Finished RDR2 for the first time like a month ago and something that stuck with me afterwards it’s the missed opportunity for a connection between Molly and Arthur a lot of people seem to overlook. The potential.
One of the first things we know about Molly is Karen saying she’s too high and mighty to hang out with the likes of them now, meaning it wasn’t always like that. Arthur mentions to Molly that she hasn’t been herself in a while, if you drunkenly antagonize Molly, Arthur will say it’s hard to believe she actually used to be fun. One can only assume she was only a member of the gang as well before Dutch set his eyes on her. Arthur teases her when she’s looking at herself in her pocket mirror, says she looks fine and that he doesn’t want to interrupt her beauty routine, or that they wouldn’t want her face to freeze off and most of the time she doesn’t mind his teasing. She was probably Arthur’s friend at some point, she seems to trust him more than other gang members to some degree, she was going to open up to him before she got interrupted.
They’re both growing out of Dutch’s age of interest, Molly says “Getting too old for you now, am I?” (Or something like that, paraphrasing here) And Arthur mentions to John he once was “The prize pony,” and now he’s only a workhorse. Despite Arthur telling Molly there’s a lot to do around camp when you greet her, he defends Molly against Micah when he complains that Molly doesn’t pull her weight and should be dropped, he says that that’s different. Arthur seems to worry about Molly, he mentions to Dutch that Molly really don’t seem to be doing too well before he’s dismissed. He tells Karen “Just going through a tough time with it,” after Karen punches Molly. He tells Karen he ‘ain’t sure what to do,’ after they both witness Molly having a breakdown in Shady Belle.
He seems to be the only one to ask after Molly when they come back from Guarma, he seems disturbed over her death, he tried to stop it from happening knowing the gang’s rules, Molly claims she ratted the gang out on the Saint Denis bank job, in a job where his father figure died, where Lenny the youngest member of the gang died as well, and Arthur still wanted to spare her. He doesn’t seem to believe her when she says she ratted, he says stuff like ‘If she did it at all.’ ‘Even if she did it’ or ‘Molly, I can’t believe it.’ He has more empathy towards her than her own boyfriend. He knew the reason they were caught so quickly on Saint Denis is because they were getting sloppy, they weren’t good doing hits anymore, he seems genuinely distraught when Milton told him they picked up Molly and she didn’t say a word because deep down he knew he just wasn’t 100% sure.
If you choose to help John Arthur will tell Dutch with his last breaths “ I gave you all I had.” Molly writes in her poem about Dutch “I’ve nothing left. I gave you all”
If you choose to go back for the money Arthur will defend Molly with his last breaths, one more vehemently than the other depending on your honor. They weren’t even that close and he still thought of her, if Molly was haunting anyone it was Arthur and not Dutch sorry to people who edit Dutch and Molly to Silver Springs (and also Karen was haunted by Molly as well but that’s not my main focus here)
Not to mention Arthur says they won’t see seven years out when Molly asks for a pocket mirror only to die like a month apart. They’re so fated. So intertwined, and fun to think about. It’s about the parallels.
TLDR: Arthur’s reaction after finding out Molly ain’t the rat
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