Daddy... Help me? | |
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“ | Or maybe... you think you can save me. Will you love me...? Take care of me...? Heal all my pain...? ...Hmph... That's what I thought.
|
” |
Angela Orosco is a character in Silent Hill 2. She is a young woman searching the town for her missing mother and crosses paths with James Sunderland multiple times.
Throughout the course of the game, she is revealed to have had a traumatic past that has affected her personality and mental health deeply, especially regarding her relationship with her father, Thomas, and her brother.
Appearance[]
Angela is a late teenager whose surname may suggest being of Spanish Basque heritage. Her hair is a very dark brown and shoulder-length, and she has brown eyes, often described to be baggy and making her look exhausted. She also wears a hair pin with a red jewel over her right ear.
Angela wears a white or beige sweater with a loose turtle neck which reaches her waist. She has reddish-brown jeans. The shoes that she wears are casual and dark blue.
Her introverted nature and the covering of her entire body may result from her past sexual abuse and the uncomfortable feeling of being exposed, which is common among victims of abuse. It may also cover up any bruises from her physical abuse or evidence of self-harm, given her suicidal ideation.
Personality[]
“ | I want to die. That is my one and only wish. But it's a wish that's proven difficult to obtain. I want to die, and yet I'm forced to keep living. I don't want to see anyone. Men, women, anyone.
|
” |
The game's website describes Angela as "shy to strangers, quiet and somber." It mentions that while she appears to be a regular teenage young woman, she is, "clearly different from others on how she deals and relates to death and sexuality. Her sense of values is eccentric, and she has a scent of danger." Despite being in her late teens, Angela displays a childish lack of maturity contrasting with her more adulterated age, such as referring her parents as "Mama" and "Daddy" to other people. Having built a massive disdain for people and exhausted with living, she is asocial and introverted, often wanting to be alone even in the face of grave danger; she is especially weary, defensive and untrusting around men, James being no exception (i.e. reflexively taking a stance or freaking out when James reaches too close for the knife). She exhibits several common symptoms of severe long-term depression, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety.
After countless years of enduring heavy family domestic abuse, Angela has subsequently become a distraught and traumatized individual. She is also suicidal, and prior to coming to Silent Hill, has attempted it many times through various violent and painful methods, all to no avail. She compares her suicide attempts "to buying a mountain of candy and forcing herself to devour it all, eating to spit it back out, and spitting it out to eat more." Angela describes it as an endless cycle of binging and purging "which could go on for days." She often feels that everything is hopeless, pointless and meaningless, having lost the will to live due to the constant abuse and mental trauma, and does not seem to care about or want anything in the world except death.
It can be interpreted that her reasoning behind her desire for suicide is twofold – both as an escape from her suffering, and as a punishment for her "wrongdoings" or mistakes. What she personally believes she did "wrong" is not stated, but it is most likely being a victim of abuse (she states that her mother said that she deserved it, and seems to agree with that sentiment) or the act of murder on her family members (father and brother).
Misanthropic, she is unable to trust people and believing them to be simply inherently superficial and/or self-serving at heart, feeling no one in the world could ever empathize, let alone understand her pain and suffering, fueling her paranoid suspicions and mistrust of them and desires of isolation and suicide within her own self. To Angela nowadays, life feels more like something to be coped with, instead of enjoyed, and she spends most of each day massively anxious and constantly in fear of nightfall, where the abuse occurs privately in her home, something she helplessly cannot control or even stop (trying to run away from home shortly after high school graduation only to be dragged forcibly by her father back home). She sought medical help for her psychological troubles before, but the results were discouraging and unsuccessful. It is highly suggested she has no one to talk to and nowhere to go to escape the personal hell she endures.
Angela grew up in an horrifically dysfunctional family. Ever since early childhood, her father (Thomas Orosco) as well as her brother, repeatedly abused and sexually assaulted her. In addition, Thomas beat her physically as well. Her mother was also apparently complicit, telling Angela she deserved it. It is also revealed she was also often sexually harassed at her dead-end waitressing job by sleazy male patrons groping and objectifying her.
Over time, she began to harbor intense feelings of resentment towards her family. While it may initially seem she seeks out her mother for in an attempt of solace and comfort, Angela is both resentful and angry towards her for leaving her behind, and may be searching for her simply to kill her. After murdering both her father and brother with the same bloody knife, Angela takes it with her as if it has sentimental value to her along to Silent Hill. She is ultimately suspicious and distrusting of James, her first impulse after being rescued from an enemy to lash out, and even accusing him of sexually ulterior motives. She also callously taunts and mocks his situation without much remorse, blatantly calling James a liar and accusing him of infidelity, although she does later thank him for saving her earlier.
Deep down inside, Angela feels she is a hideous, disgusting shell of her former self and dislikes looking into mirrors because they act as a reminder for her. She describes her reflection as an "ugly thing" that "doesn't look like her anymore". This may imply that she also has body dysmorphic disorder, a common issue among real-life sexual abuse victims. Knowing she has her father's DNA and genes in her only amplifies her negative feelings towards her own body – no matter how far she gets away from him, a part of him will always remain in her until the day she dies. If the family photo is her family, then it is evidence Angela resembles her father as the man is brunette and the woman is blonde.
Despite attending school and even working a retail job, Angela struggles immensely to interact with others socially. James notes in the novelization that she has a "severe social phobia" and has had "bad experiences in the past with men." James may be the first person she meets since fleeing her family home to Silent Hill, and upon meeting him for the first time, she comes off shy and timid, speaking with a nervous stammer and lack of confidence (e.g. "Who-who-who is it?", "I-I-I mean my mother..."), experiencing difficulty asserting herself. When James doesn't seem to believe Angela when she warns him that Silent Hill is a dangerous town, she yells, "I'm not lying!" However, upon her next encounter with James, her mood and energy completely change into something more depressed and volatile, even showing an irrational hostility towards James at one point out of a misunderstanding on her part.
She displays no remorse over murdering her abusers, and rationalizes her actions similar to Eddie ("Mama didn’t help me at all. She had to have known. How could she not know what was happening to her own daughter? If she did know, she pretended not to. I only did what I had to do! It was self-defense! I just couldn’t stand it anymore! God will forgive me. I won’t go to hell—they will. I don’t care if they burn for eternity!"). By the time she reaches Lakeview Hotel, she seems to fantasize both her father and brother helplessly burning without mercy, and admires a painting made of male human corpses with blood-stained crotches, with holes where their genitals should be when James runs into her. The novelization implies these are symbolic of Angela's father and brother, and could be interpreted as her contempt towards them. Instead of pictures, however, the novel replaces them with two actual male bodies, bound, castrated and constantly burning in the painful flames of the room, their skin never searing physically. By the point of the story, she has completely given in to her suicidal ideations, her delusions having gotten to the point she mistakes James for her mother, with a final departing "to find her own grave."
Biography[]
Angela was born and grew up in a poor and toxic family. Because of her violent, abusive and traumatic childhood, Angela was convinced that she would never truly find happiness in life, after being forced to lose her innocence as a child and grow up too fast.
Her father, Thomas Orosco, an aggressive alcoholic lumberjack, sexually and physically abused her while inebriated throughout her life. This caused her to harbor much contempt towards men. In addition, Angela's brother would also abuse her incestuously, only adding to her trauma. Meanwhile Angela's mother frequently reminded her that she deserved her abuse and as a result, Angela endured it as she grew up. Although Angela's mother knew what was happening, she never intervened. It seems that Angela never told anyone outside her family about her sexual and physical abuse, possibly out of fear that her father will retaliate against her, embarrassment, and her not knowing anybody she can talk to.
At an unknown point in time (Angela says "It's been so long since I've seen her" in Silent Hill 2), Angela's mother eventually left her family, leaving Angela alone with her father and brother, with her fate ambiguous and unknown. It is also unknown if Angela's mother is even alive during Silent Hill 2; it is possible she left her family to go kill herself and hid her suicide from Angela and her brother to ease the burden.
Later, according to the novelization, Angela found a job as a waitress at a restaurant, a tiresome and boring job she absolutely despised due to the pathetically low minimum wage income ($150 USD a week, which would result in an annual salary of around $7000-8000), her distaste of the nauseating smell of cooking meat and the perverted male customers always trying to touch her body, repeatedly triggering events of previous abuse.
Eventually, through a massive combination of traumatic experiences, boring exhausting dead-end slave-like job, mental health issues, as well as her failure to achieve any form of release from her torment, Angela became suicidal as it was too much for her to bear. According to the novelization, Angela visited a doctor at a hospital and all he did was prescribe drugs (presumably anti-depressants), but they did not work and the side effects of which were torturous on her. Angela felt that this doctor did not understand her. This was further explained in Donna Burke's song "No One Can Save Me (Angela's Song)", whereas the lyrics "No one can understand this pain I'm in" is referring to how most people do not understand Angela's burdened feelings and suffering.
After Angela graduated high school, she ran away from home but was found and dragged back by her father. It is unknown how old Angela was when she tried to leave home – since Angela presumably lived in Maine, if Angela was 18 or older, it would have been illegal for Thomas to bring Angela home.
It is unknown if Thomas and/or Angela's brother continued raping Angela after taking her back. Regardless, at the Orosco's residence around midnight, Angela was enraged at him and took a kitchen knife, stabbing her father in the neck out of anger, slitting his throat, then in the torso multiple times. There is evidence of a struggle in the room, implying that Thomas fought for his life, but was overwhelmed by Angela. She did not bother to take her family's cash or hide her father's corpse and fled the house. According to the novelization, Angela also "took care" of her brother, but it does not go into detail.
Being in a state of emotional turmoil afterwards due to being the target of a murder investigation, with no one to turn to and nowhere else to go, Angela was called to Silent Hill in order to try to find her missing mother, her final hope. It is never known if Angela's mother may lived (or died) in Silent Hill, or even visited the town.
Silent Hill 2[]
On the outskirts of SIlent Hill, Angela arrives at a cemetery, looking for her father and brother. She is instead accidentally startled an older man named James Sunderland, who's lost on his way to Silent Hill. Though timid and anxious, Angela helps navigate him towards the path into it but then afterwards suddenly warns him that there's "something wrong" about the area and that he should stay away for his own good. She attempts and struggles to explain the dangers about the town, and when she feels James is dismissing her claims and leaving, she hysterically reaffirms that she isn't lying to him. This alarms James, giving him an indication that she is clearly distressed and troubled.
Through a brief conversation, Angela tells James that she is also looking for her "mama", immediately retracting and saying "I mean my mother." She's also searching for her father and brother as well, but is also unable to find them. James gives her a similar account, but is vague about it, not wanting to reveal too much of his personal dilemma. Angela apologizes herself, not wanting to bother him with her personal problems, but a sympathetic James is understanding and bids her good luck before leaving. A little after this encounter, Angela enters Silent Hill on her own, despite just warning someone else about the dangers of the town.
Throughout navigating the town, she finds Blue Creek Apartments. She lies on the floor of room 109, motionlessly stabbing the floor with her blood-stained knife, contemplating suicide beside an unusually large mirror in a dark room, having given up on life. James tries to talk Angela out of suicide and tells her "there's always another way", although she comments they both deserve to die. When James comments he is not like her, Angela asks James if he is afraid of death with a teasing tone in her voice, but she immediately apologizes. James and Angela change topics to Angela's mother. Through Angela's dialogue, it is heavily implied that her mother once lived in Silent Hill.
When Angela learns that James's wife Mary is dead after he shows her Mary's photo, she appears uncomfortable and unnerved and tells him that she's going to resume searching for her mother. James takes Angela's knife from her at her request since if she kept it, she's not sure what she might do. At first, she jumps back and points it toward him as if defending herself, but then she calms down and apologizes. She flees in panic after he initially tries to take it out of her hand, likely due to her trauma and feeling unsafe around other men and strangers, as well as James saying he's searching for someone who's dead and trying to assure her he's not crazy. Examining the knife often is one of the factors which enables the "In Water" ending of the game, in which James kills himself.
In the labyrinth area, a bloody newspaper article can be found stating that Thomas Orosco, a lumberjack, was stabbed to death in the neck with a knife and that police have opened a murder investigation. James then hears Angela's voice scream "No, Daddy! Please, don't!" behind a room covered with newspapers, perhaps symbolic of Angela being forced to remember killing her father, and possible worry of the media attention surrounding it.
Inside, James finds her sitting in a state of catatonia on the floor, cowering away from a monstrous version of her father known as Abstract Daddy, too frightened and terrified to move or stand up. On the flesh-lined walls of the room are cavities with metallic pistons making thrusting motions, akin to a penis thrusting in and out of a vagina or anus. These further evoke Angela's perspective of her being raped: a mechanical, emotionless, and inescapable experience.
After James defeats the creature, Angela viciously kicks it and throws a TV on it, killing it. James tells Angela to relax, but she becomes irritated because it feels like an order, although James tells Angela he was not trying to boss her around. Angela accuses him of only being nice to her in order to come after her sexually as an end goal. Angela, acting with disdain and general hatred towards James and all men, does not believe James and calls him a selfish disgusting pig.
Angela falls to the floor and sobs while dry heaving, and becomes physically ill while remembering her father raping and beating her. James tries to console her by touching her shoulder and Angela screams at him to back off and not touch her, saying he makes her sick. After James leaves her be to compose herself, Angela stands up and asks James if Mary is really dead. James replies that Mary died of her illness. Angela shouts "LIAR!" at him, claims she knows about him and that he did not want Mary around any more, and then accuses him of abandoning Mary for another woman before leaving the room with a sigh of disgust.
Angela is last seen at a burning staircase in the Lakeview Hotel, vacantly standing between two skinned blood-stained male corpses stitched to a frame, symbolic of her dead father and brother. Initially, she confuses James for her mother and begins embracing him, but snaps out of her delusion and apologizes. Angela thanks James for saving her earlier, but tells him that she wishes he never did and instead, left her to die. Angela tells James not to pity her and, sarcastically, asks him if he would love her, care for her and take away her pain. James looks down and says nothing. Angela asks James to return her knife, but he declines. Angela asks James if he's "saving it for himself" and he answers no.
Angela turns around and ascends the staircase. Before she leaves, James says the room they're in is hot as hell. Angela replies "You see it, too? For me... It's always like this". Angela disappears past the flames, leaving to find another way to suicide, feeling that it is the only choice and option she has left, eventually killing herself off-screen.[2]
Creator's comment[]
“ | Her name is borrowed from the protagonist of the film The Net. It's also a religious name common in Spanish lineage that is derived from "angel", which was a source of inspiration as well. |
” |
Quotes[]
- "This, uh...this town—there's...something wrong with it."
- "I'm looking for my Mama... I-I mean my mother. It's been so long since I've seen her. I thought my father and brother were here, but...I can't find them either. ...I'm sorry...it's not your problem."
- "You're the same as me... It's easier just to run... Besides, it's what we deserve. Are you afraid?"
- "I've gotta find my mama..."
- "NOOO! I'm sorry... I've been bad... Please don't...!"
- "No, Daddy! Please, don't!"
- "Don't order me around!"
- "So what do you want, then? Oh, I see... You're trying to be NICE to me, RIGHT?! I know what you're up to! It's always the same! You're only after ONE THING!"
- "You don't have to lie! Go ahead and say it! Or you could just force me. Beat me up like... he... he always did. You only care about yourself, anyway! You disgusting pig!"
- "DON'T TOUCH ME! YOU MAKE ME SICK!"
- "Liar! I know about you! You didn't want her around anymore! You probably found someone else!"
- "Mama! Mama, I was looking for you! Now you're the only one left! Maybe then...maybe then I can rest. Mama? Why are you running away?... [gasp] You're not my Mama! It's...it's you! Oh,…I...I-I-I'm sorry..."
- "Thank you for saving me. But... wish you hadn't. Even Mama said it: I deserved what happened."
- "No... don't pity me. I'm not worth it... Or maybe... you think you can save me. Will you love me...? Take care of me...? Heal all my pain...? ...Hmph... That's what I thought."
- Angela: "James... give me back that knife."
James: "No! I, I won't."
Angela:"Saving it for yourself?" - James: "It's hot as hell in here..."
Angela: "You see it too? For me, it's always like this."
Silent Hill 2: The Novelization
- "For 150 dollars a week, I work at my tiresome job, in a place that reeks of sizzling, burning meat. It is a stench as disgusting and bestial as the lust of men. With their broad grins and vulgar laughter, they stare at the waitress' uniform skirts, their gazes coiling around their legs as if to taste them. The shameless hands of the male customers—no matter how many times I smack them away, they still persist—grabbing at me, stroking the curve of my hips."
- "How many times have I held a knife to my wrists, but hesitated? Stood at the edge of a rooftop, but couldn't jump? Swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills, only to force them back up again? It's like buying a mountain of candy and forcing myself to devour it all, eating to spit it back out, and spitting it out to eat more. This endless cycle of binging and purging could go on for days."
- "Going outside is so troublesome. Some days I just crawl into bed and never come out. It's so hard to sleep at night that I'm constantly haunted by drowsiness. Nevertheless, I lie completely still in the uneasy silence, wary of the sound of footsteps approaching the door. Tonight, as I await the abuse I receive every night, my anxiety grows until it turns into crushing despair. I can’t endure this kind of panic."
- "I'm too afraid to look in the mirror, too afraid to face that ugly thing that doesn't look like me anymore. I can't do anything. I don't care about anything. I only spend my days trembling and dreading the arrival of the night. Every day is that empty."
- "I want to die. That is my one and only wish. But it's a wish that's proven difficult to obtain. I want to die, and yet I'm forced to keep living. I don't want to see anyone. Men, women, anyone. Those people who are always meddling with their unwanted kind words."
- "I just can’t stomach that friendly, but completely insincere, attitude everyone seems to have. I want to die! Nothing you can say will ever change my mind! For all your consolation, it’s not like any of you would willingly take my place. Such irresponsible people, none of you understand me.... Not even Mama..."
- "Even the doctor from that far away hospital doesn't understand me. After everything I tried to tell him during the examination, all he did was prescribe more drugs. The side effects were torturous and soon it became too much."
- "It's impossible. Everything’s impossible. Even back then, I knew none of them could save me. I knew that eventually, I'd be left with no choice. And now I know that there's only one thing I can do. At least that much is still possible."
- "Trying to kill myself, but always meeting with failure... it's all... because of them. I can never forget what my father and brother have done."
Trivia[]
- The player can speak to Angela for two more small scenes after meeting her. In the first, James tells Angela, "It sure is quiet here, huh?" to which she replies "I guess?" In the second, Angela catches James staring at her and asks him, "Aren't you looking for someone?" to which James replies "That's right..." and he wanders off.
- Despite some fan denial, it is officially confirmed that Angela was sexually abused. Jeremy Blaustein, the translator who worked with Team Silent, clarified: "This is an easy issue to clear up. I can tell with 100% clarity on the subject that it was always the intention of the creators that Angela's background contained sexual abuse at the hands of her father. In return, she stabbed him to death. That is why she is in Silent Hill. From the very earliest conversations that I was in on (the pre-script writing meeting), the team had the intention of including incest and sexual abuse in one of the character's backgrounds. They wanted, remember, to get at the very heart (or maybe I should say edges) of psychological pain. So we all knew precisely what we wanted with Angela in terms of her dialog on paper and as performed. It is also well reflected in her appearance. We thought about it all the time, in every scene. Just watch the scenes again. She gets physically ill when she thinks about her experience. It seems clearly depicted to me if you know what you are looking for."[3] This has been subsequently verified by Masahiro Ito on multiple occasions.[4]
- There is a notable theory that Angela's Otherworld resembles the house she grew up/was abused in, affirmed by the novelization saying the room Abstract Daddy is fought in resembles a room from her childhood home.
- It can be theorized that Angela set her house on fire, but there is no proof of this. If Angela did set their house on fire, the newspaper would have mentioned it, but it does not.
- Angela is voiced by Donna Burke, who later voiced Claudia Wolf in Silent Hill 3. Both characters were severely abused by their fathers, and both games involve a fight by the protagonist against a monstrous representation of either father. Laura Bailey also reprised the role of both Angela and Claudia in the HD Collection.
- Donna Burke sang a song dedicated to Angela titled "No One Can Save Me".[3]
- The "Making of Silent Hill 2" claims Angela "was supposed to be 16-17". This almost definitely refers to the original intent, since her final age given in the Book of Lost Memories and the official website is 19. The design team aimed to make Angela look older and opted for an older voice (Donna Burke was around 40 when Angela was voiced). When some first-time players meet Angela, they tend to mistake her for being older than 19.
- This may also show how the detrimental effects of abuse and stress can cause a child to biologically grow up faster (fast maturation) and leave permanent scars which can remain in adulthood, not to mention the psychological damage. Studies have shown that those who suffer from stress and child abuse often age faster.[5]
- Angela appears on the cover of Silent Hill 2 and The Silent Hill Experience.
- In the intro of the game, Angela is seen running in a house. This could be interpreted as Angela running away from her father, or running away to Silent Hill.
- In Room 109, there are two distinct and contrasting doors side to side. One door on the left is dark and boarded up, while the other is white and clean. They could represent the path to Hell and Heaven, or childhood and adolescence as there is a teddy bear next to the dark door. Alternatively, it may represent Angela's desire to repress the dark memories of her defiled youth, in favor of purity and a clean slate. Angela is inside of the room past the white door, contemplating suicide.
- In Japan, the color of white is considered to be pure, but it is also the color of death (as in the purity of death). Angela's sweater is off-white and may have "death" symbolism. When James first meets Angela, Angela is shrouded in a white foggy cemetery.
- The prisoner coin may be connected to Angela somehow, as it has a woman who strongly resembles her on it. The woman on the coin is facing to the left and is blindfolded. Whether or not it truly is Angela on the coin is unknown. Aside from the woman on the coin, it's possible that the developers intended it to be connected to Angela in some way, as it appears in the room where she considers suicide and Angela was a prisoner to her father.
- In Room 109, in the room where Angela was, if the player examines the floor in a certain spot, a photo can be found of a family, which may be Angela's family. The photo shows a mother, father, daughter and brother, matching Angela's family members. The photo is ripped between the girl and her father and brother, implying that Angela may have been a little girl when she was sexually abused, and that she ripped the photo out of disdain for her father and brother. However, there is a possibility the family is not Angela's, that Angela never saw the photo or ripped it, and that it was only included in the game for symbolism instead of being a literal photo of her family.
- Only after James has seen and picks up Angela's knife does Pyramid Head wield his Great Knife. Since Angela laid it down for James to "hold... for [her]" lest she use it to kill or harm herself, the Great Knife may partly symbolize suicidal ideations taken root in James' mind. The Great Knife also looks like an oversized version of Angela's knife.
- Masahiro Ito designed Pyramid Head with the "In Water" ending (in which James kills himself) in mind.[6]
- The three tablets in the prison represent James, Eddie Dombrowski, and Angela.[7] "I give you blood to atone for the three Sins" is written where the three tablets need to be placed. Angela's "sin" was murdering her father, while Eddie murdered a dog and James murdered Mary. Angela's tablet is "The Seductress", which is found inside of a shower stall. Rape victims normally take showers soon afterwards to abolish the feelings of filth, which may mean Angela took showers after sexual abuse.
- In the Abstract Daddy's labyrinth room, there are several holes with pistons or sphincters inside of them, which move with a steady thrust. The walls appear to be made out of flesh or raw meat, with a texture resembling clay which someone has dragged their fingers across. In the novelization, it is stated that the room has an unpleasant odor. These details could represent the sexual abuse inflicted upon Angela. In the novelization, the room is reminiscent of a room from her childhood home, implied to be a living room, hence the television. It is possible every piston is symbolic of how many times Angela was molested (23).
- James does not see the Abstract Daddy the same way that Angela does.[8] Ito believes that, if they showed the Abstract Daddy from Angela's perspective, she would not have been as interesting as a character. He stated that leaving elements to the player's imagination is often a more effective story-telling mechanism.[9] However, Ito imagines the Abstract Daddy seen in the game being tame compared to what Angela actually saw.[10]
- Right before James fights Eddie Dombrowski, he comes across a small graveyard. There are three open graves: one for James, Angela, and Eddie. Walter Sullivan's name can also be found on a buried grave, reflecting the Murder Incident Article that James found earlier in the game.
- In the burning staircase, there are two bodies on the walls that are covered by sheets stretched tightly across them, conveying the idea of restricted movement; being held down. The sheets strongly resemble human skin stitched to a frame. The bodies are stained in the crotch with dried blood, with obvious castration wounds. These represent Angela's father and brother, as confirmed by Ito,[11] and described by James in the novelization as a "middle-aged man" and a "younger man". The corpse also appears in the short film "Fukuro".
- When James states "It's hot as hell in here", Angela replies "You see it, too? For me... it's always like this". This could mean that Angela's Otherworld is full of flames, heat and constant burning, or, due to a very abusive childhood she has experienced, she may have stated that her life was a living hell.
- According to Ito, James likely sees the staircase differently than Angela (much like the Abstract Daddy).[12]
- At the top of the hotel stairs, if the player uses a camera hack, Angela can be seen bending and twisting.[13]
- Although the Silent Hill 2 novelization stated (and Ito confirmed) that Angela's brother also sexually abused her, this is never mentioned in the game itself. The game also never mentions the death of Angela's brother, though Angela implies it when she says "Now you're the only one left", referring to her mother.
- In Silent Hill 3, Heather Mason encounters a Closer feeding on a woman's body in the Central Square Shopping Center. Her face and clothing resemble Angela's, but her hair is shorter and her clothes are of different colors. According to Ito, it was created by re-using one of Angela's character models.[14]
- In Silent Hill 3, three posters advertising Silent Hill 2 are also found in the office section of the shopping mall. The posters depict Angela's face with a blue background. This art is from the Silent Hill 2 Perfect Navigation File.
- In the Xbox 360 version of Silent Hill: Homecoming, if the player does not forgive Adam Shepherd, the main protagonist's father, they get an achievement called "Angela's Choice". Angela never forgave her father (and brother) for sexually abusing her.
- In Silent Hill: Downpour, a boat stationed at the docks near DJ Ricks's boat is named "Angela's Fire", a probable reference to Angela.
- Angela may have inspired Anna from the Silent Hill film. This is supported by her anxious, awkward nature, and even has a knife taken from her just as James Sunderland did to Angela in the game. Their names also both begin with "An", and much like Angela, Anna seems devout to one purpose; in her first scene, she explains her adamant service regarding God and Christabella, and in the game, Angela seems solely motivated by the need to find her mother. Lastly, both Angela and Anna are brutalized by powerful male figures, with Angela being abused by her father, and Anna killed by Red Pyramid, a representation of raw male brutality.
- Her predicament is also very similar to Shannon from Silent Hill: Book of Memories (teenager, suffering from suicidal depression, being involved with an older man).
- Angela shares some physical similarities with Alessa Gillespie, Jodie Mason, and Fukuro Lady.
- Angela shares a lot of similarities with Alice Liddell from American McGee's Alice (teenager, depressed, suicidal, thoughts of cutting, fire symbolism, bloody knife symbolism). American McGee's Alice was released a year before Silent Hill 2 and had a strong influence on the psychological horror video game genre. It is possible American McGee's Alice partially inspired Silent Hill 2 and Angela. As proven in the series, Team Silent were fascinated by Alice in Wonderland, going so far as to make it one of Alessa Gillespie's favorite books, and cited Jan Švankmajer's Alice as an inspiration of Silent Hill 2. The similarities go even further with Alice: Madness Returns, which adds family rape as backstory (albeit to Alice's sister), although Madness Returns was released later.
- Angela may have inspired Mayu from the Elfen Lied series, which was released not too long after Silent Hill 2, in terms of background and appearance. Like Angela, Mayu was also a homeless teenager who was raped by her (step)father, and was ignored and verbally abused by her mother, which resulted in her running away from home. Furthermore, the two share a distinctly similar hairstyle and wear a long, beige, turtleneck sweater covering a large amount of her body, as to not expose her breasts. Mayu's backstory is revealed in episode 5 of Elfen Lied. Mayu even finds a dog called "James", but then decides to call the dog "Wanta".
Gallery[]
Concept[]
Silent Hill 2[]
Silent Hill 2 (2024)[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.konami.com/games/silenthill/2r/us/en/
- ↑ https://silenthilltheories.fandom.com/wiki/File:AngelaDead.jpg
- ↑ Jeremy Blaustein interview
- ↑ Masahiro Ito, Twitter
- ↑ LiveScience: "Bullying, Child Abuse Hasten Aging in Kids"
- ↑ https://silenthilltheories.fandom.com/wiki/File:PHInWater.jpg
- ↑ Silent Hill 2 Official Perfect Capture & World Guide
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1105929282650427392
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1262941108193157127
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1097929728789377024
- ↑ Masahiro Ito, Twitter
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1248673854215487489
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqTNf2IZ7Yg
- ↑ Masahiro Ito, Twitter
Notes[]
- ↑ Although the novelization does not explicitly say Angela is a waitress, she mentions she works at a place which reeks of meat all the time, implying she works at a steakhouse of some sort. She mentions the men stare at the waitress' uniform skirts and would touch their bodies, and that she herself has to also deal with being touched.
- ↑ Angela's death is never confirmed in the game without a doubt, but Masahiro Ito confirmed that she did indeed die, though he did not remember how.[1][2] Angela killing herself is also suggested in the novelization which mentions "she was off to find her grave."