Breene, dead or alive?

History is full of leaders who tried to what was right for (their) people. Some were successful, and some were not. And just because they were successful doesn't mean they were right, and just because they were unsuccessful doesn't mean they were wrong. Whatever the case, Breen thought he was doing the right thing.
I think rionhaire is right in thinking that Breen saved humanity from being extermanated. The Combine is more or less pulling a Borg and assimalating humanity. Witch in reality is causing humans to loose what makes them human...Oh boy, that's enough for now, I gotta get up at 3:00 a.m. to go to work, and my brain is tired....:sleep:
 
Playing through Half-Life 2 and Episode One for the umpteenth time, I suddenly realised in a drastic realisation how right Breen is...
Click to expand...

Same realization has dawned upon me right now, fellow unit!
 
RjD said:
Same realization has dawned upon me right now, fellow unit!
Click to expand...

We shall march unto the dawn with our banners raised high! Breen for administrator! Breen to rule the world!
 
It was Darkseid. I couldn't help but thinking about what he said while playing through Half-Life 2 again...

It's rather infectious...
 
Mindshifter said:
Do you have the chance to see him in the final endbattle in HL2?
Thanx for the answers btw.
Click to expand...

Welcome to HL2.net...enjoy your stay.

No but you see him in Episode 1 at the beginning on the falling screen.:O:O:dork:
 
No.

I will never accept that. I'd rather slash my throat.
 
I actually just signed up for the Combine..I hope he's not dead.
 
Breen is very much alive.
Just thought i'd throw that in there.
 
Druckles said:
I wouldn't. You'll get thrown out
Click to expand...

Ah, awww...

Btw, You remember he carried with him a floppy disk or whatever, containing the blueprints Mossman gave him! Got a feeling we'll be getting back to that.
 
Breen is dead....

Totally dead...
 
Breen's A Big Giant Space Slug Man! Run For Your Life Gordon! Ruuuuuuuun!!!!
 
Unit 34-90999 reporting:

Breen shall live forever
In our flash memory
 
I posted this in the Episode 2 forum.

Breen is alive! It would be idiotic for Valve to reveal the prospect of the host body, replay that speech while a pod that may hold a speculated host body exits and totally abandon this thread along with a truly great character, who also so happens to be the only antagonist in the series with a face. (Technically we don't know if the G-Man is one.)

To all those react in anguish to my statement and wish to reverberate at the top of their lungs..."HE'S DEAD YOU IDIOT! HOW COULD HE SURVIVE AFTER YOU BLEW UP A NUCLEAR REACTOR RIGHT ON TOP OF HIM THAT WAS ALSO POWERING A PLATFORM HE WAS FLOATING ON?"

I ask you: how did we survive blowing up a nuclear reactor only several feet in front of us while we stood on a thin platform hundreds of feet in the air?

Valve is trying to bring back old ideas they left on the drawing board. First they bring us the Strider busters, then they bring us to the Borealis which were both cut out of the initial Half-Life 2 and it appears they are now bringing us Breen's host body discussed in Raising the Bar. (To those of you who are unfortunately have no access to this book and left in the dark as to what I'm referring to don't assail me with questions, here is your answer! In early scripts of Half-Life 2 only Breen's head was seen on the by the player throughout the game there was never a glimpse of his body. Finally as you reach the climax and meet him in person you discover that although his head is still human the rest of his body has been transformed into alien appendages and artificial life support technology. However this version of the host body was different from that of an advisor's because other than the obvious addition of a human head, it looked more like a long snake like body combined with a Who from a Dr. Seuss book from the concept art.)

Dead or alive. It would be foolhardy to dismiss the prospect of him returning considering the unsurmountable foreshadowing in the games and the aspect of this being a previous plan.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you.

And for those curious:
wtfbreen.gif
 
The art is by Ted Backman by the way. Notice how his beautiful face has evolved.
 
Breen is dead. He is dead not because he was in the citadel when it blew up or not because he was in the reactor when it exploded. He is dead because it is good storytelling. HL2 was about an uprising with Breen as the personification of the enemy force. It climaxes at the citadel with the confrontation of Breen. The destruction of the reactor is a symbol of freeing humanity from the oppression of the Combine. Breen is the symbol of the oppression, therefore he must be dead.

Secondly, Breen was great as a villain because you could sympathise with him. He is a man who saved the human race from extinction and he is doing what he thinks is the only way for at least a piece of humanity to survive. His speeches are excellent and really cause the player to question what he is doing and why.

There is no place for Breen in the HL2 episodes. What could you do? He has no more Breencasts he could possibly make and he would be no use to the resistance, who would never have him anyway. The Combine are not going to listen to him anymore. It's human extinction time and nothing he will stay will stop them. Bringing him back as a Combine would be the worst possible thing you could do. It would completely destroy his character. Breen is not some generic, evil FPS boss that you just shoot weakpoint for massive damage until he's dead; he is a great character because he is human. He is human in a very real way. He is moral, but weak. Making him into EVIL SLUG or MECHA BREEN would be the worst possible thing they could do with the story bar announcing that the g-man is Gordon from the future and also Judith Mossman.
 
riomhaire said:
He is dead because it is good storytelling.
Click to expand...

You don't hint so strongly at a character's survival and endlessly refuse to comment on his demise only to have it turn out he's dead and useless. That's not good storytelling. That's crap.

And I think you severely undervalue the potency of having him return. Yes, the Breen Slug idea is atrocious. But then the idea of an actual Advisor willingly handing over its body to a slave species has always been ridiculous. People have gotten so wrapped up in the concept that they've completely overlooked the very processes that were at play in developing the transhuman Combine forces: assimilation. Not body-swapping. A host body could be effin' anything for all we know.

I think the idea of Breen crossing over and embodying the very evolution he championed could be delicious. It's an opportunity that could provide total finality not only to his character, but the Combine chapter of the HL saga. And I'm sure Valve could expand on him in light of it. After all, would you be able to gaze in the mirror the same way afterwards? Would Breen look at himself in horror and regret or would he become further enraptured by the sheer possibility of eternal life and alien power?

And none of that necessitates turning him into a generic FPS boss, so don't go there girl. There are many fans who think leaving him as an ambiguous question mark rotting at the bottom of the Citadel core is thoroughly unsatisfying.
 
Deinonut said:
What disk?

ps what's with the goblin shark avatar?
Click to expand...

Eh, It's awesome? Im under the impression that Breen was escaping with some blueprints of the teleporter or something. Thats why you had to stop him, and as far as i know, he still got them.


DoctorWeeTodd said:
I posted this in the Episode 2 forum. etc.
Click to expand...

Yes, Yes. I agree.

riomhaire said:
Breen is dead
Click to expand...
Disagree.
I don't see how leaving a mayor characters demise completely open, with minor hints to his survival is good storytelling. Shit, at least give him a cameo. A spacetrip with the Gman where he shows us a body while giving his little speach. Or maybe spot Breen through binoculars somwhere.
I dont know, but the way it's been left of begs for some exploration.
Me thinks

Edit: Host body? anyone remeber

Spider Smith!!
(gary oldman, lost in space)
 
Absinthe said:
You don't hint so strongly at a character's survival and endlessly refuse to comment on his demise only to have it turn out he's dead and useless. That's not good storytelling. That's crap.
Click to expand...
What have they done to hint strongly at his survival? A 3 second video that was recorded while he was still alive? People keep saying that he was going to take a host body, but at the end of HL2 he's about to go through the portal and there is no host body to be seen. The host body was on the other side of the portal. After the portal explodes he has no way to get to it.

Absinthe said:
And I think you severely undervalue the potency of having him return. Yes, the Breen Slug idea is atrocious. But then the idea of an actual Advisor willingly handing over its body to a slave species has always been ridiculous. People have gotten so wrapped up in the concept that they've completely overlooked the very processes that were at play in developing the transhuman Combine forces: assimilation. Not body-swapping. A host body could be effin' anything for all we know.

I think the idea of Breen crossing over and embodying the very evolution he championed could be delicious. It's an opportunity that could provide total finality not only to his character, but the Combine chapter of the HL saga. And I'm sure Valve could expand on him in light of it. After all, would you be able to gaze in the mirror the same way afterwards? Would Breen look at himself in horror and regret or would he become further enraptured by the sheer possibility of eternal life and alien power?
Click to expand...
Please come up with a scenario where this wouldn't suck. Anyway, what would the Combine possibly want with Breen now? He failed. He failed goddamn miserably. The Combine have no further use for him at all unless they just make him into a stalker. He cannot deliver Earth or get the rebels to surrender. The only possible value he posses is a source of information, and the Combine have an easy way of getting that. They only way he could live is if the g-man saw fit to pluck him out of the reactor and keep him safe from the Combine and the rebels, for some reason.
 
riomhaire said:
What have they done to hint strongly at his survival? A 3 second video that was recorded while he was still alive? People keep saying that he was going to take a host body, but at the end of HL2 he's about to go through the portal and there is no host body to be seen. The host body was on the other side of the portal. After the portal explodes he has no way to get to it.
Click to expand...

So you're saying Valve just introduced and heavily suggested a plot device only to discard it? Is this some kind of red herring? Why? Why dick around with people if you know it's a dead end? Why not come out and categorically confirm or deny his status? Why dodge the questions?

Come on, rim. At the very least you have to grant that he may be kept alive to be used again in a fitting place.


Please come up with a scenario where this wouldn't suck.
Click to expand...

Oh ye of little faith. Do you not trust Valve? How about you explain what is so irredeemably shit about the idea first!

I'm only throwing out ideas. I'm not making any strong predictions. I just think it's pretty narrow-minded to think there's nothing left to the character.

Anyway, what would the Combine possibly want with Breen now? He failed. He failed goddamn miserably. The Combine have no further use for him at all unless they just make him into a stalker. He cannot deliver Earth or get the rebels to surrender. The only possible value he posses is a source of information, and the Combine have an easy way of getting that. They only way he could live is if the g-man saw fit to pluck him out of the reactor and keep him safe from the Combine and the rebels, for some reason.
Click to expand...

The Combine were nonetheless willing to save him even after everything was more or less getting ****ed any way. I don't know what worth he may have had after the Citadel was destroyed. But I don't write the games. All I'll say is that I'd bet money Breen will return at some point in the future, and Valve will work him in splendidly. In a way that will make you eat your words.
 
Absinthe said:
I'd bet money Breen will return at some point in the future, and Valve will work him in splendidly. In a way that will make you eat your words.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see them do that without f*cking up the story or messing with how believable the story is.
 
Absinthe said:
You don't hint so strongly at a character's survival and endlessly refuse to comment on his demise only to have it turn out he's dead and useless. That's not good storytelling. That's crap.

And I think you severely undervalue the potency of having him return. Yes, the Breen Slug idea is atrocious. But then the idea of an actual Advisor willingly handing over its body to a slave species has always been ridiculous. People have gotten so wrapped up in the concept that they've completely overlooked the very processes that were at play in developing the transhuman Combine forces: assimilation. Not body-swapping. A host body could be effin' anything for all we know.

I think the idea of Breen crossing over and embodying the very evolution he championed could be delicious. It's an opportunity that could provide total finality not only to his character, but the Combine chapter of the HL saga. And I'm sure Valve could expand on him in light of it. After all, would you be able to gaze in the mirror the same way afterwards? Would Breen look at himself in horror and regret or would he become further enraptured by the sheer possibility of eternal life and alien power?

And none of that necessitates turning him into a generic FPS boss, so don't go there girl. There are many fans who think leaving him as an ambiguous question mark rotting at the bottom of the Citadel core is thoroughly unsatisfying.
Click to expand...

I'd rather have Breen dead but that's a pretty interesting route Valve could take. I mean, Breen didn't want a host body; he was forced into it in order to escape.
 
On consideration, I think Breen is probably somewhat alive.

It's be really bizarre if they refused to comment on him and replayed the "Host Body" video in EP1 and such and then suddenly one day "Oh yeah he died back at the Citadel"
 
Absinthe said:
You don't hint so strongly at a character's survival and endlessly refuse to comment on his demise only to have it turn out he's dead and useless.
Click to expand...

Hello Absinthe! are you referring to any particular source material outside of the games themselves? For example an interview/statement with a member of Valve's staff? I'd be v interested:E.

The in-game hints that I'm aware of seem rather opaque and if you had to push me I doubt he will return in any guise. One cannot speculate too vehemently regarding whether a return of Breen or not would be bad storytelling in my opinion. I think the people at Valve will score up another...score! in Ep3, if Breen returns somehow or not!

Either way, "I don't miss Dr. Breen, but I do miss his show!"
 
Wasn't Trevelyan the steward in charge of Ireland during the Famine?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Krynn72
You guys, what the **** is up.
Replies
11
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
bbson john
Hi everyone. I am new to this forum!
Replies
11
Views
6K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
Left 4 Dead 3 character concept art
Replies
0
Views
72K
Barnz
B
Hectic Glenn
Cold Case #1: Valve Voice Actress - October Moore
Replies
1
Views
18K
Gerzowktz
Gerzowktz
Back
Top