Line #12 Characters/RedDeadRedemptionWestElizabeth


1	[[foldercontrol]]
2
3	!West Elizabeth
4
5	!!Blackwater
6
7	[[folder:Edgar Ross]]
8
9	!!Edgar Ross
10	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2bbc80be94c7f7b896694e32a6f88165.jpg]]
11	[[caption-width-right:300:''"Everyone will eventually pay for what they have done."'']]
12	[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Red Dead Redemption 2'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/edgar1899.jpg ''"Enjoy your fishing, kid...while you still can."''[[/labelnote]]]]
13
14	-->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JimBentley
15
16	A federal agent forcing Marston to go after his former gang members. He's holding Marston's wife and son hostage, until he finishes the job... and even then, Ross still has something up his sleeve. In some ways he means well, but his snide personality, black-and-white moral code and underhanded nature make him a very unpleasant man.
17
18	In the prequel ''Red Dead Redemption II'' (set in 1899), a younger Ross is seen as the apprentice to head Pinkerton detective Andrew Milton.
19	----
20	* AdaptationOriginConnection: ''II'' establishes that Ross has been a foe of the Marstons since their days in the Van Der Linde Gang and even [[ItsPersonal has it out personally for them]] due to [[spoiler:Abigail killing his partner Milton]].
21	* ArchEnemy: To the Marstons in the first game. He’s holding Abigail and Jack against their will to force John to capture or kill his former gang members. [[spoiler:He eventually becomes Jack Marston's archenemy after killing John directly and causing Uncle’s and Abigail’s deaths.]]
22	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: While Jack hunting down and killing Ross made him the polar opposite of what his parents wanted him to be, Ross ''really'' had it coming.]]
23	* BewareTheQuietOnes: He barely speaks in his few appearances in ''II'', but once [[spoiler:Milton kicks the bucket]], Ross descends on the gang with an army of Pinkertons, yelling threats through a megaphone. At this point, he's clearly fed up and just wants the gang dead. And while he's more talkative in ''I'', the beware part is still very much present.
24	* BigBadEnsemble: He's the main villain of ''Red Dead Redemption'' along with Dutch van der Linde, as the one forcing John to go after the members of his old gang by [[IHaveYourWife holding his family hostage]]. His threat to John increases after Dutch dies, [[spoiler:as he ultimately has John killed.]]
25	* BookEnds: In ''Red Dead Redemption'' the last time he meets Jack Marston, he's duck hunting by a river [[spoiler:before he's gunned down.]] In ''Red Dead Redemption II'', it's revealed the first time they met was when Jack was four and fishing with Arthur Morgan.
26	* BullyingADragon: Ross constantly insults and belittles John, a very dangerous man who hates his guts, with the excuse that he's got John under his thumb and knows he can get away with it. [[spoiler: The same can't be said for Jack - granted, Ross was armed too, but insulting and threatening the clearly angry, vengeful, and heavily armed son of the man he had killed was ''not'' a wise move.]]
27	* ChildHater: Just to show how much of an asshole this guy is, Ross's very first scene in the game (the opening scene in fact) EstablishingCharacterMoment has him pushing a paper boy instead of simply going around him. When he first met Jack Marston when he was just a 4 year old boy, Ross rudely tells him to "enjoy his fishing while he still can". [[spoiler:Probably its a good thing he died without siring a child first]].
28	* CorneredRattlesnake: Ross prefers to stay on the sidelines and send others to do his dirty work, and doesn't seem much of a threat on his own. But when [[spoiler: a vengeful Jack Marston confronts him for his role in John's death and isn't driven off by threats, Ross stands his ground and engages Jack in a duel. He loses.]]
29	* CreateYourOwnVillain: [[spoiler:Him killing John makes Jack a revenge-driven outlaw.]]
30	* CycleOfRevenge: [[spoiler:Abigail killing Ross' superior, Milton, is what setup a long conflict between Ross and the Marston Family, leading Ross to blackmail John by kidnapping his family and killing him after he had done his dirty work. This leads to Jack killing Ross once he grows up.]]
31	* DastardlyDapperDerby: He's almost always seen in the standard agent getup of a nice suit and derby hat, and despite having a few good points, is a pretty nasty piece of work.
32	* DeadpanSnarker: He always has a snide comment ready for John or Fordham.
33	* TheDeterminator: A determinator among determinators. Perhaps one of his few good qualities. He's diligent at his job, never seems to give up pursuit, and ultimately manages to track down the most infamous remnants of the Van der Linde gang. This is accomplished over the course of many years.
34	* DirtyCop: He's not above kidnapping someone's family to make them hunt down outlaws that ''he'' should be hunting down.
35	* DirtyCoward: He ''does'' participate in a few firefights, including [[spoiler: the assault on Beecher's Hope, and when an older Jack Marston confronts him in the epilogue, he does at least agree to a fair duel rather than trying something underhanded or running away]]. But none of this quite makes up for the fact that he spends the whole game forcing John, by kidnapping his innocent family, to risk life and limb hunting down Dutch's gang instead of doing it himself. One mission has a pretty glaring moment where he sends both John and Fordham to investigate a derelict riverboat that is obviously a trap, showing that he views everyone "on the job" aside from himself as expendable.
36	* TheDragon: He's one to Agent Milton in the prequel, standing by his side and acting as muscle as Milton does the talking.
37	* DragonAscendant: [[spoiler:After Milton's death, he takes over at the very last mission of Chapter 6 to lead the Pinkerton attack on Beaver Hollow, and in the epilogue of ''II'', kickstarting the events of the first game.]]
38	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The very first thing we see Ross do is rudely shove a paper boy out of his way as he's escorting John to the train. And if that wasn't enough to let us know that he's hardly a pleasant guy, the next time we see him, he tells John that Abigail "sends her regards" and gives a snide little chuckle. In ''Red Dead Redemption II'' (which also acts as his first appearance chronologically), he snidely tells little Jack Marston to enjoy his fishing "while he still can" before chuckling, showing that he's always been a jerk.
39	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He's by no means a pleasant person, but his interactions with his family seem to imply that he's not at all the same horrible person to those in his company.
40	* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: Ross is prone to snarky remarks, but his sense of humor is so dark and snide that he's clearly the only one who finds them amusing.
41	** Best demonstrated after John's done with his mission - Ross "jokes" that Abigail was killed during a prison riot, only nearly avoiding a bullet to his head.
42	* FakeUltimateHero: At the game's end, [[WrittenByTheWinners the "official" story]] is that [[spoiler:Ross was a great hero who brought down the remaining members of the Van der Linde Gang, bringing these murderers and thieves to justice. Almost no one knows that the ''true'' story had Ross force one of the gang's former members -- who was desperately trying to go straight and live a normal life -- to do his dirty work for him, only to stab him in the back after promising to leave him and his family alone.]]
43	* FauxAffablyEvil: He often acts calm and polite towards John while kidnapping his family to do his dirty work for him, even making dark jokes about it.
44	* FBIAgent: An early 20th-century example (which technically makes him a Bureau of Investigation Agent). II reveals that he's the director of the Bureau in this setting.
45	* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:The main storyline concludes with a duel between him and Jack Marston, at the bank of the San Luis river.]]
46	* {{Foil}}: To Dutch van der Linde. Both are fighting for what they believe to be best for society, Ross for civilization and Dutch for anarchy, and both display a complete willingness to ShootTheDog if that's what it takes to get there. But the game shows that both of them are {{hypocrite}}s and neither of their plans are without flaws anyway. The only real difference is that in the end, [[spoiler:Ross is remembered as the hero and Dutch as the vicious outlaw, but then the game points out that had more to do with civilization ultimately triumphing and history being WrittenByTheWinners then any real moral superiority of one over the other]].
47	* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Lights up a cigar as he [[spoiler: watches John take his last breaths, satisfied that Dutch's Gang has been completely wiped out]].
48	* GloryHound: As much as Ross harps on about morality and how everyone must pay for their misdeeds, when it comes to wiping out Dutch's gang, it's heavily implied at one point that he's also in it for the medals. [[spoiler: And according to his brother, he was awarded a "chestful" of them after taking care of John, fully eliminating the gang.]] He'd be a mere GlorySeeker if his methods weren't so underhanded.
49	* HateSink: {{Downplayed\|Trope}}. Despite ultimately being the main antagonist, Ross is a lawman who, despite his underhanded methods, does have at least a few good points, and it's hard to fault someone who's trying to clean up the crime-ridden, dangerous world that is the old west. However, he's such an underhanded, snide asshole who's also clearly in it for personal glory that despite these good points, we're able to sympathize with John and not take Ross' side in the matter, hating him as much as John does. Indeed, he's ultimately one of, if not ''the'' most despised characters in the game, [[spoiler: and for a very good reason]]. The one upside is that the very final mission is [[spoiler:Jack getting to pump him full of lead]].
50	* HeroAntagonist: At his core, he wants to bring about law, order and civilization, and eliminate all those who seek to destroy it. He's an [[{{Jerkass}} asshole]] for sure, and his means of accomplishing this end are often underhanded to say the least, but it's hard to fault his basic goals. [[spoiler:One can argue he stopped being this when he backstabs John, who's trying to go straight, after he did exactly what he wanted him to do.]]
51	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Ross is genuinely just trying to bring some law and order to a violent region, but he's such a revolting asshole about it that he comes off as little better than the outlaws.
52	* HistoryRepeats: In the final mission before the Epilogue in the first and second game, Ross leads an army of government men to kill members of the Van der Linde gang at their hideout/home. In the first game, it's the U.S. Army attacking Beecher's Hope, and in the second it's Pinkertons attacking Beaver Hollow.
53	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Since [[spoiler:Jack]] wasn't present to see just who [[spoiler:killed John]], he would have no idea who to go after for revenge... but Ross just had to go and boast about it on the news. Him taking all the credit for the deed may have been the worst decision he could've taken.
54	* HolierThanThou: Though centered on morality rather than religion.
55	* {{Hypocrite}}: He claims that what he does is morally right by bringing peace and order to the frontier, but nothing changes the fact that kidnapping a man's [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure (partly innocent)]] family [[labelnote:note]]Abigail did kill a Pinkerton agent, leaving only Jack as the only innocent member of the family[[/labelnote]] is pretty barbaric way to go about doing so. The best part is that he's also absolutely aware of this, and seems to believe the ends justify the means.
56	-->'''Marston''': [[NotInThisForYourRevolution My side ain't chosen! My side was given.]] I'd kill you a hundred times before I killed Dutch, if it was an option.
57	-->'''Ross''': Hallelujah! I think we're finally reaching an understanding Mr. Marston!
58	** He also talks about the need for the rule of law, yet brings in the Army to serve as a police force against Dutch's gang, something that was and is illegal to do. Of course, considering how powerful Dutch's gang had become, he [[JerkassHasAPoint has a point]].
59	** Regardless of whatever sanctimony he endlessly shoots John's way, it becomes clear by the end he's a much worse person than a high honor John ''ever'' was. John was driven into being an outlaw, but even then doesn't make excuses for his misdeeds in life and is simply trying to be a better man for his wife and son. Ross is a HolierThanThou asshat who threatens John's family to get him to do his own job for him [[spoiler: and then treacherously murders him even after he's done it [[GloryHound just for some extra glory.]]]]
60	* InspectorJavert: To John Marston's Valjean; he continues to rage against Marston's supposed monstrousness and in the process [[HeWhoFightsMonsters becomes quite monstrous himself]].
61	* IHaveYourWife: He's holding Abigail and Jack hostage, which is how he gets John under his thumb.
62	* ItsPersonal: Implied. Despite Milton's best attempts, the gang keeps humiliating them by managing to escape every time they try to capture them. Once Ross assumes control, he is clearly fed up and just launches a massive attack on the gang. His treatment of John in the first game is very likely payback for not only the constant humiliation Dutch's gang caused him and his former partner, but for the piles of dead Pinkerton agents they left in their wake.
63	* {{Jerkass}}: While Fordham at least shows gratitude and even respect occasionally towards John and others, Ross is disdainful towards ''everyone'' he runs into - not just John - and considers himself nobler and morally above pretty much the entire West by default. He constantly refers to the people he protects as savages, fools and scum that should be lucky to have his assistance, and is just in general very unlikable. He is even disrespectful to those working for him, like Fordham (who he is constantly putting down) and Nastas (who he refers to as a savage). [[spoiler: It’s this constant need to belittle or insult others which is what gets him killed in 1914.]]
64	* JerkassHasAPoint: ''II'' reveals just how much death, destruction and damage the gang actually caused when they were active...''especially'' to law enforcement, the U.S Army, and the Pinkertons. Even if he later changed his ways, John ''was'' completely willing to cause it back in the day. He's still a treacherous dick, but his treatment of John is completely understandable given his hatred of the gang. His ShutUpKirk to [[spoiler:Jack]] at the end of the first game, while dripping with assholish contempt, is also [[BrutalHonesty pretty accurate]], with the exception of his refusal to acknowledge his own treachery.
65	-->'''[[spoiler:Jack]]''': You killed [[spoiler:my father]]!
66	-->'''Ross''': Your [[spoiler:father]] killed himself with the life he lived.
67	-->'''[[spoiler:Jack]]''': [[LameComeback You killed him! I saw it!]]
68	-->'''Ross''': You keep ''saying'' that...
69	* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler:He commands a platoon to kill John, the last member of Dutch's gang, and comes out of it unscathed and smoking a cigar. [[WrittenByTheWinners He's seen far and wide as a hero, and the man who took out Javier Escuella, Bill Williamson and Dutch as well, stealing all of John's merits.]] Jack makes sure to [[SubvertedTrope subvert the trope]] by finding Edgar and killing him in a duel [[BestServedCold three years later]]. The jury's still out on whether John gets VindicatedByHistory by the "Red Dead" book you can find in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', which was likely written by Jack.]]
70	* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:John got [[MultipleGunshotDeath filled with lead]] on his orders. He ends up dying the same way when he challenges Jack to a duel.]]
71	* KickTheDog: He seems to ''love'' making snide, insensitive remarks about John's family. And one of the first things we see him do is rudely shove a little boy selling newspapers out of his way.
72	** [[spoiler: Three years after John is killed and Jack confronts him, Edgar ''laughs'' as he recalls killing Jack's father, and tells him to get lost before he kills him, too. [[AssholeVictim He doesn't get the chance to.]]]]
73	** There's the entire fact that he [[spoiler: has John murdered even after he gives him everything he wanted. This is really the point in the game when he stops seeming like an unlikable HeroAntagonist and just reveals himself to be a full blown villain]].
74	* KnightTemplar: He's aiming to bring law and order to the West and wipe out the gangs, by any means necessary.
75	* LaserGuidedKarma: He forces John to hunt down and kill his old gang members against his will and constantly mocks John for thinking he could just walk away from his past without some sort of punishment [[spoiler: to the point where he later feels justified in killing John despite him having walked away from a life of crime. Later Ross tries to walk away from his own career of underhanded actions but is constantly pulled back into work by his own government and eventually killed by one of the people he crossed who wanted to make sure Ross wasn't a KarmaHoudini himself. Essentially Ross never realized that his speeches to John about the past catching up with you could apply to himself as well.]]
76	* LetsGetDangerous: In ''II'', Ross spends most of the game as Milton's mostly silent apprentice. [[spoiler: After Milton is killed, a newly promoted Ross strikes back with a vengeance and assaults the Van Der Linde gang's hideout at Beaver Hollow with a small army of Pinkertons]].
77	* MeanBoss: He usually treats his apprentice Fordham like crap.
78	* {{Metaphorgotten}}: Goes on a long, increasingly bizarre monologue about Dutch's anarchy at the beginning of the mission "And You Shall Know The Truth...". The central idea behind it seems to be that people who want civilization and order (or as he puts it, people who don't like flowers) should be able to have it without those who favor nature and chaos (people who do like flowers) interfering with it. When Marston demands he stop rambling, Ross drops the philosophizing and just reminds him he doesn't have a choice about helping or not.
79	* MirrorCharacter: [[spoiler:For John. Neither of them can escape their past. John can't escape his past life of crime, while Ross can't get away from his life as a government employee, constantly being pulled back in to work. They even die similarly: Someone of their past catches up to them and pumps them full of lead. It's also hinted that, beneath all his talk of civilizing the west, he's secretly just as resentful of modern civilization as Dutch and the gang; after his retirement, Jack finds him leaving a semi-secluded life in the middle of nowhere, [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis dressing just like the cowpokes he spent his life hunting and looking down on]].]]
80	* MisplacedRetribution: Downplayed. He is after the Van Der Linde gang (and later the Marston family specifically) for personal reasons, but [[spoiler:he doesn't seem to know that Abigail killed his former partner, likely assuming that Arthur did it.]]
81	* MultipleGunshotDeath: [[spoiler: Thanks to Jack Marston.]]
82	* TheNapoleon: He's rather short (at least in the first game), and is very smug and self-righteous.
83	* OutOfFocus: He's the BigBad of the first game, but in the second, even though he's Agent Milton's [[TheDragon Dragon]], Ross mostly lurks in the background and rarely speaks. [[spoiler: Even after Milton's death, he is not seen but only heard barking orders during the Beaver Hollow attack. Despite all this however, he gets the mantle of being the last character seen in the final closing shot of "II".]]
84	* PetTheDog:
85	** [[spoiler:When you're hunting him down as Jack, you talk to his wife and brother... and what they say hints that he has sympathetic traits, and while his brother admits that he's got a fierce temper, his wife says he's actually a very sensitive man. But if anything, it only makes said players hate him even more, feeling like it only gives him extra {{hypocrite}} points regarding all of his horrible treatment toward John's own innocent family.]]
86	** Also, he has Nigel West Dickens pardoned after John tells him that West Dickens helped him capture Bill Williamson.
87	** He shows genuine concern for the safety of the innocent bank workers during Dutch's raid on Blackwater.
88	* PinkertonDetective: ''II'' shows that he was a Pinkerton before becoming a government agent and that he pursued the Van der Linde gang even back then.
89	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Judging by his derogatory comments towards Native Americans.
90	* PragmaticVillainy: [[spoiler:This is presumably why the Van der Linde Gang members who avert DoomedByCanon by the end of II survive: Due to them being either not notable outlaws whose deaths wouldn't gain him renown (Pearson, Mary-Beth, etc.) or moving far from the US (Sadie, Charles) they're either NotWorthKilling as far as he's concerned or out of his jurisdiction]].
91	* PunchClockVillain: Played with and ultimately subverted. He forces John to hunt down his old comrades and is a JerkAss when working alongside John, but he claims it's because someone needs to civilize the West. Once Dutch is dealt with, Ross then honors their agreement and returns John's family to their farm. [[spoiler: He then has the Army and Bureau hunt John down at the end to finish the job.]] Off the job, Ross has a wife who clearly loves him and a brother who he appears close with. [[spoiler: However, even retired, Ross is an ass to Jack without even knowing who he is and taunts him about killing John.]]
92	* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Saying John got what he deserved plus insulting and threatening Jack was the ''worst '' decision Ross ever made in his entire life. He went from having a low chance of living after Jack confronted him (assuming he explained himself and showed remorse for John’s death) to '''zero '''chance of not being pumped full of lead.]]
93	** "Joking" about Abigail being killed during her imprisonment, right after John finished his mission, having risked his entire life, and taken countless lives of his own to get his family back. It's a sheer miracle that John kept himself from killing him long enough that he could admit he was joking.
94	* TheQuietOne: In ''Red Dead Redemption II'', he usually stays silent while his superior Milton does the talking. It's a sharp contrast from his frequent lectures and remarks in the first game, and makes his one notable line ("Enjoy your fishing, kid... while you still can") even more [[{{Futureshadowing}} noteworthy]]. [[spoiler: After Milton's death, Ross steps out of this and can be heard shouting orders during the Pinkertons' assault on Beaver Hollow.]]
95	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Fond of giving long, flowing speeches about how he and the law are right and just, and how everything Dutch stood for and every fiber of John's being is morally bankrupt - usually in response to John calling him out on using extortion and kidnapping to further his own ends. Ross - who cannot accept that John could possibly be a changed man - never lets an opportunity pass to pontificate, often hypocritically, on how lacking in character John is.
96	* RecklessGunUsage:
97	** He gives John the high-powered pistol by shoving it barrel-first into John's stomach. But then again, he's not too concerned about John's well-being.
98	** After taking John's gun to [[spoiler: put a bullet in Dutch's corpse so it'll "look better on the report"]], he gives it back by ''tossing it to him''.
99	* RedOniBlueOni: Cold, calculating Blue to Fordham's hot-headed, aggressive Red.
100	* ResignationsNotAccepted: [[spoiler:His wife tells Jack that while he tried to retire, the government keeps pulling him back in. Becomes ironic as that's exactly what he did to John.]]
101	* RetiredMonster: At the end of the game, [[spoiler: Jack finds out that Ross has retired to spend his twilight years with his family. Well, he's ''tried'' to retire, but the Bureau keeps dragging him back to work.]] Whether Ross is truly ''evil'' or not is debatable, but there's no denying that Ross did some truly underhanded things during his career, [[spoiler: and when Jack catches up with him, it's clear that he has zero regrets for what he did to John]].
102	* TheNapoleon: In the first game.
103	* TreacherousQuestGiver: [[spoiler:Considering he both controls the main plot and kills John at the end anyway.]]
104	* {{Troll}}: After John has fulfilled his end of the deal and asks about his family, Ross falsely tells him that Abigail was killed in a prison riot the previous week, just to mess around with him. He's lucky that John didn't shoot him right then and there, which he was ready to do before Ross revealed that he was "just joking".
105	* VocalEvolution: Ross's voice in the prequel sounds significantly deeper and more gruff compared to his speaking tone in the first game.
106	* VirtuousCharacterCopy: {{Downplayed\|Trope}} He's basically a white, Wild West counterpart of [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas Frank Tenpenny]], with a similar looking mustache to boot. Much like Tenpenny, Ross is [[DirtyCop a corrupt law enforcement official]] with an [[SmugSnake irritatingly smug personality]] who forces the protagonist to do his dirty work by [[IHaveYourWife holding family hostage]], claims to be doing what he does for the greater good, and [[spoiler: decides to kill the protagonist after they've done everything he asked]]. However, Ross genuinely believes he is the force of law and order and has a few PetTheDog moments, while Tenpenny is ultimately self-serving, is not above killing fellow cops, and has no redeeming qualities. As such, Ross ends up [[spoiler: [[WrittenByTheWinners retiring peacefully while being remembered as a hero]], not losing his good reputation even after being killed in an epilogue]], while Tenpenny is HatedByAll, with no one mourning his death.
107	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Pretty obviously a villain, who does very, very little to endear himself to either players or in-game characters. However, his [[{{Jerkass}} nasty personality]] can make it easy to forget that ''everyone'' he goes against in both games (with the exception of Jack) really is a criminal entirely guilty of everything Ross accuses them of. Furthermore, his rationalization to clean up TheWildWest is emphasized in [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2 the prequel]], even if you put aside the fact that the Van der Lindes murdered [[spoiler:Milton]]. Considering how incredibly depraved some criminals really are (such as the O'Driscolls, Murfree Brood and Skinner Brothers), it's hard to blame someone who is trying to clean up such a violent place as TheWildWest.
108	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:After John completes his mission, Ross sends the army after the Marstons to deal with them and to finally take down Dutch's gang.]]
109	* YoungerThanTheyLook: He's 50 by the start of ''1'' and 53 by the epilogue, but looks at least 10 years older than that. Possibly justified due to the stresses of his job and living in TheWildWest. The prequel shows Ross used to look significantly younger from 1899 to at least 1907, which may bear credence for that justification.
110	* YourSizeMayVary: Is noticeably short in the first game, but average height in the second game.
111
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Archer Fordham]]
115
116	!!Archer Fordham
117	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1195485775d78ed1180827c6986cbc67.jpg]]
118	[[caption-width-right:300:''"Marston, you're a public menace; we should have had you killed."'']]
119
120	-->'''Voiced by:''' David Wilson Barnes
121
122	Ross' ambitious, eager and aggressive apprentice, who follows his orders no matter what.
123	----
124	* BigGuyLittleGuy: He's the same height or perhaps even a little taller than John (who's fairly tall himself), and almost a head taller than the noticeably short Ross.
125	* TheCameo: [[spoiler:He appears in the credits sequence of ''II'' alongside Ross.]]
126	* CharacterDevelopment: He slowly warms up to Marston over the course of the Bureau missions. When he's first met he is just as rude to him as Ross, but he seems to respect John after the Cochinay assault and he doesn't even participate in [[spoiler:the Beecher's Hope massacre; the reason for this is unclear, and many players believe he simply refused to take part in John's death]]. ''II'' makes this even more apparent as while Ross knows John's blood-covered history and treats him as a criminal because of it, Archer has only second-hand accounts of John's crimes and gets to see John's devotion to his family and HiddenHeartOfGold instead.
127	* TheDragon: To Ross.
128	* FBIAgent: Another example of the early Bureau of Investigation.
129	* GoodIsNotNice: He's quite the {{Jerkass}}, but he's also dedicated to taking down Dutch's gang and bringing order and peace to the West.
130	* ItsPersonal: Retroactively. It's implied that his mother was a victim of the Blackwater massacre in 1899, which ''II'' establishes to have been caused by the Van Der Linde gang. His mother Maybelle is buried in the Blackwater cemetery after dying in 1900. There's NPC dialog stating "I hear that Bureau fella's never been the same since his mother got shot in the massacre." If so, that would perfectly explain his hatred for the gang. Even more telling is when he responded quite angrily to John when he believed he called Fordham a "son a whore".
131	* IWantThemAlive: Played with. He and Ross ask John to hunt down his former friends and bring them to the authorities to see them hang; it doesn't matter if they are brought in dead or alive, but Fordham appreciates it if the gang members are brought in alive. An example is that if John captures Javier and brings him in alive, Fordham thanks the former and says that the latter "needs to see how far the hand of justice can reach". If John kills Javier instead in a zig-zagged example, Fordham [[WhatTheHellHero calls him off on this]], but John responds to him that the authorities "should be glad to have [Javier] at all"; Fordham then tells him to "just remember your obligations to the government" before John tosses the corpse to the backseat of the car.
132	* {{Jerkass}}: He's not much nicer to John than Ross is, saying they should have had him killed and calling his wife a whore.
133	** JerkWithAHeartOfGold: That said, he does thank John if he gets Javier alive. And he even congratulates John after Dutch is taken care of. [[spoiler: He also doesn't seem to show up when Ross kills John, possibly due to the respect he gained for him.]]
134	** He also appears to actually show some respect and concern for Nastas; this is in contrast to Ross who calls him a savage and asks if he can even speak English.
135	** As well, John ''is'' a wanted outlaw who has murdered ''many'' people and been involved in plenty of criminal activity, so saying that they should have killed him instead of kidnapping his family and forcing him to do their dirty work isn't exactly the worst thing in the world, especially once you see how much destruction the gang caused in ''II''.
136	* KarmaHoudini: Unlike Ross, Archer faces no repercussions for his actions, as he was [[spoiler:not involved in John's death.]]
137	* LanternJawOfJustice: He's got one and is a lawman, and while he is the crooked Ross' lackey, he seems a little less underhanded than his superior.
138	* RedOniBlueOni: Hot-headed and aggressive Red to Ross' cold, calculating Blue.
139	* ServileSnarker: He makes a few jabs at Ross' expense, who at one point even tells Fordham not to get snarky with him.
140	* SmugSnake: Though not quite as much as Ross is.
141	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: It is debatable whether he appears in the final attack. If not, he is never seen or mentioned again after Dutch's death.]]
142	* WhatTheHellHero: Calls John off on this for bringing in Javier's corpse to the authorities (if the player kills Javier), saying that he expected Javier to be "looking very... healthy".
143
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Harold [=MacDougal=]]]
147	!!Harold [=MacDougal=]
148	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fc12d55bb64356a52e6fcce4c2421edb.jpg]]
149	[[caption-width-right:300:''"The savage heart cannot be conventionally civilized! I was right all along!"'']]
150	->'''Voiced by:''' Joe Ochman
151
152	A "researcher" of Native Americans, [=MacDougal=] is a perfect representation of science of his time.
153	----
154	* AbsentMindedProfessor: To quote Rick James - [[Series/ChappellesShow Cocaine is a hell of a drug]].
155	* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Gets kicked out of Yale after beating a colleague over the head with a croquet mallet and climbing up to the roof completely naked, in what is described as a [[{{Irony}} "savage"]] attack, likely after a bad trip.]]
156	* BoomerangBigot: When he first meets John, he asks him if he's from "Nordic stock", and is disappointed to hear that John has Scottish ancestry. His name is [=MacDougal=].
157	* CloudCuckooLander: Completely off his rocker. His "research" is already batshit crazy to begin with, without bringing the massive amounts of cocaine and heroin he takes into the mix.
158	* GenreBlind: In Undead Nightmare, he gets about two lines. The first is him stating that he doesn't have a clue of what's going on, and the second is one of the most GenreBlind lines ever said: "I'm just gonna wander down that lonely, deserted street, and get my bag." He even sounds unsure of himself saying it.
159	* InnocentBigot: Unlike Herbert Moon, who hates practically everybody, [=MacDougal=] is for the most part an UpperClassTwit who believes in crackpot theories and idiotic science and doesn't seem to really bear the natives any ill will. He also constantly espouses his WhiteMansBurden beliefs to Nastas, acting what he sees as friendly while denigrating him and natives in general as savages at the core in need of being civilized.
160	** When the player first meets him, he is apparently comparing blood samples under a microscope. He tells John that those of a Native American seems to be exactly alike in composition to that of a white man, but he seems to be rather pleasantly surprised by the revelation rather than insulted as would be expected by other racists.
161	** He also seems genuinely saddened by [[spoiler: Nastas' death, and even posts a paragraph in the Blackwater Ledger paying his respects]].
162	* PetTheDog: An extremely downplayed one and mostly visible through hindsight: Harold is actually one of the few white men who wants to find a peaceful settlement with the Native Americans in the area. [[spoiler: He's just so grossly incompetent it leads to Nastas's death instead.]]
163	* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: A friendly enough guy, but also ''extremely'' racist, though it's more a genuine lack of understanding, compared with the primitive science of the time, and how society at large worked behind it, rather than any ill intent.
164	* TheLoad: Does nothing but make more trouble for you.
165	* ManHug: Gives one to John as he goes back to Yale.
166	* KnowNothingKnowItAll: His scientific ideas in general make him this, as it becomes clear after a while that he has no idea what he's talking about. When Nastas tries to explain to him that buffalo are going extinct due to overhunting, he counters that "extinction is a myth", according to Darwin. Darwin never said this, and it seems that [=MacDougal=] doesn't understand how natural selection works. Then there's his ideas on race.
167	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: After nearly getting killed, he decides to leave Blackwater, decrying the Wild West as a complete CrapsackWorld and the people, natives and settlers alike, as just madmen who like to shoot each other.
168	* TheStoner: Almost always tweaked out on cocaine. The rest of the time he's on heroin.
169	[[/folder]]
170
171	!!Other Residents of West Elizabeth
172
173	[[folder:Nastas]]
174	!!Nastas
175	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beb66288356e479f8b42501466d88771.jpg]]
176	[[caption-width-right:300:''"There is no respect for the land anymore."'']]
177	->'''Voiced by:''' Benjamin Byron Davis
178
179	A local Indian who was hired by Edgar Ross to help John hunt Dutch down.
180	----
181	* BadassNative: Certainly no pushover when it comes to combat.
182	* NatureLover: In his words, "There is no respect for the land anymore." He's very concerned about the future of the forests, what with the West becoming more "civilized", and laments the overhunting of the buffalo. He'll even [[YouBastard call you a bastard]] if he sees you kill an animal during the mission "At Home With Dutch".
183	* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: His reaction to Prof. [=MacDougal=]'s [[YouNoTakeCandle attempt to communicate with him]] has a hint of this.
184	* NiceGuy: Easily one of the most decent and pleasant people John meets in the game.
185	* OnlySaneMan: Along with John. In fact, he's one of the most decent people he works with.
186	* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:Sadly, he only appears in three missions, the last of which has him taking a bullet to the face.]] Then, in Undead Nightmare, [[spoiler:he's zombified before you even have a chance to meet him.]]
187	[[/folder]]
188
189	[[folder:Rufus]]
190	!!Rufus
191	The Marston family dog.
192	----
193	* AbsentAnimalCompanion: Rufus aids John and Jack in a few hunting missions [[spoiler:before disappearing once the army attacks the farm]].
194	* CanineCompanion: It serves as a hunting companion in a few missions with John and Jack.
195	* HeroesLoveDogs: The Marstons greatly adore Rufus.
196	* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:Rufus is last seen running away when the army attack Beecher's Hope and is nowhere to be seen once Jack is playable. Dialogue from Jack when he killed the dog implies that Rufus died, whether during the attack or due to other reasons in between 1911 and 1914. Regardless, Rufus's implied death only serves to fuel Jack's worsening despair and grief]]. The same goes for ''Undead Nightmare'' where he disappears after the first mission.
197	[[/folder]]

Context Characters / RedDeadRedemptionWestElizabeth