Either way James is the one [SPOILER] In Silent Hill 2 remake (and every way he is not)

Morality is as complicated in these Silent Hill 2 Remake as it was in the original game. For protagonist James Sunderland and his fellow wanderers through the mist, the titular city is a journey into the darker parts of their psyche: their regrets, their traumas and their past sins come to life. Not the original Silent Hill 2 And the remake does not shy away from portraying gray morals, even in its protagonist.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Silent Hill 2.]

Near the end of Silent Hill 2James discovers a tape at the Lakeview Hotel. Although he initially believes it is the home video he and his late wife Mary made during their vacation there, it actually turns out to be a snuff film, showing James smothering Mary with a pillow. This is all faithfully adapted in the Quiet Hill Remake. Just like in the original game, depending on their perception of the game's events, Players are left to decide for themselves whether Jacob is truly a villainOr just a victim of circumstance.

Either way James is not the villain in SH2

A mercy killing?

Although James is undeniably guilty of murder, his reasons for doing so are up for debate, and may not have been entirely selfish. During the last days of Mary's illness, she became verbally abusive to JamesAs can be heard in the final audio message that plays as James walks down the long hotel hallway just before the end of the game.

Verbal abuse alone, however, does not justify murder. And not to excuse her actions, but James knows that Mary is clearly lashing out due to her ongoing suffering, and her distress over her imminent death. In her last letter, she even apologizes for her behavior towards James in his last days. however, James may have had another reason for killing Mary: he may have just followed her wishes.

In Jacob's flashbacks, Mary sometimes expresses a desire to die. She is clearly tired of the pain her illness causes her, and the difficulty of repeated, failed treatments. Of her doctors, Mary even says in the final audio message, “It would be easier if they would just kill me. But I guess the hospital makes a good profit from me. They want to keep me alive."

Of course, Mary never directly asks James to end her life, so even if his only motive for smothering her is to relieve her pain, he is still guilty of taking the initiative. anyway, Jacob clearly regretted his actions. Pyramid Head exists as a physical manifestation of Jacob's own belief that he deserves to be punished, and in most endings, he is only able to defeat Pyramid Head once he accepts responsibility.

Jacob tries to save everyone

Jacob is undoubtedly a murderer, but, to his credit, He tries to save all his fellow Silent Hill survivors, even if he ultimately fails On almost every count (depending on what ending the player gets). He approaches everyone he meets with apparent compassion and care.

When he first encounters Angela in the cemetery outside of town, Jacob takes her warnings about Quiet Hill at face value, and wishes her good luck in finding her mother. Later, when he realizes that she is considering suicide, he takes her knife away, and refuses to return it. He then helps her kill the abstract daddy - Angela's own pyramid head, a manifestation of the trauma caused by the abuse of her father and brother, and her guilt over killing them in retaliation. Unfortunately, James loses track of Angela at the Lakeview Hotel, and she is presumed to have taken her own life off screen.

in a similar way, James also treats the orphaned girl Laura with kindness When he first meets her, but her repeated insults eventually causes him to snap. Still, the two eventually reconcile their differences, and if the player achieves the ending, James escorts her out of Silent Hill and back to the relative safety of the outside world. Jacob also tries to sympathize with the bullied Eddie, to much more disastrous results (more on that later).

Either way James is the villain in SH2

A selfish murder?

It could equally be argued, though, that Jacob killed Mary for selfish reasonsIn order to free oneself from a closed, sexless relationship. James is shown to feel great shame that his sex drive continued during his wife's illness. It is strongly implied that he chilled on, or at least kept cheating on Mary while she was sick; The overt sexuality of certain monster designs, like bouncy head nurses and mannequins, represent his inability to accept his own desires.

When Maria, an almost exact clone of Mary, appeared in Silent Hill, She calls out to Jacob's desire. She flirts with him several times, saying that he should be over his wife now, or even that he just hates her and was looking for a way out of the marriage. However, it is worth admitting that James almost always rejects Maria's advances by default, and almost always denies any ill feeling towards Mary.

That is, except in the aptly named Maria ending. In the conclusion, James completely abandons his quest to find Mary, and instead leaves Silent Hill with her doppelgänger, starting a new relationship. This is arguably the most villainous ending for James; however, This is unequivocally portrayed as a negative outcome. In the final moments of the ending, Maria is seen coughing, suggesting she will fall ill just like Mary before her, and the vicious cycle will repeat itself.

James doesn't save Eddie

Jacob tries to save the others who have been drawn to Silent Hill with mixed results, But never does he fail as spectacularly as he does with Eddie. Eddie Dombrowski is introduced as a victim of teasing who eventually snaps, killing his bully's dog, and injuring the bully himself. James tries to show Eddie sympathy and help him escape from town, both of which he repeatedly rejects. He grows more paranoid every time they meet, believing that every single person he encounters is secretly making fun of him.

Eventually, Eddie becomes convinced that James, too, is out to get him, and attacks him in a meat locker under Toluca Prison. James then kills EddieDoubling his body count. This can be chalked up to self-defense; It is very clear that Eddie would kill Jacob himself if given the chance, and Jacob does not have the option of running or using non-lethal force. Even so, it means James is responsible for a second death.

The ambiguity of Silent Hill 2 is what makes it timeless

SH2's Gray Morality is its greatest strength

Admittedly, Jacob can be interpreted both as a hero and as a villain; Silent Hill 2 Never give a straight answer on the subject. This is intentional, however, and speaks to one of the game's greatest strengths: His refusal to shy away from gray morality in his portrayal of complex characters. Some letters in Quiet Hill are purely good or bad; Most are shown to do acts of both, and some, like James, do acts that are difficult to categorize. They all feel more human as a result. Ultimately, this speaks to one of the game's themes: the difficulty of sorting real, complex people into neat, black-or-white, good-or-bad compartments.

In no small part, it is the moral ambiguity and the ongoing discussion around it that do Silent Hill 2 A classic. Jacob's moral code is just as puzzling and difficult to categorize today, in the wake of the Silent Hill 2 Remake, as it was when the original version was first released.