arthurmorganwateringhole

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

i think it’s really amazing how total strangers who have nothing in common but their shared love of a work of fiction will come together across distances and dedicate their time and energy working collaboratively to build an extensive, richly detailed fanon that completely fucking sucks

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

Not RDR2 related but I come out of my hole to write an essay about a shoujo manga no one asked for

Paradise Kiss: A Lesson on Dreams and Being Happy (heavy spoilers) Part 1

Thanks to this totally random tweet about anime endings, I'm reminded of an old shoujo manga flame of mine from the early 2000s: Paradise Kiss, nicknamed ParaKiss by its mangaka and fans. In stereotypical Ai Yazawa fashion (baddum tss), this manga revolves around a hopelessly flawed yet peak relatable girl undergoing the trials and tribulations of self-discovery. It just so happens that the setting takes place in a generic, average-sized town in Japan, and it just so happens that this town is home to an eclectic ensemble cast of aspiring fashionistas and designers. And it also just so happens that this cast is at a crossroads: their 3rd year in high school. Yukari was initially on the conventional path of graduating with top marks and entering into a prestigious university. By the time we get to the 2nd chapter of the manga, we see Yukari cast all her mother's dreams aside to become a model in the cutthroat fashion industry.

We begin with our protagonist Yukari, who is enrolled in an elite private high school. She spends her days studying for college entrance exams, but early on, we discover that her hard work is very extrinsically motivated. Specifically, her mother has had an iron-clad grip on her life, and if not for a chance encounter on the street, Yukari would've continued on in this way. Living without living. Doing things that don't make her happy or give her any meaning -- a shell for others' aspirations and desires.

As I said, a chance encounter brings her to the hole-in-the-wall atelier, which was an antique bar rennovated into an... well, atelier for fashionistas attending the local art school. Yukari has been scouted by one of the students to model for their upcoming fashion show in the school's Culture Festival. Although she vehemently opposes the idea at first, Yukari decides to model for them, after witnessing firsthand the extent of their conviction and earnestness of their efforts.

I am deliberately downplaying George's role in here, because I do think future readers should get to know George (the manga's romantic lead and 90s toxic boy) at their own pace and through Yukari's perspective. Describing him would remove some of the magic that is necessary to experience through Yukari's besotted eyes, and Yazawa does a great job staging the cognitive dissonance Yukari herself feels when she's around George. What you should know right away is that George is the de facto leader of the Atelier group and designer behind the label Paradise Kiss. It is his word that becomes the final voice in asking Yukari to model, and it is his intoxicating presence that drives her to join them.

All this to say, that there's a reason -- I think -- that ParaKiss, out of many other Shoujo or even Shounen romances of the 2000s, is still the only one being reprinted. Its 20th-anniversary edition was reprinted back in 2019. In the wake of Nana's permanent hiatus (Yazawa's more popular manga), ParaKiss's fandom is alive and well. More and more people are discovering it, thanks to the reductively short anime adaptation making its way to streaming services. The promise of a (very satisfying) conclusion provides a healing balm of sorts for deluded Nana fans, and the story in its entirety holds its own as a romance masterpiece. The art style, the fashion, the romance, and the writing are all top scorers, but something about ParaKiss remains startlingly unique despite more than 20 years passing us by. Very few shoujo manga dare to try what Yazawa has done with this story, and very few shoujo manga do it so seamlessly -- devoid of the mandatory witticisms and marvelizations so common in today's media. ParaKiss is honest. Brutally honest. Yukari's inner monologues and expressions anticipate what the audience is thinking, not because she's so clever but because we can all relate to her. We've all made that mistake we can't help making. We've all watched ourselves undergo the consequences of our stupid actions, with nothing but self-pity to help us weather the storm. And all of us have known the beauty of believing the world is full of limitless possibilities, and we've tasted the bittersweet revelation that limitations do exist, and that's okay.

In other words, you don't have to be an intellect to enjoy and feel the takeaways of ParaKiss. The mangaka isn't trying to wink and nudge you into believing you're a smart consumer, because Yukari's story (or perhaps, Yukari herself) speaks of a hurt deeper than narrative conflict. Her hurt comes from one's first love, whatever or whoever it may be. First love isn't always romance (although it's a huge part of Yukari's story in ParaKiss). First love is the feeling that everything is new and ripe for discovery. First love is the disappointment that this period of discovery is finite, but you're so much stronger and better for having gone through it, brief as it may be. That is Paradise for Yukari: first love as the Edenic coming-of-age journey she needed to become who she is meant to be.

Many fans and critics agree that Paradise Kiss is a story about one's first love, and how you can have an impactful romance without it ending into a happily ever after. Of course I agree with this take. George is the 2nd protagonist, no question. His presence, actions, and personality catalyze the journey of self-discovery that Yukari finds in her last year of high school.

That said, I don't think enough attention has been paid to the other first love Yukari goes through: the world of fashion. Indeed, the story begins and ends with Yukari's time in the fashion world - her first thrills of modeling and her final, bittersweet acceptance of its inevitable end. This part of the story is so underhanded yet profoundly philosophical, I'm surprised discussions of fashion have become afterthoughts in any serious commentary of ParaKiss.

It's worth noting that Yukari doesn't exactly have insecurities directly related to her physical appearance. It's probably the most unrelatable part of her. When people comment on her beauty, she doesn't deny it, but she doesn't affirm it. We're meant to see and understand Yukari's natural beauty as a fact of her life, like the color of her hair or her height. She even brags about being able to stay skinny no matter how much she eats, which is the closest I came to hating a shoujo protagonist to be honest. Rather, her feelings of self-inadequacy stem from her immaturity, lack of style, and overall lack of self-confidence. In other words, when she starts the story believing her crush on classmate Tokumori is hopeless, she reasons, "Tokumori won't go for girls like me." Yukari doesn't mean she's too ugly for him. She means she's too inferior; too stupid; too 'uncool' for someone she perceives as the ideal. Even when she swiftly moves on to George and sets her sights on him, Yukari's feelings of worthlessness influence her behavior and decisions in the relationship, ultimately affecting how George himself treats her.

If Yukari's psyche sounds incoherent, it is and it isn't. It's realistically incoherent. Women are socially conditioned to find themselves inadequate in some way, and that self-perception is ultimately dictated by how men receive and project it back. This is the genius of ParaKiss. Whether or not you relate, this facet of Yukari's personality is an apt observation on what it means to be a woman as a high schooler, and I don't think it's an accident that prior to meeting the ParaKiss fashion team, Yukari's self-worth came entirely from her mother. For Yukari, growing up and leaving the nest means learning your place in the world in relation to men, and perhaps that's why Yukari's first love is riddled with so much pain, beauty, and joy.

In this cut-out of a panel, Yukari finally asks herself the question that must be in the fore of everyone's minds: 'What am I to George?' What is she to the man she considers the most important to her? What are we in relation to men? It takes Yukari 6 months to figure out that she doesn't need George to answer the first part of that question. By the time the series ends, Yukari is able to ask the same question without George.

These romantic pitfalls and triumphs become more meaningful when you realize this occurs in the context of breaking out into the fashion industry. Similar to Eve in Milton's Paradise Lost, Yukari looks at a mirror and discovers herself. She falls in love with that image. She falls in love with what fashion (not George!) reflects back at her -- a confident, cool woman who can don all sorts of masks and clothes.

When she asks a veteran model for advice on how to walk the runway, the model cryptically replies, "Just tell yourself you're the most beautiful woman in the world." This is a hurdle for the likes of Yukari, whose low self-esteem has prevented her from truly being alive prior to the events of the story. When she does walk down that runway, fully confident and basking in the crowd's reaction to her beauty, Yukari finally understands what it means. Telling yourself you're the most beautiful woman in the world is akin to believing yourself a woman; akin to believing yourself a woman worth existing and hogging the spotlight, without a man to justify it. Yukari might have been wearing clothes that George designed, but one can argue that the dress would not exist without Yukari. Indeed, he designed it with her face and body in mind. Yukari herself inspires the art George believes he's creating, and Yukari herself embodies and imparts the meaning of that art for the audience when she walks down the runway.

Thanks to the fashion show and Yukari's success, George himself realizes he cannot design for ready-to-wear clothing lines. Yukari too discovers that modeling isn't something she can just do. It's something she can work hard at, succeed, fail, and still enjoy. Unlike the grind of studying endlessly for exams she'll never pass, Yukari finds fulfillment in trying and failing in the fashion industry, and this self-realization lets her redefine what it means to succeed and fail, as we all come to understand by the end of the manga.

Given that Ai Yazawa studied fashion, it's no surprise that clothing, design, and the industry's connections are all important for Yukari's coming-of-age. Modeling and wearing George's clothes aren't all butterflies and roses. As we later see by the end of the manga, fashion leaves Yukari feeling dehumanized at times, which Yukari outright states in an inner monologue by calling herself a 'doll.' The liberating potential of modeling becomes a prison, in the right context. When another woman -- particularly one who rejects modeling or being a man's muse and instead aims to be a designer herself -- enters George's life, Yukari feels helpless. The autonomy she gained by modeling bites back in a mocking display of her own shallow disregard for other women's agency. Indeed, she acts vile toward Kaori (the aspiring designer in question), solely because she's threatened by how George sees her as an equal. The potential of self-fulfillment comes crashing down when the implication here is that, as his muse and model, Yukari will never be his equal.

I'm going to take a second and point out how brilliant this brief love triangle is on the part of Ai Yazawa. We are so used to shoujo protagonists who are sweet, understanding, and unfailingly good. Yukari is a surprise, to say the least. She's not afraid to be mean and flaunt her beauty to intimidate her competition, and at the same time, she's not afraid to own up to her faults and wallow in self-pity when humbled. Although George is the intermediary in the love triangle, you can also see how the fashion industry itself pits women against each other. Yukari can't measure up to Kaori, the talented and mature designer with true compassion for her peers and classmates. The culture festival led Yukari to believe that she, as their model, takes center stage, but with the show over, her status as model reduces to her one of the many cogs that prop up designers' creativity and will. If God is the designer in this paradise, then Eve is just a shell of and for his designs, just as Yukari recedes to a doll when George no longer respects her. Life, it seems, is difficult for a fashion model who seeks to affirm her existence and purpose in a world that devalues such traits in the first place.

Spoilers: George and Yukari's relationship lasts only 6 months, but Yukari's relationship with fashion lasts much longer: 10 years. In the manga's epilogue, Yukari is nearing retirement, and she mentions 'plateauing' in her career as a model. Although as a teenager she aspired to be a world class super model, her work only takes her to other cities in Japan, and she is content to end less with a bang and more like a firm sense of dignity and pride at her work.

It's also no shocker that, rather than confirm her retirement, the manga ends with an announcement of her engagement and imminent marriage to her Tokumori, her high school crush and classmate. The last panels mock the sense that first loves are more powerful than the present love they experience (which is so amazing and Part 2 will be about that), and while these lighthearted panels tell us it's a joke, you can easily see how those words apply to Yukari's love affair with fashion.

Her crush and first love spur her to 10 years of a successful career. Perhaps she never realized her ambitions of modeling in the West, but she nevertheless finds and declares herself successful. This is what first love is. You might start out believing it needs to be 'happily ever after,' but you can end it and grow and realize that 'remembered ever after' is just as good, for the role it had in your life and your growth.

Yukari isn't just telling us the story of her first love with George. She's also telling us the story of how she fell in love with herself through fashion, and how her job as a model helped her live the many lives she otherwise would've never experienced if she had stayed on her mother's preplanned course.

Fashion isn't just about the clothes, the romance, or the glamorous lifestyles. Fashion is looking back and basking in being looked at. Fashion is making meaning out of how others perceive you, and fashion can be a cruel reminder that those meanings are already preordained and predetermined. Yukari doesn't necessarily fight against that. She embraces it all and learns from it.

I'm going to stop here, because I don't think an essay about ParaKiss and first love is complete without talking about George's own implied ending and Tokumori's constant presence in the beginning, middle, and end of Yukari's story. There's still so much to say, so I'll save it for Part 2. For now, let me conclude with the argument that Paradise Kiss is so unique in so many ways. It takes on the typical rhythms and beats of a shoujo manga, but it also embraces the flaws, ugliness, and messiness of love as it manifests in romance and fashion. You can't appreciate and love ParaKiss without understanding how Yazawa carefully crafts and packages a coming-of-age story into a seemingly typical love story. To use the jargon of the trade, we come into ParaKiss believing the firm and distinct boundary separating haute couture from ready-to-wear. Fashion is both, and to fall in love with it is beautiful.

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

Just wanted to say that I really appreciate all your well thought out opinions and analysis of Arthur and Mary. They are just my absolute obsession and the hate poor Mary gets makes me so sad. Your blogs are always so articulate and well thought out. I really hope that minds are being changed by your words.

Thank you 🥺 I’m sorry I haven’t been active. I got fired from one job and have been nonstop busy ever since. I finally opened my tumblr app after so many months of inactivity. Hello everyone! I miss you all and our favorite cowboy. Glad to know that fans of Mary appreciate the hard work I put into my analyses!

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Don’t wanna clog someone’s notifs with unsolicited addition but yes precisely to this screenshot

Also I say this with as much kindness as I possibly can, but I think it’s uniquely American to not even know King Arthur is a welsh legend? And don’t worry you’re not reading into it. Jack marston alludes to the Arthurian legend in the epilogue, so the writers are deliberately flagging it for the audience.

Idk if it’s a poor understanding of non American history or what not, but it just genuinely surprises me this is a common misconception and has to be refuted with long answers (especially when Arthur himself responds that he isn’t English!!!!) Like it wasn’t until I moved here did I notice that many people didn’t know there was a difference between welsh and English??? Lmao and I grew up in asia???

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

i knew arthur was welsh but why does sean call him 'english' if he's not english?

oooff tumblr ate my first ask so i had to type this all over again 🥲 but here's my take on the matter:

long story short, as you can already tell, sean is very irish, and like a typical irish dude, he has a (very justified) hate boner for the english

sean definitely knows arthur is of welsh ancestry bc he cares a lot about celtic national identities and such. iirc he constantly talks about their historical ties with england; he attributes these identities to fully culturally americanized ppl, like colm o’driscoll for example, simply due to their names; he tries to get molly onboard with this “friendship through kinship” idea just bc they're both irish. someone who cares so much about celtic identities like sean would easily tell that the name arthur morgan is a very welsh name. even if welsh and irish aren't from the same branch of celtic ethnicity, sean surely feels a sense of camaraderie for the welsh on the ground that they're both groups of people who were oppressed by the english and therefore must have been curious enough to familiarize himself with their history and culture

so to go back to your question: he constantly calls arthur “english” simply bc he thinks it's a funny joke? we know the gang members love to rib on each other, and sean just calls him that bc he thinks that would trigger him (in the “haha wales is england” way) bc he thought english colonization would offend arthur the same way it offends him

the funny thing is this implication is actually lost on arthur bc while he's aware of his welsh background, he is culturally an americanized boah who likely doesn't have enough historical context regarding the relationship between his people and the english to be offended. or he could have known but couldn't care less, bc he doesn't share sean's strong mindset of celtic self-determination. it says a lot when the most reaction arthur has displayed to sean's teasing is confusion, like “why are you calling me english, my family weren't even english” (paraphrased from arthur himself).

or i guess i can just sum this up with one sentence: sean calls arthur english precisely bc he knows he isn't lol

#also this fandom is REALLY bad at reading snarky humor or wit #like the amount of people ive seen read this namecalling earnestly among others #can yall like register tone?? at all??? lmao

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was inspired by the talented @papaue00 who took an amazing photo of the one and only arthur as a dapper gentleman and made this magazine cover (photo is highly compressed bc the file size was huge lmao)

i also left her watermark so no matter what people can go find her work

#arthur morgan #graphic edits #phil is the best

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isnt mary repeatedly using arthur meant to be a thing in the game?? is that just a thing they didn't think of when writing that all out?? we're meant feel sympathy for her character- which makes sense but is her going back again and again to get arthur to help her meant to be notable...?

Sorry, I just saw this. I hope this doesn't come out of nowhere for you anon lol! It's been a while...

Yeah it's meant to be notable in that they're still in love but his inability to leave the outlaw life prevents them from acting on that love, but they're human and can't help finding each other no matter what. That's the author's intent there, lol.

Being ungenerous and reading this as her 'using' him really, really grinds my gears because this implies that their relationship is purely transactional? Like, she got him to do something, but she didn't make it worth his while, so she clearly just used him. People can ask for help from others they trust without being manipulative, you know? You might not be implying all that, but I don't see why else yall are insistent on this reading of 'using' him. There's a reason why Rockstar seems hellbent on writing troubled relationships for their protagonists, e.g. see Michael and Amanda; Franklin and Tanisha; John and Abigail.

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

I'm genuinely curious but why do you care if people headcanon that Arthur is himbo? I'm not trying to start a fight, sincerely. I'm coming from the perspective that we should let people have their headcanons, y'know?

Yeah, I get that! I guess, to answer this question, I have to talk about my philosophy (if you can call it that) when it comes to media consumption and my critical takes on fandom culture writ large. So if you have time, buckle up!

I should point out that I both don't care and care very much about people's hc's when it comes to my favorite characters. I don't care, in that I'm not going to get upset or get my panties in a wad if you headcanon something that is easily proven to be inaccurate wrt the canon. Like, if you want to headcanon Arthur is bad at reading, go for it. Lol, I'm not going to be upset or go out of my way to stop you.

However, I care enough to point out when this is inaccurate, especially when it enters into my sphere of fandom interactions. Now, this is where I get into trouble? A lot of people feel when I point out something is wrong or inaccurate, that I'm invalidating them or censoring them? Lol, like it's okay to be wrong/inaccurate. It's not the end of the world! If you choose to adjust your headcanons so that it's more canon compliant/accurate, then good for you. If you choose not to, also good for you! I promise, Lia isn't going to come after you :)

That said, in general, people need to be more open-minded if they're 'corrected.' Like I said, it's not the end of the world. Take the note and move on with your life.

Now, let's get to the larger, heftier part of this question. This need fandom has to transform their favorite man into a himbo (when he isn't) is a projection issue to me? Like, the unspoken assumption here is that it's safe and unproblematic to like himbos. Force this character into the himbo mold, and you can stan unproblematically! A couple of issues here:

As a Marxist, I should point out that there is no such thing as ethical consumption. It's fool's gold, and you're better off abandoning this all-or-nothing way of thinking and accept that life has its compromises WHILE still trying to work on yourself and your habits

Flanderization often leads to more problematic representation, as it erases the nuance that went into the writing of Arthur. He is a very complex dude. A lot of his sense of humor is subtle and off-the-cuff. Many people mistake it for genuine stupidity, and that's just... unfair? Like my boy did not just whip out witty repartee that belittles the presumptuous upper class of America for you to dismiss it as stupidity.

Now, as for himboism itself...

Okay, I love himbos. Kronk from Emperor's New Groove is a great and lovable example of a himbo? Big beefy dude with a big beefy heart but of very little brain UNLESS it involves his favorite pastime: home-making and cooking. Himbos aren't necessarily dumb, btw, they're just not considered conventionally intelligent (the way Yzma is). The charm of the himbo is that their kindness overpowers our traditional valuations of intelligence, and it reminds us that emotional intelligence (which, stereotypically is not recognized in cis men) is worth appreciating.

The problem here is that Arthur Morgan is both emotionally and intellectually intelligent. To overemphasize the former at the expense of the latter makes you miss a lot of his more complicated and unsavory personality traits?

For instance, one of the MAIN character traits (recognizable anywhere) of a himbo is that a himbo would never say a nasty word to ALL women. Now, don't get me wrong, Arthur is indeed a feminist who respects women, but a himbo would not be caught dead saying this line (credit to @papaue00 for reminding me it exists):

It's worth listening to how Roger Clark deliver those lines. Arthur speaks with malice here :)

Now, the point isn't, "Arthur is sexist! Cancel him!" Because that is NOT true. He's not sexist. Rather, he has moments where he gives in to petty malice? And he goes out of his way to demean her by bringing up sex work (i.e. she isn't a lady so she doesn't deserve his respect) to get back at the embarrassment and irritation he feels given the situation.

If you insist on him being a himbo and read him as only himbo, you miss out on his flaws. His flaws are key to understanding why he is the way he is; why he is perfectly capable of making his own choices and making the wrong ones. An unintended bias people have of Arthur as himbo (and therefore wholesome and unproblematic) is that they end up blaming other characters for his decisions. A famous example is Mary's missions. The fandom writ large tends to blame her for stringing Arthur alone, solely because he uses the phrase, 'play me like a fiddle' in his journal. Rather than reading that phrase as self-deprecatory (he's poking fun at himself while also expressing a vulnerable side of him that still loves her), they take that to mean she's manipulating poor helpless Arthur who is totally unaware of what she's doing to him.

Another example, someone wrongly attributed Arthur's pedantic interests to Dutch in one of my reblogs. Dutch and Hosea may have taught the boys how to read, but Dutch has no interest in botany. A quick conversation overhead between him and Lenny shows that his intellectual pursuits are actually just grandstanding and peacocking. He doesn't know and understand wtf he's talking about. Not once does Dutch even talk about botany. Arthur, though? Loves drawing plants. Can identify them. And he has a book of it by his bedside. Like, reading him as 'an idiot' sincerely (and not with a hint of irony, as Arthur does) misattributes his strengths and weaknesses to others, and that's just... unfair to the writers who WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO WRITE THOSE LINES OF EMULATED 19TH-CENTURY SCIENTIFIC PROSE!!! Like, people worked hard to characterize him environmentally. Don't let their efforts be in vain!

Do you see why I care a little bit if people mischaracterize him? It's like, I care in the sense of: okay have a good life. But I also care enough to point out an inaccuracy if I see one. I know it's more polite to not say anything, but it's also condescending of me to treat you like you're a child and just give a bemused smile from behind my screen. I think it's more helpful??? when I point out things you might have missed in game or are deliberately erasing when you choose to ignore the game.

I don't really care about being polite. I care about having good, healthy discussions and endless obsessions over my faves. So yeah there's your answer.

#Lia rambles #Arthur Morgan #oy

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oh sorry nevermind i dont wanna get called a misogynist for criticizing a characters actions and how they unintentionally may have hurt others, while still being sympathetic for them and being understanding of their situation xox

If you understand it's unintentional (which I don't disagree, Mary unintentionally hurt Arthur when she ended up breaking up with him, and NOT right after both missions), then you should understand the word 'using' implies intent, right? Using means she didn't care what happens to Arthur, except we do know she cares very much what happens to him. Her decision to leave him, after she had waited for him to get 'the last job' done and seeing that he was responsible for that big failed bank heist is her decision to stop seeing him hurt himself. It's actually a very healthy boundary? She said yes when he said ONE MORE JOB. He failed, which means he needs to definitely do more jobs. And she said, sorry I love you but this isn't good for us. Sometimes, letting someone go is the best thing you can do for them.

Mary is very much flawed and in a tough situation, but we need to be more careful of what words we use. There are limits to how women can act in the game's context, and acting like what she did was deliberate and without any regard for Arthur's well-being is very very very unfair and ungenerous to the gender strictures inhibiting her agency.

Also anon, whether or not you're misogynist (and what you do with the criticism leveled against you) is up to you? Like, I'm not sorry if you made that discovery. If anything, I'm happy for you! Then maybe you can examine your biases? And don't get me wrong, I have biases of my own to examine. Don't take it personally if I point out something is complicit in a systemic issue lol. We live in a patriarchal world. It'll happen. The best we can do is figure out where to go from there!

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

isnt mary repeatedly using arthur meant to be a thing in the game?? is that just a thing they didn't think of when writing that all out?? we're meant feel sympathy for her character- which makes sense but is her going back again and again to get arthur to help her meant to be notable...?

Sorry, I just saw this. I hope this doesn't come out of nowhere for you anon lol! It's been a while...

Yeah it's meant to be notable in that they're still in love but his inability to leave the outlaw life prevents them from acting on that love, but they're human and can't help finding each other no matter what. That's the author's intent there, lol.

Being ungenerous and reading this as her 'using' him really, really grinds my gears because this implies that their relationship is purely transactional? Like, she got him to do something, but she didn't make it worth his while, so she clearly just used him. People can ask for help from others they trust without being manipulative, you know? You might not be implying all that, but I don't see why else yall are insistent on this reading of 'using' him. There's a reason why Rockstar seems hellbent on writing troubled relationships for their protagonists, e.g. see Michael and Amanda; Franklin and Tanisha; John and Abigail.

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

The whole himbo hc for Arthur is so funny to me. What himbo has beautiful cursive handwriting that is better than an upper middle class woman’s (as Mary professes), owns two books of natural history by his bed, and appreciates a medical treatise for a gift??? Like lmao

#I try to be nice #but like my heart isn’t big enough to be nice

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Just wanted to correct the writer of these tags, but boadicea isn’t an English queen. She was a welsh one. It’s a common but unfortunate misconception that they’re the same. However I don’t think a welsh person would appreciate it.

This is also known by the writers, as Sean, who has similar anti-English sentiments being Irish, teases Arthur by calling him “English” (because he knows it’ll get on Arthur’s nerves).

fandom!Arthur: small vocabulary, leans to an ableist interpretation of himbo as mentally lacking, and not well-read

canon!Arthur: actually has a wide vocabulary (for instance referring to themselves as vagrants when antagonizing Hosea and writes eloquent prose in his journal), makes classical references like ‘would-be Icarus’ despite never having gone to school, the only 2 books he owns by his bed at the start of the game are a WORK OF NATURAL HISTORY and work on PLANTS AND FUNGI, knows how to cauterize a wound using fire, metal, and gun powder…

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

crime boss arthur

#arthur morgan #rdr2 #papi #god the I have a big dick man spread he’s got going

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Preview of my current work in progress.

I have never drawn two people together so this is all very much trial and error for me. Especially with color. But I'm pretty content with it so far and hope I don't abandon it when it comes to drawing the water.

#Arthur Morgan #Mary Linton #Arthur x Mary #Marthur #Red Dead Redemption 2 fanart

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crime boss arthur

#papí dame tu pito;;;;; #lo sé él tiene un pajarote #never wanted to suck a dick so bad in my entire life i SWEAR #sorry im so thirsty #arthur morgan

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Arthur/Reader Fic Request (Excerpt)

With permission from the client, here's an excerpt of the fic commission I got for Arthur/Reader! Like what you see? Rememebr I'm still accepting fic requests!

Warning: mention of nudity and implied sexual content

She guides him towards the bath, walking backwards as she smiles giddily at his flummoxed expression. The robe, once undone, whispers down her limbs, pooling soundlessly by her ankles. “Don’t be so scared,” she coos at him. [Reader] fans her hands across his chest, teasing the part of his collar so that it widens against the flimsy buttons.

Arthur draws his hands away, self-consciously rubbing the back of his neck as he tries, but fails, to avert his gaze.

There’s something silly in this after all. When was the last time a woman joined him in a bath? Hell, he can’t remember the last time he had one. After all, life on the run doesn’t afford him many pleasures, albeit basic ones. “I don’t know,” he sputters out, voice gruff and nervous. “This hardly seems… erh… proper.” 

She raises an incredulous brow. It’s not everyday that an outlaw insists on propriety, but somehow it makes Arthur all the more endearing to her. Now his hand absentmindedly scratches at the stubble beneath his chin, the faint five-o-clock shadow already graying down to his neck. Her hand rakes upward, feeling for the coarse yet inviting stubble and combs down until she gets lost in the hair on his chest. Her motions tug at the seam of his shirt, the buttons clinging desperately despite what either of them are ready to do.

[Reader] giggles and presses into his body, wrapping her arms around his waist for a tender hug. “You’re too good, you know that? Let someone else be good to you for a change.” 

#Arthur/reader #fic comm #RDR2 fanfiction #Arthur Morgan #m/f #NSFW

[arthurmorganwateringhole]

handsome cowboah

#arthur morgan #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2