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Red Dead Redemption 2 – The Central Question for the Protagonist

Russell Wilbinski
LitRPG, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer

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Good day friends!

Recently, a little known game called ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ was released to much fan fare and praise. Honestly, it is deserving of many of the accolades showered upon it, from the serious realism and attention to detail, this game is a laborious and luxurious romp into what Video Games are becoming. I have no doubt that as a LitRPG author, some of our wildest concepts from the Genre will become reality in the future as gaming systems and virtual reality continue their march forward.

All that aside, I wanted to talk about what I felt was a central question posed by the story, the main character and by me. You see, I tried to play the game as a paragon, doing everything I could to live a normal life, interspersed with violent narrative hooks that were unavoidable. Just because I was a criminal, didn’t mean I had to be an asshole.

The question I kept asking myself: How many men do I have to kill before you leave me be?

Throughout, I could not stop thinking about this question, and it nearly drove me mad. You see, once you have a bounty, an endless parade of lunatic heroes (bounty hunters) come a’callin, ready to put you into the grave for your many sins. No matter how far away you go, no matter how good you are in the general day to day, these men are tireless and relentless.

I gunned them down, group after group, looting their wedding rings and family heirlooms from their still warm bodies. I would mount up, move on and try once again to find some peace. Much like the main story wants you to understand, men of Arthur’s station will never find peace. Even into old age, Arthur will be hunted until he is finally killed.

After I have killed my hundredth or maybe even thousandth bounty hunter, I can’t help but ask myself yet again: How many of you do I have to kill just to exist? At what point does capturing or killing me become a price beyond paying? Will there always be so many men willing to lay down their own lives just to put an end to my sad and lonely existence?

The old west was an insane time in American history. Lawless gangs roamed all across the unclaimed west, striking fear and terror in the poor folk just trying to eek out their own meager existence in the frontiers of the past.The government hired the first paramilitary organizations to hunt down these men as it pushed west, claiming ever more of the wild places and converting them to civilization. Sometimes by force, if necessary.

Late in the game, I decided to see how long I could go before being found by the next group of bounty hunters, finding an abandoned shack deep in the mountains. I spent the days hunting, fishing and eating what I killed or caught. I camped, and stayed far, far from civilization but as always, the ruthless and the desperate came looking and I killed them, one and the same. I would pull up stakes, ride hard west and find a new, isolated place to call my own and the cycle started over: a few days of peace, then bloodshed and bodies.

So, in the flickering light of a campfire, two bottles of fine whiskey lulling me to sleep, there was still that same question. And sadly, as history has shown, there is no answer.