The Red Dead Redemption franchise, when counting both main campaigns and epilogues, is set across 4 different years: 1899, 1907, 1911, and 1914. Red Dead Redemption 2’s main campaign takes place in 1899, with John Marston avenging Arthur’s death 8 years later in 1907. Marston’s main campaign in the original takes place in 1911, with Jack Marston taking over 3 years after his father’s death. This cycle, however, isn’t just for show; it tells a deeply-involved story surrounding two diverging ideologies epitomized in two unsuspecting characters: Edgar Ross and Jack Marston.
It’s worth mentioning that these two characters are the only major ones to appear across all 4 years, and it’s clear that this is no coincidence. Edgar Ross first appears in Chapter 2 of Red Dead Redemption 2 when Arthur takes Jack fishing, but while Arthur and Milton exchange words, Ross is quiet. In fact, his very first words (chronologically speaking) are to Jack Marston when he tells the boy to enjoy fishing while he can. Jumping ahead to RDR’s epilogue shows that Edgar Ross’ last words are to Jack Marston, grown and seeking vengeance for his father, in a fashion not unlike their first encounter.
In an ironic twist, Jack Marston approaches Edgar Ross as he is fishing. After some insistence that he wasn’t responsible for John Marston’s death, that the life John chose was, the two duel to the death, and Jack achieves that vengeance. Following in the boots of his father, it’s clear that Jack Marston choose this same ideal of freedom and the American Dream just like his father in Red Dead Redemption. But the two’s longstanding relationship, a loose term, shows the very best of the franchise.
RDR2: Edgar Ross, The ‘Civilized’ Man
While Milton takes lead on that aforementioned conversation with Arthur Morgan near the start of Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s no stretch to see that Milton’s ideals apply to Ross. He believes in government, civilization, and society…as long as it benefits him. He’s not a man of his word and simply highlights the corruption of government during the time of RDR; he thinks himself above the law and that the U.S. government at the time owes him.
Every incident from his first encounter with Jack to his last shows this: his snide words both to young and adult Jack demonstrate how he is more powerful than any “savage” man, how he uses John Marston to hunt down the Van der Linde gang, and later betrays him—a reformed outlaw—to pad his own accomplishments. Yet it’s clear by his actions throughout Red Dead Redemption 2 and the original that he sees himself (and the government by association) as justified, different from the very claims that they make against the likes of the Dutch van Der Linde gang.
RDR2: Jack Marston, John Marston, and Arthur Morgan - The ‘Savage Men’
Recalling Milton and Arthur’s conversation before Edgar and Jack once more, Milton refers to Morgan as a “savage” who will die savagely. Arthur Morgan’s rebuttal is that he has done no wrong except not living by the rules set by Milton (and the government). Considering Arthur Morgan is capable of evil acts, there’s a question in that, but that’s where the dichotomy between characters emerges: Society may be “better,” but the men who conducted, protected, and cherished it were not necessarily so. In contrast, the outlaw way of life may have been “savage,” but that didn’t necessarily define the men who followed it.
Dutch, in so many ways, is a tragic hero after all. His plans were flawed and his execution worse, but Dutch wanted what’s best for his people. Arthur Morgan (depending on players) could be a man who rose above and gave into the worst of his way of life. Either way, Arthur Morgan is seen frequently in deep thought about Dutch, his own actions, his past, and the future. Of all the sins that Arthur is guilty of, John is no better off. John is given the chance to start anew, however, through Arthur’s redemption: Arthur gave his life so that John and his family could have one they never had, that he never had.
And in Jack Marston, the black sheep of the gang who preferred books to guns for the longest time, there was hope of that. Until Edgar Ross killed his father, that is.
RDR2: The Fall of Edgar Ross and the Rise of Jack Marston
Ross believes, having told John, that the alternative to civilization is hell, yet is seen berating everyone around him from 4-year-old Jack Marston to the very citizens of Blackwater. In this tale of redemption, Ross is a clear foil to Jack and some of those who preceded him. Ross is beyond redemption, so stuck in his ways that he thinks himself spotless. Ross is arguably even more far gone that Dutch near the end of Red Dead Redemption 2 and certainly by that of his death in the first game. Yet Dutch knew something that Ross ignored: his final words state that “our time has passed…,” meaning of the outlaw but that goes deeper.
It means those who used ideology as a way of life, who shaped identity around their particular thought of civilization, and so it’s clear that Ross’s death is a reflection of that. As with his death in 1914, spanning 4 years alongside Jack Marston, it proves there’s always one more enemy to be destroyed. These years can be seen as a cycle of deaths (and from a gameplay perspective, a cycle of campaign + epilogue), and there’s only the question of what happens to Jack now. One could hope that Ross’ death breaks this cycle, but it’s unlikely the new FBI will just give up on Ross’ murderer.
Jack is without a gang, without an ideologist shaping his future, and in a tumultuous time period for the US. It’s uncertain where Jack’s future lies, but there’s the possibility that his redemption is simply that: a redemptive story told of his fathers. However, the franchise has proven itself to be a tragedy. In other words, should Red Dead Redemption 3 ever happen and it continued Jack’s story, it’s not likely to end with Jack’s happily ever after; Jack did rise above the “savagery” of his family’s old lifestyle, however, while Ross succumbed to the worst of his.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
