Absolute Dehaka Moment

Blog for all of my fanfic stuff (It's not just Dehaka dw) Main blog in pinned!!

[dehakarush17]

Intro Post!

** This is a side blog of @turtle-fics, where I'll be posting all of myfanfics and ramblings about media I like! If you'd like to see more info about myself, my DNIs, and my original characters and work, check out that blog!

** This account is primarily Starcraft themed, specifically around my favorite character Dehaka. Despite that though I'll be posting here about any franchise that's on my brain. A comprehensive list would def be impossible and I'm the kind of person who's attention span is like a revolving door, but check below to see a few prominent ones that I'm long time fans of.

-Jurassic Park (And paleo media in general) -Godzilla/Kaiju -Starcraft -Newgrounds -Valve Games (TF2 and Portal are my main favs) -Digimon -Yo-Kai Watch -Slugterra

[dehakarush17]

If I had friends to play co-op with I'd be jumping for joy </3

[dehakarush17]

Time for some REAL Dehaka posting and my interpretation of one of his most infamous quotes.

"Their tools stay the same. I collect. I change."

A very poignant quote about not just the primals but zerg attitude in general to the terrans and protoss and the difference in how the zerg developed. When I see people talk about this quote, it's seen as a great example of the limits of the primal ideology, and their inability to understand how technology could outpace their evolution.

I think this is a bit flawed though, one point from a silly gameplay perspective, and another from a more deep and thoughtful analysis on the primal zerg's perception of the world. To quickly touch on the first, I think it's funny considering in game (And in lore) primal zerg (And the zerg in general) go toe to toe with terran/protoss machines all the time and match up just fine against them, so really they aren't necessarily wrong lol.

But as for the character analysis, I find it interesting how Dehaka draws a distinction between the tools and the person using them. Common sense usually means that if you see a person using a tool, that's an extension of the person and not some sort of partnership between two separate entities. Even very sophisticated tools, both in real life and in the future of Starcraft with things like advanced computer systems and space stations (I know I'm really stretching the definition of a tool but stay with me) aren't seen as an independent factor in the work. They're a means to an end and their value comes from how they enhance a person or people's abilities. A shovel will never be a sword, but unless you're playing Shovel Knight it's not expected to be, whoever is using it will simply switch their tool.

Primal zerg however have a totally different point of view. They are the tool, to a pack leader their pack is the equivalent of a selection of tools. Every individual is that, an individual. Each one is its own entity contributing, and for specifically a pack leader like Dehaka who values change and adaptability, true specialization renders them useless. Dehaka cannot see the value in having an unchanging tool, not because he thinks "Terran tanks are crappy" to which everybody rebuts "They'll make a better tank," which I believe is the usual interpretation of a quote. Dehaka instead sees that "The tank will never be anything but a tank." It can be the best tank possible, but fundamentally it cannot change what it is, and so it is a failure since what if you don't need a tank? For a primal zerg, they could simply adapt to whatever the new situation is, but the tool will stay the same and be useless. Why would a primal zerg ever want to use the equivalent of many dead ends when they constantly change to whatever their environment demands? They could be anything, and have no obligation to remain stuck, and I think this philosophy can be seen even in the gameplay of the zerg somewhat. Hydralisks and Lurkers for instance, while not a perfect representation, do capture the general idea of the zerg adapting themselves to respond to new situations.

I don't know, I hope some of it at least makes sense. This was mostly spurred on by some conversation on the starcraft reddit about character quotes and me mulling over this one for a bit in my head, and now I finally have an outlet for my thoughts lol.

[dehakarush17]

"Haiwl: The Jewel of Gochwan."

First big info drop on my OCs' and their setting! An overview on the setting and some of its basic history, I'll be going into depth on the races/factions as well as more characters in future posts! This is giving a baseline for what everybody is dealing with in my stories.

Orbiting a distant blue B-Type Star is the ice giant Gochwan. A bit larger than Neptune, it has the winds and storms and freezing temperatures you'd expect, its most interesting feature being how closely it orbits next to a band of resource rich asteroids.

In the shadow of Gochwan orbits an irregularly shaped moon, Haiwl. It's an irregularly shaped moon, no one really knows the reason why. Besides that it seems pretty typical, a barren stone surface that left to its own devices is covered in a layer of frozen gases. Incredibly resource poor, all of its mineral deposits were locked up under the ice and vast vespane deposits were unable to erupt in geysers due to the weight on the surface. The Kel-Morians were the first ones to discover Gochwan and subsequently Haiwl, and were left unimpressed, only setting up a research platform to begin looking into the feasibility of asteroid mining.

It was during this research however that something remarkable was observed. Haiwl was absolutely bombarded with meteors. Meteors of an unusually rich compositions regularly crashed into Haiwl, and a lucrative opportunity was spotted.

Massive investment poured in, primarily in the form of an incredibly impressive subterranean heater system embedded into the ground and running to allow the ice to sublimate into a thin atmosphere. Free from having their impact sites frozen over, meteors delivered wealth to the planet as well as creating weak spots for vespane gas to vent to the surface. An influx of miners seeking their fortune on such a dangerous yet tantalizing sounding made up the bulk of the moon's first residents, settlements spreading all across the moon.

In the modern day (General placement in the timeline is right before to during Wings of Liberty.) however, these early promises of extraterrestrial opportunity are long forgotten. Alien incursions along with a flood of mercenaries, pirates, rebels, and outlaws have led to a sharp decline in interest from outside parties. Haiwl has been left to it's own devices, for better or for worse, relegated to an overlooked Kel-Morian Combine with a great deal of autonomy on the pretense of nobody wanting to deal with it. It's considered a place to disappear, where people end up when no where else will take them. This rings true for all the races inhabiting the moon, though manifesting in different ways. All face an uncertain future, yet new opportunities have finally begun to shine on Haiwl, and everybody looks to take advantage of them.

[turtle-fics]

MASTER POST!!!

All of my writing and characters conveniently collected! Want to see my intro? Click here. See my commission info here. (Comms open, but no longer urgent, just need to repost my sheet!) Last Updated: 7-21-26

-accounts-

Youtube Twitch DehakaRush17 (Sideblog for fandom content)

-characters-

--My characters!--

Latur: Intro, Toyhouse. Lucy Torres: Toyhouse.

--Friend's Persona's/Characters!--

Yith: Intro. Big Fat Gorilla: Intro. Jacques: Intro.

(All characters here are generously allowed by their respective owners to appear in my works and are pretty ingrained into them! If possible there will be a link to their Tumblr/Other prominent account, though some don't have one just because of not being on social media much.)

-writing-

-Latur Stuff-

Lucy's Breath of Undeath (Parts 1, 2, 3 on Tumblr. Toyhouse.) Lexi is Dum. (Indefinite Hiatus on future parts.) Latur Celebrates Pride!!

(Writing is listed in chronological order of when it was posted.)

[dehakarush17]

Abathur rant (because I'm a Dehaka themed account so obviously) but why do we never get Abathur's opinion on the hybrid??

I'm not a SC loremaster so maybe there's something in the books, but in game there's really nothing. The game even seems to almost be teasing at Abathur having a pretty big reaction to seeing the hybrid for the first time.

His introduction makes it clear he's an old part of the swarm from the rule of the Overmind, who's whole objective was to integrate the Protoss in the swarm. Abathur being the evolution master would've likely been at the helm of swarm experiments relating to this. This leads into the fact he has a WHOLE CAPTIVE PROTOSS brought to the leviathan, not under Kerrigan's orders but just because he "likes to try." Kaldir is the first time you fight Protoss in HOTS so this is definitely alluding to the fact that Abathur has worked with Protoss essence before, likely in the Overmind's pursuit of achieving perfection by merging their two races. A smaller detail, but it'd also be a funny explanation as to why Abathur is incredibly dismissive of Terran essence, seeing as he's already gotten to work with what could be considered his "endgame" in Zerg design.

Then he meets Stukov, created and experimented on by Narud, who's structure is so advanced Abathur is immediately willing to capitulate. Narud, a creature so far beyond Abathur he was the one to finally create the hybrid Zerg-Protoss organisms the Overmind spent its whole existence attempting to do.

And Abathur has nothing to say on it. DEHAKA (See it all circled back around) has more to say on the hybrid (Really Amon but what he says can apply to both tbh), and a really interesting perspective on them too. Because they are an endpoint, they are the stop of change which is what Dehaka and the primals' whole philosophy of existence revolve around. They are an existential threat, not just because they're the incredibly powerful minions of Starcraft satan, but because they will bring an end to their very way of life in such a total way. If only there was another zerg character with strong and iconic opinions about evolution and the impossibility of "perfection," a very interesting choice of words considering the Overmind's position that the assimilation of the Protoss would render them an eternal swarm and perfect.

What caused Abathur's change in perspective in HOTS compared to the Overmind's? Did the futility of his work with Protoss essence lead him to believe perfection in the sense of a hybrid being impossible? What if he actually succeeded in making something, and was disgusted at his own creation? What if Abathur's revelations were what led to Kerrigan's own realizations about the plans of Amon? What if we could've had a conversation between Abathur and Kerrigan discussing this and the wider implications on the two? What if HOTS had good writing?

Was all the build up I just talked about intentional? Probably not, but it's interesting to see how there's this deeper current to Abathur's character that is shown throughout the game, just not usually noticed because it never has its climatic moment where the pieces are shown to actually be pieces of something greater and not just the graspings of a tumblr rant talking about a decade old game. Again, literally one line from a book and this whole thing falls apart LMAO, but I've been a firm believer and supporter that Starcraft does a good job telling its story even if you never engage with outside material, and that in general it's something all media should strive to do.

[cephalopod-celabrator]

"The average starcraft faction leader is doing pretty alright" factoid is actually just a statistical error. Alarak, Highlord of The Tal'darim, who is having a great time killing his boss, flirting with Artanis, and deciding to kill Satan out of pettiness, is a statistical outlier and should not have been counted.

[cephalopod-celabrator]

Correction: Dehaka is also having a great time eating people as his new boss takes down the most powerful military in the galaxy.

[dehakarush17]

yo your SC OC lore is neat and angsty af, I love it fr <3

but also I gotta ask about some Dehaka headcanons haha, what drew you to Dehaka and tell us more about your story/AU!

YO these asks are actually being too nice to me, thank you so much!

I'll start with Dehaka and what drew me to him. No commentary playthroughs of HOTS were my introduction to Starcraft proper, along with watching the Carbot animations, not sure which exactly came first. Being a little dumb dumb who knew basically nothing else about the franchise, I was drawn to the Primal Zerg because "cool dinosaur aliens that talk about evolution" and Dehaka was the focal point of that.

Fast forward to my rediscovery of Starcraft and playing the whole series. At this point I was slightly less dumb dumb and had become aware that HOTS had a reputation of not being a great story, which really worried me and my nostalgia. To avoid going on a tangent, if HOTS did one thing (mostly) right, it was the characters. I've come to greatly appreciate and enjoy Zagara, Stukov, Abathur (Who is probably my 2nd favorite), and of course Dehaka captured my heart all over again. I love his voice acting, done by the great Steve Blum, known to me previously from his work on Digimon. I really enjoy Dehaka's design as well, the primal zerg are perhaps a slightly contentious addition as a subfaction but I've always really enjoyed them. I really enjoy their designs, and Dehaka's in particular really stands out. In HOTS all at once he looks beat up and kind of ragged, yet with a powerful frame yet uneven frame that gives the impression that it's still growing. The primals' one minded goal towards evolution and change above all else is really interesting, and Dehaka is a great embodiment of that. I like that his stance within Kerrigan's swarm is a very sound one, not built on any real loyalty but by the sheer simplicity of his goals and what he's willing to do for it. It's hard to really classify him morally, since he's operating on an entirely different level that I think in general is one of the most fascinating things about the primals' way of life. (Also Dehaka in co-op basically took all of these things and exemplified them in the best ways possible, from having his own units fight each other to grow stronger to the fact he can turn into basically Godzilla. Speaking of, the Carbots co-op animation was definitely a contributing factor.) Probably the most important part though is the fact that they're still the "cool dinosaur aliens."

I haven't developed too many headcanons on Dehaka yet (Loredump about Zerus and Dehaka's rule over it soon???) but I do have one really crack take. I find the hc of Terrans being the true purity of form really interesting (Even if I don't 100% subscribe to it), and the idea of what the intended peaceful meeting between zerg and terrans could've been like if Amon hadn't interfered is something I've entertained. To keep it short, Dehaka would one hundred percent have ascended to Xel'Naga if he had a chance. I fully believe Dehaka was destined to inherit the stars were it not for the meddling of Amon, and eagerly await the day a mod allows me to play as ascended Dehaka in the epilogue.

Wow look at all that Dehaka rambling... While I'm still working on properly putting together all my worldbuilding into something cohesive, to tease some details of it my story and the OCs it involves revolve around themes of being forgotten and continuously struggling to exist. Factions of all three races squabble for resources on a desolate moon, a microcosm of the greater conflicts around them as the inhabitants try to find or make their own place in the sector. Carefully balancing staying hidden and achieving their goals, it's def the main reason why I decided to make this account and have it be so heavily SC themed lol.

[dehakarush17]

Dihaka

I have not evolved a new dih. Why?

[dehakarush17]

Show us ur other ocs...

What a convenient excuse to infodump!!

I've currently been thinking about and developing my own little setting in Starcraft, and while a lot of stuff is DEF not ready to share yet I've gotten a few together to start posting about.

Sam is an infested marine, all but forced into working for a mercenary group that had suffered catastrophic losses on a job gone wrong and looking to quickly replace the men it lost. He needed money to support his family, and was whisked away to a forgotten moon in the shadow of an ice giant as the company relocated itself to lay low. He didn't last long, and was infested on his first real mission after a few assignments accompanying scavengers.

I'll post more about the brood he was infested by and why he retains individuality, but to keep it short what he did lose was much of his memory as a result of the infestation. He doesn't mind too much considering his altogether shitty life and responsibilities, his only real sore spot being unable to remember his burgeoning love.

Rough sketch of the guy! Still finding a feel for adapting Starcraft and it's lightly stylized realism into my art so if you want to pelt me with rocks while I figure this out feel free!!!

Sam's closest friend is Lou, a viking pilot who was infested well before him. Originally part of the moon's local militia's air force, which all together is about the most respectable position somebody could've had, he was forced to land after being in the air for a prolonged period of time. Cut off from his base due to unusual Zerg activity rendering travel unsafe, he hoped to conserve his fuel to return once that had moved on.

Instead, he'd be ambushed by roaming Zerg, unable to escape in time and subjected to the cruelty of being infested within his Viking, his body fusing with it and rendering leaving it impossible.

Sam was drawn to him by his unfortunate circumstances, and now considers the pilot to be his closest friend. Really, it involves a lot of Sam talking at the incredibly tired Viking pilot who can't care enough to do anything about it.

No art of this guy yet since it's too late for me to cook something up and I don't want to leave this ask waiting too much longer but I'm going to try and post some more tomorrow!