History VideoGame / StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm

* BlackAndGreyMorality: While nowhere as bad as they were in the first game, Kerrigan and the Swarm still get in some pretty vicious deeds during the campaign, and [[KarmaHoudini never really suffer any comeuppance for their actions]]. That said, Mengsk is a sociopathic monster and Amon is an EldritchAbomination GodOfEvil [[OmnicidalManiac intent on destroying the cosmos]].

* FiveManBand[[VillainProtagonist /]]FiveBadBand: Kerrigan gets her own during the events of the campaign.
** TheHero[=/=]BigBad: Kerrigan, Leader of the Swarm.
** TheLancer[=/=]TheDragon: Zagara, who serves as Kerrigan's second in command [[DefeatMeansFriendship after being defeated in battle]] and the Brood Mother Kerrigan eventually entrusts to lead the Swarm should Kerrigan die.
** TheBigGuy[=/=]TheBrute: Dehaka, a big, tough, fast and very single-minded [[spoiler:primal]] Zerg. Also lacks a [[spoiler:psionic connection]], making him pure muscle.
** TheSmartGuy[=/=]TheEvilGenius: Abathur, who's responsible for most if not all of the Zerg mutations and experimentation.
** TheChick[=/=]TheDarkChick: Izsha, the feminine Zerg who helps Kerrigan keep the various factions of the Swarm together.
** TheSixthRanger: [[spoiler:Alexei Stukov, who arrives late to the party and helps Kerrigan with solving the riddles around Amon's revival.]]

After the events of ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'', Sarah Kerrigan, formerly the Queen of Blades, has been mostly de-infested, leaving her with her original personality back, but only fragments of her memory as the leader of the Swarm and remains of zerg abilities. The Zerg Swarm, now leaderless, has fragmented into splintered, unorganized factions. While Kerrigan is now hungry for revenge against Mengsk, Raynor tries to convince her to move on. Unfortunately, Mengsk comes after ''them'' first. Using what remains of her abilities, Kerrigan goes on a quest to reclaim the Swarm and use it to crush Mengsk once and for all.

** It's possible to do the hydralisk evolution mission before triggering the cutscene where Izha tells Kerrigan that the broodmother Kalissa wishes to return to the swarm,This means Kalissa will Appear to exstract the lurker essence despite not having contacted Izha

* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: [[spoiler:After turning back into the Queen of Blades, after she rescues Raynor, and seeing him understandably pissed, Kerrigan guides his revolver towards her own head, sorrowfully asking if he still trusts her. He unloads the entire clip…deliberately missing, and then walks out of her life.]]

* SmartBall: One mission on Korhal reveals that Mengsk ordered the creation of the Psi-Destroyer, a weapon designed to kill the zerg via their HiveMind. This is the cleverest thing he does in the entire campaign.

* ShapeshifterBaggage: Cleverly averted when playing as the broodmother Niadra. You actually have to collect more biomass from dead animals before you can transform into a larger and more powerful form. And you can't change back to a smaller form.

->''"I am the Swarm. Armies will shatter, worlds will burn. Now, at last, on this world, vengeance shall be mine. For I am the Queen of Blades."''

* CallBack: A number of events from previous ''StarCraft'' works play a role in the plot of ''Heart of the Swarm'' or are simply mentioned.

** An amusing one in the second mission that doubles as an EasterEgg; if you start the mission and do nothing for a full minute, Kerrigan comments to Raynor that, six years on, he's still a pig! A callback to their very first conversation in the original StarCraft.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: While Kerrigan has had this in [[StarCraft the past]], she actually averts it this time around. The rest of the Zerg, however, have this as their nature.

* ContinuityPorn: The final campaign mission, "The Reckoning". Mengsk's elite marines are called "Sons of Korhal", the name of Mengsk's revolutionary group from ''StarCraftI''; his elite reapers and hellions are called "Death Heads" and "Outback Hunters", who previously appeared in the Blizzard-made custom map [[ZombieApocalypse Left2Die]] and retain the custom models they used in that map; Raynor fields some of the mercenary groups the player could hire in ''Wings of Liberty'', whose models are also used for Mengsk's elite forces to make them seem tougher; finally, all three of Kerrigan's generals can help out by sending their forces in to bolster Kerrigan's advance -- Zagara with her brood of regular Zerg, Dehaka and his [[spoiler:primal]] zerg pack and [[spoiler:Stukov]] leading whatever Infested Terrans remain in the Swarm, including Aberrations.

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:At the end of the game, Jim Raynor bursts in and destroys the trigger for the Xel'Naga artifact BigBad Mengsk is using to torture Kerrigan. Raynor crushes the remote in his power-armored fist (while it's ''still in Mengsk's hand'') before grabbing Mengsk by the face and ''hurling'' him a good ten feet across the room.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Kerrigan gets her revenge on Mengsk and the Swarm is free of GreaterScopeVillain Amon's influence. However, Kerrigan is forced to leave Raynor behind to prepare for the coming war with Amon and the Hybrids -- which can pull everything Jim and Kerrigan have worked so hard to build up utterly downhill in ''LegacyOfTheVoid''.]]

* ShootTheShaggyDog: Intentionally invoked. After all the time, effort, and [[NintendoHard nearly impossible missions]] spent [[spoiler: de-infesting Kerrigan]], one of the first things she does is [[spoiler: re-infest herself, and massacre the forces you controlled in the previous campaign]]. All the stirring heroic speeches, good men lost, and heartwarming moments of brotherhood are all utterly wasted. The effect this trope has on [[HeartBrokenBadass Raynor]] even becomes a crucial plot point. [[spoiler: This trope is triumphantly averted at the end of the game, when Kerrigan clearly demonstrates that she had taken the opportunity to redeem herself and become a hero. Also, it was revealed mid-game that something did change- she was freed of Amon's control on her when the artifact activated]].

** Kerrigan, being TheChessmaster that she is, anticipated that she might have to go up against something that could use the Zerg's hive mind against them, and it turns out that she had kept Dehaka as an ace up her sleeve for that very moment. In dialogue with other characters before that particular emission, she even discusses the fact that in the past the Terrans had used the Zerg's hive mind against them (read: [[VideoGame/StarCraftI psi emitters and the Psi Disrupter]]). If she'd ignored the possibility that they would try something like that again, she'd be considered TooDumbToLive.

* ReliableTraitor: Several zerg either betray Kerrigan, or fully admit that they are planning to betray her if she ever weakens. When asked about it, their reaction is basically "Uh...because we're Zerg? You didn't see this coming?" To her credit, Kerrigan [[GenreSavvy usually does see it coming]].

* [[spoiler:AssholeVictim: With all his KickTheDog moments over the course of both Wings of Liberty and this game, it's hard not to feel relief when Kerrigan finally kills Mengsk.]]

** [[spoiler: In the closing cinematic, Arcturus Mengsk is revealed to be in possession of the Xel'naga artifact from the previous game. He uses this to zap Kerrigan repeatedly while chiding her, "Really? Did you think I'd keep an animal like you close to me without some kind of insurance policy?"]]

** Near the start of the game, Kerrigan apologises to him that saving her life caused the death of [[spoiler:Tychus Findley]].

** The Tal'darim appear in 3 other missions, in the Hybrid arc. [[spoiler:Turns out the Tal'Darim are in league with the Hybrid]].

* SequelDifficultyDrop: In general, ''Heart of the Swarm'' is much easier than ''Wings of Liberty'' -- the custom evolutions for the Zerg units make them incredibly powerful, Hatcheries produce up to 9 larvae letting the player get an army out very quickly from nothing, and in most missions there's Kerrigan who has an array of powerful abilities that let her steamroll a lot of opposition on her own. Story-wise, this provides a borderline case of GameplayAndStoryIntegration -- WordOfGod is that at the end of ''Brood War'' Kerrigan was fully capable of crushing Mengsk and the Dominion beneath her heel, she just didn't care to do it. Now she does, at least specifically with regards to Mengsk.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Zerg units can be upgraded into one of two forms, with a predominantly green or purple look. The green ones tend towards brute force (Ultralisks with more damage and an auto-damage attack, Banelings that split into smaller Banelings, Brood Lords that pound the enemy and {{Spawn Broodling}}s, [[MookMaker Swarm Hosts]] that release flying locusts, [[FreudWasRight Impalers that ram a very unfortunately-colored spike through enemy armor]]), purples tend towards sneakiness (Ultralisks the ''resurrect'', Banelings that ''jump'' over the heads of melee units, Vipers that abduct the enemy and prevent them from attacking, Swarm Hosts that teleport anywhere there's creep, Lurkers that damage multiple light-armored units).

** Two of the Primal Zerg packleaders are beefed-up versions of the primal Ultralisk and the Swarm Host respectively (where the Host spawns tiny attackers, the primal one spwans ''Banelings'').

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Kerrigan gets her revenge on Mengsk and the Swarm is free of GreaterScopeVillain Amon's influence. However, Kerrigan is forced to leave Raynor behind to prepare for the coming war with Amon and the Hybrids]] -- which can pull everything Jim and Kerrigan have worked so hard to build up utterly downhill in ''LegacyOfTheVoid''.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Kerrigan gets her revenge on Mengsk and the Swarm is free of GreaterScopeVillain Amon's influence. However, Kerrigan is forced to leave Raynor behind to prepare for the coming war with Amon and the Hybrids]] -- which have the potential to pull everything that worked out so far utterly downhill in ''LegacyOfTheVoid''.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Kerrigan gets her revenge on Mengsk and the Swarm is free of GreaterScopeVillain Amon's influence. However, Kerrigan is forced to leave Raynor behind to prepare for the coming war with Amon and the Hybrids -- which have the potential to pull everything that worked out so far utterly downhill.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Kerrigan gets her revenge on Mengsk and the Swarm is free of GreaterScopeVillain Amon's influence. However, Kerrigan is forced to leave Raynor behind to prepare for the coming war with Amon and the Hybrids.]]