Battletech and Catalyst Game Labs have been embroiled in controversy ever since it came out that they discriminated against fan-favorite writer Blaine Pardoe, giving into wokeness because of his conservative-leaning politics. The legendary author was removed from writing subsequent Battletech books, and the company has only gotten worse from there. Now, the remaining writers are trying to rewrite lore to claim the property has always embraced transgenderism.
Catalyst Game Labs has been pushing extreme leftist agendas through their products for years, including the “Battletech Pride Anthology 2023” which features a mech with gay pride flags on it and a subtitle “Queer Tales from the Inner Sphere.” Why they would make a virtue signal about a game of mechs destroying each other is unclear, but the people now working at companies like this and Games Workshop can’t seem to help themselves when it comes to inserting their sexual fetishes into everything.
The company stood with an activist who goes by the name Faith McClosky, who harassed Blaine Pardoe out of the company. On top of that, fans were shocked by leaked messages from Catalyst’s support team that involved a former Battletech author and Demo Team member going by the name of ‘Robin,’ who was doxing a community member by revealing their home address on Google Maps. According to the e-mail, Robin was quietly fired, and it looked like no one would hear about this incident.
At first, Catalyst Lab Games concurred the person was fired, but then they started attacking fans who mentioned the issue, trying to virtue signal for LGBTQ causes again, even insofar as defending a person who threatened violence. It was an odd look, but odder still was the company blocking so many of their fans on Twitter / X who were upset about these situations.
Now, one of their authors, Bryan Young, is claiming that a character, Anastasius Focht, from the novels, was always meant to be trans when it’s clearly not the case.
Mage Leader brought the information to attention as Bryan Young was posting in a thread about the topic, saying, “Oh! It’s also heavily implied Anastasis Focht is trans. I forgot about that one. So I guess Blood of Kerensky.”
When a fan followed up about the alleged implication, Bryan Young said, “Ulric presents it as a theory when he’s trying to work out who Focht is, and Stackpole has implied it after the fact in in person conversations, but yeah, in that trilogy.”
Mage Leader explained to Fandom Pulse, “Focht is a beloved Battletech character, the man most responsible for stopping the Clan Invasion of 3052. Focht was originally a member of Steiner nobility who fled during certain political power plays, and was given a position in the neutral military branch of ComStar (think a heavily armed version of AT&T with no competitors). He assumed the name and identity of Anastasius Focht as an Alias to protect his true identity. It seems that Young is attempting to twist this into some form of trans representation.”
He also said, “Stackpole wrote the books where characters debate Focht’s true identity. Stackpole didn’t have this intent at the time. Since then, he has become one of the most vocal leftists at CGL and was most likely virtue signaling to Young in private conversations for brownie points.”
As we saw with Warhammer 40K and the Adeptus Custodes being retconned to be female, the Woke are changing the lore after the fact to gaslight fans to claim it’s always been this way. Bryan Young is trying to get clout with a political group, and Catalyst Game Labs is going further down the rabbit hole of losing what makes their games special: the lore and worldbuilding.
Fortunately, Blaine Pardoe is working on a new property, Land and Sea, which will be live on IndieGoGo this week.
What do you think of Battletech having “always been trans?” Leave a comment and let us know.
Battletech always been trans? From a lore perspective, how about no? Or how about hell no? The game itself has always been about big stompy machines blowing each other up, and who cares about who or what was driving them? We never did.
The topic never came to mind (because I’m playing a make believe game)
Bryan Young is evil.
I have been an avid player of Battletech in all its forms ever since 1985. I call bull $h!t that it has always been trans. These people are sick in the head to even say that. Maybe since CGL has taken custodianship of the IP it has been trans, that I believe. Hopefully that won’t be for much longer. They will never see another dime of my money. Those of us who are true fans of the game and lore and have been with it since the beginning, can wait until they woke themselves to broke and lose the property rights. Then maybe we will revisit it. Until then, I’ll find other games to play that are not so hell bent to insert their perverted sexuality into a game about big stompy robots fighting other big stompy robots. No sexuality needed at all. I hope CGL rots from the inside out.
CGL is destroying the IP. Topps should revoke their license and give it to a company that interacts better with fans and customers.
How about no? -Dr. Evil
Bryan Young is one of the least well known writers and not exactly good so of course he did this shit!