[CORRECTIONS] - (I will add timestamps soon.) - In reference to TGM’s video, Team Silent was a real developer group within Konami, but many members changed around per game and were not unified under a singular vision. - I mistakenly conflated Alessa's innate power with the manifestation of her nightmare in some places. This is incorrect as they are separate phenomena. - The Midwich map is oriented 90 degrees clockwise, so my compass directions are incorrect. - Snow is likely not a manifestation, but the temperature change is. Fog is not a manifestation. - Subtitles are fixed.
@@themidnightsnow I finished watching your video and wanted to say thanks. Not only did you explain the crazy story too this game, but you answered other things I didn't understand. Such as alessa killing the cop Gucci I always thought it was dahlia that killed him. Anyway thanks again i will watch more videos of yours.
Thanks, it was a year plus of research and playing this game to death to get here! I actually wouldn’t have put it together either if Heather hadn’t said Alessa “could kill people just by wishing for it.” I looked back at SH1 and it was there the whole time 🤯
Because the god in SH1 is what Alessa believed it to look like based on the image of it at the altar. Her drawing of it makes clear that that is the form she had in mind. It manifested from that image. In SH3, Claudia is primarily the one doing the manifesting. While she is working to birth the god, she mostly just wants her friend Alessa back. Her salvation was in reuniting with Alessa so the god looks like a monstrous, incomplete version of Alessa. (It’s a bit more complicated than that but that’s the basic idea.)
I thought about that same thing, "how dark have I been lately that I keep getting all these amazing silent hill videos from channels I've never seen a video from" @@amcstoner3372
It seems as if the silent hill games really spoke to a specific slice of our generation. We all grieve at some point in life, and have to make sense of events that we don't understand. These games oddly enough sorta gave us a frame of reference for the absolutely trash world we'd be trying to navigate as adults. God love y'all, stay safe out there.
my entry into these games was silent hill 3 demo on a playstation magazine, then i picked up silent hill 2, and wasnt expecting something like this to make me remember childhood trauma that i was burying deep in my subconscious..it helped me grieve too but for my self, my old innocent self.
@@isaiasrico589 it's crazy you bring it up. I played SH1 at my buddy's house down the street and then 2 and 4 at another friend's house on Xbox. And today my son and I found my original Xbox in the basement. I plugged everything into an old VCR/crtv combo I have down here too and it still works and turns on. I'm gonna buy all the original Xbox titles so we can play then together when he gets a little older. But yeah there's a nostalgia here for these games. Like a vacation town we all went to as kids and we are all connected through our time there.
Really nice video, when you summed up Harry's relationship with his daughter at the end, hit me hard, "At lest one righteous man in a world of sinners well done," well done. I can see you're doing your best to only use in game knowledge to create connections, but to help build on your thoughts. The idea of Alessa having pyromancers or fire control, links well into Alchemical themes in the story of Silent Hill's and real world Occult links.
Thank you, thank you. If nothing else, I wanted to get a good emotional response :') I'm surprised I've never seen anyone else (to my knowledge) comment on Alessa maybe having pyrokenetic powers. It's not cited as an inspiration, but I know that Team Silent referred to pop culture movies a lot such as the similarites with Alessa and Carrie, but the movie Firestarter was also in that era and genre. May have bled into the idea. All speculation though. But also, yeah, occult pyromancy is a thing to explore too.
i've never seen your videos before but this is by far one of the best retrospectives/media analyses i've ever seen. i enjoyed it heavily. you earned a supporter.
Awersome Video dude. I really like your thoughts and conclutions. The first Silent Hill has a special place in my hearth. You managed to make me think about it again after 15 years. I personally subscribe to the interpretation that the sirens represent the ones she heard while she was burning alive. It is the point of no return, when the nightmare first began for her and a fitting signal for when it seeps into the real world.
I tend to agree that the sirens are related to the fire engines and it’s even the interpretation Origins seems to go with, the fire engine sirens transitioning into the Otherworld sirens. It’s just odd that they sound more like air ride sirens. They are scarier though.
@@themidnightsnow The sirens sound similar to the ones in my city that would go off if a big, general emergency would happen. So maybe that is why i never made the air raid connection. To me it sounds like "big threatening thing is happening" so sounding that when a big fire is happening makes sense. If the japanese developers thought the same thing, no idea.
I always find it funny how Cybil just outright gives you her handgun, of all the ways you could make Harry find a firearm. Which is even more funny is that the rest of you arsenal you outright pick it up from the floor, the shotgun in the bathroom and the hunting rifle in the outdoors store.
Lots of trust to put in a stranger for sure! Interesting that she has another handgun later. Did she have two or did she find one in a urinal somewhere? 🤔 lol
That’d make a lot of sense. I do still need to go over the Play Novel’s Cybil scenario and see how well it jives with SH1. Different writers and many endings. Might make an interesting (and much shorter!) video.
It just occured to me that Cybil probably think that the town was attacked by extremists or even aliens for everyone to have disappeared. LMAO That's the only logic I have for Cybil handing us a gun out of nowhere. I don't think she can even see the monsters Harry sees possibly right until she gets possesed? Coz she's never mentioned any of the enemies in any of the cutscenes. But this is just my assumption. 🤔
@@nafizhelmi That was my assumption too. Something that wasn't a natural disaster or disease or something like that likely was caused by an attacker. But even though Cybil doesn't see the monsters at the same time as Harry as far as we the players know, it doesn't mean she is incapable of seeing them. I think she just doesn't mention them.
There you are, Arcane! Don’t worry about not being awake at absurd hours. The premiere was just hype. The video is forever :) (Freakin’ love your avatar btw.)
"In my restless dreams i see that town Silent Hill" - Mary Sunderland. This game series, yes even Downpour and Homecoming, will remain my favorite horror game hands down. I never cried as hard as i did at the end of SH2 or felt as confused as Alex when he found out what happened to his brother. This game series will forever be the greatest horror franchise of all time. *looks over at the new silent hill media that came out* yeah.....those are bad, lets hope "Silent Hill F" (or Forte since it has that musical notation) is good.
Oh, is it Forte? I didn’t realize! Neat! It’s the release I’m looking forward to the most. I appreciate Homecoming. It has a lot of issues but something about it hits that nostalgia element even when I played it at release. That feeling of a home you can’t go back to. Downpour… had a lot of good ideas and I remembered it fondly, but it’s got so many little problems holding it back, imo.
Whether Dahlia burned Alessa or it was the result of a boiler explosion. Both situations do not change anything. In both cases, Alessa was burned and ended up admitted to Alchemilla.
Yeah, that’s why I mentioned it doesn’t ultimately matter as far future lore is concerned and the present story in SH1. Though I do think the boiler fire explanation has more supporting evidence and presents a more meaningful version of Alessa’s story as someone who fought back instead of doing nothing when she could have.
I’ve always believed it was the bouiler incident and probably not an accident with Daliah involved for sure. I enjoyed Orgins psp but the changed quite a few things but still enjoyed it
@@themidnightsnowI do find the boiler explotion makes more sence,as as soon Alessa is reunited with Cheryl and turned into the incubator,she gets fully cured,afterall,pain and suffering may nurture the God,but it does need a healty...womb,incubator? So i think setting her on fire and expecting her to give birth to satan won't make much sence,she getting that badly hurt handicapped the ritual.
Nothing like finding a new silent hill video I haven’t seen that’s over an hour long. Fucking love it. Edit: you did a really great job on this retrospective man 👏👏👏👏👏 Do you have any plans on making another retrospective on the other games?? Specifically 2-4???
This video is so dope, it gave me glances of ideas on how to adapt the games’s story into a 12 episodes series/tv show where the first 6 episodes would be how Harry would arrive at nowhere and defeat God/Alessa, and the other six would be a repeat of the nightmare and Harry getting more info on the general situation and story of Alessa, Cybil’s perspective of the nightmare, a flashback to how Cheryl was found and how she convinced Harry to come to Silent hill, and a flashing out Lisa’s and Kaufman’s story. On the second half Harry would understand that the nightmare was sealing into the real world, and It would end with Harry saving the baby and Cybil, the nightmare dissipating but leaving the town forever scared, haunted, and attracting damned souls. Season 2 would be with James. 😉
Why I believe Dahlia intentionally burned Alessa: in her final speech, she says that Alessa suffered a fate "worse than death", which trapped her in an endless nightmare and that the God was nurtured by the nightmare, a nightmare no doubt caused by Alessa's crippled state caused by her burns. The burning wasn't done to concieve the God imo, but to feed it. Kaufmann didn't need to plant a body, they just needed to get an article out to explain her disappearance. Lets not forget that Harry outright writes in a letter in SH3 that Dahlia burned Alessa, and Harry knows about the fire article. Why didn't Alessa retaliate? Possibly out of fear and trauma or apprehension in harming her mother. You could ask that for every detail: Why didn't she stop the ritual from the beginning? If the fire was accidental, why didn't she just free herself or stop the fire from spreading? To me, the fire article serves as nothing else but exposition that there was a fire at the Gillespie house. Due to lack of evidence, the imvestigator's best guess was the boiler, which is only "believed" to be the source. The same article expresses how dangerous the Cult are. People who nearly busted their narcotic trade just disappeared "mysteriously", what problem is covering up Alessa's burning to them? I respect your opinion, but I prefer this explanation for the story because it sells just how completely abhorred and villianous Dahlia and the Cult are.
Dahlia says: "For the seven years since that terrible day, Alessa has been kept alive, suffering a fate worse than death. Alessa has been trapped in an endless nightmare from which she never awakens. 'He' has been nurtured by that nightmare." This, to me, sounds like Dahlia is saying that Alessa had been kept alive *in order to* nurture the god. The fire should have killed Alessa, but she was magically kept alive. The nightmare inflicted upon her was the ritual and what she needed to suffer with, the fire just made it worse. We also see in SH3 that emotional suffering and hatred also work to nurture the god and that fire is unnecessary. In SH3, Harry does indeed write to Heather: "That was the young woman burned by her mother as a sacrifice to God...Alessa Gillespie." Harry in SH3 is shown to primarily be operating on what Dahlia told him on how all this works, but Dahlia never told Harry that Alessa was burned and the only indication of the source of the fire was the boiler memo. This seems to be a reasonable assumption from Harry, a mistake from the writers, or a retcon. We'd have to discard a lot of evidence to the contrary to say that Dahlia burned her as part of the ritual. This is something I'd have to double-check the Japanese script for, which I haven't done yet. The book found at the blood altar before Leonard (SH3) describes two different kinds of ritual sacrifice. The first being to pierce the victim with a stake (or spear?) in the heart, and the other to burn them alive. It mentions that being burned alive is more "dignified" so only the clergy could be sacrificed this way. While Alessa was venerated as St. Alessa post-mortem, she was not a part of the priesthood during the time of the ritual and the ritual in SH1 seems to indicate it involved spears (or stakes.) Alessa was kept magically alive so she could have survived either, theoretically. Your other points are valid. Why didn't Alessa fight back sooner? I don't know. But I also don't know why fire would have to be involved. I agree the boiler memo is expositing what is believed to have happened and not fabricated. I posit in the video that Alessa caused the fire, not simply the boiler by itself. "The same article expresses how dangerous the Cult are. People who nearly busted their narcotic trade just disappeared "mysteriously", what problem is covering up Alessa's burning to them?" I don't understand this question. Which article? The boiler memo? It doesn't mention the cult. The articles about PTV? It only claims suspicion but of no group in particular. If the cult had the power to kill their enemies, but it looked natural (Death Note style) it'd be very hard to claim the cult was responsible. But if the cult was just killing people, how would that effect what was published in the newspaper? Someone from the cult would have to step forward and claim that they could do this in order to threaten anyone (even privately) and, as far as what is in SH1, we have no reason to assume story elements that aren't given to us. Norman (from the Motel; probably) suspected Kaufmann was behind these deaths but didn't know, which sounds like he was never threatened directly.
@@themidnightsnow You make good points, I'll think about it some more. Its entirely possible that Harry deeply researched the Cult and Alessa's past between the events of SH1 and SH3. It could have been possible that the plan was to murder Alessa with fire (cleanse her, like the God will cleanse the Earth), then resurrect her (using the resurrection ritual) to keep her in a perpetual nightmare to feed the God and accelerate its birth. In Claudia's vision, hatred in the heart fed the God. In Dahlia's vision it could have been pain and nightmares. I believe the God in the games is a manifestation of their vision of their religion's God, which is why in SH1 it looks like Baphomet, but in SH3 like a monstrous Alessa. Even Vincent asks Claudia something along the lines of: "Isn't this all just part of your delusion? This doesn't look like the work of God to me". I believe the Cult were responsible for the "mysterious disappearances" since we know Kaufmann worked closely with the Cult and had a PTV stash, he probably funded the Cult and was likely a member (who distusted Dahlia). Either way, its awesome how things about this game are still being debated to this day. I like that some things can still be interpreted differently whilst both being valid interpretations.
@@themidnightsnow I wrote a well thought out response, and UA-cam deleted it. I don't know if I used a forbidden word or not, so I'll just conclude that I respect your opinion. I like that Silent Hill has things that are debated about today, I think all great art is, especially when there can be more interpretations that are all plausible.
Amazing video and another TGM watcher?? Subscribed immediately. Additionally we agree that fire was not part of the ritual. I always fall back on the fact that Heather wasn't burned in 3, but I also think Alessa intended to kill herself with the fire. To end her existence and take god with her, however I don't think Dahlia kept her alive with magic; I think it was god itself. In the video you mentioned you're not sure if anyone else had powers but its kind of implied that Dahlia had them to some extent, she's the one who cast the spell to have Cheryl come to town; personally, I think Dahlia just wasnt a strong enough psychic/medium for god to inhabit.
Apparently I have! Thanks! Working on more Silent Hill and after that (which will be a while) we’ll be analyzing other games with profound storytelling. (Easy contender being Majora’s Mask for example.)
@@themidnightsnow Awesome, glad to hear it!. Based off your style I would love to hear you go through Fear & Hunger, Haunting Grounds, or OFF. The last game in particular has plenty of light left to shed.
I do still need to play OFF and Fear and Hunger. I may stream them when I do but I also want to give them my full focus. Haunting Ground was okay. I loved the idea and Hewie is a good boy, but it didn’t do much for me.
@themidnightsnow by the looks of it my night and a good chunk of my shift tomorrow are filled. If you ever get into needs of voice-over or simple music numbers. I'd love to help if I could.
One of the best analysis I've ever seen, it was a pleasure to spend these 2 hours watching this 👏👏👏 About Silent Hill's lore, it's clear that Alessa was powerful enough to change the reality in town through her nightmares when she was alive, but what happened after her death? What exactly have caused the events of Silent Hill 2 and how is this tied with Alessa?
Thank you so much! I’ll be getting into it more in the SH2 video, but short answer is the spiritual power of the town that seems to cause the manifestations has been around since ancient times. The incident with Alessa left the town empty and the roads destroyed and was the first time something of that magnitude ever happened, possibly because her power amplified it or it was specifically the god ritual that made it spread. (Trying to simplify for comment text.)
@@themidnightsnow Ooh, now I get it! 😃 at first I thought the powers of the town itself was dormant til the presence of people with psychic powers as catalysts, that's why SH2 left me with so many questions about how the town works exactly... I'll be waiting for your video about SH2 (and the rest of the titles 😉) since you make focus on details of the lore like no one else did...
I'm going to get into it a lot more in the next video on SH2, but the short version is that **something** around the town causes manifestations. Ancient peoples saw these manifestations and thought they were gods. They depicted these manifestations in their art and then other people who saw the art manifested the same or similar creatures. The cult's religion is based entirely off of worshipping the manifestations of their own minds (with some Christianity and sun worship mixed in.) There's A LOT more to that but that'll have to do for a comment.
Thank you for stating that the first game is in no way related to Centralia, PA. I hate people that try to retcon the lore by saying it is ash falling on the town and that fires are burning underneath, because of the movie explanation. The game even explicitly states it is snow! Such a small thing to be irritated about, I know, but is is one of the most widely spread false facts for the game.
It’s not a small thing. So many of the misunderstandings in the series are specifically because of the film. The game is confusing, and the film offers an explanation, but not enough consideration if they are the same story or not. Lots of people started playing SH because of the movie and it’s made a deep schism in the fan base and part of the reason the later game’s writing is so confused. The little things are exactly what build into big issues.
This was a very well done video!~ I've been obsessed with silent hill since I was very little and have always prided myself on "just how much I knew about the story" and all that, but in recent years, hearing everything thrown around about this game, coming from social media, internal people, the wiki. The more I started coming to the conclusion that....I dont think I like silent hill anymore. It felt like any side of the community was insufferable. This video though, This video was something special. Definitive evidence and even brought up potential theories that I've never heard before either. Hell the theory alone of "Alessa carved the words into the desk" to support the "theif" that was written into it was never even considered. I'm eager to see what you bring up next, ESPECIALLY with SH3!
YOOOO I'm halfway through listening to this through work (got busy since my last comment lol) and I've gone through this game like 4 times my life but I've never once connected the fact that Alessa was weaponised by Dahlia. 😮🤯 Looking forward to finishing this vid and to your future Silent Hill games explanation videos! ❤️
I don’t know where I came from either, but I’m writing it now :D I took massive amounts of notes for SH1-4 and Origins and learned a lot of lessons doing this video so ideally shouldn’t take forever.
Enjoyed the vid, I like the pacing and the overall direction, and you have good skill with voiceover. However I think it's fair to say Alessa was in fact burned by her mother based on evidence that wasn't in the video. Alessa was burned past the point of death in either scenario (boiler or immolation), so that doesn't debunk her being burned on purpose. Her survival is due to the implanted god. It's not a reach to say Dahlia knew that it would sustain her. The cover up was after the fire got out of hand and burned down the house and multiple other houses (which shows errors in the first FMV as there are no surrounding houses). Alessa split her soul in half to prevent the birth, she definitely didn't do nothing. Nobody knows exactly if she was tied up and burned or knocked out, or how she wasn't able to overcome Dahlia. If she had, there would be no Silent Hill game. If she could blow up a boiler she could blow up Dahlia. She could douse a flame. You could just come up with all kinds of logical shots in the dark about possible psychic powers and how she could have avoided her fate, but she didn't. Dahlia said "everything is going according to plan", which doesn't make sense if the fire wasn't intended. So why the article ? The authorities didn't know for sure what the cause was. No cover up theory is even needed. The last thing they would assume was a ritual to bring about an unholy abomination cleanse the world and burn martyrs in the fires of hell. A sane person even without proof would assume something sensible, like a boiler explosion. This is what it says they believed but had not proved. The book of lost memories contains a few statements about the origin of the fire. Page 8 : 'The cause of the fire was a ritual Dahlia conducted using her daughter.' Page 9 : '...suffered from burns inflicted upon her since the ritual that brought about the descent of the God...' Page 25: 'She conducts a ritual to bring about the coming of the Cult's god using Alessa. her real daughter, inflicting extensive life-threatening burns upon her.' Page 82: 'Alessa, who received severe burns due to Dahlia's ritual.' Page 88: 'Alessa, who received extensive burns as a result of the ritual that brought about the descent of the God' Keiichiro Toyama responded to a now deleted tweet about this same topic. He said: 'I think... It's purpose'. As in it was done deliberately. Masahiro Ito, possibly replying to the same tweet or a similar discussion, said 'IMO, a boiler explosion doesn't match that'. Harry Mason also mentions in a memo in SH3 that Alessa was burned by her mother. He wrote this after the events of the first game. If he read the boiler explosion article this means he also believed it to be false in the end. The Silent Hill Koshiki Guidebook Kanzeban mentions the ritual process involved a great deal of fire. There is never any mention of a boiler explosion after the article in any game in the entire series, and no supplementary material or member of staff have brought it up other than to say they think it's false because she was burned on purpose. The evidence seems to fall overwhelmingly in favour of immolation with a known supernatural outcome, kept secret.
They already had a chosen and maybe willing person to be the mother of God. Alessa wasn't willing and wasn't supposed be chosen. Maybe the ritual backfired.🤔🤔
That’s what seems to have happened. No idea if the original vessel was a willing person or not though. The short graphic novel that Owaku and Ito made in 2006 called “Silent Hill: Cage of Cradle” allegedly seems to say that Lisa was going to be the vessel but since it was released digitally, the content as been mostly lost and most of the plot is heresay and fuzzy memories so no one really knows. (Man, I hope Ito’s got that on a hard drive somewhere!)
Gosh was a bit caught off guard by the Swedish in the beginning 😂 Loved the video and also have a personal relationship with Silent Hill. Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪
Hello! Thank you for saying so :) The Swedish was from P.T. the “playable teaser” for the cancelled game Silent Hills. It was a social experiment that was designed to be streamed. Most likely this part in Swedish was intended to be translated by PewDiePie who was at his peak at the time, which is exactly what happened. Really cool Twitch community mystery to solve and the Swedish lines were just a few of the pieces.
@@themidnightsnowoh right, now I remember. Feels like a lifetime ago when I played through P.T. I hope Silent Hill returns to its roots soon. The remake of 2 looks promising but an entire new game that is as good as the classic trilogy would be awesome to experience again. Will you do videos of the other installments?
It practically was a lifetime ago. P.T. was ten years ago Dx I do too. If not in lore at least in style. I disagree with lots of Origin's world building but I love playing the game on its own. I am excited to play SH2re but at the same time it looks a lot more mainstream. Yes, I plan on doing SH1-4 and Origins. I may attempt PT as well but I'm not sure what I could add yet.
So silent Hill has huge gaping holes in the ground where roads used to be? And an entire towns population just disappeared and it's not mentioned in any later game? Most of your take is good but the idea of fog world being the real world makes no sense.
As far as SH1 is concerned, there isn’t any indication that the Misty World exists. To the contrary, there is some evidence that the population was either killed or turned into monsters. (See: Unanswered Questions segment.) The reason it’s not mentioned in later games is likely simply because it’s not important or relevant as the town is used as the setting and how it got that way isn’t important to the current story. (There is also no mention of the Misty World either.) James, Angela, and Eddie in SH2 also don’t seem to think the state of the town is particularly unexpected which seems to me to be a general awareness that Silent Hill is abandoned. Why do you think the Misty World needs to exist for SH1 to make sense?
You have a lot of valid points. It just makes more sense to me that Alessa is bringing certain key people into her world gradually then just killing everyone off. The fog world by your assumptions would remain desolate with no one alive and random endless caverns where streets used to be after she died. It just doesn't make much sense
I don’t think Alessa is bringing people deliberately into her world at all since she doesn’t seem to have control over the Otherworld. The only people who are unaffected are either deep in the cult like Dahlia and Kaufmann (who had aglophotis to protect him too) or came to town later like Harry and Cybil. Lisa was in neither situation and was revealed to have been killed and claims that everyone else was killed too. I defended the Misty World (Fog World) being just the real world and not being some intermediary dimension in the video so I won’t restate it all here, but I particularly want to point out that when the nightmare ends in the Good+ ending, Harry and Cybil are returned to the foggy streets and are not stuck there like Rose and Sharon were in the film. I see no evidence of the Misty World being a necessary story element in SH1 as it is presented. Do you have any evidence from SH1 to the contrary of my stance that I missed? Yes, the Misty World is a thing in current canon, but it looks like it was applied retroactively and was not the case in SH1 in 1999. This concept was not applied to the games until Origins after the first film introduced it as definitely being the case.
So Silent Hill is truly empty, there’s no town full of people living there? All of the people dead or turned to monsters? The effects of the town are permanent?
That's what's depicted in SH1-3. It gets a bit muddied in SH4 but largely agrees with SH1-3. Origins necessitates that the town is still active which is part of why it's commonly seen as frustratingly contradictory to SH1 (too complex to explain in this comment). Homecoming makes no comment on the subject. Shattered Memories is an AU and is a normal town. Downpour is the first to definitively state that the town is an active town with living people that Murphy can't see.
It really is and it’s so frustrating for those of us who have been here since the beginning. I do want to say that this isn’t the current canon anymore, but that just means SH1-4 are in a different continuity that the rest of the series and it’s okay to like the new direction so long as we all understand that they’re different.
Woah, Rumin! Hello! I watch your SH runs all the time! Especially, the SH2 100% items, no bullet adjust, no saves, Rebirth run. Godlike! I’m planning a “Rumin Run” on my stream one day but I’m not good enough yet lol Respectfully agree to disagree, but I’m honored you watched my video!
@themidnightsnow Honored! Thanks for watching my stuff, i'll be looking forward to your own 10 Stars if you commentate them. Want to hear what I think about the boiler explosion? I'm not sharing to try to argue with your theory, as all views are valid imo and we should all agree to disagree respectfully, I just want to share specifically because I haven't heard it anywhere else: 1:30:42 I always thought the Light to the Future paintings depicted the ritual, and the "light" was the fire. So "where is the fire" is behind the camera, which is why the paintings have an orange tone to them. The play novel mentions a "sacred flame" needed for the ritual. So I thought the ritual was essentially this: You need to spear the mother of God in the womb (which is depicted in the painting and why Alessa is shown with bandages around her stomach in opening amv), with nothing but fire being the source of light during the ritual. The fire then got out of control.
I’m putting together a vod channel for just that! I stream SH1-4 all the time, especially lately and 80% of my routing comes from your vids! I always thinking of the “new bullets” at the end of Nathan Ave in the dark lol I welcome the challenge to my stance :) Hm, I like the idea of the photograph being the fire in concept, but it would have to apply to both pictures in that case. Would there be any meaningful reason that the camera or flash are related to the flame? It would make more sense to equate it to the lightning to me, but I don’t know in what way. I admit, I haven’t given the Play Novel nearly enough attention and plan to soon. But I also know Keiichiro Toyama left Konami after SH1 and Hiroyuki Owaku was writing SH2 at the time. PN:SH was written by Hideki Sakamoto and is an adaptation so I take it with a grain of salt like I would a novelization of a film for instance. But that’s just me splitting hairs on what’s canon and what’s not.
@themidnightsnow I wasn't trying to challenge your stance lol. At the end of the day I just take everything officially published by Konami as canon in some way. And yeah the fire is the source of light in both photos, as God would use the flame to cleanse the Earth right after being born.
I don’t mean “challenge” as a negative thing. Bringing something contrary to my position is a challenge and invites me to think differently about it which is what I’m all about here. It’s all good in either case :) I used to take Konami’s official publications as canon for a long time but with all the changing hands, internal inconsistencies, and Ito claiming a story bible was never made, I only trust what got pressed on the discs. I’m not sure the god is actually its own entity. I believe it was manifested as a deity but is really just another monster so it wouldn’t have to have a specific method of cleansing the world. However the lighting makes a lot of sense relating it to a method of destruction and harkening back to the flash of the camera.
i always felt that the fog world being a separate dimension from the real world was necessary for silent hill to function not in the first game no, but in mater entries silent hill is… still alive, to put it some way people are still living there, you just don’t see it, but the development of the town specifically in the district present in SH2 and 3 basically tells you that people are still present in the town (also the parts outside the town in 3 and 4, where is the people? even if we take Vincent’s “they look like monsters to you?” any protagonist of the games would be arrested minutes after dealing with the evils of the town seeing as they would’ve gone on a murderous rampage to the eyes of the world), if they just happened in the real world then like, why are people still living in the town? where are they when you play through it? it makes the most sense if it’s a different dimension of sorts, even if partially if not then Heather basically went on a rampage on a portland mall, metro station and office building without consequences if not then the people of silent are kinda dumb if they stay in the town after all the nightmares also all of SH4 where the manifestations of the otherworld are different from their real life counterparts (Cintia dies in the otherworld metro but she’s found dead in the real metro station) idk none of this makes sense if the fog world isn’t separate from the real world
The Misty World is necessary in the series in Origins but not SH1-4. I’m going to get into more detail in the next video, but the state of the town is not unexpected by James, Angela, Eddie, Heather, or Douglas. Between SH2 and SH3’s shared district, there is almost nothing different despite the multi year time gap except for some roadblocks which can be seen as manifestations even in SH2. Heather even says in Heaven’s Night while reading the brochure from SH2 that Silent Hill: “I had forgotten it but it’s true. Silent Hill **used to be** a resort town.” Brookhaven looks like it’s stuck in the 1980’s (which checks out with SH1 happening in the 80’s and being abandoned then), the differences being either arbitrary, level design changes, or aesthetic updates (like the floor tile color.) The people “living” there aren’t in a different dimension from our protagonists, but are simply ghosts like Lisa or Ernest. Ernest even shows that ghosts can physically move objects. Brookhaven is particularly haunted with the spirits of many patients and staff. There’s also evidence in SH2 that the person killed by the first Lying Figure was a homeless person living in the tunnel there when they were killed. True, if people were getting killed in the real world because they looked like monsters to our protagonist, the real world should notice. SH3 shows the same event that happened in SH1. Manifestations occur and the people disappear. We never get to find out what happens to them or what societal impact that had since the story isn’t focused on that. Those places are literally filled with monsters now. (There’s a memo in the Underpass that recounts a worker whose friends were killed by the water monster independent of Heather’s experience.) All the SH4 worlds are a different effect, all the “worlds” being dreams just like Alessa’s Nowhere in SH1 where everything is nonsensical and based on Walter’s memories. I don’t know why Walter’s victims (like Cynthia) leave the dreamworld where they died since that’s different than how SH1 works (and I need to study SH4 more) but it seems to be based on the idea where we see Harry taken into the dream and then dropped out of it. There’s a **lot** more to this that’ll be a video one day, but the short answer is ghosts and people disappear with monsters replacing them. I think what hangs up a lot of people is how catastrophic a whole town disappearing would be and the games just never address it because it’s not important to the current story. My issue with the alternate dimension interpretation is that these two dimensions can interact with each other, but in ways that are arbitrary and circumstantial, especially in cases where Laura and James allegedly see different worlds simultaneously which would mean that they’re both in different dimensions and also not.
Do you think it would have been a good idea to keep the series as a personal story of Alessa and end it there, then have SH2 as a chapter in an anthology? in my opinion anything after SH3 just adds volume but no substance (only Shattered Memories holds a special place in my heart but that is nostalgia speaking). After watching many ( like MANY) SH analysis videos I know I am not alone in that thought. Also " I don't believe anything worth doing should be given half measures" I am taking that into my personal list of principles to live by if you don't mind.
Understanding Alessa’s story as the origin of how and why Silent Hill is the way it is is essential to making new anthology stories. The cult story of birthing the god should be over with SH3 and Alessa’s story full over. SH2 is exactly the kind of framework that should be worked with going forward, but later games really got stuck on the guilt and “amnesia” plot lines when it’s much bigger than that, delving into the uncomfortable things we believe about ourselves and others. SH4 has a lot of substance that gets overlooked like what isolation and a lack of love does to a person so I wouldn’t discount it. SH:SM has good moments but it’s mostly a vibe imo. Also, you may appropriate any life advice you may have gleaned from me. I’d be honored if you did :) Just know that also goes for rest and recreational activities as well!
Hello, @the midnight Snow. Can you please leave a list of the soundtracks you used for this video? Mosty of them are my favorites but I can't find them in the internet for the life of me. Maybe they're not even from Silenmt Hill games, but I'd love to know what you used nonetheless. Thank you!
@@themidnightsnow cool I went to Silent Hill because I got a letter, the name on the envelope said Mary - my wife's name, died of that damn disease three years ago, and all I got was this stupid Maria
Спасибо большое! Я еще не играл в SIGNALIS. Не уверен, что это что-то, что меня интересует, но мне постоянно ее рекомендуют, так что, возможно, мне просто придется это сделать!
enjoying the video so far , but your game is running at a higher framerate i feel , is just distracting somehow... kinda changes how the game feels alot.
Yeah, I’m using the 60fps cheat. It makes Harry a lot more responsive and feels better to play, but does affect the mood a little. You can change the video down to 30fps if it’s too distracting.
I’ve never been sure. It sounds like a match but functions more like a lighter. But then Harry needs a lighter to solve a puzzle, so I guess he lost the first one he had? Weird stuff.
True! There are some inconsistencies in the FMV versus what’s presented in the actual games which is unfortunate. Alessa being just mildly burned in the FMV rather than the whole body wrap in the wheelchair when seen in Nowhere, for instance. Maybe we can reconcile this by supposing there was a lot more vegetation that burned and traveled to other houses? idk
Well, here’s tonight‘s comfort video to fall asleep to, however, it’s already incredibly interesting and it might be too difficult to actually fall asleep 💀 Regardless, I’m definitely setting some time aside tomorrow to make sure I watch this in full and not miss anything, I’m a longtime fan of the franchise and it’s very refreshing coming across someone using only the games for source material 🥰
Back now that I'm awake and AGH I LOVE HOW YOU DID THIS WITH THE BAD ENDING FIRST!!!! Your storytelling in this is absolutely brilliant how you equated playing the game over again (or new game+) with an actual in game time loop! Especially considering most people had to play again for the Good or Good+ because these things were SO easy to miss on a first play through, especially if you didn't have a guide. SO clever, tbh I lost it a little, that probably made the entire video for me and I'm only 45 minutes in 😭
![[UA] Eternal Fire проти NAVI | EPL Season 20 Malta](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/chvlsDygrZM/mqdefault.jpg)
[CORRECTIONS]
- (I will add timestamps soon.)
- In reference to TGM’s video, Team Silent was a real developer group within Konami, but many members changed around per game and were not unified under a singular vision.
- I mistakenly conflated Alessa's innate power with the manifestation of her nightmare in some places. This is incorrect as they are separate phenomena.
- The Midwich map is oriented 90 degrees clockwise, so my compass directions are incorrect.
- Snow is likely not a manifestation, but the temperature change is. Fog is not a manifestation.
- Subtitles are fixed.
@@themidnightsnow I finished watching your video and wanted to say thanks. Not only did you explain the crazy story too this game, but you answered other things I didn't understand. Such as alessa killing the cop Gucci I always thought it was dahlia that killed him. Anyway thanks again i will watch more videos of yours.
Thanks, it was a year plus of research and playing this game to death to get here!
I actually wouldn’t have put it together either if Heather hadn’t said Alessa “could kill people just by wishing for it.” I looked back at SH1 and it was there the whole time 🤯
@@themidnightsnow if you could please explain one more things to me. Why does the god at the end of silent hill 3 look different?
Because the god in SH1 is what Alessa believed it to look like based on the image of it at the altar. Her drawing of it makes clear that that is the form she had in mind. It manifested from that image.
In SH3, Claudia is primarily the one doing the manifesting. While she is working to birth the god, she mostly just wants her friend Alessa back. Her salvation was in reuniting with Alessa so the god looks like a monstrous, incomplete version of Alessa. (It’s a bit more complicated than that but that’s the basic idea.)
@@themidnightsnow thanks again your the best.
Babe, wake up, another small channel I don't know about just uploaded a feature length video about Silent Hill again
Bro for real 😂😂
Acccccurate we built our algorithms brick by brick
I thought about that same thing, "how dark have I been lately that I keep getting all these amazing silent hill videos from channels I've never seen a video from" @@amcstoner3372
Hell yea
The narrative is so interesting.
And every youtuber seems to have a unique experience
Right!?! Always love hearing different opinions and perspectives on this gem 💎
It seems as if the silent hill games really spoke to a specific slice of our generation.
We all grieve at some point in life, and have to make sense of events that we don't understand. These games oddly enough sorta gave us a frame of reference for the absolutely trash world we'd be trying to navigate as adults.
God love y'all, stay safe out there.
They really did.
my entry into these games was silent hill 3 demo on a playstation magazine, then i picked up silent hill 2, and wasnt expecting something like this to make me remember childhood trauma that i was burying deep in my subconscious..it helped me grieve too but for my self, my old innocent self.
@@isaiasrico589 it's crazy you bring it up. I played SH1 at my buddy's house down the street and then 2 and 4 at another friend's house on Xbox. And today my son and I found my original Xbox in the basement.
I plugged everything into an old VCR/crtv combo I have down here too and it still works and turns on.
I'm gonna buy all the original Xbox titles so we can play then together when he gets a little older.
But yeah there's a nostalgia here for these games. Like a vacation town we all went to as kids and we are all connected through our time there.
Always here for long form Silent Hill content
Hey man, I just got recommended this vid, but I have to say your voice over is very well done! You speak very clearly. Nicely done!
Ah, thank you for saying so! That was one of my biggest struggles and concerns, just making sure I wasn’t stumbling over my words.
Lol same. And I'm grateful.
Really nice video, when you summed up Harry's relationship with his daughter at the end, hit me hard, "At lest one righteous man in a world of sinners well done," well done. I can see you're doing your best to only use in game knowledge to create connections, but to help build on your thoughts. The idea of Alessa having pyromancers or fire control, links well into Alchemical themes in the story of Silent Hill's and real world Occult links.
Thank you, thank you.
If nothing else, I wanted to get a good emotional response :')
I'm surprised I've never seen anyone else (to my knowledge) comment on Alessa maybe having pyrokenetic powers. It's not cited as an inspiration, but I know that Team Silent referred to pop culture movies a lot such as the similarites with Alessa and Carrie, but the movie Firestarter was also in that era and genre. May have bled into the idea. All speculation though. But also, yeah, occult pyromancy is a thing to explore too.
i've never seen your videos before but this is by far one of the best retrospectives/media analyses i've ever seen. i enjoyed it heavily. you earned a supporter.
Thank you so much.
It's all the years of contemplation and running out of retrospectives for me to watch that had me throw myself into the ring.
Awersome Video dude. I really like your thoughts and conclutions. The first Silent Hill has a special place in my hearth. You managed to make me think about it again after 15 years.
I personally subscribe to the interpretation that the sirens represent the ones she heard while she was burning alive. It is the point of no return, when the nightmare first began for her and a fitting signal for when it seeps into the real world.
I tend to agree that the sirens are related to the fire engines and it’s even the interpretation Origins seems to go with, the fire engine sirens transitioning into the Otherworld sirens.
It’s just odd that they sound more like air ride sirens. They are scarier though.
@@themidnightsnow The sirens sound similar to the ones in my city that would go off if a big, general emergency would happen. So maybe that is why i never made the air raid connection. To me it sounds like "big threatening thing is happening" so sounding that when a big fire is happening makes sense. If the japanese developers thought the same thing, no idea.
ty so much for the content, it is extremely well documented and explained, hope you get more views
Thank you! I got really worried towards the end that I had lost my mind and this would only make sense to me lol
Excellent video dude. I’m only half way through but I love it. I am a huge SH fan.
Thank you :)
I always find it funny how Cybil just outright gives you her handgun, of all the ways you could make Harry find a firearm. Which is even more funny is that the rest of you arsenal you outright pick it up from the floor, the shotgun in the bathroom and the hunting rifle in the outdoors store.
Lots of trust to put in a stranger for sure!
Interesting that she has another handgun later. Did she have two or did she find one in a urinal somewhere? 🤔 lol
@@themidnightsnow I think she goes to the police station while Harry has his bizarre adventure.
That’d make a lot of sense.
I do still need to go over the Play Novel’s Cybil scenario and see how well it jives with SH1. Different writers and many endings. Might make an interesting (and much shorter!) video.
It just occured to me that Cybil probably think that the town was attacked by extremists or even aliens for everyone to have disappeared. LMAO
That's the only logic I have for Cybil handing us a gun out of nowhere. I don't think she can even see the monsters Harry sees possibly right until she gets possesed? Coz she's never mentioned any of the enemies in any of the cutscenes. But this is just my assumption. 🤔
@@nafizhelmi That was my assumption too. Something that wasn't a natural disaster or disease or something like that likely was caused by an attacker. But even though Cybil doesn't see the monsters at the same time as Harry as far as we the players know, it doesn't mean she is incapable of seeing them. I think she just doesn't mention them.
absolute banger just dropped. Sorry I couldn't be there for the launch!. The video is fantastic as expected.
There you are, Arcane! Don’t worry about not being awake at absurd hours.
The premiere was just hype. The video is forever :)
(Freakin’ love your avatar btw.)
dude keep it up, that’s some quality content here, thank you for this video
You're welcome and thank you!
Amazing breakdown, first explanation that has actually made me feel like I kinda understand the story and it's not all gibberish. Well done 🔥🔥🔥
Thank you, Val!
I’m glad it actually made sense in the end. I got so brain twisted making this!
Great job on this video man. Been a SH fan for along time, this was a nice watch.
Thanks so much!
Trying to finally give back as an old SH fan myself who’s been neck deep in video essays since the dawn of UA-cam lol
SH2 is my all time fave game. Remake looks AMAZING! Can't wait til the 6th!!! To all the RE fanboys, don't sleep on this one! You'll be missin out
It does look amazing! I’m nervous about story changes but at the very least, going around the town refreshed and expanded is going to be so awesome.
"In my restless dreams i see that town Silent Hill" - Mary Sunderland.
This game series, yes even Downpour and Homecoming, will remain my favorite horror game hands down. I never cried as hard as i did at the end of SH2 or felt as confused as Alex when he found out what happened to his brother. This game series will forever be the greatest horror franchise of all time. *looks over at the new silent hill media that came out* yeah.....those are bad, lets hope "Silent Hill F" (or Forte since it has that musical notation) is good.
Oh, is it Forte? I didn’t realize! Neat! It’s the release I’m looking forward to the most.
I appreciate Homecoming. It has a lot of issues but something about it hits that nostalgia element even when I played it at release. That feeling of a home you can’t go back to.
Downpour… had a lot of good ideas and I remembered it fondly, but it’s got so many little problems holding it back, imo.
@themidnightsnow totally agree on both fronts, im happy i gave you some new insight on the new SH game.
Whether Dahlia burned Alessa or it was the result of a boiler explosion. Both situations do not change anything. In both cases, Alessa was burned and ended up admitted to Alchemilla.
Yeah, that’s why I mentioned it doesn’t ultimately matter as far future lore is concerned and the present story in SH1.
Though I do think the boiler fire explanation has more supporting evidence and presents a more meaningful version of Alessa’s story as someone who fought back instead of doing nothing when she could have.
I’ve always believed it was the bouiler incident and probably not an accident with Daliah involved for sure. I enjoyed Orgins psp but the changed quite a few things but still enjoyed it
I actually really like Origins too, the closest in spirit and mood to the originals but the writing gets too many details mixed up.
@@themidnightsnowI do find the boiler explotion makes more sence,as as soon Alessa is reunited with Cheryl and turned into the incubator,she gets fully cured,afterall,pain and suffering may nurture the God,but it does need a healty...womb,incubator?
So i think setting her on fire and expecting her to give birth to satan won't make much sence,she getting that badly hurt handicapped the ritual.
me hearing your boiler argument after dismissing it for years: you're right it doesn't matter
(no one's made a good argument for it before now, imo)
I've been watching essays on Silent Hill for like 15 years, so you bet your ass I'm gonna watch another essay that is over 2 hours long.
They never get old, do they? Fascinating games.
My little cousin is very sick and im in shock, somehow this video helped me to calm down. Thank you from the deep of my heart.
Hoping for the best for your cousin! Glad you were able to find some peace here ❤️
This was an amazing watch, very excited to see your future uploads analysing Silent Hill
really well done, my man. hope to see more SH content
Solid work man. Really digging the small channels I've been getting recommended lately.
Thanks :)
UA-cam seems to be doing a better job of discovering smaller channels lately. Really awesome to finally see that.
@@themidnightsnow Keep it up. You have a good style for these types of videos.
Nothing like finding a new silent hill video I haven’t seen that’s over an hour long. Fucking love it.
Edit: you did a really great job on this retrospective man 👏👏👏👏👏
Do you have any plans on making another retrospective on the other games?? Specifically 2-4???
Thank you, thank you.
I do plan on doing SH2-4 and will probably do Origins as well to make the case of how it can't be in the same continuity as the other four.
Your narration and writing styles reminds me a lot of thegamingmuse, who I enjoy immensely. Fantastic video!
Thank you! I’ve watched a lot of her videos and appreciate her commentary. Some of her style must have rubbed off on me, haha.
This video is so dope, it gave me glances of ideas on how to adapt the games’s story into a 12 episodes series/tv show where the first 6 episodes would be how Harry would arrive at nowhere and defeat God/Alessa, and the other six would be a repeat of the nightmare and Harry getting more info on the general situation and story of Alessa, Cybil’s perspective of the nightmare, a flashback to how Cheryl was found and how she convinced Harry to come to Silent hill, and a flashing out Lisa’s and Kaufman’s story. On the second half Harry would understand that the nightmare was sealing into the real world, and It would end with Harry saving the baby and Cybil, the nightmare dissipating but leaving the town forever scared, haunted, and attracting damned souls. Season 2 would be with James. 😉
U a film maker?
I had no idea this game was so deep!
This isn’t even the deep one.
Fell asleep to this so now I gotta rewatch
Mood.
This video is too good 🤌🤌🤌
Thank you :)
Oh my God. That was sooooo AMAZING. Absolutely love it.
Thanks so much :)
Why I believe Dahlia intentionally burned Alessa: in her final speech, she says that Alessa suffered a fate "worse than death", which trapped her in an endless nightmare and that the God was nurtured by the nightmare, a nightmare no doubt caused by Alessa's crippled state caused by her burns. The burning wasn't done to concieve the God imo, but to feed it. Kaufmann didn't need to plant a body, they just needed to get an article out to explain her disappearance. Lets not forget that Harry outright writes in a letter in SH3 that Dahlia burned Alessa, and Harry knows about the fire article.
Why didn't Alessa retaliate? Possibly out of fear and trauma or apprehension in harming her mother. You could ask that for every detail: Why didn't she stop the ritual from the beginning? If the fire was accidental, why didn't she just free herself or stop the fire from spreading?
To me, the fire article serves as nothing else but exposition that there was a fire at the Gillespie house. Due to lack of evidence, the imvestigator's best guess was the boiler, which is only "believed" to be the source.
The same article expresses how dangerous the Cult are. People who nearly busted their narcotic trade just disappeared "mysteriously", what problem is covering up Alessa's burning to them?
I respect your opinion, but I prefer this explanation for the story because it sells just how completely abhorred and villianous Dahlia and the Cult are.
Dahlia says:
"For the seven years since that terrible day, Alessa has been kept alive, suffering a fate worse than death. Alessa has been trapped in an endless nightmare from which she never awakens. 'He' has been nurtured by that nightmare."
This, to me, sounds like Dahlia is saying that Alessa had been kept alive *in order to* nurture the god. The fire should have killed Alessa, but she was magically kept alive. The nightmare inflicted upon her was the ritual and what she needed to suffer with, the fire just made it worse. We also see in SH3 that emotional suffering and hatred also work to nurture the god and that fire is unnecessary.
In SH3, Harry does indeed write to Heather:
"That was the young woman burned by her mother as a sacrifice to God...Alessa Gillespie."
Harry in SH3 is shown to primarily be operating on what Dahlia told him on how all this works, but Dahlia never told Harry that Alessa was burned and the only indication of the source of the fire was the boiler memo. This seems to be a reasonable assumption from Harry, a mistake from the writers, or a retcon. We'd have to discard a lot of evidence to the contrary to say that Dahlia burned her as part of the ritual. This is something I'd have to double-check the Japanese script for, which I haven't done yet.
The book found at the blood altar before Leonard (SH3) describes two different kinds of ritual sacrifice. The first being to pierce the victim with a stake (or spear?) in the heart, and the other to burn them alive. It mentions that being burned alive is more "dignified" so only the clergy could be sacrificed this way. While Alessa was venerated as St. Alessa post-mortem, she was not a part of the priesthood during the time of the ritual and the ritual in SH1 seems to indicate it involved spears (or stakes.) Alessa was kept magically alive so she could have survived either, theoretically.
Your other points are valid. Why didn't Alessa fight back sooner? I don't know. But I also don't know why fire would have to be involved. I agree the boiler memo is expositing what is believed to have happened and not fabricated. I posit in the video that Alessa caused the fire, not simply the boiler by itself.
"The same article expresses how dangerous the Cult are. People who nearly busted their narcotic trade just disappeared "mysteriously", what problem is covering up Alessa's burning to them?"
I don't understand this question. Which article? The boiler memo? It doesn't mention the cult. The articles about PTV? It only claims suspicion but of no group in particular. If the cult had the power to kill their enemies, but it looked natural (Death Note style) it'd be very hard to claim the cult was responsible. But if the cult was just killing people, how would that effect what was published in the newspaper? Someone from the cult would have to step forward and claim that they could do this in order to threaten anyone (even privately) and, as far as what is in SH1, we have no reason to assume story elements that aren't given to us. Norman (from the Motel; probably) suspected Kaufmann was behind these deaths but didn't know, which sounds like he was never threatened directly.
@@themidnightsnow You make good points, I'll think about it some more.
Its entirely possible that Harry deeply researched the Cult and Alessa's past between the events of SH1 and SH3.
It could have been possible that the plan was to murder Alessa with fire (cleanse her, like the God will cleanse the Earth), then resurrect her (using the resurrection ritual) to keep her in a perpetual nightmare to feed the God and accelerate its birth. In Claudia's vision, hatred in the heart fed the God. In Dahlia's vision it could have been pain and nightmares. I believe the God in the games is a manifestation of their vision of their religion's God, which is why in SH1 it looks like Baphomet, but in SH3 like a monstrous Alessa. Even Vincent asks Claudia something along the lines of: "Isn't this all just part of your delusion? This doesn't look like the work of God to me".
I believe the Cult were responsible for the "mysterious disappearances" since we know Kaufmann worked closely with the Cult and had a PTV stash, he probably funded the Cult and was likely a member (who distusted Dahlia).
Either way, its awesome how things about this game are still being debated to this day. I like that some things can still be interpreted differently whilst both being valid interpretations.
@@themidnightsnow I wrote a well thought out response, and UA-cam deleted it. I don't know if I used a forbidden word or not, so I'll just conclude that I respect your opinion. I like that Silent Hill has things that are debated about today, I think all great art is, especially when there can be more interpretations that are all plausible.
Incredible work,wait for all the rest and also other horror games story analysis
Amazing video and another TGM watcher?? Subscribed immediately.
Additionally we agree that fire was not part of the ritual. I always fall back on the fact that Heather wasn't burned in 3, but I also think Alessa intended to kill herself with the fire. To end her existence and take god with her, however I don't think Dahlia kept her alive with magic; I think it was god itself.
In the video you mentioned you're not sure if anyone else had powers but its kind of implied that Dahlia had them to some extent, she's the one who cast the spell to have Cheryl come to town; personally, I think Dahlia just wasnt a strong enough psychic/medium for god to inhabit.
Congrats on hitting the algorythm man! Easy sub from me, excited to see whatever you make.
Apparently I have! Thanks!
Working on more Silent Hill and after that (which will be a while) we’ll be analyzing other games with profound storytelling. (Easy contender being Majora’s Mask for example.)
@@themidnightsnow Awesome, glad to hear it!.
Based off your style I would love to hear you go through Fear & Hunger, Haunting Grounds, or OFF. The last game in particular has plenty of light left to shed.
I do still need to play OFF and Fear and Hunger. I may stream them when I do but I also want to give them my full focus.
Haunting Ground was okay. I loved the idea and Hewie is a good boy, but it didn’t do much for me.
Well.... now i have to binge.
Thanks, sorry it took so long to find this channel.
Sorry it took so long for me to put out something worth watching!
@themidnightsnow by the looks of it my night and a good chunk of my shift tomorrow are filled.
If you ever get into needs of voice-over or simple music numbers. I'd love to help if I could.
One of the best analysis I've ever seen, it was a pleasure to spend these 2 hours watching this 👏👏👏
About Silent Hill's lore, it's clear that Alessa was powerful enough to change the reality in town through her nightmares when she was alive, but what happened after her death? What exactly have caused the events of Silent Hill 2 and how is this tied with Alessa?
Thank you so much!
I’ll be getting into it more in the SH2 video, but short answer is the spiritual power of the town that seems to cause the manifestations has been around since ancient times. The incident with Alessa left the town empty and the roads destroyed and was the first time something of that magnitude ever happened, possibly because her power amplified it or it was specifically the god ritual that made it spread. (Trying to simplify for comment text.)
@@themidnightsnow Ooh, now I get it! 😃 at first I thought the powers of the town itself was dormant til the presence of people with psychic powers as catalysts, that's why SH2 left me with so many questions about how the town works exactly... I'll be waiting for your video about SH2 (and the rest of the titles 😉) since you make focus on details of the lore like no one else did...
I'm going to get into it a lot more in the next video on SH2, but the short version is that **something** around the town causes manifestations. Ancient peoples saw these manifestations and thought they were gods. They depicted these manifestations in their art and then other people who saw the art manifested the same or similar creatures. The cult's religion is based entirely off of worshipping the manifestations of their own minds (with some Christianity and sun worship mixed in.)
There's A LOT more to that but that'll have to do for a comment.
Thank you for stating that the first game is in no way related to Centralia, PA. I hate people that try to retcon the lore by saying it is ash falling on the town and that fires are burning underneath, because of the movie explanation. The game even explicitly states it is snow! Such a small thing to be irritated about, I know, but is is one of the most widely spread false facts for the game.
It’s not a small thing. So many of the misunderstandings in the series are specifically because of the film. The game is confusing, and the film offers an explanation, but not enough consideration if they are the same story or not.
Lots of people started playing SH because of the movie and it’s made a deep schism in the fan base and part of the reason the later game’s writing is so confused. The little things are exactly what build into big issues.
Starting this video, subscribing, saving for bed time
Best time to watch a video about child sacrifice really.
Excellently researched video! Earned yourself a subscriber.
Thank you, thank you :)
This was a very well done video!~
I've been obsessed with silent hill since I was very little and have always prided myself on "just how much I knew about the story" and all that, but in recent years, hearing everything thrown around about this game, coming from social media, internal people, the wiki. The more I started coming to the conclusion that....I dont think I like silent hill anymore. It felt like any side of the community was insufferable.
This video though, This video was something special. Definitive evidence and even brought up potential theories that I've never heard before either. Hell the theory alone of "Alessa carved the words into the desk" to support the "theif" that was written into it was never even considered. I'm eager to see what you bring up next, ESPECIALLY with SH3!
My dude, we will be watching your youtube career with great interest.
Thank you, Chancellor Paperplane.
I gotta cop Silent Hill now!
iz a gud game
DO. IT. :)
YOOOO I'm halfway through listening to this through work (got busy since my last comment lol) and I've gone through this game like 4 times my life but I've never once connected the fact that Alessa was weaponised by Dahlia. 😮🤯
Looking forward to finishing this vid and to your future Silent Hill games explanation videos! ❤️
Okay so just learned I've been playing through the NA version LMAO
There were so many little details I never knew from just looking online. The “No God” but blew my mind when I saw it.
@@nafizhelmi Man, I wish someone would patch the NA version. It’s literally a matter of turning a 0 into a 1 (almost.)
Bro I don't know where you came from but can you hurry up and get part 2 out 😂 that was such an incredible watch!
I don’t know where I came from either, but I’m writing it now :D
I took massive amounts of notes for SH1-4 and Origins and learned a lot of lessons doing this video so ideally shouldn’t take forever.
Hey! I love your video! I hope your channel takes off!
YES. I have another video to sleep to! (gonna watch the full video first of course)
INCREDIBLE!!! Absolutely incredible!!! 👏 👏 👏
wife
Enjoyed the vid, I like the pacing and the overall direction, and you have good skill with voiceover. However I think it's fair to say Alessa was in fact burned by her mother based on evidence that wasn't in the video.
Alessa was burned past the point of death in either scenario (boiler or immolation), so that doesn't debunk her being burned on purpose. Her survival is due to the implanted god. It's not a reach to say Dahlia knew that it would sustain her. The cover up was after the fire got out of hand and burned down the house and multiple other houses (which shows errors in the first FMV as there are no surrounding houses).
Alessa split her soul in half to prevent the birth, she definitely didn't do nothing. Nobody knows exactly if she was tied up and burned or knocked out, or how she wasn't able to overcome Dahlia. If she had, there would be no Silent Hill game. If she could blow up a boiler she could blow up Dahlia. She could douse a flame. You could just come up with all kinds of logical shots in the dark about possible psychic powers and how she could have avoided her fate, but she didn't.
Dahlia said "everything is going according to plan", which doesn't make sense if the fire wasn't intended.
So why the article ? The authorities didn't know for sure what the cause was. No cover up theory is even needed. The last thing they would assume was a ritual to bring about an unholy abomination cleanse the world and burn martyrs in the fires of hell. A sane person even without proof would assume something sensible, like a boiler explosion. This is what it says they believed but had not proved.
The book of lost memories contains a few statements about the origin of the fire.
Page 8 : 'The cause of the fire was a ritual Dahlia conducted using her daughter.'
Page 9 : '...suffered from burns inflicted upon her since the ritual that brought about the descent of the God...'
Page 25: 'She conducts a ritual to bring about the coming of the Cult's god using Alessa. her real daughter, inflicting extensive life-threatening burns upon her.'
Page 82: 'Alessa, who received severe burns due to Dahlia's ritual.'
Page 88: 'Alessa, who received extensive burns as a result of the ritual that brought about the descent of the God'
Keiichiro Toyama responded to a now deleted tweet about this same topic. He said: 'I think... It's purpose'. As in it was done deliberately.
Masahiro Ito, possibly replying to the same tweet or a similar discussion, said 'IMO, a boiler explosion doesn't match that'.
Harry Mason also mentions in a memo in SH3 that Alessa was burned by her mother. He wrote this after the events of the first game. If he read the boiler explosion article this means he also believed it to be false in the end.
The Silent Hill Koshiki Guidebook Kanzeban mentions the ritual process involved a great deal of fire.
There is never any mention of a boiler explosion after the article in any game in the entire series, and no supplementary material or member of staff have brought it up other than to say they think it's false because she was burned on purpose. The evidence seems to fall overwhelmingly in favour of immolation with a known supernatural outcome, kept secret.
Amazing video ❤ I really enjoyed it, and I always felt the fire was an accident.
They already had a chosen and maybe willing person to be the mother of God. Alessa wasn't willing and wasn't supposed be chosen. Maybe the ritual backfired.🤔🤔
That’s what seems to have happened. No idea if the original vessel was a willing person or not though.
The short graphic novel that Owaku and Ito made in 2006 called “Silent Hill: Cage of Cradle” allegedly seems to say that Lisa was going to be the vessel but since it was released digitally, the content as been mostly lost and most of the plot is heresay and fuzzy memories so no one really knows. (Man, I hope Ito’s got that on a hard drive somewhere!)
This was a great video bro
Thank you.
Gosh was a bit caught off guard by the Swedish in the beginning 😂
Loved the video and also have a personal relationship with Silent Hill.
Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪
Hello! Thank you for saying so :)
The Swedish was from P.T. the “playable teaser” for the cancelled game Silent Hills. It was a social experiment that was designed to be streamed. Most likely this part in Swedish was intended to be translated by PewDiePie who was at his peak at the time, which is exactly what happened. Really cool Twitch community mystery to solve and the Swedish lines were just a few of the pieces.
@@themidnightsnowoh right, now I remember. Feels like a lifetime ago when I played through P.T.
I hope Silent Hill returns to its roots soon. The remake of 2 looks promising but an entire new game that is as good as the classic trilogy would be awesome to experience again.
Will you do videos of the other installments?
It practically was a lifetime ago. P.T. was ten years ago Dx
I do too. If not in lore at least in style. I disagree with lots of Origin's world building but I love playing the game on its own. I am excited to play SH2re but at the same time it looks a lot more mainstream.
Yes, I plan on doing SH1-4 and Origins. I may attempt PT as well but I'm not sure what I could add yet.
@@themidnightsnow looking forward to more videos on Silent Hill 😊
So silent Hill has huge gaping holes in the ground where roads used to be? And an entire towns population just disappeared and it's not mentioned in any later game? Most of your take is good but the idea of fog world being the real world makes no sense.
As far as SH1 is concerned, there isn’t any indication that the Misty World exists. To the contrary, there is some evidence that the population was either killed or turned into monsters. (See: Unanswered Questions segment.)
The reason it’s not mentioned in later games is likely simply because it’s not important or relevant as the town is used as the setting and how it got that way isn’t important to the current story. (There is also no mention of the Misty World either.)
James, Angela, and Eddie in SH2 also don’t seem to think the state of the town is particularly unexpected which seems to me to be a general awareness that Silent Hill is abandoned.
Why do you think the Misty World needs to exist for SH1 to make sense?
You have a lot of valid points. It just makes more sense to me that Alessa is bringing certain key people into her world gradually then just killing everyone off. The fog world by your assumptions would remain desolate with no one alive and random endless caverns where streets used to be after she died. It just doesn't make much sense
I don’t think Alessa is bringing people deliberately into her world at all since she doesn’t seem to have control over the Otherworld. The only people who are unaffected are either deep in the cult like Dahlia and Kaufmann (who had aglophotis to protect him too) or came to town later like Harry and Cybil. Lisa was in neither situation and was revealed to have been killed and claims that everyone else was killed too.
I defended the Misty World (Fog World) being just the real world and not being some intermediary dimension in the video so I won’t restate it all here, but I particularly want to point out that when the nightmare ends in the Good+ ending, Harry and Cybil are returned to the foggy streets and are not stuck there like Rose and Sharon were in the film. I see no evidence of the Misty World being a necessary story element in SH1 as it is presented. Do you have any evidence from SH1 to the contrary of my stance that I missed?
Yes, the Misty World is a thing in current canon, but it looks like it was applied retroactively and was not the case in SH1 in 1999. This concept was not applied to the games until Origins after the first film introduced it as definitely being the case.
@@themidnightsnow I think I may have to concede to your take. Only going by the first game on its own it does make sense. It was a very good video.
@@420deadbirds4 I will be covering the games as the evolved so I’ll definitely be explaining how the Misty World works in a later video.
Great Job man! def Subscribing hope for more!!!
My favorite genre of moments in time
Boiler explosion
Ohhhh yeah.... more silent hill content. Say less
Me for 2 hours: blehblehblehAlessablehblehblehblehOtherworldblehblehbleh
So Silent Hill is truly empty, there’s no town full of people living there? All of the people dead or turned to monsters? The effects of the town are permanent?
That's what's depicted in SH1-3. It gets a bit muddied in SH4 but largely agrees with SH1-3.
Origins necessitates that the town is still active which is part of why it's commonly seen as frustratingly contradictory to SH1 (too complex to explain in this comment).
Homecoming makes no comment on the subject.
Shattered Memories is an AU and is a normal town.
Downpour is the first to definitively state that the town is an active town with living people that Murphy can't see.
@@themidnightsnow thanks I’m so used to the whole concept that the town is still active. Silent Hill has to be the most misunderstood franchise ever.
It really is and it’s so frustrating for those of us who have been here since the beginning.
I do want to say that this isn’t the current canon anymore, but that just means SH1-4 are in a different continuity that the rest of the series and it’s okay to like the new direction so long as we all understand that they’re different.
I still disagree but this is the best pro-boiler explosion video I've seen.
Woah, Rumin! Hello! I watch your SH runs all the time! Especially, the SH2 100% items, no bullet adjust, no saves, Rebirth run. Godlike! I’m planning a “Rumin Run” on my stream one day but I’m not good enough yet lol
Respectfully agree to disagree, but I’m honored you watched my video!
@themidnightsnow Honored! Thanks for watching my stuff, i'll be looking forward to your own 10 Stars if you commentate them.
Want to hear what I think about the boiler explosion? I'm not sharing to try to argue with your theory, as all views are valid imo and we should all agree to disagree respectfully, I just want to share specifically because I haven't heard it anywhere else:
1:30:42 I always thought the Light to the Future paintings depicted the ritual, and the "light" was the fire. So "where is the fire" is behind the camera, which is why the paintings have an orange tone to them.
The play novel mentions a "sacred flame" needed for the ritual. So I thought the ritual was essentially this: You need to spear the mother of God in the womb (which is depicted in the painting and why Alessa is shown with bandages around her stomach in opening amv), with nothing but fire being the source of light during the ritual.
The fire then got out of control.
I’m putting together a vod channel for just that! I stream SH1-4 all the time, especially lately and 80% of my routing comes from your vids! I always thinking of the “new bullets” at the end of Nathan Ave in the dark lol
I welcome the challenge to my stance :) Hm, I like the idea of the photograph being the fire in concept, but it would have to apply to both pictures in that case. Would there be any meaningful reason that the camera or flash are related to the flame? It would make more sense to equate it to the lightning to me, but I don’t know in what way.
I admit, I haven’t given the Play Novel nearly enough attention and plan to soon. But I also know Keiichiro Toyama left Konami after SH1 and Hiroyuki Owaku was writing SH2 at the time. PN:SH was written by
Hideki Sakamoto and is an adaptation so I take it with a grain of salt like I would a novelization of a film for instance. But that’s just me splitting hairs on what’s canon and what’s not.
@themidnightsnow I wasn't trying to challenge your stance lol. At the end of the day I just take everything officially published by Konami as canon in some way. And yeah the fire is the source of light in both photos, as God would use the flame to cleanse the Earth right after being born.
I don’t mean “challenge” as a negative thing. Bringing something contrary to my position is a challenge and invites me to think differently about it which is what I’m all about here. It’s all good in either case :)
I used to take Konami’s official publications as canon for a long time but with all the changing hands, internal inconsistencies, and Ito claiming a story bible was never made, I only trust what got pressed on the discs.
I’m not sure the god is actually its own entity. I believe it was manifested as a deity but is really just another monster so it wouldn’t have to have a specific method of cleansing the world. However the lighting makes a lot of sense relating it to a method of destruction and harkening back to the flash of the camera.
STOKED 100%
Fantastic!
Thank you!
Time to commence the Algorithm Ritual!
i always felt that the fog world being a separate dimension from the real world was necessary for silent hill to function
not in the first game no, but in mater entries silent hill is… still alive, to put it some way
people are still living there, you just don’t see it, but the development of the town specifically in the district present in SH2 and 3 basically tells you that people are still present in the town (also the parts outside the town in 3 and 4, where is the people? even if we take Vincent’s “they look like monsters to you?” any protagonist of the games would be arrested minutes after dealing with the evils of the town seeing as they would’ve gone on a murderous rampage to the eyes of the world), if they just happened in the real world then like, why are people still living in the town? where are they when you play through it? it makes the most sense if it’s a different dimension of sorts, even if partially
if not then Heather basically went on a rampage on a portland mall, metro station and office building without consequences
if not then the people of silent are kinda dumb if they stay in the town after all the nightmares
also all of SH4 where the manifestations of the otherworld are different from their real life counterparts (Cintia dies in the otherworld metro but she’s found dead in the real metro station)
idk none of this makes sense if the fog world isn’t separate from the real world
i should’ve waited until the video mentioned later games and retcons sill be covered later, my bad
The Misty World is necessary in the series in Origins but not SH1-4. I’m going to get into more detail in the next video, but the state of the town is not unexpected by James, Angela, Eddie, Heather, or Douglas. Between SH2 and SH3’s shared district, there is almost nothing different despite the multi year time gap except for some roadblocks which can be seen as manifestations even in SH2. Heather even says in Heaven’s Night while reading the brochure from SH2 that Silent Hill: “I had forgotten it but it’s true. Silent Hill **used to be** a resort town.”
Brookhaven looks like it’s stuck in the 1980’s (which checks out with SH1 happening in the 80’s and being abandoned then), the differences being either arbitrary, level design changes, or aesthetic updates (like the floor tile color.)
The people “living” there aren’t in a different dimension from our protagonists, but are simply ghosts like Lisa or Ernest. Ernest even shows that ghosts can physically move objects. Brookhaven is particularly haunted with the spirits of many patients and staff. There’s also evidence in SH2 that the person killed by the first Lying Figure was a homeless person living in the tunnel there when they were killed.
True, if people were getting killed in the real world because they looked like monsters to our protagonist, the real world should notice. SH3 shows the same event that happened in SH1. Manifestations occur and the people disappear. We never get to find out what happens to them or what societal impact that had since the story isn’t focused on that. Those places are literally filled with monsters now. (There’s a memo in the Underpass that recounts a worker whose friends were killed by the water monster independent of Heather’s experience.)
All the SH4 worlds are a different effect, all the “worlds” being dreams just like Alessa’s Nowhere in SH1 where everything is nonsensical and based on Walter’s memories. I don’t know why Walter’s victims (like Cynthia) leave the dreamworld where they died since that’s different than how SH1 works (and I need to study SH4 more) but it seems to be based on the idea where we see Harry taken into the dream and then dropped out of it.
There’s a **lot** more to this that’ll be a video one day, but the short answer is ghosts and people disappear with monsters replacing them. I think what hangs up a lot of people is how catastrophic a whole town disappearing would be and the games just never address it because it’s not important to the current story.
My issue with the alternate dimension interpretation is that these two dimensions can interact with each other, but in ways that are arbitrary and circumstantial, especially in cases where Laura and James allegedly see different worlds simultaneously which would mean that they’re both in different dimensions and also not.
Do you think it would have been a good idea to keep the series as a personal story of Alessa and end it there, then have SH2 as a chapter in an anthology? in my opinion anything after SH3 just adds volume but no substance (only Shattered Memories holds a special place in my heart but that is nostalgia speaking). After watching many ( like MANY) SH analysis videos I know I am not alone in that thought.
Also " I don't believe anything worth doing should be given half measures" I am taking that into my personal list of principles to live by if you don't mind.
Understanding Alessa’s story as the origin of how and why Silent Hill is the way it is is essential to making new anthology stories. The cult story of birthing the god should be over with SH3 and Alessa’s story full over.
SH2 is exactly the kind of framework that should be worked with going forward, but later games really got stuck on the guilt and “amnesia” plot lines when it’s much bigger than that, delving into the uncomfortable things we believe about ourselves and others. SH4 has a lot of substance that gets overlooked like what isolation and a lack of love does to a person so I wouldn’t discount it. SH:SM has good moments but it’s mostly a vibe imo.
Also, you may appropriate any life advice you may have gleaned from me. I’d be honored if you did :) Just know that also goes for rest and recreational activities as well!
Gotta do the other SH games
SH2-4 and Origins are in the pipeline!
Might do PT or comment on the Cybil scenario in the Play Novel too.
Insta-subscribed 😏🥺😌 this is gonna be a banger 🖤🔥🤍
Hello, @the midnight Snow. Can you please leave a list of the soundtracks you used for this video? Mosty of them are my favorites but I can't find them in the internet for the life of me. Maybe they're not even from Silenmt Hill games, but I'd love to know what you used nonetheless. Thank you!
subbed immediately…. 😳
Have You ACTUALLY Seen a Little Girl
I went to Silent Hill looking for a little girl, short black hair, just turned seven last month and all I got was this stupid baby.
@@themidnightsnow cool
I went to Silent Hill because I got a letter, the name on the envelope said Mary - my wife's name, died of that damn disease three years ago, and all I got was this stupid Maria
мне понравились твои теории и разбор тихого холма.....максимально понятно и интересно
а игру сигналис SIGNALIS ультимативно анализировать возможно?
Спасибо большое! Я еще не играл в SIGNALIS. Не уверен, что это что-то, что меня интересует, но мне постоянно ее рекомендуют, так что, возможно, мне просто придется это сделать!
@@themidnightsnow ладно жду пусть и через год
Это не должно занять так много времени! (Надеюсь.)
Yes Yes Yes
It's happening!
enjoying the video so far , but your game is running at a higher framerate i feel , is just distracting somehow... kinda changes how the game feels alot.
Yeah, I’m using the 60fps cheat. It makes Harry a lot more responsive and feels better to play, but does affect the mood a little.
You can change the video down to 30fps if it’s too distracting.
@@themidnightsnow yeah is all good , i just noticed that but doesnt affect at all the quality of the video. Great stuff brotherrrrr
Thank you :)
Back in the day, i could not understand the story too this game. Imagine my surprise when it was all for birthing a demon god!
54:58 what’s the name of the song playing here??
I’ve seen it go under the name ‘Trinkets’ and ‘Fear of the Dark’ (official release remix.)
WOOOO
Btw its a zippo not a match 👍
I’ve never been sure. It sounds like a match but functions more like a lighter. But then Harry needs a lighter to solve a puzzle, so I guess he lost the first one he had? Weird stuff.
@@themidnightsnow yeah it's like the town moved it in the nightmare lol. you also find the same one in sh2
Oh, interesting! I didn't realize they referenced the same lighter in SH1 and SH2.
OOOOOOOH!!!!!!!!
Mary?
What do you want, James?
1:04:28 what’s the song called playing here??
It’s the song before fighting the Floatstinger boss. It’s usually called “Floatstung” on UA-cam but I don’t think that’s the official name.
@@themidnightsnowthanks man! Appreciate the response
The true story was that Harry was a very irresponsible step parent on a bad acid trip.
56:40 that must’ve been a crazy fire to take down 5 other houses when they live in the middle of nowhere from the looks of it lol
True!
There are some inconsistencies in the FMV versus what’s presented in the actual games which is unfortunate. Alessa being just mildly burned in the FMV rather than the whole body wrap in the wheelchair when seen in Nowhere, for instance.
Maybe we can reconcile this by supposing there was a lot more vegetation that burned and traveled to other houses? idk
@@themidnightsnowhahaha deal. It’s officially canon
Well, here’s tonight‘s comfort video to fall asleep to, however, it’s already incredibly interesting and it might be too difficult to actually fall asleep 💀
Regardless, I’m definitely setting some time aside tomorrow to make sure I watch this in full and not miss anything, I’m a longtime fan of the franchise and it’s very refreshing coming across someone using only the games for source material 🥰
Back now that I'm awake and AGH I LOVE HOW YOU DID THIS WITH THE BAD ENDING FIRST!!!! Your storytelling in this is absolutely brilliant how you equated playing the game over again (or new game+) with an actual in game time loop! Especially considering most people had to play again for the Good or Good+ because these things were SO easy to miss on a first play through, especially if you didn't have a guide. SO clever, tbh I lost it a little, that probably made the entire video for me and I'm only 45 minutes in 😭