Why are those electric Xen aliens on our side in HL2?

[DAV1D]

You know those electrifying green aliens from half-life, the ones that shoot those electric bolts? I'm really confused about them.

How comes in Half-Life 2 they're now on our side and even speaking english. They were trying to kill us all in Half-Life 1.

I aint completed Half-life 2 so maybe I'll find something out, but I really want to know.

 

[Mech Man]

After Gordon killed Nihilanth at the end of HL1 the vortigaunts (the aliens you mentioned) became free as they had been held as slaves by Nihly. Seeing as they had become trapped on Earth through no fault of their own they decided to join the human resistance against the combine , who were turning both humans and vorts into slaves.

 

[Omnomnick]

They are called Vortagaunts, they spoke English in Half Life 1 if you listen, they say stuff like 'DIE!!' etc.

They are stuck on Earth for a few reasons.
1. They were only slaves to the Nihilanth. Once Gordon killed him they were free.
2. The Combine invaded Earth in the next few days, Portal storms pretty much stopped - preventing return to Xen
3. We don't know if the Combine got to Xen and destroyed it or invaded it or not.
4. Eli helped to show humanity to accept the Vortakind as their friends and helpers, not their slaves.

Etc.

 

[MattyDienhoff]

You say the Vortigaunts say "DIE" in Half-Life? I think you're imagining things. It's possible they make some sound resembling the word, because they make all sorts of alien sounding vocalizations, but even if there is something resembling an English word in there, it's so subtle that it's barely discernable and is obviously not meant to give the impression they speak a human language.

The Combine invaded Earth in the next few days

Wrong, no one knows exactly how long the intervening time period was. It could have been anything from a few days to a few years. Given the fact that the portal storms were in effect long enough to cause a population shift to the cities, I'd say the intervening period was at least a few months.

Portal storms pretty much stopped - preventing return to Xen

We don't know when (or if) the portal storms stopped, either. They may have just gradually petered out. Either way, portal storms are just random events that teleport things in from the borderworld, they're not proper portals that you can use to teleport yourself to a specific place. Vorts couldn't have teleported back to Xen even if they wanted to.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

They are called Vortagaunts, they spoke English in Half Life 1 if you listen, they say stuff like 'DIE!!' etc.

They are stuck on Earth for a few reasons.
1. They were only slaves to the Nihilanth. Once Gordon killed him they were free.
2. The Combine invaded Earth in the next few days, Portal storms pretty much stopped - preventing return to Xen
3. We don't know if the Combine got to Xen and destroyed it or invaded it or not.
4. Eli helped to show humanity to accept the Vortakind as their friends and helpers, not their slaves.

Etc.

Vortigaunts*

 

[Omnomnick]

You say the Vortigaunts say "DIE" in Half-Life? I think you're imagining things.

No, they appear and as they charge up they yell 'Die' at you. They also say someother things which I can't remember off the top of my head - not much English though.

Wrong, no one knows exactly how long the intervening time period was. It could have been anything from a few days to a few years.

Well we can determine around about when the Combine probably invaded. I would imagine it would take a few days for Portal storms to spread across earth and to the extend they were. The Combine invaded because they noticed the huge amount of energy coming from Earth, caused by the Portal storms.

We don't know when (or if) the portal storms stopped, either. They may have just gradually petered out.

I think it would be too easy to just say that they 'stopped'. But we can guess that they did stop and havn't been seen for sometime. In Episode 2, Alyx mentions 'Its just like the first days all over again'. She also seems shocked to see one. 'Days' seems to show that the first Portal storms appeared over a period of a few days. The Combine, I would imagine, also harness the energy from Super portals for their own use, meaning it would probably have destroyed all the Portal storms anyway. Black Mesa also launched that satelite of theirs as well

Spoiler

as the one launched at White Forest to support the original

Enough?

 

[DAV1D]

Ah alright I get it now, thanks. I've been wanting to know about that for ages.

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Yeah, it confused me too, but they are good allies once you get to know 'em.

 

[Freeman85]

Yeah, it confused me too, but they are good allies once you get to know 'em.

Good ole Cecil lol

 

[Officer Combine]

I wonder how long after the vortigaunts were invaded it was before Earth suffered...'unforseen consequences'.

 

[the cow says moo]

I remember when I first saw a vortigaunt in Half-life 2. It was the one in the box car. Instinct kicked in and I unloaded three clips on it before realizing it was actually healing me.

 

[fishdbaz]

I may be wrong, but I believe that at some point in Half-Life 2, Alyx says that the portal storms are still going on to this day.

 

[Officer Combine]

I remember when I first saw a vortigaunt in Half-life 2. It was the one in the box car. Instinct kicked in and I unloaded three clips on it before realizing it was actually healing me.

http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-09-19

 

[Afnopo]

Vortiguants do not say "Die" in Half-Life, they say "Hai boop bop beep"

 

[Mech Man]

I may be wrong, but I believe that at some point in Half-Life 2, Alyx says that the portal storms are still going on to this day.

This , that and it is stated some where in raising the bar. Besides I don't think the portal storms allowed teleported material / organsisms to return when ever they wanted.

 

[MattyDienhoff]

Well we can determine around about when the Combine probably invaded. I would imagine it would take a few days for Portal storms to spread across earth and to the extend they were. The Combine invaded because they noticed the huge amount of energy coming from Earth, caused by the Portal storms.

How long the portal storms took to "spread" is irrelevant, since we know little about their very nature, their spread across the planet may have been instantaneous. Either way, there's no reason to believe the Combine invasion took place mere days after their discovery of Earth. It's been said that the portal storms drew their attention to Earth, but that doesn't mean they invaded right away. Even an organization as massive as the Combine has to plan, and waiting for the portal storms and the aliens they brought to decimate Earth's infrastructure, civilian populace and armed forces would have been beneficial to them. It would have been much easier to take over once Earth's population had condensed into cities to get away from the aliens.

I think it would be too easy to just say that they 'stopped'. But we can guess that they did stop and havn't been seen for sometime. In Episode 2, Alyx mentions 'Its just like the first days all over again'. She also seems shocked to see one. 'Days' seems to show that the first Portal storms appeared over a period of a few days.

No.

She was obviously using the word "days" in a figurative sense. You know, as in "kids these days", "it's the last days", and so on. The phrase "first days" doesn't specify how many days, so it could be any quantity. It could refer to any period of time, from a few days to a few months or even a year or more. Therefore, when she said "It's just like the first days all over again", that doesn't conclusively mean that the portal storms appeared any particular time period, or that they've stopped since. It could be that the first portal storms were the most intense, and they gradually became less frequent and/or severe. The one that is triggered by the Citadel's destruction is obviously quite severe, which may well be why Alyx likens it to the first ones she experienced.

The Combine, I would imagine, also harness the energy from Super portals for their own use, meaning it would probably have destroyed all the Portal storms anyway. Black Mesa also launched that satelite of theirs as well

Spoiler

as the one launched at White Forest to support the original

What on Earth are you talking about? :stare:

The super portal is the portal the Combine used the energy of the Citadel's destruction to create, to get a message back to their homeworld to send reinforcements. A super portal and a portal storm are two different phenomenons. A portal storm is a random, uncontrolled event, the energy of which isn't known to be harness-able by anyone. As far as I know, neither the Black Mesa nor the White Forest satellites had anything to do with portal storms, either. When the Black Mesa satellite was launched, portal storms hadn't happened yet, and the White Forest satellite was expressly designed to quell the growing superportal. It's unknown if it had any effect on the portal storms.

 

[Joest]

Vortiguants do not say "Die" in Half-Life, they say "Hai boop bop beep"

Ha, no. They talk in an archaic form of English. Shakespearean, in a way.