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The Modern Warfare 2 campaign is getting a lot of positive reviews, but now I’m thinking it’s just because of Ghost.
A lot of gamers have emotional memories of Simon “Ghost” Riley from the original Modern Warfare campaign. The dark troubled skull mask-wearing special forces operator was there for the campaign’s dramatic twists, turns, and betrayals — and even the most hardened of slur-slinging kids couldn’t help but shed a tear at Ghost’s death scene.
On top of that, Ghost was just cool. His cold demeaner and badass skull mask made him an edgy icon. So gamers were excited to see the return ofGhost in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s campaign. But the return of Ghost came with something that no millennial could predict: Ghost being hot.
The internet has been simping over Ghost since the campaign’s early release. On TikTok, one edit of Ghost has been played over 7.5 million times (although let’s be real, a lot of those views are probably from the same people watching over and over again). The comments include things like this:
As you can imagine, this wasn’t a contained incident. The internet doesn’t really allow for that kind of thing. Instead of people being satisfied with one video, fans begged for more. Compilations and edits can be found all over the internet of Ghost saying this iconic line.
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But — and perhaps even more predictable — some gamers didn’t like this. They didn’t like this at all. OG Call of Duty bros didn’t take kindly to people simping over the iconic character, especially once they caught wind that people dared to think that Ghost was smirking. Gamer boys emphatically took to social media and forums to declare thatGhost doesnotsmile, and you’d know this if you played the original.
This, of course, inspired people to startmeme-ing the f out of Ghost. TikToks began popping up of women flirtatiously smiling while repeating the “quite the opposite” line, even kicking their feet while laying in bed. Comments have begged this to become cannon and online artists decided to make it so.
Now the internet is at war. OG Call of Duty fan boys don’t want to see one of their favorite video game characters from childhood being sluttified and objectified. They don’t even want him to smile. But there is a growing mass of gamers that want to see Ghost do more than smile, if you catch my drift. So the fan edits and drawings keep rolling in.
