Arthurs Relationship With The Strange And Unknown Is Something So Personal To Me

just did 10 lines of the finest M/F cocaine

I’m undone already.

I know I’ve been talking about Molly and Abigail a lot but I love them and people are way too mean to them, and when I see people blaming them for things such as the failure of the bank robbery all I can think is this. Do you really think that the game wants you to dislike Molly and Abigail? These two are portrayed incredibly sympathetically throughout the game, and it could not be made more clear that they are victims.

Abigail was a sex worker at seventeen years old, and she had a baby at eighteen. Her son’s father abandoned her in a gang with an infant to take care of while she was still a teenager, and he has been absent in his son’s life and refusing to accept Jack is even his son for four years. All she wants is for her son to have a better life than she had as an orphan growing up in bars and brothels, she wants John to be responsible for Jack and everybody else does as well, even Dutch of all people tries to tell John he shouldn’t abandon his own son. Literally all she wants if for her family to be safe, and that is not the unreasonable ask that people seem to make it out to be. She is a young woman with a traumatic past who loves her family, and who, in the epilogue, just wants a life with her son and her husband where they won’t be in danger anymore. Abigail is one of the biggest reasons why John ends up changing into a better man, why he goes from the deadbeat he starts the game as to who we later see him become for the better. Do you think that’s how the narrative would portray a traitor? How it would show Abigail to you if she were anything other than a desperate young mother trying to care for the people she loves?

Molly is a young woman in an abusive relationship. She is alone in America with nowhere to go and presumably no means to support or defend herself if she ever did leave Dutch, which is a hard enough thing to do in a relationship like theirs even when you are not an isolated Irish woman in 1899. She is completely alone in the gang, she has no friends and no one will properly listen to her no matter how hard she tries. She is in love and she’s worried about Dutch, she never asks him for more than the bare minimum of, as she says, “respect and affection”. She is not asking to be the only focus of his attention, she is not asking him to focus entirely on her instead of the gang, she just wants to be looked at, to be called by her first name, to not be ignored by a man who supposedly loves her. Molly is driven into depression and paranoia by her isolation from any support in the gang and Dutch’s abuse, and she ends up so desperate for somebody to pay her any attention that she says something she knows will get her shot. She is revealed to be innocent in one of the most important cutscenes in the game, the final plot twist that Micah ratted on the gang, and after this, but there is doubt before. Karen doesn’t believe her, Mary-Beth doesn’t believe her, Arthur himself is what keeps Dutch from shooting her and he doesn’t believe her. In the money ending, Arthur will plead with Dutch, telling him it wasn’t Molly and to kill Micah instead. Do you think that’s how the narrative would portray a traitor? Is that how it would show you a victim of severe abuse who wanted nothing more than to be loved?

Each have their own flaws in addition to this, but that’s because they, like the men that are so highly praised within the fan base for their brilliant writing, are complex characters. They are three dimensional characters with personalities and wants and needs, who make decisions or react in ways we might not understand because they are their own people in their own impossibly difficult situations. Just think about the actual storytelling of the game, because nothing is done accidentally. There is a reason for every narrative choice made because it was all written down and performed with the intention of telling the story properly. There is a reason why no one questions that Molly was innocent after it is revealed and why her arc ends with that cutscene, and it is because she was innocent. There is a reason why John changing his ways for the sake of his family, both because of Jack and because of Abigail, and finally listening to his wife for once is shown as a good thing, and that’s because it is. Have whatever opinions you like about a character, but don’t pretend the game is telling you they are something that they’re not

one thing that fucks me up about red dead is that every part of me believes that even if arthur knew how his sacrifice would ultimately end — that john (and abigail) will still die too young, that jack will become consumed by a revenge mission just like his father — he would still do it

like yes, he was sick, and yes, he knew his path was ending anyway, but he could’ve chosen to try and fight for what he had left — john was even telling him to keep pushing! he could’ve seen charles one more time, could’ve visited mary, could’ve watched more sunsets and gone fishing by the quiet lake at the veteran’s house. could’ve breathed in fresh air a few more times, made a few more drawings, taken advantage of final comforts on that “vacation” he needed and passed in peace with someone at his side, but none of it would matter more to him than the few years he could give john & his family —

it wouldn’t matter that john’s life will still end at the hands of the government, because at least he had some years of peace and got the chance to really grow into his own man, a family man. it wouldn’t matter that jack’s path will veer away from what they all dreamed for him, because at least he had some time reading books and writing stories and just growing up, not moving around all the time, not having to be scolded about the dangers just at the edge of camp.

arthur would look at all the pain and see, well, there’s uncle at family dinner with the marstons. there’s charles exploring a new life in canada. there’s sadie taking on her own identity, making her own way in this life, talking like she can have a future again. there’s john waking early to work on the ranch while abigail makes up the coffee in their new home. there’s jack getting a new storybook for his birthday. there’s their dog, rufus, as energetic as copper used to be.

idk man i just so firmly believe that arthur “face me to the west so i can remember all the fine times we had” morgan, by the end of his path, would give so much to give these small moments of peace and joy to those that could still have them and it kills me

you’re laughing. they’re horrifically misinterpreting my favorite character’s personality and you’re laughing

FUCK THIS IS SO PRETTY IM WRITHING AROUND ON THE FLOOR

On that cowboy shit again (pls click for better resolution probably ♡)

*sweating, whole body shaking while I stare at a google doc* would he fucking say that????

self care is turning on your console and starting rdr2 to ride your horsey around aimlessly while taking in the ambience and scenery

the love of a father (Saturn and his son)

kinda fucked how javier had to ride all the way to blackwater w trelawny talking his ear off and then they made him ride back with sean