G-Man: the True antagonist

[mastapenguin]

Here's the gist of my theory,

G-Man, that mysterious dude, is actually actively seeking the destruction of humanity.

Now the support.
We basically know that when the Combine hit Earth, the completely decimated the standing forces, stopping only when Dr. Breen took control and negotiated a surrender on behalf of the human race.

At this point, the inevitable future of the human race is complete assimilation into the Combine. They'd be mockeries of their former selves, but there would still be humans in the universe.

However, G-Man introduces Gordon Freeman, and everything changes.

Gordon, in his mildly guided shooting spree, does several important things. First, he riles up the populace into a full scale revolt. Everyone in the city without a suit has basically picked up a gun and started shooting at people. Second, he blew up all the research the Combine got from Dr. Mossman on local teleports. The teleport in Nova Prospekt probably represents years of leaked information from Mossman, and it might be the only one the Combine have. Finally, he got the personal attention of the Combine advisor when he blew up the citadel.

It's at this point that Gordon is abruptly removed from Earth by G-Man.

So, what kind of outcome are we looking at? The local teleportation technology, arguably the only reason the Combine are bothering with Earth, is now gone. The population itself is in open revolt. This isn't the isolated guerilla groups of before. Now every non-Combine human on the planet is a potential threat. And with Breen gone or incapacitated, the "boss" is now a psychic alien who really doesn't give an antlion turd about the wellbeing of the human race. All this, and Gordon Freeman is mysteriously AWOL.

In a nutshell, what G-Man accomplished by placing Gordon on Earth is ensure that the human race is doomed to destruction.

But, as detailed in Episode 1, Gordon returns! And, in accordance with lone heroes faced with impossible odds, is bound to achieve victory. But, if G-Man wants the destruction of the human race, this would run at odds with his goal.

This suggests that throughout Episode one onward, the G-Man is possibly going to be a major antagonist. Moreso, possibly, than Dr. Breen.

In fact, I wouldn't rule out Gordon joining forces with an extradited Dr. Breen, defending him against the forces of the Combine and G-Man's "employers".

 

[Darkside55]

Interesting theory, but I believe the way you're looking about the circumstances for evidence is wrong. You're right about what is going to happen now that the humans are in revolt, and the Combine's response now that Breen's gone, but it's doubtful that the G-man's overall plan is the annihilation of human beings.

While the G-man must have known the outcome of sending Gordon against the Combine, he did it for the purpose of liberating humanity. Some may say that Gordon Freeman was only licensed out to the resistance because of some price they paid for his services, but there's no evidence as to what that is, or even if said bidding was active at the time. What I mean by that is, no one knows when the bid for Gordon Freeman started...it could've well happened after Freeman was loosed in City 17. We also know that the G-man won't take certain offers, under normal circumstances. So why work for the resistance?

You might say that's helping build your case against him--if he purposefully let the resistance use Gordon to trigger the destruction of humanity--but the fact is that aside from the purpose of releasing the Combine grip in City 17, we have no idea what his motives are. And despite the fact that he removed Gordon from the picture at the end of HL2, only to have Gordon escape, there's nothing suggesting that he would've removed Gordon from the picture for good. Gordon's next mission might've been another to further help humanity; we're really not sure.

But here's the real problem I'm finding with your theory: why? For what purpose could the G-man want to destroy the human race? What would that serve? While I can think of a few off-the-wall reasons, there's no suitable purpose that fits. The extinction of the human race accomplishes nothing. Letting them become synths and stalkers would've served exactly the same purpose. In addition to that, were it really his idea to have the human race annihilated, he could've easily sealed that by killing Breen. As his liason at Black Mesa he had access to him, and he would've had access to him at any time afterward, during the Seven Hour War or the Combine occupation. Even if he couldn't kill him personally, we know he has at least one more agent in stasis who could've taken care of the "problem." Kill Breen early, and perhaps go as far as to kill any remaining BMRF personnel, and the Combine would've gone through with their original plan. Why wait to act until such time as the Combine's control has become lax, and they have already pulled off their main force on Earth? It's counter-productive to your argument.

Finally I'd like to point out an argument I often bring up in these types of G-man threads: his npc file has a comment, "// misguided representative of Earth." That seems to say it all.

 

[Asknoone]

Gman is a bad guy, Darkside...you have to stop denying it.

 

[Darkside55]

Never! Just like I believe Breen was a goodguy. But, I could always be wrong...you have to understand, I tend to sympathize with the villains. They're just misunderstood. ;(

 

[mastapenguin]

Why, Darkside? That's a little difficult, because the GMan is, as you said, so mysterious. We don't have any idea what he's doing, and he could just as easily want to help humanity as hurt it.

but here's some theories.

Maybe he wants to prevent the Combine from gaining the benefits of human tech. Chief among these is the local teleports, but who's to say something like the Gravity Gun or the Tau Cannon wouldn't be helpful to the combine as well? If GMan's employers really didn't want the Combine to have that stuff, they would probably simply destroy humanity. Liberating humanity would make them susceptible to future attack, and if you take the viewpoint of some incompassionate alien politico, would probably not be cost effective. Much easier to simply force the Combine into destroying a boon, than trying to save it yourself.

And this one's a little more far-fetched: Why rule out intra-Combine rivalry?

Another Combine advisor might be out for a power grab, targeted against the advisor for Earth. I'd assume having a planet you control erupt into full rebellion would look bad to your superiours. And then you enter workplace politics, except on a universal scale. Advisor #1 has a planet go into rebellion, Advisor #2 tells boss that he could possibly save it, boss likes #2 better, considers promotions and all that.

Who's to say immense, psychic beings don't have petty power squabbles?

 

[Rizzo]

I like the baddies, they are so cool.

 

[cquinn]

Gman is good, because his name starts with a G for Good.

If he was a bad guy, then he would be Bman.

Gman has his own agenda, that is certain, but it is no more as simple as seeking the destruction of humanity than his actions after the resonance
cascade were designed to lead to the 7 hours war. His actual goals, and the consequences of his and Gordon's actions as the story plays out are not necessarily related.

 

[Rizzo]

Darkside, we dont know Gman was hired by the resistance. It could that the third power do not wish for the combine to have local teleport.
Now with that mission completed, the third power sees gman as a threat. Puting an end to his "hero for hire service".

I belive Gordon will have a show off with the Gman and it won't be over some tea and biscuits.
Cquinn im pretty sure you know Gman isnt realy his name.

 

[Darkside55]

Rizzo, we know that the resistance hired Gordon from the G-man because of certain scenes and bits of dialogue. The resistance knew Freeman was coming, they were preparing for his arrival; Alyx and Eli try to cover up the fact that Gordon was bid on; we see G-man speaking to Odessa Cubbage before Freeman arrives. He is working with the resistance.

MP, the point is that if the G-man and/or his employers didn't want the Combine to have any sort of human technology, they could have gone about it in a much easier way. It would have been just as well to shoot Breen in the head, rather than go through these 20-year preparations for Gordon Freeman to destroy humanity. If that is really the G-man's ultimate goal, he's basically built a Rube Goldberg device for doing it, going back all the way to Black Mesa (and possibly before).

The idea of Combine advisors playing against each other is interesting. That'd be something to see, for sure, but I can't really imagine it happening. I think that if there were any kind of rivalry between the slugs, they wouldn't have been able to form such a massive, effective, universal empire. It's possible, but not really all that plausible. It would be kinda cool, though. Imagine a group of Combine overlords sitting around talking about conquests, and being like, "Oh man, did you guys hear Advisor Bob lost Earth? What a shmuck."

 

[bigburpco]

Gman is good, because his name starts with a G for Good.

If he was a bad guy, then he would be Bman.

No, he would be bald man. And he isn't bald, so there

Agree with Darkside about the Cubbage thing. But looking at it from another perspective, it could just be a mask over the fact the Gman wanted to annhilate the human race.

 

[cuzza07]

the gman is an alien from a far off planet, he disguised himself as one of the old scientists from black mesa, explaining why there is a pic of him in dr kleiners office, presuming that the gman can travel thru space nd time, he knew that gordon wud end up in city 17 and simply travelled bk to blakc mesa to visit dr kleiner knowing wot was goin to happen visiting gordon along the ay , makin sure he did things ryt, however this causes parodoxes, but the gman wud relaize this and can actually morph into anything... suggesting that the gman is every single character in the half life series nd is simply fukkin with gordon


...or


The Gman is barney from the future, unfortunately he has been mutated by a beam of cascade which gordon released, and has made him talk funny and look funny, he wears a suit cos he has never been important so wants to act it, unfortunately he had a bang on the head in the future nd 4got he was barney.... bt 4 sum reason has dreams about a man called gordon freeman, he checks him up on the internet nd realizes he worked at blakc mesa, he goes to the new blakc mesa and is hit by a beam of light which sends him bk in time, he is in the old black mesa searching for this gordon freeman, he sees him on his way to the experiment, barney or gman suddenly realizes thast the beam of light has causes him to be able to transport places and thru time etc... he then goes on a mission to mess up gordons life, nd sets up all these things to make gordon look good but is eventually going to embarrass him in some way.... in hl3 he realizes he is gordon nd subsequebntly saves the world with gordon, which explain how in the fututre barney was not dead after the beam of light took away his memmory.... THE END

 

[morgs]

If the G-man wants to wipe out humanity, why did he send Gordon to wipe out the combine?

The only answer is if not that, is that he wants Earth for himself, or for his Employers.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Darkside, its "misunderstood representetive of the people"

Two things 1) people could mean anything
2) always accept in game dailogue over the SDK...for all we know that should have been deleted and was part of an older plan for the gman.

the gman is an alien from a far off planet, he disguised himself as one of the old scientists from black mesa, explaining why there is a pic of him in dr kleiners office, presuming that the gman can travel thru space nd time, he knew that gordon wud end up in city 17 and simply travelled bk to blakc mesa to visit dr kleiner knowing wot was goin to happen visiting gordon along the ay , makin sure he did things ryt, however this causes parodoxes, but the gman wud relaize this and can actually morph into anything... suggesting that the gman is every single character in the half life series nd is simply fukkin with gordon


...or


The Gman is barney from the future, unfortunately he has been mutated by a beam of cascade which gordon released, and has made him talk funny and look funny, he wears a suit cos he has never been important so wants to act it, unfortunately he had a bang on the head in the future nd 4got he was barney.... bt 4 sum reason has dreams about a man called gordon freeman, he checks him up on the internet nd realizes he worked at blakc mesa, he goes to the new blakc mesa and is hit by a beam of light which sends him bk in time, he is in the old black mesa searching for this gordon freeman, he sees him on his way to the experiment, barney or gman suddenly realizes thast the beam of light has causes him to be able to transport places and thru time etc... he then goes on a mission to mess up gordons life, nd sets up all these things to make gordon look good but is eventually going to embarrass him in some way.... in hl3 he realizes he is gordon nd subsequebntly saves the world with gordon, which explain how in the fututre barney was not dead after the beam of light took away his memmory.... THE END

No. Just no. And why do you keep bumping ancient threads?

 

[Ridge]

presuming that the gman can travel thru space nd time, he knew that gordon wud end up in city 17 and simply travelled bk to blakc mesa to visit dr kleiner knowing wot was goin to happen visiting gordon

the primary hole in that theory is that, had gman not been there, had they not reached Xen to get the sample, none of this would have happened and C17 would not exist...

 

[xX NoTe 2 SeLf]

i have to agree with darkside on this one ... if the g-man really wanted the annhilation of the human race then why would he release one of its most heroic and powerful "soldiers" who would do anything in his power to prevent that from happening

 

[Deleted member 56031]

I tend to sympathize with the villains. They're just misunderstood.

So true. They really do need a better union.

 

[Dr Issac Kleiner]

This was my theory, sort of. My theory was that the Gman works with the combine, and uses Gordon as a test to see what the humans are capable of

 

[Slug Advisor]

This was my theory, sort of. My theory was that the Gman works with the combine, and uses Gordon as a test to see what the humans are capable of

No. No tests. This is now a full blown War.

 

[xX NoTe 2 SeLf]

This was my theory, sort of. My theory was that the Gman works with the combine, and uses Gordon as a test to see what the humans are capable of

yes to see what these measly humans can do ... lets pick some guy, give him a hazard suit that makes him two times less vulnerable, and also arm him to the teeth with weapons that no other human would be able to obtain ... perfect logic.

 

[Planetary]

Well, getting lots of the weapons depends alot on luck, remember the gauss-gun intro? If they'd not blown a hole in the wall, Gordon would never get it!

I must admit that the hivehand's convenient placement seems strange. Perhaps you should've had to kill your first alien grunt to get it?

 

[Operational]

Imagine a group of Combine overlords sitting around talking about conquests, and being like, "Oh man, did you guys hear Advisor Bob lost Earth? What a shmuck."

I lol'ed.

 

[Chug a Bug]

Interesting ideas. I don't believe that G-Man is out to exterminate humanity - if he wanted that he wouldn't have to do anything: the Combine are doing a pretty good job of that already. Releasing Freeman on the Combine is only likely to set that goal back.

While the G-man must have known the outcome of sending Gordon against the Combine, he did it for the purpose of liberating humanity.

He was let loose for a reason certainly....

Some may say that Gordon Freeman was only licensed out to the resistance because of some price they paid for his services, but there's no evidence as to what that is, or even if said bidding was active at the time.

Theres no evidence that he wasn't either...

I believe that he was let loose on the Combine deliberately and that someone paid for his services. Whether it was the resistance, well, it's possible. Certainly it could have been someone wanting to help Earth, or it might simply be someone who doesn't like the Combine. I don't believe that G-Man is trying to either help or hinder humanity: he's simply a disinterested party.

What I find interesting is Breen's comment to Gordon: he says "your contract is up for the highest bidder, did you know that?" in the Citadel: does that mean he knows about G-Man, and more importantly, that the Combine are well aware of what happened and why? Interesting...

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Chug a Bug, you summed it up perfectly for me :thumbs:

 

[gusIII]

In Ep.1 The Vortigaunts took Gordon. Were they helping humanity? I think that humanitys contract were over, they were on theire own, but the vortigaunts helped them. OR the vortigaunts took him for own purposes, mayby they are fooling us and when the combine is gone they buzz everybody and live happy after eons of slavery?

And one thing, He looked at gordon and said "We'll see abot that!". Sholdnt he say it to the vortigaunts?

And what are they (valve) trying to say by removing his suitcase?

I wonder what Gman was about to say...

 

[Thrasher720]

How can we be sure that the G-man has ANYTHING to do with Human-Combine Relations?

 

[Deleted member 56031]

I wonder what Gman was about to say...

Yeah I like his big speeches.

 

[ríomhaire]

Well, getting lots of the weapons depends alot on luck, remember the gauss-gun intro? If they'd not blown a hole in the wall, Gordon would never get it!

Or maybe they would have given it to him if they hadn't died.

I believe that the g-man was working for the Combine in HL1 and the resistance in HL2 (He's a mercenary)

 

[gusIII]

Does anyone have the g-man qoutes from HL, in the beginning, when you can barely hear him and a scientist argue?

 

[ríomhaire]

Does anyone have the g-man qoutes from HL, in the beginning, when you can barely hear him and a scientist argue?

gman_mumble1.wav
"We should not let the [possibly 'system comence']"

gman_mumble2.wav
No idea what so ever

gman_mumble3.wav
"I don't think anyone asked you that"

gman_mumble4.wav
"If I had wondered...I would have said so"

gman_mumble5.wav
"My employers don't..."

gman_mumble6.wav
"You're a scientist and a fraud..."

c1a0_sci_mumble.wav
"I have told you a hundred times, I am opposed to pushing the equipment beyond its safe levels" (This one is clearer than all the g-man ones)

Only a few of these are actually used though. The convo goes something like this:
"We should not let the.... My employers don't..."
"I have told you a hundred times, I am opposed to pushing the equipment beyond its safe levels"
"If I had wondered...I would have said so"

 

[gusIII]

I see... Well, he wanted it to happen. God, too much questions... I will research some more.

 

[Operational]

I believe that he was let loose on the Combine deliberately and that someone paid for his services. Whether it was the resistance, well, it's possible.

There is a lot of evidence to say that at the very least certain members of the resistance were aware of Gorden's impending arrival. At this stage there is no way to know if they paid the G-Man, somebody else did on their behalf or the G-Man just gave them a freebie to drum up interest in Gorden.

 

[Advisor]

There is a lot of evidence to say that at the very least certain members of the resistance were aware of Gorden's impending arrival.

Yes. Probably the Vortigaunts.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

And Eli. He was surprised to see Gordon but not Alyx at the beginning of Episode One. Plus, Kliener and Alyx proboaly have limited knowledge as well.

 

[ríomhaire]

"You found Gordon? That's impossbible...but listen, you've got to get out of the city!"

 

[Operational]

"I expected more warning"
"You and me both Doc."

 

[gusIII]

It didn't occured to him to give him a map?

 

[Darkside55]

Occur to Barney? That's why he expected more warning. He didn't have a map laying just around.

 

[gusIII]

Occur to Barney? That's why he expected more warning. He didn't have a map laying just around.

I can't really remeber who said what to who :S. But i think they wonder why g-man didnt give gordon a map.

 

[V-Man339]

"what a shmuck

It would be kinda cool, though. Imagine a group of Combine overlords sitting around talking about conquests, and being like, "Oh man, did you guys hear Advisor Bob lost Earth? What a shmuck."

I've been laughing at this for about a week.

 

[Ohcanep]

As much if not more than who, I wonder what exactly was the "winning bid". Million dollars? lol.

or the G-Man just gave them a freebie to drum up interest in Gordon.

While this is one possibility, and the explosion-scene backs it up a little, we could expect G-Man to promote his pawn immediately after the events in Black Mesa. This, however, is in contrast with the way he detained Shephard for "secrecy" reasons instead of mentioning any future plans for him, hmh.