Combine vs. Xen - Absolution

[Angry Lawyer]

From PlanetHalfLife

From: Ben
Subject: Marc Laidlaw Email about Xen

I sent an email to Marc Laidlaw concerning a statement made by Doug Lombardi about the Combine and Nihilanth being seperate factions. He made a better clarification of the canon than Lombardi, so I figured I should share it with the HL community. It reveals quite a bit about the function of Xen and the core of the Half-Life storyline. I didn't actually think Laidlaw would give such a quick and quality response.

2ltben: In the September 2005 issue of PC Zone, Doug Lombardi stated in an interview that the Combine wern't in control of Xen during the course of HL1. He said that the Nihilanth's homeworld was invaded by the Combine, prompting the migration and takeover of Xen by [the Nihilanth]. Is this HL2 canon? And if so, are the Vortigaunts enslaved only the Earth Vortigaunts, or is the Combine in control of Xen at the contemporary date?

Marc Laidlaw: Yes, that's fairly accurate, and I'm pretty sure Doug was restating something I'd told him; I [am not] clarifying it, since it's the foundation on which the series continues. What we saw in HL1 was the very end of a long struggle between the Combine and the last of the Nihilanth's race...although it's a bit different than the word "prompted" implies. The Nihilanth's "world" (if it could be said to have) was long since in the past as far as the Nihilanth was concerned; Xen was their final retreat, and they had their back to the wall, as it were, when the fissure appeared that let them spill into our dimension. Xen itself is sort of a dimensional transit bottleneck--an area of continual contention.

Looks like I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG DAMNIT!

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Darkside55]

But didn't you already know you were right before, about the Combine and Xen? Or are you right about something new this time?

Interesting points made in what Marc says, though; namely, "final retreat" and the way he quotes "world" seem to imply that the Xenians jumped around a lot in their bid to escape the Combine, with Xen finally being the place the Combine couldn't reach, or at couldn't reach for the moment (as "backs to the wall" implies). Therefore when the dimension to Earth opened they really were intending to invade us, if only for the sake that they could get further away from the Combine by being a whole universe away. That almost gives them a pitiable light, don't you think?

Another interesting thing is "dimensional transit bottleneck"; we all knew Xen was necessary for that, but further clarification is always nice. "Area of continual contention," though...there's something. Because as far as we know, who else was on Xen? Who knew about Xen, and could get to it? The Xenians and Race-X already were there, and I don't think they were vying for control amongst each other...Earth found out later, the Combine knew but couldn't reach it, and the G-man of course knew. Continual contention means that it was constantly trading hands though, or at least it was always under threat of a power shift. Which is odd because as far as we knew the only change in control was when we (Earth) wrested it away from the Nihilanth. This line could imply that other forces were at work trying to take Xen.

 

[Asknoone]

Interesting stuff, and it further proves that we were indeed right all along.

 

[99.vikram]

Yes, only until now you had no real proof...

 

[Azner]

Interesting stuff, and it further proves that we were indeed right all along.

Time to party! Where have you been, didnt see you much aound theese days...

 

[Eejit]

I bet the grapes some people are eating taste a bit sour right now.

Anyway - HAH! Final proof that "teh combien made teh nithihalth!!1" and "teh coembin rul3d xen lolz" are incorrect!

 

[Black Op]

What I find most interesting is what's been left unanswered: what happened to Xen after HL1? Since Laidlaw identifies this storyline aspect as the "foundation on which the series continues", I feel that Freeman will return to the Borderworld only to find its denizens at last under the control of the Universial Union. I predict Xen will be seen again after the intermediate situation with Dr. Mossman and the Project is resolved, with the possible appearence of Xen aliens and technology in Combine use beforehand.

PS: The actual confirmnation of the defeat of the Combine On Xen(TM) Theory is good news itself, as it helps debuke the Breen Conspiracy(TM) Theory as well.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

We'll find out in the next few episodes, I'll expect

It also justifies some choices in one of my planned mods.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Asknoone]

Yes, only until now you had no real proof...

Ohh, taste those sour grapes vikram

 

[99.vikram]

Ohh, taste those sour grapes vikram

IIRC, I agreed that Combine on Xen was rubbish long before this.

I just don't like you and AL gloating about it, esp. since a thread already exists for this purpose.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

People don't read beyond the first page on that thread. It's much easier to link people to this thread.

And considering what I went through when HL2 was released by being the only dissenter to the Combine-on-Xen theory, I believe I have a right to gloat.

-- GLOATGLOATGLOAT.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Oppressor]

Interesting. The core of the HL plot I would say

 

[esplin]

Hurrah!!! Now everyone can shut up about the Combine being on Xen, and when someone brings it up I can now just copy and paste that letter instead of having to explain myself.

 

[99.vikram]

To the mods:

Sticky this thread, then un-sticky the other one.

 

[ríomhaire]

"What we saw in HL1 was the very end of a long struggle between the Combine and the last of the Nihilanth's race"
I will now use that line over and over again in arguement for the Combine Employed the G-Man™ theory which I now follow. It actualy makes more sense than you might think and it follows Ottam's Razor for the purpose of not having to have the g-man's employers as another, as to yet unseen race.

 

[Eejit]

"What we saw in HL1 was the very end of a long struggle between the Combine and the last of the Nihilanth's race"
I will now use that line over and over again in arguement for the Combine Employed the G-Man™ theory which I now follow. It actualy makes more sense than you might think and it follows Ottam's Razor for the purpose of not having to have the g-man's employers as another, as to yet unseen race.

Occams razor could work either way there.

i.e. it would be equally convoluted to say that the g-man is using Gordon to work against his own employers (the Combine) as to imagine a previously unknown group to be the g-man's patrons.

 

[ríomhaire]

He doesn't seem to have any employers in HL2, he never mentions any.

 

[Tagaziel]

He doesn't say, it, but Breen implicates he was hired by someone. And, as Gordon had no deciding power, G-Man had to accept the offer for him, which makes him in a way employed.

That, or I'm putting too much thought in it.

-- Mikael Grizzly

 

[ríomhaire]

To me the g-man's ending speech implies he hasn't yet hired out Gordon. And of course there's Samon's theory that he was lying about them.

 

[Asknoone]

I don't think he was lying about the contracts. At the end of HL2, everything he says is true - simply cryptic.

 

[ríomhaire]

I meant the employers in HL1.

 

[Asknoone]

Ah.

 

[Darkside55]

Not to drag the topic off-topic here, but how (or more importantly why) would the G-man be lying about his employers? Obviously they exist for him to have mentioned them, because speaking about them doesn't give any positive or negative consequences. By that I mean, in telling Gordon he had employers, what would be the benefit of the lie? It's not like it'd make Gordon join any easier if he knew this guy was working for someone else. And on the other end since Gordon doesn't know who the employers are, it's no big deal for the G-man to speak about them (that would have been the negative, if the G-man wasn't allowed to talk about them in the first place).

And G-man never lies. He either tells you the truth or keeps it hidden, or gives you cryptic words, but he's never lied. And there'd be no reason to in this case.

Back on topic, the "Combine employed the G-man" thing doesn't sound plausible to me. Do we even know if the Combine NOW hold Xen? And like Eejit said, there's no way the Combine would have agreed to hire Gordon Freeman only to have the G-man turn around and use him against them. The G-man's speech in HL1 implies that he needed permission...if the G-man were just a mercenary all along, he wouldn't need permission and could do as he pleased.

The other option is that, if your theory were correct, at some point he decided to freelance for himself and turn on the Combine. But that doesn't make sense either because if he was working for the Combine initially, I mean he's really just too far ahead of the curve for them. The G-man was at the root of everything...how could he have been hired by the Combine? The Combine had no awareness of Earth. They couldn't GET to Earth. They couldn't even get to Xen. And, in the exact same way the "Breen knew about the Combine before the incident" theory, it's implausible because they couldn't have gotten a message out to a place they don't even know. And we've seen the absolute massive amount of energy needed to transmit a signal from one universe to the other; it would've been noticed.

Also, G-man has technology that the Combine doesn't have, and it's also known that before Breen the Combine's never worked with "lesser creatures," just assimilated them. The G-man is whole and unmodified, which indicates he couldn't have been an agent of the Combine; even if one were to assume he had a host body, where would they pick up a human body? =/

 

[Asknoone]

I explained it somewhere. But I'm pretty sure he wasn't being straight with Gordon, or simply diverting from the truth.

 

[ríomhaire]

Do we even know if the Combine NOW hold Xen?

No but according the Kleiner
"our enemies took the small tear in BM and made it ever wider"
or something like that. The tear was between Earth and Xen so if he was refering to the Combine would that not mean they'd have to tear it open from Xen?

And like Eejit said, there's no way the Combine would have agreed to hire Gordon Freeman only to have the G-man turn around and use him against them.

I think it's more like the Combine hired the g-man for the mission and under his mercenary code of honour or whatever he had to ask whether they wanted Gordon out of the picture or whether he could take him and at the time they probably didn't give a shit about Gordon so they said yes.

Also, G-man has technology that the Combine doesn't have

Which is why they would hire him. If they had his technology they wouldn't need him. He was working as a mercinary, not as a member of the Combine.

 

[Darkside55]

But they'd still have no way of contacting him.

 

[Eejit]

No but according the Kleiner
"our enemies took the small tear in BM and made it ever wider"
or something like that. The tear was between Earth and Xen so if he was refering to the Combine would that not mean they'd have to tear it open from Xen?

Not necessarily. The different universes/dimensions teleportation physics are not clear about that. You might think that it has to be the case but I can imagine other ways... I just can't express my vision of how it works

 

[delusional]

i believe the gman works for the vortigaunts because everything you do helps them like freeing them from the nihilanth then freeing them once again from the combine then the gman was going to hire gordon to the highest bidder so the vortigaunts got angry and took gordon out for themselves

 

[99.vikram]

You ARE delusional.

 

[ríomhaire]

But they'd still have no way of contacting him.

Who? The g-man? How the hell would you know? They must know about him in the very least, Breen even knows about him.

 

[delusional]

gman works for the vortigaunts unless im forgeting something
it also explains why the gman was training our military because he was training the soldiers to go in and kill the nihilanth, hence
the dead soldiers in xen so i think the vortigaunts took control of xen after half life 1
and i also think combine never set foot on xen and i think they never will

 

[ríomhaire]

Then what was the resonance cascade for?

 

[delusional]

well i only thought of this theory yesterday so i havent thought of everything but if the gman worked for the vortigaunts then he wouldnt want the resonance cascade to occur because it might grab the combines attention which it did but he couldnt stop the experiment because breen went through alot to get the sample and he wouldnt just let the sample go untested

 

[ríomhaire]

A theory should be based on the info available, not make one up and then see do all the detailms match. Subjective and objective, I can't remember which is which. :\

 

[delusional]

ah whatever all the theories ive seen dont make much sence to me like the gman working for the combine then turning around and trying to defeat them or the gman working for some unknown anti combine organization. all im doing is just using the information i remember to make a theory that doesnt contradict anything and if im wrong prove to me that gman could not work for the vortigaunts. im sorry but the theory thought up just makes most sence to me at the moment and i'd be more than happy to be proven wrong

 

[ríomhaire]

Why does everyone hear the Combine Hired G-Man™ theory and say "Why did he turn on his bosses?". Does anyone know what the hell a mercenary is?

 

[victor]

This seems like foreshadowing to me. The fact that G-Man trained our military, combined with the fact that Xen was a contested zone could suggest that G-Man's employers ARE some unseen race/group, who were fighting for control of Xen with the Nihilath.

They're just keeping plenty of loose ends around, so that they can be developed into new narratives later on.

 

[Azner]

Forget the theories, wiat for the game to finish and understand, if you want to theorize, ill theorize the ending of the special video with those words than pop up unfinished.

 

[ríomhaire]

Forget the theories, wiat for the game to finish and understand, if you want to theorize, ill theorize the ending of the special video with those words than pop up unfinished.

But theorizing and debating are fun :cheese:

 

[Black Op]

I'm not sure how much G-Man was involved with the Universial Union at the time of the position, but I do believe however that G-Man was in the best position to feed pre-invasion intelligence to the Combine as one of his previous jobs that he accepted. I find it doubtful that Citadels could have all appeared in cities without any sort of intell, and it's quite apparent Breen was in no position to communicate with his future Benefactors. So I imagine G-Man played a key role in delivering Earth (and possibly Xen) to the Combine, only to accept a job from an anti-Combine party a few years later.