Both Red Dead Redemption games that have been released so far deal with hefty stories, and serious themes such as revenge and have been highly praised for their handling of such serious matters. While there have been some great characters and moments throughout both games, the animation and silence often take precedence over what the characters say to each other.
Nevertheless, there are some amazing moments in the scripts of these games, which have helped them become as highly praised as they are today. Red Dead Redemption is an amazing franchise that will surely go down in history as producing some of the best moments in gaming history, as well as some of the very best quotes.
6 “We Die Alone, But We Live Among Men”
One of the most uncommonly gut-wrenching quotes about friendship ever is spoken by John Marston in Red Dead Redemption. The strange thing about Marston is that despite having been left to die by his closest group of friends and despite spending most of the first game entirely by himself, he never stops believing that friendship is one of the most important and useful things in the world.
Anybody else would have been made dramatically more cynical about trusting people and believing in them by his experiences. But Marston never stopped believing that people and keeping them around was an important aspect of life. Swearing that “we all need friends” after players have witnessed the events of the second game makes this quote even more heartbreaking.
5 “I Guess I, I’m Afraid”
Arthur Morgan is a difficult protagonist in Red Dead Redemption 2. A tough, old-school cowboy with the kind of vulnerability he shows after his diagnosis with tuberculosis is a tricky character to write. But this quote, all about the incredible voice-acting performance by Roger Clark, was when the character really started to be broken down from the stereotypical tough-guy cowboy into something deeper.
Arthur is complicated, his life is a carefree one with the gang for the longest time, but fans getting to know him as he comes to the end of this journey makes their relationship with him a complicated one. But lines like this make it incredibly hard not to feel sorry for him as everything he knows and loves is slowly ripped away.
4 “My Side Ain’t Chosen. My Side Was Given.”
John Marston remains a hugely complicated character in both Red Dead Redemption games. His brand of wisdom is unusual, particularly in the way he seems to view his own existence. From being brought into the gang by Dutch to being left by them, John is a deconstruction of the usual Western protagonist because he genuinely has almost no thirst for vengeance against the gang.
This quote, in particular, shows that John doesn’t feel like he is choosing what he does, even now. His attempts to hunt down the other members of the gang are all, so his family will be safe, it is a choice based on logic and not the rage he should feel at having been left for dead by them. This is why there are things Arthur Morgan can do that John Marston can't.
3 “Thank You”
The end of Red Dead Redemption 2 is sad for a number of reasons. But while fans were expecting, one way or another, to see Arthur’s demise in the finale, they didn’t expect to lose the horse. Arthur and his horse have a fantastically fun relationship over the course of RDR2, and the tender moment in the finale when Arthur stops to thank his mighty steed as it dies is one of the most shocking and sad moments in the franchise.
The morality choices of Red Dead Redemption 2 are fascinating, but if the player chooses to keep one horse around for the majority of the game is particularly strange as it leads to this moment of sad loss for Arthur when his horse dies during the final mission before we see John and Micah's final confrontation.
2 “They Turned Me Into A Monster”
Sadie Adler was a surprisingly fascinating part of Red Dead Redemption 2. She began the game as a widow who was terrified of the O’Driscoll gang that killed her husband. But by the end of the game, she is brutally stabbing every last one of them in their chests and feels changed profoundly, not in a way she appreciates.
This final quote from her, accepting what she has become in her lust for vengeance against those who took her husband, is a poignant one that comes at the moment, which should be her most victorious. Instead, the game chooses once against to deconstruct a common Western theme and remind players that her hunt for vengeance and the way it changed her is horrible and makes for a sad story instead of a victorious moment.
1 “I Wish Things Were Different, But It Weren’t Us Who Changed”
Arthur Morgan is a sad and revolutionary leading character for much of Red Dead Redemption 2, as he watches the world around him crumbling and the life he loves with the gang disappearing before his very eyes. His truest moment of realization is while speaking to John Marston, where he finally admits to himself that the end of this life is coming.
With Dutch slowly changing and turning against the gang, Arthur knows that the group is splintering to pieces, and they will not last much longer. This lament is one of the saddest moments in the game. Arthur’s simple life enjoying himself in the gang is being ripped from him slowly, and he appears to know and yet can do nothing about it.