I was just playing some Halo 4 and started thinking about Ryan's All-Story concept. You know, ancient aliens coming back, the chosen one, etc.

Now that I realized that Starcraft II is basically going in that direction with the Xel Naga, what do you think Kerrigan's role in it will be? Wings of Liberty made her out to be rather important to the whole damn thing, after all.

Gathering the Zerg to fight back? Uniting the three factions to team up against a common enemy? Since she's a human/zerg psionic, I'm guessing in HotS she'll evolve to incorporate the best of all the main races.. At the end she'll become some super hybrid that starts running a resistance against the Xel Naga. Then in Legacy of the Void, she's in a cocoon powering up again while Zeratul and Raynor lead this strange new alliance.

Regardless, I need the rest of the series to go back to Brood War's galactic conflicts and drop all the filler missions (just keep the creative mission design). I just can't deal with another WoL disaster. The series doesn't boil down to some shallow love story, Chris Metzen. It can't, not after all we've been through...
 

Edit:  After reading some posts, having the Xel Naga mentioned in old Starcraft  only to become the threat in II makes the series a precursor to the recent precursor trend.  Turns out video games have been setting this up all along with their own history.

Do you mean that Kerrigan will physically incorporate aspects of the Protoss by representing the best of the main races? If so, I thought Zerg and Protoss bodies were incompatible, going from their reasoning for not having Infested Protoss.

Can't say I'm too interested in the story anymore, since before SCII I didn't think the Zerg would actually end up being the "good guys" and I preferred it when their only goal was to assimilate and evolve.

SC 2 kind of killed any interest in the story except to see how much of a superhero they make Raynor and to watch the fantastic and absurdly numerous cutscenes, but the over arching story died with purely evil Kerrigan. Starcraft has Pre-Cursor elements but is also so damn old relative to the newer trend so I think its excluded from being categorized.

@FluxWaveZ: Zerg/Protoss Hybrid is a pretty frequent thing in SC II and the bonus mission in Brood War.

@Fredchuckdave said:

@FluxWaveZ: Zerg/Protoss Hybrid is a pretty frequent thing in SC II and the bonus mission in Brood War.

Oh yeah, you reminded me of the Samir Duran stuff from Brood War. Then I guess the only detail was that "Protoss can't get infested", or whatever Blizzard stated.

Can't say I'm all too interested in the story of Starcraft, but I'm still super excited for the HotS campaign. Wings of Liberty had the best RTS campaign I've ever played.

@FluxWaveZ: Duran and Mengsk are now the only villains left and Mengsk is almost certainly going to get whacked at some point in Heart of the Swarm (shame since I love his voice acting), so apart from Tychus who's obviously an awesome character we're kind of running thin on interesting things that could possibly happen plotwise.

@csl316:

i'll be utterly shocked if the story doesn't end up boiling down to:

-kerrigan is the chosen one to defeat the all mighty xel naga

-this next game is her powering up (dragon ball style)

-third game LIVES AND FRIENDS ARE LOST (JIMMY AND ZERATUL NOOOOO) on the way to a triumphant battle

-tassadar shows up as the star child.

-roll credits.

joking aside, i think the writing's on the wall. i'm not trying to be all debbie-downer on bliz bliz, but between the first installment of sc2 and diablo 3- i wouldn't bet on them telling an unpredictable, overly-thrilling story. but i'm buying in, so we'll see.

Things are getting so thin I wouldn't be surprised if there is some major deus ex machina nonsense to spice things up.

@FengShuiGod said:

Things are getting so thin I wouldn't be surprised if there is some major deus ex machina nonsense to spice things up.

COUGH

@mellotronrules said:

-tassadar shows up as the star child.

@Fredchuckdave: Plus, HotS' narrative will, presumably, mostly be seen through the eyes of the Zerg. The Cerebrates and the Overmind are gone, so the only interesting Zerg characters I know of is Kerrigan and that Izsha lady that's been in trailers. I wonder if they'll be able to carry their own campaign or if the events of the game will actually focus more on how the other races react to what the Zerg are doing, and not the other way around.

@FluxWaveZ said:

The Cerebrates and the Overmind are gone, so the only interesting Zerg characters I know of is Kerrigan and that Izsha lady that's been in trailers.

oh, i wouldn't necessarily count them out. i can see a launch trailer similar to the tychus-strapping it on one...only this time, it's a quivering eyeball in a womb somewhere. and at the end we get that weird alien baritone saying,

"celebrate- our time is now"

and there's got to be another baby overmind somewhere. they'll retcon that in if they need to.

@Fredchuckdave said:

SC 2 kind of killed any interest in the story except to see how much of a superhero they make Raynor and to watch the fantastic and absurdly numerous cutscenes, but the over arching story died with purely evil Kerrigan. Starcraft has Pre-Cursor elements but is also so damn old relative to the newer trend so I think its excluded from being categorized.

@FluxWaveZ: Zerg/Protoss Hybrid is a pretty frequent thing in SC II and the bonus mission in Brood War.

Agreed on all points. The Xel'Naga were mentioned way back in Starcraft 1, so it isn't quite part of this "me too" effect of everyone deciding to make their new post-2005 series end up being about ancient alien races that are the best at everything but now dead.

And yeah, oh man, did Kerrigan ever lose all of her snark and awesomeness. In the last mission of Brood War, she jokes that she's "pretty much the Queen Bitch of the Universe". THAT IS AWESOME. That's pretty much gone now. Also, I'll be kind of shocked if they bring back Duran, if only because they seem like they don't care if you remember Starcraft 1 and Brood War's specifics, and seem to be making the whole plot of SC2 for simpletons who barely remember the broad strokes of what happened in SC1 and BW. At this point, Duran returning (and being like a primary antagonist) sadly seems like too obscure of a pull for Blizzard at this point. I assume more shit is just going to happen with this mysterious villain Zeratul had visions of.

I really just disliked the pacing in Starcraft 2, in that so few major events happened, and most of the missions had no plot relevance and were either scavenger hunts for plot Macguffins, or slowly advanced side quests that had no relevance to anything (random space colonists, Spectre program, etc.). And for characters, It's just ALL YOUR OLD FAVOURITES, brooding over the same fucking issues. Remember when Raynor said "Fuck it, I should go to Aiur and fuck up the Overmind's shit", instead of just moping around Char lamenting that Kerrigan is evil now? Blizzard sure doesn't! There were basically no new characters or new significant locations or political events or anything, other than massive Zerg origin retcon, plus a device designed to turn Kerrigan human for no given reason, that Kerrigan was also after for no given reason. Also now Mengsk is disliked, though this got demoted to a random side mission you don't even have to complete to finish the game.

Say what you will about Brood War being a gaiden that basically returned most things to the status quo by the end, but at least the UED shook things up a bit and had some memorable characters, and a pretty interesting set of cinematics and cool plot turns.

@Fredchuckdave said:

@FluxWaveZ: Zerg/Protoss Hybrid is a pretty frequent thing in SC II and the bonus mission in Brood War.

Oh yeah, you reminded me of the Samir Duran stuff from Brood War. Then I guess the only detail was that "Protoss can't get infested", or whatever Blizzard stated.

@BisonHero: Well I think Duran is the Dark Voice or whatever they called him, or rather even if he was originally only a servant to appease some extremely deluded fans they'll say he's the Dark Voice in some random off-shoot conversation. Pylon clusters set to overload. I think original Starcraft's story is pretty run of the mill and dull (Tassadar was awesome, that's about it), Brood War's is what's interesting about the whole thing; it becomes sort of status quo relative to the beginning of the first game but I think it's fine to do that once and Kerrigan is/was more interesting than the Overmind and Cerebrates.

@csl316 said:

And I figured Legacy of the Void would have her powering up in some cocoon so the focus could go to Zeratul since it's a Protoss story.

do you think zeratul could carry a game? he seems so stoic and grim- without some sort of protoss in-fighting (would love to see the judicator resurrected, if only to be a jerk once more) and a decent character foil like tassadar, fenix, or artanis...zeratul would be a bit dry. maybe it'll be raynor tagging along?

@mellotronrules: Another Overmind or pseudo Overmind (Daggoth maybe) sounds like a lock

@csl316: Fairly plausible but probably not quite stupid enough for modern Blizzard storylines. Also who does Jennifer Hale voice?

@Fredchuckdave said:

SC 2 kind of killed any interest in the story except to see how much of a superhero they make Raynor and to watch the fantastic and absurdly numerous cutscenes, but the over arching story died with purely evil Kerrigan. Starcraft has Pre-Cursor elements but is also so damn old relative to the newer trend so I think its excluded from being categorized.

@FluxWaveZ: Zerg/Protoss Hybrid is a pretty frequent thing in SC II and the bonus mission in Brood War.

Agreed on all points. The Xel'Naga were mentioned way back in Starcraft 1, so it isn't quite part of this "me too" effect of everyone deciding to make their new post-2005 series end up being about ancient alien races that are the best at everything but now dead.

And yeah, oh man, did Kerrigan ever lose all of her snark and awesomeness. In the last mission of Brood War, she jokes that she's "pretty much the Queen Bitch of the Universe". THAT IS AWESOME. That's pretty much gone now. Also, I'll be kind of shocked if they bring back Duran, if only because they seem like they don't care if you remember Starcraft 1 and Brood War's specifics, and seem to be making the whole plot of SC2 for simpletons who barely remember the broad strokes of what happened in SC1 and BW. At this point, Duran returning (and being like a primary antagonist) sadly seems like too obscure of a pull for Blizzard at this point. I assume more shit is just going to happen with this mysterious villain Zeratul had visions of.

I really just disliked the pacing in Starcraft 2, in that so few major events happened, and most of the missions had no plot relevance and were either scavenger hunts for plot Macguffins, or slowly advanced side quests that had no relevance to anything (random space colonists, Spectre program, etc.). And for characters, It's just ALL YOUR OLD FAVOURITES, brooding over the same fucking issues. Remember when Raynor said "Fuck it, I should go to Aiur and fuck up the Overmind's shit", instead of just moping around Char lamenting that Kerrigan is evil now? Blizzard sure doesn't! There were basically no new characters or new significant locations or political events or anything, other than massive Zerg origin retcon, plus a device designed to turn Kerrigan human for no given reason, that Kerrigan was also after for no given reason. Also now Mengsk is disliked, though this got demoted to a random side mission you don't even have to complete to finish the game.

Say what you will about Brood War being a gaiden that basically returned most things to the status quo by the end, but at least the UED shook things up a bit and had some memorable characters, and a pretty interesting set of cinematics and cool plot turns.

@csl316 said:

And I figured Legacy of the Void would have her powering up in some cocoon so the focus could go to Zeratul since it's a Protoss story.

do you think zeratul could carry a game? he seems so stoic and grim- without some sort of protoss in-fighting (would love to see the judicator resurrected, if only to be a jerk once more) and a decent character foil like tassadar, fenix, or artanis...zeratul would be a bit dry. maybe it'll be raynor tagging along?

@csl316 said:

I remember Kerrigan being basically being let loose with all this power, ready to unleash vengeance on anyone that ever wronged her.

yeah- they've literally lost the plot when it comes to making her interesting. another thing that's always bothered me about her redesign is the zergy-stilettos.

i mean, when you compare them...it's kinda silly.

@mellotronrules: Fanservice

@Fredchuckdave said:

@BisonHero: Well I think Duran is the Dark Voice or whatever they called him, or rather even if he was originally only a servant to appease some extremely deluded fans they'll say he's the Dark Voice in some random off-shoot conversation. Pylon clusters set to overload. I think original Starcraft's story is pretty run of the mill and dull (Tassadar was awesome, that's about it), Brood War's is what's interesting about the whole thing; it becomes sort of status quo relative to the beginning of the first game but I think it's fine to do that once and Kerrigan is/was more interesting than the Overmind and Cerebrates.

Dr. Narud from WoL is Duran in disguise.

@StarvingGamer said:

@Fredchuckdave said:

@BisonHero: Well I think Duran is the Dark Voice or whatever they called him, or rather even if he was originally only a servant to appease some extremely deluded fans they'll say he's the Dark Voice in some random off-shoot conversation. Pylon clusters set to overload. I think original Starcraft's story is pretty run of the mill and dull (Tassadar was awesome, that's about it), Brood War's is what's interesting about the whole thing; it becomes sort of status quo relative to the beginning of the first game but I think it's fine to do that once and Kerrigan is/was more interesting than the Overmind and Cerebrates.

Dr. Narud from WoL is Duran in disguise.

I was thinking about saying this... but since starving is up for spoilers I don't have to take any blame. So yes I confirm, Duran is ALREADY in the game. Although naming him Dr.Narud was completely retarded... the facial structure is enough of a hint...

@StarvingGamer: Ah, haven't played through it in over 2 years so I beg your pardon; but yes Duran will be back in some form even if he's not explicitly named Duran; nebulous all powerful "Reaper" being is much less interesting. I played through original Brood War like 20 times though and have owned like 12 copies so a bit more experience there.

@Fredchuckdave: It's pretty easy to miss. They look similar but between the time-gap and the graphical leap no one should make that connection naturally. The only other real hints are Kerrigan's one-off line about seeing through his pathetic disguise and, well, he seems to have a case of Alucard syndrome.

@StarvingGamer: Oh no I actually remember that moment and having a discussion about it, I'm just so disinterested in Blizzard's new storylines that I didn't recall for this discussion.

@StarvingGamer: Ah, haven't played through it in over 2 years so I beg your pardon; but yes Duran will be back in some form even if he's not explicitly named Duran; nebulous all powerful "Reaper" being is much less interesting. I played through original Brood War like 20 times though and have owned like 12 copies so a bit more experience there.

@csl316: 2 is fun and really silly at times, Raynor became Chris Redfield of boulder punching fame instead of just being some dude that kept randomly surviving a bunch of shitstorms (though not if you sent his useless slow vulture ass to die), I'll probably go back and replay it for the cutscenes and to see if Brutal gives me any challenge on a second run through; I played through it twice in quick succession then went back to do some obscure achievements in that first month and it was a ton of fun if something of a disappointment storyline-wise. But hey, awesome cutscenes and Tychus is the gift that keeps on giving.

Also Lost Viking arcade machine was wonderful, wonder what arcade machine the Zerg will have sitting around in their biomechanical base. Blackthorne perhaps?

I did try to get back into the multiplayer after quickly losing interest the first time but the only thing that was entertaining was carrying people in 2's and 3's, there's just not enough creativity in the playerbase; almost everyone uses identical strategies of tedium. Now if I was playing against Koreans it might be fun but have to deal with Americans and fucking region locking that fucking prevented me from fucking playing with fucking 10 year frends from fucking Brood War. Fucking retards.

I think that Diablo 3 was the last nail in the coffin of Blizzard's story telling.

Yeah I dunno anymore.

I mean I'll buy it, but I'm not expecting much from the story after the bad fanfic that was Wings of Liberty.

I think the story is pretty great for an RTS game, I like the characters a lot at least (mostly Zeratul). But, really the campaign was just a lot of fun to play in WoL so I'm more excited for playing the actual missions rather than the seeing the story behind them.

There are plenty of diverse builds out there to play around with, and the region locking has gone.

@mellotronrules: I think that Kerrigan is less "the chosen one" and is more the unexpected, unforeseen monkey wrench in the carefully laid plans of the great evil person. That's just what I think.

No, it was a few World of Warcraft expansions back. Probably the first one, actually.

GIANT HOLY SPACE SNOWFLAKES GIVE THE NOT SO WIPED OUT DRAENEI A SPACE SHIP SO THEY CAN CRASH IT INTO A PLANET SO THAT THE BLOOD ELVES CAN STEAL THE POWER GRANTED BY FAITH IN THE BELIEF IN AN ESTABLISHED RELIGION FROM PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED SPACE SNOWFLAKES

barfffff

I was mousing through a Q&A and saw this, thought of this topic:

I've noticed that a lot of people think the prophecy says Kerrigan will save the universe. It doesn't. It says a few things. Among them is the fact that the Fallen One (hereafter referred to as the Dark Voice) will destroy everything. At a later point, we see a vision that the Overmind had, which shows us the moment when the Dark Voice wins the day. In that vision, there is a very strong sense that if the zerg had been under the command of a leader who could resist the Dark Voice, they could have fought back. Is Kerrigan such a leader? Certainly! But she's not the chosen savior, or a messianic figure, or the "prophesied one"; she's not in the prophecy at all. Is that complicated? Yeah, it is. I have something to say about that in a later post!

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/7646518