Silent Hill 2 Remake - Mysteries EXPLAINED (Old and New)

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1. Intro: 0:00 - 1:43
2. Why Silent Hill is the way it is: 1:44 - 6:45
3. Who is Pyramid Head? 6:46 - 11:42
3a. IMPORTANT INFO 1: 11:43 - 12:19
4. Who is Maria? 12:19 - 15:20
5. What is the meaning of the red squares? 15:21 - 22:27
5a. NEW ALCHEMY: 22:28 - 24:51
6. Multiple Endings and Time Loops: 24:52 - 28:09
7. Who Wrote the Messages? 28:10 - 29:11
8. Outro: 29:12 - 29:47

#silenthill #horrorgaming #horrorgaming

[maxderrat]

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.

[Herpusderpus]

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.

[lunarbreeze]

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.

[ratoftoska]

It's so annoying that creators have to censor themselves and say things like "self terminate" or "unalive themselves" on Youtube out of fear of demonetization.

[SandroSensei]

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.

[Calebe_Sagaz]

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.

[arberrexha]

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.”

[Emannland]

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.

[CHRISMED]

What I want to know is why James didn't roll up his sleeve before reaching into that filth toilet?

[twicethess-ratedghoul]

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 (:

[Calebe_Sagaz]

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.

[aettic]

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.

[mattscars]

this video deserves so much more attention, i would never had thought it would go so deep into psychology and be so informative and interesting. really good job!

[RickDaSquirrel]

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.

[JoelMiller-cm]

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

[antondavidovic]

The biggest SH mystery for me is: are the Gods of SH real and the source of all the weirdness, or are even they just mere manifestations of an even greater weirdness? The Cult's origin story makes it seem that their God was a manifestation, as it was born from the desire of man, but the "21 Sacraments" ending for SH4, *spoilers ahoy*, makes it seem that the Cult's deity is autonomous, and begins wreaking havoc outside of the town once "birthed" from the ritual

[robbie_o_coelho]

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.

[DukePablo]

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?

[verWay]

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.

[noahhuguenin]

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