Is It Too Weird That I've Been Thinking About Something Similar? 😞

Alex Mason in Cuba (Call of Duty: Cold War 2020)

We know from Sims that everyone in the safehouse gets their paychecks through Adler. But does this include Bell? After all, Bell isn't really a team member, he just thinks he is. Was Bell collecting a real paycheck or were Park and Adler paying him in Monopoly money?

Did Park and Adler go up to their supervisors and be like "Yeah we need a bunch of money so we can pay a fake wage to our brainwashed Soviet operative so he doesn't suspect anything wrong" and the CIA just had to accept this? In the CIA's archives somewhere is there a budget allocation for the cost of paying Bell a pretend Salary? Did they collect all the money back after killing Bell?

If they gave Bell real money how freely was Bell able to spend it or did Adler say something like "I'm going to hold your paycheck for you Bell" and Bell just had to accept it because Adler is his friend and his boss and would never do him wrong? Was Bell paid the same amount as everyone else or was he given a pittance? Did Bell ever suspect anything was off? There are so many questions left unanswered here

They definitely needed to do that tbh. Like, seriously, you brainwash a damn soviet, make them work for you and in the very end you don't even show them what you were fighting for (aka American dream). ADLER WAS LACKING (and Park too, she could've gave Bell a tour in UK)

Park and Adler should have taken Bell to Disney world post game for a job well done but instead they shot him. This says a lot about America.

I'm sorry. I'll think about what I did 😔 (I'll think about how more angsty my interpretation of Bell could become)

I know that bell was pretty much destined to an early death but that won't stop me from talking about them like a wife who just lost her husband in the war

BELL + ADLER

these violent delights - micah nemerever / franz kafka’s letters to milena jesenska / frida kahlo / all i need - radiohead / the mark of athena - rick riordan / the lover as a cult - olivia gatwood

#I think it is completely safe to say that they MIGHT be fucking #but holy sh*t, what an analysis #I love your brain, OP

Frank Woods and Russell Adler

Long ass post of me talking about the relationship between these two

So I didn't really pay much heed to their relationship until now; it just felt like two characters that were given a few connections here and there to fit Adler into the Black Ops universe.

But the more I looked into them, I find a lot more going on between them—enough for me to believe that aside from Mason, Adler might be the closest person Woods has in his life.

So how did it start?

We learn that Woods knew Adler since Vietnam (presumably during MACV-SOG operations, which both Woods and Adler headed). Their relationship isn't exactly highlighted in Cold War, but there's a lot of subtle yet notable interactions between the two:

This little bit brings me so much joy

[Credit to @flyingraijinn]

In the first cinematic, where Russell gets questioned by the officials if his plan was necessary and he responds that they don't have to listen to him—guess who's the first to jump to his defense?

Though this one's subtle, I find it important. Adler keeps Bell within his or Park's sights almost at all times, but the one op where they can't, who does he trust to go with Bell?

Though I doubt Woods knew about Bell, I feel Adler trusted him enough to handle them should they go berserk.

Right after, when the jig is up about the greenlight nukes and Hudson spins the blame on Adler for not apprehending Perseus before, Woods doesn't even need to be told to square up and beat this bitch up a second time

❌️ Woods was stopped by Adler ✅️ Woods let Adler stop him

The last bit, even though it's not canon, I wanted to call attention to

[Skip to 2:46]

It's them! They fucking lied to us! That true, Bell?

Though Adler was already suspicious, its Frank's words that prompted him to finally question them. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but it seems like it was Woods that made Adler pause and question if, just maybe, he'd failed.

You wanna load up the body? Fuck if I care. Leave it for Perseus to find.

Even after the main game, when Adler is captured, of course he's the first to go look for him

And the one to find him

Even in the field when Adler's on an op, he's in the background keeping an eye on him

And goes back to Hudson to report on him when he goes dark

Now, onto BO6, where their relationship is pulled into focus:

First, we have the starting piece that sets BO6 in motion

Woods doesn't take shit talk pt.2

Yes indeed that is Frank Woods defending a wanted fugitive that is, as far as they're concerned, responsible for his state, even as pos Livingstone is actively grilling them.

Then this <3

If I'm not wrong, this is the first time we see Adler genuinely not be an asshole

And then the second time

The fact that he'd let Woods despise him just to keep him safe is 🥹

And a third time, when he rushes to his aid despite the burning house around him

Now, how is this possible? Why are they so close? In fact, you'd think Woods would hate Adler the same way he hates Hudson—the authority, the methodical nature, the secrecy—you'd think it was a no brainer. And so did I, for a long time.

So it surprised me when I heard Woods speak so highly of Adler, not even having the slightest of doubts against him:

[Skip to 1:40]

Adler? Turn against his brothers for cash? Are you kidding me? Those threads he loves, they ain't cheap now. Listen, I know he can be a goddamn psychopath, I get it. But he's on our side. He's just got his own way of doin' things.

And even when Harrow was interrogated and she told the truth about her parents, Woods vehemently refused to believe her. Even as far as questioning the victim's own memory and calling her parents traitors.

So why does he place this insane amount of trust in Adler?

Well, he gives us—Case—the answer.

I've known Adler since 'Nam. Give it twenty years, he'll grow on you.

Russell fought with him in Vietnam.

No shit, yeah. But remember how tight knit Woods was to his fellow soldiers. He even cried when the young recruit died in the first game.

So of course, fighting alongside Adler in a hellhole would've brought them closer together.

You keep believin' in the ones who got your back, go to battle for you. Adler was one of those.

Of course Adler had Woods' back; it's Vietnam, you're not surviving without having your team's back. It's not a stretch to say they went through life and death moments that they survived solely because of each other.

But another large part of why I believe Woods respects Adler is because he's, surprisingly, a lot more similar to Woods than meets the eye.

Think back to Break on Through. All the memories that Adler has Bell relive. His memories. Who else but him could describe such scenes in detail? He was the one that survived the helicopter crashing into the trees. He was the one that treaded through trenches in the night dodging a field of VC. He was the one that took out practically invisible snipers gunning for him from the trees. He was the one that cleared a village of the convoy and defended American troops under fire. He's the soldier that survived all that.

He's a killer; a monster, make no mistake. A monster that wasn't always assigned behind a desk holding the title of an officer—hidden behind a mask of nonchalance and charm. And Woods knows that monster. Woods respects that monster.

Adler's persona is ultimately an act. He appears uncaring and practical, but his true nature always slips through. He doesn't get along with Hudson, nor with Park's pragmatic nature. He makes split second decisions not on logic, but his instincts—hell, sometimes even his wishes. He gets vicious, loses his cool, and is unrelenting in his goals, refusing to be deemed some washed up old man. That's the true Adler peeking through—forever embedded yet somehow hidden in the lines stretching across his face, only ever showing its ugly head when he's pushed to the limit.

Who else would know it better than Woods, from a place where you survive by being nothing but vicious?

As for Adler, he too tells Case why he holds Woods close when he seems to do so for very few:

He's loyal.

Russell values loyalty: when he leads people into the eye of the storm, he needs loyal men following him without question. It's why he gave Belikov no choice but to get him the keycard, expected Sims and Park to fall in line and help his ass, made sure Bell obeyed him like a dog; it's why he even orders Case around like one (more on that later). He's a natural born leader that needs people with him and all the decisions he makes, questionable as they are.

And when he's taken to playing the villain with such commitment, to still have a friend that believes in him and his choices—a close comrade he's known from his oldest and darkest days on the job? He'll allow him into his heart, if even just a little.

That or theyre fucking idk

Am I the only one who thinks about how impersonal Bell’s death was?

Like, from their perspective, the man who’d been their best friend for decades, fought alongside them, betrayed them. Even if they had some time to process it between the interrogation and Solovetsky, it had to have hurt.

Especially because he didn’t even give them the decency of an intimate death. That was phrased weird but let me cook.

It was just a bullet wound. He didn’t even give them an emotionally charged death. Not even point-blank. Adler was standing few feet away from him. I feel like they would’ve been more content if they’d been, say, stabbed or strangled. Because at least then they’d know Adler felt something towards them. But Adler didn’t do that. He downed them like he would’ve any other target. Quick. Disinterested.

Even after giving up everything, he still took more. He put them down, just like what he thought they were. A dog.

Recently I watched the gameplay of BO6 and I find the (campaign) story to be very interesting. And I genuinely became fond of Felix's character (I have a tendency to basically fall in love with pacifists, I guess I just love this character trope that much). So, I got this idea that has been in my mind for few days now about Felix being a parent.

‼️Warnings: none I guess, just grammar mistakes (probably).

As we all know, Felix is shown as very peaceful character in the game. He's technical genius, very smart, very knowledgable. He's also friendly and mild-mannered, totally standing out from the rest of the "The Rook" group. Though his deeds aren't all that nice, since he himself admitted that he's done things he's not proud of (aka being associated with Stasi). And throughout the campaign he expressed his regret for the killings and murders he commited. But I still dare to say that the idea of him being fairly good father is self-explanatory.

I have this idea that he would be such a good girl dad. Just imagine, after moving to West Germany and living there for a while and working for some good cash, eventually he starts wondering what else he could do. Don't get it wrong, he likes the way of his new life - having a passion for innovations and doing what he likes (programming, cracking codes, etc). Though, he still feels as if his life is lacking something. And that 'something' turns out to be random orphan girl running around the streets without any care in the world.

I'm not exactly sure how these two individuals would've meet nor how these orphanage-systems had been working at the time (I need time to brew something up and also do a research) but I just know that eventually Felix would take this kid in. And I know that he wouldn't really regret that. He's living his new, peaceful life with a purpose of not spreading any more violence and naturally, he can teach another young lost soul this way of living.

The girl herself doesn't really feel lost, at least at first. Though, only later she realises that her life has been lacking a lot. Mouth-watering food, warm tidy bed, a room just for her. Her life lacked safe space to return to after wandering the streets for hours with people she used to call her brothers and sisters (though these peer groups were such a terrible influence on her), a place that she could call home. And in so-called home someone is always waiting for her to return. The someone who eventually starts calling her 'daughter' and the someone she grows to call her 'papa'.

So yeah, I believe that after such interesting experience of adoption, both of them would add more meaning to their lifes. Felix would have someone to tale care of, to teach and generally just be a good person to them, this way lifting up some guilt off his shoulders. And the said girl would find home and eventually would learn that the world isn't only poor streets, dark alleys and bad companies.

I guess in the future I'll write more to this idea (because I'm obsessed, at least right now). Though, someone else's writing on this would be very much appreciated as well <33

At first playing the new black ops I thought it was kind of out of character the way adler was behaving. He has been quite goofy and light hearted and then I realised it actually makes perfect sense. Nearly every interaction adler had in Cold War was through bells eyes. To adler, bell is the enemy. Of course he was naturally serious and kind of blunt with bell, he knows what bell is, and he doesn’t like them. But in black ops 6, adler is surrounded by those he considers allies. It kind of hurt tbh because it just makes the ‘betrayal’ of Cold War hit so much harder. Bell never saw the true adler because they were an outsider. They didn’t know that of course, but adler did which is why he kept his distance emotionally 🤧

I like to think that in some weird, fucked up way, adler did start to like bell and develop a soft spot for them, but he remained wary, and life just worked against them