Devastation Comes In Big Packages [Planetary Annihilation/Multicross SI]

[Nalanaya]

I mean, it's not really surprising. Considering his position, he would have HAD to have known about a lot of the nasty things the Dominion covered up, and from there been able to infer some of the worse stuff. Using the Zerg and 'making' Kerrigan is definitely the worst of Mengsk's deeds, and the personal connection may have shaken Donny where nothing else did...but the behavior is already there. Then it just comes down to a question of 'Is he the chief propagandist because given his position trying to be like Kate would have gotten him killed quickly?' or 'Is he the chief propagandist because going along with Arcturus gives enough benefits to overwhelm his ethics?'

Considering how he stayed on the Mengsk train I'm assuming the first is not the case. But even if the price he'd sell himself out for is low, why support the old Regime when a lot of people, and most especially powerful people, clearly hated him? The only guess I can give for that, is that much like the Confederacy before them, the Dominion is a state with huge fracture lines plastered over with a logo of 'unity'. There's factions that hate being part of it, or others in it, were only around because the Brood War was terrible and they bought the lie, or genuinely loved it and dismissed or didn't care about it's negatives. And going by Davis and it's general instability...that last group is not inconsequential. Especially not considering they would have been among the planets/people reaping the benefits from exploiting the rest, and protected from the Zerg and other enemies. All told, I'm thinking Donny is very much a political animal. Maybe if Mengsk had lived for longer, he would have eventually flipped from his own grudge, but Kerrigan killed him. And there he is with a whole career supporting one political super-bloc and a whole bunch of people that still want to hear about how the old times were the best and everyone else are evil incompetents out to take their wealth/'freedom'/land. Mengsk is dead, everyone else involved in Tarsonis probably got killed or imprisoned when Valerian took power, and he still has a life to live and money to make. Of course he was going to keep being a FOX UNN news anchor. He sold out before, he'll keep doing it now (after all, unlike Mengsk, Valerian and Horner can't/won't just silence critics).

 

[Nimble Flourish]

This is probably the least bored I've ever been reading a PA SI, mainly because of Yuriko and the SIs friendship. I wasn't all that convinced by the unit limit at first just seemed like a gimmick. But having the SI have to kill his own kids and then go on a manic depressive journey of self discovery and food binging got me invested, then the friendship with Yuriko and Yuriko becoming the partner in crime. I think you've got a really impressive grasp of banter and social interaction and the more chances you've gotten to show that off the more impressed I am with the story. You also have a really good grasp of character voice. I could swear I was actually watching an episode of Stargate during the moments when SG-1 were on screen. I don't know much about StarCraft or Red Alert but you make me care quite a bit about characters I've never known. Anyway that's all I really have to say outside of being alittle disappointed that I've finally caught up to the last chapter so far. Keep up the good work.

 

[Iridium Flare]

I wasn't all that convinced by the unit limit at first just seemed like a gimmick. But having the SI have to kill his own kids and then go on a manic depressive journey of self discovery and food binging got me invested, then the friendship with Yuriko and Yuriko becoming the partner in crime.

Click to shrink...

I mean, by the author's own admission, the star wars arc was by far not their best work. The unit limit, and a lot of other stuff in that bit, is gimmicky.
The way in which they continued on from that, though, was brilliant - inspired, even - and most definitely showed how much they'd learned and improved as a writer.

 

[Nimble Flourish]

I mean, by the author's own admission, the star wars arc was by far not their best work. The unit limit, and a lot of other stuff in that bit, is gimmicky.
The way in which they continued on from that, though, was brilliant - inspired, even - and most definitely showed how much they'd learned and improved as a writer.

Click to shrink...

I can definitely see that, for a hot minute I thought the meta nature of his daughters motivation would take me out of things but ultimately the fact he just sees her as crazy and broken rather than lending her reasons much credence really hammered home the new direction of the story. As did the fact he's actually shown grieving her and her siblings. It's impressive that the author managed to walk that line and come out better. As is the fact he managed to make that grieving period interesting by tying it in to both the humour of the binging competitions and Dude-like persona and a different characters recovery period rather than just leaving the SI to deal with things internally by himself. Which I've found is often a mistake because it just makes the audience feel alienated. But using humour and relationships to make it a journey rather than a rut was definitely inspired. In many ways they've also continued the theme of dealing with trauma by having a lot of the Starcraft section be from Raynors perspective. Yuriko has almost taken on the role that the SI took on for her but for Raynor it's quite poignant actually.