Could BreenGrub be considered canon?

[Skyace65]

because it's starting to give some very interesting information recently.

 

[Gemini]

I dont think we can safely say its canon until we get confirmation. But it surely gives a lot of interesting info.
Why is he with the vortigaunts now?

 

[Wheaties-Of-Doom]

... BreenGrub?

 

[Skyace65]

I dont think we can safely say its canon until we get confirmation. But it surely gives a lot of interesting info.
Why is he with the vortigaunts now?

I think he might be talking with them telepathically or something.

... BreenGrub?

It's a twitter account Liadlaw(lead writer of half-life) had, he's said it's kind of like his own fanfiction, but the way it's written and the stuff it reveals about the universe makes me want to have it as canon. The whole thing is about if breen survived by being moved to a host body(advisor) and it gives some interesting information about where the advisors came from and stuff

 

[Omnomnick]

Breengrub is not canon. That isn't to say it won't always be non-canon, it just has to be included in some official Half-Life game/film/comic first.

 

[Wheaties-Of-Doom]

Just finished reading it. Correct me if I am wrong, but Breen-Grub came into existence as a result of the surrender he negotiated with the Combine, yes? A sort of back up Breen, or something like it? And then he somehow contacted vortigaunts.

Oh, and the grub bodies originate from telepathic dream-creatures, having been wiped clean (by the Combine, I suspect) and used as mind-pods-backup-thingies (Stop laughing. You try to summaries a vague story with a language evolved for the purpose of telling one another where nice fruit is and not say something stupid like "Mind-pod-backup-thingies"). Is that everything?

 

[bluechirri]

I imagine Breengrub will always just be a little roleplay account that you can choose to take seriously or ignore completely. With everything Laidlaw's written about what it means for something to be canonical, and his belief that something isn't worth defining unless you can build a game around it, it seems very unlikely to me that what's in Breengrub will ever be in a game - if it was going to be in a Half Life title, Laidlaw wouldn't have made the twitter account in the first place, and he certainly wouldn't still be updating it as recently as a few weeks ago. It's probably an idea Valve discussed for HL3 and then discarded when they decided they couldn't integrate it into gameplay, but which Laidlaw was interested enough in that he wanted to explore it in another medium.

Of course, the purpose of the Advisors and the machinations of the Combine higher-ups are something I'd expect to see explored more in the next game, and Breengrub goes into a surprising amount of detail on that, so who knows? Odds are, though, in-game we'll find out more about the entities occupying most of the host bodies that Breen refers to only as THEM, and Breengrub is just an interesting side project that offers an explanation as to why they're all giant psychic larva.

Besides, whatever threat the Borealis device poses is probably going to manipulate and overshadow the Combine, just like the Combine manipulated and overshadowed the Resonance Cascade. There's still some hidden goal that the Gman has been working towards since the very beginning, and I doubt it's the Combine coming into full control of Earth.

 

[Lubci50cal]

I think Ive read somewhere on this site that whole HL2 is non-canon

 

[The Green Lambdλ]

bluechirri, I agree with you about the "It's probably an idea Valve discussed for HL3 and then discarded when they decided they couldn't integrate it into gameplay, but which Laidlaw was interested enough in that he wanted to explore it in another medium.", but it could go deeper and delve into the HL universe more.

 

[Wheaties-Of-Doom]

Well, unless something in a future game directly contradicts BreenGrub, I'll consider it cannon.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I think Ive read somewhere on this site that whole HL2 is non-canon

This is true. On the back of knowing Half-life 1 and 2 occur as universes within Prospero with infinite variations. So Breengrub and Twilight are canon to Half-life. Somewhere.

 

[bluechirri]

I think Ive read somewhere on this site that whole HL2 is non-canon

I remember seeing something similar on YouTube and if I'm remembering this right - and I might not be - it was basically somebody who pointed out that killing Eli in the first game by giving yourself a weapon early triggers the opening of the locked door that he's supposed to unlock for you, so they then made the leap that Eli has to die for the door to open, so therefore HL2 can't be canon because he died in Black Mesa? But it was just a joke video, because Eli isn't supposed to die, he's supposed to manually unlock the door for you and then send you on your way. Having the door unlocking also triggered to his death is just a gameplay failsafe in case you somehow manage to get him killed before he opens it, so you don't get stuck.

And then Laidlaw made a joke about the entirety of HL2 being "non-canon by definition" when someone took the video seriously and linked him to it, because I think it was a phrase the person in the video used a lot, and then people took HIM seriously and started sharing it around. It was all really blown out of proportion, and a really good example of how desperate Half Life fans are after all this time, haha.

Laidlaw's always taken a very loose stance on the concept of "canon", anyways - confirming events or worldbuilding details that take place far away from the player's view isn't important, and he's happy to let players make up their own answers to these questions they have that aren't really relevant to gameplay. The important thing to Valve is just finding some interesting story elements they can base a really good game around. I actually sent an email to him a few months ago asking some questions about little details of the universe I was curious about on the off chance he might have answers, and he summed up this idea pretty well in part of his response:

So basically, unless and until something has a place in a game, it doesn't really matter what you choose to believe about it.