WMG / Red Dead Redemption 2

There is another fictional state in the Red Dead universe that doesn't appear in the game, the State of Lannahechee

• Since Lemoyne is equivalent to Louisiana, and St. Denis is equivalent to New Orleans, it can be inferred that the Lannahechee River is the equivalent of the Mississippi River. Therefore, there must be a corresponding state opposite Lemoyne. Since in the real world, that state is Mississippi, taking its name from the river, it can be assumed this state does too, and is called Lannahechee

Gavin is a dog

• The way Nigel describes him seems odd to describe a person. Maybe Gavin is a dog?
  • Didn't Nigel call Gavin an "Englishman"?

The game will be a prequel

• The game has buffalo, and in the previous game, only 20 buffalo were present. They all could be killed, didn't respawn, and you got an achievement for killing all of them.
  • Confirmed, as expected.
  • It is to be expected, since the last game ends on 1914 and the Wild West era has ended. Cowboy riding motor bikes, anyone?

Red Dead Revolver characters

• If it is a prequel, it's possible that we get to meet some of the characters of Red Dead Revolver.
  • How awesome would it be for Red Harlow to show up and kill at least one or more member of Dutch's gang? Red is canonically a bounty hunter, Dutch's gang canonically has a very high bounty on their heads and there are at least three missing members that John never get the chance to hunt down (One of whom being Morgan himself).

John Marston will be playable in the Epilogue

Morgan's almost guaranteed to not survive due to Foregone Conclusion, so when he dies, John takes over as the player character once again, just as Jack did for him in the first game.

• There are a number of ways that Morgan can easily survive the events of the game. He could have become a rat, and cut a deal with the US Government and gone into witness protection. Since Morgan came and betrayed his pals first, the Bureau went light on him, while choosing to make an example of John Marston. He could have faked his death, and taken a new identity after mysteriously disappearing.
• Does the timing work? I'm pretty sure R* wants to show us John's Heel–Face Turn, after which he leaves the gang to be with his family. He was away a lot, though.
• Rockstar never makes the same character playable twice (aside from Red Harlow in Redemption's multiplayer). Chances are John's going to be an NPC at best.
• Confirmed!

The game is a Prequel but it is also an Interquel

...Outside Xbox theorized this first but I think it's worth adding. The game is set in the period between John Marston exiting the gang and the events of the first game. So the game will have a prologue where we play as John and see him being abandoned by the gang as in the backstory of the first game. The rest of the game will show how Dutch van der Linde's gang went From Bad to Worse. The epilogue will have Arthur Morgan meeting Jack Marston, shortly after John's death, and then becoming an Evil Mentor to train him to get revenge on Edgar Ross.

• Jossed. Arthur dies long before John.

Arthur Morgan will be...

...Jack Marston's biological father. On account of Jack's mother being a prostitute who serviced multiple members of Dutch's gang, there is a good chance for Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe. As such the epilogue will have Jack Marston confronting Arthur Morgan who he considers the Greater-Scope Villain of his life. The man who brought John Marston and Abigail into a life of crime, who betrayed the gang by turning coat to Edgar Ross and telling them where to find John and his family, and finally he will tell Jack that in fact he is Jack's father to which Jack will kill him and declare "You may have been my father, but you ain't my daddy"

• Jossed. Arthur does act like a father to Jack, probably more than John since John has been away from him and Abigail, but he is not Jack's biological father. However, that's not too far from What Could Have Been, since Arthur is revealed to have had feelings for Abigail and had thoughts of marrying her once upon a time, but John had got to her first before Arthur could. So while John's away, Arthur fills in the father role and Jack calls him "Uncle Arthur." Also, Arthur was a father, at least once upon a time, to a child from a woman he met and visited them often. Until one day he sees two crosses outside their home and realizes they had gotten killed over money.

We see John's daughter's death.

The first game mentioned a second Marston kid that passed away before the game started, probably from natural causes. Whatever the cause, I have a feeling R* is going to put us through a Tear Jerker.

• Jossed. The Marston daughter is born sometime after 1907.

Morgan will be the one to leave Marston behind.

Redemption states that Marston left the gang after being left for dead during a botched robbery. Morgan will either abandon him for failing or tries to help him before escaping, but I'm pretty sure R* wants to make the player feel like an asshole. Another option could be that the extremely loyal Morgan severs his connections with Dutch for not showing the same loyalty to his men, resulting in a gang war that wipes Morgan out.

• Subverted. Arthur cares about John and his family more than anything at that point. It's Dutch and the others who refuse to look for him.

The line from the first trailer is spoken by Arthur to John Marston

"When the time comes, you gotta run and don't look back. This is over." Arthur, or alternatively someone else, is saying this to John Marston, shortly before the river boat incident where he is shot, as the speaker of said line fears something will go wrong and is warning Marston. "This is over" refers to how their gang is indeed coming to an end.

• Confirmed to an extent. That sentence is spoken by Arthur and become something of an arc word between John and Arthur.

Arthur Morgan is Landon Ricketts

Assuming he survives the game, he goes into hiding in Mexico and changes his name. It would explain why Landon is able to teach the Deadeye technique if he is a Player Character.

• As cool as it sounds, unless Arthur is much Older Than He Looks or started to melt between 2 & 1, the age difference between him and the others shouldn't be that big.
  • Plus, if Arthur was Landon, John surely would have recognized him.
  • In Redemption, John states that Landon was famous when he was still a kid, making this extremely unlikely.

• Jossed.

The game will explain John's arrival in the intro of the previous game

There was a lot of speculation over the opening cutscene where John arrives via ship, despite his residence being pretty near Blackwater. This game will explain what was up with that. Maybe he was sent to kill/capture Morgan overseas or in some other part of America.

• The leaked map, if real, actually fits this theory quite nicely. John was probably just taken to a nearby town across the Flat Iron lake.

The game will show us how John Marston got his facial scars

The third trailer for RDR2 shows us a glimpse of a younger John Marston at knifepoint◊. With some facial wounds (that will later become his trademark scars) sporting what appear to be a set of tied-off medical sutures, this suggests that the wounds - while looking as though they've somewhat scarred over by the point in time that headlock takes place - were made relatively recently; perhaps recently enough for the game to show us how he got them?

• Confirmed: He got mauled by a pack of wolves.

The Playable Epilogue will takes place in 1914 again

]]Since the game doesn't take place too long before the first RDR (as proven by the existence of telephone) and the fact that Morgan probably won't live past the ending, the epilogue will once again put the player in the shoes of Jack Marston in 1914. Perhaps with a few side missions to show how what becomes of him after killing Edgar Ross. There aren't that many improvements in the wild west between a few years before 1906 and 1914, so they can make the Time Skip without any major changes.

• Considering the fanbase's opinion of Jack, this seems unlikely. However, I posit an alternate theory; You play as Arthur (or some other surviving gangmember) in said year, and the game gives players access to the map of the previous game (Presuming that the leaked map is real, since it seems to stop to an invisible wall before Thieves Landing). This way R* wouldn't have to edit the existing locations to fit 1899, only rebuild them and lock them until you reach 1914. If the game comes to PC, this would also allow PC players to experience and explore the locations of the previous game without buying a console.

• Jossed. John, not Jack, is the playable character in the epilogue.

This game will establish Edgar Ross was driven by revenge

The sharp-dressed man in the third trailer is related to him, is his best friend or something along those lines, but dies because of Dutch's gang's actions. Ross decides to exact revenge to every member of the gang, explaining why he had no problems betraying John, and maybe even adding an extra reason for shooting Dutch's body. The law enforcement let him get away with his revenge scheme since they were wanted criminals responsible for the death of a bureau agent.

• Half-Jossed. That man in the trailer is indeed Ross's former colleague, but there is no indication that he and Ross are particularly close or that he is driven by revenge. They're also Pinkerton Detectives at this point, as the Bureau hasn't been established yet.

Morgan's beard will grow over time in regular gameplay

The previews imply that Rockstar is going for a very realistic portrayal of the wild west, such as more ways to interact with the world and people, and by making hunting more realistic. It'd make sense that Morgan, in addition to getting dirty over time, would slowly grow a beard or at least some stubble.

• Confirmed?
• Confirmed. You can grow your beard to a long and bushy length and shave it off anytime.

Peyote plants return from GTA V

Exactly What It Says on the Tin. They proved to be extremely popular, and the setting and the sheer amount of wildlife the wild west offers would allow different experiences than what GTA V offered. They would even fit the setting quite nicely.

• Jossed.

John helps Arthur to fake the latter's death

Stuff happens, and Arthur has to disappear. Marston, agreeing with Morgan about Dutch's sanity, fakes his death. Only John knows he's still alive, and never reveals this to the Bureau. Him pretending to kill Arthur would also give an extra reason why the gang dislikes him so heavily in 1911.

• Jossed.

Arthur outlives John, and trains Jack

I don't recall the "Landon Ricketts trained Jack" claim has ever been confirmed (of course, I could be wrong). Old Man Arthur decides to find John after the events of Redemption, only to find out that he's passed away. Morgan teaches Jack everything he knows, either out of kindness or to help him kill Ross.

• Jossed.

Arthur will have to kill Micah Bell

Or at the very least, the two will end up with a very intense rivalry that only ends when one of them dies. During one of the trailers, Micah (possibly someone else, if so just replace his name with theirs) says "Sons of Dutch. Makes us brothers. Sometimes, brothers make mistakes." That line seems very ominous, like it follows an intense argument over an issue that could cause a divide within the gang. Given his "wild and unpredictable nature," (if it is indeed Micah) it could be he killed someone that Arthur wanted to spare or did something else erratic and dangerous that put the whole gang in a hot spot. Maybe there's a rat in the gang, or it's speculated that there is one, and he kills someone who is revealed later to be innocent. Or perhaps it ends up that Micah is a turncoat for the government and is showing remorse for his actions when confronted.

• Partially confirmed. Micah is indeed a rat and Arthur does try to kill him, but his sickness cripples him too much to win the fight. It's a draw at best (high honor) and a loss at worst (low honor).

We will see the birth of John's daughter

Current previews have only shown Jack and Abigail with John, but she has to have been born during their gang days because Escuella has knowledge of her as seen in the first game (it's possible he or someone has kept tabs on John somehow and knows he had another child after leaving the gang, though that doesn't seem likely). Unless there's an epilogue of some sort (which is very possible), we might not get to see her die but we could get to see her birth. It may be painted as a happy moment, only for the players to know what comes later without actually showing it, or she could be very sickly from birth and it's depressing without showing us when she finally dies. But it seems like we'll see her be born during the story, unless she already has been and is very young, hence her absence from any trailers or promotional materials due to her limited role in the story.

It's also entirely possible that R* just forgot the little detail that John and Abigail also had a daughter, and she just won't appear because of that. Given their attention to detail though, this isn't likely, but it's always a possibility. What's more likely, if there is to be a retcon of any sort, is that she's born after John's gang days.

Alternatively, Javier was just speaking generally in RDR. After all, him saying "I hope your wife and children rot in Hell!" doesn't necessarily mean he knew of the daughter. It could be viewed as him wishing that on the family he knew about and any other children they might have or already have had without them actually existing or him having any knowledge of them. One of John's only mentions of her ("I had a daughter, but she died. Years before that I rode in a gang) could be interpreted as him saying she was born years after his gang days, but also died not long after her birth, perhaps even being stillborn.

• Jossed.

The "plot" of Red Dead Online

As with GTA Online, I expect the "plot" will be pretty threadbare and open-ended. My guess — it either takes place between Chapter VI and the Epliogue, with you as a new hire in Micah's gang, or after the Epilogue, with you as a new hire in Dutch's new gang.

• Jossed. The online component is set at least a year before the events of the single-player story.

DLC will focus on Charles and Sadie

Assuming there will be DLC, which isn't a given as GTA V never received any, it will focus on what adventures Charles and Sadie went on after the epilogue. We could see two separate DLC's, with one focusing on Charles in Canada (where it's also mentioned Rain Falls resides) and the other on Sadie in South America. This would be somewhat similar to GTA IV which had the Lost and Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony DLC'S. Alternatively, they could return in a third game.

If there is a Red Dead Redemption 3...

It would be another prequel and on the Playstation 5 and whatever comes after X Box One, this time showing the start of the Van der Linde gang, showing how a young Dutch and Hosea started off well and ended up like it did with this game and then the first one.

• There's really no time for them to go forward if they want to keep it as a western so another prequel is almost a given. The epilogue of the first game takes place in 1914 which is only 3 years before the US entered World War 1 (in which Jack almost certainly would have fought) and 15 years before the stock market crash that started the depression. World War 1 and its aftermath are really when the world became what we know it is today. Jack would have lived probably to the 1960s and could have made it to as late as the 80s or 90s. Unless you want to lose Jack's farm to the dust bowl or watch his kids ship off to fight in World War 2, there's really nowhere else to go but back.
  • It would be interesting to finally see the ferry heist job that went badly that the whole gang keeps talking about. That would serve as a good climax and the final shot would be of the gang heading into the mountains, kicking off the events of this game. The dust bowl actually could work for an epilogue- with Jack's farm being devastated as a result of the drought he ends up taking advantage of Prohibition by using the farmhouse to start making moonshine and gets involved with the Mafia as a result. Eventually he ends up getting picked up by the feds and is forced to rat out his associates, and after his numerous brushes with death, finally decides to become an author and put aside his life of bloodshed once and for all.
• Alternatively, you play as Edgar Ross, or anyone associated with him prior to the rise of the Van der Linde gang. And you get to see Ross' early days as a just, if not an idealistic person who genuinely wanted to bring laws and justice to the Wild West until his first encounter with the early Van der Linde gang. The story would be about his Start of Darkness, how he started to develop a deep grudge towards the Van der Linde gang, along with some kind of Black-and-White Insanity, eventually turning him into a morally corrupt, treacherous monster who only cares about his personal glory as we know today.

The sister we meet in the game is the Mother Superior we meet in Mexico in the first game.

• She even leaves for Mexico at one point.
• Confirmed.

John suffered brain damage sometime before the events of the original

Many people have pointed out the discrepancy of John's education between installments. In the original he had an impressive vocabulary despite being only semi-literate and was reliant on more educated people like Jack to read and write letters for him. However in the prequel John finds Arthur's journal, seems to have read most of it, and starts adding entries that are just as elegant as Arthur's and even sketches in it despite showing no artistic tendencies in the original. Many think was either oversight or a retcon, though its quite possible John had some sort of brain injury that set back his literacy and artistic skill. Given his old line of work and new life as a rancher and occasional bounty hunter a brain injury wouldn't be far fetched.

Arthur is an ancestor of Nathan Drake of Uncharted fame and the two series take place in the same universe.

Both are snarky adventurers orphans from rough childhoods who struggle to put their criminal pasts behind them and settle down to live a normal life with a normal family. Maybe it's Inthe Blood? Maybe Arthur had another kid who lived to be an adult at some point, maybe his kid never died, or maybe he had a brother we never learned about. There's another reason this would make sense. Why you may ask? Nathan Drake's real name is Nathan Morgan.

• This is a very interesting theory that would be really cool if this were to be true. Both Arthur and Nate have the same last names, and like you stated, they both have had similar lives and personalities. They both can single-handedly take out entire groups and villages of people. They both keep a journal with a passion for writing and drawing and are very talented at sketching things. They both have a knack for discovering new things and locating treasures or artifacts. They also share the same facial structure. Arthur also looks a lot like Nate in both the photo of him and Mary and the photo of him with Dutch and Hosea when they were younger. Most likely if Arthur were Nate's ancestor, then he had gotten his tough and wise-cracking mannerisms, his characteristics and good looks from Arthur. Although Uncharted and Red Dead Redemption take place in different universes, this makes a really good headcanon.
  • Oh, and let's not forget the fact that both Arthur and Nate have a mustachioed, well-dressed father figure that had helped raised them ever since they were pre-adolescents. Their father figures teach them everything they know and helped them become the skilled thieves they are.

Agent Milton was lying about Micah being a rat, it really was Molly all along

Think about it, what possible reason would Milton have to be truthful to Arthur? It's much more likely that Milton lied to Arthur in order to sow doubt amongst the gang and cause them to fight one another on the off-chance that he managed to escape from Milton's clutches. The Gang gets in trouble since Blackwater. From there on out there are alway heist and robberies in which the law shows up way too fast and way too organized. The Blackwater Ferry Job, the train heist in valentine, the bank in Saint Denis etc. Now at first I thought yeah the time in which the gang has trouble and the time since Micah joined match almost perfectly and it would be easy to explain from a writing perspecitve if Micah was the traitor. This and his personality about him would make an excellent traitor figure. Well there is a little problem, maybe my point is about nothing then call me out on my mistake but what is with Molly and Milton You see Milton claims that Molly wasnt the traitor, yet Micah sold them out instantly. This doesnt work. He claims they picked him up as a rat right after Guarma. This Claim does not work because the gang was probably betrayed all the way back since blackwater. In the Valentine train heist and the Saint Denis bank job the gang even mentioned that someone must have sold them out. The writers obviously want us to know there is a traitor. This traitor cant be Micah because Milton said he was only AFTER Guarma turned to a rat. Ofc you could say that he lied, but why?.There was no way that Milton could be sure that the gang is finished after the raid in Beaver Hollow, they escaped him too often for that. Truth be told the Van Der Linde Gang didn't even stop existing because Dutch just was an outlaw after all. Yet Milton revealed his "rat". This is a dangerous bet. If Micah was the rat and the law acted before Guarma without intel from the inside, it was mostly luck, so this would be a very, VERY dangerous bet for Milton to reveal his trump card. Also luck is just not a satisfying explanation for the laws accuracy. No there had to be a traitor in there. So if this traitor was Micah and Milton told it anyway despite this risk of loosing his trumpcard, why would he lie about the fact Micah was a traitor only after guarma. This also makes ZERO sense. So this also is probably false, since Milton would have no reason to add the false information of the duration of Micahs traitorship.Lets look at Molly: 1. She always is stirred up by something and needs to talk to Dutch but she is neglected every time. So she feels ignored, there is our motive. 2. She claims to be the traitor while being in rage. This makes sense either way, if she is the traitor or if she just wants to anger Dutch. 3. She had the time. The Gang could be betrayed by her since Blackwater, it would fit in the timeline, maybe she wanted to enable Dutch and herself a peaceful life. And here is another big argument. Milton had no reason to claim that Micah was the rat if he WAS the traitor, but if not Micah is the traitor this claim is a strategic move. By claiming a false traitor in their ranks, Milton created inside conflict. Also, this would ensure the safety of his true rat( which was dead at this point, cant remember if he could have known this but probably since no one came to report anymore he knew anyway. But this changes nothing because inside conflict would be good in any case). You see Milton is the main problem here, because the Micah=traitor claim makes no sense. Only works logically if Milton is so full of himself that he just did it anyway, but since he is a professional that failed more than often at his task, I just cant believe this far too easy solution. All of Micahs actions still make sense even if he is not the traitor, he still dislikes Arthur who now calls him a traitor.If Micah is still "loyal", he just sees Arthur making false claims, his ruthlessness lead to the conflict at the end. Of course he manipulates Dutch, yeah in a way this is betrayal. But he's not the Pinkerton rat. Almost all of Micahs plans fail in the game for example the deal with the O'Driscolls. But Milton claimed he wasn't the traitor back then. Now one could wonder why Milton tried to convert Arthur to his cause in Horseshoe, but since the Pinkertons were paid very well, he maybe tried to get any traitor he COULD get, the more the better. Even if Micah is the traitor that the writers intended, this has many logic problems. This problems just vanish if not Micah is the traior, but Molly.

Alternatively to the above There was no rat.

The Gang was being chased by the law from the start of the game because of the Blackwater Job. All they had to do was keep a low profile (or at least as low of a profile as you can with a gang that big) and then maybe get the money depending on if things cool down. Unfortunately, due to Dutch's ambition and finding the O'Driscoll plans, they decide to rob the train owned by Cornwall. Cornwall is an insanely wealthy man with limitless resources at his disposal. With the law and Pinkerton's after them, it was only a matter of time before they were found, which they were as shown when Arthur takes Jack fishing. Now here's the thing, Dutch constantly claims they need to keep a low profile, yet whenever they move, Dutch inevitably gets them in one harebrained scheme or another that ends up bringing more and more attention to themselves until it reaches its peak during the St. Denis bank robbery. From then on they are constantly being chased by lawmen wherever they go. With so many high profile crimes being committed, there was no way they could sustain their way of life, and the law would have gotten them, rat or no rat.

• Arthur actually brought this up after Molly's death; the constant chaos and mayhem the gang caused everywhere they went made them predictable and Milton and Ross guessed where their next score would be. To add to that, it is entirely possible that Milton got an inkling to the gang's waning faith in Dutch and possible base camp from interrogating Strauss; Charles claims that Strauss did not tell them anything but that doesn't mean Milton could not have picked up on anything. Strauss was kicked out for a reason after all and he could only have been found in or around Roanoke Ridge, so the Pinkertons would have known the gang's general location. Milton probably figured one more push and the gang would be finished, so he lied to Arthur about turning Micah so as to cause the gang to implode right as his men struck their camp. The problem was the operation ended up only being a partial success due to the majority of the gang escaping and Milton getting killed by Abigail. Even though the rest of the old gang, including Dutch, would cause further trouble down the line, the Van Der Linde Gang was for all intents and purposes dissolved, and after the chaos of the last few months that was good enough for the time being.

Mexico and Landon Ricketts return in a story DLC

• Instead of being part of the main game, the DLC will be a separate, Undead Nightmare-like campaign where the player takes control of Landon Ricketts in the aftermath of the Blackwater massacre; this is the reason why Mexico is recreated so accurately. The reason it'll be a separate campaign with a new protagonist is to avoid problems with established canon, as Morgan never had a reason to visit the country. ^{Note (spoilers)}And John likely never went there before 1911.

There will be a secret update or free DLC that adds a new ending to the game

As noted by some YouTubers, Arthur is depicted as being in New Austin in the trailer despite never getting there in-game. Not only that, but he also has unique dialogue in New Austin if the player glitches him there. It is highly possible that there was supposed to be another ending where Arthur lives and the epilogue is played as him instead of John, but it was cut out or not finished in time. Considering that the content is finished enough to be in the trailer, it's unlikely that Rockstar will let it go to waste.

• Another explanation could be that Rockstar is planning some sort of sandbox mode in which you can go to NA as Arthur without playing the story.

Saint-Denis will be renamed New Bordeaux at some point in the near future

If you listen carefully, one of the gang's campfire songs refers to a town called "New Bordeaux". Perhaps that's already a widely-used nickname for Saint-Denis, or for the surrounding parish it will later be consolidated with. By modern times, it will have been renamed and be better known as New Bordeaux.

• Saint Denis was originally named New Bordeaux (hence the song); the name can be seen in some of the pre-release screenshots and the leaked 2016 map. It was likely changed to avoid the connection.

If the first game is ever remastered, it will have some sort of alternate ending

It's easy to feel somber playing the second game knowing that despite Arthur's best efforts, his wish for John and his family to live a happy life won't last beyond 1911. Taking this into account, Red Dead Redemption Remastered may have some criteria (100% completion, maximum Honor, New Game Plus bonus, etc.) that will allow for an ending where as John is about to leave the barn and make his last stand, Ross and the army get flanked by a surprise arrival by Sadie, Charles, and/or perhaps even an undead Arthur Morgan. It wouldn't have to be a canon ending, but just a way to provide some satisfaction to players who would feel unmotivated without any way to avoid what they know is coming.

Both plots of RDR 2 and RDR were instigated by a deal Dutch struck with the Strange Man in the past

Both of the central themes regarding them revolve around the inability to fight one’s inner nature, though in the latter’s case he’s only out to reveal What You Are in the Dark . As such, sometime before the events of RDR 2, something happened to Dutch that drew the Strange Man to him, and he gave Dutch a choice. Perhaps something akin to a path to justice for a slain loved one or righteous vengeance upon their killer.

The cut love interest was [[spoiler: his baby mama, Eliza.

R* confirmed that one of the last things cut out of the story was about five hours of second love interest that they decided didn’t work. Second means it wasn’t some more of Mary that got cut. There aren’t really many other suspects it could be. Sadie’s husband had just died, she had just been gang raped for three days, and she’s not even remarried in the epilogue. Abigail doesn’t seem to have had feelings for anyone but John. He and Arthur had their differences but sleeping with her seems a little overtly malicious. Mary-Beth seems to have a bit of a crush on him but he sees her and the rest of the girls as little sisters. Charlotte also had just been widowed.

By the time the events of the game happen, he’s a little too stuck in his self-loathing to even sleep with anyone, let alone invest in a new relationship that would take five hours of gameplay. He also spends a significant chunk of the game thinking he’s got another chance with Mary now that she’s widowed and then another chunk actively planning for them to get married once he can save some money and tie up some loose ends after her dad pushes things too far with her. He’s head over heels for her so why would he actively mess up that second chance by getting with someone else? By the time she sends him the letter with the ring ending things for good, he's sick.

This is why it seems like the cut love interest was Eliza. There was the shot in one of the last trailers of him walking away from two graves that wasn’t in the game [1]◊. Those graves are almost certainly hers and their son Isaac’s since that's how he describes it to Rains Falls. Since it was in such a late trailer, it would make sense if it was from something that got cut out at the eleventh hour.

It was probably a flashback that R* decided bogged down the story (5 hours is 1/12th of the story of the finished product) and that it would be more impactful left to your imagination.

Whenever R* decides to come back to the series, you will play as Mac Callander in the third game

As stated above, there's really nowhere else the timeline can go but back so the third game is almost certain to be another prequel. It seems like they were a little more conscientious about not backing themselves into a Forgotten Fallen Friend/ Remember the New Guy? corner than they had in I. Davey and Mac get talked about a lot and seem to have been active members of the gang that had been with them for quite some time. There's also apparently some cut dialogue explaining more about what happened to Mac. It'd make sense for them to finally show the infamous Blackwater heist that doomed the gang, they've slowly been giving it more context. We can finally see if it was actually a set up and the circumstances around Dutch killing Heidi McCourt which is arguably the Plot-Triggering Death of the entire series. We will also get more context about Dutch's declining mental state.

Davey is also another candidate or it might be another GTA style multiple playable characters but Mac seems more likely than his brother for the protagonist. Davey dies with the gang but we never even figured out exactly what happens to him. Milton is a liar anyway. The final mission of the main story will probably be the actual Blackwater heist and the epilogue with him and the Pinkertons where somehow you pick up as Arthur. His grave is notably the only fallen member of the gang's you can't find.

The villain in the third game will have a 5 letter first name and a 4 letter last name and will be killed in the epilogue

The third game will feature Jack Marston as an outlaw during the prohibition era.

Late 1910s-1920s America is a cool setting that has never been explored much in video games. It'll be the perfect opportunity to explore the contrast between the old style western outlaws and the new style mobsters.

If there's a RDR 1 remaster on II's engine...

The dialogue will be adjusted to match II's events more accurately, and as Charles is mentioned as an active member on the 1907 newspapers, there's a new plot thread of John having to hunt him down as well. The ultimate Player Punch, being forced to hunt down the man who in-game is presented as the best friend of both Arthur and John, and who helped build Beecher's Hope.

• Unlikely, given that Charles leaves for Canada after the event of the epilogue. John might be able to act freely in Mexico because the country is in the middle of a civil war, but it's unlikely he will be able to do the same in Canada. Plus, it's unlikely that Ross and the Bureau can even know where he is. John is found because he doesn't skip town after the whole business with Dutch and Micah in 1907. Bill, Javier, and Dutch are found because they stay active up until the event of the first game. Charles, meanwhile, skip town to Canada and is never heard from again.
• Alternatively, Sadie will be hunted down instead of or alongside Charles. She would have become a wanted outlaw again and her past connection with the gang (possibly through a Siska guard or soldier) will come to light. Despite how far she's fallen, she will still be hurt that her old friend has betrayed her.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is not set in the same universe as Red Dead Redemption 1

It's set in the same alternative universe as Undead Nightmare instead. The first game's one and only possibly supernatural element is the Strange Man. The second game, meanwhile, has full-on ghosts and UFOs. This would explain some discrepancies between 1 and 2, like how John has a daughter that Javier knows about in the first game but never has one in the prequel. It's possible that the undead DLC for RDR 2 will be canon to the game and not just a What-if scenario like the one fr RDR 1.

John's comments about the gang in the first game were Metaphorically True

As others have noted the way John describes the Van der Linde gang in the first game doesn't always match with what was seen in the sequel/prequel. This could the way John rationalizes the complex feelings of loyalty and betrayal he has for the gang and its various members

For John 'Dutch's gang' is Dutch, Bill, Javier, and Micah. The ones who sided with Dutch at the very end at Beaver Hollow, the ones who remained loyal to Dutch even though Dutch's true colors were made clear. And he considers Dutch leaving him for dead/capture during the train heist to be the final betrayal.

Meanwhile, John probably has fond memories of the surrogate family that raised him (Hosea, Arthur, Miss Grimshaw), the friends he lost along the way (like Lenny and Sean), and the companions that helped him escape the outlaw life (Charles, Sadie, and again, Arthur). Those are the people he loved and probably remembers fondly and/or sees them in the same way he seems himself, misguided fools who believed in Dutch's ideology before it became obvious the kind of person Dutch Van Der Linde truly was.

So from John's point of view Dutch's gang did betray him. But John just has a narrower view of who Dutch's gang consisted of.

• So what you’re saying is that John followed Blind Man Cassidy’s advice/prophecy? (Embrace those who love you, not the memory of those who pretended to.)

Randall Forrester (the Serial Killer of the first game) is the last surviving member of the Murfree Brood

Given the fact that this man operates alone and commits exactly the same crimes of the Murfrees (torture, murder and cannibalism), it's safe to say that he was a member of this gang.

The main story of the game was recorded for posterity by Mary-Beth

Like the WMG for the first game that posits that the storyline of that game is actually a novel being written by Jack Marston, this WMG supposes that the story the player plays through is a novel being written by Mary-Beth to honor Arthur's memory. As for how she filled in the details, she would likely have interviewed surviving gang members like John, and John could also have sent her Arthur's journal or a copy thereof.

Red Dead Online is a dime novel set within the world of the game

Compared to the singleplayer's storyline, Red Dead Online has a much more basic, dramatic and cliché approach to the western tropes of the game, being more about a revenge story against the man who put you in jail and did some very bad things to the people you work for. The detachment from the singleplayer storyline's events also seem to hint at this, with the fact that most singleplayer characters you meet are by now dead or missing in the "real world", but not without having left a somewhat of an infamous history behind them that would get worked into such novels back at the time (such as Sean, Sadie, Flaco and Black Belle).This also would explain the faster movement, the tacky and bizarre clothing and the ability of your character to have Dead-Eye, which could've been influenced by Arthur Morgan and John Marson's legendary statuses within the world of Red Dead Redemption 2. But most of all, it also would explain why the Moonshiners DLC's story was so damn corny.

Bill participated in the Wounded Knee Massacre

It's mentioned several times that he was in the cavalry and he would had plenty of time to have joined the army (he was born in 1866, so he would've been 24 in 1890). This would explain his PTSD and why he seemingly hates the Native Americans, but gets along decently with Charles and even has a man that appears to be Native American apart of his gang in 1911 (the gang member who shoots John in the abdomen).

Hosea or another member of the gang gave Arthur TB.

A common criticism of RDR 2 is that Arthur displays symptoms of TB way too quickly after allegedly being exposed to it by Downes, as the disease usually takes years before someone shows signs. Yet, as early as chapter 1, Hosea is shown to be coughing up a lung, and a few members of the game hint that he’s dying. While there are a number of diseases he could have had, it seems plausible that at some point he (or at least someone else) accidentally gave it to him before the events of the game.

• Gonna go ahead and say jossed. Whenever people complain about how quickly he started showing symptoms of the disease, they seem to ignore the fact that there's nothing "usual" about Arthur Morgan; his lifestyle meant there was a much higher chance of his TB activating, even so soon after he got it, as versus the average man (only about 5 to 10% of people with latent TB will develop active TB, and about half of those will do so within the first two years of infection). His life has been extremely stressful and 1899 is a particularly difficult year for the gang; high levels of stress make it more likely for latent TB to progress into the active disease and reduces your chances of recovery. Even if the player doesn't make him, Arthur canonically drinks a lot and smokes like a chimney — another two risk factors. Then there's the fact he was tortured by the O'Driscolls and relatively shortly thereafter washed up on the shore of Guarma (both resulting in varying levels of physical trauma, yet another risk factor), after which he collapsed in Saint Denis and got his diagnosis. Game Theory made a video about tuberculosis, both Arthur's experience with it and the disease in real life, that goes more in depth and is definitely worth taking a look at, particularly if you have doubts about the timeframe of Arthur's TB: [2] Also, who's to say that whatever was wrong with Hosea's respiratory system was contagious? And even if it was, it's doubtful only Arthur would be unlucky enough to catch it, never mind die from it within just a few months.

Micah is suffering from tuberculosis in the epilogue

Given that Micah and Arthur get into a close-range fight at the end of Chapter 6, there's a good chance that Arthur would've given TB to Micah. It would certainly explain why Micah looks so thin and haggard in the epilogue.

• That "thin and haggard" look is probably just age combined with the physical consequences of a life on the run.

Arthur is on the autism spectrum, and might be a savant.

Several characters (especially Dutch and Hosea) either imply or outright say that Arthur is kind of stupid, and he tends to think of himself as a dumb brute. However, it should be clear to players that Arthur is actually extremely intelligent. If he's on the autism spectrum and has trouble with social cues or expressing himself verbally then that would explain why others think he's dumb when he's clearly not.

• This also explains the awkward "Alright, I'll catch you later then!" interactions.

Additionally, he might have savant syndrome related to his being a One-Man Army capable of surviving overwhelming odds in a firefight. One of the five major areas where savants excel is in spacial skills, and if Arthur's spacial awareness was heightened compared a normal person then it might explain his Improbable Aiming Skills and ability to use Bullet Time.

John got attacked by wolves on the mountain because he was attempting to leave the playable area.

The wolves are the Border Patrol for the first chapter, at least for John.

Dutch killed Micah's father and Micah plotted from the start to weaken and destroy the gang in revenge.

Adding on to the above theory, Micah's pistols were passed down to him from his father

Micah betrayed the Gang after they arrived at Beaver Hallow

Molly's death clued him in that the Gang was going to crap and it's best to cut loose and make a deal with Milton.

In a future movie/television adaptation, Micah will not be the mole

Due to it being an obvious and well-known twist and rather poorly written. Either there will be no mole in the gang or another member ratted them out.

The Lemoyne Raider who committed suicide at Shady Belle haunted Dutch and drove him mad

The book "Red Dead Redemption" was written by Mary-Beth under the pen name "J. Marston"

Red Dead Redemption 3's main protagonist will be a woman or a member of a racial minority

Francis Sinclair is responsible for some of the odder points of interest ("POI")

Someone once told me that Sinclair's method of time travel is a reference to a Sci-Fi show (and if anyone knows the name, help me out since I forget it) where you need to see an image of where you want to travel, hence why Sinclair needs the rock carvings. One of those carvings depicts Sinclair walking through a portal alongside the Great Sphinx, a viking longship and a meteor, so presumably he's been to all these places. Thus, it's probably not a coincidence that we have several meteor POI's, a possible Egyptian POI (see below) and two viking POI's, the last of which are actually REALLY out of place—IRL Vikings DID find North America, but that was Northeastern Canada, not the US Southwest.

Basically, I think that when Sinclair came through a portal into 1899, he didn't come alone and his "friends" were scattered across time but not space, hence why some of these POI's seem so old. Other than the meteors and vikings, it's just conjecture if any of the other POI's are a result of Sinclair's time hopping, but possibilities off the top of my head:

• The whale bones (found nowhere near the water, let alone the ocean)
• The strange statues (the central statue is a woman's head on a bird's body. It's often called a harpy (Greek mythology) but it might actually be a sphinx (Egyptian mythology). As noted above, Francis HAS been to Egypt))
• The frozen conquistador on the mountaintop (admittedly a bit more believable than some of the others that he got there without Sinclair's help, but still a bit out of time and place)
• The wrecked pirate ship (Caribbean Pirates are far from home, but not THAT far, so Sinclair could be the Watsonian explanation. Personally, though, I lean more towards the Doylist explanation: that a dev was upset they were cutting so much out of Guarma after it was already done and just threw some of the assets into the main map so they wouldn't go to waste, logic be damned).
• The UFO's (another carving depicts Francis visiting what looks to be the future.)

Uncle's slept with Abigail

Uncle was the one who introduced Abigail to the gang, back when she was a prostitute. Knowing Uncle, he damn well may have met her on a "professional" basis. Which would also explain some of her disdain for him later on, since she may well think that he might one day try to hold that against her.

Bray and Tammy Aberdeen aren't related

They just have a very intense incest fetish.

Sadie was eventually killed by Cleet's son/daughter

Sadie was killed by Jack Marston

As Misplaced Retribution for leading the raid on Micah's hideout that led to his father's death.

Black Belle was eventually killed by her son/daughter

Colm personally raped Sadie at her cabin

He happened to be at Colter at the same time, he's already established to be a rapist and Sadie knows who he is and violently despises him.

Agent Milton was related to Heidi McCourt

Possibly as her brother, uncle, cousin or fiancé. His vendetta against the Van der Linde gang was personal and drove him to extremes to destroy them.

Micah snitched to the Pinkertons in a short-lived effort to redeem himself

Realising that the gang was doing nothing but spreading pain, murder and destruction everywhere they went, he decided to help the Pinkertons bring them down. His redemption didn’t stick, obviously.

Sadie was Driven to Suicide after hearing about John’s death

Due to blaming herself for leading the FBI to him.

Sadie was captured by the FBI, forced to hunt Bill, Javier and Dutch and failed miserably

The FBI promised her and the Marstons amnesty if she helped them. When she found Bill, she tried the “Bill, you son of a bitch! Get down here or-(BLAM!)” method of negotiation and got her brains blown over the dirt road.

• Alternatively, she was caught by the FBI, but killed herself in custody to avoid being used against the Marstons. Or was tortured to death in custody.

Pearson added flesh from Davey's corpse into the stew he fed the gang in Colter.

Bill was originally written to fill Micah's role

Before the writers realised Bill was too stupid to be a convincing or engaging traitor.

Alternatively, Javier was originally written with Micah's role

He was originally described as a creep who would've sold out the gang if it benefitted them, a character description given to Micah in 2, it was likely that R* reworked it due to it being predictable to those who played the first game.

• Or because making the only Latino gang member a sleazy unwelcome traitor and spy doesn't reflect well with current politics.

John's daughter was stillborn

Charles turned Arthur's corpse in for his bounty; his grave is empty

Mary and/or Jamie murdered their father

Strauss faked his death

Believing Arthur and the gang may come after him to silence him or further punish him, he elaborately fabricated a story about being captured by Pinkertons and nobly dying without snitching before fleeing further north or back to Austria. He may also have turned rat to the Pinkertons in revenge for Arthur banishing him.

Sadie's horse Bob was previously owned by Dutch or Hosea and given to her as a gift

She certainly can’t afford him and it’s unlikely such a fine horse was just rode through a hayseed town like Rhodes.

Sadie was an outlaw before she settled down with Jake

She takes to the outlaw life like a duck to water, she’s highly aggressive and violent and is chronologically introduced carrying a rifle and threatening. She may have run with some outlaws before she settled down with Jake. O’Driscolls didn’t know what Hell they unleashed.

Sadie was abused as a child

Even before Jake’s death she was aggressive and untrustworthy, as though she was used to being beaten on in the past.

Arthur went down in history as "Black Lung Morgan"

His Low Honor version may go down as "the Coyote".

There was more than one rat, and neither of them was Micah

Milton claims that Micah only started informing on the gang after he got back from Guarma, however the gang's troubles go all the way back to before the game even started, with Dutch heavily implying that Blackwater seemed like a setup. Later on, the train job put together by John is also ambushed by the law and it's confirmed via newspapers that the law were tipped off. Arthur and John obviously aren't the rats, and Charles would be unlikely do so either, so who does that leave? None other than Sean MacGuire.

After the Blackwater job goes sour, Sean and Mac get separated from the gang. Milton says that Mac was gravely wounded in the ensuing chaos and eventually killed when the Pinkertons caught up to him. Sean, who has been shown to be lacking in shooting skills, somehow manages to survive despite being separated from the group. He does end up captured, although that can be explained away as two things. Since it was a group of bounty hunters, it's possible they captured him without realizing the person they just caught was actually working for the government. Second, the Pinkertons and Sean may have worked out a deal with Ike Skelding's group, where they would use Sean as bait to lure in the gang.

The train job was initially supposed to just be Arthur, John and Charles. Sean ends up catching wind of it and talks Arthur into allowing him to participate. This job happens (or at least, CAN happen) before Micah is even back in camp, so it's impossible for him to have been the rat in this instance. As previously stated, it's confirmed that the law was tipped off to this job, so someone had to be an informant. In his later companion activity, Sean also denies having told the bounty hunters anything, nearly unprovoked. Granted, prior to this Arthur brought up his penchant for being knocked out at jobs, so Sean was likely getting ahead of it in the event Arthur had suspicions. The fact that he kept getting "knocked out" at these jobs just adds more fuel to the theory though.

Later on in the story, the bank job in Saint Denis seems to have also been a setup. By this point in the story, Sean obviously couldn't have had any part in that due to his demise happening long before the heist is even thought of. So who could have done it? Well, that's where the second rat comes in: Karen Jones. After Sean's demise, Karen begins drinking heavily, and throughout the remainder of the story Karen's decline is noted by several characters. After the camp is attacked by O'Driscolls, couple with Sean's death, Karen may have finally had enough and decided to turn on the gang herself out of fear for her own life.

In addition to the change in character following Sean's death, Karen is also notably absent from the camp not long before the end of Arthur's story. Her disappearance from Beaver Hollow before the Pinkertons descend upon it is easy to chalk up to her abandoning the gang like a few others did around the same time, except for one key fact. This isn't her first time being absent right before the camp was attacked: Karen is one of the few people missing when the gang are tracked down in Lakay.

As for why Milton would lie about Micah being the rat, it's possible he was trying to sew further dissent in the event Arthur, Sadie or Abigail were able to get back to the gang. If that's the case, it sure did work.

Mary-Beth was the rat

Rockstar describes MB as "A kind, good-natured young woman, which makes her the perfect criminal. By the time people realize they’ve been duped, Mary-Beth is already on her way home with the money." Not a very shining display of moral character there.

In Chapter 2, Charles, John, Arthur and Sean take part in a train robbery in the middle of nowhere, when lawmen swiftly show up. The only ones who knew about the train job were the four robbers, Uncle and Mary-Beth, who was the one who found the tip in the first place.

It's possible that instead of cowardice or greed, or in addition to those motives, Mary-Beth turned on the gang out of remorse for all the senseless murders they commit. Mary-Beth calls out Arthur for not helping the man with the stagecoach and is disturbed when he further threatens him, showing a distaste for his ruthlessness. Mary-Beth is also one of the only gang members to treat Kieran decently, and is heartbroken by his death while the rest of the gang dismissed him. Her talk to Arthur in "No, No and Thrice, No" about how the gang took her in is also a little awkward sounding as though she was laying it on thick.

Mary-Beth, Karen, Jack, Trelawny and Molly are the only members absent from camp during the Lakay shootout. Trelawny is usually away from camp to visit his family or run some scam. Molly was out drinking and considering Karen's alcoholism at that point, she probably was too. That leaves Mary-Beth and Jack. Mary-Beth could have tagged along drinking with Karen or took Jack out shopping so he won't be hurt in the shootout. Mary-Beth's defence of Molly after her death could be out of guilt and/or a case of Propping Up Their Patsy. Mary-Beth also leaves the gang right before the Pinkertons kidnap Jack and storm the camp.

Bonus theory:

Mary-Beth killed Karen

Karen followed Mary-Beth and saw her talking with the Pinkertons. To stop her from talking, Mary-Beth killed her and buried the body. She deserted the gang shortly after to avoid suspicion in case they notice her showing signs of guilt over murdering her friend. Dutch mentions that while he knows that Uncle and Pearson left the camp and told Tilly why, he only "thinks" Mary-Beth left as well, meaning she may not have spoken to Tilly or may not even have returned to camp after killing Karen.

Sadie was originally written as a child or a teenager

That’s why she was such an impulsive, temperamental brat. That’s why she was so heavily influenced into violence by the gang. That’s why she has no romance with anyone in the gang. That’s why her mistakes and flaws are so quickly forgiven and glossed over by both the gang and the game. She was just a horribly traumatised child who lost everything and everyone she loved and attached herself to the worst people possible afterwards.

Also worth noting is the game files mention something about an Adler Family Ranch, implying Sadie’s parents were killed rather than her husband.

Mac actually survived

Milton was just saying they killed him because he was trying to provoke Arthur, either into attacking him then and there or going back to Dutch to plan some kind of revenge mission. If he turns out to be the protagonist of Red Dead Redemption 3 as some are speculating, his fate will be a case of Bait-and-Switch, where everyone is expecting him to continue the tradition of a protagonist dying, but it will turn out he simply fled from the gang. Perhaps he initially tried to lay low for a bit, then tried to catch up with the gang, only to discover that his brother had died, which resulted in him deciding to abandon the group.

Arthur died of tuberculosis at the end of "My Last Boy"; the rest of the game and RDR 1 was a Dying Dream

This sounds like your run-of-the-mill Dying Dream theory, and probably has to ignore all the side missions that could be completed.

Firstly, Arthur collapses somewhere in the mountains near the Wapiti reservation, but when the German family find him, he ends up in Annesburg. A very large distance to cover, and a pretty unsuitable area especially considering Arthur is likely wanted there.

So Arthur has a fever dream after he collapses. He takes part in a train heist, imagines Micah as the rat, has an epic battle with him. He gets to wrap everything up, save the Marstons, have Micah die and makes a few depressing predictions on John and Jack.

In real life, Arthur succumbs to tuberculosis and dies after about 20 minutes. Maybe Charles and the natives find him and bury him somewhere nice. The Marstons ditch the gang and Dutch, Micah and Sadie continue to rob and kill for a few years before the Pinkertons kill them all.

Sadie Adler is a twisted take on Irene Adler.

Names aside, in the original story that introduced Irene, she was a simple civilian woman who suddenly found herself committing risky criminal acts for the sake of her love and ended up proving herself a rare talent in that field, to the point of impressing the protagonist. Of course, there are some...considerable differences between her and Sadie's stories, mostly for the worst in Sadie's case.

Jamie isn't Mary's brother; he's her and Arthur's son

Link here.

The reason Uncle is so bitter in the first game is because of the death of the Marston Daughter.

Maybe Uncle and John both think that he caused it? Would explain why the relationship is more strained.

Sean killed Gavin.

Sean Killed Gavin. Hear me out.

One of the few things we know about Gavin is that he has an English accent.

In one campfire talk, Sean can claim to have killed someone with an English accent just to not have to hear it anymore. There's a lengthy pause before he insists that he's joking, and he *loves* the English. But Sean's a pretty unreliable narrator, so it's up for debate whether he did or not.

I say he did. And that Englishman was Gavin.

Molly thought she was the mole.

She was picked up by the Pinkertons, and told them as much as she could, but her status as the resident mooch meant she didn't know anything and was useless as an informant. So they had to go with Micah next.

Nobody told the Pinkertons the gang was hiding in Lacay.

They found the letter to Dear Uncle Tacitus and put two and two together. They only waited for Dutch to show up to encroach.