Can we actually talk about how insane it is that Simon removed his mask for the 141? Everything he’s been through has caused him to disassociate entirely from the person he is. He cannot bear to BE himself; to have Simon Riley be someone who exists and is acknowledged by others. He uses the mask to create his nonexistence; to become a weapon only focused on finishing his mission. With the mask, Simon Riley is dead. The only thing left is his “Ghost.”
By creating this barrier, he distances himself from his teammates emotionally and can convince himself that only the objective matters (see: abandoning Soap after Graves betrays them and calling it “a force of habit”).
Simon is not good with expressing his feelings. For example, he’s extremely worried about Soap during “Alone,” but shows it through jokes and talking to keep Soap calm. Any time Soap insists Ghost cares, the man immediately deflects and insists they are only “teammates” and that Soap needs to focus on his own self-preservation.
But we see afterwards that Ghost wants to make an effort to connect emotionally to his team; to show the 141 who “Simon” is, not just Ghost. For example, after Rodolfo assumes that Ghost would wait for his men and Soap begins to express his doubt, Ghost immediately jumps in and asserts that, yes, he would wait for them. He lets Soap know with his own words that he is there for his team. This is a rare instance where Ghost allows himself to be emotionally vulnerable and open, and it sticks out immediately to the player.
And finally, the ultimate showcase of trust: the removal of the mask. Simon rips away that last barrier of distance between himself and the 141. He affirms HIS existence and allows his teammates to see the true person underneath the mask. Price’s “Good to see you again, Simon,” only adds to the fact that this is “Simon” standing with them. In that moment, there is no “Ghost.”
Anyway, I just thought it was really touching. Simon is a deeply traumatized character, but he’s also someone who has bottled up that trauma so well that it can be hard to separate his two identities and their wants. I really hope his backstory gets touched on more in the next game (and please don’t fucking kill him right after that Activision lmao).
should i eat first or shower first *has phone in couch time for another 3 hours due to choice procrastination, a behavioral phenomenon observed in pigeons and rats as well*
lol
Young Sean: Did Arthur say he'd take us hiking?
John: No. But we can work our way around him. Hosea taught me some tricks. Now, we take our hats off, ruffle our hair a bit. Now I'm gonna need you to gimmie some tears.
Sean: *fake cries*
John: Not too much! That's enough. Okay, now follow my lead.
Arthur: What do you two idiots want now?
John, teary eyed: Why do you never spend time with us?
Arthur: What?! I'm always spending time with you!
Sean, sniffling: It's like you don't even love us!
Arthur: You better be joking.
John: How can you not love your own baby brothers?!
Arthur: Ugh! Fine! I'll take you hiking! Just please stop!
John and Sean: Hooray!
Arthur, to himself: Okay, that was impressive.
what if she could become a companion. what if. family.
"A while ago, the headmage warned me not to keep too many gargoyles because the floors might cave in... But in my opinion, the actual problem here is the durability of the floors. I hardly think I deserve to be reproached."
"There were a lot of gargoyles around the campus that needed repairing. It was a lot of work to carry each of those back to my (club?)room to do repair work on them but... He told me he didn't even ask me to do that. What a rude man."
????????? 😭😭😭 Even with such a bratty nonsense attitude he's so cute?! And isn't their interaction kinda like a dad telling off his son?!
pizza puffs is so important to me personally. a true microcosm of raph's struggles
Scout is the type of guy to go up to soldier and tell him to punch him as hard as he can in the face just to see if he can take it, alright? or tell medic to replace his lungs with bigger ones just to see how much longer he can go on with running, just to see, y’know?
He wants to prove that he can take it all. He is the one jumping up and down hand raised at the chance to be a test subject for any of the team’s dangerous stunts. He was the type of kid to be thrown into the pool by his older brothers only to run back and tell them to do it again, to throw him further. He would’ve been the type of kid that broke his leg and didn’t tell his ma because he figured it wasn’t a big deal and he had a baseball game to finish anyway! He would 100% come back to the base after a morning jog, bleeding and covered in wounds because oh yeah he got attacked by a coyote during his run, only to sit down and eat breakfast without a care in the world.
I’m tired of the “scout has low pain tolerance” and “scout is afraid of medic” (along with the other mercs) trend
Like, you think the youngest of eight brothers wouldn’t walk off a jaw shattering punch to the face?? You think the guy who runs in-between bullets would fold immediately after being skimmed in the arm?? The man literally runs head first into danger and you’re gonna tell me he has low pain tolerance?? HE’S THE ONE ACTIVELY RUNNING INTO IT!! He was shot in the stomach by a robot and literally didn’t complain about it despite the fact he was actively dying!!
Like I get the joke of him being good against terrible mounts of pain but folding at something like a paper cut but I’m tired of people saying he wouldn’t be able to handle himself from a sizable injury despite the fact that’s an expectation of his job.
And none of the mercs hate medic or are scared of him, I’m tired of seeing that discussion. Scout, who was the first person after Heavy to get the Uber-transplant heart—you think he’s scared of medic?? that man probably fought tooth and nail to be the first one in there!! he may be childish but he is not a child and im tired of these seemingly child-like traits be assigned to him despite the fact there is evidence against it :,)
Bit out of nowhere from me but I hate hate HATE how nowadays comic book writers who have never touched an Iron Man comic before write him as a tech bro without any kind of class awareness
As if Tony hasn't canonically been homeless and almost died because of it
As if there weren't lots (and I mean LOTS) of Iron Man comics that are a direct critique of capitalism because no matter how intelligent and talented Tony is, he loses a lot of money because he focuses on doing the right thing and not on making the line go up
As if Iron Man didn't have lots and lots of old comics warning about climate change and global warming
And I blame 1) The Civil War comic and 2) The MCU for this