The Mystery of The Strange Man, Re-Visited - Red Dead Redemption 2

gather round the campfire friends and allow me to tell you a story for in today's video we are going to be revisiting one of the biggest mysteries in red dead redemption's law one so ambiguous that nobody's entirely sure if the entity in question is good or evil or simply indifferent all that's known is while exploring the wild west we may encounter a man who is simply dressed in an elegant black suit and a top hat he's ambiguous and morally questioning but nobody knows quite who or what this strange man is all we know for sure is he knows you [Music] about three and a half years ago i made a video on the strange man for my massive red dead redemption 2 playlist i believe it was a good video however unfortunately i also believe in hindsight confirmation bias led me to leave out a lot of information that the game provides for us as well as some information that i simply did not know at the time i decided the best way to rectify that is to do a video now with the three and a half years extra content creating experience and all of the knowledge so hopefully this will be a better take on the strange man mystery for my creepy game mysteries playlist yeah i'm not creative when it comes to titling things so let's move on the first encounters many of us will remember with the strange man occurred back in 2010's red dead redemption whilst exploring the open world you can come across a side mission chain simply titled i know you in which john marston encounters a mysterious stranger hello john john marston do i know you i hope so i seem to know you i'm pretty good at remembering faces are you do you remember hattie mccourt's face who she was a girl dutch vanderlin shot in the head on that raid on the ferry a few years back same one you got shot on pretty girl until her eye was hanging out by a thread of tendon and her brain was plastered over a wall [Music] not really then why would you remember me friend you've forgotten far more important people than me what's your game friend i don't have a game jon listen sometimes i just wish i'd known more about life i wish i'd had better guidance friend of mine is drunk as a skunk in the saloon on thieves landing i think he's going to be unfaithful to his dear wife why don't you head over there and see if you can advise him how best to proceed what do you think i am i know what you are john just if you've got the time friend the stranger appears to know john quite well however john has no clue who this man is and rightfully so he is nobody he doesn't appear in john's life up until this moment and yet he seems to know about john he knows about heidi mccourt the innocent girl that dodged vandaling shots during the blackwater massacre of 1899. he could have fluked this information because john marston is a wanted man and running with dutch vanderlind is well known knowledge to the public however he's standing atop a cliff in the middle of nowhere the chances of jon running into him are quite slim he knew john was gonna be there he also says sometimes he wishes he knew more about life and had better guidance before telling jon that his friend is drunk at thieves landing and he believes that he's going to be unfaithful to his wife and sends john to advise him on how best to proceed he doesn't tell us which option we should choose encourage the adultery or advise the drunk man against it he simply tells us what's going to happen and where so we can intervene however we see fit it would appear as if the strange man is testing our morality at thieves landing we can encourage or dissuade the man and the honorable choice is to dissuade upon the next meeting with the strange man in mexico here's what he has to say welcome to nuevo pariso john where do i know you from you're famous john you're the man who shot a bunch of banditos as soon as he turned up in this country you're a man who decided right and wrong between a man and death between a man and his wife and who are you you know i admire you john i hope my boy turns out just like you for your sake i hope you don't you kill people so easily yet you respect the vows of marriage that's very curious i'll let the appropriate authorities judge my morality friend yes you will and they shall anyway i hear that an old nun is traveling from the monastery taking the money she raised to the bank why don't you head up there and see if you can lend her a hand road's full of thieves either that or robber yourself i'll see you around john i hope you don't if you chose the honorable outcome to the previous objective the strange man will say that he admires you and hopes his boy will turn out just like you he also points out that john marston kills people easily yet respects the vows of marriage following up his sentence by saying that is very curious he's pointing out the hypocrisy in john's actions how does one so morally jaded to the point where they can kill people without a second's hesitation get to say anything about lesser sins such as adultery jon says he'll let the appropriate authorities judge his morality to which the strange man says oh you will and they shall a bit of an ominous message however it's very clear that the strange man has some form of higher knowledge and is therefore referencing a higher power than a court of law for example he then gives us yet another moral quest to help a nun or to rob a nun the choice is ours the nun in question is mother superior calderon or whatever a title is by this point who actually appears in red dead redemption 2 and is something of a morally guiding figure for arthur morgan especially towards the end of his life i don't actually know if that's meant to be relevant here however if we choose to help her i don't know what bearing it has on the final encounter we have with the mysterious strange man the final encounter can be had at john marston's home at beecher's hope hey there's a beautiful spot sure what are you doing here my accounts i'm an accountant is that so in a way what's your name you know it's the darndest thing i can't remember tell me your damn name and where you know me from well i know you're from mexico i know you're from back out west i know you from all over tell me your name or i won't be responsible for my actions oh but you will you will be responsible this is a fine spot see you around cowboy damn you yes many have there is a lot to unpack in this final encounter he opens by saying that this is a fine spot this spot later becomes the site of the graves of john marston uncle and abigail the strange man explains that he's an accountant of sorts and when john asks for his name he tells john that he does not remember when john gets frustrated he tells him that he will not be responsible for his actions to which the strange man responds with but you will finally as the strange man walks away he says this is a fine spot see you around cowboy jean says damn you to which the strange man says many have and then unloads three bullets into his back which appears to do nothing and on the fourth shot his gun jams the spot on which this happens becomes the grave site for three of the four residents of beech's hope the gun jamming before the fourth shot indicates that jack marston will be spared when jon says damn you and the strange man responds with many have maybe this is a nod to the saying god damn maybe the strange man is god or at least a god all that we know for sure is that as the strange man said he's an accountant and the three shots indicated the fate sealed in this encounter and that's basically the strange man's presence in the first red dead redemption which sort of gives you an idea of what he's about he appeared before john before john's death to test his morality at the end of this encounter jon effectively seals his own fate however fortunately his son jack's life is spared the strange man in not dying when shot at reveals himself to be otherworldly though if you try to kill him in gameplay in between the encounters you absolutely can though not playing along with the mission chain is outside of canon so i don't think this necessarily means very much but from what we can gather so far he's definitely alluded to be a higher power now for the encounters with the strange man we can have in the prequel red dead redemption too for the most part they're more implied however there is one definite and that is the strange man's house in the swamp beneath the house there is a cage inside which we can find a dead decaying alligator i don't know its relevance however a dream of a dead alligator that you did not kill is a sign that you are going to experience a massive change in your life which could be jon going from being a member of a gang to a semi-functional member of society or even arthur morgan's redemption arc as he can visit this place as arthur morgan or that could just be me going on a tangent to try to figure out what this alligator actually represents the fun begins however inside the house upon entering the house the first thing you will notice is an unfinished portrait in the center of the room behind it you will notice two other paintings that depict different animals depending on your honor for low honor it's a wolf and a vulture and for high honor it'll be an eagle and a stag to the left of the entrance you can find a poem scratched into the desk that changes depending on your decision with regards to your encounter with jimmy brooks just so our memories are nicely jogged this is the encounter with mr brooks hey who's that guy over there looking at us weren't you in blackwater a few weeks back me no sir ain't from there oh you were well i definitely saw you with a bunch of fellas me nah impossible listen buddy come here for a minute i saw you come here cool i don't like this me neither go get the girls home i'm gonna go have a word with our friend be careful arthur just a word please i'm sorry yep you stop right here why are you telling lies about me no no i i got it wrong partner i got it very wrong now please help me out i ain't never been in black water then why are you chasing me i've got an unfortunate face yes yes me too now please pull me up please please all right come on you okay partner no no i am not i'm a mess well you ain't dead yeah there is that jimmy brooks i think it's best for both of us if we pretend this never happened [Music] well i agree you saved my life you're a good man and i uh here you want a pen it's one of them steel ones oh that's very kind to you but i'm not a good man jimmy brooks not usually you see i was in blackwater i kill people and maybe i should have killed you should i have killed you jimmy brooks i never saw you no not now not not never i think we have an understanding of course we do jimmy brooks i will remember that i've got a good memory the poem reads as follows if you spare jimmy brooks's life there was a man called jimmy brooks who was always running into crooks till one chased him down and he had to talk his way around that jimmy isn't as dumb as he looks if you kill jimmy brooks it reads there was a man called jimmy brooks who was always running into crooks but the man from the ferry found him far too contrary now jimmy's family don't see him very much now of all the moral choices that you find yourself making in the game it's very peculiar that this is the one that makes its way into this desk in the cabin what is so special about this encounter with jimmy brooks jimmy brooks has never seen or heard from in red dead redemption 2 story again and definitely not in red dead 1. it's also very strange that he just recognizes arthur who is conveniently in valentine at the same time as him from blackwater now what we know from the red dead redemption i know you strange emissions is that the strange man morally tests people my theory is that jimmy brooks is one of these tests while the strange man's tests in the i know you strange emission chains involve as far as we can tell real people it's entirely possible that jimmy brooks is an apparition of the strange man and not a real person unto himself regardless of whether or not that is the case jimmy brooks is clearly one of the strange man's tests as he knows that arthur morgan's death is near on another table we can find a map of armadillo with the note scrolled on it that reads i offered you happiness or two generations you made your choice we will be coming back to what this means a little later on in the video there are also various messages on the walls of this shack the first one reads from the snow to the cave which is a reference to the main story beginning up in the mountains and ending at the cave at beaver hollow the next message reads i gave everything for art and i learned too much and nothing at all this is likely referencing the fact that the artwork in the room changes depending on your honor level the strange man sees every action you make but cannot make sense of it therefore he's learned too much and nothing at all the next message reads the water is black with venom the next one says his final toll will sound my greatest coming the next message simply reads i know you which is a reference to red the redemption stranger mission arc involving the strange man and then finally the moon will shine on in the darkness which brings us back to this map of armadillo with the message i offered you happiness or two generations you made your choice to investigate this one further we're going to have to head to armadillo a town crippled by disease most recently a cholera outbreak morning hey friend place is full of cholera head in there chum peril well half the town has died most the rest have fled still sure a few years ago was a scarlet fever then it was the desert plague then typhus now the cholera business some folks say the whole town is cursed all town's got cholera here you can read for yourself [Music] we have a pamphlet warning us about the town's cholera outbreak but from the man we learn that armadillo has been struck by various diseases over the years and it's almost as if the town is cursed however the moon shines on in the darkness not this moon i'm not sure why i'm showing you that symbol is a minute if we head to the general store we can have an interaction with the vendor there that is quite interesting good to see you you might as well grab some crackers and biscuits while you're here the sick people out there haven't been eating so uh i have plenty who's that i don't know it's just a little portrait somebody gave me once i always quite liked it why no reason just seemed familiar anyway the shopkeeper seems unaffected by the plague that is ravaging his town and on his shelf he has a portrait of none other than the strange man what is this shopkeeper's name herbert moon which we know from red dead redemption undead nightmare we also learn that he's a rather hateful character who dislikes more or less everybody but himself hey mister hey park you seen a couple deputies nearby marshall's boys jonah and eli are they jews mister they sound like jews i don't know why why this whole thing is nothing but a jewish plot you do know that don't you i find that highly unlikely amigo well i don't like jews or colored folk or natives now that you mention it well you're a nice kind-hearted man to meet in a time of trouble kind does not come into it why what are you talking about why i bet you like catholics i can't stand them neither nor women fabians socialists homosexuals asians or british between them they ruined this country ruined it it was a good country once now people are eating each other and it's all the fault of the jewish british catholic homosexual elite and their ideas well i for one won't stand for it have you ever met a jewish person thankfully not or a british catholic homosexual not in my store oh i i get it i see you acting clever well let me tell you this the jews killed lincoln that's why there is a triangle on the money and they run europe like one of them arabian harems now they've sent this here plague to kill all us decent folk yep you sir are truly a remarkable fella thank you kindly i must say it's a rare pleasure to meet someone with such a grasp on human history you take care of yourself i'd hate to see you get savaged by someone and watch the life force drain from your hate-filled body hey hold on there why don't you join me in my fight sir it's not too late i fear it is for me then i will fight them alone all of them america is the land of the free that means free to people like me herbert moon absolutely the rest is kind of funny he gets eaten by zombies nice we basically learn from this that herbert moon hates everybody and yet the strange man is protecting him from the cholera outbreak but what does i offered you happiness or two generations you made your choice actually mean well if you loot herbert moon's body after you kill him or hogtie him you can find a letter that reads as follows papa i know you don't like isaac and i cannot bear that i have sullied your bloodline as you put it but i beg you to not cut me off as a daughter i love and respect you but i also love my husband even though you consider the cause of blood and the selling of groceries to be the purest and best of callings i feel called to a different path isaac and i are dedicating ourselves to helping the poor i am sure your god will hate me for marrying a jew but isaac is a good man whatever you may think oh papa i pray for you to the god you believe must hate me and that he in his infinite wisdom can make you see that i am not the sinner you believe me to be either way i love you and i hope you will forgive me for this unpardonable sin and come to see your grandchild when it arrives your daughter herbert solomons herbert moon's daughter herbert bit egotistical herbert but okay married a jewish man which herbert hates so therefore he's cut his daughter off from his life therefore he will never know his grandchild through his own decision so instead of happiness herbert moon is now stuck with two generations as far as he's concerned his bloodline has ended with his daughter it would appear as if he worships a strange god that is not christian definitely not jewish and certainly not catholic and from that belief births his hatred for everything and from the writing in the strange man's cabin we can gather herbert moon and the strange man have crossed paths in the past my theory is that the strange man is herbert moon's god he offered herbert happiness to let go of his hate and instead herbert moon decided to stick to his guns likely through herbert moon's interpretation of what he believes the strange man would want because as we know from our own experience the strange man keeps himself ambiguous it's either all of that or herbert moon made a deal with the strange man like he's the devil and now he's paying the price personally and the town he's living in is paying the price with the cholera outbreak hence why it reads the moon will shine on in the darkness in the strange man's cabin and there is also other evidence that suggests that the strange man is somehow involved in what's going on in armadillo used to be quite a nice little town too that's just dust storms and disease and death they take into burning bodies because they can't bury them fast enough i mean when you see it it really feels like something biblical and i ain't a religious man yep really it's a sight to behold i certainly ain't never read the bible on the count of me not reading and all but for a place to sound like that so bad and so fast you can't help thinking this can't be of natural causes folk they're calling it a curse and i ain't a superstitious man but it's hard not to see it any other way they are saying this figure appears sometimes there in the distance black suit and big top hat then disappears shadowy like he ain't of this mortal realm reaper and his sunday best maybe they're being punished up for sins or something i don't know i got enough sins on my tally to figure i'm gonna stay well away from there and i ain't a bad man but i put my money on this way things are won't be long before tumbleweed is the only town left in these parts and there won't be nothing in armadillo but ghosts the strange man is looming over armadillo either because he has something to do with the plague going on there or as this random encounter describes him he's the reaper in his sunday best he's there taking count of those that die after all he is an accountant there's evidence that suggests the strange man is the grim reaper there's other evidence that suggests that he's god however there is also evidence that can suggest the strange man is in fact the devil for example if you use a trainer mod in red dead redemption 2 on pc you can discover that the strange man's ped model is cs underscore mysterious stranger which may be a reference to satan from mark twain's novel the mysterious stranger both the strange man in red dead and satan in the mysterious stranger are enigmatic supernatural beings that frequently question humanity's hypocrisy and morality if the strange man was the devil it would explain why herbert moon is living a life of suffering amidst a cholera infested town if you take a photo of the strange man's house in red dead redemption 2 the rockstar social club will automatically tag this location as serial killer in grand theft auto online in the diamond casino heist update nazar speaks as a fortune-telling machine that you can find and she says this about the strange man [Applause] however if you're looking for an in canon fortune teller talking about the strange man look no further than blind man cassidy he has this to say [Music] two strangers seek thee one from this world perhaps one from another [Music] one brings hatred i'm not so sure what the other brings the stranger from this world who brings hatred is edgar ross however the other is from another world and his motivations are not seen by the fortune teller the strange man obscures his motivations from all he is simply beyond all understanding even those with the higher power of fortune telling another hint at the strange man being the devil goes in the saying speak of the devil and he doth appear the armadillo town crier can be heard saying the devil has the town in his hand but is the strange man the devil i don't think it's that simple anyway for now back to the house as you keep visiting the house the portrait at the center will eventually complete and when it finally does jon will be able to inspect the portrait which will be now clearly of the strange man's face and in his journal it will say this this place made me feel like i was being watched queerest feeling i ever felt hard to explain fascinating and awful and seductive all at once and was jon being watched yes because in the mirror you can see the strange man standing in the corner however if you turn around he will be gone returning to face the mirror will reveal him to be no longer there however for as long as you keep the mirror in your sight with him there he will stay there he isn't in the room though he's in the mirror but he is watching for he sees everything now the question on everybody's mind is who is the strange man there are many many theories and we've touched down on a few already however i'm gonna go over a few of them that i think are quite interesting firstly we have my initial theory that the strange man is the grim reaper he shows up when death is near such as with armadillo or john marston in the i know you stranger mission storyline and from a neutral standpoint guides their souls to peace in this theory the strange man is neither good nor evil just an omen of death this theory is reinforced by the strange man's simple somber attire and the fact that he refers to himself as an accountant of sorts he has no name and is clearly somewhat otherworldly and whoever he's watching or interacting with death shortly follows the second theory is that the strange man is god the strange man is all seeing he also gives john the freedom to carry out his moral tests however he sees fit and herbert moon owns a portrait of the strange man which appears to protect him from the cholera epidemic which he may or may not have had a hand in creating now you may think god wouldn't do that oh he absolutely would this is arguably pedestrian compared to flooding the earth for 40 days and 40 nights he also punishes herbert moon for his greed and hatred and when jon says damn you the strange man responds with yes many have for many have forsaken god including me evidently the third theory is that the strange man is the devil herbert moon very clearly had a bargain with the strange man not dissimilar to one that you might strike with the devil and is suffering for it the strange man's ped model is also named mysterious stranger and the strange man clearly took inspiration from satan in mark twain's novel the mysterious stranger as mentioned before being enigmatic supernatural and frequently questioning humanity's hypocrisy and morality the strange man also has a frightening unnerving and confusing presence to fortune tellers especially he ensures that he is visible but his intentions are kept far from prying eyes in other words his presence is far from that of a nurturing deity and all encounters and experiences regarding the strange man would suggest something of a sinister presence although not necessarily one that is clearly defined as good or evil and the devil sure does love a spot of trickery not only that but the strange man also appears to gravitate towards those who might be conventionally considered as sinful now he doesn't tick all the boxes for any of these and subscribing to any one theory leaves blanks to be filled so i've come up with theory four which is that he is all of above he is the devil he is god he is the grim reaper or at least the red dead universe equivalent to one on all counts he's clearly a supernatural being that tests people's morality questions their hypocrisy and where appropriate condemns and punishes he's not innately good or evil he just is his reflection in the mirror in the cabin may represent the fact that he could be little more than just a reflection of your morality he is the appropriate authority to judge and for the sinful he is reckoning not necessarily married to a religious view on a deity or a demon or a grim reaper or a devil the strange man could very much so be a mash-up of all of these things not dissimilarly to say gauntero dim from the witcher 3 wild hunt at the very least on a foundational level obviously there are vast differences and finally the theory that the strange man is josiah trelawny get out just [ __ ] leave there is a theory on the internet that the strange man might be cain from the bible doomed to wander the earth for all eternity and misfortune will meet any who cross paths with him but as cool as that theory is and it is online if you want to google it i don't think it covers anywhere near as many bases as some of the other theories that being said none really fit the profile but what do you think the strange man is i think there's definitely some hints of god some hints of the grim reaper and maybe a little touch of the devil in there but above all else what we know for certain is the strange man is a supernatural being that works in mysterious ways and will likely never be fully understood beyond a mere reflection into our morality so in other words if you perceive the strange man as the devil maybe it's time to start looking in the mirror [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: Fizhy

Views: 1,472,959

Keywords: Fishy Yarpster, Gaming, Gameplay, Banter, PC gaming, Fizhy, Fishy, RDR2, RED DEAD, Red Dead Redemption 2, Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Games, Rockstar, RDR, Red Dead, Red Dead 2, The Strange Man, The Mysterious Stranger

Id: Mum82zvrcQs

Length: 34min 55sec (2095 seconds)

Published: Thu May 05 2022