I always saw the blocked off paths, broken roads, and locked doors as a representation of the human brains knack for repressing memories, or unwanted knowledge from ones subconscious.
If that's the case then why was James experiencing his worst nightmares of seeing Mary die right in front of him? No I think the narrator is right with his explanation, it's just the dream's course in our subconscious mind
this is why SH is so unique and special! everyone is different, no one is like the other. everyone sees something different in it and the town know that!
@@DrsJacksonn sounds more like psychosis, schizophrenia is always overly dramatized its more conspiracy and logic loops rather than satan and skin walls....
@@thomasbriscoe7439 wow that’s incredibly ignorant. You realize there are different types, right? And this person literally just said it’s THEIR experience who tf are you to discredit it
@@Jackieb741 No they described a complex illness that causes logic distortions and disassociation as a videogame so they can get brownie points. NO kind of schizophrenia be it catanionic to paranoid causes Silent hill transitions so don't come at me pretending you know anything about psychology when you are just moralizing.
I’m so glad you mentioned the power of the town isn’t necessarily evil, it’s obvious the native Americans used the power of the area for good by trying to commune with nature and their ancestors. It wasn’t until colonial forces deemed the power witchcraft and evil at which point the power represented their own warped malicious views.
My interpretation for the roadblocks is that if its a nightmare you feel like you can't escape. Also, if the town can also be seen as the character's deepest subconscious, then it's something nobody has ever managed to escape. It's like a nightmare in our own minds. Or like "hell" that is locked in the mind. You have to live with it, you can't escape from it.
I was wondering how in the movie the silent hill citizens were still alive after so long. They've been dead and their experiences were in the mind of Alessa all along. The fog of the mind and the dream of purgatory as she laid burned half to death in the hospital. The people who entered the city were the psychological needs of Alessa manifested as people. Sharon was the mother she needed and wanted. The entire series is purely psychological.
Nexion Nekros None of this is correct. There’s no character in the series named Sharon, either? The games are not “purely psychological,” they’re all happening in the real world. The movie adaptation didn’t understand the lore and limitations set in place by Team Silent, and ended up misconstruing the nature of the town.
@@TheTenebrianMachine They already stated they were talking about the movie. Besides there's no wrong way to look at it, that's the point it's up to your interpretation.
Somehow, your name is perfect for someone analysing subconscious exploration in interactive fiction. Subbed because you deserve a lot more recognition.
I really love this description of Silent Hill as a dream because it even fits with the town's purpose and dream's purposes. The whole point of dreams is to learn a lesson or a skill to use irl, and Silent Hill is the same, the whole point is that it's purgatory to teach you some lesson. Except with the town if you don't learn said lesson you are doomed to repeat it in an everlasting nightmare you can't wake up from.
Its 2019 now, I'm going back in time watching this video. lol I was wondering if you still continue your thesis about this legendary video games. I loves silent hill because of its mysteriousness and subliminal messanges. every time I play the game, I always search on google for a few references like a puzzle, or a symbol. I love to play lika that. Please continue to make your thesis about Silent hill new series also. And the other series like Silent hill origin, or The room. Keep up this channel man! I just subscribe! lol
Its an interesting take on why the road blocks and locked doors are there, but its directly contradictory at the same time. If the person who's mind was being mirrored and projected onto reality from the mysterious power of the town tried to go in a certain direction; a direction they deemed worth exploring, then wouldn't that mean if it was a dream that the dream would then completely rearrange to now adjust to that new path? Dreams are far more like choose your own adventure stories, and overall in retrospect one can make the comparison that it came across like a movie. However in the moment as the dream is happening, its just a spiraling down the rabbit hole of impulsive decisions that creates a final narrative. I cant tell you how many dreams I've had where it was going in a direction, but the entire narrative shifted based on something very off the cuff and in the moment, then it rearranged and became something that now revolves around that new decision. Also though, as others have put it, another take is the road blocks and restrictions could be from restrictions in memory that then happen to circumstantially give the illusion or maybe coincidence of a set path. In other words, Jame's has been to those places before, and because he's been there before the power of the town feeding off of his mind using the resources of his memories was able to construct a linear path to his goals and create the narrative from those memories. Either that or its just good ole fashioned interesting game design that people love to give higher meaning to because the games are so mysterious, which is great. That being said, you would need to be really careful trying to understand Silent Hill outside of the first 3 games, because Konami doesn't understand their own game series and has published contradictory and writing or work that has straight up retconned previous explanations and story. Thats why the games series has gone from mysterious and lowkey psychological horror inspired by many western horror authors and films, and now by Downpour is basically just a haunted town purgatory where its like a 8th grader's take on the core aspects of what Silent Hill is about.
I've never been able to change my dreams no matter what I do. My dreams just kinda drag me along even if I try to go back or choose a different direction.
Vila The Pimp Ducky I lucid dream once in a blue moon and I can control whether or not I leave the dream world. I often lead myself into these dreams when I dream of having telekinesis. It’s an awesome feeling and you can use it to explore yourself . Could even directly confront your fears in a safe place. I haven’t done it tho, as you feel true terror in the dream world.
Grayve Rose There’s road blocks and locked doors because it’s a nonsense game with no plot so they want to make the playable areas as small as possible.
When I first saw the ads for the first silent hill as a kid, I thought it was going to take place in an insane asylum. I just remembered that for some reason while watching it. It turned out so much better than I thought it was going to be
alot of times in my dreams...well sometimes...i know im dreaming...and when i tell people in my dream i see ..."this is not real...this is a dream" they look at me dumbfounded....for instance ...i had a dream i knew i was dreaming...i was in class...and i said to the other students "why are you doing this test ...it doesnt matter...this is a dream" they all just looked at me...in other dreams i have...(alot are at school)...im skipping school/ trying to get out of the school to get home..keep in mind im 33 and havent been in school since 18...some dreams i always feel like i did something wrong on accident...like driving and i accidentally hit a car...not hard...but like reversed into it slightly...and then im overwhelmed with stress that ill be caught or the consequence of it financially/ what the law will do...and alot of other dreams i have are mostly of hanging out with old friends that i havent seen in years maybe since teen or childhood...and they look exactly the same as i seen them last...and im in there house which they had moved out of over 2 decades ago now.
@A SH crazy...i have been having my school dreams for about a decade now too..however mine reoccur quite more frequently then 3-4 times a year...honestly maybe 3-4 times every 2 weeks..and its not always the same school...its more like a mold of all the schools i been to...but they seem to have structures that werent there...like antique looking light posts...lantern looking...certain hallways from my middle school...then intersect into hallways from my high school.....maybe subconsciously its that i know i should have done better in school...i really dont know what to think...i have alot of other dreams where its always something transporting me and my friends...whether it be a bus a train or plane..and for some reason its always to new york and it seems to be in the future.......who knows....my most recent dream i can recall...was a satallite dropping down from space and landing in my driveway....but honestly i think it was because i was watching a youtuber named whang doing his usual tales from the internet reports about some proclaimed time traveller emails during the early internet days..and his wacky tech designs using tools and tech nasa used....and i watched it right before i fell asleep...i have a full on journal book filled about all my dreams during the summer of 2004...then i got lazy and didnt write them down anymore...only if they are really bugged out ill write them down...and even the more recent ones i happen to write down are so bugged out i would look like a weirdo talking about them...so there private lol...it is cool to look back on though
Oh, it's the opposite for me, normally the person next to me is telling me it's all a dream or when I tell them it's a dream there all like "we know, but I don't really care, I'm just vibin..."
The gaps in the world and dead ends are just places the various NPC's haven't been to. Giant holes in the earth are just the borders of Alessa's memory.
Ever noticed how every Silent Hill game uses Alessa's subconscious to create the monsters, except the games she is not in? SH2=James SH4=Walter Homecoming=Alex Downpour=Murphy.
@@TheFedeGamer99 I thought the difference for Henry was that Silent Hill wasn't bringing something out of him, but rather he was going IN to the Silent Hill projection of Walter's psyche? Hence the reason Silent Hill 4 was so different on top of other reasons.
Henry had no prior knowledge of Walter before even coming to silent hill. So there isn't a way that he could have been in his subconscious mind while this first started.Everything that happens is because of Walter. It's similar to how Harry got dragged into Alessa's nightmare. Granted, her pulling in Harry was a lot more of a coincidence rather than intentional like Walter bringing in the sacraments. Heck Walter even had ties with the order before this all even happened. ._.
The thing about dreaming and having dreams so vivid that one can't tell reality from a dream world- I totally feel this. I have vivid and often lucid dreams. While, with lucid dreams I have some control, other times I cannot control the world, yet stay aware of myself to some extent. I feel pain in dreams. I sense smells and touch in dreams. I love dreams, but they scare me. Not in the nightmare way, but in that I become highly disassociative because of them. Like, I wake up and can't tell if I am awake or not. Or have dreams that last multiple days where I go to sleep, wake up, go to sleep again, etc. Dreams are crazy.
huh. I never considered my preception of the dream. Some seem to end just before a goal is achived. I have had for sight dreams twice. I had very vivid dreams for about 2 years, i remember many and yes, they are kinda cinimatic in a way. Not often a first person POV
This is scary because it seems that each passing day and each passing year my dreams become increasingly more and more vivid (real). It's now at the point every night when I sleep I have a vivid dream. It's like a spiritual side of me I didn't even know was there is starting to awaken. So far my vivid dreams have either been neutral or good. But the thought of having a negative vivid dream or vivid nightmare is possibly the worst thing I could ever imagine with the only thing being worse is a negative wake induced lucid dream or negative astral projection/out of body experience. Imagine spending the night in literal Hell. I would probably wake up traumatized if that happened.
Hero of Legend your spirit is trying to tell you something or inform you of past/current multiverse lives if your dreams are becoming increasingly vivid. Especially if you are aware of all this going on.
I always thought that maybe the blocked roads and closed doors exist, because Alessa never walked in that direction in her life. She does not know what lies ahead of certain roads and therefore they do not exist in her dream. Mabe that is why she knew how K. Gordon's house looked like inside. Gordon wanted to help her and might have taken her with her after school to get through to the poor girl, which is illegal and dangerous for a teacher. But it worked and that is why K.Gordon (a little student does not necessarily know the first name of a teacher) has a special place in Alessa's memories.
I just came across this randomly, but I'd like to point something. While I don't know much of Silent Hill at all, nor am I sure I wanna play it, the fog world makes me think of the Ginnungap (spelling please?) aka the Gap from Norse mythology. The Gap is, quite literally, a misty oblivion that the dead pass through with valkyries before coming to Valhalla or any of the other Nine Realms. It's like a border between each Realm. So maybe another way of interpreting the Fog World and Other World is the Gap that people have to pass through before arriving in another Realm when not using an established gateway?
Silent hill is the town of memories.(Hence all the memory references) You can only see that of which you remember. The fog is a form memory repression or the attempt to forget or is just the unknown. Landmarks you find on the map only exist as a memory and nothing else. The more you traverse the other world, your memory begins to come back as more and more of the fog is lifted. For better or for worse. If you ever asked someone to describe something from long ago and all they tell you is "My memory is a bit foggy".
As another channel put it, if the main characters were going around killing people, it would be like the serial killer capital of the Universe considering how many SH games there are. So its a pretty hollow theory
It's a rubbish fan "theory". It was even confirmed that the Vincent character said that dreaded sentence to troll Heather. The one every loony fan uses as a "proof" that monsters are actually people. The "theory" meets all kind of practical problems: What people? Silent Hill in the games is pretty much a ghost town. Why are there human characters in the Silent hill then? Or is Heather discriminating when she's hallucinating? Like she only sees black people and Asians as monsters? lol. How do people keep getting up like nothing happen if shot several times, beaten to pulp with pipe etc. unless you step on their heads? Hallucinate them into monsters as much as you wish, that won't make them develop and use the "Creation rebirth" kinjutsu lol. When Boss monsters are defeated, the Silent hill reverts to the fog world. The monster corpses are no longer there. Wouldn't there be human corpses present where the monster was? Or does Heather, again, cherry picks what she hallucinates? Finally Heather is not alone. Every human character other than her also saw those monsters. Without her even saying anything to them before that.
@@miloradvlaovic This is exactly my thought on why it's bull to believe Vincent, he's been out manipulating Heather to get the seal the whole time anyway. Why is it that suddenly people take his word when it pertains to Heather beating up monsters who, might I add, pursue Heather first? EDIT: Vincent also tries to get Heather to kill Claudia in the end, he clearly has his own manipulative agenda the whole time and then comes clean with what he wants in the end. He even tells Heather in the exact same scene "I'm just looking out for myself, everyone does." Why are people so quick to jump the gun on one sentence he speaks throughout the entire game? Not only that, but you see a human in the shop being savaged by a monster prior to picking up the gun, you also hear humans talking prior to even entering the shop. Then suddenly the monsters cannot even talk, but there are a limited amount of humans walking around who you actually can talk to and don't immediately try to kill you. The only monster in the entirety of Silent Hill that doesn't want to kill you immediately/eventually is Valtiel because he's a protector of the Holy Mother. It isn't even progressive regarding humans turning into monsters, more and more people don't suddenly become monsters unless Leonard does? He's the only monster you can talk to in the whole story. Throughout the entirety of the games there are a limited amount of humans and a plethora of bloodthirsty monsters.
Well no duh these are just theories. Every true silent hill fan knows that all the monsters with the exception of pryamid head are all just manifestations of the characters flaws, regrets, fears etc. Example: (sh3) nurses appear because of heathers (alessas) hatred of hospitals
Based on real myth, otherworld is Irish folklore where the mist is the entrance into another neighboring dimension (it connects to fantasia, hell, heaven, astral realm, otherworld, fairy realm, etc)
Wow, been playing this series for years and always wondered the, "Reality" of the fog world. I understood the nightmare, portion where the town's power was more awake or rather uncontrollable from Alessa's side or a chosen host. Enjoyed the video.
In my opinion the blocked roads and locked doors are a result of the town itself leading you along the path it intended for you. Also playing into the whole dream theory. It's like the town scripted a dream for you that you were meant to experience in a specific way, so that the meaning of the dream can be brought to you through your journey it sets you upon.
I think you do have a small window of options when you are in Silent Hill. You can make choices, but obviously, what happens will depend on them choices. If you think of it, you're never being blocked to go forward in Silent Hill, only when you try to get backward. That is, I think, because the town won't let you go until you finish what you came for. As you may have already noticed, no one comes in Silent Hill for no reason. The town 'knows' you are looking for something, or for someone. You won't be leaving here until you're done.
Anyone realize in scary movies like Jason and Michael Myers it always gives you anxiety, anxiousness and a scared feeling, maybe even a little paranoid? But when it comes to something like a zombie apocalypse it normally makes you feel sad and perhaps a strange creeped out emotion, it's weird that instead of feeling the same emotion in a murderer movie we feel sad it's very strange....
to the reverse side of the world, it is realy noticable in silent hill 2 where the characters (Angela and James as those going through the nigtmare, going through their purgatory) act so much on the baser level throughout the game, being more primal, letting their inner demons get to themselves, clouding their judgement while "in the open" but regain their composure, being more thoughtful and clear in their goals when they approach their reflection in mirror, where they can look into their own eyes to see who they are or should be
Scientists can quantum entangle photons with non linear crystal lens, you could say that fog also alters light in a way. And the water in bioshock produces a distortion effect in scenery that constantly moves.
This idea of "The Other Side" makes me think of "The Upside Down" in Stranger Things. I'm no huge fan of ST and only watched season 1 so I don't knkow if there is an explanation as to this place but hey it's scary, full of monsters, weirdly ethereal but vieseral at the same time just like Silent Hill. Maybe there's something archaic about the idea of a "cursed" place which is both familiar but frightening...
I always thought that the fog world is similar to the life form that lives on Solaris - in the novel of the same name by Stanislaw Lem - there are definite similarities.
During my 10 years of depression, fighting with the sense of abandonement and insecurity, ruining my relationships, self sabotaging, after playing the remake i cam say that Silent Hill and the challenges James is going through, felt exactly like my 10 years of struggle away from myself family and friends. Sometimes i still go back mentally. Silent Hill is the place from which fear comes from and distorts your reality and perception. Digging deap will get you down the rabbit holr like James kept jumping down. Dark matter, void. The only way is up, let go.
As a person who majors in Psych with a very keep interest on the work of Jung, I find this very…fascinating. I love your analysis on this. For me personally, this is especially horrifying because I have Narcolepsy (disorder). As a person who is constantly teetering between the dream (unconscious) and waking (conscious) worlds, I realized just how much stressors and sense of self affect my dreams (eg., when I’m stressing a lot, I have a lot more nightmares). To top things off, since I enter/exit REM sleep almost instantly when I fall asleep or wake up, I tend to have: 1. Incredibly vivid + lucid dreams, and 2. Hallucinations The first is so intense to the point that I have written down the “lifetimes” experienced within the dream world down to every detail on a journal, which can take up to 30+ pages sometimes. The second is similar to the stressors and how it’ll ultimately affect how much and how intensely they occur, eg. Visual, Auditory, and Tactile (aka touch) hallucinations. I’ve always referred to the lucid “dream” world (more specifically during nightmares) as “the other side”. To see this concept realized in a video game is fantastically horrifying.
You should learn without books. There is no spirit. Mind and body are one. And you're one with the universe. Languages are our chains and this world is our silent hill but sometimes the otherworld takes place but only few people can perceive that.
alright, I thought of a different game, persona 4 and persona 4 golden. the fog comes after the rain and when the fog comes in the "backside of the tv" the fog disappears and becomes more dangerous from the "shadows" the shadows are the enemy
It’s weird because I ha a dream I was in 1800s England and everyone was acting as such. When I was walking around I left the world and was in a warehouse full of modern day film equipment.
I never really understood Laura's presence in Silent Hill 2 , I mean what's her purpose for being there? And in one point it seems that she thinks she's not a kid or that James is only seeing her that way. Like why would the town draw her in if she had no demons in her subconscious and she is in fact real and not a manifestation of the other characters subconscious?
She's there to find Mary. Mary left her a letter saying she was in a better place (she was obviously talking about Heaven) but Laura mistook that for Silent Hill. It doesn't have anything to do with her having no demons in her subconscious as that's not the only reason people go to Silent Hill, as evident from Silent Hill 1, 3 and 4.
Never heard of it to be honest! I've been recommended a lot of games to check out in the past 24 hours, and I've been writing them all down. Red Haze is now on the list. :) Thanks for pointing it out to me.
Feel free to make your own interpretations on it, because when I feel like I got it figured out, it throws me in for another loop. I know that it’s a sequel to another indie game called “Close your eyes” but at times the games don’t feel connected to me.
Our ability to dream is natural in a sense that we need to eat and do other human things. I can't really explain what goes on in people's dreams because that's not my expertise. But, what i i can really tell you that dreams are just side effects of sleep. My dreams are usually things in situations. Sometimes they can be nightmares where something bad is happening.
You could imagine that the cycle of day and night, of sleep and wake, and the inevitable insanity that comes from staying awake and breaking that cycle for long periods of time may be a micro expressions proof that God or the consciousness that we call God would go insane if it wasn’t constantly rebirthing and remaking it self. Perhaps he realized it cycles of life and death were the only sustaining way to have consciousness.
The dream theory almost works. In Origins, 1, 3, Homecoming, Shattered Memories, and Downpour, the games start with the hero merely waking up. Origins was Travis waking up on a bench after going into a burning building to rescue the girl inside and passing out after the two saved each other. Silent Hill 1 and Shattered Memories start with a car crash. Silent Hill 3 has Heather wake up in an empty burgershop. Homecoming starts with Alex waken up by a trucker as he's made his way to his home town. Downpour begins with Murphy waking up to be transferred then for the bus to end up in an accident. From what I can tell, it's 2 and 4 where things are a bit iffy. In Silent Hill 2, you don't really see James waking up from a dream until the middle of the game. He starts off in a bathroom taking a break as he wasn't able to get to town by car as the road was blocked off. The closest thing you'd get to that is in Mary's letter, thus it's not James that was dreaming, but Mary. In Silent Hill 4, while Henry woke up from a dream and realized he wasn't able to get out of his own apartment, he did question whether he was in Cynthia's dream at some point and things got more iffy when the level ended with an attack an ambulance wheeling her out of the subway. This is a contrast to the dream sequence at the start of Silent Hill 3 where Heather woke up as soon as she was hit by the roller coaster.
Did Alessa created the Fog World and the Otherworld in Silent Hill? I've read somewhere that Alessa created those two world so she can hide from her mother Dhalia and stop the birth of a God entity!! If that is the truth, than THE Fog World and the Otherworld should not exist after SH3 because Heather/Alessa finally defeated Evil God entity....i mean the Cult is no more!!! But in SH4 we can see that Henry also travels the otherworld, and that Walter Sullivan is the creator of a nightmarish world filled with creatures and demons! Does that mean that anyone who has a hatred in it's hard can manifest spiritual world of Silent Hill?
@@applepie9028 Silent Hill 2 mentions it at least existed in the early 20th century if I remember correctly. I think this might have been the plot of Silent Hill the Arcade. Shame that didn't get an official world wide PC port.
In Kabbalah and Buddhism, there’s a common concept that this world in which we occupy is not real and neither is the other side. Very interesting how pervasive this theme is!
I always saw the blocked off paths, broken roads, and locked doors as a representation of the human brains knack for repressing memories, or unwanted knowledge from ones subconscious.
If that's the case then why was James experiencing his worst nightmares of seeing Mary die right in front of him? No I think the narrator is right with his explanation, it's just the dream's course in our subconscious mind
That's valid as well
I think both interpretations are valid.
Eeehhh, no
The fog i think is a sign of a unclear memory or a not clear subcautious mind
Wrong.. it's a sign of the PlayStations lack of processing Power.
*They look like monsters to you?!*
Belias Phyre And it all comes together somewhere in the black.
Belias Phyre silent hill downpour right?
this is why SH is so unique and special! everyone is different, no one is like the other. everyone sees something different in it and the town know that!
@@TheFedeGamer99 no, Vincent from silent hill 3 says this
@@Minycart i can remember annie hunnighan said the same sentence
I have schizophrenia and the transitioning perfectly describes how it feels.
Rhyvinn S. 0
Sounds scary man
@@DrsJacksonn sounds more like psychosis, schizophrenia is always overly dramatized its more conspiracy and logic loops rather than satan and skin walls....
@@thomasbriscoe7439 wow that’s incredibly ignorant. You realize there are different types, right? And this person literally just said it’s THEIR experience who tf are you to discredit it
@@Jackieb741 No they described a complex illness that causes logic distortions and disassociation as a videogame so they can get brownie points. NO kind of schizophrenia be it catanionic to paranoid causes Silent hill transitions so don't come at me pretending you know anything about psychology when you are just moralizing.
I’m so glad you mentioned the power of the town isn’t necessarily evil, it’s obvious the native Americans used the power of the area for good by trying to commune with nature and their ancestors. It wasn’t until colonial forces deemed the power witchcraft and evil at which point the power represented their own warped malicious views.
My interpretation for the roadblocks is that if its a nightmare you feel like you can't escape. Also, if the town can also be seen as the character's deepest subconscious, then it's something nobody has ever managed to escape. It's like a nightmare in our own minds. Or like "hell" that is locked in the mind. You have to live with it, you can't escape from it.
I'm a nihilist living in my own hell in this evil corrupt world, they only escape from this nightmare is death
I was wondering how in the movie the silent hill citizens were still alive after so long. They've been dead and their experiences were in the mind of Alessa all along. The fog of the mind and the dream of purgatory as she laid burned half to death in the hospital. The people who entered the city were the psychological needs of Alessa manifested as people. Sharon was the mother she needed and wanted. The entire series is purely psychological.
Nexion Nekros None of this is correct. There’s no character in the series named Sharon, either?
The games are not “purely psychological,” they’re all happening in the real world. The movie adaptation didn’t understand the lore and limitations set in place by Team Silent, and ended up misconstruing the nature of the town.
@@TheTenebrianMachine They already stated they were talking about the movie. Besides there's no wrong way to look at it, that's the point it's up to your interpretation.
I once had a dream where I washed dishes and that was all I remembered.
In silent hill those plates are stretched out pieces of skin stitched to a wooden base. Kinda like a dream catcher or a animal skin holder
Sounds like nightmare
@J F nope
@@juanrojas2595 😟
@@mrplayfulshade sounds like a tambourine
Somehow, your name is perfect for someone analysing subconscious exploration in interactive fiction.
Subbed because you deserve a lot more recognition.
Hey, really enjoying your Silent Hill stuff! Subbed!
@Eternal there's no need to swear when you're correcting someone,buddy!
@Eternal People still see comments on their older videos, you chucklefuck.
@Eternal your mom
I really love this description of Silent Hill as a dream because it even fits with the town's purpose and dream's purposes. The whole point of dreams is to learn a lesson or a skill to use irl, and Silent Hill is the same, the whole point is that it's purgatory to teach you some lesson. Except with the town if you don't learn said lesson you are doomed to repeat it in an everlasting nightmare you can't wake up from.
@victorgillespie10 what would you say Lisa is then? Not trying to argue I’m genuinely curious, I’m new to Silent Hill and love her character :)
Its 2019 now, I'm going back in time watching this video. lol I was wondering if you still continue your thesis about this legendary video games. I loves silent hill because of its mysteriousness and subliminal messanges. every time I play the game, I always search on google for a few references like a puzzle, or a symbol. I love to play lika that. Please continue to make your thesis about Silent hill new series also. And the other series like Silent hill origin, or The room. Keep up this channel man! I just subscribe! lol
I miss 2019
Its an interesting take on why the road blocks and locked doors are there, but its directly contradictory at the same time. If the person who's mind was being mirrored and projected onto reality from the mysterious power of the town tried to go in a certain direction; a direction they deemed worth exploring, then wouldn't that mean if it was a dream that the dream would then completely rearrange to now adjust to that new path?
Dreams are far more like choose your own adventure stories, and overall in retrospect one can make the comparison that it came across like a movie. However in the moment as the dream is happening, its just a spiraling down the rabbit hole of impulsive decisions that creates a final narrative. I cant tell you how many dreams I've had where it was going in a direction, but the entire narrative shifted based on something very off the cuff and in the moment, then it rearranged and became something that now revolves around that new decision.
Also though, as others have put it, another take is the road blocks and restrictions could be from restrictions in memory that then happen to circumstantially give the illusion or maybe coincidence of a set path. In other words, Jame's has been to those places before, and because he's been there before the power of the town feeding off of his mind using the resources of his memories was able to construct a linear path to his goals and create the narrative from those memories.
Either that or its just good ole fashioned interesting game design that people love to give higher meaning to because the games are so mysterious, which is great. That being said, you would need to be really careful trying to understand Silent Hill outside of the first 3 games, because Konami doesn't understand their own game series and has published contradictory and writing or work that has straight up retconned previous explanations and story. Thats why the games series has gone from mysterious and lowkey psychological horror inspired by many western horror authors and films, and now by Downpour is basically just a haunted town purgatory where its like a 8th grader's take on the core aspects of what Silent Hill is about.
I've never been able to change my dreams no matter what I do. My dreams just kinda drag me along even if I try to go back or choose a different direction.
Vila The Pimp Ducky I lucid dream once in a blue moon and I can control whether or not I leave the dream world. I often lead myself into these dreams when I dream of having telekinesis. It’s an awesome feeling and you can use it to explore yourself . Could even directly confront your fears in a safe place. I haven’t done it tho, as you feel true terror in the dream world.
Grayve Rose There’s road blocks and locked doors because it’s a nonsense game with no plot so they want to make the playable areas as small as possible.
When I first saw the ads for the first silent hill as a kid, I thought it was going to take place in an insane asylum. I just remembered that for some reason while watching it. It turned out so much better than I thought it was going to be
that's it, you just earned yourself a sub. You went over stuff that was overlooked or just no one covered. keep up the great work
I used to live in a character house on a hill. It always used to be covered in fog you couldn't even see the road in front. I miss that house.
That sounds sick wish I could see a picture
alot of times in my dreams...well sometimes...i know im dreaming...and when i tell people in my dream i see ..."this is not real...this is a dream" they look at me dumbfounded....for instance ...i had a dream i knew i was dreaming...i was in class...and i said to the other students "why are you doing this test ...it doesnt matter...this is a dream" they all just looked at me...in other dreams i have...(alot are at school)...im skipping school/ trying to get out of the school to get home..keep in mind im 33 and havent been in school since 18...some dreams i always feel like i did something wrong on accident...like driving and i accidentally hit a car...not hard...but like reversed into it slightly...and then im overwhelmed with stress that ill be caught or the consequence of it financially/ what the law will do...and alot of other dreams i have are mostly of hanging out with old friends that i havent seen in years maybe since teen or childhood...and they look exactly the same as i seen them last...and im in there house which they had moved out of over 2 decades ago now.
@A SH crazy...i have been having my school dreams for about a decade now too..however mine reoccur quite more frequently then 3-4 times a year...honestly maybe 3-4 times every 2 weeks..and its not always the same school...its more like a mold of all the schools i been to...but they seem to have structures that werent there...like antique looking light posts...lantern looking...certain hallways from my middle school...then intersect into hallways from my high school.....maybe subconsciously its that i know i should have done better in school...i really dont know what to think...i have alot of other dreams where its always something transporting me and my friends...whether it be a bus a train or plane..and for some reason its always to new york and it seems to be in the future.......who knows....my most recent dream i can recall...was a satallite dropping down from space and landing in my driveway....but honestly i think it was because i was watching a youtuber named whang doing his usual tales from the internet reports about some proclaimed time traveller emails during the early internet days..and his wacky tech designs using tools and tech nasa used....and i watched it right before i fell asleep...i have a full on journal book filled about all my dreams during the summer of 2004...then i got lazy and didnt write them down anymore...only if they are really bugged out ill write them down...and even the more recent ones i happen to write down are so bugged out i would look like a weirdo talking about them...so there private lol...it is cool to look back on though
Too many three dots
I have those same dreams. Always in school whoa 😮
My conspiracy side is going *maybe it’s our conscious jumping into ourselves in other realities* but that terrifies me since I have night terrors lmao
Oh, it's the opposite for me, normally the person next to me is telling me it's all a dream or when I tell them it's a dream there all like "we know, but I don't really care, I'm just vibin..."
amazing video sir. you deserve way more views
Share it up, man. It helps me out more than you think.
The gaps in the world and dead ends are just places the various NPC's haven't been to. Giant holes in the earth are just the borders of Alessa's memory.
"You see it too? It's always like that for me". Those words hit me so hard because I have anxiety, and my world is always on fire.
That's the way I like it and I'll never get bored
Came here from the Pyramid Head video great commentary, sub!
It was foggy up here in AK today, great timing!
Ever noticed how every Silent Hill game uses Alessa's subconscious to create the monsters, except the games she is not in? SH2=James SH4=Walter Homecoming=Alex Downpour=Murphy.
Caleb Goodman walter cause henry is not the real protagonist right?
@@TheFedeGamer99 I thought the difference for Henry was that Silent Hill wasn't bringing something out of him, but rather he was going IN to the Silent Hill projection of Walter's psyche? Hence the reason Silent Hill 4 was so different on top of other reasons.
SH4= Henry
Alessa is unexist in silent hill 3
Henry had no prior knowledge of Walter before even coming to silent hill. So there isn't a way that he could have been in his subconscious mind while this first started.Everything that happens is because of Walter. It's similar to how Harry got dragged into Alessa's nightmare. Granted, her pulling in Harry was a lot more of a coincidence rather than intentional like Walter bringing in the sacraments. Heck Walter even had ties with the order before this all even happened. ._.
The thing about dreaming and having dreams so vivid that one can't tell reality from a dream world- I totally feel this. I have vivid and often lucid dreams. While, with lucid dreams I have some control, other times I cannot control the world, yet stay aware of myself to some extent. I feel pain in dreams. I sense smells and touch in dreams. I love dreams, but they scare me. Not in the nightmare way, but in that I become highly disassociative because of them. Like, I wake up and can't tell if I am awake or not. Or have dreams that last multiple days where I go to sleep, wake up, go to sleep again, etc. Dreams are crazy.
Not gonna lie, I often joke about waking up in Silent Hill whenever there's a lot of fog in the morning 😆
huh. I never considered my preception of the dream. Some seem to end just before a goal is achived. I have had for sight dreams twice. I had very vivid dreams for about 2 years, i remember many and yes, they are kinda cinimatic in a way. Not often a first person POV
This is scary because it seems that each passing day and each passing year my dreams become increasingly more and more vivid (real). It's now at the point every night when I sleep I have a vivid dream. It's like a spiritual side of me I didn't even know was there is starting to awaken. So far my vivid dreams have either been neutral or good. But the thought of having a negative vivid dream or vivid nightmare is possibly the worst thing I could ever imagine with the only thing being worse is a negative wake induced lucid dream or negative astral projection/out of body experience. Imagine spending the night in literal Hell. I would probably wake up traumatized if that happened.
Hero of Legend your spirit is trying to tell you something or inform you of past/current multiverse lives if your dreams are becoming increasingly vivid. Especially if you are aware of all this going on.
Write about them in a dream journal when you wake up! Maybe you can go lucid in your dreams.
You’re right. I used to have night terrors constantly and still have them sometimes. It’s absolute hell.
I always took the reverse side to mean it puts what's inside your mind into your outer environment.
Glad I got you in my recommendations!
I always thought that maybe the blocked roads and closed doors exist, because Alessa never walked in that direction in her life. She does not know what lies ahead of certain roads and therefore they do not exist in her dream. Mabe that is why she knew how K. Gordon's house looked like inside. Gordon wanted to help her and might have taken her with her after school to get through to the poor girl, which is illegal and dangerous for a teacher. But it worked and that is why K.Gordon (a little student does not necessarily know the first name of a teacher) has a special place in Alessa's memories.
Glad I'm not the only one who's copy of SH3 had frequent loading skips when you're running around the town.
I just came across this randomly, but I'd like to point something. While I don't know much of Silent Hill at all, nor am I sure I wanna play it, the fog world makes me think of the Ginnungap (spelling please?) aka the Gap from Norse mythology. The Gap is, quite literally, a misty oblivion that the dead pass through with valkyries before coming to Valhalla or any of the other Nine Realms. It's like a border between each Realm. So maybe another way of interpreting the Fog World and Other World is the Gap that people have to pass through before arriving in another Realm when not using an established gateway?
Silent hill is the town of memories.(Hence all the memory references) You can only see that of which you remember. The fog is a form memory repression or the attempt to forget or is just the unknown. Landmarks you find on the map only exist as a memory and nothing else. The more you traverse the other world, your memory begins to come back as more and more of the fog is lifted. For better or for worse. If you ever asked someone to describe something from long ago and all they tell you is "My memory is a bit foggy".
And that's when Heather realize she was just going around killing people
Definitely in my top 10 gaming moments
As another channel put it, if the main characters were going around killing people, it would be like the serial killer capital of the Universe considering how many SH games there are. So its a pretty hollow theory
It's a rubbish fan "theory". It was even confirmed that the Vincent character said that dreaded sentence to troll Heather. The one every loony fan uses as a "proof" that monsters are actually people.
The "theory" meets all kind of practical problems:
What people? Silent Hill in the games is pretty much a ghost town.
Why are there human characters in the Silent hill then? Or is Heather discriminating when she's hallucinating? Like she only sees black people and Asians as monsters? lol.
How do people keep getting up like nothing happen if shot several times, beaten to pulp with pipe etc. unless you step on their heads? Hallucinate them into monsters as much as you wish, that won't make them develop and use the "Creation rebirth" kinjutsu lol.
When Boss monsters are defeated, the Silent hill reverts to the fog world. The monster corpses are no longer there. Wouldn't there be human corpses present where the monster was? Or does Heather, again, cherry picks what she hallucinates?
Finally Heather is not alone. Every human character other than her also saw those monsters. Without her even saying anything to them before that.
@@miloradvlaovic This is exactly my thought on why it's bull to believe Vincent, he's been out manipulating Heather to get the seal the whole time anyway. Why is it that suddenly people take his word when it pertains to Heather beating up monsters who, might I add, pursue Heather first? EDIT: Vincent also tries to get Heather to kill Claudia in the end, he clearly has his own manipulative agenda the whole time and then comes clean with what he wants in the end. He even tells Heather in the exact same scene "I'm just looking out for myself, everyone does." Why are people so quick to jump the gun on one sentence he speaks throughout the entire game?
Not only that, but you see a human in the shop being savaged by a monster prior to picking up the gun, you also hear humans talking prior to even entering the shop. Then suddenly the monsters cannot even talk, but there are a limited amount of humans walking around who you actually can talk to and don't immediately try to kill you.
The only monster in the entirety of Silent Hill that doesn't want to kill you immediately/eventually is Valtiel because he's a protector of the Holy Mother.
It isn't even progressive regarding humans turning into monsters, more and more people don't suddenly become monsters unless Leonard does? He's the only monster you can talk to in the whole story. Throughout the entirety of the games there are a limited amount of humans and a plethora of bloodthirsty monsters.
Well no duh these are just theories. Every true silent hill fan knows that all the monsters with the exception of pryamid head are all just manifestations of the characters flaws, regrets, fears etc. Example: (sh3) nurses appear because of heathers (alessas) hatred of hospitals
FYI, if you ever see anyone claiming that Silent Hill's Otherworld is a ripoff of the Upside Down from Stranger Things it is legal to murder them.
If i was in silent hill, i think it would be a real *hell* .
What would happen if an uncorrupted person go there?
They don’t see anything, that’s the reason the little girl In silent hill 2 can run around has she pleases and doesn’t see any monsters or horrors.
@@steffanofumo but the city is still abandoned
I'm obsessed with this!
Based on real myth, otherworld is Irish folklore where the mist is the entrance into another neighboring dimension (it connects to fantasia, hell, heaven, astral realm, otherworld, fairy realm, etc)
& dream realm
I interpreted the locked doors and broken paths as to feeling the dread of no other escape or constant hopelessness of not finding a way out or in
ahhh why are these videos so short i love the in depth analyses!
Silent Hill series is a masterpiece work of art.
Wow, been playing this series for years and always wondered the, "Reality" of the fog world. I understood the nightmare, portion where the town's power was more awake or rather uncontrollable from Alessa's side or a chosen host. Enjoyed the video.
The town reminds me of planet in Solaris, where the oceans of the planet reacts with human presence and manifests people
In my opinion the blocked roads and locked doors are a result of the town itself leading you along the path it intended for you. Also playing into the whole dream theory. It's like the town scripted a dream for you that you were meant to experience in a specific way, so that the meaning of the dream can be brought to you through your journey it sets you upon.
I think you do have a small window of options when you are in Silent Hill. You can make choices, but obviously, what happens will depend on them choices. If you think of it, you're never being blocked to go forward in Silent Hill, only when you try to get backward. That is, I think, because the town won't let you go until you finish what you came for.
As you may have already noticed, no one comes in Silent Hill for no reason. The town 'knows' you are looking for something, or for someone. You won't be leaving here until you're done.
I always found fog to be cozy in real life
Fog is the coziest. I'd pick it over glaring sun anyday.
So the 'other' world is basically like the 'upside down' from Stranger Things?
Anyone realize in scary movies like Jason and Michael Myers it always gives you anxiety, anxiousness and a scared feeling, maybe even a little paranoid? But when it comes to something like a zombie apocalypse it normally makes you feel sad and perhaps a strange creeped out emotion, it's weird that instead of feeling the same emotion in a murderer movie we feel sad it's very strange....
Im a very lucid dreamer. I've had dreams where everything goes black and I can only see a few feet in front of me.
to the reverse side of the world, it is realy noticable in silent hill 2 where the characters (Angela and James as those going through the nigtmare, going through their purgatory) act so much on the baser level throughout the game, being more primal, letting their inner demons get to themselves, clouding their judgement while "in the open" but regain their composure, being more thoughtful and clear in their goals when they approach their reflection in mirror, where they can look into their own eyes to see who they are or should be
What would happen if a Lucid dreamer enters the town?
Scientists can quantum entangle photons with non linear crystal lens, you could say that fog also alters light in a way. And the water in bioshock produces a distortion effect in scenery that constantly moves.
Sometimes I wish I could go to Silent Hill, I'm curious to see what my monsters would look like
idk about that one chief haha
That fucking train at the end scared me.
Silent Hill must inspired by The Mist, so it can't be a coinsidence.
This idea of "The Other Side" makes me think of "The Upside Down" in Stranger Things. I'm no huge fan of ST and only watched season 1 so I don't knkow if there is an explanation as to this place but hey it's scary, full of monsters, weirdly ethereal but vieseral at the same time just like Silent Hill. Maybe there's something archaic about the idea of a "cursed" place which is both familiar but frightening...
Stranger things was directly inspired by Silent Hill amongst other things. The creators admitted that.
great video bro
I always thought that the fog world is similar to the life form that lives on Solaris - in the novel of the same name by Stanislaw Lem - there are definite similarities.
Talkin about the reverse side makes me think about death stranding
I subbed for this great silent Hill content!
YOU ROCK! Thanks so much, Nick!
So it's as I speculated, it's a shift from Nightmare to Night Terror.
During my 10 years of depression, fighting with the sense of abandonement and insecurity, ruining my relationships, self sabotaging, after playing the remake i cam say that Silent Hill and the challenges James is going through, felt exactly like my 10 years of struggle away from myself family and friends. Sometimes i still go back mentally. Silent Hill is the place from which fear comes from and distorts your reality and perception. Digging deap will get you down the rabbit holr like James kept jumping down. Dark matter, void. The only way is up, let go.
Good video max. I swear you seem to have the same taste in games as me.
The darkest part of the unconscious is the basements basement...
Dude i love your videos
Thanks so much for checking them out, Ahmed!!! :D
Thnx for this video finally the otherworld is now explained.
As a person who majors in Psych with a very keep interest on the work of Jung, I find this very…fascinating. I love your analysis on this.
For me personally, this is especially horrifying because I have Narcolepsy (disorder). As a person who is constantly teetering between the dream (unconscious) and waking (conscious) worlds, I realized just how much stressors and sense of self affect my dreams (eg., when I’m stressing a lot, I have a lot more nightmares). To top things off, since I enter/exit REM sleep almost instantly when I fall asleep or wake up, I tend to have:
1. Incredibly vivid + lucid dreams, and
2. Hallucinations
The first is so intense to the point that I have written down the “lifetimes” experienced within the dream world down to every detail on a journal, which can take up to 30+ pages sometimes. The second is similar to the stressors and how it’ll ultimately affect how much and how intensely they occur, eg. Visual, Auditory, and Tactile (aka touch) hallucinations. I’ve always referred to the lucid “dream” world (more specifically during nightmares) as “the other side”. To see this concept realized in a video game is fantastically horrifying.
You should learn without books. There is no spirit. Mind and body are one. And you're one with the universe. Languages are our chains and this world is our silent hill but sometimes the otherworld takes place but only few people can perceive that.
"Is this a dream? It's got to be . . But when am I going to wake up?"
very good analysis!
alright, I thought of a different game, persona 4 and persona 4 golden. the fog comes after the rain and when the fog comes in the "backside of the tv" the fog disappears and becomes more dangerous from the "shadows" the shadows are the enemy
Lmao.
"The first thing that comes to mind, aside from the first thing and second thing..."
So what about the world of nowhere in silent hill 1?
I think SH2 and 4 take place in between 1 and 3, so heather was 16 or 17 when she went to SH. So..SH 2 and 4 must take palce inbetween that time
It’s weird because I ha a dream I was in 1800s England and everyone was acting as such. When I was walking around I left the world and was in a warehouse full of modern day film equipment.
toluca lake and cauldron lake seem to have a lot in common.... send the FBC in!
Love your videos, man. Keep it up!
I always imagined other world as hell.
Thought x was about to drop for a sec😂
you're so brilliant!!
The Fog World is like preconscious. The Other World is deep dive in subsonscious.
I never really understood Laura's presence in Silent Hill 2 , I mean what's her purpose for being there? And in one point it seems that she thinks she's not a kid or that James is only seeing her that way.
Like why would the town draw her in if she had no demons in her subconscious and she is in fact real and not a manifestation of the other characters subconscious?
She's there to find Mary. Mary left her a letter saying she was in a better place (she was obviously talking about Heaven) but Laura mistook that for Silent Hill. It doesn't have anything to do with her having no demons in her subconscious as that's not the only reason people go to Silent Hill, as evident from Silent Hill 1, 3 and 4.
Rilumai silent hill 4 is in south ashfield heights
The Fede Gamer A couple locations are outside the city, though.
Rilumai i know
Rilumai like the forest, and the prison in sh4 right?
Welcome to silent hill
Hey Max, have you played an indie game called “Red Haze” it’s still a messed up game that I can’t wrap my head around.
Never heard of it to be honest! I've been recommended a lot of games to check out in the past 24 hours, and I've been writing them all down. Red Haze is now on the list. :) Thanks for pointing it out to me.
Feel free to make your own interpretations on it, because when I feel like I got it figured out, it throws me in for another loop.
I know that it’s a sequel to another indie game called “Close your eyes” but at times the games don’t feel connected to me.
Whenever I think of silent hill, I think of the silent hill ufo ending song you can unlock after the third one. 😂
So if it's a dream, does that mean that none of the events in the game are actually occurring?
Silent Hill 4's Walter Sullivan considered his Other World heaven.
Our ability to dream is natural in a sense that we need to eat and do other human things. I can't really explain what goes on in people's dreams because that's not my expertise. But, what i i can really tell you that dreams are just side effects of sleep. My dreams are usually things in situations. Sometimes they can be nightmares where something bad is happening.
Beautifully said
You could imagine that the cycle of day and night, of sleep and wake, and the inevitable insanity that comes from staying awake and breaking that cycle for long periods of time may be a micro expressions proof that God or the consciousness that we call God would go insane if it wasn’t constantly rebirthing and remaking it self. Perhaps he realized it cycles of life and death were the only sustaining way to have consciousness.
This video gave me some ideas.
I just had a dream about this
The dream theory almost works. In Origins, 1, 3, Homecoming, Shattered Memories, and Downpour, the games start with the hero merely waking up.
Origins was Travis waking up on a bench after going into a burning building to rescue the girl inside and passing out after the two saved each other.
Silent Hill 1 and Shattered Memories start with a car crash.
Silent Hill 3 has Heather wake up in an empty burgershop.
Homecoming starts with Alex waken up by a trucker as he's made his way to his home town.
Downpour begins with Murphy waking up to be transferred then for the bus to end up in an accident.
From what I can tell, it's 2 and 4 where things are a bit iffy.
In Silent Hill 2, you don't really see James waking up from a dream until the middle of the game. He starts off in a bathroom taking a break as he wasn't able to get to town by car as the road was blocked off. The closest thing you'd get to that is in Mary's letter, thus it's not James that was dreaming, but Mary.
In Silent Hill 4, while Henry woke up from a dream and realized he wasn't able to get out of his own apartment, he did question whether he was in Cynthia's dream at some point and things got more iffy when the level ended with an attack an ambulance wheeling her out of the subway. This is a contrast to the dream sequence at the start of Silent Hill 3 where Heather woke up as soon as she was hit by the roller coaster.
Did Alessa created the Fog World and the Otherworld in Silent Hill? I've read somewhere that Alessa created those two world so she can hide from her mother Dhalia and stop the birth of a God entity!! If that is the truth, than THE Fog World and the Otherworld should not exist after SH3 because Heather/Alessa finally defeated Evil God entity....i mean the Cult is no more!!! But in SH4 we can see that Henry also travels the otherworld, and that Walter Sullivan is the creator of a nightmarish world filled with creatures and demons! Does that mean that anyone who has a hatred in it's hard can manifest spiritual world of Silent Hill?
@@applepie9028 Silent Hill 2 mentions it at least existed in the early 20th century if I remember correctly. I think this might have been the plot of Silent Hill the Arcade. Shame that didn't get an official world wide PC port.
Plot twist : James was having a very real bad dream
Intro song: meeting Edie
I'd love to see more SH content, as well at Metal Gear. Stoked to look through more of your videos. Subbed!
It’s important to note that they aren’t different sides though. It’s all reality, it’s all happening in the real world
In Kabbalah and Buddhism, there’s a common concept that this world in which we occupy is not real and neither is the other side. Very interesting how pervasive this theme is!
Awesome explanation ! Like +1 subscriber
YOU ROCK! Thanks so much!
All these commentaries on Silent Hill makes me want to play the game, but I'm too scared to play it.
K kool
@@nunothedude aight bro