[Music] the story of red dead redemption 2 is an undeniable tragedy of arthur morgan and then predator redemption 1 is the tragedy of john marston however what if i told you the biggest victim of this entire narrative the biggest victim of the vandaling gang and the greatest tragedy in the red dead universe is actually that of a different character's fate i am of course talking about jack marston the tragedy of jack marston is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all as far as this game is concerned and in today's video we are going to explore it john marston jr known as jack was born in 1895 as the first child of the outlaw john marston i mean obviously his name's john marston jr and former prostitute abigail roberts both of whom were members of dutch vandalin's gang therefore jack marston was born into the gang the gang did become an extended family to jack with its members being referred to as his aunts and uncles but that doesn't mean this child had a stable family life despite the difficult circumstances struggling to connect with his son and doubting that he was even his along with other concerns about his ability to raise the child jon left the gang in 1896 for around one year avoiding the responsibility of parenting altogether eventually around 1897 he returned but that didn't necessarily improve his fathering abilities jon still had his doubts as to whether or not the boy was his and in the events of red dead redemption 2 voices them on more than one occasion we also see him acting coldly towards jack sometimes by intent and other times because he simply doesn't know what else to do and this seeming lack of care from his father definitely had an impact on jack but in truth jon did care he was just so afraid of getting it wrong that he didn't try this does improve as the game progresses however he still struggles to connect with the boy for the time being though as much as being part of the gang is no place for a child jack is not in the worst of company the vast majority of the gang members do their best to shelter jack from the more nefarious side to what they do they interact with him and enable his creativity and also his curiosity hosea teaches him to read which he later develops a keen interest for arthur also takes him fishing as a couple of examples of how the vandolin gang tries to accommodate a child unfortunately though considering this is a criminal gang even when it may seem stable this is indeed a very volatile environment and the cracks begin to show members of the gang begin to die and also they can't hide the truth about what they do from him forever he overhears conversations had around camp and while he can't understand them immediately an older hymn can reflect on them and know exactly what's going on and also due to being a vulnerable child in the middle of a sticky situation jack on at least a couple of occasions finds himself way closer to the action than he should be but for the time being this doesn't appear to have much of an effect jack is an intelligent creative kid he's otherwise quite normal and innocent and is quite comfortable around people but i think the landmark event in the main story of red dead redemption 2 for the time being that we need to focus on is the demise of the gang itself the gang being disbanded and jack's life being turned completely upside down at a young age arguably this is the equivalent of jack losing his entire family safe for his parents meaning the broader support network he had is no longer there and what they provided for him now needs to be provided by abigail roberts and john marston we rejoined the marston family in 1907 eight years after the main events of red dead redemption 2. with jon still technically a wanted man he is on the run and therefore trouble has the knack for following him just as much as he has the knack of following trouble from go we see a difference in how jack presents himself first and foremost he's no longer a four-year-old i feel like that's a big point he's also more introverted more interested in reading his books than doing more or less anything else jon still struggles to connect with him and due to the fact that they're always moving about there is no normalcy in his life so jack withdraws to his books that's his baseline that's his consistency eventually they managed to settle down on a ranch of their own at beech's hope i'm skipping over a lot of context but i don't think it's too relevant and finally the marston family has some normality to cling to maybe life at beech's hope made jack a little happier but there was still this disconnect between john marston and his son anyway jon risks everything he built going after michael bell abigail tries to warn him but jon feels like he has to go and kill micah otherwise this dream life that he's managed to accomplish is no more real than one of jack's dragons from his books while this line is jon stressed about a situation it does speak to a more flippant and less understanding attitude towards jack's creativity and imagination while that's worth mentioning what comes next is far more significant in hunting down and killing michael bell john marston leaves a trail for edgar ross and the newly founded bureau of investigation to track him down which they do therefore undoing arthur morgan's sacrifice as the authorities now know the location of john marston and his family once again while they don't realize it right away the marston family's life is once again threatened by john's criminal past and it would seem as if a normal stable functional family dynamic for jack marston is impossible not to downplay the best efforts of his mother and father who don't quite understand him my point is despite any attempt to give jack a better more stable and less criminal life than that which jon abigail arthur morgan uncle and the rest of the vandalind gang lived their actions and past involvement with the gang keep catching up with john marston and his family which includes jack at this point as a result of his more sheltered upbringing in a life where that just simply does not suit jack was less courageous than say john was and often felt inferior to his father however jon and abigail did not want jack to follow in john's gunslinger footsteps instead eventually wanting him to take over the ranch jack himself wanted to become a writer or a scholar his parents partly approved provided he could look after the ranch as well this lifestyle would have been easier to obtain had john taken arthur's advice and run and not looked back instead of going after michael bell in 1907 this is the event that seals the fate of the marston family though it would take a few more years for this to be realized come 1911 politician and candidate for governor of west elizabeth nate johns promised to clean up the rampant crime in the region as part of his election campaign the bureau with nate john's support decides that this means hunting down the last known remnants of the vandaling gang taking jack and abigail into custody the bureau leverages jon into hunting down bill williamson javier escuela and later dutch vanderlund as cruel and unethical as this tactic is it works and jon hunts down his former friends under the false promise that afterwards he would get to return to his family and live out his life as a free man at first this promise is honored and john marston returns to his family jack now 16 years old understands exactly what his father was though john didn't really try to make a secret of it now desperate to prove himself to his father jack tries to teach himself survival skills his own way claiming that his father was too inconsistent in his life to be reliable and while we see john teaching jack how to hunt and skin and trade furs down at manzanita post jack is still eager to go beyond and finally win his father's approval this leads him to leaving on his own heading up into the tall trees region to hunt a grizzly bear which he was far from ready for facing an encounter that if jon had not intervened it would have cost jack his life of course like any parent would in that situation john chastises jack for his disobedience and recklessness and jack argues with jon over his sparse involvement in his life above all else jack fears abandonment and in order to control this he believes he can only really rely on himself soon after this the bureau accompanied by the united states army and even some u.s marshals launched an assault on beecher's hope in an attempt to tie up loose ends and kill jon and maybe even his family if they can get away with it jon sacrifices himself to allow his family to escape knowing that if they kill him they'll have no reason to come back as a result edgar ross gets what he wants killing off the last remnants of the vandaling gang jack and abigail return later to find jon's lifeless body and so now jack's lost his father all because he couldn't get far enough away from his outlaw past come 1914 abigail marston passes away as well and jack marston now 19 years of age sets out to hunt down edgar ross and get his revenge excuse me you edgar ross do i know you forgive me for starling you sir i have a message for you my name is jack barston you knew my father i see i remember your father i've come for you ross and you boy have sure should found me you killed my father your father killed himself with the life he lived you killed him i saw you you keep saying that you sent him to do your dirty work then you shot him like a dog and i'll shoot you like one too little piece of trash now get out of here before i kill you as well i ain't going nowhere old man in the final moments of the story jack kills edgar ross and takes his revenge becoming an outlaw the very thing his parents tried to stop him from being the sacrifice of arthur morgan and john marston mean nothing now as their lives have become his life and it's easy enough to get in but as we've seen over the course of the story it's near enough impossible to get back out again in game play we can see jack marston's personality has darkened in high honor situations he's depressive and will acknowledge that he has nothing to live for and in low honor situations he's outright sadistic and belligerent full of self-loathing besides in combat situations he will often invoke his family name as if the john marston name means something but jack means nothing even referring to himself as john marston jr while his honoris player decided no matter what you do jack marston clearly has a death wish he is no longer the innocent child that we saw in 1899 and he now carries on the legacy of arthur morgan john marston and the rest of the vanderlind gang he may have survived but he never escaped what happened to jack canonically after killing edgar ross is unknown and maybe he did eventually break the cycle of violence and move on with his life but the main tragedy of the red dead redemption games is even if this did happen it couldn't happen soon enough for jack marston who now has to live out the rest of his life carrying over the sins of his father and the rest of the van der linde gang and as we saw jon getting revenge on micah for arthur's death brought no good to his life so there's no reason to believe why jack killing edgar ross and getting revenge for his father's death would mean the end of the cycle of violence and even if it did jack marston is far from unscathed and that concludes today's video my friends thank you all for watching i hope you enjoyed be sure to go ahead leave a like subscribe share the channel with your friends and all that wonderful stuff that would be super fantastic and with any luck i'll be seeing you all very soon with another video at some point but until next time please do take care and goodbye [Music] you