> it wears half a helmet, a butchers smock and welds a big meat cleaver
> it appears in the family butcher shop, in the motel room with the photos and in the kitchen
> it kills lots of monsters, twice right in front of you (a nurse and a twoback)
> it has been seen at the motel by some guy who compares him to the executioner.
The connection I've made is that the Butcher only kills monsters that are directly connected to the locations specific to Travis' folks. And as a child Travis seems to have been unaware that there was anything wrong with his parents. So the Butcher is perhaps a manifestation of Travis' childhood anger towards the people who he blames for interfering with his family. Specifically the nurses of the sanatorium and the hookers at the motel.
And to further support that, I think the name of 'The Family Butcher' shop says it all. Having lived in Silent Hill, Travis may well have seen this sign as things we're going wrong for his family, and as kids do, given the words a new meaning. Perhaps in his mind he created this character of a "family butcher", that butchers for families. Therefore by butchering these monsters that interfered with Travis family, the butcher is doing a duty of service to Travis' family. Also by killing these monsters, the butcher is in a way inadvertently protecting Travis. So by killing it Travis is saying that he no longer needs protection, and can finally face the truth of his fathers suicide.
Judging by some of the notes found in the sanatorium, I suspect that Travis may have entered the alternative mirror world as a child without knowing, and unwittingly unleashed the Butcher entity from his adolescent mind. This entity would have been left floating around in the otherworld, becoming increasingly distorted and mixed up with echos of executioners, until Travis returns to slay it and bury his demons 20 or so years later. Which explains why it was seen by other people prior to the events of SH0.
I actually did not notice the name "Family Butcher" anywhere around the location. Was it on the map? The sign outside on the From-the-Hospital side reads something different.
> it wears half a helmet, a butchers smock and welds a big meat cleaver
> it appears in the family butcher shop, in the motel room with the photos and in the kitchen
> it kills lots of monsters, twice right in front of you (a nurse and a twoback)
> it has been seen at the motel by some guy who compares him to the executioner.
The connection I've made is that the Butcher only kills monsters that are directly connected to the locations specific to Travis' folks. And as a child Travis seems to have been unaware that there was anything wrong with his parents. So the Butcher is perhaps a manifestation of Travis' childhood anger towards the people who he blames for interfering with his family. Specifically the nurses of the sanatorium and the hookers at the motel.
And to further support that, I think the name of 'The Family Butcher' shop says it all. Having lived in Silent Hill, Travis may well have seen this sign as things we're going wrong for his family, and as kids do, given the words a new meaning. Perhaps in his mind he created this character of a "family butcher", that butchers for families. Therefore by butchering these monsters that interfered with Travis family, the butcher is doing a duty of service to Travis' family. Also by killing these monsters, the butcher is in a way inadvertently protecting Travis. So by killing it Travis is saying that he no longer needs protection, and can finally face the truth of his fathers suicide.
Judging by some of the notes found in the sanatorium, I suspect that Travis may have entered the alternative mirror world as a child without knowing, and unwittingly unleashed the Butcher entity from his adolescent mind. This entity would have been left floating around in the otherworld, becoming increasingly distorted and mixed up with echos of executioners, until Travis returns to slay it and bury his demons 20 or so years later. Which explains why it was seen by other people prior to the events of SH0.
Except for the last paragraph, that's a really awesome theory.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
Was this on the PS2 version or the PSP? I played on the PSP and don't recall noticing the buthershop having a "Family Butcher" sign. Then again I could have just not have been paying attention. But it would make another interseting 'pile of cardboard boxes/crashed car' transformation.
I've rejigged my original theory a little cause the Butcher also killed a couple of Straightjackets. But I've always assumed they represent the crazy people Travis would have seen at the sanatorium, so it's still the same group of figures that surrounded and interfered with his family so same difference.
But it also made me thing that the Butcher aint just physically protecting Travis. But he's also protecting him by destroying these repressed memories that these monsters represent, as if to erase the memory.
Makes me wonder who wrote 'Help Me' on the cap you find in the butcher shop? And what could it mean?
Cold_Ethyl wrote:He didn't say Travis killed his parents.
I know, but he did mention the "Travis is a serial killer" theory which I remember reading somewhere about someone suggesting that he did..... I was just saying "WTF?!?" about that.
Maybe because the bad ending suggested just that.
[img]http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i309/Juridawn/Graphics/DouglasSig.jpg[/img]
[i]"And everything seemed to be going so well...."[/i]
I definitely think the Butcher is protecting Travis. The reason he attacks is because Travis dares to stand up to him. Travis needs to prove that he is tuff enough to face these demons on his own and that he doesn't need the Butcher any more. And a monstrous alter ego like the butcher aint going to take that sitting down.
It's comparable in meaning to the double pyramid and maria boss battles of SH2.
I definitely think the Butcher is protecting Travis. The reason he attacks is because Travis dares to stand up to him.
DUDE! Travis is just standing there and then the Butcher attacks him unprovoked. Travis didn't dare to do shit.
[/quote]Travis needs to prove that he is tuff enough to face these demons on his own and that he doesn't need the Butcher any more. And a monstrous alter ego like the butcher aint going to take that sitting down.[/quote]
I can see this, but such a mental exchange would be for different motives.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
daft_emu wrote:Was this on the PS2 version or the PSP? I played on the PSP and don't recall noticing the buthershop having a "Family Butcher" sign. Then again I could have just not have been paying attention. But it would make another interseting 'pile of cardboard boxes/crashed car' transformation.
I found this on the PSP version, but I expect it's in both. I'm happy to see everyone responding so well to this! I'm back, by the way, if anyone missed me.
I just finished SH0 this weekend and have been reading up on these theories. i also don't think there's any evidence that Travis killed his parents. i too was interested in who The Butcher was. I do hope he's a little different than the background behind PH. and then i read that possibly that The Butcher is a part of Travis' split personality or possible multiple personality. i guess the makers left that up to us to ponder.
Travis does not strike me as the serial killer type. But I after some consideration, I've decided that (like SH2) who he is is determined by the actions of the player.
To get the Daredevil and Sprinter awards (and Marksman and Fireman as well, though they were not my direct objective), I had Travis race through the town with the Tesla rifle (I LOVE unlimited ammo) and basically incinerate every monster in his path, or that might possibly pose a threat later. I racked up about 120 kills that way. I did another playthrough with the night vision goggles and Great Cleaver (sneak up on the monsters and make sushi out of 'em), got a similar total. To get up to 200, it's a reasonable assumption that the player would have to be quite bloodthirsty, actively seeking out monsters to slaughter, and using either a bonus weapon or everything but the kitchen sink to do it. And given the variety of weaponry available, maybe a kitchen sink as well.
So: If you play Travis as a man determined to find out the truth, who kills only when he has to, he is not a killer, and never was. He's just a hardworking Joe with a troubled past and a heart of gold.
If you play Travis as a man who enjoys slaughtering things, then he is a killer, covering up repressed memories. But to his credit, he sacrificed his sanity to save Alessa and stop the ritual. As Hannibal Lecter reminds us, the capacity for good and evil can coexist within a person.
The connection I've made is that the Butcher only kills monsters that are directly connected to the locations specific to Travis' folks. And as a child Travis seems to have been unaware that there was anything wrong with his parents
One question regarding this. How could he be unaware that there is anything wrong with his when
His own mother tried to not only take her life but kill Travis as a child because she thought he was evil.
He was probably so traumatized that he forgot about it. Whoever raised him probably just told him that his parents were dead, and didn't go into gory details.
One wonders how long his mother lived, or if she ever died. She might have escaped into the Otherworld.
One can take it several ways: "family" as being an adjective for "butcher" (i.e. a butcherer of families). Actually, it would be an incorrect statement to take it as has been suggested, because the phrase would have to be modified to say "the family butcherer"
"Butcher" is a job, as it is a verb. You can butcher a family, but if you wanted to say that someone had butchered a family, as in a person who agented the butchery, it would be "the family butcherer". Not "the family butcher".
Instead, the phrase is a description of who employs the butcher- "the family". Here is where we can get metaphorical. Is "the family" the cult? The Gillespie family? The Grady family? Or is it referring to anybody who uses the idea of a butcher as a symbols as a family?
Each of these has different connotations. Were it the cult, it would imply that the cult uses the butcher as a sort of watchdog. Using it for the Gillespie or Grady family could either mean the murderous intent within each of them, or as an agent of one family member who butchers another or other people.
I'd take it as the latter-most. As a generic inclusion of everyone who uses the image of a butcher to represent something, either a part of themselves or a token from their past, or what have you.
I figured it makes a lot more sense if he simply fears that he was responsible for tearing up his family, and that he indirectly murdered his parents.
Wow I read through and was wondering when someone would come up with this. Truthfully if you look at the human mind from a psychiatric point of view, children from broken homes often blame themselves for it. It get's worse when one of both parents end up dead and the child is still at an early age. Travis lost his mom to psychotic behavior when he was real young. He even was told she was dead. Then his father topped himself. And Travis was totally alone then. No mother no father and he had to watch as it happened. If he want to therapy and said all that the Doc. would make 100 more appointments for him and give him pills. So the "Family butcher" might be guilt. But misplaced guilt that is something caused by those trauma's.
AuraTwilight wrote:The Butcher isn't protecting Travis in any sense of the word, otherwise it wouldn't of attacked him.
Well it's nice to believe that Travis had something helping him. Maybe Alessa sent our Chop happy friend to help him and then decided to use it to test Travis to see if he as ready to face those final bosses.
4 pointing baby monsters, 3 numb bodies, 2 pyramid heads and a split worm? Where's my trusty blade? This one's going to be easy.
