It's hella insane how despite Strauss getting kicked out from the Gang and end up getting tortured and killed by the Pinkertons agents that he STILL remains loyal to the gang and never ratted them out. That's super unexpected when I first played a man that Scams people knowing that he ends up being Loyal to the very end.
@@precisemotion Like that mission with javier where you butcher a whole family living in the woods for their money. While bloodline wiped from the earth, all for a few bucks. Edit:apparently i was wrong, tge family was a bunch of robbers so they werent really innocent
yeah I dont hate Strauss personally too. While doing violent things in the missions, I keep telling myself that these people all have the option to turn tail and run, so anyone still standing in the ring is fair game. Strauss was slimy af but he was basically doing what the gang's doing, only more efficiently and without the violent middlemen.
Like John says to Charles in the epilogue "some people are strong in ways we dont see",you would think judging just by his appearance that he's weak but yet he didn't tell a word about the gang when he was captured
@@smartfella7914eah I’m only just now realising how fucked up that mission is. I don’t remember javier saying anything about them being bad people they where literally just a weird hermit family.😂
Hot take: Strauss isn't any worse than anyone else in the gang. Arthur just especially dislikes him because he's the one doing the dirty work and Strauss is a reminder of why he's dying. Money lending is the least of the gang's concern when it comes to questions of ethics.
It’s just some people who don’t have an ounce of critical thinking that can’t comprehend that the protagonist was genuinely a bad person and deserved what was coming to them and missed the most important word of the game: Redemption.
Exactly, he was just honest about what he was doing. The gang seemed to pride itself on only attacking government institutions like banks and in doing so convinced themselves that they weren't hurting the general populace. Strauss' job on the other hand, showed how shallow that illusion is. Lending money lets them feel magnanimous but you see first hand how Arthur has to cruelly intimidate and threaten to get the interest they owe. They could lie to themselves that they were "sticking it to the man" with other jobs but in the end they were just bandits and Strauss helped Arthur admit that.
Arthur enoyed the illusion of robbing the rich and give to the poor. While the gang rarely got around to that second part, Strauss lent to the poor with huge interest and let Arthur scare those weak, unarmed people into paying him back. Legal, perhaps, but understandably that Arthur disliked it more than gunning down Pinkertons and robbing Cornwall and his like. The hated debt collector job getting him killed slowly and painfully, didn't improve his mood either.
@@rioyr6210 exactly, its in the same situation for Joel from TLOU as well. Just because we bonded with these characters in their respective games and that they have done a little good in their lives doesn't simply erase the bad lives they had and bad things they had done before, eventually both got what's coming to them.
I think he sees himself without the gang in the other Arthur. At first just the same name, then he discovers that just like Arthur he was damned to die, and like Arthur had, the other Arthur has a wife and young boy. Those missions really mean a lot to the overall story.
@@zorex. TY MAN SOME OF THESE PEOPLE ACT AS IF THEY JUST FOUND OUT THIS GAME EXIST THIS CONTENT IS BS ..JS ARTHUR HAS TO DO ONE DEBT AND HE WOULD ONLY LEAVE AFTER YOU GOT SICK...
I never really liked Strauss, but after learning that he never talked/snitched even after getting harassed and even tortured by the Pinkertons, I give him credit for at least staying loyal. After ending things with the gang on bad terms, you would think he would rat and blab out of spite, but he kept his mouth shut and took all information regarding the gang to his grave. He had a really twisted vision of financing the gang, but he was coming from the place of genuine care. John even said "He was strong in ways you can't really see".
I've never seen this interaction before but it's great to see. While I love doing the Chapter 6 debt missions to compensate for the people Strauss screwed over, I also like how Arthur doesn't do them here and just tells Strauss to go fu*k himself. Most satisfying and fitting goodbye to this character imo.
Strauss was my least favorite character, and I enjoyed Arthur throwing him out of camp. By the same token, I think Arthur beating the hell out of Micha (even with TB) was the best victory of the game.
@@matthews7805 Agreed. I found him more deplorable than Micah even though the latter is arguably a much worse person. But at least Micah was charismatic and brought good scores while Strauss was a vulture who preyed on poor people he knows can't pay him back.
Yeah I wish I had gone through with ignoring his missions and getting this myself. I never ignore them because I love watching Arthur redeem himself. In a way this is a spoiler and I have no one to blame bu myself.
@@themadtitan7603 Yea Micah is the villain and he 100% knows it, I hate Strauss more because he tries to make what he's doing innocent and specifically preys on people who need help while Micah doesn't care for them
@@sideways_chip_eater6420 Yeah, even Micah says to Strauss in a camp conversation that at least he doesn't pretend to be someone's friend and later stab them in the back but has the "decency" to shoot them full in the face.
One of my favorite scenes in the game, especially the low honor version is badass and fittingly harsh for Strauss imo. *"My comrade? You're a creep. A creep and a parasite and a time waster.*
It's not almost 5 years since it came out. The game was released on October 26th, 2018. Now it's January of 2023. It's still four years since it came out.
@@nightbandit1260 No it hasn't. It's been 4 years. It'll be 5 years when it's October 26th again. You don't just count the year you also count the month and day. Let's say you were born in the time when Red Dead 2 came out. Would you say you're 4 or 5 years old right now even though your birthday hasn't come up yet.
@@marcuscain1377 cope. Do you feel the pendulum swinging ever closer into the future. Thinking you can delay the inevitable with your silly words of denominations. You've grown old haven't you? You feel it. You look back thinking it couldn't have been that long. So your mind is frightened by the thought that in fact life seems to be slipping away. You sir. Will never escape
BLURRED TF AND HE LEAVES AFTER YOUR SICK LMAO LITTLE CHANGE HUH THE TITLE MAKES SO MUCH SENSE U CAN AVOID EVERY MISSION HE LEAVES WHICH U CANT ... HE DOSE NOT SAY AFTER ONLY DOING THE ONE MISSION THAR MATTERS IF YOU DONT DO THE OTHERS HE LEAVES THATS MISLEADING BUT ALRIGHT ..IDK IF ITS THAT SOME FOR THESE FINE FOLKS SEEMS AS THEY NEVER HAVE PLAYED THE ENTIRE GENRE AT ALL...LIKE LEGIT ..OR MAYBE EVEN NUMBER 2 BUT SEEM TO TALK AS IF THEY THINK THIS IS REAL LIKE HE CANT GET SICK HENCE WHY I SEE NO ONE MENTION HIM STILL BEING SICK AS THIS DOSE ANYTHING FOR HIM IN ANY DIFFERENT WAY AND THE TITLE SAYS IT AS IF YOU CAN AVOID EVERY MISSION OR LEAVES US HANGING SO IF SOME ONE S STILL PLAYING THEY BE LEAD ASTRAY TOO,.
@@SLITHERIS Also, if you do those things, Arthur can randomly admit to Mary-Beth that he doesn't feel in control over his actions. It feels like it's leaning on the Fourth Wall, but it shows that Arthur genuinely doesn't want to be the villain.
Moral grounds aside, (edit: from his perspective at least) Arthur still has every reason to hate Strauss's guts just based on the fact that having to go collect debts is what resulted in Arthur catching tuberculosis.
@@risottonero4501 I think Arthur fully understands it's just as much his fault for getting TB. When he talks to Sister Cauldron, he never mentions being forced to collect debt and blames himself for beating a poor farmer half to death for a few bucks. But he hates Strauss because he finds him a creepy vulture who intentionally prey on poor people.
To be honest, I prefer this scenario. I had empathy for Strauss when Arthur kicked him out of the camp in the middle of the night in the rain and Strauss said : "I thought we were friends" with the face of a guy who's almost going to cry. I understand that what Strauss is doing is wrong but ethically the camp has done much worse in some cases. In this scenario, Strauss seems almost happy.
I kinda feel like Arthur kicked him out when he did to kinda try to save Strauss but idk. I mean I know aethurs upset cause he's dying because of the debt missions and having to go do shotty things to decent people but throughout the game he doesn't bad mouth Strauss and act like he hates him. Arthur knew the end was coming and he was trying to talk multiple people into running away anyway
After the epilogue I just felt sorry for Strauss. He only did what the gang allowed. Which honestly being a loan shark is low. But it's not as low as killing several people in a bank heist gone wrong and Arthur hardly protested against it to begin with. Even going as far as beating a sick man to death and collecting the debt from his widow. I love this game but that part always left me feeling sleazy even until this day.
If you look at the Van Der Linde gang objectively, everyone was a bad person. Even the members that didn't directly rob people or kill anyone. The girls regularly drop hints about potential convoys or targets for robbing and sometimes you can take them along as use them as bait for robberies. Pearson and Grimshaw generally stay in the camp, but they still choose to run with a gang of criminals that robs and murders people. Strauss was no worse than anyone else in that gang for participating in usury. The only member that was totally innocent was Jack. All these characters were fantastically written and it's easy to bond with them, but when you look at their actions and the lives they choose to live you'll see them for the gang of bloodthirsty, thieving criminals they truly are.
@@koolandblue Strauss and Micah were the only two members of the gang who had delusions of what they were doing. Only difference is at least Strauss wasn't a rat.
Yeah it's hard for me to dislike Strauss too much after playing Arthur as The Saint Denis Ripper for so long; donning the executioner hood, hogtying random women, throwing them on the back of his horse and taking them to some far off place in the woods to taunt them and slit their throats before crying over their lifeless bodies, lamenting his inability to control the murderous rage that exists within and then going on his way like nothing ever happened- until the blood lust inevitably returns. Strauss is a boy scout compared to my Arthur...
Its funny how ppl are so fucking blind or retarded , strauss was the least evil person in comparaison to dutch arthur ect ,,, yeah he made money to the gang from feeding on poor families , but he didn't force them to borrow while arthur and the others killed , stole , and did waaay more damage then he would ever be able to do
Has it ever occurred to anyone by the end of chapter 6 since most of the gang is gone we had more than enough money to leave anyways but Dutch clearly never intended on leaving
I realized when I did a playthrough choosing to go back for the money instead of helping John escape. When I found the money it was something like $50,000! Dutch had that shit the whole time, they all could have left long ago!
@@hellcat1401 Well, they had the money from the Valentine bank robbery, the riverboat poker robbery, the leviticus cornwall train robbery, the bonds from the raid on cornwall kerosene and tar, the army payroll, and all of the smaller scores they got throughout the game. So I think it adds up
Well, there are two sides: - Strauss leaves by himself, debts are cancelled, the "goodbye" is short and straight. - In Chapter 6 debts' missions Arthur realises everything especially with his condition and confronts Strauss.
I collected enough debts early on to make him stay but didn't do any in chapter 6. In my epilogue Charles said he got picked up by the Pinkertons after the breakup and died in prison.
@@mariguana7918 St Denis, forgive my tiny mistake ô big fan of RDR2, I never meant to offend you in any way.. But in my opinion, it was easy to guess by yourself as there is NO St Louis in the game and only one town with St in its name....
@@gillesgrindel7985 I was kind of joking because I thought it would be a funny way to end the reply. But Strauss does NOT take part in the St. Denis robbery. He stays back at camp.
This happened to me on my first play-through. I didn't know kicking him out was an option for a long time because I never did his missions. Until I tried to do a low-honor play-through and I kicked him out not knowing. My honor got pushed back to high honor. I was pretty pissed. R.I.P. Everyone in Valentine.
How can you make a lot of money while maintaining good honor. Better question, is honor hard to bring back up if the money method requires you to rob and kill people?
Yep, its why upon playing again im always as nice as possible to him and never antagonise him unlike micah, bill, javier etc.. if he wanted to save his own skin he could have ratted like micah yet he is tortured to death because of his loyalty and doesn’t say a word to the pinkertons. He is stronger than the rest in ways we cant see. Most would give in to bad tortures like that, even dutch, micah and the like i reckon, if its at the point you will die due to wounds inflicted i imagine 90% of people would give in.
I'm on chapter 2 of my most recent playthrough, and I'm not doing any Strauss missions at all this time. No Strauss, no illness for Arthur, he lives on after saving John. 😊 (I know it doesn't work like that, just... please, let me have this)
I like that they have an alternative but I'm surprised they didn't make this a cutscene. It would make more sense for it to play out like this but then watch him pack up and leave. Having him just dump his paper and run away instantly after talking to Arthur makes no sense.
They should’ve just made the debt collecting mandatory to progress the story. But if you don’t bother to do those missions, this small dialogue is already more than you deserve.
IDK IF ITS THAT SOME FOR THESE FINE FOLKS SEEMS AS THEY NEVER HAVE PLAYED THE ENTIRE GENRE AT ALL...LIKE LEGIT ..OR MAYBE EVEN NUMBER 2 BUT SEEM TO TALK AS IF THEY THINK THIS IS REAL LIKE HE CANT GET SICK HENCE WHY I SEE NO ONE MENTION HIM STILL BEING SICK AS THIS DOSE ANYTHING FOR HIM IN ANY DIFFERENT WAY AND THE TITLE SAYS IT AS IF YOU CAN AVOID EVERY MISSION OR LEAVES US HANGING SO IF SOME ONE S STILL PLAYING THEY BE LEAD ASTRAY TOO,.
From a gameplay perspective I think it’s mostly like this way because they expected the player to finish the quests before a certain point and considering the situation the player should be fully aware that the side quest will expire if they do continue so because they wrote it this way they basically had to force Strauss out some other way because the later scenes don’t have him there.
I love that little touch with Strauss dropping his book. With Strauss gone, the depts are gone with them. Still though, as depraved as Strauss was, I’ll give credit where it’s due. Didn’t speak a word to “you-know-who.”
To be fair Strauss might have had no important information to Pinkertons. There is a possibility Strauss talked, but nothing that Pinkertons didn't already knew. Gang left the spot soon after Strauss left
I hated Strauss through the game but when I found out he got caught by the Pinkertons and tortured for information but never gave anyone up I felt so bad for hating him. Strauss was more loyal than Micah and Dutch😔
To be fair, Dutch wasn't exactly disloyal. He was increasingly unhinged and paranoid, but he didn't know Micah was the rat. As soon as he knew it was true, he left (probably realising he'd fucked everything up and there was no going back), then presumably shot Micah for it years later.
What? It's a real interaction from the game? Never knew about it. This game never stops to surprise. And I bet that it isn't the last peace of hidden content to be found.
I’ll be honest, I hated Strauss so much I didn’t do the last two of his missions in my first playthrough. Didn’t get this interaction either, he just disappeared
Hated him for what ? Making money for a fucking criminal gang that kill and steal anything and anyone ? There is a reason the game have redemption in the title , cuz the motherfuckers were way more evil then strauss could ever be
@@alaa341g me hating Strauss doesn’t mean I didn’t hate any other members of the gang. Strauss wasn’t my least favorite either, I just hated how he fucked with poor people
After the valentine bank robbery mission when you go back to the downes place I just stopped going to Strauss whenever his missions popped up. IMO Strauss is the reason why people who know Arthur outside of the gang think he’s a bad man that and Strauss is the reason Arthur dies
@@tristadarden3159 because he is a bad man, stop cockriding, hes a fucking criminal, and a horrible one, just because he wants to be good before he dies doesnt make him a good person
I didn't even think this was possible. This game has more options than you think. But you should collect the debts as part of Arthurs redemption story.
I actually felt bad for Strauss, I definitely didn’t like his underhanded schemes but I don’t believe he hated or would ever betray anyone within gang considering that he gets caught and tortured by the Pinkerton. He didn’t rat out anyone and his back story perfectly illustrates why he is in the loan shark business. I personally believe if Strauss had to go get the money himself he wouldn’t be able to even as a younger man; you can tell his character has had some kind of physical ailment or Limitation given the fact him and Josea are around the same age.
Yup he even says to Arthur something like people like lending money of people like me but are more inclined to pay people like arthur back. And he's right. If Strauss didn't have the gang he wouldn't of seen a single cent paid back to him.
He was more of a morally grey, even Hosea participated in con jobs and he's probably considered the more upstanding member of the gang since he was trying to warn Dutch about where they were headed.
I just got to this part tonight. I’ve been replaying trying to get max honor. I think seeing it this second time around, Arthur kicked him out because he thought he was a snake but also to give him a head start so that he may have a fighting chance when the gang finally does implode on its self.
I always felt bad for Strauss, he got tortured and killed but never ratted out the gang and what he was doing wasn't really any worst than the rest of the gang
He was helping people with loans only degenerates don't pay their debts that's why we have credit scores.. If banks didn't give loans few people would own houses
Holy F, I thought it was gonna be some meme but it wasn't. Damn, so ignoring this literally skips one of Arthur's greatest moments in his search of redemption, the widow and her child and the soldier with his wife, well at least its not gonna be under Arthur consience the fact that the Pinkertons found him and killed him in costudy for resisting to cooperate. But man, there were a lot of things I wish to be optional in this game but this is one of the rare instances where they did it but it doesn't do much and I prefered they left it mandatory, seriously this was jaw dropping for me, now I'm gonna repeat a quote that was said zillion times in this comunity "four years and still discovering new things about this game"
I completely ignored Strauss for my first playthrough (except for the required ones in chapter 2), and I don't think I even got this interaction. I think someone in camp told me he was gone. I can't remember who though.
The work Strauss did was terrible but he was admirable when the Pinkerton’s caught him. They tortured him and he didn’t give up any information, so they eventually killed him.
@@SUN-DANCE Yeah, but you said "killed" him, which to me implies that they just shot him dead or something. But I expect he just succumbed to injuries.
After the first time I collected debts, I felt so terrible I never did them again. Then I learned that in the final you can actually help people. Still, I'm glad to know that he would have eventually left on his own. It makes me feel a little better about throwing him out of the camp.
@@Jayden20933 xd cause he's the only cowboy in the band who feels neutral lol, Arthur is the loved one and everybody hates Micah but both are fckin killers
I can see how he's not morally worse than the rest of the gang, but something about robbing people the traditional way seems so much more "honest" than like, tricking desperate people into taking shitty loans.
This makes me feel sick. I never thought badly of Strauss he simply conned and made money for them all and did his part. He didn't deserve his fate at all imo
Straus bullying the weak but loyal to the gang(in epilogue, Charles mentioned that Straus got kidnapped and tortured till death by Pinkerton because he didn't rat the gang out) meanwhile Micah bullying the weak and also betrayed the gang . so Straus > Micah
Ya really those people shoulda just paid their debts the bank woulda done them worse... Mr Dowes attacked Arthur with a rake trying to avoid his debt.. These people are crazy
Im literally astonished how deep this game is.. even though im excited to see what GTA 6 will be like, doubt it will reach this level. But wait this only goes for chapter 6 right ?
Strauss was far from the worst person in the gang. If you remove the violence from the collection methods and make a slight adjustment to his interest rate, he’s nothing more than a banker. And regarding the violent collection methods, he wouldn’t care much at all of there never had been any violence in the collection methods. He’s a predator and a villain for sure, but he’s easily correctable compared to the other members.
If I go to a Casino and lose all my savings, are they predators and villains? Strauss is a businessman, not a villain or a predator. It's the borrowers who are irresponsible and evil.
@@americandissident9062 The 2008 economic crash was caused by a combination of a housing market bubble, subprime mortgages, MBS, Lehman brothers bankruptcy, and government regulations that protect big banks when they make stupid decisions (except for Lehman, they got f-cked). Payday loans had nothing to do with it. How is Strauss a predator? That's like accusing Papa John's of making people fat.
I feel like it would still end with Arthur's death but in a different way, since the only path to redemption in these games seems to end with death. If there was another ending where Arthur didnt get TB, it would probably be like John's death. The only way the Van der Linde gang could have survived was if Dutch actually listened to Arthur and Hosea instead of Micah.
Strauss always thought he was better then anyone because he got money without using guns or violence. But when Arthur kicks him out he essentially tells him he is worse by far then all of them the most vile, shameful and disgusting as he preys on the weakest of the weak. This is an unsatisfying leave of him because he leaves with what little pride he has but when Arthur kicks him out he had his pride taken.
You are wrong, largely because Strauss relies on sending a strongman to threaten, intimidate, and assault his debtors into paying up. The sort of predatory loan-sharkery that Strauss partakes in is less overtly violent to an outside observer, but the people he victimized feel no different than if they had simply been robbed at gunpoint.
Man i can't understand how the fuck arthur can even talk to strauss and make him look like the worst guy while he forget that he is the criminal not strauss, like the man is a motherfucking evil criminal that have a death count of hitler , he even was the one beating those ppl to get the debts , this fucking moral delima make me nuts , i mean its a fucking criminal gang they are running , they've been doing all the bad stuff for more then 30 years
@@abberss I think it also doesn't help that Strauss basically robs desperate, poor people. The rest of the gang tries to rob the authorities/rich landowners/other gangs/that sorta thing.
rob a few poor people or kill a bunch of people who are just doing their job? strauss had the least destructive way of making money than most of the gang members, including arthur.
Honestly, I never thought Strauss was particularly worse than anyone else in the gang, least of all Arthur. Y'all acting like you didn't orphan Catfish Jackson's son and steal his mom's cigarette card.
I will not tolerate Strauss hate. Dude gets kicked out of the group, is tortured to death AND NEVER TALKS ABOUT THE GANG. Dude is a legend. An evil man but a legend.
Most of the rest of the gang has definitely done worse than him, Hosea is considered someone they look up to and he straight up conned people. Then again, he believed in exploiting the rich, not the destitute.
Wish they had made Strauss more layered, i.e. that the storytellers, instead of portraying him pretty much exclusively as a stereotypical mean and cold-hearted money-lender, had show him to be quite a different person, when he is among his fellow-gang members, than he is when he is mistreating his "customers". Show him teach math to Jack and be kind and helpful to the other people in camp. And show him be a good friend towards Arthur and Arthur appreciating him and liking him as a friend even if he finds his money lending business unsavoury and discomforting. After all pretty much everyone in camp objectively does way worse things than Strauss does when he is exploiting people financially and propelling them into difficult circumstances...E.g. Sean who is beloved cuts the throat of some poor guy just trying to earn a living as a farm-hand on the Grey Estate, Mary-Beth helps to set up the robbery of an armoured coach by serving as a distraction and causing the murder of the guards, who probably just try to feed their children etc. So I bet in real life Strauss would probably get the most lenient punishment of all gang members (except for the Reverend and Pearson and Molly I suppose).
He did get one interesting layer of development. He supposedly refused to give up any info about the gang under torture, even after being kicked out the way he was
Everyone claiming “Strauss is why Arthur died” is so silly. First, TB can lie dormant for decades if not a lifetime and nearly 1/4 of the population are carriers, Arthur could have gotten it from anyone at any point in his life, downs is just the only one he encountered with active TB (why don’t you think his family or anyone Arthur interacted with catches it after all?). Second, Arthur had already had a close interaction with Downs before collecting debts on him during the barfight. Both of these incidents also occurred outside, where airborne disease is much less likely to spread. Tuberculosis was just a big deal in the late 19th century, it was the disease everyone knew and subject to a LOT of attention among the era’s art, literature, etc. it’s only fitting that if Arthur is to catch a fatal disease it’d be that.
@@justinmau6419that doesn’t mean he couldn’t talk about what every person did Forgive me if I’m wrong but I don’t think is there any mention of Charles Javier or bills bounty because no one ever implicated them Strauss also could give the cops/Pinkertons a reference area of where to look for the members of the gang they obviously hear about each other so that means some contact between them at least
I stopped collecting debts near the end of the game because I couldn't bring myself to. They were optional so I just stopped because it made me feel like shit every time. Now I wish I did though, because the missions are actually really heartfelt and seeing Arthur kick him out is so satisfying.
I almost didn't do them. After everything that had happened up to the point where the debt mission becomes available I was like nope, no way. I can't do this anymore. But I decided to do them full well prepared to forgive people if I had the option. Thankfully, well, you know the rest.
I DIDN'T know this is possible!!! Thank you for sharing this!!! Still, Strauss isn't really that hateable compare to Micah's heartless annoyance and inhumanity and Dutch's betrayal on all of us. He was just doing his job for the group as their personal accountant and loan shark for the others to earn some financial support. In the end, he was just losing his trust in Dutch. So, either Arthur kicked him out and persuaded him to get a civilized job for himself to get Strauss out of the outlaw life, Or you interacted with him for one last time and not having collected too much bonds and the fact that Strauss decided to leave himself that was very understandable, Strauss never actually became a rat to the group, And the fact that he didn't say a word about the survivors when he got caught by Agent Ross and his men a few years later and actually died while keeping his mouth shut was the most heroic thing that Strauss did to help prolong the survivors' respective livelihoods after they were freed from the outlaw life.
To be frank, this was better than in my gameplay. When I played, I was so disgusted after cancelling the last debt that I didn't go speaking to him after that. He left on his own without saying a word.
Strauss is one of the backbones of the gang, can't hate him regardless lf who he is of even his morals. It's enough that he's doing an honest work and not causing much trouble.
i didn’t do any of the side missions after like chapter 4 because i just wanted to finish the game and i’d assumed i can go back to them after. after seeing what i missed by collecting the debts im gutted its so important to the game
I personally liked him. He did the best He could do, just like most in the Camp. and honestly if you look the succes rate He is a better scammer then dutch and hosea. I think if he would have helped planning some of these scams of Hosen and dutch it wouldnt have gone down that bad. But then again i've only got to saint denise a few days ago and got spoiler the entire game by thumbnails wich is why i even watch this kind of videos.
The thing is, Dutch and Hosea were trying to scam rich people, Straus exclusively targeted the poor and desperate. The rest of the gang never robbed from anyone who needed the things they stole, except probably Micah and his cronies, while that's all Straus did.
I thought Arthur was harsh to Strauss when I first saw him kicked out, but on my second playthrough I realized what made Strauss such a slug. He would loan people money under the guise generous foreigner. He would provide much-needed support to desperate people. When it came time to collect, he'd send Arthur to collect the debts so he never saw the ugly side of what he was doing. Arthur had to wade through their squalor, and he had to be the one who tore away what little they had left. Strauss was allowed to think they'd brought it on themselves by borrowing money they couldn't pay back. Arthur finally made Strauss see. The Pinkertons tortured him to death. He didn't talk for one of two reasons. 1. He took what was coming to him and refused to save his own skin because he wanted to get it right in the end. 2. He had no information to give the Pinkertons because he never paid a lick of attention to a single other person in the gang. He couldn't exploit them for money, so he had no reason to listen to them when they talked about trivial matters like where they'd go if the gang fell apart. That theory goes hand-in-hand with his disposition toward the people indebted to him. To him, their problems weren't his concern.
I tired to avoid meeting with the Downes but the game played a cutscene after a mission where Strauss made Arthur go collect the debt. It was unpreventable either way.
@@760Miramar if you have autosave on, load the save when it forces you into the mission, ride away from camp, it'll fail, and spawn you at Downe's ranch, then turn around and ride your horse off a cliff. It'll allow you to cancel the mission. In my playthough It's the last mission left of chapter 2.
i think arthur is unreasonably mean to strauss here and when he kicks him out. sure you could say strauss does wrong by loansharking. but it's not nearly as bad as any of the stuff arthur or the rest of the gunmen in the gang do. and nobody forces anyone to take strausses money. i know a lot of players hate leopold because he is partly responsible for arthur getting sick. but it's not leopolds fault. if anything it's the downes fault for borrowing money they couldn't pay back. arthur is such a hypocrite. it's okay for arthur to go out and rob innocent people on a train. and kill 20 lawmen who were just trying to help said innocent folks who are being robbed. but strauss just lending money is the worst crime ever? no way. i love arthur but moments like this make me annoyed with him.
that's the point. no one in the van der linde gang is a good person. the best of them tried to make most of what they could to change for the better, but none of them ever came close to redeeming themselves for the destruction they caused.
@@stc3145 Exactly. Not a lot people get why Strauss is kicked out and why particularly in Chapter 6. It's in his interaction with the Edith Downes and Mrs. Londonderry that he realizes how exactly Strauss conducts his business and decides to kick him out.
Mr. Strauss is actually a great man, he helped a lot of poor people to struggle through hardships, even if they risked to get a punch or two, it helped them a lot. Nobody helped them, but he did, and it's okay if he get some money in return.
@@diveblock2058 Not because of what he did but who he did it to, as poor as he was you’d think he’d take pity on the weak, instead he uses them just like he uses Arthur. And as he said the gang was just a bunch of young fools Dutch used….
@@LN031 some of you are completely blind it's like astronomically amazing how blind some of you are. Straus was a terrible man a vile man who preyed on the weak but at the end of the day the entire Van Der linde gang preyed on the weak towards the end for a very small amount of time could they even be considered good and we never saw the good side of them. Arthur had the option to do those debts they aren't mandatory but he chooses to do them anyway.
@@LN031 I mean think about this logically strass is not targeting these people hell he probably doesn't even know what position they are in and probably aproach him, the only people who would take money from someone as shady as Strauss is someone who for whatever reason can't go to the bank but unlike the bank strass can't use the cops so he sends arthur the one guy who is the muscles of the gang and trustworthy enough to not take the money (micha cough) At the end of the day, while Strauss couldn't contribute physically, he did the best he could and was a vauble asset to the gang And Strauss wasn't the only one encouraging him to get the money. If you wait long enough, dutch will start asking you to do it
What is a difference with a banks today? Some say, that Strauss lend money to people, that cant pay them back. But what a point in that? They have not bussines gang can take over (like in Soprano). Strauss lend poor suckers money, they cant pay back and then money get beat from them. Arthur gets money, nothing more. So, they can pay back. Too much though. But hey, it's capitalism for you.
Herr Strauss reminds me of Frank from Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven, both dress up almost identically, they look almost identically, they sound pretty similar, they both are magicians with business and numbers, they would rather be tortured to death and take ratting out to their grave, strong in ways you can't see... I love these kinds of characters. I love Herr Strauss and Frank. It was pretty sad to hear that Herr Strauss was tortured to death. I hoped that he would spend the money for a boat, get to someplace and become a businessman or... Frank from Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven.
It's hella insane how despite Strauss getting kicked out from the Gang and end up getting tortured and killed by the Pinkertons agents that he STILL remains loyal to the gang and never ratted them out. That's super unexpected when I first played a man that Scams people knowing that he ends up being Loyal to the very end.
The whole gang is criminals dude. Most members of the gang, even your favorite, do far worse than Strauss on a regular basis.
@@precisemotion Like that mission with javier where you butcher a whole family living in the woods for their money. While bloodline wiped from the earth, all for a few bucks.
Edit:apparently i was wrong, tge family was a bunch of robbers so they werent really innocent
yeah I dont hate Strauss personally too. While doing violent things in the missions, I keep telling myself that these people all have the option to turn tail and run, so anyone still standing in the ring is fair game.
Strauss was slimy af but he was basically doing what the gang's doing, only more efficiently and without the violent middlemen.
Like John says to Charles in the epilogue "some people are strong in ways we dont see",you would think judging just by his appearance that he's weak but yet he didn't tell a word about the gang when he was captured
@@smartfella7914eah I’m only just now realising how fucked up that mission is. I don’t remember javier saying anything about them being bad people they where literally just a weird hermit family.😂
Hot take: Strauss isn't any worse than anyone else in the gang. Arthur just especially dislikes him because he's the one doing the dirty work and Strauss is a reminder of why he's dying. Money lending is the least of the gang's concern when it comes to questions of ethics.
It’s just some people who don’t have an ounce of critical thinking that can’t comprehend that the protagonist was genuinely a bad person and deserved what was coming to them and missed the most important word of the game: Redemption.
Exactly, he was just honest about what he was doing. The gang seemed to pride itself on only attacking government institutions like banks and in doing so convinced themselves that they weren't hurting the general populace.
Strauss' job on the other hand, showed how shallow that illusion is. Lending money lets them feel magnanimous but you see first hand how Arthur has to cruelly intimidate and threaten to get the interest they owe. They could lie to themselves that they were "sticking it to the man" with other jobs but in the end they were just bandits and Strauss helped Arthur admit that.
Other than Arthur, Strauss is the one who really bring in money, granted he needs Arthur help but still.
Arthur enoyed the illusion of robbing the rich and give to the poor. While the gang rarely got around to that second part, Strauss lent to the poor with huge interest and let Arthur scare those weak, unarmed people into paying him back. Legal, perhaps, but understandably that Arthur disliked it more than gunning down Pinkertons and robbing Cornwall and his like. The hated debt collector job getting him killed slowly and painfully, didn't improve his mood either.
@@rioyr6210 exactly, its in the same situation for Joel from TLOU as well. Just because we bonded with these characters in their respective games and that they have done a little good in their lives doesn't simply erase the bad lives they had and bad things they had done before, eventually both got what's coming to them.
Most of Arthur's redemption is in those final debt missions without them the payoff of the narrative isn't as impactful
I didnt do those missions because I thought I would have to make more people suffer and I thought it was a pretty impactfull ending.
I think he sees himself without the gang in the other Arthur. At first just the same name, then he discovers that just like Arthur he was damned to die, and like Arthur had, the other Arthur has a wife and young boy. Those missions really mean a lot to the overall story.
@@leeworley6727 if you do these missions in chapter 6, you can choose to absolve the debts
@@thebigragu9952 You speak english brother??
@@zorex. TY MAN SOME OF THESE PEOPLE ACT AS IF THEY JUST FOUND OUT THIS GAME EXIST THIS CONTENT IS BS ..JS ARTHUR HAS TO DO ONE DEBT AND HE WOULD ONLY LEAVE AFTER YOU GOT SICK...
So charm is Arthur's favorite feature from Strauss, while ringworm is Arthur's favorite parasite before Uncle. Makes sense.
No. First ringworms, then rats with the plague, then Uncle.
@@multiverse_media2023 Nothing worse than a parasite with lumbago.
Don't forget rats with the plague
@@micahbell7568 so micah is arthur s 2nd parasite
Don't forget Micah with the plague.
I never really liked Strauss, but after learning that he never talked/snitched even after getting harassed and even tortured by the Pinkertons, I give him credit for at least staying loyal. After ending things with the gang on bad terms, you would think he would rat and blab out of spite, but he kept his mouth shut and took all information regarding the gang to his grave. He had a really twisted vision of financing the gang, but he was coming from the place of genuine care. John even said "He was strong in ways you can't really see".
Tbh Strauss isn't too bad, pretty much every other gang member finances the gang by straight up robbery and murder.
He saved his own hide and thats it. Anything else is adding your own spin. Stop adding depth where there is none.
@@zion897 Incorrect. If he was only saving his own skin, John wouldn't have said such quote defending him.
@@zion897 Have you even read the comment? Strauss had snitched on the gang if he wanted to save his own skin
@@zion897
if he really wanted to save himself then he would've told the Pinkertons everything and yet he didn't
“Okay I’ll catch you later then”
I can hear this lmao
"... In hell, Mr. Strauss!".
I've never seen this interaction before but it's great to see. While I love doing the Chapter 6 debt missions to compensate for the people Strauss screwed over, I also like how Arthur doesn't do them here and just tells Strauss to go fu*k himself. Most satisfying and fitting goodbye to this character imo.
Strauss was my least favorite character, and I enjoyed Arthur throwing him out of camp. By the same token, I think Arthur beating the hell out of Micha (even with TB) was the best victory of the game.
@@matthews7805 Agreed. I found him more deplorable than Micah even though the latter is arguably a much worse person. But at least Micah was charismatic and brought good scores while Strauss was a vulture who preyed on poor people he knows can't pay him back.
Yeah I wish I had gone through with ignoring his missions and getting this myself. I never ignore them because I love watching Arthur redeem himself. In a way this is a spoiler and I have no one to blame bu myself.
@@themadtitan7603 Yea Micah is the villain and he 100% knows it, I hate Strauss more because he tries to make what he's doing innocent and specifically preys on people who need help while Micah doesn't care for them
@@sideways_chip_eater6420 Yeah, even Micah says to Strauss in a camp conversation that at least he doesn't pretend to be someone's friend and later stab them in the back but has the "decency" to shoot them full in the face.
Tbh I prefer Arthur kicking him out.
Strauss: I’m..
Arthur: Leaving
One of my favorite scenes in the game, especially the low honor version is badass and fittingly harsh for Strauss imo.
*"My comrade? You're a creep. A creep and a parasite and a time waster.*
Yup
@@themadtitan7603 yet Arthur did all the nasty stuff not Straus. Guy never ratted when they tortured him either.
@@Kneejair he was a loanshark !!!!
00:22 Roger Clark’s voice it’s so good, I love it
He really is a great actor
The way he says "get outta here" is kinda terrifying. It's calm yet threatening.
This game is almost 5 years old we still keep finding new things. Literal masterpiece
Yes
Oh shit it has been 5 years since this came out....fuck.
It's not almost 5 years since it came out. The game was released on October 26th, 2018. Now it's January of 2023. It's still four years since it came out.
@@nightbandit1260 No it hasn't. It's been 4 years. It'll be 5 years when it's October 26th again. You don't just count the year you also count the month and day. Let's say you were born in the time when Red Dead 2 came out. Would you say you're 4 or 5 years old right now even though your birthday hasn't come up yet.
@@marcuscain1377 cope. Do you feel the pendulum swinging ever closer into the future. Thinking you can delay the inevitable with your silly words of denominations. You've grown old haven't you? You feel it. You look back thinking it couldn't have been that long. So your mind is frightened by the thought that in fact life seems to be slipping away. You sir. Will never escape
man really left the gang by himself
didn't even take his wagon with him lmao
@@abberssand his book
BLURRED TF AND HE LEAVES AFTER YOUR SICK LMAO LITTLE CHANGE HUH THE TITLE MAKES SO MUCH SENSE U CAN AVOID EVERY MISSION HE LEAVES WHICH U CANT ... HE DOSE NOT SAY AFTER ONLY DOING THE ONE MISSION THAR MATTERS IF YOU DONT DO THE OTHERS HE LEAVES THATS MISLEADING BUT ALRIGHT ..IDK IF ITS THAT SOME FOR THESE FINE FOLKS SEEMS AS THEY NEVER HAVE PLAYED THE ENTIRE GENRE AT ALL...LIKE LEGIT ..OR MAYBE EVEN NUMBER 2 BUT SEEM TO TALK AS IF THEY THINK THIS IS REAL LIKE HE CANT GET SICK HENCE WHY I SEE NO ONE MENTION HIM STILL BEING SICK AS THIS DOSE ANYTHING FOR HIM IN ANY DIFFERENT WAY AND THE TITLE SAYS IT AS IF YOU CAN AVOID EVERY MISSION OR LEAVES US HANGING SO IF SOME ONE S STILL PLAYING THEY BE LEAD ASTRAY TOO,.
@@strueskills basically what you mean to say is the title is clickbait because you can't play the game without collecting the story debt.
@@strueskills I just picture you shouting at the top of your lungs but completely emotionless at your screen as you type this
Arthur: "I feel very evil doing this cruel and unjust act, taking money from the needy!"
Also Arthur: *Mugs everyone from Strawberry to Saint Denis*
To be fair the second version of Arthur isn’t canon, but for realism and enjoyment purposes the game allows you to do things that aren’t canon.
not to mention when he`s *high* on MODS :))
@@SLITHERIS
Also, if you do those things, Arthur can randomly admit to Mary-Beth that he doesn't feel in control over his actions. It feels like it's leaning on the Fourth Wall, but it shows that Arthur genuinely doesn't want to be the villain.
Why would you force your arthur to mug all those folks
Those people weren't needy most were home owners.. Only degenerates don't pay their debts... The one guy attacks him with a rake
Moral grounds aside, (edit: from his perspective at least) Arthur still has every reason to hate Strauss's guts just based on the fact that having to go collect debts is what resulted in Arthur catching tuberculosis.
Arthur can only blame himself for that
Well he wasnt forced to
@@risottonero4501 I just mean from his perspective
@@viniwestphal well let’s see your play through where you magically avoided the debt collection missions from the start
@@risottonero4501 I think Arthur fully understands it's just as much his fault for getting TB. When he talks to Sister Cauldron, he never mentions being forced to collect debt and blames himself for beating a poor farmer half to death for a few bucks. But he hates Strauss because he finds him a creepy vulture who intentionally prey on poor people.
To be honest, I prefer this scenario. I had empathy for Strauss when Arthur kicked him out of the camp in the middle of the night in the rain and Strauss said : "I thought we were friends" with the face of a guy who's almost going to cry. I understand that what Strauss is doing is wrong but ethically the camp has done much worse in some cases. In this scenario, Strauss seems almost happy.
strauss probably the least morally corrupt guy in the camp, at least he doesn't kill random people lol
I kinda feel like Arthur kicked him out when he did to kinda try to save Strauss but idk. I mean I know aethurs upset cause he's dying because of the debt missions and having to go do shotty things to decent people but throughout the game he doesn't bad mouth Strauss and act like he hates him. Arthur knew the end was coming and he was trying to talk multiple people into running away anyway
@@HS-ig4ly He's superficially civilized, but that doesn't mean he's not corrupt. Do you know how predatory loan sharks work?
@@pomponi0 didnt say he was not corrupt???? i mean comparing him the murderers in the camp
@@HS-ig4ly you are comparing glorified outlaws fitting for a western, to a comparably realistic and relevant snake. Apples to oranges.
After the epilogue I just felt sorry for Strauss. He only did what the gang allowed. Which honestly being a loan shark is low. But it's not as low as killing several people in a bank heist gone wrong and Arthur hardly protested against it to begin with. Even going as far as beating a sick man to death and collecting the debt from his widow. I love this game but that part always left me feeling sleazy even until this day.
If you look at the Van Der Linde gang objectively, everyone was a bad person. Even the members that didn't directly rob people or kill anyone. The girls regularly drop hints about potential convoys or targets for robbing and sometimes you can take them along as use them as bait for robberies. Pearson and Grimshaw generally stay in the camp, but they still choose to run with a gang of criminals that robs and murders people. Strauss was no worse than anyone else in that gang for participating in usury. The only member that was totally innocent was Jack. All these characters were fantastically written and it's easy to bond with them, but when you look at their actions and the lives they choose to live you'll see them for the gang of bloodthirsty, thieving criminals they truly are.
@@koolandblue Strauss and Micah were the only two members of the gang who had delusions of what they were doing. Only difference is at least Strauss wasn't a rat.
Yeah it's hard for me to dislike Strauss too much after playing Arthur as The Saint Denis Ripper for so long; donning the executioner hood, hogtying random women, throwing them on the back of his horse and taking them to some far off place in the woods to taunt them and slit their throats before crying over their lifeless bodies, lamenting his inability to control the murderous rage that exists within and then going on his way like nothing ever happened- until the blood lust inevitably returns. Strauss is a boy scout compared to my Arthur...
@@nonfungiblemushroom sir this is a wendy's
@@zillaplayz2753 that was the point, my comment was intentionally hyperbolic and in jest. I guess it went over your head
Wish he did that at the start
Its funny how ppl are so fucking blind or retarded , strauss was the least evil person in comparaison to dutch arthur ect ,,, yeah he made money to the gang from feeding on poor families , but he didn't force them to borrow while arthur and the others killed , stole , and did waaay more damage then he would ever be able to do
You can
@@gangsterskull3357 no you fu*#ing can't
dont we all
Has it ever occurred to anyone by the end of chapter 6 since most of the gang is gone we had more than enough money to leave anyways but Dutch clearly never intended on leaving
I realized when I did a playthrough choosing to go back for the money instead of helping John escape. When I found the money it was something like $50,000! Dutch had that shit the whole time, they all could have left long ago!
@@meowshell Makes you wonder if he actually had Micah go to Blackwater to get that other money.
He had lost it by that point. Talking about “making noise”
@@hellcat1401 Well, they had the money from the Valentine bank robbery, the riverboat poker robbery, the leviticus cornwall train robbery, the bonds from the raid on cornwall kerosene and tar, the army payroll, and all of the smaller scores they got throughout the game. So I think it adds up
Well, there are two sides:
- Strauss leaves by himself, debts are cancelled, the "goodbye" is short and straight.
- In Chapter 6 debts' missions Arthur realises everything especially with his condition and confronts Strauss.
I collected enough debts early on to make him stay but didn't do any in chapter 6. In my epilogue Charles said he got picked up by the Pinkertons after the breakup and died in prison.
BTW can you avoid Mr. Downes debt so that Arthur couldn't catch his tuberculosis?
@@rhjn8751 no, that one's mandatory
Never thought I’d see Strauss ride a horse
he does more than once. one time to Valentine,the time he got hurt and one time to St Louis for the bank robbery
@@gillesgrindel7985 You don’t see him ride to Valentine, he’s more of a passenger on the way back, and what the hell is the St Louis bank robbery?
@@mariguana7918 St Denis, forgive my tiny mistake ô big fan of RDR2, I never meant to offend you in any way..
But in my opinion, it was easy to guess by yourself as there is NO St Louis in the game and only one town with St in its name....
@@gillesgrindel7985 I was kind of joking because I thought it would be a funny way to end the reply. But Strauss does NOT take part in the St. Denis robbery. He stays back at camp.
@@mariguana7918 Replay the mission and you will see him riding among all the other in the way to St Denis.
I love how Arthur sounds like you just woke him up to ask him something
This happened to me on my first play-through. I didn't know kicking him out was an option for a long time because I never did his missions. Until I tried to do a low-honor play-through and I kicked him out not knowing. My honor got pushed back to high honor. I was pretty pissed. R.I.P. Everyone in Valentine.
lol
i scrolled past this after reading.. took me a minute to get the end 😂😂 RIP i guess
How can you make a lot of money while maintaining good honor. Better question, is honor hard to bring back up if the money method requires you to rob and kill people?
quick trip to van horn and you can go back to being bad guy
Strauss never sold out the gang under torture, remember that
Yep, its why upon playing again im always as nice as possible to him and never antagonise him unlike micah, bill, javier etc.. if he wanted to save his own skin he could have ratted like micah yet he is tortured to death because of his loyalty and doesn’t say a word to the pinkertons. He is stronger than the rest in ways we cant see. Most would give in to bad tortures like that, even dutch, micah and the like i reckon, if its at the point you will die due to wounds inflicted i imagine 90% of people would give in.
If he never collected the debts he wouldn't have gotten TB
Benefit of hindsight.
I'm on chapter 2 of my most recent playthrough, and I'm not doing any Strauss missions at all this time. No Strauss, no illness for Arthur, he lives on after saving John. 😊
(I know it doesn't work like that, just... please, let me have this)
I like that they have an alternative but I'm surprised they didn't make this a cutscene. It would make more sense for it to play out like this but then watch him pack up and leave. Having him just dump his paper and run away instantly after talking to Arthur makes no sense.
Well given how desperate they were, and how scared Strauss is of Arthur it kinda makes sense he would just get up & leave
He’s a pretty logical man - probably already moved his stuff away from camp before this interaction, that way he can just up-and-go
They should’ve just made the debt collecting mandatory to progress the story. But if you don’t bother to do those missions, this small dialogue is already more than you deserve.
IDK IF ITS THAT SOME FOR THESE FINE FOLKS SEEMS AS THEY NEVER HAVE PLAYED THE ENTIRE GENRE AT ALL...LIKE LEGIT ..OR MAYBE EVEN NUMBER 2 BUT SEEM TO TALK AS IF THEY THINK THIS IS REAL LIKE HE CANT GET SICK HENCE WHY I SEE NO ONE MENTION HIM STILL BEING SICK AS THIS DOSE ANYTHING FOR HIM IN ANY DIFFERENT WAY AND THE TITLE SAYS IT AS IF YOU CAN AVOID EVERY MISSION OR LEAVES US HANGING SO IF SOME ONE S STILL PLAYING THEY BE LEAD ASTRAY TOO,.
From a gameplay perspective I think it’s mostly like this way because they expected the player to finish the quests before a certain point and considering the situation the player should be fully aware that the side quest will expire if they do continue so because they wrote it this way they basically had to force Strauss out some other way because the later scenes don’t have him there.
I love that little touch with Strauss dropping his book. With Strauss gone, the depts are gone with them.
Still though, as depraved as Strauss was, I’ll give credit where it’s due. Didn’t speak a word to “you-know-who.”
To be fair Strauss might have had no important information to Pinkertons. There is a possibility Strauss talked, but nothing that Pinkertons didn't already knew. Gang left the spot soon after Strauss left
@@PolishGod1234 Its even mentioned by John in the epilogue that Strauss died during interrogation by the Pinkertons because he refused to talk.
Lord Voldemort?
@@harrisondenton2621 mister Milton and the Pinkerton detective agency
@@liamprogamer2322 yeah ik it was a joke because jak and ratchet said you know who
I hated Strauss through the game but when I found out he got caught by the Pinkertons and tortured for information but never gave anyone up I felt so bad for hating him. Strauss was more loyal than Micah and Dutch😔
silence ! gaming is for MEN@!
@@steve75112 💯💯
@@steve75112 🤡
To be fair, Dutch wasn't exactly disloyal. He was increasingly unhinged and paranoid, but he didn't know Micah was the rat. As soon as he knew it was true, he left (probably realising he'd fucked everything up and there was no going back), then presumably shot Micah for it years later.
@@universe1225 Wrong. Micah was not a rat, he was an FBI plant from the start.
5 years this game has been out and still I’m discovering new interesting things.
What? It's a real interaction from the game? Never knew about it. This game never stops to surprise. And I bet that it isn't the last peace of hidden content to be found.
I’ll be honest, I hated Strauss so much I didn’t do the last two of his missions in my first playthrough. Didn’t get this interaction either, he just disappeared
Hated him for what ? Making money for a fucking criminal gang that kill and steal anything and anyone ? There is a reason the game have redemption in the title , cuz the motherfuckers were way more evil then strauss could ever be
@@alaa341g me hating Strauss doesn’t mean I didn’t hate any other members of the gang. Strauss wasn’t my least favorite either, I just hated how he fucked with poor people
After the valentine bank robbery mission when you go back to the downes place I just stopped going to Strauss whenever his missions popped up. IMO Strauss is the reason why people who know Arthur outside of the gang think he’s a bad man that and Strauss is the reason Arthur dies
@@tristadarden3159 because he is a bad man, stop cockriding, hes a fucking criminal, and a horrible one, just because he wants to be good before he dies doesnt make him a good person
When you poker with him at the camp near valentine you can have an interesting Convo with him.
Seeing him riding away really makes me wonder if you could follow him
I didn't even think this was possible. This game has more options than you think. But you should collect the debts as part of Arthurs redemption story.
I’m so glad I went on those.
I actually felt bad for Strauss, I definitely didn’t like his underhanded schemes but I don’t believe he hated or would ever betray anyone within gang considering that he gets caught and tortured by the Pinkerton. He didn’t rat out anyone and his back story perfectly illustrates why he is in the loan shark business. I personally believe if Strauss had to go get the money himself he wouldn’t be able to even as a younger man; you can tell his character has had some kind of physical ailment or Limitation given the fact him and Josea are around the same age.
Yup he even says to Arthur something like people like lending money of people like me but are more inclined to pay people like arthur back. And he's right. If Strauss didn't have the gang he wouldn't of seen a single cent paid back to him.
John is the betrayer pile of crap!!!!
He was more of a morally grey, even Hosea participated in con jobs and he's probably considered the more upstanding member of the gang since he was trying to warn Dutch about where they were headed.
I like this more than arthur kicking him out. This is less aggressive
I just got to this part tonight. I’ve been replaying trying to get max honor. I think seeing it this second time around, Arthur kicked him out because he thought he was a snake but also to give him a head start so that he may have a fighting chance when the gang finally does implode on its self.
I always felt bad for Strauss, he got tortured and killed but never ratted out the gang and what he was doing wasn't really any worst than the rest of the gang
Yeah despite he got tortured and kill by pinkertons he never mention about where dutch is and some gang members
He was helping people with loans only degenerates don't pay their debts that's why we have credit scores.. If banks didn't give loans few people would own houses
@@Frank85783 because he didn't know
I was expecting Arthur to say "Ok I'll catch you later then"
Holy F, I thought it was gonna be some meme but it wasn't. Damn, so ignoring this literally skips one of Arthur's greatest moments in his search of redemption, the widow and her child and the soldier with his wife, well at least its not gonna be under Arthur consience the fact that the Pinkertons found him and killed him in costudy for resisting to cooperate.
But man, there were a lot of things I wish to be optional in this game but this is one of the rare instances where they did it but it doesn't do much and I prefered they left it mandatory, seriously this was jaw dropping for me, now I'm gonna repeat a quote that was said zillion times in this comunity "four years and still discovering new things about this game"
I love that its optional as Arthurs redemption is up to player you really do not need to redeem him.
I completely ignored Strauss for my first playthrough (except for the required ones in chapter 2), and I don't think I even got this interaction. I think someone in camp told me he was gone. I can't remember who though.
The work Strauss did was terrible but he was admirable when the Pinkerton’s caught him. They tortured him and he didn’t give up any information, so they eventually killed him.
Probably didn't directly kill him. I'd wager they more gravely wounded him, and he eventually succumbed to his injuries while in custody.
@@HESHRocketWarhead I figured it was implied. The torture was what killed him.
@@SUN-DANCE Yeah, but you said "killed" him, which to me implies that they just shot him dead or something. But I expect he just succumbed to injuries.
Interesting never seen this before. I'll have to try this on my 80th playthrough and follow Strauss to see where he goes
After the first time I collected debts, I felt so terrible I never did them again. Then I learned that in the final you can actually help people. Still, I'm glad to know that he would have eventually left on his own. It makes me feel a little better about throwing him out of the camp.
Damn, I'm still finding out new things after so many years it came out. I thought the mission where you giveaway money is unavoidable
I'll take this as the canon
You can't hate Strauss over Sean even. He makes his part in the gang like everybody else, just without killing
Why’d you say Sean? Sean was cool say stupid ass Karen why is she in the gang😭
@@Jayden20933 xd cause he's the only cowboy in the band who feels neutral lol, Arthur is the loved one and everybody hates Micah but both are fckin killers
I can see how he's not morally worse than the rest of the gang, but something about robbing people the traditional way seems so much more "honest" than like, tricking desperate people into taking shitty loans.
@@ThePigsmasher yeah but like the old say : there's no honor between thiefs
He preyed on poor desperate people and destroyed their lived bruh
I like that when he asks Arthur about the debts he sounds like he already has his answer.
This makes me feel sick. I never thought badly of Strauss he simply conned and made money for them all and did his part. He didn't deserve his fate at all imo
Yes he did
Straus bullying the weak but loyal to the gang(in epilogue, Charles mentioned that Straus got kidnapped and tortured till death by Pinkerton because he didn't rat the gang out) meanwhile Micah bullying the weak and also betrayed the gang . so Straus > Micah
I thought I had seen every possible interaction. Thanks!
Wow he took off faster than the American dream.
Hahahaha🤣
@@BBE22OOOWH hehe 🤭👍🤠
Crazy that he was captured by the Pinkerton's and tortured to death and he never spoke a word about the gang
That looked and sounded like a man who was about to go off himself. Didn’t even gather his belongings.
Tbh I think Strauss isn't that bad how the game is trying to tell us. I liked him, especially because of his loyalty as we can hear in the epilog
Ya really those people shoulda just paid their debts the bank woulda done them worse... Mr Dowes attacked Arthur with a rake trying to avoid his debt.. These people are crazy
Strauss is everything wrong with banks @@randyreal5871
@@randyreal5871Just say you missed the point
But... Can you follow him and... You know. 🔫?
Im literally astonished how deep this game is.. even though im excited to see what GTA 6 will be like, doubt it will reach this level. But wait this only goes for chapter 6 right ?
He took less items with him than when he got kicked out by Arthur lmao
Anyone else hear Jack say "bye" as he's walking to his horse?
Strauss: Did you collect any of the debts
Dutch: We need more money
Arthur: I gave you everything I have
Strauss was far from the worst person in the gang. If you remove the violence from the collection methods and make a slight adjustment to his interest rate, he’s nothing more than a banker. And regarding the violent collection methods, he wouldn’t care much at all of there never had been any violence in the collection methods.
He’s a predator and a villain for sure, but he’s easily correctable compared to the other members.
If I go to a Casino and lose all my savings, are they predators and villains? Strauss is a businessman, not a villain or a predator. It's the borrowers who are irresponsible and evil.
@@blucolife Predatory loans are a thing. It’s why we got the 2008 economic crash.
@@americandissident9062 The 2008 economic crash was caused by a combination of a housing market bubble, subprime mortgages, MBS, Lehman brothers bankruptcy, and government regulations that protect big banks when they make stupid decisions (except for Lehman, they got f-cked). Payday loans had nothing to do with it. How is Strauss a predator? That's like accusing Papa John's of making people fat.
Could you imagine there being an ending where Arthur didn’t get sick because we simply decided not to have him get the debts from Downes?
that's a bad ending. getting tb helped him stray from his path, realize what he's done and save his soul (if you play honorably at least)
I feel like it would still end with Arthur's death but in a different way, since the only path to redemption in these games seems to end with death. If there was another ending where Arthur didnt get TB, it would probably be like John's death. The only way the Van der Linde gang could have survived was if Dutch actually listened to Arthur and Hosea instead of Micah.
I couldn’t not collect those last two debts because the acting is fantastic
“Well catch you later then”
While this is cool, you miss out on a lot if you don't collect the debts.
Strauss always thought he was better then anyone because he got money without using guns or violence. But when Arthur kicks him out he essentially tells him he is worse by far then all of them the most vile, shameful and disgusting as he preys on the weakest of the weak. This is an unsatisfying leave of him because he leaves with what little pride he has but when Arthur kicks him out he had his pride taken.
You are wrong, largely because Strauss relies on sending a strongman to threaten, intimidate, and assault his debtors into paying up. The sort of predatory loan-sharkery that Strauss partakes in is less overtly violent to an outside observer, but the people he victimized feel no different than if they had simply been robbed at gunpoint.
Man i can't understand how the fuck arthur can even talk to strauss and make him look like the worst guy while he forget that he is the criminal not strauss, like the man is a motherfucking evil criminal that have a death count of hitler , he even was the one beating those ppl to get the debts , this fucking moral delima make me nuts , i mean its a fucking criminal gang they are running , they've been doing all the bad stuff for more then 30 years
@@abberss I think it also doesn't help that Strauss basically robs desperate, poor people. The rest of the gang tries to rob the authorities/rich landowners/other gangs/that sorta thing.
rob a few poor people or kill a bunch of people who are just doing their job? strauss had the least destructive way of making money than most of the gang members, including arthur.
@@lottaMarks The only difference other than the scale was that Strauss' robbery was legal.
Honestly, I never thought Strauss was particularly worse than anyone else in the gang, least of all Arthur. Y'all acting like you didn't orphan Catfish Jackson's son and steal his mom's cigarette card.
Not really. The entire point is Arthur realizes this is wrong. Hr isn't "worse", but Arthur's definitely a bit better
You shame Strauss for running a money lending business, but do you even remember how many rightful man you shot during your playthrough?
If it wasn’t for this Strauss, Author would be alive.
I will not tolerate Strauss hate. Dude gets kicked out of the group, is tortured to death AND NEVER TALKS ABOUT THE GANG. Dude is a legend. An evil man but a legend.
Most of the rest of the gang has definitely done worse than him, Hosea is considered someone they look up to and he straight up conned people. Then again, he believed in exploiting the rich, not the destitute.
You had to follow him to see where he went.
Tahiti of course, maybe Australia..
Wish they had made Strauss more layered, i.e. that the storytellers, instead of portraying him pretty much exclusively as a stereotypical mean and cold-hearted money-lender, had show him to be quite a different person, when he is among his fellow-gang members, than he is when he is mistreating his "customers". Show him teach math to Jack and be kind and helpful to the other people in camp. And show him be a good friend towards Arthur and Arthur appreciating him and liking him as a friend even if he finds his money lending business unsavoury and discomforting. After all pretty much everyone in camp objectively does way worse things than Strauss does when he is exploiting people financially and propelling them into difficult circumstances...E.g. Sean who is beloved cuts the throat of some poor guy just trying to earn a living as a farm-hand on the Grey Estate, Mary-Beth helps to set up the robbery of an armoured coach by serving as a distraction and causing the murder of the guards, who probably just try to feed their children etc. So I bet in real life Strauss would probably get the most lenient punishment of all gang members (except for the Reverend and Pearson and Molly I suppose).
He did get one interesting layer of development. He supposedly refused to give up any info about the gang under torture, even after being kicked out the way he was
Imagine you don't collect any of the debts so Strauss just has Micah do it.
Everyone claiming “Strauss is why Arthur died” is so silly. First, TB can lie dormant for decades if not a lifetime and nearly 1/4 of the population are carriers, Arthur could have gotten it from anyone at any point in his life, downs is just the only one he encountered with active TB (why don’t you think his family or anyone Arthur interacted with catches it after all?). Second, Arthur had already had a close interaction with Downs before collecting debts on him during the barfight. Both of these incidents also occurred outside, where airborne disease is much less likely to spread.
Tuberculosis was just a big deal in the late 19th century, it was the disease everyone knew and subject to a LOT of attention among the era’s art, literature, etc. it’s only fitting that if Arthur is to catch a fatal disease it’d be that.
Not really silly if it's what happened
Never liked or disliked Strauss til I learned he didn't snitch. That's a true G right there.
He was.
you know he couldn't snitch because the gang didn't exist anymore at this point why every idiot forgets that
@@justinmau6419that doesn’t mean he couldn’t talk about what every person did
Forgive me if I’m wrong but I don’t think is there any mention of Charles Javier or bills bounty because no one ever implicated them
Strauss also could give the cops/Pinkertons a reference area of where to look for the members of the gang they obviously hear about each other so that means some contact between them at least
I stopped collecting debts near the end of the game because I couldn't bring myself to. They were optional so I just stopped because it made me feel like shit every time. Now I wish I did though, because the missions are actually really heartfelt and seeing Arthur kick him out is so satisfying.
I almost didn't do them. After everything that had happened up to the point where the debt mission becomes available I was like nope, no way. I can't do this anymore. But I decided to do them full well prepared to forgive people if I had the option. Thankfully, well, you know the rest.
I DIDN'T know this is possible!!!
Thank you for sharing this!!!
Still, Strauss isn't really that hateable compare to Micah's heartless annoyance and inhumanity and Dutch's betrayal on all of us.
He was just doing his job for the group as their personal accountant and loan shark for the others to earn some financial support.
In the end, he was just losing his trust in Dutch.
So, either Arthur kicked him out and persuaded him to get a civilized job for himself to get Strauss out of the outlaw life,
Or you interacted with him for one last time and not having collected too much bonds and the fact that Strauss decided to leave himself that was very understandable,
Strauss never actually became a rat to the group,
And the fact that he didn't say a word about the survivors when he got caught by Agent Ross and his men a few years later and actually died while keeping his mouth shut was the most heroic thing that Strauss did to help prolong the survivors' respective livelihoods after they were freed from the outlaw life.
The horses on this game shit so much that they pretty much make up the whole land
Hes literally a personification of modern day banks.
To be frank, this was better than in my gameplay. When I played, I was so disgusted after cancelling the last debt that I didn't go speaking to him after that. He left on his own without saying a word.
L strauss
Like it or not, he gave the most out of everyone in the gang due to his shark business.. I was upset when Arthur kicked him out
Strauss is one of the backbones of the gang, can't hate him regardless lf who he is of even his morals. It's enough that he's doing an honest work and not causing much trouble.
i didn’t do any of the side missions after like chapter 4 because i just wanted to finish the game and i’d assumed i can go back to them after. after seeing what i missed by collecting the debts im gutted its so important to the game
I personally liked him. He did the best He could do, just like most in the Camp. and honestly if you look the succes rate He is a better scammer then dutch and hosea. I think if he would have helped planning some of these scams of Hosen and dutch it wouldnt have gone down that bad. But then again i've only got to saint denise a few days ago and got spoiler the entire game by thumbnails wich is why i even watch this kind of videos.
The thing is, Dutch and Hosea were trying to scam rich people, Straus exclusively targeted the poor and desperate. The rest of the gang never robbed from anyone who needed the things they stole, except probably Micah and his cronies, while that's all Straus did.
I thought Arthur was harsh to Strauss when I first saw him kicked out, but on my second playthrough I realized what made Strauss such a slug. He would loan people money under the guise generous foreigner. He would provide much-needed support to desperate people. When it came time to collect, he'd send Arthur to collect the debts so he never saw the ugly side of what he was doing. Arthur had to wade through their squalor, and he had to be the one who tore away what little they had left. Strauss was allowed to think they'd brought it on themselves by borrowing money they couldn't pay back. Arthur finally made Strauss see.
The Pinkertons tortured him to death. He didn't talk for one of two reasons.
1. He took what was coming to him and refused to save his own skin because he wanted to get it right in the end.
2. He had no information to give the Pinkertons because he never paid a lick of attention to a single other person in the gang. He couldn't exploit them for money, so he had no reason to listen to them when they talked about trivial matters like where they'd go if the gang fell apart. That theory goes hand-in-hand with his disposition toward the people indebted to him. To him, their problems weren't his concern.
Arthur is a hypocrite. Strauss is no worse than anyone else in the gang. They're all killers and thieves.
If only this could happen in Chapter 2 😩
Yeah you have to do the Thomas Downes mission and the rest is history.
If only the comments had as much hate for real banks too.
Apparently if you don’t kick him out or he doesn’t leave he dies in the final mission by the pinkertons even though the game doesn’t show it
Wait, does that mean Arthur doesnt get tuberculosis?
He gets. In chapter 2 arthur is obligated to collect the debts.
@@robert.eo.speedwagon :(
I tired to avoid meeting with the Downes but the game played a cutscene after a mission where Strauss made Arthur go collect the debt. It was unpreventable either way.
@@760Miramar if you have autosave on, load the save when it forces you into the mission, ride away from camp, it'll fail, and spawn you at Downe's ranch, then turn around and ride your horse off a cliff. It'll allow you to cancel the mission.
In my playthough It's the last mission left of chapter 2.
@@Zeywerks so it's skipable?
i think arthur is unreasonably mean to strauss here and when he kicks him out. sure you could say strauss does wrong by loansharking. but it's not nearly as bad as any of the stuff arthur or the rest of the gunmen in the gang do. and nobody forces anyone to take strausses money. i know a lot of players hate leopold because he is partly responsible for arthur getting sick. but it's not leopolds fault. if anything it's the downes fault for borrowing money they couldn't pay back. arthur is such a hypocrite. it's okay for arthur to go out and rob innocent people on a train. and kill 20 lawmen who were just trying to help said innocent folks who are being robbed. but strauss just lending money is the worst crime ever? no way. i love arthur but moments like this make me annoyed with him.
Strauss on purpose finds people who are desperate and unable to pay back in time. He is callous and would probably own slaves if he could
that's the point. no one in the van der linde gang is a good person. the best of them tried to make most of what they could to change for the better, but none of them ever came close to redeeming themselves for the destruction they caused.
Yeah, Arthur attacking him was like a drunk attacking his bartender.
Criminals tend to be hypocrites. It's a Rockstar game though, so players would feel cheated if there wasn't a mass shooting every 20 minutes.
@@stc3145 Exactly. Not a lot people get why Strauss is kicked out and why particularly in Chapter 6. It's in his interaction with the Edith Downes and Mrs. Londonderry that he realizes how exactly Strauss conducts his business and decides to kick him out.
Mr. Strauss is actually a great man, he helped a lot of poor people to struggle through hardships, even if they risked to get a punch or two, it helped them a lot. Nobody helped them, but he did, and it's okay if he get some money in return.
Still can't believe RDR2 is 5 years old in October 2023 :(
Strauss just leaves with the clothes on his back didn't even take the suitcase lol
When Arthur throws the money and Strauss reaches down to pick it up, that’s the type of belittling Strauss deserves….
He doesn't though he was loyal through and through even after leaving he died for this gang
@@diveblock2058 Not because of what he did but who he did it to, as poor as he was you’d think he’d take pity on the weak, instead he uses them just like he uses Arthur. And as he said the gang was just a bunch of young fools Dutch used….
@@LN031 some of you are completely blind it's like astronomically amazing how blind some of you are.
Straus was a terrible man a vile man who preyed on the weak but at the end of the day the entire Van Der linde gang preyed on the weak towards the end for a very small amount of time could they even be considered good and we never saw the good side of them.
Arthur had the option to do those debts they aren't mandatory but he chooses to do them anyway.
@@nonbasicz That’s exactly what I’m sayin
@@LN031 I mean think about this logically strass is not targeting these people hell he probably doesn't even know what position they are in and probably aproach him, the only people who would take money from someone as shady as Strauss is someone who for whatever reason can't go to the bank but unlike the bank strass can't use the cops so he sends arthur the one guy who is the muscles of the gang and trustworthy enough to not take the money (micha cough)
At the end of the day, while Strauss couldn't contribute physically, he did the best he could and was a vauble asset to the gang
And Strauss wasn't the only one encouraging him to get the money. If you wait long enough, dutch will start asking you to do it
Did Arthur not have the turbeculosis?
He already has it at this point. This is chapter 6
Wait? So how did Arthur catch TB then? 🤔
He gets TB in chapter 2, this is not chapter 2.
This is chapter 6 mate
He gets it during a required to do debt collection mission in chapter 2
That debt is a story mission
This is the PERFECT RDR2 ending!!!
*Money box gets destroyed
Strauss: "My time has come"
What is a difference with a banks today? Some say, that Strauss lend money to people, that cant pay them back. But what a point in that? They have not bussines gang can take over (like in Soprano). Strauss lend poor suckers money, they cant pay back and then money get beat from them. Arthur gets money, nothing more. So, they can pay back. Too much though. But hey, it's capitalism for you.
Herr Strauss reminds me of Frank from Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven, both dress up almost identically, they look almost identically, they sound pretty similar, they both are magicians with business and numbers, they would rather be tortured to death and take ratting out to their grave, strong in ways you can't see... I love these kinds of characters. I love Herr Strauss and Frank. It was pretty sad to hear that Herr Strauss was tortured to death. I hoped that he would spend the money for a boat, get to someplace and become a businessman or... Frank from Mafia: The City Of Lost Heaven.
If Arthur doesn't collect the debts, you never get to this chapter.
I only dis of Strauss’ missions after Arthur got sick, as I felt horrible, and didn’t know he began to help the people.
I prefer racking up the good karma then yelling at strauss making him feel ashamed while reminding him he’s homeless now