Some people go too hard on epilogue John /u/SkOJu7 Red Dead Redemption

No I don’t mean the character model, that’s an entirely other discussion, what I mean is his characterization. Plenty of people would accuse John in the epilogue of being out of character from what we see in 1. And they are entirely correct he doesn’t act like how we see him in 1, however the game makes it pretty clear this is intentional. No I’m not about to tell you he had four years of character growth that made him a sarcastic badass off screen. However what i don’t think people realize is he is the same witty badass we see in RDR1 during the epilogue he’s just very intentionally trying his best not to be, and kind of sucking at it.

The first cut scene establishes that the reason they’re fleeing from the last town they were in is because John shot a guy for looking at him funny because he thought he was being noticed. This obviously upsets Abigail and this argument ends with John begrudgingly saying he’ll try to be someone he’s not to make her happy and keep them safe. And that’s kinda what he does the entire epilogue, is purposefully try to be someone he isn’t to keep Abigail happy and himself out of trouble. (There’s even the moment where he remembers Arthur telling him hard it is to try and be two people at once) Hes not very good at this though and there’s several moments where we see him relapse and the real John Marston shine through. the missions “Jim Milton rides again” and “American venom” both clearly show that yes, this is the same man we love from RDR1, they show that when John is too angry to worry about being caught or bothering Abigail he is very much the same witty badass we knew from 1. John’s personal journal entries also portray him as acting and thinking like the same man from RDR1, which makes sense since the journal is one of the few private places where he doesn’t have to be worried about being noticed or upsetting Abigail and jack.

Another thing some people complain about is his demeanor in the open world where he constantly looks twithcy and nervous and has awkward greet lines sometimes like “uh… hello” and lots of people say this is attempt to show him being insecure and not sure of himself but personally I would say this is to show us how terrified he is of being noticed by someone and having to worry about being caught. As the intro cut scene told us, John is worried enough about being noticed that he was willing to shoot a guy who may or may not have noticed him.

Once RDR1 happens and the Pinkertons find him and capture Abigail and Jack he no longer needs to neuter himself and keep up his fake appearances, since hes already been caught for good, and he spends then entire game (minus the rancher missions) perpetually angry about the situation hes in.

No I don’t mean the character model, that’s an entirely other discussion, what I mean is his characterization. Plenty of people would accuse John in the epilogue of being out of character from what we see in 1. And they are entirely correct he doesn’t act like how we see him in 1, however the game makes it pretty clear this is intentional. No I’m not about to tell you he had four years of character growth that made him a sarcastic badass off screen. However what i don’t think people realize is he is the same witty badass we see in RDR1 during the epilogue he’s just very intentionally trying his best not to be, and kind of sucking at it.

The first cut scene establishes that the reason they’re fleeing from the last town they were in is because John shot a guy for looking at him funny because he thought he was being noticed. This obviously upsets Abigail and this argument ends with John begrudgingly saying he’ll try to be someone he’s not to make her happy and keep them safe. And that’s kinda what he does the entire epilogue, is purposefully try to be someone he isn’t to keep Abigail happy and himself out of trouble. (There’s even the moment where he remembers Arthur telling him hard it is to try and be two people at once) Hes not very good at this though and there’s several moments where we see him relapse and the real John Marston shine through. the missions “Jim Milton rides again” and “American venom” both clearly show that yes, this is the same man we love from RDR1, they show that when John is too angry to worry about being caught or bothering Abigail he is very much the same witty badass we knew from 1. John’s personal journal entries also portray him as acting and thinking like the same man from RDR1, which makes sense since the journal is one of the few private places where he doesn’t have to be worried about being noticed or upsetting Abigail and jack.

Another thing some people complain about is his demeanor in the open world where he constantly looks twithcy and nervous and has awkward greet lines sometimes like “uh… hello” and lots of people say this is attempt to show him being insecure and not sure of himself but personally I would say this is to show us how terrified he is of being noticed by someone and having to worry about being caught. As the intro cut scene told us, John is worried enough about being noticed that he was willing to shoot a guy who may or may not have noticed him.

Once RDR1 happens and the Pinkertons find him and capture Abigail and Jack he no longer needs to neuter himself and keep up his fake appearances, since hes already been caught for good, and he spends then entire game (minus the rancher missions) perpetually angry about the situation hes in.