Deborah MacGuiness is a minor character and a Stranger featured in Red Dead Redemption 2. She initiates the Stranger side-mission "A Test of Faith".
History[]
Background[]
She is a leading amateur paleontologist in the United States. She has applied for many universities, but so far she has been rejected by every one and they disagree with her theories. She also at one point had a sister who died prior to 1899, however Deborah said it was the best day of her life.
Events of Red Dead Redemption 2[]
She is encountered in The Heartlands region of the New Hanover territory.
She is seen brushing a recently discovered set of dinosaur bones before asking the player if they are a spy. She informs the player on how she was declined by every university she applied for. She asks the player that they mail the coordinates of any dinosaur bones they come across to her homestead at Firwood Rise for a cash reward.
After the player delivers all 30 Dinosaur bones, a newspaper article reveals what had transpired after: Deborah MacGuiness had presented her Dinosaur called the “Totalisaurus”; many scientists and archaeologists were awed by her discovery; however, just as many were not impressed, as they believe that her “dinosaur” was just a mishmash of random bones from random species.
Mission appearances[]
- Red Dead Redemption 2
Trivia[]
- Deborah appears to be based on Mary Anning, in both her career and appearance. She was an English paleontologist and fossils dealer famous for her groundbreaking discoveries of fossils from the Jurassic period in southwest England, which were infamously stolen from her by male paleontologists for decades.
- However, unlike Mary Anning, Deborah is an actual quack, despite her claims. Her theories, while never stated, seem to break the very laws and theories central to biology both at the time and nowadays. The reconstruction she builds of her creature is a chimera specimen with parts taken from multiple different creatures of vastly different groups with anatomy that is impossible for terrestrial vertebrates.
- If the player visits her place before collecting all the dinosaur bones, she can be heard inside her barn.
- After meeting her in the cutscene, she can be followed around the map. Eventually she will grow suspicious of Arthur and ride her horse quickly while glancing over her shoulder. If the player jumps on her wagon by riding beside it she will get off and run away where she can be taunted by Arthur and killed by trampling on her while on horseback.
- The "scientific" name of the Totalisaurus is "West Elizabethus", after the state of the same name.