(Author's
note: The idea for this mini essay has been floating around in my head
for several months now and now that Modern Warfare 3 is upon us I have
an impetus for finally putting my thoughts into words. Be advised that
heavy spoilers are to follow.)
Torture,
killing, nuclear missile launches. It's just another day at the office
for Ghost, the enigmatic SAS operative accompanying you through much of
Modern Warfare 2's single player campaign. And although you (as the
player controlling Roach) spend a significant amount of time alongside
him, there are still many questions that arise about who Ghost is. Is he
simply a hired mercenary fighting for his next paycheck? Or is he sworn
to protect queen and country, and if so, is he fighting because he
believes what he is doing is right, or is he personally vested in the
fight against Makarov himself? And if that is the case, is there a chain
of reincarnation beginning with Call of Duty 4's Gaz moving through
Ghost and on to Modern Warfare 3's Sergeant Wallcroft (after all, they
do sound eerily similar to each other) and if so, is his stake in the
struggle weighted on the opposite side as we are meant to believe on the
surface in a grand conspiracy to bring chaos to the world and leave the
west quivering at the feet of Russia?
Is Ghost even a man or is she
wearing extra body pads and using some kind of Mission Impossible-esque
voice disguising device? It wouldn't be the first time a video game
character's identity involved some gender trickery. And goodness knows a
woman would have plenty of reasons to disguise herself as a man in the
military.
| That young man fills me with hope. Plus some other emotions which are weird and deeply confusing. |
Perhaps
the biggest question of all is this: am I crazy for thinking there is
more to the character of Ghost than just a badass looking son of a gun
to toss up onto the splash screen when you fire up the game? In a word,
no. I believe that Infinity Ward has deliberately crafted this character
to fit into the world of Modern Warfare.
Why
else would there exist a six-part comic mini series detailing his back
story? Why would all the creative parties behind the scenes make Ghost
such a prominent figure in the Modern Warfare mythos if he wasn't meant
to be interpreted as something more than a one dimensional, gun-toting,
living mannequin? I don't know the answer.
But here is what we do know about Ghost (based on the information given in the game):
He
is not a man to be trifled with. Before you even encounter him you have
the impression that anyone selected for Task Force 141 is a tough
cookie. By the time you meet Ghost you have already played as an Army
Ranger and someone working alongside another SAS operative, Captain
"Soap" MacTavish. People in both of these groups are highly trained
soldiers who aren't terribly nervous about violence. They are no
strangers to killing and death. So when you see someone in your group
decked out with armor and ammunition and wearing dark glasses with a
skull emblazoned across his face, you are glad that you are on the same
team as him. And then the first thing you see Ghost do is preparing to
electrically shock a man with a car battery. There is no indication of
whether he enjoys it, but we do know that took a few minutes of
interrogation before Alejandro Rojas spills the beans. At the very least
Ghost had to have inflicted some serious pain to another person. It is
evident is that Ghost is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job
done.
However,
after that point, in every combat situation you see Ghost operating
calmly and smoothly. Everybody operates calmly and smoothly--for the
most part MacTavish and other incidental squadmates have matters under
control--but the difference between Ghost and the rest of the 141 is
that whenever you see him operate, you see him as a sort of untouchable
skeleton or apparition. Either he believes that his appearance will have
a subliminal intimidation effect on his enemies, or it serves the
purpose of hiding his emotions so that he doesn't break the morale of
his squad by coming across as scared of the situation. Whether or not
those scenarios are accurate, his mask's practical function is a side
effect of the real reason he wears it. He wears the skeleton image as a
sort of tribute to those alongside whom he has fought in the past and
who died along the way. But it represents more than that. It represents
the part of him that died along the way.
To
say that the young man named Simon Riley is disturbed would be putting
it mildly. He has seen and done things that would make even the
toughest, most grizzled people in the world cringe. And knowing
everything he's been through makes it easier to understand how he
survives the grueling battles he faces through MW2's story, and it
makes you glad to know that he's on your side. Here is a man who has
grown up suffering the horrible and brutal abuse of his father, and who
has channeled the fright and anger towards him into cold and calculating
battlefield tactics. He can’t bring himself to kill his father, because
his father’s pain and suffering on his death bed is enough for Riley’s
peace of mind, yet he doesn’t bat an eye when he hears the old bastard
getting killed. Here is a man who was buried alive in the same casket as
a rotting corpse and who dug his way out of the ground using the dead
person’s lower jaw. Not to mention a litany of other terrors and
tragedies that he has witnessed. And yet, through it all, he never lets
it shake him in the performance of his duties and he never forgets that
he’s one of the good guys.
So
when he meets his ultimate fate, you feel angry about it and sad for
him that it all ended the way it did. You feel that way anyhow being
betrayed by Shepherd, but you can't help but feel an extra bit of
empathy for Ghost. After all he's been through, this is how it ends for
him? To call it unfair would be to dishonor Ghost's memory. It's unfair
when your sibling gets a bigger slice of cake. Ghost's demise is
downright faith-shattering. And later when you take the reigns as Soap
and it seems like the evil, heartless Shepherd is actually going to win,
you are finally able to exact the harsh revenge that he deserves. Most
players might feel a sense of retribution for Soap, but for others one
gets the sense that Ghost can finally rest in peace. And when you see
him in the group photo at the end (and again in the new group photo at
the end of Modern Warfare 3) it's not difficult to imagine that behind
his Balaclava and sunglasses he is allowing a smile to crack across his
face.
Of course, he'd never let you see it.
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