I like the idea that he's just stopped thinking apart from those brief moments of solitude or with friends like in Black Mesa East. To be fair, what else do you do when the world has done a 180 around you in only 1 week and you've been at the center of it all?
What Gordon is experiencing is akin to a survivor's rush, or a warrior's journey-- in the midst of everything that's happening, his brain is wired in such a way that he doesn't even really question what he's doing or to whom, he just _responds_ to immediate threats and problems. But the thing about that is... a warrior doesn't cry while they're on the journey. It bottles up inside them as they steel their bodies for whatever is to come next. So they hold their tears, their doubts, their shame, their guilt, and they keep it all inside until they're finally done. It's why kings cry. For all the riches and power they have accrued, it will not help them to forget everything they had done on their way to the throne.
@@cptncutleg if we get a conclusion to the half life saga it’d be great to see Gordon from an outside perspective, finally able to unbottle a lifetimes worth of pain he bottled up in a week. I doubt if he defeats the combine he’s going to celebrate, the best thing he could do is break down and cry
Long time ago, when we were kids, we thought that Gordon was an mature adult. Now, that I'm practically the same age as him - 25 ( he's 27), I realize that he was just a kid, looking at how the world crumbles around him.
😂you are right dude , that time we were too young, that's why Gordon was as like a mature man to us, now me and you are at the same age now I feel the same as you ,and Gordon was too young when he saw chaos and violence around him the more we got closer to Freeman age the more we understand his situation
I love how this differentiates him from other silent/mostly silent protagonists. The Doomslayer is too angry, Master Chief is too focused, Gordon is too traumatized
I always really like it when people depict Gordon not as an emotionless husk, but a man that is barely holding back all the trauma of what he has been through.
Friendly reminder that Gordon has been pumped with morphine since ever since he put the H.E.V. suit on back in Black Mesa. In hl2, his modified suit supposedly contained antidote injectors for neurotoxins. Gordon has been pumped with drugs for a week straight, not to mention the fact he hasn’t gotten a wink of sleep (not counting stasis). This sounds like actual hell. Edit: Reading the other comments gives me the headcanon of Gordon being just... far, far too broken to have a mental breakdown fully. If not, once the events of the games are over, he'll likely never be that same individual that arrived late on the tram, all those years ago. Maybe he'll laugh, maybe he'll cry. Maybe he'll stay silent. The right man, always in the wrong place.
Always what I was thinking about every time he got hurt, like this man is basically dead after tanking so many shots but morphine and who knows what else is keeping him going
@@fartyturd4084 im assuming sheer willpower to not let humanity fizzle out and the constant amount of stress he's put through is keeping him from snapping you cant go insane if theres no time to go insane
The moments we see Gordon as just a member of the science team really sell this. He looks so content, he's in his dream position in an exciting field, he's practically beaming. And then nearly everyone he knows is killed by gibbering monsters or government death squads, he gets hurled into another dimension to fight giant insects and murders a cosmic horror as it pleads directly into his mind. Only to come back to an earth that is being exterminated and brutalized by an unfathomably vast multidimensional empire, his surviving friends are now old men, and aliens he was gunning down minutes before now think he's some kind of messiah - in the span of just a few days. If he was permitted, even for a moment, to slow down enough to process everything he'd seen, he'd probably have a total breakdown.
The part where he falls to his knees on Xen is the most poignant scene in the video. It's like they captured the exact moment he fully came to realize just how monumentally screwed he was. He had to be thinking at that moment that, even if he somehow managed to accomplish his goal there, he was already a dead man. He couldn't have possibly foreseen the G-Man's intervention, so I think this was the point where he realized that this was the place he was going to die: alone, trapped in another dimension, with absolutely no hope of being rescued or even having his body recovered
What's amazing is that for everyone except Gordon, it's been years. For Gordon, the events of HL and sequels happened in a week or two. Meanwhile shepard is still in the freezer.
It’s like Master Chief. He had to deal with losing Keyes and Johnson, and then Cortana in 4. And yes, they just brought her back for Halo 5 but _eeeevil_, but then in Infinite.. she’s really gone. Both chief and Gordon started out as nothing more than blank slate characters that players could project themselves onto, but now they’re more. Of course, Chief’s development is shown unlike Freeman’s where you simply speculate, but still.
I like how the lyrics "theyre talking about you boy, but youre still the same" fit pretty well with gordon, hes know across as the one free man, the one who managed to achieve so much and free so many in such little time, but "youre still the same" kinda reflects how even though hes seen as a hero, what happened in 20 years or so for him this all happened in a blink of an eye, for him it was just 1 week ago that life was normal, he got up went to work greeted his fellow scientists, and in the blink of an eye it all vanished, so "youre still the same" feels like its saying he hasnt had the time to adapt to his surroundings like others who have been fighting for 20 years
Of course Gordon Freeman is a mute audience surrogate character designed to be projected on, but I get the feeling that he really just wants to go back to his normal scientist life. He's fighting monsters and saving the world because he has no choice, because he's the right man in the wrong place. He saves people because it's the right thing to do, but if it were up to him he would prefer NOT to be in that situation in the first place.
I doubt anything is the same for Gordon! For one he refuses to say anything, and when he does it's basically a word or two so little that it wasn't even bothered to be put in the game. Gordon is far from alright!
I always imagine that when Alyx jokes about Gordon being a man of few words he looks at her with a face of complete seriousness as he thinks about the horrors he has seen. If you were to go through all the shit he has been through I think you would be silent too...
Alex: Man of few words aren't ya? Gordon: *staring off into space and trembling 'cause one of the florescent lights was just the right brightness to trigger a flashback to the muzzle flashes of the first soldier to open fire on him when he expected them to rescue him* ................what?
@@TheCreepyLantern *Meanwhile, also in his mind, he still hears the faint echoes of an unfathomable being from another dimension speaking directly into his mind just an hour ago*
I love HL:A's model of Gordon simply because he looks exactly like a 90s nerd forced into saving humanity from total annihilation. That exudes so much character from him regardless of his lack of speech.
@@trainenthusiast5199 I love the Evangelion reference. "Get in the HEV suit Gordon-kun!" "We can't let the third resonance cascade be initiated, it will be the 7 hour war all over again!"
I absolutely love how Gordon Freeman is portrayed nowadays. He's not just this "cool ass killing machine", but also just a normal but intelligent man that has been in the wrong place at the right time, and had to endure his entire world changing around him in a single moment's notice His silence speaks a million words better than any other character that I could think of
I mean, he's a cool killing machine as well. It's just nice that the fandom started to humanize him more and think about what would be going through freeman's head. (Not sarcastically anyway)
0:29 I love this Felina shot of Gordon it's like he has accepted his role as a force of nature rebel while also coming to terms with his horrible circumstances deciding this evil one will cease to exist by his gun
I just now realized the brilliance of including the G-Man bit. You wouldn't need all of that to imprison Gordon, his circumstances have already imprisoned him within his own mind.
You know, when you take a step back and actually think about it, it's hard not to feel sorry for Gordon. At the very start of Half Life, he was just one of the many employees working at Black Mesa, going about his day to day job. He had a life, home, and from what we can tell, a family. Then out of nowhere, everything comes crashing down. Overnight, he becomes the military's most wanted man, fights an alien army controlled by a giant interdimensional demi-god, get's frozen in time for 20 years, wakes up to an otherworldly army from across the Multiverse, and is basically forced to spearhead a resistance in order to save humanity. For everyone else, it's been years. But from Gordon's perspective, it's been a week at most. Gordon has quite literally lost everything he had. He's lost his family, has been thrown out of time, and is forced to fight for the ruins of a planet that's been sucked dry by The Combine. His story is so tragic, and the worst part is that most players will likely play the Half Life games never considering what it must be like for him
I'm honestly glad the fandom decided to change Gordon from "Psychopath Killing Machine" to "Deeply traumatized man who wanted nothing to do with this", it changes the narrative in such a way that it ultimately makes the story of Half-Life even more interesting than it already was.
@@bigjoegamer Freeman's Mind is a classic, from the peak era of Half-Life memes. It comes from the same "class" as works like Concerned (originator of Gordon Frohman).
Gordon is really a character that you can say "He's literally me" because his whole story is right in front of the player. I never associated myself with movie/game characters the same way I did with Gordon. You worry about him as you would worry about yourself.
> I hate these zombies > but now I know those were my friends > I hate these soldiers > but I now I know their own government does too > I hate these aliens > but now i know they are enslaved > I hate the nihilanth > but now he was holding back a greater threat > I hate the greater threat > but once again they are a culmination of enslaved friends > I hate their leader > but he's enslaved to something even higher > I hate their leader's leader but now I know they are literally bugs > I hated the G- Man but now im not so sure he's free either as he seems to be a busy man trying to please even greater powers and has conflicts of interest often > I just want to free them all, but no matter what they will never be free, no matter what I do, and if anything I could be making it harder to be free. > Their blood is on my hateful crowbar. Is that their freedom? > What messiah am I? (ur not ur a walking rapture event. A theoretical physicist regressed into a primal ball of survival instinct and weaponry) The rollercoaster this guy has been on
I love how this comment perfectly summarises the idea at the core of half-life, the ever-present theme that everything is a slave to something beyond it. Every character is living a half-life, nobody is truly free. The 'one free man' is just another pawn, thrust into that role against his will. Even the player is directed along a linear route by the game design. When playing the game, you have no more agency than a headcrab zombie. Your illusion of freedom just has more breathing room.
@@deviateedits We are not free-men We do not help men be free unless in death except John Half Life is the only one that cannot die. Everything gets worse the more we want to live as a John Full Life. We are the anti-chosen one. We WERENT supposed to keep pushing, but we WANT to, which ends up getting us treated as an asset. Truly a Berserkian Struggle. The cost that comes with the indominable human spirit.
@@CoreyLaddo That Resonance Cascade! Are you telling me that a highly trained professional just happens to start a event like that? No! *He* orchestrated it!
@@Noobgalaxies He’ll never change. He’ll never change! Ever since he was 27, always the same! Couldn’t keep his Xen crystal out of the Anti-Mass Spectrometer.
"Freeman is thrust into the unenviable role of rescuing the world from the wrong he unleashed at Black Mesa. And a lot of people he cares about are counting on him." -Half-Life 2 Steam store page description
I like how the shot with Gordon in his car is played. At the prelude, Gordon's smiling, but he feels like something's off about today. Might be cause he's usually not late, might be because something's in the air, but he can't quite describe it, which is why his smile fades. But in the next shot, his face his pressed against the steering wheel, trying to take a few minutes to breathe and recollect his small shrivels of sanity. The steering wheel against his head might be symbolism for him wishing he just drove out of that facility instead of coming to work today
i like that scene you can see go from modern one to old soviet on you can see the shape of the car change it's mean the world after combine take over have downgrade now 😢 . It's mess up
also Metal Gear V when he is on his knees, idk if this was intentional but it looked like the scene where V Snake had to kill all of his people in the hall
@@AK-hl4vg the scene where he walks in the hallway is also a mgs5 reference its the scene where big boss walk in the hallway while burning while turning into skullface
Something kinda like this happened before where an Israeli tank commander had out maneuvered about 15 Iranian tanks with just two tank under his command and was a key factor in stopping a base from being captured. Literally right after he got out of the tank and his mission complete. He passed out from exhaustion since he was constantly fighting for close or over 48 hours
When he is not knocked uncon, he is on constant adrenaline rush, if not for the suit keeping him on drugs he would probably collapse in Black Mesa East. I really do want for him to simply collapse on his own after the deal is done, and world is saved again.
And at the last second, when he just sits there, enjoying the rest, we hear the voice from behind "Mr Freeeman..." as everything around changes into XEN and Gordon's normal clothes change into his HEV suit. While he cries.
I'm gonna tell my grandchildren to look out for Half Life 3, and then they'll tell their grandchildren to look out for Half Life 3, if the planet doesn't decide it's done with our shit and wipes us all out
Gordon went from having a normal morning to toppling a genocidal interdimensional regime that nearly wiped us out in what felt like a week to him but twenty years for everyone else. His entire world changed virtually overnight for him as he was thrusted from one hellish disaster after another. The fact he kept going despite so much happening to him is simply amazing. The right man in the wrong place
I think anyone else would have broken down, the events of half life 1 and 2 are simply too much for the human psyche, you would go crazy It's understandable that Gordon is quiet, if he spoke he probably wouldn't be able to explain what happened.
Just realized how creepy Gordon must feel with Eli throwing Alyx at him with him being "still the same". Its been a few days at best to him since the Black Mesa Incident, he no doubt remember Alyx as just some little kid then suddenly she is the same age as him if not older giving him side eyes while Eli is all but counting his grandchildren.
late, but i've always agreed with this. gordon being 28 is still definitely older, but that actually makes it *worse* to be honest. i think the gap is too large to not be weird, even if it's only technical.
Well I feel like Gordon would probably let it happen just to feel a sense of normalcy for once, like some calm and a deep connection instead of seeing people constantly that he'll never see again, and not even being able to really get to know them or talk to them or like, anything, Alyx is really the one he's interacted the most with and with all that trauma or whatever, he's bound to get attached.
@@ni__wolf143 I mean, all the people Gordan knew from his normal life are basicly dead from the time passed, the war and oppression from the combine and the black mesa destruction. The only people he somewhat knows are the survicing personsl of black mesa and alyx. Sure it is strange for him that she shows interest in him, but like you said she is the person having the most interaction with him and that he knew from before at least a little bit.
When a simple animation makes you rethink the entire game's lore, you start playing it back and see it differently understanding how depressing the game's story is.
@@thegrimcritic5494 There's also another fitting one: "You know, Captain, we drove through this whole city to find you. We saw things. If you don't mind me asking, what was it like? How'd you survive all this?" "...Who said I did?"
@@b4th0riy yeah that’s where I got it from. Honestly, it fits for both characters. Both saw horrors that are so genuinely beyond human comprehension that it’s entirely likely that their minds have just been, y’know… cut loose.
The touch of his glasses lenses being opaque in the beginning shot of him in the lab is an *_incredible_* touch; before you put on the suit and everything goes down in HL1, Gordon is literally just another "faceless" scientist. He's just clocked in - a little late - for his shift, and is going about his "NPC" motions of day-to-day. But once everything goes down, suddenly Gordon becomes the center of attention. The depiction of his glasses turning from opaque in the lab shot to see through in the next when he's in the suit allows us to see his eyes, known in photography as "the windows to the soul." Gordon becomes the face of humanity with one decisive event, ripping him from his normal routine and thrusting him into the role of saviour of humanity ... Or perhaps it's an SFM lighting interaction or error, lmao
I saw it as a detail supporting how Gordon felt that morning. He's a young physicist who's landed a dream job and today he gets to do an awesome experiment every young PHD student dreams of. He's put on his best labcoat, a cocky smile and can't help but swagger a little on the way to the lab. The opaque shades on a cool scientist is how he feels after working through the jitters he had on the drive to work.
Gordon is such an interesting character in a way that, you can basically do whatever you want with him, he can either be a stoic badass, a timid scientist, or just a guy who was caught up in all this “chosen hero” crap... for comedic purposes. But *this* has got to be my favorite interpretation of Freeman, a humanist, a guy who tries his best to be strong for others who have lost hope, but is still a man under all of that, it really captures his entire ‘non-existent’ personality.
@@Nungen| While this is true, it's important to remember that there ARE guidelines to every silent protagonist thanks to the actions they take. We know Mr. Freeman is extremely pragmatic and quick to act, we know he often tries to think his way out of problems due to the number of creative solutions to obstacles both games present, and we know he is either extremely loyal to his old colleagues or feels a need to help others even when he knows very little about them.
Personally, I believe Gordon still hasn't fully come to terms with everything that's happened, and is operating in a state of shock. He is arguably directly responsible for everything that happens due to his part in the resonance cascade, and while it's heavily implied he's relying primarily on the HEV suit's built-in weapon capabilities during combat, it's still him pulling the trigger on former colleagues and fellow humans. As players we never exactly stop our characters for a rest break while playing, and I like to interpret that as Gordon's coping mechanism: he never once pauses to let himself comprehend the sheer enormity of everything that's happening, or the things he's done. Like the scientist/engineer he is, he's forcing himself to focus on finding a solution to each problem as it occurs. It's only when those problems stop coming that he'll have a moment to himself and presumably break down.
I like to imagine he kinda shifts through all of those considering how much happens to him in so little time. Like, from his perspective the beginning of the black mesa incident to the end of HL2 episode 2 is like a week, maybe a week and a few days, I can see him stepping back and appreciating how unstoppable he really is sometimes and taking pride in that Running around blowing up striders, watching the fall of the citadel and the complete destruction of city 17, defeating armies of combine soldiers while the nova prospekt portal powers up If you haven’t played the half life 2 VR mod I would highly recommend it, it’s amazing gameplay wise but it also makes you connect more to Gordon as a character because you’re just being him, especially if you allow yourself to do small roleplay stuff like firing your gun off into the air while rebels celebrate a victory or slinging your crowbar over your shoulder while an NPC talks during a cutscene, yknow little stuff that makes you feel more part of the world
The lyrics “There’s something inside you, it’s hard to explain” actually have a very deep meaning. Vortiguants, rebels even G-man (sort of) admire Freeman and see him almost like a semi god (not talking about the G-man of course) even though it’s partially his fault that combine invasion happened and don’t forget the fact that he literally committed massive genocide on vortiguant species yet they still praise him pretty much every time he does anything.
I think they were basically enslaved at the time and Gordon ended up freeing them. So in the case of the Vortigaunts, it's understandable. Regarding the Black Mesa incident, I don't think ANYONE realized what would happen there and the survivors, even those in charge of the experiment that started it all, were working to try and repair the damage done (well, except for the one who sold them out but they were arguably trying to make sure humanity SURVIVED, even if under bondage). Freeman is considered a hero because he survived and managed to carve a hole in the alien forces, even if the Combine still trounced them in the end. He's the man that, in their eyes, the aliens could never take down and took out one of the biggest threats on his way. But from Freeman's perspective, he's probably feeling lucky to be alive... though he likely wishes he was free too.
YES This perfectly goes hand-in-hand with Komegatze's animation. I'm always happy to see people interpreting Gordon, a very blank slate character, into a complex and emotional person, and this animation paints it perfectly. Bravo as always! (Misspelt Komegatze the first time lmao)
I think that the line from G-Man "Miss Vance, you don't need ALL of that to imprison Gordon Freeman" really is a catharsis for how people view Gordon as to who he really is: vortigaunts and the rebels see Gordon Freeman as this "hero" that nears the level of deity when in reality, he was just a guy, some random no-name that got destined to ruin humanity and then save it... Or was he really a no-name? Maybe destiny had chosen him for some reason we don't know?
It's interesting. In that one line we see someone with real power give his opinion on a man with the mythos of real power. The wild part is that the G-Man is *employed*. There are beings that are *more powerful* out there. The G Man, for all the panic he's caused an interdimensional empire, is the tip of an iceberg.
Alyx-“So, I just have to ask, how do you do it? You’re out there saving the universe all on your own. Where’s that amazing iron will come from? What keeps you going?!” Gordon-“…whatever’s left.”
I love this way of looking at Gordon’s psyche. He’s like the struggling father who’s life is falling apart around him but knows his children see him as an unshakable perfect being so he keeps it inside as he desperately tries to fix things for their sake. That’s why the first scene is so strangely emotional. Alyx is so convinced of Gordon’s godlike persona that she immediately assumes a reality bending containment unit was built solely to imprison someone who is actually just a normal man. In that moment g-man completely destroys the source of all her hope by revealing that Gordon isn’t even the combine’s main concern. He isn’t the omnipotent god that will solve all her world’s problems he’s just a man who beat the odds once and might do it again if given the chance. He proves Gordon’s humanity by displaying his own inhumanity with the rest of the video showing how much more fragile Gordon is than the revolution would like to believe. Sorry if I got way more out of your silly drive reference than you intended but I think you may have accidentally (or purposefully how should I know?) made a work of art with this one.
@@williammangelsen3795 That's just an Easter egg to one of the devs I think, and even so, I think the in-universe explanation is that, that's his niece or something, like it's not his kid, he's just a really caring uncle.
i still really love the depressive broken freeman fancannon, it really makes him much more than just a shell for the players to project themselves into.
from Gordon's POV he just jumped straight from saving the world at the end of half life 1 creatures invading earth to fighting the combine and helping the resistance in half life 2, it has just been days of non-stop fighting for his own life without a long rest from his pov and honestly i dont think most people would be able to cope with that
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, Manta Rays on fire off the shoulder of Xen, I watched Dark Energy, glitter in the dark near the Citadel reactor. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain." Would love to see a tears in rain SFM
I love how since Gordon has oficially got a canon face, everyone has started looking at him as another character from this world, rather than the projection of the player. This alredy happened to Chell back in the day after portal 2 came out. Nice to see that now is Gordon's turn
@@WingMaster562 I think it's more of a train of thought kind of thing. In the game you do play as Gordon Freeman, but you never really get to see Gordons face in a mirror or broadcast as you're playing the game (barring console commands). You control Gordon's actions, look at certain environments, and wander along the game as you get to completion. Different people with different trains of thought conjure a possible character of Gordon Freeman. For what a person might get from first playing half-life, what they can piece is that 'you are Gordon Freeman, and you look like this. You work at Black Mesa, and you may have doomed the world. Try and stop it while trying to escape'. However, in Alyx, now the player doesn't have as much projection in who they play as. Alyx talks, interacts accordingly to what happens, has a relation with many established characters in the world. Alyx has a rooted and grounded sense of character; this is who Alyx is. Compared to Gordon, who is silent in his games, and doesn't have a set description on what he did, and you can walk in his shoes really easily. When you meet Gordon in the end of HL Alyx, he looks like shit. He's picking himself up from the ground, retrieving his glasses, and looks far from pristine. Since you're in control of Alyx in that pseudo-cutscene, Gordon is himself, and not a part of the player playing the game. The 'thought' of Gordon is no longer in the players possession. He's not bunny hopping or throwing objects or really acting in an action-y way, he's tired and wants all of whatever is happening to be some sort of sick joke. Just like Chell in the Portal games. In the first one, you're never really given indication to check yourself out. At most you know what you look like, and what you must do. A character that you're free to self-insert without much fuss. In the second games (and media relating to portal) you're given a few more pieces to tell who Chell is. Still not in front of your face, but it's telling that Chell has had a life before the first game. and in the last scene of portal 2, an in-game cutscene outright hints to you as to who Chell is, when re-attaining the portal gun and aiming right at the moon as Wheatley is busy failing to speak in poetic villainy. You can look around as you're delaying the climax, but Chell still recovers and gets the portal gun the same. A slight building of character. Granted, it could end up differently, but it's a case of cinematics and writing that can influence the way a character is seen as. It's not all set and stone, and people can believe that Gordon Freeman is the same Gonarch whacker from the first game if they choose so.
@@furryfoxontinder5754 I know. To put it simply, OP is referring to how Gordon is now seen a character, rather than a empty vessel for the player, due to HF:Alyx I fully understood OP. I was just playing coy because without context and taken literally, OP's comment sounds like Gordon never had a face until recently.
@@furryfoxontinder5754 i like your take on the comment tho, i know the dude you replied wasnt serious but just letting you know it didnt go to waste, OP's and your comment were nicely writen♡♡
I think its hilarious that the channel that made this very real look at Gordon's character in just a few short animations is the same channel that made a "steve jobs died of ligma" sfm
The cool thing about Gordon is that you can see yourself in him or give him any type of personality, from Freeman's Mind Gordon to the interpretation that he's a walking PTSD filled husk
Even though Valve doesn't put a voice to him, Gordon's emotions are implicit such as the scene with the children's laughter or the music that plays at the Rebel getting shot (Triage at Dawn).
As much of this maybe a meme, this is genuinely beautiful and heartrending. We take into consideration that Gordon Freeman must be a badass because he remains silent despite all of the crazy shit he's going through when in reality, he must be going through some strong PTSD for someone who's watched his co-workers and friends be massacred by things that are unimaginable.
Everyone's talking about how all this is happening in about the span of a week for Gordon (a day for the events of HL1, about 4 more for HL2+EP1+EP2), and rightly so, but what gets me more is that this is all happening in a week with no *sleep* in between days. Not counting the times he's knocked out / passed out or put in stasis (which I assume just puts your body on pause and doesn't allow for restful sleep.) Dude is running purely on adrenaline, morphine, and Vortessence.
I'd imagine that G-Man Stasis kind of regenerates you. I mean.. G-Man wants you to get shit done for him, it wouldn't be in his interest to leave Gordon a sleep depriven mess
well, you can spend days awake if its really needed for your survival, after half life 1 you get put on stasis which I believe, as explained by StabYourBrain above, compensate that time, as for half life 2 and half life 2 episode 1 I believe its possible, I mean its just some more time that gordon spends awake and he ends up getting knocked out for a while before half life 2 episode 2 starts
I've never picked up a half life game before, I barely know who gordon, Gman, and the combine are through portal lore diffusion and general memes, but for some reason this video gives me goosebumps. The cinematography, the posing, the use of the original models and textures despite better options, the art in this video is just so passionate, it makes me want to pick up a controller and see the world of half life that inspired something like this.
The shot of Gordon on xen made my heart sink. When you first visit in the game you’re like “oh cool an alien world” when internally he’s probably freaking the fuck out. Yeah there were other scientists who were there first but he didn’t sign up for this shit.
Absolutely love this. Separate Gordon from his foremost role as a player avatar and tragedy really is the only way to describe his journey. The Black Mesa Incident took everything from him in a flash. Add 20 missed years of human history where the scale of suffering expands so greatly, and if given a chance for some respite in which to dwell on everything, it would probably crush him. Being thrown into all these high stakes situations, it's no wonder he's had to become so hardened and capable of what he must do to right what was wronged, for better or worse. And putting him alongside Alyx brings a whole new dimension to this reading--in a world flipped completely on its head, fraught with pain and relentlessness (which Gordon is rudely awoken to, but for Alyx it's all she ever knew,) how can one meaningfully maintain or form relationships, old or new? With thoughts like that to be explored... yeah, you really don't need a massive technological achievement to imprison Gordon Freeman. He's already a prisoner of circumstance.
It also would be relevant to ask the question: how is a man, which lived a completely different context within Earth, capable to maintain a relationship with a woman that only knows what is to be constantly in danger and being watched?
Or, if you think about it, how these two people who have been fighting constantly for what feels like an eternity can have a relationship in the first place.
@@derfbngg254 yeah i think he is heavily dissociating through all of it and is in survival mode. i want him to get some rest, but i'm also aware that if he DOES, he'll completely break
@@willyhoo2946 gordon is my sopping wet beast of a man n i'm placing him on the baby car seat n taking him 2 burger king so that he can at least have a fun meal ❤
Gordon is the perfect example of actions speaking louder than words, without a single line of dialogue this man made us empathize and care for him and the world around us.
I just love how the lyrics resonate with Gordon in some way “There’s something inside you it’s hard to explain” - Gordon’s determination to do something and never giving up “Their talking about you boy” - as we see in the games word spreads quickly about Gordon and what he is trying to do leading to the other civilians rebelling “But your still the same” Gordon hasn’t changed one bit due to stasis and his overall perception of things still stands
People saying this, especially "They're talking about you" and "You're still the same" lyrically fit with Gordon's story, and while that's true, I'd say "There's something inside you" with "It's hard to explain" also fits shockingly well with the oracle vort's "Something secret steers us both. We shall not name it."
yeah i noticed he’s still the same something about him and it’s really hard to explain i mean he’s gordon freeman just a normal scientist guy fixing the black mesa core he was told to do it he was just following orders
I'm pretty sure the Oracle Vort was just a cheeky way of Valve to break the forth wall by cryptically telling Gordon that he's controlled by a Player and that they're both in a game lol.
The scenes where Gordon is going to work in his normal civilian clothes are really powerful because we usually only ever see him in the HEV suit. The last frame where he just stands there with Alyx is great, too. And the shot where he falls to his knees in the new Black Mesa version of Xen is so gorgeous and heart shattering at the same time. Imagine yourself actually in the shoes of Gordon Freeman for one second. All he has been through in just the first game up until that point, and then something comes along that can still so profoundly shock someone who has been through a lot already. Being potentially trapped in a beautiful but weird and dangerous plane of existence that defies all laws of reality. A lot of these shots are also taken from other "Literally me" edits of movies and shows like breaking bad etc. The attention to detail is crazy.
Everyone tries to idealize themselves. It's just a coping mechanism to ignore damage and neglect - hey, you got to do what you got to do so you can get out of bed every morning, right?
the scene where Gordon shoots the combine soldier is so unapologetically violent. The combine is clearly begging for his life, and you can see the cold, remorseless look in Gordon's face. The lack of hesitation on pulling the trigger, the blood splatter, all of it just melds together into a perfect piece of violence. Love this vid, and I love this song Edit: Yes I know this is a shot from breaking bad. Didn't know it at the time, I was too young to watch Breaking bad when it came out and never watched it afterwards
@@neuronoc.7343 By doing so he also freed Isaac kleiner from being forced to build gravity guns for the combine, who then afterwards hopped in a car and smashed through a gate never to be seen again.
Thank god people got over the “Gordon is a badass Master Chief killing machine” phase and got into the “Gordon is a scared scientist doing what he can to survive” phase
He didn't change, WE changed. The world changed. Its not about heroes and villains, its just about how much suffering we see in these characters and our views of the world and nature. Gordon has always been the survivor, we never had to appoint a narrative lie in service of his momentum. We laugh and poke and prod that the Combine could never exist but their ways and means closely align with empires of old and the taste of tyrrany we experienced from overzealous parents in our youths, to politicians and policymakers as adults. Half Life remains timeless, because our times feel less like the reality and more like the parody.
Gordon's been through a lot, the burden of that microwave casserole really gets him down sometimes. Jokes aside, fantastic animation and representation of Gordon's reserved nature lad!
@@TrekDelta no, after reading most comments from the Vore Swampert, Guy has good comments, but the pfp kinda ruined it, but comment after comment I started to see past that fact and now see him as a cool guy, now I’ll go back to sleeping, good night
Time for another episode of "I Came Here To Laugh Not To Feel", with everyone's favorite guest stars, "Nah Just Something In My Eyes Must Be Allergies" and "Just Give Me Ten Minutes To Get Ready And I'll Be Right Out"
Poor Gordon, he was probably awake for close to 40 hours during the Black Mesa incident. Then gets pulled out of Stasis, finds out that the world has been taken over and ends up on the run throughout Europe. It's amazing that the character holds it together.
adore this animation and everything it entails and while everyone shares the sentiment that gordon deserves to be depicted as the man he is rather than the unbeatable video game character we play I just need everyone to understand that not only has it been less than a week for poor gordon The ONLY things he's had to eat or drink have been SODA, possibly XEN HEALING SLUDGE, and ANTLION GRUB GOOP LIKE HOLY SHIT GET MY BOY A SANDWICH I BEG YOU
Imagine you studied so hard to become a scientist, landed a decent job just to see everything fall. Now people don't even see you as a "scientist" anymore.
I wouldn't mind if Valve wanted to give Gordon personality like this, it'd be so unique (if executed well, of course). But it just doesn't seem like their thing. You don't think about it often but Half-Life could have some incredibly emotional storytelling if they wanted it to
Wouldn't really make sense. Gordon is meant to be a shell for the player to enter, so it's up to you to decide who Gordon is. Granted, this changed in HL2 because Gordon can't really make as many decisions, but that was the reason why Gordon doesn't have a personality.
The closest we got to Valve giving hints to Gordon's "official" personality is the initial scene from Episode one where Gordon sees a panel with Breen falling into the void, accusing him of destroying things and endangering humanity. Perhaps Gordon is troubled by his sudden transformation into a violent messiah, a role he never expected or wanted.
@@lunarcultist6214 I'd argue another little bit we've been given is how he blew up the casserole and used to race in the vents. It's not much, but it's basically the only scraps of characterization we have.
the air of cinema in this is palpable. sure, Gordon wears a blank expression most of the time, but it’s because he’s already accepted his death, and what might come after. he’s just…ready. always ready. what a badass.
@@CoreyLaddo it’s amazing! I love it more than Breaking Bad. Jimmy as a main character has so much more depth to him, as does every supporting character.
We're all forgetting that at the end of the day, Gordon Freeman is still human. By the time he reappears in Half Life Alyx, he's probably still dealing with severe PTSD
God.. all these years I’ve been playing the half life series. And just now I find a 30+ second video on RU-vid showing how human Gordon freeman is. Silence really speaks louder than words. Can’t forget to mention all of the movie/tvshow/game references as well. which makes it hit even harder. Keep up the good work and make the next video 3x as long please lol
If valve had the passion for HL that you do, HL would be setting the world on fire, like it did twice before. If Hollywood understood human emotion like you portray, film would be going through a new golden age. Thanks for all your hard work man. You are maybe, actually, the best.
I’m not a huge half life person, but I honestly have to say I love this video and the way Gordon is portrayed he’s just some poor guy that, for some reason, the universe and G-man deemed to be the most important human alive the scene where it shows him driving contently and then it cuts to him breaking down in the car is genuinely really good, it honestly makes me feel incredibly bad for him, because like others have said, the events of hl1 & 2 combined have felt like a week max for Gordon, having so much happen like that would fuck anyone up
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