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Original Battletech Writer Michael A. Stackpole Confirms Anastasius Focht Was Never Trans, But Bryan Young Won’t Back Down

May 7, 2024 by Jon Del Arroz 9 Comments

Welcome To Battletech: An Introduction
Welcome To Battletech: An Introduction

At this point, Battletech writers are hired more for their politics than they are for their care for the lore or reading comprehension abilities, as is evidenced by Bryan Young’s latest X / Twitter outbursts to virtue signal on behalf of transgender ideology. Catalyst Game Labs is on board with pushing their brand into political territory, and even that being the case, Michael A. Stackpole chimed in to correct the other author that Anastasius Focht never was an allegory for a trans character.

Battletech has been mired in controversy ever since fan-favorite writer Blaine Pardoe showed receipts of how he was treated by Catalyst Game Labs after being stalked and harassed for years. The only honest conclusion one can make is that he was mistreated over his politics, which became a theme with the company in recent years.

As Catalyst Game Labs continued to virtue signal to the far left, fans began to notice troubles with the company and that they weren’t taking the work of properties like Battletech and Mechwarrior seriously. After Catalyst Game Labs employees lashed out at fans and their customers made complaints, the company engaged in mass bannings of their own fanbase on Twitter / X to try to cull their already niche customer base.

RELATED: Battletech Writer Bryan Young Lies And Claims Popular Character Anastasius Focht Has Always Been Trans

Anastasius Focht, Battletech

Yesterday, Fandom Pulse reported on woke activist and Battletech writer Bryan Young arguing about the character of Anastasius Focht and how the character was always meant to be a representation of a trans character. While he expected applause for his identity politics outbursts, fans clapped back at him to let him know this was never the case with the property.

One fan tagged in the original writer Bryan Young bragged about having intimate knowledge of what he meant by his work, Michael A. Stackpole. It seemed easy to settle this discussion by getting Stackpole’s own opinion on the subject. Bryan Young wasn’t ready for what Michael A. Stackpole said.

He posted, “And because I knew all the way along who Focht was, there was never any hint that he wasn’t a cis male.”

RELATED: Catalyst Game Labs Covers Up Employee Threatening Violence To Battletech Players Over Identity Politics

There was never any intention of a trans allegory for the Focht character in Battletech lore, and Bryan Young made it up to try to push his extremist political agenda, which even extreme leftist Michael A. Stackpole couldn’t lie about.

It didn’t stop Bryan Young from moving the goalpost and continuing his narrative, however. He replied, “The thing I like about your passage, though, is that it could be an option and no one thought twice or negatively about it.”

No one thought twice or negatively about it because transgenderism for Focht was never implied. It wasn’t intended at the time, and no one was considering these identity politics signals when Michael A. Stackpole write his Battletech book. Bryan Young is trying to insert his evil ideology into Battletech to the point where he doesn’t care what even the original author meant by a work.

This is how the woke wreck established lore for fandoms like Battletech or Warhammer 40K. They act like their politics have always been there, even when they haven’t, and even when they’re proven wrong, they always double down.

What do you think of Bryan Young and Michael A. Stackpole’s Battletech interchange? Leave a comment and let us know.

NEXT: IDW Publishing’s Heather Antos Signals She’s LGBTQ To Promote Star Trek Celebrations Pride Month Book

Filed Under: Tabletop Gaming Tagged With: battletech, catalyst game labs, michael a. stackpole

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Brian says

    May 7, 2024 at 8:49 am

    Fun watching them eat their own

    Reply
  2. Tony says

    May 7, 2024 at 10:41 am

    Bryan Young is evil.

    Reply
    • Matthew Lawliss says

      May 12, 2024 at 7:38 am

      that is too much, an author is not evil they’re jsut partisan hacks.

      Reply
  3. Redfc says

    May 8, 2024 at 3:07 am

    It’s time RazorFist and Blaine Pardoe make their own sci-fi mech universe it could start as a comic and expand into table top later video games. I mean Razor knows his stuff just find a good mecha artist a ton of people draw Macross, Gundam, and Evangelion.

    Reply
    • Colin Pattinson says

      May 9, 2024 at 5:12 pm

      I take it you never heard of his contributions to the Land Sea franchise, a recent collaboration with Brett Evans. Near-future aquatic alien invasion, mechs, upcoming wargame and rpg, and most recently, graphic novel series. Six books already written, audible versions already available. He’s moved on, and then some!

      Reply
  4. Josh says

    May 9, 2024 at 1:12 pm

    If Catalyst thinks what Bryan Young is pushing if fine, and what Blain Pardoe did is wrong then we should not be surprised when the IP fades away again.
    Catalyst is the enemy of Battletech, not it’s steward.

    Reply
    • Matthew Lawliss says

      May 12, 2024 at 6:53 am

      strong words. have you TALKED to catalyist or just going to rage about it on twitter?

      Reply
  5. Matthew Lawliss says

    May 12, 2024 at 5:24 am

    “if you’re not with us then you are bad thing”.

    i get what one wants to write but this is just partisan bullcrap. it’s political issue of “oh look at me look how much of a good person i am if you don’t like this anti lore, change then you’re bad”.

    most people complaining about this aren’t anti lgbt. .. even though some of them are but only because of this crappy political incursion on the hobby, it would be just as obnoxious as if the religious right were doing it. or saying that a main chracter in a scifi show COULDN’T be black.

    that used to happen because of controlling execs and corporate BS… among racist bs.

    now that the talbes turn we have the same awful stuff just with the sides switched. i’m lgbt and it’s just too much.

    Reply
  6. Matthew Lawliss says

    May 12, 2024 at 7:39 am

    “Battletech has been mired in controversy ever since fan-favorite writer Blaine Pardoe showed receipts of how he was treated by Catalyst Game Labs after being stalked and harassed for years. The only honest conclusion one can make is that he was mistreated over his politics, which became a theme with the company in recent years.”

    post proof

    Reply

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