Laura's fate post-game

James got a letter. From a dead person. Oh dear.

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shfan201
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Laura's fate post-game

Post by shfan201 »

I have no clue why I didn't think of this before...
but if the "In-Water" ending is the "True" ending of Silent Hill 2, then what happens to Laura? Does she die?
Or since that Silent Hill "takes shape" to assist the situations, was she able to get out?
Or was her youth and innocence a contributing factor to her survival (if she did survive)?
...but then again why was she in Silent Hill in the first place? Was she "called" there, too? Was she just there to assist James with the events? Is she even real?

Just a couple of thoughts I need help clearing up. :D


Mod edit: Just FYI to the tread-creator, I changed your thread because "Something I just realized" explains in no way, shape or form what the heck you're talking about :P
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rm2kking
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Post by rm2kking »

I think Laura survived. If you watch the "Leave" ending, laura is leaving by herself, and James just follows. I take this to mean that Laura would have gotten out herself without the aid of James.
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Post by MariaRising »

Look at how she got herself around town... She was always at least one step ahead of James on everything.
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Post by shfan201 »

Another question...what was she doing in Silent Hill in the first place?
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Post by JuriDawn »

Looking for Mary. How long has it been since you played SH2?
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Post by shfan201 »

JuriDawn wrote:Looking for Mary. How long has it been since you played SH2?
Honestly, it's been a while...I just started replaying it yesterday. :D
That letter she got though...it gave her hints that Mary died, didn't it?
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Post by JuriDawn »

Not exactly. Mary hadn't intended that the letter would inform Laura of her (Mary's) death. Presumably, Rachel would have told Laura that Mary had died when she turned over the letter, but Laura stole the letter from the nurse's locker.
Mary wrote:My dearest Laura, I'm leaving this letter with Rachel to give to you after I'm gone.

I'm far away now. In a quiet, beautiful place.

Please forgive me for not saying goodbye before I left.

Be well, Laura.

Don't be too hard on the sisters.

And Laura, about James...
I know you hate him because you think he isn't nice to me, but please give him a chance.

It's true he may be a little surly sometimes, and he doesn't laugh much. But underneath he's really a sweet person.

Laura...
I love you like my very own daughter.

If things had worked out differently, I was hoping to adopt you.

Happy 8th birthday, Laura.

Your friend forever,
Mary
All Laura knows from reading the letter is that Mary has "gone." It could simply mean she was transferred to another hospital. Laura has no reason to believe Mary was dead.

Regarding your other questions: the Quicklinks thread is your friend. :wink:
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Post by Oddish »

Each of the other characters in the game seems to get a given ending, perhaps representing the choices that James has.

Laura always gets "Leave". No matter what happens to James, she finds out about Mary and leaves the town, her business there complete. If James gets the same ending, it is reasonable that she leaves with him: Eddie, her ride in, is unavailable.

Angela always gets a variation on "In Water". You might call it "In Fire". No matter what happens to James, she is unable to reconcile herself with her actions, and she presumably destroys herself.

Eddie's unfortunate fate parallels (loosely) the "Maria" ending. Eddie is faced with a choice between reality and delusion. He chooses delusion, and becomes a lethal threat to James (or does he? I've never been quite willing to write off Eddie's virtual indestructibility as mere "game mechanics").

In any case, Laura gets out of Silent Hill. If James does as well, maybe he adopts her and maybe he doesn't. If only she gets out, she probably ultimately gets back to civilization alive, though tired, hungry, grief-stricken, and resigned to life as an unwanted orphan.
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Post by Andros »

Man its so depressing how almost all the characters in SH2 met a tragic or unfavourable fate...Eddie, Angela, Mary, and I think James. If Laura gets out alive and well then I guess that's one good resolution.
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Post by Varg6 »

JuriDawn wrote:Not exactly. Mary hadn't intended that the letter would inform Laura of her (Mary's) death. Presumably, Rachel would have told Laura that Mary had died when she turned over the letter, but Laura stole the letter from the nurse's locker.
Mary wrote:My dearest Laura, I'm leaving this letter with Rachel to give to you after I'm gone.

I'm far away now. In a quiet, beautiful place.

Please forgive me for not saying goodbye before I left.

Be well, Laura.

Don't be too hard on the sisters.

And Laura, about James...
I know you hate him because you think he isn't nice to me, but please give him a chance.

It's true he may be a little surly sometimes, and he doesn't laugh much. But underneath he's really a sweet person.

Laura...
I love you like my very own daughter.

If things had worked out differently, I was hoping to adopt you.

Happy 8th birthday, Laura.

Your friend forever,
Mary
All Laura knows from reading the letter is that Mary has "gone." It could simply mean she was transferred to another hospital. Laura has no reason to believe Mary was dead.

Regarding your other questions: the Quicklinks thread is your friend. :wink:
Man, that letter makes me tear up everytime I hear it or read it. My God that is fucking sad. You can't help but feel so bad for a little girl searching for a potential mother so to speak. Rips my goddamn heart out.
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Post by Oddish »

You can't help but feel so bad for a little girl searching for a potential mother so to speak.

You are so right. And the saddest part is knowing that her search is fruitless, that Mary's gone forever.


. If Laura gets out alive and well then I guess that's one good resolution.

That's debatable, though. Yes, she gets out alive, the town was never a danger to her, for reasons that are still endlessly debated. But she's lost Mary, the only person that we know of who she actually feels close to. One wonders if she will ever really recover from that.
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Post by paladin181 »

James will kill her eventually if she stays with him because she'll just be a kid and constantly remind him of Mary. She gets buried in the back yard, most likely.
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Post by Delcat »

It's also been debated as to whether or not Laura truly exists, or if she's like Maria, a tool to lead James to face his own guilt.
[i]Don't know how I got here and I don't know why I stay
The poets all around are laughing in their graves
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Addendum: I WAS HERE WHEN ALL THIS WAS FIELDS, GORRAMMIT
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Post by Oddish »

James is not a psycho killer, Paladin. He's taken two lives: one was Mary's, and that was an act of mercy. Still, he was so guilty about that that he was ready to kill himself. The other was Eddie, and that was self-defense. Or do you think that James should have just gotten down on his knees and let Eddie kill him?

I think that James has problems, but I don't think he poses a threat to Laura. Or anyone else, other than himself.
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Post by paladin181 »

On the contrary, I don't believe he is a psycho killer either. My suggestion was only half jest though. He killed Mary not out of mercy, but to end his own pain he was suffering at her deterioration from her disease. Certainly part of him felt it was mercy, but he realizes toward the end of the game that he was doing it for him, too. With Laura around, and her apparent attitude toward James (if she stayed with him, which is a heavy supposition in itself) it would drive him apeshit with grief about what he had lost and indeed taken not only from himself, but Laura as well. And her attitude would do nothing but fuel the fire, adding in subtle barbs here and there about his "secrets" and his mistreatment of Mary - I don't see her truly forgiving him, but rather smoldering an anger deep beneath the surface and taking strategic strikes at him in conversation until one day he once again snaps and buries her in a ditch somewhere, likely bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe or something similar.

No, I don't see a relationship between the two turning out good at all. Because this all supposes that Laura doesn't grow up with a distorted and cheapened sense of the value of life, and kill James in his sleep one day as revenge for Mary.
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Post by AuraTwilight »

It's also been debated as to whether or not Laura truly exists, or if she's like Maria, a tool to lead James to face his own guilt.
Not by anyone worth their salt. It's an indisputable fact that Laura is real.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Post by Delcat »

AuraTwilight wrote:
It's also been debated as to whether or not Laura truly exists, or if she's like Maria, a tool to lead James to face his own guilt.
Not by anyone worth their salt. It's an indisputable fact that Laura is real.
Wow, things HAVE changed. That used to be the most popular theory.
[i]Don't know how I got here and I don't know why I stay
The poets all around are laughing in their graves
Must be something that I said
This place is not like anything I've seen before
The spirits move around, the houses have no doors
But I'm getting used to it[/i]

Addendum: I WAS HERE WHEN ALL THIS WAS FIELDS, GORRAMMIT
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Post by Oddish »

I am largely in agreement with you there, Paladin. I know that the idea of James adopting Laura seems nice in a sappy kind of way, but the more I think about it, the less plausible it seems. Better to have them just go their seperate ways after leaving Silent Hill.

---------------------

There are a few essays on whether the non-James characters are actually real, or just figments of his imagination. But by and large, I think that the prevalent opinion is that only Maria and Mary (in the endings that feature her) are imaginary. Though the fact that they seem to symbolize the paths that JJames can take is a convenient coincidence. And I believe that Konami has confirmed that they are.
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Post by AuraTwilight »

Wow, things HAVE changed. That used to be the most popular theory.
Maybe in bizarro world.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Post by Icarus »

>I am largely in agreement with you there, Paladin. I know that the idea of James adopting Laura seems nice in a sappy kind of way, but the more I think about it, the less plausible it seems. Better to have them just go their seperate ways after leaving Silent Hill.

That seems funny because that's not the real ending.
I felt [i][b]infinite[/b][/i].
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