I wasn’t sure where to post this - I was thinking the SC1 forms, but since this is going to relate to both games, I’ll post it here to be safe.
I just watched a lets-play of the Terran campaign from SC1, and there are a few things that bothered me.
Why did Megnsk betray Kerrigan? Sure, she was questioning his orders, but the very worst she would give him was “Sure, I don’t like it, but I’ll do it anyway”. By the time the New Gettysburg missions happened, he’d already used the psi emitters twice, so if she wasn’t going to outright betray him, why wait until then?
Was Raynor supposed to be romatically involved with Kerrigan? In SCII, you’d think they were highschool sweethearts, but in SCI, they knew each other for only a handful of missions. While they had some banter, I’m not really seeing any “I’ll go to the depths of hell for you” between them.
How did Megnsk become emperor? Considering he was head of a glorified terrorist organization at that point, even with Tarsonis being eaten by the zerg, I’m finding it hard to see the Terran people welcoming him with open arms, let alone him even having the political influence or infrastructure to handle being anything more than the governor of a small planet.
Is it just me, or did Valerian come out of nowhere? While I appreciate that the main characters don’t talk much of their personal lives, it just seems weird that the writers would just pull the crown prince out from nowhere.
Theres two reasons: One is that she is a dangerous individual rapidly becoming a free thinker who would cause problems for him in the near future when he set up his autocratic Dominion, and he saw an opportunity to get rid of her. The other is that she killed his father when she was a Confederate ghost agent, and he didn’t appreciate that.
When I first played, the implications to me were that Raynor at least had romantic feelings for Kerrigan. YMMV on how well that landed, but given that he went to Char to rescue her, and she spared him (twice!) even after becoming infested, it seems to indicate to me they had pretty strong feelings about each other.
[quote=“Razahir-1356, post:1, topic:27665”]
How did Megnsk become emperor?[/quote]
He said “I am emperor now!” and nobody was able to stop him. The Confederacy was deeply unpopular even before the zerg showed up, and the (entirely legitimate) propaganda about them weaponizing the zerg cemented it.
Valerian first appeared in books written as a sort of prologue to SC2. He didn’t come out of nowhere exactly, but if you only played the games, his identity would be entirely new.
Revenge for killing his father. Before this, Mengsk had intentionally convinced Kerrigan that he forgave her for that.
Gameplay-wise it is a few missions, but lore-wise I believe the battles on Antiga in particular were supposed to have gone on for months.
There was a power vacuum after the fall of the Confederacy that Mengsk was able to exploit. Besides, very few people really knew about Mengsk’s use of Psi Emitters and other atrocities that would have undermined his rule.
It’s less that, and more the idea that running a multiplanetary government would require a level of bureaucracy and scope that I didn’t see the Sons of Korhol as having. Plus, even if nobody knew about the events of the Terran campaign, there was still plenty of propaganda going around. As far as the story went, it would be as believable as a terrorist group today blowing up the white house and then proclaiming that they’re the ones in charge.
First of all, it’s important to note that there were a lot of books published between Brood War and Wings of Liberty. Some elaborated or even retconned certain events from the original game while others introduced new characters and plot threads ahead of SC2. There were also some helpful lore Q&A sessions at panels and in the old forums.
Nothing that’s required reading but they do help with these kinds of questions.
Along with her questioning his decisions and being a very deadly figure there were some revelations in the books and short stories that she was one of three Ghosts who assassinated his family(although her memories of this were wipe). Along with him rescuing her from a Confederate lab, this was another reason she felt indebted to him. So he did still feel he had to avenge his parents and sister. But this was also when he was about to take power and it was a convenient opportunity to show all his other allies that he wouldn’t tolerate having his decisions questioned anymore.
The books expanded on them gradually becoming an item in-between missions. They bonded over being wronged by the Confederate Ghost program.(His son was recruited by them and was reported to have died and Jim’s wife took ill and died while grieving.(There are hints that the report of him dying were fabricated and that Stone might actually be his son.)) But the story was a little rushed in the campaign including Raynor saying he’d “saved her butt plenty of times.” But, yeah, it’s official that they were in a relationship so it goes beyond just guilt from Raynor not stopping her from going on the mission.
Mengsk stepped in during a double alien invasion. He eliminated the Old Families of the Confederacy(the early leaders from after the crash of that colonial ship) and the alien threat and lack of leadership made all the remaining Confederate population rush to support him while his involvement in their elimination was secret. And a lot of the population hadn’t trusted the Confederacy and were sympathetic to the Sons of Korhal. Plus Mengsk was member of the Old Families, as was Duke, so the heritage was recognized. It’s worth noting that not everyone from the Confederacy welcomed him while the Kel-Morian Combine remained separate and the Umojan Protectorate, which had previously been supporting him, broke their alliance when he formed the Dominion.
I hate to keep bringing up the books but Valerian was introduced during the Dark Templar Saga, a trilogy that was released to hype up SC2 ahead of time(although it used early drafts of the story plans so a lot didn’t match up with the finished product). His history was also expanded on in I, Mengsk which likewise released before SC2. Valerian’s existence was kept secret for his own safety and Acturus only found out about his illegitimate child some years after his birth. Valerian and his mother were constantly on the run with Confederate agents hoping to use them against their father. Valerian was only introduced to the Dominion public a few years after Arcturus took power and by this time his mother was dead.
So most of this stuff has been addressed in some form. There just wasn’t much room to expand on them within the actual games.
You want a solid campaign?, my recommendation play War Craft 3, much better.
WOL is a good campaign, but has many many holes in the story (so as BW, also has holes in the story, but come on it was 1999, the story was good enough)
Now HoTS and LotV are so unbelievably boring, it is honestly hard to play.
PS Nova campaign is surprisingly good (short, but good) you can get it at a discount for $6 i think, or something around that area. (absolutely worth it in my opinion)
Overall WarCraft III campaign story is much more complete, story rich and with characters with a lot more depth.
Comparing WarCraft III story to HotS and LotV campaigns, War 3 is more interesting and people replay it several times. While playing the HotS and LotV campaigns, many just give up before finishing it.