The Problem of Arthur Morgan’s Search for Altruism in Red Dead Redemption 2

In the 19 th century, tuberculosis was one of the main reasons for fatality as no cure had been developed yet. So while it’s realistic for Arthur’s fate to end this way, it’s definitely unexpec

**[Editor’s Note: This editorial will dive into some story spoilers for Red Dead Redemption 2 , so we would suggest coming back to this piece after you have completed the game’s main story and epilogue.] **

Red Dead Redemption was the tale of John Marston being forced back into the life of an outlaw due to his family being held hostage by the government. Marston was a man who was tired of killing, but would do it anyway because he wanted his family back and to return to a life of peace. This is curiously repeated in the epilogue of Red Dead Redemption 2 , as you once again take control of Marston as he seeks a peaceful life on the ranch of another only to be forced back into killing.

This is another really simple method that new online gamers or people new to Red Dead don’t know, but people are killing and hunting you because you are a giant dot on their menu (and a red one in PVP). But did you know that if you crouch when you run, it makes you a small, passive, gray dot on the mini-

The greatest violation comes when you meet Rain Falls, a Native American chief, in Saint Denis. Having briefly encountered him during a party at the mayor’s house, he now seeks your aid to help obtain documents that report an oil reservoir underneath the reservation land. Arthur is, as usual, unwilling to help out until one of them offers payment in return. However it isn’t until he begins to compare the persecution his gang faces to the persecution the Native Americans face as somehow equal that he really begins to show his true character.

By the time I reached Arthur’s final decision, one in which you can once again engage in a contradiction by attempting to steal the gang’s stash instead of aiding John Marston in his escape, I was already finished. Arthur’s death was just another bump in the road in discovering what exactly the epilogue held, as the mystery over who you would play as was much greater than seeing the closing scenes of a character I was done with many hours before.

Leviticus Cornwall is the man responsible for sending the Pinkertons after the Van der Linde Gang. The Gang stole some of Cornwall’s property, and that started this giant feud between them. The feud comes to an abrupt end when Dutch confronts Cornwall near Saint De

When you’re playing as Arthur Morgan, you can bet that at some point, you are going to get into trouble. Whether you harm a person on purpose or accidentally run over them on your horse, eventually, a bounty will be placed on your h

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been out for nearly two months, and it is still one of the most talked about games. (Unless you’re talking about Fallout 76 and complaining about how terrible it’s running.) The reason Red Dead Redemption 2 has been on our minds for so long is that it has so much to do. There are so many side missions and Easter Eggs for fans to find in the world. I have had the game for so long, and I still can’t seem to put it d

You can fight this fanged creature, but I was actually curious as to why the vampire existed. We got no answers as to how it was created. But I suppose it’s not Arthur Morgan’s job to question why vampires exist. He just has to slay t

However, if your player decides not to beat Downes for the payment, the game kind of just implies that Arthur beat him anyway. It takes choice away from the player, and if you miss the implication, you’re left wondering why on Earth Morgan got himself

The thematic discrepancies of this game couldn’t be more evident to me every time that goddamn deer showed up in Arthur Morgan’s dreams. These are brief sequences that felt like a fetishization of the frontier—they recall not just nostalgia for the Old West, but for the first Red Dead Redemption game, with the basic melody of the theme playing in the background. It can be debated for hours what the English-class level metaphor that the deer is meant to represent, but I had this feeling that by showing us Arthur trying to remember the “glory” of the West, the game is trying to invoke the same feeling in the player. Think of the way that Kingsman: The Secret Service attempted to argue in favor of bringing back the camp and irony of old spy films, which undid its own argument when the movie ended with an homage to sex scenes of James Bond films past, reminding viewers of how problematic that era was.

[pullquote]”This is a game that tries to desperately to show its maturity, that it’s past the simple morals of fantastical and escapist gunslinger movies, and more along the lines of a “prestige” film.”[/pullquote]

Thankfully, he eventually learns later on when Red Dead Redemption 2 hunting Guide Dead Redemption 2 shows nothing but disdain for the way the United States government and military have treated the Native Peoples that his prior statement was not true at all. However, it does show that Arthur was uninterested in helping other people unless it meant he got paid, even when it was a people group as badly treated as the Natives.