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* RobbingTheDead: Gets his hands on his first revolver in ''Alan Wake II'' from the freshly killed Detective Casey after he [[GenreBlind rounds a corner to investigate a mysterious noise by himself.]]
* SameLanguageDub: Due to the creators wanting a huskier, more "hardboiled noir" sort of feel for Alan's voice, and Creator/IlkkaVilli's (faint, but noticeable) natural Finnish accent contrasting against a character born and raised in New York, Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines in English. Over the years, Villi has stated that he's worked on his accent specifically so that he can better match Porretta, to the point that the two now sound pretty similar, but he and Porretta still share the character, in a back-and-forth process between motion capture with Villi delivering the dialogue in his own voice, ADR recording with Porretta, and finally facial capture lipsyncing to Porretta's recordings that leads to both actors' respective performances influencing each other.
* SanitySlippage: His decade stuck writing for the Dark Prescence has left him unable to fully tell reality apart from his stories. Both ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' that over the years of his torment, he repeatedly had mental breakdowns that left him raving like a lunatic.
* SameLanguageDub: Due to the creators wanting a huskier, more "hardboiled noir" sort of feel for Alan's voice, and Creator/IlkkaVilli's (faint, but noticeable) natural Finnish accent contrasting against a character born and raised in New York, Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines in English. Over the years, Villi has stated that he's worked on his accent specifically so that he can better match Porretta, to the point that the two now sound pretty similar, but he and Porretta still share the character, in a back-and-forth process between motion capture with Villi delivering the dialogue in his own voice, ADR recording with Porretta, and finally facial capture lipsyncing to Porretta's recordings that leads to both actors' respective performances influencing each other.
* SanitySlippage: His decade stuck writing for the Dark Prescence has left him unable to fully tell reality apart from his stories. Both ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' that over the years of his torment, he repeatedly had mental breakdowns that left him raving like a lunatic.
to:
* RobbingTheDead: Gets his hands on his first revolver in ''Alan Wake II'' from the freshly killed Detective Casey after he [[GenreBlind rounds a corner to investigate a mysterious noise by himself.]]
himself]].
* SameLanguageDub: Due to industry norms back in thecreators wanting a huskier, more "hardboiled noir" sort of feel for Alan's voice, and Creator/IlkkaVilli's (faint, but noticeable) natural mid/late 2000s when the first game was in production, Finnish accent contrasting against a character born actor Creator/IlkkaVilli is the likeness and raised in New York, performs the motion capture for Alan, while American actor Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines dubs him in English. Over the years, Villi has stated that he's worked on his accent specifically so that he can better match Porretta, to the point that the two now sound pretty similar, similar enough that some players don't even realize that Alan is dubbed, but he and Porretta still share the character, in a back-and-forth process between motion capture with Villi delivering the dialogue in his own voice, ADR recording with Porretta, and finally facial capture lipsyncing to Porretta's recordings that leads to both actors' respective performances influencing each other.
other at multiple points.
* SanitySlippage: His decade stuck writing for the DarkPrescence Presence has left him unable to fully tell reality apart from his stories. Both ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' that over the years of his torment, he repeatedly had mental breakdowns that left him raving like a lunatic.
* SameLanguageDub: Due to industry norms back in the
* SanitySlippage: His decade stuck writing for the Dark
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* WalkingArmory: He is able to carry a small arms weapon, a shotgun or rifle, heavy duty flashlights, flash grenades, flare guns, and dozens of batteries and ammunition for it all. It's a bit hard to believe, especially in ''American Nightmare'', where his thick layers that served to make this somewhat plausible are gone in favor of a light jacket, making the fact he is pulling these weapons out of {{Hammerspace}} especially obvious. This is downplayed in ''Alan Wake II'', where he gets access to three main weapons- his revolver, flare gun, and a shotgun, plus flashbangs, flares, ammo, a single flashlight, and the Angel Lamp -but that game's use of survival horror-style inventory management limits how much stuff he can carry, as his weapons all take up inventory space. ''II'' also averts the hammerspace of earlier games by having Alan sling his shotgun over his back when not in use, and gives him a stylish leather satchel to carry his stuff.
to:
* WalkingArmory: WalkingArmory:
** He is able to carry a small arms weapon, a shotgun or rifle, heavy duty flashlights, flash grenades, flare guns, and dozens of batteries and ammunition for it all. It's a bit hard to believe, especially in ''American Nightmare'', where his thick layers that served to make this somewhat plausible are gone in favor of a light jacket, making the fact he is pulling these weapons out of {{Hammerspace}} especiallyobvious. obvious.
** This is downplayed in ''Alan Wake II'', where he gets access to three main weapons- his revolver, flare gun, and a shotgun, plus flashbangs, flares, ammo, batteries, healing items, a single flashlight, and the Angel Lamp -but that game's use of survival horror-style inventory management limits how much stuff he can carry, as his weapons all take up inventoryspace.space in themselves and his consumables have stack limits that can cause them to take up multiple inventory slots. ''II'' also averts the hammerspace of earlier games by having Alan sling his shotgun over his back when not in use, and gives him a stylish leather satchel to carry his stuff.
** He is able to carry a small arms weapon, a shotgun or rifle, heavy duty flashlights, flash grenades, flare guns, and dozens of batteries and ammunition for it all. It's a bit hard to believe, especially in ''American Nightmare'', where his thick layers that served to make this somewhat plausible are gone in favor of a light jacket, making the fact he is pulling these weapons out of {{Hammerspace}} especially
** This is downplayed in ''Alan Wake II'', where he gets access to three main weapons- his revolver, flare gun, and a shotgun, plus flashbangs, flares, ammo, batteries, healing items, a single flashlight, and the Angel Lamp -but that game's use of survival horror-style inventory management limits how much stuff he can carry, as his weapons all take up inventory
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* WalkingArmory: He is able to carry a small arms weapon, a shotgun or rifle, heavy duty flashlights, flash grenades, flare guns, and dozens of batteries and ammunition for it all. It's a bit hard to believe, especially in ''American Nightmare'', where his thick layers that served to make this somewhat plausible are gone in favor of a light jacket, making the fact he is pulling these weapons out of {{Hammerspace}} especially obvious.
to:
* WalkingArmory: He is able to carry a small arms weapon, a shotgun or rifle, heavy duty flashlights, flash grenades, flare guns, and dozens of batteries and ammunition for it all. It's a bit hard to believe, especially in ''American Nightmare'', where his thick layers that served to make this somewhat plausible are gone in favor of a light jacket, making the fact he is pulling these weapons out of {{Hammerspace}} especially obvious. This is downplayed in ''Alan Wake II'', where he gets access to three main weapons- his revolver, flare gun, and a shotgun, plus flashbangs, flares, ammo, a single flashlight, and the Angel Lamp -but that game's use of survival horror-style inventory management limits how much stuff he can carry, as his weapons all take up inventory space. ''II'' also averts the hammerspace of earlier games by having Alan sling his shotgun over his back when not in use, and gives him a stylish leather satchel to carry his stuff.
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* OnlySaneMan: Downplayed in the "We Sing" chapter of ''Alan Wake II''; he still participates in "Herald of Darkness", but he has an ''extremely'' confused expression plastered on his face the entire time, clearly wondering why his horrific journey through the Dark Place includes a [[MoodWhiplash sudden musical number]].
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* SameLanguageDub: Due to the creators wanting a huskier, more "hardboiled noir" sort of feel for Alan's voice, and Creator/IlkkaVilli's natural Finnish accent contrasting with him playing a character born and raised in New York, Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines in English. By 2018, when ''Control'' was in development, Villi's accent has significantly lessened, but he and Porretta still share the character.
to:
* SameLanguageDub: Due to the creators wanting a huskier, more "hardboiled noir" sort of feel for Alan's voice, and Creator/IlkkaVilli's (faint, but noticeable) natural Finnish accent contrasting with him playing against a character born and raised in New York, Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines in English. By 2018, when ''Control'' was in development, Villi's Over the years, Villi has stated that he's worked on his accent has significantly lessened, specifically so that he can better match Porretta, to the point that the two now sound pretty similar, but he and Porretta still share the character.character, in a back-and-forth process between motion capture with Villi delivering the dialogue in his own voice, ADR recording with Porretta, and finally facial capture lipsyncing to Porretta's recordings that leads to both actors' respective performances influencing each other.
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!!!'''Appearances:''' ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWakesAmericanNightmare'' | ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII''
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!!!'''Appearances:''' ''Bright Falls'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' | ''Night Springs'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWakesAmericanNightmare'' | ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII''
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** It's confirmed in ''Control'' that over the course of the week he fought the Dark Presence, he went out of his way to search for and [[HundredPercentCompletion collect scattered coffee thermoses]] for an unknown reason.
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** It's confirmed in ''Control'' that over the course of the week he fought the Dark Presence, he went out of his way to search for and [[HundredPercentCompletion collect scattered coffee thermoses]] for an unknown reason. They took a coffee thermos for themselves, and note it to be an Altered Item with the mundane effect of making any coffee poured out of it taste really good.
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* SameLanguageDub: Due to Creator/IlkkaVilli's natural thick Finnish accent contrasting with him playing a character born and raised in New York, Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines in English.
to:
* SameLanguageDub: Due to the creators wanting a huskier, more "hardboiled noir" sort of feel for Alan's voice, and Creator/IlkkaVilli's natural thick Finnish accent contrasting with him playing a character born and raised in New York, Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines in English.English. By 2018, when ''Control'' was in development, Villi's accent has significantly lessened, but he and Porretta still share the character.
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* IconicOutfit: His look from the first game, a tweed jacket covering a black hoodie, is both his most enduring look throughout the series, but by far also the most popular. The noticeable shoulder patches gave the outfit a unique quality that endeared it to the fanbase, and they became synonymous with the character, to the point where his appearance in ''This House of Dreams'' leaves him nameless, but describes the elbow patches on his jacket to clue the reader in.
to:
* IconicOutfit: IconicOutfit:
** His look from the first game, a tweed jacket covering a black hoodie, is both his most enduring look throughout the series, but by far also the most popular. The noticeable shoulder patches gave the outfit a unique quality that endeared it to the fanbase, and they became synonymous with the character, to the point where his appearance in ''This House of Dreams'' leaves him nameless, but describes the elbow patches on his jacket to clue the readerin.in.
** His outfit from the second game, a dark brown suit with a dark blue dress shirt and a maroon tie, has become Alan's signature look in his most recent appearances.
** His look from the first game, a tweed jacket covering a black hoodie, is both his most enduring look throughout the series, but by far also the most popular. The noticeable shoulder patches gave the outfit a unique quality that endeared it to the fanbase, and they became synonymous with the character, to the point where his appearance in ''This House of Dreams'' leaves him nameless, but describes the elbow patches on his jacket to clue the reader
** His outfit from the second game, a dark brown suit with a dark blue dress shirt and a maroon tie, has become Alan's signature look in his most recent appearances.
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* RealityWarper: Due to the effect's of the Cauldron Lake, his writings begin to enter into the real world. This is magnified to greater levels within the cabin, as he is able to write up entire alternate dimensions for the FBC to interact with. In ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'', a real version of his detective character Alex Casey himself shows up trying to investigate the going-ons of Bright Falls.
to:
* RealityWarper: Due to the effect's effects of the Cauldron Lake, his writings begin to enter into the real world. This is magnified to greater levels within the cabin, as he is able to write up entire alternate dimensions for the FBC to interact with. In ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'', a real version of his detective character Alex Casey himself shows up trying to investigate the going-ons of Bright Falls.
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* GuestFighter: He made a playable appearance outside the RCU as a purchasable skin in ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''.
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* GuestFighter: He He's made a several playable appearance appearances in crossovers outside the RCU RCU:
** For Halloween 2023, he was added as a purchasable skin in''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''.''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''.
** The 30.5 half chapter of ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' centers around him, and accordingly features him as a new survivor. His narration in promotional materials indicates his presence in the game is one of his attempts to escape the Dark Place between his first and second games.
** For Halloween 2023, he was added as a purchasable skin in
** The 30.5 half chapter of ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' centers around him, and accordingly features him as a new survivor. His narration in promotional materials indicates his presence in the game is one of his attempts to escape the Dark Place between his first and second games.
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** ''The Final Draft'' of 2 adds a new potentially unsettingly wrinkle. [[spoiler:Casper Darling has ended up in the Dark Place, and has spent what he estimates is about 2 years trying to escape. At one point his equipment manages to pick up a transmission from Alan, who he notes sounds suspiciously like he does (given that Alan is voiced by the same actor who completely plays Casper). In the second video of Casper, he comes to the conclusion that science cannot alter the reality of the Dark Place, so perhaps art can. Right on cue, Thomas Zane pops into frame and introduces himself. He notes that Casper sounds familiar and Casper notes that Zane ''looks'' familiar. They both decide to team up. It fortifies the existing existential question of whether Thomas Zane actually created Alan Wake, and if so it seems that Casper Darling may have assisted him in that endeavor.]]
to:
** ''The Final Draft'' of 2 ''II'' adds a new potentially unsettingly unsettling wrinkle. [[spoiler:Casper Darling has ended up in the Dark Place, and has spent what he estimates is about 2 years trying to escape. At one point his equipment manages to pick up a transmission from Alan, who he notes sounds suspiciously like he does (given that Alan is voiced by the same actor who completely plays Casper). In the second video of Casper, he comes to the conclusion that science cannot alter the reality of the Dark Place, so perhaps art can. Right on cue, Thomas Zane pops into frame and introduces himself. He notes that Casper sounds familiar and Casper notes that Zane ''looks'' familiar. They both decide to team up. It fortifies the existing existential question of whether Thomas Zane actually created Alan Wake, and if so it seems that Casper Darling may have assisted him in that endeavor.]]
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* AnimalMotifs: In ''Alan Wake II'', Alan is associated with owls, specifically the taxidermized owl in the Writer's Room. Owls are nocturnal creatures, and he's trapped in the Dark Place, where it's eternally night.
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* AnimalMotifs: In ''Alan Wake II'', Alan is associated with owls, specifically the taxidermized owl in the Writer's Room. Owls are nocturnal creatures, and he's trapped in the Dark Place, where it's eternally night. It's also revealed he lived most of his life in a building called Parliament Tower, which name is derived from owls[[note]]A group of owls is known as a "Parliament"[[/note]] and has stylized owls as its logo.
* BlessedWithSuck: He's a RealityWarper who cannot die within the Dark Place, but this comes at the cost of being constantly hounded by agents of the Dark Place. As he is trapped there, this deathless limbo becomes a curse as he makes constant fruitless escape attempts, with added guilt from the manuscripts altering reality and ruining other people's lives eroding his sanity.
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* DeityOfHumanOrigin: [[spoiler:Not quite godhood, but the ending of ''The Final Draft'' of 2 implies that Alan has fully overcome and absorbed Scratch into himself and can now write without restriction. He may now even be on the same level as Mr. Door. As Alan says, he has become "the master of 2 worlds. No, the master of many worlds."]]
to:
* DeityOfHumanOrigin: [[spoiler:Not quite godhood, but the ending of ''The Final Draft'' of 2 implies that Alan has fully overcome and absorbed Scratch into himself and can now write without restriction. He may now even be on the same level as Mr. Door. As Alan says, he has become "the master of 2 two worlds. No, the master of many worlds."]]
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: In the past, he sabotaged his writing career and strained his relationship with his wife to prove to himself he had talent, and constantly derailed his standing with fans with his poorly kept temper. [[spoiler:By the time of ''Alan Wake II'', he becomes obsessed with the concept of TheHero (himself and/or his allies) having to [[BittersweetEnding pay a price]] for the story that lets him escape the Dark Place to be complete. Mr. Door calls this out as [[ComplexityAddiction far more complicated]] for himself than necessary if he simply let go of his self-imposed rules, which ''The Final Draft'' proves when Alan breaks the spiral with his own willpower and a final GoldenEnding.]]
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* MessianicArchetype: Despite his temperament, he ends up making a great sacrifice to save the people he cares about from the influence of a great, all-consuming evil. His fall and time in the Dark Place is even comparable to a descent into {{Hell}}. In later games starting with ''Quantum Break'', he begins to look more like Christ at a distance as well, with longer hair and a thicker beard.
to:
* MessianicArchetype: Despite his temperament, he ends up making a great sacrifice to save the people he cares about from the influence of a great, all-consuming evil. His fall and time in the Dark Place is even comparable to a descent into {{Hell}}. In later games starting with ''Quantum Break'', he begins to look more like Christ at a distance as well, with longer hair and a thicker beard. [[spoiler:In the finale of ''Alan Wake II'', he faces death to take the brunt of another's punishment, only to return from death stronger than ever, strengthening the connection even further.]]
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* AscendedToGodhood: [[spoiler:Not quite godhood, but the ending of ''The Final Draft'' of 2 implies that Alan has fully overcome and absorbed Scratch into himself and can now write without restriction. He may now even be on the same level as Mr. Door. As Alan says, he has become "the master of 2 worlds. No, the master of many worlds."]]
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* DeityOfHumanOrigin: [[spoiler:Not quite godhood, but the ending of ''The Final Draft'' of 2 implies that Alan has fully overcome and absorbed Scratch into himself and can now write without restriction. He may now even be on the same level as Mr. Door. As Alan says, he has become "the master of 2 worlds. No, the master of many worlds."]]
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* AscendedToGodhood: [[spoiler:Not quite godhood, but the ending of ''The Final Draft'' of 2 implies that Alan has fully overcome and absorbed Scratch into himself and can now write without restriction. He may now even be on the same level as Mr. Door. As Alan says, he has become "the master of 2 worlds. No, the master of many worlds."]]
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** ''The Final Draft'' of 2 adds a new potentially unsettingly wrinkle. [[spoiler:Casper Darling has ended up in the Dark Place, and has spent what he estimates is about 2 years trying to escape. At one point his equipment manages to pick up a transmission from Alan, who he notes sounds suspiciously like he does (given that Alan is voiced by the same actor who completely plays Casper). In the second video of Casper, he comes to the conclusion that science cannot alter the reality of the Dark Place, so perhaps art can. Right on cue, Thomas Zane pops into frame and introduces himself. He notes that Casper sounds familiar and Casper notes that Zane ''looks'' familiar. They both decide to team up. It fortifies the existing existential question of whether Thomas Zane actually created Alan Wake, and if so it seems that Casper Darling may have assisted him in that endeavor.]]
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* AllForNothing: As revealed by ''II'', Alan literally cannot die within the Dark Place, much to Alan's intense despair in certain loops. Any time Alan dies in the Dark Place, he simply reawakens in the writer's room. So even if Insane Alan had "won", he still wouldn't have gotten what he wanted.
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* AllForNothing: As revealed by ''2'', Alan literally cannot die within the Dark Place, much to Alan's intense despair in certain loops. Any time Alan dies in the Dark Place, he simply reawakens in the writer's room. So even if Insane Alan had "won", he still wouldn't have gotten what he wanted.
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* AllForNothing: As revealed by ''2'', Alan literally cannot die within the Dark Place, much to Alan's intense despair in certain loops. Any time Alan dies in the Dark Place, he simply reawakens in the writer's room. So even if Insane Alan had "won", he still wouldn't have gotten what he wanted.
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* ComplexityAddiction: According to Mister Door, Alan's insistence on following "rules" of fiction by nudging things in a hundred subtle ways and making the circumstances just right made things much more difficult for himself than was necessary.
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* ComplexityAddiction: According Alan insists he needs to Mister Door, Alan's insistence on following follow "rules" of fiction by nudging in how he alters reality. He can't just have something pop in out of nowhere but things need to be influenced in a hundred subtle ways and making the proper circumstances just right made set up. According to Mister Door, the way Alan does this makes things much far more difficult for himself than was is necessary.
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* ComplexityAddiction: According to Mister Door, Alan's insistence on following "rules" of fiction by nudging things in a hundred subtle ways and making the circumstances just right made things much more difficult for himself than was necessary.
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spelling/grammar fix(es)
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* TheInsomniac: We never see him willingly going to bed ''once'' throughout the franchise and spend most of the game running around after sunset. To be fair, he does get sedated, knocked out, and other involuntarily put to sleep more then a few times, and after his first game, he doesn't even [[TheNeedless need to sleep.]]
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* TheInsomniac: We never see him willingly going to bed ''once'' throughout the franchise and spend most of the game running around after sunset. To be fair, he does get sedated, knocked out, and other involuntarily put to sleep more then than a few times, and after his first game, he doesn't even [[TheNeedless need to sleep.]]
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Splitting subpages from overly long main page
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[[WMG:[[center:[- '''[[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverse Remedy Connected Universe Character Index]]'''\\
'''Alan Wake''' | [[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverseBrightFalls Bright Falls]] | [[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverseFBC Federal Bureau of Control]] | [[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverseParanaturalPhenomena Paranatural Phenomena]] | [[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverseTheDarkPlace The Dark Place]]]] -]]]
----
!!Alan Wake
!!!'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MatthewPorretta (voice), Creator/IlkkaVilli (model)
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWakesAmericanNightmare'' | ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alan_wake_2_rain.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"My name is Alan Wake. I'm a writer."'']]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Alan Wake Remastered'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alanremake.png[softreturn]''"A story is not a machine that does what you tell it. A story is a beast with a life of its own. You can create it, shape it, but as the story grows, it starts wanting things of its own."'']][[/labelnote]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Control'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_2_22.png[softreturn]''"How can I ever know for sure I've escaped and not just lost in my own fantasy of it? That thought alone can drive you mad."'']][[/labelnote]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Alan Wake's American Nightmare'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/americanalan.jpg[softreturn]''"To change reality, you nudge it into the right direction. Your version of it is there, waiting; it wants to come true. All you need to do is to help it achieve its potential."'']][[/labelnote]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Alan Wake'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alanclassic.jpg[softreturn]''"There's light, and there's darkness. Cause and effect. There's guilt and there's atonement. But the scales always need to balance. Everything has a price."'']][[/labelnote]]
->''"In a horror story, the victim keeps asking "Why?" But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn't be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it's what we'll remember in the end."''
\\
A best-selling novelist who is vacationing with his wife in the small town of Bright Falls while wrestling with a severe case of writer's block. She disappears abruptly, and Alan comes to in a wrecked car in the wilderness, missing a week's time, and searching for clues as to what happened to his wife, all while fighting a dark supernatural force.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-H]]
* ActOfTrueLove: He sacrifices his life (with the potential of a FateWorseThanDeath) at the end of the first game by plunging into Cauldron Lake and stopping the Dark Presence. While it is also to save Bright Falls, his first motivation is to save his beloved wife
* ActionSurvivor: He's literally just a novelist who spent a bit of time on the gun range and wears a quite dapper tweed jacket. This is generally shown in his performance in-game; Wake can't run very far without getting tired, he can't take too many hits, and he's not an exceptionally good shot. If the enemy is more than twenty or thirty paces away, he's not likely to hit them, even with a more accurate gun like the hunting rifle.
** ''Videogame/{{Control}}'' indicates that this may be [[InvokedTrope invoked]], as some of the information in the ''AWE'' expansion that Alan was already a Parautilitarian even before he came into contact with the Dark Presence, and that Alan was in turn created by Thomas Zane to be a RealityWarper ActionSurvivor.
* AdaptationalJerkass: In the novelization of the first game, Alan's HairTriggerTemper is played up even further. While being in the serene Bright Falls with his wife cools his temper on the ferry in the game, when he overhears Mott leering at him and Alice he nearly comes to blows over it in the novel. This could be a case of CharacterizationMarchesOn as the sequel establishes that Alan is ''very'' well known for his temper, almost for it as much as his books.
* AesopAmnesia: [[spoiler:In the Special Episodes of the first game, he briefly succumbs to his despair and tries to give up, only to learn to regain the will to escape the Dark Place. The problems of the sequel are caused by him succumbing to his despair and giving up. This is somewhat justified, from a combination of a ''13 year'' process of failure [[HeroicFatigue weighing him down]] and his mind being [[LaserGuidedAmnesia altered]] to make him literally forget.]]
* TheAlcoholic: Due to parties he's thrown for the success of his final Alex Casey novel, he wakes up drunk and goes about taking medicine and putting on glasses as a remedy in a way to make it clear it is far from his first time. He even lets himself get drunk with Barry at the Anderson farm, only briefly trying to reject the drink before succumbing to the temptation.
* AlternateSelf: He has an alternate version of himself in ''Quantum Break'' that mostly followed the life of the "main" Alan, but somehow got a movie about [[ProductionForeshadowing Mr. Scratch and the FBI]] into production following his disappearance. While in-game evidence ties the game to the wider RCU multiverse, due to the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers franchise rights belonging to Microsoft]] they cannot officially place it in the same SharedUniverse.
* AlwaysIntroducesThemselves: The way he introduces himself throughout the franchise is practically his [[CharacterCatchphrase catchphrase]] for how often he says it. He can be heard saying it ''at least'' once in ''Alan Wake'', ''American Nightmare'', ''Control'', and ''Alan Wake II''.
* AmbiguousSituation:
** The exact nature of the [[ChickenAndEggParadox relationship between Thomas Zane and Alan Wake]]. Did Zane write Alan into existence to fix his mistake and defeat The Dark Presence for good? Or did Alan write Zane writing Alan into existence so that he would have a way to defeat the Dark Presence? If trying to figure it out [[MindScrew makes your head hurt]], don't worry, you're not alone.
** In the climax of ''Alan Wake II'', he has a conversation with Saga within her Mind Place in a manner similar to a conversation she had with Odin, something Saga and Odin accomplished because they were both {{Seers}}. With the FBC labeling him a parautilitarian, does he have the same parautility the Anderson Family has, or could they only accomplish that because they were both in the Dark Place? The FBC had labeled him a parautilitarian long before the events of ''Alan Wake II'', so is this what they were talking about? And for that matter, in the ''AWE'' DLC of ''Control'' he wrote down the events Jesse had been experiencing in real time, so did he use the power of Cauldron Lake to write the FBC and everyone in it into reality, or did he learn about the FBC through his visions and merely nudge everything into place as part of a long-term solution in his escape from the Dark Place?
* AmbiguousSyntax: [[SequelHook At the end of]] ''AWE'', he is found manically muttering about "[his] double" coming for him. While this tracks to mean his EvilDoppelganger Mr. Scratch, the imposter Tom Zane also inexplicably looks identical to him, leaving it ambiguous who he is truly so troubled over.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: He seems to be somehow altered after his plunge into the Dark Place. Despite aging normally and otherwise seeming human, he no longer requires sustenance and is able to contact Jesse over the Hotline, which only [[EldritchAbomination paranatural entities]], the dead, and those who have AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence have been shown to be able to do otherwise.
** Beyond that, ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' essentially state that Alan was a parautilitarian even before coming to Bright Falls. It's implied that he has a level of psychic power, which was likely what caused all of his nightmares as a child. And the fact that the fictional Alex Casey is so very similar to the real Alex Casey is heavily implied to be because Alan was unwittingly psychically inspired by the real man to create the fictional one. [[spoiler:This gets used as a loophole to free the real Casey from possession by the Dark Presence at the end of ''AWII''. As Casey wasn't a creation of Alan's but a real person, he should be off limits to the story.]]
* AndIMustScream: The exchange for releasing Alice was that Alan confined himself to the darkness underneath Cauldron Lake so he could write a definitive end for the Dark Presence through a new story. As of ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'', Alan has been in the Dark Place for ''10 years'' with no apparent hope of escape, and not only is his will to escape starting to wane, more mysteries are piling up.
* AnimalMotifs: In ''Alan Wake II'', Alan is associated with owls, specifically the taxidermized owl in the Writer's Room. Owls are nocturnal creatures, and he's trapped in the Dark Place, where it's eternally night.
* AntiHero: His many attempts to escape the Dark Place while keeping to the direction of the horror story puts a lot of indirect blood on his hands in Bright Falls and the FBC. Despite this, he never stops being a good man at heart, never gives in to the Dark Presence's desires, and when push comes to shove, he is just as willing to sacrifice himself as anyone else for the greater good.
** This gets played with in ''II''. [[spoiler:In one cycle, Alan simply chooses to stop writing, as his attempts to escape have caused so much suffering for other people (though incidentally, this actually leads to the beginning of the plot as in this period of time, the Dark Presence comes to Thomas Zane masquerading as Alan and together they write Return, which in its uneditted state is the Dark Presence's ticket to reality). And Saga is ''very'' pissed that Alan writing her into his story to stop the Dark Presence and save him comes at her daughter retroactively being dead for years.]]
* ArbitrarySkepticism: In ''American Nightmare'', he remarks that "Just because I say crazy things doesn't mean I believe everything." when explaining why he doesn't put a lot of credit in [[GranolaGirl Emma]]'s New Age beliefs, despite his own talk of reality alteration, shadow zombie attacks, and time travel.
* ArchEnemy: Mutually establishes this relationship with Mr. Scratch during the events of ''American Nightmare''. While he is theoretically a liaison of the Dark Presence, his plans for Alan are incredibly personal and made specifically to ruin every positive aspect of his life. Alan briefly stopped Scratch in Nightmare, but ''Control'' confirmed him to be still kicking (much to Alan's distress) and even more dangerous, as he has dropped the LaughablyEvil pretenses.
* AuthorAvatar: He has quite a few things in common with the game's writer Sam Lake. Both are established writers of a popular detective series (VideoGame/MaxPayne and [[SelfParody Alex Casey]], respectively) who endeavor to write a departure from the previous works by developing a horror story.
* AuthorAppeal: He seems to have developed a subconscious preference for the heroes of his stories to be [[ActionGirl competent women]] in some form of unique high-ranking position. In order, he's had Sheriff [[TheSheriff Sarah Breaker]], Director [[EmpoweredBadassNormal Jesse Faden]], FBI Profiler [[ActionMom Saga Anderson]], and FBC Agent [[BadassNormal Kiran Estevez]] be among the heroes of the stories he's written for the Dark Presence.
* AutobotsRockOut:
** During a climatic showdown on the Anderson farm, Alan guns down the Taken hordes with the [[FakeBand Old Gods of Asgard]]'s song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-l_kbZbXRQ Children of the Elder God]]" blaring in the background and fireworks roaring through the night.
** As he fights through Mr. Scratch's hordes in ''American Nightmare'', the Old Gods' new pop rock single "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6RKKCQt82Y&list=PLjACqN5i5sDUo3MfGtqogz7P3u5JUm3c- Balance Slays the Demon]]" starts up to give him an additional push to take Mr. Scratch down once and for all.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:"The Final Draft" mode of ''Alan Wake II'' clarifies the status of his UncertainDoom in the base game's ending: His gambit to put an end to the loop works, which allows him to spring back to life a few moments after being shot, the Bullet of Light harmlessly fading away, and leaves him confident to face the future, find Alice, and finally escape the Dark Place.]]
* BadassBookworm: He's a decorated novelist that also turns out to be an abnormally good shot for someone who spent just a bit of time in range practice.
* BadassInANiceSuit: He's ditched both his previous attires in ''Alan Wake II'', now sporting a sharp suit and tie as he fights through the Dark Place's twisted version of New York. The deluxe edition "Celebrity Suit" bonus skin for Alan is the even sharper suit he wore for the premier of ''The Sudden Stop''.
* BatmanGambit: In the ''AWE'' expansion of ''Control'', he is all but confirmed to have sent The-Thing-That-Had-Been-Hartman to the Oldest House in a bid to turn Jesse into a heroine capable of saving him from The Dark Place. Going even further, there's evidence to suggest that he created Jesse, the FBC, and the Hiss invasion as part of this plan: His writings reference aspects of Jesse's backstory that he would have no way of knowing otherwise, and if you look around the Investigations Sector, you can find pages of a Night Springs spec script that he wrote with a plot similar to that of the base game, indicating that he may have adapted this story into his current work.
* BeardOfSorrow: After thirteen years of isolation in the Dark Place, he's grown out a shaggy beard from his {{Permastubble}} to showcase just how far he's mentally fallen into his own psyche.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: He voices a quiet hope early in ''Alan Wake'' that the new environment of a small town would give his mind new ideas for his next novel. By the end of the game, he's made his next book with the town's influence, and has suffered dearly for it.
* BerserkButton: He's very touchy when it comes to his writer's block being prodded on, especially when it comes up during what he thought was just going to be a simple vacation. Alice trying to trick him into writing again causes a heated argument, and Dr. Hartman touching that nerve again later is one of the many reasons for why Alan wants to punch the smug grin off his face.
* BigDamnHeroes: Late in "The Clicker", Sarah and Barry's helicopter has been taken down, so Alan decides specifically to leave the safety of the lit concrete pipe he's traveling in to help. He arrives as Taken are swarming the two. Sarah notes "You sure know how to make an entrance. Barry and I were just about to make like [[BolivianArmyEnding Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]".
* BlingBlingBang: In ''Alan Wake II'', the preorder-exclusive "Ornate Revolver" is available for him to wield. It features a marbled white grip and intricately detailed floral gold patterning down the barrel.
* BondOneLiner:
** In "The Truth", he is told by [[AlmostDeadGuy Walter]] about his friend Danny going crazy and attacking him, only for a Taken to bash into the building they are in and attack. After gunning it down, Alan remarks:
-->'''Alan:''' Let me guess, Danny?
** He also quips "Down boy" after defeating a combine harvester blocking his path midway through his final push through the Taken in "Depature".
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Saga is forced to shoot him in the forehead with the Bullet of Light to end Scratch's invasion of reality in ''Alan Wake II''.]]
* BrokenAce: Outwardly a successful, talented, charming writer who's happily married to a beautiful woman and beloved by the public. On the inside, a deeply insecure man with anger issues and a severe case of writer's block.
* TheCameo:
** In ''Quantum Break'', he shows up early on in an advertisement, narrating for a new story following up the events of Alan Wake as ProductionForeshadowing for his [[VideoGame/AlanWakeII next proper game]]. A Monarch employee also can be seen playing the [[MindScrew real-life Alan Wake game]].
** In the base game of ''Control'', his only appearance is a short cameo from picking up one of his typewritten pages, causing him to appear in an apparition to talk about his situation. His role is expanded from this in the ''AWE'' expansion.
* CarFu: In combination with the strong headlights and the fast speed, Alan has the choice to use any car he comes across as a weapon against the Taken. Even during a cutscene in "The Truth" he runs a few down while fleeing Cauldron Lake Lodge.
* CassandraTruth: Most of the people of Bright Falls are skeptical whenever he tries to reveal the nature of the threat to the town to be shadow monsters coming from the lake. Even his main allies Barry and Sheriff Breaker have a hard time trusting him and only start believing him after seeing the Dark Presence with their own eyes.
* CelebrityIsOverrated: His exasperation at his fanbase and his strong writer's block are the motivation for Alice to bring them to a small, out of the way town in the hope of having a break from it all. Even then, he comes across a radio host clamoring for an interview and a LoonyFan.
* CharacterDevelopment: His standoffish qualities from the first game gradually fade away throughout the series, and he becomes far more grateful toward his allies in ''American Nightmare'' and ''II''. For comparison, he was snarky and blunt to even his best friend in the first game, while he's cracking lighthearted jokes with Tim Breaker by their third proper meeting in the second.
* ClassicalAntiHero: He's felt like a hack writer for a while and his attempts to write in a new genre is to prove to himself he is a good writer even out of his comfort zone. He is also not the best physically, only being able to run for about ten solid seconds before he's doubling over wheezing for just as long.
* CruelToBeKind: He holds Sheriff Breaker at gunpoint and has her gun taken even after they become FireForgedFriends. He does this in her best interest, though, as he wants her to remain in the Well-Lit Room while she wished to go with him when [[HeroicSacrifice he didn't intend to return]].
* DavidVersusGoliath: The David in multiple regards. In a wider sense, he's an [[ActionSurvivor out of his depth writer]] fighting an EldritchAbomination. More specifically, he's also the physically smaller David to the [[GiantMook Assault Taken]] in ''Alan Wake'' and the [[EvilIsBigger Giants]] in ''American Nightmare''.
* DeadArtistsAreBetter: He's not ''dead'' exactly, but it seems that there was a surge of interest in his work after his disappearance, enough for his last published novel, ''The Sudden Stop'', to be adapted into a film. It's also implied that his other books were adapted too, but it's unknown if this was before or after he disappeared.
-->'''Langston:''' ''The Sudden Stop'' hits theaters tonight. I can't believe I'm missing an Alex Casey movie for this.
* DeadpanSnarker: Always has a quip or deadpan remark at the ready, no matter the seriousness of the situation. The majority of these moments are often out of frustration considering his circumstances, as we see when talking with Barry late in "Taken" after Barry previously refused to believe a word Alan said:
-->'''Barry:''' What-- What the hell was that?! I saw it from the window -- I saw -- I saw something!\\
'''Alan:''' [[SarcasmMode Forget about it, Barry, it's just me going crazy.]]
* DemonicPossession: By the time of ''Alan Wake II'', Alan [[spoiler:cannot safely leave the Dark Place because Scratch has gained the ability to do this to him in our dimension, and would escape into reality with him no matter what, with the ability to hijack his body to boot.]]
* DespairSpeech: Has a brief one during one of his cutscenes in ''Control''. He forlornly recalls he once had a plan to escape the Dark Place that it made him forget. Luckily, he recovers quickly, if only out of a desperation to escape before Scratch comes looking for him. [[spoiler:''Alan Wake II'' shows in at least one of his previous loops, he devolves into a lunatic gibbering about the hopelessness of his situation.]]
* {{Determinator}}: One of his most enduring character traits is the fact when he has his mind set on something, '''nothing''' will stop him from getting it done. Fighting through a forest of shadow monsters just to get his wife back, fighting his way out of an endless loop made by a version of him MadeOfEvil, and he will not falter even after a decade of complete isolation in his efforts to remove himself from the Dark Place.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: His rewriting of the Dark Presence to give it a weak spot. He metaphorically [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu broke his arm]] in the process, but was aware that it was going to happen because [[GenreSavvy that's how horror stories work]].
* DiligentHeroSlothfulVillain: Throughout ''American Nightmare'', he is the Diligent hero to Mr. Scratch's Slothful villain. While Scratch is willing to sit around and wait for Alan to die in Night Springs, Alan fights to find a way out without rest and eventually defeats Scratch by piecing together a way to end the [[GroundhogDayLoop looping nightmare]].
* DisappearedDad: It's referenced by numerous sources that Wake grew up never knowing who his father was and was raised alone by his mother. Considering he is suggested to have been written into existence by Zane, he may not have a father to begin with to minimize the amount of people that Zane needed to write into reality.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: In ''Alan Wake II'', it's expressed multiple times that Alan had based his best-selling novels off of visions he had confused for dreams and ideas he came up with himself, implying that he possessed prophetic parautility long before he started experiencing explicit paranatural phenomena in the first game.
* DualWielding: Unconventionally, Alan fights wielding a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Due to the Taken's darkness shields, the light sources are certainly of equal value to the firearms he carries in keeping him alive.
* EnemyMine: He figures out Ben Mott is his wife's alleged kidnapper, but ends up fighting side by side with him against the Taken. It's solely out of necessity to survive and their TeethClenchedTeamwork ends quickly at Alan's fist.
* {{Expy}}: In-Universe, he's one of Thomas Zane. Notably, some characters and/or entities such as the Old Gods of Asgard and Ahti don't seem entirely capable of seeing him as a different person. It's implied Alan is a creation of Zane's, being the linchpin of Zane's backup plan to defeat the Dark Presence. This is further shown in ''Control'', where Alan in turn created Jesse to free him from the Dark Presence as well.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:When the time comes for Saga to shoot him with the Bullet of Light, he accepts his fate with grace, [[BringIt defying Scratch for a final time]], and serenely noting in his narration he simply hopes for the nightmare to end, even if [[TheNothingAfterDeath nothing awaits him.]]]]
* {{Foil}}: The opposite of Mr. Scratch, despite the fact he was made to be Alan's EnemyWithout. Alan is humble, lowkey, and deep down insecure of his talents. Scratch is an over the top egotist who relishes how good he is at killing people, but is insecure in his own way: deep down he knows he's just the negative parts of Alan's reputation, and will [[ThenLetMeBeEvil never truly have the chance to be anything else]].
* FromNobodyToNightmare: From a meager human writer with a crumbling self-esteem to a reality warper whose writings influence multiple planes of reality and who successfully [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Flips Off Cthulhu]] several times.
* GenreSavvy: He's aware that horror stories have a tendency not to end well for the protagonist, and that there can be a lot of casualties along the way. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since he wrote some of them in-universe and needs to keep the tension believable so the Dark Presence won't wrestle control of the narrative away from him.
-->'''Alan:''' No one is safe in a good horror story, certainly not the protagonist. That's what makes them fun. This was anything but.
* GoAmongMadPeople: Halfway through ''Alan Wake'' he is forcibly taken to Cauldron Lake Lodge and [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslighted]] into believing that he is insane. For the brief time he is there, he is obviously the OnlySaneMan among genuinely mentally ill creators.
* GreaterScopeParagon: Implied to be this, as he [[MindScrew might've written]] Jesse Faden, Polaris, and even the FBC itself into existence in order to help him eventually escape The Dark Place. Complicating matters, it's also implied that he created ''[[BigBad the Hiss]]'' (or at least engineered its invasion of the Oldest House) just for the sake of his hero (Jesse) having a villain to fight, suggesting that he might unintentionally be getting close to HeWhoFightsMonsters territory in his desperation to escape his torment.
* GuestFighter: He made a playable appearance outside the RCU as a purchasable skin in ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''.
* HammyVillainSeriousHero: He's become fairly reserved and low key from everything he's seen in the Dark Place and dutifully works to escape in-between his [[SanitySlippage mental breaks.]] In contrast, his enemy and counterpart Mr. Scratch is loud, manic, and a complete sucker for attention.
* HappyEndingOverride: The end of ''American Nightmare'' has him reuniting with Alice and kissing as the sun rises. While the narration notes it may not be real, the truth is left ambiguous. By the time of ''Control'', it is confirmed he never left and has been suffering in the Dark Place for the entire decade since.
* HappilyMarried: He and Alice do fight occasionally, but Alan wouldn't keep looking for her with such determination if they didn't have a good marriage. There are quite a few scenes and flashbacks dedicated to showing just how devoted the two are to each other.
* HairTriggerTemper: He can get very riled up very quickly, which usually culminates in him throwing a haymaker at whoever his anger is directed at. This happens when confronting both Hartman and Mott throughout ''Alan Wake'' and helped establish him as a troublemaking celebrity prior to the games.
* HelpYourselfInTheFuture: Just about every useful item in the game was written into the plot by Alan himself, either directly or through the Lady of the Light. Lampshaded in his internal monologues when noting that flash grenades aren't exactly standard electrician equipment when he finds them in company trucks parked all over the place.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: ''Alan Wake II'' reveals that after his disappearance he was pinned as the murderer of Agent Nightingale, setting the FBI on his trail when he (or rather [[EvilDoppelganger someone with his face]]) resurfaces over a decade after the first game. Rumors also spread of him being the DarkMessiah of the Cult of the Tree.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** He willingly plunges into the Dark Place and begins writing the manuscript within to finish the StableTimeLoop of the story and save his wife by writing an ending where she resurfaces.
** Again in ''II'', as he [[spoiler:learns there is no way for him to escape that wouldn't let Scratch back out, and he allows Saga to shoot him and end Bright Fall's nightmare.]]
* HiddenDepths: In the second game, he proves to be a talented singer when he gets roped into the "Herald of Darkness" song during the fourth chapter of Initiation.
* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: In his first game, he recalls his missing week from getting drunk on the Anderson's moonshine. In ''Control'' we see him suddenly remember his situation with Mr. Scratch after downing a shot with the Doppelganger claiming to be Thomas Zane.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:I-Y]]
* IconicOutfit: His look from the first game, a tweed jacket covering a black hoodie, is both his most enduring look throughout the series, but by far also the most popular. The noticeable shoulder patches gave the outfit a unique quality that endeared it to the fanbase, and they became synonymous with the character, to the point where his appearance in ''This House of Dreams'' leaves him nameless, but describes the elbow patches on his jacket to clue the reader in.
* IcyBlueEyes: He has quite a striking set of pale blue eyes and has a coldly ruthless streak towards his enemies. Otherwise subverted, as he tends to be quite [[HotBlooded temperamental]] and otherwise emotional.
* IdiotBall: Despite him usually being quite perceptive of other's motives, in "Ransom", he automatically trusts Rose despite her having a CreepyMonotone and inexplicably having the lights out in the middle of the day. This gets him drugged and almost late to his meeting with Mott.
* ImpossiblyTackyClothing: It's a RunningGag throughout his journey through Bright Falls that no one can take his jacket with elbow patches seriously. In ''This House of Dreams'', the mention of them is even used as an identifier for the otherwise unnamed Alan.
* IndyPloy: He tends to act without really planning things out, such as his attempts to force Mott to give him Alice back. In the end, he jumps into Cauldron Lake and takes on the Dark Presence with only the hope the Clicker could destroy Barbara and he could work something out from there.
* InkSuitActor: In every game since ''Quantum Break'', Alan has looked physically identical to his model Ilkka Villi. This is in no small part due to the fact Remedy's MediumBlending meaning he has been repeatedly played by Villi in live-action segments.
* TheInsomniac: We never see him willingly going to bed ''once'' throughout the franchise and spend most of the game running around after sunset. To be fair, he does get sedated, knocked out, and other involuntarily put to sleep more then a few times, and after his first game, he doesn't even [[TheNeedless need to sleep.]]
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Strikes up a quick friendship with the elderly Anderson Brothers in ''Alan Wake'', and grows mutually fond of the salty old janitor Ahti throughout the second game.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He has a reputation as a somewhat smug writer with a hair trigger, but he's approachable otherwise and a good man who genuinely loves his wife and cares for his friends and allies. The game essentially serves to make him realize he needs to think bigger than his own issues.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Alan does this throughout the two Special Episodes. Due to the Dark Place being formed from his own memories and psyche, he travels through memories of his life to find and restore his mind to working order, conjuring up flashbacks and a [[ReplacementFlatCharacter one-note perception]] of Barry to assist himself.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia:
** After diving into Cauldron Lake to save Alice, he wakes up a week later in a crashed car with absolutely no memory of what happened. This holds until the end of "The Truth", when the Anderson's moonshine kicks him into a flashback.
** One of the Dark Place's traps is that Alan immediately forgets what he was writing if he loses focus. This causes him to take a brutalist, nothing left to the imagination style of writing to minimize the consequences of him re-writing something without even being aware of it.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Alan has a fairly simple four note leitmotif associated with him, as can be heard [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_l8ZYXrTT0&t=49s here]] at about 49 seconds in to the trailer. It can be heard in all three ''Alan Wake'' games, as well as his SequelHook at the end of the ''AWE'' DLC for ''Control''.
* LightEmUp: Its subtly implied his time with Tom Zane / the Bright Presence may have given him some level of control over light. In the games, aiming Alan's flashlight at a Taken uniquely stuns them and even slightly boosts how quickly their shield is broken. [[LampshadeHanging He comments on it]] in ''American Nightmare'' on how inexplicably to him, his mental desire for the light to burn away the Taken's shields seems to amplify it in reality.
* LiteralSplitPersonality: Is briefly split into two halves of this with Insane Alan during the Special Episodes. In practice, the playable "rational" Alan is no different from the {{Determinator}} from the main game, but is physically separate from the part of himself that wants his suffering to end after the fumes he was running on to save his wife wore off.
* MadeOfIron: He can take an indefinite amount of punishment as long as he has enough time between when he is hit. Being hit by possessed cars, thrown axes, and chainsaw swings will only cause him to stagger for a few moments, and he [[BloodlessCarnage only ever sheds any blood from the opening car crash]].
* MeaningfulName: He's named '''[[PunnyName A. Wake]]''' spends most of the series running around at night and generally not getting enough sleep. He's also one of the few people "awake" to the reality of what's happening in Bright Falls.
* MessianicArchetype: Despite his temperament, he ends up making a great sacrifice to save the people he cares about from the influence of a great, all-consuming evil. His fall and time in the Dark Place is even comparable to a descent into {{Hell}}. In later games starting with ''Quantum Break'', he begins to look more like Christ at a distance as well, with longer hair and a thicker beard.
* MistakenIdentity: The Anderson brothers mistaken Alan for Thomas Zane and identify him as "Tom" well into the sequel. Whether this is because of their age and mental health [[spoiler:or because Alan and Zane greatly resembles each other]] is unknown. Ahti also identifies Alan for Zane though his reason for doing so is unknown.
* MostWritersAreWriters: He's a best-selling novelist and the protagonist of his game series.
* {{Motifs}}: Spirals.
** One of the doors in the Oceanview Motel & Casino in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' has a spiral painted onto it, the ''AWE'' DLC revealing that the door leads to The Dark Place where Alan is having a conversation with Thomas Zane. This same door would reappear in the Valhalla Retirement Home in ''Alan Wake II'' where it is guarded by Ahti [[spoiler:who opens the door for Alan in the climax when he needs to return to the writer's room]].
** In ''Alan Wake II'', he becomes convinced that the Dark Place has trapped him in an endless time loop he can't escape from, only for the end of the game for him to realize that it's not a loop, but a spiral, meaning that he isn't truly trapped, merely experiencing events out of order and that not all hope is lost. It also applies symbolically to his journey throughout the game: in order to escape the Dark Place, he has to dive deeper into its depths (like water circling a drain) in order to write an exit back into the Real World.
---> '''Alan:''' It's not a loop... it's a spiral.
* MrExposition: Throughout ''Control'''s ''AWE'' expansion, his hotline calls serve as narrated explanations of his efforts to escape and how The-Thing-That-Had-Been-Hartman was born, captured, and escaped between games.
* NailEm: One of the first new weapons he totes in ''American Nightmare'' is a fully automatic nail gun. He even poses with it on the game's cover art, though in the game itself it is quickly overshadowed by the stronger, easily unlocked Submachine gun in terms of value.
* NecessaryDrawback: After becoming the RealityWarper in the Dark Place, he could theoretically just write himself the powers of a god and curbstomp the Darkness. Unfortunately, the price of his powers is his requirement to adhere to a reasonable plot: if he summons up a DeusExMachina or leaves any PlotHoles, it will be the exact conduit the Darkness can use to escape from its prison.
* TheNeedless: It's implied that the Dark Presence has intentionally taken away his explicit needs for food, water, and sleep in order to keep him alive and writing as much as possible so that it can eventually escape.
* NervesOfSteel: In spite of all the horrors he's faced in Bright Falls, he manages to mostly keep a cool head, especially after the event of the Special Episodes, where he comes to terms with the insane half of his mind. In ''American Nightmare'', he notes multiple times that he has a hard time getting stressed out anymore, even while fighting with his EvilDoppelganger in a GroundhogDayLoop.
** Subverted in ''Alan Wake II'', where he is noticeably more panicked and confused due to his SanitySlippage and the ever-increasingly [[MindScrew incomprehensible]] nature of the Dark Place.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:He hit a DespairEventHorizon between the first and second game and decided to simply stop writing to lock himself and the Dark Presence in a permanent stalemate. Unfortunately, this allows the Dark Presence to take advantage of him and begin trying to write unimpeded, leading to a new story in its favor being nearly completed before he realized what had happened.]]
* NotSoAboveItAll: After the We Sing portion of ''Alan Wake II'', he admits to Ahti that "Herald of Darkness" is catchy, and his tone of voice suggests he enjoyed himself just a ''little''.
* OhCrap: His reaction after walking up to an (unbeknownst to him) recently Taken Carl Stucky and seeing him rip his axe out of a freshly deceased corpse:
-->'''Alan:''' Oh, hell.
* OldShame: Downplayed, as he expresses he never truly ''hated'' Alex Casey, but relates that half of dozen consecutive books with someone as "dreary" as him as the star began to weigh on Alan, motivating him to [[KilledOffForReal finish the series]] and try something new.
* OneManArmy: He defeats hundreds of Taken people, as well as everything else the Dark Presence throws at him, with nothing but a few sources of light and whatever guns are laying around the area. It's amped up in ''American Nightmare'', where he's a full blown ActionHero with better equipment and more {{Mooks}} thrown at him.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Most of the people who try and antagonize him or use him for their own ends end up meeting a horrible fate. To wit, Mott turns into an EliteMook in a tie in book, Agent Nightingale is dragged off by the Dark Presence, and even Hartman, who [[KarmaHoudini initially escaped his fate]], is arrested by the FBC, has his assets confiscated, becomes TooDumbToLive and dives into Cauldron Lake, and is [[HumiliationConga finally deformed into a complete monstrosity held in the Oldest House.]] He ''really'' hated Hartmann.
* PetTheDog: Even in the confines of the Dark Place, he makes sure to write as many happy endings for his former allies as he can. A secret hotline call in ''Control'' reveals he gave the Anderson brothers a last blaze of rock and roll glory, and he kept Barry successful in the business through making him their agent.
* PermaStubble: In his first game and ''American Nightmare'', he has an unshaven look that accentuates just how tired and desperate he is throughout both games. It's been replaced by a thicker beard after ''Quantum Break''.
* PopCulturedBadass: Has a large repertoire of pop culture knowledge that he draws from, though the [[Creator/StephenKing King of Horror]] tends to be the most often referred to in his monologue.
* ProgressivelyPrettier: His model in the original game is far more stylized compared to a real person and looks quite disheveled. By the time of ''Alan Wake II'', his playable model is now a one-to-one recreation of the attractive and youthful ([[OlderThanHeLooks though not young]]) Creator/IlkkaVilli.
* RealityWarper: Due to the effect's of the Cauldron Lake, his writings begin to enter into the real world. This is magnified to greater levels within the cabin, as he is able to write up entire alternate dimensions for the FBC to interact with. In ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'', a real version of his detective character Alex Casey himself shows up trying to investigate the going-ons of Bright Falls.
* RedBaron: Since ''American Nightmare'', he has gained the title of "Champion of Light" for his efforts to escape the Dark Place and combat his rival, the "Herald of Darkness" Scratch.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Throughout the series, the revolver is by far his most dependable weapon no matter the situation he finds himself in.
** In ''Alan Wake'', while it is the only small arms choice, it gets the most ammo of all his weapons and is always given freely while the shotgun and rifle are often out of the way.
** In ''American Nightmare'', it is now a PunchPackingPistol in comparison to the new base weapon, the 9mm, while anything stronger is AwesomeButImpractical and the faster firing weapons are [[ArbitraryGunPower weaker per shot]].
--->'''Alan:''' ''[picking up a revolver in Night Springs]'' Can't go wrong with a classic!
** In ''Alan Wake II'', it's the only weapon he has for the first few chapters of the game, but it's quite reliable and stronger than Saga's own semiautomatic pistol.
* RobbingTheDead: Gets his hands on his first revolver in ''Alan Wake II'' from the freshly killed Detective Casey after he [[GenreBlind rounds a corner to investigate a mysterious noise by himself.]]
* SameLanguageDub: Due to Creator/IlkkaVilli's natural thick Finnish accent contrasting with him playing a character born and raised in New York, Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines in English.
* SanitySlippage: His decade stuck writing for the Dark Prescence has left him unable to fully tell reality apart from his stories. Both ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' that over the years of his torment, he repeatedly had mental breakdowns that left him raving like a lunatic.
* SealedEvilInADuel: [[spoiler:Unsuccessfully attempts this with the Dark Presence in ''Alan Wake II''. Tired of having to fight to escape the Dark Place, and believing the world is safe, he simply stops writing. Unfortunately, the Dark Presence takes advantage of this and has Scratch write his own manuscript which ends with [[TheBadGuyWins it finally winning]], which Alan realizes he needs to be there to actively subvert.]]
* SecurityBlanket: The "Clicker" acted as this to him, a small button his mom gave him when he was a kid to fight off his fear of the dark. In a flashback he gives it to Alice to serve the same purpose during a blackout, and it ends up being the secret weapon needed to defeat [[HumanoidAbomination Barbara]].
* SelfDeprecation: He plays along well with the jokes Harry Garrett cracks at his expense on his eponymous talk show. When he notes the reputation he developed as quick-tempered, he jokingly notes it isn't the ''only'' thing people know him for: he's written a couple books on top of that.
* SeriesMascot: The first of the Remedy Connected Universe's protagonists and by far the company's most prominently appearing character throughout the franchise. He even appears in [[VideoGame/QuantumBreak cameos not technically a part of the universe]].
* ShabbyHeroesWellDressedVillains: He serves as the shabby hero in ''American Nightmare'', as he's dressed in a casual but worn plaid jacket and jeans, while Mr. Scratch is the well-dressed villain as a quintessential SharpDressedMan.
* SharedDream: The dream he has in the opening of ''Alan Wake'' is revealed in ''[[AllThereInTheManual The Alan Wake Files]]'' to have been both reoccurring, and shared with a real man named Clay Steward.
* ShutUpHannibal: He wordlessly responds to Barbara's last taunts to him by sticking the Clicker in her empty heart cavity. She is immediately destroyed by the light without any further issue.
* SignificantWardrobeShift: A late manuscript page in ''American Nightmare'' reveals the plaid jacket he's wearing to be this between the original game and ''AM''. It was a comfortable outfit he wore during a vacation through Arizona with Alice, and he is reminded of that good memory by wearing the clothes again, giving him extra motivation to persevere in the GroundhogDayLoop.
* SirSwearsALot: Coinciding with the game's age rating being bumped up to a Mature from the previous game's Teen, Alan reacts to most of his misfortunes throughout the second game with a worried or resigned "fuck".
* SkewedPriorities:
** Alan's on his way to meet his wife's kidnapper when he sends Alan a text message. The first thing he takes note of, instead of anything particularly useful Mott tells him in the text, is the multitude of ''spelling errors'' he makes.
** It's confirmed in ''Control'' that over the course of the week he fought the Dark Presence, he went out of his way to search for and [[HundredPercentCompletion collect scattered coffee thermoses]] for an unknown reason.
* StraightManAndWiseGuy: He's the straight man whenever he's travelling with the wisecracking Barry throughout the game. His confused, indignant reaction to Barry inexplicably deciding to lug a cutout of Alan around the forest just to crack wise about it is the most prominent example.
* StepfordSmiler: He exudes a lot of confidence in his decision to end the ''Alex Casey'' franchise when interviewed about it on a late night talk show. It's revealed throughout the series the decision was made in an attempt to force himself out of his boundaries, as he felt a serious case of Imposter Syndrome over his series of cheesy cop books being a hit.
* SuperDrowningSkills: He is completely incapable of swimming in ''Alan Wake'', in regard to both gameplay and cutscenes. He needs to be saved by an outside influence or otherwise instantly dies when he is knocked into Cauldron Lake or its surrounding rivers. Story-wise, this is suggested to be the Dark Presence within the water pulling him in.
* ThisIsGoingToSuck: A common reaction he has to the Taken threats around him, especially if it is part of his internal monologue, is a blasé regard of how dangerous the thing in question is. A bulldozer running the building he's in off a cliff? "This is bad." A combine harvester gunning for him? "YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe".
* TimePassageBeard: By the time of ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' following it, his PermaStubble has grown out into a full beard, hammering home just how long he's been in the Dark Place.
* ThrowTheDogABone: What ''American Nightmare'' is for him in the long term. While he is unable to escape the Dark Presence, he gets to defeat Mr. Scratch for a decade, see his wife is happy and safe, and briefly see himself as happy with her to give him motivation and keep his head straight while he writes to find a way out of the Dark Place.
* TookALevelInBadass: Twofold in ''American Nightmare''. He's much better at working with the plans he's written into being as well as his own instincts. However, he's also altered the genre of the story from Surreal Horror to a surreal form of Action, allowing himself access to bigger and better weaponry (albeit necessary for [[GiantMook bigger threats]]).
* TookALevelInKindness: In ''American Nightmare'', Alan is far more patient with the other survivors than he was during his time in Bright Falls. He notes that, given the sheer insanity of the challenges he faced in the original game and beyond, there's next to nothing that could really get his blood pressure up anymore.
* TheUnSmile: Alan mentions that he has never been capable of smiling in a convincing way. In a taped interview you can watch at his home in a flashback, you can tell his smile is kind of strained.
* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:His fate at the end of ''II'' is rather ambiguous. He is shot in the head in a way that starts up a StableTimeLoop, but spontaneously returns afterward, with his dialogue suggesting there is enough small differences for him to somehow break the loop in a way that saves himself. [[spoiler:With the end of "The Final Draft", it is confirmed the loop eventually alters enough for him to survive the wound.]]
* UnwittingPawn: As the messages from himself that flash on televisions reveal throughout ''Alan Wake'', the events of the game were started by the Dark Presence playing him for its own ends. It tricks him into thinking he can write Alice back to life by making a story that frees it, and it nearly succeeds without Alan subconsciously writing in a loophole for his escape, which throws things out of the Presence's control.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Barry, his manager. They'll always throw a jab or two at each other whenever they talk but if Barry happens to be in danger, he'll drop everything to go after him. The backstory revealed through the manuscript is the two are childhood friends and have been TrueCompanions since their schoolyard days.
-->'''Alan:''' I've known Barry Wheeler ever since we were little boys. I'd get us in trouble, and he'd talk us out of it. Things haven't changed that much now that we're grown-ups. He's the most loyal and dependable person I've ever met -- in all the things that count, anyway.
* WalkingArmory: He is able to carry a small arms weapon, a shotgun or rifle, heavy duty flashlights, flash grenades, flare guns, and dozens of batteries and ammunition for it all. It's a bit hard to believe, especially in ''American Nightmare'', where his thick layers that served to make this somewhat plausible are gone in favor of a light jacket, making the fact he is pulling these weapons out of {{Hammerspace}} especially obvious.
* WalkingSpoiler: His appearances in every game outside his own series makes him this, as he tends to be confirmation they are within the same connected universe, especially in ''Control'' as ''AWE'' as his appearance completely upends the player's interpretation of the entire Hiss crisis.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler:Late in ''Alan Wake II'', he gets the opportunity to escape the Dark Place with no other strings attached as long as he [[EquivalentExchange leaves Saga behind]]. He ultimately chooses to make another sacrifice to make sure the Anderson family isn't torn apart by his actions.]]
* WritersBlock: He is unable for the life of him to start writing his new horror series, contributing to his fears he was a hack writer all along coasting on "cheap thrills". By the end of the first game, he has managed to write the story "Departure" (albeit in a very recursive way) and has been gearing up to write the sequel, ''Return".
* YouCantFightFate: His reasoning for leaping into Cauldron Lake at the end of the first game. Everything else that happened has gone according to the manuscript, and the page kept in the Well-Lit Room describes him doing so. To maintain the story, he must complete it as it has been written and work from beyond its BittersweetEnding.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Insane Alan]]
!!''Alan Wake''
!!!'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MatthewPorretta (voice), Creator/IlkkaVilli (model)
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''VideoGame/AlanWake''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_1_92.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Everything he saw was a twisted memory, a stray thought. Even the evil he faced came from within!"'']]
->''"He knew he could just let go. Succumb to it. A part of him had already done it. It was over, it was finished. He was done!"''
A personification of Alan's desire for death split from him by the Dark Place, and Alan's main opponent through the two Special Episodes.
----
* ArcVillain: The antagonistic force of the two Special Episodes, acting as an agent of the Dark Presence's power in a bid to retake control of the realm completely by making Alan [[LiteralMetaphor literally succumb to his despair]].
* AxCrazy: An insane, screaming lunatic who gleefully rants about how the Taken he sends after Alan will tear him to pieces.
* BossBanter: At the end of The Signal, it repeatedly recites Alan's downfall into insanity and continues to ramble, all while trying to get Alan to quit and give into the Dark Presence.
* CutsceneBoss: Demoted to this in "The Writer", where Alan's rational side simply rejoins his other half and Alan wakes up at Bird Leg Cabin with his drive to escape restored.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of Alan as a {{Determinator}}. He might have saved Alice and stopped the Dark Presence from actively hunting down and Taking people all over Bright Falls, but it's starting to dawn on him that he has no obvious way out of the Dark Place and it might take a while until he either finds or makes one. The realization is essentially tearing him apart at the seams and he's growing more and more desperate, to the point a part of him is now actively seeking to just end it all instead of continuing on any further.
* DetrimentalDetermination: Despite everything, he is still just as much a {{Determinator}} as the rational Alan. Unfortunately, this manifests in a unstoppably single minded desire to end his own life through his writing without considering any other choices.
* DrivenToSuicide: What it ultimately wants. He's the half of Alan's being that doesn't see the point of fighting the Dark Presence and is trying to end it all by killing the half of himself that still wants to keep fighting (the Alan played during the [=DLCs=]), essentially wanting to kill himself and let the Dark Presence end him.
* EnemyWithin: He's Alan's desperation and waning sanity made manifest, trying to force his own mind into surrendering to the Dark Presence.
* EyeMotifs: The flashing screens that show him all love to focus on his dilated eyes as he rambles on and on.
* FinalBoss: Of "The Signal".
* FlunkyBoss: The boss fight against him includes respawning waves of Taken and Poltergeists being summoned so the player will have a hard time dispelling the darkness protecting his [=TVs=].
* GeniusLoci: He's part of Alan's mind and currently the one in control, so he's the one currently dictating how Alan's mindscape should look like, resulting in the DLC's levels looking like horrific, distorted mixtures of the main game's previous locations and elements.
* HeroicBSOD: The living embodiment of one. After setting back the Dark Presence, Alan has been trapped in the Dark Place with no obvious way of making it back out to see Alice and his other friends again, so naturally he's been having a hard time keeping it together. So hard, in fact, that his mind has divided itself into two states, and the insane half is in control during both DLC episodes, his real self still at the cabin writhing and rambling to himself on the floor instead of writing his way out as he was doing beforehand.
* KingMook: Its biggest manifestation at the end of "The Signal" is a huge pile of TV screens that essentially act as one gigantic Poltergeist enemy that must be destroyed piece by piece.
* LargeHam: Given that this is the part of Alan that's going suicidally insane, this is a given. His lines are nearly all delivered screaming or agitated, a far cry from Alan's reserved or annoyed deliveries.
-->'''Alan:''' WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING TO HIM!?
* LiteralSplitPersonality: The part of Alan that is tired of fighting and wants to give in with the story nominally complete, made separate and put in control to try and finish off the rest of Alan still willing to fight.
* OminousTelevision: He appears throughout the DLC episodes in this manner, as flashing images of Alan on television screens placed randomly across the map as he shouts and rambles insanely what's about to happen, all in a futile attempt to lead Alan into killing himself. The boss fight with him at the end of "The Signal" also makes use of this by making it so he's a composite of random junk and old tube [=TVs=] crammed together and shifting around while showing his demented face.
* SplitPersonalityMerge: His final fate. Rational Alan finds him huddled in Bird Leg Cabin and upon touching him takes his place as a reunited single being, at peace with himself and willing to write his way to freedom with a new manuscript.
[[/folder]]
----
->''"It's not a lake. It's an ocean."''
----
'''Alan Wake''' | [[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverseBrightFalls Bright Falls]] | [[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverseFBC Federal Bureau of Control]] | [[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverseParanaturalPhenomena Paranatural Phenomena]] | [[Characters/RemedyConnectedUniverseTheDarkPlace The Dark Place]]]] -]]]
----
!!Alan Wake
!!!'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MatthewPorretta (voice), Creator/IlkkaVilli (model)
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''VideoGame/AlanWake'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWakesAmericanNightmare'' | ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' | ''VideoGame/AlanWakeII''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alan_wake_2_rain.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"My name is Alan Wake. I'm a writer."'']]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Alan Wake Remastered'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alanremake.png[softreturn]''"A story is not a machine that does what you tell it. A story is a beast with a life of its own. You can create it, shape it, but as the story grows, it starts wanting things of its own."'']][[/labelnote]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Control'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_2_22.png[softreturn]''"How can I ever know for sure I've escaped and not just lost in my own fantasy of it? That thought alone can drive you mad."'']][[/labelnote]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Alan Wake's American Nightmare'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/americanalan.jpg[softreturn]''"To change reality, you nudge it into the right direction. Your version of it is there, waiting; it wants to come true. All you need to do is to help it achieve its potential."'']][[/labelnote]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[labelnote:Click here to see him in ''Alan Wake'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alanclassic.jpg[softreturn]''"There's light, and there's darkness. Cause and effect. There's guilt and there's atonement. But the scales always need to balance. Everything has a price."'']][[/labelnote]]
->''"In a horror story, the victim keeps asking "Why?" But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn't be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it's what we'll remember in the end."''
\\
A best-selling novelist who is vacationing with his wife in the small town of Bright Falls while wrestling with a severe case of writer's block. She disappears abruptly, and Alan comes to in a wrecked car in the wilderness, missing a week's time, and searching for clues as to what happened to his wife, all while fighting a dark supernatural force.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:A-H]]
* ActOfTrueLove: He sacrifices his life (with the potential of a FateWorseThanDeath) at the end of the first game by plunging into Cauldron Lake and stopping the Dark Presence. While it is also to save Bright Falls, his first motivation is to save his beloved wife
* ActionSurvivor: He's literally just a novelist who spent a bit of time on the gun range and wears a quite dapper tweed jacket. This is generally shown in his performance in-game; Wake can't run very far without getting tired, he can't take too many hits, and he's not an exceptionally good shot. If the enemy is more than twenty or thirty paces away, he's not likely to hit them, even with a more accurate gun like the hunting rifle.
** ''Videogame/{{Control}}'' indicates that this may be [[InvokedTrope invoked]], as some of the information in the ''AWE'' expansion that Alan was already a Parautilitarian even before he came into contact with the Dark Presence, and that Alan was in turn created by Thomas Zane to be a RealityWarper ActionSurvivor.
* AdaptationalJerkass: In the novelization of the first game, Alan's HairTriggerTemper is played up even further. While being in the serene Bright Falls with his wife cools his temper on the ferry in the game, when he overhears Mott leering at him and Alice he nearly comes to blows over it in the novel. This could be a case of CharacterizationMarchesOn as the sequel establishes that Alan is ''very'' well known for his temper, almost for it as much as his books.
* AesopAmnesia: [[spoiler:In the Special Episodes of the first game, he briefly succumbs to his despair and tries to give up, only to learn to regain the will to escape the Dark Place. The problems of the sequel are caused by him succumbing to his despair and giving up. This is somewhat justified, from a combination of a ''13 year'' process of failure [[HeroicFatigue weighing him down]] and his mind being [[LaserGuidedAmnesia altered]] to make him literally forget.]]
* TheAlcoholic: Due to parties he's thrown for the success of his final Alex Casey novel, he wakes up drunk and goes about taking medicine and putting on glasses as a remedy in a way to make it clear it is far from his first time. He even lets himself get drunk with Barry at the Anderson farm, only briefly trying to reject the drink before succumbing to the temptation.
* AlternateSelf: He has an alternate version of himself in ''Quantum Break'' that mostly followed the life of the "main" Alan, but somehow got a movie about [[ProductionForeshadowing Mr. Scratch and the FBI]] into production following his disappearance. While in-game evidence ties the game to the wider RCU multiverse, due to the [[ScrewedByTheLawyers franchise rights belonging to Microsoft]] they cannot officially place it in the same SharedUniverse.
* AlwaysIntroducesThemselves: The way he introduces himself throughout the franchise is practically his [[CharacterCatchphrase catchphrase]] for how often he says it. He can be heard saying it ''at least'' once in ''Alan Wake'', ''American Nightmare'', ''Control'', and ''Alan Wake II''.
* AmbiguousSituation:
** The exact nature of the [[ChickenAndEggParadox relationship between Thomas Zane and Alan Wake]]. Did Zane write Alan into existence to fix his mistake and defeat The Dark Presence for good? Or did Alan write Zane writing Alan into existence so that he would have a way to defeat the Dark Presence? If trying to figure it out [[MindScrew makes your head hurt]], don't worry, you're not alone.
** In the climax of ''Alan Wake II'', he has a conversation with Saga within her Mind Place in a manner similar to a conversation she had with Odin, something Saga and Odin accomplished because they were both {{Seers}}. With the FBC labeling him a parautilitarian, does he have the same parautility the Anderson Family has, or could they only accomplish that because they were both in the Dark Place? The FBC had labeled him a parautilitarian long before the events of ''Alan Wake II'', so is this what they were talking about? And for that matter, in the ''AWE'' DLC of ''Control'' he wrote down the events Jesse had been experiencing in real time, so did he use the power of Cauldron Lake to write the FBC and everyone in it into reality, or did he learn about the FBC through his visions and merely nudge everything into place as part of a long-term solution in his escape from the Dark Place?
* AmbiguousSyntax: [[SequelHook At the end of]] ''AWE'', he is found manically muttering about "[his] double" coming for him. While this tracks to mean his EvilDoppelganger Mr. Scratch, the imposter Tom Zane also inexplicably looks identical to him, leaving it ambiguous who he is truly so troubled over.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: He seems to be somehow altered after his plunge into the Dark Place. Despite aging normally and otherwise seeming human, he no longer requires sustenance and is able to contact Jesse over the Hotline, which only [[EldritchAbomination paranatural entities]], the dead, and those who have AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence have been shown to be able to do otherwise.
** Beyond that, ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' essentially state that Alan was a parautilitarian even before coming to Bright Falls. It's implied that he has a level of psychic power, which was likely what caused all of his nightmares as a child. And the fact that the fictional Alex Casey is so very similar to the real Alex Casey is heavily implied to be because Alan was unwittingly psychically inspired by the real man to create the fictional one. [[spoiler:This gets used as a loophole to free the real Casey from possession by the Dark Presence at the end of ''AWII''. As Casey wasn't a creation of Alan's but a real person, he should be off limits to the story.]]
* AndIMustScream: The exchange for releasing Alice was that Alan confined himself to the darkness underneath Cauldron Lake so he could write a definitive end for the Dark Presence through a new story. As of ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'', Alan has been in the Dark Place for ''10 years'' with no apparent hope of escape, and not only is his will to escape starting to wane, more mysteries are piling up.
* AnimalMotifs: In ''Alan Wake II'', Alan is associated with owls, specifically the taxidermized owl in the Writer's Room. Owls are nocturnal creatures, and he's trapped in the Dark Place, where it's eternally night.
* AntiHero: His many attempts to escape the Dark Place while keeping to the direction of the horror story puts a lot of indirect blood on his hands in Bright Falls and the FBC. Despite this, he never stops being a good man at heart, never gives in to the Dark Presence's desires, and when push comes to shove, he is just as willing to sacrifice himself as anyone else for the greater good.
** This gets played with in ''II''. [[spoiler:In one cycle, Alan simply chooses to stop writing, as his attempts to escape have caused so much suffering for other people (though incidentally, this actually leads to the beginning of the plot as in this period of time, the Dark Presence comes to Thomas Zane masquerading as Alan and together they write Return, which in its uneditted state is the Dark Presence's ticket to reality). And Saga is ''very'' pissed that Alan writing her into his story to stop the Dark Presence and save him comes at her daughter retroactively being dead for years.]]
* ArbitrarySkepticism: In ''American Nightmare'', he remarks that "Just because I say crazy things doesn't mean I believe everything." when explaining why he doesn't put a lot of credit in [[GranolaGirl Emma]]'s New Age beliefs, despite his own talk of reality alteration, shadow zombie attacks, and time travel.
* ArchEnemy: Mutually establishes this relationship with Mr. Scratch during the events of ''American Nightmare''. While he is theoretically a liaison of the Dark Presence, his plans for Alan are incredibly personal and made specifically to ruin every positive aspect of his life. Alan briefly stopped Scratch in Nightmare, but ''Control'' confirmed him to be still kicking (much to Alan's distress) and even more dangerous, as he has dropped the LaughablyEvil pretenses.
* AuthorAvatar: He has quite a few things in common with the game's writer Sam Lake. Both are established writers of a popular detective series (VideoGame/MaxPayne and [[SelfParody Alex Casey]], respectively) who endeavor to write a departure from the previous works by developing a horror story.
* AuthorAppeal: He seems to have developed a subconscious preference for the heroes of his stories to be [[ActionGirl competent women]] in some form of unique high-ranking position. In order, he's had Sheriff [[TheSheriff Sarah Breaker]], Director [[EmpoweredBadassNormal Jesse Faden]], FBI Profiler [[ActionMom Saga Anderson]], and FBC Agent [[BadassNormal Kiran Estevez]] be among the heroes of the stories he's written for the Dark Presence.
* AutobotsRockOut:
** During a climatic showdown on the Anderson farm, Alan guns down the Taken hordes with the [[FakeBand Old Gods of Asgard]]'s song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-l_kbZbXRQ Children of the Elder God]]" blaring in the background and fireworks roaring through the night.
** As he fights through Mr. Scratch's hordes in ''American Nightmare'', the Old Gods' new pop rock single "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6RKKCQt82Y&list=PLjACqN5i5sDUo3MfGtqogz7P3u5JUm3c- Balance Slays the Demon]]" starts up to give him an additional push to take Mr. Scratch down once and for all.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:"The Final Draft" mode of ''Alan Wake II'' clarifies the status of his UncertainDoom in the base game's ending: His gambit to put an end to the loop works, which allows him to spring back to life a few moments after being shot, the Bullet of Light harmlessly fading away, and leaves him confident to face the future, find Alice, and finally escape the Dark Place.]]
* BadassBookworm: He's a decorated novelist that also turns out to be an abnormally good shot for someone who spent just a bit of time in range practice.
* BadassInANiceSuit: He's ditched both his previous attires in ''Alan Wake II'', now sporting a sharp suit and tie as he fights through the Dark Place's twisted version of New York. The deluxe edition "Celebrity Suit" bonus skin for Alan is the even sharper suit he wore for the premier of ''The Sudden Stop''.
* BatmanGambit: In the ''AWE'' expansion of ''Control'', he is all but confirmed to have sent The-Thing-That-Had-Been-Hartman to the Oldest House in a bid to turn Jesse into a heroine capable of saving him from The Dark Place. Going even further, there's evidence to suggest that he created Jesse, the FBC, and the Hiss invasion as part of this plan: His writings reference aspects of Jesse's backstory that he would have no way of knowing otherwise, and if you look around the Investigations Sector, you can find pages of a Night Springs spec script that he wrote with a plot similar to that of the base game, indicating that he may have adapted this story into his current work.
* BeardOfSorrow: After thirteen years of isolation in the Dark Place, he's grown out a shaggy beard from his {{Permastubble}} to showcase just how far he's mentally fallen into his own psyche.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: He voices a quiet hope early in ''Alan Wake'' that the new environment of a small town would give his mind new ideas for his next novel. By the end of the game, he's made his next book with the town's influence, and has suffered dearly for it.
* BerserkButton: He's very touchy when it comes to his writer's block being prodded on, especially when it comes up during what he thought was just going to be a simple vacation. Alice trying to trick him into writing again causes a heated argument, and Dr. Hartman touching that nerve again later is one of the many reasons for why Alan wants to punch the smug grin off his face.
* BigDamnHeroes: Late in "The Clicker", Sarah and Barry's helicopter has been taken down, so Alan decides specifically to leave the safety of the lit concrete pipe he's traveling in to help. He arrives as Taken are swarming the two. Sarah notes "You sure know how to make an entrance. Barry and I were just about to make like [[BolivianArmyEnding Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]".
* BlingBlingBang: In ''Alan Wake II'', the preorder-exclusive "Ornate Revolver" is available for him to wield. It features a marbled white grip and intricately detailed floral gold patterning down the barrel.
* BondOneLiner:
** In "The Truth", he is told by [[AlmostDeadGuy Walter]] about his friend Danny going crazy and attacking him, only for a Taken to bash into the building they are in and attack. After gunning it down, Alan remarks:
-->'''Alan:''' Let me guess, Danny?
** He also quips "Down boy" after defeating a combine harvester blocking his path midway through his final push through the Taken in "Depature".
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Saga is forced to shoot him in the forehead with the Bullet of Light to end Scratch's invasion of reality in ''Alan Wake II''.]]
* BrokenAce: Outwardly a successful, talented, charming writer who's happily married to a beautiful woman and beloved by the public. On the inside, a deeply insecure man with anger issues and a severe case of writer's block.
* TheCameo:
** In ''Quantum Break'', he shows up early on in an advertisement, narrating for a new story following up the events of Alan Wake as ProductionForeshadowing for his [[VideoGame/AlanWakeII next proper game]]. A Monarch employee also can be seen playing the [[MindScrew real-life Alan Wake game]].
** In the base game of ''Control'', his only appearance is a short cameo from picking up one of his typewritten pages, causing him to appear in an apparition to talk about his situation. His role is expanded from this in the ''AWE'' expansion.
* CarFu: In combination with the strong headlights and the fast speed, Alan has the choice to use any car he comes across as a weapon against the Taken. Even during a cutscene in "The Truth" he runs a few down while fleeing Cauldron Lake Lodge.
* CassandraTruth: Most of the people of Bright Falls are skeptical whenever he tries to reveal the nature of the threat to the town to be shadow monsters coming from the lake. Even his main allies Barry and Sheriff Breaker have a hard time trusting him and only start believing him after seeing the Dark Presence with their own eyes.
* CelebrityIsOverrated: His exasperation at his fanbase and his strong writer's block are the motivation for Alice to bring them to a small, out of the way town in the hope of having a break from it all. Even then, he comes across a radio host clamoring for an interview and a LoonyFan.
* CharacterDevelopment: His standoffish qualities from the first game gradually fade away throughout the series, and he becomes far more grateful toward his allies in ''American Nightmare'' and ''II''. For comparison, he was snarky and blunt to even his best friend in the first game, while he's cracking lighthearted jokes with Tim Breaker by their third proper meeting in the second.
* ClassicalAntiHero: He's felt like a hack writer for a while and his attempts to write in a new genre is to prove to himself he is a good writer even out of his comfort zone. He is also not the best physically, only being able to run for about ten solid seconds before he's doubling over wheezing for just as long.
* CruelToBeKind: He holds Sheriff Breaker at gunpoint and has her gun taken even after they become FireForgedFriends. He does this in her best interest, though, as he wants her to remain in the Well-Lit Room while she wished to go with him when [[HeroicSacrifice he didn't intend to return]].
* DavidVersusGoliath: The David in multiple regards. In a wider sense, he's an [[ActionSurvivor out of his depth writer]] fighting an EldritchAbomination. More specifically, he's also the physically smaller David to the [[GiantMook Assault Taken]] in ''Alan Wake'' and the [[EvilIsBigger Giants]] in ''American Nightmare''.
* DeadArtistsAreBetter: He's not ''dead'' exactly, but it seems that there was a surge of interest in his work after his disappearance, enough for his last published novel, ''The Sudden Stop'', to be adapted into a film. It's also implied that his other books were adapted too, but it's unknown if this was before or after he disappeared.
-->'''Langston:''' ''The Sudden Stop'' hits theaters tonight. I can't believe I'm missing an Alex Casey movie for this.
* DeadpanSnarker: Always has a quip or deadpan remark at the ready, no matter the seriousness of the situation. The majority of these moments are often out of frustration considering his circumstances, as we see when talking with Barry late in "Taken" after Barry previously refused to believe a word Alan said:
-->'''Barry:''' What-- What the hell was that?! I saw it from the window -- I saw -- I saw something!\\
'''Alan:''' [[SarcasmMode Forget about it, Barry, it's just me going crazy.]]
* DemonicPossession: By the time of ''Alan Wake II'', Alan [[spoiler:cannot safely leave the Dark Place because Scratch has gained the ability to do this to him in our dimension, and would escape into reality with him no matter what, with the ability to hijack his body to boot.]]
* DespairSpeech: Has a brief one during one of his cutscenes in ''Control''. He forlornly recalls he once had a plan to escape the Dark Place that it made him forget. Luckily, he recovers quickly, if only out of a desperation to escape before Scratch comes looking for him. [[spoiler:''Alan Wake II'' shows in at least one of his previous loops, he devolves into a lunatic gibbering about the hopelessness of his situation.]]
* {{Determinator}}: One of his most enduring character traits is the fact when he has his mind set on something, '''nothing''' will stop him from getting it done. Fighting through a forest of shadow monsters just to get his wife back, fighting his way out of an endless loop made by a version of him MadeOfEvil, and he will not falter even after a decade of complete isolation in his efforts to remove himself from the Dark Place.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: His rewriting of the Dark Presence to give it a weak spot. He metaphorically [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu broke his arm]] in the process, but was aware that it was going to happen because [[GenreSavvy that's how horror stories work]].
* DiligentHeroSlothfulVillain: Throughout ''American Nightmare'', he is the Diligent hero to Mr. Scratch's Slothful villain. While Scratch is willing to sit around and wait for Alan to die in Night Springs, Alan fights to find a way out without rest and eventually defeats Scratch by piecing together a way to end the [[GroundhogDayLoop looping nightmare]].
* DisappearedDad: It's referenced by numerous sources that Wake grew up never knowing who his father was and was raised alone by his mother. Considering he is suggested to have been written into existence by Zane, he may not have a father to begin with to minimize the amount of people that Zane needed to write into reality.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: In ''Alan Wake II'', it's expressed multiple times that Alan had based his best-selling novels off of visions he had confused for dreams and ideas he came up with himself, implying that he possessed prophetic parautility long before he started experiencing explicit paranatural phenomena in the first game.
* DualWielding: Unconventionally, Alan fights wielding a gun in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Due to the Taken's darkness shields, the light sources are certainly of equal value to the firearms he carries in keeping him alive.
* EnemyMine: He figures out Ben Mott is his wife's alleged kidnapper, but ends up fighting side by side with him against the Taken. It's solely out of necessity to survive and their TeethClenchedTeamwork ends quickly at Alan's fist.
* {{Expy}}: In-Universe, he's one of Thomas Zane. Notably, some characters and/or entities such as the Old Gods of Asgard and Ahti don't seem entirely capable of seeing him as a different person. It's implied Alan is a creation of Zane's, being the linchpin of Zane's backup plan to defeat the Dark Presence. This is further shown in ''Control'', where Alan in turn created Jesse to free him from the Dark Presence as well.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:When the time comes for Saga to shoot him with the Bullet of Light, he accepts his fate with grace, [[BringIt defying Scratch for a final time]], and serenely noting in his narration he simply hopes for the nightmare to end, even if [[TheNothingAfterDeath nothing awaits him.]]]]
* {{Foil}}: The opposite of Mr. Scratch, despite the fact he was made to be Alan's EnemyWithout. Alan is humble, lowkey, and deep down insecure of his talents. Scratch is an over the top egotist who relishes how good he is at killing people, but is insecure in his own way: deep down he knows he's just the negative parts of Alan's reputation, and will [[ThenLetMeBeEvil never truly have the chance to be anything else]].
* FromNobodyToNightmare: From a meager human writer with a crumbling self-esteem to a reality warper whose writings influence multiple planes of reality and who successfully [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Flips Off Cthulhu]] several times.
* GenreSavvy: He's aware that horror stories have a tendency not to end well for the protagonist, and that there can be a lot of casualties along the way. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since he wrote some of them in-universe and needs to keep the tension believable so the Dark Presence won't wrestle control of the narrative away from him.
-->'''Alan:''' No one is safe in a good horror story, certainly not the protagonist. That's what makes them fun. This was anything but.
* GoAmongMadPeople: Halfway through ''Alan Wake'' he is forcibly taken to Cauldron Lake Lodge and [[{{Gaslighting}} gaslighted]] into believing that he is insane. For the brief time he is there, he is obviously the OnlySaneMan among genuinely mentally ill creators.
* GreaterScopeParagon: Implied to be this, as he [[MindScrew might've written]] Jesse Faden, Polaris, and even the FBC itself into existence in order to help him eventually escape The Dark Place. Complicating matters, it's also implied that he created ''[[BigBad the Hiss]]'' (or at least engineered its invasion of the Oldest House) just for the sake of his hero (Jesse) having a villain to fight, suggesting that he might unintentionally be getting close to HeWhoFightsMonsters territory in his desperation to escape his torment.
* GuestFighter: He made a playable appearance outside the RCU as a purchasable skin in ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''.
* HammyVillainSeriousHero: He's become fairly reserved and low key from everything he's seen in the Dark Place and dutifully works to escape in-between his [[SanitySlippage mental breaks.]] In contrast, his enemy and counterpart Mr. Scratch is loud, manic, and a complete sucker for attention.
* HappyEndingOverride: The end of ''American Nightmare'' has him reuniting with Alice and kissing as the sun rises. While the narration notes it may not be real, the truth is left ambiguous. By the time of ''Control'', it is confirmed he never left and has been suffering in the Dark Place for the entire decade since.
* HappilyMarried: He and Alice do fight occasionally, but Alan wouldn't keep looking for her with such determination if they didn't have a good marriage. There are quite a few scenes and flashbacks dedicated to showing just how devoted the two are to each other.
* HairTriggerTemper: He can get very riled up very quickly, which usually culminates in him throwing a haymaker at whoever his anger is directed at. This happens when confronting both Hartman and Mott throughout ''Alan Wake'' and helped establish him as a troublemaking celebrity prior to the games.
* HelpYourselfInTheFuture: Just about every useful item in the game was written into the plot by Alan himself, either directly or through the Lady of the Light. Lampshaded in his internal monologues when noting that flash grenades aren't exactly standard electrician equipment when he finds them in company trucks parked all over the place.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: ''Alan Wake II'' reveals that after his disappearance he was pinned as the murderer of Agent Nightingale, setting the FBI on his trail when he (or rather [[EvilDoppelganger someone with his face]]) resurfaces over a decade after the first game. Rumors also spread of him being the DarkMessiah of the Cult of the Tree.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** He willingly plunges into the Dark Place and begins writing the manuscript within to finish the StableTimeLoop of the story and save his wife by writing an ending where she resurfaces.
** Again in ''II'', as he [[spoiler:learns there is no way for him to escape that wouldn't let Scratch back out, and he allows Saga to shoot him and end Bright Fall's nightmare.]]
* HiddenDepths: In the second game, he proves to be a talented singer when he gets roped into the "Herald of Darkness" song during the fourth chapter of Initiation.
* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: In his first game, he recalls his missing week from getting drunk on the Anderson's moonshine. In ''Control'' we see him suddenly remember his situation with Mr. Scratch after downing a shot with the Doppelganger claiming to be Thomas Zane.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:I-Y]]
* IconicOutfit: His look from the first game, a tweed jacket covering a black hoodie, is both his most enduring look throughout the series, but by far also the most popular. The noticeable shoulder patches gave the outfit a unique quality that endeared it to the fanbase, and they became synonymous with the character, to the point where his appearance in ''This House of Dreams'' leaves him nameless, but describes the elbow patches on his jacket to clue the reader in.
* IcyBlueEyes: He has quite a striking set of pale blue eyes and has a coldly ruthless streak towards his enemies. Otherwise subverted, as he tends to be quite [[HotBlooded temperamental]] and otherwise emotional.
* IdiotBall: Despite him usually being quite perceptive of other's motives, in "Ransom", he automatically trusts Rose despite her having a CreepyMonotone and inexplicably having the lights out in the middle of the day. This gets him drugged and almost late to his meeting with Mott.
* ImpossiblyTackyClothing: It's a RunningGag throughout his journey through Bright Falls that no one can take his jacket with elbow patches seriously. In ''This House of Dreams'', the mention of them is even used as an identifier for the otherwise unnamed Alan.
* IndyPloy: He tends to act without really planning things out, such as his attempts to force Mott to give him Alice back. In the end, he jumps into Cauldron Lake and takes on the Dark Presence with only the hope the Clicker could destroy Barbara and he could work something out from there.
* InkSuitActor: In every game since ''Quantum Break'', Alan has looked physically identical to his model Ilkka Villi. This is in no small part due to the fact Remedy's MediumBlending meaning he has been repeatedly played by Villi in live-action segments.
* TheInsomniac: We never see him willingly going to bed ''once'' throughout the franchise and spend most of the game running around after sunset. To be fair, he does get sedated, knocked out, and other involuntarily put to sleep more then a few times, and after his first game, he doesn't even [[TheNeedless need to sleep.]]
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Strikes up a quick friendship with the elderly Anderson Brothers in ''Alan Wake'', and grows mutually fond of the salty old janitor Ahti throughout the second game.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He has a reputation as a somewhat smug writer with a hair trigger, but he's approachable otherwise and a good man who genuinely loves his wife and cares for his friends and allies. The game essentially serves to make him realize he needs to think bigger than his own issues.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Alan does this throughout the two Special Episodes. Due to the Dark Place being formed from his own memories and psyche, he travels through memories of his life to find and restore his mind to working order, conjuring up flashbacks and a [[ReplacementFlatCharacter one-note perception]] of Barry to assist himself.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia:
** After diving into Cauldron Lake to save Alice, he wakes up a week later in a crashed car with absolutely no memory of what happened. This holds until the end of "The Truth", when the Anderson's moonshine kicks him into a flashback.
** One of the Dark Place's traps is that Alan immediately forgets what he was writing if he loses focus. This causes him to take a brutalist, nothing left to the imagination style of writing to minimize the consequences of him re-writing something without even being aware of it.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Alan has a fairly simple four note leitmotif associated with him, as can be heard [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_l8ZYXrTT0&t=49s here]] at about 49 seconds in to the trailer. It can be heard in all three ''Alan Wake'' games, as well as his SequelHook at the end of the ''AWE'' DLC for ''Control''.
* LightEmUp: Its subtly implied his time with Tom Zane / the Bright Presence may have given him some level of control over light. In the games, aiming Alan's flashlight at a Taken uniquely stuns them and even slightly boosts how quickly their shield is broken. [[LampshadeHanging He comments on it]] in ''American Nightmare'' on how inexplicably to him, his mental desire for the light to burn away the Taken's shields seems to amplify it in reality.
* LiteralSplitPersonality: Is briefly split into two halves of this with Insane Alan during the Special Episodes. In practice, the playable "rational" Alan is no different from the {{Determinator}} from the main game, but is physically separate from the part of himself that wants his suffering to end after the fumes he was running on to save his wife wore off.
* MadeOfIron: He can take an indefinite amount of punishment as long as he has enough time between when he is hit. Being hit by possessed cars, thrown axes, and chainsaw swings will only cause him to stagger for a few moments, and he [[BloodlessCarnage only ever sheds any blood from the opening car crash]].
* MeaningfulName: He's named '''[[PunnyName A. Wake]]''' spends most of the series running around at night and generally not getting enough sleep. He's also one of the few people "awake" to the reality of what's happening in Bright Falls.
* MessianicArchetype: Despite his temperament, he ends up making a great sacrifice to save the people he cares about from the influence of a great, all-consuming evil. His fall and time in the Dark Place is even comparable to a descent into {{Hell}}. In later games starting with ''Quantum Break'', he begins to look more like Christ at a distance as well, with longer hair and a thicker beard.
* MistakenIdentity: The Anderson brothers mistaken Alan for Thomas Zane and identify him as "Tom" well into the sequel. Whether this is because of their age and mental health [[spoiler:or because Alan and Zane greatly resembles each other]] is unknown. Ahti also identifies Alan for Zane though his reason for doing so is unknown.
* MostWritersAreWriters: He's a best-selling novelist and the protagonist of his game series.
* {{Motifs}}: Spirals.
** One of the doors in the Oceanview Motel & Casino in ''VideoGame/{{Control}}'' has a spiral painted onto it, the ''AWE'' DLC revealing that the door leads to The Dark Place where Alan is having a conversation with Thomas Zane. This same door would reappear in the Valhalla Retirement Home in ''Alan Wake II'' where it is guarded by Ahti [[spoiler:who opens the door for Alan in the climax when he needs to return to the writer's room]].
** In ''Alan Wake II'', he becomes convinced that the Dark Place has trapped him in an endless time loop he can't escape from, only for the end of the game for him to realize that it's not a loop, but a spiral, meaning that he isn't truly trapped, merely experiencing events out of order and that not all hope is lost. It also applies symbolically to his journey throughout the game: in order to escape the Dark Place, he has to dive deeper into its depths (like water circling a drain) in order to write an exit back into the Real World.
---> '''Alan:''' It's not a loop... it's a spiral.
* MrExposition: Throughout ''Control'''s ''AWE'' expansion, his hotline calls serve as narrated explanations of his efforts to escape and how The-Thing-That-Had-Been-Hartman was born, captured, and escaped between games.
* NailEm: One of the first new weapons he totes in ''American Nightmare'' is a fully automatic nail gun. He even poses with it on the game's cover art, though in the game itself it is quickly overshadowed by the stronger, easily unlocked Submachine gun in terms of value.
* NecessaryDrawback: After becoming the RealityWarper in the Dark Place, he could theoretically just write himself the powers of a god and curbstomp the Darkness. Unfortunately, the price of his powers is his requirement to adhere to a reasonable plot: if he summons up a DeusExMachina or leaves any PlotHoles, it will be the exact conduit the Darkness can use to escape from its prison.
* TheNeedless: It's implied that the Dark Presence has intentionally taken away his explicit needs for food, water, and sleep in order to keep him alive and writing as much as possible so that it can eventually escape.
* NervesOfSteel: In spite of all the horrors he's faced in Bright Falls, he manages to mostly keep a cool head, especially after the event of the Special Episodes, where he comes to terms with the insane half of his mind. In ''American Nightmare'', he notes multiple times that he has a hard time getting stressed out anymore, even while fighting with his EvilDoppelganger in a GroundhogDayLoop.
** Subverted in ''Alan Wake II'', where he is noticeably more panicked and confused due to his SanitySlippage and the ever-increasingly [[MindScrew incomprehensible]] nature of the Dark Place.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:He hit a DespairEventHorizon between the first and second game and decided to simply stop writing to lock himself and the Dark Presence in a permanent stalemate. Unfortunately, this allows the Dark Presence to take advantage of him and begin trying to write unimpeded, leading to a new story in its favor being nearly completed before he realized what had happened.]]
* NotSoAboveItAll: After the We Sing portion of ''Alan Wake II'', he admits to Ahti that "Herald of Darkness" is catchy, and his tone of voice suggests he enjoyed himself just a ''little''.
* OhCrap: His reaction after walking up to an (unbeknownst to him) recently Taken Carl Stucky and seeing him rip his axe out of a freshly deceased corpse:
-->'''Alan:''' Oh, hell.
* OldShame: Downplayed, as he expresses he never truly ''hated'' Alex Casey, but relates that half of dozen consecutive books with someone as "dreary" as him as the star began to weigh on Alan, motivating him to [[KilledOffForReal finish the series]] and try something new.
* OneManArmy: He defeats hundreds of Taken people, as well as everything else the Dark Presence throws at him, with nothing but a few sources of light and whatever guns are laying around the area. It's amped up in ''American Nightmare'', where he's a full blown ActionHero with better equipment and more {{Mooks}} thrown at him.
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Most of the people who try and antagonize him or use him for their own ends end up meeting a horrible fate. To wit, Mott turns into an EliteMook in a tie in book, Agent Nightingale is dragged off by the Dark Presence, and even Hartman, who [[KarmaHoudini initially escaped his fate]], is arrested by the FBC, has his assets confiscated, becomes TooDumbToLive and dives into Cauldron Lake, and is [[HumiliationConga finally deformed into a complete monstrosity held in the Oldest House.]] He ''really'' hated Hartmann.
* PetTheDog: Even in the confines of the Dark Place, he makes sure to write as many happy endings for his former allies as he can. A secret hotline call in ''Control'' reveals he gave the Anderson brothers a last blaze of rock and roll glory, and he kept Barry successful in the business through making him their agent.
* PermaStubble: In his first game and ''American Nightmare'', he has an unshaven look that accentuates just how tired and desperate he is throughout both games. It's been replaced by a thicker beard after ''Quantum Break''.
* PopCulturedBadass: Has a large repertoire of pop culture knowledge that he draws from, though the [[Creator/StephenKing King of Horror]] tends to be the most often referred to in his monologue.
* ProgressivelyPrettier: His model in the original game is far more stylized compared to a real person and looks quite disheveled. By the time of ''Alan Wake II'', his playable model is now a one-to-one recreation of the attractive and youthful ([[OlderThanHeLooks though not young]]) Creator/IlkkaVilli.
* RealityWarper: Due to the effect's of the Cauldron Lake, his writings begin to enter into the real world. This is magnified to greater levels within the cabin, as he is able to write up entire alternate dimensions for the FBC to interact with. In ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'', a real version of his detective character Alex Casey himself shows up trying to investigate the going-ons of Bright Falls.
* RedBaron: Since ''American Nightmare'', he has gained the title of "Champion of Light" for his efforts to escape the Dark Place and combat his rival, the "Herald of Darkness" Scratch.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: Throughout the series, the revolver is by far his most dependable weapon no matter the situation he finds himself in.
** In ''Alan Wake'', while it is the only small arms choice, it gets the most ammo of all his weapons and is always given freely while the shotgun and rifle are often out of the way.
** In ''American Nightmare'', it is now a PunchPackingPistol in comparison to the new base weapon, the 9mm, while anything stronger is AwesomeButImpractical and the faster firing weapons are [[ArbitraryGunPower weaker per shot]].
--->'''Alan:''' ''[picking up a revolver in Night Springs]'' Can't go wrong with a classic!
** In ''Alan Wake II'', it's the only weapon he has for the first few chapters of the game, but it's quite reliable and stronger than Saga's own semiautomatic pistol.
* RobbingTheDead: Gets his hands on his first revolver in ''Alan Wake II'' from the freshly killed Detective Casey after he [[GenreBlind rounds a corner to investigate a mysterious noise by himself.]]
* SameLanguageDub: Due to Creator/IlkkaVilli's natural thick Finnish accent contrasting with him playing a character born and raised in New York, Creator/MatthewPorretta was brought in to dub his lines in English.
* SanitySlippage: His decade stuck writing for the Dark Prescence has left him unable to fully tell reality apart from his stories. Both ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' that over the years of his torment, he repeatedly had mental breakdowns that left him raving like a lunatic.
* SealedEvilInADuel: [[spoiler:Unsuccessfully attempts this with the Dark Presence in ''Alan Wake II''. Tired of having to fight to escape the Dark Place, and believing the world is safe, he simply stops writing. Unfortunately, the Dark Presence takes advantage of this and has Scratch write his own manuscript which ends with [[TheBadGuyWins it finally winning]], which Alan realizes he needs to be there to actively subvert.]]
* SecurityBlanket: The "Clicker" acted as this to him, a small button his mom gave him when he was a kid to fight off his fear of the dark. In a flashback he gives it to Alice to serve the same purpose during a blackout, and it ends up being the secret weapon needed to defeat [[HumanoidAbomination Barbara]].
* SelfDeprecation: He plays along well with the jokes Harry Garrett cracks at his expense on his eponymous talk show. When he notes the reputation he developed as quick-tempered, he jokingly notes it isn't the ''only'' thing people know him for: he's written a couple books on top of that.
* SeriesMascot: The first of the Remedy Connected Universe's protagonists and by far the company's most prominently appearing character throughout the franchise. He even appears in [[VideoGame/QuantumBreak cameos not technically a part of the universe]].
* ShabbyHeroesWellDressedVillains: He serves as the shabby hero in ''American Nightmare'', as he's dressed in a casual but worn plaid jacket and jeans, while Mr. Scratch is the well-dressed villain as a quintessential SharpDressedMan.
* SharedDream: The dream he has in the opening of ''Alan Wake'' is revealed in ''[[AllThereInTheManual The Alan Wake Files]]'' to have been both reoccurring, and shared with a real man named Clay Steward.
* ShutUpHannibal: He wordlessly responds to Barbara's last taunts to him by sticking the Clicker in her empty heart cavity. She is immediately destroyed by the light without any further issue.
* SignificantWardrobeShift: A late manuscript page in ''American Nightmare'' reveals the plaid jacket he's wearing to be this between the original game and ''AM''. It was a comfortable outfit he wore during a vacation through Arizona with Alice, and he is reminded of that good memory by wearing the clothes again, giving him extra motivation to persevere in the GroundhogDayLoop.
* SirSwearsALot: Coinciding with the game's age rating being bumped up to a Mature from the previous game's Teen, Alan reacts to most of his misfortunes throughout the second game with a worried or resigned "fuck".
* SkewedPriorities:
** Alan's on his way to meet his wife's kidnapper when he sends Alan a text message. The first thing he takes note of, instead of anything particularly useful Mott tells him in the text, is the multitude of ''spelling errors'' he makes.
** It's confirmed in ''Control'' that over the course of the week he fought the Dark Presence, he went out of his way to search for and [[HundredPercentCompletion collect scattered coffee thermoses]] for an unknown reason.
* StraightManAndWiseGuy: He's the straight man whenever he's travelling with the wisecracking Barry throughout the game. His confused, indignant reaction to Barry inexplicably deciding to lug a cutout of Alan around the forest just to crack wise about it is the most prominent example.
* StepfordSmiler: He exudes a lot of confidence in his decision to end the ''Alex Casey'' franchise when interviewed about it on a late night talk show. It's revealed throughout the series the decision was made in an attempt to force himself out of his boundaries, as he felt a serious case of Imposter Syndrome over his series of cheesy cop books being a hit.
* SuperDrowningSkills: He is completely incapable of swimming in ''Alan Wake'', in regard to both gameplay and cutscenes. He needs to be saved by an outside influence or otherwise instantly dies when he is knocked into Cauldron Lake or its surrounding rivers. Story-wise, this is suggested to be the Dark Presence within the water pulling him in.
* ThisIsGoingToSuck: A common reaction he has to the Taken threats around him, especially if it is part of his internal monologue, is a blasé regard of how dangerous the thing in question is. A bulldozer running the building he's in off a cliff? "This is bad." A combine harvester gunning for him? "YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe".
* TimePassageBeard: By the time of ''Control'' and ''Alan Wake II'' following it, his PermaStubble has grown out into a full beard, hammering home just how long he's been in the Dark Place.
* ThrowTheDogABone: What ''American Nightmare'' is for him in the long term. While he is unable to escape the Dark Presence, he gets to defeat Mr. Scratch for a decade, see his wife is happy and safe, and briefly see himself as happy with her to give him motivation and keep his head straight while he writes to find a way out of the Dark Place.
* TookALevelInBadass: Twofold in ''American Nightmare''. He's much better at working with the plans he's written into being as well as his own instincts. However, he's also altered the genre of the story from Surreal Horror to a surreal form of Action, allowing himself access to bigger and better weaponry (albeit necessary for [[GiantMook bigger threats]]).
* TookALevelInKindness: In ''American Nightmare'', Alan is far more patient with the other survivors than he was during his time in Bright Falls. He notes that, given the sheer insanity of the challenges he faced in the original game and beyond, there's next to nothing that could really get his blood pressure up anymore.
* TheUnSmile: Alan mentions that he has never been capable of smiling in a convincing way. In a taped interview you can watch at his home in a flashback, you can tell his smile is kind of strained.
* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:His fate at the end of ''II'' is rather ambiguous. He is shot in the head in a way that starts up a StableTimeLoop, but spontaneously returns afterward, with his dialogue suggesting there is enough small differences for him to somehow break the loop in a way that saves himself. [[spoiler:With the end of "The Final Draft", it is confirmed the loop eventually alters enough for him to survive the wound.]]
* UnwittingPawn: As the messages from himself that flash on televisions reveal throughout ''Alan Wake'', the events of the game were started by the Dark Presence playing him for its own ends. It tricks him into thinking he can write Alice back to life by making a story that frees it, and it nearly succeeds without Alan subconsciously writing in a loophole for his escape, which throws things out of the Presence's control.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Barry, his manager. They'll always throw a jab or two at each other whenever they talk but if Barry happens to be in danger, he'll drop everything to go after him. The backstory revealed through the manuscript is the two are childhood friends and have been TrueCompanions since their schoolyard days.
-->'''Alan:''' I've known Barry Wheeler ever since we were little boys. I'd get us in trouble, and he'd talk us out of it. Things haven't changed that much now that we're grown-ups. He's the most loyal and dependable person I've ever met -- in all the things that count, anyway.
* WalkingArmory: He is able to carry a small arms weapon, a shotgun or rifle, heavy duty flashlights, flash grenades, flare guns, and dozens of batteries and ammunition for it all. It's a bit hard to believe, especially in ''American Nightmare'', where his thick layers that served to make this somewhat plausible are gone in favor of a light jacket, making the fact he is pulling these weapons out of {{Hammerspace}} especially obvious.
* WalkingSpoiler: His appearances in every game outside his own series makes him this, as he tends to be confirmation they are within the same connected universe, especially in ''Control'' as ''AWE'' as his appearance completely upends the player's interpretation of the entire Hiss crisis.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: [[spoiler:Late in ''Alan Wake II'', he gets the opportunity to escape the Dark Place with no other strings attached as long as he [[EquivalentExchange leaves Saga behind]]. He ultimately chooses to make another sacrifice to make sure the Anderson family isn't torn apart by his actions.]]
* WritersBlock: He is unable for the life of him to start writing his new horror series, contributing to his fears he was a hack writer all along coasting on "cheap thrills". By the end of the first game, he has managed to write the story "Departure" (albeit in a very recursive way) and has been gearing up to write the sequel, ''Return".
* YouCantFightFate: His reasoning for leaping into Cauldron Lake at the end of the first game. Everything else that happened has gone according to the manuscript, and the page kept in the Well-Lit Room describes him doing so. To maintain the story, he must complete it as it has been written and work from beyond its BittersweetEnding.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Insane Alan]]
!!''Alan Wake''
!!!'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/MatthewPorretta (voice), Creator/IlkkaVilli (model)
!!!'''Appearances:''' ''VideoGame/AlanWake''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/image_1_92.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Everything he saw was a twisted memory, a stray thought. Even the evil he faced came from within!"'']]
->''"He knew he could just let go. Succumb to it. A part of him had already done it. It was over, it was finished. He was done!"''
A personification of Alan's desire for death split from him by the Dark Place, and Alan's main opponent through the two Special Episodes.
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* ArcVillain: The antagonistic force of the two Special Episodes, acting as an agent of the Dark Presence's power in a bid to retake control of the realm completely by making Alan [[LiteralMetaphor literally succumb to his despair]].
* AxCrazy: An insane, screaming lunatic who gleefully rants about how the Taken he sends after Alan will tear him to pieces.
* BossBanter: At the end of The Signal, it repeatedly recites Alan's downfall into insanity and continues to ramble, all while trying to get Alan to quit and give into the Dark Presence.
* CutsceneBoss: Demoted to this in "The Writer", where Alan's rational side simply rejoins his other half and Alan wakes up at Bird Leg Cabin with his drive to escape restored.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Of Alan as a {{Determinator}}. He might have saved Alice and stopped the Dark Presence from actively hunting down and Taking people all over Bright Falls, but it's starting to dawn on him that he has no obvious way out of the Dark Place and it might take a while until he either finds or makes one. The realization is essentially tearing him apart at the seams and he's growing more and more desperate, to the point a part of him is now actively seeking to just end it all instead of continuing on any further.
* DetrimentalDetermination: Despite everything, he is still just as much a {{Determinator}} as the rational Alan. Unfortunately, this manifests in a unstoppably single minded desire to end his own life through his writing without considering any other choices.
* DrivenToSuicide: What it ultimately wants. He's the half of Alan's being that doesn't see the point of fighting the Dark Presence and is trying to end it all by killing the half of himself that still wants to keep fighting (the Alan played during the [=DLCs=]), essentially wanting to kill himself and let the Dark Presence end him.
* EnemyWithin: He's Alan's desperation and waning sanity made manifest, trying to force his own mind into surrendering to the Dark Presence.
* EyeMotifs: The flashing screens that show him all love to focus on his dilated eyes as he rambles on and on.
* FinalBoss: Of "The Signal".
* FlunkyBoss: The boss fight against him includes respawning waves of Taken and Poltergeists being summoned so the player will have a hard time dispelling the darkness protecting his [=TVs=].
* GeniusLoci: He's part of Alan's mind and currently the one in control, so he's the one currently dictating how Alan's mindscape should look like, resulting in the DLC's levels looking like horrific, distorted mixtures of the main game's previous locations and elements.
* HeroicBSOD: The living embodiment of one. After setting back the Dark Presence, Alan has been trapped in the Dark Place with no obvious way of making it back out to see Alice and his other friends again, so naturally he's been having a hard time keeping it together. So hard, in fact, that his mind has divided itself into two states, and the insane half is in control during both DLC episodes, his real self still at the cabin writhing and rambling to himself on the floor instead of writing his way out as he was doing beforehand.
* KingMook: Its biggest manifestation at the end of "The Signal" is a huge pile of TV screens that essentially act as one gigantic Poltergeist enemy that must be destroyed piece by piece.
* LargeHam: Given that this is the part of Alan that's going suicidally insane, this is a given. His lines are nearly all delivered screaming or agitated, a far cry from Alan's reserved or annoyed deliveries.
-->'''Alan:''' WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING TO HIM!?
* LiteralSplitPersonality: The part of Alan that is tired of fighting and wants to give in with the story nominally complete, made separate and put in control to try and finish off the rest of Alan still willing to fight.
* OminousTelevision: He appears throughout the DLC episodes in this manner, as flashing images of Alan on television screens placed randomly across the map as he shouts and rambles insanely what's about to happen, all in a futile attempt to lead Alan into killing himself. The boss fight with him at the end of "The Signal" also makes use of this by making it so he's a composite of random junk and old tube [=TVs=] crammed together and shifting around while showing his demented face.
* SplitPersonalityMerge: His final fate. Rational Alan finds him huddled in Bird Leg Cabin and upon touching him takes his place as a reunited single being, at peace with himself and willing to write his way to freedom with a new manuscript.
[[/folder]]
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->''"It's not a lake. It's an ocean."''
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