As a masterpiece that has never been done before or since, the "Red Dead Redemption" series has too much to talk about and discuss; Although I would like to be able to introduce the game in all aspects so that everyone can appreciate the charm of the game from more angles, my time and energy are limited, and I can only talk to you about a small part of it first. This time, let's first focus on Daqi, the leader of the Van der Linde Gang, to have a good chat.
While it's customary to say it's the "Red Dead Series," before 2010's Red Dead Revolver, there was a red death revolver released in 2004. After all, this work has no direct correlation with the story plot of the first and second generations of "Red Dead Redemption", and it is inevitable that it will be "technically ignored"; But those who remember, but also made some interesting stories:
In the promotional campaign for "Red Dead 2", the actor who played Dudge, Benjamin Davis, mentioned that these actors once believed that "Red Dead 2" would not follow the name of "second generation", because according to the convention of the previous two games, the third game in production should only retain the word "Red Dead" and replace the third word with another word with the same "R"; Maybe it's "Red Dead Revenge," or "Red Dead Rabbit." So when Davis' nephew asked him one night if he was secretly working on Red Dead Redemption 2, Davis swore to Heaven that he wasn't involved in red dead redemption 2 because he believed the game wouldn't be called Red Dead Redemption 2.
When the actors gathered in the studio to watch and get excited about the first game trailer that was about to be released, Davis just looked miserable. Finally, Davis went to the office to find the game producer, told the reason, and promised that his nephew would not leak the secret; That night, his nephew became the first person in the world outside of the game production team, knowing that R Star was working on Red Dead Redemption 2.
Back to the character of Dach van der Linde. Although he is the most important villain in Red Dead Redemption and a fairly important character in Red Dead Redemption 2, this character has a rather random name. "Van der Linde" means "from Linde" in Dutch; In addition to the meaning of "Linde" as linden tree, the surname "Van der Linde" has the meaning of "someone from (living) in the linden tree area", "Linde" is also a place name in the Netherlands. In addition to the surname, Dutch's name is actually the same as dutch - that is, the name "Dutch Van der Linde" means "Dutch from Linde, the Netherlands".
Such a naming method may be a little bit of a bad taste in it; In fact, in Red Dead Redemption 2, players also have the opportunity to hear Dudge mention in small talk that his mother is from Lincolnshire, England, and his father is from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and seems to be trying to correct the slightly sloppy setting of Red Dead Redemption in the sequel/prequel.
Interestingly, players who have played Red Dead Redemption must have a rather negative impression of Dach. He is an outlaw who kills innocents and survives when modern civilization is approaching; When john Marston, played by the player, reunites with Dutch after many years, Dutch almost becomes a "chowder" like Micah. But if Dutch was such a miscellaneous piece, why had John ever followed him? We got the answer to this question in Red Dead Redemption 2.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, players, like the protagonist Arthur Morgan, do not witness the ferry robbery carried out by Dudge, Tek, and others in Blackwater. In the ensuing main quest, we work with Arthur to hear "testimony" from other gang partners involved in the robbery at the time. At first, we would believe that Dachy was forced and helpless to kill the innocent woman in the robbery; However, as the plot progresses, we find that relatively decent gang members such as Arthur, John, and Charles begin to strongly suspect that Datch is just "revealing his nature".
This is an interesting "transformation", regardless of the appearance of Daqi presented in "Red Dead Redemption", at the beginning of the game of "Red Dead Redemption 2", Duchi does seem to be a trustworthy, even life-delegating leader. The character is confused at the time of the arrival of "civilization", breaking the mask he has worn for many years because of his actions - without affecting his own pursuit of interests, Daqi also allows himself to show limited "justice". He rescued Adler, whose husband had been killed, and also assisted the people of Guama in rebelling against the might; However, he also easily believes that he can play with the two major families in the town of Rhodes, Angelo Brontë, who uses Saint-Denis, but is used and betrayed by his opponents.
Is Dudge van der Linde the bad guy? I think that even though Dach is the leader of a bandit syndicate, at least in Red Dead Redemption 2, he's not really evil. I once saw a fairly agreeable comment on the Internet, the netizen thought that Duchi was just a fake clown; Such a Daqi is a person who can never "admit his mistakes" and show his "ignorance". Therefore, even if Daqi constantly makes mistakes and mistakenly believes in Tekah, he cannot believe and admit his mistakes, and can only constantly emphasize his "Plan".
Red Dead Redemption 2 gives players a high degree of freedom to "shape" Arthur's personality and image, which makes Arthur's fate different; But I feel that giving Arthur a high degree of honor is the finale of Red Dead Redemption 2. Under such a premise, if the player chooses to let Arthur help John escape in the game, they will see Darch's pained expression when Arthur says to Duchi at the edge of the cliff, "I gave you everything". A few years later, when John travels to Teka's stronghold with Charles and the Valkyrie Adler to avenge Arthur, Dachy also appears in Micah's camp; However, when John asked Dudge why he was here, Dachi replied, "Probably the same as you [for the reasons for coming here]."
This explains why it was Dach who shot and killed Micah in the end – like John, Dachy came to kill Micah. This is probably the closest thing Darch can do to apologize to Arthur.
Speaking of Arthur, in the middle of the transition between chapter six and the epilogue, there is an interesting "Easter egg" that I think is quite worth mentioning. We see that many years after Arthur's death, John, Abigail, and their children Jack prepare to move to Strawberry Town. On the carriage, John tries to talk to his taciturn, absent-minded son, and the two talk about a book that Jack, who likes to read, has recently loved to read. Jack says he's no longer so interested in Western storytelling; At present, I like to read stories such as knight literature, "The Knight of the Round Table". In fact, Western literature and chivalric literature are similar in many ways. Cowboys and knights confront the "barbarians" in primordial lands, trying to be loyal to their will and leaders and to save the innocent other. Of course, Jack mentions "King Arthur."
It is said that the world's most popular "Legend of King Arthur" is the british polymath T. H. White's The Eternal King; I had the privilege of reading this book many years ago and was greatly moved by the hope that the author injected into the ending. Maybe it's a coincidence, but the ending of The Eternal King also mirrors Arthur's ending in Red Dead Redemption 2 to some extent:
The old king was refreshed and almost ready to start again. There will be a day, there will be a day when he returns to Gemelli with a new round table, which is like this world, without edges and corners— and the round table will not set boundaries between countries, so that they can sit down for a banquet. The only hope for shaping such a round table is culture. If people can be persuaded to learn to read and write, and no longer just eat and reproduce, there is still a chance for them to become rational. But by this time it was too late to make another effort. For at this point, his fate was to die, or, as some have said, to be taken to Aphalon, where he would wait for a better era. Because at this time, Lancelot's fate is to cut her hair, Guinevere is wearing a nun's headscarf, and Mo Jie is bound to be killed. In the ever-blue waves of the sun shining, the fate of the individual is nothing more than a drop of water, although it is a drop of shining water. The rebel cannons sounded on this dilapidated morning, and the King of England rose up to greet the future with a peaceful heart.