User blog comment:Hawki/Nova Covert Ops, part 2 - Reflections/@comment-72.197.211.140-20160824180726

It is certainly a step up from part 1. Personally I felt the Defenders of Man didn't really understand just what they were doing by attacking the Tal'darim. Although the Dominion was never in an official state of war with the Protoss, they were still considered enemies. However almost all the intel regarding the Protoss have been the Khalai and a little bit on the Nerazim side. This means Dominion intel doesn't know the Tal'darim faction is something entirely different from the Protoss they've encountered, and picking a fight with them could end in a total slaughterhouse.

To see this on the opposite point has always been a neat touch, since we never really got too much lore on what the Confederacy felt from what the Sons of Korhal were doing to them and everything. Although, Mengsk used the Psi Emitters on Tarsonis and killed off the Confederacy really quickly, whereas the Defenders of Man's goal is merely to topple Valerian, not destroy the Dominion itself.

In the case of Davis, I see a few options:

1. Her loyalty to Mengsk. As Nova pointed out, loyalty to the Mengsk family did NOT imply loyalty to Valerian himself. It's possible that Davis had sworn a loyalty to Arcturus and that loyalty remained even after his death.

In that regard, perhaps Mengsk had Davis as some sort of backup plan to strike back from beyond the grave. He may not have meant the phrase "I will rule this sector or see it burnt to ashes around me" LITERALLY, but certainly he wanted to see his enemies destroyed. This means Davis was put in charge of dealing with Mengsk's enemies should he fall from power. Thus the concept is that since he didn't get what he wanted (due to his death at the end of HotS), his enemies should not be allowed to live to rejoice at his downfall. This was something Davis was supposed to put into action, but the events of LotV happened and those plans had to be put on hold, hence why Davis couldn't implement them until the time of Nova Covert Ops.

2. It's possible Davis's loyalty was only to Mengsk's IDEALS, not Mengsk himself. In order to understand this, we have to look at what happened after BW.

When BW ended, the Dominion military had been greatly discredited due to their defeat by the UED, and then again by the zerg. But in the immediate aftermath, no one could have known Kerrigan would withdraw the swarm to Char and disappear for the next 4 years. Thus during that time, the Dominion needed an immediate leader, so Mengsk got to stay in power.

During the 4 years from BW to WoL, Mengsk likely just used the same catchphrase over and over, "It's either me or total extinction," implying to the Dominion people that the threat of the Zerg left no alternative: the power vacuum of trying to find new leadership would only leave the Dominion easy pickings for the swarm, so they have to accept him as emperor. It'd be no surprised if this was still his claim even after Raynor exposed his crimes in WoL, since with the zerg invasion going on this was no time for the Dominion people to fight amongst themselves.

When Mengsk finally fell at the end of HotS, his empty phrases became clear to the Dominion people. But to the Dominion military, in the immediate aftermath of that conflict, and Valerian took over the throne, all they got was further battles with the Protoss (since they didn't know Amon corrupted the Khala and gained control of the Golden Armada). By the time Artanis's actions finally banished Amon back into the Void, the Dominion empire had been devastated.

In the eyes of the Dominion military, therefore, the 4 years between BW and WoL they actually had a pretty good life under Mengsk's rule. And then for some reason everyone suddenly decided to gang up on the Dominion and kill them all (remember they saw Raynor help the swarm in the Korhal Palace assault) and everything went to hell. On the other hand, from the MOMENT Valerian took over the throne, now the WHOLE of the Dominion went to hell (remember Kerrigan's goal was merely to kill Mengsk, thus her target was merely Dominion industrial worlds, whereas Amon's goal was to remake all life, so his target was EVERYWHERE).

In that regard, as the Dominion military saw it, Mengsk's concepts proved to be "a good idea that had been badly carried out." THIS would then be the driving force for why Davis is doing what she's doing: she thinks Valerian's actions are too soft, whereas his father's hardened mentality was the correct one, but he had been too incompetent to properly implement them.

This is what I see so far of what Davis is doing what she's doing.