Monster / Character / Location Symbolism

[KiramidHead]

I've noticed an interesting detail on my latest playthrough. After the cut scene in the radio station, you can backtrack into the previous hallway. There are two blood trails. One starts from where Anne was grabbed and goes into the little kitchen area where you can have a vision of Frank in the mirror. Okay, so maybe Anne was pulled into an Otherworld sequence of her own there. The other blood trail is outside the widow where Ricks was pulled out. However, it doesn't lead anywhere. It just stops cold right there. It's as if Ricks just dissolved.

[CandyLander]

I've noticed an interesting detail on my latest playthrough. After the cut scene in the radio station, you can backtrack into the previous hallway. There are two blood trails. One starts from where Anne was grabbed and goes into the little kitchen area where you can have a vision of Frank in the mirror. Okay, so maybe Anne was pulled into an Otherworld sequence of her own there. The other blood trail is outside the widow where Ricks was pulled out. However, it doesn't lead anywhere. It just stops cold right there. It's as if Ricks just dissolved.

if you're on hard puzzle mode you need to go to that kitchen to get the diluent

[AyaKara]

if you're on hard puzzle mode you need to go to that kitchen to get the diluent

I'm sorry because I'm seriously trying to figure it out; what does that have to do with what KiramidHead said? Are you implying that the diluent is significant somehow? If so, please elaborate.

[The Adversary]

CandyLander is making it known that Murph going into the kitchen area isn't optional, or an "interesting detail," because going that way is required when playing in Hard mode.

[KiramidHead]

I was saying the blood stains were an interesting detail, not just the kitchen area.

[CandyLander]

if you're on hard puzzle mode you need to go to that kitchen to get the diluent

I'm sorry because I'm seriously trying to figure it out; what does that have to do with what KiramidHead said? Are you implying that the diluent is significant somehow? If so, please elaborate.

Yush, i was just saying it's not an interesting detail like an "easter egg" but something that's right in front of you. But now you talked about the diluent, there's might be some symbolism in burning those stuff, maybe

PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:

"burning your past". And right after you burn that, that's when the void comes (remember that the void could represent murphy's past, sucking him into the guilt of killing napier and losing his son)

Okay, so maybe Anne was pulled into an Otherworld sequence of her own there.

in the moment you're sliding you can see Anne running, so i assume she and ricks entered the otherworld at the moment they were atacked (that's why murphy can't see her or ricks, they were both in another dimention).

PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:

I think Ricks died in that otherworld, because we don't see him anymore

Sorry if my english sucks X_X

[AyaKara]

Thank you for clarifying, Adversary (nice to meet you, finally!).

I was going to mention the fact that one obtains items in other SH games on harder difficulties/ for different endings but couldn't think of any symbolism in the areas where they were found, so it does make sense that the kitchen has no sort of meaning.

I like Candylander's theory that Ricks died because it can explain his disappearance, but then it brings to question why he's just dying now and hasn't died before, unless that's directly related to the fact that the town 'attacked him' for bringing Murphy closer to the truth of the town's intentions and it happened to be his first time betraying the town in any sort of way. Also, we don't know how many Otherworld encounters that he's had in the past. Lastly, there would be no reason for Murphy's Otherworld to intertwine with Ricks unlike Anne's, so it is also quite likely that Ricks is stuck in his Otherworld for the rest of (and possibly, beyond) the events of the game. He can be entirely alive and experiencing something different. Only time will tell

I have a question: do you ever see the cutscene from the trailer in which Doll turns toward Murphy (in what I assume is the library)? I never saw it in-game.

[Aerith Gainsborough]

I agree with Kiramid's idea of Anne entering her Otherworld at that point. I've always believed that she faces Otherworld, (she seems to imply it on the boat ride that the town has 'showed' her things, probably through her personal Otherworld), and I haven't played it on Hard, so that little tid bit is really interesting, so I'm glad you shared.

As for DJ Ricks, I believe that he is in a loop hole, so to speak, and since he is constantly too scared to try and come to terms with why he's there, he's like a broken record that's trying to spin, but he's getting jammed at the same part, and thus destined to replay (Sorry for the metaphor). I agree with many others that he has been in Silent Hill for awhile, and is possibly the Ricky from the notes we find in Overlook. He was only going to be in prison a short time, but was so fearful in there that he took his own life, so it sounds like both DJ Ricks and Ricky share the common trait that they are too afraid to face things, and always want to hide or take the easy way out. Before anyone says it, I'm not trying to say that suicide is always an 'easy way out', sometimes it's the only way out for some. But if you're going to be in prison for a short time, most people would rather just sit it out and look forward to when they get out. The blood trail for Ricky probably ends abruptly because he pretty much was taken back to square one, wherever that may be.

Anyway, those were just thoughts.

[CandyLander]

Hey everyone! This is my first post, so I hope I don't make a mockery of myself, but...I kinda thought The Aristocrat was JP Sater, or at least an Otherworld manifestation of him.

Stay with me here. The Aristocrat appears only once in the game, during the Devil's Pit train ride from hell, where it bursts through the wall right before the train crashes. Who was responsible for the very same train crashing and killing 8 children at some point in the recent past? That's right, JP. As the operator of the train, it's entirely possible that his guilt trapped him in the Otherworld after his suicide, forcing him to play the role of a monster who crashes the train just as he did in life, reliving his greatest moment of regret for all eternity. One of the game's main themes is the danger of allowing your failures and mistakes to consume you -- perhaps that's exactly what happened to JP. Sure, he protests that the newspaper reports were all lies, that he wasn't intoxicated, but he clearly does feel guilt -- so much so that he can't bear to live with it. Maybe his punishment (be it inflicted by the town itself or his own mind) is to literally become a monster.

And I'm really reaching here, but for some reason I thought the Aristrocrat's monocle might actually be the coin that JP threw into the ravine during Murphy's first meeting with him...because both are shiny. Okay, now I'm talking out of my ass, so I'll shut up.

So, was sater alive or he was just another dead character like lisa?

[Yuki]

It's been confirmed that the Aristocrat was supposed to be Sater. I'd suppose what we saw of him was like an Otherworld recording rather than the real thing; didn't the train incident take place ages ago?

[Luotka Snih]

It's been confirmed that the Aristocrat was supposed to be Sater. I'd suppose what we saw of him was like an Otherworld recording rather than the real thing; didn't the train incident take place ages ago?

Yep, He hanged himself where Murphy saw him jump.

[Aerith Gainsborough]

It's been confirmed that the Aristocrat was supposed to be Sater. I'd suppose what we saw of him was like an Otherworld recording rather than the real thing; didn't the train incident take place ages ago?

I honestly hadn't known the date of the train accident (perhaps I just don't read the memos well enough). I actually didn't know that. Awesome!

@Luotka: How do you know he hung himself? Is there a memo or something? Seriously, I'd love to know.

[Soulless-Shadow]

It's been confirmed that the Aristocrat was supposed to be Sater. I'd suppose what we saw of him was like an Otherworld recording rather than the real thing; didn't the train incident take place ages ago?

I honestly hadn't known the date of the train accident (perhaps I just don't read the memos well enough). I actually didn't know that. Awesome!

@Luotka: How do you know he hung himself? Is there a memo or something? Seriously, I'd love to know.

When you're on the viewing platform with the...thingies you see through (brain fart - can't remember what they're called), if you zoom in to where Murphy sees monster-Frank wheeling along, you can see the area where JP jumps. Directly under that area is a hanging body. Honestly, I don't know if it's JP or not. I couldn't get a good look, but I thought it might have been one of the other prisoners when I first saw it (could be wrong). But then again, it is where JP jumps... Interestingly, monster-Frank seems to be wheeling directly towards it...

[AuraTwilight]

It could just be an omen of Sater's decision, though. Given that time doesn't have to run linearly in the Otherworld.

[thy_butcher]

I think it's during the St. Maria's Otherworld section; there are three bells that must be rang in a specific order to proceed through a doorway.
What I'm wondering about: each bell has a symbol on it. One of the three is the simplified Halo of the Sun that we saw in Homecoming; but what are the other two symbols? I don't recognize them...
Are they something from previous games?

[AyaKara]

thy_butcher, I believe the new symbols are foreboding future cult activity or references in the series.

The bell on the right is a square with a fire-like symbol in it. The other one is the Virun VII crest. In between the two is Homecoming's Halo of the Sun.

[The Adversary]

>but what are the other two symbols?<
One is the Virun VII Crest, if I recall. The other we haven't seen.

[KiramidHead]

One is an eye inside a triangle, which is just like the save point in Origins. The Halo is the Homecoming save point. The square with the fire could be the one from SH2... Jeewilikers, I might be onto something.

[The Adversary]

The save points in SILENT HILL 2 are red squares. SILENT HILL: ORIGINS' doesn't have an eye.

[Lostkitsune]

I believe a few of you guys have touched on the fact that Howard might have had a sort of role in previous titles, someone mentioned that perhaps he was the one that delivered the letter to James in SH2 for example. What I'm getting at is, perhaps Howard is either A. Someone (the first?) person to experience the otherworld and has become trapped or failed at whatever it is he is supposed to do and is now playing messenger or B. Howard is a manifestation like the monsters or Maria, and has been a constant force behind the scenes, being the person that basically gives you a summons to your otherworld experience.
I guess I just really like the idea that he has shown up to characters in the past. Thoughts?