Alan Wake 2 | Origin of the Spiral

it's not a loop it's a spiral these words are left for us to dwell on with the conclusion of Alan Wake 2 something we are meant to chew on and digest just like questions about lakes and oceans were left for us at the conclusion of the first game rather than be a clue on the cosmology of the remedy setting this one feels like a clue on how this narrative will be concluded the sacrifices the horror and confusion how could this story end without either metaphorically or literally ripping the characters apart it comes down to the nature of a spiral a loop is circular every time you finish the cycle it restarts in the exact same place there is no Freedom one circular road to drive around endlessly how however a spiral has motion each cycle brings the individual close to where they started but in a slightly different position something changes each time around the bend philosophically it must be questioned which direction the spiral is spinning is it going downward towards the origin point or is it spinning upward growing like a tree to new places spiral symbolism looks at the Central Point as the seed the origin point the space in which the spiral grows out of whether that be a thought reality itself or the thing that is most important to this discussion a story all narratives begin with an idea then a first draft is made the first cycle around the spiral Upon finishing and reviewing the work a second draft must be made then a third and a fourth each new draft changes some details of the story cutting some things here and adding things there improving some dialogue log adding a bit of poetic symbolism and foreshadowing where it is most suited what we must keep in mind is the author will have a hard time knowing what needs to be tweaked until after the entire first draft is finished the author needs to see what works and what doesn't work where the plot holes are dead plot threads that were never explained did this character need to be there can I remove them entirely or should I write something new to involve them only in retrospect do the edits come into play that is when the True Story begins to show itself Allen wig 2 deals with themes of Storytelling itself the spiral can be interpreted as the symbol of how an idea sprouts and revisions are made each time around begins a new draft of the story more importantly it gets closer and closer to the goal of being finalized being published solidifying itself as the final version of the story the one we will accept as the finished product the game ends right where it began with a bullet of light at Allan's forehead where the third eye should be the first time around Allan did not comment on the nature of loops and spirals only after receiving Alice's secret message does the realization hit him that time is not resetting even though it doesn't feel like it the story is about to begin again but a little different a new draft of return from what I have heard New Game Plus will be more than just a harder version of the game it will literally be the next loop around the story one where a new ending will be told going forward in this spiral is mere speculation at this point though what we do know is where the spiral began if we reverse direction we can follow it down to the point in the center the origin of the Spiral this takes us all the way back to Allan's first documented attempt to write return in Alan wg's American Nightmare even though it may not seem like it American night nightmare contains several of the exact same themes and narrative devices that ended up being in alen wig 2 an author may have an idea for how a story will go at first but each time the plot is revised things change like the spiral growing outward so much of Island wake 2 can be found in American Nightmare let's take these similarities one by one to see how they are the same but also different now kn Springs is in Arizona although not for long it's in Arizona because whatever the town that has become night Springs is really called is located near one of the thin worn places in the world where dreams and reality flow together and life is always a little strange Perfect Analogy for night Springs I can't return to the real world I've tried but I'm operating on dream logic forcing the door open a crack so I can slip through I can enter the strange little town of night Springs all I did was put it in Arizona for one night overlaps were first given a name in alwi 2 however the concept of them is not new the plot of American Nightmare took place in night Springs but Allan confirms in one manuscript page that he cast the town into the Arizona desert at the end of the day what isn't overlap but a place in the center of a v diagram of reality where the dark place in the Ordinary World cross paths each of the overlaps in allenwick 2 exist were dreams and reality overlap the folklore of the witches latle and the well being charged with the memories of the hotar brothers and their crimes if we ignore the name of the TV show these overlaps exist in a place where night Springs up from the dark place linked via strong emotions to the stories about the location Allan first made note of this in 2012 when he cast the town into the Arizona desert only now 11 years later in a different version of return does he give a name to this phenomenon the reality changing influence of the dark place flowed like water flowed like fear flowed down the path of least resistance eroding the weak spots until they cracked in places where reality was more yielding where story told and retold imagination sparked and fear ignited again and again had softened the walls of reality sites of violence and tragedy where truth was laced with fiction where work of art proposed an alternative narrative something people could suspect to be true something people felt strongly about something they feared the stronger the connection between the belief and emotional response the better the darker the better a ghost of a witch ripping a man's heart from his chest two brothers murdering the neighbors and hiding their bodies in a well a young woman haunting the flooded bunker where she drowned bedtime stories folktales urban legends connected to a specific place these were the sites where the overlaps came to [Music] be 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 help it achieve its potential the devil is in the details you change the details of the scene to match those on the page if you get the details right if you achieve that critical mass the shift will come and the the rest of your new reality overrides the existing Paradigm the lie no matter how outrageous is now the truth the primary focus of American nightmares gameplay was centered on two things one of which is the so-called rituals that are performed to nudge reality into new paradigms in the game Allan plays a certain song on the boom box turns on some security lights and opens the flow of the oil pipe in doing so he causes a media right to crash into a satellite and slammed down into the Earth right where the oil DK is located this concept is taken right out of American nightmares version of return and reused in Allen wake 2 except the character responsible is unaware of what she is doing the rituals performed by Saga and Allen wake 2 serve the same function she takes nightingale's heart and places it through the witch's chest before saying a ritual phrase she grabs all the parts of the parade float and places them into the position she read on the manuscript each time she changes the scene to match what is on the page she was nudging the story to become true to shift reality taking part in creating the horror story that she feared would come true witches Ladle towering over Saga watching her and the witch the image of the witch in The Sign nightingale's heart a cold dead lump in her hand her definition of Sanity had changed since she arrived in this town but she trusted the pages was forced to Saga addressed the witch she squinted to read the first part of the ritual words the smudged line on the heart the second part recited from memory the word she had read on the page I brought you the heart which show me the terror Saga pushed the heart through the hole in the sign this was the key the tree was the threshold the Trap Mr has set for me is as simple as it is impossible whenever I reach him he sends me back to the beginning of the maze it's a loop in time I go through it only to end up where I started there's a brutal genius to it if I die it's over for me if I survive I end up where I started sooner or later the odds will catch up with me and in the meantime he gets to toy with me but that's why I have a chance he's caught in this pattern just just as much as I am I know where he'll be and I'm prepared the second focus of American Nightmare is its time Loops Allan travels from the small community of Desert Shore to the Mount red tooth Observatory and finally to the drive-in Cinema each time he confronts Mr to the drive-in Allan is sent back to the point in time when the bird's leg cabin crashed into a pool of water outside of Desert Shore forced to repeat the plot again however this time he has knowledge of what he was supposed to do allowing him to do it faster and allow the story to unfold a little differently the first two times Emma Sloan was killed by the taken but she survives the third time each time Allan comes to the observatory Dr Rachel meadows has a new piece of a transmission she's receiving from the Stars these Transmissions are three parts of a new ritual that will be performed in the projection box at the drive-in theater the atmosphere in the projection booth at the drive-in was charged almost unreal despite that the air felt cool and refreshing this late at night it had been a hot day the summer was nearing its end but it wasn't over yet the film Noir poster reminded me of Alex Casey the detective's cool exterior never cracking even with the gun pointed in his face in the back room all the lights had been turned off except for the lone Spotlight which illuminated the bright red fire extinguisher on the wall I'd found her film from the pile of containers in the back I threaded it into the projector I swallowed hard staring at the screen hearing her voice the sunrise I remembered so well only moments away and then Mr was there nailed by the projector's beam caught in his own trap he shouted at me first in confusion then rage and then the sun came up and things started to burn with only the first fragment to guide the ritual he performs inside the projection box Alan fails the second time he only has two parts of the ritual and fails again but remember this is not a loop it's a spiral the third time he has all three and therefore the ritual is performed in full allowing this version of Mr to be defeated allenwick 2's narrative is structured in similar Loops the end and the beginning connected however it feels as though New Game Plus will be like the next time around with more knowledge the cycle will be different just like it was in American night [Music] M the story of both games focuses on Mr scratch as the primary threat it appears Allan never wavered in that plan however their characterization changed radically in American Nightmare Mr was Suave a charismatic serial killer intelligent and Charming despite his dangerous side I've seen the enemy and it's me I fac dark Horrors before things that live in the unimaginable pressures of the world beyond our own sometimes they mascarade as humans that's what ultimate lurks inside Mr he's every mean-spirited tabloid story about me an evil caricature a creature formed in that vague territory of misconceptions half truths and the dark imagination of people who heard a story about me an urban legend made flesh a serial killer my Dark Half brought to life by the power of cauldron Lake the characterization of Mr in alen wig 2 is very different it feels like he was born from Allen's suppressed desire to escape the dark place after he chose to give up a part of him split and continue to write anyway the idea of having him as the primary threat remains in the new drafts of return his ultimate demise may be facilitated by the same source as well [Music] the ritual in the drive-in theater was performed solely so that Alice's documentary entitled Sunshine could be played I held the film canister in my hands I saw her name written across it in big letters followed by the title it was a time capsule moments snatched from Times Gone by from a past that I hoped could also be our future it was my salvation our Salvation our chance to be together a tin can with a bit of magic in it that she didn't even know about something I could put to good use there were only moments left before I had to face him after hearing all of the stories being told about her missing husband Alice wanted to produce something that showed the world what she saw when thinking of him the Allen Wick that the rest of the world never saw in doing so the urban legend that was Mr was shattered the falsehood could no longer exist in allenwick 2 Alice plays a similar role this time with the two photographs of her reclaiming the clicker and passing it on to Saga on top of this her final message during the credits is what informs Allan of the nature of this spiral that he is not doomed to go through this nightmare on a loop forever that she has been and will continue to play the role of his Guardian Angel guiding him as needed so that A better ending can be achieved in both cases Alice acts as a Lynch pin for the story to resolve itself it becomes apparent as we compare American Nightmare in alen Wick 2 that similar story beats and themes were shared between the two versions of return it feels as though after the first version back in 2012 failed Allan went back to the writing room and built upon the idea what we see in allenwick 2 is only the most recent version and if the whispers are true New Game Plus will be giving us the final version until then it is hard to say how this story ends but we will find out soon enough thank you all for watching if you enjoyed please drop a like And subscribe to receive updates on future uploads if you wouldd like to help support the channel a patreon has been set up and the link is in the description below have a great day and peace be with you [Music] all [Music]

Channel: Gaming University

Views: 38,990

Keywords: Remedy Entertainment, Remedy Games, Gaming University, alan wake 2, remedy, controlremedy, Control Explained, remedy games control, Gaming University Control, alan wake's american nightmare, alan wake gameplay, Alan Wake, Control Remedy, alan wake explained, alan wake 2 theories, gaming university alan wake, alan wake II, alan wake 2 spiral, alan wake 2 ending, alan wakes american nightmare, alan wake 2 story explained, its not a loop its a spiral, origin of the spiral

Id: 688UrZwurqo

Length: 16min 31sec (991 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 22 2023