#arthur’s so caught up in his damage control that he can’t call dutch out for putting his life at risk

[scootkiddo]

I sympathize with arthur for a myriad of reasons but one of them was that he couldn’t get out of his own way when it came to dutch’s fall from grace before it was too late.

from the very beginning he was skeptical when it came to dutch’s plans, when it came to comparing the pragmatism behind said plans to the improbability of them taking shape. arthur wasn’t necessarily vocal when it came to his doubts towards dutch himself, but he found his outlets in john or other gang members to voice his concern. over what happened in blackwater. over the grandeur of his aspirations to unearth some kind of safe haven or paradise where they could disappear from civilization.

post-the trolley mission in saint denis is where arthur risks putting his hand on the stove. it’s from here on out that dutch’s composure begins to rattle, where he begins to snuff out doubt and shoot accusations. when the whole revenge plot on bronte brews arthur’s own kind of doubt, he communicates it. and not only does dutch double down on the defense, he retrofits the doubt to target arthur right back. he guilt-trips, gaslights— he does everything within his discernible power to make arthur feel bad about lacking “faith” in the man that raised him & brought him up.

arthur backpedals and basically rolls over on his belly bc…what else is he equipped to do? how could he place doubt in his mentor? the one that took him in, the one that taught him most of everything he knows? the co-dependency is what gives arthur an achilles’. it’s not that arthur can’t see the woods for the trees; he sees them most vividly. but he struggles to look at dutch’s behavior and see if it lines up with the persona he’s once projected. instinctually he sees the red flags. instinctually he hears the alarms bell sounding out dutch’s moral and ethical decadence. but he doesn’t have the toolset to navigate the space for challenging dutch’s mindset.

dutch taught arthur everything except to keep him in check