reboot cod pisses me off so bad sometimes bc i've never seen something genuinely less interested in having characters
real quick, why is everyone afraid of ghost? he tends to work overwatch but his sniper skill is never mentioned or emphasised. he turns to soap for his sniping ability more than he displays his own. he isn't on overwatch to organically work in his skill, it's to write him out of the way so the player has more npcs to kill and tasks to complete but in doing so, it limits his actions to nothing but aura moments in cinematics and in the background of scenes the player can catch if they happen to look
he mentions being through guerrilla warfare and has the technical knowledge but we never see him implement it or find out how he got it in any meaningful way; he instead choses to just stab people as a stand in for a defining characteristic
imagine if in alone we see evidence of him utilising the same skills he teaches soap; improvised weapons and broken fans and proof of how versatile and deadly he is, things he didn't tell soap to do bc he physically isn't capable of doing them. soap being able to do everything he learned through "years of practice" just bc ghost tells him to makes it even less impressive bc it makes his skills easily replicable, undercutting the proficiency he's supposed to have and the implication of how bad those years were
other than the one drop down kill in the camera mission, there's nothing to suggest anything he does can't be done by another soldier. even the stealth attributed to him in alone by the scared shadow is also done by soap in that same mission and when we finally get to actually see ghost work, he's literally guided step by step by soap
we have no reason to think he's this scary boogeyman of the military to the point that international pmcs know who he is and are afraid beyond just being told he's this mythical soldier
09 ghost is shown to be the second in command of the 141 in the pre mission briefings when he's the one going through them with mactavish and he's also shown to be a tech guy and interrogator; in both things, he's the only one to do them, implying he's the best or the only one who can. heโs impatient but only when it comes to himself and his performance; when it comes to the men beneath him, heโs professional in his orders and invested in their safety. none of this is interpretation, this is all in the original game
in comparison? the villains are one note and their actions have no consequences so the writers don't have to be constrained by them, price was majorly defanged to make him less morally grey and less interesting as a result. gaz is probably the most well rounded since he's one of about three characters that get to actually have an arc; he goes from soldier cop to elite soldier and price's apprentice, we see him grapple with his morality, what he wants to do and what needs to be done and those decisions carry over in how he acts for the rest of the games. soap's probably the second emptiest bc he suffers from being a main player character, his actions have to be open to follow the player's choices, but at least there's hints of his loyalty, temperament and dedication to civilian safety and his specialties as a sniper/demolitionist
but the titular ghost? the main face of their marketing? he does nothing to back up his skill or reputation. he just is ghost, the embodiment of tell don't show, and that is so shit when he has the potential to be such an interesting character!
the hints at his backstory and his reticence to be more than part of a team or that they mean anything more to him than coworkers despite being in the 141 for years, just to latch onto soap and the team as a whole with his teeth, literally branding them with his image. the skillset the writers could make only him have; make him stand out in more than just appearance and his knives, he's lived through something terrible to have the knowledge he has, lean into it! have him use everything in a room to his advantage, have him recognise bullet casings and knife wounds bc there's no weapon or torture he hasn't seen before
let him be unsettling to anyone not 141 bc only they have his trust to let himself be human, give him a specialty mission that isn't aided by soap or laswell (it's been over two years and i still haven't forgiven that), have him reluctant to teach soap what he knows bc all he sees is the memories that come along with them and he doesn't want that pain for soap. stress that there's things only he can do and that's what makes him the ghost
it doesn't have to be spelled out, it doesnโt take an hour long cut scene to build a character; there's so much you can do just through implication if you just take the time to flesh him out
he has the bones! let him be a character not just an empty mask for gamer bros to imprint their male fantasies on
