kedamohno

I am normally so profoundly against the "oh no, they un-sexified my video game woman" rhetoric but it is so critically important to who Maria is as a character and to the overall theming of the game as a whole, and to put her in a more conservative outfit is so blatantly missing the point that it makes me deeply worried for the direction of this remake and the dev's grasps on the games most central theme.

Silent Hill 2 is an exploration into the psychosexual guilt of a man who experienced carnal urges while his wife was dying of a mysterious disease and physically unavailable to him. Maria is the most concrete confirmation of and confrontation with this theme that exists in the game. A mirror of his dead wife, meant to look James in the face and say "this is what you wanted, right?" She HAS to be identifiably sexual on sight, because Maria only exists to be a purposeful avatar of this concept.

it is ESSENTIAL TO THE PLOT that Maria is aware of and in CONTROL of her sexuality. Not only is it critical to James' story and his overall theming, but part of the tragedy of Silent Hill IS Maria's own story. Maria, who feels like a real, whole person, is an invention of the town made explicitly and only to torture James. Part of the tragedy is that Maria herself was born (from a wish, ba dum tss) by a malevolent supernatural force to exist as a sexual object. Maria, who is brought back to life again and again to be killed brutally, begging for James to save her. Maria, who comes to understand that she will never live up to the ideal of James' dead wife, and will continually beg to be taken seriously as her own person. The only thing she has to offer is her sexuality, the one thing James couldn't get from Mary; the thing that brought him to the town, to her. It her is primary character function, and it wasn't done to objectify her for shits and giggles, or because the devs were pervs who wanted a sexy woman in their game. It was done because that, in itself, is a horrifying, gut-wrenching reality to be brought into, a fundamentally ABYSMAL reason to exist. It IS the horror.

Maria exists exclusively to be a confrontation with James' sexual guilt. She is a specter that haunts the hallways James walks down, a shadow that hovers over his shoulder, the object of his shame and desire. Maria is the worst, most carnal aspects of James' urges made manifest, standing before him, tempting him deeper into the clutches of the town, muddying his senses with her physical allure.

Maria's outfit actually IS that deep. Part of the tragedy is that she only exists to be objectified. It is a commentary in itself. This is the one time EVER (god willing) that I will champion a woman being in a revealing outfit in a video game, because this is the one time it actually fucking MATTERS

maybe this is an unpopular opinion but as an afab person these themes are so so important and identifiable to me. it reflects the horror of every day life as a woman and magnifies them tenfold. it is tragic, it is awful, it is sick, and the point isn't to glorify it, but to call attention to it. it forces you to engage, to not turn your head away. and that matters to me.

★PINK