[SFM] The Freeman Show

Found this edit on discord of the truman show and a million ideas of how to relate it to half-life went through my head so I just went for it.

[Augustborne]

“How’s it going to end?” Perfectly encapsulates the half life franchise, we’re all waiting on that 3rd installment

[TotosDev]

We always ask "where is Gordon?"
But we forget to ask "how is Gordon?"

[quarterlydime]

The Release of HL:A seems to have awoken this interpretation of Freeman's character, of a man who's seen more than he should've. Where Freeman was originally envisioned to be a vessel for the player, he has become a standalone entity, one that people feel this immense sadness and empathy for. He's been through a lot. And imagining what Freeman is thinking when he witnesses Black Mesa's destruction, the subjugation of humanity, or getting unwillingly abducted by a space god-- hypothesizing the psychological effects this could have on a man of rationalization like a theoretical physicist is horrific, yet fascinating. Poor Gordon.

[Mrkabrat]

Both Truman and Gordon have their lives planned out by something or someone moving the strings behind the scenes, so it fits. The million dollar question is; while Truman managed to escape it, how will Gordon attain his freedom?

[Delta_k]

Community’s thoughts on Gordon freeman before hl Alyx: Silent psychopath

Community after half life Alyx: A broken man sent into an unwinable battle looking for any source of hope.

[doomguy_vr]

This hits way too hard. You can just feel all the emotion Gordon has gone through, and you *really* feel it.

[LieutJAM]

I could imagine Gordon having that type of personality before the black mesa incident, it suits him since everybody in sector c knows him quite well. 😊

[eeveepeasy]

To Gordon, he just went to work one day and never stopped. I doubt he even felt the passage of time while kept in stasis by the G Man, to him it just been a few straight days of sheer unimaginable hell.

[alienhoboszombies]

2000s: Gordon doesn't talk because he's a lone wolf badass that lets his guns do the talking

2020s: Gordon doesn't talk because he has PTSD

[DesolateLavender]

I like this interpretation of Gordon. A man who can barely go on, but knows, for the good of humanity (and Black Mesa, or the Vorts, or Alyx...) he *has* to. So he keeps going, hoping that in the end, he will get a frankly overdue rest. It makes Half-Life that much more melancholic.

[SirPembertonS.Crevalius]

I'm convinced Gordon's endeavors, the xen, and the combine forces are all at play just so GMan can get something good to watch.

[DarkSideKyp]

I see a lot of comments about how we’ve gone from “haha funny FPS man doesn’t talk” to empathy for a fictional character who’s seen, done, caused, and witnessed more death, destruction and chaos than anyone ever should in a hundred lifetimes. One thing that stands out to me is the sheer carnage that constantly plagues Gordon, whether caused by him, done to him, or when he simply happens to be there.
“We owe a great deal to Dr. Freeman, even if trouble does seem to follow in his wake.” —Dr. Isaac Kleiner
That line, along with events from the series, shows me that the events that constantly beleaguer Gordon are both unintentional on his part, and also completely out of his hands. He’s simply a piece in a greater game of interdimensional chess, one where his role wasn’t one he chooses, but one that is assigned to him by the ones playing. His life went from being late to work one day to inadvertently causing untold death and destruction by an action he didn’t directly take, but was simply carelessness from the other scientists combined with the worst possible time for the resonance cascade to occur, and while it was completely out of his control, he’s indirectly responsible for the Xen invasion and all events afterwards. Even in Black Mesa, his colleagues are killed in horrible ways all around him through events that are seemingly his fault, but he has no control over. For instance, the elevator that crashes near the start of HL1. He had no way of preventing it from falling, but it happened as soon as he arrived. He’s cursed with the fate of watching everyone else suffer while somehow eluding death himself.
“The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.”
—The Gman
Gordan commits his fair share of violence, but (aside from some… questionable… possible player choices in HL1) he’s never the aggressor. He doesn’t go out of his way to cause trouble, but he can’t escape it. It’s all around him, and it permeates every element of his environment.
To me, if there is ever a true finale to Half Life, the only way it can end is with Gordon’s death or permanent disappearance. Everywhere he goes, discord follows, and the only way that can truly come to an end is with the removal of Freeman. He simply can no longer exist in a world that still finds resolution. It was never his fault, and he never asked for the burden he faces, but it’s placed upon him nonetheless, and something has to give before the series can truly find an end.

[darkranger]

A crossover that actually contextualizes the source material.

*Engineer voice* Good work!

[bulletbillstudios]

The combine reaching his hand out in fear at Gordon before he kills him is really special because it’s from his perspective, we forget combine soldiers are just modified humans, Gordon looks regretful too because he doesn’t want to be violent, Gordon just wants the fighting to stop

[wselander]

I don’t think people realize how GENIUS this video is. Perfectly recreated iconic shots from the Truman show. The shot with the G man as Truman’s lost dad. Brilliant.

[SomeoneNamedTygget]

For Gordon, everything from the beginning of Half Life 1 through to the end of Half Life 2 episode 2 happened in less than a week. At the start of that week he was just a random scientist doing his job, and by its end he had carved his bloody way through aliens and the military before being catapulted 20 years into the future to see how the domino effect he set off led to the invasion of Earth and the deaths of billions. Yet despite everything that's happened to him and everything he's done, he still fights on.

[PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth]

Absolutely LOVE the concept that Gordon was a Truman-esque loveable dork before the resonance cascade. The sort of enthusiastic guy who'd volunteer to test out an HEV suit in an exciting new experiment.

[holtm]

For some reason, I never thought about the mental aspects of Gordon's adventures, and this animation captures a whole lot of them.
Maybe the ending where Gordon ends up on a beach unable to help the resistance, after all the time he has been involved in the events after the catastrophe, it could be somewhat of a relief for him

[LeSkyBoi]

This shot 0:28 . This single shot of G-man strangely humanizes the character for me. Such a look on his face could either read curiousness, or perplexation. He could be watching the scene that played previously with Alyx and Gordon, observing the human nature of the two. Or he could just be thinking on something his benefactors have shared with him, and is trying to figure out how to make his next move.

I don't know why this one stands out so much for me. I guess I've never seen such character out of G-man outside of his strange behavior or mischievous grin.

[thememewithwords]

Memes aside this is genuanly heart breaking. It makes me feel bad for Gordon. That it was a normal day at work, then a Resonance Cascade happened and then his life was ruined. He had to kill innocent soldiers that didn't know what their task was. He had to kill Vortigaunts that were forced by the hand of the Nihalinth. And he even had to kill combine who were also forced into a task. All the people and creatures Gordon killed had no other choice. And now, wherever Gordon is now, he has to live with that. Forever.