| “ | Cherry blossoms bloom within the grasp of death. With most flowers, the rot sets in... then they fall... That's the price of new life. Not cherry blossoms, though. They bloom beautiful; they fall beautiful. That's how I want my life to be.
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” |
Maya Aco Hindenburg is a key character appearing in Silent Hill: The Short Message, whose death sets the events of the game in motion.
History[]
Maya was an ethnically Japanese German-born teenage student and graffiti artist from Kettenstadt. She is the great-granddaughter of the Witch of the Far East, a clairvoyant that is responsible for the town's booming success during the 1930s. However, Kettendstadt's economic growth begins to spiral down following the witch's death in 1947, which persisted into the events of the game. The decay affected the residents, including the youth that were coping with the situation. Due to this, the Hindenburgs became a target for harassment and bullying due to their family association with the witch who supposedly cursed the town with her death. Maya is forced to transfer to multiple schools but is unable to shake off the harassment. In addition, Maya and her mother would frequently argue due to different things they valued in life. Overtime, Maya slowly became enamored with suicidal ideation and the concept of death glorification in Japanese culture.
Maya expressed her feelings throughout her artistic graffiti works, in which she portrays "girls' hidden sides and their struggles" through cherry blossoms and branches intertwining with them as she had a strong fixation on the ideas of beauty and transience of life. On social media, Maya's art was well-recognized, but her work was also crudely criticized and vandalized by the town's youth for being "weird". Eventually, Maya transfers to another high school in Kettenstadt where she met Amelie and Anita Planert. Maya took an interest in Amelie and the three girls began to frequently spend time together. Sometime after, Maya met her boyfriend, who showed her a new world of hope in living. However, the bullying and hate-campaign caused her boyfriend to leave her, which took a toll on Maya's psyche. At her moment of vulnerability, Maya left a letter dedicated to Amelie in a book as her cry for help, wanting to run away with her. However, Anita had become jealous of her closeness with Amelie and her artistic talent, so she seized the book and withheld the letter.
Without comfort, never hearing back from Amelie was likely Maya's final straw. Months before her suicide, Maya learns of the frequent suicides that took place in the Villa, where she had made her graffiti works. Enamored with the girls' thoughts before they jumped to their deaths, Maya decided to put her soul and effort into her last artwork as her crowning achievement, depicting the girls with cherry blossom wings departing for a better place. Eventually, Maya committed suicide by jumping from the Villa's rooftop. The suicide scarred her friends and other bullies, with Amelie feeling guilt-ridden in not foreseeing her action and Anita for inadvertently pushing Maya towards her fate. A mural at the bottom of the Villa is made in dedication to Maya, and Anita would come to repress her role and memories of events that were associated with Maya's suicide.
Six months later, "Maya" would apparently contact Anita to come to the Villa in order to show her something. Initially, Anita is worried for Maya's safety after witnessing a dangerous cherry blossom creature pursuing her, but she gradually recalls her repressed memories. Anita tried to escape the Villa in terror, but via text, "Maya" stated that they both can't leave until she found "it". Throughout her ordeal, Anita would come to realize her jealousy and role in Maya's suicide. Towards the end of her journey, Anita found that the thing Maya had wanted her to find was her sketch of Anita and her intended final work of a mural featuring both Amelie and Anita herself, serving as a final message of validation in that she saw both of them as valued friends, which prompted Anita to face her own mistakes and sense of guilt over her death and her negative feelings for her. Anita confessed her actions to Amelie, which returned her back to reality.
Quotes[]
- "The city's a blank canvas, begging for us to paint it with our hopes and dreams. I want to show the hidden side of girls — their impulses, their urges. What are YOU hiding inside...?" (to Anita)
- "Don't worry about what people think. Be proud."
- "All I'm doing is showing what these girls feel on the inside but can't show on the outside. If any of them connect with a girl in the art, it's probably because they're experiencing the same thing."
- "People in this town see graffiti as nothing but trashy doodles. And, my classmates talk about me... Might not be a bad idea to leave town, actually..."
- "As long as I'm with you, I can have fun anywhere." (to Amelie)
- "So what'd you think of the book? The author killed themselves when they were young. Something beautiful from something tragic... It's kinda enchanting, isn't it? I wonder what they were thinking right before they died."
- "You really are shy, aren't you? I actually kinda like that, though. You write in a really flowery and passionate way. I can't wait to read more." (about Amelie)
- "Guess you can predict other people's futures, but not your own." (said during a discussion about fortune-telling and its validity)
- "There's no beauty... in any of this..." (reading notes from her bullies)
- "I want to experience true beauty, if only for a moment."
- "People who can't achieve beauty seek comfort in others. They fear anyone different. Hate them. Try to tear them down."
- "I can't take much more of this. I wish you and I could run away together, Amelie. Just me and you..."
Trivia[]
- A positive pregnancy test is found in the trash can of Maya's art studio, alluding to a potential pregnancy.
Gallery[]
The Short Message[]
.png "Maya (Silent Hill - The Short Message screenshot).png (1,013 KB)")
Sketchbook art[]
.png "Maya's Skizzenbuch (Sketchbook).png (716 KB)")
References[]
| v · e · d |
|---|
| Characters |
| Major Characters |
| Anita Planert - Maya Hindenburg |
| Other Characters |
| Amelie - Krysta Planert |
| Monsters |
| Sakura Head |
| Locations |
| The Villa - Kettenstadt |
| Terms |
| Flashlight - Radio - Real World - Fog World - The Silent Hill Phenomenon - The Witch of the Far East - Otherworld - Monster - Robbie the Rabbit |
| Archives |
| Memos - Puzzles - Soundtrack |