StarCraft II: Difference between revisions

* [[All There in the Manual]]: ''The Dark Templar Saga'' and the ''Frontline'' series are practically required reading for the sequel. ''Frontline'' gives the backstory and lore of several new units, while ''The Dark Templar Saga'' explains in detail what Preservers are and why they're significant. In addition the "Ghost Academy" series of books details the back-stories of Nova and Tosh; Though Starcraft 2 immediately spoils how well their friendship went after academy.

* [[And I Must Scream]]: {{spoiler|The Zerg Overmind}}, {{spoiler|Kerrigan}} and the Infested Terrans:

''"[[Night of the Living Mooks|Join ussss....]]"''<br />

''"[[Survivor Guilt|You were too late!]]"'' }}

* [[Chewing the Scenery]]: Any TIME the hybrid Maar OPENSSS his ''TELEPATHY'' channel.

* [[Cliff Hanger]]: ''Heart of the Swarm'' and ''Legacy Of The Void'' have a '''lot''' of things to explain.

{{quote| Beware of Terra-tron. HE DOES NOT LIKE YOU.}}

* [[Cipher Scything]]: This happens to the player characters from the original and Brood War campaigns; the unnamed Commander/Executer/Cerebrate being retconned away.

* [[Dramatic Pause]]: The protoss love that. One of the examples is Zeratul's dialogue with {{spoiler|Tassadar's spirit}}.

* [[Drop Pod]]: The Terrans use them on occasion, and one mission involves rescuing [[Drop Pod|Drop Pods]] stranded a bit too far behind enemy lines.

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: {{spoiler|The "Dark Voice" and his hybrids}}.

* [[Elite Mooks]]: The Aberration is a zerg unit that only appears in the campaign. It's big and can take a lot of damage, but fortunately only has melee attacks. It is implied that it's an "advanced" form of an infested terran, since they only appear in missions where infested terrans feature prominently.

* [[Fanfare]]: The game's main menu music starts off with a remix of the original menu music and then usually fades into a quieter background theme, but every now and then it will instead progress right into the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyfqxU7mzyM full main title]. It is awesome every time it happens.

* [[Fantastic Recruitment Drive]]: There's a Dominion ad encouraging parents to let their children be trained as Ghosts.

** [[The Hero]]: Jim Raynor

** [[The Lancer]]: Matt Horner, also functions as [[The Heart]].

{{quote| '''Zeratul''': {{spoiler|You will hold her life in your hands...}}}}

** Tosh tells Raynor {{spoiler|he suspects someone on the ship is working for the Dominion}} and Horner constantly tells Raynor that {{spoiler|Tychus is up to something and that someone has 'a gun to his head.'}} Both foreshadow {{spoiler|Tychus's betrayal at the end of the campaign}}.

** The protoss take this trope and turn it [[Up to Eleven]]. The stalkers and the phoenix fire short laser bursts; the sentries, the warp rays, and the mothership fire continuous energy beams directly at the target; and the colossi and campaign-exclusive enemy stone guardians fire sweeping lasers along the ground. Even the probe uses an energy ray to gather minerals. In any diverse protoss army, expect to see quite the [[Beam Spam]]. On the Terran side, there's the battlecruiser, and the campaign-exclusive wraith (though only for air-to-ground attacks), back from the original game. Technically, the diamondback tank uses a rail gun, but it looks like a continuous laser.

** Lampshaded and referred to by name with the song ''Terran Up The Night'', with the line "The sound of '''friggin' laser beams''' and gatling guns..."

* [[Hold the Line]]:

** The third mission, a direct throwback to the third mission of the first game. They even take place on the same world, and probably close to the same location. {{spoiler|The last mission of the main campaign}} also qualifies.

* [[Hollywood Silencer]]: Ghosts, whenever they use their "Snipe" ability. Then again, it is a very ''loud'' "thwip!" sound that will alert any player paying attention that a ghost is nearby, sniping units, so it's not as whisper-quiet as most [[Hollywood Silencer|Hollywood Silencers]].

* [[Hollywood Voodoo]]: If the player {{spoiler|chooses to side with Nova over Tosh. When running away, Tosh}} threatens Raynor with a voodoo doll of himself, and then stabs it. Nothing happens, because {{spoiler|Tosh}} has attuned the doll to the wrong person: {{spoiler|Tychus.}} [[Hilarity Ensues]].

* [[Homing Boulders]]:

** Projectiles in general have a fairly amusing terrain-following style, similar to Stalkers. Watch for Marauders shooting up on the high ground, with their grenades having a non-parabolic arc to somehow zoom up to the height level.

* [[Horde of Alien Locusts]]: As if the zerg don't fit this trope to a T already, the movement upgrade for zerglings causes them to grow little wings that make them look even more like little locusts.

* [[In Working Order]]: The xel'naga artifact. Interestingly, Ariel Hanson notes that the artifact is thousands of years old, which is really ''young'' compared to most xel'naga artifacts, which are ''millions'' of years old. Probably built around when they were uplifting the Protoss.

* [[It Can Think]]: ''Heart of the Swarm'' promises to introduce several other intelligent types of zerg capable of speech, including Kerrigan's [[Voice With an Internet Connection|Voice with a Hivemind Connection]].

* [[Its Raining Men]]: Mercenaries, MULEs, and a couple of protoss tech upgrades deliver units in orbital drop pods. The Zerg get their own equivalent of this in some of the ''Wings of Liberty'' campaign missions; some kind of purple, fleshy torpedo falling from the sky that unleashes zerglings and creates a Creep Tumor on the spot. The Protoss are exempt from this trope, presumably, because they just warp in units via teleportation.

* [[The Jimmy Hart Version]]: An almost note-for-note rendition of a common [[Firefly]] theme appears as {{spoiler|Raynor stands victorious over Tychus after their bar-fight.}}

* [[Loophole Abuse]]: People often stream their games. [[Aint No Rule]] saying you can't go in their stream, queue up at the same time as them, and then spy on them through their stream.

* [[Lost Forever]]: Once you {{spoiler|invade Char}}, you can't complete any missions from other arcs, nor can you play Lost Viking anymore. At least you're warned of this beforehand.

* [[Ludicrous Gibs]]: The Zerg, oh lord the Zerg. Marines/human infantry in general are not spared from this either.

* [[MacGuffin Delivery Service]]: Sort of. The characters spend most of the campaign collecting pieces of an artifact, including one left on a world whose sun goes supernova. The [[Big Bad]] also wants this artifact, and at the start of the final mission {{spoiler|she even says "You've brought me the Xel'Naga artifact"}}. However, {{spoiler|perhaps she was mistaken about it, or was going to use it a different way, because it seems very effective at the purpose for which Raynor uses it, and which Kerrigan was trying to stop him doing so.}}

** The player will also think this if they hear the words "Nuclear launch detected" and have no idea where it's about to land.

* [[One Bullet Left]]: Done thematically. {{spoiler|Raynor's revolver only has one bullet left, and it's meant for Arcturus. He almost wastes it on Valerian (who he mistakes for Arcturus), and ultimately sacrifices it to save Kerrigan from Tychus}}.

** The Zerg Changeling. The unit can be spawned from the overseer, and is designed to imitate an enemy unit so it can scout your opponent's base. It technically has five hit points, but everything in the game-- including workers-- does at least five damage.

* [[Outlaw Town]]: Deadman's Rock, an entire outlaw planet.

* [[Outrun the Fireball]]: The "Supernova" mission. And the end of the "Belly of the Beast" mission.

{{quote| '''Kerrigan''': "The killing will never stop... until Arcturus Mengsk is dead."}}

* [[Robo Speak]]: The damaged Confederate adjutant, the raven, and (to a lesser extent) the science vessel (which is not actually a robot) and standard adjutants, as well.

* [[Sand Worm]]: One of the new zerg units/buildings is effectively this. Load a bunch of zerg into a Nydus Network, then grow a giant underground worm that pops up and starts disgorging tons of swarming zerglings. Seeing them, especially in the campaign, is always an "[[Oh Crap]]" moment.

* [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]]: In case regular protoss weren't dogmatic enough for you, the terran campaign features the Tal'Darim, who don't really care for humans at all and swear bloody revenge on you every time you help yourself to something they're guarding.

** In addition, if you decide not to cleanse the Colony, the Doctor is seen walking off afterwards just fine. If you DO decide to cleanse it, turns out she was secretly harboring a Zerg infection, and turns after. Same thing happens in any other branched mission; if you side with Tosh, it turns out he really is a revolutionary. Go against him and he turns out to be a scoundrel as Nova said.

* [[Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale]]:

** A significant part of the third-to-last mission can be skipped, provided you have an ability to summon infantry units behind the enemy lines via drop-podes.

* [[Shoot the Television]]: Jim Raynor does this in the opening cutscenes, when Emperor Mengsk refers to him as "a clear and present threat" to the Dominion during a news conference interview. [[Brick Joke|He later gets a note from the owner billing him for the damages, and in another bar, the TV has a note on it that says, "Do not shoot screen!"]]

* [[Sinister Scythe]]: One of the possible dark templar model have scythes with two blades. The arching shoulder blades of the Ultralisk, though not actual scythes per se, have the same feel to them.

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism]]: After the first game and expansion slid all the way down the cynical side (to the outright depressing), the sequel begins a shift back to idealism, especially {{spoiler|Mengsk's defacing and Kerrigan's de-infestation}}. After four/twelve years, things are looking up... [[Hope Spot|Right?]]

* [[Smart Bomb]]:

** During the final Terran mission.

{{quote| Stetmann: "Those things are pretty nasty. Next time you should try not to let them splash you.<br />

Tychus: "Thanks for the advice, son. Now shut up." }}

{{quote| '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATUJSjNJEj4#t=51s Terran Marine]''': ''THANK YOU, SIR! MAY I HAVE ANOTHER?!''}}

* [[Summon Bigger Fish]]: A few of the "commando" missions feature this. You have the option of, for example, unleashing a bunch of caged test subjects upon Dominion soldiers. If you do a little exploration, one such mission even lets you unleash an ''Ultralisk'' upon the enemy.

{{quote| "My forces are without number."}}

* [[Wham Episode]]: The entirety of Zeratul's mini-campaign. {{spoiler|Starting on Zhakul, we have our first contact with an active hybrid. It's all but immortal and ''gets stronger every time you defeat it''. After that, there's the trip to Aiur in which we learn not only that Tassadar is still alive, for a given value of alive, but also what the Overmind's true motivation for creating Kerrigan was and realize it wasn't as evil as we'd thought. Lastly, and the most whammy of them all, the Overmind's vision of the future, in which we learn what happens if Kerrigan is killed. You control the last remnants of the protoss race against the immensely powerful Dark Voice and his army of hybrids and zerg. It ends with the Dark Voice extinguishing the star you're orbiting and presumably destroying all life in the universe.}}

{{quote| '''Raynor:''' Why did it have to be fire?}}

* [[Word Salad Lyrics]]: A Zerg, A Shotgun & You

** {{spoiler|The Overmind}} had an apocalyptic vison of the future. Knowing that he can't do anything about it due to {{spoiler|his lack of free will imposed by the Xel'Naga, and the forced directive from the Dark Voice}}, he needed someone who could prevent the end of days. His answer? {{spoiler|Kerrigan}}. Infest {{spoiler|a powerful human psychic}} so that {{spoiler|she}} can rule the zerg, then act as a decoy by taking physical form on the home planet of the most technologically advanced species in the galaxy and daring them to kill you. Once they have conveniently done so, she'll be in charge... and at least hopefully will have free will.

** Mengsk's plan with {{spoiler|Tychus}}: Release {{spoiler|him}} with the cover story of being employed by Moebius (an organization led by his son) in order to innocuously guide Raynor and his crew towards acquiring the artifacts, one of which Mengsk almost had in his possession already. These artifacts would then stay in Raynor's possession long enough to bait him with the idea that it could "cure" Kerrigan, while simultaneously baiting his own son towards the foolish gambit of {{spoiler|attacking the zerg homeworld}} in order to deploy said artifact. All so he could have {{spoiler|Tychus}} kill {{spoiler|Kerrigan}}.

* [[You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With]]: Happens when Tychus Findlay asks Jim Raynor about what it was like fighting the Zerg.

{{quote| '''Tychus:''' What it was like, Jimmy? Fightin' them...Zerg?<br />

[[Category:Blizzard Entertainment (Creator)]]

[[Category:Starcraft II]]