Ernest Baldwin...

[VenusDoom]

I remember playing through Born From A Wish, and being in the mansion, Ernest Baldwin is probably the oddest and most random (cannonical) character I've ever seen in Silent Hill. His entire being is odd, and serves only to give Maria a few tasks and warn her. Yet oddly, I find it extremly disturbing. A ghost who lost his daughter and wants to ressurect her, and somehow knows about James. Does anyone know if any other background info or interviews have been done discussing him?

[SHF]

There really isn't any other information about him sadly.

[VenusDoom]

^ That sucks, I'd like to see him refferenced or something in future games. Maybe he'll pop up somewhere down the line like Walter did.

[alone in the town]

His entire being is odd, and serves only to give Maria a few tasks and warn her.

He's a bit more than that. His entire character and a lot of his accessory imagery serves to flesh out what must motivate James to want to do what he does in the Rebirth ending, if that's the path he ends up choosing.

[AuraTwilight]

And he probably knows about James the same way Eddie and Angela do, and the same way James knows about both of them. "EXTRA EXTRA! Imaginary News says James killed his wife and is a bad man!"

[Mephisto]

There really isn't any other information about him sadly.

Actually, some say Ernest was one of the directors of Brookhaven Hospital.

And you know those warnings in Neely's Bar and all the letters addressed to James? I believe they're his.

[SHF]

There really isn't any other information about him sadly.

Actually, some say Ernest was one of the directors of Brookhaven Hospital.

And you know those warnings in Neely's Bar and all the letters addressed to James? I believe they're his.

She means other than that I believe. And Ernest Balwdin was the Director for Brookhaven. Remeber when Joseph Barkin stole the Director's key? Well, Baldwin mentions this in the letter with the wrench.

[dr bones]

Whoever left the letter and wrench at the time was probably the director, yes. But what proof is there it was Ernest? In the director's office in the hospital, if you look at the name on the desk it has a different name, though off the top of my head I can't remember the exact name.

[SHF]

Because the way the letter is written is the same way other memos from Ernest are.
Not only that, but he adresses James directly in the memo.
It's the same way that we know who writes the "There was a hole here...it's gone now" and the other message that appears at Bar Neely's is written by the same person.

[TheMorganator]

How did people get to the conclusion that Ernest is the hospital director? He isn't even in the original SH2 game as far as i know, only in Maria's scenario in the Director's cut edition. Before the DC/restless dreams came out who was the writing in bar neeley's supposed to be?

[The Adversary]

>How did people get to the conclusion that Ernest is the hospital director?<
That was me, actually. I postulated the director of Brookhaven Hospital wrote the "letter," and then, later, when "Born From A Wish" was published, made the connection that Ernest Baldwin was the author, given his knowledge of James' situation. I later changed the theory slightly, that Ernest was the former director, due to his recent death. The name placard on the director's desk reads Laurence Monneret. This is also more in-line with SILENT HILL 3's depiction of the more depraved director, especially with the disturbing artwork in the office in SILENT HILL 2.

I suspect Dr. Baldwin was Joseph Barkin's doctor, knew James from Mary's brief stay at the hospital, and related his patient to our protagonist.

I also think the only person capable of affording a mansion like the Baldwins' is at least a doctor.

>who was the writing in bar neeley's supposed to be?<
The original script for SILENT HILL 2, before undergoing a massive story change, involved a "double" for not only Mary but also James. This character was Joseph Barkin. Elements of his inclusion are still in the final game, such as the "HOLE" message.

[dr bones]

>How did people get to the conclusion that Ernest is the hospital director?<
That was me, actually. I postulated the director of Brookhaven Hospital wrote the "letter," and then, later, when "Born From A Wish" was published, made the connection that Ernest Baldwin was the author, given his knowledge of James' situation. I later changed the theory slightly, that Ernest was the former director, due to his recent death. The name placard on the director's desk reads Laurence Monneret. This is also more in-line with SILENT HILL 3's depiction of the more depraved director, especially with the disturbing artwork in the office in SILENT HILL 2.

I suspect Dr. Baldwin was Joseph Barkin's doctor, knew James from Mary's brief stay at the hospital, and related his patient to our protagonist.

I also think the only person capable of affording a mansion like the Baldwins' is at least a doctor.

Laurence Monneret, that's it.

l think it makes sense that Ernest was at least the doctor of those three patients. Something about his purpose in the game always seemed very vague and mysterious to me. When I first played "Born from a Wish", I struggled to try to fit his character into the overall story, I even wondered for awhile if perhaps his obsession in the last years of his life with the Resurrection of the Deceased ceremony had something to do with the drawing in of J, E and A.... Perhaps serving as some kind of catalyst. It starts to make sense if you take into effect that he doctored the three patients we learn about in Brookhaven, who were mirrors of the other three.

I like the theory he was connected to Brookhaven and maybe even the author of the warnings left for James, if for no other reason that it seems to "click" with the information given, and it gives his character quite a bit more context.

[The Adversary]

>Laurence Monneret, that's it.<
I've been trying for years to determine the origin of the name, unsuccessfully of course. The only thing I can find is Laurence Monneret, the name of a French photographer.

There is a 19th century author and publisher of spiritual and occult books, L.W. de Laurence, although he's most known for plagiarizing—well, copying word for word . . .—A.E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), but I don't see any other potential connections, nor can I find a good Monneret to accompany Laurence.

[SHF]

>How did people get to the conclusion that Ernest is the hospital director?<
That was me, actually. I postulated the director of Brookhaven Hospital wrote the "letter," and then, later, when "Born From A Wish" was published, made the connection that Ernest Baldwin was the author, given his knowledge of James' situation. I later changed the theory slightly, that Ernest was the former director, due to his recent death. The name placard on the director's desk reads Laurence Monneret. This is also more in-line with SILENT HILL 3's depiction of the more depraved director, especially with the disturbing artwork in the office in SILENT HILL 2.

I suspect Dr. Baldwin was Joseph Barkin's doctor, knew James from Mary's brief stay at the hospital, and related his patient to our protagonist.

I also think the only person capable of affording a mansion like the Baldwins' is at least a doctor.

>who was the writing in bar neeley's supposed to be?<
The original script for SILENT HILL 2, before undergoing a massive story change, involved a "double" for not only Mary but also James. This character was Joseph Barkin. Elements of his inclusion are still in the final game, such as the "HOLE" message.

So your'e saying the original writer of the Bar Neely's messages was supposed to be Barkin?

[The Adversary]

Yes.

[AnimalMother]

There is a picture of Ernest in the historical society.

[alone in the town]

No, there isn't.

[AnimalMother]

No, there isn't.

There is a picture of a man that was said to be the director of Brookhaven. It's in the historical society. That's my theory, you don't have to believe it. But I've never in my life been proven wrong. Especially by a woman.

[alone in the town]

It's in the historical society.

And that's why it definitely isn't Ernest Baldwin.

[AnimalMother]

It's in the historical society.

And that's why it definitely isn't Ernest Baldwin.

When did Ernest Die? It's Ernest, why else would that portrait be there.