I think you could make a good argument for either case.
The communist in me always thought that the emphasis the American put on race was a way to put workers against each other and prevent true social reforms. Now Iâm not a communist, but I still argue that a white worker will feel closer to his black co-worker than to his white boss.
The fact that the Overmind had a physical body, and was destroyed with the loss of that physical body strongly suggests that it is not a gestalt entity. Otherwise it would have been able to remain through the myriad zerg, cerebrates and other organisms in the Swarm, even if it had been diminished.
If you examine the history of America, this âwhite is whiteâ attitude is relatively recent. Go back a ways, and Irish Americans were seriously looked down on in society, for example.
Cerebrates survive the loss of their body all the time, as could the Overmind. The whole point was that the dark templarâs energies was the only thing that could actually harm the gestalt itself.
Legion has a physical body in Mass Effect, is a gestalt of the geth, yet still died at the end of ME3.
As Kelthar mentions before, they probably encouraged ethnic dissent as well.
For example between Irish, Polish or Italians who are all white catholics.
By the way this is like OG forum at its purest.
We started with Trickâs wish for unstability and we moved to debate on Zergâs concious with comments on my alleged edginess, Ancient Greece, Hollywood and ethnic differences in US weaved in.
Beautiful.
1 Like
I mean they survived, but they were still tied to it, and even the temporary destruction of their body resulted in an equally temporary loss of consciousness.
I think youre using the word gestalt wrong here then. If it has a physical body that it is constrained to, it isnât a gestalt. Ultron is a gestalt, since the destruction of even his âprimaryâ body does not actually harm the overall consciousness, which is spread out and contained in all the drones.
Upon doing some googling, Legion is not actually an example because, while it was a gestalt, the physical orientation of the various entities were such that all the individual components of the gestalt were destroyed simultaneously. A similar situation would require that all of the Zerg in the Swarm be destroyed at once if the Overmind were a proper gestalt.
It depends on the time period and the cultural composition of the country. There was a steady flow of Italians and Irish immigrants to the US back in the 19th and first half of the 20th century so it was easier to insist on their specific culture rather than mash them in a single race when they still remembered Europe.
Nowadays European immigration to the US is close to zero, so those of European descent are clumped together since none of them have direct memories with the Old Continent.
I think itâs important to make a key distinction between the Overmind and Legion. Letâs assuming for a moment the Overmind is a gestalt consciousness like Legion (Blizzardâs portrayal aside). The Overmind is housed in the âcloudâ as it were, existing virtually between all zerg entities and âdownloadingâ to certain bodies. Legion does not. The programs that form its mind were uploaded to that individual unit and are housed on hardware. So if you destroy the hardware, you destroy Legion. Not so for the Overmind.
That said, weâve already discussed how the Overmind couldnât be the product of all zerg minds alone without anything else to call it distinct. Otherwise it could only be destroyed by destroying the zerg.
I think it is more accurate to say that the Overmind was instantiated from the consciousness of all zerg, but there on out functioned as its own being binding them all together. Almost like what Amon did with the Protoss through the khala, but if Amon had also been the product of the khala.
And we did this with no redhead !
But I guess itâs easier when the Original topic wasnât truly about the Starcraft campaign or lore 
1 Like
Theyâre not. Itâs just a processing center for them and when it gets killed by non void energies they can grow a new one.
So?
Thereâs no evidence that either Legion or the Overmind are constrained to their bodies.
Thatâs exactly what happens to a Cerebrate.
Is that not the case? No swarm = no Overmind.
Itâs very entertaining to read, after not paying attention for about a day. Many different âthreadsâ happening all around.
1 Like
Actually, it looks to me like an inconsistency introduced due to a rewrite midway through the story. Originally the zerg had a true hive mind, but then when Metzen needed them to be defeated he rewrote the Overmind to a giant brain that could be killed by a dark templar deus ex machina he just made up. Without changing all the lore that said otherwise.
Deus ex machina, yes. Inconsistency, no.
This is a grey area IMO that can be interpreted either way.
You mean besides the fact that they never leave them and die when they are destroyed?
A cerebrateâs body is almost immediately reconstituted. Its not the same thing.
I mean technically yes, in as much as the Overmind is definitionally part of the Swarm, but if you, say, herded all the zerg onto a planet and then purified it, the Overmind would get better.
Well, thatâs kind of what Kelthar alluded to
âWhite is white is a recent thingâ.
Well I am happy to entertain, but I still need an answer why is William Shakespeare an edgelord.
Shakespeare actually had a lot of lowbrow locker room humor in his works. Its accessibility to both the nobility and the commoner was part of what made him famous. Edgelord is maybe the wrong descriptor, but he was a bit of a silly git at times.
1 Like
Because heroes donât always win in his stories. And since he believes people who likes such stories are edgy, then those plays are logically edgy !