u/D0nell

I recently just purchased and received the making of control art book.

I was curious and searched up if AW2 had an art book after completing the game and wanting to collect memorabilia.

Not only did I not know they had an art book, but they had a deluxe edition with more memorabilia attached to it that I would’ve loved to have!

They should definitely bring that edition back. What do y’all think? They’re missing out on some good money because I’m willing to invest and I wanna let them know that there’s interest.

I’m afraid the art book alone just isn’t enough for me.

OK, y’all had a fun little theory.

One of the central ideas in the Control universe is that an Altered Item is an ordinary object that has been exposed to paranatural forces during an Altered World Event. The object doesn’t just gain supernatural abilities. It is changed, becoming something that no longer behaves according to the normal laws of reality.

My theory is that this same principle doesn’t stop with objects. It can happen to people.

I believe there is an undocumented category that could be called Altered People. These are individuals who have experienced such profound exposure to paranatural forces that they are no longer entirely human in the conventional sense. They haven’t simply acquired powers. Their very existence has been rewritten, allowing them to exist outside our normal understanding of space, time, and physical presence.

This would explain why certain characters seem to exist in a strange state where they are both present and absent at the same time. They witness events, communicate with protagonists, and influence the story without needing to physically occupy the same place.

Take Darling, for example. By the end of the game, he no longer appears to function as an ordinary person. He manifests through visions and messages, almost as though he has become a part of the larger paranatural reality itself. He isn’t exactly alive in the traditional sense, but he isn’t gone either.

(Alan Wake 2 Stuff)
The same idea can be applied to Thomas Zane. Zane repeatedly appears despite existing outside normal reality. His identity shifts between poet and filmmaker, and he continues influencing events long after he should have disappeared. Rather than simply surviving supernatural encounters, he seems to have become something fundamentally different from a normal human.

Perhaps the another example is Warlin Door. Door is implied to have once been an ordinary man before mysteriously vanishing. When he reappears, he doesn’t behave like someone bound by reality anymore. He moves between worlds effortlessly, seems aware of multiple timelines or realities simultaneously, and appears exactly when the story requires him to. Rather than existing within the narrative, he almost exists outside it, stepping in and out as if reality itself is only one stage among many. If Altered People exist, Door may represent their most complete evolution.

What all three characters share is that they no longer seem restricted by the same rules as everyone else. They don’t teleport or cast spells in the traditional sense. Instead, they occupy a state where physical presence is almost optional. They observe events from impossible locations, communicate across realities, and influence the world without directly participating in it.

This is why I think “Altered People” fits so naturally into the logic of the Remedy Connected Universe. We already know that ordinary objects exposed to paranatural forces become Altered Items. It seems equally plausible that ordinary people exposed to those same forces could become altered themselves. The difference is that instead of gaining impossible physical properties, they gain an impossible way of existing.

In other words, an Altered Person isn’t just a human with supernatural abilities. They are someone whose relationship with reality has been permanently rewritten. They become something that is still recognizably human, but no longer completely belongs to our version of reality.

OK, let me take my ass to bed now.

Do y’all think this was the night springs variation of Jesse? Or do y’all think this was the main continuity Jesse communicating through the TV?

There’s something about this image of a woman and a bear together that’s making me uncomfortable. Maybe it’s uncanny image of the bear in black and white or something, but the wolf appearing at the door didn’t help I thought that bear came after me.

For a second, I thought I ran into a familiar opponent.

We are more than familiar with the oldest house.

We are familiar with the lake house.

But what about other locations?

Do we know of any other locations?

Do these locations each have their own site supervisors?

Any theories to how they might be reacting to the lockdown after what we witnessed in the lake house?

Do you think the lake house is the only site that had a supernatural entity that it was monitoring take over or lose control?

When I think of the FBC having global locations, I think about monarch in the Godzilla universe and wonder if they’re all stationed by thresholds the way that monarch has all their stations by Titans.

Does anyone have any insight that they might be able to provide? I admittedly have not read and covered everything in the video games. There’s so much lore that I feel like it’s hard to cover everything on my own, so I’m left with these questions.

Wonder Woman got one animated movie (in this universe), and they immediately decided, “We’re gonna end this universe right now, reboot the whole thing back to mostly Superman and Batman, and then reduce Wonder Woman to a supporting character in a Justice League period piece.”

At this point, I genuinely think DC wishes they had never treated Wonder Woman as her own standalone character. It feels like they would rather have made her a supporting character for someone like Superman or just kept her as part of the Justice League because the way they’ve handled her is so consistently underwhelming that it’s becoming impossible to ignore. Whether it’s intentional or not, the pattern is hard not to notice.

I still don’t understand why the DC Animated Movie Universe ended as quickly as it did. It didn’t even feel like it had finished developing its world or its characters. We had only just gotten a new Teen Titans, there were still plenty of stories left to tell, and then they suddenly decided to wrap everything up and start over.

Then they introduced the Tomorrowverse, which, in my opinion, was a significant downgrade. The animation style reminds me of Archer, the dialogue often feels awkward and unnatural, and the movies never really captured the momentum or identity that the previous universe had built. It felt like they rebooted the franchise before the original universe had even reached its full potential.

Someone just posted that it was in stock a day ago and it’s already back out of stock what’s happening over there? 😭

UPDATE:
(don’t be mistaken by the original version being unavailable the anniversary version is available I was extremely confused when I was searching for it because Google kept giving me the original. I wish future would take down the original. But also, I still would prefer if they chose a different company to be responsible for the resonant physical art book)

I’m just a big fan of the concept art. I like the idea of the eyeball. I respect the creative choice that they decided.

We moved on way too fast from the impact of the Hiss on the Oldest House. I did not see this missing sign and memorial for those lost to the Hiss in the game, and honestly it is really sad. This does not even show everyone who was lost, but it really shows how much life was taken.

I think when we read, watch, or play fiction, it is easy to become less affected by death because we are seeing it through a story. But imagine getting a letter saying your family member died while working a normal desk job for the government. A lot of the people in the FBC were not field agents and never actually experienced the supernatural besides things like the Oldest House shifting, a cup disappearing, or something moving from where it was supposed to be.

Think about all the people who did not have family but had friends who will never know what happened to them. Think about all the pets left at home with no one to take care of them. So many lives were lost, and now with another entity involved, it feels like Resonant is only adding to the death toll instead of helping stop it.

I hope we get to see things calm down and see the characters actually sit with the weight of what happened. I want to see them make changes and create better ways to protect people because the amount of loss is honestly terrible. I know the characters are used to this kind of work and they understand the risks they take, but there is a difference between knowing the danger and actually showing the impact of so many people dying.

I remember seeing a post about how a character in FBC: Firebreak felt like their efforts were useless. When you think about how many Bureau alerts end with only one survivor, it makes you question how effective the FBC really is at protecting people. And that is not even mentioning all the lives lost to the Dark Place in Bright Falls. That is so much tragedy for anyone to deal with. I really hope the story takes time to address it.

If we aren’t going to get to play as Jesse in Control 2, can we at least get her Control 2 look as a cosmetic in the original Control? It’s been emphasized that Dylan is the playable character, so adding Jesse’s new skin to the OG game would be a great way to let fans still experience that version of her.

I don’t know if y’all noticed, but Jesse’s eyes turn black during Control’s Yoshimi Tokui’s Guided Imagery Experience.

It’s a really interesting detail.

On paper, the Federal Bureau of Control is a government agency tasked with protecting humanity from supernatural and interdimensional threats. But the deeper you look, the more complicated the question becomes: does humanity actually control the FBC, or is the FBC being shaped by the very forces it claims to contain?

The agency’s leadership has a long history of becoming connected to supernatural entities. The Board is an unknown higher power directing the Bureau. Northmoor became a living power source. Trench was influenced by the Hiss and made a catastrophe. Darling’s research led him to become so intertwined with Hedron that he eventually chose to enter the Hedron containment chamber himself, effectively abandoning his human position and becoming something else. Ash Jr. also disappeared in the Foundation, with possible connections to the Former.

That creates a pattern: the people at the top of the FBC don’t simply study or contain these forces. They become involved with them, influenced by them, or transformed by them.

Even Jesse, who appears to be the best possible person to lead the FBC, has Polaris in her mind guiding her. From our perspective, Polaris is beneficial and helped Jesse resist the Hiss. But how would it look to someone outside the Bureau? Someone who doesn’t already trust Emily Pope or the FBC’s worldview? They might see a government director who is literally receiving guidance from a supernatural entity.

That raises a serious question: should humanity trust a group of parautilitarians running an organization responsible for global security when so many of its leaders have a history of becoming attached to the same forces they are supposed to control?

The Dylan situation adds another layer. People speculate he could become co-director, but he was consumed by the Hiss and now has the mysterious “aberrant” attached to him. We still don’t fully understand what that is beyond another connection to an unknown force. Once again, FBC leadership becomes tied to powers humanity doesn’t understand.

And there’s another troubling pattern: when people inside the Bureau challenge these forces, they often don’t survive. Marshall opposed the Nail and the Bureau’s handling of the connection between the Oldest House, the Board. Her resistance put her directly against forces far beyond ordinary human control, and she ultimately ended up dead. The pattern suggests that those who challenge the entities influencing the FBC often pay the highest price, while those who accept or align themselves with those powers gain authority.

The Bureau isn’t only hiding itself from the public and other branches of government. It’s also hiding the extent of the power, influence, and supernatural connections its leadership possesses.

Jesse questioning the Board, and Control Resonant may explore what she does with that authority. But the fundamental issue remains: how do we trust a director who has an entity in her mind, even if that entity appears benevolent?

If the full history of Trench, Darling, Northmoor, Ash Jr., and the FBC leadership ever became public, I could see a reaction similar to the X-Men’s treatment of mutants: fear, suspicion, and debate over whether parautilitarians should be allowed to hold positions of power.

Governments and militaries have always had histories of catastrophic decisions, so maybe the world would overlook it. But the question remains: is the FBC protecting humanity from the supernatural, or is humanity slowly becoming part of the system it claims to control?

I am more than certain that Agent Estevez is going to become the head of Investigations. I made this theory a long time ago under another post of mine, but I wanted to dedicate a post specifically to it.

I have a reason to believe this because of how much Estevez has already proven herself. Between the AWE situation in Alan Wake 2 and wrapping up the Lake House investigation on her own, she has shown that she can handle major cases and operate under extreme circumstances.

I could see Jesse respecting that and trusting her with leading the Investigations Department of the Bureau. Estevez has already demonstrated the qualities you would expect from someone in that position: experience, adaptability, and the ability to make decisions when things go wrong.

There is also a pattern in the Control and Alan Wake universe of women taking major leadership roles, with Emily as the head of Research and Jesse becoming the Director.

What do y’all think? Could Estevez become the next major department head of the FBC?

I think Langston is going to be part of an opposing faction in Control 2, and here’s why.

I think it’s worth revisiting what we know about his character and what we can put together from Control. First, we have to remember the Tennyson Report. Langston is a fan of the poet who is quoted in the report, and that raises an interesting possibility: could he be connected to whoever wrote it, or possibly even involved with the group behind it?

Another reminder is that Langston’s cat is named Alfred after the poet. There has already been a lot of conversation about whether his cat could be connected to an Entity or even be an Altered Item itself, and I think that is something we may revisit in Control 2.

Langston’s admiration for Altered Items. His respect for them, almost to the point where he treats them as if they deserve reverence rather than simple containment. That mindset could become a threat to Bureau security if his beliefs go too far.

There’s also the fact that he was trying to get the autograph of a paracriminal. Showing admiration for someone who exploited and abused their clients is strange, especially considering how the FBC views people who misuse parautilitarian abilities. It adds to the idea that Langston has a fascination with these forces that goes beyond normal curiosity.

I’m currently replaying the AWE DLC, and Langston already feels like an outsider within the FBC. We saw him compare himself to Dr. Darling in terms of how their personalities are accepted by the Bureau community, and I can understand why someone like him might feel disconnected. If an opportunity came up during the Pattern AWE event, I could see him being tempted to branch off, either joining a coalition connected to the Tennyson Report or potentially being involved in creating one himself.

I don’t think Langston would necessarily be a full antagonist, but I could definitely see him being part of an opposing faction. We know Control 2 will have forces opposing the FBC, and while that could mean groups like the Hiss, the Mold, or the Blessed Organization, Langston feels like a possibility because his beliefs already put him in a unique position.

What do y’all think?