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Is 'Undead Nightmare' supposed to be part of canon? (SPOILERS)

posted 12 years ago by Magic93
8 replies | jump to latest

Clearly they wrap up the Undead Nightmare DLC in a way that would make it seem that they're trying to make it be part of the canon of the original game, as part of an event we just didn't see in the original storyline. Zombie outbreak happens some time after John gets home to his family in the original game, and everything is back to normal before he gets shot by the government and buried.

But, there are a few plot holes with that idea. Uncle gets shot and killed at the beginning of Undead Nightmare, so how could he come back to life for the ending of Red Dead Redemption? Also, at the end of Undead Nightmare it says "a few months later" and shows John buried and says his wife and son are dead as well, how is that possible?

Any insight?

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That's putting it mildly, OO7

[–] Bioparadoxous 12 years ago

This is a very old and tired question. The answer is "No" but obviously people can accept it however they want, and mostly will.

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You can't know what you're talking about if you don't know what you're saying.

[–] Chad-Warden 12 years ago

I guess I like to think of it as a parallel universe or a "What could have happened?" type of thing. Because it just doesn't fit in with the original storyline. Or maybe it takes place after John dies in RDR and he's in purgatory

Either way I like to think it's canon because it's too good a story to just dismiss it as canon.

[–] Bioparadoxous 12 years ago

Yeah, I forgot to take that into account when writing my response. There are quite a few stories (movies in particular) that follow the death-dream, or afterlife scenario. Which I won't ruin here for obvious reasons. Most of them are pretty good though.

I like the idea of playing right up to the point where John dies, and turning it off just before firing, and starting up Undead Nightmare, then going back and replaying the mission after that's completely done. That way you're kind of re-positioning events to make narrative - but not literal sense. John talks a lot about being 'in hell', but not about dying - which he doesn't seem to remember. So if you were going to play them in some kind of 'canonical order' it wouldn't make sense to play Red Dead right after John's death, IMO. One could also look at the events of UN as a race for John to redeem his soul before his passing. In any case, whether you consider it 'canon', there's very little doubt about whether the story should be taken literally if you do.

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You can't know what you're talking about if you don't know what you're saying.

[–] king_of_bob 12 years ago

Pretty sure it's a What If scenario rather than taking part during an unseen period during the primary game.

Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!

[–] wwkd47 12 years ago

Read the paper in 1914, it says Landon Ricketts lived out the rest of his life in America, meaning he stayed in America after you left him. In UN, he's still in Mexico. So that means UN isn't canon.

[–] jpowers4667 11 years ago

I just completed Undead Nightmare. Am I the only one that wishes they would have added a storyline for the undead John? I think it would have been pretty interesting to see him interact with the living outside of the few side missions--such as protecting towns.

Or maybe they could have killed him halfway through this storyline (allowing both the original and undead storyline to synch smoothly), have him rise from the grave, finish the Undead storyline, thus allowing him, and the rest of the zombies, to finally rest.

[–] sunquake-1 11 years ago

What is the point of Undead John? IS there a mission you need to finish or do you just ride around until you get bored?

[–] JamesMcFly 9 years ago

Undead John is just for fun. A cool way to finish goals you didn't while playing the main story.

As far as cannonmis concerned, not sure. I think of it as an altrnate reality scenario where the government didn't turn on John.

But I also like the idea of john being in purgatory trying to redeem his soul in this weird zombie outbreak. And then when he comes back to life its just a dead body and not really John, as he's moved on, and THIS is where the undead nightmare really starts!