Protoss, then invade their homeworld so he can assimilate them into himself and create a perfect being that has both Purity of Form and Purity of Essence. Maybe even make hybrid bodies for himself and the Cerebrates. There's no moral quandaries they need to struggle with, they just want to be perfect, and they see that goal as one worthy of sacrifice, so to them, other sapient species dying so that the Zerg can attain this perfection is worth it. It's the same way how it's OK for us to kill cows so we can make cheeseburgers.
For us, it's the end of the world. For them, it's a trip to Taco Bell. I always saw the Overmind in that kind of Galactus/Unicron/Darth Nihilus levels of thinking where individuals are but dust motes in the storm or a grain of sand in the beach for him.
Sure, that's fair. I think I'm a bit salty because in SC2 Raynor had this whiff of loserdom to him that he just couldn't shake off. I couldn't like him there as much as I liked him in SC1.
Personally I think WoL should have been about Raynor pulling a Shepard and getting a crew to go take down Kerrigan, not whatever it actually was. So bland I don't even recall anything about it aside from Tychus and that weird de-Zerging crystal. Oh, and apparently Tassadar and the Overmind were best bros in the psychic afterlife and the Overmind was really sorry about the Xel"Naga making him do it all.
I'd make the Confederacy, Protoss Empire, and Overmind the main civilizations. I'd put effort into their characterization rather than doing something fucking stupid like killing and replacing the governments as quickly and often as possible.
The Confederacy is a group of factious terran (human) colonies jockeying for power. Their technology is based on the rampant and ruthless exploitation of worlds, leaving wastelands in their wake. They're not an evil empire, they're just a bunch of pirates, corpos and space nobles bickering and fighting over scraps.
The Protoss Empire is an empire of arrogant space elves who want to impose their vision of peace and order on the galaxy. Naturally, this brings them into conflict with the warring environmentally-destructive terrans. Since they don't consider the terrans a xenomorphic threat but worthy of instruction, they've decided the best way to handle the terran expansion is through mind control collars and re-education camps.
The Overmind is the collective consciousness of an alien superorganism otherwise known as the Zerg (a protoss word meaning "all-consuming, unceasing, etc"). They're fundamentally inhuman: power, wealth, revenge, and all other human motivations mean nothing to them. They've eaten countless worlds and species. The terrans and protoss are next on the menu.
The story opens with zerg swarms invading both terran and protoss space, and protoss invading terran space, and terrans invading protoss space.
The protoss don't have much of a problem dealing with zerg because they have superior weapons like armies of robots and casual planet glassing. They don't get their asses handed to them like little bitches: the protoss are actually intimidating here. They have a fucking galactic empire with fleets of death stars and they fucking act like it. Remember Palpatine's fleet of star destroyers at the end of Rise of Skywalker? The Protoss have had that for thousands of years.
The zerg, meanwhile, aren't actually trying to win against the protoss. They're running diversionary tactics. All that they're doing is part of an ancient long-term plan to secure their conquest of the galaxy and beyond. They know they can't win a full-blown war against the protoss with their current means. So they've been searching for species with adaptations they calculate will give them an edge. In humans, they've found a species with technological and psychic potential that could rival the protoss if properly cultivated, so they invade the terran colonies to abduct and experiment on humans and especially psychics. And capture samples of terran tech to analyze and reverse-engineer biological equivalents, etc.
The terrans respond in different ways to the incursions depending on what colonies we're talking about. Since the protoss glassed inhabited terran planets, richer more sanctimonious colonies have sent fleets to invade protoss space in revenge and foster rebellions among their client species... and plunder ancient protoss ruins for profit and superweapons. Back home, they're fighting off incursions by the templars and the zergs. Some templars have rebelled against the genocidal orders and teamed up with those terrans willing to listen and not shoot them on sight. Dark protoss have come out of the woodwork, with the more compassionate warbands offering assistance to terran colonies against the Empire and the zergs. More scientifically minded terrans have captured zerg for study, hoping to develop new ways to profit and wage war.
There aren't any stupid mary sue characters based on Metzen's ex-girlfriend stealing the spotlight from the rest of the universe. It's an anthology series where each campaign focuses on self-contained stories featuring an original cast of characters.
This isn't rocket science. This is very basic stuff that I would have expected anybody who actually cared about the IP's longevity to devise.
Fuck Raynor, Kerry, Mengsk, and all the rest of them. Those characters are shit and they ruined the IP forever.
I've grown to hate Brood War in hindsight after being subjected to StarCraft II's atrocious self-parody. It's when the writers went all-in on magical crystals and space-messiah nonsense. I'll never understand the appeal of magic in the context of a sci-fi setting. Then I remember the state of WarCraft and Diablo's lore... it seems Blizzard is only capable of telling one story, and it's all well and good if you're a one-trick pony if you can do that one trick really well but they can't even do that.
At least the voice-acting was fun in the original (and I even enjoy Flanderized Stalin-Mengsk's actor in II, even though his character was butchered worse than anyone else in the sequels). I always thought the 'Kerrigan killed Mengsk's family before he rescued her from the Confederate brainwashing' was a wasted plot element that could have led to a very compelling and sympathetic Mengsk in Heart of the Swarm. That's a big problem with StarCraft storytelling in general: you read the backstory to the games, even in the original game's manual, and you've got this brilliant setting and then you waste it on the melodrama of one man and his monster-wife.
At least the voice-acting was fun in the original (and I even enjoy Flanderized Stalin-Mengsk's actor in II, even though his character was butchered worse than anyone else in the sequels). I always thought the 'Kerrigan killed Mengsk's family before he rescued her from the Confederate brainwashing' was a wasted plot element that could have led to a very compelling and sympathetic Mengsk in Heart of the Swarm.
It gets worse when you read the novel Uprising. In the official Q&A (I can't be assed to find the link now since Blizz reorganized their website several times) it was stated that Mengsk betrayed Kerry because she murdered his family and because her growing conscience made her a liability or something. (She had already assisted in planetary genocide twice by the time he betrayed her, so...)
However, this seemingly contradicts the novel Uprising because a key emotional scene involves him telling her about her murdering his family and that he forgives her for it and that her emotional growth depends on her learning to forgive herself (since, ya know, she was brainwashed and not actually responsible for all the murders she committed). This is supposed to show emotional growth for both of them and make them seem way more emotionally mature and sympathetic.
Of course, the novel shoots itself in the foot by showing Mengsk gleefully killing the other two ghosts who helped her right after telling them to their faces that they were brainwashed when they did it and thus can't remember it. He does this right in front of Kerry and then tells her he forgives her for murdering his family. And she believes him when he says this.
So right out of the gate, the tie-in novel for the game that is supposed to explain Kerry and Mengsk's friendship before he betrays her in the game establishes Mengsk as a lying vengeful psychopath and Kerry as terminally stupid and devoted to him despite his obvious insanity and evil.
That's a big problem with StarCraft storytelling in general: you read the backstory to the games, even in the original game's manual, and you've got this brilliant setting and then you waste it on the melodrama of one man and his monster-wife.
I always thought Mengsk betraying her and going all "If I can't take over then nobody can!" like a Saturday morning cartoon villain/jealous boyfriend felt like it was shoehorned into the plot for the sake of cheap drama.
None of that was necessary at all. His backstory was nothing if not sympathetic. It's almost like the writer realized that they'd killed all the bad guys and needed to find a replacement last minute so they made Mengsk the new villain.
I'd be all for an SoK campaign establishing Mengsk and Kerry's friendship/romance and their personal vendetta against Tarsonis. That said, I don't think it's remotely satisfying to have that turn into him betraying her and becoming evil emperor of the galaxy, and I definitely don't think it makes any sense for their plot to take precedence over the two alien galactic empires simultaneously invading and genociding humanity.
In other words, I think the key problem with SC's writing is that it's trying to tell a story about human characters first and then shoehorn some alien invasions second. Which is a really horrible way for a writer to approach the setting IMO.
I've grown to hate Brood War in hindsight after being subjected to StarCraft II's atrocious self-parody. It's when the writers went all-in on magical crystals and space-messiah nonsense.
Yeah, the space-messiah stuff was introduced back in SC1 OG. Kerry was the zerg messiah. The zerg ignored millions of other psychics in the sector, including ghosts and the Ghost Academy on Tarsonis, just to capture her. Then the Overmind, which is basically a Lovecraftian deity prior to the retcons, exalted her to messianic status and said she was the key to defeating their enemies. Somehow. She's designed as a succubus rather than a hideous zerg monster, because for no apparent reason the zerg decide to respect human beauty standards just for her even though it serves no purpose. They allow her to retain a twisted version of her personality as an inspirational example to the swarm, even though this serves no purpose either since most of the zerg are animals and they have no concept of morale. Can you imagine the tyranids, flood, or necromorphs creating something like her? It makes about as much sense for the zerg to do so. She is a mary sue in a very literal sense: her entire character exists at odds with how the zerg are otherwise explained to work.
The magical crystals, too. The Overmind says the protoss don't understand the power of the crystals and uses them to somehow "manifest" on Aiur's surface for reasons that are never explained.
The zerg campaign doesn't make any sense. It feels like it was written just to stick together the terran and protoss campaigns, rather than explore the zerg as characters and culture. It feels so... slapdash, like several different drafts were written and then pasted together. The zerg being revealed as intelligent the whole time doesn't fit at all with them mindlessly following psi-emitters in the terran campaign.
I recall in an interview that the writer actually wrote Tass kamikazing the Overmind at the behest of the design team because they wanted a big climactic ending, and that this wasn't the original intent. If so, that explains why the story feels so haphazard to me because plot points like the psi-emitters, overmind/zerg's grand mission, and twilight templar never go anywhere after their introduction campaigns despite seeming to be important aspects of the setting.
You'd think the psi-emitter would be a good weapon against the zerg since you could lure them into traps, like onto planetary surfaces and then bombard them, or lure them into black holes, etc. But beyond luring the zerg to Tarsonis so they capture Kerry, it's basically forgotten about.
You'd think the zerg wanting to eat the protoss and become "perfect" or whatever they wanted would be their constant motivation, but they immediately get commandeered by Kerry and all she wants is to be a crazy Saturday morning cartoon villain without any clear motivations besides a vague notion of ruling the sector and killing billions of people because she can. All the cerebrates die offscreen and their culture/history is lost forever, because fuck them I guess? They don't have big boobs so nobody cares about them.
You'd think Tassadar would stay around to found the twilight templar and heal the rift between his peoples, but nope he goes out in a blaze of glory at the end (because, ya know, the design team demanded an epic climax). Even though he has absolutely no reason to when any dark templar would suffice, or he could teleport away from the carrier at the last second, or just channel his space magic remotely, idk. The twilight templar never come up ever again, even though the later novels make a huge deal about it.
The plotting is just so... uninteresting. The Confederacy, Protoss Empire, and Overmind had cultures and motivations (however vaguely sketched out) that you've could've milked for dozens and dozens of campaigns. You could tell stories about Umoja making contact with Tassadar and teaming up to defend the terran colonies from the zerg and Conclave. You could tell stories about the KMC invading protoss worlds to strip mine their richer resources. You could invent however other many terran governments you'd want and have them fight over stuff. You could tell stories about the zerg and whatever is up with them because they're pretty boring as it stands. Instead, the game plots just jumped through plot points as quickly as possible and kept introducing new ones without regard for the overall consistency of the setting.
You know what's the stupidest part of SC2's story? They literally didn't need Amon or the Xel'Naga to make any of it work. Kerrigan's entire character arc could have happened due to internal conflict instead of an external "dark force". It would just be her being torn apart by her human mind and emotions, in conflict with the biological Zerg imperative to expand, consume and assimilate. Let's go by campaigns here:
Wings of Liberty. This one stays basically the same. Kerrigan subconsciously contacts Jim Raynor asking for help, but consciously she's still the Queen Bitch of the Zerg, doing the Zerg thing. Consume, assimilate, all that. Raynor still blows the chitin right off her, and then shoots Tychus. Maybe add some foreshadowing, someone wondering whether there may still be some humanity left in Kerrigan.
It still kinda feels crazy for a small hillbilly force to fight both a large empire with space marines and a Zerg galactic invasion fleet. I'd actually bring back the UED for this.
Since Stukov was revived as a Zerg and turned back into a human after the post-Brood War campaign Resurrection IV, I'd have it so that he went back home to Earth and told them everything that happened, about Kerrigan's rise to power and the threat she poses to the galaxy at large. Stukov ends up fighting a civil war with some UPL hardliners, then takes control of the UED afterwards and begins building up a fleet. When Kerrigan attacks the Dominion in WOL (mostly to kill all the Hybrids the Dominion was making by DECIMATING EACH AND EVERY DOMINION WORLD) and Mengsk pulls back his forces, the UED show up to protect the colonies, and Stukov works with Jim Raynor to both weaken the Dominion's hold on the galaxy AND hold off the Zerg. The Raynor missions have you doing spec-ops shit like stealing an artifact from the Tal'Darim before Kerrigan gets to it or busting open New Folsom, while the UED missions have you engaging in large-scale battles against the Zerg Swarm and the Dominion.
The Zeratul missions still happen, but we change it so that the Overmind still had free will and was just planning on using Kerrigan as a weapon against Amon. He was trying to assimilate the Protoss so he could create his own hybrid army to combat Amon when Amon inevitably returns.
The ending is still the same, except being de-Zergified doesn't make Kerrigan automatically a good girl. She's still the Queen Bitch, and she tells Raynor that she'd rather die than be taken prisoner. Zeratul then has a Dark Archon erase Kerrigan's memories of everything that happened after Mengsk abandoned her on Tarsonis. She reverts back to the good woman she used to be, and Raynor carries her out of Char, saying that he'll protect her with his life.
Heart of the Swarm. Kerrigan is human again, but the Scourge must always have a Lich King the Swarm needs its Queen. The Zerg, being led by the Broodmothers Kerrigan created between SC1 and SC2 to replace the Cerebrates, are lashing out into Terran and Protoss space. After Kerrigan watches a particularly gruesome Zerg raid caught on tape, she decides that she has plenty to atone for, and since she's the only one who can rein in the Zerg. And she better be quick, before the Queens finish fighting against one another and all gather under a single Overqueen.
Taking a page from KOTOR can do a better job of making Kerrigan human again and reconcile her good self with her evil half. Following Darth Revan's path (oops, spoilers) Kerrigan, having been mind-wiped and turned into one of the good guys, has to deal with her dark half in her mind, her memories of her evil self slowly re-emerging, and the temptation to fall back into the Queen of Blades persona. Make it similar to KOTOR where Kerrigan has to atone for her sins by following the path of the Light and doing good things for both the Protoss and the Terrans even as they both treat her with suspicion and disdain. Then have Duran attack them with his hybrids and Dominion patsies, and have Kerrigan save them to prove that she's turned. I'd even add in some Protoss mystic who was descended from Khas' bloodline act as Kerrigan's Obi-Wan, teaching her the path of the Khala, the path of restraint, so that her psychic powers develop along the same lines as Tassadar's. Her memories of how to lead the Zerg slowly trickle back, and she becomes more powerful as a result, but by that time, she's been walking the path of the Light to the point where she's no longer the evil Queen of Blades that she used to be.
Oh, and have it so that Duran was leading the whole Dominion this entire time from WOL. Have Raynor and Mengsk be on that prison ship, and have Mengsk reveal to Kerrigan that he's been deposed for years and that the man sitting on the throne barking orders is none other than Duran, who has been mind-raping his Dominion troops to serve his cause. Duran will be the final boss for both Alexei Stukov and Kerrigan to deal with. After Duran's death, Kerrigan and Arcturus Mengsk get tried for war crimes by an international court, and they're both found guilty, but Kerrigan is sentenced to lifetime community service (ie. using her Zerg to defeat Amon and the Hybrids) while Mengsk is put under house arrest so they can use him as an intel source since he was working with Duran for years and knows where a lot of the Hybrid facilities are.
Legacy of the Void. Seriously, just ditch Amon. The Hybrids can be Terran experiments, and the story being about the Protoss attempting to reunite their fractured civilization through civil war and Terran and splinter Zerg interference is already plenty good. If you really want to feature Kerrigan's redemption, you could have the Khalai Protoss (the player faction) finally getting over themselves and asking for her help defeating the Void-powered Protoss antagonists who wanted to wield its terrible powers to scour the Sector of all non-Protoss life. Kerrigan thinks about sacrificing herself, but realizes her penance of holding the reins of the Swarm is eternal, and survives that final battle.
I would still go with the Amon/Khala path, except aside from having Zeratul survive, Artanis would, outside of courting different Protoss factions in the story mode, need Kerrigan's help to purge the Khala, which Kerrigan eventually does with the help of her Protoss mystic friend. Then have it so that Tassadar really was talking to Zeratul this whole time, and he merges his power with Kerrigan and they defeat Amon on Aiur, destroying his spirit once and for all. Kerrigan finally redeems herself, and she takes the Zerg and fucks off, and they become like what the Protoss were in the manual for SC1; silent protectors watching from afar, while the Protoss and Terrans build a new civilization together that combines the best of both races' tech and ideas.
I recall in an interview that the writer actually wrote Tass kamikazing the Overmind at the behest of the design team because they wanted a big climactic ending, and that this wasn't the original intent. If so, that explains why the story feels so haphazard to me because plot points like the psi-emitters, overmind/zerg's grand mission, and twilight templar never go anywhere after their introduction campaigns despite seeming to be important aspects of the setting.
You'd think Tassadar would stay around to found the twilight templar and heal the rift between his peoples, but nope he goes out in a blaze of glory at the end (because, ya know, the design team demanded an epic climax). Even though he has absolutely no reason to when any dark templar would suffice, or he could teleport away from the carrier at the last second, or just channel his space magic remotely, idk. The twilight templar never come up ever again, even though the later novels make a huge deal about it.
While I disagree with your opinions on SC1 (look at my post on SC1 as to why I liked it) people kept treating Tassadar as some kind of great military general and hero, when all I see is a General Failure who makes the worst possible decisions half the time. He got his people's butts kicked by a neophyte infested Terran general (Kerrigan) all to kill a Zerg Cerebrate. Yet he doesn't take advantage of the chaos it created and instead does little as the Zerg close in and eradicate his Templar armies, which are, again, led by a twat who's a tiny fraction of his age.
Then the second Executor shows up, and instead of letting the guy take him back to Aiur where he can use the Dark Templars' power against the Cerebrates (Tassadar already learned the Dark Templar powers from Zeratul before Aldaris and Executor #2 meet up with him on Char) he gets the second Executor to rebel against Aldaris and retrieve the Dark Templar on Char. OK, that's understandable, he wants to rescue Zeratul. But then he chooses to bring Zeratul back to Aiur which starts a civil war-one that he is too pussy to finish. Instead of eradicating the Protoss Conclave during the Protoss Civil War and seizing control of the government as a military dictator, he surrenders just as his allies are about to eradicate the Conclave, which does nothing but prolong the civil war as now his allies have to fight more Protoss just to rescue his sorry butt. Then, in the final assault against the Overmind, instead of just having a Protoss Arbiter teleport Zeratul in to stab the Overmind, he goes full AN HERO and gets himself killed, despite the fact that he could have been useful as a new figurehead for the Protoss government to keep the Khala Templar and the Dark Templar from killing each other. Seriously, imagine how much easier things would have been for the Protoss if Tassadar was there to smooth over any disagreements between Raszagal and Aldaris. He might have been able to discover Kerrigan's treachery ahead of time.
So, to recap, Tassadar is a mediocre general who gets his butt kicked twice by an infested Terran general who isn't even past 30, (Kerrigan was 26 when SC1 starts) he surrenders to the Protoss Conclave just as his allies were about to destroy them, needlessly prolonging the Protoss Civil War instead of ending it with a decisive victory against the Conclave, then he goes AN HERO and gets himself killed. Both Protoss and Terran characters act as if he's Napoleonic Jesus, but he's neither; he's at most, a good figurehead and symbol of unity between the Templar and Dark Templar, but he's a bad military commander whose sacrifice was pointless considering that Zeratul was there and perfectly able to kill the Overmind on his own.
If anything, this made me want him to truly come back in SC2 just to have someone rag on him about how much of a shit military commander he was.
My only real naggle with that (since I want to stay out of the main story sperging), is that the Overmind as a psychic construct is probably just a little too big and nasty to get one-shotted by Zeratul, so you'd need to uh... teleport in a ton of support forces to make sure he's protected while he gets to stabbing, and get the Arbiter there past the existing defenses so it can Recall him in, plus the forces you need tying up the other Zerg forces with an assault, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting. Tassadar turning his Carrier into a giant psychic missile is probably the best choice out there. Or did you miss the forces that engaged it as a flew in, even after the destruction on the Overmind's defenses the player unleashed to win the mission?
