Alan Wake Explained - Riverport Blackboard Easter Egg (Analysis)

literature can come in many forms books film and yes even video games while university courses exist to discuss certain movies and books the only one that I'm aware of that discusses a video game can be found in Riverport university after escaping from monarch forces Jack and William Joyce passed through a stutter in the university courtyard before making their way to one lecture hall on the blackboard is a lecture that was being given on the story of Alan Wake professor broke down so many aspects of the story that I wanted to take a deep look at it based upon the information on the blackboard I believe we can piece together what this lecture could have sounded like so grab a seat leave Riverport lecture hall and let's take a University course on Alan Wake in the top left corner of the board the professor discusses a loophole this comes in the form of a shoebox and discusses that anything within it cannot be altered the clicker is also referenced and described as a symbol of safety for a child's fear of the dark before his disappearance and writing himself out of the world Thomas Zane left an insurance policy in case the dark presence ever became a threat again he made it so the shoebox and its contents would not be affected by the powers that ultra-reality within it he placed the clicker and a manuscript page to guide Alan this ended up becoming an object of power that was given to Alan by his mother when he was a child in response to his fear of the dark powered by the belief that it belonged to his lost father Allen could potentially have been the one responsible for turning the clicker into an OOBE we are not done with a shoebox but let's move to another section of border real quick near the bottom the professor underlined a section with the words this house of dreams clues this was a blog that started in February of 2012 when a woman named Samantha Wells purchased an old house with the intention to fix it up while exploring the Attic Samantha came across two shoe box full of old typewritten poems while I will go into further detail of her blog in a later video I will summarize the points relevant to this lecture the shoe box contained excerpts of poems by Thomas Zayn Samantha began to have dreams of an FPC agent with the appearance of a taken this agent demanded that she turn off the shoe box to the bureau in 2019 when director Faden gains access to the research sector one of the offices as a whiteboard that discusses a shoe box this object had been retrieved from the town of ordinary according to her blog the house that Samantha purchased was in ordinary Wisconsin the bureau notes that the town has been in the process of repopulating ever since the 2002 awwe the bureau determines that it is not only Zane's shoe box that is a loophole but any shoe box they test has the same effect it looks like Thomas may have caused more widespread changes when he wrote the loophole into the story than he intended before moving past the connections to this house of dreams there are a few more spots on the river port blackboard that can be tied back to Samantha wills in the right lower corner we see the famous final words from the lost writer it's not a lake it's an ocean below that we see the transition from cauldron Lake to endless depths even though all we perceive is the lake in its depths is an endless ocean next to it are the words endless night as notated this is aligned from William Blake's poem augury of innocence this is the second time remedy makes reference to this poem one of the typewritten pages Samantha found inside the shoe box contain lines that may be recognizable to some these are the final lyrics and balance slays the demon by the old gods of Asgard they describe the madness associated with being trapped inside the dark place this may be why the page has been scribbled out to reflect the eternal night near the bottom Zane Han wrote the lines from William Blake some were born to endless night the full stands of this poem from augury of innocence is every night and every morn sum to misery are born every morn in every night some are born to sweet delight some are born to sweet delight some are born to endless night this can have a few interpretations for its thematic relation to the dark place and Alan's predicament I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the matter moving up to the top right corner we see a brief summary of the hero's journey inside the shoebox Smith uncovers a cover page for manuscript entitled return written on the page is Campbell's monomyth departure initiation and return this is based upon the work of Joseph Campbell who was a professor of literature and worked in the field of comparative mythology and comparative religion in his book the hero with a thousand faces he has isolated the monomyth a single template that is the root of all great stories I will go into further detail on the monomyth in a later video on a side note Campbell's book the hero with a thousand faces was referenced in the songkarn tango when Artie sings that the hero has a thousand faces in a hopeless path the interesting thing to note is that Stage two initiation is underlined with an exclamation mark departure was the story of the first game immediately after regaining his sanity at the conclusion of the writer DLC Allen began his manuscript for turn however it appears he skipped a step before the return the initiation must occur the fact that he made note of initiation may be due to him recognizing a mistake and noting it to himself if there is an initiation manuscript out there I wonder what it is on the blackboard even the professor made note that we don't know what happened during initiation by Alan Wake since we have mentioned Thomas Zane a few times let us continue on this trend one portion contains an excerpt of the poem recited to Allen during the start of the story I have something important to tell you it goes like this or he did not know that beyond the lake he called home lies a deeper darker ocean green where waves are both wilder and more serene to it sports I've been to it sports being there is however a stanza that came before this as discovered by the Samantha frightened of the shadows of the deep he challenged me to a duel I indulged him it was noted that this was to be rewritten based upon the context it appears that this was an exchange between two characters my question is who is the speaker and who is the Challenger this poem also contains references to quantum break with two of the main characters being Beth wilder and Paul serene the next segment relating to the lost poet is the center point of much discussion it poses the question did Thomas Zane create Allen or did Allen great Zane between the writer and the poet who made who real the thinking of the professor is that this is a closed loop that both created one another this aligns with assertions made in my fate versus destiny video that the story of Alan Wake was a collaboration between artists not a single one story the professor relates it to the Burrow Boris the name itself is Greek and means tale eater it shows up in various ancient cultures such as Nordic Vedic and even some indigenous tribes the oldest depiction of the coiled serpent was dated to 1600 BC in Egypt while its meaning has been applied to various concepts in general it represents the cycles of infinities such as death and rebirth I believe the professor intends to state there is no beginning or end between Thomas and Ellen both created one another within that infinite cycle of creation before jumping into the next big topic on the board let's clear up one small section in the bottom right the professor questions the purpose behind the Christmas lights that Barry wheeler wrapped around himself after rating the bright falls general store Christmas is symbolic of the birth of Christ and the birth of the Savior it appears he thinks that this symbolically means the same within the story however who is the Savior Allen or since Barry is the one adorned with this symbolism is it him a larger section over here makes discussion of Allen's Muse his wife Alice when she broached the topic of his writer's block he rejected the call-to-action and ran out leaving her to be taken her disappearance is the crisis that makes him accept the call to action within the heroes journey and begins writing to save her in an outburst of anger Allen effectively banishes her to the depths of the lake and immediately regrets his actions the professor makes an interesting point it is written that Alice can survive without Allen but Ellen cannot survive without her this truly reflects how dependent he is on her radiant light Allen reflects on this in American Nightmare Alice my wife the best thing that ever happened to me she smiles in the darkness lifts without her he would have drowned under the weight of his own darkness long ago she remained his lifelines of all that is good in the world however as seen in her conversation with Eddie Rodman she was able to carry on without him she did not have the same dependency on him but he had for her right above this the professor acknowledges this and notes that Alice is emotionally stronger than Allen in that respect the underlined text here for Alice wake makes note of the wordplay for her and Ellen's name a week this reflects themes of sleep insomnia littered in the story as Alan travels through bright falls as primary collectibles or coffee thermoses intended to keep him up and moving one of Thomas's Eames poems is even called kept from sleep if one remains awake for six or seven days sleep deprivation psychosis sets in this can be characterized by paranoia and hallucinations and the inability to interpret reality if we didn't know any better everything Ellen experiences in the story can be considered the symptoms of sleep deprivation psychosis dr. Hartman attempts to convince Ellen that Alice died in the lake and it triggered a series of mental illnesses in him you're suffering from hallucinations paranoid delusions unusual thinking an obsession about life and darkness there are two possibilities presented to the writer at this point the urban explanation or the supernatural explanation the urban answer is based upon the premise he is insane the supernatural answer is based upon superstition and described as ignorance even on psych drugs Alan never questions this knowing that the supernatural explanation of events is accurate however the professor gives a third option can both answers be true as discussed in the video on Dylan's dreams psychosis is defined as having a disturbance in the subjects thinking or brain's ability to process information the unusual thinking that Ellen is experiencing is based upon reality not fantasy as the saying goes in an insane world the sane man is considered insane the Andersons comment that when the world is crazy it takes a crazy mind to understand it the professor may be alluding to the idea that Allen's psychosis is what is allowing him to understand the supernatural aspects of reality and navigate it safely for Allen Hartmann acts as a threshold guardian as described in the hero's journey within any story every threshold the hero must overcome is blocked by a threshold guardian if Allen accepts the diagnosis he fails to overcome the Guardian and the journey ends the professor puts it perfectly by turning his back on dr. Hartman's diagnosis he accepts the reality of the supernatural and ascends to become the hero from the other perspective he descends deeper into madness this part of the blackboard ends with a line to reach the surface you must first dive deeper this can be seen near the end of the story when Allen dives a deep beneath cauldron lake to enter the dark place the professor makes the parallel to a witch's cauldron with Barbara Jagger being the witch her name comes from Baba Yaga a supernatural being from Eastern European folklore she resides in a cabin in the middle of the woods the hut is said to be standing on chicken legs this is why the cabin on divers Isle is called bird's leg cabin in some early concept designs for the game the cabin was going to stand up on chicken legs and walk around during the day this however never made it into the game cauldron lake represents another threshold in this case both a psychological and literal one it is the gate that leads into the dark place threshold the spiral here should be recognizable to anyone who's played control the professor notes that Alan's spirals into the depths not just the depths of the lake but to descend into the deep waters of the writers unconscious mind I have previously discussed the nature of the dark place and summary it is a threshold of pure creation where Alan's thoughts create the reality around him because of this the reality Alan experiences can be considered a reflection of his unconscious mind as the blackboard suggests up here they mentioned the dark place dark presence dark matter and dark energy dark matter and dark energy constitute over 95% of our universe we're just a speck of light floating in an endless ocean of darkness the metaphor of approximately 5% of the universe existing on an oasis and a nearly infinite expanse of darkness is reflected in the conscious mind the unconscious mind is a vast ocean of emotions memories and archetypes our conscious mind is only a small oasis of reality that we can perceive I will discuss more about dark matter and regular matter in a future video the professor posits the question since the oasis of reality and experiences within the dark place required him to create it who is responsible for creating our world it is after all another oasis within the vast darkness the section ends with the words of the creator and let there be light within the dark place Allen's nemesis is the urban legend about him the serial killer and Herald of darkness misters I mentioned this in the video dedicated to him but the professor as well makes the comparison to old scratch and the old norse word scratch these would be the root of his namesake they described him as a brutal hateful editor who defiles the artists world since Allen descended into the madness of his own psyche when diving into the lake he is no longer fully in control the question is posed when the writer is trapped in the dark place who wears his face this is an interesting concept and can be dissected in multiple ways when a person is overtaken with anger for example that person is no longer in control it is their dark side the so-called shadow of ourselves as Jung would put it descending into the mania of any emotion forces us to relinquish all control of ourselves to the whims of that shadow mystery while being created through the urban legends of the lost writer thematically represents Allen's shadow archetype once he descends into his madness mr. Squatch is what we see looking out from behind Alan's eyes I wonder if he is what Alan would have become if Alice had not kept him in the light the last connection to her is an arrow leading to mr. squirrel that questions if he had murdered her again without her Allen's Lifeline is severed and he potentially would fall into darkness permanently this would mean mr. scratch is in full control in a thematic sense while Alan is lost with that we have covered nearly the entire blackboard there is one small footnote in the bottom left here all throughout quantum break graffiti can be found with this acronym Samantha wills had a dream of a federal agent with a bad showing this and control finally explained that awwe meant altered world events this can be seen down here however there is another phrase that fits this acronym that is Alan Wake experience with a new dlc being named aw II I wonder if it stands for altered world events or Alan Wake experience maybe it refers to both this concludes the lesson given by a nameless professor from Riverport University I hope this has been educational and I'll see you in the next video [Music] [Music]

Channel: Gaming University

Views: 17,250

Keywords: Alan Wake, Remedy Entertainment, Remedy Games, Alan Wake Explained, Gaming University, Gaming University Alan Wake, Alan Wake Ending Explained, remedy, alan wake theory, alan wake analysis, alan wake story explained, alan wake story trailer, Alan Wake Ending, Control Explained, Control Story Explained, Control Spiral Door, AWE DLC, Control AWE Dlc, Alan Wake Blackboard, Quantum Break Alan Wake easter egg, riverport university blackboard, Quantum Break Explained

Id: hehcTwATxSk

Length: 18min 35sec (1115 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 28 2020