Red Dead Redemption fans argue Dutch is judged way too harshly by players

Dutch van der Linde is one of the Red Dead Redemption series’ main baddies, and easily one of the most interesting characters in the games.

He’s so interesting, in fact, that almost five years after the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 (and well over a decade since the first game) players are still discussing whether he deserves the hate he gets. Over on Reddit, some gamers are now arguing that he really did have the gang’s “best interest at heart”. For a while, at least.

Take a look at some of our favourite wins and fails from Red Dead Redemption 2 below.

“Unpopular opinion: Dutch is judged far too harshly by the community,” arpaonheitetty wrote. “I think his degeneration was a natural result of 20 years of nonstop stress and bloodshed, and not him ‘becoming who he always was’. It’s a lie to say he never cared.”

Others see where they’re coming from: “I’m only on my second play through, and the first time I played I loved Dutch. Watching him fall from grace actually really hurt, as he was one of my favourites,” Pixithepika wrote. “He was at the end of his rope, decades of stress and obligation broke him down to his worst possible traits. If you put anyone else in his position, I have a feeling they’d go down a similar path. He always had the traits of a narcissistic, selfish asshat. And it was inevitable that the gang would end up this way with him as their leader. But I do believe, for a long time, he had the gang’s best interest at heart. But the meaning of 'best interest' changed with the degeneration of his mind,” ExampleElegant3940 added.

You’ve got to hand it to Rockstar Games, they sure know how to make titles that keep people talking. Let’s hope that Red Dead Redemption 3 lives up to expectations, whenever that inevitably happens.