It makes me sad it is so often put as the least interesting town in tier lists because the storytelling element of this place is actually so cool and compelling to me.
It is the first place Arthur and the other see once they come back from Guarma. The dark, deserted streets of this town with a single flickering light above a horse Arthur will steal.
It's always foggy and the air feels thick and cloying. You can almost smell the rotting fish and the humidity. The saloon is seedy, the people give you weird looks. In the back, there's some dirty table where you can play five finger fillet and fail miserably. Because people these parts are good at it.
There's no law in Van Horn, if you do something unlawful or attack someone, the townfolk will start shooting at you. And if you don't have a horse nearby, or you're deep into chapter 6, it's gonna be hard to survive it.
I LOVE IT. I think it perfectly incapsulates the whole vibe of chapter 6.
There's no hope left, no sunny place. The gang found a spot of land where unlawfulness reigns—between the Murfree, Van Horn and Butcher Creek—They should feel right at home, they are outlaws, after all. But they are hit with the weight of what this unlawfulness means for a group like them, a group that is slowly crumbling, that lost all hope, direction and leadership.
Today is a sad-thoughts day.
I’m thinking about the day John came back after being gone a year.
Maybe he asked around and someone pointed him in the right direction. Maybe he found his own way, stumbling onto camp by luck or instinct. He must’ve arrived too late at night or too early in the morning, when only a few people were up to see it.
Most of them were happy to. A few pats on the back, some gruff hugs, biting remarks in between. Some welcome-home, some where-the-hell-have-you-been. Then, before John even had time to take a breath, Arthur came striding through camp, straight toward him, too fast to react. John barely got out half a smile before Arthur punched him square in the jaw.
From there, it was a riot.
People keeping Arthur back, John crouched over, hand on his mouth. Dutch and Hosea came rushing in but it was too late. Dutch chased after Arthur as he roared and rambled on about a kind of loyalty Dutch seemed to disagree with, this one time. Hosea turned to John, trying to speak over the string of curses he was spitting in Arthur’s direction, trying to get him to calm down.
Everyone was there, tense and waiting for the fight to break loose again, because Arthur and Dutch were still at it, yelling now. It was clear, in that way everyone knew, that Arthur was going to lose this battle again.
Arthur stormed off, grabbed Bodicea, and rode out. He wouldn’t come back for a week.
John was bleeding, because Arthur had never held back a punch in his life.
Dutch welcomed him back, but it was short, clipped. He was still reeling from his fight with Arthur. John wouldn’t receive another word from the man for at least three days.
From the shadow of a tent, a little face peered out. Pale, brown eyes wide, the same shade as John’s. From the same tent Abigail glanced over to John, still bleeding.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about Jack seeing his father like this.
Hiii! Let me get more specific this time....
What do you think Hoseas like in bed? Does he have any kinks/guilty pleasures?
Okay so so sorry it took me a while, but I do have thoughts about this shadgfjskag
Thank you again for asking so I can talk about my babygirl!
NSWF under the cut
Something that caught my eye about this scene is that Dutch truly does seem fustrated about not knowing what to do. The frantic repretition, hitting the wagon, hopelessly looking over their lack of options, asking for just a moment to think, I see it as a scene that really shows how much is put on him. No matter if you think he was mentally ill, got a damn concusion, broke under stress or a complete fourth, there is no denying that he had a lot on his shoulders, enough so that he is getting overwhelmed.
Another thing is that it does seem he care for the gang here, he is slightly dismissive of Abigail and John, but he is worrying about how to get the gang to safety, about how to ensure that they will be okay.
Look at Micah slinking behind him like a lil snake ready to strike uugghhh I hate his pathetic ass! (affectionate)
Now I need to expand on these delicious tags because as always I have opinions...sorry for the word-vomit.
This is 100% a pattern for Dutch, and sometimes I want to slap him for his inability to recognize it.
He makes himself necessary.
Is it for the praise? For his ego, convinced that he must be needed? Or is it his way of proving he cares?
I’m not sure, maybe all three of these.
But if you pay attention, he did it with Molly first. She was the omen from the start. She depends on him completely. In the early chapters, she barely interacts with anyone else. When she does, it’s either neutral or outright negative. Molly only has Dutch because Dutch made her believe he was all she needed. And for a while, maybe he was.
What Dutch never considers—because he never effing does—is that when you make yourself necessary, people will seek you out when they need help.
And here’s the thing, I don’t think he was justifiable in treating Molly how he did, but I understand how he rationalized it in his mind. He wasn’t flirting with Mary-Beth, he was just being nice, he can be nice to other people after all, that ain’t a crime, right? He wasn’t neglecting Molly, he was reclaiming space because she never gave him any. Never let him think.
And just to be clear before anyone comes for me—these are the justifications he tells himself. Nobody likes to think they’re the villain.
Molly becomes a problem because he’s not as self-sufficient as Dutch thinks she should be. Yet, he never gave her another option. He made sure she had nothing but him to lean on.
Same goes for the gang.
He makes himself necessary at every single turn. I always hear people say his speeches are manipulative, and yeah maybe they are, but they work! The gang is united under his speeches, they are encouraged to keep going though the spirits are low—we could recognize the manipulative nature of some of his words but this is not the post for it.
But this also works against him the moment people start to believe in him in earnest. When he stops making speeches, when he stops being the figure people can rely on, the man they can trust and believe in in the darkest times People panic. And for Dutch it all becomes overwhelming under the pressure of everyone’s expectations.
He has to juggle the fact that he has no idea what he wants or should do, with the fact people keep asking him about the future. He has to make sacrifices left and right because all he’s ever known till now is that you don’t take something without giving something back. Every single victory was followed by a loss, after all. He’s a bit paranoid, I guess.
It’s the reason he put in everyone’s mind this dream of Tahiti, because it was so damn far away that people would stop questioning him on what was next, it brought him time. Because he didn’t know what was next!!! He never did from the start, from after Blackwater, maybe even before that, when he refused to buy land for some unspecified reason.
But this doubt was fine when it was just him and Hosea, or when it was a group of ten people and no more. He has twenty people behind him now. Twenty people with twenty different ideas and worries and opinions, most of which are dependable on him for their survival.
He’s lost his best friend, his dreams are crushed, his escapes limited. He’s been running his whole life, wanted in five states, and he’s trapped in a role he built for himself that no longer fits him. A role that served him as long as things were good, but that it’s turning on him now.
It’s why in chapter 6 he falls for Micah’s words harder than he ever did before.
Because Micah sees him slipping and offers what nobody else does. He’s the one that offers Dutch support. And though we know it wasn’t because of Micah’s goodwill, it works! Because Micah is one of the few that do not rely on Dutch at all—the others are Charles and Sadie. But Charles and Sadie aren’t rats lmao.
Something that caught my eye about this scene is that Dutch truly does seem fustrated about not knowing what to do. The frantic repretition, hitting the wagon, hopelessly looking over their lack of options, asking for just a moment to think, I see it as a scene that really shows how much is put on him. No matter if you think he was mentally ill, got a damn concusion, broke under stress or a complete fourth, there is no denying that he had a lot on his shoulders, enough so that he is getting overwhelmed.
Another thing is that it does seem he care for the gang here, he is slightly dismissive of Abigail and John, but he is worrying about how to get the gang to safety, about how to ensure that they will be okay.
Look at Micah slinking behind him like a lil snake ready to strike uugghhh I hate his pathetic ass! (affectionate)
Like, I understand that some characters are written as archetypes or symbolism, but some clearly aren’t. Dutch van der Linde for example. The man is a mess, but calling him “evil” as a blanket statement is a disservice to his writing, imo.
Yes, he’s inherently a bad person because of the fact he’s an outlaw, but I’m talking towards the others within his gang.
At least at first, he truly cared about everyone in the gang, quite a lot.
Which is why the conversation in the cave in Guarma really took me off guard.
If anything, I was mad at ARTHUR in that scene!!!
Dutch wanted to go back for the others, and Arthur was MAD about that. MAD. EXCUSE ME??? He called Dutch crazy for wanting to go back for the others. He also pointed out Hosea and Lenny were dead. Like Dutch was expecting that to happen?! For ONCE, everyone was ON BOARD with a plan! Dutch, Hosea, and Arthur!
And yet Arthur acts like Dutch should have seen that coming?!
I’ve only been truly angry at Arthur Morgan a few times, but OOHOOHOO, that made me SO MAD.
Yes he’s grieving, yes that’s valid, but FFS, they are in a WAR ZONE and he’s trying to PICK A FIGHT??? THEN???
To be completely fair to Arthur's point, going back was a shit-ass idea, and yes, Dutch should've seen it coming.
Everyone, in fact, spent the whole of chapter 3 and 4 trying to warn him about putting too many eyes on the gang (which he ultimately ignore by mingling with Bronte, going after the trolley job and then after Bronte himself). And I'm convinced the only reason Hosea was so set and enthusiastic about the bank job was mostly desperation. A kind of "if we do this he'll finally have enough" kind of reasoning.
While in Guarma, Arthur is angry at Dutch for wanting to go back because he's extremely aware that he, Dutch and John are the most wanted ones. Going back means putting a target on the weaker members of the gang again.
Dutch also makes abundantly clear in that exchange that one of the reasons he wants to go back is because, with the women around, they can pass as someone else. He's basically admitting on wanting to use them as "shield", which I guess Arthur isn't extremely fond of.
