This begs a couple of questions:The Silent Hill Phenomenon
The suicide rate has increased around the world, in large part due to the struggles brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, with countries still unsure how best to handle the issue.
These trying times have also given rise to a strange phenomenon in many areas: those affected suddenly claim to see fog--even on fair-weather days--and lose consciousness shortly after.
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This has come to be known as the "Silent Hill Phenomenon", named after a similar event occurred in an eponymous U.S. town.
1) It seems to imply the fog and associated experiences are brought on by suicidal thoughts (or extreme stress). This seems to imply maybe the updated events of Silent Hill 2 Remake will be seen by the public/media as some sort of mass suicide event. Or this could refer to some other event involving the town we have yet to see. (Townfall?) But something happened in Silent Hill, Maine that is publicly known and being written about in Europe in the 2020s.
2) If suicidal thoughts bring Foggy Silent Hill and the Otherworld upon you regardless of location (TSM is in Germany), was Alessa empowered largely if not solely by her own wish to die after the fire? And if Alessa's actions in SH1 "charged" the events of the future events taking place in the area as seen in later games, is "S.H.P." actually the cause of the entire series' events? If so, what exactly is it?
3) If people suffering "S.H.P." lose consciousness shortly after perceiving fog, does this imply the events of the entire series are psychological delusions being experienced by each of our main characters while under the influence of "S.H.P" instead of being something they're actually experiencing in another dimension of reality? As soon as Anita makes peace with what she's done and reconnects socially, the entire Fog World vanishes and is replaced with reality immediately. Are our previous main characters really in another reality or just knocked out?
Interested in others' thoughts on this new major inclusion into the canon. What is "S.H.P." and how does it connect (or not connect) to previous entries?