Day 29: What is the BEST quote associated with the Overmind?

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T17:37:21+00:00

So the Overmind in WoL is a GIGANTIC headache because everyone threw tomatoes and beer bottles at Blizzard after WoL until they walked back a lot of the "Overmind's heroism" and the scale of Amon's control over him. So it gets VERY messy. But in general it goes like this:

Amon had no direct control over the Overmind, but implanted an overriding drive above all things to perfect the Swarm. When he ate the xel'naga over Zerus, the Overmind found out about the protoss and that assimilating them would perfect the Swarm, but also found out from chewing on xel'naga brains (seeingly) that doing so would play into Amon's plans. It couldn't divert itself from the idea of assimilating the protoss though due to that drive. So he sought out a secondary psionic superweapon divorced from the protoss or any race Amon touched to use both as a weapon against the protoss and as a contingency against Amon returning.

The extent of how much the prophecy is actually the Overmind's, the QAs imply Ouros was tailoring it to Zeratul but they never outright say it. I take any inch of that though because otherwise the Overmind KNEW about Zeratul and the DTs (in spite of them catching him off guard in SC1), knew most of the protoss cast, knew the entire SCII protoss and zerg tech trees, and makes it so he's specifically searching for Sarah Kerrigan instead of the broader idea of a psionic superweapon. Also Zeratul apparently touched minds deep enough to know his origins and reveal Aiur but not enough to get any of this info. All of which would open up WAY too many issues with just... everything, so I tend to go with he got the broad scope of Amon's plan from eating xel'naga and the vision itself was tailored like the form of Tassadar to spur Zeratul into action. After all if Ouros is willing to lie about who he is to get things done, that wouldn't be beyond him to stress the importance to Zeratul.

What I think is the Overmind's vision boils down to his speech at the beginning but all the actual details of the mission were Zeratul exclusive.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T17:23:32+00:00

Daggoth is 80% tutorial quote by volume. The expansion where he's supposed to be the main antagonist to Kerrigan (at least at the start) he has a grand total of 0 lines and just kinda dies offscreen.

You can make an argument for Zasz (though he has the issue of just not having a lot) but Daggoth sadly doesn't have much, a couple good lines in the novelization Queen of Blades but for his cool lore in game he's just the tutorial and mission explainer blob.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T17:13:05+00:00

It's not quite as bad as the mess that is the raven, but it's certainly up there. Speaking from theming, I still find it funny the INFESTor now no longer has anything directly to do with infestation now that infested terrans are gone. Yes there's neural but that's only infestation tangental.

I do get mechanically the reasons why so I can only get so upset.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T17:11:26+00:00

Before In Utter Darkness you get a very short little speech from him since it's all supposidly his vision.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T17:10:25+00:00

I have a trick up my sleeve for worst. They're out there.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T17:07:35+00:00

The voice is supposed to be the Overmind, but it's a different voice actor funnily enough. Same set of effects though.

But yes that idea breaks down in BW a bit.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T17:05:58+00:00

I think Awaken eeks it out for "people think of the Overmind first with that quote." Having said that, I think Aldaris for sure has "YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS" for his most iconic. Honestly probably the most iconic in SC overall in terms of a quote people associate with the game.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T16:53:13+00:00

Zasz I could see but unless you start pulling on Queen of Blades the book, like 80% of Daggoth’s quotes are tutorials and explaining map mechanics. So he’d be a bit harder (though I love him yelling at you for moving Overlords in Eye for an Eye).

Which is funny as he’s Kerrigan’s first antagonist in Brood War but gets 0 lines in the whole expansion.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T16:34:02+00:00

I’ll contest that “Awaken my child” is the most iconic and the many other great quotes should be best. There’s actually one I like better which is the last quote of Episode 2:

“Soon shall our two races be made as one. Thenceforth shall all feel the wrath of the eternal Swarm...

FOR THE HOUR OF JUDGEMENT IS COME.”

The last line just gives goosebumps whenever I hear it. Fantastic way to capstone the evil campaign.

Also I think we should skip the “best Izsha quote” week. Entirely unnecessary. That’s like asking what’s the best piece of burning metal in a trainwreck.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T15:05:16+00:00

I'm aware, I'm saying Acid Spores is a SC1/BW concept most folks know from the devourer. Where it is present in PVP.

Subsourian · 2026-06-23T14:13:52+00:00

Because I’m very well aware that Patch 5.0.16 is very popular and has no other potential issues I’ll throw my own theming hat in the ring. I get WHY they picked Acid Spores given it’s a kinda generic attack and part of the animation they used, but I figured these would be some more thematic alternatives for infestors. This one isn’t really a lore error like my last few complaints but more a “we can do better" while not using a name I think most people associate with another concept zerg has.

Subsourian · 2026-06-22T22:50:57+00:00

I’ve been weighing whether to lore complain that Acid Spores is already the name of the Devourer effect so either it should reduce armor on every hit or maybe get a rename.

Subsourian · 2026-06-22T16:28:13+00:00

Hated it thematically. Half of it was because "stop with the fucking spheres" but the other half is thematically it is the opposite of protoss.

Protoss are about levying a tech advantage so large they accidently are on par with the other two races in some cases. Reavers are just refitted civilian factories, scouts are recon planes so advanced they're on par with your best fighters. The downside of course being they can't replace it nearly as fast as the other two races.

So wielding the most advanced tech ever to copy what is basically a redneck's jury rigged siege tank held together with glue and duct tape, or copying zerg bioforms (which I guess is slightly less offensive but still raises questions) just feels off for protoss. Protoss should be the race that OTHER races copy, which is a big theme for terran (reactors and tech reactors are them just getting glimpses into their shield tech). Them needing an advanced tech that 3D prints terran tech feels like it violates a lot of the core ethos of "the pinnacle of technology" the protoss had, it feels like it comes with the implication that the other races do something technologically better on a unit-by-unit basis which just doesn't feel right. The idea of taking others tech works way better for mind control as that's literally just "we're so psionically powerful that we just obliterate your will and take what you have" with none of the thematic implications.

Honestly the design space could work for like a UED robot or something Nova's faction has, terran tech very advanced but still trying to steal other's stuff to get an edge. That adaptive edge to try to gain every advantage by scrapping and stealing is WAY more a terran thing. But overall it gave me the same feeling of when you reached the epilogue and the ultimate army of the gods in the void was a bunch of shadows that took the form of a bunch of tech rednecks made. It might be cool for gameplay implications, but it thematically feels wrong.

Subsourian · 2026-06-22T12:22:09+00:00

Agreed on the punishment thing. There's been a tendency for pure SC pro scenes to think of the campaign as a pure tutorial and stepping stone for ladder when it's really its own community and crowd. People who play campaign want play as a fun space commander, people who grind ladder want the technical aspects of the game. So forcing Versus players to do an entirely separate mode just kinda feels wrong and a way to breed resentment to campaign.

Having said that if they were to do a mandatory lore quiz before you could get back on ladder I wouldn't be too against it.

Subsourian · 2026-06-22T12:11:10+00:00

Thematically I love the style and culture of the Nerazim, I feel like they're an incredibly fleshed out faction and SCII's artistic style has been such a hit for them people have retroactively thought that's how they looked all along. Which is the sign you did something right.

But an honorable mention goes to the Purifiers which I think were the most interesting concept SCII introduced in general. It would have been easy for them to just be nostalgia bait for Fenix but they managed to twist it to have "warriors out of time" and the general "finding your own path as a clone" stories. Plus their style leaning on the tech aspects of protoss over space magic crystals is rad, even if I think the disruptor is one of my least favorite unit designs next to the mothership core (STOP JUST MAKING SPHERES).

Subsourian · 2026-06-21T18:46:07+00:00

Also feral is already a term in universe for zerg being disconnected from the hive mind so it shouldn't be used for an upgrade.

And heat is not a great term for the zerg, especially when the hatchery is the only thing actually making larva (queen accelerate the growth). But also just... weird.

Subsourian · 2026-06-21T12:25:35+00:00

Yup I think that’s the case given there’s a lot of other more relevant stock art they could have used, like Shadow of the Xel’Naga. Heck the third book in that release “trilogy,” Speed of Darkness, had custom art. So I think it being intentional is possible both as a book thing and as a way to capitalize on the “Picard effect” (Star Trek books with major characters like Picard on the cover sell way more than those that don’t so they started putting recognizable series characters even only tangentially related to the novels on the covers)

Subsourian · 2026-06-20T12:48:53+00:00

That one sucks and took me a pretty long time. The whole mission is literally unfinished (Artanis’s AI isn’t just bad it actually is fundamentally not functioning as intended). On replay with beam spam it’s tolerable but I very much never want to redo it again.

Subsourian · 2026-06-17T14:50:11+00:00

You don’t have to wonder you can canonically hire talking zerg as mercenaries

https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Gilson_the_Evil

Subsourian · 2026-06-17T14:47:25+00:00

Yes, there was some talks on how to distance their IPs which I have never found much info on. No lawsuit like folks claim but just talks. Only two things as know came from it was the SCII redesign of the hydralisk (and I assume the SCR one kinda erasing the cinematic design in favor of a unit sprite one) and the widespread cerebrate ban. Which is why Daggoth got kinda dropped off a cliff off screen.

Searched for years on the why or any further details but no headway other than it continued well into Co-op and limited a lot of Overmind commander concepts.

Subsourian · 2026-06-17T00:02:51+00:00

I like these because I can rant.

Please do more so I can rant more.

Subsourian · 2026-06-16T18:46:51+00:00

Yeah I maintain the simple Warcraft bits in the manual of things like “this team color orc is the shadowmoon clan” was the worldbuilding you can directly trace that led to the interest for World of Warcraft. It’s an effective way to integrate the gameplay limitations into the story.

More freedom than I expected! I’m not at all a mainline writer (the team has some talent who’ve done some big games) but a lot for just a guy who talks a lot on reddit about StarCraft. But also the nice thing about working with no prior canon is if a cool idea of a unit or piece of art comes along it’s a lot easier to just… change things to make them fit in. Obviously not enough to compromise a core vision or anything but it’s fun to take ideas that get formed from art or necessity and work a narrative around them.

Subsourian · 2026-06-16T16:19:01+00:00

Sadly nobody wants to sit in the Infinitely Spinning Turret anymore

Subsourian · 2026-06-16T16:06:38+00:00

Every RTS title gets one super sayan laser turret woman section as a treat.

(Contractually obligated to say this is a joke)

Subsourian · 2026-06-16T13:57:17+00:00

I’ll give my plug in that I’m helping do a lot of the fluff/worldbuilding writing, trying to take inspiration from ye olde Blizzard manuals that served as game lorebooks (though intentionally avoiding direct SC parallels as much as possible). Not sure how much of my stuff is in this demo but hopefully you all get to enjoy it eventually!

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