O. & something pointless

I am not a hardcore gamer. I’ve never even been particulary good at video games, but I do enjoy a thriving, thrilling story with lots of loose ends and open questions. This is what fascinates me about Half-Life. Half-Life is not just a good game, but it has risen some of the most suspenseful questions I’ve ever come across in popular culture.

The most titillating one of them all is also the oldest one of them all, who is the enigmatic G-Man and where exactly does he come from? Is he a supplier for the highest bidder, like Dr. Breen says, or is he something more? Is he merely pretending to be a government man of a sort just to hide his true nature?

G-Mans peculiar way of appearing and disappearing makes it appear as he was making sure that everything was going as planned. But if he is a businessman, why should he be concerned? If he has supplied his client with Freeman, that should be that. To me he appears as a cold and somewhat uncaring character, who’d want to wash his hands as soon as possible. Perhaps he isn’t an honest businessman at all? Who infact is the highest bidder Dr. Breen mentions in Half-Life 2? I personally don’t believe it could be Breen, since why would Breen organise his own dethrone? The G-Man seems to possess such powers that he could’ve easily influenced Freeman if things weren’t going according to his clients plans. Eli Vance is aware of the G-Man. I know this is a long shot, but could he have something to do with the true highest bidder?

Perhaps the G-Man is a truely neutral factor, who is using Freeman as his tool for creating history? Perhaps The Black Mesa Incident and The Combine Invasion are all merely small pieces in a grander scheme and it all adds up to something? What if all of this was foreseen by the G-Man and he wants to make sure that this greater plan gets actualised? He doesn’t work for anyone, but his duty is to keep the order of history, time and everything in control. A Zeitgeist of his own sort so to say.

Then there is also the theory about the G-Man and Gordon’s relationship. There aren’t many people who are at all aware of the G-Man’s existence, yet the Vortigaunts seem to know something that no-one else, perhaps not even Gordon, knows.

The All-Knowing Vortigaunt is a key-character when thinking about this theory. “How many are there in you? Whose hopes and dreams do you encompass?” seems like an obvious refrence to Gordon’s mercenary-like nature, but some of the things he says are more cryptic and curious. The line “Something secret steers us both. We shall not name it.” is an interesting example and in my opinion supports the “Zeitgeist theory” and that the G-Man is almost like a force of nature who controls everyone and everything, but only few are capable of realising this. But, what if the G-Man isn’t a third person at all? What if he actually is Gordon himself? The resemblances between the characters have been pointed out a long time ago, but the G-Man is also capable of taking Freeman from one place in time to another easily, so perhaps he himself is jumping from one time to another? Perhaps he has a masterplan of his own and is just making sure that his plan works out? Perhaps he tries to avoid all unnecessary human contacts, e.g. to avoid paradoxes. Although some people do know of his existence and he is seen talking to Odessa Cubbage, but perhaps these are some necessary solutions he had to make in order for his plan to work? The All-Knowing Vortigaunt says, “There is no distance between us. No false veil of time or space may intervene.” This could mean that Gordon is, in fact, travelling in time in many directions and can be in two places at once.

Such a fascinating game.

“There is more to the Freeman than meets the eye.”