Moron of the Year Award - Arcturus Mengsk

[Gradius]

SC1:
Inadvertently creates his greatest enemies by leaving Kerrigan on Tarsonis.

BW:
Expects the UED to simply "let him go" after they take Korhal and he announces his intention to rebel.
Acts befuddled when Kerrigan betrays him.

WoL:
Wastes trillions of credits hunting Raynor....but not for real because that would make him look like a martyr.
Allows his son & Narud to sponsor Raynor's campaign of terrorism against him. Essentially pays Raynor by proxy to steal things that are already in his possession.
Sends Tychus, the most ineffective double agent in the universe, to spy on Raynor, and makes no use of him whatsoever.
Runs an easily-transparent "propaganda" campaign that anybody who isn't retarded can see through. Promotes the single person that spoke out against him (Kate Lockwell).
Humiliates himself by lending credence to an easily-faked recording.

HoTS:
Unwittingly dooms humanity by allowing Narud to manipulate him into making hybrids.
Takes the artifact for himself instead of leaving it with Warfield, thus allowing Kerrigan to murder his best general and retake control of the swarm.
Doesn't leverage Raynor's capture, and decides to piss Kerrigan off by pretending to kill Raynor.
Doesn't resocialize, tag, or do anything of value to Raynor after he reveals that he's alive. Allows Kerrigan to simply walk in & take him.

Can somebody remind me again why it took so long to kill this guy? :P

[DemolitionSquid]

If there's anything I've learned from cartoons, its that the best villains are complete morons.

[TheEconomist]

This is why I turn my brain off when playing games like StarCraft 2.

[FanaticTemplar]

SC1:Wastes trillions of credits hunting Raynor....but not for real because that would make him look like a martyr.

The way I understood this, he's not really spending that money hunting Raynor, that's just his public excuse for his military expenditures. Then again, since Kate's question is essentially "why are you spending this money on hunting Raynor rather than on preparing us to fight the Zerg", I'm probably wrong.

StarCraft II Mengsk has a serious priority issue. In Wings of Liberty he's prioritising Raynor over the Zerg in his military expenditures/as a scapegoat, which either way, makes no sense. And in Heart of the Swarm, in his victory speech saving humanity from the Zerg comes second to the execution of Raynor. It's pretty weird considering rallying to him against the alien threat was an important part of his coronation speech.

Can somebody remind me again why it took so long to kill this guy? :P

Kerrigan didn't feel like it? She goes from inexplicable murderous to inexplicably merciful at the drop of a hat in Brood War. She basically grants him life on three distinct occasions in that game, never due to anything Mengsk himself does or says.

[TSCR]

Can somebody remind me again why it took so long to kill this guy? :P

The answer is in Brood War. Kerrigan leaves him on the ashes of his shattered planet so he can painfully watch her rise to power..........oh wait in SC2 he has his entire force back and Kerrigan decided to have a holiday rather than rise to power.

[LestersPetZergling]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6bVj-nTkiU

in vanilla he was the Jesus Christ of politicians, but when he was cornered by DuGalle and he said that he would overthrow him, I facepalmed so hard...

All that time with Duke rots your brain...

WHAT WAS REALLY BAD, was when he displayed the symptoms of stereotypical Aspergers... At Kerrigan's lair, he casually talks to Raynor like he hasn't done anything wrong, about how he doesn't care what happens as long as he gets Korhal back.

Oh, but that happened in StarCraft anyway, when he abandoned Kerrigan and didn't think Raynor would care (Gentlemen! You've done very well!).

[Turalyon]

It's kinda funny that his moment of idiocy in Sc1 can only be labelled as such in hindsight whereas all the others that come after are all in plain sight.

Just another case of villain decay at the end of the day, which isn't so surprising given what has happened to Kerrigan, the Overmind and the Zerg in general.

Then again, Mengsk is more unique though given that his decay comes out of nowhere - he's just happens to be stupid all of a sudden without any plot device whatsoever.

Even now, I can almost hear the whispered lame-ass defence of Mengsk's character derailment by those fan-bois out there: "Oh, but Sc1 never said he wasn't stupid in the first place, so he could've been so since the beginning and we just didn't see it"

[TSCR]

Then again, Mengsk is more unique though given that his decay comes out of nowhere - he's just happens to be stupid all of a sudden without any plot device whatsoever.

Not really. I wouldn't say Mengsk's stupidity in SC1 is even bad writing (not saying you're claiming that). I think the purpose of it was to show a more human side of him.

Pretty much the only time Mengsk acts stupid in SC1 is when Korhal is in danger (honeslty nobody could have predicted what would have happened to Kerrigan). He loves Korhal more than he may make it out to be. To him Korhal is like what Aiur is to the Protoss. It makes sense for him to panic about it or be stupid when he's being pulled away from it. A lot of people in his position would do that as well.

One missed oppurunity in SC1 is that Blizzard never had Mengsk interact with Artanis. I think it would have been interesting to see how they would converse because they had something which they can relate to each other with: a beloved planet that they lost.

[Gradius]

At Kerrigan's lair, he casually talks to Raynor like he hasn't done anything wrong, about how he doesn't care what happens as long as he gets Korhal back.

That was actually funny & a good source of comic relief, especially with Raynor's retort of "Shut up Arcturus! If I wanted your damn opinion I would have beaten it out of you!". It strikes me as actual war humor as opposed to the stale joke of SC2's news casts.

But yeah he does the same thing in SC1 where he says "you've all done very well, but let's not forget we have a job to do." I don't think most people would have crossed Mengsk after he achieved power though. Raynor is a unique individual.

[LestersPetZergling]

So did the Magistrate. So did a lot of people leave the SoK.