Dutch Van der Linde character evolution
This is actually like over a year old drawing that I just drew over a little, but I wanted to include it in this thing that I'm participating in, and I needed to have a link to it :P
@kayuripax i ended up having so many thoughts abt this that i felt it best to just. make a whole separate post SNKSKNSK thoughts that are. so largely irrelevant and mostly just me screaming into a void abt how i can’t imagine things outside of canon. thoughts that you did not ask for, and actually no one asked for! and what my thoughts boil down to, tl;dr i love reading Other peoples’ work in this lane bc Hell Yeah but i can’t write it myself bc im a stick in the mud for canon
as usual w/ these kinds of posts its all my Opinions and i dont work for r* etc etc
i love reading fics in this vein. i love reading fics where the three of them are a delightful lil polyam moment, i love when authors play in that space bc i Wish hosea matthews had gotten what he wanted. i wish he had his cake and ate it too. but to me, i think dutch is actually the problem here—i just can’t picture dutch being willing to play in that space At All. romantically, sexually (and this is not to say the man wouldn’t be down for a threesome, even a threesome with hosea and another woman, i just dont think he’d be down with bessie, and ill get into that), the whole nine yards.
i dont think dutch gets jealous, bc why would he? hosea’s his man. but thats the key: hosea is His man. dutch tends to have this possessiveness over certain people, and he downplays the importance of other people in their lives.* we see it the morning after the gala, when dutch picks up arthur’s letter from mary, and carelessly tosses it to the side. we see it when hosea brings up bessie on the way to go fishing, and says that it feels like he had bessie a lifetime ago, and dutch petulantly says that it Was a lifetime ago. the tone is so important there, because he’s not agreeing with a fondness, or an understanding—he’s agreeing with the tone of someone who’s absolutely fuckin Sick of it. he’s tired of talking about bessie, she’s not relevant, and he’s not letting her cast a shadow on His day with His boys.
dutch has a possessiveness over certain people, and bessie’s already taken His man away from him. she takes up his time, she takes up his love, she takes him right out of the criminal life and away from dutch’s side. i would bet that none of this is Really true—im sure hosea still spent plenty of time with dutch, still planned and robbed and thieved together, hosea could never ever have a lack of love for dutch, and hosea trying to get out of the criminal life had to be at least partially his own choice, and of his own will—but i would also bet that this is how dutch perceives it. thus, i dont think hed have any interest at all in spending time with her, least of all time that he’d rather be spending with hosea and Not the woman who lured him away. i think he’d rather have the opportunity to pull hosea Away from her, rather than include her in any capacity.
now, this is where my cracks as a writer start to show. i Suck at characterization, or at least, i feel like i do. it’s so hard for me to keep characters correct, keep them in tone and make them work—this is why i’m so married to canon, and if i can’t slot it into canon, i don’t write it. i Need that spinal cord to hold me up. i can’t do AUs, i can’t do what-ifs, i Need to have some sort of support from the work itself to help me stand, like a crutch, which sucks! bc i LOVE the idea of bessie/hosea/dutch polycule. i LOVE it, and i’ve read several fics and seen so much gorgeous art that i just love, in my heart of hearts i really do wish that hosea could’ve happily had them both, and i think he did, to an extent—i just dont think dutch and bessie had each other.** its literally on me as a writer for not being able to explore ideas outside of what’s been presented to us.
if there’d been even One hint that dutch liked bessie at all, or if he didn’t show a pattern of distaste for his boys’ partners………….inhales. exhales. this turned out to be way too long for a writing prompt and im Very sorry for that đŸ’€ đŸ’€ đŸ’€
*i would love to know how molly (and grimshaw, and annabelle) fell into the gang, bc i have a feeling it was probably somehow in this lane. i imagine molly as a sort of rose dewitt bukater, desperate to get out from under the family thumb, and then somehow a handsome man who hates the rich and lives free and wild crosses her path—how many times do you think he made degrading comments about her wealthy, aristocratic family? how many times do you think he shat on them and the way they live versus how He lives, which is the true and correct way? by the time we step into arthur’s shoes, she’s all but entirely isolated from the rest of the gang as well—do you think that was intentional on dutch’s behalf? hm……………..
**and this isn’t even to say i dont think dutch was cordial with bessie. i think he definitely was. he’s a man very set in his gender roles, and we know he appreciates a talented and quickwitted woman. i think he liked bessie, and probably liked her quite a bit—i just dont think he liked how bessie played into his and hosea’s relationship.
and as a secret little ps at the bottom, if anyone’s still here…i Do think there’s merit in a fic where hosea and dutch are sneaking around behind the camp’s back, and dutch is aware that bessie knows theyre doing it, maybe even watching but hosea is completely unaware…hm hm hm hm hm hm hm hm hm
im literally that guy that's in every town in rdr2 who's standing on some street corner preaching abt some bullshit no one cares abt at the top of his lungs
"oh remove the weight of the world from your shoulders for a minute arthur" is such an underrated dutch line we don't talk enough about oh remove the weight of the world from your shoulders for a minute arthur
this whole mission honestly. this whole mission is so defining for dutch just...as a character. he's careless, he's self-centered, and above all he doesnt give a damn abt any casualties whoever they may be. he's reckless and hes dangerous. and he enjoys it too—he gets a kick out of violence (we see it so many times: dutch laughing through the valentine shootout at the end of ch2, dutch actually saying out loud with his whole chest "this is kind of fun" as guarma is getting bombed to hell, and more), he gets a thrill out of putting his life (and others' lives!) on the line and it's even better when he pulls it off in the end. it makes the stakes higher, makes his ego bigger, his hunger for that thrill even more voracious and without someone ahem ahem to reign him in and talk him down to sensibility, he's a dog off its leash running fucking stupid
"oh remove the weight of the world from your shoulders for a minute arthur" is such an underrated dutch line we don't talk enough about oh remove the weight of the world from your shoulders for a minute arthur
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