Symbolism in the Half-Life Series

[superjuanchango]

Most of us can agree, as HL has an accomplished writer and puts a focus on story and development, that we are dealing with a different kind of story than most in games. What symbolism have you picked up?

Names:

Gordon Freeman: His last name, Free-man, can be thought of in several ways. One is, he is a free man. He is running from the combine to stay free, and he is meant to free all who need to be freed. Another view is that he is indeed NOT free. His actions are controlled by the G-man, and he is apparently not given a choice in life.

G-Man: Government man, god man, garbage man. This could stand for anything. What clues have we been left other than his power and...odd speech.

I believe there is much more depth than we are seeing, and the best way to uncover the story is to look deeper into what we may have looked over. Anyone pick up anything else?

 

[mrgrimrpr]

Adrian Shephard...

Supposed "Shephard" that will lead the resistance to freedom. I am speculating, because OPFOR2 will probably come out

 

[superjuanchango]

http://www.behindthename.com/php/search.php?terms=gregory&nmd=n&gender=both&operator=or
Father Gregory: Gregory means "Watchfull, alert." Which is exactly what one would need to be in a town like Ravenholm .

 

[PHxHav0c]

I think the name "Freeman" is just to give a sense of irony to the story, considering Gordon is actually the complete opposite of a Free man, as he is "not given the illusion of free choice" by the G-Man, in other words, the G-Man ultimately controls Gordon.

 

[HadouKen24]

It creates an interesting tension. I'd love to see how it is eventually resolved. Will Gordon eventually be able to gain his freedom? Or is he doomed to have his fate constantly controlled by others?

Or is he already in a sense free? He seems to have a devastating effect on structures of power and control.

 

[smwScott]

I don't see how there could be a game if Gordon became free. He has no personality, no moral convictions, no known motives other than to keep his ass from getting shot, basically no character at all. The whole setup of the game wouldn't work if they gave him true freedom of choice, unless they pulled a Deus Ex and let the story be completely open ended, but thats not HL style.

You are the character, the only way they can keep the story together is to have you guided by someone else, Gordon can't be free or else the entire formula would fail. They've gone through all this trouble to ensure that he has no personality, but they can't keep that up if they set him free.

 

[Is This Tea]

I don't see how there could be a game if Gordon became free. He has no personality, no moral convictions, no known motives other than to keep his ass from getting shot, basically no character at all. The whole setup of the game wouldn't work if they gave him true freedom of choice, unless they pulled a Deus Ex and let the story be completely open ended, but thats not HL style.

You are the character, the only way they can keep the story together is to have you guided by someone else…

Not really… suppose we take the g-man totally out of the game… The game starts after Gordon has boarded the train so we, as players, have no control over that… It would be easy to have Gordon just wake up after a nap on the train. Start Game. Really would anything proceed different aside from the end? Clever level design is how they actually get Gordon to do what they want him to do independent from each player’s choices.

And through this level design every player is forced to make some of the same choices… Such as fighting alongside the resistance instead of deciding to join the combine… The decisions that every player is forced to make due to level design restrictions can be considered choices that the “character” of Gordon Freeman made.

If Gordon had no morals other then not getting his ass shot… then he would have walked the hell out of city 17 and said screw the resistance at the first opportunity. But clearly he didn’t.

Gordon can't be free or else the entire formula would fail. They've gone through all this trouble to ensure that he has no personality, but they can't keep that up if they set him free.

Well they could free him at the end of last game in the series. If they decide they want to end the series.

 

[Solver]

GMan isn't his real name... GMan stands for government man, and it has been confirmed, but it was only the inside name in HL1 and is used now because, well, it's what fans adopted, etc. However, the GMan is actually still to be called anything at all in the game - no one refered to him, and so we haven't heard his real name either .

 

[kupocake]

However, the GMan is actually still to be called anything at all in the game - no one refered to him, and so we haven't heard his real name either .

Reminds me of the Vortiguant's words "Something secret steers us both. We shall not name it."

 

[Solver]

Yes, there are several lines in which Vortigaunts were (probably) referring to the GMan, but yet he was never named.

Actually, it's extremely probable that there is some sort of a larger connection between the Vortigaunts and the GMan.

 

[DevgruSeal]

http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=gordon
Gordon: Great Hill
http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=freeman
Freeman: Free Man
http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=alexander
Alyx: Feminine variant of ALEX: Short form of ALEXANDER, ALEXANDRA and other names beginning with alex:

Alexandra: Feminine form of ALEXANDER: Finally getting to the point, this meant "defending men" from Greek alexein "to defend, help"

Think about it...Alyx DOES help Gordon. (In prison) and fought of Combine with Gordon...

http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=eli
Eli: Ascension

http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=vance
Vance: "dweller in a fen"

http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=isaac
Isaac: "he laughs"

What was Dr. Breen's first name? Do a search for it on behind the name...

 

[kupocake]

Wallace
From a surname which originally meant "Welsh" or "foreigner" in Old French. Sir William Wallace was the Scottish hero who briefly expelled the rule of England from Scotland in the 13th century.
http://www.behindthename.com/php/search.php?terms=Wallace&nmd=n&gender=both&operator=or

 

[Fliko]

one of the Vortigaunts said that the Vortigaunts and Gordon share the same secrets... and ideas?

 

[OCV]

Some of the place names are also interesting, such as 'Nova Prospekt' could be seen to mean "new prospect" or a new outlook on life (Latin for 'new' is 'Nova'), perhaps this is best shown when we see some video shots of what happens to people in that facility - they are forced into a new outlook on life, one could say....

Anyone have any idea what '17' in City 17 symoblises at all? Or is it just a cool sounding number for a city? I know that '7' is considered in some cultures to be a lucky number, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with that!

 

[Przemek]

And about Judith Mossman:

Spoiler

Judith is a feminine version of the name Judas... remember Judas who betrayed Jesus in the Bible?

 

[Paravel]

I read in "Raising the bar" that the name Gordon was arbitrary and Freeman came from some physisist

 

[kupocake]

Anyone have any idea what '17' in City 17 symoblises at all? Or is it just a cool sounding number for a city? I know that '7' is considered in some cultures to be a lucky number, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with that!

I'm pretty sure that it's just a cool number to come up with. I suppose there may be some kind of Language benefits of saying "City Seventeen" (because in terms of phonetics the first letters sound kind of similar, so it sounds nicer). I think they also needed something that suggests that there aren't that many cities left, but not so low that it sounds like the Cities are somehow ranked: City 17 seems to be the most important city, because it is where your buddies are and more importantly where Breen is. It could be considered an International Capital City because of this, but as it is only the "seventeenth" city, there is a uniform feeling of the importance of Earth's cities.

Oh and a little minor coincidence is that the only other City mentioned by name ("I thought i'd seen the last of him in City 14") could be said to appear on the original Half-Life's cover: In amongst all the giberish is a fairly large "C14". Means nothing, but what the hey

 

[superjuanchango]

http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=bernard

Barnard (Barney) means brave.

 

[Great Grizzly]

HEDY : Pet form of HEDWIG: Derived from the Germanic elements hadu "contention" and wig "war". lol

 

[GL1]

I think Freeman, is a pun on the part of Valve. Think about it, the only truly Free man (or woman) in a videogame is you. The player.

 

[desdinova]

G-Man: Government man, god man, garbage man. This could stand for anything. What clues have we been left other than his power and...odd speech.

I think the G-Man's voice sounds a bit like Stephen Hawking's. Coincidence?

 

[HadouKen24]

Anyone have any idea what '17' in City 17 symoblises at all? Or is it just a cool sounding number for a city? I know that '7' is considered in some cultures to be a lucky number, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with that!

Seventeen is a prime number. I think it is also an important number in Discordianism, a (ir)religion that embraces chaos and freedom, and condemns/flagrantly ignores power and control structures.

17 is somehow related to 23, which is important because 2 + 3 = 5. According to the Principia Discordia, everything is somehow related to the number five. This is called the Law of Fives. Of course, the Principia itself says to wipe thine ass with what is written, and grin like a ninny at what is spoken, so you might want to take that with a grain of salt. Or not. Either way is good.

 

[NapalmAndFriends]

I think the G-Man's voice sounds a bit like Stephen Hawking's. Coincidence?

No friggin' way is that a conincedance. But I'm not intelligent enough to figure anything else out. ;(

 

[Mr.Wotsit]

There's some interesting points floating around here but I'm dreading that some of the slightly more stupid suggestions might start being thought of as true.

By talking about symbolism, it's like inviting people to read too much into decisions that Valve probably didn't think about at all. Hope people try and keep that in mind.

 

[desdinova]

Anyone have any idea what '17' in City 17 symoblises at all? Or is it just a cool sounding number for a city? I know that '7' is considered in some cultures to be a lucky number, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with that!

Could be a reference to Stalag 17. A 1953 movie by Billy Wilder starring William Holden set in a WWII German prisoner of war camp. Great movie by the way.