Alyx + G-Man speculation

[motbob]

In the recent IGN interview, Eric Johnson had this to say about the role of the G-Man in Episode 1:

"...the G-Man loses control of Gordon due to the rise of a third power. Clearly, he's not very happy about this."

He mentions this "third power" in other interviews. Could it be Alyx?

Remember at the end of HL2, when it was mentioned that "interesting offers" had been made for Gordon's services?

Perhaps the offers came from the combine, and an objective that Gordon receives from G-man in Episode 1 will be to kill Alyx or Eli or someone else on the resistance. But since Gordon has become infatuated with Alyx over the course of the game, he refuses to betray her and revolts against the G-man.

 

[Pesmerga]

Gordon couldn't be "infatuated" with Alyx. You are Gordon, and some people simply would prefer to choke the bitch.

 

[99.vikram]

Those people are idiots then. Being irritated is one thing, but wanting to kill an NPC because she has some lame lines is just...qoinky

 

[Pesmerga]

...yeah.

...it's not like the story could ever revolve around the player's choices. This theory is dead.

 

[Darkside55]

Alyx is already allied with a power: the resistance. So no, they are not the third power. Also, welcome to the forums.

The third power are the G-man's employers.

 

[MorganFreeman911]

how do you know that for sure?

 

[Darkside55]

I go up to the mountains and receive a sign. Then I come back down to the forums, and tell what I have heard. Thus it is, and shall come to pass.








Seriously, it's all logic and reasoning. We need to look at who has been seen, who has been mentioned, and conversely look at those who have been absent. We know that there will be a third power, we know that they have something to do with the G-man and the "interesting offers" he's received, and we know that they will impact Gordon in a large way.

First thing you need to realize is that a "power" in this case is defined as a large group who have a specific amount of control; a world superpower, for example. Thus, the power cannot be a single person or a small grouping of people. The current powers in Half-Life that we have seen are the human resistance, and the Combine.

When some people heard about the third power, they immediately thought that it would be the Combine--that is, the actual Combine, the race of spaceslugs and their invasion forces. But this cannot be. Despite the fact that we have not seen the real Combine (aside from a brief glimpse of synths and the advisor), they are not a separate power than the trans-human arm of the Combine. The whole of the Combine, including metrocops, overwatch, and Breen, as well as synths, advisors, and whatever else, are ONE power. So the Combine are not the new power.

The human resistance is another power. The remaining humans who are not modified, brainwashed, or voluntarily helping the Combine constitute the largest amount of the populace, and although they're downtrodden and surpressed, they still constitute a power. They are numerous, and are changing their situation. At the end of Half-Life 2, they are actually the more powerful force in City 17, as demonstrated in Follow Freeman and Anticitizen One. They're already a power, they have already contracted Freeman through the G-man (so it was not one of his new or interesting offers), and therefore they cannot be the power. Also, both the Combine and the resistance are already affecting Gordon Freeman's life. We need to look at someone new, someone who will affect Gordon in a completely different way, and is tied to the G-man and his offers.

So who is left? In the Half-Life story, there have been four powers; the two I have already mentioned, the Xenians, and the G-man's employers, who have been alluded to but never seen. The Xenians (which consisted of the controllers, grunts, vortigaunts, and the Nihilanth) are out of the picture for the time being. The vortigaunts are also allied with the resistance. So it cannot be the Xenians. Through process of elimination, we only have one answer left: the G-man's mysterious employers.

They fit all of the criteria: they are a new power, as-yet unseen by gamers. As the employers of the G-man, and by proxy the employers of Gordon Freeman himself, their revelation will affect Gordon Freeman in a completely new way, and with huge ramifications. They could be the ones who authorize the offers Freeman gets; they could be the ones making the offers themselves. With Gordon Freeman now escaped from the G-man's control, they are out of an agent, and would probably be trying their best to get him back into service. Perhaps they have multiple agents who will now try to swoop in and pick up Freeman, now that his contract with the G-man was abruptly terminated. The fact that the G-man is referred to as an "interdimensional bureaucrat" by the Episode One site also implies that his employers may be otherwordly; extraterrestrials vying for your services impacts you in a VERY big way. Everything fits.

This is the only plausible solution. A fifth power in the Half-Life world would not be unheard of, but why create a new power when you already have one that not only DEMANDS an explanation, that has not only been hinted at in two endings, but also meshes in perfectly? The third power is the G-man's employers. I'm calling it.

 

[Asknoone]

Need I say more?

 

[wolven_rage]

Good explanation, i hadn't even heard of this new power until after i had started writing my own little story on here and i was going to introduce a new threat so i might as well do it like you said, also if there are multiple agents then i hope that they don't do them like th Wachowski's did Agent Smith clones in The Matrix cause that would suck.

 

[Asknoone]

I go up to the mountains and receive a sign. Then I come back down to the forums, and tell what I have heard. Thus it is, and shall come to pass.








Seriously, it's all logic and reasoning. We need to look at who has been seen, who has been mentioned, and conversely look at those who have been absent. We know that there will be a third power, we know that they have something to do with the G-man and the "interesting offers" he's received, and we know that they will impact Gordon in a large way.

First thing you need to realize is that a "power" in this case is defined as a large group who have a specific amount of control; a world superpower, for example. Thus, the power cannot be a single person or a small grouping of people. The current powers in Half-Life that we have seen are the human resistance, and the Combine.

When some people heard about the third power, they immediately thought that it would be the Combine--that is, the actual Combine, the race of spaceslugs and their invasion forces. But this cannot be. Despite the fact that we have not seen the real Combine (aside from a brief glimpse of synths and the advisor), they are not a separate power than the trans-human arm of the Combine. The whole of the Combine, including metrocops, overwatch, and Breen, as well as synths, advisors, and whatever else, are ONE power. So the Combine are not the new power.

The human resistance is another power. The remaining humans who are not modified, brainwashed, or voluntarily helping the Combine constitute the largest amount of the populace, and although they're downtrodden and surpressed, they still constitute a power. They are numerous, and are changing their situation. At the end of Half-Life 2, they are actually the more powerful force in City 17, as demonstrated in Follow Freeman and Anticitizen One. They're already a power, they have already contracted Freeman through the G-man (so it was not one of his new or interesting offers), and therefore they cannot be the power. Also, both the Combine and the resistance are already affecting Gordon Freeman's life. We need to look at someone new, someone who will affect Gordon in a completely different way, and is tied to the G-man and his offers.

So who is left? In the Half-Life story, there have been four powers; the two I have already mentioned, the Xenians, and the G-man's employers, who have been alluded to but never seen. The Xenians (which consisted of the controllers, grunts, vortigaunts, and the Nihilanth) are out of the picture for the time being. The vortigaunts are also allied with the resistance. So it cannot be the Xenians. Through process of elimination, we only have one answer left: the G-man's mysterious employers.

They fit all of the criteria: they are a new power, as-yet unseen by gamers. As the employers of the G-man, and by proxy the employers of Gordon Freeman himself, their revelation will affect Gordon Freeman in a completely new way, and with huge ramifications. They could be the ones who authorize the offers Freeman gets; they could be the ones making the offers themselves. With Gordon Freeman now escaped from the G-man's control, they are out of an agent, and would probably be trying their best to get him back into service. Perhaps they have multiple agents who will now try to swoop in and pick up Freeman, now that his contract with the G-man was abruptly terminated. The fact that the G-man is referred to as an "interdimensional bureaucrat" by the Episode One site also implies that his employers may be otherwordly; extraterrestrials vying for your services impacts you in a VERY big way. Everything fits.

This is the only plausible solution. A fifth power in the Half-Life world would not be unheard of, but why create a new power when you already have one that not only DEMANDS an explanation, that has not only been hinted at in two endings, but also meshes in perfectly? The third power is the G-man's employers. I'm calling it.

I agree, but a teency flaw. Gman loses control over Gordon due to the third power, and isn't very happy about it. Are we saying Gman is now against his contractors?

 

[Solver]

Not a flaw in itself, why would that be a problem? The G-Man can be, proverbially speaking, fired. And thus the employers fire him, and try to take Freeman out of his control. G-Man's pissed. Sounds feasible.

What I got more excited about is that the interview said that the G-Man's relationship with other characters will be explored in the episodes. Woo hoo! So we will be getting more G-Man material, actually learning something about him... yay.

 

[Asknoone]

Not a flaw in itself, why would that be a problem?

Hence teency

 

[Llama]

I agree, but a teency flaw. Gman loses control over Gordon due to the third power, and isn't very happy about it. Are we saying Gman is now against his contractors?

Maybe not. They just make him do it, and seince he is an employee, he couldnt argue.

 

[jondy]

Maybe not. They just make him do it, and seince he is an employee, he couldnt argue.

This is what I'm wondering about... how much does the Gman rely on his employers? Is he able to manipulate Gordon without their resources? And is he apathetic towards the future of humanity? ('I have a fascination with those who adopt and survive against all odds... they rather remind me of myself')

 

[Darkside55]

I'll always believe that the G-man has great concern for humanity, despite his cool exterior. Unless I'm told otherwise by the game, I'm always going to believe him to be an agent of humanity.

And yes...the new information about the third power releasing Gordon Freeman came right after I posted in this thread. It's certainly a flaw...but it can still fit. I don't believe the G-man's employers would fire him, like Solver said, but as Llama pointed out they could certainly try and take control of Gordon Freeman. In fact, if my overarcing theory about the G-man's employers is correct, and their organization structure is exactly like how the G-man's and Gordon's relationship is--a supervisor, and a field agent for any given world--I could actually see one of the G-man's employers breaking out Gordon in exchange for his services, perhaps on another world. For the time being, it still fits.

However, now that we know that this third power, this rising power is responsible for freeing Gordon Freeman, we can play devil's advocate and explore the possibility of it not being the G-man's employers. After reading the interview, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out who else it could be. Aside from some new, yet-unheard-of group, there's really no one else. The best I could come up with within the current known powers of the Half-Life universe would be the vortigaunts of the resistance, being able to (somewhat) touch Gordon through the vortessence, and would perhaps be able to bring him out of it. But again, they're part of the resistance, which is its own power, and in addition to that the vortigaunts aren't interested in forming their own group, nor are they rising in numbers, ability, or control. They also could not be making any offers the resistance could not make (I refuse to believe they would allow anyone the vortessense, even if they COULD grant access to it), and it would neither be a "new" or "interesting" offer.

So if it isn't the G-man's employers, it must be some heretofore unmentioned group; a deus ex machina that frees Gordon Freeman from stasis for unknown purposes.


On a less "serious discussion" note, I was discussing this news in my IRC channel, and we were joking about who else it could be from the HL universe. We came up with the lights from OpFor that lead Adrian, being quantum beings interested in stopping hostile alien forces; Adrian Shephard himself; biozeminades; and Race-X. Hehe, that conversation actually went like:

Me: "This development is not good. Who else could free Gordon Freeman?"
My friend Putte: "Race-X!"
Me: "SHUT UP! YOU SHUT YOUR F*CKING MOUTH!"
Him: "Comin' to save the day!"

 

[Darkside56]

^ Agree

 

[99.vikram]

The Gman gets romantically involved with Alyx, even as his employers fire him for violating the code of conduct. Gordon, in the meantime, loses his sanity and runs amok killing everything in sight screaming, "I dream of cheese too!!" :sniper:

I can see it now....

 

[susko]

I think that whatever the 3th power will be, it will be the best thing that ever happened to Gordon, cuz he really needs to break free of the G-man. As Gman is just another guy like Breen (of course much more powerfull and über) still just after the money. Oh yeah Gman is definitly human.

So i am looking for the day when Gordon says **** the bastards, lets save humanity!

 

[Rizzo]

Gordon whould not kill any of his friends simply by order. Gman puts him there becouse he knows Gordon will get help from them. To put him on, say the combine side, whould not work out.

 

[Langolier]

I don't see why the main Combine forces and the "Trans-human Overwatch" couldn't become their own factions. The "Trans-Human arm of the Sector 17 Overwatch" has proven to be a failure anyway. Perhaps they're to be liquidated?

 

[Darkside55]

Entirely possible. However, right now they're still part of the Combine and they're still your opponents, so they're still in the same group--despite whatever pending fate they have.