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You can't really trust micah for collecting money, he would have said that they did not have anything while keeping the money for himself and killing the debtors
I think they just wanted to avoid too much flack for him being a typical jewish stereotype. Strauss absolutely would've ratted them out if he was just offered a single dollar, was he written realistically.
Strauss was a perfect example of a morally grey character, because he was undyingly loyal and friendly to the gang but heartless and cruel to the debtors, ignorant of how he was hurting them to help the gang. A great example of how you don’t need to be the one actually carrying out the deed to be complicit in wrongdoing.
No Strauss is one of the worst members from a moral perspective. I don’t give a fuck if he didn’t rat out, and that is completely inconsistent with his character.
@illguessilltry6243 what child did he have??? And that's purely speculation. Plenty of my friends' parents and ex partners parents (who were immigrants) spoke perfect English? Plus when faced with Arthur I'd crap myself. In my eyes he seemed genuinely confused and terriefied and like he couldn't speak the language. I'm sure if he could speak English he'd try talk his way out of the situation (like all the other debtors)
Even if you have max high Honor and restrict your killing just to the story missions, by the time he dies, Arthur still has the kind of body count that would leave Genghis Khan impressed.
“I prefer bank robbery to usury, seems more dignified somehow.” High Honor is canon and the amount of suffering Arthur causes is minimal compared to Strauss
Strauss was such a mixed bag for a character. He was loyal and friendly to the gang but an otherwise terrible person who preyed on the desperate and needy. And ultimately, as we see after Horseshoe Overlook, a bad loanshark because he would continuously give bad terms to people who did not have the means of repaying their debts. The phrase "You can't squeeze water out of a rock" is something Strauss clearly needed to hear.
I’d argue being murderers and stick up men is worse than being a predatory loan shark so they are all otherwise terrible people but even within themselves have a sense of elitism over style of robbery
I was so sad when the game asked me to kick Strauss out. I felt sorry for him, especially when he told miss Grimshaw he was afraid. the moment he said "I was your friend" broke my heart. I know he did bad things, but everyone in the gang did bad things so why shoulds Strauss pays and not the others like Micah ?
An interesting fact about Strauss is that of all the gang members his profession is the least unique. In the 19th century Banks almost never, ever, gave personal loans. Nearly all personal/non business loans were done by individual financiers or a small group of wealthy residents in a community. Some would eventually form into unions to provide credit, which we now know as Credit Unions. Strauss' work is still alive and well to this day.
Also something that I see never being talked about, but I suspect Strauss may be Jewish (as Austria, Germany and Eastern Europe at the time had a significant Jewish population) - which plays into the stereotype of the "Jewish moneylender with no morals". It was that stereotype from which Anti-Semitic attitudes where derived in Europe and the US. Although obviously unjustified, there is a grain of truth that Jewish culture greatly values literacy and education, and it's likely because of this that Jewish people in Europe would be seemingly overrepresented in careers involving banking, book-keeping and money lending. It was thus this apparent presence of Jews in financial positions that made them convenient scapegoats for the European population to focus their frustrations on.
I seen it as Arthur giving pity to Straus by having an excuse to kick him out of the gang before it all went to shit. This was technically during the time when Arthur had the most doubts about the gang and these debts and how they made Arthur feel were just the cherry on top. I want to believe Arthur was angry in the moment and no longer liked the work but also because he still seen Straus as a friend. So kicking him out was doing both sides a favor. When Straus says "But we were friends" its an indication to the player how difficult this was for Arthur but he had to do what he had to do. Not to mention I also believe Arthur realizes this is how he got TB to begin with. Its literally the thing that broke the camels back when he hears that Downes died of TB. Originally he may have thought he caught something on Guarma which was actually my first thought but then we find out this information and it all clicks and it also clicks for Arthur.
@@k8x97I mean I think it’s very reasonable to assume that after getting his home broken into and beaten to a pulp by Arthur that he would want to learn English so next time he can at least know why he’s being beaten
Would be cool if Arthur could pay the debts with his own money in Strauss's during the whole game. It would fit more with what Arthur and Dutch say in the beginning.
It would make no sense. The point of earning money is that everyone in the gang has to kick up in order to pay their expenses. If arthur pays off everyones debt, he's essentially just earning on Strauss' behalf as he would be paying more than his fair share.
3 місяці тому+3
After taking the money from Downes, I realized that Leopold was giving out money to people who dont got a chance to pay back. After that I denied to take the debtors money, I paid them instead. I was emotionally invested into this game and it was so good
Fun fact, the polish guy that arthur that takes money for didnt actually speak English, but when you play as john 8 years later you see he actually learned some proper English, and the other thing is if you go through Arthur's journal (I highly recommend to read through it) he writes down everything that happens in every main and side misson, and he hates the debt missions, which i love because it shows who he really is
@@nekogaming5300 Are you slow? Cynic said the Polish guy could speak English when Arthur was collecting the debt, which is incorrect. He learned English and could speak it in the epilogue, 8 years later
What makes Strauss more complex is that he was picked up and tortured by pinkertons but never breathed a word about anything, shows that Strauss is loyal even when he was treated poorly by the gang
Honestly Straus isn't really evil. And he was one of the smartest people in the gang, because his work was mostly legal and his and Trelawny's plan for the riverboat was one of the smoothest plans in the game. He also didn't betray the gang even after he was kicked out and arrested by the Pinkertons. He was loyal.
Do why John couldn’t truly kill or shoot Dutch since he “left me to die” in RDR1. It amazes me a man who loved Dutch but how has to capture or kill him yet he can’t fully do it despite of Dutch treating him like shit in a way
People need to realise that thomas downs aint as blameless and innocent for what they make him out to be. Instead of looking for a job he asks for money to give to some charity. I understand that he had tb thats why he couldn't get a job but collecting money for a charity isnt going to help at all. All of the debtors knew what they were getting themselves in and putting all the blame to straus for the aftermath isnt right
At the same time, what could Strauss had thought to gain by giving cash to a drunken fisherman or a jobless hunter? Loansharking only works when it's conceivable that the marks can cough up the expected return on investment or have some reliable collateral to make it square and then some. If those elements aren't present then Strauss is just handing money, the gangs money, away with a free beat down on top. I get that people who aren't desperate aren't coming to Strauss, but even then he needed to be a little more discerning on some of his marks.
I honestly never understood people who say leopold is the worst even though the soldiers of the gang frequently cause people to probably lose their jobs or even kill lawmen who are just doing their jobs while what strauss does is perfectly legal in the sense that these debtors knew what they were getting into
Ive played through this game 3 times and missed a couple those later debts and never saw hin throw Strauss out of camp. Currently in St. Denis on 4th time through. Aint gonna miss it this time.
i always thought Strauss was the least ethical of the gang, but after more and more playthroughs what he does isn't ethical at all, But at least these people agreed to going into this debt The amount of lives the rest of the gang have completely ruined by robbing them is probably insane, and its not like they agreed to get robbed..
It's a pretty clear leonine contract though, they agreed the same way someone drowning agreed to everything someone with a buoy said. But Arthur kicks Strauss around the same time he wants the gang to disband so it's not really adouble standard that pushes him as much as realizing they've been horrible people
@@simoneidson21 strauss is no abiding citizen he runs with Dutch's gang. His entire racket rely on the fact that the debtors know Strauss is a criminal who will have them killed if he doesn't have his money. But it's not like he lines his pocket the money he makes is money for Dutch which until St-Denis heist was considered the most noble of cause among the gang. He is just as much as a victim of Dutch than the rest of the gang as the only thing he can offer dutch is a source of income that won't raise as much of a fuss as when the gang go robbing houses
@@bendavenport4136makes complete sense for a polish immigrant as at the time Poland was split between Austria, Germany and Russia so it's very likely that german was a compulsory language at the place where he was born
Don't care what y'all say, Strauss was still the funniest character in the game, besides Uncle. 🤣🤣💯 Loved that he never betrayed the gang though, even through serious torture.
4:28 You do realize that you can learn english in 8 years right. And in 1899 he already spoke a little bit, so it isn't suprising at all that in 1907 he is able to speak English
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but, I just gave a little read and, contrary to Strauss' claims, debtors' prison was practically (if not completely) abolished in the USA by 1899; it was abolished federally by 1833 and, the exact year depending on the state, around the mid 19th Century in many or most states. In fact, precisely one of the global advances in individual rights during the 19th century was abolishing or, at least, greatly limiting, prison sentences for debtors.
He's such grey morally character, undeniably the most loyal amongst the gang members especially toward arthur. His scheme of being money lender and targeted poor person and sick person is straight up evil but he compares to micah still far more good, he's actually a neutral person in the gang and worries much about the gang condition.
1:04 you forgot the mission where he saves Javier on the steamboat and that he was the one who came up with the idea of going to the swamps while part of the gang was in Tahiti
Between him and Micah , not sure which i dispise more. I usually reluctantly do the Thomas Downs mission because it's mandatory, after that i ignore strauss for the rest of the game.
4:29: while it is true that Wrobel shows extremely little English language proficiency in 1899, the fact that he shows more fluency on it in 1907 it doesn't necessarily mean he was playing coy with Arthur; he had 8 years to learn the language and possibly, all that time back, he had just recently immigrated to the USA from his native Upper Silesia (then part of the German Empire [reason why Wrobel also speaks German], now part of Poland, country that did not exist at the time of the events of the whole RDR saga).
It's odd to me that his missions feel the dirtiest, yet that's actually legal work and it's nowhere near as bad as most of the other stuff you get to do. Yeah sure, you take advantage of desperate people and leave them in an even worse state, and sure, they didn't have much of a choice but to borrow money. But if everything went to plan, all you'd do his rough them up until they held up their side of a contract they signed. Throughout the game, you kill huge amounts of people left and right, and these are somebody's husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, friends, mentors, employers etc. A lot of the time, their only mistake was to have run into Arthur.
This might be a hot take, but I do agree with Strauss. I'm not sure if banks provided personal loans back then and even if they did, they would want something like collateral or someone vouching for them (like how John got for his ranch). It would have been nice to see the terms of the loan, but I'd imagine they were short term loans, given the nature of the gang to be on the move. Regarding the nature of the people, I would imagine people would be on their best when applying for a loan at Strauss, maybe even embellishing the way they would pay back the loan. Strauss was a new to the towns he visited so it was harder for him to identify who not to give loans( unlike credit checks and SSNs we have today) Like the forst few missions, the people were trying to play strauss for a fool when it came to payback. It might be possible that strauss got played for a fool when it came to borrowing the money. Or an even more possible situation is that strauss might also have had lapses in judgement like dutch towards the end. Was strauss responsible for a lot of additional troubles in a lot of families? Maybe so. But the gang did their fair share in killing a lot of breadwinners who were just doing their jobs (cops, guards, pinkerton employees etc). Sure you could say that those men knew what they were getting into. But wouldn't that be the same case for strauss as well? He wasn't getting illiterate people to sign loan contracts. But dutch was evil at heart with sweet talking to cover it up. But strauss was loyal to the gang, even after he was unceremoniously kicked out. I thought strauss was a good fit for the gang. He managed the books and contributed in a way that he could. He wasn't a gunslinger, but he was way more useful to the gang than folks like uncle and micah. I was sad to hear about his death.
Strauss kind of reminds me of Hosea. Both don't seem that dangerous at first glance and both prefer not so direct methods of getting money, be it money lending for Strauss and cons for Hosea. Both are also much more dangerous than they appear.
Real ironic hearing Arthur criticize Strauss as “bringing shame”... meanwhile he’s the mass murdering brute who made the decision to act the way he did. Arthur didn’t have to beat people near to death or such. Strauss didn’t care... as long as they were paid. It was on him how he approached. Yet he treated Strauss as if he was the one beating Downes. Really highlights how Arthur isn’t perfect and despite being left for the wolves. Strauss had enough dignity not to rot or sell out any members of the gang.
Strauss did his job. Moraality tends to be a pair of glasses that each sees different things thru. Arthur even says he enjoyed giving out the beatings. I love Arthur's characters as much as anyone, even understand it better than most and Arthur is the one who killed himself. c l;
Strauss had the most honor of any character in the gang. He made money honestly through banking, not theft. Loaning money is the basis of most of the economy.
He deliberately seeks out desperate people and saddles them with debt he knows they’ll never be able to pay back without destroying their lives. What he does is legal but it is far from honorable .
Loansharks are absolute scum as far as I'm concerned, but I can understand why Arthur collected the debts, but then was given a choice near the end. That said, I always antagonized herr Strauss the most throughout the game. I also cheered when Arthur kicked him out.
Learning that he died in custody, Tortured to death without saying a word. I honestly liked him, I doubt Bill/Javier/Micah would be able too. He could've sold them out and gotten free but didn't Strauss was Loyal till the end. I feel like Arthur would've respected that
I think it’s kinda messed up how he was just kicked out. Why not help him with his redemption. He was just trying to help the gang the best way he knew how. Everyone in the gang has skeletons in their closet. Especially if Arthur has low honor, kinda look like a hypocrite
Don't be irresponsible with your money and don't take on debts you can't pay, simple as. Don't like the collectors? Don't make yourself need to get collected from in the first place!
What I like about strauss is that he is cold but at the same time, killing people and emptying their pockets isn't really mroe dignified it's just different standards and everyone in the gang is aware, you can't even claim glory outlaws after blackwater or the gang first trip to Valentine where they are major nuisance to common folk. Personally I think Strauss is being honest when he says the people he loans to are people desperate enough to take a loan from a GANG OF OUTLAWS so he doesn't need to trick or anything, like people know that they will need to pay him back or they will die and so Strauss counts on them selling their wife or robbing dead to avoid death.
Strauss' not a good person, that much is certain. That said, barring the likes of Charles, Strauss doesn't do anywhere near as much bad as the other gang members. You straight up shoot up several towns (obviously leaving widows along the way, and these even show up if you shoot NPC's by your own) as part of the story, and engage in several robberies. The latter is relevant because insurances weren't a thing back then. If your money got stolen then you were screwed. As such, the gang's directly responsible for similar financial distress and ruin as seen through Strauss' loan sharking, except they didn't even give any money to begin with to those people. I also think that Strauss is essentially done dirty by the writing. (This isn't necessarily a bad thing since his missions were used as a vehicle for Arthurs' own personal growth, but obviously it looks poorly on him) A fair few of the debtors (especially the latter ones) are sympathetic cases. Most of the people you fight in the story are trash, or work for said trash; generating little sympathy. This is particularly the case for the soldiers in Guarma if you understand Spanish; they're effectively a band of sadists based on how and what they say. if all of Strauss' debtors were written along those lines, then he'd be far more likeable a character. And of course, another reason is that you actually stick around to witness the consequences of Leopold's actions. You don't for the rest of the gang. If you were made to, then the suffering Strauss' loaning generated would be unnoteworthy by comparison.
Leopold Strauss (a great choice of name for an Austrian btw!) is like "the investor", a song I wrote some time ago: ua-cam.com/video/ghiAXOJDX4E/v-deo.html
the net destruction and negative consequences caused individually by any other gang member far out weighs anything done by strauss. the loan sharking also PROBABLY helped at least one or two people to financially leverage themselves out of an awful situation. we just don't see these people because they repaid their loans.
Strauss: > seemingly a doctor (medicine wagon) > camp accountant > doesn’t actively commit felonies > Arthur hates him because “muh honor” Most other members of the gang > useless aside from fighting (javier, Charles, bill, Micah, Lenny) > useless outright (uncle, reverend Swanson, Tilly, all of the women except for Karen and miss grimshaw) > Arthur loves them because “they’re mah family)
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I would love to see a video on Mary-Beth.
Strauss would been a hero if he sent Micah instead of Arthur to collect the Downes debt
You can't really trust micah for collecting money, he would have said that they did not have anything while keeping the money for himself and killing the debtors
I like how the writers clarified that Strauss never ratted out the gang. Making him a more complex character. He's calculated, not cowardly.
I think they just wanted to avoid too much flack for him being a typical jewish stereotype. Strauss absolutely would've ratted them out if he was just offered a single dollar, was he written realistically.
@@Hurstain "OY VEY YOU CANT SAY THAT WE SUFFERED THROUGH THE HOLOCAUST!! BAN THIS MAN FROM EVERY MAJOR COMPANY UNDER THE SUN!!!"
Exposing the gang would also result in him exposing his business practices and his direct ties to the gang.
@@Hurstainmaybe strauss fears Dutch more if he finds out he ratted than the cops
@@Hurstainnot necessarily,not everyone in this world is a coward and a snitch and Strauss knew exactly what he signed up for like a real Gangster
Strauss was a perfect example of a morally grey character, because he was undyingly loyal and friendly to the gang but heartless and cruel to the debtors, ignorant of how he was hurting them to help the gang. A great example of how you don’t need to be the one actually carrying out the deed to be complicit in wrongdoing.
You just described a loyal WW2 Nazi war criminal
No Strauss is one of the worst members from a moral perspective. I don’t give a fuck if he didn’t rat out, and that is completely inconsistent with his character.
Strauss knew exactly the type of people he was “lending” to. He targeted them.
There’s no grey area with Strauss. He was exactly how Arthur described him. A worm 🪱
Don’t take loans from a gang especially when you know you can’t pay them back
Wrobel could have learnt English. As we know the epilogue happens years after the ending of the main game
@illguessilltry6243 what child did he have??? And that's purely speculation. Plenty of my friends' parents and ex partners parents (who were immigrants) spoke perfect English? Plus when faced with Arthur I'd crap myself. In my eyes he seemed genuinely confused and terriefied and like he couldn't speak the language. I'm sure if he could speak English he'd try talk his way out of the situation (like all the other debtors)
Earlier he also talked a bit in English, not a lot but a little
@@danielallen6178he’s implying wrobel immigrated as a child and i refused to learn english
@@ajb31No he’s not, he’s saying immigrant parents don’t bother learning English like their children would (which is not true)
That's what I thought too.
The idea that the mass robber and murderer that is Arthur Morgan has any moral high ground over Leopold the Loan Shark is funny
I know, It’s incredibly antisemetic.
Even if you have max high Honor and restrict your killing just to the story missions, by the time he dies, Arthur still has the kind of body count that would leave Genghis Khan impressed.
@@defaultname7685based rockstar
“I prefer bank robbery to usury, seems more dignified somehow.” High Honor is canon and the amount of suffering Arthur causes is minimal compared to Strauss
@@defaultname7685he is german not jewish
Strauss was such a mixed bag for a character. He was loyal and friendly to the gang but an otherwise terrible person who preyed on the desperate and needy. And ultimately, as we see after Horseshoe Overlook, a bad loanshark because he would continuously give bad terms to people who did not have the means of repaying their debts. The phrase "You can't squeeze water out of a rock" is something Strauss clearly needed to hear.
Strauss just did his job and these people came to him for a loan.
I’d argue being murderers and stick up men is worse than being a predatory loan shark so they are all otherwise terrible people but even within themselves have a sense of elitism over style of robbery
@@lewisjohnston7077 No, he targeted them, because he’s a sadist. That’s my only explanation. Strauss is the one of the most evil gang members
I was so sad when the game asked me to kick Strauss out. I felt sorry for him, especially when he told miss Grimshaw he was afraid. the moment he said "I was your friend" broke my heart. I know he did bad things, but everyone in the gang did bad things so why shoulds Strauss pays and not the others like Micah ?
puzzy
Yea I felt bad for Strauss too
Because Strauss couldn't back himself with a gun like Micah could... Otherwise, Arthur would've kicked Micah out a long time ago, too!
lol so arthur is just a coward. that's a bummer@@kunknown2340
You felt sad? Good for you. I didn't. He was a shifty rat even if he didn't tell nothing to the Pinkertons.
An interesting fact about Strauss is that of all the gang members his profession is the least unique. In the 19th century Banks almost never, ever, gave personal loans. Nearly all personal/non business loans were done by individual financiers or a small group of wealthy residents in a community. Some would eventually form into unions to provide credit, which we now know as Credit Unions. Strauss' work is still alive and well to this day.
Also something that I see never being talked about, but I suspect Strauss may be Jewish (as Austria, Germany and Eastern Europe at the time had a significant Jewish population) - which plays into the stereotype of the "Jewish moneylender with no morals".
It was that stereotype from which Anti-Semitic attitudes where derived in Europe and the US. Although obviously unjustified, there is a grain of truth that Jewish culture greatly values literacy and education, and it's likely because of this that Jewish people in Europe would be seemingly overrepresented in careers involving banking, book-keeping and money lending.
It was thus this apparent presence of Jews in financial positions that made them convenient scapegoats for the European population to focus their frustrations on.
I seen it as Arthur giving pity to Straus by having an excuse to kick him out of the gang before it all went to shit. This was technically during the time when Arthur had the most doubts about the gang and these debts and how they made Arthur feel were just the cherry on top.
I want to believe Arthur was angry in the moment and no longer liked the work but also because he still seen Straus as a friend. So kicking him out was doing both sides a favor. When Straus says "But we were friends" its an indication to the player how difficult this was for Arthur but he had to do what he had to do.
Not to mention I also believe Arthur realizes this is how he got TB to begin with. Its literally the thing that broke the camels back when he hears that Downes died of TB. Originally he may have thought he caught something on Guarma which was actually my first thought but then we find out this information and it all clicks and it also clicks for Arthur.
4:27 You sure he didnt like just uhh... Learn it over a long period of time?
probably, maybe the trauma Arthur did to him was the motivation he needed to start learning english
Yeah this was so fucking silly lol
@@k8x97I mean I think it’s very reasonable to assume that after getting his home broken into and beaten to a pulp by Arthur that he would want to learn English so next time he can at least know why he’s being beaten
Would be cool if Arthur could pay the debts with his own money in Strauss's during the whole game. It would fit more with what Arthur and Dutch say in the beginning.
It would make no sense. The point of earning money is that everyone in the gang has to kick up in order to pay their expenses. If arthur pays off everyones debt, he's essentially just earning on Strauss' behalf as he would be paying more than his fair share.
After taking the money from Downes, I realized that Leopold was giving out money to people who dont got a chance to pay back. After that I denied to take the debtors money, I paid them instead.
I was emotionally invested into this game and it was so good
Fun fact, the polish guy that arthur that takes money for didnt actually speak English, but when you play as john 8 years later you see he actually learned some proper English, and the other thing is if you go through Arthur's journal (I highly recommend to read through it) he writes down everything that happens in every main and side misson, and he hates the debt missions, which i love because it shows who he really is
Dude it was literally in the video describing it. You didn’t have anything to say so this was a stupid comment
@@nekogaming5300 Are you slow? Cynic said the Polish guy could speak English when Arthur was collecting the debt, which is incorrect. He learned English and could speak it in the epilogue, 8 years later
What makes Strauss more complex is that he was picked up and tortured by pinkertons but never breathed a word about anything, shows that Strauss is loyal even when he was treated poorly by the gang
Honestly
Straus isn't really evil.
And he was one of the smartest people in the gang, because his work was mostly legal and his and Trelawny's plan for the riverboat was one of the smoothest plans in the game. He also didn't betray the gang even after he was kicked out and arrested by the Pinkertons. He was loyal.
Do why John couldn’t truly kill or shoot Dutch since he “left me to die” in RDR1. It amazes me a man who loved Dutch but how has to capture or kill him yet he can’t fully do it despite of Dutch treating him like shit in a way
You blast out videos like its nothing. Youre crazy! Love your content, keep it up!
He is not nearly as bad as you make him out when other characters are killing whole towns of people.
People need to realise that thomas downs aint as blameless and innocent for what they make him out to be.
Instead of looking for a job he asks for money to give to some charity.
I understand that he had tb thats why he couldn't get a job but collecting money for a charity isnt going to help at all.
All of the debtors knew what they were getting themselves in and putting all the blame to straus for the aftermath isnt right
At the same time, what could Strauss had thought to gain by giving cash to a drunken fisherman or a jobless hunter? Loansharking only works when it's conceivable that the marks can cough up the expected return on investment or have some reliable collateral to make it square and then some. If those elements aren't present then Strauss is just handing money, the gangs money, away with a free beat down on top. I get that people who aren't desperate aren't coming to Strauss, but even then he needed to be a little more discerning on some of his marks.
Strauss might have been a slime ball but he was loyal to the gang till his very last breath
Literally
I honestly never understood people who say leopold is the worst even though the soldiers of the gang frequently cause people to probably lose their jobs or even kill lawmen who are just doing their jobs while what strauss does is perfectly legal in the sense that these debtors knew what they were getting into
Arthur should've kicked Micah out. Instead of Strauss
Literally kicked him outta camp last night 😂
massive W
Literally finished the game 2 days ago
I did it a few hours ago
It's funny
I did it yesterday
Ive played through this game 3 times and missed a couple those later debts and never saw hin throw Strauss out of camp. Currently in St. Denis on 4th time through. Aint gonna miss it this time.
Debt’s truly the worst thing we as a species ever normalized.
Dutch: we're broke, we're eating worms over here
Strauss: oh, look at all this money we have to go loaning out
Me:🤦
i always thought Strauss was the least ethical of the gang, but after more and more playthroughs what he does isn't ethical at all,
But at least these people agreed to going into this debt
The amount of lives the rest of the gang have completely ruined by robbing them is probably insane, and its not like they agreed to get robbed..
It's a pretty clear leonine contract though, they agreed the same way someone drowning agreed to everything someone with a buoy said. But Arthur kicks Strauss around the same time he wants the gang to disband so it's not really adouble standard that pushes him as much as realizing they've been horrible people
@@aleg719Yes, Leopold Strauss is technically a law abiding citizen, but it doesn’t ignore the fact that the debt and interest is predatory as hell.
@@simoneidson21 strauss is no abiding citizen he runs with Dutch's gang. His entire racket rely on the fact that the debtors know Strauss is a criminal who will have them killed if he doesn't have his money. But it's not like he lines his pocket the money he makes is money for Dutch which until St-Denis heist was considered the most noble of cause among the gang. He is just as much as a victim of Dutch than the rest of the gang as the only thing he can offer dutch is a source of income that won't raise as much of a fuss as when the gang go robbing houses
Both sucksass tbh. But its honestly the peoples fault for agreeing to take a loan from Strauss tbh
4:39 Well the Epilogue takes place 8 years later That is enough time for him to learn a new language
Especially when you’re surrounded by other people speaking the language.
The amount of victim blaming and Strauss defending in this comments section is astounding
Wrobel didn't actually speak english. After a few years of being in America, he learned it.
Wrobel knew German better than he did English when Arthur met him.
@@bendavenport4136makes complete sense for a polish immigrant as at the time Poland was split between Austria, Germany and Russia so it's very likely that german was a compulsory language at the place where he was born
4:30 So a person is unable to learn english after a few years?
It was harder back then
@@rileykipp5219 It wasn't. The issue was learning to read and write.
@@thallrudedjentstorm1756 sorry bro I made that reply before I finished the video
between the main story and epilogue are 8 years bro could easily have learned english in this time
i thought he was supposed to have learned english when i heard him speak it.
Hey, nice video but between the debt of the polish guy and the epilogue is a few years and believe it or not people can and do learn. XD
Nope thats not how it works
Don't care what y'all say, Strauss was still the funniest character in the game, besides Uncle. 🤣🤣💯 Loved that he never betrayed the gang though, even through serious torture.
How is he funny
@@Heisen_burger-dude Have you not heard his campfire stories, or his one liners with that accent? Strauss was standup as fuck.
Unc is more funny "Oh you don't BUILD a BARN DUMBASS"
Loansharking is legal but its still a dirty business.
4:33 if he’s in the epilogue clearly that was 9 to 10 year difference so he had time to learn English probably from his encounter with Morgan 😂
Strauss is the embodiment of the video game industry.
4:30 you can't learn english over almost a decade? what else is impossible in your eyes ,drinking 4 cups of water in a row?
4:28 You do realize that you can learn english in 8 years right. And in 1899 he already spoke a little bit, so it isn't suprising at all that in 1907 he is able to speak English
Not even a debt collector. He's a loan shark.
Same thing
A debt collector is not the same as a loan shark. That’s an antisemetic dog whistle.
Whats a loan shark?
If a group of people are known to destroyed nations that’s not antisemitism, usury destroys nations
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but, I just gave a little read and, contrary to Strauss' claims, debtors' prison was practically (if not completely) abolished in the USA by 1899; it was abolished federally by 1833 and, the exact year depending on the state, around the mid 19th Century in many or most states. In fact, precisely one of the global advances in individual rights during the 19th century was abolishing or, at least, greatly limiting, prison sentences for debtors.
He's such grey morally character, undeniably the most loyal amongst the gang members especially toward arthur. His scheme of being money lender and targeted poor person and sick person is straight up evil but he compares to micah still far more good, he's actually a neutral person in the gang and worries much about the gang condition.
1:04 you forgot the mission where he saves Javier on the steamboat and that he was the one who came up with the idea of going to the swamps while part of the gang was in Tahiti
Between him and Micah , not sure which i dispise more. I usually reluctantly do the Thomas Downs mission because it's mandatory, after that i ignore strauss for the rest of the game.
Soy
Lore of Leopold Strauss - Dutch's Debt Collector Momentum 100
Somehow this guy is slimier and less seen then Trelawny
4:29: while it is true that Wrobel shows extremely little English language proficiency in 1899, the fact that he shows more fluency on it in 1907 it doesn't necessarily mean he was playing coy with Arthur; he had 8 years to learn the language and possibly, all that time back, he had just recently immigrated to the USA from his native Upper Silesia (then part of the German Empire [reason why Wrobel also speaks German], now part of Poland, country that did not exist at the time of the events of the whole RDR saga).
Why does he always say harr then the person’s name?
Our 'Sir' is the Germans 'Herr'.
All of your videos are bangers
It's odd to me that his missions feel the dirtiest, yet that's actually legal work and it's nowhere near as bad as most of the other stuff you get to do. Yeah sure, you take advantage of desperate people and leave them in an even worse state, and sure, they didn't have much of a choice but to borrow money. But if everything went to plan, all you'd do his rough them up until they held up their side of a contract they signed. Throughout the game, you kill huge amounts of people left and right, and these are somebody's husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, friends, mentors, employers etc. A lot of the time, their only mistake was to have run into Arthur.
This might be a hot take, but I do agree with Strauss. I'm not sure if banks provided personal loans back then and even if they did, they would want something like collateral or someone vouching for them (like how John got for his ranch).
It would have been nice to see the terms of the loan, but I'd imagine they were short term loans, given the nature of the gang to be on the move.
Regarding the nature of the people, I would imagine people would be on their best when applying for a loan at Strauss, maybe even embellishing the way they would pay back the loan. Strauss was a new to the towns he visited so it was harder for him to identify who not to give loans( unlike credit checks and SSNs we have today)
Like the forst few missions, the people were trying to play strauss for a fool when it came to payback. It might be possible that strauss got played for a fool when it came to borrowing the money. Or an even more possible situation is that strauss might also have had lapses in judgement like dutch towards the end.
Was strauss responsible for a lot of additional troubles in a lot of families? Maybe so. But the gang did their fair share in killing a lot of breadwinners who were just doing their jobs (cops, guards, pinkerton employees etc). Sure you could say that those men knew what they were getting into. But wouldn't that be the same case for strauss as well? He wasn't getting illiterate people to sign loan contracts.
But dutch was evil at heart with sweet talking to cover it up. But strauss was loyal to the gang, even after he was unceremoniously kicked out.
I thought strauss was a good fit for the gang. He managed the books and contributed in a way that he could. He wasn't a gunslinger, but he was way more useful to the gang than folks like uncle and micah.
I was sad to hear about his death.
I hate that mission. I wish there was a way for Arthur to protect himself instead of getting sick later on..
pretty sure that the polish farmer learned english after arthur.. what a kind man encouraging others to learn a new language lol
Strauss kind of reminds me of Hosea. Both don't seem that dangerous at first glance and both prefer not so direct methods of getting money, be it money lending for Strauss and cons for Hosea. Both are also much more dangerous than they appear.
Real ironic hearing Arthur criticize Strauss as “bringing shame”... meanwhile he’s the mass murdering brute who made the decision to act the way he did.
Arthur didn’t have to beat people near to death or such. Strauss didn’t care... as long as they were paid. It was on him how he approached. Yet he treated Strauss as if he was the one beating Downes.
Really highlights how Arthur isn’t perfect and despite being left for the wolves. Strauss had enough dignity not to rot or sell out any members of the gang.
This
Strauss did his job. Moraality tends to be a pair of glasses that each sees different things thru. Arthur even says he enjoyed giving out the beatings. I love Arthur's characters as much as anyone, even understand it better than most and Arthur is the one who killed himself. c l;
I think deep down Arthur blame Strauss for his sickeness, that's part of the reason he kicked him out of the camp in chapter 6
I’m assuming Strauss is the “small hat” of the crew
Strauss is everything financial and handles the gangs money.
4:28 I thought it was because after 9 years or so he learned english
the foregn guy had a few years to learn english to be fair lol
am I only one hating this guy more than Micah
nope me too
I hate stealing from Wrobel in good honor because he barely speaks English and he sounds so sad.
Strauss had the most honor of any character in the gang. He made money honestly through banking, not theft. Loaning money is the basis of most of the economy.
He deliberately seeks out desperate people and saddles them with debt he knows they’ll never be able to pay back without destroying their lives. What he does is legal but it is far from honorable .
Loansharks are absolute scum as far as I'm concerned, but I can understand why Arthur collected the debts, but then was given a choice near the end. That said, I always antagonized herr Strauss the most throughout the game. I also cheered when Arthur kicked him out.
are you a communist
@@Samuel88853 No, I'm just morally superior to loan sharks. Aren't you?
It’s no coincidence he looks like fauci 😂😂
mb mr wróbel just lernt english, i mean he had 8 years
Learning that he died in custody, Tortured to death without saying a word. I honestly liked him, I doubt Bill/Javier/Micah would be able too. He could've sold them out and gotten free but didn't
Strauss was Loyal till the end. I feel like Arthur would've respected that
Tbf on the dude who couldn’t speak English he probably learned English during the 8 year time skip.
1:57 robbing the rich is better than robbing the poor
4:36 ...this could just be he learned english after having lived in the US for about 7 years
Strauß is probably the most moral character of the gang. Making him out to be the bad guy was one of the few mistakes of RDR2s story
He’s loan shark not debt collector it’s different thing Arthur was the debt collector
The polish debter probably learned English in those 7 years
Ngl i think strauss gets too much hate he is far from the worst person in the gang
I think it’s kinda messed up how he was just kicked out. Why not help him with his redemption. He was just trying to help the gang the best way he knew how. Everyone in the gang has skeletons in their closet. Especially if Arthur has low honor, kinda look like a hypocrite
Isn't he lending money that the gang could use anyway?
Don't be irresponsible with your money and don't take on debts you can't pay, simple as. Don't like the collectors? Don't make yourself need to get collected from in the first place!
These deadbeats act they are entitled to steal Strauss money.
Do Josiah Trelawny next
Thanks for the top tier content bro
What I like about strauss is that he is cold but at the same time, killing people and emptying their pockets isn't really mroe dignified it's just different standards and everyone in the gang is aware, you can't even claim glory outlaws after blackwater or the gang first trip to Valentine where they are major nuisance to common folk. Personally I think Strauss is being honest when he says the people he loans to are people desperate enough to take a loan from a GANG OF OUTLAWS so he doesn't need to trick or anything, like people know that they will need to pay him back or they will die and so Strauss counts on them selling their wife or robbing dead to avoid death.
Wrobel a polish man.
“Moderninity” isn’t a word but modernity is
why are u so underrated
Say what you will about Leopold. I have my own opinions of him but he was in fact a hardcore gangster to the end
Wrobel learnt how to speak English though? He was there for years at that point already, although he could’ve been faking it
Strauss or Steinberg
The issue isn't giving loans, it's giving loans to people who are obviously not gonna be paying it back. It makes no sense, he's not even a good Jew
That's the point is that these people are the ones willing to take it well-to-do people would just go to the bank
(((Strauss))) lmao
Uhh Silesia upper Silesia
How did Dutch even meet Strauss and why did he take a liking to him?
It’s unclear but yeah I have no idea why he’s a gang member besides the narrative reason that Arthur needs to get TB for the story to progress
Strauss' not a good person, that much is certain.
That said, barring the likes of Charles, Strauss doesn't do anywhere near as much bad as the other gang members. You straight up shoot up several towns (obviously leaving widows along the way, and these even show up if you shoot NPC's by your own) as part of the story, and engage in several robberies. The latter is relevant because insurances weren't a thing back then. If your money got stolen then you were screwed. As such, the gang's directly responsible for similar financial distress and ruin as seen through Strauss' loan sharking, except they didn't even give any money to begin with to those people.
I also think that Strauss is essentially done dirty by the writing. (This isn't necessarily a bad thing since his missions were used as a vehicle for Arthurs' own personal growth, but obviously it looks poorly on him) A fair few of the debtors (especially the latter ones) are sympathetic cases. Most of the people you fight in the story are trash, or work for said trash; generating little sympathy. This is particularly the case for the soldiers in Guarma if you understand Spanish; they're effectively a band of sadists based on how and what they say.
if all of Strauss' debtors were written along those lines, then he'd be far more likeable a character.
And of course, another reason is that you actually stick around to witness the consequences of Leopold's actions. You don't for the rest of the gang. If you were made to, then the suffering Strauss' loaning generated would be unnoteworthy by comparison.
saying the foreign debtor is lying is dishonest he would have lived in America for 5 years
If you really think about it, If Strauss never became a loan shark, Chapters 4-6, The Epilogue and RDR1 would’ve never happened.
Leopold Strauss (a great choice of name for an Austrian btw!) is like "the investor", a song I wrote some time ago: ua-cam.com/video/ghiAXOJDX4E/v-deo.html
We don't care about your song go peddle it somewhere else
the net destruction and negative consequences caused individually by any other gang member far out weighs anything done by strauss. the loan sharking also PROBABLY helped at least one or two people to financially leverage themselves out of an awful situation. we just don't see these people because they repaid their loans.
Strauss:
> seemingly a doctor (medicine wagon)
> camp accountant
> doesn’t actively commit felonies
> Arthur hates him because “muh honor”
Most other members of the gang
> useless aside from fighting (javier, Charles, bill, Micah, Lenny)
> useless outright (uncle, reverend Swanson, Tilly, all of the women except for Karen and miss grimshaw)
> Arthur loves them because “they’re mah family)
can you do a video on if jack got shipped to italy
Gang is just as bad as him