As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Silent Hill 2 is a nightmarish, depressing game filled with themes of abuse and trauma. But these moments sure make it easy to walk away with a smile.
- The Leave ending. From the fact that Mary forgives James, apologizes for all the pain she caused him by trying to avoid accepting her illness, and tells him to live his own life. Then you see him and Laura walking out of the cemetery together, with the implication that he's honoring Mary's wish to adopt and care for the little girl she loved."James... You made me happy."
- And right after James' heartbreaking confession, there's this:James: The truth is... I hated you. I wanted you out of the way; I wanted my life back!
Mary: James... If that were true, then why do you look so sad? - Something to note about this ending is how... sincere everything is. James's guilt-ridden confession about why he did it is so passionate and real, you really believe it. And Mary's response essentially saying that, despite his feelings and actions, James is still a good person who deserves happiness.
- And right after James' heartbreaking confession, there's this:
- The Maria Ending can be viewed as one. James may have acted in self-interest before and Maria may also fall under the same illness that Mary had, but there's a chance for redemption for James; for him to treat her in her dying moments better than he did Mary.
- Mary's letter to Laura, also a Tear Jerker. She tells Laura that she loved her like a daughter, and would have hoped to adopt her.
- The fact that Laura traveled to Silent Hill with the intention of seeing Mary again. This girl is eight years old, probably has no family to her name, but she made the trek to this deadly place in the hopes of seeing her mother figure again. And if the Leave ending is achieved, she is able to make peace with James and have a family of her own.
- As brief as it was, it was kind of nice that Laura and Eddie got along. They traveled to Silent Hill together and when Laura calls him a "gutless fatso", he doesn't lash out at her. In fact, Laura actually tries to give him some advice about fessing up to his crimes.
- In a really warped sense, Maria's concern for Laura. Her existence may just be Silent Hill's way of tormenting James, but that she actually has all of Mary's feelings, down to her love for Laura is really touching on some level.
- In the Dog ending, the dog at the controls licks James' face to try and cheer him up after he discovers she's been behind everything.
- Unless you interpret the dog's act of licking Sunderland's tears as cruel taunting.
- It's meant to be awesome and triumphant in a dark way, but in another interpretation, the Pyramid Heads killing themselves as James proclaims he doesn't need them anymore is this for Silent Hill itself. Despite its demonic legacy and its "rules", James comes to terms with the guilt it had been bolstering and empowering — and it lets him go. Whether or not he learned his lesson is up to the ending you get, but if one takes Silent Hill as a sort of cognizant entity in its own right, it effectively Pet the Dog, especially in the Leave ending by becoming one large psychiatric aid that broke James out of his suicidal intentions. Just compare and contrast what it did to Angela.note
- Another very warped example being Pyramid Head himself - he's a monster, of course, and was created by James to be the one who makes him face up to what he did, but there's something oddly sweet about the fact that no matter how many times James sways from the path set for him by Silent Hill, Pyramid Head gives him chance after chance to get back on track, even if it resorts to literal life-or-death situations and the brutal murder(s) of your one "ally".
