Criticism of RTS Storytelling

SC1 opens with a cinematic where the protoss incinerate Chau Sara. Throughout episode 1 the protoss pose an ever-present danger of planetary incineration. Several planets including Mar Sara and Antiga Prime are incinerated. After episode 1, however, the protoss seemed to forget they had planet glassing  lasers . They never use the lasers in later episodes where they would be convenient. Tassadar never tries to laser zerg positions on Char. The protoss never laser zerg positions on Aiur in the middle of an invasion. Tassadar kamikazes his carrier into Overmind rather than using the laser. They never explain why they cannot, either. Altho the lasers are used for destroying whole planets, we usually see this being done by dozens of carriers at a time. It is reasonable to deduce that the damage is proportional to the duration of the firing and the number of lasers used. So it could work as an orbital canon to strike strategically viable positions. The starcraft story was  develope...

To follow my older post about how the protoss had no reason to listen to Kerry, here’s some reasons why Kerry had no reason to help them either. Ignoring the nonsense logistics of how Kerry found Shakuras, got there in record time, compromised Raz before she arrived, and already knew about the relevance of the Khalis… Kerry had no reason to help the protoss refugees in the first place. What does she do? Tell them the location of Khalis. That’s all she does. What does she gain from this? Nothing. The protoss never actually trust her at any point. (I made the mistake of saying they “trusted” her before, but they really keep her at arm’s length. All Raz does is let her speak.) She burns any chance of building a bridge by publicly murdering Aldaris. The protoss benefit by activating the plot device temple. But Kerry doesn’t gain anything. The protoss don’t kill the second overmind for her. She doesn’t gain their trust. They only let her go free because of plot-induced stupidity, but even t...

One of the common criticisms of SC2 is that it alternately removes Raynor’s agency by making reliant on Tychus to tell him what to do and makes his few independent decisions driven by idiotic sociopathic horniness for Kerry. Thing is, this is also true of his character in SC1 OG and BW. It’s not a new thing. Raynor is passive, reactive, callous, sociopathic, and lacking in coherent motives or values. He’s pulled along by the plot, rarely makes independent decisions when given a choice, and his few independent decisions are usually nonsensical to drive the plot forward. Despite this, the writers expect us to think he’s the hero of the story (nevermind that he appears inconsistently across campaigns). Examples: In Raynor’s first appearance, he makes the decision to help Magistrate clear out the zerg. He doesn’t really have a choice, given that it’s a genocidal alien invasion. But it establishes he’s willing to put his life on the line for the greater good.  Later, Raynor is forced to...