Alyx... Brainwashed?

[scout643]

I was playing Episode 2 a little while ago, and I was at the part right before the defense of the base from the striders, where Eli was talking to Gordon, and Alyx tells Eli to "prepare for unforeseen consequences," I was thinking, since Eli was alluding to the G-Man "putting words in her mouth," that the G-Man brainwashed Alyx after saving her from Black Mesa. Any ideas?

 

[Barnz]

Perhaps she's hypnotized.

 

[Maturin]

He compelled her to say just those words, and recently.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I think brainwashed is a little extreme. Since the G-man is able move between dimensions and play with time, I'm not really that surprised he used Alyx momentarily as puppet to spook Gordon with that message which we associate with the G-man.

We know the G-man isn't best pleased with Gordon fighting for the rebels, since he considers himself Gordon's agent...contracting him out to the 'highest bidder', but since the Vortigaunts have taken Gordon back by force, everything through Episode 2 involves G-man basically threatening Gordon (through Alyx) and he probably does so to Eli too (as Eli obviously knows the G-man).

 

[scout643]

I have another question. If G-Man can be somewhat like a god, moving through time and all that stuff, and he's supposedly Gordon's agent, and the Vorts took Gordon back by force, then why doesn't the G-Man attack the Vorts? He would obviously win because he can stop time for certain people, like pausing time for the world and talking to Gordon at the end of HL2 (and EP1).

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I don't know the answer to that, I don't think anyone does. We could guess and say the vortessence (Vortigaunt powers they possess) are extremely strong when combined with other Vortigaunts. We see them working together at the start of episode 1 to save Alyx for example, and healing Alyx from almost death in Episode 2.

They all seem to know Gordon, him being the one which freed the race in Half-life 1, so it could be celebrity status, but it is also theorised they may have one massive vortessence linked mind with every individual. When you talk to Vortigaunts, it is obvious they are wise and knowledge creatures so I don't doubt, as a race that they are capable of lot more than you would think.

 

[scout643]

Then why the f***ing hell are they purple when they take back Gordon?

 

[Barnz]

Probably a side-effect of teleportation, or maybe they used antlion larva (to get more power like they did in EP2) to teleport & save Alyx.

 

[Maestro]

Are we really going into detail about this?

It was a ****ing cinematic scene where the G-Man tells Alyx to say that. Get over it, you don't need to over-analyze it.

This message was posted on the behalf of the NOLGTA.

 

[ríomhaire]

I figure the g-man has some permenant sway over Alyx, and has had since he resuced her from Black Mesa. I think it's also the reason Alyx is able to find you easily in the middle of a huge city-wide street war (Anticitizen One).

 

[Sledgehammer]

I don't know the answer to that, I don't think anyone does. We could guess and say the vortessence (Vortigaunt powers they possess) are extremely strong when combined with other Vortigaunts. We see them working together at the start of episode 1 to save Alyx for example, and healing Alyx from almost death in Episode 2.

They all seem to know Gordon, him being the one which freed the race in Half-life 1, so it could be celebrity status, but it is also theorised they may have one massive vortessence linked mind with every individual. When you talk to Vortigaunts, it is obvious they are wise and knowledge creatures so I don't doubt, as a race that they are capable of lot more than you would think.

There is a slight problem with this. Somewhere along The Coast, Alyx notes something like "the combine capture vortigaunts and harvest them for information". In the chapter Nova Prospekt a captured vortigaunts is also seen. If the vortigaunts had a common mind, a lot of knowledge would have been milked out of them at Nova Prospekt, and the Combine wouldn't need to capture anymore.

Of course, this may just be because vortigaunts are good at keeping secrets.

 

[Maturin]

The Vortigaunts aren't omniscient- they don't see through each other's eyes.

The Episode 2 Vort had to call for his kin after all, and they converse, all audibly.

I get the picture that their belief in connection through the Vortessence is religious to some degree.

 

[kupocake]

In the chapter Nova Prospekt a captured vortigaunts is also seen. If the vortigaunts had a common mind, a lot of knowledge would have been milked out of them at Nova Prospekt, and the Combine wouldn't need to capture anymore.

Yet she says in Nova Prospekt that they don't have a complete picture of the place, and what little they do know is pieced together because 'every now and then a Vortiguant gets captured'. So I doubt it's omniscience, but they can probably send basic messages at will. Like some kind of vortessence texting service.

The brainwashing thing could happen, and the alleged 'brainwashing' of combine soldiers is possibly a precedent for it (though their conditioning may just involve labotomisation. The Apocrypha isn't clear on much after all)... I just hope it isn't, because Brainwashing is such a weak piece of narrative (really, it's barely a step above 'and it was all a dream'). The implication that Combine Soldiers were altered actually ruined the Half-Life 2 lore for me a bit to be honest. I preferred the idea that they were just utter bastards. They didn't need such a lame excuse for their servitude, even if they did need it for their occasional incompetence.

edit: though, Alyx doesn't need to be brainwashed to forget she's encountered the G-Man because Alyx was 'carried' out of Black Mesa, i.e. She was very young and probably can't remember much of it all anyway. As for a way of planting the seeds of influence in later life, may be... But I also think the G-Man is simply capable of altering perceptions on the fly anyway, and the specific event in Episode Two kind of supports that, by having the G-Man appearing on the screen behind her.

 

[FlamboyantPencil]

Well, CP are utter bastards at least, being that they're people who voluntarily choose to work for the Combine, no synth or anything.

 

[Maturin]

The modification isn't an excuse for having some inhuman enemies, it is part of the entire premise of Dr. Breen's complicity with the Combine and his personality. It fits with the Breencasts, which are actually quite impressive pieces of writing.

 

[gFrohman]

Well, CP are utter bastards at least, being that they're people who voluntarily choose to work for the Combine, no synth or anything.

Most of the CPs probably signed on because they thought, "sweet I get to kick the s**t outta people!"; there were probably some that signed on so that they weren't the ones to get beaten up.

 

[ríomhaire]

Most of the CPs probably signed on because they thought, "sweet I get to kick the s**t outta people!"; there were probably some that signed on so that they weren't the ones to get beaten up.

I'm sure the better food and living conditions had nothing at all to do with it.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

I'm sure the better food and living conditions had nothing at all to do with it.

Yeah, cause you know who needs food when they can beat the living daylights out of a few people!
...Right guys?
...Guys?
...Hello?

 

[Tollbooth Willie]

Yeah, cause you know who needs food when they can beat the living daylights out of a few people!
...Right guys?
...Guys?
...Hello?

LET THE GROWNUPS TALK

 

[Maturin]

The Combine had to do something with all the world's militants, police, soldiers, restless adolescents, and scumbags.

They're there to make sure the humans are divided and don't get antsy enough to beat up Breen.

 

[FlamboyantPencil]

Didn't do a very good job of that then, did they :B

Damn, now I'm thinking of Gordon just wailing on Breen.

 

[Maturin]

Didn't do a very good job of that then, did they :B

Nope, because by not letting citizens reproduce, the Combine found themselves ruling over a population with nothing to lose. Add in the factor that parts of Eastern Europe are inundated by small arms left over from Soviet times, and you've got half an uprising right there.

 

[scout643]

But you're wrong. Because the citizens can't reproduce, they have everything to lose. The human race.

 

[Maturin]

That doesn't make sense. By not being able to reproduce they'd already lost the human race, because they would all be dead in thirty years if they did nothing. Totalitarian governments maintain control through fear and intimidation. If you don't do what they say then the neighbors will invade, or if you disobey the secret police will kidnap your family. If your life sucks now, the only way to improve it is to toe the line and work inside the system.

The citizens don't have the fear of any other major external threat flashed in their faces all the time. They don't have much in the way of families or households because they can't reproduce. If they did they would be paralyzed, making sure that their loved ones got enough food and weren't harmed. But instead they are a collection of aimless individuals who have just about everything (not much, but enough) supplied by the Combine. There's no economic differences between them, and no competition to create mistrust and divisiveness. They're in the same boat. They also have absolutely no hope for a better tomorrow. The government is not going to come through for them, and is is impossible that anyone could improve their lot through hard work and obedience. Life is going to be exactly the same until the five year period where half the population dies of old age. In short, drudgery is assured, no one is lying and saying anything will be different (except for Breen, but the metaphysical babble of a technocrat doesn't speak very much to the starving masses: the Combine ****ed that one up), and they have nothing better to do than revolt.

Obeying a totalitarian government is usually the bmost logical, constructive choice for the welfare of you and your family. That's why they exist. But if there are no families, no incentives, and no brainwashed illusions, people won't stand for it.

 

[scout643]

What I mean is that since the Combine blocked the reproductive cycle, if all of the people sacrifice themselves, then the human race will be wiped out by the Combine. 80% is already gone. Why kill the last 20% if you don't need to? We already have Gordon and Alyx and Eli (until the end of Ep2) and Kleiner, so why have the rest of the people die?

 

[Maturin]

The revolution's going well, isn't it? But it goes nowhere without complete popular support. Eli and Kleiner are just technocrats with a mini Silicone Valley at their disposal. It's clearly not a pointless struggle, it's just one that you either join, betray the human race with the CPs, or spend every second of your life in an alcoholic stupor.

If the Combine had left the humans the possibility of scratching out of better existence through obeying the rules, by informing on dissenters, maybe even growing vegetables or raising kids, they would have long term investments to defend and a vested interest in making sure that things were stable. They wouldn't want the entire city to erupt into a lightshow of wizzing rockets salvaged from Combine APCs. But since they don't, and since Breen doesn't understand people who don't wear labcoats with pie-in-the-sky scifi ambitions, the citizens were ready to support a revolt by force of boredom alone.

 

[amaranth]

LOL at rebuilding the human race using only "Gordon, Alyx, Eli and Kleiner"

XD