It's times like these that I wish UA-cam still had annotations. Apparently, this is what the silhouetted woman looks like: twitter.com/ValveNewsNetwor/status/1245883467541426177 Now that I have a look at her, I'm much more convinced that it's not Colette Green, but the possibility still exists. It could be a really old version of her. :P
I think I agree on it not being Colette. Half Life lore and story is so interesting, and this definitely exceeded my expectations for a Half Life VR game. I really hope the next entry in the series expands more on the lore. It is just so intriguing and investing!
i dont know nothing about the lore and i didnt finish any game(tried half life 2 but didnt finish due to some "glitches"? and also me being very bad at the game, some day i might tho) But whoever, its very interesting and i can acknolege the impact half life did on games in general, the half life engine was very inovative, till this day i find it very well made, so sad valve discovered that is easier selling tf2 hats and csgo knifes rather than making the quality games we love...
the issue with this theory is that gman has 'employers' New theory. Alright, it seems Gman 'plucked her (Alyx) from black mesa' but with objections from other parties. As stated in EP2. So... would that imply, that Gman might actually have opposition in his, plane? So, what if, this opposition pushed the vortigaunt to save Alex in the end of HL2, and, pull Freeman away from his next uh. 'sleep'? Also sticking it to Gman for taking Alex, as a reliability now. Then, this opposition went back before releasing Freeman into HL2, and provided a place and time that Gman would appear for him to be captured by the combine? Why go this far? well. all the way through to HL2EP2, Freeman has been fighting the Combine, the combine is apparently in use by another 'employer'. Freeman being Gman's 'employee' means Gman will have to answer to him, Freeman going rouge a bit, fucking the portal, could really have fucked with this 'employers' wishes..... So, Trap Gman, and prevent him from deploying Freeman. Gman seeing as how Freeman doesnt quite listen/rogue, and crashing another 'client's' operations. Gman might really be dropping Freeman. BUT, this might be temporary. lets not forget. the part in HL1 ending where Gman explains that he agrees with his employers that Freeman also has 'Limitless potential'. = And then a bit in EP2 where gman explains how he knows 'how to ignore such ney sayers' implying his employers disagree with him.
you can achieve something close to annotations using an undocumented format of youtube's closed captions www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/ahater/undocumented_subtitle_format_discovered_and_boy/
the reason why he speaks in such broken sentences is because he struggles to channel his inteligence through mere language, which to him is such a primitive form of communication
People are forgetting that the combine were supposedly able to hire Gordon’s services. At the end of hl2 Breen mentions that his services are available to the highest bidder. Alyx was probably the only reason Gman sent Gordon against the combine. If the combine won, it would be harder to blackmail her, as she would have no hope
@@juliohintze595 No, the script is perfectly written because Gman isn't someone named, he is something more than human, so "What" is more fitting for his context.
@@Reloaded2111 well, it still expands on the dystopian future and its earlier stages. important information for us, especially now as we are entering the earlier stages in real life.
My theory as to what Valves going to do with the next half life is that they're just going to make half life 3, which takes place immediately after episode 2's altered ending. It'd be cool to see a hl2 source 2 port like with what Valve did with Half Life: Source (but not complete trash)
MORGUE how is he not directly interfering with the rebellion if he takes one of their top members, Alyx, out of space and time? The Vortigaunts in Episode 2 value her highly, so it’s not an insignificant action.
I think that the Vortigaunts in the game made it very clear that time doesn't work for them the same way as for humans, and the implication is that it's exactly the same with the G-Man. In other words, he didn't put Alyx into stasis directly after she met him, the events of HL2, Ep1 and Ep2 played out exactly as we know them. No, they "just met" and her wish to save her father only came through when he was actually (almost) killed, which means she was put in stasis at the end of Ep2. I mean, otherwise Gordon wouldn't even know what tf Eli was talking about in the ending sequence.
Makes sense, since he saw the perfect opportunity to leverage alyx with the death of her father, Gman took Alyx and brought her back in time with a younger self and ignorant of what happened, to a test course which would test her if she can free him in the end of her journey, this is why at the start of the game there is the same info data that there is in the end, where at the start it shows her current status and later when shes “hired”. After Alyx shows Gman how valuable of an asset she is, he hires her, thus making the repayment which is eli living and taking her into stasis, the reason shes gone
@@TheLemming1337 Game seems to be trying to narrate from the GMan perspective. Either that or a multiverse thing is going. From the GMan perspective, since time is not something you experience as linear, he could just move back in time to when Alyx helped him and show her the future when required. As to why he didn't do it in the first place (hl2); well it might be because the story is narrated from the GMan perspective. He saw the future and decided to nudge things so that it happens differently. Or probably because Valve didn't know that they needed to do so at the time. xD I doubt there is any memory wiping or testing going on. He did really prisoned by combines, but since he can see the future he wasn't very concerned.
In the beta version of hl2 there is a scene with G - Man saying that "you're not supposed to be here" and "you will forget it until we meet again". I think that's exactly what happened to Alyx in the ending.
@@lowercase_g341 yeah but Gordon was hired by him and Eli wasn't sure of powers that he had. He wiped Alyx's memory because he let her change the timeline.
@@lowercase_g341 still doesn't collide with my theory, all I'm saying is that G - man can wipe memories. We still don't know about his plan, maybe he wants Eli to chase him.
Except that isn't a canon thing since it's not in the final game. We cant use something that doesn't appear in the final product to explain events that happen in the final product.
If this is true, then they reused it on the trailer for HL2: Ep2 and it was never seen in-game. Hell, I don't even remember seeing Alyx hanging from a collapsed bridge like the trailer showed. Valve really is playing games with us.
...And here am I, pondering my meta-theory that "G-Man stands for 'Gaben's Man'" and that he's employed by Valve in general and Half-Life writers in particular - basically, a case of "self-concsious plot device"...
@@_KillerD_ Well, that's tricky: Half-Life as a franchise might work without Combine (just as HL2 worked without Black Mesa as a setting), but that definetely would not be Episode 3/HL3, but rather a HL4... ...for sure it's easier to prove the fans who state that "Half-Life's lore is _inflexible"_ wrong and _nudge_ the plot development in a _particular direction_ that's interesting both for Valve and players.
Not a big fan of the ending of Half Life Alyx. I carried Vodka for hours to give to Russel and just ended up losing it in the Vault. Really wanted to take a shot with him
2:19 my guess is this: like the Vortigaunts, the G-Man has demonstrated the ability to affect people’s memories. In all likelihood, 19 year old Alyx left the Combine prison not remembering what actually transpired, and probably believed the vault was empty. The Resistance chalks this one up as a draw, since they took few losses and wreaked havoc on Combine forces, and life goes on. Given what Eli tells Gordon in the post-credit scene, my guess is that the older Alyx we travelled with was taken by the G-Man after the Alyx of five years earlier, in a brief moment of co-terminousness, killed the Advisor and is taken away. Eli speaks as though he just witnessed his daughter’s abduction by the G-Man mere moments ago. This idea is further solidified by an Easter egg in the post credits scene, where, if the player turns their head to the left, they may see the G-Man in the room, watching them.
I'd say they were taken simultaneously. G-Man doesn't seem to experience time like we do. It seems like he's capable of appearing on multiple points of a timeline and experience them at the same time.
Also in HL2 ep 2 Eli talks with Gordon in private and tells him about how Gman gave him(Eli) the Xen crystal and how Gman also saved Alyx from Black Mesa. Eli further states that there is a lot for Gordon to know, probably about the Gman. So I think Eli wanted to tell Gordon about the Vault and what was inside it
Call me crazy, but I think that Chell from portal and portal 2 might actually save HL characters from being co-oped. Because she is " free " from chains of gman and the combine advisors.
In my opinion, this is not just a phrase from a videogame, and in fact, what our lifes really are. The fact that our existence doesnt make any sense, and other things, like, not knowing what happends when we die. I truly think that there is something way bigger that we dont know, that control us, create us, and, controls the hole universe. Is it god? I dont know, and I dont think its something that can be explained by humans, as a result of this, I dont really think that is god, since god is a human idea, a human interpretation of something that cant be explained, I dont think that is the right awnser. What I like to think is that is something that you literally cant explain, either interpretate, something that is truly unthinkable. So, what I mean with that? Very simple, it isn't an old man with long gray beard that wrote a book, it isn't a spirit, it isn't a being, neither a force, power, its just something that we cant describe, either know. It is just there, controlling everything
to be honest i friggin hate this ending. it's cliche as fuck, ending the game with the title of the game. plus its EXTREMELY UNSATISFYING because it doesn't even expand on to the ending. its the most "14 year girl who just started to write ending"
@jou taama yeah, you don't get closure on borealis or mossman or anything but hEhEyyyy, gEt iT? HE's LiVinG A hALf LiFe CuZ wE coNtrOLLiNg HIm hAhA gEt iT? TiTlE = EndiNG hAhA
*spoilers* My main concern with Gman is that personally, I feel he allowed himself to get captured so he could speak to Alyx and hire her. In that vault, he didn't seem to be bothered that he was captured. If he's so powerful, he could escape at any time despite the security the Combine enforced without lifting a finger. He seemed expectant of her, lying in wait like a cliché Bond villain. Not only does that feel off-put, but also saying he makes nudges, followed by nudging her in the direction of working for him through seeing a future scenario with Eli's death. I don't have strong theories, but when I saw that ending in HL:A after the credits, it made me feel so small and virtually powerless over the fact the Gman could potentially even rewrite a timeline with how short, yet straightforward that nudge was. Does this mean that the episodes of HL2 were part of an even worse timeline? This raises more questions to me that, when finally answered, will open Pandora's box. In short, everything happens so much.
@@RanveerSingh-xf5uk soert if this is wrong but vortigaunts stopped gman before and we ve seen them extract vortiguant energy? Maybe resonance energy stops him?
@@RanveerSingh-xf5uk If he's (almost) godlike he wouldn't need to work through proxies like Gordon, Adrian, etc. So it's reasonable to think he could be captured, whether he planned this or not, seemingly, he was in fact captured.
He must have known she would be successful. I believe he can effectively experience all of time at once and thus choose what parts he can actually see and interact with yet also do that at multiple points of that timeline at once. So I think he had deliberately had HL2 EP 2's ending set up so that he could use that to manipulate alyx in the past and then got himself captured which would be the most Recent thing that he did (That's his perception of recent at least. Which could mean anything for a being that can experience a timeline in the wacky way G-Man seems to experience it) knowing that she would free him. Allowing him to use what he set up at EP2's part of the timeline in order to influence HL:A's part of the timeline's alyx which then retcons EP2's ending.
You talk about the 5 years between HLA and HL2, mentioning how they could've pulled Alyx out of stasis. It's heavily implied that the Alyx that was taken by the G-Man and put into stasis wasn't that Alyx from 5 years ago, but the Alyx from Episode 2. Edit: forgot to mention, great video! I was waiting to see what you had to say about the ending :)
Yeah it could be my imagination but it seemed almost like it switched back to Merle Dandridge's voice actress at the very end. And in HL2: EP2 it seems like Eli & Alyx are both aware of the G-Man, and that there is a price to be paid waiting for them. It seemed like Eli expected it to be his life, so maybe G-man had done a deal with him in the past, now he's used that as leverage for a new deal with Alyx.
@@InnuendoXP In the post credits scene, when Eli is angry, and says he wants to kill G-Man, he looks at him. G-Man is standing there in the corner and Eli looks at him multiple times while talking about him.
So hear me out. I think the time line works out this way. The Events of episode 2 play out like they should first. On the episode 2 timeline in the past Aylx still free's the g-man but he simply vanishes and doesn't give her a deal. When eli get killed by the advisor the gman see's an opportunity and decides to go back to that moment when alyx freed him and offer her a deal than. What we don't see is when alyx frees him and he just teleports away the first time she freed him. This keeps the time lines consistent. From the g-mans perspective, is time is a physical dimension that he can navigate as if it were a building. His "day-to-day" experience of time would be similar to the tesseract at the end of interstellar. From our perspective he would appear to have god like powers but he would still be limited in how to exert "nudges". He can't outright change the time line as if it were a program but with small tweaks here and there he can manipulate events to nudge the timeline in a direction his employers desire. As we saw with is capture, he is indeed a mortal being with limits to his power.
That can’t be true because Alyx didn’t know to ask to save her dad until G-man showed her and then she still seemed to not know what was happening so I don’t think it’s that simple.
He referred to humans and grub things as 'entities', equal value, a fair trade to trade one for the other. Sounded to me like GMan is 'something else' entirely, but perhaps they are when they hatch.
I still buy the theory G Man is from Xen. He (probably) has the trademark third arm under his tie of Xenworlders like Grunts and Nihilanth. Also the Shulathai couldn't have made it to Black Mesa as Nihilanth was holding the worlds apart, and the Grubs/Combine lack direct teleportation that Xen creatures enjoy.
Not that i wish to imply that you have been sleeping on the job,no one is more deserving of a rest,or all the effort in the world would have gone to waste,until..well,lets just say your hour has come again.
Yeah but you need to take into account that those are the same people who constantly avoided talking about episode 3 / Half life 3 and at best said " we are still working on it" which is obviously a big fat lie. Don't blindly trust them again just because they gave people a few breadcrumbs.
@@TuskForce Valve is busy working hard on brain-interfaces right now. Half-Life 3 might be something that uses your brainwaves for something gameplay related. Combined with VR perhaps?
When the final Half-Life: Alyx title appears onscreen and fades the final letter to fade is the y (an upside down lambda) which symbolizes Alyx is now "living" the half-life
Here's an interesting thought. An upside down lambda is just the gamma symbol. Most likely, it's just an upside down lambda symbol used as an artistic choice, but I just thought it's interesting since it can become another scientific symbol often used in study of radioisotopes and nuclear decay.
@@solidsnake5644 Half-Life history is all based on nuances, subliminal interpretations, so, in order to truly understand what that symbol really mean, we need to check out what it means in differents knowledge areas. Starting, of course by the scientific area, witch means "gamma".
I wonder if another reason that G-man deems Alyx’s “Nudge” of removing the combine too great (besides the obvious intent to recruit her) is because his “employers” believe their Advisorised kin might one day be rescued in some fashion.
It's too great because there's something MORE going on. He could've easily removed them from the planet, but it seems like Gman is training certain individuals for something even harder, like he's trying to prove that these few individuals are worthy of a possible off-world task.
@@liamthurston7679 It is not just Time, but Fate. This entity will live, that entity won't. Working with G-man is literally framed like a devil's contract.
I think Alyx's consciousness was taken to the moment Eli died and her memory of the Gman was erased up until that moment and then he took her. This is because all of the events during HL2 that involve Alyx still happened, including her telling him "Prepare for unforseen consequences." It seems that Alyx must have gone back home after meeting the Gman with no recollection of what she saw.
@@arhum1224 When Gordon wakes up, you can see the fried Adviser laying on the ground next to where Eli is standing. It seems that the Adviser probably vanished, and then returned to that moment and fell on the floor dead, causing the other one to retreat out of fear.
What I am having trouble wrapping my head around is that if Alyx lost all memory of helping G Man then how did she get back to earth and continue her time line. She must have lost all memory of entering the vault and something must have happened after. I can't wait to see.
@@arandomoctopus2532 Another thing that kind of popped in my mind is that, is Half-life 1's bad ending canon? Since G-Man implies that Gordon has been unwilling and unsuccessful?
@@arhum1224 No, because Gordon dies at the end of HL1's bad ending. G-Man was most likely referring to how with the help of the Vortigaunts, Gordon has broken out of his control.
From what Valve employees have said they make it up as they go along. The Combine weren't thought of in the first HL. They were designed so HL2 could move from taking place in a small facility to a more expansive world. The G-Man gives that sense that something beyond the events we see exists. But there's no big explanation yet. Whatever it turns out to be if it's ever revealed likely hasn't been decided yet.
@@oliverford5367 Yeah, its crazy to see fans make up such great theories of 'what could be' out of only handful of information....but the writers develop (most of) the story as they go on.
@@rustyesh I doubt they'll ever fully reveal it. The G-Man functions similar to the monoliths in 2001: A space odyssey. He shows that there's some kind of higher power behind the events we see, but what it is will never be revealed. Who his Employers are and what their endgame is will remain a mystery.
Between the 5 years of HL: Alyx and HL2, Alyx wasn't in stasis. Gman must likely let her go and repressed all her memories of meeting him. What the deal between her and the Gman was as far I'm concern was to exchange Eli 's already foreseen fate for her contract that would start-off 5 years into the future. Gman still needs Alyx to cooperate with Gordon to destroy the Citadel. Beyond whatever interdimensional affairs Gman has, what I see he is doing is everything and anything to make Eli's existence miserable.
I dont get this idea, or why people are saying it. There was no vault. No vault existed in HL2. A massive floating ship, that comes crashing down into city 17, is something you would of heard about in HL2. You didnt. Hence, the timeline has been altered. The events of Alyx, never happened in the Original 'storyline' of Half-Life.
@@draken5379 it's been 5 years between vault and hl2, combine made citadel in couple of years, and we don't really need mention of vault as it is not important
I still think that there is some link between the Vorts and G-Man for a few reasons: - The vorts are able to enter GMan's dimension and actually contain his powers (hl2ep1 + hl:a) - They possess similar powers - In HL2 EP2, when the player fails to protect White Forest from the Stiders, a G-Man like "employment screen" appears but it is written in a vortigaunt-like way ("The freeman has failed... The Magnusson was right...") Could you please address some of this in a later video?
not really, this video just adds a subjective interpretation to a relatively small portion of the story which has been explained a lot outside of this.
Maybe with this whole theme of rising above any leaders and having free will, on Episode 3 Gordon would get out of the way G-Man intended and would try to save Alyx. With the G-Man seeing his plans compromised, maybe and just maybe He'll put Adrian Shephard, who has been awaiting for orders and has been on stasis ever since Opposing Forces, out there to stop Alyx and Gordon. A full, and again Opposing Force to the Free Man...
You do know that valve does not care for opposing force right ?? I mean I liked him and I want him to come back (even though I have never played that game) but valve do not like it I believe.
Hopefully With What Happens in Half Life: Alyx it Will Change the Plot of Half Life: 3 Significantly Enough to Make it so That the Leaked HL:3 Script is now Null and Void. And Valve can Surprise us With Something new.
Yeah but I would still love to see that script played out that way It can give us more context as to why G-Man did what he did Even though in both timelines he still chooses alyx Vance
The leak was for Half Life 2 Episode 3 and it's clearly no longer being considered since Eli is alive and Alyx is taken by the G-Man now instead of at the Borealis like the script said.
Great video! Though there's one interesting theory I heard that seems to neatly avoid the question of Alyx's stasis. The short version is that G-Man can time travel. Now for further explanation. The G-Man starts loosing control due to the vortigaunt's interference in Episode 1, and from his end, the End of Episode Two may be FUBAR in his eyes. Gordon is basically beyond his control, the resistance is on the trail of completely stopping the combine by racing for the Borealis, and one of the Advisors has eaten Eli's brain, which may be unfavorable to him given that Eli seems to have some sort of awareness and some sort of plan to deal with the G-Man. Now, from the heart-to-heart in Episode 2, the G-Man says he "acted in the face of Objections" and "Plucked" alyx from black mesa. He had shown a personal interest in Alyx, possibly in defiance of his employers, whereas with Gordon "They agree" that he had "limitless potential". Given G-Man seems to have a penchant for stasising people as possible back up solutions, this may be rather normal. Which you mentioned, he tends to collect extraordinary individuals for later use. Now, onto the Time travel. In the scene where G-Man starts talking to Alyx, he seems to be copying himself and fading away, though the version that continues to talk to Alyx remains. Given his talk of nudging and the universe not being "inflexible" it's possible that he's literally running this scenario with Alyx over and over, figuring out which path is the most ideal for him by nudging the conversation, possibly by just one word, then resetting the encounter should it go awry. Based on this, At the End of Episode 2, he decides to gamble on Alyx, being his previously frowned-upon special pick. He travels back in time and allows himself to be captured. The dialogue in HL:Alyx says the combine built the vault around an apartment complex, in the middle of a quarantine area, where they had tracked the G-Man to. That takes time, that doesn't just happen, even for the Combine. And The G-Man likely let them do it, simply standing there and looking out the window, like how Alyx finds him. His "Nudge" is allowing himself to be captured and letting Russel come into contact with the photo of the vault. From there, Alyx, goes through the game and rescues G-Man, unintentionally, proving to G-Man, and perhaps his employers, that she is worthy of hire and is a suitable replacement for Gordon Freeman. To finalize the arrangment, he knocks out two birds with one stone by offering Alyx her own "nudge" killing the advisor that kills Eli. Alyx thus makes the deal with G-Man and his fondness for the illusion of free choice, and the Advisors don't get access to what Eli knows about the G-Man by sucking his brain out. Now the loose ends there is that Gordon is completely on the loose, and Eli still has his plan and info, but perhaps the G-Man is making an underestimation. He's manipulated Eli before at Black Mesa, and Gordon was basically his biggest pawn for a while. He could be overconfident in his ability to predict their behavior and further manipulate them. As for why Old Alyx disappears but Young Alyx is in stasis...it's possible that the time between the two alyx's isn't actually relevant. Young Alyx and Ep2 Alyx are the same "Entity". This seems to fit with G-Man's MO. Time doesn't really seem to matter so much as what pawns are on the board, what entities are at their disposal, ect.
Because alyx was probably teleported there in that second, but she was gone the next. It's hard to tell because Eli doesn't specifically mention her teleporting, it's almost like only the advisor saw it's own demise, and that Eli was focused on his daughter, who disappeared.
My only problem with this theory is that in Alyx's ending, he says getting the Combine off Earth would be too inconvenient for his employers, and he words it in such a way that implies he *can* do this. Getting the Combine off Earth would be a massive humiliation to the Combine while also cutting off a good chunk of their resources, which feels very convenient to the interests of the Shu'ulathoi.
That would require a huge nudge, but that would’nt be a nudge, sinde a nudge is pushing a small thing in a certain direction. Such a Big nudge would’nt be a nudge
G-Man lures The Combine to Earth in the first place by getting Black Mesa to test on a crystal (resonance cascade). So we can say that The Combine being on Earth is already a part of his plan to eliminate them completely, therefore nudging them off Earth wouldn't really help his grand scheme. Also The Combine you encounter as Gordon Freeman is not really the mighty combine who fought the 7 hour war. As you might've experienced Gordon Freeman and the crew is able to fend off dozens or even hundreds of soldiers of The Combine singlehandedly. They probably came to earth with superweapons, conquered Earth and moved on to conquer elsewhere perhaps. They now only have an army of biologically assimilated human husks on earth which you encounter, which wouldn't be much of a loss for them anyways. If you've read the HL2:E3 leak you can also see that. (I'll not spoil the "fanfic" any further in case you havent read it)
His whole thing is working behind the scenes and setting off chains of events that outwardly seem to be pure random chance. Eliminating the Combine _directly_ instead of by releasing Gordon could possibly lead to his detection.
I don't believe that Half Life : Alyx takes place 5 years before HL2, it makes a lot more sense saying that the events in HL:A took place in a "pocket dimension" created by the g-man in order to see if Alyx was the right woman for the task g-man needs solving. But hey, that's just a theory.
I wish they'd make a game that takes place in the 7-hour war featuring Adrian Shepard again, they really gotta end off his story and it would be a cool change of pace.
@@DannyCheezits My problem with that is that Shepherd was detained by Gman & put into stasis so that he wouldn't tell the world what he saw. He was never "hired" by the Gman or his employers, merely detained as to make sure he can do no harm, & no harm can come to him. It doesn't make sense why he would be taken out of stasis only a few weeks after the incident for the war.
Shephard didn't have a place in Employers plan. G-Man respected his abilities though and managed to put him in stasis in case he was ever considered needed again.
As much as I really like this theory, I think there's more going on that we simply won't know for some time. The main issue with this theory is that the Shu'uthaloi have nowhere near the same amount of power as G-man. G-man has the ability to go to any point in time and place which is an ability never seen by the grubs. While the Shu'uthaloi are definitely incredibly intelligent and capable of telekinesis and telepathy, they've never been seen creating portals or fading out of existence. They may be able to manipulate time, but this remains unseen. It may be possible that G-man works for them, but he is definitely of a race unknown at this point. His employers also continue to remain unknown. It's possible some of his employers are the Combine and Shu'uthaloi as we've heard Dr. Breen make mention that Gordon's contract is "up to the highest bidder." That said, G-man and his employers don't exactly seem to be on the side of the Combine necessarily. We know this since G-man was purposely captured by the Combine and was meant to be moved off world immediately. Also G-man did allow Gordon to destroy the Combine's citadel which shows he isn't working with them. What contradicts the idea he's against the Combine is that in HL: Alyx, he does mention that it isn't in his employer's interest to remove the Combine off earth. These are two things that seem at odds with each other and indicate that G-man is neither working with or against the Combine. What's more likely is that G-man and his employers are manipulating everyone in their favor for reasons we won't know. These reasons we will likely not understand until the end of the story of Half Life.
he explains why g-man has more powers than a normal grub. because the gman is a fully matured hatched Shu'uthaloi, whereas the advisors are still in their pupa state and not fully developed.
@@haiperbus Again, even if the Shu'uthaloi do mature and gain new powers, the theory that they can time travel and teleport is based on speculation atm. It's never been explicitly been stated/ shown inside/outside the game.
@@solidsnake5644 weather or not they can time travel/teleport is up to wether you belive gman is a mature Shu'uthaloi or not. there are no other mature Shu'uthaloi we know of but gman can clearly do the above powers.
@@haiperbus So what you're saying is evidence of time travel/teleportation doesn't matter and this theory relies on major assumptions. It also sounds like you're using circular reasoning for this theory. You're conclusion that Gman is a Shu'ulathoi is also your premise.
I thought the advisors where "the combine" original race, but this video taught me differently. Just who is in charge? What does the original combine race look like.
When Alyx asks Gman WHO he is, he replies with "Perhaps WHAT I am is not as important as what I can offer you in exchange for coming all this way". Sneaky
"Gordon, before you head out to the borealis. There's a contact you should meet. He's resourceful and proven capable, I think his name is Shepard....Adrian Shepard."
@@rullestaden Barney is from Blue Shift though. What I was trying to say is that Valve never mentioned the story or included Adrian in any half-life game other than OF itself. Well, they probably have plans for him or not at all. Let's just wait and see.
do you think the quotes from the old games like "concequences" actually planned? or maybe its just a good use of a "mystery box" that they planted a possible tragic concequences and only now they made something up for this story. a good one that is.
100% thats probably how it works. but they also probably did actually plan the entire premise of the games around the concept of authentic self-awareness and the hidden hands that puppeteer in the background which render that awareness both true and false at the same time so since this video's conclusion is based on that assumption, i'm gonna give that shit a Two Thumbs Up, yo.
I think it's really clever writing. It's extremely vague in a way that, intentionally or unintentionally, allows it to mean anything. When the player hears "unforeseen consequences" in Ep 2, and then hears that Eli knows G-Man and was told the same thing before the resonance cascade, their first assumption will be that the Borealis could cause a global catastrophe. Then when Eli dies, the logical assumption is that he was telling Eli about his own death. Now, after HLA, the logical assumption is that it means the abduction and "hire" of his daughter. My guess is they originally meant the first two definitions. The phrase is deliberately vague in order to allow for the initial bait and switch, but the third meaning was never planned. The Episodes were infamously rushed, so it's safe to assume the writing was rushed, too, and they didn't realize that killing off Eli was a poor narrative choice until years later. In the intervening thirteen years, they had plenty of time to come up with a better story for HL3 than was originally planned, and were clever enough to find the opening they'd INADVERTENTLY left themselves. I would not be surprised if the eventual third installment includes other references/continuations that were never in Marc's Epistle.
The fact that items around the G-Man, before you free him, are floating in space, I expect that he's been trapped in some sort of stasis. But the fact that he's just standing there, casually looking out the window, suggests to me that he was expecting it. That the only reason they caught him, is because he *wanted* to be caught.
2:04 In the fan fiction of by Mark Laidlaw Alyx leaves with Gman after they discover and destroy the Borealis leaving Gordon to die. It seems she was convinced/tricked to coming with the Gman rather than kidnapped. The writers for Alyx also had help from Laidlaw with the story and it seems that she would end up with Gman either way. Edit: I have another theory that she freed Gman before, and when she asked "To get the Combine off Earth". He must've agreed and left and gave her wish by releasing Freeman 5 years later. When he realized Gordon was not cooperating with his demands, he could've gone back to take Alyx at that moment she freed him. There is a remnant of that first moment that appears when he says "That's a large nudge". Indicating that the outcome has been changed. Just my take on it, but yeah.
That might actually what happened. The G-Man used the free nudge he gave Alyx for freeing him as a way to free Gordon 5 years later while acting that the nudge is way too big, just so he can offer another nudge that Alyx WILL want even if she didn't know, not knowing the debt for freeing G-Man was already paid. Thus G-Man was able to kill 2 birds with one stone as he will free Gordon 5 years later anyway, he just used Alyx's requested nudge as an excuse
I think that freeing of Gordon Freeman is kind of temporary there's no way he's going to just capture alyx Vance if it didn't mean controlling Freeman through other means.A powerful entity like that just doesn't let you go and expects you to walk with no strings attached he still needs Freeman the same way he still needs alyx. But it does seem that Alyx is mine seem to have relapsed into a trance-like state back to five years before her father would go through at the end of Half-Life 2 episode 2. Five years before Gordon and I do think in some way she resents Gordon for what happened to her dad . It wouldn't be hard for such a young woman like that to come to the conclusion that someone her dad admired the most was powerless to stop one of the most important people in her life from getting taken from her.probably in the original timeline it wasn't supposed to go this way he probably seduced her with one of her most deepest desires like in the Mark Laidlaw fanfiction script . But something must have went wrong in that timeline considering the fact that he release Gordon Freeman and they both left him but at the same time G-Man must have had a contingency in his back pocket incase alyx Vance ever try to betray him along with Gordon he could just rewind the clock. And start over erasing that timeline from existence or severing it from the main but still showing her things out of orderbut still keeping his promises to a certain type of degree with half-truths albeit very vague and confusing half-truths (But this could completely wrongand we'll probably never know what happened in the original timeline)
Just a kinda crazy idea. But is it possible HLA somehow takes place after EP3, and Alyx ended up using the Borealis to reverse the consequences of EP2? probably not what's going on, but theories are fun. lol
Funny how the Advisors are basically Water Bears (aka Tardigrades) which are the toughest sons of guns irl - they can dry up and then revive themselves and they are able to live in space. Also, they look almost identical
There's a resemblance, yes. Though I feel like the Advisors are some kind of parallel to a caterpillar that's about to undergo metamorphosis into a butterfly stage. Haha.
All wars are based on "cheating." Outcomes can be decided by who has superior weaponry or infrastructure. In the case of the Combine, they could teleport, which would give anyone unparalleled logistical advantages
Well, some dismiss this game on this basis as an evidence of lazyness, but I think it's rather the evidence of incredible Badassery. They are like so BADASS that they make entire AAA VR game for teaser🤣. Absolute mad dogs who don't care about fans which turns out to be incredibly rad
I've had a sorta meta-theory for g-man: that those with 'vortessence' compatibility have a 'coterminous' relationship with the player themself. Essentially this is a "prequel" but one with the twist that some entities (admins, vorts, g-man) within this prequel have the knowledge of HL2-ep1-ep2 provided by the player through this coterminous relationship , that they didn't previously have in the original timeline. This is why g-man appears to not just have knowledge of future events in HL:A, but *acts* on them, hiring Alyx and mentioning Gordon's disobedience/replacement despite the fact he's currently in stasis. So do the Combines/Admins, who somehow know who Alyx is and mention her *by name* without ever actually being told who this person is, maybe even now knowing the existence of G-Man that they might not have prior, hence the previously unmentioned capture of GMan and the Vault in HL:A (in-fact, WE know at least *some* locations of G-Man because we've lived through HL2!) . Even the Vorts mention her future's in dialogue ("he is dead, or will be", "remember, we are coterminous"). Alyx changes the result of, and dissapears in, both timelines similtanously, both at the end of 'HL:A' AND 'Ep2', because from the player's multi-timeline viewpoint, as the Vortigauns say, "there's no distance" between them. The HL:A timeline either ends or might as well do from our perspective, and the orginal HL timeline continues with the only change occuring at the end of Ep2. Only those who are coterminous like ourselves or the Vorts will know what caused that change.
0:17 I misheard this as "If you are not very familiar with Half Life 4..." and experienced a solid half minute of confusion and concern that I had slipped into some parallel bizarro world.
Alyx Vance, Gordon Freeman, Adrian Shepard and any/all playable protagonists in the Half-Life single player universe are quantum immortals (UA-cam/Google quantum immortality). That's their value to the Gman.
A lot of talk in the comments about Alyx's split time line and comparison of HL2 events and this ending so thought I would mention a theory here which I don't want hidden in some else's comment but visible for everyone to discuss. Also, bare in mind this is just my theory and will remain to be so. So one thing which is both evident in HL2 (Ep2 to be exact) and in the end of HL Alyx is the line "Unforseen Consequences". Suppose these two words are in fact a telepathic command that was inbeded deep into Alyx's subconscious 5 years prior to HL2 during this meeting between her and the Gman? Then suppose the conversation and memory was wiped and Alyx was conveniently released to the beginning of HL2 saving Gordon like she thought she was going to before entering the vault in Alyx. And suppose these memories of the past 5 years were covered up with fake memories telepathically injected into her mind so she felt normal at the time? The evidence of this is the same as the treatment and bio-engineering of the combine soldiers. The soldiers memories of their previous lives were wiped apart from the memory of their home world - earth - hence throughout all of HL2 and Alyx we hear the tannoy "Failure means Off-World relocation" (or whatever the last part is but you get the picture). Also, just add here before you meet Alyx remember what one of the dudes says to you in the station: "Don't drink the water, they put something in it to make you forget - I can't even remember how I got here!?. Suppose the same thing happened to Alyx after her encounter with the Gman but before meet Gordon. Now fast forward to HL2 Ep1, the Gman tries to get to you but is blocked by the vortigants - so the vortigants are aware of the jump back and forth nature of the Gman and why its their power keeping the vault sealed in H:Alyx. Perhaps they also see Alyx being taken and successfully block him? Anyways that was a minor note - fast forward now to when Alyx was severly injured by the hunter and lieing on the table being healed by the 3 vortigants - it's when they are distracted does the Gman choose this specific time to visit Gordon, he then kneels over Alyx and says to tell her father to "prepare for UNFORSEEN CONSEQUENCES" thus triggering a deep memory briefly... Reestablishing the telepathic link between past and future? When Alyx is healed she's holding the pain in her head and not feeling like herself - almost concussed if you will? Now fast-forward to Ep3 to when you reunite with Eli... Alyx then tells him to "Prepare for unforseen consequences" but it's the WAY she says it - robotic like - controlled - setting off a telepathic trigger connected with emotion similar to reminding the combine soldiers of their home world. Its here that Eli stumbles and holds his head as well - again - almost concussed. He asks Alyx to make a cuppa and when she's gone, he immediately starts talking to you about the Gman. This would also mean that the trigger was also injected in him during the chaos of black Mesa at the cost of loosing his leg to save Alyx (story for another time unless you already know it). This could also indicate that perhaps Gman had met Alyx as a child and had started telepathically manipulating her and watching over her since then? Perhaps the price was higher than his leg and besides, as we saw at the end of HLA, the Gman was expecting her after all? Either way, the two words "unforseen consequences" seems to be more of a trigger or code which is the link or rip with in the HL timeline. Eli even says it now he's realised the places have been swapped? Also lastly Alyx is the perfect for the assignment because unlike Gordan, ELI and Adrian... She grew up during the change not before or obviously not after thanks to the suppression field. But this is just my theory on it... Congrats for sticking with me! 😜
I have been wondering what is on the Borealis for quite some time now and I think I have a theory about what was onboard when the ship teleported into another dimension. I have a suspicion that it is highly likely that portal guns were being transported during its maiden voyage. The combine are after localized teleportation and it would make sense that something so valuable would catch the G-man’s attention.
i believe that not even those at valve know what the g-man is.... anyways here are my theories: 1. The olga girl at the beginning is an important resistance member and thw town of St. Olga (in lost coast) is a reference to her 2. Laszlo Russell is probably laszlo from sand traps 3. The Scientist (for me) could be Azian Vance, said to have died at black mesa, she was mentioned many times, but the breen quote at the end of HL "you have your mother's eyes" , as if they worked togheter recently and since both served the combine, breen would have wanted to work with alyx since he worked with Azian. you know, family sitcom drama ahahaha 4. during the healing scene of alyx in HL2: EP2, g man says he plucked her out of black mesa because she had potential, even though she was a mere child, he did that because he already knew Alyx would save him from the vault.. So g-man saved alyx from black mesa so she could save him from the vault.. 5. reading points 3 and 4, this is another motif for Azian to capture g-man, once he took Alyx from black mesa, azian tried all her life to hunt him down and capture him, thus having a motivation of securing his imprisinment, and not focus on the resistance. 6. the combine killer den and the beginning of chapter revelations, i think it s adrian, since only someone with military training and a survivor would manage to live so close to a combine base or being alive all this time.. the way he numbered the combine kills on the wall is a military thing, also he keep their eyes as trophies.. also those on his bed are not books (someone said it s barney) but are journals, adrian is know to keep a military journal in opposing force. 7. the nihilanth had no legs, it s similar to the stalkers, so i guess the combine already invaded his worl and many others. this is a galactic war where cosmic entities fight for their own survival.. G-man looks like that because he probably it s just a projection of somethnig more powerful, and as seen at the end he can multiply meaning the G-man is visiting not only others on earth but probably other worlds in the cosmos 8. G-man 's world got invaved and now he does everything in his power to find a solution to defeat the combine empire, the briefcase it s his source of power, probably fiven by his employers, so that he could put things back the way it was supposed to be, reaching an universal balance. it s like a pyramid scheme, where someone recruited him (probably gaben) and he hired others and so on, being just a puppet master , but someties someone cuts his strings (him being imprisoned in the vault or the vorts always holding him back). 9. just like in epistle 3, gordon is just a pawn in a chess game with bigger and stronger pieces, and he is used when the situation needs him to. 10. wheatly naving through space encountered the combine empire, and as an act of revenge, he told them where earth was and how to get there lol just kidding
The Alyx put in stasis was the older Ep 2 Alyx while the younger Alyx was put back in her time but with the memories of the G-man and the Advisors erased. This is why in Ep 1 she didn't know what the Advisors were. She still remember the events of Half-Life Alyx, just not her encounter with the G-man or the Advisors, she have like a blur. I chose this interpretation because I like the idea of a single linear timeline where HL Alyx, HL2, Ep1 and Ep2 all happened. Of course this is only my headcanon and I undestand if many of you prefer the "alternate timeline" interpretation. I suppose for a canon explanation we'll have to wait word from Valve.
I have the same version. But the question is how Gordon witnessed Eli's death. I guess Eli actually died but then G-man did rewind this event back to the moment where Eli's still alive and let Alyx from the past kill Advisor. And Gordon was unconcuius at the moment.
This theory with the G-Man being a hatched Advisor actually makes sense considering his knowledge and abilities as well as his somewhat broken speech as he stutters and pauses a lot
BUT gman probably tricked combine to get him prisoned just to get alyx's atention, gman pew pews across time remember ? so alyx frees gman and gman is like sup biyatch its a me not gordon. since the original story teller isnt there anymore we gotta change the line a bit, a nudge if you will
This is exactly the video I was looking for, none of that summing up the events of the games, but going deeper and analysing. Thanks for the great video!
I'm curious as well. He clearly figured out it was the G-Man in there, the question is how. Oh, shit, I know how. He escaped the train with a Combine data core and went back to Russell's place to decode it. He had just decoded enough to figure out who was in there when Alyx entered the tractor beam. Quite simple, actually.
Wait doesnt that mean that. In the other timeline they never figured out who the g man was. In this new timeline Gordon Freeman and Eli now have combined research on the Gman entity... is that new?
@@unclevivid9028 Eli Vance has been aware of the G-man for a long time as in HL2 he says G-man spoke to him before the resonance cascade. So when he found out G-man was imprisomed by the combine, he called the operation off because he had first-hand experience seeing G-man's capabilities.
At the beginning I agree with the "alternate timeline" theory but after play HL Alyx again and read different interpretations of the events I change my mind. Now I think there is only one linear timeline. The 24 yrs old Alyx was the one take away by the G-man while the 19 yrs old Alyx was put back in her time but with the memories of the G-man and the Advisors erased. I think we are inside a time loop wich start in HL Alyx and end in Ep 2. Alyx choosing to save her father always happened in the past before Half-Life 2. The events of HL 2, Ep 1 and Ep 2 need to happen because both Eli and 24 yrs old Alyx must end up in that hangar. Fist the G-man let Eli died, than show it to the 19yrs old Alyx, than after Alyx agree to work for him G-man rewind time of few seconds to allow 19yrs old Alyx to save her father, than put her back in her time with no memory of the event. After that he take 24 yrs old Alyx from the hangar.
There are unused lines from EP1 where he snarls and sounds downright malevolent. I think there are 'errors' in his design. Maybe he's slightly affected by the mental parasite mentioned in the Breengrub lore?
The shadow women is an older Alyx, she gains abilities similar to those of the gman in the future, so she starts to manipulate things in the past her self. Crazy? probably.
Nah. It seems like The Shadow Lady will be an entirely different character. Especially judging by the model that was data mined. combineoverwiki.net/wiki/The_Scientist
I see many people struggling with the ending of the game. It's quite simple, Alyx frees the G-Man, very possibly she remembers nothing of the experience; five years later Gordon Freeman returns, the entire events of HL2 and its episodes play out the same. But the G-Man asks Freeman to get Alyx safe to White Forest, because with the death of Eli he gets leverage on her, and he knew that during the event of the prequel game, cause the G-Man sees time from a different perspective, very possibly Dr. Manhattan style, or at the least possibilities. If he sees possibilities, that's why he asked Gordon to protect her to White Forest.
"But the freest forms are mindless, rapacious, bent only on reproduction. It is in the dormant form they thrive. Philosophers. Scientists." "But again, the hatched forms are airy nothings, of little import to the culture of the grubs. The Shu'ulathoi scarcely acknowledge them." (from BreenGrub, I'm guessing you just ignored these?) I still don't see how GMan is supposed to be a hatched Shu'ulathoi. Once they hatch they literally only make more baby Shu'ulathoi and lose their intelligence. Doesn't really describe GMan to me but whatever.
It's specifically the "imprint and change their own cells" part that explains perfectly why Gman's origins would likely be related to the Shu,ulathoi. And it makes sense that the Gman and his employers are a group of rebellious Shu,ulathoi that are hiding from the Combine and using Humanity to infiltrate and destroy them from the inside, it's probably something that will never be explained in the games because Valve likes mysteries, but that's certainly my headcanon.
So from what I understand Alyx is essentially dealing with DR. Manhattan. He exists at all periods of time, what happened in Alyx is that he was freed at one particular time. And what he allowed her to do was essentially change the outcome of her father's demise. But in order for this to happen she has to be plucked from reality at two specific times. At the end of Half Life:Alyx and Half life 2: Episode 2. So that might get really confusing. He didn’t create a separate timeline per say but there might be two different Alyx. Time travel is confusing.
Gman must’ve gone to a parallel universe in order for these events to make sense. Otherwise Alyx would’ve completely seen her father’s death miles away and would’ve told him. She wouldn’t be around for the events of HL2, as she’d still be in stasis. Gman doesn’t just exist in all times of a set universe, but all parallel universes. He used Gordon in one universe and eventually found him too challenging to continue using him, since the vortigaunts kept him away from Gman from being directly manipulated. And so he intentionally got himself caught as a challenge for Alyx, to prove to his “employers” that Alyx was worth using to have the next set of events unfold in their favor. Alyx would be the new conduit for that change. Gman is effectively a “scout” for his “employers”. His goal is to find people who have a certain skill-set to covertly manipulate the world and universe around them in their favor without drawing too much attention to them. Why they wouldn’t want to do that is unknown. My theory is that Gman and his employers are merely playing a game. They want to manipulate many universes and dimensions without getting caught, not because it would be catastrophic for them (it wouldn’t at all), but because this is how they entertain themselves. They have to limit themselves in order to create challenging stakes. This may not even be a profound secret in the realm of the half-life universe. Indeed the combine and Breen might’ve easily figured this, and simply never got around to telling Gordon. The combine and the Nihlinth might’ve even thought that they could somehow evade or outsmart these deities, and to amuse themselves Gman and his employers might’ve pretended to be more vulnerable or foolish than they truly were. But in truth this was always an already won fight on the Gman and his employers. Ultimately Half-Life challenges the identities of fate vs free will. Are we merely cogs in the machine? Servants or slaves to a larger force? Or do we have our own agency to define our own destinies and write our own lives? Gman and his employers represent fate. They are the literal embodiment of predefined pre-modified virtues that become used in someone else’s favor. Gordon and Alyx become mere cogs in their machine. But Gordon has already shown he has acted on his own accord, and can challenge the authority of the Gman. He, along with the help of the vortigaunts, have become agents of their own destiny and pursuers of their own path. And now Gordon goes on his own path while Alyx becomes the new tool for Gman. Half life 3 will be Alyx rebelling against the Gman in her own ways, and showing that personal freedom always is more powerful than even a multidimensional deity.
I absolutely loved your G-Man videos and i think they stand the test of time amazingly, i hope VALVe doesn't go douchebag with HL3 and repeals what you've said.
It's also worth mentioning that the end sequence of Alyx where you power up the gravity gloves with captured Vortigaunt energy is probably why the Vorts place her life in such high value. Their racial hivemind, aka "the vortessence" must have been able to feel her wielding all their captured power, and must have established some sort of connection to them.
I'm curious if they even know how they're going to do that yet. They never release a new Half-Life game without doing something new and extremely impressive. The first was AI and story. The second was physics. Alyx polished VR into something nearly seamless and hopefully repeatable by other developers. I'm curious what their plan is for the next Half_life or if it's even Half-Life 3. Perhaps another VR game to give more backround on Adrian Shephard? The assets are already present. I don't see them letting the assets waste away and not throw together several other games with it, be it Half-Life or not. I can't wait to see what Valve can put together that other franchises that have bigger budgets haven't.
I’ve often wondered a premise like this about life in general, not stating there is a god per-say but more of a force or presence even that lays out all possibilities and actions before us like programming a quest one can partake in a game. If there is such a thing is freedom even a opinion, even if one would have “free will” too choose what paths they take if all paths are designed for them then there would be only like you say “half-life” one could live. The only way one could have otherwise is to find a way to manipulate and control reality as it is to forge a path already not existing, what ever that could possibly look like.
The problem (or the lack of it) with these theories is that this is already the case, your decisions are limited and expanded based entirely upon chance (read: events whose causes lie out of your control in some capacity) - whether that chance is caused by human interference or for example a storm forcing you to not take a plane that would have otherwise crashed does not matter. I always believed in life being not random, but not directly controlled either, I'd argue it's emergent comparable to how the laws of physics stand on their own, but when interacting form a complex net of consequences layered in a way that causes our world to be the way it is. TL;DR would be that life is not random, not controlled but emergently predictable.
Hey man, I've been wondering, and this might just be a theory. But perhaps the Nihilanth from the Black Mesa incident is a Shu'ulathoi in one way or another? from complexion to shape, it could be a hatched advisor taking such a form, also with the open head in relation to their psychic power. Just a hunch, what do you think?
2 things i have to say: I really like this comunity, people think so deep about the story, and you are by far my favorite story-teller of this series. I do think that the next half life game would still be in vr, but will include Adrian or Barney. We didn't reallly meet Barney in half life 2 episode 2 , so that might be an option.
What I think happened is that Gman went back in time, let himself get capture d by the Combine, knowing that Alyx would "save him", allowing Gman to change the future
Came across your video. My partner and I were left reeling! Loved all your half life vids. I've now subscribed xD awesome theory and makes total sense. Also I think the time being simultaneous is kinda not what is happening. I think it's more like the doctor and his TARDIS. He steps in and out of time at different points. The gman we meet on half life 2 is before half life Alyx. Gordon isn't doing what Gman wants even after all that happened and what he went through. So Gman steps back to the time of half life Alyx, gets caught with the aim to lure Alyx. He still enables for the future to play out as it did but the nudge in the right direction is now having a younger Alyx save her Dad. Then sealing her contract and then pulling her from her time in the "present" with Gordan Freeman which was the end of half life 2... And leaving Gordon there. His nudge now is that Alyx has now had her experience getting to and freeing Gman. She has also met Gordon and seen what he can do. But the difference? She has grown up in war and understands the combine and their threat. Maybe what he wants Gordon to do is to wipe out the combine. And a child of war, oppression, and struggle will be more likely to do what is needed. Or at least nudge it in the direction to go down that path Or the freedom vs oppression thing that was pretty good haha
I feel like gman employers is Valve and Valve orders gman to hire an employee that will set the story for the game. It might also be why Gordon is no longer hired anymore because he was “unwilling” to follow and was hesitant therefore by firing him and taking Alyx, another story will be set but this time its Gordon. As if gman is the person who breaks the fourth wall. His power is omnipotence. And in order to satisfy his employers which is Valve, he hires characters to be the set in the event he will create. The characters themselves weren’t created by Valve but an actual sentients therefore Valve could not create their own story since they couldn’t control these characters but what they could do is make gman who sole purpose is to set the course.
There is a dream theory. That actually makes the most sense. The whole game is nothing but a dream for Alyx, or a "Virtual Reality", a fake reality just the like one the player experiences (she lives a Half Life). Gman made this for Alyx just to see if she is capable of what the Gman needs. The whole game takes place at the end of Episode 2 after Eli dies. That's when he starts to make Alyx dream. It's just 1 or 2 seconds in real life but a few hours inside the dream for her. After he sees what she is capable of, he gives her a choice and shows what is actually happening in real life - her fathers death, but then he turns back the time for few seconds and gives Alyx the power to overcome the Advisor and save her dad. After that he takes Alyx to the stasis. Secret ending scene plays. And let's be real. How the hell would you be able to imprison Gman? He is an omnipresent and omniscient and maybe a godlike being who is able to predict the future, control time and space etc. You can only imprison him, if he wants to be. Like to test Alyx. Another small "evidence" for a dream is the start of the game. It just starts on the balcony from a white blinding light. It just felt so random to me, out of nowhere. Maybe it's nothing but I thought it's weird. My other evidence is the movie Inception in where Leo says "You never really remember the beginning of your dream, you always wind up right in the middle", which points to my point before. And at the end of the game there are these mirrored rooms - it also reminded me of Inception. The game has a thing with cats. There are a lot of cats to be found in the game. And this reminded me of Matrix and the Déjà vu cat. But it's just a theory, a game theory. P.S: If this wasn't a dream. How did he take Alyx from the past and still have Alyx gone from the future. Alyx already disappears in the past. Therefore can't appear in HL2. But she clearly appears in all games and disappears in front of Eli And Gordon at the end of it. Doesn't make sense any other way.
it would’ve been really cool to see g-man in the portal franchise in some way. not only does chel have a device capable of local teleportation (one that would be of great interest to the combine) but she also seems to have the same importance gordon does. that unique ability to overcome impossible odds.
Apparently Chell was going to be part of the HL story. Furthermore, there was going to be a reference to the G man in Portal 2 where Wheatley was going to tell Chell a man in a suit with a briefcase was looking for her, but a lot of things were changed.
I'm not really sure about G-Man being an enemy of the Combine. When Alyx asked him to get the Combine off Earth, he said it would against the interests of his employers
It would be against the interests of his employers because it would reveal the level of control they have over the mechanisms of the universe. Doing that would cause the various power structures in the universe to rebel against him and his employers. And anyway, even if what I said wasn't true, why would they need to forcibly confine G-Man if he wasn't the Combine's enemy?
@@maxderrat "it would reveal the level of control they have over the mechanisms of the universe" That would be like the old trope "I'm only using 10% of my power", I honestly don't think the writers would pull something like that. It seems that the G-Man is neither an ally nor an enemy of the Combine, he helped the Resistance take down the Citadel (by putting Gordon at the right place at the right time), but he also wants the Combine to stay in control of Earth. His exact intentions are obviously unknown. Also, let's imagine a hypothetical situation where he accepted Alyx's request of "getting the Combine off Earth". He wouldn't necessarily need to use godlike powers that "reveal the level of control he has over the universe", he would probably just nudge things at the right place at the right time, just like he has always been doing, in order to eventually get the Combine out. As for why did the Combine capture him: It's simple, they wanted to study him and maybe use him as a weapon, given how powerful he obviously is. And one last thing: It's possible that G-Man's employers aren't necessarily a single group, but rather that G-Man accepts offers from whoever "pays" him more. Doctor Breen tells Gordon at the end of Half-Life 2 that "your contract is open to the highest bidder", and he even tells the player directly that he is considering hiring the G-Man's services, with the intention of putting Gordon as the leader of the Resistance. The G-Man also accepted an offer from Alyx in exchange for rescuing him, which led to preventing Eli's death. I still want to make it clear that, even though I disagree with a lot of things, these are by far THE best Half-life analysis on youtube, keep up the good work
@@rudolph2937 The reason why the power level thing is a trope is because it's basic strategy to never reveal your full hand until you have to. I don't think it's much of a refutation of the possibility that G-Man represses his influence to 'nudges' - just my two cents.
@@maxderrat Alyx's wish was naive because getting rid of the combine was easier said than done when their influence was universal, G makes it seem his employers still have need of humanity in their plan.
Excellent video, Max! One piece of feedback: please consider increasing the FOV of your VR gameplay recordings. I found that being extremely zoomed in to your HMD view made the footage incredibly claustrophobic and hard to follow. If you use OBS and the Index/Vive, there is an OpenVR Input plugin that allows crop adjustment-if you're using an Oculus headset, use Oculus Tray Tool to adjust FOV to 2.0. I hope this helps! I'd hate for the quality of your scripts and edit to be negatively impacted by such a simple fix. Be well!
2:20 a personal theory of mine is that when you (as past Alyx) accepted the “deal” g-man used his power to transfer your (past Alyx’s) conciseness through time and put her into the future version of herself. Making it so that all of half-life 2 still happened but the end could be changed.
I think there are 3 big clashes and conflict going in for hl3. There is the good side, the hero, Gordon Freeman, who represents the best of humanity and wants to save the Earth from the combine (and now, save alyx from the g man). The neutral side is gman, who simply wants the oppressors (the combine) gone, no matter if Earth is sacrificed, and fjnally the evil, represented obviously by the combine. The only way for the good to win is for Gordon to ascend and find a way to both defeat the combine and save the Earth. If the g man truly wants the combine defeated and Gordon is the best tool, it would still make sense to Control alyx, because it would give Gordon a reason to defeat the combine as it would satisfy the gman and save alyx. Or maybe alyx is truly his tool, and Gordon Will have to stop him either way to save the earth himself and become the right man In the right place. The final Clash for freedom would be the cease of Control by the shu ulathoi, which is what part 1 and 2 talk a lot about. What u guys think?
I dont think G-man wants the combine to be defeated, think of what G-man said to Alyx when she asked for him to get rid of combines "That would be a considerably large nudge, too large, given the interests of my employers" i dont think he's talking about his employers requests to nudge just a little, i think he's talking about how combine getting off the earth is against his employers interests. Feel like combine on earth is needed for something to happen, presumably for Gordon to force his way into borealis and do something ? Maybe his way of gaining favor with alien races, namely Vortigaunts, will help him seperate the combines, since they're bunch of different alien races "combined" together under one nation/rule/name ? Also i dont think G-man is a hatched advisor, i think whatever G-man is, you slowly gain that power of being able to nudge and see events by being used by G-man as a tool, which slowly turns you into a either just a emotionless puppet (i.e. G-man) or they're just so far above humans or any other life form that they don't care about a few people dying for a satisfactory nudge in time. Predictions, Gordon is gonna be able to remember the 2 endings, HL2:Ep2 ending of Eli dying, and HL:Alyx ending of him staying alive, which is where we'll see that he slowly gains the ability to see events and how it will unfold, because he's been used by G-man for a while, and he will use this power to defeat G-man. Also, i think Alyx is gonna become a full fledged G-man by the time we get to her.
Came here expecting "Oh no another G-Man is Gordon Freeman from the future video". Well, I must say you've proved yourself a decisive man. As for my like in the video... I think you've earned it.
It's times like these that I wish UA-cam still had annotations. Apparently, this is what the silhouetted woman looks like: twitter.com/ValveNewsNetwor/status/1245883467541426177
Now that I have a look at her, I'm much more convinced that it's not Colette Green, but the possibility still exists. It could be a really old version of her. :P
I think I agree on it not being Colette. Half Life lore and story is so interesting, and this definitely exceeded my expectations for a Half Life VR game. I really hope the next entry in the series expands more on the lore. It is just so intriguing and investing!
i dont know nothing about the lore and i didnt finish any game(tried half life 2 but didnt finish due to some "glitches"? and also me being very bad at the game, some day i might tho) But whoever, its very interesting and i can acknolege the impact half life did on games in general, the half life engine was very inovative, till this day i find it very well made, so sad valve discovered that is easier selling tf2 hats and csgo knifes rather than making the quality games we love...
the issue with this theory is that gman has 'employers'
New theory.
Alright, it seems Gman 'plucked her (Alyx) from black mesa' but with objections from other parties. As stated in EP2.
So... would that imply, that Gman might actually have opposition in his, plane?
So, what if, this opposition pushed the vortigaunt to save Alex in the end of HL2, and, pull Freeman away from his next uh. 'sleep'? Also sticking it to Gman for taking Alex, as a reliability now.
Then, this opposition went back before releasing Freeman into HL2, and provided a place and time that Gman would appear for him to be captured by the combine?
Why go this far? well. all the way through to HL2EP2, Freeman has been fighting the Combine, the combine is apparently in use by another 'employer'.
Freeman being Gman's 'employee' means Gman will have to answer to him, Freeman going rouge a bit, fucking the portal, could really have fucked with this 'employers' wishes..... So, Trap Gman, and prevent him from deploying Freeman.
Gman seeing as how Freeman doesnt quite listen/rogue, and crashing another 'client's' operations. Gman might really be dropping Freeman.
BUT, this might be temporary. lets not forget. the part in HL1 ending where Gman explains that he agrees with his employers that Freeman also has 'Limitless potential'.
=
And then a bit in EP2 where gman explains how he knows 'how to ignore such ney sayers' implying his employers disagree with him.
I think The G Man is a vortigaunt, employed by a council made up of powerful minds
you can achieve something close to annotations using an undocumented format of youtube's closed captions www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/ahater/undocumented_subtitle_format_discovered_and_boy/
I remember reading somewhere that gman speaks like he is not used to having lungs. That makes alot more sense now
That's why he keeps adjusting his tie too. He's not used to a human body.
Lel I read it today in all the gmans speeches video xD
"He talks like someone who's not used to having lungs."
ua-cam.com/video/8vhfEZ2IgfQ/v-deo.html
the reason why he speaks in such broken sentences is because he struggles to channel his inteligence through mere language, which to him is such a primitive form of communication
@Anthony Lopez no but in a videogame, in an important speech this is different
People are forgetting that the combine were supposedly able to hire Gordon’s services. At the end of hl2 Breen mentions that his services are available to the highest bidder. Alyx was probably the only reason Gman sent Gordon against the combine. If the combine won, it would be harder to blackmail her, as she would have no hope
Alyx: "Who are you?"
Gman: "Perhaps 'what' I am is not important."
“as what i can offer”
@@SILENTBOYE1
For coming all this way
@@reedrazor7546 "Perhaps what I am is not as important as what I can... Offer you, in exchange for coming all this way..."
So, she asked "who" he is, but he said "what". What does this mean? Is it just a script mistake?
@@juliohintze595 No, the script is perfectly written because Gman isn't someone named, he is something more than human, so "What" is more fitting for his context.
After 13 years, we finally got 30 seconds of episode 3 at the end, and it was definitely worth it!!
HAHAHAHAH so true
Not much else, sadly. HL:A has its own story, and not really important either.
Its definitely not gonna be another episode
@@Reloaded2111 well, it still expands on the dystopian future and its earlier stages. important information for us, especially now as we are entering the earlier stages in real life.
My theory as to what Valves going to do with the next half life is that they're just going to make half life 3, which takes place immediately after episode 2's altered ending. It'd be cool to see a hl2 source 2 port like with what Valve did with Half Life: Source (but not complete trash)
gman's employers do not have infinite knowledge; "I acted in the face of objections that she was 'a mere child' and 'of no practical use to anyone.'"
Their knowledge may be vast but their perception may be limited. Good note
The line I’m more curious about is G-Man’s line “I had to abide by certain restrictions”. Who set them? What restrictions?
he agreed not to directly interfere with the rebellion against the combine
MORGUE how is he not directly interfering with the rebellion if he takes one of their top members, Alyx, out of space and time? The Vortigaunts in Episode 2 value her highly, so it’s not an insignificant action.
@@scottfriske9186 Dear god. Now it all makes sense.
I think that the Vortigaunts in the game made it very clear that time doesn't work for them the same way as for humans, and the implication is that it's exactly the same with the G-Man. In other words, he didn't put Alyx into stasis directly after she met him, the events of HL2, Ep1 and Ep2 played out exactly as we know them. No, they "just met" and her wish to save her father only came through when he was actually (almost) killed, which means she was put in stasis at the end of Ep2.
I mean, otherwise Gordon wouldn't even know what tf Eli was talking about in the ending sequence.
Makes sense, since he saw the perfect opportunity to leverage alyx with the death of her father, Gman took Alyx and brought her back in time with a younger self and ignorant of what happened, to a test course which would test her if she can free him in the end of her journey, this is why at the start of the game there is the same info data that there is in the end, where at the start it shows her current status and later when shes “hired”.
After Alyx shows Gman how valuable of an asset she is, he hires her, thus making the repayment which is eli living and taking her into stasis, the reason shes gone
@@TheLemming1337 Game seems to be trying to narrate from the GMan perspective. Either that or a multiverse thing is going. From the GMan perspective, since time is not something you experience as linear, he could just move back in time to when Alyx helped him and show her the future when required. As to why he didn't do it in the first place (hl2); well it might be because the story is narrated from the GMan perspective. He saw the future and decided to nudge things so that it happens differently.
Or probably because Valve didn't know that they needed to do so at the time. xD
I doubt there is any memory wiping or testing going on. He did really prisoned by combines, but since he can see the future he wasn't very concerned.
Something something coterminous.
Alias Anybody I don’t think Gordon ever knows what anybody is talking about he’s just chillin
@Gabe Newell This is true. If only you could hear yourself, Gabe.
In the beta version of hl2 there is a scene with G - Man saying that "you're not supposed to be here" and "you will forget it until we meet again". I think that's exactly what happened to Alyx in the ending.
@@lowercase_g341 yeah but Gordon was hired by him and Eli wasn't sure of powers that he had. He wiped Alyx's memory because he let her change the timeline.
@@lowercase_g341 still doesn't collide with my theory, all I'm saying is that G - man can wipe memories.
We still don't know about his plan, maybe he wants Eli to chase him.
Except that isn't a canon thing since it's not in the final game.
We cant use something that doesn't appear in the final product to explain events that happen in the final product.
If this is true, then they reused it on the trailer for HL2: Ep2 and it was never seen in-game. Hell, I don't even remember seeing Alyx hanging from a collapsed bridge like the trailer showed. Valve really is playing games with us.
...And here am I, pondering my meta-theory that "G-Man stands for 'Gaben's Man'" and that he's employed by Valve in general and Half-Life writers in particular - basically, a case of "self-concsious plot device"...
It makes too much sense
@@_KillerD_ Especially - given the interests of his employers.
@@DrCranium the combine off Earth = no more Half Life
@@_KillerD_ Well, that's tricky: Half-Life as a franchise might work without Combine (just as HL2 worked without Black Mesa as a setting), but that definetely would not be Episode 3/HL3, but rather a HL4...
...for sure it's easier to prove the fans who state that "Half-Life's lore is _inflexible"_ wrong and _nudge_ the plot development in a _particular direction_ that's interesting both for Valve and players.
Oh shit.
"Let's not waste any time with long, drawn out introductions."
Instantly subscribed.
My man. :D
That’s exactly what I also did lol
Pot p pRObABly NOt
@pot p I do my best to from time to time.
Yup I paused to like the video when he said that. It’s refreshing when people respect my attention span
Not a big fan of the ending of Half Life Alyx. I carried Vodka for hours to give to Russel and just ended up losing it in the Vault. Really wanted to take a shot with him
When you get the gun there's a gnome on the couch. You can carry that.
@@nickmeyer238 I´m NOT going to carry another gnome.
@@yellhaha yes you are and you're going to love every minute of it damnit!!!
@@nickmeyer238 One percenter gang
@@yellhaha Please don't remind me, especially the fucking car
2:19 my guess is this: like the Vortigaunts, the G-Man has demonstrated the ability to affect people’s memories. In all likelihood, 19 year old Alyx left the Combine prison not remembering what actually transpired, and probably believed the vault was empty. The Resistance chalks this one up as a draw, since they took few losses and wreaked havoc on Combine forces, and life goes on.
Given what Eli tells Gordon in the post-credit scene, my guess is that the older Alyx we travelled with was taken by the G-Man after the Alyx of five years earlier, in a brief moment of co-terminousness, killed the Advisor and is taken away. Eli speaks as though he just witnessed his daughter’s abduction by the G-Man mere moments ago. This idea is further solidified by an Easter egg in the post credits scene, where, if the player turns their head to the left, they may see the G-Man in the room, watching them.
"co-terminous"
Singing vortigaunt reference anybody?
I'd say they were taken simultaneously. G-Man doesn't seem to experience time like we do. It seems like he's capable of appearing on multiple points of a timeline and experience them at the same time.
@Josh JeanJacket Jaeger Because to her at the moment, that is the future.
Also in HL2 ep 2 Eli talks with Gordon in private and tells him about how Gman gave him(Eli) the Xen crystal and how Gman also saved Alyx from Black Mesa. Eli further states that there is a lot for Gordon to know, probably about the Gman.
So I think Eli wanted to tell Gordon about the Vault and what was inside it
Call me crazy, but I think that Chell from portal and portal 2 might actually save HL characters from being co-oped. Because she is " free " from chains of gman and the combine advisors.
“You’re not living a full life, or a free life. You are merely living...a half-life”
Gave me chills. Top work, Max.
In my opinion, this is not just a phrase from a videogame, and in fact, what our lifes really are.
The fact that our existence doesnt make any sense, and other things, like, not knowing what happends when we die.
I truly think that there is something way bigger that we dont know, that control us, create us, and, controls the hole universe.
Is it god? I dont know, and I dont think its something that can be explained by humans, as a result of this, I dont really think that is god, since god is a human idea, a human interpretation of something that cant be explained, I dont think that is the right awnser.
What I like to think is that is something that you literally cant explain, either interpretate, something that is truly unthinkable. So, what I mean with that?
Very simple, it isn't an old man with long gray beard that wrote a book, it isn't a spirit, it isn't a being, neither a force, power, its just something that we cant describe, either know.
It is just there, controlling everything
@jou taama Yes but still, Max's new interpretation gives it a whole new dimension.
@jou taama Things can have more than one meaning you know
to be honest i friggin hate this ending. it's cliche as fuck, ending the game with the title of the game. plus its EXTREMELY UNSATISFYING because it doesn't even expand on to the ending. its the most "14 year girl who just started to write ending"
@jou taama yeah, you don't get closure on borealis or mossman or anything but hEhEyyyy, gEt iT? HE's LiVinG A hALf LiFe CuZ wE coNtrOLLiNg HIm hAhA gEt iT? TiTlE = EndiNG hAhA
*spoilers*
My main concern with Gman is that personally, I feel he allowed himself to get captured so he could speak to Alyx and hire her. In that vault, he didn't seem to be bothered that he was captured. If he's so powerful, he could escape at any time despite the security the Combine enforced without lifting a finger. He seemed expectant of her, lying in wait like a cliché Bond villain. Not only does that feel off-put, but also saying he makes nudges, followed by nudging her in the direction of working for him through seeing a future scenario with Eli's death. I don't have strong theories, but when I saw that ending in HL:A after the credits, it made me feel so small and virtually powerless over the fact the Gman could potentially even rewrite a timeline with how short, yet straightforward that nudge was. Does this mean that the episodes of HL2 were part of an even worse timeline? This raises more questions to me that, when finally answered, will open Pandora's box.
In short, everything happens so much.
I was wondering the same thing, if GMan is almost godlike, how did he allow himself to get caught by the combine? I think your theory makes sense.
@@RanveerSingh-xf5uk soert if this is wrong but vortigaunts stopped gman before and we ve seen them extract vortiguant energy? Maybe resonance energy stops him?
@@db5094 could be
@@RanveerSingh-xf5uk If he's (almost) godlike he wouldn't need to work through proxies like Gordon, Adrian, etc. So it's reasonable to think he could be captured, whether he planned this or not, seemingly, he was in fact captured.
He must have known she would be successful. I believe he can effectively experience all of time at once and thus choose what parts he can actually see and interact with yet also do that at multiple points of that timeline at once. So I think he had deliberately had HL2 EP 2's ending set up so that he could use that to manipulate alyx in the past and then got himself captured which would be the most Recent thing that he did (That's his perception of recent at least. Which could mean anything for a being that can experience a timeline in the wacky way G-Man seems to experience it) knowing that she would free him. Allowing him to use what he set up at EP2's part of the timeline in order to influence HL:A's part of the timeline's alyx which then retcons EP2's ending.
You talk about the 5 years between HLA and HL2, mentioning how they could've pulled Alyx out of stasis. It's heavily implied that the Alyx that was taken by the G-Man and put into stasis wasn't that Alyx from 5 years ago, but the Alyx from Episode 2.
Edit: forgot to mention, great video! I was waiting to see what you had to say about the ending :)
Yeah it could be my imagination but it seemed almost like it switched back to Merle Dandridge's voice actress at the very end.
And in HL2: EP2 it seems like Eli & Alyx are both aware of the G-Man, and that there is a price to be paid waiting for them. It seemed like Eli expected it to be his life, so maybe G-man had done a deal with him in the past, now he's used that as leverage for a new deal with Alyx.
Exactly ! Future alyx disappear, past alyx had to be put back in the timeline for it to be valid
@@InnuendoXP In the post credits scene, when Eli is angry, and says he wants to kill G-Man, he looks at him. G-Man is standing there in the corner and Eli looks at him multiple times while talking about him.
So hear me out. I think the time line works out this way. The Events of episode 2 play out like they should first. On the episode 2 timeline in the past Aylx still free's the g-man but he simply vanishes and doesn't give her a deal. When eli get killed by the advisor the gman see's an opportunity and decides to go back to that moment when alyx freed him and offer her a deal than. What we don't see is when alyx frees him and he just teleports away the first time she freed him. This keeps the time lines consistent.
From the g-mans perspective, is time is a physical dimension that he can navigate as if it were a building. His "day-to-day" experience of time would be similar to the tesseract at the end of interstellar. From our perspective he would appear to have god like powers but he would still be limited in how to exert "nudges". He can't outright change the time line as if it were a program but with small tweaks here and there he can manipulate events to nudge the timeline in a direction his employers desire. As we saw with is capture, he is indeed a mortal being with limits to his power.
That can’t be true because Alyx didn’t know to ask to save her dad until G-man showed her and then she still seemed to not know what was happening so I don’t think it’s that simple.
He referred to humans and grub things as 'entities', equal value, a fair trade to trade one for the other. Sounded to me like GMan is 'something else' entirely, but perhaps they are when they hatch.
Richard Smith exactly and if he was an advisor he wouldn’t want to kill his own kind. He is something else
Sirick He killed his own kind because that grub was a synth grub. Already controlled by the combine
@@AlgaeEater09 exactly, it’s like if Gordon killed a soldier
I still buy the theory G Man is from Xen. He (probably) has the trademark third arm under his tie of Xenworlders like Grunts and Nihilanth. Also the Shulathai couldn't have made it to Black Mesa as Nihilanth was holding the worlds apart, and the Grubs/Combine lack direct teleportation that Xen creatures enjoy.
“As a consequence of your action, this entity will while this entity will not…” that line gave me the chills. The entire ending gave me the chills!
Rise and shine Ms. Vance, Rise and shine...
The right woman in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world
Not that i wish to imply that you have been sleeping on the job,no one is more deserving of a rest,or all the effort in the world would have gone to waste,until..well,lets just say your hour has come again.
and smell the SUSTENANCE!
Untill,let's just say your hour has come again
So wake up Ms Vance, wake up and smell the ashes
"We have plans for her" -Erik Wolpaw
*if THAT doesnt confirm HL3 after HL:A's ending, i dont know what does.*
Yeah but you need to take into account that those are the same people who constantly avoided talking about episode 3 / Half life 3 and at best said " we are still working on it" which is obviously a big fat lie. Don't blindly trust them again just because they gave people a few breadcrumbs.
but how long will it take till we get HL3?
@@TuskForce I dont care if its another 13 years. As long as NewValve continues to say they have plans for it, me and the community are happy.
@@thetimelords911 Heh, imagine it would come out with the technology of smell
@@TuskForce Valve is busy working hard on brain-interfaces right now. Half-Life 3 might be something that uses your brainwaves for something gameplay related. Combined with VR perhaps?
When the final
Half-Life: Alyx title appears onscreen and fades the final letter to fade is the y (an upside down lambda) which symbolizes Alyx is now "living" the half-life
Here's an interesting thought. An upside down lambda is just the gamma symbol. Most likely, it's just an upside down lambda symbol used as an artistic choice, but I just thought it's interesting since it can become another scientific symbol often used in study of radioisotopes and nuclear decay.
@@solidsnake5644 Half-Life history is all based on nuances, subliminal interpretations, so, in order to truly understand what that symbol really mean, we need to check out what it means in differents knowledge areas.
Starting, of course by the scientific area, witch means "gamma".
I think the upside down lambda fits nicely with the idea of an altered future
@@reikiriyama4125 Cool idea. I like it.
It's also the third letter in her name.
A little known fact in Valve's circles, but the third number is... 3.
I wonder if another reason that G-man deems Alyx’s “Nudge” of removing the combine too great (besides the obvious intent to recruit her) is because his “employers” believe their Advisorised kin might one day be rescued in some fashion.
It's too great because there's something MORE going on. He could've easily removed them from the planet, but it seems like Gman is training certain individuals for something even harder, like he's trying to prove that these few individuals are worthy of a possible off-world task.
"G-man, you've created a Time Paradox!"
"Time paradox?!"
"You can't just go changing the future like that!"
@@liamthurston7679 It is not just Time, but Fate. This entity will live, that entity won't. Working with G-man is literally framed like a devil's contract.
yOu HaVe To UnDeRsTaNd ThE fUtuRe
He is allowed to 'nudge' things from time to time
3:25 Edna Mode works for the combine
I think Alyx's consciousness was taken to the moment Eli died and her memory of the Gman was erased up until that moment and then he took her. This is because all of the events during HL2 that involve Alyx still happened, including her telling him "Prepare for unforseen consequences." It seems that Alyx must have gone back home after meeting the Gman with no recollection of what she saw.
That kind of makes sense yeah but I thought alyx triggered a time paradox when she saved eli?
@@arhum1224 When Gordon wakes up, you can see the fried Adviser laying on the ground next to where Eli is standing. It seems that the Adviser probably vanished, and then returned to that moment and fell on the floor dead, causing the other one to retreat out of fear.
What I am having trouble wrapping my head around is that if Alyx lost all memory of helping G Man then how did she get back to earth and continue her time line. She must have lost all memory of entering the vault and something must have happened after. I can't wait to see.
@@arandomoctopus2532 Another thing that kind of popped in my mind is that, is Half-life 1's bad ending canon? Since G-Man implies that Gordon has been unwilling and unsuccessful?
@@arhum1224 No, because Gordon dies at the end of HL1's bad ending. G-Man was most likely referring to how with the help of the Vortigaunts, Gordon has broken out of his control.
Me responding to every G-Man theory I've ever heard: Sounds about right.
From what Valve employees have said they make it up as they go along. The Combine weren't thought of in the first HL. They were designed so HL2 could move from taking place in a small facility to a more expansive world. The G-Man gives that sense that something beyond the events we see exists. But there's no big explanation yet. Whatever it turns out to be if it's ever revealed likely hasn't been decided yet.
@@oliverford5367 Yeah, its crazy to see fans make up such great theories of 'what could be' out of only handful of information....but the writers develop (most of) the story as they go on.
@@rustyesh I doubt they'll ever fully reveal it. The G-Man functions similar to the monoliths in 2001: A space odyssey. He shows that there's some kind of higher power behind the events we see, but what it is will never be revealed. Who his Employers are and what their endgame is will remain a mystery.
@@oliverford5367 Agreed.
Except the one that said G-Man is Gordon Freeman from the future, and G-Man stands for Gordon freeMan.
Between the 5 years of HL: Alyx and HL2, Alyx wasn't in stasis. Gman must likely let her go and repressed all her memories of meeting him. What the deal between her and the Gman was as far I'm concern was to exchange Eli 's already foreseen fate for her contract that would start-off 5 years into the future. Gman still needs Alyx to cooperate with Gordon to destroy the Citadel. Beyond whatever interdimensional affairs Gman has, what I see he is doing is everything and anything to make Eli's existence miserable.
Yeah, I think the breaking point in alyx memory would be right at the point of entering vault.
I dont get this idea, or why people are saying it. There was no vault. No vault existed in HL2. A massive floating ship, that comes crashing down into city 17, is something you would of heard about in HL2. You didnt.
Hence, the timeline has been altered. The events of Alyx, never happened in the Original 'storyline' of Half-Life.
@@draken5379 it's been 5 years between vault and hl2, combine made citadel in couple of years, and we don't really need mention of vault as it is not important
THIS. itd be such a plot hole if alyx wasnt let go.
maybe we'll see him release her in a dlc or something
@@draken5379 Half-life never happen it was all an illusion in our heads from Valve :P but that's how they sell VR and Steam.
I still think that there is some link between the Vorts and G-Man for a few reasons:
- The vorts are able to enter GMan's dimension and actually contain his powers (hl2ep1 + hl:a)
- They possess similar powers
- In HL2 EP2, when the player fails to protect White Forest from the Stiders, a G-Man like "employment screen" appears but it is written in a vortigaunt-like way ("The freeman has failed... The Magnusson was right...")
Could you please address some of this in a later video?
Perhaps vortigaunts nihilant and advisors are different steps of forced evolution
Finally a good video that ACTUALLY explains the story of Half-Life: Alyx.
not really, this video just adds a subjective interpretation to a relatively small portion of the story which has been explained a lot outside of this.
Maybe with this whole theme of rising above any leaders and having free will, on Episode 3 Gordon would get out of the way G-Man intended and would try to save Alyx. With the G-Man seeing his plans compromised, maybe and just maybe He'll put Adrian Shephard, who has been awaiting for orders and has been on stasis ever since Opposing Forces, out there to stop Alyx and Gordon. A full, and again Opposing Force to the Free Man...
You do know that valve does not care for opposing force right ?? I mean I liked him and I want him to come back (even though I have never played that game) but valve do not like it I believe.
@hell I mean I have heard + valve never brought him back + I wrote that sometime ago so
@@20_mihir48I mean after everything that is happening right now adrian is the only person that could stop gordon freeman
Hopefully With What Happens in Half Life: Alyx it Will Change the Plot of Half Life: 3 Significantly Enough to Make it so That the Leaked HL:3 Script is now Null and Void. And Valve can Surprise us With Something new.
Yeah but I would still love to see that script played out that way It can give us more context as to why G-Man did what he did Even though in both timelines he still chooses alyx Vance
Why Are You Typing Like This
i think that's the goal here
@@ketrub i Hope so
The leak was for Half Life 2 Episode 3 and it's clearly no longer being considered since Eli is alive and Alyx is taken by the G-Man now instead of at the Borealis like the script said.
Great video! Though there's one interesting theory I heard that seems to neatly avoid the question of Alyx's stasis. The short version is that G-Man can time travel. Now for further explanation. The G-Man starts loosing control due to the vortigaunt's interference in Episode 1, and from his end, the End of Episode Two may be FUBAR in his eyes. Gordon is basically beyond his control, the resistance is on the trail of completely stopping the combine by racing for the Borealis, and one of the Advisors has eaten Eli's brain, which may be unfavorable to him given that Eli seems to have some sort of awareness and some sort of plan to deal with the G-Man. Now, from the heart-to-heart in Episode 2, the G-Man says he "acted in the face of Objections" and "Plucked" alyx from black mesa. He had shown a personal interest in Alyx, possibly in defiance of his employers, whereas with Gordon "They agree" that he had "limitless potential". Given G-Man seems to have a penchant for stasising people as possible back up solutions, this may be rather normal. Which you mentioned, he tends to collect extraordinary individuals for later use. Now, onto the Time travel. In the scene where G-Man starts talking to Alyx, he seems to be copying himself and fading away, though the version that continues to talk to Alyx remains. Given his talk of nudging and the universe not being "inflexible" it's possible that he's literally running this scenario with Alyx over and over, figuring out which path is the most ideal for him by nudging the conversation, possibly by just one word, then resetting the encounter should it go awry.
Based on this, At the End of Episode 2, he decides to gamble on Alyx, being his previously frowned-upon special pick. He travels back in time and allows himself to be captured. The dialogue in HL:Alyx says the combine built the vault around an apartment complex, in the middle of a quarantine area, where they had tracked the G-Man to. That takes time, that doesn't just happen, even for the Combine. And The G-Man likely let them do it, simply standing there and looking out the window, like how Alyx finds him. His "Nudge" is allowing himself to be captured and letting Russel come into contact with the photo of the vault. From there, Alyx, goes through the game and rescues G-Man, unintentionally, proving to G-Man, and perhaps his employers, that she is worthy of hire and is a suitable replacement for Gordon Freeman. To finalize the arrangment, he knocks out two birds with one stone by offering Alyx her own "nudge" killing the advisor that kills Eli. Alyx thus makes the deal with G-Man and his fondness for the illusion of free choice, and the Advisors don't get access to what Eli knows about the G-Man by sucking his brain out. Now the loose ends there is that Gordon is completely on the loose, and Eli still has his plan and info, but perhaps the G-Man is making an underestimation. He's manipulated Eli before at Black Mesa, and Gordon was basically his biggest pawn for a while. He could be overconfident in his ability to predict their behavior and further manipulate them. As for why Old Alyx disappears but Young Alyx is in stasis...it's possible that the time between the two alyx's isn't actually relevant. Young Alyx and Ep2 Alyx are the same "Entity". This seems to fit with G-Man's MO. Time doesn't really seem to matter so much as what pawns are on the board, what entities are at their disposal, ect.
Did anyone notice that the advisor at the end noticed Alyx who was about to kill it, and looked at her. or is it just me
it does look at her
Because alyx was probably teleported there in that second, but she was gone the next. It's hard to tell because Eli doesn't specifically mention her teleporting, it's almost like only the advisor saw it's own demise, and that Eli was focused on his daughter, who disappeared.
My only problem with this theory is that in Alyx's ending, he says getting the Combine off Earth would be too inconvenient for his employers, and he words it in such a way that implies he *can* do this. Getting the Combine off Earth would be a massive humiliation to the Combine while also cutting off a good chunk of their resources, which feels very convenient to the interests of the Shu'ulathoi.
That would require a huge nudge, but that would’nt be a nudge, sinde a nudge is pushing a small thing in a certain direction. Such a Big nudge would’nt be a nudge
Draco Ultimus he has bigger plans....
G-Man lures The Combine to Earth in the first place by getting Black Mesa to test on a crystal (resonance cascade). So we can say that The Combine being on Earth is already a part of his plan to eliminate them completely, therefore nudging them off Earth wouldn't really help his grand scheme.
Also The Combine you encounter as Gordon Freeman is not really the mighty combine who fought the 7 hour war. As you might've experienced Gordon Freeman and the crew is able to fend off dozens or even hundreds of soldiers of The Combine singlehandedly. They probably came to earth with superweapons, conquered Earth and moved on to conquer elsewhere perhaps. They now only have an army of biologically assimilated human husks on earth which you encounter, which wouldn't be much of a loss for them anyways.
If you've read the HL2:E3 leak you can also see that. (I'll not spoil the "fanfic" any further in case you havent read it)
That wouldn't be a nudge, that would be him taking a fucking sledgehammer to the timeline's theoretical balls
His whole thing is working behind the scenes and setting off chains of events that outwardly seem to be pure random chance. Eliminating the Combine _directly_ instead of by releasing Gordon could possibly lead to his detection.
I don't believe that Half Life : Alyx takes place 5 years before HL2, it makes a lot more sense saying that the events in HL:A took place in a "pocket dimension" created by the g-man in order to see if Alyx was the right woman for the task g-man needs solving.
But hey, that's just a theory.
A GAME THEORY
A THEORY
If Half-Life 3 will feature Adrian Shephard and Collete Green. It would be really amazing, like SUPER amazing
I wish they'd make a game that takes place in the 7-hour war featuring Adrian Shepard again, they really gotta end off his story and it would be a cool change of pace.
@@DannyCheezits My problem with that is that Shepherd was detained by Gman & put into stasis so that he wouldn't tell the world what he saw. He was never "hired" by the Gman or his employers, merely detained as to make sure he can do no harm, & no harm can come to him. It doesn't make sense why he would be taken out of stasis only a few weeks after the incident for the war.
@@dwarvenmoray I don't really care about story I just want a half life game that doesn't cost $1060
@@DannyCheezits Fair Enough
Shephard didn't have a place in Employers plan. G-Man respected his abilities though and managed to put him in stasis in case he was ever considered needed again.
As much as I really like this theory, I think there's more going on that we simply won't know for some time. The main issue with this theory is that the Shu'uthaloi have nowhere near the same amount of power as G-man. G-man has the ability to go to any point in time and place which is an ability never seen by the grubs. While the Shu'uthaloi are definitely incredibly intelligent and capable of telekinesis and telepathy, they've never been seen creating portals or fading out of existence. They may be able to manipulate time, but this remains unseen. It may be possible that G-man works for them, but he is definitely of a race unknown at this point. His employers also continue to remain unknown. It's possible some of his employers are the Combine and Shu'uthaloi as we've heard Dr. Breen make mention that Gordon's contract is "up to the highest bidder." That said, G-man and his employers don't exactly seem to be on the side of the Combine necessarily. We know this since G-man was purposely captured by the Combine and was meant to be moved off world immediately. Also G-man did allow Gordon to destroy the Combine's citadel which shows he isn't working with them. What contradicts the idea he's against the Combine is that in HL: Alyx, he does mention that it isn't in his employer's interest to remove the Combine off earth. These are two things that seem at odds with each other and indicate that G-man is neither working with or against the Combine. What's more likely is that G-man and his employers are manipulating everyone in their favor for reasons we won't know. These reasons we will likely not understand until the end of the story of Half Life.
Very well said man. Cant ignore these facts.
he explains why g-man has more powers than a normal grub. because the gman is a fully matured hatched Shu'uthaloi, whereas the advisors are still in their pupa state and not fully developed.
@@haiperbus Again, even if the Shu'uthaloi do mature and gain new powers, the theory that they can time travel and teleport is based on speculation atm. It's never been explicitly been stated/ shown inside/outside the game.
@@solidsnake5644 weather or not they can time travel/teleport is up to wether you belive gman is a mature Shu'uthaloi or not. there are no other mature Shu'uthaloi we know of but gman can clearly do the above powers.
@@haiperbus So what you're saying is evidence of time travel/teleportation doesn't matter and this theory relies on major assumptions. It also sounds like you're using circular reasoning for this theory. You're conclusion that Gman is a Shu'ulathoi is also your premise.
I thought the advisors where "the combine" original race, but this video taught me differently. Just who is in charge? What does the original combine race look like.
The Combine might be a system rather than a race.
Isn't the Combine a multiverse empire?
"Who is he, and what he wants"
Perhaps it's What is he, and who he wants
10:02 missed the opportunity to play hazardous environments
When Alyx asks Gman WHO he is, he replies with "Perhaps WHAT I am is not as important as what I can offer you in exchange for coming all this way". Sneaky
Well doy he’s not human
"Gordon, before you head out to the borealis. There's a contact you should meet. He's resourceful and proven capable, I think his name is Shepard....Adrian Shepard."
Strange W A V E They need to bring him back whether its a spin off game or a side character.
@@MCB741 Yeah
Well the original Opposing Force game cane from Gearbox and not Valve themselves, and I don't think they will connect the stories together.
@@ZackMathissa So was Barney from Blue Shift though
@@rullestaden Barney is from Blue Shift though. What I was trying to say is that Valve never mentioned the story or included Adrian in any half-life game other than OF itself. Well, they probably have plans for him or not at all. Let's just wait and see.
"Merely living a 'Half-Life'"
*My mind literally blew up*
Go to bed like please go to bed
@@fxdedblue hell no
I’ve been waiting for this, cheers Max.
I just wanted to comment that :))
Reversing Eli's death was the plan all along, Remember the portal 2 secret radio's one of the messages was "ELI IS ALIVE".
No it doesnt. The secret led to an image of the Companion Cube on the moon.
do you think the quotes from the old games like "concequences" actually planned? or maybe its just a good use of a "mystery box" that they planted a possible tragic concequences and only now they made something up for this story. a good one that is.
100% thats probably how it works. but they also probably did actually plan the entire premise of the games around the concept of authentic self-awareness and the hidden hands that puppeteer in the background which render that awareness both true and false at the same time
so since this video's conclusion is based on that assumption, i'm gonna give that shit a Two Thumbs Up, yo.
I think it's really clever writing. It's extremely vague in a way that, intentionally or unintentionally, allows it to mean anything. When the player hears "unforeseen consequences" in Ep 2, and then hears that Eli knows G-Man and was told the same thing before the resonance cascade, their first assumption will be that the Borealis could cause a global catastrophe. Then when Eli dies, the logical assumption is that he was telling Eli about his own death. Now, after HLA, the logical assumption is that it means the abduction and "hire" of his daughter.
My guess is they originally meant the first two definitions. The phrase is deliberately vague in order to allow for the initial bait and switch, but the third meaning was never planned. The Episodes were infamously rushed, so it's safe to assume the writing was rushed, too, and they didn't realize that killing off Eli was a poor narrative choice until years later. In the intervening thirteen years, they had plenty of time to come up with a better story for HL3 than was originally planned, and were clever enough to find the opening they'd INADVERTENTLY left themselves. I would not be surprised if the eventual third installment includes other references/continuations that were never in Marc's Epistle.
The fact that items around the G-Man, before you free him, are floating in space, I expect that he's been trapped in some sort of stasis. But the fact that he's just standing there, casually looking out the window, suggests to me that he was expecting it. That the only reason they caught him, is because he *wanted* to be caught.
2:04 In the fan fiction of by Mark Laidlaw Alyx leaves with Gman after they discover and destroy the Borealis leaving Gordon to die. It seems she was convinced/tricked to coming with the Gman rather than kidnapped. The writers for Alyx also had help from Laidlaw with the story and it seems that she would end up with Gman either way.
Edit:
I have another theory that she freed Gman before, and when she asked "To get the Combine off Earth". He must've agreed and left and gave her wish by releasing Freeman 5 years later. When he realized Gordon was not cooperating with his demands, he could've gone back to take Alyx at that moment she freed him. There is a remnant of that first moment that appears when he says "That's a large nudge". Indicating that the outcome has been changed. Just my take on it, but yeah.
That might actually what happened. The G-Man used the free nudge he gave Alyx for freeing him as a way to free Gordon 5 years later while acting that the nudge is way too big, just so he can offer another nudge that Alyx WILL want even if she didn't know, not knowing the debt for freeing G-Man was already paid. Thus G-Man was able to kill 2 birds with one stone as he will free Gordon 5 years later anyway, he just used Alyx's requested nudge as an excuse
I think that freeing of Gordon Freeman is kind of temporary there's no way he's going to just capture alyx Vance if it didn't mean controlling Freeman through other means.A powerful entity like that just doesn't let you go and expects you to walk with no strings attached he still needs Freeman the same way he still needs alyx. But it does seem that Alyx is mine seem to have relapsed into a trance-like state back to five years before her father would go through at the end of Half-Life 2 episode 2. Five years before Gordon and I do think in some way she resents Gordon for what happened to her dad . It wouldn't be hard for such a young woman like that to come to the conclusion that someone her dad admired the most was powerless to stop one of the most important people in her life from getting taken from her.probably in the original timeline it wasn't supposed to go this way he probably seduced her with one of her most deepest desires
like in the Mark Laidlaw fanfiction script . But something must have went wrong in that timeline considering the fact that he release Gordon Freeman and they both left him but at the same time G-Man must have had a contingency in his back pocket incase alyx Vance ever try to betray him along with Gordon he could just rewind the clock. And start over erasing that timeline from existence or severing it from the main but still showing her things out of orderbut still keeping his promises to a certain type of degree with half-truths albeit very vague and confusing half-truths
(But this could completely wrongand we'll probably never know what happened in the original timeline)
Explains why Gordon has the Mark V H.E.V. suit seen in HL2 and the black-"headed" crowbar.
Just a kinda crazy idea. But is it possible HLA somehow takes place after EP3, and Alyx ended up using the Borealis to reverse the consequences of EP2? probably not what's going on, but theories are fun. lol
Funny how the Advisors are basically Water Bears (aka Tardigrades) which are the toughest sons of guns irl - they can dry up and then revive themselves and they are able to live in space. Also, they look almost identical
There's a resemblance, yes. Though I feel like the Advisors are some kind of parallel to a caterpillar that's about to undergo metamorphosis into a butterfly stage. Haha.
So your telling me the Combine cheated in the 7 hour War.
@@julatzschmulatz9607 we do tho
whoever Julatz Schmulatz was, curse you for deleting your own comment.
All wars are based on "cheating." Outcomes can be decided by who has superior weaponry or infrastructure. In the case of the Combine, they could teleport, which would give anyone unparalleled logistical advantages
Alyx is my favorite VR game, but the whole game is a trailer for HL3
I dont think its a New trailer only it also gave them to chance to see if fans whould have liked a vr half life
Well, some dismiss this game on this basis as an evidence of lazyness, but I think it's rather the evidence of incredible Badassery. They are like so BADASS that they make entire AAA VR game for teaser🤣. Absolute mad dogs who don't care about fans which turns out to be incredibly rad
Ending was absolutely haunting. Sat in a fetal position for the credits
I was shocked. And impressed. What a game, the top of AAA games.
Ok, but what does this all have to do with John Freeman who is Gordon Freemans brother?
He's stuck in limbo with Felix.
@@codemancz798 don't forget Mitchell Shephard
Man the ending of the game gave me chills.
This is one of the most interresting video's about a video game series ive watched in a VERY long time.
Subbed!
I've had a sorta meta-theory for g-man: that those with 'vortessence' compatibility have a 'coterminous' relationship with the player themself.
Essentially this is a "prequel" but one with the twist that some entities (admins, vorts, g-man) within this prequel have the knowledge of HL2-ep1-ep2 provided by the player through this coterminous relationship , that they didn't previously have in the original timeline.
This is why g-man appears to not just have knowledge of future events in HL:A, but *acts* on them, hiring Alyx and mentioning Gordon's disobedience/replacement despite the fact he's currently in stasis. So do the Combines/Admins, who somehow know who Alyx is and mention her *by name* without ever actually being told who this person is, maybe even now knowing the existence of G-Man that they might not have prior, hence the previously unmentioned capture of GMan and the Vault in HL:A (in-fact, WE know at least *some* locations of G-Man because we've lived through HL2!) . Even the Vorts mention her future's in dialogue ("he is dead, or will be", "remember, we are coterminous").
Alyx changes the result of, and dissapears in, both timelines similtanously, both at the end of 'HL:A' AND 'Ep2', because from the player's multi-timeline viewpoint, as the Vortigauns say, "there's no distance" between them. The HL:A timeline either ends or might as well do from our perspective, and the orginal HL timeline continues with the only change occuring at the end of Ep2. Only those who are coterminous like ourselves or the Vorts will know what caused that change.
Then you realize Half-Life 3 is a Battle Royale of the "Greater Creatures".
0:17 I misheard this as "If you are not very familiar with Half Life 4..." and experienced a solid half minute of confusion and concern that I had slipped into some parallel bizarro world.
Alyx Vance, Gordon Freeman, Adrian Shepard and any/all playable protagonists in the Half-Life single player universe are quantum immortals (UA-cam/Google quantum immortality). That's their value to the Gman.
Maybe the employers are us only metaphorically. An entity that represents the consumer.
A lot of talk in the comments about Alyx's split time line and comparison of HL2 events and this ending so thought I would mention a theory here which I don't want hidden in some else's comment but visible for everyone to discuss. Also, bare in mind this is just my theory and will remain to be so.
So one thing which is both evident in HL2 (Ep2 to be exact) and in the end of HL Alyx is the line "Unforseen Consequences".
Suppose these two words are in fact a telepathic command that was inbeded deep into Alyx's subconscious 5 years prior to HL2 during this meeting between her and the Gman?
Then suppose the conversation and memory was wiped and Alyx was conveniently released to the beginning of HL2 saving Gordon like she thought she was going to before entering the vault in Alyx. And suppose these memories of the past 5 years were covered up with fake memories telepathically injected into her mind so she felt normal at the time?
The evidence of this is the same as the treatment and bio-engineering of the combine soldiers. The soldiers memories of their previous lives were wiped apart from the memory of their home world - earth - hence throughout all of HL2 and Alyx we hear the tannoy "Failure means Off-World relocation" (or whatever the last part is but you get the picture). Also, just add here before you meet Alyx remember what one of the dudes says to you in the station: "Don't drink the water, they put something in it to make you forget - I can't even remember how I got here!?. Suppose the same thing happened to Alyx after her encounter with the Gman but before meet Gordon.
Now fast forward to HL2 Ep1, the Gman tries to get to you but is blocked by the vortigants - so the vortigants are aware of the jump back and forth nature of the Gman and why its their power keeping the vault sealed in H:Alyx. Perhaps they also see Alyx being taken and successfully block him? Anyways that was a minor note - fast forward now to when Alyx was severly injured by the hunter and lieing on the table being healed by the 3 vortigants - it's when they are distracted does the Gman choose this specific time to visit Gordon, he then kneels over Alyx and says to tell her father to "prepare for UNFORSEEN CONSEQUENCES" thus triggering a deep memory briefly... Reestablishing the telepathic link between past and future? When Alyx is healed she's holding the pain in her head and not feeling like herself - almost concussed if you will? Now fast-forward to Ep3 to when you reunite with Eli... Alyx then tells him to "Prepare for unforseen consequences" but it's the WAY she says it - robotic like - controlled - setting off a telepathic trigger connected with emotion similar to reminding the combine soldiers of their home world. Its here that Eli stumbles and holds his head as well - again - almost concussed. He asks Alyx to make a cuppa and when she's gone, he immediately starts talking to you about the Gman. This would also mean that the trigger was also injected in him during the chaos of black Mesa at the cost of loosing his leg to save Alyx (story for another time unless you already know it). This could also indicate that perhaps Gman had met Alyx as a child and had started telepathically manipulating her and watching over her since then? Perhaps the price was higher than his leg and besides, as we saw at the end of HLA, the Gman was expecting her after all? Either way, the two words "unforseen consequences" seems to be more of a trigger or code which is the link or rip with in the HL timeline. Eli even says it now he's realised the places have been swapped?
Also lastly Alyx is the perfect for the assignment because unlike Gordan, ELI and Adrian... She grew up during the change not before or obviously not after thanks to the suppression field.
But this is just my theory on it...
Congrats for sticking with me! 😜
I have been wondering what is on the Borealis for quite some time now and I think I have a theory about what was onboard when the ship teleported into another dimension. I have a suspicion that it is highly likely that portal guns were being transported during its maiden voyage. The combine are after localized teleportation and it would make sense that something so valuable would catch the G-man’s attention.
i believe that not even those at valve know what the g-man is.... anyways here are my theories:
1. The olga girl at the beginning is an important resistance member and thw town of St. Olga (in lost coast) is a reference to her
2. Laszlo Russell is probably laszlo from sand traps
3. The Scientist (for me) could be Azian Vance, said to have died at black mesa, she was mentioned many times, but the breen quote at the end of HL "you have your mother's eyes" , as if they worked togheter recently and since both served the combine, breen would have wanted to work with alyx since he worked with Azian. you know, family sitcom drama ahahaha
4. during the healing scene of alyx in HL2: EP2, g man says he plucked her out of black mesa because she had potential, even though she was a mere child, he did that because he already knew Alyx would save him from the vault.. So g-man saved alyx from black mesa so she could save him from the vault..
5. reading points 3 and 4, this is another motif for Azian to capture g-man, once he took Alyx from black mesa, azian tried all her life to hunt him down and capture him, thus having a motivation of securing his imprisinment, and not focus on the resistance.
6. the combine killer den and the beginning of chapter revelations, i think it s adrian, since only someone with military training and a survivor would manage to live so close to a combine base or being alive all this time.. the way he numbered the combine kills on the wall is a military thing, also he keep their eyes as trophies.. also those on his bed are not books (someone said it s barney) but are journals, adrian is know to keep a military journal in opposing force.
7. the nihilanth had no legs, it s similar to the stalkers, so i guess the combine already invaded his worl and many others. this is a galactic war where cosmic entities fight for their own survival.. G-man looks like that because he probably it s just a projection of somethnig more powerful, and as seen at the end he can multiply meaning the G-man is visiting not only others on earth but probably other worlds in the cosmos
8. G-man 's world got invaved and now he does everything in his power to find a solution to defeat the combine empire, the briefcase it s his source of power, probably fiven by his employers, so that he could put things back the way it was supposed to be, reaching an universal balance. it s like a pyramid scheme, where someone recruited him (probably gaben) and he hired others and so on, being just a puppet master , but someties someone cuts his strings (him being imprisoned in the vault or the vorts always holding him back).
9. just like in epistle 3, gordon is just a pawn in a chess game with bigger and stronger pieces, and he is used when the situation needs him to.
10. wheatly naving through space encountered the combine empire, and as an act of revenge, he told them where earth was and how to get there lol just kidding
I believe the G-man is above the Combine Advisors. Something else entirely
The Alyx put in stasis was the older Ep 2 Alyx while the younger Alyx was put back in her time but with the memories of the G-man and the Advisors erased. This is why in Ep 1 she didn't know what the Advisors were. She still remember the events of Half-Life Alyx, just not her encounter with the G-man or the Advisors, she have like a blur.
I chose this interpretation because I like the idea of a single linear timeline where HL Alyx, HL2, Ep1 and Ep2 all happened. Of course this is only my headcanon and I undestand if many of you prefer the "alternate timeline" interpretation. I suppose for a canon explanation we'll have to wait word from Valve.
I have the same version. But the question is how Gordon witnessed Eli's death. I guess Eli actually died but then G-man did rewind this event back to the moment where Eli's still alive and let Alyx from the past kill Advisor. And Gordon was unconcuius at the moment.
This theory with the G-Man being a hatched Advisor actually makes sense considering his knowledge and abilities as well as his somewhat broken speech as he stutters and pauses a lot
BUT gman probably tricked combine to get him prisoned just to get alyx's atention, gman pew pews across time remember ?
so alyx frees gman and gman is like sup biyatch its a me not gordon. since the original story teller isnt there anymore we gotta change the line a bit, a nudge if you will
Never thought of it from that angle before... I dig it!
This is exactly the video I was looking for, none of that summing up the events of the games, but going deeper and analysing. Thanks for the great video!
Have you all thought about Eli trying to call off opening the vault close to the end? What did he know. I wonder if that's a relevant topic.
I'm curious as well. He clearly figured out it was the G-Man in there, the question is how.
Oh, shit, I know how. He escaped the train with a Combine data core and went back to Russell's place to decode it. He had just decoded enough to figure out who was in there when Alyx entered the tractor beam. Quite simple, actually.
Wait doesnt that mean that. In the other timeline they never figured out who the g man was.
In this new timeline Gordon Freeman and Eli now have combined research on the Gman entity... is that new?
Combine research
@@unclevivid9028 Eli Vance has been aware of the G-man for a long time as in HL2 he says G-man spoke to him before the resonance cascade.
So when he found out G-man was imprisomed by the combine, he called the operation off because he had first-hand experience seeing G-man's capabilities.
At the beginning I agree with the "alternate timeline" theory but after play HL Alyx again and read different interpretations of the events I change my mind. Now I think there is only one linear timeline.
The 24 yrs old Alyx was the one take away by the G-man while the 19 yrs old Alyx was put back in her time but with the memories of the G-man and the Advisors erased.
I think we are inside a time loop wich start in HL Alyx and end in Ep 2. Alyx choosing to save her father always happened in the past before Half-Life 2. The events of HL 2, Ep 1 and Ep 2 need to happen because both Eli and 24 yrs old Alyx must end up in that hangar.
Fist the G-man let Eli died, than show it to the 19yrs old Alyx, than after Alyx agree to work for him G-man rewind time of few seconds to allow 19yrs old Alyx to save her father, than put her back in her time with no memory of the event. After that he take 24 yrs old Alyx from the hangar.
A much clearer version of the theory seen throug this comment box.
Thank you.
In Half-Life: Alyx, G-man looks more evil than ever. Do you think he is evil?
There are unused lines from EP1 where he snarls and sounds downright malevolent. I think there are 'errors' in his design. Maybe he's slightly affected by the mental parasite mentioned in the Breengrub lore?
No. Graphics have simply developed more since the last game enabling Valve to better show us their vision and intent for the G-man.
The shadow women is an older Alyx, she gains abilities similar to those of the gman in the future, so she starts to manipulate things in the past her self.
Crazy? probably.
Huh. Now that is a creative idea I haven't read before. I think it's unlikely, but I do enjoy hearing fresh ideas.
Nah. It seems like The Shadow Lady will be an entirely different character. Especially judging by the model that was data mined.
combineoverwiki.net/wiki/The_Scientist
I see many people struggling with the ending of the game. It's quite simple, Alyx frees the G-Man, very possibly she remembers nothing of the experience; five years later Gordon Freeman returns, the entire events of HL2 and its episodes play out the same. But the G-Man asks Freeman to get Alyx safe to White Forest, because with the death of Eli he gets leverage on her, and he knew that during the event of the prequel game, cause the G-Man sees time from a different perspective, very possibly Dr. Manhattan style, or at the least possibilities. If he sees possibilities, that's why he asked Gordon to protect her to White Forest.
King shit, people thinking its time travel
Interesting closing theory. It could explain why the Vortigaunt refer to Gordon as "the one free man" in HL2.
Alyx probably disappeared when Gordon and Eli passed out, and dog was gone.
"But the freest forms are mindless, rapacious, bent only on reproduction. It is in the dormant form they thrive. Philosophers. Scientists."
"But again, the hatched forms are airy nothings, of little import to the culture of the grubs. The Shu'ulathoi scarcely acknowledge them."
(from BreenGrub, I'm guessing you just ignored these?)
I still don't see how GMan is supposed to be a hatched Shu'ulathoi. Once they hatch they literally only make more baby Shu'ulathoi and lose their intelligence. Doesn't really describe GMan to me but whatever.
Based
@@fruitylerlups530 hail the based god
It's specifically the "imprint and change their own cells" part that explains perfectly why Gman's origins would likely be related to the Shu,ulathoi. And it makes sense that the Gman and his employers are a group of rebellious Shu,ulathoi that are hiding from the Combine and using Humanity to infiltrate and destroy them from the inside, it's probably something that will never be explained in the games because Valve likes mysteries, but that's certainly my headcanon.
So from what I understand Alyx is essentially dealing with DR. Manhattan. He exists at all periods of time, what happened in Alyx is that he was freed at one particular time. And what he allowed her to do was essentially change the outcome of her father's demise. But in order for this to happen she has to be plucked from reality at two specific times. At the end of Half Life:Alyx and Half life 2: Episode 2. So that might get really confusing. He didn’t create a separate timeline per say but there might be two different Alyx. Time travel is confusing.
I've been suspecting he wiped her memory and inserted her back though it is possible that the Alyx we know is just a duplicate of her
Gman must’ve gone to a parallel universe in order for these events to make sense. Otherwise Alyx would’ve completely seen her father’s death miles away and would’ve told him. She wouldn’t be around for the events of HL2, as she’d still be in stasis.
Gman doesn’t just exist in all times of a set universe, but all parallel universes. He used Gordon in one universe and eventually found him too challenging to continue using him, since the vortigaunts kept him away from Gman from being directly manipulated.
And so he intentionally got himself caught as a challenge for Alyx, to prove to his “employers” that Alyx was worth using to have the next set of events unfold in their favor. Alyx would be the new conduit for that change.
Gman is effectively a “scout” for his “employers”. His goal is to find people who have a certain skill-set to covertly manipulate the world and universe around them in their favor without drawing too much attention to them. Why they wouldn’t want to do that is unknown.
My theory is that Gman and his employers are merely playing a game. They want to manipulate many universes and dimensions without getting caught, not because it would be catastrophic for them (it wouldn’t at all), but because this is how they entertain themselves. They have to limit themselves in order to create challenging stakes.
This may not even be a profound secret in the realm of the half-life universe. Indeed the combine and Breen might’ve easily figured this, and simply never got around to telling Gordon. The combine and the Nihlinth might’ve even thought that they could somehow evade or outsmart these deities, and to amuse themselves Gman and his employers might’ve pretended to be more vulnerable or foolish than they truly were.
But in truth this was always an already won fight on the Gman and his employers. Ultimately Half-Life challenges the identities of fate vs free will.
Are we merely cogs in the machine? Servants or slaves to a larger force? Or do we have our own agency to define our own destinies and write our own lives?
Gman and his employers represent fate. They are the literal embodiment of predefined pre-modified virtues that become used in someone else’s favor. Gordon and Alyx become mere cogs in their machine.
But Gordon has already shown he has acted on his own accord, and can challenge the authority of the Gman. He, along with the help of the vortigaunts, have become agents of their own destiny and pursuers of their own path.
And now Gordon goes on his own path while Alyx becomes the new tool for Gman. Half life 3 will be Alyx rebelling against the Gman in her own ways, and showing that personal freedom always is more powerful than even a multidimensional deity.
Half life alyx is insanely good. Jeff was fantastic. Standing in front of the gman is crazy. I can't give this game enough praise.
Also, the facial modeling with all the characters are just. So. Amazing.
I absolutely loved your G-Man videos and i think they stand the test of time amazingly, i hope VALVe doesn't go douchebag with HL3 and repeals what you've said.
Well you need to consider these are just theories so he could be really wrong about g man
It's also worth mentioning that the end sequence of Alyx where you power up the gravity gloves with captured Vortigaunt energy is probably why the Vorts place her life in such high value. Their racial hivemind, aka "the vortessence" must have been able to feel her wielding all their captured power, and must have established some sort of connection to them.
I think Valve said that they wouldn't move the plotline a little further forward since they don't want non-VR HL fans to be left behind.
I'm glad they understand that, Half Life 3 is 100% going to be on PC
@@scotty420 You mean non-vr? PC was a given anyway.
I'm curious if they even know how they're going to do that yet. They never release a new Half-Life game without doing something new and extremely impressive. The first was AI and story. The second was physics. Alyx polished VR into something nearly seamless and hopefully repeatable by other developers. I'm curious what their plan is for the next Half_life or if it's even Half-Life 3. Perhaps another VR game to give more backround on Adrian Shephard? The assets are already present. I don't see them letting the assets waste away and not throw together several other games with it, be it Half-Life or not. I can't wait to see what Valve can put together that other franchises that have bigger budgets haven't.
Good work bro, can see u worked hard for this.. Subbed! 👍
I’ve often wondered a premise like this about life in general, not stating there is a god per-say but more of a force or presence even that lays out all possibilities and actions before us like programming a quest one can partake in a game.
If there is such a thing is freedom even a opinion, even if one would have “free will” too choose what paths they take if all paths are designed for them then there would be only like you say “half-life” one could live.
The only way one could have otherwise is to find a way to manipulate and control reality as it is to forge a path already not existing, what ever that could possibly look like.
The problem (or the lack of it) with these theories is that this is already the case, your decisions are limited and expanded based entirely upon chance (read: events whose causes lie out of your control in some capacity) - whether that chance is caused by human interference or for example a storm forcing you to not take a plane that would have otherwise crashed does not matter. I always believed in life being not random, but not directly controlled either, I'd argue it's emergent comparable to how the laws of physics stand on their own, but when interacting form a complex net of consequences layered in a way that causes our world to be the way it is.
TL;DR would be that life is not random, not controlled but emergently predictable.
Man your script for the finale portion, talking about life was great. Have a sub
Hey man, I've been wondering, and this might just be a theory. But perhaps the Nihilanth from the Black Mesa incident is a Shu'ulathoi in one way or another? from complexion to shape, it could be a hatched advisor taking such a form, also with the open head in relation to their psychic power. Just a hunch, what do you think?
I'm pretty sure it was referenced that he was indeed the last of his species which wouldn't be the case if he was a Shu'ulathoi.
@@n0cheat Ahh, I see. I might've missed this detail somewhere. Where did you figure this out?
@@Badguy292 Sadly i don't remember how i found out but you i just checked the same is said on nihilanth's half life wiki page.
@@n0cheat Aight thanks!
2 things i have to say:
I really like this comunity, people think so deep about the story, and you are by far my favorite story-teller of this series.
I do think that the next half life game would still be in vr, but will include Adrian or Barney. We didn't reallly meet Barney in half life 2 episode 2 , so that might be an option.
What I think happened is that Gman went back in time, let himself get capture d by the Combine, knowing that Alyx would "save him", allowing Gman to change the future
Came across your video. My partner and I were left reeling! Loved all your half life vids. I've now subscribed xD awesome theory and makes total sense.
Also I think the time being simultaneous is kinda not what is happening. I think it's more like the doctor and his TARDIS. He steps in and out of time at different points.
The gman we meet on half life 2 is before half life Alyx. Gordon isn't doing what Gman wants even after all that happened and what he went through.
So Gman steps back to the time of half life Alyx, gets caught with the aim to lure Alyx. He still enables for the future to play out as it did but the nudge in the right direction is now having a younger Alyx save her Dad. Then sealing her contract and then pulling her from her time in the "present" with Gordan Freeman which was the end of half life 2... And leaving Gordon there.
His nudge now is that Alyx has now had her experience getting to and freeing Gman. She has also met Gordon and seen what he can do.
But the difference? She has grown up in war and understands the combine and their threat.
Maybe what he wants Gordon to do is to wipe out the combine. And a child of war, oppression, and struggle will be more likely to do what is needed.
Or at least nudge it in the direction to go down that path
Or the freedom vs oppression thing that was pretty good haha
I kind of love the idea that they caught G man in a big hexagon
Just realised that since Half Life : Alyx, the Gman has canonically put 3 people in stasis, namely Gordon, Adrian, and Alyx
HALF LIFE 3 CONFIRMED ???
I like how Half-Life Alyx is really Half-Life 2 Episode 3. Get ready people the new timeline branch is set for Half-Life 3!
I feel like gman employers is Valve and Valve orders gman to hire an employee that will set the story for the game. It might also be why Gordon is no longer hired anymore because he was “unwilling” to follow and was hesitant therefore by firing him and taking Alyx, another story will be set but this time its Gordon.
As if gman is the person who breaks the fourth wall. His power is omnipotence. And in order to satisfy his employers which is Valve, he hires characters to be the set in the event he will create.
The characters themselves weren’t created by Valve but an actual sentients therefore Valve could not create their own story since they couldn’t control these characters but what they could do is make gman who sole purpose is to set the course.
There is a dream theory. That actually makes the most sense.
The whole game is nothing but a dream for Alyx, or a "Virtual Reality", a fake reality just the like one the player experiences (she lives a Half Life).
Gman made this for Alyx just to see if she is capable of what the Gman needs.
The whole game takes place at the end of Episode 2 after Eli dies. That's when he starts to make Alyx dream. It's just 1 or 2 seconds in real life but a few hours inside the dream for her. After he sees what she is capable of, he gives her a choice and shows what is actually happening in real life - her fathers death, but then he turns back the time for few seconds and gives Alyx the power to overcome the Advisor and save her dad. After that he takes Alyx to the stasis. Secret ending scene plays.
And let's be real. How the hell would you be able to imprison Gman? He is an omnipresent and omniscient and maybe a godlike being who is able to predict the future, control time and space etc. You can only imprison him, if he wants to be. Like to test Alyx.
Another small "evidence" for a dream is the start of the game. It just starts on the balcony from a white blinding light. It just felt so random to me, out of nowhere. Maybe it's nothing but I thought it's weird. My other evidence is the movie Inception in where Leo says "You never really remember the beginning of your dream, you always wind up right in the middle", which points to my point before.
And at the end of the game there are these mirrored rooms - it also reminded me of Inception.
The game has a thing with cats. There are a lot of cats to be found in the game. And this reminded me of Matrix and the Déjà vu cat.
But it's just a theory, a game theory.
P.S: If this wasn't a dream. How did he take Alyx from the past and still have Alyx gone from the future.
Alyx already disappears in the past. Therefore can't appear in HL2. But she clearly appears in all games and disappears in front of Eli And Gordon at the end of it.
Doesn't make sense any other way.
it would’ve been really cool to see g-man in the portal franchise in some way. not only does chel have a device capable of local teleportation (one that would be of great interest to the combine) but she also seems to have the same importance gordon does. that unique ability to overcome impossible odds.
Apparently Chell was going to be part of the HL story. Furthermore, there was going to be a reference to the G man in Portal 2 where Wheatley was going to tell Chell a man in a suit with a briefcase was looking for her, but a lot of things were changed.
I'm not really sure about G-Man being an enemy of the Combine. When Alyx asked him to get the Combine off Earth, he said it would against the interests of his employers
It would be against the interests of his employers because it would reveal the level of control they have over the mechanisms of the universe. Doing that would cause the various power structures in the universe to rebel against him and his employers.
And anyway, even if what I said wasn't true, why would they need to forcibly confine G-Man if he wasn't the Combine's enemy?
@@maxderrat "it would reveal the level of control they have over the mechanisms of the universe"
That would be like the old trope "I'm only using 10% of my power", I honestly don't think the writers would pull something like that. It seems that the G-Man is neither an ally nor an enemy of the Combine, he helped the Resistance take down the Citadel (by putting Gordon at the right place at the right time), but he also wants the Combine to stay in control of Earth. His exact intentions are obviously unknown.
Also, let's imagine a hypothetical situation where he accepted Alyx's request of "getting the Combine off Earth". He wouldn't necessarily need to use godlike powers that "reveal the level of control he has over the universe", he would probably just nudge things at the right place at the right time, just like he has always been doing, in order to eventually get the Combine out.
As for why did the Combine capture him: It's simple, they wanted to study him and maybe use him as a weapon, given how powerful he obviously is.
And one last thing: It's possible that G-Man's employers aren't necessarily a single group, but rather that G-Man accepts offers from whoever "pays" him more. Doctor Breen tells Gordon at the end of Half-Life 2 that "your contract is open to the highest bidder", and he even tells the player directly that he is considering hiring the G-Man's services, with the intention of putting Gordon as the leader of the Resistance.
The G-Man also accepted an offer from Alyx in exchange for rescuing him, which led to preventing Eli's death.
I still want to make it clear that, even though I disagree with a lot of things, these are by far THE best Half-life analysis on youtube, keep up the good work
@@rudolph2937 The reason why the power level thing is a trope is because it's basic strategy to never reveal your full hand until you have to. I don't think it's much of a refutation of the possibility that G-Man represses his influence to 'nudges' - just my two cents.
@@maxderrat Alyx's wish was naive because getting rid of the combine was easier said than done when their influence was universal, G makes it seem his employers still have need of humanity in their plan.
They dont want to take the combine off earth. They want to take the combine off the universe and Earth plays a huge part in it
Excellent video, Max!
One piece of feedback: please consider increasing the FOV of your VR gameplay recordings. I found that being extremely zoomed in to your HMD view made the footage incredibly claustrophobic and hard to follow. If you use OBS and the Index/Vive, there is an OpenVR Input plugin that allows crop adjustment-if you're using an Oculus headset, use Oculus Tray Tool to adjust FOV to 2.0.
I hope this helps! I'd hate for the quality of your scripts and edit to be negatively impacted by such a simple fix. Be well!
I'm pretty sure alyx is brought into stasis only at the end of HL2:Ep2.
2:20 a personal theory of mine is that when you (as past Alyx) accepted the “deal” g-man used his power to transfer your (past Alyx’s) conciseness through time and put her into the future version of herself. Making it so that all of half-life 2 still happened but the end could be changed.
I think there are 3 big clashes and conflict going in for hl3. There is the good side, the hero, Gordon Freeman, who represents the best of humanity and wants to save the Earth from the combine (and now, save alyx from the g man). The neutral side is gman, who simply wants the oppressors (the combine) gone, no matter if Earth is sacrificed, and fjnally the evil, represented obviously by the combine. The only way for the good to win is for Gordon to ascend and find a way to both defeat the combine and save the Earth. If the g man truly wants the combine defeated and Gordon is the best tool, it would still make sense to Control alyx, because it would give Gordon a reason to defeat the combine as it would satisfy the gman and save alyx. Or maybe alyx is truly his tool, and Gordon Will have to stop him either way to save the earth himself and become the right man In the right place. The final Clash for freedom would be the cease of Control by the shu ulathoi, which is what part 1 and 2 talk a lot about. What u guys think?
I dont think G-man wants the combine to be defeated, think of what G-man said to Alyx when she asked for him to get rid of combines "That would be a considerably large nudge, too large, given the interests of my employers" i dont think he's talking about his employers requests to nudge just a little, i think he's talking about how combine getting off the earth is against his employers interests.
Feel like combine on earth is needed for something to happen, presumably for Gordon to force his way into borealis and do something ? Maybe his way of gaining favor with alien races, namely Vortigaunts, will help him seperate the combines, since they're bunch of different alien races "combined" together under one nation/rule/name ?
Also i dont think G-man is a hatched advisor, i think whatever G-man is, you slowly gain that power of being able to nudge and see events by being used by G-man as a tool, which slowly turns you into a either just a emotionless puppet (i.e. G-man) or they're just so far above humans or any other life form that they don't care about a few people dying for a satisfactory nudge in time.
Predictions, Gordon is gonna be able to remember the 2 endings, HL2:Ep2 ending of Eli dying, and HL:Alyx ending of him staying alive, which is where we'll see that he slowly gains the ability to see events and how it will unfold, because he's been used by G-man for a while, and he will use this power to defeat G-man.
Also, i think Alyx is gonna become a full fledged G-man by the time we get to her.
Came here expecting "Oh no another G-Man is Gordon Freeman from the future video".
Well, I must say you've proved yourself a decisive man. As for my like in the video... I think you've earned it.