[Spoilers] Legacy of the Void Epilogue -- I can finally empathize with the hate for ME3's ending.

[Vuliev]

Just finished LotV and epilogue tonight, and holy cow I was not expecting the story to go full-blown Shymalan at the end, in the space of a cutscene, mission, and final cutscene.

Spoiler: Just going to encase the meat of the post in a spoiler tag

What frustrates me the most is that I was going along with things right up until midway through the second mission, where the difficulty (on Normal, no less!) just SPIKES out of nowhere. Same kind of mob rush that you deal with in the last mission of WoL and Kerrigan's rebirth in HotS, only there's no NUKE ALL ENEMIES button--so if you can't suddenly step up your economy, micro, and macro game way the fuck up, you're screwed.

Oh, Tassadar's ghost is calling us from Ulnar? Hwoah, alright, guess we should actually kill Amon.

Sweet, we kicked Narud's shit in as a three-race team! Yeah, friendship!
Cool, what does Tassadar--WAIT WHAT THE FUCK TASSADAR WAS A XEL'NAGA THE WHOLE TIME? WTF? Ugh, okaay, time for Kerrigan to ascend, I guess. Is Artanis going to--nope, Tassa'Naga is going to sacrifice himself to facilitate Kerrigan's ascension. Meh, alright.

(Apparently, Tassadar was genuinely real in SC1, just the visions that people had of him in SC2 were all this Xel'Nagareeaching out psionically. Writers deserve a punch in the face for obfuscating that point.)

Okay, defending Kerrigan again while she ascends to be a benevolent Lovecraftian god, hell
ye--fuck, this is really hard, Artanis just got crushed. Holy shit, my base expansion is on FUCK WHY ARE THERE SO MANY THORS SHITTING ON ZAGARA AAAAAGH EVERYTHING IS DYING fuck you, god mode it is.

Alright, Kerrigan, time to ascend.
Fuck you, Chris Metzen. God forbid ANYONE have to make a goddamn sacrifice at the end of all things and have to become a Lovecraftian god, noooo she gets to be a fucking angel because reasons. Ugh, wait, don't make me play another mis--
[final mission]
--fuck. Okay, more god mode it is, because fuck if I'm going to put any effort into this, clearly the writers didn't.

Alright, lets see how this all ends.

God, just, ugh. God forbid this eternal cycle of rebirth continue, nope, guess Amon wins in the end via entropy in twenty billion years. God forbid Jim actually have to get the fuck over Kerrigan in the end, nope, he just gets to go to heaven with his god-girlfriend. At least Shepard had to actually make a meaningful sacrifice (or succumbed to indoctrination, or whatever you believe.)

ME3 folks, sorry I was ever frustrated with you. Still don't agree with you on ME3, but at least I now understand how you feel.

I doubt I'm alone, but at least in the SC subreddit there were enough people supportive of the ending to make me wonder where people fall on this. Thankfully this is a Blizzard game, and won't get the level of butthurt that ME3 did. Butthurt that I can now empathize with, but still. At least we got John de Lancie in it, and a bunch of new hero possibilities for Heroes of the Storm.

 

[EXos]

While I have to agree that the ending is a mess. I didn't get the same feeling I did with ME3's.

Mostly because SC's story is perfectly linear the studio is telling a story. There are some deviations but nothing grand on the whole.

With ME they kept hammering that every choice would have a consequence. So I was expecting an Fallout ending (Like the ones from 1 & 2) a nice narrated bit that showed you the what kind of mess you left behind.


Recap:

SC's ending is not bad, it's not good. It's okay as it wraps up the story just fine and the story wasn't that water tight to begin with.

ME's ending was a complete and utter let down after a story where even the smallest things could traverse 3 games to make an impact. Instead we got the god-child and his great end-o-tron 3000.

 

[Zhukov]

(Disclaimer: I didn't play the game, just watched the cutscenes on Youtube.)

Yeah, it was a bit dumb.

I wasn't upset because I have basically zero investment in the Starcraft story, but I can see why someone who did would be a bit miffed.

Kerrigan turning into a freaking burning angel (it has tits and is on fire!) made me think that either the writers were a bit too in love with their character or they were trying to cater to an audience (real or imagined) that is a bit too in love with the character.

Not sure how I feel about the Jim-Kerrigan business. I actually have something of a soft spot for that particular pairing. Yeah, it was corny as fuck, but I always thought that there was a little nugget of gold hidden in there under all the cheese and silly dialogue. Call me a soppy bugger but the core idea of a couple in love who are separated and held apart by ludicrously massive events so utterly beyond their control is one that I actually find quite poignant. Slapping a happy but also somewhat ambiguous happy ending on that felt rather contrived.

Not touching the ME3 comparison with a barge pole. That horse has been comprehensively beaten.

 

[Hawki]

I've watched LotV's cutscenes ahead of playing the game, and while I'm playing the game now, I'm not this far ahead. However, based on the points:

-Tassadar was real enough in SC1, it's LotV that reveals that his spirit was Ouros (something I felt was clear enough). And something that irks me. I was fine with Tassadar being in spirit form. There was plenty of precedent and foreshadowing for it, but suddenly, nup, Tassadar's dead. Yay. I can actually single this out as a retcon because there was outside material that stated outright that Tassadar explored the Overmind's memories. It feels like a derp to Tassadar's character, a derp to the protoss, and a reduction to Tassadar back to his original martyr status. Not that that was a bad place to leave off, but still...

-You do realize that the ending is intentionally ambiguous right? (stated as such on the behind the scenes dvd). Even discounting that I've seen everyone and their mother theorizing what happens at the end (is Kerrigan human or xel'naga? Is the last scene even real? Etc.), there's the possibility that Kerrigan does indeed die. I actually have to give kudos there.

-Concerning Kerrigan's transformation, I'm mixed, and I'm not going to say more until I beat it myself. However, I'll leave this here:

"At the end of the game, a massively powerful psionic individual uses their psionic energy to defeat a monstrous creature that's inspired by the C'thulu mythos. The character sacrifices themselves, and the imagery associated with said character is filled with references to Abrahamic mythology."

Am I describing Tassadar killing the Overmind, or Kerrigan killing Amon? Yeah, Kerrigan arguably escapes the sacrificing herself part, but otherwise, the parallels are there.

-I personally like how upbeat the ending is - melencholic, but still optimistic. In a setting where so much shit happens, it's actually refreshing to see a spark of light in the darkness, especially since all indications are that things get much worse in the near future (e.g. Nova Covert Ops). It's the same reason why I like 'The Sworn Sword' in 'A Song of Ice and Fire', and like to imagine that 'The Ice Dragon' (the novella) is in the same setting, despite what Martin has says. That they're upbeat stories with happy endings that are in contrast to a dark setting. IMO, a dark setting can have happy stories in it, and a bright setting can have dark stories in it. So if anything, I appreciate that LotV does end as optimistically as it does.

-Concerning ME3...admittedly, I haven't played it, but I did watch a playthrough. I was put off far more by the fan reaction than the content itself. If the extended cut was the original version, I doubt there'd be anywhere near the uproar, if any. But the reaction stems primarily from the fact that the original version showed endings where choice didn't matter, when choice wasn't only a gameplay mechanic, but an overall theme of the game, not to mention that the original ending explained nothing. I can understand someone not liking the ending of LotV, but LotV at least explains what happens on the galactic scale, and it doesn't have the thematic dissonance that ME3 arguably sufferred from.

 

[stormtrooper9091]

Why was anyone surprised, it's the modern day default cop out ending, main character must become a god to save the universe

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Whenever I see or read anything involving Starcraft 2's storyline, I throw up in my mouth a little bit. I gave up on the series after Wings of Liberty for gameplay and story reasons but I've read the sum ups of the story afterward and it only got worse(gameplay and storyline again) so glad I skipped them. It is hard to believe that it was some of the same people involved in making Brood War. Blargh...here comes that vomit again. (I know Brood War and the original Starcraft were no works of art or masterful storytelling but still...bleaugh)

 

[stormtrooper9091]

lol, Starcraft was never about masterful storytelling, I like it to death myself but let's be realistic

 

[ghalleon0915]

Having only played a few missions, I didn't read any of the previous posts but just wanted to chime in. I think a lot of the "uproar" over ME3 was the fact that people were led to believe that their choices in the games would affect the ending, and that clearly was not the case. I for one was alright with it; I mean, there were some huge ass holes in them and I admit I went " wth is a star child and where did this come from" but I could roll with it. Disappointing, but passable.

We'll see how LoV ends, but as long as it has closure then I'm ok with it. I expect Kerrigan will save them somehow, judging how Zeratul keep saying that so I don't see how they could come up with an ending that would rival ME3's. Unless she somehow becomes divine and waves her hand and resurrects all the dead toss and terrans she killed, it should be alright.

Although admittedly, if that was the ending I would find that pretty amusing. As long as Raynor shot her in the head afterwards with a bullet that traveled through time and actually hit her while she was still a Ghost.

 

[Vuliev]

You do realize that the ending is intentionally ambiguous right? (stated as such on the behind the scenes dvd).

Honestly, I don't see it as particularly ambiguous. One of three things happened:

• 
  [li]Jim commits suicide, and the end is his hallucinations in death;[/li]
  [li]it's actually God-Kerrigan, come to give Jim his happy ending;[/li]
  [li]some imposter come to steal Jim for... reasons?[/li]

#3 is really weak, obviously, which leaves us with #1 and #2, and #2 feels like a massive cop-out. Look, I don't mind a cheesy/tropey story told well, but the Blizzard games I grew up on were great at not going for the low-hanging fruit of a saccharine ending:

• 
  [li]SC1: The Zerg have been stopped, but at the cost of Tassadar and Aiur;[/li]
  [li]BW: Kerrigan betrays and slaughters the people that gave her a second chance, and massacres thousands on Shakuras, and then Zeratul uncovers horrifying secrets;[/li]
  [li]WC3: Archimode has been stopped, but at the cost of the World Tree, and much of the world lies in ruins;[/li]
  [li]FT: Illidan came very close to defeating the Big Bad, but was thwarted by Maiev, paving the way for Arthas to finally ascend and merge with the Lich King;[/li]
  [li]D2LoD: Baal has been destroyed, but at the cost of the Worldstone.[/li]

That's what frustrates me. Blizzard's conclusions to their trope-heavy stories have always included some kind of great sacrifice--and they just threw that legacy away? Coming from the end of LotV proper, where the Protoss have lost so much, sacrificed so much, but came through in the end--from there to the epilogue, it's almost whiplash-inducing.

Also, I don't care that the behind-the-scenes says that it's intentionally ambiguous--all of those endings above were open-ended, but quite conclusive--so why change?

-Concerning Kerrigan's transformation, I'm mixed, and I'm not going to say more until I beat it myself. However, I'll leave this here:

"At the end of the game, a massively powerful psionic individual uses their psionic energy to defeat a monstrous creature that's inspired by the C'thulu mythos. The character sacrifices themselves, and the imagery associated with said character is filled with references to Abrahamic mythology."

Ehhh, Hero Sacrifices Themselves to Defeat the Big Bad After Powering Up is a super common trope. I really don't see how either Tassadar's actions or Kerrigan's have any kind of like with Abrahamic mythology.

 

[Mangod]

I'll be honest, I don't really care for any of Blizzards storytelling since WCIII, Lord of Destruction, and Brood War. But since we're talking Starcraft; I prefered Kerrigan so much more when she was "the Queen ***** of the Universe", as opposed to what she's become in SCII. This whole redemption arc feels so forced.

 

[LordLundar]

Welcome to Blizzard storytelling capabilities, or lack therof I should say. About the only credit I will give them at this point is that they actually finished a story for a change instead of some BS faux ending to drag it on like every other property they've ever made.

 

[rcs619]

Just finished LotV and epilogue tonight, and holy cow I was not expecting the story to go full-blown Shymalan at the end, in the space of a cutscene, mission, and final cutscene.

I doubt I'm alone, but at least in the SC subreddit there were enough people supportive of the ending to make me wonder where people fall on this. Thankfully this is a Blizzard game, and won't get the level of butthurt that ME3 did. Butthurt that I can now empathize with, but still. At least we got John de Lancie in it, and a bunch of new hero possibilities for Heroes of the Storm.

Funny thing, I actually call this sort of thing "Mass Effect Syndrome", where a sci-fi series/game/book doesn't actually know how to end, so the creators try to pack in as much metaphysical space-magic bullshit as they can into the final bit to try and make things seem 'deeper' and more meaningful than they actually were.

The biggest gripe for me came down to the overuse of prophecy. Everything that everyone did was prophecy. It was all foretold billions of years ago (that wall carving on the xel'naga planet freaking shows Zeratul and Kerrigan) and/or manipulated into happening by outside forces. It removes a lot of the agency of the main characters. This is no longer something they did on their own, it's some big game they're all pawns in, being directed by something else because prophecy. Prophecy and chosen-one elements are some of the laziest narrative crutches in existence, and unless you're going to intentionally subvert audience expectations of them, there's almost no reason to even use them nowadays.

Basically, if you're going to bring up a prophecy in your story *don't* just have it all play out like it's supposed to. Have a kink pop up in the thing, or have the prophecy be wildly wrong or misunderstood. Just... having things go according to plan is so very, very boring.

I think my other big issue was just how out of tone it was with the rest of the series. We went from three intelligent species (each with a couple different sub-factions) battling it out to survive in a harsh, remote region of space. Things got really interesting as Kerrigan regained her humanity while *still* being in charge of the zerg (who were shown to be intelligent individuals instead of just mindless animals), and at the same time, Jim Raynor's humans had a friendly relationship in general with the protoss. There's a lot of interesting dynamics you can play around with there.

I don't even necessarily mind the final big bads being a group of crazy protoss-zerg hybrids out to kill everyone. By this point, the humans, zerg and protoss had largely worked out their issues with each other. Giving them one final common foe to stand against is a good way to end things. But traveling into literally Hell to help an ancient alien god kill another evil alien god within a crazy metaphysical space just... seemed like an entirely different game. Why couldn't we have had a real last stand in the real world against real enemies? Kerrigan, Raynor and Artanis back to back in an epic final cutscene as marines, hydralisks and zealots fought together to hold the line one last time. That would have been amazing.

Instead, we get like 3 missions where all three factions are working together, with minimal interaction between the huge cast of characters on all sides, and it just ends with a literal deus ex machina to make everything alright with space magic. It was just so underwhelming.

 

[RJ 17]

• 
  [li]SC1: The Zerg have been stopped, but at the cost of Tassadar and Aiur;[/li]
  [li]BW: Kerrigan betrays and slaughters the people that gave her a second chance, and massacres thousands on Shakuras, and then Zeratul uncovers horrifying secrets;[/li]
  [li]WC3: Archimode has been stopped, but at the cost of the World Tree, and much of the world lies in ruins;[/li]
  [li]FT: Illidan came very close to defeating the Big Bad, but was thwarted by Maiev, paving the way for Arthas to finally ascend and merge with the Lich King;[/li]
  [li]D2LoD: Baal has been destroyed, but at the cost of the Worldstone.[/li]

That's what frustrates me. Blizzard's conclusions to their trope-heavy stories have always included some kind of great sacrifice--and they just threw that legacy away?

But don't you see? That's why the ending's so brilliant! There was a great sacrifice! They sacrificed the tradition of having a moving sacrifice at the end of their game! IT'S SO META!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

They should have stuck with the original ending, where Kerrigan 4 pooled the primary antagonist before they could get started, typed "LOL SCRUB KEKEKEKEKE" while they scrambling to salvage their burning base, then DDOSed them.

 

[Imre Csete]

-Concerning ME3...admittedly, I haven't played it, but I did watch a playthrough. I was put off far more by the fan reaction than the content itself. If the extended cut was the original version, I doubt there'd be anywhere near the uproar, if any. But the reaction stems primarily from the fact that the original version showed endings where choice didn't matter, when choice wasn't only a gameplay mechanic, but an overall theme of the game, not to mention that the original ending explained nothing. I can understand someone not liking the ending of LotV, but LotV at least explains what happens on the galactic scale, and it doesn't have the thematic dissonance that ME3 arguably sufferred from.

Don't forget the "Please buy DLCs" sign at the very end! And the fact that they wasted cash and time to put Jessica Chobot in the game for maximum Doritos Dudebro points, while neglecting a lot of other aspects of the game.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I doubt they'll ever write something as good as Brood War again.

 

[Sonicron]

Go ahead and whip me if you must, but I liked the ending. The gameplay of the final two missions grated a bit, but considering story... well, I have absolutely no problem with a story going four ways bananas towards the end. The ending to the main campaign was great and fit well with the overall tone of SC2, so when the epilogue started with the announcement "Let's go kill ourselves a big honkin' space god" I was like, "Fine then, bring the silly, but don't half-arse it, let's have an awesomely absurd final wrap-up".
And that's what I feel I got. Cthulhu dies, the universe gets a second chance at being less shit, and the story's original protagonists finally get to knob each other senseless on a fluffy cloud for all eternity. Bam. Done. Thanks, Blizzard!

 

[Mangod]

I actually think my biggest problems with StarCraft II, in general, stem from the whole Amon thing. The original StarCraft had a fairly shallow, but still solid background for the conflicts in the game. [http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/misc/StarCraft.PDF] Yet StarCraft II retcons so much of the original game and its background to force Space-Sargeras/Diablo into the narrative, that it just doesn't gel with established lore in a satisfying way.

I'm not opposed to the

Spoiler

Xel'naga

being the villains, but the way they did it felt so bloody shoe-horned it's not even funny. It's like how 007: SPECTRE shoehorns

Spoiler

Blodfeld

into the previous three movies as the source of all of Bond's misery.

 

[Worgen]

Blizzard has never been good at stories. They are great at presentation but their stories have always been weak, the closest they came to a good one was diablo and diablo 2.

Edit: wow, that is a really really boring angel design. Usually blizzard is at least good at making things look interesting.

 

[Hawki]

I actually think my biggest problems with StarCraft II, in general, stem from the whole Amon thing. The original StarCraft had a fairly shallow, but still solid background for the conflicts in the game. [http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/misc/StarCraft.PDF] Yet StarCraft II retcons so much of the original game and its background to force Space-Sargeras/Diablo into the narrative, that it just doesn't gel with established lore in a satisfying way.

I'm not opposed to the

Spoiler

Xel'naga

being the villains, but the way they did it felt so bloody shoe-horned it's not even funny. It's like how 007: SPECTRE shoehorns

Spoiler

Blodfeld

into the previous three movies as the source of all of Bond's misery.

I've seen the word "retcon" be tossed around a lot, and frankly, I just don't see it. This coming from someone who played the original SC back in the day. If anything, the path you describe sounds like a natural development, as in:

-Precursor: Very small scale, confined to a single world, very down to earth.

-SC1: Relatively small scale - galactic war between three races and multiple factions, things go from bad to worse, but ends on a bittersweet note. Military sci-fi, relatively down to earth, but not quite as much as Precursor (Overmind, khaydarin crystals, Void energy, etc.)

-BW: Things go down even further, ends on an even grimmer note. First hints of a wider threat/conflict (Dark Origin, the epilogue text, etc.). Gets more esoteric (Khalis and Uraj, Duran, etc.)

-WoL: Generally a bit more optimistic, but gets darker towards the end. Even greater insight into the looming threat. Most down to earth of SC2 trilogy

-HotS: The darkest of the SC2 trilogy, even greater insight into the looming threat. Like BW, probably gets a bit more esoteric as well (e.g. the first spawning pool). Scale increases from WoL.

-LotV: Largest in terms of scale, deals with the largest of concepts (xel'naga, origins of life). Looming threat becomes manifest. Gets most esoteric out of all installments (Void itself is entered).

-NCO: For the sake of consistency, I'll add this. Once more down to earth, deals with the small scale (insurgency)

Point is, even if you slot in Insurrection and Retribution in there as well, there's always been this push towards where LotV takes us. To me, it feels like a natural progression. NCO seems to be taking us back down to SC1/WoL level, and while I'm fine with that, I'm reminded of the saying that "once a series goes into space, anything else feels like a step back."

And the thing is, this doesn't just apply to SC itself. Numerous sci-fi series expand in scope as they go on. And even if I limit that analogy to esoteric elements, off the top of my head, I can readily name Andromeda, Battlestar Galactica, and Saga of Seven Suns as series that start relatively small (reform Commonwealth, survive, human-illdiran polities), and end large (Spirit of the Abyss, gods and angels, the elementals of the galaxy in full war).