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User:Cukie Gherkin/James Sunderland

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James Sunderland is a character in the 2001 video game Silent Hill 2.

Concept and creation

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Reception

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James Sunderland has received generally positive receptions from publication critics for his characteristics within the wider world of Silent Hill 2. Chris McMullen of The Escapist expressed that the 2001 horror game effectively displayed how the purgatory-like world, filled with "confusion and distress," was shaped by James' mentality and state as an unreliable narrator.[1] Likewise, Game Informer writer Blake Hester felt that James' deteriorated mental health and personal guilt was important in context of the "nonsensical" level design and building architectures and that James' in-game footstep sounds in contrast with the overall silence terrified him.[2] Vice contributor Andy Kelly stated that he was fooled into thinking that James was fooled into being sympathetic for him in an instance of "a cheap trick, but an effective one," that he is "the very definition of an unreliable narrator, and he fooled me. Big time".[3]

The authors of various gaming publications have argued that James Sunderland as a "generic white person" helped to enhance the horrors and story of Silent Hill 2, although opinions on the character himself vary.[4][5][6] For instance, Ashley Bardhan from Kotaku compared Sunderland to Ethan Winters from Resident Evil, criticizing both characters for being "bumbling" and "regrettably uninteresting" to the extent that she was unable to find anything about them to care about compared to their missing wives.[4] A writer for The Fandomentals named Brion recognized the inclination to think initially that James being a "tall, blonde, white, and even faintly handsome man" makes him a hero, that he loved the game subverting such expectations by revealing him as the "least competent hero ever devised". He also felt that the theme of toxic masculinity based on James' actions were "near flawless" in execution, highlighted particularly by James "robb[ing his wife Mary] of any agency over her own death" by choosing to kill her.[5] Mike Druker, who wrote a book analysis for Silent Hill 2, said that the protagonist "is so generic that he could smother his wife with a pillow and never get caught. You know, like he actually did". He noted that James being a "figurative and literal fog" to the point where players lack true understanding over him despite controlling him makes the game's psychological horror aspect "fun" due to its open-ended nature. He continued that James was not an antihero like Kratos of the God of War series but the "perfect villain" because of him being "unassuming, a little boring, and entirely rotting from the inside".[6]

Critics have also written about their appreciations for how Silent Hill 2 allows the player to form their own opinions of Sunderland over time and seal his fate in one of its multiple endings.[3][7] Academic scholar Ewan Kirkland, writing for the peer-reviewed journal Camera Obscura, stated that James' ambiguous reasons for killing his ill wife has left players speculating on whether he did so out of mercy or for more sinister reasons.[8] Andrea Shearon of TheGamer interpreted James as an unreliable narrator to the point that his surroundings and enemies reveal more about his history than James himself. She was abhorred by the dark nature of James but expressed hope that he was a good person, tying her thoughts into the greater themes of how the player sees James versus how the character and the Silent Hill world both see him.[9] Writer Kimberly Terasaki of The Mary Sue praised the game for allowing the player to ultimately determine James' guilt and fate via its multiple endings. She argued that players may or may not sympathize with Sunderland depending on whether or not they have experienced a similar type of "caregiver burnout" that led him to killing his ill wife, comparing his decisions to that of the movie character Pearl in her namesake 2022 horror movie.[7] Matt Villei of The Nerd Stash held a similar position that the player can be easily immersed by James to the point of influencing his fate by choosing subtle actions that impact his emotional stability.[10] Likewise, Den of Geek editor Matthew Byrd felt that the connection between the player's actions and James' mental state was a brilliant game narrative on the grounds of the psychologies of both individuals leading to certain endings.[11]

References

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  1. ^ McMullen, Chris (8 June 2021). "How Silent Hill 2 Twists the One Thing You Thought You Could Trust". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 15 October 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  2. ^ Hester, Blake (27 December 2023). "Two Decades Later, Silent Hill 2 Is Still The Scariest Game Of All Time". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  3. ^ a b Kelly, Andy (18 March 2015). "'Silent Hill 2' Was the Game That Made Me Hate Myself". Vice. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b Ashley Bardhan (October 21, 2022). "Resident Evil's Ethan Winters And Silent Hill's James Sunderland Are The Same, Boring Protagonist". Kotaku. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Brion (10 November 2016). "Silent Hill 2 And How Toxic Masculinity Dooms Us All". The Fandomentals. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  6. ^ a b Druker, Mike (5 February 2021). "James Sunderland isn't Silent Hill 2's antihero; he's the villain". Polygon. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  7. ^ a b Terasaki, Kimberly (4 November 2022). "The Horrors of Caregiver Burnout: 'Pearl', 'Silent Hill II', and What We Can Learn From Them". The Mary Sue. Archived from the original on 4 November 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  8. ^ Kirkland, Ewan (2009). "Masculinity in Video Games: The Gendered Gameplay of Silent Hill". Camera Obscura. 24 (2): 161–183. doi:10.1215/02705346-2009-006.
  9. ^ Shearon, Andrea (11 February 2021). "Silent Hill 2 Turns 20 This Year And I'm Still Lost In Its Fog". TheGamer. Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  10. ^ Villei, Matt (25 October 2021). "Silent Hill 2: Still a Classic 20 Years Later". The Nerd Stash. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
  11. ^ Byrd, Matthew (24 September 2021). "Does Silent Hill 2 Have a True Ending?". Den of Geek. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2024.
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