'A while ago, I ran into a commet with people that say that Sadie is annoying for going from “grieving widow” to “cold-blooded killer”. So let me try to explain what I think based on my analyses.

Some say it’s stupid for her to be strong and capable when she couldn’t protect her or her husband from the O’Driscolls.

First of all, she would not be able to hold off that many men, realistically speaking. Yes, she is strong and capable but she had had no backup, and Jake seemed like someone who was too naive and trusting of strangers (For reference, check their Stranger Missions in RDO) who hardly knew how to fight.

With the amount of O’Driscolls in the mountains, and many not too far from the Adler homestead, there would have been no way she could have kept fighting them off all on her own. There was a hoard of them out in the mountains, while Sadie had no one but her husband, who was most likely killed immediately upon the gang’s intrusion.

I, myself, can’t hold off 10 waves of continuous enemies spawning during “Call to Arms”, how much more Mrs. Adler, who had presumably only one gun in her hand the night their house was taken?

Secondly, Chapter 2 Sadie was a grieving Sadie, alright? Anyone who has lost a loved one to tragic things like the ones Mrs. Adler went through would grieve first. It’s normal, it’s natural. And Sadie’s grief does not begin and end in Chapter 2 for her to “transform” into a strong, capable fighter immediately after. Not at all.

There are 5 stages of grief and I’m sure almost everyone knows that. These stages of grief come into play to build Sadie’s character and why she does what she does in the story.

Stage one is denial and isolation. Chapter 2 Sadie may have acknowledged her husband’s death but no way has she accepted it. She is in denial, not of the truth, but of her capabilities as a person. She’s a capable woman, a fighter. But what is a fighter who can’t even protect the person they care for the most? She denies the fact that her husband is the one gone and she’s left with nothing all because she couldn’t fight every single one of the O’Driscolls. She always kept to herself, isolated from the rest, sitting by the rocks on the cliffside of Horseshoe. Even when the gang tries to talk and comfort her, she stays on that lonely rock by herself.

Chapter 3 to 4 is Stage 2, Anger. Sadie is always angry in those chapters. She has bitterness and anger in her heart and it doesn’t go away even when she enters Stage 3 of the grieving process. It follows into the next few chapters as Stage 3 comes in. She often mentions her anger towards the O’Driscolls and wanting revenge.

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Stage 3, bargaining. This happens from Chapters 4 to 6. She bargains through the lives around her. Perhaps she thought that if she took out the men who took her husband, things would get better. Perhaps if she finally gets rid of all the O’Driscolls she knows, she will no longer feel the weight of her loss. Then, once that is done she moves to the camp to help them. She never got to save her husband from his death, so she bargains for it, trying to rid that guilt inside of her by trying to protect the people that matter in camp. She helps the camp, relocating them to a safer place while the men were in Guarma. She helps with the Eagle Flies mission and aids Arthur in any way she can when he asks her to. What she could not do for Jake, she will do for them.

Stage 4, depression, was present for her in all the chapters, especially when mentioning Jake. However, I think it takes hold of her in the aftermath of Chapter 6, in the years that we don’t see her at all. I make this conclusion because when we reunite with her, she is already in Stage 5.
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Stage 5, acceptance. In the Epilogue, we see Sadie making a name for herself as a renowned bounty hunter. She welcomes the thought of deth without fear and without regrets. The only time she went against this was after John proclaimed that he and Abigail were finally getting hitched officially. After that we see her move on to new pastures in Mexico.

She is still grieving her husband but has accepted it openly.

This makes Sadie’s character quite compelling and deep, as it touches the stages of grief without it being too “in-your-face”, as some stories do that.'