The traces of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian that appear in RDR2 are subtler than Rockstar's usual bold and underlined references. The novel's impact on Red Dead Redemption was second only to that of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. In contrast, Blood Meridian makes itself felt throughout RDR2 in the horrific violence, the bleakness, and the bitter irony, but most of the similarities aren’t specific enough to claim them as absolute allusions. A few are certain: