Kerrigan should hate the Confederacy more

[Gradius]

"I just don't think anyone deserves to have the zerg unleashed on them."
- Human Sarah Kerrigan in response to using Zerg on the Confederate strike force sent to kill them all

Sarah Kerrigan has more reason to despise the Confederates than she does Mengsk. Let's go over the score sheet.

Mengsk
1) Tried to kill her on Tarsonis.
2) Attacked her in BW after she betrayed him.
3) Hunted her and tried to kill her at the beginning of HoTS.

Confederacy:
1) Kidnapped her from her parents at a young age.
2) Because she wouldn't cooperate they threatened to kill her father with cancer amongst other things, and inadvertently caused his death.
3) Years of mental torture and slavery. Forced her to kill people. Lost her youth and humanity.
4) Implanted with a neural inhibitor (which Mengsk removed from her).
5) Did experiments on her with the zerg.
6) Tried to kill her MULTIPLE times when she was in the Sons of Korhal. Hunted her longer than Mengsk ever hunted her.

Mengsk's actions are far more reasonable given that she killed his parents and questioned his orders. Mengsk is the one who saved her from the years of mental torture by the Confederates, so she should at least owe him a goddаmn thank you if she's going to kill millions of people to get to him. And yeah, he tried to kill her in HoTS, but he has every reason to believe she's a murderous psychopath. The guy is trying to run an empire and she's the biggest threat to humanity since ever.

Now which one of these would make her say "I just don't think anyone deserves to have the zerg unleashed on them."? And which one would cause her to go on a sector-wide murder spree?

[Robear]

So, I have a couple of reactions to this. One, it was human Kerrigan's opinion that no one deserved to have the Zerg unleashed on them. The fact that she was in full Queen Bitch of the Universe mode doesn't necessarily mean that as a human she would have thought Mengsk deserving of the sector-wide murder spree she went on as the Queen of Blades. It's very possible that elements of her personality changed, and that she became more ruthless and dispassionate. Also, maybe being connected to the entire Zerg hive mind, feeling millions of births, millions of painful deaths, and being connected to every drone and every centuries-old cerebrate, gave her less of a regard for individual lives than she had had prior to infestation.

Another possibility is that her capture and infestation by the Zerg were so horrifying that they completely eclipsed the years of Confederate torture, whether only in her mind or because infestation is really that much worse, and so she judged Mengsk's punishment should be harsher. Abandoning someone to the Zerg could be worse even in her Terran mind than years of torture and enslavement. She doesn't think anyone deserves to have the Zerg unleashed on them. idk

That said, when the books describe infestation, both hers and that random dude in the Dark Templar Saga, yeah, it sounds traumatic, but honestly not worse than years of torture, and both seem pretty content once its over.
(Though they were both infested in a way that kept their individuality. The fact that in SC2 infested terrans commit suicide when they die shows that it's not all that great.)

[Gradius]

Yeah she says "And I like what I am. You can't imagine how this feels..."

But she got her humanity back at the end of wings of liberty. I thought the whole point of that was that her human morals are back and she's no longer the queen bitch of the universe.

[DonnyZeDoof]

Well the Confederacy is pretty much gone by SC2 so I guess it makes sense for Kerrigan to go after Mengsk.

Above all this, Mengsk killed her beloved boyfriend Jim Raynor and he meant more to Kerrigan than entire planets lol.

- - - Updated - - -

Well the Confederacy is pretty much gone by SC2 so I guess it makes sense for Kerrigan to go after Mengsk.

Above all this, Mengsk killed her beloved boyfriend Jim Raynor and he meant more to Kerrigan than entire planets lol.

[Gradius]

Well the Confederacy is pretty much gone by SC2 so I guess it makes sense for Kerrigan to go after Mengsk.

Well why didn't she say "I just don't think anyone deserves to have the zerg unleashed on them." and skip all the mass murdering in HoTS?

On the flip side, why did she disagree with the use of psi emitters if destroying a bunch of planets with zerg is a-ok?

Above all this, Mengsk killed her beloved boyfriend Jim Raynor and he meant more to Kerrigan than entire planets lol.

The Confederacy killed her first boyfriend Somo Hung. Except for real. Mengsk on the other hand let Raynor live, but didn't even get a thank you from Kerrigan.

[DonnyZeDoof]

Well why didn't she say "I just don't think anyone deserves to have the zerg unleashed on them." and skip all the mass murdering in HoTS?

On the flip side, why did she disagree with the use of psi emitters if destroying a bunch of planets with zerg is a-ok?

Because she didn't know the pain of losing Jim Raynor back then. Jim Raynor is the best boyfriend in the Koprulu Sector. If he dies then raging in any manner is justified. No wonder why Metzen said StarCraft has always been a story about a boy and a girl.

The Confederacy killed her first boyfriend Somo Hung. Except for real. Mengsk on the other hand let Raynor live, but didn't even get a thank you from Kerrigan.

Sumo Hung wasn't worth the price of numerous planets. He wasn't good enough of a boyfriend. Raynor was better. I mean he promised to kill her then he decided not to kill her and killed his best friend for trying to kill her. No wonder Kerrigan was so in love with him.

[Gradius]

Well i can't argue with that logic.

[Nissa]

"I just don't think anyone deserves to have the zerg unleashed on them."
- Human Sarah Kerrigan in response to using Zerg on the Confederate strike force sent to kill them all

Sarah Kerrigan has more reason to despise the Confederates than she does Mengsk. Let's go over the score sheet.

Mengsk
1) Tried to kill her on Tarsonis.
2) Attacked her in BW after she betrayed him.
3) Hunted her and tried to kill her at the beginning of HoTS.

Confederacy:
1) Kidnapped her from her parents at a young age.
2) Because she wouldn't cooperate they threatened to kill her father with cancer amongst other things, and inadvertently caused his death.
3) Years of mental torture and slavery. Forced her to kill people. Lost her youth and humanity.
4) Implanted with a neural inhibitor (which Mengsk removed from her).
5) Did experiments on her with the zerg.
6) Tried to kill her MULTIPLE times when she was in the Sons of Korhal. Hunted her longer than Mengsk ever hunted her.

Mengsk's actions are far more reasonable given that she killed his parents and questioned his orders. Mengsk is the one who saved her from the years of mental torture by the Confederates, so she should at least owe him a goddаmn thank you if she's going to kill millions of people to get to him. And yeah, he tried to kill her in HoTS, but he has every reason to believe she's a murderous psychopath. The guy is trying to run an empire and she's the biggest threat to humanity since ever.

Now which one of these would make her say "I just don't think anyone deserves to have the zerg unleashed on them."? And which one would cause her to go on a sector-wide murder spree?

While technically Donny wins the argument (lol) to take the discussion a bit more seriously, you have to remember that some of what happened up there was additional information added by the novels. They weren't present for SC, and before them one might be allowed to assume that her training was primarily military and psychological, not necessarily involving torture. She also probably wouldn't have been aware of what the Confederacy did to her mind until after she was freed.

Also:
- It was never personal for the Confederacy. Kerrigan was one of many ghosts, and they wanted soldiers. They weren't persecuting her family or her specifically.
- Because she was raised into ghost training from so young an age, Kerri would have assumed that this sort of "childhood" was normal. Kids tend to define normal by what they observe on a daily basis. A child has to be around 12 or 13 before they begin to understand what weird is and how to be judgemental, and that's only if they have comparisons. Thus, Kerrigan's emotions on this topic could potentially be pretty numb without some kind of inner healing or therapy to help her understand what she's been through.
- The ghost program may have attempted to justify itself through Umojan or Morian brutality.
- Kerrigan probably has a war-like perspective of things. That is, before she was infested, she was okay with killing for Mengsk for what she perceived as the greater good. Probably she figured this was to some degree true of her enemies.

Mengsk, on the other hand, betrayed Kerri specifically. He, having once shown Kerrigan that there is a difference between right and wrong, as well as allowing her to see that the universe is bigger than the Confederacy and that she doesn't have to be a blind killer, dumped her because she was inconvenient. He claimed the moral high ground, then abandoned it when Kerrigan started questioning his right to use psi emitters.

[Shadow Archon]

Well, Arcturus betrayed Kerrigan first.

The Confederacy never betrayed her. They were awful to her from day one. Add-in the psychic dampener's effect on her mind, and I doubt she remembered most of what the Confed's did to her. She seemingly had no memory of slaughtering Mengsk's family after all.

There's the issue with time as well. She was fighting against the Confederacy for nine years as Mengsk's right hand man. At the beginning of HotS, she states she doesn't remember what she did as the Queen of Blades, so the events of SC1 just happened to her from her PoV. So, Arcturus's sins are much more fresh in her mind, especially with the Confederacy being dead.

She also probably shifted some of the blame of her actions as the Queen of Blades to him as well.

But she got her humanity back at the end of wings of liberty. I thought the whole point of that was that her human morals are back and she's no longer the queen bitch of the universe.

Eh, while at first, this is true, over time during Heart of the Swarm, her memories as the Queen of Blade start to filter back in, and as such, her personality gets warped.

She isn't full queen bitch of the universe.

But she is part queen bitch.

For examples, at the beginning of the game:

Kerrigan: What are you hoping to get out of these tests, Valerian? I told you I don't remember anything about being the Queen of Blades.

When she takes control of the Zerg on Phaeton:

At first:

Kerrigan: I’m not your queen and I haven’t returned. But I need your brood to destroy the terran cannon, right now.

At the end:

Kerrigan: Kill them all. No one gets out alive.

Naktul: Yes! The queen has returned! Kill the terrans!

Kerrigan: The queen? You’re right. I was slipping back into something that – I have to get out of here.

On the Leviathan:

Izsha: I am Izsha. Your Majesty used to store all her ideas, thoughts and plans within me. Do you not remember?

Kerrigan: Yes... I do remember you. More importantly, you remember me.

Her eyes glow yellow. Izsha's eyes glow in response.

Izsha: You are the Queen of Blades. I obey.

Her memories as the Queen of Blade are returning. Either by her amnesia fading or by her memories from Izsha filtering in as she controls the Zerg.

Abathur comes out.

Kerrigan: What are you?

Abathur: Abathur. Evolve Swarm, spin strands and sequences. Served Overmind, then served Queen of Blades. Now serve you.

Kerrigan: I am the Queen of Blades!

And now she states that she is the Queen of Blades...

Right after stating she wasn't on Phaeton.

Then there's the big line from Kaldir.

shoot-the-messenger-prelude-starcraft-ii-heart-of-the-swarm-single-player-13

Kerrigan: Yes. And if I let you live, you’ll call your Golden Armada, and they will kill me.

Lasarra: Kill thousands to save yourself? Is that how you justify this?

Kerrigan: I justify nothing. There is no moral high ground here. Your people have killed billions of zerg. We are all covered in blood. There may be more on my hands than yours, but in the end we are both killers.

Kerrigan is actually giving a value to Zerg lives in this statement here and saying that it is immoral to kill Zerg...

Well, I've seen that kind of view of the Zerg by Kerrigan before.

In the Hive around her, Zerglings moved about, each the size of a dog she had once owned as a young
girl. They were insect-shelled creatures shaped like lizards, with clacking claws and long fangs. Zerglings
were fast little killing machines that could descend like piranha onto an enemy army and tear the soldiers
to pieces.

Sarah Kerrigan found them beautiful, just as a mother would view any of her precious children. She
stroked the gleaming greenish hide of the nearest Zergling. In response, it ran its claws over her own
nearly indestructible skin, then dusted her with the feathery touch of its fangs, a caress that might have
been fondness. . .

IN THE DARKNESS, THERE WAS ORDER. Her haven was inviolable. She was queen of all she surveyed, and her vision was vast. What those who served her unquestioningly knew, was her knowledge. What they saw, was her sight. What they felt, were her feelings. Unity, complete and utter, shivering along her nerves, racing in her blood. A unity that began with the lowest and most base of her creations and ended with her.

“But that was then, Jim,” she told him, turning to face
him again. “I’m one of the zerg now. And I like what I
am.” She raised her arms high, the shell-like spots shifting
across her limbs and torso as she moved, creating a
moving layer of protection. Her hair rose and reached
for the roof as well, yearning upward, and her wings
rose to their full extension, flaring out behind her. Even
in the dim light of the creep, he could see her eyes flashing.

“You can’t imagine how this feels . . . ,” she told him
finally, lowering her arms again, and somehow he
knew she was talking about more than just the physical
changes. The wings remained up, as if determined to
remind him how much she had changed.

“I am one with the zerg now,” she said, smiling. “It
is wonderful, Jimmy. It envelops me. It makes me
whole. I can never be alone again.”

So, the Queen of Blades is not the same as in Starcraft 1 and Brood War, but she definitely still exists in a fashion.

Hell, I'd say that the Zerg Hive-Mind is closer to the Khala than you would normally think.

Ever since she started to control the Zerg in HotS, she started looking at them less as monsters and as something more.

[Turalyon]

Doesn't the EU lore about Ghosts say something about them having their memories wiped on a constant basis in order to keep them in line? Maybe Kerrigan wasn't even fully aware of what the Confeds did to her and only had Mengsk's anecdotes to go by after he rescued her way back when.

Maybe that's why she doesn't feel hate towards the Confeds. When Mengsk reveals himself to be a manipulator and a betrayer of trust, it's more raw and worthy of retribution (she didn't have the luxury of that memory being wiped when she was infested it seems) compared to the stories (or manipulations she would now think of them as) Mengsk told her about regarding the Confeds . It's that or she does remember all the Confeds and is just psychogically projecting all her trauma onto Mengsk because he turned out to be much like the Confeds anyway and directed her ire against him since the Confeds themselves were no longer a significant threat.

On the otherhand, it could just be that the artifact actually did nothing to change her mind/personality or morality from BW since her behaviour (on static observance) is really not that different in HotS than she was in BW. The reason there's a perceived problem now is because BW largely leaves it up to the audience to judge the morality of a character's actions whereas HotS has it's morality centred purposefully around its protagonist, which subtly attempts to deny the audience from making their own judgement. There's a lot more that can go wrong with the latter approach since there's more room for "author intrusion" to occur and potentially creates dissonance.