Plot discussion *SPOILERS*

[skidmarkgn]

After getting the 5 main endings (one of them has no trophy support) I'm pretty sure I've seen most of what the game has to offer story-wise. I haven't read through all of the in-game lore or done all the side quests yet so I'm sure there are some things I'm missing.

At any rate, what I've got so far is:

-Murphy got himself put in prison to gain access to Napier, the man that killed his son

-Murphy and Cunningham got drawn into Silent Hill together so they could be shown the truth (the truth of course depending on the ending you watch?) about her fathers beating/murder.

-Sewell is the game's main "villain"

-The monsters don't seem to have very specific meanings towards Murphy himself, with the exception of the prisoners and the wheelchair man (no idea what the screamers, dolls and weeping bats represent... if anything)

-Murphy appears to Cunningham as the bogeyman?

-The mailman, the DJ, and the bus driver are also being punished and are stuck in an endless purgatory. Whether or not they are forced to die over and over like Murphy (in one of the endings) is unclear, although it could be assumed the DJ does die when his booth is overrun and the bus driver falls (which certainly doesn't mean death).

-The mailman may not see the town the same way as those being punished, "this is a busy town". Kind of like the little girl in SH 2, which implies that he's could be either an innocent or a "servant" of the town. Although, an innocent is highly unlikely if he knows who Murphy is.

Now some things I don't quite understand:

The ending where Murphy dies and wakes up at the beginning of the penitentiary confuses me. It plays the voices of the mailman and DJ saying that ,essentially, their cycle never ends. This implies that Murphy was going to have to relive that section over and over indefinitely. Now, Murphy had to die for the loop to restart, which is fine. My problem is that, by that logic, the DJ would also have to die, which he supposedly did, but it was meeting Murphy that triggered his demise. If Murphy is in a loop in the penitentiary then he would never again meet the DJ which is kind of a paradox.

Next is Napier. It's pretty much confirmed that he killed Charlie but I have no idea how. The flashbacks (that I've seen so far) showed a couple of things... Charlie being pulled out of a lake and Charlie running towards the water with a kite and disappearing. In the opening scene Murphy tells Napier "we used to be neighbors" and another scene has Sewell referring to Napier as "the guy who buggers little kids" and finally there's a scene after killing the bogeyman where Napier and Murphy's faces both appear under the mask. I'm guessing that it was left vague on purpose to suit each ending and I also assume that there are most likely journal entries and other various documents I haven't found yet that, hopefully, explain what happened to Charlie in more detail, but for now I have no idea if he was abducted and held prisoner or just spontaneously attacked or if Murphy was at fault or what?

Finally is the St. Maria's section. The Bogeyman appears in this area for the first time and it's strongly suggested through the rest of the game that Murphy is him. Most everything in this area leads us to believe that Murphy is a murderer, what's not clear is who he murdered. Again, I'm assuming this was done on purpose to satisfy each ending. The options seem to be any combination of Charlie, Napier and Coleridge with Cunningham possibly being the last victim.

Finally, what the hell is the void that Chases Murphy?

[Death]

I don't know why the kids call Murphy the boogeyman, but he did kill Napier in the showers so that does make him a murderer. The boogeyman is also spotted before St. Maria's in the radio station otherworld. You see him walking away when you fall through the floor at the end of that part. The game doesn't describe how Charlie died, but there is some info. There are 2 pictures that you find that are taken from the scene of Charlie's crime. One picture is of a mans footprints in the mud and the other is of a weird object that looks like a bag. My guess is that the bag contains Charlies corpse inside because of the way that Murphy reacts when you take the picture.

Howard could be a servant of Silent Hill like you said. He is oblivious to what happens around him and is calm at all times and his response to the roads being out is weird. I began thinking that he might be part of the town when he first gave Murphy the letter from St. Maria twice. Murphy takes the first letter and sees that it's addressed to him and is from St. Maria. He says that he's had enough of Howard's bullshit and tosses the letter while Howard takes out another letter that looks exactly like the first one. He also guides Murphy through out the game telling him to check out the sky tram and to head up to St. Maria's. I believe that he is a friendly spirit that once lived in the town. I think he's dead because of the way he seems to appear and reappear all of a sudden. (like in the beginning next to the diner.)

I have an idea of what the void might be but it sounds dumb. The void IMO could be Sewell. I know he's not dead, but he always expressed how he didn't want Murphy to leave Overlook and that void could be Sewell trying to bring Murphy back since he liked him because of the favors he did for him. The void is a sucking vacuum so it could be like Sewell trying to bring him back. (lol, told ya it sounded dumb.)

Another stupid theory that I have is that the little kid in the orphanage could be a younger version of Murphy. (Something similar has happened in Silent Hill 4 so yea.) His hair and eyes look just like Murphy's and he's just pushing a toy car back and forth which so happens to be a cop car! Murphy got sent to Overlook because he hotwired a cop car and led the police on a long ass chase. He was pretty much going back and forth like the kids car.

The DJ could be dead, but idk. Murphy and Cunningham both survived the attack and you do see a broken window with blood on it. This scene could imply that he could have possibly escaped or died. I'm leaning more towards the dead side because you never see him again and he also gets that phone call when someone or something (Silent Hill itself?) dedicates the next song to him.

What I don't understand is why Murphy gets blamed for Charlies death at all (like in the 'Execution' ending.) Napier went to prison for what he did to Charlie and you find a few mysteries which talks about his trial.

[skidmarkgn]

I like the theory of the void being a representation of Sewell. The wheelchair man is Coleridge and the bagged corpse is Charlie, which just leaves Sewell. He's definitely too important to be left out so the void is a perfect candidate for the man who sucked Murphy into the overall dilemma that the game revolves around. Good call.

I know that after the Bogeyman kills the boy the boy actually becomes Charlie, I'm not too sure what to think of that. I guess it could be a visual summary of the events... little Murphy playing with his car, the Bogeyman arrives and 'takes' little Murphy while big Murphy is helpless to stop him (which could be his transformation into the Bogeyman) and Charlie ends up being the victim in the end. Either way, that still leaves it open for either Napier or Murphy to be the Bogeyman, although, I still believe it's Murphy.

I also forgot to bring up the 'reversal' ending. That one opens up a whole new can of worms!!

[ShadeSplit]

Silent Hill always has alternate endings that contradict what happened. They don't necessarily mean anything. They are just there to show you what may have happened if things were different. Napier clearly killed Charlie, so anything that suggests Murphy did is nothing more than an alternate view. It isn't clear how Napier got to Charlie though. One thing that I haven't seen anyone else mention is that Napier installed security systems for a living. Since they were neighbors, he could have installed the security system in Murphy's house, and obviously set it up to allow himself access in order to abduct Charlie. It was a bit strange how the mailman and the DJ didn't seem to have that much to do with the story. Also, the little girl that was seemingly killed during surgery. It wouldn't be Silent Hill if there weren't any mysteries though.

[Death]

I don't think the Boogeyman is just one person. For example, kids could look at Napier and be afraid of him and look at him as though he's the Boogeyman because of what he did to Charlie. I believe Murphy's face flashed on the Boogeymans corpse because he started to realize that he could be looked as a monster through other peoples eyes because he murdered Napier. (COUGH"Murder is a mortal sin. You go to Hell for murder"COUGH) Cunningham began to see Murphy as the Boogeyman at the end of the game because she thought for the longest time that he killed her father so she ended up hating and fearing Murphy. Idk, I can't really word this right, but I think that the Boogeyman has multiple identities and can never die because someone else can envision him while in a state of fear.

[skidmarkgn]

I definitely can confirm that Napier abducted and killed Charlie. How, when, and where doesn't seem to be answered but various police reports and profiles do confirm that Napier took and killed Charlie... and that Charlie wasn't the first. I know it's kind of redundant to post this now as Gameover cleared most everything up but I still want to officially remove that section from the "stuff I don't understand" section of my OP.

[Alexander_Doom2]

Sorry if I post here, but i have some explanations:
 

1)"what the hell is the void that Chases Murphy?" Do you remember some documents where there was written Murphy steals a car for being chased for over 11 hours? Well, that void which chases Murphy it means "Do you like to run? Then, RUN";

2) Yes, Nepier killed Charlie, probably he makes him drown;

3) The Postman isn't anyone, i mean he's like a guide for Murphy; a little tip: this isn't the first time that the postman appears in a Silent Hill; it appears in a Silent Hill's comic book, but i don't remember which one.