TheSILENTpavel is still exploring on finding all the cool extra stuff I didn’t know/cover in my video and will post his own video further showcasing these new things in the future. In the meantime, here are some screenshots he took of the unfinished room found inside the trial. Be sure to send him a message on his YouTube account showing your support and appreciation for all the work he’s doing for the greater good of the Silent Hill fanbase!

If you visit Silent Hill websites then you know of Whitney. She’s the gal that runs/owns Silent Hill Collection, Silent Hill Historical Society and co-runs Silent Hill Experienced. She also makes “Let’s Play” SH videos on YouTube and is one of the co-hosts of SHE’s popular podcasts.

Well, she’s a semi-finalist in Konami’s “Ultimate Konami Fan Contest” and the only Silent Hill-finalist at that! So please do her (and the Silent Hill fanbase) a favor and vote for her to win. It would be incredible to see a SH fan out-beat the Metal Gear fans and show how much we SH fans rock! (Plus, Whitney is a sweet gal who deserves it.) Voting is through Facebook. Click the link below to vote for her!

Pyramid Head is the most instantly-recognizable character in the Silent Hill series. Many have argued over what the Red Pyramid Thing symbolizes and what his real role is in the game. Certainly, upon first glance, he seems to be the main villain of the game. After a sighting of him through the bars in the apartments, we witness him abusing and killing other monsters twice, then we face off with him in the staircase area.

However, the encounters with RPT aren’t as straightforward as they seem as first. Though that first encounter feels like a “boss battle” the first time you play, you soon realize that RPT is not your average video game boss. Bosses have to be killed to progress. In order to make progress in Silent Hill, James needs only face the Red Pyramid Thing. He can’t defeat him.

Ito has explained RPT’s main role as follows:

The Pyramid Head, he is another James and he makes James realize his guilt. So he attacks other creatures on James’s delusion. When James realizes he is guilty from the bottom of his heart, Pyramid Head kills himself because his duty is no longer needed¹.

RPT’s Appearance and Actions

RPT and Rape

Some have suggested the apartment “rape scene” serves only to tell the player of James’ repressed sexuality following Mary’s illness. I disagree. Jeremy Blaustein has stated that the team definitely intended this scene to have sexual implications². As we know, Mary felt ugly and unattractive, and she was in pain. She didn’t seem particularly pleasant to be around, either, judging from the hallway conversation. We don’t know to what extent James may have been thinking about other women, but we do know it’s unlikely their sex life was that great toward the end. Several of the monsters, especially the mannequins, represent sexual urges. The nurses are sexualized, with their cleavage and short dresses. While there are sexual themes in the game, I don’t think the kitchen scene is all about sex, necessarily. It is also an homage to the film Blue Velvet³, but I also think that’s not the whole purpose.

Left: James witnessing RPT’s attack on mannequins;
Right: Jeffrey witnesses Frank sexually assaulting Dorothy in Blue Velvet.

Some have denied the sex theme of the scene because there is no penetration, but this is not a valid rebuttal because they could not have gotten away with showing graphic rape in a video game. The sounds and movements only suggest sexual violence, rather than portraying it graphically.

To make like a death scene. Like somebody died, or monsters died, or if you make that kind of scene… we tried to mix erotic essence. This is kind of a visual and a core concept.
-Takayoshi Sato, Making of Silent Hill 2

But why would RPT rape monsters? Some have said it’s just to portray James’ sexual desires, but rape is usually not about lust. James may well have had unfulfilled sexual desires, but I’m not sure it would be portrayed in this fashion. Rape is more often about violence, humiliation, and/or domination. It occurs in the animal kingdom. And primates like baboons will show submission by offering up their backsides to the stronger male in the group. The same goes for mounting behaviors, such as a dog humping your leg. The dog has no sexual desire directed at your calves. It isn’t under the delusion that there are sexybits on your knee. It may be that the dog is just randy, but it is more often a dominance behavior. If it were trying to mate, it would find an appropriate partner and it would not miss its target and mount the wrong part of the other dog. If it were about procreation, female dogs would not mount other females or humans, and they do. Rape and mounting in animals is not about sex at all; it is about showing the other party who’s boss. (And likewise, in humans, if it were about sex, a rapist would probably just hire a sex worker. But it’s not, it’s about dominating the other party against their will.) I think this is what is going on with RPT and the mannequins/lying figure. RPT is not trying to make sweet love to any monsters; he is showing everyone that he’s in charge (his power is also shown in the fact that the monsters die, rather than slinking away with their tails between their legs). And if RPT is in charge, James is really in charge, if he chooses to be. He can come to Silent Hill to face his sins, or to forget everything.

What’s RPT’s Motivation to Rape Monsters, anyway?

Ito says RPT is “another James.” He’s an external manifestation that helps James realize and come to terms with his guilt for killing Mary. So why on earth would RPT sexually assault a mannequin monster? There are a number of reasons. The simplest answer is that this scene (and the one in the stairwell) directly mirrors the videotape. There is a duality here or power and weakness, represented in different ways. RPT is presented as more stereotypically masculine than James seems to be: more powerful, more violent, holding giant phallic spears or knives. Mary (and Maria) are more feminine, obviously, but also in a more stereotypical way. Mary is weaker (since she is sick) and more vulnerable. She’s more emotional and prone to outbursts. Maria seems a bit unstable too, and her vulnerability is shown by her getting killed repeatedly, as well.

Consider the ways that people over-use the word “rape” these days. It’s not just a term used for sexual assault; people use it to describe any violation. Silent Hill 2 is game that uses a lot of symbolism, so it doesn’t make much sense to take the rape aspect too literally. What is the rape here? Violation. Forcing one’s will on another.

So I think a better question is “Why does RPT assault monsters?” and the answer is “Because James assaulted Mary.” Why do the monsters die as a result? Because Mary died as a result of James’ attack.

The Spear and Great Knife

Can the Great Knife and spear be seen as phallic objects? Any fan of Freud would tell you that anything longer than it is wide can be interpreted as phallic. Maybe it’s just due to ratings, but we never actually see RPT’s naughty bits. We do, however, see his dominance over other monsters. The words “potence” comes from the Latin for “power,” yet has come to be associated with male sexuality. “Impotence” is more commonly used to refer to “inability to perform sexually” than “lack of power.” Just as men with big or fancy cars are said to be overcompensating for something else, one might see RPT’s enormous knife as a phallic object. But again, it’s not about lust; it’s about violence. It’s been said that RPT abruptly stops doing sexual/rapelike things after the apartments, but that’s not necessarily so. He’s the masculine monster, Maria is the feminine monster, and he keeps thrusting long objects into her (in a rapelike way, that is to say, violent; rather than a lustful way). He’s asserting his dominance as the punisher by overpowering the weaker but more comforting delusion, Maria.

Guilt and Denial

As a sort of mirror image of James, RPT is separated from any other monsters in the game. The other monsters embody aspects of James’ psyche, including his sexuality, but only RPT is helpful to James on his journey through Silent Hill. Besides things like leading him in the right direction through some areas, he helps James to uncover the truth about why he is in Silent Hill. Maria, on the other hand, often only adds to his delusions⁴.

RPT keeps him moving onward toward his ultimate goal of realizing what he’s done and facing his guilt. RPT leads him through the apartments, the labyrinth, the hotel, and all the while, RPT is also fighting James’ delusions: namely, Maria. Maria, who was “born from a wish,” allows James to live in his more comfortable delusion that Mary is still alive in a way, or that she died from her disease and has been replaced with a “better” version. While he’s around Maria, James cannot come to terms with the events leading up to the game. RPT killing Maria repeatedly parallels James killing Mary, but it also is James fighting off his own delusions or defense-mechanisms and denial about killing Mary. Toward the end, even the Maria manifestation seems to be breaking down. She goes from being flirty and sexy to having a colder personality, and she says things only Mary could know. James becomes confused, asking her if she’s really Maria. “I am, if you want me to be.” It is as though James is making one large, final effort to deny what he did to Mary; to not face his guilt. But as soon as he leaves the room, RPT apparently comes in and kills her again. Even before the final Maria scene, where she’s strung up by two spear-toting RPTs, it’s apparent that RPT is after Maria, not James. Sure, he can kill you in the game, but you’re supposed to survive by avoiding his attacks. He always kills Maria, and he does so again and again.

Why Two Pyramid Heads?

Another subject of debate is why there were two RPTs in the final hotel area. Some have speculated that two have been running around all along, but I don’t see the evidence as being sufficient to prove this. I find it more likely that, until the point James watches the video, there is only one RPT. Then he goes back through the hotel to the final area. It’s worth noting that, right before this room, even the save squares are multiplied. There are nine, where there has only ever been one at a time before. This is undoubtedly to call them to your attention to get you to save then, however. After going through the next door, we view a scene where Maria is strung up upside down. While there have been many monsters in boxes in the game, this is visually closest to the Mary monster we meet in the final area. On either side of her on the platform area, there is a Pyramid Head. She is stabbed with a spear. The two RPTs are then on the ground with James, who must avoid their attacks until they fall on their spears. While it’s possible that one RPT is to represent killing Mary and the other Eddie, this seems unlikely to me. Of course James is conflicted about killing Mary, but he had to kill Eddie, or Eddie would have killed him. While it’s possible he still feels pretty bad about it, I’m not sure it warrants the creation of another RPT. I find it more likely that the multiplying of the RPTs is due to an increase in James’ guilt after viewing the videotape.

It is interesting that the RPTs kill themselves with their spears, similar to falling on one’s sword, which is the Western equivalent of the Japanese hara-kiri. In hara-kira, a samurai would commit suicide by disembowelment rather than surrender. Falling on one’s sword also has the connotation of refusing to be captured or defeated. This may be because James cannot kill RPT. Certainly, by that point, the player has tried to numerous times. All James can do is avoid him. Once he’s avoided him for a while, and since James has admitted his guilt, RPT is no longer needed. Since James can’t kill them, they kill themselves.

The Eggs

After the RPTs are dead, James will notice two identical locked doors with round holes in them. Examining the dead RPTs will allow James to collect an egg from each of them. The eggs fit in the holes and unlock the doors, but one has to admit that it seems quite odd. Why eggs? And why two doors leading to the same place? James was sort of split before this, Pyramid Head represented an aspect of him that manifested totally externally. Two doors leading to one place could mean that James is just one entity again, without needing external manifestations of his guilt or anything else.

An egg is an odd thing for a Pyramid Head to give you. Eggs could represent birth, or life. There is a rust colored egg and a scarlet egg. It has been suggested that the eggs could represent Mary (the rust-colored one, since she was sick and decayed in a way) and Eddie (scarlet, since he was just killed), but again, I just don’t think Eddie is that important to James. Another theory could be that one represents Mary (rust, same reasons) and the other, Maria (scarlet, because she is more lively and vibrant). I find this more likely to be true, because much of the game centers on the duality of Mary/Maria and the contrast between the two. Mary is sick, ugly, unhappy. Maria is lively, flirtatious, and sexy. Moreover, the fight with the two RPTS allows him to face both what happened to Mary and why he created Maria, and he feels guilt for both. He feels guilty that he killed his wife, and he feels guilty that he created this idealized version of her in Silent Hill. Mary was already dead by this point, but he also needed Maria to be dead, once and for all, to move on.

RPT’s Appearance

“The place Silent Hill is used to be the place of execution, away from cities. That was secret and sacred place. Heinous criminals are transferred to that place and get executed. That place existed only for that reason. Thus all village people are executioners or family of executioners. Executioners needed to wear a mask at the event so they do not directly witness their spear when it was piercing flesh. Time have past, only memory of execution lingered, got enhanced and formed the roaming illusion of Silent Hill. Pyramid head is distorted memory of the executioners.
-Takayoshi Sato”

Why is Pyramid Head similar in appearance to the executioners of Silent Hill’s past? It may partly be just because he looks scarier that way. Executioners in the past have sometimes worn hoods to retain some anonymity, to protect themselves from the family and friends of those they were executing. A hood (or, in RPT’s case, a helmet) also keeps us from seeing the expression on the executioner’s face; they remain more of a mystery to us. We don’t know if they are calm or angry or sad. In RPT’s case, we don’t even know if he’s human under there. Ito has created a lot of monsters whose eyes cannot be seen, and this tends to increase their monstrousness. “The eyes are the window to the soul.” If we can’t see the eyes, the creature is unreadable, or perhaps soulless.

Why is RPT based on the executioners? It helps to remember the obvious: executioners execute people. RPT reminds us, by way of his very appearance, of killing. James killed Mary, and RPT is there to remind him of this fact.

RPT is an executioner, but he’s not there to execute James. If he were, he’d be a normal video game boss and we’d kill him right there in the apartments and move on. Instead, he is there to execute James’ delusions. He kills Maria repeatedly until James comes to terms with his own guilt. Since James no longer needs RPT’s guidance, the RPTs then kill themselves.

Sources

1. Masahiro Ito’s BBS
2. Jeremy Blaustein on Silent Hill 2
3. Silent Hill Chronicle
4. Letter from Silent Heaven

Introducing Town of Silent Hill: A collective site archiving official and fan-made Silent Hill websites.

This is worth noting because we once heard James say “shit” in another cutscene before it was changed for the final build.

Click here to view the PS World DVD Vol. 11 – SH2 Review video.

Personal relation.

DeviantArt member Lady-ducky has undertaken the challenge of translating the official Silent Hill 2 novel into english. The first chapter is complete and further chapters will be translated in the future so be sure to bookmark her page.

Click here for the translation project.

The Sunderlands, James and Mary, did not have any children. They were a young, married couple, and perhaps in the midst of planning a family. It is possible, to me, that the idea of starting a family was the reason Silent Hill was such a “special place”. But, with the onset of Mary’s mysterious and terminal illness, this dream was pushed to the wayside and forgotten. Of course, this seems like a reasonable set up to the friendship between Mary and Laura in the hospital. A young woman destined to be childless, and a child without a mother tied together by a need for happiness in decidedly dark periods of their lives. However, there are many holes in this relationship, and Laura’s existence, that, like those that James traverses in the game, I plan to delve shamelessly into.

Foremost, it was not Brookhaven Hospital that housed Mary. Silent Hill was the “special place” of James and Mary, not their home. Given that, why is Laura drawn to the town, and subsequently, Brookhaven? Many would be quick to say that she came looking for Mary in the town, and naturally would check the hospital for her terminally ill ‘mother’. This explanation, however fitting to the story Laura gives James, makes little sense. Laura is an eight-year-old child, with no known transportation. She is also an orphan, who was staying in a hospital for reasons unexplained. How, then, did she arrive in the town? With Cheryl Mason, a seven-year-old, it was pleading with her father, Harry. Did Laura, a mere child, hitchhike? This seems unlikely. It is from these questions that I produce my hypothesis that Laura is not a real child, but in fact another manifestation of the town, like Maria. As the title of this article suggests, I believe her to be a manifestation both to James and to Eddie.
To begin, I will discuss why she manifests for James.

It is not unreasonable to say that children represent innocence and peace to many people. As youngsters, we are naïve, cheerful, and ignorant. It is a blissful existence; everyone wishes, as adults, to revert back to childhood. This translates into the fact that Laura does not seem able to see Maria or the monsters. Her innocent nature prevents her from seeing the wrong in the world, or at least in James’ world. However, because James’ innocence has been robbed from him by his criminal act, she detests James. She steps on his hand, and she later tells him he “never loved Mary anyway”. It seems suspicious that she would know James so well, but he would not have any idea who she was, despite visiting his wife in the hospital numerous times. If Mary planned to adopt this child were she to get better, wouldn’t she have mentioned her existence to James? In her letter to Laura, Mary even mentions James as if the two had met previously. Even through his delusion, he remembers Mary as a person, and her hospitalization. How is it that Laura escaped this memory entirely? It would seem to me that it is because she does not exist.
James needed another drive to continue, another guiding force that did not inspire fear, unlike Red Pyramid Thing. Laura was a child that James felt was in danger, inspiring the caring and paternal nature that James displays every so often. She runs from him in very apparently deliberate directions, and then disappears. Laura makes sure that James is frustrated with his inability to reach her, and by proxy his inability to have his mental peace and innocence restored. It is something Silent Hill wants him to seek, and something that James seeks behind his delusional mindset. I have read in several places that the ‘Leave’ Ending is canonical. Although I do not agree with this, as I believe the ‘In Water’ Ending is more accurate, this same idea can be applied to the former. James, at the end of his journey, finds closure and is reunited with mental peace. He leaves with Laura, who is inexplicably at his side. The innocence is restored.

The fact that Laura never meets, or sees, Maria is a subtle feature in the game, but a gravely significant one. However, it is blaringly obvious that something of suspicious nature is going on when James reaches the bowling alley. Maria stops shorts of the door, protesting that she “hates bowling”, a strange time to be worried about that when monsters roam the streets. In truth, Maria is probably saying this because Laura will not see her if she enters, or that the two different sides of James’ psyche that they represent can never meet. Maria is a delusion of the Mary that James wishes he could have. She is Born From A Wish. She presents a barrier to the truth, giving him what he wants out of his delusion. Laura is the peace of mind that comes from the truth. As James drifts farther and farther away from Maria, Laura treats him more kindly.

The fact that Laura is nothing more than a manifestation of a part of James’ psyche comes to light especially in the Hotel. Here, she represents something more than simple peace of mind… she represents the old relationship between Mary and James. Something he can never have again. In the restaurant, James finally reads the letter Mary apparently wrote to Laura. This letter is extremely significant to Laura’s existence in Silent Hill. Though it sounds as if Mary is writing a letter to be given posthumously to Laura in the event the illness took her life, I interpret it another way. Like the first letter, written to James, which was a delusion to his guilty, grieving mind, Laura’s letter is also a delusion. This letter is addressed to Laura, but written to remind James that despite her moodiness, Mary loved him. The letter also serves as a subtle hint at motive. Though James is “surly”, or bad-tempered, he is also “sweet”. He did not kill Mary totally out of contempt, but also out of mercy. Mary was miserable, in agony, and dying. We see that in her diary on the hospital roof. The letter also mentions that Mary wanted to adopt Laura. Like most of the information given to you in Silent Hill, this cannot be taken at face value. Here, Mary tells James that if she was going to survive or get well, she was hoping they could return to the way things used to be. In short, she hoped to ‘adopt’ what Laura represented into their lives: happiness and peace.

Later in the Hotel, after the videotape finally gives James the clarity of vision he had been traversing Silent Hill to obtain, Laura makes another, final, appearance. Here she tests James as a manifestation. Will he tell her the truth, and reach his peace of mind? James admits his misdeed to Laura, who reacts violently. She screams at him that she hates him, distraught. The ties between what James once had and what he has now are broken forever. As James puts it, “The Mary that you know isn’t here”. Though he gains peace of mind, he loses all hope of getting his happiness with Mary back. Unless the ‘Leave’ Ending is achieved, Laura is not seen again. Her role as a manifestation is fulfilled, just as Maria’s was, so she vanishes.

With her role as a delusion for James explained, I will now take a look at her relationship with Eddie Dombrowski.

Eddie, as James knows him, is a troubled and mentally unstable individual. He is childish and perhaps a bit dumb, and speaks in simple sentences that are often pouty or defensive. He is a child who has been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. Laura, being a complex being, represents some of the same things to him as she does to James. Eddie also subconsciously seeks peace of mind, but instead of total conscious denial of the truth, he simply lies like a child in trouble. He has a strong desire to be seen as an innocent victim of the taunting and bullying he claims has plagued him all his life. Eddie’s peace comes from this victimization of himself. He is very obviously insane, and unable to come to terms with his actions or his weight problem like an adult. Laura behaves like a brat when near him because he himself behaves the same way. For Eddie, Laura is like Maria for James. She is not there to help him see the light; she is there to keep him in the dark. In this case, peace and innocence are achieved in insanity, not in acceptance of the truth.

Eddie is at home in Silent Hill, and thus at home with himself and his past. He can kill without remorse in this town, and eat pizza afterward. He is not a person with hope for recovery. Like Angela, he is already lost. They are both here to wallow in their pasts. Like Angela’s hellish, fiery Otherworld, I suspect Eddie’s is also different than James’ dilapidated, abandoned Otherworld. I imagine his monsters take on the shapes of people, the thing he seems to fear most. Eddie is constantly surrounded by corpses, except for James and Laura, and that hardly seems to concern him.

Laura ‘s relationship with Eddie is more brief than that of hers with James. She is only seen with him once, but that is enough to establish her connection with him as a manifestation. She insults him to attempt to get a rise out of him, but when that fails she asks why he does not apologize. To apologize for one’s misdeeds is a mature and sensible thing to do. Eddie might have gotten help had he admitted to the authorities what he had done. But since Laura manifests peace of mind, she quickly corrects herself, saying that it is okay if he doesn’t because she runs away as well. Eddie is already at peace with his actions because of his unstable mental state. This is the only time she and Eddie interact, because he is forever lost in a childish, self-righteous state of mind.

Laura is not an eight-year-old child, but a manifestation of the happiness and peace that comes from a childlike, or clean, mind. Children play a big role in the town of Silent Hill, so it is no wonder that this symbol comes to us in the form of a child. I hope to have given readers some material to consider, and perhaps a new perspective on a character typically considered human and ‘real’.

Silent Hill Wiki

According to Guy Cihi himself, the voice of James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2, Konami has contacted him after years of no contact for something Silent Hill 2 related. Guy suspects that this may be about a re-release, or something to do with the Silent Hill 2 movie. This status update appeared on Facebook:

“Konami contacted me after years of no-contact. We are discussing issues related to SH2′s continuing popularity. Why now? They either want to re-release SH2 game content, or Sony’s SH2 movie involves James Sunderland. I’ll keep you posted.”

If Konami plans to bring back James after all this time, what could it be for? Can James be making an appearance in Silent Hill 8? Or will Guy be making a cameo in the new Silent Hill film? Our minds are racing with the possibilities! Stay tuned for more info!

(via Hell Descent)