Did you still like James at the end?

[The Follower]

At the climax of Silent Hill 2, we discover that James killed Mary. Suddenly, our perceptions of James is potetinally altered.

I'm interested to know what your guy's reaction was? Did you hate James tremendously? Did you feel like he killed her out of mercy or selfishness? Did you want him to face his sins and accept reality? What were your impressions?

Personally, I didn't hate James when I first played the game, and I still find it very difficult to do so. I believe that James was just a sexually frusturated, and lonely insecure man whose wife, whom he loved very much, caused him tremendous greif when she fell ill. I think Jame's guilt and the fact that he feels the need to search for Mary reveals that at his core, he loved her very much.

[heavensnightsh]

I felt sorry for the poor bugger. I always feel bad for people who have bad mental conditions

[AgentX7k]

Hard question, I suppose I did feel sorry for him, it's not as simple as 'he killed her therefore he didn't love her'. I think he did in the end, there were probably some selfless intentions in his actions, to end her suffering as well as his own. It's a tricky moral quandary. I am in full support of euthanasia, though this situation was a little different. Mary did have a terminal illness and did say she wanted to die though I don't feel James had the right considering she didn't give him express permission to do so.

But I've always felt motives were more important than actions. From an onlooker it would seem that James did a brave thing, risking his freedom (jail) to end someones suffering yet we find out alot of the reasons he did it was rooted in wanting his own freedom from Mary, he wanted his life back. It's hard to hate him because I understand where he is coming from and even sympathize with him.

[The Adversary]

>I always feel bad for people who have bad mental conditions
What is James' "mental condition"?

I always liked James.

[Karen999uk]

I didn't hate him -I felt so sad for him and Mary. He obviously loved Mary otherwise he wouldn't have put himself through the events of the game. Krist's post "James's clemency (Spoilers)" explains it better than I could.

[angelofROOM302]

Well, I didn't vote cause there's two choices that don't explain how I feel about him. I liked James from the beginning and when I found out what he did to Mary, it didn't change how I felt really. I'm not sure why but I still like him alot. I don't feel sorry for him because of what he did or his frustrations or whatever, those are extremely sad excuses. So besides all that crap, I still found him a pretty likeable character.

[Panzer_Kämpfer]

His situation is too complicated for me to be able to hate him. I think that he's a good person at heart. Many of his actions reflect his character as he interacts with Angela and Eddie, so... even though he did murder his wife I still can't see him as being a villain. He's still capable of attaining redemption, if only he would allow himself to do so.

[Hannah]

I liked James because of all we went through together. The hours of running around scared out of our minds driven to find one thing are important. Just because he did what he did for dubious reasons (whether out of love or loathing).

I <3 him. Not as much as I like Harry, but he's a close second.

[Mis Krist.]

I didn't hate him -I felt so sad for him and Mary. He obviously loved Mary otherwise he wouldn't have put himself through the events of the game. Krist's post "James's clemency (Spoilers)" explains it better than I could.

Dawwwwwwww => Thank you, honey. But I still maintain the only reason I'm "better"* is because I think too much and thus waste a lot of time thinking about how to explain things. And dear Christ your icon is gorgeous. And distracting.

I felt sorry for James. I didn't hate him at all, nor did I feel anything negative besides this intense sadness. If he was painted in a somehow vicious or cruel way then I wouldn't be able to sit here today and still think of him as a fundamentally good person who was just horribly tormented. The game goes to almost exhausting details and lengths to show James as a man who ISN'T horrible and ISN'T a cruel, heartless bastard. I think if you didn't like James at the end of the game then you were pretty much disregarding everything the game established for you, and thus you severely limited yourself from the game's finest point.


ETA: "Jame's" Why the hell do people do this all the time? I'm not attacking you, Follower, I'm just wondering why people are incapable of putting apostrophes in the right place. O_o Jame's would mean his name was Jame.


* I don't really think I'm better at all, in a sense.

[The Adversary]

>Why the hell do people do this all the time?
Probably the same reason people misuse their/there/they're, no/know and your/you're—among others.

[crucifix]

I liked James because of all we went through together.

i agree. such times we had, james and i. i remember making him fall off the lynching scaffold numerous times, usually laughing, trying to see exactly what the reaction was when he hit the ground... and he simply put up with it, among other things. what a trooper.

really though, james is my favorite SH protagonist. probably because i'm biased toward SH2's awesomeness.

[Annebelle]

Seriously, I didn't feel sorry for him. I didn't really hate him either. But he killed Eddie. Unforgivable.

[Mis Krist.]

So killing in self defense is unforgivable? Right.

[Annebelle]

So killing in self defense is unforgivable? Right.

*sigh*

The point is, he's a VIDEO GAME CHARACTER. If it was reality, of course I'd feel sorry for him!

For some unknown reason I didn't like him. However, I did (without being some kind of crazy psychopathic maniac. I hope.) think Eddie was kind of cool. Yeah, I'm fully aware of the fact that it was Eddie who attacked James and not the other way around. But, still. I don't know.

Yeah, I'm strange.

[crucifix]

However, I did (without being some kind of crazy psychopathic maniac. I hope.) think Eddie was kind of cool.

omg ur an insane rebel.

[The Follower]

ETA: "Jame's" Why the hell do people do this all the time? I'm not attacking you, Follower, I'm just wondering why people are incapable of putting apostrophes in the right place. O_o Jame's would mean his name was Jame.

You're right. Typo on my part. I'm an English Major, so that isn't too good. I'll look for that in future essays.

I'm glad to see that the majority of people here like James. I've talked to some people who hated him when the truth was revealed, and I just couldn't understand how they were able to do that.

[blank fairy]

I've always thought James was cool. As for feeling sorry for him or hating him depends on my mood really. Most of the time I usually do feel for him and feel bad about everything he must have felt and have gone through while Mary was ill. Other times I think "geez what an ass" and then I go ahead and get the Maria ending so that I can justify my indignation lol.

[alessas angel]

I felt very sorry for him. I would hate to have been in his shoes. I understand why he felt what he felt.

[GioGio]

It depends how you look at it.

Did he

PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:

suffocate

her to end her pain? To not let her suffer and wither away to nothing?
Or did he do it cause he could not take it anymore, to end his pain, to do a coward act?

It's easy for us to say either I felt sorry for him, or what a heartless coward bastard. I guess it would be easier answered if we were actually in that position.

However, I felt bad for him at first, but my final thought, he was a coward for what he did.

[Oddish]

I don't think we can say that he was motivated only by Mary's suffering, or by his own. They were both in pain. They both wanted the pain to end. And remember also that James could have merely walked away, rather than remaining with Mary to the end. And yet he didn't. Mary says it best: "If that were true [that you hated me], why are you so sad?" She knew him best. She knew why he did what he did. And she forgave him. That's good enough for me.