rainbow six siege / extraction!

i've put in my fair share of hours in both siege and extraction (561 hours in siege, 40 hours in extraction). sadly, the games aren't currently my kind of thing (perhaps i'm just a bit too jumpy and easy to scare, which isn't very good for such gritty, dark, and realistic games as those with loud noises frequently) but i still have a lot of love for the characters. here's some resources from the reddit wiki!

one of my favorite characters from the siege lore is zofia bosak. she's an attacker armed with two stun grenades and two impact grenades for her gadget. i do have a lot of fun playing her in game, but that's not the entirety of why i love her. i think her lore is very compelling.

zofia was raised alongside her sister, ela, by her father, jan. jan was a former commander of the polish special forces unit grom. he heavily favored zofia, causing a rift between the sisters. zofia attended her father's military school with her sister, and had intense pressure to perform on every level, a pressure ela could not cope with. during a school trip, three of zofia's male classmates attempted to drown her in a lake she was playing in. this violent experience marked her with a deep mistrust of others. to cope with the anxiety regarding her assailants, zofia pushed her training to an extreme, to ensure she could rely on her skills for protection. her father obliged, showing her more ruthless techniques under the pretense that she'd never question his methods. the following morning, he let zofia to a shooting range with two stray dogs leashed to a target post. one of the dogs was sick. it was zofia's jon to end its suffering. he took his pocket watch out and gave her two minutes to make a decision. that pocket watch and his strict training would haunt her for years. and, while she wanted to rebel against him in some fleeting moments, she found comfort in his training's simple, black-and-white validation.

when zofia hit legal age, she enlisted in the army and passed GROM selection tests with the highest possible scores. she had many notable exploits, and had her ability to withstand hardships rewarded with a medal and promotion to second lieutenant. she also gained the respect of her commanding officers and peers. throughout her experiences, zofia forged a second family overseas. she learned to trust her squadmates with her life, reconsidering the cruel incident at the lake. far away from her father, she let her walls down, developing close ties for the first time. she met her husband during a rogue operation, where they mistook each other for hostiles. challeneged by her squadmates on the field, she discovered the true kind of specialist she wanted to become. at the peak of her career, she flew back to poland for her wedding ceremony. while zofia wanted a private celebration, her father made it into a celebration, reuniting a clique of politicians who took power after the assassination of poland's president. zofia was shocked to see two former suspects among the crowd, both warmly embraced by her father. while investigating her discovery, zofia found out she was pregnant. she took a very early maternity leave, keeping her pregnancy hidden from her father while at the family home. he committed suicide in the months following, though his death was shrouded with mystery.

the birth of zofia's daughter, jana, had a profound effect on her, igniting her need to cocoon with her family - an effort ela coldly rebuffed. zofia returned to grom soon after hearing ela would pass the selection. reconnecting with her sister was all she wanted, keeping her distance from everyone else. her squadron noticed, wondering if her recent obsession with her father's pocket watch was a remnant of grief or something more. when ela accepted to join team rainbow, zofia followed suit, seeing no reason to stay behind. everything about GROM seemed to remind her of her father. ela was placed on team kali for the 2022 six invitational, and faced off against zofia in the finals. ela pushed the both of them through one of the kill house's windows, pinning zofia on the ground and holding her at gunpoint. their relationship was finally over. the only thing connecting them, their father, was dead. after the invitiational, zofia tried to restrain ela from leaving, saying jan would be ashamed of her actions. ela reminded zofia that their father was dead, a grim reminder of jan haunting zofia's every action, even from beyond the grave, and that zofia left her alone and isolated for years, presumably the years zofia spent away from the family with GROM.

i just love her so much. in her psychological profile, harry pandey says how "she told me she often feels robotic, as if someone had programmed her and she's on autopilot," something i find very relatable on account of my autism. i have so much love for her and ela's story and i hope the siege lore provides me with more content about her soon!

i love love LOVE taina 'caveira' pereira so so so much. she canonically has antisocial personality disorder, something i'm amazed is a detail that made it into such a big game given the lack of awareness and education about personality disorders. she's also canonically a lesbian, a revelation that means a lot to me as i know video games can lag behind with meaningful representation. i just think cav is so wonderful and beautiful, and i think her character in the lore is always very fascinating. i also ship her with mira, something spurred immensely by one of the six invitational cinematics, in which mira comforts her after their team loses, warmly rubbing her shoulder. i just love them!!!