History Fridge / AlanWake

* The game is full of symbolism. The Dark vs Light is just another way of saying Chaos vs Order, Subjective vs Objective. The shadows represent uncertainty, like how the dark can twist the things you see at night. Is it a chair or a monster? While the light solidify things. Alan as a writer can move between those two contrasts, giving shapes to chaos.

* The amorphous malevolence which harries Alan throughout the plot with neigh-limitless power to form and control the world he is fighting through, is a [[AuthorAvatar Lake.]]

* Ok, Alan Wake is a writer, so how do they explain how good of a shot he is? He mentions that he's 'never fired a gun outside a range before', so, he's clearly handled guns. Plus, he uses the flashlight as a crosshair, which is the player's crosshair too, besides, he has probably handled a good amount of guns to know how they work in his Alex Casey books. Along with that, people can adapt quickly to their current situation, so Alan's almost improbably aim could be him using his experience and survival instrincts to make sure he doesn't miss. Unless the player misses.

* Some people have complained that Alan isn't a very good horror writer. That's because a)he was mind-controlled when he was writing, and b)he's a crime writer.

*** And afterwards, the [[VideoGame/Control Bureau of Control]] came in and forced people to forget.

** This does add a new angle of fear and sadness in the fights with the "special" Taken. They're not being loud and psychotic because of the Dark Presence itself. They were Taken when fearing for their lives, and [[AndIMustScream fear is now the default expression in their voice.]]

** This does add a new angle of fear and sadness in the fights with the "special" Taken. They're not being loud and psychotic because of the Dark Presence itself. They were Taken when fearing for their lives, and [[AndIMustScream fear is now the default expression in their voice.]]
* Barry was the true hero of American Nightmare. How? He convinced the Anderson brothers to write a new song, Balance Slays the Demon. A new song that tells the story about Alan being Victorious over Mr. Scratch. If they sing it by Cauldron Lake, it comes true, not just describing, but creating the events of the game. He's helping his old friend in the best way he can.

** Alternatively, but basically the same idea, [[spoiler:dying could be explained as Alan giving into the Dark Presence and killing off himself while writing the manuscript, losing all hope for his wife and the end of the Presence. He then scraps the page, having no way to delete characters with a typewriter, meaning checkpoints are just ends of pages in the manuscript.]]
* Odin and Tor [[spoiler: help you escape. Now, back in ''Max Payne'', there were heavy Norse themes and included a character also named Odin (well, Wodan but it's just a different [[SpellMyNameWithAnS transliteration]]) who helps Max out. See also the Take That below.]]
** Also, the manuscript implies that [[spoiler:they know about the Dark Presence and and have fought it before. That would explain why they built that massive stage on their farm as well as why their farm was stocked with enough weapons and supplies to equip a small army.]]

* If you ask [[spoiler:why the Taken don't just take out the transformers so they can assault the power plant, try leading one into the hanging or horizontal wires you've seen.]]

* The messages 'The Darkness controls the taken' as well as 'The Darkness [[spoiler:wears her face]]', among others that explain things like how to kill the taken are spread evenly throughout the game. This is despite the fact that the player has long learned most or all of these things-- many in the tutorial no less. The reason? [[spoiler: Cynthia had no way of knowing where the battle with the darkness would start, so she instead placed the caches and messages ''everywhere''. Overlaps with CrazyPrepared.]]
* Alan's CaptainObvious moments make a lot more sense if you realize that [[spoiler:they're the narration of the book he wrote while trapped in Cauldron Lake.]]

* [[spoiler: A bolt of lightning saves Barry and gets the Anderson's stage running. Now what is [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Thor]] [[ShockAndAwe god of]]?]]

** The Darkness is also only gathering its power. It's at its strongest at the end of the game and [[spoiler: isn't trying to kill Alan for the majority of the game.]] By the time the end of the game occurs, [[spoiler: Alan has already literally written it into a corner.]]

* The Dark Presence's Taken and Poltergeists are vulnerable to light because [[spoiler: Tor and Odin ''wrote'' that they would be vulnerable to light in "[[https://youtu.be/8-l_kbZbXRQ?list=PLjACqN5i5sDUo3MfGtqogz7P3u5JUm3c- Children of the Elder God]]."]]

* A lot of the gameplay contrivances can be explained by AWizardDidIt. How is Alan able to cast magic missile into the darkness, so to speak, with a standard household flashlight? The Light Presence empowered him. Why do flares and batteries have much shorter effective lives than they should? The Dark Presence. Why don't he and Barry [[spoiler:die or suffer any significant effects from injesting a massive dose of sleeping pills? The Light Presence protected them. Why didn't they taste something funny in the first place? Ol' DP.]] And so on.

* Another horrifying realization is that Rusty and the literally hundred or so other people killed over the course of the game did so, [[spoiler:''solely because Alan Wake felt it would make a better story that way.'' He explicitly mentions at one point there needs to be casualties to make the story work.]]
** However, [[spoiler:if the story isn't believable, then the Dark Presence can do whatever it wants with the plot holes and poor writing, and would have free reign to kill and turn everyone]]

** This does add a new angle of fear and sadness in the fights with the "special" Taken. They're not being loud and psychotic because of the Dark Presence itself. They were Taken when fearing for their lives, and [[AndIMustScream fear is now the default expression in their voice.]]

*** I could be here for hours going over it all, but suffice to say, both songs came true. Every word of them. The latter was a sotry of a forgotten past, the former a prophecy.

* ''The Sudden Stop'' opens with the sentence "It's true what they say about the fall and the sudden stop at the end." It's mentioned elsewhere in this article that Alex Casey is an {{Expy}} for VideoGame/MaxPayne, and killing off Alex is Sam Lake's way of considering ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'' a FranchiseZombie. So what the page is saying is "It's not ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'' that'll kill him, it's the sudden stop of ''Max Payne 3''."

* The Taken in ''American Nightmare'' aren't as talkative as they used to be, which is disappointing, since a lot of their lines were [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Crowning Moments Of Funny]]. But when you find the first TV in the game, you find out that Mr. Scratch likes things quiet ([[EvilGloating the sound of his own voice notwithstanding]]), so of course his Taken are pretty much mute.

* Another horrifying realization is that Rusty and the literally hundred or so other people killed over the course of the game did so, [[spoiler: ''solely because Alan Wake felt it would make a better story that way.'' He explicitly mentions at one point there will casualties to make the story work.]]
** However, [[spoiler: if the story isn't believable, then the dark presence can do whatever it wants with the plot holes and poor writing, and would have free reign to kill and turn everyone. ]]

* The game writers did something brilliant, they managed to write in a in-universe, built-in, failsafe against FridgeLogic, HeadScratchers, and idiot tropes. Why does a character do this instead of this much more intelligent thing? Why does the BigBad avoid capturing or killing Alan when it's been shown more than capable of doing so? It's because that's the way the story was written. The game writers can basically write in any contrived situation into the games that they feel like because it will make sense due to this plot point.

* ''The Sudden Stop'' opens with the sentence "It's true what they say about the fall and the sudden stop at the end." It's mentioned elsewhere in this article that Alex Casey is an {{Expy}} for VideoGame/MaxPayne, and killing off Alex is Sam Lake's way of considering ''MaxPayne3'' a FranchiseZombie. So what the page is saying is "It's not ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'' that'll kill him, it's the sudden stop of ''MaxPayne3''."

----->-- Children of the Elder God

----->-- The Poet And The Muse

** That lightning bolt could be the line "Father Thor, bless this war between the dark and light." from Children of the Elder God coming true.

* The Dark Presence's Taken and Poltergeists are vulnerable to light because [[spoiler: Tor and Odin ''wrote'' that they would be vulnerable to light in "Children of the Elder God."]]

* A meta-Fridge, but why Poets of the Fall, a Finnish band, for the sound track? Because despite the fact that Max Payne and Alan Wake are perhaps iconic American games... Remedy (the developers) are actually a Finnish company.

* Thomas Zane's avatar is a man in a space/diving suit. The last song of the game? [[DavidBowie Space Oddity]], a song about an astronaut who is lost to oblivion by a mistake during his mission, named ''Major Tom''. ''Holy crap!''

* The "Quantum Suicide" episode of Night Springs suggests that when you die and reload your save, you're just switching to an alternate universe where you didn't die that that moment.

* ''The Sudden Stop'' opens with the sentence "It's true what they say about the fall and the sudden stop at the end." It's mentioned elsewhere in this article that Alex Casey is an {{Expy}} for VideoGame/MaxPayne, and killing off Alex is Sam Lake's way of considering ''MaxPayne3'' a FranchiseZombie. So what the page is saying is "It's not ''MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'' that'll kill him, it's the sudden stop of ''MaxPayne3''."

* Take a look at the three women in ''American Nightmare''. One is (ostensibly) innocent and naive, believing in all sorts of new age crap. One is sexual, and tries to sleep with Alan after getting MindRape[=d=] and also just raped by Scratch. The last one is is pretty much unfazed by everything that happens, and is quite capable. [[TheThreeFacesOfEve Sound familiar]]?

** This bugged me! Even with the [[spoiler:"Alan wrote it that way"]] explanation, it's still annoying because [[spoiler:they serve NO PURPOSE whatsoever in-game. They don't give him an energy boost or replenish his health, at all.]] That would have been nice, actually, since he can barely run 20 feet without having to have a lie-down.

* Ok, Alan Wake is a writer, so how do they explain how good of a shot he is? He mentions that he's 'never fired a gun outside a range before', so, he's clearly handled guns. But come on, he's practically a perfect shot, what's the explanation? In one flashback, when the power goes out in the Wake's apartment, you can find a trophy on the bookcase next to Alan's set of novels. It's a clear acrylic trophy set with a pair of gold pistols. Clearly, Alan won it at a shooting competition.
** Alternately, Alan could be using the flashlight beam as a makeshift set of crosshairs - [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall just like the player]].
** Alternately, Alan is that good of a shot because ''[[RealityWarper he wrote himself into the story as being that good of a shot]].''
** I'm sure I read somewhere that the trophy is a literary award for one of his 'Alex Casey' books. Nothing to do with marksmanship at all.
** Alan makes a comment about how he'd never fired a gun outside of a shooting range, so he has experience. He wasn't prepared for the noise and light, but adapted quickly.
*** Anyone who bothers to call themselves a writer does research for their story because of the #1 Writer Mantra: WriteWhatYouKnow. Alan wrote a whole series of novels about a detective so he would've extensively researched guns and fighting techniques. Also, since he's from NYC, New York State has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. It's not surprising he never fired one outside a gun range.

* Take a look at the three women in ''American Nightmare''. One is innocent and naive, believing in all sorts of new age crap. One is sexual, and tries to sleep with Alan after getting MindRape[=d=] and also just raped by Scratch. The last one is is pretty much unfazed by everything that happens, and is quite capable. [[TheThreeFacesOfEve Sound familiar]]?