I've tried and tried but I can't find a character in literature that can beat James from Silent Hill 2...

I've tried and tried but I can't find a character in literature that can beat James from Silent Hill 2. How can this be possible? Its slightly embarrassing if a videogame, often perceived as a childish medium compared to literature, could do so much with so little in the case of this man.

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>How can this be possible?
pebkac

>I've read Catcher in the Rye and The Lord of the Rings
>Nothing surpasses Silent Hill 2

Dante.
>sexual pervert as James (wants to fuck [and necrofuck] a 9 yo)
>go literally throug hell

I actually havent read either of those although I bought a very old edition of LOTR from an antique store that had a nice map folded inside the hardcover. Do list me some truly great characters that manage to do what James achieves

I don't think it was ever implied or important to view James as a "pervert" but just a normal man. He is portrayed as a monster due to his desire being stronger than his ability to sustain love due to Mary's disease, and even the character himself knows how bad of a person he is.

Captain Ahab

It's ignorant to dismiss literature that easily, OP, but James really is a very special character too. There's so many good reasons why SH2 is one of the best of its medium and James Sunderland being a great protagonist - fascinating motivation, psycho-sexual repressed thoughts becoming his literal demons, learning to confront himself and his own faults - is certainly one of them.

However, a character confronting interesting dilemmas, personal and physical, and overcoming them is nothing new. It's literally character arc 101, but because Silent Hill has such a fascinating perspective and understanding it makes it very engaging.

I do think Crime & Punishment would be right up your alley, OP. Raskolnikov is confronted with an issue - a cruel old pawnbroker lady - and his solution is to murder her. His internal conflicts in how to do this, how to cover it all up, whether he should do it or not (and how he convinces himself it would be for the greater good for everyone) is all wonderfully detailed. Plus, the guilt of having committed the act, his personal troubles with family and not-really-friends pushes him into more turmoil and eventual redemption. I'm trying to keep it vague so I don't reveal too much if you decide to read it (please do if you haven't already).

Although C&P isn't a horror like Silent Hill, there's definitely a lot of exploration into repressed thoughts and feelings, representations of inner and mental conflicts (the arguing thoughts that Raskolnikov has with himself tend to last a while but be patient with it because they're very revealing). I also think that when it comes down to it, Crime & Punishment can be very shocking, disturbing and uncomfortable (I specifically remember a dinner scene where the woman who has hosted it gets evicted by her landlady and she looks to Raskolnikov for help/support and he's very reluctant to give it).

There's other books that have come to mind regarding great character development and change (currently reading Les Miserables, Jean Valjean is my nigga) but I think Crime & Punishment might be your cup of tea, OP. Please read it.

Dude hasn't read Lord of the Rings. If he had he'd realise Grima (who is by no means the greatest character in Tolkien, but a good character nonetheless) is superior to necrocuck.

While I don't actually want to echo OPs thoughts in that "books are lame; video games and movies do it better" I do feel that Match Point by Woody Allen (which was made as an "answer" or "rebuttal" to Tolstoy) is the superior piece of fiction looking at the two. Especially with the police officers in the third act.

Yeah, that sort of thing happens when you're a pleb whose receptors have been fried by continuous application of crude electronic skinner boxes.

well "argued"

It's not an argument, it's a statement of fact.

Vidya is mental crack cocaine and is designed to turn you into a vegetable.

Whatever games trigger neurologically has nothing to do with the quality of their art

That's like saying that whatever crack cocaine triggers neurologically has nothing to do with its organoleptic qualities.

I.e., technically true, but you'd be a shit-for-brains moron to say that with a straight face.

Are you fucking retarded? Books also trigger neurological responses, by your retarded elitist logic every medium that isnt purely written word is worthless because they stimulate the brain harder

Aka youre literally too big of a brainlet to be able to process multiple art mediums at once, and this makes it impossible for you to understand games since they are practically sensory overload compared to even movies due to gameplay being added

At the end of the day you're still sitting in front of a television with a children's toy peripheral in your hands and you're an embarassment to your father.

...

Ivan Karamazov

MUH WHITE CIVILIZASHUN!!!!

Explain why he's such a good character

>he killed his wife and he's guilty of it

WOAH, SO DEEP

>depressed russian student kills lady, feels guilty about it and converts to Christianity at the end of the book
WOW THE DEEPEST BOOK EVER

>implying i don't think dosto is a hack

But what does Silent Hill 2 have beyond the character? The dialogue isn't good, the monsters and muh symbolism is overrated.

I only stands out in video games

How can you say that it isnt good? James is simply done so well in all of his aspects that I dont know how much of a contrarian does someone have to be to imply that he isnt an amazing character

His conflict and past is so relatable and interesting because its very "real". The character is obviously selfish and evil but out of desperation borne from his more animal side. He took his sickly wife home from the hospital to murder her so that he could be free from his sexual frustration, and in the end cant deal with what he did and wants nothing else than to be punished somehow.

I can't comment on the game itself since I am not much of a vidya person but if that if all you took from it it didn't do you much good.

In actuality, looking for literature in a video game is beyond dumb and only for pretentious philosophy majors. Classic video games are appreciated for their superior gameplay mechanics, level design and, in some genres, immersive world-building. The components of the medium don't lend themselves at all to writing modern fiction. When they attempt to do so, the results are usually embarrassing and detrimental to the above stated elements.

If you want to appreciate video games, google the best games from the 8-bit and 16-bit generations, and best DOS games throughout the 90s. Avoid modern systems until you've grasped the basics of good design and can be more selective. If anyone cares I can give a highly biased list of fundamental games for various genres.

Why is the word 'contrarian' (which was seldom seen ever used in any sentence anywhere on Veeky Forums) suddenly used in half the posts in every thread across nearly EVERY BOARD...

What popular TV show or event used this recently that reached so many people, and why is everyone latching onto It?

People are FUCKING bizarre in the minor fads they pick up and engage in...

Define "suddenly".

sud·den·ly
/ˈsədnlē/

adverb

1. quickly and unexpectedly: "the ambassador died suddenly"

it MUST be the jews

youtube.com/watch?v=ckYvsSjV99A

Anyone in the thread might as well listen to this

>maybe you just don't have the mental ability to fully understand and appreciate the subtleties of an excellently written character. Video games and movies are a cruder medium, the characters have to be more self explanatory and there isnt as much room for personal interpretation and psychological analysis as there is in novels. That's just not gonna sell video games. Not saying they can't have complex characters- i dont play video games but i'm sure silent hill is well written and this james character is excellent- But literature is an entirely different medium that require you to do more heavy lifting on your own.

clear bait on so many levels

is that really all you draw from from C&P? I feel sorry for you...

It comes from the plebeian/contrarian/patrician meme that spread from /mu/

Is that really all you draw from SH2? I feel sorry for you...............[...]

>comparing a video game character to a literary one
Come on, James is just as much of a product of the writer as he is of Yamaoka, Guy Cihi or even the animators.

ive never played SH2. im sure its good, but i think you are reducing C&P to its basest plot summary, revealing yourself as a pleb

I'm pretty sure that was the joke dumbo. He did the same thing with C&P as the other guy did with SH2, reduced it to it's "basest plot summary"

>muh childrens toys
do something with your lives you sad fucks

Wow, haven't heard this one before. Mind if I start using it?

...

>Catcher in the Rye
kill yourself, that book is garbage

Games aren't art.

Interactive worlds can be art. But games are akin to sports. = not art.

Most games are trash if measured for their artistic merit. Literally 99.99 percent.

You haven't read Catcher in the Rye? That's the most entry level novel out there. You probably haven't read much or any literature, of course you think a video game character is the pinnacle of characters, your point of reference probably being Harry Potter and Mario Bros.

Yes, that's how the average "gamer" looks like, good find.

Oh look, you are literally describing Raskolnikov. Maybe you should actually pick up a book once in a while, the reason you prefer videogames is because you have ADHD and need to be killing epin monsters to understand concepts shown with more subtlety and with more artistic endeavor in literature. Why try to actually undertstand literature when you can fight a giant monster that represents guilt and punishment or whatever.
I think pic related is just the literature for you.

I feel that way about Manny in Runaway Train. For a medium as modern as film, it's strange that his quest for freedom rings as strong as any book I've read

How much was Eric Roberts paid for that movie?

games as sport is the pinnacle of vidya (see: starcraft) but has fallen completely by the wayside in terms of quality in the last 10+ years due to the industry's race to the bottom aka mass audience appeal

>mfw this generation dies off and books are long forgotten
>lit becomes a video game board

>games as sport is the pinnacle of vidya

Yes it is. But sports aren't art.

There's nothing wrong with video games not being art. People shouldn't be insecure about it. Some video games sort of blend artistic pursuit with being a game, but none have approached fine art. Some video games start to enter the world of art, but the ones that do can hardly be called "games"

That's okay.

How can literature even compete?

youtube.com/watch?v=-Z0S0Z8lUTg&t=1s

Good job proving yourselves as nothing but a bunch of insecure retards. Not having read two books mentioned in this thread for Veeky Forums cred means DURR U DON EVEN NO ANYTHIN ABOUT BOOKS GO BACK TO UR ADHD GAMES

only good posts in the thread so far
and bonus round for
which wasnt included in the original crew due to the video being made by an obnoxious animehomo and Kreia probably being slightly less unique and special in the literary/fictional landscape, while James is an actually well done horror protagonist

>artistic merit
This can't be measured you stupid fuck.
Go back to reading >muh russians you brainlet orientalist.

immaculate!

Back /v/eddit with you

>Not having read two books mentioned in this thread for Veeky Forums cred means DURR U DON EVEN NO ANYTHIN ABOUT BOOKS GO BACK TO UR ADHD GAMES
No, not having read two basic books that are part of general culture and knowledge means you probably don't know much about literature, on which you are making a pretty fucking stupid statement.

you simply rephrased the greentext, what youre literally saying is that people should read X works regardless of interest due to Veeky Forums cred

>This can't be measured you stupid fuck.

Not objectively, but it certainly can be measured. And against all criteria of art, almost all games fall flat.