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ambergembr · 1 year

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My version of Simon “Ghost” Riley’s past for the COD MWII Reboot 2022.

Since the release of Modern Warfare II (2009), when Ghost first appeared I've been reading fanfics about COD. I've always played the franchise's games but never had any character captivated me so much. I think I became a fan because I was unhappy with the way he and Roach (player) die suddenly, due to General Shepherd's betrayal. * 14 years later I’m still mad AF. By the way, at the time I also managed to see the comics that gave a story to Ghost... holy shit, what a sad story. And then there were all kinds of fanfics based on his difficult relationship whith family, proximity to drugs, trust issues, abuse by his father, and everything else that makes him a survivor, full of physical and emotional scars.

OK. I love these stories and this past. But let the past stay in the past.

Wth the reboot of the series I don't think it's fair that he still has the same terrible past. Sure, he has to have a bad past to make him the terrifying element of the team, but couldn't it be a different one? So I decided to create my own version of his past… and maybe write a few fanfics using it.

Today, Ghost is a character presented as someone who does solo missions, described by the game's creators as a lone wolf, a specialist in espionage, sabotage and clandestine tradecraft, so he has to be someone resourceful, such as knowing several languages, knowing cultures and being flirty to get what you want sometimes. He shouldn't act 100% of the time like a rat in a sewer just watching from the shadows. He must have contacts that help him in this, or facilitate his escape, obtain documents, and so on. Can't believe he does any of this wearing the mask 24/7.

Apart from me and some crazy fandom people who are attracted to a huge guy with a skull mask, a “normal” element of the franchise will be intimidated by him, like Rudy. Who knows Soap himself didn't feel intimidated and that little smile was just to hide and not show fear in front of a huge guy like that? As We say here in Brazil: “I'm laughing, but I'm nervous!”. Anyway, in my version of the reboot world, Ghost comes from a family with financial resources but no emotional connections. The parents are both career diplomats, as is the mother's family, while the father's family comes from a long tradition of international consultants for multinationals. With his parents divorced, he, his older brother Tommy and his younger sister Sophie (original character) were raised moving from country to country every 2 years. So he went through Japan, France, South Africa, Argentina and Chile, Spain and Portugal as he grew up. This made it easy for him to learn other languages, get to know different cultures, which made him, even with that height and physical size, manage to disappear in the middle of a crowd of Japanese people.

However, due to his parents' work, he never had the real chance to make friends in the places he went, since he always moved frequently and lost contact with these people. He wasn't close to his parents either. Richard Riley is a distant man, concerned with career advancement, when he was with his children he would leave them to be raised by nannies. Tommy, the firstborn, was his favorite, and Shophie was Daddy's little girl. Simon was the middle child.

Clearly more talented than the other two, but the most independent, that created conflicts with his controlling father.

Miranda, the mother, was a narcissistic woman. She despised Tommy because he was so much like his Dad and connected with him. Simon was her favorite, but she was not a loving mother, rather a woman who was obsessed with her two youngest children: Simon and Sophie. She raised them to succeed in the spotlight of international politics. Sophie pursued a career in law, and like her mother she knew how to use charm and seduction to get what she thought was important when a brilliant mind couldn’t reach the achievement. Simon made Miranda’s eyes sparkle. She had Jocasta’s Complex* towards him, and tormented Simon about his physical form and the possibility of a career in modeling when he became too tall, and thin with an athletic body. She wanted him to participate in photo shoots, she encouraged the daughters of Consuls and Ambassadors to try to get along with him, and she knew: if the daughter of a powerful man was crazy about him, her father would do everything in his power to get his daughter happiness, including connect politically to Miranda Riley's interests. Simon hated feeling used, physically abused by his mother and pulled in different directions based on her interest. Sophie took it well, as they were equals. He felt out of place in a family of sociopaths. When he was old enough he went to the Royal Veterinary College in London, and he drifted away from his family, who expected him to pursue a career in diplomacy or foreign trade. During college he enlisted in the army, to stop relying on family money and being pestered for it. Until he graduated he worked in the army's veterinary and training unit, but his language skills caught the attention of Colonel MacMillan (the one who was Captain when Price was a lieutenant on the All Ghillied Up mission). This led Simon to the S.A.S. exam that he passed with flying collors. Within a few years Simon was already working alone in field missions, and that's when Price asked him to join 141. MacMillan erased all of his family records, because he felt that any terrorist group that knew how much money the Riley family had would make Simon a potential target for ransom demands to finance terrorists around the world.

“They would never pay anything for me, Sir. Only if it was a tabloid making a fuss about the family name. Terrorism is not enough” - Simon once commented, but MacMillan found it hard to believe. Meanwhile, Simon was thinking “Perhaps my paternal family would kidnap me just to justify sending money to some country in civil war that served their interests”. That was always the problem. People thought the Riley family was perfect. Divorced parents who acted civilly by attending the same events. The older brother with a commercial family (the Barbie blonde wife, the smiling little son), the powerful, successful and single beautiful sister, and himself, tall, handsome and shy prince, who publicly assumed the identity of an intelligence officer of MI-6, in the rare appearances he made. That's why the file doesn't have a photo, and he never acts without a balaclava. The secrecy of his identity is an absolutely important part of the job. He cannot be identified, as protection for him and his family. Although he is a football fan and a Manchester City supporter, he is a mountaineer, highly experienced, having climbed Everest twice, and K-2, among other peaks over 7,000 meters high. The second time he climbed Everest, while making the trail to base camp he met Nataly, MacMillan's middle daughter. The two began dating during the months they spent acclimatizing on the mountain, and maintain a serious relationship, in the midst of all the difficulties she has to accept distance matters because of his job, and the fear of intimacy he has because of his family. And those are some of the foundations for my current version of the Ghost character’s past.

*Jocasta’s complex: In Greek Mythology Jocasta married her own son and had children with him (without knowing). So he was the father of his own siblings and a curse to his community. In psychoanalysis, in short (I'm not an expert. If there is an expert among the readers, fell free to enlighten us about it.) it's a study on the increase in women's libido in circumstances that make a male child the target of the mother's incestuous and possessive sexual desire.

💚💛

#simon ghost riley #call of duty #cod modern warfare #modern warfare ii #headcanon #reboot #family issues #relationships

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ambergembr · 1 year

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COD - Incorrect quotes

Ghost taking offense: Yes, I'm very diplomatic!

Price patiently explaining: No you're not! Diplomacy is influencing decisions and behavior of people and authorities, showing a little force but with a smile on your face.

Ghost in his own logic: I influence behavior in people... and I use force. I just didn't know a smile was a requirement.

Ghost enters kicking the room’s door, scaring an already terrified prisoner, and smiling like crazy: All right, wanker! You're going to tell me what I want to know now...

Price: Gaz, Soap! Help me stop this maniac! God, what did I do to deserve this? Prince thinking: Blood pressure. Blood pressure. Blood pressure. I need to retire or kill one of them.

Ghost struggling as he is dragged out of the room by the other three men.

#simon ghost riley #captain price #kyle gaz garrick #john soap mactavish #incorrect quotes

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ambergembr · 1 year

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COD

Gaz showing the captain and the lieutenant at their office to his family on a video call, in a whisper:

Gaz: Those are my commanding officers, one old man, tired, grumpy and fan of cigars and one giant, masked psycho under medication.

Ghost (who has the sharpest hearing of all): Oi! Wanker! I take offense on that!

Gaz: Sorry Sir! You are not a psycho...

Ghost: No! I don't take meds!

#cod #cod modern warfare #ghost #gaz #simon ghost riley #kyle gaz garrick #captain price #incorrect quotes

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ambergembr · 1 year

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Two words already made me very anxious for the next call of duty: "no russian". 🤯

Will they have the guts to recriate this mission? 🫣

Me:

#cod modern warfare #simon ghost riley #john soap mactavish #captain price #makarov

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ambergembr · 2 years

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He looks bored at the 7th picture

johnny “soap” mactavish & simon “ghost” riley

modern warfare 2 (2022)

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ambergembr · 2 years

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Amazing!

^Please do not steal my artwork. While the picture of GHOST himself is not mine, the rest of the collage is mine and of my creation. Took me a good 1-2hrs.^

YOU OF COURSE CAN REBLOG, PLEASE DO IN FACT.

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ambergembr · 2 years

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Well... Suddenly it's like nothing has happened, or at least nothing has changed. The TBL writers managed to spoil the climax of the season.

They managed to screw up one more thing in an imbecile way.

At the beginning of the s8, keenler fans were excited. After 8 years, what had been developing in the oven finally happened. Liz and Ressler stayed together and we spent the entire season hoping for more, wanting more.

But it didn't develop. They killed the character, left Ressler without the woman he loved once again.

Nothing didn't change, everthing stand still. As we say in Brazil, it was "a volta dos que não foram" (the return of those who didn't go - I don't know if there is a matching expression in english).

But in the end, in the scene at the cemetery was the coup de grâce! The worst outcome I could have hoped for Ressler.

He just said he didn't like her at first but he came around. That's. Plain and stupid.

And there was I, watching the episode with an assface, waiting for a complement about his feelings for her... And the complement never came.

The writers took the keenler away from the fans!

In the end, it was worse than the one night stand he had with Samar!

It was just that! Writers demoted Keen &Ressler to the level of Samar & Ressler.

Not that Samar's scene with him was bad. It was just weird.

It wasn't love, it wasn't lust, it wasn't growing sexual tension. It was just two vulnerable people looking for comfort in one another.

And that s9 ending even changed, at least for me, the general idea of the statement he made to Reddington back at the start of the season: "I loved her more".

It wasn't a declaration of romantic and sexual love between two people anymore, it became a friend's love.

A friend you love like a brother/sister, like you love a very close person, but without the desire feeling.

Suddenly, it was boring!

He said goodbye to a friend, and not the woman he loved and put himself at risk to protect. That made him sunk on drugs after the loss.

Thank you writers! Fucked up one more thing! Congrats!!

It was hard enough to put up with the innocence of FBI agents falling for Reddington's schemes like idiots, now you've ruined a climax you've built for 8 years. Thanks a F*#* lot!!

See you at S10... Just to see what else you'll be able to screw up.

#screw up #the blacklist #donald ressler #keenler #s09 #bad endings

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ambergembr · 2 years

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New Chapter - Fanfic

Uploaded chapter 4 of my fanfic.

The change within

Ressler is facing difficult times, and an unexpected visit from a woman of his past may help him get a new perspective, and understand who he is and what had changed in him in the past few years.

Read on:

AO3 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/38492992/chapters/97917393

FFNet - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14051822/4/The-change-within

💚💛

#Donald Ressler #Harold Cooper #kate macer #Raymond Reddington #The Blacklist #sicario (movie)#fanfic #ao3 #ffnet

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ambergembr · 2 years

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Looking forward to it!

Top Gun (1986) dir. Tony Scott Top Gun: Maverick (2022) dir. Joseph Kosinski

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ambergembr · 2 years

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A gap of sun behind the storm. 💚💛

#sun #storm #horizon #são paulo #brazil #brasil

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ambergembr · 2 years

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Fanfic - The Change Within

Ressler is facing difficult times, and an unexpected visit from a woman of his past may help him get a new perspective, and understand who he is and what had changed in him in the past few years.

Updated on:

FFNet: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14051822/3/The-change-within

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38492992/chapters/96776697

#Donald Ressler #The Blacklist #Harold Cooper #kate macer

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ambergembr · 2 years

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Why do I still watch “The Blacklist”? Maybe I’m a dreamer hoping for the best...

I've said it before: The blacklist has become my guilty pleasure.

The series has a lot of incongruity, but I still watch it for two main reasons:

James Spader /Reddington 🥰– He's great as an older version of himself from the start, but no less enigmatic and sometimes selfish and ruthless. An individualistic character, a lone wolf who, after Liz's death, sort of found the pack to which he belongs in the task force.

I think now, in addition to using the FBI for his own plans, he wants to use the power and influence he has to protect Task Force members and himself.

Diego Klattengoff / Ressler😍🤩 – The guy is good! He's also presenting a more seasoned version of that Ressler from the beginning of the series, with the pain and mistrust that only someone who's been through everything the character has gone through could have.

But the series has disappointed me with some things, which I pretended not to see at start, but are getting very uncomfortable now.

Don't get me wrong, I'll keep watching, but I won't pretend I am not noticing these details.

Dembe: Dembe has no role this season! When season 9 started and Dembe went from being Reddington's henchman to being a member of the FBI (which I found very weird). I thought he was going to take Liz's space as Reddington's liaison with the task force, but that's not what happened and so far no one has explained what was in the box he opened as proof that he had disconnected from Reddington...or did I miss it at some point? It’s still a loose end.

He's become an absolutely underused character, and it seems like he's just there to do numbers. I don't even have much to say about him, because he just hasn't been relevant until now. A waste of an amazing character and actor! 😓

Park: Honestly I can't connect with her. And I really tried!

At the beginning of the season, I was even enjoying her interaction with Ressler, first as his confidant and second when she confronted him on the issue of drug use, because he was an idol to her and suddenly he fell off the pedestal she had put him on, and he wanted to recover the image he had for her. But after that it just went downhill.

She did not develop her conflict with her husband, nor her anger management problems, nor did she suffer any consequences from the loss of the baby. She didn't develop as a character at all.

Worse, she ended up opening up Ressler's drug secret to the entire team, a secret that Liz, as selfish as the character was at times, literally took to her grave. It seems like a character you can't trust, because, as far as I know, Ressler was dealing with his addiction (he said he didn’t fell off the wagon, despite thinking about it). I thought it was an exaggeration from her part with something so personal to him, especially since it was never shown that Ressler was so intimate with the other members (maybe with Aram, but not Dembe), for her to make that decision.

She is a character I really don't care about.😡

Weecha: When she appeared as Dembe's replacement and in some of the action scenes I was like “Wow, it's a female version of John Wick!”😎 (John Weecha … that was horrible, but I don’t regret, ha ha) but then she disappeared. Today she has no action scenes and the role of voice of reason – which was once Dembe's – in the moments when Reddington reaches the limit has not been explored. Damn it! Even Park has already given Reddington a solution (when she tells him to locate the last transmission from the tracking device that was on Liz's body!).

I even thought something was going to happen between her and Aram after that episode where Aram wonders if she remembers him when she goes to the Reddington’s trailer. It would be too cool (maybe I'm the only one who thinks that, lol).

Speaking of Aram...

Aram: I love Aram, he's kind of a comic relief at times with the rambling and babbling, and he that had moments of development.

In the first few seasons he had his moments of disappointment, especially in relationships with two of the women he got involved along the series: the cyber criminal who used him to hack the post office through his computer, then the homicidal madwoman he had met in the episode of “les fleurs du mal”. His best relationship of all times was with Samar.💔

Here goes a quick comment: Samar is my Goddess! In The Blacklist she was ex-girlfriend of Agent Shur from Mossad (played by Oded Fehr), had a one night stand with Ressler and dated Aram in the series! Go girl!!! Looking forward to see her in future episode.🤩🤩

Then he had the turning points, like the time he stole all of Reddington's money, and when he wanted to confront Cooper about the information regarding Liz's murder, and best of all so far: when he outmaneuvered Reddington and gave the order to arrest Helen Maghi in episode 9x16.

But when he was put in charge of the task force, he just disappeared! He's become an insecure character, shy when it comes to leading, distributing tasks and making decisions, he's letting Cooper take over everything, even though he knows Cooper has other personal concerns.

Aram isn’t an inexperienced agent, he's been with the task force since the first season of the series, there's no reason for him to behave like that.

I say one thing from experience: when you have to lead a team, whether you do lead or you do not, there is no middle ground.

Yes, I know that all of them, without exception, respect Cooper and have in him the figure of the natural leader. Even Ressler, when he lead the task force at the time of the Cabal conspiracy, went to Cooper to vent, but in the end of the day, the decisions, good or bad, were his.

Aram isn't doing that, and he's not facing the enemy face-to-face inside the post office like Ressler did back in time.

I really hope the writers give Aram some really hard decision for him to make on his own, to redeem themselves for turning the character into an administrative coward after so many displays of courage he's already shown throughout the series.

Here goes another (not so) quick comment: Okay, I'll admit that my rejection of Aram in the leadership position over Ressler has a lot to do with my personal experience. The frustration of seeing someone less prepared than you assuming a more responsible position instead of yourself, and then having everyone on the team turning up to you instead of the leader, because that person is not able to solve problems for whatever reason is aggravatting.

And seeing Aram being less competent than I expected him to be bothers me a lot.

Let's be honest, everyone has some personal issue that have already identified in a series, movie or soap opera we watch and can relate to, that's why we watch!

Cooper🤔 : He has changed a lot in the first few seasons. I remember that, in the first episodes, he was a character who demanded 100% commitment to the work from the members of the task force, especially Meera Malik, then he evolved into someone more sympathetic to the team's personal problems, he always led the team and weighed the consequences of each action.

I wasn't surprised that he was trying to solve his problem in season 9 by himself, but I think it's OOC that he choose Aram to lead the task force.

Cooper has always been a balanced and competent character who wanted the best for the Task Force based on the importance of it’s work, and as much as I like Aram, he's not the best available. Ressler is, and Aram himself recognizes this when he says that Ressler is the “top in the hierarchy”.

In my opinion, Cooper discarded all the effort Ressler made to get rid of his addiction and regain his position as an agent, but Cooper didn't appreciate it properly, and that disappointed me a little.

I think (but nobody asked my opinion), on one hand, that it would have been a lot better if Ressler had taken the position and had the whole team supporting him at that moment, like they do with Cooper, because, again, I think (but nobody asked that too) that Ressler was wronged the first time he took charge. He couldn't count on Cooper, Aram was against him at first, Samar ended up betraying his trust when he helped Liz behind his back, and he was facing the Cabal inside their office. He was alone most of the time.

But, on the other hand, after whatching 9x16 ending I gave grace he wasn’t in charge, because it would have killed the character, by showing him as an naïve leader. But we’ll get there.

Ressler: I'm a fan, so I'm pretty partial in my opinions about him (Who coul tell?🤨 ). I know! He has everything to be one of the best characters with all that Reddington-hunting background, but he also let me down a little bit too. The animosity he displayed against Red when Cooper asked him to return to the task force simply faded.

There are occasional pissed-off and snarky comments, but this has always been there. I really hoped that Ressler would become Red's enemy within in the task force, someone who, by expecting the worst of him or wanting revenge, would be more perceptive of the obvious moves, who would somehow become an adversary at some point.

But when I saw the end of 9x16 I was disappointed! I expected more from the task force and Ressler and Dembe, especially. O hopped at least one of them could predict that Red could trick them with fake agents. Fuck, I predicted that myself by the moment I saw the guys!

Ressler hunted the Red half his life as an agent and the other half he worked with him, and couldn't foresee such an obvious move?! What about Dembe?! He worked with Red his whole life and didn't foresee this?

Honestly, innocence doesn't suit their profession. It borders stupidity. I am mad AF .🤬

It was not funny. Funny was when Vesco tricked Red with the gold bars story (and Red poses for the picture looking like an idiot alongside with Dembe). Someone misled the misleader for once!

That was fun. The end of 9x16 was just disappointing!

Whenever we watch a movie with FBI characters, they’re always intelligent people who can anticipate the opponent's movements after some time being beaten by them.

But this Task Force, even after NINE seasons, is still making themselves idiots 🤡! Holy crap!

It's hard to understand how they are still so innocent in dealing with Reddington.

In the past I thought Liz was a good opponent for Red for being unpredictable. But looking back at season 8 a while ago, I’ve realized she was actually just a reckless person who did things without thinking about consequences, being innocent to the point of blindly believing in people who were liyng (Kirk, fake Rostova), as she didnt’ knew that in their world “everybody lies” (Thank you House M.D. / Hugh Laurie, for the quote and for the life lesson!)

She was limited, self-centered and selfish, who Red had to protect himself from, but who he wanted also to protect at the same time.

He had to control Liz but not destroy her. And she ended up destroying herself, precisely because she was reckless and naïve.

So far I'm trying to figure out how, or why, she swallowed the tracking microchip... because it wasn't so small as to go unnoticed. So I think she has got it from someone she trusted, or to pass information to someone she trusted. And at this point, only Ressler comes to mind.

But with the impending resurrection of Mr. Kaplan I don't know anymore.

As for Reddingtons enemies, Susan Hargrave was a good character with a story that ended quickly. Robert Vesco, Mr. Kaplan and the fake Rostova were Red's best opponents so far.

I keep watching to see where the rabbit hole goes, because, despite everything I said, I still like it.

Guilty pleasure rules baby! 💚💛

#The Blacklist #donald ressler #dembe #aram mojtabai #alina park #Harold Cooper #elizabeth keen #Raymond Reddington #Samar Navabi #guilty pleasure #mad af

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