#rdr1 has that sherif american guy living in that mexican town... that's very white savour ish but eh...

[1899sbiggestbabygirl]

I want to expand on this idea in the future:

Dutch Van der Linde is the perfect analogy for the white saviour.

He presents himself as someone who believes in equality; however, he uses his progressive stand views as long as it's rewarded with praise, his support is very minimal (basically not being overtly racist) and receives praise over it, but is willing to overlook racism if it benefits him ( him letting Micah stay in the gang), his views are literally based on a privileged man pretending to understand the oppressed (Evelyn Miller, Lenny calls him out on this), he pretends to care and empathize with the structures of oppression but is very willing to exploit them anyways (the whole thing with the wapiti tribe).

at his core I think Dutch would see himself as a saviour -but the narrative itself shows who he really is, and what every white saviour at its core is: A fake hero.

Sure, Dutch's saviour complex and manipulation is evident with all characters, but to pretend that race or ethnicity doesn't hold a big role in how these dynamics work (especially on the time period) would be willful ignorance.

#with that being said rdr and rdr2 do have their white saviour moments #but in a way it functions more of a 'hey these guys are good despite the times' reminder than anything #rdr1 has that sherif american guy living in that mexican town... that's very white savour ish but eh... #anyways #anyone else got any ideas? #rdr2 #rdr #red dead fandom #dutch van der linde #character analysis #meta #rdr2 meta #txt