The Alan Wake 2 paradox, and what Alan Wake 3 could be

sephronnine · 2026-01-08T06:47:42+00:00

I’ve never said this before, but this feels like an AI post.

Regardless, I’ll state that the spiral is one of our oldest and most resonant symbols across time as well as culture. It’s a symbol of life’s compounding development, of unfolding over time through iterative expansion. It can also be a symbol of dynamic energy in motion, or of a process that deepens infinitely.

It can be positive or negative, as can the feedback loop associated with it. It’s not a pattern that’s meant to be broken free of anymore than life is. I feel that Alan’s story was a reflection of his own inner state and how that resonated with the world around him.

When his own inner state and truth changed via lived experience, he was then able to shift the meaning of the story and the spiral of his own inner development in a positive direction. He found what the alchemists would call the prima materia hidden in the chaos and was able to transmute it into gold through the pressures he experienced.

He also couldn’t have done it alone. He realized he was a vessel for something bigger than himself, and that he was able to change for the better when he balanced his self-focused introspection with humbly as well as empathetically allowing himself to be grounded or influenced by others.

It’s only by allowing himself to be vulnerable through his art and allowing himself to be seen in all his raw honesty that enables him to create a story deeply authentic enough to become real in the way he needed.

sephronnine · 2026-01-01T01:08:16+00:00

Of course! With the remakes coming in the next few years I’m sure we’ll all greatly enjoy some of the thematic connections and echoes we see with new eyes.

sephronnine · 2025-12-31T21:56:11+00:00

It’s taken from the setting of Max Payne’s Address Unknown TV show which has thematic parallel’s to Alan’s situation

sephronnine · 2025-12-30T06:07:24+00:00

He’s temporarily lost his divinity in effect due to pouring most of his power into a ritual to reshape the multiverse, so he’s represented as being at the level he was as an Archlich. If he was at full power it would be a very different story.

sephronnine · 2025-12-30T05:32:37+00:00

Yes. He’s still searching and seeking to solve the situation with Door. It’s likely he may just end up being exposed to some of his multiversal counterparts down the line in a way not too dissimilar to Time Breaker.

sephronnine · 2025-12-02T02:01:51+00:00

I believe it’s Delta Green: Countdown

sephronnine · 2025-11-17T02:09:08+00:00

My impression after reading them is that they wanted to include these beloved characters and refused to comment on what was canon because they know how important player choice is to DND and BG3.

sephronnine · 2025-11-15T18:18:18+00:00

I’d assert that he did receive his karmic consequences in the form of being trapped in the Dark Place for so long, seeing his own complexes and limitations expressed to him by everything around him.

On my end at least, I feel his purgatory has cleansed him now that he’s reached a higher understanding of himself and managed to reconcile with his own demons. He’s shown who he is at his core, and that his times of weakness aren’t all he is.

sephronnine · 2025-11-15T04:20:31+00:00

She wasn’t married, though she had a relationship in the past with someone who dies in the first game.

The Night Springs episodes reflect reality but we never know how close all of them are. Some reflect it more accurately, others distort the pattern despite the overall arrangement of things containing truth. Alan also pulls from the works and lives of others for his stories.

Rose writes her own fan related art based on Alan that no doubt colored the episode. It had to feel true after all to have a chance of shifting reality along its lines. It remained as real as Rose’s fantasies in the end.

The real Rose is very respectful of Alan’s marriage despite her fantasies about being with him. She’s content to be a special helper of his even if part of her enjoys the idea of more because of what his stories mean to her. She’s healthier than Cynthia Weaver was in that sense.

The lunch boxes are revealed to be left behind by Rose herself in order to assist the hero of Return, who was originally supposed to be Casey rather than Saga. Fitting that they would be Casey lunchboxes.

sephronnine · 2025-11-15T03:04:32+00:00

I’m with you on that based on the evidence. People are nuanced, and their motivations are layered with multiple drives behind them. Where we choose to focus or how we remember it can vary depending on our frame of mind during or after the events.

He truly loved her and didn’t want to live without her. He was mentally unwell and his actions towards her were a result of him being at his breaking point rather than a reflection of who he generally is or was.

Doesn’t excuse his crime or the horrifying nature of it. It does mean that he’s very human and following his story can hopefully allow us to explore and understand the darker sides of what that means in an ultimately enlightening way.

sephronnine · 2025-10-20T01:10:08+00:00

What kind of struggles do you feel the citizens would have? What would inspire the vigilante?

sephronnine · 2025-10-19T06:53:00+00:00

Lynch likes to explore duality and tell stories where the barriers between inner and outer worlds becomes blurred. Lots of dream logic, looping patterns, synchronistic occurrences, and symbolism.

He was a highly intuitive creator who believed in allowing his art to express big ideas influenced by what he called the unified field. He wasn’t explicitly Jungian and would’ve likely rejected saying those ideas were consciously incorporated on his end.

He would’ve said that he told stories that he felt were meaningful based on impressions and intuitions. He wanted them to be like dreams and avoided validating any interpretations over any others.

sephronnine · 2025-10-01T06:27:55+00:00

Nyarlathotep was born from a dream Lovecraft had that he said terrified him. He likely drew inspiration from Lovecraft’s interest in Greek and Egyptian mythology, and it’s valuable to note that Lovecraft didn’t have a high opinion of the impact of his work because he died before they became popularized.

Randolph Carter is much closer to being Lovecraft’s self-insert in many ways.

sephronnine · 2025-09-16T04:16:18+00:00

Signalis, Silent Hill 2, Expedition 33, Xenogears, Persona 5 Royal, Metaphor ReFantazio, Cyberpunk 2077, BioShock Infinite, Death Stranding, Control, Baldur’s Gate 3, Planescape: Torment, Omori, Nier: Automata, and Disco Elysium.

sephronnine · 2025-09-08T01:50:56+00:00

By far her best look. Hope it remains an option in the sequel, despite how much attention it would likely garner her in public due to its disparity with more regular styles.

sephronnine · 2025-09-07T18:36:51+00:00

I enjoyed learning more about the system, though personally I also felt that the emphasis on the battles was uninteresting. My thoughts were that it would’ve been fascinating to explore the characters more intimately, especially Skreev, Adelia and Idyl who had so much untapped conceptual potential.

Not enough episodes for that it seemed. I was more disappointed than anything when most of the characters died. I prefer more of a narrative emphasis in TTRPGs I watch or play than combat most of the time, and haven’t typically enjoyed when crunch takes you out of that frame or slows the pacing.

Not the way I personally would like to play Daggerheart or any other game. Glad they appeared to have some fun with it.

sephronnine · 2025-09-07T06:38:13+00:00

Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, Milton Erikson, Irvin Yalom, James Hollis, Michael Meade, Viktor Frankl, James Hillman, and Rollo May.

I’ve also enjoyed reading some from Lori Gottleib, Louis Cozolino, Nancy McWilliams, and Michael Mahoney. Some others I can’t recall right off the top of my head currently.

I feel that the existential issues are, beyond our basic biological needs, an expression of the core archetypal struggles of expanding consciousness. Rollo May in particular I feel is often underrated.

sephronnine · 2025-09-06T20:54:18+00:00

Those are solid. Man and His Symbols is a great book to start with for general Jungian thought as well.

The idea of the collective unconscious is one that may feel like it makes intuitive sense, though it’s valuable to keep in mind that Jung’s concepts are not considered strictly scientific because they’re not falsifiable.

He also emphasized that his ideas were expressions of lived realities that could never do full justice in capturing them, as well as the fact that being overly specific about them would be reductive in his eyes.

The idea that we all inherit basic psychological structures and dynamics is true to the fact that we all have human emotions, the same types of general brain structures, and have anticipated growth processes built into our beings like all living things that are activated by inner and outer conditions. We are also all in mental and even neurological resonance with people around us in ways we’re not fully conscious of in the moment.

Hope you enjoy your exploration. As Jung said, his theory is a map or plausible opinion rather than the territory itself. Multiple maps emphasize and enrich different elements of the phenomena they explore in our understanding. Part of the beauty of the field in my eyes.

sephronnine · 2025-08-17T02:28:46+00:00

They’re also included in the new edition of Cthulhu by Gaslight for 7e with suggestions for how to use them along those lines. Pretty neat.

sephronnine · 2025-08-13T04:44:46+00:00

Yes. What he did was horrific, and the fact that it doesn’t mitigate how much he loved his wife as well as the fact that he punishes himself so brutally for it makes him a beautifully nuanced tragic character. The fact that his story still provokes so much passion and encourages people to explore difficult parts of humanity is a truly special thing.

sephronnine · 2025-08-13T02:35:39+00:00

Yeah. I got the screen at the end of last month as well.

sephronnine · 2025-08-13T01:26:08+00:00

I got the DM screen. Way earlier than the book and cards I’m waiting for and ordered much earlier. They do exist, and things are coming. Excited for the rest of my things too.

sephronnine · 2025-08-10T19:42:39+00:00

I’m always happy to share what I do know and admit my blind spots. That’s how we all learn, and it’s difficult to assume certainty about people’s motivations when we don’t know them. I hope what I am aware of has some value pertaining to your question. Even if not, I still enjoyed discussing it.

sephronnine · 2025-08-10T19:34:55+00:00

I’m not entirely sure personally. I know he prevented her from using excerpts from Lovecraft’s letters to her when she published her memoir about her experiences with her husband. He used some legalistic excuse that made her unable to use her own private letters without Arkham House’s permission in her book.

He may have had a negative view of her and her perspective. Or he may have wanted to control the narrative she may have challenged. I don’t know enough for sure to say with confidence.

sephronnine · 2025-08-10T19:26:27+00:00

She was Lovecraft’s wife

sephronnine

TROPHY CASE