I guess he shows no sympathy for his debtors because he never went into debt to pull himself out of poverty. He sees them as weak and undeserving of respect. If he could do it why can't everyone else?
This makes Strauss the most capitalistic of the gang then lol. I think that mentality of "If he can do it, why cant everyone else" is what makes him the way he is. Good Comment!
I was playing the game and Bill said to him "what's France like" and then he said "I'm Austrian" and then Bill said oh what's Australia were like. It literally made me laugh so hard
@@iaganfoss Austrians speak German but the relationship between Germany and Austria could be comparable to Canada and the US different countries but with the same values and culture
Fr, when they said how he died at the end of the game, I felt so bad, bro was like in his 60s or 70s and got tortured and beaten to death, still didn't talk
Strauss was loyal to the wrong people. He wouldn’t say a word about Dutch or the gang but he would ruin peoples lives with debt. Kicking him out off the camp was the most satisfying moment for me
Strauss was loyal to everyone in camp and when he was captured by the pinkertons for information on the gang he didn’t tell them anything and they had tortured him to death and I respect him for this and even though he was a loan shark it saddened me when Arthur kicked him out of camp and he had said “you were my friend”
@@honorable_aj7280 Yeah. When Charles said that, I kind of felt bad for throwing him out of the Camp. Desperate people had a higher chance of accepting the money, and at the end of the day, he never forced them to accept it. He lacked empathy for them, and that's what made me mad.
@@honorable_aj7280 Yeah, there is, you clearly haven’t played through the whole game or haven’t paid enough attention to the characters’ dialogue. Charles mentions the fate of Herr Strauss in part 2 of the game’s epilogue in Saint-Denis when Charles and John are trying to retrieve Charles’ equipment from the docks
No way Rockstar put this much lore into a character that only has 5 minutes of screen time. Still an interesting video nonetheless I'm impressed with the world building in this game
"You'd think a man that grew up so poor and hungry would take pity on those in the situations" You'd really be surprised how many people just go fuck you got mine
Or when he sent Arthur to collect the debt from a Polish man who doesn't speak English but what do you know the man speaks GERMAN. Might have been nice to have you along for that one Strauss.
I feel like when it comes to his morals he sees the situation he was in as not something to pity on but something to look down on, and doesn't care about those who are in that situation. "claw his way to the top" type of mentality, almost some kind of businessman wolf of wall Street stuff
People who come from poverty seem to take one of two ways. Either they understand what it's like to struggle and help or they are as ruthless to the world as it was to them, thriving in the ability to make others miserable because once they were powerless.
I think Strauss is the most underused character, i in fact got very surprised that he didn't point fingers to the location of the others survives of the crew, he died with dignity and loyal to the end, yes he basically killed Arthur with TBD but the real rat was that dying man, he knowing that he couldn't pay a living thing for Strauss he still got the money, i can't feel sorry for him and for poor padding he spit his venom blood on Arthus mouth, i'm not saying that Strauss was a saint but i'm glady to say that he isn't a bad character, just underused.
I respected his loyalty at the end though he was tortured to talk about the gang members locations and didn't break. That's a strong man he gave his life to protect everyone else
He was caught by he pinkertons after Arthur kicked him out. He never talked and he was tortured to death. He’s genuinely one of the better characters due to this and his role in Arthur’s condition.
That just meant he wasn't a rat. If he snitched, he wouldn't have lived long anyway. He's the worst kind of conman, the man who grew up poor and SOLELY targets poor people, crushing not just men in debt, but their children and mothers too. Knowing that he never has to be the one giving the beatdowns (but is always the one to set the interest rates) he is like a banker, my least favourite person, but a banker with thugs to enforce the bank's bullshit
Realistically, it makes sense why Strauss would look down on poor people as he himself grew up in deplorable conditions. Not everyone who’s lived a harsh life later becomes a saint and help others. Some just want to inflict their pain on others, probably in a hatred kind of way that others shouldn’t have what he didn’t as well.
You failed to mention that he didn't rat out the gang when he was captured by the pinkertons, He was tortured but never said a word and died in they're custody.
TBH Strauss should not have been kicked from the gang because all he was doing was just getting money for the gang and I felt so bad when he said “I was your friend” to arthur
He might actually be a psychopath, judging by how he has no sympathy for anyone and he didn’t even care that Jack was returned back to camp after the braithwates gave him to Brontë.
Strauss isn't confirmed to be the oldest member of the gang. It's either him, Uncle, or Hosea. We don't know the birth years of Uncle and Hosea so they could be older than Strauss. And in my opinion both Uncle and Hosea also look a little older than him, especially since in the WIki it says Hosea was most likely born around 1844.
The way I see it, I think Arthur was trying to save the man. See there's a conversation where Strauss says to Grimshaw that he's old and afraid and doesn't have any money or a place to go. Arthur kicks him out AND gives him money. See loansharking is bad for the gang but it's also bad for Strauss's soul. Notice too the first three targets in Money lending and other sins, there's Wobel, who's a relative innocent but the other two are a woman controlled by a greedy asshole boyfriend who's a joy to knock the fuck out and a cowpoke who and pay but don't want to. Strauss probably used to make loans to jackasses who probably had the means but were fools and naves, and thus easy marks for legal shakedowns. But with the deterioration of the gang after Blackwater, he's become more desperate and less choosey. If you're high honor, Arthur is trying to save Leopold the save way Pearson and Swanson are saved, by getting the hell out of dodge and using their skills in civilian pursuits. And of all of them Strauss has the most civilian ready skill set. He just needs the money to disappear and start over, which Arthur given him. The way he does it gives him cover, because he is very lucrative to the gang and Micah seems to be an unhinged dog at this point. I can't say for sure exactly as I'm still in chapter 2 and I keep looking running into this stuff in my feed as I look for guides and help for incredibly under documented mods. Luckily for me I don't mind spoilers.
If he knows who has to pay the debt after the original debtor dies then he should know, if it was part of his process, why the debtor needs the money in the first place. He can't just give out money without knowing the reason why so he probably met with the guy, quick small talk, and gave him the money with no other questions asked, either failing to notice his sickness, or disregarded it. Sure, Strauss could've avoided Arthur's fate, but then again from the video, does it look like he cared so long as he got paid back?
I think one of the reasons he doesn't care about others because he is only look out for the people that cared about him. *spoilers* in the epilogue we found out that he was loyal to the gang to the very end even to the ones that high tailed it when things went wrong not breathing a word about any of them even after Arthur kicked him out.
I feel like Strauss is a good example of the opposing factors of one's upbringing. Despite coming from a desperate situation and life himself, he grew up to be rather un-empathetic towards others of the same background. Psychological wise it is likely that he grew up seeing others like what his family were as weak, and chose to never be like that again. The opposite could be said of Mr. Downs, who despite his situation would give the shirt off his back to someone who needed it even if it were his last shirt.
Growing up so destitute could make you sympathetic or it could make you hungry for wealth. So hungry, in fact, that you lose sight of the fact you become the thing you hated most
All of the people blaming him for giving Arthur TB. Tuberculosis was the best thing that could have happened to Arthur. It allowed him a wake-up call to redeem himself and help as many people as he could before dying. People who would have died without his help. Otherwise he would have just been another goon loyal to Dutch, eventually gets killed due to Dutch. Or is eventually hunted down by the government like the other survivors of the gang. Arthur was doomed from the moment the blackwater ferry Job happened. They were all doomed. He was lucky enough to know he was going to he was dying soon so it gave him time to set things right before he did. People who act like he would have survived and lived a happy life without TB simply don't understand the story.
Strauss is honestly a shining example of all of Dutch’s hypocrisies. He always goes on about how horrible capitalism in America is and how they need to steal from the rich and give to the poor, meanwhile he keeps a loan sharking leach around who siphons income exclusively from the poor. I think in reality Dutch doesn’t care at all about the poor and has a similar philosophy to Micah with survival of the fittest. Throughout the entire franchise, Dutch is seen taking advantage of the weak for his benefit, so it makes sense that he and Strauss got along well
I still hate Leopold Strauss, he is the reason Arthur died, but I have to appreciate him for the fact that, Arthur gets sick, his views of life change, I’m sure if Arthur wasn’t sick, there was a slight chance he would have followed Dutch to the end as “loyalty” mattered until then, changing the storyline, but still Strauss is the reason why Arthur dies
Arthur could have avoided tb if he peacefully took money from thomas downes but if that doesnt change your opinion about him just remember strauss was tortured by pinkertons after leaving yet he didnt say a word a real G
@@mousestone5551True, Arthur was aggressive towards Mr. Downes. That's sort of his nature, being intimidating. If Downes couldn't pay in time, they could always reschedule another deadline date for the debt. Arthur was doing too much in my opinion. Mr.Downes was just sick, weak, and wanted to help people. He attempted a defense mechanism in a way for Arthur to back off.
speaking from experience as a warning to all: i once worked as a debt collectors, "helper", never borrow money from loansharks, we only need you alive to reclaim the debt that don't mean we need you in one piece, something to think about, a good healthy kidney goes for a lot of money
I like Strauss, he helped contribute the only way he really knew how, sure it was grimey work but so was everything the gang did, shit as Arthur you can swipe money out of the beggars pot. It's also worth noting that it was mentioned that Arthur didn't have a problem being his debt collector until later in the game
I genuinely dont care how loyal he was. He purposefully went after struggling people in poverty despite him having been there himself, knowing how hard it is. Regardless of what other people in the gang did, the main difference between them and Strauss is that Strauss went after innocent people, the gang normally got into it with not so innocent people (including law, morally if you're willing to kill someone you arent innocent.) He also instigated, sure Arthur would beat people for the money but he was sent there in the first place because of Strauss, Strauss would even tell him HOW to go about dealing with people, disclosing specificslly that Downes should he beaten, that he doesnt like his kind. If Strauss were as strong as Arthur, he'd be a worse murderer than Micah, hes just too old and frail.
