I'll never forget that gut punch of disappointment when I realized the magnificent, sun-baked deserts of New Austin were forever locked away from Arthur Morgan. 🤯 That sprawling frontier land where John Marston later roamed freely felt like a personal betrayal - as if Rockstar dangled the juiciest steak before a starving man only to yank it away! The sheer injustice of it haunts me even now in 2025, years after my first playthrough. Those haunting journal entries discovered through glitches? Pure agony! Seeing Arthur's rough sketches of Armadillo's crumbling facades while knowing he'd never officially set foot there... it's like finding love letters for a relationship that never was.

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The cruel irony? Those magnificent drawings prove Arthur's boots did crunch New Austin's sands during development! His pencil captured details John's clumsy doodles could never match - the way sunset bleeds over Cholla Springs' ridges, the skeletal remains of pioneer wagons. Yet we're told "story reasons" kept him out? Don't feed me that canned stew! Pinkertons blocking access feels like a flimsy cover for corporate rush-jobs. I've modded my way in countless times just to watch Arthur sketch those landscapes, each stroke dripping with melancholy "what-could've-been" energy. The visual poetry of it destroys me:

  • Arthur's journal: 🎨 Vibrant, emotional sketches with sparse poetic notes

  • John's journal: 📝 Technical descriptions with amateurish stick figures

That heartbreaking disparity screams of severed content! Rockstar clearly envisioned Arthur wandering these lands before cholera ravaged them. Imagine exploring untouched Armadillo's saloons with young Arthur instead of John's hollow victory lap! We were robbed of:

Experience Arthur's Potential Version John's Reality
Environmental storytelling Rich pre-cholera life Ghost town emptiness
Character perspective Fresh outlaw wonder Weary nostalgia
Emotional weight Hope before downfall Bitter aftermath

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My hands actually tremble imagining cut missions - maybe a prologue heist showing the gang's glory days before Blackwater's disaster. Arthur riding through Gaptooth Ridge at dawn, the gang's laughter echoing where only coyotes howl in John's timeline. 💔 That phantom gameplay lingers like campfire smoke! Every tumbleweed in John's epilogue mocks me with whispers of Arthur's absence. And the cruelest twist? Finding Arthur's hidden journal pages feels like grave-robbing memories from a corpse.

So I'm left screaming into the canyon winds: What breathtaking narratives died on Rockstar's cutting room floor? Did Arthur's tuberculosis arc originally intertwine with New Austin's decay? Could we have seen his moral dilemmas play out under these merciless skies? The truth remains buried deeper than Dutch's gold... but oh, how that ghost content haunts this masterpiece! 🕯️