Seeing as towards the end of Half Life 2, you hear Dr. Breen talk about a host body to an advisor, then I think that the advisor bodies are already the hosts.
I always felt that the Advisors had a sort of advisor-that-takes-control-when-the-king-dies-cackling-madly kind of feel to them. You see them not really doing much, but when Breen apparently dies they take control of the planet. It seems to me that they were sent to earth to advise Breen, but also the keep an eye on him and take over if he were to fail.
You DO see them actually advising Breen, though. Really. Go see for yourself. His responses to them generally gives the idea that they’re thinktanking rather then commanding him.
Raising the Bar also states that it was decided that the Combine were to be a faceless entity, which is why they dropped things like the Alien Combine Elite. Page 107. That lends credence to the idea that the Advisors aren’t the physical form of the Combine.
Anyway, the game puts forth the idea that Breen was put in charge of the planet. If he was in charge, then he would be higher on the Combine hierarchy than the Advisors. In Episode 1 we see that the Advisors are frantically trying to use the crumbling Citadel to make a wormhole and bring in more forces, crushing the uprising in “7 seconds”, implying that the Combine was a much bigger entity than originally implied.
Now, why would a force that big sends a dozen plus of it’s rulers to a backwater outpost? Wouldn’t they be frantically trying to restore order, rather than allowing the senate on Earth to handle it? The way I see it, the Combine have more of a “if it works, great, if it fails, we’ll deal” plan with Earth. Obviously its very difficult for them to go between the Combine Overworld and Earth, why would they trap themselves there? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to have stationed extra forces on, say, Mars in case the Advisors got themselves into trouble?
Either that or they underestimated humanity a thousand fold, and that doesn’t seem very likely.
I doubt Breen was as in charge as he appeared. Breen might have just been a puppet ruler, to make the UU look more appealing via a paternal figure. Having a giant, psychic grub with a glowing eye telling you that your urge to reproduce is being stifled for the convenience of the alien overlords isn’t going to go over as well as the calm monotone of a fatherly ex-scientist. I’m pretty sure that the Advisors were pretty firmly in control of operations.
I think the Advisors are the hidden might and brain of the Combine, though I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a supreme leader figure. We’ll find out in Episode 3, hopefully.
Took you a while.
They don’t have in-universe teleportation, and we don’t really know how advanced the Combine’s interplanetary travel is. It could be that it’s more efficient for them to teleport units in from a static portal than it is to keep them stationed on other planets.
Breen wasn’t higher than Advisors.
The Combine are smart–they did use Breen as a puppet ruler, as Obelisk said. Would humans really submit to an Alien ruler as easily as to a human ruler? They were monitoring him the entire time, but he had no power. To the Combine, he was just another human.
They probably did. They also underestimated humanity’s crowbar-wielding, HEV-suited resistance leader.
Well, maybe they didn’t underestimate Gordon, because they threw pretty much everything they had at him. They just weren’t awesome enough.
It seems to me that whatever form of travel they have, it is nowhere near as fast or advanced as what Aperture Science had developed. Hence, the Combine’s urgency to find the Borealis and exploit the technology contained within, so that they can get their reinforcements to Earth before the rebels have a chance to defeat their current forces and take up a stronger position in preparation for the next attack.
I believe you are correct. Breen was just a figurehead to make humanity’s enslavement more palatable, along with whatever they put in the water supply to make humans forget the past.
And, what was quoted earlier from Raising the Bar, about the Combine Advisors’ ability to reason, invent, and dominate the minds and cultures of other species, it makes me believe that the Advisors really are the true power of the Combine. If Earth is just one of many conquered worlds, is it illogical to think that the Advisors on Earth are just a few of many? Considering that Raising the Bar quote said that they were a organism that evolved (i.e. a species), I would think that the Combine Empire began when the Advisor’s home planet ran out of resources to support the technology they had become so dependent on. Thus, their only course of action would be to find resources from another planet. At first, it may have come as a trade agreement with other planets: you supply resources, we’ll supply technology. However, perhaps after their crisis had ended and they began getting supplies again, they began to want more. After a while, with their intelligence and abilities, they could twist their agreements so that they became the actual power on the other planets, operating under the guises of native rulers. Soon they became experts in subverting other races and began taking other planets to fuel their increasing need for resources to feed their technology, workers to maintain their technology, and soldiers to defend them. I’d say that the Advisors on Earth are just members of a race and do not have any overlord-like being over them, but perhaps a government, or ruling body like a council or king. Just what seems logical to me.
To Gman, Breen just another chess in his plan.
Fuck those pansies who focus on one game at a time, the Gman be so awesome that he controls multiple metaphorical chess games at once.
Like some pro chess player.:retard:
Sorry to bring this back from page 1, but I noticed that nobody brought this up yet.
Somebody did bring that up, and I believe it was one or two posts after that one was made.
Basically, modern commanders of armies don’t take part in battle. Not for the last hundred years. No reason to think the Combine would send their rulers into the fray.
:facepalm: Read the post he quoted carefully also he linked a “I c wat u did thar” pic see if you can figure it out.
…And in the middle of the debate, I return. First time to post on the new forums. It’s hell about time.
Anyway. I agree completely with Orpheon. To me it seems highly likely that the Advisors in fact are the very original “Combine” species, and therefore also the ruling hierarchy in the Combine empire (lets assume that they have an empire of sorts).
It is possible that there is a lone ruler too, but I’m going to stick with the theory that the Advisors have some sort of ruling council.
And about that “leaders don’t go into frontline combat”-thingy.
Well, they did not until things were getting extremely bad at Earth. The Citadel at C17 was destroyed, the link to the Overworld was broken, and the remaining Combine forces needed to be united under a leader of sorts. As Cecil (heh, the vort that helps you in ep2) says, the Advisors are gathering and uniting the scattered Combine forces.
And the human Overwatch has disappointed them so many times (as Breen points out in hl2), so it is possible that they want to take more direct action, by leading the Overwatch forces personally.
Actually I always though otherwise. Has anyone ever noticed a couple of little but interesting pieces of info/evidence that suggests that the advisors are not the original combine, or at least, not at the top of the combine pecking order? firstly is the name “advisors” which implies they are “advising” something (combine emperor?), and deepneing this is the overwatch voice in episode 2, when it refers to advisors (assumedly advisors anyway) as “tennants of advisorial assistance act”. maybe the advisors are a species (or group of the original combine species) that was given some specific task of “advising”, (whatever that may mean) the point being that this suggests they may not be at the very height of the combine hierarchy.
Ah, I never noticed that “tennants of advisorial assistance act”-thing.
I had a theory that, even though their title is “Advisor” they could still be the rulers. It’s extremely hard to describe what I mean, but I’ll try.
If the Combines have no single ruler, but rather a council, then none of the members of the council would be the absolute ruler, and therefore no one would have the title of “king” or “emperor” or something, but all of the “councillors” would argue about what to decide. In a way they would “advise” eachother.
Or how about this: Who is a kings nearest man? The advisor. And without a king there are only advisors left, and they have to decide instead.
Now this doesn’t exactly describe my theory, but it’s close enough I guess.
And man, did I use many quotation marks.
But after reading what you said, this theory seems very illogical. “Tennants of advisorial assistance act” indeed suggests that they are just that: Advisors. If they are merely assisting by giving advise, then there is probably at least one higher rank in the Combine hierarchy.
And Jeez, the Half-Life franchise must have spawned more theories and discussion than any other. If Valve would just give us some straighter information, rather than some vague clues to everything here and there. But of course, that would ruin the mystery.
Yup
I agree. But it’s probably still more efficient than their interplanetary travel.
In the context in which it’s spoken, I always assumed “Mandatory compliance with all tenets of advisorial assistance act.” was telling the soldiers to assist the fleeing advisor: i.e. kill the intruders.
Now that once again turns the tables. It seems that having the full quote clarifies quite a lot. But anyway, it’s still impossible to tell wether the Advisors are in fact the absolute leaders of the Combine, or just a high ranking leader of their forces in other worlds. Or whatever they may be.
But I’m starting to think that this whole “Advisor”-title maybe doesn’t mean anything at all. I mean, to me they seem to act as observers, being nested inside the citadel, keeping close watch on Breen and all that. And as I said now that the citadel is gone they need to gather the Combine forces and do what they can to repair the broken link to their homeworld.
Gah, I don’t know what to think anymore. From now on, I’m just going to see them as space-maggots of doom.