History Headscratchers / RedDeadRedemption

* How come Langdon gets on Marston's case for shooting the three banditos who try to mug him when he enters Chuparosa? Okay, he's got a point that a gringo coming into Mexico and killing three locals isn't exactly going to encourage good relations with the locals, but the three guys were clearly threatening John and John repeatedly tried to defuse the situation peacefully, and only resorted to violence when the three made it clear they were looking for an excuse to attack and bully him and weren't going to stop. And Langdon ''knows all of this'', because he was sitting a few feet away watching and didn't raise a finger to help or intervene.

[[/folder]]

** "No Exit" is presumably a reference to the Jean-Paul Sartre [[NoExit play of the same name]]. Not sure about Puerto Cuchillo, but I'd place good money on it also being a literary or historical reference. Either that or R* just [[RuleofCool like how it sounds]].

*** There's a few possible things here. Firstly, even at his most whitest of hats John is still closer to the AntiHero side of things than not; he genuinely is a bit of a rough character with a very shady past, so it's not exactly hard for the government to emphasise his darker side. Secondly, most of the people John meets and works with over the course of his adventure are hardly by themselves credible sources; I mean, it's great if, say, Nigel West Dickens or Seth feel the need to defend John Marston's legacy, but they're not exactly the poster-boys for trustworthiness themselves. Furthermore, most of the more morally upstanding figures are themselves also rather wary and suspicious of John (Marshal Johnson, for example, isn't exactly John's biggest fan), so aren't likely to be willing or able to challenge the official narrative too much. This pretty much leaves Bonnie Macfarlane and her father as John's best character witnesses, and while they might be willing to speak up for him, they're also only two people who only met him for a brief period of time, so there's not much they can realistically do.

* I don't know how Williamson's gang has that many members, when real life western gangs and Dutch's origanal gang consisted of less than ten members, and Williamson's seem to number in the hundereds.

*** Well, yes, you're beholden to the plot... assuming you're following the plot. But you still have full control over whether John fills his role in that plot. You could do nothing but pick flowers, play cards and hunt wolves forever if so you chose, and the game would let you. It's still interactive media; John the character may be powerless, but the player still controls John... until the point comes where not even the player has control any more.

** [=MacDougal=] isn't free of the racism of the era; he assumes Nastas is a 'savage' and condescends to him. Also, remember that while this isn't technically the first time they've met, it may be the first time they've properly spoken; Nastas was semi-conscious and bleeding to death the first time they met, after all, and so was probably not in the best frame of mind to communicate ''or'' correct [=MacDougal=] as to his prejudicial assumption.

[[folder: Nastas and MacDougal]]
* So on the first mission with MacDougal, he tries to communicate with Nastas in a primitive manner only to learn that he speaks perfect English. But how did MacDougal not already know that? This isn't the first time they've met, so did they not speak to each other at all despite being told by Ross to question him?

*** No, they first met at the end of the mission Bear One Another's Burdens, where Marston and company brought Nastas to MacDougal and told him to question Nastas about what he knew regarding Dutch. So either they didn't talk to each other or MacDougal has a horrible memory.

** No reason Jack could not write a book later in life about his dad or even something and call it "Fiction". Change names. Jack will get away with the crime. There's no solid evidence, too many other people around that match Jack's discription. And many heroic figures don't stand the test of time as new information comes out, future biographers find inconsistancies in the account, and the sins of "heroic figures" come to light. J Edgar Hoover is an example. Jack has his whole life ahead of him. and in four years, he could enlist in WW1 and possibly be remembered as a great soldier, and live out a happy life.

* So, how exactly does Dutch manage to surround McDougall's apartment, wandering around on the street in broad daylight? Last time we saw him in Blackwater, the police shot the crap out of his gang.

*** Forensics testing anywhere near the quality to definitively match the slugs in Jack's gun to those fired into Ross or the boots Jack was wearing when he killed Ross to those he wore later is... in VERY short supply, and while they MIGHT be able to get a definitive match if they actually were able to get ahold of the same gun and ammo he used to do it, there is no reason he couldn't dispose of that later. The eyewitness reports of the Ross family are the most damning evidence the law has on Jack, and even that is hardly 100% conclusive, and while they almost certainly would trust them to ID him, the West is MASSIVE place and Jack can almost always run away across the Mexican border or even the Canadian one (hell, the only reason John got killed was more or less because he LET himself do so to spare his family). That, and there might be a reason WHY the law hasn't put a great deal of effort into hunting Jack down: they might see him as a useful asset if they can rope him in given the outbreak of WorldWarOne and the troubles with Germany and Mexico brewing just South of the border.

** GenreSavvy deputies.

** Same reason you find random people getting chased by wolves or people willing to bet their money on a shooting contest: It's simply a random encounter and it was programmed for him to introduce himself that way every time. Also, if he, along with any other shop NPC, didn't respawn, that makes some items LostForever

** Alright, explanations. First, he's constantly mentioning his name is Herbert Moon because he is a fucking megalomaniac. Hear to him talk. He's only talking about Jews and himself. Second, he plays poker at the same time because he there is a separate NPC playing poker for every shopkeeper.
** Also, he's probably constantly being robbed because [[TheScrappy noone likes the bastard.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Missons]]

** I'll bite. For one, [[spoiler: The AMERICAN Old West might be mostly dead by 1914, but in the South and especially across the Mexican frontier the ongoing [[UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution Mexican Revolution]] meant that the West as we know it had some life in it, and it more or less would continue until the Mexican revolutionary wars died off. [[WildMassGuessing I personally think the next game will probably take place mostly South of the border after Reyes gets the boot.]] As for the Mexican-esque appearence... what does a Mexican look like anyway? You have some that look lilly-white, some you could easily mistake for Amerindians or even BLACKS, and everything in between. Jack's appearence isn't that unbelievable. As for physical appearence... in a place without ready access to modern medicine you learn fast or die young, and the rate of physical development (muscles etc. al) would be far faster than say we coach potatos. As for the voice... some people really do sound like that all their life, but I call it TheyJustDidntCare to cast a new voice actor or change it up.]]

* I had never played RedDeadRevolver, and was worried about missing some plot points by coming into this game blind. I start playing and find them referring to events that happened years ago, and in my mind the fears are confirmed. I was halfway through the game before I realized that the game was just a SpiritualSuccessor, and had little-to-no connection with the first game, and Redemption just starts en medias res.

** Likewise. The events they speak of are John Marston's past, the Spanish-American War (those two ladies on the train), and the Mexican War (Jake speaking about Fort Mercer). RedDeadRevolver is not connected to this game at all.
** It's only meant to be taken loosely, like how some people believe the [=PS2=] GTA trilogy occurred before the GTAIV saga, despite there being no mention of the Salvatore family, or any of the major events from those previous games (the graffeti/mural of names is really more a shoutout than anything else). As someone suggested on the WMG, it's possible that the events of Revolver did occur, but were highly exaggerated (as most tales do, especially in the old west). I mean, Revolver bordered on Trigun level of actions (just without the all out superhuman looking characters).
** The events of Red Dead Revolver probably happened to some extent, some of the chatter and the book Jack is reading are hints to this, but to exactly what extent the first game really did happen is anyones guess, due to how over the top it was. There was probably a Red Harlowe and a Jack Swift, they probably fought and killed a gang led by the man who killed Reds father, but its very unlikely he was a governor, that sort of thing is way too cartoony for the Redemption setting. Same thing with the Mexican colonel, Mr Black, Pig Josh and the other outlaw bounties Red went after, there were probably some hint of truth in there, maybe carnival folk turned to crime but their actual portrayal in the game is unlikely to have been true.

** It's only meant to be taken loosely, like how some people believe the PS2 GTA trilogy occured before the GTAIV saga, despite there being no mention of the Salvatore family, or any of the major events from those previous games (the graffeti/mural of names is really more a shoutout than anything else). As someone suggested on the WMG, it's possible that the events of Revolver did occur, but were highly exaggerated (as most tales do, especially in the old west). I mean, Revolver bordered on Trigun level of actions (just without the all out superhuman looking characters).

* Okay, so in the opening scene, we can see Bonnie McFarlane on the train from Blackwater. Ten minutes of plot later, when John first meets Bill at Fort Mercer, the former gets shot and rescued by...Bonnie McFarlane! Now, I'd know it'd make for a sucky game if it ended ten minutes after it began, but can someone tell me how and why Bonnie was there when she was, presumably, going back home to her ranch? I'm gonna have to pull an IronicEcho on her and ask: "Well, what were ''you'' doing out there, Miss McFarlane?"

** Actually, this is a really good point. Fort Mercer is nowhere near the McFarlane Ranch or Blackwater. She wouldn't really have any reason to go that way. But, [[spoiler: it's implied in the game that Bonnie really cares for John. The mission where she meets your wife, she stands in the road and watches the Marstons leave. John's wife also comments about Ms. McFarlane looking at him. Maybe Bonnie fell for John when she first saw him on the train, like love at first sight. Then she followed him because she couldn't stand knowing she would never see him again. Playing it cool, she doesn't stop where he stopped at Mercer and travels past it, returning later with random character #2 to see if he survived an encounter with a known bandit hideout. Noone gets that lucky, and it sure doesn't seem like the west for a random person to be so kind.]] Or does it?

** Oh, and don't forget burning the McFarlane Barn and trying to kill you a good number of times. They do plenty to make themselves known in New Austin.

* Why would anyone shoot their own hostage while still within metres of their foes?