Control Explained - Who is Ahti? [Spoilers]

Hello everyone. In today's Lesson we step away from Alan Wake for a second to begin our Dive into the new Remedy game, Control.

One of the biggest questions I have seen in the story is, Who is Ahti? The Janitor is an enigma. However, reading between the lines and some basics of Thermodynamics can answer that question for us in this new Lesson from Gaming University.

Please feel free to have free discussion in the comments section below.

#Controlremedy #Remedy #GamingUniversity

[pratikraut]

I'm just here to thank Ahti for the Headphones

[humanzbornfresh]

He was in Jesse’s head in several ways, he hears and responds to her thoughts when they first meet.
Jesse: “...at least he’s a friendly face”
Ahti: “Better than no face at all”

[kevinfortsch]

“I was raised to treat the janitor with the same respect as the CEO” - Tom Hardy.

[chrispysaid]

Me: "What is Control about?"

Gaming University: _puts on safety goggles_ "Let's talk about Thermodynamics."

[debasismandal]

*Cleaning the toilet*
Mom: What are you so pumped up for?
Me: I am waging an endless war against entropy.

[BULLIE]

My favorite part about Ahti was how there were multiple documents basically telling everyone to let him do his thing and to never bother him. I think Dr. Tan's note in Dimensional Research was the only one that was just like "okay someone needs to say something, whose man's is this??? And how is he in a R E S T R I C T E D. aReA"

[valzod]

"THE JANITOR HAS ALL THE KEYS"

[daili]

I think ahti is also the "guard" of the oldest house, because he made the elevator that took Jesse to the executive sector appear. Ahti calls Jesse his "assistant" but to anyone else, she is the director

[perunamuusa]

Personally I have found really funny that the word janitor in Finnish (talonmies) literally translates to: "The Man of the House".

Good take on Ahti!

[MikoTheGamer]

I love the fact Ahti goes "Perkele" in almost every sentence. Perkele is a swear word in Finnish language. He also uses finnish sayings that don't really work as well cause he says them in english. He also has that typical finnish "rally english"

[sirdrell]

One of the many reasons i love Control, it highlights the importance of so called "low skilled" jobs

[Patralgan]

As a Finn, it's so bizarre to see a very familiar and a beloved actor in such a video game and in such a character. He might be new to international audience, but for Finns, he's like an old friend already.

[happyninja]

An interesting thing I noticed with Ahti, is that in every location where there was a janitor problem, you would find one of Ahti's cleanup carts with a radio, at the Threshold of where the "normal" house is, and the mess. It's always placed as a barrier, usually right inside a doorway, or some dividing line between "clean" and "mess". He even mentions that the things he is dealing with, hate the music, I think he says that they have no taste for good music or something. So it seems like he's using the music, perhaps some kind of harmonic resonance from it, to contain the different messes in The House, until Jesse can show up and deal with it.


Another point, and I might be wrong on this, as I don't know how much influence Norse mythology had on Finnish culture, but when you are down in the Foundation, one of the stone slabs next to Jesse as you head towards Ahti, looks an AWFUL lot like Yggdrasil, the world tree. I kind of got the impression that the Oldest House, might be a manifestation of the World Tree, that supposedly connects all realms. And that the astral plane is sort of the connecting tissue between them and the tree. Given Remedy's use of Norse mythology in the original Max Payne, I think it's reasonable they might plumb that well for more inspiration. But, another point that I found really interesting, is the music that Ahti gives you to get through the Ashtray Maze. It's a song by a band called Old Gods of I think Ahti says the song is from "his people" implying he's one of those Old Gods of Asgard.


I really love this game, it's so much fun to try and figure out all the details of it.

[luopingnan]

Did anyone else see the note in The Foundation DLC where it says:
*"Cleanliness is next to godliness"* ???
My mind was fully blown.
Then I finally watched this video and I understand just how deep it really goes.
This game is one of my favorite pieces of media or art I've ever consumed. It just keeps getting deeper!

[straxwb]

There is also a memo found during Foundation that reports Ahti being in the Foundation cleaning, even during the very first FBC expeditions down there. The guy who met him was surprised to see the Bureau already sending someone down there to clean, but said the guy was very talented especially in singing, and a good guy overall. Also, we have the VHS tape altered item, again from Foundation, which is nothing more than a record of Ahti cleaning the Oldest House and singing. So much still to be said about him, he definetly is a higher entity of some sort and not just a Finn janitor

[vincentbedard]

I love Ahti's idioms like "throw the spoon in the corner" and " You think there's a dog buried in this ?".

[agentwash]

I think that the Janitor is the physical manifestation of the Oldest House

[clintoneke]

Ahti low key creeped me out. Good thing he was a good guy. Also ashtray maze was awesome.

[velosiped]

This game's got people talking about everything from entropy to Jungian synchronicity😅. What I dont think get's enough attention is how the writer took a supernatural threat (done before), but involved the government and a secretive agency in a conspiracy to cover up, contain, and utilize a malevolent supernatural force (to which they're failed spectacularly), and created basically a new conspiracy genre. As someone who is fascinated by government conspiracies and loved shows like the X-Files, this was fascinating from beginning to end. This really should be made into a TV drama or screenplay for a film. As it is, it was my surprise game of the year for 2019.

[Podcir]

I love how Remedy went for that hard sci-fi in Quantum Break and hard sci-fi/paranormal activities in Control. This is what I needed in my life haha😁 Awesome video, well done!