Half-Life and Aeon Flux connection

[gabriel]

This is probably just a coincidence, but I've made an interesting discovery that slightly connects Half-Life with the wonderful animated series Aeon Flux, by Peter Chung.

In Aeon Flux, the last inhabitants of the world live in a city called Bregna. The citizens of this city are called "Breens" or "Breen".

Now, the BM administrator in Half-Life goes by the same name and now you're probably thinking, "so what?". Well, it just so happens that Bregna is a run by a totalitarian government, a kind of "big brother" deal that we see in works such as 1984, Brazil, and of course Half-Life.

In Aeon Flux, the dictator of this society, Trevor Goodchild, is known as the "Breen dictator". This is what connected Aeon Flux to Dr. Breen's role in Half-Life 2 as a dictator-like character.

In conclusion:
Aeon Flux has Breen
Half-Life has Breen
Aeon Flux has totalitarian society
Half-Life has totalitarian society

Like I said, this probably is just a coincidence but who knows? Maybe someone at Valve had a slight influence from Aeon when naming the characters. Or maybe I just have too much time on my hands.

 

[iMMuNiTy]

Nothing but a coincidence, IMO.

 

[Polaris]

Yeah, Charlize Theron in this sex suit looks like some Black Ops chick

 

[Ageless Stranger]

It's really no surprise, post-apocolyptic dystopias tend to have certain things in common.

 

[Edcrab]

Such as the fact they're distopian and set following an apocalypse

But in all seriousness, there might be a tentative link. I doubt it personally, but for all we know someone at Valve is a dedicated Aeon Flux fan...

 

[gabriel]

well now that i think about it it probably would have been Marc Laidlaw who named the characters. So i suppose he would have to be the aeon fan. but it's more likely just a coincidence.

 

[gabriel]

oh yeah, theres some other similarities as well that i just noticed:

In Aeon, there's little flying robots everywhere that monitor everything that goes on, just like Half-Life's scanners.

Also, Aeon's storyline is immersive in the way that it provides little to no background information and just drops you in the middle of everything, forcing you to figure things out for yourself, just like Half-Life.

And Aeon Flux is amazing, just like Half-Life.

 

[iMMuNiTy]

Only the Half-Life 2 and Aeon Flux universe seem to be similar, and only that, similar, but the storyline differ like day and night. I'd say this is a coincidence. Just like Gordon Freeman.

 

[bat_lyubo]

Only the Half-Life 2 and Aeon Flux universe seem to be similar, and only that, similar, but the storyline differ like day and night. I'd say this is a coincidence. Just like Gordon Freeman.

You shouldn't have said that. We can now expect another million G-man threads.

 

[Mr.Magnetichead]

I think it may have had an impact on HL2 yes, but then again I think a bajillion things had an impact on the game it's it's half decade development.

 

[gabriel]

I think it may have had an impact on HL2 yes, but then again I think a bajillion things had an impact on the game it's it's half decade development.

Well of course. And I'm just highlighting one out of the bajillion.

If I ever met Laidlaw though, I'd ask him if he's an Aeon fan.

 

[gabriel]

oh yeah, and another thing:
on one of the episodes, it shows people lining up at a machine to get food dispensed to them. it reminded me exactly of the beginning of half-life 2.

okayy, i'm done now.

 

[Mr.Magnetichead]

That's been in a ton of movies though.

 

[gabriel]

That's been in a ton of movies though.

not really like this though.

 

[cquinn]

Aeon herself wasn't from Breen, she was from an enemy city/country. So there were
other cities/countries than Breen. In fact one of the AF stories dealt with two enemy
cities that sat side by side.

AF had many different societies and alien influences, not just totalitarian.

Both were inspired by stories like "1984" and "A Brave New World". Not to
mention "Blade Runner", "THX1184", "Logans Run", "Planet of the Apes", "Aliens",
etc, etc, etc....

 

[gabriel]

Aeon herself wasn't from Breen, she was from an enemy city/country. So there were
other cities/countries than Breen. In fact one of the AF stories dealt with two enemy
cities that sat side by side.

AF had many different societies and alien influences, not just totalitarian.

i know all that. Aeon is from Monica, the neighboring country to Bregna. But the majority of the story takes place within the totalitarian country Bregna.