#Specifically hl1 model

[komodocomics]

This is why I don't often show people my drawings in public

This should be a wholesome ship

[oblique-lane]

"RED and BLU mercs look the same because of the game mechanic! They represent different people while using the same models! YOU are the player, so YOU are the mercenary too!"

Fair, but. Even if it is just a game limitation... I can't help but be confused as to WHY those game characters are SO UNIQUE IN PERSONALITIES if they are meant to be a representative mass?

I have to questions to hl1 scientist. No question no hl2 citizens. To CS characters. They are plain and faceless, they are meant to be background masses.

Tf2 mercs, however? SO unique and distinct. Their shapes and bodies, their movements, their voicelines - even with no particular story about them, there's SO MUCH personality! They have to be heroes! Not JUST classes!

I've never understood the explanation "they are different people who look similar to eachother" because eeehh... Have fun as you want, but I'm personally not convinced. Even with a rhetoric "Heavies have to be strong af and scouts have to be fast and small and all medics are insane and Germans" that's still not it.

Obviously I don't think about it while playing the game, but when it's time to think about the lore... The comics never answered the question of who the teams are - retconed and ignored.

I was surprised and confused as to why it was never brought up anywhere in canon. Maybe because this case is so exceptional and unique to tf2, it was actually cursed by it's own greatness?

Let's be real, tf2 characters are heroes. Yet unlike Overwatch and such, players ARE allowed to have as many repeating classes as they want. Moreso - the opposite team is designed to be the same characters.

What the fuck.

Tf2 mercs exist in a superposition where they are more than just classes but not enough humans to be heroes.

And that brings us to my other point...

Now you might say "but the lore is goofy, they WOULD hire people with very specific features –" shhhhh. Don't you see? That's part of the issue.

The mercs are constantly dehumanized.

For whatever reason people think is useful. In the comics they are shown to be absolute idiots for comedic effect, sometimes flanderizing them even, reducing any human feature that isn't funny enough.

In fandom it's enough to just dress a merc in different clothes for people to start calling them OCs. Even if you didn't mean to make an oc.

With the goddamn clone theory I've seen people often saying that since BLU are clones, they are subhuman/unworthy - authors thoughts, not just in-univrse rhetoric.

It's almost as... Tf2 mercs are not human but a species??? Creatures without autonomy?

Always been like this?

Maybe I'm the only one bothered by this, but... You know me, I'm a no fun who loves taking this kind of shit seriously.

...

I started from talking about why they look identical on different teams. I think the clone theory is very probable, even though many people say it's cringe. The clone theory would make so much sense if it was real.

Recently I've watched Mickey 17. It felt so good to be finally understood. Every point of this film is all the things I feel towards tf2.

Respawn makes you less human. And corporations treat you as expendable, always. If they find a way to dehumanize you, it will be easier to convince everyone that you deserve violence/it's not a big deal.

If in tf2 the two identical megacorps fight with eachother over power (tf2 wiki/ original game setting), it would make all the sense for them to just clone the 9 mercs and make them expendable. It's cheaper. Emesis Blue did it right.

And since everyone thinks that the mercs are subhuman, because they are stereotypes, because stupid illiterate criminals, because they're psychopaths, because they're clones, because they're expendable... No one ever thinks to look behind it and see them as people.

Cloning is inherently a horror. When I just entered the fandom, I was convinced there will be some horror level lore underneath the silly game. It made sense.

But there was none of it.

I might be the one stupid here for thinking about tf2 that way. But I can't change my perspective now. To me the whole tf2 lore situation is just a recursive mirror on itself: the whole thing almost begs to be analyzed existentially but isn't because the goofy part of it is so sacred, it cannot be destroyed. As if taking tf2 seriously is almost a taboo.

"Don't look there, there's nothing there, don't think about it, they're silly, it's just a game" then why do I keep seeing holes on this curtain???

Purposefully not thinking about the lore is constant effort. It cannot be truly silly at least because it's war. If there's no respawn, it's scary because they can die anytime. If there is respawn - it's triple scary, because they don't belong to themselves.

In-game voicelines suggest that respawn does exist. Even if they love fighting and treat it like we treat videogames - since they are practically immortal - it's still inherently horror. Even if it's a comedy, ignoring the basic technical aspects of the world and covering up with "everything is unserious and stupid" agenda... Is ironically suspicious. For me.

It's almost as if they're trying to hide something underneath all this silliness. I know they don't. But it feels like it. It feels like a propaganda so people don't dare to try explaining how this world logically works.

A second you try to dissect the lore and it crumbles apart. It contradicts itself and it overcompensates for what it's not. It crumbles. I've stumbled upon it a hundred times for all these years in the fandom...

When you play the game you see so much environmental storytelling - the coverups of spy tech, the cold war, nukes and stuff... The early wiki info told us about megacorps who want to rule the world. It's realistic and pragmatic and so fun. Close to earth. When I play on the older maps I keep wondering what it was really about. I wonder about who the characters are, how did they get on this war?

But what I got was "the mercs are very stupid, and everything in this world is stupid because old people fight over nothing, and once they die everyone lives happily ever after AFTER SACRIFICING NOTHING". The mercs aren't even the main characters. We still know fucking nothing about them, about why they fight– they don't even fight for the same thing as in game. Everything is retconed.

I feel so conflicted. I know people love the comics but I can't help but hate it, I'm sorry. The same questions I had joining the fandom almost 2 years ago - I still have them now. It's itching, it's uncomfortable to stand in a lore which is a mess and will never be explained.

I looked at the lore with a suspicious squint, trying to compromise: maybe there IS something about the worldbuilding that I've missed that would make sense. I've analysed left and right– no. There's nothing of my interest. I had to explain things myself and it only started make sense once I stopped relying on the comics, like, at all.

And once you strip away the comics, there's barely anything left. Just the game, the bits and crumbs from the wiki...

The tf2 I enjoy now is the tf2 50% of which I created in my head to overcompensate. But who am I? I'm not Valve. I'm uncomfortable with that. Because while the lore now makes sense in my head, it's still just headcanons.

People don't know it.

I feel pretty lonely in this situation.

(This post should've been be just about dehumanization in the context of tf2, but I've noticed that everything I hurt about this media is a one big thing and one doesn't go without another. Someday I will let go.)

[callmegaith]

is joshua ur character that was inspired by barneys hl1 design? u draw them with the same cute droopy eyes

Hl1 Barney is one inspo but Joshua is created based on a pretty specific type of character design that I like that includes "character that wears a hat, with sleepy eyes, and a tendency to annoy the protagonist" so he's more inspired by Benrey than Barney personality wise, but design wise, yeah the hl1 model

I made a "character inspiration" meme thing for him some while ago

The only characters that don't fit here design wise are Lila and William. They're there more cuz of the "parasite taking over host body" rather than design.

(should be noted tho that I draw most the characters with the same type of eyes XD I like the sleepy relaxed eyes)

[no0t2]

my friend @barneyfan99579 is cosplaying barney calhoun so i made him a remastered version of barney's ID from hl1 (specifically the HD model) to print out!

if you wish to use it for your own cosplay, feel free! just make sure to credit me (either by writing down my tag behind the ID or just noting it down in pictures!)

this is inspired off of some other interpretations i've seen of the ID but it's mostly a mashup of custom and canon!

[damp-pit-of-worms]

the g-man from half life (specifically the hl1 model) for FOREVER. because he sent gordon and adrian to stasis and they did not deserve that :(

The G-Man from Half Life is sentenced to The Damp Pit of Worms for forever on account of undeservedly sending Gordon and Adrian to stasis.

[inland--empire]

Alright. The post. Reasons I think Dr. Coomer will replace Dr. Wallace Breen in HLVRAI2.

First off, they have the same HL1 model. We can infer the one scientist is Breen since he is the only person shown talking directly to G-man, and we know G-man have Breen the Xen crystal. So there is that connection.

Breen and Coomer are both there specifically to fit roles. On a meta level, Breen retconned in to be Black Mesa's Administrator. He only exists to fill a very specific role, and outside of that is completely unimportant. Coomer exists to be a tutorial NPC, nothing more.

Breen is a figurehead for humanity's oppressors (If you come on this post saying he is a Hitler allegory I will actually fucking kill you he role is so different. He is corrupted by propaganda he is not a leader by any stretch of the imagination.) Anyways. He is a spokesperson of the Combine as well. This could tie in to Coomer being the only one to know what controls them, that hey are just part of a game.

Also, I know Breengrub isn't canon BUT on the Twitter account you could see Breengrub's descent into pure puppetry as he just spouts things, hoping to lure out the Resistance. You know who is also stuck spouting out lines made for him? Coomer. Look man he is perfect at doing being the exposition guy, which is Breen's role in a sense.

Come on. Antagonist Coomer would go so fucking hard you know that. Can you imagine Gordon getting off the train and he just hears "Hello, Gordon!" Like imagine having to fight the friend who waited for you. That would go so fucking hard

[beebfreeb]

what are your inspirations?

Well depending on what exactly you mean, this answer gets really long.

Many of the video games and shows of my Very Young Life, one specific older family member, and every time I see a piece of art that is strange in execution and/or in concept and go WOAH!!! Also the TRS-80 Model IV my favorite device ever.

Here is the shortest general list I can come up with off the top of my head. It is not at all comprehensive, but it includes many of the works that were influential to my personality and creative style:

Psychonauts

Okage Shadow King (experienced only through letsplays)

LittleBig Planet series

Gregory Horror Show

Destroy All Humans for the ps2 (too young to be playing this and was bad at it so an older family member finished it for me)

Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess Wii Port (same as above)

All cartoons I watched at age 6 (Invader ZiM, Powerpuff Girls, Felix the Cat, the original Transformers cartoon on VHS but I thought it was boring, classic Scooby Doo, and classic Tom and Jerry)

Princess Tutu (Princess Tutu made me crazy insane + Was young enough to still play pretend when I watched it and thus would reenact every seen with Rue in it as Rue)

Source Engine (constant and early exposure to GMod, HL1+2, Portal 1+2, TF2, and various SFMs and YTPs. This made me normal.) (Watched older family member play these)

The Stanley Parable may also count as Source Engine stuff but I had all of the Narrator lines memorized when I was like, 8 or 9. I was insane about this one in a special way.

DOS games such as Princess Maker 2 and Star Control II

Spore the best video game ever (Watched older family member play this and extensively cheated when I played it myself)

Sid Meier's Civilization IV (Watched older family member play this)

I used to roleplay Flowey extensively on Shamchat during middle school.

2001: A Space Odyssey. I first read the book in middle school and then watched the movie years later and my brain blew up.

Fallout New Vegas (Watched older family member play this)

Older family member also taught me how to program at age 11 using QBasic on a TRS-80 Model 4. This TRS-80 later survived a flood.

As for various concepts that I like. I have been autistic about robots and AI since I was 5, and have been equating the mechanical and the divine since 2018 (looks nostalgically at Omega one of my favorite OCs ever) and so you know. The inherent transgenderism/autismism and various things wrong with my brain and personality of being designed for a singular purpose but because you were designed poorly you are unable to fulfill the role that you were built for.

If you have something more specific, let me know! I am also inspired by every time I see someone on here who posts a drawing and it looks cool.

This is the TRS-80 Model IV by the way isn't she awesome? She's an older sister to me. I miss her every day of my life.

[xenrelay]

[featheredcritter]

Of all the HL1 scientist models who is the most likely to A. Eat 1/2223456 of black mesa’s foundation B. Cry themselves to sleep C. Waste their grant money on toilet paper D. Accidentally communicate to the Gman via Morse code that they have hemmorhoids?

this guy specifically ^^^

[luxlightly]

Something that occurred to me when discussing the concept of hlvrai2 with a friend was that, if they plan to use the game Half Life 2, there are no existing models in that game for Dr.Coomer or Tommy. Barney and Dr.Kleiner fill the role of Benry and Bubby but if they want to use the others and not just port in the hl1 models like they did in the acab stream, they'll have to have models made. Wayne has said he wants to have a higher production value in the sequel so it would make sense to get bespoke models both for aesthetic and practical purposes (custom models and rigs mean a lot finer control over what animations and such they can do).

And it got me imagining: if they already need to do Coomer and Tommy (and Darnold and Forzen if they reappear), it makes sense to get custom models for the whole team. Which really got me imagining: unique science team models

Like, not just "copy the look of the hl1 npcs to hl2 style/quality" but like, specifically made to look like the science team as individuals. As simple as different colored shirts or maybe sharp teeth for Bubby or Benry. Actual robotic looking "extendo-arms" Coomer. Tommy with eyes that can glow like the g-man's.

I just feel like that so fits the whole theme of the series: of these 'meaningless background npcs' who, through the story, gained their own personalities, histories, and emotions. Taking that to the next step of having them not even be npc models taken from the game but their own models just for them as the new and individual people they've become is just..... I'M SOFT.

[howdy-hd]

yall say the hl1 guard model isn't sexy but you just haven't ascended yet

would you say solid snake isn't sexy then posting his ps1 model as proof?? I think not bitch

don't blame the man for the limitations of his software

valve chickened out when they made Barney bc they were afraid of the specific brand of sexy that would be birthed from a hi-poly remake of the hl1 guard model