Editorial | John Marston - Outlaw to Gentleman (spoilers for RDR 2)

By Sam Coles:

Red Dead Redemption II is one of if not my favourite game of 2018; check out my review if you haven’t. It has given me a new outlook on John Marston, he is not the main focus of the game well not in the first three quarters of the game but it does shine a light on the character. I want to go over John’s transformation from a hot headed and blood thirsty outlaw to a gentlemanly cowboy.

When the game begins, you are transporting your gang through snow laden tundra of the mountains after a heist gone wrong, John goes missing and Arthur has to go and find him. Arthur retorts with “He’s gone riding off again” suggesting that this is something quite common with John, Arthur goes and finds him like an obligated father. John is injured which gives me his signature scares that are tattooed into his face, once John is back in good health he is up to no good.  

It’s clear that Arthur has some reservations with John, as he is reluctant to do any jobs with him mostly due to his impulsive nature which leads them to a cordite filled situation. However as the months go on Arthur begins to warm up to John, and Marston begins to realise he can’t keep the criminal life up and starts to doubt Dutch’s words of a life in a tropical paradise as he keeps saying “Just one more time”. John starts to realise that he can’t continue like this, as he has a child and partner and he can’t raise a family with empty promises of paradise. So after one thing after another, he leaves the gang after Dutch goes insane, where he then retires to a normal and mundane life as a ranch hand.

When John leaves the outlaw life he tries to go straight and find a legitimate job, however he has trouble adjusting to normal life at first as his violent tendencies have a habit of surfacing in certain situations. He stumbles on a farm as he is delivering food and supplies to them, he sees that they are being hounded by a small time gang where he then chases them off. He is taken on by the ranch where he and his family can stay on site; he slowly warms up to the ranching life as he is shown the ropes as he slowly falls into a routine.

John’s violent tendencies seep through once again, but it’s not through malicious intent as he is trying to defend the ranch he works for against bandits. His partner Abigale doesn’t see it that way, she sees it as John going back to his old ways and then she leaves. John now alone and broken decides to prove himself, he hears about a piece of land in Beechers Hope and wants to settle there. With some help from his boss he is able to take out a loan, gather materials and build his home where he can settle, what I like about this character development we see Marston mature and shape into the man we know in the original Red Dead Redemption. He truly turns into a man of honour and respect.

With his home built John finally gets his wife back, it’s a touching moment and we see him turn into a sensitive soul as they go and do normal things such as going to the theatre and getting their photo taken. We see the sensitive side of John show, and his violent and outlaw life have finally faded away as he can leave the madness of Dutch behind and live it out with his family, for now anyway.

It was great to see John Marston’s character to shape in Red Dead Redemption II, from a naïve and violent outlaw to an emotional and gentle soul who wants nothing more than to live the rest of his days with his family. It makes it doubly hard to deal with his fate in the original game, and makes me shed a tear more as it shows that he genuinely wants to make a difference in his life.