Flag Hag
Don’t be so sure about Breen’s death, G-Man could have plucked him out of the tleporter just prior to the explosion without much efford and we would not know it, (whatever his motives may be for him to do so). So yeah, it is still possible the little shit’s kickin’ back on some toxic beach near an ocean of ammonia in an alien body on the Combine world, waiting for his time to come and do whatever else bad is planned for him to do. Sippin’ on some sick-ass combine drinks of strange concoctions. :fffuuu:
Don’t forget that he was also still inside a forcefield that was descending away from the explosion at the top of the teleporter, so he could have easily walked away from it.
Although the death of Robert Culp might have complicated things.
They do teach history in schools. I know a lot about history. Jeez, why are you guys being such smartasses. Anyways, last reply to Dias. The flag is supposed to be there to try to get more people to join the Combine. They have rallies and Breen screams in English or German to the crowd and thousands of Heil Breen’s errupt and they Roman Salute.
that’s terrible
I lol’d.
The combine will not be using flags; it’s apparent they stopped using propaganda ages ago judging by the decaying posters in City 17. Given their current situation I doubt they would decide to anything unnecessary for their survival.
I don’t know why so many people want to see Breen again. Excuses like “what if Gman saved him at the last second” make no sense- it’s nothing more than a what if question. Breen is gone, and there’s no evidence he’s coming back: the evidence shows the opposite. Remember how he said “You need me” right before he died? As others have discussed before, he was referring to the stability he maintained between Humanity and the Combine as a representative. That was his role. Gordon upsets the stability when he returns in HL2, and Breen’s death (and, of course, the Citadel explosion…) destroys it completely.
My point is that from a story perspective, his role has ended. Humans are once again in a state of war with the Combine during EP1 and 2- there’s no room for a representative like Breen in such a situation. If a stability returns, even if it’s as soon as EP3/HL3, it will be much different (and worse for humankind) than it was with Breen.
Valve isn’t going to do things just for the sake of doing them. The story is important, and it’s what makes HL games so interesting.
It’s not so much about wanting him back as it is the rule that if you don’t see the dead body, he’s still alive.
Well, we haven’t seen the “host body” Breen mentioned twice & it might have something to do with the combine’s ultimate intention for humanity. That seems story-important to me.
That’s retarded.
That might just be setting up the idea of host bodies as a story element, not necessarily that we’ll see Breen himself in a host body.
I think the host body was a minor point. Creating one for him was probably as easy as pie for the Combine, considering their advanced knowledge of biology and their vast resources. This is also Valve’s way of telling us that their world is inhospitable to humans.
I doubt the Combine’s ultimate intention was to give humans host bodies. Breen had a position of some importance. As they prepared to send him away, they probably said “Hey, we should just get him a host body or something so he doesn’t die right away.” It seemed (IMHO) that their ultimate intention was to take all the resources they need from Earth, eradicate humans, and to get some use out of the humans they turned into soldiers until they drop dead. Eventually, I suppose they’ll decide to colonize Earth, or use it’s resources entirely and leave it, leaving behind an ocean-less, barren, uninhabitable planet.
The reason we don’t see the dead body is because it was destroyed, or to be more precise, obliterated in that giant explosion. It probably had something to do with the Freemanutrinos, Gordonuclei, and other particles Breen referred to. (See what I did there?) 
Since they have so much resources & advanced technology like robots, then why bother with humans? why bother with earth at all? Why not kill everyone on the planet, then use robots to harvest all the resources?
Well, Breen did talk about humans becoming immortal in his second Breencast. Maybe the Combine’s intention was to weed out the few humans they thought actually deserved a host body & allow them to join the Combine forever.
But he wasn’t near the explosion as far as we could see. And the whole “no dead body” thing is just a way of saying that since we didn’t specifically see him die (compared to say, Eli) that there’s always the chance he’ll come back. Although things might have changed what with Robert Culp’s death & all.
Cute.
Why is this still “Episode” speculation, I thought they scrap that idea?
…ask Valve this question. Or better yet, ask the Combine. It’s a good question.
Does the Combine even have robots? It seems they prefer to rely on bioengineering- hybrids of organisms and machines. Unless I’m forgetting something, I don’t think we have ever seen a totally robotic combine enemy aside from the occasional turret. (Heck, even Aperture made better turrets- they talk and come in many designer colors!)
I suppose that on each of the planets they conquer, they exploit whatever species they can to fit their needs on that planet and other planets under combine control. Perhaps humans are being used on other combine planets wherever they can be useful (wasn’t there a reference to this somewhere?).
The Combine doesn’t seem to think highly of human intelligence. The way I see it, the combine hierarchy is as follows:
Original Combine species on top
Advisers (unless they are the original) are middlemen
Laborers are conquered species
Makes sense, I guess.
EDIT: Don’t forget about that newly discovered third kind of elementary particle: The Freemanon. It obeys Kliener-Vance Statistics. These particles react violently with Fermions and Bosons, causing seemingly impossible reactions where 200% of the mass is converted into energy. Such collisions occured during the explosion at the end of HL2, totally eradicating Dr. Breen; wiping him off the fabric of the universe itself. Thus, he’s gone and it’s settled.
EDIT (again): If my bogus explanation/overused joke about that one stupid line from the end of HL2 hasn’t convinced you that Breen is dead for good, I don’t know what will.
Manhacks, Rollermines, Scanners, Turrets, but nothing too complex.
That’s why the idea of sterilizing people doesn’t make much sense. Sooner or later that species will go extinct & they’ll just have to find another to exploit.
I think there was a dispatcher announcement saying something about giving units an “offworld assignment” as a threat.
Combine isn’t a species, it’s an empire & the Advisors are the top.
“The ‘Combine’ is a name for a large organization. So asking if the advisors are the combine is like asking if a roman senator is the roman empire. There’s no one creature called the Combine.”
There hasn’t been any confirmation that they have. Just a lot of rumor.
I know about roller mines, scanners, turrets, vehicles and helicopters, etc. The robots we don’t see are ones capable of replacing the larger enemies- no robot soldiers, for instance, or robot striders. We don’t see robots maintaining automated mining systems- things like that. The Combine seems to have a thing for biological engineering- maybe it’s easy for them to grow things then to build them.
I suppose the Combine is resourceful, but only as much as they have to be. Maybe they found a way to clone soldiers with engineered organs, but they still see it reasonable to use what’s left of humanity as well. Once the supply runs out, they’ll go to the vault and bring out some clones. Maybe they’ve been using clones for a while. Perhaps we even killed some during HL2/EP1&2. Who would know the difference?
As for my point about the advisers- there’s been discussion before about the leaders of the combine. Perhaps the advisers are the original species which started the empire, or perhaps they are facilitating the needs of an unseen species- if true it would add to the whole “slavery” theme which has been seen so much throughout HL. My point about the hierarchy was more about the insignificance of anything other than the leaders of the Combine.
At this point, I can see everyone at Valve laughing behind their wheeled desks as we scramble to figure out what the hell the motives are of the Combine, Gman, etc.
You know what? Maybe Valve is a part of the Combine! They feed on the desperation and confusion of Half Life fans (let’s not even think about the surgical procedure used to turn humans into Valve employes- something they call “hiring”). It would explain the lack of proper communication they have with their fans. Gabe is obviously the local adviser- it’s why his interviews are so “captivating”. :lol:
Joking aside, does anyone like my theory from a few posts back? The one about not being able to use the helicopter, evacuating the base, etc.
If they had cloning technology, it seems like the kind of thing that would have been mentioned in the plot by now, if only passingly.
That would suck. They’ve been teasing us with their presence since the start of HL2, they’ve flawnted their psychokinetic powers by ripping through the roof of a barn, they killed Eli & yet there are still people who think they’d be downgraded to a regular mook? Do you actually think that near the end of the next Half-Life they’ll just suddenly introduce some Combine Overlord to steal all their thunder? It was pretty lame when they did it with the Nihilanth, it would be even lamer if they did it again.
You say that since the leaders are the only ones that are important, it doesn’t matter if the humans are kept alive or not. My point is that they could have killed them all or turned them all into stalkers or soldiers, that way the combine never would have had to worry about an uprising to begin with.
This is Half Life we’re talking about. I expect at least one bombshell retcon of that caliber in the next installment, as has been the case with every previous game.
Good point! I wasn’t even thinking about it like that.
Then again, they could probably come up with a more shocking revelation than clones. Maybe something about the Borealis… and then there’s that weird theory that Eli isn’t human because the adviser couldn’t levitate(?) him at the end of EP2. I think he’s human, and Valve decided to have him on the ground to heighten the tension; Alyx and Gordon being held back, looking down on Eli without being able to help him… that’s besides the point, though.
This proves my theory: Valve is indeed part of the Combine, and Gabe is an Adviser. The person on the lower left is (your name here). Everything about this picture make perfect sense- that’s why I love it.
What did Episode 1 or 2 retcon that hadn’t been in HL2?