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shamanicshayminI'm finishing watching an LP of Silent Hill 2, so I got a looooooooot of thoughts!
The entire game reminds me of Hospice by The Antlers, which explores the complex emotions and grief of someone dying of terminal illness. So if you want a feel for the game minus the gore, I highly recommend this album. ;;
Silent Hill, or at least the version we see in Silent Hill 2, is basically Purgatory for James Sunderland. The town is basically a reflection of a person’s fears and demons. It’s not a therapist (if it was, it would uh... be the worst one ever), it’s just a mirror that can bring to light or amplify your psyche. Angela, Eddie, and Laura are all entirely separate people from James. But the only one who doesn’t have monsters in her Silent Hill is Laura. She represents reality and normalcy.
One thing I like about the game is that it shows that you can’t save everyone, nor is it your responsibility to. People are more complex than that, and you can’t just barge in and be the hero and magically "fix" them. You can’t "help" Eddie even if you wanted to. He already sees everyone as meat after being treated like meat for so long. Angela... omg I love Angela and the way her arc is handled. ;; The scene where she calls out James (and in turn, many viewers and Hollywood writers in general) and tells him being kind to her won’t just magically make her trauma go away is so powerful.
Mary's full letter is legitimately gut-wrenching. ;; I'm used to Silent Hill having hokey acting (which is part of its charm! But yeah, the acting is hokey, especially in the first game. :P), but her VA nailed it out of the ballpark.
Judging from the headphones and tape recordings (and a bit of flavor text where he’s read every medical book there is to the point he’s sick of them), I think James did genuinely love Mary and did his best for her. But after the stress from how abusive and toxic she was toward him (which is sadly very common among dying patients) he’d be motivated by rage and his hatred of her treatment of him as well as a mercy kill. D: To further muddy the issue, he could’ve asked Mary if being euthanized is what she wanted. Implying by the clips of her asking him “Why did you do it?” he did it on the spur of the moment. Wow James. Wooooooooow. Go figure, James is so horrified by what he did that the trauma blocked the memory out.
It’s obviously explained in-game that Pyramid Head is a representation of his guilt and his need for punishment for Mary’s death. I was legitimately surprised when there were two Pyramid Heads. :o I also liked that they don’t give James the satisfaction of killing them, they do it themselves.
As for the sexual imagery, I think it’s connected to Angela and the trauma she endured from her family. (Her father and brother's [the latter in the SH2 novelization] sexual abuse, her mother doing nothing and telling her it’s her fault) I never saw much evidence of James being a sexual person outside of The Symbolism (and Maria dressed in sexy clothes) and if he does, there’s obviously deep-seeded shame behind it. I wonder if Silent Hill is partly Mary's personal demons too, exploring her confusion and anger and wondering why James killed her in the first place, and everything she endured while she was sick. The sexual imagery could also be related to her shame about her decaying body (from the heartbreaking hallway conversation, Mary tells James she doesn’t deserve flowers because she’s hideous. D:)
Maria is a biggie. She not only could be an "ideal" version of Mary, but who Mary (or for a less charitable view of him, James) wishes she could be. James feels like he if tries to move on and "love" again, it’d be disrespectful to Mary’s memory. So in accordance with his wish to be punished, we got Maria. Maria is the "perfect" Mary who was never mean or flawed. But that’s the thing; she’s not human. She’s not Mary. The real Mary. James must come to terms with what he did. And no matter how horrible their last hours were, Mary is the person he fell in love with. Not a magic version of her that did no wrong. Her.
Whether or not James succeeds, well... it obviously depends. The Maria ending is backsliding of the worst kind, because we know he’ll just repeat the cycle with Maria. In the In Water ending, James isn’t strong enough to cope with his trauma. Rather than "live your best life" as Mary wanted him to in her letter, James would rather die than live a life without her. The Revival ending... we’ve seen enough horror movies of people trying to bring their loved ones back from the dead that this will NOT end well. In Silent Hill, if James gets the Maria, In Water, or Revival endings, he gets his memory wiped and he finds himself in the bathroom again. Until he gets the Leave ending, he’s stuck in Silent Hill forever, permanently being punished.
James reminds me a lot of Pablo from Nanquest, except Pablo is way more unambiguously likable and sympathetic. :P
It’s amazing how many games, including later SH titles, always try to copy SH2 without understanding what made the game so raw. The "omg it was YOU who killed your wife all along! WoOoOoOoO!" twist that’s so cliche nowadays makes way more sense in SH2. Especially because in the game, there was a realistic and tragic motivation for it, and not just there for shock value or "OMG the MC is Craaaaaaaaazy!" I think in one later Silent Hill game if you do all the "good" things, it’ll turn out the horrible things you did in the past never actually happened. Like what a goddamn cop-out. SH2 doesn’t try to sugarcoat or spare your feelings. In fact, the entire game is against that.
But man. SH2 has like Madoka Syndrome in which people have only a shallow understanding of it and try to copy the "winning" elements (ex. Pyramid Head, protagonist with a troubled tragic past, the psychological horror aspect of the whole game, etc) and then they’re like Shocked Pikachu Face when the whole thing falls apart. Like, Mary is a whole character herself, not just Fridge fodder to make James angst. I’m still blown away by how tasteful SH2 was with Angela’s backstory, 'cause every other horror media would’ve exploited the shit out of it. (Hell, I heard the Silent Hill movie pointlessly added rape to Alyssa’s backstory, yuck)
Every time I see comparisons of the original SH2 with the "HD" version, it hurts my soul. Way to ruin one of your best games, Konami. Should've let the dog from the Dog Ending be in charge. :P
I'm looking forward to watching an LP of Silent Hill 3! :D
The entire game reminds me of Hospice by The Antlers, which explores the complex emotions and grief of someone dying of terminal illness. So if you want a feel for the game minus the gore, I highly recommend this album. ;;
Silent Hill, or at least the version we see in Silent Hill 2, is basically Purgatory for James Sunderland. The town is basically a reflection of a person’s fears and demons. It’s not a therapist (if it was, it would uh... be the worst one ever), it’s just a mirror that can bring to light or amplify your psyche. Angela, Eddie, and Laura are all entirely separate people from James. But the only one who doesn’t have monsters in her Silent Hill is Laura. She represents reality and normalcy.
One thing I like about the game is that it shows that you can’t save everyone, nor is it your responsibility to. People are more complex than that, and you can’t just barge in and be the hero and magically "fix" them. You can’t "help" Eddie even if you wanted to. He already sees everyone as meat after being treated like meat for so long. Angela... omg I love Angela and the way her arc is handled. ;; The scene where she calls out James (and in turn, many viewers and Hollywood writers in general) and tells him being kind to her won’t just magically make her trauma go away is so powerful.
Mary's full letter is legitimately gut-wrenching. ;; I'm used to Silent Hill having hokey acting (which is part of its charm! But yeah, the acting is hokey, especially in the first game. :P), but her VA nailed it out of the ballpark.
Judging from the headphones and tape recordings (and a bit of flavor text where he’s read every medical book there is to the point he’s sick of them), I think James did genuinely love Mary and did his best for her. But after the stress from how abusive and toxic she was toward him (which is sadly very common among dying patients) he’d be motivated by rage and his hatred of her treatment of him as well as a mercy kill. D: To further muddy the issue, he could’ve asked Mary if being euthanized is what she wanted. Implying by the clips of her asking him “Why did you do it?” he did it on the spur of the moment. Wow James. Wooooooooow. Go figure, James is so horrified by what he did that the trauma blocked the memory out.
It’s obviously explained in-game that Pyramid Head is a representation of his guilt and his need for punishment for Mary’s death. I was legitimately surprised when there were two Pyramid Heads. :o I also liked that they don’t give James the satisfaction of killing them, they do it themselves.
As for the sexual imagery, I think it’s connected to Angela and the trauma she endured from her family. (Her father and brother's [the latter in the SH2 novelization] sexual abuse, her mother doing nothing and telling her it’s her fault) I never saw much evidence of James being a sexual person outside of The Symbolism (and Maria dressed in sexy clothes) and if he does, there’s obviously deep-seeded shame behind it. I wonder if Silent Hill is partly Mary's personal demons too, exploring her confusion and anger and wondering why James killed her in the first place, and everything she endured while she was sick. The sexual imagery could also be related to her shame about her decaying body (from the heartbreaking hallway conversation, Mary tells James she doesn’t deserve flowers because she’s hideous. D:)
Maria is a biggie. She not only could be an "ideal" version of Mary, but who Mary (or for a less charitable view of him, James) wishes she could be. James feels like he if tries to move on and "love" again, it’d be disrespectful to Mary’s memory. So in accordance with his wish to be punished, we got Maria. Maria is the "perfect" Mary who was never mean or flawed. But that’s the thing; she’s not human. She’s not Mary. The real Mary. James must come to terms with what he did. And no matter how horrible their last hours were, Mary is the person he fell in love with. Not a magic version of her that did no wrong. Her.
Whether or not James succeeds, well... it obviously depends. The Maria ending is backsliding of the worst kind, because we know he’ll just repeat the cycle with Maria. In the In Water ending, James isn’t strong enough to cope with his trauma. Rather than "live your best life" as Mary wanted him to in her letter, James would rather die than live a life without her. The Revival ending... we’ve seen enough horror movies of people trying to bring their loved ones back from the dead that this will NOT end well. In Silent Hill, if James gets the Maria, In Water, or Revival endings, he gets his memory wiped and he finds himself in the bathroom again. Until he gets the Leave ending, he’s stuck in Silent Hill forever, permanently being punished.
James reminds me a lot of Pablo from Nanquest, except Pablo is way more unambiguously likable and sympathetic. :P
It’s amazing how many games, including later SH titles, always try to copy SH2 without understanding what made the game so raw. The "omg it was YOU who killed your wife all along! WoOoOoOoO!" twist that’s so cliche nowadays makes way more sense in SH2. Especially because in the game, there was a realistic and tragic motivation for it, and not just there for shock value or "OMG the MC is Craaaaaaaaazy!" I think in one later Silent Hill game if you do all the "good" things, it’ll turn out the horrible things you did in the past never actually happened. Like what a goddamn cop-out. SH2 doesn’t try to sugarcoat or spare your feelings. In fact, the entire game is against that.
But man. SH2 has like Madoka Syndrome in which people have only a shallow understanding of it and try to copy the "winning" elements (ex. Pyramid Head, protagonist with a troubled tragic past, the psychological horror aspect of the whole game, etc) and then they’re like Shocked Pikachu Face when the whole thing falls apart. Like, Mary is a whole character herself, not just Fridge fodder to make James angst. I’m still blown away by how tasteful SH2 was with Angela’s backstory, 'cause every other horror media would’ve exploited the shit out of it. (Hell, I heard the Silent Hill movie pointlessly added rape to Alyssa’s backstory, yuck)
Every time I see comparisons of the original SH2 with the "HD" version, it hurts my soul. Way to ruin one of your best games, Konami. Should've let the dog from the Dog Ending be in charge. :P
I'm looking forward to watching an LP of Silent Hill 3! :D
no subject
Date: 2022-02-25 11:58 pm (UTC)(Your note on Mary and the flowers James brought her also made me realize, "Oh, flowers also wither, 'get ugly' and die, oh.")
Looking forward to you checking out 3!
no subject
Date: 2022-02-27 07:46 am (UTC)Oh noooo, I hadn't realized that about the flowers! No wonder Mary didn't want them. ;; The LP I watched pointed out the empty pool with the cradle where you find the Snake coin symbolized James and Mary's doomed attempts to start a family, which puts Mary wanting to adopt Laura in a new light. D:
no subject
Date: 2022-02-26 08:28 am (UTC)In Silent Hill, if James gets the Maria, In Water, or Revival endings, he gets his memory wiped and he finds himself in the bathroom again. Until he gets the Leave ending, he’s stuck in Silent Hill forever, permanently being punished.
I don't think I'd heard this interpretation before, and I'm really interested to know more about it!
no subject
Date: 2022-02-27 07:54 am (UTC)This mostly comes from me being unable to decide which of the regular endings I liked best, lol (since Dog and UFO endings are my favorites) Like on one hand, I don't see James as being strong enough to "overcome" his trauma, but on the other, I feel bad enough for him to want to give him an out? But on the other hand, there's the potential for him to backslide and sink even further in his denial, and the thought of him being trapped in a time loop just coincides with his wish to be punished. And what easier way to be punished than forget what you've done so the horror can smack you with its full impact over and over again? It's a wish gone Horribly Right. Therefore, all endings can be canon.