While everyone initially played Rockstar Games’ cowboy epic to experience the outlaw simulator that was Red Dead Redemption 2, but the game’s subtlety, dedication to loneliness and expanse was sometimes seen as a knock for the game. In retrospect, the second game’s deliberate choices to slow down the pace of the adventure as an artistic choice ended up being far more impactful on the game’s meta-narrative, rather than the story itself. While a lot of Arthur’s character development and story is based on his growing loneliness amongst former family, the game’s slower pace also helped highlight many of the artistic subtleties in Red Dead Redemption 2 as well.
Symbolism in Red Dead Redemption 2 is obvious in many regards, complex and subtle in others. Examples of symbolism in the game extend far beyond the intentional nods to morality, or the death of the cowboy, but permeate in more specific circumstances. Microcosmic symbolism like the cycle of violence, mythological references and nods, and the perversions of God and “redemption” itself are concepts players may not even necessarily notice in their first playthroughs. While Rockstar Games has always had a penchant for easter eggs or references throughout their games, Red Dead Redemption 2 is riddled with metaphor and symbolism in many forms.
Perhaps the most obvious form of symbolism in Red Dead Redemption 2 is the morality system. On a surface level, players who do good deeds cause Arthur to see visions of a deer, while players who are morally corrupt see visions of a wolf. Of course, the game never explains or further emphasizes these visions, simply because it doesn’t need to. These two creatures of nature are clearly two sides of the morality coin; where the deer symbolizes compassion and determination, the wolf symbolizes hierarchy and supremacy. Some believed that Arthur’s eventual fate seemed to make the honor system not matter, but it actually works on a much more subtle level in the game.
While obviously Arthur’s death marks the end of his morality just as much as his mortality, his fate hammers on an even more important element of symbolism. Dutch’s gang ends up proving the old adage of “no honor among thieves,” relative to the combative dynamic between Arthur, Micah, and Dutch. While there are slight twists to each ending depending Arthur’s Honor level, the end result is always the same. Regardless of how much or how little honor Arthur may garner throughout his journey, the thieves who surround him hold no honor at all. That point is further emphasized by Micah’s death at the hands of a practically comatose Dutch, who realizes this himself.
Symbolism in the finer details of Red Dead Redemption 2 are some of the hardest to discover, particularly around the game’s characters and sub-stories. One of the biggest sub-stories across both games, but especially in Red Dead Redemption 2, is the cycle of violence perpetuated by Dutch’s gang. As far back as in-game lore exists about Dutch’s gang, violence and death seems to follow the gang at all times. Members of the gang all participate in this endless cycle to varying degrees of vulnerability, though very few where ever able to escape this cycle entirely. One notable example is Charles Smith, who was one of very few who managed to escape the gang to find peace.
Many mysteries throughout Red Dead Redemption 2 have also been the source of subtle symbolism as well. There are many examples throughout the game, but the most notorious mystery with symbolism is the Strange Man, who is a symbolic manifestation of Death the Devil. His “deal” with Herbert Moon, and his eventual physical manifestation for John Marston in the first game, is clearly some kind of element representing death. There’s also the entire referential symbolism of Arthur Morgan and King Arthur, ranging from the Knights of the Round Table, even to Arthur’s eventual death relating to a dishonorable act, just like the death of King Arthur.
One particular act of symbolism, evident throughout the whole Red Dead Redemption duology, is perhaps best evidenced in Red Dead Redemption 2. While “the Wild West is dying” was one of the original Red Dead Redemption marketing tag lines, that was a more literal translation of the events of the first game. Red Dead Redemption 2 best evidences the deeper, stronger, and metaphorical dying of the Wild West in a much more profound manner. While the first game depicted the deaths of Dutch’s gang members as the redemption arc for John Marston, Red Dead Redemption 2‘s reckoning evidences the truth death of the Wild West throughout its narrative.
That aforementioned slow and steady pace that Red Dead Redemption 2‘s gameplay and narrative evoke is perhaps the most subtle nod to the Wild West’s death. Cowboys and outlaws didn’t just disappear over night, rather it was a slow and steady burn that eventually consumed outlaws altogether. The dismantling of Dutch’s gang, and even on a more visceral level with Arthur’s disease, shows that the death of the Wild West was an always encroaching inevitability. Dutch’s consistent failures in the face of his “plan” emphasize this symbolism wholeheartedly. There are plenty of examples of symbolism in Red Dead Redemption 2, many of which aren’t as overt as others.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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