The best literary analysis of a creative work is based on the text itself, and that alone. Writers have very little objectivity about their work, and they’re professional liars. Writers can, and do, say their work means one thing today and another thing tomorrow. They may misremember their thought process; they may misrepresent their intentions to please their audience. We can’t rely on their word; what we can rely on is the text.
A game like Red Dead Redemption 2 presents some challenges to that approach. For one thing, it’s very long, and you can’t exactly flip back to important dialog at will. No complete transcripts of the game are publicly available. In many missions, you can miss dialog if you approach characters before they finish their conversations, or even if you ride at the pace the game sets. Several missions have additional lines depending on the order in which the player completes them. Even line deliveries can change (apparently based on the speed at which the player character rides).
Furthermore, it’s likely impossible to trigger all the camp dialog on a single playthrough — and the camp dialog is key to understanding the characters and their relationships. Which instances of these conversations and monologues we see can greatly affect how we understand the characters. I’ve tried to view them all, but I know of some that I’ve missed (as of this writing, I’ve observed over 520 instances in the main story, not including songs and conversations that Arthur begins). Since I’m not publishing this work commercially or writing a dissertation, I’ve opted to let myself enjoy coming across the dialog naturally rather than scouring YouTube for every interaction. While this may mean that some of my readings don’t reflect every nuance of a given character, I’ve encountered repeat dialog often enough to be confident that I’ve seen the majority of it, and that my analyses are sound.
In addition to camp dialog, there are hundreds of special NPCs, letters, notes, newspaper articles, books, graves, business names, journal entries, and Points of Interest. I’ve done my best to collect all of these, and have done nearly everything in the game, although not every iteration of everything in the game. Still, there are going to be details that I’ve missed, but I believe they’ll be minor ones. When I replay the game, I may make minor updates to the essays and lists on this site.
Because the game is big and complex, incorrect claims about it abound. For instance, I recently saw an article in a peer-reviewed journal claim that we don’t know how Arthur gets tuberculosis — in other words, they missed what is arguably the single most important plot point in the entire game. For that reason, all of my claims are based on things that I’ve personally observed in the game, with the exception of a handful of clips from YouTube. I’ve done my best to note where facts and details come from if I think it may be unclear. In the case of camp dialog, I’ve noted where I’ve personally observed it; often I’ve seen interactions in more than one camp on different playthroughs.
Finally, the player’s choices as Arthur, and the resultant honor level, affect how some events unfold. High-honor Arthur helping John escape is clearly intended to be the game’s “true” ending. When discussing the narrative, these are the variations I have in mind, unless I say otherwise.
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