Why Does Big Smoke Betray CJ? The Real Reason, Was He Forced? Did He Regret It? GTA San Andreas Lore 

Thank you everyone for waiting so long for this. I am sorry it took so long to make. Thank you also to Rockstar for releasing the copyright claim on this video. Here are timestamps. If you enjoy this video please drop a like. It helps me make more content like this. 0:00 Intro 1:06 Big Smoke's Personality 3:47 Why Does Smoke Come Back In Reuniting The Families 5:50 Times When Smoke Questioned Sweet's Leadership 11:10 Big Smoke Shutting Ryder Up On CJ's Moms Murder 13:20 Big Smoke Refusing To Shoot The Ballas 14:15 What Big Smoke Is Really Saying 17:09 Why Smoke Shoots At The Ballas In Drive By 17:57 Smoke's Missions Aren't Grove Street Related 19:15 The Russian Mafia's Role 23:46 Smoke's Betrayal In Green Sabre 29:09 Tenpenny's Role 30:00 The Loco Syndicate's Role 32:25 Toreno's Role And The CIA 32:50 The Los Santos Crack Empire's Role 33:41 How Big Smoke Hid His Crack Money 41:40 Ryder's Role 42:12 Why Tenpenny Had Kane Killed 44:32 Why Tenpenny Caused The Police Raid 47:32 Why Ryder's Death Broke Smoke 50:18 Why Tenpenny Choose Smoke Not Sweet 53:55 Was Smoke Really Forced To Betray CJ? 1:00:55 Why CJ's Mom Was Killed 1:04:25 Why Tenpenny Killed Officer Pendlebury 1:08:25 Did Smoke And Ryder Know About CJ's Mom? 1:09:13 Why Was Smoke In CJ's House? 1:11:20 Why Smoke Used CJ 1:11:43 Did Smoke Regret Betraying CJ?

“Im from the streets. Everyone has a street in front of their house.” That killed me 😂😂😂

Personally, I always interpreted Smoke as the guy who got what he wanted only to realize later on what it cost him, but he kept moving forward because there was no going back.

Big smoke's betrayal might be the worst one in the series but at the end everyone really did remember his name

Lazlow calling OG Loc Ogg Lock is the funniest thing ever.😂😂😂

I feel bad that Ryder was carried into this mess by Smoke, probably Rockstar just wanted to humiliate the VA for leaving early and destroyed his character. You can see that he cares about the gang and acts like Sweet, calling CJ for his disloyalty and wanted to strengthen them by finding better guns for Emmet. At least they could’ve killed him at the ambush in Green Saber mission, give us a bigger reason to hate Smoke

Ryder's Voice actor said awhile ago he didn't quit and that he actually did all the lines that Rockstar gave him

Big Smoke didn't have any ounce of loyalty. To him it was all about the money, power, and fame as he said prior before his death when CJ murdered him - He was a very narcissistic character and two face. Big Smoke was responsible for the murder of Sweet's mum, when the Ballas sprayed the house, initially it was supposed to be Sweet but he wasn't in the house at the time ; this hit was orchestrated by Big Smoke as he gave the all clear for the assassination to unveil - another instance was when in the first mission the Ballas were purposely targeting the player (you) and also your brother (Sweet) not once did the Ballas target Big Smoke. Big Smoke has NO loyalty whatsoever - had relations with the Russian Mafia and did not inform the Grove about this, he was involved with CRASH and the Ballas - Smoke was ALWAYS out for himself, and saw things differently, we know about this at the ending when CJ, Sweet, and Kendl talked about Big Smoke. So overall Big Smoke was greedy and selfish. Had no regards for anybody - deep down he despised Officer Tenpenny and the CRASH unit as a whole but continued to work with them as he was reaping the benefits he was only purely out for money, none of his missions were related to the Grove ONLY for him and for his deals that he orchestrated such as the Vagos for example. Smoke will do anything to save himself even if it means screwing his friends and the people he works with.

Can't ever get tired of GTA lore videos. I could stay up all day watching them.

Man, his name is not The Professional for nothing… he’s the GOAT 🐐‼️ he inspired me to start my channel too!

Smoke chose chicken, knowing that the Ballas were gonna pull up on them at Cluckin' Bell. I also feel like he deliberately took a massive order to perfectly time the arrival of the Ballas

The way tenpenny disregarded Pulaski when he called him pal just show how little care and respect tenpenny has for him and people that work with him cj was right when he told pulaski that tenpenny is just going to kill him off considering he left him alone with cj and hernandez who almost jumped him but got shot giving cj a window to kill pulaski

As much as I hated Tenpenny, he did have a point, just because you've known someone for a long time, it don't mean they'll stay loyal to their friends. Todays friends could be your enemies tomorrow and I'd say that this game shows that quite well.

I wish Ryder's, Niko's, and Tommy's voice actor's never quit. Ryder and CJ would have teammed up together in the end, taking down all the Ballas and Vagos.

90 minutes of lore by the professional? What a treat

14:44 When CJ is driving Smoke back home, Smoke says "If you can eat your food while everybody else is losing theirs and blaming you, you straight, homie". This is a parody of the poem "If-" by Rudyard Kipling in which he writes "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you".

1 hour of GTA San Andreas lore content, sounds like heaven.

I knew something was up with Big Smoke after when I did the mission "Drive Thru" I kept asking "why wasn't he shooting?" I always suspected he was hidding something and now after watching this video I understand why he did it.

This game is 19 years old and Patrick is still teaching me things I didn’t know about.

T Bone preventing Toreno from shooting CJ only to threaten CJ as a joke in the next mission I think T-Bone was impressed and didn't want CJ dead for a minor character he is interesting and kind of terrifying

Why do you think that Big Smoke initially said to CJ, when they saw the SWAT teams ambush the Jefferson motel "Carl, get back in, we outta here baby!". Was Smoke thinking about getting CJ killed someplace else, or was he tinking about getting back to the hood and letting Sweet get killed and then making CJ the gang's new leader and trying to convince him to enter the drug business, like he wanted Sweet to do in the Introduction? Or was it just a developer oversight?

Personally I think that when smoke said “I had no choice” he didn’t meant that he was forced, he meant that his entire live he lived in poverty, without opportunity and barely scrapping by, he might be under boss of a gang… but the gang is extremely poor, sweet was happy how he was but smoke wasn’t willing to live his entire live like that. Even when he went to sweet in the introduction to convince him to deal in drugs he says “this is the biggest money making opportunity that guys like us will ever see” Basically, smoke choice was either to continue being poor for the rest of his life and watch how the gang he leads eventually fades, or get rich and leave his mark on the world. I think that smoke wanted sweet to be part of the operation, but tempenny knew that would end in failure, and he was right because sweet didn’t had interest in dealing in drugs. Tempenny simply wanted smoke to kill him and get it over with, but smoke would rather want to sweet to join in, so tempenny got more and more angry over his failure of killing sweet already. At least he got ryder on the conspiracy. I think smoke never tried to convince CJ because he wasn’t leader on the gang yet, he was just trying to get the respect back, so would be a waste of time to recruit him. Plus CJ shares the same anti drug mindset of his brother, so it would be imposible to convince him either, specially because he tries to gain the approval of sweet, so dealing in drugs was out of tue question for CJ.

34:41 still cracks me up to this day lmao, Lazlow calling OG Loc "OGLOCK" never gets old

Additionally, Hernandez is the only one who goes by the book during the traffic stops we see. Weapon drawn, in cover behind the police cruiser's door.

The theory on MC Eiht (Ryder's VA) is false He's still in good terms with Rockstar and he did helped make GTA V's theme song Also, I can only assume Rockstar just don't have that much lines for Ryder and only for the Pier mission

Smoke's suspicious traits already evident since the introduction

I'm not gonna lie, in the End of the Line cutscene when CJ sees smoke ranting on and on about "fuck the world", "I can't be touched" and even when CJ asks what happened to him and he just replies; " What the fuck do you care?" To me it seems like Smoke was still struggling betraying his gang and his family in the deepest part of his heart. I mean he was even crying and pleading with Tenpenny on the phone when he told him he had to kill Sweet, they grew up together. Yeah he wanted everything to go his way, but I personally think that at the end of the day, his betrayal not only affected his family but also his moral standards as well. So he was probably hurt. It doesn't change what he did, but to me it just seems like he became part of the system, another statistic.

I played San Andreas multiple times to understand Big Smoke’s betrayal, but there are some parts that confuses me and luckily I finally understand it thanks to your lore video. You’re amazing, Pro!!!

“Everybody blast fools first and ask questions second.” That line somehow is more dark today then it was when the game released

1:11:20 I knew about this about Big Smoke throwing his bat at the photo frame that this looks disrespectful. By the way, if you're still wondering about why CJ returns working for Tenpenny after Toreno got his problems under control. I'm pretty sure CJ was planning to get rid of Pulaski before he can kill Tenpenny sooner because the way how he said in the final mission "so was it like, Tenpenny? All alone. Nobody got your back. Sucks, huh?". That's my theory about it.

One lil detail I like is how CJ questions attacking the Ballas at the funeral. He doesn't straight up protest the idea but it's clear he doesn't like it. He has principles, even when it comes to his enemies. At least that's how I interpreted it.

Your San Andreas lore videos are literally what a San Andreas Stories game could've been had it ever happened. We got LC Stories and even VC Stories but never San Andreas. A prequel to San Andreas would've been dope. It could've touched upon how the feud between Grove Street and the Ballas began, CJ's first interactions with CRASH and possibly end with CJ leaving for Liberty City after Brian's death.

Sweet in some way is similar to Lamar from GTA 5. Both have this mentality "you grow up in the hood you die in the hood". Both give CJ and Franklin a lot of crap only difference is that Franklin actually calls Lamar out on his crap. Both value loyalty like Lamar may be an idiot but he's not selfish he's not a traitor he has your back throughout and Sweet may be a pain in the neck at times but he's trustworthy and he's not easily corrupted. When it comes to GTA characters that are trustworthy Sweet and Lamar are on that list.

Hey Patrick, just wanted to thank you for the effort you go for your Lore videos, playthroughts etc. Your channel (in my opinion) is like a classic channel, one that you appreciate due to the honesty of it and its creator. Take care buddy and have a great day.

Another observation about the “Drive Thru” mission. Everybody loves Big Smokes truly iconic, hilarious and legendary food order, but in hindsight I see it as a foreshadowing of Big Smokes deeper issues. That cutscene was symbolic of how Big Smoke was spending his life trying to fill a hole that had NO bottom. He attempted to fill that void with money, power, fame, “success”, or as we could see, food, but to no avail. In the end, all that food, money, fame, power and “success” led to his demise. The Big Smoke character (and San Andreas story in general) is the timeless cautionary tale about how if a man leaves his sinful desires and passions unchecked, it will wreak loss, sorrow, emptiness and eventual ruin on his life. This is in contrast to CJ, who was able to achieve what Big Smoke sought by committing to (at least in the realm of criminals) family, honor, principles, respect and hard work. This is what makes San Andreas in my opinion the best GTA of all time, and one of my personal favorite video games of all time.

What about at the end where smoke says " look at you, you got the whole world. I ain't got no regrets." Does this not mean that smoke had in some way knew what cj had been up to?

And also kind of another similar thing too is that when Smoke gets extremely paranoid and making Kendal a target, that was also similar to Salvatore and his paranoia when he almost had Toni killed in the cutscene Driving Mr. Leone and in gta 3 when he tried to have Claude killed even though he was never a threat at all.

Small tip for knowing then someone is about to betray you in real life. If they are suddenly starting to be disrepectful and questioning you. Especially if it happens in a tough situation you could sense that someone is going to betray you and leave you to die.

Big Smoke always had a greedy reason to betray CJ. Even if Tenpenny is not in the picture, he would still do it for power, let alone find any chance of ruling Los Santos

Smoke had Kendl be a target too because she was a loose end. Simple as that. She was always going to be in contact with her brothers. Smoke couldn't risk anything.

“Ohg Lock”😂😂 that radio interview always kills me 😭😭😭

You picked the right lore video, scholar!

I will never understand why Ryder is almost entirely ignored during the topic of Smoke's betrayal. Like why did he become an unimportant character all of a sudden? Also, Professional, Ryder's voice actor didn't really have any disputes with Rockstar. He was most likely just simply busier with music and Rockstar just simply had no idea what the character's future role should be since he would have no further dialogue.

It is also hinted at multiple times especially in the beginning that big smoke killed cjs mom for example when cj entered his family home after coming to Grove for this first time in years,Smoke was in the kitchen doing lord knows what,And when he told cj to go meet with the family at the cemetery,he throws his bat on cj's mother portrait in which Rockstar hints early on big smoke would betray Cj and possibly killed his mom.Also multiple times early on during the game whenever cj tried asking sweet about what happened to his mom and smoke was with them,he always tried to change the subject.

Frank Tenpenny does enjoy being rough on the gangsters in Los Santos. He knows he can directly confront them knowing they cant do anything back at him. For Dimtri, he seemed to avoid any direct confrontation with Niko after his betrayal of Niko.

Next you should do a lore video about Brian Johnson, CJ's dead brother explaining how he died

Another thing about the Ballas drive by on the Grove Street OG’s is that Big Smoke may have been buying time for the Ballas with the long order to roll up on them because they were out in a corner spot and totally exposed to the street where they could’ve been easily killed.

Smoke talking about his success in the drug trade shows he has no remorse at all. Now, I want to give my analysis on a major SA character. Anyone who enjoyed my analysis, please drop a like so that even Pro sees this himself. I think I am the only commentator who has ever done a lore analysis, I hope everyone sees it including Pro. I had to play the game 3 times and watch the cutscenes and conversations very carefully to understand his intentions. So, my analysis is focused on Ryder, one of CJ's childhood friends who he ends up betraying(or so it seems). I will be explaining what I mean about this, through the questions that a lot of people ask like: Ryder was never meant to be a main villain, other people support this claim by saying there are no hidden signs that he would backstab GSF, whereas other people contradict it by saying there are. After playing through the game, I've found out the things which look like hidden signs aren't actually so. So I am going answer all the misconceptions about Ryder. So let's get started: Ryder was born somewhere in 1967 or 1968 in Ganton at Grove Street. During his early days, he met CJ, Sweet, Big Smoke and Jeffrey(OG Loc), and they became the best of friends. Ryder joined the Families gang at some point and became a drug dealer when he was 10 years old. He had once assaulted a teacher for wearing purple, the color representing Ballas, GSF's main rivals, which shows his wild and unpredictable nature, even though he claims he was too intelligent for it, as he was using drugs, which shows he was also delusional at times. Speaking of drugs, we see that in Ryder's missions: we see him looking for something called "water". Many people are wondering what water is. The water here, is a slang term used for the drug PCP, which shows he has also been using drugs apart from selling it. Many people think that GSF do not sell drugs, which is actually false. They do sell drugs which are less lethal, like marijuana and PCP. But they don't profit much from it, and even Big Smoke tries to convince Sweet to start selling more potent drugs, like crack cocaine, which the Ballas do. But Sweet's morals prevents him from doing so, as he believes crack destroys neighborhoods, which he is right. Ryder eventually worked his way up in the gang and become one of Sweet's closest allies. By 1987, the crack influence in Los Santos had increased and GSF stated to decline, whereas the Ballas and a new gang, the Vagos, got rich from selling crack. CJ and Sweet's younger brother, Brian died in a Ballas attack. While it is unknown how he died, the only thing known was he was seen last with CJ. Sweet blamed CJ for Brian's death, and a disappointed CJ leaves Los Santos to start a new life in Liberty City. At some point between 1987 and 1992, Big Smoke tries to convince Sweet to start selling crack, but he refuses again, which is noticed by Tenpenny, the head of a corrupt police force called CRASH, who wanted to open a massive drug ring in Los Santos, but to do so, he needed the help of all three street gangs: Ballas, Vagos and the GSF. Since Tenpenny knew Sweet was against crack, he convinces Smoke to get GSF into the crack business after he gets Sweet killed, which Smoke agrees to, as he was the underboss. After this, Smoke visits Ryder, whom he tries to convince to join the crack trade with him. Ryder seemingly agrees to it, but I don't think he was actually ready to do so, because he utterly despised crack, which he confirms, after they fail to recruit B Dup. But eventually, Tenpenny sends three Ballas to Grove Strret in a green sabre to do a drive-by and kill Sweet. But they end up killing his mother, thus triggering Carl's return to Los Santos. After he returns to Grove Street, it is seen that Ryder isn't exactly happy with his return, as he had left the place without informing any of them., and would often display this act of hostility. People wonder why was Ryder so mean to CJ? It was because he was angry at CJ for abandoning Grove Street. If you noticed, this is the exact same attitude Sweet had with CJ early on. The only person who didn't care was Smoke, because he wanted CJ to stay out of Los Santos, so that he could take over GSF easily. You guys see my point? Both Sweet and Ryder were acting like this towards CJ because they were mad at him, because he left them when GSF needed him the most, but they eventually grew to respect CJ again. And at times, Ryder did throw insults at CJ and teased him for his driving, but it was all meant in fun, despite what people think. And on top of that, I've noticed that CJ likes being with Ryder more than anyone else. He just coudn't stand Ryder's drug habit. So now that we have Ryder's entire backstory and character explained, I will now come to the main point that a lot of people say that he was never meant to betray CJ and Sweet, and yes, despite seemingly doing so, he never betrayed GSF, because of many reasons. Many people say that just like Big Smoke, there are signs that Ryder would betray CJ, something which I firmly disagree. So let's get started on the roots of his betrayal: There are several seemingly hidden signs. Let's look at these and I will explain how these aren't actually hidden signs. So starting off with: 1)False proof of his betrayal:Now I will go to the main reason. No one mentioned Ryder during his betrayal scene. No one. It was like he was invisible. During the green sabre mission, after going to the intersection, he mentions Smoke conspiring with CRASH and Ballas, but doesn't mention Ryder. It's like Sweet didn't even know Ryder betrayed the crew. During King in Exile cutscene, the trio talk about Smoke, Tenpenny and Pulaski but not Ryder. Another proof of mine that Ryder didn't betray anyone was of a few reasons: i)Ryder lives in Grove Street, whereas Big Smoke lives in Idlewood ii)Ryder attended Beverly Johnson's funeral, whereas Big Smoke did not iii)During Drive Thru, Ryder also shares his knowledge of the presence of a green sabre during Beverly's murder, but Smoke tries to avoid the conversation. Also when the Ballas drive towards Grove Street in the same mission, CJ,Sweet and Ryder open fire at them, whereas Smoke does not. Ryder also gets confused and angry on why Smoke didn't shoot the Ballas. iv)All of Ryder's missions benefitted Grove Street, whereas Smoke's missions did not CJ, unfortunately, didn't give Ryder a chance to explain himself and killed him immediately, whereas for Big Smoke, he gave him plenty of time to explain why he betrayed Grove Street. 2)His aggressive behavior: It's just like I said in my character explanation, he was hostile towards CJ because he was mad at him for leaving Grove Street, but grew to respect him again 3)Ryder running away: When you wake the army veteran in Robbing Uncle Sam and when the cops invade the motel, he runs away. People consider this a sign of betrayal, but it's not. The reason he ran away was because was paranoid of the situations. During Reuniting the Families, he simply didn't trust the other sets, because they were hostile towards GSF when CJ was in Liberty City. The other sets were allies of the Ballas, and they would get drugs from Ballas. He was also scared of the heat they were getting in both the situations, that's why he runs away. 4)In House Party:During the mission House Party, the Ballas launch an attack on Grove Street, in retaliation for capturing Glen Park. Ryder says he will come with backup, but he never returns. Pro said this is a sign of betrayal, but I disagree, because who says he didn't return? I had to think about this very carefully. Ryder probably did return with backup, but just after the fight was over, because if he never returned, Sweet and CJ would question him where he disappeared? 5)Cesar's mention of Ryder: After CJ kills Ryder in the mission Pier 69, he was in a complete wrecked state for killing Ryder and was full of regret. And that's when Cesar tells him that Ryder once tried to bang Kendl. This is also a false sign, because Cesar was lying about Ryder to make Carl better, that's all. He didn't want CJ to think about Ryder anymore, because they already had a lot of other things to worry about. Think about it, if Ryder really did try to mess with Kendl, do you really think Sweet or Cesar would just ignore that? Ryder would have been dead immediately, we have all seen how overprotective Sweet is, just like how Tony Montana is overprotective of his sister Gina. The sad thing is this is the last time we ever hear about Ryder in the story, after this he vanishes from everyone's memory in the game. A lot of people are wondering to this day: why Ryder became an antagonist later when he wasn't supposed to betray anyone? That is an answer only Ryder's voice actor and Rockstar knows. Something must have gone bad between MC Eiht(Ryder's voice actor) and Rockstar, but what? Like I said, we will never know. They had an issue like this with Ray Liotta and Michael Hollick(voice actors of Tommy Vercetti and Niko Bellic, respectively), because they got underpaid. That's probably what ended up happening with MC Eiht, so he left the job and Rockstar returns the favor by killing his character. And finally I state my theory on how Ryder's character should have ended: During the Green Sabre mission, Ryder should have accompanied CJ to witness Big Smoke's betrayal, then both should have gone to help Sweet and Ryder dies in the crossfire. Like that, even though he dies, it would look like he gave his life for the Grove, which he actually did. That's how his character should have ended, in my opinion. He was a good character who went out as a traitor, thanks to bad writing. But I hope everyone enjoyed this character analysis. I wanted to make this because a lot of people didn't understand Ryder and his intentions for the Grove. I hope this explained everything and cleared all the misconceptions.

Now I firmly believe that Smoke was in the house waiting for Sweet so he could kill him and Blame it on CJ but CJ got there first.

Amazing video. You really broke down his character. When I played the game for the first time, I was young and naive, so I just thought Tennpenny forced him to do it because he was originally on our side, was nice to us, and the memes online at the time. But playing through the game more times, I realized more and more that he did it for himself. And your video made me realize what a terrible person he was. He sold his old friends out to get rich, powerful, and famous by destroying the hood through crack and joining the Ballas. He looked out for himself, had no loyalty or respect to anyone besides himself, and used people for his own personal gain, like he did to Ryder and tried to do to CJ. And the fact hints were spread out from the very beginning and are easy for players to miss if they don’t break it down was an incredible detail the devs put in.

Always hated when Sweet tells Carl it's not his business to get involved in Kendl's love life, yet he tells her (basically) to break up with Cesar because they (Families and Los Aztecas) are beefing. If it ain't CJ's business, it sure ain't Sweet's business either I do see his way though, CJ has been gone a long time and wants to intervene. To which Sweet kinda says his opinion isn't worth anything.

Aside from GTA 6, Rockstar needs to put out San Andreas Stories, where we play as Brian and see his perspective of Grove Street Families and who Beverly Johnson really was. All of the years when CJ was in Liberty City to see what Brian was like, how he did things, and the events that led up to his death along with his mother.

Big smoke busted the picture frame of momma Johnson in CJ's house by dropping the baseball bat on it, on purpose. That is when I knew Smoke was a traitor

Ryder is always my favorite character mostly because his is mostly base of Eazy-e and one of my favorites mission cutscenes is when Ryder is chilling in his back yard listening to ice cube -today is a good day.

One question I've always had is who was leader of the Ballas before Smoke switched sides?, I've never understood how they allowed Smoke to become their boss when he was one of the leaders of the Ballas rivals before Crash got in the picture

46:10 CJ smacking that Grove Street member down inadvertently actually kept him from getting shot and shooting over that desk, perfect cover

Respect for how he put hours and hours just for us to enjoy! I hope you reach 10 million!

Perfect lore video man! It makes someone appreciate the story in this game even more.

Here's some thing I read which is beta during the final part of the story, that helped me understand. To begin, after Ryder's death Smoke did cut everybody off including B-Dup, so that CJ never regretted sparing him. But he rejoined to Big Bear, key to helping in the search, who told CJ to go interrogate some Russian Mob gangster after taking over a bunch of turfs. So he did, and It's implied that gangster then told Smoke that CJ was looking for him because of Smoke's line "i knew you were coming". Smoke never planned to kill or confront Carl directly, but his actions screwed him among others up for good. Plus, he was able to get the Johnson brothers to Tenpenny which is who they wanted in the first place. Prior to all that, Smoke never told CJ what he told Ryder in the intro because CJ is the brother of target GSF leader Sweet.

The lore videos keep getting better and better! Keep at my dude you deserve it

This video was just great. I never thought about how Ryder's death affected Smoke but it makes sense. It shows that Ryder's death had consequences long after he was killed. Smoke was a very manipulative character. I agree with you that he didn't regret his betrayal - he coulda stopped while he was ahead and tried somehow to redeem himself or say that he is sorry to Carl. But did not, and only cared about his legacy. Sweet may be rude, but I agree with you, he's a great character and is extermely underrated. Sweet has this truth in the face mentality - sometimes he can be a jerk but other times he expresses how he feels. He didn't want the Johnsons to abandon their home to ruin while their friends did the same. This is why he was disgusted with CJ. He felt that Carl had an obligation to the hood. And in my view, he was right, as Carl was a Grove member like Sweet, and everything they've suffered would be for nothing if they abandoned it. Their friends' demise will be in vain. CJ, in the end, showed remorse for his actions because he was hurt over Smoke's betrayal, but realized he was an opportunistic scumbag. I think Smoke is a great character, but at the same time, I think his betrayal, as well as Ryder's because they shared an equal rule in Smoke's actions, are the worst in the GTA Series. Dimitri was never Niko's friend like you said. And on top of that, Smoke and Ryder were CJ and Sweet's friends since they were kids. Also, I think Tenpenny and Smoke wanted to weaken the Russian Mafia because they could demand more money. They were still a key part of the operation. They couldn't afford to have an organized crime syndicate potentially taking over their business. Also, Kane is likely one of the Ballas involved in Beverly's death. It's possible that Tenpenny feared that if he was caught, he would have betrayed him and told Sweet of Tenpenny and Smoke's plans. Also, Little Weseal was likely convinced by Tenpenny to betray the gang. Also, I sort of doubt that Tenpenny has set up the Families. Tenpenny likely planned to use Carl against the case members early on, as he knew that it was being built because Pendelbury was threating to talk. This is why C.R.A.S.H underwent this huge journey across San Andreas, to keep moving. They are mentioned to have disappeared during a WCTR news broadcast as of Meat Business, so they were on the run. My guess is that the police were onto the Families and wanted to stop them, or the ambush was set up by Smoke ratting out the gang. It's possible that apart from being disgraced for abandoning his friends, that Tenpenny wanted to ensure the Johnsons' survival so that they'd use Sweet as leverage over Carl and could use Carl as a hitman or as a hired gun for everything they need because he'd be at no position to turn against them. I sort of expected a Ryder Lore Video but this was a great video nonetheless. I actually didn't expect this.

I always look forward to your lore videos because they are informative as always

Truth's line "That is the surest path to hell, man." describes really well my opinion about Big Smoke's greed and selfishness. He will for sure will get a deep hole in hell....

These lore videos are very helpful and give me a lot of information that I didn't even know about. Thank you Pro, for giving us your amazing lore videos and keep up the good work.

17:43 I think Drive-By with Smoke was a developer oversight. Smoke had no dialogue during the mission at all, only in the end, and even then, the line could've been used for anything. They probably just put Big Smoke there, and either meant for there to be more dialogue with smoke, but didn't record it, or the mission would only be with Ryder and Sweet, but added smoke sometime later in development either way.

This channel is a gift that keeps on giving. Top work as always Pro ❤

57:51 I know I’m 6 months late but I just wanted to say I do appreciate your use of cutscenes to reinforce your statements . It’s a great way for the average viewer to understand your points and to understand the characters you are analyzing . Keep up the great work 👍🏾

Big Smoke was very selfish and oportunistic to a point of using his own cheerful personality as a cover, as CJ mentions that even before the events of the game he "always talked shit", which hints at his betrayal but also let it slide that he somewhat regrets what he did to his friends and gang. Ryder felt like he wrote off to become an antagonist, because he didn't had any hints of becoming one: his missions always involve helping the Families directly and he scorn Big Smoke during the Los Santos missions. His jealously of CJ was more because a mix of reckless personality and drug use.

Smoke also keeps saying the word "choice" Like, he's trying to excuse it to everyone (probably including himself) by saying he had no choice

Great video! It’s amazing how deep the relationships between the San Andreas characters go

I always love seeing these lore videos

Dude the time and effort you put in these videos is perfect Id hope somewhere down the line rockstar sees all the support you’ve given them and have you apart of it

Broski I can't get enough of your lore videos. No matter how long I am watching

I always belived that Smoke was wearing a wire microphone under his shirt when Sweet was telling everyone in his house where the meeting was at

Everyone needs a friend like ceser vialpendo.

Main reason I subscribed: The lore videos. YOU EXPLAIN THE LORE SO WELL! You made me understand stuff about Smoke's betrayal I never knew about! Great video, man. Keep up the good work on all of your content.

in reality when you join a gang they say we will have your back but once you get taken down or arrested they don't have your back and say "I never seen this person before in my life" screwing your over

This is amazing this is why professional is the GOAT of lore videos and gaming commentary ❤

Yet another great lore video by the professional. Thank you very much for making these!

I think it would have been better if Ryder died in the Ballas Ambush instead of being a traitor.

the poetry that smo0ke reads is actually from a poem named 'If' written by rudyard kipling, the original line is "If u can keep ur head when all about u is losing theirs and blaming it on u" really funny taht rockstar hid this

San Andreas was a masterpiece. Big Smoke was an amazing villain and Samuel L Jackson is a national treasure

Didn’t know Ben Shapiro knew all this about GTA SA

Everytime i watch professional lore videos I understand way more than when I am playing the game.Good job professional keep up with the great work love u

After all of that time waiting for this video. Worth the wait. Great work Pro

Love your lore videos

these videos you been pushing out have been amazing!!! really keep up the good work all these vids should 1M+! i replayed san andreas a dillion times and still never noticed the things you went on in the video! props

You worked hard on putting this altogether! I’d say it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played but you helped me specify the story with lotta interest! I liked how you explain each evidence and theory that could make sense, not just us understanding the games story by playing it mission by mission. You are appreciated bro 💯

I love these videos professional please don’t stop making them !!!

That was an awesome watch, thank you! Just realised how good and serious the GTA SA story is. Didnt remember it like this when I played it as a kid

It's super refreshing to have all the slip ups instead of every other youtuber editing it out

I love hearing you do lore in these games.

Hour and a half of lore? Getting my coffee and biscuits!

Incredible Work Professional you're Lore Videos are always absolutely Amazing👍👍👍

I don't go to parties, I don't drink, I don't do drugs. Instead I watch Professional's epic lore videos 😎😎

Just began another playthrough of San andreas last week so this came at the perfect time! Thank you for your content and effort Pro

In my opinion when smoke said "You picked the wrong house fool" I thought that maybe he had thought the thugs he hired realized they messed up and were trying to meet with him which is why he said that because they shot up the wrong house it also explains why he used a bat and not a gun as he wanted to teach them a lesson

I love your lore videos. You make me appreciate these games so much more

When big smoke says why he moved out of grove street , he is referring to his aunt . But we all know that he was referring to him staying next to ballas

Awesome job on this video mate. Cant wait for the next gta lore video!