SC2Mapster

This post has enough list to make Buzzfeed jealous. Couple of things I wanted to comment on:

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- Zeratul just randomly turns into dust when he dies. What?

While we can only hazard guesses at explanations for this, it didn't really bug me. Narrative-technically it was obviously done just to make sure he was really dead, so nobody would expect a Zeratul-dragoon or something like that.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- The artifact probably has to be the biggest Deus Ex Machina in all of video games. Turns out it only does everything. Transmutes matter, and energy and essence and back again, and imprisons Amon, etc. etc.

This, and the other thing you mention furtheron, about the vagueness of 'the void' being an alternate dimension and "Amon existing without having a host body and controlling ghostlike units or some shit and the insanely vague prophecy requiring someone with purity of form and essence to kill him" are my main gripes with the game.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- I feel like the protoss losing the Khala shouldn't be remotely feasible. Isn't it established that mastering any one of those arts takes decades/centuries of training? Artanis literally picks up the void in like 30 minutes. Then all the zealots in the arcship do the same. None of the khalai protoss should even be able to use psionics at this point. Yet Artanis and other units still clearly use powers that require the Khala (his warp blades are blue/green to show off his twilight nature). How does this make any sense?

Who says warp blades 'require' the Khala? The way I see it, the term has been intentionally left rather vague all through SC just so something like this would be possible later on. All I can find about this in the Wiki is that 'psionic storm requires the Khala' (which is a direct inconsistence, no argument there), and that the Khala 'grants the Protoss an enormous amount of psionic energy'. I'll agree that what happens does not seem to be 100% kosher, but the lore isn't specific enough for it for me to really view this as a huge retcon or even so inconsistent I cannot take it seriously.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- Can't help but feel that Zeratul has been abused in every way possible. Turned from an ninja alien badass sage in SC1 to a doomsaying old man in SC2. And now that the prophecy nonsense is over, Blizzard has no more use for him as a character, and killed him. Talk about character assassination.

No, I disagree. Zeratul had more or less run his time anyway. While I don't think Blizz should kill off old characters for the sake of killing old characters, Zeratul, Raynor and Kerrigan were really the only three real 'old-timers' left and it was becoming unbelievable (especially for Raynor) that they would just hang around to move the plot forward for so long. Zeratul moving the plot forward with his death... that worked for me.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- Destroying Shakuras was a ballsy move on the part of the writers as well. Kudos. However, I'd say many of these events move way too fast. I don't know if this is at all believable given the whole point of the protoss is their antagonism towards change.

I've seen people say this in multiple reviews, but... I dunno. It felt a little bit off to me when I played it, but it was more of an 'eh, weird, but ok' moment and nothing more than that. I thought they did a well enough job with Vorazun being so steadfast in wanting this; it seems overly radical, but it does put her down as a character with a very strong will and severity. "I do not see a way to save my planet and as such I would rather destroy it completely than see the Zerg take it over. I know it sounds radical, but it is what I believe in".

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- Fenix. Yet another character revival. But at least this has a plausible sci-fi explanation, so I'm not too broke up about it. Also, at least they somewhat tried with his voice. Love his side stories though! Some actual worldbuilding!

I have to admit, when he first popped up it felt terrible. Even though they explain he is a 'machine with the memories of' in the first lines, I really felt like they were going full retcon ham and planned on ressurrecting the dude in some kind of weird way - maybe even by having a direct clone of him walking around that literally would become the new Fenix. As I got into it, though, I became very happy that the exact opposite was the case and that Blizzard basically set a bit of a video game precedent here by retconning(-but-not-really) a dead character in a way that was actually acceptable and interesting.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- I guess preservers don't exist anymore and all their stored memories are gone? Rohana honestly shouldn't have cut her nerve cords. Just keep her in stasis and preserve the memories of all your people. Small price to pay...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but how would that have helped? It would've A) given Amon a place of refuge, or rather 'a place to exist' for as far as it made sense to me, and B) not done anything for the now Khala-less Protoss. The way I see it, Rohanna would just become possessed by Amon forever and since the Protoss no longer have the Khala they wouldn't be able to retrieve the memories from Rohana anyway. So really, they'd just be keeping Amon prisoner needlessly.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- The Xel'Naga never uplifted the protoss, Amon did. Another blatant SC1 manual retcon. Destroys the whole thing about the Xel'Naga being scientists.

This is the kind of stuff I was expecting to see way more off (in general), and it just makes me roll my eyes. You call a deviation from one line in a fucking manual of a 17 year old game a 'blatant retcon'? How do you even care? Not to mention the fact that the whole 'uplifting' this was, I believe, mentioned once in the campaign. Just take it as a 'oh what he's saying is not technically correct but I guess it's a manner-of-speaking' and move on if it's that important to you.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- Probably the worst thing about the dialog is the "Friend Raynor" and "Friend Fenix" crap that the writers just can't seem to let go of.

It's undisputedly cliché, but I think it worked with Raynor purely due to the fact that it fits with Artanis' whole theme of changing from traditions. It had a place that way and wasn't just my little pony style circlejerking.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- Ouros tricked Zeratul into thinking he was Tassadar? Now THAT is a twist I didn't see coming. Almost feels like a response to the critics. Like SC2's version of ME3's indoctrination theory, but actually in the game.

While not that special in terms of how it's constructed, this is one of the better ways I've seen a twist set up in modern media recently. Reminds me of Snape from Harry Potter: it makes a lot of sense after the fact, but there's enough reason to think something else is up for you not to really look very strongly in this direction. Was quite happy with this one.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- The epilogue. What the hell happened? We had a semi-decent ending with the main campaign where we didn't have the cliche 3 races team up to fight Amon ending (psych!). Kerrigan ascends to godhood, the one person who's been shown to be the least responsible and judicious with her use of power. Why her? She's terran/zerg. Why not Artanis? Why not require one of each? The entire buildup of combining purity of form and essence to continue the cycle has been demolished. It's not supposed to be a Terran hybrid who becomes the next generation of Xel'Naga! Why couldn't we have gotten an epilogue that actually took us back to what StarCraft is supposed to be about: galactic domination and politics? Extremely disappointing. And I'm sorry, but entirely different universes shouldn't even be mentioned or even be in the scope of StarCraft.

The purity of essence and purity of form thing was an interesting approach, but what I think missed was a scene that made it clear that after all this time, the ones 'purest of essence' are in fact psionic Terrans rather than Protoss, who rely on an 'artifical' Khala for their shit. A 'pure essence' Terran combined with the Zerg's 'purity of form' (yet devoid of the corruption that comes with being infested) would thus be the real savior. That's what I felt I needed to kind of provide closure to the whole prophecy thing. Instead, they set the prophecy up to be so incredibly fucking vague that it just didn't make any sense to me. Even in the lore as it is: what is purity of essence and purity of form? How does Kerrigan have these? Both these terms could apply to any individual from all three races in my book - I thought Protoss has 'purity of essence' with their psionic capabilities but then I've also seen people say that they were the 'purity of form' instead because they were the firstborn? Or something? I just don't know. I need an explanation of what these tow terms concretely entail and why Kerrigan possesses them both.

@Mozared: Go

Regarding the purity of essence and purity of form:

Zerg never had purity of form. Zerg have purity of essence, and Protoss have purity of form. For this theory to be correct, it would mean that Terrans, rather than Protoss, have purity of form, which makes no sense to me, as Terrans are much weaker and scrawnier than the Protoss.

@Nebuli2: Go

Why wouldn't we? In one of the shrines, the purity of form simply refers to the necessary psionic power to house the consciousness of a Xel Naga. Prior to any infestation, Kerrigan was already an incredibly powerful psionic.

Quote from Nebuli2: Go

@Mozared: Go

Regarding the purity of essence and purity of form:

Zerg never had purity of form. Zerg have purity of essence, and Protoss have purity of form. For this theory to be correct, it would mean that Terrans, rather than Protoss, have purity of form, which makes no sense to me, as Terrans are much weaker and scrawnier than the Protoss.

But that's the issue. Why would Zerg have purity of essence? What the fuck does essence even refer to in this context? And why do Protoss have purity of form? What is form? I can't remember anything concrete from the campaign that really elucidates this, and I could make just as strong arguments for it to be the other way around: Zerg have perfected 'form' through constant assimilation and improvement of bodies, meaning Zerg bodies are now perfect in how they're formed, and Protoss are the first born with the purest thoughts and psionic potential, thus having a purity of the essence of life (thought).

It's just one vague mess to me, and 'the prophecy' feels too much like a Delphi Oracle-style 'self-fulfilling' one: "If you attack his kingdom, a great army will fall". No shit, that'll always happen. That's not a prophecy, that's just intentional vague wording of something obvious to make it seem like your prediction is genius.

Quote from Mozared: Go

But that's the issue. Why would Zerg have purity of essence? What the fuck does essence even refer to in this context? And why do Protoss have purity of form? What is form?

According to the SC1 manual, about which I care because it added a lot of depth to the story, purity of form and purity of essence were two philosophical concepts invented by the Xel'Naga to analyse their failure with the Protoss. The Protoss were the most promising race the Xel'Naga had worked on, and thy decided that the Protoss' "essence" had been corrupted by their ego, their pride. The Xel'Naga were especially shocked when the Protoss attempted to "disconnect" themselves from the Khala. So they decided they would follow a completely different course with the Zerg, not caring about the purity of the "form" (body) and instead about the purity of "essence". What that means is that the Zerg can take almost any form, alter themselves out of recognition, switch strands of DNA among the various strains, but they would still be Zerg because they were bound to the Overmind and the collective sentience.

The Protoss have purity of form (they all share the physical traits) and the Zerg don't. The Zerg have purity of essence due to the hive mind. It is unclear whether or not the Xel'Naga would consider the Khalai Protoss to have purity of essence. My guess is no, since they are still individuals.

So when the Zerg collect DNA strands, they are collecting form, not essence. I guess "form" didn't sound alien enough for the writers... By SC1 manual standards, the Terran technically have purity of form but not purity of essence, and the so-called primal Zerg have neither.

Note that the Xel'Naga did not consider purity of form as a perfection to be achieved, but as a distraction from what they really wanted to create (purity of essence).

Quote from Gradius12: Go

What they should have done is just activate the temple like normal and purge all the zerg. :P

There is a bit of a paradoxal inconsistency in the Blizz lore here, but I would say that if they had purged all the Zerg, more would've simply come through the portal. It seems reasonable to assume the temple has at least some sort of 'cooldown period', so even assuming that the temple also destroys hybrids (which I actually figured would remain after a 'zerg purge'), they wouldn't be able to do it more than once before being overrun again. That said, the paradox is in the fact that Artanis "intends to bleed the Zerg": in which case he should've done exactly this. Then again, it may be the case that after a 'Zerg purge', the cooldown also prevents the temple from overloading, meaning they would've had no back-up: if the Zerg purge went through but the temple got captured afterwards, Shakuras would simply stay inexistence but be overrun completely.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

Rohana can't possibly be the only protoss in the galaxy who didn't sever her nerve cords. I thought the artifact itself banished him to the void, not the act of protoss cutting their cords.

Anyway, this is an entire people's' memory we're talking about. It'd be foolish and disappointing to lose valuable science, engineering and history. It wouldn't be that hard to just lock her up. And the Khala isn't necessarily gone forever. Protoss can still be born with nerve cords.

The way I gathered it, Amon has two ways of existing: a physical body and a mental 'presence'. His physical body is the one he posseses in the void, and it cannot leave the void. The presence is basically his 'telepathic influence', so to speak, which only exists within the Khala. The reason this grew throughout WoL and HotS would be because Amon had managed to get one Protoss corrupted (through Narud's efforts) and then snuck into the Khala through that. Look at it like a digital virus, which, once implanted in one PC, spreads itself around and can only properly be destroyed if there is no more hardware for it to operate on. The body he attempts to create on Aiur would be a physical being to serve as sort of a 'power redirector' for his mental presence; i.e. it would just be like a really powerful Zerg unit that he has full control over. Basically a robot for the virus to sit on and control. If you follow these concepts, then basically the only way to fully kill Amon is to A) destroy his physical body (in the void, as done in the epilogue) and B) destroy his mental presence. The latter would be only done by ensuring that there are no Protoss left within the Khala, which is why practically all of them sever their nerve cords, and why I think Rohana severed hers. Surely there will still be some fringe groups and Tal'darim around who retain them, but with his physical body destroyed Amon 'as a whole' may be so weak that he can't even manage to corrupt one of those anymore.

It's all a bit hazy, though.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

I'm sorry you feel that something as important as the origins of both races are insignificant, but a "deviation from one line"? No, just no. Try reading the manual and you'll notice very little now about Xel'Naga makes sense anymore considering all their work was the actions of one rogue, and not the rest of the race (who were supposed to be merely scientists) like we've been told all along. Also, LoTV itself flip flops on whether the cycle itself is broken or still going. I'd be surprised if somebody could form a cohesive theory for how it all works.

I don't think the origins of races are insignificant, I think what it written in a 17 year old game manual is so irrelevant I can't really hold it as canon. If the games themselves work within those constraints, great, but if a couple of them are somewhat broken, I really don't mind. That said: yeah, the prophecy and the cycle and the whole purity of form/essence thing still makes no sense whatsoever to me;

Quote from Gradius12: Go

Not all Protoss rely on the Khala, which Terrans aren't even capable of doing anyway. Also, I think you have it backwards. Zerg are the ones that are pure of essence. Form refers to a powerful psionic species capable of housing the Xel'Naga.

Also, the zerg already assimilated the Xel'Naga in the SC1 manual. So they should have godhood status already and/or nor be able to do it in the first place.

And other Protoss like Tassadar were even more powerful. That was the entire point of combining the two races' purity of form and essence. You'd get something a lot more devastating than a mere infested Terran. Now Blizzard comes in and says "just kidding, anyone can do it now."

You say I have it backwards, but that's exactly my point: 'purity of form' and 'purity of essence' are so incredibly ill-defined that they could refer to anything. I could claim some Terran possess either of those as much as I could claim the same for some Zerg or some Protoss. It's not set in stone at all. I never had a clear moment of "Ah, so race A possesses purity of B because they are all about C, while race D possesses purity of E because they are all about F: now it makes sense that character G, who is connected to both races, possesses both, and can thus ascend as a Xel'Naga". Imagine if Blizzard said something like: "Look, Zerg have purity of form 'cause of assimilation, Terran have purity of essence through psionics (and not the Protoss like everyone thought, plot twist, they rely on the Khala and it isn't pure!), which means that Kerrigan - as a non-infested Zerg/Psionic Terran - possesses both". Then everything would've made sense to me. Now I'm just being asked to accept that Kerrigan has 'purity of essence' and 'purity of form' without any pointers to what either of these mean. How come the Protoss, as the firstborn, do not possess purity of form? Or what about the Terrans, who were created after the firstborn which were regarded as failures? And why is it not the Protoss who possess purity of essence?

My impression is that the Zerg and the Protoss are impure, due to the manipulations of Amon, and neither race can become true Xel Naga. Narud himself declares in his mission "The only purpose of the Swarm was to assimilate the Protoss and create the Hybrid". Kerrigan, once purged and reformed on Zerus, becomes a representative of the two races needed to ascend, and neither a Swarm based Zerg, nor as a Protoss.

The primal zerg have purity of essence, because they possess the power of great change. To quote Zeratul "They hunt, they kill, they evolve". Primal zerg naturally evolved to where they are, and kerrigan becomes like them.

Terrans, as cited in the original SC1 manual, are noted by the Overmind to possess psionic power, and he wished to assimilate this in order to battle the Protoss psionic abilities. In this way, the Terrans are the ones pure of form, because they NATURALLY became powerful psionics, expressed in individuals such as Kerrigan, Nova, and Tosh.

The entire discussion really revolves around the theme of natural vs unnatural. Evolution is a slow, ugly, painful, misshapened process... but the result is rather effective. To artificially design a "perfect" lifeform requires the presumption that one knows what "Perfect" is, which requires one to be allseing and all knowing, the height of arrogance.

So... that means that Kerrigan is the one to possess both 'purity of form' and 'purity of essence' because of her Psionic-Terran and Zerg 'heritage', respectively? Is that correct? 'Cause if it is, that's fine with me: my issue is that we didn't get a scene laying this down in some detail. The campaign just throws the terms around and then we're sort of asked to assume that Kerrigan's the one who possesses these things.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

Actually, the zerg developed the ability to steal DNA only after Xel'Naga intervention. Which I guess is now retconned to Amon intervention. Quote:

Didn't the HotS campaign state that they could always do this, and what the Xel'naga (Amon) gave them was a hivemind?

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- Selendis looks nothing like she does in Wings of Liberty.

That was my first thought as well. She looks younger and I think her eyes are rounder than from her WoL version as well.

I think Lasarra from Heart of the Swarm was like that as well. Either Blizzard turned all Khalai Protoss females into beauty queens, or they recycled Lasarra's model for Selendis. Considering that they even used her unit model at the end of the campaign, this wouldn't even be too far-fetched.

Speaking of Selendis though, I have the suspicion that the entire Colonists arc in Wings of Liberty is non-cannon.

In Heart of the Swarm, there are references, and different dialogue depending on your choice, for the Tosh/Nova sidestory. And the appearance of the Odin in The Reckoning makes the Horner sidestory also cannon. But no mention at all about Hanson.

I think you could play through the WoL campaign without touching at least one sidequest storyline. As long as you do every mission of the other two sidequests, you could still complete enough missions to unlock the main storyline missions and reach Char.

Looks like Blizzard took this as an excuse to make a certain path cannon.

Quote from Gradius12: Go

- Kerrigan is an angel.

Correction: Sol from SMITE made a cameo appearance in the game.

@Gradius12: Go

Quote:

I think you could play through the WoL campaign without touching at least one sidequest storyline. As long as you do every mission of the other two sidequests, you could still complete enough missions to unlock the main storyline missions and reach Char.

Looks like Blizzard took this as an excuse to make a certain path cannon.

I wished Blizzard would abandon the branching storyline altogether. While it seems cool to have character shows up and interact in non-determined order, it weaken the main narratives. Everything becomes, 3 mission linearly introducing the situation, 15-ish mission going around gathering power (money/essence/factions), and a last 3 mission final showdown. The predictable structure prevent any cool twists or revelation in the other stages. For example, in LotV, the Zeratul twist, happen in mission 2, then a bunch of gathering forces misisons, then it all wrap back to Ulnar for the 2nd twist, then gathering some more forces, then do a final predictable battle with Amon.

@MaskedImposter: Go

Because... it's fun? And because Blizzard was experimenting with the concept of choices in video games. It's also relatively easy to still have a main storyline with interesting twists - it's more that the cast of secondary characters you end up in those twists with differs because of the choice in side missions. Like whether you have Tosh hanging around on-board or not, and what happens to Hansen. The mini-arcs really do not need to have any big influence on the main storyline for them to be 'worth it', 'useful' or 'fun': I enjoyed being able to choose for sticking it to Selendis in WoL, for example.

@Alevice: Go

That's really mostly semantics. The planet branching in HotS has more or less the same effect as the mission branching in WoL, with the exception of "one secondary character being around or not" for one of the choices made in WoL. In both games the choices impact gameplay, story and characters by an equally small amount.