(Spoilers for The Mandela Catalogue up to Volume 4!)
I have only watched one video on The Mandela Catalogue, so if other people (namely a specific big youtuber) have brought this up already, my bad!
Here's a theory regarding fear with alternates, and what direction Thatcher and Adam's character arcs will go. This is a LOT of maybes. Here it is-
Perhaps alternates NEED your fear to function?
They need someone to be afraid to do anything to them. They aren't just attracted to human suffering (such as the audio lure of screaming Adam used to lure alternates), they require it. It makes them strong enough to actually kill you or transform.
They stole kids to scare parents. They made kids, without knowing what they were doing, summon their horrifying "imaginary friends" to scare parents. They scared Caeser's mom using the visage of her son. They followed Mark home and let him become the most scared he's ever been, before (assuming he didn't open it himself) getting through his door.
Now all this fear could simply be a side effect of their takeover, but what if it's not just that?
People used to think the alternates had to kill you to transform, but maybe they just needed you to be as terrified as you've ever been- and what's more terrifying than a near death experience? And you being dead DOES get you out of the way, so it has multiple pros. But they don't need you dead specifically. They didn't need Thatcher dead to copy him, after all.
Onto Thatcher, despite stalking him in his bedroom, they haven't killed him yet because he's been useful in helping them let more alternates into the world via restoring tapes, but maybe it's also because he isn't as scared anymore. He's just... an empty shell now. They don't do anything to him, they just watch him. Maybe they CAN'T do anything currently?
But Gabriel remarked that Dave's "little cop friend" would be any easy target. Why? Because they remember how scared he typically is. But my prediction is that he'll let go of that.
From the get-go, we see his weakness is his fear. It's something he hates himself for, he blames himself for Ruth Weaver's death because he was too scared to face an alternate.
His character arc will be about him overcoming his fear, and just maybe, that'll make him invincible to alternates.
Along the same lines, I think "overdriven" alternates are alternates who have fed on TOO much fear, and their features have gone haywire. We see a picture of a nun and an overdriven side by side at one point, implying the nun was what the alternate was copying. I think nuns would probably be more scared of demons than the average person, given how devout they are to religion, and that's where the overdriven came from. (Changed my mind on this one)
(As a side note, if Gabriel has changed the course of religion from the begginining by becoming the thing people pray to, why doesn't he just give demons a better rep? Get people to be more willing to invite them in? He could change that, right? But if I'm right here, people still need to be scared or demons for this all to work)
As for Adam, he also hasn't been killed yet, and yes you can blame that on the fact he's also an alternate. BUT he has been actively working against them. Why not kill him? Well, he truly has no fear. I think he and Thatcher will team up, or, Adam will finally learn to be human. Have emotions. And in doing so, develop fear. That Adam will have lived as an alternate, and died human. (At least, that'd be a cool and tragic way to end that arc)
Just a mess about fear regarding The Mandela Catalogue, I have NO hard evidence for any of this and this is ALL a bunch of "maybes" lol
If you've actually read this far, you're a trooper. Thank you :]