User blog:Godzillavkk/PE proposal: Arcturus Mengsk

What's the Work
StarCraft is a military Science Fiction RTS game developed by Blizard Studios, that tells of an ungoing struggle between three powerful factions. While other StarCraft villains are more powerful and dangerous than this man, he is considered the most detestable of all StarCraft villains

Who is the Canidate?What did they do?
When he makes his game debut in StarCraft 1, Arcturus Mengsk is the leader of the Sons of Korhol, a Terran resistance movement against the oppressive Terran Confederacy, which off screen, had bombed Korhol into submission. He contacts the Confederate Magistrate of Mar Sara (whom is the player character of the Terran Campaign). Who had earlier ordered his marshal James Raynor, and his troops to destroy Zerg infested Confederate buildings, therefore violating Confederate military protocol. Mengsk offered the frustrated Magistrate the aid he deperatly needed against the invading Zerg, and with the Confederacy withdrawing most of it's troops from the fridge worlds, the Magistrate accepted Mengsk's offer. Upon the arrival of the Sons of Korhol, the Magistrate was suspended of his title, and became a commander in the Sons of Korhol.

Under Mengsk's leadership, the Commander, Raynor, and Mengsk's second in command, Serah Kerrigan struck a number of blows against the Zerg and Confederacy, and even managed to recruit Edmund Duke, a Confederate general to their side. Initially, Mengsk seemed like a brave freedom fighter, but once data the rebels had aquired in an earlier mission revealed that the Confederacy were working on Psi Emitters, (machines that let off signals of phsyonic energy, to control the Zerg, which the Confederacy were trying to do) Mengsk showed a darker side, when he ordered one emitter to be used on the entire Confederate force on the planet Antiga, a fate so cruel, the other heroes doubted that it was morally right.

Later, the Sons of Korhol invaded the Confederate capital of Tarsonis. As they were invading the capital's defense platforms, Duke secured a number of psi emitters and brought them online. Mengsk revealed that this was his order, and that he intended to defeat the Confederacy by unleashing the Zerg on ALL of Tarsonis. When the aliens known as Protoss arrived to help the Tarsonians defend their home, Mengsk ordered Kerrigan and the Commander to engage the Protoss and not harm the Zerg. Though the Protoss were defeated, the Zerg soon overran Kerrigan's position and she requested evac. But Mengsk ignored the request and ordered his fleet to withdraw, leaving Kerrigan to die.

Furious by the deaths of billions of innocents, and leaving Kerrigan, Jim and the Commander abandoned Mengsk who revealed his true nature to the heroes in this famous line from the game. "I will NOT be stopped. Not by YOU, or the Confederates, or the Protoss, or ANYONE. I will RULE this sector, or see it BURNT TO ASHES AROUND ME." Jim and the Commander fleet, and Mengsk returned to Korhol, where he re-organized the Sons of Korhol, into the Terran Dominion, and crowned himself Emperor.

Over the next four years, despite suffering great losses in the Brood War, the Dominion solidified their power over the Terrans, and proved to be just as tyrannical a government, if not moreso than the Confederacy.

Wealthy local land owners and governors were stripped of their land, and were either enslaved or executed, and their lands were taken over by Dominion lords, who worked the people day and night to make food for the wealthier Dominion worlds. As a result, many poorer Terrna planets suffered from starvation. Poor planets came to rely on rationing in order to feed the people, but Mengsk could withold food either as punishment. Anyone caught stealing food, faced either slavery, or execution. Even people from wealthy planets were not safe from Mengsk's wrath. Factory workers were given extremly long work hours and high quotas. Anyone who continued to fail to meet these expectations, or made mistakes, were also either enslaved or executed.

Dominion slaves were put into labor camps, which gave the dominion an endless supply of labor. Slaves ranged from criminals, political prisoners, protestors. Tjey were made up of men, women, and even children, and were forced to work at gunpoint, under conditions similar to Nazi concentration camps, and Soviet gulags. Like with poor planets, rationing was the slaves only source of food, but only the most productive slaves were given rations. Any slave who feel behind was considered 100% expendable, as they could always be replaced. As a result, many slaves died from either starvation, element exposure, or exhaustian.

Despite all these crimes against humanity, Mengsk presented himself as a benevolent dictator, and Dominion propganda covered up many of these terrible things, and presented Mengsk as indesposible. Liken with Hitler and Stalin, Dominion children were taught to be loyal to Mengsk first, and their families second. Dominion people were even encouraged to spy on their neighbors. But even if a Terran was loyal, odds are they could still be arrested by Dominion secret police. Arrests soon became common in everyday Dominion life, just to meet quotas.

However, Jim Raynor formed a new rebellion called Raynor's Raiders and fought a seemingly hopless war for freedom. But the tide turned in favor of the rebels, when Dominion diggers uncovered a mysterious an alien artifact. Shortly after that, the Zerg invaded the Dominion, and Jim's rebels soon found themselves fighting both the Dominion, and Zerg. As they continued to fight for freedom and survival, Jim found an old confederate recording of Mengsk revealing his true nature, and after some struggle, was able to broadcast it across Dominion space. In mere minutes, all the Dominion was in revolt. Mengsk tried to cover his crimes, but to no avail, so he instead resorted to even more brutal tactics, and no longer presented himself as a benevolent man. Instead, he ruled through sheer terror, and entire planets faced genocides, or complete enslavment.

Unfortunetly for Mengsk, there was a thorn in his side he did not expect... his own son, Prince Valerion, who had grown disgusted of his father's crimes. He took a portion of the Dominion military that was loyal to him, and not his father, and rendezvous with Jim Raynor, who was supposed to deliver the alien artifacts he had found to the Mobious Corporation. Valerian revealed that he was the owner of the Corporation, and that the artifacts could de-infest Serah Kerrigan (who had not died, but was captured by the Zerg, infested by them, and ultimatly taken over by her).

The subsequent invasion of Char, the Zerg homeworld was a success, and Serah was de-infested. But shortly after that, Mengsk invaded the planet where she was held (to make sure the reverse had 100% worked) and even tried to kill his own son. Though Valerian escaped, Jim was captured, and Mengsk labeled him dead. With the Terrans best hope for freedom seemingly gone, the Dominion people lost all hope. But Serah, vowing revenge for the man she loved, was able to regain control of the Zerg, and turn them into a somewhat more benevolent race. Durring her campaign against the Dominion, Serah learned that Mengsk was creating an army of Zerg and Protoss Hybrids, in order to creat an invincible army that could help him conquor not just non dominion Terran worlds, but also Protoss and Zerg worlds, giving Mengsk control over the entire Koprulu sector... maybe even the whole galaxy,

However, the hybrids were not his idea, they were the brainchild of Dr. Nerud, a shapeshifitng alien in service of the evil alien god Amon, who had convinced Mengsk that the Hybrids could give him more power than he could ever imagine. But the Hybrid only served Amon, so Mengsk's hybrid plan was doomed to fail.

Eventually, Serah became powerful enough to launch a Zerg invasion of Korhol, but Mengsk contacted her, and warned her not to invade Korhol, or else he would kill Jim. However, Serah rescued Jim, who was repulsed to find that she had become a Zerg again. Despite this, Serah and the Zerg invaded Korhol (Valerian had evacuated the civilians earlier), and though the Zerg faced many setbacks, they eventually broke through Mengsk's defenses, and were eventually reinforced by Raynor's Raiders, who had changed their minds about Serah. Serah then invaded the Emperor's palace, and confronted Mengsk. The Emperor pretended to defeated, and requested a last smoke... only to reveal that his lighter was a trigger for the alien artifact that had defeated her on Char. Just as it seemed that Mengsk had won, Jim rescued Serah who destroyed the trigger and pinned Mengsk to a wall. Furious by his defeat, Mengsk told Serah that he turned her into a monster. Her reply was "You made us ALL monsters". With that, she killed Mengsk, and ended his terror once and for all.

Following that, Mengsk's death became a holiday across Dominion space.

Phew!

Fraudian Excuse
There are few things one can say for Mengsk. He did have a tragic backstory, in that his father was an outspoken critic of the former Confederacy, which in turn killed him, his wife, and daughter. So Mengsk lost his entire family. There are also StarCraft fans who believe that Mengsk started out well intentioned, but in his desire for revenge against the Confederacy, went too far and became his antithesis.

Heinous Standards
While most galactic Emperors, such as Zarkon or Palpatine are guilty of the same crimes as Mengsk, Mengsk is the one who stands out the most to me in this field... because he started off as a freedom fighter to liberate people from crimes like these. The Confederacy was also guilty of some of these crimes, but not to the same standard. Mengsk gave people hope for freedom, only to take it all back and make their lives an even bigger hell. And even though the most powerful of Star Craft's villains are superpowered evil aliens, or in some cases, alien gods, Mengsk shows that even mortal men can reach henous standards that rival those of the most powerful of StarCraft's villains. I say he deserves a PE status.