The Remedy Connected Universe (RCU) is one confusing place. A large part of that reason is that it loves to blur the lines between meta and fiction. Once you really get into it you'll find yourself learning the history of the company itself.
One character that exemplifies the blurred lines between reality and fiction is Alex Casey. He is a fictional character written by Alan Wake, an actual FBI agent, and a series of Max Payne Easter eggs. You could spend a few years delving into all the crevices of the character.
For the sake of this post I won't do that and instead focus on only one aspect of the character. And what aspect is that? The subtextual gay feelings Alan Wake has for Alex Casey.
To fully understand who Alex Casey is we'll need to focus on reality. I'm not going to go into as great of detail here as I could. Which should make some of you happy. Anyways...by the time of making the game Alan Wake, Remedy had lost the rights to the Max Payne series.
Alan Wake really seems to take a lot of inspiration from Sam Lake's, the head of Remedy, actual life. So putting in a Max Payne Easter egg in the form of novels that made Alan Wake famous makes a lot of sense. This due to the fact that besides working on that series, Lake also used his likeness for the titular character.
Alex Casey became much more than an Easter egg in Control. Remedy had regained the rights to Alan Wake and decided for both games to be set in the same universe. So instead of being merely a fictional character, Alex Casey turned out to be real.
Even if you played Control, you could have missed THIS LITTLE NOTE. Hence I linked to it.
Alan Wake 2 had Alex Casey finally appear as an actual character. No longer was he merely a Max Payne Easter egg. No longer was his presence mentioned in a way some players could have missed it. Now he was played by Sam Lake and voiced by James McCaffrey just like Max Payne back in the day.
If you liked how complicated Alex Casey's story got before we even started, you are going to love the RCU.
Alan Wake rose to a level of fame he wasn't prepared for by writing about a fictional detective called Alex Casey. To him Alex was a very fictional character whose only purpose was to earn him money. It wasn't until the second game that Alan realized that Alex was, in fact, very real and very pissed off about the writer's famous novels.
Alan was able to achieve such a feat due to his powers. Until Bright Falls he had no knowledge of what he could do. So he was able to find Alex Casey but not know he was doing so.
Like a lot of writers who get famous by writing about one character, Alan eventually grew tired of writing Alex Casey novels. So he did what some writers in the past have done: killed off Alex Casey so he could try to escape having to write another novel about the character.
Now this should have been the perfect time for Alan to start branching out. He could even write in a completely new genre. But without Alex Casey, Alan had severe writer's block and couldn't write anything for years.
You can't examine every game the same. This is due to the fact that not every game is made with the same quality in mind. The RCU has shown itself to be competent to the point of putting little touches that other games wouldn't bother with. Hence focusing on the characters that voice actors bring to life in the RCU.
In Skyrim, a game I became obsessed with last year, the majority of characters are voiced by the same voice actor. So for that game I wouldn't focus on any voice actor's characters the majority of the time.
James McCaffrey voices the Bright Presence in Alan Wake and Alex Casey in the sequel. He also voices the late Director of the FBC in Control but I don't want to shift this post's focus too much. Because, oh boy, did some theories start forming in my mind just now.
One theory I now completely believe in after finishing the first Alan Wake game is that the Bright Presence isn't Thomas Zane. Instead the Bright Presence is a fictionalized version of the poet written by Alan. Due to how things work in the series, Alan wouldn't ever be able to create Thomas Zane.
I won't describe the theory in detail as anything involving Thomas Zane tends to get out of hand really quickly. So if I don't have a post designed around the enigmatic character, I won't be going into too great of detail.
So what does Alan Wake making a fictionalized version of a poet with the voice of a character he thought he created but is actually a real human being mean?
It means that Alan has put Alex Casey up on a pedestal. He sees the FBI agent as a shining light and guiding force that he needs in the darkest of times.
The Dark Place is the hellish dimension that the Dark Presence calls home. It's also the place that the Dark Presence is continually attempting to get out of.
The plot of the first game is all about Alan Wake trying to figure out what's actually going on. In his journey he ends up finding that Alice, his wife, is trapped in the Dark Place. His solution is to trade places with Alice which means he becomes trapped in the Dark Place.
Silent Hill is similar to the Dark Place in that both places are formed by the people inside of them. So all the horrors that people experience are formed by their own minds. They are continually broken by what they think and feel.
So you could consider it as Alan tormenting himself in the Dark Place. He is tormented by the whole writing process and promoting said writing. Such as the landscape around him changes by his attempts to write and find a way out. The "Herald of Darkness" number, which is all about Alan's journey thus far, happens during a late night talk show.
If Alan didn't consider Alex Casey important, the agent wouldn't be in the Dark Place. But not only does a version of Alex appear, he is integral to Alan's version of the hellish dimension. It is him who Alan follows to write and solve a mystery.
Alan is at the lowest point of his life and it is Alex who he turns to for direction.
Alan Wake finally is freed from the Dark Place near the beginning of Alan Wake 2. Well...sort of...but that's a story for another post. Anyways...when Alan comes out of the Dark Place he sees two faces. One face he is familiar with and the other is a stranger.
One of the faces is Saga Anderson. She is an FBI agent and the second playable character of the game. The other face is of Alex Casey who Alan, at the moment, thinks is a purely fictional character with no connection to anyone living.
So at first Alan thinks Alex is proof that that he is still trapped in the Dark Place. That yet another attempt to escape has been unsuccessful. That there is no hope for him and he will suffer insanity for eternity until the Dark Presence wins.
Yet Alex is very real and a signal that Alan has escaped.
The Dark Presence became obsessed with possessing Alex Casey ever since the first Alan Wake game. I'm surprised that I was shocked when he became possessed near the end of the second game as it was clearly foreshadowed.
One piece of said foreshadowing was 'Nightless Night'. It is a foreign arthouse film that you can watch in its entirety. You can do so in game or on YouTube like I did. The basic premise is that Aleksi Kesä (basically a variant of Alex Casey) is caught up in something strange and he is eventually possessed. Well...part of him is stuck in the Writer's Room.
Another piece of foreshadowing happens when the Elderwood Palace Lodge is attacked by the 'cultists'. During the attack, Alex is briefly possessed. It's like the Dark Presence was taking its victim out for a test drive.
When the Dark Presence was forcibly kicked out of Alan Wake it went into Alex Casey. I don't know how I didn't guess that Alex was going to be possessed as the foreshadowing was like a battering ram.
The only reason the Dark Presence would be so obsessed is if Alan considered Alex so important to him. So in a way it's because of Alan that Alex was possessed. Not that Alex's possession was ever anything but a way for the Dark Presence to torment Alan.
Remember you can submit ideas for future posts by commenting on this post. I also talk about other fandoms, so don't feel that you have to only submit ideas for Remedy Connected Universe posts.
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