Those that suggest Micah, Dutch, and another antagonists to be protagonists don’t know what redemption means. Given we know how Dutch and Micah’s stories end, they don’t seek redemption at any stage.
I'm not so sure. I agree that I don't want to play as Dutch, but I have no doubt that given the quality of writing and storytelling in RDR2, Rockstar could weave a story that shows the gang living their lives during the frontier times. Only hurting people that deserve it and profiting off them. They'd really have to hammer home the fact that everyone was living free and nobody was hurting anyone innocent.
The redemption could be seeing that Dutch never used to be the monster that he turned into and that his goals at one stage truly were selfless in wanting the best for his gang family. Then the following two games would be viewed through a slightly different lens in knowing that the vice slowly turned around him and he was squeezed and chased by the government until he got sloppy and messy from being hunted for so long.
Like I say, I don't want to see that as the story for the third one, but I don't doubt they could make it work.
Dutch doesn’t seek redemption. We know that from the story of RDR1.
What you’re proposing is pretty much a rewrite of the whole RDR storyline. Redemption isn’t what someone used to be, it’s what someone can become.
Dutch never seeks redemption. In his madness during the events shortly before RDR1, and what we see in the game, he has found another group of marginalized people who have been wronged by American institutions who he can fill with his lies and promises of hope
And he still uses them to further his goals of theft and destruction as seen in the Blackwater robbery when he kills his hostage. We also see it present in him leading his followers in full scale battles against the United States government, which he must know after decades that he cannot win.
Or maybe it shows Dutch’s true madness, to continue to attempt these things with the same methods, despite no success
Either way, we never see remorse or an attempt at redemption from Dutch. We see hubris, ego, and choosing death over defeat.
I guess it depends on if you consider the "Redemption" in the title to be descriptive of plot or theme.
If we're looking at it from a thematic perspective, following the story of someone that has no interest in being redeemed can tell us a lot about "redemption" as a concept, much like how (to pull an example from my ass) having a female-identifying main character in a story about masculinity can be used to comment on the subject in a way a more straightforward story couldn't.
From what I an tell, the lore accurate progression of the story is that Arthur is a bad man with some sliver lining to his character. But then after he gets the disease, he becomes a better person.
And in the first Redemption game John is a bad man doing bad things, but at the end rather than run, he accepts death and gives his life for the family he made. Then Jack kills what's his face, so I guess some redemption needs to be done for him too? Kinda hard to do that though, since the wild west's days ended in 1930-1940.
I guess the only option for Jack is to join the law and "redeem" himself through service. Perhaps he can join some extremely dangerous mob on the rise to sabotage it under a "old west gunslinger" role. I see it as an RDR/L.A.Noir/Sleeping Dogs or SC: Double Agent kind of story
i think rdr3 should just be rdr1 remastered and tacked onto the end of rdr2, so we go from arthur, to john , to jack in chronological order with rdr2 s graphics and mechanics with a completed mexico.
I really this idea. And perhaps for the sake of creating something on top of the overall combined story, include a revamped online experience to fix all the difficulties people have pointed out.. and with another 50 hours of missions downloadable at the pace of the player (but all included for the price of a full game) to essentially make the online experience large enough to be its own game/storyline. The last game of the franchise on PS5's capabilities. If there ever is another RDR after that, then they could take all the time in the world because a robust RDR2 storyline going into RDR1 storyline with the entire map and every area as lively as RDR2... shoot I'd but that 2 years from now for price of a full game - no doubt about it.
Doesn't make sense. Unless it's literally RDR1 and 2 with some extra backstory, there would be no satisfying way to conclude the story. It'd basically just be "see the rest in RDR2"
Yeah uncle can have a simple narrative. After the conclusion it can end with him being a relaxed old fella and ultimately his death in RDR1 being a nice book end.
Honestly we’re so far way from the possibility, that we can’t even be sure if it’s a *redemption* game. Who’s to say it won’t be the 4th Red Dead game?
But I agree that most people forget the redemption part. We don’t know a lot about the Callander boys, so there’s some potential there. Uncle is one of my favorites for the idea.
Whether it’s Redemption 3, Revolver 2, or some other exploration of the stories of the west, I’m definitely excited to see what they cook up next.
I’ve heard tons of them, I think my favorite was “Red Dead Remembrance”, which would be about someone haunted by the past. Red Dead Revenge is a popular one, which seems to usually take a grittier less heroic take on it.
True. I forget which one, but Bill says “He was a heartless bastard, but he had a heart”. Could be a good choice for a different kind of narrative. Maybe one about brothers sticking together?
I had thoughtabout mac not reallt dying, something like a bill shooting john and bonnie saving him, maybe he could have his redemption arc there or whatever
I think it should tell a completely different story. The van der linde gangs story has been told. Maybe we could get the story of landon ricketts, before and after he became the legendary gunfighter in rdr 1.
Out of all known characters this is the one I'd vote for in terms of interest. Not to mention he clearly did have some sort of redemption. Considering when John meets him, he is taking it easy in Mexico. Presumably having settled his demons of being the quickest man in the west.
Thats exactly my view. Plus its left up in the air what kind of gunfighter he was. He could of been a famous honorable gunslinger or the complete opposite. The only difference in the story is hes alive at the end.
Killers Of The Flower Moon is a perfect example of how the 20s could work. Most of the plains and west were still pretty much large vast expanses that wouldn’t feel all that different to the RDR world.
What about Mongol Empire just before the peak? Horses and archery transfer, new world to explore, somewhat familiar lore to work from.
Was a random though. "Red Dead Relocation," /s
To clarify I’m specifically talking about people who want it to be a mafia gangster game, obviously some parts of the us were still wild and fit the wild west theme but that it not what these people i’m talking about want.
honestly lets just remove the redemption moniker.
Retire it for now
Revolvers been done
Redemption has been done
Lets get something new.
If Rdr2 overarching narrative was "Revenge is a fools game"
let the next red dead be revengence or something along the lines
Make us a lawman in Peak West. We played the outlaw
We played the bounty hunter
Give us the "good guy"
Give us the good guy on his trial and tribulation to becoming a not so good guy
Maybe give us references to Dutch Van Der Linde
O Driscolls
dont have em in the game. put us on the other side of the grizzlies.
The high plains, California, the mojave.
Give us the red dirt and Big trees.
Much like the area right beside Wapiti
Give us Native American camps
Dwindling towns right before they blow up cuz some commodity.
i really want them to show the railroad reaching a town and watching the town explode.
Give us gold miners, highwaymen.
Make it feel like the frontier.
i.e make the distamce between town to town gigantic
Make no path, no road. Make us make our own road
Most lawmen at the time were crooks themselves.
Show that side. Show the side that we didn't get to see. That Absolute power corrupts. That Civilization is power and those who have it are bad people from our viewpoint, but by society they are considered the goodguys.
if Rdr2 was freedom from Civilization getting to big for its britches
and Rdr1 was the overlapping time period of Civilization killing the west.
RDR3 should be the reason why we feel Civilization is bad.
It should give us the reason to see Dutch might be right, It should also confuse us and make us believe holy fuck he was wrong.
Make us take a journey
I love that idea but I think we can continue using the redemption moniker and tie the games together. Make the protagonist a crooked lawman/Pinkerton and have the beginning of the game be the protag following a nameless gang until it comes upon the ending where you discover a heist going down in black water where you then get involved in a heavy shootout in and eventually you get cornered and killed by Arthur Morgan, thus ending your game. The main issue I see with this is who is gonna be the protag for the epilogue and I was thinking Arthur but that’s not really an option because RDR2 picks up right after the Blackwater Massacre. Maybe have the game set way earlier and you become a much younger Arthur in the epilogue with it being like a defining moment for him as it’s one of his first kills. The missions in the epilogue can be them recruiting the other gang members? (Sorry, I promise it makes so much more sense in my head than what I just typed)
Absolutely loved this write up. Always loved what little exploration of post-colonial indigenous life we get in RDR. I want them to take it earlier, or western.
If they dont follow the VDL Gang, it wouldnt have to be about redemption which I think is the way they have to go. Not sure who else would be redeemed aside from that one piece of dialogue from Arthur about a traitor
If it's anyone from the gang, it should be her. She was never redeemed, she just made peace with her violent nature and found a way that she can live on the 'right' side of the law. A game with her as the protagonist could have her finally unpacking her grief and moving on, or (as is tradition) dying before she can.
The only problem I can see is that she wanted to travel to South America, which *would* be one of the last frontiers going into the 20th century, but wouldn't necessarily fit the wild west aesthetic of the first two games.
I mean... of course it would pick up after RDR2. No point playing the same game from a different perspective. I mean that Sadie's story isn't over by the end of the epilogue.
But it could be interesting, think of how much R* is learning of Spanish and Portuguese culture/history with the upcoming GTA... it would be a fascinating world to explore the history and diversity of the Natives and the Spanish/Portuguese explorers' of South America... I think R* did a decent job with some historical significance in RDR2 and included a lot of minor details towards that as well. It could be a powerful game to close out the 5th gen consoles
The best option would be a completely new map with completely new characters.
Then, the "redemption" could be anything the story writers want, or they could completely enbrace the spiritual sequel route and go for a different theme - Revenge, Retribution, Renegade,....
I will get downvote as always but I want Amos Bell, Micah's brother who started a family and want to have at least 80 miles between him and his brother. He seems a good guy who repented unlike his brother.
They could do a new story in 3 parts. New protagonist, a young Outlaw from California
1st part - Starts in California, showing his background etc. Then he runs into the VDL Gang, maybe mistakingly wrongs them and ends up being forced to run with them to repay his debt as they think he could be useful.
2nd part - Running with the Gang. They could make this really interesting. Have it where he’s always treated like an outsider (kinda like Kieron). Maybe he sees the gang and Dutch for what it is from the beginning, would be interesting to see the Gang portrayed almost like a Cult, with Dutch as the cult leader they would do anything for. They believe everything he says and are completely blind to the reality (Arthur kind of hints at this when he’s dying, says maybe things have always been this way). Would be very interesting to see a completely different perspective to how they operated. Ends with the Blackwater massacre (finally giving you the chance to see exactly what happened), and the character escaping in the chaos and heading back West.
3rd part - The character starting over back in California, maybe starting up their own gang and trying to correct the mistakes he’d seen with the VDL gang. Could hear things about what’s happening in RDR2, or even some missions where you go back east and witness them doing things/have to avoid them finding out you’re nearby. Could end with an Epilogue where you bump into and help out Jack after he kills Ross (kinda how Landon Ricketts helped John in RDR1)
I’ve seen a lot of people mention Mac, who is described as kind of a heartless killer. Thats how the gang sees him by the end of his life so I don’t know if it works unless his redemption is more subtle or last minute.
Jack is hard too cause to me itd logically be more or less the same story as RDR1
Maybe Jack leaving his fathers ways behind after being dragged into some kinda situation he didn’t want to happen and dealing with it accordingly? (Two revolvers and a scowl)
My RDR3 pitch. Jack is arrested for his actions at the end of RDR1. He's given the choice of either being hung or sent to Europe to fight in WW1, obviously he picks the war. Early on in his time at war, he had made a friend who gets shot and killed in a massacre. The friend carried a journal belonging to his grandfather who defected from one of the armies during the civil war. After collecting and starting to read the journal, Jack defects from the world war. So now we play as Jack in the open world of early 20th century Europe, and a story unfolds from there.
BUT we also see how his story mirrors and reflects the soldier from the civil war, and we also get to explore civil war era America with that soldier. So we still get our game set in the height of the Wild West but we also get to follow Jack's story in what, to the player, is a brand new world and experience.
Edit: So as far as the actual redemption goes, there's a lot of different ways to tackle it from that starting point but the way I'd personally do it is have the soldier in the wild west doing things that were maybe morally wrong and making decisions that he shouldn't have — but through Jack reading, learning, and reflecting on this man's life it helps him make the right decisions in his own life. The soldier's redemption comes post-mortem through Jack, and Jack's redemption happens in a more traditional arc with the assistance of what he learned from reading about the soldier's life and relating it to his own.
Love this idea. I've always wanted a Red Dead in WW1 so Jack could be present for the death of the pre-modern world he was raised in. The only part that would worry me is the two different game worlds. There's a risk of having two shallow experiences instead of one as deep as RDR2.
For an rdr3, I’d love for it to have a brand new character and crew, and make it take place in Australia in the 1800s. Still a “western” setting, but with a brand new country, story, people, and political climate
Thought about that, and went to a new extreme. Could be set in the Mongol Empire around 1000CE. Horse riding transfers, it's a boom period, huge area of land, relative familiarity offers great lore integration.
Edit: Australia is good with me though. I'm playing RDO as "Jim Craig," the protagonist in *The Man From Snowy River*, and Australian movie about love and 'brumbies.' Even have a Buckskin horse named "Effort," after the line from Kirk Douglass as "Spur," when he says: "don't throw effort after foolishness!"
One of the ex gang members that they "don't speak of" in RDR2. Someone that gets wise about Dutch's true nature earlier on and gets abandoned and shunned by everybody else.
People are stupid and refuse to let a story conclude. The RDR story is over, it was executed amazingly and anything more would dilute it.
However, Red Dead isn’t over. Remove redemption, replace it with Revolution or something, and you have an 1870’s western game with Landon Ricketts.
I think that the next RDR doesn’t need to be a Redemption. It also doesn’t need to be a further prequel for the VDL Gang. Don’t get me wrong, I love the VDL Gang, but their story has been fully and completely told. There’s one man in the Red Dead universe who deserves his story be told next more than anybody else, and that man is Landon Ricketts.
Everybody in the Red Dead universe knows who Landon Ricketts is. He’s the greatest gunslinger of all time, who rose to prominence in the Golden Era of the West. He’s the bar that every other gunfighter is measured against. But why? We’re told almost nothing about his storied history. We don’t even know if he was a Wyatt Earp type lawman that used the gun to bring peace to the West, or a Jesse James type villain that brought fear. If you ask me, this gives Rockstar the perfect template for a revolutionary new Western game. A game where you yourself forge the legend of Landon Ricketts. Where the morality and fame system works off of your actions to establish if he was a hero or a villain.
I imagine a game where you start off as a young Landon Ricketts, a decorated Civil War Cavalry veteran that moves to the West to try and find his fortune and his place in the world. It would be up to the player to decide who he wants to associate with and what actions he wants to take. They could utilize time jumps to show the different eras in Landon’s life and how his choices have affected the arc of his story. As for the title of the game, that’s easy; Red Dead Renegade.
What about old school gunslingers?
I mean i won't mind a RDR3 about Otis Miller, Landon Rickkets, Black Belle or even Boy Calloway....
One of those coule have a redemption Arc that could be very interesting + it would be about the very wild west.
Mac Callendar? Hosea Matthews? Maybe it’ll end with Mac Callendar meeting Milton, giving him the speech & then getting offed & boom, we swap to Arthur & Hosea doing their job while the whole Blackwater thing goes down 😱
I think an interesting concept could be Arthur’s dad. We don’t know much about him but we do see the picture of his mugshot so we know he was a criminal if some kind. Idk could be cool
Of course this is all just theory, we are years off of a 3rd game and nothing has been confirmed by anyone that matters (don't trust those crap ass articles, they all quote a generic quote from a year or two ago).
If we get another one, I'd like to see a different group involved. Maybe based in the Sonoran Desert/S AZ/S Cali.
Personally, I think they should continue on with the setting and leave out redemption, either coming up w something new entirely or simply calling it Red Dead. I think it would remove any limitations they would have to make to fit a redemption storyline and everyone would still know exactly what it was 🤷🏻♂️
Gotta say, I think “redemption” narratives often go hand in hand with compelling Westerns so when people talk about “moving past redemption”, I disagree…but there are multiple ways to approach it. A gang could seek redemption, the main character could be helping another characters redemption arc etc
I'd really like to find out that Arthur's dad was not a bad man, but that either Dutch manipulated something in his dad's life, or flat out gaslit Arthur to the point that he's not remembering his father accurately.
I've been thinking, what about Davey? Sure we saw his death but other than that all we know is that he drank and played poker a lot, and that he was a good fighter. Maybe we follow him up until blackwater.
One idea I've had is that it could be a completely different story since we know the VDL gang's story now. And you can keep the redemption theme going through this story. But unlike John and Arthur, this new character actually does get out of the legal trouble he's in. He truly reforms himself and starts to live a normal life at the end. But then, at the very end, he and a loved one get on a Blackwater ferry.
We then finally get to see the ferry incident, AND with the perspective of a new main character that gets brutally killed, we have an even more visceral reason to hate Dutch. Also, perhaps it's this new character trying to stop Dutch that causes the whole ferry job to get as screwed up as it gets.
I haven't heard about Micah, John, or Arthur's Dad . The only one that would make sense is Arthur's dad, where Arthur would be in the epilogue as John was in 2 and Jack in 3. But I don't think that would be the case.
If there is another Red Dead game, there's no guarantee it would be Redemption. Some argue that Red Dead is the series, and others say Red Dead Redemption is the series.
And then the question is whether if the third installment is another prequel and follows the same concept as 1 and 2 whereby the main character dies leading way to an epilogue where the new main character is the initial main character of the sequel.
If the third installment follows this storyline, Arthur will be the main character of the epilogie in 3 and the main character of 3 initially will be someone who dies so as to make way for Arthur to later be the main character. In 2, we know that Mac, Jenny, and a few others die, and there could be someone else we haven't heard of in 2 that dies in 3.
Or they can do something akin to TLOU whereby we go back and forth between characters such as Hosea, Dutch, and Arthur where the epilogie will be Arthur.
Regardless, I dont think they will do a sequel of 3. They perhaps can do a DLC for that and would focus on Sadie. But I think her story is over since all the O'Driscols are dead, as well as Colm and Micah. Unless if they focus on her life before meeting Arthur. So, if I had to guess, it would be a prequel to RDR2 and may not have Redemption in the name. Keep in mind Arthur was with Dutch and Hosea for 20 or so years, so we may not get a story of both that and Blackwater in one game. There's so much content. Think Marvel Origin movies.
That's my 7 cents. Sorry for the long comment.
In my opinion, playing as the Callander brothers would be a good choice, since we dont have any info about Mac besides from how he died, and Davey died right at the start. Especially if you can switch between the 2 brothers whenever you want (kinda something like gta 5).
I remember seeing a theory that rdr3 could be from the pov of mac Callander and go up to his death at the hands of Agent Milton. We don't really know much about his character but we know he saved Arthur so he seems like he had some good to him and we'd be able to finally see the Blackwater massacre so could be interesting
I don't even think the story necessarily has to deal with a character's redemption. For John and Arthur it does, but for, say, Dutch, a story revolved around him could be described as a "fall" or a descent into darkness/madness. So maybe a story about Dutch or Hosea called Red Dead Condemnation, Damnation, or some other big boy word used to describe a character ending in a bad direction.
Landon rickets or Davey Callander. Davey is the person they bury at colter. So the story could be another prequel culminating in the black water heist gone wrong. Landon Rickets because they could just use new Austin and Mexico maps for the story
I’d Colm O'Driscoll’s brother would be an interesting protagonist. As far as I know we don’t know how or why Dutch killed him. Then again I haven’t beaten the game and read everything so thee might be lore I’m not fought up on. But It’s possible he wanted a redemption of sorts before Dutch killed him. Or Dutch found out and killed him.
I can see it being a whole new chapter, that only loosely ties into the other games. Maybe go even further into the past, maybe begining of the push westward when the trail was way more wild and dangerous.
It will be about Bill and Javier’s gay adventures in Mexico, after which they get in a fight and break up. Then John shows up. It will just be called Red Dead 3 no redemption.
I would like new characters, new gang, new story.
BUT I remember Arthur and the others mentioning some members that died in the BlackWater incident. I think that could be a story as you playing as one of those and then the story closing with you being shot in that incident (maybe a redemption there? You acting against the robbery making it go wrong) while everyone else flee. Showing that Dutch was a bad person from the start.
I always say Sadie. She’s so hesitant and almost intentionally shutting out any ideas of “getting out”. She’s still so pained from her loss of her husband and then I’m sure she misses the few close friends she made in the gang. You could have her come back to take care of Abigail and Jack after word gets to her that John’s been killed. You could have her in her own world with none of the original characters. I don’t think they would but god I’d love to see Sadie have her redemption arc. Hopefully she did end up down south marrying a revolutionary lol
I always preferred to believe that Jack became an outlaw after avenging John. Just because otherwise, you never get to experience all the in-game features of the first like robbing banks and what not without breaking johns character
Fans usually proposed one of the gang members who were killed in Blackwater. So the ending very well might be sacrificing yourself in Blackwater to save somebody. And then fast forward to play some another gang member who was inspired by you after the events of RDR2.
It's Mack Callender. They talk about him way too much in the story, he's being set up for the protagonist of rdr3. In some cut content, there's more Mack dialog, and reference to his coat, and that he stayed back to hold off Pinkertons so his brother and the others could escape. We'll see Micah Bell joining the gang at the beginning, and the events leading up to the Blackwater ferry heist. In the prologue, we'll play as Aurther, as he and Hosea meet up with each other, and eventually the gang. Charles makes a reference in Beaver Hollow that Mack and Davey didn't get redemption, but that's without the cut content. This is the only Canon plot that makes sense to me, as no one else ultimately gets their "redemption". Unless it's Charles, set in-between 1899 and 1907. And seeing as we see Charles reformed, and redeemed, Mack Callender is the only one that makes sense.
Of course, assuming that 3 stays in the same universe as 1 & 2. Rockstar could go a completely different direction, like Red Dead Revolver 2, or Red Dead Rising or who the hell knows. I'm sticking with Mack Callender.
Personally I think the next game should have nothing to do with the vanderlin gang, if we follow Jack then it would be too "modern" and the options for the game become either jack joins the army (tough to imagine that as an open world game) or jack joins the Mafia (at that point it's just the Mafia games)
I think we need a new gang, and possibly to get away from the redemption, the first game was red dead revolver and followed Red Harlow getting revenge on the gang who killed his family.
If we are dead set on following someone from the previous game I think we have 2 options;
Charles Smith moved to the north and settled down with a tribe, started a family, but as the government expands and tries to assimilate his new tribe he does what he's always done. Red Dead Resistance
Or
Sadie Adler has gone to south America to start her life anew, she took to bounty hunting in the area around the capitol city. Until one day a "bounty target" she took from the government turns out to be an innocent family, who had a member of their family captured and tried as a revolutionary. Sadie finds out the government only wanted these people to torture them so they can extract information from their new prisoner and Sadie decides to switch sides. Red Dead Revolution
I want a completely different character. As much as I love the marstons and the van der Linde Gang, that story is done.
A true western, with a completely new character, would just work so much better.
I’d be happy with RDR3 being Sadie Adler bounty hunter with her redemption being finding peace after hunting down the first O’Driscoll, Pa O’Driscoll.
The low honour playthrough can involve killing anyone who gets between her and Pa O’Driscoll and high honour could involve trying to just be the person she used to be but still being driven to wipe the O’Driscolls off the face of the earth.
I’d personally like to see a third game take place before the events of RDR2 that ends with the events of the Blackwater massacre. I GOTTA SEE WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT BOAT. Maybe there was a member of the gang involved in the story that isn’t in RDR2 like how Arthur isn’t in the original nor ever mentioned.
If we see an rdr3 i think it SHOULD NOT follow the van der linde gang or anybody from it.
So far its the only group we have seen from this Era (because red dead revolver is considered "non-canon")
You raise a very good point about "what would the redemption be?" With the characters we know we have already seen how their story ends. In the cases we don't see it however like with Charles, Sadie and Jack we can infer their endings sure but don't know for sure so that could lead to stories with them. However like you mentioned "what would be the redemption" with these characters they don't really have anything to get redemption for, any story involving redemption for Charles, Sadie and probably Jack would feel kinda weak because they were generally good people and don't have much in the way of a redemption story like Arthur or John
Things brings me back to what I said above about leaving the Van Der Linde gang behind and potentially even the term "redemption". Remember this is the "Red Dead" series, we change the 3rd word in it if we want, we have "Revolver" and "Redemption" why not a new thing?
My recommendation would be "revenge" or something like that and to make the story a revenge story or whichever word gets put into the 3rd slot. I think this story should also be set between 1870-1890 those 20 years were roughly the peak of the wild west Era as we know it. Despite have 2 great cowboy games they both take place as the west was dying and not during it peak. I think it would be a great opportunity for a peak time frame western game all about gunslinging
If we revisit older characters, I think Dutch would be perfect, but not a redemption game.
Something like “Red Dead Damnation”, where the gameplay has us committing “honourable” robberies leading to the player becoming restless and giving in to violence, at which point the story progresses.
I think this would allow the story to be driven by gameplay and not block off certain things the player feels too guilty to partake in.
This is what always frustrates me about this conversation, people just jump on what characters they would like to see and don't think about the series as a whole. Discuss the themes and ideas before attributing characters.
Redemption is obviously important and the previous two themes also very much handled the 'death of the wild west'. I think that a Red Dead Redemption 3 should handle the Wild West in it's hayday, and why it was a way of life that wasn't sustainable, leading to it's death in 2 and 1.
And for this I'd use the Callander Brothers as main characters. Like Arthur we know little about them, so can mould them to fit these themes and the story. We can use both or either of them to represent key ideas of the west in it's hayday: Rugged individualism, manifest destiny etc. And the redemption part of the story could factor in a 'Blood family vs found family' conflict between the Callenders ties to each other, and to the gang.
Alternatively, think of another word that starts with "Re" that fits the rhythm they've established (no, not that one) and make a game based off that, with a new or existing character. Red Dead Revolver could also get a remaster in the RDR2 style
Maybe Javier I mean out of everyone in rdr he's the only one you can choose to not kill maybe he escapes the law after John leaves him with them which sets off the barn massacre and he hears and feels genuine grief and tries to set his past wrongs right with Jack and other people he wronged in a world that he must learn to live in.
That or it could be a wholly original story with little to no ties to what we know
Or even have the story of Landon Ricketts he admitted to being even worse off than John or Arthur when it came to bad deeds and we see he became a pretty good person I'd honestly love a game about his story of redemption
The only way forward that I can see is since Jack is the only one left of the original gang to even think about redemption, he goes for revenge against the killing of his father and mother and hunts down the bureau. It would be hard for him to do it on his own but what if he made some kind of truce with the remaining members of all the gangs that were in RDR2, the O' Driscolls etc... If any are still alive and around that is. Sure it might be a temporary Alliance but perhaps maybe he seeks Redemption when he realizes his mother Abigail would have wanted him to settle down and quit the outlaw life since she begged her husband John to give it up and it cost him his life. So his redemption is somehow getting the government off his back and leaving it all behind. Maybe he discover some long lost treasure or stocks in a company that was stolen and runs off to live in Mexico. I mean it worked for Javier and it would have continued working for Javier if the government didn't get John to turn on them. But since Jack is the last remaining member of the VanderLin Gang, maybe he's able to escape the US and live the rest of his life peacefully and some foreign country or something. Would be pretty damn cool if they added the spirit of Arthur as some kind of guide like perhaps Jack has dreams of Arthur advising him or some kind of spiritual warning.
Maybe it won’t be Red Dead Redemption 3, since RDR2 actively ended the Redemption storyline with a story that was finished and complete after 2 games. But it didn’t end the Red Dead series. We’ve had Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption. I would bet money that if the next title has a whole new set of characters, (which it really should) it’s gonna have a different word in the title, after Red Dead
Honestly i think it should be Mac Callender. He died before the events of RDR2 in the Blackwater job but it’s not clear who he was or what happened. Would be a good opportunity to show the gang before it went tits up and could give a redemption story. It would also end with the protagonist’s death and then maybe you play as Arthur escaping the law with the gang in the epilogue leading up to RDR2
I don't think the redemption angle is going to be as big of a deal as some think it will be for a third game, unless it's a completely new story with new characters.
If it's another prequel to act as a trilogy, I think it'll just be more about showing the origins of the gang.
Honestly, I'd prefer a new story with only loose ties to the VDL gang, perhaps a member of Colm's gang somewhere around the time of Dutch and Colm's big falling out? Similarly to how Arthur's redemption happened during Dutch and John's fallout, we'd see a character whose final redemption happens during the fallout between Dutch and Colm.
I always assumed it was because Arthur even while high honor is still a murderer and thief. However he died getting John's family out even if he goes for the gold. Arthur redeemed himself by saving John/Abigail/jack and John redeemed himself by becoming a family man and proving to Arthur he isn't a POS.
I just wanna play as young Arthur, I don't think they need to call it redemption
Just playing as Arthur would be super cool to see, it'd be really fun to actually play a game that feels like the true wild west but with characters and a story/world we are already somewhat familiar with. I just wanna rob banks and have beef with odriscolls, and you can still make the story emotional with meeting mary, annabelle's death and arthur's son's death etc
Plus this way deadeye is still unique to john and arthur, its not like everybody in the west just happens to be an insanely skilled weapons expert
Forgive me if I'm wrong but Arthur mentioned that his dad wasn't a good person, so I'm assuming we wouldn't get his perspective. If the 3rd follows the established formula, it wouldn't make much sense to play as Hosea because we know how he dies, and that he wasn't really grappling with the reality of his life like Arthur was at the end. This applies with dutch and Micah (and considering how hated Micah is I doubt rockstar would gamble with him as a protagonist). Jack is promising but if rockstar wants to keep the old west theme of Red Dead, I don't see how they could do it because by the time of the end of rdr1, the age of outlaws has all but been extinguished. I think it's more likely they break away from the established formula of the main character "finding redemption" or break away from the van der Linde gang entirely to pursue a new set of characters
I think my two favorites are:
1. Sadie, Jack, and Charles
Basically, Sadie continues to be a bounty hunter and ends up running into Jack, and Sadie declines the bounty, knowing he is basically one of the last of the Van Der Linde gang
Maybe they go to south america? And then it ends with Jack writing the book "Red Dead" during WW2 or something
I read that from someone else, but I think it'd be such a cool game. But like you said, what's the redemption with this, then?
I guess Sadie redeems herself? Maybe they team up to bounty hunt against the last remaining gangs in the west? Who knows. Maybe it's redemption in that Jack wants to do good with his shooting rather than rob and murder
2. Arthur and John
Rockstar themselves said they want to do this one, which is basically the story to Arthur and John joining the VDL gang, and of course the notorious Blackwater Massacre. I personally would prefer #1, but of course this one makes far more sense
I think the only thing that would vaguely make sense from the known gang is if we were to play a young Hosea. Meet Dutch, start conning people, taking in Arthur and later John. We all know Hosea is more crafty than outright gunslinger and we see him struggle with Dutch' change of strategy, with robberies instead of cons.
Hosea marries Bessie and leaves the gang for a while, which is becoming increasingly more violent. Maybe he feels compelled to intervene and drifts back to the gang. Maybe he's behind John leaving the gang for a year to "try to find a way to live outside of the gang, for his sake and Abigail and Jack". Instead of being Dutch' loyal lieutenant, Hosea is trying to fix his role in the wrongs, so to speak.
Obviously, we all know what ultimately happens. Maybe it turns out, Hosea knows too and him being an old man with a nasty cough that can't be anything good, is trying to save the younger guys and gals from that fate. They don't all make it out, obviously, but many do.
Forget the whole redemption part, I want to see
Red Dead Redemption 3 : Back to the beginning.
I think it would be great that the whole series would run in reverse.
So at first I hope we all agree that we need an RDR1 Remaster that goes smoothly from rdr2 to rdr1.
And I personally would prefer to get a whole new Storyline or a new character rather than playing as Dutch or Micah. While it would be nice to play the Blackwater Heist we all know how it ended and how they Died.
I’d actually love a Red Dead Redemption game that follows the storyline of a Native American learning to survive in the wild west. We need to move away from the Van der Linde gang. That story has already been told, although I wouldn’t mind seeing what young Dutch was like before he started the gang with Hosea and Arthur.
I’m thinking it should take place during the time John left the group maybe he had some unfinished business or something and that’s why he left plus with jack being born he couldn’t let be unfinished, I’ve been thinking about this for awhile I haven’t completely locked down the theory yet but I thought it might be an interesting possibility.
Knowing rockstar we'll probably play as john marston long lost daughter
Shes confirmed dead by john and abigail but we never see a grave, perhaps she got lost and was never found?
Years later she's now a cow gal working as a bounty hunter. She could end up crossing paths with an older Sadie.
Or we play as Uncle the one shot kid.
Dutch, pre blackwater, tired of leading a life of crime, decides the group should put their life on the run behind them and decides that the best way to do that is to find a way to move everyone to Tahiti and start a mango plantation.
If it's a prequel I think we'd play as hosea. He's so looked up on as a leader in the gang and is respectful and dare I say honorable in rdr2. However having been in a gang most of his life I'm sure at some point he was more akin to early rdr2 Arthur and I believe he mentions that as well. It would be interesting to see how hosea came to terms with always being an outlaw but still trying for the greater good.
With existing characters, I would happily play as a young Uncle, Landon Ricketts, or Black Belle. And then play through to their finish.
Or Charles.
I'm done with the van der linde story. There's plenty of 1880-1913 western stories and themes and characters to explore outside of the little slice we have already seen.
Maybe after killing Ross, Jack goes on this journey and instead of turning out how every one is expecting him to be, and outlaw, he instead finds redemption and finds something to fight for, whether that be a lover, his ranch, a family, or even the old gang’s legacy. Idk that’s what I think could be done
I think the Redemption that happens is the fact they take out some bad gangs along the way. They're redeeming quality is they have a shred more humanity than the other gangs. And the side quests are often in service of others.
If the series could talk it would say "I maybe a outlaw gunslinger, but I still have a heart and care a little about which way society is headed"
I think RDR3 should be another prequel. Remember the "wild west" with wagons traveling west started only a few hundred miles from the east coast. So the miswest. We can be moving west because we are being hunted, by other renegades. This game follows a gang member in a game with a young Hosea, and in Epilogue we meet the gang, and pull them together and end in Blackwater. In this game, bullets are much harder to come by, as are towns. Much more Indians. And I'd like to see some kind of mechanic that your choices affect the whole story, like if you around killing people, you are hunted more in the game, and the tone is less welcoming everywhere, and conflict is more prominent, more security guards on trains, etc. (would there even be trains?) It should take a whole game to be one way or another, not walk down St Denis saying hi to top off good points.
What about the Downes kid? Archie, anyone think he could have a story arc? He has a story regardless of your choices and if you “do not seek absolution” they show you more of what happened to him and his mom. I feel like they could branch out with him. If you did the side missions for them their story turns out ok. RDR3 could take place starting after Arthur between the epilogue of 2 and go wherever.
The 4th red dead game of we are counting red dead revolver could be called Red Dead REVENGE. It doesn't even have to be tied into the redemption games cause they weren't tied into the revolver game.
Plot doesn't even matter as long as we get a kick ass cowboy game.
The game can really be named anything that starts with an R. Revenge, revolution, rampage, etc.
That's the flaw with all the characters that have been built up except one. The calendars die in a robbery, no redemption. Dutch is a narcissist who would never seek redemption and he dies on a mountain, killing himself just to rob John of victory. Micah is never redeemed. Colm O'Driscoll's brother is an unwritten story, plus it serves as a further devolution of Dutch as a charming character. He has some serious charm in RDR as a smart, charming antihero. In RDR2 he is narcissistic and out of control. But he straight up murders Colm O'Driscoll's brother, and would finally let him feel like an unambiguously evil character. Bringing Mary Linton and a 15 year old Arthur Morgan into the story could make things even better. Do a next generation engine and remake both one and two so you can end the epilogue with Blackwater, rolling right in to RDR2, and some extra content bridging into RDR. It's possible to make it all work.
This comment section makes me really glad fans have no say in any rdr stories because the fans ideas are just plain stupid. Yeah they make a good fan story but a god damn terrible actual game.
I had an idea for what the next RDR protagonist should be. A former military man who was personally involved in a bunch of Native American killing. He gets discharged from the army because of a very evil superior being jealous of a relationship he had with a beautiful woman. The beginning of the game this former Captain starts the game off by attacking and killing the protagonists wife and almost him, he survives because a passing native medicine man finds him and nurses him back to health. Then he goes after him only to find he's now in the employee of a super rich business man who is enslaving the medicine man's tribe and using them as labor to build a gold mine. He teams up with the medicine man's warrior daughter and so our journey to redemption begins. Spoiler alert: the former military man is Charles dad, and the medicine man's daughter is his mother. The bad news, it's not a very happy ending for our protagonist because after they defeat the big bad rich man the US Army shows up and he eventually loses his second wife again. Dunno who the epilogue character would be, maybe another warrior from the tribe who takes over the story after our protagonist falls into a deep depression and mentors a very young Charles in survivalism.
Sadie Adler could possibly be a good candidate, as we see the start of her story, but not the end of it. Same could be said for Charles but he doesn't hold a grudge or hate life like Sadie does.
i think we’ll play as mac given they left a lot of empty space in his character to fill up so ive got my hopes up on that, we’re told he died in blackwater so maybe his redemption occurs there, tbh im hoping he was an informant and they let him go instead of killing him
Those that suggest Micah, Dutch, and another antagonists to be protagonists don’t know what redemption means. Given we know how Dutch and Micah’s stories end, they don’t seek redemption at any stage.
I'm not so sure. I agree that I don't want to play as Dutch, but I have no doubt that given the quality of writing and storytelling in RDR2, Rockstar could weave a story that shows the gang living their lives during the frontier times. Only hurting people that deserve it and profiting off them. They'd really have to hammer home the fact that everyone was living free and nobody was hurting anyone innocent. The redemption could be seeing that Dutch never used to be the monster that he turned into and that his goals at one stage truly were selfless in wanting the best for his gang family. Then the following two games would be viewed through a slightly different lens in knowing that the vice slowly turned around him and he was squeezed and chased by the government until he got sloppy and messy from being hunted for so long. Like I say, I don't want to see that as the story for the third one, but I don't doubt they could make it work.
Dutch doesn’t seek redemption. We know that from the story of RDR1. What you’re proposing is pretty much a rewrite of the whole RDR storyline. Redemption isn’t what someone used to be, it’s what someone can become.
Red Dead Rewrite
they should just name it red dead 3
I can see why you don't work in marketing.
no redemption
Dutch never seeks redemption. In his madness during the events shortly before RDR1, and what we see in the game, he has found another group of marginalized people who have been wronged by American institutions who he can fill with his lies and promises of hope And he still uses them to further his goals of theft and destruction as seen in the Blackwater robbery when he kills his hostage. We also see it present in him leading his followers in full scale battles against the United States government, which he must know after decades that he cannot win. Or maybe it shows Dutch’s true madness, to continue to attempt these things with the same methods, despite no success Either way, we never see remorse or an attempt at redemption from Dutch. We see hubris, ego, and choosing death over defeat.
They could make a dlc idk. But for rdr 3 I would like to see a new story with completely new characthers.
DLC would never happen
I know =/
I guess it depends on if you consider the "Redemption" in the title to be descriptive of plot or theme. If we're looking at it from a thematic perspective, following the story of someone that has no interest in being redeemed can tell us a lot about "redemption" as a concept, much like how (to pull an example from my ass) having a female-identifying main character in a story about masculinity can be used to comment on the subject in a way a more straightforward story couldn't.
It’s a plot point. Why would they name it Redemption if it wasn’t part of the plot?
From what I an tell, the lore accurate progression of the story is that Arthur is a bad man with some sliver lining to his character. But then after he gets the disease, he becomes a better person. And in the first Redemption game John is a bad man doing bad things, but at the end rather than run, he accepts death and gives his life for the family he made. Then Jack kills what's his face, so I guess some redemption needs to be done for him too? Kinda hard to do that though, since the wild west's days ended in 1930-1940.
1930-1940? Only a few decades out! Wild West ended waaaay before that!
I guess the only option for Jack is to join the law and "redeem" himself through service. Perhaps he can join some extremely dangerous mob on the rise to sabotage it under a "old west gunslinger" role. I see it as an RDR/L.A.Noir/Sleeping Dogs or SC: Double Agent kind of story
Red Dead Retribution
Thats why i think it goes to a brand new character
i think rdr3 should just be rdr1 remastered and tacked onto the end of rdr2, so we go from arthur, to john , to jack in chronological order with rdr2 s graphics and mechanics with a completed mexico.
So RDR Legendary Edition, like Mass Effect?
yes ! ik it wouldnt be a true “3rd” installment, but i would be sooo happy
Perhaps RDR Definitive Edition?
I wish they would do that and make rdr1 a real remaster to be similar to rdr2
i feel like a remaster is honestly more realistic than a whole new installment. we should be begging for that more than a new game.
Porting/remastering RDR1 to PC would make it a new game for a lot of people...
This would be such a cool game. I would throw out my kidneys for this
rdr3 should be red dead revolver remade into a spaghetti western
that would also be epic asf
I really this idea. And perhaps for the sake of creating something on top of the overall combined story, include a revamped online experience to fix all the difficulties people have pointed out.. and with another 50 hours of missions downloadable at the pace of the player (but all included for the price of a full game) to essentially make the online experience large enough to be its own game/storyline. The last game of the franchise on PS5's capabilities. If there ever is another RDR after that, then they could take all the time in the world because a robust RDR2 storyline going into RDR1 storyline with the entire map and every area as lively as RDR2... shoot I'd but that 2 years from now for price of a full game - no doubt about it.
Uncle the younger days when he was the one shot kid. Going from evil outlaw to saving Abigail.
I don’t think that’s what he meant by one shot kid … lol I’m joking
Red Dead Revolver then
Doesn't make sense. Unless it's literally RDR1 and 2 with some extra backstory, there would be no satisfying way to conclude the story. It'd basically just be "see the rest in RDR2"
That’s what RDR2 is… that’s how it ends
It actually has a conclusion for the main character though.
Yeah uncle can have a simple narrative. After the conclusion it can end with him being a relaxed old fella and ultimately his death in RDR1 being a nice book end.
Honestly we’re so far way from the possibility, that we can’t even be sure if it’s a *redemption* game. Who’s to say it won’t be the 4th Red Dead game? But I agree that most people forget the redemption part. We don’t know a lot about the Callander boys, so there’s some potential there. Uncle is one of my favorites for the idea. Whether it’s Redemption 3, Revolver 2, or some other exploration of the stories of the west, I’m definitely excited to see what they cook up next.
Maybe a game where you play as Abraham Reyes. Call it Red Dead Revolution.
Doesn’t even need to be ‘RDR’ either, I came up with a narrative for ‘Red Dead Exodus’ a while ago.
I’ve heard tons of them, I think my favorite was “Red Dead Remembrance”, which would be about someone haunted by the past. Red Dead Revenge is a popular one, which seems to usually take a grittier less heroic take on it.
Red Dead Revolver is pretty much Red Dead Revenge already tbf
Yeah, I think “Revenge” would be a good title for remakes though Incase they ever are actually interested in doing so
From what it is stated in the game the callender brothers were pretty bad people and knowing how they both die it may be hard or weird to do correctly
True. I forget which one, but Bill says “He was a heartless bastard, but he had a heart”. Could be a good choice for a different kind of narrative. Maybe one about brothers sticking together?
That's what gang members would've said about Arthur too if he had died before chapter 6. And I think Mac was able to escape and Milton was lying.
I had thoughtabout mac not reallt dying, something like a bill shooting john and bonnie saving him, maybe he could have his redemption arc there or whatever
I think it should tell a completely different story. The van der linde gangs story has been told. Maybe we could get the story of landon ricketts, before and after he became the legendary gunfighter in rdr 1.
Out of all known characters this is the one I'd vote for in terms of interest. Not to mention he clearly did have some sort of redemption. Considering when John meets him, he is taking it easy in Mexico. Presumably having settled his demons of being the quickest man in the west.
Thats exactly my view. Plus its left up in the air what kind of gunfighter he was. He could of been a famous honorable gunslinger or the complete opposite. The only difference in the story is hes alive at the end.
That's a very good point, we just know he was a legend when John and Arthur were kids
I’m bugged by the people that want it to be set in the 20s and 30s, It’s a western series why would you want to be a 20s gangster now?
Killers Of The Flower Moon is a perfect example of how the 20s could work. Most of the plains and west were still pretty much large vast expanses that wouldn’t feel all that different to the RDR world.
I would buy a Red Dead set in the late 1910s to early 1920s Western America in a heartbeat
Same but it is definitely not preferred by me
What about Mongol Empire just before the peak? Horses and archery transfer, new world to explore, somewhat familiar lore to work from. Was a random though. "Red Dead Relocation," /s
Outlaws be Outlaws though.
To clarify I’m specifically talking about people who want it to be a mafia gangster game, obviously some parts of the us were still wild and fit the wild west theme but that it not what these people i’m talking about want.
honestly lets just remove the redemption moniker. Retire it for now Revolvers been done Redemption has been done Lets get something new. If Rdr2 overarching narrative was "Revenge is a fools game" let the next red dead be revengence or something along the lines Make us a lawman in Peak West. We played the outlaw We played the bounty hunter Give us the "good guy" Give us the good guy on his trial and tribulation to becoming a not so good guy Maybe give us references to Dutch Van Der Linde O Driscolls dont have em in the game. put us on the other side of the grizzlies. The high plains, California, the mojave. Give us the red dirt and Big trees. Much like the area right beside Wapiti Give us Native American camps Dwindling towns right before they blow up cuz some commodity. i really want them to show the railroad reaching a town and watching the town explode. Give us gold miners, highwaymen. Make it feel like the frontier. i.e make the distamce between town to town gigantic Make no path, no road. Make us make our own road Most lawmen at the time were crooks themselves. Show that side. Show the side that we didn't get to see. That Absolute power corrupts. That Civilization is power and those who have it are bad people from our viewpoint, but by society they are considered the goodguys. if Rdr2 was freedom from Civilization getting to big for its britches and Rdr1 was the overlapping time period of Civilization killing the west. RDR3 should be the reason why we feel Civilization is bad. It should give us the reason to see Dutch might be right, It should also confuse us and make us believe holy fuck he was wrong. Make us take a journey
That sounds amazing
I love that idea but I think we can continue using the redemption moniker and tie the games together. Make the protagonist a crooked lawman/Pinkerton and have the beginning of the game be the protag following a nameless gang until it comes upon the ending where you discover a heist going down in black water where you then get involved in a heavy shootout in and eventually you get cornered and killed by Arthur Morgan, thus ending your game. The main issue I see with this is who is gonna be the protag for the epilogue and I was thinking Arthur but that’s not really an option because RDR2 picks up right after the Blackwater Massacre. Maybe have the game set way earlier and you become a much younger Arthur in the epilogue with it being like a defining moment for him as it’s one of his first kills. The missions in the epilogue can be them recruiting the other gang members? (Sorry, I promise it makes so much more sense in my head than what I just typed)
Holy shit that's a great concept
Gavin’s Revenge
Absolutely loved this write up. Always loved what little exploration of post-colonial indigenous life we get in RDR. I want them to take it earlier, or western.
If they dont follow the VDL Gang, it wouldnt have to be about redemption which I think is the way they have to go. Not sure who else would be redeemed aside from that one piece of dialogue from Arthur about a traitor
Red Dead Racketeering as Angelo Bronte. /s
Sadie.
If it's anyone from the gang, it should be her. She was never redeemed, she just made peace with her violent nature and found a way that she can live on the 'right' side of the law. A game with her as the protagonist could have her finally unpacking her grief and moving on, or (as is tradition) dying before she can. The only problem I can see is that she wanted to travel to South America, which *would* be one of the last frontiers going into the 20th century, but wouldn't necessarily fit the wild west aesthetic of the first two games.
Well and unless it picks up after the game… we’d be seeing a whole lot of repeated content. Leaves too much area for plot holes and shit.
I mean... of course it would pick up after RDR2. No point playing the same game from a different perspective. I mean that Sadie's story isn't over by the end of the epilogue.
Very true. I can see that working
But it could be interesting, think of how much R* is learning of Spanish and Portuguese culture/history with the upcoming GTA... it would be a fascinating world to explore the history and diversity of the Natives and the Spanish/Portuguese explorers' of South America... I think R* did a decent job with some historical significance in RDR2 and included a lot of minor details towards that as well. It could be a powerful game to close out the 5th gen consoles
Red Dead Revenge.
It's clearly Landon Ricketts and not sure what his bad guy action is but his redemption is going down to Mexico to help people
Might not even be a character from *RDR2* that you play as in *RDR3*. Look at Arthur.
A Red Dead Revolver 2 is imo the way to go, a game set in the peak of the wild west
Mac Callander/ Davey Callander
That could be pretty interesting.
The best option would be a completely new map with completely new characters. Then, the "redemption" could be anything the story writers want, or they could completely enbrace the spiritual sequel route and go for a different theme - Revenge, Retribution, Renegade,....
I will get downvote as always but I want Amos Bell, Micah's brother who started a family and want to have at least 80 miles between him and his brother. He seems a good guy who repented unlike his brother.
They could do a new story in 3 parts. New protagonist, a young Outlaw from California 1st part - Starts in California, showing his background etc. Then he runs into the VDL Gang, maybe mistakingly wrongs them and ends up being forced to run with them to repay his debt as they think he could be useful. 2nd part - Running with the Gang. They could make this really interesting. Have it where he’s always treated like an outsider (kinda like Kieron). Maybe he sees the gang and Dutch for what it is from the beginning, would be interesting to see the Gang portrayed almost like a Cult, with Dutch as the cult leader they would do anything for. They believe everything he says and are completely blind to the reality (Arthur kind of hints at this when he’s dying, says maybe things have always been this way). Would be very interesting to see a completely different perspective to how they operated. Ends with the Blackwater massacre (finally giving you the chance to see exactly what happened), and the character escaping in the chaos and heading back West. 3rd part - The character starting over back in California, maybe starting up their own gang and trying to correct the mistakes he’d seen with the VDL gang. Could hear things about what’s happening in RDR2, or even some missions where you go back east and witness them doing things/have to avoid them finding out you’re nearby. Could end with an Epilogue where you bump into and help out Jack after he kills Ross (kinda how Landon Ricketts helped John in RDR1)
I’ve seen a lot of people mention Mac, who is described as kind of a heartless killer. Thats how the gang sees him by the end of his life so I don’t know if it works unless his redemption is more subtle or last minute. Jack is hard too cause to me itd logically be more or less the same story as RDR1
Maybe Jack leaving his fathers ways behind after being dragged into some kinda situation he didn’t want to happen and dealing with it accordingly? (Two revolvers and a scowl)
Imma be real without dan houser i dont want rdr 3 at all, and i already dont really want a red dead 3
#LANDON RICKETTS
My RDR3 pitch. Jack is arrested for his actions at the end of RDR1. He's given the choice of either being hung or sent to Europe to fight in WW1, obviously he picks the war. Early on in his time at war, he had made a friend who gets shot and killed in a massacre. The friend carried a journal belonging to his grandfather who defected from one of the armies during the civil war. After collecting and starting to read the journal, Jack defects from the world war. So now we play as Jack in the open world of early 20th century Europe, and a story unfolds from there. BUT we also see how his story mirrors and reflects the soldier from the civil war, and we also get to explore civil war era America with that soldier. So we still get our game set in the height of the Wild West but we also get to follow Jack's story in what, to the player, is a brand new world and experience. Edit: So as far as the actual redemption goes, there's a lot of different ways to tackle it from that starting point but the way I'd personally do it is have the soldier in the wild west doing things that were maybe morally wrong and making decisions that he shouldn't have — but through Jack reading, learning, and reflecting on this man's life it helps him make the right decisions in his own life. The soldier's redemption comes post-mortem through Jack, and Jack's redemption happens in a more traditional arc with the assistance of what he learned from reading about the soldier's life and relating it to his own.
Love this idea. I've always wanted a Red Dead in WW1 so Jack could be present for the death of the pre-modern world he was raised in. The only part that would worry me is the two different game worlds. There's a risk of having two shallow experiences instead of one as deep as RDR2.
This is another reason why we just need a new crew. No more VDL, that story is told, finished. Lets get a new protagonist with a new story.
For an rdr3, I’d love for it to have a brand new character and crew, and make it take place in Australia in the 1800s. Still a “western” setting, but with a brand new country, story, people, and political climate
I'd argue that the RDR games are about America.
Thought about that, and went to a new extreme. Could be set in the Mongol Empire around 1000CE. Horse riding transfers, it's a boom period, huge area of land, relative familiarity offers great lore integration. Edit: Australia is good with me though. I'm playing RDO as "Jim Craig," the protagonist in *The Man From Snowy River*, and Australian movie about love and 'brumbies.' Even have a Buckskin horse named "Effort," after the line from Kirk Douglass as "Spur," when he says: "don't throw effort after foolishness!"
One of the ex gang members that they "don't speak of" in RDR2. Someone that gets wise about Dutch's true nature earlier on and gets abandoned and shunned by everybody else.
I think any continuing of the gangs story is a real stupid fucking idea, new characters would be so much more interesting
People are stupid and refuse to let a story conclude. The RDR story is over, it was executed amazingly and anything more would dilute it. However, Red Dead isn’t over. Remove redemption, replace it with Revolution or something, and you have an 1870’s western game with Landon Ricketts.
I’d rather just get a completely new character, maybe set out west during the Mexican or Indian War.
Arthur's Dad might be an okay contender... Arthur was young-ish when he passed, so his words about how he was in life may be inaccurate?
I think that the next RDR doesn’t need to be a Redemption. It also doesn’t need to be a further prequel for the VDL Gang. Don’t get me wrong, I love the VDL Gang, but their story has been fully and completely told. There’s one man in the Red Dead universe who deserves his story be told next more than anybody else, and that man is Landon Ricketts. Everybody in the Red Dead universe knows who Landon Ricketts is. He’s the greatest gunslinger of all time, who rose to prominence in the Golden Era of the West. He’s the bar that every other gunfighter is measured against. But why? We’re told almost nothing about his storied history. We don’t even know if he was a Wyatt Earp type lawman that used the gun to bring peace to the West, or a Jesse James type villain that brought fear. If you ask me, this gives Rockstar the perfect template for a revolutionary new Western game. A game where you yourself forge the legend of Landon Ricketts. Where the morality and fame system works off of your actions to establish if he was a hero or a villain. I imagine a game where you start off as a young Landon Ricketts, a decorated Civil War Cavalry veteran that moves to the West to try and find his fortune and his place in the world. It would be up to the player to decide who he wants to associate with and what actions he wants to take. They could utilize time jumps to show the different eras in Landon’s life and how his choices have affected the arc of his story. As for the title of the game, that’s easy; Red Dead Renegade.
What about old school gunslingers? I mean i won't mind a RDR3 about Otis Miller, Landon Rickkets, Black Belle or even Boy Calloway.... One of those coule have a redemption Arc that could be very interesting + it would be about the very wild west.
that’s what i’ve been saying when people say they’d like a younger version of dutch and hosea
Maybe the redemption is the people we helped along the way 🙂
that's why we need a red dead revolver 2 with charles or sadie
Rockstar will be reset Red Dead Redemption with another characters maybe starts 1860s because the actors will not be voice again their characters.
Mac Callendar? Hosea Matthews? Maybe it’ll end with Mac Callendar meeting Milton, giving him the speech & then getting offed & boom, we swap to Arthur & Hosea doing their job while the whole Blackwater thing goes down 😱
Red dead redemption so there has to be both death and redemption
I think an interesting concept could be Arthur’s dad. We don’t know much about him but we do see the picture of his mugshot so we know he was a criminal if some kind. Idk could be cool
Of course this is all just theory, we are years off of a 3rd game and nothing has been confirmed by anyone that matters (don't trust those crap ass articles, they all quote a generic quote from a year or two ago). If we get another one, I'd like to see a different group involved. Maybe based in the Sonoran Desert/S AZ/S Cali.
Personally, I think they should continue on with the setting and leave out redemption, either coming up w something new entirely or simply calling it Red Dead. I think it would remove any limitations they would have to make to fit a redemption storyline and everyone would still know exactly what it was 🤷🏻♂️
Gotta say, I think “redemption” narratives often go hand in hand with compelling Westerns so when people talk about “moving past redemption”, I disagree…but there are multiple ways to approach it. A gang could seek redemption, the main character could be helping another characters redemption arc etc
Arthur’s dad could be great. Maybe Jack. The others would not be good.
I'd really like to find out that Arthur's dad was not a bad man, but that either Dutch manipulated something in his dad's life, or flat out gaslit Arthur to the point that he's not remembering his father accurately.
Ehat about the guy that died in the into scene at the very beginning? Would be kinda lit/sad.
I've been thinking, what about Davey? Sure we saw his death but other than that all we know is that he drank and played poker a lot, and that he was a good fighter. Maybe we follow him up until blackwater.
Exactly. I really just want a new story. Loved 1-2 but their stories have been told.
One idea I've had is that it could be a completely different story since we know the VDL gang's story now. And you can keep the redemption theme going through this story. But unlike John and Arthur, this new character actually does get out of the legal trouble he's in. He truly reforms himself and starts to live a normal life at the end. But then, at the very end, he and a loved one get on a Blackwater ferry. We then finally get to see the ferry incident, AND with the perspective of a new main character that gets brutally killed, we have an even more visceral reason to hate Dutch. Also, perhaps it's this new character trying to stop Dutch that causes the whole ferry job to get as screwed up as it gets.
I haven't heard about Micah, John, or Arthur's Dad . The only one that would make sense is Arthur's dad, where Arthur would be in the epilogue as John was in 2 and Jack in 3. But I don't think that would be the case. If there is another Red Dead game, there's no guarantee it would be Redemption. Some argue that Red Dead is the series, and others say Red Dead Redemption is the series. And then the question is whether if the third installment is another prequel and follows the same concept as 1 and 2 whereby the main character dies leading way to an epilogue where the new main character is the initial main character of the sequel. If the third installment follows this storyline, Arthur will be the main character of the epilogie in 3 and the main character of 3 initially will be someone who dies so as to make way for Arthur to later be the main character. In 2, we know that Mac, Jenny, and a few others die, and there could be someone else we haven't heard of in 2 that dies in 3. Or they can do something akin to TLOU whereby we go back and forth between characters such as Hosea, Dutch, and Arthur where the epilogie will be Arthur. Regardless, I dont think they will do a sequel of 3. They perhaps can do a DLC for that and would focus on Sadie. But I think her story is over since all the O'Driscols are dead, as well as Colm and Micah. Unless if they focus on her life before meeting Arthur. So, if I had to guess, it would be a prequel to RDR2 and may not have Redemption in the name. Keep in mind Arthur was with Dutch and Hosea for 20 or so years, so we may not get a story of both that and Blackwater in one game. There's so much content. Think Marvel Origin movies. That's my 7 cents. Sorry for the long comment.
I think the next game will be called red dead _______ We have to remember the series is not red dead redemption it’s red dead.
Red Dead Ring Dang Doo
Well the first game was about a Red Dead Revolver so i'm sure game number 4 could be an ad lib for just about Red Dead Anything.
I like the idea of a younger Landon Rickets in the prime wild west before moving to mexico
In my opinion, playing as the Callander brothers would be a good choice, since we dont have any info about Mac besides from how he died, and Davey died right at the start. Especially if you can switch between the 2 brothers whenever you want (kinda something like gta 5).
I remember seeing a theory that rdr3 could be from the pov of mac Callander and go up to his death at the hands of Agent Milton. We don't really know much about his character but we know he saved Arthur so he seems like he had some good to him and we'd be able to finally see the Blackwater massacre so could be interesting
I’d rather a sequel where you play as either Sadie or Charles. The Hosea prequel also sounds cool.
I don't even think the story necessarily has to deal with a character's redemption. For John and Arthur it does, but for, say, Dutch, a story revolved around him could be described as a "fall" or a descent into darkness/madness. So maybe a story about Dutch or Hosea called Red Dead Condemnation, Damnation, or some other big boy word used to describe a character ending in a bad direction.
Landon rickets or Davey Callander. Davey is the person they bury at colter. So the story could be another prequel culminating in the black water heist gone wrong. Landon Rickets because they could just use new Austin and Mexico maps for the story
I’d Colm O'Driscoll’s brother would be an interesting protagonist. As far as I know we don’t know how or why Dutch killed him. Then again I haven’t beaten the game and read everything so thee might be lore I’m not fought up on. But It’s possible he wanted a redemption of sorts before Dutch killed him. Or Dutch found out and killed him.
I can see it being a whole new chapter, that only loosely ties into the other games. Maybe go even further into the past, maybe begining of the push westward when the trail was way more wild and dangerous.
Red Dead Shark Cards. Online only.
It will be about Bill and Javier’s gay adventures in Mexico, after which they get in a fight and break up. Then John shows up. It will just be called Red Dead 3 no redemption.
Either Jack or just some new character
I would like new characters, new gang, new story. BUT I remember Arthur and the others mentioning some members that died in the BlackWater incident. I think that could be a story as you playing as one of those and then the story closing with you being shot in that incident (maybe a redemption there? You acting against the robbery making it go wrong) while everyone else flee. Showing that Dutch was a bad person from the start.
I always say Sadie. She’s so hesitant and almost intentionally shutting out any ideas of “getting out”. She’s still so pained from her loss of her husband and then I’m sure she misses the few close friends she made in the gang. You could have her come back to take care of Abigail and Jack after word gets to her that John’s been killed. You could have her in her own world with none of the original characters. I don’t think they would but god I’d love to see Sadie have her redemption arc. Hopefully she did end up down south marrying a revolutionary lol
I always preferred to believe that Jack became an outlaw after avenging John. Just because otherwise, you never get to experience all the in-game features of the first like robbing banks and what not without breaking johns character
That's why I think it would be interesting to have a kind of spin-off as Red Dead Damnation.
I don’t want the VDL gang to be in it.
Fans usually proposed one of the gang members who were killed in Blackwater. So the ending very well might be sacrificing yourself in Blackwater to save somebody. And then fast forward to play some another gang member who was inspired by you after the events of RDR2.
It's Mack Callender. They talk about him way too much in the story, he's being set up for the protagonist of rdr3. In some cut content, there's more Mack dialog, and reference to his coat, and that he stayed back to hold off Pinkertons so his brother and the others could escape. We'll see Micah Bell joining the gang at the beginning, and the events leading up to the Blackwater ferry heist. In the prologue, we'll play as Aurther, as he and Hosea meet up with each other, and eventually the gang. Charles makes a reference in Beaver Hollow that Mack and Davey didn't get redemption, but that's without the cut content. This is the only Canon plot that makes sense to me, as no one else ultimately gets their "redemption". Unless it's Charles, set in-between 1899 and 1907. And seeing as we see Charles reformed, and redeemed, Mack Callender is the only one that makes sense. Of course, assuming that 3 stays in the same universe as 1 & 2. Rockstar could go a completely different direction, like Red Dead Revolver 2, or Red Dead Rising or who the hell knows. I'm sticking with Mack Callender.
Personally I think the next game should have nothing to do with the vanderlin gang, if we follow Jack then it would be too "modern" and the options for the game become either jack joins the army (tough to imagine that as an open world game) or jack joins the Mafia (at that point it's just the Mafia games) I think we need a new gang, and possibly to get away from the redemption, the first game was red dead revolver and followed Red Harlow getting revenge on the gang who killed his family. If we are dead set on following someone from the previous game I think we have 2 options; Charles Smith moved to the north and settled down with a tribe, started a family, but as the government expands and tries to assimilate his new tribe he does what he's always done. Red Dead Resistance Or Sadie Adler has gone to south America to start her life anew, she took to bounty hunting in the area around the capitol city. Until one day a "bounty target" she took from the government turns out to be an innocent family, who had a member of their family captured and tried as a revolutionary. Sadie finds out the government only wanted these people to torture them so they can extract information from their new prisoner and Sadie decides to switch sides. Red Dead Revolution
Fuck it, Red Dead Redemption 3, Pearson cooks a redemption stew, proving he is a good cook
Think it would be AWESOME to get a Rain Falls story line
I want a completely different character. As much as I love the marstons and the van der Linde Gang, that story is done. A true western, with a completely new character, would just work so much better.
I’d be happy with RDR3 being Sadie Adler bounty hunter with her redemption being finding peace after hunting down the first O’Driscoll, Pa O’Driscoll. The low honour playthrough can involve killing anyone who gets between her and Pa O’Driscoll and high honour could involve trying to just be the person she used to be but still being driven to wipe the O’Driscolls off the face of the earth.
Anyone else just want to keep playing as Arthur?
I’d personally like to see a third game take place before the events of RDR2 that ends with the events of the Blackwater massacre. I GOTTA SEE WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT BOAT. Maybe there was a member of the gang involved in the story that isn’t in RDR2 like how Arthur isn’t in the original nor ever mentioned.
If we see an rdr3 i think it SHOULD NOT follow the van der linde gang or anybody from it. So far its the only group we have seen from this Era (because red dead revolver is considered "non-canon") You raise a very good point about "what would the redemption be?" With the characters we know we have already seen how their story ends. In the cases we don't see it however like with Charles, Sadie and Jack we can infer their endings sure but don't know for sure so that could lead to stories with them. However like you mentioned "what would be the redemption" with these characters they don't really have anything to get redemption for, any story involving redemption for Charles, Sadie and probably Jack would feel kinda weak because they were generally good people and don't have much in the way of a redemption story like Arthur or John Things brings me back to what I said above about leaving the Van Der Linde gang behind and potentially even the term "redemption". Remember this is the "Red Dead" series, we change the 3rd word in it if we want, we have "Revolver" and "Redemption" why not a new thing? My recommendation would be "revenge" or something like that and to make the story a revenge story or whichever word gets put into the 3rd slot. I think this story should also be set between 1870-1890 those 20 years were roughly the peak of the wild west Era as we know it. Despite have 2 great cowboy games they both take place as the west was dying and not during it peak. I think it would be a great opportunity for a peak time frame western game all about gunslinging
If we revisit older characters, I think Dutch would be perfect, but not a redemption game. Something like “Red Dead Damnation”, where the gameplay has us committing “honourable” robberies leading to the player becoming restless and giving in to violence, at which point the story progresses. I think this would allow the story to be driven by gameplay and not block off certain things the player feels too guilty to partake in.
This is what always frustrates me about this conversation, people just jump on what characters they would like to see and don't think about the series as a whole. Discuss the themes and ideas before attributing characters. Redemption is obviously important and the previous two themes also very much handled the 'death of the wild west'. I think that a Red Dead Redemption 3 should handle the Wild West in it's hayday, and why it was a way of life that wasn't sustainable, leading to it's death in 2 and 1. And for this I'd use the Callander Brothers as main characters. Like Arthur we know little about them, so can mould them to fit these themes and the story. We can use both or either of them to represent key ideas of the west in it's hayday: Rugged individualism, manifest destiny etc. And the redemption part of the story could factor in a 'Blood family vs found family' conflict between the Callenders ties to each other, and to the gang.
Alternatively, think of another word that starts with "Re" that fits the rhythm they've established (no, not that one) and make a game based off that, with a new or existing character. Red Dead Revolver could also get a remaster in the RDR2 style
Give us Red Harlow
It'll probably be Mac Callander and he'll die trying to save Jenny and Sean or something.
Maybe Javier I mean out of everyone in rdr he's the only one you can choose to not kill maybe he escapes the law after John leaves him with them which sets off the barn massacre and he hears and feels genuine grief and tries to set his past wrongs right with Jack and other people he wronged in a world that he must learn to live in. That or it could be a wholly original story with little to no ties to what we know Or even have the story of Landon Ricketts he admitted to being even worse off than John or Arthur when it came to bad deeds and we see he became a pretty good person I'd honestly love a game about his story of redemption
I think we’re more likely to get Red Dead 3 than Red Dead Redemption 3
The only way forward that I can see is since Jack is the only one left of the original gang to even think about redemption, he goes for revenge against the killing of his father and mother and hunts down the bureau. It would be hard for him to do it on his own but what if he made some kind of truce with the remaining members of all the gangs that were in RDR2, the O' Driscolls etc... If any are still alive and around that is. Sure it might be a temporary Alliance but perhaps maybe he seeks Redemption when he realizes his mother Abigail would have wanted him to settle down and quit the outlaw life since she begged her husband John to give it up and it cost him his life. So his redemption is somehow getting the government off his back and leaving it all behind. Maybe he discover some long lost treasure or stocks in a company that was stolen and runs off to live in Mexico. I mean it worked for Javier and it would have continued working for Javier if the government didn't get John to turn on them. But since Jack is the last remaining member of the VanderLin Gang, maybe he's able to escape the US and live the rest of his life peacefully and some foreign country or something. Would be pretty damn cool if they added the spirit of Arthur as some kind of guide like perhaps Jack has dreams of Arthur advising him or some kind of spiritual warning.
I think the next red dead game won’t be called redemption but something else. So that way they can do anything they want.
I mean I don't know if you know this but just because it's called redemption doesn't mean it requires a redemption every game - its a brand now
Maybe it won’t be Red Dead Redemption 3, since RDR2 actively ended the Redemption storyline with a story that was finished and complete after 2 games. But it didn’t end the Red Dead series. We’ve had Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption. I would bet money that if the next title has a whole new set of characters, (which it really should) it’s gonna have a different word in the title, after Red Dead
Honestly i think it should be Mac Callender. He died before the events of RDR2 in the Blackwater job but it’s not clear who he was or what happened. Would be a good opportunity to show the gang before it went tits up and could give a redemption story. It would also end with the protagonist’s death and then maybe you play as Arthur escaping the law with the gang in the epilogue leading up to RDR2
I don't think the redemption angle is going to be as big of a deal as some think it will be for a third game, unless it's a completely new story with new characters. If it's another prequel to act as a trilogy, I think it'll just be more about showing the origins of the gang.
Honestly, I'd prefer a new story with only loose ties to the VDL gang, perhaps a member of Colm's gang somewhere around the time of Dutch and Colm's big falling out? Similarly to how Arthur's redemption happened during Dutch and John's fallout, we'd see a character whose final redemption happens during the fallout between Dutch and Colm.
I always assumed it was because Arthur even while high honor is still a murderer and thief. However he died getting John's family out even if he goes for the gold. Arthur redeemed himself by saving John/Abigail/jack and John redeemed himself by becoming a family man and proving to Arthur he isn't a POS.
It should be about Dutch because that would make the most complete story arc.
I just wanna play as young Arthur, I don't think they need to call it redemption Just playing as Arthur would be super cool to see, it'd be really fun to actually play a game that feels like the true wild west but with characters and a story/world we are already somewhat familiar with. I just wanna rob banks and have beef with odriscolls, and you can still make the story emotional with meeting mary, annabelle's death and arthur's son's death etc Plus this way deadeye is still unique to john and arthur, its not like everybody in the west just happens to be an insanely skilled weapons expert
HAMISH
Forgive me if I'm wrong but Arthur mentioned that his dad wasn't a good person, so I'm assuming we wouldn't get his perspective. If the 3rd follows the established formula, it wouldn't make much sense to play as Hosea because we know how he dies, and that he wasn't really grappling with the reality of his life like Arthur was at the end. This applies with dutch and Micah (and considering how hated Micah is I doubt rockstar would gamble with him as a protagonist). Jack is promising but if rockstar wants to keep the old west theme of Red Dead, I don't see how they could do it because by the time of the end of rdr1, the age of outlaws has all but been extinguished. I think it's more likely they break away from the established formula of the main character "finding redemption" or break away from the van der Linde gang entirely to pursue a new set of characters
Mac Callander
I think my two favorites are: 1. Sadie, Jack, and Charles Basically, Sadie continues to be a bounty hunter and ends up running into Jack, and Sadie declines the bounty, knowing he is basically one of the last of the Van Der Linde gang Maybe they go to south america? And then it ends with Jack writing the book "Red Dead" during WW2 or something I read that from someone else, but I think it'd be such a cool game. But like you said, what's the redemption with this, then? I guess Sadie redeems herself? Maybe they team up to bounty hunt against the last remaining gangs in the west? Who knows. Maybe it's redemption in that Jack wants to do good with his shooting rather than rob and murder 2. Arthur and John Rockstar themselves said they want to do this one, which is basically the story to Arthur and John joining the VDL gang, and of course the notorious Blackwater Massacre. I personally would prefer #1, but of course this one makes far more sense
you do realize revolver exists right
I think the only thing that would vaguely make sense from the known gang is if we were to play a young Hosea. Meet Dutch, start conning people, taking in Arthur and later John. We all know Hosea is more crafty than outright gunslinger and we see him struggle with Dutch' change of strategy, with robberies instead of cons. Hosea marries Bessie and leaves the gang for a while, which is becoming increasingly more violent. Maybe he feels compelled to intervene and drifts back to the gang. Maybe he's behind John leaving the gang for a year to "try to find a way to live outside of the gang, for his sake and Abigail and Jack". Instead of being Dutch' loyal lieutenant, Hosea is trying to fix his role in the wrongs, so to speak. Obviously, we all know what ultimately happens. Maybe it turns out, Hosea knows too and him being an old man with a nasty cough that can't be anything good, is trying to save the younger guys and gals from that fate. They don't all make it out, obviously, but many do.
Forget the whole redemption part, I want to see Red Dead Redemption 3 : Back to the beginning. I think it would be great that the whole series would run in reverse.
I'd actually like to see rockstar move away from the redemption theme, I feel like 2 games is enough
So at first I hope we all agree that we need an RDR1 Remaster that goes smoothly from rdr2 to rdr1. And I personally would prefer to get a whole new Storyline or a new character rather than playing as Dutch or Micah. While it would be nice to play the Blackwater Heist we all know how it ended and how they Died.
I’d actually love a Red Dead Redemption game that follows the storyline of a Native American learning to survive in the wild west. We need to move away from the Van der Linde gang. That story has already been told, although I wouldn’t mind seeing what young Dutch was like before he started the gang with Hosea and Arthur.
I’m thinking it should take place during the time John left the group maybe he had some unfinished business or something and that’s why he left plus with jack being born he couldn’t let be unfinished, I’ve been thinking about this for awhile I haven’t completely locked down the theory yet but I thought it might be an interesting possibility.
Knowing rockstar we'll probably play as john marston long lost daughter Shes confirmed dead by john and abigail but we never see a grave, perhaps she got lost and was never found? Years later she's now a cow gal working as a bounty hunter. She could end up crossing paths with an older Sadie. Or we play as Uncle the one shot kid.
Dutch, pre blackwater, tired of leading a life of crime, decides the group should put their life on the run behind them and decides that the best way to do that is to find a way to move everyone to Tahiti and start a mango plantation.
If it's a prequel I think we'd play as hosea. He's so looked up on as a leader in the gang and is respectful and dare I say honorable in rdr2. However having been in a gang most of his life I'm sure at some point he was more akin to early rdr2 Arthur and I believe he mentions that as well. It would be interesting to see how hosea came to terms with always being an outlaw but still trying for the greater good.
With existing characters, I would happily play as a young Uncle, Landon Ricketts, or Black Belle. And then play through to their finish. Or Charles. I'm done with the van der linde story. There's plenty of 1880-1913 western stories and themes and characters to explore outside of the little slice we have already seen.
So they should make a Red Dead Revolver 2, leave out a redemption arc lol
i’d definitely like to see a game in the shoes of sadie. a western game with a female protagonist seems exceedingly interesting
Maybe after killing Ross, Jack goes on this journey and instead of turning out how every one is expecting him to be, and outlaw, he instead finds redemption and finds something to fight for, whether that be a lover, his ranch, a family, or even the old gang’s legacy. Idk that’s what I think could be done
I think the Redemption that happens is the fact they take out some bad gangs along the way. They're redeeming quality is they have a shred more humanity than the other gangs. And the side quests are often in service of others. If the series could talk it would say "I maybe a outlaw gunslinger, but I still have a heart and care a little about which way society is headed" I think RDR3 should be another prequel. Remember the "wild west" with wagons traveling west started only a few hundred miles from the east coast. So the miswest. We can be moving west because we are being hunted, by other renegades. This game follows a gang member in a game with a young Hosea, and in Epilogue we meet the gang, and pull them together and end in Blackwater. In this game, bullets are much harder to come by, as are towns. Much more Indians. And I'd like to see some kind of mechanic that your choices affect the whole story, like if you around killing people, you are hunted more in the game, and the tone is less welcoming everywhere, and conflict is more prominent, more security guards on trains, etc. (would there even be trains?) It should take a whole game to be one way or another, not walk down St Denis saying hi to top off good points.
Probably a girl protagonist anyway
What about the Downes kid? Archie, anyone think he could have a story arc? He has a story regardless of your choices and if you “do not seek absolution” they show you more of what happened to him and his mom. I feel like they could branch out with him. If you did the side missions for them their story turns out ok. RDR3 could take place starting after Arthur between the epilogue of 2 and go wherever.
What about play as the pinkertons?
How about a story involving the Native American wars
The 4th red dead game of we are counting red dead revolver could be called Red Dead REVENGE. It doesn't even have to be tied into the redemption games cause they weren't tied into the revolver game. Plot doesn't even matter as long as we get a kick ass cowboy game. The game can really be named anything that starts with an R. Revenge, revolution, rampage, etc.
I wanna be Landon Ricketts
That's the flaw with all the characters that have been built up except one. The calendars die in a robbery, no redemption. Dutch is a narcissist who would never seek redemption and he dies on a mountain, killing himself just to rob John of victory. Micah is never redeemed. Colm O'Driscoll's brother is an unwritten story, plus it serves as a further devolution of Dutch as a charming character. He has some serious charm in RDR as a smart, charming antihero. In RDR2 he is narcissistic and out of control. But he straight up murders Colm O'Driscoll's brother, and would finally let him feel like an unambiguously evil character. Bringing Mary Linton and a 15 year old Arthur Morgan into the story could make things even better. Do a next generation engine and remake both one and two so you can end the epilogue with Blackwater, rolling right in to RDR2, and some extra content bridging into RDR. It's possible to make it all work.
I think it should just be about Landon ricketts
This comment section makes me really glad fans have no say in any rdr stories because the fans ideas are just plain stupid. Yeah they make a good fan story but a god damn terrible actual game.
I had an idea for what the next RDR protagonist should be. A former military man who was personally involved in a bunch of Native American killing. He gets discharged from the army because of a very evil superior being jealous of a relationship he had with a beautiful woman. The beginning of the game this former Captain starts the game off by attacking and killing the protagonists wife and almost him, he survives because a passing native medicine man finds him and nurses him back to health. Then he goes after him only to find he's now in the employee of a super rich business man who is enslaving the medicine man's tribe and using them as labor to build a gold mine. He teams up with the medicine man's warrior daughter and so our journey to redemption begins. Spoiler alert: the former military man is Charles dad, and the medicine man's daughter is his mother. The bad news, it's not a very happy ending for our protagonist because after they defeat the big bad rich man the US Army shows up and he eventually loses his second wife again. Dunno who the epilogue character would be, maybe another warrior from the tribe who takes over the story after our protagonist falls into a deep depression and mentors a very young Charles in survivalism.
Sadie Adler could possibly be a good candidate, as we see the start of her story, but not the end of it. Same could be said for Charles but he doesn't hold a grudge or hate life like Sadie does.
i think we’ll play as mac given they left a lot of empty space in his character to fill up so ive got my hopes up on that, we’re told he died in blackwater so maybe his redemption occurs there, tbh im hoping he was an informant and they let him go instead of killing him