The Clicker | How to Retcon Reality
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- Опубликовано: 19 мар 2024
- The Clicker | How to Retcon Reality
Hello Everyone!
Alan Wake 2 has come and we have a load more to discuss. For the last thirteen years I have questioned if stories told can affect the past. I didn't realize until playing Alan Wake 2 that this detail would be the catalyst to explain so much of the Remedy Connected Universe.
In this video we will go over some of the Meta nature of the narrative. How real people can be turned into characters. The role of Actors in the setting. And of course how the Clicker facilitates permanent alterations to the Canon of the story.
Please feel free to have free discussion in the comments section below.
Enjoy!
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I also feel like this distinction between Actors and Characters is core to understanding the remake of Nightless Night. Tom likely wanted to physically take over Alan's life as a means of escaping the dark place, hence why he played the role of Alan Wake in the film. But what actually matters more is the character itself, not who plays them. So when the film starts to manifest and change reality, the events affect the real Alan and not Tom. Similarly Casey plays the role of the detective in the movie but in the Dark Place, Alan also happens to take over that role from Casey, which could maybe be an explanation of why he gets all those visions of the real Casey throughout those investigations, because that's the story affecting his memories. Plus the movie only lists Casey's role as "The Detective" leaving it vague enough for Alan to slip into it. But of course thanks to the looping (spiraling?), Alan was able to play multiple roles simultaneously, hence why he was able to arrive at the scene of a murder where he was also the murderer and the victim simultaneously.
Or I have no goddamn idea what I'm talking about
Nope, you're good! 👍
It's kind of nuts trying to decipher all of it. Seeing who is an Actor and who is a Person and when they transition back and forth to Characters within the plot. Unraveling this Gordian Knot is my job right now.
The only retcon I do think is legitimately confusing is why Alan and Alice’s apartment looks completely different to how it does in the first game lmao
Alan has already mentioned that he has lost a large part of his memories, so he is not able to clearly remember what his apartment was like, so every time he manages to enter the Parliament Tower, there are small variations.
The interesting thing would be, if reality could be manipulated and Alan couldn't clearly remember his apartment and decided that a forgotten memory was actually the real apartment, would the apartment in the real world, change to fit Alan's bad memory?
it changes with every loop, so it's just his memory being not accurate to reality, it's very common to remember your old home as way bigger and more intricate than it actually was
Repeated Edits in Oblivion. The Dark Place is in Alan, and therefore, affected by what he remembers and Writes.
I didn’t think it looked like… completely different, just looked a lot bigger and stranger, which is probably because of the dark place and psychological stuff
Within the Dark Place it took on the Idea of an Apartment. Kind of like how the Oceanview Motel echoed the look of the Lodge. That hallway of rooms. As Jesse puts it, "Like something remembered from a Dream."
''And mama gave me a magic clicker... Well yes, I think it's true and fair to say''
Great video as always!
In narrative semiotics, the term 'actor' means that someone who has a narrative role (that is called an 'actant') assumes certain characteristics (a 'figurative cover') that identify them within the narrative and help to reinforce its themes. When you mentioned the 'actors' the first thing that came to my mind wasn't the profession, but this narrative role, that goes beyond theatre, movies and such. An actant is a more 'neutral' or faceless subject within the narrative, but when they become actors, they are made concrete.
Love your channel, btw! Your analysis and theories always get me thinking beyond the subjects of the videos!
The Clicker: Reality is whatever I want it to be.
I think, ''Reality is whatever you want me to make it'' suits better
There are still rules to its use
I'd see it also as Reality is what it needs to be out of necessity. If Alan wasn't stuck in the dark place these changes would not have been made.
@@PatGunn I think this is a really interesting point, and something worth exploring. What are the rules? Who codified them? Can they be bent or broken by the Clicker's own power? Could be a really fascinating topic of discussion / analysis. There definitely seem to be rules, and we see some of them play out within AW2.
This was a great appetizer, Dean!
Now I am hungry, though!
Your next video won't come soon enough!
Thank you :D
It's already done and ready to upload in a few days!
@@GamingUniversityUoG nice!
I wanted to give some of this another shot with Actors and Characters, but I've come away with the only option that Actors aren't Actors.
We know from Doors Chapter that he allowed himself to be drawn in. Alan's work draws in real people and enforces them to a role, but they are not separate and distinct entities. As we see later in The Spiral during Game + Odin and Tor need to be there at the end with Saga the second time to make amends with Door and play for Alan. Those events didn't happen in the first play through, but the results of them doing it were there. Alan was at a different part of the spiral. Tor and Odin didn't need to have already been there with Alan, because they were already there in the next spiral. Time isn't linear in the dark place.
Most of them like Casey during the song, appear to be intentionally filling the role just as the Old God's of Asgard do. Casey just appears to be an ally from further along in the spiral. Part of the armies helping Alan.
Your distinction of Actors and Characters imo can more easily be explained via current Spiral mechanics. We are seeing individuals out of sync with each other and forced to conform to Alan.
The disjointed nature of The Dark Place constantly causes these actions to echo throughout causality. No different than Alan speaking to himself over the phone. IMO the spiral doesn't allow for these individuals to be distinct.
Only reason I'm not going that route is we would be forced to presume that every individual we see in the Dark Place will at some point end up there. Casey, the Bookers, Estevez, Emma Sloan, Dr. Meadows, and Serena Valdivia.
I think I could have clarified better. But it is entirely likely that things are borrowed from reality and projected into the Dark Place. Serena for example is explained to be a friend of Alice who helped her after Alan's disappearance. She NEVER went into the Dark Place but here she is at the Drive-in theater during the first Return attempt.
Well, I read a very good theory that the actress that plays Barbara Jagger in Nightless Night is Freya Anderson.
Can you further elaborate? I have seen a couple other people make this comment but I have not gone down to look into the rationale yet.
If you look closely at the Anderson family portrait where Freya holds little Saga on her arms you can see that Freya's face resembles a lot the face of that actress. Zane needed actors and actresses for making Nightless Night, so maybe she’s in the Dark Place too@@GamingUniversityUoG
Take a look at the Andersons family portrait, Freya's face resembles a lot the Barbara Jagger actress in Nightless Night. Zane probably "recruited" her for his movie, and maybe she’s in the Dark Place too.
Great vid as always! Hope you're doing well.
This is an excellent breakdown of how each person is affected by the Dark Place and by the stories created within or around the lake. The dark presence example was spot on, and it cleans up the "are there 2 dark presences?" problem nicely. The same reasoning applies to Tom the Poet and Tom the Filmmaker. Cant wait for your ending analysis, and obligatory🎶 DLC HYPE!🎶
6:23 Doesn't change your point at all and it's a great video! Ed Booker plays the director of the play though.
I was under the impression he was both director and actor. Either way yeah.
All this information about fiction and reality and all I can think about is how the shot in 3:14 looks as real as it can get
I love recording the game with freecam, I have some insane looking shots ready just waiting for the right video to include them
Can't wait to see what all you have saved up for future videos dude!
Brilliant, enlightening essay, perkele!!
Haha thanks!
Have you noticed that the dark place seems to be weaker in aw2? It no longer summons storms sends birds or throws cars and other objects at our characters. Could this be because of alan flipping the switch in Barbara leading to the dark presence being weaker which is why taken are no longer fully shadowed. Also with tor and odin memory and thought was returned to them so Barbara's stealing of them was directly attached to herself and not the formless dark presence.
Frankly I don't look at it as the Dark Presence being weaker. I see it more that this is a different story and the Dark Presence was written a different way. More "What lies under the Mask" Thriller and less "Lovecraftian Entity"
Great analysis!
Thank you!
Great video on the clicker gu!
Thank you dude!
Amazing video Dean, as always, this brings me the question: in what category does Zane fit in all this? Is he an actor playing the filmmaker even though he, as a person, is a poet and therefore would become his former self (this being the poet) if he were to leave the dark place, or has the cliker retconed him into becoming the character and now he is the filmmaker permanently? And more importantly, how did he become a filmmaker? very interesting; keep the video coming!
The interconnectivity of these games hurts my brain, but I LOVE it none the less 😂
I'm starting to question why I decided to pick this series to untangle... damn. Love it but damn haha
Wow, ha-ha, I remember writing on your server about how a fictional character is an actor who plays them, and I'm very glad that my perspective resonates with yours. Thank you for the experience.
You know, I find it an interesting idea that some retcons are the result of a clash of realities. Door mentioned that Alan was opening doors (a metaphor for realities?) and pulled out everything he wanted. He pulled out Saga, who lived in a world where Odin lost the wrong eye in 1988. But Odin also remembers how he cut out the right eye in 1976, which for Odin from 1988 is the wrong one.
I thought Tom could be a version of Tom from another world too, so some don't remember him. Odin likewise remembers how he was a writer and filmmaker.
In Seine's world, Alan Wake and the poet Tom are a dark fictional double, a postmodern take on Thomas the Rhymer.
In Alan's world, he and Zane are a postmodern take on Thomas the Rhymer.
In one reality, a writer writes about a cop, in another reality, this cop is real.
Anyway, thanks for the video!
When you were going through to categories, I couldn't help but think about one exchange between Alan and Ahti, "... and my name is Alan, not Tom." "A man is a man, but a man with a tool makes two, Tom" 🤔🤔🤔 the part about the Dark Presence playing a role in the story especially makes sense if you consider that Alan's gameplay during Alan Wake 2 is the plot of both Initiation and Return, and the narration Alan makes in game is the actual text of the novel he has written. He wrote about himself exploring the dark place through drafts 1 and 2 to meet Zane etc but they are not really drafts of Initiation, they are chapters of the novel. He got out because the dark place represents fiction, and the only way to get into reality with fiction is through a meta narrative. The taken become taken because they remain trapped in their own nightmares and their own fiction, it is also very apparent by the exchanges with the other Saga when she is trapped in her Mind Place. Meta-narratevely NG is the penultimate draft of Return, and NG+ is the final draft, NG's draft didn't work because Alan still believed in his own perceived darkness and the Dark Presence fed off of it and sent him back to the beginning, which coincidentally is the first line Alan says in NG. The final draft worked because he finally found the part of himself he lost, through Alice's love, so he could finally integrate his shadow and vanquish Scratch
Ekkk! Thank goodness you brought the Mandela effect and you're right! But in 2:51 there could be a separate anomaly. A separate individual that can make the events occur.
Great video as always, thanks!
About retcons: did you know that in the Alan Wake Remaster in the flashback from NYC in the episode 2 Alan has a shoebox with Zane's books in the closet? They were not there in the original game.
But I can't figure out what it means for the story. Did Alan knew about Zane all along? Where did he get this box? So confusing.
How I look at Remastered is it may be a retelling of the original game. Not just the shoebox. But the FBC letter in Sarah's office. Reference to the Kalevela Knights outside stuckys gas station. Etc.
Excellent as always! Have you read House of Leaves? Sam Lake has pointed it out as a central source of inspiration for AW. I'm reading it these days and I'm having a blast!
He mentioned it as inspiration for Control, not AW. They are connected so there are overlaps but AW is still more inspired in King and Twin Peaks. However, Jungian Psychology is pretty prevalent in both games.
@@damgful I don't think I agree. First of all, while the first AW had lots of Stephen King atmosphere in it, AW 2 doesn't remind me of Stephen King almost at all. I consider it to be closer to Lynch's filmography (especially Twin Peaks The Return) and Danielweski's novel. There are clear spiritual connections between the book and AW2: 1) Poe (who is the sister of the writer of House of Leaves) wrote alongside Sam Lake the song "This Winding Road", 2) Poe's "Haunted" song (which was released as a companion piece to her brother's novel) was included in the ending credits of chapter 2 in AW1, 3) there is a strong thematic analogy between the two: Poe's Haunted album was meant to serve as the artistic companion piece to her brother's novel - Zane's film "Yoton Yo" is meant to serve as the artistic companion piece to Alan Wake's novel "Return"), 4) Karen Green (the wife of the protagonist of House of Leaves) brings to mind Alice Wake, in terms of their common Darkness phobia, 5) in House of Leaves, there are descriptions of a darkness entity which resemble those ones of Dark Presence in AW.
In conclusion, I think there is a strong connection between Danielewski's novel and AW.
@@user-mr9jw8rh5z You might be right, I just remember Sam mentioning that book in relation to Control only, that's all. And AW2 definitely doesn't have much of King in it, but I was talking about the franchise in general and not just this entry.
@@damgful Understandable. For the sake of the conversation, I would like to mention that there is one more key correlation between House of Leaves and AW2: in the book, the labyrinth maze inside Navidson's house leads to a spiral staircase which descends to darkness - for the record, spiral is the thematic symbol/motif of AW2.
Lastly, it is not necessary for a creator to explicitly name his sources of inspiration in order for us to distinguish them. Sometimes, it only takes careful comparative observation of the analogies and similarities between two separate works of art.
I have read House of Leaves. Actually I plan to include a video on it during the Remedy Book Club series sometime later. I would argue that yes it had influence on Alan Wake as well for sure. Not just Control. I mean Mrs. Navidson working on a documentary about her husband after he went missing into a subjective reality is just Sunshine that Alice made. Lots of other comparisons too. Haunted by Poe being included as an episode end song in AW1. She is Danielewski's sister and the tune is about House of Leaves.
My understanding was every "actor" we see in the dark plsce is simply Alan finding "inspiration," (using telepathy or future sight) to glimpse into a network of possible future's. This is backed up by his convo with Saga at the end of the game as well as the various nods to other cases by Casey or Nigjtengale - they did happen in the current cycle or a prior cycle. I also was under the impression that the dark presence being ejected from the bullet of light was more so a means to explain how alan starts the next segment of the spiral over without Scratch already owning his body.
Is it not implied that even the smallest things we do in the game is a result of the story? We see manuscript pages referencing pretty much everything, and it’s clear in both Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2, even American Nightmare, that we don’t get every single bit of these stories in the pages we collect, we’re only really getting a small bit of the pages for ourselves to read and understand what we need to do or whatever little side info they wanted to put in the game. But I though the whole point of Alan Wake is you’re playing the story that’s already been written. Even Saga follows what’s in the pages despite everyone saying she’s breaking the story or whatever.
Not really. I feel it is kind of the opposite. Anything that is not explicit on page is unaffected. Granted people who are not mentioned on page still have to contend with what's going on around them. Best example is the ones I presented. Ilmo does not know Saga when they first meet. This encounter would otherwise be considered a plot hole but it occurred because up until this point of Return the two characters never met. Therefore the story was not responsible for them meeting like this. Lots of stuff happen in the story that are not intended. A book can't account for every little detail. Like does it control flies swarming around?
Fully down with this breakdown of hierarchy of influence with AWEs. I'm perfectly happy to have misunderstood the story and implication, but is it in fact the case, that the Bullet of Light 'creates' the Dark Presence's Character of Mr. Scratch? I thought that The Dark Presence looms in the Dark Place until Alan reaches a sort of junction and intercepts him, and then invades his mind as we see when Alan finally makes it through the Spiral Door. As Mr. Scratch, the Dark Presence undoes what Alan did, and then works to trick Alan in The Dark Place to stay in a Loop, erasing his memories time and again so he makes no progress, and it's the Bullet of Light that enables Alan to get back on (see?) The Spiral, and a potential for a way out. Did I miss something crucial?
All I'll say is stay tuned until the ending analysis. You'll get some answers then.
Some things should be left to fan speculation, but this is one that needs a definitive explanation in future games. It's just way too confusing and feels like lazy writing if you're not paying very close attention. They made retcons meta, like pretty much everything else, but at some point it is hard to see where the line between planned writing begins, and making stuff up because you feel like it ends.
That's frankly the hardest part to figure out. Thomas Zane is the central issue with that line of thought. I can think of like 4 or 5 different variations of the character. Trying to figure out which one was original drives me nuts.
@@GamingUniversityUoG If it turns out they are making it up as they go along at least we have people like you to make sense of it all, regardless 😅 I would feel highly disappointed since I have been defending this series for its brilliant writing against those who claim it's pretentious and nonsense ever since it got popular with AW2; it would feel like a slap in the face. Maybe the reality is it's a mix of planned and whatever sounds cool given a shift in perspective and inspiration that is inevitable with the passage of time. As long as it makes internal sense, I guess.
In your video about what is the other, it says “Objects of power are holders/665” and 665 is Thomas Zane’s room number as well. Do you think there’s a tie in some how?
I still dont understand why Tom is so different, why scratch is so different even though the echoes in the ocean view hotel hint to a more aw an scratch.
Also what was toms goal? Did he really helped? Why is he more like an scratch even with the same song...?
So many questions. Good video btw
So, Becoming the Fiction the Writer Writes by Overlapping the Fantasy Fiction on the Mundane. So, a Hypersigil.
Could you use the clicker to undo what it has already changed? Or would it only work if it fit the story.
I mean theoretically it can be used to reset reality back to what it was before as long as it is done through a piece of art.
This raises another question for me: Did Thomas Zane write Barbara Jagger into the role of the Scratching Hag? Or was she written into the role by someone else? If it's the latter, I wonder if it was Alan or Mr. Door who did, since they'd be the most likely candidates.
If everything can change nothing matters.
It matters because if things don't go a certain way everything can end for the characters. But more than this method of storytelling invites us to unravel the Gordian Knot of this universe. There is still objective reality before an after the flip of a switch. The writer's don't pretend that what came before no longer exists or does not affect the plot going forward. If anything things that were overwritten are still VERY relevant.
@@GamingUniversityUoG I think I know what you mean. But how can we know they are not just pretending to care? At certain point references stop being meaningful and become aesthetic/fashion to be used for new "better" stories.
CLICK back to reality, ope, there goes sanity...
Oh just you wait. This video is the start of a rabbit hole I'm still going down. I need to see a therapist. Hope you all will be fine once I release the future videos on the research I"m doing.
No matter what, i will always be sad we never got tom as he was. but instead whoever this is.
The Tom we saw before I feel is a Character that Alan put into Departure. The Bright Presence is an Actor who portrays him. This 'Tom' I feel is a dark entity.
Hold up, in the end of this video ug! You gotta know more about a witch!
Man, please tell me the ending music.
It is Departed Souls from the Chrono Cross OST
Maybe Thomas Zane is playing Alan wake?
The Clicker....I'll get Ellie and Joel lol.
Respect and keep up the epic work also.....⏱🗡
Dear no not those things!
How do we know that Mr Scratch was created through the use of bullet of light? :)
I will give more information on that next week when I release my Ending Analysis. But in the Final Draft ending Alan says it explicitly in the final scene.
Hey, we had a small chat on Discord but you didn't respond anymore after a while. Just wanted to ask whats up. Greetings.
FBC happened, probably
Upon reading this, you're being added to the * To be *_redacted_* * list. You have been warned
I finally responded. Sorry dude. I'm generally really busy all the time.
Wether it was saga or jack or will or dr kim or door/hatch or beth
W
Thanks!
METHOD ACTOR. (bwaaaam)
Again, I feel like the community is out of touch. There is no “canon”. There is the “the Dark Place”, there is the WORLD BEHIND THE SCREEN. Written by Sam LAkE/Alan WAkE/Thomas ZAnE, Remedy. Tom was a tool for Sam, Alan is too but he was a tool for Tom, or still is we don’t know.. Sam HIMSELF in a recent interview said that he views the Dark Place as Remedy. What is Remedy? A world of HIS writings and visions, the writer of the first word.
Repeat the word.