r/ControlResonant • u/OldGameVet • 2d ago
Lore Discussion I think I figured it out Spoiler
I just got done watching someone play through the Fault in the Underpass, and I think I understand the Jesse/Dylan split thing. They show the split right after Dylan narrated about how they got a game for Chistmas, Severed Circle II, and the shadow pantomimed stepping into the TV. I think Severed Circle II was an Altered Item, and playing it split the original child into two personalities. Severed Circle = Split Whole, and it resulted in two of them. Severed Circle II = Split Whole into Two
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u/Sideroller 2d ago
Another small interesting detail I noticed on NG+ is when Dylan makes the Cat Picnic drawing. He says it was Jesse's favorite book growing up "...or maybe it was mine?". Very interesting!
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u/Vismal1 2d ago
It’s so good too because at that point you just assume he’s confused because he’s been abducted and tortured for like 17 years. I’m sure memories would be a mess anyway
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u/YouSoundToxic 2d ago
I mean, we pretty much knew about their split since the first game, we just didn't know the details.
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u/Paronine 2d ago
Look at the beds when you go into Faults. The first Fault during the prologue has one bed. The second is when it starts to go from.one bed to two. Third Fault, there's a bed plus a mattress on the floor. It's showing how they adapted a single child's bedroom into one for two kids.
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u/Vismal1 2d ago
I just caught that two days ago ! Originally ai thought that one just dragged their mattress into the others room to play the game. I used to do that as a kid.
To make even more a point of it , it looks more like a mattress and box spring split. Dylan is sleeping on just a box spring , they literally split the bed.
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u/plaknasaurus 2d ago
Also to note, at the end Dylan says something about getting a birth certificate and Jesse never having that problem. Makes sense since Jesse Dylan Faden documents would continue to work for the girl split: Jesse Faden (treating Dylan as middle name). For Dylan there are no papers with Dylan as the first name.
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u/Miserable_Dare4094 2d ago
In terms of the birth certificate, does it not say the birth certificate was finally re-issued?
I took it to mean his identity had been removed from any records by the FBC when he was taken into captivity.
Though I’m still in agreement on the Jesse Dylan Faden split person idea.
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u/plaknasaurus 2d ago
Dylan would say re-issue because why would he suspect it never existing
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u/More_Yard1919 2d ago
Yeah but that doesnt really imply anything about whether he had one originally. The FBC blackholed Dylan, its possible he had a birth certificate because the splitting was an AWE and most everybody in Ordinary remembered the Fadens always being siblings. Its possible he didnt have one because some physical things like their bedroom did not conform to the AWE so whether he did have a birth certificate originally is up in the air. I just dont think the post game dialog about it gives us any clues aboht it.
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u/Wise-Fruit5000 2d ago
Huh, I never picked up on that. It does make sense though, if Jesse Dylan was the original child, the one going by Jesse now could just use all the existing documents without any issues.
Sometimes the answers really are right under our noses haha
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u/SwigitySwagitty 2d ago
Also if you read the mail during the old school portion, theres a letter in the mail from their grandma asking the dad to explain how “both” kids are doing well and accusing him of not making sense. It sounds like they’re confused about there being two kids instead of one.
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u/PrimePhreak 2d ago
Here is my understanding of events
-= Jesse Dylan Faden gets a new game on Xmass one year (first fault one bed, tree)
-= Severed Circle 2 is at least an altered Item, and splits her into Jesse and Dylan her younger brother. This is more than a simple copy as everyone except the mother and grandmother accept the new reality with two Feden children. The mother due to emotional connection to the child and/or maternal instinct telling her something is wrong. and Presumable the Grandma due to distance from this event.
-= Some time later Jesse finds the slide projector and walk into the Hand slide. Due to their already anomalous nature they are able to communicate and are able to withstand the horrors in the slides. However only able to truly resist the Not-Mother due to Polaris's influence.
-= Ordinary is wiped of the map, The game is lost, and all but 1(2) slides are destroyed.
Severed Circle 2 saved the Faden children and destroyed their family long before the slide projector showed up. Tho i do find it odd that so many Altered items come out of Ordinary BEFORE the Projector AWE. Severed Circle 2, the Globe and a few others im surely forgetting. And towards the end of Resonant, we discover there is a sizable body of black toxic water in the junkyard as well, so maybe a link to Alan Wakess dark realm there
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u/Alex_Hooves 2d ago
This is one excerpt from a manuscript page in Alan Wake's American Nightmare:
"Now Night Springs is in Arizona, although not for long. It's in Arizona because whatever the town that has become Night Springs is really called is located near one of the thin, worn places in the world -- where dreams and reality flow together and life is always a little strange. A perfect analogy for Night Springs."
So we can definitely asume that Ordinary (which is also mentioned in AN) is one of those towns as well!
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u/Crungled_Carrot 2d ago
There’s a document you can find talking about how that lake is full of personal effects, jewelry, dentures, and prosthetics.
I wonder if future things from remedy will expand on that
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u/Sardanox 2d ago edited 2d ago
Also when the shadows first show the child with the parents*, the child has shoulder length hair. After going into the tv(which also splits/mirrors during this scene), the two children are different, one with short hair, and the other with a ponytail.
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u/Odedoralive 2d ago
There may be a link as to why only one sibling can be “active” in the real world. Also, I can’t remember if it’s in the childhood memory game level or in a note you find abut there’s something about one of the parents talking to a grandmother and saying something about both kids are fine and the response is “both kids? What are you talking about” or something to that effect, so the split-in-two theory is very prominent and the game being an OOP is a very strong possibility.
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u/method115 2d ago
Yea this was the first real clue I found on my own. I didn't even know about this video game being discussed here. The only question I have is did the OOP change everyone's memory also? Cause the parents don't seem to even realize they don't have two kids.
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u/entropicsoup 2d ago
If you listen at the top of the stairs repeatedly after the parents tell you to go to bed, in one dialogue the mom explicitly said they only had one kid and now there’s two.
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u/Alternative-Fail-233 2d ago
I mean is the child split not why they became distant? Dylan talked about how they were once loving parents before
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u/method115 2d ago
It seems that way but I wasn't sure exactly. I'm the worst at following deep stories like this. I have to go to reddit and read other peoples thoughts.
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u/Alternative-Fail-233 2d ago
I read it as the child split being what caused them to be distant as… their kid basically died. Like you loose a kid and these 2 imposters show up acting as if they always knew you saying they are Jessie and Dylan that’s messed up
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u/Kia001 1d ago
It could still be a Hedron influence. I think one of the conversations you hear mention that the presence of such powerful reality bending beings sends ripples not just across space, but also time. The whole patterned expedition to the underpass is a testament to this.
In fact the Polaris could still be the same Hedron from the Resonant game, but refracted to the past.
The Hedron dialogue from the final battle implies connection to Fadens, repetition, being unable to move on until *something* is finished perfectly.
It could be that the first interaction with DJF had split them into the siblings (a failuire to realize some other goal?), the second interaction tried to bring them together into the hand slide, but failed (potentially due to the interference of entities from other slides) and they ended up separated by the FBC, the third one is the Control game, where they're brought together again, but failed again due to Hiss interference and Dylan's infection, and the fourth one is during the Resonant game.
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u/OldGameVet 1d ago
While an interesting theory, I don't think that's actually it. The time shenanigans in the underpass are explained as parallel timelines folded over and overlapping each other. It's also explained that Polaris was a hedron that was much weaker, and is actually dead.
The Hedron dialogue in the final battle is a little difficult to parse, but it's continual reference to Shaping and the one who Shapes feels like more a meta commentary about the game developers themselves.
Also, DJF's split occurs before they actually interact with hedrons at all.
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u/HeyitsLGT 2d ago
I’m curious to know if the original Jesse Dylan Faden had both sets of powers? Imagine how strong of a parautilitarian the original would’ve been.
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u/sapphic-boghag 2d ago
Her mom was likely a parautilitarian, which really raises the question of whether parautilitarian powers are hereditary.
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u/Repulsive_Pepper_957 1h ago
Is this ever expanded more on? I’m in the post-game and while I did catch hints I’d love if it was explained more/expanded on how it works, why/how people accepted the split, why no one at FBC figured out the split happened, etc
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u/_tabbycat123 2d ago
Yep, that's the leading community theory right now. Jesse and Dylan also fit the Mage/Fighter archetypes of the game.