Why Nihilanth is BAD?

[Goneja]

He was trying to protect his people from human invasion like Indians trying to protect their people and their land, what we do is a genocide, so why Nihilanth is BAD in your opinion?

[Teeheehee14]

Well, technically the combine (from half life 2) originally enslaved the nihilanth and the vortigrants homeworlds, along with many other alien species homeworlds. The combine, after taking over a planet, would turn their native species into synths like the strider from half life 2, and then suck dry all of the planets natural resources and supplies intill it was a dry husk of itself. To escape this fate, the nihilanth, vortigrants, and all of the alien species in the game escaped to xen. Ironically, the sole nihilanth, which was the last of its kind, in the game enslaved the entire vortigrant species. He later created the alien grunts in the game, along with the controllers to, well, control the vortigrant slaves. This means that just like the combine, the nihilanth made artificial species to serve as slaves for him and enslaved others. Time jump to near the events of the game black mesa had explored xen, they never "invaded" it, they were more like explorers of xen. So they were more like Lewis and Clark exploring american west than like the british colonists assimilating the native american population. Anyway, most of the xen-earth interactions resulted from gordon freeman putting the crystal in the reactor thingymabob (forgot what its called). This "ripped" a little gap to xen. The nihilanth took advantage of this 'forcing' the gap much larger than it was to invade earth.

[Goneja]

Originally posted by Teeheehee14:

Well, technically...

So... Bad or not bad? :/

[Procyon]

Originally posted by 卂几卂乂卂Ꮆㄖ尺卂丂:

Originally posted by Teeheehee14:

Well, technically...

So... Bad or not bad? :/

Bad because there was a badder enemy

[Vissova]

Nihilanth was forced into Xen alongside Vorts to escape the Combine. Out of desperation he holds open the accidental rift between Earth and Xen because they need a new home and are willing to kill for it. They have very few resources for survival and are probably very sick of humans exploring Xen and taking them.

I think of him as a tragic villain, not necessarily "good" or "bad". He's a victim of the Combine and his death (and the subsequent extinction of his species) seems to be an important part of the grander scheme of things which is unknown to us.

[Goneja]

Originally posted by Vissova:

I think of him as a tragic villain

Villain? That always means Bad... Ok, that settles it. Nihilanth is Bad and we are Good. Thank you, everyone.

[lorinsyn]

Originally posted by 卂几卂乂卂Ꮆㄖ尺卂丂:

Originally posted by Vissova:

I think of him as a tragic villain

Villain? That always means Bad... Ok, that settles it. Nihilanth is Bad and we are Good. Thank you, everyone.

not always

[Cat]

I don't know, maybe him teleporting aliens that mutilates and mutates humans to take over has something to do with people thinking he's bad. But nah, maybe he's just misunderstood.

[Engamer01]

Originally posted by Cat:

But nah, maybe he's just misunderstood.

This is implied, but not specifically stated in Half-Life 1 / Black Mesa. Nihilanth wanted to keep the Combine at bay and thought going to Earth would be the ticket to stopping any possible Combine advancement. However Nihilanth decided his forces had to attack Earth to get control over it which kickstarts both military action on Earth and the start of Gordon Freeman's fight for survival.

Once Gordon learns of Nihilanth, he is sent to Xen to deal with the alien boss. Nihilanth shows no reason even though he tries to tell Gordon that G-Man is using the scientist. Gordon kills Nihilanth opening Earth to both G-Man's will and the eventual Combine assault prior to Half-Life 2 while Gordon was in G-Man's stasis.

If Nihilanth didn't sic his forces in hostility to Earth, Gordon eventually wouldn't have need to fight him to the death and Earth might have stayed protected from the Combine. But Nihilanth made both the lives of Earthlings and the Vortigaunts bad. So Nihilanth had to be eliminated though this brought great peril to Earth as a collateral.

[Vissova]

Originally posted by 卂几卂乂卂Ꮆㄖ尺卂丂:

Originally posted by Vissova:

I think of him as a tragic villain

Villain? That always means Bad... Ok, that settles it. Nihilanth is Bad and we are Good. Thank you, everyone.

That's incorrect. The antagonist in a story can have any reason for playing that role, but it doesn't always mean they're explicitly evil. I perceive Nihilanth as simply doing what he thinks he has to for survival. He's taking extreme measures because he knows he's the last of his species and he's literally backed into a corner by the Combine.

[lorinsyn]

Originally posted by Vissova:

Originally posted by 卂几卂乂卂Ꮆㄖ尺卂丂:

Villain? That always means Bad... Ok, that settles it. Nihilanth is Bad and we are Good. Thank you, everyone.

That's incorrect. The antagonist in a story can have any reason for playing that role, but it doesn't always mean they're explicitly evil. I perceive Nihilanth as simply doing what he thinks he has to for survival. He's taking extreme measures because he knows he's the last of his species and he's literally backed into a corner by the Combine.

see this guy gets it

[I Have Schizophrenia]

dont reaply to this guys meesssge hes a combain >:(

[I Have Schizophrenia]

and im pretty sure abt that

[Procyon]

Originally posted by Engamer01:

Originally posted by Cat:

But nah, maybe he's just misunderstood.

This is implied, but not specifically stated in Half-Life 1 / Black Mesa. Nihilanth wanted to keep the Combine at bay and thought going to Earth would be the ticket to stopping any possible Combine advancement. However Nihilanth decided his forces had to attack Earth to get control over it which kickstarts both military action on Earth and the start of Gordon Freeman's fight for survival.

Once Gordon learns of Nihilanth, he is sent to Xen to deal with the alien boss. Nihilanth shows no reason even though he tries to tell Gordon that G-Man is using the scientist. Gordon kills Nihilanth opening Earth to both G-Man's will and the eventual Combine assault prior to Half-Life 2 while Gordon was in G-Man's stasis.

If Nihilanth didn't sic his forces in hostility to Earth, Gordon eventually wouldn't have need to fight him to the death and Earth might have stayed protected from the Combine. But Nihilanth made both the lives of Earthlings and the Vortigaunts bad. So Nihilanth had to be eliminated though this brought great peril to Earth as a collateral.

How did Nihilant try to warn freeman?

First answer my question, then tell me if I understand the situation.
1) Gman wants nihilant to be killed, so he can give xen to his employers.
2) with no nihilant, Gman & co, want the combine on earth as part of their schemes to defeat the combine using this planet as a last battlefield.


So the same can be said about the gman. Nihilant tried to escape the combine, while the employers tried to defeat them; both through genocide.

[Engamer01]

Originally posted by Procyon:

How did Nihilant try to warn freeman?

First answer my question, then tell me if I understand the situation.
1) Gman wants nihilant to be killed, so he can give xen to his employers.
2) with no nihilant, Gman & co, want the combine on earth as part of their schemes to defeat the combine using this planet as a last battlefield.

So the same can be said about the gman. Nihilant tried to escape the combine, while the employers tried to defeat them; both through genocide.

Nihilanth implies G-Man doesn't have Gordon's interests in mind so after Gordon fails to stop his assault, Nihilanth no longer has any reason. The boss throws everything he has at Gordon only to fail in the end.

1) Right. G-Man says his employers wanted Xen and Gordon was the one that gave the unknown employers Xen on a silver platter.

2) It's implied the Combine were wanted on Earth, but there are no concrete confirmations. During Half-Life 2, the Vortigaunts interfere with G-Man's operations, so Gordon was free to do what he saw fit which was joining the fight against the Combine.

Since G-Man had no control over Gordon, he tried waiting to see if there was a more favorable outcome, but it never came. Cue Half-Life Alyx and its ending. G-Man terminates Gordon's employment in favor of forcing Alyx to take Gordon's role with G-Man. Alyx is put into stasis in hopes she'll do what Gordon didn't in a future Half-Life game. This ends up retconning the ending of Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

I can't really speak of the employers because there aren't any more information about them. We only know they drive G-Man and in turn the events in the Half-Life series.

[Norwee]

Nihilanth is bad because he’s an slaver overlord that tries to invade another dimension and enslave them too.
It’s later revealed he’s doing this because the Combine has taken over his world but that doesn’t make him good.
Just because an evil empire wrecked his land doesn’t mean Nihilanth was good to begin with.