James doesn't find it weird?

James got a letter. From a dead person. Oh dear.

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alone in the town
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James doesn't find it weird?

Post by alone in the town »

As I've been writing my SH2 novelization (omg shameless plug) and researching the game's script for reference, I noticed something funny and I don't remember ever seeing anyone comment upon it.

James never tells Maria what his name is. By playing Born from a Wish, we know that Maria knows his name, but James doesn't know she knows.

It's not until they both reach Room S3 at Brookhaven that Maria finally slips and calls him by his name. "James, wait a minute." James never comments on how this strange chick knows his name without him having told her. Doesn't seem to faze him at all, or any of us, for that matter. We all just take it in stride and never notice.

I just find this wierd because I wonder how I'm going to handle this little continuity issue when the time comes.
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Post by The Adversary »

I noticed, & pointed it out long ago, when I was first bringing up my significance-of-Ernest Baldwin theories. That said, there's your answer: She learns it from Ernest, & Ernest--I'm thinking about more-&-more again--learns it from Mary.

Annular, perhaps?... A cycle, maybe?... Life & death & life?...
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alone in the town
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Post by alone in the town »

Oh, I know very well how she knows his name. What I'm wondering is why it doesn't make James double-take when she starts using it, since she certainly didn't learn it from him...
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Post by SilentHell »

Don't you think James have more important stuff to think about, like why is hell breaking loose in a peaceful town he use to spend his holidays in?
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alone in the town
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Post by alone in the town »

In the first ten minutes of the game or so, perhaps. Not by this point, though.
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Post by Glazarus »

His whole journey is a fight with his mind and memory, so there isn't any difference between the first ten minutes and later...

I think that after seeing such strange things, James is actually questioning his own mind when he encounters Maria. Even if it's just on a subconscious level.
He tries to understand why she looks exactly like Mary, but can't get a grip on it.

I think that he thinks that she really is Mary, even if she says she's not. He never really get suprised when similairities shows up. "Is Maria sick too?" He merly get confused by himself.

James feel somewhere that Maria is deeply connected to Mary, so I don't think he really thinks it's any odder when Maria knows his name. He rather stands back, observing her, instead of questioning her.

James has always been a rather low-voiced and quiet kinda guy. That also explains why he committed the murder. He didn't want to hurt her, so he never said that he felt trapped in their relationship. Instead it went on, putting him on the edge of snapping, which he did.

I never considered his murder to be a planned act. It was an act of desperation, but with a short term planning. Which means that she may have said something which made him snap and when she fell asleep, he killed her.


There are so many things on James mind, so he never really knows what he says and does. His memory is blurred and he is always trying to remember... something.

When Laura says Mary's name, James get really suprised and "awake". My theory is that James is not thinking of his own name really. He has one name in his head that he always thinks of: "Mary". This way, he doesn't keep control of his own or other names.

Long outline for such a small thing, but from a psychological standpoint, I think it's not that weird he never questions her about it.
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Post by Mis Krist. »

I think he accepts it because a part of him knows what Maria really is. Granted he didn't quuuuuuite put the pieces together and realize it, fully, until later, but the same goes for the truth about Mary's death.

May not help you out with your story--good luck with that, by the way--but I would gloss over it if I were you. Not mention it until the end or something.
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Post by Anonymous »

With all the messed up stuff he went through before then, some tart knowing his name was the least of his worries. He might not have even thought about it.
He's not the brightest bulb in the box, anyway.
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Post by Void »

Maybe if Maria had used his full name at one point, like when she tells him off in the hospital basement (i.e., "If you cared at *all*, James Sunderland..."), then he would have almost certainly noticed. Stating someone's first and surname together is almost guarenteed to grab that individual's attention. Otherwise, the more people around you that share your first name, the less likely hearing it would register a reaction for you, and James is fairly common (though admittedly the only guy around in SH, besides a certain Eddie). Back in school, classmates would often call people with the same name 'Laura H.' and 'Laura J.', so that individuals would know whether to respond or not. Who knows? Maybe he'd have thought 'James' to be her own slang or pet name for any average 'Guy' or 'Joe' or 'Jim' she knows.

But I digress. :wink:
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Post by D90 »

Have you not noticed that James finds nothing weird in Silent Hill?
Even his first encounter with a Lying Creature/Straight Jacket results in "...Oh...that's not human...here's a radio."
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Post by Godzilla »

Maybe he just assumed he told her. Or the writeers fucked up.
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Post by Anonymous »

drakan90 wrote:Have you not noticed that James finds nothing weird in Silent Hill?
Even his first encounter with a Lying Creature/Straight Jacket results in "...Oh...that's not human...here's a radio."
I don't think James is all there upstairs by the time he reaches Silent Hill. He keeps pushing everything back because he is trying to bury his sins.
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Post by Anonymous »

He constantly mistakes her for Mary and calls her that, which angers her.

It's easy to say that in his mind, it is Mary, but on the surface, he has to keep telling himself it's not, although he believes it is and simply forgets she is not Mary.

It never startled him because he assumed she should know.
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Post by RiceDaddy7 »

If we, the players, didn't catch it, why should we expect James to catch it too? He probably forgot whether or not he told her.
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Post by AgentX7k »

Godzilla wrote:Maybe he just assumed he told her. Or the writeers fucked up.
I agree with that, I reckon he just assumed he told her. It's a tiny slip that would have easily skipped his mind in those kind of circumstances. Plus he's a bit of an absent minded fellow, I mean if he can forget murder surely he could forget something like that.
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Post by RiceDaddy7 »

AgentX7k wrote:I mean if he can forget murder surely he could forget something like that.
Hahaha. :)
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Post by KageReneko »

James isn't really smart, maybe he thought he said to Maria his name when they met...
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Post by Oddish »

THat is kind of odd, but I suppose it might have just slipped James's mind.

What I also find strange is that Laura is surprised when James knows her name. She's obviously encountered him in the past, both because of Mary's note and because she knows who he is in the apartments (unless she just goes around stomping on random hands). And if Mary was hoping to adopt her, she'd have surely introduced them.

I think that in that one, the writers DID muck up.
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Post by RiceDaddy7 »

Oddish wrote:I think that in that one, the writers DID muck up.
You know the writers are perfect and can't mess up right? Are you suggesting they're human? Shame on you.
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Post by skinthesun1251 »

The guy can barely remember if she's his dead wife or not, so I don't think it's too unreasonable to imagine that he didn't notice.

Or you could develop some kind of intense theory about how since she's basically a projection of his fantasies, somewhere in his subconscious he knows that she knows his name and doesn't give it a second thought.

Either way works, really.
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