History Headscratchers / RedDeadRedemption

*** If you are [[RatedMForManly knife fighting wolves]], John yells out "How do you think I got these scars?!" I've taken this to either mean he was attacked by a wolf, or got the scars in a knife fight.

** Why would Allende give two shits that America wants Bill Williamson behind bars? He probably had no idea who Bill was initially, other than he was some tough looking renegade Yankee who could hold a gun. The fact that America wanted him behind bars probably didn't phase him in the slightest, and it didn't hurt that he was actually ''winning'' the war against the rebels. It wasn't until John Marston entered Mexico, demanding Bill Williamson, and working for the rebels (and securing victories with them) that Allende kinda saw what was coming and attempted to have Marston killed. Of course, this probably also delves into WhatAnIdiot for him, because Marston didn't exactly come to Mexico to fight a war. All Allende had to do was give Williamson to Marston during their first meeting, tell him to go away with Williamson and Allende could've still likely won.

* [[spoiler: The problem I had with Ross was the fact that he went back on his word of letting John live his life with his family in peace and sent an entire company of U.S soldiers to kill him. Sure Ross says that the ways of the Wild West and all the chaos it produced needs to be removed and anyone who once caused such chaos needs to go too but John by the time Ross comes after him is totally reformed and is now a peaceful rancher who only needs his family and hard work to live a meaningful life, John's gunslinging days are behind him. Also Ross using the argument that everyone eventually pays for what they have done and John needs to pay for what he did during his criminal past is contradicted by him promising John a pardon from his crimes. And all of this for what, just so Ross can take the credit for taking down Dutch and Williamson when John did that? Ross is a lying, cheating, glory-hogging, degenerate son of a bitch.]]

*** [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Which is the entire point of his character.]] Ross believes that John is nothing more than a no good outlaw, no matter what he does or says. And that all his past actions makes him irredeemable.
*** I understand that Ross isn't supposed to be a trustworthy character, the fact that he kidnaps John's family is proof enough of that, I just found it despicable that he condemns the Wild West and the kind of men like John Marston that it produced and preaching that civilization is the only viable alternative to the hell that is the Wild West when he commits actions that you would expect out of an outlaw. Surely Ross sees the hypocrisy of committing criminal deeds as an ends justifies the needs method of achieving civilization, gunning down bandits, or generally just people that refuse to listen to the government, and blackmailing all to produce civilization. It's the hypocrisy of Edgar Ross's character that sickens me, "Everyone pays for what they have done in time, even you John.", the irony of the situation is that John would never have taken up the gun ever again had Ross not blackmailed him and [[spoiler: faced down an entire company of U.S soldiers before being gunned down by them]] had Ross not forced his hand, so John's crimes are Ross's by extension. [[spoiler: Jack Marston rightfully puts an end to Ross and his hypocrisy when he guns him down and makes him pay for the crimes committed against the Marston family, but it still leaves a bitter taste because at the end of the day his death won't bring John back and Ross won because John will be remembered in official history as an outlaw.]]
*** What do you expect? Ross is a Knight Templar, he believes that the outlaws of the Old West are scum, and thus tries to modernise the West. Even if that means kidnapping a retired Outlaw's family and threatening them to get him to do their dirty work. Gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette. So what if John is reformed? He doesn't care. In his eyes he's an outlaw and always will be. Might as well get him to off his old comrades then kill him and take all the glory.

** I assumed that was pretty much the point. Real Old West gangs were tiny groups. Gangs as we know them number in the hundreds. The entire game is about the Old West dying and the modern world replacing it.[[/folder]]

** It all just boils down to the fact that the government ''doesn't care'' about Bill Williamson. They're already content to let the railroad do what they please out there given the Marshal's comment that they're burning settlements, presumably to force people to sell their land so they can keep laying track. They're not going to send the army to deal with some back water hick who's comandeered a decrepit and abandoned fort. They only sent the army after Dutch because he's leading an Indian rebellion, and as for John, Ross probably spun some yarn about one of Dutch's cohorts being out there and might still be planning on continuing his work.

** It all just boils down to the fact that the government '''''doesn't care''''' about Bill Williamson. They're already content to let the railroad do what they please out there given the Marshal's comment that they're burning settlements, presumably to force people to sell their land so they can keep laying track. They're not going to send the army to deal with some back water hick who's comandeered a decrepit and abandoned fort. They only sent the army after Dutch because he's leading an Indian rebellion, and as for John, Ross probably spun some yarn about one of Dutch's cohorts being out there and might still be planning on continuing his work.

** Seconding how reading and writing are both taken for granted in this Information Age of ours. They are in THE WILD WEST, where books are ''expensive'' and the smallest settlements only had ONE {{Schoolmarm}} to teach a few dozen children per day. Any given town/city would have one newspaper company apiece, because populations were much smaller back then. There's a reason most towns/cities have a habit of self-naming their biggest/oldest newspapers after the town--because a few generations earlier, [[RealityEnsues that would be the ONLY newspaper they'd have.]]

*** The whole point of the game, though, is that (a) "the middle of nowhere" is gradually shrinking as civilization encroaches and (b) the past doesn't let you go so easily. Yeah, John could do that... but Edgar Ross is still going to looking for him, and if not him, then someone else from John's blood-soaked past, and he's still uprooted his family from everything he tried to give them and forced them to change their identities and live a lie and spend their remaining days looking over their shoulders just waiting to see if the past is catch up with them. Or, he could just settle his accounts then and there and give his family a chance to live a better life.

** In fairness, this isn't entirely down to the players being idiots. Jack does come across as a bit sullen and moaning in his interactions with John, and Abigail is first introduced to us attacking and browbeating her husband. While both clearly have valid reasons for interacting with John in this fashion, after spending however-many hours playing the game as John to rescue them it's perhaps not entirely a mystery while some players might not find this a particularly endearing introduction to the characters. Especially as we're only first introduced to them very deep into the late-game, which doesn't really give the player as much time to establish a bond with them given how important they are to John. As for Bonnie, she's pretty much one of the first characters we meet and she spends most of her interactions with John being charming and flirty with him, which might also explain why some players might like her more. Personally, this player quite likes Abigail, but it's not hard to see why others wouldn't necessarily.

** It's anyone's guess, cause either way we never see him again.

** Seconding how reading and writing are both taken for granted in this Information Age of ours. They are in THE WILD WEST, where books are ''expensive'' and the smallest settlements only had ONE {{Schoolmarm}} to teach a few dozen children per day. Any given town/city would have one newspaper company apiece, because populations were much smaller back then. There's a reason most towns/cities have a habit of self-naming their biggest/oldest newspapers after the town--because back in those generations, [[RealityEnsues that was probably the ONLY newspaper they'd have.]]

** Seconding the fact that reading/writing are both taken for granted in the information age. They are in THE WILD WEST, where books are ''expensive'' and the smallest settlements only had ONE {{Schoolmarm}} to teach a few dozen children per day. Any given town/city would have one newspaper company apiece, because populations were much smaller back then. There's a reason most towns/cities have a habit of self-naming their biggest/oldest newspapers after the town--because back in those generations, [[RealityEnsues that was the ONLY newspaper they'd have.]]

*** There is the fact, that most of us don't get because we these days masters it at a very young age, that learning to read take a hell of a lot of effort and time; time that a struggeling frontier family doesn't have and effort that a woman that have lived a full life without reading or writing would consider wasted.