#eddie's case is a bit different bc he accepted this sin and tried to cope finding joy in the act of revenge of killing his bullies

[my-fancy-hat]

[spoilers] willfully choosing to ignore one or another facet of james' complex relationship with mary is to simply missing half of the experience the story offers. it's clear as water why james is in silent hill, if he didn't loved mary he wouldn't be here in the first place, it's the fact this love got tained with hatred (or rather say, frustration and powerlessness) and per se, guilt and shame for having these negative thoughts toward his wife, that brought him here (aside from... the obvious one, he's a murderer). silent hill has no barriers in navigating the grey area, but the horror about it it's how familiar and close it feels: it's the psychological torture of a caretaker running and clashing and suffocating at the imminent death of a beloved one without a net-support. it's usually common for chronic patients to have this shift of erratic emotions from depression to straight-up hostility, and due to the closeness they have with their caretaker they pour everything onto them, because mary's effords to survive aren't enough for saving her from death, either james', so these feelings of frustration and resentment are completely valid at that point to exists. we know james spend three long years nursing mary, activately watching her body "rotting in life", any form of intimacy was unthinkable, and this is where shame and guilt reappears as he tries to repress his needs, both for returning to normalcy and his sex drive. none of them is there to blame for what happened to their love, and no one wants to feel impotent as you see how you can't save the person you swore to spent your life with from death; but at the end james still killed mary, he wanted his life back because he wasn't capable of continue being the husband of his now unavailable wife, and have endured and sacrificing so much for nothing. james isn't a good person, but can love and suffer too; guilt is one of the essencial components of making a human, and he's a deeply disturbed man with a fragile mind. and recognizing that isn't an apology, he deserves to suffer for what he did (not what he felt prior to the murder because those sentiments were understandable, most of them at least), it's about grasping the entire display of the text. james came to silent hill to commit suicide, and this story exists because he wants to get tortured and punished for what he did. there's few stories that treat heavy twisted themes and real trauma with such care and respect.

I LOVE SILENT HILL 2 I LOVE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR OF CONFRONTING YOUR TRAUMA AND MISTAKES