#john “jack” marston jr

[marstonsboy]

May I ask what you think Jack’s spirit animal is? I’ve heard some people say raccoon or wolf pup and that is so friggin cute 😖💕

hi!!! i’ve yapped about this a little on my main blog, but thanks for the excuse to talk about it here :3

so the animal symbolism in red dead redemption is fantastic, with two distinctive animals used to signify high and low honor in arthur— a buck for high honor (prey animal, usually symbolically associated w the cycles of nature and rebirth, as deer shed and regrow their antlers as seasons go on), and a coyote for low honor (predatory animal often associated with cunning and trickery, but also curiosity).

with jack, i like to think his high honor animal is a maned wolf. further explanation under the cut :)

so, for clarification, despite the name, maned wolves aren’t wolves! they’re named after wolves, and are often described as “foxes on stilts” due to their physical resemblance to foxes, but they’re genetically distinguishable from both. they happen to be the only species in the “golden dog”/chrysocyon genus. they’re omnivorous, solitary predators, and the dark mane on their necks raises when they sense danger.

i know picking a predatory animal to represent high honor is a little strange, but allow me to explain. the maned wolf is notoriously solitary— aka not a pack animal, like the wolf they’re named after. (sound familiar?) it’s also compared a lot to foxes, due to physical resemblance, but afaik they aren’t genetically related to foxes - and they’re canines, not vulpines. they’re skittish, shy, and only attack humans if they feel threatened, and can make a loud roar/bark noise to communicate over long distances.

jack happens to be the only person left of the marston family, as well as one of the few surviving associates/“members” (i guess, but he was like. four. so i hesitate to give him that status) of the van der linde gang. he’s named after his father, and is repeatedly confused with him/told how much he resembles him as an adult. he deals with the aftermath and repercussions of his father’s actions, and perpetuates the cycle of violence despite knowing it’s exactly what everyone who loved him died to prevent. i think it fits that, even with high honor, jack’s associated animal is predatory. he’ll live the rest of his life running from his own choices, just like his father, and he’ll never be able to escape his legacy.

in terms of his low honor animal, i usually default to a wolf. why? similar answer: repetition of the cycle, living his life dwarfed by his father’s shadow. becoming the monster you were told to be better than and grow beyond. my slightly more unhinged take would be a bear— in part because of that time he got mauled half to death by one, and i think i’m funny— but also because bears happen to be largely solitary predators, and, well. y’know. both wolves and bears are also considered highly dangerous apex predators, so do with that what you will.

i lean more towards wolf, though, if i’m being honest. one of jack’s defining character traits is the way he feels inferior to john, or how he feels he needs to prove himself in order to earn his affection and approval. so much so, that he’ll do things that he knows damn well his parents wouldn’t want him to do, like go hunt down a full grown grizzly bear by himself, or kill a man in cold blood and doom himself to becoming an outlaw when he’s only nineteen years old. he’s my favorite character, and thus i must emotionally torment him in the most psychologically devastating ways possible.

thank you so much for the ask, i love to yap forever and ever about him !!<3

[flo-zoinks]

Can yall imagine Bonnie MacFarlane and everyone reading the news in 1914 with the biggest article being like "SAVAGE SON OF JOHN MARSTON MURDERS RETIRED RENOWED PINKERTON AGENT ROSS IN COLD BLOOD . CURRENTLY ON THE LOOSE" and being like oh damn

I know for certain those newspapers would NOT of given him mercy and called him a crazy deranged uncivilized child of radicalisation indoctrinated into an outdated life of outlaws in the day and age trynna paint him like he just killed a senile old man who was only doing his job to try and bring society forward and safer

[burnedsolongg]

jack: has john's exact body and facial model mixed with abigail's features , has roughly the same skin tone , and is constantly confused for john throughout the game in 1914 also jack: has facial hair (something that can easily be styled and keep in mind that facial hair isn't genetic btw!) mildly similar to javier rdr fans: '' he must be javier's son !!1 ''

[iicaru2]

i caved embarrassingly fast and made a side blog just for jack marston. if my deranged rambling about him interests and/or entertains you, there is now a spot where i plan to do so Exclusively, and at marginally more insane word counts than before. it barely exists and i’m already twitching at the idea of yelling about how sad he makes me, so expect further silliness to follow

[marstonsboy]

do you think that even with all the anger and grief haunting him every day, a part of him would be resigned at the fact that even after his death, he’s still doomed to live the rest of his life in his father’s shadow? that maybe all he’ll ever be is a diminutive, a poor copy of what came before?

since jack's real name is john [there's proof in rdr1], do you think in 1914 if anyone ever found out and called him by his real name instead of the name he had gone by his whole life he would either just start breaking down sobbing thinking about what happened to his dad just 3 years earlier or he would instead show all the emotions he's had pent up for all those years [even after killing agent ross] through aggression and violence and end up shutting himself out for days to even a month or two

[astar-and-astorm]

I just did a synopsis

The Marston’s waist game is CRAZY

[lavander-lament]

My heart breaks for fictional men.

[omgwhatchloe]

seeing theories of jack marston joining ww1 makes me giggle because. i promise you, if anyone from the government tries to tell jack marston what he is and isn’t doing, they are getting shot.

in fact, they’re getting lassoed and dragged on the back on his horse.

[dazednstoned]

idk if you’ve talked about this already but what do you think the name of John and Abigail’s daughter was?

Ironically, at some point I was gonna ask this as a general question bc it's something I'll have to include in my fic later on.

Susanna seems to be a relatively popular hc. It's after the song John sings in the epilogue and also the name of John and Abigail Adams' (who all the marstons names are inspired by) deceased daughter. I like this one, but I'm pretty sure there are already fics out there that use it so I don't wanna copy that.

There are some Arthur related ones, but I really dislike those. I don't think John, who can't even talk ab Arthur, would name his daughter something like Morgan or Artis. I like to think Abigail gave her the middle name Beatrice to honor Arthur indirectly though.

Sorry I didn't really answer ur question lol. But if anyone has any hcs for the marston daughters name I could use in my fic PLEASE lmk bc I can't think of any.

[marstonsboy]

i can’t think about jack marston without nearly crying over just how sorry i feel for him. like, i’m sorry you were only four years old when the admittedly unstable support system you had fell apart. i’m sorry you didn’t have a real, permanent home until you were twelve, and i’m sorry you only got four years before that too was ripped away from you. i’m sorry you felt that you had to prove yourself otherwise your father would leave again like he’s done multiple times before. i’m sorry you felt so inferior you were unable to believe that your parents loved you so much and would have done anything for you. i’m sorry you had to pick up a gun and shoot at people at sixteen and kill a man for the first time at nineteen. i’m sorry you watched uncle die then watched your mother lose herself to grief over your father’s corpse, riddled with bullets in front of your home. i’m sorry you had to bury your mother only three years later. i’m sorry you lost your family and yourself and willingly threw your life away so young in the name of revenge no one wanted you to seek. i’m sorry you ended up all alone and grew up to be exactly the man your family did everything to save you from becoming. i’m so sorry jack marston.

[flo-zoinks]

WHAT I IMAGINE EACH MODERN DAY JOB EACH RDR2 GANG MEMBER WOULD HAVE (legal)

Javier - musician (in a band but more often then not is doing solo performances)

Trelawny - all ages Magician/street performer

Pearson - office canteen cook

Abigail - barista

John - goes from job to job until becoming buying his own hunting shop and gets to go hunting often

Dutch - used to be a generally unliked politician by the people (aside from a cult following) but quit to become a youth group leader essentially grooming children into his ideals

Hosea - Uni Professer who would've been fired years ago for his actions but students adore him and somehow get good results

Arthur - a small art store owner with few yet very recurring customers

Sadie - hunter out far away from cities (buys from John's place and goes with him hunting)

Charles - farmer far from cities too

Uncle - FIRED UNEMPLOYED BUM

Bill - running a construction company

Kieran - stable hand

Jack - writer (1914) but works for in his mother's bar sometimes for extra cash

Karen - door to door saleswoman

Tilly - fashion designer

Mary-beth - a writer too

Grimshaw - bar owner who treats her favourite customers like family

Reverend - guess it's a clue in the name

Micah - gun shop assistant manager

Molly - ballet teacher (her LOVES designing the costume and stories)

Sean - it changes every 6 months to something completely random to the last but rn its delivery boy

Lenny - consultant for a major company (always has a job ready incase sean needs it)

YALL THIS ONE IM NOT SURE ABOUT BUT TELL ME WHO I FORGOTTT

[burnedsolongg]

no, jack wouldn't join ww1. it honestly pisses me off that people think he would join the army when he wouldn't

[evercornelias]

IF YOUR NAME IS JOHN MARSTON I LOVE YOU

[lavander-lament]

The first thing I did after beating rdr1 as John and moving on to Jack was, go back into the house and look around, not seeing Abigail in the kitchen stirring her pot which now sits untouched on the stove shattered my heart, seeing uncles room empty made me sad, then I went into John’s room and looked around, it was so quiet, so empty, I wanted jack to just lay on his parents bed and mourn, to grieve properly, but he couldn’t, I wonder how many nights jack sat on the couch waiting and wishing his mama would walk out of the kitchen and scold him for bringing his muddy boots into the house, how sad jack must have been when the farm became uncared for.

[nthspecialll]

Since Jack's real name is John Marston Jr, do you guys think that when Abigail yells through Beechers Hope "JOHN MARSTON!" that there is a split second where both John and Jack freeze up to see if she will add a "JR!"?

Jack hopes she doesn't, John hopes she does.

[frostbitemutt]

some Jack marston hcs? Low honor more specifically 👀

Oh dear. But, Yes. Yes I will. This is low honor. Don't expect anything less than awful 💀.

Yandere! Low honor! Jack Marston hcs

Warnings: gender neutral darling, yandere trope, forced "relationship", obsession, stalking, harassment, unwanted crude flirting, perverted comments, non-consensual kissing and touching mentioned (nothing explicit), breaking and entering, kidnapping, violence, murder, sadism

Main traits:

|perverted/possessive/violent/sadistic|

✘ John Jack Marston Jr. Better to just call him Jack. A raunchy 19 year old trying to imitate his less than a saint father. On track to being an outlaw... yeah.. you're pretty fucked. He's an absolute little shithead.

✘ I'm going to assume you're a local townsfolk, maybe a store clerk, farmer, or maybe you're just his neighbor. You'll know when you've caught his eye. He makes it more than clear. Hounding you around town. Cat-calling you.

✘ His comments are perverted "They tell me I'm at my sexual peak sweetheart..", "Come on, just one kiss.", "are you are aroused as I am?".. and other comments. Very much to your dismay. Dosen't matter your gender. The perversion dosen't stop at words. If you don't have your curtains shut.. you may have to deal with a peeping Tom. His hands wander where they shouldn't, attempting to grab at you, pull you in close enough for him to kiss.

✘ He's possessive of you. You're not in a relationship. Hell you're not even friendly with him. You're definitely less than that. He still feels you're his regardless of the fact you hate his ass. No other man or woman needs to be looking or touching up on you. That's his job. Not theirs. He won't stand by and let someone else harrass you either. To him it's only okay when he does it. Hypocrite. Threatening, dueling, and shooting people left and right.

✘ Just like his daddy, he's violent. Wouldn't John be proud? Probably not. I already mentioned him shooting randos down. Your friends? They're found with a ludicrous amount of bullet holes. Lover? Yeah their head got blow clean off with a shotgun, sorry. You ain't off the hook either. He'll tackle you to the ground and manhandle you in a fit of anger. He'll shout real loud too. Sudden and explosive is how his temper runs.

✘ Sadism is something that shines through a bit in Jack. Now he's not going out of his way to harm or hit you most of the time, unless he's feeling petty. Maybe he'll give you a mildly harsh kick to your side. However that dosent mean he isn't at all. Your tears, your screams, your sobs, and your insults...make him feel all funny inside as he'd put it. Yuck. He'll laugh and snort at you most of the time. Mocking you and your fear. Maybe even make some pig noises at you to add some salt to the wound. Calling out "Sooie!".

✘ You swear, you wake up at least once a week to a weird noise in your home. Window or door suddenly cracked open, not even cracked, more like wide open. Yet you can't find no one. Oh, yeah, mutiple items go missing too. Lots of clothes. Toothbrush. Notebooks if you got any. Were there always boot prints in your carpet? Your bed feel oddly warm? Nope. It was Jack. Who else.

✘ Escape is certainly.. difficult when he goes to kidnap you. He abuses the fuck out of his lasso. Running away on foot? Lasso. On horse? Get the fuck over here. Lasso. Move more than 30 feet from him? Lasso. That point he's doing it cause he thinks it's funny. Unfortunate for you. Not to downplay the fear that comes with it. Thinking you're free, only to be yanked off your horse and hogtied to the back of his.

✘ It's all much worse when he has you isolated, in his home. No police you can snitch to, bystanders to chase him off, or neighbors of yours to questioning him snooping about. He's dosen't bother restraining himself, he was barely before. Sloppily kissing you, hands grasping wherever he can, shoving you against the nearest solid surface. It's vile.

✘ You'll have to endure more of his tantrums than ever. Grumbling when you refuse to talk to him, because why would you want to? Pouting and stomping his foot when you push him away from you. Going on rants when you won't stop crying. His mood changes day from day. Luckily after a bit you might be able to read his face and tell when he's about to to blow a fuse. You can brace yourself for his delusional complaining.

✘ Don't loose all hope. Escape is possible. Now I'm not going to say Jack's stupid, he isn't. However we're still talking about a 19 year old. (I'm almost 19 I can throw shade). He doesn't have a plethora experience like his dad or an older outlaw. He's a new adult on a violent power trip. If he leaves the house, check the locks, he might have forgotten one. Try to knock him unconscious in his sleep or.. more permanent if you're absolutely certain you can. That's the more risky option. If you can act well enough, you can possibly convince him to let you outside with him. If he does? Book it.