Red Dead Redemption 2 has a funny way of making players look back at Red Dead Redemption 1 differently. Obviously, since Arthur Morgan isn’t mentioned once in RDR1, it can be seen as an odd omission (when, in truth, Arthur Morgan simply didn’t exist at the time of RDR1’s development). But looking at characters like Dutch, Bill Williamson, and so on takes on whole new levels of nuance—for example, fans finally get to see the genius Dutch was so associated with and the beginning of his downfall.
For Bill, it’s a bit more complex. John Marston first encounters Bill early in the original Red Dead Redemption, with the Williamson Gang leaving him for dead. This first encounter paints Bill and John’s past life as something far less honorable than it was. Not that the Dutch Van Der Linde gang ever really lived up to the Robin Hood figures they admired, but there is something to trying to do “right” as a gang of outlaws. The Williamson gang, on the other hand, was violent and aggressive, making John's past look really bad.
This reflection takes on new nuances when looking at Bill Williamson in Red Dead Redemption 2 and in Red Dead Redemption 1. It can make players feel sorry for him, as Bill is mocked, treated unfairly, and generally abused by the gang. He is considered, in so many ways, a laughingstock of the gang, befitting how Dutch laughed at Bill for trying to rob him—the event that led Bill to join his gang. The thing is, while the Williamson gang is a far cry from the Van Der Linde gang fans seen in RDR2, the two are more interconnected than they may seem at first.
RDR2 Van Der Linde Gang vs. RDR1 Williamson Gang
After the death of Hosea, Dutch lost all sense of control and being able to maintain any sort of charade of his character. His true nature, as he discovers, is disorder, chaos, violence, and death. Dutch envisioned a plan, a paradise on Tahiti for him and the gang, but the truth is, he wasn’t capable of fulfilling such a plan. Dutch lived in chaos, thrived in chaos, and civilization of any sort that was not in his control was not civilization he wanted. This is why Dutch and Angelo Bronte are like two mirrors: Dutch, in his best dreams, would be Angelo. In his more realistic "nightmares," he’d live the Williamson gang life.
If Arthur Morgan hadn’t intervened, subsequently breaking the gang up and giving a better life to some of its members like Charles Smith and Sadie Adler, then the gang could have very well followed Dutch into the same descent of madness as Bill himself goes through. Dutch was a good, intelligent guy, but one whose power corrupted and one whose nature itself was corruption. Dutch, if unchecked, would have led his gang into being the type of horrific outlaw gang they saw in the O’Driscolls, and players see in the Williamson gang. What Dutch really teaches Bill is that unchecked freedom often leads to abusive power, yet neither can really grasp the difference.
Bill Williamson Foreshadows His Own Future—And Potentially That of Dutch
During Red Dead Redemption 2, Bill Williamson is fiercely loyal to Dutch. He believed, however wrongly, that Dutch was resistant to the corruption of power. So, despite Bill’s flaws, mistreatments, and more, he remained with the gang that he believed would keep him on the straight and narrow (as far as an outlaw life can accomplish that, anyway). At one point in RDR2, Bill explains that he saw what power does to people in the army, speaking of himself, his commanding officers, and so on. It was a future he didn't want, instead choosing to believe in the freedom Dutch so promised.
Come Red Dead 1, however, Bill has fallen prey to this corruption himself. He is ruthless, leading the most feared gang in the area and serving as one of the biggest antagonists in the game. Indeed, it is the reflection of Bill that RDR1 wants players to see in John Marston, that sheer capability of madness and violence before the second game ever existed, and the results of the road the Dutch Van Der Linde gang was walking after the second game did release.
Bill was no longer the awkward, caring, and maybe a little dumb oaf that the gang did feel something special for, even if it wasn’t the kindest about it. No, Bill was the self-absorbed megalomaniac and gang leader that Dutch was too—Dutch was just better at covering it up. Dutch set up, imposed, and created the monster Bill Williamson would become.
Bill and Dutch are two sides of the same coin. Bill was the good guy who feared power and wanted something good out of life who fell to power and corruption, terrorizing the wild west. Dutch was the bad guy who manipulated power to make himself look good and promise a good life he was incapable of, who didn’t fall to power and corruption but embodied it, terrorizing those who put their faith in him. Had Dutch maintained the gang for much longer, the Williamson gang was what it would become. And only a few members of the Dutch Van Der Linde gang managed to escape that fate or their ghosts associated with it.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.