Been away for awhile, haven't proposed any new candidates since January earlier this year, but I've got some new candidates today. As of me making this there are currently five active proposals, and (blog posts total, so no jumping ahead me that I have to worry about at the last second like last time), this is my twelfth proposal overall, and on a relatively exciting note, also my very first dual proposal on this wiki, and since I haven't been on here, (much less proposed any candidates) for a bit, I thought I should settle for these guys, fairly straight forward candidates from a fairly straight forward game, which I can appreciate every now and then, though I do still want to propose more exciting candidates as well, there are a few I have my eyes on, I just need to see the works they are from first. Also my two rejected proposals have been the fourth and eighth, so I hope that this doesn't become a pattern to have every fourth proposal I make get rejected. That said, its also nice to propose candidates from a video game once again, the last time I did a video game character was in March of last year, my last 9 have all been from movies (though one of them was a television film).
What is the work?[]
Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 is the second game in the CI FPS series Sniper Ghost Warrior (well technically the third, since there was Sniper: Art of Victory in 2008, but that game is pretty far off and not all that good). The games are generally okay but not necessarily fantastic or memorable, and the games don't seem to be very well known on this wiki given that there are no villains from the games on here yet (I created the page for one of them years ago, but it got deleted because I guess it wasn't well made enough).
Who are Merinov and Carl Maddox? What have they Done?[]
Merinov and Carl Maddox are the games big bad duumvirate, they are a duo of arms dealers, with the former being ex-Serbian Military, while the latter was a US sniper-spotter and formerly protagonist Cole Anderson's partner and ally. Anderson and Maddox are sent to Sarajevo, Bosnia to obtain evidence of a genocide in Yugoslavia so that they can bring down genocidal warlord Marko Vladic, and they meet up with Maddox's informant, Merinov. After they kill their way through the Serbian forces, and get photographs, they manage to convince Anderson to kill Vladic now to make him pay for his war crimes, Anderson, seeing that Maddox recklessly refuses to give up, reluctantly agrees. After they kill Vladic (and several of his soldiers of course), they meet up with Merinov, who treacherously shows his true colours by putting on a red armband, revealing himself to be one of them, and the Serbs abduct Anderson and Maddox, while the former is tortured by the Serbs. It becomes apparent that Merinov has taken command of the Serbs, he orders them to spread mortar fire all over the buildings in the city regardless of who gets caught in the crossfire, and wants to frame the US government for the genocide, and they obviously can't allow this, so Cole has to stop him, and he... Also discovers that Maddox is a traitor too, He and Merinov were working together to kill and usurp Vladic for access to his weapons so that they can sell them on the black market, Anderson seemingly kills Maddox.
Merinov resurfaces 20 years later, which Anderson discovers, and vows revenge on Merinov for his betrayal, but Diaz, his partner, tells him to cool his jets and wait. A recon team is ambushed and almost wiped out by Merinov's allies, which includes a sniper, and Merinov hands the surviving captives over to the terrorist Kalalo, who personally executes one of them, and plans to kill Diaz, but thankfully our hero Cole stops and kills Kalalo, saving Diaz's life in the process, but Anderson is jailed for disobeying orders, and has a flashback to his aforementioned time in Sarajevo. Diaz is able to get Anderson released, much to General Wheeler's dismay, and the two are able to track down Merinov, and discover that he has plans to sell a high profile weapon to the terrorist Abdel Ahmed Hassan, who plans to use it to start a war between India and Pakistan by detonating said weapon at the border of the two nations, while Merinov also plans to sell weapons to both sides of the conflict. They also see that Maddox is still alive, and is Merinov's sniper. They attempt to kill Anderson via helicopter, but Anderson is able to snipe and kill Merinov with a headshot, which causes the helicopter to crash.
But Maddox survives the crash, and, in addition to wanting to make money off the damage he plans to cause, also wants revenge on Anderson for shooting him all those years ago, so badly does want revenge, that he even snipes one of his own soldiers just because he wants to kill Anderson personally, which proved to be a huge mistake, as it allowed Anderson get his way around Maddox, and after the two have a shootout, Anderson is able to kill Maddox and ultimately win.
Redeeming Qualities?[]
Nah they're not exactly complex or layered characters, they're just arms dealers who want to sell weapons and get rich, (though Maddox also wants revenge on Cole for shooting him, but it's not portrayed as sympathetic since Maddox betrayed him first, and even then, still plans on causing huge kill counts out of greed). Their partnership is a villainous partnership only, when Merinov is killed, Maddox is more concerned about the fact that the helicopter is about to crash and that he could potentially die in it than he is about the fact that his partner is dead. While Maddox does act all emotional and sentimental while in Sarajevo, and uses rhetoric about justice and vengeance to kill Vladic and his soldiers, but it's just an act, in reality he wants Vladic out of the way as soon as possible so that they can have access to his weapons, that and he does claim that people like them are expendable as an excuse, and how what he does is the best way to survive in the business, but it's never played as a sympathetic reason for his actions. Merinov does mention at one point that he has a cousin who lives in New York City but who knows if he cares about said cousin not, the only time Merinov mentions a cousin is while he is still ostensibly an ally to Cole, so for that matter who knows if he is even telling the truth or not.
Heinous Standard[]
General Standard[]
They easily pass here, they have a massive kill count (both successful and attempted) which they accumulated through complicity in a genocide, killing several Serbian soldiers and a dictator (who had it coming to be fair, but kills are kills, especially for Merinov since they are supposed to be his own comrades), having the city of Sarajevo firebombed with mortar fire, selling weapons to terrorists all over the globe, wiping out a US recon time before handing over the survivors to be killed, and currently having the end goal of selling a weapon to a terrorist who plans to start a war with it (which is bad enough on its own, but then add in the fact that they plan sell weapons to both sides of the conflict), and they caused Cole Anderson to be tortured while attempting to frame the US government for the genocide, and also Maddox kills one of his own subordinates just because he wants to kill Anderson himself.
In-Story Standard[]
They are the games primary antagonists and are the most heinous characters here. Marko Vladic may be a genocidal warlord, but they not only helped him carry out said genocide, but they also betrayed and killed him (and several of his soldiers too) and still carried out his mass killings even after his death in Sarajevo while attempting to frame the US government for their war crimes, and took his weapons to sell on the black market. All the modern day terrorists they ally with have their onscreen crimes committed with their help, Kalalo kills a US soldier they gave to him, and Hassan planned to start a war with a weapon that they wanted to sell to him. As far as the whole series goes? Well, General Vasquez is the first games big bad, I'll have to think about if he counts or not, but he enslaves his island country in the first game, has villagers rounded up and occasionally killed, and plans to mine a dangerous substance to apparently sell, but he is a dictator whereas these guys are just arms dealers, and these guys have a higher confirmed kill count and more dangerous endgame then Vasquez. I'll admit I'm not very far in the sequels, so I don't know exactly how much higher the heinous standard gets there, apparently the third game has a mad scientist who experiments on people, and maybe I will propose him once I get around to beating the game, but I think these guys should still pass enough for their kill count and ultimate goal. Also they are the most personal enemies of the protagonist, so that should also help their case at least somewhat.
System Standard[]
Not much to say here except what was already said up above.
Final Verdict[]
Should be a pretty simple yes to my first double proposal.