#chelonia

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas), family Cheloniidae, Gujarat, India

Once considered endangered, the species has recovered.

A green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) in the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary

//pls tell me you've done this before in rdr2, I giggled when I did it in my playthrough and John actually yelled chelonia, idk

*Snorts, then let's out a low chuckle*

Ah, hell. You heard about that, huh?

Look...it was a strange time. I was...I was seeing things different. Trying to be better. And those folk...they weren't hurting nobody. Just convinced they were gonna be reborn as turtles or some damn thing. Seemed peaceful. Had a kind of...faith to them. Ain't had much of that myself. And it was funny, I won't lie. When you're carrying as much as I was...well, throwing yourself off a cliff with a bunch of fools yelling about shells starts to seem as sensible as anything else. And I was a bit drunk.

*chuckles*

(ps. this is a hot take.)

On the surface, Chelonian's and the Van der Linde gang are two completely different contrasting ideologies: Chelonia is a religion that is a "menace to all (our) liberty" because it goes against the usual Christianity and "Dutch's Boys" are "infamous killers". That's all in the headlines, the papers, the view most of society will interpretate these groups like.

They recruit people almost identically. Actively recruiting the young and feeble men and feeding mush into their brains to devotion. Your trust is in this formation and you'll die for this formation happily as it's expected of you. The greater of the two "evils", because turning your back against the pact is turning your back against freedom. Or, so is believed.

Both Helgerson and Dutch also preach similar ideologies.

Anders Helgerson is the messiah to Chelonia. He idolises the belief that this wisdom of the cult and the master will shine the dark out of mans heart, only if you listen in to this and this alone. That there is a land there for them, Chelonia, that you will only reach if you have faith.

Dutch is no different come to the games events. He preaches Evelyn Millers words, writes his own speeches he has no doubted-ly preached time and time again, always insisting on the same faith that's kept them stringed together. He also says that there's a land out there for them, Tahiti.

Jamie and Arthur are also a nice parallel to note too. Buried so head deep into this life that begun as being so open to these profound beliefs probably unimaginably good to prior lifestyles. Any outside "threat" attempting to convince them otherwise has them instinctively defending this belief, an unreliable narrative, but when they come face-to-face with the reality of their situations (i.e.: Dutch's revenge plan on Bronte contrasting "revenge is a fools game" & The initial shock Jamie goes through after pointing a gun at himself) doubt seeps through. This fog of false clarity they've both been under begins to dim.

Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas)