- Cosplay art of Sarah Louise Kerrigan, both the antagonist, the protagonist and most importantly the tragic anti-heroine of the entire main StarCraft story (StarCraft Original, Broodwar and StarCraft II) by Tasha from South Korean cosplay team Spiral Cats.
Hello everyone.
My name is Daniel, but friends call me Xeri. In the following essay, I will guide you through the Universe of StarCraft and tell you how it impacted me as a person during a span of more than fifteen years.
Thank you for your attention,
Yours faithfully, @xeri
StarCraft Broodwar - Intro Cinematic
I grew up on StarCraft. Ever since I was a little kid, I was watching my older cousin chase them weird zergy things on the screen and as a kid, I was captivated, often wanting to try it out myself and so I did. It was tough, strange and hard but somewhat rewarding. Even so that I basically became a gamer mainly because of StarCraft (and WarCraft 3 and Duke Nukem 3D)
After some time I grew up and managed to play the game on a reasonable level. I understood English much better by then and since it is not my native language, it quite proved to be a breaking point for my love for StarCraft.
For a story so intricate, so complex and genius, written in an almost Shakespearean language which somehow gets mixed up with the complete south american dialect/accent stereotype - and in a combination with litterally the biblical Overmind and the Protossspearean English, it creates a diverse varity of languages - all written with surgical precision and pure skill. The writing of StarCraft 1 just makes my jaw drop even today.
For those of you who want to truly review the entire beauty of the story of StarCraft Broodwar, here, watch a movie made out of the Remastered version:
It has shaped my mind! I can recite this entire video backwards - it is one of my bibles - I have the ability to fully memorize sound input and then basically replay it in my mind, being able to reproduce even the intonation differences and various accents which makes me a fairly good impersonator. And so I can act out an entire scene switching between all the characters for any amount of watchers, lmao. (I might perhaps make a video of that some day.)
Anyway, I think you get by now how much the Universe of StarCraft has been woven into the development of my personality and psychological capacity.
And after ten years, when I was practically a diehard StarCraft fan - having memorised 95 % of all the in-game dialogues and quotes (including briefings and in-game cinematics) - a new star of hope has arisen.
BEHOLD! STARCRAFT II!
Ghosts of the Past Trailer - StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
StarCraft II was my big-ass re-entry into gaming. Seriously, I had stopped gaming like for a year and a half which was an increddible switch both in my lifestyle, my moods, my general daily schedule and my interests. But that is a tale for another day.
After this period of clairvoyance, I returned to the computer and freshly installed StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. And boy that thing captivated me! No matter how clumsy and Hollywoodian the writing was, I instantly fell in love with both the gameplay mechanics, the graphics and most importantly: the story.
It filled me with hope and joy - the badass Terran, the romantic lovestory that my dark-ass childhood basically turned into all of a sudden. And I was in my early teens, so I didn't mind that back then at all.
I actually embraced the thought of Kerrigan turning human and basically became obsessed with her. I couldn't wait to see her side of the coin! I couldn't wait for Heart of the Swarm, which was a nail in the coffin for my love for the story of StarCraft II. It was so goddamn dissappointing how Kerrigan mindlessly turned back into a bitch without a blink of the eye!
She immediately discards all that Raynor has done for her and selfishly pursues nothing but revenge. You can see she never really cared about Jim that much. She's just possessed with her desire for revenge and she only rarely shows any signs of guilt or humanity in general at all.
I was expecting Heart of the Swarm to be a psychological guilt trip of Kerrigan's dark twisted mind. Her resisting the gnawing of her Zerg nature. Her struggle for humanity and instead... nope!
*Turns back into Queen of Blades; becomes a murdering bitch; finds out she was wrong about Raynor's death but doesn't give a shit; rescues Jim; gets dump'd (my favorite HotS cinematic - the most epic breakup in the history of mankind);
loses her temper; finds out about Amon; assaults Korhal; lets civillians go (a nice moment, but it was LITTERALLY THE ONLY ONE!; kills Mengsk; goes off to prepare for Amon.*
**Shut.Down.
Brain.Exe not found...
Rebooting...
Brain.Exe restored...
WHAT THE SON OF A BULLCRAP?!**
Yep. The acronym HotS used to really suck for me. That was a long time ago, now the acronym is a good one for me, because it thankfully stands for Heroes of the Storm. But that is as well a tale for another time.
So yeah, I won't go into details with LotV and Nova Cover Ops too, so much as they are concerned, I will say that LotV was pretty good (67,5 / 100 %) and the Nova campaign was pretty darn good (78,25 / 100 %).
But what StarCraft II has become for me eventually is an increddible multiplayer gaming platform. And the community, oh the community! I actually enjoy watching StarCraft II than playing it because the pro matches are just increddible! I have watched now more StarCraft II tournaments than TV shows.
Every year I watch an entire series of either the WCS, IEM or other big SC2 tournaments because they are a sort of an epic soap-opera substitute and one much more inspiring and exihilirating - at least for me.
But for real, watch this one particular match. It begins at 32:00 and ends at 45:00.
See how crazy it can get? If you've watched that and aren't very familiar with the game, you must've seen how epic the games can get even if you didn't entirely understood what's going on.
It's an increddible game and the pro players are absolutely phenomenal. True virtuoses of PC Gaming. They practice so much as to bring the game itself to a whole new level, practically rendering it alive and organic, creating art and not just gaming.
Also, the amount of fanart and cosplay StarCraft II has spawned is vast and wondrous. There is the Carbot's StarCrafts series:
There is an entire array of increddible StarCraft cosplayers:
- Pictured above: Stan Winston School Cosplay Contest winner, Michael Wiggins and his "Jim Raynor” armor from Starcraft 2. The entire article here.
- Nova cosplay from Starcraft by Calypsen
- Kerrigan's portrayal by Tasha from South Korean cosplay team Spiral Cats. The entire article here.
And much much more including various tutorials, tips, gameplays, tactics tutorials and of course, commentaries (the one way anyone can get into the StarCraft business, which is a future I might yet decide to pursue, who knows? The Stars are unclear as of now.
Anyways, StarCraft II is a sort of a challenge for me to conquer. I have recently broken my eternal fear of the multiplayer and found out that I am far from being too bad. So, by the way, if you're reading this essay, feel free to contact me so we can team up for some StarCraft action and discussion! I'd be glad to find good people to play StarCraft with (that includes StarCraft Remastered)!
" And so my fellow Terrans, I come to you in the wake of recent events to issue a call to reason. Let no human deny the perils of our time. While we battle one another, divided by the petty strife of our common history, a tide of a greater conflict has turned against us, threatening to destroy all that we have accomplished.
It is time for us as gamers and as individuals to set aside or long standing feuds and unite.
The tide of a great war for the independence of the internet and all mankind is upon us and we must seek refuge upon (Obi-Wan's) higher ground lest we be swept away from the flood.
The net neutrality is no more.
Whatever semblance of unity and protection it once provided is a phantom. A memory.
With our enemies left unchecked who will you turn to for protection? The devastation wrought by the censorship of the internet is self-evident. We have seen our purses diminish, our comments, videos, even channels deleted, consumed by the nightmarish corporationist elites of the world.
Unprecedented and unimaginable though they may be, these are the signs of our time. The time has come my fellow Gamers to rally to a new banner. In unity lies strength. Already many of the gamer population are waking up and joining our cause.
Out of the many we shall forge and indivisible whole capitulating only to a single throne and on that throne will sit Quality Game Content For Our Money. " - Xariel Mengsk I.
(by the way, I did not have to look up a single part of Mengsk's speech to be able to produce this modification of it. Yeah, I know.)
Thank you very much for your attention!
my name is @xeri; follow me for more posts like this.
My review of the latest installment of the Star Wars series, The Last Jedi can be found here.
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