Maria - A Deconstruction of Villainy

[@indigocrow8385]

James wanted so badly for his wife to be alive, the town created a version of her that wanted to live.

[@nombre4138]

That's creepy

[@shelbybayer200]

Not just that Maria is "Sexier" Mary

[@randomvids4099]

It's also what James wants Mary to be. Seductive and trying. Basically Maria is a manifestation of James' sexual frustration. She is literally what James wants Mary to be.

[@Teamfortress2irl]

Tbf Mary also wanted to live as much as she wanted to die. Of course I'm sure she'd rather live without the disease but yeah

[@samf.s.7731]

@@randomvids4099 Never confirmed, and very much the inc3l take on her. A woman whose entire existence... is for a man.

[@Shythalia]

Imagine being born just to fulfill someone else's character arc. Like, you were just made to be something that someone must overcome and once they do, you are discarded.

[@timebomb4562]

In some ways that is pretty much how a lot of side characters and villains are. Their purpose within the story is tom serve as part of someone else's story, to further their arc.

[@Shythalia]

@@timebomb4562 I mean, yeah. But I was thinking about it in a more existential way, like, imagine applying that to real life. 😅

[@RoguesRetro]

Maria’s final transformation explains everything about her role. She’s not just a tragic figure born for James to overcome-by the end, she’s actively resisting her fate. That monstrous form in the final confrontation? It’s her way of saying, “I’m not going quietly.” She’s refusing to be discarded like the rest of James’ manifestations, turning into something far more sinister. It’s her last-ditch attempt to control her existence, even if it means becoming the monster to do it.

[@Shythalia]

@@redtheyiffer I know. It was brought up in the video. Where in my comment did I ever ask for this?

[@BigKlingy]

There's a commonly hated romance trope, where a character has no personality beyond being a love interest for someone else. Maria is what would happen if that was literally true of somebody, and they were self-aware of it. And it's horrifying.

[@Stuffystufferfield]

i think its powerful that the harder maria tries to save herself, the more the audience dehumanizes her. this is a story told from james’ perspective, after all

[@mikeyplays9677]

Look up the Maria spin off from the original Silent Hill 2. It shows her time in Silent Hill leading up to her meeting James. The game ends with Maria running off into the fog to 'find something'.

[@pathetic2399]

@@mikeyplays9677 are you tslking about Born from a Wish? She walks off to find James at the end.

[@pathetic2399]

I mean, in the end, she isn’t human. She’s a product of the town created to tempt James and punish him for what he did to Mary and everyone that understands the game knows that. So.. what kind of reaction do you expect people to have? She’s sympathetic, yeah, but people see the character for what she is. And embracing her as a “human” doesn’t work, because the ending where you do is horrible for everyone involved, but especially her. Imo, the Maria ending seems more like her punishment than James’ for succeeding in doing what the town created her to do.

[@BriarPatchNyra]

@@pathetic2399 This right here

[@TabPGE]

I wish I could like this twice.

[@Arkham13v]

There's a theory that's been circling around since the original game's release; it claims that Maria is actually the woman from the legend Maria tells, the Lady of the Lake she's called, somehow reborn, whether by James, the town itself or maybe both. While it's never confirmed, if this theory is true, this makes Maria story even more tragic, she suffered a tragic fate during her living, than she's reborn for a purpose she hates and has a delusion that she could escape Silent Hill with James. But each attempt fails due the town killing her, and once James accepts the truth, her exit gets closed, her way out has been sealed, leaving her once again trapped in Silent Hill forever alone. And even if she succeeds, her second chance will only lead to misery. No matter the ending Maria will never get a happy ever after.

[@ChrisSummers-AlienFaeRE]

I like this theory. Treating it charitably it could be more of a standard wise woman / witch spirit that only aims to teach a lesson to the passerby, acting like a mirror to ones own "soul" and simply acting that way. James was not really responsible thus didn't have any hell to go through / be punished for beyond his own self harming behaviours which when out of the way he comes to terms with his reality outside of silent hill. Theres a reason 2 seems to be the drop off point for the series in general and it was the epitome of what silent hill the concept seemed to be. A hell of reflection and discarding of things in ones life that did not suit them or others. Other games took a more Jigsaw approach damning the guilty parties to a hell of their own making / just desserts. Without a real moral to the story or overarching lesson or theme they began to rely on the story of 2 as an example and kinda fell off. Hard to beat perfection I suppose 🧐

[@wallybonejengles5595]

The towns spiritual forces do keep people trapped there in perpetuity. It is canon that Lisa Garland is alive and under heavy torture in the Otherworld. I've never heard that theory but its actually really good.

[@mizu7213]

@@wallybonejengles5595wait what do you mean lisa is alive?

[@zenmindgamer]

Just finishing for the first time this weekend, I speculated to a friend that if the In Water ending is canon then I feel there's an argument to be made that James and Mary are reincarnation of the tragic lovers from the island tell. Latching onto her interpretation that the events of the game occur simultaneously alongside other playthroughs, like the OG and remake are happening at the same time but in parallel universes to explain why characters make haunting references to things they've done or experienced in the OG, then it could be that James and Mary are destined to repeat a cycle of tragic love trading off who dies. In the island story it's the exiled woman whose lover drowns during a storm; in the present it's the woman who becomes sick and dies before the man. Then they repeat the cycle each time.

[@ChrisSummers-AlienFaeRE]

@@zenmindgamer well even that is a romantic trope. Tragic love like that of romeo and juliet has often inspired grisly ends to lovers life stories. Some even seek it out. It's not quite as 'supernatural' as you may think. The positives too. Lovers peak is a globally used name for scenic overlooks where lovers meet as well as other 'rituals' for want of a better word. We all try reproduce the perfect romantic gestures and whole cultures form around it. Even modern "lovers only" or "couples only" businesses exist where ONLY couples may attend. Mad to think of really 😄

[@memoryofsalem4474]

I think the best way to explain the existence of Maria is as being similar to pyramid head: pyramid head is James' torturer and exists to harm him physically, Maria is a torture instrument made to torture him mentally. I doubt its coincidence that she gets killed repeatedly infront of James, the town made her to have James watch as his wife dies again and again and hes powerless to save her. The final battle is the town's last torture, to have James kill his wife again. Going along with the idea that she has a role to fill, she starts coughing exactly as they reach the car, Maria will play Mary's role and make James suffer by losing his wife again: she'll get sick again, she'll suffer as he watches hopelessly and he'll kill her again. Maria is a turture device designed perfectly for James

[@Toanleigh]

Pyramid Head is a metaphorical retelling of what he actually did. The transformation of Maria makes James come to terms with that.

[@fakt7814]

In alternate hospital if we check on her we find lots of empty bottles, James then says "Is Maria sick now too?". It's an optional scene, but it hints that Maria was sick probably from the very start, it didn't started when they approached car.

[@PunkarellaOG]

Sounds like my ex wife 😅

[@Polomance862]

@@fakt7814 I wouldn't say she was sick. It's a clue of her purpose. The medication indicates that James will always be powerless to help his wife. It's another torture if he falls for her and fails to overcome and accept his actions and guilt. If he fails to overcome and just leaves with Maria. He is doomed to repeat his actions again.

[@Xehanort10]

5:13 Seeing as Mary and Laura met in the same hospital and Mary wanted to adopt her it makes sense that Maria, being a younger, healthier, supposedly "ideal" version of Mary Silent Hill created to get James to face up to killing her would have those maternal feelings towards Laura too.

[@PowerSenpai]

Yes, that is said in the video.

[@mythoceanas8874]

Maria looks like the healthy Mary that James remembers from 3 years prior, since when he enters the town with Mary’s body in the trunk he doesn’t remember the past 3 years. In Born from a Wish, Maria was created as a manifestation, as soon as James entered the town and Maria had Mary’s memories subconsciously. Just like with Pyramid head being shaped by James from the painting in the Historical Museum. Maria was shaped using a poster for a dancer named Maria. She is a dancer in Heavens Knight, which is the club you visit with Maria. So while there are a lot of similarities between the Maria’s, the real Maria didn’t look like Mary. This is mostly stuff that isn’t really clear unless you find the hidden information in Silent Hill 3 and 4.

[@edwinsparda7622]

I'd say she's a pretty tragic character. In "born from a wish", we could see that she's a very real woman who has autonomy, is very self aware, and even values her life. Unfortunately over the course of the main game she slowly loses her autonomy and consciousness to the malevolent forces of Silent Hill. This being the most evident in the prison cell scene. Theres the possibility that during a small section of that scene, the one talking to james was neither Mary nor Maria but the evil forces of Silent Hill. Talking to him, thru Maria. At the end of Born From A Wish, she has a hard time accepting what she is and is ready to do a terrible choice (but doesnt). One line at the end of the remake that really stood out to me was when she said to james "i can't let you go... I Can't!". This line felt like it carried alot of weight to her. This implies that she reluctantly accepts what she is and is terrified of what will happen next if she lets james go (the permanent end of her). Interesting how she was ready to unalive herself in the beginning but terrified of her life ending at the end. Kind of an interesting twist to a line in the original game's manual. "Some Fear Death, Others pray for it". Both apply to her.

[@samf.s.7731]

that line you mentioned sounds a lot like James's "I can't go on without you".

[@unaanuiwan774]

Honestly I always found silent hill "motives" to test people legitimate... but for Maria, I find it so cruel, instead of spawning creatures, silent hill did create a sentient being... She wasn't evil, she was just human, she wanted to have her life as Maria not Mary... Until she became just a creature in the end. What is bad in this game (the og included) to me was the fact that she couldn't choose herself when everybody had the chance, at some point, to overcome their traumas, she would either be a replacement to punish James or a nemesis so he can find catharsis... She never had the chance to choose, her path or her ending.

[@kitty_paine]

She isn't human though. She is a manifestation of James' memories of Mary and his dark desires. In Silent Hill 3 there's a poster of a dark haired woman named Lady Maria found in Heaven's Night. Hinting at the fact that James visited Heaven's Night and saw her "act". Probably wishing Mary was more like her. The bobblehead nurses are representative of his repressed sexual desires and so is Maria. In Maria's ending she coughs and in Brookhaven too, plus there are bottles of pills by her bed indicating she is ill, possibly having the same disease that Mary had. It doesn't help that she is never seen with Eddie or Laura. She could very well be a hallucination of James' guilty conscious.

[@ChrisSummers-AlienFaeRE]

James is one of those perfect protagonists who is both a tragic victim of his own guilt and selfish perpetuating his own hell outside and inside silent hill. In 2 more than any other this internal struggle is most pronounced, to the point it almost feels like silent hill pitied James. He was given the most options to opt out and or overcome his personal hell, was taunted not by overly hellish designs but very human and understandable fears and inner conflicts. In essence silent hill was about saving James not punishing him. He was punished enough by life and by himself and silent hill used "maria" to help him. Maybe not redeem him but at least get him to a place where he could accept his loss and move on with life. Truly a masterpiece of a story.

[@MrAzulmagia]

I think her autonomy was always fake, she is a creation of the town, a representation akin to todays ai. She was programed to be somebody, and was never actually born or learned by herself. I think the video is a little biased toward her.

[@Chorologia]

I think it's worthy of note that the scene of Maria and James reuniting in the nightmare is the first time that the "damsel" act fails. Whether she's being genuine or not in that moment, she pushes too hard and James kind of sees it and pulls away.

[@79Bobola]

That’s an excellent observation

[@mrplayfulshade]

I've always known Maria was scared of dying/not existing. It's was her biggest fear and the REMAKE exemplifies this.

[@Snakiest]

I'm glad you touched upon Maria as a character in this way. I was thinking the exact same thing in the past few days - how tragic her character actually is. And I also thought that Maria did get killed and reborn each and single time, and each reincarnation was a bit more twisted than the previous one simply because James himself grown more and more conflicted throughout the story. And then the ending, where she says she can't let him go, tells me she is on the defensive - she realized she was going to die if James left or she was going to die being physically killed by him. She decided to go fighting. And James killed two women that wanted him in a span of a few days. What a hero.

[@BriarPatchNyra]

Who said James is meant to be a hero? He isn't exactly a villain either though.

[@Snakiest]

@@BriarPatchNyra It was a rhetorical statement.

[@joseftangpuz2050]

​​ Maria isn't a tragic person, seeing as she was tasked to "kill" James when she manifested in the town with a revolver and was given by the order from the old gods (Ernest Baldwin, the person that gave orders to Maria) to punish James, which was expanded on the DLC "Born from a Wish". She is there to make sure James gets punished one way or another, hence her seductive attempts at James to to sway him from his redemption (leading to the Maria Ending). She does not exist to being with as she is a vessel of Mary's memories and the ideal desires of an widowed man, and only manifested in the town for James to wallow into his demise.

[@Snakiest]

@@joseftangpuz2050 Well, that's the surface level interpretation that has been around since the original. I always felt it was overly simplified and lacked subtlety. The new additions they made to Maria as a character in the remake certainly pain a much more complex picture of her, which is what this video here is trying to get at.

[@intheraeyne]

@@Snakiest I agree. This is a very artistic story with a lot of depth and nuance to it-- that interpretation of her is incredibly surface level and unfaithful to the layers SH2 truly has. Maria is not evil. She is antagonistic, sure, but genuinely *this* feels like the true interpretation of her. She's just as trapped and vulnerable as James is, and even more innocent because she is a manifestation of what he wants, and the shadow of a woman that suffered a terrible disease and was killed by her only possible protector. It's a confusing existence to be stuck in. In the Maria ending, not only does she suffer from someone else's fate, she's also still being used as a tool to punish James in spite of "winning" the autonomy she strove for. Being a tool to torment him as well as a layered and complex conscious that the town manifested can both be true.

[@ayanleman]

I really hope they add Born from a Wish eventually. That sub campaign added so much to Maria's character

[@Kretek]

Bloober boss said they want to.

[@ChrisSummers-AlienFaeRE]

I think a decision was made to exclude it and use Maria as a stand in for silent hill directly interrogating James and testing him along the way. Otherwise its left feeling like Maria didn't deserve it when in reality she was just a narrative tool / spirit used to convey the story. You could argue she was always just a lost spirit at the graveyard alone and attached to James through their mutual longing and loneliness and then silent hill takes hold of her to test James.

[@LuigiGamesful]

​@@ChrisSummers-AlienFaeREwasn't the whole point of Born from a Wish is to make Maria realize she's just a narrative tool?

[@nerojones2280]

Me too but I am glad it wasn’t added now, I think works better as post release DLC since it makes you look at things differently. Much like shadow of the Eard tree

[@ChrisSummers-AlienFaeRE]

@@LuigiGamesful no need for it when the character got fixed then glad u agree. Without the confusing back story it. .ahh theres an interplay still between the original and the remake. People kinda know her story and part already so it doesn't need fixing with a DLC if ya get me

[@Whitelisted_Productions]

“Maria” - Shadow the Hedgehog

[@timothytzovolos153]

*explosion in background*

[@afellowhuman8944]

Hi Shadow, it's me the devil

[@PuffPuff903]

"Where's that damn fourth Chaos Emerald"

[@V4Now]

"I promise you... REVENGE!!"

[@fun-epersonnproductions4002]

HIIIIIIIII WHAT'S UUUUUUP IT'S MEEEEEE

[@TMALIVE]

I agree with this video. It's why Born From A Wish matters. She's not just a hallucination, or a monster. She an independent person who operates outside of James, that's doomed to play a role. Which is to tempt James and punish him with her constant deaths. And there's no way out unless she seduces James.

[@samf.s.7731]

You're not quite there, first part is true... Second part, I think this shows who thought of her as a "Mary clone", because then they're more likely to explain what she wants and why she does what she does correctly.

[@pathetic2399]

Even if she seduces James, there’s still no way out for her. She’s doomed to die of the disease that would have killed Mary, or be killed by James like Mary was.

[@samf.s.7731]

​@@pathetic2399yep, you're spot on. So even if she does get what she wants at the end of the game, that won't last 😔

[@Stigmatix666]

She's *not* an independent person

[@gab2v7]

​@@Stigmatix666"i think, therefore i am", she is a manifestation but she has her own mind outside of James.

[@amharbinger]

I really hope they make the Maria DLC, not a lot of people are aware that it even exists

[@Laquia]

I didn't know til now

[@FalcoMoment]

Bloober has expressed a desire to do so, it might happen down the line

[@MyManJFKTV]

I kinda thought it would be a separate mode with the base game, but I’m not really opposed to Bloober makin’ it DLC. I just personally don’t like to return to games after I’ve moved on to another game…

[@lizzym9133]

I loved playing as her when I was a kid. It's such a great game.

[@mikeyplays9677]

6:00 the fact that people are simping for a literal butcher and the manifestation of James own self torment, and calling Maria a gold digging harlet, for lack of better words, is absolutely funny to me. Both of their purpose is to make James psyche spiral out of control faster. Both are forms of punishement. Pyramid head is physical torment while Maria is psychological. It's no coincidence that she looks exactly like Marry, only a sluttier version of her

[@jarvaruscarter]

It just farther tells me that humanity is cooked

[@brswimmer]

@@jarvaruscarter only your perception of humanity. 😉

[@ysgramornorris2452]

I guess it's rooted in misogyny. It's an easy word to use, but here it's applicable precisely because people praise a literal monster who butchers people, but berate a woman for being "slutty".

[@jarvaruscarter]

@brswimmer don't wink at me sir or madam......... I now feel like I'm in danger and I will be contacting the proper authorities 🤣

[@heavy1308]

i showed my sister silent hill and she immediately began simping for pyramid head

[@cheezenutz777]

Now deconstruct the shiba inu

[@mywifesboyfriend5558]

There's no redeeming evil of that caliber.

[@RaymondMichaelBarrera]

No joke. It seems like a joke ending at first. But in the remake they actually have a lot of weird specific dark lore around the town if you look closely enough, hinting at the possibility that the dog is actually one of the old gods in disguise. In the pet store when you get the first key part there's a note that states " we found it around Katz street. We should never have brought it here. It's looking at me right now. It won't leave. It won't stop looking. Don't look it in the eyes. No matter what you do, don't look at it in the eyes." And at the end James looks it in the eyes.

[@pupatart750]

@@RaymondMichaelBarrerathat’s pretty neat, i love how the remake has opened up a bunch of questions but never answers many of them much like the original

[@samf.s.7731]

A 3 hour long video essay delving into the psyche of true villainy, and cuteness..

[@anthonylangley6843]

@@pupatart750 I’m not sure what you mean. Within the game itself most of the big questions related to the story at hand are all pretty well answered on subsequent playthroughs. The devs have also been very open throughout the years about what their intentions were. What means what symbolically. And even which ending is canon. That’s the great thing about silent hill is the answers are all there but at first or maybe even second glance you likely won’t pick up on them.

[@inferuseques2583]

Maria and Pyramid Head are two sides of the same ugly coin. One born to be a victim that wants to live one born to be a killer that wants to die. Both are needed to help James out of his, malaise.

[@based_circuit]

That is probably the most compelling and brilliant take I’ve heard on the dynamic between Maria and Pyramid head, summed up in a couple sentences. Damn.

[@adhirajsinha5895]

Someone cooked here.

[@bunnybabeofficial]

maria is beautiful

[@mywifesboyfriend5558]

I always felt Maria was created by the town to imitate a healthier, less inhibited Mary. Something to entice, and tempt James. Another test by the town to mess with Jame's resolve. In further contact with James, Maria begins to become a person all her own. As for Pyramid Head's relationship with her, maybe he sees her as an obstacle in the way of James seeing the truth. Or maybe he just kills her because that's his purpose. After all, he attacks other monsters too. Near the end of the story, Maria seems to genuinely care for James, but jealously tries to keep him for herself when James realized she wasn't real. All of which may explain why Maria tries to kill James in the end. So many questions. The guessing is half the fun. I hope we never get the answers. Let us all speculate.

[@Reachland02]

Maria is likely a manifestation of James's mind, representing his idealized version of Mary-healthy, alive, and sexually available. Her repeated, cruel deaths mirror James's guilt and failure to save Mary. She knows things she shouldn't, guiding James to places tied to his past, and in the "Maria" ending, her eventual coughing reinforces her illusory nature. I think she doesn’t exist independently but is a manifestation of James’s mind.

[@DinossaurodaAmazonia]

​​@@Reachland02Maria may also have been born out of James and Mary's desires Maria knows who Laura is, even though she has never met her in her life. Mary's body was in James' car, so it's not known whether the town revived her to play a "role". Just like Lisa Garland in the first game, Maria(Mary Reborn) doesn't remember who she is, what happened to her or what her purpose is. I think that's a good explanation

[@Reachland02]

@@DinossaurodaAmazonia That's an interesting perspective, but I think the key thing to consider is that Maria doesn’t exist independently; she’s a projection of James's guilt and psychological state. The town, Silent Hill, may have created the environment for these manifestations, but Maria is a direct product of James's mind, embodying his idealized image of Mary: healthy, alive, and sexually available. One key piece of evidence supporting Maria's illusory nature is Laura's lack of acknowledgment of her presence. In their interactions, Laura never directly addresses or reacts to Maria, only focusing on James. If Maria were a real, independent entity brought to life by the town, Laura-who has no apparent connection to James's mental struggles-would have no reason to ignore her. Additionally, Maria's behavior and repeated deaths serve as a reflection of James's psychological state. She seems to "know" things tied to James's past, such as guiding him to pivotal locations, which further suggests she's not an independent character but a projection crafted to confront James with his guilt and desires. The "Maria" ending emphasizes this by having Maria adopt characteristics of Mary, further blending the lines between the two, as if Silent Hill uses Maria as a tool to remind James of his sins. James's mental state, shaped by the horrors he endured and the act of ending Mary's life, makes him susceptible to the town's manipulations. Silent Hill is notorious for manifesting the inner demons of those who enter it, and Maria fits perfectly into this pattern. While the town may create physical manifestations like the monsters, it doesn't need to "revive" anyone to embody a role-Maria's existence is confined to James's subjective experience.

[@Kill3rballoon]

Always wished that there was another secret joke ending where Maria and Pyramid-Head watch James leave Silent Hill and, with their purposes seemingly fulfilled, put their differences aside, fall in love and have a beautiful wedding. All the other monsters are invited and the scene fades out to the song “Monster Mash”

[@samf.s.7731]

There will be people who will ship it.

[@jameswest6232]

I actually love that idea. It'd probably be a joke ending (mostly with the idea of Pyramid Head being a nervous groom at the altar), but it would be such a sweet ending for them.

[@Jordan-wv2xz]

Oh god, now I wish that was a thing. The mental image alone is hysterical.

[@Li_Tobler]

I've seen some arts that ahem... explore that direction

[@themission.0]

And after Pyrimad Head and Maria are pronounced married he stabs her.

[@Wastingsometimehere]

The genius of SH2 was always figuring out the real villain isn't what seems obvious. It was never Pyramid Head. It was never Maria. It was always James. Back as a 90;s teen I can still remember how that stuck with me and how for the first time I felt disgusted by a character I was playing as.

[@A.D.I.D.A.S-916]

Exactly. James is a really bad person lol

[@SoundsFromBeyond]

These types of characters are called anti-heroes.

[@alesthra]

​@@SoundsFromBeyond how tf James is antihero? Antihero does bad things to help people. Everything what James did was to satisfy his ego. You think he unalived Mary because she wanted to d i e? No. It's because he decided that she needs to d i e.

[@Shythalia]

​@@SoundsFromBeyond Nah, not James.

[@onlyrealnumber]

@@alesthra You can say killed, it's just a word. Not sure if you played either the remake or the original but James confessed that it was easier on him to end her suffering so that he would stop feeling obligated to care for her. He resented her for "stealing parts of his life". That's a pretty obvious indicator that he's selfish; you wouldn't murder someone you cared about just so you can live easier. That may not make him an anti-hero in the traditional sense, but he's not a hero.

[@LightsFuzzy]

It’s my theory that Maria is born from Mary’s wishes, not James. As that seems to be the entire plot for the game. This is why Maria cares for Laura, and she herself can’t even determine why. I also think Maria’s personality, and appearances are ideal versions of herself she believes James always wanted from her. But even this seems to be untrue since James is pretty indifferent to Maria despite those very changes. Maria’s existence isn’t decided entirely by James choices, she doesn’t just cease to exist like Pyramid Head and the rest of James manifestations because I believe she’s created by Mary as a tool to help James reconcile his feelings for Mary and the harsh reality of his choices. Maria inherits Mary’s memories and thoughts that not even James himself is aware of. In one version of the boss it’s not even Maria, it’s Mary confronting James for falling for Maria, confirming her fears and insecurities. Nonetheless it’s implied that Maria is her own person with her own will where she’s warned to stay away from him, and seemingly given the same opportunity to make the healthy decision to leave Silent Hill and James or return to him and face her fate. Maria chooses James in the same way James can choose Maria. Maria seems like a manifestation of Maria’s unfinished life and desires, including helping James, that can either help James find redemption or condemn him.

[@fakename2969]

👍

[@joseftangpuz2050]

A good interpretation, but nonetheless incorrect if you have touched upon the original and the DLC "Born from a Wish" and even ito had to confirm this to an extent. Maria and her seductive nature is definitely a manifestation of James' ideal woman in Mary, something Mary would never have at those 3 years that she was in bed, terminally ill. Within those three years you would know that Mary met Laura and most definitely doted on her as a daughter she could never had. Those qualities that Mary had (the motherly love for Laura) along with the ideal qualities James want from Mary (the seductive, healthy minx of a time when Mary was still healthy and young) created Maria from the old gods (Ernest Baldwin whom we would never see in the DLC, but communicates with Maria after her assension to existence, holding a revolver gun) for the purpose to test James' mettle and ultimately "kill him" if he denies his punishment for killing Mary. She is unique person with unique personality, but at the same time a hollow vessel containing the personality of a dead wife and a ideal desires of a widowed husband. This would ultimately explains why she goes seducing James upon their first visit in the foyer, her motherly qualities she unexpectedly have to care for Laura, and the creepy vibes she had when she could recall Mary's memories upon James' visit to the room where Maria sat with metal bars in front of her. Seeing as this town embellishes on the manifestations of one's psyche and ego, as you would see in Angela's version of silent hill (flesh, protruding piston walls in abstract daddy room and the fiery walls James comes to see later on); the deterioration of Lakeview Hotel upon James' realization that he killed Mary; Laura's version of silent hill as peaceful, quiet with no monsters roaming around suggest that these are manifestations of those who came to Silent Hill from a unprecedented force that compelled them to come to Silent Hill. It would be impossible for Mary to manifest Maria since Mary died already in James' hands and her body being shoved in the trunk of James' car.

[@joseftangpuz2050]

Also to add upon the Maria ending where James denies his guilt and the boss manifests Mary instead of Maria, in this version he was compelled to say "that's not Mary, Mary is long gone" conversation prompting him to seal his fate and damned to repeat his hell forever since at the end, Maria started coughing indicating that Maria will eventually suffer the same fate Mary did, and this time it would be James' fault. Maria isn't there to help James move on or reconcile with his guilt. She is there to make sure he dies in some shape or form, self inflicted or not if he fails to confront his crime and punishment. In fact you'd notice that in Maria ending (or any ending aside from Leave ending), Laura is nowhere to be seen after the final boss, or that Maria can't see Laura despite worrying about her earlier stages of the game. Seeing as Laura is the symbolic nature of innocence, Maria can't see Laura (since Maria does not exist to begin with), Eddie couldn't see Laura after affirming himself "***ing a person ain't no big deal" comment, and James couldn't see Laura anymore after viewing the video tape in Lakeview Hotel until he was forgiven by Mary at the end. A little factoid but yeh.

[@joseftangpuz2050]

Also a little factoid about the red 🟥 you see as save files in the game. In the original before the two pyramid head fight, you would see 9 squares organized 3 by 3 matrix. This symbolizes James' manifestations, enemies you see from the beginning to the end of the game, including The Mandarin (a derivative of flesh lips from Heather Mason's monsters), Pyramid Head (James' manifestation to self punish for his crime and sins) and Abstract Daddy (Angela's trauma). Of the nine squares Maria is the last 🟥 , indicating that Maria indeed is one of manifestation of James' psyche. This would explain the comment he made at the beginning when you visit the well with a 🟥, making a comment about how this square is "...burrowing onto his head" to paraphrase. Here are the nine enemies symbolizing all 9 red 🟥: Lying figure (first encounter mob), mannequin (first encounter when you pick up the flashlight) bubble head nurse, the Manadrin, Pyramid Head, Creeper (those bugs), flesh lips (mini boss, ones that are hanging on the ceilling when Laura locked you out), Abstract daddy and Maria/Mary (last boss). All signify James' manifestation with different meanings and interpretation of each enemy.

[@LightsFuzzy]

@@joseftangpuz2050 You failed to point out how the DLC proves anything, or why or how James would want Maria to be motherly or nurturing when he himself had no idea who Laura was, or any of Mary's plans to adopt her. Those are things that only Mary knew, and yet somehow Maria also shared similar feelings for Laura. Secondly, nothing supports this idea that James cared for the seductive nature of Maria, in fact the game continuously implies the opposite, with james repeatedly leaving her and rebuffing every come-on she attempts. These don't seem like qualities James cares about, they seem like qualities Mary felt he wanted. She even says as much in the original game, commenting on how ugly she was and how no one could ever love someone so hideous, and then Maria appears, this ideal, sexy version of her, with all of her ideal qualities, even the ones James had no knowledge of. The DLC actually deals in reincarnation in fact, which also supports my theory. It implies that Ernest acknowledges Maria as Mary's incarnation, and wonders if the same thing could be used to bring back his own daughter. If Maria were a soulless husk, I doubt Ernest would have been inspired to attempt the ritual himself. He incited Maria to help him inact this ritual, stating that the gods were there. Mary being dead wouldn't stop Silent Hill from summoning, or using her, in fact its heavily implied that Ernest himself is a ghost, we really have no way of knowing what the limitations of Silent Hill are. Even the movie deals with the dead city folk in the mist realm. We really cannot say what is, or isn't impossible, nothing about SIlent Hill is ever discussed in factual terms.

[@synysterbullett4166]

So I can't confirm if this is in the original game, but in the remake at the very beginning in the bathroom you can see a poster of Heaven's Night and a picture of presumably Maria. This makes me think James saw this poster or another one and subconsciously made Maria from that. Which is so cool to think he probably saw that poster and thought nothing and his subconscious made a whole person and personality based on it

[@kieranriley1624]

A small detail in the hospital that was very interesting to me is that if u keep talking to Maria, she will turn and face the wall but she also moves slightly closer to the wall, leaving enough space for James to join her, like she was subtlety enticing James to lay down with her, also i loved the scene were she thanks him for checkin up on her, the little smile as if to say "im getting to him" The devs really did an amazing job and so did u with this analysis

[@xavier7666]

Thanks for this. I always felt awful for her + most analyses I’ve seen paint her as manipulative and that’s kind of it. But, I know manipulative people and when you see through their tactics, there’s always this profound loneliness underneath.

[@watchmehope6560]

Yeah good luck with that. Sometimes people are just POS brother

[@ToplessTopics]

excellent video. i gotta say, this discourse hits harder while I'm in the midst of being forced to act as sole caretaker to my dad, who is at this point bedbound, dying of cancer, and with increasingly frequent confusion and emotional outlashing from dementia. I love him of course, I would never harm him like James eventually does, but having to take care of someone as they break down more and more and more (and at the same time, raising my own young children) is really soul-crushing, for everyone involved. It's also not helped that theoretically our government has social services in place to help with taking care of aging parents, but the "means testing" makes it impossible to obtain--because my mom started a life insurance policy forty years ago that is now at 60k (After four decades of paying into it every month), the government considers that an "asset" that we have to spend entirely on private pay before medicaid will even THINK of possibly subsidizing a memory care nursing home. Considering that they cost on average 8-12k per month, that's only five or six months of care, and then what? the money will be gone, we won't be able to afford it any longer, but getting medicaid to take over at that point is extremely unlikely for a number of reasons. Sorry that turned into a rant...tl;dr like I said, I can sympathize with James breaking down emotionally over taking care of his sick wife. It's a tragic situation, she hates being sick and hates being a burden, while he hates having to watch her break down further and further, and having to take care of her all the while (though it seems like she's at a hospital when he visits her, so he's not actually taking as intensive care of her as I currently am of my dad). Humans need to work on accepting death...sometimes "life no matter what" isn't the option, and the guilt of facing that reality can break someone so badly they find themselves transported to a world of monsters.

[@shenloken2]

Her long distant stare peers deeply into my soul! She is as haunting as she is tragic.

[@kayyeti3422]

I feel badly for Maria. She wants to be her own person outside of James, Mary’s shadow, and Silent Hill. But she can’t and keeps getting poorly treated by James and brutally murdered by Pyramid Head and then James at the end. Coming to the realization that you’re just a creation born out of a man’s guilty psyche must be devastating. I kind of like the idea of James and Maria leaving Silent Hill together. However, it’s implied that she will die of illness like Mary did. But at least she has a little bit of a life.

[@samf.s.7731]

See she does become less tragic if you're thinking she's the reincarnated version of Mary, trying to cheat death, be with James, and stop him from offing himself. It's the lady of the lake's story.

[@icesoul17z]

Not only that, but James will likely abandon her or treat her like shit once the illness rears its head, and he finds himself back in the nightmare that started his downward spiral.

[@Snakiest]

It is fascinating that interpreting Maria like this makes Leave the worst ending (Mary dead, Maria dead, James leaves both behind and moves on). At the same time, the Maria ending is sort of the best ending because she gets to live a little bit longer. Mary gets the shortest end of the stick in all of the endings, even in Rebirth, in which we don't even know if she actually gets brought back or James simply ends up opening the gates of hell, serving as a prequel to the Doom series.

[@StevenKirby-uq5jk]

Why do people think that she wants to be free of James when that is the literal opposite of what her character’s motivations are? I’ve only played the original SH2, I’m guessing there are new scenes in the remake that paint her as more sympathetic?

[@Snakiest]

@@StevenKirby-uq5jk There is a tiny little bit more in the remake, yes. That said, it is a pure assumption that she wants to be free. She might, but it is never even hinted at in the remake, as far as my interpretation goes. What is hinted at is that she is desperate as she comes to realize that her existence is for James and depends on James' choices.

[@lovebunny2345]

This is the first time I heard that people refer to Maria as evil. For real… she has always been a tragic character. In fact its James who uses her somewhat

[@roshgar9030]

Honestly made me even more sad for this character than what I already was. I watched the whole thing very good video!

[@feliperisseto9113]

The idea that the city can create living, sentient beings is legit terrifying. For most of the time you assume It can only make this ephemeral nightmare constructs, but here in order to torture James It created something very close to a actual human so they could destroy her in front of him. That is another level of evil.

[@StramSaturdayDBDBDIB]

The Maria version in the Silent Hill 2 remake really hit it out the park for me and i like this interpretation of her. I loved the aspect of humanizing her more with her own thoughts and feelings. Maria in the remake uses her eyes to convey her emotions and her icy blues just suck you right in as if it's a trance. During the jail scene towards the end of her dialogue "I'm here for you James.....See?.....I'm real". Now with the different direction in her tone made me wonder if she was trying to convince James of that or in actuality Maria is trying to convince herself instead that she's real. Ugh I like what they did with her, she still had the sex appeal but in a more subtle way without taking away the meaning of her character. They added more depth to her story and I really really freaking hope we get Born From A Wish.

[@watchmehope6560]

Her classic outfit didnt take anything from her. This is just modern audience buzzword/ excuses. And she always had her own character. Play born from a wish.

[@samf.s.7731]

fingers crossed we get it! :D

[@StramSaturdayDBDBDIB]

​@@samf.s.7731finger's are crossed 🔀

[@bjorx88]

Ad breaks are hilarious. "What sets her on the path of self destruction? Ok, here it is..." And uber eats ad! I get it, those things can really push you over the edge Maria.

[@dandelion_fritters]

😂 Same, except I got a Wawa ad! So addictive…

[@mascarponecheeze1308]

A perfect video about Maria in the remake. You touched the greatest aspects of her character. How she was literally Born From A Wish. Hopefully we will get a DLC for her side story to learn something more about her - like why she didn't want to enter through Baldwin Mansion's main gates, because she learned there about her purpose. I would love to hear more of your videos about James, Angela, Eddie, Laura and even Mary. Or maybe one about monsters or the places in Silent Hill that James visited, would love to heat about Toluca Prison, Labyrinth and Lakeview Hotel

[@1x93cm]

In psychological terms, Maria is James' introject of Mary. Basically its how he imagines the best qualities of Mary. When people interact with eachother, they don't actually interact with eachother sometimes. They take a snapshot of a person- basically download everything they percieve externally about someone and that's what they interact with- its called an introject. That is why people get into arguments, because ppl's introject of eachother is not the actual person they are talking to.

[@Azurie-e9s]

what a bunch of bollocks

[@Kretek]

Great analysis. And I completely agree with you on Maria. For me, she was always most tragic character in this story. We can argue that most tragic is Angela. But as much as Angela didnt deserved what have happened to her, and her life was truly tragic, there is still hope that she will find her salvation. In case of Maria though, she was born in hell, and she never had any chance to leave.

[@hairypotter259]

I get James wants to get his wife but damn can he be a little more compassionate to Maria

[@joshshrum2764]

It proves why he has relationship problems.

[@justina2225]

I feel like that’s what they wanted the player to get from him. He’s a very standoffish person who is unable to provide comfort to the people who need it. The total opposite of the hero from Maria’s story.

[@SoundsFromBeyond]

He doesn't trust her. She looks and sounds too much like Mary. She comes on strong and never lets up. James may be caught up in the mind-fog of his depression and the "spell" of the town but deep down he knows she isn't right somehow. He's not stupid. He realizes it's some sort of trick or game. She attempts to immediately latch onto him from the moment they meet. They're both adults, he doesn't know her and he's not obligated to protect her.

[@ningmushii]

@@justina2225 yea, while watching a playthrough I notice he comes off that way. He's not opposed to helping others which I see as him doing what anyone agrees is morally the right thing to do. But he would rather be alone, and as you said he's not very good with comforting people.

[@theremphase]

Glad to see many agree Maria is a tragic character. She's my favorite part of the game.

[@benjaminlaney3160]

@54:43 so were not gonna mention mary’s actual decomposing body in the back of the car and how maria should of lost her absolute shit when realizing theres a body in the back 😅

[@JJsiN84]

James: "oh yea, about that, I guess I found my wife after all" Maria: 🫤

[@xniks101x]

Should *have

[@joaosoares-rr5mj]

dude, anybody who says pyramid head is a "good guy" is completly crazy... you can say that he is necessary for james development, but defntly not an angel... as said in this video, maria spent most of the game not hurting james, all that james needed to do was take maria outside with him, he didnt even have to use her to replace mary, all he needed was be nice to her and bring her with him... i find a shame that maria got her first death, i realy wish that james wasnt such an idiot and acctuly came out to try and help her, maybe she would have retained her initial personality, and would be out of there and everything would be fine to everybody...

[@josephmatthews7698]

Pyramid head is just previous James attempts to escape silent hill who gave into their carnal desire and slept around with his creations maybe even his monsters. The pyramid itself is a medieval torture device where sexual deviants are forced to sit on the tip and strapped down until they are fully split apart. He is the male desire incarnate amped up to a million.

[@Tolly7249]

Bloober Team really surprised me with how closely they stuck to the original game and its themes. The remake's story is just as haunting and eerie, and the new VAs lean into the weird dream-like dialogue.

[@scoobydoom]

"Pyramid head didn't deserve this"

[@SimonNguyen-gt5pc]

Pyramid Head is just misunderstood, give him a break ;)

[@mywifesboyfriend5558]

Pyramid Head was a good boi

[@jarvaruscarter]

All of you are idiots smh

[@samf.s.7731]

Leave Pyramid Head alone! T_T

[@B-zk9bt]

Pyramid Head deserves to go on silly little adventures with Maria

[@ravendelacour1917]

One the closeup of the body of the second version of Maria's wrist you can see a tattoo of Lilith's sigil. Interesting implications by the devs.

[@thefearofg0ds758]

I always viewed Maria as an extension of the Lisa Garland character and concept from the first game. Same as Team Silent took the "widowed husband who's wife died of an illness" and expanded it with a new character, they took the ambigous nature of Lisa's existence and went deeper with it for the sequel. Characters like Lisa and Maria worked narratively to show how strange and nearly limitless the power of Silent Hill is. It can essentially create life and make flesh out of memory. Really cool concepts

[@VixenRosa]

Yeah I think Lisa is the perfect comparison a lot of people are missing here.

[@Roy-rk3qz]

@@thefearofg0ds758 no Lisa was real unlike Maria

[@thefearofg0ds758]

@@Roy-rk3qz maria was a "shadow" based on the memory of someone else. Same as Lisa. The Lisa we met wasn't "real" either, but a version of her existed before(same as Maria/Mary).

[@samf.s.7731]

Lisa had something called walking dead syndrome, so I guess that makes Maria Mary, unaware she'd already died? I dig that.

[@Roy-rk3qz]

@@thefearofg0ds758 no Lisa was a real person that knew Alesa before she died. Maria is a manifestation of James’s desire created by the town. Maria is not Mary

[@lucifermorningstar2505]

James still would have to explain the dead body in the back of the car

[@jonsinatra3194]

I don't think the body is there anymore, in the María ending, the final bossfight is Mary, not María, that means she got resurrected, somehow, the dead Mary is in the top of lakeview

[@PixelHeroViish]

I like to think James did go to turn himself in and subsequently was jailed for what he's done, maybe some day he'll be able to return to regular life too, if he holds on long enough

[@nehemiahsalters1350]

The dichotomy of my enjoyment of the complex analysis of the character and the part of me that immediately folded during Maria's cutscene

[@thegemguy1334]

I wonder if Maria is also born from Mary's wish as well. James brought her body to Silent Hill. The town might pick up any residual memory from there and add it to Maria.

[@kkinthewheelchair3049]

James what now

[@thegemguy1334]

@kkinthewheelchair3049 Mary's dead body is on the backseat of his car, covered by a blanket. He killed her a few days prior. It is speculated that the Water ending is what James originally intended to do when he drove to Silent Hill.

[@kkinthewheelchair3049]

@@thegemguy1334 huh , that brings a whole new context to Maria as a character

[@memoryofsalem4474]

​@@thegemguy1334no? Where did was this shown?

[@thegemguy1334]

@memoryofsalem4474 It was not shown. You have to try to look at the backseat of James's car at the start of the game. You will see something being covered by a blanket there. This is an Easter Egg based on a tweet of Masahiro, the art director of the original game, affirming that Mary's body is on the backseat, not in the trunk of James's car.

[@TabPGE]

I've felt like Maria before, struggling in vain, desperately wanting and needing, and failing. Wish she could have seen the other side of it.

[@TheZoobZoobs]

In defense of Pyramid Head, or well, perhaps to just better explain his place in the story, while all monsters are born from a part of James' psyche, Pyramid Head and Maria are born from very specific parts of his mind, the strongest parts; his rage, guilt and his desire for atonement in Pyramid Head and his love, lust and memories of his wife and what he imagined their life could have been in Maria. Pyramid Head IS a guiding force as a result of what he represents, and pushes James to do what he thinks he needs to do, and so it is unfeeling, focused and always ahead of James, appearing whenever he is lost or seems to be straying off the path. Often times you don't see him, but see his presence in the path of destruction left in his wake, slaughtered monsters, paths forcibly opened, or appearing to block James from going the wrong way, ala, a guiding force, not a benevolent one, but a guide regardless. Maria, by extension of being what she is, IS a wrong way, and given that James' psyche is obviously not harmonized, the manifestations of these parts of his mind also come to blows naturally. Pyramid Head is there to make sure James faces his sins, and Maria is there to stop him, be it because that's what she was assigned to do or because she wants him to stay with her so she doesn't have to disappear. In the end Pyramid Head much like Maria follows his function; he cleans up the way so James faces his sins, this includes killing Maria as she is an obstacle and the Executioner was made to destroy obstacles. The divergence as you mentioned is at the end; with his function complete, Pyramid Head exits the story by his own hands, while Maria, having much greater cognition, willingly stays behind, refusing to be a thing to disappear.

[@anthonylangley6843]

The devs have talked pretty extensively about pyramid head and what he represents and it’s pretty much as simple as he exists ONLY to punish James because he exists ONLY because James strongly desires to be punished. No part of pyramid head is James desire to atone. Simply to be punished. But as you said because of what pyramid head is he ultimately causes James to seek atonement and ultimately decide he has suffered enough. Which is why in some endings Mary tells James point blank that he has suffered for what he did to her. And “it’s enough”

[@Momo_Minomo]

I don't think anything of Pyramid head is about personal atonement. Our introduction to the character after the brief glimpse in the hallway was it seemingly SAing a mannequin monster on the table and then killing it. It represents the darkest and most reprehensible parts of James, the violent predator. It's silent, emotionless, powerful, overtly masculine, sexual, and violent. It manifested as an external monster because James didn't want to admit it was a part of him, a part he'd already given into. Maria was the manifestation of everything he told himself he wanted Mary to be (young, healthy, beautiful, seductive, devoted, and fully obsessed with pleasing him) but he still resented Mary and still viewed Maria's neediness as an annoying burden, so that violent predator part of him wanted to hurt her just as ruthlessly and brutally as he did Mary. James hates himself but when given the choice to hurt Maria/Mary or himself, he chooses the women every time.

[@werdna0327]

Maria is certainly NOT an obstacle. She is a manifestation of James' mind. The image of Mary, distorted, to lure him further into his delusion that "Mary is still alive". Her function in Silent Hill/James' subconscious is to be killed. Over and over. She returns because she is not real. She is killed to force James to relive the murder of his wife and to understand that HE is the reason Maria keeps dying, just like how he was the reason Mary died. Maria is a projection that allows him to understand what happened to Mary as an analog. That's why, at the end, with the Pyramid head duo fight, James screams more intensely during that death of Maria than any other moment in the game because he realizes what everything in Silent Hill means. He accepts that he caused Mary and Maria's deaths and he states he understands what PH's purpose is. He needed something else to punish him because his own mind forgot his crimes. Now that he understands Maria = Mary (metaphorically), Silent Hill is no longer necessary for him to heal. This video is dead wrong about her being a real or tragic person. The only real people in the game are James, Eddie, Angela, and Laura. Pyramid head is also not a motivating force. His presence only

[@Bigtwinkissac209]

Pyramid head is basically James Angel but in demon form😭

[@anthonyfournier1731]

I initially thought Maria was based on a lady James might have meet at an actual strip club. Like a lady James kept stringing along saying he’d leave his wife and that he loved her but really she was a crutch for his lust and “loneliness”.

[@CrowandTalbot]

To yes and: Maria feels like a very typical reflection of how women often get abstracted in men's lives and in stories reflecting the male perspective. She's fighting a fate she literally exists for, but also we are made to see her become a monster from his perspective specifically because she fights that perspective. In the beginning she plays along in the hope for freedom, but in the end there's no hope. She's a woman who is being fridged with each death. Maria gets brutalized by His guilt (through Silent Hill) so He gets what He wants: an externalization of His pain. Most women can empathize with the story of a woman railing against being treated like a tool made by the universe for a man to act on. Those women getting brutalized when they also have a will and act on it. Like any other abused and tormented person, Maria clings to any kind of safety even the kind that panders to their tormentor. In real life abuse survivors it re-establishes some sense of control and eliminates uncertainty. I believe Maria has her own consciousness because unlike Pyramid Head, Maria is not an aspect of James's psychology. She is a fully materialized reflection of someone else characterized by his perspective of that person. And arguably part of James's struggle comes from not being able to accept that his wife is not an merely extension of himself. Her suffering should be his suffering from loving her, not because it's hard for him to live with. As such, Silent Hill created a reflection that also is not an extension of himself. He can't control her actions, even through the supernatural power of Silent Hill, and so she becomes a monster to overcome. James is selfish. Any story from his perspective is going to twist every person and plot point into how it serves or hurts him and only him. The "you better do something about that cough" is probably the only part of Silent Hill that we get to see outside of his perspective and even then players, if they get that ending, have already been primed to dismiss the foulness of it. Ultimately, I don't actually believe the game is about James learning to accept his wife's death. I think it calls to him as tormented soul like the other people trapped there, and responds to his psychology while he is there. I also don't think Pyramid Head offs himself because he "served his purpose", I think he offs himself because James doesn't want to be punished anymore. He's not a guardian angel there to guide James through therapy, he's James hurting himself. As serious as this discussion is, I should get some credit for not making a triangle pun right there calling Pyramid Head a guardian angle. Anyway, I read the James and Maria plot line as a dark retelling of Pygmalion. His ideal woman was one who is desperate on threat of death to appease him, and he kills her too when she refuses to get put back in the toy box when he's done playing with her.

[@iamjackspyramidshapedhelmet]

Great comment

[@BaronVonKenny]

I'm not sure the players have been primed to dismiss the cough comment by getting that ending. You have to spend more time around her to get that ending, so it always came as a gut punch that playing James to be more protective and proactive with her just results in him continuing to be brutal and selfish.

[@DT-sb3xo]

"...Jame's struggle comes from not being able to accept his wife is not merely an extension of himself..." Hard agreement. James cannot figure out on his own who Maria truly is because of his treatment of Mary. Her first death, Pyramid Head stabbed Maria in the back, mirrors James ultimate betrayal to his wife. And the blank look in her face as she stares at him. Clear symbolism. A reenactment. Maria's second appearances in the cell/hospital room is reenacting Mary's own walls she built against James. Just like how James was not reciprocating Maria's advancements, there must have been moments where Mary had enough of James and kept him at a distance. The prison bars is keeping James from Maria, but she is also quite comfortable to "wait for him"/with him far from away as well. She brings up memories she shouldn't know because they are some of Mary's own resentments and feelings that James must have ignored and repressed while together. All of Maria's earlier attempts to get through to James and seduce him could have been mirroring Mary's attempts to connect to James while she was still alive. And when James is finally "ready" to return to Maria... well... that is why he finds her in that state. They were tired of being dismissed by James + Silent Hill themes. I don't believe Maria is a different person each time James comes across her. She seems like a different person because he doesn't make attempts to understand her.

[@TheDJman248]

@@DT-sb3xo I feel like there's too many assumptions there....and that you're not giving Silent Hill (the town) nearly enough credit on how much it is willing to use Maria to screw with James from many different directions. Which I do believe includes how Maria changes in how she acts every time James finds her. Plus, if James was so awful to Mary throughout their entire relationship, why bother leaving that heartfelt letter that she absolutely did not HAVE to write?

[@HeelPower200]

Amazing analysis. A fresh perspective that I find myself in agreement with.

[@anotherFreeman]

It's horrific and brilliant storytelling. From the way Maria dies to the way she was treated mirrors the emotional and lived experiences of Mary.

[@cawareyoudoin7379]

I like your style of video essay, where you basically ask a media literacy question before showing us the scene. "What is the character trying to accomplish?" "At which point does their fate get sealed?". It's cool.

[@LyanoI]

Maria is a Tulpa, and James most powerful monster which is why the pyramid head begins to punish James by revealing the truth. Maria is not Mary, she is his ideal version of a lover and the weight of her existence keeps James from moving on

[@losthedon22]

👏🏾 👏🏾👏🏾

[@shelbybayer200]

Maria is actually a version of Mary but created by James perception of what he wanted her to be

[@anthonylangley6843]

Kind of a gross oversimplification. First off Maria is absolutely not a Tulpa. Tulpas are something consciously created through ritual meditation. She IS what James THOUGHT he wanted Mary to be. Pyramid head has no goals other than to punish James. He’s not trying to reveal the truth. His actions DO end up revealing the truth but him Killing Maria only begins AFTER James begins to show fondness for Maria. Pyramid head is a manifestation of James desire for punishment for what he did to Mary. The ULTIMATE form that punishment can take for James is to lose “Mary” over and over again. Which is why pyramid head begins killing Maria , to punish James. He is not trying to reveal anything because Pyramid head is litterally just James’s feelings. Which is why when James accepts the truth Pyramid head kills itself. James desire for punishment has been killed by him moving on. Pyramid head isn’t sentient in any way. Maria is the only creation of the town with Sentience and SHE is the one who reveals the most truths. Because James begins to see that he didn’t really want a woman like Maria he just wanted Mary. Mary is a foil for James Sexual guilt and repression. Pyramid head is a foil for James’s guilt and desire to self punish. Both reveal different truths about different things in numerous ways. But Pyramid head really just punishes James until he feels he has paid enough and lets go of that feeling. Maria is more healing the part of James that hated Mary and showing him that he didn’t really want her any differently than she was

[@CalacaRoja]

@@anthonylangley6843 James felt, and in a way he was right, that his life died when his wife contracted a terminal cancer, which is a fucking tragedy both in a game and real life. We never get to know what happened in those three years and we can make congetures that at the arrival of James at that town, it has been three days from Mary's death. We can only guess that James felt trapped taking care of a dying person, who once loved, and now is a little more than a vegetable. He could either accept it and commit seppuku by water, move on and adopt Laura or move on with his new sexy version of Mary (which she will probably die sooner than later because the "magic" of Silent Hill is what kepts her alive).

[@pathetic2399]

Surprised you glossed over Ernest Baldwin when he knew what Maria was and tried to tell her about herself and James. I thought it was an important part of understanding her character.

[@TallicaMan1986]

He had to gloss over some aspects to twist the narrative into what he's talking about. They do this quite often when ignoring the story and adding their own flavor. Bloober wanted to add Born from a Wish which would further detail how she's a figment. In the Original Born from a wish. When you examine a stiffed bear. She mentions Laura without having any knowledge of her.

[@HeelPower200]

​@@TallicaMan1986Born from a wish shows she is not a figment. She is born from a wish but is yet independent. That was literally the whole point of it. She expresses existential angst, entirely before anything happens.

[@TallicaMan1986]

@@HeelPower200 She really doesn't have any independence. She was being drip fed by the town, The bear in the kids room as well as the maternity she felt there, the ghost behind the door explaining to her what the deal was and she was led by the town until she met James. Like she literally got to the lake a minute before james showed up. Whatever independence you think she had was for James to experience and to manipulate him. If she was under possession from the get go. James would not have let his guard down seeing as that is Mary, spitting image of his wife. He only gained her trust because she was acting human or given that ability to experience, but at the end of the day. She is a product of SIlent Hill. Which is why she died like 3 times. The evelvator she failed to get in was by design by Silent Hill.

[@kitty_paine]

I just had a thought. Silent Hill itself has themes of Rebirth. Alessa being Reborn as Cheryl and Heather. The Rebirth ending of Silent Hill 2. Maria being killed and reborn multiple times. Her links to Mary, having her memory. It's possible that Maria IS Mary reborn through the town's power.

[@samf.s.7731]

Absolutely. Someone also pointed out that she may have a similar situation to Lisa, where she's not really aware ... She's deceased. It's canon to the lore of the town, and the game's DLC sure emphasizes it.

[@rancidraw]

and to be fair that would also be realistic since he literally brought her body to silent hill, giving the town the chance to actually revive her (I'm guessing since James had to bring her body to a certain point to resurrect her)

[@sorackamet5558]

@@samf.s.7731 It's such a shame SIlent Hill 4 was not as good as it could have been and was not well received. It expends on the ghosts aspects of the Silent Hill universe and other things that no game after even tried.

[@kitty_paine]

@rancidraw Have you looked in the backseat of his car in the beginning. Bloober added an easter egg. Hehe.

[@kitty_paine]

@@sorackamet5558 Ikr. It was the last project of Team Silent. Here's hoping for a remake.

[@electrapng]

This is the best analysis I’ve ever seen of Maria. I adored your style of looking closer at every scene she’s in, and analyzing how both she and James react to each other. I also really appreciate your perspective on Maria and Pyramid Head. It’s very easy to say that Pyramid Head is the “good” guy, and Maria is the “bad” guy, but both of them fill both roles. There’s a nuance there that it isn’t acknowledged in a lot of analyses of this game, so that was great to hear

[@mikeyplays9677]

Also, I had to go back a few times to really see it. But this scene at 47:00 the subtitles say Mary at first. Then just before James calls her Maria, it her text changes to Maria as well. That was one last trick Silent Hill had for James. I didn't notice that until just right now!

[@based_circuit]

I noticed this immediately but haven’t heard anyone else call it out yet on any analysis videos. Pretty interesting detail they put in there.

[@SavvyNitro]

when i played SH2 originally as a kid i always saw Maria as a “test” of sorts for James. the town gave him an idealized version of his wife (seductive, healthy) and even then he failed to be kind to her much less save her.

[@maybemablemaples2144]

What I feel is really sad it that Maria wants to be the Lady of the Lake, lighting the way towards finding love. But that's Mary. She's the one that gives him the flashlight. The light at the other end of the lake is her, and Maria is just a shadow. It's also telling that while Maria wants to keep Laura safe and cares about her, you're never able to leave with both of them. This Shadow of Mary wants to leave her own prison so badly that she dooms both herself and James into the same Hell spiral for the small taste of freedom. I think Mary called Laura to Silent Hill because she wanted her last wish to be taking care of her. James really is that meme of all men do is eat hot chip and lie the older I get lol.

[@ningmushii]

I like this! In the remake when you read that story again, it's said that the moon or another light form enticed the man who was going to the Lady. He was in a trance and ended up drowning if I remember correctly. So as you said, Mary is the Lady of the Lake, but Maria is the moon (given that, I think Maria is how James really wanted Mary to be when she got sick and he was getting tired.) Or you can switch it and say Maria is the Lady of the Lake who waits on her love (how she helped him once we meet her, and you know she is attracted to him), but Mary is the moon that "distracted" him.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

This is exactly the kind of video I was looking for. Thank you very much for the time and effort you put into making it. Finished the game myself a couple of days ago, and couldn't stop thinking about it. I also got the Maria ending, which apparently is a harder one to get. To me she was a fascinating and very appealing character ever since James meets her on the pier. Her looking and sounding the same as Mary notwithstanding, it was obvious she was more (or less?) than she seemed. A lot of the deductions you made are ones I believed myself but you went a lot deeper and for that I am grateful as it helped me to understand her character better, too. It's also made me a lot sadder to think of her in retrospective. She truly is the most tragic character of the game. Designed as a part-villain, only to end up being that monster because her every attempt at being the opposite failed. One aspect that I'm still unsure of is whether the resurrected Maria in the labyrinth was a brand new "golem" with none of the memories of the Maria who dies at the hospital, or if she (and the 2 other versions you meet afterwards) are just a twisted continuation of the same character. When I first saw the scene with her in the prison cell, I thought she just turned "evil" and was gaslighting James into becoming more unhinged. Because the story would be infinitely more tragic if the 4 Marias that James meets and witnesses the deaths of were all their own individual. Either way, a great essay on your part and masterful writing on her character, as well as the voice actress who basically did 2 different-but-intertwined characters.

[@joeherrera8826]

The messed up part is that is not even her fault that she is going through this hell.

[@AndrewB23]

She's not real, but technically you're also not wrong it's the hell he put Mary through when started to neglect her during her treatment

[@kenhammscousin4716]

I think Maria is what James wishes Mary could be, and also the worst, ugliest parts of Mary that James couldn't tolerate. She's sexy, but she berates James just for minor things James says like the "Anyway" comment. It's like he can never do right, he's wrong even when he has good intentions. Just like how Mary treated him when he visited her at the hospital.

[@birthdayfruitecake8158]

I love how, while this is a pretty good video, it feels like a way to tear into James because he pissed you off while playing XD

[@angelusumbrae]

Maria losing her sense of self from the effects of Silent Hill and clinging, increasingly desperately to Janes, reminds me of the nurse Lisa and how she acts towards Harry from SH1. The town breaks down people, people that are often already broken when they got there, more and more until it destroys them.

[@elruffian163]

To me maria feels like the mary he first met years ago and manifested her in the town, he's holding on to that memory when she was healthy .as time goes time is catching up .he doesn't really leave the town with her ,it's the positive memory he chooses to remember her as.

[@softmoonangel]

I hope you do a 'deconstruction of villiany" on the biggest villian in this game, james

[@samf.s.7731]

He's someone a very special group of men like to project themselves onto...

[@samf.s.7731]

Careful there, because just like the Madonna Whore, there's The Prince, and The Beast. James is flawed, but not in the way you think he is. He's just as much of a hopeless romantic as his partner, he has serious dependency issues, and the worst cope of perhaps all time... And all those 3 manifested in the act that resulted in bringing him to Silent Hill.

[@chandlerburse]

@@samf.s.7731 could you be any more pretentious dude?

[@harisbisevac4578]

​@@chandlerburseCould you stop being afraid of thibking?

[@chandlerburse]

@@harisbisevac4578 if you stop being afraid of it first maybe

[@Dzugashvili]

I really liked the actor that did mary/maria, really drew me into this experience and I loved how different they made her look between styles and even how her true to life style plays against those.

[@bandarsalh1338]

The most tragic thing about maria is that no matter how she felt or did she ends up playing the role the was forced upon her Whether it's anger or happiness, she'll always remind James of mary and torment him as she was meant to do

[@TerryB01]

Maria didn't do anything wrong. James made her that way.

[@watchmehope6560]

Lol try again. SH made her that way. James was the paint, but SH made the picture.

[@TheDJman248]

Except the part where he didn't ask her to be that way, right? I think I'd sooner blame the town, considering that James was going to off himself before the town drew him in with a nice side effect of memory supression.

[@ricardotakahasi8165]

really good analyses, she really is an interesting character. i really like the fact that, differently from Pyramid Head, she's not just following a script. Instead, she's actively trying to figure out a path for herself. Which is very tragic, because even if she makes it, this would only trap James for more time in this repetitive cycle.

[@zeroanonymity9736]

I would argue that every Maria we meet shares the same memories, the same impulses, however the version of her in the Labrynth is stripped down. Simplified. This whole section of the game, be it the original or the remake, forgoes artiface and practically screams its symbols into James, Amanda, and Eddie's faces. James has descended into the deepest part of his own mind and we're left with a Maria that is broken down to her basic components. She is Mary, she is Maria, she is anything and everything James wants her to be made flesh. No free will, no individuality, she's a doll on display. Calling her Faelike is incredibly apt, she's inscrutable yet so very simple as she is here. When she's later executed we don't talk to her long enough to get a full sense of her behavior, but she WAILS for James like she knows him. Then the final Maria in most of the endings seems to have the memories of her experiences with him as well based on how she speaks to him.

[@zeroanonymity9736]

I will also say this is a SPECTACULAR video, I'm glad someone analyzed her behavior from her perspective.

[@HitsuTwistedTalong]

This game is so sad for Maria and Mary, even in the very last boss scene. I'm glad they remade it; both the original and the remake are the best.

[@marvingonzalez]

In the analysis it is stated that Maria is born within the town from James' mind and inner wishes for his late wife and that she's never interacted with any other human being but with the story of the lady in the lake she says it is a local story and that involves some interaction with someone else to pass down the information. So, where did she learn about that story or rather from whom? I guess this could be the power of the script just to accommodate the scene but if you have any additional info on it that would be great. Thanks

[@biancascream4745]

She dies in every ending. She can never win.

[@jameswest6232]

Following the idea that Silent Hill is trapping both James and Mary, I can't help but wonder if Maria having that last moment with James was supposed to be a chance for Mary to find closure too. If Maria could accept her death and allow James to leave peacefully and even adopt Laura, Maria/Mary would be able to pass on and be at peace as well.

[@trinny_d]

Are we gunna mention the fact that she also is in one or the executioners box things at the end that was in the painting from history. Showing that maybe her dying by the pyramid heads in the box truly made her snap and that became her true form.

[@DonVecta]

I dunno if I'm in the only who saw this but... the original María in SH2 felt even more abrasive and assertive than her new counterpart in the Remake. In SH2 she was too seductive and even cruel, feeling like a succubus almost immediately and even the player (or at least me) also felt the same level of rejection that James felt. The faster I could get rid of her compnay, which was definitely a hindrance gameplay wise, the better. Now, by the other hand, her Remake version, while keeping her seductive and needy leitmotifs, she felt slightly more likeable and attractive overall. Her facial expressions didn't seem so lascivious and she ommitted the cruel remarks about Mary that she said in the original script ("...or maybe, you hated her"). The toast scene at the Heaven's bar also feel like we should have had a choice to actually interact and drink with her or not (pushing higher James's destiny for his ending). She felt more attractive, cuter, the player (or at least me) felt more tempted in giving her a chance, didn't feel the same level of rejection of the original María and her new behavior felt more curious to the player to be with her more. Or maybe that's just me. I really liked this new María more over the original one.

[@horrorpsycho0508]

James being a difficult lay is one of my favorite parts of the narrative.

[@akifsalihdereli163]

Maria can't hurt you. She doesn't exist. (For others, not for James)

[@VectoredPromise]

What about the actual story of the woman of light that you find in the historical society? It reveals that Maria lied about how the story goes, taking out the part of the man getting distracted by the moon, Maria being James's moon with her bracelet making it a bit obvious. Also the Maria scene you showed before her boss fight was not the same one in the Maria ending, in that one she's in the bed and never reveals she is actually Maria nor does James notice.

[@Eallote]

Wow that is really interesting i didn't notice this at all but it makes the story go so much deeper. The moon bracelet, her signifying the moon... In her version of the story she probably doesn't know that she is the moon but she feels that him going to her was as it should have been..

[@superbrian7997]

2:40 It’s proof that we all are architects of our own suffering more than not.

[@imjustagirlnotathreat2289]

52:30 i think it has less to do with Maria convincing James to be with her and more to do with Mary rejecting James so he goes back to Maria as a "replacement" knowing full well she's not his wife so he doesn't really care about her.

[@fuzzmanx]

Haha. Every time he says she died 3 years ago it's ironically funny to me. You JUST killed her, man. What an immense amount of regret and suffering.

[@egosirius]

If Maria has pieces of Mary's behaviors toward Laura, then this means that Maria is, in parts, manifestation of Laura's wanting to be cared of by Mary. So Silent Hill is bending reality around of Laura too, which explains how Laura ended up in the Hotel at the other side of the lake which sounds impossible all by herself

[@BaronVonKenny]

Its one of the reasons I dont see James as truly learning anything. He supposedly finds absolution in some endings; all he has to do to reach it is murder the unsympathetic version of his wife so he can reach the version he does want to interact with. "Hi Mary I just slaughtered your clone but Im really sorry I killed you, we are good right?"

[@watchmehope6560]

Sh2 isn't about forgiveness. Its literally about letting go. Its also a study on what caretakers have to go through and how a sickness can destroy a person from the inside.

[@oliverpease6719]

I always took Leave as the ending where he subconsciously realized something that the player doesn’t see, and Maria as the one where he doesn’t realize anything.

[@ningmushii]

I don't think he finds absolution, but he's "ready" to move on. I also think James does learn something which is coming to terms with killing his wife. He didn't admit or "learn" that until close to the end. I see Maria being what James wanted Mary to be. "Murdering" her is just the physical representation of James moving on. If he fails, he doesn't move on and, doesn't learn his lesson. He can either atone for his sins, refuse to admit what he's done, or be overtaken by grief. Also, your comment isn't about this, but because of the cult and the other world, I think Silent Hill calls out to people who have "sinned." It's not a place that guides you to salvation but to your death. So if you are willing to go through hell and "atone," then you're "free." Despite the physical state and events of silent hill, its a metaphor about trauma, battling your personal demons, and becoming your "true" self.

[@wazburg]

You are so articulate, really effective character analysis. subscribed immediately! Thrilled for whats to come! I didn't skip the ads to say thank you 😌

[@norijean3279]

I like Maria more than James. She's fun, caring, trying to make the best out of her tragic circumstances. She's my favortite character 😢

[@wilku8888]

5:36 PH kills Maria 3 times. He beats her to death in Labirynth. Look, the bars in Maria room are broken violently and then we find PH sword stuck into cube. I think they made it blatantly clear this time, who killed her there.

[@Stigmatix666]

It's just a not-so-subtle way of saying "James killed Mary, James killed Mary" over and over again

[@Adog00]

I loved her. Can’t wait to learn and understand more of her

[@jerrymack95]

this video is fantastic. ive never looked at maria so in depth before

[@gabriellong4375]

OG VO refused to touch grass. New VO is less unhinged.

[@alirezanayebzadeh7294]

This was amazing man you deserve so much more love

[@hugoflores1093]

Dom 🤝 Shadow 🤝 James "Maria..."

[@LiveErrors]

i dont really understand the premise of this video. Maria isnt a villain, she is a manifestation that the *antagonist* of the game uses to punish the main character. She is not herself the antagonist, a villain or even an actual character.

[@ГлебХабаров-ж7о]

There is a strange resemblance between James' story and that of Isaac from Dead Space. I wonder if people writing Dead Space (2008) had this story in mind...

[@ВладиславБулаев-л3э]

They were inspired by Silent Hill for sure

[@PaulaNaBussa-x1n]

Silent Hill 2 came in 2001. Dead Space was inspired by Silent Hill

[@AluVixapede]

I continue to love your deconstructions and analysis. Silent Hill is such a cool series, it was totally different than other stuff which came out at the time.

[@monkeyroby]

Maria is a construct. A very human-like construct (thanks SH), but she's still not real in the sense that we would say a person who is 'born' is real. She's "born from a wish", after all, she's a fragment of James' subconscious,a part of him that he needed as a coping mechanism. She doesn't even have a consistent personalty, SH made her a mix of Mary's memories and James' fantasies, she's literally a wet dream. One could argue that SH 'made' her too well, in the sense that she is self aware, knows what she is and that she's doomed to be destroyed, but fulfils her role anyway. She's supposed to be a part of James that he needs to accept and overcome, to get out of the loop. Maria is metaphor of a person's vicious cycle, the fact that she doesn't want to die only adds to the power of this image. This is genius writing. Yes, we feel sorry for her to an extent, then stop immediately after we realize what she really is, cause she needs to go. She's not real, yet hurts to see what becomes of her - you need to hurt worse before it gets better, after all.

[@ningmushii]

I think you summed it up perfectly

[@PhillieCheezeKC]

I dont know if anyone has ever said this but, after 20 something years of being a fan of the game, a thought formed in the back of my mind. Maria is like a replicant from Blade Runner, an artifacial, but very sentient, person born with implanted memories and a purpose or mission that they may or may not be consciously aware of.

[@Thorax2552]

Idk if anyone has noticed but Maria's version of the story of the woman on the island is different than the Historical Society's version. She says a storm blew out the candle and thus had the man lose his way. But the documented Historical version says the brightness of the moon mislead the man and he eventually succumbed to the waves and exhaustion. Wonder what that means 🤔

[@Eallote]

Perhaps the storm blowing out the candle is connected to James being innocent in his mind, thinking he did not have any power or choice in Mary's death. But as the History society's version it shows that even though James tried to do everything right and get through the storm, he couldn't stand it and killed her by own choice. Perhaps you could call it so that he succumed to the temptation of rest. I think Maria's version is what James wants to believe and ultimately does, that there was nothing he could have done. Cool that you spotted that! edit!: Also, it seems that Maria might just signify the moon in this story, leading James to go in the wrong direction, This is also because she has a moon bracelet..

[@nizardelaskar7713]

She was a pawn in the game of silent hill with the misfortune of having a consciousness