Control Explained - What is the Tennyson Report? 

I thought everyone knew this. The Tennyson Report is when a 10 year old kid uses his alien watch to turn into aliens to gain superpowers.

Funny thought that I has is that Control is basically office work in a nutshell, the insane amount of bureaucracy, the bathrooms are always clogged, there's mold everywhere, the hiss being the sound polution of the city and the janitor is always the most helpful figure hahahaha love your videos man, can't wait for the sequel!

Did always really enjoy Langston's dialogue and view on the Altered Objects, didn't take him for the type to start an internal revolution.

If you observe that chanting in latin makes your SCP table stop floating in midair, and you can repeat this test several times to the point in which you can predict that it will happen every time, that is science, you did science right there

With every Control Explained video the Remedyverse goes deeper and deeper. And I feel like even with all your videos we only scratched the surface of this world.

I'm really looking forward to the sequel. So many questions that need answers are here (thanks to your amazing research and examinations), and the lore is one of the greatest in all of gaming in my opinion. Thanks for the video :)

Soooo... Langston could be preparing a revolution within the FBC? The thought of a full out prison riot in the panopticon sounds terrible. Just think about the murderous fridge. On the other hand, i really like the way he talks. I can picture him standing on a copy machine in the executive sector chanting something like: "bureaucracy is dead and we killed it!"

This is actually kind of encouraging. It means there is a group of people out there who have a broader understanding of how both the FBC and The WeirdShit works. They haven't lost all of the important secrets and details with the deaths of the top admins.

That's so wild, I hadn't realized the connections between the poem and our eccentric cat lover Langston. I will say though that the 'Left Brain = Logic, math, and Right Brain = emotion, creativity' is a *very dated and inaccurate* understanding of our brains. (This is about as absurd as the myth that 'we only use 15% of our brains, but it has been so wide spread that movies and hack articles love to lean on these debunked theories in order to sell you on yet another wildly unfounded idea) In reality, logic and creativity is not mutually exclusive to either sides of our brains. Similarly, the differences of a 'male brain' vs 'female brain' is often related to the average sizes of women vs men. I would strongly encourage checking out some of the many articles out there that discuss and break down these myths and where they came from. (Plus I'm just a youtube comment, I'd rather you not even take my own word without you checking for yourself.) It was a nice poetic comparison to bring up the myth of right/left brain male/female brains to explain science vs superstition in control as being a union of two sides, but it is wildly incorrect.

Every time you post a Control or Alan Wake related video I can't help but rewatch the whole playlist. Thank you for your content and making my work day so much better. Everything about this world is so interesting and well connected, in a way that makes you think and build on it, the subtleties that are left to you thinking them out without feeling the need to set stuff down in stone. Just....ugh I love it. Gonna restart my playlist watch now while I start my work day!

Great video! You managed to get so much out of just some simple documents, this game never seizes to amaze me. Langston definitely seems to be the author and the conflict between both parties can be clearly seen throughout the game :o

Not being able to understand how something works doesn't equal "accepting the esoteric beliefs". For example, we don't really understand how some galaxies rotate the way they do. We can theorise that there is dark matter (which we don't understand either) that provides additional mass/gravity. We don't start thinking that it is God's hand that's rotating the galaxies. The same way Dr. Darling must surely accept the empiric proof that Langston's "rituals" work, but he would still try finding an explanation for them. In my view, the scientists are clearly in the right here. The Report's clear disdain for scientific terms puts it plainly in the realm of mythological thinking, which is harmful and unenlightened. Great video! I actually never found that place where the report is, and was like "wow, there's a secret area there!"

The problem of using superstition in a place like the oldest house is that you may give extra power to forces that feed on belief ... Trench knew about the importance of rituals to keep the altered items calm but he also knew that he must use science to lock them away for example using resonance in control point and using black rock to lock OOP and AI ... so in a way science in the oldest house works like magical thinking that help keeping things under CONTROL

"The Science". It almost sounds like a idol of superstition in itself, that Rationality can save you from the Entity that didn't like your attitude.

Great video as always! I’m hoping for a “What really happened during the Ordinary AWE” in the future. I want a DLC covering the events.

Wow, I actually didn't know how people realised Langston was behing the Tennyson Report. Also, I've never noticed Archival Mandates 8.A and their meaning. Sometimes I think Control will never run out of secrets that can still be discovered... Thanks for the video!

The "science rejects something because it can't figure out how something works" idea rests on the idea that science doesn't apply to determining if an effect exists. While that has been a popular idea, a lot of actual science is about determining if an effect exists apart from randomness. Considering the role of psychology in creating the altered items, the guesswork that certain rituals would fit a certain mechanism to handle them makes plenty of sense from a scientific view. While the depiction of science is incorrect, the idea that ritual emerges as a more practical set of steps is novel enough to some people that I guess it becomes fodder for writers.

Your ancestors called it magic, but you call it science. I come from a land where they are one and the same. - Thor Odinson

Good thing the new Head of Research is a scientist who also has an "intuitive understanding" of the paranatural.

The oldest house is like a Tardis complete wit a working chameleon circuit Changing, bigger in the inside and hidden in plain sight, and then there is the singularity at the hearth, which has the possibility to open portals to other planes of existence

Wow! Great job diving into this subject. I appreciate someone taking the time explain this viewpoint in Control.

Wow, what a great exploration of the whole stuff. Didn't know your channel beforehand, but you made yourself a new follower.

Found you thru psychonauts. Just dove deep into all of your control videos, which I played prior to cuz of gamepass. I had never played AWake but I kinda wish I had. I loved the gameplay and rushed thru most of the foundables. Makes me wanna replay immediately, but also just wait for the sequel. Thanks for the lessons, and keep it up.

Sounds to me like the history of the Oldest House is the history of humanity trying to overbalance its Rational and Emotional aspects.

Another great video. Thank you. Maybe the house plays a part in attracting the different types of personalities or brains to help think of the different ways to keep things contained.

Your content never ceases to amaze me. Time and again, I have been impressed by the sheer attention to detail and the investigative skills and talents that you possess. I don’t think any single person in the entire globe has created this amount of *quality* content about this game. It is impressive. Very well done, friend. And the absolute joy I get when a new Control video is uploaded . . . indescribable. As always, I look forward to your future work and learning even more about the fascinating world that Remedy created. Three years later, we are _still_ learning new things-incredible. I haven’t been able to follow your other videos as closely (aside from Max Payne, which I _loved_) simply because I haven’t played the other games. I do look forward to checking out Hellblade now that I have finally bought it. I would love to get into Psychonauts 2, but I would have to play Psychonauts first, and, so, I have been feeling a little reluctant. Nevertheless, I know for a fact that your other content is just as satisfying and filled with knowledge as the ones I have seen so far. Thank you, honestly.

I've been craving more control content thank you so much.

Thank you. Love the remedy universe videos you put out.

Great job as always, dean. I have a weak PC that doesn't allow me to play Control, so I downloaded and watched a playthrough from another youtuber who did not finish the side missions or find all of the reports like most of the Blessed organization ones. I did not know the Tennyson report could be found in the oldest house. That's the reason I and surely, a lot more of the subscribers look forward to your Control playthrough. I know it's gonna be a while and that's alright, just wanted to express the hype

As always very in depth and covering something I didn't even consider

These videos are the best. Thank you!

Super late but I love these videos! Subbed!

I love things like this. Great vid!

the Tennyson report mentality reminds me of Northmoor's comment to his doctor about maintaining an aspect of mystery to his abilities.

Great insight man would not have noticed this if you mentioned it!

New Control analysis video? Yes please!

Great video, as always! I wonder if it would be dangerous to use faith for containing altered items and objects of power. It’s cool that some rituals work, but in a world where the collective unconscious is a thing, it’s possible that to praise them could give the objects more power. I don’t know.

Another awesome video exactly when I needed it. By the way, Threshold kids is a cool topic you can work on it as well.

Langston's got a point. I mean, he spends most of his time in direct contact with these things. So its kinda like what happened with Hartman and Zane. And trenches constant need for control is kinda the reason the hiss got as far as it did.

love all ur videos

My god YES. More content for Control please!!!!

I love that you are continuing to make videos about Control! Thank you... Not enough folks are talking about it and even fewer are talking about all the minute details of the rich lore/mysteries. @Gaming University BTW did you mean to set your videos/channel as "child-content" or "made for children"? I tried turning the notification bell on but apparently that feature is turned off for "child content"??

Well, until I watched this I had no idea it was even possible to find a copy of the report in the game. Great video.

It just occurred to me that this philosophy is similar to that of the Blessed Organization, which is involved in the creation of Altered Items. Langston is the keeper of the Panopticon, and arguably the best authority in the Bureau second to Darling on Altered Items and how they function. I bet that if Chester Bless is ex FBC, that he and Langston have a connection.

1:39 I did not know there is a hidden area...

As long as there's an internal logic then I'd be okay with it.

Oh you've got to be shitting me! Another hidden file I missed? I may love this game but the amount of unlisted secrets and lack of completion metrics infuriates me to no end...

Thanks for the video.

Bro i live just to hear you speak about this game

It makes sense for them to be possessed objects as with the flamingo and the benicoft tv they only becomes altered items by beung linked with an entity like the former

To be fair to Trench, I can understand him wanting to put the kibosh on this report quickly given the Bureau is aware of the existence of the Blessed organization who seem to have a more occult modus operandi to their proceedings. So a memo going around saying the Bureau should embrace more esoteric practises, to me, feels like the Blessed organisation trying to pull the Bureau apart by the seams.

Is it a coincidence that the Possessed Object Gallery shortens to POG? The Bureau really were a bunch of gamers back in the day.

I think the answer lies somewhere in between. Everything has a logic to it, but in the case of Control, some of those logical connections may lie outside our realm of understanding and perception, and therefore be impossible to define. I don't think the answer lies in treating it like magic, I think the decision to treat everything like a serious science is the right one, but to reject a working procedure because you don't understand it is ignorant. After all, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Wow I love the magic godly side of understanding. Magic Lovecraftian Scientific All combining in this game to form a truly bizarre form of nature within the oldest house. I love it

Just when I thought I had all the Control lore covered, this one pops up. Great stuff. There's an interesting hint of the Orwellian to the way in which Trench (I suspect) used language to steer the herd into a set way of thinking.

The FBC is the Technocracy! (Mage the Ascension)

What the author is igboring is that OOps change dependant on perception. By having a number of people view a item as mystical or possesed you imbue them with those charecteristics. The reports author is accidentally arguing for the creation of 'Deamons' to posses the items and be hekd back via ritual..

Faith never asks "Does it work?". Fait outright states "We must believe it works, even if it looks like it doesn't work." That is what negating science leads to. Eschewing objective reality in favor of what one is convinced should happen.

But don't those rituals and superstitions work because like altered items themselves those rituals are part of the collective unconscious?

Who is Control and why should they be explained?

Yea I can see how the panopticon is like a Wizards tower.

You are the Vaatividya of Remedy Games 😌

I hope you are hired for world building in control 2

I saw it as a philosophical approach with their own pitfalls. The esoteric approach could lead to worship of the paranormal and a lack of understanding. The scientific approach can lead to cold-hearted, mechanical, and often inhumane practices. Control shows the hazards of both.

Wow. I never caught that Langston was the author of the Tennyson Report. Then again I didn’t know who Lord Alfred Tennyson was until I saw this video, so I never made the connection.

Yay, Control

Tnx again G. U.

Browsing the video titles and not seeing one that might be more relevant to this, but - do you think Alfred is actually a cat? Langston says he doesn't remember when he got Alfred which normally wouldn't be significant but considering the setting makes me wonder if he accidentally brought some of his work home with him.

"A furnace that requires human sacrifice." Guys. Space heaters are a thing. Stop doing that. Maybe wear a sweater to work if you're still chilly.

*Ben Tennyson* ...sorry I had to.

Yeah that’s not how brains work, there are different parts of the brain on each hemisphere but the idea that one side has all the creative thoughts and the other has all of the logical thoughts is just plain wrong. Also fun fact, you can cut a humans corpus colossum severing the connecting between each hemisphere and the person will function almost entire the same as before, with some minor side effects, it’s used on patients who have severe seizures as a last ditch solution and it works

Calling it now, Jesse's gonna get a sword in the next game and it'll be a bit more melee focused.

9:26 is wrong. "Does it work?" is not faith. It's the seed of science. Once we know something works, then we can proceed to the next step and determine how and why it works. Faith is "Oh, I don't care investigating if ti works or not. I'll keep doing it and ignore any evidence that proves me wrong."

Langston is just terrible at his job and needs to be fired or worse. His carelessness and blatant disregard for his employees like the guy with the frigde is unacceptable. He's probably a secret villain if he's not just plain stupid. I thought for sure Jesse was going to fire his a$$ after she came back, not ask him to stay! The panopticon is supposed to be a fortress with tight security and he had a disaster on his hands that the Hiss may have exacerbated, but certainly did not start. Who is this, Dennis Nedry? He's going to be the FBC's undoing, forget Chester Bless, Former, Hatch, or any other major players!

*raises hand* Hey Professor! Me again! I'm confused about something.... Again! Okay so... The Oscillator was acquired by the Bureau and contained in the Possessed Objects Gallery, which you state is the same place as the Panopticon, the only difference being the Archival Mandate name change. Assuming I understood you correctly here, I have the following question: Seeing as The Oscillator was acquired and subsequently contained by the Bureau on the 28th of July 1954, how can the Possessed Objects Gallery be the same place as the Panopticon? The Panopticon, I think we all agree, is located within the Oldest House, right? And what was the date in which the Bureau first discovered the Oldest House? 4th of August 1964 - Ten years AFTER the Oscillator was acquired by the Bureau. See the confusion I'm having here?

I sing to my plants daily

You should also make one on 12 minutes.

Imagne a group that follows the occult ways. Like serpants hand from the scp foundation.

What why i didn’t read that ?.?

Doing rituals blindly just cause they work could end up with the world worshipping some dimensional being. 😐

As for the rest of the video, I'm copypastaing something I wrote elsewhere on the Tennyson Report, but first I would like to address the bit where you've added: "Faith - Does it work?". Incorrect! Science DOES concerns itself with if something works, it's part of the Scientific Method. Faith doesn't give a flying fuck if something doesn't work, it will still insist that it does. Anyway, here's what I did on the report: Science is not the enemy, science is the ally. Langston fails to understand this because he lacks a basic understanding of how science works. If he had had this basic understanding of science, he would've realized that his work with the Altered Items was him doing science. He would've also understood that Altered Items do not fit under the 'Supernatural' umbrella term: If one cannot demonstrate that something does exist, then how is that different from something that doesn't exist? There is no difference. The reality of Altered Items is scientifically demonstrable, and the same goes for the observations he has made while interacting with Altered Items. Anyone who is of the mindset that Altered Items are just items needs to be taken downstairs to the Investigations Sector, and be introduced to Fra. This enemy he describes as the 'close-minded cult of logic and data', he is entirely correct about them being the enemy, but he is completely ass-backwards about what makes them the enemy: These people have abandoned logic and data and replaced it with whatever suits them. You need look no further than Dr. Darling for a textbook example of such an individual. Dr. Pope and Dr. Underhill have produced counteressays to research papers penned by Dr. Darling where they both call him out on him making wild-ass assertions with zero science backing it up. Langston doesn't have to be upset for much longer, though: With Dr. Pope as Head of Research, actual science has come home again. And once Dr. Pope gets a free moment to examine Langston's work, I'm pretty sure he'll be consulted on matters pertaining to Altered Items in the future. So in closing, since Langston decided to start out with poetry to express himself, I shall dedicate some poetry back to him regarding the bright future that is in store for the Bureau under the leadership of Director Faden: "This is one moment, but know that another shall pierce you with a sudden painful joy." - T.S. Eliot

The funny thing is that your own examples about humanity's beliefs pretty much prove the Tennyson Report wrong. Humabity used to believe certain things and then science discovered they were otherwise. If that's not proof that all phenomena can be eventually explained by science then I dont know what is.

I am failing to follow your reasoning in regards to Archive Mandate 8.A. There is no document in the game that outlines exactly what this mandate is for. What information we have on said mandate is a notice included in certain documentation, which reads: "NOTE: Per Archival Mandates 8.A, this document has been edited to meet current administrative standards. Certain terminology may be out of date." You then present us with the following claim: "This documentation mandate is done with the intention to remove any and all concepts that relate to superstition or magic." then present The Oscillator Case File, that includes the mandate notice at the beginning, to talk about an example of terminology that you think the mandate addresses. How, though? If the mandate addressed the usage of "Possessed Object Gallery" you would not be able to sit here and talk to us about the "Possessed Object Gallery" because there would be a big, fat [REDACTED] blocking you from doing so. The note at the beginning clearly state that: "Per Archival Mandates 8.A, this document has been edited to meet current administrative standards." Since the term "Possessed Object Gallery" is still completely eligible in the case file, and the same is true for your other example "Thaumaturgy", then your claim about what Archival Mandates 8.A addresses is incorrect. They would've been redacted from this case file and all other case files in which they appear. Let me demonstrate by using an example of terminology that actually underwent change(see next comment):

Love these, but you’re killing me. It’s paraut-IH-litarian, not paraut-AH-litarian.

If you actually gave lectures in person, everyone would fall asleep from your repetitive, nearly monotone delivery. TALK TO US, not at us.