I found that very intestering too. I played Alan Wake a month ago and just finished Control for the second time. In the Investigations sector and the AWE DLC you watch these videos and you can see that Wake face Zane in that place (probably the cabin where he had the typewriter, I don't know where exactly is). But this Zane didn't looked like the diver-guider of light he came across in Bright Falls, he presents himself as a filmmaker. And as you remember there's this copy of Wake (Mr. Scratch) that's made of darkness and it's the opposite-mirrored of what Alan is. I remember Wake saying that he wouldn't make the same mistake Zane made bringing back the darkness with him, he would stay and destroy it. That's why he dive, saved Alice but stayed in the lake. He knew the darkness would reclaim him. So I think there are two Zanes, the bright and the dark and the only people that remember the real one, the poet, are the ones that had the shoebox with his books (like Jesse's parents probably). I dont' know if this is explained later in AW2 but if you remember, Wake himself says that he returned normality to Bright Falls (but maybe the effect could've been spread a little beyond) by going back in time to when Alice falls and he dives after her and that only the ones touched by the darkness remembers what really happens (Barry, Sara, the Andersons, Hartmann, Nightindale, and probably a few more characters doesn't come to mind now). Maybe that's what happened in the seventies with Zane, he defeated the darkness, everything came back to normal but people didn't remeber him anymore, instead they remember the dark copy, the filmmaker.

This is just a theory I just thought while reading this discussion. A really interesting universe this guy created. I can't stop theorizing about everything in Control, there's just too much information in my head now (and I still haven't played Alan Wake 2 yet) {exploiding head emoji}

Given that you wrote this over a month ago I’m going to assume you finished Control AWE. If not, stop reading now.

All of these connections are super important, and they led me to the same conclusion, but there is another puzzle piece missing here too that you may have overlooked, well a few really. This is exquisitely complicated.

The FBC doesn’t always get things right. The end of that report states that Wake altered reality “locally, and for a short amount of time” and this leads a lot of people to believe that this is all he can do. Simultaneously they forget that he REWROTE his wife into existence. His impacts are permanent. He can alter reality any way he sees fit, unless the dark presence feels threatened, hence all the complication and convolution.

In Control base game there are Night Springs scripts that loosely point to the plot of Trench’s downfall.

In AWE it is overtly revealed that Wake himself wrote the Hiss incantation, calling it Dadaist poem.

The Bright Falls AWE. Jesse, Dylan, Polaris, - and their eventual encounter with the hiss, was all a story written by Alan. He needs a hero. He needs a “mysterious government agency”. So he invents them in the past.

Simple as that. I’ll be here all week.

I see what you mean.

I didn't remember at the time but yes, I had the same feeling through the whole game that much of what's happening in Control was written by Wake at some point.

I didn't gave it much importance at the time because I believed that he could only affects reality when he wanted to or after the touch of the Dark Presence, but now I think he always had that power. Maybe that's why the FBC wanted him in the Prime Candidate Program.

I also played the DLCs to the first Alan Wake that didn't noticed I had installed.

And that was quite clarifying.

Tom Zane is gone and only exists in the Dark Place because Wake writes him in the story but he can't escape, he never could. Although he can send some signals to other planes, just like Wake did through the dreams and the Night Springs show. Still don't know where Mr. Scratch fits in all this and who is visiting Alice Wake at night (as found in FBC archives). Also in the American Nightmare game I didn't get it clear of what happens at the end.

It seems like the re-encounter it's happening for real "Alan... I can't believe it's really you..." but this is also the film she made ("Dawn") based on footage of them so it's very confusing.

I recently found out about a blog named "This House Of Dreams". It seems to be just a teaser to promote the American Nightmare game and that there was a second part incoming (or maybe even the Control game).

Looks like Wake is also using shoeboxes to communicate with the "real world" and he can also talks through people's dreams.

This is also weird because as sang (reversed) in the Old God's Balance Slays The Demon the story is repeating in a town called Ordinary. But I don't know if it's talking about the AWE told in Control or the events told in the blog.

Maybe the blogger's house is where Jesse lived and also where she read about Zane, the poem Jesse mentioned is there in the shoebox.

There's also an interesting thing here in the blog's poems and it's that some poems doesn't seem to be from Tom, because the notes are from Barbara Jagger, finding the poems together with Tom. So is it another diver that lived there before or what the heck? The blogger even find a lightswitch (like "the clicker") but from from a century ago.

I'm sorry if this is extense but this allows me to clarify and order my knowledge

I don’t know how the blogger fits into this, and I have forgotten some details, but Mr Scratch is just Alan’s negative reflection. Like any object viewed from the surface of a body of water. But corrupted by the dark presence. They allude to this at one point in Alan Wake 2, but really it’s a throwback to the inverted pyramids in control as well. Another clue about who is pulling the strings.

I started to wonder about that light switch. Alan has a clicker. The oldest house has a cord that subsequently cloned itself and transports you to the astral plane/oceanview motel. The Astral plane contains the inverted black pyramid which is alluded have a connection, but we straight up find Alan inside the Oceanview Motel at the end of AWE.

There are so many overarching connections that it just seems obvious to me that Alan is pulling the strings. We may not get all the answers, but I think that much is pretty clear.

Whoops, I realized I wrote Bright falls AWE.

The ORDINARY AWE is what I was referring to as Alan’s doing.

Damn I didn't see it that way before. I focused more on the Control side of the universe, maybe because I played it first but now I see that. Maybe it was Alan all along. I'm going to get AW2 next week probably, hope it clarifies some more.

I was thinking about the games separately, and seeing AW events as a triviality, as a victim of the supernatural reality of the world (is that what Alan wants us to believe? ). The FBC don't even got idea of what's happening inside the building they work everyday.

I'll try to see it that way next time I play, maybe it makes more sense.

@RGBlueberry So Tom the Poet was the real life man from Bright Falls history who wrote himself out of existence to banish the dark presence that had taken his Muse as host back into the Dark Place. Given these facts no one should remember Thomas Zane. That being said there is no memory of a Tom Zane the Poet but well documented history (almost identical history/backstory and exactly identical in the context of plot elements to both stories) that being said given the details given in Control AWE and then the events of Alan and Zane within the dark place and Zane the filmmakers new and documented history within AW2 its very clear that much like Mr Scratch/Dark Presence had used Alans face/body after the events of the first game within dlc continuing into American Nightmare (where hes been able to use Alan as source for a face and body in the real world. Doing so to commit heinous crimes like the serial killing murder of multiple people the entity known as Scratch is eventually defeating by Alan writing multiple story loops into a spiral and using a film projector to burn the dark away destroying his body in life forcing a return to The Dark Place but unable to write himself out in the process this defeat doesnt destroy Scratch)

For the sake of not knowing whether youve been able to complete Control AWE or AW2 yet I will restrain from providing further context using the events of the dlc and sequel but if you have finished and are still wondering about the confusing nature of the story within and why Tom Zane has been changed (its very confusing and admittedly if I hadn't played through Alan Wake more times than I can count American Nightmare got a playthrough when released and only now after beating Alan Wake 2 have I replayed it and understood it but Control and its AWE dlc twice and Alan Wake 2 and watching Nightless Night each time I played but also rewatching it another on YT I wouldn't have come to the conclusion that I have now which I believe to be pretty accurate and factual. Tom Zane the finnish filmmaker is Scratch within the dark place using Alan by befriending him instead of haunting him as his darkest representation like hes done before with the goal of escaping the dark place with Alan.

Dude you say you aren’t going to spoil anything and then you go and spoil things. Lmao.

Also that was nearly impossible to make sense of grammatically. I think you might have some good things to say but try slowing down and using some punctuation - and rereading it before you post. It’s a forum, not a chat.

But really though, this was not in the context of POST - Alan Wake 2. While I have finished it now, you shouldn’t have said any of that last bit unless OP chimed in and said he finished the game. Bad form my dude.

I do agree with you about he who shall not be named pretending to be the filmmaker though I’m not sure it’s relevant to the topic just yet.