Best Red Dead Redemption 3 Protagonist Would Be Worthy Risk

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 29, 2024 4 Views 13 Min Read
Best Red Dead Redemption 3 Protagonist Would Be Worthy Risk

After the whirlwind financial and critical success of Red Dead Redemption 2, a third game may seem inevitable, but fans of the series are divided on whether another game could happen at all. The main conceit of the franchise is playing out the gunslinging fantasies associated with the American West, but the series is largely about the ending of that whole era. The events of the original game leave protagonist Jack Marston in the year 1914 and the main events of the prequel take place in 1899. The obvious answer for most fans seems to be another prequel, but then it raises the question of whom the protagonist should be.

Sadie and Charles, the last surviving members of the original gang, left the American West behind. Another game starring John or Arthur would be retreading old ground, beloved as they are. A game about a younger Dutch establishing the Van der Linde gang seems like a no-brainer, but having Dutch head up a full game would drain a lot of the mystique that makes his character so compelling. Those fan debates about whether Dutch changed or if he was always a treacherous manipulator would be clear out the window if he starred in his own 90-hour game. While there is a great story to be told in a prequel to Red Dead Redemption 2, its protagonist might be a bit of a hard sell to series veterans.

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Micah Bell Should Star in Red Dead Redemption 3

Micah Bell is a strong contender for one of the most universally hated characters in gaming history, due in no small part to Rockstar’s always-excellent character writing and Peter Blomquist’s wonderfully slimy performance as the gang’s resident rat. He’s the kind of person the player loves to hate and easily stands as one of the most memorable characters of the Red Dead series because of it.

But despite this, Micah is an immensely gifted gunslinger. He was able to basically clear out the town of Strawberry with some help from Arthur and managed to keep John completely pinned down during the ending of American Venom. Disregarding the man’s complete and utter lack of morals and predilection for treachery, Micah is one of the most talented guns the franchise has ever seen, and he was active and operating during the peak of the Wild West era, making his character fertile ground for a fun gameplay experience.

Micah has a Backstory Worth Exploring

Just a competent gunslinger does not an interesting character make. If that was the case, Rockstar could just create an original character and run from there. But the studio may have already laid the groundwork for a truly compelling story about what Micah was up to before meeting Dutch and joining up with the gang in Blackwater.

Throughout the game, Micah makes various allusions to his past, including how he comes from a long, storied tradition of criminals. He never lingers on the details of his family too much, aside from some general disdain for his brother. But in Chapter 4, it’s possible to learn why he dislikes his brother so much. When the gang is camped out in Shady Belle, players can find a letter from Amos Bell. In it, Amos expresses both a begrudging love for his brother and a deep remorse for the criminal life they led with their father. The letter ends with a stark threat to Micah should he ever decide to contact his brother or nieces.

Something happened between these two men, and it wasn’t anything good. The Bell crime family, for lack of a better name, likely ended with the same amount of drama and heartbreak the Van der Linde gang imploded with: brothers turning on brothers as one decides it’s time to repent for his misdeeds. And while this may sound like a retread of what happened in Red Dead Redemption 2, there will inevitably be very different factors in how the Bells had their falling out, namely a lack of outside pressure from the ever-expanding reaches of the law and civilization.

A prequel featuring Micah would also be able to explore how he met Joe and Cleet, the two unsavory guns he brings around camp during the events at Beaver Hollow. These two weren’t particularly important in Red Dead Redemption 2 and were fairly one-dimensional, but in all fairness, Bill and Javier were much the same in the original game before Rockstar heavily beefed up their characters.

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A Micah Game Would Turn the Series Theme on Its Head

Both of the Red Dead Redemption games, unsurprisingly, have a heavy focus on the central characters redeeming themselves for past crimes. John hunts down his former gang members and sacrifices himself for his family’s safety, and Arthur spends his final days trying to help whoever he can, while also making sure John gets a shot at a normal life. Despite their criminal activities, John and Arthur end their stories nobly and, arguably, as heroes. The conflict here is that Micah’s story ends with him still being the absolute worst person possible; gunned down on a snowy mountaintop, much to the cheers of whatever player unloaded their revolver into him.

Micah cannot have a character turnaround because of the events of Red Dead Redemption 2, but there’s still a story to be told with him that stays true to the themes of the series. Micah talks at length about how he’s a survivor and how he’ll go to any length to persist and come out on top. It would be fascinating to see how he evolved into this type of mindset. In all likelihood, Micah did not begin life as a lowdown backstabber, but instead became that over time.

The American West was a brutal place that would be able to warp even the most good-natured people. The idea that Micah Bells started his life as a relatively likable guy and slowly twisted himself into a monster to survive in a harsh environment would be an interesting story and a clever subversion of the redemptions Rockstar has delivered in previous entries. In practice, it would be more of a “Red Dead Downfall” that wraps up with Micah joining the gang and eventually coaxing Dutch to go berserk, kicking off the now-infamous Blackwater Ferry Massacre.

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A Micah Led Game Has Promise, But It Would Still be a Hard Sell

There’s a lot of great material available for a Micah origin story set in the heyday of the Old West. But regardless of all that potential, it would still be an uphill battle to get fans on board. Longtime series loyalists will remember a time when there was some serious apprehension surrounding Arthur taking the reins from John, and he was a totally blank slate at the time. Another prequel starring Micah would inevitably come with a lot of the baggage from previous installments.

It’ll take some convincing to get fans on board with the idea of playing as the guy they spent the last game hating so much. But if there’s any team capable of showing that story and making it work, it’s Rockstar. Any studio that can turn a drug-fueled madman like Trevor Phillips into a beloved, empathetic character can easily show how a talented gunslinger lost his way.

Ultimately, the Red Dead series serves as a collection of tragedies: the collapse of a gang that was more like a family, the sickness and untimely death of Arthur Morgan, the betrayal and destruction of the Wapiti, the sacrifice of John Marston, and the ambiguous fate of his son Jack. Among all these, there is plenty of room for the tragedy of a relatively decent man who, due to the harsh and bleak realities of the lawless world he inhabited, warped himself into the irredeemable monster known as Micah Bell.

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