Character Study of the Week: Thomas Hogarth
Who: Thomas Hogarth
What:
Leutnant (assumed to be first rank entering the LCAF in 3024), 22nd Skye Rangers
Hauptmann, 7th Donegal Guards
Kommandant, LCAF, Liason for Condor Trans-Track Project
Leftenant General, CO, Furillo Tamarind March Militia
Colonel, CO, Furillo Bolan Province Militia
Leutnant-General, LCAF, Coalition Liason
Presenter, The Armchair General, Donegal Broadcasting Company
When: 3007 - ?? ?? ??
Weapon of Choice: AS7-D Atlas (presumed due to time period active)
AS7-S Atlas
AS7-D-H Atlas II
DFN-3S Defiance
Being Thomas Hogarth
The ballroom
The buffet table
After dinner drinks
Effectively a running gag in Battletech since his introduction in Field Manual: Lyran Alliance, in a militia unit description no less, Thomas Hogarth has somehow become one of the more prominent generals within the late 31st Century LCAF, and a character that just can’t be stopped.
The most charitable description of the man from within the setting Thomas Hogarth is an one of those people who gets by on an overinflated reputation, more accurately he is an example of one of those people promoted because it was the easiest means of getting them out of the way, to reward them for some apparent good effort, regardless of how said effort came about, and put them in a prominent positon without the power to do anything.
Doubtless we all have tales of this sort of individual, and in something the size of the Battletech universe there had to be at least one of prominence. Making him a Lyran Social General is just the obvious way of dealing with it.
From the perspective of the average reader Thomas Hogarth is essentially a meme, he turns up in some of the most unlikely places doing whatever Thomas Hogarth does and getting away with it.
His military victories consist of a single tactic: Stumble around blindly and get lucky. And while he tends to make connections that are of questionable worth rather than of clear gain (Iris Steiner may have been a prominent noble on the world he was stationed on but there was little gain in the connection beyond said world and antagonised the more politically powerful Caesar steiner) he manages to make the most of them, never quite coming out on top but still managing to profit in some form.
Facing the Allies during the Civil War, showing up in opinion pieces, retroactively turning up in a TRO during his days as a Kommandant, valiantly fighting WoBbies in Singapore on Terra, if there would have been a reasonably feasible means he could have been on Strana Mechty outrunning an orbital strike from McKenna’s Pride in his Atlas, clutching the giftake of Ulric Kerensky in one mechanical fist and Kali Liao in the other as he ran from the burning bloodchaple, punting ProtoMechs all the way. Thankfully there wasn’t.
In the beginning he was little more than a sidenote to indicate that the stereotypical Lyran Social General had some basis in reality, as all stereotypes do, however unfortunately. Given the sheer numbers of personalities in the setting getting slight mentions there had to be at least one who epitomised the worst of the stereotype. He is far from the only Social General, however those that do reach his rank can usually back it up with decent to phenomenal military capability or at least significant political clout such as Katherine Steiner’s political appointees.
Thomas Hogarth is something of an oddity, he has none of these attributes. In fact, in a setting where the more political a character the more villainous they are it could be said that Thomas Hogarth simply isn’t.
He doesn’t wheel, he doesn’t deal, he doesn’t betray in the normal manner by selling anyone out, he just says a few words at the buffet table not out of malice but simple self-aggrandisement, whatever happens to his foe isn’t a consideration.
This is part of what makes him seemingly harmless, he’s not political, his strengths are in the social arena and while certainly self-aggrandising, are not manipulative and so blatantly obvious as to be laughable from an exterior reader and in internal character perspective. This means in the traditional Battletech sense he is essentially harmless.
Indeed, he is more often seen, or at least reported, in a BattleMech than doing anything remotely political. Given that this is a man who classed Zeuses and Banshees as lighter equipment putting him in anything less than an Atlas to start with would undermine what he is. That he eventually wound up in a 75 ton Defiance just perpetuates the joke.
These traits also add to his charm, he’s inoffensive and from a reader perspective entertaining. Indeed, as a successful Social General charm is a part of his arsenal, without which he wouldn’t have gotten far.
This isn’t to say he isn’t trouble, his opinions are deadly to the average Lyran trooper if he were ever put in a position to action any of them.
Unfortunately there are going to be those within the setting who are going to listen to him just because his Leeroy Jenkins level of success has granted him a degree of public credibility, after all the average person won’t know the circumstances of his victories, which leaves Lyran command few options but to promote him until he’s in an isolated position with little actual influence over the military.
How this translates into a leadership position within the Coalition during the assault on Terra can only be the result of being put in said isolated position within the Lyran contribution and then almost everyone above him getting killed until he was the only one left to fill the slot.
To the general public of the Battletech universe this may not seem like a problem, Thomas Hogarth is already a hero, to the actual people in charge they can only hope that he gets killed or his subordinates have enough intelligence and initiative to mitigate his worst orders.
Until the day he does something too big, both in reputation and in potential consequences. In which case it makes sense that he winds up as the host of a TV opinion show. He’s too much of a hero to discharge, but he can be convinced to take retirement with the benefit of a cushy, well-paying job afterwards before they have to promote such a hero of the Jihad into a position where he can enact his hazardous ideas.
Sidebars in various Jihad sourcebooks play up this image, the Social General buffoon who stumbles from one heroic seeming victory to another, so much so that the idea he is doing it deliberately has taken hold, and rightly so because the previously mentioned making of connections and profiting from them even when things sour can’t all be purely chance, he must be doing something to save his skin each time.
It’s hilarious to watch him, deliberately or otherwise, bumble from one situation to another and still come out on top because no one has any better idea what to do with him.
And then the humour sours when we find out through a heavily redacted statement from his Blakist opposite in Singapore that Hogarth basically stomped the city into the ground and committed low level war crimes against a foe that would have gladly surrendered if Hogarth hadn’t (seemingly, his actual thoughts are never revealed) been more focused on glory than getting the job done efficiently.
So Thomas Hogarth is a joke, in part because he is a joke that fits in with the setting and in part because the same setting is too big not to have jokes. And while he can become grating and annoying the simple truth is that jokes like this exist, and provide counterpoint to more dramatic characters, and as Singapore shows, will frequently provide counterpoint themselves.
Love him or loathe him for these tendencies the inescapable truth is that he has catalysed events, impacted the setting and has become a part of the universe to the point where in 3145 he has a nephew carrying on the family tradition.
