The Beatification of Blessed Saint Leonard (part 1)

So you know what, this subject has come up a couple of times in my last few episodes. And a part of me wanted to talk about it anyway, but something else tipped my hand.

Of late, I've been seeing this utterly arse-backwards effort to 'redeem' the reputation of the unlamented Supreme Commander Anatole Leonard. No longer is he the incompetent belligerent xenophobic moron who got half the Southern Cross killed because he was too stupid to realise how deep a hole he'd dug himself into. Oh no, according to the revisionists, now he's a brave and honourable man who gave his all to defend the Earth. A good man, a dutiful husband, a loving father. Leonard fought teh aliens and didn't afraid of nothing.

And it's all utter bull.

So instead, I'm going to dish dirt. I'm going to give you the straight story on ol' Anatole, and explain why he was the worst person for the job. It's about how he rose to power on the back of corruption, bigotry, an old boys network and having good enough PR to cover up his mistakes. Oh, and of course, a couple of our old friends show up along the way.

Leonard's early life is largely irrelevant to the story. He was already a decorated tank commander who had fought in the Global Civil War, but the most important part of his life in this period was one of his friends, Wyatt ‘Patty' Moran, a young and up and coming political player in North America. They both shared beliefs and saw ways they could help each other, and formed an alliance that would last for over three decades. And, you know, screw over the entire planet.

He joined the UEDF and came on board with Project Excalibur, the program that eventually produced the Destroids. One way or another, he ended up in charge of the program. Moran, on the other hand, became a part of the UEG and quickly rose to prominence within the new organisation. During this time, Leonard (and possibly Moran as well) also became an associate of a UEDF spook, being our old friend T.R. Edwards (because it's always T.R. Edwards). These two facts may not be unrelated.

However, at the same time, he was playing both sides. While Leonard had been a devout Catholic all his life, he went further down the crazy side of things and was also a member of Conrad Wilbur's Faithful; you know, the fringe sect that thought the SDF-1 was a trick sent by the devil to tempt mankind and lead us into damnation. Not only that, but Leonard was well entrenched within the Faithful's extremist wing who were given to terrorist attacks and the like. Some of those attacks, by the way, targeted project Excalibur assets, making you wonder if Leonard was feeding them intel. After Wilbur was assassinated, the extremist faction rose to further prominence, and our boy was among those who did well from that shift in power. One of his associates during the period was Renaldo da Silva, who would go on to play a part in the *Achilles* plot. One had to wonder if Leonard didn't have some hand in that one too.

Oddly enough, Leonard seems to have fallen out of favour with the UEDF at some point around the start of the First Robotech War. I can't say why; maybe it was because he was a ground commander in a war that they were trying to contain to space. Maybe somebody found out about his connection to the Faithful and felt it was not a good look. Or maybe they just didn't like him. I can believe any of those. Regardless, he wound up assigned to the UEDF Antarctica Base. Officially it was for ‘cold weather testing' of equipment, but it's obvious that it's a ‘get him out of the way' level move.

Sadly, it meant the bastard survived the Rain of Death and was left with a military force at his disposal. Gathering up the base's personnel and equipment, he made his way north, eventually arriving in Brasilia. Once there he sized power and appointed himself governor, strong-arming those forces present into his control and reforging them as the Southern Cross. Now it needs to be said that he bought order to a chaotic city, but he also did so at the point of a gun; his idea of 'community policing' was to use Destroids to break up riots and armed soldiers to 'enforce' the peace. He also rounded up all the city's Zentraedi and pushed them into a single ghetto, which came to be known as Zeetown.

Naturally, this ended badly. A food riot resulted in the Brasilia Massacre, where SC Destroids killed over a thousand unarmed Zentraed civilians, with Miriya Sterling very nearly being among the dead. Normally this would be a PR nightmare, but instead it played well to the strongmen who were emerging across the continent. They liked what they saw in Leonard, being a racist bastard who wasn't afraid to crush dissent under some very literal iron heels. Next thing you know, he had formed alliances across the continent and the Southern Cross was ballooning, drawing from a mixture of UEDF survivors, police forces, private militias, mercenaries and anyone else who was happy to stomp on a few heads.

Now at some point he'd come back into contact with his old chum Patty Moran (seriously, why did all the worst people survive the Rain?), who was now a mover and shaker within the new UEG. Moran did a lot to legitimise Leonard and bring him in, despite the fact that he'd made enemies of the Sterlings, two of the most PR-friendly members of the UEDF. Thanks to Moran's efforts, Leonard looked more like a heroic defender of the people rather than the blood-soaked warlord he actually was.

But then Leonard crapped gold. Despite the fact that his forces were largely based in South America, Leonard managed to put together a strike on Cairo just as a bunch of major Zentraedi leaders were gathered for a meeting. In one fell swoop, he wiped them out and looked like a massive damn hero for decapitating the Malcontent Menace. And don't get me wrong, the attack hurt the Malcontents hard and stopped them from forming any sort of unified, worldwide movement. But what gets me is the timing of it.

Somebody on the inside of the UEDF had to have given Leonard that info. Now while you can immediately point the finger at ol' uncle Patty, I feel like there might have been another hand at play. Like, say, our old pal T.R. Edwards. It makes sense; the guy was a spook working for the UEDF and was flying below the radar at this point. Propping up Leonard would have gone a long way to putting somebody he could control into a position of power, which would fit with the T.R. playbook. And if it was Edwards who passed the info to Leonard, then he did very well off out of it.

Leonard spends the next three years bumbling his way across South America, all the while making himself into a big damn hero for his willingness to massacre malcontents and leave devastation in his wake. It plays well to the people of the continent, who were living in fear of Zentraedi attacks while seeing the UEDF as being distracted by the Pioneer mission and not caring for their plight. He's also making his mark in Africa and Europe, where he was again fighting Malcontents (and nearly starting a war with the NSMR, but that's another matter) and propping up local warlords.

Oh, and he may have had a lovechild by a Zentraedi sex slave. The evidence is out there, you just need to know where to look.

Things come to a head with the Cavern City incident. A Malcontent group unleased a bioweapon into the city, causing chaos among the populace. Leonard steps in, effectively seizing the city, imposing martial law and implementing a harsh quarantine. He also goes so far as to deputise the Red Snakes, a biker gang, to help enforce his rule, creating a problem that would fester for the next three decades. However, Cavern City was also a UEDF protectorate, and as such, Leonard was overstepping his authority.

Leonard demands that the UEDF stand down. Their leaders, Max Sterling and Johnathan Wolfe (and boy, do we have a lot to unpack about him one day) refuse to comply, claiming that Leonard is actively making the situation worse. Next thing you know, a UEDF force that includes the pair of them are engaged in active combat with Leonard's forces, with the Wolfe Pack making a breakthrough and managing to hook up with their allies. Despite the fact that he ordered his forces to fire on fleeing, non-infected civilians, Leonard still comes out of the mess smelling like roses thanks to his judicious PR.

By 2018 the uprisings were more or less over. Now at this point, you'd think people would come to see Leonard for what he was and realise he'd outlived his purpose. They could give him a handshake, a watch and let him go off to play golf or whatever else. Or, you know, hold him accountable for his crimes and the like. But instead, at the Perth Conference the UEG, doubtless on the recommendation of Patty Moran, chose to do the opposite. They bring him in and legitimise the Southern Cross as a part of the UEDF, giving Leonard everything that he wanted.

And yet, as we'll see in part two, it still managed to get worse.

But until then, keep it weird.