"In Red Dead Redemption 2, the player can encounter a man camping around Hennigan's Stead; he mentions that, before his brother died, he used to tell him stories of Red Harlow and will tell the stories to the player. In game files, the man in question is labeled as 'REDHARLOW'."
So... Red potentially was under our noses THE ENTIRE TIME
I wouldn't say the events were even a real thing from the 1880s. Everything the Van der Linde gang has done or did is known to the public, pretty much common knowledge. A lot of gunslingers are mentioned in both games along with their backgrounds, people even know of a mythical figure like Josiah Blackwater, yet there is not one character mentioning Revolver characters or locations outside of campfire segments. Odd, right? If these characters ever existed they would still be held as Old West icons by 1899 standards. Same as Black Belle, and same as Landon Ricketts. It simply does not make sense to the world these characters live in to have events from important battles - such as the incursion at Rio Grande or the killing of a governor - omitted in the open-world. In this universe, all that Landon Ricketts needed to gain fame was killing two outlaws who were brothers. Becoming notorious in this universe is easy. And no, fabricating events is not needed, the gangs we encounter throughout the story prove my point.
Judging from all of these points I've brought up, I always chose to "believe" (not really a belief since its based on objective facts) that said events and characters from Red Dead Revolver's narrative are completely fictional, pigments of the imagination of some lonesome cowboy sharing a camp with a couple of strangers, a legend made out of thin air. Everyone knows who King Arthur is, but does that make him as real as a donut?
Still not arguing... but look who has a theory now
My answer to that is, Landon has killed people and took part in infamous gun fights in relatively recent memory. Why would people in town be talking about events that happened at the earliest 19 years ago (1899), to at latest 34 years ago? Red overall didn't do much asides from assassinate a rogue governor and kill some outlaws, which asides the governor, most of what he did was a common occurrence. You could argue about the gunfighting competition, but my answer to that is, how often to people irl talk about a sports event from 19-34 years ago? Without looking it up, can you tell me who won the 1999 SuperBowl?
Also, without looking it up, can you tell me the last time a senator or governor was assassinated? How often do you hear people talk about that senator was assassinated?
The events had to have happened. The story is pretty consistent with the retellings. John was originally going to be Reds son. You have all sorts of NPCs referencing the events or him. Like uncle saying he was once called the one shot kid. Which makes sense. Uncle would have been around and heard the stories of Red and his nickname and stole it to make himself seem more important. You can find Twin rocks, which confirms that the locations are real. If Twin rocks is, I don't see why Brimstone and other places wouldn't be either.
The Icons of the west even back then, got warped and the facts was lost along the way pretty quickly. Wild bill, even when he was alive, there was outlandish stories about him. Or like when Wyatt Earp somehow was bulletproof and managed to somehow not get shot numerous times at point blank range and killed curly bill and most of his gang single handedly while wading through a river.
I'm talking strictly using in-game logic and you use a real-life example??? I don't think you took in consideration more important events that occurred in Revolver, like a dozen of battles in which Harlow and company participated. General Diego was supposedly a feared man in Mexico, but no character during story-missions ever alludes to this. All they talk about is how Ignacio Sanchez is worst than Colonel Allende.
And what even is that point about Uncle, it's completely wrong and out of place. At no point, Uncle points out to even know of the legend of Red Harlow, so if he doesn't know, then what does the nickname have to do with the legend? Red Harlow was never known as a one-shot shootist, this is a myth created by the community.
R* uses real life logic in their games... may I start listing videos that go over the 1s in the Redemption games?
And in this Q&A Rockstar did a while ago, they pretty much confirmed Twin Rocks is a reference to a level in Red Dead Revolver, not that it is the same location, as suggested by the person who was making the question.
"Twin Rocks is in fact based on the second level in Revolver."
based on
That can mean a whole lot of things when you really think about it
“Correct me if I'm wrong but some stuff in Redemption reminds me of stuff in Revolver, like Bonnie reminds me of Annie, and Twin Rocks remind me of the... Second level in Revolver? =P Are this intentional "tributes", or did it just happen like that?”
"We’ve said before that we consider Redemption to be really more of a spiritual successor to Revolver than a proper sequel, but there are some aspects of Red Dead Redemption that are a direct nod to the 2004 game – most explicitly and obviously the addition of Revolver characters to this week’s Legends and Killers Pack, but right you are that Twin Rocks is in fact based on the second level in Revolver. Keen eye!
Random, fun factoid: we actually got the original Red Dead Revolver voiceactors back to record new lines for their characters’ appearances in the Legends and Killers Pack, with the sole exception of the dude who played Shadow Wolf, who had a scheduling conflict due to his Twilight duties."
"direct nod" & "based on" are 2 similar things that have different meanings
"direct nod" refers to an explicit reference or acknowledgement of a particular person, place, or thing. It is a clear and intentional reference that is directly related to the thing being referenced.
"based on" is a phrase that is commonly used to indicate that something is derived from or inspired by something else. The phrase is used to describe a creative work, such as a movie or novel, that is inspired by or adapted from a previous work, real-life events, or some other source of inspiration.
Exactly.
What do you think?
