Jacques Batiste

Jacques Batiste is a character in Medal of Honor: Underground. He is Manon Batiste's brother, and was a member of the French Resistance group Maquis.

Biography[]

Jacques grew up in the small French town of Dubuisson with his sister, Manon, and their parents. His father was a French soldier during World War I and was gassed by the Germans, and never fully recovered. However, his family moved to Paris during him and Manon's childhood, and when the Germans first occupied France, he became involved with the Resistance force alone with his sister. He lived in an apartment in Paris above a Danish boy named Niels, who would later consider joining Jacques' resistance group, but was never able to join due to Jacques' death. He always trusted everyone, according to one of his closest allies, Fabrice Delacroix, which ultimately resulted in his death on May 1, 1942 after his and Manon's attempt to steal German munitions went wrong and his truck crashed into a barrier, causing it to explode, killing him. Jacques also always kept a locket with him, which perhaps contained pictures of dearest friends and family. After he was killed, Manon took his locket from the burning munitions truck and kept it to remember him by. Before his death, he had contact with OSS and was even considering joining.

Fabrice later mentions Jacques and the Academy of Music ambush in a mission briefing to James Patterson in the Medal of Honor: Frontline mission Special Cargo two years after Jacques' death.

Canonical inconsistencies[]

Although Jacques dies in the canonical timeline of the series as seen in Medal of Honor: Underground other accounts of his fate were recounted:

When Jacques was first made mention of in the Medal of Honor level briefing for Merker's Upper Mine it is different than how it is depicted in Midnight Rendez-Vous. In it Manon states that Jacques died saving some of the children inside a Paris school wired to explode by the VII SS-Panzer Korps Demolitions Squad in an attempt to draw some Maquis out of hiding in early 1942.

In the mission briefing to Manon from Helene Fourcade in the Medal of Honor: Underground level Operation Marketplace it mentions Manon's brother (unnamed) being trapped (rather than killed) in a schoolyard ambush "so long ago." This could either be retcon to a different brother than Jacques had been killed by the VII SS-Panzer Korps Demolitions Squad, or that Jacques was involved in the Paris school ambush but was retconned to have survived it.

In the Gameboy Advance version of the game, Jacques has a different fate: When he and Manon arrive to the garage, they find the truck with ammunition, Manon then opens the door for the two flee and you can finish the mission without him dying. In the ending of the level, a text appears saying: "If you are reading this, your attempt to steal munitions did not go as planned. Jacques was always rather impetuous and inclined to trust, and now it seems the Gestapo are on to us." It's probably that the scene where Jacques dies has been removed from this version because it would be very difficult to reproduce it due to the console limits of the Gameboy Advance.

Appearance[]

Jaques had short, red hair, like his sister, and usually wore a blue beret. He also wore a tan sweatshirt along with a black undershirt, and regular denim jeans. Later on, he was described by many as a brave, honorable man who put country before self.