Sadie Adler wasn’t an original member of Red Dead Redemption 2’s Van der Linde gang, but after the gang picks her up during the Colter chapter, she becomes one of the go-to members. Coupled with her wittiness and ability to keep up in a fight, Sadie is easily one of the best characters to come out of the Red Dead Redemption franchise.
The Van der Lindes stumble upon Sadie’s ranch at the beginning of the game while trying to source out supplies. Sadie and her husband had just been robbed by the O’Driscolls – she hid in the basement while he tried to defend their property, ultimately dying in the process. Sadie accepts the gang’s invitation to head back to their camp, and so she then begins a new life with the Van der Lindes before becoming an independent bounty hunter by the game’s epilogue.
Sadie quickly becomes known as one of the most reliable characters in the gang, which makes it unsurprising when Arthur always invites her on heists and missions. But even when the gang ultimately disbands due to Dutch’s growing eccentricity, Sadie remains loyal to her friends. She insists that she and Arthur rescue John Marston and help his wife and child escape safely, and even in the epilogue, she’s relentless in hunting down Micah after he wronged the gang.
What Makes Sadie Red Dead Redemption 2’s Best Character?
There are countless reasons Red Dead Redemption 2’s Sadie is an incredible character. Overall, the game doesn’t present her character as another female trope thrown in the western genre. There are plenty of female characters in Red Dead Redemption 2, but for the majority of them, their femaleness is their entire identity. Their importance in the game is often intrinsically linked to a male character.
Molly O’Shea and Susan Grimshaw, two of the leading women in the gang, for example, were only associated with the Van der Lindes because of their past relationships with Dutch. The other women in the gang don’t get nearly as much speaking time as Molly and Susan, and that’s largely because they’re not given a more substantial role in the plot line.
Sadie, on the other hand, is fiercely independent. The fact that she doesn’t have a man is heavily referenced in the game, as her widow status is often brought up, but even though she can take care of herself from the beginning, Sadie still undergoes a development as the game’s story progresses. She becomes even more fierce and liberated, moving on from the wife who hid in the basement while getting robbed at the beginning of Red Dead Redemption 2’s story to tracking down criminals herself as a bounty hunter. Arthur isn’t the only character who grows and changes, but unlike him, Sadie is never shown to have a crooked moral compass. Sadie Adler is hands-down Red Dead Redemption 2’s most underrated character, and even though players got to spend a lot of time with her, it still doesn’t feel like enough.
