History RedDeadRedemption2 / TropesMToZ

[[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2 Main Page]] | [[RedDeadRedemption2/TropesAToL A-L]] | '''M-Z''' | [[RedDeadRedemption2/OnlineTropes Online]]

* TownWithADarkSecret: Several homesteads quality, such as the Aberdeen Pig Farm [[spoiler:which is run by an incestuous brother and sister who drug, rob, and murder visitors]].

** Fittingly, "Red Dead Redemption". [[spoiler: Milton is killed by Abigail and it's revealed Micah was TheMole. The gang quickly falls apart after this as the infighting hits the breaking point due to Arthur's confrontation at Micah as well as a wounded John staggering to camp, accusing Dutch of leaving him for dead. Before the remnants of the gang can gun down Arthur and John, Ross and the Pinkertons finally raid Beaver Hollow in full force which forces everyone to flee. As a result, Dutch goes into hiding, Arthur either succumbs to his wounds and tuberculosis or gets killed by Micah, and John successfully escapes and soon reunites with Abigail and Jack. [[TimeSkip Eight years later]], we play as John who's now trying to settle down with his family.]]

** The highest level of Dead Eye shows where the target's vital organs are located. As such, you can intentionally ''avoid'' hitting them to inflict extra pain to your victim. Worse, you can shoot those vitals to provoke heavy bleeding into your victims. This means that they'll fall over, get up, ''try'' to run away while leaving a trail of gushing blood behind, fall down again and agonize on the floor while a huge red puddle forms under them, until they're finished off or perish from lack of blood.

** Dutch has elements of this [[spoiler:toward Arthur, especially as the main story progresses. Despite being his most reliable and competent gang member dating back two decades and practically his surrogate son, Arthur is the target of Dutch's infamous "have faith" speeches and begins siding with dangerous newcomer Micah simply because Micah sucks up to Dutch and tells him what he wants to hear. The deaths of prominent senior gang members like Hosea only make Dutch ''worse'' in this regard]].

* Chapter 3 has the gang PlayingBothSides in the conflict between the Greys and Braithwaites. [[spoiler:The families eventually realize they're being duped since every interaction with the gang is followed by another attack, and seek revenge. This results in Sean's death and Jack being kidnapped.]]

* SpoiledByTheFormat: Rockstar seems to be aware of this trope as they manage to brilliantly subvert it.
** [[spoiler: When Sean is KilledMidSentence. If the subtitles are on, the full line “I could’a told you that-“ is shown, so you expect to hear the full line, but all Sean ''actually'' gets out before he’s shot is “I could’a tol-“, ingenuously adding to the intense shock of the scene.]]
** [[spoiler: The story progression. Arthur dies at 79% story completion... much sooner than first-time players expect.]]

** Arthur's kidnapping of Angelo Bronte in "Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten" heavily resembles Trevor's kidnapping of [[spoiler:Devin Weston]] in [[spoiler:Ending C]] of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''.

* SoreLoser: If you beat a particular NPC in a horse race, he would scold and slap his horse. If you beat him again, he would ''shoot it in the head'' in a rage. Aside from being horribly cruel, it also wastes a healthy and expensive horse, strands him in the wilderness and likely angers the dangerous horse-loving outlaw.

* ShootTheRope: How Arthur rescues workers who are in the middle of being hanged in Guarma. Can also be done with bodies hanging in Murfree Brood country, if you want to get attacked by them (or Nite Folk if you do the same in the bayou). And one of the Gold Medal requirements in the mission where you rescues Sean from bounty hunters is to shoot the rope that hanging him by his feet.

** The leadership of the Lemoyne Raiders are ex-Confederate soldiers and officers still waging the war against "Federals" or anyone they deem to be Federals- which are, ironically enough, usually people working for state or muncipal governments. They are, naturally, not the most well-adjusted individuals. Their elderly leader at Shady Belle [[spoiler:will commit suicide unless you kill him first]]. Other leaders Lindsey Wofford and Camille de Millemont are both bounty targets, both ranting about how they are "free" from US jurisdiction fight for the "true" America.
* ShmuckBait: You can find an abandoned wagon on a cliffside in Strawberry. If you try to go inside it, you'll slip and fall to your death off the cliff below.

* SelectiveEnforcement: Law enforcement in the game can be rather flaky and inconsistent. In obvious cases, such as gunning down a NPC in front of witnesses without a mask, you'll be easily identified and given an appropriate bounty. However, less clear circumstances can run the gamut of outcomes. For example, say you Antagonize a NPC into starting a fist fight. In some instances, you can knock the NPC out without a word for any witnesses or law enforcement. Other times, the law isn't called until you knock the person out. And yet other cases occur with the outcome being anything in between. There are entire message board posts and Reddit pages dedicated to figuring out the nuances will little success to date.

* WeBuyAnything: Generally averted. In fact, many stores, such as tailors and saloons, won't buy anything from you at all. The ones that do will only buy items in line with their business.

** [[spoiler:John seemed unfamiliar with New Austin in ''RDR'', but he can freely explore the region here once he becomes playable. However, if we take 100% checklist as canon, all he did was explore the place a bit while hunting, fishing and doing bounties, and considering that New Austin is established to be a hellhole in this game [[note]]There are gangs everywhere, the land is unsuitable for growing anything, Tumbleweed is slowly dying, Armadillo is ravaged by disease and both Thieves Landing and [=MacFarlane=]'s Ranch are private property at this point[[/note]] he doesn't really have any reason to go there at any point afterwards, meaning he could just have forgotten where everything was.]]

** Chapter 3 penultimate mission: ''Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern''. After [[spoiler:the Braithwaites kidnap Jack, almost the whole gang murder the Braithwaite matriarch's sons, gun down dozens of her workers, and ultimately burn her mansion to the ground]]. Ultimately Subverted as [[spoiler:the Braithwaites turned Jack over to Angelo Bronte for safe keeping]].

** Bonnie tells John in the first game that her father build the Macfarlane Ranch's barn when she was just a little girl. The barn is nowhere to be seen in the second game, not even in the online mode (which takes place in 1898, where Bonnie is 14 years old).

** Back to being played straight in Chapter 6, where [[spoiler:the gang is once again being actively hunted and you can't even buy provisions for the camp as the lockbox and ledger are gone. The remaining gang members will complain in Arthur doesn't bring anything, especially Pearson. You can still choose to avert it, but it becomes more challenging due to Arthur's failing health and the increase in lawmen out to get you as you explore.]]

* PragmaticAdaptation: Likely the reason why New Austin is explorable [[spoiler:in the epilogue, despite John claiming he's not familiar with the area in ''I''.]] Including it adds more area to the online mode, but if it never opened up on the entire single-player mode the player reaction would presumably been negative.

** The best example of this is in the mission ''Country Pursuits'', where Dutch, Arthur, and their guide Thomas travel to an alligator invested swamp looking for the latter's partner Jules. It went FromBadToWorse when all four of them are terrorized by a giant albino Bullgator,.. oh did we mention that the thing is ''unkillable''. Have fun.

** During the mission "The Mercies of Knowledge", [[spoiler:Wilson J. McDaniels, the victim of a botched execution by electrical chair]] begs to be shot and put out of his misery.

* MustMakeAmends: [[spoiler:''Do Not Seek Absolution'' quest line is only available to a non-low honour Arthur, as he sees Edith Downes, the wife (and widow) of a previous family that borrowed money from Arthur's gang which ended with their husband's beatdown from Arthur and presumed followed death. After losing their house, she turned to selling her body outside Annesburg to barely make ends meet alongside with her son that got sent to the mines for work, and he doesn't get treated well there. This absolutely guilt trips Arthur, as in those quest lines, he tries to amend for what happened to the family, and [[PutOnABus sends them on the train]] with a huge sum of cash. After the mission ''Red Dead Redemption'', you can find a newspaper with an article reporting that the family used the money to set up a golf course and are now prospering.]]

* NintendoHard:
** Several of the Gambler challenges aren't simply about winning, which can be hard enough, as it is in a game of chance, but winning in ''specific ways''. Gambler 8 specifically draws a ton of ire by forcing players to win three games of Blackjack while ''hitting three times''. It's pure luck and can take hours to accomplish.
** Hunting for Perfect Cougar and Panther pelts, with one of each being required to craft The Legend of the East satchel. The Panther in particular only spawns in two locations, with a laundry list of conditions that will cause them to not spawn. Each are ambush predators which can kill you with a single pounce. From the moment they growl and appear as a red dot on the mini-map, you have about ''one second'' to activate Dead Eye, lock on, and shoot. If you need the perfect pelt, you'll need to make that shot a head-shot as well. Happy hunting!

** Toward the end of Chapter 6, you find that Dutch's camp is a little less crowded due to the non-action characters leaving out of fear (Trelawny, Pearson, Mary-Beth, Karen and Swanson), so talking to Dutch can lock you into "Our Best Selves", which will then segue into the aptly-titled "Red Dead Redemption" upon completion. [[spoiler:These are also the last two story missions you'll be able to play as Arthur, so the game warns you that it will be your last chance to go for the optional Honor missions and build up your Honor meter to maximum if you want the GoldenEnding (and get a few more items while you're at it). Once the game is completed, you will head into the PlayableEpilogue [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent as John]], which means that you can return to any place outside of the story missions, allowing you to complete many things you missed as Arthur.]]

** The Torn Treasure Maps lead you to a chest containing the unique Otis Miller revolver...as well as a bunch of erotic photographs.

* PreAssKickingOneLiner: "This idiot is ''really'' [[{{Understatement}} startin' to irritate me]]!" Spoken by Arthur just before shooting a bunch of Agent Milton's men.

** A racial slur but still applicable; if you wait too long during Lenny’s "performance" to distract the Lemoyne Raiders during "Preaching Forgiveness As He Went", one of them will deliver an extremely venomous "get out of here, you nigger piece of shit!" and the group will proceed to gun Lenny down resulting in an immediate mission fail.

* QuestioningTitle: Several mission titles: "Who the Hell is Leviticus Cornwall?", "Blessed Are the Meek?", "Sodom? Back to Gomorrah", "Jim Milton Rides, Again?", and "Home of the Gentry?".
* QuickDraw: Several missions have points where you are automatically put you into Dead Eye in such a situation. One prominent example is the conclusion of "A Short Walk in a Pretty Town", where [[spoiler:Bill has been captured by Sheriff Gray who has a gun to Bill's head. You need to shoot the Sheriff to save Bill, and can then take a few shots at his deputies as well]].

* RacingMiniGame: Several Stranger encounters along roads have them challenge you to horse race to a certain location with a bit of money on the line. You have the option to race against Dutch after one particular main story mission in Chapter 3 as well.

* RetiredMonster: One memorable sidequest has Arthur breaking into an old foreclosed house to recover some mementos for a destitute old drunk who used to live there: an old pistol and a couple of books. [[spoiler:One of the books reveals that the man was formerly a bounty hunter who recaptured fugitive slaves, including mothers and their children. Arthur returns to the old man, tosses the belongings into his campfire and walks away in disgust, leaving the old man to cry on his knees over the ashes of his legacy. The player gets positive karma if the player opts to shoot him.]]
* RetiredOutlaw: One of the bounties that Arthur can pick up claims to be this; he agrees to come along peacefully, and requests only a few minutes to say goodbye to his wife and son. [[spoiler: However, he's actually instructing his son to send his old gang to intercept Arthur, showing that he might not be as far removed from his outlaw ways as he is claiming.]]

** [[spoiler: Arthur had a son at one point whom he loved but couldn't be there for the day to day because of his line of work. One day he came to visit him and found his and his mom's graves. It's why he's so hard on John for not being there for Jack and Abigail when they needed him and why he ultimately sacrifices himself for them to get out of the life.]]It's not revealed until very late in the game (and the mission where it's revealed is optional) but it really adds another layer to a lot of what happens in the game.

** The gang after [[spoiler:the Braithwaites kidnap Jack. They murder the Braithwaite matriarch's sons, gun down dozens of her workers, and ultimately burn her mansion to the ground]]. Ultimately Subverted as [[spoiler:the Braithwaites turned Jack over to Angelo Bronte for safe keeping]].

** Once [[spoiler:Abigail is captured by the Pinkertons, Arthur and Sadie fight their way through them at Van Horn and kill all of them, culminating in Agent Milton being killed by Abigail]].

** Sadie goes on a rampage against the O'Driscolls after they kill her husband, hold her captive and rape her. It starts off with her running out into the fray during the attack on Shady Belle to kill O'Driscolls with her bare hands, then later has her picking random fights with members of the gang, [[spoiler:helping Dutch to ensure Colm is hanged]] before murdering the nearest O'Driscoll and starting a shootout, and finally finishing off the last members of the gang with help from Arthur.

* NeglectedRez: The Wapiti Indian Reservation is a WretchedHive ''by design'', with the U.S. government sticking the tribe on land they cannot farm, cut off from decent hunting territory, and no way to find gainful employment. And ''now'' they'll be moved to an even ''worse'' place because oil has been discovered under it. [[spoiler: More than that, [[GeneralRipper General Favours, the local army commander]] is hideously abusing the Wapiti, tacitly ordering assault, rape, arson, murder and ''withholding medicine from the sick'', all to provoke the tribe into a rebellion he can crush so he can look good.]] To further add to their troubles, [[spoiler:Dutch goads them into fighting a hopeless war against the U.S. Army as an elaborate smokescreen for the gang's [[OneLastJob last big score]]]]. It is the final straw that breaks the camel's back for John, Arthur, and Charles, who more or less lose all faith in him afterwards.

** Micah believes this of himself and Arthur, even stating as such during their robbery of a stagecoach after Arthur breaks him out of Strawberry. He says Dutch knows he (Micah) is a "feller who get things done", same as Arthur. Furthermore, he refuses to believe Arthur is any morally better than him. Depending on your honor level, he can either be [[NotSoSimilar dead wrong]] or [[VillainHasAPoint make a decent point]]. Many of Arthur’s dishonorable actions, such as antagonizing his allies, harming innocent people, and prioritizing his own gain, will result in him acting eerily similar to how Micah normally does. Arthur will even lament in one optional conversation with Mary-Beth that he’s best at causing mayhem, and that it makes him no better than Micah.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: In Chapter 3, after [[spoiler:Arthur is knocked out, captured, and tortured by he O'Driscolls]], he escapes (badly wounded) to his horse. After getting out of the immediate area, [[spoiler:Arthur passes out and is carried, slumped over, by his horse all the way back to the gang's camp]]. You only see a few cut-scene flashes during the trip. As if you needed ''more'' reasons to love your horse...

** Another Arthur who serves as a debt collection target. Only in the last example are any in-universe observations made on the shared names.

** While not the only missable stranger mission, "The Mercies of Knowledge" disappears once [[spoiler:Arthur dies]]. This one is odd, since [[spoiler:nothing ever indicates it's an Arthur only mission - even the save file description follows the rule of not mentioning either protagonist by name suggesting John should be able to do it[[note]]every other protagonist-exclusive quest mentions them on the description[[/note]]... yet if mods are used, John has motion capture and dialogue for the scene[[labelnote:Admittedly]]It might bet to stay historically accurate, as the mission in question involves a scientist demonstrating a prototype [[HighVoltageDeath electric chair]], which wouldn't have been as innovative in 1907 as it would have been in 1899[[/labelnote]]]].

* PlayableEpilogue: [[spoiler:The game has a fairly lengthy one following John Marston about 8 years after Arthur's death.]]

* PlungerDetonator: The gang uses these at several different points in the story, and Arthur is tasked with hooking them up to the explosives each time. Notably, when they first try to use one to blow up the tracks beneath a train they intend to rob in "Who The Hell Is Leviticus Cornwall?", the explosives fail to go off altogether.

** Starting "Banking, The Old American Art" will subsequently start the [[spoiler:Guarma section of the game, which lasts for a few hours. Furthermore, after you return from Guarma, Arthur will no longer appear healthy and will permanently have a pale/severely underweight appearance on top of having a decreased core effect until Chapter 6 is completed. Additionally, you will no longer be able to use the ledger and the earning box as the gang is now caught in a severe case of infighting after the disastrous robbery.]]
** Toward the end of Chapter 6, you find that Dutch's camp is a little less crowded, so talking to Dutch can lock you into "Our Best Selves", which will then segue into the aptly-titled "Red Dead Redemption" upon completion. [[spoiler:These are also the last two story missions you'll be able to play as Arthur, so the game warns you that it will be your last chance to go for the optional Honor missions and build up your Honor meter to maximum if you want the GoldenEnding (and get a few more items while you're at it). Once the game is completed, you will head into the PlayableEpilogue [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent as John]], which means that you can return to any place outside of the story missions, allowing you to complete many things you missed as Arthur.]]

-->'''Charles:''' John, look, we should agree on something. If [[ColdBloodedTorture it's really bad]]... this might not be about saving him.\\

* NatureTinkling: In "A Quiet Time", when a drunk Arthur wakes up outside of the saloon after a SmashToBlack from the supposed BarBrawl-turned line-dancing, he looks around to find no one in sight, then reaches into his pants for his... manhood ([[HandOrObjectUnderwear which he cleverly manages to hide with both hands grabbing it]]) before emptying his bladder. And yes, that's the sight of his tinkling on the grass! While in first-person perspective! Which is kinda weird... and a little {{squick}}y.

* NeglectedRez: The Wapiti Indian Reservation is a WretchedHive ''by design'', with the U.S. government sticking the tribe on land they cannot farm, cut off from decent hunting territory, and no way to find gainful employment. And ''now'' they'll be moved to an even ''worse'' place because oil has been discovered under it. [[spoiler: More than that, [[GeneralRipper the local army commander]] is hideously abusing the Wapiti, tacitly ordering assault, rape, arson, murder and ''withholding medicine from the sick'', all to provoke the tribe into a rebellion he can crush so he can look good.]] To further add to their troubles, [[spoiler:Dutch goads them into fighting a hopeless war against the U.S. Army as an elaborate smokescreen for the gang's [[OneLastJob last big score]]]]. It is the final straw that breaks the camel's back for John, Arthur, and Charles, who more or less lose all faith in him afterwards.

* NeverLearnedToRead: Several members of the van der Linde gang. Given the setting during a time when literacy rates were quite low, this is Justified. Notable examples include both Arthur and John, who didn't learn to read until they were taken in by the gang. Arthur develops this skill rather nicely, as evidence by his journal. John...less so. (Which is a CallBack to ''I'' where John and Abigail rely on Jack to read more complex documents for them.)

** The best example of this is in the mission "Country Pursuit", where Dutch, Arthur, and their guide Thomas travel to an alligator invested swamp looking for the latter's partner Jules. It went FromBadToWorse when all four of them are terrorized by a giant albino Bullgator,.. oh did we mention that the thing is ''unkillable''. Have fun.

* NoHeroDiscount: Subverted. At high Honor, stores will give you a discount.

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: [[spoiler: Once the gang moves to Beaver Hollow, you can no longer donate money or restock the camp's supplies, since someone (heavily implied to be Micah) smashes the donation box and the ledger disappears. And after Arthur and Sadie bust John out of prison, you will have permanent dead or alive bounties in Roanoke Ridge and half of Lemoyne. You can still roam around those areas freely, but lawmen will no longer give you a chance to surrender if you commit any crimes. Finally, after the mission where Arthur and John blow up Bacchus Bridge, trains stop running until after the TimeSkip.]]
* NothingIsScarier: A Chapter 4 mission has you wading around in a swamp at night looking for a missing person. You, of course, have to split off from your group to search a greater area. If you've spent any significant time in the swamps before the mission, you'll know how frequent gators spawn and how quickly they can strike...

** Kieran mentions early in Chapter 2 that he doesn't see much of a difference between the van der Linde gang and the O'Driscolls and later the way he describes Colm and the influence he has over his gang is not unlike the sway Dutch has over his own people. John scoffs at the comparison, saying the O'Driscolls are just a bunch of criminals while Dutch and the gang have a philosophy are more about living free outside of society. [[spoiler: By the Epilogue its clear John has come around to Kieran's way of thinking; that Dutch is and always was just as much of a thug and a monster as Colm. And given Dutch's actions as the gang slowly deteriorated it's hard to argue]].

* MustMakeAmends: [[spoiler:''Do Not Seek Absolution'' quest line is only available to a non-low honour Arthur, as he sees Edith Downes, the wife (and widow) of a previous family that borrowed money from Arthur's gang which ended with their husband's beatdown from Arthur and presumed followed death. After losing their house, she turned to selling her body outside Annesburg to barely make ends meet alongside with her son that got sent to the mines for work, and he doesn't get treated well there. This absolutely guilt trips Arthur, as in those quest lines, he tries to amend for what happened to the family, and [[PutOnABus sends them on the train]] with a huge sum of cash. After the mission ''Red Dead Redemption'',you can find a newspaper with an article reporting that the family used the money to set up a golf course and are now prospering.]]

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: In the mission "The Last Son", when Micah raises his voice on Arthur after the latter questioned Dutch again, you can see Charles, John, and Sadie, who were sitting moments ago, stand up and about to back Arthur up before Eagle Flies shows up.

''''John:''' What the hell are you talking about?\\
''''Charles:''' If it's ''really'' bad... it might be better... to stop the pain.\\
''''John:''' Jesus, you mean to...\\
''''Charles:''' I mean you can live a week without a scalp. But it ain't a good week. A gut wound, you can live a month, but it's horrible. What they've done to him, might have killed him already, with only hurt to come.