Things Mir doesn't ever want to hear you say...

Old analysis is old (a couple of weeks old, as it happens), but posting it anyway, because I had it written up and the forgot about it...


Just listening to some clips of EnglishDub!Mir over here, and wow... while I generally dislike the dub of AT, and I know this particular part is almost certainly unintentional given how sheerly random the VAs seem to be with matching up their intonation to their intent... the part of this scene where Mir's saying "Don't worry. Everything will be fine." at 4:49 is just dripping with bitterness, to my ears, in a way that made me shiver. I'm just hearing such an undertone of "...yes. Everything will be fine, humans. Just like back when I was under your control and you always told me, 'Don't worry. Everything will be fine.' just before you put me through the next round of agony. So I hear you think suffering is just fine? Then I'm sure you'll like this."

I know I'm reading way too much into it, because frankly I just don't trust the dubbers to be that good (even if Mir's English VA did do some work on Silent Hill), but still, effectively cringe-inducing if you think of it like that.

(I'm now imagining her actually having a kneejerk reaction to the phrase if it's said to her by other people, in a "yes, that's what people always say when they want me to lie down and take it. Do you really think I'm going to fall for it again?" sort of way.)


Also, been poking through Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's works on YouTube; she's the English VA for Mir, and she's done a good deal of work for the Silent Hill series. I don't consider her voice to be very Mir-like; I personally think Ellen McLain, voice of GLaDOS in Portal, should have voiced her instead, though NISA probably couldn't afford to hire her, since they're a small outfit. I haven't actually played the game, but from the song Still Alive I can tell that she's got the right mix of childlike innocence and bitter sarcasm down, and if you listen to her in the verse beginning "Go ahead and leave me" in particular, she sounds a lot more like the Japanese Mir than McGlynn does.

Still, though, what I've noticed about McGlynn's works for Silent Hill is that they actually fit Mir very well, for the most part. I've personally fallen in love with "I Want Love" as a potential song from Mir to AT2's protagonist, depending on how I end up feeling about that pairing; it's exactly the kind of love song I think she'd offer, a desperate plea in recognition of the fact that nothing less than deep and genuine caring can stop her feeling like she can never be sated. "I need a miracle and that's what I'm hoping for" is basically Mir in a nutshell; she needs and wants something utterly transformatory, and she won't stop holding out for it. If a certain hero can fill that role for her, I'll be pleased, but they'll have to do it right.

"Let Me Out" and "Shot Down in Flames", on the other hand, are two rather creepy songs that I think fit Mir's time spent in captivity and her subsequent escape, respectively, very well. Going to do a little breakdown of the latter as I think it relates to her, because I can:

Swear at the walls
They make fun of me
Day after day
Eyes that follow me
Is it you again?
Can this be the end forever?

This first verse is fairly obvious; it's all about being trapped and being watched. The walls make fun of her because she can't escape; their existence mocks her, and she can't escape the eyes of the researchers with their cameras constantly trained on her. "Is it you again?": the same old faces, never offering her anything she needs. "Can this be the end forever?" makes me think of Mir's witnessing her old personality, her good-natured self, being smothered beneath her rage and wondering if this is really the end of the self she knew.

See through your eyes
Child's heart that cries
Raven flight, flies

Mir saying "look at this as a human being for once, not just as a scientist, and see how horrible it is". Plus bonus bird imagery!

And the meaning dies
As it was before
It will be no more
Time does that

Time is taking its toll on her; she's trying to hold out hope, to continue to be who she was, but it's becoming harder and harder to see the good in life as her anger consumes.

Say it again
Like you said
Does it sound like you?
Where are you now?

Mir saying to her captors, "have you ever listened to the words you say to me? Have you looked at yourselves in the mirror lately? Do you know what monsters you really are?"

Does the young one know you're here?
Breath on the glass
Once again
Feel her pull you in
Nobody leaves
You won't let you
You're afflicted

Like most of the song, this is all a bit disjointed and hard to parse, but I see it as Mir imagining her captors looking in at her through the glass and being unable to forget the cruelty they're witnessing, but being unable to leave the project because they're too afraid to admit their own guilt. Though, in my fanfic universe, a few people did leave the project early on or were fired from it, more people stayed than you'd expect; leaving would have forced them to confront the fact that they'd done something wrong, and that admission would have been too traumatic for most of them, so they buried the guilt further and further down under layers of scar tissue, becoming utterly callous and cold.

Can you hide who you are?
Take a look at yourself

Mir reiterating that those who hold her prisoner need to face up to themselves.

Can you stop what will be?
You think running will help?

This is one of those lines that I just think fits Mir's raging bitterness perfectly. It's the classic triumphant crowing of a villain as they prepare to destroy everything in their path. "You can't outrun me! You can't escape my wrath!"

Can't give up on the past
When the past never ends

Mir doesn't feel like she can escape the pain of her past, and now she's going to manifest that pain and bring it into the present for everyone else. The repercussions of the past never ended for her, so why should they for anyone else?

Now the dead that you raised
Live in me

They tried to kill her emotions, and now they've raised up the angry, twisted things they created and crushed down by continuing to provoke her.

What have you done?
You're insane
Can you bring God down?

Mir's commentary on the scientists "playing God" with her.

Plans that you made
Don't include me
One more time

Oh, their plans included her; but not as an equal, not as a person, only as a slave. Their plans never took into account what she wanted.

But I will dance
On the wind
Breathing in your heart

Mir is free, and she guarantees you'll never forget her. The images of the fragile, gentle creature you broke will continue to haunt you.

Your sacrifice
Wasn't wanted
Still you try

There's sort of a parallel here between Mir's own sacrifices (the energy and love she put into her songs) not being wanted, and the idea that all the energy the scientists have invested into controlling Mir is something she ultimately rejects.