u/Agitated-Giraffe-600

The thematic evolution of the trilogy: RDR1 showed the government is erasing the last remnants of the Wild West Era and RDR2 showed it’s the peak and collapse of the Wild West Era. So why not have RDR3 show the golden age of the Wild West Era?

Set it in the early 1870s during Reconstruction, right after the Civil War. The frontier is still raw, the government is trying to rebuild the country, railroad tycoons and robber barons are expanding west, former soldiers are becoming mercenaries/outlaws, and civilization hasn’t fully won yet. You play as a completely new protagonist, one who fought in the Civil War, which took whatever innocence he had left. We get a list of many new characters and setting, but we do get a young Dutch Van der Linde throughout the story only as a supporting character. The game would focus on the creation of the outlaw myth that eventually inspires Dutch’s ideology years later. That way the game keeps the Redemption universe fresh without retreading the exact same gang story again.

Dutch idolizes Elias because he appears independent and untouchable, but Dutch misunderstands Elias. He sees the world realistically while Dutch turns it into a dream. That difference is the blueprint that creates the tragic irony of the entire Redemption saga.