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https://youtu.be/WpViR-BQwCg

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a story about honor and redemption under Dutch van der Linde's noble lie of freedom. Arthur Morgan, raised in the Van der Linde gang, prizes loyalty until tuberculosis forces him to see through Dutch, reorder desire toward the good, and choose whether high honor or the outlaw life names his last days.

In this Mythic Mind Games panel, Dr. Andrew Snyder is joined by Master Samwise and Jeremy Kee for a broad conversation on RDR2's world, story, and philosophy after the solo Arthur Morgan essay. They trace Arthur's evolution from blind loyalty to Dutch toward loyalty as seeking the good of John, Abigail, and Jack; Mary Linton and the "giant" of the outlaw life; Sister Calderon's confession-like counsel; high-honor sunrise death versus low-honor collapse; and cowboy romanticism's code of honor as evidence that games can approach literature and myth.

Continue the Red Dead thread: Arthur Morgan, Ivan Ilyich & Memento Mori (ep. 4) https://youtu.be/ynV50tCh6oc; Red Dead Redemption: Honor, Vengeance & John Marston (ep. 43) https://youtu.be/cqrr3_p1hmw. For the series frame on games as fairy-stories and literary value, see Video Games as Fairy-Stories (ep. 1) https://youtu.be/lYzzMFDus9U and The Value of Video Games (ep. 10) https://youtu.be/C7g7z-PmVwU.<... />
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- Mythic Mind
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https://youtu.be/ynV50tCh6oc

Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan and Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich both teach memento mori: facing death can renew how you live. After Arthur's tuberculosis diagnosis he turns from outlaw vanity toward an honorable redemption; after Ivan's fatal illness he sees that a respectable career and middle-class image were a false life.

In this Mythic Mind Games solo essay, Dr. Andrew Snyder reads RDR2 against The Death of Ivan Ilyich. He traces Ivan's acquaintances who think "it is he who is dead and not I," the widow's inconvenience over grief, Gerasim's honest acceptance of mortality, and Ivan's spiral of denial until the end. Then he sets Arthur beside that arc: a bad man who wants to be good, collapsing into TB, asking whether he has wanted the right things, and redeeming what remains of his life by living well. The shared archetype is mortality that reorders desire; the medieval Latin reminder is not morbid retreat but a call to responsibility, virtue, and the form of a human life (Aristotle, Westminster). Along the way Andrew argues that video games can approach the literary and connect us to the true, good, and beautiful.

Continue the Red Dead thread with the RDR2 panel (ep. 5) https://youtu.be/WpViR-BQwCg and Red Dead Redemption (Mythic Mind) https://youtu.be/cqrr3_p1hmw. For the series frame on games as fairy-stories and literary value, see Video Games and Fairy-Stories (ep. 1) https://youtu.be/lYzzMFDus9U and The Value of Video Games (ep. 10) https://youtu.be/C7g7z-PmVwU.<... />
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#MythicMind #MythicMindGames #RedDeadRedemption2 #RDR2 #ArthurMorgan #IvanIlyich #Tolstoy #MementoMori #Death #Redemption #Philosophy #VideoGames

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https://youtu.be/hQmsrDFgmUE

Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) closes the Old Republic mini-series: eight fully voiced Jedi and Sith class stories, companions who question your choices, and a Force war where light and dark play collide with politics, empire, and the moral nature of MMO gameplay.

In this Mythic Mind Games conversation (~48 min), Dr. Andrew Snyder is joined by Ian Miller to weigh Trooper and Consular favorites, the Jedi Knight arc from Coruscant politics to the nihilist Sith Emperor, light-side Sith inside a dark theocracy, Imperial Agent intrigue, and whether vicious dark-side play reveals character or is just another way to inhabit the story. WoW-like systems, richer Star Wars storytelling: the moral weight rides on class plot and companion talk more than the grind.

Related Old Republic chats: Knights of the Old Republic: Choice, Jolee, and the Light (Mythic Mind, ep. 93) https://youtu.be/KfutgcIdL5M; KOTOR II: Kreia, the Exile, and Killing the Force (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 2) https://youtu.be/rXsm7IzC1Z8; KOTOR Loyalty: Bastila, Canderous, and Tolkien's Sauron (Mythic Mind Games) https://youtu.be/rIF27Bbo2OM; KOTOR Dark Side: Malak, Bastila, and Dostoevsky (Mythic Mind Games) https://youtu.be/jbiDltcMrJc.<... />
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Watch the video:
https://youtu.be/rXsm7IzC1Z8

Andrew, Josh, and Ian continue the Old Republic mini-series with Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Kreia's Nietzschean drive to kill the Force, the Jedi Exile cut off from power, companion influence, and whether Jedi monastic law or Sith hunger can answer suffering and betrayal.

In this Mythic Mind Games conversation they weigh an Augustinian reading of the light side against yin-yang Force talk, the Sith Triumvirate as hunger and revenge that never fills, and ordinary-galaxy voices (like G0-T0) who just want the religious war to end.

Related: Mythic Mind ep. 93 Knights of the Old Republic https://youtu.be/KfutgcIdL5M; KOTOR Loyalty (Bastila, Canderous, Tolkien) https://youtu.be/rIF27Bbo2OM; Mythic Mind Games ep. 3 SWTOR https://youtu.be/hQmsrDFgmUE.<... />
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#MythicMind #MythicMindGames #KOTOR #KOTOR2 #KnightsOfTheOldRepublic #Kreia #JediExile #SithLords #StarWars #Philosophy #Nihilism #Force

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https://youtu.be/lYzzMFDus9U

Can video games be more than empty amusement? Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories suggests they can: as secondary worlds of subcreation where escape, recovery, and a return to the primary world are possible.

In this opening episode of Mythic Mind Games, Dr. Andrew Snyder introduces the show's manifesto. Drawing on Tolkien's account of fantasy as subcreation (not mere make-believe), he argues that rightly ordered games can participate in the perilous realm of fairy-story: places where we meet truth, risk getting lost, and may bring recovered value back into ordinary life. He contrasts cinema's finished spectacle with the participatory imagination of books and players, asks when games edify versus merely amuse, and sets the philosophical warrant for reading video games as paths toward wisdom rather than only entertainment.

Series opener / manifesto for Mythic Mind Games. Related applications: Legend of Zelda Mythopoeic Narrative (ep. 7) https://youtu.be/vU3OBUUitis; Legend of Zelda (ep. 6) https://youtu.be/kuyYT_8nsiM.<... />
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Listen to/watch the Mythic Mind podcasts:
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#MythicMind #MythicMindGames #VideoGames #FairyStories #Tolkien #OnFairyStories #Subcreation #Fantasy #Philosophy #PrimaryWorld #SecondaryWorld #ChristianHumanities