Portrait

Murphy's been a bad boy ...

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VinnySplendelicious
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Portrait

Post by VinnySplendelicious »

Hey guys, I wasn't on these boards back when this game first came out, so I don't know if this has been covered. If so, just let me know where. I'm on my second playthrough and I'm noticing a few things.
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There is a portrait of Alessa in several places throughout the game. Why? In the early trailer of the game, Murphy goes into a house, and you can actually see a girl in a red dress pushing him and then running, along with a boy...I wonder if it was originally meant NOT to be Alessa but somebody else. The resemblence in the portrait is just too close to the movie Alessa to just be a coincidence though. I'm very curious about it. Also, what's with the constant cigarette packs lying around everywhere? I was curious about the symoblism behind that too. Contraband perhaps?
Again, sorry if this has been covered, I couldn't find any topics about it.
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Rev
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Re: Portrait

Post by Rev »

I'm assuming you're talking about the portrait, "When You Lose Someone You Love". Personally?
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I don't think it's Alessa. I don't understand why people think that it is. Alessa doesn't have jack to do with Downpour and that girl doesn't even look anything like Alessa.

I actually think it's a symbolism for Anne Cunningham. The little girl in the original trailer was shown in a red dress; it's the same little girl who turns out to be the younger version of Anne at the orphanage.

The name of the portrait itself, "When You Lose Someone You Love", is a running theme between both Anne and Murphy's story. Murphy lost his son, and Anne lost her father.

There are also other portraits of children on some stairs as well. Children, abuse, and innocence lost all play a huge part in Downpour, so I feel like those should be easily interpreted within the Downpour-related themes as well.
VinnySplendelicious
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Re: Portrait

Post by VinnySplendelicious »

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Oh, okay, I don't remember seeing Anne in the orphanage. It's been a long time since I've played through, and I rushed it due to my annoyances with the lagging. Since the patch came out, I started again to do the side-quests, I thought she looked a lot like the movie version of Alessa. What you said makes sense though. Btw, Alessa has a lot to do with every SH game, since she's the reason behind the town's power, and some theories even say she's still a part of the town
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Droo
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Re: Portrait

Post by Droo »

VinnySplendelicious wrote:Btw, Alessa has a lot to do with every SH game, since she's the reason behind the town's power, and some theories even say she's still a part of the town
Alessa amplified the town's power, but she's not the sole source of the town's power. Weird shit has been happening in Silent Hill for a long time before her. Take the Little Baroness, for example. Or the events of Past Life. Or the weird incidents in Weeping Bat Cave back in the day that are spoken about during the train ride in Downpour.
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Rev
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Re: Portrait

Post by Rev »

VinnySplendelicious wrote:
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Oh, okay, I don't remember seeing Anne in the orphanage.
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It's because she's the little girl at the orphanage, or it's a manifestation of Anne when she was a child. This much has been confirmed by the developers. It would explain why the little girl is convinced that Murphy is the Bogeyman. You also see Anne and the little girl running across two separate catwalks when Murphy is on his second waterslide trip, just before the end of the Centennial Building. So, even without the developer confirmation, the connection between the two is fairly obvious.
Also agreeing with Droo's statement on everything Alessa. She doesn't have "everything to do" with SH, because the town was already pretty screwy before she even came around.
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DistantJ
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Re: Portrait

Post by DistantJ »

I've always believed that Alessa is simply using the powers of the holy grounds to enact her revenge on the cult in the same way the town itself punishes wrongdoers. Alessa is tormenting the cult the same way Mary does James or
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Frank
does Murphy. There are heavy parallels between the Alessa incident and the events in Past Life as well.
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CandyLander
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Re: Portrait

Post by CandyLander »

^ except that alessa doesn't want revenge on the cult. in the first game, alessa is trying to stop the nightmare by spreading the seal of metatron (and Dahlia lies to us that that is the mark of samael). it only doesn't work because in SH3 we're told by claudia that the seal is all useless. So just the fact that alessa is running from place to place in the town is making her nightmare come to reality.

I think the girl in the picture is anne, and so is the girl in the orphanage. has anyone thought that all the monsters could be comming from anne's mind and not from murphy's? doesn't make a lot of sense, at first, because of the weeping bat, doll and screamer. but all the other monsters could mean something to her. the little girl is her desire for revenge and remembers her of how life was with her father.
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Silent Fantasy
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Re: Portrait

Post by Silent Fantasy »

I wouldn't say they are all from Ann. If anything, most things in Downpour are a mixture of Ann and Murphy, with some things even being shared. There is no telling if Ann sees the same creatures as Murphy either.
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Rev
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Re: Portrait

Post by Rev »

CandyLander wrote:has anyone thought that all the monsters could be comming from anne's mind and not from murphy's? doesn't make a lot of sense, at first, because of the weeping bat, doll and screamer. but all the other monsters could mean something to her. the little girl is her desire for revenge and remembers her of how life was with her father.
No, the monsters are definitely Murphy's, and a great deal of symbolism from the game comes from him. Even the water theme and the rain itself has more to do with his story because
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a.) his son was drowned, or at least was found, in a lake, and
b.) the deaths of two people occurred while in the prison showers.
Sorry, it just really bugs me when people say that Downpour is all about Anne when it's not. But... I've already ranted about that at great length before.
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It's also confirmed that the Weeping Bats represent solitary confinement, which Murphy experienced probably after he (allegedly) attacked Coleridge.

I always thought that the Screamers looked a little like Carol, too. Considering the note you find at the end of the game and what her words probably did to Murphy, it makes me wonder if the Screamers are supposed to be his wife.
Anyway.

Just about the only thing that never added up with Murphy's story were the hospital bits you see here and there. For instance, you find a bloody hospital room in the Centennial Building's Otherworld. I'm pretty sure this is because
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Anne spent a lot of time in the hospital after her father was attacked.

I just figured that Murphy and Anne experienced a similar event like James and Angela did, in which their Hells started to collide after awhile.
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CandyLander
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Re: Portrait

Post by CandyLander »

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^ what if murphy is being manifested to anne just like Maria was being to James? Maybe Anne's dad died and Anne created murphy in her mind as someone to be blamed for his death. And that's why the game ends at the moment anne stops chasing murphy and let's him go ,or, in some bad endings like the execution, she isn't able to stop blaming him and kills him for being the one who killed her father. In the ending where murphy killed anne, it shows us how annes ilusion went too far at the point murphy actually created a personality and was able to kill her.

and murphy's entire story with charlie is only a reminder to anne of what her father was to her. she wanted to be in charlie's place and have a father who cared about her. That's what the boogeyman is about: he is danger, and anne felt that, without a father, she wouldn't be able to protect herself from danger. this also explains why there's the little Anne girl in the orphanage, just like there is that kid who is a reminder of charlie to murphy. while murphy tries to save the little "charlie" kid (who ends up being killed by boogeyman), anne has her own father, who is the weelchair dude and "protects her" from the boogeyman. and they're in an orphanage because neither does she has a father anymore or murphy has a son anymore. both their families were split apart. Anne's closest reminders to what her dad was are the weelchair guy (who makes anne feel bad because it's a reminder that he's dead) and murphy.
My best theory ever XD.
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Silent Fantasy
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Re: Portrait

Post by Silent Fantasy »

But that would be a pretty big deal in the story, and as it stands now, there's no evidence that truly supports it. Murphy has a decently defined background, and pretty much everything points to him
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Not being an illusion such as Maria.
So while it's a good theory and would have been awsome in my opinion, I don't think it has much of a leg to stand on. Anything to defend it wouldn't be much more than strawman arguments.
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Rev
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Re: Portrait

Post by Rev »

It's an interesting theory, but like what Silent Fantasy had said, it's not possible.
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There's too much evidence backing up that Murphy is a real person, between the cutscenes and the memorandums that you find, there is absolutely nothing in game to support that theory.

What I like to personally think is that Anne and Murphy's story are almost a direct parallel to each other. The two were both married, and both marriages probably suffered after the deaths of a loved one, after they were consumed by the idea of revenge. Both felt powerless to the horrible things that had happened. Both more or less sacrificed everything in order to seek revenge, and both also agreed to do horrible things in order to do so.

Hopefully we'll learn more about Anne's story and who she is once the comic's released, but as it stands... Yeah. Her and Murphy are definitely not manifestations like Maria.
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Re: Portrait

Post by Brispir »

Even if a Silent Hill game is a stand alone game, mentally I ALWAYS try to connect it to Alessa's story... even if I know it's not supposed to be. It's just automatic. Been doing that since SH2, where I played through asking myself "What the HELL does this have to do with Alessa?"
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Silent Fantasy
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Re: Portrait

Post by Silent Fantasy »

Well, Alessa definintely left her mark on the town, but I wouldn't try connecting the games to her beyond that.
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Brispir
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Re: Portrait

Post by Brispir »

I don't try to... it kinda happens automatically. I know they're not connected but it's kinda like an automatic connection. Maybe cause I have such a big thing for Alessa or something like that.
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Rev
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Re: Portrait

Post by Rev »

Man, if they go and make another Silent Hill game that tries to connect to Alessa's story, I'm going to flip tables. I liked Downpour for going and doing its own thing, even if it could have done some things better (like every other Silent Hill game, really).
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Re: Portrait

Post by Glenn »

Brispir wrote:I don't try to... it kinda happens automatically. I know they're not connected but it's kinda like an automatic connection. Maybe cause I have such a big thing for Alessa or something like that.
I thought it might have been Alessa as well, but I actually think
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it's the girl who was killed by her mother in the ribbon's sidequest
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Re: Portrait

Post by Silent Fantasy »

Glenn wrote:I thought it might have been Alessa as well, but I actually think
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it's the girl who was killed by her mother in the ribbon's sidequest
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Ann is a possibility.
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Brispir
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Re: Portrait

Post by Brispir »

Rev wrote:Man, if they go and make another Silent Hill game that tries to connect to Alessa's story, I'm going to flip tables. I liked Downpour for going and doing its own thing, even if it could have done some things better (like every other Silent Hill game, really).
That actually makes it better. There is only so much you can add to a story before you actually ruin the game. Personally, I kinda wish the sequels never added anything to SH1 and just did their own thing... except I AM a huge fan of Alessa to be honest.
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Rev
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Re: Portrait

Post by Rev »

Brispir wrote:That actually makes it better. There is only so much you can add to a story before you actually ruin the game. Personally, I kinda wish the sequels never added anything to SH1 and just did their own thing... except I AM a huge fan of Alessa to be honest.
I liked Alessa, too, although not a HUGE FAN of her. I just think her story is done and over with (especially after SH3), and any more would just be beating a dead horse.
Which, you know, if it's one thing that I am glad that Tomm Hulett does get when it comes to future SH games, it's that much. Much as I don't agree with him on some things, he did at least prevent Homecoming from being another game about Alessa and basically told the team during development, "Hey guys, Alessa's story kind of ended already. Can it."

Buuut... that's kind of getting off topic, heh.
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