Brian Kindregan about the plot and the StarCraft universe. Part 3

In part three of our series, Brian Kindregan, co-lead writer for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and lead writer for Heart of the Swarm, answers questions about the game’s story that are of most interest to our community.

Question: Initially, the Overmind did not have free will; instead, the creature was given a clear order – to absorb the Protoss. But then he created Kerrigan, hoping to free himself. How the Dark Voice Controlled the Overmind?

Answer: This is a great question. I know that the forums have been discussing the issue of free will and how it affects the Overmind for a long time. I myself have often seen active discussions on this subject, operating with the concepts of free will, in particular, in relation to people and human nature. But it is important to remember that we are talking about science fiction, and we sometimes have to use concepts that go beyond modern concepts.

As for the Supermind, freedom of will either exists or it doesn’t. But if a creature is deprived of free will, then we can talk about varying degrees of “unfreedom”. The Dark Voice placed the Overmind at the head of the zerg swarm, and this requires significant flexibility of thinking: a certain freedom of choice, the ability to form judgments, make decisions, long-term and short-term planning. Flexibility of thinking. This creature couldn’t be some kind of robot. So did the Supermind have free will?? No, since the Dark Voice still in some way limited the thought process of the Overmind. For example, the Overmind was unable to clearly think about disobeying its master, and if it tried, then strict conditioning mechanisms would come into play. Under certain circumstances, the Supermind was forced to act in a certain way, and he could not resist it. The Overmind was determined to make every effort to lead the swarm to well-being. Therefore, he looked for loopholes in the settings laid down by the Dark Voice and committed actions bordering on disobedience. Thus, he hoped to finally free the zerg from the power of the Dark Voice. This, in turn, should have allowed the zerg to avoid the fate that the Overmind foresaw.

I would like to clarify one issue that is often completely misunderstood. The Overmind did not create the Queen of Blades to save the galaxy, the Koprulu sector, or anyone other than the zerg themselves. The Overmind had a vision of the Zerg being used to destroy the Protoss. But his only concern was that his charges faced the fate of slaves. At the end of the vision, the Overmind saw how the hybrids were driving out all the zerg. The vision represented the death of his race, and this is what he wanted to prevent. Therefore, he wanted to free the zerg (only the zerg!) from the control of the Dark Voice. The Overmind wouldn’t mind if the Swarm absorbed all the other races in the universe.

Question: Who did Tychus work for, and https://casinonalu.uk/ what was his task?? If he served Arcturus, then the events of the quest "Screen Star" seem a little dubious. After all, it’s unlikely that Mengsk was happy about the complete failure of the presentation of “Odin” and the broadcast of the video recording of the Confederate adjutant on television.

Answer: I’m very glad you asked this question. A couple of years ago I was asked a very similar question at BlizzCon, and my answer was not very clear.

In short, by the time the “Star of the Screen” task began (and it can be completed either in the middle or towards the end of the game), Mengsk already had more serious tasks. He could only use Tychus as an ace of trumps once. If he had ordered him to stop Raynor’s plans, Jim would have suspected something was wrong. If the Screen Star quest had been the third or fourth quest in the campaign, Mengsk would have used Tychus without a second thought. But by the time Tychus started the mess on Korhal, Mengsk was already aware of the massive accumulation of zerg on Char and attacks on other worlds. He learned from his spies that the Mobius Foundation may have found a way to turn Kerrigan back into a human. Yes, his reputation had been dealt a severe blow, but it was nothing compared to the threat of war with the Swarm and the opportunity to get close to Kerrigan with the help of Tychus.

After all, if Mengsk succeeds in destroying the Swarm, the people will still love him, even if he is responsible for billions of deaths. But if the Queen of Blades wants to kill Arcturus… then popular recognition will not save him.

You can’t say anything, Mengsk has nerves of steel.

Question: Does the gift of prophecy and foresight, which played such an important role in WoL, have any scientific basis? Or is it just mysticism and magic??

Answer: I understand why this question was asked. The concept of "prophecy" is usually associated with fairy tales and fantasy rather than science fiction.

However, I would like to point out Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.". A certain creature in the distant past managed to predict how events in the future would presumably (but not necessarily) develop, and it passed on this information to creatures of a lower order. They, in turn, wrote down this knowledge.

Let’s imagine this situation differently. Suppose I can talk to a mayfly and say to it: “This giant glowing circle is about to sink below the horizon. We call it "evening". You will spend exactly half of your life in the dark. But the circle will rise again, and this time we call “morning”. The fly will probably think that I made some incredible prediction of the future.

Many people think that the prophecy says that Kerrigan will save the universe. This is wrong. The prophecy says a lot. Among other things, it says that the Fallen One (hereinafter we call him the Dark Voice) will destroy everything that exists. A little later, we see a vision of the Overmind, in which the Dark Voice wins. The vision itself seems to be imbued with the idea that if the zerg were led by someone not subject to the Dark Voice, then they could resist. Could Kerrigan be such a leader?? Undoubtedly! But she is not a savior, not a messiah and is not mentioned in the prophecy. Nothing specific is said about her at all. Everything seems a little confusing? That’s the way it is. We’ll talk more about this in one of the following articles.