This information comes from "Lost Memories: Silent Hill Chronicle," which by the way is also where this information comes from:DamienPales wrote:In one of the picture descriptions for the Bad+ Ending, it says something to the effect of "Alessa attacks Harry as Incubator" (paraphrasing). That would equivocating the two. Also, a picture caption for the Good+ Ending says "Alessa uses the last of her power to stop the falling sparks," referring to the very end before Harry and Cybil escape.
And then there's the usage of "Alessa/Incubator" at the very bottom of the Character Analysis page.
So if the Incubator is not Alessa, why does Silent Hill Chronicles (a guide written by some of the original Silent Hill 1 team) specifically call the Incubator "Alessa"? Why does it refer to the woman in white who gives Harry the baby as "Alessa"?
And yet, in the same book, it lists the Incubator as a form of god?
I have a theory... it seems to me that the only logical way to resolve that huge contradicion is to say that Incubator, at the time Harry fights her, is both Alessa and god. Nothing else makes sense. Here's what I think happens... when god is "born," what is actually happening is that it takes over Alessa's body. This is also backed up by Silent Hill 3... that's the significance of Claudia's clothes remaining, her body had transformed into god. (And also why Heather seems to have a possession theme.)
When you use Aglaophotis, god is seperated from the incubator, allowing you to kill it. (This also makes sense because that coincides with how Aglaophotis works on Cybil and in other games.) So Harry kills god, and it is Alessa/Cheryl that gives the baby to Harry, just as the guidebook says. This is also backed up by this picture:
^Notice how the incubus is emerging from the incubator.
Another big clue that this is true is the endings of SH1. Only in the good endings does Harry recieve the baby. So a logical question is: if it really is god tricking harry, why doesn't god try to trick Harry in the bad endings? After all, if god can change forms, it could easily transform into Alessa's original form and pull the same stunt. In fact, it's illogical for it not to do so.
And another big clue is that the "god's plan theory" is not mentioned at all, not even hinted at by either the official guidebook or Silent Hill 3. Which is extremely strange because part of the purpose of both of those games was to clear up the mysteries of Silent Hill. After all, they put in clues about the Seal of Metatron in SH3, and spell out what it is in the guidebook. I find it absolutely impossible to believe that the "god's plan theory" could ever have been intended by the developers who went out of thier way to explain all of the other secrets. They were proud of those secrets. If they had truly pulled off such an awesome trick, there would definitely be some mention of it in either the guidebook or SH3, but instead it's the opposite: the guidebook associates the Incubator with Alessa, and in SH3 Heather has a line of dialog in the car ride where she basically says that it was Alessa who gave the baby.
So, what about the other contradictions? Why does Dahlia and the guidebook call the Incubator "god"? Because it is god. To be exact, god has taken over Alessa's body, so it is both god and Alessa.
How does Alessa reincarnate herself while she is still alive? Well, there's a couple of possible answers to this. One of which is: she just does. Illogical things happen in Silent Hill all the time, and after all it's not very logical to be able to split your soul in half. The literal effects of splitting her soul in half was to create two people, so maybe reincarnating herself works the same way.
And the biggest apparent contradiction: Why does Alessa give Harry the baby after working so hard to kill herself and bring an end to the nightmare? After all, according to the guidebook she was a ruthless enough person to want to kill everyone in Silent Hill simply to kill herself, because that's what she believed the Seal of Metatron would do. There's a couple of possible answers to this question: Maybe the writer wanted to make Silent Hill 1 have a good ending, and simply figured that no one would notice this contradiction. Maybe this was written without a sequel in mind. Maybe Cheryl's will is meant to be influencing this decision... if you look at it as Cheryl giving Harry the baby instead of Alessa, there is no longer a contradiction.
To summarize: It's pretty clear from all the available material that the lady in white giving the baby to Harry is Alessa. The "god's plan theory" is still a good alternative theory if you ignore the Silent Hill Guidebook. Thanks to everyone in this thread for encouraging me to read all this stuff and to find out the truth!