I think Gordon is the G-man, for the following reasons.
First, in Half Life 2 and Episode 1 and 2, G-man's funny speech patterns are mainly oriented around figures of speech that are a little ironic for someone who's not bound by time and space. Things like "Gorden, it's.... time... to do your work." I don't think he's alien, he's just outside time and space, but because of his human origins can find humour in a play on words.
Second, if you crank the graphic settings on Half Life 2, make sure the the aspect ratio is correct, and compare the G-man with, say, the cover picture of Gordon Freeman on the Orange Box, they look IDENTICAL. I'm not saying that's proof positive, but the character modelling in Half Life 2 was incredible and groundbreaking, so I don't think it's likely to be an accident.
A lot of people interpret him as completely amoral, open to the highest bidder as Breen says, and certainly he seems it in the original Half Life, but there's more going on than just that. I get the feeling that there's a lot of politics going on in whatever interdimensional order the G-man answers to, and that's what limits the extent of the G-man's involvement.
It doesn't make sense that Gordon would be working with the human resistance if his contract was genuinely open, because what do they have to offer? I think there's some sort of capitalistic bounds within which the G-man is working, but just as businesses make political and conscience calls sometimes when the people running them want to, so I think G-man has chosen to align himself with the Earth resistance.
Finally, the reason I think he will turn out to be a future Gordon is because Gordon has become a character that looms so large and has been through so much, yet he's so aloof, never saying anything, responding to Alyx's clumsy come-ons, etc, and he's spent all this time bouncing around causality - how else would you get the sort of strangely detached, but ultimately principled behaviour that would lead the G-man to drag Gordon out of time and help the resistance?
My view of the Half Life causality is that certain events are inevitable, or there is only the choice of unpalatable options, e.g. there was eventually going to be an interdimensional breach leading to the invasion of Earth, and certain characters are eventually going to die. The G-man didn't interfere in the Black Mesa incident because it was as good a way as any for the eventual breach to take place, but he did snag Gordon so he could be used in a later process of liberation. He doesn't save certain characters because their deaths are important - but maybe he guides their deaths into positive outcomes, e.g. by warning them about 'unforeseen consequences'. He doesn't care about individual deaths because individual humans are mortal and his perspective is outside time - his system of ethics centres around the fate of species.
So, if I were writing the series, the G-man would be a future G-man who has been working for this interdimensional body for... long... enough to advance in its ranks and become a manager of agents. Because this body is not bound by causality, they can actually make future Gordon his own handler. Or you could say that without the G-man, Gordon would have been stuck in Xen at the end of Half Life, where he eventually gained the powers that made him the G-man
As for those who think he's working for Aperture Science, I get the feeling Aperture is no longer extant. The Borealis, and the Enrichment Centre, both seem abandoned. I think GLaDOS and their portal technology will come into the game, but all the employees will be long dead.
I should point out that I came to this as a solid conclusion after a complete replay through Half Life 2 and episodes 1 and 2, without the influence of anyone else on the internet, so obviously it's not such an unnatural line of reasoning if other people have thought it too.
First, in Half Life 2 and Episode 1 and 2, G-man's funny speech patterns are mainly oriented around figures of speech that are a little ironic for someone who's not bound by time and space. Things like "Gorden, it's.... time... to do your work." I don't think he's alien, he's just outside time and space, but because of his human origins can find humour in a play on words.
Second, if you crank the graphic settings on Half Life 2, make sure the the aspect ratio is correct, and compare the G-man with, say, the cover picture of Gordon Freeman on the Orange Box, they look IDENTICAL. I'm not saying that's proof positive, but the character modelling in Half Life 2 was incredible and groundbreaking, so I don't think it's likely to be an accident.
A lot of people interpret him as completely amoral, open to the highest bidder as Breen says, and certainly he seems it in the original Half Life, but there's more going on than just that. I get the feeling that there's a lot of politics going on in whatever interdimensional order the G-man answers to, and that's what limits the extent of the G-man's involvement.
It doesn't make sense that Gordon would be working with the human resistance if his contract was genuinely open, because what do they have to offer? I think there's some sort of capitalistic bounds within which the G-man is working, but just as businesses make political and conscience calls sometimes when the people running them want to, so I think G-man has chosen to align himself with the Earth resistance.
Finally, the reason I think he will turn out to be a future Gordon is because Gordon has become a character that looms so large and has been through so much, yet he's so aloof, never saying anything, responding to Alyx's clumsy come-ons, etc, and he's spent all this time bouncing around causality - how else would you get the sort of strangely detached, but ultimately principled behaviour that would lead the G-man to drag Gordon out of time and help the resistance?
My view of the Half Life causality is that certain events are inevitable, or there is only the choice of unpalatable options, e.g. there was eventually going to be an interdimensional breach leading to the invasion of Earth, and certain characters are eventually going to die. The G-man didn't interfere in the Black Mesa incident because it was as good a way as any for the eventual breach to take place, but he did snag Gordon so he could be used in a later process of liberation. He doesn't save certain characters because their deaths are important - but maybe he guides their deaths into positive outcomes, e.g. by warning them about 'unforeseen consequences'. He doesn't care about individual deaths because individual humans are mortal and his perspective is outside time - his system of ethics centres around the fate of species.
So, if I were writing the series, the G-man would be a future G-man who has been working for this interdimensional body for... long... enough to advance in its ranks and become a manager of agents. Because this body is not bound by causality, they can actually make future Gordon his own handler. Or you could say that without the G-man, Gordon would have been stuck in Xen at the end of Half Life, where he eventually gained the powers that made him the G-man
As for those who think he's working for Aperture Science, I get the feeling Aperture is no longer extant. The Borealis, and the Enrichment Centre, both seem abandoned. I think GLaDOS and their portal technology will come into the game, but all the employees will be long dead.
I should point out that I came to this as a solid conclusion after a complete replay through Half Life 2 and episodes 1 and 2, without the influence of anyone else on the internet, so obviously it's not such an unnatural line of reasoning if other people have thought it too.
