#Bessie Matthews

[gremlin-boah]

Unfortunately Dutch was not the groomsman

That title belongs to silver dollar

Aw yeahhhhhhhh... Sorry Dutch.

But what is he if he ain't the groomsman? @the-mighty-toast-wizard

[nthspecialll]

Hosea did have a soft spot for bessie though, did he? even though he was a very violent and angry man

Oh yeah, absolutely. He would spend hours playing dominos with her, they tried to escape "the life" but he slipped back into crime and when she died he fell into alcholism.

[arthursfuckinghat]

So, I was nosing around the gang's tents and I thought that it was honestly so sweet that so many of them have photographs of themselves or of family right?

Little baby Charles with his parents, a young Susan, young Hosea and Bessie, but then I found something interesting in that pile of junk down the cliff just behind Arthur's tent-

Dutch actually writes notes for his famous camp speeches.

And if you've seen the speech that these notes are referring to, Dutch seemed to simplify it a lot when he recited it, almost dumbing it down for the gang entirely?

Writing notes for an important speech isn't the strange part, but the fact he dumbs them down and that these notes are hidden/thrown away out of sight is really strange to me. It makes me think that this is possibly a rough draft or early version of what he wanted the speech to be, sort of implying that Dutch practices and revises his speeches.

Which, if he ultimately dumbs them down for the gang, then what is the point?

The likely answer is that he holds himself to a higher standard because he feels he's above the gang members, in a way. He's the visionary, the leader, the man in charge, the one who reads philosophy books almost exclusively, to say that Dutch didn't think highly of himself would be a lie. And because the gang is 'below' him, he simplifies his speeches for them - despite majority of the gang being well educated and understanding. He doesn't think that the gang is as intellectual as him.

I made a post previously talking about Dutch and his Evelyn Miller philosophies and how he argues with gang members that don't agree or understand. It's especially interesting how Lenny, also an avid reader, disagrees so strongly with Miller's writings when that's what most of Dutch's philosophies are based on.

It solidifies that Dutch was manipulative from the beginning, and probably long before too.

[river-of-wine]

You know what would’ve made Colter less miserable for Hosea? Wife

[meeks-just-wants-to-scroll]

let me goooooo

[bre4ch3d]

“Hosea was married!!” And you think he didn’t run panicked to Bessie when he realised what his feelings for Dutch were??? LIES

(Idk what sorta polly shit was happening but Bessie and Dutch were both with Hosea, thank you.)

[verdemoun]

modern au but the gang waking up in modern day in the order they died with memories of their lives as outlaws:

bessie motherfucking matthews being the one that rounds them up. she's a professor at a university teaching women's history and owns a little cottage on the outskirts of town, and uses newspaper articles to try and plot out who/where someone will 'wake up'

sean was the first VDL she successfully found. davey and mac somehow found each other and got themselves incarcerated for armed robbery before she got them.

sean adapts almost instantly and loves the chaos of modern day cities: car horns, fluorescent lights, night clubs, television (fuck you lenny reading is for nerds!!). he steals a bike he calls ennis II and gets a job delivering pizzas

she finds hosea and lenny next. it's a very emotional reunion. she starts calling lenny her son. hosea spends at least a week refusing to let his wife out of his sight because he has to be dreaming, kisses and adores her at every opportunity. their dates are her teaching him to drive a car

lenny takes less than a day to figure out computers and takes over the locate the VDLs project. he has what is effectively a murder wall of colored yarn and push pins trying to figure out when and where the next person will appear. manages to cyber-stalk down jenny, who being as breathtakingly clever as she is figured out the present all by herself and works in a diner. she comes over for dinner twice a week

retracing the gang's steps they find kieran, who is doing fabulously not well. he's been homeless for a month, got hit by a car and is very, very distraught by not only the memories of his torture after being taken by o'driscolls but the fact he betrayed the gang by talking. bessie matthews, mother to all, introduces him to noise cancelling headphones, gardening, and horse girl movies.

lenny: hey i've been doing some research and i think most of us have this thing called ptsd????

when hosea and bessie want to have a nice, quiet romantic dinner by themselves they put sensory videos on the tv and all the boys just sit there silently

[spoonsand]

RIP RED DEAD CHARACTERS YOU WOULD HAVE LOVED

Dutch- disposable fruity flavoured (mango) vapes, Duolingo

Hosea- rollerblading, old VHS movies, The Sound of Music, ear studs, small hoops, and ear cuffs

Arthur- LED strip lights, therapy, The Joy of Painting

John- Ax body spray, deodorant, those little arm floaties little kids wear in the pool

Mary-Beth- Lego flowers, The Notebook, Pinterest

Tilly- Easter egg hunts, making slime, slumber parties

Karen- Tube/crop tops, jean shorts, weightlifting

Sean- make your own mead kits, TikTok, “kiss me in Irish”, SUNSCREEN

Abigail- AirTags (she would put one on little Jack), Roasting marshmallows, Crime shows/courtroom dramas, Man! I Feel like a woman! By Shania Twain

Uncle- recliner chairs, dog sledding, Wheel of Fortune, Crosswords

Susan- Dark nail polish, cats(I’m 100% sure she’d own either a black cat or a tortishell that would sit on her lap/shoulder), dishwashers

Kieran- Creep by Radiohead, Tv shows about veterinarians, friendship bracelets (with Arthur)

Reverend Swanson- Support groups, The Robert Langdon series (especially Inferno, Angels & Demons), communion wine

Javier- Cards Against Humanity, online sheet music, ear gauges

Molly- Champaign toast anything from bath and bodywork’s, naval AND lip piercing, SUNSCREEN

Bill-sexy firefighter calendars, Grindr, Bumbl, all the dating apps, apples dipped in caramel, jolly ranchers

Charles- IMessage games (mini golf and battleship in particular), those long distance ‘thinking of you bracelets’, 90’s sitcoms

Lenny- The Carpenters, cologne to make him seem grown up, head pats

Trelawney- Harry Houdini, 50-60s movies, smoke bombs, dramatic flares

Strauss- a soul, Nigerian Prince scams, telemarketing

Sadie- gyms, self defence classes, the free Britany movement

Micah- staying in the strawberry jail, toothbrush + paste, good posture

Pearson- small businesses, handmade gifts, trying TikTok recipes

EXTRA

Annabelle- Gwen Stefani, sequins, Fast and the Furious

Jack (young)- The Backyardagains, cocomelon, a little toy train

Jack (epilogue)- Monty Python, skateboarding, swimming

Bessie- Bette Midler look a like contests, growing old, brown eyeliner, SUNSCREEN

[synthsays]

I can't name a single happy love story from rdr2 no joke

Arthur and Mary ❌️

Hosea and Bessie ❌️

Dutch and Molly ❌️

John and Abigail ❌️

Kieran and Mary-Beth ❌️

Sadie and Jake ❌️

Reverend and Margaret ❌️

Karen and Sean ❌️

Lenny and Jenny ❌️

Dutch and Annabel ❌️

[notdeadyetmatthews]

Headcanon: Hosea Matthews is one smooth, charismatic, silver tongued outlaw.

When Bessie said hello to him for the first time, it took him an entire ten minutes to be able to say hello in return before he quickly hurried off.

[gremlin-boah]

CAN YOU DRAW HOSEA WITH HIS DEAR WIFE BESSIE😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️

YES!

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH 🫶

[nthspecialll]

Annabelle vs Bessie

I think one of the saddest things in Red Dead is the difference in how Dutch talks about Annabelle vs how Hosea talks about Bessie because when Hosea talks about Bessie he talks about who she was. He talks about her kindness, her caring personality, he talks about how passionate she was about dominoes and how they could play it for hours. He talks about how he was willing to try to leave the only life he knew for her, but wasn't able to, yet she understood and forgave him. He also talks about how after her death he was drunk for a year straight, not a day sober and how he doubts god because any deity that would not spare her life for his is not good.

Dutch, however, when he talks about Annabelle he talks about who she was to him. She was the girl he loved, but what more? What did she love? Was she kind? Was she firm? What were her hobbies? Were they married or was she a girlfriend? How did her death affect him? Does he look at a picture of her or was it gave him an excuse to be mad at someone he had already come on rocky ground with?

Bessie is her own person, she is fleshed out, we know who she is because Hosea loves to talk about her. Annabelle isn't a person, she is a concept, a reason for hatred, I wouldn't be shocked if her gravestone said "Dutch's girlfriend."

Even if Hosea never said the word love, we would know that was how he felt, but Annabelle was never given that because she fell in love with a man who cared more about her title as his than who she actually is.

[galacta-phantasma]

The faint chirping of crickets could be heard as another day at Beecher's Hope drew to a close. Most of them live on the property, but those that don't visit so much that they might as well be.

Everyone's crammed into the main house tonight. Javier is playing a gentle melody on his guitar. Next to him, Kieran is building up the courage to ask Javier to teach him how to play, eyes darting between his nimble fingers and serene face. Mary-Beth, Lenny, and Jack are discussing the books they've read recently, the elder two of the trio helping Jack write his first short story. Closer to the corner of the room, Sadie is telling Charles and Arthur how her latest bounty nearly ended with her being catapulted into a river. Amelia - Abigail's spitting image - sits in her grandpa Hosea's lap, babbling logical nonsense the way only a 3 year old could, and he nods along as if she's telling him the world's darkest secrets. Tilly and Karen swap parenting tips as they sew, and Sean, sitting on the floor, is "helping" by adding a drop of blood to every lopsided stitch he makes.

In the kitchen, Molly, Pearson, and Abigail are arguing loud enough to shake the roof as Bessie and Jenny watch on placidly, poker game forgotten, only willing to step in should things come to blows. Jenny flagrantly fans herself with the cards Bessie slipped her. They've yet to notice. Uncle's been passed out for a few hours now, and Grimshaw is beginning to attempt to herd everyone to bed for an early morning none of them are rushing to meet.

And John? He's happier than he thinks he's ever been, hiding his big goofy grin behind his hat, chest fit to burst with all the love in his heart.

...and then he wakes up alone, in an empty house, in a different country. The only noises are the faint creaks of the house settling, the slight shuffle of blankets, and his own breathing. For a brief, selfish moment, he wishes he hadn't.

[scarfacemarston]

Hosea is so sweet here. This is when he talks about his own struggles with addiction.

[river-of-wine]

The Matthews!

[magewardensurana]

Bessie: this is my husband Hosea and my husband's boyfriend Dutch.