Headscratchers / Freeman's Mind

• Why did Ross change the sound-effects on the guns? Did he do it based on his conversation with Nojah and Sarahon about editing minecraft sound-effects? I mean I know he explained it and that Daniel was the one to do it, but why would he decide now would be the best time to change it after almost 50 episodes?
  • He's gone back to using the normal sound effects.
  • He didn't. His assistant that edits the sounds did it at his own initiative. Ross was suitably impressed and made a poll on his website asking if he should keep it for future episodes, use the normal sounds, or the third option was to show Ross cat picture. While the new sounds got majority vote, it was a very close poll, so he opted to use the original sound effects.
• In one of the earlier Shephard's Mind episodes, Shephard is knocked unconscious and starts mumbling about Freeman, but at that point he didn't know that Freeman existed.
  • He could just know someone else with the same last name.
• How is Gordon in such good shape physically? At best he's a borderline alcoholic who experiments with drugs and sometimes skips meals in favor of junk food. At worst, he's a full-blown alcoholic and druggie whose diet seems to mostly consist of hard liquor, vending machine snacks and whatever meals he steals from his coworkers. His (lack of) work ethic also makes it rather doubtful he keeps up an especially demanding physical regimen. Yet somehow he's able to navigate the gigantic maze/obstacle course that is Black Mesa, all while wearing a (presumably at least somewhat heavy) metallic hazmat suit.
  • His job involves spending a lot of time in that suit, his personality and comments about his past suggest a lot of zany antics and he vocally takes pride in how he's much more physically fit than the rest of the scientists. It's not that improbable that he either works out a lot or has spent so much time wearing the suit that he's able to do a lot of physical feats with or without it.
    • That, and we all know that one asshole who can down all the drugs and alcohol, function exactly the same, and wake up ready to go the next day. Gordon is that asshole.
  • Not sure whether you're trying to say that Gordon ought to be really fat or really skinny, but either way he may have just lucked out in the genetics department. For example, obesity actually runs in both sides of my family, so even though I'm the only guy in my family willing to eat salads, I'm still a 460lb obeast. Meanwhile one of my coworkers is stuck as a scrawny beanpole no matter how many Bigmacs he rams down his gullet.
• I could buy Gordon not remembering Barney or the other Black Mesa staff, but why would he not recognize Dr. Breen, his own boss?
  • Breen is probably several bosses above Gordon. He's the administrator for the whole facility. Gordon probably only cares about his immediate department.
  • He doesn't even remember Eli, the person he first meets after the Resonance Cascade and apparent best friends with Kleiner. Gordon only respected, and even remotely cared about for that matter, Kleiner because they're like two peas in a pod. Well, that, or he's scared of Kleiner, which also fits into how he refers to the man.
• I'm sure Ross has cleared this up in the past but I don't know where to look. Anyways, is Freeman talking? I mean, it's called Freeman's Mind, so I assume every word you hear is just Freeman's thoughts. Yet whenever he's near an NPC, he addresses them as if he's vocally speaking to them.
  • It's implied, to some degree, that Freeman took some head trauma when the Resonance Cascade happened. He doesn't quite realize when he's talking to himself or speaking aloud anymore. Or maybe he was always like that, and that would explain why he has no friends.
  • I'd say it's well established now that he's speaking aloud. His voice is muffled when he goes underwater and he remarks that he "talks a lot" to Alyx. In Episode 10 of the second series his talking keeps him from hearing all of Breen's broadcast, even though it mentions him by name.
    • Conversely, In episode 3 Gordon talks about the "you're in the barrel" guy as though said guy wouldn't be able to hear, even though he's standing right in front of him. This wouldn't make sense if Gordon was talking aloud, given that, whenever Gordon talks with an NPC, Ross usually tailors his lines such that whatever the NPC says comes across as a direct response to whatever Gordon just said. Thus the only explanation that makes sense is that Gordon goes back and forth between thinking to himself and talking aloud. Besides, someone like him would probably be smart enough not to talk too much when in a building infested with monsters.
• Why did he edit out the zombie noises from Half-Life 2? Too much Nightmare Fuel?
• Why does Gordon pronounce "bosons" so weirdly in Episode 35 when giving his non-sequitor particle physics lecture? Given how much effort Ross has put into making Gordon's physics jargon accurate, I find it hard to believe this was an oversight on Ross's part.
  • Gordon probably just picked it up from a professor in his own education who had a speech impediment or just insisted on pronouncing it that way, and by the time he was commonly talking with people who pronounced it correctly, the habit was too ingrained.