"Her outfit also appears somewhat mismatched" Oh that was just the early 2000's the team did actually go through several fashion magazines while designing the characters 😂 and green + orange + something beige/white (usually a bucket hat, but Heather's rocking that vest) was soooo the "teenage dirtbag" look
The fact Heather Mason is never on those "women in games" lists is a shame, she's one of the best protags not only in the series but she never gets the attention she deserves!!
Silent hill 3 will be hands down my favorite always because of Heather. She is my favorite female character in any video game. I was 13 when I first played and her snarky attitude was so on point with how a teenager would be dealing with all this craziness. It makes me sad that 2 gets all the praise but 3 gets looked over so much even though it was literally a continuation of the storyline.
@@AshChiCupcak sadly i think a lot of people like 2 *bc* its not related to the storyline. which... if you dont care abt the storyline to the point you prefer it not being involved at all, then maybe you dont actually love the series and just love sh2....
@@cassinipanini Honestly, it may have a lot to do with the generational leap on gaming between 1 and 2. A lot of people started on 2 as it was the first one on PS2. I didn't even play the first one until after I beat the third one because I was only 8 so I watched my brother play it. I liked it, I just didn't get it. So I got lucky he gave me his copy of 3 after he beat it and I was finally at an age where I was brave enough to play. So I get why people are so attached to 2, I just feel like that passion is very biased. 4 was great too but it was also forgotten 😔
Feminine horror like what you see in SH3, Haunting Ground, and Rule of Rose is a deeply under utilized area of horror narratives. When it is used, the mark gets missed, or even downright fetishistic, in a lot of cases. I'm glad that these games exist.
Haunting Ground was impressive for its time. Pretty sad it was overshadowed towards the end of the PS2 lifespan; it was a really amazing horror game that has some great atmosphere and gameplay.
You could argue Haunting Ground for sure has fetishistic elements. I mean just look at the character design for one, it's not as out of pocket as it could be but that skirt is short for a reason. But here's something to think about, in interviews for Silent Hill3 regarding Heather/Cheryl's design they were going to go with different opptions but settled on a skirt because it seemed a bit more visually vulnerable or something along those lines. Maybe, haunting grounds also uses this for a similar purpose? But the skirt its a bit more fan servicey with it being shorter, i mean this is capcom.
I played SH3 when I was 18. l always remember the moment Heather discovers her father dead in their apartment, and my dad unexpectedly passed away in another room at the exact same time. It was as if the nightmarish world of this game was trying to tell me. From that point on, I was flung into the most turbulent years of womanhood and young adult life. This game will always be with me.
Heather's version of Silent Hill has a much different tone than Alessa's, despite being the same entity. Alessa's pain and fear was all based in pre-adolescence. Alessia both loved and feared the church, and felt isolated in her youth. After being burned, she became unfortunately familiar with life in the hospital, and the corruption of adults. This combined with Cheryl's fear of the monsters she would draw in her sketchbook when they came together to create her otherworld. But, Heather, as their reincarnation, never had such an upbringing. She didn't suffer at the hands of corrupt adults, or feel the ostracization that Alessia felt. Her fears are more common to her age and sex. Her fears revolve around blood, and what teenage girl doesn't fear showing blood during her period. She has self image issues, seeing faceless monsters with "happy" images pasted over them; sexualized nurse figures, who have no identity. She fears pregnancy, and rape. The enemies have stabbing, penetrating attacks, and can overpower Heather when she is down. Some are very phallic in design. Her enemies sometimes appear in nurse or patient's clothing. The enemy "insane cancer" could even represent the very common diseases that come with female biology: ovarian or breast cancer. Heather's otherworld is very medical, and very maternal.
That is an interesting way to look at it, but canon is canon. None of this is actually true, all the enemy designs were inspired from SH1 and SH2, like the closer was inspired from mandarin according to masahiro ito. and mostly all the monsters are simply game designs. Also there were no sexualized nurse figures in SH3, however it was a thing in SH2 because of james's inner sexual frustration due to Mary being sick, james being james saw the nurses as sexualized in his fked up fantasy. Masahiro ito confirmed in one of his tweets that mostly all the monsters are not symbolism of any kind despite SH1 and SH2.
What always stuck out to me the most was the first boss being a clear euphemism for Masc genitalia. The idea something so grotesque could take away your life. It literally being a threat that could kill you in the game is juxtaposition to how something like that could easily ruin a young girl's life. The slurper enemy have boxers on, and could easily represent the "thirsty" men in real life who just view people like heather as a sex object to thirst over
Not to sound too cringe, but it's really nice finally hearing a woman cover this game, with viewpoints and ideas and life experiences that correlate to mine and the games. Thank you for sharing!
Thegamingmuse is also a great RUclips channel that covers the Silent Hill series and other horror who [EDIT]: is trans masc identifying as he/him. However, their's was the first video I saw that put together the idea of Maria from SH:2 being the greatest feminine existential horror.
i wish more people would recognize that, it’s not JUST a happy ending for her. she sees her father die and still survives silent hill while getting revenge while others couldn’t even survive it. crazy.
@@theetaurus1832 Exactly. Painful and all but she pulled through. Way more than what can be sai from the bodies at the haunted house or some others found alongg the way. Still, Stanley deserved to become number 7. Haha
@@enderclasscraft6411 i meant to add that too, unlike the others she lives with the actions of everyone else around her and none of her own decisions that affect her.
I like to think that one day, Harry walked into Heather's room with a fishing vest in one hand, and cargo shorts in the other, and made her chose. "Heather, you're going to need pockets."
"You're getting older, before you know it you'll be holding onto fifty rounds of pistol ammo, 5 protein drinks, a janitors ring of keys. Could be other weird stuff, a god seal, maybe some bread tongs. When I was your age I had to haul a pack of juice. Point is...."
As someone who lost a parent, albeit at an older age than Heather, hearing her just say ‘Dad…’ at the end really fucking hurt. I didn’t get how pointless revenge is until I lost someone. There’s no way to bring back them, or the person you were.
i was only 7 when my dad died but that scene resonated with me alot as well. im sorry you had to experience losing a parent. i know how heartbreaking it is.
Related to that brief construction area, I was walking around town late at night when I was younger. For no reason other than I happened to walk by, I went into a hospital, got in the elevator and pressed the button for the highest floor. When the door opened, it was a totally empty floor, no lights except for the emergency lights, and it was under remodeling, so there were plastic sheets hanging all over as separations between hallways. I stepped out and walked down the hall a bit when I heard the elevator close. I quickly walked back and pressed the button, but the elevator wasn't coming back. I walked through the hall, passing empty, black rooms and plastic foggy sheets looking for the stairwell. I ended up running back to the elevator hall and saw it open and waiting for me. Really surreal experience.
Man, that sounds so haunting. That exact feeling of isolation is executed so well in SH3. Thank you for sharing! I doubt you’ll be forgetting that experience anytime soon 😅
Next time I'm near a hospital I want to try that... And I recently had my own eerie hospital experience when I got to walk through a basement floor not normally open for public; winding, uneven hallways with wires and pipes running across ceiling and walls, and occasionally someone would drive by in some kind of electric-powered vehicle. Not exactly silent hill-esque, but it was huge contrast to the smooth clinical halls of the public floors and made me think of SH nevertheless.
That line heather makes about mirrors is hilarious considering how mirrors are programmed in silent hill in that it is not actually a reflection but rather a copy of the room with a copy of your character mirroring you on the other side of the wall.
Honestly even for women who havent experienced the full breadth of horror covered in this game, its still relevant just because the general societal pressure put on all of us. I might not ever have been stalked, but I have been constantly reminded by media that it could happen. I might never have been assaulted or gone anywhere truly dangerous alone at night, but I have been conditioned by society to view myself as weak and defenseless so I feel the pressure all the same. I might not personally connect to the experience of carrying a child unwillingly, but I have been subject to the intense scrutiny placed on women that robs us of bodily and sexual autonomy all the same. These anxieties exist as an undercurrent of our culture, and are very difficult to escape as any sort of woman living in the modern day.
this exactly. im transmasc but still afab ofc and only relatively recently figured out im trans but i still feel a connection to girlhood and femininity. while im lucky that i havent had any firsthand horrific experiences with these things, i still always have a visceral gut reaction to them. i was also raised mormon which has a foundation and system just bleeding with sexism and misogyny. but i cant even imagine what the people who have had those kinds of experiences are going through
I have autism and one of my special interests is the Silent Hill series; I have written ESSAY UPON ESSAY about every single detail of SH3. I am so glad someone else loves this game as much as I do and sees what I see in the game as someone who grew up a woman. Thanks for this video!
Writing my english college essay on a comparative analysis of the silent hill games and their movie counterparts and my thesis in short is that video games are the most immersive and viceral story telling mediums of our time.
I’ve always admired how these games, unlike many of their contemporaries, didn’t fail in portraying girlhood and womanhood in a realistic manner. It was a time when every woman in a video game looked and felt like a male sexual fantasy, even when sexuality wasn’t at the core of their story. Characters like Cheryl, Claudia or Mary all felt like real women, who had fears, traumas and insecurities very real and very unique to women no other games at the time would even dare touch up on.
Love these analysis of the feminine horror in gaming. Going back to SH2 Born from a Wish there was this feminine horror Maria added that we later see done to perfection in Silent Hill 3, which was so very ahead of its time. Wild to think that this medium peaked artistically in the sixth console gen.
@@Manic_PanicFor real, almost everything from big studios needs to be some generic AAA thing that follows the popular trends and tropes and is as safe as possible for the best return on investment, and I hate it. The PS360 gen gradually killed off AA development but that was my favorite aspect of gaming. I miss the Chulips and Mister Mosquitos and Stretch Panics and King of Crushers like you wouldn't believe
@@Manic_Panic I agree, from what I know in the ps2 era a lot more companies were eager to take risks if it meant creating something enjoyable. The survival horror genre was largely built off of these risks as many games seen as classics now weren't always that profitable or well received on release.
I beg to differ about that last statement. "Artistry" in videogames is a pretty broad term because there's a lot of things that make the medium what it is. Story and themes may be part of games, but it doesn't represent the entire medium. There are other aspects of a videogame that makes it "Art" from stuff like level design and even down to the very of code of the game. Speedrunners would often be amazed and annoyed when they find games that are difficult to "break" Because it was programmed extraordinarily well with no loopholes that can be exploited. That is a show of mastery of the craft, like how an illustrator studies the skeleton and musculature of a living creature. You don't see skeletons and muscle fibers everywhere in their works, but its part of what made their artwork take their shape and what makes it visually sound. Its a show of mastery, therefore a show of artistry of the medium they chose. Saying that videogames have peaked artistically because of how a story is told is like saying live Action Movies, Animation, Books, Comics, and Musicals are all the same thing. If they all adapt SH3 effectively, does that mean all of those mediums peak artistically by default? No. those are all different mediums, they can all tell the same story, but each have their own unique discipline to master. An actor for musicals might not do well in the widescreen regardless of how much they've mastered their craft, being good in comics doesn't mean they'll be as good in animation by default, and the best directors might not be as good when writing novels. Videogames is still a relatively young medium. There are still developers out there pushing different aspects of it to their limits, narratively, visually, and technically. Its quite far from "peaking"
@@Manic_Panic it's also sadly because, to an understandable degree, some devs don't trust themselves to handle those topics for a variety of reasons such as not having a writer/scenario planner who can navigate these topics with tact. On the other hand, we got dumbasses like Blooper Team who make SA victims seem like their only way out is through suicide. I'm flattening out the story for one of their games describing it that way but unfortunately that's how they thought navigating that topic should have appropriately ended when... it could have gone so many other far better directions that are still messy but far less dumb.
About that very passive femininity, it's important to have in mind that in japanese society women tend to not be so vocal about anything really. There is a clip somewhere on the internet of an idol who almost gets abducted in the middle of a song by a man who simply grabs her arm and tries to take her away. She almost didn't resist. Seen from that perspective, you could say that freezing is a more extended reaction to a dangerous situation in that particular culture, and that makes it more believable. I am from Spain (for those who don't know, that's in Europe), and people here tend to be pretty explosive so I get where you're comming from. Nice video btw
I have loved a lot of the videos on this channel, but the fact that she was dismissive of the Fatal Frame protagonists and the cultural aspects around their portrayal honestly sat in my brain to the point it detracted from the rest of the video for me. I LOVE Heather as a protagonist, but I actually personally relate to Miku from Fatal Frame more. As a very shy kid who was mostly close to my family-especially my older brother- she resonated with me more. I do feel that she was fleshed out more in the third game, but the overall dismissal of her because she's not as outgoing as Heather hurts, but it also feels painfully accurate to what it's like being a shy and withdrawn person in reality as well. It also just feels weirdly ironic to hand wave off a series that focuses on female protagonists when she has mentioned before that they were so commonly dismissed in that era. I'm sure it's not the intention, but it really comes off as "female protagonists- but not like that!" Honestly, I don't think I've played a horror game yet where I thought the main girl was boring. Give me your sassy, your dainty, your butt-kickers, your damsels-in-distress- whatever they are! Survival horror has a wide array of female protagonists, and I am here for all of them.
@@twistersylph6544 I absolutely agree. Also, I think we should all reclaim the damsels-in-distress as part of the beautiful spectrum that is femininity instead of rejecting it just to make the others shine more. Give me more princesses AND princes-in-distress please. As an introverted shy guy myself
As someone who noticed a grown man following me (and pretty close too, sometimes trying to talk to me) during board daylight in town when I - a teenager at the time - went shopping, I always tend to look back more when I'm somewhere alone. This game relates to me so much and I'm glad you talked about it. When Heather said she was taking the train home, the first thing I thought was 'a teenage girl going in a subway alone? Yeah, no.' I even relate to the premise of Silent Hill 4 as I used to be a shut in myself years ago. I badly wish the Silent Hill games 1-4 could be released on modern consoles because I miss playing them.
@@SamuelBlack84 same a lot of memories. I’m glad we enjoyed this experience even i was not supposed to play this game being under 16 but i did even without understanding some stuff i felt the energy of everything i played the game again now as an adult on the computer, feels the same.
@Desert Moon lee I played Silent Hill since the very beginning in 1999. It's always been kike a second home to me, and I've wandered that empty town many a lonely night
Recently Konami has announced it will release metal gear solid 1-3 on modern consoles as well as the remake of mgs 3, so hopefully they will do something similar for silent hill in the future
@@juanmejiagomez5514 Here's hoping. I mean, the Silent Hill series is so beloved that it just doesn't make sense not to put on modern consoles for easier access.
I lost my father at 16, he had been battling alcohol and heart issues for about 10 years at that point. All of this culminated in him developing liver failure from the years he spent drinking as a substitute for talking about his feelings and the intense medication he’d take for his heart. I remember my first reaction when my mother told me he had passed away was to get up from the couch and kick the tv stand, I was angry at him for leaving me at such a young age, I was angry at myself for not having spent more time with him while he was in the hospital as I couldn’t bare to see him so delirious and frail. But at the end of the day I was just a confused kid who couldn’t fully understand why things had to end up like this. Seeing heather say that her father was a liar reminded me of the anger I felt in that moment. I always saw him as a strong and intelligent man so to know that he had become a shell of himself in his final weeks was heart breaking for me. When you’re that young your can’t quite realize that your parents are just as fragile as you are.
@@VeilOfMizery Aww. Thank you for responding. :) Honestly, I was kind of self-conscious and anxious about my comment so I deleted it. But I just wanted you to know that you weren't alone in feeling that way. I hope you're doing well.
as a female college student who has just recently grown into herself and gone out into the real world without the constant protection of my parents, this hits so hard. while many of the themes in this game aren't something i've experienced myself, they are things that i'm in constant fear of. this video actually made me immediately start downloading the game, despite not being sure if i would be able to stomach finishing it. even if i don't, i need to see this myself, because based on your description i don't think i've heard of anything that comes close to getting these themes across this well and this horrifically
I really love this game’s vibes, especially when you enter a new unknown area, and it’s empty with no monsters around. It really gives off an incredibly eerie feeling. The later portions of the game though tend to be way more harsh, and instead you’ll probably feel extremely anxious and overwhelmed. I remember a couple of rooms where you couldn’t see almost anything except vague, dark figures moving around, the doors being indistinguishable from the walls due to the moving bloody and rusty textures and the headphones blaring with the screeching sounds of multiple monsters. If there is a hell after we die, that’s how I imagine it. Good luck with finishing it, and if you enjoy it, I definitely recommend also trying Silent Hill 2. It doesn’t have much to do with womanhood but it still is a really compelling story
@@juanmejiagomez5514 id argue that sh2 has a lot to do with womanhood, and so does sh1! james's storyline in sh2 has a lot to do with gender dynamics as james' recurring npcs are an abused woman and an emasculated man, whos victimhood stemming from not living up to potential of their gender is echoed with james' own experiences, since james spoiler spoiler spoiler in one case and is emasculated repeatedly by maria ("youre supposed to be the big man around here, and you need a frail girl's help?") and pyramid head (if he catches james, he lifts him up and licks his face in a manner suggesting sexual assault) in another. his story is as much about confronting his guilt as it is about reconciling his masculinity and femininity. remember how after he spoiler spoiler, he is actually mistaken for a woman - a mother, even? in the good ending, he becomes laura's parent. Just like Harry becomes Sheryl's parent, just like the detective adopts the role of Heather's parent (we arent shown this explicitly, but they do have a sweet and awkward talk about maybe being like a parent and child). in sh1, harry's devotion to his adopted child rings so feminine, the director of the movie even claimed that it could never work with a male figure. but the tresspassing of gender roles is not a mistake. the cosmology is flipped on its head - its not the virginal mother of male god, but the adopted (and so, virginal) father of female god. haha... sorry for being weird in your comments ^_^'' i just really love these games
When you confront the real world its always a complex experience, wheter you are a women and feel unprotected or you are a man and feel that you need to protect the others
Even now, Heather's VA ranks among the very best of gaming performances. You can hear her adapting to every change in the game and reacting - not just in that moment - but also with the history of what she has been through. No idea what happened to her since, sadly.
That was something that really stood out to me. The VA in 3 in general is a step up from the first two (and I know that has to do with VA in general changing to a more natural tone), but Heather is done so perfectly.
Harry's death is all the more striking when you realize that Silent Hill 3 is a stealth sequel to Silent Hill 1. The back of the box and game booklet give Heather's last name as Morris and you don't know she's related to Harry until you come across his corpse and then when Claudia directly says that was Harry. That would be like playing a random zombie game, then suddenly having a canonical cameo by Chris Redfield a split second before Chris gets his throat ripped out and stays dead for good.
@@Aster_Risk what do you mean? I'm a man. can confirm it's a masterpiece. you don't need to sink to the level of people you are criticizing by bashing on another masterpiece what does resonate even mean? you don't need to be a woman to be disgusted by what Heather goes through. you need to be so dense not to realize the terror so many woman go through just because you are a man. aslo SH2 does too much on its own to be a rip-off. every piece of media is a rip-off. it's just that SH2 doesn't hide its inspirations and it's not just SH2, the whole franchise is inspired by Jacobs Ladder and The Shinning and many so many other things
I agree, My love for sh2 is for how much the themes resonates whit me. I could predict the twist very early in. Mary forgiving James made it easier for me to forgive myself due to... dumb acts (nothig illegal) and whlist i still love sh3 I get why it docent get as much cred... and that saddens me since I´m prittey sure women rasonate whit the game just as strongly as sh2 resonates whit me.
Underrated take on SH3 in this vid. With the amount of modern games shelling out terribly written "girlboss" games that are terrible, the strength and understanding that Silent Hill 3 has of its inherently feminine yet EQUALLY CAPABLE protagonist makes it such a rare gem. Power fantasy games are fine for both, sure, but Heather is one of those uncommon characters that remains strong and capable without losing her likability or feminine qualities. She's not arrogant, but not weak.
I love SH3 too though I'd argue she does express arrogance, but it's more so as a cover for dealing with all the messed-up sh*t she had to deal with throughout the game, and being a snarky sarcastic teenager is her way of dealing with everything going on. It's a character trait of her's, but not something that defines her whole character (and doesn't retain the snark in moments when she was vulnerable, like when she was recounting to Douglas the events before, through, and after SH1).
Good point, but i wouldn't say good strong and capable feminine characters are rare. disney protagonists, the owl house (then again thats also disney), Gwen from Spider-Verse, the list goes on. I really don't think masculine or completely androgynous female characters are as common as people make them out to be (which is a shame, as I'd love more good gnc female characters, but that doesn't mean I'm not glad we have so many good feminine characters)
@@18poc12poc7msThat's not it. What they're refering to is the corporate girlboss that is made to appeal somewhat to progressive game journalists while still retaining the male gaze. Surface level badassery that can't be trumped but isn't so risqué as to make men uncomfortable.
@@maidenlessbastard true but we dont need more feminine women in media. being feminine is already encouraged by society so why can't be have an actual well written gnc character for once
I played this when I was 17. When the end happened and she cried for her dad I cried hard and went to hug my dad. He was so confused but just hugged me. 32 now and seeing that seen made be tear up. The game hit me hard.
I also feel like the loss described in Harry's notebook can be seen as the loss felt by a father as he struggles to understand a teenage daughter. You change so much in such a short amount of time, it wouldn't be unheard of for parents to see you as a different person and want to see you as the young girl you once were. It's amazing how many levels the narrative works on.
Great video! A lot of well worded insight. I do want add about a little side story in the hospital where a nurse is told to have been abused by a doctor and confined into solitary by him as punishment for something. On hard riddle mode you can also find a note where the doctor describes a violent fantasy about her. It directly widens the scope of horror from just Heather to a systemic issue of vulnerable women being at the mercy of more powerful men
That's very interesting I don't think I've seen anyone talk about this before. Likely because the Hard puzzle mode for Silent Hill 3 is very... yknow.. difficult lol :P
God the doctor’s note you find on hard riddle mode is genuinely one of the most disturbing and well written things in the entire franchise. It’s so twisted and graphic, it paints such a vivid picture of the doctor’s depraved fantasies of the poor woman.
In terms of Stanley Coleman being sonewhere in the hospital, what if he was always right next to when you read his notes, sitting beside you? Heather cant see him, because he isnt part of her subconscious perception of Silent Hill
it doesn't surprise me at all that SH3 is underrated & considered a one dimensional storyline by some fans, who are probably mostly men or boys, who have no idea what's it's like to be a young teenage girl, to be stalked, followed, harassed, experience menstruation, and live with the weight of the possibility of bringing life into this world (forced or not). but hopefully, playing as heather and what she goes through helped at least a few people understand, or scratch the surface of what it's like to be a teenage girl, even in a hellish other-world. this game plays on very real fear, which arguably makes it scarier. loved this video!
I wish they’d gone down that route more than the cult route though. It could have been one of the most disturbing games if they focused on the shit that commonly happens to a lot of people. The only game I can think of that solely focusses on that is Haunting Ground and that’s really sad because it’s an untapped horror potential.
But also the fact that all the women who loves the SH world as much as men, just dont go making podcast videos about it as much as men do. But it doesnt mean we dont exist or dont care, however these guys take it as if women dont play game or dont like gore etc. False. Women who actually are FREE to choose "dudes hobbies", we keep proving that we love the same thing. But it doesnt stop the dudes from pretending otherwise.
@@HiBuddyyyyyyBut misogyny and religion are intertwined in a lot of ways. The Order’s practices of suffering and birth are rooted in misogynistic Catholic/Christian ideas. How Heather is seen as a Virgin Mary figure by the cult, where her worth is placed in her suffering and ultimately giving birth to God. She is both an object while also placed on a pedestal, both forms of dehumanization. Hot take, but I think Konami wanting the cult back for 3 was indirectly a good move from them. Idk, it might be because I live in a country where both the church and the goverment are connected (meaning abortions and divorce is illegal) that I connect with the themes more.
I too played Silent Hill 3 as a young teenage girl and it has really stuck with me for that reason as well. This video really captured all my unspoken feelings towards this game in such a well articulated and insightful way. Really great job!
If anyone thinks there aren't layers to SH3's storyline, consider this. The first puzzle in the game (on Hard) involves placing Shakespeare folios in a bookstore, and requires basic knowledge of the storylines to get the sequence. I've always felt this was the devs spelling out their intentions for the story, specifically as a Renaissance Revenge tragedy (described as "visual spectacle, full of blood and horror"), which is the precursor to modern horror, the most famous example of which is Hamlet, the first story referenced. The clue reads: "In here is a tragedy-- art thou player or audience? Be as it may, the end doth remain: all go on only toward death. The first words at thy left hand: a false lunacy, a madly dancing man. Hearing unhearable words, drawn to a beloved's grave---and there, mayhap, true madness at last." It clearly references Hamlet, but it also completely foreshadows Heather's own story. A tragedy with a play within a play (the cult's secret plans tracking and controlling her life), being drawn to a beloved's grave (Claudia murdering Harry to drive Heather mad with the 'false lunacy' of revenge, to descend into the true nightmare of madness and birth their god).
BTW almost all of the following revenge tragedy tropes are present in SH3 These tropes include: Ghosts: Alessa, subway ghost, more that I'm forgetting Madness or feigned madness: all over, plus "false lunacy" from above I think could also be a reference to the unnatural pregnancy Heather is subject too. Lunacy, the moon, hysteria, all have this tie to menstruation and fertility, and we see it even more with the walnut, moonstone, and 300 day door with a bloody crescent moon in which we insert the moonstone. Disguises: Heather colors her hair to hide from the cult, "Heather" is a disguise for Alessa/Cheryl to a degree, Heather changes her name back to Cheryl, Heather and Harry move often to hide their identity from the cult. Personified Revenge: Heather, and the key tragedy that her pursuit of revenge threatens to be her undoing. A play within a play, or dumb show (the cults secret plans for Heather's life, everyone's hidden intentions) A Machiavellian figure (Vincent, or Leonard, or hell even Claudia) Violent murders, including decapitation and dismemberment, gore: In the bad ending everyone but Heather is dead, Douglass by her own hand. She has become revenge, see above. We see tableaux of ritual bloodletting, animated viscera, and Claudia's horrific transformation.
What makes Silent Hill 3 stand out from the rest of the series is the emotional response it elicits in the players mind as they take this journey with Heather. The themes mentioned of stalking, predatory behavior and harassment forced upon women for simply existing can't help but resonate with anyone who plays the game. Women who have experienced these things or people who have had loved ones experience these things are confronted with these topics once again. When Heather feels angry, we feel angry with her and as a result the themes in this game have a lasting effect on us even after we put the controller down. As Heather begins to feel more despair and sets on the path of revenge we feel that pain all to viscerally, it's an all too real human reaction of wanting to defend and hunt down a person who has harmed someone we love, but in the end we know it won't prevent what has happened and realize this will only make the pain even worse. But this is exactly what good art does, it elicits these emotional responses in the viewer, it confronts us head on with societal injustices which can reaffirm that rightful anger in people to stand up and hopefully give people an empathy and understanding that maybe wasn't there before. Silent Hill 3 does all of these things, and so does this video Tango. I can't speak for everyone but I would imagine a lot of people took a moment to reflect on these topics and maybe looked on past or ongoing experiences and perhaps it made them feel less alone and heard after watching this video. I for one, am glad and forever impressed by content creators like yourself who will bring these important topics into the light and aren't afraid to do so! 🔥♥
I agree with everything she said, even about Fatal Frame (I personaly hate how these women are made to look weak/docile etc) But I can't believe she left out the boss fight with the worm: giving it's significance. Heather goes down a ladder, 'down there' there is this long fleshy monster who breaks its way in violently, and it has teeth (why? Because this whole process hurts and it is traumatizing, especially when you don't consent....) It keeps to come and go through these holes, too. Just like the monsters represent James in SH2, the ones in SH3 are doing what real-life monsters do to women. (The Slurpers are on the floor and attack her this way, looking up her skirt, for one.) Read about the monsters, and you'll know their twisted significance. Like she mentioned, some are from Alessa's, some are from Heather's: and it's deeper than people realises.... especially dudes because they dont live in that reality, these constant fears and uncertainties..... The purple fetuses on legs bumping Heather in the uterus when they attack her etc....... Also the removal of women's choices with their own bodies is another great example.... I was always a gamer from back when I was a kid, and me not doonf videos about explqining SH, these same dudes think that women dont play video games and dont like gore etc. They truly dont live in reality....
Those essays on the intersection of horror games and fears/dangers of existing as a woman are amazing, yet terrifying. This perspective often felt overlooked before, yet it is so apparent. You put it into words beautifuly.
This and Alice Madness Returns gave me a sense of being understood when I was around 12-13 stronger than anything else I had felt before, but back then I couldn't pinpoint why.
I know that SH 2 was the darling of the series, but SH 3 was my favourite. I related to Heather and thought it was refreshing to have a heroine that wasn’t a wilting wallflower or a bulletproof badass. Heather is probably the most relatable playable character in the series and I love that the flavour text always clues you into what is going on in her mind. Not to get too personal I was going through my own loss at the time of playing so a lot of the events really hit home for me. Oh I love the detail of Harry leaving notes as the save system and then Heather finding a note that he left in the town, that was such an amazing detail.
I've personally never played this game, but I do enjoy horror. The gift Stanely tries to give her is deeply telling on his view of her. That he knows she's a barely considered an adult so he would like to be in control of her. And that a doll is something you would gift a small child is deeply shivering. With your deep dive video, I can see the other hidden meanings as well and I really enjoyed it.
I'm not a woman, but I loved SH3. When I was younger, I never gave it much thought of how scary games like this and Haunting Ground can be once you get past surface level introduction of the games. SH3 is a GOAT and I would go as far as to say Heather is one of the best female characters in a game. She's got a good arc, personality, and agency. Her voice actress also smashes it too. This video also brought up a lot of good things I never would have noticed as a male. The game is truly timeless and this was a great video explaining why.
I've always found it interesting how there's a connection between Heather and Ellen Ripley of Alien(s)-fame. Heather is technically born pregnant with the Order's god in the sense that the seed of it was always inside of her as a result of being, essentially, a "clone" of Alessa. This is similar to how Ellen Ripley in the later movies is a literal clone of the original Ellen and was also born impregnated with the Necromorph Queen of the original Ellen.
didn't expect to see my video mentioned in there!! glad SH3 is getting more coverage on this topic :) my vid is pretty old in the sense that there's so much more I would've liked to add or elaborate on when I look back on it, so it's very satisfying to see you cover so much ground and so eloquently. fantastic video!
I remember reading somewhere that originally SH3 was supposed to be a way darker game but they got essentially forced to go back to the cult aspects by Konami. While i think they did a great job with the lore and Heather's relation to SH1, with all the symbolism in this game i wonder if we missed out on a way more fucked up story more akin to Silent Hill 2
Even if Silent Hill 2 will always be my favourite, there is something so horrifically "real" about the horror of Silent Hill 3. Having played it at around the same age as Heather, the themes of feminine horror felt so unnerving and personal, I'd sometimes joke that if I had an "otherworld" it would the same as Heather's. I do wish they'd gone further with these concepts, as the cult horror began to take away from such a personal experience, but there is undeniably something very special about this game. Also, thank you for the wonderful video! It was a very entertaining watch :)
I always listen to End of Small Sanctuary whenever I'm in a mall or just commuting by myself in general, but when Dance with Night Wind suddenly plays, I immediately skip it because I have loved ones at home lol. That's how impactful the SH3 music is to me.
End of Small Sanctuary has no right to be that catchy. That song is a mood that I've been listening to for so many years, especially during sunset. I especially loved listening to it on my headphones after classes in college while sitting at the library and doing my work on the computer. Being indifferent to people around me as they slowly become less populous, leaving the building, and eventually I leave campus at a certain time around sunset or even when the sky's already dark. It still has memories, and I can always pinpoint it in the background when other RUclipsrs use the song. It's great.
YAYYY SILENT HILL 3!! My favorite of the series and not just because of the feminine horror (lady here). Heather is just one of the most likeable protagonists of all time. Not just that but the entire small cast is just phenomenal. And the graphics are so fucking good for 2003. The scenery is so visceral and downright disgusting and the SOUND DESIGNS... the rng based, random background noises are so fucking freaky. And of course, the very female centric horror... I think it flies over a lot of cis male players heads. The slurpers always made me really uncomfortable- the way they push heather down and damn near crawl up her skirt.... also the soundtrack. It is so, so, so fucking good. SH3 is a 10/10 game. Period.
I was just writing about the Slurpers: I agree with everything she said, even about Fatal Frame (I personaly hate how these women are made to look weak/docile etc) But I can't believe she left out the boss fight with the worm: giving it's significance. Heather goes down a ladder, 'down there' there is this long fleshy monster who breaks its way in violently, and it has teeth (why? Because this whole process hurts and it is traumatizing, especially when you don't consent....) It keeps to come and go through these holes, too. Just like the monsters represent James in SH2, the ones in SH3 are doing what real-life monsters do to women. (The Slurpers are on the floor and attack her this way, looking up her skirt, for one.) Read about the monsters, and you'll know their twisted significance. Like she mentioned, some are from Alessa's, some are from Heather's: and it's deeper than people realises.... especially dudes because they dont live in that reality, these constant fears and uncertainties..... The purple fetuses on legs bumping Heather in the uterus when they attack her etc....... Also the removal of women's choices with their own bodies is another great example.... I was always a gamer from back when I was a kid, and me not doonf videos about explqining SH, these same dudes think that women dont play video games and dont like gore etc. They truly dont live in reality....
Back in the day, SH3 got mostly 7 or 8 out of 10s. Lot of the media outlets saw the formula as samey & tired. For me, I couldn’t get enough of it. SH3 had some really great scares & pulled off amazing visuals on PS2 hardware. That thing only had 32MB of ram. 2 for VRAM if my memory serves correct. Visuals still hold up 20 years later. 🤯 Glad to see that people are still singing its praises 20 years after the fact.
I think the main reason that the fandom doesnt consider SH3 as one of the stellar, deeper games in the franchise (and imo in the genre) is that most of it is conformed by males, since most of us are super privileged to not have been stalked, sexually harassed, looked upon as baby making factories or even just told what to do with our bodies, its very easy to overlook the hidden meaning and critiques embedded in this game. Another thing I find very interesting is that the heirloom Heather carries is, for me, a very on the nose reference to a next day pill, implying that Harry was a very progressive father that knew having slips as a teenager is normal and should not decide a woman's future. Even leaving the deep stuff aside, Heather as you said is definitely one of the best characters period I've seen in gaming, she's like the punk friend we all had that wanted to grab a few cold ones after school, talk smack about society but still be in time to have dinner with their family.
You know, I had a similar experience with this game. I played for the first time when I was thirteen with a friend at a sleepover and loved it, but didn't think too deeply about it, though in the years that have passed it's become more and more present in my mind. It always comes back to me whenever I'm alone at night on the subway, no matter what.
Silent hill 3 is an insanely personal experience for me, I love this game so much but my god does it often hit too close to home, the menstruation imagery, pregnancy, creepy obsessions. It’s all too real
Yes. Especially since a lot of women actuqlly never wanted/still dont want kids. That fear of getting pregnant and the state forcing you to go through it all due to a non-feeling fetus being worth more than an actual human being contributing to society: is F insane to me. I always loved all the gore and creepy things in SH, nothing is creepier or compares to the real monsters in real life, the real struggles.
This video is simultaneously so relaxing because of your narration but also so upsetting with all of the discomfort and anxiety and loss we all go through as women
For real. I could be wrong, but I doubt any of this reality dawned on any dude's mind when playing. We, on the other hand, are always confronted by it.
The worst part for me was reading the puzzle in the hospital to get the door code where, idk how it is in other difficulties but in hard more it's literally Stanley describing what he wanted to do with Heather and it's the most disturbing thing I've ever seen, got me walking slowly and scared to turn every corner like nothing had done before, specially cus I played this game after the second one and the abstract daddy boss fight made me feel sick literally dizzy because of everything that happened in that scene, I'm not a woman but I'm traumatized cus smth very similar happened to me and someone I love, watching Angela and James was like a flashback and being stalked by Stanley as Heather being scared of what could happen in the game, scared of reliving that trauma and not being able to do anything again was definitely the most scary thing I've ever seen in any kind of media
I’ve recently been down a silent hill rabbit hole and this is hands down the best essay I’ve seen about sh3. Not to mention that this is literally the only one I found made by a woman. I had a very similar experience to yours, I played the game as a child and didn’t understand much of the themes you discussed. Coming back to the franchise now, it really opened my eyes. Great work, I’ve been recommending this video to everyone I know that’s even slightly interested in horror games analyses! Brb I’m about to binge watch all your other videos!
Speaking of horrors of womanhood, I do recommend to check out The Closing Shift. It's a short indie horror game that dabbles into how it's like to deal with a predator. It definitely gave me a new perspective that I couldn't relate being a guy.
As always incredible stuff and stuff that made sense too! I resonated with this game a lot because of the stalkery aspects of it. As someone who has been stalked before, even as a bloke, this kinda thing is very unsettling and doing my own writing, whether that be in the form of songs or drafts of game design documents I've never fully been able to put that feeling into words until I played Silent Hill 3 for the first time in my early 30s. The caution of going down a back alley and the anxiety felt hits home as I live near a dark alleyway with zero lighting that's in a rough part of town that's also the only realistic shortcut to get anywhere within a reasonable time. And that's something I feel too as someone who doesn't look or dress like everyone else from this town and it was common for goth/emo kids to be bullied and beaten up simply for having long hair or wearing all black down this shortcut path late at night. Toxic relationships in the past have resulted in stalking and harassment directly on my front doorstep too and I feel these events have shaped me into the private and reserved person that I am today. Some friends say I'm a little too paranoid and that it's weird for me to have an easy exit from whatever scenario I'm in, and to not project those same anxious thoughts onto others with the way I act, and this game gets that and makes me feel that again, not in a PTSD sense, more in the feeling of having something wrong for a long time and finally getting a diagnosis. It makes complete sense seeing women in the street cross the road to where nobody is to have that reassurance when I know I'm sure as hell not going to do anything and it's highly unlikely another else on the same street would too, but I understand that I'm 6'1" and a large dude and that alone can be intimidating to a stranger in a confined or supposedly safe space, and sometimes doing my best to not give off that impression to a random as I'm only trying to pop to Sainsbury's for a cheese twist and a can of Monster isn't enough. Sorry for the long comment. Can't wait for the next video, Tango!
Thank you so much for this video, I'll always support SH3 with all my heart as another women who connected with this entry the most. Seeing how SH2 is the star child, it always felt to me that SH3 was dismissed for the excuse you bring up of being "too culty", however more and more it just feels like an excuse to wash away the discomfort or disconnect the male audience would feel regarding Heather and her story. On a technical note, I don't think SH3 gets credit for exceeding SH2 in terms of quality and horror. When I play SH2, there are "safe zones" that are easy to complete on replay. Like the wandering stretch of the beginning road, the apartment, beginning hotel, the town itself, etc. They still have great atmosphere and perhaps this is due to SH2 going for a more droning style of terror. But playing through SH3 even whilst knowing the game inside and out, it is still so difficult to get through more than an hour in one sitting. I think it's very rare for a horror game to plunge you right into the horror with miniscule build-up, AND have it work well at the same time. The hallways in SH3 are more cramped, the sounds are more oppressive and industrial (ala SH1) and you rarely get a break, especially in that beginning sequence just trying to get Heather home. I feel like SH2's otherworld hospital section is the closest equivalent to this. Towards the end of SH3, the hellish church is just abysmal in the nicest way possible :) No other horror game makes me feel so crushed and claustrophobic. I'm so thankful this game exists, it's lightning in a bottle.
I tell you that when I saw what happened to Harry the first time I got that far in SH3, I freaked and almost didn't wanna keep going from how upset I felt to see that's his ultimate fate. So then when you finally confront Claudia and Heather says ''I was supposed to kill you!", she voiced exactly how I felt about it. Amazing game.
I didn't see all of this when I first played the game way back in the early 2000s. It has me really missing the old team that did the earlier Silent Hills. And we have a female hero that's adds to the world that game is rather than just being their for representation's sake. This is what all developers should aspire to create; a rich story line where a character's background adds to the world. Appreciate the in-depth analysis!
What an incredible video and analysis. I just finished Silent Hill 3 for the first time earlier today, and I will admit that all of these details went over my head. Seeing the elements of the game from this perspective helps me appreciate it a lot more.
Tango, thank you for making this video. For the longest time I've felt I was in a minority when I always said that SH3 was my favourite game in the series but you've nailed on the head why I love thie game and much much more. You're killing it with these videos as always.
I've been working on a Resident Evil fanfiction that is set during Sherry Birkin's teenage years. Heather Mason is a great character who gave me quite a bit of inspiration for making Sherry more believable.
I think another thing that not many people dig into is the ending of heather poking fun with Douglas. After all that, after all the horrors, and especially just after being brought back to the reality that her father is dead, she's still able to laugh and smile. I think it's to show her strength as a young girl. She's not some emotionless, macho main character that can kill anything and do everything, but she's still emotionally strong. She jokes and smiles cause she's finally free and happy, she can be who she truly is and not hide being Cheryl anymore. Despite all that, she's still got a little bit of childlike naivety that the world so cruelly tried to take away from her. A "revenge" of sorts against the cult that tried so desperately to smother her existence as a person, they failed and heather quite literally got the last laugh.
Absolutely agree about your comment on how realistic Heather is as a teenager. Silent Hill 3 for me is an inspirational story, because it shows how Alyssa has developed from an oppressed child whom was taken advantage of by her abusive mother, to a human being who knows that you can leave your toxic birth environment and create your own life with people who actually care about you. Heather is sarcastic and cynical, but she respects the people who love her (Harry) and shows compassion even towards her “enemy” (Claudia). She is also super brave for holding up with the nightmare that is the course of Silent Hill 3. The stalking theme in Silent Hill 3 is also very realistic and creeped me out the most, with Vincent’s sleazy, condescending, and manipulative behaviour, and Stanley…his notes creeped me out the most in the Brookhaven Hospital chapter.
SH3 is a story about heather. SH2 is a story about James' trauma. The simple fact there is an argument to be made about Heather holding a potentially slightly misogynistic "not like other girls" view which can be interpreted from the design of the closer (the "other girls", which is to say sexual-their long, defined legs and tight skirts-, love to shop-the bludgeons looking like shopping bags-, secretly very mean-the needle within the bludgeon-, and vapid-their moving head resembling a mockery of someone just waffling about nothing-, but also noticeably, Heather thinks the only reason they're more valued than her is because they are willing to put out, represented by their lack of a face, and a yonic orifice in its place) shows that not only is there depth and complexity to heather, the game itself has shit to read into if you really pay attention. If you, as a player, care to pay attention to it. To this day, SH3 still has what I consider to be the most gut-churningly horrifying gameplay section in anything, the top floor of the otherworld hospital. It just...feels like I'm in a place that hates me. And it's only really compounded by how much abortion symbolism the town throws at heather (the coathanger bit, for example).
Heather adopting a new name by the end really does make her all the more awesome. Harry can't get a proper good ending in SH1, so Heather creates one for him.
As someone who’s played the original Team Silent titles for myself for the first time very recently, Silent Hill 3 really stood out to me as a terrifying experience that mirrored a lot of the things I’ve experienced as a woman. Then to my surprise, I found out that these very overt themes go over the heads of most of the people who play it, leading to that belief that the game is very surface level compared to 2. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only people I’ve seen talk about how much the horror in this game stems from femininity and the dangers of existing as a woman are women. I fear it goes over the heads of cisgender men most of the time. Amazing video!
Fantastic video. I know SH2 has always been the favorite child. But 1 and 3 were always my favorites and it's always nice when someone gives 3 its time to shine with its themes and characters. Keep up the great work Tango!
I've seen everything about SH and I'll never understand why people will prefer 2 over the main storyline (1 and 3) how can people empathize more with a repressed wife murderer than Harry and Heather?
@@Baard5Szomoru Some people find the cult stuff a bit cliche. SH2 was incredibly impressive for the time because it’s a character study of a deeply flawed person done near perfectly. It’s rich in themes, has complex characters, is loaded with literary allusions and subtle symbolism - it’s a masterfully told story within the genre of horror and the medium of video games that was groundbreaking for its time. It really deserves that praise too, and very few games match that level of nuance. I love 1 and 3 and they have a lot of narrative depth and theming as well (especially 3, as evidenced by this video), but 2 being a self-contained story featuring broken, flawed characters that’s written and presented very very well is why many people prefer it.
i feel like when i was young and found this game, I didn't get it. now that I'm older, it hits so much harder, especially as a woman. I love it so so much. also one detail I feel that gets overlooked is when Heather encounters the Closer for the first time. She shoots until there's, I'm guessing, so bullets left, and then the monster pauses, THEN dies. idk what its supposed to mean exactly, I have theories, but I always thought it was interesting.
Although I'm not a woman, Silent Hill 3 made me realize that motherhood is something truly beautiful but at the same time unfathomably terrifying. A mother giving birth to a child and giving up so much, sacrificing time, energy, money and even health for that child is just... I don't even have a word for it. But not just that, SH3 also explores a bit more with the concept of God, and those two things put together really got me, the thought of God being unstopable and all mighty, and the thought that He/She/It could (in the context of Silent Hill, WILL) be evil, and poor 17 years old Heather would HAVE to give birth to that thing, Jesus, I get sick just by imagining it. SH2 is good, I think it was amazing how deep and complex the story about closure and forgiveness was and the gameplay wasn't bad either, it was pretty great really. But SH3 embraces such formless and ruthless horrors in a way that is brilliant in my opinion, the weakest point of the game is that it's a sequel lol, I get that Heather just suffered what she had because her father was Harry, but I don't really like the way the whole cult thing unravels. I do like the cult and all, I mean, it's Silent Hill, what else could it be? But I felt like it wasn't solid, I don't know. Either way, it's my favorite entry of the franchise, it was my first Silent Hill game too, I remember being scared as fuck as a kid playing it, I would start the game, equip the Submachine Gun at the nightmare amusement park, encounter the first enemy, shoot it dead and proceed to turn off the console and not touch the game for a long time LMAO, great memories.
The existential horror I felt imagining being a woman, being a teenager, and having an unholy divine parasitic birth forced upon me by a cult is something else. Well done painting a picture.
I can strongly relate to James because of outward appearances emotionally and mentally but I can relate to heather in personality and I was even able to predict what she’d say because of the same thought process
this video is amazing. heather's experience with horror is perfectly intertwined with her experience with womanhood, and this game encapsulates it all so well- maybe too well, as some moments felt too naturally terrifying ^^; i feel like a lot of people miss the point of this game and its perspective as heather, but your analysis is perfect, so thank you for this amazing video!! 💗
I also noticed that Heather's neckless resembles one from the "Rosemary's baby", which has a lot of stuff in common with SH3 (forced pregnancy, occult stuff)
From ur analysis of the nightmares that blends Alessa’s nightmares with her daughter Heather. I cant help but think of that Heather’s journey is of trauma since her mother’s pregnancy/labor is of trauma after trauma. Its like Heather is going back to her birth which was a trauma despite her being an already developed 17 year old girl. Possible generational trauma?.. dunno i feel this kinda related to it.. Anyways thank u so much for another amazing video essay that i absolutely loved and enjoyed💗
I feel like an important point to make is that God in SH3 is actually overwhelmingly presented as feminine as well, in the cult's iconography and art and in its' overall design at the very end there. I think that's also an interesting thread to follow as far as objectifying the divine feminine goes, and kind of the way that modern patriarchal and religious structures pit women against each other by manipulation. It feels less intended than the overall themes you brought up, but it's still there, I guess! Amazing work yet again, I really love watching your stuff!
You captured perfectly why I love Heather so much. When I first encountered the game I was 18 and Heathers character alone made me finish the game, she just felt so real and likable, I just needed to know she would be alright in the end!
So excited to watch this. Just started to and wanted to leave a comment right away. Edit: Finished watching. Really enjoyed hearing your perspective on the game. You made so many connections. Even in the smaller details that I've not heard anyone else mention. I'm sorry you've had/have to deal with a lot of this scary creepy stuff in real life. Had some ideas about this game for a while but your insight really brought so much more to light. Fantastic video with awesome commentary. You connected dots that lined me up to appreciate this game even more. Seriously.
Fantástico. Enjoyed seeing you passionately gush about one of your favorite games. Once again your take on some of the deeper less explored aspects of a survival horror game in regard with the main character being a woman hit deep. Things that, unfortunately just by being a woman is a real and actual horror and exists beyond the setting of a video game. You’ve done it again Tango. Can’t wait for the rule of rose vid. 🔥
Silent Hill 3 really shook me when I played it. I was beyond impressed when reaching the credits because The way the game places you in Heathers shoes and makes you understand her fears was so incredible to me as a Man. I could always imagine how scary it must be to grow up as a woman but Silent Hill 3 made me really understand what that truly means and gave me a glimpse to what that must feel like. I cant think of any other piece of media that made me able to embody a character that was so different from me that well. It will always have a really special place in my heart.
I agree with what you said about fatal frame. It never ruined my experience because I have to realize, this is their story, not mine. I’m sure there are people out there like them.
I think what makes horror games ... scary (to me) is that there is a consistent beat (usually nothing wrong) and something disturbs that beat. For example, the mere act of walking in Silent Hill is constant with the same beat. But you never know if there is going to be something that changes it. Even if I know there will be something ahead, that still scares me. Like climbing up that ladder and seeing that monster just hanging upside down.
I've never played the game but the mere act of watching still gives me goosebumps. I've also heard that there are controller vibrations that vary depending on location, enemies, and status of the player (how much health - i assume)..
Wonderful content! I, too, found this game to be my all-time fave of the franchise. I felt personally connected to it as a woman. The loneliness and depth, the extreme shock of what Heather has to overcome. I felt it down to my bones. Her attitude was so on point and how she didn't want help from anyone, choosing to be solitary rather than trust others who obviously didn't see her value. The argument that this game isn't deep just shows the people who stand on that point lack the necessary perspective to see it. This game will forever be my favorite of the franchise. Also, I love how the astrology of SH3's date release further personifies the themes and energies of it. Example: Venus in Taurus square Neptune in Aquarius. Venus has to do with divine feminine power, our aesthetic and deeper sensual desires. Neptune deals with imagination and dreams come true. The square creates tension between the two and brings out their shadow aspects (Neptune: nightmares, Venus: theft of one's feminine power). Venus is also universally seen as "the maiden", especially being in its domicile of Taurus. Another example: The Moon was in Pisces, the sign of dreams and psychic abilities; while the Sun was in Gemini, the sign of the TWINS. Heather is both the daughter of Alessa and her twin. I could go on lol.
i'm 12 myself at the moment and i just finished silent hill 3 two days ago, i've watched some video essays about the game and they all felt like i was just told the story again. this was so much deeper, you mentioned yourself that when you were a younger teen all the symbolism went over your head and it totally went over mine too!! i wonder if im ever gonna replay it when im older and find it a lot creepier. i also had my older brother watching me play by my side because i was literally too terrified to play it alone LMAO, so if i ever replay it alone, with headphones, with some life experience and more understanding of Heathers situation i think im definitely gonna shit my pants all over again, if not more.
you were my age when i got into silent hill! just trust me you’ll love coming back to this series both 5 and/or 10 years from now. replaying SH3 as a teenage girl just hits different 👌
Silent hill is ultimately a story about a terrified and abused little girl. Alyssa only lived 7 years before her mother hospitalized her, Cheryl once again was 7 before she was captured by silent hill. The demons of silent hill 3 seem so scary to Heather because ultimately she has the souls of 2 terrified 7 year olds in the mind of a confused 17 year (notice the number 7 and 17 meant to show her childlike state) I can see why girls relate to much to silent hill compare to other story’s men take more interest with/
Thank you so much for this breakdown. You make so many amazing points. SH3 was my first SH game, as well and I was 16/17 when I played it. I, much like you, was impacted very intimately by the game and it’s themes. While I felt it more immediately in my situation much of it still went over my head as well. Now we can see the meanings. It’s very refreshing and I’m thankful for the insight you’ve pointed out and that I’ve come to see for myself.
Really, really grateful for this essay and analysis on Heather and the game SH3 overall! I’ve sadly never gotten into the SH series, being too young when they came out (and a scaredy cat to boot!), and so am only now dipping a toe into them thanks to a newly sparked interest in the horror genre, both for film and video games. This analysis is definitely what’s pushing my current SH interest into a genuine sense of “okay, I should definitely play this” - thank you so much for sharing! ✨🖤
Hunh- your sum up of Stanley Coleman actually shook loose a memory I'd buried. I had a guy on a forum - randomly like- imprint on me. Insist he lived me- and kept insisting I was "scared" of my feelings and so forth. Even though we'd never talked. Thankfully he was on a forum and we never shared the same breathing space. And mods on the board banned him multiple times telling him to stop.
This game and Demento or Haunting ground for most were pure terror for me as a woman its invasive in their horror and it scared me a lot but i noticed my male friends didnt feel as much horror from these games as i did.
Thank you so much for this video. I totally agree, that somehow these topics and underlying themes of, well, simply being a girl, were rather flying under the radar in countless analyses, despite the game being 20 years old, and I am so very happy this gets spotlight lately. I replayed SH3 recently and I was honestly stunned by how much scarier and relatable the game feels now to me, a grown up woman, than it did years ago to me as a young girl.
I was really surprised, finally going through all the Silent Hill games, by how much I liked 3, and how it's still my favorite. Something Silent Hill plays with is the true horror not coming from the dark world or the monsters, but from how those things came to be--reflections of the real world, of people's fears, and of the things they've done, and I think Silent Hill 3 just really nails that. Like you said, the most terrifying part of the hospital is the other humans! I do feel like Harry and Douglas both considering killing Heather isn't necessarily a reflection of them being bad people or not caring about Heather. After all, Heather is a reincarnation or at least another iteration of Alessa, who has all this cult baggage attached to her without her ever even knowing about it. She has a ~destiny~. But it IS a reflection of her lack of agency, and/or a lack of trust that she can get through this without birthing the god. On some level, that's fair, since she's only 17, but on another level, I don't think it's coincidental that the people who consider killing Heather to protect themselves/others from her potential are father figures. I also definitely interpreted Heather's storyline as being less about revenge--although obviously it starts out that way--and more about taking responsibility. No, she had no choice about whose soul she was born with/created from. No, she had no choice about gestating the god. But she tries to figure out how to prevent/fix things, which seems like a pragmatic attitude she could have gotten from Harry--who after all did decide he would rather raise and care for the baby Heather than do what was possibly the safer and DEFINITELY the easier course in killing her. Then at the end, of course, she's discharged the unasked-for responsibilities thrust upon her by the circumstances of her birth, and is free to finally be a person without a mission again, and breaks down because her dad is dead. It's also baffling to me that people think this storyline isn't that deep, because like...not-quite-adult girl is forced to carry a pregnancy to term, knowing it will ruin her (/everyone else's) lives? That's dark! And once again, the most horrifying part is NOT the demon god thing, although that doesn't help. It's the way all agency has been stripped from her AND ALSO her only support system literally murdered--again, things that happen all-too-often IRL, no monsters or dark world required. ...I also feel like, for all Silent Hill 2 is a great deep-dive into one guy's Stuff, it also is clear enough about what's going on that we couldn't have two different but equally valid interpretations of it, whereas I don't think anything you said about SH3 is wrong! It's just not how I interpreted the text, but I definitely see where you're coming from! It's a really rich text, actually! And god, the number of weird men/things watching Heather over the course of the game that don't impact gameplay at all...they sure did hammer that objectification and observation theme hard.
Ive been too scared to play SH but am a huge fan of horror and loved the (original) movie. I watch videos on the series instead of playing to learn about the lore. You really hit the mark on the portrayal of women’s fears. It’s not discussed enough so really glad to see this video get traction. I subscribed and am making my way through all your content. Thank you!
the part about how you preferred SH2 over SH3 because you didn't understand the full horror of SH3 was so eye opening to me. coming from a 15 year old girl when i played sh3 recently i didnt pick up on some of the horror in it and i felt kind of unimpressed playing it compared to sh2, but after seeing this video its making me reconsider how i feel about it i didnt even realise how the amusement park was there to tease heather about her age!! such a good find :) this whole video is amazing thank you for your insight
38:50 Heather turning towards the "camera" is a great visual call back to Cheryl in Silent Hill 1. Silent Hill 3 remains the best Silent Hill game for me and Heather is really one of the greatest protagonists in video games. The ending is really heart-breaking and I always hope that Heather is able to find some closure after the events of the game. The soundtrack is really outstanding but I don't know how to feel about the ending song "Hometown", it feels very Nick Cave to me. I feel that "Memory of the Waters" with its somber tone would fit far better. Silent Hill 3 also has the greatest selection of optional weapons, easter eggs and alternate costumes.
Well the context of the game is that multiple people are in silent hill at the same time. Presumably someone else was there got scared empty their magazines and fell in the elevator. Though fro Stanley that’s definitely him the fact he’s actually still alive and heather decides to not try to help him is actually kinda scary I don’t blame her since his diary had horrific fantasy’s about her but still
What’s creepy too is that once you’re done reading the diaries, they disappear. I went back into a room where he had a put one the first time, and it was gone with the doll.
"Her outfit also appears somewhat mismatched" Oh that was just the early 2000's the team did actually go through several fashion magazines while designing the characters 😂 and green + orange + something beige/white (usually a bucket hat, but Heather's rocking that vest) was soooo the "teenage dirtbag" look
Yeah it really suits the time period, so they did well there
The fact she used to smoke is a bonus. The design team knew what they were doing.
Haha, unfortunately I was still a wee babby in the early 2000s so I was unaware of this - you learn something new everyday! 🤣 Thanks for sharing! 😄
The character designer originally envisioned Heather wearing jeans. But, the women in the team said she should wear a skirt
I was 12 when this came out and Heather's outfit definitely looked like something out of Seventeen Magazine.
The fact Heather Mason is never on those "women in games" lists is a shame, she's one of the best protags not only in the series but she never gets the attention she deserves!!
Silent hill 3 will be hands down my favorite always because of Heather. She is my favorite female character in any video game. I was 13 when I first played and her snarky attitude was so on point with how a teenager would be dealing with all this craziness. It makes me sad that 2 gets all the praise but 3 gets looked over so much even though it was literally a continuation of the storyline.
@@AshChiCupcak sadly i think a lot of people like 2 *bc* its not related to the storyline. which... if you dont care abt the storyline to the point you prefer it not being involved at all, then maybe you dont actually love the series and just love sh2....
@@cassinipanini Honestly, it may have a lot to do with the generational leap on gaming between 1 and 2. A lot of people started on 2 as it was the first one on PS2. I didn't even play the first one until after I beat the third one because I was only 8 so I watched my brother play it. I liked it, I just didn't get it. So I got lucky he gave me his copy of 3 after he beat it and I was finally at an age where I was brave enough to play. So I get why people are so attached to 2, I just feel like that passion is very biased. 4 was great too but it was also forgotten 😔
And considering she’s literally alessa and went through hell in silent hill one, she really gets under acknowledged
Technically speaking she's literally not a woman.
Feminine horror like what you see in SH3, Haunting Ground, and Rule of Rose is a deeply under utilized area of horror narratives. When it is used, the mark gets missed, or even downright fetishistic, in a lot of cases. I'm glad that these games exist.
I always wanted to play Rule of Rose
Haunting Ground was impressive for its time. Pretty sad it was overshadowed towards the end of the PS2 lifespan; it was a really amazing horror game that has some great atmosphere and gameplay.
Bro, the bad end of Haunting Ground is fucked up as hell
Clocktower games, too
You could argue Haunting Ground for sure has fetishistic elements.
I mean just look at the character design for one, it's not as out of pocket as it could be
but that skirt is short for a reason.
But here's something to think about, in interviews for Silent Hill3
regarding Heather/Cheryl's design they were going to go with different opptions but settled on a skirt
because it seemed a bit more visually vulnerable or something along those lines. Maybe, haunting grounds
also uses this for a similar purpose? But the skirt its a bit more fan servicey with it being shorter, i mean this is capcom.
I played SH3 when I was 18. l always remember the moment Heather discovers her father dead in their apartment, and my dad unexpectedly passed away in another room at the exact same time. It was as if the nightmarish world of this game was trying to tell me. From that point on, I was flung into the most turbulent years of womanhood and young adult life. This game will always be with me.
Your video was so well done. It spoke to me so vividly!
Sorry for your loss .
My condolences..
Hope youre doing well now
I am sorry to hear of your father's passing.
Heather's version of Silent Hill has a much different tone than Alessa's, despite being the same entity. Alessa's pain and fear was all based in pre-adolescence. Alessia both loved and feared the church, and felt isolated in her youth. After being burned, she became unfortunately familiar with life in the hospital, and the corruption of adults. This combined with Cheryl's fear of the monsters she would draw in her sketchbook when they came together to create her otherworld. But, Heather, as their reincarnation, never had such an upbringing. She didn't suffer at the hands of corrupt adults, or feel the ostracization that Alessia felt. Her fears are more common to her age and sex. Her fears revolve around blood, and what teenage girl doesn't fear showing blood during her period. She has self image issues, seeing faceless monsters with "happy" images pasted over them; sexualized nurse figures, who have no identity. She fears pregnancy, and rape. The enemies have stabbing, penetrating attacks, and can overpower Heather when she is down. Some are very phallic in design. Her enemies sometimes appear in nurse or patient's clothing. The enemy "insane cancer" could even represent the very common diseases that come with female biology: ovarian or breast cancer. Heather's otherworld is very medical, and very maternal.
Thanjk you so much🙏💐
That is an interesting way to look at it, but canon is canon. None of this is actually true, all the enemy designs were inspired from SH1 and SH2, like the closer was inspired from mandarin according to masahiro ito. and mostly all the monsters are simply game designs. Also there were no sexualized nurse figures in SH3, however it was a thing in SH2 because of james's inner sexual frustration due to Mary being sick, james being james saw the nurses as sexualized in his fked up fantasy. Masahiro ito confirmed in one of his tweets that mostly all the monsters are not symbolism of any kind despite SH1 and SH2.
What always stuck out to me the most was the first boss being a clear euphemism for Masc genitalia. The idea something so grotesque could take away your life. It literally being a threat that could kill you in the game is juxtaposition to how something like that could easily ruin a young girl's life. The slurper enemy have boxers on, and could easily represent the "thirsty" men in real life who just view people like heather as a sex object to thirst over
Not to sound too cringe, but it's really nice finally hearing a woman cover this game, with viewpoints and ideas and life experiences that correlate to mine and the games. Thank you for sharing!
From what I remember eurothug (whose video is mentioned at the beginning) is a woman.
it's not cringe at all to relate to a protagonist partially cause of their gender experience. i really related to james sunderland in silent hill 2.
Thegamingmuse is also a great RUclips channel that covers the Silent Hill series and other horror who [EDIT]: is trans masc identifying as he/him.
However, their's was the first video I saw that put together the idea of Maria from SH:2 being the greatest feminine existential horror.
Exactly what I thought as the video started
I was about to comment this myself. It makes the analysis very personal.
I love Heather. I liked how she was so strong even with the nightmare she was living and in the end took back her life and avenged Harry.
i wish more people would recognize that, it’s not JUST a happy ending for her. she sees her father die and still survives silent hill while getting revenge while others couldn’t even survive it. crazy.
@@theetaurus1832 Exactly. Painful and all but she pulled through. Way more than what can be sai from the bodies at the haunted house or some others found alongg the way. Still, Stanley deserved to become number 7. Haha
@@enderclasscraft6411 i meant to add that too, unlike the others she lives with the actions of everyone else around her and none of her own decisions that affect her.
I like to think that one day, Harry walked into Heather's room with a fishing vest in one hand, and cargo shorts in the other, and made her chose.
"Heather, you're going to need pockets."
He knew he had to prepare her for her destiny as a survival horror protagonist
"You're getting older, before you know it you'll be holding onto fifty rounds of pistol ammo, 5 protein drinks, a janitors ring of keys. Could be other weird stuff, a god seal, maybe some bread tongs. When I was your age I had to haul a pack of juice. Point is...."
@@vincentsinclair7749 there should be award for comments on youtube too 🏆
@@elsanto2401 And 6 volumes of the complete works of William Shakespeare! Don't forget about those things!
As someone who lost a parent, albeit at an older age than Heather, hearing her just say ‘Dad…’ at the end really fucking hurt. I didn’t get how pointless revenge is until I lost someone. There’s no way to bring back them, or the person you were.
i was only 7 when my dad died but that scene resonated with me alot as well. im sorry you had to experience losing a parent. i know how heartbreaking it is.
Related to that brief construction area, I was walking around town late at night when I was younger. For no reason other than I happened to walk by, I went into a hospital, got in the elevator and pressed the button for the highest floor. When the door opened, it was a totally empty floor, no lights except for the emergency lights, and it was under remodeling, so there were plastic sheets hanging all over as separations between hallways. I stepped out and walked down the hall a bit when I heard the elevator close. I quickly walked back and pressed the button, but the elevator wasn't coming back. I walked through the hall, passing empty, black rooms and plastic foggy sheets looking for the stairwell. I ended up running back to the elevator hall and saw it open and waiting for me. Really surreal experience.
Man, that sounds so haunting. That exact feeling of isolation is executed so well in SH3. Thank you for sharing! I doubt you’ll be forgetting that experience anytime soon 😅
Next time I'm near a hospital I want to try that... And I recently had my own eerie hospital experience when I got to walk through a basement floor not normally open for public; winding, uneven hallways with wires and pipes running across ceiling and walls, and occasionally someone would drive by in some kind of electric-powered vehicle. Not exactly silent hill-esque, but it was huge contrast to the smooth clinical halls of the public floors and made me think of SH nevertheless.
That line heather makes about mirrors is hilarious considering how mirrors are programmed in silent hill in that it is not actually a reflection but rather a copy of the room with a copy of your character mirroring you on the other side of the wall.
how do you know there isn't a copy of you and the room you're in on the other side of every mirror you've looked into?
Honestly even for women who havent experienced the full breadth of horror covered in this game, its still relevant just because the general societal pressure put on all of us. I might not ever have been stalked, but I have been constantly reminded by media that it could happen. I might never have been assaulted or gone anywhere truly dangerous alone at night, but I have been conditioned by society to view myself as weak and defenseless so I feel the pressure all the same. I might not personally connect to the experience of carrying a child unwillingly, but I have been subject to the intense scrutiny placed on women that robs us of bodily and sexual autonomy all the same. These anxieties exist as an undercurrent of our culture, and are very difficult to escape as any sort of woman living in the modern day.
this exactly. im transmasc but still afab ofc and only relatively recently figured out im trans but i still feel a connection to girlhood and femininity. while im lucky that i havent had any firsthand horrific experiences with these things, i still always have a visceral gut reaction to them. i was also raised mormon which has a foundation and system just bleeding with sexism and misogyny. but i cant even imagine what the people who have had those kinds of experiences are going through
I have autism and one of my special interests is the Silent Hill series; I have written ESSAY UPON ESSAY about every single detail of SH3. I am so glad someone else loves this game as much as I do and sees what I see in the game as someone who grew up a woman. Thanks for this video!
Oooo do you post them anywhere? I'd love to read them.
WHERE DO YOU POST THEM LET US READ
Writing my english college essay on a comparative analysis of the silent hill games and their movie counterparts and my thesis in short is that video games are the most immersive and viceral story telling mediums of our time.
You have autism too?
finally i found someone similar! i am also autistic and one of my special interests is the silent hill series
I’ve always admired how these games, unlike many of their contemporaries, didn’t fail in portraying girlhood and womanhood in a realistic manner. It was a time when every woman in a video game looked and felt like a male sexual fantasy, even when sexuality wasn’t at the core of their story.
Characters like Cheryl, Claudia or Mary all felt like real women, who had fears, traumas and insecurities very real and very unique to women no other games at the time would even dare touch up on.
Didnt you consider that maybe you were the one interpreting those women as a male sexual fantasy instead of actual men?
@@nikoleo2000 Didn't you consider that maybe the majority of characters wasn't relating to these women? Why is this so hard to believe?
@@stopwhispering2697 didn't you consider that maybe the characters didn't have to be completely relatable?its called FICTION after all
@@nikoleo2000
Wrong.....
@@FocusedFighter777 why...
Love these analysis of the feminine horror in gaming. Going back to SH2 Born from a Wish there was this feminine horror Maria added that we later see done to perfection in Silent Hill 3, which was so very ahead of its time.
Wild to think that this medium peaked artistically in the sixth console gen.
Most mediums peaked at that generation but that's because modern publishers are afraid to take bold risks.
@@Manic_PanicFor real, almost everything from big studios needs to be some generic AAA thing that follows the popular trends and tropes and is as safe as possible for the best return on investment, and I hate it. The PS360 gen gradually killed off AA development but that was my favorite aspect of gaming. I miss the Chulips and Mister Mosquitos and Stretch Panics and King of Crushers like you wouldn't believe
@@Manic_Panic I agree, from what I know in the ps2 era a lot more companies were eager to take risks if it meant creating something enjoyable. The survival horror genre was largely built off of these risks as many games seen as classics now weren't always that profitable or well received on release.
I beg to differ about that last statement. "Artistry" in videogames is a pretty broad term because there's a lot of things that make the medium what it is.
Story and themes may be part of games, but it doesn't represent the entire medium. There are other aspects of a videogame that makes it "Art" from stuff like level design and even down to the very of code of the game.
Speedrunners would often be amazed and annoyed when they find games that are difficult to "break" Because it was programmed extraordinarily well with no loopholes that can be exploited.
That is a show of mastery of the craft, like how an illustrator studies the skeleton and musculature of a living creature. You don't see skeletons and muscle fibers everywhere in their works, but its part of what made their artwork take their shape and what makes it visually sound. Its a show of mastery, therefore a show of artistry of the medium they chose.
Saying that videogames have peaked artistically because of how a story is told is like saying live Action Movies, Animation, Books, Comics, and Musicals are all the same thing. If they all adapt SH3 effectively, does that mean all of those mediums peak artistically by default?
No. those are all different mediums, they can all tell the same story, but each have their own unique discipline to master.
An actor for musicals might not do well in the widescreen regardless of how much they've mastered their craft, being good in comics doesn't mean they'll be as good in animation by default, and the best directors might not be as good when writing novels.
Videogames is still a relatively young medium. There are still developers out there pushing different aspects of it to their limits, narratively, visually, and technically.
Its quite far from "peaking"
@@Manic_Panic it's also sadly because, to an understandable degree, some devs don't trust themselves to handle those topics for a variety of reasons such as not having a writer/scenario planner who can navigate these topics with tact.
On the other hand, we got dumbasses like Blooper Team who make SA victims seem like their only way out is through suicide. I'm flattening out the story for one of their games describing it that way but unfortunately that's how they thought navigating that topic should have appropriately ended when... it could have gone so many other far better directions that are still messy but far less dumb.
About that very passive femininity, it's important to have in mind that in japanese society women tend to not be so vocal about anything really. There is a clip somewhere on the internet of an idol who almost gets abducted in the middle of a song by a man who simply grabs her arm and tries to take her away. She almost didn't resist. Seen from that perspective, you could say that freezing is a more extended reaction to a dangerous situation in that particular culture, and that makes it more believable. I am from Spain (for those who don't know, that's in Europe), and people here tend to be pretty explosive so I get where you're comming from. Nice video btw
I have loved a lot of the videos on this channel, but the fact that she was dismissive of the Fatal Frame protagonists and the cultural aspects around their portrayal honestly sat in my brain to the point it detracted from the rest of the video for me.
I LOVE Heather as a protagonist, but I actually personally relate to Miku from Fatal Frame more. As a very shy kid who was mostly close to my family-especially my older brother- she resonated with me more. I do feel that she was fleshed out more in the third game, but the overall dismissal of her because she's not as outgoing as Heather hurts, but it also feels painfully accurate to what it's like being a shy and withdrawn person in reality as well. It also just feels weirdly ironic to hand wave off a series that focuses on female protagonists when she has mentioned before that they were so commonly dismissed in that era. I'm sure it's not the intention, but it really comes off as "female protagonists- but not like that!"
Honestly, I don't think I've played a horror game yet where I thought the main girl was boring. Give me your sassy, your dainty, your butt-kickers, your damsels-in-distress- whatever they are! Survival horror has a wide array of female protagonists, and I am here for all of them.
@@twistersylph6544
I absolutely agree. Also, I think we should all reclaim the damsels-in-distress as part of the beautiful spectrum that is femininity instead of rejecting it just to make the others shine more. Give me more princesses AND princes-in-distress please. As an introverted shy guy myself
As someone who noticed a grown man following me (and pretty close too, sometimes trying to talk to me) during board daylight in town when I - a teenager at the time - went shopping, I always tend to look back more when I'm somewhere alone.
This game relates to me so much and I'm glad you talked about it. When Heather said she was taking the train home, the first thing I thought was 'a teenage girl going in a subway alone? Yeah, no.'
I even relate to the premise of Silent Hill 4 as I used to be a shut in myself years ago. I badly wish the Silent Hill games 1-4 could be released on modern consoles because I miss playing them.
I bought them on the PS2, it wasn't expensive
@@SamuelBlack84 same a lot of memories. I’m glad we enjoyed this experience even i was not supposed to play this game being under 16 but i did even without understanding some stuff i felt the energy of everything i played the game again now as an adult on the computer, feels the same.
@Desert Moon lee I played Silent Hill since the very beginning in 1999. It's always been kike a second home to me, and I've wandered that empty town many a lonely night
Recently Konami has announced it will release metal gear solid 1-3 on modern consoles as well as the remake of mgs 3, so hopefully they will do something similar for silent hill in the future
@@juanmejiagomez5514 Here's hoping. I mean, the Silent Hill series is so beloved that it just doesn't make sense not to put on modern consoles for easier access.
I lost my father at 16, he had been battling alcohol and heart issues for about 10 years at that point. All of this culminated in him developing liver failure from the years he spent drinking as a substitute for talking about his feelings and the intense medication he’d take for his heart. I remember my first reaction when my mother told me he had passed away was to get up from the couch and kick the tv stand, I was angry at him for leaving me at such a young age, I was angry at myself for not having spent more time with him while he was in the hospital as I couldn’t bare to see him so delirious and frail. But at the end of the day I was just a confused kid who couldn’t fully understand why things had to end up like this. Seeing heather say that her father was a liar reminded me of the anger I felt in that moment. I always saw him as a strong and intelligent man so to know that he had become a shell of himself in his final weeks was heart breaking for me. When you’re that young your can’t quite realize that your parents are just as fragile as you are.
@@dustydowell2182 I’m so sorry to hear that happened to you, I hope you were able to find some camaraderie through my comment. :)
@@VeilOfMizery Aww. Thank you for responding. :) Honestly, I was kind of self-conscious and anxious about my comment so I deleted it. But I just wanted you to know that you weren't alone in feeling that way. I hope you're doing well.
@@dustydowell2182 there’s no need to feel anxious! The death of a parent is something so difficult to live through. I also hope you’re doing well!
as a female college student who has just recently grown into herself and gone out into the real world without the constant protection of my parents, this hits so hard. while many of the themes in this game aren't something i've experienced myself, they are things that i'm in constant fear of. this video actually made me immediately start downloading the game, despite not being sure if i would be able to stomach finishing it. even if i don't, i need to see this myself, because based on your description i don't think i've heard of anything that comes close to getting these themes across this well and this horrifically
I really love this game’s vibes, especially when you enter a new unknown area, and it’s empty with no monsters around. It really gives off an incredibly eerie feeling. The later portions of the game though tend to be way more harsh, and instead you’ll probably feel extremely anxious and overwhelmed. I remember a couple of rooms where you couldn’t see almost anything except vague, dark figures moving around, the doors being indistinguishable from the walls due to the moving bloody and rusty textures and the headphones blaring with the screeching sounds of multiple monsters. If there is a hell after we die, that’s how I imagine it. Good luck with finishing it, and if you enjoy it, I definitely recommend also trying Silent Hill 2. It doesn’t have much to do with womanhood but it still is a really compelling story
@@juanmejiagomez5514 id argue that sh2 has a lot to do with womanhood, and so does sh1! james's storyline in sh2 has a lot to do with gender dynamics as james' recurring npcs are an abused woman and an emasculated man, whos victimhood stemming from not living up to potential of their gender is echoed with james' own experiences, since james spoiler spoiler spoiler in one case and is emasculated repeatedly by maria ("youre supposed to be the big man around here, and you need a frail girl's help?") and pyramid head (if he catches james, he lifts him up and licks his face in a manner suggesting sexual assault) in another. his story is as much about confronting his guilt as it is about reconciling his masculinity and femininity. remember how after he spoiler spoiler, he is actually mistaken for a woman - a mother, even?
in the good ending, he becomes laura's parent. Just like Harry becomes Sheryl's parent, just like the detective adopts the role of Heather's parent (we arent shown this explicitly, but they do have a sweet and awkward talk about maybe being like a parent and child).
in sh1, harry's devotion to his adopted child rings so feminine, the director of the movie even claimed that it could never work with a male figure. but the tresspassing of gender roles is not a mistake. the cosmology is flipped on its head - its not the virginal mother of male god, but the adopted (and so, virginal) father of female god.
haha... sorry for being weird in your comments ^_^'' i just really love these games
did you play it?)
When you confront the real world its always a complex experience, wheter you are a women and feel unprotected or you are a man and feel that you need to protect the others
Even now, Heather's VA ranks among the very best of gaming performances. You can hear her adapting to every change in the game and reacting - not just in that moment - but also with the history of what she has been through. No idea what happened to her since, sadly.
That was something that really stood out to me. The VA in 3 in general is a step up from the first two (and I know that has to do with VA in general changing to a more natural tone), but Heather is done so perfectly.
@@averysspookshowspectacular6205 It's a shame the VA didn't do anything afterwards. She would have had the potential for such an amazing career.
Harry's death is all the more striking when you realize that Silent Hill 3 is a stealth sequel to Silent Hill 1. The back of the box and game booklet give Heather's last name as Morris and you don't know she's related to Harry until you come across his corpse and then when Claudia directly says that was Harry. That would be like playing a random zombie game, then suddenly having a canonical cameo by Chris Redfield a split second before Chris gets his throat ripped out and stays dead for good.
Love when things are accused of being shallow because they don’t resonate with the dominant perspective owners.
Yep. We're supposed to think the Jacob's Ladder rip-off is a masterpiece, but SH3 isn't because men.
@@Aster_Risk what do you mean? I'm a man. can confirm it's a masterpiece. you don't need to sink to the level of people you are criticizing by bashing on another masterpiece
what does resonate even mean? you don't need to be a woman to be disgusted by what Heather goes through. you need to be so dense not to realize the terror so many woman go through just because you are a man.
aslo SH2 does too much on its own to be a rip-off. every piece of media is a rip-off. it's just that SH2 doesn't hide its inspirations and it's not just SH2, the whole franchise is inspired by Jacobs Ladder and The Shinning and many so many other things
@@Aster_Risk Jacob's Ladder rip-off?
Do you even know what a homage is?
@@Aster_Risk You will never be a woman
I agree, My love for sh2 is for how much the themes resonates whit me. I could predict the twist very early in. Mary forgiving James made it easier for me to forgive myself due to... dumb acts (nothig illegal) and whlist i still love sh3 I get why it docent get as much cred... and that saddens me since I´m prittey sure women rasonate whit the game just as strongly as sh2 resonates whit me.
Underrated take on SH3 in this vid. With the amount of modern games shelling out terribly written "girlboss" games that are terrible, the strength and understanding that Silent Hill 3 has of its inherently feminine yet EQUALLY CAPABLE protagonist makes it such a rare gem. Power fantasy games are fine for both, sure, but Heather is one of those uncommon characters that remains strong and capable without losing her likability or feminine qualities. She's not arrogant, but not weak.
I love SH3 too though I'd argue she does express arrogance, but it's more so as a cover for dealing with all the messed-up sh*t she had to deal with throughout the game, and being a snarky sarcastic teenager is her way of dealing with everything going on. It's a character trait of her's, but not something that defines her whole character (and doesn't retain the snark in moments when she was vulnerable, like when she was recounting to Douglas the events before, through, and after SH1).
Good point, but i wouldn't say good strong and capable feminine characters are rare. disney protagonists, the owl house (then again thats also disney), Gwen from Spider-Verse, the list goes on. I really don't think masculine or completely androgynous female characters are as common as people make them out to be (which is a shame, as I'd love more good gnc female characters, but that doesn't mean I'm not glad we have so many good feminine characters)
just say you hate masc women and go
@@18poc12poc7msThat's not it. What they're refering to is the corporate girlboss that is made to appeal somewhat to progressive game journalists while still retaining the male gaze. Surface level badassery that can't be trumped but isn't so risqué as to make men uncomfortable.
@@maidenlessbastard true but we dont need more feminine women in media. being feminine is already encouraged by society so why can't be have an actual well written gnc character for once
I played this when I was 17. When the end happened and she cried for her dad I cried hard and went to hug my dad. He was so confused but just hugged me. 32 now and seeing that seen made be tear up. The game hit me hard.
I also feel like the loss described in Harry's notebook can be seen as the loss felt by a father as he struggles to understand a teenage daughter. You change so much in such a short amount of time, it wouldn't be unheard of for parents to see you as a different person and want to see you as the young girl you once were. It's amazing how many levels the narrative works on.
Great video! A lot of well worded insight.
I do want add about a little side story in the hospital where a nurse is told to have been abused by a doctor and confined into solitary by him as punishment for something. On hard riddle mode you can also find a note where the doctor describes a violent fantasy about her. It directly widens the scope of horror from just Heather to a systemic issue of vulnerable women being at the mercy of more powerful men
That's very interesting I don't think I've seen anyone talk about this before. Likely because the Hard puzzle mode for Silent Hill 3 is very... yknow.. difficult lol :P
@@omnihazzards yeah. You need a guide bc one of the puzzles (the morgue one) is actually broken and unsolvable by the clues 😄
God the doctor’s note you find on hard riddle mode is genuinely one of the most disturbing and well written things in the entire franchise. It’s so twisted and graphic, it paints such a vivid picture of the doctor’s depraved fantasies of the poor woman.
In terms of Stanley Coleman being sonewhere in the hospital, what if he was always right next to when you read his notes, sitting beside you?
Heather cant see him, because he isnt part of her subconscious perception of Silent Hill
Ooohhh man I LOVE that idea. Makes a creepy concept even creepier!
I love and deeply hate that idea. 😅
it doesn't surprise me at all that SH3 is underrated & considered a one dimensional storyline by some fans, who are probably mostly men or boys, who have no idea what's it's like to be a young teenage girl, to be stalked, followed, harassed, experience menstruation, and live with the weight of the possibility of bringing life into this world (forced or not). but hopefully, playing as heather and what she goes through helped at least a few people understand, or scratch the surface of what it's like to be a teenage girl, even in a hellish other-world. this game plays on very real fear, which arguably makes it scarier. loved this video!
I wish they’d gone down that route more than the cult route though. It could have been one of the most disturbing games if they focused on the shit that commonly happens to a lot of people.
The only game I can think of that solely focusses on that is Haunting Ground and that’s really sad because it’s an untapped horror potential.
But also the fact that all the women who loves the SH world as much as men, just dont go making podcast videos about it as much as men do.
But it doesnt mean we dont exist or dont care, however these guys take it as if women dont play game or dont like gore etc.
False. Women who actually are FREE to choose "dudes hobbies", we keep proving that we love the same thing.
But it doesnt stop the dudes from pretending otherwise.
@@HiBuddyyyyyyBut misogyny and religion are intertwined in a lot of ways. The Order’s practices of suffering and birth are rooted in misogynistic Catholic/Christian ideas. How Heather is seen as a Virgin Mary figure by the cult, where her worth is placed in her suffering and ultimately giving birth to God. She is both an object while also placed on a pedestal, both forms of dehumanization. Hot take, but I think Konami wanting the cult back for 3 was indirectly a good move from them. Idk, it might be because I live in a country where both the church and the goverment are connected (meaning abortions and divorce is illegal) that I connect with the themes more.
"a reality that doesnt go away when you turn off the game" damn that hit
I too played Silent Hill 3 as a young teenage girl and it has really stuck with me for that reason as well. This video really captured all my unspoken feelings towards this game in such a well articulated and insightful way. Really great job!
If anyone thinks there aren't layers to SH3's storyline, consider this. The first puzzle in the game (on Hard) involves placing Shakespeare folios in a bookstore, and requires basic knowledge of the storylines to get the sequence.
I've always felt this was the devs spelling out their intentions for the story, specifically as a Renaissance Revenge tragedy (described as "visual spectacle, full of blood and horror"), which is the precursor to modern horror, the most famous example of which is Hamlet, the first story referenced.
The clue reads: "In here is a tragedy-- art thou player or audience? Be as it may, the end doth remain: all go on only toward death. The first words at thy left hand: a false lunacy, a madly dancing man. Hearing unhearable words, drawn to a beloved's grave---and there, mayhap, true madness at last."
It clearly references Hamlet, but it also completely foreshadows Heather's own story. A tragedy with a play within a play (the cult's secret plans tracking and controlling her life), being drawn to a beloved's grave (Claudia murdering Harry to drive Heather mad with the 'false lunacy' of revenge, to descend into the true nightmare of madness and birth their god).
BTW almost all of the following revenge tragedy tropes are present in SH3
These tropes include:
Ghosts: Alessa, subway ghost, more that I'm forgetting
Madness or feigned madness: all over, plus "false lunacy" from above I think could also be a reference to the unnatural pregnancy Heather is subject too. Lunacy, the moon, hysteria, all have this tie to menstruation and fertility, and we see it even more with the walnut, moonstone, and 300 day door with a bloody crescent moon in which we insert the moonstone.
Disguises: Heather colors her hair to hide from the cult, "Heather" is a disguise for Alessa/Cheryl to a degree, Heather changes her name back to Cheryl, Heather and Harry move often to hide their identity from the cult.
Personified Revenge: Heather, and the key tragedy that her pursuit of revenge threatens to be her undoing.
A play within a play, or dumb show (the cults secret plans for Heather's life, everyone's hidden intentions)
A Machiavellian figure (Vincent, or Leonard, or hell even Claudia)
Violent murders, including decapitation and dismemberment, gore: In the bad ending everyone but Heather is dead, Douglass by her own hand. She has become revenge, see above. We see tableaux of ritual bloodletting, animated viscera, and Claudia's horrific transformation.
One of the songs in the SH3 soundtrack also has Mary Elizabeth Mcglynn recite that same Hamlet passage in the background.
What makes Silent Hill 3 stand out from the rest of the series is the emotional response it elicits in the players mind as they take this journey with Heather. The themes mentioned of stalking, predatory behavior and harassment forced upon women for simply existing can't help but resonate with anyone who plays the game. Women who have experienced these things or people who have had loved ones experience these things are confronted with these topics once again. When Heather feels angry, we feel angry with her and as a result the themes in this game have a lasting effect on us even after we put the controller down.
As Heather begins to feel more despair and sets on the path of revenge we feel that pain all to viscerally, it's an all too real human reaction of wanting to defend and hunt down a person who has harmed someone we love, but in the end we know it won't prevent what has happened and realize this will only make the pain even worse.
But this is exactly what good art does, it elicits these emotional responses in the viewer, it confronts us head on with societal injustices which can reaffirm that rightful anger in people to stand up and hopefully give people an empathy and understanding that maybe wasn't there before. Silent Hill 3 does all of these things, and so does this video Tango. I can't speak for everyone but I would imagine a lot of people took a moment to reflect on these topics and maybe looked on past or ongoing experiences and perhaps it made them feel less alone and heard after watching this video. I for one, am glad and forever impressed by content creators like yourself who will bring these important topics into the light and aren't afraid to do so! 🔥♥
I agree with everything she said, even about Fatal Frame (I personaly hate how these women are made to look weak/docile etc)
But I can't believe she left out the boss fight with the worm: giving it's significance.
Heather goes down a ladder, 'down there' there is this long fleshy monster who breaks its way in violently, and it has teeth (why? Because this whole process hurts and it is traumatizing, especially when you don't consent....)
It keeps to come and go through these holes, too.
Just like the monsters represent James in SH2, the ones in SH3 are doing what real-life monsters do to women.
(The Slurpers are on the floor and attack her this way, looking up her skirt, for one.)
Read about the monsters, and you'll know their twisted significance.
Like she mentioned, some are from Alessa's, some are from Heather's: and it's deeper than people realises.... especially dudes because they dont live in that reality, these constant fears and uncertainties.....
The purple fetuses on legs bumping Heather in the uterus when they attack her etc.......
Also the removal of women's choices with their own bodies is another great example....
I was always a gamer from back when I was a kid, and me not doonf videos about explqining SH, these same dudes think that women dont play video games and dont like gore etc.
They truly dont live in reality....
Those essays on the intersection of horror games and fears/dangers of existing as a woman are amazing, yet terrifying. This perspective often felt overlooked before, yet it is so apparent. You put it into words beautifuly.
This and Alice Madness Returns gave me a sense of being understood when I was around 12-13 stronger than anything else I had felt before, but back then I couldn't pinpoint why.
I know that SH 2 was the darling of the series, but SH 3 was my favourite. I related to Heather and thought it was refreshing to have a heroine that wasn’t a wilting wallflower or a bulletproof badass. Heather is probably the most relatable playable character in the series and I love that the flavour text always clues you into what is going on in her mind. Not to get too personal I was going through my own loss at the time of playing so a lot of the events really hit home for me. Oh I love the detail of Harry leaving notes as the save system and then Heather finding a note that he left in the town, that was such an amazing detail.
I've personally never played this game, but I do enjoy horror. The gift Stanely tries to give her is deeply telling on his view of her. That he knows she's a barely considered an adult so he would like to be in control of her. And that a doll is something you would gift a small child is deeply shivering. With your deep dive video, I can see the other hidden meanings as well and I really enjoyed it.
That’s the point he loves her because she’s 17 menaing you know… not an adult
I'm not a woman, but I loved SH3. When I was younger, I never gave it much thought of how scary games like this and Haunting Ground can be once you get past surface level introduction of the games.
SH3 is a GOAT and I would go as far as to say Heather is one of the best female characters in a game. She's got a good arc, personality, and agency. Her voice actress also smashes it too. This video also brought up a lot of good things I never would have noticed as a male. The game is truly timeless and this was a great video explaining why.
I love seeing comments like this!!
I've always found it interesting how there's a connection between Heather and Ellen Ripley of Alien(s)-fame. Heather is technically born pregnant with the Order's god in the sense that the seed of it was always inside of her as a result of being, essentially, a "clone" of Alessa. This is similar to how Ellen Ripley in the later movies is a literal clone of the original Ellen and was also born impregnated with the Necromorph Queen of the original Ellen.
i love those 2 badass women too !!
didn't expect to see my video mentioned in there!! glad SH3 is getting more coverage on this topic :) my vid is pretty old in the sense that there's so much more I would've liked to add or elaborate on when I look back on it, so it's very satisfying to see you cover so much ground and so eloquently. fantastic video!
I remember reading somewhere that originally SH3 was supposed to be a way darker game but they got essentially forced to go back to the cult aspects by Konami. While i think they did a great job with the lore and Heather's relation to SH1, with all the symbolism in this game i wonder if we missed out on a way more fucked up story more akin to Silent Hill 2
Even if Silent Hill 2 will always be my favourite, there is something so horrifically "real" about the horror of Silent Hill 3. Having played it at around the same age as Heather, the themes of feminine horror felt so unnerving and personal, I'd sometimes joke that if I had an "otherworld" it would the same as Heather's. I do wish they'd gone further with these concepts, as the cult horror began to take away from such a personal experience, but there is undeniably something very special about this game.
Also, thank you for the wonderful video! It was a very entertaining watch :)
I always listen to End of Small Sanctuary whenever I'm in a mall or just commuting by myself in general, but when Dance with Night Wind suddenly plays, I immediately skip it because I have loved ones at home lol. That's how impactful the SH3 music is to me.
End of Small Sanctuary has no right to be that catchy. That song is a mood that I've been listening to for so many years, especially during sunset. I especially loved listening to it on my headphones after classes in college while sitting at the library and doing my work on the computer. Being indifferent to people around me as they slowly become less populous, leaving the building, and eventually I leave campus at a certain time around sunset or even when the sky's already dark. It still has memories, and I can always pinpoint it in the background when other RUclipsrs use the song. It's great.
YAYYY SILENT HILL 3!! My favorite of the series and not just because of the feminine horror (lady here). Heather is just one of the most likeable protagonists of all time. Not just that but the entire small cast is just phenomenal. And the graphics are so fucking good for 2003. The scenery is so visceral and downright disgusting and the SOUND DESIGNS... the rng based, random background noises are so fucking freaky. And of course, the very female centric horror... I think it flies over a lot of cis male players heads. The slurpers always made me really uncomfortable- the way they push heather down and damn near crawl up her skirt.... also the soundtrack. It is so, so, so fucking good.
SH3 is a 10/10 game. Period.
Oh how could I forget the FACIAL ANIMATIONS. Seriously. SH3 blows me the fuck away.
I was just writing about the Slurpers:
I agree with everything she said, even about Fatal Frame (I personaly hate how these women are made to look weak/docile etc)
But I can't believe she left out the boss fight with the worm: giving it's significance.
Heather goes down a ladder, 'down there' there is this long fleshy monster who breaks its way in violently, and it has teeth (why? Because this whole process hurts and it is traumatizing, especially when you don't consent....)
It keeps to come and go through these holes, too.
Just like the monsters represent James in SH2, the ones in SH3 are doing what real-life monsters do to women.
(The Slurpers are on the floor and attack her this way, looking up her skirt, for one.)
Read about the monsters, and you'll know their twisted significance.
Like she mentioned, some are from Alessa's, some are from Heather's: and it's deeper than people realises.... especially dudes because they dont live in that reality, these constant fears and uncertainties.....
The purple fetuses on legs bumping Heather in the uterus when they attack her etc.......
Also the removal of women's choices with their own bodies is another great example....
I was always a gamer from back when I was a kid, and me not doonf videos about explqining SH, these same dudes think that women dont play video games and dont like gore etc.
They truly dont live in reality....
Back in the day, SH3 got mostly 7 or 8 out of 10s.
Lot of the media outlets saw the formula as samey & tired.
For me, I couldn’t get enough of it.
SH3 had some really great scares & pulled off amazing visuals on PS2 hardware.
That thing only had 32MB of ram. 2 for VRAM if my memory serves correct.
Visuals still hold up 20 years later. 🤯
Glad to see that people are still singing its praises 20 years after the fact.
I think the main reason that the fandom doesnt consider SH3 as one of the stellar, deeper games in the franchise (and imo in the genre) is that most of it is conformed by males, since most of us are super privileged to not have been stalked, sexually harassed, looked upon as baby making factories or even just told what to do with our bodies, its very easy to overlook the hidden meaning and critiques embedded in this game.
Another thing I find very interesting is that the heirloom Heather carries is, for me, a very on the nose reference to a next day pill, implying that Harry was a very progressive father that knew having slips as a teenager is normal and should not decide a woman's future.
Even leaving the deep stuff aside, Heather as you said is definitely one of the best characters period I've seen in gaming, she's like the punk friend we all had that wanted to grab a few cold ones after school, talk smack about society but still be in time to have dinner with their family.
You know, I had a similar experience with this game. I played for the first time when I was thirteen with a friend at a sleepover and loved it, but didn't think too deeply about it, though in the years that have passed it's become more and more present in my mind.
It always comes back to me whenever I'm alone at night on the subway, no matter what.
Silent hill 3 is an insanely personal experience for me, I love this game so much but my god does it often hit too close to home, the menstruation imagery, pregnancy, creepy obsessions. It’s all too real
Yes. Especially since a lot of women actuqlly never wanted/still dont want kids.
That fear of getting pregnant and the state forcing you to go through it all due to a non-feeling fetus being worth more than an actual human being contributing to society: is F insane to me.
I always loved all the gore and creepy things in SH, nothing is creepier or compares to the real monsters in real life, the real struggles.
@@FocusedFighter777 You don't contribute to society. :)
@@cherrylimeali4393 how would you know? Do you know them personally?
@@gratiaseia White woman feminists are resource leeches, so basically.
@@cherrylimeali4393 you dont contribute to my beans on toast
This video is simultaneously so relaxing because of your narration but also so upsetting with all of the discomfort and anxiety and loss we all go through as women
For real.
I could be wrong, but I doubt any of this reality dawned on any dude's mind when playing.
We, on the other hand, are always confronted by it.
Man, having been stalked when I was younger, Stanley really freaks me out. They did too good writing that part.
The worst part for me was reading the puzzle in the hospital to get the door code where, idk how it is in other difficulties but in hard more it's literally Stanley describing what he wanted to do with Heather and it's the most disturbing thing I've ever seen, got me walking slowly and scared to turn every corner like nothing had done before, specially cus I played this game after the second one and the abstract daddy boss fight made me feel sick literally dizzy because of everything that happened in that scene, I'm not a woman but I'm traumatized cus smth very similar happened to me and someone I love, watching Angela and James was like a flashback and being stalked by Stanley as Heather being scared of what could happen in the game, scared of reliving that trauma and not being able to do anything again was definitely the most scary thing I've ever seen in any kind of media
I’ve recently been down a silent hill rabbit hole and this is hands down the best essay I’ve seen about sh3. Not to mention that this is literally the only one I found made by a woman. I had a very similar experience to yours, I played the game as a child and didn’t understand much of the themes you discussed. Coming back to the franchise now, it really opened my eyes. Great work, I’ve been recommending this video to everyone I know that’s even slightly interested in horror games analyses! Brb I’m about to binge watch all your other videos!
Speaking of horrors of womanhood, I do recommend to check out The Closing Shift. It's a short indie horror game that dabbles into how it's like to deal with a predator. It definitely gave me a new perspective that I couldn't relate being a guy.
As always incredible stuff and stuff that made sense too! I resonated with this game a lot because of the stalkery aspects of it. As someone who has been stalked before, even as a bloke, this kinda thing is very unsettling and doing my own writing, whether that be in the form of songs or drafts of game design documents I've never fully been able to put that feeling into words until I played Silent Hill 3 for the first time in my early 30s.
The caution of going down a back alley and the anxiety felt hits home as I live near a dark alleyway with zero lighting that's in a rough part of town that's also the only realistic shortcut to get anywhere within a reasonable time. And that's something I feel too as someone who doesn't look or dress like everyone else from this town and it was common for goth/emo kids to be bullied and beaten up simply for having long hair or wearing all black down this shortcut path late at night. Toxic relationships in the past have resulted in stalking and harassment directly on my front doorstep too and I feel these events have shaped me into the private and reserved person that I am today. Some friends say I'm a little too paranoid and that it's weird for me to have an easy exit from whatever scenario I'm in, and to not project those same anxious thoughts onto others with the way I act, and this game gets that and makes me feel that again, not in a PTSD sense, more in the feeling of having something wrong for a long time and finally getting a diagnosis.
It makes complete sense seeing women in the street cross the road to where nobody is to have that reassurance when I know I'm sure as hell not going to do anything and it's highly unlikely another else on the same street would too, but I understand that I'm 6'1" and a large dude and that alone can be intimidating to a stranger in a confined or supposedly safe space, and sometimes doing my best to not give off that impression to a random as I'm only trying to pop to Sainsbury's for a cheese twist and a can of Monster isn't enough.
Sorry for the long comment. Can't wait for the next video, Tango!
Harry: "I wrapped my hands around her tiny little throat"
Also Harry: "I love you my precious daughter" 🤗
I think the scariest line in this game is "Happy people can be so cruel." Which summarised my experiences with religion to a t
Thank you so much for this video, I'll always support SH3 with all my heart as another women who connected with this entry the most. Seeing how SH2 is the star child, it always felt to me that SH3 was dismissed for the excuse you bring up of being "too culty", however more and more it just feels like an excuse to wash away the discomfort or disconnect the male audience would feel regarding Heather and her story.
On a technical note, I don't think SH3 gets credit for exceeding SH2 in terms of quality and horror. When I play SH2, there are "safe zones" that are easy to complete on replay. Like the wandering stretch of the beginning road, the apartment, beginning hotel, the town itself, etc. They still have great atmosphere and perhaps this is due to SH2 going for a more droning style of terror. But playing through SH3 even whilst knowing the game inside and out, it is still so difficult to get through more than an hour in one sitting. I think it's very rare for a horror game to plunge you right into the horror with miniscule build-up, AND have it work well at the same time. The hallways in SH3 are more cramped, the sounds are more oppressive and industrial (ala SH1) and you rarely get a break, especially in that beginning sequence just trying to get Heather home. I feel like SH2's otherworld hospital section is the closest equivalent to this. Towards the end of SH3, the hellish church is just abysmal in the nicest way possible :) No other horror game makes me feel so crushed and claustrophobic.
I'm so thankful this game exists, it's lightning in a bottle.
I tell you that when I saw what happened to Harry the first time I got that far in SH3, I freaked and almost didn't wanna keep going from how upset I felt to see that's his ultimate fate. So then when you finally confront Claudia and Heather says ''I was supposed to kill you!", she voiced exactly how I felt about it. Amazing game.
I didn't see all of this when I first played the game way back in the early 2000s. It has me really missing the old team that did the earlier Silent Hills.
And we have a female hero that's adds to the world that game is rather than just being their for representation's sake. This is what all developers should aspire to create; a rich story line where a character's background adds to the world.
Appreciate the in-depth analysis!
What an incredible video and analysis. I just finished Silent Hill 3 for the first time earlier today, and I will admit that all of these details went over my head. Seeing the elements of the game from this perspective helps me appreciate it a lot more.
The era of feminist readings of Silent Hill 3 is here and I'm HERE for it!
It’s about damn time!
Tango, thank you for making this video. For the longest time I've felt I was in a minority when I always said that SH3 was my favourite game in the series but you've nailed on the head why I love thie game and much much more. You're killing it with these videos as always.
I've been working on a Resident Evil fanfiction that is set during Sherry Birkin's teenage years. Heather Mason is a great character who gave me quite a bit of inspiration for making Sherry more believable.
Cool
I hope it great
I think another thing that not many people dig into is the ending of heather poking fun with Douglas. After all that, after all the horrors, and especially just after being brought back to the reality that her father is dead, she's still able to laugh and smile. I think it's to show her strength as a young girl. She's not some emotionless, macho main character that can kill anything and do everything, but she's still emotionally strong. She jokes and smiles cause she's finally free and happy, she can be who she truly is and not hide being Cheryl anymore. Despite all that, she's still got a little bit of childlike naivety that the world so cruelly tried to take away from her. A "revenge" of sorts against the cult that tried so desperately to smother her existence as a person, they failed and heather quite literally got the last laugh.
Absolutely agree about your comment on how realistic Heather is as a teenager. Silent Hill 3 for me is an inspirational story, because it shows how Alyssa has developed from an oppressed child whom was taken advantage of by her abusive mother, to a human being who knows that you can leave your toxic birth environment and create your own life with people who actually care about you. Heather is sarcastic and cynical, but she respects the people who love her (Harry) and shows compassion even towards her “enemy” (Claudia). She is also super brave for holding up with the nightmare that is the course of Silent Hill 3.
The stalking theme in Silent Hill 3 is also very realistic and creeped me out the most, with Vincent’s sleazy, condescending, and manipulative behaviour, and Stanley…his notes creeped me out the most in the Brookhaven Hospital chapter.
SH3 is a story about heather. SH2 is a story about James' trauma. The simple fact there is an argument to be made about Heather holding a potentially slightly misogynistic "not like other girls" view which can be interpreted from the design of the closer (the "other girls", which is to say sexual-their long, defined legs and tight skirts-, love to shop-the bludgeons looking like shopping bags-, secretly very mean-the needle within the bludgeon-, and vapid-their moving head resembling a mockery of someone just waffling about nothing-, but also noticeably, Heather thinks the only reason they're more valued than her is because they are willing to put out, represented by their lack of a face, and a yonic orifice in its place) shows that not only is there depth and complexity to heather, the game itself has shit to read into if you really pay attention. If you, as a player, care to pay attention to it.
To this day, SH3 still has what I consider to be the most gut-churningly horrifying gameplay section in anything, the top floor of the otherworld hospital. It just...feels like I'm in a place that hates me. And it's only really compounded by how much abortion symbolism the town throws at heather (the coathanger bit, for example).
Heather adopting a new name by the end really does make her all the more awesome. Harry can't get a proper good ending in SH1, so Heather creates one for him.
As someone who knew nothing about Silent Hill, you made this so easy to follow and I learnt so much! Great video as always Tango ❤
As someone who’s played the original Team Silent titles for myself for the first time very recently, Silent Hill 3 really stood out to me as a terrifying experience that mirrored a lot of the things I’ve experienced as a woman. Then to my surprise, I found out that these very overt themes go over the heads of most of the people who play it, leading to that belief that the game is very surface level compared to 2. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only people I’ve seen talk about how much the horror in this game stems from femininity and the dangers of existing as a woman are women. I fear it goes over the heads of cisgender men most of the time. Amazing video!
You think a male in a dress understands the experience of growing up female in a female body? Lol
Ragnarrox, who's a man, made an amazing video about the true meaning of the game pertaining feminine fears a few years back!
@@dulamanAlso you can f*ck off with your transphobia
Fantastic video. I know SH2 has always been the favorite child. But 1 and 3 were always my favorites and it's always nice when someone gives 3 its time to shine with its themes and characters. Keep up the great work Tango!
forget about the second one, 1st and 3rd are just better to me.
I've seen everything about SH and I'll never understand why people will prefer 2 over the main storyline (1 and 3) how can people empathize more with a repressed wife murderer than Harry and Heather?
@@Baard5Szomoru Some people find the cult stuff a bit cliche. SH2 was incredibly impressive for the time because it’s a character study of a deeply flawed person done near perfectly. It’s rich in themes, has complex characters, is loaded with literary allusions and subtle symbolism - it’s a masterfully told story within the genre of horror and the medium of video games that was groundbreaking for its time. It really deserves that praise too, and very few games match that level of nuance.
I love 1 and 3 and they have a lot of narrative depth and theming as well (especially 3, as evidenced by this video), but 2 being a self-contained story featuring broken, flawed characters that’s written and presented very very well is why many people prefer it.
@@Baard5Szomoru sh2 for the soundtrack and vibes. but i liked harry the most as a protag
i feel like when i was young and found this game, I didn't get it. now that I'm older, it hits so much harder, especially as a woman. I love it so so much. also one detail I feel that gets overlooked is when Heather encounters the Closer for the first time. She shoots until there's, I'm guessing, so bullets left, and then the monster pauses, THEN dies. idk what its supposed to mean exactly, I have theories, but I always thought it was interesting.
it forgot to play dead
Although I'm not a woman, Silent Hill 3 made me realize that motherhood is something truly beautiful but at the same time unfathomably terrifying. A mother giving birth to a child and giving up so much, sacrificing time, energy, money and even health for that child is just... I don't even have a word for it.
But not just that, SH3 also explores a bit more with the concept of God, and those two things put together really got me, the thought of God being unstopable and all mighty, and the thought that He/She/It could (in the context of Silent Hill, WILL) be evil, and poor 17 years old Heather would HAVE to give birth to that thing, Jesus, I get sick just by imagining it.
SH2 is good, I think it was amazing how deep and complex the story about closure and forgiveness was and the gameplay wasn't bad either, it was pretty great really. But SH3 embraces such formless and ruthless horrors in a way that is brilliant in my opinion, the weakest point of the game is that it's a sequel lol, I get that Heather just suffered what she had because her father was Harry, but I don't really like the way the whole cult thing unravels. I do like the cult and all, I mean, it's Silent Hill, what else could it be? But I felt like it wasn't solid, I don't know.
Either way, it's my favorite entry of the franchise, it was my first Silent Hill game too, I remember being scared as fuck as a kid playing it, I would start the game, equip the Submachine Gun at the nightmare amusement park, encounter the first enemy, shoot it dead and proceed to turn off the console and not touch the game for a long time LMAO, great memories.
24:31 I never realized how amazing heaters facial animations in this scene are, I can feel her emotions more than many modern games
The existential horror I felt imagining being a woman, being a teenager, and having an unholy divine parasitic birth forced upon me by a cult is something else. Well done painting a picture.
I can strongly relate to James because of outward appearances emotionally and mentally but I can relate to heather in personality and I was even able to predict what she’d say because of the same thought process
this video is amazing. heather's experience with horror is perfectly intertwined with her experience with womanhood, and this game encapsulates it all so well- maybe too well, as some moments felt too naturally terrifying ^^; i feel like a lot of people miss the point of this game and its perspective as heather, but your analysis is perfect, so thank you for this amazing video!! 💗
I also noticed that Heather's neckless resembles one from the "Rosemary's baby", which has a lot of stuff in common with SH3 (forced pregnancy, occult stuff)
From ur analysis of the nightmares that blends Alessa’s nightmares with her daughter Heather. I cant help but think of that Heather’s journey is of trauma since her mother’s pregnancy/labor is of trauma after trauma. Its like Heather is going back to her birth which was a trauma despite her being an already developed 17 year old girl. Possible generational trauma?.. dunno i feel this kinda related to it..
Anyways thank u so much for another amazing video essay that i absolutely loved and enjoyed💗
I feel like an important point to make is that God in SH3 is actually overwhelmingly presented as feminine as well, in the cult's iconography and art and in its' overall design at the very end there. I think that's also an interesting thread to follow as far as objectifying the divine feminine goes, and kind of the way that modern patriarchal and religious structures pit women against each other by manipulation. It feels less intended than the overall themes you brought up, but it's still there, I guess!
Amazing work yet again, I really love watching your stuff!
You captured perfectly why I love Heather so much. When I first encountered the game I was 18 and Heathers character alone made me finish the game, she just felt so real and likable, I just needed to know she would be alright in the end!
So excited to watch this. Just started to and wanted to leave a comment right away.
Edit: Finished watching. Really enjoyed hearing your perspective on the game. You made so many connections. Even in the smaller details that I've not heard anyone else mention. I'm sorry you've had/have to deal with a lot of this scary creepy stuff in real life. Had some ideas about this game for a while but your insight really brought so much more to light. Fantastic video with awesome commentary. You connected dots that lined me up to appreciate this game even more. Seriously.
Fantástico. Enjoyed seeing you passionately gush about one of your favorite games. Once again your take on some of the deeper less explored aspects of a survival horror game in regard with the main character being a woman hit deep. Things that, unfortunately just by being a woman is a real and actual horror and exists beyond the setting of a video game. You’ve done it again Tango. Can’t wait for the rule of rose vid. 🔥
Silent Hill 3 really shook me when I played it. I was beyond impressed when reaching the credits because The way the game places you in Heathers shoes and makes you understand her fears was so incredible to me as a Man. I could always imagine how scary it must be to grow up as a woman but Silent Hill 3 made me really understand what that truly means and gave me a glimpse to what that must feel like. I cant think of any other piece of media that made me able to embody a character that was so different from me that well. It will always have a really special place in my heart.
Nice deepdive! I love RagnarRox, Spherehunter and Grimbeard, but I'm always happy to find new horror game reviewers/essayists. Great work!
I agree with what you said about fatal frame. It never ruined my experience because I have to realize, this is their story, not mine. I’m sure there are people out there like them.
I think what makes horror games ... scary (to me) is that there is a consistent beat (usually nothing wrong) and something disturbs that beat. For example, the mere act of walking in Silent Hill is constant with the same beat. But you never know if there is going to be something that changes it. Even if I know there will be something ahead, that still scares me. Like climbing up that ladder and seeing that monster just hanging upside down.
I've never played the game but the mere act of watching still gives me goosebumps. I've also heard that there are controller vibrations that vary depending on location, enemies, and status of the player (how much health - i assume)..
Tango!! You crushed this one! SH3 is such a special game and you did it so much justice. Congrats on a certified banger, my friend!
It's bread.
Wonderful content! I, too, found this game to be my all-time fave of the franchise. I felt personally connected to it as a woman. The loneliness and depth, the extreme shock of what Heather has to overcome. I felt it down to my bones. Her attitude was so on point and how she didn't want help from anyone, choosing to be solitary rather than trust others who obviously didn't see her value. The argument that this game isn't deep just shows the people who stand on that point lack the necessary perspective to see it. This game will forever be my favorite of the franchise.
Also, I love how the astrology of SH3's date release further personifies the themes and energies of it. Example: Venus in Taurus square Neptune in Aquarius. Venus has to do with divine feminine power, our aesthetic and deeper sensual desires. Neptune deals with imagination and dreams come true. The square creates tension between the two and brings out their shadow aspects (Neptune: nightmares, Venus: theft of one's feminine power). Venus is also universally seen as "the maiden", especially being in its domicile of Taurus. Another example: The Moon was in Pisces, the sign of dreams and psychic abilities; while the Sun was in Gemini, the sign of the TWINS. Heather is both the daughter of Alessa and her twin. I could go on lol.
I still maintain that Heather’s monologue in the car on the way to Silent Hill is one of the most heartbreaking moments in Video Game History.
i'm 12 myself at the moment and i just finished silent hill 3 two days ago, i've watched some video essays about the game and they all felt like i was just told the story again. this was so much deeper, you mentioned yourself that when you were a younger teen all the symbolism went over your head and it totally went over mine too!! i wonder if im ever gonna replay it when im older and find it a lot creepier. i also had my older brother watching me play by my side because i was literally too terrified to play it alone LMAO, so if i ever replay it alone, with headphones, with some life experience and more understanding of Heathers situation i think im definitely gonna shit my pants all over again, if not more.
you were my age when i got into silent hill! just trust me you’ll love coming back to this series both 5 and/or 10 years from now. replaying SH3 as a teenage girl just hits different 👌
Silent hill is ultimately a story about a terrified and abused little girl. Alyssa only lived 7 years before her mother hospitalized her, Cheryl once again was 7 before she was captured by silent hill. The demons of silent hill 3 seem so scary to Heather because ultimately she has the souls of 2 terrified 7 year olds in the mind of a confused 17 year (notice the number 7 and 17 meant to show her childlike state) I can see why girls relate to much to silent hill compare to other story’s men take more interest with/
Thank you so much for this breakdown. You make so many amazing points. SH3 was my first SH game, as well and I was 16/17 when I played it. I, much like you, was impacted very intimately by the game and it’s themes. While I felt it more immediately in my situation much of it still went over my head as well. Now we can see the meanings. It’s very refreshing and I’m thankful for the insight you’ve pointed out and that I’ve come to see for myself.
Really, really grateful for this essay and analysis on Heather and the game SH3 overall! I’ve sadly never gotten into the SH series, being too young when they came out (and a scaredy cat to boot!), and so am only now dipping a toe into them thanks to a newly sparked interest in the horror genre, both for film and video games. This analysis is definitely what’s pushing my current SH interest into a genuine sense of “okay, I should definitely play this” - thank you so much for sharing! ✨🖤
Hunh- your sum up of Stanley Coleman actually shook loose a memory I'd buried. I had a guy on a forum - randomly like- imprint on me. Insist he lived me- and kept insisting I was "scared" of my feelings and so forth. Even though we'd never talked.
Thankfully he was on a forum and we never shared the same breathing space. And mods on the board banned him multiple times telling him to stop.
This game and Demento or Haunting ground for most were pure terror for me as a woman its invasive in their horror and it scared me a lot but i noticed my male friends didnt feel as much horror from these games as i did.
Thank you so much for this video. I totally agree, that somehow these topics and underlying themes of, well, simply being a girl, were rather flying under the radar in countless analyses, despite the game being 20 years old, and I am so very happy this gets spotlight lately. I replayed SH3 recently and I was honestly stunned by how much scarier and relatable the game feels now to me, a grown up woman, than it did years ago to me as a young girl.
I was really surprised, finally going through all the Silent Hill games, by how much I liked 3, and how it's still my favorite. Something Silent Hill plays with is the true horror not coming from the dark world or the monsters, but from how those things came to be--reflections of the real world, of people's fears, and of the things they've done, and I think Silent Hill 3 just really nails that. Like you said, the most terrifying part of the hospital is the other humans!
I do feel like Harry and Douglas both considering killing Heather isn't necessarily a reflection of them being bad people or not caring about Heather. After all, Heather is a reincarnation or at least another iteration of Alessa, who has all this cult baggage attached to her without her ever even knowing about it. She has a ~destiny~. But it IS a reflection of her lack of agency, and/or a lack of trust that she can get through this without birthing the god. On some level, that's fair, since she's only 17, but on another level, I don't think it's coincidental that the people who consider killing Heather to protect themselves/others from her potential are father figures.
I also definitely interpreted Heather's storyline as being less about revenge--although obviously it starts out that way--and more about taking responsibility. No, she had no choice about whose soul she was born with/created from. No, she had no choice about gestating the god. But she tries to figure out how to prevent/fix things, which seems like a pragmatic attitude she could have gotten from Harry--who after all did decide he would rather raise and care for the baby Heather than do what was possibly the safer and DEFINITELY the easier course in killing her. Then at the end, of course, she's discharged the unasked-for responsibilities thrust upon her by the circumstances of her birth, and is free to finally be a person without a mission again, and breaks down because her dad is dead.
It's also baffling to me that people think this storyline isn't that deep, because like...not-quite-adult girl is forced to carry a pregnancy to term, knowing it will ruin her (/everyone else's) lives? That's dark! And once again, the most horrifying part is NOT the demon god thing, although that doesn't help. It's the way all agency has been stripped from her AND ALSO her only support system literally murdered--again, things that happen all-too-often IRL, no monsters or dark world required.
...I also feel like, for all Silent Hill 2 is a great deep-dive into one guy's Stuff, it also is clear enough about what's going on that we couldn't have two different but equally valid interpretations of it, whereas I don't think anything you said about SH3 is wrong! It's just not how I interpreted the text, but I definitely see where you're coming from! It's a really rich text, actually!
And god, the number of weird men/things watching Heather over the course of the game that don't impact gameplay at all...they sure did hammer that objectification and observation theme hard.
Ive been too scared to play SH but am a huge fan of horror and loved the (original) movie. I watch videos on the series instead of playing to learn about the lore. You really hit the mark on the portrayal of women’s fears. It’s not discussed enough so really glad to see this video get traction. I subscribed and am making my way through all your content. Thank you!
the part about how you preferred SH2 over SH3 because you didn't understand the full horror of SH3 was so eye opening to me. coming from a 15 year old girl when i played sh3 recently i didnt pick up on some of the horror in it and i felt kind of unimpressed playing it compared to sh2, but after seeing this video its making me reconsider how i feel about it
i didnt even realise how the amusement park was there to tease heather about her age!! such a good find :) this whole video is amazing thank you for your insight
38:50 Heather turning towards the "camera" is a great visual call back to Cheryl in Silent Hill 1.
Silent Hill 3 remains the best Silent Hill game for me and Heather is really one of the greatest protagonists in video games. The ending is really heart-breaking and I always hope that Heather is able to find some closure after the events of the game.
The soundtrack is really outstanding but I don't know how to feel about the ending song "Hometown", it feels very Nick Cave to me. I feel that "Memory of the Waters" with its somber tone would fit far better.
Silent Hill 3 also has the greatest selection of optional weapons, easter eggs and alternate costumes.
I wonder if it was Stanley that got shot in the basement area, where you find the machine gun. Shortly after you find out he’s dead and he’s #7.
Well the context of the game is that multiple people are in silent hill at the same time. Presumably someone else was there got scared empty their magazines and fell in the elevator. Though fro Stanley that’s definitely him the fact he’s actually still alive and heather decides to not try to help him is actually kinda scary I don’t blame her since his diary had horrific fantasy’s about her but still
What’s creepy too is that once you’re done reading the diaries, they disappear. I went back into a room where he had a put one the first time, and it was gone with the doll.