The world of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 is full of mysteries, but one stands out as particularly creepy. The town of Valentine is repeatedly mentioned as being under some kind of curse. The more the player explores, however, the more the true nature of the curse and its victims are revealed.
Some players have even dug into the game’s files to find out more details about the Valentine curse and the chilling story behind it that was cut from the retail release of the game. Not only does the curse add a great level of detail to Red Dead Redemption 2, but it also hints at one of its main plot points.
The Curse of Valentine
“The Curse of Valentine: A Haunting Spectacle” is a news article which can be found in the New Hanover Gazette. It reads:
"The town of Valentine has reported many strange sights and sounds in recent years, and residents speak of a curse that has fallen on the area. Spectral canoes have been seen on the water, and the cries of mourning Indian mothers have been heard at night. At other times, usually on windy, starlit evenings, piercing cries are heard from the distance.
Residents claim this is due to the Indian family murdered years ago with a treasure they had found. The reports are uncanny yet come yet come from several sources, and the prevalence of Indian artifacts around town has only increased the locals' excitability."
Players can also hear the curse mentioned in several places throughout the town. The curse is brought up in conversation by the gunsmith R.L. Dalton and Jacob Worth, the owner of Worth’s General Store. A conversation also takes place between Karen and Mary-Beth at Horseshoe Overlook, which mentions that the curse was put on the town by the last remaining Native American in the county after a massacre. This is not the only Red Dead mystery about Native Americans, though, showing how multi-layered the game's multiple mysteries actually are.
A camper in the game mentions a painting of the massacre which can be found in the games files but which was cut from the final release. It shows colonists massacring the natives, alluding back to the conversation between Karen and Mary-Beth. Karen also mentions an owl or an eagle at a grave, possibly a reference to the eagle that lands on the grave of Arthur Morgan if he had high honor in the game.
Interpreting the Curse
There is another interpretation of the curse, however. It is in Valentine that the gang meets Thomas Downes and Leopold Strauss loans him money. As many know, it is collecting that money from Downes that causes Arthur to contract the tuberculosis that will eventually kill him. It seems likely that the Valentine Curse was included in the game to foreshadow the bad luck that would befall Arthur in the town. The fact that it is ultimately linked to a Native American curse on the settlers is interesting, because Arthur is not a resident of the town.
Nonetheless, Rockstar appears interested in tying the game’s main character’s ultimate fate to the end of the Wild West and the closing of the frontier. The thing that ends Arthur’s life is a disease hinted to be ultimately caused by a Native American curse, at least as far as any possible supernatural element of it goes, which is a reversal of the Europeans passing along diseases to the Native Americans they encountered at the start of their expansion west.
Furthermore, Arthur contracts the disease that kills him while shaking a man down for money. It is possible that the curse is triggered by greed or violence, just as the events of the massacre were. It remains unclear why the painting of the massacre was removed from the game, or why the eagle lands on the good Arthur’s grave and not one who more deserved to be cursed. These Red Dead Redemption 2 mysteries may not be solved yet, but they paint a pretty good picture of what could have happened—one interpretation of it, anyway.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.