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Micah Bell may be the villain of Red Dead Redemption 2, but judging from John Marston’s actions in both the original Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, it appears John may not be much better than him.
It may seem counter-intuitive to suggest that Micah and John Marston are both the same level of evil, especially since John is the main protagonist in the first Red Dead Redemption. He’s portrayed as a family man in both games, always working towards the betterment and safety of Abigail and their son Jack. This contrasts with Micah, who is depicted as only caring about himself. Granted, he doesn’t appear to have a family that can be used against him, and so this means his motivation for becoming a snitch was purely self-driven.
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But at the end of the day, when the details are stripped away, John and Micah did the exact same thing. Both of them agreed to be informants for the Pinkertons in exchange for personal gain. They chose to betray – and even kill – their former gang members in order to put themselves and their own interests first. They both committed the ultimate betrayal to the Van der Linde gang, and even though they may have had their reasons, it’s clear there are more similarities than differences in their situations.
RDR2: How Micah And John Are Similar
In Red Dead Redemption 2, towards the end of the game, players learn that Micah has been ratting out the gang to the Pinkertons. Arthur discovers the truth when rescuing John’s wife Abigail. Agent Milton tells him that Micah has been two-timing the gang ever since they got back from Guarma. When Arthur brings this information to the gang, however, Dutch sides with Micah, despite John returning to claim Micah left him for dead. Things escalate, and Micah shoots Susan Grimshaw after she threatens him. The gang disbands when the Pinkertons show up and begin shooting at them.
The original game, Red Dead Redemption, explores events after the gang disbands. Though John and his family tried to have a peaceful life under new aliases, the Pinkertons eventually caught up to them. They kidnap Abigail and Jack in order to blackmail John into hunting down his former associates, particularly Dutch, and taking their lives. While Micah may have been the original snitch, John was the one that eventually led to the demise of the gang’s founding member, Dutch Van der Linde, effectively putting an end to the Van der Linde gang for good.
There is one important difference between the two, however. John is shown to be resentful of what he has to do in Red Dead Redemption, and it’s implied he wouldn’t have done this had he not been forced into the position. RDR2 doesn’t give the same consideration to Micah. He’s clearly portrayed at the villain, and by the game’s end, there appear to be no redeeming qualities about him. But one could argue that it’s this way because he’s not the main protagonist in the story, unlike John in the original game. This gives players less opportunity to form an emotional attachment to Micah or see his character fully developed (as well as the reasons he had for snitching to the Pinkertons). But even though Micah and John’s stories in Red Dead Redemption aren’t completely identical, they’re both guilty of betraying their gang members by aligning with the Pinkertons, which puts them on the same level.