A study in villain decay: the zerg

So I am sure most people reading this are aware of the storytelling issues in Heart of the Swarm. For example, there is a huge disconnect between the zerg's whole spiel about "purity of essence", evolution, predation, etc and Kerry's stated goal of getting revenge on her ex-boss Mengsk. ("Kerry" is my nickname for Sarah Kerrigan because it is quicker to type.)

Why are these horrific alien monsters working with this chick who just wants revenge on her ex and does not actually care one whiff about the zerg's motives, even threating to exterminate them herself on at least one occasion? Why is Kerry working with these horrific alien monsters that do not value any of the human desires she experiences every moment of her life? Why are the zerg placed in the good guy role when they would clearly be much better as the villains?

You can read about the zerg's backstory on the fandom wiki. One thing you may notice is that absolutely everything about them is horrific in the extreme: they spend countless millennia consuming countless worlds and civilizations, they are widely feared and despised across the galaxy, all of their units have horrifying body horror backstories, they turn innocent people into zombies trapped in unending psychological torment, etc.

Again, why are they not the villains of the franchise instead of Amon? Why do they serve humans who have nothing in common with them?

Well, back in the first StarCraft the zerg were originally introduced as the main villains and they did not serve human beings. Indeed, according to their backstory and modus operandi they wanted to devour humanity and use what they learned to create weapons to use against the protoss. Just like what they did to all the other species they encountered.

Somewhere along the line the writers lost interest in this plot and decided that they would make the zerg serve Kerry. Her motivations were a significant downgrade in terms of scope. Where the zerg wanted to eat everyone and become perfect, like the Borg from Star Trek, Kerry just wanted to get revenge on her ex and had no interest in the zerg's original grand mission. She clearly had no plans for anything beyond that.

What happened? TV Tropes calls this "villain decay." 

I have to say that I am very disappointed. The zerg are horrific alien monsters and therefore perfect in the role of villain. It is such a waste of a perfectly good concept. Oh well.

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