I started a new playthrough of rdr2 on pc and one of the things I keep thinking about is the Blackwater situation and how quickly Arthur (and seemingly everyone) lets it drop. To me, this is such a blatant example of how Dutch programmed Arthur (and in turn the rest of the gang) to go with whatever he says instead of whatever they believe.
Dutch messed up bad in Blackwater. Three of his people died. He listened to a new guy his inner circle didn't trust! Yet, he dismisses every conversation about it. Not in the obvious "nope" kind of way, but by having a frilly speech about being willing to die if it meant those they lost lived. In everyone else agreeing it was "necessary" despite their own doubts. Even when Arthur directly asks, Dutch shoulders it away with vagueness and irritation.
This is how Dutch is. How he always is.
Dutch gets away with going against the code because he writes it. He changes it slowly with every mistake. Murder being avoidable became something they all did on a whim. Violence not being the foundation of their dreams was lost. Hope was twisted. Faith was now blind. Dutch kept editing long after he lost the original plot and made it into a burning pile of mixed messages.
Everyone else follows Dutch because he's Dutch. Sometimes they know he's wrong, they talk amongst themselves about how he's behaving crazier. Arthur writes in his journal about how Dutch started talking about other places and California, expressing this clear concern and doubt. There’s an undercurrent of worry that this time Dutch has gone too far in his leniency with himself. Yet every time, at least before the game, it would pass. Things would go right back to normal, and they'd be on their way again. Because Dutch invented a pattern where he could do something wrong, ignore it, and when things worked themselves out, he would be the glorious leader again.
Maybe it wasn't with the intent to keep everybody strung along in a malicious way, but it's just something I noticed in my latest playthrough.
