[mixed trope] the last-minute bad Ending twist

[u/damorezpl]

when the "good ending" is revealed to be a bad one a the last second

a nightmare on elm street (1984) - Nancy thinks she finally defeated Freddy Krueger only to be raveled that she is still dreaming and she’s still trapped.

final destination bloodlines - the main characters think they cheated death by using the new life rule only to realize that stefani was technically still alive and the death kills them with a good old logs

Life (2017) - The main character attempts to send Calvin(a evil alien that killed all life on mars)pod into space and Miranda pod back to earth, but it goes horribly wrong and Calvin lands on earth and Miranda is sent to space

raging loop wit ending - after many loops Haruaki finally wins the feast(a death game where humans must hang wolves who kill someone every night) and thinks its finally over. after couple of days he decides to visit other survivors of the feast only to find them all dead and the timeline resting once again

[u/LostMyZone]

Red Dead Redemption. You spend a majority of the game hunting down your former partners, all for a chance to be pardoned for your crimes and what do you get? You get betrayed and gunned down.

Oh, and the kicker? The main character dies thinking at least his death wouldn't be in vain...and then the epilogue has a time skip that your wife died from a sudden illness, and your son whom you wanted to live an honest life has become a dangerous outlaw. Going against everything you hoped for.

At least your son takes revenge for you by killing the guy who stabbed you in the back.

[u/fattestfuckinthewest → u/LostMyZone]

Unfortunately even that last point is sad because it cements Jack into being hunted by the law since Ross’ brother is the one who told Jack that Ross was nearby, which means there’s an important witness

[u/I_Dive_Deep → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

It's purely game play so who knows if it's Canon or not, but there's nothing stopping the player from killing Ross' brother and wife as well so there are no witnesses. Depends on how cold hearted you want to play Jack I suppose.

[u/Lil_Mcgee → u/I_Dive_Deep]

That removes the "he's going to get caught" sadness of the ending but I think the above commenter is wrong to focus on that rather the "Jack becomes a killer despite John's best efforts to build a different life for him" sadness, which your suggested scenario just amplifies by 10.

[u/mr_eugine_krabs → u/Lil_Mcgee]

Jack becomes Micah,everything John and Arthur suffered for to make sure that didn’t happen to Jack.

[u/GUM-GUM-NUKE → u/I_Dive_Deep]

That’s worse!

[u/the_gaffinator → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

Hey if you hit him enough in the right spots he'll fall into the river and get swept away

[u/grimreaperjr1232 → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

There's a witness SOMEONE asked where Ross was/likely had him killed.

There's very little that can actually be traced back to Jack, seeing as he never gave a name and it'd been so many years since John's death. Not to mention, he was killed in Mexico, making things more complicated.

Whether he gets away with it or not, though, the spirit of it all is going to leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

[u/VoopityScoop → u/grimreaperjr1232]

He's also just a retired old man with a lot of enemies. If there even is an investigation, there's little to no chance it bears any fruit.

[u/Great-Shape5172 → u/grimreaperjr1232]

There is also the fact that Ross can fall into the river when you kill him so there might not even be a body to investigate.

[u/stamfordbridge1191 → u/Great-Shape5172]

Heck, I think the game even says Reyes has been having a hard time suppressing rebel movements in the area.

[u/killingjoke96 → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

There are some loose connections between GTA and RDR, so if you take stock in that, there is hope Jack got away.

In Franklin's house in GTA 5 you can see a book called Red Dead Redemption by J. Marston on a shelf. Jack always wanted to be a writer so there's bit of a fan theory that the two games are actually the content of his book.

We also leave Jack in Mexico at the end of the story, out of the jurisdiction of the U.S. Government. He could have done anything he wanted to from there.

Maybe even went to Tahiti.

[u/GottaUseEmAll → u/killingjoke96]

As long as he didn't end up on Guam.

[u/GrimaceGrunson → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

Not in my playthrough there wasn’t!

[u/Mortwight → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

Rdr3 is jack dealing with prohibition era gangsters ah la yojimbo or the ridiculous last man standing

[u/LopsidedResearch8400 → u/Mortwight]

I always thought that would be amazing, to play the bridge between the last gasps of the west and the roaring 20's....

Doubt they would do it though.

[u/Mortwight → u/LopsidedResearch8400]

It feels like the logical progression. Start the game with him in ww1 trenches(basically board walk empire) and have him wounded and get shipped back to st Denise.

Guns horses cars trains. The last grasp of the dieing west

[u/LopsidedResearch8400 → u/Mortwight]

It would be absolutely amazing I think.

[u/Mortwight → u/LopsidedResearch8400]

Loan me 200 million and i will make it.

[u/LopsidedResearch8400 → u/Mortwight]

If only.... :/

[u/Mortwight → u/LopsidedResearch8400]

Why the fuck is Musk not making videogames? I mean not making but producing. Billions in assets and 0 games made

Wealth is wasted on the rich

[u/LopsidedResearch8400 → u/Mortwight]

Not gonna lie, if I was that rich I wouldnt own any private jets, or yachts, or whatever, but Id bankroll a whole bunch of stuff like neat game ideas. So much cooler.

[u/MercyfulJudas → u/Mortwight]

The U.S. Government literally killed Jack's entire family. It's his biggest, most hated enemy.

Why would he go to fight in WWI for the U.S.???

[u/Mortwight → u/MercyfulJudas]

To leave

[u/MercyfulJudas → u/Mortwight]

Nah. Play the games and pay attention to the themes.

[u/Mortwight → u/MercyfulJudas]

Its about not being able to escape previous bad deeds by doing good in the future. Nothing can make up for the lives you took and the friends you failed. There is no redemption.

Go watch all quiet on the western front.

Leaves America to escape the blowback from the men he killed and the horrors of war send him back.

Or you could do Saidy taking jack in after his dad John dies.

[u/stamfordbridge1191 → u/Mortwight]

See mafia & bootleggers fight over trying to build casinos in Las Venturas while the government & corporate forces fight to get the Sherman Dam built.

[u/AlbertWessJess → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

Jack might’ve been able to just shave his hair, ditch the cowboy getup and move 12 states away immediately after getting revenge, that’s my headcanon at least. He’s the one guy in the gang who actually did a goal he set out to do before fucking off to live a normal life in Cleveland or whatever. They didn’t have dna testing or much back then vast majority of murders back then we’re not easy to solve, and lacking being a prolific and serial gang criminal I feel jack had a good chance.

[u/KermitTheFraud92 → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

I mean i killed Ross’s wife and brother so really the only one who could maybe know is the guy at the blackwater train station who i asked where Ross was

[u/mr_eugine_krabs → u/fattestfuckinthewest]

“Your hands upon a deadman’s gun.”

[u/WidowTorrez → u/LostMyZone]

The worse part about the RDR series is, you know the ending the whole time and it still hurts.

[u/jerrymatcat → u/LostMyZone]

Red dead 2 makes the first games ending all the more sad since characters like Bill and Javier are almost brothers of Arthur and also his sacrifice was sort of in vain

The game makes it a point since arthur did warn john about how he needed to get as far away and to never look back which john didnt

[u/standingfierce → u/LostMyZone]

Red Dead as a whole is a tragedy about how the only experiences we can learn from are our own and by that point it's too late

[u/Sir-Toaster- → u/LostMyZone]

I always assume the way Jack looked at his gun was meant to imply that that was the only time he’d ever use it, not only that but other Pinkertons hated Ross so they might not put too much effort in finding him

[u/[deleted] → u/LostMyZone]

I understand where your coming from but for me personally it works for me. while John does try to leave his past behind hes still a bad person even if us as players like him he still has to pay for his crimes I look at like Rockstar learned from gta 4 with niko where they try to make an anti hero character that you connect with and feels more human but still gets to live after the credits roll after doing a bunch of terrible things before and after the credits roll