S
spooky action
Guest
If everyone started breeding immediately, as Dr. Kleiner suggests in Episode One, wouldn't half of the human resistance force (that is, the females, assuming females are still roughly 50% of the human population in the Half-Life 2 universe) gradually become unfit for combat duty due to pregnancy? In fact, more than 50% would be affected since some number of men would have to be assigned to protect the women while they are pregnant and nursing. For the first few months the women could probably still wield a firearm, but once it becomes obvious that they are carrying a child, not only would they begin to have physical difficulty keeping up with the men in combat, but I would think everyone would want to keep them out of harm's way anyway, for the sake of preserving the future generation. With human numbers already so low due to the portal storms and the Combine's brutal occupation, obviously it's important to begin replenishing our numbers, but for that same reason we might not want to just start procreating willy-nilly, since we need all the fighters we can get. Imagine a Half-Life 2 "baby boom" where tens of thousands of children are born at roughly the same time of the year, potentially in the middle of a war, since we don't know if the Combine will have been defeated by then. I think it makes more sense to either A) schedule staggered intercourse over a period of months or years to keep as many females in combat as possible and avoid a single massive "baby boom" crisis which we might not have the medical supplies or housing to deal with, or B) put off reproduction entirely until the Combine threat has been eliminated.Human beings grow slowly, like trees, and the next generation won't be fit for combat for at least 15 years after they're born. With Gordon Freeman and the rest of the main characters of Half-Life 2 kicking so much butt and inventing new technology in the meantime, the Combine will probably have had it by then! Do we really need to start reproducing RIGHT NOW? Besides, I don't want to see pregnant women in a videogame. It's not the potential for violence that concerns me, it would just really creep me out to think that some guy has spent countless hours modeling them.
I apologize if this has already been discussed, I did a forum search for it and didn't find any in-depth discussion on the topic.
