I’ve been thinking about the Strange Man theory for a while, and honestly, I think there might be WAY more to it than we usually talk about.
Most of us already know the theory about the 3 bullets Strange Man shoots at John representing the deaths of John, Abigail, and Uncle — basically 3 lives.
And then there’s the 4th bullet that jams, which could represent Jack being the one who survives.
There’s also the whole Cain / sevenfold vengeance connection. John shoots Strange Man 3 times, and at the end of RDR1 he gets hit by exactly 21 bullets (3×7).
And the place where John dies? It looks suspiciously like a family graveyard.
But here’s where things get REALLY interesting.
What if Strange Man wasn’t just testing John?
What if he was basically testing the whole gang — especially the three main leaders?
1. Dutch — Heidi McCourt
Heidi McCourt, the girl Dutch shot during the Blackwater Massacre, might have been more important than we thought.
Arthur writes about how she was just standing there while everyone was running away, almost like she was put there on purpose.
And Trelawny keeps bringing up Blackwater too.
So what if Heidi was actually Dutch’s test?
Dutch had a choice.
And he chose his ego, his power, and violence.
He failed.
2. Arthur — Jimmy Brooks
Then there’s Jimmy Brooks.
Arthur literally had this guy’s life in his hands.
He could’ve killed him…
but he didn’t.
And the weird connections between Jimmy, Strange Man’s cabin, and the paintings make this even more interesting.
Maybe Jimmy was Arthur’s first real chance to choose mercy instead of violence.
And this time, Arthur made the right choice.
He passed.
3. John — Arthur’s Final Words
This one is probably my favorite.
When Strange Man talks to John, he says:
“You’ve forgotten quite a bit.”
Everyone usually takes that as John forgetting his old sins.
But what if he means something else?
What if John forgot what Arthur told him?
Arthur basically told John to stop looking back, forget revenge, and focus on his family.
And what does John do?
He goes after Micah anyway.
He chooses revenge.
And eventually, that decision leads the Pinkertons right back to him.
John failed his test.
And then look at the people who actually walked away from the whole life.
Tilly.
Mary-Beth.
Charles.
They left the guns, the gang, and the revenge behind and actually built new lives.
Meanwhile, John and Sadie never completely escaped that cycle of violence.
So maybe Strange Man isn’t simply judging people based on whether they’re “good” or “bad.”
Maybe he’s testing one thing:
Can you actually break the cycle?
3 leaders.
3 tests.
3 completely different outcomes.
I honestly think this makes the Strange Man stuff even more interesting.
What do you guys think? Am I cooking or am I just putting WAY too many pins on the RDR conspiracy board? (Btw, I’m 13 years old, and this is my own theory. I only used AI to translate it into English. The ideas and theory itself are mine.)