Excellent review. I did love WoL, hate HoTs and I was really disappointed to begin with but this LotV really brought me back to say hell yes! Of course i did cry and the end. Music just floored me to how good it is and for the most part I can follow the story and be content with it. I see my self making God like maps, yes I do cause this editor has more power and super awesome tile sets tons of assets I can live with till we get the NovaOps. Yes Im a believer Blizz has brought back my faith on the editor. I was planing on leaving to Unity I guess now my unity projects can be hold. Thank you Blizzard from bringing me back.
If you read the transcripts from the last mission you will find out why Amon wanted to destroy the cycle. You will not hear it at lower difficulties due to how fast you can complete the mission.
The cycle states that a being of pure form and a being of pure spirit must come together in the presence of Xel'naga to become a new generation of Xel'naga and continue the cycle. Amon was once both a being of pure form and a being of pure spirit. Much like how the Queen of Blades was a being of pure form and the one Xel'naga
I must have missed this, I'm redoing the campaign, so I'll listen more carefully this time around.
(Tassadar's spirit? its unclear if he was just projecting an illusion or if he really took form as Tassadar and died in SC1) gave her pure spirit to become a Xel'naga. Xel'naga can also die and have limits to their power like all life so are not truly gods.
My interpretation is that Tassadar truly did die in SC1. However, Ouros very subtly manipulated, using the guise of Tassadar, Zeratul, since Zeratul very much looked up to Tassadar. Kind of the protoss/psionic version of the mind seeing what it wants to see. Also, Zeratul would be much more receptive to such manipulation since he is not bound to the Khala and is more attuned to the Void, where Ouros is communicating from. Ouros, knowing the truth of the Overmind, and how the Zerg were truly created, would poessess the knowledge about the Overminds plan to defy Amon.
The being known as Amon thus had at least 1 life similar to Kerrigan did before her transformation to Queen of Blade. He probably had love interests, felt emotions, was happy. This was taken from him (them) when the Xel'naga manipulated them to ascend into new Xel'naga as they had achieved purity. After ascension the Xel'naga then wonder the void making life in new universes and eventually coming back once their creations are ready for ascension to produce a new generation of Xel'naga. Amon hated this because his life was taken away from him in an instant just to produce more life which ultimately individuals would suffer a similar fate that he did and also have their lives taken away from them to become Xel'naga.
Again, I'll more carefully read the stuff in the last missions. This may be the case, and this does make a fair amount of sense, because as long as the cycle continued, it very much brings a limit to free will. It isn't as much as life being taken from Amon, it is the more or less forcible conscription into the ranks of the Xel Naga, and more importantly, the rather absolute dictates of the purpose of the Xel Naga. Many beings can deal with death, losing free will, not so much.
Amon was not alone with this thinking. Other Xel'naga (Duran, and others) also felt the same way and suffered similar loss as a result of the cycle. They wanted an existence free of the cycle. They wanted to consume all existence with the void, populating it with their already perfect artificial Xel'naga, the Hybrid. The cycle would be broken as it is already completed and so no one would ever suffer the fate they did, an end to all suffering. With no life the cycle cannot continue and so is broken.
Amon began to take over the Void. Other Xel'naga tried to stop him but were killed be him and his allies. Eventually only 1 was left who may or may not have taken the form of Tassadar.
Amon then came across the Protoss and artificially uplifted them to be pure of spirit. After they had done he uplifted the Primal Zerg and gave them an Overmind to become purity of form. The results then combined by Duran to produce the Hybrid, mass producible artificial living Xel'naga which could be used to populate all existence with no need for the cycle since the cycle had already completed. Further more he would become one himself, giving him back a life that was taken away from him to become Xel'naga.
And this is the birth of evil here. Amon decides that to save the village, it must burn. Recall from Star Wars, the rather perverse reason Anakin chooses the Sith, in order to save himself the pain of his wifes death. And in doing so, rationalizes away mass murder and other atrocities.
The cycle was ultimatly destroyed in a different way. Kerrigan gained natural purity of form from the Primal Zerg, as was intended by the cycle. The one Xel'naga who wanted to stop Amon sacrificed his purity of spirit. The difference with this merger was that both Kerrigan and the Xel'naga willingly became a Xel'naga (despite objections from Raynor), unlike Amon who was forced.
My impression is Kerrigan achieved both, that she, by becoming a primal zerg, had already attained the merger that is normally brought about by the Keystone. She as a terran had the purity of form, because of her awesome psionic power, prior to any infestation, and it merely grew. Her transformation into a primaly zerg gave her the purity of eseence, since she could now evolve into anything via the zerg genetic absorbation capability (At the current point, she had already absorbed all the most powerful primal zerg, in the Supreme mission in HotS). Ouro simply gave her the necessary energy to achieve the final asecension. For some reason I recall the Xel Naga await both races, merge them, then transfer their remaining life/energy into the newly born Xel Naga, thus perpetuating the cycle. Kerrigan broke the cycle by not needing the Keystone to achieve the merging.
My impression is Kerrigan achieved both, that she, by becoming a primal zerg, had already attained the merger that is normally brought about by the Keystone. She as a terran had the purity of form, because of her awesome psionic power, prior to any infestation, and it merely grew. Her transformation into a primaly zerg gave her the purity of eseence, since she could now evolve into anything via the zerg genetic absorbation capability (At the current point, she had already absorbed all the most powerful primal zerg, in the Supreme mission in HotS). Ouro simply gave her the necessary energy to achieve the final asecension. For some reason I recall the Xel Naga await both races, merge them, then transfer their remaining life/energy into the newly born Xel Naga, thus perpetuating the cycle. Kerrigan broke the cycle by not needing the Keystone to achieve the merging.
Ouro clearly stated he would merge his purity of essence with her purity of form. It is in the cutscene. All the power is the result of the two merging.
It is possible that Ouro had lost purity of form to some extent due to battles with Amon, otherwise it is unclear what happened to his purity of form.
Thanks for the lengthy explanation about Amon. There's a bit of it here and there between the ulnar missions, Rohana's dialogue concerning Amon as well as what he actually said in the Void. I have to admit I heard them all but couldn't make a cohesive connection between.
Though I think there's 1 part missing. Amon didn't destroy the Xel naga by himself. After he binded the Overmind to the Zerg, he launched the swarm to chase after the Xel naga worldship and kill all of them (Starcraft 1). Though this might have been retcon'ed since they can't all be outside the void in some kind of spaceship unless Amon bring the swarm to the void with him.
The theme of space gods and repeating life cycle is already used several times before but I got to wonder, which kind of previous life cycle looks like in Starcraft ? Are they on a other sectors? separate galaxy?, or an alternate universe all conneted to each other through the void ? When a cycle is completed, what happened with the rest of the essence form race? Do all of them turn into Xel'naga (1 Xel'naga per cycle cant be enough) or become exterminated? Where does human comes from? Are we created by Xel'naga or a product of natural evolution?
Just wanted to add a personal theory regarding Ouros. I think the SC1 Tassadar is real and definitely sacrificed himself. Ouros, just like Amon, doesn't have a host body outside of the Void. He could only manipulate events through the Void and the Khala. Back in WoL, many people complained about how dumb Tassadar's ghost is when he appeared at the Overmind's corpse. I thinks this revelation saved it and retroactively makes WoL better.
Is Narud really a Xel'naga ? He is the only one who had a physical host outside the Void. When the host is killed, he goes back to the Void. If the is powerful enough to imprison Ouros, wouldn't his physical form be strong enough to wage wars for Amon. Why bother with the manipulation and creation of Hybrids through the Terran? He described himself as a servant of a far greater power, which means his powers must not be that great. Based on his depiction in the Void, I think he was just a being of a race pre-acension (might have been Amon's race) that Amon wanted to recruit and bring to the Void with him.
@DeltaCadimus: Go
Excellent review. I did love WoL, hate HoTs and I was really disappointed to begin with but this LotV really brought me back to say hell yes! Of course i did cry and the end. Music just floored me to how good it is and for the most part I can follow the story and be content with it. I see my self making God like maps, yes I do cause this editor has more power and super awesome tile sets tons of assets I can live with till we get the NovaOps. Yes Im a believer Blizz has brought back my faith on the editor. I was planing on leaving to Unity I guess now my unity projects can be hold. Thank you Blizzard from bringing me back.
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I must have missed this, I'm redoing the campaign, so I'll listen more carefully this time around.
My interpretation is that Tassadar truly did die in SC1. However, Ouros very subtly manipulated, using the guise of Tassadar, Zeratul, since Zeratul very much looked up to Tassadar. Kind of the protoss/psionic version of the mind seeing what it wants to see. Also, Zeratul would be much more receptive to such manipulation since he is not bound to the Khala and is more attuned to the Void, where Ouros is communicating from. Ouros, knowing the truth of the Overmind, and how the Zerg were truly created, would poessess the knowledge about the Overminds plan to defy Amon.
Again, I'll more carefully read the stuff in the last missions. This may be the case, and this does make a fair amount of sense, because as long as the cycle continued, it very much brings a limit to free will. It isn't as much as life being taken from Amon, it is the more or less forcible conscription into the ranks of the Xel Naga, and more importantly, the rather absolute dictates of the purpose of the Xel Naga. Many beings can deal with death, losing free will, not so much.
And this is the birth of evil here. Amon decides that to save the village, it must burn. Recall from Star Wars, the rather perverse reason Anakin chooses the Sith, in order to save himself the pain of his wifes death. And in doing so, rationalizes away mass murder and other atrocities.
My impression is Kerrigan achieved both, that she, by becoming a primal zerg, had already attained the merger that is normally brought about by the Keystone. She as a terran had the purity of form, because of her awesome psionic power, prior to any infestation, and it merely grew. Her transformation into a primaly zerg gave her the purity of eseence, since she could now evolve into anything via the zerg genetic absorbation capability (At the current point, she had already absorbed all the most powerful primal zerg, in the Supreme mission in HotS). Ouro simply gave her the necessary energy to achieve the final asecension. For some reason I recall the Xel Naga await both races, merge them, then transfer their remaining life/energy into the newly born Xel Naga, thus perpetuating the cycle. Kerrigan broke the cycle by not needing the Keystone to achieve the merging.
Ouro clearly stated he would merge his purity of essence with her purity of form. It is in the cutscene. All the power is the result of the two merging.
It is possible that Ouro had lost purity of form to some extent due to battles with Amon, otherwise it is unclear what happened to his purity of form.
@ImperialGood: Go
Thanks for the lengthy explanation about Amon. There's a bit of it here and there between the ulnar missions, Rohana's dialogue concerning Amon as well as what he actually said in the Void. I have to admit I heard them all but couldn't make a cohesive connection between.
Though I think there's 1 part missing. Amon didn't destroy the Xel naga by himself. After he binded the Overmind to the Zerg, he launched the swarm to chase after the Xel naga worldship and kill all of them (Starcraft 1). Though this might have been retcon'ed since they can't all be outside the void in some kind of spaceship unless Amon bring the swarm to the void with him.
The theme of space gods and repeating life cycle is already used several times before but I got to wonder, which kind of previous life cycle looks like in Starcraft ? Are they on a other sectors? separate galaxy?, or an alternate universe all conneted to each other through the void ? When a cycle is completed, what happened with the rest of the essence form race? Do all of them turn into Xel'naga (1 Xel'naga per cycle cant be enough) or become exterminated? Where does human comes from? Are we created by Xel'naga or a product of natural evolution?
Just wanted to add a personal theory regarding Ouros. I think the SC1 Tassadar is real and definitely sacrificed himself. Ouros, just like Amon, doesn't have a host body outside of the Void. He could only manipulate events through the Void and the Khala. Back in WoL, many people complained about how dumb Tassadar's ghost is when he appeared at the Overmind's corpse. I thinks this revelation saved it and retroactively makes WoL better.
Is Narud really a Xel'naga ? He is the only one who had a physical host outside the Void. When the host is killed, he goes back to the Void. If the is powerful enough to imprison Ouros, wouldn't his physical form be strong enough to wage wars for Amon. Why bother with the manipulation and creation of Hybrids through the Terran? He described himself as a servant of a far greater power, which means his powers must not be that great. Based on his depiction in the Void, I think he was just a being of a race pre-acension (might have been Amon's race) that Amon wanted to recruit and bring to the Void with him.