#n!ghost

Classic vs. Reboot: o! = Original, n! = Reboot

o!Soap is the higher ranker between him and Ghost, while the roles are reversed between n!Ghost and n!Soap

Roach doesn't exist in the second timeline

o!Gaz has no full name listed, and is noticeably white. n!Gaz is known as Kyle Garrick, and is black

o!Price has a more posher accent compared to n!Price. In fact about everyone has different accents, Ghost having the strongest difference in my opinion

o!Price is mentored on how to shoot a sniper well in ghillie suits by MacMillan. n!Price mentors n!Gaz on the exact same thing also in ghillie suits

n!Soap is shorter than o!Soap. n!Ghost is taller than o!Ghost.

o!Ghost is more extroverted, friendly, and dependent. n!Ghost makes notably darker jokes, is more introverted, less friendly, and starkly independent

o!Ghost has black hair and green eyes, while n!Ghost has brown hair and brown eyes

So far.... Gaz, Soap, Griggs, and Ghost are all dead in the original timeline.

During Shepherd's betrayal Shepherd does the dirty work himself, and successfully kills Ghost, alongside Roach. Graves does the dirty work in Timeline 2, and fails to kill Ghost

Alejandro Vargas and Philip Graves have similarly named characters in the 1st Timeline, but the relations between them is thin to nothing. Alejandro Vargas, the cartel fighting member of Los Vaqueros has Alejandro Rojas, a cartel enemy to Soap's team. Philip Graves has Darren "Graves" Cosgrave, o!Price's North Irish ally.

Shepherd loses his iconic red beret and mustache in the 2nd timeline (and his hair in general)

n!MacMillan is implied to be dead, having gone a failed assassination mission against Zahkaev with n!Price. Although o!MacMillan fails to assassinate Zahkaev with Price, he does tear his arm off, and survive to tell the tale. IN fact o!MacMillan never dies

n! Griggs takes more a backseat in involvment compared to o! Griggs. n!Griggs Also has a full name, Marcus Griggs.

Although n!Ghost (Reboot Ghost) doesn't have an outright explanation, there are many shown reasonings. o!Ghost (Classic) definitely does come out and say so, in the Call of Duty Comic Series released before Modern Warfare 2.

o!Ghost

Ghost, a.k.a Simon Riley, grew up in an incredibly abusive household, under the boot of his father. To get away he joined the SAS, where is talent in brutal efficiency marked him as a super soldier. (Reasoning 1)

As an SAS soldier he was sent to track down Manuel Roba, a drug cartel leader. Things didn't go well. He would be captured by Roba, tortured, and left for dead.

Upon escaping his death Roba decided to get back at Ghost by killing the family members Ghost did have left, being his mother, brother, and nephew, all whom he did like. It was his identity that lead his family to become such a target in the first place, and he was obviously already growing ashamed of it. (Reasoning 2)

Roba sent a fellow SAS soldier to do the dirty work, which wouldn't be the first or last time SAS soldiers would betray him (Reasoning 3)

Their deaths were committed in a way to frame Ghost. Enraged he tracked down the man who did it, and swapped dog tags after killing him, and burning down the place. Meaning Simon Riley in the system in dead, and he simply views himself as a Ghost to that person. (Reasoning 4)

(He also murdered his father)

Ghost promptly does a lot of covert, dangerous, and morally questionable work. That alone is also a good reason why to keep an identity hidden.

n!Ghost

Although this Ghost's backstory is never really given, we are still shared a lot of potential reasons his character would prefer to remain unidentifiable.

There are also a few references in the Modern Warfare 2 (2022) campaign that references the comic, so perhaps the backstories are shared anyway, but it's not confirmed.

Ghost is a lone worker, even more so in the Reboot Universe. He specializes in clandestine, highly classified missions. As part of the SAS he is one of the few detailed taking missions solo, with zero back-up. He does a lot of dirty work similar to his alternate universe counterpart. (Reasoning 1)

Before joining taskforce 141, Ghost worked for a group known as Armistice. Armistice would fall, with members of the force betraying each other, several splitting off to work for Zakhaev. This included soldiers viewed to be Ghost's level, and wouldn't be his first or last betrayals. (Reasoning 2)

Ghost is shown working with several types of organizations not tied to the SAS, so he is likely even his own entity when it comes to things.

My thoughts?