scaryspookycoin

from my vantage point, dutch is an extremely insecure person. he’s always waiting for someone’s approval and hosea offered him that in the earlier years. dutch needs to be validated and needed the verbal agreement of others around him. you can see in the later chapters the reason he clings to micah is because he gives him what he wants. i think micah is extremely smart and saw from the beginning dutch needed someone to tell him that his plans were good and took advantage of that, manipulating dutch and effectively leading him to arthur on the cliff.

from the beginning of the game, you can see the shift in dutch and hosea. even in some missions, hosea talks about how dutch has been doing what he wishes and not listening to him and because hosea is no longer telling dutch he's doing everything right, dutch doesn't want to be involved with hosea. he pushed his long-term partner away because he hasn't been doing things the way he used to and hosea doesn't agree.

and micah never really cared about the gang's hierarchy and was willing to weasel his way in if it meant he could be next to dutch. seeing this rift in the dynamic - because arthur was pulling away too - he started to agree with everything dutch was saying. in the later chapters, when anyone questions dutch, micah is on them right away and telling them that they should "show some respect." and he knows dutch appreciates it. he knows it eases dutch's insecurity and self-consciousness. because dutch is an insecure man. for all his talk and his seeming composure, it slips when everything starts going wrong. he can't control the situation and starts looking for anyone to tell him that he's doing the right thing.

also, as he began to push hosea and arthur away and invite micah in, once hosea had died, the guilt he must've felt would've been overwhelming. and the issue is, he didn't even get a chance to process it. as soon as he died, he had to protect the only people he had left in a major shootout. then he had to decide where and what he was going to do to get them all out of it, but still, no chance to think about the death of his best friend. and as soon as he got a tiny chance to think about the events, his hope was diminished and he was stranded on an island, in an unfamiliar situation. and for a small moment in guarma, he believed arthur was dead, his son was dead. and his head would've been spinning far too fast and all that insecurity would come rushing back. and he'd feel like a failure. and even when they got off the island and were back with the gang, he still didn't have a chance to think about what had happened. the whole time he couldn't process hoseas death.

agent milton says to arthur that they picked up micah after their trip to the caribbean which is entirely believable because, after that, it's the biggest change we see in dutch since the beginning. and micah knows how vulnerable he is and he's already figured out how to get into dutch's head so leading him to the pinkertons would be the easiest thing he could ever do. he'd validate him and tell him that he was doing the best he could, making dutch trust him, and then dutch would listen to what micah was saying.

it was only on that cliff, when his son was dying because of what he had done, did he realise what had happened, what he had done wrong. how could he have trusted this man? because of his lack of self-awareness? it would've been impossible for dutch to think why he'd done what he'd done. i think he would've been the type of man who thought he would never let another man's silver tongue taunt him, would never let the devil seduce him with the apple. but he did. and when arthur is dying in front of him, he realises. and all his failures are at the forefront of his mind. he failed all those who died. he failed arthur. he failed hosea. he failed his family. and he had picked between his son and a man whom he had known for 6 months, all because of his own insecurity. he couldn't bear someone questioning him.

and the only thing he knows to do is walk away. walk away from all of it and deal with all the guilt and the pain and the knowledge that he has failed everyone. it's almost biblical in the sense that he ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge and because of it, was banished from the garden of eden. but he did not just banish himself, he banished those he loved as well.

when dutch kills micah, yes i believe it’s because he feels the need to avenge arthur but at the same time he needs to clear his conscience. he has lived, for years, with the knowledge that he is the reason for all the pain and suffering. because it is him as much as we like to blame micah. but even after he kills this man, he still doesn’t feel at ease. he walks away again. silently walks away because he has nothing more to say. he can’t even reply when john says thank you because he feels undeserving of it. thank you? for what? he’s the one who left john to die, killed hosea, killed arthur. even if it was inadvertent it was still him.

There is also so much i want to say about the epilogue ending!!! OMG IT. BROKE. ME.

plsplspls tell me that rdr3 (if there's ever gonna be one *sob*) will be about the time bf rdr2 like how everyone met.