The evolution of John Marston is so fascinating.
The way he goes from a naive kid who blindly follows Dutch to a man who’s torn between two worlds in 1907 and then a full-on terrifying gunslinger by 1911.
RDR2 does so much heavy lifting for John as he doesn’t have an arc in RDR1 in the traditional sense. You can tell he already had his character arc and life-changing events years in advance, so during RDR1, he’s mostly just pushed around by the plot. The bulk of his character development moments come in opening up about his past and ultimately confronting his past head-on. His confrontations with Dutch and Javier particularly hit hard.
“You always got a plan, Dutch!” as a line didn’t mean much when it was just RDR1, but with the context of RDR2 and knowing how many times Dutch’s plans went wrong while John blindly followed, it shows a real, direct rejection from a much older John who can’t be manipulated by him anymore. I just love how much that scene has been re-contextualized by RDR2.
1899 John, during the events of RDR2, gets transformed from a child to a proper man, hardened by what happened to Arthur and the gang, no longer running away from his responsibilities.
By 1907, John still comes across as young and gullible, though on the right track now in the years since Arthur’s passing, but he’s far from the terrifying gunslinger that he becomes by 1911.
I assume he made sense of everything by just telling himself that Dutch went crazy; however, going after Micah and seeing Dutch kill Micah definitely messed with his beliefs even more. And in between 1907 and 1911, we know John had a daughter that passed away. I really think THAT event is what caused him to age and become so disillusioned so fast by 1911. Losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to any man, and John went through that after an entire life’s worth of hardships.
Ending up with RDR1’s John Marston. Someone who stops at nothing to save his family, threatening, scaring, and killing many people in the name of a government he could care less for all to save his family.
One of the best-written characters in gaming, insane how well his entire story lines up with RDR2’s context as well. RDR1 is forever a much richer story because of RDR2’s existence.