Red Dead Redemption 2 players shocked by John and Arthur's age

John Marston and Arthur Morgan are among the most beloved protagonists in video games. I certainly wouldn't call them heroes; they're complex humans, struggling to do good (most of the time) in spite of their surroundings and circumstances.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterpiece, of course, with so much to see and do that players are still making completely new and unexpected discoveries to this day. Considering the sheer scope and scale of Rockstar's celebrated open-world, that's not too surprising. What is surprising, is learning just how old John and Arthur really are.

Take a look at some of the best Red Dead Redemption 2 wins and fails below!

As it turns out, Arthur is 35. That one isn't too far off how he looks, I'll grant you that, but I was floored to learn John is 26 during the events of Red Dead Redemption 2. Clearly there's no skincare routine to speak of in the wild west.

Dates of birth for both are difficult to work out, but we know that Arthur has been travelling with the Van der Linde gang for most of his life - about two decades. Hosea Matthews tells us he was 14, or "maybe a little older", when he was found by Dutch and Hosea on the streets.

It's worth noting the Red Dead wikia says Arthur is 36 years old in the game, but the math suggests he's 34 years old. We can of course assume Hosea is correct when he posits Arthur was maybe a little older, so let's split the difference and land on 35.

John is a little easier to work out. Arthur meets him at 12 years old in 1885, so a simple bit of math makes him 26 in Red Dead Redemption and 38 in Red Dead Redemption 2. Clearly he did most of his ageing in his 20s, as he doesn't look too much older in the original game.