BlackJack484 wrote:wowzers, i was soo looking forward to getting destroyed by him, first time i saw him i thought "this is it!"
me too!
**SPOILER**
Pyramid Head is a fanifestation of Adam Shepard's guilt running around in Alex's "Otherworld"
He sees Alex in the Hotel, but does not attack him. He is looking for Adam.
Either that, of the devs just threw him into the game as fan service and he serves no purpose in the story other than being a scary monster you can't fight.
DARKNEZZFLLZ wrote: BlackJack484 wrote:wowzers, i was soo looking forward to getting destroyed by him, first time i saw him i thought "this is it!" me too!
Jennifer's Body
I am kind of glad you don't fight him.
Imagine fighting him, and he was as easy as the other bosses, it would be a let down and he would lose some of his "badassness" that he has had all these years.
In SH2, it was good that you didn't really fight him, but evade him.
No matter what you threw at him, he couldn't be killed......But he sure could kill you with a couple of hits.
It made him scary whenever he showed up. Here is this incredibly evil monster, and for some reason, he is chasing me. He follows me around wherever I go, and he can't be stopped.
It would have been a waste if the devs of SH2 just went with "OK, here he is.. Now kill him like all the rest of the generic monsters!"
If he ever showed up again in the series, people would just be like "Oh....It's you again. Well, tell Daddy how you want it."
He is an intimidating character, and would cheapen him if he could jus be killed by anybody.
Of course, this is just my opinion on the subject.
I agree 100%.
Pyramid Head does kill Alex at the very begining of the game, when you're in the elevator he runs the knife inside the elavtor and hits you right away, then you wake up in the truck.
But indeed, Alex is not the one being haunted after all, as you said Pyramid Head is running after Adam. The way I see it, Pyramid Head is an "angel", as seen in SH 3 (one of the pictures had him painted standing beside the godess, and it refered to him by his true name and kinda indicated he was a sort of angel). Anyways, he comes around to punish the sinners, as other fans have indicated and I'm begining to agree, PH is not without a purpose, he seems to despise the very monsters of SH as well, (in the movie the bugs are always around him, as if trying to attack him, and in SH 2 he's downright raping a monster or something). But he is also a manifestation, you don't see him in SH 3 or the first one, why? Cause there's no one punishing himself in there, everyone thinks they are doing the right thing. In SH 2 James KNOWS deep within himself that he has to be punished for killing his wife, in SH 5 Alex's family knows they're guilt for not loving Alex and for joing the cult, they know that they ruined their own family, on the other hand Alex, even though he isn't guilty, he believes, subconsiously that he is guilty for Josh's accident (he is to blame, but he didn't intend to hurt his brother, as a matter of fact he adored Josh), thus the one and only time that PH hits you dead in SH5.
Some say that Valtiel (Sh 3) is PH without the helmet, I don't agree. Valtiel is much more an instrument of the Gods than an angel/executioner, his purpose seems to solely be to make sure that the God Child is born from Heather.
As we understand, in SH2 context PH personifies James's sado-masochism,his desire to punish himself for his sins, poured too much and makes hurtnot only for James, but also people surrounding him (Maria, dummies,etc.). So James is the executioner of himself (and not only himself?). Butwhy James's destructive part is expressed in so exotic way?It is easy to guess, that during stay in SH 3 years prior to SH2 eventsJames has visited Silent Hill Historical Society (SHHS) - and has seen apicture with the image of the executioner and his victims under the name"Misty day, remains of the judgement" - it has made indelible impressionon the clerk, and this image of the executioner left in James'ssubconscious.We know that the image of this executioner with a spear and a red steelpyramid on his head is drawn on the picture in SHHS, so image of PH isconnected to the history of Silent Hill. "Originally, the pyramid headoutfit was the guise of Silent Hill's executioners"
Angel from religious doctrines of a cult, for the certain reason stronglyreminding one cultist, who was especially close to the God, subsequentlyranked as a Saint... The name "Valtiel" is formed from English "valet"("servant") with addition of a suffix "-el" - angel status. Generally,"Valtiel" means "servant - angel", and in Lost Memories founderscharacterize him as "agent of God".Cultists thought that this deity observes of the Birth of the God. AlsoValtiel persistently follows the Saint Mother, keeps up her safety (and,hence, the life of the God) and, according to doctrines of a cult, evenable to Revive Holy Mother if something happen with her. Actually, he isthe keeper of an eternal cycle of regeneration, guaranteeing anopportunity of unlimited attempts to give Birth to the God (and in contextSH3 - unlimited saves ^ __ ^). Valtiel personifies affinity to the Godamong the cultists, a so the executioners in Toluca prison will borrowValt's appearance soon, "to be closer to the God" (Valtiel partly becamethe prototype of SH executioners).
Thanks to SilentPyramid and his faq.
Actually, the Pyramid Heads were created by the Red God, Zuchilbara(sp?). They're a manifestation of the guilty and violent frustrations of all the men in the world, and James from SH2 isn't the only one to have one either. Every person in the world is said to have their own designated Pyramid Head. James's was only around because it was trying to help him get over his beloved wife. That and destroy Maria, for she was nothing more than a seductive demon of the Silent Hill world, created from all the pent up, left over love and longing for James that his wife had collected up when she had died as a restless spirit of guilt.
Oh, and if you've played SH3, you'd know the story about the two gods, the Red God: Xuchilbara and the Yellow God: Lobsel Vith (Also known as Valtiel, that were created by God, or Samael). In the third game, near the end, at the church, there are several pictures up on the walls. If you go and investigate them, you find that they're illustrations along with description of how their 'God' came to be. Here's what these panting said on them:
1. OriginIn the beginning, peoplehad nothing.Their bodies ached, and theirhearts held nothing but hatred.They fought endlessly,but death never came.They despaired, stuck inthe eternal quagmire.
2. BirthA man offered a serpent to thesun and prayed for salvation.A woman offered a reed to thesun and asked for joy.Feeling pity for the sadness thathad overrun the earth, God wasborn from those two people.
3. SalvationGod made time and dividedit into day and night.God outlined the road tosalvation and gave people joy.And God took endless timeaway from the people.
4. CreationGod created beings to lead peoplein obedience to Her.The red god, Xuchilbara;the yellow god, Lobsel Vith;many gods and angels. Finally,God set out to create Paradise,where people would be happyjust by being there.
5. PromiseBut there God's strength ran out,and She collapsed.All the world's people grieved thisunfortunate event, yet Godbreathed Her last.She returned to the dust,promising to come again.
6. FaithSo God hasn't been lost.We must offer our prayers andnot forget our faith.We wait in hope for the day whenthe path to Paradise will be opened.From these hints, I had actually come to the assumption, thata the cultists were wrong, but correct as well. =D
Very nicely done Valorik.
In my previous post, I was only trying to show that Pyramid Head and Valtiel are not the same entity.
In the begining of the cult, the order members borrowed the executioner visage from Valtiel, so he did have something to do with PH's creation, but it is not him.
Because the cult was kind of split down the middle, some followed the red god, and some followed the yellow god. If PH is on the red's side, and Valtiel is on the yellow side, then......
Valorik's input is f*cking wonderful! That's what I like about SH, it always leaves many subjects open to debate, it doesn't deliver all answers to the players. All in all, pretty neat input dude, makes sense.
I don't remember, but the first game quotes Samael as GOD?! o.O I rmeber they think God is feminine and all. I'm just astouned cause Samael is, in theology, the true name of Lucifer (Lucifer means "light bringer", and Satan means "The Enemy", as you can see, none are real names per se, only adopted "nicknames" ;p); HOWEVER we do know that as good as Silent Hill is they DID manage to make a huge mess with arcane symbology and divne/demonic entities, for instance, the symbol they claim to be Metraton's Seal is actually something else entirely (don't remeber what, check on wikipedia), Metraton is the angel who's supposed to act as God's voice towards humans (God's voice is so powerful that the human mind would never be able to withstand it, thus theology claims an Angel named Metraton is responsible for doing the talk with humankind).
Mufstiel wrote: Valorik's input is f*cking wonderful! That's what I like about SH, it always leaves many subjects open to debate, it doesn't deliver all answers to the players. All in all, pretty neat input dude, makes sense. I don't remember, but the first game quotes Samael as GOD?! o.O I rmeber they think God is feminine and all. I'm just astouned cause Samael is, in theology, the true name of Lucifer (Lucifer means "light bringer", and Satan means "The Enemy", as you can see, none are real names per se, only adopted "nicknames" ;p); HOWEVER we do know that as good as Silent Hill is they DID manage to make a huge mess with arcane symbology and divne/demonic entities, for instance, the symbol they claim to be Metraton's Seal is actually something else entirely (don't remeber what, check on wikipedia), Metraton is the angel who's supposed to act as God's voice towards humans (God's voice is so powerful that the human mind would never be able to withstand it, thus theology claims an Angel named Metraton is responsible for doing the talk with humankind).
Not really.
Dhalia mix and matched the names purposly to fool Henry into helping her.
Bad being good, good being bad, ect.
As far as real items with simular names, they might be useless trinkets in the real world, but since Alessa was raised to believe such things in her childhood, they have magnifacent powers in her otherworld.
That would make sense indeed Zetta, Dhalia would fool henry really easily since he has no knowledge on such subjects.
As for the power of the symbols, I think that they do bring their power as a matter of fact and not only because Alessa believes them, what i think is that Alessa is a conduit to take this powerto its extremes.
A question: I read somewhere that the cult of Silent Hill is a mix of indigenous beliefs and Christian religion, is that correct?
Mufstiel wrote: That would make sense indeed Zetta, Dhalia would fool henry really easily since he has no knowledge on such subjects. As for the power of the symbols, I think that they do bring their power as a matter of fact and not only because Alessa believes them, what i think is that Alessa is a conduit to take this powerto its extremes. A question: I read somewhere that the cult of Silent Hill is a mix of indigenous beliefs and Christian religion, is that correct?
I'm n ot too sure about that one. **SPOILER**
If you look at SH3, Leonard gives Heather one of the seals to stop the new God from being born. He was allies with Dhalia and was there to pick up the seal after The God was killed in the first game. He strongly thought the seal was the cause of the God being brought down.
Leonard thought it would work, even Vincent thought it would work, but Heather says many times in the game tht she does not believe in supernatural things like that.
When she confronts Claudia, she tells Heather something along the lines of "What are you going to do with that piece of junk?"
Since the *** world is like Heather's and Claudia's fears, memories, and beliefs fleshed out, they didn't believe the seals worked, so.. They didn't work.
When in Alessa's world on SH1, she fully believed that both seals were very powerful and could stop God from being born. That is why she's running around all over town laying down the Seal. It worked in part 1, but not in 3.
There is just too much to describe about all the religious mixes and beliefs put into the cult.
I have recently found a very good story analysis made by Silent Pyramid and a few others. It is huge, and seems to cover everything from SH 1 to the movie.
It's a very good read, and it will give you all you ever wanted to know about SH.
It has factual and opinion theories.
It explains alot about what your asking.
Heres the link:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/psx/file/198641/36931
Very, very good.