History YMMV / SilentHill2

** Angela definitely qualifies. The picture of her profound pain and misery becomes clearer and clearer as you go on, but it's one line from her in her final appearance that cinches it: "Even Mama said it: I ''deserved'' what happened." Just... ''[[TearJerker Fuck]]''.
** Eddie tries to invoke this trope but fails miserably. [[spoiler: The end to his arc, unlike Angela's quiet, suicidal desperation, involves him gloating about slaughtering a dog and crippling a bully that was mean to him, blaming all of his cruelty on being bullied without any Silent Hill induced self reflection at all.]]

** Angela definitely qualifies. The picture of her misery and suffering becomes clearer and clearer as you go on, but it's one line from her in her final appearance that cinches it: "Even Mama said it: I ''deserved'' what happened." ...''Fuck''.

** Angela definitely qualifies. Eddie tries to invoke this trope but fails miserably. [[spoiler: The end to his arc, unlike Angela's quiet, suicidal desperation, involves him gloating about slaughtering a dog and crippling a bully that was mean to him, blaming all of his cruelty on being bullied without any Silent Hill induced self reflection at all.]]

* NeverLiveItDown: James sticking his hand into a toilet without so much as a sound of protest. Not only do the sequels love to make fun of it, but it's a fairly common ShoutOut for the series.

* MagnumOpus: Considered one by many a Silent Hill fan as the greatest game in the franchise.

** Some of the voice acting in general can be called this, due to awkward cadence and tone.

** ''The Silent Hill HD Collection'' due to Konami's loss of the original source code, renders ''[=SH2=]'' and ''3'' this. Technical issues include voice acting that lags slightly in cutscenes (inexcusable considering they ''recorded new voices for all the characters'' for this release), the removal of graphics that were used to cover up incomplete graphics in the original game, and slowdown in the PS3 version whenever the HDD is accessed.

** [[spoiler: Dog ending. Lighthearted as it may seem , it also makes it absolutely clear that the town is under Mira(the dog)'s control, everyone inside included. No one is free anymore.]]

** The Dog Ending certainly qualifies. Especially when the dog starts crawling at something... hairy.

* EvenBetterSequel: The first ''Silent Hill'' was well-received. But ''Silent Hill 2'' is not only considered the defining game of the series, but one of the greatest achievements in video game horror (and indeed video game narrative in general), primarily thanks to its more psychologically compelling and complex storyline.

* HoYayShipping: You'd be surprised, what with the many AlternateCharacterInterpretations that James was gay all along and that Pyramid Head is the physical manifestation of his pent-up emotions, people tend to [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=Pyramid+Head+x+James#/d64ygl pair]] [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=Pyramid+Head+x+James#/d4loop them]] [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=Pyramid%20Head%20James&order=9&offset=120#/d2l07o3 up]] [[http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=Pyramid%20Head%20James&order=9&offset=72&offset=72#/dm4fzw A LOT.]]

* JerkAssWoobie: Angela. Her rude and cynical behavior is because of horrific past.

** Beyond pursuing the protagonist, what Pyramid Head's exact purpose is a matter of debate amongst the fandom. Theories range from a demon brought to existence to torture James for his perceived prior sins to being a personification of James' repressed sexual desire.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: There is still a tremendous back-and-forth argument on the correct way to interpret James. Many see him as a heartbreaking sympathetic man put into a terrible situation and [[spoiler:ended his wife's suffering]] as a result, while others see him as a selfish misogynist who [[spoiler:murdered his wife to move on with his life]]. However, the fans aren't the only ones, as James himself is unsure of which is really true, and his exact motivations for [[spoiler: killing Mary]] vary depending on the ending you get.

* RonTheDeathEater: Some more negative interpretations of James can lean into this, characterizing him as a hateful misogynist who only cares about himself. [[spoiler: His MercyKill of his wife and Silent Hill's monsters and violence as a warped projection of his guilty conscience and sexual frustration aside]], he spends the entire game going out of his way to help and placate all of the people he runs into in the city, despite being verbally and/or physically threatened and abused by each one. Including the women.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The radio "game show" that takes place in the hospital elevator. Maria simply asks "What was ''that''?" and nothing more is made of it.
** From a gameplay standpoint, though, it might be good to pay attention. [[spoiler: The correct answers are the code to open a chest in one of the storage rooms of the hospital with a nice amount of supplies. Get the answers wrong and you get a face full of acid.]]

** [[spoiler: The Leave ending. So James is getting out of Silent Hill. With Laura. You know, that girl whose best friend (Mary) James has killed? Do you think she'd let James be free after they get out of there?]]
** She's a child and honestly I think it's more appropriate to be concerned for '''her''' well being instead of his.

* [[MemeticMolester Memetic Rapist]]:
** Pyramid Head isn't really raping you if you let him. [[RapeIsLove And you know you would.]]
** If you hear the jokes before playing the game, it might sound like he's just supposed to be an awesome, deadly character, rape being video game slang for "[[CurbStompBattle very one-sided kill]]".
** Not even memetic. What exactly do you think he was doing to those Mannequins?

** Angela definitely qualifies. Eddie tries to invoke this trope but fails miserably, depending on if you hate people for their weight.
*** Or, you know, if you hate people for ''[[spoiler:shooting dogs and blaming it on bullies, then completely and utterly failing to face any self-reflection of any kind despite being literally forced to.]]''
*** Maybe he ''did'' reflect on it, but came to [[ThenLetMeBeEvil the]] [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope wrong]] [[WhosLaughingNow conclusion]].

** [[spoiler: [[FridgeHorror:It's heavily implied he was using dog as misogynist slang for a woman]]...]]

* FetishFuel: Maria. She was literally created to be this, in-universe.
** Pyramid Head, [[NightmareFetishist amongst a sizable chunk of the fandom]].

* EvenBetterSequel: The first ''Silent Hill'' was well-received. But ''Silent Hill 2'' is not only considered the defining game of the series, but one of the greatest achievements in video game horror, primarily thanks to its more psychologically compelling and complex storyline.

* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler:James killed his wife.]

* ToughActToFollow: While some fans like 3, there are many prefer 2 over it. Well, as for 4...

* EvenBetterSequel: The first ''Silent Hill'' was well-received. But ''Silent Hill 2'' is not only considered the defining game of the series, but one of the greatest achievements in video game horror, primarily thanks to it's more psychologically compelling and complex storyline.