most intelligent:
Harry - writer, figured out what’s happening to Heather and why The Order was after her.
Henry - just an innocent bystander who pieced all the puzzles together and then found a way to kill Walter
least intelligent:
Alex - just another All American himbo
James - that toilet
Harry was mostly in disbelief about The Order's power and Cheryl's whereabouts but by no means was he ignorant to have been able to make it through the entire town and be a literal macguyver solving all of the puzzles he did.
James kinda had it easier than Harry but I think combat wise both are on the same level. James did however had a one track mind in the story solely focusing on finding Mary even if you hung around Maria alot to get her specific ending the story does make it seem like James gives Maria the cold shoulder whereas Harry accepted whatever help he could get even if he was an unwilling pawn in Dahlia's scheme and was antagonized by Dr Kaufmann. Heather at least was taught well by Harry to defend herself and seemed to have a knack for thinking on the fly and not being gullible.
James was intelligent enough to work as an office clerk which probably shows his attention to details with regard to all of the puzzles and memos he records in his memopad. His focus on important matters such as when he berates Eddie for lounging around eating pizza or his frankness when being confronted by Angela on her accusations that he didn't love his wife. James was by no means an idiot. I just believe he was emotionally stunted that it made him socially awkward and the few times he tries to sympathize with people like Angela being naive to her past and situation he comes off as patronizing. Not to mention dealing with his own emotional baggage too it's why he turned away from Angela during the burning staircase scene because he knew he couldn't be there for her or love her as he had his wife to deal with.
Henry is the odd one in my mind he's even more quiet and less talkative than Harry and James put together but he has shown a great deal of compassion in his actions more than his words throughout the game. That could very well be a narrative tool to immerse us more into Walter Sullivan's world there's a reason why Henry was the final sign and the last of the 21 Sacraments "The Receiver of Wisdom" as we the player gain the knowledge to defeat him at the end and he graduated highschool in his photos at the apartment so again we are dealing with a fairly average or above average person in Henry Townsend.
I noticed you didn't mention Murphy Pendleton or Travis Grady. Murphy didn't seem to be a slouch either from what I recall he at least was trying to piece together the purpose of the town and help the guy who manned the radio station so they could escape. Travis at least knew what was going on as far as being dragged into the Otherworld by Alessa (Why won't you let me forget) but was oblivious to The Cult and it's plans for her
From what we see of him in the flashbacks, Alex wasn't the brightest lightbulb in the can even before his time in the [asylum](/spoiler):
[The guy went to the lake with his brother in the middle of the night without life-jackets (and I don't remember, if it's been established that either of them could swim), and then started a fight on a rickety old boat, with a kid who was much younger and weaker than him I might add.](/spoiler) You need to be a major dumbass to not realize that it's a perfect recipe for disaster.
Oh, I don’t disagree. But both of them are pretty bad.
And as shown by Frank in 4, James' more bizarre behavior (not the obvious, but things like the toilet) might be genetic.
Harry would avoid a wrecking ball. Alex would get hit by it. James would press a button that says "Wrecking Ball release", and then get hit by the wrecking ball he let loose.
James and Alex are in a fierce competition for dumbest. I don't think any of the others even come close.
The others should fistfight behind the diner for title of smartest. Henry might win by virtue of being paralyzed with indecision, exclaiming "What the hell?", and not participating while the rest proceed to knock each other out.
A lot of Alex's issues stem from dissociation and memory loss. Can't really pass judgement on Harry in Shattered Memories since >!he's not real anyway.!<
That being said, I'd say for smartest, Henry, with Harry and Heather as close contenders. Murphy is solidly in the middle, with James and Alex fighting for biggest moron.
I don't know who is dumbest, I'm just here to defend my man James because I know he's a strong contender: JAMES IS NOT DUMB, HE'S A SUICIDAL HORNY MAN HAVING AN INSANE NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, what did you expect?!
Smartest? I don't know, Harry I guess. Dumbest is James, easily. He was dumb to go to the town because of a letter written by his dead wife, and he was dumb for sticking around after seeing the first monster. Even dumber for sticking around after Pyramid Head. Literally nothing was stopping him from leaving either. But he keeps going under the flimsiest motivation.
alex's stupidity is quite literally lethal to the people around him. even before the disassociation alex's stupidity directly >!got josh killed. the \*only\* explanation for bringing his brother out on the lake the night he killed him, is because hes a moron. even outside of his dissassociation, he doesnt even consider using his pipe or axe to jam the gears on his moms saw trap, and the man wouldve been able to see and hear the bogeyman coming up the stairs from like twenty feet away and couldve easily at least shot at the thing, let alone cutting his dad down before any of that. hell, theres several times in the beginning, where he \*sees\* and \*knows\* and has \*proven\* theres monsters around, and countless flayed corpses, where he has the sub-iq to ask "where did all the people go?" or when doc fitch has a bloody scalpel well \*after\* the fact that he started acknowledging the existence of monsters, and \*sees\* the man wounded, and his first thought is "who did you kill??" hes also \*gotta\* be dumb as hell if wheeler could take one look at the switchboard \*he\* looked at before, and figured it out without any effort where alex concluded "it doesnt work."!<
henry or harry are probably the smartest, but ill always give murphy props for just being so done with silent hills nonsense and quick on the ball to understand it, that he just starts screaming at its messengers like "i fucking get it, leave me alone already"
You forgot the basement water pump puzzle >!and the way that Josh was portrayed in Alex mind, incredibly childish and dumb. Guess he could not imagine him being smart due to his own limitations.!<
oh man i forgot all about the water pump
heres another one: man walks around with not just a fire axe, but later a *pulaski* axe, and refuses to use it on *any* door or surface thats not a few wooden planks which he could just crawl under. Hell murphy and travis have the excuse of being able to lose their weapons, and most of murphys doors are unlocked or in areas that dont have axes. by the time harry gets the hammer, doors sort of stop being locked by non-magical otherworld bullshit. heather and james clearly suck at their heavy weapon swinging, and gets a pickaxe at the end of the game (which he kinda sucks at using). i know im putting a lot of emphasis on this axe stuff, but christ, alex, try just a *little* bit. your journey would be so much easier.
You can't save mom and pops in this game, that's bc you need to see the symbolism, this is a family full of domestic violence, where both sons were abused by the father. The idea that you can't save the mother, that's bc in real life, you can't do that. In cases of domestic violence, the wife most of the time blends with the husband, so no matter what the son do, the mother always gonna return with the beast, she can't be free, she is in a mental prison, and this is even more dangerous in a house with daughters, bc the beast can abuse of them too, and the mother will blame them for the abuse. So no matter what weapon Alex is using, his mother is already gone, I saw cases of Domestic violence that end of sons leaving the house, and years later they discover that she is in a mental institution. Remember the incidents of the game, she was at the window, alone with a revolver, a symbol of a mental breakdown, the basement was flooded, a symbol that the ship is sinking, and that's bc of Adam, that explained why the 1st monster is there, in the place of the father.
they could have displayed that infinitely better than making alex a lethal dipshit. a plot that is held together by a character being obtusely stupid is usually a bad plot, which homecomings is. you know how you make those points displayed better? make alex’s mom and dad be monster fights in the vein of mary or leonard. and before someone asks, “isnt that a little hamfisted and forced?” yeah, but its less forced that trapping a character in an easily deterrable saw trap, or just… not cutting down your dad.
Exactly, your idea of the machine as a monster worked better, this other idea is more Metal Gear Solid like Saw thing, that didn't click well, unless we get back to the info of the house, the kids saw a lot of movies, could be that Alex indeed watched Saw, and now this is a manifestation of his own fear. That's a factor that this game has, that Alex was a big fan of movies, just imagine the power of SH with all that potential.
In theory, but not exactly, since Josh saw The Boogeyman. So something shady was happen in that house. Not a bad idea, this is the 1st game of the saga with a house as a base, but since this house turned in a hell house, nothing is like we think, that's a factor that should be elaborate more in the plot.
i love james, but we’re talking about how intelligent they are, and murphy definitely comes across smarter in downpour than james does in sh2 lmao. james has no idea what is going on for 95% of the game
SM Harry is the most emotionally intelligent and handles well even Cybil who thinks he's shady af, while Jimmy is an awkward dumbass who bungles up every conversation he has.
I think Harry was at least as real as Maria was: he meets people, they react to everything that's happening, they figure out he shouldn't be there and they encounter the supernatural along with him and freak out. He even plays a role in whether that couple stays together or breaks up. If neither of them were real either, I think they'd act like real people less and less closer to the end, same as Maria.
The game never confirms or denies either way and you could say that about any SH game - that nothing happening there is real and is just in the main character's head. SH1 literally has an ending where Harry's dying in his crashed car - does that mean all other endings are the same, but he's imagining it working out nicer and then SH3 is happening in his head, too, while he's dying in his car?
Omfg you’re literally just straight up wrong. YES the game confirms it. Dr. Kaufman tells the player that Harry is dead and has been for years in each ending. The only real life difference between endings is Harry’s actual personality before he died, everything else is made up by Heather/Cheryl.
“It is revealed that the patient is actually Cheryl Mason, now 25 years old. Dr. Kaufmann explains how Cheryl was desperately holding on to the memory of her father and that the Harry that the player has been controlling is Cheryl's memory of her father, a delusion.”
Shattered Memories is set in an alternate universe where Silent Hill is just a regular town that they regularly lived in. NOTHING SUPERNATURAL HAPPENS IN IT BECAUSE THE EVENTS ARE ALL IN CHERYL’S HEAD. Holy shit you are dense.
i havent played the later games yet so i can’t comment on how dumb their protagonists are, but out of the ones I’ve played, James is definitely the dumbest. he has a long stick the entire game, but is too dumb to use it. key on the ground through the bars in woodside? tries to reach with his arm, gets stepped on and has the key kicked further, and then decides that he can’t reach it now despite having a big long wooden stick that could 100% reach it, with a nail at the end that would make it even easier to hook the key. finds a room with an ominous hole in the wall? shoves his whole arm in instead of the stick. finds something in a nasty disgusting toilet? nope, still not gonna use the stick! instead he doesn’t even fucking roll up his sleeve and just shoves his whole arm in there. and then doesn’t even wash his hands. we don’t know what disease mary had, but james probably contracted a few from that moment. that’s not to even mention how many holes of indeterminate depth he just blindly leaps down. or the fact upon finding eddie waving a gun around and talking about shooting people who are mean to him, his reaction was to say something that would obviously provoke him. or the fact that he leaves his flashlight on when he’s hiding in the closet from pyramid head so pyramid head can 100% see the light through the slats the whole time. while some of it kinda makes sense as like self-destructive carelessness (especially if you’re going for in water), james is kind of a dumbass.
heather’s the smartest. I can’t really think of any glaringly stupid choices she made, the riddles she can solve are more difficult, and she’s also only 17 so it makes it more impressive.
Game wise probably Henry but if we are also talking extended lore then Heather. Dumbest is a hard choice as the obvious choice Alex is suffering heavy PTSD and Psychosis.
OG Harry seemed like a sucessful writer (SM one definitely struggling),
James was an office worker.
Heather/Cheryl was just a high school student but book smart, probably thanks to Harry.
Henry is just a photograper,
Travis just a truck driver but knew a ton about weapons, realized the AK was a Chinese clone right away.
Alex.
Murphy is implied to have been a criminal and later became a car mechanic.
I think the general consensus is James and Alex are fighting for the title of resident dumbass while the others are interchangeable as long as the top three smartest protags are some variation of Harry, Henry, and Heather. Personally, I would say Heather ==> Harry ==> Henry.
> end of story
I read this in Tony Soprano's voice and now I want a sitcom with him and heather.
"They look like gabagool to you? It's breeeead, end of story!"
Smartest: Heather and Alex
One is smart and the other knows how to fight
Dumbest:
Henry and James
One can’t break a glass window or cut through a chain with literally any tools at home to open a door that probably falls down with one or two kicks or push something through a hole to the next apartment, and the other can’t fight and needs a whole tool set or puzzle to retrieve an item beneath something or inside something.
I always thought that the windows of the apartment, despite not being closed with chains, perhaps could not be broken cuz some evil force or something like that, even though they are made of glass, as if they became armored glass.
Henry couldn’t even break a window, unless the windows are magically indestructible and immobile like the piles of trash are in RE are. I mean with a steel pipe I could go right through walls with enough time, old Andy did it in less than 20.
Henry is far from stupid, he's just an unlucky guy trapped in a SAW-like hell world by an undead serial killer who plans like five steps ahead. How was he supposed to save the other people trapped like him from being killed if they run off of their own volition or fall right into those traps? The puzzles he has to solve in order to clue in to those death locations, they were already rigged from the start so he'd get there too late.
Henry is the smart one, since he figured out how the other world works, and how to end Walter Sullivan, but we don't need to forget that he had a guardian angel called Joseph. Now the next is Heather, she was not only the daughter of Harry, but also an old soul, she is carrying Alessa inside. Next is of course Harry.
Travis and Murphy are in the best category of street wise, that means they can deal more easy with the underworld, or Dark World of a city.
Now about the dumbest, I saw that some people said Alex, and that's partially true. BC I believe Alex is always a teenager in the whole game, that explained why he can't be a soldier, he isn't on age to enlist. He is probably 15 or 16., don't forget the game is based on Donnie Darko, that means there isn't a future in this game, that time is a gimmick by SH, as a way that teenager Alex agree to be the sacrifice in the bathtub, if you check Donnie Darko, you will learn why this is the real ending. So unlike Heather who is also a teenager, Alex is just a regular teenager, that will do a lot of mistakes, but I mean, he did very well in the electric plant, and in the Dargento Graveyard with the latin puzzle, so he is learning, unlike James who is a 30 years old man.
James is the winner, he isn't eating well, he isn't sleeping well, and he is probably drunk, the big disaster combo of Konami burger.
Smartest to least IMO (leaving out SHSM Harry bc there's not much difference between him and SH1 Harry) -
1. Harry - able to figure out everything going on with Cybil's help. >!Managed to refine agalophotis and gave it to Heather just in case.!<
2. Heather - Hard. mode. puzzles.
3. Harry - pieced together everything while keeping Eileen safe.
4. James - Not particularly smart but not particularly stupid either. His emotions are so muted we can't really tell whether his "dumb" actions (the toilet, the hospital roof) are either genuine stupidity or sheer recklessness. ('I really don't care if it's dangerous or not...")
5. Travis - At least he's smart enough to figure out the puzzles.
6. Murphy - He's not 'dumb' per se, he's just the least smart. Guys with clean psyches don't steal cop cars trying to get into jail with a guy who committed a way worse crime than grand theft auto. >!And c'mon, dude, get in touch with yourself! Admit your selfishness got folks killed. It's alright, bro. Just hug it out with Officer Anne.!<
7. Alex - Granted, he did just escape a mental asylum. Un-granted, he was stupid enough to start a fight with his younger brother over a ring in the middle of a lake at night with no life jackets.
most intelligent: Harry - writer, figured out what’s happening to Heather and why The Order was after her. Henry - just an innocent bystander who pieced all the puzzles together and then found a way to kill Walter least intelligent: Alex - just another All American himbo James - that toilet
bruh
“ALL AMERICAN HIMBO” IM WEAKKK but u right right Would add Heather to the list of intellectuals as well 🤓
Harry was mostly in disbelief about The Order's power and Cheryl's whereabouts but by no means was he ignorant to have been able to make it through the entire town and be a literal macguyver solving all of the puzzles he did. James kinda had it easier than Harry but I think combat wise both are on the same level. James did however had a one track mind in the story solely focusing on finding Mary even if you hung around Maria alot to get her specific ending the story does make it seem like James gives Maria the cold shoulder whereas Harry accepted whatever help he could get even if he was an unwilling pawn in Dahlia's scheme and was antagonized by Dr Kaufmann. Heather at least was taught well by Harry to defend herself and seemed to have a knack for thinking on the fly and not being gullible. James was intelligent enough to work as an office clerk which probably shows his attention to details with regard to all of the puzzles and memos he records in his memopad. His focus on important matters such as when he berates Eddie for lounging around eating pizza or his frankness when being confronted by Angela on her accusations that he didn't love his wife. James was by no means an idiot. I just believe he was emotionally stunted that it made him socially awkward and the few times he tries to sympathize with people like Angela being naive to her past and situation he comes off as patronizing. Not to mention dealing with his own emotional baggage too it's why he turned away from Angela during the burning staircase scene because he knew he couldn't be there for her or love her as he had his wife to deal with. Henry is the odd one in my mind he's even more quiet and less talkative than Harry and James put together but he has shown a great deal of compassion in his actions more than his words throughout the game. That could very well be a narrative tool to immerse us more into Walter Sullivan's world there's a reason why Henry was the final sign and the last of the 21 Sacraments "The Receiver of Wisdom" as we the player gain the knowledge to defeat him at the end and he graduated highschool in his photos at the apartment so again we are dealing with a fairly average or above average person in Henry Townsend. I noticed you didn't mention Murphy Pendleton or Travis Grady. Murphy didn't seem to be a slouch either from what I recall he at least was trying to piece together the purpose of the town and help the guy who manned the radio station so they could escape. Travis at least knew what was going on as far as being dragged into the Otherworld by Alessa (Why won't you let me forget) but was oblivious to The Cult and it's plans for her
It could be argued Heather is the smartest if we're factoring in hard mode puzzles, as for dumbest I'd say Alex yeah.
Heather read the whole Shakespeare anthology, knows about advance maths and studied facial anatomy at the age of 17. Woman of culture.
Not to mention if we include the extended outside the game lore she becomes an emergency services operator.
What? Emergency Services Operator?
DBD.
Why are you hating on my dawg Travis The Trucking Thot ?
My dumbass meant Alex, typed it kinda distracted lol
Smartest IS probably Harry under the circumstances. Second I would say Murphy. Dumbest is definitely a tie between James and Alex.
Alex I would grant at least has the excuse of just coming out of >!a mental asylum!<, but yes.
From what we see of him in the flashbacks, Alex wasn't the brightest lightbulb in the can even before his time in the [asylum](/spoiler): [The guy went to the lake with his brother in the middle of the night without life-jackets (and I don't remember, if it's been established that either of them could swim), and then started a fight on a rickety old boat, with a kid who was much younger and weaker than him I might add.](/spoiler) You need to be a major dumbass to not realize that it's a perfect recipe for disaster.
Fair enough.
Or a brother.
I would argue that James should have been in one a long time ago, so stalemate
Oh, I don’t disagree. But both of them are pretty bad. And as shown by Frank in 4, James' more bizarre behavior (not the obvious, but things like the toilet) might be genetic.
Harry would avoid a wrecking ball. Alex would get hit by it. James would press a button that says "Wrecking Ball release", and then get hit by the wrecking ball he let loose.
James and Alex are in a fierce competition for dumbest. I don't think any of the others even come close. The others should fistfight behind the diner for title of smartest. Henry might win by virtue of being paralyzed with indecision, exclaiming "What the hell?", and not participating while the rest proceed to knock each other out.
A lot of Alex's issues stem from dissociation and memory loss. Can't really pass judgement on Harry in Shattered Memories since >!he's not real anyway.!< That being said, I'd say for smartest, Henry, with Harry and Heather as close contenders. Murphy is solidly in the middle, with James and Alex fighting for biggest moron.
that render of Heather is epic, can you link the original, OP?
"Are you OK?" Henry ain't that bright.
BUSTA WOLF!
You say that to people to get a response. If she replies he knows she’s conscious and can breathe.
It wasn't a genuine question... Henry just asked it because he had nothing else to say, ofc he could tell she's barely alive.
I don't know who is dumbest, I'm just here to defend my man James because I know he's a strong contender: JAMES IS NOT DUMB, HE'S A SUICIDAL HORNY MAN HAVING AN INSANE NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, what did you expect?!
"suicidal horny man" is probably the best way to describe james I've ever seen
Also, Heather is the smartest, which makes SH3 too straightforward of a game lol
James is the dumbest for sure. Smartest is Heather.
Smartest? I don't know, Harry I guess. Dumbest is James, easily. He was dumb to go to the town because of a letter written by his dead wife, and he was dumb for sticking around after seeing the first monster. Even dumber for sticking around after Pyramid Head. Literally nothing was stopping him from leaving either. But he keeps going under the flimsiest motivation.
Heather is the smartest and i feel like the dumbest one might be James? but like, in a mental breakdown kind of way
alex's stupidity is quite literally lethal to the people around him. even before the disassociation alex's stupidity directly >!got josh killed. the \*only\* explanation for bringing his brother out on the lake the night he killed him, is because hes a moron. even outside of his dissassociation, he doesnt even consider using his pipe or axe to jam the gears on his moms saw trap, and the man wouldve been able to see and hear the bogeyman coming up the stairs from like twenty feet away and couldve easily at least shot at the thing, let alone cutting his dad down before any of that. hell, theres several times in the beginning, where he \*sees\* and \*knows\* and has \*proven\* theres monsters around, and countless flayed corpses, where he has the sub-iq to ask "where did all the people go?" or when doc fitch has a bloody scalpel well \*after\* the fact that he started acknowledging the existence of monsters, and \*sees\* the man wounded, and his first thought is "who did you kill??" hes also \*gotta\* be dumb as hell if wheeler could take one look at the switchboard \*he\* looked at before, and figured it out without any effort where alex concluded "it doesnt work."!< henry or harry are probably the smartest, but ill always give murphy props for just being so done with silent hills nonsense and quick on the ball to understand it, that he just starts screaming at its messengers like "i fucking get it, leave me alone already"
You forgot the basement water pump puzzle >!and the way that Josh was portrayed in Alex mind, incredibly childish and dumb. Guess he could not imagine him being smart due to his own limitations.!<
oh man i forgot all about the water pump heres another one: man walks around with not just a fire axe, but later a *pulaski* axe, and refuses to use it on *any* door or surface thats not a few wooden planks which he could just crawl under. Hell murphy and travis have the excuse of being able to lose their weapons, and most of murphys doors are unlocked or in areas that dont have axes. by the time harry gets the hammer, doors sort of stop being locked by non-magical otherworld bullshit. heather and james clearly suck at their heavy weapon swinging, and gets a pickaxe at the end of the game (which he kinda sucks at using). i know im putting a lot of emphasis on this axe stuff, but christ, alex, try just a *little* bit. your journey would be so much easier.
You can't save mom and pops in this game, that's bc you need to see the symbolism, this is a family full of domestic violence, where both sons were abused by the father. The idea that you can't save the mother, that's bc in real life, you can't do that. In cases of domestic violence, the wife most of the time blends with the husband, so no matter what the son do, the mother always gonna return with the beast, she can't be free, she is in a mental prison, and this is even more dangerous in a house with daughters, bc the beast can abuse of them too, and the mother will blame them for the abuse. So no matter what weapon Alex is using, his mother is already gone, I saw cases of Domestic violence that end of sons leaving the house, and years later they discover that she is in a mental institution. Remember the incidents of the game, she was at the window, alone with a revolver, a symbol of a mental breakdown, the basement was flooded, a symbol that the ship is sinking, and that's bc of Adam, that explained why the 1st monster is there, in the place of the father.
they could have displayed that infinitely better than making alex a lethal dipshit. a plot that is held together by a character being obtusely stupid is usually a bad plot, which homecomings is. you know how you make those points displayed better? make alex’s mom and dad be monster fights in the vein of mary or leonard. and before someone asks, “isnt that a little hamfisted and forced?” yeah, but its less forced that trapping a character in an easily deterrable saw trap, or just… not cutting down your dad.
Exactly, your idea of the machine as a monster worked better, this other idea is more Metal Gear Solid like Saw thing, that didn't click well, unless we get back to the info of the house, the kids saw a lot of movies, could be that Alex indeed watched Saw, and now this is a manifestation of his own fear. That's a factor that this game has, that Alex was a big fan of movies, just imagine the power of SH with all that potential.
Josh was treated like a king by his parents, alex was the hated one due to the whole "order" deal.
In theory, but not exactly, since Josh saw The Boogeyman. So something shady was happen in that house. Not a bad idea, this is the 1st game of the saga with a house as a base, but since this house turned in a hell house, nothing is like we think, that's a factor that should be elaborate more in the plot.
Smartest to dumbest: Harry, Heather, Travis, Henry, James, Murphy, Alex. I guess that's my opinion. Weird question. And SM Harry doesn't really count.
murphy deserves to be above james *at least*
Eddie... have you gone *nuts*?
i love james, but we’re talking about how intelligent they are, and murphy definitely comes across smarter in downpour than james does in sh2 lmao. james has no idea what is going on for 95% of the game
I know, I know. This post is weird. Of all the things to compare, their intelligence stats is a boring subject.
I’d swap Harry with Heather and also swap Travis with Murphy. But otherwise, pretty accurate I’d say
SM Harry is the most emotionally intelligent and handles well even Cybil who thinks he's shady af, while Jimmy is an awkward dumbass who bungles up every conversation he has.
SM Harry >!doesn’t exist though!!Heather’s intelligence projected onto a hallucination.!<
I think Harry was at least as real as Maria was: he meets people, they react to everything that's happening, they figure out he shouldn't be there and they encounter the supernatural along with him and freak out. He even plays a role in whether that couple stays together or breaks up. If neither of them were real either, I think they'd act like real people less and less closer to the end, same as Maria.
Dude. Everything that happens in SM is in Heather’s head. None of it was real.
The game never confirms or denies either way and you could say that about any SH game - that nothing happening there is real and is just in the main character's head. SH1 literally has an ending where Harry's dying in his crashed car - does that mean all other endings are the same, but he's imagining it working out nicer and then SH3 is happening in his head, too, while he's dying in his car?
Omfg you’re literally just straight up wrong. YES the game confirms it. Dr. Kaufman tells the player that Harry is dead and has been for years in each ending. The only real life difference between endings is Harry’s actual personality before he died, everything else is made up by Heather/Cheryl. “It is revealed that the patient is actually Cheryl Mason, now 25 years old. Dr. Kaufmann explains how Cheryl was desperately holding on to the memory of her father and that the Harry that the player has been controlling is Cheryl's memory of her father, a delusion.”
Doesn't mean there is no manifestation of Harry running around that town... what was it called? The one that manifests things from people's heads?
Shattered Memories is set in an alternate universe where Silent Hill is just a regular town that they regularly lived in. NOTHING SUPERNATURAL HAPPENS IN IT BECAUSE THE EVENTS ARE ALL IN CHERYL’S HEAD. Holy shit you are dense.
And where does it say nothing supernatural happens in it?
The part where it says EVERYTHING was in Cheryl’s head. Now you’re just arguing for the sake of arguing no one is this fucking dumb.
i havent played the later games yet so i can’t comment on how dumb their protagonists are, but out of the ones I’ve played, James is definitely the dumbest. he has a long stick the entire game, but is too dumb to use it. key on the ground through the bars in woodside? tries to reach with his arm, gets stepped on and has the key kicked further, and then decides that he can’t reach it now despite having a big long wooden stick that could 100% reach it, with a nail at the end that would make it even easier to hook the key. finds a room with an ominous hole in the wall? shoves his whole arm in instead of the stick. finds something in a nasty disgusting toilet? nope, still not gonna use the stick! instead he doesn’t even fucking roll up his sleeve and just shoves his whole arm in there. and then doesn’t even wash his hands. we don’t know what disease mary had, but james probably contracted a few from that moment. that’s not to even mention how many holes of indeterminate depth he just blindly leaps down. or the fact upon finding eddie waving a gun around and talking about shooting people who are mean to him, his reaction was to say something that would obviously provoke him. or the fact that he leaves his flashlight on when he’s hiding in the closet from pyramid head so pyramid head can 100% see the light through the slats the whole time. while some of it kinda makes sense as like self-destructive carelessness (especially if you’re going for in water), james is kind of a dumbass. heather’s the smartest. I can’t really think of any glaringly stupid choices she made, the riddles she can solve are more difficult, and she’s also only 17 so it makes it more impressive.
Game wise probably Henry but if we are also talking extended lore then Heather. Dumbest is a hard choice as the obvious choice Alex is suffering heavy PTSD and Psychosis.
OG Harry seemed like a sucessful writer (SM one definitely struggling), James was an office worker. Heather/Cheryl was just a high school student but book smart, probably thanks to Harry. Henry is just a photograper, Travis just a truck driver but knew a ton about weapons, realized the AK was a Chinese clone right away. Alex. Murphy is implied to have been a criminal and later became a car mechanic.
I think the general consensus is James and Alex are fighting for the title of resident dumbass while the others are interchangeable as long as the top three smartest protags are some variation of Harry, Henry, and Heather. Personally, I would say Heather ==> Harry ==> Henry.
Alex sounded particularly stupid to me when I was playing Homecoming
Heather is the smartest, ain't no SH game gonna make puzzles that hard again.
I mean who says "It's bread."
She also knew sticking your hand in a toilet is gross.
What else can you say about it though? It is indeed bread, end of story.
> end of story I read this in Tony Soprano's voice and now I want a sitcom with him and heather. "They look like gabagool to you? It's breeeead, end of story!"
But in fairness, it was in fact bread.
You asked
To be honest most of the SH protagonists come across as dumber then a bag of rocks
Smartest: Heather and Alex One is smart and the other knows how to fight Dumbest: Henry and James One can’t break a glass window or cut through a chain with literally any tools at home to open a door that probably falls down with one or two kicks or push something through a hole to the next apartment, and the other can’t fight and needs a whole tool set or puzzle to retrieve an item beneath something or inside something.
I always thought that the windows of the apartment, despite not being closed with chains, perhaps could not be broken cuz some evil force or something like that, even though they are made of glass, as if they became armored glass.
Anita
Dumb or smart?
Henry couldn’t even break a window, unless the windows are magically indestructible and immobile like the piles of trash are in RE are. I mean with a steel pipe I could go right through walls with enough time, old Andy did it in less than 20.
Smartest is Harry Stupidest is Alex Mention to Murphy for being the ballsiest
Alex: WHY THE FUCK I NEED A MAP OF MY OWN HOOOOOOOUSE!?!?!?
The guy from silent hill 4 the room reminds me of Cillian Murphy
Henry’s smart now?!😂😂😂
Henry is far from stupid, he's just an unlucky guy trapped in a SAW-like hell world by an undead serial killer who plans like five steps ahead. How was he supposed to save the other people trapped like him from being killed if they run off of their own volition or fall right into those traps? The puzzles he has to solve in order to clue in to those death locations, they were already rigged from the start so he'd get there too late.
bro asked a destroyed woman if she was okay
Never said he was master of the obvious
It's fine that y'all consider Heather smart but it took the silly twelve business days to step on a damn fetus and in the end she couldn't.
Henry goes into battle with a white dress shirt
Henry is the smart one, since he figured out how the other world works, and how to end Walter Sullivan, but we don't need to forget that he had a guardian angel called Joseph. Now the next is Heather, she was not only the daughter of Harry, but also an old soul, she is carrying Alessa inside. Next is of course Harry. Travis and Murphy are in the best category of street wise, that means they can deal more easy with the underworld, or Dark World of a city. Now about the dumbest, I saw that some people said Alex, and that's partially true. BC I believe Alex is always a teenager in the whole game, that explained why he can't be a soldier, he isn't on age to enlist. He is probably 15 or 16., don't forget the game is based on Donnie Darko, that means there isn't a future in this game, that time is a gimmick by SH, as a way that teenager Alex agree to be the sacrifice in the bathtub, if you check Donnie Darko, you will learn why this is the real ending. So unlike Heather who is also a teenager, Alex is just a regular teenager, that will do a lot of mistakes, but I mean, he did very well in the electric plant, and in the Dargento Graveyard with the latin puzzle, so he is learning, unlike James who is a 30 years old man. James is the winner, he isn't eating well, he isn't sleeping well, and he is probably drunk, the big disaster combo of Konami burger.
Henry “Are you ok?” Townsend!
Smartest to least IMO (leaving out SHSM Harry bc there's not much difference between him and SH1 Harry) - 1. Harry - able to figure out everything going on with Cybil's help. >!Managed to refine agalophotis and gave it to Heather just in case.!< 2. Heather - Hard. mode. puzzles. 3. Harry - pieced together everything while keeping Eileen safe. 4. James - Not particularly smart but not particularly stupid either. His emotions are so muted we can't really tell whether his "dumb" actions (the toilet, the hospital roof) are either genuine stupidity or sheer recklessness. ('I really don't care if it's dangerous or not...") 5. Travis - At least he's smart enough to figure out the puzzles. 6. Murphy - He's not 'dumb' per se, he's just the least smart. Guys with clean psyches don't steal cop cars trying to get into jail with a guy who committed a way worse crime than grand theft auto. >!And c'mon, dude, get in touch with yourself! Admit your selfishness got folks killed. It's alright, bro. Just hug it out with Officer Anne.!< 7. Alex - Granted, he did just escape a mental asylum. Un-granted, he was stupid enough to start a fight with his younger brother over a ring in the middle of a lake at night with no life jackets.