Starcraft question (possible spoilers)

[Lord Revan]

I was bored so I replayed the single player campaign of Heart of the Swarm, I was also looking thing in the net for the game (mostly tips for doing all the bonus objectives and such). What got me confused is that people assume Nova would be a major leader in the dominion now that Spoiler

Acturus Mensk is dead following the attack on Korhal by the Swarm

so my question is that is there anything in the expanded universe that suggest that Nova was anything but a regular if talented ghost operative and has some form of political power beyond that of a normal ghost, or is this just some nerds wanting her back as she was the one of the most prominent of Mensk's minions not to mention one of the better looking ones too.

[Vendetta]

She's about the only named human antagonist left?

What do you think Blizzard are more likely to do, invent a completely new character that we've conveniently never heard of as the terran antagonist for LotV, or just reuse the one they've already got...

[Zixinus]

Actually fully reveal the new fourth race/army of the Xelnaga(?, I forgot what they were called exactly, except that it began with an X) which will force the regular three races to unite for survival? You know, the baddies that they've been hinting at since the first game's expansion (I think, it might have been ever earlier)?

[Lord Revan]

She's about the only named human antagonist left?

What do you think Blizzard are more likely to do, invent a completely new character that we've conveniently never heard of as the terran antagonist for LotV, or just reuse the one they've already got...

actually Blizzard did just that for Brood War with the UED characters (with the UED mentioned only in the manual of SC1) and Protoss in Heart of the Swarm with only named protoss antagonist being some unknown female (sure Zeratul was there but he didn't do more then point Kerrigan to Zerus) and that's assuming Terran's have any major involment in Legacy of the Void it being the protoss campaign and all.

Actually fully reveal the new fourth race/army of the Xelnaga(?, I forgot what they were called exactly, except that it began with an X) which will force the regular three races to unite for survival? You know, the baddies that they've been hinting at since the first game's expansion (I think, it might have been ever earlier)?

Amon's army is the hybrid's as for the rest of the Xel'naga they're either dead or not getting involved for what ever reason.

[Thanas]

Nova doesn't strike me as the type to lead the Dominion remnants (if they even exist). She is not the type of character to do that, given her issues.

[Zixinus]

Plus, being a convert Ghost operative does not mean that she could handle Dominion politics.

Also, do not forget about the Prince: he may turn his heel against the "good guys", or at the very least Kerrigan and through that, Jim. He has a genuine chance to take over the Dominion (or the Empire?). He is well-known and charismatic enough to do it, I sort of expect Menghst's son to be like him and Kerrigan invading can give him sufficient political scare for him to seize the throne.

[Lord Revan]

Plus, being a convert Ghost operative does not mean that she could handle Dominion politics.

Also, do not forget about the Prince: he may turn his heel against the "good guys", or at the very least Kerrigan and through that, Jim. He has a genuine chance to take over the Dominion (or the Empire?). He is well-known and charismatic enough to do it, I sort of expect Menghst's son to be like him and Kerrigan invading can give him sufficient political scare for him to seize the throne.

and it's not like Prince Valerian has to become a "bad guy" to be antagonistic in Legacy of the Void or EU material related to it, he is after all first and foremost leader of the Terran Dominion and such wouldn't just sit back if Protoss invaded Dominion space and Protoss aren't really the type to ask permission to take some ancient relic they think they need and this bring Shakuras Protoss and the Terrans into a collision course without needing Valerian to become a "bad guy".

You got to remember that the Protoss are really really prideful to well past the point of arrogance thus while Jim Raynor has some respect among their leaders it wouldn't be out of character for them to just arrive with a war fleet to recover something they want/need and not realize that humans might take offence at it.

[Alkaloid]

Might be a good chance to bring the Magistrate back into it. Mysterious semi fictional military commander trying to prevent Mengsks from ruling Dominion space in perpetuity could work, plus he has history with most of the major players, so drama.

[Lord Revan]

The Mar Sara Magistrate would an interesting choice as we know next to nothing about that character, IIRC only things we know is that said character joined Sons of Korhal with Raynor and disappeared around the time the Raynor's Rangers became Raynor's Raiders (aka when Raynor chose to fight against the Dominion rather then join it), so we don't even know the race or gender of the Magistrate which made me wish English didn't have gendered personal pronouns, cause it makes writing about a person whose gender is undefinied really hard (and making it seem natural near impossible).

[Vendetta]

Actually fully reveal the new fourth race/army of the Xelnaga(?, I forgot what they were called exactly, except that it began with an X) which will force the regular three races to unite for survival? You know, the baddies that they've been hinting at since the first game's expansion (I think, it might have been ever earlier)?

Yeah, but there's still going to be all three races as enemies in the campaign, because that's how Starcraft campaigns roll.

And Nova is still the most likely antagonist to appear with Terran enemies.

[Lord Revan]

that's assuming that those Terran enemies are part of a single "bad guy" faction and not just security forces for a Terran colony that were in the unlucky position to be in the way when Protoss come to recover a relic or something like that (it's not like Protoss enemies at Caldir in Heart of the Swarm were part of a anti-Zerg taskforce led by a name hero, they were a colony lead by someone who irrelevant that he didn't get a name).

besides as I've already stated you don't need a Terran "bad guy" splinter group for them to antagonistic towards the Protoss as the Protoss tend to be less then diplomatic in their dealings with the Terrans (with the exception of Raynor's Raiders who are a minor faction) and tbh what I asked in the OP was is there any justification for assuming Nova would a leader of such splinter faction.

[RogueIce]

Worst case scenario is they completely derail Valerian's character and make him a raging asshole because it's Blizzard.

I don't think they will, though. They don't even need the Dominion as "bad guys" really. They can always just invent some pirates or mercenaries or whatever. IIRC those Protoss fundies in the WoL campaign didn't exist in SC or BW but were more-or-less invented for the purposes of giving us "bad Protoss" for Raynor to fight. Well, they may have been in some EU novel but who the fuck cares about those?

As far as justification for Nova leading some splinter group...well maybe. I guess? Not the entire Dominion because that would be silly and stupid and any "justification" is likely pure fanwank and best ignored.

Of course, in the end, this is Blizzard we're talking about. So pretty much anything is possible via the magic of retcons and/or outright ignoring previous canon because they felt like it.

[InsaneTD]

You can't let something as silly as cannon get in the way of a good story.

[RogueIce]

Of course not. But since this is Blizzard we're talking about, your qualifier probably won't apply.

[InsaneTD]

You may be right, I retract the "good" from that statement.

[Lord Revan]

Worst case scenario is they completely derail Valerian's character and make him a raging asshole because it's Blizzard.

I don't think they will, though. They don't even need the Dominion as "bad guys" really. They can always just invent some pirates or mercenaries or whatever. IIRC those Protoss fundies in the WoL campaign didn't exist in SC or BW but were more-or-less invented for the purposes of giving us "bad Protoss" for Raynor to fight.

you're right that the Tal'darim didn't exist prior to SC1 or BW and tbh you don't need "bad guy" Terrans to oppose the Protoss for the Legacy of the Void, I mean Selendis opposed Raynor in WoL and all she was depicted was a little bit too eager at her duties, which is hardly atypical for the Protoss. I mean the story could be like this, the Protoss(aka you the player) go search after some relic to either help in the fight against Amon or prove that Zeratul wasn't talking from his ass (or the protoss equilevant) in Terran space, Terrans would obviously object to the presence of a Protoss war fleet in their territory and fight to push them back, thus becoming antagonistic towards the Protoss player without becoming evil.

I must ask you why do you believe that for a Terran force to be antagonistic towards the Protoss in Legacy of the Void they must be evil or "bad guys" as you said it and don't say it's cause that's how Blizzard does things seeing as they've done "antagonist but not evil" or "protagonist but clearly evil (for example the Mantid)" in the past so nothing stops them from doing it in the future.

[RogueIce]

They don't have to, sure, but it's probably likely given they created the Tal'darim for more-or-less that purpose in WoL. I suspect they may also be the "Protoss you fight" in LotD unless there's a lot of clan civil war going on. But as far as Terrans go, you're right that with the Selendis example, she wasn't really "evil" or a "bad guy" and you could still (optionally) fight her.

So it could be misunderstandings, or even the Protoss being dicks to Terrans and not telling them anything, just going in and doing what they want regardless of who happens to be on that planet. Depending on how they portray it, such a scenario could even work without making all of the sides look bad.

Since it's Blizzard though, I'm not exactly holding my breath*.

*(Personally I thought "Safe Haven" did make Selendis look bad, but that's just me)

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

The Mar Sara Magistrate would an interesting choice as we know next to nothing about that character, IIRC only things we know is that said character joined Sons of Korhal with Raynor and disappeared around the time the Raynor's Rangers became Raynor's Raiders (aka when Raynor chose to fight against the Dominion rather then join it), so we don't even know the race or gender of the Magistrate which made me wish English didn't have gendered personal pronouns, cause it makes writing about a person whose gender is undefinied really hard (and making it seem natural near impossible).

Singular "they/them/their" works very well for the job of undefined or neutral gender in English. It sometimes seems awkward when done deliberately but it's done all the time without people thinking about it, even ones who think it's "against the rules".

[Gaidin]

*(Personally I thought "Safe Haven" did make Selendis look bad, but that's just me)

Eh. Save Haven was her not giving a damn if they had a cure or not because she had a protocol for if that infection was spreading and it was to burn the place before it could get anywhere else. Personally I'm wondering what would've happened if she thought she had time to put that cure through something resembling a barrage of tests to see if it actually works as opposed to thinking she had no time or choice but to burn the place to ashes, but that's a 'what if' scenario there.

[Lord Revan]

The Mar Sara Magistrate would an interesting choice as we know next to nothing about that character, IIRC only things we know is that said character joined Sons of Korhal with Raynor and disappeared around the time the Raynor's Rangers became Raynor's Raiders (aka when Raynor chose to fight against the Dominion rather then join it), so we don't even know the race or gender of the Magistrate which made me wish English didn't have gendered personal pronouns, cause it makes writing about a person whose gender is undefinied really hard (and making it seem natural near impossible).

Singular "they/them/their" works very well for the job of undefined or neutral gender in English. It sometimes seems awkward when done deliberately but it's done all the time without people thinking about it, even ones who think it's "against the rules".

You got to remember that I'm not a native speaker of English, my native language is Finnish so I'd rather not try to bend the rules especially in something that doesn't come naturally to me as Finnish is gender neutral as there's only 1 word (hän) for both gender in the 3rd person singular and "it" is out of the question for the same reason you don't use "se" in Finnish aka they refer only to inanimate objects or possibly animals but never to humans and using them to refer to humans is highly insulting as it implies they're not a person but an object.

[Lord Revan]

*(Personally I thought "Safe Haven" did make Selendis look bad, but that's just me)

Eh. Save Haven was her not giving a damn if they had a cure or not because she had a protocol for if that infection was spreading and it was to burn the place before it could get anywhere else. Personally I'm wondering what would've happened if she thought she had time to put that cure through something resembling a barrage of tests to see if it actually works as opposed to thinking she had no time or choice but to burn the place to ashes, but that's a 'what if' scenario there.

Selendis did out a bit overzealous to me but only slightly and it helped that zerg infections had described in both SC1 and WoL to be incurable previously with Stukov's curing being almost a miracle and that's forgetting that Spoiler

that cure did ultimately fail

[RogueIce]

*(Personally I thought "Safe Haven" did make Selendis look bad, but that's just me)

Eh. Save Haven was her not giving a damn if they had a cure or not because she had a protocol for if that infection was spreading and it was to burn the place before it could get anywhere else. Personally I'm wondering what would've happened if she thought she had time to put that cure through something resembling a barrage of tests to see if it actually works as opposed to thinking she had no time or choice but to burn the place to ashes, but that's a 'what if' scenario there.

My problem is the way Blizzard warps reality in order to justify whatever decision you make. Which is why I specify Safe Haven, because Haven's Fall (naturally) showed a scenario in which she was clearly justified in wanting Purification. Actually, it shows a natural scenario for why she was even there which Safe Haven...did not.

In SH, the infection was pretty damn small (less than ten?) and clearly safe contained. So I have to wonder why in the name of Tassadar was this even a blip on her or the Protoss' radar? Especially considering the outright invasions of other colony worlds that UNN kept referencing. In the first game, they only showed up when a Zerg infestation had clearly spiraled out of any hope of control. Mar Sara had random Zerglings on it quite a bit before Tassadar showed up to take care of business, after all. And Tarsonis had the Psi Emitter attracting a good chunk of the Swarm so of course they took note.

But Haven, as portrayed in Safe Haven's reality, did not. It was contained. It was small-scale. Even granting they were on the edges of Protoss space, this would seem like a totally wasted effort on her part. And glassing the whole planet over barely a handful of infested humans? Maybe they adopted some kind of Zero Tolerance policy after Brood War, but Jesus. And then going for it even when Raynor says he can handle it, which he easily could have with like three Marines even if they wanted the Infested to die. You know, Raynor, the guy who befriended Tassadar who has practically become Protoss Space Jesus? Who held the fucking line on Aiur alongside Fenix while Zeratul led the escape to Shakuras, even accepting being on the wrong side of the Gateway when they shut it down, and still fucking lived through it despite the odds? That Raynor, asks that you let him handle a bare handful of Infested Terrans (when they know damn well a cure is, at least theoretically, possible...there's no indication they knew about Stukov reverting at that point), and she's all "lol nope but I'd love to face you on the field of battle".

Yeah, sorry, but the altered reality for Safe Haven just makes her (and the Protoss for even sending her there in the first place) look like murderous jerks.

[Gaidin]

True enough. What I said was said when I wasn't clearly remembering what exactly happened in that level especially compared to Haven's Fall. Sorry about that. That choice would've been a lot more interesting, I think if you were given the same bigger map for both choices, one just made either the terrans or the protoss the enemies or the allies, meanwhile a chunk of aggressive infected terrans/zerg were trying to take over the rest of the terrans in a fashion comparable to Haven's Fall. The infection is there, but looking back, I don't like the idea of it being so damn small or so damn large conveniently based on your choice.

[RogueIce]

True enough. What I said was said when I wasn't clearly remembering what exactly happened in that level especially compared to Haven's Fall. Sorry about that. That choice would've been a lot more interesting, I think if you were given the same bigger map for both choices, one just made either the terrans or the protoss the enemies or the allies, meanwhile a chunk of aggressive infected terrans/zerg were trying to take over the rest of the terrans in a fashion comparable to Haven's Fall. The infection is there, but looking back, I don't like the idea of it being so damn small or so damn large conveniently based on your choice.

Indeed. That would have worked better. The Zerg presence may not have been as large as in HF, for balance reasons (IIRC it's first available relatively early in the campaign) as well as allowing for a rational belief on Raynor's side that it could be contained, yet still enough of a threat for it to be sensible the Protoss sent their Executor out to deal with it. And since it there were already "wild Zerg" they would be understandably skeptical of even Raynor saying he could handle it...because really once a Zerg infestation/invasion gets underway, nobody (AFAIK) has had much luck stopping it.

[Lord Revan]

it's in the same "tier" as Jailbreak/Ghost of a Chance (I know cause I did Jailbreak before it on purpose), though I think it might have become avaible a bit sooner, either way the Viking is the first true air unit you get, so the enemies can't be that hard since your unit selection is still limited.

Though I agree the infestation could have been a bit more prominent to drive home that the Protoss were not massively over estimating the zerg threat.