FREEMAN'S MIND: EPISODE 68

[RandomGuy]

He's never actually called G-Man in game. He's just that weird, invulnerable guy who can teleport himself and others at will. I definitely wouldn't think he's human, if I were Freeman. Or, at the very least, that he's not a CIA agent. Wouldn't the weird train they ride on at the end plus G-Man's reality warping abilities give away that he's not a regular guy?

 

So you're saying that it's not believable that he's a human using teleportation technology.

 

You realize that human scientists send Freeman to a border world, right? They teleport him there? No? Nothing..?

 

You realize he works at a facility that has technology beyond anything fathomable in our world, right? Where it isn't entirely unbelievable for someone to have the capacity to do things such as teleport, inherently, as it's part of the plot?

 

And furthermore, you're suggesting that your first reaction to a (seemingly) human individual, with a human voice who understands human speech, calls guns "government property", and wears a suit and carries a briefcase.... your FIRST thought is, "Can't be human."

 

I understand the old, alien-disguised-as-human trope. I get that all the fans, including myself, have concluded that G-Man is, in fact, extraterrestrial. But I think your perception of him is based on knowledge outside what is accessible in Half-Life.

 

If you were in Freeman's position, it would be illogical to assume he was an alien given the circumstances.

 

No, because Freeman has seen how teleporters work, and this guy isn't even using any machinery to do it.

 

No, I wouldn't immediately conclude that it's impossible for him to be human. But my first thought would be that he's related the teleporting aliens, the only ones who have actually shown the ability to teleport naturally. He abducted Freeman from the Nihilanth's chamber and dumped him in that weird tram ride in nowhere space. That, and he's been seen all over the facility, doesn't talk like a regular person, and has no problem walking around the hostile world of Xen, despite all of the armed and trained personnel in power armor being killed. He can even casually teleport between Xen and Earth and within Xen itself. All of the other teleporters were one-way.

 

Huh. I thought the canon was the combine were scared shitless that Gordon survived Ninlanth. Which is why they hit us so hard. Oh well, now it's headcanon

 

"The aliens conquered us in a matter of hours.The entire planet. Isn't that what they call the invasion now? The Seven Hour War? Do you know why?"

 

Why would they be scared of Freeman killing the Nihilanth? The Combine were just finishing wiping out the last remnants of an entire species of more powerful Nihilanths. They proceeded to curb-stomp all of modern Earth in seven hours. I don't care how badass Freeman is. The Combine conquer entire universes. He doesn't scare the empire itself at all.

 

It's pretty clear that the Combine treat Earth as a side show. They let the ecosystem go to shit, shipped huge numbers of human troops off-world, stopped human reproduction, and plundered the planet's resources, including draining the oceans. The Combine you see in Half-Life 2 are, at best, the Combine equivalent of a somewhat militarized police force (which may explain the lack of certain equipment). They're just a tiny, token force, mostly consisting of locally recruited forces with a few off-world Synths thrown in, such as Gunships and Striders. These Synths are armed with obscenely powerful weapons and are so extremely durable that they can take several hits from a fictional futuristic weapon that can two-shot an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank. When you consider that Striders can tank over half a dozen of those missiles yet have a body about the size of a tiny car, as well as the fact that the Combine can teleport forces between dimensions, it should really come as no surprise that the actual military of the Universal Union can instantly crush us. If anything, I'm just shocked it took them seven hours.

 

My head canon is that Half-Life Earth has actually been almost completely "harvested", and that the only humans left on the planet have been moved into eastern Europe. Heck, it's possible that the entirety of humanity now resides in a territory smaller than Latvia. That'd help explain the problems with scale.

 

EDIT: By far, the most interesting theory is what G-Man actually is, a few people have thrown around the idea that the G-Man represents a universal rebellion group, which could be supported since he seems to be anti-Combine. And another theory states that the destruction of the Citadel was done so that the G-Man could bait Combine forces to Earth. However, as you may know, G-Man no longer has power over Gordon anymore due to the "third power".

 

I've heard that theory. It doesn't make any sense. The Combine casually curb-stomped the combined forces of 200X Earth in seven hours with absolutely no trouble. The forces required for them to smack down an insurgency that was already having a very hard time with the local police force would be completely negligible. Even if that force just suddenly went missing, it wouldn't have a measurable impact on the Combine as a whole.

 

Didn't the destruction of Nihilanth cause the portal storms, not the Resonance Cascade? I thought that the Resonance Cascade just opened a doorway from Xen to Earth (and potentially vice versa, if the view from inside the Test Chamber during the Cascade is still valid afterwards--or if the vorts that drop in the Test Chamber don't teleport elsewhere).

 

My vision of the events immediately following the destruction of Nihilanth is that Gordon is put into stasis by the G-Man, the destruction causes shockwaves to spread out over Xen and the Resonance Cascade tear causes the first portal storm spreads over the Earth. This causes a rebound effect as the shockwaves re-enters Xen, or possibly other worlds, causing regular portal storms to cover the Earth. This activity alerts the Combine to our existence. The portal storms, in my mind, cause untold devastation in "the first days" (see beginning of Episode 2) and the Combine are ripe to take over. Seven hours later, the war is over. The Combine crash Citadels into the Earth (they're welcomed because they stop the portal storms--until Gordon destroys it) and now "crime is at its lowest in recorded history. It's a total U-turn."

 

Yep. Well, technically, both caused the Portal Storms in the sense that the cascade is what allowed the Nihilanth to open the rifts in the first place.

[DosBuster]

 

EDIT: By far, the most interesting theory is what G-Man actually is, a few people have thrown around the idea that the G-Man represents a universal rebellion group, which could be supported since he seems to be anti-Combine. And another theory states that the destruction of the Citadel was done so that the G-Man could bait Combine forces to Earth. However, as you may know, G-Man no longer has power over Gordon anymore due to the "third power".

 

Gman most certainly has control over Gordon still--- He's just temporarily lost total grip. If you recall correctly, it was not "normal" Vortigaunts that prevented gman from doing things, nor have they shown to have total control over the Gman. At best, they can weaken his grip.

 

Sort of, his control is... limited at the moment. Also, the "Vortigaunts" that currently have freed Gordon from his control are a mysterious "Third Power" (First being The Combine, second being The G-man). You can see though his degree of control in Episode 2, when the Vortigaunts were distracted he didn't really control Gordon besides from freezing time and sending a message. In fact, that cutscene reveals that he isn't there for Gordon, he was there for Alyx. You can even see the degree of control that the G-Man has lost since he kindly asked Gordon to escort Alyx to White Forest.

 

I also wouldn't call G-Man evil yet, mainly since Valve intended for him to be a Grey character. All we know is that he's not human, and that he himself is controlled by his "employers", which in turn means that G-Man doesn't have direct control over Gordon, G-Man's main purpose is to report back to the "employers" as well as to act out actions no doubt from orders given to him by his employers.

 

However, another question remains, at the end of Half-Life 2, Dr. Breen states that Gordon's contract is open to the higest bidder. Leading me to believe that Gordon is more of a Universal Mercenary open to hire for all, however, I still believe that the G-Man does not own Gordon directly.

 

We do have to wait until the next entry is released to hopefully find out. All we have at the moment is the leaked concept art from Episode 3 which implies:

That in Episode 3 after the Borealis section, Gordon returns to Xen which is under Combine control.

 

 

EDIT: Also, in terms of the Combine's opinion on Freeman, they see him more as a potential asset rather than a threat. (Again, Dr. Breen's statement at the end of Half-Life 2) They most likely know the truth behind the G-Man and Gordon's employers. In fact, thinking now back to the original Half-Life 1 story, when at the end G-Man states that Xen is under "their" control. Leads me to speculate that considering how Xen is under Combine control post-HL1, that perhaps Gordon was doing the Combine's bidding at the end? It is a shot in the dark but makes a little bit of sense.

[Professor von Kriplespac]

One thing I don't doubt for a second is that the G-Man is fucking evil.

My guess is he represents another power that take pleasure in pulling the strings of other races to prevent them from ever becoming powerful enough to be a threat. Humans + Vortigaunts are an actual threat.

 

That's an interesting thought. Perhaps these entities merely used the Combine as a tool, and the release of Gordon Freeman to destroy their holdings on Earth a means of controlling them.

 

But I always thought of the Gman and his employers as a form of PMC. The Combine "paid" a price to expand through Xen and into Earth, and now the Gman has received a new highest bidder for Gordon's "services".

 

Think inter-dimensional mercenary.

[Xombifier]

I watched this over a week ago and just got caught up on this entire thread, but I'm afraid I don't have too much to say other than stuff that's already been posted, and this thread has gone off on a different tangent by this point. But ANYWAY....

 

I've been watching this series since April 2010, when I was in eighth grade and episode 27 was out, and have been an avid follower of Accursed Farms ever since. Ross, congratulations on finally wrapping this series up. Freeman's Mind has really had an effect on my personality and sense of humor since I started watching and has given me many laughs, so thank you for that.

 

I really look forward for the announcement video; I want to know what we are all in for this year, especially more info on that full-length movie you mentioned a while back plus other original content. I am really glad you feel the best of your work is still ahead.

 

I do have to say though, (and I hate to be that guy who agrees with another "that guy"), but I agree with RandomGuy in a portion of what he said. I did kind of notice the lack in a change of attidute for Freeman close to the end. I also thought it would have been cool for him to handle the G-man scene a little differently. However, I do understand that Ross was working on a bitch of a deadline, and there was not enough time to put a lot of extra thought into the dialogue. Plus, at that point in the game, Gordon's thoughts are definitely not working the same way our (the viewers') minds are. He has been sleep deprived and stressed for ~4 days and has been through so much shit there hasn't been much time to think. Overall, I think Ross did the best he could with the time he had.

 

Looking forward to more stuff!

[kingkolton9]

One thing I don't doubt for a second is that the G-Man is fucking evil.

 

He's not evil. Hell, he's shown to be sympathetic.

 

 

Since the Combine had probably been hunting down stronger versions of the Ninhlanth throughout the galaxy, I doubt they'd be impressed by Gordon.

 

Remember, they conquered Earth in seven fucking hours.

 

The combine had entire millitaries to do that and clearly had a bit of trouble. Gordon is one man who did it after being awake for 4 days, suffering wounds of all kinds, head truama, exhaustion and hunger. In the process of doing all of that, he exterminated 4 fucking races That one man has also sliced through countless people in their army, combine dropships, gunships, hunters, striders and their trans-human forces like swiss cheese. Not to mention the fact that he destroyed one of the citadels used to take over the planet in those 7 hours.

 

 

It's pretty clear that the Combine treat Earth as a side show. They let the ecosystem go to shit, shipped huge numbers of human troops off-world, stopped human reproduction, and plundered the planet's resources, including draining the oceans. The Combine you see in Half-Life 2 are, at best, the Combine equivalent of a somewhat militarized police force (which may explain the lack of certain equipment). They're just a tiny, token force, mostly consisting of locally recruited forces with a few off-world Synths thrown in, such as Gunships and Striders. These Synths are armed with obscenely powerful weapons and are so extremely durable that they can take several hits from a fictional futuristic weapon that can two-shot an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank. When you consider that Striders can tank over half a dozen of those missiles yet have a body about the size of a tiny car, as well as the fact that the Combine can teleport forces between dimensions, it should really come as no surprise that the actual military of the Universal Union can instantly crush us. If anything, I'm just shocked it took them seven hours.

 

My head canon is that Half-Life Earth has actually been almost completely "harvested", and that the only humans left on the planet have been moved into eastern Europe. Heck, it's possible that the entirety of humanity now resides in a territory smaller than Latvia. That'd help explain the problems with scale.

 

I've heard that theory. It doesn't make any sense. The Combine casually curb-stomped the combined forces of 200X Earth in seven hours with absolutely no trouble. The forces required for them to smack down an insurgency that was already having a very hard time with the local police force would be completely negligible. Even if that force just suddenly went missing, it wouldn't have a measurable impact on the Combine as a whole.

 

Yep. Well, technically, both caused the Portal Storms in the sense that the cascade is what allowed the Nihilanth to open the rifts in the first place.

 

 

I disagree on most points. As for the "being impressed by freeman," see above. The combine store their young on earth, grow their babies, and take its resources. The control of Earth is clearly important to them. If they didn't see earth as a threat, they wouldn't have even the slightest military presence there, nor would they make trans-human forces. The fact that the combine is trying so damned hard to control the people of earth says something. Hell, it's entirely possible that the people of Earth lasted longer than almost all other planets. The combine could take over a universe like Xen in an hour, maybe less.

 

What I'm saying is: The combine are doing all of this *because* Earth is a genuine threat.

[RandomGuy]

I disagree on most points. As for the "being impressed by freeman," see above. The combine store their young on earth, grow their babies, and take its resources. The control of Earth is clearly important to them.

 

Just because they take Earth's resources doesn't mean it's important to them. If they

 

How do you know the Advisors are their young? Moreover, even if the Advisors were their young, why would the fact that a handful of them are raised on Earth mean anything at all?

 

If they cared at all about Earth, they wouldn't go out of their way to make it borderline uninhabitable.

 

If they didn't see earth as a threat, they wouldn't have even the slightest military presence there, nor would they make trans-human forces.

 

What? The fact that they have a tiny military presence on Earth to keep the remaining population in line and harvest what meager resources the planet has left is not evidence that the planet is a threat. Like, at all. I don't know how you got to that conclusion.

 

The fact that the combine is trying so damned hard to control the people of earth says something.

 

They're not trying hard at all. They occupied the entire planet in a matter of HOURS. Eli himself said that, if the Combine actually cared enough to send some more actual military forces, the entire planet would get curb-stomped again, except this time they wouldn't even last seven minutes. The only reason the Resistance even still exists at the start of HL2 is because the Combine cared so little about it that they chose not to actively attack it, because maybe the Resistance could develop some minor improvement to teleportation technology.

 

 

Hell, it's entirely possible that the people of Earth lasted longer than almost all other planets. The combine could take over a universe like Xen in an hour, maybe less.

 

The Combine are ridiculously high tech, judging by the tiny glimpse of them we see in HL2 + Breen's dialogue. We know that they adapt the technologies of the people they conquer. I find it hard to believe that no civilization in the history of the multiverse has EVER lasted seven hours against the Combine besides Earth.

 

What I'm saying is: The combine are doing all of this *because* Earth is a genuine threat.

 

Yes, a mostly resource-drained, thinly populated, primitive husk of what used to be a planet they conquered in seven hours is a threat to the multiversal Combine empire... that makes sense.

 

One of the things I like about the HL series is that it doesn't do that "humanity is special and kicks alien ass" wank. Even some of my favorite games, like the Mass Effect series, have undertones along those lines. In HL, the aliens don't care about us in particular. They destroyed all of the combined world's militaries in seven hours (which is really the most likely outcome of any human-alien war, if they're advanced enough to get here in the first place). Then they just plundered the planet without thinking remotely in the long term, with the ultimate goal of turning the planet into a husk, getting some expendable cannon fodder and a minor technological upgrade from the deal, and moving on. The whole plot of the games is only possible because the Combine have been in control for 20 years, and so only leave a token force for peacekeeping. That, and because universe to universe travel is hard.

[kingkolton9]

Just because they take Earth's resources doesn't mean it's important to them.

 

That's literally what it means, dude.

 

How do you know the Advisors are their young? Moreover, even if the Advisors were their young, why would the fact that a handful of them are raised on Earth mean anything at all?

 

How do you not? The Advisors handle all relations between Earth and the Combine. Their babies are transported with armed guards and some of their best technology. A handful in the tiny, tiny part of the planet we've seen. A number fled after the citadel exploded, and if that was one citadel in one city there's bound to be many more.

 

If they cared at all about Earth, they wouldn't go out of their way to make it borderline uninhabitable.

 

If they cared they wouldn't do anything at all. The 7 hour war wouldn't have happened because they wouldn't give a damn in the first place.

 

What? The fact that they have a tiny military presence on Earth to keep the remaining population in line and harvest what meager resources the planet has left is not evidence that the planet is a threat. Like, at all. I don't know how you got to that conclusion.

 

Tiny? They are literally crawling everywhere. There's millions of them. Also, the "resource draining" isn't ever directly mentioned, and almost all hints towards it were dropped pre-Half-Life 2. We've seen a city, a deserted mining town, a prison and the outlands. All but the mining town had their soldiers everywhere. City 17 had CPs at every corner, even at peace. The Advisors *fled* the planet, did they not?

 

They're not trying hard at all. They occupied the entire planet in a matter of HOURS. Eli himself said that, if the Combine actually cared enough to send some more actual military forces, the entire planet would get curb-stomped again, except this time they wouldn't even last seven minutes. The only reason the Resistance even still exists at the start of HL2 is because the Combine cared so little about it that they chose not to actively attack it, because maybe the Resistance could develop some minor improvement to teleportation technology.

 

Soldiers at every corner, their own race on the planet, planting massive strongholds in every major city, propaganda everywhere, keeping a database of all people, manufacturing weapons on the planet its self, and being there in person? Nah, not trying at all.

 

One, it wasn't because they didn't care. It's because they couldn't. Two, there was way more people fighting the seven hour war and they were armed better. A few RPGs are enough to take on almost all synths. The Combine knew about the resistance, and the resistance kicked their ass in the uprising, from what we've seen.

 

The Combine are ridiculously high tech, judging by the tiny glimpse of them we see in HL2 + Breen's dialogue. We know that they adapt the technologies of the people they conquer. I find it hard to believe that no civilization in the history of the multiverse has EVER lasted seven hours against the Combine besides Earth.

 

"Ridiculously high-tech, can't even develop proper teleportation that a few 50 year old scientists are doing, despite having entire universes of technology." Yep, makes sense.

 

They're either not that far ahead of us technology-wise (A few hundred to a thousand years, I'd say), or they're morons. There is no other excuse.

 

Yes, a mostly resource-drained, thinly populated, primitive husk of what used to be a planet they conquered in seven hours is a threat to the multiversal Combine empire... that makes sense.

 

Wrong again. Not mostly drained, not thinly populated (where the hell are you getting that?) apparently not that primitive husk that they're starting to fail to control.

 

You do realize what "Anticitizen One" means, right? That means that Freeman is the number one threat to their entire empire.

 

One of the things I like about the HL series is that it doesn't do that "humanity is special and kicks alien ass" wank. Even some of my favorite games, like the Mass Effect series, have undertones along those lines.

 

So does Half Life. Did you miss Gordon?

 

In HL, the aliens don't care about us in particular

.

 

They just went through all that effort to occupy the planet.

 

They destroyed all of the combined world's militaries in seven hours (which is really the most likely outcome of any human-alien war, if they're advanced enough to get here in the first place).

 

It should have been way shorter than 7 hours the way you're talking about them.

 

Then they just plundered the planet without thinking remotely in the long term

 

Citadels everywhere means nothing, then.

 

with the ultimate goal of turning the planet into a husk

 

Just nuke it, then.

 

getting some expendable cannon fodder and a minor technological upgrade from the deal, and moving on.

 

So advanced they didn't even have some of the technology of the 2000s yet. Oh, and they continue to keep people alive and, ya' know, fighting people.

 

The whole plot of the games is only possible because the Combine have been in control for 20 years, and so only leave a token force for peacekeeping.

 

The game is only possible because (insert plot of game).

 

That, and because universe to universe travel is hard.

 

They can travel universes....But they can't travel universes?

[RandomGuy]

That's literally what it means, dude.

 

No, it isn't. Just because it's nice to have doesn't mean that it's important.

 

How do you not? The Advisors handle all relations between Earth and the Combine. Their babies are transported with armed guards and some of their best technology. A handful in the tiny, tiny part of the planet we've seen. A number fled after the citadel exploded, and if that was one citadel in one city there's bound to be many more.

 

"How do I not"? That's not how this works. Burden of proof is on you.

 

If they cared they wouldn't do anything at all. The 7 hour war wouldn't have happened because they wouldn't give a damn in the first place.

 

Again. There's a difference between "say, this planet has some shit to take, so let's take it" and "this planet is important to us". If it was important, they wouldn't keep humanity from reproducing. If it was important, they would

 

Tiny? They are literally crawling everywhere. There's millions of them. Also, the "resource draining" isn't ever directly mentioned, and almost all hints towards it were dropped pre-Half-Life 2. We've seen a city, a deserted mining town, a prison and the outlands. All but the mining town had their soldiers everywhere. City 17 had CPs at every corner, even at peace. The Advisors *fled* the planet, did they not?

 

Yes, tiny. This is a multiversal empire. And "millions"? Where is your source for "millions"?

 

What? We see a drained ocean.

 

One, it wasn't because they didn't care. It's because they couldn't. Two, there was way more people fighting the seven hour war and they were armed better. A few RPGs are enough to take on almost all synths. The Combine knew about the resistance, and the resistance kicked their ass in the uprising, from what we've seen.

 

No, it's because they didn't care. If they cared, they would have contacted the home dimension before HL2 even began, and the Resistance would be immediately destroyed.

 

Correction: many shots from a futuristic, fictional weapon that can two-shot an Abrams main battle tank are enough to take out light Combine synths.

 

"Ridiculously high-tech, can't even develop proper teleportation that a few 50 year old scientists are doing, despite having entire universes of technology." Yep, makes sense.

 

They're either not that far ahead of us technology-wise (A few hundred to a thousand years, I'd say), or they're morons. There is no other excuse.

 

They have proper teleportation technology, as evidenced by the fact that they could get to Earth and Xen at all. There's just some improvements that can be picked up.

 

Wrong again. Not mostly drained, not thinly populated (where the hell are you getting that?) apparently not that primitive husk that they're starting to fail to control.

 

You do realize what "Anticitizen One" means, right? That means that Freeman is the number one threat to their entire empire.

 

We see no signs of large scale food production, the city we see at the start of the game is very sparse, and the countryside is infected with man-eating beasts. So yes, thinly populated.

 

Find me that source that one guy in some far-off universe is a threat to the entire empire. Because I'm pretty sure that's BS.

 

So does Half Life. Did you miss Gordon?

 

No it doesn't. Earth got shit-stomped in seven hours, and the only reason the plot of the games can even happen is because Earth is a far off outpost that they can't access without some sensitive technology that gets wrecked throughout the episodes. The whole plot of the 2nd episode is preventing a portal from being opened, because the Combine's actual military would just instantly win.

 

They just went through all that effort to occupy the planet.

 

It's a multiversal empire that can destroy Earth's combined military forces in seven hours. Do you seriously think it takes a bunch of effort for them to just leave a token force of mostly locally-recruited troops on a planet they've already mostly drained?

 

Just nuke it, then.

 

Why not loot it first?

 

So advanced they didn't even have some of the technology of the 2000s yet. Oh, and they continue to keep people alive and, ya' know, fighting people.

 

Nope, they don't have one specific upgrade developed by one specific facility. One that real-world 2010s Earth doesn't have.

 

The game is only possible because (insert plot of game).

 

When trying to wank humanity into being a threat to the entire empire, it's fairly important to remember that everything is only happening because the Combine don't have their actual MILITARY on Earth, and are prevented from sending it in Episode 2. If they did, the game would be over. The Combine would win. Instantly.

 

No matter what you accomplish on this one irrelevant outpost, the multiversal Combine empire as a whole is still out there, and we have no way of fighting them.

 

They can travel universes....But they can't travel universes?

 

They can. It's just not easy.

 

It should have been way shorter than 7 hours the way you're talking about them.

 

Planets are really big. The fact that it, in the course of seven hours, the entire planet's military got wrecked and the whole planet surrendered, is just a testament to how ridiculously outmatched Earth was. And how ridiculously numerically and technologically superior the Combine are.

 

Also there was a skyscraper-sized Strider.

[Nausinous]

They're not trying hard at all. They occupied the entire planet in a matter of HOURS. Eli himself said that, if the Combine actually cared enough to send some more actual military forces, the entire planet would get curb-stomped again, except this time they wouldn't even last seven minutes.

 

I thought the general consensus was that it was a seven hour war primarily because no one was prepared for a fight. Jets weren't in the air. Army bases weren't on full alert. Navy ships weren't all aiming at the skies. The portal storms were like nothing that had ever been seen by humankind. Their reaction was presumably astonishment. Then death at the hands of a prepared adversary.

 

Now humans know what they are dealing with and are prepared.

 

I think that is an important distinction.

[RandomGuy]

Mike: "Most people are at work longer than [seven hours]. That means that in less time than it takes for Joe Average to clock in and clock out at the office the aliens conquered the whole Earth, while all Joe did was make some spreadsheets."

 

Dave: "Well that's just because they caught us off guard".

 

Mike: "Okay. Let's say we were READY for them. Then what? We'd call it the Ten Hour War? They tore into us like a pack of wolves! The rebels just aren't doing the math on this."

[Descriptor]

Mike: "Most people are at work longer than [seven hours]. That means that in less time than it takes for Joe Average to clock in and clock out at the office the aliens conquered the whole Earth, while all Joe did was make some spreadsheets."

 

Dave: "Well that's just because they caught us off guard".

 

Mike: "Okay. Let's say we were READY for them. Then what? We'd call it the Ten Hour War? They tore into us like a pack of wolves! The rebels just aren't doing the math on this."

 

Well, you're also making the mistake of assuming that the success of an invasion implies the success of an occupation.

If the last 50 years of warfare have taught us anything, it's that even with a significant technological advantage, resistance movements using guerrilla tactics that have the home field advantage can still pose a significant threat.

Invasion is easy, on guard or off, simply because your enemy is that of the centralized state. This was especially true for the 7 Hour War, since most of humanity had already retreated into urban centers for defense after the Xenian aliens had infested most of the world. But the resistance is a fair deal more spread out (for better and worse), making occupation more difficult. Granted, they certainly don't have much of a long term chance at all (outside of the meddling of a certain physicist and his mysterious, morally dubious enigma of a seemingly hyper powerful employer) due to the Combine gradually making the Earth un-inhabitable. But then, I wouldn't completely discount them, either, what with that whole inventing local teleporting technology while under the scrutiny of a multi-dimensional police state. Really, I can agree with you in that it seems so far that the Combine probably doesn't put much stock in humanity, and thus have kinda left the resistance to do their thing since it didn't seem like they would pose a truly credible threat(with the possible implication of letting it stick around being part of a larger gambit to obtain the newly developed teleporting tech). But with this recent toppling of the Earthly administration, I could definitely see this having a much larger effect throughout the Combine empire. Afterall, the G-man had to be up to something by bringing back the right man in the wrong place and all...

Really, I think the biggest lesson of all of this is that we really truly have no idea what's up with the Combine or the G-man, and how we fit into the grand scheme of things. It ends up being a great example of human existentialism as applied to mankind's place in the multi-verse, as the whole balance of power seems to be almost unfathomable to understand.

[Meelis13]

i didnt care to read you guys entire argument about combine invasion and possibility to defeat them, but i saw few points that i think are wrong already

first while its true G-man has never been called G-man in half-life, he WAS called so in Opposing force.

 

second: reason why Combine were able to take over world in HL universe within 7 hours was because of portal storm- most military forces on earth are developed for conventional warfare, where you have fronts. War, where enemy can surround you within seconds due to use of portal technology is something only guerilla warfare can offer some defense about and i do think that conventional military fell within first half hour, only guerilla groups resisted longer. I mean seriously, what defense can you get against portal storm, where enemy can simply teleport behind you (think about teleportations in Half-life, only multiply it millionfold or even thousandfold), snap your neck and move on to next target? or teleport into lockdowned high alert, well defended military base? Or the fact you can just teleport defenders to space..

However, Combine combat technology (excluding portals) doesnt seem too advanced by modern standards- they are mostly still using gunpowder(or very high air-pressure)-based weaponry, with lot less range and accuracy than most modern weapons. Even their heavy weapons dont seem to be very advanced- striders are well-armoured yes, but they are less armoured than a modern tank and this is where their height proves big undoing- while it gives tremendous range advantage, it does give same for enemy. Also it has too many legs- it would be very easy to immobilise them with sticky bombs to legs.

From combine weaponry, i'd say most dangerous would be hunters, but they dont seem to have lot of them for military use. Of course, the flying maggots seem to be more dangerous, but as evidenced, they too have their limits and they arent military anyways.

So in conventional warfare, humans would have definite chance of beating combine- at least enough for fighting chance

Which makes me think that to defeat combine, rebels would create some technology that wont allow teleporting anywhere on earth unless they allow to. Maybe its what Borealis contains...

[Jsor]

i didnt care to read you guys entire argument about combine invasion and possibility to defeat them, but i saw few points that i think are wrong already

first while its true G-man has never been called G-man in half-life, he WAS called so in Opposing force.

 

We should probably take Totally Serious Half-Life Story talk to another thread, but AFAIK, I think Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay are only considered by Valve to be semi or selectively canon. As in, they're considered non-canon except for anything explicitly mentioned in HL or HL2(+episodes). The reason we call him G-man is because that's what his file names were called.

[LSD]

All that wait, and it still took me a week and a half to finally watch the last episode...

[Vapymid]

Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay are only considered by Valve to be semi or selectively canon.

 

Given that Valve is not producing any more HL content, what they do or not consider to be the canon does no longer matter. So, for me - all of these are canon, as well as the Civil Protection and the best of various HL machinimas too, Gaben's opinion be damned...

 

Regards

[ScottD.Betson]

Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay are only considered by Valve to be semi or selectively canon.

 

Given that Valve is not producing any more HL content, what they do or not consider to be the canon does no longer matter. So, for me - all of these are canon, as well as the Civil Protection and the best of various HL machinimas too, Gaben's opinion be damned...

 

Regards

Gabe Newells Opinion be Damned forever till we get our HL3 on

[Vapymid]

Hear, hear!

 

Regards

[skeropo]

i didnt care to read you guys entire argument about combine invasion and possibility to defeat them, but i saw few points that i think are wrong already

first while its true G-man has never been called G-man in half-life, he WAS called so in Opposing force.

 

We should probably take Totally Serious Half-Life Story talk to another thread, but AFAIK, I think Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay are only considered by Valve to be semi or selectively canon. As in, they're considered non-canon except for anything explicitly mentioned in HL or HL2(+episodes). The reason we call him G-man is because that's what his file names were called.

 

You realize G-man is not his official name right? It's a common abbreviation for Government man, they dubbed him that because he has the appearance of a stereotypical government official

[VeryShyPerson]

i didnt care to read you guys entire argument about combine invasion and possibility to defeat them, but i saw few points that i think are wrong already

first while its true G-man has never been called G-man in half-life, he WAS called so in Opposing force.

 

We should probably take Totally Serious Half-Life Story talk to another thread, but AFAIK, I think Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay are only considered by Valve to be semi or selectively canon. As in, they're considered non-canon except for anything explicitly mentioned in HL or HL2(+episodes). The reason we call him G-man is because that's what his file names were called.

 

According to Marc Laidlaw himself:

 

The whole issue of canon is something the fans came up with. I guess you will be able to identify as canon those story elements we continue to build on and develop and mention repeatedly as the story progresses. Others might fall by the wayside once they've served their purpose. Couldn't you say the same of us all?

 

In my view, anything from the expansion packs are "canon until disproved."

[kingkolton9]

i didnt care to read you guys entire argument about combine invasion and possibility to defeat them, but i saw few points that i think are wrong already

first while its true G-man has never been called G-man in half-life, he WAS called so in Opposing force.

 

We should probably take Totally Serious Half-Life Story talk to another thread, but AFAIK, I think Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Decay are only considered by Valve to be semi or selectively canon. As in, they're considered non-canon except for anything explicitly mentioned in HL or HL2(+episodes). The reason we call him G-man is because that's what his file names were called.

 

You realize G-man is not his official name right? It's a common abbreviation for Government man, they dubbed him that because he has the appearance of a stereotypical government official

 

He's called Gman by the fans because that's what his model and audio files are titled. Yopu can check for yourself at:

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\valve\sound\Gman

 

and

 

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Half-Life\valve\models

 

Edit: just saw your reply:

 

No, it isn't. Just because it's nice to have doesn't mean that it's important.

 

Yes, it is. If it wasn't important, the combine wouldn't even have tried. Why is it nice to have? Because it's important.

 

"How do I not"? That's not how this works. Burden of proof is on you.

 

I think I proved it satisfactorily, and seeing as how they're the only parts of the combine that are actually protected, I'm going to assume they're the master race.

 

Again. There's a difference between "say, this planet has some shit to take, so let's take it" and "this planet is important to us". If it was important, they wouldn't keep humanity from reproducing. If it was important, they would.

 

What? What does humanity's reproduction have to do with the planet? Nothing. If anything, they're stopping humanity from reporducing so less resources are used.

 

Yes, tiny. This is a multiversal empire. And "millions"? Where is your source for "millions"?

I could ask the same for everything you've said so far, but you've pulled more things out of your ass than myself.

 

Given the amount of soldiers we've seen in the small area in BFE in Eastern Europe, it's safe to assume that there's at least a few million human units on the entirety of the planet, given the rewards of extra rations, "manual stimulation," and better housing.

 

What? We see a drained ocean.

 

Yes, and that's one of the only things pointing towards resource plundering left in. There were going to be more things originally, like the air exchange, and less water along the coast.

 

No, it's because they didn't care. If they cared, they would have contacted the home dimension before HL2 even began, and the Resistance would be immediately destroyed.

 

No, it's because they couldn't. The portals were not big enough to allow the maximum amount of troups through. The resistance is post 7 hour war, too, so you're mixing up timelines.

 

Correction: many shots from a futuristic, fictional weapon that can two-shot an Abrams main battle tank are enough to take out light Combine synths.

 

Retcon: A few shots from an AT4 rocket launcher, first manufactured in 1987 (Albeit one with laser guiding) are able to take out some of the combine's best machinery. They wouldn't guard the Advisors with a bunch of soldiers and some of their worst.

 

Also, the rocket launcher in Half Life 1 is NOT the same as the one in Half Life 2. The one in half life is an Armbrust, which has a smaller rocket and is less powerful than an AT4. Beyond that, the resistance has the Tau cannons, which could take out those tanks in 1 hit from pretty much any range. In addition, the Bradleys (relatively light armour) and the Abrams (relatively heavy armour) take the same amount of hits to take down, 2, which is less than a helicopter used by the HECU. The helicopter is about as tough as a strider.

 

Hell, the Striders have really long, weak legs, can be hit from practically any angle and do damage and move slowly. What an advantage!

 

They have proper teleportation technology

 

No, they don't. Either they're able to take teleportation technology from the resistance, who have figured out and factored in "the dark energy equations," or they have better teleportation technology.

 

Choose one.

 

as evidenced by the fact that they could get to Earth and Xen at all.

 

We were doing that at Black Mesa for a good while before 2000.

 

There's just some improvements that can be picked up.

 

That's a bit of a contradiction.

 

We see no sEvery place does something. igns of large scale food production

 

For all we know, they took a place like South America and make the food there. At the beginning of the game people are getting rations.

 

the city we seeat the start of the game is very sparse

 

We explored only a part of it.

 

and the countryside is infected with man-eating beasts. So yes, thinly populated.

 

Most of the enemies throughout episode 2 were soldiers and not zombies. Think about it: The food is where the cities are, so why would zombies be in the middle of nowhere? It's amazing that the zombies in Ravenholm haven't drowned.

 

Find me that source that one guy in some far-off universe is a threat to the entire empire.

 

A. It's not far off if they're occupying the place, and b. As freeman kills more soldiers and does more things he gets a higher anticitzen level. For example:

 

"Individual, you are now charged with socio-endangerment level five, cease evasion immediately. Receive your verdict."

 

"Individual, you are convicted of multi anticivil violations. Implicit citizenship revoked. Status: malignant."

 

"Individual, you are charged with socio-endangerment level one. Protection units prosecution code: duty, sword, midnight."

 

"Individual, you are charged with capital malcompliance. Anti-citizen status approved."

 

Getting more and more serious until:

 

"You are charged with anti-civil activity level one. Protection unit prosecution code: duty, sword, operate."

 

Level one is the farthest he gets, though he is sometimes referred to as "Anti-citizen Freeman." Anti-citizen means the same thing as "Public enemy," or a person who the state finds dangerous to society. Public enemy number one is the person the state finds most dangerous.

 

No it doesn't.

 

Yes, it does. Freeman (the player) is praised as the "Combines reckoning," "The One Free Man," and goes around kicking ass with no time to take names. If that's not

 

Earth got shit-stomped in seven hours

 

Are we going to keep going over this point? If you keep trying to drive a bent nail into the wood, you're going to break the board.

 

Earth is a far off outpost

 

...Where they occupy?

 

...That they can't access without some sensitive technology that gets wrecked throughout the episodes.

 

Uh, no. Freeman was the only person who had ever done that (as far as we know) and was only able to do it because he took down an un-shielded reactor.

 

The whole plot of the 2nd episode is preventing a portal from being opened, because the Combine's actual military would just instantly win.

 

Against a weakly armed resistance. The militaries of the world were not weakly armed, but they were caught off guard.

 

It's a multiversal empire that can destroy Earth's combined military forces in seven hours.

 

Which is probably longer than most planets.

 

Do you seriously think it takes a bunch of effort for them to just leave a token force

 

Prove that it's a small force. You keep making this claim and not providing any evidence but "I'm right, you're wrong."

 

of mostly locally-recruited troops.

 

It just makes strategic sense to do that.

 

on a planet they've already mostly drained?

 

Besides the fact that a lot of references to that were dropped, there's still a hell of a lot of ocean left.

 

Why not loot it first?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_bomb, apply directly to the population. Wait a few years, go in and loot whatever the hell you want.

 

 

Nope, they don't have one specific upgrade developed by one specific facility.

 

...That we know of. That's still "the technology of the early 2000s

," my dear.

 

One that real-world 2010s Earth doesn't have.

 

We're talking about a fictional setting. Your point being?

 

When trying to wank the empire into being a threat to humanity

You seem to be doing this a lot.

 

it's fairly important to remember that everything is only happening because the Combine don't have their actual MILITARY on Earth

 

Super soldiers, Striders, Hunters, CPs, dropships and stalkers are all military.

 

and are prevented from sending it in Episode 2.

 

If they did, the game would be over. The Combine would win. Instantly.

 

Against the weak resistance. Beyond that, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

 

No matter what you accomplish on this one irrelevant outpost, the multiversal Combine empire as a whole is still out there, and we have no way of fighting them.

 

Rock launchers, guns, grenades. Take a few.

 

 

They can. It's just not easy.

 

Says who?

 

It should have been way shorter than 7 hours the way you're talking about them.

 

Planets are really big.

 

They're a multiversal empire.

 

The fact that it, in the course of seven hours, the entire planet's military got wrecked and the whole planet surrendered

 

For how you build them up, it should be longer than 7 hours.

 

is just a testament to how ridiculously outmatched Earth was.

 

I've addressed this. Other people addressed this.

 

And how ridiculously numerically and technologically superior the Combine are.

 

Again, they are not. They are not that far ahead.

 

Also there was a skyscraper-sized Strider.

 

Sauce.