Possible Certain spoilers in the thread! Read at your own PERIL!

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I think he did. Although it is a bit muddled with the guilt he felt.

Yes he did, which is exactly why he was able to become so damaged. Love hurts, love bites, et cetera.

You should probably specify whether spoilers are allowed in the thread fyi.

I think it is infered based on the first post. :p

isn't silent hill 2 just basically James trying to cope with his own weakness and guilt?

@crithon: I don't know. ahah In one ending it is clear that Mary really loved him, but I'm unsure about James.

@crithon said:

Guilt that wasn't really his. He returns to Silent Hill more so out of a sense of longing. He makes the irrational decision to follow a dead woman's letter because he can't accept the fact that he couldn't fix Mary's problem (the unspecified disease). He's not feeling "guilt" over killing Mary (she wanted him to in case anyone forgot; It was a euthanasia type scenario), he's feeling "guilt" over being unable to fix her. In the brief glimpses we get of James's life post-Mary he's definitely a shell. He's been hollowed by her absence. That's why it's a lot easier for him to just pack up and go when the odd letter arrives.

As far as weakness goes, I'm not sure he is a weak man. He's definitely a sad man, and one that has been rocked by his loss, but I don't think he's weak. In the face of eldritch abominations, pocket hell dimensions and crazy weirdos, James never thinks of just leaving town. He wants to stay because he needs to find Mary. That's how much she meant to him; if there was a chance that she was somehow alive (no matter how irrational or remote that chance is) he needed to push forward and see her again. Considering how much shit he goes through, how many personal revelations and how many heart-attack inducing life or death moments he narrowly survives; I'd have to say that the kind of resolve he has to find his wife a pretty bad ass.

also silent hill starts with James looking into a mirror. That represents a lot about what he perceives and what he thinks. Like what your saying, through out the whole process of Silent Hill 2 he resolves a lot issues with himself. That's the thing about story telling, a lot of characters never resolve emotional baggage.

It all depends on which ending you get. Leave and Water (and Rebirth), yes he did (to varying degrees). Mary, not so much.

@oldirtybearon said:

James' words when he confronts the two Pyramid Heads in the Hotel:

"I was weak. That's why I needed you...Needed someone to punish me for my sins."

And his confession to Mary:

"That's why I did it honey. I just couldn't watch you suffer. No! That's not true...You also said you didn't want to die. The truth is, I hated you. I wanted you out of the way. I wanted my life back."

James is a very weak and damaged and delusional man so consumed in his own guilt that he is willing to follow a letter (that doesn't even exist) in the hopes that he can assuage his conscience. It also was not euthanasia. There was no mutual agreement between the two. If there was, then James wouldn't feel any guilt over what he did; murder Mary. Even though Mary tries to console him by asking "If that's true, then why do you look so sad?" We also have to remember that it's not actually Mary, but a construct created by the town. She likely says this because it's what James wants to hear. He's confronted what he's done and is trying to move on, but he can't unless "Mary" says it's cool.

He did at one point, whether he does now is more or less up to interpretation and is influenced by player agency. THAT'S WHY THE GAME IS SO NEAT! HURRAY FOR AMBIGUITY IN STORY TELLING BY WAY OF GAMEPLAY!