Its not by Valve but It sums it up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spr5YFfrnA0&feature=SeriesPlayList&p=D3610B58086EFC10
EDIT: I forgot theres a little info from each episode that adds to it…
And you’re assuming they aren’t.
When have you ever actually seen an Advisor die? Also minor manipulation? One twisted that guy around twice at the waist while holding 3 other entities, and rips the farm roof apart while controlling thousands of roof pieces. Another you can fire a turret gun at fruitlessly as it deflects bullets away. Lastly, one tears the side of a metal warehouse off. Not exactly minor. Also Breen answers directly to them. Also VALVe have never hinted or stated that there was anything higher than them. So you are the one making assumptions. All evidence till this point show that they are the leaders. Maybe they weren’t worried about risking their lives because they can mentally deflect bullets or whatever else comes their way. The only reason why Dog got a shot at one was because he doesn’t have a brain and they couldn’t detect him. Conquered thousands of planets? Show me facts here bud. All we know is that they took the Synth planet, Xen, Earth.
On the side, remember that many of the elements of the Half-Life 2 saga were based on the Starship Troopers novel. If you’ve read (or watched the movies) you would have noticed the direct influence of the “Brain Bug” on the Advisor’s gameplay design as well as physical appearance.
Brain Bug – Leader of a Bug colony. It is hinted at in the novel that the Brain Bug is telepathic and shares a symbiotic relationship with the Bug Colony (i.e. If it dies, the colony dies). In the movie, it assimilates knowledge by consuming a human’s brain
Well, one piece of evidence as to why they aren’t the Combine Overlords/Leaders/Führers or whatever, is that they are called the advisors.
So their obvious function would perhaps be to advise ie. Breen, of the Combine way of dealing with things.
And yes, they have conquered thousands of planets (no, we aren’t given a precise number but it seems apparent that it would be up there, given that they are multidimensional empire).
This is stated in Raising the Bar, and appears quite obvious that their army present on Earth consists of many different enslaved species.
This is all beside the point. Fact is that there is no other governing entity above the Advisors ATM. End of story. Get over it.
I never said there was.
Wow… Just… wow.
You can kill them 
Not without cheating
You seem to be hinting that I contradict myself. Care to explain?
Nope, not really.
:[
:meh:
Got me that time
Well I’ll be darned.
Don’t worry, you’re from the internet. Everything will be okay.
Advisors also can use shattered stuff around the place to protect itself, as seen in the Half-life episode two which you get attack at the first time by advisors.
If the Combine enslaved thousands of planets,then why do they have problems enslaving earth? I don’t get it,is there something i’m miss- Oh…wait…Gordon Freeman…nevermind me asking.
Advisors appear exactly the same material-wise as all of the other synths which you’ve admitted come from another planet. They move the same as the gunships and their fx are similar to that of the other synths. Advisor implies at highest a lt or cpt status.
Your entire argument is based off the idea that speculation is pointless even when we have facts outside the realm of what you’re using. The facts I’ve presented, many planets conquered, outside of gameplay they appear about as powerful as striders, etc you’ve promptly ignored. All the current patterns of storytelling, not only in the way Valve does it, but in general within games suggests something much greater behind them.
Valve has a consistent pattern of introducing enemies in a certain way where you don’t fight them, but you see their abilities. As time goes on you understand them until you finally face them. Would it really be that outlandish to say that the Advisors are just another one of those enemies? The bigger the “opponent”, the more introduction they have. Take, for instance, the citadel. Its introduction was over the course of the entire game so you could begin to understand how exactly it operated. Breen was the same way.
In general storytelling, there is never a bunch of enemies at the top, there is always one single entity. In an epic story (with about 25-30 hours of gameplay I think it’s safe to say Half-Life is epic) the main bad guy never comes forth easily.
Look at what Valve did in HL1. The entire game was building up to fighting a single mind that was controlling a race that (as it turns out in HL2) was just an introduction to what the main bad guys are capable of (that you had never even heard of until HL2). Yet, you think after only 6-8 hours of introduction these are the ultimate bad guys? I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t make any sense at all.
Take a look back at your perspective at the end of HL1. When G-man presented you with your choice and the credits rolled after you defeated the Nihilanth, were you thinking, “okay, I’ve beat the miniboss, now I’m going to have to face the guys that enslaved them”. No, you were thinking, “Alright, I’ve beat the ultimate bad guy, the universe is safe once more.” In many instances, especially in the instance of Valve’s storytelling where patterns are an essential part, it is completely illogical to discount these patterns in the face of current facts.
Agreed
I think it is safe to say that the Combine are not and can’t be your ultimate enemy.Personally,if they enslaved lots of planets or even a few ,I don’t care.They’re having problems with Earth and that alone make’s them a weak race governed by only one need,to conquer,to enslave.By doing that,they are a gluttonous race ,only the advisors being (maybe) at the peak of their existence.Your real enemy must be the ones that issue contracts to men or women that can fight “against all odds” ,like some sort of Fate Controller.I can’t find a better name. So,yeah,the combine should remain like a ongoing enemy,not necesarily destroying the whole race,that’s just bs if you ask me. What can you do to destroy them ,throw in a giga dimensional portal to throw them in a dark void like a black hole.That means you’ll need a dimensional portal the size of a planet. That’s just too …colossal if you ask me.Extinguishing the enemy just by killing the MAIN ENTITY ,if there is even one ,like some kind of energy that keeps the combine alive,is just stupid.You don’t just obliterate a planet in one shot ,it’s prepostorous. (Not if you’re in Dragon Ball and your name is Brolly). Ok so ,the enemy behind the enemy is the real enemy.
Indeed, fantastic arguments.
I don’t know about the quality of your video card, but soft and squishy body of the advisors does not equal chitinous shell of synths. Just because it flies doesn’t imply anything. Birds fly. Birds aren’t synths. All the synths that fly use propellers and gyroscopics. Advisors use telekinesis.
My argument is based off of what evidence there currently is. Conquering planets have nothing to do with the status of a particular enemy. Quit using that argument. We have seen that they are far stronger than Striders, which they obviously conquered, so I wasn’t ignoring anything. No the story telling suggests they are they leaders, with all the combine surrounding and protecting them. Why do you think they were the only ones evacuated at the end of EP1?
This is exactly my point. We had an entire game devoted to “introducing” the advisor. Other enemies had much smaller introductions. Having a game as an introduction suggests that this particular enemy is significantly higher than the usual.
This is an opinion and has nothing to do with anything. This isn’t Half-Life 1. This is an entirely different story and if Doug wants the top hierarchy to be multiple leaders, then that will be the case. There are plenty of other stories where this is the case. Ever play Indigo Prophecy? Quantity here has nothing to do with quality. Why not have a race with a group of leaders? Maybe that’s why the combine are as powerful as they are.
Again, this isn’t Half-Life 1. Only 6-8 hours? Advisors are seen in monitors and live throughout the entire HL2-EP2 saga. How much of an introduction did your main leader of HL1 have? Zero. One of the problems Valve had with the Nihilanth was that they didn’t introduce him proplerly. One of the design goals of the HL2 saga was to avoid this.
Again, again, not HL1. You can’t use this as an argument because we haven’t been able to kill an Advisor yet.