Playing through the remake on my second channel, for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDRt8guPpxA

my man James really manifested an entire town full of BDSM monsters from the darkest depths of hell instead of going to therapy

If all five characters James, Maria, Eddie, Laura, And Angela walked around silent Hill together as a team it would look like a depressed scooby-doo squad

Mary's VA wasn't supposed to cry when reading that final letter, but her tears were genuine, and they decided to keep that take.

The voice acting in the original SH2 is actually incredible. The characters, particularly Angela, are so trapped in their own trauma that they're not fully "there." Sure, it's easy to make fun of the voice acting at times, but once we think about it, it's actually quite genius, even though it's depressing as hell. The whole idea of the town of Silent Hill is that it designs itself around people's trauma and suffering, so with that, it makes even more sense that the characters act and speak strangely. These characters are definitely not doing well mentally or emotionally, and that comes through beautifully in the dissociative voice acting.

I kinda like the idea that each ending represents the different stages of grief.
"Maria" represents denial.
"In water" represents depression.  
"Rebirth" represents bargaining.
"Leave" represents acceptance.

eating pizza while watching this 🍕

angela's story makes me so sad. not only is abstract daddy (aka the ideal father) horrific, but what we see is just what james sees; his own conceptualization of her terror and his grief. according to the creators, angela sees abstract daddy as something completely different than what we/james sees.
so i started thinking. what would be scarier than a writhing, fleshy monster coming to hurt you?
nothing. angela just sees her father.
and that's the single most horrific monster she could ever come face to face with.

I’m way late to the party but my theory is that the game show puzzle was there because of how the tvs in hospitals often default to something family friendly or fun that’s on, and game shows are constantly seen around because of it. It’s a cruel callback to the slivers of entertainment to be had in a hospital, with James having to hear it in the background frequently.

But that’s just a theory, a game-

I think Angela's response to James reaching for the knife is another sign of her history of abuse. The second someone makes an advance towards her in any way she immediately begins to cower and apologize for something she didn't even do.

fun fact about the Very Long Staircase: it's not a trick like the one in Mario 64 where a section repeats over and over, they really did model an enormous staircase

I think the mental struggle between “I did it because I love you” and “I did it because I wanted to be rid of you” makes perfect sense if you’ve been in a long-term relationship or marriage with an ill partner.

Both, in a way, can be true. Illness changes the sufferer and the caregiver, and sometimes not in pretty ways. There’s love of course, but sorrow that your partner is suffering and your lives turned out this way, fear of the future and having to confront a future without your partner which might have you guiltily daydreaming of a less arduous relationship, and resentment borne from frustration that you’re expected to give without your own needs being able to be met, even if you in your heart of hearts know there’s nothing your partner can do about it.

On the illness-sufferer’s side, Mary explains it well. You feel trapped, like a burden. You think your partner is only sticking around out of pity. You may see the frustration building in them and blame yourself. Self-sabotage happens in the form of lashing out at the one person who cares for you most, thinking that if you chase them away, you won’t have to disappoint them any longer. And exerting the last bit of control you have over your existence.

I think James truly loved Mary. I just think he couldn’t take it anymore. Both for her, and for him. It wasn’t solely an altruistic move, but nothing ever is, and I think Silent Hill 2 did a fantastic job at picking apart the human psyche and exposing the selfish, contradictory, unfair, and cruel parts that exist in all of us.

41:44 "The Nurses are pretty self explanatory..."
Absolutely! I've seen several analytical pieces over the years and I get so frustrated when the sexual aspect is only glossed over or ignored completely. This world is James's personal nightmare. The nurses symbolise his sexual frustration because his wife was so poorly, it all but killed their sex life. This is where it is slightly open to interpretation, I think he started to look at these professional women like sex objects and it made him feel guilty.

There is a section in the game where there is a poster of a nearly naked women. When James approaches this he says, "No time to look at this now.." he is still trying to control his sexual frustration and mask his needs.

So fuck!ng excellent.

Fun fact: The original voice actor’s didn’t know how the game ended. The team intentionally left them in the dark and they learned the story scene by scene. Just like the player.

That’s what makes the original voice acting so much better imo. Which I understand isn’t the HD remaster casts fault, but it does affect their performances. That opening line between Guy Cihi and Troy Baker says it all.

Interesting fact: The Great Knife that you pick up can scare away enemies if you equip it, turn off your flashlight and radio, and walk forward near enemies.

Marys VA reading that last letter almost had me in tears. She conveyed that sorrow and pain in such a heart wrenching way.

1:26:00 one thing that you missed from this section and I believe is really important is the Radio found on the nightmare reading room. From that radio a conversation between Mary's physician and James can be heard. The conversation we can presume is from three years ago, in which the doctor gave James an ultimatum, Mary WILL die, her condition is currently untreatable, and she has at most 3 years left to live. This one is rather relevant because it reveals why James thought or was so sure Mary died 3 years ago, the moment he received that ultimatum his wife died in his mind, he became hopeless of ever getting her back from her illness and all that remained for him was a husk of the wife he once loved rotting slowly on a hospital bed awaiting certain death, and all that followed was his festering hatred for this Mary that was "sapping away his own life" with her condition probably with a dash of pity for her miserable existence. Anyway, in James Sunderland's mind his wife has indeed been dead for 3 years and all that remained was his festering hatred for the sick and ill patient that "took the place" of his wife and "ruined" his life. While the tragedy here is that it never was Mary's fault nor desire for James to become such a twisted individual, yet James cast all the bad things that were happening on her, made it her fault and allowed himself to fester on those feelings for a long 3 years until he did the unthinkable on Mary's last home visit.

I used to be my mother's caretaker during the day, after her stage IV cancer progressed rapidly, and it was the most emotionally and physically exhausting thing I've ever done.
When I was at my lowest points, I would silently wish that she would pass away, so that her pain would finally end, but then I would have moments where I felt extreme guilt for thinking those thoughts, and I would question if I actually just wanted her to pass because I wasn't mentally strong enough to keep going as her caretaker.

I was with her in the hospital when she passed away late last year, so I feel more connected to this game than ever before.
I always had a deep love and appreciation for SH2, but now I can 100% relate to James, and I understand him so much more as a character.

I'll be coming back to Silent Hill for the rest of my life to appreciate it, no doubt. Hopefully not literally though, lol.

Its quite clever how maria mentions not going in to the bowling alley, because either she is aware that the jig will be up as the people in the alley will not see her the way james does.

“Hey guys this is Maria”james

“Who…i don’t see a maria” one of the two characters

I do want to note the different interactions between fake Mary and James in the different endings.

In the "Leave" Ending, he makes the assertion that he has to end the nightmare, and Maria gets angry because she doesn’t want him to leave.

In the "In Water" Ending, he says that he can't settle for Maria because she isn't Mary.

And in the "Rebirth" Ending, he sees straight through her disguise, suggesting that... He's done this before, which makes sense, since it requires a previous playthrough.