Little clarification for the 16:00 conversation. The difference, from my understanding, is that Barbara simply drowned and died in the lake. At least if we take the lyrics from 'Poet and the Muse' literally. Tom resurrected her from the dead with a deus ex machina method. Alice was not dead and simply held prisoner. At the end of Departure what essentially happened is he negotiated a prisoner transfer. She is released while he goes into the cell.
Yeah, that's completely right. Barbara drowned and died and Thomas essentially just wrote that she had somehow miraculously survived and came back. But that's poor writing and doesn't explain any how or why, so it left a door open for The Dark Presence to fill. Barbara did survive, in a sense, but she had been taken over by the Dark Presence and that's how she emerged out of the lake. That was the doorway that Zane had left open for the Dark Presence to escape into the world in his hurry. At least how I see it from everything I saw and read.
@@CorporalCookieyeah but the issue is that while the dark presence is in barbara's body it is bound to the same limitations that said body has, which is why zane could easily overpower her physicaly and why it didnt even try to fight back against Alan when it used the clicker on it's body It's also a reason why the dark presence decides to not just kill Alice it learned it's lesson it's more useful to hold the love ones as a hostage than to try and take over their bodies
I didn't take Alan being trapped at the end of AW as him being Punished. I took it as him going "These kinds of stories don't end entirely happily. A great cost to success, and/or threats of a long term danger, because editors LOVE sequel baiting. I have to write some kind of downer ending to the story so I can get the positive outcome I want. The hero falls, but the love interest escapes. Relief for those who made it out, but there's a twist line at the end that potentially makes things Worse in the future." And so he writes a heroic sacrifice, which works, BECAUSE it's a heroic sacrifice. And the lake and/or darkness, whatever it is, accepts this ending because A: That's how horror/thriller stories go, and B: It gets it what it wants... Whatever exactly that may be, but the "It's not a lake, it's an ocean" line helps it grow in power and reach, which is usually pretty useful whatever your end goal may be.
Last comment I swear! So during the Scratch conversation at 1:05:00 I have something to add. One of the manuscripts in this game details more about his origin. The dark place has an entire pantheon of entities that reside within it. The Dark Presence is only one of them. The one we call Mr Scratch is a servant of one of these powers. In the context of the Night Springs episode thet call him The Harbinger. His job is to open the door to reality so others can leak through. That being said. The urban legend of the crazy alan wake affected this harbinger. Morphing it into this serial killer personality. Like the dark presence was morphed into the form of barbara Jagger. So yes the twisted stories of alan shaped him but they did not create him. I'd that makes sense.
I sensed some auto-fiction, more specifically in his flashbacks. There's no way those situations could have happened the way they are depicted..if they even happened at all. This is why I love AW. My jam is survival-horror, but AW really got to me 🙂
As my dad's good friend apparently said after a night of heavy drinking in university: "My tongue feels numb..." The Adult Juice can do funny things to the head, and the mouth is part of the head
*Listening to Chase complain about how the story of Alan trying to escape the dark world.* Chase, it's really easy, The Lake just wants a story that works, one that's Simple and Clean, that's how it wants Alan's story to make it feel tonight, and it's hard for it to let him go otherwise XD.
I love how your friends respond. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when in the Alan Wake episode, one of your friends said that it was mean of Alice to bring Alan's typewriter and hopes something happens to her. Priceless, lol! I'm also glad to hear people question some things that need questioning, or better answers to. I wrote a script for this channel that addresses those things. We had to break it up because it's too long.. It's Alan Wake, so it was kinda to be expected. I hope you keep doing these vids. I love hearing your friends' reactions.
To add to the conversation at 16:00 After Alan jumps into the lake at the start of the game, there is a time lapse to show that the 2 weeks did happen, and no time travel occured, because also Rose and NIghtingale had still been touched by the dark pressence. In addition, ive always believed it worked as a narative because, instead of just bringing her back, like Zane, he sacrificed himself to free her, giving up his freedom for hers
When I was a teenager, I played a series of JRPGs. They were written by a prominent Square developer, and had an anime aesthetic. They featured convoluted lore, VR, time travel, incredibly strong and relatable characters, beautiful moments where everybody cries, and characters coming back from the dead in ways that aren't satisfactorily explained. I'm talking about the Xenosaga trilogy, and not Kingdom Hearts. Just a suggestion for Chase.
It's funny you question Lore Dump iconic moments in the video where you debut the "Trange Portal" 49:35 , which has to be the new most iconic Lore Dump iconic moment
I think the reason Alan's story for saving Alice worked and Thomas Zane's story for saving Barbara didn't was that Zane didn't follow the form of the horror story. The Dark Presence twists stories *into* horror stories and it did that to his. He wrote a story where Barbara came back, the Dark Presence twisted it into one where she came back wrong. A common horror trope and especially one that might take place in the stinger at the end. The protagonist making a sacrificial exchange into suffering at the end *is* acceptable within the context of a horror story though and so Alice was able to go free. Alan is now suffering at his own hand because, well, he wrote it that way.
Listening to this opening about the Dark World and waiting for Aqua to show up. She did a lot of walking in that dark world, I wouldn't be surprised if she ran into Alan Wake, Master of Waking XD.
My two cents on why Alan was able to save Alice but Tom wasn't able to save Barbara - Barbara straight up died and Tom tried to write her back into existence while also not obeying narrative concepts. This brought her back wrong, which is likely why the Dark Presence wears her likeness. Alice, on the other hand, was abducted into the Dark Place and not outright killed, and Alan kept within the narrative rules of the genre he was in by keeping in mind ideas of sacrifice, consequence, stakes and balance. Not everyone in Bright Falls lives through the event and Alan dramatically sacrifices himself to bring Alice back, balancing the narrative scales. Also, I absolutely will NOT back you up, Muse are great and your ears are broken.
I legit feel like Mister Scratch is Thomas Zane. He broke the rules, broke reality. Only those who knew him personally remembered him. He could NEVER escape the lake, so the only way he could get out was by replacing someone else who fell victim to the lake.
Only a little disappointed you didn't mention Mr. Scratch talking about what he'd do to Barry lol. An interesting note about Serena is that she's actually one of Alice's friends and the one who convinced her to make the film. Alan promises to help her deal with the trauma of being touched by the darkness once they're both out of the loop. Each time you loop around the ladies take care of more stuff ahead of time so you don't have to deal with it. By the final loop Emma just does literally everything before you arrive so you just waltz in and blow the oil pump to hell instantly. Samantha is actually explicitly referenced in Control, her name appears on a whiteboard along with other info about Ordinary. Also there actually isn't a single Muse song in American Nightmare. It's just Ed Harcourt, Kasabian and Poets of the Fall.
About the falling satellite into a oil well in American Nightmare, I think is symbolism of the Morning Star (Lucifer, Scratch) crashing into the ground. It is also a reference to Twin Peaks and the Lodge.
Had to be a Muse Defender on here. Deff not my favorite band, with my taste in music ranging from Prog Rock to Indie Pop and weird experimental music. But there tracks have found their way to my like list, so they can't be the WORST... Thanks again for the video, so excited for 2023 Lore Dump!
I absolutely feel Chase is giving the same energy as Monty and Neil had in the early KH episodes in these videos. And I absolutely agree about the get fucked comment Neil, I literally tried to sell a friend on the KH2 video the other day by saying that was the best moment of the episode. Your reaction was perfect.
So excited for the Quantum Break episode, I feel like there's gonna be some Anger The Muse anger was very funny to me - Monty's not wrong that they definitely have a Sound and they have one good album (with a couple of good songs scattered to the winds elsewhere)
So excited to hear someone who is equally excited and invested in the universe that Remedy created with Alan Wake and Control, super excited for the next videos and your thoughts on them. These videos are also a great help for remembering certain beats for the games I might have forgotten and contribute to the excitement I have for Alan Wake 2 and Control 2. As a huge fan of the lore just to inform you in the control art book, it is revealed that Alan could only nudge things in the right direction and to add on to this in AW Remastered there are new OR codes that feature videos similar to the ones from control, in one of them Alan expresses that messages and images from outside of the Dark Place come to him and help him inform his writing. I think Zane too had this happen to him and that's how he was able to write about Alan and this is what caused Alan to write about Jesse, there is a bit more to this but I'll save it for next time. Hopefully this helped. It's good to know that there other people like me that just are equally excited and always theorizing about this universe cannot wait for the next videos haven't played Quantum Break but might just play it now in anticipation of your next video. Don't know if your are on the Alan Wake or Control subreddits because I feel like it's a good place for interesting discussion and theorizing.
This was great, I love Alan Wake but I didn't know all that extra content. I'm all onboard if you ever want to start creating videos summarizing and theorizing about videogames stories by the way, I think you have what it takes to get in there properly.
Y'all talk about Telltale Games, and I wondered, considering the fun, choose-your-own-adventure style of how y'all do the Quantum Break episode, if doing Lore Dumps on Telltale games would be any good. I eventually realized that all it was is just me wanting people to talk about The Wolf Among Us more 😂
Personally, I love me some Telltale and would really like to talk about it but the sheer number of decisions possible in most of the games makes it difficult to turn into an episode. The script would be like a novel! Quantum Break has like 3 decisions and I know Monty had to write way longer for that. Maybe one day, if we have more time! - Neil
Fantastic episode! My only disappointment is that you didn't mention how Sarah Breaker's cutout in Special 1 makes it very clear that the Bright Falls secret society is a callback to the Bookhouse Boys of Twin Peaks. But yes: SO much depth to Remedy's world building, here - quite a bit more than I knew, even though I've been a fan of the franchise since the original Alan Wake game came out! Looking forward to your episodes on Quantum Break and Control!
I wonder if there is really some secret society or it's just the FBC, we do know for a fact that Sarah's father is a retired FBC agent and the remaster has references to the FBC in Sarah's office
@@carso1500 The FBC monitored the place, but the townspeople in the know, at the least from the point of frank retiring and returning to bright falls, would formally form their own group to resist the dark presence.
It's been a while since I've played American Nightmare, but I liked the looped female characters (although I admit I can't remember their names). The way they were possessed by the setting was genuinely unnerving, and it was very satisfying to finally save the mechanic's life. It also felt nice to save the possessed woman from the Darkness, even when I didn't have to. I especially liked how all three react to the loop, adjust accordingly. It prevented them from becoming repetitive.
1st and foremost. Monty. Muse is a good band. its fair criticism to say that they have a "Sound" and a lot of their songs sound samey, but i dont think that makes them a bad band, especially when all the members of the band are technically sound on their respective instruments. With that being said. I am fully immersed in the Remedy-Verse now thanks to this podcast. Im thankful to you guys for that, because as a game, Alan Wake never really grabbed me. Just due to the nature of the gameplay. But I was always interested in the story whenever my friend who loved them would tell me about them. Now thanks to this I can be fully immersed in the Lore that always seemed so interesting to me. I think this podcast is special for that. It has the ability to bring new fans in, and give old fans a refresh of lore they may have missed or forgotten. Or give people who maybe interested in the game/story but not a fan of the gameplay a chance to learn what makes these games so special to so many people. But what really makes it special is you three. When Neil said he didn’t understand how you all became big enough to have had Iconic Moments I was shocked as many moments from this show have become part of my and several friends everyday Lexicon. “Get Fucked” at the end of day Six in the KH2 Episode is used now anytime someone tells me something surprising, “Snort The Nort” should almost be a tagline for this show and my friends and I will use it to try and convince someone to give something a try, The Adult Juice phrase gets tossed around many a Friday night now. And the Pure emotion and friendship that seeps through every episode because of you three is palpable. The eruption of cheers to Roxas Return, The Switch from Joking to Invested from Chase and Neil in Alan Wake. And so so many more. You all have something special here and I cant wait to see this channel and Monty’s Original Channel (seriously if you haven’t seen any of his critiques you’re doing yourself a disservice) grow to even higher heights than already seen (100k by 2024 Monty calling it now.)Keep up the Incredible work you three. Keep going on tangents and knocking back a few adult juices in the process. See you again in the next Video
@@MontyZander I’m no muse Stan by any means but I can’t say they are bad. They’re all great musicians and put on a great live show. And you put on a great show too! Been highly anticipating your Arkham city critique, loved how you weaved a serious house on serious earth into it as that was one of my favorite Graphic Novels. And after the lore dumps I’m surprised there hasn’t been a Kingdom Hearts Noobus Humanus just to see how the Noobus takes to the series vs your own experiences with the series now. Regardless you make great, well thought, technically sound content….and so does muse
1:25:54 With American Nightmare, I think that Alan was using it as a dumb fun type of pallet cleanser for his creativity, just something humorous for himself to keep his spirits up, like a cheezy B-movie
I wonder how the hell you'll do Alan Wake 2 lol i also need to mention that "this house of dreams" WAS referenced in control; it's written on a whiteboard in the research sector about their studies on the shoebox
I'm so happy I've binged this and caught up. Alan Wake was arguably my awakening into really charming and heavy narrative games and it awoke a love for cheese that remedy are great at. I'm so hyped for the control lore dump!!!
Check out the Dev Diary 3 for American Nightmare. There’s a janitor in the background! I think it’s supposed to be Ahti and they were planning control from waaaaaay back then
Barbara drowned and died and tom basically wrote "no she didnt" to bring her back but as the story wasnt structured the dark precense could manipulate the loose threads like "no she didnt, her body returned but her soul was lost". Whereas when alan wrote his end he made the point to take her place to keep balance. I kinda think tom made mr scratch as a possible means of escape to keep balance but i guess mr scratches existence is too loose to utilise effectively in this manner hence why mr scratch is now a problem too.
Oh, you lads are ABSOLUTELY iconic. For this little group of supporters anyway. God, I can only imagine the regularity with which a “Get Fucked” emote would be used in the hypothetical Lore Dump discord server that exists in my brain, lmao
@13:17 The difference between Zane trying to save Barbara and failing and Alan releasing Alice but taking her place is the sacrifice. Zane tried to have everything. Alan describes that in the narration. The sacrifice is what made it acceptable, but that's not the end of his story obviously. And having Alan remain in the dark place is exactly what the Dark Presence wanted. So even if Alan's rewrite was cheap, the Dark Presence gets exactly what it wants.
Oh man, after having to go days upon days without internet (and having a work from home job, that was... oof) to log back on to find this in my feed was the absolute BEST. Another absolutely fantastic video! I'm now super hyped for Alan Wake 2 as well!!!
So I didn’t watch this one when it first came out. Probably because A. I was still recovering from the madness from the first Alan Wake video and mainly B. I wanted to watch it closer to the release of the next Lore dump because you released it so early but man have I been missing out on Trange Portal. That had me dying!
It's not a radio tower, its a oil tower in regards to Alan wake American nightmare. Which is why it causes a big scene of Alan running away from the fire as the oil spread everywhere when the satellite crashed into it.
just to share fun thinking : there is a making of book for Alan Wake ("Illuminated"), which mention's Nightingale's partner's name was Finnegan. (maybe still is, and everyone just calls him Finn). Which points directly at Finnegan's Wake, yeah? (add to that, the hero of Quantum Break is Jack JOYCE). (i think it's clear Sam Lake is into James Joyce, and his weird novels that tie dream states and thought to the core nature of writing). + and there is a night springs episode about 2 cops interrogating someone who is revealed to be a doppelganger. One of the cops is so upset he pulls his gun on this figure and then seems upset that he can't arrest them. His whole job as a cop is called into question. This is the episode that Barry confirms (in game, at the Anderson farm) was written by Alan. I think this may be a hint at how Alan's new york writing is tied to Finn's death. Which happened just 6 months before the game starts? (+ also, in Clay's book, Nightingale says something about out how a cop is supposed to be there for his partner "when the bullets fly," but he wasn't there for Finn. So maybe he had to shoot Finn? or maybe a Taken shot Finn when he wasn't around to watch his back? ... but I like the (kinda random) idea that Finn was into Alex Casey novels, and when wake ended that character Finn got depressed. Ended up killing himself with a gun.)
57:14 did you just call all the documents and radio shows about barry and alice a waste of time? and the 3rd woman did get a name, one repeated multiple times. and a bit of a back story since she's alice's friend! she actually gives a little insight into alice's life lol. you probably should've refreshed your memory on some details a bit before regaling the others with the story 😄. it's not a particularly good game but there are a couple things going on
“Hurt Me Daddy!” I love her Listening to this during my dreaded evil horrible day shift that I’m stuck working one day a week. It’s the worse day of the week for me simply due to having to do actual work this day (security at a truck gate) But your channel is keeping me sane
Fabulous, fun video as always guys! I know Monty likes Apex Legends given he did a Noobus Humanus video on it so I would be curious to see what a Lore Dump video on that would be like. I've been playing that game for months now and had no idea it was connected to the Titanfall universe and apparently each character has an in-depth backstory? Maybe an idea for when y'all need to reach from the bottom of the barrel!
Opened TH-cam at a loss for what podcast to listen to next. Like an answer from God, the notification for this video. The devil works hard but lore dump works harder.
I need to play Control before the lore dump comes out. I skipped Alan Wake, played Quantum Break, and played an hour of Control but then it was removed from gamepass… Just gotta pull the trigger and buy it now. Damn you for your endless enthusiasm for this universe.
My advice is play it up to completing the Research Sector/meeting Marshall. That’s enough time to figure out if it’s for you or not. It’s lore-dense but gameplay-focussed and if the gameplay doesn’t hook you by then it might be a bit of a slog. (And we’ll cover the story and some fun side stuff on here soon!)
I remember when I was like 14 and Alan Wakes American Nightmare came out I was so excited because I thought it was Alan Wake 2... And then I played it and I was just confused.
If you do a search for "Alan Wake 2 concept demo" on TH-cam, you can find an annotated prototype video for the original concept for an Alan Wake sequel. Yes, some of those ideas were used in American nightmare, but I don't think from that demo that the game was going to be campy and action-based like nightmare. It looks like it would have been similar in tone to the original. But that wasn't exciting or interesting enough, so It didn't gather much momentum at Remedy ultimately.
I really quite like American Nightmare. And I think it works the best when you interpret it as a Night Springs episode. And you can interpret it as one of Alan's less sophisticated and nuanced attempts to write his way out. But that makes it work! Hah.
Being an astronomer, that observatory scene bothers me for two big reasons. A, no astronomer would be wearing a lab coat at their job; it's not a chemical lab, there aren't caustic materials you have to worry about spilling in your clothes. Observatories also tend to be in the mountains and/or in the desert, which can get REALLY cold at night, so you'd normally want to have layers of clothing. B, in no way would anyone staffed at an observatory trust a random stranger to fix the telescope; they wouldn't know how to adjust the apparatus to get the primary and secondary mirrors aligned, and the mirrors are VERY fragile and VERY expensive.
It's not an explanation it's a Lore Dump. Fantastic video my doods. By the way did you know that in the American Nightmare the Old Gods of Asgard has a secret message in the song "It will happen again, in another town, a town called Ordinary." Ohh baby looking for the Quantum Break discussion with that fast forwarding boat hype
There are quite a few songs from Origins of Symmetry by Muse that I like a lot and a couple really good tracks from Black Holes and Revelations, but other than that, they’ve always kinda felt like a half-assed Radiohead clone to me
I honestly liked American Nightmare. I don't think the way it was presented (as less spooky) was what the previous version of AW2 would've been like. They changed the mood because it fit the story.
1:25:49 "In the universe, Alan is a pretty good writer ..." In the universe, Alan is a parautilitarian with Remote Viewing and Precognitive abilities, which is what brought him to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Control, as the episodes of 'Night Springs' that he wrote were eerily similar to AWE events that the FBC was investigating. The 'Alex Casey' series of novels were based on the series of murders that FBI Special Agent Alex Casey investigated following Alan Wake's disappearance in a "which came first" situation, the murderers enacting the murders that the fictional NYPD Detective Alex Casey investigates in the books. My theory is that the confrontation with fans and the paparazzi were attempts by the FBC to isolate Alan Wake in preparation to bring him into the Oldest House as part of the Prime Candidate Program. After being trapped in the Dark Place, Alan changed his writing style, cutting out the metaphors, using an abrupt format, and even changed himself (becoming Mr. Scratch and Thomas Zane) as he struggled to navigate the Dark Place. It was only after he finally lets go his desire to return to the material world (believing that Alice is dead and there's nothing to return to) that he comes to the realization that all the iterations of himself are bringing him somewhere, spiraling down to some other place (down, because as the Old Gods of Asgard tell him in 'Herald of Darkness', he has to "Dive deep to the surface").
I love this video but Monty, Muse is not that bad. If your wanting a samey as crap band that don’t make anything that sounds different Nickelback is literally right there
I am actively playing Alan wake's American Nightmare and I'm close to the end im fairly sure while I'm listening to this. So I've paused at the introduction of American Nightmare to make this comment. As I'm playing this there are things that I like about it and things i dont. I actually started playing Alan Wake because of Monteys video on his other channel I watched the first 20 minutes of his video and went I really need to play that. And I did four times once on a 360 version I got for free from a code in another game i bought and the other three times after I immediately bought the remastered. This however is my first run-through of American Nightmare. Because of the way the story is set up I do like how they tied unlocking more powerful weapons to collecting manuscript pages since this is more pure action then the action horror that Alan Wake was. I like the manuscript pages themselves are a little bit better than they felt in Alan Wake and I like that they are narrated because i enjoy the combination of visual and audio. I really like that it's essentially a night springs episode and that that's how Allen essentially tapped into the real world temporarily. I like the mr. Scratch live action bits even though they definitely make my skin crawl. The radio bits of Barey and the Anderson brothers did make me smile. There are of course a plethora of issues with American Nightmare but i wanted to highlight some of the things i liked before i listened to the rest of the video while finishing the game. Okay I have gotten to you guys talking about the blog and I had to go look it up can we talk about the fact that one of those poems that we're in the pictures that were taken inexplicably has the quote that Jesse says in her interview with the therapis In Control there's no way that they can't be involved.
They couldnt use Max Payne cause they dont own the rights to him. Forgot who has them Rocksteady, i cant remember right now. But i do know remedy cant use Max Payne.
I tried looking silent hills plot and realised lore dump should make a video about it because dear stars, it didn't make any sense to me, and I'm a kingdom hearts fan!
Yeah sorry Monty. Muse (at least until their last two albums) is good. I actually went on the Alan Wake Wikia to find which song of theirs was in the game and came up short..... Could it actually have been a song by another band (specifically Kassabian - Club Foot)? It was rather a poor man's Muse tbf.... Anyway great episode. Gotta say I'm less interested in playing any of the stories in this video as opposed to the main game on the last episode but still great job
I always took American Nightmare as another way the cheap writer Alan Wake tried to get out of something. The wrap around of night springs, to me, illustrates that the frame of this story, the groundhogs day of a man trying to get out of a cycle of a crashing satellite that destroys this small town & kills him and the people he's met. Alan wrote that for the tv show, which is why it's a lil underbaked and all the women are gorgeous, that's just the type of show Night Springs is, like Elvira. So Alan, stuck in the muck, trying to find a way out turns it into a story about Alan & Alice, with the scratch getting in the way. It's pulpy and cheap, & the Lake doesn't like that so it surrounds the story in the mocking format of XBLA & of Night Springs to make it so that this *can't* be the way Alan got out, even if the end shows he did. The Lake hates half-measures & hokey storytelling. EDIT: WHOOPS, y'all covered that at the end in the meta. I didn't know about the Remastered QR codes nor did I hear about the sequel being THIS YEAR. Hype hype hype
Your lore dumos of this series is seriously making me want to get the AWE control dlc and play quantum break just so i can preoare mysekf for alan wake 2 (i already played control and had a blast with it) good shit boys
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
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Quantum Break - Lore Dump
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I agree that MUSE sucks. Love the content.
Little clarification for the 16:00 conversation. The difference, from my understanding, is that Barbara simply drowned and died in the lake. At least if we take the lyrics from 'Poet and the Muse' literally. Tom resurrected her from the dead with a deus ex machina method. Alice was not dead and simply held prisoner. At the end of Departure what essentially happened is he negotiated a prisoner transfer. She is released while he goes into the cell.
Yeah, that's completely right. Barbara drowned and died and Thomas essentially just wrote that she had somehow miraculously survived and came back. But that's poor writing and doesn't explain any how or why, so it left a door open for The Dark Presence to fill. Barbara did survive, in a sense, but she had been taken over by the Dark Presence and that's how she emerged out of the lake. That was the doorway that Zane had left open for the Dark Presence to escape into the world in his hurry. At least how I see it from everything I saw and read.
@@CorporalCookieyeah but the issue is that while the dark presence is in barbara's body it is bound to the same limitations that said body has, which is why zane could easily overpower her physicaly and why it didnt even try to fight back against Alan when it used the clicker on it's body
It's also a reason why the dark presence decides to not just kill Alice it learned it's lesson it's more useful to hold the love ones as a hostage than to try and take over their bodies
I love the snippets of Monty's appearance, i think I'm not the only one trying to get a mental picture of what he looks like
In my mind he looks like the dude from the venture bros.
I didn't take Alan being trapped at the end of AW as him being Punished.
I took it as him going "These kinds of stories don't end entirely happily. A great cost to success, and/or threats of a long term danger, because editors LOVE sequel baiting. I have to write some kind of downer ending to the story so I can get the positive outcome I want. The hero falls, but the love interest escapes. Relief for those who made it out, but there's a twist line at the end that potentially makes things Worse in the future."
And so he writes a heroic sacrifice, which works, BECAUSE it's a heroic sacrifice.
And the lake and/or darkness, whatever it is, accepts this ending because A: That's how horror/thriller stories go, and B: It gets it what it wants... Whatever exactly that may be, but the "It's not a lake, it's an ocean" line helps it grow in power and reach, which is usually pretty useful whatever your end goal may be.
Last comment I swear! So during the Scratch conversation at 1:05:00 I have something to add.
One of the manuscripts in this game details more about his origin. The dark place has an entire pantheon of entities that reside within it. The Dark Presence is only one of them. The one we call Mr Scratch is a servant of one of these powers. In the context of the Night Springs episode thet call him The Harbinger. His job is to open the door to reality so others can leak through.
That being said. The urban legend of the crazy alan wake affected this harbinger. Morphing it into this serial killer personality. Like the dark presence was morphed into the form of barbara Jagger.
So yes the twisted stories of alan shaped him but they did not create him. I'd that makes sense.
Always here for your additions/corrections!!!! Good point on the Scratch manuscripts totally forgot about this!
I sensed some auto-fiction, more specifically in his flashbacks. There's no way those situations could have happened the way they are depicted..if they even happened at all. This is why I love AW. My jam is survival-horror, but AW really got to me 🙂
Monty: I hate Muse. Consonants are important.
Also Monty: trange portal
As my dad's good friend apparently said after a night of heavy drinking in university: "My tongue feels numb..."
The Adult Juice can do funny things to the head, and the mouth is part of the head
Made me laugh so much
*Listening to Chase complain about how the story of Alan trying to escape the dark world.*
Chase, it's really easy, The Lake just wants a story that works, one that's Simple and Clean, that's how it wants Alan's story to make it feel tonight, and it's hard for it to let him go otherwise XD.
That’s stupid. What are the metrics to determine “a story that works”?
@@mikeharris6429it was a joke comment about Kingdom Hearts my guy
Alan Wake is Namura confirmation lmao
I love how your friends respond. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when in the Alan Wake episode, one of your friends said that it was mean of Alice to bring Alan's typewriter and hopes something happens to her. Priceless, lol! I'm also glad to hear people question some things that need questioning, or better answers to. I wrote a script for this channel that addresses those things. We had to break it up because it's too long.. It's Alan Wake, so it was kinda to be expected. I hope you keep doing these vids. I love hearing your friends' reactions.
To add to the conversation at 16:00
After Alan jumps into the lake at the start of the game, there is a time lapse to show that the 2 weeks did happen, and no time travel occured, because also Rose and NIghtingale had still been touched by the dark pressence.
In addition, ive always believed it worked as a narative because, instead of just bringing her back, like Zane, he sacrificed himself to free her, giving up his freedom for hers
When I was a teenager, I played a series of JRPGs. They were written by a prominent Square developer, and had an anime aesthetic. They featured convoluted lore, VR, time travel, incredibly strong and relatable characters, beautiful moments where everybody cries, and characters coming back from the dead in ways that aren't satisfactorily explained.
I'm talking about the Xenosaga trilogy, and not Kingdom Hearts. Just a suggestion for Chase.
Thanks for joining us! The next episode will be up in Mid-April (this is your March video, we just got it finished early!)
See you then! - Monty
It's funny you question Lore Dump iconic moments in the video where you debut the "Trange Portal" 49:35 , which has to be the new most iconic Lore Dump iconic moment
It's not even Muse Monty! It's Kasabian!
Don't bring your hatred of a completely different band into this.
I think the reason Alan's story for saving Alice worked and Thomas Zane's story for saving Barbara didn't was that Zane didn't follow the form of the horror story. The Dark Presence twists stories *into* horror stories and it did that to his. He wrote a story where Barbara came back, the Dark Presence twisted it into one where she came back wrong. A common horror trope and especially one that might take place in the stinger at the end.
The protagonist making a sacrificial exchange into suffering at the end *is* acceptable within the context of a horror story though and so Alice was able to go free. Alan is now suffering at his own hand because, well, he wrote it that way.
Listening to this opening about the Dark World and waiting for Aqua to show up. She did a lot of walking in that dark world, I wouldn't be surprised if she ran into Alan Wake, Master of Waking XD.
My two cents on why Alan was able to save Alice but Tom wasn't able to save Barbara - Barbara straight up died and Tom tried to write her back into existence while also not obeying narrative concepts. This brought her back wrong, which is likely why the Dark Presence wears her likeness. Alice, on the other hand, was abducted into the Dark Place and not outright killed, and Alan kept within the narrative rules of the genre he was in by keeping in mind ideas of sacrifice, consequence, stakes and balance. Not everyone in Bright Falls lives through the event and Alan dramatically sacrifices himself to bring Alice back, balancing the narrative scales.
Also, I absolutely will NOT back you up, Muse are great and your ears are broken.
I legit feel like Mister Scratch is Thomas Zane. He broke the rules, broke reality. Only those who knew him personally remembered him. He could NEVER escape the lake, so the only way he could get out was by replacing someone else who fell victim to the lake.
Only a little disappointed you didn't mention Mr. Scratch talking about what he'd do to Barry lol.
An interesting note about Serena is that she's actually one of Alice's friends and the one who convinced her to make the film. Alan promises to help her deal with the trauma of being touched by the darkness once they're both out of the loop.
Each time you loop around the ladies take care of more stuff ahead of time so you don't have to deal with it. By the final loop Emma just does literally everything before you arrive so you just waltz in and blow the oil pump to hell instantly.
Samantha is actually explicitly referenced in Control, her name appears on a whiteboard along with other info about Ordinary.
Also there actually isn't a single Muse song in American Nightmare. It's just Ed Harcourt, Kasabian and Poets of the Fall.
May we all experience as much joy as Neil and Chase did hearing Monty mispronounce "strange" in our day to day lives
About the falling satellite into a oil well in American Nightmare, I think is symbolism of the Morning Star (Lucifer, Scratch) crashing into the ground. It is also a reference to Twin Peaks and the Lodge.
Had to be a Muse Defender on here. Deff not my favorite band, with my taste in music ranging from Prog Rock to Indie Pop and weird experimental music. But there tracks have found their way to my like list, so they can't be the WORST...
Thanks again for the video, so excited for 2023 Lore Dump!
I absolutely feel Chase is giving the same energy as Monty and Neil had in the early KH episodes in these videos. And I absolutely agree about the get fucked comment Neil, I literally tried to sell a friend on the KH2 video the other day by saying that was the best moment of the episode. Your reaction was perfect.
So excited for the Quantum Break episode, I feel like there's gonna be some Anger
The Muse anger was very funny to me - Monty's not wrong that they definitely have a Sound and they have one good album (with a couple of good songs scattered to the winds elsewhere)
So excited to hear someone who is equally excited and invested in the universe that Remedy created with Alan Wake and Control, super excited for the next videos and your thoughts on them. These videos are also a great help for remembering certain beats for the games I might have forgotten and contribute to the excitement I have for Alan Wake 2 and Control 2. As a huge fan of the lore just to inform you in the control art book, it is revealed that Alan could only nudge things in the right direction and to add on to this in AW Remastered there are new OR codes that feature videos similar to the ones from control, in one of them Alan expresses that messages and images from outside of the Dark Place come to him and help him inform his writing. I think Zane too had this happen to him and that's how he was able to write about Alan and this is what caused Alan to write about Jesse, there is a bit more to this but I'll save it for next time. Hopefully this helped. It's good to know that there other people like me that just are equally excited and always theorizing about this universe cannot wait for the next videos haven't played Quantum Break but might just play it now in anticipation of your next video. Don't know if your are on the Alan Wake or Control subreddits because I feel like it's a good place for interesting discussion and theorizing.
This was great, I love Alan Wake but I didn't know all that extra content. I'm all onboard if you ever want to start creating videos summarizing and theorizing about videogames stories by the way, I think you have what it takes to get in there properly.
Y'all talk about Telltale Games, and I wondered, considering the fun, choose-your-own-adventure style of how y'all do the Quantum Break episode, if doing Lore Dumps on Telltale games would be any good.
I eventually realized that all it was is just me wanting people to talk about The Wolf Among Us more 😂
Personally, I love me some Telltale and would really like to talk about it but the sheer number of decisions possible in most of the games makes it difficult to turn into an episode. The script would be like a novel!
Quantum Break has like 3 decisions and I know Monty had to write way longer for that. Maybe one day, if we have more time! - Neil
@@LoreDump just gotta get that Nissan money rolling in, then we'll revisit the topic 😂
If that Nissan Money starts coming in, you all can expect weekly episodes- Neil
Fantastic episode! My only disappointment is that you didn't mention how Sarah Breaker's cutout in Special 1 makes it very clear that the Bright Falls secret society is a callback to the Bookhouse Boys of Twin Peaks. But yes: SO much depth to Remedy's world building, here - quite a bit more than I knew, even though I've been a fan of the franchise since the original Alan Wake game came out! Looking forward to your episodes on Quantum Break and Control!
I wonder if there is really some secret society or it's just the FBC, we do know for a fact that Sarah's father is a retired FBC agent and the remaster has references to the FBC in Sarah's office
@@carso1500 The FBC monitored the place, but the townspeople in the know, at the least from the point of frank retiring and returning to bright falls, would formally form their own group to resist the dark presence.
It's been a while since I've played American Nightmare, but I liked the looped female characters (although I admit I can't remember their names). The way they were possessed by the setting was genuinely unnerving, and it was very satisfying to finally save the mechanic's life. It also felt nice to save the possessed woman from the Darkness, even when I didn't have to. I especially liked how all three react to the loop, adjust accordingly. It prevented them from becoming repetitive.
1st and foremost. Monty. Muse is a good band. its fair criticism to say that they have a "Sound" and a lot of their songs sound samey, but i dont think that makes them a bad band, especially when all the members of the band are technically sound on their respective instruments. With that being said. I am fully immersed in the Remedy-Verse now thanks to this podcast. Im thankful to you guys for that, because as a game, Alan Wake never really grabbed me. Just due to the nature of the gameplay. But I was always interested in the story whenever my friend who loved them would tell me about them. Now thanks to this I can be fully immersed in the Lore that always seemed so interesting to me. I think this podcast is special for that. It has the ability to bring new fans in, and give old fans a refresh of lore they may have missed or forgotten. Or give people who maybe interested in the game/story but not a fan of the gameplay a chance to learn what makes these games so special to so many people. But what really makes it special is you three. When Neil said he didn’t understand how you all became big enough to have had Iconic Moments I was shocked as many moments from this show have become part of my and several friends everyday Lexicon. “Get Fucked” at the end of day Six in the KH2 Episode is used now anytime someone tells me something surprising, “Snort The Nort” should almost be a tagline for this show and my friends and I will use it to try and convince someone to give something a try, The Adult Juice phrase gets tossed around many a Friday night now. And the Pure emotion and friendship that seeps through every episode because of you three is palpable. The eruption of cheers to Roxas Return, The Switch from Joking to Invested from Chase and Neil in Alan Wake. And so so many more. You all have something special here and I cant wait to see this channel and Monty’s Original Channel (seriously if you haven’t seen any of his critiques you’re doing yourself a disservice) grow to even higher heights than already seen (100k by 2024 Monty calling it now.)Keep up the Incredible work you three. Keep going on tangents and knocking back a few adult juices in the process. See you again in the next Video
You’re wrong on both counts. Muse is garbage and so is my personal channel.
(But seriously thank you ❤)
@@MontyZander I’m no muse Stan by any means but I can’t say they are bad. They’re all great musicians and put on a great live show. And you put on a great show too! Been highly anticipating your Arkham city critique, loved how you weaved a serious house on serious earth into it as that was one of my favorite Graphic Novels. And after the lore dumps I’m surprised there hasn’t been a Kingdom Hearts Noobus Humanus just to see how the Noobus takes to the series vs your own experiences with the series now. Regardless you make great, well thought, technically sound content….and so does muse
Hahahaha- Neil x
57:25 I think her name's Serena and the real world version of her helped Alice with the film she made to disprove the rumours about Alan.
1:25:54 With American Nightmare, I think that Alan was using it as a dumb fun type of pallet cleanser for his creativity, just something humorous for himself to keep his spirits up, like a cheezy B-movie
American Nightmare is essentially a From Dusk til Dawn style exploitation horror version of Alan Wake.
Thank you for all the research you put into this, especially this episode.
Oh god The Dark Tower, there's a lore dumb I didn't know I needed until right now
I wonder how the hell you'll do Alan Wake 2 lol
i also need to mention that "this house of dreams" WAS referenced in control; it's written on a whiteboard in the research sector about their studies on the shoebox
I'm so happy I've binged this and caught up. Alan Wake was arguably my awakening into really charming and heavy narrative games and it awoke a love for cheese that remedy are great at. I'm so hyped for the control lore dump!!!
I did not know about that blog post, damn that is awesome
Check out the Dev Diary 3 for American Nightmare. There’s a janitor in the background! I think it’s supposed to be Ahti and they were planning control from waaaaaay back then
Barbara drowned and died and tom basically wrote "no she didnt" to bring her back but as the story wasnt structured the dark precense could manipulate the loose threads like "no she didnt, her body returned but her soul was lost". Whereas when alan wrote his end he made the point to take her place to keep balance.
I kinda think tom made mr scratch as a possible means of escape to keep balance but i guess mr scratches existence is too loose to utilise effectively in this manner hence why mr scratch is now a problem too.
Oh, you lads are ABSOLUTELY iconic. For this little group of supporters anyway.
God, I can only imagine the regularity with which a “Get Fucked” emote would be used in the hypothetical Lore Dump discord server that exists in my brain, lmao
@13:17 The difference between Zane trying to save Barbara and failing and Alan releasing Alice but taking her place is the sacrifice. Zane tried to have everything. Alan describes that in the narration. The sacrifice is what made it acceptable, but that's not the end of his story obviously. And having Alan remain in the dark place is exactly what the Dark Presence wanted. So even if Alan's rewrite was cheap, the Dark Presence gets exactly what it wants.
Oh man, after having to go days upon days without internet (and having a work from home job, that was... oof) to log back on to find this in my feed was the absolute BEST. Another absolutely fantastic video! I'm now super hyped for Alan Wake 2 as well!!!
Monty, i absolutely love your channel and find your videos INCREDIBLY interesting and entertaining, but Muse is good and you gotta admit it
So I didn’t watch this one when it first came out. Probably because A. I was still recovering from the madness from the first Alan Wake video and mainly B. I wanted to watch it closer to the release of the next Lore dump because you released it so early but man have I been missing out on Trange Portal. That had me dying!
1:03:34 Scratch probably killed Emma in the first loop because he hated Muse. Given they did some songs for the Twilight soundtrack I don't blame him.
It's not a radio tower, its a oil tower in regards to Alan wake American nightmare. Which is why it causes a big scene of Alan running away from the fire as the oil spread everywhere when the satellite crashed into it.
just to share fun thinking : there is a making of book for Alan Wake ("Illuminated"), which mention's Nightingale's partner's name was Finnegan. (maybe still is, and everyone just calls him Finn). Which points directly at Finnegan's Wake, yeah? (add to that, the hero of Quantum Break is Jack JOYCE). (i think it's clear Sam Lake is into James Joyce, and his weird novels that tie dream states and thought to the core nature of writing).
+ and there is a night springs episode about 2 cops interrogating someone who is revealed to be a doppelganger. One of the cops is so upset he pulls his gun on this figure and then seems upset that he can't arrest them. His whole job as a cop is called into question. This is the episode that Barry confirms (in game, at the Anderson farm) was written by Alan. I think this may be a hint at how Alan's new york writing is tied to Finn's death. Which happened just 6 months before the game starts?
(+ also, in Clay's book, Nightingale says something about out how a cop is supposed to be there for his partner "when the bullets fly," but he wasn't there for Finn. So maybe he had to shoot Finn? or maybe a Taken shot Finn when he wasn't around to watch his back? ... but I like the (kinda random) idea that Finn was into Alex Casey novels, and when wake ended that character Finn got depressed. Ended up killing himself with a gun.)
57:14 did you just call all the documents and radio shows about barry and alice a waste of time? and the 3rd woman did get a name, one repeated multiple times. and a bit of a back story since she's alice's friend! she actually gives a little insight into alice's life lol. you probably should've refreshed your memory on some details a bit before regaling the others with the story 😄. it's not a particularly good game but there are a couple things going on
“Hurt Me Daddy!”
I love her
Listening to this during my dreaded evil horrible day shift that I’m stuck working one day a week. It’s the worse day of the week for me simply due to having to do actual work this day (security at a truck gate)
But your channel is keeping me sane
Fabulous, fun video as always guys!
I know Monty likes Apex Legends given he did a Noobus Humanus video on it so I would be curious to see what a Lore Dump video on that would be like. I've been playing that game for months now and had no idea it was connected to the Titanfall universe and apparently each character has an in-depth backstory? Maybe an idea for when y'all need to reach from the bottom of the barrel!
Opened TH-cam at a loss for what podcast to listen to next. Like an answer from God, the notification for this video. The devil works hard but lore dump works harder.
10/10 comment. Much love- Neil
I need to play Control before the lore dump comes out. I skipped Alan Wake, played Quantum Break, and played an hour of Control but then it was removed from gamepass… Just gotta pull the trigger and buy it now. Damn you for your endless enthusiasm for this universe.
My advice is play it up to completing the Research Sector/meeting Marshall. That’s enough time to figure out if it’s for you or not. It’s lore-dense but gameplay-focussed and if the gameplay doesn’t hook you by then it might be a bit of a slog. (And we’ll cover the story and some fun side stuff on here soon!)
Not even a whole minute in and I can already tell this video is gonna be great
"Adult juiced" lmao
I remember when I was like 14 and Alan Wakes American Nightmare came out I was so excited because I thought it was Alan Wake 2... And then I played it and I was just confused.
34:26 Imaginary Barry is basically Alan roasting himself.
If you do a search for "Alan Wake 2 concept demo" on TH-cam, you can find an annotated prototype video for the original concept for an Alan Wake sequel. Yes, some of those ideas were used in American nightmare, but I don't think from that demo that the game was going to be campy and action-based like nightmare. It looks like it would have been similar in tone to the original. But that wasn't exciting or interesting enough, so It didn't gather much momentum at Remedy ultimately.
I really quite like American Nightmare. And I think it works the best when you interpret it as a Night Springs episode. And you can interpret it as one of Alan's less sophisticated and nuanced attempts to write his way out. But that makes it work! Hah.
I would love to see a lore dump on a souls borne game
Being an astronomer, that observatory scene bothers me for two big reasons. A, no astronomer would be wearing a lab coat at their job; it's not a chemical lab, there aren't caustic materials you have to worry about spilling in your clothes. Observatories also tend to be in the mountains and/or in the desert, which can get REALLY cold at night, so you'd normally want to have layers of clothing. B, in no way would anyone staffed at an observatory trust a random stranger to fix the telescope; they wouldn't know how to adjust the apparatus to get the primary and secondary mirrors aligned, and the mirrors are VERY fragile and VERY expensive.
I recently finished playing all of Alan Wake because yall were gonna cover it
Let's be real, the entire Kingdom Hearts series was an iconic moment
It's not an explanation it's a Lore Dump. Fantastic video my doods. By the way did you know that in the American Nightmare the Old Gods of Asgard has a secret message in the song "It will happen again, in another town, a town called Ordinary." Ohh baby looking for the Quantum Break discussion with that fast forwarding boat hype
Damn Monty you are staying busy as HELL. Keep it up! Loving all the videos.
Loved the uncalled for rant about a band that isn’t even in American Nightmare. Though you are right about muse.
Have to drive up a mountain today so thanks for the entertainment while on the road!
There are quite a few songs from Origins of Symmetry by Muse that I like a lot and a couple really good tracks from Black Holes and Revelations, but other than that, they’ve always kinda felt like a half-assed Radiohead clone to me
I honestly liked American Nightmare. I don't think the way it was presented (as less spooky) was what the previous version of AW2 would've been like. They changed the mood because it fit the story.
That shoebox theory is really interesting given the shoebox in AW2 :)
Man's Castle is a pretty iconic moment.
1:25:49 "In the universe, Alan is a pretty good writer ..."
In the universe, Alan is a parautilitarian with Remote Viewing and Precognitive abilities, which is what brought him to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Control, as the episodes of 'Night Springs' that he wrote were eerily similar to AWE events that the FBC was investigating. The 'Alex Casey' series of novels were based on the series of murders that FBI Special Agent Alex Casey investigated following Alan Wake's disappearance in a "which came first" situation, the murderers enacting the murders that the fictional NYPD Detective Alex Casey investigates in the books.
My theory is that the confrontation with fans and the paparazzi were attempts by the FBC to isolate Alan Wake in preparation to bring him into the Oldest House as part of the Prime Candidate Program.
After being trapped in the Dark Place, Alan changed his writing style, cutting out the metaphors, using an abrupt format, and even changed himself (becoming Mr. Scratch and Thomas Zane) as he struggled to navigate the Dark Place. It was only after he finally lets go his desire to return to the material world (believing that Alice is dead and there's nothing to return to) that he comes to the realization that all the iterations of himself are bringing him somewhere, spiraling down to some other place (down, because as the Old Gods of Asgard tell him in 'Herald of Darkness', he has to "Dive deep to the surface").
Well, after the latest tweets of Sam Lake, we know that American Nightmare is in fact canon after all! xD
I love this video but Monty, Muse is not that bad. If your wanting a samey as crap band that don’t make anything that sounds different Nickelback is literally right there
Lovely episode, never played Alen Wake but this makes me want to play the remaster and I'm excited for number 2!!!🤩
Every chance I get I turn on the podcast love the content 👌🏾 also dark souls lore dump??
I am actively playing Alan wake's American Nightmare and I'm close to the end im fairly sure while I'm listening to this. So I've paused at the introduction of American Nightmare to make this comment. As I'm playing this there are things that I like about it and things i dont. I actually started playing Alan Wake because of Monteys video on his other channel I watched the first 20 minutes of his video and went I really need to play that. And I did four times once on a 360 version I got for free from a code in another game i bought and the other three times after I immediately bought the remastered. This however is my first run-through of American Nightmare. Because of the way the story is set up I do like how they tied unlocking more powerful weapons to collecting manuscript pages since this is more pure action then the action horror that Alan Wake was. I like the manuscript pages themselves are a little bit better than they felt in Alan Wake and I like that they are narrated because i enjoy the combination of visual and audio. I really like that it's essentially a night springs episode and that that's how Allen essentially tapped into the real world temporarily. I like the mr. Scratch live action bits even though they definitely make my skin crawl. The radio bits of Barey and the Anderson brothers did make me smile. There are of course a plethora of issues with American Nightmare but i wanted to highlight some of the things i liked before i listened to the rest of the video while finishing the game.
Okay I have gotten to you guys talking about the blog and I had to go look it up can we talk about the fact that one of those poems that we're in the pictures that were taken inexplicably has the quote that Jesse says in her interview with the therapis In Control there's no way that they can't be involved.
Well it's currently 11:30 at night and I'm tired as fuck so I'll watch this in about 7 to 8 hours
I'm sure it was just due to the short month but I hope all's goin well on your guys' end.
Man I would love you to do a Quantic Dream episode
They couldnt use Max Payne cause they dont own the rights to him. Forgot who has them Rocksteady, i cant remember right now. But i do know remedy cant use Max Payne.
I tried looking silent hills plot and realised lore dump should make a video about it because dear stars, it didn't make any sense to me, and I'm a kingdom hearts fan!
Muse is great, Monty is finally wrong about something on this podcast.
Once more into the breach lads.
49:35 alright this has to be the biggest slip of the tongue in the channel right? Tell me I'm right😂
55:15 The tone of American Nightmare is exploitation horror. That sort of dialogue is appropriate there.
LMFAOOOOOOO I LOVE YALL THIS INTRO ALREADY SET ME OFF 😭😂
NAH CHASE. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT TELLTALE. YOU DIDN'T JUST DO THAT. 😭 TELL ME, HE DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT. 😭
I quite like Muse.
Muse are great, feck off Monty 😅
Desert shore hotel and oceanview hotel interesting
Best kind of video to "wake" up to
Yeah sorry Monty. Muse (at least until their last two albums) is good.
I actually went on the Alan Wake Wikia to find which song of theirs was in the game and came up short..... Could it actually have been a song by another band (specifically Kassabian - Club Foot)? It was rather a poor man's Muse tbf....
Anyway great episode. Gotta say I'm less interested in playing any of the stories in this video as opposed to the main game on the last episode but still great job
Another awesome episode. I'm really enjoying these. Can't wait for the lads to suffer through Quantum Break lol!
Sorry Monty I quite like Muse :D
46:55 stay mad, muse are the best
As always, another excellent writey long-long bois
Yessss more Lore Dump. Cheers, lads.
Muse is great :)
Muse does suck. Popular music typically does. I'm with you Monty, keep up the good work
I like Muse
I always took American Nightmare as another way the cheap writer Alan Wake tried to get out of something. The wrap around of night springs, to me, illustrates that the frame of this story, the groundhogs day of a man trying to get out of a cycle of a crashing satellite that destroys this small town & kills him and the people he's met.
Alan wrote that for the tv show, which is why it's a lil underbaked and all the women are gorgeous, that's just the type of show Night Springs is, like Elvira. So Alan, stuck in the muck, trying to find a way out turns it into a story about Alan & Alice, with the scratch getting in the way. It's pulpy and cheap, & the Lake doesn't like that so it surrounds the story in the mocking format of XBLA & of Night Springs to make it so that this *can't* be the way Alan got out, even if the end shows he did. The Lake hates half-measures & hokey storytelling.
EDIT: WHOOPS, y'all covered that at the end in the meta. I didn't know about the Remastered QR codes nor did I hear about the sequel being THIS YEAR. Hype hype hype
Your lore dumos of this series is seriously making me want to get the AWE control dlc and play quantum break just so i can preoare mysekf for alan wake 2 (i already played control and had a blast with it) good shit boys
Long time listener first time comment writer. Been waiting for this to go on TH-cam to request trange portal merch
Brilliant video btw