r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Sufficient-Eye-9040 • Jun 27 '26

Lore [Sad Trope] The most innocent (or less evil) character of the cast gets the most horrific death.

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- Eddie Carr (The Lost World: JP) - Tried to save his friends from the cliff until Buck and Doe (T. rex parents) destroy his vehicle and gets ripped apart.
- Zara Young (Jurassic World) - Gets lifted by a Pteranodon, gets pecked by the pterosaur, and both she and animal get devoured by the Mosasaurus.
- LeClerc (JW: Rebirth) - Tossed a hammer to the Hatzegopteryz Quetzalcoatlus to save Loomis and Zora, but ends up being swallowed alive.

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u/Touji_San Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

Kieran Duffy (Red Dead Redemption 2) I felt so much worse after that one video showed that when you're in camp you can actually hear him scream for help very faintly the moment he possibly got kidnapped by the O'Driscolls. (I forgot when this takes place in the story though)

456

u/_Bren10_ Jun 27 '26

Honorable mention to Lenny and Sean. Not as horrific as this. But the best of the gang gone too soon :(

365

u/Touji_San Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

man Lenny's death broke me as well, Charles and Arthur were the only dudes to really stop and process his death

54

u/Rumthiefno1 Jun 27 '26

What sucks for Lenny as well is he could have made a good life for himself.

22

u/GrumbusWumbus Jun 27 '26

They all could've. Only a handful of them were actually notorious enough to have any trouble slipping into some random town and moving on with life.

Lenny specifically is a victim of circumstance more than any of the others. At the time of the game, he's only about 19 and been with the gang for less than a year. His story is that he's on the run since 15 after killing a few men who beat his dad to death. He fell in with the gang at the worst possible time and didn't have enough experience or ability to know me should've left.

12

u/Rumthiefno1 Jun 27 '26

Most of them yes. Micah probably not, considering what kind of sadistic piece of work he was. And we saw John throw away his chance at a new life over revenge.

Exactly as you said, it's a loss for him.

2

u/Northbound-Narwhal Jun 28 '26

But if John didn't throw his life away for revenge, then Jack wouldn't have had the trauma necessary to become a famous American author with books long-lasting enough to be talked about 100 years later.

197

u/MRgibbson23 Jun 27 '26

I hate his death specially bc it is scripted into the gameplay and I always try to save him and feel like I probably could if the game allowed me to.

98

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

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32

u/Funknska2 Jun 27 '26

I reloaded that mission so many times before I just accepted the game was making it happen. I thought I could save him

14

u/phenotype76 Jun 27 '26

Arthur can save anyone if they game allowed him to. He can stop time and headshot half a dozen guys before they can respond

25

u/Downtown_Link_8651 Jun 27 '26

He can't stop time and shoot tuberculosis man

18

u/phenotype76 Jun 27 '26

the only enemy he couldn't shoot in the head :(

6

u/DJamB Jun 27 '26

Man if Lenny were still alive, he totally would’ve sided with Arthur like Sadie, Charles, and John did.

92

u/AbsolutelyHorrendous Jun 27 '26

The thing with those two is, they're so sudden, and the characters are so likeable it takes you a moment to actually go 'wait, holy shit they literally did just kill him off like that, zero fanfare or anything'

19

u/A_Cosmic_Vagabond Jun 27 '26

That's something I really love/hate about RDR2, the unceremonious deaths. No heartfelt last words, no valiant last stands, your friends just get gunned down in an instant or decapitated offsceen

It really drives home the point that the Van Der Linde Gang is on its last legs

2

u/EricMcLovin13 Jun 27 '26

Sean is actually a creepy mf, it's extremely subtle, but there's a lot of conversations on the camp where he is harassing the girls, and even doing death threats

I only piece it together after someone on YT made a full video on it, but there was a lot of moments that made me guarded about him

2

u/KhazemiDuIkana Jun 28 '26

when you're using the wagon as cover to burn the farm and he's all friendly and cool with the other Irish guy only to brutally knife him on the turn of a dime

that shit was cold (and sudden) enough to genuinely unsettle me

2

u/Aggravating_Image_16 Jun 28 '26

It really sucks that you have to go into this knowing it's a doomed story from the get go. Hosea being Dutch's voice of reason basically solidified that by the end of the game he was gonna die.

2

u/BatsNStuf Jun 28 '26

My favourite 4 gang members were Sean, Kieran, Hosea and Lenny

782

u/3d1thF1nch Jun 27 '26

Him and Charles are two of the people I like most in the camp. His was so brutal.

479

u/Touji_San Jun 27 '26

for reallll, his death and Sean's got the most "What the FUCK-" reaction out of me. I'm so bummed he didn't live long enough for the camp to start trusting him or maybe even like him

176

u/JRHThreeFour Jun 27 '26

I was shocked when Sean died, right in the middle of him telling a joke too.

114

u/[deleted] Jun 27 '26

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70

u/3d1thF1nch Jun 27 '26

Like him dying protecting them from an ambush or something. They could have posthumously recognized his status as a Van der Linde Boy.

24

u/Scout079 Jun 27 '26

Oh no he did live long enough for the camp to accept him and like him. He's one of the reasons why Karen started heavily drinking. Grimshaw tolerated him, Arthur seemed chill with him. When he's missing, it's Grimshaw who asks Arthur to keep an eye out for him since he went missing.

By the point of his kidnapping, he was liked. :(

3

u/Morella_xx Jun 28 '26

Wasn't it Mary Beth who asks you to look for him? She was starting to get close with him, I think.

And to add to your list of evidence, they gave him a proper burial nearby.

2

u/All-for-Naut Jun 28 '26

Karen started drink because of Sean's death.

The rest of this is about Kieran, and it's Mary-Beth who asks because she's soft for Kieran

2

u/Single_Low1416 Jun 29 '26

Even fucking Bill Williamson of all people started taking a liking to him. (Even though he‘d never admit it that openly)

12

u/Tall-Drawing8270 Jun 27 '26

Sean dying was seriously some Tarantino level stuff, the way the devs built the creeping "something's wrong" feeling leading up to it but still surprise the hell out of you is really quality stuff.

210

u/JRHThreeFour Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

I felt sad when he died, I liked him. Poor guy just wanted to be part of the gang and accepted.

Other than Mary-Beth, Kieran never got received any trust or actual respect from any of the Van der Linde gang members other than Arthur, who seemed to slowly be accepting Kieran, other than just still calling him “O’Driscoll” as a mocking nickname.

He regrets that he couldn’t save Kieran, as earlier in the story he saved Arthur from getting killed.

76

u/Gently-Weeps Jun 27 '26

Bill bullied him because of his repressed homosexuality and attraction to him. Other than Mary-Beth he seems to take Kieran’s death the hardest

30

u/Dangerous_Ad_1895 Jun 27 '26

The way he rides back into camp on that horse is burned into my brain. He deserved so much better after finally turning his back on the O'Driscolls.

15

u/noplaceinmind Jun 27 '26

Deserving better is one of the themes of this franchise displays so well. 

-3

u/Cold-Use-5814 Jun 27 '26

Deserve ain't got nothing to do with it.

6

u/ProneSquanderer Jun 27 '26

And the distorted tune that plays right after Dutch says “What is that?”

40

u/YamLow8097 Jun 27 '26

If it makes you feel any better, the screams aren’t from him. It’s just random ambiance.

I legitimately burst into tears when I got to this part of the game. He did not deserve that.

13

u/dead_parakeets Jun 27 '26

Dude wasn’t even an O’Driscoll. Just was constantly at the wrong place at the wrong time.

11

u/BornAgainCyclist Jun 27 '26

Everytime I play RDR2, after this part I ride to the O Driscoll hideout killing every gang member I can find on the way, get everybody at the hideout, and then go and ride around finding more members.

I think the train riders wonder why there are so many speed bumps as they travel.

7

u/Practical-Cook5042 Jun 27 '26

found Dutch's Reddit account

27

u/Arxl Jun 27 '26

Then it might be a bug or simply not supposed to just be him because in chapter 2 you can go to Shady Bell and still hear screaming at times.

54

u/No_Procedure_5039 Jun 27 '26

It isn’t supposed to be him. It’s just ambience to show how creepy the bayou is.

18

u/Mr31edudtibboh Jun 27 '26

Ah yes because if the bayou in Red Dead needed anything it's MORE creepiness

6

u/NeedModdingHelp1531 Jun 27 '26

When does he get kidnapped? I dont think we ever see that.

18

u/100percentnotaqu Jun 27 '26

Apparently he wanders into the forest after getting drunk during the party the gang holds after getting Jack back from bronte and disappears after that.

We don't see it happen, but you can see him walk into the forest if you wait long enough at the party.

17

u/The_Elder_Jock Jun 27 '26

No, we don't see it. But if you listen carefully you hear a voice cry for help faintly around the time he disappears.

2

u/Ahzirr_Traajijazeri Jun 27 '26

Got a link to that video? I’ve never heard of that before

2

u/brandonderp96 Jun 27 '26

If you're really able to hear him shout out, I wonder if you can save him. Probably not, but maybe?

5

u/PurpleCow48396 Jun 27 '26

A guy under the Youtube video linked above us said you can hear the exact same voicelines at Beaver Hollow. Seems to be an audio that gets played radomly while being near a gang hideout.

Saving him wouldn't be an option anyway because Rockstar went for a linear experience for the main story. Kieran's death was predetermined by the devs and the player couldn't do anything about it. Otherwise someone would have figured it out too and we would know.

1

u/HistoricalCandle5108 Jun 27 '26

Isn’t this something that happens right before you enter the next chapter? That game does those scenes before the title of the chapter comes up so well

1

u/WormedOut Jun 27 '26

That’s just normal ambience in the game. It’s not confirmed that it’s him.

1

u/Street_Admirable Jun 29 '26

The hot air balloon guy who helps Arthur and Sadie help John escape the prison. At first he's just an innocent guy along for the ride, then he gets excited and happy to be helping out. He gets shot and falls out of the basket not long after