Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Principle
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- PoemOfTheLastMoment
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
you're right Aura...but if you look at all of today's horror movies, they usually end with the hero escaping the darkness and into the light.. 'Leave' is the optimistic ending, for those who have hope and hold on to it even in the most darkest of circumstances...
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
And SH2 isn't a horror movie, so...who cares?
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
^Maybe he never actually played the game, just watched youtube playthroughs of morons who can't STFU and endlessly narrate their every action and minute boredom. I'd probably have thought it was an avant-garde horror movie, too. The monster turns out to be a bored, slightly stoned teenager who loves the sound of their own voice, and YOU CAN NEVER ESCAPE THEIR INCESSANT CHATTER!!! WhooooOOOOOOoooo!!!
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
Rebirth is the more optimistic ending really
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- PoemOfTheLastMoment
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
@Aura: But SH2 IS a horror game(not quite the average one though)...
@lain: I have the entire collection of silent hill games, right down to shattered memories. So i wouldnt be so dismissive...
James comes to Silent Hill to end his life...If he kills himself,then his story comes full circle. If he doesnt, then at least he has something to live for..Be it Laura or something else..
@lain: I have the entire collection of silent hill games, right down to shattered memories. So i wouldnt be so dismissive...
James comes to Silent Hill to end his life...If he kills himself,then his story comes full circle. If he doesnt, then at least he has something to live for..Be it Laura or something else..
Now I Know, The Real Reason Why I Came To This Town....I Wonder....What Was I Afraid Of? Without You..I've Got Nothing...Now, We Can Be Together Again.....Mary.....
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
Games and films are entirely different forms of media that engage the audience in entirely different ways, so their narrative structure is very different as a result. my point still stands.@Aura: But SH2 IS a horror game(not quite the average one though)...
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- PoemOfTheLastMoment
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
Games are an interactive medium, but they are just as scripted as any movie, novel or play...At least the games with some sort of story in them are.
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
Yes, but they're pretty much forced to use different tropes and writing conventions to a degree. It's not a clean comparison.
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
I still have 85¢ Australian in my pocket. How much is that and my gratitude worth in US dollars?lain of the wired wrote:Read and feel your soul restored, my son. It's fan-fiction, yes, but it's beautifully written, and one of the best fan-fic's I've ever read. It's long, but absolutely worth finishing.Don, Aman wrote: Mary's dream of adopting Laura will never come to fruition. I think I just died a little inside...
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Re: The reason why Silent Hill 2 happens to James: A theory
Not dismissing: I saw a shot and I took it. I regret nothing.PoemOfTheLastMoment wrote:@lain: I have the entire collection of silent hill games, right down to shattered memories. So i wouldnt be so dismissive...
Either way, there's a significant difference between the mediums, even if both are scripted. Apples and oranges are both fruit, but there's a reason the adage deliberately points out how silly it is to compare them.
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Re: Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Princip
Added a new section and made some moderately comprehensive edits.
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Re: Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Princip
every ending is a game over screen, seeing as the game is in fact over.
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Re: Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Princip
^ Totally Missing The Point.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Re: Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Princip
Nice thoughts. Nicely wroted and well pointed.
After all, why survive the entire game if he kill himself in the end?
Note that every time James face the true, (like the talk with Laura in the hospital) the game start to being creepier and dangerous (more dangerous).
I like to think the person dead in front of TV in the apartment building is the delusions of James.
After he see the tape in the hotel, He truly admit to himself that he killed his wife and the delusion of Mary being dead 3 years ago is finaly gone (dead). So, it's like that the James we see early in the game dies, giving birth of a new James.
After all, why survive the entire game if he kill himself in the end?
Note that every time James face the true, (like the talk with Laura in the hospital) the game start to being creepier and dangerous (more dangerous).
I like to think the person dead in front of TV in the apartment building is the delusions of James.
After he see the tape in the hotel, He truly admit to himself that he killed his wife and the delusion of Mary being dead 3 years ago is finaly gone (dead). So, it's like that the James we see early in the game dies, giving birth of a new James.
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Re: Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Princip
I agree with most of the things you said, and I think that your argument was well thought out and very carefully rendered. I always thought that the 'In Water' ending was canonical because of the heavy water motif and James' carelessness throughout the game, though I desperately wanted to believe otherwise. More on a personal basis, I think the suicide ending is pointless as you said, because, although he knows the truth, he's still running away from it. Regardless, I thought an unfortunate fate bore more weight for James because three out of the four canonical endings are bad.
Although, I don't think the 'In Water' is the worst possible scenario--personally, the 'Maria' and 'Rebirth' endings seem much worse, since he is clearly still living his delusion and plans to stay there.
This could be my memory going, but were you the one who wrote the argument for the Rebirth ending being the true one? I have to say I don't agree with that either, but it's a fascinating idea to consider.
Although, I don't think the 'In Water' is the worst possible scenario--personally, the 'Maria' and 'Rebirth' endings seem much worse, since he is clearly still living his delusion and plans to stay there.
This could be my memory going, but were you the one who wrote the argument for the Rebirth ending being the true one? I have to say I don't agree with that either, but it's a fascinating idea to consider.
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Re: Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Princip
Thank you.cmm6016 wrote:I agree with most of the things you said, and I think that your argument was well thought out and very carefully rendered. I always thought that the 'In Water' ending was canonical because of the heavy water motif and James' carelessness throughout the game, though I desperately wanted to believe otherwise. More on a personal basis, I think the suicide ending is pointless as you said, because, although he knows the truth, he's still running away from it. Regardless, I thought an unfortunate fate bore more weight for James because three out of the four canonical endings are bad.
Although, I don't think the 'In Water' is the worst possible scenario--personally, the 'Maria' and 'Rebirth' endings seem much worse, since he is clearly still living his delusion and plans to stay there.
I think it is probably not accurate to label the other endings as 'good' or 'bad', because they are more vague than they appear. Leave is often considered the 'happy' ending, and dismissed by some for that, reasoning that a happy ending is out of place in a game like this. The thing is, it only might be. We never know what happens to James (and Laura) afterwards, and while the game hints that James is going to live for himself, we really don't know what that entails, do we? Even if James (and maybe Laura) come away from there and end up finding some kind of good life, there will be a tremendous deal of struggle for that to be achieved (after all, James must completely abandon his old life and start over) and, we really are not given any guarantees that he'll make a success out of it. There's a chance that his new life might turn out to be just as bad as his old one.
This also applies to the two 'delusion' endings. 'Maria' hints at a potentially negative outcome, and 'Rebirth' hints at a potentially positive one (for a crazy necromancer, at least). Thing is, we can only assume here as well. Maybe James will do things differently with Maria. Maybe Maria won't actually die from her Cough of Doom. Maybe Zombie Mary is some hideous eldritch abomination which will eat his face off when he tries to kiss her. We just don't know. But, in both cases, there are possibilities of both good times and nightmares for our protagonist. After all, he may be deluded in both scenarios... but is that necessarily so bad? If life in the real world is so empty that he wants to die, would choosing to live in a fantasy be so wrong if that fantasy made him happy? I'm not willing to say it is. Note that I believe that, in both of these scenarios, James never actually makes it out of the Otherworld and back into reality.
I suppose one could be really hopeful for James in the 'In Water' scenario and imagine that an afterlife exists and he'll find Mary in it and be happy, but then again, the game does pointedly warn against hoping for that kind of outcome.
Nope. That was The Adversary. I think he makes a great argument justifying its legitimacy, but I don't believe it is the 'real' ending (since I don't believe there is a real ending).This could be my memory going, but were you the one who wrote the argument for the Rebirth ending being the true one? I have to say I don't agree with that either, but it's a fascinating idea to consider.
Re: Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Princip
^ I also don't like the Good or Bad label on endings. I think that's also the reason why they didn't name them that way, like in SH1. As you said, you never know the outcome of it. However, reflecting a bit now.. In water is the bad (not preferable) ending. Not only because of making James' trip unnecessary, but because of having the clearest outcome of all 4 endings. James drowns. Boom. He's dead. Nothing more to worry about.
Re: Why Silent Hill 2 Happens: The Self-Preservation Princip
Bravo! I agree with all of it, and it makes so much sense when I think back over the whole thing. The way the hotel becomes flooded at the end, etc.
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