#The Van Der Linde Gang

[margowritesthings]

[moonah-rose]

Tilly: I'm going to Saint Denis, anyone want anything?

Arthur: A cure for tuberculosis.

John: The respect of my wife and child.

Lenny: Sean and Jenny alive.

Sadie: Colm O'Driscoll's severed head on a stick!

Dutch: SOME GOD. DAMN. FAITH!!!!

Tilly:

Tilly: Fellahs, I got $8 and a quarter.

[fablexdreams]

Currently replaying rdr2 for the millionth time, and I am once again struck by how similar me and Hosea are during each playthrough; sick and tired of Dutch's bullshit, while also simultaneously being worried about him and the gangs future at all times. I'm 99% sure we've made the same exasperated face at Dutch on more than one occasion lmao.

[auroramoon-draws16]

Holy shit! Remember when I asked about that one crossover?

Red Dead Redemption 2 x Assassin’s Creed?

I’m gonna refine this shit a bit so stick with me here:

Desmond Miles, we love to fuck with this guy’s shit, I love this silly little guy in general, so, what if the events of Rdr2 happened because of a POE???

Like, bro? It works way too well, because ofc the Pinkertons would be Templars or something, it fits too well. The Van der linde Gang aren’t Assassins, but Arthur and John might have a bit of Isu blood in them. (Cough Dead Eye/Eagle Eye connection cough)

Lets say that Dutch “found” (read: stole) or was given a Piece by Micha (fuck that guy) and goes batshit crazy, and you know the rest.

So, either Desmond is in his time travel era and inadvertently saves the gang or he’s got enough time/is alive to see the memories of John or Arthur (yeah, Arthur’s only known kid died, but we can fudge some shit here if we wanted)

I just imagine the Assassin Crew talking about the gang and the legend surrounding them (because like several of the members survived so there has got to be rumors floating about), like that one Buzzfeed: Unsolved x Rdr2 fic!

That would be so dope, just saying.

[thelonelylemonsquare]

Red Dead Redemption III Concept

Basic Story concept:

Annabelle McCarthy, a small time Irish thief, playing at a new scheme. The story opens with Annabelle dressed like a saloon girl, in hopes of robbing a rich son of an even more wealthy man and politician, known as Henry A. Johnson.

Annabelle after being found out by the boy she hoped to rob, she is forced to murder him. She is then on the run for her life and freedom as Henry A. Johnson sends bounty after bounty to bring in Annabelle.

Annabelle would be on the run for quite some time, moving from town to town before she is caught by a Bounty Hunter, known as Cassidy Nixon. She is then being tried to be hung.

However this wouldn’t be the end of poor Annabelle. She was also captivated with a Kevin O’Driscoll who is also going to be hung, although he doesn’t seem very worried about being hung, and in fact, he seems quite relaxed, even bored, as if there wasn’t anything bad in the world that could hurt him.

Kevin is the first to be hung, next to Annabelle, yet this would never be, Colm O’Driscoll shows up with the gang and free his brother along with Annabelle.

Colm for reasons that Annabelle is not quite sure of, allows her to join his father’s gang (Colm senior, O’Driscoll) as a means of protection from her constant run form the law, and bounty hunters.

The plot of RDR3 is the story of Annabelle, the relationship between the O’Driscoll brothers, and the the golden age of the Dutch in the Vanderlinde gang.

Who was Colm’s brother?

Who was Annabelle?

And could their deaths be linked with something else other than the rivalry between Dutch and Colm?

I hope you enjoyed what I have said thus far, and I hope to bring more of my ideas to life soon.

We may not get a rdr3 soon, but my love of rdr will never quit!

[therogerclarkfanclub]

Well this escalated super quickly 🤯

Redemption 2.0 is a go!

But the next time it will not be in Tombstone, AZ., hence why it is being called "Redemption 2.0". The event will be another city. But which city is that?? That has yet to be determined.

But in the meantime start saving your cash folks!

The Gang Will Return!

[vanderdutch]

hosea, to the gang after a successful mission: you were all very well behaved today

dutch: ...

arthur: ...

john: ...

sean: ...

kieran: ...

sadie: ...

bill: ...

javier: ...

lenny: ...

hosea: oh god, what did you do

[matrixsunbird]

Arthur does so much for the gang :)

[the-van-der-linde-gang]

ALL THE VAN DER LINDE MEMBERS

We have horseless cars now

[ One large, collective ] "WHAT?!"

[seven-oomen]

Back when they were a family.

[dalekofchaos]

Dutch made a pact with The Strange Man

Found this on reddit and thought it makes a lot of sense. Also this one.

Dutch's pact with the Strange Man theory.

We don't know in details what really happened before the game but some tips we can find in Arthur's Journal and hearing the other members made me think about this.

The gang was an ordinary gang from the beginning (1870s) until 1877 when something happened: Dutch and Hosea were arrested and by unknown means they escaped their cell. So my guess is that Dutch made a pact with The Strange Man to set them free and to be happy.

After that the gang became a family, with Arthur, John, Mrs Grimshaw and etc. And until the game starts they rob 37 banks. So the gang went from zero to hero in 10 years. Dutch was happy living his "dream".

Then the fire happened (the one Arthur mentions in the beginning his journal) burning everything they have thus forcing them to flee. In my opinion this is the time the Strange man came to collect the debts and Dutch probably do not want to pay. So they started to flee and even after a while Dutch still want them to move. They were going to California and all of a sudden Dutch decided to go to Blackwater. Even after finding some land to buy he still wanted to move.

"Dutch had a lead for some land we were going to buy […] or he got spooked we were being watched by the law and that somebody knew who he was."

Then after a while on Blackwater camp Arthur says that he heard about someone who looks like Trewlany, i remember reading about how similar both look like. Coincidentally after that Dutch started to talk about moving again. The ferry heist was fucked up because of the Strange Man, and it is the beginning of the end. Pretty much like what happened to Herbert Moon. His daughter married, was happy, but he was sad. Dutch got what he asked: fame, fortune, but he lost everything else on the way: family, love, even his mind…

I think he's the one who caused the ferry robbery to to go fucked up, and that the Heidi McCourt incident was him testing Dutch, similar to the way he tests John with moral choices in RDR1, or the way he tests Arthur with Jimmy Brooks in Valentine. When John first meets him in RDR1, he begins by reminding John of Heidi McCourt's murder. Eventually, the Strange Man does collect his debt…in the form of John Marston at the end of RDR1. The theory even goes further to some on Reddit, saying that Ross also made a choice that damned him to the Strange Man when he decided to go after and kill John, and Ross's debt was collected when Jack Marston kills him.

Other theories are that the ship Dutch, Arthur, Bill, Micah and Javier try to escape on catching fire and sinking was also the Strange Man preventing Dutch's escape. There's also a camp encounter in Chapter IV, after the ill-fated trolley station stick up, where Dutch and John have words that ends with Dutch telling John, "I. Know. You." which is the name of the Strange Man's side quest in RDR1.

Heidi McCourt was Dutch's test from The Strange Man theory.

Both John Marston and Arthur Morgan encounter two seemingly different people at entirely separate times and places, however they are somehow connected.

In RDR1, John encounters a strange man that asks him about Heidi McCourt, a woman Dutch shot in the head 12 years prior, during the Blackwater Ferry Heist. The Strange Man makes a point to let John know that Heidi McCourt was an important person, before sending John out to deal with a man who is soon to commit adultery. John has the choice to complete this mission honorably or dishonorably, and the Strange Man appears to be keeping track of his choices. In the final meeting with the Strange Man, the Strange Man claims he is "accounting". Its widely accepted that the Strange Man is some sort of supernatural force, being connected to fate and the dead. Which brings me to my second point, Jimmy Brooks.

Jimmy Brooks is a man Arthur Meets in Valentine in RDR2, who recognizes Arthur from the Blackwater Heist. After some chasing, Arthur is faced with saving Jimmy brooks or letting him die. Later in the Strange Man's cabin, a poem regarding Jimmy Brooks, who before seemed to have no connection, appears etched in a desk.

It is of my opinion that at some point in everyone's life, at least in the Red Dead universe, they will come across a figure that judges their morals and perhaps decides their fate, same as John in RDR1. My theory is that Heidi McCourt was this figure in the life of Dutch Van Der Linde, and the execution of her cemented his path into destruction he would experience over the next 15 or so years.

[moonah-rose]

Fucking Rock*, they could have just made a game about a generic gang with a heartless cult leader and angry cowboys but instead they said "no we're gonna create a found family that is equal parts wholesome and insanely fucked up with daddy issues, sibling drama and moral philosophy that will leave gamers a broken mess once they're done", damn them.

[fablexdreams]

Taylor Swift wrote, 'The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived' about Dutch Van der Linde. It's true. She told me.

[thegunslingerstragedy]

[wizard-on-whales]

Literally dutch if you stare at him for too long in camp: