[Silent Hill Discussion]

Hi all I just discovered this thread and I wanted to share some theories I heard. I'm going to be lazy and not read the entire thread so if anyone covered this previously sorry. Also I lurk a lot so please excuse my noob posting skills. Oh BTW, RichardKimble, please don't get mad at me for taking apart your message and expressing my theories. You were on the last page and you looked like you had a lot of good points and some I could argue. Nothing personal, I just liked your post

Anyways

Well, I'm seeing the world of Silent Hill 2 as something of a pergutory for James. Not in the Christian sense, but more in the sense as it was somewhat presented in the Asian movie The Eye. The belief that plays a major part in that movie is that people who commit suicide stay on Earth as spirits who constantly repeat the act until they come to grips with what they've done. We know James commits suicide in one of the endings. However, it's ambiguous whether it happens before or after the events of SH 2 since the letter James is supposed to get after Mary dies is being read over the ending. It's possible that James suffered miserably from guilt and that letter, filled with some emotional stuff, was delivered to him and pushed him over the edge. Not saying it's right. Just my thoughts on it.

I agree with you on this theory because if I understand you right his silent hill experience could have happened while he was dying like the bad ending in Silent hill 1.

So, we plug this in to everything. My idea is all the dark, evil stuff in Silent Hill 2 is James' projection. Well, not all of it. Some of it is other people's, but I'll get to that in a moment. All right, so they're a projection of his mind. This includes the Pyramid men and Maria, all though Maria may be a demon, but again, we'll get to that. In the final confrontation with the Pyramid Men, James says he needed them to punish him for his sins. What do they do besides skewer him and take swipes at him with swords so big, Cloud couldn't even hold one? They execute Maria. A few times, really. While the Pyramid Men may not be a direct representation of James' dark side, he does permit them to do what they do, if subconsciously.

I also agree with this because if you noticed all of the monsters of Silent hill represent some kind of symbolic message about the town or person. The red pyramid head is constantly killing maria representing James killing his Mary. The Leg Mannequins represent james sexual tension and frustration. Before you start laughing hear me out. When Mary became ill she became a lifeless and ridden body to james. The leg mannequins are composed of all legs and are wearing clothes similar to mary's. Also maria's tempting james and the rape scene with pyramid head and the mannequins reinforce this and the fact that pyramid head is a part of james persona. The Caged Prisoner Grille Demon could represent two things, james's own emotional prison that he cannot escape or Mary's death bed. The cage is a symbol of pain and torture which james along with everyone except for Laura (which I will get to later) are experiencing. Or for theory two, the frame looks like a sadistic representation of Mary's death bed. Even maria is in the cage at the end and when she is defeated she falls to the ground and resumes the role of mary and asks james to put her out of her misery. If you take close notice to the nurses in this Silent hill the you can see that they are the only nurses wear mini-skirts thus reinforcing james's own lust, and his sexual frustration and tension.

So, he's constantly living out the torture of what he's done through Maria, only it's an act separate from himself because he hasn't come to grips with he's done yet. I believe the final showdown with Maria is something of James coming full arc, confronting the ugly thing he's done (and yeah, Maria isn't exactly a pretty final boss), and moving on. She is in an execution cage because this is James realizing that this is him who has done the crime and his final bullet is something of reaching a finality. While the fight with the Pyramid heads may have somewhat served that need, he still is clinging to Maria a bit (He says "Leave her the hell alone!") and may need that last push. Maria could be a demon pushing trying to drag James to a hell of some sorts. The final scene with Angela sort of throws in the possibility of the existence of hell since she now always sees flames. In the movie What Dreams May Come (I know, more making references to religious stuff in movies. I should probably read a book or something), a big part of the movie is one the characters committing suicide, and that person sort of building walls around herself, not coming to grips with her actions, and not even recognizing the person she should recognize the most. Angela fits ALL of that (Which is why I think they added the odd part with her mistaking James as her mother). So, with that in mind, Maria may be a separate entity trying to drag James into the flames, but I doubt it. Most of the things in SH 2 (or the entire SH series, for that matter) are very mental in origin. I think Maria is seen getting executed instead of Mary because James subconsciously doesn't feel he deserves to see Mary and is giving this sin-tainted replacement (notice at the end she looks exactly like Mary, but is still Maria. Completely getting rid of Maria is James turning the last screw).

I agree with you that Maria is a representation of Mary but I think she's just made to die to make james suffer over and over and remind him of what he did but to drag james in the flames. the whole closure thing I haven't really thought about but it sounds solid.

So what are these OTHER characters doing here? Well, maybe they all died in Silent Hill on the same day? Note in the Catacombs, there are newspapers with "today's date" on it. It has flaws, considering that it's quite a coincidence three murderers died on the same day in the same town, but it may be just a Twilight Zone "it makes the plot work" kind of coincidence. Maybe they've been there for awhile and are constantly repeating their sins and simply reseting each time. However, if that's the case, then I question the linearity and the apparant finality of their actions. When James kills Eddy, it doesn't seem like Eddy's going to just reset and start again, does it?

I don't think that Silent Hill is for the dead. It lures people into the town like it did to Harry and Heather, only Heather was more forced by outside forces. I think that everyone that goes to Silent Hill all have problems with their own pasts and Silent Hill calls to them to bring out their sins. Samael likes to prod at people's inter secretes until they are forced to come face to face with it and have to deal with it. When some dies in Silent Hill they are actually being killed.

Anyway, so since they're all in their own personal pergatories, they're fighting monsters of their own creation. Eddy's possibly fighting very human-like monsters that taunt him (though I can't be sure because he kills all of them and leaves them either REALLY bloody or in a place where you can't see the body). Angela is being chased by the bedman, because well, we all know what her daddy did to her. Sometimes these worlds cross and James sees Eddy's and Angela's monsters.

Like this is the same thing I said earlier and I agree 100%.

Laura is a loose end, I admit. She doesn't seem to be bothered by anything in Silent Hill. She feels she has enough time to calmly draw murals onto the walls of Silent Hill, for crying out loud! She could be there because she's been a complete and total brat to everyone. She's not exactly the nicest kid in the world. However, she may also be some kind of "tough love" help for James, pushing him into realizing all the things he can't realize himself. She locks James in the room with all the caged monsters and he fights a caged Maria later and she's the one who indirectly points out the bad things in his relationship with Mary. Of course, still, locking a guy in a room with three REALLY creepy monsters just ain't right no matter what the reason, ya' know?

Laura is of complete innocence which is why she doesn't see anything wrong with the town. She could probably see the most beautiful place on earth while it looks like hell for others. Silent Hill feeds off of other people's sins and creates a world for them based off of that. Since Laura is free of any kind of sin, she has no evil force to deal with. When she locked james in the room, it probably looked like a vacant room to her with nothing wrong with it while James sees monsters in it and begs her to open it up. Why she is in the town is a complete mystery to me since Silent Hill draws sinners. Maybe she is a resident of the town?

Anyway, that's about all I have on the subject. Hope you enjoyed reading. My only big question is what is the significance of Walter Sullivan? He's mentioned very prominantly a couple times and even has his own tombstone in the room before the battle with Eddy. If it's been covered in this thread, sorry, I'm an idiot.

I think that the whole symbolism with Walter Sullivan is that he didn't feel any shred of guilt for the murders he committed. This could represent Eddie's angle or maybe some kind to james not to feel guilt about what he did?

Oh, and a quicky theory about Silent Hill 3. I'm thinking the monsters may be a representation of the 7 deadly sins (AGAIN with the stuff learned from movies!). Since it's established at the end by Vincent that the dark world is all Claudia's decoration, and Claudia sees the world full of sin, the monsters could be a reflection on sin. The monster Heather first encounters could be greed with all the extremeties except the legs being mouths, the little things first encountered in the malls sloth with only having a giant mouth and tiny legs, the "cancers" being gluttony, the pendulums or the blademen being wraith, and the nurses being pride (They do seem to have makeup on, which is a difference from other SH nurses). Of course, I'm missing a couple, but it's a rather incomplete and flimsy theory. Just a thought, really.

For the monsters in Silent Hill 3, I think they, like james, represents some thing in heather's life. the split-faced hounds and worm represents heather's double personality, in other words it represents heather also being Alessa. the bandages on the dogs also represent the bandages on Alessa. I don't want to get into the subject of Valtiel. Numb Bodies I think represents heather having god inside her. They look similar to an undeveloped fetus and look very similar to the fetus she aborts at the end. The Closers kind of look like giant teddy bears referring to Alessia's childhood and her bedroom which she was stuck in most of her life. Insane Cancers remind me of the growth of the god inside of her and that the god inside her is nothing but cancer for mankind. It also represents that just like cancer depends humanity, the monsters of silent hill depend on the human power of imagination. Nurses represent Alessia's former life of which she was in a coma until the arrival of Cheryl.

Well those are some theories I believe in. I got most of them from this plot analysis Http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/silent_hill_3_plot.txt which I find most of them to make alot of sense. If anyone wants to dissect my post and argue my point be my guest, in fact I encourage it. I love a good discussion. Thanks again RichardKimble.