Howdy Folks! Thanks for taking the time checking out the video. What is your favorite part of StarCraft lore? Whose your favorite character? Hope this finds you well!

If I recall, in one of the starcraft books it explains why Mengsk accepted Kerrigan.  He knew she killed his family, but also knew he could use that against her to secure her loyalty.  She expressed visible guilt over the act, which he exploited.  Not only that, but he deeply enjoyed taking away one of the confederacy's best toys.

That didn't mean he wasn't aiming for revenge.  He was using her as a tool until she was no longer needed.  Then he left her to be zerg food.  His only miscalculation was the overmind's interest in her.

The Overmind found Aiur after Zeratul touched a cerebrate. Not by absorbing the xel naga.

I hated how the Terrans from earth were almost Identical to the terrans. Divergent technological evolution as well as a hell of a head start would have made it a completely different faction.

Starcraft, Star Wars, and Gundam were my introduction into the sci-fi genre when I was young. Always love going back to it time and again.

“I love you sarge” ahahah

5:20 The 16,000 prisoners that were not deemed viable became the rations for those who were deemed viable.

17:55 The Overmind did not know where Aiur was. It was only when Zeratul killed the cerebrate named Zasz that the Overmind learned of Aiur's location..by taking it from Zeratul's mind.

If I recall correctly from one of the early game manuals, the Zerg were a small worm like parasite (that the larvae and cerebrets are the closest in shape to, if larger). The Xel’Naga (retconned to be Amon) decided to take these little guys and enhance them. Eventually the parasite started being able to take control of and alter the larger organisms they were in, rapidly changing them to be unrecognizable in relatively few generations.  This being how assimilating new species into the swarm works.

As I’ve read from Starcraft 1 manual, Overmind’s interest in the Protoss was purely based on instinct of assimilation and evolution - being the other race raised by Xel’Naga, the Protoss is deemed as Zerg’s greatest foe and the final step of evolution. The reason why Overmind infests human and especially Ghosts like Kerrigan is because the Overmind needs psionic warriors to go against the Protoss advanced psychic powers.

I know the Dark lord Amon is the new lore, and the Overmind’s struggle to break free from Amon’s control gives it some more depth to the character. While making Kerrigan becomes the key to Zerg’s freedom make the Overmind seem more sympathetic, it also makes the Overmind seem desperate. I’ve always seen the Overmind as 5-steps-ahead kind of villain and it having plans upon plans to defeat the Protoss make it feel like a brilliant tactician. Also, Kerrigan’s rise from being a pawn in multiple political games (Mengsk, Overmind) to the Queen Bitch of the Universe is much cooler than being the Chosen One from the start.

Apparently there was some post SC1 release date retconning that happened. The history was in the original instruction book that came with the game way back when, and I read all of it several times through because it was soo cool. Some of the history you've told here, especially with the Protoss, strikes me as incorrect barring retcons that I never paid attention to or saw. My memory could be faulty here, but the following differences is what I recall from 26 years ago and entirely from either the instruction book or SC1 campaign :

-Kerrigan and all the ghosts were more or less mind controlled by the confederacy. She switched sides when she was freed of this control.

-The Xel'naga were basically bored space travelers playing god with their advanced technology. They weren't malicious or bad, just naive.

-The Protoss started with psionic power. This is what drew the Xel'naga to them in the first place as they had the potential to be equals or even better than the Xel'naga themselves. The Protoss eventually got themselves into civil war and cut themselves off from their psionic link. At this point the Xel'naga thought they failed the Protoss and they ALL left. Protoss Jesus eventually led them out of it but the Xel'naga were long gone and playing with the Zerg by time that happened. From here on the Protoss tried to be better and act like the Xel'naga in hopes that the Xel'naga might return and bless them with their presence again. The Protoss saw the Zerg as abominations to be wiped out from the moment they met them which is why they went to the extreme of annihilating any infested planets.

-With the Zerg the Xel'naga took a hands off approach rather than being directly involved. Zerg started as small mind control parasites, but the Xel'naga enabled them to have vastly more potential. The Zerg slowly assimilated their entire home planet, and eventually got some creatures with the ability for space travel. The Zerg eventually noticed the Xel'naga in orbit, ambushed, and consumed all of them. At the time this was thought to be the end of the Xel'naga as an active race as only old temples were around, and the bonus level having Xel'naga hybrids wasn't until the brood war expansion. While they wiped out the Xel'naga the Zerg learned all sorts of things including the Protoss having psionic powers which is why the Zerg made the journey in the first place. When they arrived they found Kerrigan first and didn't really need the Protoss anymore since she gave them access to it which is why it never came up again.

I read somewhere that Arcturus took Kerrigan knowing that she was the one that killed his family. That's why he left her to die later for "no reason". But I'm not sure where i did read that or if it's real at all. Could just be a headcanon of mine.

Now I know why Arthurus left Kerrigan to be over run by the Zerg

11:19-11:38 the reasoning is two fold:
1. he knew that kerrigan was semi mind controlled (the neural inhibitors all ghosts have), and thus would happily join his side if the control was lifted
2. he had planned to have her killed at some point out of vengeance, and figured it would be easier to do if she trusted him (keep your enemies closer and all that...)

Man, I was WAY too young to grasp just how juicy the StarCraft lore was

SC1 absolutely blew me away as an 11 year old! I played the game to death on my aunty’s laptop. The lore, the gameplay, visuals/sound and drama. After many years in between I downloaded StarCraft remastered pre covid…man, what a feeling getting to play back through that campaign again. Thanks heaps for the video, this is fantastic, makes me want to jump back in and play the series again.

That first SC1 opening cutscene was so good.. forgot all about it

Arcturus brought on Kerrigan to make his revenge on her even more sweet to him. She personally decapitated Angus. Therefore, Arcturus had special plans in mind for her execution. Reveal the truth to her, claim that he has forgiven her, push her boundaries to the breaking point, and kill her when she becomes too resistant to his machinations.

Algorithm must've hated you, It's a really nice video, can't wait for a sequel to come out :)

Thank you for the guild wars call out