History YMMV / RedDeadRedemption2

** [[spoiler:[[Characters/RedDeadRedemptionMicahBellIII Micah Bell III]] is a [[PsychoPartyMember deranged]] but clever member of the [[Characters/RedDeadRedemption2VanDerLindeGang Van der Linde gang]] and [[TheMole an informant]] for the PinkertonDetective Agency. At first appearing to be nothing more than a cruel thug, he shows a glimpse of his true colors when arrested for murder in Strawberry; after being broken out, Micah forgoes a clean getaway to go on a killing spree, culminating in the murder of an old friend and the man's wife, all to get his favorite gun back, leaving half the town dead. Micah takes advantage of Dutch's eroding sanity to commit more immoral and destructive acts, and sells the gang out to the Pinkertons, nearly killing everyone in the gang, including the non-combatants. When exposed, Micah kills Miss Grimshaw and, depending on the player's actions, may personally murder [[Characters/RedDeadRedemptionArthurMorgan Arthur Morgan]] as well. In epilogue, Micah is running a gang of his own, and wanted for murdering an entire family. When confronted by [[Characters/RedDeadRedemptionJohnMarston John Marston]], Micah threatens to go after John's family too. A [[AxCrazy bloodthirsty maniac]] who only cares about winning and living, Micah is every negative stereotype of the savagery of the Van der Linde gang given life.]]

** [[AxCrazy Colm O'Driscoll]], head of the O'Driscoll gang, is a notorious criminal and the [[ArchEnemy arch-foe]] of [[Characters/RedDeadRedemptionDutchVanDerLinde Dutch van der Linde]]. A sadist who relishes pain in others, Colm uses his many, many gang members as disposable CannonFodder while wreaking a trail of murder and rape across the West, engaging in much of it himself. When first encountered, his thugs have destroyed the Adler ranch, killing Sadie Adler's husband and raping her--a wholly unique practice for Colm and the O'Driscolls. When Kieran Duffy leaves the gang for the van der Lindes, Colm later gruesomely tortures and murders him. Responsible for the death of Dutch's beloved Annabelle in revenge for Dutch killing his brother, Colm flatly admits he never cared for his brother at all, gleefully summing himself up as "[[CardCarryingVillain I been a bad man]]!"

** There's some moments between Arthur and John as well, even if the game likes to remind us immediately afterwards that they're [[BloodBrothers like brothers]].

* MisaimedMarketing: Other than the obvious, detailed beauty of the island, one has to wonder why Rockstar used so much footage of Guarma in the PC trailer, given how the brief story segment that takes place there is often considered the worst part of the game.

* BrokenAesop: The game's big aesop of "Revenge is a fool's game" rings a bit hollow during the epilogue, which involves John and Sadie getting their revenge on Micah which is framed as an entirely positive thing with no unintended consequences associated with it, in stark contrast to Dutch's gang falling apart thanks to his lust for vengeance overtaking him.
** The game rather rightfully goes out of its way to portray Native Americans as realistically as possible to make up for the previous game's rather unfortunate depiction of them. Then you find the O'Driscolls, who lean on all of the offensive stereotypes the first game used when portraying Irish people before, except even harder this time.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: At the time of release, Sadie Adler was originally beloved by fans due to her being a tough, no-nonsense ActionGirl who was capable of [[OneOfTheBoys kicking just as much ass as the rest of the men in the Van der Linde gang]], which was a nice change of pace compared to the more passive roles that most of the women in the franchise have had. As time went by, however, opinions of her became more polarized as she attracted a lot of criticism for her AxCrazy LeeroyJenkins {{Jerkass}} attitude that often causes more trouble for the gang than it solves. Her involvement with John's life in the epilogue is similarly disliked since she essentially strings John along on several bounty hunter missions, and her decision to let John help her track down and kill Micah despite fully knowing the danger it posed really alienated fans, who saw her as a KarmaHoudini that essentially doomed John to die at the FBI's hands while she got off scot-free with a fortune despite her selfishness and recklessness. Though Sadie isn't outright hated by any means, her actions throughout the game make her far more of a BaseBreakingCharacter than before, with some wishing for a DLC where she was [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty killed or arrested]] by John sometime between the games.

** Strauss. [[spoiler:Despite him being a loan shark, he was still a loyal member to the gang. It’s later revealed that he was then captured and killed by Pinkertons, meaning Arthur essentially killed him by forcing him to leave.]]

** Arthur and the rest of the gang when he [[spoiler:throws Strauss out of the gang. While it is depicted as a noble choice that rewards him with honor, Arthur had still thrown out a loyal gang member to be captured by Pinkertons or the Murfree Brood. None of the gang members stand up for Strauss and only a few scold Arthur afterwards.]]

** Sheriff Gray and his deputies. While he is a grossly incompetent drunk, after [[spoiler:finding out that his new temporarily deputized citizens he hired were an outlaw gang that burned his family's tobacco fields and murdered tens of his men, he can't be blamed for ambushing them and killing Sean. Yet Arthur, Micah and Bill have the nerve to be outraged that they were betrayed by the same family that they have been manipulating.]]

* ThatOneLevel: The final mission "American Venom". While [[spoiler:tracking down and killing Cleet is easy, upon entering the mountain you are attacked by a powerful sniper before facing tens of well-trained gunmen. Rat bastard he is, Micah knew who to hire for his new gang.]]

* AlasPoorScrappy: [[spoiler:Herbert Moon from the first game is disliked for his racist attitude, yet some felt a little bad for him when his own racism caused his personal life to fall apart as a result of a DealWithTheDevil.]]

** Sadie and Charles, while like during the main story, have caused some division [[spoiler:in the epilogue]]. This is because they [[spoiler:convince John to go after Micah, which [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom indirectly causes John's death]] yet [[KarmaHoudini they face no consequences for it]]]]. While many at least appreciate Charles's genuinely helpful role, Sadie's [[spoiler:character arc is over by this point - she got her revenge in Chapter 6 - so she doesn't really need to even appear, and the fact that most of her appearances in the epilogue consists of her ordering John around on overcomplicated bounty missions doesn't do her any favors]]. As such, their inclusion is either a nice send-off, or borderline unnecessary.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: At the time of release, Sadie Adler was originally beloved by fans due to her being a tough, no-nonsense ActionGirl who was capable of [[OneOfTheBoys kicking just as much ass as the rest of the men in the Van der Linde gang]], which was a nice change of pace compared to the more passive roles that most of the women in the franchise have had. As time went by, however, opinions of her became more mixed as she attracted a lot of criticism for her AxCrazy LeeroyJenkins {{Jerkass}} attitude that often causes more trouble for the gang than it solves. Her involvement with John's life in the epilogue is similarly disliked since she essentially strings John along on several bounty hunter missions, and her decision to let John help her track down and kill Micah despite fully knowing the danger it posed really alienated fans, who saw her as a KarmaHoudini that essentially doomed John to die at the FBI's hands while she got off scot-free with a fortune despite her selfishness and recklessness. Though Sadie isn't outright hated by any means, her actions throughout the game make her far more of a BaseBreakingCharacter than before, with some wishing for a DLC where she was [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty killed or arrested]] by John sometime between the games.

** To a lesser extent, Agent Milton and the Pinkerton Detective Agency. While Milton is undoubtedly smug, unpleasant, brutal and unstable, and the Pinkertons have historically been morally dubious in terms of labour strikes, their cause is a noble one: trying to stop an outlaw gang from murdering and robbing across the country.

** Arthur's self-deprecating nature, grumpy personality, pessimist attitude, and occasional bursts of anger might indicate Depression (then known as Melancholia) but it's never said outright. [[spoiler:And this is before he gets TB.]]

** Many players have criticized Chapters 5 and 6 for being the point where the game starts to bog down. [[spoiler: The former for mostly taking place on Guarma where you're deprived of most of your equipment and can barely free roam, meaning that players would try to rush it ASAP, while the latter is criticized for its story missions for being repetitive in nature.]]

* CryForTheDevil: Surprisingly of all people, this game reveals that [[ArcVillain Bill Williamson]] had one '''hell''' of a TraumaCongaLine before he became the AxCrazy monster John faced in the first game. From the bits and pieces of his backstory that we hear, he is a ShellShockedVeteran [[WarIsHell who had to experience some awful shit while fighting the Native Americans]], for his troubles he he was discharged from the army by his [[UnreliableNarrator supposedly]] corrupt superior. He had a rough year or two before Dutch came along and [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe gave him a reason to keep going]]. Then in a botched robbery he has to witness at least 3 of his gang members die (if none had already died up until that point). The gang also constantly reminds him of his failures despite his best efforts to pull his own weight. His father lost his mind to dementia and he fears that he's inherited that from, so he's basically aware that he's going crazy due to a genetic disease. {{F|romBadToWorse}}inally he witnesses [[spoiler: Dutch's descent into madness and the deaths of most of his gang members, including Lenny and Sean who were at that point in their [[JustAKid early 20's at most]]]]. This is all on top of the [[AmbiguouslyGay implication]] that Bill is gay or bi in a time when his existence wass effectively a capital crime. Bill may be an absolute monster of a man in the first game, but after [[CosmicPlaything everything the guy has been through]] it's hard not consider his death in the first game as a MercyKill.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: At the time of release, Sadie Adler was originally beloved by fans due to her being a tough, no-nonsense ActionGirl who was capable of [[OneOfTheBoys kicking just as much ass as the rest of the men in the Van der Linde gang]], which was a nice change of pace compared to the more passive roles that most of the women in the franchise game have had. As time set in though, Sadie's reputation began to get a lot more fractured as she gained a lot of criticism for her AxCrazy LeeroyJenkins {{Jerkass}} attitude that often causes more trouble for the gang than it solves. Her involvement with John's life in the epilogue is similarly disliked since she essentially strings John along on several bounty hunter missions, and her decision to let John help her track down and kill Micah despite fully knowing the danger it posed really soured fans, who saw her as a KarmaHoudini that essentially doomed John to die at the FBI's hands while she got off scott-free with a fortune despite her selfishness and recklessness. Though Sadie isn't outright hated by any means, her actions throughout the game make her far more of a BaseBreakingCharacter than before, with some wishing for a DLC where she was [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty killed or arrested]] by John sometime between the games.

* FriendlyFandoms: With fans of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' since both games are incredibly dark and gritty.

* SelfImposedChallenge: If you can imagine it, you can do try it, and someone else probably already has. Options include some of the more standard video game variety, such as the "Dead is Dead" challenge where you have to start the game over if you die, and another where you don't buy anything that isn't required for plot related reasons, instead looting or crafting everything you use. Some of the more extreme include the GoingNative challenge, where you only wear Trapper clothing and only use a bow, tomahawks, and a knife to fight except for where required by a mission/plot.

** The residents of Van Horn and Beaver Hollow are (for the most part) violent jerks who will antagonize the player for no reason, and even if Arthur greets them, they will usually respond with an insult or SpitefulSpit. Even worse, if one of them starts a fight with the player, everyone else will join in no matter how it started. At some point, [[DirtyCoward one of them will pull out a gun and start shooting]], [[HiveMind causing the others to do the same.]] Needless to say, [[CatharsisFactor most players do not feel bad for killing them when this happens.]] Even if the player goes out of their way to help the people of Beaver Hollow (helping Lemuel, stopping the rabid dogs, and saving them from being poisoned), [[UngratefulBastard the residents will still treat them as an outsider.]]

* EvilIsSexy: Tammy Aberdeen. She may be a crazy murderer who's [[BrotherSisterIncest way too close]] with her brother, but there's no denying that she's quite the looker.