Bro I am so happy that you're enjoying the story of half life. I experienced half life when it came out in 1998 and half life 2 in 2004. I hope you love it as much as I did.
@@doctoroptical952 seems like we missed the hype when it came out (I wasn’t born yet when Hl1 came out but glad I could enjoy the series cause the lore is amazing and mysterious given we don’t know the ending to the series
"Even Laszlo is here somewhere" This actually makes sense if he truly was the 'finest mind of the generation', as the combine would likely see fit to copy anyone with sufficient knowledge into a host.
inb4 they grubbed him only because they overheard the "finest mind of the generation" comment and are unable to comprehend abstract constructs. It's very likely the combine is a virtual intelligence populated hive mind with a central or perhaps several, artificial intelligence administrator(s) at the top, utilizing any acquired minds as applications at best and library books at worst. We might very well be dealing with a meat based von neumann machine that originated as an automated security system.
I personally really like the idea that the Advisors themselves are just as much slaves as any other Combine synth. It makes the Combine as a concept so much more terrifying; there’s no real stopping them since they never put themselves at risk. Or perhaps the original Combine species is long since extinct, and the sheer scale of their enslavement of all life in the multiverse makes them infinite, or maybe it’s an assimilating super AI. It is likely, however, that humanity plays a vital role in the Combine’s destruction, otherwise the G-man never would have gotten earth and Gordon Freeman involved.
It's impossible to destroy the combine. They can spread their assimilating thoughts, they can still expand. Maybe you cann kick them out of several worlds and that will help the G-Man in some way, but bringing down that big of an empire is almost impossible
@@uitham a self-expanding imperial machine where all the lights are on, all the cogs turning, but the drivers are all gone. A combined harvester, of sorts...
I've heard a "Kafkaesque" model of the Combine - where the entire Combine civilisation is an immensely vast, highly decentralised form of interdimensional, quasi-automated bureaucracy. In this model, the Combine has no leader, and it's unclear if they ever did. It's a group tyranny that has long since become total oppression of all parts by the replication of an extremely vague group goal, something similar to "maintain and spread the system". All newly assimilated components are just forced by the collective into this sort of life and beliefs, because all past parts know nothing else anymore. None of them have a reason for it, it is merely all they know. They were all forced into that sort of society, viewpoint, opinions, etc. and can only think of to serve the combine's cause. Looking up in the "chain of command", you would find that it has no end, it just sort of dissolves and loops around into an infinite web of components (both organic and mechanical) that have all existed to serve only the directive of "replicating" that sort of configuration for an extremely long time. The distinction is that the Combine has no oppressive leader, party, or similar tyrannical component that benefits from the ordeal. Only the collective system benefits, specifically it benefits in serving it's goal of furthering the process as rapidly as possible. In this way, the Combine as a society are a superorganism. Every part is like a cell - with workers to maintain body functions, soldiers as immune cells, advisors serving more like neurons. None of them have any direct control, and when they ever go against the system in any way or operate sub-optimally, they are excised by the other components as swiftly as the human body kills off infected cells. The Combine Overwatch system even uses that sort of terminology - referring to Combine forces as an "immune system" and as the Resistance as an "infection". I don't think this is merely propaganda - this is a genuine view into how the collective society of the Combine actually regards its existence in the universe.
@@staringgasmask I disagree. The Combine Empire is probably unknowably vast, but it wasn't always like that. The Combine Empire grew and is still growing but that doesn't mean it can't be stopped. I mean the fact that Humans on Earth were able to destroy the citadel and cut off Combine forces from calling for help proves there is hope. Defeating the Combine will probably take many millennia and a war of unknowable scale, but the Combine isn't infinite. If mere humans who were already defeated can revolt and take bake their world, then many other subjugated species all doing the same thing at the same time will probably do damage to the Combine's efforts. A united force however will be what is ultimately the end of the Combine. However, I doubt it would be that simple. G-man shows there are other forces that already have power capable of defying the Combine that same god-like to us. I'm pretty sure the conflict on Earth is a tiny drop in the ocean of conflict of whatever great game the Combine and G-man with his employers and whoever else are involved in. I really hope we get to go beyond Earth and expand into literal cosmic non-sense of a multiversal war.
I like the adventures of Breen grub but damn. Getting to detail that even these grubs we know as Advisors were also victims of the Combine shows how this empire truly is ruthless and evil yet so persistent. They basically used their dreams to conquer them! Beyond wicked.
It has some neat thematic resonance. Underlines both its parasitic nature (what was thought to be the Combine core species is actually just another species they use as tools) as well as the almost Lovecraftian nature of the Combine as an entity (so old and vast even its apparent rulers are shaped by it). Also could be seen as a sign of how far the machinery of the Combine eventually twisted itself as it continued its quest for domination. For all we know, it could well be running itself by now. Conquering realities in a name it has long forgotten.
My theory is that Breengrub is communicating to the wrong universe - a universe where the Combine are just a finctional thing - our world, and he doesn't realise this
This theory is certainly possible, because it is confirmed that the Combine moves across universes, solidifying a multiverse theory in the Half-Life universe
I've just realised that a possible reason why Breengrub was cut off from communicating is because the Combine detected it was talking to a not yet conquered universe, and the people of that universe may be aware of the upcoming invasion
This coincided with the „you need me“ when he fell into the citadel, maybe it has always been his plan to gather information to defeat them? Possible, but unlikely
I’ve always maintained that Breen stopped caring for humanity once he saw what the Combine were capable of. His “hopes” for humanity to thrive with the Combine were really his ambitions to get *himself* closer to the Combine and their advanced technology. He wanted to live in a future amongst the stars as a scientist, and the Combine were now his only way to get there. That’s my theory on why he said “you need me”. He sees himself as humanity’s future.
One of the theories out there is that the G-Man is a hatched Shu'ulathoi, or at least associated with the surviving remants who managed to avoid the thought plague which rendered most of them brain dead shells ready for use as host bodies.
I hope when Half Life 3 comes out (haha) they hint to this as vaguely as possible, but in true HL style don't confirm it in any way. Stating the obvious, but the crumbs we got and the ''DIY style lore'' is what's so fun about this series.
@@Skyrionn I wonder if they (the combine) even have an original form anymore, since they must have assimilated so many species and done such extensive modifications that it's posible they dont even remember it. Come to think of it, we've never seen any "true" combine face to face, since the advisors are just another slave race.
@@Skyrionn it would be fascinating to ask the writers/creators of the combine if they ever had an intention of a distinct initial species or if the combine is just some sort of almost ethereal mythical force/mentality that takes over all various species....
@@Skyrionn I disagree I think the story is more compelling having the combine being a constant with however far back or forward you go it just being there in one form or another. The combine sees itself as an organism in and of itself.
@@Skyrionn Being multiversal, I'm gonna guess that there is no initial species of The Combine. It's a lovecraftian force of totalitarian entropy, made up of species that were slaves in one reality, and slave masters in another. Universes grind together, and at some point a spark goes off - realities merge and diverge, and whatever species in all realities that could have founded The Combine retroactively WERE The Combine. All of them, simultaneously, unified across universes into a single indomitable will to expand and dominate - and, so far as anyone know, it had always been that way.
So the ones who did this to Shu'ulathoi in combine empire may be more advanced than them (before hatching), capable of corrupting them and stealing their knowledge, and copying them. so the combine advisors may not be the head of the combine empire. Never-ending pyramid of power and fear ... a Lovecraftian horror!
I want some closure but I don't want all the mysteries answered. Like I'm going to hate it if they explain exactly what GMan is and what he wants. Being able to speculate and theorize about this stuff is so much cooler
@@youngkappakhan Exactly! the day we all know who g-man is and what his purposes are, who are his employers ... will be a sad day for me. a huge part of the community is based on speculations. I like reading people's theories about it, it's part of the fun! Half-life should be a game that there is no ending for it and some of its secrets will never be unveiled
They're just hosts. Some are higher than others. It's not really a race anymore. Just part of the COMbine. They go across the multiverse taking whatever they want and assimilating it. They're like the borg. The Shu'ulathoi are no more. Just part of the COMbine. Not as lucky as humanity, whom retained at least partial sentience and rebelled with an actual chance, if not for the help of the G-man though.
@@bijanalvandi We never will know. Valve never planned to reveal everything and never will. There isn't going to be a half life 3. Valve isn't the same company. They might keep doing prequels or spin-offs, but we're just not going to get the 'next game in the franchise'
The fascinating (and frightening) lore of the Half-Life/Portal universe will always have a special place in my heart. Huge inspiration for me as an aspiring writer. Very good job on the video. Think you covered pretty much everything there is to it. Which is sad. Wish Valve would do more with the iniverse they created.
Thanks for watching! I have SO MANY more topics to cover. I think at least another years worth (if I post once every 2 weeks). It would also be great if we could get more games to add to the series too.
The GMan being one of the philosophers would make sense in every sense of the word, from his goals aiming to draw the combines to earth, to letting gordon destroy the citadel, to having himself freed in half life alyx, his denial of having the combine "off earth" when alyx asked him is due to the human race being the only one resilient and stubborn enough to take the combine down, and it's why you're able to save Eli Vance, note WHAT he let you destroy, an advisor, the larval stage of the very creature he himself is, being strong enough to destroy it. I doubt eli's "unforseen consequences" is for eli himself, rather the consequences eli would cause to the combine. Gordon, Adrien, Alyx and even Eli being the gman (and his ""employers"" hope to take down the combine.)
It's actually terrifying to think what the Combine is if a literal space and time bending super creature that is as close to being a god as we can imagine needs to employ the human race to topple the Combine.
@@suspecm6316 we know these creatures aren't strong physically, despite being very powerful mentally, he couldn't take a combine's life if he tried, he, probably in order of the other philosophers, was tasked to find a race stubborn enough to never give up, to keep going and win, queue, Gordon Freeman. This may be a stretch, but I believe that the GMan had something to do with the destruction of aperture science, more specifically, glados's ability to kill all scientists, as it's fully developed portal technology would be stolen and taken by the combine, leaving them to destroy earth, the current developing of portal technology is the reason they're on earth, so to ensure they stay long enough for Gordon to do his job, GMan may have had an hand in laying aperture to ruin.
It explains why Gman's employers didn't want him to get the Combine off earth when Alyx asked him for it. They needed the Combine on earth so they can finally destroy them and show them theres a race stubborn enough to stand against them. We can presume by that as well that Gman's employers are infact grubs themselves... That makes sense why Gman would go all through this hussle to let Freeman and Alyx destroy so much of the combines' creations. Initially speaking, I know Eli wants to get his daughter back but Gman probably going to save earth once and for all using her. Something tells me Gman's plan is almost complete and he is seriously THAT close to destroy the combine once and for all.
@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive In the healing station jar thing for sure, but I meant inside the consoles that you open up and align the laser with, it looks to me like a hybrid of multiple creatures (Like rats stuck on it and kind of a leech looking mouth) with mainly a grubby appearance, perhaps fused to add more "processing" power while being mindful to use resources available on Earth already? Who knows.
Imagine being the last Iteration of the Dr. Breens consciousness implanted in a host. You've just had everything ruined by that dayglo menace, Freeman. He's blown up the Citadel, yeeted you off a tower, started an insurgency, and caused the Combine to start escalating aggressions to put down said insurgency. You're lost, alone, confused, in the dark, in a body that isn't yours, for goodness knows how much time, and then... you meet yourself. Multiple iterations of yourself who are... you. Younger, more optimistic. Hopeful. They're you, before the comforts and privileges They gave you softened your resolve and caused you to betray your fellow human. They have been resisting everything you have done. What would they say to you? What would you say to them?
Everything Marc Laidlaw writes about Half Life seems to contain some form of meta-commentary related to his time at Valve. I always thought of the Breengrub's story as being a parallel to Laidlaw's own struggles at Valve, with his attempts to get information out to help the resistance being a metaphor for Laidlaw's desire to continue Half Life's story despite no Half Life game being in development. Those sleeping philosophers could be a metaphor for Valve itself, a company with grand ambitions that rarely acts on them and is plagued by the malignant thoughts of scrapping their dreams in favor of much more profitable ventures like Steam and F2P multiplayer games. Depending on how official the twitter actually was, the times when Breengrub went into hiding may have been Laidlaw himself hiding from Valve in fear of getting in trouble for talking about the Half Life 3 story. In that sense, I feel Breengrub should be considered more fanfiction than actual lore. Though it is worth noting that at the beginning of HL2 Episode 1 Breen does briefly mention a host body in the recording of his conversation with the Advisor, and that much is undeniably canon.
I realised that connection but interpreted it in a wider lens, reading the "dreamers" as quite direct metaphor for artists and creatives and "the parasite" as corrupting desire to turn their creations to profit. the combine are nothing more than an engine of ambitious consumption who are quite glad to exploit this, mirroring the incursion of capital to the videogame industry over the duration of Laidlaw's career with Valve
The conversation with the advisor happens at the end of HL2 - right before you enter the room he's in before the boss fight, you see the conversation from his side, with an advisor on the screen briefly. When you see Breen's recording in Episode 1, it's because you're in the room where the advisor was when that conversation took place, so the perspective is flipped. As for the Valve connection, I think people often make the mistake of reading too much into the works of writers. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar etc. In this case, there will be elements of influence; parallels... but I doubt it's as direct a reference as that. Not least of all because that particular interpretation doesn't really stand up - Valve have demonstrated that they are often willing to indulge in big dreams. Steam itself wasn't "a more profitable venture", but a huge risk. As was the investment required for the Steam Controller, and now the Steam Deck. Valve's real internal problems (at least, from the perspective of developing its own game franchises) seems to stem from its own creative workplace; from what I gather, staff frequently swap projects, drift around, working on different things, and while this leads to a lot of talent being nurtured, in typical creative fashion it leads to a lot of ideas and not a lot of completed projects.
I think this interpretation can only come from the cynicism an outside fan would come up with without the full context of the situation. I don't think Laidlaw harbours the kind of resentment towards his coworkers that would warrant comparing them to the Combine.
@@VinVonVoom Not really. In a recent interview, Laidlaw said when he released Epistle 3 he was "deranged" and not thinking right. There's a high likelihood that his frustrations were building up before then, and he channeled those feelings into the Breengrub posts. OP's theory is quite accurate when you also consider the extra commentary on Epistle 3, of "Freeman"s final episode, basically being a meta-commentary from Laidlaw that he has no idea what will happen anymore.
I don’t know why half life keeps me coming back over and over again... no games nowadays kick in that way.. Outstanding franchise and awesome presentation! Thank you so so much! 🙏
I keep coming back all the time even tho there weren't any true recent updates from Valve apart Half Life:Alyx and Aperture Desk Job... The lore of Half Life/Portal isn't as "complicated" like FNaF or any other gaming universe out there, however that doesn't mean its bad. Heck, I love that the lore in here is fairly easy to understand and it gives both HL veterans and newcomers a reason to stay. A lot of game developers can learn from Valve how to make plot not too complicated yet still interesting and vast to make fans to stay.
@@royliber3824 What, are you seriously comparing FNAF to Half-Life? Fnaf lore isn't complicated, it's artificialy made to be confusing so people create more theories and hype up another releases. The complexity doesn't come from the story itself, it comes from the author not explicitly stating like half of the things going on there so people have to fill that in themselves via theories. Half-Life never needed that. It was a story written by brilliant writers and it was both cohesive and left a bit of open space for speculation and theories. But you should never force a player to guess the lore of about 50% of what's happening on their screen.
I consider breen grub to be cannon but I have a hard time with epistle 3 it's so pessimistic and contrasts with half-life that has Gordon overcoming overwhelming odds. And having something about the shulathoi in epistle 3 would've been cool
Same. Plus, if Portal 2 takes centuries after the events of Half-Life, then the ending to Portal 2 confirms that the Combine don’t overwhelm Earth. Episode 3 has some cool ideas, but Gordon managing to teleport to the Combine homeworld and then having Earth overwhelmed? Nah. Unless, that does happen, and he time travels somehow, I don’t know. Epistle rubs me the wrong way.
@@Kunk_Manjeroon it’s also unable to a happen cause half life alyx established the.... (spoiler) ....resurrection of eli vance, changing the timeline, alyx getting taken away by the gman and gordon being free from his control
Yes . I agree. That's a really dark ending and I just do not accept that they would merge portal and half life, and NOT give human resistance the gravity gun. ALSO the Vortigaunts know something- They can see the future in some fashion, are we to believe they were wrong this whole time. Doesn't add up. Seems like the author was bitter. And come on, what sort of behavior is this for a "professional", reeks of disgruntled employee. I don't know what went down but I heard Alyx devs would call him for advice. Why didn't they just hire him. He messed up. Probably needed some attention. Sad move should have just mentioned it in interviews or like maybe a one off blog post, but he came off as syphoning greedily from a team effort for his own sad ego. Lame. .
i think the most terrifying thing about this is how despite working with the combine, Breen suffered possibly the worst fate. the fact that the combine clearly can be reasoned with, but seemingly cannot align with human values (values like not copying people into a dozen grubs and keeping them in sensory deprivation forever while monitoring their thoughts) makes them considerably more disturbing than if they were just mindlessly genocidal
Marc Laidlaw is such an amazing writer. The Breengrub profile shows how deep and wide his writing went - we've seen nothing of this backstage lore in the finished game, but we got an amazing, coherent world that _made sense_. It made sense, because it has been built on this amazing lore that defined how Half-Life 2 was.
Sounds like the Nihilanth was a Shu'ulathoi who had changed his form or been changed by the Combine/used as an experiment. Maybe even a grub rebel as Breen-grub alluded to? Breen-grub's "Frantic" communications even sounded like the Nihilanth. "Done, what have you done" "Last, we are the last, we are"
@@guymanuel4260 I'm not pessimistic, I'm being realistic. They always deliver? Yes, in last years they delivered a card game no one asked for, and HLA. And that's it. People should face reality, there is absolutely zero incentive on valve part to ever create another game. Why should they do it, when Steam brings millions monthly?
@@jakubszymanski1623 idk, I'm not someone who's desperate for anything from any video game company so if something good drops on my laps, I'll be happy.
@@jakubszymanski1623 Even if they have no incentive to release anything, they were still always in development of something all these years. Don't act like they were doing nothing, they just love scraping all their work and constantly starting from scratch.
Thanks a lot. It was tricky to find the balance between the actual tweets/ my thoughts/ explanations/ in game lore connections but I was happy with the final video cut. ☺
In Half Life Alyx I had looked all around fascinated at the technology imprisoning the G-man, but looking closer I knelt all the way down to my hands on the bridge & was surprised to see a combine advisor laying dead on the floor. Is this a coincidence or is G-man one of these creatures that managed to hatch?
No, shu'ulathoi go retarted when they hatch I'm sure G-man is something far greater than them, possibly Gordon Freeman who learned about modding and speedrunning
I assume the dead advisor was the source of confinement they used on G-Man before they built a prison around him. His prison is full of other chunks of reality, so I always assumed that the advisor called out in some way that G-Man recognized as an “employer” and G-Man got busy traversing realities. But the advisor somehow trapped him in his traversal, and then the Combine used captured vortigaunts to empower a prison that they could build around the building and warped area that G-man appeared to. Alternatively, since HL:A takes place in an alternate reality that revolves around the Vance family, that dead advisor could be the one that killed Eli, and since Eli has some knowledge of G-Man, this Episode 2 advisor could be responsible for the creation of the HL:A timeline by imprisoning G-Man and allowing the Combine to use his divine powers for some reason, and G-Man constructed an alternate reality to kill the Episode 2 advisor. I don’t know, though, this feels a little more reachy than the first idea.
It's great to have these types of stories from the Half-Life universe. Hopefully someday we will have a Half-Life 3 to continue these stories and characters. Who knows, maybe Breen will have his redemptions. Thanks for this amazing video! Cheers!
I truly believe that Breen, in a way, redeemed himself in this story. It shows that he may have just been indoctrinated by The Combine originally. He died attempting to make up for his future self :) Thanks for watching as always!
Also if G man is a shuulathoi that makes the first game very interesting. And if you consider how breengrub needed some time to learn how to learn the telepathic communication that he gained, maybe this is related to G-man’s strange speech patterns because G-man hasn’t had to speak human languages probably until half life one? I dunno, interesting to think about I guess
Thanks so much! With Breengrub, it just meant filling in the gaps and understanding what he was talking about. It was a fun one to work on. I think I'm down for that Shu'ulathoi theory
""The weak fell victim to "thoughts of depravity". Their molts were untenable. The failed to reproduce" I think every artist on Twitter has the same problem.
"He was tired of shifting from dark to dark, becoming more riled up... And then, something happened." *Ominous Big Brand Tire and Service commercial guitar riff plays*
It actually is canon, however he has to say it isn't, otherwise he would get sued by Valve. Remember he is the head writer, however Valve owns the rights to the series, meaning Valve can change it into anything they want. This is kind of akin if the original star wars writer Alan Dean Foster had later written about the later story of star wars, however he no longer had rights to it as Disney owned the rights, so he would have to say it's his own fan fiction to avoid legal problems. This is the same, the new workers at Valve today gets to make half life whatever they want, as the company they work for has the full ownership of Half Life as a franchise.
The scary part about combine is that we have never actually seen REAL combine… as their name suggests, they are a combination of various living beings from multiple universes, but what really started combine, which is the primary lifeform that began it? That’s the biggest mystery for me
Perhaps the combine is an idea; their primary species long gone, the constructs of their legacy proceeding with the commands they were given, ever conquering
I'm surprised you didn't mention the HL2 beta's Breen, The Consul. At the end of HL2 it was supposed to reveal he was an Advisor the whole time in his broadcasts, it just never showed more than a close up on his face. Between that, and other cut beta plot points finding their way in eventually like the Hyperborea becoming the Borealis, I like to think even now if HL3 happens they'd have some form of a Breengrub appear at one point or another. Also I love the idea of the Gman being a hatched Shu'ulathoi. He effectively shunned himself from his race in order to cut deals to try to eventually save them. It parallels Breen's motives and makes me wonder if the Gman is just as misguided as him.
@GoTi4No ahhh yeah that makes sense. They've been doing stuff to Breen through the years. BECAUSE BREEN is just NOT making sense at the end of Half Life 2. Like he tried to persuade Gordan bysaying something like maybe i'll name (a combine specific advance in sci-tech) after you? SO there will be ONE THING left? is he CRAZY? the way things are going how many people are going to be speaking ENGLISH let alone alive? Does he really beleive humanity has a chance? I don't understad why he didn't just side with the resistance. At that poiint? HE was prettu much about to bail on HIS ENTIRE SPECIES on some random slugs off hand suggestion of a "HOST BODY" He didn't even consider this being a worse fate than just surrenduring to gordon and the resistane. WHY? ALSO BREEN was always supersubmissive and, sycophantic to the Advisors. Every time Breen talks to the ADvisor/ Advisors in Half Life 2 he - welll it's a big contrast to whoever that female was in Alyx, talking to an Advisor. She clearly lost paitence with the grub. I feel like even Breen would be a ltittle more, i don't know, i don't even know what i saying nvm
I remember when Epistle 3 was released and it was crazy enough to see what could've been. But I don't remember ever hearing of Breengrub till just two weeks ago when this channel popped up on my feed. The level of dedication and creativity to detail short entries through tweets... in the span of a couple years... I find insane.
The likely reason he says it’s fanfic is because the story is ultimately a collaboration between him and the other devs of the game. He may be the writer, but the story is still subject to molding from several people along the development process.
Furthermore, he left Valve and no longer works for them. He only provided consultation on HL:Alyx, so everything that can be considered "canon" won't come from him anymore.
@@Guymanbot97 Except Valve is just gonna milk the story and it will never come to an end as people expect. This is the original ending the writer had in mind. Now Valve revived the series from the dead, to sell VR devices. They are going to retcon the shit out of it and every next installment is going to be more vague than before. Because they fucked the timeline up with Gman doing time travels. Gman was a mysterious guy with his own agenda & employers. Now he is a time traveling dude but for some reason he didn't see multiple shit coming like Vortigaunts freeing Gordon, he wasn't sure if Gordon would safely bring Alyx to White Forest, he didn't even have interest in Gordon at the ending of Half Life 2. He was either unwilling or unable to... No matter the reason, the credits just roll without Gman. Valve turned Gman into literally a cheap fan theory, with Half Life Alyx. They literally made him Valve The Character, to explain the retcon. I mean one level below that is Gman being Gordon from the future. Fffss... Do we have 2 timelines now, did Alyx completely got removed from the original timeline, why she didn't remember Gman at all in original timeline or forgot about his father's dead... They just fucked it all up. The original games gave us more questions than answered, they were mysterious, but they still answered some questions. Half Life Alyx on the other haand gave us multiple plot holes, a shit ton of more questions and zero answers... Just to retcon HL2: Episode 2 ending.
This seems about as close to cannon as fanfic can possibly get. From the mind who wrote the cannon itself, it seems easy to imagine that the whole breengrub saga is some abridged version of the story that was vaguely in his mind at the time he was writing the HL2 games, only executed via a strange (but kind of fascinating) media. So to my mind, it's not cannon only because of whatever real-world problems exist(ed) at Valve prevented it from being so.
Great video on the topic. Breengrub's bounty of lore is awesome to me, and I consider it canon. It's interesting that the first breengrub was really set on helping the resistance, which makes me wonder about his motivations when he first negotiated with the combine, or in the years leading up to his death, if he was hoping to help humanity in the long run to survive and be freed of the combine. Also made me wonder if the combine could have done anything with his mind while he was still alive in his human body.
I was suprised to find so much information within the tweets that could expand the universe. Breengrub is absolutely headcanon for me as its knowledge spreads to many other areas within the universe. Bring back Breengrub in HL3!
I agree with you that they enhance the storyline and characters. It is my headcanon. Thanks for the kind comment, I really appreciate it! I hope you're having a great day/ night wherever you are too.
Thank you for your work, Mr. Laidlaw. I know you're probably around here somewhere, if not already. I think I speak for us all when I say we understand if a lack of closure drove you to these actions, and we all appreciate it even if it's in unofficial contexts. If anything in the future does officially come, I no doubt will love to see how it contrasts with your own imagination, assuming Valve isn't blessed with your brain to finish the mission. I hope they don't bother you over it, too, because it only makes me love this series all the more.
Hmmm... "Let me reassure you that you are being heard" makes it sound to me like he actually can't hear you, but someone *else* is listening. What is funny about that part, is that although the Combine clearly were doing their best to influence him, it seems as though they couldn't actually make him tell a lie. Even the "perfectly secure channel" statement leaves out exactly who it's meant to be a secure channel *to.* It doesn't look to me like this version of Breen is willingly working for the Combine. Rather, the transparent, childlike falseness to these statements makes it look more like someone else is telling him what he can and can't say, but he's still trying to include some form of warning that whoever might be listening shouldn't trust what they're hearing. I see him having been subverted against his will, but not completely. Worth mentioning, the Shu'ulathoi remind me pretty strongly of an alien race from another sci-fi story. I believe it was written by David Brin. The book it appears in is called Startide Rising -- and explaining anything more about why I'm reminded of this would involve some pretty major spoilers for how the novel ends, so I won't. Just, I guess, you should definitely go and read it if you like this kinda thing. :)
If the Advisor grubs can(in theory) "hatch" into a new form of their choosing, could Breen just will himself to be human again once away from the Combine
I really like this lore dump, both for the backstory of the combine that it revealed but I think the real-time twitter and the distorted messages and stuff really help it. As for whether it is canon, I can just say I would like it to be. It fits well with the established lore on Breen and the combine, and it reveals some very interesting information. I actually also agree with you that I like this lore dump better than Epistle 3. I guess it just felt kind of... anticlimactic. If Valve is going to conclude the series, it would really need to be something on an epic scale to fulfill all the lore and build-up.
Whenever i hear these stramge sci fi stories i always wonder how someone can come up with this stuff. Bruh i wish i was as creative as mark laidlaw and many other writers
You read other stories and get inspired by them, you read up on science (or history if you are writing fantasy) and you mix and match and remix and play with the ideas. That's what everyone does.
Sometimes I wonder that any work of fiction is an actual reality that "channeled through" to the person who originally thought it up. George Lucas "picked up" on the far away galaxy from long ago. When everyone that worked with him since; the producers, actors, technicians, writers, marketers, the fans... have all become a proxy. Even after Lucas's departure, the universe and lore remain embedded in our culture. Our thoughtforms themselves collect information that's exchanged back into the Star Wars reality, thus fine-tuning it into a molecular reality of its own. But then there's... the split. A bastardized abominable copy of it was willed by the Sith and their Terran-Proxy cohorts (Disney) into existence. These Sith interlopers want Terra's (our) reality cut off form the true Lucas galaxy. Damn I'm high.
Thank you for sharing this with me. I am a massive fan of Half-Life. It was a life changing series. But I don't often search out things regarding the game outside of the game itself. I always wish I do, as I miss out on things such as the Portal ARG and Breengrub. I feel there is a lot I'm missing.
Your videos are AMAZING and the way you produce your content is very professional! All of your lore videos are great but I’m particularly fond of the Half-Life lore for personal reasons. Have you ever considered doing Doom 3 lore?
I love these lore videos cause i can honestly piece the half life story together in areas where i needed it it also pieces together a more stitched together story for a movie if they'd get that out of development hell
What i can take from this , besides a heck of a well done job , is that we aren t programed Evil , neither we stay Evil forever and if we can realize only that thought alone , we already have our place among the stars and immortality at our grasps without The Combine
I do believe our actions are defined by our environment. Original Breen was basically indoctrinated and became and enemy. Breengrub I guess attempted to break the cycle and make a change in the end.
Great video as always, Skyrionn! BreenGrub is definitely something I have thought of for quite a while when thinking about HL2, its great to finally see a proper video talking about the subject. Even with Marc Laidlaw "out of the picture" for Valve, theres definitely evidence he is still lurking around to help develop the story. He did afterall was a consultant for HL:Alyx writing through emails. Im quite hopeful that Marc will make some sort of a return in the next instalment, helping Valve finally finish the franchise on a positive note (even if it might take a while). Im sure the next big instalment from Valve will be out of this world, I just hope they won't need to release another type of a gaming device to promote it and give us a proper genuine PC game that supports their other devices as well.
If the shu’ulithoi were turned into host bodies, what was the combine’s form before that? Unless I missed something, but you’re telling me the advisors in half-life 2 aren’t the top of the combine food chain? Would hate to see what comes after, but Gordon has taken on some crazy threats before. Maybe the nihlinth from HL1, but they were running from something on xen, most likely the combine. (Stupid theory here, maybe the last nihilinth in hl1 is running from his own species that started or at least was turned into part of the combine, he’s not the last of his species, but the last individual of it, maybe it wants to invade earth so fast because it knows the combine would have trouble catching up then, so the nihilinth begins controlling his army of vorts and the other creatures of xen in haste to get across the galaxy when the residence cascade happens. That would distance the nihilinth a good ways away from the combine considering they don’t have proper teleportation technology or knowledge of earth prior to the cascade, it might just not have knowledge of the combines tracking capabilities. Don’t have a ton of evidence, might even be based, because I wish we saw more of that bastard from the end of half life one, I never really understood it.)
Thats more or less fanon at this point, surprised you got it basically 100% right. Nihil has his planet taken over, escapes to Xen which was already colonized by Vorts after they were partially assimilated, and then takes control of Vorts to defend against Combine. Portal to Terra opens, resonance cascade makes Nihil decide to overtake Terra and use it as a stronghold against the Combine (who at this point want to finish assimilating the 2 sentient species they lost), but the portals opening alerts them to both Terra AND Xen, ruining EVERYONES chance at a fair fight. At this point Terra has been chewed up by portals opening everywhere and splitting up manpower, and Gordon ends up taking out the only other major player against the Combine.
@@NiCoNiCoNiCola Terra is Earth, its just the more accurate name. Like calling it Sol instead of the Sun Also is good for differentiating irl and in universe
Breen was evil, to his very core, but these "grubs" weren't him. They were akin to great grandchildren, even thinking of themselves as being kin to "grubs" & not humans. To call it "Breen Grub" is to leave the wrong impression.
Breen isn't necessarily evil, he believes humanities future belongs in the stars and acknowledges that the combines technology and resources would greatly help humanity reach them, however the cost of this leap forward is essentially losing our humanity and becoming one with the combine. Breen views this as a next step in human evolution and the rest of humanity needs to forsake their earthly beliefs to enter his false utopia. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Without Breen humanity would've been eradicated during 7 hour war, which would've lasted a little bit longer until every single human was destroyed. Breen was both horrible but also the reason humanity even stood a chance against the Combine.
@@AppleManiagaming Breen watched as, one by one, every human was eradicated or turned into a mindless cybernetic servant of the Combine. His, specifically his alone, reward was to cast-off his humanity & join the Combine Ruling Class. Breen conducted Genocide on humanity just to save himself, created propaganda so folks like you would think he'd bring you with him, & he proved this all with final acts on Earth being an escape attempt rather than a rebellion. Breen was evil, seeking only craven self-enrichment. These Breen Grubs were not. Can you not see it?
@@Drakey_Fenix Agreed. That is why the Breen Grubs, who are quite different from Breen, feel so strongly about helping humanity. The Vorts were helping but refused to tell the Grubs what Breen had done. What are your thoughts on that?
@@Proctor_Conley if Breen didn't surrender humanity to the combine we would have been eradicated, earth's resources plundered and then our world would have been discarded as the combine went on to conquer the rest of our universe, it was Breen who was able to convince the combine that humanity had value and thus allowed them to survive, rebuild and start planning the rebellion. Without Breen Eli, Kleiner and co wouldn't have been able to continue developing their portal technology and figure out how to close the combines superportal. Sure Breen had his own selfish motives but he isn't "evil to the very core" lol
I like your theory on the five year cycles between Ep 2 and Breen Grub, Epistle 3 and our current era. Sadly a lot has happened in that time relatve to our reality. Bit in the grand scheme of things it matters little. Keep the faith and look for ripples in the Vor'tessence!
In Episode 3, Gordon and Alyx come across Breen as an Advisor as in the end of HL2 he is seen contacting an Advisor about a “host body”, after Breen is defeated Gordon can choose to either kill Breen or let him live
At times I wonder if Been was always working to gather intel on the Combine to defeat them across the multiverse, working with the G-Man to that end. Or so he thought anyway.
The thing about all this lore is - it doesn't matter if it's canon. Better that it remain ambiguous. At the core of Half-Life 2, beneath the more obvious Orwellian nightmare, there's a more esoteric story at play that questions the nature of individuality; presenting the Combine argument, made through its actions, that just as a human body is a colonial entity whose individual components are dominated, controlled and ultimately sacrificed for the whole, an entire species may be seen in the same light. That it's all a matter of scale, and that to an entity that spans the stars and crosses dimensional boundaries, a species may be viewed as no more complex or deserving of individual rights than a single blood cell; itself made of many parts, but individually irrelevant. And that as such, unspeakable means may be justified if the ends are suitably grand. But we never get to know those ends; we never get to know what the Combine is truly trying to achieve, or why it strives, or how far it has spread already. We never get to know if it began with a simple, mortal idea... or if the minds truly behind the endeavour are something older and stranger. In essence, Half-Life 2's setting opens a doorway to a potential Lovecraftian cosmic horror; and all good cosmic horror relies upon not just the unknown, but the unknowable. Thus, for the setting to maintain its own integrity and mythos, it must not ever be fully explained.
bruh i have been a fan, of HL sense i was 6 years old at 23 now, i have come back for lore and man you have given, me info that even i dont know thank you, for your lore breakdown videos.
Bro this is insane, I'm a huge half life fan since it's first release but I've never dived so deep into the lore, this is almost inspiring enough to want to make me write a sci-fi book but I'll leave that to mr Mark Laidlaw himself. Never knew he was such a genius but damn, Valve really lost a brilliant mind with his departure. Thanks for all the content and cannot wait for more ❤
It makes one wonder, did Breen truly die a villain, or did he die a tragically misunderstood hero? Even up to his dying moments, was he still a secret double agent working against the combine, keeping his tracks covered so carefully that even the resistance could know nothing of it? Perhaps we might never know.
@@Skyrionn Yeah. Until Valve gets their priorities in check and starts actually being a game company again, it's unlikely we will ever get a proper canonical answer. As such, in the meanwhile nobody is truly wrong to think one way or the other regarding it. Personally I find the idea of Breen being a secret double agent helping the resistance from the shadows to be much more interesting of a plot thread. It humanizes a character that has otherwise served little purpose other than to be a villain so far.
Even if he wasn't actively working against the combine, his motivations are understandable - imagine you've just witnessed the 7 hour war, and been presented with the reality that there's a star-spanning, pan-dimensional entity with enough might to render your entire world extinct with little effort. Imagine that they ask you if you want to surrender, or be utterly removed from existence; all of your history and culture, gone as if it never existed... imagine that the universe they present is one where, even if your world is left untouched, everyone else is part of the Combine. And of course, leaving aside his motivations, if Breen hadn't organised Earth's surrender, there would be no opportunity for Earth to form a resistance, no chance for the resistance to learn how to fight the Combine; there would be no time, no opportunity.
@@NicholasBrakespear It's only all the more reason to believe that a secret resistance against the Combine within him was entirely possible, if not even probable. While not true for everyone, there is a human quality that is driven to shake our fist even against impossible odds. It is why we were able to develop technology and rise to the top of the food chain, rather than cowering before the likes of lions, bears, and other predators with superior physique to us in battle. There is also a human trait that allows us to shake hands with one hand, while holding a knife behind the back with the other. Breen is an intellectual, and one who desires what's best for humanity at that. The best interests of the combine aren't necessarily his concern, especially given that they have shown themselves perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. As such, it makes sense for him to be going out of his way to appear submissive to their cause, while in truth secretly benefitting the resistance from the sidelines, and indeed as you stated negotiating humanity into the position in which a resistance could begin to take hold. It's even all too convenient for such a cause that he can serve as a face to rebel against, inevitably planting the idea within countless many as of yet unwilling to do anything about it. Freeman was the perfect catalyst to get such a plan in motion. Sometimes all it takes is one person to take action for countless others to feel motivated to do the same. If all that turned out to be true though, and Breen really did plan all that out somehow, it would beg the question of where the G-Man fits into all of this. It was him who plucked Gordon out of Black Mesa and into the time and place he was needed most for such a plan. Could that be an indication of a relationship between the G-Man and Breen? A deal they struck together to strike a blow onto the Combine? And what of the Vortigaunts? Where would they fit into the big picture of such a thing? There's admittedly a lot of potential plot holes and unknowns, but it's an interesting what-if scenario to ponder nonetheless.
What's more fascinating? The in-game lore implications of Breengrub or the real-world implications of Marc expressing frustrations to his employer about being stifled through Twitter?
I love the lore behind the Shu'ulathoi, and I take it as canon. In universe though, how are these Breengrub thoughts actually being transmitted to the resistance? Radio waves? Or through the Internet somehow? Is Twitter (or something like it) meant to exist within the Half Life universe?
I really love all these videos. And I hope you do remakes on your older videos. Like "The Lore Behind....Bullsquids, Hunters, Houneyes etc" because you never mentioned all the amazing cut content behind them!
@@Skyrionn That's great! Seeing that there is so much unique beta information on the Bullsquid as it went through many renditions! And if you ever cover Manwich, Peters or Nigel I originally made those articles actually on the HL Wiki.
ngl it actually makes sense how the combine really doesn't want breen to know about the host bodies' origin, just like how they did all their best to stop Alyx and Gordon after getting the data packet in Episode One, which, as mentioned by Arne Magnusson in Episode Two, is the "specific contact code for the combine overworld".
Criminally underrated channel. Just recently got into Half-Life and you've been the perfect lore depository lmao
Same. I never would’ve known any of the super deep rooted lore if it wasn’t for him
Crimally overeated u mean
@@we_played_Hob_Gobbies_together what
Bro I am so happy that you're enjoying the story of half life. I experienced half life when it came out in 1998 and half life 2 in 2004. I hope you love it as much as I did.
@@doctoroptical952 seems like we missed the hype when it came out (I wasn’t born yet when Hl1 came out but glad I could enjoy the series cause the lore is amazing and mysterious given we don’t know the ending to the series
"Even Laszlo is here somewhere"
This actually makes sense if he truly was the 'finest mind of the generation', as the combine would likely see fit to copy anyone with sufficient knowledge into a host.
I like to think Lazlo was a janitor at Black Mesa who always said stuff like "Those darn experiments won't do y'all no good"
@@NiCoNiCoNiCola F O R E S H A D O W I N G ?
this reference cracked me up
inb4 they grubbed him only because they overheard the "finest mind of the generation" comment and are unable to comprehend abstract constructs. It's very likely the combine is a virtual intelligence populated hive mind with a central or perhaps several, artificial intelligence administrator(s) at the top, utilizing any acquired minds as applications at best and library books at worst. We might very well be dealing with a meat based von neumann machine that originated as an automated security system.
I personally really like the idea that the Advisors themselves are just as much slaves as any other Combine synth. It makes the Combine as a concept so much more terrifying; there’s no real stopping them since they never put themselves at risk. Or perhaps the original Combine species is long since extinct, and the sheer scale of their enslavement of all life in the multiverse makes them infinite, or maybe it’s an assimilating super AI.
It is likely, however, that humanity plays a vital role in the Combine’s destruction, otherwise the G-man never would have gotten earth and Gordon Freeman involved.
an assimilating empire made out of enslaved races without masters is like the coolest sci fi concept ever
It's impossible to destroy the combine. They can spread their assimilating thoughts, they can still expand. Maybe you cann kick them out of several worlds and that will help the G-Man in some way, but bringing down that big of an empire is almost impossible
@@uitham a self-expanding imperial machine where all the lights are on, all the cogs turning, but the drivers are all gone.
A combined harvester, of sorts...
I've heard a "Kafkaesque" model of the Combine - where the entire Combine civilisation is an immensely vast, highly decentralised form of interdimensional, quasi-automated bureaucracy.
In this model, the Combine has no leader, and it's unclear if they ever did. It's a group tyranny that has long since become total oppression of all parts by the replication of an extremely vague group goal, something similar to "maintain and spread the system". All newly assimilated components are just forced by the collective into this sort of life and beliefs, because all past parts know nothing else anymore. None of them have a reason for it, it is merely all they know.
They were all forced into that sort of society, viewpoint, opinions, etc. and can only think of to serve the combine's cause. Looking up in the "chain of command", you would find that it has no end, it just sort of dissolves and loops around into an infinite web of components (both organic and mechanical) that have all existed to serve only the directive of "replicating" that sort of configuration for an extremely long time. The distinction is that the Combine has no oppressive leader, party, or similar tyrannical component that benefits from the ordeal. Only the collective system benefits, specifically it benefits in serving it's goal of furthering the process as rapidly as possible.
In this way, the Combine as a society are a superorganism. Every part is like a cell - with workers to maintain body functions, soldiers as immune cells, advisors serving more like neurons. None of them have any direct control, and when they ever go against the system in any way or operate sub-optimally, they are excised by the other components as swiftly as the human body kills off infected cells.
The Combine Overwatch system even uses that sort of terminology - referring to Combine forces as an "immune system" and as the Resistance as an "infection". I don't think this is merely propaganda - this is a genuine view into how the collective society of the Combine actually regards its existence in the universe.
@@staringgasmask I disagree. The Combine Empire is probably unknowably vast, but it wasn't always like that. The Combine Empire grew and is still growing but that doesn't mean it can't be stopped. I mean the fact that Humans on Earth were able to destroy the citadel and cut off Combine forces from calling for help proves there is hope. Defeating the Combine will probably take many millennia and a war of unknowable scale, but the Combine isn't infinite. If mere humans who were already defeated can revolt and take bake their world, then many other subjugated species all doing the same thing at the same time will probably do damage to the Combine's efforts. A united force however will be what is ultimately the end of the Combine.
However, I doubt it would be that simple. G-man shows there are other forces that already have power capable of defying the Combine that same god-like to us. I'm pretty sure the conflict on Earth is a tiny drop in the ocean of conflict of whatever great game the Combine and G-man with his employers and whoever else are involved in. I really hope we get to go beyond Earth and expand into literal cosmic non-sense of a multiversal war.
I like the adventures of Breen grub but damn. Getting to detail that even these grubs we know as Advisors were also victims of the Combine shows how this empire truly is ruthless and evil yet so persistent. They basically used their dreams to conquer them! Beyond wicked.
It did really show a new light on The Combine and how powerful they really are!
@@Skyrionn And what utter bastards they are.
It has some neat thematic resonance. Underlines both its parasitic nature (what was thought to be the Combine core species is actually just another species they use as tools) as well as the almost Lovecraftian nature of the Combine as an entity (so old and vast even its apparent rulers are shaped by it). Also could be seen as a sign of how far the machinery of the Combine eventually twisted itself as it continued its quest for domination. For all we know, it could well be running itself by now. Conquering realities in a name it has long forgotten.
@@Przemko27Z Phenomenal takeaways. I'm so hungry for more Combine lore, I really hope we're in for a new Half Life title sooner rather than later.
Absolutely incredible. Comments on this thread are top notch too
My theory is that Breengrub is communicating to the wrong universe - a universe where the Combine are just a finctional thing - our world, and he doesn't realise this
This theory is certainly possible, because it is confirmed that the Combine moves across universes, solidifying a multiverse theory in the Half-Life universe
That's a grea theory
I've just realised that a possible reason why Breengrub was cut off from communicating is because the Combine detected it was talking to a not yet conquered universe, and the people of that universe may be aware of the upcoming invasion
@@KrysTheProtogen uh oh
@Cannon Fighter I am aware, don't worry. It's just a little fun to immerse yourself into the lore like this though
This coincided with the „you need me“ when he fell into the citadel, maybe it has always been his plan to gather information to defeat them? Possible, but unlikely
I’ve always maintained that Breen stopped caring for humanity once he saw what the Combine were capable of. His “hopes” for humanity to thrive with the Combine were really his ambitions to get *himself* closer to the Combine and their advanced technology. He wanted to live in a future amongst the stars as a scientist, and the Combine were now his only way to get there. That’s my theory on why he said “you need me”. He sees himself as humanity’s future.
At one point, when no combine soldiers was near with him, he said "The combine", which means that he says the UU because he has to be loyal.
@@henriquecosta1175 what?
@ wht
One of the theories out there is that the G-Man is a hatched Shu'ulathoi, or at least associated with the surviving remants who managed to avoid the thought plague which rendered most of them brain dead shells ready for use as host bodies.
What if the G man IS the thought plague?
I hope when Half Life 3 comes out (haha) they hint to this as vaguely as possible, but in true HL style don't confirm it in any way. Stating the obvious, but the crumbs we got and the ''DIY style lore'' is what's so fun about this series.
The more you learn about the Combine, the more horrifying they become
It seems that way. It'd be great to know how the combine started at all. What was the first species
@@Skyrionn I wonder if they (the combine) even have an original form anymore, since they must have assimilated so many species and done such extensive modifications that it's posible they dont even remember it.
Come to think of it, we've never seen any "true" combine face to face, since the advisors are just another slave race.
@@Skyrionn it would be fascinating to ask the writers/creators of the combine if they ever had an intention of a distinct initial species or if the combine is just some sort of almost ethereal mythical force/mentality that takes over all various species....
@@Skyrionn I disagree I think the story is more compelling having the combine being a constant with however far back or forward you go it just being there in one form or another. The combine sees itself as an organism in and of itself.
@@Skyrionn Being multiversal, I'm gonna guess that there is no initial species of The Combine. It's a lovecraftian force of totalitarian entropy, made up of species that were slaves in one reality, and slave masters in another. Universes grind together, and at some point a spark goes off - realities merge and diverge, and whatever species in all realities that could have founded The Combine retroactively WERE The Combine. All of them, simultaneously, unified across universes into a single indomitable will to expand and dominate - and, so far as anyone know, it had always been that way.
after the battle of the citadel, Wallace Breen was sent to a place worse than hell: twitter
edit: this aged like fine wine
This actually made me laugh
@@Skyrionn me too haha
No
Before musk or after
Now Breen was deleted by Elon Musk
So the ones who did this to Shu'ulathoi in combine empire may be more advanced than them (before hatching), capable of corrupting them and stealing their knowledge, and copying them. so the combine advisors may not be the head of the combine empire. Never-ending pyramid of power and fear ... a Lovecraftian horror!
Hopefully one day, we'll find out if another game is released!
I want some closure but I don't want all the mysteries answered. Like I'm going to hate it if they explain exactly what GMan is and what he wants. Being able to speculate and theorize about this stuff is so much cooler
@@youngkappakhan Exactly! the day we all know who g-man is and what his purposes are, who are his employers ... will be a sad day for me. a huge part of the community is based on speculations. I like reading people's theories about it, it's part of the fun! Half-life should be a game that there is no ending for it and some of its secrets will never be unveiled
They're just hosts. Some are higher than others. It's not really a race anymore. Just part of the COMbine. They go across the multiverse taking whatever they want and assimilating it. They're like the borg. The Shu'ulathoi are no more. Just part of the COMbine. Not as lucky as humanity, whom retained at least partial sentience and rebelled with an actual chance, if not for the help of the G-man though.
@@bijanalvandi We never will know. Valve never planned to reveal everything and never will. There isn't going to be a half life 3. Valve isn't the same company. They might keep doing prequels or spin-offs, but we're just not going to get the 'next game in the franchise'
The fascinating (and frightening) lore of the Half-Life/Portal universe will always have a special place in my heart. Huge inspiration for me as an aspiring writer. Very good job on the video. Think you covered pretty much everything there is to it. Which is sad. Wish Valve would do more with the iniverse they created.
Thanks for watching! I have SO MANY more topics to cover. I think at least another years worth (if I post once every 2 weeks). It would also be great if we could get more games to add to the series too.
I love half life so much. That's all I need to say
@Tenebrae Can't send you the excerpt without your email. You can use a burner-email. Can't share the Docs link on TH-cam sadly, it gets blocked.
The GMan being one of the philosophers would make sense in every sense of the word, from his goals aiming to draw the combines to earth, to letting gordon destroy the citadel, to having himself freed in half life alyx, his denial of having the combine "off earth" when alyx asked him is due to the human race being the only one resilient and stubborn enough to take the combine down, and it's why you're able to save Eli Vance, note WHAT he let you destroy, an advisor, the larval stage of the very creature he himself is, being strong enough to destroy it. I doubt eli's "unforseen consequences" is for eli himself, rather the consequences eli would cause to the combine. Gordon, Adrien, Alyx and even Eli being the gman (and his ""employers"" hope to take down the combine.)
It's actually terrifying to think what the Combine is if a literal space and time bending super creature that is as close to being a god as we can imagine needs to employ the human race to topple the Combine.
@@suspecm6316 we know these creatures aren't strong physically, despite being very powerful mentally, he couldn't take a combine's life if he tried, he, probably in order of the other philosophers, was tasked to find a race stubborn enough to never give up, to keep going and win, queue, Gordon Freeman. This may be a stretch, but I believe that the GMan had something to do with the destruction of aperture science, more specifically, glados's ability to kill all scientists, as it's fully developed portal technology would be stolen and taken by the combine, leaving them to destroy earth, the current developing of portal technology is the reason they're on earth, so to ensure they stay long enough for Gordon to do his job, GMan may have had an hand in laying aperture to ruin.
So can we call him the P-Man now?
It explains why Gman's employers didn't want him to get the Combine off earth when Alyx asked him for it. They needed the Combine on earth so they can finally destroy them and show them theres a race stubborn enough to stand against them. We can presume by that as well that Gman's employers are infact grubs themselves... That makes sense why Gman would go all through this hussle to let Freeman and Alyx destroy so much of the combines' creations. Initially speaking, I know Eli wants to get his daughter back but Gman probably going to save earth once and for all using her. Something tells me Gman's plan is almost complete and he is seriously THAT close to destroy the combine once and for all.
Yeaaa no. We got smashed to bits by one of their small task forces in 7 hours. There is NO way humanity can beat the actual Combine military.
Really clears up thoughts about why there's so many grubs in Half-Life: Alyx, being used for a variety of purposes like inside the computers.
I guess that makes sense! I hadn't thought about it!
Those are Antlion grubs.
@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive In the healing station jar thing for sure, but I meant inside the consoles that you open up and align the laser with, it looks to me like a hybrid of multiple creatures (Like rats stuck on it and kind of a leech looking mouth) with mainly a grubby appearance, perhaps fused to add more "processing" power while being mindful to use resources available on Earth already? Who knows.
@@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive Maybe antlions are the same species at a different stage of development.
@@Agentlefox they're probably modified antlions just like stalkers
Imagine being the last Iteration of the Dr. Breens consciousness implanted in a host. You've just had everything ruined by that dayglo menace, Freeman. He's blown up the Citadel, yeeted you off a tower, started an insurgency, and caused the Combine to start escalating aggressions to put down said insurgency. You're lost, alone, confused, in the dark, in a body that isn't yours, for goodness knows how much time, and then... you meet yourself. Multiple iterations of yourself who are... you. Younger, more optimistic. Hopeful. They're you, before the comforts and privileges They gave you softened your resolve and caused you to betray your fellow human. They have been resisting everything you have done. What would they say to you? What would you say to them?
This is literally the plot of Sonic Generations
@@NiCoNiCoNiColalmao
@@DonkeKongy Gordon Freeman is a hedgehog in a human suit in an HEV suit and you can't change that
Everything Marc Laidlaw writes about Half Life seems to contain some form of meta-commentary related to his time at Valve. I always thought of the Breengrub's story as being a parallel to Laidlaw's own struggles at Valve, with his attempts to get information out to help the resistance being a metaphor for Laidlaw's desire to continue Half Life's story despite no Half Life game being in development. Those sleeping philosophers could be a metaphor for Valve itself, a company with grand ambitions that rarely acts on them and is plagued by the malignant thoughts of scrapping their dreams in favor of much more profitable ventures like Steam and F2P multiplayer games. Depending on how official the twitter actually was, the times when Breengrub went into hiding may have been Laidlaw himself hiding from Valve in fear of getting in trouble for talking about the Half Life 3 story. In that sense, I feel Breengrub should be considered more fanfiction than actual lore.
Though it is worth noting that at the beginning of HL2 Episode 1 Breen does briefly mention a host body in the recording of his conversation with the Advisor, and that much is undeniably canon.
I realised that connection but interpreted it in a wider lens, reading the "dreamers" as quite direct metaphor for artists and creatives and "the parasite" as corrupting desire to turn their creations to profit. the combine are nothing more than an engine of ambitious consumption who are quite glad to exploit this, mirroring the incursion of capital to the videogame industry over the duration of Laidlaw's career with Valve
The conversation with the advisor happens at the end of HL2 - right before you enter the room he's in before the boss fight, you see the conversation from his side, with an advisor on the screen briefly. When you see Breen's recording in Episode 1, it's because you're in the room where the advisor was when that conversation took place, so the perspective is flipped.
As for the Valve connection, I think people often make the mistake of reading too much into the works of writers. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar etc. In this case, there will be elements of influence; parallels... but I doubt it's as direct a reference as that. Not least of all because that particular interpretation doesn't really stand up - Valve have demonstrated that they are often willing to indulge in big dreams.
Steam itself wasn't "a more profitable venture", but a huge risk. As was the investment required for the Steam Controller, and now the Steam Deck.
Valve's real internal problems (at least, from the perspective of developing its own game franchises) seems to stem from its own creative workplace; from what I gather, staff frequently swap projects, drift around, working on different things, and while this leads to a lot of talent being nurtured, in typical creative fashion it leads to a lot of ideas and not a lot of completed projects.
I think this interpretation can only come from the cynicism an outside fan would come up with without the full context of the situation. I don't think Laidlaw harbours the kind of resentment towards his coworkers that would warrant comparing them to the Combine.
@@VinVonVoom Not really. In a recent interview, Laidlaw said when he released Epistle 3 he was "deranged" and not thinking right. There's a high likelihood that his frustrations were building up before then, and he channeled those feelings into the Breengrub posts.
OP's theory is quite accurate when you also consider the extra commentary on Epistle 3, of "Freeman"s final episode, basically being a meta-commentary from Laidlaw that he has no idea what will happen anymore.
You should play The Beginner’s Guide.
I TURNED INTO A GRUB MOSSY!
I'M GRUB BREEN!!
haha
Funniest **** I've ever seen.
Close comments we done here
I’ve never heard about breengrub before, pretty awesome to hear more lore about half life other than borealis
They're absolutely worth checking them out too! I missed out a few that I didn't find added too much to the story too
I don’t know why half life keeps me coming back over and over again... no games nowadays kick in that way.. Outstanding franchise and awesome presentation! Thank you so so much! 🙏
Glad you enjoy it!
I keep coming back all the time even tho there weren't any true recent updates from Valve apart Half Life:Alyx and Aperture Desk Job... The lore of Half Life/Portal isn't as "complicated" like FNaF or any other gaming universe out there, however that doesn't mean its bad. Heck, I love that the lore in here is fairly easy to understand and it gives both HL veterans and newcomers a reason to stay. A lot of game developers can learn from Valve how to make plot not too complicated yet still interesting and vast to make fans to stay.
@@royliber3824 What, are you seriously comparing FNAF to Half-Life? Fnaf lore isn't complicated, it's artificialy made to be confusing so people create more theories and hype up another releases. The complexity doesn't come from the story itself, it comes from the author not explicitly stating like half of the things going on there so people have to fill that in themselves via theories. Half-Life never needed that. It was a story written by brilliant writers and it was both cohesive and left a bit of open space for speculation and theories. But you should never force a player to guess the lore of about 50% of what's happening on their screen.
The Klonoa series is probably the only other series that managed to make me invested.
I consider breen grub to be cannon but I have a hard time with epistle 3 it's so pessimistic and contrasts with half-life that has Gordon overcoming overwhelming odds. And having something about the shulathoi in epistle 3 would've been cool
I have similar thoughts. I do massively prefer Breengrub.
especially with Alyx shooting Mossman, doesn't fit for me.
Same. Plus, if Portal 2 takes centuries after the events of Half-Life, then the ending to Portal 2 confirms that the Combine don’t overwhelm Earth. Episode 3 has some cool ideas, but Gordon managing to teleport to the Combine homeworld and then having Earth overwhelmed? Nah. Unless, that does happen, and he time travels somehow, I don’t know. Epistle rubs me the wrong way.
@@Kunk_Manjeroon it’s also unable to a happen cause half life alyx established the....
(spoiler)
....resurrection of eli vance, changing the timeline, alyx getting taken away by the gman and gordon being free from his control
Yes . I agree. That's a really dark ending and I just do not accept that they would merge portal and half life, and NOT give human resistance the gravity gun. ALSO the Vortigaunts know something- They can see the future in some fashion, are we to believe they were wrong this whole time. Doesn't add up. Seems like the author was bitter. And come on, what sort of behavior is this for a "professional", reeks of disgruntled employee. I don't know what went down but I heard Alyx devs would call him for advice. Why didn't they just hire him. He messed up. Probably needed some attention. Sad move should have just mentioned it in interviews or like maybe a one off blog post, but he came off as syphoning greedily from a team effort for his own sad ego. Lame.
.
i think the most terrifying thing about this is how despite working with the combine, Breen suffered possibly the worst fate. the fact that the combine clearly can be reasoned with, but seemingly cannot align with human values (values like not copying people into a dozen grubs and keeping them in sensory deprivation forever while monitoring their thoughts) makes them considerably more disturbing than if they were just mindlessly genocidal
Marc Laidlaw is such an amazing writer. The Breengrub profile shows how deep and wide his writing went - we've seen nothing of this backstage lore in the finished game, but we got an amazing, coherent world that _made sense_. It made sense, because it has been built on this amazing lore that defined how Half-Life 2 was.
Can I just say this is one of the most underrated channels ever, I love all these videos and great for long car rides as they are interesting and long
I'm glad you enjoy them! I love putting them together. Aiming for new episodes every week!
@@Skyrionn Can’t wait!
Sounds like the Nihilanth was a Shu'ulathoi who had changed his form or been changed by the Combine/used as an experiment. Maybe even a grub rebel as Breen-grub alluded to?
Breen-grub's "Frantic" communications even sounded like the Nihilanth. "Done, what have you done" "Last, we are the last, we are"
I never thought about it this way. That's pretty interesting
I love breen lore. Valve definitely have plans for him in the future.
Valve has no plans beyond living off steam.
@@jakubszymanski1623 don't be so pessimistic. Is valve frustratingly slow? Yes, but they always deliver.
@@guymanuel4260 I'm not pessimistic, I'm being realistic. They always deliver? Yes, in last years they delivered a card game no one asked for, and HLA. And that's it. People should face reality, there is absolutely zero incentive on valve part to ever create another game. Why should they do it, when Steam brings millions monthly?
@@jakubszymanski1623 idk, I'm not someone who's desperate for anything from any video game company so if something good drops on my laps, I'll be happy.
@@jakubszymanski1623 Even if they have no incentive to release anything, they were still always in development of something all these years. Don't act like they were doing nothing, they just love scraping all their work and constantly starting from scratch.
This is one of the best game and philosophic explanatory videos I've ever watched. Great job on putting this one out.
Thanks a lot. It was tricky to find the balance between the actual tweets/ my thoughts/ explanations/ in game lore connections but I was happy with the final video cut. ☺
Man, can you imagine fighting alongside an advisor against the combine? Seriously awesome
Imagine flying around on it lol.
In Half Life Alyx I had looked all around fascinated at the technology imprisoning the G-man, but looking closer I knelt all the way down to my hands on the bridge & was surprised to see a combine advisor laying dead on the floor. Is this a coincidence or is G-man one of these creatures that managed to hatch?
No, shu'ulathoi go retarted when they hatch
I'm sure G-man is something far greater than them, possibly Gordon Freeman who learned about modding and speedrunning
@@NiCoNiCoNiCola Valve confirmed long ago that g man wasn't Gordon
I assume the dead advisor was the source of confinement they used on G-Man before they built a prison around him. His prison is full of other chunks of reality, so I always assumed that the advisor called out in some way that G-Man recognized as an “employer” and G-Man got busy traversing realities. But the advisor somehow trapped him in his traversal, and then the Combine used captured vortigaunts to empower a prison that they could build around the building and warped area that G-man appeared to.
Alternatively, since HL:A takes place in an alternate reality that revolves around the Vance family, that dead advisor could be the one that killed Eli, and since Eli has some knowledge of G-Man, this Episode 2 advisor could be responsible for the creation of the HL:A timeline by imprisoning G-Man and allowing the Combine to use his divine powers for some reason, and G-Man constructed an alternate reality to kill the Episode 2 advisor. I don’t know, though, this feels a little more reachy than the first idea.
The gman is his own dude
@@MrBox009 I confirmed that Valve is bullshitting right now, son
It's great to have these types of stories from the Half-Life universe. Hopefully someday we will have a Half-Life 3 to continue these stories and characters. Who knows, maybe Breen will have his redemptions. Thanks for this amazing video! Cheers!
I truly believe that Breen, in a way, redeemed himself in this story. It shows that he may have just been indoctrinated by The Combine originally. He died attempting to make up for his future self :) Thanks for watching as always!
You always make great lore videos, I don’t think I’ve actually understood Breengrub until now
Also if G man is a shuulathoi that makes the first game very interesting. And if you consider how breengrub needed some time to learn how to learn the telepathic communication that he gained, maybe this is related to G-man’s strange speech patterns because G-man hasn’t had to speak human languages probably until half life one? I dunno, interesting to think about I guess
Thanks so much! With Breengrub, it just meant filling in the gaps and understanding what he was talking about. It was a fun one to work on. I think I'm down for that Shu'ulathoi theory
""The weak fell victim to "thoughts of depravity". Their molts were untenable. The failed to reproduce"
I think every artist on Twitter has the same problem.
"He was tired of shifting from dark to dark, becoming more riled up... And then, something happened."
*Ominous Big Brand Tire and Service commercial guitar riff plays*
It actually is canon, however he has to say it isn't, otherwise he would get sued by Valve. Remember he is the head writer, however Valve owns the rights to the series, meaning Valve can change it into anything they want. This is kind of akin if the original star wars writer Alan Dean Foster had later written about the later story of star wars, however he no longer had rights to it as Disney owned the rights, so he would have to say it's his own fan fiction to avoid legal problems.
This is the same, the new workers at Valve today gets to make half life whatever they want, as the company they work for has the full ownership of Half Life as a franchise.
If the compancy forces the writer to state it isn't canon, then it isn't canon.
Like how the Halo reach Jun comics aren't canon.
Canonicity is such a contentious topic
There is no canonicity in Half-Life. Laidlaw has said this on numerous occasions.
@@Onio_ that makes no sense
@@Pinkooru >implying canon is under the control of the fiscal entity and not the psychic entity
Hylic take.
The scary part about combine is that we have never actually seen REAL combine… as their name suggests, they are a combination of various living beings from multiple universes, but what really started combine, which is the primary lifeform that began it? That’s the biggest mystery for me
Perhaps the combine is an idea; their primary species long gone, the constructs of their legacy proceeding with the commands they were given, ever conquering
I remember this being used as a foundation for the theory that G-man is a rogue hatched advisor
It's a good theory
Rogue to who? Who are G-Man's employers?
@@bobthestinky7369 me
@@bobthestinky7369 maybe the shu ulathoi that survived on their home planet since he said it might not be able to be found
I'm surprised you didn't mention the HL2 beta's Breen, The Consul. At the end of HL2 it was supposed to reveal he was an Advisor the whole time in his broadcasts, it just never showed more than a close up on his face. Between that, and other cut beta plot points finding their way in eventually like the Hyperborea becoming the Borealis, I like to think even now if HL3 happens they'd have some form of a Breengrub appear at one point or another.
Also I love the idea of the Gman being a hatched Shu'ulathoi. He effectively shunned himself from his race in order to cut deals to try to eventually save them. It parallels Breen's motives and makes me wonder if the Gman is just as misguided as him.
@GoTi4No ahhh yeah that makes sense. They've been doing stuff to Breen through the years. BECAUSE BREEN is just NOT making sense at the end of Half Life 2. Like he tried to persuade Gordan bysaying something like maybe i'll name (a combine specific advance in sci-tech) after you? SO there will be ONE THING left? is he CRAZY? the way things are going how many people are going to be speaking ENGLISH let alone alive? Does he really beleive humanity has a chance? I don't understad why he didn't just side with the resistance. At that poiint? HE was prettu much about to bail on HIS ENTIRE SPECIES on some random slugs off hand suggestion of a "HOST BODY" He didn't even consider this being a worse fate than just surrenduring to gordon and the resistane. WHY? ALSO BREEN was always supersubmissive and, sycophantic to the Advisors. Every time Breen talks to the ADvisor/ Advisors in Half Life 2 he - welll it's a big contrast to whoever that female was in Alyx, talking to an Advisor. She clearly lost paitence with the grub. I feel like even Breen would be a ltittle more, i don't know, i don't even know what i saying nvm
I remember when Epistle 3 was released and it was crazy enough to see what could've been. But I don't remember ever hearing of Breengrub till just two weeks ago when this channel popped up on my feed.
The level of dedication and creativity to detail short entries through tweets... in the span of a couple years... I find insane.
The likely reason he says it’s fanfic is because the story is ultimately a collaboration between him and the other devs of the game. He may be the writer, but the story is still subject to molding from several people along the development process.
Furthermore, he left Valve and no longer works for them. He only provided consultation on HL:Alyx, so everything that can be considered "canon" won't come from him anymore.
@@Guymanbot97 Except Valve is just gonna milk the story and it will never come to an end as people expect. This is the original ending the writer had in mind.
Now Valve revived the series from the dead, to sell VR devices. They are going to retcon the shit out of it and every next installment is going to be more vague than before. Because they fucked the timeline up with Gman doing time travels.
Gman was a mysterious guy with his own agenda & employers. Now he is a time traveling dude but for some reason he didn't see multiple shit coming like Vortigaunts freeing Gordon, he wasn't sure if Gordon would safely bring Alyx to White Forest, he didn't even have interest in Gordon at the ending of Half Life 2. He was either unwilling or unable to... No matter the reason, the credits just roll without Gman.
Valve turned Gman into literally a cheap fan theory, with Half Life Alyx. They literally made him Valve The Character, to explain the retcon. I mean one level below that is Gman being Gordon from the future. Fffss...
Do we have 2 timelines now, did Alyx completely got removed from the original timeline, why she didn't remember Gman at all in original timeline or forgot about his father's dead... They just fucked it all up.
The original games gave us more questions than answered, they were mysterious, but they still answered some questions. Half Life Alyx on the other haand gave us multiple plot holes, a shit ton of more questions and zero answers... Just to retcon HL2: Episode 2 ending.
This was unexpectedly f****** AMAZING. Well done! You are an excellent storyteller.
This seems about as close to cannon as fanfic can possibly get. From the mind who wrote the cannon itself, it seems easy to imagine that the whole breengrub saga is some abridged version of the story that was vaguely in his mind at the time he was writing the HL2 games, only executed via a strange (but kind of fascinating) media. So to my mind, it's not cannon only because of whatever real-world problems exist(ed) at Valve prevented it from being so.
Great video on the topic. Breengrub's bounty of lore is awesome to me, and I consider it canon. It's interesting that the first breengrub was really set on helping the resistance, which makes me wonder about his motivations when he first negotiated with the combine, or in the years leading up to his death, if he was hoping to help humanity in the long run to survive and be freed of the combine. Also made me wonder if the combine could have done anything with his mind while he was still alive in his human body.
I was suprised to find so much information within the tweets that could expand the universe. Breengrub is absolutely headcanon for me as its knowledge spreads to many other areas within the universe. Bring back Breengrub in HL3!
The finest mind of our generation, Laszlo, is alive!
Loving every new video you release!
I agree with you that they enhance the storyline and characters. It is my headcanon. Thanks for the kind comment, I really appreciate it! I hope you're having a great day/ night wherever you are too.
I suppose we may consider it canon until Valve does something otherwise
Thank you for your work, Mr. Laidlaw.
I know you're probably around here somewhere, if not already. I think I speak for us all when I say we understand if a lack of closure drove you to these actions, and we all appreciate it even if it's in unofficial contexts. If anything in the future does officially come, I no doubt will love to see how it contrasts with your own imagination, assuming Valve isn't blessed with your brain to finish the mission. I hope they don't bother you over it, too, because it only makes me love this series all the more.
I would love if Half Life 3 had a comic story about Breen Grub like Left 4 Dead, Portal and Team Fortress 2! That Would be amazing!!
I never followed Breengrub so this was brilliant to watch in full. Thanks!
My favorite thing about this ARG is the random dude who replied "shut the hell up" to the first ever tweet
Hmmm... "Let me reassure you that you are being heard" makes it sound to me like he actually can't hear you, but someone *else* is listening.
What is funny about that part, is that although the Combine clearly were doing their best to influence him, it seems as though they couldn't actually make him tell a lie. Even the "perfectly secure channel" statement leaves out exactly who it's meant to be a secure channel *to.*
It doesn't look to me like this version of Breen is willingly working for the Combine. Rather, the transparent, childlike falseness to these statements makes it look more like someone else is telling him what he can and can't say, but he's still trying to include some form of warning that whoever might be listening shouldn't trust what they're hearing. I see him having been subverted against his will, but not completely.
Worth mentioning, the Shu'ulathoi remind me pretty strongly of an alien race from another sci-fi story. I believe it was written by David Brin. The book it appears in is called Startide Rising -- and explaining anything more about why I'm reminded of this would involve some pretty major spoilers for how the novel ends, so I won't. Just, I guess, you should definitely go and read it if you like this kinda thing. :)
THIS IS *AMAZIN'* !!
WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD OF THIS??
Exceptional editing skills at work.
"Out. of. my. mind." - Breen Grub.
Relatable any day, any time.
Fun fact: the advisor designe is different in hl and even the episodes shu'ualuthoi are different from eachodder
That's pretty interesting.
love your videos lad, found your channel months ago and hope the algorithm blesses you someday
I hope so too. It's been getting better lately. We'll just have to wait and see!
My personal view is until we get more officially released Half Life games, I'm accepting this as my head canon.
Amazing video, i enjoyed throughly, thank you.
Bro I'm feeling supercalifragilisticexpialidocious after this
Great work, I had no idea about this "fan fiction". Would really have been great to see in the game's canon story.
Glad you enjoyed it! I'm gonna do my best to cover other media around Half-Life too
If the Advisor grubs can(in theory) "hatch" into a new form of their choosing, could Breen just will himself to be human again once away from the Combine
I really like this lore dump, both for the backstory of the combine that it revealed but I think the real-time twitter and the distorted messages and stuff really help it. As for whether it is canon, I can just say I would like it to be. It fits well with the established lore on Breen and the combine, and it reveals some very interesting information.
I actually also agree with you that I like this lore dump better than Epistle 3. I guess it just felt kind of... anticlimactic. If Valve is going to conclude the series, it would really need to be something on an epic scale to fulfill all the lore and build-up.
Whenever i hear these stramge sci fi stories i always wonder how someone can come up with this stuff. Bruh i wish i was as creative as mark laidlaw and many other writers
I does have a true gift for this kind of stuff!
You read other stories and get inspired by them, you read up on science (or history if you are writing fantasy) and you mix and match and remix and play with the ideas. That's what everyone does.
Sometimes I wonder that any work of fiction is an actual reality that "channeled through" to the person who originally thought it up. George Lucas "picked up" on the far away galaxy from long ago. When everyone that worked with him since; the producers, actors, technicians, writers, marketers, the fans... have all become a proxy. Even after Lucas's departure, the universe and lore remain embedded in our culture. Our thoughtforms themselves collect information that's exchanged back into the Star Wars reality, thus fine-tuning it into a molecular reality of its own.
But then there's... the split. A bastardized abominable copy of it was willed by the Sith and their Terran-Proxy cohorts (Disney) into existence. These Sith interlopers want Terra's (our) reality cut off form the true Lucas galaxy.
Damn I'm high.
Thank you for sharing this with me. I am a massive fan of Half-Life. It was a life changing series. But I don't often search out things regarding the game outside of the game itself.
I always wish I do, as I miss out on things such as the Portal ARG and Breengrub. I feel there is a lot I'm missing.
Glad you enjoyed it! It was a fun little detour from canon. I love ARG's and cryptics things to figure out. Breengrub was great.
@@Skyrionn I hope Valve do something like this again one day! It was very fascinating!
Your videos are AMAZING and the way you produce your content is very professional!
All of your lore videos are great but I’m particularly fond of the Half-Life lore for personal reasons.
Have you ever considered doing Doom 3 lore?
Thanks so much. That means a lot Andrew!
I have never played a Doom game but it's on my long list of games to play.
With this context, it really shows how lore accurate Entropy Zero 2 was
Especially 2 endings out of the 7 total i counted
Man, subscribed today. Why haven't I found you before? Where has this channel been for my entertainment enjoyment as of late.
Your videos are of pure smashing quality, keep up the good work
That's so kind Sir Smashing. I appreciate you watching
Thanks for this vid, man. So good
this channel is incredibly underrated
I love these lore videos cause i can honestly piece the half life story together in areas where i needed it it also pieces together a more stitched together story for a movie if they'd get that out of development hell
Great channel, many thanks for sharing and hard work over)
That was quite enjoyable, thank you!
What i can take from this , besides a heck of a well done job , is that we aren t programed Evil , neither we stay Evil forever and if we can realize only that thought alone , we already have our place among the stars and immortality at our grasps without The Combine
I do believe our actions are defined by our environment. Original Breen was basically indoctrinated and became and enemy. Breengrub I guess attempted to break the cycle and make a change in the end.
Great video as always, Skyrionn! BreenGrub is definitely something I have thought of for quite a while when thinking about HL2, its great to finally see a proper video talking about the subject. Even with Marc Laidlaw "out of the picture" for Valve, theres definitely evidence he is still lurking around to help develop the story. He did afterall was a consultant for HL:Alyx writing through emails. Im quite hopeful that Marc will make some sort of a return in the next instalment, helping Valve finally finish the franchise on a positive note (even if it might take a while). Im sure the next big instalment from Valve will be out of this world, I just hope they won't need to release another type of a gaming device to promote it and give us a proper genuine PC game that supports their other devices as well.
Just done hl 2 in vr, great content ! this is my 3rd hl vid and love the lore.
Glad you enjoy it! I have it downloaded and just need to play it!
If the shu’ulithoi were turned into host bodies, what was the combine’s form before that?
Unless I missed something, but you’re telling me the advisors in half-life 2 aren’t the top of the combine food chain? Would hate to see what comes after, but Gordon has taken on some crazy threats before.
Maybe the nihlinth from HL1, but they were running from something on xen, most likely the combine.
(Stupid theory here, maybe the last nihilinth in hl1 is running from his own species that started or at least was turned into part of the combine, he’s not the last of his species, but the last individual of it, maybe it wants to invade earth so fast because it knows the combine would have trouble catching up then, so the nihilinth begins controlling his army of vorts and the other creatures of xen in haste to get across the galaxy when the residence cascade happens. That would distance the nihilinth a good ways away from the combine considering they don’t have proper teleportation technology or knowledge of earth prior to the cascade, it might just not have knowledge of the combines tracking capabilities.
Don’t have a ton of evidence, might even be based, because I wish we saw more of that bastard from the end of half life one, I never really understood it.)
Thats more or less fanon at this point, surprised you got it basically 100% right. Nihil has his planet taken over, escapes to Xen which was already colonized by Vorts after they were partially assimilated, and then takes control of Vorts to defend against Combine. Portal to Terra opens, resonance cascade makes Nihil decide to overtake Terra and use it as a stronghold against the Combine (who at this point want to finish assimilating the 2 sentient species they lost), but the portals opening alerts them to both Terra AND Xen, ruining EVERYONES chance at a fair fight. At this point Terra has been chewed up by portals opening everywhere and splitting up manpower, and Gordon ends up taking out the only other major player against the Combine.
@@AVerySexuallyDeviantOrange you mean Earth,
@@NiCoNiCoNiCola Terra is Earth, its just the more accurate name. Like calling it Sol instead of the Sun
Also is good for differentiating irl and in universe
@@AVerySexuallyDeviantOrange meh, the Earth is named Earth and if you think otherwise I'll rip your brains out and feed it to the ravens
Breen turned himself into a grub. Funniest shit I ever seen
Yes
yes
Breen was evil, to his very core, but these "grubs" weren't him. They were akin to great grandchildren, even thinking of themselves as being kin to "grubs" & not humans.
To call it "Breen Grub" is to leave the wrong impression.
Breen isn't necessarily evil, he believes humanities future belongs in the stars and acknowledges that the combines technology and resources would greatly help humanity reach them, however the cost of this leap forward is essentially losing our humanity and becoming one with the combine. Breen views this as a next step in human evolution and the rest of humanity needs to forsake their earthly beliefs to enter his false utopia.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Without Breen humanity would've been eradicated during 7 hour war, which would've lasted a little bit longer until every single human was destroyed. Breen was both horrible but also the reason humanity even stood a chance against the Combine.
@@AppleManiagaming
Breen watched as, one by one, every human was eradicated or turned into a mindless cybernetic servant of the Combine. His, specifically his alone, reward was to cast-off his humanity & join the Combine Ruling Class.
Breen conducted Genocide on humanity just to save himself, created propaganda so folks like you would think he'd bring you with him, & he proved this all with final acts on Earth being an escape attempt rather than a rebellion.
Breen was evil, seeking only craven self-enrichment. These Breen Grubs were not.
Can you not see it?
@@Drakey_Fenix
Agreed. That is why the Breen Grubs, who are quite different from Breen, feel so strongly about helping humanity.
The Vorts were helping but refused to tell the Grubs what Breen had done. What are your thoughts on that?
@@Proctor_Conley if Breen didn't surrender humanity to the combine we would have been eradicated, earth's resources plundered and then our world would have been discarded as the combine went on to conquer the rest of our universe, it was Breen who was able to convince the combine that humanity had value and thus allowed them to survive, rebuild and start planning the rebellion.
Without Breen Eli, Kleiner and co wouldn't have been able to continue developing their portal technology and figure out how to close the combines superportal. Sure Breen had his own selfish motives but he isn't "evil to the very core" lol
I like your theory on the five year cycles between Ep 2 and Breen Grub, Epistle 3 and our current era. Sadly a lot has happened in that time relatve to our reality. Bit in the grand scheme of things it matters little. Keep the faith and look for ripples in the Vor'tessence!
It has been a stressful few years. I am hopeful we will get something though! Love this - "Keep the faith and look for ripples in the Vor'tessence!"
In Episode 3, Gordon and Alyx come across Breen as an Advisor as in the end of HL2 he is seen contacting an Advisor about a “host body”, after Breen is defeated Gordon can choose to either kill Breen or let him live
I love Epistle 3. I do have an Epistle 3 video too if you wanna check it out
At times I wonder if Been was always working to gather intel on the Combine to defeat them across the multiverse, working with the G-Man to that end. Or so he thought anyway.
The thing about all this lore is - it doesn't matter if it's canon. Better that it remain ambiguous. At the core of Half-Life 2, beneath the more obvious Orwellian nightmare, there's a more esoteric story at play that questions the nature of individuality; presenting the Combine argument, made through its actions, that just as a human body is a colonial entity whose individual components are dominated, controlled and ultimately sacrificed for the whole, an entire species may be seen in the same light. That it's all a matter of scale, and that to an entity that spans the stars and crosses dimensional boundaries, a species may be viewed as no more complex or deserving of individual rights than a single blood cell; itself made of many parts, but individually irrelevant. And that as such, unspeakable means may be justified if the ends are suitably grand.
But we never get to know those ends; we never get to know what the Combine is truly trying to achieve, or why it strives, or how far it has spread already. We never get to know if it began with a simple, mortal idea... or if the minds truly behind the endeavour are something older and stranger.
In essence, Half-Life 2's setting opens a doorway to a potential Lovecraftian cosmic horror; and all good cosmic horror relies upon not just the unknown, but the unknowable.
Thus, for the setting to maintain its own integrity and mythos, it must not ever be fully explained.
bruh i have been a fan, of HL sense i was 6 years old at 23 now, i have come back for lore and man you have given, me info that even i dont know thank you, for your lore breakdown videos.
Bro this is insane, I'm a huge half life fan since it's first release but I've never dived so deep into the lore, this is almost inspiring enough to want to make me write a sci-fi book but I'll leave that to mr Mark Laidlaw himself. Never knew he was such a genius but damn, Valve really lost a brilliant mind with his departure. Thanks for all the content and cannot wait for more ❤
I kid you not, breen turned himself into an advisor, funniest shit I've ever seen
breengrub's broken english is rather humorous at times
It is
@@Skyrionn i want a vid about alyx.
It makes one wonder, did Breen truly die a villain, or did he die a tragically misunderstood hero? Even up to his dying moments, was he still a secret double agent working against the combine, keeping his tracks covered so carefully that even the resistance could know nothing of it? Perhaps we might never know.
I agree with your thought process - I tried my best to convey the information the best I could to show both sides.
@@Skyrionn Yeah. Until Valve gets their priorities in check and starts actually being a game company again, it's unlikely we will ever get a proper canonical answer. As such, in the meanwhile nobody is truly wrong to think one way or the other regarding it. Personally I find the idea of Breen being a secret double agent helping the resistance from the shadows to be much more interesting of a plot thread. It humanizes a character that has otherwise served little purpose other than to be a villain so far.
Even if he wasn't actively working against the combine, his motivations are understandable - imagine you've just witnessed the 7 hour war, and been presented with the reality that there's a star-spanning, pan-dimensional entity with enough might to render your entire world extinct with little effort.
Imagine that they ask you if you want to surrender, or be utterly removed from existence; all of your history and culture, gone as if it never existed... imagine that the universe they present is one where, even if your world is left untouched, everyone else is part of the Combine.
And of course, leaving aside his motivations, if Breen hadn't organised Earth's surrender, there would be no opportunity for Earth to form a resistance, no chance for the resistance to learn how to fight the Combine; there would be no time, no opportunity.
@@NicholasBrakespear It's only all the more reason to believe that a secret resistance against the Combine within him was entirely possible, if not even probable. While not true for everyone, there is a human quality that is driven to shake our fist even against impossible odds. It is why we were able to develop technology and rise to the top of the food chain, rather than cowering before the likes of lions, bears, and other predators with superior physique to us in battle. There is also a human trait that allows us to shake hands with one hand, while holding a knife behind the back with the other.
Breen is an intellectual, and one who desires what's best for humanity at that. The best interests of the combine aren't necessarily his concern, especially given that they have shown themselves perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. As such, it makes sense for him to be going out of his way to appear submissive to their cause, while in truth secretly benefitting the resistance from the sidelines, and indeed as you stated negotiating humanity into the position in which a resistance could begin to take hold. It's even all too convenient for such a cause that he can serve as a face to rebel against, inevitably planting the idea within countless many as of yet unwilling to do anything about it.
Freeman was the perfect catalyst to get such a plan in motion. Sometimes all it takes is one person to take action for countless others to feel motivated to do the same.
If all that turned out to be true though, and Breen really did plan all that out somehow, it would beg the question of where the G-Man fits into all of this. It was him who plucked Gordon out of Black Mesa and into the time and place he was needed most for such a plan. Could that be an indication of a relationship between the G-Man and Breen? A deal they struck together to strike a blow onto the Combine? And what of the Vortigaunts? Where would they fit into the big picture of such a thing? There's admittedly a lot of potential plot holes and unknowns, but it's an interesting what-if scenario to ponder nonetheless.
What's more fascinating? The in-game lore implications of Breengrub or the real-world implications of Marc expressing frustrations to his employer about being stifled through Twitter?
I never thought about it that way!
i love you, been waiting for this a long time
I love you too. Thanks for watching!
I love the lore behind the Shu'ulathoi, and I take it as canon. In universe though, how are these Breengrub thoughts actually being transmitted to the resistance? Radio waves? Or through the Internet somehow? Is Twitter (or something like it) meant to exist within the Half Life universe?
I really love all these videos. And I hope you do remakes on your older videos. Like "The Lore Behind....Bullsquids, Hunters, Houneyes etc" because you never mentioned all the amazing cut content behind them!
Thank you! That's the plan! Slowly working through them and making sure to implement new topics too which had been amazing.
@@Skyrionn That's great! Seeing that there is so much unique beta information on the Bullsquid as it went through many renditions! And if you ever cover Manwich, Peters or Nigel I originally made those articles actually on the HL Wiki.
@@Skyrionn it would be cool if houndeyes were combine K9
you know a game is made with love when the writers make their own fanfiction for the story they made
I just love these lore videos
Keep it up
Glad you like them!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO
He gas to say its fanfic for legal reasons as he does not own the IP. But i bet it is one form that was planed to be in HL3
Fascinating storyline, enjoyed this
I really enjoyed putting this one together.
ngl it actually makes sense how the combine really doesn't want breen to know about the host bodies' origin, just like how they did all their best to stop Alyx and Gordon after getting the data packet in Episode One, which, as mentioned by Arne Magnusson in Episode Two, is the "specific contact code for the combine overworld".
Came here after I saw official Half-Life 3 Breengrub concept art. It seems it's canon, this whole video is crazy.
*If Laidlaw made it, and Valve hasn't after all this time to outright said it isn't, it's canon.*
Awesome video. I really enjoy these. Keep up the good work. Have a wonderful day Skyrionn.
You have a fantastic day. Thank you for watching!
This adds multiple dimensions to the Combine. I thought the Advisors were the master race all along. 🤯
Mindblowing tbh. Goes straight in my favs
Thank you! I have a load of more content too :)
nul301 of course has Delta rune as a pfp