What exactly did Gordon Freeman achieve by killing Nihilanth?

[flamingdts]

Pssst...the 'Xen' crystals come from Nihilanth and the controllers themselves. They grow them, and the crystals are part of their bodies as well. It's that whole little bit about the Xenian crystals were supposed to be in the Nihilanth's brain, but Valve couldn't do it because of graphical limitations or some such.

Actually, Nihilanth is not an inhabitant of Xen, and these crystals are specifically named "Xen Crystals" because they're from Xen.

I doubt the central function of an organism can be grown on debris and caves.

The controllers and Nihilanth's brain both appear to have a triangular shaped shard, which is their brain. It is possible that Nihilanth created these controllers from Xen crystals (wild guess), but I highly doubt Nihilanth brought Xen Crystals to Xen from another unknown planet. Hell, I highly doubt Nihilanth grow brains on floor.

 

[coheedswicked]

I assume that the nihilant would have been able to enlarge the rift as much to send his forces all over the planet at will and with precision- something even the combine are not able to do.

actually the combine can do this.. how do you think they took over the world in 7 hours? they specifically targeted cities to teleport citadels into. "The combine can tunnel through from their universe but once they're here, they're reliant on local transportation..."- Judith Mossman

As further evidence.... the super portal as see in episode 2 that is being created to transport another citadel with army to city 17 is in the exact same spot as the old one... I'd say thas pretty precise.

 

[Otto-Grainer]

Considering that one was fighting back after we invaded them, versus one that shows up on our doorstep and is like, "BLARGH SMASH SMASH SYNTHS IN YOUR BASE KILLING YOUR MILITARY EXTINGUISH ALL LIFE ON THIS PLANET SUCK THE RIVERS DRY AND PUMP POISON INTO THE ATMOSPHERE SO WE CAN MAKE IT HABITABLE FOR OURSELVES," I think it's clear who can be reasoned with and who can't. The fact that Dr. Breen could get through to them at all without having his brain sucked out through an advisor's biological straw really says something for how charismatic and persuasive he was.

Nihilanth might've been a lot easier, you know. "Sorry guy, we were being jerks. Friends?"

Yeah, but then again we still didn't know that and it was the state earth was in when we saw it for the first time in over fifteen years anyway. Why couldn't it have been the Nihilanth who invaded soon after? Despite his obvious death, why couldn't another one or the whole vortal group have conquered it instead? Heck, there's not any evidence in the game even right up till now for poor old Gordon to know Nihilanth wasn't another puppet of the Combine either.

It doesn't really make a difference. I think I see what you're saying now. I'm all for offering friendship, and I'm sure we've gotten as far as we can with that on the Combine side as Breen for the representative of earth because it's not like we haven't asked before or they're in any position to accept. Nihilanth, however, was the target-no, victim. We were the Combine, as it were. And he seemed to be losing then because we were the ones above him (literally, on his head) so 'we' as humans were in the position of asking for peace, though it was the Nihilanth who had all the reason in the world to ask first, partly because he could speak to Gordon and he knew he could understand. That's not to say we should entirely trust this being from another dimension so easily with not lying to us just by a question.


Well, whatever the case, I would never call for Freeman to be the one to blame. He perhaps had all the reason in the world to kill the Nihilanth, and asking an alliance might not have hurt, but maybe you should look at it this way: You, the player, didn't have to go in the Portal and kill him. You could have hung your weapons down temporarily and seen if that worked, on your first playthrough with no deaths allowed of course, so you could always blame yourself for not having tried talking to him. That's the end then, it was nice arguing with you. I think it was reason and pressure enough on Freeman for him to have killed it without a peace offering and be forgiven twenty years later when we all realised it could have been a mistake. You do not, but that's okay.

I never take this forum too seriously. :cheers:

Yeah, we're still on the same rebellious side against the Combine! I might punch you in the face real hard if you insulted Freeman when we finally meet him about that act of without asking an alien fetus he did years ago, but we're all good old companion buddies!

 

[Mech Man]

Not really relevant but this post is for people who have yet to see how parts of xen merged with Earth in Op4 (also shown in the original HL but I have yet to get shots of those areas). The first few are of the zombie "nest" in the bottom of the furnace. I also included a shot of a malfunctioning teleporter which shows it is possible to transport pieces of terrain as the areas that get zapped by erratic bolts of electricity are torn from the ground and teleported to the same location as Shephard.

Pix (Spoliereded for gigantism) :

Spoiler

 

[gFrohman]

I think these are relevant - after all, if it was the Nihilanth's fault for these bits of Xen merging with Earth, then I think Gordon did something productive (I have no freakin' clue as to how it could be the Nihilanth's fault though, since the teleportation seems so random and unstable).

 

[TheOneFreeMan]

Question: How do we know that this is "bits of Xen merging with Earth", and not just a terraforming effect caused by the teleportation of indigenous Xen plantlife? The walls and such in those screenies look pretty organic; I don't think any actual Xen terrain got transported, rather that is just an example of some non-animalia transportation.

 

[gFrohman]

We've seen (at least in EP2) that teleportation can somehow take random parts of surroundings and dump them anywhere (ex: The Borealis disappearing with part of the drydock). I assume it's the same thing happening here.

 

[Mech Man]

Question: How do we know that this is "bits of Xen merging with Earth", and not just a terraforming effect caused by the teleportation of indigenous Xen plantlife? The walls and such in those screenies look pretty organic; I don't think any actual Xen terrain got transported, rather that is just an example of some non-animalia transportation.

While that is a good point I dont think that is the case because If that were the case the surrounding area probably would not be raised up as much as it is. That coupled with the fact that we know that teleportation can transport parts of the surroundings with it as seen in the last two pics with the smouldering crater (you later see the concrete taken from that hole in the same place you are taken too a short distance away) and as gFrohman said , with the Borealis. While the Borealist may be caused by a different form of teleportation it obviously still has the same / a similar effect.

Edit : another thing I noticed is that most creatures from xen don't really need this planet to be terraformed as they are already quite well suited to it , being able to reuse things as they see fit (the bullsquid who turned a crawlspace in the wall into a nest or lair comes to mind). Not only that but most don't seem to need the landscape of xen to survive either as headcrabs , antlions , barnacles and vorts seem to be doing just find and they have been on Earth at the very least 18-19 years by now and probably up to 20-21 , but I can't say the same for bullsquids , houndeyes or any other wildlife as that is not shown in HL2 (although they are still about according to RTB).

Also while writing that I thought to myself , what happened to the xen manta ray type creatures who had the ability to project energy beams and create portals from underneath themselves? Those would be a cool sight to see flying about in HL2.