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Fenix and Talandar
I am a little concerned about a potential release of Fenix. Don't get me wrong, I think that character is great and I am really, really excited to see him in Heroes some day. What worries me is that I think a large number of people think that Talandar is the same character as Fenix.
Short version, in case you don't wish to read the two wiki articles: Fenix was a Protoss hero in SC1 who was ambushed and defeated, but reborn (Hah! I see what you did there, 1999-era Blizz.) as a dragoon. Talandar is a Purifier (Protoss warbot) who was given Fenix's memories, but comes to realize that he is not Fenix but is his own unique person. He then chooses a name for himself that he finds meaningful.
I think a lot of people might say something like, "So what? Most people don't care. They're close enough. Etc..." I think, however, that releasing Talandar as Fenix would be the same as releasing Anduin and calling him Varian: They're both human kings; they both seem to use the same swords in the most recent expansion; they're both head of the Alliance; they're family - it wouldn't be terribly difficult to mix up the two for non-WoW players.
I suspect that some of the same people who would pooh-pooh the need to separate Fenix & Talandar would flip their shit at Blizz mixing up Varian and Anduin.
Anyway, I worry about this because the Heroes team plays pretty fast and loose with the StarCraft stuff, while making an effort to remain note-perfect with other IP (to the detriment* of many OW heroes, sadly).
I think it's safe to say that SC fans like myself were unhappy with the Machines of War event because it felt like we were being ignored. We feel like certain SC heroes' kits don't properly reflect their characters (Stukov, Probius, and Kerrigan to name a few).
It'd be a shame if our most-wanted SC hero (I may have to amend this comment when the results from that poll come out this week) were shafted in favor of his robot counterfeit.
*I think that many OW heroes like Tracer and D.Va should not have been near-perfect duplicates of their OW selves, as they have many un-fun mechanics to play against. There is a reason why many players don't want to see more OW heroes anytime soon. Hence, the "detriment" comment.
TL;DR Fenix and Talandar are two separate characters and when people ask for Fenix they want the Zealot/Dragoon hero, not the robot.
KinaBREW
Nice write up. I love that you took the time to break everything down. I think it is safe to say that your head is in the right place. Fenix and Talandar are on that long 200+ hero list we have mentioned in the past.
KinaBREW
Honestly it's a really great "problem" to have. There's a very healthy pool to pull from. If the designers have an idea for a kit and it's not working for one hero we can hold that idea for someone who it does fit or replace the character with someone more fitting.
Probius and Alexstrasza is a good example. Probius use to have Alexstrasza's Cleansing flame in the form of a mothership. For a few different reasons that Matt Villers went over in the Blizzcon talk it didn't work for Probius but worked out great for Alexstrasza.
From an art standpoint we can focus in on what makes sense and what will showcase the best from a character and FX standpoint.