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Gordon Freeman's classpect: and why you're all wrong about it

well forgive me for the hostile-sounding title there, but as it stands i'm yet to see a single other person with this take.

the unanimous agreement for gordon's title seems to be heir of hope - which i will give credence to as making a lot of sense at face value. the heir is the class of the typical 'hero' and hope is the aspect of belief, faith, deficiation, angelic symbolism. on paper, it works perfectly for a man held in such high regard as a saviour and liberator.

but what of gordon's personality? what little of it we see, of course.

the heir of hope argument applies a classpect to gordon not as a person, but as a concept.

gordon freeman the concept is an heir of hope, for sure.

but gordon freeman, the man?

gordon freeman, the scientist who was late to his first day on the job? whose brief glimpses into his personality include blowing up a man's casserole for no clear reason and solving every problem with a crowbar?

the gordon freeman who has been jumping from trauma to trauma for twenty years under the machinations of a sinister interdimensional bureaucrat?

hear me out here.

gordon freeman is a bard of void.

now, i should probably explain my thoughts on the bard class and the void aspect before going any further, since this entire take hinges on my very specific take on both things.

in my eyes, the bard (the passive destroyer) is somebody who initially ghosts adherence to their opposing aspect, until a traumatic incident or dire crisis suddenly pushes them into an influx of their real aspect. they change their tune from passively destroying their aspect in themselves to passively destroying through their aspect. bards are capricious, unpredictable people who are often cowardly, avoidant or lazy in their ways.

the aspect of void, the antithesis of light, deals with the eldritch and the unknown. void is shadow, void is doubt and obsfucation, it is by its very nature unknowable and exists in the dark corners of one's mind. void is narrative irrelevance given (a lack of) form.

so, how does this fit into gordon freeman's narrative?

let's get into his head.

gordon freeman is a man who, prior to the black mesa incident, has lived his life adhering to knowledge and science. he's studied, got a degree, probably quite passionate about science. the statistics, the thirst for knowledge and understanding, all of this paints a picture of light.

light players are the ultimate students, as the extended zodiac says, they are the knowledge-seekers who wish to understand the world around them and comprehend the most fortuitous path better than any other.

the guy shows up late to his first day on the job. a man with more degrees than should be feasible and he can't even show up to work on time. this is the first hint of gordon being a bard, it's an incredibly lazy and capricious action that also hints at his passive destruction of light through his lack of fortune.

and it's that fateful test that changes everything - you all know the one i mean.

the one that suddenly inundates him with void. suddenly, gordon's world is unknowable, incomprehensible, he is a slave to the plot and forced to keep driving forward a narrative to which he ultimately has no say in. it's another example of the traits of a bard, who generally do seem to be reduced to narrative devices. (we see this a lot with gamzee.)

gordon is consumed among the alien and eldritch, and emerges from black mesa's ruins anew. a man whose existence is defined by contradiction, doubt, obfuscation, and everything that void stands for.

we see it again and again throughout the series. his very existence within the combine's rigidly defined, meticulous and mechanical empire defies principle. he is the anticitizen, his presence within their world is a contradiction just by his very being. he is undocumented, an anomaly that shouldn't be. and that scares the shit out of them.

and it should! because, as a bard of void should, gordon destroys their empire through void. his very existence is enough to spark the revolution (which in itself is tied to the aspects of hope and rage) and the destruction he brings about is through his nature as the anticitizen. the contradiction, the hole in their logic. he casts doubt upon the system that they've forced into place and he does so while continually being surrounded by the eldritch and the unknown.

he does so while in servitude to the eldritch, actually. i think that g-man himself is a player of space (to be more specific, i think he is a lord) but i think that there is also a lot of void symbolism within the g-man's character and his 'employers' more specifically.

and you know what really cinches my argument?

gordon freeman, player of void, embodiment of the unknown and the obsfucation, of the silence and emptiness, of the doubt and darkness?

he never utters a single word.

i will revise this entire thing once i wake up tomorrow because it's currently 10pm for me and this is going to look incredibly lazily worded/formatted when i get up in the morning

but for now i suppose you can all take this rambling mess of uncoordinated madness and tell me how wrong i am

CLASSPECTING DUCK GUY: DHMIS and the aspect of Doom

Saving the best 'til last, of course. I'm not at all biased.

I love Duck Guy. I think this crusty old son of a bitch is the best character in the show and I think he's a very interesting one to analyse.

His Aspect is, of course, very simple to pin down. Duck dies all the time. He dies so much they have backups to make sure he can come back. There's an entire episode revolving around him dying. Duck is an obvious Doom player.

His relationship with the Aspect, though, goes far deeper than just 'he dies a lot'. When you expand Doom to cover rules, regulations, acceptance & compliance, you realise just how well he fits into the box. Duck is the only one of the guys never to reach self-awareness. His attempts at rebellion end in his mutilation and destruction. He's the only one with the wool pulled over his eyes, obedient to the system that controls them.

This, of course, makes him sound more like a Hope player, but... Doom has more facets than people give it credit for. Duck is 'fate's chosen sufferer', to use the EZ's description, for sure. Plus, who better to represent the aspect of rules and compliance than the guy very much portrayed as a right-wing bootlicker? ('Memories of him telling me about the military, digital currency, etc'...)

The Class is where things get interesting. Duck is a narrative joke, just in a different way to Yellow. Duck is the chewtoy, the plaything, when somebody needs to get hurt, he's the one there. He's an arrogant jackass to boot, and, here's the kicker - Duck passively influences the other characters to gain awareness. He destroys their suffering and limitations, he's just unaware of it. Episode Five, anyone?

That's why he's the Bard of Doom. Sure, he doesn't exactly fit the pattern of the Bard's journey (ghosting their opposing Aspect 'til a dire crisis pushes them into their own), but he's definitely got the traumatic incident that gives him an influx of his Aspect covered. Episode Five, anybody?

Duck's a tragedy, made to suffer over and over again, existing to demonstrate the limitations of their universe and ultimately showing the dangers of falling into compliance. But in his mere presence, his actions erode the limitations and regulations that bring suffering to those around him, his rebellion and irascibility leading to their liberation.

Plus, a series like DHMIS could sure use somebody to represent the aspect of predestination and acceptance. One could argue Duck destroys that too - his death is the straw that breaks the camel's back and leads the other two on to fight against the cycle.

Tomorrow, I might be giving another little insight into two of the show's most prominent figures...

THIS IS MY DND SIREN BARD GIRLY MARIS

I SPENT ALL NIGHT DRAWING THESE FOR MY FASHION AND APPAREL CLASS

I AM SO TIRED PLS APPRECIATE HER