I think you missed the entire point of the Van Der Linde gang’s appeal dude. The game is full of outlaws with no semblance of morality, it’s not like RDR2 glorifies the role.
@@RudeDude69I think you missed the point of the Game. Its about redemption of bad man who are on the inside good or can be good. Similar applies to the rest of the Gang. Only Micah is a wholy bad guy.
@@Andre-c6z Uuh.. the point of RDR is that the only redemption these men will find is in death. Arthur had the chance to make amends because he knew he was dying, John is made to feel like a fool for even trying to be better because he thought he could walk away from what he did, especially in the first game. John saves a guy from a cannibal? Turns out that guy probably deserves it. John gets flowers for an old man's wife? Turns out he's crazy and was living with her skeleton for years. The world mocks his efforts, the only real way for John to be a better person is by being on the receiving end of a rifle. People really act like Arthur would've lived a long, happy life if he didn't contract TB, like it's not the most fairytale shit ever. No, he would've ended up exactly like John. None of them are good people, they're all murderers with body counts probably in the hundreds just individually.
Everything about the man, inspires hatred against him. He's a prefect example, of being a character we just love to hate. The actor who portrays him does his role quite well.
Micah says in a chapter 4 camp fire scene that he doesn’t believe in good or evil. He thinks from the time your born to the time you die you just do “things” that ether make you feel good or sad. He also mentions he doesn’t believe in God or going to heaven, but he believes their is damnation. He says that “he knows what it’ll be like”, & that he’ll “be right at home there.” Very creepy dialogue but good insight into his character and thoughts.
sociopaths know they have a problem, are erratic, justify everything they do, and leave clues behind; Micah's clue was that he was the rat he pretended to be afraid of.
@@PhillipMoore-td5yi _"Someone who believes in hell but not heaven? That is weird."_ Like the Cult of Sithrak from Oglaf. Sithrak himself is pretty chill though.
Ikr? In my opinion, a keye factor in portraying a villian who doesn't have that many layers to them and are just evil in the plainest possible way, it's for their actor/actress to really sell the enjoyment the character feels when commiting wretched deeds. Ma man Peter, he really sells it whenever Micah speaks confidently and without compassion about how great he is and just how unopologetically antagonistic he is towards everyone.
I love hearing him talk about his experience playing the game and realizing he hated himself at the end of the story lmao. He absolutely nailed Micah. I hope he gets some more villain roles in the future, he's a great bad guy
That definition implies no one would ever switch sides for the morally righteous reason. Also its referring to switching allegiances. Not disregarding allegiance. Not to say self serving parties don't exist in any and every aspect of civilization. Imagine if some of the Germans hadn't been "turncoats" during WW2.
he's definitely not an absolute 'coward' by any means... 1st, he recognises the environment, culture that the gang establishes; this means that the gang is hamfisted by Dutch's indoctrinated & polarization regarding his own Dogma of an ideology that he manifested himself onto the world. 2. the gang was always ready to be at a broken point & the clearist tip of that iceberg revealing itself, comes out during chapter 4-5 & then onwards, Micah took an opportunity to end this self-serving gang in its roots to the underground. Micah always stood by his Father's saying 'There's only Winners & Losers, nothing more'
He is nowhere near a coward buddy, not being a romanticized character doesn't mean he's a coward, infact most accurate depiction of an outlaw+ also Low honour Arthur
A "rat" is a traitor, a conceiver, planner, or physical participator He doesn't sell secrets for power or cash, he betrays the trust of his team or his family hoping to save his own cowardly ass.
A coward has no option. If you get bad parents you get bad parenting. Its a 6th sense. You are deemed a rat because most people won't raise people that are not their own. So the problem only grows. By raise I don't mean actually rear them, but that they do the opposite of raise their spirit. They ensure that its beaten down despite the person having learned bad or no behavior. Its a comdemnation that begets scorn, guilt, shame and an unending sense of not belonging and never being able to. Its also PTSD masquerading as mental illness. The things that happen around you don't register as important because nothing registers as important. It registers as false and a world only for those who were handed the keys and taught which locks they open. I barely remember my childhood, and actively forget everything else. But I want to overcome all of that still and just be a loner who can take care of himself, and who doesn't bother anyone unless they wanna be bothered. Bascially girls need to be raised with a female role model, and boys need to raised with a male role model. Otherwise the natural impulse of the herd is to run them off because they are easy picking. They would rather turn another human being away then have competition. Its just humanity's version of territorial disputes. We don't butt heads we throw hands or hurl insults. And when the group turns on someone that individual has to find a new group or live solo. Then you get fringe groups, echo chambers and lose sight of the root problem because its allowed to become endemic of society.
he's definitely not an absolute 'coward' by any means... 1st, he recognises the environment, culture that the gang establishes; this means that the gang is hamfisted by Dutch's indoctrinated & polarization regarding his own Dogma of an ideology that he manifested himself onto the world. 2. the gang was always ready to be at a broken point & the clearist tip of that iceberg revealing itself, comes out during chapter 4-5 & then onwards, Micah took an opportunity to end this self-serving gang in its roots to the underground. Micah always stood by his Father's saying 'There's only Winners & Losers, nothing more'
There's a legendary animal that you can kill in the game that's exclusively tied to a story mission. The Legendary Rat is on top of Mount Hagen in the level American Venom.
I’m glad others also believe Micah was in cohesion with the law long before coming back from Guarma. It seemed too coincidental that only a month after Micah joined the gang, they were faced with the worst ambush of law enforcement they ever experienced, all by Micah’s urging
i personally dont, all of the severe problems with the law are caused by the gang itself who is trying to keep living like in the old west despite the change in times that is aproaching, arthur himself says so
I feel like a small part of Micah actually wants to be liked. Sure, he’s an opportunistic sycophant, but there are a lot of interactions he has that are not meant to benefit his standing, but instead are him trying to make friends or companions. This is seen when he tries to dance with Mary Beth, or, at the end of the story, when he sticks with Dutch, despite Dutch not offering any strategic benefit with his gang being disbanded. Micah stuck around Dutch because Dutch saw him as a truly loyal member of the gang, and Micah wanted someone resembling a friend. We see in Micah’s letter from his brother that he tried to reach out to his apparent only family, and was rejected by his brother, who has reformed and is now dedicated to raising his daughters, with his brother threatening to kill Micah if he ever comes near him. It sounds crazy, but I think a lot of Micah’s interactions were him trying to be friendly with a gang that he hoped was as violent as he was, while simultaneously talking with Pinkertons in secret in case things turned out bad. Micah was a violent, bigoted turncoat, but I think a lot of his actions were desperate attempts to make friends.
That's the vibe I get from him before chapter 6, he's still an evil fucker who's out for himself, but he does wanna actually try to ingratiate himself into the gang until he realizes they all hate him
don't really agree with the Dutch segment of your argument... Micah only stuck around for being a sycophant that saw through who Dutch was & didn't align at all with Micah's philosophical way of existing a.k.a 'There's only Winners & Losers, nothing more'.
@@godzillazfriction Yes, there is such a thing as evil, it means doing immoral things to other people, that is literally the definition of evil. As a matter of fact, having that type of thought process is dangerous, since it leads to a belief that there are no morally right or wrong actions and behaviors.
Personaly Micah is one of the best villains in video game in general. Micah is a true rapresentation of the dark side of the far west. Cruel,sadistic, Savage and greedy incarnate
Idk he's a fun character and peter blomquist is great in the role, but i don't he's very well written, i also never really understood how or why is micah is ratting on the gang
Yeah the Van Der Linde Gang was always doomed to fail, even without Micah. Josea was getting old already and probably looking for the right time to retire. And Arthur contracted that terminal case of Black Lung while collecting Money owed to the gang. Without Micah, Sadie's home doesn't burn down. Still a chance she goes along with the gang, given the O'Driscoll's were lurking in the mountains after all. Dutch maybe holds back on some of his bigger crimes, but his paranoia was still always there, it just doesn't get pushed as badly as it was with Micah, so he might've been more willing to try and rescue John, instead of Arthur having to go behind his back to do it.
Micah was an incredibly intelligent villain. He knew Arthur was the primary threat from the get-go. Sure, Micah may not have ratted to The Pinkertons until after Guarma, but you’d be stupid to think that Micah wasn’t trying to get that Blackwater money from the moment that Blackwater heist took place. He knew the only way to get that money was to break the gang up from internal strife or casualties, and Arthur was the only one who could keep everybody together and united regardless. But because Micah knew that Dutch saw the feud between him and Arthur, and that he wasn’t really “in” the gang like a lot of the longer-standing members, Micah couldn’t outright take out Arthur, or it would seem incredibly suspicious at minimum. So he had to try systematically eliminating the gang members who would side with Arthur and would also have seemingly died from normal circumstances, like Hosea, Lenny (Setup Bank Job) and Mrs. Grimshaw (Once he was outright challenged alongside Arthur), so that when the time came, Micah would be able to override Arthur’s support within the gang. People think Micah was just a two-faced little shit who managed to trick Dutch because he and Arthur’s relationship deteriorated. Micah was much more of an evil mastermind then people liked to give him credit for. Knowing this; It also makes Dutch killing Micah in 1907 much, much more satisfying, knowing that riiight as Micah’s dreams of stealing that Blackwater money, that he planned 8+ years to take, were right there in front of him; The one man who Micah didn’t plan on stopping him, stopped him: Dutch Van Der Linde. In my mind, it also squared Dutch for his betrayal of Arthur, because Dutch (by killing Micah) ultimately helped John get the money that Arthur wanted John to have.
One of my favorite bits of foreshadowing in the game comes after you free micha from prison and you go on a stage coach robbery with him, after that robbery if you go back to his camp spot you’ll find a wanted poster of Dutch. So it’s interesting to think weather or not he was always going to betray Dutch or he took a deal with Milton about inside information on the gang’s whereabouts after grurma
He probably saw that bounty as something he could collect once he had no further use for Dutch and his gang. It could very well be what led him to Dutch in the first place. That bounty was also going to increase if he could push Dutch into committing more high-profile crimes, like the Blackwater ferry or the San Denis bank.
I recently spent a week and a half with the ACTOR who played Micah Bell, Peter Blomquist, we were in like a group tour together. I am going to email him this video!
Micah was not only evil, but he had the worse kind of heartlessness in him. Historically, outlaws were just like him, cold, ruthless, nihilistic, and sadistic and even today there are still more Micah Bells of the world.
I have to give it to Micah once he convinced Dutch to shoot the girl on the Ferry it was already over he knew he could manipulate Dutch however he sees fit
If they are all willing to do the exact same levels of evil in the right circumstances, then is manipulating one of those people really that much more evil.
The answer is yes, yes it is, but it shows how morally grey the world is. If someone kills people you don't like they are the good guy, and vice versa.
@@nak3dxsnake interesting point given it wasn’t the last girl Dutch shot in the face but never the less Evil is still evil even if it’s weaponized against the same evil
My theory was that Micah was working with the pickertons before the game starts but not with them as a whole. Judging on the kind of man we know he is and the plan he makes later on. Micah was only working for Ross. Micah would likely have gotten arrested after he got with dutch seeing if he could rob them or at least use them, but then a pickerton is the one that comes for him and agrees to let him go so long as he does some "community service". Milton for his many many flaws as a person does follow the law. He caught Molly and even after seeing her in the camp of Dutch lets her go. He only starts to bend the law the more the gang goes farther. Micah working with ross could give him a chance to get away with money, destroy the gang as Ross could get the credit and maybe promote him above Milton but the gang escaped with their lives. I do think it's possible that Micah had nothing to do with Colm but figured it would be an easy way to get rid of Arthur or/and Dutch as it was obviously a trap. The Saint Denis robbery could have just been bad luck due to all they had already done but the all white outfit was a interesting detail especially as they seemed to know Hosea would be a distraction.
I dont believe this theory. The Pinkertons never were after Micah, especially that early in the story, they probably even didnt know him then being in Dutch group. How Micah does plans for stealing things etc, totally go against this theory. Sorry but no, this is fan-fiction territory.
He really wasn't. A bit more subtlety would have made him the perfect antagonist. Being an asshole to 100% of camp members discounting only Dutch himself and being comically evil to animals and children just makes him feel like something literally out of a children's comic. They should have toned down his asshole behaviour in the camp, made him more weasle-y and had him actually doing things like sucking up to Javier and Bill.
He killed Jack's dog!? Wow, I've played through the main story numerous times and I never knew that, that really shows how large this game is, no matter how many times you play it, there is always very small details you miss.
@thegatorhator6822 He entered the gang saving Dutch's life. So in his mind, he and Dutch were on the same level. The gang was Dutch's baggage. The rest of the gang were beneath him, yet had their uses.
I think if Micah was a rat prior to returning from Guama, Milton would've said it, but he stated "we picked him up when you lot returned from the tropics and he's been a good boy since then"
Yeah, I concluded that Micah was involved with the Pinkertons after he came back from Guarma too, but it is indeed suspicious how the Pinkertons were fast to turn up after the Blackwater robbery prior to the start of the game, along with other events prior to Guarma.
@@adamcuneo7189 To be fair, Pinkertons aren't law enforcement, they are mercenary assassins, so it's not hard to see an army of mercenaries rushing to battle.
@@SirToaster9330 While it is true that the Pinkertons are not a federal law enforcement agency, at least not today, but back during the Civil War they protected Lincoln and laid the foundation for the Secret Service which is indeed a federal law enforcement agency. I know this is about a video game, but I think the world in RDR is basically our own, just with a few name changes and an embellishment of the Wild West.
@@SirToaster9330 While it is true that the Pinkertons are not a federal law enforcement agency, they were a private detective agency, at least during the height of their power from the 1870's to the 1890's. They did also however lay the foundation for the Secret Service back during the Civil War, which today is a federal law enforcement agency.
@@SirToaster9330 I guess they intentionally left it up to players to decide for themselves on who was informing the Pinkertons prior to Guarma. I guess there must've been someone, because the characters felt that way prior to Guarma.
Now that you’ve done Micah Bell, maybe you should do one on Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter. Then you’d be completing what I like to call the “Trifecta of Hate” - that is, the three characters whose names always crop up when the question “Who is the most hated fictional character?” is asked on Reddit (Micah and Umbridge being the first two, and Joffrey Baratheon being the third).
It just goes to show how well portrayed these characters were, that they are so hatable. They're three utterly irredeemable villains, Joffrey Baratheon is probably a little lower on the Trifecta of Hate, simply because of how badly the TV series ended. Dolores Umbrage definitely deserves her own Analysing Evil video, she's all sunshine and rainbows on the outside, but full of poison and vitriol within. Also still patiently waiting for an episode on The Major and Millenium from Hellsing.
I don’t think Micah was using the law of helping the law for a long time - while Milton’s cruel, he isn’t a liar, so I think he was telling the truth that Micah was helping them only from after the gang returned from Guarma. Micah is an opportunist. He says it to Arthur, “I’m a survivor.” He’ll do anything to ensure his own survival. Helping the Pinkertons was a way of protecting himself from facing justice. He started manipulating Dutch because he wanted to have more say in the gang and saw a weakness in Dutch to exploit. He’s just an opportunistic rat.
Although it's heavily implied that Micah is the rat, he never confirms it himself. Agent Milton could've been telling the truth, or there really wasn't a rat and Milton could've just been trying to destroy the gang by letting them kill each other With both options being a possibility. This is the type of storytelling I can get behind - the one that treats their audience like adults by letting THEM solve the puzzle
Yep. Milton has no reason or motive whatsoever to lie there. Micah first works with the Pinkertons after Guarma when he's convinced the gang is on it's last legs. Working with them any sooner than that is just his right hand working against his left. It's self-defeating behaviour.
@darksaber2k I always likened that to Micah just wanting to get in the Van Der Linde Gang and be guaranteed a solid crew with potential for him to brown-nose his way to a seat of power. Micah is the only one in the gang whose story about meeting Dutch, *_involves HIM saving Dutch._** Not the other way around.* And I've always found that interesting. How was Micah able to do that? Where was John, or Hosea, *_or Arthur?_* Was Micah just passing through the same bar that Dutch was tryna sell in, or had he been tailing them? We tend to forget the Van Der Linde Gang was already infamous *_BEFORE_* Blackwater.
@@BulgarianReaper I think it’s more than heavily implied. Micah wouldn’t ever admit it as it would mean certain death from within the gang, even as it falls apart. His reaction is enough of an answer, at first, he cockily says “that’s a goddamn lie,” far too casually for an accusation that could have meant he’d be killed. Then he risks his own life to go for Arthur on the hill just to kill him. Then the desperation in his voice as he pleads for Dutch to follow him, he’s basically saying “you have to believe me.” Also, Agent Milton was not a liar. Don’t forget, while he’s cruel, he’s portrayed as an antagonist through the lens of our protagonists, who operate outside the law. Also, why would he need to lie to Arthur in that moment? He’s about to kill Arthur - and if it wasn’t for Abigail, he would have. He wouldn’t have lied to Arthur hoping the news would then break the gang apart.
Micah's biggest problem is the lack of any subtlety. He's an asshole to 100% of the camp. Everyone but Dutch hates him enough for someone to have found a chance to bushwhack him on the side. He's even comically nasty to the dog. He should have been more charismatic around camp, I think. Had some other people genuinely like him.
There are times in his camp interactions where he wants to be liked, such as that interaction with mary beth. But he knows everybody simply hates him and will never really like him
I agree with that idea of him trying to get more members like Cleet and Joe. I think that was the content of the letter he wrote to Amos and the reason he went to Strawberry. When Arthur asks him why he was even there, he never answers. I think he tried to recruit Norman and ended up getting turned in by him. In the end he still managed to get Cleet and Joe so that he would have more firepower on his side. If you do another game in the future, I would suggest all the evils in the main plot and characters of L.A. Noire, mainly Cole Phelps and the Suburban Redevelopment Fund.
@@inlander.wentruz, eh, in Michael's defense, he does regret it to some extent and is not a psychopath, unlike dear Micah here. Micah probably enjoyed playing Dutch like a fiddle and later betraying him and the gang.
@@LordOfTheNorth do with it what you will. I just find it funny that millions of people are willing to vote for someone with the same thought process as the repugnant micah bell to be their leader
Arthur and Micah represent two sides of the same coin, Arthur, despite not being a good man, is good at heart and represents the Just side of the old west, a perfect example of Dutch’s ideals And Micah, the Cold and Cruel side of the old west One is the perfect counterpoint to Agent Milton’s points, and the other is the epitome of it
just no... they're as just the same in essence, but done inversely. Arthur isn't 'Good-hearted' whatever that means, especially since that RDRI & II commentates in its meta-modernism against for such abstractions, such as 'Good & Evil, Morality, Change' etc. furthermore, they're only inversely paralleled on a superficial level, regarding their default clothes & the way they handle their relationship, & the vignette's drawn with each other but both are essentially the same in essence but don't want to admit with each other because one sees right through Arthur, & the second projects himself onto essentially himself & despises it; this is further backed up by Arthur's upbringing by Lyle Morgan. which in a vignette drawn out cloth, is essentially in parallels with how Micah Bell II raised Micah Bell III; the only difference is the set of circumstances, regarding how their ideology & philosophy were shaped towards by. Arthur was shaped into becoming a hardshell of his inner self by how Lyle Morgan raised him, to which Arthur projects onto Dutch (not many ppl know this but Arthur always knew deep within himself about who Dutch really was), & so the dogmatic set of viewpoints, that Dutch subjected himself & onto others via his ideology & philosophy, that he indoctrinated & polarized his boys against for. Micah was shaped into becoming a hardshell of his inner self by how Micah Bell II raised him, but this was done in an attempt to embrace it via Micah Bell's II ideology & philosophy that was more of an attempt to give his son an outlook onto different perspectives via the figurative abstract of how there's only 'Winners & Losers, nothing more'.
@@godzillazfrictionI was more so meaning High Honour Arthur in this regard as Rockstar have confirmed that’s the canon ending, also as far as things go Arthur is not entirely good as Rockstar wouldn’t write something as simple, however he does try and do good things and only kill who he needs to, however he is obviously not a good person just has somewhat of a good heart and wants to do good things, paralleled with Micah who not only cares singularly about himself but also finds sadistic enjoyment out of his crimes, As far as the environments they grow up in go, that’s an entirely fair point however High Honour Arthur ultimately “Redeemed” himself (Obviously not redeeming the countless murders but put his brother’s life above his own) whereas Micah allowed everyone around him to die before Dutch finally put him in the ground, The ideologies definitely come into play here tho too as simplifying it to merely “Micah bad, Arthur Good” is kinda redundant and I just did it to try and simplify my point however to go deeper into it I think Arthur was raised to be loyal, likely because he probably only knew his father and never betrayed him and then decided to ally himself with Dutch who once again heavily supported the idea of Loyalty and Comradeship, Micah meanwhile was grown up in an environment where survival was seemingly put above everything else, with his Father nearly killing his brother due to a what is likely either them having a disagreement or a job gone wrong, and once Micah grew up he continued to be around disloyal people like Cleet and Joe(And if a popular theory is right, the O’driscolls too) Tldr: Arthur is not a good person, however he attempts to do good where he can, compared to Micah who will cause chaos at random for the excuse of “Surviving”
@@DreamersOfRealityI mean perhaps in the end but across the majority of the story he was far from a good person, tho tbf he still tried to do good things making him better than Dutch, Micah and Even John
I’d say there is subversion. At the start of the game, I thought Micah was going to be the trope of the slightly lovable asshole character you have to struggle to get alone with, but ultimately has your back to the end, and it seemed everyone else thought that when the trailers first started coming out. The “blessed are the peacemakers” mission got me very suspicious, but it was after Sean died and how apathetic and demeaning Micah was to the situation that convinced me “yea, this guy’s just an asshole”, and from then on all of Micah’s interactions went from a little annoying to at times outright infuriating, such as him saying the gang should “drop dead weight” during his coach heist, or him trying to justify Hosea and Lenny’s deaths at Guarma
Excellent video. RDR2 is a master class in character writing and you breakdowns are excellent. That said, I'm going to throw out a suggestion that is unrelated to Red Dead Redemption because it's been on my mind lately. I would highly recommend watching Beasts of No Nation. Idris Elba plays one of the most vile characters I've seen put to film.
Micah has always reminded me of Judge Holden from the story Blood Meridian. Not in the sense that he's this larger than life villain who can destroy anyone with his bare hands. But like Holden, Micah always felt like Satan among a group of devils. I mean, of course you could make the point that almost everyone in Dutch's gang was evil, but Micah felt like evil incarnate compared to the rest of the group.
I love that Peter Blomquist, the actor for Micah, hates him more than anybody. Also, I loved his performance. He truly made a character love to hate. Thanks for making a video about him.
NO WAY!!!! I just recommended doing Micah Bell to you a few days ago in the Dutch Van der Linde video. I was also just playing Red Dead Redemption 2 today, talk about a double coincidence, lol. I think Micah is definitely psychopathic due to his lack of empathy, (especially when he did in fact murder the little girl, it's just that Cleet TRIED to stop him but failed)
I do want to chime in on Micah's involvement with Law Enforcement: I don't think necessarily Micah works with them, but uses them, as you stated. Namely, bounties, much like Arthur does. Micah isn't above hunting fellow criminals for money, as you can see Dutch Van Der Linde's Wanted Poster in Micah's makeshift camp near Strawberry after breaking him out. On top of that, Micah has several connections, so it wouldn't be surprising if he knew some shifty, and ugly looking bounty hunters much like Cleet and Joe. This is highly evident as the next camp after Horseshoe Overlook Micah suggested was a dry river bed, open on all sides, and with a surrounding high ground, awful, in terms of defense, and would have the Van Der Linde Gang surrounded by their enemies, which Micah likely would have been a part of. Lastly, Micah had never worked with the Pinkertons until after Guarma, stated by Agent Milton that he picked him up shortly after the gang's return from Guarma, leading to the finale, where eventually Micah met his end at the hands of Special Agent Jim Milton in Ambarino.
Micah is mor eevil than Dutch and maybe more similar to Colm O'Driscoll. brutal evil criminals that like using people to meat their own selfish desires. at least Dutch did care for his gang members. the problem with Dutch was his hypocritical ambition that are delusional and libertarian fantasy utopia. if Micah ever tried joining the O'Driscoll gang, Colm would have killed him immediately because an evil person knows and smells another evil person. and no evil person wants to be outsmarted or outmatched by anyone. being evil is a competition. can't risk having a rival that might kill you later if you don't pay attention.
He probably planned on getting them killed, and turning in Dutch after the shootout in Valentine. The Pinkertons were firmly on their trail, and were even able to deduce the general location of their Horseshoe Overlook camp. If they had approached him instead of Arthur at that point, he probably would have cut a deal.
My grear aunts husband was a detective from 1940-1970, asked him to watch me play and showed him Micah, he only said this: "He is a man of hate, raised in savagery , he had th choice, he chose th easy path, he is a weak man, put to many men like him away, others, others i saved th judge the trouble."
@@G.Valent22 he lived in Berlin Nevada. After his mother passing away he was the oldest to take care of his two siblings. Father disappeared when he was 7, so he took the only job open and that was being a detectives apprentice, still a detective but not a detective.
I also think he had the Pinkertons kidnap Abigail too, so he could keep her for himself after they came back to killed everyone at Beaver Hallow, but Arthur and John ruined it.
Something of note about Micah's character is that while a nasty outlaw on the outside, he's a coward deep down. He will sell anyone out without hesitation if it means saving himself, which is exactly what he did to Dutch and the others. And on the opposite end, despite his rivalry with Arthur, he only started being more straight to the point when Arthur's days were numbered, knowing he couldn't fight back. Micah does not play fair, nor does he have a code. He's crafty, clever, and manipulative. Yet he justifies his cowardly behavior under the pretenses of being a survivor.
I actually thought that he was bullying arthur because he saw him as weaklin. And i dont think he is truly that much of coward, as when he dies, he actually dies smiling.
@@pelucheCR7 Micah didn't start bullying Arthur until after the latter got TB. He never died smiling either, he laughed it off when Dutch shot him because it caught him off guard (even that sounded more like shocked/nervous laughter than genuine laughter), but other than that, I don't remember him ever dying smiling.
@@orangeville1978 Thats my point, Micah at that point saw arthur as weaklin whereareas before there was a degree of respect he had for him as an outlaw. You are right he shrugs it off, even more so when john finishes him off. He doesnt die like a coward begging for his life, he accepts his fate.
I'm pretty sure it goes: A: What is your problem? M: What is your problem, partner? M: You don't, uh... you don't look so good. A: What is wrong with you? M: Nothing wrong with me. I'm fit as a fiddle. A: Not inside you ain't. M: I'm just a realist, friend. Sorry, I just wanted to provide correct context 😅
@@trenaceandblackmetal5621Analysing Evil:Blood and Wine and Analysing Evil: Hearts of Stone would be good ones. Analysing Evil:Emhyr Var Emreis would as well.
Great video on Micah! Biggest scumbag and snake in the franchise. Some villains suggestion that you could do: - Cell from Dragon Ball Z - Yoshikage Kira from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure - The Master from Fallout 1 - Heat (1995 Movie by Micheal Mann) - Shane Vendrell from The Shield - Frank Tenpenny from GTA San Andreas - Mahito from Jujutsu Kaisen - Patry/Patolli from Black Clover
I second this, Dimitri is in my opinion the most evil antagonist in any rockstar game ever. He is just enough of pure evil to not cross the line into supernatural hollywood evils if you know what I mean.
On one hand the world is more than one man’s evil and Dutch, Arthur and all the gang had a hand in their downfall because they chose to commit to a life of crime. On the other hand, in a story about redemption, one of the ultimate evils being the character who has no remorse or pity for anything they’ve done, or did but chose to continue anyway, throwing away any other path, either because they felt it was the only choice, or because they liked it, is very fitting.
Love that all of the character actors in this game dissolve into their role. you don’t notice Peter Blomquist, You just hear Micah mocking Arthur’s cough or wisperin into Dutches ear with venom drippin from his lip. Experiencing living day to day camp life with Micah and seeing how he pathetically asks John for a “nibble” of Abigail or shouts at Charles to go “fetch me something to eat” No media has ever made me despise an individual like Micah.
Berlin - Money Heist Don Draper - Mad Men Ghost - Power Frank Underwood - House of Cards Nuckie Thomson - Boardwalk Empire Dmitri Rascalov - GTA IV Officer Tenpenny - GTA San Andreas Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo - Narcos: Mexico Mewtwo - Pokemon Romeo - Sky Rojo Dushane Hill - Top Boy Lieutenant Chang - Only God Forgives Abijah Fowler - Blue Eye Samurai
Don Draolper is NOT even close to being evil, he's not a good person, but he's not all bad either, he's conflicted. And it seemed like he found inner peace at the end of Mad Men.
I love that you are interested in various characters from various sources such as red dead redemption which has so many fascinating characters. I would love to see a video on the 2 films Wolfcreek!
This is such a crazy coincidence. I bought RDR2 when it came out six years ago, but I only got to Valentine. I just wasn’t ready for it. Now, I started playing it for the first time for real about two weeks ago and you happen release this video. I’m gonna come back to finish this once I beat the game, but wow, such a small world lol.
Day 37 of asking you to please make a video analyzing leo kasper/daniel lamb/the project from the game manhunt 2. Also, great video, my man, keep up the good work!
I literally just finished re-playing RDR2 for the fourth time the other day, first time in almost 2 years, and then this video gets uploaded. All for it!
Please consider doing an analysis of Silent Hill. Not any of the characters, but the town itself, which does seem to be a malevolent lovecraftian entity that may or may not be sentient.
Smalll detail is his and Arthurs hat. In Western spaghettis, the hero often wears a white hat, while the outlaw wears a black hat. In the eyes of the law and civilians, micah would probably be the hero, while arthur is the villain. Obviously, this isnt the case though.
@@LEEEENNY Well he is kind of a hero from their perspective. He took down the most dangerous gang in the country, while Arthur and his associates were probably demonized forever
To be fair, if Arthur and the gang existed in real life they would be the subject of horror movies. Arthur has killed dozens of innocent lawmen, which also applies to most of the other ‘good’ members of the gang like Sadie and Charles.
Micah bell is a great character foil for arthur morgan because micah is exactly like arthur but without shame, he doesn't pretend that he's a romanticized outlaw with a code of honor like arthur or dutch he's a killer and proud of it
Micah is like the only character who truly acts like a 1800s outlaw with zero romanticization
I think you missed the entire point of the Van Der Linde gang’s appeal dude. The game is full of outlaws with no semblance of morality, it’s not like RDR2 glorifies the role.
@@RudeDude69Dutch is extremely moralistic, but yeah he's immoral.
@@aabbccdd4710Aka a hypocrite
@@RudeDude69I think you missed the point of the Game. Its about redemption of bad man who are on the inside good or can be good. Similar applies to the rest of the Gang. Only Micah is a wholy bad guy.
@@Andre-c6z Uuh.. the point of RDR is that the only redemption these men will find is in death. Arthur had the chance to make amends because he knew he was dying, John is made to feel like a fool for even trying to be better because he thought he could walk away from what he did, especially in the first game. John saves a guy from a cannibal? Turns out that guy probably deserves it. John gets flowers for an old man's wife? Turns out he's crazy and was living with her skeleton for years. The world mocks his efforts, the only real way for John to be a better person is by being on the receiving end of a rifle. People really act like Arthur would've lived a long, happy life if he didn't contract TB, like it's not the most fairytale shit ever. No, he would've ended up exactly like John. None of them are good people, they're all murderers with body counts probably in the hundreds just individually.
Say what you want about micah, but his voice actor is phenomenal
"Im a surviver black lung, a surviver"
Easily yeah. That voice adds to disliking him even more.
Everything about the man, inspires hatred against him. He's a prefect example, of being a character we just love to hate. The actor who portrays him does his role quite well.
The voice actor hated Micah as a character
Survivor
The whole main cast was amazing.
Micah says in a chapter 4 camp fire scene that he doesn’t believe in good or evil. He thinks from the time your born to the time you die you just do “things” that ether make you feel good or sad.
He also mentions he doesn’t believe in God or going to heaven, but he believes their is damnation. He says that “he knows what it’ll be like”, & that he’ll “be right at home there.” Very creepy dialogue but good insight into his character and thoughts.
sociopaths know they have a problem, are erratic, justify everything they do, and leave clues behind; Micah's clue was that he was the rat he pretended to be afraid of.
Someone who believes in hell but not heaven? That is weird.
@@PhillipMoore-td5yiMaybe to you, I swear I have heard that idea mentioned plenty of times before.
@@PhillipMoore-td5yiNot really weird
@@PhillipMoore-td5yi _"Someone who believes in hell but not heaven? That is weird."_
Like the Cult of Sithrak from Oglaf.
Sithrak himself is pretty chill though.
Peter Blomquist doesn’t get enough recognition for being able to seamlessly portray such a manipulative psychopath
Nope he doesn't which is crazy because people would rather hate him for his role instead of thanking him for being a good villain in a good story.
Ikr? In my opinion, a keye factor in portraying a villian who doesn't have that many layers to them and are just evil in the plainest possible way, it's for their actor/actress to really sell the enjoyment the character feels when commiting wretched deeds. Ma man Peter, he really sells it whenever Micah speaks confidently and without compassion about how great he is and just how unopologetically antagonistic he is towards everyone.
I love hearing him talk about his experience playing the game and realizing he hated himself at the end of the story lmao. He absolutely nailed Micah. I hope he gets some more villain roles in the future, he's a great bad guy
A lot of people attack actors who have potrayed villains in media IRL too
@@aabbccdd4710Idiotic af. Like they’re just doing their jobs really real well, imagine being that absorbed
Micah is what i like to think the personification of what a "Turncoat" is. A self serving coward with no allegiance to anything or anyone but himself.
That definition implies no one would ever switch sides for the morally righteous reason. Also its referring to switching allegiances. Not disregarding allegiance. Not to say self serving parties don't exist in any and every aspect of civilization. Imagine if some of the Germans hadn't been "turncoats" during WW2.
he's definitely not an absolute 'coward' by any means...
1st, he recognises the environment, culture that the gang establishes; this means that the gang is hamfisted by Dutch's indoctrinated & polarization regarding his own Dogma of an ideology that he manifested himself onto the world.
2. the gang was always ready to be at a broken point & the clearist tip of that iceberg revealing itself, comes out during chapter 4-5 & then onwards, Micah took an opportunity to end this self-serving gang in its roots to the underground.
Micah always stood by his Father's saying 'There's only Winners & Losers, nothing more'
@@godzillazfriction
PIMPS & WHOES
Micah is far from a coward.
He is nowhere near a coward buddy, not being a romanticized character doesn't mean he's a coward, infact most accurate depiction of an outlaw+ also Low honour Arthur
A "rat" is a traitor, a conceiver, planner, or physical participator
He doesn't sell secrets for power or cash, he betrays the trust of his team or his family hoping to save his own cowardly ass.
“I’ve got more men coming John” he says this on mount hagen and who goes up after John leaves pinkertons
A coward has no option. If you get bad parents you get bad parenting. Its a 6th sense. You are deemed a rat because most people won't raise people that are not their own. So the problem only grows. By raise I don't mean actually rear them, but that they do the opposite of raise their spirit. They ensure that its beaten down despite the person having learned bad or no behavior. Its a comdemnation that begets scorn, guilt, shame and an unending sense of not belonging and never being able to. Its also PTSD masquerading as mental illness. The things that happen around you don't register as important because nothing registers as important. It registers as false and a world only for those who were handed the keys and taught which locks they open. I barely remember my childhood, and actively forget everything else. But I want to overcome all of that still and just be a loner who can take care of himself, and who doesn't bother anyone unless they wanna be bothered. Bascially girls need to be raised with a female role model, and boys need to raised with a male role model. Otherwise the natural impulse of the herd is to run them off because they are easy picking. They would rather turn another human being away then have competition. Its just humanity's version of territorial disputes. We don't butt heads we throw hands or hurl insults. And when the group turns on someone that individual has to find a new group or live solo. Then you get fringe groups, echo chambers and lose sight of the root problem because its allowed to become endemic of society.
don't really think he's a quote on quote 'coward' considering the environment that thw gang establishes with its own people.
he's definitely not an absolute 'coward' by any means...
1st, he recognises the environment, culture that the gang establishes; this means that the gang is hamfisted by Dutch's indoctrinated & polarization regarding his own Dogma of an ideology that he manifested himself onto the world.
2. the gang was always ready to be at a broken point & the clearist tip of that iceberg revealing itself, comes out during chapter 4-5 & then onwards, Micah took an opportunity to end this self-serving gang in its roots to the underground.
Micah always stood by his Father's saying 'There's only Winners & Losers, nothing more'
@@nak3dxsnakenice Gender Constructivism.
There's a legendary animal that you can kill in the game that's exclusively tied to a story mission. The Legendary Rat is on top of Mount Hagen in the level American Venom.
Thats good lol
Damn, almost as big as a New York rat!
Rat ? is that a nod to Micah lol
@@mbank3832 maybe
I’m glad others also believe Micah was in cohesion with the law long before coming back from Guarma. It seemed too coincidental that only a month after Micah joined the gang, they were faced with the worst ambush of law enforcement they ever experienced, all by Micah’s urging
You mean "in cahoots" or "in collusion," right?
i personally dont, all of the severe problems with the law are caused by the gang itself who is trying to keep living like in the old west despite the change in times that is aproaching, arthur himself says so
Rule #1 - always antagonize Micah when given the opportunity
Something I always do
See how far you can go yep that's me
Who need an enemy when you have a man like him as an friend 😅
And when you have to ride with him, point your gun at the back of his head while pressing the trigger the whole time😂
Strauss too.
I feel like a small part of Micah actually wants to be liked. Sure, he’s an opportunistic sycophant, but there are a lot of interactions he has that are not meant to benefit his standing, but instead are him trying to make friends or companions. This is seen when he tries to dance with Mary Beth, or, at the end of the story, when he sticks with Dutch, despite Dutch not offering any strategic benefit with his gang being disbanded. Micah stuck around Dutch because Dutch saw him as a truly loyal member of the gang, and Micah wanted someone resembling a friend. We see in Micah’s letter from his brother that he tried to reach out to his apparent only family, and was rejected by his brother, who has reformed and is now dedicated to raising his daughters, with his brother threatening to kill Micah if he ever comes near him. It sounds crazy, but I think a lot of Micah’s interactions were him trying to be friendly with a gang that he hoped was as violent as he was, while simultaneously talking with Pinkertons in secret in case things turned out bad. Micah was a violent, bigoted turncoat, but I think a lot of his actions were desperate attempts to make friends.
I agree, alot of what Micah says comes off as a guy who just randomly insults you because he's so starved for attention and friends. A class clown.
That's the vibe I get from him before chapter 6, he's still an evil fucker who's out for himself, but he does wanna actually try to ingratiate himself into the gang until he realizes they all hate him
don't really agree with the Dutch segment of your argument...
Micah only stuck around for being a sycophant that saw through who Dutch was & didn't align at all with Micah's philosophical way of existing a.k.a 'There's only Winners & Losers, nothing more'.
@@MrFusionno such thing as the concept of 'Evil'...
@@godzillazfriction Yes, there is such a thing as evil, it means doing immoral things to other people, that is literally the definition of evil. As a matter of fact, having that type of thought process is dangerous, since it leads to a belief that there are no morally right or wrong actions and behaviors.
Personaly Micah is one of the best villains in video game in general.
Micah is a true rapresentation of the dark side of the far west.
Cruel,sadistic, Savage and greedy incarnate
Some Times the villains Who are truly pure evil are the best type of villains @@Thebaldocelot
It only works if it's well written.
@@BAKER_SWEETS that too
@@eddieguerrerofantasy Micah is the most realistic outlaw in the whole gang
Idk he's a fun character and peter blomquist is great in the role, but i don't he's very well written, i also never really understood how or why is micah is ratting on the gang
Good note to end on. Dutch would have imploded the gang regardless. Micah merely accelerated it.
Yeah the Van Der Linde Gang was always doomed to fail, even without Micah. Josea was getting old already and probably looking for the right time to retire. And Arthur contracted that terminal case of Black Lung while collecting Money owed to the gang. Without Micah, Sadie's home doesn't burn down. Still a chance she goes along with the gang, given the O'Driscoll's were lurking in the mountains after all. Dutch maybe holds back on some of his bigger crimes, but his paranoia was still always there, it just doesn't get pushed as badly as it was with Micah, so he might've been more willing to try and rescue John, instead of Arthur having to go behind his back to do it.
Micah was an incredibly intelligent villain. He knew Arthur was the primary threat from the get-go. Sure, Micah may not have ratted to The Pinkertons until after Guarma, but you’d be stupid to think that Micah wasn’t trying to get that Blackwater money from the moment that Blackwater heist took place. He knew the only way to get that money was to break the gang up from internal strife or casualties, and Arthur was the only one who could keep everybody together and united regardless. But because Micah knew that Dutch saw the feud between him and Arthur, and that he wasn’t really “in” the gang like a lot of the longer-standing members, Micah couldn’t outright take out Arthur, or it would seem incredibly suspicious at minimum. So he had to try systematically eliminating the gang members who would side with Arthur and would also have seemingly died from normal circumstances, like Hosea, Lenny (Setup Bank Job) and Mrs. Grimshaw (Once he was outright challenged alongside Arthur), so that when the time came, Micah would be able to override Arthur’s support within the gang.
People think Micah was just a two-faced little shit who managed to trick Dutch because he and Arthur’s relationship deteriorated. Micah was much more of an evil mastermind then people liked to give him credit for. Knowing this; It also makes Dutch killing Micah in 1907 much, much more satisfying, knowing that riiight as Micah’s dreams of stealing that Blackwater money, that he planned 8+ years to take, were right there in front of him; The one man who Micah didn’t plan on stopping him, stopped him: Dutch Van Der Linde. In my mind, it also squared Dutch for his betrayal of Arthur, because Dutch (by killing Micah) ultimately helped John get the money that Arthur wanted John to have.
He was intelligent but not a mastermind
Yeah mastermind is really reaching with this one mate, intelligent two-faced little shit would be more accurate 👍🏻
One of my favorite bits of foreshadowing in the game comes after you free micha from prison and you go on a stage coach robbery with him, after that robbery if you go back to his camp spot you’ll find a wanted poster of Dutch. So it’s interesting to think weather or not he was always going to betray Dutch or he took a deal with Milton about inside information on the gang’s whereabouts after grurma
He probably saw that bounty as something he could collect once he had no further use for Dutch and his gang. It could very well be what led him to Dutch in the first place. That bounty was also going to increase if he could push Dutch into committing more high-profile crimes, like the Blackwater ferry or the San Denis bank.
I recently spent a week and a half with the ACTOR who played Micah Bell, Peter Blomquist, we were in like a group tour together. I am going to email him this video!
Give him our thanks for voicing such a great villain!
What did he say?
@@Marxmanyanim a survivor black lung, A SURVIVOR THAT'S ALL THERE IS!
Any updates?
I think the simplicity of Micah is what makes him so effective. That and Peter Blomquist’s outstanding performance which really brings him to life.
Micah was not only evil, but he had the worse kind of heartlessness in him. Historically, outlaws were just like him, cold, ruthless, nihilistic, and sadistic and even today there are still more Micah Bells of the world.
"damn you."
"TENNIS BOAT"
I have to give it to Micah once he convinced Dutch to shoot the girl on the Ferry it was already over he knew he could manipulate Dutch however he sees fit
If they are all willing to do the exact same levels of evil in the right circumstances, then is manipulating one of those people really that much more evil.
The answer is yes, yes it is, but it shows how morally grey the world is. If someone kills people you don't like they are the good guy, and vice versa.
@@nak3dxsnake interesting point given it wasn’t the last girl Dutch shot in the face but never the less Evil is still evil even if it’s weaponized against the same evil
My theory was that Micah was working with the pickertons before the game starts but not with them as a whole. Judging on the kind of man we know he is and the plan he makes later on. Micah was only working for Ross. Micah would likely have gotten arrested after he got with dutch seeing if he could rob them or at least use them, but then a pickerton is the one that comes for him and agrees to let him go so long as he does some "community service". Milton for his many many flaws as a person does follow the law. He caught Molly and even after seeing her in the camp of Dutch lets her go. He only starts to bend the law the more the gang goes farther. Micah working with ross could give him a chance to get away with money, destroy the gang as Ross could get the credit and maybe promote him above Milton but the gang escaped with their lives.
I do think it's possible that Micah had nothing to do with Colm but figured it would be an easy way to get rid of Arthur or/and Dutch as it was obviously a trap. The Saint Denis robbery could have just been bad luck due to all they had already done but the all white outfit was a interesting detail especially as they seemed to know Hosea would be a distraction.
The bank robbery I think would fail anyway since they shot the way through the city in the trolley robbery, the city was too alerted
I dont believe this theory. The Pinkertons never were after Micah, especially that early in the story, they probably even didnt know him then being in Dutch group.
How Micah does plans for stealing things etc, totally go against this theory. Sorry but no, this is fan-fiction territory.
Micah was a parasite who thrived in chaos. I hated Micah. When he killed Jack's dog. I wanted him dead. He was a perfect antagonist.
He really wasn't. A bit more subtlety would have made him the perfect antagonist. Being an asshole to 100% of camp members discounting only Dutch himself and being comically evil to animals and children just makes him feel like something literally out of a children's comic. They should have toned down his asshole behaviour in the camp, made him more weasle-y and had him actually doing things like sucking up to Javier and Bill.
He killed Jack's dog!? Wow, I've played through the main story numerous times and I never knew that, that really shows how large this game is, no matter how many times you play it, there is always very small details you miss.
@thegatorhator6822 He entered the gang saving Dutch's life. So in his mind, he and Dutch were on the same level. The gang was Dutch's baggage. The rest of the gang were beneath him, yet had their uses.
@@adamcuneo7189Micah basically hints at it when they moved to beaver hollow in a very mocking tone
@@ssj4goku18825theepic I didn't know that, even though I never went deep into all of the side conversations.
I think if Micah was a rat prior to returning from Guama, Milton would've said it, but he stated "we picked him up when you lot returned from the tropics and he's been a good boy since then"
Yeah, I concluded that Micah was involved with the Pinkertons after he came back from Guarma too, but it is indeed suspicious how the Pinkertons were fast to turn up after the Blackwater robbery prior to the start of the game, along with other events prior to Guarma.
@@adamcuneo7189 To be fair, Pinkertons aren't law enforcement, they are mercenary assassins, so it's not hard to see an army of mercenaries rushing to battle.
@@SirToaster9330 While it is true that the Pinkertons are not a federal law enforcement agency, at least not today, but back during the Civil War they protected Lincoln and laid the foundation for the Secret Service which is indeed a federal law enforcement agency. I know this is about a video game, but I think the world in RDR is basically our own, just with a few name changes and an embellishment of the Wild West.
@@SirToaster9330 While it is true that the Pinkertons are not a federal law enforcement agency, they were a private detective agency, at least during the height of their power from the 1870's to the 1890's. They did also however lay the foundation for the Secret Service back during the Civil War, which today is a federal law enforcement agency.
@@SirToaster9330 I guess they intentionally left it up to players to decide for themselves on who was informing the Pinkertons prior to Guarma. I guess there must've been someone, because the characters felt that way prior to Guarma.
Now that you’ve done Micah Bell, maybe you should do one on Dolores Umbridge from Harry Potter. Then you’d be completing what I like to call the “Trifecta of Hate” - that is, the three characters whose names always crop up when the question “Who is the most hated fictional character?” is asked on Reddit (Micah and Umbridge being the first two, and Joffrey Baratheon being the third).
It just goes to show how well portrayed these characters were, that they are so hatable. They're three utterly irredeemable villains, Joffrey Baratheon is probably a little lower on the Trifecta of Hate, simply because of how badly the TV series ended. Dolores Umbrage definitely deserves her own Analysing Evil video, she's all sunshine and rainbows on the outside, but full of poison and vitriol within.
Also still patiently waiting for an episode on The Major and Millenium from Hellsing.
I don’t think Micah was using the law of helping the law for a long time - while Milton’s cruel, he isn’t a liar, so I think he was telling the truth that Micah was helping them only from after the gang returned from Guarma. Micah is an opportunist. He says it to Arthur, “I’m a survivor.” He’ll do anything to ensure his own survival. Helping the Pinkertons was a way of protecting himself from facing justice. He started manipulating Dutch because he wanted to have more say in the gang and saw a weakness in Dutch to exploit.
He’s just an opportunistic rat.
Although it's heavily implied that Micah is the rat, he never confirms it himself. Agent Milton could've been telling the truth, or there really wasn't a rat and Milton could've just been trying to destroy the gang by letting them kill each other
With both options being a possibility. This is the type of storytelling I can get behind - the one that treats their audience like adults by letting THEM solve the puzzle
Yep. Milton has no reason or motive whatsoever to lie there. Micah first works with the Pinkertons after Guarma when he's convinced the gang is on it's last legs. Working with them any sooner than that is just his right hand working against his left. It's self-defeating behaviour.
You can find Micah's camp around Strawberry pre-Guarma. He has a wanted poster of Dutch hanging up... Make of that what you will.
@darksaber2k I always likened that to Micah just wanting to get in the Van Der Linde Gang and be guaranteed a solid crew with potential for him to brown-nose his way to a seat of power. Micah is the only one in the gang whose story about meeting Dutch, *_involves HIM saving Dutch._** Not the other way around.*
And I've always found that interesting. How was Micah able to do that? Where was John, or Hosea, *_or Arthur?_* Was Micah just passing through the same bar that Dutch was tryna sell in, or had he been tailing them?
We tend to forget the Van Der Linde Gang was already infamous *_BEFORE_* Blackwater.
@@BulgarianReaper I think it’s more than heavily implied. Micah wouldn’t ever admit it as it would mean certain death from within the gang, even as it falls apart. His reaction is enough of an answer, at first, he cockily says “that’s a goddamn lie,” far too casually for an accusation that could have meant he’d be killed. Then he risks his own life to go for Arthur on the hill just to kill him. Then the desperation in his voice as he pleads for Dutch to follow him, he’s basically saying “you have to believe me.”
Also, Agent Milton was not a liar. Don’t forget, while he’s cruel, he’s portrayed as an antagonist through the lens of our protagonists, who operate outside the law. Also, why would he need to lie to Arthur in that moment? He’s about to kill Arthur - and if it wasn’t for Abigail, he would have. He wouldn’t have lied to Arthur hoping the news would then break the gang apart.
Micah's biggest problem is the lack of any subtlety. He's an asshole to 100% of the camp. Everyone but Dutch hates him enough for someone to have found a chance to bushwhack him on the side. He's even comically nasty to the dog. He should have been more charismatic around camp, I think. Had some other people genuinely like him.
There are times in his camp interactions where he wants to be liked, such as that interaction with mary beth. But he knows everybody simply hates him and will never really like him
I agree with that idea of him trying to get more members like Cleet and Joe. I think that was the content of the letter he wrote to Amos and the reason he went to Strawberry. When Arthur asks him why he was even there, he never answers. I think he tried to recruit Norman and ended up getting turned in by him. In the end he still managed to get Cleet and Joe so that he would have more firepower on his side.
If you do another game in the future, I would suggest all the evils in the main plot and characters of L.A. Noire, mainly Cole Phelps and the Suburban Redevelopment Fund.
"I'm a survivor, Black Lung! A survivor! That's all there is, living and dying."-Micah Bell
he's a regular micheal townley
@@inlander.wentruz, eh, in Michael's defense, he does regret it to some extent and is not a psychopath, unlike dear Micah here. Micah probably enjoyed playing Dutch like a fiddle and later betraying him and the gang.
You know who else said something like this? Trump.
@@tylers6611What are we meant to do with this information
@@LordOfTheNorth do with it what you will. I just find it funny that millions of people are willing to vote for someone with the same thought process as the repugnant micah bell to be their leader
Dutch saved every member of the gang except Micah, who saved him. Which is why Dutch is so loyal to Micah
Greatest Video Game of all time, so glad this channel is returning to it
The moment I saw Micah, he reminded me of T-Bag from Prison Break. Calm and kind when he needs to be, but never part of the group.
Arthur and Micah represent two sides of the same coin,
Arthur, despite not being a good man, is good at heart and represents the Just side of the old west, a perfect example of Dutch’s ideals
And Micah, the Cold and Cruel side of the old west
One is the perfect counterpoint to Agent Milton’s points, and the other is the epitome of it
Very true, the game's story is about outlaws who have empathy for others vs outlaws who don't.
just no...
they're as just the same in essence, but done inversely.
Arthur isn't 'Good-hearted' whatever that means, especially since that RDRI & II commentates in its meta-modernism against for such abstractions, such as 'Good & Evil, Morality, Change' etc.
furthermore, they're only inversely paralleled on a superficial level, regarding their default clothes & the way they handle their relationship, & the vignette's drawn with each other but both are essentially the same in essence but don't want to admit with each other because one sees right through Arthur, & the second projects himself onto essentially himself & despises it; this is further backed up by Arthur's upbringing by Lyle Morgan. which in a vignette drawn out cloth, is essentially in parallels with how Micah Bell II raised Micah Bell III; the only difference is the set of circumstances, regarding how their ideology & philosophy were shaped towards by. Arthur was shaped into becoming a hardshell of his inner self by how Lyle Morgan raised him, to which Arthur projects onto Dutch (not many ppl know this but Arthur always knew deep within himself about who Dutch really was), & so the dogmatic set of viewpoints, that Dutch subjected himself & onto others via his ideology & philosophy, that he indoctrinated & polarized his boys against for.
Micah was shaped into becoming a hardshell of his inner self by how Micah Bell II raised him, but this was done in an attempt to embrace it via Micah Bell's II ideology & philosophy that was more of an attempt to give his son an outlook onto different perspectives via the figurative abstract of how there's only 'Winners & Losers, nothing more'.
@@godzillazfrictionI was more so meaning High Honour Arthur in this regard as Rockstar have confirmed that’s the canon ending, also as far as things go Arthur is not entirely good as Rockstar wouldn’t write something as simple, however he does try and do good things and only kill who he needs to, however he is obviously not a good person just has somewhat of a good heart and wants to do good things, paralleled with Micah who not only cares singularly about himself but also finds sadistic enjoyment out of his crimes,
As far as the environments they grow up in go, that’s an entirely fair point however High Honour Arthur ultimately “Redeemed” himself (Obviously not redeeming the countless murders but put his brother’s life above his own) whereas Micah allowed everyone around him to die before Dutch finally put him in the ground,
The ideologies definitely come into play here tho too as simplifying it to merely “Micah bad, Arthur Good” is kinda redundant and I just did it to try and simplify my point however to go deeper into it I think Arthur was raised to be loyal, likely because he probably only knew his father and never betrayed him and then decided to ally himself with Dutch who once again heavily supported the idea of Loyalty and Comradeship,
Micah meanwhile was grown up in an environment where survival was seemingly put above everything else, with his Father nearly killing his brother due to a what is likely either them having a disagreement or a job gone wrong, and once Micah grew up he continued to be around disloyal people like Cleet and Joe(And if a popular theory is right, the O’driscolls too)
Tldr: Arthur is not a good person, however he attempts to do good where he can, compared to Micah who will cause chaos at random for the excuse of “Surviving”
Arthur is a good man, cope and seethe. I know there's no arguing with ones like you, so take it kindly.
@@DreamersOfRealityI mean perhaps in the end but across the majority of the story he was far from a good person, tho tbf he still tried to do good things making him better than Dutch, Micah and Even John
Analyzing evil: Captain Martin Walker from SpecOps the Line.
Martin walker evil? Dudes a war hero 😂
@@rhysoneill7399did we play the same game?
Zero subversion. Just an asshole the entire time. Great villain
I’d say there is subversion. At the start of the game, I thought Micah was going to be the trope of the slightly lovable asshole character you have to struggle to get alone with, but ultimately has your back to the end, and it seemed everyone else thought that when the trailers first started coming out. The “blessed are the peacemakers” mission got me very suspicious, but it was after Sean died and how apathetic and demeaning Micah was to the situation that convinced me “yea, this guy’s just an asshole”, and from then on all of Micah’s interactions went from a little annoying to at times outright infuriating, such as him saying the gang should “drop dead weight” during his coach heist, or him trying to justify Hosea and Lenny’s deaths at Guarma
@@metaknight115 Interesting. I never watched any of the promotional stuff leading up to the release.
How is that a good subversion? That just makes him a one-dimensional villain.
Excellent video. RDR2 is a master class in character writing and you breakdowns are excellent. That said, I'm going to throw out a suggestion that is unrelated to Red Dead Redemption because it's been on my mind lately.
I would highly recommend watching Beasts of No Nation. Idris Elba plays one of the most vile characters I've seen put to film.
Micah has always reminded me of Judge Holden from the story Blood Meridian. Not in the sense that he's this larger than life villain who can destroy anyone with his bare hands. But like Holden, Micah always felt like Satan among a group of devils. I mean, of course you could make the point that almost everyone in Dutch's gang was evil, but Micah felt like evil incarnate compared to the rest of the group.
Eddie Low from GTA 4 absolutely NEEDS his own episode. There's not many videos on TH-cam analysing his character.
Micah wasnt 1% as evil as my Arthur was in the game before the ending. I killed hundreds of people just for fun while riding across the country.
That's on you
Nah not Arthur you are the demon that should be locked up
new salt factory, new fatbrett, AND new vile eye all in one morning?? What a time to be alive
I love that Peter Blomquist, the actor for Micah, hates him more than anybody. Also, I loved his performance. He truly made a character love to hate.
Thanks for making a video about him.
*Motion capture actor*
@@CantRead1 thank you for telling me this I’ll correct that
@@MrfrogAXN You could have just put actor, because he both did the Mocap and did the voice for him.
@@YSL8704 yeah I guess I’m just gonna do that.
Imagine if Micah met Judge Holden.
You get the gang from blood meridian
That gang is full of "Micah's"
He would've ended up like The Kid
@@JMR_2028 him or bathcat it depends when Micah met the judge from a young age he would have become the kid but Micah was already kind of vicious
@@Melkor8249 scalpers and head hunters.
Imo Micah looks and acts like he'd be better in the O'Driscoll gang
NO WAY!!!! I just recommended doing Micah Bell to you a few days ago in the Dutch Van der Linde video. I was also just playing Red Dead Redemption 2 today, talk about a double coincidence, lol. I think Micah is definitely psychopathic due to his lack of empathy, (especially when he did in fact murder the little girl, it's just that Cleet TRIED to stop him but failed)
Analysing evil: Nucky Thompson
Such a bad dude ngl
i’m so happy you did a rdr character again, the dutch video was nothing short of a masterpiece
it's good to see Micah finally get his own video
I do want to chime in on Micah's involvement with Law Enforcement:
I don't think necessarily Micah works with them, but uses them, as you stated. Namely, bounties, much like Arthur does. Micah isn't above hunting fellow criminals for money, as you can see Dutch Van Der Linde's Wanted Poster in Micah's makeshift camp near Strawberry after breaking him out. On top of that, Micah has several connections, so it wouldn't be surprising if he knew some shifty, and ugly looking bounty hunters much like Cleet and Joe.
This is highly evident as the next camp after Horseshoe Overlook Micah suggested was a dry river bed, open on all sides, and with a surrounding high ground, awful, in terms of defense, and would have the Van Der Linde Gang surrounded by their enemies, which Micah likely would have been a part of.
Lastly, Micah had never worked with the Pinkertons until after Guarma, stated by Agent Milton that he picked him up shortly after the gang's return from Guarma, leading to the finale, where eventually Micah met his end at the hands of Special Agent Jim Milton in Ambarino.
Micah is mor eevil than Dutch and maybe more similar to Colm O'Driscoll.
brutal evil criminals that like using people to meat their own selfish desires.
at least Dutch did care for his gang members. the problem with Dutch was his hypocritical ambition that are delusional and libertarian fantasy utopia.
if Micah ever tried joining the O'Driscoll gang, Colm would have killed him immediately because an evil person knows and smells another evil person. and no evil person wants to be outsmarted or outmatched by anyone. being evil is a competition. can't risk having a rival that might kill you later if you don't pay attention.
I always wondered if Milton was lying about that, or if there was a second rat before Micah.
He probably planned on getting them killed, and turning in Dutch after the shootout in Valentine. The Pinkertons were firmly on their trail, and were even able to deduce the general location of their Horseshoe Overlook camp. If they had approached him instead of Arthur at that point, he probably would have cut a deal.
My grear aunts husband was a detective from 1940-1970, asked him to watch me play and showed him Micah, he only said this:
"He is a man of hate, raised in savagery , he had th choice, he chose th easy path, he is a weak man, put to many men like him away, others, others i saved th judge the trouble."
Damn, how old is he?
@@G.Valent22 he died last year. He was 98.
@@whitechapel8959 so he was a detective from since he was 15 years of age
@@G.Valent22 he lived in Berlin Nevada. After his mother passing away he was the oldest to take care of his two siblings. Father disappeared when he was 7, so he took the only job open and that was being a detectives apprentice, still a detective but not a detective.
I just love this channel so much. Perfect for my long hauls
I also think he had the Pinkertons kidnap Abigail too, so he could keep her for himself after they came back to killed everyone at Beaver Hallow, but Arthur and John ruined it.
This video was so fun and revived my fascination with this game, thank u so much
Something of note about Micah's character is that while a nasty outlaw on the outside, he's a coward deep down. He will sell anyone out without hesitation if it means saving himself, which is exactly what he did to Dutch and the others. And on the opposite end, despite his rivalry with Arthur, he only started being more straight to the point when Arthur's days were numbered, knowing he couldn't fight back. Micah does not play fair, nor does he have a code. He's crafty, clever, and manipulative. Yet he justifies his cowardly behavior under the pretenses of being a survivor.
Bro is onto absolutely nothing
@@stairwaytoheaven8 you can disagree with me without being passive-aggressive about it
I actually thought that he was bullying arthur because he saw him as weaklin. And i dont think he is truly that much of coward, as when he dies, he actually dies smiling.
@@pelucheCR7 Micah didn't start bullying Arthur until after the latter got TB. He never died smiling either, he laughed it off when Dutch shot him because it caught him off guard (even that sounded more like shocked/nervous laughter than genuine laughter), but other than that, I don't remember him ever dying smiling.
@@orangeville1978
Thats my point, Micah at that point saw arthur as weaklin whereareas before there was a degree of respect he had for him as an outlaw.
You are right he shrugs it off, even more so when john finishes him off. He doesnt die like a coward begging for his life, he accepts his fate.
Nice video! And timely as I'm playing through RDR2 right now.
Would love to see you cover Ozwell Spencer (Resident Evil series)
"What's wrong with you?"-Arthur
"Nothing, I'm right as rain"-Micah
"Not inside you ain't."-Arthur
I'm pretty sure it goes:
A: What is your problem?
M: What is your problem, partner?
M: You don't, uh... you don't look so good.
A: What is wrong with you?
M: Nothing wrong with me. I'm fit as a fiddle.
A: Not inside you ain't.
M: I'm just a realist, friend.
Sorry, I just wanted to provide correct context 😅
As a fan of both this channel and RDR…this video is a BANGER🤙
Analyzing evil: Olgierd von Everec
Detlaff and Gaunter
Good one. Olgierd was a great character
@@trenaceandblackmetal5621Analysing Evil:Blood and Wine and Analysing Evil: Hearts of Stone would be good ones.
Analysing Evil:Emhyr Var Emreis would as well.
Great video on Micah! Biggest scumbag and snake in the franchise.
Some villains suggestion that you could do:
- Cell from Dragon Ball Z
- Yoshikage Kira from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
- The Master from Fallout 1
- Heat (1995 Movie by Micheal Mann)
- Shane Vendrell from The Shield
- Frank Tenpenny from GTA San Andreas
- Mahito from Jujutsu Kaisen
- Patry/Patolli from Black Clover
Micah is one of my favorite characters from the game. He is, like Arthur said, rotten. But I think that makes him more interesting.
*These videos have been popping off lately! He's covering all the good villains for real* 👌
10:57 I feel like Micah used the same logic to get Dutch to shoot Heidi that he did to get him to abandon Abigail. "She's just a girl."
6:13 Oh, that explains why handlebar mustaches rub me the wrong way.
PLEASE DO ANALYZING EVIL: DIMITRI RASCALOV FROM GTA IV NEXT!!
I second this, Dimitri is in my opinion the most evil antagonist in any rockstar game ever.
He is just enough of pure evil to not cross the line into supernatural hollywood evils if you know what I mean.
I would absolutely love to see Joseph Seed from Far Cry 5 covered on this channel. Well done, brother!!! 🔥
On one hand the world is more than one man’s evil and Dutch, Arthur and all the gang had a hand in their downfall because they chose to commit to a life of crime.
On the other hand, in a story about redemption, one of the ultimate evils being the character who has no remorse or pity for anything they’ve done, or did but chose to continue anyway, throwing away any other path, either because they felt it was the only choice, or because they liked it, is very fitting.
Love that all of the character actors in this game dissolve into their role. you don’t notice Peter Blomquist, You just hear Micah mocking Arthur’s cough or wisperin into Dutches ear with venom drippin from his lip. Experiencing living day to day camp life with Micah and seeing how he pathetically asks John for a “nibble” of Abigail or shouts at Charles to go “fetch me something to eat” No media has ever made me despise an individual like Micah.
Berlin - Money Heist
Don Draper - Mad Men
Ghost - Power
Frank Underwood - House of Cards
Nuckie Thomson - Boardwalk Empire
Dmitri Rascalov - GTA IV
Officer Tenpenny - GTA San Andreas
Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo - Narcos: Mexico
Mewtwo - Pokemon
Romeo - Sky Rojo
Dushane Hill - Top Boy
Lieutenant Chang - Only God Forgives
Abijah Fowler - Blue Eye Samurai
Don Draolper is NOT even close to being evil, he's not a good person, but he's not all bad either, he's conflicted. And it seemed like he found inner peace at the end of Mad Men.
I love that you are interested in various characters from various sources such as red dead redemption which has so many fascinating characters. I would love to see a video on the 2 films Wolfcreek!
Analyzing Evil: The Plutonian from Irredeemable
This is such a crazy coincidence. I bought RDR2 when it came out six years ago, but I only got to Valentine. I just wasn’t ready for it. Now, I started playing it for the first time for real about two weeks ago and you happen release this video. I’m gonna come back to finish this once I beat the game, but wow, such a small world lol.
Would be awesome to see a video on John Kreese or Terry Silver from the Karate Kid/ Cobra Kai series!
IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS OMG
Analyzing evil: Edgar Ross
Oof, I can't wait for this one!!
I would like but you at 69 😎
Ross is even more of a contemptible piece of shit than van der Linde and Bell simply by hiding behind a law badge.
Not really evil compared to Arthur,John, and the gang.
Micah reminds me of another outlaw by the name of Charlie Prince from 3:10 To Yuma (2007), who was loyal to Ben Wade before meeting his own end.
Analizing evil : Lionel Starkweather from Manhunt
He's a survivor, Vile Eye! A survivor!
I have a photo of me failing a mission to this day that says the reason i failed was because Micah died. I still don't know how i failed the mission.
Lmao
“And in a world where the members of his gang are frequently challenging his plans-with the worst thing imaginable-sound and prudent advice.” 💀
Day 37 of asking you to please make a video analyzing leo kasper/daniel lamb/the project from the game manhunt 2. Also, great video, my man, keep up the good work!
😂😂😂 Micah doesn't have a handlebar mustache, he has a horseshoe mustache. A handlebar mustache is when you take wax and curl the ends of a mustache.
Weird, I just came from watching Roger Clark talking about this game lol
@@skunkk414 It's also really weird for me too, because I was just playing this game today and he uploads this video, lol.
Incredible video as always. I wonder if you’d ever analyze Alex Kralie from Marble Hornets!
Now we need Edgar Ross.
Would you consider doing a video over Bagul from Sinister? Love your videos!
5:11 Micah would have fit better as an O Driscoll.
Thank you for finally making this one 🙏🏿
I literally just finished re-playing RDR2 for the fourth time the other day, first time in almost 2 years, and then this video gets uploaded. All for it!
Excellent and on point analysis of Micah Bell from Red Dead Redemption. Thanks for this video! Best wishes to you from Iceland!!
Please consider doing an analysis of Silent Hill. Not any of the characters, but the town itself, which does seem to be a malevolent lovecraftian entity that may or may not be sentient.
I genuinely love this game so much. Each character is so damn complex
Smalll detail is his and Arthurs hat. In Western spaghettis, the hero often wears a white hat, while the outlaw wears a black hat. In the eyes of the law and civilians, micah would probably be the hero, while arthur is the villain. Obviously, this isnt the case though.
Ynnel!
@@LEEEENNY Well he is kind of a hero from their perspective. He took down the most dangerous gang in the country, while Arthur and his associates were probably demonized forever
@jalenr.6542 probably phrased it wrong at the end. I meant towards the player, the roles are reversed
To be fair, if Arthur and the gang existed in real life they would be the subject of horror movies. Arthur has killed dozens of innocent lawmen, which also applies to most of the other ‘good’ members of the gang like Sadie and Charles.
Guts and Griffith lol
Great video like always, man cant believe you just made this video this feels like it shouldve been such an old video.
You should do the entire world of Red Dead
another banger video my friend well done!
please do joseph seed and his family from far cry 5
You gotta do one on John Smith from "The Man In The High Castle "
Man this channel is golden
MIcah has an unimaginable, beautiful gyatt. I like it.
Bro what 😭
down horrifically bad
Micah bell is a great character foil for arthur morgan because micah is exactly like arthur but without shame, he doesn't pretend that he's a romanticized outlaw with a code of honor like arthur or dutch he's a killer and proud of it
Ryo Narushima from the manga Shamo would be a good complicated protagonist-villian to cover.
Micah looks so badass in the thumbnail
Soon as I seen the thumbnail I was like oh shit son
FINALLY AND THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!