Certainly an enigmatic character. His initial energy throughout the first couple of chapters or so is great.

However from even as early as chapter 2 you can start to see the cracks.

I’m not sure he did go mad. I think that others around him just realised that things could never be the same

The most narcissistic character in any video game ever. EVERYONE’S downfalls in both games are because of Dutch Van der Linde

I think Dutch was always a bad person. A textbook narcissistic manipulator. Taking advantage of desperate people, training young people to kill and die for him. To feed his ego and get as much money as possible. If he ever loved Arthur or John like sons, he wouldn't have tried to kill them off by leaving them to die.

A lot of people say Micah is the true villain of both Red Dead Redemption games because his betrayal and manipulation caused everything. But in the end, I think Dutch is the true villain. Dutch's failure ultimately started everything that went wrong for these characters. If he loved and trusted Arthur, Hosea and John. Things could have gone very, very differently. But he didn't.

Instead he lied, ignored and ultimately tried to kill anyone who questioned him. Thus allowing Micah to ruin the gang. Thus allowing Ross to force John to hunt the gang down. Thus ruining Abigail and potentially Jack's life.

A man with "no" a plan

In RDR he seemed like a madman with a fixation on the ideals of old; he seemed the most afraid of modernization. In red dead 2 he seemed more like a father figure at the beginning but very early on you see where his vanity starts to take over and he would gladly flip on someone at the earliest convenience.

In my opinion I didn't like Dutch, he was too, what do you call it, noble. I don't think Dutch is actually that nice of a person, he always liked robbing people, he has his only villains wiki page.

I thought dutch was a well written central character and antagonist compared to micah who straight up ratted the gang away