Half Life G-Man Theories

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I have been doing some research on the G-Man, and have come across a series of theories applied by different people...

-Gordon Freeman, could be the G-Man going back in time to save himself, although this would bring up the fact that the G-Man wants to presumably make life harder for Gordon, there may be a side of the G-Man that is fighting to overthrow himself with the help of himself gone back in time, also, it is also supported by the fact that the G-Man's appearences in cut scenes, could be him checking up on Gordon Freeman's progress... Which brings up...
Gordon Freeman
Also, Ordon Free, is an anagram of Redone for... so...

-Gordon Freeman could be the G-Man's son, which would explain both the similar looks, and the fact that the G-Man, has some sort of connection with Gordon Freeman, which could also bring up the fact that the G-Man, could possibly be alien, and even Combine. Also, this could open up new possibilities for the storyline, for example, Gordon having brothers, and sisters...

-The G-Man working as a rebel, which could explain the reasons why he keeps checking up on Gordon, who is one of the main people involved with the Human Rebellion against the Combine.

-My idea is that The G-Man could be a working for Apature Science, a rival company of Black Mesa, which is strengthened by the fact that The G-Man is spotted arming a bomb in Black Mesa in Half Life(Or so I have heard... I have only played Half Life 2, EP 1, and EP 2, but know alot about the series after doing lots of reading). He could have helped both Alyx and Gordon escape, because he wanted them to be employed by Apature Science, resulting in the offer, where it says

Subject: Freeman.
Status: Hired. Awaiting assignment

It is also a possibility that the G-Man could be seen, or mentioned, in the sequel to Portal, also, Gordon goes to check out an Apature Science Cargo Ship somewhere in the Arctic, also bringing up the possibility...

Anybody else have any ideas?, those are mine.

I still have no idea what the heck happened between HL 1 and 2 @_@ Somehow Gordon and all his friends went from Arizona to 1984-esque Russia? And the aliens are our friends now???

I try not to pay too much attention to the storyline...that's never really been a strong point for FPS games anyway (unless your name is Looking Glass).

My only theory about G-man is he's supposed to represent the Men in Black, except he wears blue...but he's got the odd speach mannerisms, the mysteriousness, the way he tries to control fate but remains vague about it, etc. etc.

I don't remember him setting off any bombs in the first game (maybe in one of the mission packs), but by then...well, I don't want to spoil it, but by the time he'd have the chance to arm any bombs, it wouldn't really put him on one side or the other.

Yes, it was in the game Half Life: Opposing Force... He plays a strange role in everything...

During the boot camp training sequence, the G-Man can be spotted at a window speaking to an officer, and occasionally glancing at the player. Since the drill instructor mentions that Shephard's training has been mysteriously accelerated, the implication is that the G-Man had an interest in Shephard before the Black Mesa incident, for reasons unknown.

At one point Shephard is trapped on a small walkway, with deadly corrosive/radioactive liquid rising steadily towards him. The G-Man opens a door allowing him to escape, saving his life. One level later, as Shephard attempts to evacuate Black Mesa with the rest of the marines, the G-Man closes a hangar door, forcing him to remain on the base. Later on, the G-Man is seen rearming the nuclear bomb that destroys Black Mesa, which Shephard had deactivated moments prior.

The fact that the G-Man could have possibly been keeping an eye on Shephard even before he joined Black Mesa, as he does in his many appearances keeping an eye on Gordon. The fact that he opened a door to help Shephard escape, left him in Black Mesa, closing the doors, and then opening them, shows a sign that he had proved himself, to be employed by The Combine? Apature Science? The G-Man?... I have some clips from Youtube showing a few of the G-Man sightings and the endings:

Ending:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqgCtMLUKUQ[/youtube]
Sightings in Opposing Force:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL0SkMy1eOI[/youtube]

The fact that he leaves the Helicopter at the end, leaving Shephard in the helicopter, could be a nod to the 'Employment' at the end of HL1, if this is correct, the G-Man could be gathering people he thinks are worthy for certain tasks, or working for him, or orginizations he has been employed by. This could also point out that they may, at some point, bring Shephard back into the games, as an allie(Co-Op Perhaps?), or enemy at that, to Gordon Freeman in the next games, even better, If Shephard is found at the Apature Science ship, it could be The G-Man's meeting point for the people he has got together, could he be working for Apature Science? Or getting them to destroy, or steal items possibly found on the ship(Portal Tech?) and so on... Also, that could bring up possibilities to find Chell...






This of course means that The G-Man is an enemy to Black Mesa... Doesn't it... Well, no, because the G-Man, being the powerful person he is, could have blown up Black Mesa, for the fact that he wanted to change the course of time, for example, to help Gordon Freeman...

Oh, and I found something else out, during a G-Man spotting in HL2 where he appears on a TV, You can spot, the Combine logo, in the corner, and also, the site he appears to be spying on you from, strangely happens to be very similar to the place where Dr. Breen, records his 'Breencasts'...




Se the similarities?
This could nod to The G-Man helping the Combine... or just sneaking into City 17 to keep an eye on Gordon...

It doesn't seem logical that the G-Man would be "helping" the Combine... if he was, why would he bring Gordon Freeman out of stasis to disrupt the Combine's plans? I think he was just using the Breencast to project his image.

Also, I've heard that theory about the G-Man being "Gordon from the future" before. The problem I have with that is in Half-Life 1, he basically threatens to kill Gordon if he doesn't join. Well, it would be impractical for the G-Man to kill himself in the past because he'd be erasing himself from history, and he would cease to exist. The fact he puts Gordon in dangerous situations would also go against that theory.

And as for Gordon being the G-Man's "son"... not likely, as that would be blatantly similar to Star Wars, as you're probably well aware.

Idunno what the deal is with Shepherd...seemed like he was just a one-off character, like the rest of the characters from the Gearbox mission packs, but the letters of his name are highlighted on the keyboards in Portal...I thought it was part of their silly (and pointless) ARG, but it's not...it's just there for fun, I guess?

He does a lot more than threaten @_@

I wouldn't use the events in Opposing Force to make any conclusions about the G-Man. I'm not even sure how "relevant" those events are to the main Half-Life story. So far, it would seem they are not very relevant. Since the HL1 mission packs, there's been no mention in the story of Shepherd, or those weird "Race X" critters.

And in Opposing Force, it was revealed that some Headcrab zombies will eventually evolve into Gonomes (basically, a "super-zombie" with more agility and a ranged attack.) So how come we don't see any Gonomes in HL2? Especially in Ravenholm, a town that has been overrun with headcrabs and zombies for some time (though the "special" forms of zombie do have a few similarities to the Gonomes.)

Yeah, people say if you get rid of the beard and glasses and add a few years, the G-Man does look a lot like Gordon

Not to mention:

G-Man

Gordon Freeman

The transition between HL and HL2 is that Gordon was put into stasis and didn't age whilst he was there and his friends from HL are now older - maybe 10 years on or so. Watching cut scenes for any games makes it more easier to follow

I think it was like a 20 year gap from the year 1997 or 1998, which would make the year:2017 or 2018

Alyx is the same age I would be in HL2.

Yeah... True, though I also have a theory that the G-Man, was time, and all that happened was because of him, though that wouldn't explain why he went around fiddling about with it, e.g. HL2 Ending...

Perhaps the G-Man has a both good, and bad side, during which some points he helps Gordon, and sometimes he does his best to stop Gordon...

The G-Man could also be going back in time to stop the events that have happened to him, in the sense that he was Gordon Freeman... this would explain him attacking himself, because events would follow from it, If the G-Man had not put Gordon in stasis, Gordon would have died, which he presumably would not want to happen...

After looking up information involving the dates and settings of the Half-Life games, I've come up with this...

Half-Life 1, is set somewhere between the years 2000-2009, so that would pretty much be somehwere between the present day and the next two years, which presumably, when it was released, was about a few years ahead of when it was released.

Half Life 2, is said by the developers, to be set around 10 years after the events of HL1, though according to the official HL2:Ep1 website, it is 20, so it's around 10-20 years after HL1...

As for the locations...

City 17, and Black Mesa East are located somewhere in Eastern Europe...

Black Mesa Research Facility in HL1, is located in the New Mexico Desert...

I did watch them. I don't recall them mentioning anything about putting Gordon on stasis 10-ish years ago.

Either way, like I said, storyline kind of takes a back-seat in these games, so it doesn't bother me that much...

...however, what does bother me is that all the zombies are dressed like scientists o_O Doesn't quite make sense, as most people living in that area are dressed in 1984-style blue coveralls...

Some of the people wear white sweaters and blue pants, the same clothing that most of the zombies wear.

Valve has already said that "G-Man" is not the characters official name it is just a code name for the character model, since he looks like he works for the government, for all we know his name could be Fred.

And from most of the information given it seems as though the G-Man hires people to do work for him and his employers, for example when Dr.Breen said that Gordans "contract" was up to the highest bidder.

Edit: also to the guy wondering why the Vortiguants are now your friends in Half Life 2, it's because when you killed the Nihilanth (the final boss) in the first game you released the mind control it had over the Vortiguants.

It makes me wonder... what happened to all the other minions in Nihilanth's army, like the Alien Grunts and Controllers? The result of declining the G-Man's "offer" suggests that some of them survived, so I imagine they were also freed from Nihilanth's mind control. Yet we don't see them anymore. Did the Combine wipe them out, leaving only the Vortigaunts?

I suspect the G-Man is meant to represent greater forces at work in the Half-Life universe. The Combine, much like Nihilanth in the first game, is probably a small player in the grand scheme of things. I recall Breen talking to Dr. Vance in his office in 'Dark Fusion' of HL2 and describing the myriad wonders of the universe he'd become aware of through his collaboration with the Combine (fungal colonies on stars and all kinds of crazy stuff). The Combine also stretches across numerous universes but lack the technology to travel by portal within these domains, so they obviously have less power then the G-Man. The G-Man is definitely not human in my view, though this is obvious to most. Besides his ability to shift to any time or place, even his way of speaking is odd- he lengthens inappropriate parts of words, as if he is unaware of how long the word should be (as if time has no meaning to him). Though it could just be his difficulty with a foreign language, which Occam's Razor would suggest is the answer. I also recall in Episode One, several purple Vortigaunts rescue Gordon from the G-Man. Prior to this, Vortigaunts in game talk of 'Vortal Senses' while they communicate, and strangely they communicate by speaking at each other simultaneously. Whatever force the Vortigaunts have mastery of also affects the G-Man's abilities, which to me suggests he uses the same methods but to a greater degree. So maybe he's omnipotent in some form or another, or he's a rival to the Combine. I also wonder if he's not like Q from Star Trek, and just meddles in the lives of lower beings for his own amusement. There's also the line from Breen, to Gordon: "Do you think your contract was not up to the highest bidder?".