Jan 1
random unimportant patterns and silly doodles, nothing to see here! I'm sure they're not connected at all
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random unimportant patterns and silly doodles, nothing to see here! I'm sure they're not connected at all
insulating myself as much as possible (and for as long as possible) after putting these thoughts down:
"You must have had good reasons, but we were not prepared for what would follow." Trench may have let the Hiss inside the Oldest House, Dylan let it into himself, but Jesse let it go out into the world. She went into a self sacrificing journey deeming the new threat worse than the chaos that would follow, learning nothing from the ending of Foundation, and walking the same path Trench did. Not out of malice, and definitely ridden with guilt. Believing the FBC could do without her, she forces the responsibility onto Dylan just like The Board did to Jesse before. But unlike Trench, Jesse is fully aware of the storm that could arise. Dylan will be haunted by the ghost and the myth of his sister, struggling to reconcile what little he knows about her -his fading memories of their childhood and all the tales of what she went through to find him- and the leader that so willingly abandoned her people.
Also, what if letting the Hiss out was the only way to wake Dylan up???
_
There could've been a huge schism within the FBC itself (hinted in Firebreak).
What if the Board and Jesse disagreed on how to deal with this new threat (thinking it's something related to the knowledge the Board gained at the Nail during Foundation), something like idk, Jesse wanted to get rid of it while the Board wanted to contain it.
Worst case scenario: Jesse-Polaris is related to the threat and she went into a self imposed isolation (maybe to avoid being controlled/integrated by the Board).
I'm thinking about all the fractal imagery, Polaris and the mention in Firebreak about how the number of hiss doesn't make sense, like something keeps multiplying them.
_
What if the Aberrant is made from a piece of the Service Weapon, wouldn't that piss off the Board while giving them a conduit to Dylan's powers?
It would also explain the kind of hesitance Jesse shows before stabbing Dylan, like she's not happy about what she's about to put him through, essentialy delivering him to the Board, and willingly abandoning him.
_
We assume Polaris and Hedron are absolute benevolent entities, but we forget they've been at war with the Hiss for eons. Polaris/Hedron could be playing a game of chess against the Hiss with pieces and rules we don't know about. The FBC and Fadens could be nothing but lowly pawns in the grand scheme of things. A means to an end.
_
"Pace yourself"
Is she gonna be a guide of some sort? A ghost that shows up from time to time? Like Trench did before to Jesse?
And if she did something truly messed up, would he go down the path of denial, same as Jesse did at first when they first met? Would he be forgiving? He doesn't have a place he just discovered he could fit in and call home. The place he's in turned him into a monster and he cannot bring back the lives he took.
This time at least, there're no constraints or consequences for lashing out.
No one is going to try to sedate him.
RCU Timeline
I've been sitting on this update since a couple weeks after FBC: Firebreak released. No idea if the update coming this month will include more lore but I decided to upload anyways.
Biggest change is I removed all references to Quantum Break and did away with hints at time dilation inside the Oldest House because lmao Firebreak shot down that theory hard :]
View the file right here.
Project homepage:
Remedy Connected Universe Timeline - Control and Alan Wake videogames.
Archiving these answer from this +10 years old AMA
Q: Was the Dark Presence created by Thomas Zane? Sam: The Dark Presence has always been there. Thomas Zane has not.
Q: Why is it an ocean, and not a lake? Sam: It’s bigger than a lake. The lake is just a hole to get to the ocean. It’s boundless, our world is just an island in that ocean.
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Q: If you could make Alan Wake 2, what would you do differently? Was there anything specific that you learned from Alan Wake 1? Sam: In this line of work, you never stop learning. Each project teaches you a lot. And I hope that each new one is better in some ways than the previous one. For AW2, there would definitely be less dark forests and more gameplay variety.
LESS DARK FORESTS HAHAHA
Q: If you weren't working for Remedy, what studio could you see yourself being a part of? Sam: If you asked my colleague Mikki Rautalahti (an awesome writer), he'd say a dance studio. But the truth is, no studio probably, I'd be writing blogs like This House of Dreams, or novels. That's what I'll do when I retire.
Q: My name is Joshua Lake… Would be sweet to be related to someone as awesome as you Sam: …daddy?
I finished The Final Draft - No spoiler ramblings:
Yes there are a few different things that would 100% make me want to try re-trace the game and maybe try to put the story loops in a visual chart or something.
But I'm exhausted of looking at so many details, theorizing and the like - and summer is starting to get itself felt, thanks +30°c! -, also I really feel like going back to drawing in full force.
But I just wanna say this:
It's easy to engage with this game's story and narrative in a world-building, lore-driven sense. That is, working exclusively with the text and clues given explicitly by the game, staying within universe.
However, to all my dear artists friends and followers, and all those of you that have a creative hobby or "thing":
I hope this game has to hit you hard.
Scratch is a deeply sad and miserable character. He wants attention and approval desperately, and gets violent if he doesn't get it, he will tear the world apart and change it to fit this petty need.
How many times did you feel envy or jealousy for your fellow creatives? How many times did you get angry or blame it on the algorithm?
How humiliated, sad and angry did you feel when you didn't get the the attention from that one specific person or group of people you were so absolutely sure would give you such, because this new piece you did? This new piece you tailored specifically with them in mind?
How many times did you not want to admit to yourself that you could feel and think in such a miserable way?
Yeah, same.
Oh and, did you notice that?
The Dark Place and all its loops and spirals and non linear, non-causal events? So many people trying to make sense of it, is it parallel realities, is it a literary Ouroboros, is it the substrate of the collective consciousness that permeates existence itself and collects and manifests nightmares, etc etc?
How many of your projects did you start from the very beginning, and followed in a straight line, start to end, with no interruptions, revisions or corrections?
Yeah, same.
Sometimes you change the beginning or start over because you discovered something very neat in the middle or near the end of the project. Sometimes the end does change the beginning, sometimes a detail in the middle changes both the beginning and the end. Sometimes you do an entire piece because of one single detail or story point you want to do.
Sometimes you add a whole new character or modify an existing event because you met someone or went through an event that left an impact on you.
So on and so forth.
It's not so much a matter of time, of what came before or after. It's a matter of experience and picking the ones you want to add to your present, past or future project.
And sometimes, you get trapped in your own mind feeding fears that stop you from even trying, believing you're alone in such a struggle.
But hey, it's alright to forget that every artists and creative person goes through this. Just remember you're not alone in that path.
Remedy devs: "Maybe we're adding too many Finnish things to our games which take place on the US"
Me, a southamerican: "oh cool! finally something that's just as culturally foreign but refreshing!"
I'm no graphic designer but I tried ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Scratch
Vertical
My timeline project is going well - Haven't gone through the first Alan Wake in an exhaustively, thorough way yet so I'm using the wiki's timeline info for now.
I have yet to fit events from Control that have vague dates or timelines, like the creation of Dimensional Research, Slidescape expeditions, Dylan killing an agent, Northmoor getting in/breaking from the NSC-1, etc.
Spoilers for Alan Wake 2 under the cut - I'm not tagging it because I don't want any corrections yet, I'm going through each game again very slowly, and then there's the written material like This House of Dreams and The Alan Wake files