WC3: Was Cobra a traitor too?

[boringnickname]

The first time I played WC3 and it was obvious that there as a traitor (the scene where Thrakkath gets the info about the Behemoth) my first suspect was Cobra.

Well, later it was found out who the real traitor was.. but, Cobra's story is still fishy:


She was captured when she was ten years old.
She was able to escape when she was twenty...

This didn't add up to me. Kilrathi prison planets are fortresses (as seen in the Severin rescue mission) how was she able to escape a place like that? She must have stolen a ship - how can some one who was captured as a child and lived the whole live as slave could fly a Kilrathi ship? And not alone that:


1. She must have known how to navigate, and using jump points, and where the human space is.

2. Haven't the guards noticed that a ship is missing? Has she even FOUGHT her pursuers in that stolen Kilrathi ship?

Her story was pretty suspicious. And her Kilrathi-hate a good cover... that's why I have suspected her until the truth came up..

but still: Could it be that she was indeed a traitor too, who was brainswashed in that Kilrathi penal colony and released by the Kilrathi - a Manchurian candidate that would have been activated if Hobbes failed?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I think you're overthinking this one; the novel specifies that she escaped in a Marine raid.

(Also, worth thinking about - she was in a slave labor camp, not on a prison planet. Slaves were fully integrated into Kilrathi society... it wouldn't have been the same thing as valuable personnel being locked up on a special prison planet.)

 

[boringnickname]

I think you're overthinking this one; the novel specifies that she escaped in a Marine raid.

(Also, worth thinking about - she was in a slave labor camp, not on a prison planet. Slaves were fully integrated into Kilrathi society... it wouldn't have been the same thing as valuable personnel being locked up on a special prison planet.)

Never read the book. In the game it sounds as if she escaped alone, without a marine raid.

"she was in a slave labor camp, not on a prison planet. Slaves were fully integrated into Kilrathi society"


But according to the in-game video it sounds like a nazi concentration camp:

https://www.wcnews.com/holovids/wing3_loki.shtml#K0BARCBS

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You have no idea what it ‘must have been.’ I saw things . . .

SHE SHUDDERS FROM THE MEMORIES

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One additional reason I suspected her was her mentioning of "the little Kilrathi inside her":

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There’s a little bit of Kilrathi prowling around inside of me. And I can’t get it out. One day there won’t be any human left.
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- I thought this was a subtile clue to Blair given by the "real Cobra" about her brainwashing and her fake identity.

 

[frostytheplebe]

Never read the book. In the game it sounds as if she escaped alone, without a marine raid.

"she was in a slave labor camp, not on a prison planet. Slaves were fully integrated into Kilrathi society"


But according to the in-game video it sounds like a nazi concentration camp:

https://www.wcnews.com/holovids/wing3_loki.shtml#K0BARCBS

-----

You have no idea what it ‘must have been.’ I saw things . . .

SHE SHUDDERS FROM THE MEMORIES

You know, I always thought That scene would be more powerful if there was a distant lions roar in the background.

 

[Dundradal]

When I first played WC3, I originally thought Cobra was the traitor...her backstory to me just made her seem like the perfect fit for a sleeper...until of course the real big sleeper woke up

 

[Lt.Overload]

You have no idea what it ‘must have been.’ I saw things . . .

SHE SHUDDERS FROM THE MEMORIES

There’s a little bit of Kilrathi prowling around inside of me. And I can’t get it out. One day there won’t be any human left.

This always made me think something extremely bad happened to her...and that something would be very un-Kilrathi-like

 

[Bandit LOAF]

But according to the in-game video it sounds like a nazi concentration camp:

Oh, no question that life as a Kilrathi slave would be pretty horrific -- we're talking about a portion of their society that's both a completely expendable utility for labor *and* a food source.

But in terms of being 'locked up' it's not the same thing as being isolated on a prison planet (Severin's imprisonment was likely much less horrific -- he was being kept in a cell under guard until they found a scientific use for him.)

 

[frostytheplebe]

This always made me think something extremely bad happened to her...and that something would be very un-Kilrathi-like

Hope you're not thinking along the same lines I am when you say that. Quite frankly, I think she probably saw the Kilrathi killing people ritual sacrifices, torture, things like that. At a young age would really mess you up.

Personally, I'm glad she didn't survive the war. I know that sounds terrible, but think about it, like it or not, she's deranged, and like Tolwyn in WC4, needs the struggle to justify her existence. Had she not been killed, I'm willing to be she probably would have committed suicide, joined Tolwyn's black lance team, or perhaps joined some radical group that wanted to exterminate the entire Kilrathi race. Either way, I don't think life without the war would be possible for Cobra.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Hope you're not thinking along the same lines I am when you say that. Quite frankly, I think she probably saw the Kilrathi killing people ritual sacrifices, torture, things like that. At a young age would really mess you up.

People including, in all likelihood, her immediate family.

 

[t.c.cgi]

Personally, I'm glad she didn't survive the war. I know that sounds terrible, but think about it, like it or not, she's deranged, and like Tolwyn in WC4, needs the struggle to justify her existence. Had she not been killed, I'm willing to be she probably would have committed suicide, joined Tolwyn's black lance team, or perhaps joined some radical group that wanted to exterminate the entire Kilrathi race. Either way, I don't think life without the war would be possible for Cobra.

I agree and disagree. It's good that she died because it brought closure to her character that would have been even more tragic - not to mention pointless - if it were post-war.

Being forced to help an enemy carry out their atrocities certainly would leave a little Kilrathi behind... something to wake her up in the middle of the night with hate and guilt. Without a war to focus that down the barrel of a tachyon gun, it would probably have eaten her up until she killed herself. Besides that possibility is joining the Landreich, which is the only government still fighting Kilrathi warlords.