There is one thing that I forgot to put in the red squares section: why they appear on the faces of the nurses. I give a detailed explanation of that in my video titled "The Red Squares - Silent Hill Mythology." But I'll give a quick answer here. SPOILER ALERT ... ... ... The shape/form of the nurse's heads are meant to symbolize James' smothering his wife's head with a pillow. Seeing that the red square symbolizes the memory that James is trying to bring from unconsciousness into consciousness, having it rest over the nurse's face is very appropriate. I also personally interpret their placement over the mouth as symbolic of bringing something from unconsciousness into consciousness. When a thought isn't expressed, it is functionally unconsciousness. It is only when something is spoken that something can become truly tangible.
James reaching into gross areas to retrieve key items makes me think about my own experience with being a caregiver for a dying loved one. Especially with wound care. I had to tend to my dad’s bed sores and keep them packed (one was a cavity type wound) and clean. It wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed, but it was obviously necessary. The only way past it was to do it. And that’s the same kind of visceral distaste that I see in James. I feel like anyone who has experienced caregiver burnout will find a lot to unpack in this game. I’ve never been so personally impacted by a game before Silent Hill 2.
This is such a fascinatingly new angle for me to look at! I just always assumed that it was a metaphor for "reaching into unpleasant parts of yourself, be it your traits or memories, that you'd really REALLY would rather stayed buried". I love it when my understanding of something is enriched by other people's experiences like this! And of course I'm sorry you had to go through that, it must've been the opposite of easy, but you're a real trooper
@ Well there are no wrong answers - yours makes a lot of sense too. It can be both, ya know? But that’s why SH 2 is always going to be a classic, the OG and remake alike. These themes can be interpreted in so many unique, personal ways. There’s really no limit to how a person analyses James’s trauma, or their own.
Here's another amazing detail that may hint at a timeloop: In appartment 217 where you get the gun, there's 1000+ bullet holes. And if you aim the gun around that room for the first time, especially toward the TV, James will always accidentaly shoot 1 bullet. So all those bullet holes may be from every loop James did.
I actually have directly spoken with Ito on X regarding the interpretation of Pyramid Head, and I can confirm straight from the source that Pyramid Head's role in the story is, in fact, near-identical to his counterpart Valtiel's role in Silent Hill 3. The important part to take away from Pyramid Head's actions is the fact that he is *targeting the monsters* that represent the things that are plaguing James' soul. The reason these actions seem brutal and sexual is because *that is how James is perceiving them.* In reality, Pyramid Head is forcefully stripping James of his delusions and his repression. That is why he is no longer needed once James accepts what he has done. Ito agreed with me that his role is analogous to what Louis tells Jacob in the movie Jacob's Ladder: "Eckhart saw Hell too. He said: The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. So the way he sees it, if you're frightened of dying and... and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth. It's just a matter of how you look at it, that's all." Source: x.com/adsk4/status/1844536439717101753?t=J4ItCFgWgwkSMG3HURnAFA&s=19
What he thought he was creating, and what he actually created, might be different. The creator can be wrong about what the final result actually is Pyramid Head will kill James in multiple locations - Valtiel NEVER kills.
It's so annoying that creators have to censor themselves and say things like "self terminate" or "unalive themselves" on RUclips out of fear of demonetization.
It's a bit silly considering that you're still expressing the same idea. It's like censoring a part of a swear word with an asterisk. It's still very clear what is being conveyed.
I believe the dog is the real threat from Silent Hill. I mean, he/her was planning everything and “dog” is very similar to “god”. This can’t be a coincidence.
I like to think Mira is the Dog Eddie has killed. I also have a theory that he ate it, that's why he was vomiting when we first meet him and why Doge was growling when Eddie's belly was shown in the OG SH2's Dog ending credits.
You actually missed one thing in the game; there exists a series of photos that can be collected with messages on the bottom. Behind each photo is a number, and if you put them all in numerical order, then take one vowel from each photo, you get the message that the Unreality is trying to tell James (and the player) that, “You’ve been here for two decades.”
I think the true end of Silent Hill 2 is actually not participating in another loop as the player. playing again and again only extends James's torture if you think about the Meta of it . Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams, the Hd Remaster and the Remake are all continued loops theoretically. The town changes slightly, more information becomes known, the town gets clearer and more detailed but one thing never changes, what James did. The true end is not reliving it over and over. I argue it is the acceptance of the player in what ending was received was the end for James. Not to mention acceptance is the final stage of Grief ;) Just a fun alternate way to think about it, great video.
@@atomskthepirateking2776 Every player is a willing participant in James's torture. an every time you fire up the game to get a new ending you pretty much send him through hell again.
The maze where you face Angela's father is a better addition, in my opinion. Because it symbolizes how much Angela had to get away from him and her brother, or at least how much she tried, without succeeding. Another important addition is the scene with Maria when she offers James a drink. I got the impression that not only did he want to drink and sleep with her, but perhaps he did it when Mary was still alive and sick. Maybe James has had another "Maria" before, that's what I mean. Another detail in this part is the Lost & Found ring. Perhaps James has already lost his ring in this or another nightclub.
James is missing his ring. He has a tan line on his ring finger. Also, something that was in the original but left out in the remake, if you examine crates of alcohol in Heaven's Night James will make a comment on how he used to drink a lot. It's unclear if he was an alcoholic, but he was still most likely a heavy drinker. Though I did notice that James did want to drink when Maria offered but had to hold himself back.
Yes, let's make a 5 hour long video assay about that. And about why the pyramid head is still daddy and is not based off of the grand wizard of Silent Hill 😂
Pyramidhead doesnt use a knife. He holds a half of a pair of scissors. When James fights him it symbolizes the other half. The original monster designer also said this on twitter.
I finally beat the remake today (31/10/24) and man, this video and playing the game myself really really makes me appreciate the thought and effort gone into both the remake and original. It’s truly a master class in story telling and beats not just video games in the way it expressed the story and story itself, but also a lot of other stories presented in different mediums ( e.g books and movies ). Thank you so much for this video and all the other videos you’ve done explaining and talking about this game. In general, I love your content Max and I’m very grateful for you and your content. Keep on keeping on and I hope you have a lovely day whenever/ if ever you read this (:
Just finished it last night and I'm blown away 😳.... easily my best "horror" experience of all time, sorry Hereditary lol. I never played the original... knew about some things though (James being "evil" etc) so this remake was a breath of fresh air... such a fantastic experience. As someone who's been studying all religions and mythologies in his spare time, this video breakdown just hit home perfectly
Masahiro Ito has said Pyramid Head is supposed to be getting rid of the manifestations for James so he would be able to understand what this is all about. It’s weird. He even said the cutscene with the moan before the boss fight wasn’t what you think it is.
Something interesting to think about near the end game right before the final boss, you encounter some enemies that don't attack you, one bag enemy in fetal position , a nurse that just collapses to the ground as you get near her, and a leg mannequin that avoids you and even looks terrified of James as you approach it. Any thoughs on this?
I guess since they symbolize all this guilt, subconscious thoughts and all that, after you realize the truth they are no longer scary to you. You know what you did.
I will never forgive Konami for screwing over Hideo and Guillermo. The whole lore and potential of multiple Silent Hills, portraying the actual town as a sort of deity, is left unexplored for no reason. It would allow so many theories like time travel, purgatory etc. to perfectly co-exist in the same "universe" without having to exclude each other out based on the different SH titles, stories and canon. We have Lovecraftian monsters, but the idea of "Lovecraftian" EXISTENCES AND REALITIES, where the world itself is the actual anomaly, monster and unknown deity, is something SH barely scratched the surface of so far.
The town as a deity sounds kind of cliche the town being mysterious but implicitly somewhat sentient or some force of nature is a bit cooler Also i thought we had zero idea what SHS was gonna be about anyways
@@chandlerbursethere are some leaked parts of what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to have asynchronous multiplayer like death stranding does hence all these different players worlds colliding. Also it was supposed to have AR elements where you would get notifications on your irl contact info related to the game blending reality and the game.
No Part of the allure of SH is that it’s a SINGLE place. This, “it can be anything and anywhere bs” is nonsense and I’m not surprised it was cancelled.
I’m willing to bet they’re going to release it as a paid DLC with expanded content to justify the price. Konami would be leaving money on the table otherwise.
I personally dislike the time loop theory. From the original game it became kinda clear to me that James's death impulse (Thanatos) was responsible for projecting his image onto the corpses. Plus, the town has significantly changed between said loops, from timeline differences (the og taking place in the 70-80s, and this in the 90s) to Heaven's Night being in two completely different locations. To me this theory doesn't add up, but who knows, maybe the devs confirm it.
The original takes place in the 90s too, going by what is found in Born from a Wish. But you are right, the bodies in the town are because James is suicidal when he gets there. I don't think the town waits for James to reach the climax of his story after it is very clear he didn't learn his lesson, just to spawn Angela, Eddie, Laura and Maria again so they can all give it another try together, because otherwise the disparity would mess each others runs too much xP
Some people theorize that the remake takes place in 2001, since the desk that may or not be James' has a mouse with a scroll wheel. And while mice with scroll wheels came out in the 90s, they weren't really widespread and mainstream until the early 2000's
23:20 - Max: it is not a mistake that gold is in the middle. The order of the symbols on the books is the Chaldean Order of the planets, the order of descent through the tree of life. Gold is The Sun, which is Tiphareth, the exact center of the tree. The final step before Malkuth (manifest material substance) is Silver / The Moon / Yesod. Although Gold is often viewed as the material goal of metallurgic alchemy (i.e. transmuting lead into gold), it isn't the same as the Philosopher's Stone, which is not a physical substance.
Here’s an amazing detail that I found that I don’t see more people talk about for some odd reason. When going through the labyrinth while searching for a key to get another part of a lighter you enter an office room with a nurse in it, in James original bio it was said he was a clerk. This alludes to him not just fantasising about Nurses through his sexual frustrations with Mary but also with his co workers while working as a clerk. This meant everyday he had not just thoughts of the nurses at the hospital but including his female co-workers. Pretty sad
Reason for the order of the book puzzle is that it’s the sequence of the seven heavens, such as is Dante’s Divine Comedy. It’s the order of the seven Ptolemaic planets, which is the order of the (visible) solar system just with the sun and moon reversed.
About Maria, have you ever considered that she may not entirely be a creation of James's mind but also out of Mary's will? Things like wanting to be what she couldn't be for James in her last moments could've played a part in creating her (the want to please the man she loves). Also things like caring for Laura would make sense too. When James asks her why she cares she just says "I dont know I feel like it's up to me to protect her." Imo that wouldn't make much sense if Maria is entirely James's projection as we know he had no idea who Laura was until stepping into Silent Hill and Mary deeply cared for and considered Laura a friend. All that and the fact that Mary wanted to keep being by James's side
@@elena8073 tie that with Mary's ''in my restless dreams''.... here's an idea: the events throughout the game are just Mary's dreams, and Mary is dreaming of/remnants of a premonition she had of her fate and James guilt ..and now James is living it. kinda like how Alessa's nightmares and pain spawned a living nightmare world ig?
I definitely think the theory is what bloober is going for. If all the endings are canon, from what’s been said then all the bodies that look like James, which there is a lot, make sense with the theory in mind.
@@Robert-oq8yeall the endings of the game are canon, so if there was a time loop that’s how all the endings would be able to be canon because the whole thing repeats but how you get to the end is different.
Simpler psychological analysis: Pyramid head is primarily James's desire for punishment for what he did... and only stops when James thinks he's suffered enough. Maria is his ever present temptation to avoid ever dealing with what he did... one of their first conversations has her tempting him sexually and with booze, which he is implied to have already been struggling with
i just came up with something, not sure if anyone thought about it before. the time loop you interpreted sounds like something very similar to a technique called mirror gazing meditation. you stare into your eyes long enough, it'll feel like an eternity. your face deforms, you'll see all the many different faces of yourself and you will never be able to remember the face you actually have afterwards. staring so long into your own eyes and facing your soul, it feels as if the time is looping. it consumes you, as staring into your own unconscious is a very intimate and introspective thing, basically the whole theme of this game. and think about the beginning cutscene of this game. it's the start of a time loop, again and again, especially after new game+ the only way you can get some endings. exploring himself and delving deep into his own unconscious. it makes sense. stare long enough into the abyss, and the abyss stares back at you. that, in a pragmatic sense, may also explain the whole silent hill phenomenon in SH2 i think, maybe. the reason why SH2 is so much more different. it is more introspective, psycho analytical and symbolic than all the other installments. the player staring into james' psyche. there's this reddit post, it explains this phenomenon pretty well. it's about someone experiencing this said dreadful time loop. i will reply the link to this comment below.
so take the time loop not as in its literal sense, but as in this symbolic interpretation of staring at your own eyes in the mirror for a prolonged period of time. hence all the different endings being canon: it's all part of james' imagination and psyche, hence called reflection. again, the main theme of this game. it's really interesting and i wish i could find out more, but it creeped me out way too much when i tried doing it and i have my own reasons as to why i won't continue.
if you also found this interesting, please let me know and share your thoughts on it, i would gladly appreciate it. again i have no idea if anyone else came up with this interpretation already, google found me nothing, so correct me if i'm wrong. also, about the reddit post. youtube deleted the comment so here's how to find it: "Please do not stare into the eyes of your reflection in the mirror. "
Nah no more remakes Lord Vader lol. Instead I'd prefer they do some brand new (they're making a new game which is awesome). I'd prefer they make a brand new SH game. They've earned the right to 👏
@@hotcoldman77 New Silent Hill is already being made, also I don't think there ever will be an "og" type of Silent Hill ever again. Haven't the original writers kind off fucked off from the scene by now (meaning Silent hills after the 4th one). Also Sh1 and Sh3 remakes would be cool, really.
I think it's safe to say that we will never get a game with such depth as SH2 ever again. I hope I'm wrong but it seems that way. I've never known a game that still has secrets and hidden meanings being unveiled 23 years later.
One thing I'd like to know is, what happened to the people of the town? James seem to have come to SH with Mary and have a normal vacation there, so at one point the town was a normal town. We find notes left by people with normal works, lives etc. So, when did the town get deserted, and where did the people go?
from my limited knowledge of the SH universe, I am pretty sure that the people/population of SH have either been killed by the monsters of the unreality, or, are currently suffering through their own versions of the unreality, much like how James does - as well as all the various protagonists in the other SH games. For some characters who's fates are integral to the lore progression of SH as a whole, like important people in the history of SH, their outcomes are more or less static. but the other inhabitants of SH could probably be a toss-up in terms of whether they are dead dead, or just... sorta dead. i'm also pretty sure that the fates of some citizens would depend on their connection, whether bad or good, to Alessa, as I'm pretty sure that Alessa was the catalyst, or gateway, that finally turned SH into hellscape that it is currently. Also, because reality and unreality are all sortof mushed together and bleed into each other randomly in SH, some of the notes and messages that we find in the games could be left by people trapped in their own versions of SH, and don't necessarily share timelines with the protagonists in the games. i don't know how often the games touch on this "parallel realities" concept, as i haven't played every single SH, but in the first movie, which is the good one, it is heavily implied that Rose and Harry are in the school at the same time, but in separate realities.
They are there still living their normal lives. The characters, at least when we play, never visit the "real world" town, they are always "transported" into the "alternate reality" of the fog world and the otherworld (the quotes are because those words are the easiest to use to explain what is going on, but might not be the most accurate). In the games Sillent Hill is always a touristic town, and keeps growing into modern times. There are characters that don't like it because there are cults, drug trafficking, missing people and lots of urban legends (and other problems tbh), but none of that is big enough to stop the town from being a nice place to spend holidays. So most people in town are living their normal lives while all the shit goes down in an "alternate reality", at least for the most part, as there are events where things leak into the real world, or many people are affected at the same time, but then again, it's never so bad that the town stops being a touristic place xP And the affected people just seems to either disappear or appear insane, the "monsters" never escape or anything like that.
@@Andriej69 I did, with emulation and if that game was the only one, I'd understand what happened with the town, but having more games after that I get confused. Notes and messages in the rest of the games seem to imply the town is a normal town with people living and working and stuff, but that's quite confusing for me. When you go into the "otther world" I get the idea that, that's the unreality, right? That'd be when everything is rusty and here ar fans, and bars and all that... then the intersection between reality and unreality would be the fog world. But then what's the "real" world. Because non of the protagonits seem to ever be in it. I mean, Henry escaped the town with Heather, then Heather goes back and when she enters the town she's already in the fog. James seem to have been to the real town in a vacation previous to the game, but now he went to look for Mary and is immediately inside the fog.
@@xian1978 As far I've heard James' vacation in SH took place before the events that initiated SH1. After that the town was abandoned, aside from Dahlia and Kaufman, who had the opposing goals when the "spell" eventually does it's function. It's open to interpretation if events of SH2 happened after Harry went with CHeryl to SH, or before - before Cheryl grew up, demonic forces of SH might've been luring in and consuming people like James. Notes and documents you're mentioning are leftovers, frozen in time when town itself changes it's shape
:0 13:00 I've always had this personal belief that there was the concept of the divine feminine/masculine and most of us are predisposed to one but that we can all channel both. It's so wild learning that something similar was said by a famous psychologist
Ito using shock horror as an art medium for 30-40 plus years and then going “but not that shock horror” is a weird take, especially when Fukuro exists. All his art was *HEAVILY* intimate, if you catch my meaning. It also furthers my basis that he should not be the one consulted on story. If it ain’t Owaku, Toyama, or Sato, I take it with a grain of salt. Being the artist doesn’t equate to knowing story beats or what another department is doing with them. Pretty sure one of the guides or one of the interviews suggests the scene is “open for player interpretation”, but it’s with a pretty hard nudge in the direction of “it also may be intentional, but we’re not admitting that, allegedly”.
The sun is sitting in the correct place for the labeling on the books, if you consider the planetary alignment for each. The sun is in the center of all the planets, which is actually the balance between the solar system and the void and perfection (the exterior of the solar system). This would also make sense as far as no Earth representation for these symbols (in a Terran-centric view) as it would almost be Terra viewing the heavens as the viewer might be viewing the books. The eyes drawn to the largest thing in the solar system: the sun.
I haven't yet seen the rest of the video, but I must say that your new explanation of Jung's metaphysics is amazing! Much more precise and clear than what I remember watching some time ago
Maybe the character artist didn’t mean that Pyramid Head wasn’t a sexual being, but instead just specifying he wasn’t a r***ist? I think maybe he intended to say that Pyramid Head in those scenes wasn’t assaulting the characters, but instead was just aggressive, a dominating force, but not an assaulting one. Maybe that’s what he meant? Either way, I don’t think it came off super well, and I think he could’ve explained it a bit better when it came to a topic like this. If that wasn’t his intent, then I really wish he would clarify that.
You forgot to mention the second Pyramid Head that is theorized to be his second sin (killing Eddie), and their eggs representing Mary with the disease and Eddie's youth.
God with all this talk about alchemy, A Silent Hill game themed around item crafting a survival in the town sounds fun with the goal of the game is to craft a Philosopher's Stone that grants you a wish like bringing the dead back to life. But to make the Philosopher's Stone you have to craft the nigredo, albedo, and rubedo items.
@@DinossaurodaAmazonia A recent report said Bloober is working on silent hill 1 and 3 remakes. Let’s hope that is true! I bet it is with how well received silent hill 2 remake was.
I think that the three sections of the labyrinth represent the first three steps of the alchemical process (as used in analytical psycholopgy): -the first is a rotten area and James has to burn an obect (which looks like a corpse in a bag): this is calcination, the burning; -in the second area, you have to repeatedly get down in a flooded dungeon; here you find Pyramid Head and you can also find his room (you get a thropy): this is dissolution, the exploration of the unconcious through dreams and other means; -in the third area you face Pyramid Head: this is separation, facing the shadow --> after that James is able to use PH's blade in order to progress, so he integrated at least part of his shadow (and from this moment the player can see that Mary's letter is actually a blank page).
Hey man. I will do a video on that one day. COUNT ON IT. Probably around the beginning of next year. The thing is though, I am going to approach the video much like my fellow RUclipsr, Ragnarrox, approached the movie "Solaris", where he reviewed it, but also talked about how it influenced Silent Hill. The Holy Mountain influenced Silent Hill as well. However, because I have spent the last month doing nothing but Silent Hill, I am going to take at least a couple of months off from that franchise.
@@maxderrat It's fine even if you don't make a video on it. I just thought i'd share one of my favorite movies since it meant so much to me as a lover of philosophy. I do hope you enjoy it. Take care.
Silent Hill is very unlikely to be a “ghost town” or abandoned. Vincent in Silent Hill 3 is collecting money from cult members and embezzling, and his belief in pleasures of the physical world means he’s spending that money somewhere. Its more likely we only see another plane in the games but there is still a normal side of the town full of normal people living normal lives. Otherwise the place being a ghost town would be known.
Its clearly not a ghost town Travis Gradys dad use to go there and Murphy is surprised its abandoned when he gets there Mary and James use to vacation there a lot. Harry was going there for a vacation in SH1 as well
Silent Hill is a normal town with people living in it, which has layers of reality (planes of existence). Each one is linked to a part of the psyche that shapes reality in its own way. Imagine Silent Hill as a blank canvas, the brush is the mind, the paints are fears, traumas, desires, wishes, etc. Like a paintbrush, the mind manifests all this "paint" into shapes and visuals on the canvas. 1 Plane of Existence(Real World) 2 Plane of Existence(Fog World) 3 Plane of Existence((Other World)
You know I'll love to see them do a Silent Hill game that take place in the wild west era, Specially a story that take place after the civil war. That seems like a ripe setting and scenario world building of Silent Hill and story telling, In that kind of story I'd either want to see something like a grizzled old man who wishes to make up with his Daughter or Granddaughter or a bonnet wearing Victorian woman who comes to Silent Hill to claim an inheritance from her Ex-husband who mysteriously died.
I think the issue with that is that the BIG thing that made Silent Hill be the way and tore the city to the real world and the otherworld its the events with Alessa that led to Silent Hill 1, which is pretty recent time wise.
The whole time loop concept makes the game very close to Signalis. In that game, it's implied that the events of the game is a time loop, including dead bodies of the playable protagonist.
I forget the exact context but when you first team up with Maria (in the remake) she says it's odd that a gate is locked, this made me think she was confused because the area was different in the original game
Silent Hill is a normal town with people living in it, which has layers of reality (planes of existence). Each one is linked to a part of the psyche that shapes reality in its own way. Imagine Silent Hill as a blank canvas, the brush is the mind, the paints are fears, traumas, desires, wishes, etc. Like a paintbrush, the mind manifests all this "paint" into shapes and visuals on the canvas
I really love your videos, they are actually very informational and simple to follow. It touches metaphysics in a clearer way, none of the riddle stuff (which is a way to convey an secret), and you showed us how vastly Alchemy and Philosophy influenced Silent Hill ethos. Silent Hill really introduced many people to esoteric and gnosis, thanks to your videos haha.
The new revelation about the secret message within the photograph items adds credence to the time loop theory. There's a hidden message within them that says: "YOUVE BEEN HERE FOR TWO DECADES".
11:28 in the end of the movie 'jacobs ladder' (which was a huge inspiration for silent hill) someone tells the protagonist (who has been tormented by demons) " The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life: your memories, your attachments. They burn 'em all away. But they're not punishing you,' he said. 'They're freeing your soul. If your frightened of dying, and your holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. If you've made your peace then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth." I think this mirrors the whole idea for pyramid heads existence
Isn’t the town the way it is because of Alessa? Yes, all that backstory you mentioned is true but the town was a normal town until Alessa unlocked “unreality” and her psychic powers turned into the desolate place we see and it’s her psychic powers that allowed unreality to break through and allowed the creation of the monsters from people’s subconscious. Feels like a big miss not to mention the catalyst for why SH is a hellish place.
Disclaimer: Jungian Psychology has actually come a long say since Carl Jung, please do not attempt to apply any of this to real humans that you work and interact with, it will result in utter disaster. Also, please do not treat women like they're concepts, that's what Jimmy boy does. A full human is in front of him, and he's busy chasing after a "concept" of a woman while ignoring the one right in front of him. If you're gonna walk out of this game with one thing, let it be that all women are human.
People being fixated on finding Pyramid Head sexy is no surprise given the state of the world today. I worked with a woman who was talking to another girl one day about horror movies, and the woman said: “Michael Myers can get it.” Plus there’s the absolute meme ‘I can Fix Him/Her’. You can’t. 😂
Maxdarrat your content is always a nice breath of fresh air. I love your depth of detail when navigating the deep mythos of silent hill. Much love Raven. 🐦⬛🐦⬛
Hey Max; do you have any idea on what the strange photos are all about? No one seems to be explaining them in any of the videos I've looked into other than them being a collectable.
I personally don't buy much of the timeloop theory. I like the idea and it's his subconscious projecting himself onto the corpses because of the guilt and suicidal tendency he's facing. I do like to believe that James can either fail his journey in silent hill and perhaps trigger another loop to do it again. But the "leave" ending is probably where he get away from the town for good after facing the inner demons... It fits with the theme of facing your shadow and growing as a person.
And then there's me who thought the red squares were simply a symbolic representation/glimpse of memory of the TV in the hotel. After all, you can also see James's face mirrored each time you look at these squares
I've always interpreted Pyramid Head's aggression towards James as another metaphor for James's shadow attempting to consume him. This is most telling in the end section of the final Labrynth when James has to let Pyramid Head assist in his escape. James is accepting aid from his shadow without letting it consume him (ie, staying far enough away or dodging PH's attacks)
The dog is clearly the aztec god Xolotl, the shapeshifter-dog psychopomp who leads the souls of the dead through their journey in the underworld, and I wonder why the fans haven't figured it out yet! (I'm just kidding, but Xolotl actually exist in aztec mythology, check it out)
The gods of Silent Hill have similar names to the Aztec gods, so perhaps there is a correlation For example, the Red God(Xuchilbara), the Yellow God(Lobsel Vith) etc
What a great video!! It's exactly what I was looking for and I'm so looking forward to watching more of your stuff! I do have a question about the remake. Maybe it's really obvious, but one of my biggest questions was who the notes at the beginning of the game were talking about. The one in the flower shop about someone wanting to buy red and white flowers, the one about taking someone's car keys (I can't remember where that one was), and I think a couple of others that make reference to a guy who's been acting weird all over town.
Great video! The order of the planets on the spines of the books is the Chaldean order, which goes from the planets that move slowest as observed on earth to the planets that move fastest, which was relevant to early astrologers and astronomers. This is also the order the planets appear on the Kabbalistic/Qabalistic Tree of Life counting down from the top sphere (Keter). 3 = Binah = Saturn, 4 = Chesed = Jupiter, 5 = Gevurah = Mars, 6 = Tipheret = Sol, 7 = Netzach = Venus, 8 = Hod = Mercury, and 9 = Yesod = Moon. The gold of Sol is at the center of the tree and represents where the soul crosses the veil and becomes aware of higher things. It represents the merging of the higher/supernal forces with the lower/earthly forces (and also represents the balance point between Chesed/Mercy and Gevurah/Severity) and is considered perfect in that way. In esoteric/occult magic Tipheret/Sol represents Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel (which is understood to some to be an avatar of the Higher Self), which is the goal of magical practice though it is also possible to temporarily experience higher states of mystic consciousness. Gold/Sol/Tipheret is basically the integrated ego and the highest state a functioning ego-self can be in for long periods of time as per the "map" offered by the Tree. In other words, "Stay yellow" has some mystical/magical resonance :)
For those circling the topic of mathematical idealism and reconciling man's ambitions with (continually) discovered limitations on our measurement OF reality: The integers are entirely contained by tha rationals. The rationals are entirely contained by the constructables. The constructables are entirely contained by the algebraics. The algebraics are entirely contained within the computable numbers. But there's even larger sets. The set of definable numbers is larger than the set of computable numbers, and the the set of reals is larger than the set of all definable numbers. We could never square the circle because we are limited to using a compass and straight edge. Basically this restricts us to asking questions related to x-squared and square-root of x (there's excellent videos on RUclips related to the problem of constructability)
To be fair this is Max' interpretation, I wouldn't go so far to claim it as fact. Max uses the term "I believe" throughout this video. The only people who know the true meanings are the original writers.
@@robertl426 I was actually referring to the fact that he always does his research and brings a lot of sources regarding the essence of very obvious inspirations for the series, such as psychoanalysis or alchemy-themed subjects, not really about the true meaning of SH at all.
One thing Id like to know is what connection Paimon has to everything. A certain puzzle in the hotel flat out has you constructing their sigil which I cant imagine has no meaning to it
James is a character I deeply sympathize and relate to. The notion of the pain of having to think of your past mistakes and as you remember them they pain you greatly. Is as raw of a human truth as it gets.
Last detail I found included the more frequently used enemy type this time around, the Mandarins. In the original they could only stay underground, the book of lost memories found in the rebirth ending explained that due to their symbolism of overwhelming, incomprehensible anguish they were permitted to stay underground. However the remake changes this by allowing you to fight them head on. I believe that Blooper Teams symbolism is their biggest denominator for why James killed Mary, her verbal abuse towards him. They rarely ever use their fists but spikes that come from their mouth, meaning that her words hurt him. They hang from the ceiling and under the floor to show how her words quite literally ‘hanged’ onto him, how he couldn’t go by a day thinking how much she hates him. This is the reason to why they’re the strongest of the 4 enemy types, because they were the biggest reason to why James killed her. His sexual frustrations were clearly crucial but her verbal abuse is what made him commit to his heinous action of ridding her from his life.
8:57 I believe in Ito's comments about PH not doing sexual things to the monsters. He said in another twitter comment that PH is actually getting rid of the monsters, so it kind of makes sense thinking about of PH as a punisher but also a manifestation that puts James in the right direction to learn the lesson, the sexual designs that were made after are just missinterpretations of a character that should not be in other games and movies. And that is why I appreciate the remake take of the first fight's intro, because it feels like the OG game actually confuses people with the moaning and movements of the monster and PH, and it was made that way just for the shock factor. In the remake, PH just grabs the monster and throw him away, like saying to James "put that shit away, learn the lesson and face me".
I love your work Max! Although i find approaching Jung to be a daunting task, it is also profoundly rewarding. People like yourself help me understand his concepts in a way that is applicable to many pieces of art that i personally resonate with, which gives it so much more meaning and depth that in many cases can be easily overlooked. Thank you for your hard work. And PLEASE do an analysis of control. That game is one of my favourites and i was shocked to discover you didnt have a video on it!
I'd love to see a video about your thoughts on the NG+ endings, especially the new ones unique to the SH2 remake. I know your philosophy has always been to only make videos about a topic you fell you can provide a unique perspective on, but I think your robust understanding of the series, and critical eye in general would add a lot to the conversation at large, especially with it all being so fresh.
Pertaining to the color red, it really feel like it was a missed opportunity with the black and white vs. red filter. Yes the red squares are, well, red. But nothing else is. I was so disappointed when I encountered pyramid head on my second playthrough while using the filter. Then in the other world, in a few spots. I absolutely love the way that silent hill 2 looks in general,especially the black and white. It reminds me of an old twilight zone episode. Maybe I’m just a sucker for that “sin city” style. It just would’ve been really cool to have red be a prominent thing, against the black and white, other than just the squares.
Honestly, if the devs or Ito confirm that SH2 is one big timeloop, I would be extremely disappointed. Instead of SH2 being a self-contained story about three people confronting extremely dark parts of their lives, it becomes a shallow story of endless suffering. It would also make the town of Silent Hill be part of the plethora of takes on purgatory instead of a seemingly self-aware, eldritch being that deliberately has goals, motives and lessons for the people it calls to. The town wouldn't be a character anymore. Anyway, I doubt it's something they will confirm anytime soon. Though the time loop theory is becoming increasingly more popular, unfortunately.
I'm new to any of this, in my interpretation the red squares are guilt-mirrors. Let me explain, the fact that the first encounter is put on words as a pain that hurts the brain from the inside out led me to think about the anatomy of the brain itself, the amigdala and the hippocampus are nearly in the center of the brain, explain why it hurts in that specific way, James cannot remember what he has done, he is experiencing a mental breakpoint where he denies his own reality. that's why just before the great judgment there are nine guilt-mirrors, he has fully face his guilt. All this interpretation got stronger with the remake and that small detail of using the save points as a POV where we see James from this mirrors.
Hey Max, I just came across an idea on a Facebook group about the potential connection between Pyramid Head and a German children's book called Struwwelpeter. It was written by a psychiatrist named Heinrich Hoffmann in 1845. I think linking the wiki disabled my comment, but I wanted to throw this idea your way in case you hadn't heard of it. I've never heard it mentioned in anyone's lore videos - and like many people here I've spent 10x more time watching lore videos than I've spent playing the game. But apparently one story is "A mother warns her son Konrad not to suck his thumbs. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb-sucking, until a roving tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors." The giant scissors potentially being an inspiration for The Great Knife. Just to tighten up my thoughts as an example - the boy gets punished for his addiction to comfort by a monster with a pair of scissors. It's maybe a bit of a stretch, but it just feels like it fits. Two or three of the other stories also make me think of Eddie and Angela and their respective past actions and "punishments". The rest of the stories are summarized on the wiki if you look it up. I dunno if I'm crazy, but I figured you might find it interesting. Have you heard of this possible connection before?
thats because in modern terms it would be considered one when in actuality it is an expansion, since the terms expansion and DLC are conflated now it wasnt a part of the base game originally and was added in later releases
@Sleepy_Kitsune i just find it absolutely baffling because people should already know what it means just by reading the term. Downloadable Content which obviously means content distributed via the Internet. Being an owner of the original games and re-releases with the included scenario. I've never seen it as DLC on ps2 online or Xbox live (which launched in late 2002). Maybe I'm just getting old 😂.
Further evidence of the loop can be seen in Downfall where a character named Howard Blackwood, the African American Mail Man, told Murphy Pendelton than he's been stuck in Silent Hill for the past 2 centuries and gave up trying to escape the town.
There is one thing that I forgot to put in the red squares section: why they appear on the faces of the nurses. I give a detailed explanation of that in my video titled "The Red Squares - Silent Hill Mythology." But I'll give a quick answer here. SPOILER ALERT
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The shape/form of the nurse's heads are meant to symbolize James' smothering his wife's head with a pillow. Seeing that the red square symbolizes the memory that James is trying to bring from unconsciousness into consciousness, having it rest over the nurse's face is very appropriate. I also personally interpret their placement over the mouth as symbolic of bringing something from unconsciousness into consciousness. When a thought isn't expressed, it is functionally unconsciousness. It is only when something is spoken that something can become truly tangible.
Does Silent Hill 2 remake have replay value?
Hi Max
I've been following your channel for a long time and i love your content.
Hey max have you watch the video titled silent hill if James regrets nothing, I need a breakdown of that😂
There’s also a photo of the red square that James finds that’s captioned Shape Forces the Mind
@@davidtharp2125 different endings/dialogue events and unlockable weapons I would say yes also the born from a wish dlc will come next year
James reaching into gross areas to retrieve key items makes me think about my own experience with being a caregiver for a dying loved one. Especially with wound care. I had to tend to my dad’s bed sores and keep them packed (one was a cavity type wound) and clean. It wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed, but it was obviously necessary. The only way past it was to do it. And that’s the same kind of visceral distaste that I see in James. I feel like anyone who has experienced caregiver burnout will find a lot to unpack in this game. I’ve never been so personally impacted by a game before Silent Hill 2.
This is such a fascinatingly new angle for me to look at! I just always assumed that it was a metaphor for "reaching into unpleasant parts of yourself, be it your traits or memories, that you'd really REALLY would rather stayed buried". I love it when my understanding of something is enriched by other people's experiences like this!
And of course I'm sorry you had to go through that, it must've been the opposite of easy, but you're a real trooper
@ Well there are no wrong answers - yours makes a lot of sense too. It can be both, ya know? But that’s why SH 2 is always going to be a classic, the OG and remake alike. These themes can be interpreted in so many unique, personal ways. There’s really no limit to how a person analyses James’s trauma, or their own.
Woah! I love your take on this
Here's another amazing detail that may hint at a timeloop:
In appartment 217 where you get the gun, there's 1000+ bullet holes.
And if you aim the gun around that room for the first time, especially toward the TV, James will always accidentaly shoot 1 bullet.
So all those bullet holes may be from every loop James did.
No way! I gotta try that on my next run
OH MY GOD I DIDN'T DO THIS, BUT IF IT HAPPENS IT'S BRILLIANT
Wow. Thanks for pointing this out!
Yeah had this happen to me my first run. Was getting used to the aim and had him fire off a bullet without pressing anything
Loop? Is Silent hill suddenly become Alan Wake?😊
I actually have directly spoken with Ito on X regarding the interpretation of Pyramid Head, and I can confirm straight from the source that Pyramid Head's role in the story is, in fact, near-identical to his counterpart Valtiel's role in Silent Hill 3.
The important part to take away from Pyramid Head's actions is the fact that he is *targeting the monsters* that represent the things that are plaguing James' soul.
The reason these actions seem brutal and sexual is because *that is how James is perceiving them.*
In reality, Pyramid Head is forcefully stripping James of his delusions and his repression. That is why he is no longer needed once James accepts what he has done.
Ito agreed with me that his role is analogous to what Louis tells Jacob in the movie Jacob's Ladder:
"Eckhart saw Hell too. He said: The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you, he said. They're freeing your soul. So the way he sees it, if you're frightened of dying and... and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth. It's just a matter of how you look at it, that's all."
Source: x.com/adsk4/status/1844536439717101753?t=J4ItCFgWgwkSMG3HURnAFA&s=19
Ss pls 🙏🏻
i think someone speculated that Pyramid head is trying to shove the mannequinns down the drain cuz James entered the room
with this I think we can safe to assume that Pyramid Head is much like a Shadow Projection just like how James project his Anima to Maria.
I hate how Ito explains everything instead of letting it up to us to decide. I wish he was more like Lynch.
What he thought he was creating, and what he actually created, might be different. The creator can be wrong about what the final result actually is
Pyramid Head will kill James in multiple locations - Valtiel NEVER kills.
It's so annoying that creators have to censor themselves and say things like "self terminate" or "unalive themselves" on RUclips out of fear of demonetization.
I despise shadow banning comments even when you don’t say anything wrong
@@chandlerburseJoin the club...
Yup.
It makes me want to unalive myself
It's a bit silly considering that you're still expressing the same idea. It's like censoring a part of a swear word with an asterisk. It's still very clear what is being conveyed.
I believe the dog is the real threat from Silent Hill. I mean, he/her was planning everything and “dog” is very similar to “god”. This can’t be a coincidence.
Oh no... Heather! What have you done?!?!?
THIS!!
Oh my god! "Dog" is "God", but backwards! How could I have never noticed that!? :O
I like to think Mira is the Dog Eddie has killed. I also have a theory that he ate it, that's why he was vomiting when we first meet him and why Doge was growling when Eddie's belly was shown in the OG SH2's Dog ending credits.
The dog being named “Mira” I strongly believe is a nod to “Mirror”/“Ymir”, the part of James that’s really pulling the strings
You actually missed one thing in the game; there exists a series of photos that can be collected with messages on the bottom. Behind each photo is a number, and if you put them all in numerical order, then take one vowel from each photo, you get the message that the Unreality is trying to tell James (and the player) that, “You’ve been here for two decades.”
I think the true end of Silent Hill 2 is actually not participating in another loop as the player. playing again and again only extends James's torture if you think about the Meta of it .
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams, the Hd Remaster and the Remake are all continued loops theoretically. The town changes slightly, more information becomes known, the town gets clearer and more detailed but one thing never changes, what James did. The true end is not reliving it over and over. I argue it is the acceptance of the player in what ending was received was the end for James. Not to mention acceptance is the final stage of Grief ;) Just a fun alternate way to think about it, great video.
It's also Meta when you think about. The player themself finds acceptance by finishing the game and not playing it ever again 😂😂
@@atomskthepirateking2776 Every player is a willing participant in James's torture. an every time you fire up the game to get a new ending you pretty much send him through hell again.
The maze where you face Angela's father is a better addition, in my opinion. Because it symbolizes how much Angela had to get away from him and her brother, or at least how much she tried, without succeeding. Another important addition is the scene with Maria when she offers James a drink. I got the impression that not only did he want to drink and sleep with her, but perhaps he did it when Mary was still alive and sick. Maybe James has had another "Maria" before, that's what I mean. Another detail in this part is the Lost & Found ring. Perhaps James has already lost his ring in this or another nightclub.
James is missing his ring. He has a tan line on his ring finger. Also, something that was in the original but left out in the remake, if you examine crates of alcohol in Heaven's Night James will make a comment on how he used to drink a lot. It's unclear if he was an alcoholic, but he was still most likely a heavy drinker. Though I did notice that James did want to drink when Maria offered but had to hold himself back.
I like with the idea of him possibly being a recovering alcoholic that that scene is effectively doubling up on temptations for him
I thought the scene of Maria offering James a drink was a direct reference to The Shining, the Town is reflecting his own struggles and tempting him.
What I want to know is why James didn't roll up his sleeve before reaching into that filth toilet?
He was too busy Mary maxing to even think about it
Yes, let's make a 5 hour long video assay about that.
And about why the pyramid head is still daddy and is not based off of the grand wizard of Silent Hill 😂
This toilet is the least of his problems. That one fridge from the Labyrinth will stay with me forever...
probably because he isn't right in the head,i mean he went into silent hill to search for his wife who he knew was dead
As James said "I just don't care"
Pyramidhead doesnt use a knife. He holds a half of a pair of scissors. When James fights him it symbolizes the other half. The original monster designer also said this on twitter.
I finally beat the remake today (31/10/24) and man, this video and playing the game myself really really makes me appreciate the thought and effort gone into both the remake and original. It’s truly a master class in story telling and beats not just video games in the way it expressed the story and story itself, but also a lot of other stories presented in different mediums ( e.g books and movies ). Thank you so much for this video and all the other videos you’ve done explaining and talking about this game. In general, I love your content Max and I’m very grateful for you and your content. Keep on keeping on and I hope you have a lovely day whenever/ if ever you read this (:
Just finished it last night and I'm blown away 😳.... easily my best "horror" experience of all time, sorry Hereditary lol. I never played the original... knew about some things though (James being "evil" etc) so this remake was a breath of fresh air... such a fantastic experience.
As someone who's been studying all religions and mythologies in his spare time, this video breakdown just hit home perfectly
@@hotcoldman77 which part of the game was the scariest for you?
Masahiro Ito has said Pyramid Head is supposed to be getting rid of the manifestations for James so he would be able to understand what this is all about. It’s weird. He even said the cutscene with the moan before the boss fight wasn’t what you think it is.
There is no way I found you here, I used to watch your godzilla videos .D
@@gillik7801Used to? lol thanks though man
@@RickDaSquirrel Nah I am still watching the theater reaction ones. All the other ones outside of NA just watch in pure silence
@@RickDaSquirrel (except India, but i dont even know they just scream at everything and they cheer only for kong )
I mean Pyramid Head always seems to be leaving a wake of manifestation corpses in it's wake so I think that kind of makes sense.
Something interesting to think about near the end game right before the final boss, you encounter some enemies that don't attack you, one bag enemy in fetal position , a nurse that just collapses to the ground as you get near her, and a leg mannequin that avoids you and even looks terrified of James as you approach it. Any thoughs on this?
I guess since they symbolize all this guilt, subconscious thoughts and all that, after you realize the truth they are no longer scary to you. You know what you did.
I will never forgive Konami for screwing over Hideo and Guillermo. The whole lore and potential of multiple Silent Hills, portraying the actual town as a sort of deity, is left unexplored for no reason. It would allow so many theories like time travel, purgatory etc. to perfectly co-exist in the same "universe" without having to exclude each other out based on the different SH titles, stories and canon. We have Lovecraftian monsters, but the idea of "Lovecraftian" EXISTENCES AND REALITIES, where the world itself is the actual anomaly, monster and unknown deity, is something SH barely scratched the surface of so far.
The town as a deity sounds kind of cliche the town being mysterious but implicitly somewhat sentient or some force of nature is a bit cooler
Also i thought we had zero idea what SHS was gonna be about anyways
@@chandlerbursethere are some leaked parts of what it was supposed to be. It was supposed to have asynchronous multiplayer like death stranding does hence all these different players worlds colliding. Also it was supposed to have AR elements where you would get notifications on your irl contact info related to the game blending reality and the game.
@@aadipie that honestly sounds like it would end being one of those over hyped games that would end in a buggy broken mess.
No
Part of the allure of SH is that it’s a SINGLE place. This, “it can be anything and anywhere bs” is nonsense and I’m not surprised it was cancelled.
@@mattcollins3591 the phenomenon has occurred in other places before like with SH4
I hope Bloober Team will also remake "Born From A Wish"
Yes, hopefully 😊
They better
And add the classic Maria skin.
Here's hoping 🙏 🙂
I’m willing to bet they’re going to release it as a paid DLC with expanded content to justify the price. Konami would be leaving money on the table otherwise.
I personally dislike the time loop theory. From the original game it became kinda clear to me that James's death impulse (Thanatos) was responsible for projecting his image onto the corpses. Plus, the town has significantly changed between said loops, from timeline differences (the og taking place in the 70-80s, and this in the 90s) to Heaven's Night being in two completely different locations. To me this theory doesn't add up, but who knows, maybe the devs confirm it.
Of course it doesn't add up, that's exactly why some fuckwits will shill it. I can't express how much I hate Reddit
The original takes place in the 90s too, going by what is found in Born from a Wish. But you are right, the bodies in the town are because James is suicidal when he gets there.
I don't think the town waits for James to reach the climax of his story after it is very clear he didn't learn his lesson, just to spawn Angela, Eddie, Laura and Maria again so they can all give it another try together, because otherwise the disparity would mess each others runs too much xP
"Wait, I know you..."
Some people theorize that the remake takes place in 2001, since the desk that may or not be James' has a mouse with a scroll wheel. And while mice with scroll wheels came out in the 90s, they weren't really widespread and mainstream until the early 2000's
@@ivanaviNiebla yeah this is my other problem with the remake, aside from it feeling (to me) like it really cheapens the journey.
23:20 - Max: it is not a mistake that gold is in the middle. The order of the symbols on the books is the Chaldean Order of the planets, the order of descent through the tree of life. Gold is The Sun, which is Tiphareth, the exact center of the tree. The final step before Malkuth (manifest material substance) is Silver / The Moon / Yesod. Although Gold is often viewed as the material goal of metallurgic alchemy (i.e. transmuting lead into gold), it isn't the same as the Philosopher's Stone, which is not a physical substance.
Here’s an amazing detail that I found that I don’t see more people talk about for some odd reason. When going through the labyrinth while searching for a key to get another part of a lighter you enter an office room with a nurse in it, in James original bio it was said he was a clerk. This alludes to him not just fantasising about Nurses through his sexual frustrations with Mary but also with his co workers while working as a clerk. This meant everyday he had not just thoughts of the nurses at the hospital but including his female co-workers. Pretty sad
Reason for the order of the book puzzle is that it’s the sequence of the seven heavens, such as is Dante’s Divine Comedy. It’s the order of the seven Ptolemaic planets, which is the order of the (visible) solar system just with the sun and moon reversed.
About Maria, have you ever considered that she may not entirely be a creation of James's mind but also out of Mary's will? Things like wanting to be what she couldn't be for James in her last moments could've played a part in creating her (the want to please the man she loves). Also things like caring for Laura would make sense too. When James asks her why she cares she just says "I dont know I feel like it's up to me to protect her." Imo that wouldn't make much sense if Maria is entirely James's projection as we know he had no idea who Laura was until stepping into Silent Hill and Mary deeply cared for and considered Laura a friend. All that and the fact that Mary wanted to keep being by James's side
Mary arrives dead in Silent Hill, so how can she have a will to impose?
@@shawnwolf5961 Kinda like a dying wish in a way, the feelings she carried in her death
@@elena8073 tie that with Mary's ''in my restless dreams''.... here's an idea: the events throughout the game are just Mary's dreams, and Mary is dreaming of/remnants of a premonition she had of her fate and James guilt ..and now James is living it. kinda like how Alessa's nightmares and pain spawned a living nightmare world ig?
The time loop theory is even more apparent in the remake I think.
I definitely think the theory is what bloober is going for. If all the endings are canon, from what’s been said then all the bodies that look like James, which there is a lot, make sense with the theory in mind.
That theory makes absolutely no sense at all
@@Robert-oq8yelook at all of the corpses in the freezer room before eddie's fight
@@thecheeseblock9880 ok. That doesn't prove a loop at all.
@@Robert-oq8yeall the endings of the game are canon, so if there was a time loop that’s how all the endings would be able to be canon because the whole thing repeats but how you get to the end is different.
Simpler psychological analysis:
Pyramid head is primarily James's desire for punishment for what he did... and only stops when James thinks he's suffered enough.
Maria is his ever present temptation to avoid ever dealing with what he did... one of their first conversations has her tempting him sexually and with booze, which he is implied to have already been struggling with
Yeah the license plates in the game actually relate to that perfectly like Corinthians 6:13.
i just came up with something, not sure if anyone thought about it before.
the time loop you interpreted sounds like something very similar to a technique called mirror gazing meditation. you stare into your eyes long enough, it'll feel like an eternity. your face deforms, you'll see all the many different faces of yourself and you will never be able to remember the face you actually have afterwards. staring so long into your own eyes and facing your soul, it feels as if the time is looping. it consumes you, as staring into your own unconscious is a very intimate and introspective thing, basically the whole theme of this game.
and think about the beginning cutscene of this game. it's the start of a time loop, again and again, especially after new game+ the only way you can get some endings. exploring himself and delving deep into his own unconscious. it makes sense. stare long enough into the abyss, and the abyss stares back at you. that, in a pragmatic sense, may also explain the whole silent hill phenomenon in SH2 i think, maybe. the reason why SH2 is so much more different. it is more introspective, psycho analytical and symbolic than all the other installments. the player staring into james' psyche.
there's this reddit post, it explains this phenomenon pretty well. it's about someone experiencing this said dreadful time loop. i will reply the link to this comment below.
so take the time loop not as in its literal sense, but as in this symbolic interpretation of staring at your own eyes in the mirror for a prolonged period of time. hence all the different endings being canon: it's all part of james' imagination and psyche, hence called reflection. again, the main theme of this game. it's really interesting and i wish i could find out more, but it creeped me out way too much when i tried doing it and i have my own reasons as to why i won't continue.
if you also found this interesting, please let me know and share your thoughts on it, i would gladly appreciate it. again i have no idea if anyone else came up with this interpretation already, google found me nothing, so correct me if i'm wrong.
also, about the reddit post. youtube deleted the comment so here's how to find it:
"Please do not stare into the eyes of your reflection in the mirror. "
This remake was so damn fantastic man, bloober team deserve all the praise, and i hope they remake other SH games too
Nah no more remakes Lord Vader lol. Instead I'd prefer they do some brand new (they're making a new game which is awesome). I'd prefer they make a brand new SH game. They've earned the right to 👏
@@hotcoldman77 New Silent Hill is already being made, also I don't think there ever will be an "og" type of Silent Hill ever again. Haven't the original writers kind off fucked off from the scene by now (meaning Silent hills after the 4th one). Also Sh1 and Sh3 remakes would be cool, really.
I’m drinking Dr Pepper right now
How is it?
This comment made me spit my dr.pepper out
Y'all tried the coconut Dr pepper yet? Pretty good imo
@eicoo2 I haven't but that's what I've heard
mmm dr peppa
24:55 "YOU HAVE BEEN HERE FOR TWO DECADES"
Such a great easter egg and shout out to the fans.
A shame that loop theory numpties are coopting it
I think it's safe to say that we will never get a game with such depth as SH2 ever again. I hope I'm wrong but it seems that way. I've never known a game that still has secrets and hidden meanings being unveiled 23 years later.
One thing I'd like to know is, what happened to the people of the town? James seem to have come to SH with Mary and have a normal vacation there, so at one point the town was a normal town. We find notes left by people with normal works, lives etc. So, when did the town get deserted, and where did the people go?
Put in some effort and play SH1
from my limited knowledge of the SH universe, I am pretty sure that the people/population of SH have either been killed by the monsters of the unreality, or, are currently suffering through their own versions of the unreality, much like how James does - as well as all the various protagonists in the other SH games. For some characters who's fates are integral to the lore progression of SH as a whole, like important people in the history of SH, their outcomes are more or less static. but the other inhabitants of SH could probably be a toss-up in terms of whether they are dead dead, or just... sorta dead. i'm also pretty sure that the fates of some citizens would depend on their connection, whether bad or good, to Alessa, as I'm pretty sure that Alessa was the catalyst, or gateway, that finally turned SH into hellscape that it is currently.
Also, because reality and unreality are all sortof mushed together and bleed into each other randomly in SH, some of the notes and messages that we find in the games could be left by people trapped in their own versions of SH, and don't necessarily share timelines with the protagonists in the games. i don't know how often the games touch on this "parallel realities" concept, as i haven't played every single SH, but in the first movie, which is the good one, it is heavily implied that Rose and Harry are in the school at the same time, but in separate realities.
They are there still living their normal lives. The characters, at least when we play, never visit the "real world" town, they are always "transported" into the "alternate reality" of the fog world and the otherworld (the quotes are because those words are the easiest to use to explain what is going on, but might not be the most accurate).
In the games Sillent Hill is always a touristic town, and keeps growing into modern times. There are characters that don't like it because there are cults, drug trafficking, missing people and lots of urban legends (and other problems tbh), but none of that is big enough to stop the town from being a nice place to spend holidays. So most people in town are living their normal lives while all the shit goes down in an "alternate reality", at least for the most part, as there are events where things leak into the real world, or many people are affected at the same time, but then again, it's never so bad that the town stops being a touristic place xP And the affected people just seems to either disappear or appear insane, the "monsters" never escape or anything like that.
@@Andriej69 I did, with emulation and if that game was the only one, I'd understand what happened with the town, but having more games after that I get confused. Notes and messages in the rest of the games seem to imply the town is a normal town with people living and working and stuff, but that's quite confusing for me. When you go into the "otther world" I get the idea that, that's the unreality, right? That'd be when everything is rusty and here ar fans, and bars and all that... then the intersection between reality and unreality would be the fog world. But then what's the "real" world. Because non of the protagonits seem to ever be in it. I mean, Henry escaped the town with Heather, then Heather goes back and when she enters the town she's already in the fog. James seem to have been to the real town in a vacation previous to the game, but now he went to look for Mary and is immediately inside the fog.
@@xian1978 As far I've heard James' vacation in SH took place before the events that initiated SH1. After that the town was abandoned, aside from Dahlia and Kaufman, who had the opposing goals when the "spell" eventually does it's function. It's open to interpretation if events of SH2 happened after Harry went with CHeryl to SH, or before - before Cheryl grew up, demonic forces of SH might've been luring in and consuming people like James. Notes and documents you're mentioning are leftovers, frozen in time when town itself changes it's shape
:0 13:00 I've always had this personal belief that there was the concept of the divine feminine/masculine and most of us are predisposed to one but that we can all channel both. It's so wild learning that something similar was said by a famous psychologist
Ito using shock horror as an art medium for 30-40 plus years and then going “but not that shock horror” is a weird take, especially when Fukuro exists. All his art was *HEAVILY* intimate, if you catch my meaning.
It also furthers my basis that he should not be the one consulted on story. If it ain’t Owaku, Toyama, or Sato, I take it with a grain of salt. Being the artist doesn’t equate to knowing story beats or what another department is doing with them.
Pretty sure one of the guides or one of the interviews suggests the scene is “open for player interpretation”, but it’s with a pretty hard nudge in the direction of “it also may be intentional, but we’re not admitting that, allegedly”.
The sun is sitting in the correct place for the labeling on the books, if you consider the planetary alignment for each. The sun is in the center of all the planets, which is actually the balance between the solar system and the void and perfection (the exterior of the solar system). This would also make sense as far as no Earth representation for these symbols (in a Terran-centric view) as it would almost be Terra viewing the heavens as the viewer might be viewing the books. The eyes drawn to the largest thing in the solar system: the sun.
This is deeper than I expected, wow!
I haven't yet seen the rest of the video, but I must say that your new explanation of Jung's metaphysics is amazing! Much more precise and clear than what I remember watching some time ago
Maybe the character artist didn’t mean that Pyramid Head wasn’t a sexual being, but instead just specifying he wasn’t a r***ist? I think maybe he intended to say that Pyramid Head in those scenes wasn’t assaulting the characters, but instead was just aggressive, a dominating force, but not an assaulting one. Maybe that’s what he meant? Either way, I don’t think it came off super well, and I think he could’ve explained it a bit better when it came to a topic like this. If that wasn’t his intent, then I really wish he would clarify that.
Cool, I discovered yohr videos after finishing SH2 Remake and was catching up with the 5 year old videos you had. Very nice content, keep it up!
You forgot to mention the second Pyramid Head that is theorized to be his second sin (killing Eddie), and their eggs representing Mary with the disease and Eddie's youth.
God with all this talk about alchemy, A Silent Hill game themed around item crafting a survival in the town sounds fun with the goal of the game is to craft a Philosopher's Stone that grants you a wish like bringing the dead back to life. But to make the Philosopher's Stone you have to craft the nigredo, albedo, and rubedo items.
I mean, you're kinda did with the Rebirth ending.
AMAZING AS ALWAYS
Incorrect, unfortunately though. 😂
This was my first silent hill game and I think it ls probably my game of the year
Same here, easily my game of the year.
Silent Hill 1 is also an amazing game, i hope we'll have a remake of the first game
@@DinossaurodaAmazonia A recent report said Bloober is working on silent hill 1 and 3 remakes. Let’s hope that is true! I bet it is with how well received silent hill 2 remake was.
@@JohnWick-kb5jr i really hope that is true, because SH 1 is my favorite game of the franchise, and the scariest one too imo
I think that the three sections of the labyrinth represent the first three steps of the alchemical process (as used in analytical psycholopgy):
-the first is a rotten area and James has to burn an obect (which looks like a corpse in a bag): this is calcination, the burning;
-in the second area, you have to repeatedly get down in a flooded dungeon; here you find Pyramid Head and you can also find his room (you get a thropy): this is dissolution, the exploration of the unconcious through dreams and other means;
-in the third area you face Pyramid Head: this is separation, facing the shadow --> after that James is able to use PH's blade in order to progress, so he integrated at least part of his shadow (and from this moment the player can see that Mary's letter is actually a blank page).
Max, since you're so fascinated by alchemy and symbolism i'd like to recommend a movie called "The Holy Mountain".
Hey man. I will do a video on that one day. COUNT ON IT. Probably around the beginning of next year. The thing is though, I am going to approach the video much like my fellow RUclipsr, Ragnarrox, approached the movie "Solaris", where he reviewed it, but also talked about how it influenced Silent Hill. The Holy Mountain influenced Silent Hill as well. However, because I have spent the last month doing nothing but Silent Hill, I am going to take at least a couple of months off from that franchise.
@@maxderrat It's fine even if you don't make a video on it. I just thought i'd share one of my favorite movies since it meant so much to me as a lover of philosophy. I do hope you enjoy it. Take care.
HORIZONTALLY!
It's all fun and games until Shinji picks up the steel pipe
silent hill subreddit seems to hate the timeloop theory so much
Silent Hill is very unlikely to be a “ghost town” or abandoned. Vincent in Silent Hill 3 is collecting money from cult members and embezzling, and his belief in pleasures of the physical world means he’s spending that money somewhere.
Its more likely we only see another plane in the games but there is still a normal side of the town full of normal people living normal lives.
Otherwise the place being a ghost town would be known.
Its clearly not a ghost town
Travis Gradys dad use to go there and Murphy is surprised its abandoned when he gets there
Mary and James use to vacation there a lot.
Harry was going there for a vacation in SH1 as well
Silent Hill is a normal town with people living in it, which has layers of reality (planes of existence). Each one is linked to a part of the psyche that shapes reality in its own way.
Imagine Silent Hill as a blank canvas, the brush is the mind, the paints are fears, traumas, desires, wishes, etc. Like a paintbrush, the mind manifests all this "paint" into shapes and visuals on the canvas.
1 Plane of Existence(Real World)
2 Plane of Existence(Fog World)
3 Plane of Existence((Other World)
You know I'll love to see them do a Silent Hill game that take place in the wild west era, Specially a story that take place after the civil war. That seems like a ripe setting and scenario world building of Silent Hill and story telling, In that kind of story I'd either want to see something like a grizzled old man who wishes to make up with his Daughter or Granddaughter or a bonnet wearing Victorian woman who comes to Silent Hill to claim an inheritance from her Ex-husband who mysteriously died.
I think the issue with that is that the BIG thing that made Silent Hill be the way and tore the city to the real world and the otherworld its the events with Alessa that led to Silent Hill 1, which is pretty recent time wise.
I mean Toluca Prison was a civil war POW camp but whether SH phenomenon was happening then is debateable
The whole time loop concept makes the game very close to Signalis. In that game, it's implied that the events of the game is a time loop, including dead bodies of the playable protagonist.
I love how the loop is supported by the decoded photos message in the remake, makes things so, so bleak...
Max, "Sех explained" when?
Karl yung brutally smashed sigmund and his mommy kink idk
I forget the exact context but when you first team up with Maria (in the remake) she says it's odd that a gate is locked, this made me think she was confused because the area was different in the original game
whatsinmy AI fixes this. Silent Hill 2 Remake Explained
Informative as always.
Silent Hill is a normal town with people living in it, which has layers of reality (planes of existence). Each one is linked to a part of the psyche that shapes reality in its own way.
Imagine Silent Hill as a blank canvas, the brush is the mind, the paints are fears, traumas, desires, wishes, etc. Like a paintbrush, the mind manifests all this "paint" into shapes and visuals on the canvas
You interpreted things too deeply that the developers themselves struggled to understand 😂!
love the silent hill content coming out. We are all creating videos again about a series we truly love
Best Silent Hill 2 (remake) video I've seen thus far. Just wow 👏
I really love your videos, they are actually very informational and simple to follow. It touches metaphysics in a clearer way, none of the riddle stuff (which is a way to convey an secret), and you showed us how vastly Alchemy and Philosophy influenced Silent Hill ethos. Silent Hill really introduced many people to esoteric and gnosis, thanks to your videos haha.
The new revelation about the secret message within the photograph items adds credence to the time loop theory. There's a hidden message within them that says: "YOUVE BEEN HERE FOR TWO DECADES".
11:28 in the end of the movie 'jacobs ladder' (which was a huge inspiration for silent hill) someone tells the protagonist (who has been tormented by demons) "
The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life: your memories, your attachments. They burn 'em all away. But they're not punishing you,' he said. 'They're freeing your soul. If your frightened of dying, and your holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. If you've made your peace then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth."
I think this mirrors the whole idea for pyramid heads existence
Good recollection and rundown of a little bit of everything. Good work!
Isn’t the town the way it is because of Alessa? Yes, all that backstory you mentioned is true but the town was a normal town until Alessa unlocked “unreality” and her psychic powers turned into the desolate place we see and it’s her psychic powers that allowed unreality to break through and allowed the creation of the monsters from people’s subconscious. Feels like a big miss not to mention the catalyst for why SH is a hellish place.
So glad to see the preference about the Philolosopher’s Stone of the game “Shadows of destiny” 🙂👍
Disclaimer: Jungian Psychology has actually come a long say since Carl Jung, please do not attempt to apply any of this to real humans that you work and interact with, it will result in utter disaster.
Also, please do not treat women like they're concepts, that's what Jimmy boy does. A full human is in front of him, and he's busy chasing after a "concept" of a woman while ignoring the one right in front of him. If you're gonna walk out of this game with one thing, let it be that all women are human.
People being fixated on finding Pyramid Head sexy is no surprise given the state of the world today. I worked with a woman who was talking to another girl one day about horror movies, and the woman said: “Michael Myers can get it.”
Plus there’s the absolute meme ‘I can Fix Him/Her’. You can’t. 😂
People were simping for him long before modern day
We have people legit simping for serial killers and the like. It's goofy lol
@chandlerburse I feel like that wasn't a thing though until after the first movie cause they made him tall and buff for no reason
Maxdarrat your content is always a nice breath of fresh air. I love your depth of detail when navigating the deep mythos of silent hill. Much love Raven. 🐦⬛🐦⬛
I really love your views and analysis of the silent Hill universe its all so deep and fascinating. Your voice is also very relaxing xo
Hey Max; do you have any idea on what the strange photos are all about? No one seems to be explaining them in any of the videos I've looked into other than them being a collectable.
Good shit Max - keep doing what you're doing!
My biggest question is...what's the Shiba dog's name?
Mira
@@danieljenkins5610Cognate with “Ymir”
@danieljenkins5610 wait they gave the dog a name?
@@tomo8940yes the devs called it Mira
@@chandlerburse cute
I personally don't buy much of the timeloop theory.
I like the idea and it's his subconscious projecting himself onto the corpses because of the guilt and suicidal tendency he's facing.
I do like to believe that James can either fail his journey in silent hill and perhaps trigger another loop to do it again.
But the "leave" ending is probably where he get away from the town for good after facing the inner demons...
It fits with the theme of facing your shadow and growing as a person.
Your videos always feel like a college lecture. A good one, the ones that make you feel smarter afterwards.
Incredible video. Just finished the remake, and this was great
And then there's me who thought the red squares were simply a symbolic representation/glimpse of memory of the TV in the hotel. After all, you can also see James's face mirrored each time you look at these squares
so Harry Potters red sweatshirt was intentional?
I've always interpreted Pyramid Head's aggression towards James as another metaphor for James's shadow attempting to consume him.
This is most telling in the end section of the final Labrynth when James has to let Pyramid Head assist in his escape. James is accepting aid from his shadow without letting it consume him (ie, staying far enough away or dodging PH's attacks)
The dog is clearly the aztec god Xolotl, the shapeshifter-dog psychopomp who leads the souls of the dead through their journey in the underworld, and I wonder why the fans haven't figured it out yet!
(I'm just kidding, but Xolotl actually exist in aztec mythology, check it out)
The gods of Silent Hill have similar names to the Aztec gods, so perhaps there is a correlation
For example, the Red God(Xuchilbara), the Yellow God(Lobsel Vith) etc
Maaaan I got the “In The Water” ending for my first playthrough. I was speechless when credits rolled…
What a great video!! It's exactly what I was looking for and I'm so looking forward to watching more of your stuff!
I do have a question about the remake. Maybe it's really obvious, but one of my biggest questions was who the notes at the beginning of the game were talking about. The one in the flower shop about someone wanting to buy red and white flowers, the one about taking someone's car keys (I can't remember where that one was), and I think a couple of others that make reference to a guy who's been acting weird all over town.
Great video! The order of the planets on the spines of the books is the Chaldean order, which goes from the planets that move slowest as observed on earth to the planets that move fastest, which was relevant to early astrologers and astronomers. This is also the order the planets appear on the Kabbalistic/Qabalistic Tree of Life counting down from the top sphere (Keter). 3 = Binah = Saturn, 4 = Chesed = Jupiter, 5 = Gevurah = Mars, 6 = Tipheret = Sol, 7 = Netzach = Venus, 8 = Hod = Mercury, and 9 = Yesod = Moon.
The gold of Sol is at the center of the tree and represents where the soul crosses the veil and becomes aware of higher things. It represents the merging of the higher/supernal forces with the lower/earthly forces (and also represents the balance point between Chesed/Mercy and Gevurah/Severity) and is considered perfect in that way.
In esoteric/occult magic Tipheret/Sol represents Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel (which is understood to some to be an avatar of the Higher Self), which is the goal of magical practice though it is also possible to temporarily experience higher states of mystic consciousness. Gold/Sol/Tipheret is basically the integrated ego and the highest state a functioning ego-self can be in for long periods of time as per the "map" offered by the Tree.
In other words, "Stay yellow" has some mystical/magical resonance :)
For those circling the topic of mathematical idealism and reconciling man's ambitions with (continually) discovered limitations on our measurement OF reality:
The integers are entirely contained by tha rationals. The rationals are entirely contained by the constructables. The constructables are entirely contained by the algebraics. The algebraics are entirely contained within the computable numbers. But there's even larger sets. The set of definable numbers is larger than the set of computable numbers, and the the set of reals is larger than the set of all definable numbers.
We could never square the circle because we are limited to using a compass and straight edge. Basically this restricts us to asking questions related to x-squared and square-root of x (there's excellent videos on RUclips related to the problem of constructability)
Welcome to Max Derrat. I love you.
Holy shit, seeing Shadow of Destiny in here took me back. Loved that game as a kid.
Always on point and with all the facts. You're the best, Max!
To be fair this is Max' interpretation, I wouldn't go so far to claim it as fact. Max uses the term "I believe" throughout this video. The only people who know the true meanings are the original writers.
@@robertl426 I was actually referring to the fact that he always does his research and brings a lot of sources regarding the essence of very obvious inspirations for the series, such as psychoanalysis or alchemy-themed subjects, not really about the true meaning of SH at all.
One thing Id like to know is what connection Paimon has to everything. A certain puzzle in the hotel flat out has you constructing their sigil which I cant imagine has no meaning to it
James is a character I deeply sympathize and relate to. The notion of the pain of having to think of your past mistakes and as you remember them they pain you greatly. Is as raw of a human truth as it gets.
Last detail I found included the more frequently used enemy type this time around, the Mandarins. In the original they could only stay underground, the book of lost memories found in the rebirth ending explained that due to their symbolism of overwhelming, incomprehensible anguish they were permitted to stay underground. However the remake changes this by allowing you to fight them head on. I believe that Blooper Teams symbolism is their biggest denominator for why James killed Mary, her verbal abuse towards him. They rarely ever use their fists but spikes that come from their mouth, meaning that her words hurt him. They hang from the ceiling and under the floor to show how her words quite literally ‘hanged’ onto him, how he couldn’t go by a day thinking how much she hates him. This is the reason to why they’re the strongest of the 4 enemy types, because they were the biggest reason to why James killed her. His sexual frustrations were clearly crucial but her verbal abuse is what made him commit to his heinous action of ridding her from his life.
8:57 I believe in Ito's comments about PH not doing sexual things to the monsters. He said in another twitter comment that PH is actually getting rid of the monsters, so it kind of makes sense thinking about of PH as a punisher but also a manifestation that puts James in the right direction to learn the lesson, the sexual designs that were made after are just missinterpretations of a character that should not be in other games and movies. And that is why I appreciate the remake take of the first fight's intro, because it feels like the OG game actually confuses people with the moaning and movements of the monster and PH, and it was made that way just for the shock factor. In the remake, PH just grabs the monster and throw him away, like saying to James "put that shit away, learn the lesson and face me".
I love your work Max! Although i find approaching Jung to be a daunting task, it is also profoundly rewarding. People like yourself help me understand his concepts in a way that is applicable to many pieces of art that i personally resonate with, which gives it so much more meaning and depth that in many cases can be easily overlooked. Thank you for your hard work. And PLEASE do an analysis of control. That game is one of my favourites and i was shocked to discover you didnt have a video on it!
Thanks Max, question: does the remake James look like you? Do you consider him yellow?
Excellent video, Max
I'd love to see a video about your thoughts on the NG+ endings, especially the new ones unique to the SH2 remake. I know your philosophy has always been to only make videos about a topic you fell you can provide a unique perspective on, but I think your robust understanding of the series, and critical eye in general would add a lot to the conversation at large, especially with it all being so fresh.
19:20 "suppressed it a long time ago"
It was *not* a long time ago. In fact, it may have been *minutes* ago.
What I want to know is...why are the bullets named after birds?
Pertaining to the color red, it really feel like it was a missed opportunity with the black and white vs. red filter. Yes the red squares are, well, red. But nothing else is. I was so disappointed when I encountered pyramid head on my second playthrough while using the filter. Then in the other world, in a few spots. I absolutely love the way that silent hill 2 looks in general,especially the black and white. It reminds me of an old twilight zone episode. Maybe I’m just a sucker for that “sin city” style. It just would’ve been really
cool to have red be a prominent thing, against the black and white, other than just the squares.
Honestly, if the devs or Ito confirm that SH2 is one big timeloop, I would be extremely disappointed. Instead of SH2 being a self-contained story about three people confronting extremely dark parts of their lives, it becomes a shallow story of endless suffering. It would also make the town of Silent Hill be part of the plethora of takes on purgatory instead of a seemingly self-aware, eldritch being that deliberately has goals, motives and lessons for the people it calls to. The town wouldn't be a character anymore. Anyway, I doubt it's something they will confirm anytime soon. Though the time loop theory is becoming increasingly more popular, unfortunately.
I'm new to any of this, in my interpretation the red squares are guilt-mirrors. Let me explain, the fact that the first encounter is put on words as a pain that hurts the brain from the inside out led me to think about the anatomy of the brain itself, the amigdala and the hippocampus are nearly in the center of the brain, explain why it hurts in that specific way, James cannot remember what he has done, he is experiencing a mental breakpoint where he denies his own reality. that's why just before the great judgment there are nine guilt-mirrors, he has fully face his guilt. All this interpretation got stronger with the remake and that small detail of using the save points as a POV where we see James from this mirrors.
can someone pls tell me rhe id for the ost olaying in the background in 0:40 - 2:00?
Hello how are you
The name of this track is:
Laura Plays the Piano - Silent Hill 2
Hey Max, I just came across an idea on a Facebook group about the potential connection between Pyramid Head and a German children's book called Struwwelpeter. It was written by a psychiatrist named Heinrich Hoffmann in 1845. I think linking the wiki disabled my comment, but I wanted to throw this idea your way in case you hadn't heard of it. I've never heard it mentioned in anyone's lore videos - and like many people here I've spent 10x more time watching lore videos than I've spent playing the game. But apparently one story is "A mother warns her son Konrad not to suck his thumbs. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb-sucking, until a roving tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors." The giant scissors potentially being an inspiration for The Great Knife. Just to tighten up my thoughts as an example - the boy gets punished for his addiction to comfort by a monster with a pair of scissors. It's maybe a bit of a stretch, but it just feels like it fits. Two or three of the other stories also make me think of Eddie and Angela and their respective past actions and "punishments". The rest of the stories are summarized on the wiki if you look it up. I dunno if I'm crazy, but I figured you might find it interesting. Have you heard of this possible connection before?
Why does Born From A Wish get referred to as DLC when it was never released as such???
thats because in modern terms it would be considered one when in actuality it is an expansion, since the terms expansion and DLC are conflated now
it wasnt a part of the base game originally and was added in later releases
@Sleepy_Kitsune i just find it absolutely baffling because people should already know what it means just by reading the term. Downloadable Content which obviously means content distributed via the Internet. Being an owner of the original games and re-releases with the included scenario. I've never seen it as DLC on ps2 online or Xbox live (which launched in late 2002). Maybe I'm just getting old 😂.
It’s an expansion released on later editions of the game. DLC is just the term we use nowadays for any content added post launch.
Further evidence of the loop can be seen in Downfall where a character named Howard Blackwood, the African American Mail Man, told Murphy Pendelton than he's been stuck in Silent Hill for the past 2 centuries and gave up trying to escape the town.