Likely this is because there is a special Zen-ian plant that the Heacrab eats to turn into a Gonarch. Kinda like how a Bee larva fed "Royal Jelly" turns into a new Queen. That would explain why you don't see any Gonarch on Earth because the plant species for that process does not exist there. This is all just fan speculation of course.
@@zodunderkelvin This reminds me of the cancelled return to ravenholm and how Grigori injects himself with some kind of headcrab venom, and slowly mutates.
I think the reason we never see a zombie Vortigaunt is because of the Vortessence. I'd imagine it's hard to mind control a creature that has such a strong psychic connection to the other members of its race. Not to mention their very powerful healing abilities. All that paired with their abilities of foresight basically make a headcrab possession impossible.
In HL:A we learn that it's possible for Vortigaunts to become severed from the vortessence, though whether a headcrab could cause that remains to be seen
it was dark in xen, headcrabs developed sensitive eyes. the uv in daylight is too harsh, made worse by the combine ruining the atmosphere even more. so a thick nictitating membrane evolved or was engineered to cover the eyes.
Speaking of headcrabs, a friend of mine from Australia had made a standard headcrab plushie for me during Christmas 2008. I was 18 then, and now that I'm 33, I still have that plushie sitting on top of my desk. I wish that I owned that super-rare Christmas Vortigaunt plushie that Valve once sold on their online store.
12:50 Marc Laidlaw (story writer of the Half-Life series) on the headcrab variants: "Those things came through during the portal storms, which continue erratically to this very day. Some of the critters came early (immediately after the black mesa incident) and adapted to earth. I think the poison headcrabs must have eaten something poisonous at one point, and liked it so much they added it to their repertoire."
We all know that the sounds that a zombie makes are actually the host trying to call out for help, but the audio is backwards, and the fast zombie just makes weird noises and screams, but the poison zombie when killed sound like he's crying, idk what it means cuz he moans most of the time, but since the host is alive, maybe the host itself is crying
The crying and begging for help could also be a ploy to attract other humans to help, only to be taken control of themselves by other nearby headcrabs. Scary - manipulating the host like that!
Its weird in original half life and the black mesa remake it seems like in some cases its implied the headcrab transformation kills the host, but in half life 2 and alyx we can clearly tell they're somewhat conscious
Nah in Black Mesa, it is clearly stated the host are still alive. If you seen the HEV zombie where the suit are still saying "User death imminent" "Vital sign critical" "Morphine depleted". And only flatline once you kills it.
The host definitely has to still be alive on some level, they still have blood circulating through their body and their brain stem is still functional to keep them ambulatory so at least on a clinical level they're still "alive".
On the contrary the combine use them as weapons to soften human populations and cleanup the zombies after leading me to think they consider insurgents to be more of a threat than headcrabs. However against the transhuman combine soldiers we mostly fight in the games I'd agree.
In the HL2 beta there was going to be a Combine Big Mama pod, which is the Gonarch's sack trapped in combine tech, you were originally going to drive a digger through it in Ravenholm. I headcannon that they still exist in the HL lore, but are used in factories that produce headcrab cannisters
I did have another section in this video where I looked into it but thought that there was enough beta and behind the scenes info to make a separate video ☺
This technically means that while Headcrabs are unique on Xen, they are probably normal on their homeworld, meaning that there might be various headcrab relatives occupying various niches, the same goes for all of Xen's wildlife as Xenian life is canonically not related to one another meaning that each species gives us a small glimpse into what their homeworlds are like.
Poor people, they don't know their words are being distorted by encoding so no one can understand what they are saying so they must suffer even more not knowing why nobody replies to them nor help them to be released. Genius idea I must say.
I always assumed the zombine were trying to warn their allys as best they could while being piloted by the headcrab, which is why they mention parasite and infestation in their ramblings
Native environment, meaning wherever or whatever dimension it is they came from, and not Xen? Likely another humanoid creature similar to humans. It is obvious they don't latch onto a creature for food, they are omnivores. Latching is probably a defensive mechanism. For their own, and for other members of their species. Like how a drone bee protects the nest and other bees when it has to.
The answer to this question doesn't exist because headcrabs follow the typical trope of a creature that has a very convenient and specific interaction towards humans but nothing special to anything else in-universe.
One of the questions I've had about them is: does the consciousness of the host really continue in some way after it's taken control of? The idea I've leaned more towards is the screams from the host are basically a loop. Whatever the host was saying in the final moments before the headcrab took over repeating unconsiously. I've never really thought the consciousness of the host survives once the takeover is complete.
Really cool idea, and still creepy to boot. I don't this is the case, though, as headcrab zombies only scream when they're on fire, implying that they're expressing pain of some kind, which would make sense given how painful it is to be burned alive.
Exactly! I've seen the theory that they were created by The Combine and believed it but when researching for this video - I could not find an actual source anywhere. It does seem like the most logical reason they exist.
I think this theory makes more sense than evolution in a few years, adaptation takes time even for alien species. The combine crested them for sure and sent them to Ravenholm to finish up the resistance survivors.
Entropy 0: 2 actually provided some more interesting variations of the head crabs and Zombies. We got to see the return of the Gonome and we had some pretty cool fan ideas, like a Temporal Headcrab and Vort Zombies.
@@wastelandgames9409 The fast zombies might be dead but the poison zombies definitely aren't. They sound like they sigh in relief as they die which suggests the host felt everything and was conscious enough to breath a sigh at relief at dying.
Great video. I always thought the lightning dog was the next step after the fast headcrab. The normal hl2 headcrab is like a bug with baby fat and it slims out as it processes whatever nutrients it takes from the person. Explains the intelligence increase as well
I love that in Alyx you can see a headcrab practicing latching onto a head by using a mannequin head, it gives them this silly feeling that gives them more story as they possibly aren't always interested in finding a host immediately
@@Scottc82 Nah it is just driven by its instincts and is probably confused why the hell it can't take control of its victim making it humb the mannequin head multiple times.
Pretty sure it has something to do with the US military, cause in The Passing/Sacrifice in L4D2. You find a US soldier Tank zombie inside a crashed shipping container
@@Idontfeelikeitughhh weren't they trying to secure the tank to do research on him? the only reason they got him in that traincart in the first place was jsut because he was one of the marines
Excellent Half Life content as always. I, like many, grew up on the Half Life series and it is therapy to sit and listen to you discuss the lore of an incredible universe. Thank you for the effort you put into this stuff.
To be honest i never minded to leave any enemy live through just running past them, but i've always made sure to kill zombies and stalkers, my mind forces me to.
@@Skyrionn i think that there are way less stalkers than headcrab zombies, whole ravenholm is a lot of them, and its not all of places where headcrabs attacked.
According to Google, After removing a headcrab the host will immediatly die right after. Because their body is just way too broken down and ripped apart and such to survive. The headcrab is what is currently keeping them alive. So no, they would defiently not survive after removal of the headcrab. So I guess you can call a Headcrab Zombies life a actual living hell that they can't escape.
So glad you're redoing topics you covered. Ive watched literally every half life lore video youve done and think its great youre covering them more in depth. Keep up the great work, looking forward to the TF2 and left 4 dead lore :D
Thank you! I looked back and thought about how unstructured and researched it was. Always happy to improve! There so many more videos to come - thanks for joining me on this journey!
I always wondered what advantage standard headcrabs have over the other species. I noticed that they are the only zombies who seem to have sentience and are the only ones shown to be able to read signs. I wonder if the reason their host is still alive and aware and why their body is in the best condition is to preserve the brain. Maybe they use their host's brain to be more intelligent, which may be why when they take over a combine, they know how a grenade works.
My head cannon(no pun intended) is that head crabs have a complex life cycle that involves them potentially going through various metaphoric changes as they make their way to a gonarch. I personally don't think gonarchs are responsible for reproducing all the head crabs we see given how common the head crabs are and how few gonarchs we see, especially since places like Ravenholm are full of them and there's no gonarch there. I think they're much like eels in that they have dozens of different forms they can take depending on the conditions and when they are in the perfect conditions for long enough, they become a gonarch as to maximize reproduction. I think the lightning dog is maybe a reproductive stage in headcrab development, perhaps they enter bodies that were prepared previously by other headcrabs in order to lay eggs inside it or combine its gametes with eggs left behind by the original headcrab. This would also explain why the head crabs need hosts and why they modify the hosts to have exposed chest cavities. It may be that they have a bee-like society wherein head crabs assume different roles and niches depending on the greater need of the colony and those changes may be a result of their genetics or inform their genetics. Maybe the gonarch gives birth to specific kinds of headcrabs depending on the needs of the colony in much the same way a queen bee does. Who knows with xenobiology.
I always thought that perhaps the Poison Headcrabs might be some mid-stage between a normal headcrab and a Gonarch. They have the same colouration, gained poison attacks (which the gonarch has), are much larger and seem to have a unique interaction with their host. In terms of a bit of an Out-there theory... Maybe the primary poison headcrab (the one that controls the hosts and seems to be pulsating in game) will continue to grow and morph. Maybe the host eventually degenerates into the large sack seen on the gonarch (since that sack is differently coloured from the rest of the body)
@@Dracosian4802 There's a common idea in the community that head crabs only have one host in their lifetime which I think is just unrealistic, especially given how ghouls have absolutely nothing in terms of nutrition to offer the headcrabs, meaning they'll starve if they stay attached too long. This leads me to believe that they are just attached to the highly necrotic bodies at that point as a necessary stage in their reproduction and are going to leave that body soon.
@@Nanamowa I may be wrong about this but: don't headcrab zombies consume the bodies of those who are not infected (which would be where the headcrabs get nutrition after they deplete the host)
@@Dracosian4802 Yes, my point was that once you've deprived a body of all its nutrition, like in the case of a ghoul, there's nothing left to get out of the food source so the head crab would have to either find a new host or die.
I personally think that the reason there are so many headcrabs in Ravenholm is because the combine literally flooded the place with headcrab cannisters... plus there is that cut gonarch sack in combine tech that used to be in Ravenholm, which would be another explanation for why there are so many headcrabs
I think the zombine can talk normally because their vocal cords have been replaced with a radio, but the radio is broken because their head is gone, and maybe the zombine is talking to warn other soldiers
Now headcrabs are not only gross but absolutely terrifying. And as always you made another video that is so interesting that the time flies by. I always get this good feeling when you upload a video because I know full well even if I dont play the game you always make lore so interesting. Honestly I feel like I am rambling but take this as a longer form of thank you.
Something I’ve been thinking about is that perhaps the headcrabs, mr friendly, and kingpins all came from the same dimension. They all have a similar appearance, and perhaps the headcrab’s original host was some miniature kingpin with a cranium vaguely like a human’s heads.
You Know, i find it bizarre that For the regular HL2 Zombies you can See their head pressed to their Neck when you shoot the headcrab Off, but the Zombines, If you shoot their head Off, appear to have No head at all above the lower jaw
I'm honestly surprised Barney lets Kleiner keep Lamarr after what he's witnessed in Black Mesa. If I were in his shoes, I'd probably unload a pistol on anything resembling a cooked turkey for the rest of my life.
from the huge development of the fandom at 2000's to still today, i still hope the bright joy of half life is still in the world after a couple of years
You could probably find a way to lobotomize the headcrab while keeping the host alive but at that point the ethical thing would be to simply kill the host. Leaving an innocent person to suffer constant agony and permanent brain damage is just cruel. Although the Combine and possibly even Black Mesa had the basically magical healing gel we see in all the health packs and health stations, so maybe putting a living host in big vat of the stuff might repair the damage, although I'm not sure that it would fix the mutations...
Glad you had a good vacations time. Headcrabs are cute as they are scary, specially the likely gene-modified poison one. I'm eager to see you talk of Quake (hoping 3 Arena too).
Cremator video would rock. I forgot that Black Mesa was already studying headcrabs before the resonance cascade. Makes me think about how Kleiner could have had Lamarr all the way back in Black Mesa.
This really is an excellent video! I'm very picky with Half-Life lore as I usually see a lot of people making assumptions and stating them as fact, I'm very glad you didn't do that. For me, the most terrifying Headcrab is the Poison, mainly because I am terrified of spiders and I played Half-Life Alyx which makes everything feel so damn real and freaked the hell out when I encountered them! Though even standard ones are terrifying in VR! XD Plus the idea of being completely broken, fed upon, possibly having them breed internally by spider-like parasites while begging for the sweet release of death is horrifying. Also does anyone know if there's an official pronunciation of "Gonarch" and "Gonome" as I've never heard them pronounced like this before so I'm curious?
Rumor has it that casualties due to headcrab attacks right before the 7 hour war were 2 billion people. Imagine the size of that zombie army against humanity. Imagine the suffering!
That thing's legs litterally pinned into your chest and the top of your skull are ripped off, the headcrab might use it inner mouth parts to touch or do something with your brain and that is NOT a comfortable experience
Anything inspired or conceptually related to the whole "mushrooms taking over ants/big/arachnid bodies" thing and making them be able to take over humans is terrifying. Headcrabs interestingly thought, seem to think they are as cute as terrifying. Guess it's their circular form as opposed to something like the face huggers in Alien which look like creepy and unsettling bony hands.
@@Skyrionn anything that has a vast interconnected society that can send signals via an instant like mushrooms do with mycelium is pretty scary... Wait... 😳
I haven’t fully watched this vid yet and don’t know if Skyrionn explains this but: A feature of the Headcrab zombie often seem to forget is their open ribcage. Headcrab zombies use the exposed ribs as teeth to feast on flesh. They rip meat chunks out of anything that’s dead and put them inbetween the ribs. They then proceed to chew it with the host‘s ribs and then let it fall into the hosts stomach.
Some theories for the fast and poison headcrab zombies: - The fast headcrab was fast in almost all forms of its biology; movement, attacks and its metabolism. Because it made the host burn through energy so quickly the host would begin to convert muscle, skin and organs into energy hence why it looks so skeletal. - The poison headcrab zombie is so bloated because of the venom itself; it causes human flesh to swell as it breaks down. This makes them prime for multiple headcrabs to feed on.
9:04 I am unsure whether you can call the relationship symbiotic. I am not entirely sure, but I believe 'symbiotic' refers to a relationship that is mutually beneficial to both organisms - and I think the headcrab-host relationship is as far from mutually beneficial that I can think of!
2:58 "did not look threatening in appearance" excuse me? A pumpkin sized 4 legged crab with a gaping mouth on the bottom, 6 eyes, sharp claws and teeth that attempts to mount anything it sees doesn't "look threatening" to you? 🤨
Great video as always. I really love your content. Seeing someone 'deeply' talking about the Half Life universe makes me happy. I love the Half Life universe and more people should talk about it. I hope that you analyze some 'non canon' games too
There was some theory that Nihilanth adapted Headcrabs to be able to work on humans since he wanted to invade Earth and it was quite a time stretch between first contact of Earth+Zen and Resonance Cascade. They should theoretically work on Vortigaunts as they are from the same homeworld.
The thing that freaked me out the most about the headcrabs was when I learned they hook their front claws *underneath* their host's collarbones. Hearing that made my skin crawl.
i always had a fear of headcrabs...i mean not that much i just found their looks a bit uncanny but nothing else, however with the fact that their human hosts are actually STILL ALIVE and feel every ounce of pain...it was amplified by 10. Great video!
I'm a bit surprised, that we didn't see any Vortigaunt, "zombies" in the series. Seems to me like a natural reason why they'd have ability to interface with a human nervous system, as Vortigaunts also have a head and what looks like a spine.
that moment in canals during the uprising when you break a beam and 7 dead poison headcrabs fall down with characteristic scream they do roght before they jump
11:26 the lack of eyes in the hl2 headcrab model is because it is not the model that valve wanted to use for the standard headcrab, as they had intended for the original headcrab's model to be what we now know as the fast headcrab, and then it did still retain stuff like its eyes and the gross innards visible from its underbelly. the reason why they originally wanted for the hl2 headcrab to look so different from its hl1 iteration was because of a design choice regarding lore reasons, basically because xen life, now on earth, had a really hard time adapting to its conditions, thus becoming starved; this is visible in the leaked beta houndeye model and the fast headcrab itself, who both appear very skinny in appearance
As I understand it, the Headcrabs need to find a host before they can progress to becoming a Gonarch. Something along the lines of how Zenomorphs work. You have the queen who spawns face huggers. The face huggers find a host. Once they have one, they latch on and deposit a chestburster inside them. The chestburster uses genetic material from their host to figure out how best to develop as they gestate. The chestburster then pops out of their victim and a few hours later, you have a fully developed Zenomorph that is designed for taking down whatever creature's chest it burst out of. It should be mentioned that certain face huggers will result in a Zenomorph Queen. Now I think headcrabs work similar to that. Gonarch spawns headcrabs. Headcrabs find a host and attach to them. And for headcrabs who are lucky enough, the host will then slowly develop into a Gonarch that specializes in spawning headcrabs that are precision designed to take down whatever the Gonarch managed to grab hold of while it was still a headcrab. Now the lightning dog, I think that might be wholly the fault of combine tinkering, but the poison and fast headcrabs, those could most certainly have come from Gonarchs that resulted from a few poor unfortunate souls. Now how TWO different breeds of headcrab would come from that is certainly beyond me. I'll let someone else figure that part out.
Lightning Dogs are parasitic (as they can inhabit and reanimate deceased organisms through utilizing their body's electric current), therefore they are more similar to headcrabs than they are in comparison to houndeyes.
@@Zeppelee Yeah I guess that is true, I only figured that they were related to Houndeyes due to the patterns on their skin and the entire manipulation of electricity and everything. But it does make more sense for them to just be a very unique breed of Headcrab.
it seems combine made them in order to put their glowing thingy in the machinery and smart fucks can just bury in open human ribcage and attach to the spine cord directly
Probably shares an organization of types amongst themselves, like bees. Queen bees lay eggs and nothing more, workers find food and nothing else, drones protect the nest and mate with the queen when necessary. Gonarchs lay more headcrabs. Worker headcrabs find food which explains why they are able to survive on both plants and meats, this provides proof latching onto a creature is absolutely _not_ for food. Drone headcrabs, like soldiers, latch onto any compatible creature in order to become bigger, more threatening, as it is their job to do so. And of course, all headcrabs can still latch onto a creature just like all bees can sting. It should be noted that regular headcrabs likely has means of reproducing and not dependent on a Gonarch to sustain their existance.
Glad to discover your channel. Instantly subscribed, love the Half-Life lore videos and the headcrabs are pretty much the core of the Half-Life series.
One of the best Half Life documentaries I ever watched, I subscribed to your channel and I feel like I started a new journey just when I felt my passion for HL was dead. Thank you author.
I'm always surprised that wearing armoured helmets (even improvised ones) wasn't a normalised thing in the Half-Life Universe, especially among the resistance. They're such a horrific threat you'd think humans would have done more to protect themselves.
If you take a look at the pre release alpha of half life the headcrabs looked quite similar to the current version of headcrabs. The only major difference was their color and texture as the sound and silhouette remained mostly the same, but it's important that I bring this is up as HOLY HELL these head crabs were THICC! Like Jesus! These xenian crustaceans had critical cheeks! Them removing it is what I call a war crime.
Those things game me a huge fright while I was a kid. Thanks for covering them. I still see myself being scared of one jumping even after all these years.
There's apparently a lot, the combine headcrab which is a headcrab equipped in combine armor and with prothestics, but there's some more interesting ones, check Starlight Soirée headcrabs for some nice looking crabs and the "gender is a prison and ive chewed through the bars" crabs for some more creativity. People really do like drawing diff varieties for some creative reason
As much as I loved cruising down the Coast Road in HL2 while in the buggy and just taking in the scenery Ravenholm was my absolute favorite chapter in the game. When I first played through HL2 I was a bit uneasy in Ravenholm, taking things slow and examining everything. I just kind of dealt with things as they presented themselves. After I played through the game more I knew when everything would happen and where all of the enemies were hiding. So there was no more fear of surprises. Once I killed off everything that was a threat I would explore and look at all of the buildings in Ravenholm, soaking it all in. I love the old industrial brick buildings and the design in general. Once there aren't anymore monsters around to attack you and you can stand there staring for a while you can feel that Ravenholm as a town is stuck in time. Even though the original inhabitants and the resistance were wiped out the town itself is stuck in days of old when it was operational. The people may be gone but it's like the town is sleeping, waiting for someone to cure it of its' illness so it can work again. Kind of similar to the videos I like watching of people getting old machinery running that have been sitting in the weeds for 30+ years. The machine is dormant and napping waiting for the right person to make it functional again. Ravenholm is no different. :)
Headcrab biology, the way headcrabs control their now in agonising pain victim, the headcrab has a 'beak' where the victims head goes, the headcrab latches on, plants itself onto thw victim and uses its beak to break through the top of the skull, controling the brain while keeping them alive, and yes the victim is still conscious through all of this, just imagine having your stomach ripped open, finger bones growing out your skin, any other pain like sharp objects the headcrabs sends you through and having your head smashed open and you can't stop the pain until the headcrab dies or detaches, Also as we know from Half-Life 2, the victims voice is backwards so how does the HEV zombie and the zombine speak normally? *HEV:* the hev zombie voicelines is just the HEV automated system. *Zombine:* this is a little more complicated, there are a few suggestions of how this is but I believe, leart from Half-Life Alyx and Half-Life 2, I belive the combine soldiers had their vocal cords replaced with a radio, so zombines can still speak, but the radio would be damaged, and as shown in a fan animation for Half-Life 2 *_'who makes really good animations'_* "Sector is not secure." This shows at combine soldiers can possibly still connect to zombines radios. And one last thing, I think the reason why zombies can pull out grenades, we already know the headcrabs control their host from their brains, possibly some memorys are also retained but I think a more reasonable answer, combine soldiers don't train, _at least I think,_ they have computer chips or something in their brains that hold battle tactics and any necessary things the "Extremely weak branch of the combine" know And yes Gordon cannot take down the combine, if that portal at the end of Half-Life 2, as Eli said "It will be the 7 hour war all over again, but this time we wouldnt last 7 minutes." Every combine synth and genetically modified combine and the normal civil protection, just human volunteers, if the civil protection does good they get to see their familys for an hour or "non mechanical reproduction." All combine we see are weak earth watchers, Also I could go on hours talking about this but I can't be bothered, any questions you have just ask me and I'll write another paragraph or sentence to explain.
Dude you honestly make amazing videos, I love seeing the story of these valve games still be talked about in a better way! Head crabs are awesome and I hope we can know more about them in future games, like how originally in the half life 2 beta The combine would’ve had a gonarch sack which was what caused them to mass produce the head crabs, Honestly I hope its still canon lol Keep up the good work dude!
Yet another fantastic and incredibly detailed video that i thoroughly enjoyed watching! the amount of information you are able to dig up on every character, creature and general lore of the half life universe is unbelievable, once again great job and a happy new year to one of my favorite TH-camrs!👍
Happy new year! I was a little worried this would come across as boring because of how much information I threw into this. It appears this kind of content works too! There will be more ☺
@Skyrionn Thats awesome!😁 I don't remember if I commented on the complete half life/portal lore video but that's probably my favorite of them all, I learned a lot from it even though I've played all the games several times, thank you for all you're doing for us fans!
the big thing i hate about the headcrabs is that they look dry because of the lighting that valve broke in an update and never fixed. in the retail version of hl2, the headcrabs look shiny, crusty, and actually have more texture
I was pretty anxious about posting this one because I thought that because this topic doesn't have a traditional storyline, people would find it boring. This has added a few more ideas to my list ☺
Makes me wonder of the Original headcrab on their home world like the Armoured version may have a symbiotic rather then parasitic relationship and being taken to Xen forced them to be more aggressive?
It seems likely the Vortigaunt's telepathy helps protect them against headcrabs, maybe that's even how they catch them. I can see a small group of Vortigaunts wandering into headcrab territory. A head crab leaps at them, one of them knocks it away with a psychic shield, two others begin chanting. The headcrab goes into a daze, and a fourth Vortigaunt just picks it up and puts it in a latched basket. Lather, rinse, repeat until you have enough for everyone.
Jeff reminds me a lot of the concept of the zombies from The Last of Us. Since it's been there so long it's developed more and has become stronger then others. There's like the spores and stuff. It's also kind of like a Clicker although the only difference is it doesn't use echo location like the Clickers. This stuff is so interesting to me.
I guess, Gonarch is the final stage of the mutation of normal Headcrab Zombie. I think, there is a host body inside Gonarch's sack, providing nutrition for the little headcrabs that weren't born yet. Sack just grew over the body, while headcrab itself was growing also. There should be certain percentage of headcrabs, capable of becoming a Gonarch(1 out of 50 or so, perhaps?) Open question, though, whose body was doomed to such fate? Maybe, there were no Gonarches until humans discovered Xen.
Personally, I always considered the gonarch as a sort of ‘queen bee’ only she can reproduce and there is only one. The only reason headcrabs still exist in HL2 is because the combine either produced them or took them from their homeworld
Which is your favourite Headcrab?
The poison headcrab, if you think about it hard enough it can hide in dark corner's and just jump on your head without knowing truly a unexpected fate
Boris Johnson
The basic one is basic 🧠
Leather
the good old standard one
Honestly. Scariest thing about them was hearing their groans enough to realise they're actually calling for help
FOR THE CYBRAN NATION
@@Sindri_Myr YES!!!!
YEBBA MY ICING!
Fr
to me, even the original groans from HL1 sounded like they were saying "hello?" like they were still alone and scared
I think a gonarch is sort of a headcrab equivalent of a queen bee. So the typical headcrab isn't going to grow up to be a gonarch.
Good idea
I second this
I think once a gonarch dies, a headcrab will mutate into the new queen.
Likely this is because there is a special Zen-ian plant that the Heacrab eats to turn into a Gonarch. Kinda like how a Bee larva fed "Royal Jelly" turns into a new Queen. That would explain why you don't see any Gonarch on Earth because the plant species for that process does not exist there.
This is all just fan speculation of course.
@@zodunderkelvin This reminds me of the cancelled return to ravenholm and how Grigori injects himself with some kind of headcrab venom, and slowly mutates.
Remember, one of the scariest creatures in Half-Life was born from a giant, walking Ball-Sack
G-Man?
Stalkers?
My ex-wife?
Yup 😂
lmfao
I think the reason we never see a zombie Vortigaunt is because of the Vortessence. I'd imagine it's hard to mind control a creature that has such a strong psychic connection to the other members of its race. Not to mention their very powerful healing abilities. All that paired with their abilities of foresight basically make a headcrab possession impossible.
In HL:A we learn that it's possible for Vortigaunts to become severed from the vortessence, though whether a headcrab could cause that remains to be seen
I would also assume their electrial capablilities would probably fry any lucky headcrab that got onto a vort head.
If you play entropy zero 2 there are actually zombie vorts. Tho non cannon it is still interesting
If Entropy Zero 2 is canon, then there are zombie vortigaunts. In one of the levels, we were introduced to zombie vortigaunts.
Or they can just electrify their heads and instantly kill them.
it was dark in xen, headcrabs developed sensitive eyes. the uv in daylight is too harsh, made worse by the combine ruining the atmosphere even more. so a thick nictitating membrane evolved or was engineered to cover the eyes.
Makes sense
Speaking of headcrabs, a friend of mine from Australia had made a standard headcrab plushie for me during Christmas 2008. I was 18 then, and now that I'm 33, I still have that plushie sitting on top of my desk. I wish that I owned that super-rare Christmas Vortigaunt plushie that Valve once sold on their online store.
That is a great friend you have there.
Cool! I have the headcrab plushie you can wear as a hat.
@@RyuHayaimagine pranking someone as zombie and they pull out the shotgun 🗿
@@komododragon410 even worse, imagine them pulling out the gloun gun or rpg
@@WeAintJokinHere the idea of someone waisting rpg's or energy on a headcrap is killing.
12:50 Marc Laidlaw (story writer of the Half-Life series) on the headcrab variants:
"Those things came through during the portal storms, which continue erratically to this very day. Some of the critters came early (immediately after the black mesa incident) and adapted to earth. I think the poison headcrabs must have eaten something poisonous at one point, and liked it so much they added it to their repertoire."
We all know that the sounds that a zombie makes are actually the host trying to call out for help, but the audio is backwards, and the fast zombie just makes weird noises and screams, but the poison zombie when killed sound like he's crying, idk what it means cuz he moans most of the time, but since the host is alive, maybe the host itself is crying
it disturbed me when playing through Ravelnohm
Probably a worse fate than becoming a stalker
The crying and begging for help could also be a ploy to attract other humans to help, only to be taken control of themselves by other nearby headcrabs. Scary - manipulating the host like that!
Man half life really is dark.
@@Skyrionn you forgot how stalkers are made huh
Its weird in original half life and the black mesa remake it seems like in some cases its implied the headcrab transformation kills the host, but in half life 2 and alyx we can clearly tell they're somewhat conscious
Black Mesa was a fantastic remake - but there were just a few of these little things I didn't like. I guess I'm just nitpicky with lore 😂
Nah in Black Mesa, it is clearly stated the host are still alive. If you seen the HEV zombie where the suit are still saying "User death imminent" "Vital sign critical" "Morphine depleted". And only flatline once you kills it.
@@ElliFong ohh yea forgot about that but idk if we can consider black mesa canon as much as it expands on the original half life
The host definitely has to still be alive on some level, they still have blood circulating through their body and their brain stem is still functional to keep them ambulatory so at least on a clinical level they're still "alive".
@@homeygfunkoffacherryfruitl4971 you can't say the same for the fast zombies
In my opinion, I think that the headcrab is probably the only species to have a direct advantage from being invaded by the combine.
On the contrary the combine use them as weapons to soften human populations and cleanup the zombies after leading me to think they consider insurgents to be more of a threat than headcrabs. However against the transhuman combine soldiers we mostly fight in the games I'd agree.
In the HL2 beta there was going to be a Combine Big Mama pod, which is the Gonarch's sack trapped in combine tech, you were originally going to drive a digger through it in Ravenholm. I headcannon that they still exist in the HL lore, but are used in factories that produce headcrab cannisters
I did have another section in this video where I looked into it but thought that there was enough beta and behind the scenes info to make a separate video ☺
That makes sense since they no longer speak full words.
This technically means that while Headcrabs are unique on Xen, they are probably normal on their homeworld, meaning that there might be various headcrab relatives occupying various niches, the same goes for all of Xen's wildlife as Xenian life is canonically not related to one another meaning that each species gives us a small glimpse into what their homeworlds are like.
Hearing the screams of help when not backwards never fails to send chills down my whole body
I had to listen to it multiple times to figure out how to reverse the audio. It wasn't a fun time.
@@Skyrionn yikes, it was definitely worth it though, I came across your channel a week ago and I love the content!
Poor people, they don't know their words are being distorted by encoding so no one can understand what they are saying so they must suffer even more not knowing why nobody replies to them nor help them to be released. Genius idea I must say.
@@skynetonline that's horrible :(
It’s interesting how normal Headcrabs have two crab legs and two “normal” legs but poison and fast variant are more spider-like
My theory is that the combine created them
@@skynetonline They did
@@alienpl107 [we don't know that]
Hello Gordon!
I always assumed the zombine were trying to warn their allys as best they could while being piloted by the headcrab, which is why they mention parasite and infestation in their ramblings
Bruh, who gave WiFi access to class D's, aren't you supposed to be in the femure breakur?
@@WeAintJokinHereBro it says in his user is is NOT a d class
I always wondered what headcrabs attacked as a parasite in their native environment.
My guess is something similar to a small rodent
About the size of a Guinea pig or beaver
Native environment, meaning wherever or whatever dimension it is they came from, and not Xen? Likely another humanoid creature similar to humans.
It is obvious they don't latch onto a creature for food, they are omnivores. Latching is probably a defensive mechanism. For their own, and for other members of their species. Like how a drone bee protects the nest and other bees when it has to.
The answer to this question doesn't exist because headcrabs follow the typical trope of a creature that has a very convenient and specific interaction towards humans but nothing special to anything else in-universe.
@@sulphurous2656 This is both the most realistic and boring option sadly.
One of the questions I've had about them is: does the consciousness of the host really continue in some way after it's taken control of? The idea I've leaned more towards is the screams from the host are basically a loop. Whatever the host was saying in the final moments before the headcrab took over repeating unconsiously. I've never really thought the consciousness of the host survives once the takeover is complete.
That's actually another interesting way to view it
I hope so that does sound pretty cool
I don't think so, remember they are being held hostage in their own body. They want to be freed.
Really cool idea, and still creepy to boot. I don't this is the case, though, as headcrab zombies only scream when they're on fire, implying that they're expressing pain of some kind, which would make sense given how painful it is to be burned alive.
Whoever did the voices for the headcrab zombies did a damn good job, I can't sleep anymore
Marc Laidlaw, the writer of Half Life.
I always thought the fast and poison headcrabs were combine bioweapons. If they weren't, you'd think you would see them in xen, no?
Exactly! I've seen the theory that they were created by The Combine and believed it but when researching for this video - I could not find an actual source anywhere.
It does seem like the most logical reason they exist.
That or because the series is so old it's just another version added
There's a Theory that they evolved to fit their prey on Earth, fast headcrabs counter runner humans and stuff
@@fuzzyhair321 no fun
I think this theory makes more sense than evolution in a few years, adaptation takes time even for alien species. The combine crested them for sure and sent them to Ravenholm to finish up the resistance survivors.
Entropy 0: 2 actually provided some more interesting variations of the head crabs and Zombies. We got to see the return of the Gonome and we had some pretty cool fan ideas, like a Temporal Headcrab and Vort Zombies.
Was gonna bring that up too. Skyrionn mentioned potentially covering fan games so I think Entropy Zero and its sequel are a good place to start.
They were pretty interesting. As said in the other comment, I may look into non-canonical additions to the universe at some point ☺
@@Skyrionn Please look at entropy its such an awesome game man also if you see this I love your content
Oh my god, vort zombies would he horrible. Since all of the vorts are connected, do you think the whole vortessance can feel the zombie's pain?
@@jackdaniels5071 Yikes. Gameplay wise, they appear to act like a weaker, dumber vort, but implications lore wise...?
A lot of people actually theorise that the fast a poison zombies aren't actually alive but are just being controlled.
I guess that's better for the hosts
I guess it makes sense considering neither sound like there in pain and truly do just sound like zombies
@@wastelandgames9409 The fast zombies might be dead but the poison zombies definitely aren't. They sound like they sigh in relief as they die which suggests the host felt everything and was conscious enough to breath a sigh at relief at dying.
@@WeaverOfStars good point
@wasteland games Or perhaps it's just something we theories to cope with the fact that we are killing councius humans. Let's end their suffering.
Great video. I always thought the lightning dog was the next step after the fast headcrab. The normal hl2 headcrab is like a bug with baby fat and it slims out as it processes whatever nutrients it takes from the person. Explains the intelligence increase as well
It does. Good insight there!
Knowing that the victims of the headcrabs can still feel pain makes me imagine how painful the gonome transformation is.
Especially when.they reach into their own torso and throw guts..
I love that in Alyx you can see a headcrab practicing latching onto a head by using a mannequin head, it gives them this silly feeling that gives them more story as they possibly aren't always interested in finding a host immediately
Or its just a stupid animal and thought the mannequin was a human? That obvious explanation too convenient?
@@skullkid692 No, if you don't alert it you can see it's trying to practice also the head is completely intact too
@@Scottc82 Nah it is just driven by its instincts and is probably confused why the hell it can't take control of its victim making it humb the mannequin head multiple times.
@@Scottc82 While cute, it's an absolutely stupid assumption.
this was made 2 months ago shut up
holy crap, I didn't notice the headcrabs actualy have eyes. I thought they're like Antlions that depend on smell/sound
I'm sure as they evolved they had other ways to navigate their environment but yeah - early on they did ☺
Wait, Antlions don’t have eyes? That’s news to me.
@@ic0nic707Too much terraria
Left 4 Dead Suggestion: I always wondered how the green flu (I think it was called green flu) came to be.
Green Flu is a good suggestion!
Pretty sure it has something to do with the US military, cause in The Passing/Sacrifice in L4D2. You find a US soldier Tank zombie inside a crashed shipping container
@@Idontfeelikeitughhh weren't they trying to secure the tank to do research on him?
the only reason they got him in that traincart in the first place was jsut because he was one of the marines
Excellent Half Life content as always. I, like many, grew up on the Half Life series and it is therapy to sit and listen to you discuss the lore of an incredible universe.
Thank you for the effort you put into this stuff.
I'm happy to help. Thank you for watching them, I do truly appreciate it.
There are many more to come.
The zombies are some of the most tragic creatures tbh~
You’re forgetting the people who have to live in London
To be honest i never minded to leave any enemy live through just running past them, but i've always made sure to kill zombies and stalkers, my mind forces me to.
but we can't deny it is fun to just spawn in a tone of Zombies on Gmod and then just start gunning them down
Probably worse than the Stalkers. At least the Stalkers are unaware
@@Skyrionn i think that there are way less stalkers than headcrab zombies, whole ravenholm is a lot of them, and its not all of places where headcrabs attacked.
According to Google,
After removing a headcrab the host will immediatly die right after. Because their body is just way too broken down and ripped apart and such to survive. The headcrab is what is currently keeping them alive.
So no, they would defiently not survive after removal of the headcrab. So I guess you can call a Headcrab Zombies life a actual living hell that they can't escape.
how zombines can pull out a grenade
headcrabs were always one of my favorite parts about the HL universe, great video as always!!
It's not HL without them. I'd have been interested to see what would have happened if they got into the Aperture Facility.
@@Skyrionn "In case of headcrab infestation use THIS CROWBAR"
Ravenholm and Quarantine Zone are some of the most memorable locations in all gaming for me. Man i love this universe so much !
It's an amazing series and there is still so much to explore!
So glad you're redoing topics you covered. Ive watched literally every half life lore video youve done and think its great youre covering them more in depth. Keep up the great work, looking forward to the TF2 and left 4 dead lore :D
Thank you! I looked back and thought about how unstructured and researched it was. Always happy to improve!
There so many more videos to come - thanks for joining me on this journey!
I always wondered what advantage standard headcrabs have over the other species. I noticed that they are the only zombies who seem to have sentience and are the only ones shown to be able to read signs. I wonder if the reason their host is still alive and aware and why their body is in the best condition is to preserve the brain. Maybe they use their host's brain to be more intelligent, which may be why when they take over a combine, they know how a grenade works.
My head cannon(no pun intended) is that head crabs have a complex life cycle that involves them potentially going through various metaphoric changes as they make their way to a gonarch. I personally don't think gonarchs are responsible for reproducing all the head crabs we see given how common the head crabs are and how few gonarchs we see, especially since places like Ravenholm are full of them and there's no gonarch there. I think they're much like eels in that they have dozens of different forms they can take depending on the conditions and when they are in the perfect conditions for long enough, they become a gonarch as to maximize reproduction. I think the lightning dog is maybe a reproductive stage in headcrab development, perhaps they enter bodies that were prepared previously by other headcrabs in order to lay eggs inside it or combine its gametes with eggs left behind by the original headcrab. This would also explain why the head crabs need hosts and why they modify the hosts to have exposed chest cavities.
It may be that they have a bee-like society wherein head crabs assume different roles and niches depending on the greater need of the colony and those changes may be a result of their genetics or inform their genetics. Maybe the gonarch gives birth to specific kinds of headcrabs depending on the needs of the colony in much the same way a queen bee does. Who knows with xenobiology.
I always thought that perhaps the Poison Headcrabs might be some mid-stage between a normal headcrab and a Gonarch. They have the same colouration, gained poison attacks (which the gonarch has), are much larger and seem to have a unique interaction with their host.
In terms of a bit of an Out-there theory... Maybe the primary poison headcrab (the one that controls the hosts and seems to be pulsating in game) will continue to grow and morph. Maybe the host eventually degenerates into the large sack seen on the gonarch (since that sack is differently coloured from the rest of the body)
@@Dracosian4802 There's a common idea in the community that head crabs only have one host in their lifetime which I think is just unrealistic, especially given how ghouls have absolutely nothing in terms of nutrition to offer the headcrabs, meaning they'll starve if they stay attached too long. This leads me to believe that they are just attached to the highly necrotic bodies at that point as a necessary stage in their reproduction and are going to leave that body soon.
@@Nanamowa I may be wrong about this but: don't headcrab zombies consume the bodies of those who are not infected (which would be where the headcrabs get nutrition after they deplete the host)
@@Dracosian4802 Yes, my point was that once you've deprived a body of all its nutrition, like in the case of a ghoul, there's nothing left to get out of the food source so the head crab would have to either find a new host or die.
I personally think that the reason there are so many headcrabs in Ravenholm is because the combine literally flooded the place with headcrab cannisters... plus there is that cut gonarch sack in combine tech that used to be in Ravenholm, which would be another explanation for why there are so many headcrabs
I think the zombine can talk normally because their vocal cords have been replaced with a radio, but the radio is broken because their head is gone, and maybe the zombine is talking to warn other soldiers
don't know about the state of the radio bur they definetly keep sending reports about sector being infested and not secure
Now headcrabs are not only gross but absolutely terrifying. And as always you made another video that is so interesting that the time flies by. I always get this good feeling when you upload a video because I know full well even if I dont play the game you always make lore so interesting. Honestly I feel like I am rambling but take this as a longer form of thank you.
Something I’ve been thinking about is that perhaps the headcrabs, mr friendly, and kingpins all came from the same dimension. They all have a similar appearance, and perhaps the headcrab’s original host was some miniature kingpin with a cranium vaguely like a human’s heads.
You Know, i find it bizarre that For the regular HL2 Zombies you can See their head pressed to their Neck when you shoot the headcrab Off, but the Zombines, If you shoot their head Off, appear to have No head at all above the lower jaw
Because the helmet is stuck with the head so when the headcrab falls off the head follows it
there WAS suppsoed to be that skull that sometimes drops from barnacles
headcrab fluids melt the gasmask
I'm honestly surprised Barney lets Kleiner keep Lamarr after what he's witnessed in Black Mesa. If I were in his shoes, I'd probably unload a pistol on anything resembling a cooked turkey for the rest of my life.
from the huge development of the fandom at 2000's to still today, i still hope the bright joy of half life is still in the world after a couple of years
You could probably find a way to lobotomize the headcrab while keeping the host alive but at that point the ethical thing would be to simply kill the host. Leaving an innocent person to suffer constant agony and permanent brain damage is just cruel. Although the Combine and possibly even Black Mesa had the basically magical healing gel we see in all the health packs and health stations, so maybe putting a living host in big vat of the stuff might repair the damage, although I'm not sure that it would fix the mutations...
Glad you had a good vacations time. Headcrabs are cute as they are scary, specially the likely gene-modified poison one. I'm eager to see you talk of Quake (hoping 3 Arena too).
Thank you! I hope you had a great holiday too!
I can kinda see the cuteness.
Quake will be interesting!
Cremator video would rock. I forgot that Black Mesa was already studying headcrabs before the resonance cascade. Makes me think about how Kleiner could have had Lamarr all the way back in Black Mesa.
He could have I guess.
I'm hoping there is enough information about The Cremator to dedicate a video to it.
This really is an excellent video! I'm very picky with Half-Life lore as I usually see a lot of people making assumptions and stating them as fact, I'm very glad you didn't do that.
For me, the most terrifying Headcrab is the Poison, mainly because I am terrified of spiders and I played Half-Life Alyx which makes everything feel so damn real and freaked the hell out when I encountered them! Though even standard ones are terrifying in VR! XD Plus the idea of being completely broken, fed upon, possibly having them breed internally by spider-like parasites while begging for the sweet release of death is horrifying.
Also does anyone know if there's an official pronunciation of "Gonarch" and "Gonome" as I've never heard them pronounced like this before so I'm curious?
Just imagine how must the person suffer being controlled by headcrab
Worse than a stalker I think
@@Skyrionn likely
Rumor has it that casualties due to headcrab attacks right before the 7 hour war were 2 billion people. Imagine the size of that zombie army against humanity. Imagine the suffering!
That thing's legs litterally pinned into your chest and the top of your skull are ripped off, the headcrab might use it inner mouth parts to touch or do something with your brain and that is NOT a comfortable experience
Anything inspired or conceptually related to the whole "mushrooms taking over ants/big/arachnid bodies" thing and making them be able to take over humans is terrifying. Headcrabs interestingly thought, seem to think they are as cute as terrifying. Guess it's their circular form as opposed to something like the face huggers in Alien which look like creepy and unsettling bony hands.
I 100% agree! Mushrooms are pretty scary when you think about it!
@@Skyrionn anything that has a vast interconnected society that can send signals via an instant like mushrooms do with mycelium is pretty scary...
Wait... 😳
@@Skyrionn Nothing a heat source and some garlic can't solve 😜
I haven’t fully watched this vid yet and don’t know if Skyrionn explains this but: A feature of the Headcrab zombie often seem to forget is their open ribcage. Headcrab zombies use the exposed ribs as teeth to feast on flesh. They rip meat chunks out of anything that’s dead and put them inbetween the ribs. They then proceed to chew it with the host‘s ribs and then let it fall into the hosts stomach.
Some theories for the fast and poison headcrab zombies:
- The fast headcrab was fast in almost all forms of its biology; movement, attacks and its metabolism. Because it made the host burn through energy so quickly the host would begin to convert muscle, skin and organs into energy hence why it looks so skeletal.
- The poison headcrab zombie is so bloated because of the venom itself; it causes human flesh to swell as it breaks down. This makes them prime for multiple headcrabs to feed on.
Good theories!
9:04 I am unsure whether you can call the relationship symbiotic. I am not entirely sure, but I believe 'symbiotic' refers to a relationship that is mutually beneficial to both organisms - and I think the headcrab-host relationship is as far from mutually beneficial that I can think of!
i agree with you on this. it’s definitely more parasitic than it would be symbiotic
A head crab is the most opposite you can get to symbiotic
I love how much Valve did with them. Considering there among the few aliens you directly face in HL2 there's an insane variety in them.
i love how valve made them and didn't dump any huge lore chunks
leaving us to talk about game franchise from 1998 like it came out yesterday
2:58 "did not look threatening in appearance" excuse me? A pumpkin sized 4 legged crab with a gaping mouth on the bottom, 6 eyes, sharp claws and teeth that attempts to mount anything it sees doesn't "look threatening" to you? 🤨
Great video as always. I really love your content. Seeing someone 'deeply' talking about the Half Life universe makes me happy. I love the Half Life universe and more people should talk about it. I hope that you analyze some 'non canon' games too
I've actually had a lot more requests for the non-canon content lately. It's worth looking into I guess!
There was some theory that Nihilanth adapted Headcrabs to be able to work on humans since he wanted to invade Earth and it was quite a time stretch between first contact of Earth+Zen and Resonance Cascade. They should theoretically work on Vortigaunts as they are from the same homeworld.
considering that nihilanth was preparing for combine invasion and cascade resonance interfered with his plan i'd say very unlikely
"GOD HELP! HELP ME!"
The thing that freaked me out the most about the headcrabs was when I learned they hook their front claws *underneath* their host's collarbones. Hearing that made my skin crawl.
i always had a fear of headcrabs...i mean not that much i just found their looks a bit uncanny but nothing else, however with the fact that their human hosts are actually STILL ALIVE and feel every ounce of pain...it was amplified by 10. Great video!
It's a pretty terrifying thought. Thanks for watching!
thank you for uploading it! Keep up the good work
You are the kind of channel where I start the video and click the thumbs up right away before even watching. Keep up the great work!
You're the best kind of viewer! I really appreciate your support ☺
As always a great video. Without headcrabs it would not really be the same.
It really wouldn't. Thanks for watching!
I'm a bit surprised, that we didn't see any Vortigaunt, "zombies" in the series. Seems to me like a natural reason why they'd have ability to interface with a human nervous system, as Vortigaunts also have a head and what looks like a spine.
My first Ravenholm experience screwed me up so bad I felt fear during the Poison Headcrab section :')
That noise brings back memories
@@Skyrionn Very bad memories :')
that moment in canals during the uprising when you break a beam and 7 dead poison headcrabs fall down with characteristic scream they do roght before they jump
6:38 so it can shove food in it and use the ribs as teeth the host then presumably vommits into the Headcrabs mouth
11:26 the lack of eyes in the hl2 headcrab model is because it is not the model that valve wanted to use for the standard headcrab, as they had intended for the original headcrab's model to be what we now know as the fast headcrab, and then it did still retain stuff like its eyes and the gross innards visible from its underbelly.
the reason why they originally wanted for the hl2 headcrab to look so different from its hl1 iteration was because of a design choice regarding lore reasons, basically because xen life, now on earth, had a really hard time adapting to its conditions, thus becoming starved; this is visible in the leaked beta houndeye model and the fast headcrab itself, who both appear very skinny in appearance
As I understand it, the Headcrabs need to find a host before they can progress to becoming a Gonarch.
Something along the lines of how Zenomorphs work.
You have the queen who spawns face huggers. The face huggers find a host. Once they have one, they latch on and deposit a chestburster inside them. The chestburster uses genetic material from their host to figure out how best to develop as they gestate. The chestburster then pops out of their victim and a few hours later, you have a fully developed Zenomorph that is designed for taking down whatever creature's chest it burst out of. It should be mentioned that certain face huggers will result in a Zenomorph Queen.
Now I think headcrabs work similar to that. Gonarch spawns headcrabs. Headcrabs find a host and attach to them. And for headcrabs who are lucky enough, the host will then slowly develop into a Gonarch that specializes in spawning headcrabs that are precision designed to take down whatever the Gonarch managed to grab hold of while it was still a headcrab. Now the lightning dog, I think that might be wholly the fault of combine tinkering, but the poison and fast headcrabs, those could most certainly have come from Gonarchs that resulted from a few poor unfortunate souls. Now how TWO different breeds of headcrab would come from that is certainly beyond me. I'll let someone else figure that part out.
but they would find no humans or any similar hosts in ther dimention
I always assumed that the Lighting dog was a specific evolution of the Houndeye, not being related to headcrabs at all.
I would have thought that too. The npc name sold it to me
Lightning Dogs are parasitic (as they can inhabit and reanimate deceased organisms through utilizing their body's electric current), therefore they are more similar to headcrabs than they are in comparison to houndeyes.
@@Zeppelee Yeah I guess that is true, I only figured that they were related to Houndeyes due to the patterns on their skin and the entire manipulation of electricity and everything. But it does make more sense for them to just be a very unique breed of Headcrab.
it seems combine made them in order to put their glowing thingy in the machinery
and smart fucks can just bury in open human ribcage and attach to the spine cord directly
Probably shares an organization of types amongst themselves, like bees. Queen bees lay eggs and nothing more, workers find food and nothing else, drones protect the nest and mate with the queen when necessary.
Gonarchs lay more headcrabs. Worker headcrabs find food which explains why they are able to survive on both plants and meats, this provides proof latching onto a creature is absolutely _not_ for food. Drone headcrabs, like soldiers, latch onto any compatible creature in order to become bigger, more threatening, as it is their job to do so. And of course, all headcrabs can still latch onto a creature just like all bees can sting.
It should be noted that regular headcrabs likely has means of reproducing and not dependent on a Gonarch to sustain their existance.
I don't know if it was just a coincidence, but I'm pretty sure I saw the Poison Headcrabs try to play dead after I shot one 😮
they run away in panic
or in some cases/being hit with gravity gun they land on their backs and erratically try to flip over
imagine being took over by a creature but instead of dying your alive in pain flesh falling off the very thing that makes you human is gone
WOOOHOOOO FINALLY HEADCRABS
We got there ☺
Glad to discover your channel. Instantly subscribed, love the Half-Life lore videos and the headcrabs are pretty much the core of the Half-Life series.
Welcome aboard! There's so much more to come!
@@Skyrionn glad to hear that
Intresting how the headcrabs can break trough a combine soldier's helmet.
Well a bullet can, so why not a helmet
Very strong beaks
gas mask not helmet
just like clothes gasmask melts in contace with headcrab fluids
The poison headcrabs were always scared to fight to me. Hope you had a good holiday break. Welcome back John.
Oh Jeez they were awful! I struggled through Ravenholm on my first playthrough merely through fear. Thanks man - I hope you had a great one too!
glados would like to know poison headcrabs current location
New obstacles in her test chambers maybe..
One of the best Half Life documentaries I ever watched, I subscribed to your channel and I feel like I started a new journey just when I felt my passion for HL was dead. Thank you author.
Hey! Welcome aboard! Thanks so much, I appreciate it. I have so many videos on the channel and many, many more planned too!
bro when those half life alyx combine explained bro where my pressous grunt
It's on the list ☺
@@Skyrionn ok :)
@@Skyrionn i am rewatching this video and i forgot ti say i love your videos they ar good and hige quality and you are a relieble source
I'm always surprised that wearing armoured helmets (even improvised ones) wasn't a normalised thing in the Half-Life Universe, especially among the resistance. They're such a horrific threat you'd think humans would have done more to protect themselves.
I want a pet headcrab thats debeaked not gonna lie
As long as it's debeaked
@@Skyrionn indeed. I'd have one of each!
Been waiting for this one! Keep it up sir, your content is top-notch!
That's very kind of you to say! Thanks for watching ☺
If you take a look at the pre release alpha of half life the headcrabs looked quite similar to the current version of headcrabs. The only major difference was their color and texture as the sound and silhouette remained mostly the same, but it's important that I bring this is up as HOLY HELL these head crabs were THICC! Like Jesus! These xenian crustaceans had critical cheeks! Them removing it is what I call a war crime.
Those things game me a huge fright while I was a kid. Thanks for covering them. I still see myself being scared of one jumping even after all these years.
Have you played Half-Life: Alyx? They terrifying in that!
@@Skyrionn I did. The hotel with the poison headcrabs was the worst and the best at the same time. It got my heart pumping xD
Imagine a life action movie based on this game 😳
Gordon Freeman in the whole trilogy of movies of 2 hours and 50 minutes be like:
There is one CGI movie I can't find the link though.
better not
I think the gonarch’s sack is a host from their original world growing, human hosts just can’t grow as much and so can’t become a gonarch
I wonder has anyone ever made fan made variants of the headcrab? because I did see that people have made some fan made Combine variants
There's apparently a lot, the combine headcrab which is a headcrab equipped in combine armor and with prothestics, but there's some more interesting ones, check Starlight Soirée headcrabs for some nice looking crabs and the "gender is a prison and ive chewed through the bars" crabs for some more creativity. People really do like drawing diff varieties for some creative reason
@@flufferusgoobus I think the Combine headcrab actually appears in a mod for Gmod, I think a lot of the fan made Half life 2 are from Gmod mods
@@reeceemms1643 I think it does appear too somewhere but i don't remember exactly which mod
Its likely to be present on Gmod addons but im not sure
That'd be amazing to see
As much as I loved cruising down the Coast Road in HL2 while in the buggy and just taking in the scenery Ravenholm was my absolute favorite chapter in the game. When I first played through HL2 I was a bit uneasy in Ravenholm, taking things slow and examining everything. I just kind of dealt with things as they presented themselves. After I played through the game more I knew when everything would happen and where all of the enemies were hiding. So there was no more fear of surprises.
Once I killed off everything that was a threat I would explore and look at all of the buildings in Ravenholm, soaking it all in. I love the old industrial brick buildings and the design in general. Once there aren't anymore monsters around to attack you and you can stand there staring for a while you can feel that Ravenholm as a town is stuck in time. Even though the original inhabitants and the resistance were wiped out the town itself is stuck in days of old when it was operational. The people may be gone but it's like the town is sleeping, waiting for someone to cure it of its' illness so it can work again.
Kind of similar to the videos I like watching of people getting old machinery running that have been sitting in the weeds for 30+ years. The machine is dormant and napping waiting for the right person to make it functional again. Ravenholm is no different. :)
Another reason why ravenholm scared me a lot when I first played hl2 because the screams were so scary
Those noises were scary
Straight up made me
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Headcrab biology, the way headcrabs control their now in agonising pain victim, the headcrab has a 'beak' where the victims head goes, the headcrab latches on, plants itself onto thw victim and uses its beak to break through the top of the skull, controling the brain while keeping them alive, and yes the victim is still conscious through all of this, just imagine having your stomach ripped open, finger bones growing out your skin, any other pain like sharp objects the headcrabs sends you through and having your head smashed open and you can't stop the pain until the headcrab dies or detaches,
Also as we know from Half-Life 2, the victims voice is backwards so how does the HEV zombie and the zombine speak normally?
*HEV:* the hev zombie voicelines is just the HEV automated system.
*Zombine:* this is a little more complicated, there are a few suggestions of how this is but I believe, leart from Half-Life Alyx and Half-Life 2, I belive the combine soldiers had their vocal cords replaced with a radio, so zombines can still speak, but the radio would be damaged, and as shown in a fan animation for Half-Life 2 *_'who makes really good animations'_* "Sector is not secure." This shows at combine soldiers can possibly still connect to zombines radios. And one last thing, I think the reason why zombies can pull out grenades, we already know the headcrabs control their host from their brains, possibly some memorys are also retained but I think a more reasonable answer, combine soldiers don't train, _at least I think,_ they have computer chips or something in their brains that hold battle tactics and any necessary things the "Extremely weak branch of the combine" know
And yes Gordon cannot take down the combine, if that portal at the end of Half-Life 2, as Eli said "It will be the 7 hour war all over again, but this time we wouldnt last 7 minutes." Every combine synth and genetically modified combine and the normal civil protection, just human volunteers, if the civil protection does good they get to see their familys for an hour or "non mechanical reproduction." All combine we see are weak earth watchers,
Also I could go on hours talking about this but I can't be bothered, any questions you have just ask me and I'll write another paragraph or sentence to explain.
I love your videos so much.
I've learned so much about half life and portal lore.
I'm happy to help. There's so much more to come too!
Dude you honestly make amazing videos, I love seeing the story of these valve games still be talked about in a better way! Head crabs are awesome and I hope we can know more about them in future games, like how originally in the half life 2 beta The combine would’ve had a gonarch sack which was what caused them to mass produce the head crabs, Honestly I hope its still canon lol
Keep up the good work dude!
Thanks for watching and its great to have someone know about the beta too. There's so many more videos to come!
When lamarr lore
That's what i'm saying!
Wait I mean lamarr*
Let me change
2 hour Lamarr lore incoming 😂
Yay
Yet another fantastic and incredibly detailed video that i thoroughly enjoyed watching! the amount of information you are able to dig up on every character, creature and general lore of the half life universe is unbelievable, once again great job and a happy new year to one of my favorite TH-camrs!👍
Happy new year! I was a little worried this would come across as boring because of how much information I threw into this. It appears this kind of content works too! There will be more ☺
@Skyrionn Thats awesome!😁 I don't remember if I commented on the complete half life/portal lore video but that's probably my favorite of them all, I learned a lot from it even though I've played all the games several times, thank you for all you're doing for us fans!
I liek crabs
Same
the big thing i hate about the headcrabs is that they look dry because of the lighting that valve broke in an update and never fixed. in the retail version of hl2, the headcrabs look shiny, crusty, and actually have more texture
that time half-life 2 came out perfect but they nerfed that breaking things only to bring back only a fracture of features in 2010 in "HDR update"
@@ryszakowy yea my brother helped me find a retail version aka first day release version and things feel more polished in a way
This is your best video yet. Well done, the best break down on the topic I've ever seen.
I was pretty anxious about posting this one because I thought that because this topic doesn't have a traditional storyline, people would find it boring. This has added a few more ideas to my list ☺
Makes me wonder of the Original headcrab on their home world like the Armoured version may have a symbiotic rather then parasitic relationship and being taken to Xen forced them to be more aggressive?
never seen any hints of armored headcrabs on xen
i beleive it's result of earth atmosphere and xen flora reacting to it
Kudos to you for the melee walk though. It’s been years since I’ve played that game, I enjoyed the memories!
It seems likely the Vortigaunt's telepathy helps protect them against headcrabs, maybe that's even how they catch them. I can see a small group of Vortigaunts wandering into headcrab territory. A head crab leaps at them, one of them knocks it away with a psychic shield, two others begin chanting. The headcrab goes into a daze, and a fourth Vortigaunt just picks it up and puts it in a latched basket. Lather, rinse, repeat until you have enough for everyone.
That makes sense tbh. I'd love a HL game where we maybe play as a Vortigaunt and live as one.
@@Skyrionn I've always preferred to play as the monster, tbh.
Jeff reminds me a lot of the concept of the zombies from The Last of Us. Since it's been there so long it's developed more and has become stronger then others. There's like the spores and stuff. It's also kind of like a Clicker although the only difference is it doesn't use echo location like the Clickers. This stuff is so interesting to me.
I guess, Gonarch is the final stage of the mutation of normal Headcrab Zombie. I think, there is a host body inside Gonarch's sack, providing nutrition for the little headcrabs that weren't born yet. Sack just grew over the body, while headcrab itself was growing also. There should be certain percentage of headcrabs, capable of becoming a Gonarch(1 out of 50 or so, perhaps?) Open question, though, whose body was doomed to such fate? Maybe, there were no Gonarches until humans discovered Xen.
@Tele.gram_Skyrionn I don't believe you)
I think you're right tbh. Also ignore those telegram things. I've blocked the account so it should have removed all of the scam messages.
9:00 "this SYMBIOTIC relationship"
Personally, I always considered the gonarch as a sort of ‘queen bee’ only she can reproduce and there is only one. The only reason headcrabs still exist in HL2 is because the combine either produced them or took them from their homeworld
That also makes sense