History VideoGame / StarCraft

** It's also interesting to compare each faction's basic units. Terrans have the Marine, who has has the lowest HitPoints of the lot[[hottip:*:40 in SC1, 45 in SC2 with an upgrade to give them 10 more]], but [[GunsVsSwords carries a gun against the other units' melee attacks]]. The Zerg's Zergling is a four-legged beast, but has the fastest movespeed of the three units and is so cheap that Zerg players get ''two'' of them for the cost of one Marine[[hottip:*:with 35 HP each, for a total of 70]]. Finally, Protoss have the Zealot, who has the most HP[[hottip:*:100 HP, 50 shields]] and does the most damage per attack, but costs twice the resources ''and'' twice the [[ArbitraryHeadcountLimit Supply points]].

* VestigialEmpire: The Protoss empire, apparently even before the invasion of Aiur.
** It's implied this is because they've been fighting the Zerg for many years and are losing.

* RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth: The Protoss faction. The Zerg and Terrans operate on different principals.

** The Protoss are fairly nice, but they're ScaryDogmaticAliens and have enough trouble keeping peace among their own tribes without involving the other races. And lord help you if you catch the Zerg cold, they'll burn your colonies into ash.

** It's also interesting to compare each faction's basic units. Terrans have the Marine, who has has the lowest HitPoints of the lot[[hottip:*:40 in SC1, 45 in SC2 with an upgrade to give them 10 more]], but is armed with a gun, while the other two have only melee attacks. The Zerg's Zergling is a four-legged beast, but has the fastest movespeed of the three units and is so cheap that Zerg players get ''two'' of them for the cost of one Marine[[hottip:*:with 35 HP each, for a total of 70]]. Finally, Protoss have the Zealot, who has the most HP[[hottip:*:100 HP, 50 shields]] and does the most damage per attack, but costs twice the resources ''and'' twice the [[ArbitraryHeadcountLimit Supply points]].

* SweetHomeAlabama: The Terrans. To the point where a cover of said song appears in ''VideoGame/StarCraftII''.

* SweetHomeAlabama: The Terrans.
** To the point where a cover of said song appears in StarCraftII

* PuttingOnTheReich: The uniforms worn by United Earth Directorate officers resemble Nazi uniforms, right down to the grey overcoats and hats. Oddly, their bosses are a Frenchman and a Russian.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: All protoss and some zerg have them.

* HollywoodAcid: Often used as a weapon by the zerg.

** Zerg are Subversive, with lots of small, fast, weak units suitable for a ZergRush, all the {{Suicide Attack}}ers, and lots of BodyHorror, HollywoodAcid and CombatTentacles. Their structures must be built on "[[MeatMoss Creep]]" and result in the consumption of the WorkerUnit used to build them (it [[OrganicTechnology grows into the building]]), but all Zerg units and buildings have RegeneratingHealth and will heal FromASingleCell, and the other two races can't build on creeped territory. Where a few Terran and Protoss units have {{Invisibility Cloak}}s, almost ''all'' Zerg units can "burrow" underground, allowing them to ambush, recon and heal. Finally, because of the way Zerg build units[[hottip:*:The other two races can only build one unit at a time from their production facilities, and each facility is limited to a single style of unit: barracks can't make airplanes, for instance, and vice versa. The Zerg facility can build ''any'' type of unit currently available, ''three at a time'']], they can develop their resource operations a ''lot'' faster than the other two races, and generate new armies at an instant, in case there's been a TotalPartyKill or some TacticalRockPaperScissors that needs exploiting.

%%
%%
%%
%%
%% Character-specific tropes go in Characters/Starcraft.
%%
%% Unit-specific tropes go in Characters/StarcraftUnits.
%%
%% References to other works go in ShoutOut/Starcraft.
%%
%% YMMV and Trivia entries go in YMMV/Starcraft and Trivia/Starcraft.
%%
%%
%%
%%
[[quoteright:360:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Starcraft_4449.jpg]]

->''[[BadassBoast Only Blizzard could reinvent the RTS]]''\\
Ubisoft's (''Starcraft'' 's distributor in France) {{Tagline}} for the game.

Initially released in 1998, ''{{StarCraft}}'' took the ''{{Warcraft}}'' style of gameplay that had made Blizzard famous and adapted it to a [[TheFuture 26th century]] setting. It is perhaps most notable for being the most popular and most widely played computer game to be played competitively.

As the story opens, terran civilization is embroiled in a civil war between the ruling Terran Confederacy and the rebel Sons of Korhal when zerg infestations begin appearing on several worlds. As the zerg quickly overtake the unprepared terran outposts, protoss battle fleets begin attacking the infected worlds as well, destroying all life on them to prevent the infestation from spreading. Arcturus Mengsk, leader of the Sons of Korhal, learns that the zerg are attracted to psychic energy, and begins deploying "Psi emitters" into Confederacy bases to bring down zerg attacks upon them. By doing, so he ultimately destroys the Confederate capital of Tarsonis and takes control of the terran government, declaring himself Emperor, but his lieutenant - former Confederate Ghost Sarah Kerrigan - is lost in battle and becomes infested by the zerg. In her new form, she lends her psychic powers to the zerg's already impressive numerical strength and turns it against the protoss, managing almost to conquer the protoss homeworld of Aiur before two warring protoss factions, the Khalai and the Dark Templar, join forces with a group of terran exiles to destroy the Overmind.

Three {{Expansion Pack}}s, ''Brood War'', ''Insurrection'', and ''Retribution'' were released in 1998. ''Brood War'' added new units and a continuation of the campaign, wherein the protoss have to escape their zerg-filled homeworld, a new terran faction invades the sector and the remaining Cerebrates attempt to resurrect the Overmind. Amidst all of the action, Kerrigan swoops in time after time to ally herself with everyone in turns, pitting them against each other and eventually making herself the Queen Bitch of the Universe by beating her weakened enemies in battle. Insurrection and Retribution were not made by Blizzard, not widely available, and generally regarded as CanonDisContinuity. Considering they don't really affect the canon and just focus on minor characters doing random stuff, it doesn't matter.

''{{StarCraft}}'' shipped with a map editor that was extremely versatile for its time, giving the user control over almost all of the game's mechanics. Members of the community have produced maps easily on par with those included in the official campaign, even including voice-overs in some examples. ''{{StarCraft}}'' was also one of the first games to utilize Battle.net, Blizzard's proprietary multiplayer matchmaking system, which streamlined a process that previously had required using third-party clients, and created a climate that has kept ''{{StarCraft}}'' popular to this day.

This series also has its own ShoutOut page [[ShoutOut/{{Starcraft}} here]].

!!You Require More Tropene Gas. Construct Additional Examples:
%%
%%
%%
%%
%% Character-specific tropes go in Characters/Starcraft.
%%
%% Unit-specific tropes go in Characters/StarcraftUnits.
%%
%% References to other works go in ShoutOut/Starcraft.
%%
%% YMMV and Trivia entries go in YMMV/Starcraft and Trivia/Starcraft.
%%
%%
%%
%%
* AcronymAndAbbreviationOverload: Most of the Goliath's StopPokingMe quotes.
* AerithAndBob: Main characters from ''StarCraft'' I included Jim and Arcturus.
* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: [[spoiler: The Zerg invasion of Aiur, and the UED appropiation of Char in "Brood War". It was short, though.]]
* TheAlliance: Raynor's Raiders and the protoss. Literally used in the RPG that hardly anyone knows about.
** For a while, Kerrigan, the Dominion and Raynor formed an alliance to fight the UED. Then Kerrigan betrayed them when she got strong enough to go it alone.
* AnachronismStew: The terrans are seriously temporally confused--their technology in-game is fairly advanced, but the units are all based on Southern stereotypes from the early nineties. During {{cutscene}}s, the Confederacy's outposts appear to be displaced from WorldWarII, and the UED is seen using ''trench warfare'' of all things, with their officers being apparent time travellers from ColdWar [[InSovietRussia Russia]].
* AnticlimaxBoss: In mission five of the sixth campaign, you're pitted against a super-powered Dragoon who can be killed instantly with the Queen's "{{Spawn Broodling}}s" ability. The second boss, a super-powered Battlecruiser, can be rendered helpless with the Defiler's "Dark Swarm," which blocks all its attacks on ground units. Then again, these are there purely to let players see how useful these abilities can be.
* AnyoneCanDie: Arguably. [[spoiler: More than half the somewhat relatable characters (including good guys) are dead or murdered by the end of Brood War. On the other hand, a couple of heroes are just spared by Kerrigan.]]
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Per race, which means protoss can potentially ''triple'' it by [[MindControl mindcontrolling]] enemy workers.
* ArmCannon: Firebats have wrist-mounted flamethrowers.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Nukes were at the same level tech as Battlecruisers, but by the time you actually get the required tech to build Nuclear Silos, build the Nuke itself, train a Ghost and upgrade it to the point it can sneak into the opponent's base undetected to launch said Nuke, your opponent will have detector units to spot your ghost and kill it before the Nuke finishes targeting. Also, good luck getting that sort of tech without your opponent scouting and seeing it.
* BackFromTheBrink: Brood War, terran Mission 5, is subtitled "Ground Zero". They give you a huge army a few seconds before Mengsk's entire nuclear arsenal lands on it. If you don't try SequenceBreaking, you'll end up with a few marines, some workers, and a burning command center. You'll then proceed to rebuild your base and pound Mengsk's base, spanning most of the map, back to the stone age.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Kerrigan's victory]] at the end of ''Broodwar''. The only things that keep this from being an outright DownerEnding are that the UED was established as the main BigBad in Brood War [[spoiler: until several story twists shortly before the end]] and that enough protoss and terran forces may be still around to eventually rebuild and become a match for [[spoiler: Kerrigan's forces]] again.
* BlackHumor: Lots. The best comes from Raynor during the final battle against the Overmind.
* BoxedCrook: About three-quarters of the Confederate military and virtually all of the Dominion military are 'resocialized' criminals who were sent from the penal system straight to the front line. Raynor's Raiders, however, is an all-volunteer force, and the UED military simply conscripts from their civilian population, although both regimes have proven that criminal is a stretchable term and often includes harmless people that didn't agree with the government enough.
* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: In the minimap your forces are always in (bright, since dark green is a possible team color) green, and your enemies are in the color they wear.
** In the single-player campaigns of the original game, the player's terran forces are blue (or red when fighting for the Sons of Korhal), the zerg are purple, and the protoss are yellow. In Brood War, the player's protoss forces are usually blue (though in one of the missions they are brown), the terrans are brown or white, and the zerg are once again purple. Teal units are heroes for protoss and terrans, while zerg heroes are red. Usually, important enemy units and structures, like enemy heroes, are yellow.
** Different factions likewise can be told apart by color: the Dominion is red, Alpha Squadron is white, Raynor's Raiders are blue, the UED is white, the protoss warband are mostly blue and occasionally brown, the Khalai protoss are yellow, Kerrigan's zerg are purple, and generic enemy zerg are usually brown and orange. If there are three enemy zerg forces, odds are the third one is red or purple. This isn't universal, some variations may occur. For example, in two missions some Dominion forces are blue, and in another some UED forces are blue.
** And this applies to heroes as well. Kerrigan, for instance, is colored purple in the zerg campaigns and [[spoiler:Duran]] is colored teal. Both are somewhat justified - red is Daggoth's Brood's color, and Kerrigan is opposed to him so she wouldn't be likely to use his color (Kerrigan is red in later missions), and as for [[spoiler:Duran]], technically he's still a Terran, sort of, so he uses the color of Terran heroes.
*** Kerrigan also has a unique sprite; she doesn't need a different color to differentiate herself from your ordinary units, which is why heroes are always given unique colors.
* CombatTentacles: Sunken Colonies and Lurkers.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: In the first game's campaigns, the computer gets free resources. Also, the AI has full map knowledge of what is going on, with no need to scout.
* ContinuityNod: The force title "Fleet of the Executor" is used for the Player's side all throughout the Protoss Campaign of the original game. The title gets used again in Brood War only during the final Zerg mission, as the name of the Protoss force Artanis is leading; because Artanis ''is'' the Executor from the original game.
* TheCorpsIsMother: implied for the Confederation/Dominion Ghost Program. Said program enforces it by mindwiping its trainees. Sometimes twice, although the memeories may still be present but locked away. Regardless, the results are usually insanely loyal, or just insane.
* CrosshairAware: A tiny blinking red dot means someone's about to drop a nuke there, though it helps that they give a "Nuclear Launch Detected".
* CutscenePowerToTheMax: The Zerg are far more fragile in cutscenes than in-game, often getting killed with only a few barrages of gunfire that would hurt but not kill them. In-game cutscenes (that is, scenes on the maps that aren't pre-rendered) often boost the attack strength of units so they can destroy enemies in a single shot for dramatic effect, like [[spoiler:Kerrigan have her strength boosted to 500 damage so she can kill Aldaris]].
* DamageIncreasingDebuff: The acidic attack from Zerg Devourers.
* DangerDeadpan: The Wraith and Dropship pilots.
* DarkIsNotEvil: The Dark Templars, outcasts of the protoss race. The Khalai protoss consider them evil heathens who nearly destroyed the protoss way of life, but its all been blown out of proporation by horror stories passed down through the generations for the last thousand years. In reality the Dark Templar are actually nicer than the Khalai protoss, seemingly not as dogmatic, and most (but not all) genuinely want to help their Khalai brethren.
* DeathByIrony: The Confederacy was destroyed by an experimental weapon they designed.
* DeepSouth: The Confederacy is clearly a look-alike of the Confederacy from the Civil War complete with the "Rebel Flag" displayed in cutscenes, and the only named Confederate general from the game speaks with a strong [[AmericanAccents Dixie]] accent, as do many of the terran units.
* DesertSkull: There are all sorts of bones and skulls in the randomly-generated desert terrain tiles.
* DrivenToSuicide: DuGalle.
--> ''"Dearest Helena, by now the news of our defeat has reached the Earth. The creatures we were sent here to tame are untameable, and the colonies we were sent to reclaim have proven to be stronger thatn we anticipated. Whatever you may hear about what has happened out here, know this: Alexei did not die a hero. I killed him—-my pride killed him. And now my pride has consumed me as well. You will never see me again, Helena. Tell our children that I love them, and that their father died in defense of their future. Au revoir."''
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: You. That's right '''[[BeyondTheImpossible YOU]]'''. It's AllThereInTheManual, but the Player-Cerebrate from the original Zerg Campaign is killed by Tassadar shortly after that campaign ends, when he basically catches Kerrigan in the exact same trap that got Zasz killed midway through the same campaign. All the other Zerg Cerebrates, unable to live without the Overmind, die between Brood War and the sequal as well.
* TheEmpire: The Terran Dominion, and the United Earth Directorate. Also, the protoss before the fall of Aiur.
* EnemyMine: Rampant, especially in Brood War.
* EvilVersusEvil: Terran Dominion vs the UED vs the Zerg, Kerrigan vs. the Overmind, Sons of Korhal vs. The confederacy.
* TheFederation: The Confederacy is essentially an evil version of this, being at least nominally a federal, democratic republic, especially in contrast to the openly [[TheEmpire Imperial]] Terran Dominion.
* FloatingHeadSyndrome: They just used a protoss head, then Kerrigan's head in the expansion, up front on the cover. The protoss head was clustered with other less visible heads, one for each species, no less. Originally there was three different floating head covers, but apparently the terran and zerg faces were soon discontinued in favor of protoss.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
--> "So the zerg are here for you, darlin'?"
** Then in the expansion:
--> "He will always be a traitor in my eyes, and you know I cannot abide a traitor."
* FormFittingWardrobe:
--> "I think the female ghosts have nicer equipments."
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Next time you play "New Gettysburg," try this. Before you finish off the last protoss building, disengage and pull back to base. Now build a dropship, order everything that isn't your dropship, a battlecruiser, or Kerrigan to run around the zerg base and get itself killed, and fill up your supply limit with a [[FlauntingYourFleets MASSIVE FLEET OF 32 BATTLECRUISERS]]. Now select your [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill MASSIVE LOLPWN FLEET OF 32 BATTLECRUISERS]] (in three batches, of course, because this is Starcraft) and right-click on the dropship to order the [[RuleOfThree MASSIVE ROFLPWN FLEET OF 32 BATTLECRUISERS]] to follow it around and protect it. Now load Kerrigan into the dropship escorted by a [[RunningGag MASSIVE WTFPWN FLEET OF 32 BATTLECRUISERS]] and destroy that last protoss structure to complete the mission. Guess what happens next.
** Also, the opening cinematic of ''Brood War''. Because of the cliff, the soldiers' trench defenses should have been well-protected from the zerg. Provided there were no ramps....
* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:Kerrigan]] during an assault on Char.
* GambitPileUp: In an attempt to model what happens in ''Brood War'', you'll use half the alphabet as placeholders for names only to discover that "E betrays every letter in the alphabet and kills all the consonants" is an accurate description of the events in the game. [[spoiler:Then Y turns out to have been playing E from the start]].
* HeroicBSOD: The unnamed [[RedShirt Marine]] in the ''Brood War'' intro cinematic goes through one of these as the ''Aleksander'' abandons the battlefield, shortly before his trench is completely and utterly {{Zerg Rush}}ed.
* HeyItsThatVoice:
** Harry Shearer (voice of Mr. Burns on TheSimpsons) plays the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqy08k-xJC8 Terran Science Vessel]]. He sounds very similar to Mr. Burns and even references his role as Burns in a few lines:
--> '''Science Vessel''': Excellent. Hmm... Fusion, eh? I'll have to remember that.
** Chris Metzen, director and writer of Starcraft, voiced the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSRA4dkFrhc Terran Battlecruiser, Marine, and the Ghost]].
** [[SonicTheHedgehog Lani]] [[ProfessorLayton Minella]] plays the Terran Dropship pilot and the Zerg Queen.
* HoldTheLine: The third terran mission.

* IdiotBall: Picked up by the commander in Brood War, terran mission 5a. You're told well in advance that Mengsk will use his nuclear arsenal to destroy you, since you didn't eliminate it in the previous mission. Ghosts are needed to deliver nuclear strikes. Do you have any detectors, such as missile turrets, in your base? No. Do your scripted reinforcements include any science vessels? No. Mengsk takes advantage of this to nuke every square inch of your base and all your reinforcements. However, there's a twist: [[spoiler:Do you lift-off your entire base to dodge the nukes? Well, yes actually, you can do that.]]
** [[spoiler:Or maybe you speedily research Spider Mines and carefully place some to kill a few of the ghosts and keep at least most of those shiny reinforcements? Maybe.]]
* InstantWinCondition: The single-player campaign ends the missions in your victory when you fulfil the objectives, anything else is trivial. If your objective is to destroy a key enemy structure, no matter what you do you won't win until you destroy that structure. In a timed survival mission, as long as you have at least one building left when the timer is up you win, even if your base ''has'' been overrun by this point. Also, with the exception of two or three missions that have optional objectives, your performance in a mission has absolutely no bearing on the next, for better or worse.
** The most infamous example is Trump Card, which involves getting an SCV carrying an ArtifactOfDoom to a beacon inside the enemy base. [[http://speeddemosarchive.com/demo.pl?Starcraft/Starcraft_T07_027 A Science Vessel can cast Defense Matrix on the SCV, allowing him to rush in and win the mission in 27 seconds.]] The player can take advantage of [[ArtificialStupidity the cripplingly bad AI]] to beat other missions in similar ways.
* IronicEcho: In the original game Tassadar uses Kerrigan's ego against her to distract her [[spoiler: while Zeratul assassinates Zasz]]. At the end of the mission he tells her that "she is her own worst enemy". Echoed by Kerrigan herself in ''Brood War'' when [[spoiler: she betrays the Dominion and the Protoss]] after defeating the UED on Korhal.
--->'''Kerrigan:''' You are your own worst enemy.
--->'''[[spoiler:Fenix:]]''' That's ironic. I remember Tassadar teaching you a very similar lesson back on Char.
--->'''Kerrigan:''' [[GenreSavvy I took that lesson to heart.]]
** It's more that, once Kerrigan reasserts her own individuality after the Overmind's destruction, she becomes DangerouslyGenreSavvy, mixed with some MagnificentBastard.
* IsometricProjection
* IWillShowYouX: In one of the missions in the original Terran campaign:
-->'''General Duke''': You're the last folks I've expected here. What's your angle, Mengsk?
-->'''Jim Raynor''': Angle? I'll give you an angle, you slimy confederate piece of [[CurseCutShort sh-]]
-->'''Arcturus Mengsk''': Jim! Enough! I'll take care of this.
* KillItWithFire: The point of the Firebat.
* LampshadeHanging: A frequent source of comedy in annoyed dialogue...and even some cutscenes.
* LaResistance: Raynor's Raiders, the Sons of Korhal before Mengsk forms the Dominion, Tassadar and the Dark Templar.
* LawfulStupid: The Protoss make first contact with humans by emerging without warning of any sort...and erradicating an entire human planet. Albeit an infested world, but the Terrans didn't know that. Would it have killed the protoss to send a message first and ''not'' guarantee themselves another enemy?
--> "Hi, strange primitive ape-people, don't mind us scary-looking aliens you've never heard of before, we're just going to have to wipe out this inhabited planet because through no fault of yours it's infested with another alien race you've also never heard of, but take our word for it, now that the planet is infested everyone on it is as good as dead anyways. Take our word for it."
** If the protoss containment strategy had worked, apologizing in advance would have fallen on deaf ears. It didn't, but reasonable humans have found out about the Zerg and come to understand the Protoss even without the apology.
* LetNoCrisisGoToWaste: In the terran campaign, Mengsk uses the zerg invasion to help himself gain power.
* ManInTheMachine: Protoss Dragoons.
* {{Metagame}}: At the professional level, ''Starcraft's'' Metagame is very evolved.
* MobileFactory: Most of the Terran buildings and a few of the Protoss ones.
* NewsReel: The UED victory report, heavily inspired by the propaganda videos from the ''StarshipTroopers'' movie.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Killing the second Overmind allows Kerrigan to become the unchallenged zerg HiveQueen. On the other hand, if the Overmind had been allowed to mature it would have reassumed complete control over the Swarm. And then comes ''Wings Of Liberty'', [[spoiler: and it turns out the Overmind was just trying to prepare a defense against the Xel'Naga's ancient enemy.]] [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Damned if you do, damned if you don't]], [[RuleOfThree times three]].
** In the original terran campaign, your actions end up putting a new power-hungry madman into power and getting Kerrigan infested by the zerg. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Damned if you do, damned if you don't]] again, as the Confederacy was just as corrupt and not only caused the whole zerg invasion in the first place, but was unable to do anything about it.
** Helping Duran get to Stukov during the UED campaign.
** Defeating Aldaris' rebellion in the protoss campaign. ''Yet another'' case of [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption damned if you do, damned if you don't]], since even though [[spoiler:Aldaris had good reason for this insurrection]], if it had went on, it would probably have crippled the protoss forces to the point of no return ''and'' caused a long and bloody High Templar/Dark Templar war which would have left the whole protoss species easy prey for Kerrigan or the UED.
** And let's not forget Zeratul who [[spoiler:kills a cerebrate with his psychic powers, which briefly links his mind to the overmind, revealing the location of Aiur and causing the downfall of the protoss homeworld]]. According to the novels, four years later he's still in solitude feeling guilty for that and being forced to [[spoiler:kill Raszagal]]. And really, who can blame him?
* NonEntityGeneral: Mostly played straight, though [[AllThereInTheManual supplemental materials]] eventually reveal that the Protoss executors for the original and ''Brood War'' were Artanis and Selendis, respectively.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Aldaris. [[CharacterDevelopment He gets better]] [[spoiler:before he gets killed--by Kerrigan, no less.]]
* OfficerAndAGentleman: Both UED leaders, Stukov and DuGalle. Sort of subverted by the fact that the UED itself appears to be a bunch of genocidal lunatics.
* OhCrap: In the first cinematic of the terran Campaign, two rank-and-file soldiers are out in a buggy when they run down a zergling. They get out to survey the damage and realize it was a trap.
-->'''Lester''': You just mashed some poor fella's dawg, Sarge.
-->'''Sarge''': It's a zerglin', Lester. Smaller type o' zerg. They wouldn't be out this far unless... Oh, Shit. ''* Both turn around to see a pack of zerg bearing down on them* ''
-->'''Lester''': [[TheBluesBrothers Ah love you, Sarge.]]
* OhGodDidSheJustHearThat: Kerrigan, a psychic, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny ripping into]] Raynor.
-->'''Kerrigan:''' Captain Raynor, I've finished scouting out the area, and... [[AllMenArePerverts you pig!]]
-->'''Raynor:''' What! I haven't even said anything to you yet!
-->'''Kerrigan:''' Yeah, but you were thinking it.
-->'''Raynor:''' Oh, yeah! You're a telepath. Look, let's just get on with this, OK?
* OneManArmy: The Torrasque.
* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:The Overmind is dead, hurrah! But the greatest Protoss hero is dead, Aiur is ravaged and lost, the Zerg are still rampaging, Kerrigan is taking over, and the UED has arrived and they hate ''everyone'']].
* RecycledInSpace: In one of his custom taunts, Artanis denies that Starcraft is just 'Warcraft in Space', saying 'it's much more sophisticated!' This is actually derived from a review of the game.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: Played straight with Tassadar and the Dark Templar, but so very, ''very'' subverted by the Sons of Korhal.
* SeparateButIdentical: Played with, actually. During the battle with Aldaris' rebel troops, he has exclusive access to the Khalai Archon, Arbiter and High Templar units while you get exclusive access to Corsairs, Dark Templar and Dark Archons. The UED has exclusive assess to Valkyries and Medics, any time you fight the Dominion in Brood War you'll never face these units. The two also show distinct preferences in their troop formations when fought as AI opponents, [=DuGalle=] relying more on air units and Mengsk preferring ground units.
* SequenceBreaking: In the Brood War Terran 5A (Ground Zero) Mission, you're giving a fairly advanced base and a flood of reinforcements, including Battlecruisers(!), right from the start, only to have it all destroyed by a Nuke Barrage. Against the design team's expectations, you do actually have enough time to research Spider Mines (which detect and blow up on cloaked units, like Ghosts) and lay a few to lessen the damage from the nuclear barrage, allowing you to keep at least most of your considerable starting assets.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: The zerg just take this trope and run with it. One cutscene where a squad of terran special forces are tasked with destroying a Science Vessel has the terrans laugh off the possibility of a zerg attack. Until one of them dies courtesy of a Hydralisk scythe to the head. And let's not forget that almost every single zerg unit can burrow and invoke this trope ''at will''. The Infested Terrans, in particular, explode ForMassiveDamage, at least in the campaign.
* TemptingFate: Way back in the second campaign of the original game, Zasz declared Kerrigan "would be the doom of us all." From a number of certain perspectives, he was right.
* TooDumbToLive: Really, UED, you leave two Siege Tanks to protect the power generators powering the one thing keeping zerg from overrunning the sector? That's despite the fact that your second-in-command died over it?
** To be fair, they had to occupy Braxis, Char, and Korhal to protect the Disruptor, Overmind, and Dominion capital, respectfully. Considering they first had to conquer all those places, its possible they just didn't have the manpower.
* UnitsNotToScale / YourSizeMayVary: The Dropships, Shuttles and Overlords don't look anywhere near big enough to carry the units they do. Also, the Terran and Protoss capital ships (Battleships and Carriers) are much larger in cutscenes than in-game - Science Vessels are implied to be as big as the [[StarWars Death Star]] in cutscenes.
** A Dragoon is about the size of four Marines onscreen and takes the same space in a transport as those four Marines.
** In a cutscene, it appears that those four marines, standing close together, could probably be squashed by one of the Dragoon's feet.
** And then there's the hundreds of crew and passengers in a low orbit Battlecruiser...the size of two Dragoons.
** Also, it seems like the mission where you hijack the battle cruisers with a single pilot each shows that it can at least operate with a one man crew.
** The mind boggles at the few levels that take place ''inside'' a Science Vessel, a unit visibly the same size as a ''tank''. It's a ''large'' map. In the boardgame version, the Science Vessel is the smallest piece in the game, even when compared to Marines and zerglings. That had to have been intentional.
** In actuality, the mind should boggle on why the Science Vessel and Battlecruisers are the size of a tank or two - in the cutscene about the terrans blowing up a science vessel shows it to be the size of a ''mountain''. The news report cutscene in Brood War shows a whole fleet of Battlecruisers dwarfed by a single Science Vessel.
* VestigialEmpire: The Confederacy in the original SC terran campaign might also count. Also, [[CrapsackWorld ''everyone'']] [[VillainWorld except Kerrigan]] at the end of ''Brood War''.
* WeCanRebuildHim: Protoss Dragoons. These guys won't let even death get in the way of them fighting for Aiur.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The UED wanted to "pacify" the Protoss, enslave and subjugate the Zerg, and destroy the Dominion to rein in the Terran colonies under their banner. Except for the Protoss being destroyed or enslaved, even that is justified considering from the human point of view that protoss had glassed numerous human worlds.
** Enslaving the colonists of the Koprulu sector ain't so swell either, especially since it's heavily implied the UED is a totalitarian dictatorship. At best, the UED's no worse than either the Confederacy or the Dominion, who ''are'' villains.
** The protoss themselves, and specially the Conclave, given their (early) "treatment" of infested terran worlds.
* WhamEpisode: The part of the Zerg campaign where [[spoiler:Kerrigan hatches from the chrysalis.]] Yes, it's now [[ItWasHisSled pretty well-known]], but that doesn't diminish the initial impact.
** WhamLine:
--> '''Zerg Overmind''': "Arise, my daughter... Arise... [[spoiler:Kerrigan]]."
* YinYangBomb: The Xel'Naga temple on Shakuras, with emphasis on the "bomb" part. It is powered by a dark crystal and a light crystal. Once the temple finished charging up, anything zerg was in for a bad day.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Happens to player's cerebrate some time after the end of Brood War after you've fought off the attack from terrans and the protoss and Kerrigan getting important data from the cerebrate to help her evolving the zerg.
* YourLittleDismissiveDiminutive:
--> '''Kerrigan''': ''And not all of your little soldiers will stand in my way again.''

!Examples of tropes in the pro-gaming scene:
* AlwaysSecondBest: Hong Jin Ho (Yellow) was famous for being "King of Second Place", since he had so many silvers but no gold medal in a big tournament. More recently, Song Byung Goo (Stork) has taken up this role, though has finally won a single gold medal.
* AnticlimaxBoss: Arguably any tournament finals that disappoints.
* BadassAdorable: {{YMMV}} [[http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/NeverGG/Miscwork/24.jpg Jun Tae-Yang (His freakin alias is BABY!)]], [[http://www.mymym.com/gfx/nada1.jpg Lee Yoon-Yeol (Nada)]]
* ButtMonkey: Hyuk. Starting with an [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvqghSLOQIU infamous match against Pure]], he gained a reputation for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, to the point where the term "hyuk" [[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hyuk made it into the Urban Dictionary]] with the meaning "the act of losing after having a seemingly insurmountable lead". It reached the point where he was impossible to take seriously, and most of the English commentary on his games was spent mocking his inevitable defeat, as in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRN70r1pMK4 this game against UpMagic]]. Is now terribly inconsistent.
* TheChessmaster: Lee Young-Ho (Flash)
* CreepyTwins: Park Chan-Soo (Luxury) and Park Myung-Soo (Yellow[arnc]).
* CurbStompBattle: Oh so often.
* DarkHorseVictory: Has happened a few times.
* DeathGlare: Anyone who's seen Jaedong's death stare.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Park Jung Suk (Reach). Appropriately nicknamed "The Mantoss"
* ExecutiveMeddling: Oh KeSPA, how you must ruin our game so much. More recently, MBC Game as well.
* FunPersonified: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBuhwWV2-kM Firebathero]]
* GratuitousEnglish: "Resluts".
* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: Subverted in that players are required to wear headphones to blot out all cheers of joy from the crowd when something happens. Double-Subverted in that it doesn't always work. Crowd noise does bleed in if its sufficiently loud, and crowd reactions have been known to influence pro-gamer decision making (stopping an army right before walking into a Spider Mine ambush).
* {{Heel}}: Arguably, [[EvilForeigner IdrA]] is becoming something like this. Well known for his [[JerkAss arrogance and bad sportsmanship]], he has even been labeled the "villain" of Starcraft by [[http://androidbit.com/wordpress/2010/02/17/idra-greg-fields-the-villain-commodity/ some]]
* HesBack: Julyzerg, Ever OSL 2008.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Terran players often get mine-dragged. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmdoXLf6VR0& Sometimes pretty badly.]]
* KansasCityShuffle: Happens with hidden tech and buildings.
* ObviousRulePatch: It is possible by the rules of the game (but forbidden in tournament play) for a terran player to ally their opponent in game, wait for them to walk over a minefield, then unally them and laugh at the carnage.
* OneManArmy: Lee Young Ho (Flash).
** Tempest in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzPiDOh9430 this game]].
* RapidFireTyping: Top-level players perform about [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbpCLqryN-Q 300 actions per minute]], such as a command issued to a unit or a macro set in action. That's about five per second; you'll think the footage has been speeded up. An enthusiastic home player might hit 80 or so APM.
* RealLife
* TheRival: There have been a number of famous rivalries between Starcraft players. Biggest ones would be Boxer vs Yellow and Jaedong vs Flash, though there are others.
* SeriousBusiness: The very image of stadiums filled with people watching people play a computer game may seem BeyondTheImpossible. And then, there're the schools completely dedicated to Starcraft with 10 hour training sessions, six figure salaries and the screaming fangirls for the more victorious players. The top of the iceberg? The Korean ''Air Force'' has its own team.
* ThrowingTheFight: A great controversy in recent days. One of the best Zerg players, Ma Jae-Yoon (in-game ID "Savior") has been found to be one of the ringleaders in fixing the matches, and could face jail time. Because of the incident, he is being called "Marbage" (play on "garbage") or "Marthas" (play on [[{{Warcraft}} Arthas Menethil]], who got corrupted by Frostmourne).
* TournamentPlay: The biggest.

* ChuckYeager: The Wraith and Dropship pilots.

* XanatosGambit: In an attempt to model what happens in ''Brood War'', you'll use half the alphabet as placeholders for names only to discover that "E betrays every letter in the alphabet and kills all the consonants" is an accurate description of the events in the game. [[spoiler:Then Y turns out to have been playing E from the start]].

* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: The zerg just take this trope and run with it. One cutscene where a squad of terran special forces are tasked with destroying a Science Vessel has the terrans laugh off the possibility of a zerg attack. Until one of them dies courtesy of a Hydralisk scythe to the head. And let's not forget that almost every single zerg unit can burrow and invoke this trope ''at will''. The Infested Terrans, in particular, explode ForMassiveDamage, at least in the campaign.

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Next time you play "New Gettysburg," try this. Before you finish off the last protoss building, disengage and pull back to base. Now build a dropship, order everything that isn't your dropship, a battlecruiser, or Kerrigan to run around the zerg base and get itself killed, and fill up your supply limit with a MASSIVE FLEET OF 32 BATTLECRUISERS. Now select your MASSIVE LOLPWN FLEET OF 32 BATTLECRUISERS (in three batches, of course, because this is Starcraft) and right-click on the dropship to order the MASSIVE ROFLPWN FLEET OF 32 BATTLECRUISERS to follow it around and protect it. Now load Kerrigan into the dropship escorted by a MASSIVE WTFPWN FLEET OF 32 BATTLECRUISERS and destroy that last protoss structure to complete the mission. Guess what happens next.

-->'''Kerrigan:''' Captain Raynor, I've finished scouting out the area, and... you pig!

* TemptingFate: Way back in the second campaign of the original game, Zasz declared Kerrigan "would be the doom of us all." He was right, mostly.

* DeepSouth: The Confederacy is clearly a look-alike of the Confederacy from the Civil War complete with the "Rebel Flag" displayed in cutscenes, and the only Confederate general from the game speaks with a strong [[AmericanAccents Dixie]] accent, as do many of the terran units.

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:Kerrigan]] during an assault on Char.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Killing the second Overmind allows Kerrigan to become the unchallenged zerg HiveQueen. On the other hand, if the Overmind had been allowed to mature it would have reassumed complete control over the Swarm. And then comes ''Wings Of Liberty'', and it turns out the Overmind was just trying to prepare a defense against the Xel'Naga. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption Damned if you do, damned if you don't]], [[RuleOfThree times three]].

* AscendedExtra: Jim Raynor and the player character's colony slowly rise from a few towns on a backwater planet to [[spoiler: the second most important faction in the universe.]]

Three {{Expansion Pack}}s, ''Brood War'', ''Insurrection'', and ''Retribution'' were released in 1998. ''Brood War'' added new units and a continuation of the campaign, wherein the protoss have to escape their zerg-filled homeworld, a new terran faction invades the sector and the remaining Cerebrates attempt to resurrect the Overmind. Amidst all of the action, Kerrigan swoops in time after time to ally herself with everyone in turns, pitting them against each other and eventually making herself the Queen Bitch of the Universe by beating her weakened enemies in battle. Insurrection and Retribution were not made by Blizzard, not widely available, and generally regarded as DisContinuity. Considering they don't really affect the canon and just focus on minor characters doing random stuff, it doesn't matter.