History Characters / RemedyConnectedUniverseTheDarkPlace

* MonsterMisogyny: While Mr. Scratch has no trouble killing men, the majority of his victims seem to be women with a special attention to degrading them like using his powers to make one BrainwashedAndCrazy into loving him. He also stalks Alan's wife, Alice, and makes numerous threats to her to Alan. While fighting Saga, most of his BossBanter is snarling out "You bitch!" as he tries to beat her to death with a steel bar.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: His plans in both ''AN'' and ''II'' revolve around a TimeLoopTrap he either starts or helps to perpetuate to torment his foes while furthering his goals. Both times this backfires on him, with the time loop being turned around and Scratch being just as trapped and the heroes gaining an upper hand because of it.

* KnightOfCerebus: When compared to his LaughablyEvil persona in "American Nightmare", he is this ''in spades'' in "II". Any levity in a scene disappears whenever he's mentioned and once he finally makes a physical appearance, the game becomes a race against time to stop him.

* VillainousBreakdown: Over the course of ''American Nightmare'', his gloating becomes more and more transparently pathetic, as if trying to reassert dominance rather than actually having it, to the point that Alan points it out in the final loop. He really falls apart into full-blown panic when he is about to die, screaming that it was ''his'' life now.

* DiligentHeroSlothfulVillain: {{Sloth}} proves to be his FatalFlaw throughout ''American Nightmare''. While Alan works like hell to find a way out of Night Springs, Mr. Scratch idles and murders random people while letting the Taken do the work in killing Alan. This backfires when Alan succeeds due to his diligence, and Mr. Scratch is (seemingly) destroyed once he finally decides to do something about it himself.
** Inverted in the sequel, where Alan, exhausted by his numerous escape attempts and increasingly wary of the havoc his stories might be wreaking in the real world, decides to give up writing completely and stay sealed under Cauldron Lake along with the Dark Presence. Unfortunately, Scratch takes advantage of this lapse to write an entire novel of his own without any counter-edits from Alan, tilting the balance of power completely in Scratch's favor.

* EvilIsPetty: In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pi1qKifXU8 Super Effective Sales Trailer]], he goes to Remedy's offices, kills people with a sledgehammer, stuffs their bodies in a freezer, and enslaves Sam Lake to write for him. He also steals candy, rides a scooter around in the halls, flips off a picture of Alan, and enslaves a potted plant to write for him.

* LaughablyEvil: Despite all his nastiness, his commentary is actually pretty entertaining. The complete dissonance between his monstrous actions and unrelenting joviality lead to most of his appearances having a gut buster in it, usually ''following'' some form of violence. Averted with a ''vengeance'' in ''II'', which excises his FauxAffablyEvil and LargeHam traits in favor of portraying him as a full-on KnightOfCerebus by way of being an unrelenting force of wrathful malevolence.

* SameCharacterButDifferent: No longer a SharpDressedMan, LaughablyEvil, or FauxAffablyEvil in the second game, as well as a far more calculating and loyal servant of the Dark Presence. Only his egotism and ShadowArchetype traits are maintained from ''American Nightmare''. Though as he is mostly just called "Scratch" in ''2'', minus the "Mr.", there is an implication that Mr. Scratch is something of a different entity than Scratch. Particularly since [[spoiler:Mr. Scratch appears to be able to act separately from Alan, while Scratch appears to be an EnemyWithin, particularly when Alan finally escapes the Dark Place in ''2''.]]

* SatanicArchetype: He's an embodiment of all of Alan's more evil qualities (both real and imagined) who desires nothing more to escape the Hellish realm that spawned him so that he could wreak havoc on the Earthly plane. He's a master manipulator and a corrupting influence, motivated entirely by his own {{Pride}} (a trait typically associated with Lucifer in theology and demonology) and his own petty amusement, partakes in demonic possession, plays god with the power of Cauldron Lake and his ideal world has him worshipped by a humanity robbed of its free will. Even his name is a reference to "Old Scratch", an old nickname for {{Satan}}.

* UnexplainedRecovery: He seemed to have been disintegrated by the movie Alan plays at the end of ''American Nightmare''. Instead, when the ''AWE'' expansion released, it was revealed he somehow recuperated offscreen and continued his work to make Alan's life hell far more seriously while Alan's mind degraded.

** By ''Alan Wake II'', it's clear that his defeat at Night Springs and the following decade has stripped away all pretence of sanity he ever had, spending every moment of his screen time locked in a barely-coherent psychotic rage. It gets even worse towards the end, as he realizes that Alan and Saga have stolen his victory away from him, affixing Saga with a murderous DeathGlare before she shoots him in Alan's body.

* LaughablyEvil: Despite all his nastiness his, commentary is actually pretty entertaining. The complete dissonance between his monstrous actions and unrelenting joviality lead to most of his appearances having a gut buster in it, usually ''following'' some form of violence. Averted with a ''vengeance'' in ''II'', which excises his FauxAffablyEvil and LargeHam traits in favor of portraying him as a full-on KnightOfCerebus by way of being an unrelenting force of wrathful malevolence.

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Unlike the Dark Presence, who interacted with Alan sparingly and was humorless, Mr. Scratch talks to Alan frequently (especially if the player seeks out the TV sets) and has a much more casual and humorous demeanor. Alan also notes that while the Dark Presence [[CreativeSterility wasn't very creative]], Mr. Scratch's Taken are much more aggressive and distinct. However, ''II'' states that Mr. Scratch and the Dark Presence are in fact more or less interchangeable.
** Does this again by contrasting ''himself''. Unlike the cheerful, charismatic psychopath that gleefully taunts Alan through ''American Nightmare'', Scratch in ''II'' is a deadly serious, feral, raging monster, that shows up sparingly and is terrifyingly efficient with getting what he wants. It's heavily implied that Alan's defeat of him in ''American Nightmare'' is what caused this change in behavior.

* TheDreaded: As Alan falls further into madness from being trapped, he begins to grow fearful at the thought of Scratch coming back for him. In ''Alan Wake II'' he sounds downright manic as he talks about his double to Saga.

* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: He treats some of the things he does like they're simply cruel-minded pranks, most prominently with the female fan. He hides in the bathroom and invites Alan to watch like it's a ''Series/{{Jackass}}'' bit as he sneaks up behind her and slits her throat, before laughing like it's the funniest thing in the world.
** A lesser example, but the Dark Place Echo of Casey says this trope basically verbatim when he found out the killer in the hotel who was playing the devil, implied to be Scratch, asked to stay in Room 666.

* LaughablyEvil: Despite all his nastiness his commentary is actually pretty entertaining. The complete dissonance between his monstrous actions and unrelenting joviality lead to most of his appearances having a gut buster in it, usually ''following'' some form of violence.

* {{Expy}}: Of [[Series/TwinPeaks Dale Cooper's]] Doppelganger, the similarly named Mr. C. Both are [[EvilDoppelganger physically identical copies of the protagonist]] with a sadistic streak (especially toward women) who go out of their way to ruin the reputation of their counterpart while they are missing. ''II'''s [[SameCharacterButDifferent reimagining]] of Scratch even has him physically resemble Mr. C on account of his BarbarianLonghair and [[HellbentForLeather leather jacket]].

* {{Expy}}: Of [[Series/TwinPeaks Dale Cooper's]] Doppelganger, the similarly named Mr. C. Both are physically identical copies of the protagonist with a sadistic streak (especially toward women) who go out of their way to ruin the reputation of their counterpart while they are missing.

* BadBadActing: When he shows up in the back of the Poet's Cinema, he is begging very stiffly for Wake not to [[CouldSayItBut go behind him, take the knife there, and use it to sacrifice him to open the way forward.]] Alan even [[LampshadeHanging comments]] on how flat Lake's dialogue is and how contrived the whole situation feels, like a scene's first draft.

* AmbiguouslyBi: He compliments Alan as a "handsome devil" and gushes over Darling's muscular physique, but even with his rewritten backstory, he was apparently still in love with Barbara Jagger. An interview with Ilkka Villi had him comment he distinguished his portrayals of Alan and Tom by having Seine be fluid and unconcerned about everything in contrast to the perpetually stressed Alan, which extended to his view of gender and sexuality.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: His final fate in ''II'', portrayed in the bleakest manner possible. In the final echo Alan finds, he survives his trip to the Poet's Cinema, but comes away with the unnerving revelation that he's merely a fictional character, bound by the conventions of his genre, doomed to only ever find crimes too late to stop them, too bizarre to solve them, and never being able to find any peace as long as there are still more stories about him to be told. He resigns himself to his fate and walks off into the night in search of his next case.

* DarkerAndEdgier: His hammy, LaughablyEvil persona has been completely removed in ''Alan Wake II''. Instead he's a screaming and barely-coherent force that manifests like a hurricane, usually with an appropriate body count. It is suggested he became a far more direct extension of the Dark Presence after his first defeat. There's also the fact that he's been trapped in the Dark Place just as long as Alan has, so he's probably long since lost all patience he may or may not have once had, and is now 100% focused on getting results rather than enjoying himself. He does retain a few aspects of his fomer personality, though, such as getting utterly shitfaced with Tom Zane while brainstorming story ideas, taking Jaakko Koskela's biker jacket for himself after killing him for seemingly no reason other than he thought it looked good, and his ideal version of Bright Falls being a never-ending Deerfest where everyone showers him and his new book with glowing praise.

* DarkerAndEdgier: His hammy, LaughablyEvil persona has been completely removed in ''Alan Wake II''. Instead he's a screaming and barely-coherent force that manifests like a hurricane, usually with an appropriate body count. It is suggested he became a far more direct extension of the Dark Presence after his first defeat.

* CharacterFilibuster: His narration always takes a turn for the verbose, and with dozens of "Echos" of the man to listen to throughout New York, optional and mandatory, Alan will get to hear him talk a lot.

* InspectorJavert: He comes to believe Alan is the leader of the Cult of the Word and for "Scratch" to simply be a synonym, due to the Cult's obsession with Wake's writing and his reputation. He confronts him as such repeatedly in the Dark Place.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: His final fate in ''II'', portrayed in the bleakest manner possible. In the final echo Alan finds, he survives his trip to the Poet's Cinema, but notes he was [[UselessProtagonist unable to change anything or stop the Cult of the Word, and only ever felt like a conduit for someone else's advancements]]. He sets out into the night to look for more crime, noting this cycle of finding things too late to stop them he is stuck in will continue without as long as there are more stories to be told.
-->'''Casey:''' There would always be another case for Casey. A million stories in this dark city. The night opened up to welcome me. I walked into her arms. Roll credits.

[[folder: Sam Lake]]

* SameLanguageDub: He's physically played by Creator/IlkkaVilli just as Alan is, and due to Ilkka's thick accent not matching a native New Yorker, he and his double are dubbed over by actor Creator/MatthewPorretta.

* AmbiguouslyBi: He compliments Alan as a "handsome devil" and gushes over Darling's muscular physique, but even with his rewritten backstory, he was apparently still in love with Barbara Jagger. An interview with Ilkka Villi had him comment he distinguished his portrayals of Alan and Tom by having Seine be fluid and unconcerned about everything in contrast to the perpetually stressed Alan, which extended to his view of gender and sexuality.

* AmbiguouslyEvil: What his true motivations are is wrapped in mystery. He lies to Alan throughout the second game and collaborates with Scratch to write a story that would enslave the world, but also willingly gives Alan the means to defeat Scratch with a final murder site when he comes knocking. He claims Scratch betrayed him and he only wants to get out of the Dark Place, but also seems to try and kill Alan immediately after he says this. He also shows distrust toward the FBC, a group much more definitively trying to help Wake.

* EarlyBirdCameo: A brief flash of his face shows up when Tim vanishes into the Dark Place at the tail end of "Return 1: Invitation", while he isn't properly introduced into the narrative until two episodes later in "Initiation 1: Late Night".

* YouAreNotAlone: Door notes this to Alan in their last meeting. His tone is unusually tense, likely due to Alan trying to always make things as subtle as indirect as possible and not taking proper advantage of the assistance he has.

** The satanic comparison is even lampshaded in ''Alan Wake II'', where Mr. Scratch as a character in ''Initiation'' is written as a DarkMessiah to a MysteryCult who believe him to be [[TheAntichrist the Devil on the Earthly plane]]. He even stays in room 666 for extra irony.