#mary gillis

[drizzledrawings]

They’re so tragic oh my god they’re so doomed oh my god

[jinaxxo]

my dear arthur...

[dazednstoned]

Absolutely absurd that people give Arthur and John the benefit of the doubt by labeling them complex characters (which they are), but won't extend that grace to INCREDIBLY complex characters like Abigail, Molly, and Mary.

Abigail is strictly a nag, Molly is a rat, and Mary is a selfish woman who used Arthur. Meanwhile, John is seen as a deadbeat who grew from that into a family man. Arthur is a murderer, but he's also kind and generous.

Stop only extending grace to your male favs when the red dead women are just as complex as them.

[fshfish]

sketches

[arthursfuckinghat]

"Alright, let's go get that picture taken, if it means that much to you."

"It does.. today it does."

[inky125]

Mary Linton and Jack Marston meeting in 1922

Okay but these are just my headcanons for the very improbable scenario that they end up bumping into each other in the future. / My headcanons for what they would do with their lives after the events of rdr/rdr2

(I'm going to explain them under the cut)

Okay so, starting with Jack:

I want to believe Jack lived a more or less normal life after killing Ross, successfully getting away with this one (1) murder, and having that as a skeleton in his closet. Not finding peace really, so the whole revenge thing doesn't fix his miserable life but he can go on to try to do something with his life. Gunslinging doesn't really have a place anymore here.

When the US joined WWI I know that boy DID NOT join the US Army, he would NEVER join the group that killed his dad, or make the same mistake as him and make a deal with the government. He would rather be jailed for dodging the draft, what will they do, threaten him with what? He has nothing to live for really, so they can't make him. I don't think he cares much if he gets shot (he has a like saying as much in rdr when he duels Ross).

After the whole jail thing he'd go back to a more or less normal life, I'd guess he would have to have a regular job and write whenever he's able (I want to believe that one Easter egg in GTA is canon...it is to me...), but I don't think he'd be able to make a living just from writing.

As for Mary, I always wondered why Mary was dressed the way she was during the credits cut scene in Rdr2. Because I'm guessing it takes place in 1907 (given that most cut scenes appear to happen at the same time more or less than the epilogue). But I wondered why Mary was dressing in black; I mean, during the Victorian era there were very specific mourning traditions, especially for women. Wearing black was pretty much a part of a social thing, you'd publicly mourn. The extension of your mourning would depend on who died and what was your relationship with them.

And here is the thing, Arthur had died 8 years ago by then, we could assume Mary had found out shortly after of his dead because newspapers in the Rdr2 universe love to brag whenever law enforcement/Pinkertons kill renown outlaws. (Even Arthur and Hosea get mentioned years later in some sort of article in 1907 too). And additionally, we know that Mary kept up with how the gang, especially Arthur, was doing through the news on the newspapers. So again, it wouldn't be crazy to assume she knew about Arthur's death back in 1899.

So then, why is she wearing a black dress to visit his grave in 1907?. Black is the color of mourning, but as far as I am aware (and correct me if I'm wrong) it was not required to visit a grave back in the day. So I like to headcanon Mary mourning Arthur like a widow, because widows would have to wear their black weeds for 2 years (there were different periods of mourning, for instance Mary's clothes could be classified under the 'half-mourning' type, meaning there has been at least 6 months since her loved one passed away, meaning she could now wear some jewelry, other colours, ect.

But here is a little extra, Queen Victoria popularized among some women the practice to never abandon their period of half mourning, and especially, keep wearing black the rest of their lives even if they move on, as a sign of love for their dead husband.

Mary and Arthur never got married, but I like to think Mary lived as a widow for him. Continuing with her life as normal, of course, but always having that bittersweet ache in her heart, dressing in black out of respect and love for him and the life they couldn't have. Even if she had wanted to move on from him after she realized they couldn't be together as Arthur wouldn't leave the gang, I think she would have folded if Arthur had gone after her (I mean she did re-initiate contact after they were supposed to never speak again), and I think she was still preparing herself emotionally when she heard the news that Arthur was dead, ironically not moving on from him.

She didn't remarry, Jamie made good money and maintained her, Mary knew the kind of life she didn't want and she could be respectable and old as a widow. Plus marrying someone new at her age would be a titanic task.

I think Mary kept her mother's brooch Arthur returned for her as her reminder of him, given that she returned the picture and the ring. In fact she's wearing it when she visits Arthur's grave in-game!. So I kept that

It just warms my heart to think of the very few people left who knew about the gang finding each other in usual ways. Maybe next time I'd do Sadie or Charles. I'm just a sucker for this kind of things

[brothermoth]

They loved each other so much, know how I can tell? Mary was the only person in Arthur’s life who expected more of him. She wanted him to get out of that cycle of violence and have something that could last. Arthur rolled over and accepted that the way he lived would end in his death. He valued his life too little, and she cared too much to watch him throw it away

[poem is “Seeing a Dog in the Rain” by Laura Gilpin, who you may know from her two headed calf poem]

[daroamine]

i was just startin' to dream the silliest and softest of dreams...

[click for quality tumblr is a killer]

[ranna-alga]

Lancelot and Guinevere ♡

Click for higher quality! Text is from "Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere" by Alfred Lord Tennyson whilst the pose is based on one of Joe Bowler's paintings. The original Arthurian story of Lancelot and Guinevere is so Marthur-coded to me </3 also if you cannot see what kind of flowers are behind the text, they're forget-me-nots, which were indeed an intentional choice given their symbolism of love, remembrance, and death in some interpretations

[creamqueen]

"mary was only using arthur and guilt tripping him!!!she was wrong she" BEGONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[messrmoonyy]

She deserved more screen time!!!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[ahti-the-janitor]

People love to say "Mary was unfair expecting Arthur to leave the gang, his family, behind to live with her" but rarely does anyone say "Arthur was unfair expecting Mary to live with him like that and leave her family and life behind".

[geekysteven]

From a tweet by Mary Gillis

[cryptidcr3ature]

Y’all Mary wasn’t wrong in her reasons for not wanting to be with Arthur. Like she knew who Arthur was and his lifestyle, but she also knew that there was a kind and loyal person in Arthur. As much as she disproved of his lifestyle, that wasn’t the factor that tore them apart but the fact she would always be put second in Arthur’s life.

Mary was always second. She’s the eldest daughter, her brother’s keeper, and even her father’s caretaker. Her choices were never just hers except for loving Arthur. Arthur was a selfish choice for her, the man who everyone disproved of, but he wasn’t who they saw him as. However in Arthur’s eyes, he didn’t want to change but for her to come along like Bessie did for Hosea. The difference though is Hosea at least tried to change for Bessie, but she didn’t want that for him. Mary wanted to know if Arthur’s loyalty would have ever changed, but it didn’t. Instead, she chose someone to put her first (at least till he died.)

After her husband’s death, she even tried again to see if Arthur would choose her first and was inevitably disappointed again. Then she found his grave and probably heard that he “betrayed” the gang. She always knew he could change, but it was just too late.

[midnighvtm4ss]

MOVE MARY IT’S MY TURN

[arthursfuckinghat]

I know we all give Arthur some grace when it comes to the missions with Mary, but I don't think I can ever get over how knowingly or unknowingly harsh Arthur was when he met her right off the bat.

"Happened a while ago.. pneumonia."

"Bad business."

"Sure."

"So.. you've been.. you've been made a widow and you come here looking for me, is that it?"

She just explained how her husband died, of pneumonia of all things, and while it's understandable where Arthur's coming from, you cannot deny how it was so utterly cruel to frame her like that when she hadn't had the chance to explain herself yet. Arthur was hurt by the idea of Mary running back to him as her second choice, but even just insinuating that hurt Mary even more. They had so much to talk about, they deserved more time.