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This is a "Wild Mass Guess" entry, where we pull out all the sanity stops on theorizing. The regular entry on this topic is elsewhere. Please see this programme note.
Half Life
The HEV suit never was intended as a hazardous environment suit
Rather, it was a powered armour prototype disguised as one. It doesn't really protect you all that much from hazardous environments (though presumably the emmissions in in the Anti-mass Spectrometer chamber were harmful, meaning that's one thing it DID work against), stops bullets better than it should, seems to give you the strength to use a crowbar as a weapon (they're unwieldy for that purpose) and has a freaking munitions counter. Its development was probably the result of the G-Man's involvement, as usual.
  • Isn't this Word Of God? I mean, Adrian Shepard is issued an HEV suit at the beginning of his game, wouldn't make much sense to shove a Marine into a high-tech lab coat if it hadn't already had some combat capabilities. Oh, and the suit never had a helmet: how could it protect against hazardous gasses without a helmet?
    • Shepard had some kind of powered vest that luckily was compatible with HEV rechargers and batteries. As for the helmet, well, there's a flame war I don't expect to die down before the Heat Death. I personally am on the pro-helmet side, as he had a HUD, and headshots didn't turn his brain to chunky grey matter. One could say he had a force field and holographic projector, and that wouldnt be much of a stretch given what they had a Black Mesa, but why would you bother to do that if you could put a helmet on the damn thing instead? He just takes it off for publicity shots. also, if Opposing Force were canonical, the helmet debate would be settled, as we see Gordon briefly, and he's not wearing one.

Eli hired Gordon from the G-Man.
The price for hiring someone from him though, is the death of a loved one because the hired one loses their free will until the contract is finished (basically, Gordon is a merc). However, after doing this, he then told the Vorts' to stop the G-Man when he tries to take his payment. The G-Man didn't mind, as he saw Gordon's usefulness to the Resistance and found the Combine annoying. After Alyx was on the ground, saved by the Vorts' the G-Man informed her of all of this. She is clearly angry, and the G-Man warns her Gordon has about 60 seconds of air left. She decides to get revenge and safe Gordon by making the deal of setting Gordon free (after the Combine are defeated) in trade for Eli, Mossman, and Barney's lives. Barney is killed off screen, Mossman is killed by the Combine, and Eli is killed by the Advisor. The ending was an act so people didn't catch on. The reason Eli was spooked by what the G-Man had Alyx tell him wasn't just because the G-Man had said that before at Black Mesa, but the G-Man visited him right after his deal with Alyx and said the same.
The G-Man is Alex Mercer.
He and be in places faster than you (Disguise + Running over obstacles), He speaks oddly (Ok, Alex doesn't speak weird, but all those voices would mesh sooner or later), He's super smart (arming a NUKE) and also is quite manipulative (Alex has adsorbed some of the smartest people in Blackwatch, plus alot of the people he consumed are Manipulative Bastards), and he's somewhat of an ass (like Alex).
Gordon Freeman was originally evil.
C'mon. A goatee? Seriously? He was just working at Black Mesa in order to build his doomsday gun, but the Resonance Cascade forced him to be a good guy by default. During HL 2, he realized that being good could get ladies like Alex Vance to hang around with him voluntarily and has been reconsidering his ethics since then.

Black Mesa was built next to a certain landfill.
And somehow one of those E.T. cartridges made it into the anti-mass spectrometer. Nice job, Atari. You've caused a Resonance Cascade. After he's done killing endless waves of zombies, Gordon Freeman will sue the hell out of you.
The Combine Will Arrive Right After The Infection.
Here's my theory on the timeline: Half Life - 200X, Left 4 Dead - 2009, Left 4 Dead 2 - 2009, 7 Hour War - 2012, Portal - 201X or 202X, Half Life 2 - 202X, E1 - 202X, E2 - 202X and E3 - 202X
  • Isn't it implied that the original game is taking place in the late 90's? Also, Portal is supposed to be taking place right around the same time as the Seven Hours War, not years later. Or So I Heard.
    • No, Word Of God says the first game is in "200X." It's written as "200-" in the manual for the PS 2 version.
The Combine Assassin is still canon.
They have a training ground too. It's a building built by a company they stole those Energy Balls from. Yes, The Aperture Science Enrichment Center. Chell was a Rebel who somehow didn't get her mind wiped. That's why there aren't any by Half-Life 2. They were all dead and the Combine couldn't make more. G La DOS was against them, but was forced to work for them. The employees gassed? Combine. The Morality Core? Combine Obedience Device. The attempt on Chell's life? A trick. She NEEDED to be killed to stop the creation of Assassins. This Was A Triumph (for the Rebels). Where is she singing from? A certain ship lost in the arctic. And, yes, there is Cake (ok, maybe no cake) and an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. The backup is activated on her death. She was given a plan by the G-Man. He saves Chell from mind-wipe, she gets her to activate the backup, and Gordon gets a Portal Gun. Perfect plan. Also, the HL 2: E2 Combine Battle Network is based off of G La DOS.
Gordon Freeman is no scientist.
The most technically advanced task he has undertaken is... wheeling a cart of dangerous radioactive materials into a reactor. While the real scientists watched from behind two layers of bulletproof glass. In Half Life 2, he performed the likewise taxing task of plugging in Dr. Kleiner's teleportation machine. Gordon is in fact Black Mesa's janitor. Any references to his scientific credentials are only a cruel running joke among the Black Mesa staff. Whether he resents it or not cannot be determined until he brings himself to speak on the matter.
  • So basically, "You're not smart. You're not a scientist. You're not even a full-time employee!"
  • Gordon was in a bad economy. Having a PHD without any experience Gordon was (un)lucky his old professor (Kleiner) got him the Black Mesa janitor job.
  • A Ph.D. in theoretical physics is required for janitors at Black Mesa.
    • The mop is an application of the theoretical Kerr Metric magnetically coupled to a tungsten pole. The Hazard suit is neccesary to survive the radiation. The theoretical physicists insist that cleaning up messes in the rec room by removing the offending matter from reality may result in unforeseen consequences...
  • This troper thinks Gordon Freeman, despite what Dr. Breen thinks, is a well-trained special military operative, perhaps placed within Black Mesa to watch over things.
    • Seeing as how Gordon's physics degree plays no part in any of the games as opposed to his skill in fieldcraft and asskickery, this seems entirely plausible. It's also possible Gordon is "a man of few words" because he doesn't want to blow his cover by saying something that would reveal his lack of scientific knowledge.
    • I have this theory that Gordon is actually a black ops trooper from Half Life who has amnesia and was reprogrammed by the Gman to be a scientist to infiltrate Black Mesa. Gman also gave him his PHD. Maybe this is why Gordon is so adept to firearms. Or he could have just spent alot of time in the hazard course.
    • It is still possible that he "barely" got the degree because of the propaganda war machine taking advantage of the fact that either due to illness or birth defect, he was mute since he was very little. The reason why we never see him "talk" is because a) he can at least mouth the words, and the people that know him understand and b) his hands are always full and he cannot use sign language.
  • Alternatively, Gordon Freeman is actually dying of some strange disease which does not allow him to speak. And his life-long dream was to become a famous theoretical physicist and save the world from an alien invasion, which is being granted by the Make-A-Wish foundation. It would certainly explain why everyone treats him like he's a genius for doing the simplest things.
    • More likely, that was some dying kid's wish and it is being granted to Gordon by Aperture Science's Take-A-Wish Foundation (Really, the TAW Foundation is canon and that is what it does). Destroying BM was just a side benefit.
  • The idea of it being a joke is evident with the G-Man. Whenever he addresses Freeman, it's either "Mister Freeman", or "Doctor Freeman" with a slight air of sarcasm on "doctor".
  • Gordon does have those credentials... but so does everbody else. He's the new guy who does all the boring, dangerous stuff.
    • Also, the experiment had only just started. The work done by the other scientists consisted of checking that the sample was ready, giving Gordon instructions, and taking a few readings just before the resonance cascade. If there hadn't been a resonance cascade, they would have taken more readings, and subsequently analyzed them. This last part is where Gordon would have used his degree.
    • 27 is about right for a physicist who had just completed his education.
Gordon's preternatural skills are due to more than the HEV suit.
Think about it; it explains so much. He wasn't the only guy with that suit—but only two other users even made it out of the facility, let alone accomplished the things Freeman has. The only explanation—other than that he's just that awesome—is that he has something nobody else has. Like, say... the ability to travel through time. No, seriously—your ability to save your game carries over into the game world. That explains how he never dies, how he always knows the proper way to beat a foe or solve a puzzle. It also explains why he sometimes does such mind-numblingly stupid things as climbing into a stalker pod; either he knew he could just reset to the moment before he climbed in if things went badly, or he knew it was the best available option because he'd already tried everything else!
  • What's more, it's common knowledge among the resistance, as evidenced by lines like, "Don't worry, he's done this before." when Freeman "dies."
  • What if Gordon is actually the Prince of Persia?
  • In Portal, one of GLaDOS's taunts is "You wonder what happens after you die? I know." Possibly the afterlife in the Half Life universe involves other dimensions. When Gordon Freeman "dies", his "soul" is kept from leaving this dimension by the G-Man (or the Vortigaunts, when the time comes around), a new body is fabricated, they dig up a fresh HEV suit somewhere, and *pop*!
  • The ability to groundhog your way to inevitable success would be the most awesomest superpower, if it didn't come at a terrible cost. You see, because Gordon is an instrument of Fate, he can only ever do what Fate requires him to do. Any attempt to escape the road set ahead him and live happily ever after in some distant place not full of Combine, full of zombies, on fire, or full of Combine zombies on fire is brutally stymied by the dreaded InsurmountableWaistHeightFence, Bottomless Pit, Deadly Water (or deadly waterfauna) or a cold, black screen informing Gordon that he has failed.
    • In fact, Gordon seems to be the sorting operator of a Many Worlds Stupid Sort Algorithm working on the premise "if(Gordon succeeds) continue(); else destroyUniverse();", thus leaving only the universes where "the Freeman excels at all tasks" intact. Appearently, the Vortigaunts are aware of this, and calling Gordon "the one free man" is in fact a display of scathing irony on their part.
      • Or, due to his many universe nature, he is free, free to doom as many universes as he wants, kill resistence members with impunity, and choose about the gnome.
  • Something I stumbled upon on DeviantArt:
Freeman is in motion, fighting off a dozen Combine Elite with nothing but his crowbar. His speed is unimaginable—he seems able to predict his enemies' movements, even dodge bullets. The observer can't tell, but this battle is already over—Freeman has fought it over and over in infinite parallel existences, and he knows every possible outcome, as well as how to choose one that ends well for him. In countless other timelines, he's dead already—but he has a card up his sleeve that trumps all others: the F6 key.
  • Wait, does this mean Freeman is actually Dr. House?
    • Impossible, because it is lupus.

Which meshes nicely with the idea that...

The G-Man is Gordon Freeman, from the future.
They have the same piercing green eyes, decisive nature, and a calm in the face of chaos and disaster around them. Obviously, at some point in the future, Gordon will gain a mastery over time and space (as well as corrective eye surgery to alleviate his need for glasses). He is now attempting to create a Stable Time Loop so that his past self will arrive in the same place he is now. As for why he seems to be angry and surprised at the interference of the Vortigaunts at the beginning of Episode One (since he presumably remembers it from the opposite perspective), well, he either tried and failed to change things, or he's just putting on an act to make them think he's lost control, and anyway, he rather quickly regains control of things about a third of the way through Episode Two, thus potentially elevating him (in the case of the second possibility) to Magnificent Bastard status as well. Hell, some people compared pictures of Freeman and G-Man and found, that their facial structure down to the bones is very, very similar
  • So Gordon never talks to hide his speech impediment?
    • That's impossible! Gordon Freeman wears glasses. The G-man doesn't. If the G-man was Freeman, he wouldn't be able to see.
      • Maybe he got contacts. Or LASIK.
      • Now you're just being ridiculous.
      • While we're being ridiculous, let's consider maybe he had his eye color changed, too. It'd be a rather subtle change, of course: Gordon has green eyes, G-Man as far as I've seen has blue eyes with just a touch of yellow around the pupils; from far away enough it's easy to mistake the two. Why, though, is currently beyond the scope of my powers of speculation.
    • This troper has thought the same thing (about the G-man being Gordon Freeman from the future), except that Gordon Freeman is mute because of a congenital malformation which will be surgically cured in the future. Gordon Freeman will learn to speak, but will always have a stilted quality to his speech.
    • Also, in Half-Life: Opposing Force, the G-Man tells Adrian Shepard that his ability to adapt and survive reminds the G-Man of himself. He does not tell this to Gordon Freeman,who has the same ability, because he doesn't need to. He is Gordon Freeman.
  • In addition, G-Man could be an abbreviation for Gordon Freeman
  • Why does the G-Man have a widow's peak, then?
  • That explains why the G-Man rescued Alyx from the Black Mesa. He knew he'd need her help in the future. Or...past. Or...his past and Gordon's future. Or...ARGH!

Gordon Freeman is the G-Man, from the future.
And he is trying to reverse what he had done in the past by posing as the puppet, but is really playing an extremely complex xanatos roulette. The goatee, glasses and the muteness are all just for disguise.

Lamarr is Gordon Freeman, from the future.
Due to unforseen consequences of his actions throughout the series, he has turned into a head crab and is now trying to provide support to his past self [human Gordon Freeman] and the rest of the resistance.

The G-Man cannot sing in the key of 'G'.
Which is why he has such strange mannerisms when speaking, he is singing everything he says.

The G-Man is gay.
Stalking single men through the Black Mesa complex? Not stalking Barney, the one with a "Buy flowers for Linda" stickynote in his locker? Purplish tinge in his hair? Coincidence? I think not!

Gordon runs into various dead researchers in Xen, all of which are wearing powersuits with helmets, but he himself did not seem to need one. Gordon was used as a guinea pig for the same experiment that gave Batman the ability to breathe in space. It was not expected how this would affect the fate of the world in the Black Mesa Incident, however.
  • Possibly, the other dead researchers had helmets for protection, not because of low pressure or an airless environment. This might appear impossible, but Xen's anomalous gravity is at least as impossible as its apparently breathable atmosphere. The presence of Gordon's HEV suit HUD also seems to imply that he does have a helmet. He is seen without one several times in Opposing Force and Blue Shift, but these are non-canon.
    • This Troper conjectures that the HUD is projected onto his glasses by the HEV suit, Adrian's PCV is linked to his Gas Mask, and Barney's helmet has an eyepiece on it a la Halo Marines.
    • Adrian Shepherd managed to survive Xen's atmosphere just fine while wearing only a gas mask. Barney Calhoun did so wearing nothing but a security guard outfit. Incidentally, both games are canon, with Blue-Shift technically being more canon than Opposing Force.
      • Adrian Shepherd and Barney Calhoun can, obviously, both also breathe in space.
      • Word Of God also states that Xen has an atmosphere and the previous visitors were just wearing helmets to avoid taking risks.

Alternative to the previous WMG, Gordon Freeman is Batman.
By this theory, Robin (not Batman's Robin) only corrected BATMAN'S not being able to breathe in space, and thus, Gordon Freeman is, in fact, Batman. This would contradict his not being a Scientist, and explain his preternatural skills. This theory is further evidenced when you consider that Batman Beyond turns Batman into a Legacy character, so Gordon could be a Batman between Bruce Wayne and Terry Mc Ginnis - meaning Robin has in fact corrected this for every Batman.
  • Alternatively, Gordon Freeman is Bruce Wayne, possibly during one of his times leaving Gotham City (which have occured a few times during DC's plot). This explains how he's so handy with guns - Batman has been shown using them, both in his oldest eras and for ballistics study.
  • Sadly, there is a flaw with this theory. Gordon Freeman is quick to respond to enemy hostiles with lethal force. Batman has made an oath not to kill, so the two must be different people. While there is quite possibly a strong connection to the two, it is uncertain what that connection is.
    • Wait a minute, how's this for a connection: Gordon Freeman is partially Batman. The teleportation experiments, which have been shown to be able to (at least when breaking down) spontaneously retrieve things from alternate dimensions, once interrupted a battle between Batman and Mr. Freeze, in which Batman was being backed up by Commissioner Gordon, and what arrived in Black Mesa was an amalgam of Gordon, Freeze and Batman called Gordon...Free...man. He had Batman's combat and science skills, Gordon's appearance and Freeze's fancy HEV suit (and willingness to kill). Couldn't speak, though. They kept him around to monitor him, but he was so useful they made him up a fake identity and put him to work...okay, maybe this is getting out of hand.
      • You forgot Batman's ability to breath in space.
  • Don't be silly, Gordon Freeman wears glasses! If he were Batman, how could he see?
    • The glasses are optical flats. They don't actually affect his vision. They're just the disguise.
    • Or, to make the disguise even better (Batman doesn't wear a bad disguise) the glasses are real, and he has to wear contact lenses underneath them. The contacts and glasses cancel each other out.
      • Of course, the price of doing that would be that his peripheral vision would suck, because he has distorted vision from the contacts that isn't being canceled by the glasses. Which, come to think of it, is true in the games. It's a First Person Shooter, so you can only see the area directly in front of you, and not areas to the left and right that would ''normally' be visible. So now we have proof!

Alternative to the previous WMG, Gordon Freeman is that kid from Zathura.
Heck, if Batman could breathe in space, and the main characters in that movie could, why the heck not?

By the logic of the previous WMG, Gordon Freeman is Jimmy Neutron.
Think about it! He can breathe in space, he's (allegedly) a science genius, or course he's Jimmy Neutron!
  • Come to think of it, didn't Jimmy Neutron have a dØg of sorts?

Gordon Freeman is actually Jason Todd.
This actually explains several of the issues here:
  • Being a former Robin, he would have all of Batman's skills; he also has no problem with killing (unlike Bruce Wayne)
  • Also due to being Robin, he could have had the same treatment to breathe in space
  • Jason Todd's already come back from the dead once, so Freeman's ability to repeatedly resurrect himself may be an extension of this same ability
  • Additionally, his death was caused by being beaten with a crowbar by the Joker, so this would explain Freeman's affinity for crowbars
  • Or, perhaps all of the Half-Life series is a dying dream being had by Jason Todd. Until he got better...

The G-Man is William Shatner in the future.
That explains the speech mannerisms. As for the G-Man's other powers, in the late 2100's Shatner will find a way to channel his awesomeness into energy, and use that to travel through time and space.

The G-Man worked for Aperture Science
Aperture Science and Black Mesa were competing with one another on a big government contract to develop working teleportation technology. Aperture knew that Black Mesa was getting close to a breakthrough, so they sent G-Man to infiltrate and deliver the Xen crystals to Dr. Vance in order to cause a chain reaction and ultimately destroy the facility. He then captures Freeman, hacks into GLaDOS and makes her kill all of the staff in Aperture Science to steal their secrets, including how to build a hand-held teleportation device that he builds into his briefcase!
  • Alternately, the G-man is actually Cave Johnson kept alive after his "death" through methods unknown.

Race X from Opposing Force are the Combine.
The G-Man sends Shepherd away because he's seen things he shouldn't. Incidentally, Shepherd's the only living person we know of who saw Race X, as the G-Man clearly doesn't care about people learning of the Borderworld inhabitants. Race X only shows up towards the end of the Black Mesa Incident, when the Nihilianth would have spent more time worrying about silly things like physicists with crowbars than maintaining the barrier between Xen and the Combine worlds. Once the barrier was weakened, the Combine dispatched a legion of Synths to bore through the Borderworld into Earth... and were promptly nuked. But they managed to find Earth and knew how to get to it through the Borderworld, thus setting up the events of the Seven Hour War.

Advisors are just Synths.
Well-made synths, naturally, capable of telepathy, but their feeble bodies makes them no more than advanced cell-phones... that can Mind Rape with their Naughty Tentacles. Note how at least a few of the Advisors we see are described as larval, seems odd to send a baby version of your master race to some alien world you plan on just strip-mining to death. Ergo, if there is a master race to the Combine, Advisors aren't it.

Alternately, the Advisers evolved from humans.
The Advisers were once just like us, but millenia of being waited on hand foot by their countless slaves have turned them into featureless sacks of fat who exist only to consume.
  • According to Raising The Bar, that's basically the intention when making them, but several things have changed in the episodes, so that could easily have been Ret Conned

Or maybe Advisors are just Combine middle management.
The fall of the Citadel and the death of Dr. Breen at the hands of the same man who originally took out the Nihilanth (a being of near-cosmic power, note) appears to have upgraded Earth's threat category from 'obscure resource world' to 'possible problem'. So several Combine Advisors (who we first saw as Dr. Breen's immediate supervisors) have now been sent in as crisis managers to handle the situation. Given the (implied) vast scope of the Combine, why should whoever their ruling powers are step in themselves, this early in the storyline? This is what lieutenants are for.

Gordon could talk, once upon a time...
According to The Other Wiki, Gordon Freeman's doctoral thesis was titled Observation of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement on Supraquantum Structures by Induction Through Nonlinear Transuranic Crystal of Extremely Long Wavelength (ELW) Pulse from Mode-Locked Source Array. Clearly, he used up all his words for life in the title of this thesis. The body of text was completely blank. Apparently, the G-Man must have landed him the job at Black Mesa.

Gordon could talk until the accident.
The radiation accident at the beginning of Half Life 1 permenantly fused his vocal cords. It is likely that his body was also turned to steel by the great magnetic field, thus his Made Of Iron properties.
  • If not his entire body, at least his balls.
    • The Black Sabbath reference made me laugh, as did the completely random reference to Gordon's bollocks. Thank you, TV Tropes.

The Combine and Aperture Science are related/Shared the same tech
First off, GLaDOS sounds remarkably similar to the Combine overwatch, especially in episode 2. As well, the energy balls in the enrichment centre have more than a passing resemblance to the ones in the Combine citadel. The receptors are also very similar as seen in Episode one. As a final note, when Chell is hit by an energy ball, the portal gun disintrigrates the extra same way as the Combine soldiers guns when they are hit by an energy ball.
  • Though you're certainly right that Aperture seems to use a lot of technology formerly associated with the Combine before Portal's release, and you're right that the Overwatch and GLaDOS sound similar (because they are in fact both played by Ellen McLain) it's got to be noted that this technology is all used by the Combine Overwatch; that is, the human aspect of the Combine's presence. So, egg and chicken: It's possible Breen specifically equipped his transhuman forces with technology he ordered cannibalized from Aperture's Enrichment Center along with its AI?
    • Ellen McLain also voices The Announcer in TF2. Maybe it's something GLaDOS does to pass the time while waiting for Gordon to show up on the Borealis. Her time with Chell is evidence enough that she has no problems watching people die, and many people believe that GLaDOS uses a backup of Chell's brain to send her through the test over and over again, much like the respawning aspect of TF2.
  • I am going to go one further and say they are competing corporations. With this being the case, Chell is actually an Opposite Sex Clone of Freeman (with better eyesight), and they are extensively testing the clones in puzzles/non-linear thinking to have their OWN "Gordon" of sorts - they even staged the whole scenario with GLaDOS, with cost included, so that they would get the PERFECT Chell when she "escaped".

Lamarr holds the secret to defeating the Combine
Why else would Dr.Kleiner be so concerned about his pet headcrab? After all, there's no shortage of headcrabs about.
  • If so, launching him ( and a lawn gnome) into the super-portal may have been a bad idea.
    • Unless that itself was the secret!
    • But the rocket was supposed to transmit to the Black Mesa anti-Portal Satellites, so s/he never had to deal with the superportal.
  • This troper argues that his concern is completely logical for a pet owner. After all, there's lots of dogs, cats, etc. around in the real world too.
    • This troper must point out that Dr. Kleiner put the cat into the teleporter to test it, and it didn't end happily. And that's a cute, cuddly cat. Rather than one of the most horrifying creatures you're ever likely to meet.
    • This troper must point out that Dr. Kleiner is more nuts than a room full of scrotums.
  • This troper believes that either Gordon or Alyx will die in Episode 3, followed by a "heart-to heart" from the G-Man saying how he took precautions to keep him/her alive, followed by one of the fuel tanks from the rocket crashing to Earth with Lamarr crawling out of it, zombifying the deceased party and fighting on your side/relinquishing control to you. Either that, or she zombifies the gnome into a vicious killing machine.
    • You'd be wrong, Lamarr was de-beaked and as such cannot turn people into zombies.
      • On the contrary, the death of whichever one or the crash would involve the top of the skull being ripped off. The beak, therefore, would no longer be necessary.
      • Or Lamarr could have gotten his/her beaks regenerated after returning from space

The G-Man is a member of the Combine's master race...
He appears to be an uber-advanced alien, and the Combine (and Breen) seem to know who he is. He's just working freelance.
  • Building on this, wouldn't it make sense that the entire Xen Overworld wouldn't necessarily work together? G-Man is a powerful alien who decided (similar to Breen) to side with the winners.

Gordon is The Painkiller.
"Faster than a bullet / Terrifying scream / Enraged and full of anger / He's half man and half machine"

Gordon kills people with weapons.

"Rides the metal monster / Breathing smoke and fire / Closing in with vengeance soaring high"

The "metal monster" is the dune buggy from HL2. It "breathes smoke and fire" with the gauss gun.

"He is the painkiller / This is the painkiller"

Meaningless chorus.

"Planets devastated / Mankinds on its knees / A saviour comes from out the skies / In answer to their pleas / Through boiling clouds of thunder / Blasting bolts of steel / Evils going under deadly wheels"

After the 7-Hour War (Devastates planets: check. Mankind's on its knees: check.) Gordon comes out of stasis.

"He is the painkiller / This is the painkiller"

Meaningless chorus.

"Faster than a lazer bullet / Louder than an atom bomb / Chromium plated boiling metal / Brighter than a thousand suns"

Gordon's able to overcome any threat, and typically borders on Refuge In Audacity with his entries.

"Flying high on rapture / Stronger free and brave / Nevermore encaptured / They've been brought back from the grave"

Gordon eventually saves the human race from the Combine.

"With mankind resurrected / Forever to survive / Returns from armageddon to the skies"

After the Half-Life series ends, Gordon goes back into stasis (or returns to the skies).

"He is the painkiller / This is the painkiller / Wings of steel painkiller / Deadly wheels painkiller"

While he's in stasis after defeating the Combine, Gordon is idolized by the newly-saved human race as a saint, with wings of steel.

The G-Man is the Real Bad Guy
His manipulation of events might not be so much in Gordon's favor. Supported by the fact that the Vortiguants seem to have a negative reaction towards him.

The G-Man is just that; a literal G-Man
This troper thinks it would make sense that the government might have someone keeping watch over Black Mesa, and it was either his assignment or his own initiative to look after Gordon in turn; his seemingly mysterious ways could be explained by technology either developed by Black Mesa or Aperture Science, or possibly obtained through other means.
  • Inversely he is a gangsta or, as the phrase "G" originated from The Nation Of Gods & Earths, an Asiatic Black Man.
    • Where, curiously, in the Supreme Alphabet of The Nation of Gods and Earths, "G" stands for "God."

Myrmidonts fight to the death during spawning season.
You obtain the pheropod from the corpse of a Myrmidont; as demonstrated in the game, this works fine for attaining the allegiance of normal antlions, but other Myrmidonts will still attack you on sight.
  • However, it's possible that Myrmidonts are simply hostile to all humanoids (possibly with the intent of eating them, although you never get to see them doing anything except attacking people), given that they also kill Combine soldiers with no apparent provocation on their part.
    • All antlions seem to be relentlessly hostile towards anything living that doesn't smell like them (including humans without pheropods, the Combine and headcrab zombies, at least), but only the Myrmidonts also attack Gordon, who smells like a rival Myrmidont.

The G-Man was Barney
They both have the same voice actor. Gman isn't around whenever Gordon sees Barney. Gman doesn't pay attention to Barney, because HE KNOWS Barney (his past self) already makes it through alright. And when Valve does something horrible to Barney's character it just means he's turned into Gman.

Dr. Breen is related to Colonel Breen of Quatermass and the Pit
It may be possible to fit the Breen of Star Trek in there somewhere.
  • Or perhaps he's one of the Breens from Aeon Flux. He is actually a lot like Trevor Goodchild without the sex appeal.

The Black Mesa Incident was a Xanatos Gambit by Dr. Breen
Breen set up the entire incident, either because the Combine had already contacted him and promised to appoint him the head administrator of humanity, or because he believed the resulting struggle would strengthen mankind.
  • It's obvious the Black Mesa Incident was a Xanatos Gambit. However this troper always thought the G-Man was the [[Xanatos]] (and a very good one, indeed).

Nhilanth was a Combine cyborg who rebelled & led his people to Xen to escape their tyranny.
That metal thing sticking out of him does look a lot like some of the other jagged metal stuff the Combine use, doesn't it? Also, the Grunts appear to be cyborgs as well, seeing as how they make a metallic noise when hit with the crowbar, even the apparently fleshy parts. The curious part is that even after they escape the Combine's slavery, the Nhilanth continues to use Vortigaunts as slaves. Chances are the Vortigaunts were slaves long before the Combine showed up. Maybe the irony was lost on Nhilanth.
  • As opposed to the hypothesis that Nihilanth IS a Combine cyborg, who leads his people in Xen under their tyranny? Free Vortigaunts captured by the combine are outfitted with the same green restraining gear they wore as slaves in the first game (look to your right when you get off of the train platform at the start of Half-Life 2). Important to note, Nihilanth sports a pair of gray manacles on all three of his wrists, just like the slaves do.
  • Wasn't it confirmed by the developers that the Nihilanth and Combine were old enemies and that the Nihilanth had to escape to Xen after its home dimension was conquered by the Combine?
  • Wasn't it also stated that the vortigaunts were the Nihilianth's slaves and Freeman freed them? And don't forget how they're always prasing him for freeing them in the second game, despite having tried to murder him in the first.

Gordon Freeman has a lisp.
As a result. He vehemently refuses to talk due to embarrassment.

Gordon Freeman is a vampire.
Regardless of graphical settings, he cannot be seen reflected in water or other surfaces. The HEV suit protects him from sunlight, although he may also be able to spend short periods of time exposed to the sun without protection, since he's forced to run along the rooftops to avoid the Combine, while wearing civilian attire, early in Half-Life 2.
  • It could also be because his HEV suit has some sort of active camouflage. Were there any reflective surfaces in the areas he walked in without the suit?
  • Gordon doesn't cast shadows, either. In fact, you never see your own character's shadow (or reflections) in a Source game (but you can see other peoples'). Thus, it gets a little weird if you extend this logic: All the terrorists and counter-terrorists from Counter-Strike are vampires!
  • This certainly explains why he wanted a job in the underground complex of Black Mesa, far from that pesky sun. Also, it's fun to imagine that maybe he was on fire for the whole rooftop chase in HL2, like a vampire in Buffyverse who's too plot-important to die from the sun.
  • That's why he nerver talks! To hide his fangs!

The G-Man is a mass hallucination.
But... Gordon is the only one who sees him.
  • Jossed in Episode 2, as a trigger word from the G-Man is used on Alyx, and Eli evidently talks about how he saw the G-Man back during Half-Life 1

The G-Man is in the employ of a rival power to the Combine, working to destroy it.
He set up the Resonance Cascade to bring Xen into contact with Earth, leading to the Combine invasion. He knew that the Combine would conquer Earth, but there would be a human resistance. He unleashed Gordon at the right time to trigger a full-scale revolt capable of toppling the Combine on Earth. He also knows that humans will not settle for their own liberation - they will not rest until the entire Combine Empire lies in ruins. While he had other plans for Gordon after the destruction of the Citadel, things are still going mostly according to plan.
  • Alyx Vance serves a number of roles. For one, she provided motivation in the early days of the Resistance, especially for Eli Vance. She herself is a badass, and if Gordon dies, the G-Man will promptly recruit Alyx as his primary weapon. Finally, you can bet that Gordon and Alyx's children figure into the destruction of the Combine.
    • Which fits in nicely with the Portal WMG theory which states that the G-Man is their magical time travelling baby.
  • Furthermore, Judith Mossman is also working for the G-Man. She kept Breen from crushing the Resistance, kept the Resistance from revolting prematurely, and even kept Alyx in the field so she could gain necessary combat skills. Her mission to the Borealis was under direct order from the G-Man.
    • Or Mossman is still a traitor and working for the Combine, due to the fact that the Developers have the transmission in Ep1 in a part of the map that you can't get to (it's in the commentary), so she faked it
  • Also I reckon that, after Gordon's work for the Vorts in Ep1 (against G-Man's wishes), the G-Man's superiors have improved their opinion of Gordon, and instructed the G-Man to see if Gordon would be interested in some kind of apprenticeship towards becoming a G-Man himself. This, I think, is the reason for G-Man's "heart-to-heart" with Gordon in Ep2, and why he allows Gordon to see him implanting the memory into Alyx - essentially, he's giving him a bit of early work experience.
  • Even Eli's death may be part of his plan - it will ensure the extinction of the Advisors at the hands of an enraged Gordon and Alyx.

The G-Man is Nyarlathotep
Sure, Nyarly's human avatar usually has dark skin, but changing one's skin colour shouldn't be aproblem for the god with a thousand forms. G-Man is clearly not a human, posessing strange powers and knowing things that normal peopel shouldn't. Also, Nyarly does have a habit of appearing as a figure of authority (such as a business man, a scientist or a goverment employee). If he would indeed be an avatar of an alien god, it would explain a lot of his abilities. He has clearly orchestrated that Black Mesa incident and the coming of Combine to further his schemes of awaking the Great Old Ones, which will end in the destruction of both mankind and Combine.
  • So, Barney might wind up killing Azathoth? Awesome.
  • Why is this the first time that anyone has connected Half Life with the Cthulhu Mythos?
  • This troper would like to know too. Particularly since the first thing she thought upon encountering the G-Man was, "You're Nyarlathotep, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?!"

Alyx Vance is completely and totally in love with Gordon.
For a start, she probably grew up hearing about him from her father - the young scientist who almost single-handedly saved the day. She builds up this image of Gordon as this superhuman figure. Then she rescues Gordon, and she sees that he isn't invincible. But then he puts on the hazard suit, and he's just as powerful as he was in the stories Eli told her. That is the clincher. She completely falls for him.
  • Ah, who can blame her...
  • Not to mention the evidence - Alyx herself does a convincing portrayal of someone who's just met her knight in shining hazardous environment suit, and even Barney comments on the apparent chemistry between Alyx and Gordon.
    • She tells him "Be careful" when he's about to go up against Breen. You only say that if you're truly concerned about the person in question getting hurt - if you would rather they fail but live than succeed at the cost of their life.
    • Something else of note-Episode 1 ends with the citadel exploding, and Gordon blacking out. Episode 2 begins with the only cutscene in the Half-Life franchise-almost certainly representing what Gordon is thinking about during the explosion. So what is in the cutscene? Alyx helping Gordon infiltrating the citadel, Alyx killing zombies in the hospital, Alyx suffering an attack from an advisor etc. Looks like our favorite Heroic Mime can still return Alyx's affection.
      • Not to mention the fact that at the end of EP 1 she yells his name
The G-Man prevents Gordon from talking.
Theorize what you will about Half-Life, but from 2 onward, the G-Man prevents Gordon from speaking so that his knowledge of how the G-Man operates doesn't ruin the plot for the player. Or maybe just 'cause it makes the G-man chuckle whenever Gordon knows the obvious solution to a problem and he can't tell Alyx/Barney/the player.

Eli Vance will be back, but as an Advisor
Think about it, the Combine could easily use the genius of Eli Vance to create new technologies as an Advisor, instead of merely killing him.Also, host bodies were offered to Dr. Breen and seem to be able to be provided by current Advisors.
  • Valve would earn this troper's eternal hatred if they made us kill an Advisor with Eli's mind in the next Half-Life.
    • That's an awesome idea.

Poison Zombies are pissed that they have to carry so many headcrabs.
Think about it. You've got three or four of these things on your back, and they're heavy enough to make you walk hunched over. Then you see some cocky bastard who's carrying around nothing but a crowbar. It's only natural that you'd try to get him to pull his own weight.
  • all normal zombies just want someone(gordon) to help get the headcrab off their head (listen to their cries reversed), but when they get close enough to him, the headcrab takes over and makes the zombie attack

One day, Gordon will invent an isotope so vollatile that it does not have a half-life but quarter-life
They will have to observe with hasty.

G-Man works for the Cosmic Maintenance company
Moorcock, Heinlein & Lequare, Ltd is the multiversal contractor of universe maintenance. When a universe under goes technical difficulties, a Cosmic Maintenance Man is often dispatched to sort the continuitium out. Although this may take time, as there are only a finite number of Cosmic Maintenance Men and an infinite number of universes, if Hugh Everett is right, anyways.

To help with the ever increasing workload, G-Man has been assigned with the task of harnessing the resource that is Gordon Freeman. The typical Hero With A Thousand Faces is a power that, until now, MH&L, Ltd had not yet been able to control, but G-Man offered a interesting solution to the usual refusal of voluntary services that most Heroic Mimes answer with. Mainly, this is done through liberal helpings of Mind Screw.

The events of Halflife are being manipulated by the G-Man in order to produce a One Man Army that can adapt to situations in a heartbeat, be accustom to sudden upgrades in order to complete a suddenly difficult mission and generally be immune to the effects of being dumped randomly in hazardous situations and being left there until the right man in the wrong place can sort things out, defeat the bad guys and get the universe going in the direction that MH&L, Ltd feel is most appropriate for the universe.

Once Freeman is fully trained, there's already a universe selected that he needs to fix. And then G-Man has some other individuals scouted out for the next recruitments.

Gordon Freeman uses the same crowbar in all the Half Life games and episodes
Because... why not?
  • It sort of got disintegrated that one time.
    • It got better.
      • Barney was inside the citadel at the time in civil protection disguise and managed to get it once it teleported into the confiscation room. Then, after the train crash, it flew through a tunnel, around the corner, then into some gears.
    • Polycount aside, the HL 1 crowbar seems have a different shape than the HL 2 one, if the HUD graphics are anything to go by.

Civilians in City-17 are extremely resistant to pain.
Evidence: when you set a civilian on fire, they walk around for a bit, then die. When you set a CP or Combine soldier on fire, they thrash around in agony, then die.
  • Must be the water.

Alyx looks better in the Episodes 1 and 2 because the Suppression Field is down.
Alyx Vance's slightly upgraded look in the episodes isn't just because of improvements in graphics since Half Life 2, but because the Combine Suppression Field that canceled reproductive desires has been destroyed, literally making her look more attractive to Gordon.
  • Except that all the suppression field did was prevent proteins from forming in the uterus. It was pretty much just like a mass birth-control machine.
    • That’s what the Combine wants you to think!

The Borealis contains a Time Machine
Aperture Science has been shown to have created technology several times more advanced then the rest of the Half-Life universe. (For example, both GLaDOS and the ASHPD are more advanced then the HL2's closest examples, D0g and Kliener's teleporter.) The Borealis originally disappeared when Chell activated the time machine to protect it from the Combine. (Which would take place in Portal 2, making Portal set between Half-Life and Half-Life 2).
  • Does that mean the last scene of Episode three will be a fade to black with a door of light opening and you just hear "Come with me" as The Doctor finally arrives on the scene?

The G-Man is just an alien suitcase.
And he's controlling a corpse. Think about it. He's very pale, Isn't comfortable with speech and so very obviously isn't human, yet he looks like one. He seemed to have less power when he was stopped by vortugaunts, the only time he didn't have a suitcase.
  • Explains why he was so reluctant to talk about a briefcase injury in Concerned, and why he's so hard to kill without insane amounts of explosives.

The G-Man is God.
Think about it. He can teleport, stop time, control other beings, transfer objects anywhere in the space-time continuum, steal things from other universes, can't be damaged by any weapons ever unless you're abusing Garry's Mod, can't even be hindered except by the Vorts, and the entire race has to hold the barrier against him at the same time (seriously, if even four of them stop focusing on it, it falls), and oh yeah, is named the G-man. You know, the god-man?
  • To connect this with the "Gordon Freeman is the G-Man" theory, the G-Man/God became mortal for some inscrutable purpose which we mere mortals cannot hope to fathom (that is to say, for kicks), and while in this state is known as Gordon Freeman. Either He's spent a long time as Gordon Freeman (maybe He takes a brief vacation every few years) or He's rewritten everybody's memories to make them think He's been there for longer than He has. The G-Man/God is able to appear because He is omnipresent/beyond time. It's very likely that, in order to enjoy his vacation time, He's also rewritten HIS memories, so that He really thinks that He's Gordon Freeman. But He also watches over Himself from other points in time, and once His vacation is over, the G-Man/God restores him to his previous state. This is also why he's so hard to kill, and has a mastery of almost every single skill needed. He's GOD, after all. He just doesn't know it.
    • To add to this, he actually rewrites the entire history and nature of the world before "descending," so that his vacation will be rather more interesting. Then, once he's done, he sets everything back to the way it was before.
    • On a more sane role for Freeman under the theroy, he is like Joshua, and god is helping him to defeat his enemys.

Adrian Shepherd will be sent to retrieve Freeman by the G-Man
For whatever reason, the G-Man can't just blip Gordon back out. He still has Shepherd in storage. Humans can take action without restriction, and the G-Man can implant orders into people. This will end violently.
  • But why? Without Vance, Gordon is the Resistance's only hope. The only plausible use for Shepherd is to provide back-up during the combat operations the Resistance will encounter. After all, the guy is a Marine.
  • The G-Man isn't on the side of the Resistance. The Resistance's contract for Gordon ending with the destruction of the Citadel. Adrian would be used as the G-Man's Repo Man, not as Gordon's backup.
    • This theory's been scrapped, it seems that the G-Man really didn't seem to mind not having control of Freeman during Episode 1.

There is a scenario similar to Chzo Mythos, and Gordon Freeman is actually not Gordon Freeman.
Just like in 7 Days a Stranger, Gordon might be someone else who everybody mistakes for Gordon, who has possibly killed the real Gordon for some reason. That's why he doesn't talk: To not betray his ignorance about particle physics.
  • Odd his college professor and his best buddy for years recognize him if that's the case.

Gordon's mouth is full.
His suit doesn't have enough pockets, so he's forced to carry a few guns in his mouth. That's why he doesn't talk.

The G-Man was pulling Alyx out of the Citadel with Gordon
We know that he saved her once before, and that he considered her a valued investment. Whether he was going to keep her with Gordon, or deliver her to Eli is yet unknown. What Eli did to get the G-Man to rescue her from Black Mesa will be important in the future.
  • He didn't start including Alyx in his plans until Episode 2. Until then, she was cannon fodder. He's including her as something more than fodder because the Vortigaunts (The only beings capable of rejecting his plans) consider her important.
    • He states during the extended auto-fellation scene carried out while the Vortigaunts are saving Alyx that he was the only one among his cohorts who saw the wisdom of saving her during the original Black Mesa incident, and boy-howdy, turns out he was the genius after all.

Alyx is wearing Unobtainium.
Alyx is Made Of Iron for no apparent reason. Maybe she has some advanced combat technology that was developed by her father and Dr. Kleiner to fight the Combine. The same may also apply to other resistance members.
  • Her clothes are quite obviously patched with duct tape. The question is why they haven't thought to slap a layer of that on the HEv suit.

GLaDOS' backup is on the Borealis, where she and Freeman shall have some cake.
Also, whilst he is smart and a scientist, he is also a full-time employee - of Black Mesa. Turrets ensue.
  • And, based on a theory that GLaDOS has Chell backed up on file, Freeman will storm the Combine with an army of Chell clones.

Half-Life doesn't take place on Earth, but on a world in Warhammer 40000.
Think about it. The reason teleportation is so dangerous is because it involves passing through the Warp. Xen is a daemon world in the Eye of Terror, and the Nihilanth and its allies are followers of Tzeentch. The ant lions are a stranded strain of Tyranid that lost their connection with the Hive Mind until they rebuild sufficient strength, and so are the headcrabs. The Combine are a special-operations force from the Tau Empire. The G-Man is either the Deceiver or an Eldar Farseer. The HEV suit was reverse-engineered from power armour.
  • In that case, Gordon is a Primarch. It explains his awesomeness quite well, no?
    • Most certainly-the Emperor himself was a brilliant scientist and quite a badass, so like father, like son...
  • And so all references to things such as Earth, or (insert Earth location) are simply due to the original colonists' habit of naming things after places on Earth. Do we ever see a map of the world?

after Eli Vance dies, his brain will be put into d0g's body, or another robot body.
Eli built d0g not only to protect Alyx, but as a last-ditch effort to becoming immortal. His prosthetic leg is the first step (no pun intended) in his trans-humanization efforts.

The cassarole incident with Magnusson? Not an accident.
Gordon Freeman's deepest desire is to recognized for his scientific intelligence. Freeman also hates Magnusson, since Freeman is stuck carting around isotopes and the one who gets recognized is a jerk like Magnusson. So Freeman saw Magnusson's beloved cassarole and took an oppurtunity...

The Crowbar is forged from the one ring.
Think about it. The crowbar looks always the same, if you hold it to a fire, Gordon doesn't get his hands burned and most important: It always returns to its master. So, Gordon is also Sauron, the Dark Lord!

The Xenians were protecting Earth from the Combine.
When the creatures from Xen first invaded, it was because they were trying to stop the human scientists from messing around with portal technology, since the Combine could detect such incursions. When Nihlanth was destroyed, now nothing stood in the way of the Combine, who promptly invaded. Need I say it?
  • Word of God is that the Xen army had their backs to the wall. Nihlanth was out of options and desperate. When a portal opened to Earth, a world that was free of Combine, he took the first chance he got and ran like hell, figuring nothing could be worse than the Combine. It failed, and his death caused the portals to remain open.

Gordon Freeman is a crazed psychopath who enjoys murdering innocent scientists.
Come on, who of us hasn't used cheats to give Gordon a gun before the Resonance Cascade and kill your fellow scientists? Some of us even continue working through the whole game, offing the people we are trying to rescue after they've served their useful purpose (i.e. opening a door).
Scientist: Ah! Hello, Gordon Freeman! It's good to see—
(BLAM!)

Gordon Freeman is Black Sabbath's "Iron Man".
Freeman's durability would be explained by being "turned to steel". He can't get over waist high fences due to the "boots of lead".

The Vortigaunts are evolving.
As evidenced by their elevation from weak mooks in Half Life to Bad Ass killing machines in Episode 2. Also, note the change in skin texture and vocal outputs. This has something to do with the growing power of the Vortessence.
  • I'm not sure how much of the change in the appearance of the Vortiguants is due to changes in graphics as opposed to in-universe events, but their seemingly more impressive combat abilities are probably a combination of fighting someone other than a one man army, and no longer being under the control of an oppressive overlord. The Nihalanth didn't seem like the type to let a slave race develope its abilities to the fullest.
    • Correction, they have held off one swarm of Antlions and the G-man. They fail when facing anybody who brought a gun.
    • Unless the person with the gun is an HECU marine. Remember that they were part of the Xen force that tried to conquer earth.
      • They were being used as expendable cannon fodder at the time. The alien Grunts were the members of Nihalanth's forces that were doing the heavy lifting.

The Combine can not control the Vortiguants.
The only living Vortiguants you see in Half Life 2 and later are in the company of the Resistance. Despite having a number of abilities that would make them more useful as a slave race than humans, you only ever see them tortured to death in Nova Prospekt. And comments from episode three would indicate that they are an actual physical threat to the Advisors. Humans could be threatened with pain and death, and altered with surgery. Vortiguants, however, did not fall to such things.
  • You have a point. There is an enslaved Vortigaunt, HL 1 bracelets and all, in the station at the beginning of HL2. Why not a Vortigaunt Synth? Why no Vortigaunt Zombies?

We have never seen a true Headcrab Zombie
Headcrabs are probably native to the Vortigaunt homeworld. They evolved zombie powers to deal with Vortigaunts and their electric attacks. When one possesses a human, though, they do not know the difference and force the mutation they'd normally execute on a Vortigaunt.

The HECU is not a Marine operation It is, instead, Bad Company.
This troper has a quite a few family in the Corps, and when presented with even a fraction of the evidence, they scream and moan that the HECU is, in fact, not Marine. Added to the behavior of the unit in a clear combat zone, they resemble more of a motley crew of ragtags and misfits from the Army than Special Forces Marines. Hence, the HECU is not Marine, but is, in fact, Bad Company, sent to clear the way for the Black-Ops, then be silenced themselves.

Gordon Freeman is Max Payne
After the horrific events of the first two Payne games, the governemnt used Max's college minor and some intense training to put him in an out of the way facillity studying some pointless energy crap. And changed his name. Of course, that all went to hell. The HEV suit simply dumps loads of painkillers into the hero's body when he is injured. And the film/noir secret behind this move? They stole Max/Gordon's bullet-time. And gave it to the G-Man. That's why the government has been interested in Max all this time. They wanted his bullet-time.

Alyx Vance died during the Black Mesa incident, the “Alyx” we know and love is Eli’s replacement
Eli Vance’s daughter Alyx died with her mother in Black Mesa, killed by a Bullsquid. Eli eventually took in one of the many orphans left by the Seven Hour War (one who remained Eli of his deceased daughter) and raised her as his late daughter Alyx. While Eli came to genuinely to care for his adopted daughter he could never bring himself to tell “Alyx” the truth.
  • Eli eventually did love “Alyx” as a daughter, for who she was and not who she was supposed to replace enough to die for her.
Eli Vance’s daughter Alyx died with her mother in Black Mesa, but Eli Vance built an advanced android to replace his daughter.
  • Which explains a previous theory regarding Alyx’s Made Of Iron tendencies. Alyx isn’t wearing Unobtainium, she is made of Unobtainium.
It was stated or implied in episode 2 that the G-man rescued Alyx from Black Mesa, and he further implies it was only because he plans to use her.
  • It could be possible that the G-Man was lying about his true purposes for saving Alyx. Eli may have made a proverbial deal with the devil with the G-Man, having the G-Man save his daughter from certain death in exchange for... something. When Eli was unable to perform that favor, the G-Man allowed Eli to die. Or maybe the original deal was to have Eli die at a later date, just so the G-Man can watch her cry, because that's how he rolls.

Gordon Freeman is a headcrab zombie
Even as a headcrab zombie Gordon still fights for both humanity & Earth, suppressing his desire to kill and channeling his murderous intent against the Combine. In the initial resonance cascade Gordon was briefly teleported to Xen. Alone, disoriented, unarmed, and without a helmet Gordon was easy prey for headcrabs. Soon after zombification Gordon had the strength of will to remove the headcrab but still survive as a zombie.
  • Gordon remains silent as not to betray his true nature, if he talked everyone would know. Would the resistance still follow Gordon if they knew the truth? Would Barney, Eli, and Kleiner put their trust in a headcrab Zombie? Alyx, what would Alyx do if she knew the monster Gordon has become? – All questions Gordon doesn’t want answered.
  • When humanity is free and our world restored Gordon will turn his crowbar on the world’s last threat – himself.
  • While I seriously doubt this will actually happen, it would be the most awesome ending imaginable for the series. True Art Is Angsty!

Valve is the Combine
Valve's games are their more subtle version of the reproductive suppression field - they keep countless potential Badass Bookworms like Gordon Freeman from reproducing, since they're too busy playing Valve games and writing about those games on this website.
  • That would mean TV Tropes is an adjunct of the Combine, even if an unknowing one.

Due to a Vortigaunt prophecy, Gordon Freeman is the only person who can kill the G-Man.
As a result, Freeman has been made a major factor in the G-Man's plans. In the first game, he engineered the Black Mesa Incident in order to kill Freeman. When Freeman survived, the G-Man decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and forced Gordon into working for him. When the Vortigaunts freeded Gordon, the G-man began working desperately not only to get things back under his control, but to prove to his usperiors, the vortigaunts and himself that his destiny is his own and it is most certainly not to die at the hands of a not-scientist because a bunch of magical aliens with throat problems said so.
  • Also, "prepare for unforseen consequences" is his way of saying Screw Destiny.

In the absence of Gordon, Alyx is now the G-Man's agent.
Gordon is apparently no longer under the G-Man's control. To keep the war in his favor, the G-Man recruited the next best person: Alyx Vance, who works closely with Gordon and is a major player in the war. To keep the Vorigaunts off his trail, the G-Man made his control over Alyx much more covert, implanting several Manchurian Agent-style triggers in her. The one Gordon saw in Episode 2 "Prepare for unforseen consequences," is just one of many commands the G-Man has given to Alyx.

The G-Man is The Starscream.
In the first game, he mentioned his superiors. In the second and onwards, he speaks as if he was the one in charge. The answer is simple: he had superiors in the first game, but decided he could do a better job then they could and had them killed.
  • This troper came to the same conclusion.

The resonance cascade gave Gordon superpowers.
Think about it. Prior to the resonance cascade, Gordon did nothing extraordinary. Afterwards, he's a One Man Army. Maybe some Xen lifeform merged with Gordon, not altering his mind or appearance, but making him nigh-invincible.
  • Perhaps this lifeform also removed his ability to speak?

Gordon is an Active.
The senior officials at Black Mesa (above Dr. Breen) knew that a resonance cascade was a possibility. So they hired a Doll who believed he was a scientist, but had latent combat skills (similar to Echo in "Stage Fright").

The G-Man is mostly benevolent
He is infact an alien from a world enslaved by the combine in human disquise, his odd speach and looks are because of his unfamiliarity to humans and their communication. Like the Galaxy Quest aliens, he thought that human media showed they had traits that would mean they wouldn't bend over against the combine and instead defeat them completly. He caused the black Mesa incident to bring the Combine to Earth so they get defeated. Freeman attracts the G-mans attention because, like Shepard, he excelled at fighting Xen and the G-Man decided to be use him as strategics weapon against the Combine.

The G-Man is a combine scout.
He found earth and found it to be a good resource planet for the Combine. He started the Black Mesa incident to signal his masters. Soon he realized that he maniplulates The Freeman he can take over the Combine by having him kill his masters or had a change of heart and regrets his actions, helping The Freeman to remove the Combine once and for all.

Gordon Freeman is the God Emperor of Mankind.
Shortly before the events of the first game, the Emperor decided to try to guide humanity more directly by helping to advance science. The disaster that resulted after the Resonance Cascade convinced him to butt out (once he'd fixed things), and he went back to guiding from the shadows until finally deciding to found the Imperium of Man. The G-Man, given his machinations and manipulation, is Tzeentch, or an avatar of Tzeentch.
  • No way the Emperor would be led around by the nose, even by Tzeentch. But Gordon could be a primarch, or even the Emperor's earliest experiments to make superhuman soldiers.

Half Life and Team Fortress 2 take place in the same universe.
If the Engineer had just shared his teleportation tech way back when, all this mess could have been avoided.
  • Alternatively, he did share it, but either he didn't proplerly explain details that he considered obvious or he died and someone just found his old notes and blueprints with a similar lack of detail, and other scientists failed to properly recreate it.
  • Alternatively, Gordon is the Engineer. Spending time with the Demoman and the Soldier taught him greater proficiency with more firearms, and he doesn't talk because folks made fun of his accent. That's why he was working on the teleporter project — it's his project! The only reason he can't build turrets? He has a crowbar, not a wrench.

Valve will include references to Half Life Full Life Consequences in their next game.
Have you seen how popular it is? They might make something along these lines:
Rebel 1: It's time for me to my family name and face Full-
Rebel 2: What the hell are you saying?
Rebel 1: It's a family mantra, if you say it, you're guaranteed to not need bullets in battle, because they are so slow at points!
Rebel 2: John, I just don't understand you.
  • They'd better damn reference Concerned as well. At the same time, if possible.
    • They already did. In episode 1 you can hear a rebel saying that he misses Dr. Breen's T.V. show.

Gordon Freeman is Jesus.
He's the son of Morgan Freeman, who is God, and is therefore Jesus saving humanity from the alien overlords. And the G-man may or may not be Satan. This also explains the God Mode cheat. And Alyx is Mary Magdaline.

Gordon Freeman suffers from the same issue as The Narrator from Fight Club.
The G-Man is his Tyler Durden.

Dr. Gregory House's near-death experience was in fact, the entire Half Life universe
We all know that House loves video games, so when he shocked himself into a near death experience in one episode, instead of having a religious journey, he played his ideal video game. He was a mute hero with working legs, able to solve greater puzzles than those provided by modern disease. The fact that he is mute is an allusion to how House would have more friends if he said nothing than if he made fun of people any longer.

The G-Man is Light Yagami.
He didn't die, per se, but went from a whole life to half of one, in another reality. Considering how good he is with planning things, and ensuring his plans work even when they don't, he became the G-Man in this reality. His behaviour regarding the vorts taking control of Gordon Freeman was just a ruse so that the vortigaunts wouldn't realize it's what he wanted them to do. With the help of the vortigaunts, Gordon was able to get to White Forest and ensure the rocket would be launched, which would ensure that the Combine would react with the murder of at least one top official in the rebellion. This would ensure the rest of the rebels would not stop fighting until the Combine was destroyed across the entire reality. Things are going... Just as planned.

Father Grigori survived.
Because he wasn't a mere man, he was just masquerading as one.

The experiment in the first game was an attempt to duplicate Dr. Manhattan, with Gordon as the unwitting test subject.
It didn't quite succeed, but years later, the weapons scanner gave Gordon the kick to temporarily tap into his cosmic powers and melt people.

The G-Man is the BLU Spy.
Seriously, the similarities are amazing: they both wear a blue tuxedo, they have a similar physical build and facial structure (check out the cheekbones! The nose! The eyebrows!), and he is always carrying a briefcase reminiscent of the one the Team Fortress 2 characters fight over. Besides, his ability to turn invisible explains how he seems to just disappear by turning a corner as well as how he just pops up out of nowhere, and his ability to disguise as enemies explains how he didn't get killed by soldiers/combines/Resistance members/vortigaunts. Heck, his habit of smoking could even explain how his voice got deeper!

Alyx was heavily genetically modified.
This is the true reason for her regeneration, durability and her understated reaction to getting shot. She is completely unaware of this and thinks she's more or less normal.

The G-Man is a Time Lord.
Really, nobody has said this yet? Alright, here's how I see it. The G-Man is a Time Lord, with 'G-Man' a title like 'Doctor' or 'Master'. His briefcase is a TARDIS. The black, featureless place he tends to show up in is one room of his TARDIS, meaning when the G-Man has his briefcase within it, the TARDIS is inside itself, recursively. This explains how he survived when the Time Lords were wiped out: He was in his TARDIS, and the wave of death couldn't reach him because the entrance to the TARDIS was inside the TARDIS itself. Having dodged that bullet he's been knocking about the universe, until one day he went to refuel at the Cardiff Rift, temporal service station that it is. Whilst there, however, one of the events mentioned in Torchwood occured, in which the rift consumes a passer by, spitting them out somewhere vastly removed. The G-Man was spat out on a parallel Earth, and his TARDIS was damaged, preventing him from being able to time travel, but leaving his spatial travelling intact. The G-Man has been orchestrating all events to encourage the development of portal technology. He seems to switch sides because he needs the fight to go back and forth to provoke new breakthroughs. He's hoping that eventually one faction or another will invent a teleporter that can return him to the Time Lords' universe. He can't intervene too directly for fear of causing paradoxes, and the dangers inherent therein. Freeman was just The Right Man In The Wrong Place, there was nothing special about him, the G-Man just saw he could be used as a middleman for working his plans. His references to 'Employers' combined with his government appearance are just a masquerade, to lead anyone who discovers him to assume he's part of an Earth government's conspiracy. He's dropped this act as of Half-Life 2. He's also renting out his pawns to the more highly-advanced individuals of the universe's races, in exchange for the technology required to repair his TARDIS.
  • ...I need a life.
    • You just seriously made me want to write that as a fanfic. CURSE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! ...oh, and by the way, I really, REALLY love you right now.

The different-looking Vortigaunts from Episode 2 are younger Vortigaunts
There are all kinds of stuff to back this up, mainly the smoother skin and the higher voice.

Gordon Freeman is an Eldritch Abomination
That thing shaped like a physicist that you talk to? That never speaks, eats, or sleeps? That can survive amounts of physical punishment that would destroy armored tanks? That has single handedly, remorselessly, slaughtered thousands of people despite no apparent training or aptitude? And that, for some reason, despite having never met him, people feel an overwhelming sense of trust and confidence in? Gordon Freeman is the gun toting version of Stephen King's Buick 8.

Gordon Freeman is Snake Eyes
Well, have you ever seen Snake Eyes' face? No. No, you haven't. Therefore, theory valid.

The G-Man is the Time Lord Cowboy Bebop
And that suitcase is where he keeps his computer! And he's also a Skrull! It all makes perfect sense! Perfect fucking sense!
  • ...Yeah, I need a life, too.

Half-Life takes place in the world of Watchmen.
After Dr Manhattan left earth, and the situation between the USA and the USSR stabilised, the real Eldritch Abominations started taking notice of our Insignificant Little Blue Planet as scientists attempted to continue Manhattan's research into teleportation, discovering that the border world Xen was used by Manhattan as a dimensional slingshot whenever he teleported things, unknowingly attracting the attention of the Universal Union. The Combine's typical ponderous sluggishness meant that Black Mesa's resonance cascade happened before their attempted invasion, making it easier for them to invade.
  • At the moment, I'm supposed to be writing an essay.

Solid Snake was in the Weighted Companion Cube.
After the Combine invasion Snake eventually joined the resistance. Eventually Kleiner and Otacon send Snake on a mission to retrieve the remains of Aperture Science technology for the resistance, infiltrating the facility in a Weighted Companion Cube…
  • Which neatly explains why Administrator Breen waited so long to attack the rebels directly because he was trying to avoid a direct confrontation with Solid Snake, the Combine didn’t strike against the rebellion until they were sure Snake wouldn’t be a factor.

Half Life takes place in the same universe as the Cthulhu Mythos.
Granted, the means are more scientific than arcane, but something as powerful as the Nihilanth would almost have to be a Great Old One. The experiment with the Zen crystal just gave it a pathway into our world, and of course other critters from that realm are going to leak through. And of course, once it saw what a fascinating world we had, of course it was going to send its slaves (Vortigaunts) and creations (headcrabs, alien grunts) through to check things out. Yes, soaking up Gordon's entire supply of ammo in the endgame hurt a lot. It was being shot in the brain. No, it's not coming back. Why? Because it got pwned by one guy. Unfortunately, this means that Gordo isn't going to be able to kill the real Big Bad behind everything, only force it back into its own realm and shut the door for the time being.

Gordon Freeman is suffering from PTVD.
It's an incredibly likely scenario. While from a gameplay perspective keeping him from speaking would allow the player to identify with him and personalize his experiences, in-universe being bounced around between dimensions, being attacked by creatures both terrestrial and alien, dropped in nuclear waste, trash compactors, shot at, bombed, and generally put through hell, he could very well have developed post-traumatic vocal disarticulation.

Doctor Breen was brainwashed.
Even to the bitter end, he's telling Blantant Lies about serving humanity and furthering their progress - and seems rather earnest in that. It's possible he got exposed to something similar to Room 101, except instead of being executed, he's their new leader.

The Vortessence is The Force
I seem to remember one of the Vorts saying something like "there is a disturbance in the Vortessence," But I may be wrong

Adrian Shepard ends up in the Mass Effect universe.
...and somehow becomes Commander Shepard.
  • Or maybe it's even the same universe and the Gman kept him in stasis for longer than Gordon. The codex for Earth mentions something about environmental damage sustained during the 20th century...I'd say taking part of the ocean would count.

The secret ingredient in the Gravity Gun is Element Zero.
Hence the reason the Resistance only has the one, and the reason that they didn't use it in the field until Gordon grabbed it.

Additionally, the stuff that caused the Resonance Cascade was probable unprocessed Element Zero.

The series will ultimately end with Gordon killing the g-man.
Think about it: This is the guy responsible for EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED. The Vortigaunts have shown themselves capable of suppressing him. Gordon kills the shit out of anything. Put 2 and 2 together.

At some point, the G-man regains control of Freeman.
To show this off, the G-man will try to make Gordon kill his friends. This either results, as the above WMG suggests, in Gordon arranging an intimate meeting between the G-man's mouth and Gordon's shotgun, or one hell of a downer ending.

Father Grigori is an older version of The Heavy.
Let's see...

  • Both are Russian.
  • Both extremely powerful.
  • Both name their gun.
  • Both are bald.
  • Both are of questionable levels of sanity.

The G-Man created Gordon
The G-Man wasn't allowed by his superiors to directly influence the situation. In order to get around this, he managed to create a man with the right skills who's always in the right place at the right time without any of his superiors noticing. His superiors did notice that Gordon was singlehandedly stopping the entire Vortigaunt army, though, so they had him put in stasis. Then 15 years later the G-Man tried slipping him in again. He was caught and forced to return Gordon before he did any permanent damage. Then the Vortigaunts intervened. He's been subtly helping the rebellion (he tried to warn Eli, he saved Alyx, and various other things) ever since.

Father Grigori used to be a mass murdering psycho.
He claims that his traps are "the work of a man who once had too much time on his hands... and now finds time for nothing but the work of salvation." This implies that he constructed the traps BEFORE the zombie crisis happened. What do you call a man who deliberately arranges numerous death traps all over a lively town filled with innocent citizens? After the bombing happened, he was so moved by this that his mind suddenly reverted back to normal, realized what horrible deeds he had done, and promptly went batshit insane again - though in a different way.

The reason the people from Black Mesa East stopped visiting Ravenholm is because Father Grigori (who, like Gordon and Alyx, seems to be one of the rarely-encountered individuals who are born Made Of Iron) took over the town, killed or imprisoned most of population, and set up traps to hunt down the survivors.


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