Someone at NikTekOfficial just tweeted with a very simple caption, “I’ve got a plan,” and a picture of Arthur Morgan wearing a face mask. Let me tell you: the replies? Absolute chaos. Gamers started discussing every possible end to that one infamous mission in Red Dead Redemption 2 when Arthur, uh, catches something nasty. You know the one.
The tweet is a joke, because clearly, slapping a mask on Arthur is not going to save him from the TB he got from beating up Thomas Downes. The replies, however, went into dark territory. Some people claim Arthur never truly condemned the Downes family like the game would have you believe. Like, MikeMumbelz dropped an entire essay about how Thomas was on borrowed time, his wife was about to hit rock bottom, and their son was destined for the mines. Heavy stuff.
The meme squad tends to keep it light. One guy, @aHumblePeasant, was all for, “Slap a face shield on him and call it a day,” while another one, @ProjektHavoc, joked, “Should’ve sent Micah instead.” (Honestly? Valid. Micah deserved worse.) And then @MuriloCanejo brought the COVID angle, saying the mask wouldn’t have saved Arthur from TB either. Dark humor indeed.
But then, nobody really laughed. Some replies just called the game overrated (@LucanusCervus_) while others dragged Rockstar for working with Sweet Baby Inc (@CatGod25498285). An emotional one came through, though—@shinziimusic admitted to hating Thomas for getting sick. Relatable.
Then, the big chunk of the discussion happened: Was Arthur’s guilt even justified? Some say the Downes family was already doomed by circumstance and Arthur merely hastened the inevitable. Others say quite the contrary—that the redemptive sting of the story would not be all that strong without Arthur’s actions. Wild how that dumb mask tweet spiraled out into a full-blown morality debate.
But in all honestly? The tweet was just a dumb joke. Yet, it’s awesome to see the passion players still harbor about RDR2’s story, years later. Whether you believe Arthur was destined for ruin from the start, or that it was his own decisions that led to his fall remains an unfounded question. That mission, however, will never be forgotten.
And maybe, just maybe, all this repartee would never have come to be if Dutch had stuck to the real plan. But where’s the fun in that?
