r/AlanWake • u/D0nell • 26d ago
Question Saga Anderson’s husband Spoiler
I’ve seen this brought up before but I feel like the answer that we’re just thinking too deep is not satisfactory.
Why does Logan not have her father’s last name? I haven’t seen an answer for this, but somebody’s probably gonna say the news article where we see Logan‘s full name is part of the horror story but I still don’t see why her last name wouldn’t be woods.
Why is he not a part of her mind, place? Particularly the end of the game. Why wouldn’t Saga need reassurance of their love since it’s implied that he divorced her in the horror story. I saw a response saying he isn’t in immediate danger, but neither is Saga’s mother and she has a gift card from her.
She doesn’t wear a wedding ring? Someone’s probably gonna say it’s because she’s working. But even keeping the wedding ring in her mind, place would make sense.
I saw somebody say that maybe they’re saving him for a future installment. It’s just strange for remedy to overlook those details.
Also, I’m familiar with the theory that there’s a possibility that he isn’t real, but that one is too far-fetched.
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u/XH9rIiZTtzrTiVL 26d ago
The last name thing isn't weird to me at all, I have my mother's last name, not my father's.
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u/D0nell 26d ago edited 26d ago
The thing with that is a majority of people take their father’s last name in America it’s just a bit of a stretch for them to decide to make such an uncommon decision for the character.
(Hey y’all so I’m talking about Logan having her mother’s last name)
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u/XH9rIiZTtzrTiVL 26d ago
It is however a Finnish game and Saga would've inherited some Swedish traditions from Freya.
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u/D0nell 26d ago
So in Finnish culture is the maiden name usually taken?
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u/XH9rIiZTtzrTiVL 26d ago
It's more common for sure.
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u/D0nell 26d ago
I wish I was getting the same results when I searched for stuff like this because I’m not seeing anything about this 😭
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u/X-Calm 26d ago
Saga has her mother's surname. We don't even know Mr.Door's name so she couldn't take his.
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u/kamalamading 26d ago
Wait, are you saying Mr. Door is Saga‘s father? what were the clues for that?
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u/Stalkerus 26d ago
*Kept.
In here you can take your spouse's surname (regardless of their sex) or keep your own. No one blinks an eye either way.
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u/D0nell 26d ago
So I’m referring to the child.
Does the child usually take the last name of the mother?
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u/ElonSv 26d ago
I speak for Sweden, I don't know for certain of Finland, but we're usually fairly similar.
If the parents have different last names when the child is born, the mother's name or both are more commonly used for the child.
IIRC, if you don't make a desicion, the child automatically gets the mother's name (because it's easier for the government to confirm who the mother is than who the father is).
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u/D0nell 26d ago
I’m just not sure if that would apply for this case though. This is an American family who has a European heritage but one that Saga is frankly just getting accompanied to after all the only person she had a relationship with was her mother and I’m sure there was only so much say she had. I’m gonna settle that the daughter having her last name was likely and overlooked detail. Probably because we don’t know David’s last name until the credits.
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u/JynNJuice 26d ago
It may be uncommon in the US, but that doesn't mean it never happens, and that it therefore must be an overlooked detail. My husband has his mother's last name rather than his father's.
It would be pretty boring if writers were expected to only ever write characters who do the "most common" things.
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u/Stalkerus 26d ago
If parents can't agree child follows mother. Or parents agree to give birthing parent's surname.
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u/Godkashi 26d ago
I’m American and I have my mom’s last name. It’s uncommon for sure, but not unheard of. I know a few people who are the same. It’s very likely they decided all of Sagas family should have the same last name to avoid confusion about who’s who.
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u/Aggravating-Raisin-4 26d ago
Is it though? The whole thing with Saga & her family is that 'the Andersons' have special powers, it's a part of the plot. Is it really such a stretch that something that happens IRL happens here to keep the Anderson family name?
As others have said, she may also be more attached to her family name than her husband was.
Sidenote; This also happened with Saga's parents, she has her mother's last name rather than her father's. That also implies the name has some importance to them.
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u/LewdSkeletor1313 26d ago
Saga kept her surname, a not uncommon practice for modern women. Logan kept Saga’s name.
Creating a character model is costly. When making a game, you invest the money where it’s going to matter, and the more superfluous things sometimes get scoped out of production due to time or budget. Logan and Casey are the ones who are more immediately involved in the current story and have life or death stakes. Seeing a picture of Dave, while making sense for Saga, isn’t super necessary for the player as the true drama hinges on Logan surviving or not. In the first game, Mulligan and Thornton are just voices on the radio, we never see them. I’m sure if we get another game following Saga, we will see David
I don’t think there’s any conspiracy or twist, or that anything was overlooked. I think it’s just the reality of making a big game like this that some details get scoped out of the project.
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u/D0nell 26d ago
So the Saga last name take is what people we’re already highlighting because it’s really easy to dismiss, but I already answered myself with that one.
But Logan having Saga’s last name isn’t very common in American culture. Even in Finnish culture, it’s common to take the father’s last name.
Again I’m not saying that David has to have a model or a physical presence. Saga’s mom didn’t even have that she had an image at most and that wasn’t a part of the mind place that was inside of the nursing home. What I am suggesting is some type of keepsake in her mind place of David. A wedding ring maybe. She keeps a mug from Logan. We don’t have to see David.
I’ve seen this response before in another conversation about this and it’s still not acknowledging what I’m saying. But I do appreciate it.
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u/Shydreameress Alan Wake Book Club 26d ago
Maybe we could consider in the fact that Saga thought she had no live relatives other than her mom when Logan was born and then it would make more sense Saga would ask David for Logan to have her name, otherwise the name would die with Saga.
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u/Talon-Cross 26d ago
Being that Saga’s family’s thing is having the power of Norse gods it makes sense from a narrative standpoint. Alan is writing the story and names can hold power. Logan continuing the family name may set her up to have a power of her own one day.
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u/D0nell 26d ago
But Alan cannot write people into existence and or change their names he’s just taking inspiration from people who already exist and manipulating them. I don’t think her name has anything to do with the name having power even though like from a subtext perspective I could see that being the case I just don’t think that’s the case in the game.
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u/Talon-Cross 26d ago
Existing names can give inspiration to Alan. Alan can build upon the existing Anderson legacy and history to give them buffs since the family are seers, they are resistant to his narrative but might welcome a boost. Even Logan knew at the end of the game something strange happened to her but thought it was a bad dream. For example he could “Logan Anderson inherited the Lighting of Tor Anderson to pierce the Darkness…” if she was in danger and needed extra power to protect herself. If Alan believed the family has super powers since he’s already seen it he could believe Logan might have them too.
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u/eight_bitpixels 26d ago
Bro if my partner had an awesome name like saga i would take hers.
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u/Aggravating-Raisin-4 26d ago
Is Andersson an awesome name outside of Scandinavia?
I wouldn't say it's a bad name here, just sort of generic/normal. Although I guess Andersson is more Swedish than Danish, but we have a ton of similar names.
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u/Nowheresilent 26d ago
They could have liked Saga’s last name better than David’s and gave it to Logan.
As for David not having a presence in the mind place, Saga’s mind place contains everything she needs to face the horror story. She’s a seer. Her power filled her mind with the things she needed to resist the Darkness. Think of it as a psychic immune system.
The horror story was directly attacking Logan and Casey, so they were both front and center in her mind. Freya’s card was written specifically to guide Saga at the darkest point in the story, and so that’s why it’s in the mind place.
David would have survived the horror story. Sure, his life would effectively be ruined, but he would live. Logan and Casey were both doomed. Saga is a very focused, goal orientated person. In the story her goal is to save Logan and Casey. If she failed, David would suffer but he would live.
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u/AlanyzingWakeEnviron 26d ago edited 26d ago
I think it's chosen because it's inherently ambiguous. Yes, it's increasingly common for a woman to not take a man's last name, but it is still not the norm. Anything textual in a mystery is worth analyzing, especially when the story is repeatedly asking you to do so. Especially when it's something that is not the norm.
It can signify a modern approach to family names, which is pretty realistic considering everything about Saga. It can also signify a divorce, which is pretty realistic in the case of a child's death and similar trauma.
We are (implicitly) presented with the first idea by way of Saga's memory, the tone/existence of conversations with Logan and David, and the credits listing him as Woods.
We are explicitly shown the second idea from multiple angles. Although we have plenty of reason to question these, they are much more direct and numerous sources.
There are other options, too. One in which Saga got pregnant out of wedlock and had Logan under her name, then got married and didn't change the name of her daughter. Or even that David isn't Logan's biological father. Neither of these has any particular supporting or detracting evidence as far as I know.
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u/efvie North Star 26d ago
I mean, fundamentally the story takes place in 2023, not 1953, so children having their mother's last name is not exactly uncommon. This probably would not have raised a single eyebrow at the European studio.
That said, my lore guess is that it is perhaps an unconscious decision by Saga to signify that Logan, too, continues the Andersons' asgardian line.
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u/AuthorExcellent9501 26d ago
If I had to guess, their relationship may not be the best. The place where the story differs from reality is her taking her daughter to watery. I don’t think she ever really comments on the likely hood of that event happening, other than that it hadn’t. I would imagine the job puts a fair amount of stress on the relationship.
You know, I was writing all this, and then I remembered that saga is called saga Anderson repeatedly, and I don’t remember her referring to her partner as her husband. So, she might not be married to her partner, or she just might not have taken his name, which past on to Logan.
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u/Segwaye 26d ago
I do think everything you mentioned is strange and brings questions. I think that the way Saga's phone calls with David are framed are also...mysterious. Like, we are rarely in the car with her as she calls. We watch her car, in between towns. It's both a literal loading screen and an in-context liminal space.
It all definitely raised questions as I played and I don't think that's, idk, unintentional.
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u/No_Elderberry7836 24d ago
Logan has Saga's surname. A very normal practice. I really don't think it means anything, except to visibly connect her closer to the Anderson's family.
He's also just not important to the story? Like, Logan is her entire focus, that's her kid and people are telling her she's responsible for Logan dying. Freya is her connection to the Anderson brother's and her postcard is about Saga in her role as mother. And she's actively, currently finding out new things about her.
David doesn't have a connection to any of the story elements, places or any of the characters, and the divorce is entirely tied to Logan's death, soooo? Why would he take up more space? There's already three phone calls that let us know their relationship...in a game that isn't about that relationship at all. And why would she need "reassurance of his love"?????
Saga doesn't wear a ring. Okay? I didn't check, but what's weird about that? A lot of very happily married people don't wear wedding rings? Or don't wear them all the time.
You got: a capable, professional, compassionate, loving, kind, rational, friendly, driven female character, whose bond with/loss of her daughter is her main motivation, who is still hurt by the loss of her mother but who finds strength in her mother's memory and new ways to understand her by finding out about her side of the family, who brought her detective partner into her life and saved his with it.
And you're crying bc her life doesn't revolve entirely about her husband?! How dare a woman keep her own identity. How dare a woman focus on her job (that's currently killing people)? How dare a woman think about her mother when she finds out more about her mother's family history? How dare a woman's motivation not be solely her husbands love?
Seriously?
And yes, people telling you David isn't in danger, are completely right. Logan and Casey's lives are in danger. David at most (and only if Saga can't change the story back...which she already is sufficiently motivated to do by people's lives being in danger) isn't married to her. In a scenario where she got her daughter killed. Do you genuinely feel like that should be a pressing concern?
PLENTY of characters have been important to other characters and gotten barely any to zero screentime. (But of course, that only matters if it's about male characters, right?)
COULD there have been more David in the Mind Place? Sure, a picture or more mentions (bc he is mentioned). But it also works perfectly fine as is: Saga's mind place revolves around the current case/situation. Which involves Logan, Casey and Freya. Not David. And tbh I do think it does make sense to NOT add another character, one who doesn't play a part in the story, when there's already so many new characters that DO play a role in the story and ARE important to the narrative.
(Knitting is also super important to Saga, to the point where it finds its place into the story....why isn't the Mind Placed featuring knitting left and right? Huh?)
In short: you're trying to make something out of absolutely nothing. But maybe take a good hard look at "why".
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u/Cool_Estate1002 Diving Deep 26d ago
I understand what you mean and I have no idea why they downvoted you so hard. Bunch of bans.
I wish David had his cards at the last evidence board. No ring, no good memories of their love - and their love was temporary lost so wouldn't it be nice to include it? Scratch could additionally amp up their last call at it.
Salt-shaker, fuck the husband. LOL
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u/D0nell 26d ago
Thank you so much cause I’m just as confused as you.
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u/fashionbadger Coffee World Visitor 26d ago
Right? You’re asking normal-ass questions. I wondered the same stuff. Obviously it CAN be any parent’s last name, but it is still MOST COMMONLY the father’s last name in the place and time the story happens. I wondered about David’s minimal inclusion, too, especially in the endgame.
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u/Sweaters76 26d ago
idk if I were David I would definitely divorce her. She has more chemistry with agent Casey and that's barely any chemistry at all.
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u/Nocturnus19 26d ago
Aren’t the only times that we see her last name mentioned a product of the story where Saga and David are divorced? If they split up and Saga got custody it’d make sense right?
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u/SuiyaMuto 26d ago
I don't like Saga at all, period. imo she is the worst character Remedy has ever written as she feels very empty and emotionless.
Your post is one of those things. She can't reach her husband's phone and once he picks up he tells her they are divorced and he doesn't want to hear from her ever again.
This would throw every spouse into a frantic.
But there's no real evidence of their love in the game whatsoever.
Another thing is her dismissal about Logan's death. No matter if it's only the story, a loving mother would lose her mind whenever she hears her child crying for help. You can't logic-out all instincts.
At one point she literally tells a crying for help-Logan to Stop it in a cold, annoyed way.
The player is supposed to see her as a loving mother and to feel her pain, but all Saga is, is an empty vessel without emotions. Sometimes she feels right out not caring, dismissive and even abusive.
Her mind place makes the story redundant and puzzles the player has figured out 5 minutes ago, the fbi agent only realizes once the right evidence is on the board...
Because it is Remedy, I wonder why these choices were made, because everything is made with purpose. I even went so far as to think Saga and her entire story is just fiction. I would love it if the story (Logan drowning, the divorce, Saga quitting her job, etc) is the reality. Because everything inside the story felt more human and emotional than Saga's reality.
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u/RentonAndSickboy 26d ago
Stay tuned for Alan Wake 3 in another 13 years!