User blog comment:Hawki/Nova Covert Ops, part 1 - Reflections/@comment-72.197.211.140-20160525010929

To me, in terms of the story, so far there hasn't been as much development compared to WoL, HotS, and LotV. I agree with your points in by the time the 3rd mission ended in all 3 games, a defining moment was achieved, whereas Covert Ops did not. Sure, Nova found out the truth about what the DoM was REALLY doing, but that's hardly any different from what Mengsk did on Tarsonis to topple the Confederacy. A ghost's goal is always to protect his/her government, which was exactly what Nova did when the Dominion was under Mengsk's rule, and she's merely continuing this under Valerian's rule. The problem for her character is that in contrast to the SC Ghost: Spectres book, in the SC2 games Nova doesn't seem to understand you're not supposed to have BLIND loyalty to the Dominion. Hell, under Mengsk, I'm willing to bet a lot of the Dominion military didn't even know what was the cause they were actually fighting for, and neither did Nova.

For that reason, I feel that in order to better define Nova, Blizzard ought to bring in the one person who had given purpose in life: Mal Kelerchian. Sure, he was more of a "surrogate father" to her, in contrast to Raynor and Kerrigan's relationship, but the SC Ghost Spectres book clearly showed that Nova was willing to go against Dominion protocol (however temporarily) in order to keep him safe, sharing at least some similarities with what Kerrigan did in HotS after Mengsk told her Raynor was never executed, but merely in Dominion custody.

I feel introducing Mal Kelerchian could prove to be that "defining moment" for Nova. If the DoM have him in their custody, he could be used as a bargaining chip or something. Likely, once they see Nova was ruining their plans, they could threaten her by claiming they'd kill Mal if she keeps this up, and try to force her to do their bidding, somewhat like what Cole Bennett did with her in the SC Ghost Spectres book. This could also open the doors for other character development as well, depending on just how much Valerian knows about Nova's relationship with Kelerchian and everything.