Dutch IS Jesse James. He always knew Micah was the rat.

I watched the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert ford last night after a long time. I was surprised to see how heavily it influenced red dead redemption 2. Of course, the most famous shot for shot scene of robbing the train is a no brainer of a comparison. But the character of Jesse James stood out a lot. 1) Charisma. Both Jesse and Dutch are known to be charismatic. Always saying the right thing, acting friendly, being genuinely liked by people. 2) Illusion of Generosity and helpfulness. Both are compared to Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. In reality both robbed what was worth robbing. 3) Guns. Both wear their gun belt the same way and have the guns reversed in the same manner. Often resting their hands in a similar fashion. 4) Cigars. Both constantly smoke cigars, though cigarettes are available. 5) Fancy dress. Both love to look good and rich. 6) Eloquence. To be charismatic and to assert dominance or prestige, they use language as way of differentiating themselves and having credibility. 7) Idolized by his crew. Bringing in strays. This one is self explanatory. 8) They’ll do anything in order to come out on top, even if they regret it later. That’s a big one. Blackwater is a comparable situation. Dutch shot the girl and ran off with the score. Jesse killed many before, but in the train robbing scene you can see him hesitate and hate his own actions when he attacks the unarmed man overlooking the safe, to the point, he almost kills him out of hate for his own actions towards him. First sign of comparison #9. 9) Decay into madness. For Dutch, it was when he hit his head, sure, but I think that it only escalated it there. This lingered in his mind for a long time. Assuming the theory is correct, we can look into Jesse. Since we don’t play as Dutch, we don’t see him alone, but we can see it in the film about Jesse. When alone, he thinks a lot. He is depressed. Doesn’t sleep. His actions keep him awake, making him lose his mind more. For Dutch, a big plot point was killing the woman in Guarma. For Jesse, beating the child, Fords cousin. He cried afterwards and was speechless as to why he’s done it. 10) Why I think Dutch (Jesse) knew about Micah(Robert Ford). Jesse was suspicious of everyone. Just like Dutch. Yet he allowed the biggest traitor to be amongst him closest. Jesse, already mad and after killing a few of his own men due to suspicions about their character, stayed with the ones that were least loyal to him. Ford went to the cops, just like Micah, and worked with them to take him down. Both Jesse and Dutch knew their life was over a long time ago. But they kept pushing that direction, kept making themselves go crazier due to their actions. Jesse wanted to die. He contemplated suicide but couldn’t do it. He wanted to be killed not by his own hand. That’s why he kept Robert. He knew he was a coward. He didn’t let anyone sneak up on him, but Robert did. Multiple times. He even started to play with him, scare him, tempt him into killing Jesse in order to save his own life. And he didn’t. Turned his back many times, and nothing. Not until he finally took off his gun belt and stood motionless and awaited his own killing. Of course rockstar couldn’t go through with the story and copy Jesse 1:1, especially since they had to make it stick to the events of red dead 1. However, Dutch’s demise at the end of the first game being a suicidal one, shows what could have happened if Robert Ford didn’t pull the trigger.