History YMMV / Starcraft

* VindicatedByHistory: When ''[=StarCraft=]'' was first released, there were reviewers that saw it as just another formulaic RTS game (during a time when the market was already overcrowded with such games), one that could not offer complex gameplay, did not have state-of-the-art graphics, and had poor AI - that all it could do was appease the old ''Warcraft'' fans. Yet 20 years later, it has a massively popular esports culture centered around it, and its story is remembered very fondly - not to mention that since its release, ''[=StarCraft=]'' had a custom map and campaign community that few other games could match, thanks to its Campaign Editor.

** Legacy of the Void: Alarak is a Tal'darim warrior who uses both schemes and power to climb the links of the Chain of Ascension and establish himself as an Ascendant of his people, killing rivals along the way and pitting his enemies against each other to advance his standing by proxy. When he's roped into a confrontation between the three Ascendants above him and the Highlord Ma'lash, Alarak surveils the situation and then sits things out, letting the other four kill and weaken each other until he sweeps in and cleans up what's left, leaving only Ma'lash outranking him. Alarak then reaches out to the Daelaam, who have been enemies of the Tal'darim for centuries, and makes them an ally to kill Ma'lash. As Highlord, Alarak turns his people against their traitorous god Amon and helps the Daelaam banish him back to the Void and eventually kill him. He's brutal, he's powerful, he's cunning, and he's merciless—Alarak is the pinnacle of what other Tal'darim aspire to be.

* MagnificentBitch: Sarah Kerrigan, the self-proclaimed "Queen of Blades", was a [[Characters/StarcraftTerrans Terran]] woman with abnormally strong psionic abilities who was infested by the [[Characters/StarcraftZerg Zerg]] and became one of their most dangerous agents. After the death of the Zerg Overmind, Kerrigan [[VideoGame/StarCraftI began a plot]] to seize power for herself and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge claim revenge]] on all who had wronged her. She convinced her enemies she had reformed with the Overmind's death and became their ally, and exploited their fear of the Zerg and the UED to pit them against each other, then betrayed them once she [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness no longer needed their aid]]. When the dust had settled Kerrigan effectively ruled the sector -- all the Zerg were [[HiveQueen under her control]] and any enemy that could have posed a threat was dead or had their armies crippled. While her [[VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty de-infestation]] and [[VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm reformation]] softened her considerably, Kerrigan remained a cunning tactician who outsmarted logistically superior opponents and eventually took back control of the Zerg, and in the process willingly became re-infested and more powerful than ever. Kerrigan has repeatedly proven herself one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy, and anyone foolish enough to anger her or stand in her way will find themselves at the mercy of her Swarm.

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: While the series does have a good sized fandom interested in the plot and characters (somebody has to be buying those twelve novels and plethora of short stories and comics, after all), that isn't nearly what the games are famous for, that being the multiplayer aspects. The fans interested in the story and the ones that play the games for the multiplayer are worlds apart.

. Although the effort to put both the original game and the expansion into a cartridge had been respectable, a LOT of concessions were made in order to make it possible.

%% ZCE * PortingDisaster: The Nintendo 64 is the only console that ''[=StarCraft=] I'' has been ported to. Although the effort to put both the original game and the expansion into a cartridge had been respectable, a LOT of concessions were made in order to make it possible.

* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/StarCraft here]]

* CompleteMonster:
** [[EvilOverlord Amon]], The Dark Voice/The Fallen One, is the GreaterScopeVillain of the franchise as a whole and the BigBad of ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid Legacy of the Void]].''. A fallen Xel'Naga who broke the noninterference policy towards other races, Amon sought to shatter the eternal cycle all races were bound to by genetically altering the young Protoss to suit his needs. Finding and enforcing a HiveMind slavery on the Zerg, Amon unleashed the ravenous swarm on the other Xel'Naga when they attempted to stop him from creating Protoss-Zerg hybrids that would be used to annihilate all other forms of life. The Xel'Naga were destroyed, but Amon was [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned within the Void]]. Retaining some influence over the Zerg, Amon was responsible in part for their rampages over the galaxy that claimed countless lives. When freed, Amon had his agents murder the rest of his sleeping enemy Xel'Naga, while also marshaling his forces in the heretic Tal'Darim; Protoss who worshiped him in hopes of "ascension," that was only, as Amon knew, horrible death in the end. Amon corrupted the telepathic network of the Protoss, the Khala, possessing multiple Protoss and forcing them to fight their own brethren and then directed his forces to cleanse the universe of all other life he could not control. Even while claiming good intentions in ending the cycle races are bound to, a protoss who touches Amon's mind revealed [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist the truth]]: Amon is filled with nothing but intense loathing towards all the other races and [[OmnicidalManiac wishes them to suffer and die]] for the sake of his twisted megalomania.
** "[[TheChessmaster Samir Duran]]"[=/=]"[[TheHeavy Emil Narud]]", Amon's [[TheDragon follower]], is a Xel'Naga who disguised himself as a Terran soldier, allowing the Zerg to overrun the Earth forces in several battles, killing many. When the officer Alexei Stukov realized what Duran had done, Duran [[FrameUp framed Stukov as a traitor]] and had him murdered. Allying with the Zerg, Duran helped the Swarm overrun entire worlds, all while [[MadScientist experimenting on captives]] to create the Protoss-Zerg hybrids Amon sought in order to help free his master from the Void. Devoted to Amon's nihilistic ambitions and seeing all other beings as pawns in his grand game, Duran achieved a level of damage in the galaxy few could match in order to free his master and bring about the end of all other species.
** [[PsychoSupporter Ma'lash]] is the brutal leader of the [[Characters/StarcraftTaldarim Tal'darim]] and one of Amon's most loyal servants. Ma'lash willingly assists Amon in his attempt to cleanse all "lesser" life forms in the entire universe. When Ma'lash discovers that this includes his own people, he still goes along with Amon's plans, manipulating them with false promises of ascension in the process. When one of Ma'lash's underlings discovers his treachery and challenges him to a duel, Ma'lash spends long hours destroying his [[MindRape mind]] and [[ColdBloodedTorture body]] after defeating him instead of killing him quickly, a fate he has condemned many of his other fallen opponents to. Ma'lash also sends his forces to raid Daelaam colony worlds and kidnap people from them, so that he could hand them over to Narud`s laboratories to be subjected to deranged experiments where most of them die. [[ItsAllAboutMe Willing to sacrifice his own people for personal gain]], Ma'lash stands out as a vile individual even by the standards of the Tal'darim.
** ''VideoGame/StarCraftII: Devils' Due'', by Christie Golden: [[BountyHunter Ezekiel Daun]], while a relatively minor character, is utterly monstrous. Daun is a [[PsychoForHire sadistic mercenary]] who, unless his clients specify otherwise, will [[ColdBloodedTorture torture his victims]] to draw out their death, and makes it theatrical by terrifying them and [[MindRape using psychological warfare]] before he moves in for the kill. At one point, Daun flays a woman alive even though there is no bounty on her, [[ForcedToWatch forcing her husband to watch]] the entire time before moving on to him. In another instance, Daun removes a victim's fingers one by one. He also records all of his deaths as holograms, both to watch in his spare time for the memories and to show his future victims to terrify them even more.
** Comic Books:
*** ''Frontline'': [[MadScientist Dr. Stanley Burgess]] is a {{sadist}}ic Terran Dominion scientist who personally oversaw the neural resocialization of Jin-ho Lim, a Terran of Asian ethnicity who opposed the Terran Dominion but was conscripted into the Dominion Marine Corps. After the operation, Stanley ordered the now-docile Lim to kill his wife and fellow Terran Dominion opposer, Anna, and he complied by shooting her in the face without a moment's hesitation. He also was responsible for the creation of the Terran/Protoss Gestalts by implanting the organs of captured Protoss into Terrans controlled by neural conditioning and neural inhibitors. His project came to an end after one of his subjects, Gestalt Zero, was freed from his neural inhibitors by a dying Protoss and stabbed him to death, [[IronicEcho ironically echoing one of his previous comments]]: "I should warn you...this is probably going to hurt."
*** ''Frontline'' Volume 4's "Voice in the Darkness": "[[EldritchAbomination The Voice in the Darkness]]" is one of the many names given to an AncientEvil entity responsible for the annihilation of countless civilizations throughout the universe. After being defeated by the Xel'Naga, it was imprisoned on a barren planet. When a group of researchers releases it, the Voice immediately [[UngratefulBastard shows its gratitude]] by slaughtering half of them and converting the other half into loyal minions. The conversion is a process, where the Voice brainwashes its victims, [[AndIMustScream leaving them conscious]] to an extent, and feeds on them by slowly draining their psionic energy over a long period of time until they eventually die, with the Voice having inflicted this fate on many creatures. After a group of Protoss arrives, the Voice tries to convert them as well, successfully brainwashing Xy'tal and forcing him to try to kill Azimar. When Xy'tal resists its control, the Voice punishes him by engulfing his body in flames after which it attempts to massacre the entire band of Protoss. It is also strongly suggested that the Voice plans to resume its genocidal activities upon release until all beings have either been converted or [[OmnicidalManiac killed]].
** ''Scavengers'' & ''Survivors'': "[[ArcVillain The Prisoner]]" is a Protoss murderer and heretic who was left trapped in her cell when the prison ship carrying her was damaged and the crew vanished. Unwittingly set free by a Terran salvage team, the Prisoner murdered them as well as the Dominion soldiers that arrived to arrest them, only sparing one of them, Caleb, because she needed a pilot. The Prisoner forced Caleb to infiltrate an Umojan colony to locate an experimental weapons lab, cowing him into declaring his life belongs to her. When Caleb does not find the lab quick enough for her, the Prisoner begins to murder his co-workers and [[DeadGuyPuppet used one of them]] to warn Caleb his time was running out. When she finally got her hands on the weapons she wanted, the Prisoner, angered by the Terran "arrogance" in designing the weapons, had Caleb send the knowledge to the [[BloodKnight Tal'darim]], knowing they will retaliate by destroying the colony. Vicious, brutal, and [[AxCrazy tormenting and killing others just for her enjoyment]], the Prisoner is [[AliensAreBastards one of the most singularly vile]] Protoss in the franchise.

* PortingDisaster: The Nintendo 64 is the only console that ''[=StarCraft=] I'' has been ported to. Although the effort to put both the original game and the expansion into a cartridge had been respectable, a LOT of concessions were made in order to make it possible.

** [[EvilOverlord Amon]], The Dark Voice/The Fallen One, is the GreaterScopeVillain of the franchise as a whole and the BigBad of ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIILegacyOfTheVoid Legacy of the Void]].''. A fallen Xel'Naga who broke the noninterference policy towards other races, Amon sought to shatter the eternal cycle all races were bound to by genetically altering the young Protoss to suit his needs. Finding and enforcing a HiveMind slavery on the Zerg, Amon unleashed the ravenous swarm on the other Xel'Naga when they attempted to stop him from creating Protoss-Zerg hybrids that would be used to annihilate all other forms of life. The Xel'Naga were destroyed, but Amon was [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned within the Void]]. Retaining some influence over the Zerg, Amon was responsible in part for their rampages over the galaxy that claimed countless lives. When freed, Amon had his agents murder the rest of his sleeping enemy Xel'Naga, while also marshaling his forces in the heretic Tal'Darim; Protoss who worshiped him in hopes of "ascension," that was only, as Amon knew, horrible death in the end. Amon corrupted the telepathic network of the Protoss, the Khala, possessing multiple Protoss and forcing them to fight their own brethren and then directed his forces to cleanse the galaxy of all other life he could not control. Even while claiming good intentions in ending the cycle races are bound to, a protoss who touches Amon's mind revealed [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist the truth]]: Amon is filled with nothing but intense loathing towards all the other races and [[OmnicidalManiac wishes them to suffer and die]] for the sake of his twisted megalomania.

*** ''Scavengers'' & ''Survivors'': "[[ArcVillain The Prisoner]]" is a Protoss murderer and heretic who was left trapped in her cell when the prison ship carrying her was damaged and the crew vanished. Unwittingly set free by a Terran salvage team, the Prisoner murdered them as well as the Dominion soldiers that arrived to arrest them, only sparing one of them, Caleb, because she needed a pilot. The Prisoner forced Caleb to infiltrate an Umojan colony to locate an experimental weapons lab, cowing him into declaring his life belongs to her. When Caleb does not find the lab quick enough for her, the Prisoner begins to murder his co-workers and [[DeadGuyPuppet used one of them]] to warn Caleb his time was running out. When she finally got her hands on the weapons she wanted, the Prisoner, angered by the Terran "arrogance" in designing the weapons, had Caleb send the knowledge to the [[BloodKnight Tal'darim]], knowing they will retaliate by destroying the colony. Vicious, brutal, and [[AxCrazy tormenting and killing others just for her enjoyment]], the Prisoner is [[AliensAreBastards one of the most singularly vile]] Protoss in the franchise.

*** ''Frontline'' Volume 4's "Voice in the Darkness": "[[EldritchAbomination The Voice in the Darkness]]" is one of the many names given to an AncientEvil entity responsible for the annihilation of countless civilizations throughout the universe. After being defeated by the Xel'Naga, it was imprisoned on a barren planet. When a group of researchers releases it, the Voice immediately [[UngratefulBastard shows its gratitude]] by slaughtering half of them and converting the other half into loyal minions. The conversion is a process, where the Voice brainwashes its victims, [[AndIMustScream leaving them conscious]] to an extent, and feeds on them by slowly draining their prionic energy over a long period of time until they eventually die, with the Voice having inflicted this fate on many creatures. After a group of Protoss arrives, the Voice tries to convert them as well, successfully brainwashing Xy'tal and forcing him to try to kill Azimar. When Xy'tal resists its control, the Voice punishes him by engulfing his body in flames after which it attempts to massacre the entire band of Protoss. It is also strongly suggested that the Voice plans to resume its genocidal activities upon release until all beings have either been converted or [[OmnicidalManiac killed]].

** ''[=StarCraft=] II: Devils' Due'', by Christie Golden: [[{{Sadist}} Ezekiel Daun]], while a relatively minor character, is utterly monstrous. Daun is a BountyHunter and [[PsychoForHire mercenary]] who, unless his clients specify otherwise, will [[ColdBloodedTorture torture his victims]] to draw out their death, and makes it theatrical by terrifying them and [[MindRape using psychological warfare]] before he moves in for the kill. He also records all his deaths as holograms, both to watch in his spare time for the memories and to show his future victims to terrify them even more.

** [[TheDragon Amon's follower]], the unnamed Xel'Naga best known as Samir Duran or Emil Narud, disguised himself as a Terran soldier, allowing the Zerg to overrun the Earth forces in several battles, killing many. When the officer Alexei Stukov realized what Duran had done, Duran [[FrameUp framed Stukov as a traitor]] and had him murdered. Allying with the Zerg, Duran helped the Swarm overrun entire worlds, all while [[MadScientist experimenting on captives]] to create the Protoss-Zerg hybrids Amon sought in order to help free his master from the Void. Devoted to Amon's nihilistic ambitions and seeing all other beings as pawns in his grand game, Duran achieved a level of damage in the galaxy few could match in order to free his master and bring about the end of all other species.

** [[TheChessmaster Emperor Arcturus I Mengsk]] is [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist initially portrayed as a well-meaning freedom fighter]] against a corrupt government that murdered his entire family before nuking his world, and willing to take morally dubious methods to defeat them such as taking their Psychic Beacons and using them against the Confederacy to lure the Zerg to their bases. But when he leads the assault on Tarsonis and [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope uses these same beacons]] to lure the Zerg to a heavily populated world, he shows that [[ItsAllAboutMe he's more fixated with revenge and personal power]], sending Kerrigan down to stop the Protoss from distracting the Zerg from wiping out all of the old families and then abandoning her when the Zerg overwhelm her position, resulting in her transformation into the Queen of Blades. Afterwards, he uses the power he has gained as Emperor of the newly established Terran Dominion to oppress any political protesters, continue the Confederacy's experiments on civilians and ordering the death of the last of the old families, a group of teenagers who weren't even aware of what had happened. After Kerrigan is transformed back, Mengsk makes a concerted effort to kill her, even going so far as attempting to [[OffingTheOffspring kill his own son Valerian]] for helping her; when Kerrigan finally comes for his head, Mengsk resorts to nuking his own capital in order to slow her down, despite the fact that it was the nuking of Korhal that caused his rebellion against the confederacy. Selfish, {{hypocrit|e}}ical and cruel, Mengsk showed that [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans can sometimes be the biggest monsters of all]].

** ''[=StarCraft=] II: Devils' Due'': In this novel, [[{{Sadist}} Ezekiel Daun]], while a relatively minor character, is utterly monstrous. Daun is a BountyHunter and [[PsychoForHire mercenary]] who, unless his clients specify otherwise, will [[ColdBloodedTorture torture his victims]] to draw out their death, and makes it theatrical by terrifying them and [[MindRape using psychological warfare]] before he moves in for the kill. He also records all his deaths as holograms, both to watch in his spare time for the memories and to show his future victims to terrify them even more.

** "[=StarCraft=]: Hybrid" and ''[=StarCraft=]: Uprising'': In this short story and eBook respectively, Sarah Kerrigan's hated instructor, Lieutenant Rumm, [[BreakTheCutie forced the young girl]] to use her exceptional psionic powers by injecting a kitten with a tumor-causing chemical, and [[SadisticChoice gave her the option]] of destroying the kitten's tumor or euthanizing it. When she wasn't willing to fall to his demands, Rumm threatened to shoot the kitten himself. When this didn't work, Rumm decided not to shoot and left the kitten to die slowly and painfully. Taking more drastic measures, he brought in her father, who had become brain-damaged as a result of Kerrigan's accidentally unleashing her psionic powers, in an adjacent cell to hers and threatened to inject him with the same chemical if she didn't use her psionic powers. When she still refused, threatening to use the power to kill herself and her father, Rumm forced her to be neural resocialized--a form of brainwashing technology used to enforce obedience and shape new memories--turning her into a loyal puppet of the Terran Confederacy. Even after the MindRape, he continued to mentally torture her for over a year.

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: While the series does have a good sized fandom interested in the plot and characters (somebody has to be buying those twelve novels and plethora of short stories of comics, after all), that isn't nearly what the games are famous for, that being the multiplayer aspects. The fans interested in the story and the ones that play the games for the multiplayer are worlds apart.
* PortingDisaster: The Nintendo 64 is the only console that ''Starcraft I'' has been ported to. Although the effort to put both the original game and the expansion into a cartridge had been respectable, a LOT of concessions were made in order to make it possible.

* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: While the series does have a good sized fandom interested in the plot and characters, that isn't nearly what the games are famous for, that being the multiplayer aspects. The fans interested in the story and the ones that play the games for the multiplayer are worlds apart.

*** ''Frontline'': [[MadScientist Dr. Stanley Burgess]] is a sadistic Terran Dominion scientist who personally oversaw the neural resocialization of Jin-ho Lim, a Terran of Asian ethnicity who opposed the Terran Dominion but was conscripted into the Dominion Marine Corps. After the operation, Stanley ordered the now-docile Lim to kill his wife and fellow Terran Dominion opposer, Anna, and he complied by shooting her in the face without a moment's hesitation. He also was responsible for the creation of the Terran/Protoss Gestalts by implanting the organs of captured Protoss into Terrans controlled by neural conditioning and neural inhibitors. His project came to an end after one of his subjects, Gestalt Zero, was freed from his neural inhibitors by a dying Protoss and stabbed him to death, [[IronicEcho ironically echoing one of his previous comments]]: "I should warn you...this is probably going to hurt."

*** ''Frontline'': [[MadScientist Dr. Stanley Burgess]] is a sadistic Terran Dominion scientist who personally oversaw the neural resocialization of Jin-ho Lim, a terran of Asian ethnicity who opposed the Terran Dominion but was conscripted into the Dominion Marine Corps. After the operation, Stanley ordered the now-docile Lim to kill his wife and fellow Terran Dominion opposer, Anna, and he complied by shooting her in the face without a moment's hesitation. He also was responsible for the creation of the Terran/Protoss Gestalts by implanting the organs of captured Protoss into Terrans controlled by neural conditioning and neural inhibitors. His project came to an end after one of his subjects, Gestalt Zero, was freed from his neural inhibitors by a dying Protoss and stabbed him to death, [[IronicEcho ironically echonig one of his previous comments]]: "I should warn you...this is probably going to hurt."