The hero of Starcraft 2 is Jim Raynor. Jim is a rebel fighting against Emperor Mengsk of the Terran Dominion. He runs an rebel outfit called "Raynor's Raiders". Jim and Mengsk go way back when the two were themselves rebels against the old power of the sector, The Confederacy. Kerrigan was Mengsk lieutenant at the time.
Anyway, at one point in the original campaign, Mengsk wanted to use a psi emitter, a device which lures the Zerg to it's signal against the Confederates on Tarsonis. This was the turning point when Mengsk showed just how ruthless he could get. He ordered Kerrigan to use the device but when the Zerg swarmed the planet, Mengsk left Kerrigan to die. This was when the Overmind captured and infested her. Jim was pissed and went against Mengsk but it was too late. Mengsk won, turned himself into an Emperor and left Jimmy as a washed-up drunk running an ever weakening rebel movement against the new Dominion.
This is where our story begins. We meet Jimmy in Mar Sara, inside a bar drinkin' and stinkin'. His old pal, Tychus comes along but I'll leave him out for now. Mar Sara gets invaded by the Zerg. Infested Kerrigan is on the move it seems. As soon as you leave the planet, the fun begins.
There are six mission story lines after Mar Sara namely: colonist, covert, rebellion, prophecy, artifact and the final missions. The colonist and covert missions are not so important and the prophecy missions are just a big headache but I'd like to talk about the rebellion and artifact missions and how it pisses me off.
It is revealed that Raynor's Raiders are in a rough patch. Mengsk has driven them to the fringes, spreading propaganda against them and the Raider's are short on resources. Anyway a few missions in and this is never mentioned again. Raynor's men hold on, dedicated to the movement against the tyrant Mengsk. Oh wait, I'm sorry, fighting the Dominion as it turns out is not the point of the story.
Sure you get to defame Mengsk in a public scandal in the rebellion missions but it's cynically suggested Mengsk will weather the media storm. The rebellion quests aren't even important when they should be. My main problem is this: In the artifact missions, Raynor collects strange alien artifacts, probably of Xel'naga origin, for an entity called the Mobieus Foundation for money or something. It is revealed that the Foundation is actually run by Mengsk's son Valerian who I swear looks like Arthas from the box art of Warcraft 3. Anyway, Jimmy was about to kill him and smash his pretentious vinyl record player but Valerian tells Jimmy that the artifact can cure Kerrigan and Jimmy agrees to go along with him.
Here's the beef. Going along with Valerian totally derails the whole point of Raynor's Raiders. Suddenly, not only is Raynor working with the enemy but also agreeing to invade Char, the Zerg's fucking home planet to use an artifact nobody knows how to work. That's right. It's only in the very end when they're completely surrounded by the Zerg do they conveniently discover how to use the artifact. All they needed was for the the giant green cursor in the sky to click the activate button. What a joke.
Naturally, the crew isn't too happy about this. When hearing Jim talk about working with Valerian, Matt, Jim's lieutenant, gets upset. You see, since the beginning of the story, Jim has been all emo about not doing enough to save Kerrigan. He has her cliche picture in his cliche wallet and all these years he still hasn't gotten over it. Then he drinks some more. He now seems prepared to compromise everything his rebels stand for and work with Valerian for some dubious cure for Kerrigan. Matt even calls Raynor out on it saying he's ruining everything for his "stupid girlfriend". This is the most sense any character has ever made and this is the best part of the story. Mutiny is in the air.
Oh wait, it's all cool. Raynor just does some macho shit and suddenly the crew is impressed. Impressed enough to go along a suicide mission with their sworn enemy. How convenient. Seriously, that's all it took? It doesn't make any sense. Raynor's Raider's jump the shark just like that and go along with risking their lives for Raynor's girl issues. Kiss my ass.
But Wait! In the optional prophecy missions, it's revealed that Kerrigan is the key to saving the fucking universe so Jimmy has to save her right? Not really. If keeping Kerrigan alive was important then Raynor could have just opted not to give up the artifacts or help at all thus not having to risk his crew. How do we know whether Kerrigan has to be cured or not has any bearing to the prophecy? For all we know from the spooky conveniently vague prophecy, curing her could ruin everything. In fact, turning her into a squishy human again would make her more vulnerable...
To summarize, Jim Raynor betrays his own cause to work with the Dominion to cure Kerrigan and his crew go along with it because they are easily impressed with displays of violence like a typical Michael Bay fan. Raynor wants to cure Kerrigan because he knows she is destined to save the universe despite not knowing if curing her could affect the prophecy instead of keeping her as she is.
Anyway, at one point in the original campaign, Mengsk wanted to use a psi emitter, a device which lures the Zerg to it's signal against the Confederates on Tarsonis. This was the turning point when Mengsk showed just how ruthless he could get. He ordered Kerrigan to use the device but when the Zerg swarmed the planet, Mengsk left Kerrigan to die. This was when the Overmind captured and infested her. Jim was pissed and went against Mengsk but it was too late. Mengsk won, turned himself into an Emperor and left Jimmy as a washed-up drunk running an ever weakening rebel movement against the new Dominion.
This is where our story begins. We meet Jimmy in Mar Sara, inside a bar drinkin' and stinkin'. His old pal, Tychus comes along but I'll leave him out for now. Mar Sara gets invaded by the Zerg. Infested Kerrigan is on the move it seems. As soon as you leave the planet, the fun begins.
There are six mission story lines after Mar Sara namely: colonist, covert, rebellion, prophecy, artifact and the final missions. The colonist and covert missions are not so important and the prophecy missions are just a big headache but I'd like to talk about the rebellion and artifact missions and how it pisses me off.
It is revealed that Raynor's Raiders are in a rough patch. Mengsk has driven them to the fringes, spreading propaganda against them and the Raider's are short on resources. Anyway a few missions in and this is never mentioned again. Raynor's men hold on, dedicated to the movement against the tyrant Mengsk. Oh wait, I'm sorry, fighting the Dominion as it turns out is not the point of the story.
Sure you get to defame Mengsk in a public scandal in the rebellion missions but it's cynically suggested Mengsk will weather the media storm. The rebellion quests aren't even important when they should be. My main problem is this: In the artifact missions, Raynor collects strange alien artifacts, probably of Xel'naga origin, for an entity called the Mobieus Foundation for money or something. It is revealed that the Foundation is actually run by Mengsk's son Valerian who I swear looks like Arthas from the box art of Warcraft 3. Anyway, Jimmy was about to kill him and smash his pretentious vinyl record player but Valerian tells Jimmy that the artifact can cure Kerrigan and Jimmy agrees to go along with him.
Here's the beef. Going along with Valerian totally derails the whole point of Raynor's Raiders. Suddenly, not only is Raynor working with the enemy but also agreeing to invade Char, the Zerg's fucking home planet to use an artifact nobody knows how to work. That's right. It's only in the very end when they're completely surrounded by the Zerg do they conveniently discover how to use the artifact. All they needed was for the the giant green cursor in the sky to click the activate button. What a joke.
Naturally, the crew isn't too happy about this. When hearing Jim talk about working with Valerian, Matt, Jim's lieutenant, gets upset. You see, since the beginning of the story, Jim has been all emo about not doing enough to save Kerrigan. He has her cliche picture in his cliche wallet and all these years he still hasn't gotten over it. Then he drinks some more. He now seems prepared to compromise everything his rebels stand for and work with Valerian for some dubious cure for Kerrigan. Matt even calls Raynor out on it saying he's ruining everything for his "stupid girlfriend". This is the most sense any character has ever made and this is the best part of the story. Mutiny is in the air.
Oh wait, it's all cool. Raynor just does some macho shit and suddenly the crew is impressed. Impressed enough to go along a suicide mission with their sworn enemy. How convenient. Seriously, that's all it took? It doesn't make any sense. Raynor's Raider's jump the shark just like that and go along with risking their lives for Raynor's girl issues. Kiss my ass.
But Wait! In the optional prophecy missions, it's revealed that Kerrigan is the key to saving the fucking universe so Jimmy has to save her right? Not really. If keeping Kerrigan alive was important then Raynor could have just opted not to give up the artifacts or help at all thus not having to risk his crew. How do we know whether Kerrigan has to be cured or not has any bearing to the prophecy? For all we know from the spooky conveniently vague prophecy, curing her could ruin everything. In fact, turning her into a squishy human again would make her more vulnerable...
To summarize, Jim Raynor betrays his own cause to work with the Dominion to cure Kerrigan and his crew go along with it because they are easily impressed with displays of violence like a typical Michael Bay fan. Raynor wants to cure Kerrigan because he knows she is destined to save the universe despite not knowing if curing her could affect the prophecy instead of keeping her as she is.
I know people can come up with all sorts of answers to the questions here but I'm only trying my best to reason out why the characters behave so stupidly with what plot I'm given. If questions are as huge as say, "How does Valerian know how the ancient alien artifact works?" then we ought to be told why which is precisely why...
The next: Part 3: Space MAGIC!
No comments:
Post a Comment