A VCR. It's Old But Usable: New Insight On The Timeline

Have you seen Harry's daughter anywhere? Short, dark hair?

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Droo
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Post by Droo »

Why force her to make the videotape before they kill her? What is the purpose of the tape?
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AuraTwilight
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Post by AuraTwilight »

More likely scenario: The tape doesn't exist.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Post by nur_ein_tier »

AuraTwilight wrote:More likely scenario: The tape doesn't exist.
That's what I always thought. Much stranger things have happened in Silent Hill than a guy perhaps hallucinating a video tape based on memories/ideas about a dead nurse.
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Post by Droo »

Again, even if the tape isn't real, the images and scenarios presented in SH1 are all manifestations of Alessa's. Would Alessa herself be familiar enough with the technology to manifest this confessional videotape?
"Oh yeah, I've been here before
I can see it with eyes closed
Shadows that look like blood
Dead as far as the mind goes
Fear that comes from my head
Lives in the mirror"
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Post by AuraTwilight »

Even if she wasn't, she could've always read Lisa's mind, or something, when she was trapping her ghost/making her manifested clone. Origin has proven that Alessa can add aspects of other people's minds to her own.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Post by nur_ein_tier »

Drewfus wrote:Again, even if the tape isn't real, the images and scenarios presented in SH1 are all manifestations of Alessa's. Would Alessa herself be familiar enough with the technology to manifest this confessional videotape?
But maybe Harry was, and I don't see why some aspects of things Harry might be thinking about couldn't manifest in hallucinations as well as a means to an end. We never know for sure how much of what is going on is really real, and Harry himself suggests that it could be going on in his head. Harry passes out repeatedly, he could even be dreaming/hallucinating and just having some things influenced by Alessa.
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Post by AuraTwilight »

But it's Alessa's Otherworld, which is the problem. This isn't an SH2 scenario where everyone pitches in to the potluck. Alessa is tonight's only chef on staff.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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Post by paladin181 »

Or it could have been a convenience by a game team still young and developing. There are all sorts of anachronisms in all sorts of games, and perhaps people are simply reading too much into it.Why is there just one VCR, and conveniently located in one patient's room? More likely that the tape was just a superimposed idea of Lisa's thoughts.

Maybe it isn't old, or it just appears old because of the run down condition of everything in Otherworld. Perhaps it's one of these things.

Remember also that Lisa could have died years ago, and that everyone Harry encounters is already dead, just some don't realize it yet. I don't believe Alessa was kept alive all those years, but rather that her soul and her demons were kept in check by Dahlia's spirit, which is why they needed Cheryl to actually give birth to the new God. Of course much of this is open to speculation and interpretation because of the way Konami left it, but many of their stories are full of holes.

But using Lisa's appearance in Origins and saying that she looks younger is unreliable: remember a different team made that game, and they weren't necessarily as faithful to the series as you might want them to be. Many of the interpretations are probably being reverse engineered on the fly so some of it is likely to be sloppy or inconsistent.
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Post by The Adversary »

>Remember also that Lisa could have died years ago
It would be impossible for her to have died years ago.

>I don't believe Alessa was kept alive all those years
"It's been a long seven years. . . . For the seven years since that terrible day, Alessa has been kept alive, suffering a fate worse than death. Alessa has been trapped in an endless nightmare, from which she never awakens."

>many of their stories are full of holes.
Only for the people that don't have the answers. Not to sound dickish or anything, but there really aren't as many "holes" as people like to claim.

>they weren't necessarily as faithful to the series as you might want them to be.
If that's the case, then nothing from any of the games can be considered consistent because, for all we know, there are bungles everywhere, throughout the series. You have to trust what is presented otherwise you can't trust anything; you can't just pick and choose what you believe is canonical.
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Post by paladin181 »

You don't sound dickish, but I also know a lot of people make up a lot of assumptions to fill the voids left by Konami. Of course, I'll admit most of the holes were probably left on purpose; things are a lot more fun when you have to speculate on it yourself.

As far as Dahlia claiming Alessa has been kept alive, it is my understanding that Dahlia herself is already dead.. And besides it being the classic "villain reveals everything because (s)he is certain of victory" shtick how can we believe her? Not that she has a reason to lie, but maybe she believes she's sill alive much like Lisa does until near the end, and therefore believes shes been keeping Alessa "alive", when really she's kept her from transcending and moving on for her own righteous reasons of wanting to purify the world with the new God.

I still feel Cheryl's living body rejoined with Alessa's soul is was the whole point of getting Cheryl back so she could give birth to the new God.

Also, I don't choose what's canonical, though I know many people do, and not just for Silent Hill. Many people band together and form clubs based on ignoring canonical information, like in the Highlander Series when Richie dies, many people ignore that fact, and keep on truckin. Just one example.

The point is, the hair style doesn't depict anything about her being different simply because it doesn't have to. It could, but isn't concrete. She may have been wearing her hair differently for a short time, or maybe the game designers liked the hairstyle in the new game better, or maybe it does actually show she is younger. But as there is no proof of any of the above, I simply say you can't take it as a fact that it was intentionally done to show a difference.
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Post by The Adversary »

>it is my understanding that Dahlia herself is already dead.
Dahlia isn't dead until either Incubus or the Incubator kills her.

>there is no proof of any of the above
I don't even know what you're talking about. What hairstyle? Whose? What's it matter?
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Post by paladin181 »

...

Second part obviously got lost on a moot point earlier.

First part: Lisa says (I don't have a direct quote ATM) Maybe I'm already dead and just haven't realized it yet (or something to the effect). She then suggests that the others may be like her, which is followed by blood pouring from her scalp and other areas. I think everyone Harry encounters (Kauffman, Dahlia, and Lisa) were already dead when Harry crashed his car there. Further more, I think they all died in the horrendous fire.

Dispute it if you like, but there's no real solid evidence to the contrary that I've seen. Not that I believe I've seen everything.
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Post by The Adversary »

>She then suggests that the others may be like her
She's talking about the other nurses in the hospital. Lisa doesn't encounter anyone else in the game, save for Harry.

>I think they all died in the horrendous fire.
That "horrendous fire" only destroyed six houses. The newspaper article concerning it doesn't indicate that anyone died--which it would had anyone died.

In addition, both Lisa and M.K. state that they were in the hospital at the time Harry arrives. The fire didn't reach Alchemilla Hospital.

>there's no real solid evidence to the contrary that I've seen.
No, there's plenty in fact.
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Post by Droo »

Lisa never suggests that the other are like her. She says that the nurse wandering the hallways are like her.

"I'm the same as them."

She never once alludes to Harry and co. as being the same.

Also, if Dahlia died in the fire, who suggested to an infant Walter Sullivan to perform the Ritual from The Room? And Harry also encounters another person: Cybil. Clearly she didn't die in the fire. She's from another city.
"Oh yeah, I've been here before
I can see it with eyes closed
Shadows that look like blood
Dead as far as the mind goes
Fear that comes from my head
Lives in the mirror"
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Post by PeachySakura24 »

I have to agree, not everyone in the game is dead. And Thomas, I love your new avatar so very much that I just had to post and say so.
I see where you are coming from with the everyone is dead theory, but in the end, it just doesn't pan out. We know Harry isn't dead because
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
he dies in Silent Hill 3.
Dahlia is killed in the end, as is Kauffman. Alessa was kept alive so she could rejoin with the other half of her soul. Lisa is the only one who is dead when the game begins, and she wasn't dead for very long.
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Post by paladin181 »

See, in looking at the game you can't actually take context from later games. I'm not going to say anyone is wrong, but suggesting that Harry doesn't die because he's in a later game, or what happened in SH 4 doesn't even matter as those games weren't even on the idea board when this one was made. Certainly lines have been drawn since, but remember, this game was developed by a lagely unheard of studio comprised of mostly untested game developers for one of the more trusted names in gaming (Castlevania Series, Contra, and Metal Gear, to name a few) with no real intention of making a sequel until they saw how popular it was.

SH3 assumes you get the good or good+ ending (I'd say the Good ending since there is no Cybil mentioned in SH3), and therefore doesn't even necessarily happen. In fact, in the Bad ending,
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
we find that Harry is dead, and this has all been some kind of Jacob's Ladder hallucination.
Too many variables to assume that Harry would want to save Kauffman and uncover the Aglouphotis, or that he wouldn't accidentally kill Cybil to defend himself.

Speaking of Cybil, how do we know she isn't dead? She had a seemingly bad accident on her motorbike, which distracts Harry enough that he doesn't see Alessa.

However, I'll concede those points, as even though my points do make sense to me, it's all interpretation, and we could argue about it all day, but in the end you'll believe you're right no matter what, and I'll believe I'm right. I'm always of the thought that just because something is accepted as right doesn't necessarily mean it is right.
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Post by Droo »

paladin181 wrote:See, in looking at the game you can't actually take context from later games.
Yeah, you actually do.

The intention to make sequels may not have been present from the start, but the fact of the matter is those sequels were made, and these games shed light on the true ending of SH1. You can't ignore them because the intention wasn't there at the time. Things unfolded the way they did. To deny them would be as illogical and silly as claiming that something you yourself will do in the future is irrelevant because it wasn't your intention at this very second to eventually do so.

Also, SH1 itself makes claims that negate the possibility for Dahlia to be dead after the fire. Lisa refers to "that crazy Gillespie lady" who went "nuts after her kid died in a fire". She was famous amongst the townspeople. If she died in the fire seven years ago, she wouldn't be around to act crazy from the loss of Alessa.
"Oh yeah, I've been here before
I can see it with eyes closed
Shadows that look like blood
Dead as far as the mind goes
Fear that comes from my head
Lives in the mirror"
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Post by AuraTwilight »

Lisa is the only dead character in Silent Hill 1, and MAYBE Cybil, depending on your interpretation, but everyone is factually, indisputably alive.
[quote="BlackFire2"]I thought he meant the special powers of her vagina.[/quote]
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