The Moths and Maria's Origin

[chimik]

I found a post written on Neoseeker written a long dang while ago that I found fascinating and wanted to know what y'all think about it:

"I have a thought, which runs against most current thinking on silent hill 2. I am toying with the idea that Maria was at some stage a real person who lived in silent hill and worked at heavens night. for some reason she commits suicide or at least comes near to it, this is when she is dragged into the whole mess. she bears a passing resemblance to Mary which is exploited and enhanced by the evil forces in the town to torment James. If this is the case she may have lived in room 202, or at least in that apartment building, collecting butterflies as a hobby or something. admittedly this is a crude theory, and it mostly comes from the events in the xbox born from a whish scenario, which I have not played, only read about..
What do you think.. I'm not sure at all.. but it would seem to explain some inconsistencies in the imaginary Maria theory..."

- User Lord_Gelatine

Personally I love the idea the concept that Maria was dragged into this just as much as James, Angela, or Eddie were (given that we don't think about the Born from a Wish scenario). I find this headcannon to be the most interesting because, if we take an aspect of James' guilt at face value, that would explain how Maria would be a physical manifestation of James potentially cheating on Mary while she was sick, while also explaining why Maria (from when James meets her up until the whole elevator scuffle with the GigaChad pyramid head) was as lost as James was.
Idk, what do y'all think about this?

[Otherworld]

The thing that bothers me here is that if James had actually committed adultery I am sure we would have seen a direct manifestation of that during his time in town.

There would have definitely been darkness in his heart that the town would have manifested but IMO we do not see any of it.

[chimik]

The thing that bothers me here is that if James had actually committed adultery I am sure we would have seen a direct manifestation of that during his time in town.

There would have definitely been darkness in his heart that the town would have manifested but IMO we do not see any of it.

For sure for sure. I think that there is a fair amount of "if then's" to this theory that makes the suspension of disbelief get cranked up to 11.
I do feel like the one thing that irked me about the base game was "born from a wish" in its entirety IMO. I really do like the concept that if we are seeing everything from James' distorted perspective, then it would make sense why James would see Maria like that (based on the headcannon). In terms of connecting why this lady who ends up being Maria would be in Silent Hill in first place makes sense when we think of it in terms of why Laura would be there as well. I would think that if Laura was called to Silent Hill in order to find Mary (potentially driven there by Eddie based off of the intro cinematic) then it would equally make sense that, headcannon in mind, that Maria would also be called to Silent Hill to fulfil her role for James and get her end of the bargain up until she is murdered by PH.
Still, what you say rings true completely. If so much of James' psyche is brought into a physical manifestation in the form of bosses, wouldn't this form of guilt appear as well? Maybe Maria acts just as that in this headcannon. Not too sure myself.

[Xuchilbara]

James didn't commit adultery. I think the game would be clearer about that if he did.

As for Maria, there is two of them; the firgure with long, black hair that actually exists and the one born from a wish of James's. The original Maria is a local stripper and probably a normal person who has nothing to do with James.

The wish Maria is the one we see in the game. It is implied she may also be a wish of Mary's, if not some sort of incarnation. This is all due to James's desires.

I would hesitate to call the Maria we see "imaginary" as it states she is "Born From A Wish" which means she exists in some form. Even if that form is merely in the otherworld.

[Otherworld]

IMO the Maria we see exists in James' otherworld alone. BOLM states as much as Maria cannot be seen by anyone else regardless if you have been called.

I think Xuchilbara sums this up to a "t".

The town's power uses the stripper Maria from the real world to create the "Born from a wish" Maria in James' otherworld. And the BFW Maria has a heavy connection to Laura. So it makes sense that in one way or another she is a wish of Marys as well.

[chimik]

IMO the Maria we see exists in James' otherworld alone. BOLM states as much as Maria cannot be seen by anyone else regardless if you have been called.

I think Xuchilbara sums this up to a "t".

The town's power uses the stripper Maria from the real world to create the "Born from a wish" Maria in James' otherworld. And the BFW Maria has a heavy connection to Laura. So it makes sense that in one way or another she is a wish of Marys as well.

solid stuff.