LordOmnit said:
Yeah, maybe they will end up looking more like the Nihilanth at some point only probably not as horrible ugly (although I wouldn't be surprised if the opposite too). Maybe there is a reason why they are called 'advisors' instead of something more... I dunno... commanding? Like 'lords' or 'masters' or 'something else' (oops, that wasn't supposed to be quoted (at least seriously)).
Right, this is going to be raaaaaaather spoilerific:
I like it, Omnit. But have you ever read His Dark Materials? That's right, the great fantasy series by Philip Pullman. Recently been made into a terrible film 'The Golden Compass'? Well, in the last book (The Amber Spyglass), Will and Lyra (the two main protagonists of the trilogy. A parallel to Gordon and Alyx, maybe? Heh) take part in a huge, war of the multiverse. The two sides are basically Asriel's forces (The Resistance, ironically, Asriel himself
dies before the battle. Oh, sorry
Eli) and the Authority (the invading armies, made up of creatures from many
different dimensions. Oh, sorry
Combine!). The battle is fought and there are mainly (small) causalities for both sides. But I'll get to my point:
In The Amber Spyglass, the main antagonist is Metatron. Now, aside from sounding like a bloody Decepticon from Transformers, he also happens to be the Regent of 'Heaven'. 'Heaven', in the books, is portrayed to be a place of war and evil. Much like, in Half Life, Breen makes the Combine out to be a great, wondrous miracle from the sky. But that's irrelevant with regards to the topic. The point is, Metatron controls the forces of the Authority, but he is only the sort of deputy leader. He possesses immense power (kills Asriel and his missus) and basically is feared throughout worlds and is the most respected within his army's ranks.
You could say that Metatron is a sort of 'advisor' figure to the real leader of the invading forces. Before, a lot of the Half Life 2 community simply assumed that the phrase 'Advisor' was the term given by the humans for the smarter, supervisors-of-Breen type Combine. But now the Vortigaunts are still referring to them as such, when Breen is out of the picture? Hm. So we can, as Omnit suggested, assume that the 'Advisors' are simply the subordinates of the ultimate Combine overlord. I agree with this. So let's go back to the Dark Materials comparison:
The real leader of the Authority forces is (although it is never explicitly stated as such) God. The problem is, he has aged greatly and is unable to do anything, never mind control his own forces, hence all power has been passed to Metatron. During the final battle, Will (Gordon? Or maybe Chell?) uses his unique weapon (Gravity Gun/Portal Gun?) to accidentally destroy the fleeing God, and thus put an end to the war. People return to their own respective universes, and the story basically ends there.
So, why is everyone expecting a huge battle with the Combine overlord at the finale? If Dark Materials comparisons are still to be followed, the superior power is actually quite feeble, depending on its deputies to do the dirty work. Which wouldn't surprise me, considering the lack of knowledge the Vortigaunts have shared with his about this assumed 'higher power'.
They care the most about Advisors (they actively seek them out, probably meaning they are the only ones capable of dealing with one). So what if the Advisors are the most powerful force, but not the highest on the hierarchy? Will we see what's above them during the last stand? Hopefully. But don't expect a great, epic being to suddenly enter the series.
Then again, there may not even be a mighty ending battle at all. Anyone else notice how the Resistance forces are only really focused on taking the Combine from Earth - not destroying their multiversal empire at the same time? After all, the rocket launched at the end of Episode Two was not a super weapon or anything set out to eliminate the Combine - it was simply to
stop them coming back. I doubt that the Resistance give two shits about the empire itself; just their activity upon Earth.
Which would make the whole above comparison a waste of time, really.
But y'know. Stabbing in the dark.
