I’ve done a post about the trailer for Wings Of Liberty where I went over the introduction of Tychus and how the camera/lighting built upon the anticipation for the story. But the only reason why the trailer was so successful other than simply being good was that the actual game itself was incredible causing people to watch the trailer to figure out what the buzz was. So, I’m gonna go over what makes Wings Of Liberty click to me. Major spoilers below. Please do not read this if you haven’t done the campaign. I will ruin many plot twists. It’s worth playing through it yourself.
The characters of the Wings Of Liberty campaign is Raynor and Tychus versus Mengsk and his dominion. The whole story revolves around Raynor trying to free people from the grasp of the dominion while Mengsk wants to continue controlling the dominion with his iron grip to safeguard humanity the horrors of space. This whole story revolves around a huge grey area where Mengsk is obviously a bad guy since he has killed so many people and caused so much suffering but it’s difficult to say if it’s really Mengsk’s fault since without him many more would have died to the swarm. From this, the story has a large grey area that mirrors our real world. A lot of moments in history have these “grey areas” such as the actions of Stalin or dictator Mao when they came to power in the USSR and Communist China. Both enacted widespread policies that harmed many individuals but also played key roles in the industrialization of their countries. Without those two men, it would be hard to make a case that Russia and China would be as powerful as they are today. However, it can’t be said that they were good people since thousands suffered under both men’s rule. This is exactly the same as Mengsk and his dominion. In fact, Mengsk has this voice line that echoes his grasp as a dictator, “My Dominion. Right or wrong.” This mirror of history evokes very deep thought as people have the weigh the moral obligations over the nationalistic obligations. This conflict deepens the story as Raynor slowly picks apart the dominion and realizes just how much Mengsk was doing to try and defend the dominion that was slowly losing. Raynor find himself caught between the Zerg and the Dominion and has to go out and save colonies and people who the dominion gives up on.
When you think about it, is it wrong for the dominion to give up on millions of human lives? Yes. But is it wrong for the dominion to give up millions of human lives to reinforce the already faltering defenses of key planets? Well, that’s a tough case to make. And there’s no clear answer for this question since the knowledge of what is true and what is dominion propaganda is extremely blurry. Almost as blurry as the politics of our current world. The parallels are shockingly close.
Okay I’m now going to spoil a big part of the campaign. This is your last chance to get out of here and play it yourself. I highly recommend playing it without this spoiler.
The relationship between Tychus and Raynor is truly what makes the campaign my favorite out of the starcraft 2 campaigns. Tychus and Raynor are friends with problems but still friends no matter what happens. In the first game, Raynor is forced to abandon Kerrigan which is the start of the whole rebel thing. Tychus strikes a deal with the dominion to help Raynor find Kerrigan and to eliminate Kerrigan. As the story progresses, Raynor and Tychus become closer and closer with the backstory between the two slowly being sprinkled here and there in small nuggets of information. By the time the climax of the story comes, the player is able to piece together all the events that happened between these two characters and really understand just how close they are.
The final scene where Tychus chooses to help his friend becomes even more impactful through the hours of build up, banter, and backstory that was built up through the story. The characterization of both of the characters were so well done that they felt like actual real people with real problems. The final cut to black is especially jarring as the player know exactly what happened. I don’t feel sad for Tychus. Out of every story I’ve read or watched, they probably throw out the most banger one liners I’ve ever heard. From the “It’s about damn time” to “We all got our choices to make.” The final result isn’t all to surprising after it happens as we remember the countless foreshadowing scattered throughout the game in offhand remarks and such that this result was possible. Because of this foreshadowing, the ending doesn’t feel stolen or negative in any way because we know exactly what Tychus want and we know exactly what Raynor wants. From playing the game we also know the relationship between Tychus and Raynor. From all of this, the result of the final scene where Raynor carries his princess out of the cave is pretty predictable.
To be honest, I wanted to write a whole lot more about this. But I quickly realized that I could write a whole ass article on this and I don’t really got the time for all that. So instead, I’m just sticking to the two things I liked most. If I decide to do a full in depth analysis I might write it up and post it in small parts. Who knows. I haven’t played Wings Of Liberty in like five years. Maybe I should do another playthrough.
Potato is yum 
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