Take a chance that love exists, and do a loving act

Arthur Morgan

I feel like there is an untold rule in society which mandates men to be strong. All the time. To be unfeeling. To be providers. This isn't a debate about societal roles—it's about how one piece of storytelling cut through all of it and reached me.  I am here to talk about a once in a lifetime experience that changed the view I had on the topic of expression of feelings and vulnerabilities.  

It’s America in the 1800s. The cities are forming. The land is slowly coming under the rule of the law. People are becoming accustomed to a new kind of freedom. A kind of freedom that comes with civilization. In this world undergoing modernization, the story starts with a group of misfits. A group that vows to rebel against the law. A group which claims to pursue its own law. A group which is apparently chasing a freedom that the rest of the world has lost. The Van der Linde gang. However, the law is closing in, and the gang is forced to flee from settlement to settlement.

The story of Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterclass in storytelling that can’t be explained in a single blogpost, but we’re not here to talk about the entire story. We’re here to talk about a very specific story line, that managed to have a very positive effect on my psyche. A scene that taught me things that a lifetime of experience won’t.

The main protagonist of the story is Arthur Morgan. Taken in by Dutch Van Der Linde while he was still a boy, he grows up to be Dutch’s right-hand man. Arthur trusts in Dutch’s repeated claims that “He has a plan”, and genuinely believes that Dutch is leading the gang towards freedom, and that people stopping them now are their enemies.

When the gang settles on the outskirts of a town called Valentine, the gang gives out loans at large rates to desperate borrowers. Enforcers like Arthur are sent out to collect the due when the time comes. On one such errand, Arthur meets a man who is clearly sick. He had borrowed a large sum from the gang and was unable to repay it. Arthur “roughs him up” and in the process, gets sneezed on the face. A later visit to the same family shows that the man had passed away due to illness. His widow hands Arthur whatever money they had left and moves away with her son.

Over time, as the story advances, Arthur starts showing signs of illness. He has difficulty breathing and has regular coughing fits. After one such coughing fit, he collapses on the road and passes out. He is taken to the doctor by a passerby, where he receives some very bad news. It’s tuberculosis. A disease to which there was no cure back in the day. The doctor makes it clear that Arthur does not have long.

This revelation gives Arthur a new perspective on life. He looks back at his deeds and reflects on his actions. For the first time in his life, he starts questioning Dutch’s “plans”. It is important to note that the change in his characters is not an instant transformation like how most stories go. It is stretched out over hours of gameplay. Rockstar games make it clear that Arthur is not the only person who’s supposed to be reflecting. The player is supposed to join him in the journey.  And through the masterful storytelling, we do.

The moment I want to talk about occurs towards the end of the story. Arthur helps a nun (Sister Calderón,) from a local church with some issues in several occasions. He joins her at the railway station to send her off on a mission. The moment I want to talk about happens right there. Arthur has a coughing fit and Sister Calderón asks him what is wrong.

Arthur explains that he’s dying of Tuberculosis. A disease he contracted while beating a man to death. He tells her about his past. About his son, who died as an infant. A girl he loved, who he let go, and his parents, who passed away while he was only a child. He reflects on his values so far, telling her that “He still doesn’t believe in anything”. She replies that sometimes, neither does she, and then she meets someone like Arthur, and everything makes sense. Arthur laughs, and remarks that Sister Calderón was too smart for him. Then, in a beautiful moment of vulnerability, admits that he’s afraid. The sister tells him that there’s nothing to be afraid of, and to “Take a chance that love exists, and do a loving act”. Now, I haven’t gone through the scene entirely. But I have managed to give a very good overview.

Sister Calderón saw in Arthur, a man who he did not see in himself. A good man. A man, who for the first time in his life, sees things clearly. A man who is reflecting on his life. A man who’s actively trying to change. Arthur then goes on to, in my opinion, redeem himself. The scene at the railway station, barely three minutes long, had a lasting impact on me. For one, Arthur, a feared gangster, a man who was forced to be tough all his life, let himself be vulnerable. He let someone see in him a person he did not see himself. He actively reflected on his actions and went on to be one of the greatest characters ever written in fiction.

This scene unlocked a self-inflicted lock in my heart that instructed me to “suck it up and keep moving”. In many ways, I am what I am today because of the positive effect RDR2 had in my life. I am, grateful for getting to experience it in this lifetime.