Barbara reflects Alice
Alan reflects Zane
Cynthia reflects Rose
So many characters reflect each other
Like how a lake would reflect things
I wonder if this means anything
I have a theory about this!! Spoilers for Alan Wake 2, I have no idea how to hide them so just scroll past if you haven't seen it
So obviously the first Alan Wake is almost a parallel of what happened to Zane happening to Alan, except unlike Zane Alan managed to change the ending and fix things
And then in the ending of Alan Wake 2 it's revealed that it's not a loop, it's a spiral, and we see Alice is putting it together as a plan to get Alan out by having him go through with it until he can defeat it, he's stuck repeating it like he did in the first game like Tom
And obviously it's starting to work because Alice is hopeful, and they changed the story and got the dark presence out of Casey
I think that a big part of the dark presences power is that it forces a repeat in history over and over, but since it took Alan everything is beginning to change (spiral instead of loop)
So yes all of the people represent the people from the past, and all of them happen to live in cauldron lake, however as the story takes new people to relive aspects it's going to be the thing to slowly break the power of the dark place
Obviously Cynthia was good at what she did but Rose is doing better, she's changing the rules- she goes out at night, she kills the taken, and at the end she seems to not only have an understanding of the dark presence but she doesn't fear it like Cynthia did
I think it's all a big part of the metaphor of the AW games being almost a parallel to mental illness and stuff, so as more generations are dragged in they're growing as people and are more capable of destroying the dark presence!
Along with that, the new "reflections" of the other characters at least somewhat seem to be working towards the same thing, unlike in the past. Cynthia was jealous of Barbara, Tom purposely used Cynthia, etc
But now that it's Alan he's doing it differently, Alice and rose had no issues with each other and rose was never jealous, Alan isn't just using rose he actually understands (at least when he has memories of it) that she's capable and can help
Adding in all the people from control who are looking into cauldron lake and working to get rid of the dark presence and save Alan, it's just more people there to break the cycle that the dark presence wants
And I think remedy is going to bring all of this together, probably add in a nice Alan monologue that's filled with metaphors (because as Sarah says in the first game he is metaphor heavy in his writing lmao), and when it's time for the story of bright falls to end they will completely break the cycle of what's been happening and take the power from the dark presence
If it doesn't happen I'm sure it'll be something equally as good tho, but that's just my (very rambly) thoughts on this thing (and again sorry for not knowing how to actually hide any spoilers I see people do it but I don't know what they do)
