Also, to alone in the town, the reason my point relates to your theory is because you are kind of saying that pyramid head had many opportunities to kill James but didnt, thus giving more credibility to the idea that he was more of a guide than an enemy. By establishing the idea that the reason he didnt kill James might be simply because James was a main character and generally main characters simply don't die in games, it would then suggest that the idea that Pyramid Head was a guide or savior would be incorrect, if you're basing the idea solely on those assumptions.
I don't attach much importance to the red pyramid thing's failure to kill James, because I understand that the main character's survival is, to put it mildly, significant to the story, though Pyramid Head certainly appears to be invincible, and the point to this is that if Pyramid Head wanted James dead, he would be dead.
What I do consider important, however, is that there are several instances in which Pyramid Head won't even try to harm James. Two instances, in fact, where Pyramid Head may ignore James entirely, and they don't even meet unless James deviates from the correct path through the Catacombs. The fact that the red pyramid head shows discretion at certain points, I believe, is quite important.
Agreed. Like I said, you certainly could be on to something here. I wish we could get more clarification on the intent of the creators, another lost memories book would be fantastic haha.
So this is a very old thread and I'll take the heat for bumping it if need be (as the old saying goes... better to ask forgiveness than to beg for permission, I'll try and make it worth it) - but it seems the Silent Hill 2 remake basically confirms this is the case.
Fair warning, this gets longer than I intended, and I go down a bit of a rabbit hole here but I'm grateful to even a single soul that reads this.
Spoilers for the remake, obviously.
At just about every juncture, Maria tries to distract James in any way she can.
First by appealing to his sense of romanticism by taking him to a garden and recalling a tale about a woman exiled to an island on Toluca Lake. The story describes a man becoming absolutely infatuated with the woman and trekking across the lake every night to bring her food and company. She uses the light of a candle to guide her love across the lake - until one night the man is tragically swept off by a storm and never seen again. Even then, she's said to keep the light of the candle alive every night until her love finally returns to her.
It's played straight by Maria as an inspirational tale of love undying against the odds - but as we find out later on in the Historical Society, the version of the story she tells isn't exactly accurate. Instead of a stormy night, the man is distracted by the light of an especially brilliant full moon and presumably is never heard from again.
The symbolism here is pretty on the nose, but there's also the expansion on her attempts to appeal to James' sexuality. Instead of the club just being some transitory location for them to get around the cracked roads like in the original, Maria offers to take the two of them to Heaven's Night for a brief respite. This is where we get some of the strongest character work by the two actors in the entire game IMO. Maria flirts playfully for him by turning the lights on and giving a twirl around the pole, before teasing him for taking it so seriously. She then leads James over to the bar to offer him a drink, appealing once again to those romantic sensibilities with a toast - a drink that he stares uncomfortably at and refuses*. This prompts Maria to start to cry and plead with James to not take her back out just yet, with all the monsters around.
(*I like this allusion to James' issues with substance abuse much more than the original, where you simply walk up to a shelf and are given what basically amounts to an AA introduction through textbox exposition. The subtle eye movements and microexpressions that Luke Roberts brings to the table in that scene are masterful).
Once the pair set off on their journey once more, she encourages James to go after Laura in the movie theater because she worries Laura may be in trouble. So after tempting James with sex and alcohol doesn't work, Maria takes advantage of James' need to help people and that's the primary method of manipulation she uses from that point onward (though she does once more try to cast her sexual allure onto James in the labyrinth to no avail).
When James and Maria get split up in Brookhaven Hospital, she chastises him for not doing right by her as her protector - and in the remake she gets very cagey when James opens up the hallway passage that leads to the elevator. Maria remarks that "something doesn't feel right", leading James to hold out his hand in encouragement, assuring her that she's still in safe hands. It's of course in this hallway that events largely play out the same as they do in the original.
Where I'm going with this, and what needs to be pointed out is that James has something of a misguided savior complex, something that Maria takes full advantage of. This complex often comes into conflict with his ability to interact with and really open himself meaningfully to people (something Mary describes in her letter to Laura) and that's partly why so much misunderstanding erupts between him and the other characters. This is why Eddie takes just about everything James says personally, and why James is eventually unable to pull Angela back from the ledge in the end with regards to her suicidal urges.
Maria at several points in the story locks in on this complex and takes advantage of it to lead James off of his critical path whenever she can - even if at times she may not be fully cognizant of why she's doing it.
So yes, I do believe the thesis that Maria and Pyramid Head are two sides of James' psyche trying to wrest control over it - but the remake certainly adds an even more pronounced element of tragedy to her character. You can see Maria's eyes light up as she describes the story of the Lady of the Light, even if it's not an entirely accurate telling, and as questionable as her motives are - there seems to be a part of her that enjoys spending time with James (at least before her disappearance in the Hospital). There's a genuinely sweet side of Maria that comes out more in the remake, but I also don't think anyone would argue that it would be a net positive for James to fall back into substance abuse and a life of unrestrained sexual impropriety with a woman that doesn't even exist. This intermingling of tragedy and manipulation makes Maria such a layered character in the remake and I'm curious to see where Bloober would take a potential Born From A Wish DLC if they were to grant the requests for it.
What I think Silent Hill 2 is ultimately about, beyond the themes of judgement, atonement, revenge, cyclical trauma...etc. It's a story about how we relate (and fail to relate) to each other, the dyadic exchange of emotion and ideas between people, and the ways in which even on a day to day basis we may miscommunicate in ways we're completely unaware of.
And to think we get to see all of this play out in real time through the town operating as a servitor for James' myriad hangups. It's a difficult wire to balance but I think both games do it excellently.
Disrupticon wrote: ↑27 Oct 2024
So this is a very old thread and I'll take the heat for bumping it if need be (as the old saying goes... better to ask forgiveness than to beg for permission, I'll try and make it worth it)
This is why the forum still exists - to give people a chance to dive into older theories/ideas and update them. No heat for this! <3
I am very familiar with this theory. I am unsure if the exact same theory was posted long ago on another forum I was a part of as well.
The way I simplify this thought pattern is, the TRUTH hurts.
PH is the very personification of a hard truth. He ensures the path is followed. He pushes James to the realization of truth, and at the same time, kills Maria to show James she is not the path to Atonement. Since PH is literally tied to Maria, it is fair to look at them as a balancing effect to James’ psyche.
Without PH, James would never have realized the truth and gotten a chance to atone for his “sins”
Without Maria, James would never have had a chance to continue his delusion as he believes his and Marys special place was the park, where Maria meets him.
BoLM quote:
“C r e a t o r ' s C o m m e n t a r y
Pyramid Head wounds Maria again and again to reiterate the actuality of Mary's death and wake James from his delusion. In other words, something in the depths of James' consciousness is trying to force him to remember his crime.
(Hiroyuki Owaku)”
