Just realized I need another introduction post because I never made a proper intro to who I am in my first one, so here goes nothing.
About Me
Hi, I'm Felsecyan or Cyan (pronounced as Kyan). I am also known as Silent Interloper on other platforms, so you are free to call me Silent or Loper if you'd like.
I go by any pronouns. I go by she/her, mainly, but I have zero issues with people calling me he/they.
I'm an American, but I'm also a second-generation immigrant. I was born and raised in Colorado. I have ADHD.
I am attempting to be a writer and an artist. I write fan fiction and make sketches and landscape pictures.
I'm a pretty ranty person. I post a lot of rants sometimes. You can see this in #Kyan Yaps.
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Other Sideblogs:
@the-cult-of-delta (I reblog art, posts I like, and I talk about other fanfictions here)
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Navigation
#kyan speaks is for when I'm talking or making a non-rant post
#kyan yaps is for my rant posts
#felsecritical is for my thought-out critical posts. Separate from Kyan Yaps because I'm actually making an argument and critique, rather than just spitting out whatever is bothering me into a post.
#kyan answers is for when I answer a message in my inbox
#kyan's au is for anything related to an au I made for any fandom
AU Masterpost
#kyan's headcanons is for anything related to my headcanons I made for any fandom
#purging brainworms is for my random posts about AU ideas that I have that have little to no bearing on what I'm currently focused on
#my art is for the artwork that I make.
#kyan's builds are for my Minecraft builds
#Kyan's Survival Minecraft Builds and #Kyan's Creative Minecraft Builds are for my creative and survival Minecraft Builds respectively.
#Kyan's playlist is for when I discuss music I listen to
#kyan's blog pillars has my rules for interacting with this blog
---#anon rules and #ask rules are also tags for seeing the rules for this blog
#admin voice has announcements important specifically to this blog
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Other sites that I'm on:
Ao3
Bluesky
Fandoms I post for:
#wings of fire
#call of duty (both Black Ops and Modern Warfare)
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Feel free to reblog my posts. I'd really appreciate it if you did. I also appreciate likes and comments.
I'm also not very good at posting consistently or being active. So, expect periods of silence from me and then sudden bursts of activity over a week or one day.
Currently, my inbox is open. Anonymous messaging is turned off for now.
Feel free to send me your thoughts or ideas, I'd love to hear them (keep them non-sexual, please.)
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Below are screenshots from Tennelle's discord server
And last but not least. Here's Aerielart's tweet about Sagutoyas
I mean it. You people are pathetic leeches. You people want a piece of the pie because Sagutoyas used be very popular, and she's quite talented.
There is no other place where it's easier to be a freak in than the art space because people will go to bat for you when you show talent and success.
"This isn't good for my mental health :(" you know what isn't good for your mental health Snap and Tennelle? Being fucking groomed by someone 4-5 years your senior as a high schooler. This is nothing but a self-centered attempt at getting more notoriety because the warrior cats community doesn't want anything to do with any of you anymore, and all your online worth was tied to that space. Sorry not sorry.
Cry me a river and dunk your head in it, maybe that'll wash off your stupid crocodile tears. Wah wah stop fucking crying bitch.
Here are the documents with the evidence of all this attached.
Warning: This is a callout post for the user Sagutoyas, famously known for their animations on Youtube. I want to warn those for mentions no
UPDATE: it appears I have gotten some timelines wrong. I want to mention the groupchat was largely when I was 15 going on 16. OP joined the
Please read these, this is all proof from Glitch (aka Sol) that Sagutoyas is a predator. She should not have access to a community filled with children. She changed her youtube profile picture recently which implies she still wants to return to the animation space. Don't fucking let her.
Late addition but I don't really care. A large part of my anger and disgust comes from these fuckwits deciding that GlitchedSol's feelings on this do not matter.
Who the fuck are you people to decide whether or not something serious had an impact on somebody?
I see you over there whining about "internet hate culture :(" Avalon Rose. Avalon "Sagutoyas was walking around on eggshells" Rose.
Take notes on this situation and understand that these mindsets are exactly the kind of shit Predators exploit to get away with heinous behavior with a capital H.
"There was no proof", you literally have a document with nothing but screenshots, and testimony, from the victim showing that Sagutoyas did in fact prey on him and multiple other minors as young as eleven. The real final nail in the coffin was Sagutoyas ADMITTING that this happened as GlitchedSol described it.
GlitchedSol dropped out of art school because of this. He was assaulted by his father because of this.
You don't get to cry about "oh the internet is so mean :C you folks are evil when you think it's justified" when YOU ARE NOT THE VICTIMS HERE. You inserted yourselves into a situation that you were unneeded in because you wanted an animator for the stupid magic cat story so bad.
You fucktards were the first people to roll out the welcome mat for Sagutoyas, so I hope that fact is used against you for a very, very, long time.
As for GlitchedSol, I genuinely only hope for the best for this guy because he deserves better than this and he should live a happy life.
EDIT: He doesn't go by this username anymore and I don't think I want to share what the new one is because he deserves to move forward from this. He's not just "Sagutoyas' Victim", he's a person with a life and goals and feelings. So I'm not going to share. He doesn't deserve to be constantly looked over with the lens of being Sagutoyas' victim.
Nightwings can both choose their names and have others choose for them. That's how you get names like "Foeslayer" or "Quickdeath"; names that are meant to signify their job and how good they are at it.
But names that are meant to state something about personality are often given by their peers or family. Usually for it to be their true name, the dragon has to accept it. In all cases, if they reject it, then it isn't their name plain and simple.
Nightwings can also reject their current one and choose a new one if they believe it does not suit them.
This culture of naming will also be applied to nightwing hybrids and even non-Nightwing dragons if it is desired.
But there is a barb to this name culture. There is such a thing as names of shame. These are typically given to those who have committed crimes against society. They are cruel and have words meant to describe poor character (like Heartless, Cowardly, or Hateful). Of course an offending dragon doesn't have to accept a name of shame as theirs, but that doesn't mean a Nightwing won't call them by that name because, in this case, their right to choose what their community calls them is being taken away as punishment.
This is a rare occasion, but still happens enough to be notable.
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the concept of artyom being an artist, drawing the faces of the people he loves most but whenever he picks the pencil and tries to draw his mother, nothing comes out. oh. the canvas stares back at him, an empty mirror. oh my heart. ough
After the shitshow that was Black Ops 7, and the train wreck of Modern Warfare 3, I don't think I could possibly bring myself to care for any new CoD game that comes out.
I do not care for Modern Warfare 4.
Genuinely. Mark my words there's gonna be no improvement in anything from the previous entries, and the writing will either be mid or complete ass.
I don't think a company that routinely abuses its workers and engages in anti-consumer practices deserves any kind of support. You're gonna get shit games from shitty work practices. Stop supporting this bullshit.
Y'know what. After all this sperging, I think I gotta give an actual life update.
Well, things were nice and then they got hard again. Honestly, I'm not even mad about it, it's just part of the game. And all I gotta do is keep pushing and keep managing. One day, I'll have my peace.
I'll see a couple of weeks from now if my efforts are paying off and my A1C is normal again (if it isn't I need to talk to a nutritionist after I get tested to see if I have a hormone problem). I think my mental health is still better than it was before now that I'm exercising regularly in a more balanced manner. It's not perfect, friends know what's up. But I'm living. That's awesome.
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I'm sorry for my fell for it again award spamming, I just can't get over how CoD keeps getting shit entry after shit entry but all it takes is dangling some hype moments, stuff from the old MW games, and hot white guys to make y'all excited again.
After repeated demonstration that they don't know what they're doing anymore, you still fall for it when you see hype and yaoi. This shit is making me giggle so hard.
its funny, because its clear they tried to bring back some of the most iconic moments from the original, but completely missed what made those games good. also it seems impossible to bounce back from the hellscape that was modern warfare 3 (remake).
A really simple fix for the reason why dragons don't use their fire in every single fight in Wings of Fire can be the same reason why snakes don't use their venom all the time.
They have a limited amount of the liquid material that turns into fire in the "fire glands" and that's why they can't use it all the time. If they use it all they have to wait a day or two before it can return depending on their size.
This also applies to Icewings but they have a cold agent in their fluid that turns into frost crystals and mist.
Just had the thought today. To this day, I don't understand why Tui Sutherland took the approach she did with the defeat of Darkstalker. Why did he need to be unwillingly turned into a baby dragonet with no memories after we just established multiple times in the second arc that turning a dragon into an entirely different dragon they are not in every way (i.e Hailstorm and Ruby, formerly Tourmaline) is incredibly fucked up?
I guess all the themes of identity and how being forced to be something and someone you are not is horrible, doesn't really matter if you're a bad person.
There are two ways Darkstalker's villainy could be resolved: willingly turning into Peacemaker after coming to the realization that he has done truly horrific wrongs OR taking away his powers and shrinking him down to the size he was when he was 7 years old.
I think the latter would be pretty poetic. This giant tyrant dragon king gets stripped of his animus power and returned to the size he was before Clearsight put him to sleep; and now they can hold him accountable.
Was "enchant this strawberry to take away Darkstalker's powers and turn him back to the size he was before Clearsight put him to sleep" impossible? Why is it that only Kinkajou thought of this?
Did we need to go with the most fucked up ending possible that goes against every thing the second arc set up?
Did the Moonwatcher, Kinkajou, Qibli, Turtle, and Foeslayer need to pull what happened to Hailstorm, and basically make a permanent Pyrite mask spell?
At least they didn't turn Darkstalker into a literal fictional character like what Scarlet did to Hailstorm.
(FOR CONTEXT: The set personality traits and thought patterns for the Pyrite enchantment basically made whoever wore the "pyrite mask" necklace into a fictional character physically and mentally. The constant circular thoughts on repeat is evidence of this. She was basically only a fictional character with incredibly limited brain capacity like what a fictional character in a storybook would have. There are a million reasons why Hailstorm was fucking horrified when he was freed from the Pyrite enchantment.)
I thought the point of Scarlet being responsible for forcibly changing two characters into fake dragons was that it's evil to do that, but alright I guess. Never mind the fact they never told Winter because they knew he would object to that after being personally affected by what Scarlet did to his brother.
Oh and another thing, you can't play multiplayer matches on older cod games because guess what? If you join a hacked lobby, a malicious person can easily gain access to your computer and steal your personal information. No safeguards, no anti cheat, NOTHING.
Activision is a shit company. And I hate to say it, but I think CoD should get the old yeller treatment. You're paying almost a hundred dollars for games that are basically malware. WOW!!
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After the shitshow that was Black Ops 7, and the train wreck of Modern Warfare 3, I don't think I could possibly bring myself to care for any new CoD game that comes out.
I do not care for Modern Warfare 4.
Genuinely. Mark my words there's gonna be no improvement in anything from the previous entries, and the writing will either be mid or complete ass.
I don't think a company that routinely abuses its workers and engages in anti-consumer practices deserves any kind of support. You're gonna get shit games from shitty work practices. Stop supporting this bullshit.
I think people are missing out on how powerful Bell actually is. I know the most common fandom interpretation of Bell is as this pathetic weak, brainless dog, or whatever, but I think that ignores how much strength in both body and mind Bell actually has.
Imagine being so resilient against torture that the literal only way for people to break you is to use literal mind control and an identity replacement method. But. Not even that works.
The real Bell, under all that, in the subconscious, rebels and keeps fighting so they never get the biggest piece of information behind the red door. Even with MkUltra destroying their body, Bell still fights back; regardless of their understanding that that's what they're doing now.
And it's only when Bell gets a literal brain injection with painful chemicals, and almost dies, that they finally see the truth. All the power is placed into Bell's hands right there, this is literally a historical moment that Bell is responsible for.
It was a choice. Adler had no control over what Bell chose to do, and I think that is why they had to die. You can't fully control a fighter, you can only kill them. If they had perfect control over Bell right down to their identity and personality traits, they definitely would've kept Bell around because that's something that is nothing but useful even if Perseus might be gone. A soldier you have full control over and has very useful skills, AND they're very intelligent? Of course, they would keep Bell, despite all this tearing at their body. You think they care?
But. That doesn't seem to be the case. How curious. It's almost like Adler, Park, Sims, and Hudson never had full control over Bell at all, and that could've costed them their lives along with the rest of the world. Funny how that works, huh?
This does not determine if Bell is a good or bad person. While saving the world is an absolutely heroic thing that someone deserves their flowers for, Bell can still end up returning to being a terrorist or an international criminal if they want to. After all, you can't benefit from your criminal acts if there is no market for them because you killed your clientele.
That's why Bell has such a conflicting role in the series. For Bell to be a good person, they have to own whatever evil things they were an accessory to (because trust me, an organization like Perseus with members willing to torture people would certainly have evil things going on behind the scenes) and work against them to repair the damage as best they can.
Putting them through MkUltra was not holding them accountable or making them into a better person. No one was holding Bell accountable for any bad things they may have done, assisted in, or was silent about despite being a witness. Torture is not accountability.
I can't believe I have to say that, but unfortunately, "what Adler did was justified because Bell wasn't cooperating, and they were a terrorist" is an actual serious take I have seen (one that got a lot of support in that comment section mind you). I hate to be political right now but "Terrorists deserve to be tortured" is literally how we end up with torture camps that accomplish nothing but horrific human rights abuses. There is no scientific basis for torture accomplishing anything in the long term.
I want to be really clear when I say this, I do not support terrorism and the harm of innocent people. Intelligence work is absolutely necessary for these organizations to be stopped. In theory, we need organizations like the CIA and the FBI for the safety of the population. But I do not support torture. I will never support torture whether it be from the CIA or some other terrorist organization. I do not support literally kidnapping people and imprisoning them without trial because that's how we ended up with GuantĂĄnamo Bay. (Oh and I don't support my country purposefully getting dictators into power so that they can ruin their countries for generations to come, which then leads to lives being lost or ruined.)
Sorry for that diatribe. Just a reminder, Adler is not a good person there is canonical basis for this take, and he is not the hero in this situation. That honor goes to Bell, and in the next game, Case is the hero.
And again, if MkUltra forced Bell to be a good polite person for the CIA permanently, this would also be more evidence for the argument for Bell to not be killed at the end of the game? So, Bell being a good person is up in the air.
Yes! Iâm a bit surprised this was something that needed to be debated (from what it sounds like). But hereâs me adding some thoughts I had about your post.
When I was playing through, it honestly felt like a âlesser than two evilsâ but both evils just felt insanely terrible! Taking identity, dehumanizing, turning a fellow human (though Bell is a terrorist it doesnât justify Adlerâs actions) is just pure evil. Same with trying to âcleanseâ the world with nuclear weapons, to fit your ideology.
But before I get too off track, in the games Bellâs literally a code breaker. So the odds were stacked against them from the beginning. Having a deeply inquisitive mind combined with mental fortitude, makes Bellâs personality/brain patterns an issue from the start.
Plus not to mention, like you stated, there is no solid evidence that torture works to get accurate information. Of course Bell wasnât cooperating. How much of their mind and body had taken abuse?
Now, honestly, neither sides felt super justified to myself. I hate terrorism and I hate torture. They are sickening to me.
Adler never was a hero. Consistently not a hero.
Same with Parks.
Same with Hudson.
Same with Sims.
Bell isnât the most mortally sound person. Especially, because of the torture. That shatters someone in a way, thankfully and hopefully, many of us will never ever understand.
Anyways this is grim gun game. In my head, it brought up the issue of, âWhen does the cost of war stop being justifiedâ, âwhen is it no longer about the war of defeating the âenemyâ and more about causing painâ, âwhereâs the line?â.
Iâm not an expert in the field, I hope to never be. Just something gun game makes Chip think about.
My anti torture stance also comes from actual military personnel admitting that the torture wasn't really for any kind of benefit, it was for satisfaction. That's really all there is to "enhanced interrogation techniques" which is just euphemism for torture. The most successful interrogators are actually usually the ones who are the nicest to who they're interrogating.
Anyone who argues that Call of Duty needs torture to be serious, gritty, and "realistic" are people who don't know what they're talking about. I've seen the "Adler was justified because Bell wasn't cooperating" take from a call of duty youtube comment section. And normally, I'd ignore it because I know CoD's audience, but then I saw a similar take with the scenes of Hudson torturing someone.
And that made me think "huh, it appears as though this game is unironically teaching ignorant people that torture is fine when you want information", which, ignoring how you will never magically know if someone has information you need (again, this is another factor in how Guantanamo Bay happened because none of those people had trials or investigations launched to see if they were actually associated with terrorists or not), as I said there are not a lot of reasons to torture somebody besides wanting your own satisfaction.
Honestly, that's pretty in character for Adler if you ask me. When I think about BOCW's story, I just think about the fact this is really realistic in how the CIA agents and anyone adjacent to them can get away with abusing people with no consequence.
Okay, honestly, I think you guys missed the particular part for this discussion; which is the fact that this game is propaganda.
First of all get political babes because this game IS political.
Second of all, I wanna clarify I neither agree or disagree, I just think key fact is missing in this conversation about Bell's morality, Bell's choice and whether torture is useful tool or not in regards to this game and Call of Duty in its entirety.
Now, to propaganda. Brace yourself because lengthy rant about colonialism, terrorism etc etc. I'm no specialist keep in mind, buuuuut I have enough knowledge (that you are always free to correct).
Propaganda has some truths thrown in it* to make digesting an idea easier, but also "bad propaganda" has those truths manipulated for the advantage of bad propagandists. This game series is overtly racist, orientalist and imperialist. And unfortunately, it brings plenty of racists, orientalists and imperialists (in this fandom) as well who would find an excuse for torture of Bell. I will have to go on a bit of tangent to get my point across, because imo what I miss about this conversation is this tiny detail, aka CoD IS A PROPAGANDA !!!!! Symmetrical thinking is there to take away from this fact. It may not sound like I'm on topic, but IT IS VERY MUCH ON TOPIC.
*Adler is aware that nukes are fucked up however there is a "but", and the "but" is nukes as self-defense.
The framing of torture in CoD series is more in favour of our white USAmerican or Western men, CIA etc., justifying torture or doing "morally grey things" as means to the end (I'd say setting up charges across Europe which was done by USAmericans in the game is pretty fucking evil). That's why it might be confusing as to why this fandom lets it slide that torture is used on Bell, or that there even are the questions of whether Bell is good or bad as a person. Torture is also used to justify USAmerican interventionism, and how they achieve it, because "they gotta get their hands dirty to keep the world safe". Whereas the enemies (Easterners and Slavs) are shown to be always torturing senselessly, and a lot of the times I'm seeing that the enemy characters often kill the person they tortured. The enemies not only kill people when they're not useful anymore, but also kill for fun, which contrasts with how Western characters later are able to just "convince the characters to be on your side"*.
*like Bell, whom you can choose to have side with CIA. Also the fact that this is the canon ending says it all.
Moreover, I'd say that many of the goals they the "terrorists" have are pretty much samey as USAmerican. But USAmerican media utilises a certain tactic. What they do is just:
1. package it nicely.
2. they do not mention tactics used by USA or they minimalise them.
3. They fucking lie. This game lies about real life events, because they do refer to real life operations. I've done some analyses on that.
4. The framework Western goals are "noble" whereas Eastern goals are always to "oppress" or to "cause harm".
5. About ideology point, wasn't USA and CIA planting nukes to preserve their own ideology?
Torture doesn't work, but it doesn't matter here whether torture is bad or not. In CoD games what matters is WHO(!!!) does the torture, not whether torture is effective or whether it is bad. Because torture in CoD games has its framing; we watch our protagonists torture to get information, and that information is for them a key to defeat the "evil terrorists".
About CIA. CIA wasn't made to "keep the world safe" in any way. They collect intelligence from around the globe to maintain the NATIONAL security*. National, which maintains security of USA as a nation and the "democracy" foundations it is built upon. Bell isn't heroic for "saving the world" here. It's not heroic, whether Bell or Adler does this, because CIA set the bombs that Adler and the rest are trying to prevent from getting in hands of Soviet Union. Not for the sake of "saving the world", but damage control lmao.
Also the terrorist framing is pretty fucked up considering that they Perseus is not "just a terrorist organisation", they are a part of USSR government. Perseus' aim was to set USSR/Soviet** hegemony in the world. Not to just cause havoc for the sake of it. Therefore it isn't about preventing terrorist organizations from causing harm, it is to prevent the shift in global dominance. It's them doing damage control; in case it's Russia blowing up half of Europe. But if USA does it then it's fine, because they prevented Russia from blowing up Europe. Realistically USA and the West would have enough military power to defend themselves against Russia. We live in a cock measuring contest between two power hegemonies, and Black Ops aims towards justifying USA's own hegemony. The way we perceive any sides of this very much still existing conflict is through frameworks that enemy presents.
*because, for instance, CIA and FBI actively tried to tarnish Civil Rights Movement etc. and Civil Rights Movement was a threat to imperialist interests or USA. So the goal certainly is far from keeping the world safe.
**I'm Slavic, so mind you, I'm far from dickriding USSR.
*I'd also argue that safety and security are two different things.
ANOTHER THING, I really think people in this fandom SHOULD STOP referring to enemies in this game as "terrorists". I do not care if the game has terrorists as our enemies. I do not even care if they are actual terrorists in the game. I care that the game frames particular groups as "terrorists", completely skipping over the fact that there's a reason why said terrorists were created. I'm sorry to say, even if you're "aware" that the series is propaganda; if you call them terrorists, it means the propaganda works.
CIA is terrorist. USA is terrorist. West is terrorist. Putting in dictators or disturbing and destabilizing the country, supporting groups that will inevitably favour (in this case) USA (or West), INTERVENING INTO COUNTRY'S POLITICS - all of those ARE political violence, therefore TERRORIST.
Terrorism as a word existed long before 20th century. But we operate on the definition is based on the hegemony of the parts of the world that we align ourselves in. So if we're Western, we go for Western definition of terrorism. And I do not mean dictionary definition. I mean what groups come to your mind when you think terrorism. The definition that we know wasn't made to define ALL terrorists, but to target particular terrorists which threaten Western democracy (as the West is perceived as democratic*). It doesn't matter whether it was directly stated or not. People in Western world will have PARTICULAR GROUPS (Arabs, Africans, leftists etc.) in mind when they talk about terrorism, and it is ALWAYS defaulted to anti-West countries or groups. Example, Congo and people who wanted to free Congo from IMPERIALISM were referred to as terrorist (in the 60s and so on). Same thing applies to MANY MANY other countries which were colonized and then are perceived as enemy of the US (or the West).** Terrorism is just a blanket excuse to invade a country and to subjugate or exploit its people. USA did not invade Iran to defeat evil dictator, but to get sweet oil and to gain advantage. And may I add, Saddam Hussein for example USED TO BE convenient for USA, until he stopped being convenient. It was when Iraq invaded Iran in 80s or so, USA provided support for Iraq, because Iran was the enemy of the USA, that is if I understand correctly, so correct me if I'm wrong.
*very democratic if people barely got their rights just recently but ok./sarcasm.
**I am not here to discuss the state of those countries or the morality of the people in those countries. The state of those countries that are targeted by the USA is up to the people living in them to discuss. But oftentimes the situation is caused by colonialism. Western imperialism isn't the only type of imperialism, but in this case, I'm talking about the cases of Western imperialism. Another thing is the difference; USAmericans are scarcely defined by the atrocities that USA commits. People globally are somewhat aware that it wouldn't be every single USAmerican (or any Westerner) (although racism is at play too) and white USAmerican is more able to safely exist in the West (and hell, even countries outside the West). Meanwhile the second atrocities occur in, for instance, Arabic, African or Latin American countries; Arabic, African and Latino people are later defined by their places of birth and face discrimination in Western (and not only I'd say) countries. Either deemed backwards or violent. Or TERRORIST. Again, I'm not discussing morality of country whose politics I do not understand. But the framework we live in is clear; where Slavic and Eastern dictators are bad, Western dictators are necessary evil and "oh well let's keep economical and political contact with them either way". Hell, raise to fascism and dictatorship in my country was praised by right wingers and conservatists in the West, whereas Western liberals loved to imagine that "oh well, just vote. Situation will change. Or evil will be defeated and we will be the DEVELOPED AND PROGRESSIVE AND CIVILIZED west again. We did it Patrick, we defeated the fascism."
With that in mind it isn't about whether the player will wonder if Bell is or isn't a good person, or if Bell is a victim or active participant. The problem is Bell's choice; whether Bell will accept that CIA using torture and setting bombs across Europe as means of maintaining USA's hegemo- I mean, I mean, "world's" security. Or whether they will choose to side with the 'terrorist', therefore be a threat to "democracy"**. The game wants us to unconsciously default badness with Russia winning, while goodness is "well USA is maybe bad, but at the same time look at those EASTERNERS doing bad things". The game says both are bad, but Western bad is necessary evil. Eastern bad is "terrorist". These games do not care about making smart commentary, because we view the entire conflict through US perspective and in favour of US perspective. Moreover, the game is not smart in commentary, because let's be honest, they still default EASTERNERS and Slavs into bad guys. Call of Duty WANTS you to focus on someone else's dirt rather than your own.
**(the question is, democracy for whom? Because Cold War is set literally just about a few years after Civil Rights Act, but the activists against USA imperialism were still under threat and assassinated)
Hey so I completely agree with every single thing you just said here. Like, I don't really have much to say because you're completely correct.
But I think I need to clarify a lot of things because I may have failed to communicate them. I did call the CIA a terrorist organization because that's what it is. "I will never support torture whether it be from the CIA or some other terrorist organization." is from my add-on reblog. Another thing I said in that reblog was "Oh and I don't support my country purposefully getting dictators into power so that they can ruin their countries for generations to come, which then leads to lives being lost or ruined."
Yeah, I think it's perfectly A okay to call the CIA a terrorist organization, and I'd go as far as to compare the United States to Russia, a terrorist state. Propaganda filled Media like Call of Duty is dedicated mainly to hiding this simple, historically proven, fact with lies. The CIA is responsible for the current shitty state of a lot of countries including Iran. So, the idea that the United States is "defending the free world" is just stupidly wrong and a lie because if the US had never gotten involved, Iran would not have become the absolute nightmare authoritarian state it is today. Thousands of people who died in that country could've still been alive today, if it weren't for the CIA and the UK causing a coup for easier cheap oil.
All of my posts about Bell, and this one in particular were made with the fact that the entire CoD franchise is pro-CIA, pro-torture, pro western military intervention, pro western hegemony propaganda in mind. That's why I included the section about why torture is wrong in my add-on reblog because if you click on the embed text link, it'll take you to a Wikipedia article about the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA torturing people and its conclusions on the practice being ineffective.
You are right about Bell's morally grey position in the story being that way because they need plausible deniability for the Americans and other Western agents in the story. Cuz "the Americans kidnapped someone tortured them and then brainwashed them into forgetting who they were, and this person was not guilty of any kind of terrorism" would make the Department of Defense very angry because it sponsors all CoD games. [Whoops that was a little too close to what the US government does in real life!] You can actually see them pussy out of making the characters morally grey in Black Ops 6 because this is a propaganda game and if you are questioning it because of what it's in its own story, it has failed at its job. (As you said, adding in some truths is a strategy for propagandists and bad faith politicians because it makes accepting the lie easier.)
Call of Duty being a platform for some genuinely evil ideas is not lost on me. The entire section about torture is in response to a disturbing mindset CoD fans seem to have about it in these video games. And that mindset is that torture "needs" to be included in these games otherwise it's unrealistic and spineless, and of course the classic, in certain situations torture is okay. This mindset is a direct result of CoD's propaganda, and also other media like it that employs the same thing. Like. This is a clear peak into what uncritical consumption of not only CoD, but Western military media, can do to a person; which is what I was trying to criticize. Because again, as you said, it's not just "the bad guys" (aka US adversaries) who torture for the fun of it, it's also Americans and their allies; there is a lot of documentation proving this. Punitive Torture is not limited to Russians, Middle Easterners, Cartels, and what not-- that was what I was trying to say. All torture is punitive. And 9 times out of 10 US-led torture happens because of imperialist ideals that drive people to see Middle Easterners, Latin Americans, and many more people who are victims of the US as less than human to justify the act. (Also, it's usually racist.)
Just wanted to say all that. You are right, I'm not going to argue because I think those things too. It's just that I'm confused as to why you're saying we're not being political when we are, and I included actual political examples, and I did so in my add-on post as well?