In every way James [SPOILER] In the remake of Silent Hill 2 (and in every way it’s not the same)

Morality is as complex as Silent Hill 2 remake, as it was in the original game. For protagonist James Sunderland and his mist-traveling companions, the main city is a journey into the darkest corners of their psyches as their regrets, traumas and past sins come to life. Neither the original Silent Hill 2 and the remake doesn’t shy away from portraying gray morality, even in its main character.

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

Towards the end Silent Hill 2James discovers the tape at the Lakeview Hotel. Although he initially believes it to be a home video he and his late wife Mary made while on vacation, it turns out to be a snuff film of James smothering Mary with a pillow. All this is precisely adapted to silent Hill remake. As in the original game, depending on the perception of game events players will have to decide for themselves whether James is truly a villainor simply a victim of circumstances.

By all means, James is not the villain in SH2

Mercy killing?

While James is undoubtedly guilty of murder, his reasons for doing so are a matter of debate and may not have been entirely selfish. In the last days of Mary’s illness, she began to insult James.as can be heard in the final audio message that plays as James walks down the long hotel hallway near the end of the game.

However, verbal abuse in itself does not justify murder. Not to justify her actions, but James knows that Mary is clearly angry about her continued suffering and worry about her impending death. In her final letter, she even apologizes for her behavior towards James in his final days. However, James could have another reason for killing Mary: perhaps he was simply following her wishes..

In James’ memories Mary sometimes expresses a desire to die. She was clearly tired of the pain the disease was causing her and the hassle of repeated failed treatments. Mary even talks about her doctors in her last audio message:It would be easier if they just killed me. But I think the hospital makes a good profit from me. They want to save my life.“

Of course, Mary never directly asks James to end her life, so even if his only motive for strangling her was to ease her pain, he is still guilty of taking the initiative. In any case, however, James clearly regrets his actions. Pyramid Head exists as a physical manifestation of James’s own belief that he deserves to be punished, and in most endings he is only able to defeat Pyramid Head after accepting responsibility.

James tries to save everyone

James is undoubtedly a killer, but to his credit, he does try to save all of his fellow Silent Hill survivors, even if he ultimately fails. on almost all counts (depending on which ending the player gets). He approaches everyone he meets with obvious compassion and care.

When he first meets Angela in a cemetery outside the city, James takes her warnings about Silent Hill at face value and wishes her luck in finding her mother.. Later, when he realizes that she is contemplating suicide, he takes the knife from her and refuses to give it back. He then helps her kill Angela’s Pyramid Head Abstract Daddy, a manifestation of the trauma caused by her father and brother’s abuse, as well as her guilt over killing them in revenge. Unfortunately, James loses track of Angela at the Lakeview Hotel and it is assumed that she committed suicide off-screen.

In the same spirit James also treats the orphan girl Laura with kindness. when he first meets her, but her repeated mischief eventually causes him to snap. However, the two eventually reconcile their differences, and if the player reaches the “Vacation” ending, James escorts her out of Silent Hill and back to the relative safety of the outside world. James also tries to sympathize with Eddie, who is being bullied, with much more disastrous results (more on that later).

For all intents and purposes, James is the villain of SH2

Selfish murder?

Although it could just as well be argued that James killed Mary for selfish reasonsto free yourself from a doomed, sexless relationship. James is shown to be very ashamed that his sexual desire continued throughout his wife’s illness. It is heavily implied that he cheated, or at least thought about cheating, on Mary while she was sick; the overt sexuality of some of the monsters, such as bubble-headed nurses and mannequins, reflects his inability to accept his own desires.

When Maria, an almost exact clone of Mary, appears in Silent Hill, she’s hunting James’ desire. She repeatedly flirts with him, implying that he must have forgotten his wife by now, or even that he openly hated her and was looking for a way out of the marriage. However, it is worth recognizing that James almost always rejects Mary’s advances by default and almost always denies any animosity towards Mary.

That is, except for the aptly titled “Maria” ending. In this conclusion, James completely abandons his search for Mary and instead leaves Silent Hill with her doppelganger, starting a new relationship. This is perhaps James’ most villainous ending yet; however, this is clearly portrayed as a negative result. In the final moments of the finale, Mary is seen coughing, suggesting that she will fall ill, like Mary before her, and the vicious circle will repeat itself.

James doesn’t save Eddie

James tries to save the others who have been drawn to Silent Hill, with mixed results. but he never fails as spectacularly as he does with Eddie. Eddie Dombrowski is presented as a victim of ridicule who eventually snaps back, killing his bully’s dog and injuring the bully himself. James tries to show Eddie sympathy and help him escape the city, but he repeatedly rejects both. He becomes increasingly paranoid every time they meet, believing that every person he encounters is secretly laughing at him.

Eventually, Eddie becomes convinced that James is out to get him too, and attacks him in the meat locker underneath Toluca Prison. James then kills Eddiedoubling the number of their victims. This could be chalked up to self-defense; it is clear that Eddie would kill James himself if given the chance, and James has no ability to escape or use non-lethal force. However, this means that James is responsible for the second death.

Silent Hill 2’s ambiguity is what made it timeless

SH2’s Gray Morality Is Its Greatest Strength

Admittedly, James can be interpreted as both a hero and a villain; Silent Hill 2 never gives a straight answer on the topic. However, this is intentional and speaks to one of the game’s greatest strengths: his refusal to shy away from gray morality when portraying complex characters. Few characters in silent Hill are purely good or bad; Most are shown to do both, and some, like James, do things that are difficult to categorize. As a result, they all feel more human. Ultimately, this plays into one of the game’s themes: the difficulty of separating real, complex people into neat, black-and-white, good or bad compartments.

To a large extent, it is this moral ambiguity and the ongoing debate around it that makes Silent Hill 2 classic. James’s moral code is just as puzzling and difficult to classify today, after Silent Hill 2 remake as it was when the original version was first released.