Why does no-one ever talk of the G-Man?

[Sir Sponge]

Something I was thinking about while playing through Black Mesa and considering the Half-Life franchise as a whole, is why does nobody ever discuss the G-Man, despite several key individuals being aware of him?

G-Man is seen speaking to scientists in Black Mesa, and soldiers in Opposing Force, and we learn in Episode Two that he was the one who delivered the crystal that triggered the resonance cascade. Furthermore, he whispered the words "prepare for unforeseen consequences" in the ear of Eli Vance, just before the disaster occurred. The G-Man confirms he personally rescued Alyx Vance from Black Mesa for his own nefarious purposes, but Eli's wife, Azian, died.

Gordon Freeman is evidently aware of the G-Man since he receives direct instructions from him. Now obviously Freeman is a silent protagonist so that's why he never speaks out loud, but there's no indication that he ever even hints that the G-Man is out there. Why? Here's my theories.

The G-Man can operate on a "subconscious" level. This is seen in Episode Two where he gives instructions to Alyx Vance to deliver a message to Eli. She doesn't seem to recall the G-Man at all from the Vortigaunt surgery. When at White Forest, the G-Man's silhouette briefly flashes on the TV screens, and Alyx enters an almost catatonic state as she delivers the G-Man's message. Immediately after saying it, she looks dazed, confused, and bewildered, as if she doesn't know what she's just done. It's possible that the G-Man's instructions to Freeman also work the same way. He's carrying out the G-Man's instructions on an unconscious level, while not being directly aware of his motives and instructions.

This brings us to Eli. Eli seems to be the only one who is consciously aware of the G-Man (aside from the Vortigaunts, some very high-ranking elements of the Combine, and the Nihilanth), yet he never speaks to Gordon about him until Episode Two. Why? It is interesting that Alyx was saved while Azian died. In my head-canon I have the G-Man offering Eli a choice: he can save Alyx, or Azian, but not both. If he doesn't choose one, they both die. It's a very G-Man thing to do, to offer a Hobson's Choice like that. Has the G-Man threatened Eli in some way, that if he ever divulges his awareness he will take Alyx, kill him, or worse? This is what he does in Episode Two, he starts to open up to Gordon about him, and then the G-Man does indeed detain Alyx at the end of Half-Life Alyx.

In Half-Life Alyx, Eli was also aware of the G-Man, as he fiercely tries to stop her entering The Vault after realising what is being held inside.

What do you think?

[topdog864]

I think Dr. Breen was also aware about the Gman. He had to have known about the Xen crystal in the events of HL1/BM and who really gave it to him sense he is the administrator after all. At the end of HL2 Dr. Breen is offering to employ Freeman and is willing to take away Eli and Alyx to discuss it. Even though Eli knows about Gman we don't know if Breen would've known Eli had known. Breen also acknowledged Freeman's limitless potential and how he is "wasting it". This is a contradiction to what he says earlier in the game. In Nova Prospekt we hear him say something around the lines of. "By any standards he should be just a ordinary man, why is it so diffucult to get him!" But when Freeman enters the Citadel he mentions how he is not surprised whatsoever. This to me seems like he knew all along.

The Combine obviously knows about the Gmans existence as they detain him in Half Life: Alyx. I think its safe to assume that when Gordon Freeman was released from stasis the Combine Advisors would've let Breen know what he was up against if he hadn't known already (But if the combine know Gman employed Freeman is another mystery for all they know he could've died in Xen with the big explosion at the end). But by the shock of Breen's face when he first saw Freeman in HL2 its safe to assume from his reaction he knows a little more than just the legend about Dr. Freeman.

Just my 2 cents.

I think its a stretch but I've heard theories that Gman and Breen were working together the whole time and that Breen was well aware of the events to come after the Resonance Cascade and how he would be Earth's Combine puppet.

Again that part is a big stretch but I do feel a great argument could be made about Breen knowing about Gman.

[Sir Sponge]

Originally posted by topdog864:

I think Dr. Breen was also aware about the Gman.

Oh that's right, I totally forgot about Breen's awareness of him! As well, Breen says to Freeman "did you realise your contract was open to the highest bidder?" implying he knows that in this case the G-Man was likely the "highest bidder" (whatever that means in this context). Breen is clearly just a human, however it's likely he either had some kind of arrangement either with the G-Man, or with his Employers.

Breen was the one who negotiated the surrender with the Combine, however, Earth was only aware of the Combine for 7 hours before the surrender - the 7 Hour War. Just *how* could Breen have found a way to communicate with them within 7 hours unless he was already aware of them or the arrangement to some degree?

But more broadly my question is why does nobody who is aware of the G-Man ever talk about him - e.g. Eli Vance? Alyx was quite clearly under some kind of subconscious programming, but Eli wasn't, as he warned Alyx not to enter the Vault, and also in Episode Two he nearly faints at the mention of "unforeseen consequences". Has the G-Man threatened to take Alyx if he ever talks about him? (Which would tie into what he does at the end of Alyx).

I know out-of-universe, Valve are just making up this story as they go along and retconning things to fit plot holes here and there, so obviously they likely had no plan Eli would be aware of the G-Man when they were, say, making Half-Life 2.

[Krotow (LV)]

As I remember, G-man was agent of intergalactic governing entity who found Earth good enough as honeypot for Combine. Because Combine as parasitic and greedy by nature pissed off them and was decided to eliminate Combine by luring them into Earth and containing them here until further actions for Combine elimination will be prepared. Thus all circus with crystal in anomalous materials and rift in spacetime which crosslinked Earth with Xen. In order to do that, G-man gave Dr. Breen an order which he couldn't refuse.

[gaming56798]

the reason people don't talk about him is because he knows who joe is.

[Wehzy]

Originally posted by gaming56798:

the reason people don't talk about him is because he knows who joe is.

Yikes...

[Krotow (LV)]

Originally posted by gaming56798:

the reason people don't talk about him is because he knows who joe is.

Who is Joe by the way? This name didn't light any bulb for me.

[bad wizard]

This is an old discussion, but I think I know why Eli only mentions him in episode 2 - this is around the time he figures out that Gordon isn't here or acting off his own accord. Obviously, for 20 years he probably thought Gordon was dead after hearing what happened to him - there's no reason to believe that he survived getting out of Xen other than with some hope and elbowgrease.
Then boom! Freeman's there. and he is confused as hell! But Gordon doesn't voice this, of course, but it might be on his face. Eli took a good, but short, while to puzzle this out, for all we know he could've theorised a lot of this in his time being captured by the Combine after seeing how young Gordon looked, plus considering the circumstances of Black Mesa. It made sense. And finally in episode 2 he got an opportunity to mention it, without the chaos of HL2.
Eli keeping his knowledge a secret from anyone in "the know" is... pretty reasonable, considering what happened. Blaming Black Mesa and subsequently the Combine all on a magic alien in a suit is stupid - plus the decision he had to make for Alyx. He might've lost all he built. Figuring out later that Gordon likely had direct contact and involvement with Gman is a good reason to lightly bring Gman up and test the theory. He entailed he wanted to talk more after confirmation, and now after HLA they have EVEN MORE reason to talk about it; let's hope we get some more!
In terms of other characters? They might not be aware he's anything more than an important (and very offputting) business/government man. Why would they? Gman *is* in sort of a disguise.
And, of course, Breen is just vague with his intentions as always.

[CrowRising]

While the G-Man seems shady and nefarious, his actual intentions and motives are unconfirmed, and all we ever hear about it from him is that he acts on behalf of entities that he refers to as his "employers", which is likely to just be the closest word in English to what they are to him for the sake of easier understanding. My personal speculation is that the G-Man is part of and/or working for a race of beings that rival the Combine in power and influence, but that actually became aware of and established contact with humanity first. The events of HL1 seem to have been triggered intentionally so that the G-Man could observe for individuals that meet certain qualifications, and he ultimately decided that Gordon met these qualifications the most, though for what purpose remains to be seen.

As a result of this whole ordeal though, the Combine went on to invade Earth, complicating things for the G-Man and his "employers". He seems to operate mostly from the shadows as opposed to the Combine's more direct approach to doing things, and so the process of fighting back against the Combine seems to be a more slow and tactical one. Eventually Gordon was placed back into the world in a particular time and place to act as the G-Man and his employers' trump card against the Combine, likely as a last resort as his "recruitment" at the end of HL1 probably had nothing to do with the Combine, or at least likely wasn't meant to involve fighting them on Earth.

The G-Man acts very disgruntled by the Vortigaunts wrestling control of Gordon away from him, but that doesn't necessarily mean his intentions are evil. He views Gordon siding with them over him as a betrayal, and probably views himself as being the "adult" that knows the bigger picture of what's going on compared to Gordon being a "child" rebelling against those who know what's best for him. A parallel to Dr. Breen's mindset, except less likely to be pure ego and delusion. Nonetheless, the G-Man seems to have given up on influencing Gordon directly, and instead has to opt for indirectly influencing him by giving him another incentive to pursue particular goals. How this ultimately pans out remains to be seen as that chapter of the story remains unreleased.

As for how this all ties into why nobody talks about the G-Man in-lore, I don't think that it's necessarily a matter of individuals not remaining consciously aware of him. Rather, I think it's because he's really good at sneaking around and keeping himself low key. He doesn't have to worry about getting flashy with Gordon because Gordon doesn't speak. Likewise, he doesn't seem to do anything too flashy when anyone who could later go on to talk about it can see him. As such, he doesn't really strike anyone as noteworthy. Eli Vance doesn't have a reason to bring him up to Gordon during the brief time they are together in HL1, and by the events of HL2 it's been so long that he can be forgiven for not remembering him. To anyone else, he's just this shady looking guy in a suit who can sometimes be seen observing from a distance, hardly worth making a serious mental note over compared to everything else going on; the Resonance Cascade in HL1 and the total enslavement of humanity in HL2. He's just low key and unimportant enough that nobody really has all that much of a reason to talk about him, and anyone who does ends up being unable to share that information in any noteworthy way because of him later, such as (if you consider Opposing Force canon) Adrian being effectively trapped in limbo for eternity until the G-Man is able to find a use for him.

He's basically the exact opposite of the Combine. The Combine are as high key as it gets, invading whole worlds in short order to add to its collective. The G-Man on the other hand acts more from the shadows and achieves goals in much larger time spans through more careful, subtle, and deliberate means. It's fair to say he likely goes to great pains to make sure that almost nobody has a reason to talk about him and anyone who somehow does isn't able to for whatever reason.