During their visit to Silent Hill, Mary somehow contracted it when she visited Rosewater Park, the Lakeview Hotel or some other place. And perhaps it was not chance that Mary would succumb and James would be compelled to return? Perhaps it was...design?
- Ito jossed the theory, but sounds pretty cool.
- This troper once fell asleep while listening to this song, and suddenly, the dream he had about this song makes much more sense.
- This troper find this theory interesting, but disagrees with that last sentence.
- At least, it's the closest we'll get to David Lynch doing the sound design for a game.
- Well there are references to Blue Velvet and Lost Highway throughout the game.
You see, when Alessa's soul was split, it actually divided into three fragments: Alessa, Cheryl, and her furry side, Mira. Just look at his best friend: Claudia WOLF? Ahem? She clearly drew her fursona and everything, judging by the "wolf" drawing in Midwich Elementary. This is indeed the very reason Dahlia burned her.
The "furry" fragment incarnated as Mira, whom lived a normal dog life until Eddie's torment caused her to take over the Otherworld and exact revenge; however, she cannot target those protected by the Cat, whom Laura draws all over town in a manner reminiscent of the Virun VII Crest.
As my final piece of evidence, consider this: In the UFO ending of Shattered Memories, CHERYL AND MIRA ARE THE SAME PERSON!
- And the second Pyramid Head is Eddie, right?
- No. Trick mirrors.
- Nice knowing that I'm not the only one who believes this.
- How about more of an in-depth explanation? If you notice that whenever you fight Pyramid Head in the game and he thrusts his big sword or spear at you, he will make the same grunt that James makes whenever he gets hit by a monster. Perhaps it's just laziness on Konami's part and they couldn't find a random person to provide vocals for PH so they recycled James' voice actor's grunts and used them, but even that too would be a bit of a stretch. Why bother making PH sound like James? Everyone seems to agree that Pyramid Head is a part of the protagonist of SH 2. IF the In Water ending happens then James doesn't get a chance to really 'go on' with his life as Mary had wished and he's doomed himself to Silent Hill purgatory for a while. Pyramid Head walks as if he's carrying a heavy burden and it's his job to deal out sentences to the guilty. It's only fitting that this is what James becomes if he fails to see the point of his whole trip and selfishly takes his life instead. Like James, Pyramid Head is not a villain, but merely a misunderstood character whose actions are not entirely laden with ill intent after the whole story is revealed. It seems his intentions throughout the game were ultimately good in the end. He had to break James' delusion and make him see the truth before it is too late. Maria was a distraction for James and the one thing preventing him from being able to own up to what he did to his wife. So one can conclude: James, although he smothered his sick wife with a pillow, is still at the core of his being a good man who is a victim of circumstance caused by not being able to handle the pain and the stress from seeing his wife deteriorate before his eyes. His need to find his wife and concern for the other characters indicate he is not an entirely bad person. And Pyramid Head was born from James' need to correct his wrong and the only part of James that knows the truth. James is also able to wield the Great Knife after finding it. Perhaps this is PH's way of reminding James of what he could become. But back to the In Water ending if it's the ending you want to believe. It would actually explain a lot as to why Pyramid Head seems bigger in size in the Arcade game and Silent Hill Homecoming. He is James Sunderland with all of the guilt of his actions realized and now a permanent apparatus of Silent Hill as opposed to being a tool from his own mind that the town exploited to "help" him.
- Interesting, and certainly plausible, but in all seriousness, what about the second Pyramid Head?
- Not the OP, but I have an idea. The second Pyramid Head is also James, but from a different ending. This is possible since the "Leave" ending is the only one where he actually moves on with his life.
- I don't think that it's actually James, but seeing as the game constantly uses James' corpse as a motif, and he is a representation of his subconscious, I've always figured that it was James under the helmet. Or at least, a Silent Hill-y version of him.
- Running with the series being heavily inspired by Jacob's Ladder, a possible scene that never got made could be Pyramid Head(s) helmets comming off and bearing an uncanny resemblance to James, similar to a deleted scene that occurs in the film revealing who a key character really is.
From the first and third game it's obvious that the cult's God feeds on suffering and misery, either to sustain herself or merely as part of her summoning ritual. However, while Alessa had to live in misery for seven years before she could birth God and a further seven years in unending agony for God to regain her power after Alessa's soul was split, Heather only had to nurture God for a day at most with her hatred for Claudia until God was born. This is because after being defeated by Harry and returning to a dormant state within the newly-born Heather, a piece of God remained in Silent Hill. Unable to either leave the town or exercise much influence over it, she spent the seventeen years between her two summoning attempts attracting people "with darkness in their hearts" towards Silent Hill in order to gain power from them, employing whatever form and methods necessary to draw the most (the Maria ending being the ending where she wins, ensuring James will repeat his actions and provide her with power for years to come), guaranteeing that when Heather returned with her other piece she could be summoned far more promptly (also explaining why she was far larger than in the first game).
- I agree with this, but for a different reason. The Book of Lost Memories only states that to Laura, "the town appears to be normal". Now think about it - Laura is an eight-(or so)-year-old girl. What would be "normal" to someone that young? It's quite possible that Laura considers monsters "normal", and therefore still can see the monsters, but they don't pose a threat to her since they don't attack her. This could lead her to believe that the monsters aren't dangerous, hence why she locks James in a room with one - she knows it's there, but she doesn't think she's putting James's life in danger.
- I'd agree, except that Laura, unlike everyone else in the town besides Maria, does not have a grave in the prison cemetary. I figured the graveyard was there to represent who was being punished, I think that if she was being tested, then the town would have a grave for her. Also, she has not reason to have any kind of trauma or fear, since she seems honestly unaware that Mary even died, so as far as she knows she's just going to see a friend. The town called her there not for her own punishment, but to lead James closer to the truth. She is a tool to be used in James punishment, but is both a real person and not actually guilty of any crime, so the town does not try to torture her for anything.
- It's not a matter of committing a crime; Silent Hill latches onto the negative emotions of the people trapped there as a means to torment them and isn't the least bit interested in dispensing justice (as we see with Angela's fate). That Laura is innocent of wrongdoing isn't why the the town appears normal, it's that she has nothing to feel guilt, shame, or self-hatred about, hence the town has nothing to work with.
- Since she is an orphan and is since very likely to feel she is somehow bad and therefore was abandoned, it is possible that her monster is the empty town that tries to make her think she is so bad completely everybody abandoned her.
- This would provide a good twist if combined with the "In Water ending is canon" theory: Pyramid Head is James who failed to overcome the horrors of Silent Hill, killed himself and is now stuck in a loop where he is doomed to eternally repeat the whole plot of the game while being both James and PH.
The Historical Society offers the main clue, that executioners, "the punishers of the guilty" in the town's past, most likely related to its ubiquitous cult, wore almost identical outfits, which were either inspired by the Pyramid Heads or were used as inspiration themselves. This means that the Pyramid Heads are a manifestation of the town's power directly instead of a manifestation of another's mind, perhaps possessing only the role of a punisher or perhaps fulfilling different roles required by different people, but always retaining the same appearance.
This also has some implications for Maria, who functions as a metaphor in both form and actions, suggesting that like the Pyramid Heads she is a direct manifestation of the town but is capable of altering her appearance (which brings new meaning to when James asks her "Aren't you Maria?" and she replies with "I am... if you want me to be").
- age discrepancies there man, James was 29 at Silent Hill 2 while Harry was 32 in the Original Silent Hill
- This troper is guilty of not factoring in age for this WMG.
Silent Hill 5 is going to be about Laura coming back to Silent Hill...
- Jossed; Silent Hill 5 has nothing at all to do with Silent Hill 2 — not counting the appearance of Pyramid Head, since he was based off of the movie version this time around — unless Alex and Mary are somehow related. Then again, they do have the same last name (Shepherd, Mary's maiden name), so you never know.
- Jossed; Alex and Mary's last names are just a coincidence, according to Tomm Hullett.
- Funny enough, at some point early in development for Homecoming, the character Elle was apparently planned to be a grown-up Laura, and was even to be introduced wearing James' jacket.
- Laura is seen in the Otherworld, actually. After James examines the map in the director's office in the Otherworld hospital, he catches a glimpse of her through the window, which is part of what prompts him to look for the key to the Historical Society.
- It would make sense that it's quite the authoritative figure in James version of the town, since, second only to Maria, the Pyramid Head is the strongest representation of James' guilt.
The major supposition of this WMG is that the Silent Hill presented in the second game is unrelated to the town in the other games, and is instead a product of James's mind. You can (if you like this theory, which I do) find a lot of evidence and interpretation to support this.
First of all, the biggest jumping-off point is the highly sexualized nature of the violence and monsters in the game. A lot of players seem to assume that this is a product of James's repression due to not having had a sexual relationship since Mary's death. I believe, however, that it indicates, instead, a sexually sadistic streak in James—put simply, he's a misogynist who gets off on hurting and killing women. Look at the mannequins, for example: they're composed solely of the lower half of the female body, which can easily be interpreted as a tendency toward objectification of women. The nurses are similar, nurse outfits and sexy female nurses being a common fetish or fantasy. The abstract daddy monsters are symbols of sexual violence and exploitation against a female character, who later simply gives up and dies.
In fact, almost all the female characters in this game represent misogynistic ideation. Angela is sexually abused by her father, kills him, and then gives in to her own despair and disappears (we can assume that she dies, or maybe was Dead All Along), which makes her a sort of archetype of the woman as victim. Her mother was an uncaring woman who not only knew about the abuse but told Angela that she deserved it! Woman as villain. Maria represents a number of things in the game, but her overtly and inappropriately sexual behavior can be seen as woman as tempter/seducer and her multiple violent deaths, usually incorporating or shortly following a sexually suggestive theme show James's disdain for women and possibly even a disgust or fear of female sexuality (at least as relates to his interactions with women). This image is taken further during the fight with the 'lustful lips' after Laura locks you into the office in the hospital—the monsters in question are, essentially, female genitalia encased in a bed frame. This suggests a character who feels threatened by female sexuality.
Speaking of Laura, she is only female in the game not portrayed in an overtly negative fashion, and even she's shown as annoying and often provokes James to irritation or hampers his progress, interesting since she's also the only female in the game who is even vaguely capable or surviving without his interference or protection. The lack of negativity could be tied into the fact that Laura is not viewed as a sexual object—she's a child, not yet having achieved puberty, and therefore not threatening in the same way that a grown woman would be. However, her relationship with Mary brings to mind the idea that eventually, Laura too will grow up and become just another woman, which makes James react somewhat more negatively to her.
Pyramid Head, likewise, is manifestation of James (this is played pretty overtly in the game). James says towards the end of the game that he created Pyramid Head as a means of punishment. Specifically, Pyramid Head is presumed to be a manifestation of James's guilt over killing Mary, who is now punishing James for his crimes. However, Pyramid Head can also be read as a personification of James's misogyny, because he/it is often shown raping and killing other (female) monsters as well as killing Maria (the sexual temptress) in a VERY sexually suggestive way by "penetrating" her body with his spear. Thus, Pyramid Head punishes females for their perceived sins or weaknesses, just as James, in a sense, punished Mary for her weakness (her illness) which he says took over his life (because he had to take care of her). James being able to later acquire and use Pyramid Head's great knife is also an interesting connection between the two. It's not until James is able to somewhat recognize these tendencies that Pyramid Head is defeated and James can move on to his final confrontation.
All well and good, but where do I get "serial killer" out of this, you ask. Well, aside from the fact that violent misogyny is a hallmark of many, many real-life serial killers, there's the fact of James's relationship with and—more importantly—preoccupation with Mary and her death. Many serial killers' first victim is someone close to them, and often that first murder will take place early in life, with subsequent killings happening years later and usually more frequently. Many such killers also follow a pattern of killing victims who have some perceived or symbolic similarity to that first victim.
In James's case, killing Mary would be his first murder. His preoccupation with her and her death, combined with the misogynist tendencies discussed above, would lead to the subsequent killings. Maria represents his victim archetype: a woman who is visually reminiscent of Mary, whom he had grown to hate, and who is blatantly and inappropriately seductive. (It's worth noting that James reacts with anger and sometimes disgust to her innuendos, while at the same time trying to sneak a peek down her blouse when her back is turned.) This is particularly evident if you believe that Mary was actually created by Silent Hill as an amalgamation of James's feelings about women. She dresses and acts provocatively, is implied to be a stripper or involved with the strip club (given that she has keys to the locks on the club's door), and is physically fragile and weak, needing James to protect her from monsters and being unable to keep up with him because she tires easily. She's also shown coughing and taking medicine, similar to the way we see Mary in flashbacks, which indicates that illness is also an aspect of James's victim profile.
During the cutscene that precedes the final boss fight (which is also with a female entity), the boss can be either Mary or Maria, depending on the player's actions during the game. Mary in that scene represents James's guilt over and preoccupation with his proto-victim, while Maria symbolizes his hatred of women in general. The boss fight is James's struggle to overcome his murderous urges.
The various endings indicate the various possible outcomes of that struggle. James can become consumed by his obsession with Mary, neither able to forgive himself (and her) and move on, nor willing to wholly give in to his hatred, leading to the In Water ending where he kills himself to end the conflict. In the Leave ending, James is able to come to terms with his past crimes and the darker side of himself and to move beyond it, with raising Laura as a chance at redemption. In the Maria ending, however, James is unable to overcome his misogyny, feels himself justified in killing Mary, and is likely to repeat the same sequence of events, with Maria representing his future victims.
There's also some tangential evidence that suggests that this version of Silent Hill is most a symbolic representation of James's mental landscape, with many of the newspaper clippings and other scraps of paper you encounter dealing with other murderers and mental patients, as well as the odd little detail in which, if/when you return to the area where you killed your first monster, it's surrounded by police tape. Eddie is also clearly well on the way to becoming a sociopath, and he's one of the first characters James encounters, as well as the only fully-human character James actually kills.
Overall, this WMG seems to make a lot of sense, especially if you're not too concerned about tying SH 2 in with the other games in the series. I think the game works better as a standalone story set in the same universe as the other games but with a plot that's not actually related to them.
- I think you've hit on a lot of good points with the misogyny and fear of sexuality that seems to be present in the game, but I don't think that it's a fear of female sexuality, I think it's a fear of male heterosexuality...specifically, James' fear of his own sexuality. James is wracked with guilt and self-loathing after Mary's death. He can't get past the fact that he is a murderer, he's murdered his beloved wife. He sees himself as a predator, as something loathsome and disgusting. Therefore I think that all of the imagery of violence against women and sexual violence is a manifestation of his self-hatred and guilt being thrown back at him, saying "this is what you are" because he feels that he needs to be punished for what he did, continually reminded that he is a monster. I also think that he is dealing with the sexual frustration of having a recently departed wife. It seemed to me that Mary's illness was quite long, and, I think it was stated in the game, physically debilitating. We can safely assume that in the time that James was taking care of Mary, he wasn't getting any sex, and, considering the way that Mary treated him during that time, it isn't that much of a stretch to imagine that he might have entertained the thought of cheating on her. I think that at one point in the game Angela accuses James of wanting to be rid of Mary because he "wanted someone new" or something like that. He may have had these feelings, but would not act on them, and perhaps felt deeply ashamed of them. This I think is part of what Maria represents, as she is both appealing and repulsive to James. He might have, in his guilt and shame, seen his own sexual desire as dirty and a betrayal to Mary, who he also betrayed by killing. In conclusion, I don't think James is a budding serial killer, he just has issues.
- Seconded. The sexual nature of the monsters is meant to repulse James, his guilt associating the normal sexual frustrations he felt during Mary's illness with violence and perversion. He's afraid of becoming a victimizer like Pyramid Head and Abstract Daddy, not hiding from the fact he already is one. Angela constantly accuses him of such throughout their interactions, eventually bringing to the forefront his desire for a woman who isn't his ailing wife—she represents his guilt (assuming she isn't a real person after all) over being sexually attracted to women in the first place, equating his sexuality with being a predator. And in the end she's also his failure to protect or rehabilitate Mary, pointing out in the burning staircase that he can't save her and so shouldn't even try. Maria is also representative of his guilt, but note that she is meant to look exactly like Maria—she isn't the way he views all women, just his wife. She is the emotional and sexual aspects of the relationship that he missed during the illness (as Maria points out several times that he can touch her, unlike Mary, and that she won't hurt him the same way), and he's both guilty over thinking about his own desires while Mary was basically bedridden and trying to hide his attraction to someone who isn't actually Mary. Her eventual skewering by Pyramid Head is to bring James' guilt about murdering Mary to the forefront, not to punish her in particular. He views her death as a failure on his part to protect her, just like the other times he's let Maria die. James reacts negatively to Laura because her first appearance showed her kicking a vital key out of his reach and laughing about it, while subsequent appearances had her locking him in a room with monsters, refusing to answer his questions, and bring up his repressed memories of Mary in the hospital during her illness. When it comes to him being a killer, this is where Eddie comes in. Eddie is his fear of being a monster with no remorse. Both were under extreme pressure and abuse before they engaged in their murders, James coming from his wife and Eddie coming from the bully. They both snapped and killed. They both seek to deny their crimes (Eddie constantly going "I didn't do it!" and James' entire delusion). But where James feels consistent remorse and shame for his actions when he finds out what he did, Eddie loses all empathy and gloats about how easy it is to kill someone. That's what the "We're the same" speech came from—James' fear that because he's killed, he's no better than a psychopath like Eddie. Who he, incidentally, feels remorse for killing in self defense.
While Silent Hill 2 was in development "Repressed Memory Syndrome" was being debunked. Women had been convinced by their therapists that their fathers had molested them as children, but they had "repressed" the memory. The resulting false accusations were frequently believed, resulting in trials and incarceration. If this is what happened to Angela, if she murdered her father due to a false memory implanted by a therapist, then her killing him wasn't justified. Which would explain why she remained in Silent Hill.
Eddie stays because his killings weren't justified. James can leave after working through his guilt. Angela staying makes no sense if she had just cause for her action.
This would also explain her obsessive need to find her mother, who knows the truth, and be absolved by her.
Note that while the town itself passes judgement on Eddie, leading James into conflict with him that results in Eddie's death. Putting James into the Executioner role of Pyramid Head!
- You misunderstand a key point of Silent Hill's nature; it doesn't do any judging or punishing, and it has no moral compass. Everything that happens to the characters is something they're doing to themselves. James and Angela both crave punishment, feeling guilty for their actions (regardless of whether or not it was justified). Otherwise cool theory.
. James is officially dead. Dammit.- Yeaaa...the novels aren't canon. At all. They depart from the events of the games at multiple parts.
- Douglas makes a similar comment regarding James disappearing in Silent Hill 3, but I don't think that necessarily means James is canonically dead. He could have just as easily dropped off the grid with Laura after the "Leave" ending.
- Douglas never actually specified that he was talking about James. He merely said he went to Silent Hill once, on a missing persons case. No name or sex given. Cybil, Eddie, or Angela could have easily been one of the people he was referring to as much as James.
- Except for the follow-up line "I never did find him," (emphasis mine) which strongly suggests a male, sure, it could be Cybil or Angela. And since private detectives are typically hired by people of the non-cop persuasion (and kind of pricey), you have to consider: who'd care enough about Eddie to send a PI after him?
- Also, would a search for Eddie really be a missing persons case? He killed a dog and shot a bully in the knee, and it's stated he fled after he did so. I suspect a search for Eddie would be framed as a fugitive case, not missing persons. It's implied in 4 that they don't know what happened to Mary, so a search for James and Mary would be framed as a missing persons case. It'd also explain why James, in any ending, wouldn't want to be found—if he were discovered alive but with Mary missing, it'd look awfully suspicious. He might be able to get back "on the grid" after a long while if Mary's illness were well-known enough, but it'd be some years before he could, if at all.
- Guy Cihi (James' voice and motion capture actor) pretty much confirmed this was the canon ending.
- Cihi said that he feels that it fits best from the cultural standpoint of SH2's home country of Japan, where suicide is viewed as a redemptive act; that's not the same thing as saying "In Water" is canon. He also said he personally prefers "Leave" because he, as a dad himself, identifies with James finding a new purpose in becoming a father figure to Laura; this does not mean that "Leave" is canon, either. Word of God said you get to decide that for yourself because you're meant to personalize the story and make it your own, but by that same token, you also don't get to decide for anyone else.
When you first see the Abstract Daddy, it's terrorizing Angela. It's Angela's monster. She created it in her mind, and it had a huge signifigance for her. The Abstract Daddy represents Angela's father as he allegedly raped her. The trauma from the memory was displaced into the monster, making it powerful. In the Boss fight, the Abstract Daddy was Angela's monster, and James just killed it for her.
After that scene, Angela accuses James of only wanting Sex from his wife Mary, and he denies it... but perhaps a small part of his mind wonders if it isn't true. Thus James's psyche—and own verison of Silent Hill—adopts the Abstract Daddy.
But the Abstract Daddy represents rape. James's feelings about rape—sex and power—are only a fantasy, while Angela experienced it firsthand. So, the monsters are stronger for Angela than they are for James.
- I like this theory, and I wouldn't be suprised to hear the developers use the same explanation. It's nice and self-contained, and doesn't conflict with established information. Of course, since its never said in-game, it'll always be just fan analysis and all, but it does offer some interesting backstory to what is otherwise just an example of Degraded Boss.
- An alternate explanation was offered by Roahm Mythril. The imagery of the Abstract Daddy is open to interpretation, and could possibly be interpreted as the larger figure smothering the smaller figure—a piece of imagery directly related to James.
- That makes a lot of sense. It's not uncommon in cases where a daughter is being sexually abused by her father that the mother feels jealousy towards her own victimized, child. Even going so far as claiming it's the child that's tearing the family apart.
James' memory is faulty; he thinks Mary died years ago because, although even he's not absolutely certain of his motives, he killed his wife and then blocked the trauma. Silent Hill calls him because he subconsciously needs punishment and, with it, absolution. What he does with the grief is his own business, Silent Hill only responds to his guilt. But! At the core of it, he really is there for healthy reasons: he's going there to confront his deeds and his perceptions and take responsibility (he's just doing it in the most effed-up way possible).
Eddie, clearly, doesn't really see monsters. He sees people. He says that they're "laughing at him with their eyes", which is either paranoia, or what Eddie subconsciously wants: carte blanche to kill whoever he pleases. He first feels guilt (vomiting over his first human victim), but rather than coming to Silent Hill to confront the shame and guilt of being a repeat victim of bullying, he's really there to indulge himself. The guilt he feels eventually passes as the feelings of power grow, and Silent Hill (giving only what its visitors really want) presents him with as many victims as he could want. Eventually, Silent Hill gives him James. Think about it: James is strong, married, good-looking, and wanders into his life looking like ... well, the protagonist of a survival horror game: armed with a gun and a flashlight and looking like a badass, too hardcore to think Eddie is anything but a pizza-eating turd. Exactly the kind of person Eddie wants to kill most. It just didn't work out because James is every bit as bad ass as he looks, and Eddie is basically just a very angry coward.
Laura also doesn't see monsters: she wants Mary, so to her, the town has only herself, Mary (somewhere), and James in it. James is the only means she has of finding Mary, but she hates him, so whenever Silent Hill directs their paths to cross, ultimately she shuns him and dismisses him as useless until he finally gives her the truth. The "Leave" ending is the only ending Laura can really have, because she doesn't specifically want just Mary, she wants the life that Mary wanted to promise in her letter: a family and a home. Without James, she'll never get it.
And then, Angela. Oh, Angela.
Angela's case is probably the most tragic, because her problem is very simple. She wants what many abuse victims want: a chance at escape. She envisions her escape in the form of a man: someone who will love her and take care of her. But since the first man in her life who was supposed to love her and take care of her was the father who beat and raped her since she was a child, she views James (who is actually in a very good position to help her, and does, whenever he can) as just another broken promise waiting to happen, and rejects him to protect herself. Silent Hill repeatedly hands her James as a means of escape when things are at their worst (when she's contemplating suicide, when the Abstract Daddy comes to.. do something awful to her, when the stairs are burning down), but she just can't accept him, and so the only escape she can find is her own death.
- I agree with parts of this, but not all of it. For one thing, James hardly looks or acts outwardly badass, though you could argue he becomes so. What's more likely is that Eddie hates and sees James not as a badass, but as a smarmy, whimpering, condescending hypocrite ("Don't get all holy on me, James!") who lacks the balls to take what he wants, and looks down on him. As for Angela, James himself doesn't seem to think he's the best fit for her; notice his complete silence when she sarcastically asks him to "heal all her pain". By that point James is quite conscious of his moral track record, and the other characters seem to at least have a feeling about it.
- I disagree. James doesn't look like a grizzled, Ambiguously Brown Call of Duty hero or anything, but he's the only character who runs around consciously armed for self-defense and carrying a flashlight and a radio. He's calm and rational when the others are losing their minds, and he's doing all of it in search of his lost wife. He's outwardly normal, but his actions paint him as a badass, motives notwithstanding because he doesn't remember them yet. Eddie definitely sees it, and that's why he hates James. James is tall, svelte, blonde, moderately athletic, but ultimately a hypocrite, on the same level with the people who used to bully him, and Eddie is on a power trip-slash-killing spree who sees everyone as beneath him. As to Angela, James is ultimately what she wants, but that doesn't negate or overwrite James' free will. She even suggests it herself, but only sarcastically: those are her true desires, to have someone come and rescue her, but she's so consumed with guilt and self-loathing, she takes James' reluctance to instantly step up for her as confirmation that it can't happen and she doesn't deserve to be saved.
- I agree with parts of this, but not all of it. For one thing, James hardly looks or acts outwardly badass, though you could argue he becomes so. What's more likely is that Eddie hates and sees James not as a badass, but as a smarmy, whimpering, condescending hypocrite ("Don't get all holy on me, James!") who lacks the balls to take what he wants, and looks down on him. As for Angela, James himself doesn't seem to think he's the best fit for her; notice his complete silence when she sarcastically asks him to "heal all her pain". By that point James is quite conscious of his moral track record, and the other characters seem to at least have a feeling about it.
The same way James found Mary. That Mama told Angela she deserved what happened, and was speaking as a mouthpiece for Angela's guilt as a rape survivor: Angela's real mother is either dead, or missing.
- No mention of Angel's mother is made, outside of that quote...to build on this, one wonders if Angela's mother didn't abandon her? She says she's looking for he mother at the beginning. It kinda makes some sense.
I figure James was an innocent, sweet man before Mary's illness, and is desperately trying to cling to his image as an unsullied innocent (Ugly fat bloke wearing kid's clothing?)
- It sounds nice but it is very unlikely. Eddie is also a mindless killing machine who will go on a homicidal oragies when ever he "gets in a bad mood". Does he sound like the buxom of innocence now?
- I should elaborate. He's James' paper thin facade of innocence hence the fact he's wearing poorly-fitted kid's clothing to try to fool people into believing he's still a kid.
- Eddie isn't innocent by the time James kill him, but that doesn't mean he never was. At the beginning of the game, he's the perfect representation of an awkward, overgrown child who's aware that he's done "something bad," but still has some hope that he can be "good." The fact that he devolves into a Psychopathic Manchild later is just negative character development.
- Well in that case James a very sucky good side.
- He's not James' good side, he's James' guilt and frustration over having to pretend he's happy when his wife was acting up.
She realized that she was an apparation of Mary, but became more controlled over it. She acted on Mary's desires to have a family. The only way she could keep them in Silent Hill was if they died there. Although Laura couldn't see the monsters they could still hurt her. Why else was she so desperate to find Laura?
- Kind of makes sense, too, considering that besides the switch after James watches the tape at the hotel, there never really is a clear moment when something switches to the otherworld, or at least the differences are far more subtle than any other silent hill. Even though the Hospital switch was pretty direct, the level doesn't actually change all that much, and there is never really a clear switch back. When you leave to go after Laura, the town really isn't any different save a few new cryptic messages other than the fact that it's nighttime. And the fogworld here is far more messed up than the one in the first game. Really, the only time you really know which one you're in is after leaving the labyrinth to row across the lake to the hotel and after the scene with the video tape.
She represents his despair.
Angela never expresses remorse for what she did, although she may feel it. What she does express (particularly in her last cutscene) is complete and utter hopelessness, to the point of bitterly and cynically rejecting any alternatives. She throws James' attempts at consoling her back in his face. She doesn't want anyone's pity. She doesn't want anyone's help. She isn't going to help herself. She just wants to lay down and die.
This is mirrored in "In Water". James can't bring himself to believe that a life without Mary is any life worth living. "Without you, Mary, I've got nothing."
His true face is actually James' face. This is because Pyramid Head does not just represent his dark side, sexual frustration, pain and punishment, it represents self-loathing. His marriage to Mary may not have been perfect, but he did love her. He loved her so much that, when she was nearing the end of her life, where her illness caused her a significant amount of agony, he put her out of her misery. However, he knows he is a murderer and knows he will be viewed as a monster for what he did. Going with the 'In Water' ending, where James commits suicide by drowning, James has unknowingly left a psychic imprint on Silent Hill, resulting in Pyramid Head lingering, thus explaining why he sometimes pops up in the Otherworlds and Dark Worlds of other visitors to the town: He is an enduring symbol of self-punishment.
Pyramid Head is a representation of the negative feelings experienced from the murder which caused James to go to Silent Hill, and the events which led up to it; James's incredibly masculine sexual frustration. By this logic, the Abstract Daddy could be Angela's equivalent of a Pyramid Head; he is created from Angela's memory of her father, and the sexual abuse which he caused. However, Eddie's Pyramid Head is never revealed, and neither are any of the monsters which he sees in Silent Hill. Eddie's Pyramid Head must be something to do with being tormented, and it's most likely that he or she is based on the victim of Eddie's murder, because James's murder was different to Eddie's and Angela's. While Eddie and Angela killed because they were frustrated with other people, James did it because of his own feelings (although one of the reasons that James killed Mary was because she was being a bitch to him, this isn't the motive that Pyramid Head represents). Therefore, while Angela's depicts the victim (the guilty party), James's depicts himself (also the guilty party). Of course, Eddie's is again different from Angela's; while Angela killed the one who made her become a murderer, Eddie killed the bully's dog, making him the only one who didn't kill the person whose actions made him a murderer (there's no confirmation that he killed the bully). The depiction of the dog is actually Mira (implied in the Dog ending, when she growls at Eddie), but Mira is only dangerous in the non-canon Dog ending, meaning that while she was probably there, she can't be the Pyramid Head. Using this logic, Eddie's Pyramid Head is probably a monstrous version of the football player that Eddie wounded.
But what makes this creature more than just a human, and what does it do? James's masculinity and sexuality were represented by an extremely masculine rapist, while Angela's sexual abuse and resulting hatred of men were represented by two creatures tied together and one raping the other. Therefore, Eddie's must represent torment and subsequent feelings of hatred and anger. My guess is that Eddie's is some kind of tied-up note blob-like note Humanoid Abomination which kills anything that comes near it, representing how Eddie was trapped and tormented by the bullying, and subsequently began attacking anything that angered him. It may even be one of the Nothing Is Scarier monsters; going by the WMG up there that James can experience the Abstract Daddy because it represents males dominating females because of sex and violence, but James's manifestation of it is weaker because he has never been raped or raped anyone, James can only hear Eddie's and not see them, because while he killed someone who was tormenting him, Mary was a Tsundere instead of a simple jerk.
But what does it do to Eddie? Pyramid Head threatened James, because he believed that he had sinned. Abstract Daddy chased Angela and tried to kill her, because she could not escape her sin. But Eddie embraced his sin, and immersed himself in it in order to escape from the pain. Eddie's "executioner" most likely became voices in his head, whispering to come and merge with him and kill anyone who tried to hurt him, perhaps finally being able to escape the torment, but being alone and hated by everyone (still tied up).
- It's a strange, alien place that defies the laws of reality and reflects, to some extent, the minds of those of who go in.Corebook's description of the Hedge: The Hedge is psychoactive. That is, it responds to the thoughts, moods and general presence of those within it. The power of the Hedge bridges a gap between the mind and the soul. It is possible to lose one's soul in the Thorns of the Hedge (as changelings whisper), but a hapless traveller stands an equal chance of losing his mind as the land around him reshapes itself.The Hedge's appearance remains consistent to all viewers in some respects. It is always labyrinthine, with twists and turns and dead ends that seem to shift. The "walls" of this maze, however, usually resemble the overgrowth commonly present in the area.(...)The Hedge is not, by nature, an evil place. The Hedge does not tempt people to sin or to act against their fellow people. It does not change a person's morals (or Morality). Why, then, do the old stories speak of women of goodly virtue taken by the faeries to submit to nights of carnal debauchery? Why might a man of stout heart turn into a gibbering coward in the Briars?The reason is that the Hedge changes perspective.
. The song has nothing to do with the plot of the original Silent Hill game, but fits perfectly with many of the themes from Silent Hill 2., there's actually a lot of happensay and Does This Remind You of Anything? involved in the Red Pyramid Head's infamous "rape time scene", but no real logical reason for it. With what we know about the rest of the game, it makes more sense that the scene was actually a re-enactment of James smothering his wife.- There's definitely a sexually suggestive element to the way Pyramid Head and his victim are posed in that scene, and it's not like a video game in that time could have featured an actual, graphic rape scene. Combine that with the ongoing theme of James' sexual frustration and the generally-present theme of abuse, and the idea that it "logically" could not have been rape is just pedantic.
- Personally always thought it was a mix of both. If a smothering scene was done in silhouette, it would no doubt look like a sexually aggressive scene; arms and legs (or legs and legs) flailing around in a panic. The Legs could represent trying to dehumanize Mary by not giving "her" an upper-half.
- That's why the Abstract Daddy is shaped like two figures under a blanket, and why a female body with a bleeding pelvic area is pinned to the wall under a tarp in Angela's final scene. Her mother blamed Angela for it because her father was raping her on her bed, and since Angela continued to sleep there, her mother interpreted it to mean that Angela was "asking for it". She comes to Silent Hill to find her Mama, but her mother was also abusive; it's because she repressed her memory of her mother's abuse because she had no one else to turn to. She's attacked by monsters that symbolize her rape, in a room that represents her uterus and is most likely a reproduction of the room she was raped in as a child, but it's not until the very end of the game that she's able to say the truth about her mother rather than just to say she's looking for her Mama. Her progress parallels James' in many ways, and when we meet her in the hotel, she realizes that her mother isn't in Silent Hill because her mother is nowhere. Not because she's dead, but because the mother she's seeking, someone loving and understanding who can be her safe harbor in the storm of her awful, awful life, doesn't exist at all. That's the revelation she comes to in the end, not that she's a murderer, but that she's utterly alone. That's why she chooses to die in the end: unlike James, she has no hope, because her entire trip through Silent Hill was meant to force her to face that awful reality.
. In a nutshell, Maria is the embodiment of the positive aspects of Mary — the things that drew James to her in the first place and made him fall in love with her. That's why she is the most pleasant character to interact with for James, and why she tempts him to embrace her. In contrast, Laura is the embodiment of the negative aspects of Mary, which is why she's so annoying; we're meant to find her annoying, which further makes it harder for players (and thusly James) to push for the truth, which is so painful. She likely manifests as a child because people are more inclined to forgive or make excuses for a Bratty Half-Pint than they are for a bitchy adult woman.- Leave (Acceptence): represents his biggest reason was to end her suffering, in his mind he just gave her assisted suicide, allowing her to die with at least some of herself still left (it is heavily shown that the woman James knew and loved was pretty much almost gone by the time he decided to do so.
- Maria (Lust): He murdered her because he couldn't stand the thought of this sexless all give and no take marriage anymore, his motivation was to find someone new who wouldn't give him the treatment he was getting with Mary, Maria encapsulates all of the things he no longer had, a woman who wants him, all he had to do was destroy the last remaining vestiges of his wife and move on, maybe not emotionally but sexually.
- In water (Depression): Runs with the same feelings as Leave but brings forth the fact that he killed her as something he could never shake off, he gained an immense amount of depression from the act, and despite having killed her, he just couldn't let her go, but also indicates that this was his state of mind while coming to Silent Hill was to drown himself in the lake with her corpse in the first place.
- Rebirth (guilt): His state of mind is the fact that he "stole" her life when he killed her, just as she "stole" years of his life, but again, he cannot shake the guilt of the act of stealing her life (however little was left) , so he decides to give it back (in whatever form she comes out of the church)implying he know she will probably come back a monster and steal back the life he took.
This is generally what I got an impression of, seeing as this game leans more on the psychological trauma rather than physical, along with a dash of symbolism that I felt extended to the endings as well.
Douglas and James' father both mention him never being found or returning from Silent Hill. There's a few possible explanations for what happened to him depending on the ending.
- Maria Ending: James is still in Silent Hill, eternally looking for a way to replace Mary, Maria and any other copy of his wife he finds until he finds a way to properly move on.
- In Water Ending: James died and his car was sucked in away from the town once he joined Mary in death, preventing anyone who's not tied to him from finding him (meaning Laura and his father would be able to find his corpse if they looked or bothered to come where he committed suicide).
- Leave Ending: James left Silent Hill for good with Laura, taking some years for himself to forget about the atrocities he's seen while raising his stepdaughter. The reason he was never found was because, after leaving Mary's body somewhere where she'd be taken to the graveyard, he had to run away to hide the fact he killed his own wife, thus hiding his identity the way Harry does, hopefully living through it this time around.
- Rebirth Ending: James and Mary are together in Silent Hill, merged into a Siam.
- Dog Ending: James has to look for a vet in Silent Hill to make sure Mira the Shiba Inu is healthy enough to live with him. She isn't sick like Mary, but Silent Hill won't let James get a pet as a replacement for his wife that easily, he still hasn't even found any pet store.
- UFO Ending: James has moved in with Harry and Cheryl and is waiting for the UFOs to agree with Harry's plan to destroy Silent Hill. After the town is destroyed, James goes back with the Masons, encounters Douglas who wants information, tells him about it and the case is closed.
He wouldn't let Laura get into a car with a corpse in it, and it makes the ending even more sniff-worthy. If the game ever gets a proper remake, it'd be ideal for the final scene to focus in on Mary's grave.
Adding onto the theory that Pyramid Head is James's form as a result of the In Water ending, it's possible the supernatural forces of the town made Mary's form the weapon Pyramid Head wields, making James's claim of uniting with Mary after death more literal.
- For one, having blond hair isn't that exclusive of a thing. For two, James has amber/hazel eyes and Eddie has blue. For three, the radio doesn't kick on for any boss fights, including Eddie's.
- In the Maria ending, James chooses to believe (on some level) that killing his wife (because she was sick) was fully justified, and hints that he'll do so again if it turns out Maria is also ill. This is eerily similar to Eddie's own madness, where he justifies to himself—and James—that killing was actually okay. Given Eddie's fate in the game, it's likely to end very badly for James in the long run.
- In the In Water ending, James is unable to move on past his guilt of killing his wife, no matter how justified the killing might have been. Angela is clearly in the same situation, where she couldn't move past her killing of her father in what most people would call justified self-defense.
- It's only in the Leave ending that James is able to let go of his guilt and fully move on. Here the connection is a bit more tenuous, since Laura (unlike the other visitors to Silent Hill) hasn't committed any sins and was therefore "innocent" from the start. But it could be seen as James leaving town with a clean slate in terms of feeling guilt—he might still miss Mary, or feel bad about what he did, but now he can move on, since Mary (or a vision of her) gave him license to do so without guilt—which could be seen as reflecting the innocence of Laura.
