'Cause looking back, seems to me we were all a bunch of romantic fools who still believed that a good pistol and quick showdown could solve everything. But then the West used to be wide open spaces with lots of elbow room where you never ran into the same person twice. By the time you came along it was changed. Got small and crowded and you kept bumping at the same people all the time. But if you're able to run around in the West peacefully, catching flies, it's only 'cause fellows like me were there first. Yeah, the same fellows you wanna see written up in history books. 'Cause people need something to believe in, like you say. But you won't be able to have it your own way much longer 'cause the country ain't the same anymore, and I'm already feeling the strange in myself. But, what's worse, violence has changed, too. It's grown and got organized and a good pistol don't mean a damn thing anymore. But I guess you must know all this 'cause it's your kind of times, not mine.
—Jack Beauregard, My Name Is Nobody
We can't always fight nature, John. We can't fight change. We can't fight gravity. We can't fight nothing. My whole life, John, all I ever did was fight. But I can't give up neither. I can't fight my own nature. That's the paradox, John. You see? When I'm gone they'll just find another monster. They have to. Because they have to justify their wages. Our time is passed, John.
—Dutch van der Linde, Red Dead Redemption
By 1899, the time of outlaws and gunslingers was at an end. America was becoming a land of laws, even the West had mostly been tamed. A few gangs still remained, but they were being hunted down and destroyed.
—Opening Captions, Red Dead Redemption 2
Whole world's changin', even I see that now. Our time... has pretty much passed. They don't want folk like us no more. It's their rules or be damned with you. No more outlaws, no more killers. Now it's us being hunted... oh, and they ain't stopping. We went and made our choices a long time ago, so... I guess we gotta pay for our sins.
—Arthur Morgan, Red Dead Redemption 2
Dutch: We have lofty goals, Arthur. We're trying to reform society, to a kinder, truer, better way. Now of course, there's going to be casualties.
Arthur: We're thieves, in a world that don't want us no more.
Dutch: We are dreamers, in an ever-duller world of facts, I'll give you that.
You should have let yourself get killed a long time ago when you had the chance. See, you may be the biggest thing that ever hit this area, but you're still two-bit outlaws. I never met a soul more affable than you, Butch, or faster than the Kid, but you're still nothing but two-bit outlaws on the dodge. It's over, don't you get that? Your times is over and you're gonna die bloody, and all you can do is choose where.
— Sherriff Ray Bledsoe, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
