History Headscratchers / SilentHillHomecoming

**** He brought Josh along to antagonize him. Josh was the one that wasn't allowed out on the lake. We don't know whether or not Alex was, but Josh was the one who stated they weren't supposed to go on the lake at night. Alex was trying to scare Josh and spent the entire trip antagonizing him because the entire point of the trip was to antagonize Josh. Josh has blatantly been the favorite of the family and Alex resents him for it. Breaking dad's rules was teenage rebellion; using it as an opportunity to las out at Josh was taking out his resentment on Josh over their parents' favoritism.
***** It could be that I didn't see it, but I am pretty sure the flashbacks didn't hint at Alex to carrying any real resentment towards Josh. If anything his beef was with his parents. It just kinda comes out of nowhere.
****** There has never been a sibling in the history of the world who didn't have ''some'' beef with their siblings. It's just basic sibling rivalry.
******* So it comes down to Alex being kind of a moron then?
******** It comes down to Alex being a teenager with a brother who made a stupid mistake. What do you expect? A justification that absolves Alex of any and all wrongdoing? He was young and stupid, and he did something stupid and immature, with devastating consequences.

* Why does [[spoiler: Joshua's death]] stop the original plans? Even if we assume that Joshua didn't count for it what's to stop Alex's parents from [[spoiler: drowning Alex like they were originally going too]]?

*** ^ This, more or less. I think the "because of him" bit was Holloway blaming Adam for screwing up his part of the ritual by letting Josh drown instead of Alex. That Alex was chosen for the sacrifice and then Josh accidentally wound up being sacrificed instead essentially bluescreened the ritual, and cost the town its protection.

*** ''"I have failed, and they know it. They blame me. They should. I swore to protect this town, but I can't. The streets decay before our eyes. The curse we always feared has come upon us. Worse yet, The Order has returned, kidnapping and killing with impunity, brainwashing those they take in an effort to rebuild their flock. Whether they want to punish us for the exodus of our forefathers - or simply to breathe new life into the old ways, I don't know. But they've taken our people. The only thing left is to face the source of this evil, to fight it, and pray that some hope can be restored. My sole consolation is that I've finally opened my eyes to the evil in Silent Hill."''

******** It comes down to Alex being a teenager with a brother who made a stupid mistake. What do you expect? A justification that absolves Alex of any and all wrongdoing? He was young and stupid, and he did something stupid.

"Hey, that sounds like a good idea, Alex!" That aside, is there actually some reason for Alex wanting to take Josh out sailing in the middle of the night (he dies at 2:06 AM)? I don't think the game offers any.

"Hey, that sounds like a good idea, Alex!" That aside, is there actually some reason for Alex wanting to take Josh sailing in the middle of the night (he dies at 2:06 AM)? I don't think the game offers any.

*** ''"I have failed, and they know it. They blame me. They should. I swore to protect this town, but I can't.
The streets decay before our eyes. The curse we always feared has come upon us. Worse yet, The Order has returned, kidnapping and killing with impunity, brainwashing those they take in an effort to rebuild their flock. Whether they want to punish us for the exodus of our forefathers - or simply to breathe new life into the old ways, I don't know. But they've taken our people.
The only thing left is to face the source of this evil, to fight it, and pray that some hope can be restored. My sole consolation is that I've finally opened my eyes to the evil in Silent Hill."''

''"I have failed, and they know it. They blame me. They should. I swore to protect this town, but I can't.

To clarify, Joshua's death didn't count as a sacrifice for the ritual because he drowned by accident (he wasn't "willingly consign our child to the water in God's name") and he wasn't the intended sacrifice (the last name on the Shepherd Family sacrificial altar is "Alex Shepherd").

** I think the idea is that the gods/power/whatever counted Josh as a sacrifice even though it was an accident, since he died the way their sacrifice was supposed to, by drowning. But since they hadn't chosen Josh, it failed; once that happened, the damage was done and even killing Alex wouldn't help anything. Another theory is that Adam and Lily couldn't bear to lose Alex too after Josh died, so they refused to perform their part of the ceremony. I don't agree with that one so much, since if killing Alex could fix things you'd think Holloway would have made that her top priority, but she does later say "because of him, our sacrifice was in vain" as if what happened to the town was Adam's fault.

** I think the idea is that the gods/power/whatever counted Josh as a sacrifice even though it was an accident, since he died the way the Shepherd sacrifice was supposed to, by drowning. But Josh hadn't been chosen as a sacrifice, and so it failed. Once that happened, the damage was done and even killing Alex wouldn't help anything. Another theory is that Adam and Lily couldn't bear to lose Alex too after Josh died, so they refused to perform their part of the ceremony. I don't agree with that one so much, since if killing Alex could fix things you'd think Holloway would have made that her top priority, but she does later say "because of him, our sacrifice was in vain" as if what happened to the town was Adam's fault.

** The timeline seems to be as follows: Alex finds his mom trapped in the rack. He tries to free her, but the machine seems to respond by tightening and so he leaves it alone while trying to figure out what to do next. His mom instead asks him to kill her, and he agonizes over that decision. Whichever choice you make, though, she then gets pulled completely apart within a few seconds. I don't think there's ever really a chance for him to clear his head, take a look at the machine and figure out how to jam it; the whole sequence, minus the interactive elements, probably only takes a minute or two, and most of that time is tied up in conversation. Plus, if the rack only had a few more turns before ripping her apart, she might've already been far too injured to be saved, even if he could have gotten her out.

** Wheeler and Elle definitely don't know what happened - as far as they're concerned, Alex was in the military and Josh just disappeared. The only people who knew the whole truth were, as said, probably the founding family heads, and they ''also'' know that Alex is delusional. Among them, Alex's mom seems pretty far gone herself, Judge Holloway seems to take some sadistic enjoyment out of watching Alex's quest (and it does make him easier for her to predict and manipulate) and Fitch was barely listening to a word Alex said (and I don't think Alex said much about Josh in their conversation anyway - he mostly kept asking about Scarlet). That leaves Mayor Bartlett, who's very drunk and emotionally broken anyway, but also seems to have some sympathy for Alex, such as when he said "you shouldn't have come back Alex, times are bad". He might not have had it in him to answer Alex's "where's my brother" with a brutally honest "he's dead and you're living a lie" (that he instead answered Alex's question with a resigned "you can't save them" could be taken as a subtler way of saying the same thing).

** The timeline seems to be as follows: Alex finds his mom trapped in the rack. He tries to free her, but the machine seems to respond by tightening and so he leaves it alone while trying to figure out what to do. His mom asks him to kill her, and he agonizes over that decision. Whichever choice you make, though, she then gets pulled apart pretty quickly. I don't think there's ever really a chance for him to clear his head, take a look at the machine and figure out how to jam it; the whole sequence, minus the interactive elements, probably only takes a minute or two, and most of that time is tied up in conversation. Plus, if the rack only had a few more turns before ripping her apart, she might've been far too injured to be saved, even if he could have gotten her out.

* Why did nobody ever bother to even ask Alex what he was talking about every time he [[spoiler: asks where his brother is]]? Even if they don't want to remind him about the truth, it still doesn't explain why they aren't shocked that he's asking about it.
** Barring [[spoiler:Judge Holloway]], I'd say it's pretty safe to assume that nobody really knows what's happened. I'm not even 100% convinced that Alex's mother knows. [[spoiler:Adam may have told her, although even that I'm not sure about, but she sure didn't seem to have retained the information.]] Other than those two, who does Alex even talk to Joshua about? Wheeler? Elle? Curtis? Doc Fitch and Mayor Bartlett? Wheeler has no reason to know anything other than what Alex knows, which is that Josh is missing - he probably knows this because he's an officer and because he works with Alex's dad. Weirdly, Elle doesn't even seem to have known that Josh is missing, either - Alex telling her when she's putting up flyers seems to come as a surprise, despite how long, it's implied, that Alex has been gone. If Curtis knows anything [[spoiler:from his position as Judge Holloway's torture BFF, and with some of his lines to Alex ("A soldier's gotta have a gun") in their first scene, it's fairly clear that he does,]] he doesn't seem interested in revealing it, probably because it's not his issue and he just doesn't care enough to bother, which is in character for him. As for Fitch and Bartlett, [[spoiler:they clearly know what's happened, considering their place in the group and how they both seem to be losing it about their completely useless sacrifices, but both are so insane over the grief of what they've done and too busy coping with their own issues to really care what the hell Alex is going on about.]] Bartlett's so drunk I'm surprised he's managing to stand up straight, and Fitch [[spoiler:is too busy being a total creep over Scarlet's "dollies" and kind of losing it deluding (?) himself in believing that she was living on in some way that he could still communicate with her.]] It's not exactly airtight by any stretch of the imagination, but there is some explanation there.

* In the scene where [[spoiler:Alex's mom is killed by a machine]], he has to make a choice about whether he should [[spoiler:watch her die or end her suffering by killing her]]. So why doesn't he just use the various items and weapons he's gathered to jam the machine? He has more than enough time, and it looks like it isn't exactly in good repair anyway.
** More than enough time? Really? He has about two minutes, if that. And I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have any idea what to jam where. The fact that he doesn't even try is a little weird, but I think he's shaken by what he's seeing, what he's being asked to do, and maybe - just maybe - there's a little part of him that doesn't really feel a huge urgency to [[spoiler:save her]], anyway. I'm not saying he [[spoiler:wanted her to die - his reaction to her death makes that pretty clear]] - but Silent Hill is kind of all about examining those deep, buried parts of your psyche that are ugly - the things you wouldn't want anyone to know. I wouldn't exactly be surprised to find that, with the way he was treated, Alex maybe didn't feel 100% enthusiastic about [[spoiler:saving his mother's life]], sort of in the same vein as, in SilentHill2, James [[spoiler:telling Mary he killed her because he couldn't stand to continue watching her suffer - but when he realizes he has to be completely truthful with himself, that he can't keep running and hiding from the truth anymore, he admits, "No, that's not true. [...] The truth is, I hated you. I wanted you out of the way. I wanted my life back...".]]

* Why did nobody ever bother to even ask Alex what he was talking about every time he [[spoiler: asks where his brother is]]? Even if they don't want to remind him about the truth it still doesn't explain why they aren't shocked that he's asking about it.
** Barring [[spoiler:Judge Holloway]], I'd say it's pretty safe to assume that nobody really knows what's happened. I'm not even 100% convinced that Alex's mother knows. [[spoiler:Adam may have told her, although even that I'm not sure about, but she sure didn't seem to have retained the information.]] Other than those two, who does Alex even talk to Joshua about? Wheeler? Elle? Curtis? Doc Fitch and Mayor Bartlett? Wheeler has no reason to know anything other than what Alex knows, which is that Josh is missing - he probably knows this because he's an officer and because he works with Alex's dad. Weirdly, Elle doesn't even seem to have known that Josh is missing, either - Alex telling her when she's putting up flyers seems to come as a surprise, despite how long, it's implied, that Alex has been gone. If Curtis knows anything [[spoiler:from his position as Judge Holloway's torture BFF, and with some of his lines to Alex ("A soldier's gotta have a gun") in their first scene it's fairly clear that he does,]] he doesn't seem interested in revealing it, probably because it's not his issue and he just doesn't care enough to bother, which is in character for him. As for Fitch and Bartlett, [[spoiler:they clearly know what's happened considering their place in the group and how they both seem to be losing it about their completely useless sacrifices, but both are so insane over the grief of what they've done that and too busy coping with their own issues to really care what the hell Alex is going on about.]] Bartlett's so drunk I'm surprised he's managing to stand up straight, and Fitch [[spoiler:is too busy being a total creep over Scarlet's "dollies" and kind of losing it deluding (?) himself in believing that she was living on in some way that he could still communicate with her.]] It's not exactly airtight by any stretch of the imagination, but there is some explanation there.

* In the scene where [[spoiler: Alex's mom is killed by a machine]] he has to make a choice about whether he should [[spoiler: watch her die or end her suffering by killing her]]. So why doesn't he just use the various items and weapons he's gathered to jam the machine? He has more than enough time and it looks like it isn't exactly in good repair anyway.