the gunslinger's lament

dgoswald:

Rockstar - I Know You [Red Dead Redemption]

[spoilers] The top-hatted character in the above video has caused many a ruction and endless debate amongst fans of Rockstar’s sublime Red Dead Redemption.

So who was ‘The Stranger’? Was he Satan? Was he Death? Could he have been ‘The Big Guy Upstairs’?

Whoever the fella was, I felt a certain sense of unease whenever he appeared on-screen, as he seemed to have an eerie omniscience about John’s life, whilst remaining rather tight-lipped about why he was lurking around in the middle of nowhere. Wonderfully creepy stuff from Rockstar. [/spoilers]

[Source: Red-DeadSeries]

Absolutely one of my favorite stranger-mission sequences. I love the tiny, unexplained hints of the supernatural we get in this game (which makes Undead Nightmare work even better, I think), and although I’m dying to know what they mean because I’m like that, I’m happier with it being a mystery. If Rockstar ever reveals who this guy is really supposed to be (assuming they even settled on something definite themselves), I will be very sad.

For what it’s worth, I haven’t been able to make up my mind about my own opinion on the stranger’s identity—just about every theory seems to fall short at one point or another. But it’s fun to think about. (I also kind of wish it had been an even longer string of quests, preferably leading to situations that demand choices from John that are a bit more morally gray…but that’s just me.)