Pierre Legrand
Actor: ??
Affiliation: European Union / France*Rank:* General*Role:* Senior European Union Officer*Specialism:* Unknown
Status: Non-canon character from Generals 2
Pierre Legrand is a French general of the European Union who appears in several concept videos produced during the development of Command & Conquer: Generals 2.
Unlike the European generals revealed later in the game’s development, Legrand appears to have been conceived as a key campaign character, rather than merely a specialist Commander.
Behind his status as a European officer lies a man with particularly dubious motives, more concerned with his own glory and the domination of Europe than with international stability.
His aim, in particular, is to provoke an all-out war between the European Union and the Asia-Pacific Alliance, a conflict from which he hopes to capitalise to strengthen European power whilst gaining prestige and renown.
To achieve his ends, Legrand seeks to manipulate one of the GLA’s most dangerous fighters: Jarmen Kell.
In the ‘Ace in the Hole’ animatic, he interrogates Kell at gunpoint about an operation that apparently caused an explosion.
But rather than imprisoning or executing him, Legrand ultimately decides to release him.
He then reveals that he regards the famous GLA sniper as his ‘ace in the hole’, clearly intending to use him in his own manoeuvres against the APA.
This clandestine alliance places Legrand in a particularly ambiguous position: as an EU General officially charged with defending Europe, he is prepared to collaborate with a GLA Commando unit to trigger a conflict that serves his personal ambitions.
His plans, however, appear to ultimately fail.
In the ‘Catharsis’ animatic, Legrand is shown taking refuge in the ruins of a building after being targeted by the forces of the European General Agembe.
Cornered and apparently defeated, he eventually acknowledges his surrender, suggesting that his actions have been uncovered and that part of the European Union has turned against him.
What happens next remains unknown, as the storyboards are merely preparatory sequences from an abandoned version of the campaign.
Pierre Legrand was thus to embody an internal threat to the European Union: an ambitious General prepared to manipulate the GLA and provoke an international war in order to secure European dominance and his own glory.