No Last Name: Significant?

[Droo]

Notice that there are only two characters in Silent Hill 2 who lack a last name: Maria and Laura.

Now, what is the significance of this, you ask? Well, first of all, let me call attention to the fact that every other character is given a last name, including Eddie and Mary (the Sherpherd maiden name), despite the fact that neither of these surnames come up in the game itself.

So why doesn't Maria have a last name? Well, that's obvious. It's because she doesn't have one. She does not exist.

Which brings me to my hypothesis: does Laura not having a last name mean that, possibly, she doesn't exist either?

Could Laura be yet another manifestation of Silent Hill? Yes, both Eddie and Maria see her as well as James (and who's to say Angela wouldn't have been able to see her should they have crossed paths at some point?), but does that really mean anything? I begin to wonder if Laura is something else, perhaps something drawn from First Nation myths. Could Laura be some sort of spirit guide? Or maybe she's a spirit that brings joy to those suffering, and punishes the wicked?

There's always been something about Laura that is horribly inconsistent with the other characters in SH2, and that something is the fact that we are told very little, close to nothing about her. Every other character in the game has a detailed backstory to them that we discover, except for Laura. Hell, even Maria gets a bit of a backstory with Born From A Wish. She seems to stick out as the most out of place character in the game.

I'm no longer sure she even exists at all.

[Harrys_Girl]

Wow,never thought about it like that.I didn't play much attion to the fact that they didn't have last names.I figured Laure would take Mary's last name when Mary adopted her.

[Biomechanical]

Who knows? Maybe she's the spirit of a little girl from the Hope House or Water Prison from SH4?

[Mis Krist.]

What little girl?

[plastique-nouveau]

Now, what is the significance of this, you ask? Well, first of all, let me call attention to the fact that every other character is given a last name, including Eddie and Mary (the Sherpherd maiden name), despite the fact that neither of these surnames come up in the game itself.

Actually, if you examine in the catacombs where you go to face Eddie- on the gravestones, marked James Sunderland, Angela Orosco, and Eddie Dombrowski.

You've got a very abstract theory going, Drewfus! She could very well be a figment of James' imagination such as Maria was.

[Biomechanical]

I'm saying, If Drewfus' theory were correct, and Laura was really a "spirit guide" or a "ghost girl", then perhaps she is in the town because she was from Hope House. perhaps Laura was a little girl from the Hope House or prison who died.

[Mis Krist.]

Ahh, okay.
Kinda reminds me of the theory that Laura, being orphaned, was taken in by Hope House, thus explaining how she managed to get to Silent Hill (since everyone else had to travel sort of far).

[The Adversary]

>perhaps she is in the town because she was from Hope House.
Suggested that pre-hacking: Wish House isn't all that far from the Observation Deck that James parks at, well within walking distance.

That said: Laura exists.

[alone in the town]

Perhaps she has no last name because her parentage is unknown.

[Anonymous]

That is a theory I ascribe too.
Laura isn't real but a manifestation of what James fell in love with, the reason Eddie could see here is that James Angela and Eddie are not really in Silent Hill but in (at lest partly) some sort of an other world, and there each in a different other world, there worlds can over lap enabling them to enter, partly and or fully, the world of the others which also allows there manifestations to become manifest in the woulds of the others, thus allowing Eddie to see Laura.
Now I don't think that James fully left reality till he went down the stairs in the Historical Society, he entered or created (depending on your interpretation) an other world when he got to Silent Hill or some time before but that would wasn't fully separate from reality until the stairs but he was slowly drifting away from reality as he went through silent hill.

If I keep typing I'll end up hijacking this topic so I'll stop.

[Anonymous]

Well i think neither Laura nor Angella and Edie exist.They all are part of the theater Silent Hill creates to confuse James.This leads to the REAL ending when James kill himself.

[LaraeGunn]

*Explodes with laughter*

[Anonymous]

That's what I love about SH....so much speculation!

[Burning Man]

Well, you forgot Vincent, Drew.

[Lexicon]

I allways thought Laura doesnt have last name because she is orphan, I mean if nobody (herself included) doesnt know her parents, how can they know her last name.

Allthought theory of Drewfus makes sense also (in a weird SH way)

[Anonymous]

That's good point.

[Anonymous]

Another possible theory that relates with Drewfus's is that Laura is a messenger, or as we sometimes call them an angel.

[Anonymous]

In the realm of Silent Hill, I'm not sure I believe that Laura is an angel. With SH being so much psychological, she could maybe represent one

[Anonymous]

Notice though how Laura delivers a message to two people she doesn't really know?

To James: You didn't love Mary.

This is partially true, since James killed Mary out of both hatred and love for her.

To Eddie: You're just a gutless fatso.

Yep.

[The Adversary]

>Notice though how Laura delivers a message to two people she doesn't really know?
She knows James. Laura had seen him at the hospital; she didn't much care for him. She never "delivers" anything to Eddie.