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...

The Overmind and cerebrates are explained as being effectively immortal. Unless killed using void powers they will instantly "reincarnate" their body. There are a few problems with this plot device. Firstly, it's a lazy plot device and was obviously shoehorned in later in development. Tassadar wasn't initially intended to divebomb Overmind, this was suggested by the design team to add an epic climax to the script. I can't be sure, but I suspect the vulnerability to void power was added as part of this because the presentation is clunky (see my second point). The SC1 manual never once implies that the Overmind or cerebrates were immortal or could only be killed by void powers. Secondly, the introduction of this plot point is very clunky and involves characters reading ahead in the script rather than coming to reasonable conclusions. In order: Overmind tells us that cerebrates are immortal Zeratul permakills Zasz Overmind says only dark templar can kill cerebrates ...

To follow my prior post about how Tassadar's actions during episode 1 are questionable, here's a post pointing out his blatant hypocrisy in episode 3 . At the end of mission 7, Aldaris chastises Tassadar for refusing to destroy the terran worlds. Aldaris is technically incorrect here: Tassadar delayed destroying terran worlds, but he still destroyed them.  Tassadar retorts and says he doesn't regret his actions and would've made the exact same decisions again. So he doesn't think in retrospect that it would've made more sense to ally with the terrans at the earliest opportunity instead of incinerating planets? He genuinely thinks his actions were the best he could've taken? It's even worse when you remember that he originally promised himself he wouldn't destroy any more planets after Chau Sara. Did he forget his promise? I get that the writers are trying to make him look like a strong hero here, but he come across like a sanctimonious moron who refu...

I think it makes more sense for Tassadar’s character to propose an alliance with the terrans to prevent further losses and glassing. This is at odds with the game canon, but that’s what this blog is all about. We know from the tie-in short story “ Revelations ” (written by the same author as StarCraft ) that Tassadar and his forces were on the surface of Mar Sara during the battle, fighting off zerg and rescuing civilians and marines. Why did Tassadar never hail the Magistrate of Mar Sara and offer an alliance to repel the zerg? He hailed the Sons of Korhal in a  cut mission  on Antiga (which is apparently still canon?), so it would be in-character for him. In the manual, after the glassing of Chau Sara Tassadar promises himself that he will never glass another planet and will  find some way to rescue the terrans . But in the game he goes on to glass more planets. He completely fails to prevent the zerg from decimating the terrans. Why have him make this promise if he can...

In case you aren't familiar with the plot of the protoss campaign in Brood War, here is a script commentary . While the protoss are evacuating to Shakuras and repelling the zerg that somehow arrived before they did (I can't even pretend this timeline makes sense), QoB appears (having somehow traveled there from Char just in the nick of time like a character in the later crappier seasons of Game of Thrones ) and explains that she is free of zerg control and she can offer the protoss assistance. This is very obviously a ploy that no sane military commander would take remotely seriously. It's the middle of the apocalypse and suddenly a known enemy agent appears claiming to have the solution to their problems? This is just painfully transparent. All of the protoss hold the idiot ball and take her claims at face value, while only Aldaris points out that they have absolutely no reason to trust her and every reason not to. Naturally, nobody listens to him because, as if it wasn...

The character Aldaris is more or less an idiot villain in the protoss campaigns whose sole purpose is to cause conflict to drive the missions. The frustrating part is that he is written horribly. He always has a good point, but the narrative either unfairly punishes him or gives him the idiot ball for it. During the protoss civil war, he was suspicious of the nerazim and his reasons for being suspicious are completely reasonable considering that the nerazim caused the apocalypse the last time they were on the planet. You would only know this from reading the manual, as it is never brought up in the game script so Aldaris gets framed as an ignorant bigot standing in the way of victory. Then he just forgives the nerazim and says he was wrong, without providing any explanation for why he thinks so beyond "the narrative says I should admit I was wrong." In the next campaign, he starts a terrorist uprising. His reasoning for this is that the nerazim matriarch has been compromised...

One of the frustrating aspects of SC1's scripts are how juvenile they are in places, especially compared to the somewhat more nuanced take in the manual and other supplemental materials. Hard to believe these were apparently written by the same writer. Anyway, in the protoss backstory the ancestors of the nerazim are explained as causing the apocalypse with the reckless use of their powers and provoking the khalai to fight back in self-defense. So it is entirely reasonable for the khalai to have a negative view of the nerazim.  In the scripts for Episodes 3 and 4, during the protoss civil war , none of this is ever brought up and the judicators are framed as irrational idiotic bigots being mean to the innocent nerazim who just want to help. The judicator's suspicion is completely reasonable: the nerazim caused the apocalypse in the past and now they came back claiming they only want to use their powers to help. How are the judicator supposed to know that the nerazim are tellin...

In the StarCraft games, the protoss are just a generic race of dying space elves chasing prophecies in a desperate attempt to stay relevant. They get their asses handed to them in every conflict and the only way they ever win anything at all is by cheating and using plot devices to defeat otherwise invincible enemies. What if I told you that the original conception of the protoss was closer to the role of vulcans in Star Trek 's Federation or the prophets in Halo 's Covenant? Hard to believe, right? That really was their original backstory according to the wiki . Materials outside of the games explain they had a huge interstellar civilization with numerous clients and allies of other species. In the games, they have one or two planets and are easily conquered. I find this very frustrating. Imagine how much cooler the franchise would have been if the protoss had been this huge interstellar empire that easily rival or overshadow the other races? Hundreds of worlds to explore, n...