Stumbled onto this Gamefaqs forum topic about Masahiro Ito "confirming" that the Good ending of Silent Hill is canon, and that Cybil is supposed to die. Many fans apparently see this as absolute validation of their dogmatic opinions on the topic, and that to argue otherwise is moronic. I don't understand why there is so much vitriol thrown towards people who support the Good+ ending and Cybil's survival. Why does the fanbase want Cybil dead so much?
There are three key arguments that I hear in defense of the "Good is the only canonical ending" position:
Why do fans want Cybil dead?
- Harry wouldn't have known what the Red Liquid does until after he sees Kaufman use it on Alessa, and so he couldn't have used it on Cybil earlier.
- If Harry used the Red Liquid to save Cybil, then he couldn't have had any left over to solidify into the pendant for Heather.
- Cybil does not appear in any subsequent Silent Hill. She is not referenced in SH3, and in Silent Hill Homecoming, Deputy Wheeler refers to a female police officer who went to Silent Hill and never returned. Clearly, this means that Cybil is dead.
To many fans, these three arguments are bullet proof! At this point, they've practically become gospel (along with Pyramid Head's well-known rape antics).
But how well do these arguments really stack up to scrutiny? Let's play Devil's Advocate...
I'm going to start with Masahiro Ito's comments on the issue:
On Mashiro Ito's Twitter feed, he "confirms" that Cybil is dead.
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94751804-81b6-4eed-b2d7-5732686eda1e|14|4.8
Tags:Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3, Silent Hill 4: the Room, Silent Hill Homecoming, Konami, Team Silent, Masahiro Ito, Hiroyuki Owaku, Keiichiro Toyama, Cybil Bennett, Harry Mason, Cheryl Mason, Kaufman, Lisa, ending, red liquid, aglaophotis, pendant, possession, occult, Good vs Good+
I made quite a splash with the fine folks who made "The Real Silent Hill Experience" videos on Youtube the other day with a comment that I placed in their "part 13b - Questions Unanswered" supplementary video.
About three and a half minutes into the video, Rosseter and DerFuzhwar begin discussing their views on the fate of Cybil Bennett from the first game. They assert that the Good+ ending (in which Cybil survives) is likely to be the canonical ending, even though conventional Silent Hill wisdom suggest that the Good ending (in which Cybil dies) is supposed to be orthadox, and they present the following quote from the first game's event programmer, Hiroyuki Owaku:
Hiroyuki Owaku (one of Silent Hill's event programmers) on Cybil Bennett's fate.
After reading this quote, I left a comment on the video saying:
Actually, if "what happens to [Cybil] afterwords is up to the player's imaginations", then that would REQUIRE that the Good+ ending be canon. Because in the Good ending, she dies. There's no ambiguity to be left "up to the player's imaginations".
- MegaBearsFan
This quote apparently impressed the folks at Twin Perfect so much that they highlighted this post and replied:
HUGE BUMP. EVERYONE PLEASE READ.
- TwinPerfectChannel
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9fd8bf25-5c0d-499e-aa79-69c02e22e8c2|3|5.0
Tags:Silent Hill, The Real Silent Hill Experience, Twin Perfect, Fungo, Rosseter, DerFuzhwar, Cybil Bennett, Hiroyuki Owaku, Facebook, YouTube, Good vs Good+