Just incase some headphone users didn’t read the warning:

CLAP

"You can't be friend with your food" - Zerg

wings of liberty: I want to save my girlfriend
heart of the swarm: I want to revenge my boyfriend
legacy of the void: WE GONNA KILL A GOD

In the wise words of Talis “It’s easier to negotiate with a rock then the Zerg”

StarCraft 2 cutscenes will give you a storymode experience.

The bugs can be friendly, if their controller/master/queen is friendly.

Individual zerg is like a bee in a bee hive, so they dont really know what friend even means. Its the queen who controls them. Also the Zerg is basically a biological weapon created by the dark one, Amon.

Love how, even with other perspectives (for example you as a non-gamer), these trailers still spark such a reaction. Love your content!

The trailer is all about Protoss history and identity as a race. The gamers got hyped. Then the game was all about destroying and subverting that history and identity.

Hannah: Is he alone there?
Zeratul: BUT NONE OF US ARE EVER, TRULY ALONE!

Purpose to why the cinematics look so different:

The second one is VERY expensive to make.

The Zerg can be friendly if they're being controlled by someone friendly. Usually, only Kerrigan has ever made them friendly, and she's had beef with just about everyone in the SC universe so...they're not often friendly.

The Protoss with the fancy armor is Artanis. He is the Hierarch of their race, eseentially the leader of their people. His armor being unique is likely because of that rank.

In Starcraft 2, the game's overall plot is told in 3 stories, each one similar in structure to a novel.

Spoilers-ish



The first (Wings of Liberty) is about Jim Raynor fighting against the Dominion and trying to topple Mengsk's evil regime. He discovers a bunch of weird Dominion experiments, ancient alien artifacts, and tries to rescue Kerrigan. The focus is on the humans.

The second (Heart of the Swarm) is about Kerrigan being transformed back into a human and reunited with Jim, only to be seperated again by the Dominion. When she hears the false news that Jim was killed, she remakes herself into the Queen of Blades and goes on a rampage. Obviously its told from the Zerg perspective.

The third (Legacy of the Void), is about Artanis leading the Protoss to retake their lost homeworld of Aiur, which is overrun with rabid swarms of Zerg. During the battle, Artanis discovers something much more evil and malevelont than the Zerg, and it's waking up. His story is focused on finding and defeating this being. The perspective of this story is the Protoss.

There is an epilogue story that focuses on all three factions uniting against Amon, the evil being.

Then there is a short sequel to the series following the perspective of Nova, a Dominion Ghost (a special forces operative with psychic powers) as she uncovers a plot against the newly reformed Dominion. It's a side story, but a fun one.

to break down the main trailer:

the remaining protoss have assembled all their fleets and soldiers in an attempt to retake their homeworld Aiur after it was overrun in a zerg attack many years before, however it is a trap laid by the dark god Amon, the zerg on Aiur are feral, they require an overmind to control them, the zerg species is a hivemine race made of many different creatures but none of them save for overminds have independent thought, and because there is no overmind on Aiur the remaining zerg simply act on impulse etc.


the khala was another creation of the dark god Amon, it served as a similar tool to the overmind for the zerg, however unlike the zerg the protoss had evolved to have their own individual thoughts and emotions and were free to act on their own without anything guiding them, Amon created it with the intent of it being used as a way to control the protoss at large like a hivemind and exert his will over them.


in the main trailer the characters shown represent certain units you can create and use in game, the guy with one eye is called a 'zealot' they are the ground infantry of the protoss and are usually the vanguard of an operation they use psionic energy to create the energy blades you see them wielding, the two you see with the robes are called 'high templar' they use psionic energy in the form of storms and lightning as their primary weapon, they are highly revered in the protoss hierarchy, the little robot you saw is called a 'probe' these are sentient beings that are the 'builders' of the protoss, they use warp technology to beam materials and structures to where they are needed, this is basically just a gameplay device shown in cinematic form for fans but it does have a purpose for the story being told in the cinematic as the pylon allowed more protoss reinforcements to get beamed down to the surface etc.


it should be noted that there's a small disconnect between the lore of the game, and in game gameplay mechanics, in the cinematic the two high templar fuse together to become a being known as an 'Archon', in lore, this action is done as a last resort not all high templar have the capacity to do so and once done cannot be undone, the two high templar that perform this action will die sooner or later depending on their psionic energy stores and how powerful they are, this is because an 'Archon' uses psionic energy like a fuel and once it is gone they burn up and die, in the cinematic the 'Archon' decides that it won't be strong enough to take down the 'Ultralisk' so it sacrifices all remaining psionic energy in one big last attack and that's what was shown in the cinematic, in terms of gameplay however as long as you have the troops and resources you can make as many of these units as you like so if you end up watching gameplay videos and someone has an army of 'Archons' just remember that in terms of lore this wouldn't happen.


during the fight it's shown that one of the 'Zealots' attacks three 'Banelings' (a type of zerg that is basically a giant sac of corrosive fluid), normally a 'Zealot' would never engage 'Banelings' but in this case he gave his life to protect the pylon being warped in and you see his spirit leaving his body after the third 'Baneling' explodes over him.


there's a lot of other smaller details that could be explained but this is the general gist of things for the cinematic trailer.

I remember that one bit during the campaign when Artanis was like "En Taro Tassadar"
and Zeratul replied with "En Taro Artanis"
It is basically one of the highest honour you could receive...and I was like "I sacrificed thousands of protoss to finish this game..."

Answers in chronological order:
- It became "culty" later (with the rejection of the dark templars and all), but wasn't at first. The Khala gave them telepathic and absolute connection between each others (they have nerve cords for that on their heads, what you could call "hair". A bit similar of what they have in Avatar for you to get the image, even if different ^^). When he says they became "one", it's literal ^^.
- Also about the "talk and be friends", it could often works but here: they are united as Protoss, unlike before, but have to take back their world from Zergs... You don't talk with zergs ^^", primarily because they can't talk your language, but also because they're only fury and hunger o_o.
- "This one" looks like this because he's kind of a "foot soldier", the other one is the high commander (the "hierarch") and command the whole legion. Depending of their fonction or power and/or if they have chosen to sever their nerve cords and become dark templars or not (they then have green blades instead of blue ones and have other outfits). I think they've a "caste" thing with the outfits too? Not sure though :).
- No the zergs can't be "friends instead" uhuh, they live to assimilate and mutate, the swarm "digest", they don't "befriend"... or in a way that you're not yourself anymore, like Kerrigan being changed :). Also and if left alone, Zergs are "beasts", the overmind "think for" and "connect" the whole swarm. Unless if an "overmind" is "friendly", but if it ever "falls apart", they'll go straight back to aggressivity ^^".

Also, the random zealot that Artanis is talking to is Khel'dalis, the same one that fought to establish the beachhead on Aiur in the Legacy of the Void main cinematic.

Ok, a couple things, especially regarding the second video:

Can the Protoss be friends instead with the Zerg? Not really... the Zerg are mostly a mindless swarm, not intelligent enough to be friends instead. HOWEVER, among the Zerg there are more intelligent ones that can control the regular Zerg, and it is possible for the Protoss to be friends with some of them. It... actually happens eventually. The Zerg that are all over Aiur (the Protoss homeworld) aren't under anyone's control, so we're definitely in a situation where they can't be friends instead, they're just a mindless swarm that will eat and destroy everything.

Also, the second video has a bunch of gameplay references. The way the Protoss work is that they teleport in buildings and soldiers. So the little robot thing (it's called a Probe) that made a black hole thing appear... that was teleporting in the big crystal thing (it's called a Pylon) that shows up at the end of the video. So the Probe shows up with the group of soldiers and its job is to get the Pylon to teleport in, and the black hole is what it looks like while it's teleporting in. When the Pylon shows up, they can teleport in other soldiers around it, which is what happens at the end. But they can't teleport soldiers in until the Pylon is done teleporting in, and it's vulnerable during that process. So the whole plan was that a small strike force shows up on the planet and their whole job is to protect the Pylon while it's teleporting in, then the whole army can teleport in. At one point, you see balls rolling toward the Pylon, those are called Banelings, and they're bugs filled with acid that explode on contact, spraying acid and doing massive damage to anything nearby... and one of the Protoss soldiers runs straight at them and gets all the Banelings to explode on him so that he dies instead of the Pylon getting destroyed by them. All but one of that initial strike force gets killed defending the Pylon, so as you noticed, he was all alone at the end, right before the Pylon finished teleporting in. And he stands there alone, ready to defend it against a whole swarm of bugs if necessary, when it finishes teleporting in.

Also, I'm pretty sure that's what they were referring to in the first video when they talk about "the tip of the spear." The one guy volunteered to be in that first strike force and probably die defending the Pylon so the whole army could come in and take back their homeworld.

If you're ready to binge a bit, there is compilations of all the cutscenes of each chapter in Starcraft 2. In order: Winds of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, Legacy of the Void.

All contexts aren't always clear, but I'm sure you will be able to fit the pieces together.

Also, Kerrigan Cosplay for the win.

"For we are bound, by the Kala, the sacred union, of our every thought and emotion."
"Yo, that would get hella awkwaaaaard!" Sad but true! XD

A big thing to remember when watching this and wondering "why the exposition dump" is that between the first Starcraft game and the release of the next was over 12 years.  Even for a Blizz die hard like me, it was good to get the "recap".