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Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 each have stories focused on a changing American society in conflict with characters for whom change is difficult, even impossible. Set in an alternate version of the American West during the early 20th century, these games see outlaws struggling to survive in a world that no longer has space for them, and the protagonists in both cases represent that struggle.
[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2.]
From John Marston and his son, Jack, in the first game to John and Arthur Morgan in the prequel, follows a very specific kind of main character in the RDR series: outlaws caught between vengeance and peace, obscurity and infamy. Each of their journeys ultimately relates to a theme Red Dead is rather fond of: that of violent cycles repeating themselves, even as the world shifts around them.
RDR 2 Is Defined By Cycles Of Violence
The Prequel That Sets This Violent Ball Rolling
Though RDR2 came second in the series, it takes place first chronologically and sets up many of these cycles. Even outside the protagonists, this game is full of characters locked in repeated cycles of violence and vengeance, from the Greys and Braithwaites fighting for centuries over stolen gold to the feud between the Vand Der Linde and O’Driscoll gangs. Arthur, the game’s first player character, is pulled into some of these cycles by Dutch, the gang leader and his surrogate father.

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More than any other character, Dutch represents the stagnation of revenge and violence, which is ironic given his constant speeches about the gang’s future. It’s no secret that Dutch’s mental state is not entirely sound, especially as the game continues, but he has clearly always been a character to hold a grudge. He drags the rest of his gang into conflicts with Colm O’Driscoll, he insists on butting into the Grey-Braithwaite feud for the sake of money, and he takes unnecessary risks to kill folks like Leviticus Cornwall.
One Dutch line in particular hints at another cycle he’s stuck in, as he refers to stealing from the Confederate-aligned Greys and Braithwaites as “payback” for his father, who died fighting for the Union in the Civil War.
It’s Dutch’s influence on Arthur and John that sends them both down the paths they travel during these games. They and the rest of the gang will rob someone, that person will retaliate, and the gang will strike in turn, as with the kidnapping of Jack Marston, the burning of the Braithwaite home, and the betrayal and subsequent murder of Angelo Bronte, a character based on a real person. Dutch is the role model on which both RDR2‘s protagonists based their values, so it is no wonder their stories are so centered around these cycles.
Arthur & John Have A Lot In Common
Protagonists Change, Themes Stay The Same
Of course, by the end of RDR2, Arthur is going to die. Depending on the player’s choices, he may attempt to change his ways only to succumb to his tuberculosis, or he may die fighting Micah in one last bid to get revenge. Either way, it’s his intervention that allows John and his family to survive, escape, and attempt to build a new life away from the gang.
Arthur may not be shot dead by corrupt lawmen, but the disease that hastens his demise is picked up while he beats an innocent man for his money. Arthur’s death is reflective of the violence he spent his life inflicting, the ultimate destination of the cycle he had started so long ago.
While John, Jack, and Abigail escape the violent life for a while, they are inevitably dragged back into it. First, when John falls back into his dangerous ways while working on a farm, and next, when he gets the chance to take revenge on Micah in RDR 2. This is how Arthur’s cycle of violence perpetuates itself: John risks the life of peace and obscurity he and Abigail had built to avenge his friend and brother, a choice that ultimately puts him back in the sight of the law.

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This decision leads to the events of the first Red Dead Redemption when the corrupt lawman Edgar Ross finds John and coerces him into hunting down his former gang members. John does so to protect his family and the life they have built, and he exacts revenge on the people who abandoned him and Arthur at the end of the prequel. John may claim to wish to return to a peaceful life, but it’s clear that his ideology and his feelings are steering him towards this instead.
Of course, even if John fulfills his duty and kills his former friends turned enemies, that will not stop Ross from putting him down. John will end the game by being executed by corrupt officials; however, this only fuels the next step of this violent cycle. Because years later, John’s son, Jack, will take up his mantle, hunt down and take out Edgar Ross, and become an outlaw.
Red Dead Redemption Is A Tragic Series
Balancing A Real And Romanticized Vision Of The West
The contrast between the changing world around these characters and their inability to change the violent trajectory of their lives is what makes this series so tragically beautiful. Rockstar nailed it with the first game, having John’s attempts to quit his life of crime result in his son going down the same road, and then followed it up with Arthur’s heartbreaking attempts to be a better man as his end drew near.

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And yet, if the game were simply about the impossibility of change, that would be a rather bleak message. For all its tragedy, Red Dead Redemption is not a bleak game. There is hope in its horizons, in the way these violent characters can help those whose lives they touch, and in how Arthur’s spirit seems to shift with his intentions. Even if death is the end point of our cycles, the attempt to change can sometimes be enough.

- Released
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October 26, 2018
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
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