Imagine:…
We always get the stories about young Phillip and Russell Adler. But what about Teen/Young Adult Phillip, who's in the Marines/Marine Raiders, and gets home after a long deployment, who either:
a) (Canon Ending) meets with Adler, who talks with him about the missions Phil went on, teaches him some moves, trains him/ prepares him for certain types of missions, etcetera etcetera. Phillip goes on to get higher in the marine raiders and meets General Shepherd who convinces him to start Shadow Company. This leads into canon times as we know except Graves is every bit the money loving war criminal that the haters want you to believe that he is, due to Shepherds influence on him at a young age in the military. Russell Adler slowly loses his son to the type of people that he used to hunt down for betraying others just for the money/recognition
Or
B) (Good Canon Ending) comes home and finds that his father isn't there, and there are people there who are tracking him and Russell down, and who have invaded the house. Phillip clears the house of the invaders, and gathers a few things before heading to a safe house, and gets in contact with his dad, and together (maybe with the help of some friends) take down the people/operation hunting Adler and Phil. Phillip realizes how much better working in a group of your own choosing and choosing your own missions is, and decides to change his last name, and form Shadow Company. This leads into canon times as we know, with Graves meeting Shepherd later on and around the time before Modern Warfare 2 begins. Graves is either hassled or blackmailed to betray the 141 and has a strong bond with his Shadows. Russell Adler stays in contact with Phillip, and they still meet sometimes.
Or
C) (Bad Canon Ending) comes home and finds that his father isn't there and he gets captured. Turns out that it's Bell who captures him, and Bell brainwashes Phillip the same way Adler did to him, to hunt his own father down. Confronted by someone who's younger and spryer than he is, and who also knows all of his moves, Adler gets captured and taken to Bell, who kills Adler, and rents the highly trained and brainwashed Phillip out for missions against the West. Forced to watch his father die, and to betray the country he had grown to love, Phillip slowly tears himself apart from the inside out, until finally during a mission, he manages to break free of the brainwashing, shoot Bell, and manages to track down all the people he was ever forced to work for, until he has taken down all of the threats(that he knows of) to his country and its allies. After that, he ends up lost, and without a purpose, and changes his name to Phillip Graves due to the graves he had to fill during his brainwashing and awakening. He goes back to what little he can remember… the military. There he meets General Shepherd who 'helps' build Graves back up and guides him to start Shadow Company. Shepherd says he's helping him, but when really, he's using him, and Graves doesn't recognize this because being manipulated is all he remembers. As the The Shadows get to know Phillip, they try to help, but he's already fallen back into his brainwashed patterns and is unable to listen. Shepherd plants a seed in Graves' mind that the 141 need to be taken out because they're going to betray him first, so he must make the first move. Russell Adler and Bell both die, and Phillip has lost himself along the way, leaning into every praise from the General that he gets, only to see the man for what he is, when Shepherd betrays him in the courthouse.
