Psi-emitters again

Someone shared with me a good analysis of the inconsistencies in the way psi-emitters are used, so I am sharing that here for archiving. Credits to “ARM3481” for this.

The psi emitters were always a problem because we, the players, knew that the zerg were driven by a complex intelligence with an agenda, while the terrans at the time thought the zerg were basically just animalistic and cunning.

For the psi emitters to actually have worked, the Overmind and its Cerebrates should have been freaking about their entire broods running off to invade planets without being ordered to do so.  That not being the case, it only made sense for the psi emitters "working" to be a misunderstanding whereby the Swarm's intelligent leadership were mistaking them for exceptionally powerful human psionics while the terrans were assuming that their devices were working as intended.

Brood War and subsequent portrayals exacerbated the problem by applying both standards to the behavior of everyone, when really anyone who knew the Overmind was a thing should have realized that the psi emitters therefore couldn't have been doing what everyone thought they were doing.  Between the psi emitter contradiction and leaderless broods suddenly being reclaimable, from Brood War onward the story basically started operating on the presumption that the zerg and their original leaders were really all just dumb beasts reacting unthinkingly to psionic influences while Kerrigan can run around scooping up broods because she's somehow always been the one and only truly sentient influence within the Swarm.

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