The conversations with Dr. Meadows fast made her one of my favorite Remedy characters. She absolutely rolls with these crazy scenarios while remaining very thoughtful, articulate, and genuine. I'm sad that I doubt any of the American Nightmare characters will be back.

This is such a great channel, so few people appreciate Alan Wake and it was one of the first games I played on the 360 so I have a real affinity towards it. I was watching something else that was shorter and I was about to go to sleep but I guess I'm gonna stay up.

I think this is one of those cases were an extreme circumstance requires an extreme solution. The fact of the matter is there is no court in our reality that could judge him. What happens in these games is so foreign to anything that happens in real life that it would be beyond the fundamental understandings of any judge or jury. Trust me, I've dealt with the courts a lot, they couldn't even begin to fathom or conceive a punishment, let alone an understanding of the circumstances and events that took place. It is, ultimately, a personal hell that Alan will have to live with.

Hartman was already someone taking advantage of people long before Alan showed up in Bright Falls, so casting someone like that, who definitely would have used Alan as he had others similarly, was a no brainer, especially with Alan getting info of people there. Although I do agree that Hartman was on Alan’s list. As for the suicidal girl, even if he was guiding her actions in a more active role, he never went through with her death in the end. Thinking of how it was this random inky shadow that saved her-that wasn’t planned, which makes me believe that the page was a drive-by of information-like free writing or Stream-of-Consciousness writing-where he just acted when he realized what was going on as he ‘passed by’. As though seeing this in his peripheral. I guess what comes down to it for me is how many times are his story decisions made based on what knowledge he’s gained through the Darkness, and how much is available to him. Was Mott truly connected to Hartman, or was that slapped in along with a photograph? Without knowing the state of Bright Falls before Alan Wake, I think it’s a bit of an unknown in some cases. But I DO think that those like Rose and Rusty are extremely unfortunate as they were just the 1st people that Alan met in Bright Falls. Stucky was already taken before Alan’s writing began and thus couldn’t be reversed even if he knew what was happening since the start (he didn’t.) I love these videos on Remedy’s works so much, but Alan Wake has such a special place for me and my own writing, so exploring this game’s themes are just so satisfying. Thanks again!! c:

Alan wasn't a hero, and wasn't really ill intended, but he was angry. And desperate. These are very dangerous states for anyone that need to make important decisions.

I think it's important to note that most of the manuscript Alan had already written was done under the influence of the Dark Presence before Zane woke him up.

there was something I noticed when I rewatched the trailer. the three-piece suit that Alan is wearing is almost identical to the one that Mr. Scratch wears in American Nightmare. the difference is the black shirt under the waistcoat. Alan mentioned his double when speaking to Thomas Zane in the Control DLC, but didn't call him by name. the fact that Zane looks like Alan now and how he spoke to Alan in the DLC leads me to believe that it wasn't actually Thomas Zane. he could be the new Mr.Scratch, or the new face of the Dark Presence, or maybe he is who the story says he is and Alan speaks for the dark now. I don't know, but I want to hear your thoughts on this. I feel like there is something there, but I just can't quite narrow it down.

What I always wonder, and I understand you have already covered in numerous videos, is Alan's knowledge of Bright Falls before his arrival. How much of what is revealed simply a conjuring of Alan's writings, or already existing lore from before Departure. Was there always a secret society in the town, or did Alan make that up? Was Rose always an obsessive fangirl, or did Alan get that impression from her when they met and wrote her to be that way? Was Hartman always using his patients to explore the powers of the lake, or did Alan write him that way to make him an antagonist? This of course leads to a final question: if any of these were already fact, how did Alan know when writing Departure? I suppose we could presume the dark presence gave him omniscient insight into the secret history of the town.

Wonderful and very educational video-essay! Very much looking forward to the continuation!

I love the world these games have created. It is really effective at highlighting how the introduction of supernatural concepts, abilities, and entities violently disrupts an attempt to hold ethics, morality, and law to events. When a completely and truly alien power puts hands on human situations, we’re met with a reality where any concept of morals we have becomes debatably inapplicable. Orange and Blue morality vs Black and White. The real point though, is that ethics being thrown out by the situation does not excuse the actors in that situation from doing the same. We still have will and agency, in some degree, so there remains a responsibility to act morally, as best we are able. Both Alan Wake and Control do an amazing job of subtly showcasing just how hard that is and how foreign these powers are. The Hiss may be clearly malevolent and deadly to humans, but there’s little evidence that if explicitly is evil as we define it and after humanity personally. Meanwhile the Board (i think it was called?) may be helping but there’s plenty to show that it’s also not fully aligned with human morals. Awesome work in the games and awesome video!

Considering Bright Falls isn't a ghost town by the end, and the game has you face a freakin' army of Taken at one point, it's safe to say many were spawned into existence just to serve the plot.

13:44 While he's sometimes driven to write dark and horrible things into his stories Alan's ultimately a good man.

Awesome educational experience through this video on Alan Wake man!

I love your videos. Also, this is off-topic but it blows my mind that Alan Wake and Doctor Darling are voiced by the same guy. He does such a good job of seeming like two totally different people. Alan's voice is so much raspier than Darling's! Also, one thing I'm curious about is will they mention a huge number of unexplained deaths 13 years ago in Alan Wake 2? Or will it only be named characters like Stucky that get mentioned. Basically, I wonder if the majority of taken were real people or if the story created them.

Can't wait for the Errand Boy episode

Alan wasn't a hero, and wasn't really ill intended, but he was angry.

it was a joy to catch this early on patreon, this is honestly one of my favorite videos you ever made

Glad I found this channel! Just binge watched all of the control/Alan wake vids. *chefs kiss* cant wait for more. 🎉

Random aside, but that quote from Alan around 7:45 "the genre seems to be shifting" reminds me of my own creative endeavors, whether it be pixel art, or minecraft builds, or even earlier where I was bored and wrote a little short story even though I'm not really a writer, it always seems like my work shifts. I plan it one way but eventually it will kinda do its own thing and turn into whatever it wants to be. My short story shifted into a ghost story, my minecraft builds start with my base idea and slowly shift into another build entirely. I don't know if this is the normal flow of things when doing anything creative, or just my weird mind lol

I think Alan's morality is ok, considering where he is. What were his options? Kill himself to stop dark presence from using him (which mean it would probably move on to other artist in the area). Use people as characters and keep damage to a minimum, while working towards protecting an innocent life and reality in general from scary ass being at his own cost. Or create a bunch of sentient living and breathing people out of nothing to serve a plot and die at the end of it. All of it is f-d up, and to me second option look like compromise of necessary evil.

Love your videos! Thank you for this.

A thought- My understanding is that there's a Norse mythology influence on the Remedy universe. Might Saga Anderson and Alex Casey be representations of Odin's two ravens. They are his eyes and ears, and Alan is the "god" of this world. In some depictions, one is black and one is white. Saga Anderson's name itself is a connection to the Norse sagas and the Andersons from Alan Wake 1.

Even before this video, I have had a personal theory I've held for years, "All fiction is real, just not Here", expanded I mean that if you consider the idea of a Multiverse, and that multiverse as infinite, then every event, every idea, every thought, every possibility occurs, at least once. My thoughts with that theory is, the question becomes, do you believe in infinity? If you don't, then the question becomes, does the world created still exist if the story is not well made? The Jenny LeClue game touches on this, the author of her story doesn't want to write an actual murder but his publisher refuses to publish any new books as they've all be very samey low stakes mysteries till the story of the game, ironically, I think the lengths the Author has gone to not write a murder has inadvertently resulted in an even darker story considering the new backstory Jenny's new situation reveals to the player {that the publisher refuses to care about after the author reveals that he didn't actually kill anybody, dropping him}. Alternatively, you can look at the Myst series, where writers write books that link to other worlds, and the two trains of thought that butt heads repeatedly in the story, "The writers of the 'Ages' linking to pre-existing worlds then manipulating them with their written words", or the other "The writers of the 'Ages' write then into existence wholly and utterly, only manipulating what they themselves created". More simply, are you in writing a story documenting and/or manipulating a pre-existing world, or are you creating it wholly from your work, kind of need to answer that before you even start considering the extent of an author's morality.

This is such a great video. I love that you keep venturing beyond lore into these philosophical topics. It is certain that most authors create art to say something, not simply say "look what a cool lore-filled world we've built". And while many fans focus on the latter (which is also fascinating, no judgement here), the former often stays unexplored beyond your personal feelings.

thanks a very important disscusion of how dangerous what alan is doing

As always, great video. Great insight

Sometimes, moral line was disregarded when it comes to extreme circumstances or situations that is beyond a human comprehension. You cannot think straight if you are in situation that is so foreign to you. But it still doesnt excuse his actions IF he is totally aware of the effect of his writing. The argument of moral line in games like this wasnt just black and white nor grey, it's. . Complicated

Honestly I doubt Alan had much of an influence over the hiss invasion. I think he just slightly altered the hiss to make it more similar to the dark presence, like with the chant, so the fbc would maybe be a bit more prepared to deal with the dark presence,and the hiss would have been a threat regardless of Alan’s influence. Then again, its entirely possible that he did incite the invasion. Just my two cents I guess.

I think Alan is so dead set on returning to Alice he hasn't stopped to think about how this would affect everyone else and when he does realize that it hurts him immensely.

Thanks for this great overview 🙂

Ok but what he thing we all want to know is what happened to the friend of Jesse and Dylan, who got turned into a dog and disappeared at the Ordinary AWE

Only 133 days until we learn more! _(Excited squeaking followed by an excess of giddy energy.)_

Good morning video. But eff Hartman. It was kind of funny when Alan locked the door and I thought Hartman died but then turns out he’s alive because the dark presence didn’t even want to bother with him and then he decides to take a dip in the lake is just the cherry on top.

I'm not sure he would have done things differently. As he claims himself "the scales always need to balance, everything has a price.” In order to undo the whole situation, to not let darkness consume everything he had to create conflicts and there had to be victims. Sure, it's terrible but there was no other way - Zane "tried to cut corners" and it all have gone worse. Speaking of Zane - one could argue Alan could have also been a character writen by Zane - or Alan wrote in Zane who wrote in Alan, who... now it's egg and a chicken kinda thing. But if that is possible then maybe Alan had no choice at all as everything he did (and still does) was already decided long time ago when Zane wrote himself out of existence.

I appreciate all the work you put into these videos, I just finished Alan wake again and this vid came right on time 👍🏾 Ty gaming university 🙏🏾

i ask does it matter? plot has to plot and like a good batman tale, alan does not exactly kill anyone, but someone has to die (or be "unconscious" according to detective vision). i am here for the many videos and the discussion and this is definitely one of those how much into the minutia we going? if it is all some super meta narrative on artistic creation, the thing lake has created is a story in a game and that makes the players implicit, as well, no? a la levine and bioshock i dunno, these are the things i was thinking on as i was watching. cannot wait for all the aw2 coverage!!! leggoooo!!!

I can’t wait for you to drop that Errand Boy video and see what other videos you manage to make out of this book. There’s so much nifty stuff you can talk about from it: The Creator’s Dilemma Excerpt, why Remedy decided to share that specific Alex Casey Excerpt, and all that weird history in Bright Falls detailed from the town’s history book. I remember there being a lot to it.

Oddball question, but do you think that there is any significance to every single NPC in American nightmare being an attractive woman? The scientist was even written to have just come from a party so that it "makes sense" that she is in a sexy outfit and makeup. I just found it quite interesting Edit: I always find it slightly disturbing to see my real name in the credits of your videos, and that is also somewhat fitting

For the record most of Departure was written while Alan was being deceived by the Dark Presence so an argument could be made that the deaths are not on him but the Darkness itself.

Unrelated note to Alan Wake but I find your voice to be soothing. If you ever plan to do like a podcast or something I would totally listen to it.

OMG NEW VIDEO OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Ya know I've recently thought of a theory that the ending of Alan Wake 1 referenced Control. The line "It's not a Lake, It's an Ocean" could be referring to the Ocean View Motel. Alan is trapped in the dark place which is located behind the spiral door of the Ocean view hotel. Maybe Alan was hinting to his location at the end.

I now think about it.... What if 13 years lock down in Dark Place split Alan in two again. Something like Mr Scratch. And his "desperate wish for free" create another Alan. Author without moral feeling's. And he decide write really horror story for his wish come true. And real Alan will try stop his dark half from contless kiling and manipulation's in sequel.

The best part of Forbidden Planet is when Dr. Morbius said "IT'S MORBIN' TIME" and morbed all over those guys. More seriously, it's a really good movie. Feels a bit dated in a few aspects, but at its core there's a lot of really great ideas and themes, and you can tell there was a lot of passion in the project.

So are the psychonauts vids on hold while we get hyped for Alan Wake 2?

I’m watching “forbidden planet” now, but it’s a little hard taking it seriously because Leslie Nielsen is in it😄

There's somethinf I don't understand. In the end, Alan is a creation of Zane as a way to fix what he did, or is Zane just a part of Alan's story?

Its really interesting question. Yeah, i understand Alan's wish escape from Darkness, but was he right when he manipulate lives ordinary people for happy ending he want? Its really interesting question.... I can understand when he wrote Departure, because he was manipulated by Barbara. But what about FBC? Im not sure that he create Hiss, but he really manipulate story, which was trigger for they invasion.... So many people died from it.

Hes not a hero or a villain, one could argue if the Dark Place chose someone else, the situation could be much worse, but Alan is weak willed at times and quite selfish, so hes a mixed bag but by god there are worse

Mad respect, I love your videos but I gotta disagree with you to an extent. What if the tale is the Russian tale of the baba yaga? Not the Norse tale. In the tale of the Russian baba yaga, it tells a story of three witches, one young, one old, and the other middle aged that would drag victims to the lair of the witches. Once the middle aged witch brings in a victim the elderly might wear the victims face.

2:00 Really damning criticism of most popular religions there, especially Christianity woth its "everything happens for a reason" BS.

SPOILER for a 70 year old movie

Alan is kind of a selfish prick.