#rdr2 chapter 6

i never see anyone discuss arthur’s final message to the gang, and its in the least accessible place for anyone else; his journal. something so private to him, his entire perspective of events that occurred in the gang, his opinions, his loyalties, his personal life outside the gang.

the fact that he addresses mary, a woman who will never hear from him again and will never receive that message. the woman he’s loved that’s encapsulated his life, and he flips the famous ‘oh, arthur’ to ‘oh, mary’. it’s like an unreceived love letter.

imagine after john gets that satchel on the mountain to which he opens it, maybe a few months or even weeks after, and sees arthur’s worn, old journal he carried for years. he reads it slowly over a few weeks and he reaches the last entry. a message for him, a final warning. a warning to which he ignores and runs from, sealing his fate with the pinkertons.

arthur even pleads with dutch, one of his final pleas with the changed man. even bigger a gut punch when the man who raised him betrays him, walks away and leaves him to die alone. by “start listening to them”, arthur’s asking dutch to listen to him one last time.

he doesn’t.

arthur really loved him and everyone else like his family in his own way, and it’s that love and loyalty that killed him.

i see the messages as some sort of practice for what he’d say if he died whilst getting people out of camp before it all fell apart; like he was imagining he’d go. he’d maybe intented to write mary a final goodbye himself, but couldn’t find the words.

he might have expected to die facing west like he mentions, with the people he cared about, his illness leaving time for goodbyes like charles had told him, unlike people like hosea and lenny. but he doesn’t get that salvation.

That's a escene that should be more appreciated

– for a...

– for a silly idea? it don't even exist.