Line #8 TearJerker/SilentHill2


1	!!As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy]]. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.
2	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/angela_look.png]]
3	[[caption-width-right:350:"[[TheWoobie For me]], [[EvilIsBurningHot it's always like this]]."]]
4	->''"I have been emotionally ravaged by a total of two games: the first is ''Silent Hill 2''. I've been to enough conventions and talked to enough people about it that I know I am not alone in this. There are many ways to interface psychologically with the game, but if you are a sentimental husband with a young, beautiful wife, the game is precisely calibrated to annihilate you."''
5	-->-- '''Tycho''', ''Webcomic/PennyArcade''
6
7	In addition to being one of the [[NightmareFuel/SilentHill2 scariest games]] which [[BringMyBrownPants may or may not require a new pair of pants]], ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' is said to be one of the most [[TearJerker emotionally gut-wrenching games]]. They're not wrong.
8	----
9	* Room 312. The conversation you hear between Mary and James in the hallway, where you begin to understand how sympathetic James ''really'' is, how hard it must've been for Mary, and for James to take her abuse and mixed messages. The In Water/Leave endings are heartbreaking when finally James confesses, guiltily and tearfully: "The truth is... I ''hated'' you. I wanted you out of the way. I wanted my life back!" The In Water ending is, of course, much worse, because despite Mary's urge for James to move on... he doesn't.
10	** Mary's response in the Leave ending to James saying "I hated you," is devastating in a completely different way. "If that were true... then why do you look so sad?"
11	** Going back to Room 312, the song "True" is so amazing. It mixes all of the elements that the game is: mystery, sadness, pain, etc. It is a perfect song for the perfect scene that even listening to it without the game's context makes you feel somewhat empty.
12	* On that note, the full text of Mary's letter, which you finally hear in the end. VO actress Monica Horgan has said that some of the ADR crew began to choke up during her final recording of the monologue; can you blame them?
13	--> ''I can't tell you to remember me, but I can't bear for you to forget me.\
14	These last few years since I became ill... I'm so sorry for what I did to you, did to us...\
15	You've given me so much and I haven't been able to return a single thing.\
16	That's why I want you to live for yourself now.\
17	Do what's best for you, James.\
18	James...\
19	James... You made me happy.''
20	** Jeremy Blaustein revealed in an interview some time after the game's release that Horgan herself began crying after narrating the letter; the tone at the end of her narration, where she begins to sound close to bursting into tears, [[EnforcedMethodActing sounds all the more genuine for it.]]
21	* Any and all scenes with Angela, but ''particularly'' her final scene, when James confronts her on the burning staircase before she is fully DrivenToSuicide by ascending it.
22	** Particularly tough for some is when Angela calls James out for white-knighting. If the player really has been seeing her as someone to help, the rebuff rings humiliatingly true. Even more so for James--even if Angela could be helped, he's not the person who can help her, due to his own issues, and he knows it.
23	--->'''Angela:''' No, don't pity me! I'm not worth it... Or maybe, you think you can ''save'' me. Will you ''love'' me? ''Take care'' of me? Heal ''all'' my pain?
24	--->''(James hangs his head in silence)''
25	--->'''Angela:''' bitterly That's what I thought.
26	** And what's especially cold about the above is the fact that as soon as Angela tells James she doesn't want or even deserve his pity, the camera shifts to a first person view...meaning that Angela is now angrily looking at the screen and could be seen as actually chewing ''the player'' out for possibly thinking there was a way they could actually save her. Angela is telling '''''YOU''''' off for white-knighting...
27	** When James tells her that he can see her Otherworld:
28	---> '''James:''' It's hot as hell in here.
29	--->'''Angela:''' You see it, too? For me, it's always like this.
30	** And in the middle of the conversation...
31	--->'''Angela:''' Thank you for saving me... [[DeathSeeker but I wish you hadn't]]. Even Mama said it - I ''[[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming deserved]]'' what happened.
32	** That line could be interpreted as an admission that her mother's cruel and inhumane condemnation of her was the final straw.
33	* The hospital basement segment wherein James is helpless to save Maria when the elevator doors trap her outside, but remain open just enough for him to see Pyramid Head brutally murder her. James slumps to the ground with a look of utter defeat while the most somber music in the game fades in.
34	* "You killer! Why'd you do it?! I hate you! I want her back! Give her back to me! I knew it, you didn't care about her! I hate you, James! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"
35	* "Look! I'm ''disgusting''! I don't deserve flowers. [...] Are you still here? I told you to go! Are you deaf!? Don't come back! ...''James''... Wait. Please don't go... Stay with me. Don't leave me alone, I didn't mean what I said. Please, James... Tell me I'll be okay. Tell me I'm not going to die... ''Help me...''"
36	** The saddest part is implied by how listening to the entire exchange pushes you heavily toward the "Leave" ending, and it's not hard to guess why. If you walk all the way to the end of the corridor you'll reach the exit just as Mary yells at James to get lost, where a first-time player would naturally assume the dialogue was over and go through the door, not expecting it to continue after a pause... Which is exactly what James did. When they actually had that conversation, he had already left the room and wasn't there to hear anything she said after sending him away; it must be ''devastating'' for him to finally get a listen to the depth of sadness, desperation and fear that was really on Mary's heart all that time.
37	* Maria's entire story in ''Born From A Wish''. She starts out as just another person lost in a town filled with fog and monsters, contemplates suicide, and somehow finds the strength to go on. Displaying her kind personality in helping someone who's only dismissive of her, she discovers what she really is. It's hard to say if she was looking for revenge on James since she had Mary's memories of being killed by him or if she was still somehow hoping for a happy ending.
38	* Most of the endings fall into this category.
39	** In Water: James succumbs to his despair, and, in spite of Mary's tearful plea for him to move on, he cannot, and commits suicide.
40	** Maria: Despite his experiences in Silent Hill, James isn't ready to accept that Mary is gone, and latches onto Maria. What drives it into tear-jerker territory is that the cough at the end shows that history is doomed to repeat, and just like Mary did, she will get sick and die.
41	** Rebirth: James cannot accept that Mary is truly gone, and is willing to invoke the dark forces of Silent Hill to try and resurrect her.
42	* There's something profoundly sad about the final boss being reduced to simply murmuring "James..." before being finished off, regardless of who it is. Maria is a TragicMonster who can't do anything but revolve around him even in death, while Mary, despite starting out bitter and vengeful, seems despairing rather than angry.
43	* James starts out believing that Mary has been dead for three years. It turns out that she's only been dead for maybe a few days or even hours, but that she most likely became ill three years ago, as per the memory of a doctor stating that she could possibly live for that long with her diagnosis. The implication is that Mary has been "dead" to James for the duration of her illness.
44	* The message that appears at Neely's Bar after leaving the hospital has a detail that turns it from creepy to this: the capitalized letters can be rearranged to spell "I NEED YOU MARY BE REAL".
45	* It's an easy moment to miss, but if you check the stacks of liquor bottles backstage at Heaven's Night, James' inner monologue will reveal that he often [[DrowningMySorrows drinks heavily to try numbing his pain and loneliness]], but that it doesn't really work.
46	* Laura's fate if you don't choose the "Leave" ending (or if you assume that she's never adopted by James). She traveled all the way to Silent Hill by herself, hitchiking with Eddie at some point, skips innocently across the city without a care in the world in the hopes she'll find Mary. But when she finally gets to the hotel and meets with James, she's ''crushed'' from learning that her closest friend was murdered and she breaks down. She never appears after that, meaning that she'll have to make it back to the orphanage all by herself, broken and never to see Mary ever again.
47	** The fact that Maria asks James to find her, implying that Mary's love for Laura is still in her. However Laura ''never'' sees Maria because of her innocence and after this small talk, Maria never brings the girl up again in conversation. Laura is completely alone in the world and the only other person who had ''some'' feelings for her completely forgets after her first death.
48	* Most players probably won't feel too bad about killing Eddie; he crippled a man, shot an innocent dog, murdered multiple people in his version of Silent Hill, and tried to kill James in a fit of rage. But there's something heartbreakingly symbolic about the way his gun slides from his fingers after he dies. Because of the path he chose, only death could give Eddie peace.
49	** Even worse, Laura never learns the truth about Eddie's past or the fact that James kills him. The only friend Laura had in Silent Hill is gone and perhaps it's better that she never learned the truth.
50	** His entry under DumbIsGood just makes it even sadder. There were ways Eddie could have gotten the help he needed, but he lacked the mental and emotional maturity to seek them out himself and apparently didn't have any people in his life who cared enough to get help for him.
51	* The first encounter with Maria: You can see James, who had at this point been a PerpetualFrowner become ''elated'' at seeing who he thinks is Mary, only to go back to solemn when he realizes it's not her. And considering multiple playthroughs make it clear that Maria isn't real and [[MercyKill what James did to Mary]], it comes off as if James truly did have a slimmer of hope that she was still alive.
52	* James' new face and voice in the trailer for the remake. He just looks and sounds so ''tired''.

Context TearJerker / SilentHill2