Sayeth what. Trick is back. Back again.
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Lol, no I haven’t played SC1. I just thought this was for SC2 lol. I defer to the experts!
I’d go with focusing on setting up for the general overview of SC2 better and ingraining some ludonarrative resonance, rather than having much of anything about the main plot.
To start with, I’d have the first mission end on a “miniboss” treatment of the Infested Command Center, where it actually spawns a few Infested Terran you have to micro around and you face a unit designed specifically to be a late-game PvZ silver bullet hard-countering core Protoss advantages.
These “Wights” would be extremely tech-intensive to pull that off, making for varied minibosses throughout the campaigns by having different upgrades, and Kerrigan would become their Hero unit instead of a campaign one-off.
One of those upgrades? Net positive Control, foreshadowing Kerrigan’s takeover before Brood War kicks off because she’s a Control provider by default. Similarly, one or two of the upgrades is directly shared with the Queens, with Kerrigan naming a particularly clever one that shares the Control upgrade Zagara.
Overall, the Terran campaign has every Zerg mission make a progress report on Infestation as you work towards serving Tarsonis on a silver platter, while the Protoss missions continually focus on the value of Ghosts and strategic depth in various ways.
Then the Zerg missions would focus more on maximizing the Queen of Blades. It isn’t just a one-and-done, but a concerted effort to get at the Ghost Program and everyone involved covering half the campaign, with PvZ missions being heavily positioning-focused around your limited Wight supply and ZvZ missions making mention of the doubts of the Cerebrates in allowing so much capacity for command in the Wights.
Finally, the Protoss missions would see a plot around undoing the progress of the Wight subplot because they are a rather successful answer to a lot of Protoss advantages. The Conclave are not fools, but are sorely mistaken in thinking the Zerg are wholly dependent on Infestation for supplying Wights.
They develop a thorough counter-agent, a grand expression the Khala’s hostility to the notion of the Infestation honed by a fine mist of Khadarin-heavy nanites that even leaves some of the Terrans alive! And then the Auir missions kick off with you losing a fully-built deathball to conventionally-spawned Wights, introducing the Reaver very specifically in the Shuttle use-case of backdooring enemy bases into so much gore.
Again, the focus would be on weaving in call-forwards, with Kerrigan taking over the Swarm and the advent of the Broodmothers well established as possibilities even before Brood War. The general course of events wouldn’t change, the alterations would be overwhelmingly mission objectives and details of characterization.
Kerrigan isn’t naming Zagara as some basic eccentricity, she’d be actually caring about Zagara, with at least one mission treating the Queen as more important an objective than Kerrigan herself. Clearly contrary objectives to the Overmind involving occasional loss of control of your keystone unit, establishing that Kerrigan isn’t wholly an agent of the Swarm.
And the removal of the Ghost Program limiters takes with it the clearest tells of how she acted before… With another Ghost later on having exactly the same tells that also go away with those limiters removed.
Brood War brings with it more bouts of inconsistent Kerrigan character, with its last mission, Raynor nowhere to be seen, showing Kerrigan rather suddenly ending up cold, calculating, and utterly amoral.
Zagara’s tending to a batch of Command Centers and, if you can take/end up losing that monster of a base, Kerrigan’s response is all cold pragmatism, save one line enormously out of tone with the rest, moving on through the quote like nothing happened.
Raynor’s left with real hope that Kerrigan can come back, for all he keeps his reasons to hate her, only for that to turn out a lie. Not because the Infestation can’t be undone, but because he’d never known anything but a small crack in the Confederacy’s mask for their freak of nature.
Yes, this is focused pretty much entirely on plugging Heart of the Swarm’s issues and the WoL intro. Because, to my understanding, by having the Swarm be clearly factional under the Overmind, Kerrigan theoretically fixable right in SC1, and the Zerg given the answer they were looking for, the bulk of the remaining issues come from the SC2 plot being at odds with itself.
Granted, this does have the Hybrid plot be somewhat repetitive, but that can be overhauled into a tight-nit conspiracy with Narud being in clearly ill health and the Hybrids being volatile “artisanal” creations, only becoming a matter of proper warfare right at the end when Amon’s woken back up and can finally use the backdoors he had put into the Protoss and Zerg when he bribed Narud’s way to project lead!
…Except there’s extremely few Cerebrates left and the Khala infrastructure’s been gutted without particular need for rebuilding all the ultra-high-throughput structures for several years. So the population vulnerable to said backdoor is… Rather limited. And the systems that are actually subject to it aren’t critical anymore. Making what was supposed to be a clean abrupt takeover into a terrible slog.
This place is dead. Wanna join Discord to talk about it?
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I know this hasn’t had any replies for two years, but I still want to reply to it because the idea of a SC2 rewrite has lived in my head rent-free for a while now. I was actually a modder and custom campaign maker for Broodwar back in the day, so this idea kind of takes me back to the old days.
A few really good points have been made here so far, but I would like to add a bit more to them. First is the idea mentioned here that Starcraft and particularly Broodwar always hinted at a greater world by implying that other characters who aren’t in the focus right now also aren’t just idle. On this account, I think Fenix’ and Raynor’s depature in the BW Protoss 02 and their return not before BW Terran 05 was a genius move on part of the writers and actually really important. We know they had been up to something, because their presumed actions during that time have massive consequences further down the line in the Terran and particularly Zerg campaigns. We know they continued to fight the Zerg on Aiur at first, but then at some point must have met with Kerrigan, who told them to get to Korhal and snatch Mengsk from right under the UED’s noses. So what did they do during that time? I remember making a custom campaign around that question, but the official story never showed us (or at least not in-game, there might be secondary material that I’m not aware of). There is no such thing in Starcraft 2. Nothing of consequence ever happens off-screen. People who aren’t in the focus right now are simply idle. For a rewrite, characters have to leave, do important stuff, and then only return much later, much like in Broodwar.
A lot of people here have also said that the Hybrids need to be revamped. I agree with scrapping Amon and leaving the Xel’Naga as a dead species, but the problem is Duran. The Broodwar secret mission already established that he’s not a human and likely more long-lived than even the Protoss, and that he views his Hybridization project as the fulfillment of an old plan or even an old destiny. On the other hand though, background material also has Terran scientists work on Terran/Protoss hybrids. I can see Terran governments or corporations provide funding for both, but that doesn’t mean Duran is just one of their lackeys with no agenda of his own. There are also all the unexplored ties Duran has to characters from background material, like Doran Routhe (whose link to Duran should be pretty obvious) or even Adun (who is almost an anagram of Duran). I can’t really solve all these questions here, but they are something to consider when talking about the Hybrids and the Xel’naga. I wouldn’t go for the “Everyone unites against the big bad in the end” with either of them though. In fact, I might have a better idea for what to do with the Hybrids. I’ll get to that when I come to discuss campaign order.
How can we characterize the Hybrids? Zeratul is dead afraid of them precisely because they represent the unification of Purity of Form (the Protoss’ PSI abilities and their link in the Khala) and Purity of Essence (the Zerg’s hive mind and intuitive bioengineering capabilities). The Hybrids in SC2 don’t capture these ideas at all, in fact, I would say they don’t even capture or represent any ideas. Why would Hybrids just be vile, animalistic monsters hell-bent on destruction and bound to become tools for Space Cthulhu? That alone makes them completely underwhelming. In my opinion, if we combine the ideas I linked to Purity of Form and Purity of Essence above, what we get is something akin to D&D’s Illithids (in terms of bioengineering capability, pseudo-hive mindedness, strong psionics and maybe general flavor, I mean - unlike the Illithids, they don’t necessarily have to be all evil) - which in my opinion is far more intriguing than what Starcraft 2 gave us. They will be telepathically linked bioengineers like the Zerg, and immensely powerful psionics users like the Protoss. They do have a weakness though: As a newly-bred species, they have little to no technology of their own yet. They’ll have to rely on allies to provide them with some. But also, from the moment of their inception, they’re going to have allies. The Terrans who created them probably are going to supply them initially, even though they likely see them as nothing but tools. Some Protoss secret societies might be involved in that too, and others might help out the Hybrids for religious reasons (a possible new origin for the Taldarim subfaction?). And finally, they might be able to get some individual Zerg clusters under their control too. So they’re a race who from their very inception will have to learn to maneuver the political landscape of Koprulu just to survive, while also struggling to find an identity for themselves.
This brings me to campaign order. Starcraft gave us Terran-Zerg-Protoss, which I think makes a lot of sense for getting new players invested in the universe and the story because of the innate relatability of the Terrans. Broodwar gave us Protoss-Terran-Zerg, which also made a lot of sense with Starcraft essentially ending on a Protoss cliffhanger of sorts: with the Overmind destroyed, but Aiur still full of Zerg. Broodwar used the Protoss campaign to close off that cliffhanger, and then introduced a whole new Terran faction for the Terran campaign, which then gets blasted out of the sector again in the Zerg campaign, leaving Kerrigan the victor. And then Kerrigan disappears for unspecified reasons. So this is effectively and predominantly a cliffhanger for the Zerg (and also for Zeratul and kind of Raynor, but predominantly the Zerg).
And then Starcraft 2 brings back the old Terran-Zerg-Protoss campaign order again, for the reasons mentioned above. But with Broodwar’s ending, continuing the pattern of moving the campaign order by one step and going with Zerg-Protoss-Terran would actually make the most sense. In the first campaign, we follow Kerrigan and whatever she gets up to after Broodwar, learning of her reasons for why she retreated after her ultimate victory (which may or may not have something to do with her finding out more about Duran, for example). In the second campaign, we follow the Protoss in their attempts to reconquer Aiur, but then Zeratul tells them of Duran, so some of them join his hunt. In the third campaign, we follow Raynor, who’s now dedicated on hunting Kerrigan while also getting into on and off battles with Mengsk’s forces, and possibly also other Terran factions. He also eventually gets contacted by Zeratul, eventually causing the three factions hunting for Duran to meet.
And then we get a fourth campaign, where we take over the Hybrids (who don’t have to be a multiplayer-compatible race, but should be playable - think of the Naga in Frozen Throne). At first, we have to rely on our Terran masters to supply us with tech, and we’re a species with no identity of its own who only knows what our new creators have told us. In the course of the campaign, we have to face against the forces hunting us, we encounter Protoss who show us almost religious reverence, providing us with an alternative source for technology, and we face a lot of other things our masters don’t want us to know. So eventually, we try to break free of them and forge our own identity. The campaign could come to a close with us encountering all the different factions that have been hunting us all this time, confronting and ultimately breaking free from our Terran masters, eventually learning the truth about Duran, whatever it may be, and maybe finding a new homeworld to settle down and forge a cultural identity of our own.
With this setup, the story would avoid Space Cthulhu, Kerrigan turning into Space Jesus, and all that other less than ideal stuff Starcraft 2’s story has given us, and I think it would also play into the themes of Starcraft and Broodwar (prejudice and xenophobia and overcoming them, struggling with cultural identity, individual liberty vs. authority and tradition, etc.) very well.
How do I quote people here?
I didn’t like Amon. Very generic villain as if written from the 90s or prior.
I’d like more alliances and backstabbing and banter. Shock moments. The continued “Oh snap!” moments that SC1 had.
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When it comes to Amon, there is kind of a question I’m asking myself. Okay, so they wanted Lovecraftian elements for their villain. I get that Lovecraft is popular, and I guess it makes some sense for the Xel’naga and maybe also the Hybrids. My question is: Why Cthulhu of all beings? There’s another figure from the Lovecraft mythos that would arguably fit into the Starcraft universe far better, precisely because of its theme of shifting alliances, intrigue, machinations and backstabbing. I’m talking of course about the Dark Pharaoh, Nyarlathotep. In fact, Starcraft lore arguably already has a similar age-old shapeshifting and manipulative being with a knack for mad science: Duran/Narud/probably Doran Routhe/possibly Adun/whatever other identities he may have had over the Millennia. Why not capitalize on this similarity more instead of going for a boring Space Squid?
So I’ve been thinking again, and this time it’s about Kerrigan.
What were Kerrigan’s motives in Broodwar? On the surface, they seem kind of confusing when you start to think about it, but I think she has an understandable motive. Let’s see what she does. She appears on Shakuras briefly after (or possibly even before) the refugees from Aiur, and we can presume that one of her first moves is bringing Raszhagal under her control. The purpose of this is pretty transparent: She knows Daggoth is trying to bring her and the swarm under control again by forming a new Overmind, and she knows she needs Dark Templar to oppose him - which is exactly what happens in the Protoss campaign. Then off-screen in the Terran campaign, she forms a pact with Fenix and Raynor to rescue Mengsk from the UED. In fact, Kerrigan seems to know a lot about the UED’s plans and capabilities, though we can presume her source of information is Duran. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly when she meets him or why she trusts him. They rescue Mengsk, and then in the Zerg campaign, they lead an alliance of Zerg, Dominion and Khalai forces against the UED. After their success in retaking Korhal, Kerrigan backstabs them and kills Duke and Fenix. Then, she abducts Raszhagal to goad Zeratul into killing the remaining cerebrates, which he does. And then finally, she retreats to Char, where she fights a defensive war against the remaining Dominion, UED and Khalai forces that ends in a devastating defeat for the three attackers. At least the UED forces are hunted down and eliminated completely. Now what’s curious about this is that on a personal level, she actually has far more reason to hunt down Mengsk than the UED. Not that there are no practical reasons to go after the UED, given their aptness at bending Zerg to their will - but I’d say she has at least as much reason to go after Mengsk, and I would presume she did, though her success can of course be disputed. And then in the epilogue, she crowns herself Queen of Blades and ruler of the sector. And then bafflingly, she says she’ll allow her former allies some time of reprieve - while promising that they will still ultimately be hers in the end. And then she… does nothing for four years between Broodwar and Wings of Liberty??
The epilogue is a mess. If her monologue is to be believed, Kerrigan is effectively dominating the sector now, in much the same way the UED was before her, and the Dominion before the UED. So what would a Kerrigan-dominated sector even look like? Does she swarm all Terran worlds with Zerg to add them to her army? Does she hunt and eliminate all the Protoss? Shouldn’t Starcraft 2 have begun with a sector completely swarmed with Zerg with only a few remaining pockets of Terran and Protoss resistance holding out?
Well, not necessarily. For a villain, Kerrigan’s moves in Broodwar are actually surprisingly conservative, and her motivations are intricatly personal. She opposes Daggoth and the UED because they both directly threaten not only her control over the Zerg, but her own personal freedom of mind and action. Kerrigan has no qualms committing atrocities to further her goal, but her goal itself actually seems reasonably benign. She never wants to be used as a tool or puppet again, and she will eliminate everyone who could pose a threat in this direction. This is pretty much her motive until her betrayal in BW Zerg 05, where she backstabs Mengsk by killing Duke and murders Fenix for no reason I can see at all. I get that her goal ist to weaken Mengsk, who is a real threat to her and on top of that someone she has all reason to hate, but the Khalai are no danger to her in any way. I have to admit, I’m not quite able to make sense of this.
Then she goes back to being a rational actor and forcibly conscripts the Nerazim for her quest to eliminate the new Overmind and the renegate cerebrates - making sure she has no opposition within the Zerg swarm at least in the Koprulu sector. And finally, she retreats back to Char and unexpectedly finds herself in the position of having to mount a defense one more time, which she does. Notably, despite her being on a course of victory, conquest and glory throughout the BW Zerg campaign, Kerrigan’s last big victory is in a defensive engagement. And then she crowns herself Queen of Blades while also giving her allies-turned-enemies room to breathe. This only makes sense if we assume that, while she’s ruthless in her means and actions, her motives actually don’t extend that far beyond maintaining personal autonomy and control over the swarm. Sure, she won’t be entirely defensive, I can absolutely see her make resource grabs if she’s in a pickle or an opportunity presents itself - but I don’t think she’ll swarm worlds just for the sake of power. Yes, her own statements in the epilogue and her murder of Duke and particularly Fenix kind of run counter to this interpretation - but among the list of her actions, even the heinous ones, these two examples also pretty weird outliers in that they seem to have no real rational motive behind them. If you have any idea about what to do with these, please let me know. For now, I’m going to go with maintaining personal autonomy and control of the Zerg at all costs as both her central motivation and her central theme.
And then Wings of Liberty comes along and paints her as Evil without a motive (due to Amon’s corruption) and in need of a savior to bring her back to the Light Side with a magical McGuffin. One problem with this - among the many, many problems - is that it leaves the four (or six?) years between BW and WoL where she remained mostly passive completely unexplained. In fact, if post-BW Kerrigan had actually acted according to the stereotype WoL portrays her as, Amon would have won, because WoL would have started with the sector (particularly the Dominion worlds) in ruins and Kerrigan’s Zerg everwhere at the start of WoL and with no one left to use the artifact against her.
I actually think a hypothetical “better” SC2 story would either bring back the determining motive she had in the Broodwar campaign, or at least show a natural evolution of that motive into something more villainous or power-hungry - or have her not be a full villain. Broodwar arguably didn’t really do full villany to begin with. The UED arguably come closest given the ideological leanings of their home government and the fact that they come as a bunch of entitled colonizers, but the Terran campaign humanizes even their main characters.
So, given this interpretation, what could have done different and better with Kerrigan?