User:404Violet/sandbox

Lieutenant Simon Riley, codenamed Ghost, is a fictional character in Call of Duty, featured in the Modern Warfare story arc. He first appears as a non-playable deuteragonist in the 2009 video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where he is a part of the fictional Task Force 141. Ghost quickly became a favorite among fans and remains one of the most popular Call of Duty characters of all time. The reboot version of Ghost was briefly mentioned in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and is a pivotal character in the battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone, where he is featured as a playable character.

Modern Warfare (original trilogy)
In a comic series prior to the events of Modern Warfare 2, Simon Riley had a traumatic childhood growing up with his abusive father. After 9/11, Simon joined the Special Air Service. When he returned home one day, he found his family in shambles. His mother had been constantly getting cheated on and his brother had a drug addiction. Simon vowed to never return until he solved their issues.

After fixing his family's predicament, Simon was recruited to join a task force to hunt down Manuel Roba, a drug lord working with anti-western terrorists. However, the team is compromised by their leader, Major Vernon, who betrays them to Roba and leaves him and his two teammates Kevin Sparks and Marcus Washington to be brainwashed. The two escape, however Simon was left to be buried alive for resisting the brainwashing. Only through digging his way out with the now-deceased Vernon's jaw did Simon manage to escape, though he was not allowed back into the military due to the mental damage he had sustained.

While spending time with his family on Christmas, Simon reunites with Sparks. At a bar, Riley realizes that Sparks succumbed to the brainwashing and intervenes when he attempts to rape a woman. After a brief fight with Sparks and Washington, where Simon manages to escape, he runs home only to find out that his entire family had been murdered by Washington.

Simon promptly kills Sparks and Washington in revenge for their deaths, then turns his attention to Roba, whose compound breaks into. After killing Roba and burning the mansion, Simon is approached by General Shepherd who recruits him into Task Force 141 under the codename "Ghost".

In Modern Warfare 2, Ghost joins Soap MacTavish and Gary "Roach" Sanderson in Rio de Janeiro to locate Alejandro Rojas, an arms dealer who sold weapons to the attackers led by Vladimir Makarov at the Zakhaev International Airport. After capturing Rojas' assistant, Ghost begins the process of interrogating him through torture. When Rojas is captured and interrogated, the team barely manages to escape, though Rojas reveals that the only man Makarov hated more than America was locked up in a gulag. Task Force 141 infiltrates an oil rig surrounding the gulag and deactivating the SAM sites on it, before attacking the gulag. The prisoner is later revealed to be none other than Captain Price.

Price takes charge of the task force and orders an attack on a Russian submarine base. However, Ghost is shocked to find out that Price's plan is to launch an ICBM into Washington D.C., and begins to panic.

Using resources from his blank check, Shepherd deduces that Makarov may be hidden in one of two locations; a safehouse and an airplane boneyard. Ghost volunteers to go to the safehouse with Roach, and the two discover a load of intel. The team struggle to make their way back to the extraction point with the intel on-hand, with all of their support being killed. Upon return, Shepherd personally tends to the both of them, commenting on cutting "loose ends" before shooting Roach. Ghost attempts to shoot back at Shepherd in horror, but Shepherd immediately turns his revolver on him and shoots Ghost in the chest, killing him instantly. The bodies of both men are then thrown into a ditch, where their bodies are burnt, while Price tries to warn Ghost about Shepherd's betrayal in vain.

Modern Warfare (2019 reboot)
Following the death of General Roman Barkov, Captain John Price meets up with Kate Laswell to discuss the formation of Task Force 141, in preparation against the Russian terrorist Victor Zakhaev. Price receives the dossiers of several potential recruits from Laswell, among which Simon Riley was named. Laswell briefly comments on Riley having no picture, to which Price simply replies "Never." In March 2020, Ghost arrives in Verdansk only to discover the alliance against al-Qatala has fallen and that operators were now fighting amongst each other.

Ghost was initially voiced by Jeff Leach in Modern Warfare and Warzone. However, following a controversy involving Leach's reportedly sexist comments, he was fired and replaced by Samuel Roukin for Modern Warfare II.

Other appearances
Ghost appears in Call of Duty: Mobile as a main character in the comic storyline.

Reception
Despite the character's brief and (initially) only appearance in Modern Warfare 2, Ghost's skull balaclava made him easily recognizable among the Call of Duty fanbase and is now considered one of the most popular characters in the franchise. The character's death in the mission "Loose Ends" is also seen as one of the most shocking moments in the franchise and video game history.