Bang's Blogs: James Sunderland vs Alan Wake
(By: Yuix)
(By: GnomeChompski)
(By: Tario)
(By: Thicc Grimes)
“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” - Stephen King
James Sunderland, the widowed survivor of Silent Hill.
Alan Wake, the novelist turned Champion of Light.
Today we’re comparing two men who’ll go through any length to see their wives again, even put themselves through a town that defies reality and delves into non-stop mind melting horror. They may have survived their own minds used against them, but when thrown against each other in a bloody fight for survival, who will get the chance to have their happy ending? Will Alan Wake bring the light to victory and will James Sunderland put a rest to his dreams? Find out in this survival horror DEATH BATTLE!
Before We Start…
Hello all, Thicc Grimes here. I guess I have some explaining to do on what exactly this is doing here. You see, on my endless quest to buff Horror Icons, I had Silent Hill in my sights for a very long time. Technically having started working on it very early into 2024. Originally this was just gonna be a research blog about Heather (Cheryl) Mason, but once Gnome Chompski and Yuix started badgering me about this match, I fit in James as well, as they really wanted to do this as a full blog.
Regardless of how Bang’s pitches ultimately turned out, this was always gonna happen. So when my Silent Hill research wrapped up, Gnome brought up to Bang the possibility of just doing this as a side thing. This happening isn't taking up a spot from anyone else's pitch, this is just more so my blog that Bang is being nice enough to let me upload with his. So any gripes or whatnot that you may have with this, just hit me up and we'll chat about it!
As far was what we’ll be using.. for James, most media in the Silent Hill franchise is canon. We'll be looking into the main series of games, remake, the comics and the Book of Lost Memories. For thoroughness, we'll also be looking into any available side media such as guide books, the novelisations, interviews, the movies (cause why not), etc. Much is the same for Alan. We'll be looking into Alan Wake 1 & 2, their respective DLCs, the novelisation, the comics, the prequel show etc. Along with any side media, such as the Survival Guide, Interviews, the Alan Wake Files, House of Dreams blog, etc. This does include American Nightmare, while its place in canon is questionable, we want to cover all bases.
For this fight we will be assuming a couple things however, we will be looking at this as if they are within an even playing field. That being that James and Alan are within Bright Falls as it’s taken over by an Otherworld as to ensure both have access to their maximum potential.
Now with that out of the way, onto James Sunderland VS Alan Wake. Enjoy!
Special Thanks to the Silent Hill Wiki, Silent Hill Memories website, the Alan Wake wiki and VSBW for some calcs!
Background
James Sunderland
“Mary.. could you really be in this town?”
It had been three years since James’ beloved wife had died to a horrible disease, widowed and alone, James Sunderland spent his days drinking the pain away and silencing his inner demons. Until out of nowhere, he got a letter.. from her. In this letter, Mary tells James that she is in their special place in the town Silent Hill. James knew it was too good to be true, but he had nothing left to lose and drove down to Maine. Desperate to see if it were true. Even after being warned of the weird nature of the town, James did not care but soon He came to realise what made the town so dangerous. This town was full of monsters, and had drawn in people just like him. During this he found a woman who looked almost exactly like his late wife, protecting her as she helped him look for Mary and a little girl, Laura, who somehow knew who Mary was. James would make his way through Silent Hill, fighting and surviving against the worst horrors imaginable and solving elaborate puzzles to further progress in his search for anything that could potentially lead him to his Wife's whereabouts. However, after Maria had died in front of him and miraculously reappeared, she had begun recalling memories from James’ past, things only Mary would know. This started to make James question his sanity even further and after watching her executed once again, James broke and realized what the Executioners around him were there for. To punish him for his sins. After defeating them both, James would then reunite with Laura and find a tape left for him by Mary, revealing the full truth. Mary had not been dead any longer than a few days, and he had been the one that killed her. Coming to Silent Hill as it was his last happy memory with her, to join her in death. Yet, James still couldn't let go. After hearing Mary's voice on his radio one more time, he set out for the nearby construction site… only to find Maria. James had enough of this nightmare and demanded it to end, only for Maria to not want to let go of him. After a final confrontation, James’ final fate is unknown.
Ultimately just being another name on the list of people who went missing in that town.
Alan Wake
“If our lives are already written, it would take a courageous man to change the script.”
In the year of 2010, Alan Wake, Famous Writer needed a break from being a celebrity. After having a strange dream with a dark presence, He and his Wife, Alice had decided to take a vacation at the small town of Bright Falls. This was his chance to relax for once and not worry about his work but Alice had a surprise for him. A typewriter in their rented cabin. In a fit of rage, Alan stormed out of the cabin for some fresh air only for that to be followed by Alice’s screams for help. Alice had been kidnapped and Alan needed to find her, while realizing something was up with the town. The things from his dream had seemingly come to life. People taken by the Dark Presence were hunting him down and only Light could bring them down, exactly as shown to him in his dream. After getting help from his close friend, Barry and the local police department, Alan ripped his way through the town, fighting the Taken and escaping from those touched by the Dark Presence’s influence. Meanwhile, experiencing his own writing come to life, much to his shock. He would eventually track down his Wife’s kidnapper but in a twist, he didn’t have her, the lake itself did. Something about this lake was forcing Alan’s writing into reality and the Dark Presence wanted to use Alan’s writing to release it upon the world. Ultimately, James would challenge the Presence, using a special light switch gifted to him from his Mother to free Bright Falls and wrote it so that he would take Alice’s place, freeing her at the cost of him being stuck within the Dark Place for 13 years. Fighting to keep his sanity and find a way out, all while his dark counterpart “Mr. Scratch” was sent to the real world as his replacement, torturing Alice to the present day. In the end, with the aid of FBI Agent Saga Anderson, the darkness would be defeated once again and Alan was finally free.
Experience & Skill
James
Even while enduring the mental torture of the Otherworld, James always managed to keep a level head on his journey through Silent Hill, refusing to give up on his search for his beloved wife. Its twisting of reality failed to detour James for very long as he showed a knack for solving complex riddles and has cleverly solved a multitude of obscure puzzles to make his way around the cursed town. Though he is decently handy when it comes to mechanics and has read a brief guide on gun safety, James has no formal combat or survival training of any sort. But this doesn’t stop him from being perfectly capable of nailing shots on his targets without missing and in the pachinko game, James is portrayed as pretty competent in combat, utilizing his surroundings to his advantage and thinking quickly to gain an edge on much more imposing threats. James has consistently shown that he is a capable survivor and is often scavenging items and weapons from his environment to aid in his survival, even drawing detailed maps on the spot as he traversed Silent Hill's labyrinths to ensure he doesn’t get lost.
James ultimately came to realise Silent Hill was a demonic playground that was toying with his mind, ultimately resisting such attempts such as when Maria tried to prey on his emotions. James also has read up on occult novels, using this knowledge in the rebirth ending as he proceeds to gather items to attempt to resurrect Mary and gain favor from the Old Gods of Silent Hill. This prior experience helped when he came in possession of the book of memories, a reality changing book and combating others with copies themselves. Battling their wills manifested and traversing Otherworld dungeons, killing monsters from his, and others' pasts.
Not bad for a 29 year old Store Clerk.
Alan
Being a writer and taking heavy inspiration from Stephen King, Alan is of course very talented at crafting unique stories that have turned into best selling novels and him into a world famous celebrity. He himself even admits to as much. This may not seem like it’d be very helpful but it has proven valuable in his survival, like when he wrote up a page to bring down a satellite to destroy an oil rig that was summoning taken. Alan has more than proven himself as a capable and crafty survivor, often utilizing his surroundings to gain an edge on The Taken. Knowing how to pick locks and can drive just about any vehicle he comes across, driving them efficiently even in combat situations. Even without using his writing, Alan is a competent fighter and has utilized various firearms to his success, despite having no prior combat training. He’s taken down dozens of The Taken, with the novel stating that “Not even the real Gods of Asgard could’ve done better” when he’s engaged in battles for survival. Which tracks since he's taken down Omnipotent Eldritch Horrors and has escaped realms that exist beyond time and space.
After defeating the Dark Presence and saving Alice, He was stuck within the Dark Place for 13 years. Alan never gave up on trying to escape, despite it driving him mad, writing countless manuscripts to force his escape into the story. In doing this he wrote many people into his stories, manipulating their lives to fit within it, eventually succeeding with Saga Anderson and aiding in the defeat of Mr. Scratch. Saving reality as a result.
Not bad for a 46 year old American Novelist.
Arsenal
James
Wooden Plank
A sturdy piece of wood with some nails in it.
Steel Pipe
A classic. Wielded by all Silent Hill protagonists.
Beretta 92fs Centurion
A reliable lightweight firearm. It’s an automatic pistol that holds ten shots in a slide-in handle clip.
Remington Model 870
A powerful pump action shotgun. It holds six shots at a time and is the most powerful gun in Silent Hill 2, despite its lacking range.
Winchester Model 70 Rifle
A Hunting Rifle that holds 4 shots and James’ most precise weapon.
Great Knife
Just one half of a giant pair of Scissors, with the other belonging to Pyramid Head. It’s super heavy, but incredibly strong as it’s able to one shot almost any enemy in the game.
Chainsaw
Groovy.
It’s unblocked during a replay game, allowing James to gore his enemies and rip ‘em to shreds, with him even given ‘em a battle cry as a warning!
Hyper Spray
There are several variants of Hyper Spray, varying in degrees of effectiveness and purpose. The Purple Spray knocks down some enemies and disorients all. The White Spray chases away Creepers and kills Moths. The Yellow Spray can force enemies to fight each other and immobilize them. Finally the Green Spray kills all enemies immediately, Pyramid Head aside. Each has the power to bust down walls apparently and James needs to be careful with it, as it can harm him too.
Shiv Key
A shank, but it’s also a key!
Instrument of Force
Can you guess what it’s for?
Key of Bliss
Probably the exact opposite of blissful being stabbed by this rusty thing.
Pillow
Hey, what’s this doing here? Where’s Mary?
Health Drink
As the bottle says they’re actually nutrition supplements. These things must be jacked if they help against getting cut up and stabbed.
Syringes
Using rusty, dirty needles to pick you back up probably isn’t the best idea. But it sure works for James.
Ampoule
A glass vial of medicine and one of James’ better options for healing.
First-Aid Kits
Radio
Flashlight
Channeling Stone
Used to summon Aliens for the joke endings in Silent Hill 2 and the Remake. These Aliens could nuke Silent Hill in the joke ending for the 3rd in defense of Heather.
White Claudia
An addictive hallucinogenic drug, James uses it in a secret ending where he believes he steps inside of a television to be with Mary.
1977 Pontiac Ventura
James’ personal vehicle (Don’t ask what’s in the back seat).
Boat
A typical row boat James uses in game. Pretty slow right? Well how about a fucking speed boat from the Pachislot Game? That better?
Misc. Items
Across his journey, James has used a plethora of items to solve puzzles and survive. Including: a Can Opener, Horse Shoe, Lighter, Lighter Gas, Tablets, Vinyl Glue, Wire Cutter, Wrench, Various Weights, Gasoline, Bolt Cutter, Matches, Handkerchief, Paint Thinner, Rings, Medical Tubes, Wax Figure, Drycell Batteries, Eggs, Music Boxes, Coins, a Bent Needle, Spare Ammo, a map and Resurrection Ritual Items.
The Book of Memories
Just one of many books written by The Order that are cursed with negative energy and “bound as if by steel, so as to be impervious from assault from non-believers”. Embodying them with God’s will, it possesses all of their memories throughout their entire lives, allowing them to change whatever they could want so long as they have enough “memory residue”. The book is mainly used to alter the past of course and being able to bring its contents into the real world. It can control the life of others as well, as shown in the pure light ending and the world around them as insinuated in the light and neutral endings, with it even being able to write things out of existence itself, as shown in the pure blood ending. The Book also has very potent Regeneration and durability, resisting having its pages torn out and being burned to ash. Characters have used this thing for even the most petty of tasks, such as screwing over their coworker from getting a promotion or ruining romantic relationships. In using the book to affect others, the user is transported into their “dreamscape” and their wills clash (portrayed through the use of boss fights), although in some endings this isn't required and as suggested by Michelle’s notes. Other users of the book have used it to heal wounds and Harry Mason was also able to use the book to rewrite the timeline and kickstart the game of Shattered Memories, which takes place in an alternate universe. The book is not invincible however, there are ways to destroy it, though we're never given a direct answer on what can destroy it.
Book of Memories Items
Weapons
Book of Memories is a canon game in the franchise, and increases James’ arsenal significantly. Including: a Baseball Bat, Crowbar, Fire Axe, Guitar, Butcher’s Knife, Meat Cleaver, Pick Axe, Shovel, Wine Bottle, A.Y. Guitar, Torch, Assault Rifle, Revolver, Pump-Action Shotgun, Submachine Gun, Crossbow, Rock Drill, Circular Saw, Military Flamethrower, Grenades, Robbie Doll, Various Masks and Helmets.
Laser Pistol
Modeled after a Konami Justifier. It's a high powered blaster, likely meant to be similar to the one Alex acquires in Homecoming, which is alien tech.
Great Cleaver
First wielded by the Butcher and then Travis Grady, it’s a hefty bladed weapon in a similar vein to the Great Knife.
Boogeyman’s Hammer
A magic hammer used by the Boogeyman in Downpour. It’s mostly a good bludgeoning weapon, but the Boogeyman himself uses it to send shockwaves at targets.
Fire Sword
Deals extra damage against the Element of Wood.
Wood Sword
Deals extra damage against the Element of Earth.
Water Sword
Deals extra damage against the Element of Fire.
Earth Sword
Deals extra damage against the Element of Water.
Steel Sword
Deals extra damage against the Elements of Blood and Light.
Great Spear
A long ranged weapon first used by Pyramid Head against James Sunderland, also doubling as a ranged weapon.
Sword of Obedience
Using the elements of Light and Steel, it’s a special sword first used by Henry Townshend to stab ghosts and hold them in place.
Dagger of Melchior
Using the element of Steel, it’s one of four items used by Harry Mason to aid in unlocking secrets about Alessa. Makes for a sturdy combat knife that makes quick work of monsters.
TV Remote
Possesses “Unusual” Properties. Capable of transmutation, enemies struck with it will turn into different ones.
Television
An exploding old-ass tv used to beat the hell out of monsters from a distance.
Artifacts and Tools
James can gather many useful items throughout BoM’s Dungeons. Including: Backpacks, Ammo, Health Packs, Tool Kits, Various stat amping charms and Various stat amplifying pins.
Identity Stones
A magic stone that allows the user to change their appearance.
Renewal Cards
Magically replenishes health, ammo and weapon durability.
Amethyst of Rain Goddess
A crystal said to be a cure for drunkenness.
Amulet of Soloman
A metal medallion with the Star of David, used to slightly increase stats.
Ancient Cedar Incense
Tree scented, used for rituals and amplifying the mind.
Arcana Deck
A full deck of tarot cards that amplify the user’s mind.
Bundled Sticks
A… bundle of sticks. Slightly amplifies in game stats.
Halo of the Sun Rock
Amplifies agility and the mind.
Holy Candle
A candle that can ward off ghosts. Increases strength, mind and intelligence.
Emblem of Hierophant
A golden religious artifact that increases dexterity.
Fang Necklace
A necklace of animal teeth that amplifies strength.
Feather Nightmare Catcher
A Native American charm used to ward off nightmares and increase agility and mind.
Flask of Mineral Water
Flint Arrowhead
Increases strength, vitality and mind.
Silver Bracer of Serpents
A silver arm band that greatly increases in game stats.
Seed Packet
Seeds to a mysterious plant, amplifies the mind.
Red Eye of Raven
Increases strength, agility and intelligence.
Carved Wax Doll
Likely representing one of The Order’s Gods, it improves dexterity and agility.
Chalk of Rituals
Used for unholy rites, it can also increase in game stats.
Chamuel’s Rose Quartz
A rose tinted jewel modeled after the Archangel of Love. Increases vitality.
Charcoal
Increases strength and intelligence.
Crane’s Neck
A piece of bamboo tied together with a red ribbon, used to increase dexterity and agility.
Crest of Mercury
An iconic symbol of Rome’s Messenger God, while decreasing strength slightly it makes up with increasing vitality and agility.
Vine Coronet of Famine
Is said to protect the wearer from poverty.
Spike Coronet of Death
A crown that projects misery and failure to anyone who challenges the wearer.
Bloodied Coronet of War
It fuels the user’s rage and strengthens them.
Jeweled Coronet of Conquest
An elegant crown that is said to feed the wearer’s ambition.
Wooden Effigy of Guardian
A carving of a winged monster, used to amplify dexterity and the mind.
Police Badge
Belonged to Anne’s father from Downpour. Increases strength, agility and intelligence.
Ornate Finger Trap
Increases strength more than any artifact.
Django’s Dondonda
It’s a fucking banana that smells like milk?? Decently buffs your stats though.
Fairy Pendant
Modeled after the Pipe Fairy from SH3, it buffs up stats decently.
Butter Cake
Withered Flower Bundle
Wilted tulips used to amplify the user’s mind.
Winged Athame of Hecate
A blade for witchcraft used to strengthen mind and muscle.
Tome of Seer
Hampers dexterity but increases mental stats.
Soul of Weeping Demon
A blood red ember rock that increases vitality and mind.
Hypodermic Needle
Increases dexterity and vitality but decreases agility.
Disc of Ouroboros
A clay imprint of a snake swallowing itself used to strengthen the mind.
Malformed Bone of Scraper
Increases strength, dexterity and intelligence.
Monkey’s Paw
Hey, I've seen this one before. Reduces strength and dexterity but increases vitality.
Foul Pudding Cup
Nasty old pudding. Increases vitality.
Mermaid’s Heart Pendant
Increases dexterity and vitality.
Golden Ankh
An Egyptian trinket to increase dexterity.
Metal Horseshoe
Increases strength but reduces dexterity.
Horn of Red Coral
An amulet that wards off ill-wishing curses. Increases strength, dexterity and vitality
Heirloom Ring
Increases dexterity, agility and intelligence.
Moth in Amber Fossil
Increases vitality, agility and intelligence
Myrrh of Balthazar
Another bundle of sticks but this time with pretty good stats. Increase dexterity, vitality and agility.
Unusual Mushroom
Inedible, aids the mind but not much else.
UFO Model
This thing is a piece of shit why would you use it?
Stone of Maxwell
This thing is an even bigger piece of shit lmao.
White Feather and Dog Tag
They do literally nothing.
Alan
9MM Pistol
A reliable semi-automatic pistol Alan finds on his adventure into Night Springs.
Over/Under Shotgun
Stated to be able to take down two human-sized beasts with a single shot.
Winchester Model 1300 Defender
It’s got a bit more kick than the Over/Under and holds up to 8 shots.
Remington Model 7 CDL
The most powerful weapon in the first game with the longest range and a flashlight taped to it.
Colt Python Revolver
A trusty six-shooter used by Alan in the first game and one of the more common weapons to come across.
Mac-10 Submachine Gun
With such a high fire rate, it goes through ammo fast but anything stupid enough to get close to Alan will get shredded.
Smith & Wesson Model 629 Stealth Hunter
There’s not a thing stealthy about this hand cannon. It one shots weaker Taken and holds up to 8 shots at a time.
Flare Gun
One of Alan’s most valuable weapons against the Darkness. Not only does it give off a flash to crisp up Taken, flares can burn at 2,900 Fahrenheit. That’s hot enough to burn through most metals!
Flashlights
Used by Alan to fight back against the Darkness, but it can reveal invisible paintings and remove even the smallest traces of the Darkness that Alan can find. He’s used several kinds, but all serve the same purpose. Although, the larger the light source the more effective it is.
Model 7290 Flashbang Grenades
Citizens of Bright Falls just leave these things laying around everywhere. With a 1.5 second delay, it’s a useful weapon against the Taken.
Nailgun
It acts nothing like the real life version, but it's a fast and easy to use ranged weapon.
Sawed-Off Shotgun
It's got pitiful range and accuracy, but it's a real pain when up close and personal.
Double Barrel Shotgun
Used by Alan in the Dark Place during AW2.
Remington Model 870
It holds 8 rounds and its buck shot can hit multiple enemies at once.
Springfield Armory M1A
This Carbine Rifle is a nice all rounder in Alan’s arsenal, great for short and long ranges.
Crossbow
It’s not just your typical crossbow, it’s bolts actually can pierce through the Darkness that protects Taken, no need for Light at all.
M16A1 Assault Rifle
A classic machine gun that’s perfect for taking down Alan’s more tough enemies. It actually holds less shots than the real life version, with it only having 25 at a time.
AA-12
While its range and accuracy leave something to be desired, it’s perfect for crowd control.
The Clicker
A powerful tool given to Alan during his childhood to help him sleep, then gifted to Alice. To imbue the “talisman with more power” she told him it was a gift from his father, with that it took on immense power to Alan, at first only metaphorically. It aided Alan in his battle with the Dark Presence. It also seemingly possessed the ability to control time and as stated by Saga, makes Alan's writing change reality. Explained later by Tor to be more like an amp for Wake’s writing, and other works of passion (not being limited to Alan).
Messenger Bag
A convenient little satchel for Alan to carry his belongings in.
Angel Lamp
A tool for bringing Light to the Darkness. It possesses a magnetic attraction to Light sources, able to drain them and take the light into itself. It can also take said Light and transfer it into available objects, such as dying ceiling lights or even lights shown on tv screens. In doing this, Alan can open up previously hidden passageways that were hidden by the Darkness or reveal alternate forms of the room he is in. It can also be used to power on other electronics, such as televisions and remove said power as well. This can act as a double edged sword sometimes however.
Misc Tools
On his journeys, Alan has used various tools to aid in his survival. Sunglasses, flares, spare ammo and lithium batteries.
First Aid Kits
The most powerful of Alan’s healing options. It’s a camp kit with a bunch of useful meds inside that heal Alan a great deal.
Painkillers
The weaker of the and grants the least amount of health, but it's still helpful in a pinch.
Trauma Packs
Irl it’s used to stop severe bleeding by accelerating your body’s clotting process and is also waterproof (neat!).
Moonshine
While getting black out drunk in the middle of a brawl probably isn’t the best idea, the Moonshine that Alan drinks is made using water from Cauldron Lake, which gives it special properties and allowed Alan to actually regain some of his memories.
Coffee Thermoses
Collectables throughout the game, said to be refreshing despite the quality of the coffee before entering the thermos. They also double as save points in Alan Wake 2.
1973 Oldsmobile 88
Alan sure has some groovy taste.
Typewriter
As long as Alan is within Bright Falls, his writing is granted immense power. It is said by Alan to be able to rewrite the world and reality, seemingly anything he writes will come true, comparing it to carefully sculpting a statue. Essentially allowing him to manipulate events as he wishes. Its manuscripts have even been able to give Alan a little insight into other people’s thoughts and even into upcoming events, as well as just helping him recover lost memories. Writing has its limits however, as showcased with Zane, a writer cannot just write whatever they want, rules must be followed, They’re not a god who can make something from nothing, they can only continue the story. Stories in the series take on a life of their own and not only do the characters must stay true to themselves but the events need to follow a logic that fits the story, change one thing and an entire chain reaction will begin. One flaw and the entire story could die. Though it’s still insanely powerful, other works of art could summon storms but the stories that Alan wrote could manipulate stars and it was stated that “the cosmic everything” was in danger if Scratch got a hold of Alan’s manuscripts. not even the Dark Presence could break free from the manuscript and had to use loopholes to indirectly go after Alan. Tom even used this power to write himself and others out of existence, though even with this, Tom could still communicate to others from the other side, which Alan does himself later even taking a step further with astral projecting himself. Alan can also receive “echoes”, which he can derive inspiration from and with the plot board, use to write things into reality on the spot, with a single plot element able to be used for multiple “scenes”. This is very helpful for exploration and uncovering clues or secret passages. Although, if Alan is not at the scene, he cannot change it.
Abilities
James
Inhuman Endurance
James can shake off being slashed, stabbed and beaten by various monsters and continue to push forward.
High Stamina
Fought and Survived in Silent Hill for an entire day with little to no meaningful rest, all while enduring deadly wounds and mental torture.
Enhanced Senses
Even with no confirmed supernatural elements, James seemingly could sense something was off about particular areas.
Non-Physical Interaction
James can attack the Ghost Prisoners that roam around Silent Hill's prison and kill them and James can also fight Ghosts in Silent Hill: Book of Memories. Henry in the 4th game could also attack and perceive Ghosts, making this consistent.
Red Squares (Debatable)
Similar to the halo of the sun for Heather, these are used as save points within the game, but are canonically points where James will revive. Again, similar to Heather’s halo of the sun, they are likely cursed symbols that tie into James’ psychology. Representing his 9 delusions throughout the game. These would also explain the various corpses of James throughout the remake and thus tying into the idea of the loop. Resurrection in general also seems to be supported in Silent Hill: The Short Message.
Karma
There are two kinds of Karma to be collected: Good (White) and Bad (Red), depending on whichever the user has more of will determine the outcome of what they write within the Book of Memories. Karma is also used to perform a vast variety of abilities to aid in survival. These range from abilities that steal health from enemies, stun them, deal large amounts of damage or heal the user and allies. There are also boosts, which also do various things, such as amplifying speed or increasing strength 10x temporarily, making the user invincible, invisible or just increasing their Karma. Power moves are in the same vein, used to attack multiple enemies at once, paralyze them, steal health, etc.
Alan
Heightened Senses
Alan somehow knew this random lighthouse was important, could sense movement in the woods around him as well as Mr. Scratch's presence. In the novelization, Alan could sense Alice’s presence within the Darkness.
Inhuman Endurance
Alan has shrugged off being sliced up by rapid monsters and kept fighting, powering through wounds and attacks that would kill a normal man.
Non-Physical Interaction
Alan has shown he can physically grab light. lol.
Minor Regeneration
While Alan isn't gonna regrow an arm or anything, He can passively regain health over time if given the chance. Taking around 88 seconds to get back to maximum health if outside of combat.
Minor Acausality
Alan’s memories remain fully intact even during intense time shenanigans.
Light Manipulation
Alan uses light itself for a multitude of different things. With any object that can produce it, it can be used to burn the darkness away from a target, even the non-physical to then make them more vulnerable to conventional damage. Alan can focus and boost it and make it capable of blinding them and exploding them, vaporizing objects as large as construction vehicles. By standing inside of sources of light, it will passively heal him and He has used light to reveal hidden traps and obstacles so he can more easily avoid them. Anything controlled by the Darkness, if enough damage is taken from the light will be totally disintegrated. Although, technically, it’s not the light itself that does this, but rather what it represents.
Words of Power
A new mechanic introduced in Alan Wake 2. It’s an upgrade system that allows Alan to strengthen certain abilities, weapons etc. or even grant new side effects to them.
Word of Fix: Strengthens Alan’s healthing options and regeneration.
Word of War: Increases overall weapon damage.
Word of Aid: Amps up flares and healing items.
Word of Stuff: Used to reveal items of interest on Alan’s map, increase inventory space and can grant an extra charge to the flashlight.
Word of Lamp: Grants Alan’s flashlight new abilities. Such as healing, an enemy stun and a battery recharge.
Word of Action: Increases Alan’s damage output and at the same time makes him tougher. It also amplifies his stealth capabilities.
Word of Gun: Increases the amount of ammo Alan can have at a time and amplifies their effects on enemies.
Resistances
James
Poisoning. James could recover quickly from poison gas. Travis could survive Momma’s gas attacks.
Sound. James can shrug off Maria’s scream attack, which busted windows, Murphy would withstand the Screamer’s attacks.
Corrosion. James can withstand the vomit attack from Patients, which is described as “Acid-like”. In the movie it was strong enough to eat through Cybil’s police uniform.
Heat. James and Angela hardly reacted to the flames as they had a conversation in a burning house, Heather could survive powerful flame attacks from God. Travis can tank fire balls from Alessa’s Dream.
Electricity. Harry could withstand bolts of lightning.
Cold. Harry was unaffected by the snowing weather of Silent Hill.
Alan
Mind Manipulation. Did not fall for Dr. Hartman’s gaslighting and ultimately broke free from the Dark Presence’s manipulation. It is also later revealed that Alan knows how to control his dreams to a certain extent.
Electricity. Alan can take shocks from damaged wiring and power boxes.
Blinding. Isn't affected by his own Flashbang grenades.
Feats
James Sunderland
Overall
Defeated Eddie Dombrowski, Pyramid Head, Flesh Lip, Abstract Daddy, Maria, The Elemental Guardians and himself.
Thugged it out and went elbow deep in a shitty toilet.
Somehow didn’t just give up here lmao.
Survived being stuck within a loop in Silent Hill for 20 years.
Ultimately learned to forgive his own sins and earned closure with Mary, finally leaving Silent Hill with Laura.
Is actually buff as shit and has a heart tattoo on his right arm.
Maria would pay to see him pole dance.
Strength
With Maria, James could pry open a rusted shut door.
Could push around frozen cow carcasses and a set of metal lockers.
Could push back Abstract Daddy
In the novelisation, he can tear apart wooden barriers.
He could beat weaker monsters to death with little issue, despite them being claimed to be tougher than people.
Can bash his way through brick walls and drywall.
Playable characters in Silent Hill: Book of Memories (Including James) can smash apart metal containers, pulverize furniture, smack enemies away dozens of feet, obliterate cauldrons, destroy televisions, and decimate stone statues.
Durability
Survived being blasted by alien rifles
Survived falling through the roof of a building and a very long fall on a bunch of occasions.
James and Maria are capable of tanking blows from Nurses.
He got right back up after being forced through a wall.
Could take shots from Eddie’s revolver and can tank punches from him. Eddie’s revolver in the remake could completely obliterate frozen cows.
He could shrug off Maria’s scream attack, which busted windows and tank blows from Maria in general.
Speed
James and Maria outran Pyramid Head and can avoid spears thrown by him.
James can avoid the Moths summoned by Maria.
Can evade shots from Eddie’s Revolver.
Can battle Patients, which can move at “Great speeds” and Underhangers, which can attack in a “Split-Second”.
Characters in Silent Hill: Book of Memories (Including James) can dodge and move in tandem with light beams from the Light Guardian. (12% Lightspeed)
Alan Wake
Overall
Became a World Famous and Best Selling Author.
Sick singer and dancer, totally stole the show at the 2023 game awards.
Defeated The Hitchhiker, Stucky, Rusty, The Bulldozer, The Harvester, The Dark Place Variants, Thomas Zane, Mr. Scratch and The Dark Presence.
Broke free from Mr. Scratch’s Time Loop.
Evaded capture by FBI Agents when they had the drop on him.
Became worshipped by a cult. (That’s kinda cool right?)
Freed Bright Falls from the Dark Presence and saved Alice, later surviving and fighting his way through the Dark Place.
Strength
With Barry, could shove open heavy gates.
Pushed around heavy mining carts.
Can casually kick around hay bales.
Could brute force a locked door to open and could kick ‘em down.
Could shove down small walkways.
Knocked this dude on his ass with a single punch.
Rammed this dude through wooden railing.
Durability
Survived diving into a lake from the top of a cliff and a car crash.
Alan and Barry survived this car crash.
Has tanked falling debris like wooden barrels and logs.
Took part of an explosion and can survive exploding gas tanks.
Can take exploding skeletons.
Survived hefty falls on a few occasions.
Can take “grenades” of concentrated darkness.
Survived a cable car crash.
Took attacks from a darkness possessed Bulldozer, Crane and a Harvester.
Can take blows from objects hurled at him by the Poltergeists. Including cars and boulders.
Speed
Could dodge around large murders of attacking crows.
Can evade thrown axes. (80 mph)
Evaded a speeding darkness possessed bulldozer on foot. (70 mph)
Could evade speeding monster trucks. (100 mph)
Can evade unconducted electricity.
Dodged and ran out of the way of gunfire. (He also does this in the novelisation)
Can move in tandem with flashbangs. (Potentially Relativistic, Debatable)
Scaling
James Sunderland
Other Protagonists and Survivors
Every human in the franchise is just that, Human and all have battled the monsters of Silent Hill. None are specially trained and aren't portrayed to be physically better than each other. However if you want a scaling chain, James and Heather are playable in BoM (Which hosts returning monsters from the entire franchise), Heather fought the Missionary, which killed Harry. So James scales to the more important feats in the series.
Heather can break a piece of bread. (10 - 20 Newtons)
Murphy resisted the pull of the Void and could pull massive cords from their base.
Richard Braintree casually walks off a giant fall onto concrete.
Harry could evade these Dog creatures and Air Screamers.
Anita Planert could outrun Sakura Head.
Harry took a close range shot from Cybil’s pistol. Similar weapons in the rail shooter could obliterate tombstones.
Payne and Lauryn could fight a monster fast enough to catch up to their car.
Heather dodged an incoming roller coaster. (50 - 150 mph)
Henry could avoid gunfire.
Murphy took being thrown back in a roller coaster by the Monocle Man, who could crash through a cave wall.
Protagonists in Ascension could fight monsters that seemingly could evade shotgun blasts.
Eric can avoid revolver shots from Nurses, shoot flying hatches out of the air, and fought Tuberculosis, who could fly pretty fast.
Heather could battle The Missionary, who could react to and deflect shots from her handgun, shotgun and submachine gun.
Harry could dodge lightning from Incubus and the Incubator. It is referred to as “lightning” in official guide books and in the play novel. (Mach 46 - Mach 230)
Characters in Silent Hill: Book of Memories can take attacks from the Earth Guardian, who can pulverize massive boulders and shake a small rock island with his blows. As well as the Wood Guardian, who can summon many massive trees from the ground for attacks.
Harry and Silent Hill Monsters can move in tandem with the light of his flashlight. Heather can move her arm in tandem with the beam saber, which is described as “pure light”. Characters in Silent Hill: Homecoming can move in tandem with the laser pistol, although it seems to show force. (Questionable on their own, support only)
Harry could tank attacks from Incubus and The Incubator.
Travis could shake off attacks from Alessa’s Dream.
Heather could withstand blows from the Order’s God.
The Protagonists of the rail shooter could fight and tank attacks from the Phantom, which could make a massive explosion that could tip over large ships. (0.0028 Tons of TNT)
Manifestations
Two Heads can bust down metal doors.
Abstract Daddy has the power to shake buildings and bust walls.
Flesh Lip could crash through the ceiling multiple times and shake the building they’re in.
Pyramid Head is quick enough to deflect gunfire.
Needlers can block gunfire.
Twinheeler could burrow through the ground with ease and smash apart this large glass door.
The Butcher can tank gunfire and impale nurses. In Book of Memories he could shake the ground with a punch.
Greedy Worm could easily smash through cages.
Nurses are capable of launching metal doors off their hinges and tearing people apart.
The Missionary is described as “lightning fast” in the script for Silent Hill: Revelations.
Pyramid Head is capable of lifting men off their feet, impaling people, chopping off arms, stabbing and cutting through metal, cutting tables in half, slice apart vents, smashing apart small wooden structures, tear apart metal doors, burst through concrete walls, shaking a building and could tear off a woman's skin in one pull.
Alex’s variant of Pyramid Head could stab through an elevator door and cut men in half.
The Boogeyman could break necks, shake a church so hard its windows shatter, and send massive cracks through stone as ranged attacks. With one attack he created two massive holes at once and did similar again later.
Maria in her battle with James brought down an entire floor of the room above them (0.6 Tons of TNT)
The Order’s God (Debatable; see Before the Verdicts)
Just after being reborn and not being fully formed, it still survived being torn through a metal floor by Valtiel.
It is stated that it had the power to remake the world.
Said to have created time and split it into night and day.
Alan Wake
Allies and Other Survivors
No other character in the series is portrayed to be physically above The Champion of Light in any regard and they’ve all done their share of whooping on the Taken, so Alan should scale to most feats in the series.
Tor knocked out a nurse in a single hit. Later he and Odin were compared to berserkers.
Rose could kick open locked doors.
Kiran can lift this heavy square thing and can beat away the Portrait Taken.
Frank Breaker survived this car crash.
The Sibling could back hand the fuck out of Taken.
Daniel could lift up a rock and crush a skull with it.
Saga could dodge swinging axes and the ranged attacks of Taken Divers.
Rose could dodge thrown hatchets and react to projectiles from Scratch.
Ilma Koskela could beat the shit out of bears. (Real!)
Rose saved a group of kittens from a bear. (Real!)
These cult dudes could cut through a man’s chest and ripped out his heart
Barry could outrun the Dark Presence and dodged a flying car.
Saga could evade gunfire and move in tandem with lightning.
Alex Casey moved before a bullet could strike a wall.
Saga could tank Cynthia's telekinetic attacks, attacks from Taken Wolves and beatings from Mr. Scratch.
Rusty took a beating from a Taken that could knock down trees, bust “mammoth sized” holes in walls. (Although this did incap him.)
Saga took a blast that destroyed Mr. Scratch’s Bureau cage.
The Taken
Can easily one shot humans.
Jake, during the process of becoming a Taken, had the strength to rip through duct tape restraints and tore apart a door. The damage later compared to a 14-point Stag (Aka a bigass deer).
Weaker Taken can break apart doors and smash through windows.
Larger Taken can knock over large metal shelves, shatter the ground, throw cars, kick around machinery and bust through walls/doors pretty consistently. Completely obliterating them in some cases. (0.8 Megajoules)
These Spiders could bust through rock and pavement.
Taken can tank being run into by vehicles.
Nightingale could rag doll grown men, sling around large tree branches and break stone walls (2.6 Megajoules)
Larger Taken can tank close range shotgun blasts.
Poltergeists could rip apart large deer statues and tear off sign ornaments to throw at Alan. In American Nightmare, a couple of them produce a force that throws around eight vehicles.
Diana could bash in skulls and rush around at inhuman speeds.
Giant Taken are stated to be stronger than forklifts.
These ravens could down a police helicopter and rip through wooden structures.
Low tier Taken can smash apart wooden pallets and obliterate wooden furniture.
The Logger could chainsaw a large wooden door down in a single swipe and punt dumpsters at insane speeds.
Stucky could chop through a door.
A group of Taken destroyed an observatory’s elevator.
The Hitchhiker could destroy a bridge with his blows.
Stucky can move at inhuman speeds. Rusty could do similar.
Taken in Alan Wake 2 can run so fast they become a blurr and faster than the eye can track.
Can move in tandem with lightning.
Cynthia could crumble concrete walls.
Mr. Scratch ripped a signpost from the ground and could swing in around as if it were made of air, snapped necks, killed a man instantly, ripped a bar off a jail cell and tore up a building.
Mr. Scratch destroyed a beuro containment cage, which Estevez said she’d never seen before. (0.9 Tons of TNT)
The Dark Presence (Debatable; see Before the Verdicts)
Took a lightning strike from Tor.
Could fling 50 gallon oil drums “like marshmellows”.
It can hurl cars with enough force to pulverize them. (0.011 Tons of TNT)
It could tear up bridges, knock over trees and powerlines.
Threatened to crumble a cabin and knocked over a water tower.
In more impressive moments, the Dark Presence could throw train cars, make small earthquakes, & start cave-ins.
It could create a decently sized tornado on a few occasions, later even summoning a storm that covered Bright Falls. (Kilotons - Megatons)
Weaknesses
James
James is a troubled man to say the least. He’s psychologically a wreck, and Silent Hill was able to prey on this to beat him down emotionally throughout his trails. He struggles with self confidence and even when he realised what Silent Hill was doing, still proceeded to fall for its tricks until his final fight with Maria, still wanting to believe she was Mary. James is also just an ordinary man all things considered. Despite wearing a military M60 jacket, he officially has no combat training and usually only engages in fights when he’s backed into a corner.
Alan
Despite being the Champion of Light, Alan is far from a perfect protagonist. Alan has quite the famous temper and has always struggled with being a celebrity, having a history of assaulting paparazzi and even being a bit neglectful of his Wife. Alan is a writer first and foremost, he has no real combat training to speak of and has even admitted to himself and others on a few occasions that he is constantly terrified while battling against the Darkness.
Before the Verdicts…
Universal and Immeasurable James?
Didn't expect this to be a section, huh?
Well, there are multiple things to bring up. For starters, it is stated by The Order that their God created time and split it into day and night. While this can be written off as somewhat flowery wording, we know other Gods in the Silent Hill comics wield similar power, so it's not farfetched to say this is a correct statement. The Order themselves can be questioned as a reliable source as well, but Claudia is directly stated that “her sight rarely fails her” by Vincent, an intelligent man with no reason to lie about this since he despises her.
Harry does fight God directly in the bad+ ending of the original game, being able to survive hits from her and deal damage back as well. Cheryl would later go on to do the exact same, although to a weakened form of the same God. You could also bring up Travis from Origins fighting “Alessa's Dream” a creature insinuated to be related to (if not just is) the God as well. While this is important to keep in mind, we are airing on the side of it just being an outlier at the moment, although one can certainly argue for it. This sort of power level is radically out of the norm and outside of Harry’s instance, the line to this level of power is questionable. You can also bring up how the bad+ ending is non-canon, although admittedly that was going to be the result if Harry didn’t take the necessary steps to halt God’s birth. At worst though, there's still the Book of Memories, which does have the power to create new timelines. So this power level is still valid, just not for physicals (as of yet).
As for Immeasurable Speeds, this is pretty simple. The Incubator (Alessa) in SH1 stops time to protect Harry and Cybil, allowing them to escape the collapse of the Otherworld. This isn't actually them just running through a time stop, as it's not being directed at them, but rather the Otherworld around them. So while funny, it's not really a speed feat, but a pretty cool showing of power from Alessa.
Is James in a Loop?
Originally this just started out as a fan theory for the original Silent Hill 2, but the remake makes a very compelling case for it to be canon.
For starters, there are multiple points throughout the game where James, Maria and even Eddie remark on how familiar something is to them, or how they get a weird feeling. Under the context of the loop theory, something like Maria's bad memory quote or Eddie's “just like before!” comment can be seen as them starting to remember past loops and prior experiences with James. To bolster this, there's an elaborate easter egg found by the Silent Hill subreddit that directly states that “You've been here for 20 Years”. One of the Devs even praised them for finding it, although admittedly he does playfully respond with “Is it?” When a commenter replied with disappointment over the loop being canon. You can also interpret the bodies laid around the map as being past versions of James who had died, with Silent Hill using them to mentally torture James over past failures. As they are deliberately modeled to resemble James in both the remake and the original.
Ultimately, there are no “wrong” interpretations of Silent Hill 2. This was a very deliberate thing done by Team Silent in the original, while at the same time making no comment on which ending is canon for James either. This was done to encourage healthy discussion amongst the community and is partly what has made the original such a timeless classic. In our own private discussions, we unanimously agreed that James being stuck in a loop made the most sense. At least for a while, anyways.
Silent Hill/Dreams & Alan Wake/Stories
Given the nature of both series, it’s important to bring up what is “real” and what isn’t.
Silent Hill has had a long history with dreams as a whole, with even things such as SH2's dialog purposefully made to seem distant and dream-like to give off a weird feeling. An important thing to know is that Silent Hill is a real place in verse as well as the Otherworlds and its manifestations are physical, don’t get the word “manifestation” mixed up with “hallucination”. But more importantly here, while Silent Hill: Book of Memories deals in a lot of dream shenanigans and how the characters enter its dungeons operates similarly to how Henry enters Walter Sullivan’s mind in Silent Hill 4, the game’s 500th zone confirms that it isn’t a dream but is more of another Otherworld. So anything from it should apply here.
As for Alan Wake, the story that is being manipulated is real life in the first game, not just a story that Alan has written up. It’s the nature of Cauldron Lake that gives Alan’s writing this ability and it is made clear that other parts of the world are not affected by it, as seen in Control’s AWE DLC. Although granted, things such as AW1’s Signal and The Writer DLC do follow a sort of chunk of Alan’s mind that refuses to give in to the Dark Place. But much is the same case for Alan Wake 2, for a majority of the game you play as a sort of “Astral Projection” of Alan, while the real one is stuck in the writers room in the Dark Place, a realm that exists beyond time and space. However, when Alan finally does escape and returns to Bright Falls, he still has everything. Such as the Words of Power upgrades and more importantly, it's established that Alan cannot alter himself with his writing in American Nightmare and has to stay inline with his character. So anything Alan does in these “stories” should apply here as well.
Are Dead by Daylight and Fortnite Canon?
No, lol.
Simply, using crossovers just throws the whole match-up out of whack and is just boring on top of them just not being canon, despite some claiming them to be for Alan. Dead by Daylight specifically would just add nothing, as anything you can give Alan from it, scaling, Items, perks, etc. Are all things that can be given to James as well, as he is a legendary skin for Cheryl “Heather” Mason. We also do know that legendary skins are canonically the characters entering the Entity's realm and not just skins, funnily enough, as proven by Cybil Bennett's head piece cosmetic description, as well as Soma Cruz, Tubarão, the newly released Junji Ito skins, etc.
Fortnite just changes the match-up entirely, and we'd be talking more about that than Alan himself if we were to list out everything he'd get from it (It’s probably only a matter of time before James is in it too lmao). So we are ignoring them just to keep things neat and simple.
Alan Wake’s Expanded Universe
For those of you outta the know, Remedy confirmed that Alan Wake is part of a larger expanded universe with their other property: Control.
This is confirmed to not include things such as Quantum Break, Max Payne and others however, only properties that Remedy themselves own. Now for those with some lite knowledge, you’d know that Alan Wake 2 has a DLC Chapter featuring Jesse, Control’s main protagonist empowered with powerful telekinetic abilities. Jesse does battle against the Taken, and thus, should allow for a scaling chain for Alan, right? Well, unfortunately not exactly. “The Sibling” doesn’t use her powers within the DLC itself, although she still possesses Polaris, who guides her through it. She seems incapable of using her powers outside of Polaris guiding her, which makes sense as this seemingly happens years before Control actually takes place. It’s also worth noting that Jesse’s powers continue to get strong throughout Control itself, so given just this, Jesse likely isn’t as powerful during this DLC. It’s also possible this could be due to Alan trying to make her fit the story's narrative in order to have a chance at her helping him escape, which wouldn’t be too far fetched as he's already tampered with her origin in making them “Siblings” which is likely why this attempt failed. Even trying to scale chain Alan to her through normal humans fighting the Hiss falls flat, as we have no on screen instances of this and Jesse says herself that even the FBC doesn’t stand a chance against them, despite them having access to quality weaponry and armor. So in short, Alan likely cannot be scaled to superpowered individuals within Control, at least for now, as Jesse is clearly not at her peak during the DLCs events and there's no clear scaling chain otherwise. Although, we did still check Control just to be thorough and Jesse should easily be within the building range and a bullet timer.
Does Alan scale to the Dark Presence?
Being the main foe of the series, you’d think this would be a pretty straight forward “yes”, but that isn’t the case. Alan actually never directly combats the Dark Presence in a typical final boss fashion, shockingly. Usually, he resorts to running away or finishing it off with light, such as with the clicker in the first game. It’s made abundantly clear throughout the game that the Presence is bound by the events of the story, and could not attack Alan directly. Resorting to using the Taken to pursue Alan indirectly. On top of that, at least in the first game, it’s established that it was weakened by the Light and needed days to recover with Alan defeating it far before that could happen. While this does speak volumes about Alan’s hax, trying to apply this to physical stats is basically impossible.
Now, on another note, some may argue that Mr. Scratch is the Dark Presence, as there are a couple times in AW2 where they do call him that. However, not only is scaling fully to Mr. Scratch is sort of questionable as well, given his cocky nature and their inability to damage him without light, but this is just incorrect. Mr. Scratch is a manifestation made by the Dark Presence from Alan’s mind, preying on his insecurities and fears. He’s no more the Dark Presence than a typical Taken. So ultimately, Alan shouldn’t physically scale to the Dark Presence, although the light certainly should.
Verdict
Stats
As usual, we will begin with stats. On a surface level, James and Alan seem relatively even. James and other protagonists can beat down stone or concrete walls with little effort, and Alan can punt fences into shreds with little effort. Though unsurprisingly, both can get a bit stronger through scaling to some of their enemies. James could battle against Maria in the climax of the Silent Hill 2 Remake, and during this battle, Maria showed off enough power to completely destroy the ceiling above them and brought it down on top of James. Scraping by with an impressive 0.6 tons of tnt. Alan however has it a tad better. Later into the story of AW2, Mr. Scratch blows up a FBC containment cell at 0.9 tons of tnt. While you can debate on if anyone should fully scale to Scratch, Saga Anderson was inside that cell with him at that exact moment. So scaling to this feat should be more than fine and would make Alan a tiny bit stronger than James. With this kind of a strength gap, one can certainly argue that Alan could physically beat James into the ground. But that's not the whole story here. Not only is engaging in a physical brawl not typically Alan's thing but it's important to remember James’ various ways to buff up his physical strength. The fists and strength karma boosts together would amplify his 12 times and put James at around 7.2 tons of tnt. A pretty significant edge over Alan, although only for a limited time admittedly.
As far as speed is concerned, what came up for both caught us a bit off guard. On a lower end, both have bullet timing feats, whether accomplished themselves or acquired through characters they should scale too. In Alan Wake 1, Alan evades a hail of gunfire from Nightingale and in Silent Hill 3, Heather could battle against the bullet blocking Missionary. However, James has the slight advantage here. Not only was Alan already hauling ass as the bullets were coming at him, but The Missionary is capable of reacting to fire from Heather’s mac-10 submachine gun and at much, much closer ranges. Meaning James is scaling to much faster firing rates than Nightingale’s colt python. Much is the same for their lightning feats. In Alan Wake 2 during a concert in Bright Falls, lightning is summoned and Saga and the Taken can move in tandem with it. Though, even counting this on its own is a bit weird, as it’s not a direct feat. More so it’s just that they happen to be moving as lightning strikes in the background. Meanwhile, Harry in the original game could dodge and evade lightning from the Incubator and Incubus very directly, as they're just hurling it straight at him. However on a higher end, this is where things blind sided us. James being able to dodge and move in tandem with the Light Guardian’s light beams is insane, netting a whopping 12% the speed of light. Definitely not something most would expect from a “grounded” series like Silent Hill. Alan getting this sort of speed is pretty tricky. One could argue that the flashbangs in game are light, as they do affect the Taken. But there’s several problems with this that are worth pointing out. As this weakness can also be exploited by things such as flares, but more damningly, the flash of light itself seems to show force, not just the initial explosion. Knocking taken off their feet when it comes in contact with them. It should also be noted that with how the flash is animated, Alan is not moving very much along with it, like at all. To the point when it doesn’t take a calculation to know that it would not even come close to closing the speed gap, especially with the speed boosts that James can get from BoM. This level of speed as well is just being backed up in various Silent Hill games, through admittedly more questionable feats but supportive nonetheless. Something Alan unfortunately lacks, which, given that Alan Wake as a series is based around light being an important plot point is really shocking.
As a result, Alan should take strength, though James with his buffs can take it for himself for a limited time, while James should take speed with relative ease. Stats are a bit of a mixed bag as for who has the advantage, leading us into…
Arsenal & Abilities
When it comes down to their arsenals, both surprisingly have a lot to pick from but are almost polar opposites to each other. James for instance focuses more on close ranged combat. Having a plethora of bludgeoning weapons, swords, hammers etc, while Alan typically has more guns for long distance combat or to keep enemies at bay. So depending on the situation, either one of them could be at a significant advantage over the other. However, neither are especially skilled with firearms, at least not to a degree where you can argue one is by far better than the other. It's also worth mentioning that James isn’t exactly lacking in terms of ranged fire power either and has access to weapons that could end the fight basically immediately. The remote control could change Alan into a number of fodder enemies from Silent Hill, the various hyper sprays could either incap Alan on the spot or cause any enemies around to begin to target him and if desperate enough, James could throw white claudia in Alan’s face resulting in heavy hallucinations. On top of this in a close quarters fight, the Steel Sword would likely be a dangerous weapon against Alan, as it specifically deals more damage to creatures dealing with the element of light. Meaning Alan’s own light manipulation could be a hindrance here. Alan could surprise James with a flashbang grenade and give himself an opening but James’ feats with superpowered screaming would mean it wouldn’t be entirely effective against him, especially if he were to close his eyes as well.
In terms of their own abilities, it’s a very interesting back and forth. Both have enhanced senses and non-physical interaction, which would cancel out. They do have plenty of healing items to keep themselves in the fight, but only Alan has self regeneration and light itself can be used to recover health, giving him a decent edge over James’ decently sized but limited supply of health items. Alan’s ability to use light to burn away the protective shield the Taken have and damage the Dark Presence could also spell trouble for certain weapons in James' arsenal, including some very important ones. Things such as the great knife or Pyramid Head’s spear are manifestations of Silent Hill, which has glaring similarities with the Dark Place. So under “Universe Equalisation”, it’s pretty easy to argue that Alan could vaporize some of James’ best weapons and on that note, it's important to note that this could potentially be a way to destroy the Book of Memories, though the book does show some impressive resilience. As is it could regenerate almost immediately after being burned to ash. It could also be argued that if James has bad karma, Alan’s light could affect him too. But it’s important to keep James’ character in mind, he’s not necessarily a malicious person and feels tremendous guilt over things such as Mary’s and Eddie’s deaths at his hands. So it’s unlikely that James would choose a 100% bad karma path in BoM and just decide to be a selfish dickhead. As one of the main mechanics in the game is trying to choose one or the other, or keeping a nice balance. And this is even if you can draw similarities between the bad karma and the darkness that fuels the Taken, of which there is nothing clear. While we’re still on the idea of karma, James does have a lot of useful abilities from using it himself and gives him various ways to get the jump on Alan. From invisibility to sneak away or sneak attack, invincibility for closing any distance Alan may be trying to keep or draining life from Alan to heal himself, James’ karma abilities are incredibly dangerous here to where it can be difficult to argue that something certain words of power could do would even work on James himself. Even if they could, the words of power system is much smaller and more limited with its application than karma, with some not even used for direct combat either. Giving James a massive edge in the fight.
We should also go over James’ Red Squares and the idea of Silent Hill’s Loop potentially giving James a way to continuously come back to the fight, despite being killed. Simply, even if you do buy these ideas, they aren't very useful here against Alan. How they accomplish this is through basically reverting time back, with James retaining no knowledge of this or how he could use it to his advantage. In doing this, it would also reset Alan too, but due to his past experiences with Time Loops and showing minor acausality, this would actually put the ball in his court. Allowing him to form a plan of action if this were to take place and catch James off guard.
Now for what is probably the most interesting piece to the debate. Between The Book of Memories and Alan’s Writing, which is more powerful and useful? With them in mind, James and Alan could theoretically do whatever they want…. Within the limitations that are set for both. With Alan’s writing, he’s made it clear on several occasions that he can’t just do whatever, he must follow the rules set in the world and the characters within them must stay true to who they are. He’s never been able to heavily change key aspects of the plot, he can only nudge it in a certain direction. It’s still a very powerful tool, as seen during Alan’s astral projection shenanigans in the Dark Place, he can still manipulate the environment to better serve his cause. But it’s not exactly something Alan can directly use in a fight, nor has he ever attempted to do this. Alan must jump through many hoops and be extremely cautious of what he tries, or the entire story could fall apart to his detriment, evident by it taking him 13 years to figure out a solid way to escape the Dark Place. The Book of Memories is a bit difficult as well, as anything James could want to enforce on Alan, he’d need to enter his Dreamscape Otherworld first and defeat Alan’s mental guardian in a sort of battle of wills. The book does show that this technically isn't necessary for other things, such as getting rid of natural disasters or curing a child’s illness in some of the endings, and despite Michelle using the book constantly, it wasn't until her final note that she realised whatever she wrote came true with no mention of this process. So, potentially this means James could do similar things… none of which would easily help him defeat Alan. In terms of raw power though, both should be within the same ballpark. Harry’s use of the Book could kickstart an entire alternate universe, while Alan’s manuscripts had the potential to threaten the universe if Mr. Scratch got a hold of them with Alan’s clicker. There is also the factor of over use of the Book of Memories has killed users in the past, as shown in multiple endings, though this is usually through long periods of over use. So in short, while both are likely equal in power, the Book of Memories is seemingly less limited in terms of what it can accomplish compared to Alan’s writing with far less hoops to jump through. However, both have stipulations that make it difficult to work it into direct combat outside of manipulating the environment, but in James’ case, there seems to be less restrictions on using it for himself since he wouldn’t need to overcome his own will.
Even if we were to assume James is battling Alan’s astral projection from the second game, this wouldn't save Alan. James has the means to put down the projection and ultimately, nothing is stopping James from using the book to enter the real Alan's dreamscape, which Alan wouldn't be able to defend against. One could bring up how in the game over screens, later in the game have Alan back in the Dark Place. Insinuating a way to continuously return to the fight but this isn't really the case, as Alan specifically says “I'm back, I was never able to escape”. Meaning that when you die in this section of the game, canonically it's still Alan's projection and just another failed attempt. While if you don't die, that's canonically Alan actually escaping.
Tertiary Factors
This’ll be a bit more simple than the other factors discussed so far. James and Alan are normal dudes at the end of the day, neither has any special training but are exceptional survivors. Both have great showings of resourcefulness and have faced a large and diverse variety of foes, eventually taking down threats way out of their league. Alan is typically portrayed as a bit more competent in combat than James is however, just in general. While combat is present a lot throughout Silent Hill as a series, it always takes a back seat to the story, at least usually. While Alan Wake as a series is pretty heavy on combat, and the threats Alan faces are on a whole other level than the ones James has personally dealt with (although, other SH Protags have certainly fought comparable). Alan’s creativity is also a major factor in the fight. While he may not be able to affect James directly, it’s not a stretch to say Alan could manipulate the environment to his advantage to try and get the drop on James.
James on the other hand is likely a bit more clever than Alan, academically speaking. While this isn’t to say Alan isn’t smart, James dealing with the complex riddles and puzzles within the town to progress, all while being mentally toyed with does speak for his capability to cope with stressful situations and keep a level head to figure out how to solve his problems. Alan’s reality warping also isn’t necessarily something James is totally unfamiliar with either as well, as throughout Silent Hill 2 he consistently had to deal with shifting environments and complex mazes, such as the labyrinth underneath Taluca Prison and the randomly generated, trap infested dungeons within BoM.
Alan however is by far more experienced than James. While you can argue that James spent 20 years stuck within a loop in Silent Hill, James would not be retaining any information from past loops, nor would he even be aware of this. Alan’s time in the Dark Place had him continuously writing to escape, putting his mental stability and creativity to the test over and over for 13 years straight, with no sleep as the realm would not allow it. So while James certainly isn’t a slouch, Alan just has it better when it comes to the smaller advantages.
Conclusion
James Sunderland
Advantages:
Significantly faster no matter what ends you use, especially with a speed boost
Far stronger with strength boosts
More comfortable in close quarters
Would not be affected by Alan's light attacks, as he is not a creature of the darkness
Larger overall arsenal
Invincibility, Invisibility, Paralysis Infliction are very useful
Steel Sword is a hard counter to light
Hyper Spray could incap
Transmutation would be an instant win
If bought, Red Squares and Silent Hill's loop would make James difficult to keep down…
If given the chance, could erase Alan from history…
Dead by Daylight (Bang was here)
Disadvantages:
…But they would give Alan a planning advantage due to his acausality, making the fight tougher for James
… But he would likely need to enter Alan’s Dreamscape first
Slightly weaker without amps
More limited healing options
Not nearly as experienced in combat
Weapons such as the great knife and spear could be destroyed by Alan’s light
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Alan Wake
Advantages:
Slightly physically stronger normally
Has battled against much grander in scope threats
More comfortable at a range
Could destroy certain weapons with light
Far more experienced in combat
Generally more skilled
Far less limited healing options
Flares or Flashbangs could blind James and give an opening
Acausality would give a leg up over James’ potential revive methods
If given the chance, could write James out of the story…
Dead by Daylight (Bang was here, so were Saul and Door)
Disadvantages:
… But he’d need to figure out a way for it to fit the plot first
Light Powers overall wouldn’t affect James physically
Abilities are more limited than James’ karma
Weaker and slower, especially against speed boosts
Lacks close ranged options
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In conclusion, this result was a surprise to everyone. While Alan Wake is a creative and courageous survivor, James Sunderland had everything he needed to overcome the odds against the Champion of Light. Alan’s tool kit was nothing short of impressive, and given the chance could snag a victory here and there thanks to his greater muscle and experience. But we came to an agreement that James’ speed, weaponry, more applicable hax and sheer determination would overwhelm his opponent, giving him oddly perfect counters and ways to end the fight quicker than Alan when things get desperate. Alan’s more convenient healing options and his focus on ranged combat would prolong the fight and force James to think on his feet, but with the aid of his karma abilities and larger pool of weapons, it would only be a matter of time before James finally locks him down. Alan’s writing could be used to alter the environment around James to catch him off guard but James’ experience in Silent Hill would mean he isn’t exactly a fish out of water in that sort of situation. This is a fight that got way more intense and complicated than we could’ve ever guessed, but when it’s survival of the fittest, this story is being closed by James Sunderland.
(Credit: Tuchimo)
James Sunderland (4) - Thicc Grimes, GnomeChompski, Bang, Saul
Alan Wake (2) - Yuix, door-kun (pity votes)
Fun side blog for a more unconventional matchup. Great Job.
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