Talk:The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed/@comment-139.59.36.194-20180731152110

The game automatically shifts you the player into dead-eye mode targeting upon exiting the barn structure. BYPASS IT - exit immediately dead eye targeting and the model (unfortunately not the in-universe person) of Edgar Ross is verifiably killable. I have gone over this and related final duel issues and the only way to truly kill at least the "virtual model" of Ross unmistakably is exiting dead-eye and then manually targeting him in a head-shot, straight through the ganglion. Doing so forfeits the possibility of violently defensively attacking any of the other death-squad members, his death shall be the only one inflicted, however: but the psychological reward of killing the bastard is worth it...

I can reliably report the number of American Army casualties here is multifactorial, truly, not set in stone as described above; one factor involved is one's own actual accumulated measured skill-level in combat as understood by the internal game dynamics; more skilled players face more tenacious, numerous hardship: the number given here tends toward the less numerous, and is popularly appropriate, but should not be absolutized. I have videotapped footage. Light regiment or light battalion-strength death numbers are reachable.

The final duel death-dance perforce has John use the most unfitting weapon in the game for his last stand. You can indeed pull out the Evans Repeater and go relatively wild, but only through tampering in one way or another with the scripted events of the game as it was meant to be, as the creation of its creators. I do not believe in tampering with games, PERIOD. So, sadly, the number of marshals and deputies Marston can kill appears to be accurately transmitted above... I have noticed, however, if you really, really do it quickly, the graphics of individuals become blurry as they fall to death, and if you target between two individuals yet making sure the shot hits both individuals simultaneously, perhaps the numbers could go up very slightly .Not really significant, in the end. Overall, the low casualty count reported is accurate for the final stand sequence.

Ross's "butler", his role in the final showdown, is actually very unclear. The model of the more morally-decent government agent sometimes appears, sometimes does not appear; when appearing, can be killed only the same way Ross can be killed. Ross's "servant" is so much more clean in conscience, their mindsets are distinct, I almost forgive him for his hypothetical co-consipracy in atrocity and tyranny...almost...

The American Army Captain who bemoans to Marston sympathetically concerning the situation of his men and his own mind, being frustrated with the legally-murky operation he yet as a soldier executes, re-manifests here but is killable as any other high marshall or deputy. Why target him or the lackey instead of Ross, the direct motor of malevolence in the tragedy, though?...

Are we sure if not for Ross, Marston might have lived as the redeemed knight he was meant to live in his later years? Marston's behavior with the Mysterious Stranger of I Know You certainly complicates the ideal picture of Marston as neo-medieval "redemeed knight" - Marston's soul is clearly torn, spiritually, morally, to an extreme degree.

Not considering Marston's internal soul-side journey now, there is no evidence any other goverment agents were collectively conspiracy-minded against Marston except Ross. So give the bastard the punishment due... Butchering Ross's ignorant relatives in the "Remember" climax of the game as Jacok, instinctively I know John would react to as knives to the heart, despite his brutality. The only way to truly fail RDR is to continue the cycle of self-destructiveness as Jack.

The final death-duel comes straight out the heart of purest chivalry and is sinless; the man fit the fate dealt... Ross is correct that Marston killed himself in a sense, but his cowardice is not really concerned about such questions and the character is just basely-motivated creepling in the end, whose felonious misconduct in office and illegal involvement of the military forces in civilian sphere, stem from a rotten soul, John rightly commented more rotten than even Dutch, pretending to act as Old Testament "Ha-Satan", the necessary evil, but was only evil, just evil, really...

More than many games, RDR forces many things on the player. Good golly, my first time growing in fame because conscientiously fulfilling ambient challenges, usually pleading random persons begging for help preventing a loved one's death: the forced element becomes ridiculous at a certain point. Any town one enters, at least two concurrent morally-intense problems immediately are shoved in one's face. Herbert Moon shall be bellowing for aid as a Wild Posse rides roughshod as a poor prostitute is threatened with a knife as Alvin McReady once again lost his horse for the millionth time ever so curiously. The forced element is directly product of one's "fame" metric which I exceeded the graphic spectrum very early, so things got wild in RDR. What I hate most of all are the maniacal "bad hunter" episodes showing up as a wife is hanging from a tree and two lawmen are shooting bullets over your head allegedly pursuing a tricky criminal. Being paragon-Marston is hard work...

Summarizing: Exiting dead eye pronto and manually head-shotting Ross to certain death is psychologically optimally rewarding compared to all alternatives...