In all seriousness, this is a dire situation.

[MakoVlazkov]

This is some harsh criticism, fair warning.

 

This is from the thread discussing how Ross's "Gordon" will react to the Nihilanth.

He'll probably scream and act like a coward, shooting randomly, saying sorry and cracking bad jokes, somehow bumbling around and destroying the crystals, then he'll trip, fall onto the jump spot, fly up and accidentally kill it. That's about all he has been doing, playing it off as though Freeman is some sort of bumbling moron, never doing things seriously, while "accidentally" doing what he is supposed to, and not even understanding what he is doing. Fine example of him launching the rockets, he spoke over EVERYTHING the scientists said to him about the rocket and holding back the cascade, a dire need to save the world, and what did he do? Bumble around like a freaking moron, launching the rocket, "ooh big button, wazzat do?" and then acting surprised...

This roughly explains my opinion of the issue.

 

I grow very tired of the attitude Ross seems to think appropriate for Gordon Freeman. In the beginning, the attitude was funny and fitting, but by the time the HECU Marines got involved, it was wearing thin. One thing I really liked about Half-Life over Half-Life 2 was the sense of seriousness and urgency, there was a dire need to do what must be done to save the world, and Gordon Freeman was the man to do it. As the series progressed, i expected Freeman to come to terms with what is happening and realize his central role in what is happening, and bloody man up. But still he persists with screaming in terror and crying about wanting to flee, steal, get high, and other nonsense. Dear god, Ross, this is Gordon Freeman, he isn't Duke Nukem, you once explained your view of Freeman, and it seemed agreeable, but that is not what you are representing, he is still a jumpy and delusional jokester as the situation rapidly becomes an urgent battle for the continuance of the human race, for the survival of Earth, meanwhile Gordon, the central protagonist, contemplates getting high on animal tranquilizers...

 

TL;DR I am upset with how nonchalant and nonsensical Freeman is in a very serious situation, the lives of many weighing on his shoulders, he doesn't seem to notice or care, blatantly ignoring or disregarding dialogue and his role.

[SM64Guy]

Freeman's attitude is what makes the series so funny in the first place.

[ProHypster]

I can feel for you and understand you but at the same time, you just can't mix comedy and drama. Wait for the half-life movie if you want heroic Freeman with all the right messages that the game gave, if it ever happens.

[MakoVlazkov]

Freeman's attitude is what makes the series so funny in the first place.

I agree, but it getting tiresome, i can deal with him not liking the role he is given in all this, but at least he could recognize it. "JESUS CHRIST I LAUNCHED THE MISSILE!" is the straw that broke the camels back for me, as if he never understood what the hell he is even doing, like his is just truly bumbling around.

[MartinX]

As much as I love the series, sometimes it gets a bit weird. When he killed the tentacles, he didn't even realise that he had fixed the rocket engine - '' Hey, it's doing something! Did somebody fix this?'' Not to mention his reaction to the dying scientist telling him to kill the tentacles before they grow larger.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Guest (see edit history)

[LSD]

I think it's only just becoming a little stagnant. It worked perfectly fine for the black tentacle thing, and everything up to that rocket. That was a little daft i reckon. Just launching a missile at random...

It doesn't mean he should become Freeman-hero extraordinaire, since the whole joke revolves around him being a normal guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. It does mean that he should gain some kind of spacial awareness.

[MartinX]

Well, at least I hope Freeman finally realises that the whole thing isn't a ''rescue operation'' when he gets captured.

[Lord Sinister]

TL;DR I am upset with how nonchalant and nonsensical Freeman is in a very serious situation, the lives of many weighing on his shoulders, he doesn't seem to notice or care, blatantly ignoring or disregarding dialogue and his role.

 

I'm afraid this is one of the things that I find really quite amusing about Freeman's Mind.

 

His neurotic and generally insane nature provide some great comic dialogue in my opinion.

[MadDogBV]

So far Gordon Freeman, at least in the context of the character given to him in Freeman's Mind, has been acting fairly naturally with regards to his personality and the situation. In the end, he is still concerned about getting home, getting sleep, getting to the clubs, etc., above everything else. He doesn't realize what we already know: the scope of the alien invasion is not limited solely to Black Mesa and will soon come to encompass the entire Earth. Also, from his perspective, the situation and the mission objectives really are not that obstructive to his goal of trying to get out of Black Mesa.

 

I do agree that his reaction to launching the satellite rocket was a bit too low-key, that he should perhaps have been a bit more freaked out over it. I attribute the episode more to the possibility that Ross Scott was rather fatigued at that point in the story.

 

You might find that, when Gordon reaches the Lambda Complex, he'll realize that he is being forced to do the scientists' bidding, and thus will begrudgingly do their dirty work, but in the end he'll still be worried (and possibly overtired) about getting home. He may reiterate this when the scientists are yapping to him about the survey team, Xen, and the long jump module - "yeah sure listen where's my ride home Einstein? I have a date with a mattress and a six-pack" I'm expecting the most dramatic reactions when he reaches the teleporter labs, and further when he finally reaches Xen.

 

In fact, I'm expecting him to be completely silent for the first fifty seconds that he's on Xen (rather uncharacteristic of the series) as his enfeebled, sleep-deprived mind tries to make sense of what the hell is really going on. And, of course, he'll make it very, very clear that the Gonarch is a spider with a giant testicle for a body.

[bigmfkr]

I agree that "JESUS CHRIST I LAUNCHED THE MISSILE!" is a bit of an overdo, but my opinion is that Freeman's Mind should never ever get close to being serious. It will ruin the whole concept.

[MartinX]

I agree that "JESUS CHRIST I LAUNCHED THE MISSILE!" is a bit of an overdo, but my opinion is that Freeman's Mind should never ever get close to being serious. It will ruin the whole concept.

Just look at Shephard's Mind. It manages to be funny without being ignorant of the actual plot.

[Rover]

TL;DR I am upset with how nonchalant and nonsensical Freeman is in a very serious situation, the lives of many weighing on his shoulders, he doesn't seem to notice or care, blatantly ignoring or disregarding dialogue and his role.

 

I'm afraid this is one of the things that I find really quite amusing about Freeman's Mind.

 

His neurotic and generally insane nature provide some great comic dialogue in my opinion.

 

I second that.

I love Freeman's mind, it makes me laugh, I love his lines I love the character Ross has created.

How hard is it to realize that this is machinima, really funny machinima, it doesn't make a single pretension of being in line with the canon.

 

And exactly who is pinning you to your chair and forcing you to watch every episode MakoVlazkov?

[Piestein]

Freeman has no cause whatsoever to think he's some kind of hero. So the guy just wants to survive. That's what I like about the whole series.

[RyoCaliente]

HL 2 is a lot more serious than HL 1. In HL1, Freeman knows nothing. He's no one special, he's just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. In HL2, he's taken out of stasis and actually being told: "You need to fix this." He's fighting an entire race/government and it's generally a lot more dangerous.

 

On the note of his character, I don't find it growing stale (yet). It works just fine, some parts are just a bit less fun than others but that's also because of the game. Though I agree he can be a bit more in control at times, but I don't mind that much.

[Jek Jek Roo]

TL;DR I am upset with how nonchalant and nonsensical Freeman is in a very serious situation, the lives of many weighing on his shoulders, he doesn't seem to notice or care, blatantly ignoring or disregarding dialogue and his role.

 

I'm afraid this is one of the things that I find really quite amusing about Freeman's Mind.

 

His neurotic and generally insane nature provide some great comic dialogue in my opinion.

 

And that's the whole charm of FM, I just can't imagine other kind of personality for dr Freeman by Ross Scott

[Serva]

The way I see it, Ross Scott created a personality for a character that has no personality. He put it to video, and showed it to the world, and the world is loving it. It's human nature for everybody to have an opinion about something, but it's the nature of this incarnation of Freeman that draws us all in. Sure the character can be changed based off the opinions of everybody who has grown tired of the original idea, but it would turn into something different than what we were originally drawn into, that if someone else were to take over the project based off what they like, it wouldn't be the Freeman's Mind that everybody loves so much.

 

That is to say that constructive criticism isn't bad, but I would really hope that Ross Scott does what he feels is best, because that's the series I've been watching and enjoying all this time.

 

And, not that I'm implying that anybody here is like this, if anybody has that big of a problem with the series and how it's going, they should just create their own, with their own personality for our personalityless protagonist.

[beekay]

I agree. The best way to make a series funny is to have the main character become a boring generic protagonist. That has me in stitches every time.

[Frostiken]

I think you guys need to step back and look at HL1 as a whole, and then realize how silly the premise is. Freeman's character in FM is simply working within this absurd premise.

 

- Everyone else is stupid, useless, and dies all the time. You get stuck outside doors and people won't let you through, and everyone seems to know exactly what has to be done yet nobody is doing it.

- Freeman is still just a physicist. I mean, really, are you telling me the USMC can't handle aliens? That it's Freeman's job to wipe them all out? The only thing Freeman has is the HEV suit, and even that's a bit of a stretch since for one, there's PILES of HEV suits (there a dozen or so lying around Zen alone).

- You can't just go anywhere, you have hundreds of absurd obstacles in your way. Like the silly spinning blade thing, locked doors and having to crawl through miles of vents, even firing the missile.

 

I'll give you an example - a gut-shot Barney tells him that the track power is off, and knows what you need to do to restart it, yet doesn't explain exactly how much work it is. After the absurdity of that entire level in terms of size and obstacle after obstacle, you finally get the power on, and kill the Gargantua with, of all things, an enormous TESLA COIL. You then get back on your train, and come across some concrete dividers that crumble "like Styrofoam". Immediately on the other side is another Barney who's been standing there, apparently hoping you'd make it through the ridiculous aforementioned obstacles, and suggests that some scientists already came through that exact same way (sans obstacles?), and somehow knew Freeman was coming that way, and additionally they knew all about the teleport satellite, the lambda complex, and the plan to teleport to Xen. Note that you learn none of this until you're actually at the Lambda complex.

 

I'll also note that these 'scientists' seem to always be ahead of you yet have done nothing themselves, ie: launch the damn missile. Additionally, put yourself in that reality - what is more likely, that you would assume that you and YOU ALONE are the one who can stop the 'alien invasion' (note that Freeman has no idea it's an invasion), or that it's probably likely that, given all the shit you have managed to do so far, other people elsewhere are actually trying to stop it too? I mean, the guys at Lambda have access to heaps of HEV suits and the most powerful weaponry in the game. Yet all they've done is stand there and die waiting for you.

 

Gordon reacting with confusion is extremely likely as if I had encountered the above in real life I'd probably lose my shit too.

[Alyxx Thorne]

Freeman's Mind is a parody, a comedic take on Half-Life. I just can't imagine Ross Scott's Gordon Freeman to turn into a serious hero. He plays him in a way that is very original and refreshing but also completely despicable at the same time. But that's where the comedy comes from. It's not at all how you expect Freeman to be and that's the reason it works so well.

I personally think that while Freeman seems to be a bit static and not changing much, the comedy still comes from how he reacts to the things happening and it's fun to see him pointing out things you never thought about to begin with.

[Sir Raffi]

Maybe Gordon has a personality similar to Ace Ventura..?