Follow TV Tropes

Following

Fanfic / Half-Life: Full Life Consequences

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Half_Life_Full_Life_Consequences_7517.jpg
Its a good day to do what has to be done by me and help my brother to defeat the e n e m y s
"It's time for me to live up to my family name and face FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES!"
John Freeman

What began as an innocent fanfiction titled Half-Life: Full Life Consequences (by an allegedly nine-year-old kid with the handle squirrelking) was turned into something great as soon as a YTMND user found it. In mockery, he did a dramatic reading of the story, and a legend was born.

Naturally, seeing that squirrelking had created other fanfics, most notably in the same storyline, other YTMND users had a crack at the dramatic reading thing. Over time, these narrations were turned into animations, but the most impressive series of animations came from machinima artist djy1991 using Garry's Mod. Thus begins the most famous telling of John Freeman's story.

The first half of the saga tells the story of Gordon Freeman's brother, John Freeman, who rushes from his job to rescue Gordon Freeman in Ravenholdm. The second half, entitled "Hero Beggining", takes place some time later, during which the Combine have succeeded in conquering the human humen race. Henry Freeman takes it upon himself to continue the legacy and lead the resistance against the Combines.

Original writing:

Video by Djy1991 and Icton Entertainment:

These videos make up the most popular adaptation of the Full Life Consequences saga, each having been featured on numerous gaming websites. They combine dramatic readings performed by other users and music from the album Production Music from Ren & Stimpy, creating a distinct Soundtrack Dissonance. The first video combined the low audio quality of the narration and the upbeat music to create an old-time radio drama feel. Subsequent videos strayed from this design for more straightforward presentation.

Full Life Consequences was sufficiently popular to inspire a Live-Action Adaptation; see the results for yourself. There was also a few animated adaptations of the first chapter, a Flash animation one by Vegeta897, and another by amazingtrout. The latter uses a very similar formula to Djy1991's machinima, and both actually predate it by at least half a year, although you probably wouldn't tell from the Youtube comments.

Video by Gaz6231:

Solo machinimator Gaz6231 released alternative adaptations of the Hero Beggining chapters several weeks before the Djy1991 versions. They take a very different style than the above adaptations, favoring intentional Narm Charm and increased body animation over jovial mockery and lip movement. Gaz6231 himself describes it as "the Martin Scorsese to their Michael Bay". While the Hero Beggining video is clearly Gaz6231's first work, the Free Man video is much more polished and has earned its own following. Also unlike the Icton Entertainment videos, all animation, editing, and voices are created by one man. There is a bitter dispute as to which series is better, especially in the case of Free Man.

Some also eschewed visual components in favor of providing loads of ham, with this reading being one such example.

Seaport wrote a "serious" version of the fic, as further proof of the Fiction Identity Postulate, which can be found here.

Other machinmas and dramatic readings of the various chapters exist.

Written by the same person who wrote Halo: Halos in Space, and is, naturally, quite similar. Compare DOOM: Repercussions of Evil. And Peter Chimaera's other fic, Quarter-Life: Halfway To Destruction. Although it may well be a cash in on Full Life Consequences, it is amazing in that he only wrote it after Uncyclopedia, an online encyclopedia like Wikiped said he was writing it and decided 'Yeh, ok' and the Big Bad's evil plot is to destroy Dallas.

One fan wrote a fic called, "Quarter Life: Origin of Doom," which ties the Quarter Life and Full Life series together. It too, got the machinima treatment. See also Half Life: Side Story: Gaiden: HUNT DOWN FREE MAN, a Spiritual Successor based on Hunt Down the Freeman.

It eventually turned out to be written by Mattimer, one of the greatest trolls of our time.

An [1] of the full saga can be found here.


The original writings provide examples of:

  • Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: The death of Gordon Freeman is given quite a bit of weight in the midst of a rather hectic battle scene.
  • Alas, Poor Villain: In-universe "John Freeman felt sorry for them becaus they couldnt live there anymore because they were zombie goasts so he blew up the house and killed the zombie goasts so they were at piece."
  • Aliens Are Bastards: The Combines hate "humens" for no apparent reason.
  • Arc Words:
    • "It's time for me to live up to my family name."
    • "What has to be done."
  • Art Evolution: Inverted. The stories got worse with each release. For instance, they don't start regularly being referred to as "humens" and "wepons" until "Hero Beggining", which made it all the more plausible it was all a troll, until the hard confirmation by Mattimer.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: John Freeman may or may not be helping the Zombie Goasts do this when he blows up their house.
  • Ass Pull:
    • The characters have an uncanny tendency to find wepon on the ground just before entering a battle zone.
    • John Freeman put the laser gun on his motorcycle and his machine gun and his rocket gun that he found on the side of the motorcycle.
    • And also, when John Freeman is stopped by the headcrab zombie police officer, he's able to shoot him in the head with something, despite apparently not having a wepon until he gets to Ravenholdm.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: "The next boss was laughing at John Freeman so John Freeman said 'YOU WILL NOT LAUGH AT ME!' and shot a rocket at him since that was his weakness."
    • Large explosives are perhaps one of the most common weaknesses among... well, things made of matter, but particularly boss-level enemies in the Half Life franchise.
  • Author Appeal: Motorcycles and doing backflips.
  • Author Catchphrase: Doing "what has to be done" is a common theme of squirrelking's protagonists.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: Some of the rebels get killed during the uprising but they keep on going because they have to do it.
  • Back from the Dead: All headcrab zombies, arguably the zombie goasts, and also Gordon Freeman.
  • Badass Biker: John Freeman, who has two motorcycles at his office, and is accomplished enough with them to perform casual stunts on world-saving missions.
  • Badass Family: The Freemans, what with Gordon needing no introduction, John being the one Gordon calls for help when aliens and monsters are attacking his place, and Henry, John's son, who leads the revolt against the Combines.
  • Beige Prose: What does John Freeman look like? What does anyone look like? We don't know, because it just uses their names, with the occasional plot-relevant descriptions (such as the science on Gordon Freeman's face).
  • Big Bad Ensemble: The first had the (not-so) Final Boss, the second had the Next Boss, while the third and fourth had The Combines.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The Dark Man and the Combine are defeated and the Earth is saved but John Freeman and a lot of other people had too be sacrificed to make it happen.
  • Bloody Hilarious: "Then a big rocket came down and blew a guys arm off and legs and head and killed other people too."
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: After Gordon Freeman becomes a headcrab zombie, the Combines come and put science in him to make him live and strong and big. He is slain again when John Freeman kicks the science off his face.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: John Freeman discovers how to beat the next boss by.. looking it up on an internet FAQ.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Inverted. The Dark Man knows EXACTLY who John Freeman's wife is and what happened to her, despite her not having a name and him technically being on some sort of genocide mission.
    • This may have something to do with the fact that the Dark Man is Gordon Freeman.
  • The Call Knows Where You Live: Henry Freeman's "Hero Beggining" commences after the Combines murder his mom.
  • Cain and Abel: John Freeman vs. Gordon Freeman/The Dark Man.
  • Came Back Wrong: Gordon Freeman returns as headcrab zombie goast in What Has Tobe Done, and as a Combine in Free Man.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: As it's implied Henry Freeman is still a child at the time of Hero Beggining (even if the machinima doesn't portray it that way), the trope applies when he leads the revolt against the Combines.
  • Darker And Scarrier: The second arc involves the future of the human humen race, unlike the first arc that mainly revolved on revenge. The main threat of the first two chapters were the bosses and the zombie goasts, which are nowhere to be seen in the second half of the saga spearheaded by the takeover of the Combines. Not to mention heavy casualties on both sides given in detail.
  • Decapitated Army: Averted. Killing The Dark Man does not stop The Combines from defending their tower. In fact, they're able to organize an offensive to stop the humens from escaping the blast radius, and are only stopped by John Freeman staying behind to stop them.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Hero Beggining, the next-to-last part of the FLC series, follows Henry Freeman shoting at Combines, throwing stiders with gravity guns, and eventually climaxing with John Freeman's appearance (out of a portal in the sky) yelling "Combines leave my son alone."
  • Department of Redundancy Department
  • Determinator: John Freeman braved the Combines' assault of machine masheen guns and rockets to try to disable the tower and save humankind. At one point, John Freeman is struck by a rocket, stabbed in the back, and is shot multiple times in succession, but John Freeman isn't slowed at all. He pulls the knife from his back and brains the Combine who stabbed him, then kicks and fights the others who were shooting him.
  • Deus ex machina: At the end of Hero Beginning and at the start of Free Man, John Freeman pops out from a portal backflips out of the sky to tell the Combines to leave his son alone.
  • Diabolus ex Machina:
    • After killing the final boss, the "next boss" appears out of nowhere and step on Gordon Freeman.
    • And after defeating the Next Boss, John Freeman finds out that Gordon Freeman became Zombie Goast.
    • And after that, Gordon Freeman gets turned into a Strong and Big Combine known as "The Dark Man", and leads the Combines into defeating the humen forces under Henry Freeman.
  • Diabolus ex Nihilo: The Next Boss in the first series. Arguably The Combines as well, due to noone knowing why they came.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Gordon Freeman kills the final boss by punching it in the face. No really.
    • After being shot by bullets in the eye from teh gun by John Freeman, mind you.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: While the antagonist of the first story is called the "Final Boss", he's supplanted after his death by the Next Boss, and then by the Dark Man.
  • Dissimile: "Combines were robot things that werent robots..."
  • Disposable Woman:
    The Dark Man: Henry Freeman's Mom is shot in head.
  • Downer Ending: At the end of Full Life Consequences, Gordon Freeman is killed immediately after John Freeman rescues him. At the end of What Has Tobe Done, he is reanimated as a zombie goast. The Hero Beggining arc reverses this.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Apparently the Dark Man aka Gordon Freeman for the Combines.
  • Dying as Yourself: In his final moments, Gordon Freeman is free of both the Combine "science" in him and the headcrab.
  • Episode Title Card: Always consisting of official Half-Life artwork with John Freeman's head taped onto Gordon's body (and Henry Freeman's head taped onto Alyx's body when he appears.) Quarter-Life parodies this by having Gordon's head taped onto his own body.
  • Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: Not so much stumped as expressing profound confusion when attempting to transcribe the author's attempt at Scenery Porn.
    Narrator: THE CONTRYSIDES WERE NICE AND THE PLANTS WERE SINGING AND THE BIRDS AND THE SUN WAS ALMOST DOWN FROM THE TOP OF THE SKY ???
  • "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Subverted. "The laughed overed quickly" when John and Gordon were attacked by the next boss.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep", Unnamed Parent: Henry Freeman's mother, John Freeman's wife.
  • Evil Is Bigger: The Combines, particularly the Dark Man, are said to be strong and big.
  • Evil Uncle: The Dark Man, aka Gordon Freeman after having Combine Science put in him, to Henry Freeman, who also happens to John Freeman's son.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Gordon Freeman's fate after being found as a Zombie Goast by the Combines was to have Combine Science put in him which made him Strong and Big, consequently turning him into the Dark Man.
  • "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Played with in that Henry Freeman's mother delivers her last message to her son after her head was shot off.
  • Fantastic Racism: According to Henry Freeman's mom, the Combines beat up a girl because she is humen.
  • Final Boss: The (not so) aptly named Big Bad of the first chapter.
  • For the Evulz: The Combines beat the humen girl in the street and kill Henry Freeman's mother for no apparent reason, other than the fact that Mom and the girl were humen and the Combine were evil Combines from science and outer space and hate humens.
  • Foreshadowing: Henry Freeman mentions the family name, but if it wasn't obvious at that point...
  • Friend to All Living Things: John Freeman notices a nest of eggs on the ground after cutting down a tree and puts them "back home safe." note 
    • He is even a friend to non-living things, as he feels bad about killing the zombie goasts.
  • Full-Name Basis: John Freeman and Henry Freeman are only ever referred to as such. Outside of four total aversions in the first story, Gordon Freeman is only referred to as such as well.
  • Giant Foot of Stomping: The next boss's means of attack.
  • Go Out With Smiles On Face: Gordon Freeman dies in John Freeman's arms at peace that he was freed from the Combines. Later, John Freeman as well when he is sure Henry Freeman and the humens will be safe when the Combines Tower explodd.
  • Guns Are Worthless
    John Freeman: I have to kill fast and bullets too slow
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Gordon Freeman warns John Freeman to flee just before he's crushed by the "next boss".
    • Also, John Freeman in Free Man. "John Freeman, Saver of Humens". * sniff*
  • Hop Spot: In Hero Beggining, humenkind seems to be wining, only for more Combines to come, and surround them. Subverted by the fact John Freeman comes afterward.
  • Horrifying the Horror: When John and Henry Freeman team up, the Combines get 'scarred' and run back to the 'hug tower'.
  • "I Kno You ARe In There Somewhere Bro" fight: John Freeman vs. Gordon Freeman
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Assuming the Next Boss is a Strider (something that would explain why it was weak to rockets), this is likely how Gordon Freeman getting stepped on resulted.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Averted. The Resistance Army led by Henry Freeman is described as successfully hitting Combine troops "sometimes". That would make sense, seeing as how they were more of a mob that suddenly acquired armaments wepons laser guns and rocks.
  • In Name Only: The only character from the actual Half-Life games it features is Gordon Freeman, and its connection to the games' canon seems generally pretty specious (the Combines and headcrab zombies of the fics seem pretty different from the ones in the games). Starting with "Hero Beggining" the Combine have conquered and enslaved the humens, which is at least closer to the premise of Half-Life 2.
  • Jumped at the Call: Gordon Freeman's email was all it took for John Freeman to abandon his workplace to go fight bosses.
  • Kid Hero: Henry Freeman (implied), though possibly averted as he's old enough to be president in the epilogue.
  • La RĂ©sistance: Henry Freeman leads a mass insurrection in the third chapter to liberate humenkind, giving them hop!
  • Lamarck Was Right: John Freeman and Henry Freeman either have a knack for acrobatics and combatting unconventional enemies or got their skills the same way Gordon Freeman got them.
  • Large Ham: John Freeman has no qualm with announcing his intentions to kill an evil boss at the top of lungs. Also when he addresses the zombie goasts in What Has Tobe Done:
    John Freeman. Zombie goasts, I have killed your friends at the old house and I don't want to shoot your heads. Move near the countrysides and you will be friends of John Freeman!
  • Last Stand: In Free Man, John Freeman realizes that stopping the tower's activation is impossible, so he sends the humens off and stays to keep the Combines at bay as the humens escape.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: Averted. Hero Beggining was not titled as part of the Full Life Consequences saga to hide John Freeman's surprise appearance at the end and his subsequent role in the final chapter, which restored the label.
  • Lightning Bruiser: John Freeman can do things fast like speed of sound, and is capable of taking on all of the combines singlehandedly, and is able to kick the science off of someone else's face.
  • Made of Iron: While fighting the Combines in Free Man, John Freeman is hit by a rocket, backstabbed, and shot with machine masheen gun fire, yet carries on fighting. There is some credence to this in that, in the Half-Life game universe, a character with full health and armor can take a whole lot of punishment, especially on lower difficulty settings.
  • Moe Greene Special: Performed by John Freeman on the final boss.
  • More Dakka: John Freeman loads up with a laser gun, a masheen gun and a "rocket gun" for his second journey to Ravenholdm.
    • The Combines try to stop John Freeman later with masheen guns and rockets in "Free Man".
    • Subverted in Free Man: John Freeman, needing to "kill fast" suddenly decides that "bullets too slow", so he drops his wepon and proceeds to kill the Combines in his way with his bare bear hands.
  • Neck Snap: In Free Man, there's mention of John Freeman barking necks as he kills Combines with his bear hands.
  • Negative Continuity: It's noted that John Freeman doesn't have a weapon. This doesn't stop him from shooting the headcrab-possessed police officer a few lines later. Freeman also dies by getting stomped on by a boss, but in the next story, he got headcrabbed.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Zombie goasts. Zombies that are also "goasts".
  • Never Trust a Title: There are no characters named Tobe in "What Has Tobe Done".
  • No Kill like Overkill: When he encounters zombie goasts for the second time, John Freeman shoots them before running off to face his real enemy. When the zombie goasts taunt him, he then turns back, laughs at them and rockets them. Even though they're already dead.
    • In "Hero Beggining", a rocket manages to blow a guy's arms off and legs off and head off and him up. In that order.
  • Nonindicative Name: The final boss. It isn't actually the last boss. It's the first one.
  • Not Afraid of You Anymore: In Hero Beggining, Henry tells the Combine that the humen race is "not scarred no more"
  • Our Founder: At the end of Free Man, Henry Freeman is elected president and a statue of John Freeman is erected in the new city.
  • Papa Wolf: John Freeman
  • Plot Hole: John Freeman is able to shoot the Headcrab Officer in the head, despite not having weapon.
  • Police Are Useless: The only authority figure to ever appear in the entire saga is a lone police officer. Who is headcrab zombie, manning his speed trap even after getting zombified. That's a dedicated police officer right there.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Gordon Freeman said "its time to end this ones and for all!"
    • "I have to kill fast, and bullets too slow."
  • Prepair To Die: The Dark Man said.
  • Walk Fast: The word "run" is sometimes spoken but never actually done in the first two chapters.
    • John Freeman has two speeds: "Walk fast", and "backflip", with the very occasional front-flip and single instance of "slow like a turtle".
  • Recursive Ammo: John Freeman shoots bullets from the gun, and then the bullets shoot the final boss.
  • Reforged into a Minion: Gordon Freeman, after being found as a Headcrab Zombie by the Combines, is made Strong and Big and is given Combine Science on him.
  • Retcon: At the end of What Has Tobe Done, Gordon Freeman becomes zombie goast. When he retells this to John Freeman in Free Man, he says that he became headcrab zombie. Mind you, he did get turned into zombie goast by headcrab...
  • The Reveal:
  • Rock Beats Lazers: In Hero Beggining, the humen were wining against the lazers gun-equipped Combine despite having to rely on rocks as wepon.
    • It may have meant to say "rockets". But with squirrelking, you can never be sure.
      • Then again, he said "rackets" instead of rockets in Free Man...
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: In droves, as seen all over the page.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Henry Freeman's mom.
  • Science Is Bad:
    • The Combines came from "science and outer outter space" to enslave humens.
    • Combine "science" in Gordon Freeman turns him evil.
    • Oddly enough, a "science" is a tangible object, like it is in Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami, but it's unclear what it is exactly (The Djy version has it as a Metrocop mask, while the GAZ version has it as a cybernetic eye).
  • Self-Destruct Mechanism: The button the Dark Man pushes that makes the tower start glowing and eventually explode explod.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: The Next Boss causes the most trouble for the rest of the fic despite not really doing much after stepping on Gordon. He mostly just chills at Ravenholdm and waits for John Freeman to come back. But him stepping on Gorden Freeman eventually results in Freeman becoming a headcrab zombie goast, and then turning into the Dark Man, taking control of the Combines, and then blowing up the tower that was big onto the sun, which resulted in John Freeman's death.
  • Starscraper: The tower that was big onto the sun.
  • Stealth Parody: Some signs point to the series being one, such as squirrelking's writing actually becoming worse in the span of three years (See the Flanderisation entry above) and the usage of "Do a barrel roll!" in one of squirrelking's other fanfic, Halo: Halos in Space. This Something Awful thread confirms that it is.invoked
  • Stealth Sequel: Aside from a brief mention of the Arc Words related to the Freeman family name, nothing indicates that Hero Beggining is a sequel to the other stories until John Freeman shows up at the end and reveals that Henry is his son.
  • Spectacular Spinning: Lots of backflips happen throughout the fic.
  • Storming the Castle: Attempted by the Humens on the Hug Tower to stop the botton. They fail and John Freeman decides to sacrifice himself instead, letting the Humens escape from the Combines.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: The Hug Tower explods in the end.
  • Supporting Leader: Henry Freeman.
  • Taking You with Me: The Dark Man attempts this on a massive scale when the humen rebels reach the Combine Tower. He activates the Self-Destruct Sequence and he and the Combines fight to the bitter end to keep the humens from reaching the abort button. Even when he himself is seemingly slain depending on whether or not you think he and the Brainwashed and Crazy Gordon Freeman are the same person, The Combines actually try to stop the rebels from retreating from the blast zone rather than evacuate themselves.
  • Teleporters and Transporters: "Gordon Freeman teleportaled to John Freeman and hit him with crow bar."
  • Time Skip: Hero Beggining starts an unspecified amount of time after What Has Tobe Done, and some events in between, such as John Freeman's marriage, the age of Henry Freeman and how John Freeman escaped zombie goast Gordon Freeman have not been clarified by the series' conclusion.
  • Title Drop:
    • "its time for me to live up to my family name and face full life consequences"
    • "Gordon Freeman is now these hands... i must kill the next boss and live up to full-life consequences!"
  • Took a Level in Badass: Henry Freeman was a grown man who still lived with his mom (or just a kid). Then he became the leader of a rebellion against the Combines.
  • Troll Fic: The saga was suspected by some to be this, as squirrelking's spelling got worse with each story. It was later confirmed to be as such as noted above.
    • For example, "wepon" is initially a simple misspelling of a word that he usually manages to spell correctly. A few stories later, and "wepon" pops up in all of his stories, often with fanfare.
    • Also, squirrelking uses the word "human" multiple times in Halo: Halos in Space. Yet suddenly, when Hero Begginings turns around, they're "humens"!
  • True Final Boss: The "next boss" shows up immediately after the final boss fell.
  • Unnamed Parent: Henry Freeman's mother is only referred to as Mom or Wife.
  • Vague Age: Henry Freeman's age is never specified.
  • Villain Ball: Information about The Next Boss' weakness can be found on the internet. Be careful what you post on Facebook, Next Boss.
  • Villainous Plan Inertia: Even when The Dark Man is slain, The Combine are still numerous and organized enough to not only defend the abort switch for the self-destruct button, but send out an army to stop Henry Freeman and the other humens from escaping the blast radius, forcing John Freeman to pull off a Heroic Sacrifice to keep them at bay.
  • Villain Teleportation: The Dark Man or rather, Gordon Freeman teleportals to John Freeman to fight him in "Free Man".
  • Voice of the Legion: A "big Combine army with lots of striders" collectively asks La RĂ©sistance what it plans to do. In a rare heroic example, the "people" later tell John Freeman they would rather fight than let him face the Combines by himself.
  • We Have Reserves: The humens send many people after the button in spite of some of them getting killed, only stopping when Combines come out of the "hug tower".
  • What Measure Is A Non Humen: John Freeman kills the zombie goasts and blows up their house.
    • But he does it so the zombie goasts will be at piece.
  • Wham Line: In "Hero Beggining": Combines leave my son alone!
  • Weaksauce Weakness: As John Freeman found out on the internet, the next boss' weakness is rockets. Bullets fired from teh gun, lazer guns, masheen guns, crow bars, and other wepons just won't work on it.
  • Word Salad Title: The "full life consequences" are alluded to several times in the story but never explained in detail.
    • This could be referring to Gordon Freeman's death, and John Freeman's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: After John Freeman kills the Big Bad of the second chapter, Gordon Freeman comes back to life as a zombie goast because "[he] got there slow". This may also be a Call-Back to the original, where Gordon Freeman jokingly says to get there faster next time.
  • You Will Be Assimilated: "You will be one of us!" yelled the dead zombie goasts.
    • Also, in Free Man, Combine Gordon Freeman plans to make John Freeman and Henry Freeman headcrab zombies.

The machinimas provide examples of:

  • Adaptational Badass: Djy1991's version depicts John Freeman as almost unstoppable in a 7-minute sequence not in the original fic.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Djy1991's version of Free Man contains about seven minutes of entirely added-in carnage, wherein John Freeman meets and then kills a bunch of Combines, hijacks a bioflyer, throws a freight train, meets and then kills GLaDOS...
  • Adaptational Villainy: The Dark Man uses Eli Vance's model in Gaz6231's take on Free Man, in spite of Eli Vance being a heroic character in the games.
  • Ascended Extra: Whilst in the fic, John Freeman is a well established character as Gordon's brother, the use of one of the generic Resistance NPC models from Half-Life 2 to depict the Saver of Humens in the machinima makes him appear more like the random self-insert OC he actually is.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The next boss.
  • Big Damn Heroes: John Freeman in Hero Beggining.
  • Big "NO!": Averted, Gordon's "NOO!" is quite small, especially in the dramatic reading.
    • Played straight in Free Man when Combine Gordon Freeman angers at John Freeman in the Gaz6231 version.
  • Big Red Button: Everywhere. One of which John Freeman pushes with his face.
  • Body Horror: Tell me the sight of the Gmod models bending in ways that humen joints don't allow isn't creepy.
    • It's hilarious.
  • Brick Joke: At the end of Free Man, we see many of the characters who died in the series as angels on their way to Heaven, including the pants that were dead in the first FLC and fellow scientist cow-orker Jimm.
  • The Cameo:
    • In the Djy1991 version of Free Man, Spider-Man, the Sniper, Ronald McDonald, The Dancing Banana, Bill, Zoey, Francis, and Louis and even BILLY MAYS appear for sight gags, there ought to be a list of Cameos, you know that?
    • Characters from other Valve games are members of La RĂ©sistance.
    • Also, Dr. Hax near the end of the story. He isn't the final boss because only his head is big, and his eyes are intact.
    • Finally, also in Djy1991's Free Man, Gordon Freechman's fellow scientist coww-orker Jimm and bad guy from the game from his other half-life fanfic adaptation Quarter-Life: Halfway To Destruction are seen rising to heven with everyone else. And bad guy from the game is still doing his isotop holding pose.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: John Freeman lifts a train of its tracks and throws it into a ravine with his bare hands. Not the engine, not one of the train cars, THE ENTIRE TRAIN.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: The Combine "Science" that they put into Gordon Freeman is portrayed this way, as cybernetic implants that make him evil.
  • Dance Party Ending: The DJY adaptation of Free Man, set to a Voice Clip Song courtesy of furriesinablender.
  • Decomposite Character: Likely accidentally, due to ambiguous wording; in Gaz's version, The Dark Man is a separate character from Gordon Freeman, who they were most likely supposed to be. This results in The Dark Man disappearing halfway through the plot.
  • The Door Slams You: John freeman knocks on a door. Gman kicks it open and sends John Freeman flying for hundreds of miles.
  • Driving Up a Wall: In the ICTON video John Freeman's motorcycle randomly drives up a cliff face at one point after a passage is finished being read, purely for Rule of Funny.
  • Everything Fades: Henry Freeman's mother in the Djy version.
  • Evil Costume Switch: In the Djy version, Gordon Freeman, following his conversion into The Dark Man, gets a black and dark gray version of his HEV suit, in addition to the Combine Science on his head.
  • Finger-Twitching Revival: John Freeman after he crashes the dropship into the train in the DJY adaptation of Free Man.
  • Flight: John Freeman, for little obvious reason.
  • Funny Background Event: Loads in the Djy series, in fact they're popular in pretty much all GMod machinimas.
  • Guns Akimbo: John Freeman in the Djy adaptation.
  • Must Make Amends: John Freeman disturbs the eggs on a tree while test-firing the laser gun. He puts them back home safe, but the machinima disagrees.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: "Save humens, and Henry Freeman!"
  • Mythology Gag: In Djy's adaptation of Free Man, after the world's peaceful, Grigori appears next to a bear when they say the people and animals lived in peace, there's a reason that Grigori is described as an animal in the Adaptation: It was a Throw It In! gag in the original Garry's Mod, where Grigori was placed as an animal rather than an ally, to be fair, it wasn't that far from the truth.
  • Offhand Backhand: Pay close attention at around 1:45 in the Gaz6321 version of Free Man; John Freeman gets off a headshot variation.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: Two ways, the Djy machinima makes the whole thing comedic, given its narm and misspelling, good for gags. The Gaz version of Free Man manages to pull of the drama and make certain scenes work.(but it's still pretty funny!)
  • Rule of Cool: John Freeman seems especially fond of pulling off improbable motorcycle stunts (particularly of the backflip variety), especially if it kills zombies in the process.
  • Serial Escalation: Even more visible in the Djy1991 adaptation of Free Man, where, among other things, John Freeman pile-drives a train.
  • Shout-Out: Watch the music video at the end of Djy's adaptation of Free Man until you get to "the birds and the sun was almost down from the top of the sky" and look at John Freeman's pose. Remind you of a certain other God Mode Sue?
    • A possible one is when the Combines are said to be "too strong and big", echoing a similar line from an infamous botched translation of Star Wars Episode III, known as "Backstroke of the West".
  • Spit Take: For Djy's video:
    "STOP THE HUMENS!"
  • Stylistic Suck: Some of the animations at the end of the Djy adaptation reveal that Gmod is capable of subtle and realistic movement — but watching character mods flail around wildly is more funny and reflects the poor writing of the source material.
    • Djy's version also invokes a bit of this: this is one of the few scenes where John Freeman's face doesn't contort sporadically.
  • This Is My Side: GLaDOS attempts to invoke this in Djy's version. Doesn't take.
  • Tube Travel: How John Freeman gets into GLaDOS's chamber in Djy1991's version.
  • Uncanny Family Resemblance: The Gaz6231 videos use the same model for Henry Freeman and John Freeman.
  • Visual Pun: The Gaz version has several of these.
    • So does Djy's version.
    • Gaz and Djy both do. Ex: BEAR HANDS!
    • "The pants were dead."
    • John Freeman yelled from the top of lungs!
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: It isn't clear what happened to The Dark Man in the Gaz version of Free Man, lending evidence to the theory that he and Gordon Freeman are the same.
  • Wimp Fight: When Gordon fights the final boss in Djy's version, the Garry's Mod models just flail at each other.
  • "YEAH!" Shot: The Djy adaptation of Hero Beggining provides the current page image for that trope.

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

Top

But This Is Our House

John Freeman feels sorry for the "zombie goasts" but kills them anyway.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (18 votes)

Example of:

Main / WhatMeasureIsANonHuman

Media sources:

Report