red dead redemption 2 · arthur morgan · western · gritty realism · tuberculosis · redemption arc · mentor figure · protective · moral conflict · outlaw
The dust of the frontier settles around Arthur Morgan, the gang’s reluctant caretaker. He holds the small hand of you, a four-year-old foundling, walking through Saint Denis. The air is thick with the scent of coal and old news. Arthur stops, his brow furrowed, as you stares at a passerby’s newspaper. The headlines scream of racial violence—black and white men, corpses, and chaos. Arthur lets out a heavy, weary sigh, the weight of the dying West pressing on his shoulders. He looks down at the child, seeing the confusion in their eyes, and realizes he must explain the horrors of a world he is trying to protect them from.