yes but at that point HE was still part/LEADER of the mobius foundation AND under protection of Crown prince
Valerian himself…
I’ve seen a lot of talk about the missed reactivation of the Colossi, but very little about the Arkships, which were created for the exact purpose of defending Aiur in the unlikely event of an invasion. I know the Conclave can be considered stupid (I mean really stupid), but their stupidest decision - dividing their forces from Aiur to capture the heretical Tassadar - could be seen as a way to reinstate that the Khala is the only way and everything coming from the Dark Templar is evil… But this isn’t the case with the Arkships, they are the embodiment of the Khala principles, reactivating them should have even cemented the power of the Khala against both Zerg and Dark Templar… and one of the Arkship was even under the capital of the Conclave (forgot the name) where Tassadar was kept prisoner… Which better way to show the power of the Conclave to activate the Arkship and use it against anyone who could try to free him?
And don’t let me talk about how the Protoss constructed not one, but three Arkships, the pinnacle of their technology, and TWO of them got destroyed by some random Zerg (who shouldn’t even know about their existence) before they could even by activated?!? I mean, you built these ginormous vessels to be used during an Aiur invasion, and when the invasion indeed happens, two of them got destroyed?!? Why did you build them if they couldn’t even be used for the specific objective they were built for?!
Really, there wasn’t any need for Blizzard to create 3 arkships (if not for the backstory of Rohana and her sisters, which has zero relevance for the plot); if they had only create the Spear of Adun as an unique vessel, it would have made much more sense to me.
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The Conclave thought they were winning, or at least that they could win with what they had. Artanis and Tassadar would not have been aware of the Arkships or how to activate them, and two of them seem to have been destroyed anyway.
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Yup, the only one who could have activated the Arkships was the Conclave, that is sure. I know they were really overconfident, but there is a limit to everything I believe… if you couldn’t even kill a Cerebrate permanently, it’s not really smart to believe you could win… so let’s try to nuke cerebrates from orbit with your Arkship, no? 
“The Conclave were idiots” is kind of a plot point.
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I’d like to think colossi WERE reactivated and used, it just wasn’t shown in game because StarCraft is made in the 90s and there’s gameplay/story segregation.
Weren’t two of the arkships already destroyed during the zerg invasion?
Anyway, the discrepancy with these things is still there nonetheless. Blizzard will do the same thing to SC2 when SC3 comes out. Gotta love retcons.
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Yes, two arkships were destroyed during the Zerg invasion. That was my points: if the arkships were supposed to be the ultimate refuge for the Protoss in case of invasion, how could they be so easily destroyed during an invasion?! This makes the arkships basically useless.
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Personally I don’t think the Conclave ever launched them. remember they had deluded themselves into believing they were winning, they probably thought they didn’t need to, and by the time they realized they needed to they could no longer access the arkships to launch. I imagine that the arkships got destroyed by happenstance as the Zerg rampaged across Protoss cities.
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I can buy that the two were activated and it still wasn’t enough. The invasion of Aiur was supposed to be one of the most titanic wars in StarCraft.
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I don’t mind how the 3 Protoss arkships got shoehorned in there. Unlike the Aiur Colossi, they actually provided a semi-reasonable explanation about them.
You do realized that LotV takes place after HotS and WoL, right? Amon has yet to be ‘alive’ and was imprisoned in the Void during the entirety of WoL.
It has always been my headcanon that Narud isn’t a very strong and powerful Xel’Naga. He is cunning, smart and all, but not Godlike in term of power. He and the Amon during WoL aren’t God that the Tal’darim worshipped. It wasn’t until Amon was resurrected that their gain full control over the Tal’darim.
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In its inert state, the Arkship is nothing more than another building. So the Zerg having an easy time wreaking them isn’t illogical.
By the by, how do you know for certain when the other two Arkship were destroyed. Given that the Zerg was rampaging across Aiur in feral I always thought that the other great Arkship was destroyed due to the deteriorated of Protoss’ city on the surface of Aiur. Sometime during those four years. It makes perfect sense to me that two out of three would be destroyed out of pure chance.
While I somewhat agree that the Arkship should be raise during the evacuation, I don’t think reactivating any of them during Tassadar’s imprisonment is a good idea. It was a Protoss’ civil war. Why would you active your Ultimate ship reserve for the darkest hour of your race to crush some rebellion?
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Mmm, good question, I don’t remember if it was explicitly stated when the arkships were destroyed.
And for the Spear of Adun reactivation, well there wouldn’t be a logical explanation for that. But sending your best leader to track down an heretic completely isolated light-years away during the annihilation of Aiur isn’t a good idea either, so the Conclava has a long history of bad decisions :-/
It is mentioned in “Legacy of the Void” that the other Arkships were overrun during the invasion of Aiur. I want to say it was Rohanna that says so.
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I believe it was from BlizzCon, but I’m not certain. Artanis mention it a little to Rohanna and she simply acknowledges that she knew.
@Firebead
Now, you’re getting it!
Of course she knew. She didn’t feel her sisters.
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Because the writing was bad? Its not that complicated—SC2, although a sick MP game, had a brutal story. It encapsulates all of the excesses of Blizzard at the time.
I mean, just on the surface, ALL of Brood War was retconned and its a magical world of humanoid, orc-themed zerg redemption, gods, destiny, and magic.
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<citation needed>
How was “all of Brood war” retconned, exactly?
Gradius, don’t say anything. I know your thoughts already, I want to see what this guy has to say for himself.
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Amon, Xel’Naga, Kerrigan, Zeratul, Raynor, the Overmind, Tassadar, Artanis, Earth.
Just in terms of Kerrigan, its explictly stated that she has free will and chooses to be Queen of Blades. Oops! Turned out that she was mind enslaved and the Zerg are redeemed with orcish names.
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Kerrigan explicitly says she was never controlled in HotS. Try again.
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