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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| NOTE: Large sections of this proposal are copypasted from my NPE Removal for Rorke. You know the dril at this point: reusing stuff that you made doesn't count as plagiarism. |
"You're right, Elias, I'm not a Ghost... I'm the man that hunts them, and sends them back to the other side!"
Welcome everyone, and here's a candidate that I just removed from the NPE Wiki. Time to put him in a more fitting area.
What is the work?[]
Call of Duty: Ghosts is a 2013 FPS game that is part of the larger Call of Duty franchise and that was supposed to the successor to the Modern Warfare trilogy, albeit with very little success. In this game, we see the missions of the titular Ghosts, a secret US military team facing off against the Federation, a massive superpower formed by various South American nations, in their invasion of the United States of America, in an attempt to undo American hegemony at all costs. Today we talk about the commander of the Federation's military forces present in the United States, who is also the Ghosts' primary foe:
Who is the candidate?[]
Gabriel T. Rorke is the main antagonist of the game. As said before, he is the leader and commander of the Federation's invading forces in the US, who also vowed himself to hunt down and kill all of the Ghosts one by one. At one point, it's revealed that Rorke used to be a Ghost himself, and a major friend to Elias and his comrades, eventually taking part to the assassination of Diego Almagro, the leader and founder of the Federation. Diego was successfully killed, but Rorke ended up being M.I.A. after a failed attempt to save him. The Federation found him first and subjected him to an ancient torture method to break his mind and soul, eventually brainwashing him and turning him against his nation and his former allies.
Various years later, the Federation leads a full scale invasion of the United States, using orbital attacks from their hijacked space stations as well. Rorke leads the invading forces, even hunting down various Ghosts, such as torturing and killing Ajax, something that earns him the title of "The Ghost Killer". He also leads an invasion of Santa Monica, in California, overwhelming US forces there and killing thousands. He also laid a trap for the Ghosts when they interrogated Victor Ramos in Caracas (Venezuela), set another attack when he was captured by them and then ordered other orbital attacks over the United States. At one point, he kidnapped the Ghosts at Las Vegas and tortured them, going as far killing Elias in front of his two sons, Logan and Hesh. In the climax of the game, when confronted by the latter two, Rorke attempts to kill them one last time, only to get shot and left to drown inside the destroyed train the three were on, finally ending his villainy....
Except Rorke somehow survived all of that and kidnapped Logan, with the intent of brainwashing him and turning him against his allies, like it happened to him in the past. Hesh can only watch as Logan gets dragged away to his unknown fate. The game was supposed to have a sequel, but due to poor sales, the game never got one, meaning that Rorke remained unpunished for his actions.
Heinous enough?[]
Now, I don't think that heinousness is an issue there. While one could argue that he is ultimately a cog in the Federation's system standard, I don't think that's really the case for Rorke. He is described as a high ranking official here, and the direct leader of the Federation's forces in the United States. This basically makes him responsible for crimes such as the orbital strikes and the invasion and take over of Santa Monica, killing thousands as well. In top of that, he has a lot of personal villainy towards the Ghosts, vowing himself to torment and hunt down all of them. This is best shown with his torture of Ajax and Elias, as well with his kidnapping of Logan at the end. So yeah, not exactly a mere cog in the system. Ghosts as a game is also its own thing, so I don't think that we need to compare him to the villains of other continuities.
What makes him inconsistent?[]
First and foremost, his tragedy is too severe to rank him any higher: he used to be a genuinely benevolent and heroic figure that cared for his fellow Ghosts, even leading them to assassinate the tyrannical Diego Almagro. However, he ended up being left behind and then captured by the Federation. He was then tortured and got his mind completely broken, until he was turned to the other side. Speaking of, his moral agency is rather questionable at best because of this, since this whole thing is described as pretty much brainwashing, with his body and soul destroyed because of this. Mind you, for a character to be PE or even NPE they need a solid degree of autonomy, being able of becoming evil out of their own will. Something that Rorke doesn't have, since he was turned to the Federation against his will.
And while not as severe as the previous two, he has also some degrees of respect towards his foes, such as Logan, wanting him to be on his side as he sees some solid potential towards him.
Verdict?[]
Easy Yes