Spoiler space to protect mouseover
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
OK, so in the Starcraft 2 single-player storyline, there’s some group called the Moebius Foundation that’s collecting the pieces of an ancient Xel’naga artifact, and using it to construct a device that is eventually used to de-infest Kerrigan. Kerrigan, meanwhile, is prophesied to be the only being capable of stopping the Fallen One and his hybrids from wiping out all life in the galaxy, and her redemption is presumably a first step in this.
But the head of the Moebius Foundation is one Dr. Narud. Well, of course, the first thing you should do whenever you see a funny name in fantasy or science fiction is to see what it spells backwards. In this case, “Duran”. Who Starcraft players might remember as being an alter-ego put up by the mysterious entity that’s making the hybrids in the first place.
So is Dr. Narud the same as Duran (and presumably, also the “Fallen One” of prophesy and the “Dark Voice” seen in cutscenes)? If so, why is he trying to redeem Kerrigan? Or is it an evil twin sort of situation? Or (and I consider this extremely unlikely) just a coincidence?
I don’t think Duran was trying to redeem Kerrigan he was just weakening a potential, or realized I cant recall if they were on good terms, threat. Presumably she doesn’t have control of, or has much less control, of the Swarm anymore so she can’t be as large a threat anymore.
Having only played the campaign and not delved into any novels/side media…
[spoiler]My understanding was that Mengsk the Younger was the real force behind the Moebius Foundation (being the owner and all), and that it was his idea for Raynor to start gathering the Artifact pieces.
Narud/Duran might be using Mengsk Jr. for his own nefarious purposes, but I’m not sure thats ever touched on (directly) in the campaign.[/spoiler]
(not using spoiler tags, since the whole thread has a spoiler warning)
Certainly, Valerian thought he was the real force behind Moebius. But if someone like Duran (and even if Narud isn’t Duran himself, he’s someone like him) is involved, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that any human connected to Moebius is just a puppet. Now, it may be that Tychus’ deal with the devil was also part of the overarching plan, and that it was supposed to get Kerrigan killable (and killed). But you’d think that They would have anticipated that Raynor would put a stop to that.
Perhaps. But they couldn’t have imagined that Raynor would have been able to stop one bullet or that he would neccessarily know he couldn’t kill Kerrigan. It’s a mistake to think Duran is omnipotent and everything is going his way. That’s easy to claim, but a lot harder for him to prove…
Raynor swore he would see Kerrigan dead and he’s not a man to take his oaths lightly. Had he not seen the prophecy he would have pulled the trigger himself. Which was probably part of the plan.
If the prophecy is true then he either killed her or didn’t bother to protect her in at least one possible future. He seemed pretty unsure about the matter until he saw her on the ground.
But I was more referencing the plan (if there was one) in which they would assume Raynor would be blinded by hate and off her when he had the chance (or at least let it happen).
And if he didn’t, remember somebody in the Moebius organization had to have informed Emperor Mengsk about the plan. Narud/Duran is a damn fine candidate. So he creates a backup, using Mengsk’s (entirely reasonable) focus on Kerrigan to bait a trap. Mengsk lets loose Tycho, and everything’s peachy-keen.
My guess, too, is that Kerrigan will retain control over part of the swarm and we’ll see a Zerg/Human tag team in the next game.
BTW, anyone else like Tycho? He wasn’t nice, but I actually did like him. He had an amusing gift for comic relief through mass destruction, and he was pretty loyal. I don’t know what I’d do if I was stuffed into the nightmarish hellhole of Mengsk’s prison for years, then told I can get out if I kill, not my best friend, but the most hated being in the universe. And let’s face it: he practically advertised what was going on, and Raynor was too distracted to realize it.
As the vision missions demonstrate, whatever is behind the hybrid force intends to use the Zerg swarm as their engine of war. The Queen of Blades has direct psychic domination over a huge portion of the Swarm, which not only robs the hybrids of their front line forces but presents a likely additional army to have to overcome, and thus, Kerrigan’s presence is a serious obstacle to their plans. Killing her is the eventual goal, but de-powering her is a necessary condition for that. The activation of the artifact may not have immediately resulted in her demise thanks to the Powah of Luuuuve, but simply making her mortal was a victory in itself. She’s weak and vulnerable, and the bulk of the now-uncontrolled Zerg go feral, a ripe situation for the hybrids to swing in and take control.
Things are looking pretty grim for our plucky heroes, going into the second act. If not for the meta-gaming knowledge that there’s a playable Zerg campaign coming, continuing the storyline of Raynor and company, I’d be ready to write the buggies off as a force of resistance to the Impending Doom.
One of my few quibbles with the storyline is that Raynor didn’t do anything to try to help his old friend out of his deal with the devil. He knew from Horner that Tychus’s suit was a deathtrap, and he knew from Tosh that Tychus was being forced to do something he didn’t want to. Where was the scene where he goes “Hey, buddy, I know about your suit; let’s see if we can’t get you out of it alive?”?