Time to let him go...
Sup everyone, and welcome to my second removal for this wiki. I don't do removals very often, but today I needed to talk about a candidate that doesn't really fit this wiki at all, and I had already my doubts even prior talking about him on Discord. Let us begin, shall we?
(Got the permission from Ruby, as always)
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.
Why Doesn't He Count?
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.
The thing that I have an issue with is his past: as said earlier, Rorke used to be a genuine hero around a decade ago, with the only reason he turned evil being the fact that he was kidnapped and then tortured by the Federation. Besides the fact that this basically means that he didn't turned to villainy out of his own will, I don't think that torture is the type of backstory that you would give to someone who is "Pure Evil' or anything close to that. Mind you, the torture is described in detail as something that actively broke his mind and soul, and that is clearly not meant to be a pretty thing. Maybe if the torture wasn't present there and he turned evil simply out of revenge I could see him remaining here. But this isn't the case. It's clear that for a villain to be PE/NPE, they need to have a pretty clear moral agency at the very least. And considering how Rorke was literally mentioned to have been brainwashed against his will, that makes him moral agency very questionable at best, in top of making him too tragic. And I don't think that "he goes after people that are unrelated to his tragedy" or "he still displays a vengeful and ruthless personality like before" is going to cut it. Torture isn't exactly something one recovers from easily. That's just plain common sense.
There's also his small degree of respect towards his enemies, which is not a severe prevention like the former two but that I wanted to mention anyway. At one point, he genuinely wishes good luck to the Ghosts in Las Vegas, and also wanted Logan to be at his side, seeing his potential and his strength.
Verdict?
Cut him, shot him, drown him... Anything to make sure that he doesn't survive like he did before.