Duga Ending Bell With Stockholm Syndrome? Of Course!

After finishing bo1, bo2 and bocw i have turned into the biggest Hudson apologist ever

I'm having so many brainworms right now so i'm forcing y'all to listen teehee

anyway, headcanon that Bell had the most gorgeous big brown eyes.

It was the first thing anyone ever noticed about them. Brown eyes are the most common color, but Bell wore them like they were a sacred gem. Deep, haunted, and achingly soulful. In the sterile glow of a safehouse in Berlin, the fluorescent lights bled across their eyes like distant dying stars, flickering in the hollow space of their gaze. Their eyes could be called fawn-like, or maybe a lamb. You’d never guess that they belonged to someone so horrifically scarred by the ugliness of the world.

How ironic that also like a lamb, tethered by a leash they couldn’t see, they trailed along so willingly to their slaughter--by the one man they trusted more than their own mind, no less. A beautifully blind devotion, don't you think? Right up to the barrel of the gun.

So I noticed something in Cold War. Hudson says "They act like they know who they're dealing with." This was in reference to Bell. The part that got me confused is we know because of Adler that Bell didn't crack under any forms of interrogation or torture... but what if he did? Hudson could feasibly be the only one to know information about Bell and could've gained it without Adler knowing. Hudson is known to not tell anyone anything unless it is important to the mission and even then, he might not. So Bell could've told him of their past, but not anything important to what Hudson needed to know. In interrogation, Bell probably tried to threaten Hudson, so Hudson knows what kind of person Bell is and a bit of their past.

However, there is something else that could connect the dots. Hudson could've known of Bell from the whole Operation Greenlight thing. We know Bell was Perseus' right hand, so they would have to be known to at least some portion of the CIA and we can tell Hudson has higher clearance than Adler.

Either Hudson knew of Bell from previous encounters, previous information, or from the interrogations he did on Bell.

I doubt they encountered each other before as Hudson doesn't work on the field much, but it's a slim chance.

Also that might explain why Hudson is nicer to Bell than I'd imagine him to be. Like c'mon he has to know some of Bell's personal life from before. Otherwise, why would he help teach Bell certain things about working for the CIA and doing certain mission types? Like obviously he knows Bell is gonna end up dead, but Hudson doesn't seem like the type to waste his breath on something like that. He sees Bell as a person more so than the other two people in charge of him, which makes him lovable to me.

You think with Adler being the fashionable type, do you think he make sure Bell is fashionable as well?

Lately I’ve been thinking about Bell’s personality before they were captured by the CIA. Knowing that they were in the inner circle of Perseus already lets us know that Bell was a rather ambitious person. Though, I feel like they indeed had to go through a dirty path to get so high in this hierarchy. You can’t reach the stars without suffering, right? So naturally, Bell must’ve had the charisma and will to go through things like the assassinations of his rivals and making themselves stand out from the rest of the people. After all, even in a circle of Perseus, there was no guarantee that Bell would easily stay in their spot all safe and sound (we can take the Trabzon Airfield situation as an example). This system of hierarchy setup was rather unforgiving for those who were lacking the will to take action or who weren’t careful enough. So, in short, Bell’s hands weren’t clean.

But even with all the killing they had done, both to his comrades and enemies, Bell had to trust somebody. We can’t say that Bell had serious trust issues beforehand, since they had to trust their comrades at least a little bit, since operating all alone was a death sentence. But I feel like Bell never really fully trusted anyone in the first place, except for Perseus and the closest operatives (but these relationships are different stories).

Another thing that I often wonder about is whether Bell was blinded by the ideology or not. As we know, Perseus did have his own idea of perfecting Motherland and his own hate towards the West. Though, did Bell have their own ideas, or were they simply following Perseus, convinced by his ideals and morals? I like to think that Bell was their own person with their own beliefs and ideas. After all, Bell being able to think for themselves would connect with the charisma they might’ve had. And I think Bell’s head was one of the reasons why they even got noticed by Perseus. I like to believe that their ideals never aligned so perfectly, but their small differences made their bond grow stronger. 

Sorry, I had to get this rambling out of my head

Thank god alex mason died before the matrix came out. He’d probably have a stroke.

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

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

I sincerely apologise 😢 (bonus points if Bell wasn't even Russian, just a individual of another nation who happened to be under Soviet rule and basically having to live with Soviet communist ideology and oppressed society, even though inside he knew that life could be better than government could offer, but he couldn't do anything about it, especially when he had a somewhat functioning family at home)

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

(Wrote this with male Bell in mind)

Also, imagine Bell being drafted into Soviet Army almost right after finishing school. Almost all his friends from school were drafted, so it was only natural for him be drafted as well. And it's only for a couple of years, nothing too bad, really. His father must've been proud of him for going to serve his Motherland and his mother...well, she was proud of him too, very proud, but also, she felt worried about him. Although, Bell turned out to be just fine somewhere far away from her. Bell wrote letters, mostly writing down his experiences and complaining about the living conditions a little bit once in a while. After all, mother's food has always been the best, no? Bell missed his mother. A lot. Bell missed his brother and his sister too. Bell even missed his father who used to be so strict with him. Though, eventually, Bell came home, so much to his relief. But, unfortunately, for a short while. Some higher-ups noticed his talents and they want him in the army. Nobody really said army, Bell simply assumed so. After all, where, or how, else he could serve his Motherland? Though, Bell didn't question such strange situation much. Important people reaching out to him already honored him immensely, so it was only natural for him to go work some more God knows where. He wanted to make his family proud, simple as that...

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