Mengsk's backstory is schizophrenic and grimdark af

Although Arcturus Mengsk is depicted as the generic Saturday morning cartoon villain of the franchise (aside from... all the others), his actual backstory is that of a sympathetic hero up until the actual events of the game.

In the game he starts off as a heroic rebel leader, then becomes increasingly morally ambiguous until he becomes a villain at the climax by betraying his loyal subordinate Kerry. There's no logical reason for him to do this besides personally insulting the player by killing off a likable character, since none of his other criminal actions are sufficient to make him a villain apparently (which reflects really poorly on Kerry and Raynor... but I digress). The "official" in-universe reason is twofold: firstly, he was tired of her developing a conscience that would lead to her leaving him as she planned to, and secondly, she murdered his family while brainwashed.

Oh my.

Yeah, Mengsk's backstory is super dark. He was the scion of a rich politician family that led the planet Korhal. They were apparently well-liked by the citizens and backed their citizens when they called for the planet to secede from the Confederacy over moral disagreements about how the capital planet Tarsonis fought an unprovoked war of conquest with the planet Moria. Basically, his family were the Starks in space.

Then the Confederacy sent Kerry to murder Mengsk's father, mother, and sister. To add insult to injury, she decapitated daddy and brought his head back as a trophy. (BTW Kerry was brainwashed at the time and therefore incapable of consenting, so she was just as much a victim as Mengsk. Which he acknowledges in one of the novels, forgives her for it, and tells her she needs to forgive herself. Deep.) Then the Confederacy nuked the planet, killing all the 35 or so million people living on it. Naturally, this started a civil war between the Confederacy and the rebel group Sons of Korhal (who were secretly funded by the planet Umoja and their allies). 

Holy shit.

Why is Mengsk the villain of this story? What kind of writer writes a cartoonish evil dictator with a completely sympathetic and grimdark backstory like that? Did the writer just forget his backstory or contract it to someone else without bothering to read it?

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