What does the graffiti mean?

[-Alyx-]

i noticed some graffiti, a combine soldier holding a human baby. What does this mean?

 

[kepler]

Screen Shot?

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Perhaps a humorous shot of Combines killing all babies on Earth?

 

[kupocake]

This has come up a few times before, but I don't think we ever came to any conclusions really. Like a lot of Graffiti, I think it's just supposed to look cool rather than having any particularly insightful meaning.

But I suppose, if it's a combine, they're cradling the freaky unnatural 'transhuman' child with glowing eyes (? I remember there being something odd about them), since presumably, if the human > combine project is successful, they'd want to breed new humans somehow, and probably not in the traditional way (so it's a piece of hate propaganda against one child parent transhuman clones ). It could be a normal human though (perhaps it was made by the developers back when the air was crap to breathe and citizens wore masks) with a scared child.

But I'm still in favour of it not meaning much. The writing next to it especially just seems like a meaningless tag.

 

[PJ]

looks like it

 

[Maestro]

That doesn't look like a Combine soldier, guys.

That looks more like a human wearing a gas mask cradling a child against the evils of the world.

The word is CASTE which bamboozles me but, what the hell, it may mean something.

 

[Maturin]

I can't decide whether the monkey-human-combine evolution graffiti is propaganda for the Resistance or the Combine. It either shows post-humans as the next step, or makes them look like regressive apes without a forehead.

 

[Freols]

The graffiti is all quite intriguing.

 

[swan_song1973]

The word is CASTE which bamboozles me but, what the hell, it may mean something.

i think it has something to do with a caste system.

 

[gFrohman]

It could just be the artist's tag (signature), but I dunno.

Or maybe an acronym (I don't know what it could possibly be acronym for though).

 

[Tacoeaterguy]

Caste: an endogamous and hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having mores distinguishing it from other such groups. That was from dictionary.com by the way. Wow I'm not sure if that makes sense, or makes no sense at all.

 

[PJ]

Caste: an endogamous and hereditary social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position, etc., and having mores distinguishing it from other such groups. That was from dictionary.com by the way. Wow I'm not sure if that makes sense, or makes no sense at all.

it does sort of make sense - social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position - seems a lot like humans under combine rule

 

[Tacoeaterguy]

it does sort of make sense - social group limited to persons of the same rank, occupation, economic position - seems a lot like humans under combine rule

I guess you are right. I think it represents like... humans can't really defend themselves. Aren't the big guys.

 

[gFrohman]

Makes sense - humans have thought of themselves as the top of the food chain, and now they've met someone else who's seriously kicked their asses. I think that would make anyone depressed.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Mixture of things really, caste to signify the hierarchy of combine over human, the baby being cradled could represent the oppression of the human race, and / or the protection of the last children (with the reproductive suppression field in place). I think this particular graffiti is by the rebels.

With the ape > human > combine grafitti its clear its either combine or combine sympathisers who see the Combine race as the more advanced step.

There are lots of interesting things in the graffiti, we missed something for 3 years where there were some random numbers written in graffiti which if you looked up, is actually a zip code to a town in the US called 'Freeman' I believe. I'd find the thread if I could...

 

[kepler]

I agree with the "Caste" promoters here. The word, combined with the image of the baby, enforces the concept of hereditary entitlement to power. Whether the graffiti is supportive or satyrical does not matter.

It's sort of like the Divine Right of Kings, but extended to an entire race.

 

[Grodan Freechman]

...I can't see a reason that it would be satyrical. No matter who painted it, combine or humarn, it means what everyone here has generally said summed up. By being a dominant, aggressive, intelligent race, the Combine has, in effect, created a caste system effecting surviving humans*, being the next step up, and also have topped it. And also the whole oppression thing with the baby being cradled and whatnot makes sense too.

*- Created a cast system among humans without one and topped the caste system for human societies with one already in place.

 

[Grodan Freechman]

Last note - the baby is most likely Gordon Freeman being depicted as a baby savior, much like Jesus....or it's the Gman

 

[PJ]

Last note - the baby is most likely Gordon Freeman being depicted as a baby savior, much like Jesus....or it's the Gman

those big bags round the baby's eyes could mean its the Gman, but i doubt it.

i think its meant to represent the human race in general, dependant on the combine now they have taken over.

 

[Omnomnick]

Most probably relating to the combine turning on the supression field and preventing child birth. Maybe the baby one is trying to show that children can't be created because maybe combine who are forced to change may still be emotionally attached to them?

 

[-Alyx-]

There are lots of interesting things in the graffiti, we missed something for 3 years where there were some random numbers written in graffiti which if you looked up, is actually a zip code to a town in the US called 'Freeman' I believe. I'd find the thread if I could...

Thats really interesting. I wonder if there anything else like that?

 

[kupocake]

Love that one.

 

[Grodan Freechman]

those big bags round the baby's eyes could mean its the Gman, but i doubt it.

i think its meant to represent the human race in general, dependant on the combine now they have taken over.

I...was entirely kidding about that. I just like to associate the Gman with every single thing someone mentions about HL series.

 

[gFrohman]

Love that one.

My favorite piece of graffiti...sums up the oppressive mood so well...

 

[Grodan Freechman]

THAT is the Gman. I find it weird that a piece of graffiti would be so specific and have so much singularity rather than pose an overall meaning to the people.

 

[ríomhaire]

It could be that the inclusion of the baby is just meant as a piece of startling imagry to catch one's attention. Keep in mind that there are no children in the world. Could be that the artist is trying to remind us of what the Combine have taken from us. The problem with this theory being it doesn't tie into the idea of a caste system at all.

 

[Grodan Freechman]

As I stated before, I don't think the two are related. Caste system implemented by the combine's presence/aggression and baby because what everyone else said it's for.

 

[Officer Combine]

Love that one.

That is pretty dang cool.

 

[PJ]

I...was entirely kidding about that. I just like to associate the Gman with every single thing someone mentions about HL series.

but it does have bags under his eyes!

anyhows that other gman one is cool.

 

[Ennui]

Ever since HL2 came out I've half wanted to make a little website with high-res pictures of all the (interesting) graffiti in the game along with little notes on what it might mean and where it can be found, but I feel like that'd be a lot of effort for something with no real point to it.

 

[Officer Combine]

Ever since HL2 came out I've half wanted to make a little website with high-res pictures of all the (interesting) graffiti in the game along with little notes on what it might mean and where it can be found, but I feel like that'd be a lot of effort for something with no real point to it.

Isn't that video gaming as a whole?

 

[ríomhaire]

Ever since HL2 came out I've half wanted to make a little website with high-res pictures of all the (interesting) graffiti in the game along with little notes on what it might mean and where it can be found, but I feel like that'd be a lot of effort for something with no real point to it.

I found a website with that before. It also had scans of all the letters and timetables from the HL, BS and PS manuals and other little things like maps of Black Mesa (there's actually a real place called that). I think it's been taken down since. I did manage to save the manual scans and put them here though.

 

[Anasazi]

I can't decide whether the monkey-human-combine evolution graffiti is propaganda for the Resistance or the Combine. It either shows post-humans as the next step, or makes them look like regressive apes without a forehead.

That's combine propaganda, showing combine/humans as the 'next big step'.

 

[ríomhaire]

Doesn't seem very Combine style does it? Maybe some Combine sympathiser/collaborator but not an actual Overwatch piece of work. On the other hand I find that piece of graffiti unerving and that could be what the artist intended. If you stop looking at the obvious A B C progression meaning and try to think about what emotions the piece conjures in viewer, and I don't think this artist was stupid. I think that most people, faced with this image will feel a small amount of dread. The image definitly highlights the unnaturalness of the progress offered by the Combine and makes people remember the rumours of what goes on at Nova Prospekt and what they and their friends have undergone at the hands of this supposed next evolutionary step.

 

[Hurricane]

^this

 

[kupocake]

If the CASTE graffiti is by a combine sympathiser, they could have done better than spraying it directly outside the entrance to Black Mesa East.

 

[Maturin]

If the CASTE graffiti is by a combine sympathiser, they could have done better than spraying it directly outside the entrance to Black Mesa East.

Well. Half-Life isn't usually very careful with the use of their objects. There is a copy of Dr. Kleiner's bulletin board in Mossman's arctic base.

 

[Darkside55]

This is, quite literally, the OLDEST discussion on HL2.net. I thought at first that someone had resurrected a thread from five years ago until I noted that the OP is a new user.

I remember a time when Rumors and Speculation (RIP) had like five topics every two weeks about that graffiti. Old as it is no one's ever come up with a definitive answer on what it means. Come to think of it, I don't think anyone's ever asked Valve, either...

 

[gFrohman]

Could be that Valve put the graffiti in the game just so it would get people like us thinking about it.

 

[Darkside55]

I think it was more along the lines that Valve put the graffiti there to give some 'life' to the world, and that it doesn't necessarily mean anything. If anything I bet they'd be rather surprised such a thing gets discussed.