Why Does Dimitri Betray Niko?, The Real Reason- GTA 4 Lore And Character Analysis 

"What was in Dimitri's head?" In the beginning? Selfish desires. In the end? A bullet.

The guy who seemed unstabled and did lots of drugs and treated his wife badly was a better person then the guy who seemed stabled. Dmitri should have played by the rules when he betrayed Niko.

it's simple... 1. Niko has no value for Dimitri (after he used him to kill Fuastin) 2. Dimitri needs to play nice with Bulgarin since Bulgarin do have a lot a business value (they both took part in the big Heroin deal at the end of the story, TBoGT ending show it clearly) This would also explain why he tries to impress Bulgarin by being more proactive in killing Niko. 3. at some point Dimitri just have to tie the loose end (which is Niko) from fear of Niko hunting him down (Dimitri had no way of Knowing/trusting that Niko will let him live after trying to kill Niko several times burning down Roman's house and cab depot, kidnapping Roman and more) ALSO... who TF thought that he just goes crazy 03:14 ???? if you call Dimitri on the way to Bohan (Final Destination) Niko will ask Dimitri if he should kill Petrovic's son, and Dimitri doesn't stop him... Dimitri clearly already planned to kill Faustin and make Niko the fall guy.

Dimitri’s death leading to Jimmy killing Kate shows that Dimitri is still a powerful and influential antagonist even after death.

lets have a moment to appreciate Dimitri's fantastic voice acting

This game's story is something else. Still unbeaten.

I notice in the revenge ending Dimitri wasn’t prepared or expected Niko to come to the Platypus. Once he sees that Niko eliminates all his men, he first tries to threaten Niko but at this point Niko doesn’t care or isn’t afraid of him. It’s not surprising that he got desperate and begs for mercy when he realizes that Niko can’t be negotiated or intimated by his connections. Dimitri and Devin Weston are similar is that they both like to use people for their dirty work and think they are untouchable. Once they are in a situation where they are cornered and powerless by someone who can’t be bought or negotiated, they go down like cowards.

Dimitri was one of the best twist villains in GTA history tbh. He's so manipulative. He shows himself as an alright guy at first... then he just... sells Niko out. Man, GTA 4 was realistic and felt like a crime boss movie.

When this game used to be story telling and dark and actually detailed and not flying bikes and money simulator🙁

The amount of research into the definition of psychopath and their actual traits vs the Hollywood version is amazing, thanks the professional

The most remarkable thing about Dimitri isn't that he tricked and betrayed Niko several times, but he also tricked The Player; me, and thousands of others more

Dimitri says he laughed when he heard Roman died as Niko chases him in the deal ending. Definitely a psychopath

Dimitri didn't have the tatoo in his palms, only Faustin had that. Maybe that's also a sign. Also in the cutscene of 'No love Lost' Faustin was looking for Dimitri, but the guard said Dimitri is out and busy with something. I believe he had a meeting with Bulgarin or Petrovic behind Faustin's back and they planned Faustin's murder and the takeover of his business.

Man, I know that Faustin was a wife abusing, faithless and psycho douchebag, but he's one of Niko's few bosses that truly was loyal to him and respected his work, not to mention that he wasn't even planning to have Niko killed like Dimitri said. Another thing that made Dimitri one of the best antagonists in the series is because he's realistic and not exaggerated like the typical Hollywood bad guys, in a way that someone like him can exist in real life. Deceiving, friendly at first, calm and in the end, turns out to be a venomous snake with a burning grudge for his ex friend that he used and to completely ruin their life no matter what.

I'm not sure if anyone else has pointed it out but while playing I actually found something that is a clever clue to Dimitri's betrayal of Faustin (and by extension his real role.) So, we know that when you aim your weapon at an enemy, the life bars in the circle are red. And for pedestrians or friends, they are green. Well in the mission where you kill Faustin, there is something interesting when you get to the execution. When you aim your reticle on him, the outer circle is blinking red, indicating you can perform an execution. But unlike other executable characters, the life bars inside the circle are GREEN. Very weird that they are green when this is supposed to be a dangerous and powerful enemy we are killing. But the green is actually the last hint you get to Dimitri's betrayal of Faustin, indicating that he is actually innocent / not an enemy in this situation. This is then immediately followed by his betrayal of you. When I saw this little detail I was fascinated and just had to tell someone. The attention to detail in this game is insane.

The reason why Dimitri is such a great antagonist is because of how realism behind his character, shit like this can happen in the real world and that's a scary thought to have in the back in your mind there someone in your social group that pretends to care for you but when your use is done they'll stab you in the back or watch you suffer in their gratification what's even scarier is never knowing who was the one who betrayed you.

Dimitri is an opportunist, manipulator, greedy, which makes him downright dangerous. If he thinks betraying you will help him get ahead in the game, he will do it. Such people like him exist in real life unfortunately. They are not to be trusted.

How about Johnny Klebittz analysis? This is arguably one of the most tragic character in the whole GTA series. Always torn apart by his sick moral code, loyalty to the MC he can't save despite doing his best, being manipulated, bullying by Billy and constantly pushing away true feelings for woman, which does not deserve his affection at the first place. That's definitely a story worth to sink your teeth in.

I wish both Dimitri and Big Smoke had more time as antagonists, especially Dimitri. Introducing a pure, high level psychopath in a generally cartoony/exaggerated world like GTA is fascinating.

1:02:56 Dimitri: *dies* RU-vid subtitles: [Music] Me: yep, bullets killing Dimitri sounds amazing.

The day when Single player matter.. those were the days

Dimitri is the best villain in all of GTA. He has a good backstory, his betrayal is good, his death is amazing (both ways) and he has his ways of trying to kill Niko and his friends and family

the way the saying goes: Psychopaths are born, sociopaths are made.

What a shame that Dan Houser left, no way we're getting characters like these in future games.

Video recommendation: why Little Jacob is definitely Niko's best friend, over Brucie, Packie, and Dwayne

Ah yes the long lore videos with full detail made by THE PROFESSIONAL the time i waited was worth it

I think Faustian saying, “I can see through you” is telling you because Faustian can see his death coming, but loves Dimitri and doesn’t think it through for more than a second.

Characters like Dimitri are what made GTA IV's story the best out of any Grand Theft Auto game, in my opinion. The depth and personality they gave each character is just mind blowing. Truly, a piece of art.

I wish Niko kept his promise he made to Dimitri after he left him that voice mail on his way to rescue Roman. I get it would have been graphic but I would have loved to see Dimitris face over a mantle in the Alderney or Bohan safehouse in both endings w/ a knife stuck in place in his head.

It low-key annoys me how it took so long for GTA IV to be appreciated, the more mature, realistic and grounded story is very well done. Dmitri and his suit, skinny frame, civilised, rational, 4 eyed appearance makes it harder to detect malice and threat, especially compared to stereotypical/ traditional ideas of a career criminal, but this is exactly how psychopaths thrive; disguises. I never appreciated how much of an antagonist he was playing GTA IV the first time.

Claude would be more of a psychopath than Trevor by definition. He betrayed Asuka and killed her brother Kenji which she never knew and he pretended to still be her friend. He also might’ve killed Maria at the end.

I've always been impressed by how the writers of the game introduce Dimitri as this calm level headed man who essentially comes off as Faustins bitch and has the player thinking "oh he's harmless and probably not someone to worry about".... I genuinely thought that after you kill Faustin, Dimitri just pays you off and disappears from the story never to be seen again or he falls back into a minor role. So for him to do a complete 180 and reveal himself to be this maniacal, despicable and evil character who you grow to genuinely hate as the game progresses was absolutely brilliant. Top tier writing and excellent storytelling by the writers of the game. The game doesn't get enough credit for giving us THE MOST hated GTA antagonist in the entire series. I applaud the writers of the game👏👏🏽

difference between sociopath and psychopaths sociopaths: shows that they don't care psychopath: pretends to care

I always wondered how Niko would react if he found out Luis killed Ray Bulgarin

There are only 3x times Dimitri takes pleasure in Niko's suffering: when Dimitri betrays Niko; when Dimitri abducts Roman; when Dimitri blackmails Florian. The "deal" never happens. Niko is too much set in a moral code and in love with Kate to sell himself out for "money" and lose her (and he loses her anyway to the Pegorinos but that's not his fault) and is itching to kill Dimitri for his own satisfaction, his loved ones' safety, and self-preservation. The long-overdue revenge happens on the ship. Roman's LifeInVader is still active in 2013.

In that one scene, you can see how Faustin views Dimitri vs How Dimitri sees him. Faustin says "I fucking love you" and Dimitri responds "I know this". There's no warmth, no appreciation, no reciprocity. It's someone giving all their emotion and another giving the bare minimum. It makes Dimitri's lie about protecting Niko even worse, since you mentioned how he swapped places in the conversation. "-a friend like you is useful". Appreciation and loyalty are what Faustin likes, but when Dimitri heard Niko could be "useful" he agreed. Niko was so useful, he got him to kill the 'brother' standing in his way. Unfortunately for Dimitri, Niko was too capable for him.

Damn, you just released a whole movie

Yep. Dimitri has no morals. He has no honor. He has no conscience or empathy for anyone. People want to say Trevor is a psychopath and the most effed up character in the series. Trevor values honor. He never betrayed anyone. Even Michael who betrayed him. He still cared about him despite his anger towards him and wants nothing to do with Franklin after he kills him because he killed his best friend, and because Franklin betrayed him. He genuinely loves Patricia and I think it shown Trevor to have a sweet side to him. And even though he hates Michael and despises Amanda he cares for Jimmy and Tracy as if they were his own children and they love him as well. He promised when they were babies that he would always protect them. Yeah, he's criminally insane but he has a heart. If Trevor ever met Dimitri and knew about all the people he's betrayed Trevor would likely disembowel him and strangle him with his own entrails.

Trevor, although being extremely brutal with his murders and such (eg. Johnny Klebitz in Mr Phillips) he still showed empathy towards characters (eg. Tracy in Fame or Shame “That girl sat on my lap when she was 2 years old and I swore to god I would kill anyone who ******* wronged her”).

Dimitri embodies the entire GTA Series. All the games have one main story plot. Betrayel.

In a removed phonecall, Faustin tells Niko that Petrovic is not to be worried about

Faustin to me always came off as a man who knew he was being betrayed

I truly delight in the terror in Dimitri's voice while begging for his life. That execution is one of the most satisfying in the game. He acted like he was untouchable until he wasn't, then you see him for what he truly is. A pathetic, backstabbing, sniveling coward who can't take what he dishes out. A fitting end for such a irredeemable character. It makes so much sense that he's most likely a clinical psychopath. He calls and taunts/threatens Niko several times throughout the story and tries to have him killed several times. Then when his bodyguards are all dead at the hands of Niko, he starts pleading like a sniveling coward. Psychopaths usually have no true fear, but the one thing they DO fear is consequences. An example is Ted Bundy in the days he was to be executed. He sobbed the night before his execution, but I guarantee it wasn't for his victims or for remorse of any kind but rather the fact that the next day, he is about to pay the ultimate consequence for his actions. Apparently on his final walk to the chair, his knees buckled and the guards had to carry him by his arms the last few steps and place him in the chair. Ted Bundy had no qualms about brutally murdering and defiling dozens of innocent young women but when it was his turn to die, he wasn't ready and was terrified. Another is Charles Manson. When he originally got the death penalty, he was actually quite shook. He didn't want to die. But when California changed the capital punishment laws and his sentence got commuted to life, Charles was thrilled. He LOVED prison. He spent almost his whole life in prison, it's where he is most comfortable. In a way, he got away with what he did since prison isn't REALLY a punishment for him. Getting executed on the other hand, definitely is. A great video, Professional! I really hope you make more GTA IV related lore videos. Such a great game.

Honestly wouldn't surprise me if Dimitri PURPOSEFULLY went asking about Niko's past, and found out about Bulgarin and set all this up so Niko would die, it just seems like he enjoyed all this too much and had some sort of satisfaction about his master plan coming together.

his name has Rascal in it. it shouldve been expected that he'd be a traitor.

Something that police interrogators can notice to determine a liar is the length and detail of someone's story. Truthful stories are usually succinct, only what is necessary. Meanwhile lies are usually complex, full of details that don't actually have to do with the focus of the story. When Dimitri tells stories he always puts in extra details that endear him to Niko and us, but show that he's a liar to a trained ear.

There's good, there’s evil, then there’s Dimitri Rascalov.

Man I must admit, when it comes to GTA lore and story - you seem like The Professional

Take a drink every time Professional says "Psychopath"

Dimitri taking pleasure from other people's misfortune is actually showing a specific feeling, schadenfreude.

I can feel your anger when talking about Dmitiri and I can’t blame you. After all the worst thing about betrayal is it doesn’t come from the enemy.

This lesson about psychopaths is way better than the one that I had in school

Now I'd rather keep my normal life and not get all sucked up and twisted in the criminal underworld. But if i had to choose an Mafia to work for, it'd definitely be Faustin's or Woozie's from GTA:SA

I didn't notice how "dark" was Dimitri..

34:45 there's a hint that I just remembered that proves that Dimitri was lying and wanted Niko and Roman dead. After being kidnapped by Faustin's goon when Niko wakes up in the basement Dimitri literally slapped him hard which shows how much angry he is and how much alive he wants Niko to be.

One more hint during the “killing lenny convo” Dimitri mentions the cops know they stole the weed, but Faustin mentions Lenny buying only the cocaine and not the weed which could be a slick way of dimitri planting it in Faustin’s head that lenny is the rat by not wanting to incriminate himself with the cocaine(which is what he bought) but ok with the cops knowing about the weed.

"This is my 1st GTA 4 lore video, I have many more of these coming up" Cracked the biggest smile when I heard that, my favorite game in the series, with my favorite gta content creator at the helm dishing out lore videos? I'm in 😁

8:59 pause and look how perfectly he is lined up with packie

I just love how professional always dresses up in the theme of the game

"F*ck him and f*ck you. Who are you my daddy?" That line always cracks me up 😂

The fact that Dimitri caused Mikhail's daughter and wife to live poverty is probably the worst thing he has ever done and in fact no character in any gta game has done it except for Dimitri I consider him more evil than tenpenny or even Catalina

I got the impression pretty early he was a rat. One rule of thumb I've kind of learned about trusting certain people is if they are talking shit about people when you are around, there is a good chance they are talking shit about you when you aren't around. But yeah Dimitri is sadistic.

Faustin is possibly the saddest character to die

Dimitri saying that they shouldn't kill Lenny is like Scar saying Simba not going with the hyenas.

This is why I choose the revenge option

I’m so happy to have found this channel. So few recognize IV as the best GTA but it’s irrefutable and I’m glad other people love and respect it as much as I do

I hope GTA 6 can have some dark moments like it did in this game. A balance between both dark and comedy of course. This really did make me appreciate more of the acting done in this game and my love for villains, you really helped make Dimitri more evil than i thought anyone can ever make him, so many little details can go unseen, its insane how much intricate lines, facial cues, easter egg details Rockstar can create and hide for us to find ourselves and to either confirm or theorize bout what these characters are. It just makes me hyped for what they have in store for GTA 6. Just came across your channel recently and i already cant wait to see these types of vids for that legendary masterpiece when it releases. I hope the pattern continues with the amazing memorable characters they always make.

Take a shot everytime Professional says "psychopath"

More evidence that Dimitri was going along with Lennys assassination was by literally telling Faustin about him. Dimitri of all people would’ve known what Mikhail would’ve done if he knew who might’ve been the rat and still decided to tell him which shows that he really did want to see Lenny get killed. You can tell that Faustin might not have been completely sober and was having trouble thinking of who the rat was but Dimitri still jogged his memory to trigger Faustin to make niko kill Lenny.

I think dimitri wanted to kill Faustin from the beginning, like you said he was being manipulative by trying to act as the reasonable of the 2, making niko side with him. But what truly shows how little he cares about faustin is the treatment of his family. When Jim died after Johnny betrayed ray Johnny decided to gave the money he stole from ray to his family. We never see his family so we don’t know how close it’s Jim family to Johnny, but that shows how Johnny cares about them and how guilty he feels about indirectly causing his death. The same with Michael if he gets killed in ending B, if he gets killed then Lester gives his cut of the heist to his family instead of keeping it to himself, he doesn’t do that with trevor because aside from his mom (who could be dead or in prison) he doesn’t have known living relatives, wade and ron are only employees, so is not difficult to see why Lester doesn’t feel obligated to gave them his cut. Meanwhile dimitri who directly send the assassin after him didn’t try to help out his family, only would think that he would feel guilty and would try to help them. He says to niko that there wasn’t any choice... but he specifically created the situation where he could have the choice of killing faustin without consequences, he simply doesn’t have remorse for killing faustin or crewing over his family. If anything niko have more remorse considering he can’t look faustin wife at the eye and accepts to help her. I think the reason why dimitri constantly betrays people, even jimmy pegorino in the deal ending, is because now he has the power to backstab people without consequences. I imagine that if he tried to do that while faustin was still around he would be in a lot of trouble, something like big smoke who couldn’t deal with drugs because sweet was still in charge of the gang, once he was out he was able to become a drug lord.

I offer a contrary perspective on Faustin. He's actually disloyal to his own henchmen by killing him for practically no reason. He only expresses loyalty to other he deems to be worthy but everyone else is expendable. He's not much better than Dimitri tbh

How a "videogame" can teach you this much about life

I always thought Dimitri betrayed Niko because he knew too much and also that Dimitri saw Nikos potential to be a big player in the Liberty City underworld and was scared of him. This analysis was great though gave me a different insight and it actually makes a lot more sense.

I have been waiting for this GTA 4 Lore And Character Analysis on Dimitri Rascalov for a while now. Thank you for making this video Patrick!

"You killed *my* cousin" Always gives me the chills

Youre probably the first person ive heard of with this line of thinking for psychopaths and sociopaths. Good job dispelling the Hollywood tropes. Love your content, bro.

This is why people love rockstar games including me the amount of detail on top of character development besides the main one makes it so much more better

There’s always a lot of action on Dillon St & Shotller.

Dimitri is a weak weasel that needs protection. Faustian may have been reckless in the storyline but somehow showed a different side at times. Such as mercy for Nikko when Dimitri wanted him dead. And he also seemed a bit broken when you go to wack him. Faustian was not as bad when you look back on him. Dimitri is just like Micah looking out for himself and only himself.

Dimitri was truly a mastermind, but he made one mistake; He made an enemy of Niko.

TheProfessional: Explaining psychopaths' behaviors and traits. Me: Oh shit...

19:50 After Ron ran out of uses for Trevor he started to belittle him when you press "E" button to greet him near Trevor's trailer. Trevor lies to and leaves Wade in stripclub. He left them. In GTA Online Ron says that Trevor become a life coach and doesn't even answer Ron's phonecalls

Did i just watch an hour long analysis of dimitri of all people? Hell yeah i did yessiiiir

With this lore analysis, for me this confirms that the Revenge ending is the better, more sensible ending; Roman, Bernie and other characters constantly told Niko to get over his past with Darko and they’re not wrong, but with Dimitri it was different. His betrayal was a lot more recent and he’s been on the hunt for weeks, maybe months, to kill Niko and stopped at nothing to see him dead (he foreshadowed this with the quote “Wherever you go,people will find you if they want to badly enough.”) and he constantly showed that he’d continue to be a threat ,so killing him at the Platypus made a lot more sense, along with Niko’s moral code.

This lore video is one of the satisfying long and pure lore video ever. We shall see more of these

Dimitri is a very well conceived and written character in GTA4. He's always been a weasel but the game creators actually hid him behind Faustin's uncontrollable aggressive behavior. He's always been scheming, all his "play by the rules" speech was to manipulate Niko while he's got his own agenda to stay on top by taking advantage of others

Its funny to think that the kid held hostage in the bank robbery ends up killing bulgarin soon after dimitri’s death. The story of the trilogy is so unbeaten

I like these lore videos, nobody really does these in-depth stuff that much on video games so I'm pretty sure people will remember your channel for content like this.

This isn’t just a great video on GTA IV’s story, it’s a fantastic education video on the nature of psychopaths. Keep up the good work!

Yeah Dimitri is someone who has no heart, doesn't seem to care about anyone but himself, he won't stop until the person he betrays is dead, and knows how to manipulate others to do his dirty work and when he doesn't need them anymore he betrays them by having them killed or letting them suffer. So yes Dimitri Rascalov is by far the most evil Antagonist in GTA History.

Great video. I’ve played GTA IV from start to finish over ten times. Doesn’t get old

10:05 the fact you left that stutter in the vid.... got yourself a subscriber! Makes this video just that much authentic

Even though Dimitri is smiling and wants Niko to get pissed during the phone call after Roman what Niko said to him was priceless it was one of my favorite phone calls in the game. All I could think about after that was where Niko hanged up the face after you kill him🤣🤦

This was a really great lore video I’ve always wondered why Dimitri betrayed Niko… honestly Niko was still useful after Faustin’s death he could have continued using him to further his greed and lust for power

Jacob is the most loyalest person in gta

"He's a really well written character to be hated" -TheProffesional.

You don't have to apologise for the length of this video, it was worth every second for me, gave me an entirely new perspective on this particular topic! Thank you Professional!

Lol ,Dmitri is single handedly more powerful than all of GTA V's villains more combined

When roman died you acted so casual like "Dimitri sent a hitman to the wedding 🙂""Roman got shot and he died 😁"

Actually in the last mission chasing Dimitri he says that if it weren't for him Faustin would have killed him since the beginning