Control Explained - What is Polaris & The Hiss?

many scientists have posed the question if we were to discover non-terrestrial or extra dimensional life would we even be able to recognize it as life all life as we know it is carbon-based and as such even when imagining fantastical alien species they reflect the physiological structures similar to the human and animal life we are familiar with while silicon and nitrogen based life has been speculated to exist by scientists within control we encounter something even more exotic than this Polaris and the hiss are two resonance based entities that are the focal point of controls conflict they are vibrations conscious entities made of sound and energy as such in order to understand them we need to understand some basics of auditory physics any wavelength of sound is classified by three primary factors that is frequency amplitude and Tambor waves oscillate meaning that they swing up and down in a specific pattern like pendulum the number of oscillations per second or length of the wave is the frequency this is responsible for the pitch of the sound or the color in the case of wavelengths of light amplitude deals with the amount of energy in a sound wave and can be visualized by how high the oscillation goes the higher the amplitude the louder the sound becomes and the lower the amplitude the quieter it becomes Tambor is the quality of the sound even if the frequency and amplitude of a wave are identical the tambour can be different such as when listening to a piano play middle c versus an electric guitar playing the same note while there are various definitions of resonance the one I want to focus on is the intensification and enriching of a musical tone by a supplementary vibration what this means is that when two sounds that vibrate the same frequency are present the waves resonate with one another and the amplitude of the sound is increased think of the last time you were singing along to your favorite song when you hit the note perfectly in tune with a singer you can feel your voice resonate with the music this sensation is the increase in energy of the sound wave now there is another few concepts and want to cover before returning back to Polaris in this all matter in the universe is in constant motion and vibrates at a specific rate this is known as the object's natural or resonant frequency for example the low e-string on a guitar has the natural frequency of 82 Hertz while the top E string vibrates at 330 Hertz even when the string is not plucked and is at rest it has the same natural frequency without touching it we can make the string vibrate by striking a tuning fork that has the same resonant frequency when the sound wave hits the object that has the same natural frequency it causes it to vibrate more violently this can be seen in glass shatters from an opera singer this is due to the amplitude of the vibration growing so strong the molecules are unable to hold together and it tears itself apart now when two sounds are present at the same time there are three primary relationships that can happen between them that is to resonate with one another to be dissonant with one another or to cancel out at one another when two sounds of the same frequency that are in sync are exposed to one another they resonate just like the glass and increase in amplitude this principle can be seen when tuning your car radio to a specific frequency it resonates with the radio waves around us and amplifies them enough to be heard dissonance is experienced when the frequency of the tone is slightly longer or shorter than the other as a result they produce a very uncomfortable sound to listen to in musical terms this creates a desire for one of the tones to resolve into consonants consonants is a more pleasant relationship between the two notes as opposed to dissonance two notes can also cancel out one another this occurs when two waves that are 180 degrees out of phase hit one another imagine two ocean waves crashing into one another and cancelling each other out this principle is the basis for noise cancelling headphones with these basic terms out of the way let's return to control as the Polaris and his residents have clashed before we can consider them to be polar opposites in a poetic sense this makes them literally 180 degrees diametrically opposed to one another as discussed when two tones of similar wavelengths that are 180 degrees out of phase clash they cancel out one another this is what allows the Polaris resonance to act as protection from the hiss this is made further possible but Hedren resonance amplifiers developed by dr. darling as the name suggests the HR rays are intended to increase the amplitude or energy of Polaris and allow it to broadcast where these devices are located the hiss to something similar and uses his agents that float around and chant the poem endlessly to achieve this end these corrupted agents act as relay stations and spreads the hissed deeper into the oldest house with hundreds if not thousands of voices chanting the same thing with the same frequency the amplitude other his resonance is increased as more his agents are corrupted and lend their voices to the poem the hiss grows and power and energy until nothing is left standing so what are some differences between the two let's look at the concepts of Tambor and dissonance for one answer Tambor is the quality of the sound slips tackle that one first simply put this goes down to the reaction to the resonance as seen by characters who come into contact with them for the hiss we see Dylan trench and an untold number of FPC agents trench lost his mind being shown so much at once that his mind couldn't keep up with it the various agents were twisted beyond all recognition mentally and physically Dylan was left with a psyche in shambles collapsing into a coma once he was cleansed the quality of this could be considered a negative one a sound that creates madness a manic tone that consumes the host on the opposite end of the spectrum Polaris is a softer tone it lingers in the background of the mind and is not intrusive in the case of dr. darling it released information to him over a period of time in the form of AX lessons as he put it for Jessie half the time she didn't even know it was there there was no madness associated with it and gave the ability to perceive reality a little differently the sound of Polaris was more pleasing to the ears while the hiss was more violent in Tambor as mentioned earlier all matter in the universe vibrates at a natural frequency this includes human beings as such the primary frequency of these resonance base entities can either have consonants with the human or dissonance consonants is when two tones resonate with a pleasing tone and dissonance is when their relationship is severely unpleasant [Music] in this situation much like in music the dissonant relationship strives for resolution into a consonant one this dynamic works for music and personal disagreements and even how to individuals co-exist pilars and the hist do this in different ways Polaris effectively alters itself to match the frequency of the listener leaving them mostly unchanged the hiss however forces the listener to change to its frequency altering their mind until their merely drones much of the history first - giving up aspects of the self to the new song that consumes their entire being phrases such as repeat the word the name of the sound it resonates in your house an earworm is a tune you can't stop humming in a dream these lines have themes of being consumed by the will of another song another resonance other than your own just like with dissonance trying to resist this is difficult one strives a resolution since the hiss will never budge we are forced to tune ourself to it or go insane Dylan even states it feels good to say those words the difference between the two entities is reflected in the freedom of the psyche with Polaris versus the enslavement of the psyche with this while not a conscious being we do in fact have a version of a primary background resonance here on earth it is called the Schumann resonance this electromagnetic field of the earth that exists in the cavity between the planets and the ionosphere has an average frequency of seven point eight three Hertz this is effectively the natural frequency of the earth for the human mind we have several tiers of natural frequency as well on average the brain resonates around ten Hertz this falls with an alpha wave patterns let's take a brief moment to look at this for the human mind delta waves exist between 0.5 and 4 Hertz and are characterized by deep dreamless sleep or went unconscious theta waves are between 4 & 7 Hertz and are characterized by drowsiness the first stage of sleep or meditation it is associated with daydreaming intuition and creativity alpha waves reside between 7 and 12 Hertz and is the common state of a conscious relaxed adult it is characterized by alertness but not actively processing information moving up beta waves are shown between 12 and 30 Hertz and reflect active outward attention and mental activity and information processing on the higher end of the spectrum the mind may experience a sense of heightened alertness anxiety or the fight-or-flight response the final primary type are gamma waves between 30 and 100 Hertz this occurs when we are processing information from both hemispheres of our brain simultaneously to quote from an article called Schumann resonances and their effect on human bio regulation entrainment is the process whereby two interacting oscillating systems which have different periods when they function independently assume a common period the system with the greater frequency slows down and the other speeds up in other words one vibrational frequency can tune the other train it into harmony this is shown in control when Polaris goes through the entrainment process with Jessie and dr. darling while the hissed is the same with Trench and Dylan Polaris Tunes itself down in order to safely tune up the director in the head of research this gives them an enhanced perspective of reality the hisses entrainment process is more violent as it does not tune itself down but forces everything to its level the human mind is not capable of that level of brain function and leads to madness or the destruction of the psyche effectively making all those corrupted by this and your puppets part of the collective dr. darling were first of his-- is viral and invasive while Polaris is Benina it is theorized that higher frequencies allow for more information to be received for example at 20 Hertz you have access to information from 0 to 20 but at 100 Hertz one has access to information from 0 to 100 dr. darling story reflects this theory as he gains a better understanding of things with each lesson Hedgehog releases to him with each lesson his psyche is effectively tuned up to a higher frequency eventually he ceases to exist here and ascends to a higher plane of consciousness with all this in mind what is the true story of these two entities this is a personal theory of mine and my best guess given the information we have available let me know your thoughts on the matter at some point in the past the hiss escaped from its home threshold in the burnt slide and invaded the hand Hedren became the conduit for Polaris's resonance the hiss consumed all forms of life in the hand turning them into relay stations for its frequency the amplitude of the hiss grew stronger as the voices resonated with one another Hedren and Polaris were unable to cancel it out fully with only Hedren broadcasting the benign resonance as polaris refused to be viral and assumed control of others the five pillars witnessed during the slide scape 36 expeditions were crafted effectively these were giant tuning forks that amplified the Polaris residents enough to beat back the hiss the gate of the hisses home threshold was shut off and only lingering remnants of that resonance remained when two residents of ordinary Jessie and Dylan Faden arrived in the hand either Hedren or polaris reached out to them recognizing the young pair utilitarians it found potential conduits for itself if the need arose calling them special it began the entrainment process as a result Polaris remained with them even after they left although the amplitude was long after this event Dylan was captured by the bureau and brought back to the olds house while Jessie escaped much later during the slight scape expeditions the lingering remnants of the history into trenches ear and followed him back to the oldest house on the third expedition darling brought the head run back to the bureau as it was the conduit for Polaris this resonance came as well the influence of the hisses entrainment led to anxiety in paranoia in the former director sensing the threat had run released lessons to darling and instructed him to make the HR raise in preparation these would serve as smaller versions of the giant tuning forks it used in the past the hisses grip over Trent grew to the point or the need to defend the bureau from bouleris a non-existent threat reached the breaking point he took the slide projector down to the nostalgia department and opened the gate to the burnt slide threshold being the home threshold of the hiss that viral resonance invaded full force into the bureau anyone not protected by an HRA or the Polaris residence was consumed this began the struggle for the hiss to increase its amplitude or power to the point where it could beat back Polaris it achieved this by creating his agents to act as relay stations and soldiers to destroy anyone with an HRA that broadcasts at Polaris as each HRA was destroyed one less voice could resonate in the amplitude of the benign entity decreased as a secondary goal to his discovery the astral plane and the board this group of entities became a target to entrain as well sensing the danger before it happened Hedren reached out to Jessie and called her to the oldest house just in time for the previous director to seemingly commit suicide the fun goal of the hiss is to destroy Hedren the conduit that allows the Polaris resonance to exist here throughout this Dylan fate and rejects Polaris as he feels betrayed for being locked up and abandoned he accepts the his'n and any trace of Polaris within him is diminished using his body to his tricks Jessie into removing the large scale HR aid that protects Hedren and watches as the conduit is destroyed with no source to broadcast Polaris signal all of the hrs fail and the bureau is consumed in full once corrupted Jesse's consciousness is thrust into a mindscape that keeps her psyche trapped with the encouragement of awti and dr. darling she is able to locate the remnant Polaris that she has had since childhood in doing so she becomes the new conduit for this resonance becoming the successor to Hedren every age are a reactivates curing the survivor still wearing one of the action as her own body is now capable of canceling out the hiss Jessie enters the nostalgia department cleanses Dylan and the black pyramid before closing the slide projector this cuts off the source of his resonance now all that is left to do is clean house to eliminate any trace of the hiss that still remains trapped on this side this brings us to the end of the main campaign of control in the end these two resonance base life-forms represent themes of freewill versus control agency of one's own psyche through Polaris first the force that wants to tune us to sing only their song with this in the foundation DLC we learn a little more about the capabilities of Polaris when Jessie thinks to herself that she wishes Pope were there Polaris sends a message directly to the new head of research who begins making the trip down I could really use my head of research right about now in addition the x-ray light box allows Jessie to forcibly entrain the hiss enemy tuning into the frequency of Polaris and under her control much like the his'n treatment this causes psychic trauma which eventually kills the host with a new DLC coming soon I am curious what new information we may receive see you then [Music]

Channel: Gaming University

Views: 90,409

Keywords: Remedy Entertainment, Remedy Games, Video Games, Game Theory, Gaming University, GameTheory, alan wake 2, remedy, gaming, controlremedy, xbox 360, video game rumination, Control Explained, remedy games, what happened in control, remedy games control, Control Rumination, Control spoilers, Gaming University Control, Control Foundation DLC, control dlc, control story explained, Control The Hiss, Control Polaris

Id: j5S0zzQhRzQ

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 12 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/RcregerRemedy04]

YES! Another Gaming University video! Can't wait to dig into this one:D

[u/clamorsilentii]

Awesome content, definitely worth the watch

[u/victorvicktor2]

Watched it yesterday, so incredible as always! 😍

[u/KronoriumExcerptB]

Absolutely love the content. Always gets me to think about the game in a different way.

[u/Tersphinct]

He's making a bold statement right off the bat, about the Hiss being polar opposite to Polaris, and I thoroughly disagree.

I think they're dissonant to one another, not polar opposite. The hiss poured out of a burned out slide. They were mangled. Whatever slipped into Trench's mind and got into his head on one excursion into Slidescape 36 might not have been the hiss as they came out of the projector when he turned it on in the Nostalgia Department.

[u/Fair-Frozen]

Great video! Had to stop the it at the Foundation section as I haven’t played through that yet.

[u/[deleted]]

Really good vide. I'd be interested in something about the art design and architecture - any suggestions from anyone?