John Marston: An Honorable Man in a Wild World > 자유게시판

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John Marston is many things to many different people, including himself. To some, he was a vicious outlaw; to others, a desperate family man who would do anything to return to those he loved. To me, he was and will always be an honorable man in a dishonorable world.

"I'm many things, most of 'em bad."

Before going any further, we need to address the ludonarrative dissonance in the room. Ludonarrative dissonance is when the story told by the narrative doesn't fit the story reinforced by the gameplay. It was first applied to Nathan Drake of Uncharted fame to discuss the oxymoronic nature of a charming rogue who has killed thousands of people.

Now, I am not saying that John Marston would be considered honorable in our world, though some of the world's most celebrated heroes have blood on their hands, merely that he is an honorable man in the world in which he lives. At least he was in my playthrough. Although anything he may have done while wearing a bandanna surely has no impact on his honor, right?

In my playthrough, John was an honorable man in search of redemption nearly as much as he was searching for his family. He was striving to not only reunite with them, but to prove to himself that he deserved that reunion.

When we first meet John, he's just a rough and tumble cowpoke who gruffly shouts out the name Bill Williamson. He tries to give his old pal a chance to surrender peacefully, an act that is honorable and foolish in equal measure, before getting shot for his trouble. As a player, that's all the motivation we need. We are looking to reunite with our family, and some dude just shot us. It's game on.

However, it's not too long after we see the honorable man John is under all of his shortcomings. He is rescued and nursed back to health by Bonnie MacFarlane, a fierce and proud rancher, and John goes out of his way to repay his debt to her and her family.

With Bonnie being the most prominent female character in the game characters, and the fact that she and John share a connection, it is natural to assume that she and Marston will become a couple at some point.

But despite his obvious affection for her, John is not tempted. It bucks the trend of so many AAA epicplayblog games, in that feelings are made obvious, but never acted on. For the writers to make that choice for John would sacrifice who he is at his core.

"Now I ain't the judge, but...as it turns out, it's you or me. The way I see it might as well be you."

The narrative thrust of the Red Dead Redemption is the John is being forced by the Bureau of Investigation head Edgar Ross to hunt down his former associates from his time as a member of the Van der Linde gang.

If he doesn't, his family will be killed by the lawmen who have taken them hostage. It is a wild world indeed when those who are meant to uphold the law are instead one of the greatest threats to it.

Despite the risk involved, to both his wellbeing and that of his family, John offers each of his former compatriots the chance to surrender. He knows them better than he knows himself and, as such, harbors no illusions that they will come quietly. Yet he still extends the olive branch to those he once called friend.

John takes no pleasure in what he has to do, but he does it because he is a man of honor, and a man of honor can be manipulated in this world of chaos. If the roles were reversed and any of John's former allies were in his place, the only thing that might motivate them is greed.

John is targeted because he is trying to become a better man, while his brothers are content with being outlaws until the end. In the end, its John's honor that leads to his undoing.

"Every man has a right to change, a chance of forgiveness."

When his job is done, and he hunts down the last of his former partners in crime, it seems that John is finally given a chance at redemption he has longed for. His reunion with his family isn't as storybook as he might have hoped.

His son Jack is cold and distant, and his wife Abigal is worried that John will slip back into his desperado ways. After all the work John put in, it hardly seems fair. But as John himself says to his wife, "Ain't nothing fair. You know that."

Still, the real masterstroke of the game is that it lets us live life with our MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is an object or person that drives the plot forward. Our character needs to get or regain the MacGuffin, and thus it justifies everything they do in pursuit of it. Usually, when the MacGuffin is acquired, that's when the credits roll. But that's not the case with Red Dead Redemption .

John, and again we the player, must now make life in the world we so desperately fought for. Instead of firing a Gatling gun to take out a gang stronghold or lending a helping hand to a fledgling rebellion, John is striving to be the man he said he wanted to be. He's teaching his son to hunt, herding cattle, and making deliveries. In terms of gameplay, it's boring, but in service of the narrative, it is exquisitely done.

John isn't lauded for his efforts to change. Instead, he is somewhat belittled by those he fought so hard to reunite with. But he is not doing these things because they are easy. To John, robbing a train or gunning a man down in the street is easy. The hard part is living a just life in an unjust world.

"People don't forget. Nothing gets forgiven."

John Marston did everything Edgar Ross asked him to do. For his actions, he was supposed to receive a pardon for his past. But John knows all to well that the past can't be killed, and in the end, it catches up to us all.

I remember thinking that this surely couldn't be the end of John. Not after all he'd done. I was convinced that there was a way to survive the final shoutout with the government. At the very least, I hoped that I could take Ross down with me. It seemed the only just option, the only thing that seemed fair. But Red Dead Redemption isn't interested in being fair.

And so John is gunned down, and perhaps the most tragic outcome of all is that his son follows him down the path of the outlaw. In some ways, John's life can be seen as a waste. But to strive against what we know to be wrong, even if the outcome seems inevitable, is never a waste.

In fact, it is one of the most honorable things we can do, to strive to be better than the darkest parts of our nature. In many ways, John's life is better summed up by the final epitaph written on his grave. Blessed are the Peacekeepers, for they will be called sons of God.

Next: I've Been Listening To Red Dead 2's "Cruel, Cruel World" On Repeat For The Last Year And A Half