#forewarning: discussing DID from the perspective of someone who does not have or exhibit the disorder | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crobones · 4 months

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so you want to know about my theory on thomas zane and alan wake! thanks so much for asking, I'm happy to share.

Y'ALL SEENT MOONKNIGHT? alright so follow me on this:

first and foremost, to clarify before I begin - the Dark Place and it's Dark Presence is real and exists

There is a Finnish auteur who comes to America with Barbara in the 1960's

when Barbara dies, the auteur experiences a split - the creation of a new alter - The Diver.

And in that very step, you realize I'm talking about DID. DISCLAIMER: Dissociative Identity Disorder is a very real psychological disorder that should be taken seriously and with respect, and those who have it (systems) deserve respect and privacy as well. This theory is in no way meant to mock or belittle or villainize any systems out there.

The Initial Split: the traumatic event(s) that happened to Alan (the name of the child before the split) occurred at a very young age, obviously. Before he developed a personality, according to studies on DID. And all we can gather on the parents are of what Zane and Alan have co-written about [Alan's] mother and a father he didn't know. It is stated that Linda spent most of [Alan's] life in psychiatric care for a yet-to-be-if-ever disclosed reason. I'm not saying she also had DID, as it is not inherited, but children of those with disorders can be more prone to developing their own.

it's possible a specific traumatic event that acted as the catalyst for the initial split involved drowning, or water somehow.

EITHERHOOT, back to the Child. DID can exist and not be realized until well into adulthood. So the Child goes about life, becomes a poet, a writer, a director. He creates the character of The Diver due to an intense fascination with the darkness of the worlds that can exist in deep, deep bodies of water (lol same) and a want to explore those worlds.

At this point in time - Before Barbara Dies - these are occupations that the host has - not separate alters. The Diver is a character, also not an alter (yet; I'll get there.)

But Cro, if Thomas is the host for the majority of this time, why is there no trace of him existing except for maybe a poem? Well, because Thomas Zane was not born as Thomas Zane. When the Child was born, he was named Alan Wake - at least on any and all legal documentation. Tom's wife and friends and colleagues all knew him as Tom because that's how "he" (the system) introduced themself to everyone. Tom Zane was the first Primary Host - the alter who Fronts, or uses the body and interacts with the outside world.

So let us begin again: Thomas Zane is a Finnish auteur who comes to America with his wife Barbara in the 1960's. He is the primary hosting alter of a system he possibly does not even know exists.

Barbara dies. Zane tries to bring her back with the power of The Dark Place. It fails. He carves out Barbara's heart. A split happens. The Diver emerges.

He is an Emotional Protector, but it's also likely he is a Fragment Alter, as well as a Fictive - an alter that doesn't fully develop their own unique attributes; and Fictive because he is based on a character Tom had already created. At least to start.

Tom is still the host. He has control. He and Barbara have fallen into the Dark Place.

the Dark Presence begins to try to manipulate The Diver. Tom, who is still the primary host and while trying to maintain the health of the body and fend off corruption, wants to defend The Diver. To him, The Diver is the Light, the Protector, the one tasked with processing the loss of Barbara. Because even now, the Diver is still a part of Tom. A Fragment. The Diver needs Tom to complete him, and so the Diver refers to himself as Tom as well.

But Tom is a poet, and he knows that with any Light, there also comes a Darkness. And so, to save himself and to save the Diver, Tom writes. He doesn't necessarily know that he's having any effect on reality. The way for an artist to vent emotions like fear and confusion is to create. And he would never truly make "himself" the main character - he's an auteur, he would never be so gouche. So he changes a few key aspects.

He doesn't mean for it to happen. He didn't know the extent of those inside the system, or even that they truly existed within him at all. But he writes a character - a siphon for the darkness, really. A sacrifice to the Dark Presence, as if to appease it.

Now, it is well established that writing in the Dark Presence less so fully creates something from nothing, but really just nudges things in one direction or the other.

There's a name that comes to mind - something that people used to call him when he was younger, and it always confused him. He writes a character named Alan.

Now, Zane is not so cruel as to make Alan simply a sheep led to the slaughter. and darkness itself is not something necessarily evil, per se. Within himself is a fear and a want to leave this place. Writing is escapism. It is self-preservation. Alan can be a good man that is struggling with his own devils, just as Zane deals with the Darkness he feels within himself. Alan just wants to leave.

And so Alan has an antagonist. Inspired by The Diver, the Champion of Light within himself, Tom gives unto Alan his own Herald of Darkness. He can't decide on a name for this individual. It doesn't come to him as easily as the Diver or Alan did. He gives it a few tries, but redacts all of it. In the end, and only in his mind, he refers to this devil as Mr. Scratch, but really "scratch" is just a concept that he can't think of a word for.

And so, within this Darkness, the only true way to escape that we know of is to make a sacrifice. Zane can't sacrifice Barbara, she's already dead. The Darkness had already taken her body and he knows that now. He refuses to sacrifice The Diver or Alan - they feel like a part of him.

But Mr. Scratch is just as much a part of him as the rest of the system. Zane figures he is willing to sacrifice that part of himself - the evil within.

So into the Dark Place Mr. Scratch is sent. Is it enough? Can he finally get out?

Well, while every alter in the system has a level of agency, just as The Diver is a Fragment of Zane, Scratch was really a Fragment of Alan. Even Zane established that much within his own writing. So really, the sacrifice was Alan's to make. It was a battle Alan had been fighting, not Zane.

So Alan gets out. The alters are of a system, but while Alan is Hosting, it could be said that the Alters are left in the Dark Place. Time and space don't work there as they really should, so chances are, the System could persist without a physical body.

It's not a lake, it's an ocean. Perhaps Alan emerges from he Dark Place in Cauldron Lake and simply doesn't remember traveling across the country. Zane "wrote himself out of reality" and so that could very well effect Alan's memories. It could be possible he emerges directly into New York City - where Zane had based the character's place of birth. Regardless, Alan get's to New York and attempts to live a normal and healthy life.

When Alan escapes the Dark Place, it's probably 1999, or some time close. The internet both exists but isn't infallible. Documents can be "replicated" if lost. The country is having a wild time, it wouldn't be impossible for a 33 year old man to emerge from nothingness. So what if he doesn't have any ID on him, maybe he was houseless for a time.

Because Zane "wrote" Alan's background, and it is common for someone to write what they know, Alan's life has a lot of similarities to Zane's. Alan "knows" his past. Doesn't remember any Darkness, though. Don't know what you're talking about.

Alice hears about the program and brings Alan to Bright Falls.

Within the overlap, the System can reconnect. But Alan remembers nothing about any of it. Doesn't remember the System, the town, the lake, or the Darkness. But everything and everyone remembers him very well.

And, while Scratch was sacrificed to the Darkness, well. That doesn't necessarily mean he died!

side theories!

The System's own mind place was just the writer's cabin, but it was possessed and corrupted by the darkness.

Mr. Hatch and Mr. Door are not necessarily the same. Mr. Hatch exists in reality, but perhaps Mr. Door is an Introject Alter who is also the Gatekeeper. Interesting idea, but I doubt it's likelihood.

Mr. Scratch, as he never truly "died" or left the system but had been made to succumb to it, is a Misguided Protector. He wants to protect the system from the Darkness in theory, but really he wants to prevent the circumstances that brought them to the Darkness instead. And so, Mr. Scratch thinks that they can't lose another love of their life if he kills her!

NOTE: Mr. Scratch was not so "evil" in the beginning, but he became so when sacrificed to the Darkness. But as each alter has a level of individuality and agency, while the Darkness managed to possess him, it has not managed to possess any other alter.

Linda Wake is the system's mom and birth mother. But when Tom wrote Linda giving Alan the switch, that was based on a memory of her giving the system the gift as a child. who was fronting at the time is unknown. Perhaps Alan and Tom co-fronted parts of their childhood, but Tom was the primary, as Alan is more introverted.

Any and all times Alan exhibited "insanity", that was fully induced by the Darkness. People with DID and other mental disorders do not always exhibit such symptoms as he had, if ever. Each case is unique.

The Darkness did not cause the trauma that produced the System's DID in this theory. Tom/Alan lived a life without any paranatural influence until moving to Bright Falls, though it is likely he was a parautilitarian. He is a partially a victim to the darkness, but more importantly, he is the hero of his own story.

(The system as a collective is the hero. Maybe Lan and Tom have their own paranatural abilities - Alan's involving writing and Tom's being creating movies.) But within the system is also their own enemy.)

If you've ever read the graphic novel The Wicked + The Divine and like the involvement of the gods of old and Odin, Tor, Ahti, and the like, I guess i could kinda see Tom/Alan as a "vessel"(?) for Loki. Complicated individual who means well most of the time, but has a dark side, and every interpetation of Loki depends on the perspective of the audience, which is a heavy theme in the game.

Really, i just love the idea that he's not involved in the ongoing godhood of those around him at all. He doesn't have the name of a Norse god - he's just some fuckin bloke. His wife brought him someplace and he got sucked into a fucked up scenario. Maybe The Dark Place is fucking Jotunheim and that's why Saga, and Tor, and Odin and everyone is drawn to it. They are there to protect the outside world from Jotunheim. Ahti isn't part of the same pantheon, but he is a god of water, so he's just chilling as the innocent bystander - though he has an investment of course. And then a mortal accidentally walked into their bullshit. But since he's a mortal and a creator of things, he is held in high regard. Gods really only have as much power as their worshippers give them in their stories.

The Dark Place could be Jotunheim, and maybe each resonance in the Remedy Universe is a jötun or the jötun were based on what resonance are individually or idk I could go on. reality influencing art influencing life influencing art inf- [gun shots]...

I'm tired.

(edit: reading back I initially said Barbara's death created Mr. Scratch. the entire situation with Barbara and his carving out her heart in my mind actually created the Diver, I meant to say. Scratch came later.)

(second edit: grammar and spelling)

#thomas zane #alan wake #mr. scratch #the diver #aw2 spoilers #cw: mental health #cw: mental illness #forewarning: discussing DID from the perspective of someone who does not have or exhibit the disorder #i have no intention of mocking or belittling or disrespecting anyone with DID #i will edit or delete any or all of this post per request #long post

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