Why Protoss hate Zeratul?

Campaign Discussion
1

He is a f*** hero. How can those protoss at the beginning of LOTV treat him like a criminal or exile?

2

I can see three reasons for this.

  1. When Zeratul killed cerebrate Zascz, Overmind learned of Aiur’s location through Zeratul’s mind (while Zeratul in turn learned about Overmind and the zerg).

  2. Zeratul «sided» with Kerrigan in the end of Brood War (she blackmailed him, when she kidnapped Raszagal), and then he killed Raszagal, when it becomes clear she can’t be saved (on Raszagal’s request). Then he went to self-imposed exile.

  3. As implied by his dialogues in SC2 campaign, his actions during his «save-universe-from-Amon» quest also looks as something bad for many other protoss, although its not clear what specifically they considered wrong. Maybe its because its not clear what he tried to achieve, and those who work with him have suspicious tendency to die, while Zeratul himself always survives, and no-one lived long enough to explain why he did what he did.

Most likely, Khalai hate him for first reason, and Nerazim for second. Even then, not all protoss hate him, since not all believe any of this was actually his fault. Although Zeratul himself considers they are right, and seems his universe-saving mission as his redemption.

Sorry for broken English.

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3

The Daelaam consider Zeratul to be a war criminal, for lack of a better term, at the start of the End War because he:

  • Inadvertently permitted the Overmind to learn the location of Aiur during the Great War
  • Killed Raszagal during the Brood War
  • Guided Kerrigan to become the Primal Queen of Blades during the Second Great War
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4

I don’t think it’s as much a the Protoss hate Zeratul thing so much as a Selendis is an idiot thing.

Talis and Karass seemed to have plenty of respect for Zeratul still, even to the point of dieing for him, and Artanis clearly values his advice, but calling off the invasion wasn’t politically feasible at that point.

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5

Zeratul’s exile was, at first, self imposed, but later became an actual exile, largely due to the reasons mentioned. At first I thought it a bit odd, but I noticed on my last reread of the Dark Templar books, Zeratul mentions that the one of the last preservers Zamara (who was with Tassadar’s fleet) had recorded his leading the zerg to Aiur in her memories, which concerned him as it would show generations to come what he had done. While Zamara would be put in a memory crystal, later short stories would reveal some of her information was given to the protoss still and showed them some locations where the colossi were sealed away.

This implies that while everyone knew he killed Raszagal (since Selendis brings up her death), but not many protoss knew he led the zerg to Aiur until Zamara’s crystal was brought to Shakuras. This also would explain why Selendis was initially cool with Zeratul and worked with him for at least part of Enslavers II (maybe all of Brood War, if she is the Episode IV executor like people think) and suddenly had a heel turn to hating him by LotV. So killing Raszagal made a lot of Nerazim angry with him, and leading the zerg to Aiur turned a lot of the Khalai against him.

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6

I don’t know , Jux. How could the Protoss have known about that last one? Also, hating on Zeratul for something that was out of his control like linking his mind with the overmind is dumb.
I think Selendis was being a bit of c*nt in that scene to create some sort of drama.
Zeratul did alot for the Aiur protoss like letting them take refuge on Shakuras so the Zeratul hate is absurd.
Then there’s whole Vorazun thing. I wanted to slap her across the face and yell “Kerrigan killed your mother; Zeratul put her out of her misery”.

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7

^Agreed.

It’s kind of contrived that Vorazun got the information that Zeratul killed Raszagal but not the information that Kerrigan was manipulating/controlling her, which was pretty much known by everyone at that point.

Either Raszagal was the traitor for working with Kerrigan or Zeratul put her out of her misery. You can’t have it both ways.

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8

Treason on multiple accounts, including killing Raszagal, aiding Kerrigan (who had recently slaughtered a protoss expedition force), and supposed desertion.

Generally, he was either seen as a traitor, deserter, or just general madman.

9

Vorazun agrees that objectively, Zeratul shouldn’t be blamed for what he did, and that she’s aware of Kerrigan’s culpability. She goes on to say that the Nerazim are an emotional people by nature, and just because she knows that Zeratul didn’t have any good options doesn’t mean she doesn’t hate him for picking the one he did anyway.

You will note that she never actually advises that Artanis act against Zeratul’s last wishes, only that she doesn’t like him or trust his feelings.

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10

I really don’t know how those Protoss processed information but judging by how They bunched up around Artanis when Zeratul appeared. They appeared to think Zeratul came to assassinate Artanis. That’s just weird.

If he is just a criminal they will just try to subdue him, while in this time Selendis shield Artanis from him like she afraided Zeratul will kill him.

Compare his war merits and service for the Protoss.
_ He served Raszagal for at least a 1000 years according to what he said.
_ Be the first to contact with Tassadar and be the first brick to bridge the gap between their culture.
_ He led a group of Dark Templars in dangerous missions of assassinating the Zerg Cerebrates during the Great War.
_ He advised the Aiur protoss to take shelter in Shakuras which if he didn’t mentioned they will just stayed on Aiur and died.
_ Retrieving the crystals to activate the Xel’naga Temple and eradicate all Zerg infestation from Shakuras

Without his deeds, not a single Protoss will be alive to tell.

While he did caused some damage and dead people but how can they missed such a big picture that He helped in preserving their Civilisation?

11

Keep in mind Karass died so Zeratul could get the prophecy fragments out and translated, he didn’t die for Zeratul himself. Talis, I recall being in a similar situation. Zeratul aided her forces against the Swarm and Moebius, and she in turn sacrificed herself so he could warn the Daelaam about Amon’s return.

Artanis serviced with Zeratul directly during the Great War and Brood War and knows him first hand, which would undoubtedly influence how he treats with the old dark templar.

12

I recall him saying, in “Heart of the Swarm,” that he’d need to face the judgement of his people for aiding her.

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13

The protoss didn’t know about Zeratul helping Kerrigan on Zerus. You’d think they would’ve brought that up instead of the whole having Zeratul’s mind linked with the Overmind’s bringing “ruin to Aiur”. That might’ve been legit, but since that never comes up, we can’t say for sure.

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14

Kelthar’s right. She says, that she gets why he did, but she’s still pissed because emotions.

Weird thing is that Vorazun is always implied to be the emotional, headstrong one, yet this is the only case of her behaving like that.

15

I kind of like it, actually. Usually the emotional character is very anti-logic, vehemently going with their gut for plot reasons even when objectively their decision is moronic, but Vorazun gets to be actually smart and recognize that just because she feels a certain way doesn’t mean its automatically correct. She just doesn’t apologize for it.

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16

When Artanis tells her Raszagal was mentally enslaved, her exact words are “Yes, I know that now.” Which pretty much implies she didn’t get that information beforehand and that’s the reason she hates him. It’s as if she forgot to switch over to not being angry at him after she found that out.

Either way, the core point still stands. Zeratul served Raszagal for countless millennia and saved her from mental slavery (torture), yet Vorazun still explicitly calls him a traitor (which has nothing to do with her emotions, and more to do with just being straight up inaccurate). I wanted to slap Vorazun across the face too.

17

Your counter to the idea that emotions aren’t perfectly logical is to suggest that it isn’t perfectly logical?

I rather suspect youre missing the point.

18

You’re the one praising Vorazun for being factually correct. Maybe rethink your argument if you have a problem with what I just said.

Also, slapping the “emotional” label on something isn’t a free pass for crap writing. Her emotional outrage would only make sense if she misunderstood the circumstances around her mother’s death (which doesn’t make sense according to Brood War). Also, given how fast she sacrificed Shakuras, she clearly demonstrates an ability for fast emotional processing and the ability to move on.

Her Zeratul hatred is a transparent attempt to create drama where none needs to exist. That’s why people are bringing it up in this thread. :man_shrugging:

19

It is, evidently, so transparent that no drama was created and nobody besides yourself seems to have any trouble understanding why she holds the position she does.

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20

I initially thought Vorazun was just ignorant about the circumsatnces surrounding her mother’s death and then she reveals she knows Zeratul isn’t really responsible for her mother’s death, but spits on him anyway and goes so far as to call him “traitor”. WTF!!!