You look at the last fond video of your love. She tells you that she’ll come back from the war and says, “Don’t say goodbye; I hate goodbyes.” But she never returns, leaving you alone with your daughter. That’s the reality that Dr. Leonard Church had to face in Red vs. Blue. His wife, Allison Church, died during the Human-Covenant war. How do you react to such a loss? Well, you try to spend as much time with your daughter as possible and rebuild your life…which is not what he did. He went on to gain a doctorate in A.I. Theory, neglected his only daughter into being an overachiever, and abused the A.I. that he was given, which resulted in Project Freelancer being disbanded and his eventual death. The Director showcases the denial and bargaining stages of grief through the actions he directly and indirectly caused (such as his neglect of his daughter, which resulted in her becoming the Agent Carolina of Project Freelancer), and the abuse of trust he put the A.I. Fragments through in his attempts to bring Allison back.
Leonard’s denial is demonstrated in his treatment of his daughter. Agent Carolina’s introduction in season 9 of Red vs. Blue displays her as an impressive fighter and leader, able to take on several soldiers through stealth or direct combat, has great respect for the Director, and is the best of the Freelancers. However, despite her impressive ability, she is unable to gain his attention, as the Director remains cold and uncaring, only focused on a new goal: bringing back Allison Church from the dead.
This effort becomes his bargain with life itself. The Director became more distant, conducting unethical experiments on A.I. and humans, including one on Carolina to take on 2 A.I. fragments (which went badly). All of these culminated in the creation of Agent Texas, the newly reborn Allison, who discovered the experiments and truth about the project. In turn, she started a mutiny that ended with many agents going their separate ways, but those paths would eventually converge and lead right back to the Director.
Years later, the Director has lost it all: his resources, respect, and freedom. All he has left are the experiments, a recording of Allison from when they last saw each other, and a single A.I. Suddenly, with the sounds of heavy footsteps, a single, lone voice speaks: “Hello, Director. It’s Agent Carolina.” “Hello, Agent Carolina,” he says back, but the tone is different, not cold and distant. It’s a tone of realization that all of his attempts to bargain with death, all of those times he’s been cold to his workers, the A.I., and his daughter for naught as he looks Carolina dead in the eye with a look of sadness. By the end of his life, Leonard Church is a broken shell with nothing but a recording and a pistol to keep his corpse company. But, his work continues to fuel a legacy of loss and revenge that nearly ended the whole universe, all to avenge a fallen friend, anger at the mistreatment of the simulation troopers: a legacy continued by Mark Temple, Leader of the Blues and Reds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow the EGD Collective on social media to get updates on our upcoming events and workshops (Twitter / Instagram / Facebook). We encourage you the community on the EGD Discord server to meet some new friends and gain access to our wide array of services and resources!
Finally, consider joining our membership program! Benefits of registering for our membership tiers include access to student support services, fellowship programs, and more. You can find more information on our website here.
Comments