Half-Life 2 Theories and Observations *Spoilers*

[CLASSIFIED]

G-man:
Gordon Freeman - I don't think so
Govorment Man - Maybe.. but not on this earth's Govorment
God Man - Now that makes alot of sence..
How did he stop the time? by thinking of it?

Did anyone else noticed that he has a new suitcase? is old suitcase had "Black Mesa" Signature now it looks like a simple Suitcase

 

[huntingbear]

does anyone else think that the antlions are part of the synth race? just look at the crazy colors that races has and the colors on the antlions

 

[alheeley]

I really think you lot ought to get out a bit more!

 

[TAOakenshield]

Interesting and (kinda) new theory within!

God. I can't believe I've read though all this thread.

I think SilentGunz pretty much nailed it. Anyways, his theory makes the most sense. (i.e. preceeding the events in HL1, Xen was in the Combine's grip and was momentarily won over by the G-man's employers, only to be lost again, along with Earth, when the Combine struck a mighty blow in the 7-hour war)

But, about HL2, I'm still puzzled by Gabe Newell's comment about the fact that "one party is wrong, but the other party is unbelievably wrong" (not exact quote, but close).

The following is the situation which make the most sense in my head.

Hypothetically, we can say that Breen is the wrong party and The Resistance is the unbelievable wrong one.

[Note : It would be hard to impart a lack of knowledge (i.e. the quality of being wrong) to either The Combine of the G-man and his employers, since they are the all-knowing parties in this apparent war between two intergalactic organisations.]

When saying that Breen is "wrong", it might that he "wrongly" believes humanity to gain a faster evolution through an association with the Combine, as humanity is seemingly only becoming a slave to the Combine in a "Borg assimilition"-type of enterprise to conquer all universes.

[However, this argument is becomes null if we consider Breen as an "emissary" of the Combine - a host body "parasited" by the Combine who pushed for the realisation of the resonance cascade experiment as a way to open the door to Xen for his organisation to come through -, as opposed to a normal human scientist blinded by his own "scientific" illusions. This parasite theory comes from the comment of "finding ANOTHER(did he really say another?) host body" when Breen discusses urgently his escape to another universe with one of the Combine creatures.]

So, admitting that Breen is only a pure scientist blinded by his "evolutionary" aspirations, this leaves the Resistance as being UNBELIEVABLY WRONG. Maybe, just maybe, the G-man's employers (the Combine's enemies) want him to give The Freeman back to the Resistance in the hopes that the Resistance will take over the Citadel and destroy it, which effectively happens at the end of HL2. The Resistance would then be unbelievably wrong in the sense that the destruction of the Citadel spells their own doom, as opposed to their liberation. Indeed, this is pointed out by Breen at the very end: "Think of the people below!", "Don't do it!", etc. The G-man and his employers would surely not care for the people of City 17, since the destruction of the Citadel (and possibly of a whole underlying Combine transportation/teleportation system) weighs a lot more in the strategic balance.

In this way, the G-man would be working for the Combine's enemies. It doesn't take away the fact that he could still be "freelance" since there are hints that he could eventually switch sides and lend Gordon's services to the Combine. This comes from Breen's comment that Gordon can be "sold to the highest bidder" and from the G-man's comment that he had been approached by a party for whom he usually didnt work (the Combine)... or something along those lines. This would confirm the theory that the G-man's only talents lie in his teleportation technology/abilities, but that he otherwise relies on others to do his dirty work : in this situation, Gordon Freeman is forced into his service.

In other words, HL2's ending would be City 17's destruction (and of the Resistance within...) and somehow the incapacitation of part of the Combine's transport system - a victory for the Gman's CURRENT employers.

But what lies in the future for Gordon? Will he work for the Combine? Will he free himself of the G-man's grip? Has humanity even survived the City17 incident? What happened to Alyx and the rest of Gordon's friends?

This would indeed be a weird choice by writer Mark Laidlaw (sp?), if many of the main characters had perished.

Damnit we have to wait a few more years for HL3 I guess. That chapter had better unravel quite a bit of the story or I'll go crazy.

But, ultimately, I really like the idea of the G-man being a independant (or "freelance") being of extraordinary spacetime-manipulation power who can sell his services to either of two massive intergalatic organisations fighting for the control of many universes, but who has to rely on one sole human being to acheive palpable results. Indeed, maybe the G-man is the "interloper", an all-knowing creature able of directing history by nudging it in whichever direction he likes thanks to his powers, his refusal to take sides and to his "hiring" of various talented individuals.

I think I've landed on a pretty cool possibility. Sorry about the long read though. Thanks for reading!

Comments anyone?

 

[Dr. Freeman]

I remember a quote from Gabe on the HL2 plot where he said "one group is wrong and the other is spectacularly wrong" or words to that effect. Don't see any tie-in to this myself after playing HL2 though.

it probably doesn't make sense because G-man is still very much a mystery.
for anyone to understand what Gabe was saying...they probably need to know where G-man's alligences are.

 

[TAOakenshield]

it probably doesn't make sense because G-man is still very much a mystery.
for anyone to understand what Gabe was saying...they probably need to know where G-man's alligences are.

True, but if you consider the G-man as being a freelance being who has changing alligeances then it starts to make sense. See my post above yours.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

True, but if you consider the G-man as being a freelance being who has changing alligeances then it starts to make sense. See my post above yours.

actually yeah.. u are right.
whats worse than Breen selling out humanity to the Combine?
someone who keeps switching sides..

well that is assuming the G-man will be working for the Combine in HL3 tho but i guess if the G-man is using Gordon and the human resistances to serve his (and his employers) purposes, than basically that too, is "spectacularly wrong"... maybe still moreso than what Breen was doing.

Why was Gordon being rushed to Eli's so quickly at Kleiner's lab? How was he going to "jeapordise everything they've worked for"? Also, during the same scene, Kleiner's reading the new features list for the HEV, and then he says "oh dear" and that snippet of music kicked in, with Barney saying 'we don't have time for this". Why not? Did I miss something? What's with the rush?

thats because of all the power being used by the teleporter (the Combine must have noticed that) and that they were searching for Gordon.

When in Nova Prospekt, Breen says over the tannoy that they could have easily captured Eli during the last 5 years. Well then, why didn't they?

well i guess Breen could have had Breen years ago... but for what?
i guess the thinking behind not capturing Eli was that he and Kleiner would secretly complete the entanglement teleport technology and afterwards Breen and company would capture Eli and steal the technology as well.

otherwise i'd just chalk that up to "big talk" as someone else already mentioned.

 

[Cortzxxx]

Someone said something about "monkey brain, human brain, combine brain", and then evolution.
It might mean that humans could evolve again or be wiped out.

 

[apache]

sry should of looked at thread content not title :rolling:


il post a new thread : )

 

[Kashban]

Two things come to mind after reading this whole thread (whoopee!) :naughty:

1st: The idea of changing earth's atmosphere into something else isn't new, anybody knows The Tripods? Oh yeah, the Striders are also taken from there, in combination with HG Wells War of the Worlds (heat beam). Though the Tripods overcame mankind not by military force but by mind control and mass hypnosis via radio and TV. The Tripod's military forces where much too weak for the warmachine of humanity.

2nd: There are combine aliens on earth, in the citadel when Gordon is transported to Breen's office. You see them crawling on some gangways in the upper third of the citadel.

If I come across that again, I'll put up some pics.

Kashban

 

[Sid Burn]

Hmm... I've observed that Breen managed to make the whole Earth surrender by telling the people that USA has been destroyed and there is no use of resisting the combine invasion... then 7 hours war ended.

 

[rpgprog]

did any of you think that maybe the story really isn't this deep, that maybe Gabe just left out some details so he could be amused by crazy theories while HL3 was in the making.
or maybe the story isn't even written yet, and he is looking for a "good" theory to write the next installment off of.

 

[Firefox21]

My theory on G-man, his employer and Combine:

Assuming that the G-Man has an employer, the current employer is either enslaved by Combine previously and seeking revenge whenever possible and with whatever means (using the Resistance and does not really care about humanity or whatsoever), OR they are almost as powerful as Combine, which wanted to impose thier dominance over Combine.

One thing for sure is that the G-Man's employer is much cleverer and cunning than the Combine. Combine fights the wars wherever they go, invest and invent new combined technology for another wars (doing the all dirty works by themselves), while the G-Man's employer only use whatever resources that were there (the Resistance) and hire key service (Gordon) to counteract with Combine. G-Man's employer is either more cost effective, cost concious or they simply do not have that many resources as the Combine does.

G-man is a "freelancer", is he? He might have an "employer", but is he REALLY a "freelancer"?

Judging to the technology G-man possess (phasing in and out of space and manipulating time), it is hard to believe he is alone or working alone. He could be part of the more powerful races in the universe than the Combine and his current "employer". By leasing out service (Gordon), it meets the "employer" target and most importantly achieving G-Man's own objectives.

There may be at least three powerful races in the universe struggling to impose their dominance: G-Man's race, his "employer" and Combine. For G-Man's race to fight two races is not cost effective and may be defeated along the way. So, G-Man's race, while posing as a neutral or "business" party for both races, they actively create conflicts behind the scenes to deplete their resources. Thus, G-Man's "employer" is fighting with Combine from planet to planet. Meanwhile, G-Man's race closely watches all wars to select the talented resources (Gordon) to serve as their vehicle (service leasing). When both of the powerful races depleted their resources, G-Man's race will come to front and dominate the entire universe. Earth is just a callateral casualties to their games/wars.

All in all, G-Man's race is the cleverest race among the rest as they achieve the target without dirtying their hand (at the time being) and with minimum cost (by using "local" resources).

 

[Kashban]

Hmm... I've observed that Breen managed to make the whole Earth surrender by telling the people that USA has been destroyed and there is no use of resisting the combine invasion... then 7 hours war ended.

Possible but unlikely. Neither China nor Russia would have surrendered due to the message the USA has been destroyed. They would have double checked in the first place. Same with Europe, though the European Union isn't a military construct, so it's combined forces are somewhat weak without further practice.

Kashban

 

[Pai-Mei]

First of all, this is a site worth checking out...

http://fragfiles.org/~hlstory//

Now... you are all leaving out at least one key point here... Earth had been visiting Xen long BEFORE the Resonance Cascade. Remember Opposing Force? I seem to recall going through massive Xen-attriums being built as well as many captured Xen wildlife specimens (the Fish gun, the Barnacle). This is where the crystal came from that started the whole resonance cascade. Notice how similar it looks to the crystal formations on Xen?

Also, the Opposing Force manual talks about the G-Man showing up at the base and talking to the superiors... although I can't remember much else.

I pretty much agree with the above website, as it makes the most sense with the fewest plotholes.

If you're too lazy to read through it, the main points are that the Combine are an interdimensional empire made up of many races. Xen was their latest aquisition, and humanity just stumbled upon Xen in its own teleportation experiments. We were just interested in taking som crystal and biological specimens, but the Administrator (Breen) was contacted by the Combine, perhaps through Nihilanth. Believing that it was in humanity's best evolutionary interests to go along with them, he staged the whole Resonance Cascade to allow Xen (now Combine) troops to pour into earth. He created the system crash to make sure none of the scientists got any messages to each other about the dangers of the experiment ("I had some messages for you Gordon, but we had a system crash about an hour ago"). The G-Man tried to prevent this, (notice his actions and gestures when talking to the scientist) but was unsuccessful.

The G-Man himself is either a direct member of interdimensional "freedom fighters" against the combine, or part of a group of mercenaries working for said freedom fighters. I suspect the latter with the whole "highest bidder" bit.

I believe that Nihilanth was a Slave to the Combine, although not willingly at all. He had limited free will in that he could talk to Gordon reflecting his true thoughts (“Their slaves - we are their slaves - we are.”), but wasn't able to excercise any real control over his minions against the combine. By saying “Win - you cannot win.” I think he meant against the combine in the long run, not against Gonarch or himself. And since he speaks no truth (and since Half-Life has always been kinda dark anyway) I'm guessing that the Half-Life saga does not end happilly. I'm guessing that the Combine will win over earth completely and that the whole Combine Empire vs. freedom fighters struggle will not really be changed in the long run by the events of the Half-Life saga.

But who knows? In the original Half-Life, the story seemed on such a small scale... Gordon is trying to save his own life and escape an experiment gone wrong... and now look on how large of a scale it is! Perhaps the scale will widen even more in the next game or so.

 

[epsil0n]

"Maybe Gman rescued Alyx too?.. She also seems to have "limitlesssssss potential", as she's been quite through something before and during Half-Life2, and mind you, WITHOUT HAZARD SUIT!!!"

ROFL!!!
ahah
omg.. that cracked me up for some reason.. the part about the suit. (or lack thereof)..
did u forget that she also did all she did with only a modified pistol? not even a grav gun.....hmm.. maybe thats why shes in the new project for Valve?

 

[rpgprog]

"Maybe Gman rescued Alyx too?.. She also seems to have "limitlesssssss potential", as she's been quite through something before and during Half-Life2, and mind you, WITHOUT HAZARD SUIT!!!"

who said this?

 

[FireCrack]

Seems to me that xen would have been the first world captured by the combine, being the border world through wich all of their teleporation technology (and teleportation in general) relies.

 

[rpgprog]

no basis to this, but xen could have originally been a combine colony that revolted, which would explain how both xen and the combine had teleportation.

 

[0mar]

One interesting tidbit:

In Nova Prospekt, when Breen is talking to the Combine Transhuman Arm, he mentions that he has good information that Gordon Freeman couldn't develop covert/soldier skills in the intervening years. Must be because he knows he is in stasis. Just more evidence giving support to the fact that he knows of the G-man.

 

[epsil0n]

who said this?

someone who posted earlier on this thread, didnt bother quoting properly and thus forgot to give credit. ::shrugs:: eh.. if u go back a few pages and look hard i promise youll find those words ver batim

i just thought it was hilarious at the time ...i think i just had needed to get outa the house or something

-epsil0n

 

[mikese]

I'm not sure what the connection between the Combine & Xen is, but I doubt that the Combine had control over Xen. It's mentioned at least once in HL2 that the Combine's teleportation tech only works over long distances (like light years long), and yet in HL1, our ol' buddy Gordo Freeman uses Xen teleporters to get from place to place on the planet (if you can call it that ) . Because of that, I think the Combine probably had their sights set on invading Xen to get ahold of the short range teleporter technology.

 

[algi]

I think the Combine teleport works only between dimensions. But only the humans know how to teleport there-and-back (Earth-Xen-Earth).