Half-Life's Extraordinary Lost Episode | Epistle 3 | Full Half-Life Lore

[@Skyrionn]

Should The Borealis return in the next potential Half-Life game? Be sure to share, comment, like or dislike to please the algorithm gods ☺ Subscribe for more Half-Life content!

[@CrispierHalo]

kind of has to bc of episode 2s ending i just wonder if well get the hla ending with eli or the ep 2 one with alyx

[@CrispierHalo]

@Denis nice glad it is changes it up a little

[@drlostcause4427]

Yesss and also they better be putting some cave Johnson’s pre recorded messages. Kind of wanna listen this man speak shit about the process of making borealis

[@denifnaf5874]

Quarter life 2.5

[@chewy99.]

Perhaps. I think it probably should, but many many things would be different with Alyx’s disappearance and being taken by the g man, and the main focus should really be trying to get her back with Eli.

[@johnbadman3340]

I like the idea of Gordon returning to the Black Mesa tram, keeping his memories of the combibe and being able to stop the experiment. It really hammers home the idea of how impossibly powerful the combine are, that the only way humanity could beat them is to never encounter them at all.

[@Top10AnimeBetrayals]

Jesus. That's a dark idea

[@Crustle1]

Or Gordon deciding to let the resonance cascase happen again, and again because it was such an epic journey!

[@FlorianEagox]

@@Crustle1 Gordon: "I need to perfect my run!"

[@FlorianEagox]

I sort of don't. We already know Black Mesa was visiting Xen before the cascade (the observation equipment on Xen, the cages with creatures, etc), why would they have reason to belive Gordon, or, if they did, who's to say they wouldn't do again later on or some other research facility wouldn't stumble upon it. Kleiner seemed like he knew exactly what could happen if the experiment went wrong especially since he was concerned that they were running at 110% or whatever it was, and Black Mesa admins very well could've known exactly what they were doing. It also saddens me to know what would happen to the Vortigaunt comrades and the world the Nihilanth was trying to save.

[@Skyrionn]

One of the best comments I've read today.

[@antondavidovic3996]

Alyx: "Dammit Judith, we're gonna kamikaze this ship into the Combine's homeworld and destroy them!" Judith: "No we should study it!" Gordon: "..." Alyx: *Shoots Judith* "Gordon, we've got to honor my father's dying wish, we're gonna sacrifice ourselves to stop the Combine and destroy the ship!" Gordon: "..." Gman: *appears* "come with me now..." Alyx: "K bye lol" Gordon: "..."

[@Skyrionn]

"K bye lol" 😂 😂 😂 Accurate.

[@alexdietrich7975]

Honestly though. I think epistle 3 could use some tweaks always, I think HL2 could use some tweaks even, but it gave me some good closure and I'm happy even if we never got an official sequel, good on Mark all those years back.

[@carso1500]

@@alexdietrich7975 the writer himself admits that it was very likely that the story was going to shift dramatically as development goes forward and more people get to give their opinion and add their ideas into the game, that is how game development is its less a one man job and more a team effort with everyone adding their little part for the story this was just the first idea, the one that kickstarts everything, even the original idea for half life 2 was drastically diferent to the final product

[@coolgamer553]

alternate gman: Rise and shine, Ms. Vance. Rise and shine. Not that I wish to imply you have been sleeping on the job. No one is more deserving of a rest. And all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until...well, let's just say your hour has come again. The right woman in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So, wake up, Ms. Vance. Wake up and smell the ashes. yo dad ga-

[@joegosztolai3884]

BLOODY TYPICAL... WOMEN!

[@HW-sw5gb]

Gordon after arriving back on the tram platform in Half Life: “You will NOT BELIEVE the day I’ve had”

[@mrmr_zoomie]

“God that was the toughest couple of weeks I’ve ever *BEEN* through!”

[@HW-sw5gb]

@@mrmr_zoomie Did we ever see Gordon get some sleep? Or was it just one very long day for him?

[@imnolongerasking5933]

"Gordon? I thought you went into the testing chambers. They're starting the experiment without you..."

[@inendlesspain4724]

"There is no inter-dimensional alien empire waiting for us to accidentally make a hole in our reality through which they can get in and conquer us, Freeman, you're just being paranoid"

[@Drunken_Hamster]

Gordon: >Arrives back on tram >Looks around >Opens the console >Types "kill" >Presses enter

[@brosephdudebro2537]

It's not just that the Combine had built a dyson sphere, but since there were no other stars to be seen, it's assumed they'd built spheres around EVERY star.

[@Ilovethelord508]

Type 4 and 5 civilizations.

[@OviedoJ11]

And even if they have only built no more than one sphere, the explotion of the Borealis would be like a joke for them, considering the size in perspective.

[@Pen_Slinger]

Or perhaps more unsettling, they built it around the LAST star in their universe and that's why they're so hellbent on traveling to other universes. To survive, even if it come at the expense of other races.

[@IndigoWhiskey]

dind ding ding we have a winner. it's the painful irony of the dyson sphere. by the time you have the tech to build one if you can't generate unlimited energy either through a loophole in entropy or by engineering it a middle finger you are already dead the physics just has to catch up. population in the trillions before you even touch space megastructures bare in mind. who knew being a galaxy spanning war mongering species would literally require you to outgrow that veiwpoint in order to not die trying it. pretty hilariously efficient great filter on giant assholes though you have to admit.

[@therealtimmyiy]

and, it's not just that the Combine built dyson spheres around every star, the fact you can no longer see the light from those stars, implies the Combine has had dyson spheres around every single star for possibly thousands, if not millions of years.

[@Buttersaemmel]

imagine that ending of half-life 3. gordon getting ported back to the tram and it's all like the beginning of Half-Life. you go into the break room but this time you turn the microwave off taking out the food and hand it to the scientist therefore prevent the combine timeline from happening. it was all the time about the microwave that in an butterfly effect triggered the resonance cascade and players knew it!

[@chaoticchaos6684]

not the ending we want but the ending we need

[@Skyrionn]

true true. It's a bittersweet ending I guess

[@gamepad3173]

@@Skyrionn That may have just given me an idea. for a machinima series

[@RevolutionaryOven]

Honestly, that sounds like something valve would do lmfao

[@gamepad3173]

@@RevolutionaryOven indeed so. and it's something that I may end up doing as well for a Machinima series instead of Gordon resting with Alyx (Half life 2: Episode 3 The Closure), he ends up back at Black Mesa.

[@BradleyZS]

I like to imagine Gordan keeps his memories but has to keep doing the same thing over making the speed runs canon.

[@coltforceplayer]

We don’t speedrun through Ravenholm

[@ali_m_]

"I want to do it again, I need to perfect my run!"

[@Eternal_Tardis]

Reminds me of a Doctor Who episode called Heaven Sent. In that episode, the main character was stuck in a time loop while still keeping his memories. It took him over 4 billion years to break out of that loop

[@BossKnight]

I mean yeah, play through the original Half life and try to stop the experiment, once he’s on the tram and late to work he’s missed most chances to stop it, His only hope would be to run through it again to try and stop it the second time

[@moonscript4675]

Always felt like the Borealis would need a wacky funny Aperture AI on board to really make it feel like a piece of Aperture technology

[@giuseppepintus2516]

I love this idea

[@norwegianboyee]

I was so hyped thinking we would see portal turrets and stuff in an canon half life game.

[@kertchu]

@@norwegianboyee I mean there was portal turret graffiti in half life alyx

[@alexspasojevic5158]

love that idea. It could also have a personality (something similar like glados) where it would also be aware of its eventual demise and try to persuade Gordon and Alyx not to destroy it. Maybe even take over the ship somehow and try to prevent them from going to the Combine world and live on its own. Ideas and possibilities are endless with this series to make it even more incredible. I just hope the Valve developers finally get it in their heads to finish it and combine the two games (Portal and Half Life) already...

[@lunatic_nebula9542]

@@alexspasojevic5158 Dont. Touch. Portal. please

[@polt3rgeist407]

I feel so sorry for Gordon. Everyone just left him.

[@Skyrionn]

When I was putting all of the visuals together, I did feel bad that Alyx basically abandoned him

[@drlostcause4427]

@@Skyrionn but hey, we still don’t have the dialogues so who knows what alyx will say to Gordon

[@Mentallysubnormal]

except the vorts they always got his back

[@mattcy6591]

Like the ending of little nightmares, Gordon sits there alone to eventually become the G-man

[@David56740]

The vortugants didn't

[@GlassyDusty]

~ Half-Life Alyx spoilers ~ The similarities between the HL:A ending and Epistle 3 are interesting. They both achieve a similar outcome, with Alyx taken by the Gman and Gordon acting independently. It's also interesting to compare the Gman's timeline manipulations with the supposed time-related powers of the Borealis.

[@Skyrionn]

I hadn't thought about that. I do have my own theory about the G-Man and his employers connection to the Borealis. Maybe one day I'll share it.

[@GlassyDusty]

@@Skyrionn I'm not really proposing that the Gman's actions in Alyx have anything to do with the Borealis, just that there is a thematic parallel, but I'd be interested to hear that theory. On my first Alyx playthrough as I was approaching the Vault, I did wonder if it might be the Borealis in there, the design kind of reminded me a little bit of that concept art from back in 2008.

[@21kiwi24]

Gman is cave johnson

[@MaxCE]

I think now when eli goes to the Borealis. he will act with logic and realize destroying it means destroying their last hope

[@MaxCE]

unlike alyx who acted upon emotions and just sought to destroy the ship

[@НиколаДимитров-к9д]

Alyx going along with G-Man and leaving Gordon to die alone without saying a word seems at least to me very unlikely and out of character.

[@moonman5496]

I think her arguing with the G-Man but eventually realizing she can’t take gordon, then eventually leaving like that; sounds more like her

[@НиколаДимитров-к9д]

@XORRE What does that even mean?

[@billybobjoephilcorncobtiptopge]

@XORRE explain please

[@cheeseboigaming6610]

@@НиколаДимитров-к9д according to the definition, mullato is an outdated and offensive term to describe “a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one black parent.” So basically, XORRE is a racist

[@Skyrionn]

Message deleted. Racism will absolutely not be tolerated.

[@daepikpman1204]

I love how Gordon's in an invisible chair during the thirdperson Eli death cutscene, that's smarts

[@Skyrionn]

A nice trick by Valve

[@nicodemus69269]

@ThyPeasantSlayer I don't think the Combine knew about the Borealis before the Advisor killed Eli (the Advisor gained the information about the ship from Eli's brain)

[@alan_7390]

@ThyPeasantSlayer Perhaps that is Gman's goal in kidnapping Alyx, that Eli doesn't destroy the Borealis and uses it in order to rescue her.

[@Randy.Bobandy]

What does this even mean?

[@L1mJahey]

I remember reading the letter back when he posted it and feeling such emotion at the end. But, like you, closure was the main thing I took away from it, at least we had an answer, which lots of us had been waiting for by then. So, I was able to move on, after years of waiting for something, anything really. And that was that.

[@Skyrionn]

We share the same thought really. It was something the fans needed. We may get true closure in the future if we do get another game though.

[@L1mJahey]

@@SkyrionnPart of me hopes for it, it would blow my mind if we had Gordon return. Ps. Thought the ending where you end up back at Black Mesa was a great idea too, sort of like Battlestar Galactica "this has happened before and it will happen again" style. Thanks for the effort you make by the way, it's appreciated :)

[@Skyrionn]

Yesss. Also a Battlestar Galactica fan. We love to see it

[@Cat_in_The-Box]

@@Skyrionn Battlestar lore videos when :D

[@Buttersaemmel]

@@Cat_in_The-Box that's the curse of Half-Life: Alyx for me. now the hope for Half-Life 3 or something like that is resparked...and you yet again don't know if it ever will be fullfilled.

[@xxslowgooglexx4365]

Wow, Alyx straight up says “let’s kill ourselves”. Gets cold feet and abandons Gordon to a fate SHE caused and gets to live. Thank god this isn’t cannon I would’ve been furious.

[@stephengrant4841]

Yeah fans would have hated Alyx. Only way I could see it working without fans turning on her is if GMan has control of her (kinda like he does in Episode 2 when Eli tries to talk about GMan) or if he tells her he can bring Eli back to life like in Alyx.

[@Tycitron]

I thought in the story it was more like she was in a G-man induced trance, unable to fully think for herself. Not that she willingly went with him.

[@OSTChuo]

Hearing the hl music in the background and having a visualization of what could happen rather than animating everything in your mind is just so relaxing. Please make more.

[@Skyrionn]

There's more every 2 weeks :D I'm thinking of doing the Half-Life 2 Beta at some point too!

[@gamejoker977]

During the entire video, I was imagining how the visuals you created would translate to a AAA rendition. Especially the clips where you showed the ship flashing through different dimensions. The visual design of all of it would certainly be wild if we ever were to see it come to fruition. Great work making visuals to help follow along.

[@Skyrionn]

I pray that one day we get something that shows it properly. It could happen one day. Thank you for watching the video. I do appreciate the support!

[@Buttersaemmel]

i imagine it as not flashing trough multiple worlds but more like you look outside and see all the different worlds and times at once. transparent layed over another fading in and out thusfore showing all things at the same time but still always just place a single one at a time in focus. alien worlds, abundanded places and even cities with the borealis sorrounded by humans or combines not beeing aware of the borealis as it's at the same time in a place while it also isn't thusfore making it possible for you to see all around but impossible for individuals outside to see or even "touch" the borealis at all. also the "copies" of gordon and alyx: walking around where they where and also where you later go to. beeing ghostlike figures and not touchable and also unaware of you. seeing the GMan he's the only one not seeming ghostlike and the only one of whom no copies are anywhere around.

[@Gnidel]

There's a game called Project Borealis that adapts Epistle 3 into a video game. It's still in development.

[@bionicleapple1254]

Entropy Zero 2 has a very interesting depiction of the Borealis

[@ImperatorRadec]

20:35 So that's what it is. The whole timeline regarding Marc Laidlaw's "dimensional war" and the whole essence of Black Mesa is just Gordon living this pattern over and over again. He can't stop it properly, otherwise G-man arrives and keeps it going forcefully. We know that alternative timelines and dimensions occur through the use of manipulation either artificially or through means beyond comprehension. Remember, this is the same formulae for the choice at the end of Half Life - You choose to work with G-Man, or you don't and suffer what ever perilous consequences that happen afterward. The Nihilanth specifically states we'll never know the truth before its demise. i guess Marc's real dream would be either: --- 1. Gordon goes through Black Mesa, still late to his job, passes Barney, starts his abysmal journey down the facility, gets his HEV and shoves the Crystal into the machine. As soon as he gets teleported via the Cascade's energies - boom, the credits start rolling for the end of the game. --- 2. Gordon does the same above, but he does the more simple thing... he doesn't touch the crystal. He physically stands statue inside the insertion point, being heckled by the science team to shove the crystal in, but Freeman refuses to move. Eli Vance immediately cancels the experiment after a slight argument behind the science team since the machine starts to malfunction because it's working past its threshold. It destroys itself without causing a great Resonance Cascade. That may unlock a secret ending where the events of Half Life can no longer take place as the destruction of the Spectrometer is the breaking point to which this was made to happen... but I'm not sure, since the G-Man is basically god and will try to force its acceleration. Whether that will be the case is up for debate regarding Marc's ideas, but the question is what was Laidlaw's intention with the G-Man at the end. Will he have directed him by attempting to interfere? Though I merely speculate, I believe this to be Marc's truest intention that he never, ever got to see with his own eyes. And that in the end hurt, maybe broke him.

[@Isaacfess]

That would be a great Episode 3, multiple endings the player chooses which one they want.

[@DevinDTV]

"maybe broke him" ok calm down buddy

[@WindiChilliwack]

Makes me even wonder, maybe Adrian Shepherd can pull the role since he seems to be interfering his plans pretty well, the "rebel" type essentially on 'Gman's play.'

[@blackagent4754]

One thing wrong here; gman isn't "god". He has employers and he can't stop the combine.

[@lenakan8990]

I read Epistle 3 recently and was quite shocked. The ending kinda overwhelms you with uncertainty. It was so sad that Alyx simply... left him alone to self destruct and G-Man just ignored him. He didn't deserve being treated like that and I didn't really like Alyx's action in this. It was a very interesting story and another great video.

[@Skyrionn]

I did feel bad for Gordon when making this, even though it's just a game haha

[@evangelicae_rationis]

Tbh, that doesn't fit with Alyx's character neither

[@bocahdongo7769]

It's just a draft, if you even wanna called it They were tons of revision from different mind to make it better, or worse for the supposed game

[@MahNamJeff]

@@bocahdongo7769i can feel it because the timeline of why the borialis vanished makes zero sense with the established lore because if they would have left during the seven hour war, word would have never gotten out because glados destroyed everyone moments later when she was activated and thus would lead to word getting out being impossible, meaning it couldn't have left during that period.

[@BossKnight]

@@MahNamJeffto add, glados killed most scientists in aperature a week before the resonance cascade, which would give them barely any time to actually send it off depending when the 7 hour war happens, Maybe it was doug rstman lol

[@Caffin8tor]

I think Gordon deserves a happier ending than the original epistle 3 or the proposed time loop. He's been through as nearly as possible to a literal Hell. Looping him back to Black Mesa seems cruel, memories intact or not.

[@Skyrionn]

I think it is almost bitter-sweet. If he retains his memories, he is able to stop the incident from ever happening, but those he has saved would not know of his sacrifice.

[@lucianganea3034]

@@Skyrionn But if Gordon tries to stop the Resonance Cascade, wouldn't GMan interfere?

[@KalashVodka175]

@@lucianganea3034 But that could be awesome! Imagine if, at the end of half life, you break the loop and thus enter into a conflict with the G-Man, final boss of the game Idk how gordon could defeat him since the Gman seems to control space and time but maybe with all his knoweldge he’d find a way Still that kinda ending would leave the combine empire and xen untouched free to continue their expansion.. but it may also provide opportunities for Gordon Freeman to stop them later on with his accruef knoweldge

[@TunisianTesticleTickler]

@@KalashVodka175 If that happens I would imagine somehow Gorden teams up with the nihilanth warning the god like being of the horrible fate that awaited the both of them the nihilanth knowing that invading earth would be a mistake and that the gman has a big role in this and would seal his fate and doom any hope of him and his armies hope of escaping would team up with the people of earth and use his massive power to close the portal and maybe even deal with G-man with his power combined with the vortigaunts.

[@alejandropulidorodriguez9723]

@@KalashVodka175 gordon speaks for the first time and consequently destroys all of time and space

[@emporer15]

The time loop would've been an amazing ending. Gordan rides the tram back through like he did all those years ago, but just before the chamber, he grabs his crowbar from a toolbox left out and goes to the anti-mass spectrometer. From the observation room above, G-Man smirks and tells Eli those famous words "Prepare for unforeseen consequences." Then a scientist, probably Kleiner, asks what Gordan has in his hand. G-Man and Eli turn to the window, and G-man's smirk turns into shock. Gordan stands with a smirk and his crowbar next to the Xen crystal, which he promptly smashes once he knows G-man sees him. The science team's outraged, but their combined anger can only measure an infidecimal fraction compared to G-man's. He promptly goes to the door, but turns around to personally give his parting words to Gordan over the intercom. "This changes nothing...*Mr* Freeman." With a glare and a tie straightening, he leaves without another word. The science team's spitting out predictions of firing, retraining, and worst of all, budget cuts. Eli looks back down at Gordan, but feels a strange mix of confusion and relief. Gordan looks back down at the half-broken crystal, and stabs it with the crowbar, looking a bit like Excalibur. Gordan turns to leave, victorious, but the game camera focuses back on the crystal and the crowbar, which from a certain angle looks like the lambda logo. Cue credits.

[@MaxCE]

like gman can't just, terminate freeman. like he always does in hl2 when you break smth

[@Hjalmargaden]

Shivers 🥶🥰

[@BossKnight]

⁠@@MaxCEit would be before their contract

[@wilhufftarkin8543]

I would have felt compassion for this Breengrub. First af all, he wasn't the true Breen anyway, so this creature wasn't even responsible for Breen's actions, and secondly, Breen had no choice. If he didn't do what the Combine told him, they would have just killed him and chosen someone else.

[@Skyrionn]

Good points there

[@HamguyBacon]

actually the combine would have wiped out humanity without Breen, only reason they kept some alive was due to trying to learn how to use the portal tech.

[@klidthelid8361]

If you read the BreenGrub account messages you’ll know that breen was actually trying to help the resistance

[@ThisShitIsDumbAndYouKnow]

Would you kill a clone of hitler?

[@miloradowicz]

​​​​@@ThisShitIsDumbAndYouKnow if he asked me to, yes. No reason to leave him alive, and too dangerous as well. Making him suffer? What good would that do anyone? There's literally no moral dilemma here. Alyx was just being irrational and downright dumb.

[@CrabGamingTF2]

Holy crap I think the visuals in this might be your best ones yet. Eli's burial stood out especially for me!

[@Skyrionn]

It took SO LONG to do the Borealis bits but it was worth it. Eli's burial was the first scene I filmed for this. I knew exactly how I wanted it to look.

[@coltforceplayer]

Sure it wasn’t as good but at least it gave people a clear understanding, but wasn’t the Borealis in some sort of chasm?

[@burningjdm]

Personally i think epistle 3 still had a bit of an open cliffhanger ending from what was written or rather not written either way i think from the open endings the most plausable is the one where gordon goes back to black mesa since the ending of almost nothing happening to the combine and the worlds theyve invaded seems a little.. *depressing* . However i do hope that with the new directions alyx's ending gave us we will get something fresh or atleast something at all.

[@Skyrionn]

I believe that the direction Alyx goes in, we will get something. Hopefully true closure.

[@kevina1988]

The thing is, it's not just Earth that's in revolt, it's the whole empire. Humanity's stance against the combine inspired many worlds across the empire to take up arms and rebel. There is hope

[@xXx_Regulus_xXx]

Epistle = Episode, so it's probably a cliffhanger by design same as Episode 2 was with Eli's death. If they used the Epistle 3 story, they would be setting the stage for someone to maybe explore the Combine Dyson Sphere and discover more about them.

[@Bran_Flakesx7]

Half Life 2 Ep:3/HL3 = Epistle 3 version where you end up back at Black Mesa on the day of the Cascade. **gordon looking around** [WELCOME TO THE BLACK MESA RESEARCH FACILITY!] **Fade to black** Half-Life 3/HL4 = Preventing the Cascade is going to be a lot more difficult than planned for..

[@BossKnight]

The worst thing is episode 3 was meant to be the end of the combine arc as a whole, and gordon and gman’s arcs, Meaning half life 3 was meant originally to be a fresh start

[@KAYBUGHEROINE]

its an absolute treat when you release a long video like this, i love your content dude

[@Skyrionn]

Too kind. I really appreciate that.

[@dxfan18]

I like the idea of Gordon waking up on the tram to Sector C, there was a series of Half-Life mods called the Timeline trilogy where that was the ending, they should be on moddb and well worth a play.

[@Skyrionn]

Thank you. Adding that to my list of games

[@INFILTR8US]

Leaving Episode 2 as a permanent cliffhanger is one of the biggest acts of incompetence by a game developer in the history of game development.

[@mrunitforge]

I honestly don't know. HL 3 was probably in production but was scrapped at some point. At this point I don't know if it could live up to the hype and maybe that's why it will never be made. But a part of me want to believe since we got HL:A they can make HL3

[@epikorange5983]

*Closes fairytale book* Like that's ever gonna happen

[@damienfinnegan8272]

@@Jeff-fe8rf It's probably going to come out with some new AI or Graphics. probably not VR as Valve said that they won't return to it anytime soon

[@Helix142]

@@mrunitforge half life 3s development has started and got cut alot of times actually even stuff in HLA

[@quietsamurai1998]

@@Jeff-fe8rf Hell, you could probably argue that it's the best marketing stunt for the entire Half Life franchise. Who knows how many people played their first Half Life game because they were curious about the cliffhanger so many people are all worked up about? I know that's why I first played Half Life 2.

[@colonelautumn5788]

I like to think that once Gordon got left, a lone man, dressed in a set of grey urban camo, combat boots, a PCV vest, gasmask, and helmet. An HECU marine. A person who was once his enemy, walks up to him, then just holds out one hand, saluting with the other, and says these lines "Hey, my name is Corporal Adrian Shephard. I haven't seen a suit like that in a while."

[@mmgaming-pu7zt]

i just realized Shephard isn't mute but we didn't cleary know what is his voice like except the "SIR YES SIR" at the beginning

[@mrmr_zoomie]

@@mmgaming-pu7zt In Blueshift Barney talks we just can’t hear him, could potentially be the same for Opposing Force.

[@coltforceplayer]

@@mrmr_zoomie yeah like when u interact they’ll be like sorry freeman u can’t come here in the first game so Gordon was like “can I come thru brudda”

[@Arcgateway]

Time travel plot is always a death of meaning as writers unimaginatively write themselves into a corner.

[@mr_noobx3009]

The ending of Gordon going back in time to when the combine didn't invade yet is one of the best endings ngl

[@shanemahler6830]

I like the idea of gordon on the tram, perhaps rhe Gman saying something like 'Gordon, you did great things but its time for you to retire, ive hired someone younger', then before the Gman can kill him the vortigans interfere and the last we see of him is living in the village from Xen farming or something like that.. Great video!

[@Skyrionn]

That's an interesting idea!

[@ziongite]

Marc left for an obvious reason, a lot of the original team he worked with already had left by that point, and Valve wasn't even focusing on Half Life anymore, you can imagine how he would feel at that point. In fact I think he even included this within his leak story thing, while pretending to be Gordon teleported forward in time after the game, he said that Gordon no longer recognises his colleagues anymore as they have changed, and that Gordon's role diminished and that it's now up to those new people to lead the resistance, clearly this was Marc speaking about his own self here. Something about this makes me feel lonely and sad also, imagining the team in their peak during 1996-2006, it was probably so fun for Marc at this time. But people grow old and have families and often their creative spirit dies away and many leave the company, while Marc's creative spirit lasted a bit longer and he tried to stay there to continue the franchise more, while totally new people came into the company that he didn't know and Gabe just steered the company into the direction of different games these newer people wanted to make. Just imagining it makes me feel a little depressed, I can't deny.

[@BossKnight]

Nah they were working on HL3 pretty consistently, but they couldn’t get something to match HL2 and ep1 and ep2 with a technological improvement, and the story intended to end and have a fresh start for Hl3, I imagine a bigger issue was probably the stress and burnout rather than shifting gaze, hell Portal 2’s gel was meant for a episode 3 iteration, Also laidlaw was consulted for alyx so he didn’t like break from the series entirely, Laidlaw also said his departure was his age and his tweet kinda implies he may have felt he was maybe unintentionally limiting the newer people? Or just they viewed things differently than him for how valve should go, I imagine what you mentioned had something to do with it, but this is what he said

[@jbecket42]

This was fantastic. Thank you for your dedication to the lore. We all mourned and rejoiced when Epistle 3 dropped. I love the idea of GF being warped back to BM prior to the event. We were always GF. We could have changed the outcome or not. Great work.

[@Skyrionn]

Glad you enjoyed it! I do love the whole series. I love the idea of a timeloop.

[@levisearls360]

honestly, I absolutely hate how this ends. its just so anticlimactic and I feel like this could never truly bring peace and rest to the Half-Life story. I'm just so glad that this is not cannon, but also sad that Half-Life will never be finished.

[@bocahdongo7769]

It's just a simple draft There are also other unknown idea from other people that we will never know for the supposed game, for better or for the worse

[@Ayaya787]

Thanks for your Half Life series!! I'm grateful that Marc Laidlaw was able to give us Epistle 3. I always loved the lore and watching through your recaps felt like a great netflix series :)

[@Skyrionn]

Thanks so much for the donation. I really appreciate it!

[@taranciucgabrielradu]

Honestly the ending where Gordon comes back to the very beginning of the series, but keeping his knowledge of everything that had happened, is golden. Just close the game with him reappearing on the tram, and acknowledge somehow that he still remembers everything. That's it. Leave it to "what will he do now that he's here with this knowledge?".

[@Hollandvancewright]

Fans: “Valve isn’t even making games anymore, we’re never getting HL3” Valve: Releases the greatest VR game to date, and it extends Episode 2’s massive cliffhanger with an even bigger one… They’re definitely making it, I heard rumors a few years back that they were planning to make 3 open world. They already have the borealis lore, and how cool would it be if the player chooses to use or destroy it? They let us choose the ending to HL, but imagine if the whole second half of the game was different based on your decision. It would have twice the replayability the previous games already have, and we all know that’s saying something

[@BossKnight]

Lets hope HLX goes well

[@djentspace6030]

Absolutely brilliant, definitely the best lore video concerning the details of epistle 3 and portrayed so well!! Well done mate great video.

[@Skyrionn]

Thanks a ton! I really appreciate that! Thank you for watching it :D

[@EresTremulent]

I understand Epistle 3 is just meant to be an outline of how the story would conclude, but seeing it visualized here, I kind of start to see why Valve had difficulties putting this into something that is engaging and innovative gameplay-wise. You basically only have two main areas and a lot of exposition, with no real final battle of sorts. I find Alyx's conclusion to be a bit unsatisfying, but I guess so is Barney's and Shepard's. It is all about Gordon, after all. I would have liked some more background to the G-man as well, although I understand that the mystery surrounding him is what makes him so appealing.

[@ThePreciseClimber]

I mean, Episode 3 didn't NEED to be innovative. Episodes 1&2 (outside of the whole episodic release thing which has been done in the past; e.g. SatellaView Zelda titles) weren't particularly innovative. It was just more of Half-life 2 with new set-pieces and locations. They should've starting worrying about "innovation" AFTER Episode 3, when they would've started working on Half-life 3.

[@skyty0]

I just found out about your channel a few days ago and finished a binge last night! Good timing

[@Skyrionn]

Welcome aboard! Perfect timing. Stay for a while :)

[@_roko_]

I like to believe that Gordon doesn't have any of his memories after waking up in black Mesa. To me the point of half-life is its linear story we are never actually in control of what happens always being manipulated by some greater force, be it the gman, combine or the writers themselves. The name "Freeman" is ironic in that sense since he is anything but free, merely a tool to be used by greater forces.

[@Skyrionn]

It's sad to think that there is a possibility that this is just a circle of events that keep repeating themselves

[@eddie_terreno0621]

I've always had this idea of ​​how to solve the Half life saga (I hope you like it): practically we reach Antarctica, we find the borealis and we understand that it can travel in space-time and manipulate it. So we get the idea of ​​using his technology to create millions of copies of the ship and send them all to the heart of the world of combine (in short, a bombing on a universal scale). It's a suicide mission but we can't do anything else; it is the only way to save humanity and all other alien species subjected to combine. When the ships hit the dyson sphere of the combine command center it creates a kind of space-time singularity, in which the whole reality seems to collapse. When we wake up, we find ourselves in front of the gman, who congratulates us on the work done by finally explaining to us what his task is: practically he is part of an interdimensional alien species which, fearing the invasion of the combine, decided to send various missionaries in the various universes in order to find those who could help them fight the combine. They take on similar appearances to the species in front of them (this explains why we see him as a businessman). Then it gets dark again and we wake up on the tram in Black Mesa. However, when we cross the structure we discover that no experiment is planned for that day and that there is no lambda team. The timeline has been changed and the combine have been erased from existence (only Gordon remembers), but just as the gman watches us from a tram that is walking away smiling, we see Eli with his wife and daughter in his arms walk away and greet us. and Barney invite us over to his house for that beer he owed us.

[@gamershaggy3098]

Kind of liked your version of the story

[@5K00O]

Honestly, the borealis is probably the main reason why the story changes and how there are alternative endings. A good weapon

[@thedkboyz]

As someone with severe ADHD not being able to read more than a few lines at a time, this was really nice since I've been following the story of HL ever since I was a wee lad. Huge thanks for the video king

[@Skyrionn]

I'm glad I could help and thank you for watching!

[@variegatus4674]

are you scottish? :d

[@debbieedgell2618]

The 1st alternative ending is the one that I like the most just due to Gordon being able to stop the incident from ever occurring and remembering all the horrific things he'd seen throughout HL1 and HL2 and then explain the things that he'd seen to the science team that conducted the experiment as well as Eli, Kleiner, Barney and the other doctor, and then to Breen and the rest of Black Mesa and then getting rid of the crystal and then maybe never experimenting on any further crystal samples obtained from xen to avoid the cascade and then seven hour war events from happening and everything else, and then word of what Gordan had explained got out about the combines existence to the world would be interesting and explain what their technology looked like and what their army is.

[@BossAttack]

I actually prefer the ending put forth in Epistle 3, as bleak as it can be. I feel it is more in the spirit of Half-Life than an alternate "time-loop" ending which is basically just a creative way of going "it was all a dream." Gordon realizing the full might of the Combine before striking a miniscule blow and then being transported back to Earth at some indeterminate future is just beautiful. The fight may continue, perhaps humanity can seal itself off from the Combine and protect itself for some time, maybe a few hundred years. Or the Combine just comes in full force and wipes us out in a bit. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. What does matter is we finally understand that sheer hopelessness of going up against such a force, we finally understand what it's like to come into contact with a truly alien force. We were never the savior, just an observer. Our part is over and we can just sit back and accept whatever happens.

[@lost4468yt]

I don't think The Combine are as powerful as made out to be. For starters, we know they seriously fear G-Man, and whoever it is he represents. I also don't think their invasion of Earth was anything but luck. For starters, they weren't able to get to Xen. And secondly I think the only reason they were able to overrun Earth and win the war was due to their scale, and due to the portal storms all over Earth. The portal storms were not created by The Combine but by G-Man. We know that the portals gradually subsided, and the Combine were able to keep one open at City 17. I don't think that The Combine were able to control the Portals very well, and we know for a fact they couldn't portal in-universe - something humanity had come up with. We also know: The Combine were seemingly only able to send through synths that could exist in the conditions of Earth, all of the synths seem like lifeforms that would develop either in our universe in another location, or in a very similar universe. They were able to withstand the atmosphere and their metabolic processes work fine. But we don't see this with the higher ups. The advisors clearly aren't built to live in a world like this. It's implied they live in synthetic environments in places like the Citadel. When they do exist outside of the Citadel we know they need to go through a significant period of stasis plugged up to machines, before they can live in the world, and they seem like they can only remain outside of these for limited periods (not sure if confirmed lore wise). They also clearly still can't breathe the atmosphere after this, requiring augmented respiration, and seemingly augmented vision. Their telekinetic powers also don't seem as strong in my opinion and lack the ability to do fine movements, which is likely why they require the synthetic robot arms to perform any sort of fine task. They can't teleport locally, and their transdimensional teleporter they have control of in City 17 appears to require vast amounts of energy. Compare this with humans who have low power local teleportation, and the Black Mesa experiments in HL1 also appeared to be high power (requiring at least a large dam and likely energy storage), but nothing like the Combine require (though that could be the size of the jump). Also when it comes to being unable to do jumps in the dimension, remember they weren't able to penetrate Aperture Labs either as far as we know. GLaDOS was able to keep them back, despite the fact that Aperature contained dimensional teleportation as well, and not just that but the beginnings of time travel it seems like with the Borealis. It also appears that The Combine have a general lack of technological understanding of our universe. Their technology is largely just human technology scaled up. Again what I think happened is they just stormed Earth through the portal storm using synths they already had control of, and put their effort into creating human synths. By the time the portal storms stopped, the reason that they sued for peace was because they no longer had an effective way to transport enough materials here. They put all of their effort into City 17, and this is also why: They largely turned to on-world technology to manage it. If you think about it the vast majority of control is exerted through the Overwatch and a primitive AI to control them. Stalkers and some alien synths perform the vast majority of work. Even synth maintenance for e.g. Gunships etc seems to have been moved to being done in the Citadel. This would explain why the Combine overall seems to lack many resources and are trying to force everyone into a single or few locations (I suspect the name City 17 is labelled such to imply there's others, or the others were abandoned when the portals disappeared and they were no longer able to operate functionally), in order to still maintain firepower supremacy. They seem to have started to focus on weapons they can build in-world. Whether it's those trucks, or the Hunter-Chopper, or the Razor train (and human trains) using human train tracks. Their portal bandwidth seems to severely limited (it's worth noting that the human controlled portals to Xen were also heavily bandwidth limited), hence they're relying heavily on human synths, maintaining other synths on-world, etc. We also know they keep some of the Overwatch human partners alive, so it's possible they're even disabling the stasis field in certain locations to increase the number of Overwatch. To me this is the only reason The Combine agree to the deal with Breen. While it's clear the Combine find the Overwatch extremely capable (likely due to the social/team dynamics at play, which we haven't seen in any other Combine synth) to the point where we know they've been using them for off-world assignments, that's still very minimal and there'd be nothing to stop them keeping the Overwatch going without normal humanity. The Combine know they can't keep open all of the portals and that they're gradually closing, and the best they can do is keep the odd one or two open. It's possible this is because either they never knew how to open them at that scale in the first place, and that it was the resonance cascade (with crystal supplied by gman) and Nihilanth that opened/kept them open - or it's possible they're losing control of Xen in a separate war we don't know about, which is why they're gradually decreasing and becoming stranded. And finally we have the superportal that's created as City 17 is destroyed, the Combine choosing to use the smaller portal to send through a message, and the advisors then retreat chaotically rather than leave. This is obviously a last ditch attempt. I think it's what actually confirms that either the Combine lost the ability to create large portals at will, never could properly do it, or lost control of Xen. If they did have these capabilities then there's no reason they couldn't have just reopened a bunch (or even one) portal back to Earth, and crushed the remains of humanity. They wouldn't have been so stingy fighting off the rebels and so heavily guarding their last portal back to their homeworld. I don't think the Combine are all that powerful outside of specific worlds/parts of the multiverse. It's clear why gman detonates the nuke in HL1, to prevent the Combine from opening large portals back on this side, and to prevent them from understanding in-universe portals. Same as to Aperature. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if gman was related to the creation of GLaDOS, as we know she doesn't fit in well with the other established AIs in the human universe. She's so far beyond them it's ridiculous, yet she also has limits imposed that make her content in guarding the labs. I also think that again gman hasn't destroyed Aperture because now that time travel is most definitely canon, the Borealis and surrounding technology is also going to be needed. I think the law established at the end of Half-Life: Alyx will also be pretty key, in terms of a life for a life. In fact I think trapping the residual combine in our dimension is part of the g-man's employer's plan. I'm sure the Combine would have jumped to a large number of worlds from Xen, and this might also have been why in HL1 gman was so insistent that the crystal test must happen at a specific time (though it was delayed due to Gordon Freeman arriving late - we still don't know the long-term consequences of this afaik, if there are any, or if the delay was just to force the skipping of safety protocols). So the combine split up and invade a bunch of worlds, only for advisors and higher ups (unless the advisors are the lead race, though they seem more like a vessel and mid-high-level to me) to end up stranded all across the multiverse, and the home world to end up in chaos and revolt? Just a guess.

[@CaptPatrick01]

I've had a few ideas. Instead of Alyx shooting Mossman, their fight causes Alyx's firearm to fly off and slide towards Gordon (who was knocked to the ground from conveniently-timed turbulence), and you get to choose who dies. Kill Alyx for the bad ending where the Borealis is brought back to the resistance, who hope to utilize the teleportation technology, only for the Combine to find the safehouse and you are treated to a hopeless defense against escalating forces until Gordon dies and the multiverse is quickly brought under the heel of the Universal Union. Kill Mossman for the good ending which plays out as written in Epistle3. But with an addition in order to give the player time to contemplate their journey: A long, peaceful Dear Esther-style walk towards the mountains until Gordon comes across a radio tower where Kleiner and Uriah are waiting for him, and reveals that through the Vortessence many other civilizations throughout the cosmos saw the Borealis collide with the Dyson Sphere and saw it as an act of bravado, which had began similar uprisings like that on Earth to sprout up _everywhere._ And that one such group requests to land and meet with the surviving Black Mesa science team. But then the GMan freezes time and says with a hint of frustration in his voice that the resistance going galaxy wide had _complicated matters._ And that Gordon should expect to hear from his _superiors_ soon. _*Directly*._ A little hope spot, paired with an opportunity to delve deeper into the truth behind our mysterious benefactors. Though probably only trading one cliffhanger for another.

[@CrazyMarkStudios]

Bravo! Awesome theory my friend!

[@Dicerollball]

This sounds like an alternate timeline which tbh, is fitting for the Half Life series. I hope the current production team at least references Epistle 3 in some ways. Maybe showing different versions of events while they’re on Borealis for example. I can imagine Eli being there with Gordon instead and being caught off guard by seeing an alternate timeline where Alyx shoots Judith, only to find it’s not his current timeline. Either way, I think Half Life currently has a very interesting story especially with G-Man and Alyx. The change of having Eli’s death retconned was honestly genius and I’m glad we get to see more of him in the future

[@sygos]

just yesterday i was searching for more hl2 lore videos and just rewatched a few of yours. Now there's even more

[@Skyrionn]

Every 2 weeks!

[@Lagbeard]

I do have some ideas regarding Breen that would make him much less of a villain and could be easily handled through a "Breengrub"... When meeting the Breengrub, he should still have all his memories and would explain to Gordon and Alyx how easily the Combine could have wiped out all of humanity if they wanted to, and about his efforts to stop them from doing it. And how he tried to make the Combine accept humanity as more than slaves to be used and abused, but because of The Resistance fighting them constantly they weren't inclined to do so.

[@MisfortunateJustice]

Thank you for this. Since reading Epistle 3, i have been wanting a "Episode 3 for Dummies". I appreciate your hard work to make it so!

[@Top10AnimeBetrayals]

Half-Life ending on the tram, completing an infinite time loop of fighting the same hopeless battle over and over again, just to delay the end of humanity is dark Sounds like Homura Akemi's struggle in Madoka Magica, doesn't it?

[@cappuccino-1721]

I would hope to think it goes the other way around where Freeman remembers everything thus preventing the invasion from ever happening.

[@Skyrionn]

It does seem pretty fitting for the story we know

[@Halvos12]

I look away for one second near the end and when I look back Alex is stuck waist-deep in the floor. Never change Source Engine.

[@gamepad3173]

a mod that picks up where Episode 2 left off is Thunders Leaves, slotted right in there before Episode 3.

[@angrywombat17]

This was really fun! I loved the thematic journey you made bringing this together, it's like an audio book with minimalistic animation paired with it. I got really into it! I really do appreciate having the ability to go back and experience a sort of closure for this series outside of the Alyx prequel even if it is a bit bare-bones as far as writing goes regarding details. Anyhow thanks for the throwback, it means a lot to me, even just having brought it to my attention!

[@coltforceplayer]

Incase anyones wondering, Laidlaw had 2 endings in mind: Gordon reversing the effects of the Resonance Cascade Or waking up in the far future, with the combine defeated and humanity saved Which one do u want?

[@absolutemattlad2701]

Second for sure.

[@shookengie370]

I like the second because after what felt like hell, Gordon can finally take a goddamn nap

[@evangelicae_rationis]

But how did they defeat them? A single boat wouldn't do literally anything to a Dyson Sphere.

[@coltforceplayer]

@@evangelicae_rationis yeah we dont know, its just speculation

[@bocahdongo7769]

Make it third choice, give me some surprise

[@wootboi7603]

I think that Wallace wanting death as an idea is kind of similar to desk job cave Johnson.

[@Arexion5293]

>Gordon appears back on the tram: "I'm back in the f*cking building again?!"

[@valle2218]

I love you channel and your videos man. Player half life years ago but now I'm so deep into the lore again. Awesome universe + great job from your side!!

[@faithsubliminals2181]

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT THIS: GMAN On borealis is aweosme 16:55 the idea of dr brean becoming a advisor is really epic, it gives it a eerie vibe that was known throughout half-life 2 (like with the headcrabs and their zombies that are still alive) ALSO, the idea of the borealis going into different worlds and space is really cool too

[@Skyrionn]

I'm glad you liked it! I loved putting those scenes together.

[@dieterhorvat5176]

As a conclusion this would be so poor. You don’t have to answer all the questions, but you do need to pay everything off. Like the Gman. Maybe you actually invade his little holding cell dimension with the Vorts to bust out Alyx… and then cut some “can you please leave us alone” deal, ending Gordon’s ‘employment’ and Earth’s entanglement with him.

[@TheKholchev]

The ending made me feel sad as hell. I know, not all stories must have happy endings.

[@jaywulf]

Thank you so much for this video. I played Half-Life and was dissapoined and ignorant about Episode 3. This is the best thing we have for closure.

[@seendon5394]

"If nobody else got my back I KNOW the Vorts got me!" - Gordon

[@VindensSaga]

I would like the idea of Gordon returning to Black Mesa having lost his memories only to repeat all the horror again.

[@SkrtOnYoGrave]

It’s good to see half life getting more hype than normal

[@Splub]

In that ending where he goes back to Black Mesa. I could imagine the twist being you see a Vortigaunt instead of G-Man.

[@marek1shtar538]

I've actually been looking for this. I'm not the biggest fan of Half Life 2 since I've heard about the Epistle 3 I've been wanting to see what the "conclusion" would've been. I'm quite surprised this didn't make a cut. it's pretty good for an add on story

[@Radiossauro]

I loved this additions by Marc but before adding my 2 cents I think its important to keep in mind that, while the lore and worldbuilding of HL is very good, it's NOT the driving force behind the series. Most of it was made to have fun with and even showcase their engines. I say this to say that , the same way a lot of content was changed or cut during development of previous eps, same could happen in future instalments. With this in mind, I imagine a possible continuation would probably use breegrub as worldbuilding, as it mostly reveals lore behind the aliens, it would work well with similar ARGs Valve did before. I also find it interesting how both the ending of epistle 3 and Portal 2 leave the protagonists with mostly clean slates, in a seemingly planet Earth , we dont know when, but apparently in a future where nature exists and human life is possible. But I think these serve more to allow whatever sequels could happen to be easily written into the series. I agree with comments on how Alyx killing Dr Moss seems out of character, but the whole context of various versions and moments of the characters appearing at the same time, to me, implies we are seeing several possibilities of future, timelines, etc, happening at the same time, which brings to mind Portal's "cat in the box" theme. I suppose it's exactly the decision of what to do with the ship that would cement which version of events happened, and as the one where the ship bomb isnt very effective, it would probably be just a possible ending, but which would bring back Gordon to the moment of decision, meaning, taking the ship back to be studied is probably what should be done to keep the story going. My personal headcannon is that Glados and the whole Aperture tech story would probably play a part in confronting the combine. Glados herself could possibly be the key to facing such an advanced species with conciesnce transferring powers. Similarly, the teleport tech Aperture developed, both with Borealis and with Portal could probably help the resistance in any future space battles. As we know Gman and his "employers" believed it was important for the Black Mesa event to happen, so I don't think the unforseen consequences message was supposed to make Eli NOT want to use the ship, just to get ready for another seismic shift situation. Or, possibly, to cause the discussion and following possibilities with the Borealis. As I said, I don't think all of these are very fixed, just a possible blueprint of where the series could go, and if there was a wish for it, to end. It's important to keep in mind that they always made these games end in open-ended situation, possibly to allow for future instalments, so expecting true closure might be a fool's errand. Anyway, imho, it would be cool if both Glados and Breen could help in anyway and maybe even be freed of their body horror hells in a more positive note. I also like the idea put forward by breengrub that the combine themselves are more of an idea or "mental psychic virus" than a physical race, opens interesting possible follow ups and endings that include both the alien psychics and scifi conscience uploading. Same way they corrupted other races maybe the way to defeat their homewhorld is fucking it up with a virus or hacking it or something like that. Love your videos friend, excellent work. I'm a big TF fan since the Quake days, would love a HL sequel that allowed for a new TF to happen too. Cheers!

[@black_foresst]

I remember the day when this dropped. I was so excited and elated to find out what happened after Episode 2 after all those years. Can't believe it's almost been half a decade since this happened!

[@Skyrionn]

It's so crazy how long its been. With Alyx being released not long ago, maybe we could have some sort of canon ending.

[@Cavi587]

Don't say it like that man... I feel old now. I still remember the moment I took my phone out of my pocket on a break from work and just surfed the web and then found out that Epistle 3 just dropped. I was blown away.

[@mrmr_zoomie]

“Well Gordon, you’ve proved yourself a decisive man. You wouldn’t, want to be slung through Hell, a second time, hmm?”

[@amartyapandit]

I feel Alyx wasn't supposed to "leave" but instead kidnapped by the G-Man.

[@ericblenner-hassett3945]

Ending with the train sequence from the beginning of it all would be interesting, especially if we see Ms X meet the mystery man....

[@pogman389]

17:16 top 10 best lines in video game history

[@Skyrionn]

pog

[@goiaMB8517]

Thank you for making this, also with the visuals. Really nice and thorough 😊🙏

[@Damin-Danger-Ledford]

GMan used a code phrase he embedded in Alyx as a child. "Places to do, People to be." That's why she went quietly. Her dad was murdered right in front of her. She was helpless. Killing Judith seems appropriate enough considering the circumstances. A big struggle nearing the end. Then the Borealis hits the Combine world right as the Vortigaunt are trying to extract The Freeman, which causes the Time loop. But Gordon is able to stop the Resonance Cascade. For now. But Aperture/Glados may very well be a threat in their own right. Maybe.

[@vvshadowzvv1912]

I need another part of this story. We need Marc to write more of this novel

[@JeffarryLounder]

The best part about Epistle 3 is that it is no longer canon. With the help of Half Life: Alyx changing the timeline to where Eli lives and Alyx disappears, Half Life 3 is no longer spoiled anymore, and can now be possible again. Now Epistle 3 is just simply an alternative timeline of Half Life where Eli did, in-fact, die.

[@stratos7755]

I would love the end where Gordon is sent back to the beginning of half-life. Preferably if this is ever made into a game form I would have loved it like this: Borealis explodes, and Gordon is sent back to the start of half-life. Credits start rolling and you see flashbacks of him traveling on the tram and getting ready to insert the crystal. End of credits and you gain control of Gordon, with the only option being the ability to insert the crystal, thus continuing the loop indefinitely.

[@bakubaku4333]

anyone else think the vault from alyx could be the combines attempt at recreating the borealis? seems pretty clear to me that the inside of the vault seems to exist at multiple times at once

[@basically_boring]

god, it feels like ages since people wouldnt stop talking about the lack of a half-life 3, then epistle 3 came out, after that it was half-life alyx, and even though it has been hinted at and nearly confirmed by hl alyx's ending that we will get a third sequel, we still have no half-life 3. its almost as if the memes about how valve cant count to 3 are actually true.

[@davesthrowawayacc1162]

This flying a ship through a portal to the enemie's homeworld on a suicide mission is quite similar to the ending to the Resistance Fall of Man series. Coming to think of it, that series has a silent protagonist who can carry multiple weapons at once as opposed to the 2 item loadout of modern shooters, and he was fighting against an extra terrestrial conglomerate who transforms the natives of each planet to suit their bidding as well.

[@StationaryGamingReal]

Forgot about that game, nice catch!

[@macsmith2013]

As long as Valve is too busy counting money and can't be bothered to come up with something of their own, I take Mark's "fanfic" as my head canon, with the addition of Gordon going back to Black Mesa in the past and stopping the experiment, thus closing the circle.

[@Atomic181]

3:41 Eli Vance: about to die Alyx: Begging for his life Gordon: *sits casually*

[@Skyrionn]

Sounds like Gordon tbh

[@freeman8857]

I really enjoyed the Gmod recreation you did of Epistle 3. Amazing man, it almost felt like it was the real official thing.

[@Skyrionn]

Wow, thanks! It would have been nice to actually play through the game but it'll never happen!

[@thecynicaloptimist1884]

There's something deeply haunting about the idea of Gordon being teleported back to the events of the original Half-Life, but retaining all the memories of what had transpired, and the timeline now just playing out as normal - no Resonance Cascade, no Xen invasion, no Combine, no G-Man or his Employers. Imagine how traumatised and paranoid you'd be.

[@coltforceplayer]

Episode Three should end with Gordon using the Borealis to destroy the Combine Overworld then the Vortigaunts take him back to Black Mesa and he is able to stop everything by destroying the crystal, therefor saving humanity as the G-Man watches Gordon

[@yazovgaming]

G-man: Well played........Dr. Freeman...

[@coltforceplayer]

@@yazovgaming 1 year later me thinks this isn't a good ending

[@SysKeyJS]

Because of Half Life Alyx we know she was also kept in some sort of statis just like gordon, although it only seems like she ws kept for a few years or so, since she appears in half life 2

[@Gxaps]

Seeing as it's a time machine, what if the borealis crashing into the Universal Union's dyson sphere was one of the actions that sparked the invasion of earth?

[@LANLAMPAN]

The truth is that the Borealis IS the combine empire. It's very obvious that's what valve intended while making the episodes and portal. The Borealis in epistle 3 is called a bootstrap device which is a time traveling term describing something causing itself. Meaning that the invasion of the combine causes the combine to exist aka the borealis.

[@Gxaps]

@@LANLAMPAN I don't see how it could cause them to exist, but the bootstrap definition could be applied to my analogy

[@LANLAMPAN]

@@Gxaps You dont see how a ship filled with advanced tech and AI teleporting through all time and space, existing before the combine existed can become an autonomous world conquering machine?

[@LANLAMPAN]

@@Gxaps and no it does not validate your theory at all. Because Epistle 3 makes a point of the borealis barely making a dent in the massive dyson sphere. it was a a non-event for the combine. IT didn't affect them at all.

[@Gxaps]

@@LANLAMPAN they noticed it. I doubt there are many societies that could lay a finger against the combine, let alone have them notice it. Also, where does AI fit into all this?

[@fobiojames]

It's so heart breaking that valve abandoned half life, especially leaving it on a cliff hanger

[@protoborg]

It seems to me that, since the Borealis is property of Aperture Science, that GLaDOS would be looking for it and, when she finds it, will do everything in her power to get it back as it contains Aperture proprietary technology. Since the technology could also help the combine, I would think that the next game would involve the Combine and Aperture fighting over the Borealis. This would involve the player, now working directly for G-Man, doing their best to keep the Borealis from being captured by either side. The player would not be any character from the Portal series or Half-Life series. Instead they would be third party who, like G-Man, is able to slip in and out of reality at will. However, unlike G-Man, they can only do it at certain points (save points ;) ). G-Man is training his replacement as G-Man is retiring and needs someone to maintain the timeline as it is. G-Man has set everything in motion and now his superiors need you (the player) to keep the established timeline from collapsing. The events of the first Half-Life game were supposed to happen that way. The events of Half-Life 2 were intended. Portal and Portal 2 were supposed to go the way they did. Now, G-Man needs competent agents to keep this timeline stable. At the end, everything is set to the way it is supposed to be as the Borealis continues to flicker in and out of phase with reality, the combine continue to struggle to conquer Earth, and Gordon Freeman and Chell go off to live a quiet life in some far off place where the Combine and GLaDOS can't bother them. At the end, we see that G-Man is actually Gordon and Chell's child so the timeline has to be maintained in order for him to even exist. We also see, just before the screen fades to black, all the various versions of G-Man, consisting of an equal number of men, women, and ambiguous "G-Men". The various versions of G-Man fade in and out like the Borealis showing us that it and he are tightly connected. Then the credits roll.

[@zhankazest]

thats wild but it could work

[@Roxor128]

I've always found the idea of a game based around changing the course of history an appealing one. And I mean one where it's done mechanically, not just through story.

[@Yesimbs]

thank you for taking the time to make this

[@Skyrionn]

Thank you for taking the time to watch it

[@asdbef3667]

I dont think borealis disappeared during combine invasion It happened before resonance cascade...by how eli describes..like it has become a legendary figure among the scientists and people.. During or after combine invasion..people dont have time to think about the disappearance of a vessel

[@Skyrionn]

The timeline is all over the place, but going from Epistle 3, that's what it said :)

[@elcuatedesmadre]

I love your videos. Your narration and delivery is professional, in depth, engaging, and soothing.

[@willowcdxx3896]

BABE WAKE UP NEW SKYRIONN VIDEO

[@Skyrionn]

We're all here. Welcome to the party.

[@morpheus_uat]

I found G-Man as Mrs. X very funny. I did not like the ending until they mentioned that Freeman was sent to Black Mesa, let's say, to avoid the resonance cascade. The first ending, with Freeman stranded, God knows where, without knowing if humanity beat the Combine, and all that ordeal with Alyx and Mossman, felt out of place. Alyx, at that point, was already stubborn, and killing Mossman was the final straw. First, not wanting to kill Breen, and then straight up killing Mossman, just plain no. At that specific moment, I did not like Alyx at all. Maybe that's why in Half-Life: Alyx, they completely reset the timeline. They can now tell a different story with a different ending.

[@xXx_Regulus_xXx]

I don't like the "time is a flat circle" style timeloop ending much, but I'm generally against the idea of going back in time to save a story that wasn't already _about_ time travel. It's like finding out the whole thing was somebody's dream, annoying to have the stakes drastically lowered after building hype and investment for so long.

[@EresTremulent]

Well, interstellar/interdimensional travel has been a thing since half life 1, but I see what you mean. The borealis feels a bit like a deus ex machina

[@xXx_Regulus_xXx]

@@EresTremulent I'm ok with space travel and going to exotic places, but going back in time to stop the initial incident from happening feels unsatisfying to me.

[@White927]

I don't like the "revive Eli from death" section much, but i'm generally against the idea of having a childish story Half life game on a platform not everyone also has and ruining the continutation of a sequel everyone waited for so long, including me, it's annoying to see a multi-billionaire company that made the perfect games before is now all care about money and making low budget games like Aperture desk.

[@xXx_Regulus_xXx]

@@White927 Valve always tried to use half-life to showcase new technology so I understand why they went to VR as the next big thing, but you're right that it was not the best move considering how alienating it was to a lot of people. Desk Job highlights another one of their problems, in reality it's a demo for how the steam deck will work but they're calling it a playable short. If they would just communicate with us and say what their intent was it would be a lot less frustrating.

[@White927]

@@xXx_Regulus_xXx They could have release also the episode 3 and Half life alyx with a different plot on VR years later on anyways, and there would be no problem with the franchise, at least thank you for agreeing about Half life alyx wasn't the best move, and in plot-making. (Episode 3 would have also appear differently because what Marc Laidlaw told us is feels like a placeholder story). And again, with this method, they could have released a long but not short game instead, it would have made a lot more sense. A game that is about a test for their newer system which is free but low budget feels out of place in valve's history and unfornately many people already liking on the game instead realizing what have they done many years ago for the fans. I do not love this company anymore, they lied to us, they made us to wait, and they did something horribly wrong for a cliffhanger story which is still stuck in the same place.

[@Edwoodb3]

Is Epistle 3 the true ending? As multiverses go, all endings are possible... but this is the only ending we have.

[@Skyrionn]

I'd say so

[@22locor]

We already have linear gameplay that ties into the story, so we might as well tie replaying the game into it as well. Linear gameplay = Gordan doesn't really have a choice as to what's happening Replaying the games = Gordan being sent back in time to the start of Half Life 1, destined to repeat the timeline forever.

[@Skyrionn]

Amazing

[@M05tly]

The Breen grub twitter posts are some of my favorite pieces of half life media/story. The life cycle and form of consciousness that the advisors original species have on their home world is in my opinion genius. I think if valve had just gone ahead with this story, episol 3, straight after part 2 of half life it would have worked. Seeing the main parts of the story already existing on the net to read nullify the impact it would have had. I think now nothing is likely to live up to the legend people expect half life 3 to be, because of this I doubt valve will ever attempt to make it. I do however hope I am wrong. Great channel by the way!