To make a slight correction on your point about Micah not being at camp when the agents show up. Micah WAS there, present but hiding on the outer ring of the gang when they came for Dutch. Not to say he didn't plan that event himself, or that your initial assessment was incorrect, other than just that small detail, excellent video regardless.
micah is so well written and acted that peter blomquist often doesn’t get clapped for when appearing on stage alongside other rdr2 actors. it’s very funny and a little sad
it honestly really sucks, Blomquist gave his life to that performance to create the most realistic piece of shit in modern media, even if the character deserves all the bad in the world, the actor needs to be revered. he's incredible
Fr people tend to hate micah so much they dont show appreciation to peter, I myself feel like Micah is over-hated, he is a great antagonist and aint as bad as many other Rockstar villains
The most complete theory is that Micah was likely tracking Dutch, hoping to capture/turn him in for a reward. This explains the bounty poster for £1000 you find at his camp near Strawberry. However, he then decided to seize an opportunity at the bar where Dutch was trying to sell gold, stepping in and ingratiating himself with Dutch, thinking he could use Dutch to make bigger scores or, if they went went sour, turn him in later. He was effectively hedging his bets from the outset - teaming up with the famous outlaw in the hopes of benefitting from big scores i.e. the Blackwater robbery, but always with an eye to betraying Dutch/the gang if it was possible later. When the Pinkertons picked him up following their return from Guarma, he was "turned" into an informant, but played both sides. Hence he encouraged Dutch to take bigger & bigger risks, hoping to either benefit from the one last heist at the end of the game, or planning on turning Dutch in, or both. A lot of his body language and behaviour as Arthur lay dying shows he was at that time literally trying to manipulate Dutch into going with him, in the direction of the Pinkertons just around the corner.
Oooh, i think you've cracked it. That lines up with his opportunist thought process. Also, lines up with Landon Ricketts saying "Keep hoping to both sides pf the fence, you'll get impaled on it."
You’re spot on except for Micah trying to lead Dutch to the Pinkertons, it’s safe to say by the time Milton died and the Pinkertons raided Beaver Hollow that Micah was no longer of use to them which is why they’re seen shooting at Micah and Micah is seen shooting at them. He’s trying to encourage Dutch to come with him because he still wanted to use him and if things calmed down later he would probably try to turn him in, but in that moment the Pinkertons were looking to drop any gang member including Micah
Chapter 2 Dutch would have saved John too. Chapter 6 Dutch was holed up in a Cave, something Arthur says is against his very self. On top of which Dutch suspects John to be a traitor and with Good reason too
People hate Micah, and rightfully so, but you can’t say that he isn’t skilled. He’s a good gunslinger and has a sharp sense of intellect, but this is more of the cunning side. In “A short walk in a pretty town”, we can really see Micah’s shooting skills
No he isn’t skilled at all. The reason he always held two guns was because he’s a bad shot. He needs two guns because he’ll most likely miss firing his first shot.
He's erratic and he knows it, he justifies his actions, and has shallow empathy with not a hint of remorse. But he leaves Arthur to die in peace (if honorable), really an underrated character with a rotten role model; his father has the same exact name probably to highlight the effects of childhood modeling, his brother Angus chose to be better though. I believe that's why he let Arthur die in peace.
@@Bleeblooplu Seems like conformation bias and jumping to conclusions, I doubt you could ever operate two revolvers at once and still hit anything, I know I couldn't, that takes real skill.
@@Bleebloopluhe carries two guns because that was a fairly common thing to do. You don't shoot both at the same time you either empty one and switch or you alternate hands. It's not something an unskilled person could do
All Arthur had to do was go to Strawberry, watch Micah swing from the rope and then go back and tell Dutch that it was too late to save him. Nobody would have challenged Arthur about it. Problem solved.
I think Micah might be the most complex character after Arthur and Dutch. He is an outlaw. Outlaws aren't nice. Also, I think Micah was betraying Dutch while in Strawberry with the O'Driscolls. Or at the very least he was trying to switch sides in case the other guy got rescued first, then he killed him to prevent him from saying anything.
It's interesting how Micah acts as a foil for the gang. Micah is an outlaw- and the gang are mostly outcasts. Dispite this- society treats them all the same- and therefore- the outlaws and outcasts in the gang allign by developing the same means of survival. But then when you take a closer look at everyones motives- you realize that Dutches downfall was that he allowed himself to start seeing himself as an outlaw- whereas before meeting Micah- he saw himself more as an outcast (hense why outcasts mostly comprose his gang)
@os488 I'd say Arthur is complex in the sense that he is going through change at a very rapid and intense pace. Maybe "deep" is the more fair word to describe it though...
My second playthrough I downloaded a mod to let me spawn people, and I would occasionally spawn him in front of a train or off a bridge, or, spawn myself a couple of lady escorts, give them knives, make them bodyguards, then spawn Micah as a hostile and watch them hack him (because even as a spawn, I couldn't kill him directly). I did, by the way, appreciate how good of a villain they made him on my first playthrough. So much so that I would have shot him and Dutch just after the Cornwall affair in Annesburgh, under the guise of "the Pinkertons got them after Dutch killed Cornwall"
he tries, but he's about as charismatic as a snake. Even hisses like one too. i knew something was off about him when he suddenly tried to get on Arthur's good side in random camp convos before the meeting with Colm. In fact it makes sense why he was trying so hard to persuade Dutch to meet with Colm, when Colm's plan was to simply take arthur.
True. I used to mercilessly hate him but over time I learned to respect his character, after all he’s only been in the gang 6 months and never got along with anyone besides Dutch, anyone in his position would’ve either ran away or ratted, it’s not like Micah sought an alliance with the Pinkertons because Milton clearly states “We PICKED HIM UP and he’s been a good boy ever since” which implies Milton captured Micah and gave him a choice
After hosea death, micah started to get in Dutch's ear a lot more because before when hosea was alive micah couldn't manipulate dutch as he did later on in the game
I love me a good Villain and Micah Bell playing that whole Gang like a damn fiddle is a chefs kiss. Not only is he a Master Mainpulator he's on Par with John and Arthur as one of the Best Gunslingers in the Red Dead Universe. Only mistake he made was not Gunning down Dutch when he came up that Mountain years later.
Micah Bell is arguably the smartest character in the Red Dead Redemption universe, He managed to trick the world’s best conman into destroying his alliances, his gang, his son and his mind and then nearly got away with handing him over to the authorities afterwards
Dutch destroyed and disgraced all of these things himself. Micah only tossed in the venom after Dutch was already set to doom the gang sooner than later
It's so easy to say Micah was a dumb but looking back really he was the true master manipulator Micah lived by the mindset Dimitri have in gta iv He may not be able to change the rules of the game, but he can pick the game Micah was playing chess while everybody was playing checkers
He was never dumb people that hate him just say that but the reality is he’s one of the smarter characters. Not book smart like Lenny but he’s self aware and has more street smarts than most of the gang members. It takes a smart mind to be able to play a dangerous gang of outlaws and Pinkertons at the same time to benefit from both
@@jamesowen889Arthur only pretended to be a dullard, he was actually quite intelligent. Read his journal some time, he's more intelligent then he lets on.
this came up on my fyp just as i finished another replay of rdr2, perfect timing! thanks for the deep dive into micah, he's such a well written antagonist and i love questioning his motives and diving into just how long he's been a rat and what he intentions with dutch were! i personally think he was always a rat, just not specifcally to the pinkertons until the end-- like, i fully believe he was always going to betray dutch someday, but given his opportunistic + survive at all costs nature, he had to wait for the day that a better prospect came along first so that he could reap the most benefit before moving on. loved the video!
what a wonderful comment! thank you so much. hope you had an amazing playthrough of rdr2! Deep down, i sort of think he was always the rat in some odd ways as well. glad to see others think that. again great comment glad you liked the video
24:30 dude micah WAS in that cutscene. he gets an entire closeup and he’s in the shot with Pearson, Sadie, and Bill. in fact, you can clearly see the big ass gap where he was SUPPOSED to be😭😭😭 idk if you modded him out just to make your point or what, but that whole point is invalid edit: im watching the scene , he even draws his pistols when the rest of the gang draws their weapons ANOTHER EDIT: neither Lenny, Bill, Javier, Tilly, Trelawney, nor Uncle appear in the o’driscoll attack mission either. i think that’s just coincidence that Micah didn’t
thats wild! I even browsed the subreddit on if micah was in that scene and multiple people said he wasnt - so i went off the information i had. thats so weird. and true i knew that a couple people were missing from odriscall attack mission and i should have said that in the video thank you for the comment 🫡
Sometimes he appears in that cutscene and sometimes he doesn’t, it’s pretty weird because I also distinctly remember him being in that cutscene but when I watch playthroughs he’s not there for some of them. Idk if it’s honor dependent or if one of the updates took Micah out of that scene but it seems to be a 50/50 chance of him being there or not. Also ur right about the Odriscoll attack at camp, half the gang members aren’t even present in that mission most likely they all happened to be doing their own thing finding leads or getting scores for the group, in lore the gang members don’t just sit around camp all day every day they all go out like Arthur but in gameplay they’re always at camp so Arthur can interact with them
The thing that makes Micah stand out from the other gang members in the game is he's always one step ahead of everybody. While guys like Arthur, John, Sean, Lenny, etc. are all followers of Dutch's idea that they're heroes, Micah knows it's all crap and is only there to leech off others. This knowledge of Dutch's true intentions is why he can bully, rob, and lie to everyone but still stay on good terms with Dutch. Because Micah knows how to rig the system in his favor, so he does it.
He tricked them into thinking he was crazy and so deranged he would never work with the law, why do you think Charles and Arthur were so surprised when they found out?
when I lost my guns while the game gave me some, I knew to shift gears. I didn't even bother exploring Guarma and something tells me I didn't miss much
Micah was an opportunist who will betray anyone if he thinks it will benefit him. But They didn’t need a rat to cause their undoing the times were changing and the gang was unable to change with them.
to be fair 21:02, it’s not like Arthur was 1000m away in a ghillie suit… he was in plain clothes on the edge of a cliff somewhat close to the meeting point. If we look at this situation if arthur didn’t change clothes and he kept the blue then ur gonna notice a dude in blue against a white/sandstone background lol. i’m also sure Colm had some of his boys up in the hills just incase Dutch and his boys were gonna backstab them or even maybe take the opportunity to ambush them but that’s just me
I actually liked Micha in chapter 2 because he just seemed hot headed and crazy. Seemed like he actually cared for a bit. Then everything else happened and it made me mad. Phenomenal acting and writing made him such a good character.
Honestly, I hadn't really remembered that Micah saved Dutch's life when they first met. It mostly makes some sense now... That Dutch would side with Micah at the end of the game. It was so unlike Dutch to have someone actually save his life and he never forgot about that. He probably admired Micah more than most of the gang, as crazy as that sounds. And maybe him siding with Micah was his way of "owing him "
people has said they wanted to play as Sadie. Charles is also a good candidate.. maybe he goes back and tryie to help the native americans more properly though not likely, unfortunately
There was at least 4 occasions where dutch could had elaberated a bit more in these scenarios to help these situations such as when they would rescue John, when he was asking who's betraying him and when Arthur insists on letting John and family go. Maybe that's the madness behind dutch
Isn’t it crazy to look back and realize how simple the plot was in chapter 1? Escaping blackwater, the biggest threat was O’driscolls. and trying to make a plan of leaving. then by the later chapters, the gang suddenly has full on war with the army/government And it seems O’driscolls become just a worry in the rearview mirror and is rarely talked about
I love that the game even addresses this, they get in so much hot water, that by the time Sadie tells Arthur that Colm will hang in St. Denis, he was like "who even gives a shit at this point??"
Micah is a very well written antagonist and what's amazing that he aint the worst in the Rockstar rogue of villains, he is smart and he is skilled and can be a badass, people hate micah more than they should, good video man
@@MrBeenus okay so in Undertale, there's this character named Flowey, and he believes that it's kill or be killed. Really awesome game, you should totally play it.
im suprised you didnt bring up the ride to lakay with dutch. if you rude slower dutch goes on a crazy rant on how micah is the only one on his side, but after a bit he realizes what hes saying and apologizes to arthur.
24:54 in my game, Micah is literally standing next to Sadie and Pearson the whole time. Idk how you or the other content creator (forgot his name) edited him out your clip, but he is in that clip in the original version
thats wild. i even scoured the internet on information about this scene and every bit of information including reddit posts says he wasnt there as well, so i was going off that information and my own experience. you and a few others have commented this, perplexing.
@@Tortuga2223a I know the other did it to try to prove his point of Micah being a rat from the beginning (or at least since Clemens Point). I had the game since a year after it came out, and he's always been in that clip. I ain't saying this guy did it for that reason, but I know the other guy did. I think his name was Mr Boss or something like that. He's known for editing clips to try to prove a point
@@RealTalk87he took other people's videos and made his own spin, and used selective editing to prove his point. I didn't watch his videos that long due to that fact.
Your logic is a bit flawed pal, Micahs revolvers literally say vengeance is his life motto. But then with the O'Driscols he wants a peace offering? That doesn't really fly mate. It's quite obvious he was playing both the O'Driscols and the van der Linde gang. And why are people questioning him being a rat? You literally hear it out of Milton's mouth, who at that point has zero reason to lie to Arthur as he assumed he'd die right there.
Upon my first play through I personally thought Micah at 7:55 was cool and thought his character was just a hot head. But after strawberry I began to understand.
Dutch was too far gone in the head and fully manipulated by Micah, while Arthur was just caught up in the heat of the moment or probably stopped caring all that much for Grimshaw after she coldly killed Molly.
@@abdulazimnaushad He had a gun to him! It was a standoff. If he shot Micah, Micah would've shot him, or Dutch would've shot us or Cleet or Joe. He was determined to save Ms Grimshaw too, He says so to Sadie. He was devastated in this scene that he failed to get her out.
A barely noticed thing with Micah is when the two of you annihilate Strawberry. Either because he wants you to take the fall or he’s just a fucking idiot, he keeps shouting your full name. Whilst we kill all the lawman, there’s a whole lot of townsfolk who are hearing “Arthur Morgan!” Every five seconds. Compare this to other gang members who call him by his last name or his first name when no one can hear or you know they call him Tacitus Kilgore, Fenton, Arthur Callahan, My boy or English.
I happened to have an interesting perspective when playing this game for the first time. I actually had Micah being "the rat" spoiled to me before starting (oddly enough), so throughout the game I found it to be no coincidence when Micah just so happened to be away when the Pinkertons showed up, or when Colm had Arthur kidnapped during that meet up. Since there isn't enough concrete evidence otherwise I know it's an uncommon belief that he was a rat from the beginning, but from my POV it was absolutely clear that he was.
i have seen several comments saying in their game hes actually in the cinematics and i tried to do the research for this but most of the people i found online agreed that he wasnt there so thats what i put in the video. thank you for pointing this out though!
Micah was a son of a bitch, but he weren't no rat! Arthur, bless his soul, fell for the easiest strategy an opponent can use against a group- divide and conquer. This has been used for ages, and makes me think of Three Kingdoms.
Imagine if rockstar made him the protagonist in red dead 3 were we can see how he became so evil it could be a tragic story were we actually can understand his venom as it starts to poison him and the more bledshed the more close calls ect ect we actually could come to like him in a weird sort of way we can actually agree with his point of view i might work probably wouldn't happen but hell just a thought
As soon as Micah says "hello Mary, did ya miss me?" Why was there no choice? Could've rode off. Arthur just goes along killing people like a loyal dog when Dutch wasn't even there. Arthur always sussed Micah from day one, he was already subtly questioning Dutch before this, Why was he going along with Micah? Really irritates me.
A lot of you praising Micah’s gun fighting skills and using Rhodes as an example. 1. He only shoots each person (left, front, right) when he’s facing them and on the way of running back to safety after seeing where Sean was shot from. 2. Micah only shoots one gun at a time, and takes the time to lower one and raise the other back up and re-aim. Which makes sense if he was using single action revolvers (needing time to chamber the next round another gun would be faster) but Micah uses double action revolvers, Micah isn’t anywhere near as good a gunslinger as people want to think
Are u saying he should shoot 2 people at the same time? And that he should shoot people behind him or to the side without facing them? And he doesn’t lower and reaim his guns he swings his left arm under his right.
@ if your a skilled gunslinger you can shoot at two targets at the same time, mythbusters literally tested it and saw decent results from people who had never done it before. If your a skilled gunslinger the gun is an extension of yourself, within a certain range your gonna know just pointing your gun where your bullets gonna go
@@uuproverlord8324your also proving my point by saying he lowered his gun to put it under his right arm, right arms already closer and he wouldn’t have to cross his arm across himself (saving time and eliminating the possibility of blowing a window through his arm 😂)
Dewberry creek looks like it used to be higher and ran pretty quick which if you think about if they got raided… boats and everybody hops on and lives but without as many supplies. Not too hard to steal a wagon with everybody intact. Not a bad idea, but bad time
i'm still trying too figure out whos the rat before gurama is' and i dont think its abigail or molly'and doing the battle for shady belle' i think micah was with the pinkertons doing that time.
during the making of this video i deep dived into what was going on and there were a lot of times I thought i was wrong on the details, so i went back again and again. but its just super hard to figure out what exactly is happening. there are so many coincidences and mishaps, rockstar really created a mystery with the whole thing
@@PremoSaysThings why would a man, in any western film or novel, carry a Wanted poster of somebody that he was *not* looking to kill or capture? It's always been a plot device to make the viewer or reader see motive. I see nothing that suggest Rockstar deviates from this. Making it obvious and actually easy to find (if you are suspicious of Micah and look) is the thing Rockstar does to create doubt..
I don’t think the gang had a rat till Guarma the whole point of the game’s themes are that the age of the outlaw is over the government is getting wise to the gangs strategies.
As for whether Micah was a rat in Strawberry, I think it’s possible that some of his plans and machinations just don’t work out how he’s planned them in his head. He’s a manipulative psychopath and he attempts to puppeteer situations, but he’s not an evil genius. I think he also succumbs to his own impulses as a very violent, vengeful man. But, like a game of Poker - for someone such as Micah, the aim of the game might be to control the situation and win at everyone else’s expense - but how it actually plays out depends on what you’re dealt, how other people play, etc. Nobody is so good that they win every single time. Additionally, I think he may have been in Strawberry because he keeps his fingers in many pies, he probably had some sort of working relationship with members of the O’Driscolls and may have been trying to play all sides, but some things didn’t work out. (I also think he might have set Arthur up against Colm at that meeting in hopes of eliminating him - I think he is threatened by Arthur - a big, strong, skilled gunslinger, trusted by Dutch, who sees right through him from the start. And also feels vengeful towards Arthur for calling him out all the time - I think he had hoped for/tried to bring about Arthur’s demise from the very start). Also, Dutch starts getting obsessed with playing different sides against each other (eg Rhodes, Wapiti vs govt, etc) AFTER Micah’s influence gets a strong hold on him. A sign of Micah’s growing influence, because that’s what Micah does in his whole life. I think it’s possible he may have ratted on the gang about the St Denis robbery. Or he might have inflamed the situationand encouraged riskier behaviour, the idea being that either he gets a chunk of the money if it works, maybe gets to knock off a rival or two (John, Arthur, Hosea, etc) - But I also think you’ve got a really good point about it being a terrible plan in the first place. Maybe Micah didn’t rat them out about the bank job. But I think he he was always keeping his options open, I am not sure that there was a pivotal “I’m gonna rat em” moment for him, I think he’s a flexibly-minded character whose plans change according to the situation. In fact I think it’s brilliant writing that they’ve got us all debating and analysing it, it’s something that’ll end up being studied in English and Literature classes one day if it isn’t already. Maybe the suggestion that there was a rat at all - even suggesting Molly- could have just been to confuse us and muddy the waters and there actually was no rat for Saint Denis like you suggested? Ultimately, the “moral of the story” is that a crime filled lifestyle cannot end well; the gang was doomed sooner or later, especially after their escapades got bigger and wilder. (I am replaying RDR1 and am about to get to the part where John dies - I feel so sad for him, trying so hard to change and move on. But there was NEVER going to be a way out for him. Not after he had killed so many innocent people, no matter how much he tried to change and live a peaceful life). All of the characters are brilliantly written as flawed and multifaceted human beings, and creating a simple “evil genius who masterminds everything” seems below the creators of these characters. And back to me being sad about John dying - it’s incredible writing to have us empathising so strongly with ruthless murderers! In reality, as much as people often want to believe the evil genius trope (like illuminati-type conspiracy theories), it doesn’t work like that - people do try to manipulate or control situations but because of all the different factors at play and people involved, such schemes rarely work out like that. Once again, NOBODY is so good at Poker that they win every single game. And I think it’s likely this is how he was intended to be written - a good player, a skilled manipulator, but not a puppet master.
Not sure if this makes a different in the story, but there's another detail when Arthur and Dutch meet up with the gang at the camp after Guarma. Bill Williamson says he asked everyone he could to find where the gang was. By everyone, that probably includes someone associated with the Pinkertons and that's how they found them right when Dutch walked in the camp. But I have no doubt the Pinkertons found Micah right after Guarma.
I hope they come out with a part 2 for red dead Because red dead redemption is technically the first part John doesn't even acknowledge the gang the first game so in my mind the original game is obsolete where the debt redemption is part one
26:16 bruh, during my playthrough Micah stayed outside the house for the whole shootout and fought like arthur when he was protecting john in the last mission
My theory is that Micah was a rat from the start, discreetly working for Colm O’Driscoll to take down the gang from the inside, whilst also doing his best to get a big score for himself along the way. After Guarma however, he realised there was more to be made working for the Pinkertons, hence why he never tried to rescue Colm at his hanging.
After Arthur releases Micah from the Strawberry prison, Micah at the end of that mission gives him a holster (one way to be able to duel wield, nowadays everyone knows the trapper's trick of getting an additional holster and start duel wielding before even doing any mission of chapter 2), not a Satchel, as Micah tells Arthur clearly in the cut scene you use. Your brain must have somehow tricked you in saying that :) All in all, Micah would be a nice case study for neuroscience, psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, profilers, anthropologists and many others, despite he rated or not the gang (I'm of the opinion that many other people like Abigail or even Pearson would have more reasons to rat the gang unless Micah was from some point on desilluded of the fact that the gang could have barely any success thus changing his pardon for delivering Dutch and other high profile gang members to the Pinkertons. Still as Arthur say at some point in Annesburg before Ducth kills Cornwall and stating Micah suspects of a rat that the gang has no need for a rat as they have become more sloppy than the town drunk, and that's obvious as the gang derrails as the game progresses, Dutch becomes more himself - another narcissistic and megalomanous assh*le - both because it may be a progressive degenerative state, concussion accelerated - when they rob the trolley heist suggested by Bronte and how the heck was Dutch so stupid to believe him despite all his personality disorders -, trauma of Hosea's death which was, like it or not, his "moral compass" during all the time the gang existed, and Micah manipulative speeches that were so in accordance to his self-esteem and auto concept and ofc MIcah's interests of, more than grandeur, fed by the endless need for dominance.
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To make a slight correction on your point about Micah not being at camp when the agents show up. Micah WAS there, present but hiding on the outer ring of the gang when they came for Dutch.
Not to say he didn't plan that event himself, or that your initial assessment was incorrect, other than just that small detail, excellent video regardless.
Dunno if you noticed but the video ends cutting you off saying "like a surviv~"
micah is so well written and acted that peter blomquist often doesn’t get clapped for when appearing on stage alongside other rdr2 actors. it’s very funny and a little sad
it honestly really sucks, Blomquist gave his life to that performance to create the most realistic piece of shit in modern media, even if the character deserves all the bad in the world, the actor needs to be revered. he's incredible
Fr people tend to hate micah so much they dont show appreciation to peter, I myself feel like Micah is over-hated, he is a great antagonist and aint as bad as many other Rockstar villains
@Mr.Capitalism Micah isn't a protagonist, he's a antagonist
@@twinzzlers yeah my bad lol, thanks for looking out
o7
The most complete theory is that Micah was likely tracking Dutch, hoping to capture/turn him in for a reward. This explains the bounty poster for £1000 you find at his camp near Strawberry. However, he then decided to seize an opportunity at the bar where Dutch was trying to sell gold, stepping in and ingratiating himself with Dutch, thinking he could use Dutch to make bigger scores or, if they went went sour, turn him in later. He was effectively hedging his bets from the outset - teaming up with the famous outlaw in the hopes of benefitting from big scores i.e. the Blackwater robbery, but always with an eye to betraying Dutch/the gang if it was possible later. When the Pinkertons picked him up following their return from Guarma, he was "turned" into an informant, but played both sides. Hence he encouraged Dutch to take bigger & bigger risks, hoping to either benefit from the one last heist at the end of the game, or planning on turning Dutch in, or both. A lot of his body language and behaviour as Arthur lay dying shows he was at that time literally trying to manipulate Dutch into going with him, in the direction of the Pinkertons just around the corner.
Oooh, i think you've cracked it. That lines up with his opportunist thought process. Also, lines up with Landon Ricketts saying "Keep hoping to both sides pf the fence, you'll get impaled on it."
This is probably the best theory on Micahs character I've ever seen, this should be gold standard!
What went wrong after Guarma? Nothing! The Pinkertons followed Arthur to the camp, because nobody told them where it was. Milton was lying.
You’re spot on except for Micah trying to lead Dutch to the Pinkertons, it’s safe to say by the time Milton died and the Pinkertons raided Beaver Hollow that Micah was no longer of use to them which is why they’re seen shooting at Micah and Micah is seen shooting at them. He’s trying to encourage Dutch to come with him because he still wanted to use him and if things calmed down later he would probably try to turn him in, but in that moment the Pinkertons were looking to drop any gang member including Micah
Then it makes no sense for him to be so nasty all the time. If he's acting, there's no need to act like an abrasive character
Chapter 2 Dutch to Micah: You get Micah out of that jail.
Chapter 6 Dutch to John: We are not getting John out yet.
Chapter 6 Dutch (secretly): Actually we ain’t getting John out, let him die for all I care he’s a doubter and traitor.
@@abdulazimnaushadHe did the same to Arthur. Eagle Flies had to save him after Dutch left him to die
Chapter 2 Dutch would have saved John too. Chapter 6 Dutch was holed up in a Cave, something Arthur says is against his very self. On top of which Dutch suspects John to be a traitor and with Good reason too
True but; one is a smalltown cell and the other is a State Prison on a Island
45:29 the fact that arthur was the first to draw is always so fire, especially considering he's severely sick
so true thanks for watching
That's why is the GOAT, The GOAAAAAT
Can we talk about how he holds his own against micah at the end of the game
Micah knew he had no chance with that man head on.
All TB did was turn him into Doc Holliday
People hate Micah, and rightfully so, but you can’t say that he isn’t skilled. He’s a good gunslinger and has a sharp sense of intellect, but this is more of the cunning side. In “A short walk in a pretty town”, we can really see Micah’s shooting skills
No he isn’t skilled at all. The reason he always held two guns was because he’s a bad shot. He needs two guns because he’ll most likely miss firing his first shot.
He's erratic and he knows it, he justifies his actions, and has shallow empathy with not a hint of remorse. But he leaves Arthur to die in peace (if honorable), really an underrated character with a rotten role model; his father has the same exact name probably to highlight the effects of childhood modeling, his brother Angus chose to be better though. I believe that's why he let Arthur die in peace.
@@Bleeblooplu Seems like conformation bias and jumping to conclusions, I doubt you could ever operate two revolvers at once and still hit anything, I know I couldn't, that takes real skill.
@@Bleebloopluhe carries two guns because that was a fairly common thing to do. You don't shoot both at the same time you either empty one and switch or you alternate hands. It's not something an unskilled person could do
@21:38 is one of the most badass scenes of micah showing that skill. incredible. just not as good as arthur. its basically deadeye in real time
Guarma is also there to show that Hercule Fontaine was everything that Dutch pretended to be.
Hercule was what Dutch pretended to be, Bronte was who Dutch truly wanted to be. It's honestly amazing writing
All Arthur had to do was go to Strawberry, watch Micah swing from the rope and then go back and tell Dutch that it was too late to save him. Nobody would have challenged Arthur about it. Problem solved.
But as we know Arthur isn’t a bad person.
Arthur could have taken sean and lenny fishing and come back 3 weeks later !
All we had to do was stay in damn Strawberry
@@Toby.-.09-i9h Arthur didn't like nor trust Micah but he let his integrity get the better of him.
dutch wouldve burn it all down anyway just some way differently
I think Micah might be the most complex character after Arthur and Dutch. He is an outlaw. Outlaws aren't nice. Also, I think Micah was betraying Dutch while in Strawberry with the O'Driscolls. Or at the very least he was trying to switch sides in case the other guy got rescued first, then he killed him to prevent him from saying anything.
It's interesting how Micah acts as a foil for the gang. Micah is an outlaw- and the gang are mostly outcasts. Dispite this- society treats them all the same- and therefore- the outlaws and outcasts in the gang allign by developing the same means of survival. But then when you take a closer look at everyones motives- you realize that Dutches downfall was that he allowed himself to start seeing himself as an outlaw- whereas before meeting Micah- he saw himself more as an outcast (hense why outcasts mostly comprose his gang)
Arthur isn’t complex at all.
If he is complex then John is too
@os488 I'd say Arthur is complex in the sense that he is going through change at a very rapid and intense pace. Maybe "deep" is the more fair word to describe it though...
@@BurdieFromHell definitely, he's much more deep than he looks and shows. But not more complex than John for example
My first playthrough I hated Micah, second playthrough I couldn’t get enough of him, it was impressive how good he was at a being a villian.
My second playthrough I downloaded a mod to let me spawn people, and I would occasionally spawn him in front of a train or off a bridge, or, spawn myself a couple of lady escorts, give them knives, make them bodyguards, then spawn Micah as a hostile and watch them hack him (because even as a spawn, I couldn't kill him directly).
I did, by the way, appreciate how good of a villain they made him on my first playthrough. So much so that I would have shot him and Dutch just after the Cornwall affair in Annesburgh, under the guise of "the Pinkertons got them after Dutch killed Cornwall"
Micha is the type of guy to spend all of his points on skill and a very few on charisma
8 in skill 1 in charisma 0 on friendship 😢
he tries, but he's about as charismatic as a snake. Even hisses like one too.
i knew something was off about him when he suddenly tried to get on Arthur's good side in random camp convos before the meeting with Colm. In fact it makes sense why he was trying so hard to persuade Dutch to meet with Colm, when Colm's plan was to simply take arthur.
Micah’s SPECIAL:
Strength - 6
Perception - 4
Endurance - 6
Charisma - 6
Intelligence - 6
Agility - 5
Luck - 4
@@YesMan7331 what is Charles?
@@jayhollows5729 Hmm I’d say
Strength - 8
Perception - 5
Endurance - 7
Charisma - 7
Intelligence - 5
Agility - 5
Luck - 6
Im gonna say this because no one else is Micah is a well written and good character
He reminds me of my uncle :)
He’s probably the best in gaming history
Everyone agrees his a good written character hint why everyone hates him
True. I used to mercilessly hate him but over time I learned to respect his character, after all he’s only been in the gang 6 months and never got along with anyone besides Dutch, anyone in his position would’ve either ran away or ratted, it’s not like Micah sought an alliance with the Pinkertons because Milton clearly states “We PICKED HIM UP and he’s been a good boy ever since” which implies Milton captured Micah and gave him a choice
He is a masterful antagonist, I do hate him but Inkinda love him
After hosea death, micah started to get in Dutch's ear a lot more because before when hosea was alive micah couldn't manipulate dutch as he did later on in the game
Rockstar didn't just create one of the best Protagonists
They created one of the most deplorable characters in fiction
I love me a good Villain and Micah Bell playing that whole Gang like a damn fiddle is a chefs kiss. Not only is he a Master Mainpulator he's on Par with John and Arthur as one of the Best Gunslingers in the Red Dead Universe. Only mistake he made was not Gunning down Dutch when he came up that Mountain years later.
@@edge1247 I love that he shrugs before dying. Doesn't seem angry or offended, just kinda disappointed for a second then is like "whatever"
Micah Bell is arguably the smartest character in the Red Dead Redemption universe,
He managed to trick the world’s best conman into destroying his alliances, his gang, his son and his mind and then nearly got away with handing him over to the authorities afterwards
John is....he doesn't seem it but he knows the crack.
The smartest is Uncle and Josiah.
Dutch destroyed and disgraced all of these things himself. Micah only tossed in the venom after Dutch was already set to doom the gang sooner than later
when people gonna realize micah is a S tier character from a writing perspective. he’s got depth
It's so easy to say Micah was a dumb but looking back really he was the true master manipulator
Micah lived by the mindset Dimitri have in gta iv
He may not be able to change the rules of the game, but he can pick the game
Micah was playing chess while everybody was playing checkers
He just kept asking dutch about money and talking trash to everyone. He only fooled dutch. Dutch, got dutch'd
He was never dumb people that hate him just say that but the reality is he’s one of the smarter characters. Not book smart like Lenny but he’s self aware and has more street smarts than most of the gang members. It takes a smart mind to be able to play a dangerous gang of outlaws and Pinkertons at the same time to benefit from both
@@josephstalin2606yet Arthur saw through his bluster and bravado, and Arthur was considered, well, basically a dullard.
@@jamesowen889Arthur only pretended to be a dullard, he was actually quite intelligent. Read his journal some time, he's more intelligent then he lets on.
@@josephstalin2606 Oh yeah, because fooling a man who was losing his marbles is sooo the proof of one being smart.
Bill will never escape those gay allegations
Man, I honestly love Micah's character and I will stand on this ground
same
this came up on my fyp just as i finished another replay of rdr2, perfect timing! thanks for the deep dive into micah, he's such a well written antagonist and i love questioning his motives and diving into just how long he's been a rat and what he intentions with dutch were! i personally think he was always a rat, just not specifcally to the pinkertons until the end-- like, i fully believe he was always going to betray dutch someday, but given his opportunistic + survive at all costs nature, he had to wait for the day that a better prospect came along first so that he could reap the most benefit before moving on. loved the video!
what a wonderful comment! thank you so much. hope you had an amazing playthrough of rdr2!
Deep down, i sort of think he was always the rat in some odd ways as well. glad to see others think that. again great comment glad you liked the video
24:30 dude micah WAS in that cutscene. he gets an entire closeup and he’s in the shot with Pearson, Sadie, and Bill. in fact, you can clearly see the big ass gap where he was SUPPOSED to be😭😭😭 idk if you modded him out just to make your point or what, but that whole point is invalid
edit: im watching the scene , he even draws his pistols when the rest of the gang draws their weapons
ANOTHER EDIT: neither Lenny, Bill, Javier, Tilly, Trelawney, nor Uncle appear in the o’driscoll attack mission either. i think that’s just coincidence that Micah didn’t
thats wild! I even browsed the subreddit on if micah was in that scene and multiple people said he wasnt - so i went off the information i had. thats so weird. and true i knew that a couple people were missing from odriscall attack mission and i should have said that in the video
thank you for the comment 🫡
Sometimes he appears in that cutscene and sometimes he doesn’t, it’s pretty weird because I also distinctly remember him being in that cutscene but when I watch playthroughs he’s not there for some of them. Idk if it’s honor dependent or if one of the updates took Micah out of that scene but it seems to be a 50/50 chance of him being there or not. Also ur right about the Odriscoll attack at camp, half the gang members aren’t even present in that mission most likely they all happened to be doing their own thing finding leads or getting scores for the group, in lore the gang members don’t just sit around camp all day every day they all go out like Arthur but in gameplay they’re always at camp so Arthur can interact with them
He did draw a gun, on my third playthrough I was checking
@@PremoSaysThingsits on the last scene, when agent milton is about to leave
@@PremoSaysThings all good man, i was just curious why he was modded out of the cutscene 😭
Micah was nice to Arthur at the beginning because he knew not to mess with Arthur healthy but when he got sick he started his antagonizing
Arthur: I was the prized pony once now I'm the workhorse
The thing that makes Micah stand out from the other gang members in the game is he's always one step ahead of everybody. While guys like Arthur, John, Sean, Lenny, etc. are all followers of Dutch's idea that they're heroes, Micah knows it's all crap and is only there to leech off others. This knowledge of Dutch's true intentions is why he can bully, rob, and lie to everyone but still stay on good terms with Dutch. Because Micah knows how to rig the system in his favor, so he does it.
I'd hardly say he tricked the gang, nobody even liked him besides Dutch
And that was enough, he controlled the queen in the chess board
You control Dutch, you control the gang. The entire gang is named after Dutch for a reason
He tricked them into thinking he was crazy and so deranged he would never work with the law, why do you think Charles and Arthur were so surprised when they found out?
@@Mr.Capitalism valid..
@@kingDowahs yea that's a great point, in that sense he certainly tricked the gang
The Guarma section is the definition of a Liminal Space, and I love it for that
guarma felt like a different game lowkey i liked it but fr
when I lost my guns while the game gave me some, I knew to shift gears. I didn't even bother exploring Guarma and something tells me I didn't miss much
@@taski1the atmosphere was so intense, it felt stupid to explore the island in the middle of a war lol
When you abandon morality and trying to help others completely. it's much easier to manipulate and hurt those you would have loved.
Micah took down the van Der linde gang within half a year. A truly scary member of the Trevor bloodline
13:00 Norman was not an O’Driscoll. He was a former outlaw who used to run with Micah.
Class video mate, the production quality you give us deserves recognition keep up the grind and you'll deffo blow up lad love ya videos!
thank you!
Micah was an opportunist who will betray anyone if he thinks it will benefit him.
But
They didn’t need a rat to cause their undoing the times were changing and the gang was unable to change with them.
He simply sped up the inevitable
@ exactly
@@melikesmuffins6676 exactly
to be fair 21:02, it’s not like Arthur was 1000m away in a ghillie suit… he was in plain clothes on the edge of a cliff somewhat close to the meeting point. If we look at this situation if arthur didn’t change clothes and he kept the blue then ur gonna notice a dude in blue against a white/sandstone background lol. i’m also sure Colm had some of his boys up in the hills just incase Dutch and his boys were gonna backstab them or even maybe take the opportunity to ambush them but that’s just me
I actually liked Micha in chapter 2 because he just seemed hot headed and crazy. Seemed like he actually cared for a bit. Then everything else happened and it made me mad. Phenomenal acting and writing made him such a good character.
Honestly, I hadn't really remembered that Micah saved Dutch's life when they first met. It mostly makes some sense now... That Dutch would side with Micah at the end of the game. It was so unlike Dutch to have someone actually save his life and he never forgot about that. He probably admired Micah more than most of the gang, as crazy as that sounds. And maybe him siding with Micah was his way of "owing him "
Reverand swanson saved Dutch's life too ,thats why they kept him although he was a drunken mess
Micah gives Arthur a holster not a satchel
Wish we had any kind of single player DLC with as great writing as the story
people has said they wanted to play as Sadie. Charles is also a good candidate.. maybe he goes back and tryie to help the native americans more properly
though not likely, unfortunately
There was at least 4 occasions where dutch could had elaberated a bit more in these scenarios to help these situations such as when they would rescue John, when he was asking who's betraying him and when Arthur insists on letting John and family go. Maybe that's the madness behind dutch
Can you elaborate on what 'alaberated' means?
@@wyomingptt what do you mean sir?
HAVE SOME GODDAMNED FAITH
John? Insist?
Isn’t it crazy to look back and realize how simple the plot was in chapter 1? Escaping blackwater, the biggest threat was O’driscolls. and trying to make a plan of leaving. then by the later chapters, the gang suddenly has full on war with the army/government And it seems O’driscolls become just a worry in the rearview mirror and is rarely talked about
I love that the game even addresses this, they get in so much hot water, that by the time Sadie tells Arthur that Colm will hang in St. Denis, he was like "who even gives a shit at this point??"
30:16 from what I've seen people hate Guarma because of how short and undercooked it is, aka they wanted more of it
Very good video, well edited, entertaining, and an interesting topic. Hats off
@@cardboardboxer1456 thanks 😎
42:18!! And for that reason, I believe that's why the final mission as Arthur is titled "Red Dead Redemption!" Rockstar is GENIUS 💪💪
Micah is a very well written antagonist and what's amazing that he aint the worst in the Rockstar rogue of villains, he is smart and he is skilled and can be a badass, people hate micah more than they should, good video man
Micah very strangely sometimes appears and and doesnt appear in that cutscene you talked about, the one in clemens point camp
ive noticed that too after i put this video up, some people have it some dont
Lenny saying there will be a party when Micah dies will always make me laugh
0:40 no fucking way it's Flowey the flower
😭
I'm so fucking confused
@@MrBeenus okay so in Undertale, there's this character named Flowey, and he believes that it's kill or be killed. Really awesome game, you should totally play it.
im suprised you didnt bring up the ride to lakay with dutch. if you rude slower dutch goes on a crazy rant on how micah is the only one on his side, but after a bit he realizes what hes saying and apologizes to arthur.
My theory is that he was working with colm in some way.. or at least conspiring with the O'driscals at points.
24:54 in my game, Micah is literally standing next to Sadie and Pearson the whole time. Idk how you or the other content creator (forgot his name) edited him out your clip, but he is in that clip in the original version
thats wild. i even scoured the internet on information about this scene and every bit of information including reddit posts says he wasnt there as well, so i was going off that information and my own experience.
you and a few others have commented this, perplexing.
What purpose do people have doing that, I know people do and would but like.... There's other people that say he didn't appear for them either..
@@Tortuga2223a I know the other did it to try to prove his point of Micah being a rat from the beginning (or at least since Clemens Point). I had the game since a year after it came out, and he's always been in that clip. I ain't saying this guy did it for that reason, but I know the other guy did. I think his name was Mr Boss or something like that. He's known for editing clips to try to prove a point
@@RealTalk87
HEEEEES LYYYYYYINNGGGG
@@RealTalk87he took other people's videos and made his own spin, and used selective editing to prove his point. I didn't watch his videos that long due to that fact.
Your logic is a bit flawed pal, Micahs revolvers literally say vengeance is his life motto. But then with the O'Driscols he wants a peace offering? That doesn't really fly mate.
It's quite obvious he was playing both the O'Driscols and the van der Linde gang. And why are people questioning him being a rat? You literally hear it out of Milton's mouth, who at that point has zero reason to lie to Arthur as he assumed he'd die right there.
"What type of man lives by the sea?!"
Dutch does Micah... isnt his entire plan to live on an island?
Interesting catch
Upon my first play through I personally thought Micah at 7:55 was cool and thought his character was just a hot head. But after strawberry I began to understand.
Rockstar should make a movie on this video game. I bet it gonna be one of the best movies
But you can see Micah in 3 sense when the Pinkertons arrive in one is even holding both his guns
46:22 I don't understand why Arthur/Dutch didn't shoot Micah back once he killed Ms. Grimshaw
agreed
Dutch was too far gone in the head and fully manipulated by Micah, while Arthur was just caught up in the heat of the moment or probably stopped caring all that much for Grimshaw after she coldly killed Molly.
@@abdulazimnaushad He had a gun to him! It was a standoff. If he shot Micah, Micah would've shot him, or Dutch would've shot us or Cleet or Joe. He was determined to save Ms Grimshaw too, He says so to Sadie. He was devastated in this scene that he failed to get her out.
*Micah shoots one of his "family" members in a sneaky, underhanded way*
Dutch: which one of you is betraying me 😩
Micah would get down right death if Arthur was fighting him without tb on that mountain
Interesting facts Thanks Cowpoke 🍻🤠
A barely noticed thing with Micah is when the two of you annihilate Strawberry. Either because he wants you to take the fall or he’s just a fucking idiot, he keeps shouting your full name. Whilst we kill all the lawman, there’s a whole lot of townsfolk who are hearing “Arthur Morgan!” Every five seconds. Compare this to other gang members who call him by his last name or his first name when no one can hear or you know they call him Tacitus Kilgore, Fenton, Arthur Callahan, My boy or English.
NGL, I've never actually gone to the campfire to listen to the members, but man.. just goes to show that the dialogue in this game is S++
I enjoyed your analysis.
i enjoyed your comment
I happened to have an interesting perspective when playing this game for the first time. I actually had Micah being "the rat" spoiled to me before starting (oddly enough), so throughout the game I found it to be no coincidence when Micah just so happened to be away when the Pinkertons showed up, or when Colm had Arthur kidnapped during that meet up. Since there isn't enough concrete evidence otherwise I know it's an uncommon belief that he was a rat from the beginning, but from my POV it was absolutely clear that he was.
13:03 That isn't a O'Driscoll, He is someone Micah used to ride with.
Good work on this video man, never seen you before but hope to see more.
Great video! 👍👍
Micah is in the background by the horses actually haha
i have seen several comments saying in their game hes actually in the cinematics and i tried to do the research for this but most of the people i found online agreed that he wasnt there so thats what i put in the video. thank you for pointing this out though!
One things at the 25 ish minute part you can see micha sitting down in the background
Great analysis, thank you!
I was always baffled that there were straight up no consequences for Micah laying waste to Mrs. Grimshaw at the end.
Just found this channel. Love the work bro keep it up you gained a sub!
Micah was a son of a bitch, but he weren't no rat! Arthur, bless his soul, fell for the easiest strategy an opponent can use against a group- divide and conquer. This has been used for ages, and makes me think of Three Kingdoms.
Arthur agreeing with milton in the end that he should have given them dutch by saying im a fool mr milton was powerful
Imagine if rockstar made him the protagonist in red dead 3 were we can see how he became so evil it could be a tragic story were we actually can understand his venom as it starts to poison him and the more bledshed the more close calls ect ect we actually could come to like him in a weird sort of way we can actually agree with his point of view i might work probably wouldn't happen but hell just a thought
The game should be called Red Dead Revenge or Red Dead Retribution because Redemption would never work as Micah never redeemed himself.
As soon as Micah says "hello Mary, did ya miss me?" Why was there no choice? Could've rode off. Arthur just goes along killing people like a loyal dog when Dutch wasn't even there. Arthur always sussed Micah from day one, he was already subtly questioning Dutch before this, Why was he going along with Micah? Really irritates me.
A lot of you praising Micah’s gun fighting skills and using Rhodes as an example.
1. He only shoots each person (left, front, right) when he’s facing them and on the way of running back to safety after seeing where Sean was shot from.
2. Micah only shoots one gun at a time, and takes the time to lower one and raise the other back up and re-aim. Which makes sense if he was using single action revolvers (needing time to chamber the next round another gun would be faster) but Micah uses double action revolvers, Micah isn’t anywhere near as good a gunslinger as people want to think
Are u saying he should shoot 2 people at the same time? And that he should shoot people behind him or to the side without facing them? And he doesn’t lower and reaim his guns he swings his left arm under his right.
@ if your a skilled gunslinger you can shoot at two targets at the same time, mythbusters literally tested it and saw decent results from people who had never done it before. If your a skilled gunslinger the gun is an extension of yourself, within a certain range your gonna know just pointing your gun where your bullets gonna go
@@uuproverlord8324your also proving my point by saying he lowered his gun to put it under his right arm, right arms already closer and he wouldn’t have to cross his arm across himself (saving time and eliminating the possibility of blowing a window through his arm 😂)
13:14 the Norman guy he murders is someone who he used to do jobs with, not an odriscoll
0:23 what’s the song you used here?
This Masterpiece deserves a sub.
this video is super well made and the videography is fantastic, but why’d you said saint denis like that 😭😭
I actually liked Guarma because it was different, however at the time it was my first play through so I sped through that thing
say it "Ay-muss" not "Ay-mowce"
Good vid
i hate micah but he is a damn good written character, to me he’s the perfect opposite to arthur all while being very similar to him as well
Welcome back
Very well made video 👍
w video as always
thank you!
Dewberry creek looks like it used to be higher and ran pretty quick which if you think about if they got raided… boats and everybody hops on and lives but without as many supplies. Not too hard to steal a wagon with everybody intact. Not a bad idea, but bad time
Micah was one of the first back, but had his clothing.
Surly someone woulda been like "aint no way. Somethings up."
i'm still trying too figure out whos the rat before gurama is' and i dont think its abigail or molly'and doing the battle for shady belle' i think micah was with the pinkertons doing that time.
during the making of this video i deep dived into what was going on and there were a lot of times I thought i was wrong on the details, so i went back again and again.
but its just super hard to figure out what exactly is happening. there are so many coincidences and mishaps, rockstar really created a mystery with the whole thing
@@PremoSaysThings why would a man, in any western film or novel, carry a Wanted poster of somebody that he was *not* looking to kill or capture? It's always been a plot device to make the viewer or reader see motive. I see nothing that suggest Rockstar deviates from this. Making it obvious and actually easy to find (if you are suspicious of Micah and look) is the thing Rockstar does to create doubt..
I don’t think the gang had a rat till Guarma the whole point of the game’s themes are that the age of the outlaw is over the government is getting wise to the gangs strategies.
21:18 pretty sure colm talked about how it was planned
Micah dresses similar to the o Driscolls gritty like and that green scarf he wears around his neck I think he was a spy sent by colm
i like micah. he seems to be a fun friend to have
As for whether Micah was a rat in Strawberry, I think it’s possible that some of his plans and machinations just don’t work out how he’s planned them in his head. He’s a manipulative psychopath and he attempts to puppeteer situations, but he’s not an evil genius. I think he also succumbs to his own impulses as a very violent, vengeful man.
But, like a game of Poker - for someone such as Micah, the aim of the game might be to control the situation and win at everyone else’s expense - but how it actually plays out depends on what you’re dealt, how other people play, etc. Nobody is so good that they win every single time.
Additionally, I think he may have been in Strawberry because he keeps his fingers in many pies, he probably had some sort of working relationship with members of the O’Driscolls and may have been trying to play all sides, but some things didn’t work out. (I also think he might have set Arthur up against Colm at that meeting in hopes of eliminating him - I think he is threatened by Arthur - a big, strong, skilled gunslinger, trusted by Dutch, who sees right through him from the start. And also feels vengeful towards Arthur for calling him out all the time - I think he had hoped for/tried to bring about Arthur’s demise from the very start). Also, Dutch starts getting obsessed with playing different sides against each other (eg Rhodes, Wapiti vs govt, etc) AFTER Micah’s influence gets a strong hold on him. A sign of Micah’s growing influence, because that’s what Micah does in his whole life.
I think it’s possible he may have ratted on the gang about the St Denis robbery. Or he might have inflamed the situationand encouraged riskier behaviour, the idea being that either he gets a chunk of the money if it works, maybe gets to knock off a rival or two (John, Arthur, Hosea, etc) - But I also think you’ve got a really good point about it being a terrible plan in the first place. Maybe Micah didn’t rat them out about the bank job. But I think he he was always keeping his options open, I am not sure that there was a pivotal “I’m gonna rat em” moment for him, I think he’s a flexibly-minded character whose plans change according to the situation.
In fact I think it’s brilliant writing that they’ve got us all debating and analysing it, it’s something that’ll end up being studied in English and Literature classes one day if it isn’t already. Maybe the suggestion that there was a rat at all - even suggesting Molly- could have just been to confuse us and muddy the waters and there actually was no rat for Saint Denis like you suggested? Ultimately, the “moral of the story” is that a crime filled lifestyle cannot end well; the gang was doomed sooner or later, especially after their escapades got bigger and wilder. (I am replaying RDR1 and am about to get to the part where John dies - I feel so sad for him, trying so hard to change and move on. But there was NEVER going to be a way out for him. Not after he had killed so many innocent people, no matter how much he tried to change and live a peaceful life).
All of the characters are brilliantly written as flawed and multifaceted human beings, and creating a simple “evil genius who masterminds everything” seems below the creators of these characters. And back to me being sad about John dying - it’s incredible writing to have us empathising so strongly with ruthless murderers!
In reality, as much as people often want to believe the evil genius trope (like illuminati-type conspiracy theories), it doesn’t work like that - people do try to manipulate or control situations but because of all the different factors at play and people involved, such schemes rarely work out like that.
Once again, NOBODY is so good at Poker that they win every single game. And I think it’s likely this is how he was intended to be written - a good player, a skilled manipulator, but not a puppet master.
Not sure if this makes a different in the story, but there's another detail when Arthur and Dutch meet up with the gang at the camp after Guarma. Bill Williamson says he asked everyone he could to find where the gang was. By everyone, that probably includes someone associated with the Pinkertons and that's how they found them right when Dutch walked in the camp. But I have no doubt the Pinkertons found Micah right after Guarma.
Micah was at camp when the Pinkertons arrived. I've seen it in my playthroughs. No lie in Chapter 3
I was so pissed when Lenny and Sean, were taken out. Particularly Sean.
I hope they come out with a part 2 for red dead Because red dead redemption is technically the first part John doesn't even acknowledge the gang the first game so in my mind the original game is obsolete where the debt redemption is part one
What if Micah never meet Dutch in that bar?
26:16 bruh, during my playthrough Micah stayed outside the house for the whole shootout and fought like arthur when he was protecting john in the last mission
Wait so Micah is the son of Micah Jr? So you're saying he's Micah III? Micah the Third?
Without Arthur's TB, Micah's plan never works. He got lucky...
My theory is that Micah was a rat from the start, discreetly working for Colm O’Driscoll to take down the gang from the inside, whilst also doing his best to get a big score for himself along the way. After Guarma however, he realised there was more to be made working for the Pinkertons, hence why he never tried to rescue Colm at his hanging.
After Arthur releases Micah from the Strawberry prison, Micah at the end of that mission gives him a holster (one way to be able to duel wield, nowadays everyone knows the trapper's trick of getting an additional holster and start duel wielding before even doing any mission of chapter 2), not a Satchel, as Micah tells Arthur clearly in the cut scene you use. Your brain must have somehow tricked you in saying that :) All in all, Micah would be a nice case study for neuroscience, psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, profilers, anthropologists and many others, despite he rated or not the gang (I'm of the opinion that many other people like Abigail or even Pearson would have more reasons to rat the gang unless Micah was from some point on desilluded of the fact that the gang could have barely any success thus changing his pardon for delivering Dutch and other high profile gang members to the Pinkertons. Still as Arthur say at some point in Annesburg before Ducth kills Cornwall and stating Micah suspects of a rat that the gang has no need for a rat as they have become more sloppy than the town drunk, and that's obvious as the gang derrails as the game progresses, Dutch becomes more himself - another narcissistic and megalomanous assh*le - both because it may be a progressive degenerative state, concussion accelerated - when they rob the trolley heist suggested by Bronte and how the heck was Dutch so stupid to believe him despite all his personality disorders -, trauma of Hosea's death which was, like it or not, his "moral compass" during all the time the gang existed, and Micah manipulative speeches that were so in accordance to his self-esteem and auto concept and ofc MIcah's interests of, more than grandeur, fed by the endless need for dominance.