First off: Sorry for how long this response took, I ended up moving houses shortly after it was posted and ended up with essentially-a-hiatus...
Second off: I love this! I think that would be a great group for him to appeal to; he does a lot of work with the military in canon and has a military commander style of leadership already so it's a familiar type of power he'd try to attain again.
He'd probably start out by reaching out to a few individual groups of discharged soldiers, maybe some that were making some trouble or that otherwise seem especially lost, with an overall "stern but caring strong patriarchal leader" vibe going on. He'd emphasize that the UNA are the ones who lost out by discarding them and that the soldiers were the heart of the whole operation, and that they still have plenty of potential left. Lots of "and I'd never betray you" with an emphasis on team-building/pulling through this together to play to the strength of their existing group bond and try to substitute some old-fashioned US-style army training exercise for that missing hive mind. tl;dr he'd try to offer the strong direction and authority they've suddenly found themselves lacking and promote himself as the better, caring leader who would never discard anyone like that.
Maybe he could start reaching out during Anime Naexpo, if the hurtful-in-hindsight propaganda anime is raising some hackles.
no subject
Second off: I love this! I think that would be a great group for him to appeal to; he does a lot of work with the military in canon and has a military commander style of leadership already so it's a familiar type of power he'd try to attain again.
He'd probably start out by reaching out to a few individual groups of discharged soldiers, maybe some that were making some trouble or that otherwise seem especially lost, with an overall "stern but caring strong patriarchal leader" vibe going on. He'd emphasize that the UNA are the ones who lost out by discarding them and that the soldiers were the heart of the whole operation, and that they still have plenty of potential left. Lots of "and I'd never betray you" with an emphasis on team-building/pulling through this together to play to the strength of their existing group bond and try to substitute some old-fashioned US-style army training exercise for that missing hive mind. tl;dr he'd try to offer the strong direction and authority they've suddenly found themselves lacking and promote himself as the better, caring leader who would never discard anyone like that.
Maybe he could start reaching out during Anime Naexpo, if the hurtful-in-hindsight propaganda anime is raising some hackles.