#nthspecialll

[nthspecialll]

I love how chill Arthur is with disabled people, honestly in ways that even modern folk ain't.

When he meets Bertram he is just like, "I don't know what is going on here but okay." When the bartender is yelling and saying Bertram should be in a cage, Arthur just replies "you should think about who you are serving!" And when Bertram comes to say sorry, Arthur says "you just stay away from that sherry now." There is never any pity nor never any belitting.

When he meets Hamish, he doesn't ask weird or intrusive questions about the leg. At first he refrains from asking any questions, merely listening to Hamish's many stories, it is first after making sure Hamish is okay with talking about it he asks "how did you lose the leg?" and "how is the fake one?" Once again, he doesn't belittle Hamish, he even says to Buell "he doesn't seem like a man you want to cross."

[gremlin-boah]

Dutch, I give thee, a mango... A regular mango... Totally nothing off about it... (Gremlin-boah, come closer, imma tell ya something, it is a rock painted as a mango)

Trolley incident? No. Mango incident

He's fiiinneee... Right @nthspecialll?

[nthspecialll]

A little something I worked on with some other awesome creators. Also we KNOW his name is Marion, this is based on a newspaper.

@gremlin-boah @canismordere @astar-and-astorm

[nthspecialll]

Talk to me about javier. I love hearing people tell us about their blorbos. What they love about them, why they fell for them, etc.

Oh god this is such an open ask, um, Javier is such a special character to me because he is true, he is raw in a way. Javier's story is bound with uncertianties and dumb decisions made on glorification and missing knowledge, which I think we can all relate to in a way, not as seriously as this, but it is how things are in real life too. You don't always get the information you need, your wishful thinking gets in your way and you end up with regrets and having to face the reality that maybe things you loved weren't so good at all to begin with.

Also his character design is awesome, he has a little chin, a soft belly and looks a little bit dorty sometimes, he doesn't look like the ideal conventional beauty icon, he looks human. He has "flaws" like scars, a little bit too much fat and his mouth is just slightly agape ever so often. I just really hate how no one ads those traits, the traits that makes him him, because they have created this romantic version of him in their head and his physical appearence doesn't fit that.

Javier is also a character who's personality is not just handed to you on a silver platter, there aren't a lot of misions with him so if you just play the game quickly you don't really get his story, which means a lot of folk think he is boring or "just a pretty face." Which I absolutely hate, it is so fair that people don't hang around camp as much and don't get to see his personality, that is fair, but just don't deny it is there. Javier's story is so complicated and so interesting and it sucks when people brush it aside because "if I don't see it, it doesn't exist."

But also the fact Javier gave up his entire life in Mexico for a girl he loved, brother. It is so interesting.

[nthspecialll]

do you have any modern headcanons of arthur or just the gang in general? :)

i keep thinking about it and not to sound weird but i cannot find like trauma for arthur that he would experience in a modern reality that would make him basically act the same? since his past trauma makes him who he is.

like many things could work and apply in a modern setting such as Eliza and Isaac getting murdered over a botched robbery. but i keep thinking more about like how arthur would be able to become ‘hardened’ and act up the bruteish side of him without:

a: getting out in prison or have like a manhunt with the news and helicopters searching for him

b: just getting therapy like he deserves and should but i’m trying to write like ‘toxic’ modern head canons

I think the murder of his family could very well harden him. But he can still be in a gang related setting even if it is modern au, that will allow a lot more things to get translated easlier.

But none gang related modern au, foster system, that shit sucks from what I have heard. Like father is a petty criminal so Arthur has to find ways to pay rent until his dad ends up shot in some weird drug deal gone wrong or something and then Arthur ends in foster system.

[nthspecialll]

"Do you have my back Arthur?"

"Always" will always be an absolute classic line for me, but it is interesting that Dutch even asked that question to begin with.

The conversation which takes place in the beginning of "That's Murfree Country" is based around Arthur's worry about the future and Dutch's seemingly terrible handling of the situations leading to that moment. It is very clear that Dutch is not having any of it, actively trying to redirect the conversation away from his lack of plans and getting fustrated when Arthur isn't biting.

Dutch talks about his game and not having played his final move, to which Arthur says "seems I am more interested in saving lives than playing chess" with clear annoyance in his voice. Dutch replies to this "well maybe life isn't something worth clinging so tightly onto" which is a value he does not agree with but comes as a sprout of the moment reply because Arthur in fact is right, saving lives means more than the game Dutch is planning.

Another line that is interesting is "You sound like Hosea, I miss him," which seems like a very sweet reminisent moment, however Arthur is quick to realise this is a distraction attempt and pulls Dutch back on track by saying "I asked you a question," rather than letting himself get pulled away in sorrow.

Now we come to the really interesting part, after this, Arthur starts very opening critizing Dutch and the hopelessness of their situation and rather than accepting the fact that Arthur is right, Dutch pulls the loyalty card by asking "do you have my back?" trying to, once again, distract Arthur and in a way guilting him into the belief of "if you trust me you will not question me." Now had this conversation happened in earlier chapters, likely this would have worked on Arthur, but he is done with Dutch by this point and points out "there is more than your back to worry about."

[nthspecialll]

....

I really wanted John to do something with Arthur's hat during the end credits

Maybe give it to Jack, maybe put it on the porch, resting at last, maybe running into Mary while wearing it

I just

THE EPILOG DIDNT ACKNOWLEDGE ARTHUR ENOUGH FOR ME!

He gets mentioned like four times

7ish if you did specific side things

God I love the epilog but

It's Arthur you know?

Arthur Morgan

Arthur...

There's only one cure for how I've made myself feel by typing this

TO THE AO3MOBILE!

YES TO AO3, GO FEED THE DELULUS, but they do explain why John doesn't bring up Arthur, what is done is done, the past is the past, let it rest.

[nthspecialll]

Imagine if Arthur actually died in all the stupid ways we as players have died, like I cannot take this scenario seriously.

Hosea: "Dutch... Arthur died... he was greeting a stranger and accidently rode over the edge of a cliff" or "Dutch... Arthur died, he somehow managed to find a lion and got his throat slashed."

[nthspecialll]

I think more people need to talk about the fact Charles put Susan's necklace around her grave.

[nthspecialll]

(This is not a serious analysis, do not take it seriously)

I think it is fucking funny that people around Arthur keeps questioning his sexuality and while he has no fucking clue about it, he also ain't helping his own case.

When rejecting some of the prositutes you might encounter reactions like "oh so you don't like pretty girls" or "oh you are one of those, I don't judge" to which Arthur might just replies "thank you."

Street kids will mock him by saying "looking for the cheapest whore house?" "As if he even likes women!"

The one time he is kissed on the mouth is by a dude, Bill thinks Arthur literally fucked a dude and was ready to accept him as one of theirs AND ANOTHER OF THE CANONLY GAY CHARACTERS (Alden, confirmed by the Rhodes saloon bartender) WRITES KISSES ON THE NOTES HE GIVES ARTHUR.

At the same time Arthur says "I think there are both men and women worth loving in this world" and there is a glitch where a man WILL LITERALLY WAKE UP IN BED NEXT TO ARTHUR.

[nthspecialll]

I love that Arthur can fall off a cliff, get thrown by a horse, get run down by a deer, almost eaten by a mountian lion and all he will say is "oh brother" or "damn it," like okay you just broke like fourteen bones but sure that is a fitting reaction.

[nthspecialll]

I won't lie to you, it doesn’t look half bad, some meat, potatoes, carrots and mushrooms boiled in a broth. I would eat it. Well done Pearson.

[nthspecialll]

Yall think he took inspiration?

[nthspecialll]

I will never stop thinking about how much Hosea loved Bessie and how little Dutch loved Annabelle. It is something I have talked about before but I only get more and more upset about.

Hosea talks about his wife always, around the campfire, to strangers, while playing dominos and while chating with friends. He brings her up at any occation meanwhile Dutch only mentions Annabelle in one, when he needs to justify revenge.

We know so much about Bessie, we know her likes and dislikes, we somewhat know her personality, we know what she looked like and how she affected and still affects Hosea. We know nothing about Annabelle, has been reduced to "Dutch's girlfriend" while Bessie is a woman of her own.

I was replaying A Gilded Cage and Hosea stopped a man who said "Pardon, I have to go see my fiance" to tell him "a wife is a wonderful thing," in this mournful voice, and I knew Dutch would never do that. Annabelle is more useful to him dead than alive. While she was alive she was most likely similar to Molly, a sign of superiority but also someone he had to take care of, a burden. While dead he can bring her up to justify his hatred of Colm but he doesn't need to give her anything back.

Bessie's name is said in love and longing, Annabelle's is in bloodlust and revenge.

(Tags: @photo1030 @pinescent-and-gingerbread )

[nthspecialll]

I was rewatching an interview with Rob where he talks about Jack and John, and for some reason I never caught onto the fact that he said John feels intimidated by Jack. He reveals that despite being very proud of Jack, he is also intimidated by him because Jack is smarter than him.

I never realised it before but he is right, Jack was given the perfect amount of both street smarts and book smarts to be able to balance in both worlds. He can read and do maths and all of that, but he grew up with outlaws, he grew up listening to the songs made about his aunts and uncles, reading the dime novels made on his parents and seeing his family's killers name in the newspaper. John was never really given both. He knows how to read but he isn't really that booksmart, meanwhile Jack is reading bible verses for his mom.

John never got to see Jack at his full potential, yet still felt intimidated. It would have been quite interesting to see how John would have reacted to grown Jack, a man who could now handle a gun like an outlaw and do maths like an academic.