James Sunderland

“	I was weak... That's why I needed you... Needed someone to punish me for my sins... But that's all over now. I know the truth. Now it's time to end this.
: —James realizing Pyramid Head's purpose and confronting them in battle.	”
James Sunderland is the protagonist of Silent Hill 2. As the game begins, James remarks that his wife, Mary Shepherd-Sunderland, has been dead for three years. Regardless, he has received a mysterious letter in Mary's handwriting, claiming that she is waiting for him in their "special place", somewhere in Silent Hill. When James arrives at the town, he becomes ensnared in a series of bizarre and nightmarish events which force him to question his sanity, morality, memory and personality.
He was a recurring character in nearly all of the games that he's playable. He also became a major character in Mirage Warriors.
== Personality ==
“	He who is not bold enough to be stared at from across the abyss is not bold enough to stare into it himself. The truth can only be learned by marching forward. Or perhaps you are a fool. The truth usually betrays people. I wasn't looking for the truth, I was looking for tranquility. If you do not wish to stop, James, I pray to the Lord to have mercy on your eternal soul.
: — Letter and a Wrench memo author	”
James was originally envisioned with having two different sides to his personality.[1]
Maria describes James as kind; Mary, in her letter to Laura, describes him as a little surly and says he does not talk much, but is sweet underneath his enigmatic exterior. James is typically courteous to other characters he meets in Silent Hill. He is polite and mild-tempered. For example, he tries to help Angela Orosco cope with her emotional distress and tries to touch her shoulder to comfort her but fails. When James first encounters Eddie Dombrowski, he becomes concerned for Eddie's welfare and advises him to leave the town. He also expresses concern for Laura, attempting to follow her through Silent Hill so she won't come to harm.
However, James's darker side is revealed in some of his actions. James lost some of his confidence and self-respect when Mary became ill. James is in deep grief and depression from his relationship with Mary and her death. He denies the murder of his wife, attributing her death to her disease. James may be perceived as cowardly, running away from his guilt and blame. Upon being confronted about the truth or something uncomfortable, James tends to avoid eye contact, looks down, turns away, or remains silent. James is rather bad at consoling people; he often falls short in regards to helping Eddie and Angela.
James is borderline suicidal, yet seems to deny his suicidal feelings. James originally came to Silent Hill to kill himself, and actually does so in the In Water ending. In the novelization, James says, "Actually, I guess I am dead, heart's as good as dead anyway." He wasn't filled with a sense of loss, he just felt like his life wasn't worth living anymore. He had become indifferent. Work and free time - none of it really mattered anymore.
James' mental state is stilted and it shows through several questionable things throughout the game, including leaving his car door open; leaving his flashlight on while hiding from Pyramid Head; sticking his hand inside a hole in a wall after being pricked by something inside; dipping his hands inside a filthy toilet to retrieve a wallet and neglecting to wash his hands afterward; and asking a visibly armed Eddie if he's "gone nuts". James also says, "Did that just move or was it only my imagination?" when checking a corpse. If the player walks up to Angela again in the cemetery, she will ask, "Aren't you looking for someone?" and a forgetful James will reply, "That's right." and walk off. He also does risky things such as jumping down long, dark holes that appear to be bottomless.
His determination to uncover the truth about Mary's fate and his implied suicidal tendencies may explain his reckless and illogical behavior. James is in grief and mourning, and would naturally be somewhat traumatized by both Mary's and Maria's deaths. He tells Angela, "I guess I really don't care if [Silent Hill]'s dangerous." Later, when Angela questions why James is looking for his wife if she's dead, he responds, "Don't worry—I'm not crazy... at least... I don't think so..."
== History ==
=== Before Silent Hill ===
James worked as a clerk for a small company, possibly in Ashfield.[1] His father is Frank Sunderland, who is the superintendent of an apartment building in Ashfield.
James and Mary met at a house party held by a mutual friend. Their affection evolved from a blazing passion to a peaceful and stable relationship.[2] Before Mary and James were married, James would listen to Mary play the piano. Mary liked to play the piano and even though she wasn't very good at it, James still loved to hear her play.
Prior to the events of Silent Hill 2, Mary and James decided to take a vacation in Silent Hill after reading a brochure for the town. They stayed in the Lakeview Hotel, where James recorded a videotape of Mary. Mary said in the videotape that she heard that Silent Hill used to be a "sacred place" and that loved the town and would love to go to Silent Hill again one day. She asked James to promise her to take her to Silent Hill again some day, but the video tape ends before James replies. While leaving the town, James accidentally forgot the videotape in the hotel and the couple left Silent Hill.
Three years prior to the game, Mary was struck with a terminal disease, and she deteriorated to the point of having violent mood swings, lashing out at James in anger. Her doctor predicted she would have less than three years left to live and told James that there was no effective treatment for her condition. James questioned Mary's doctors about her illness, and could not believe they would just let Mary die. He searched through medical books for information about Mary's illness, but never found anything useful. Later in her illness, James visited Mary less frequently because she was emotionally volatile. Her mood swings left him bewildered about what was "right" to do. Mary's and James' wish of having children was also put to an end due to her disease.
James began to "drink a fair bit" to escape his pain and loneliness, but it never changed anything.[4] James felt sexual frustration, but felt prevented from pursuing it by his marriage to Mary; this frustration is later expressed by the character of Maria, as well as several creatures during James's quest in the town. Mary became a burden on James and he slowly began to resent her; yet simultaneously, seeing the one he loved in such pain tormented him. The emotional trauma and emptiness left James in a constant state of mourning. Eventually he snapped, walked to Mary's bed and kissed her on her forehead before suffocating her with a pillow.
After Mary's death, James carried her body to his car and put her in the backseat, not the trunk. It is unknown how much time passed between Mary's death and James' arrival in Silent Hill - the novelization says he killed Mary "just a few days ago". If James lived in Ashfield, the drive between Ashfield and Silent Hill would be "about a half a day".
=== Silent Hill 2 ===
James drives to Silent Hill, intending to kill himself in the town he and his wife cherished to be with her in death.[5]
During the drive to Silent Hill, James' mind has some serious psychological repression, apparently not looking in the backseat for some portion of the drive, or even the entirety of it. Sometime before James arrives, his mind snaps and he represses the memory of killing Mary. It could be theorized this is the result of post-traumatic stress disorder from the trauma of killing Mary, or perhaps James was drunk to some degree when he killed Mary and began driving to Silent Hill since he admits he would drink "a fair bit". James being drunk would also explain why he leaves his car door open in the beginning of the game.
Instead, James becomes delusional and is convinced that Mary has been dead for three years and he has received a posthumous letter from her saying that she is waiting in Silent Hill in their "special place". James wondered if the letter was a prank by one of his neighbors or one of his coworkers.
James is not the only one called to Silent Hill; two others, Eddie Dombrowski and Angela Orosco, have been drawn to the town by similar forces.
James discovers the main road to Silent Hill is blocked and breaks briefly in the Observation Deck's restroom. He takes a moment to stare deeply at his own reflection in a mirror. He exits the restroom, reminds himself of Mary, and then enters the town via a hiker's path. On the way, he meets a young woman named Angela Orosco, who has also just arrived in Silent Hill. James disregards Angela’s warnings about the town and reaches the main roads only to discover that the entire area is covered in fog and infested with grotesque monsters. He tries to find the "special place" mentioned in Mary's letter, where she is waiting for him.
James's first guess as to Mary's "special place" happens to be his first destination, Rosewater Park. Because all direct routes are destroyed or barricaded, he must cross through an abandoned apartment complex, where he meets Eddie Dombrowski. The apartments are also the scene of James's first encounter with Pyramid Head, a relentless persecutor who hunts down and attacks him at several points in the game. James also repeatedly runs into a mysterious little girl named Laura who knows of Mary's name, leaving James curious as to what else she knows.
When James reaches Rosewater Park's lakeside observation deck, he thinks he sees his wife, but is mistaken when the woman introduces herself as Maria. James agrees to let Maria accompany him for safety's sake. He remembers his other "special place", the Lakeview Hotel. He visits Pete's Bowl-O-Rama and encounters Eddie and Laura again. Concerned for Laura's safety, James and Maria pass through Heaven's Night and follow Laura into Brookhaven Hospital.
In the hospital, Maria stops to rest in a patient's room, claiming to have a mild hangover. James eventually finds Laura, who then convinces him to get a letter from Mary in a room. She then locks the door, trapping James in the room with creatures called Flesh Lip. After defeating the monsters, James finds that the hospital has been transformed into the horrific Otherworld. He finds Maria and they try to find a way out of the hospital. In the basement, Pyramid Head reappears behind both of them, and Maria is killed by the creature's spear while James is helpless to save her. James is saddened by her sudden death and refocuses on finding Mary.
After leaving the hospital and exploring the town, he finds a key that lets him into the Silent Hill Historical Society, which according to the map is also a port to get to the Lakeview Hotel. However, he soon finds a series of disturbing secret entrances and bizarre holes that lead him into Toluca Prison. Eddie resurfaces again in the cafeteria, now armed with a revolver and once more sitting in close proximity to a human corpse. James attempts to reason with Eddie, but his reasoning has no effect on him.
As James explores the empty prison facility, he finds himself within a maze. James finds Maria, locked inside a cell, alive and unscathed following her death in Brookhaven Hospital. Maria comes onto James and beckons him to find a way into her cell. She undergoes a change in personality, switching between Mary and Maria's personalities at random. Maria also drops clues regarding Mary's "special place" and a videotape she and James made together. James soon relocates Angela, who is about to be attacked by the Abstract Daddy, a creature representing Angela's abusive father. After injuring the monster, Angela finishes it off in a series of violent attacks and has a tense confrontation with James about how he didn't want Mary around anymore.
Eventually, James locates an alternate route to Maria's cell, but upon entering, finds her lying dead on the bed. James exits the cell, and jumps through a hole representing his future grave. He finds Eddie surrounded by bullet-ridden corpses. Eddie gleefully admits the solution to his problems is killing anyone who bullies him. When James protests, Eddie perceives James to be ridiculing him too and attacks him. Eddie reveals that both he and James were summoned to the town for a similar reason. James is then forced to kill Eddie in a gun battle inside a meat locker. After this, Mary's letter becomes blank.
Emerging at an old pier at the edge of Toluca Lake, James sees a bright light that is visible from the northern shore; he boards a rowboat and makes the journey to the opposite side. The light is emanating from the Lakeview Hotel, which looks exactly the same as when he stayed there with Mary. James finds Laura there and she hands him a letter that was written by Mary. It states that Mary and Laura became friends one year ago and James realizes that Mary couldn't have died three years ago. Laura then leaves him again to find another letter.
James locates the old videotape mentioned earlier by Maria and finds his way to Room 312, where he and Mary had stayed on their vacation. Inserting the tape into a player, James watches a static-ridden video of himself as he smothers Mary to death with her pillow. For a few moments, James silently sits, realizing the truth and facing his own psychological guilt. Laura enters the room and asks James if he has found Mary yet and James tells her the truth, causing Laura to yell at him and run out of the room. James sits in silence for a few more moments until he receives a radio transmission from Mary, calling for him. After watching the video, the letter from Mary vanishes completely, leaving only an empty envelope.
Exiting the room, James finds the hotel flooded and burnt-out and eventually finds Angela on a stairwell surrounded by fire. Angela and James speak for the last time and despite James’s pleas, Angela proceeds up the stairs and disappears past the flames, implying that she intends to commit suicide.
Entering what was once the lobby, James finds Maria, alive and tied down, screaming for James as she is flanked by two Pyramid Heads. For a third time, Maria is killed and James finally understands what Pyramid Head and Maria are. The Pyramid Heads are a part of James himself, created subconsciously to punish him for his sins. Refusing to flee from his opponents, he turns and attacks the Pyramid Heads. With James now seeking vengeance as opposed to punishment, the Pyramid Heads cease to function and they deliberately impale themselves on their spears.
James is led to a hallway in which the player hears a previous conversation that he and Mary had while she was still alive. In this conversation, James offers Mary flowers he has brought her. She immediately rejects them, lashing out at him and protesting that she is too disgusting and ugly to receive flowers. Shortly after this, she experiences another mood swing and begs James to forgive her, pleading for him to stay with her and assure her that she is not going to die.
James finally meets a woman who resembles Mary before the final boss fight. Afterwards, he defeated her.
=== Mirage Warriors ===
Some time after the events of Silent Hill 2, James met the Protagonist with Kagero, Guy Kendo and Zoe Baker.
== Quotes ==
* "Mary's going to die? You... you must be joking! But you're a doctor. It's your job to heal people! How can you just let her die!?"
* "How... long does she have...?"
* "Mary... could you really be in this town?"
* "I got a letter... The name on the envelope said... Mary... my wife's name."
* "A dead person can't write a letter. Mary died of that damn disease three years ago, so then why am I looking for her?"
* "I guess I really don't care if it's dangerous or not. I'm going to town either way."
* "You're not friends with that Red Pyramid Thing, are you?"
* "Angela. Okay, I don't know what you're planning, but there's always another way."
* "Don't worry, I'm not crazy... Least, I don't think so."
* "Mary?! No... You're not."
* "Don't be ridiculous." (to Maria after she accuses him of hating Mary)
* "This town is full of monsters! How can you just sit there and eat pizza?!"
* "Liquor bottles. I don't need that right now. It’s not that I don't drink. In fact, I drink a fair bit. To get away from the pain and the loneliness... But the drinking never changes anything... Anyway, I don't need it now. There's something I have to do."
* "You snotty little brat! Open up!" (to Laura)
* "Are those hands searching for something? Or are they just a sign of pain?"
* "Once again, I couldn't do anything to help." (after Maria dies)
* "Mary... What... What should I do? Are you... really waiting somewhere for me? Or is this your way of taking... I'm going to find Mary... It's the only thing I have left to hope for."
* "Just for that, you KILLED him?! Eddie, you can't just kill someone cause of the way they looked at you!"
* "...Did that just move or was it only my imagination?"
* "...My God. In the hole... I didn't see that."
* "How do you know about that? Aren't you Maria?"
* "All I want from you is an answer!"
* "Eddie! Have you gone nuts?!"
* "You think it's okay to kill people? You need help, Eddie."
* "Eddie? Eddie! I... I killed a... a human being... a human being..."
* "I've already read enough medical books. None of them ever did any good."
* "So Mary couldn't have died three years ago... Could she really be here? Is this the quiet, beautiful place she was talking about?"
* "Laura... Mary's gone... she's dead."
* "No... I killed her."
* "I'm sorry... The Mary you know isn't here."
* "Laura... I'm sorry..."
* "Me? No... I'd never kill myself." (to Angela)
* "It's hot as hell in here..."
* "Stop! Leave her alone! Leave us both the hell alone!"
* "Mary? I... uh... I brought you some flowers."
* "Yes, I wanted to see you... Even an illusion of you... that's why I came here."
* "It's true... I may have had some of those feelings... It was a long three years... I was... tired."
* "Forgive me. That's why I did it, honey. I just couldn't watch you suffer. No... that's not the whole truth... You also said that you didn't want to die. The truth is... part of me hated you. For taking away my life." (in Water variant)
* "Forgive me. 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..." (Leave variant)
* "Maria. I want you... I want you with me."
* "You better do something about that cough." (to Maria in the Maria ending)
* "Now I understand. The real reason I came to this town. I wonder what was I afraid of? Without you, Mary, I've got nothing. Now we can be together." (in the In Water ending)
* "Mary. You look so peaceful. Forgive me for waking you. But without you, I just can't go on. I can't live without you, Mary. This town, Silent Hill. The Old Gods haven't left this place. And they still grant power to those who venerate them. Power to defy even death..." (in the Rebirth ending)
* "So it was all your work!" (to Mira in the Dog ending)
* You... look like me.... hehe... I must be dreaming... (to the Protagonist in Mirage Warriors)
== Trivia ==
* The save menu's background is of James's face, stained with red which could represent anger or blood from a murder. His face appears to be blurred by water or glass. It could also simply be James's reflection on the Save Point's glossy surface.
* The color green may have symbolism. James's jacket and eye color is green. In the beginning of the game, when James walks to Silent Hill, he walks through a forest, filled with green vegetation. In the Wood Side moth room, James sticks his hand in a hole with green liquid and the wallpaper is green. In the same room, there is green liquid on the wall and green cages. In Brookhaven Hospital, James obtains a key from a drain with green liquid. The Otherworld Brookhaven Hospital contains green tones. The Book of Lost Memories is green, the dry cell battery is green, and the wire cutter is green. The Rotating Cube Puzzle has a green tint to its face. Even the PlayStation 2 cover for the game is green.
** Green is the color of fertility and growth in traditional Japanese culture. As the color of nature, the Japanese word for green, midori (みどり, ミドリ, 緑, 翠), is also the word for vegetation. In addition, the color green represents youth and vitality, and the energy of growth. Green can also represent eternity, since evergreen trees never lose their leaves or stop growing. This may relate to James's character growth, his unfaltering energy to find Mary, and possible desire to be with Mary for all eternity, no matter what. James will need a lot of "green" on his quest.
** Red is the complementary color of green. Red may also be seen as a symbolic color in Silent Hill 2; Pyramid Head glows red, Maria is dressed in red, Maria has red soles on her boots, the save points are red, blood spilled from monsters is red, etc.
** The reason why James hovers his hand in front of his face in the beginning of the game is to "check if he is in reality or if he is dreaming." For example, lucid dreamers may perform "reality checks" such as pinching their skin, looking at their hands, feeling solid objects, etc. Those who struggle with dissassocioative periods, especially derealization, may cut or injure themselves, feel their body, or touch their face to try and help them feel "real". It also serves as foreshadowing and symbolism of James's mental state, unable to determine fantasy from reality, similar to psychosis.
** If James wields the chainsaw, he may raise it above his head and scream if the player waits near a dead monster. If the player goes into standby mode with the chainsaw equipped, he will set it down blade first and lean on it like a cane.
* James Sunderland was a last minute addition to the Mirage Warriors roster. Kazuya stated that James was one of the most requested characters in the game.
* James shares his Japanese voice actor, Daisuke Sakaguchi, with Shinpachi from Gintama, and Zhang Bao from Dynasty Warriors