| “ | I don't... feel so good... I must sit down... I remember now... 30 years ago I went down here... and cried... I can't feel my arms. I'm going to sleep... My name is Ben...
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” |
Ben is the first playable character in the mobile game Silent Hill: Orphan. Ben is a survivor of the massacre that occurred in the Sheppard's Orphanage in Silent Hill.
Silent Hill: Orphan[]
Ben is a survivor of the massacre at the orphanage, but for some reason does not remember how he survived that night. Now, Ben has a strange presentiment that sends him back to the orphanage to investigate the place.
Once he arrives, Ben begins to hear a strange voice that guides him through the orphanage. He soon hears Karen's cries through a ventilation duct. She cannot remember how she got there. Ben swears to find and help her, and continues exploring. In the bathroom, he finds a Halo of the Sun and the orphanage undergoes an Otherworld transformation.
He continues exploring the orphanage and finds a letter stating he was diagnosed with cancer as a child, but for some reason, Ben was never informed about it.
Suddenly, he hears the voice calling him to meet in the shower room. Ben enters, as it was his safe haven as a child. As he leaves, the screen goes white and a dialogue is shown as text on the screen. In this scene, Ben begin to remember that during the massacre, he hid in the shower room and cried. After that, he starts to feel ill and dies. After this, Moon's scenario begins.
Multiple points of the game imply that Ben knew that he would die, so he decided to return to the orphanage and die there to help Alessa in her plans. Apparently, Alessa spared Ben from the orphanage massacre because she knew that he was suffering from cancer, and would eventually die anyway.
Silent Hill: Mobile 3[]
Ben in Silent Hill: Mobile 3.
| “ | I... I... I... BEN... BEN... I... BEN... I... HELP...
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” |
During the events of Mobile 3, it is revealed that the massacre at the orphanage was a ritual to "wake up" Alessa, similar to the 21 Sacraments. However, since Alessa failed to kill all the orphans, she and her victims were trapped in a hellish limbo until all the survivors die.
Trying to further hinder Alessa's ritual, Karen revived Ben and the ghosts of six other orphans as monsters. When Vincent goes to the Otherworld for the first time, he finds a zombie claiming to be Ben and asking for help. However, Vincent becomes scared and starts fighting with Ben, killing him.
By the end of the game, the ritual is successfully completed with unknown results, and Ben can finally ascend to the afterlife.
Symbolism[]
The death of Ben is based in a common myth regarding cancer: that if one remains unaware that he/she has cancer, the disease will not advance.[1] As Ben never discovered his diagnosis in the messy aftermath of the massacre, the powers of the town kept him alive until Alessa managed to show him the truth.
Trivia[]
- In an alternative scene of the game (if the player goes to Ben's old room), he will mention that he shared a room with two other boys named "George" and "Leonard", who were killed in their beds on the night of the massacre.
- Ben is one of the few monsters that are conscious and can speak in their monstrous forms, the others being Mary, the Prisoners, the Twin Victim, the Bottom, Leonard Wolf, Momma, the Steel Guardian, the Bloodied Bag, Monocle Man, Alessa, Lucas and Karen.