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| “ | People don't forget. Nothing gets forgiven. | „ |
| ~ John to Bonnie MacFarlane. |
| “ | I sometimes wonder if things are ever the way we remember 'em, if we were ever who we thought we was. | „ |
| ~ John to Arthur Morgan. |
John Marston Sr. is the main protagonist of the 2010 action-adventure video game Red Dead Redemption and one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Dutch van der Linde) of its 2018 prequel Red Dead Redemption II.
He was a former outlaw and member of the Van der Linde gang, determined to make amends for his past by tracking down and killing the other members of his gang to rescue his family, who was kidnapped by the government. He is the father of Jack Marston and the husband of Abigail Roberts.
He was portrayed by Rob Wiethoff in motion capture.
Biography[]
John Marston was born in 1873, his mother was a prostitute and his father, a Scottish Immigrant, was her pimp. His mother died of complications during John's birth and his father was blinded in a bar fight when John was 8 years old, resulting in his death. Now an orphan, John spent the next few years in an orphanage before running away, he also shot a man for the first time at just 11 years old for unknown reason. He was later saved by a man named Dutch van der Linde at the age of 12 after he was caught stealing and nearly hanged for it. Dutch then took him in as a son alongside another boy named Arthur Morgan.
In 1894, he met a prostitute named Abigail Roberts who slept around within the gang, before he later conceived a son with her named John "Jack" Marston Jr.
Personality[]
John has a strong dislike of birds and a rather dull imagination, especially when compared to his son Jack. When it comes to how he feels about religion, in-game quotes reveal that he is either an agnostic theist or a Christian who is not too overtly religious. John is also extremely polite to women, often calling Bonnie MacFarlane "Miss MacFarlane", even after she has asked him to call her "Bonnie." He also does anything possible to keep women safe, even pistol-whipping Irish to defend two nuns he was holding up.
In contrast to his politeness to women, John is unafraid to take the moral high-ground when dealing with less than reputable characters, like Irish with his alcoholism and Nigel West Dickens with his swindling of gullible people. John seems to be one of the only men in the game that is loyal to his wife. He also seems to get angrier when someone mentions his wife's past than his own. John is a fairly serious individual with very little patience for the eccentricities of the various people he meets during the story.
He frequently threatens Irish into sobering up to be of some use to him, and he is disturbed/disgusted by Seth's habitual grave robbing. He also tells West Dickens that he won't hesitate to put a bullet in his skull if he steps out of line. However, he is not above employing sarcasm in conversation with certain characters, particularly those he sees as exhibiting hypocrisy, such as Abraham Reyes. Like Arthur Morgan, John is not a sexist or racist man and holds disgust to those who are. A rare trait for people in the time.
Quotes[]
| “ | My side ain't chosen. My side was given. | „ |
| ~ John Marston. |
| “ | If you win power, remember why you wanted it. | „ |
| ~ John to Abraham. |
| “ | If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'. | „ |
| ~ John to Abigail. |
| “ | Every man has a right to change, a chance of forgiveness. | „ |
| ~ John to Jack. |
Trivia[]
General[]
- John and Abigail have the same first names as the second president (John Adams) and his first lady (Abigail Adams). They also have the same names as The Crucible characters John Proctor and Abigail Williams, who have a secret relationship.
- With the ability to play as John Marston in the epilogue chapters following the conclusion of Arthur Morgan's story, John has become the only playable protagonist of an open world sandbox game developed by Rockstar Games to be playable in more than one game. The only possible exception being optional protagonists that can be chosen to have a recurring role in GTA: London 1969 and GTA: London 1961.
- Technically, Max Payne is the first Rockstar protagonist to be playable in more than one game. However, Rockstar only developed the third game (whereas Remedy Entertainment developed the first two, with Rockstar publishing them), therefore making John Marston the first official protagonist to be playable in more than one Rockstar game.
Red Dead Redemption 2[]
- When playable, John can activate Eagle Eye, like Arthur Morgan.
- The outfit called "The Clelland" in Red Dead Online is based on his default outfit.
- John's 1899 duster outfit looks similar to his Legend of the West outfit from Red Dead Redemption.
- John's Dead Eye sound effect is different to Arthur's; it's similar to the sound in Red Dead Redemption.
- After John leaves the gang, he participates in the real-life Klondike Gold Rush, which took place in Yukon and ended in 1899.
- If the player antagonizes the camp enough, John, Javier, Bill, Sean, Lenny, or Charles may punch Arthur and throw him out of camp.
- In addition to having poorer quality "points of interest" drawings, John's handwriting also appears messier than Arthur's, with more errors and words crossed out.
- The hat he wears in 1899 is similar to Butch Cassidy's hat from the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a movie that all three games took inspiration from.
- John wears four main hats in-game; his worn gambler hat, a new blue version of his gambler hat, his classic hat, and Arthur's hat.
- Marston's "Worn Gambler Hat" can be saved by getting it knocked off and picking it up in the epilogue.
- When playable, John is able to swim for a few seconds despite not knowing how. However, John is a poor swimmer compared to Arthur, with his stamina immediately dropping to 0% (even if it is fortified), before drowning soon after. However, if the player manages to get John as a companion via glitch and enters deep water, John will swim.
- Several mission and pre-release images show playable John with his hairstyle as it was in Chapters 1-6, as well as briefly in a flashback during "A New Jerusalem". However, in-game, he has hair similar to Arthur's, though it grows naturally left-parted and is off-black in colour as opposed to being right-parted and dark brown as seen in Red Dead Redemption
- John reuses Arthur's vomiting noise whenever the player eats oleander sage, as well as Arthur's stance, walking and running animations when in Beecher's Hope.
- During the encounter with the Pinkertons at Clemens Point, when Agent Milton asks John who he is, he replies with 'Rip Van Winkle'. This is a reference to the 19th-century short story of the same name, in which an elderly man falls asleep on a hill and wakes up 20 years in his future.
Red Dead Redemption[]
- Before Red Dead Redemption came out, John looked younger and thinner in the trailers.
- If the player presses O (PlayStation 3) or B (Xbox 360) while near Abigail, Jack, Uncle, or Amos, John will tip his hat as usual, but he won't speak.
- John Marston, Leigh Johnson, Abraham Reyes, Luisa Fortuna, Bonnie MacFarlane, and Drew MacFarlane sounded different during development.
- John is #2 in Game Informer's "30 Characters who Defined a Decade" list in their December 2010 edition, and also #1 in Game Informer's "Top Ten Heroes" list.
- John's parents' relationship with each other is left ambiguous. As his mother was a prostitute, John implied that his father was her pimp, but he still struggled with what to label him.
- John's grave marker reads "Blessed are the peacemakers", signifying his long road to redemption and peace for his family in a lawless land.
- "Blessed are the peacemakers" is a beatitude that was recorded in Matthew 5:9, in what is called the Sermon on the Mount; Arthur's epitaphs have the same origin.
- "Peacemaker" is coincidentally a nickname for the Cattleman Revolver, John's starting firearm, giving his epitaph a slight dark irony since it would twist the meaning in "Blessed are the guns".
Undead Nightmare[]
- His stance as an undead is the same as it was when he was shot and killed in "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed".
- As per his affliction, other zombies will ignore Zombie Marston until he provokes them (walking too close, shooting them, holding a torch near them, etc.)
- While wearing the Undead Cowboy Outfit, there's a bullet hole on his bandana above his right eye. However, there is no bullet wound on the other two outfits.
- Zombie Marston walks and runs lopsided (his left foot appears crooked, indicating a broken ankle), but his stance returns to normal when he draws a weapon. He also walks and runs normally during Multiplayer.
Other Media[]
- Marston's hat appears as an Easter egg in L.A. Noire, also published by Rockstar Games. It can be found at the start of "The Silk Stocking Murder" while following a trail of blood, hidden in a trashcan in an alleyway behind a police officer guarding the crime scene.
- John Marston makes a cameo in the character creator of Grand Theft Auto Online. He can be chosen as the player's father, allowing the player to determine their looks based on Marston's and another female's genes.
- John is similar to Johnny Klebitz, the protagonist of GTA TLAD.
- Both speak a bit of Spanish.
- Both are nicknamed Johnny Boy.
- Both can play cards and arm wrestle in-game.
- Both are pictured with a sawed-off shotgun on their official artworks.
- Johnny is nicknamed Cowboy by Trevor, which might emphasize these similarities.
- Their girlfriends were the gang's whore at some point.
- Both have rough voices, rode in a gang, have shady backgrounds, and were betrayed by their gang's insane leader with the help of a treacherous member.
- Both are canonically killed on-screen, by a man that they had an uneasy working relationship with.
- When both were killed, their bodies were cradled by the woman they loved. Both Abigail and Ash would later die as well.
- Both have a skeptical and hating view of how the government operates, yet they are forced to work for a government worker in order to save themselves and the ones they care about.
Licensing[]
This article contains content derived from the "John Marston" article on the Red Dead Wiki, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
External Links[]
- John Marston on the Villains Wiki
- John Marston on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
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 Heroes
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