The fundamental issue of residual phase variance minimization in adaptive optics (AO) loops is addressed here from a control engineering perspective. This problem, when suitably modeled using a state-space approach, can be broken down into an optimal deterministic control problem and an optimal estimation problem, the solution of which are a linear quadratic (LQ) control and a Kalman filter. This approach provides a convenient framework for analyzing existing AO controllers, which are shown to contain an implicit phase turbulent model. In particular, standard integrator-based AO controllers assume a constant turbulent phase, which renders them prone to the notorious wind-up effect.