Draft:Red Harlow

Red Harlow is a central protagonist and main playable character in the 2004 video game Red Dead Revolver by Rockstar San Diego. A novice gunslinger turned ruthless bounty hunter after being orphaned at a young age, Red must pursue a series outlaws to uncover the deadly plot that killed his parents and enact vengeance on those responsible. Red is also a playable character in Revolver's local muliplayer mode and is an available character model in the game's sequel, Red Dead Redemption. He is voiced by Robert Bogue and Jason Fuchs (young).

Red only appears once in the Red Dead series. He is referenced in both of the game's spiritual successors, Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2, yet Dan Houser has suggested that the events of Revolver take place within a timeline separate from it's Redemption sequels.

Creation
Angel Studios began developing a protagonist for its first entry in the Red Dead series in 2000. Both Jason Fuchs and Robert Bogue were hired to voice Red.

Angel studios had originally considered including multiple playable characters for Revolver. However, the concept was never developed due to technical limitations of the time. Under the collaboration with Capcom, lead designer Akira Yasuda was tasked with development of Revolver's protagonist. Capcom developers later decided on "Red" for the protagonist's name after previously proposing the game's title under Red Dead Revolver. Yoshiki Okamoto later stated that, "We tried to put stuff in the game to make the name make more sense, like naming the character Red and having his hand get burned so his hand was red.” Angel Studios developers had initially wanted Red to portray a classic Spaghetti western hero, taking inspiration from Clint Eastwood's character as the Man with No Name for both his voice and appearance.   Capcom developers had a differing aproach to the game's setting, wanting Revolver to take place in a more mythical representation of the Wild West and designed Red's character to be surrounded by a variety of supernatural elements. Unlike the protagonist of the game's sequel, developers designed Red less personally and focused more on his exploits as an homage to the gunslingers and bounty hunters in classic Westerns.

IGN's Douglass C. Perry described Red as "a dirty western cowboy bad-ass, a Clint Eastwood-like bounty hunter with a grudge against corruption, greed, and power".

Red's canonicity is disputed. Despite his mentioning in the latter two instalments of the Red Dead series, Red's character likely exists within the Red Dead games' world through the nature of legends. Due to the game's "fantastical" narrative, the existence of Red as seen in the events of Revolver is unlikely.

Character biography
Red was born to prospector Nate Harlow and Native American mother Falling Star. Through his mother, Red is of half Native American descent. Red (Jason Fuchs) witnessed a raid on his homestead by hired mercenaries at the age of fourteen. In an attempt to conceal the location of a prosperous gold deposit discovered by Nate and his partner Griff, lead mercenary, Colonel Darren, murders both Nate and his wife. Red escapes by shooting off Deren's left arm using his father's revolver, severely burning his hand in the process.

Twelve years later, Red, a now seasoned bounty hunter, travels to a nearby settlement known as Widow's Patch to collect the bounty of gang leader, Bloody Tom. Red befriends the town's local sheriff, O'Grady. O'Grady denies Red his reward due to the relinquishment of his funds to the town's occupiers, the Ugly Gang. Red then engages the gang, killing both the gang's leader, "Ugly" Chris Bailey, and several others. After sustaining injuries from the shootout, Red brings O'Grady to Brimstone to seek a doctor and receive his reward from the town's lawman, Sheriff Bartlett. Red botches an attempted train robbery performed by the Pandrosa Brothers on the way to Brimstone. While in Brimstone, Bartlett hires Red to trace several outlaws in the town's surrounding areas. While pursuing one of his bounties, Pig Josh, Red meets English gunslinger, Jack Swift, after saving him from the outlaw's captivity. Bartlett explains to Red the motives behind his father's murder, and reveals the involvement of Daren's boss, Javier Diago, and his partner Griff. Red makes his way to Sunset Canyon to kill Diago and seek retribution for his fathers death. Red kills Darren after storming Diago's camp.

Red eventually pursues Diago as he attempts to flee via train. Red destroys the train's engine and executes Diago as pleads for his life. After killing Diago, Red Returns to Brimstone where he engages in the Brimstone's annual dueling tournament hosted by Bartlett and Griff. After attempting to kill Red, Griff flees Brimstone. Red traces him back to his mansion where he kills Griff in a duel, completing his quest for vengeance.