My Arthur is a troubled individual. He retreated to the mountains after he realized that he would never be able to truly love Mary Linton due to his and her choices. He would be unable to choose between the gang & her - so he didn’t. 

We decided to run north from Saint Denis and never looked back. Resigning himself to a solitary lifestyle where we went weeks without speaking to another soul, excluding our best friend, The Trapper. We bathed in rivers or lakes, and slowly Arthur’s entire wardrobe became pelts we had acquired on his search for penance, peace, redemption…and happiness. He slept under the stars and our only true companion was our horse. We avoided speaking to strangers, we avoided main roads, and we stayed as far away from Dutch as we could. 

Eventually, greed & the allure of new satchels lead us back to Shady Belle, which lead to the botched bank job, which lead to Guarma, which lead to the tuberculosis epidemic finally catching up the Arthur Morgan. The biggest mistake that I made was returning to the bayou instead of continuing to make the Grizzlies our home. 

It was hopeless. The gang is in shambles, living in some remote cave in the hills, surrounded by poison water, killer hillbillies, and company mining towns spewing pollution into the skies and rivers. 

Until we found Charlotte Balfour crying over the grave of her husband & everything changed. 

Arthur taught her how to be self sufficient; how to handle a rifle & source her food from the lands around her beautiful cabin. In exchange, Arthur learned to soften and open up to the first woman he had seen in MONTHS. She invited him into her home and broke bread with him…and when Arthur had a violent medical coughing fit, he woke up in a comfortable bed prepared by Charlotte. 

We left, returned several days later, pleasantly surprised that she was on her porch. Arthur, with sadness in his heart, knew he would be unable to share any further connection with her, and she left him with a kiss on his cheek. 

Arthur and her were the right people who met each other at the wrong time & in the wrong place. As far as I’m concerned, there should have been an alternative ending where Arthur and her fall in love together and spend the rest of their days living off the land under the gaze of the roaring waterfalls at Brandywine. 

He saved her; and she helped him save himself, at least I think so, on a spiritual level.

I heard you can revisit her during the epilogue and she shares kind words with John about how much Arthur impacted her & how Arthur saved her life. 

I’m looking forward to playing that mission when I eventually decide to finish Arthur’s story. 

God, this game is so amazing. I can’t believe Rockstar created such a beautiful story wrapped up in a game about cowboys. I’m about 80 hours into my first play through and I think about how emotionally invested I am into this story. 

I had hoped so badly that Charlotte Balfour would become a love interest.