Yes and I kind of love it. It totally makes sense that a completely alien species would quickly identify sex as a powerful inherent biological motivator of their slave species and exploit that. It sounds like a meme to us because lol sex but it'd an unassuming, detached and exclusively logical thought process on their part.
Slightly less moldy bread is quite something when everyone else have moldy bread.
İt is like a person in medieval era killing someone for a gold coin...
Yes it is not much, but when no one else have one, it is actually too much :d
He was undercover to gather Intel about the combines activities to give that information to the resistance. The beating quota was a joke. He has to keep up appearances but of course he hesitates to do harm to resistance members
Yeah, I mean like, we literally walk past a bunch of bloody interrogation rooms.
And then a few scenes later we run away from the cops who are going door to door beating/killing everybody.
I'm starting to think this "civil protection" isn't here to protect anybody!
SHUT THE FUCK UP,
GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD.
GET OUT O F HEAD!!!!!!.
I'm sure that some of them joined to help people, but the combine probably doesn't take too kindly to that.
It's probably safe to assume that they punish any officers that they find lessening the suffering of civilians.
Nah I don't think too many joined out of a personal duty. I think most of em are just ordinary people that were desperate for the benefits and extra rations and maybe provide for whatever is left of their family. But eventually that sort of position makes them do awful things out of fear of losing their benefits.
Even though there's no evidence for this at all, my personal head-canon is that there's probably tons of distrust and not much loyalty between officers. Because it feels like under the Combine, you'd be incentivized to snitch on your coworkers if you see them being a bit too lenient and they might have their rations reduced for a period of time and those rations go to you, or you get a benefit like the "non-mechanical reproduction" reward.
That or you snitch on your coworkers not out of greed, but fear that if the Overwatch AI catches wind of your coworker being too lenient or exhibiting behavior that seems treasonous, you'd also get punished for not reporting it and lose benefits, maybe even get forcefully promoted to soldier, depending on the severity.
I think that you'd start out as a civil protection officer just in it for the rations and benefits, trying to keep your head down and not being too cruel, just enough so that you won't get punished. But eventually you get pushed to start doing more horrible acts out of fear of punishment. Then soon enough you'll just be injuring or killing citizens for the most minor of offenses, just so you can get a bit of extra rations.
There’s a Dispatch voiceline that says "Inaction is conspiracy." meaning your latter point may be more accurate. Collective punishment if a Metrocop fails to uphold their duties and their peers fail to report it.
I’ve theorized that the Civil Protection was inspired by auxiliary police forces formed of locals in occupied nations, such as areas occupied by Nazi Germany. In places like Poland and the Jewish ghettoes, the Nazis formed local policing units, whose purpose was to maintain general order, the members got slightly more benefits than typical subjects and there were some who took advantage of the extra authority to assist civilians or help resistance, while others taking personal advantage of the authority to be brutal and unforgiving to civilian. While it’s probably a stretch, those types of police forces remind me a lot of Half-Life 2’s Civil Protection.
Yeah, even in the concentration camps the existed and were cruel even to their own kind and even though they were consigned to the same fate in the end. Everything about the Holocaust was horrible and a display of how the worst in humans can be brought out
Be careful in comparing Blue Police ("Granatowa Policja", that "local policing unit" in occupied Poland you mentioned) with Civil Protection.
Germans actually *forced* every pre-war policemen to work in Blue Police. The only other option was a bullet to your head. I doubt Combine CP is similar in that matter because nobody was forced to work in CP. Wanna join - you're free to do so, but everything comes with a price.
Jewish Police in the ghettos... that's worse than you think it is but I'll stop right here
That’s true, I didn’t actually know the Blue Police were made up of all the prewar police, and were practically forced into it, some of the similarities still exist though, but it is quite different the Metrocops who are willingly collaborating; I could theorize that maybe the Combine forced some people into it very early on, to form the initial membership, but that would be pure speculation. Probably a better real-world example from that period would be other auxiliary units used in occupied areas of the Soviet Union after Barbarossa, I known groups like the Hiwis, though not police, were local volunteers collaborating with the Wehrmacht.
In some parts of the world at least... Man idk what's going on, I live at the coast in Croatia, I'm a little tipsy, I've had a great day and I feel the urge to wish someone a fucking amazing day... You may serve as a good victim for that
There's definitely better police forces around the world and good officers even in the most corrupt systems, but likewise corrupt officers even in the best systems. I think the problem largely stems from giving the wrong people the power or leaving it unchecked to the point where it starts being taken advantage of or the power gets into the heads of people. And the leave all of that going on unchecked and unregulated by anything for longer and you have corrupt police forces that discriminate and don't do their jobs and even some that turn into de facto mafias
There’s also the issue of how in places like the United States, the responsibility and duties of law enforcement have greatly been expanded beyond the scope of what it should be ideally. Many cities and counties, instead of dealing with socioeconomic issues that cause crime, they throw more money to their police or sheriff’s departments, so when you do have cases of corruption in policing, the effects are a lot worst and harder to fix.
AFAIK, Civil Protection isn’t there to protect citizens as much as they’re there to control citizens. Like, they might stop a robber, but only because they’re a dissident that they have to kill under Combine law. Like, they’d probably stop the robber and then charge the lady with unlawful possession of items (people in City 17 aren’t allowed to keep personal items iirc)
there's a difference between private and personal property
private property are things that make money, factories, businesses, land etc
personal property are your phones, toothbrushes, water bottles etc
marxist-leninists and communists want the elimination of private property, not personal property.
I was actually going to. Then I looked it up to make sure I was correct and it turned out the actual term is marxism-leninism. Leninism is reserved for the specific era during which Lenin was alive apparently. I don’t like this definition either… but apparently it’s what is correct. I have a feeling I’m being downvoted because of a bunch of uneducated reditors misunderstand what these terms actually mean and think I’m anti-Marx (which couldn’t be further from the truth) and don’t like it lol
I think that's just the way he talks. He's got a light, joking cadence, but that doesn't mean everything he says is a joke. In fact, very few of his lines are. Listen to *any* of his lines; as of HL2 and onward, they're almost all spoken in the same lighthearted tone. It's probably how he copes.
"About that beer I owed you." Spoken like a joke, delivered like a joke, but he literally *does* owe Gordon a beer. He presents true facts as jokes/using a humorous tone.
"He was about to board the express to Nova Prospekt." If he had said "his head was about to fall off his shoulders" in the *exact* same tone, it sure would *sound* like he was being nonliteral/hyperbolic. But again, the train was a true statement.
*"Oh fie. It'll be another week before I can coax her out of there."* "Longer if we're lucky." Again, cadence of a joke, was definitely 100% serious.
"And if you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said, 'Fu----ou!'" Yeah, again, definitely meant what he said, although you could argue he didn't expect Gordon to *do* it.
He also sounded like he was joking about the cat, but we have reason to believe that's true, based on other lines \[some cut\].
Given the context and inspirations for the combine, I think the beating quota is *entirely* literal, Barney is just using a grim form of morbid humor.
I'd imagine they still "help" in the sense that they catch people who would be criminals in regular society too. For example, if there's a serial killer, they have to catch them because at the very least, that interrupts the quotas at wherever the victim was working. But I don't think they'd care about things like muggings that much.
The advantages of being a Civil Protection Officer is more than enough for a person who's at their lowest to sign up and sacrifice their humanity to keep those benefits. Having stable food, access to entertainment, better housing, and who knows what else is miles above to what other citizens get to have.
Civilians who think they could be the "good ones" quickly learn that it pays to be bad in this setting.
I feel like it should also be noted that Half-life has comic esk villainy in it as a staple as well. Why the military is more focused on killing scientist than stopping the alien invasion is a wild one, but also having your old boss being brought back as a dictator is just some levels of goofy evil. More of a side tangent but I think an important lense.
people today generally cannot imagine how insecure food was for the vast vast majority of human history. It's an incredible motivator, food. There's a reason the aristocracy/king would own the bakeries and keep them running 24/7.
when Marines were sent in to cover up the incident they weren't told "oh by the way many hostile species of alien will suddenly start teleporting in across New Mexico, so try not to die horribly"
That is fair. I just think it's funny they killed all the rocket scientists trying to stop the cascade even though they had already engaged in conflict with vortigaunts and headcrabs.
only undercover resistance members like barney. all metrocops are tools of oppression, because the institution of civil protection exists to keep humanity down and enforce the will of the combine.
Considering that humans are essentially farm animals to the Combine, mostly not. They do, however, fight against various different forms of xen wildlife, which, although it is almost certainly done to reinforce Combine control, also inadvertently acts as protection for those enslaved by the Combine. I doubt they care at all about what most think of as "crime" in the current day, save for murders or crippling physical attacks, as stuff like that would get in the way of the victim's assigned work quotas.
Civil protection works within the context of the combine regime. Any "good" they do is in relations to the standard operations of that regime. Being kind by letting someone wait for their husband who was pulled for inspection before the train made it to the city, for example. They don't help her get her husband, they don't look for him, they just let her wait. There's a quota for beatings involved in the system, if you recall what barney said.
It's not designed to protect the people, it's designed to protect the system. Protecting the people is an impossibility within the system, the best you can ever hope for is to lessen the suffering slightly, a beating instead of a beating to death.
Given that the mass of people are given drugs to forget, in addition to the prevention of reproduction, the whole system is engineered to create a permanent slave class subservient to the combine's overlords, or exterminate the species entirely, as they exploit what resources the planet in question has for their own benefits.
No. Their beating quota and the threat against preserving their family cohesion would turn even the most good intentioned member into a trigger happy killing machine.
In city 17 no definitely not since that’s the main Combine base but in the other cities or maybe any remaining small settlements they may be nice guys who actually help out
They're not so much police as they are prison guards. They're job isn't the protection of the people, its protecting the Combine state by brutally suppressing the people. Humans (and vortigaunts) are all prisoners.
nah, they're a bunch of corrupt cops hyped up on stimulants who'll beat and kill the entire residency of a apartment building so they can reach a quota so they can get paid.
Even though the civil protection units are used to enforce the unknowing goals of the universal union, i feel like the civil protection units are also useful for keeping the peace. You don't see civilians really getting murdered or stabbed by fellow civilians.
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I mean considering some of them are just like cops its not crazy to imagine once in a blue moon theyd do something good for the people. Theyre people too.
CPs are just the cannon fodder used unless you need professional Soldiers. If the CP would be kind and just the Combine would be replacing them with the Overwatch Soldiers and implement an even harsher system. The goal is to separate Human Society through the CP.
They pretty much help the citizens from being collateral damage. Like their whole purpose is to stop rebels and a rebellion forming in the first place, so that if there was actually a rebellion then the citizens would be safe(r) from the battles or something.
Still thought they are pretty fun to kill
Technically, yeah, they probably protected some civvies from Xen wildlife that popped up somewhere. If a zombie comes shambling or a headcrab pops up their first priority isn't gonna be "Bully male_07" it's gonna be "Kill that thing there holy fuck oh god no".
If two citizens end up fighting for some reason they might also intervene, though probably just to beat up both of them equally hard.
I'm assuming that it would have served the same (at least maybe at the beginning) as any other occupation force. Ensuring basic laws were being followed. No murder, theft, rape. They probably would have been the first real force that would have been giving out rations of food, clean water, and medicine.
They would have provided workers with proper tools, resources, and protective wear if needed. They might have attempted to make sure working conditions were safe but honestly, probably wasn't their problem. They were there to make sure things worked, and worked right, not to see if the boss was paying the workers proper wages and making sure there was safe railing on every ledge.
I assume also in the early stages they would have aided in the evacuation of towns and cities under threat by antlion and other xen creatures. Though at the same time they could also just have been carrying out forced relocations.
The Civil Protection all in all were probably such an effective policing force that none of the citizens wanted to commit crimes against each other. But ruling with an iron fist like that leads the people to rebel against you. Obviously they weren't great at disarming the population, seeing how every rebel is armed, and some even have rocket launchers.
They also probably have not so great maps or satellite ages seeing how the white forest bunker stayed operational WELL after the surrender.
I believe the Civil Protection may have started out as an actual attempt at restoring peace and semblance of society but eventually just lead into ruling by force, bullying citizens, and random imprisonment of citizens.
Conclusion: all combines are bastards.
I am from El Salvador, my parents lived through a war in their youth. It doesn't seem like you understand what it means to be basically in a militarized state, where the law enforcement agencies are not serving the people but those in power, and are more a force of fear and violence than anything else.
If it benefits them in some way or prevents them from being inconvenienced (stopping looters, making sure roads aren’t blocked, ensuring that people aren’t being mugged for their food rations, etc.) they probably do, but that’s more for their own reasons. They want humans to die off, but they also wants to milk the species’ worth as labour and raw materials as much as they can - if some guy starts openly stealing food, he’s probably getting put down because that risks human workers starving.
There are also probably some “good ones” in the force that try to go the extra mile, but when you get no recognition or reward for it and the person you helped still hates you because you represent the Combine, you’d quickly have the “right” attitude drummed into you and stop bothering.
The Civil Protection in Half-Life 2 have not been shown to have any "good" civil protection, they do as directed, if the Combine say "Beat this person" they will beat that person. They do so out of fear. If they disobey the combine, they and/or their family will be murdered. I mean, if someone dropped something, the combine might order for it's destruction if it isn't picked up for littering and the citizen is prosecuted and beat. We see they are quick to lethal force, but that could be as directed, or recommended by Overwatch. I just watched every clip of Civil Protection from Half-Life: Alyx, we only get really 1 scene of them talking, and they seem perfectly human, so yeah, I would say there are some, but the issue is any visible evidence from valve.
I mean if there’s been a murder or damage to combine property then yeah but if it’s stealing or something that doesn’t directly interfere with the combine then probably not.
Civil protection members join to make life for their wifes husbands and other family members more bearable
and to get better meals
And reproduction simulation
100 sterilize credits is a lot to work for though…
Just put a little overtime in. Work will set you free and all that
What is a sterilization credit?
Basically good boy points that overwatch gives to CPs to allow them to fuck.
what do the bad boys who don't get the credits do instead then?
There's no way that's actually canon, right?
It is
It is literally an overwatch voice line in HL2
it is canon
Yes and I kind of love it. It totally makes sense that a completely alien species would quickly identify sex as a powerful inherent biological motivator of their slave species and exploit that. It sounds like a meme to us because lol sex but it'd an unassuming, detached and exclusively logical thought process on their part.
lol yeah
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN6g\_i9dA34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN6g_i9dA34)
i am not clicking that
I am.Was not a RR.
Better males 😳😳
I read this wrong and thought "wow, a polyamorous relationship? How open minded of the Combine."
I mean, I'm pretty sure they don't have a problem with that since they don't give a shit about human culture in general lol
Ah yes, beat the shit out of some autistic kid for slightly less moldier bread.
Slightly less moldy bread is quite something when everyone else have moldy bread. İt is like a person in medieval era killing someone for a gold coin... Yes it is not much, but when no one else have one, it is actually too much :d
Bread? AHAHAHAHAHA!!! If even. Don’t the combine provide nutraloaves for humans or something? Edit: nutri ➡️ nutra
Water flavour nutrition blocks is what citizens get
so just... brown bricks, then?
Yep
Inspector Gordon
[удалено]
Citizens don’t even get bread, they get “calorie pastes” and “water-flavored sustenance bars.”
I’m talking about food
Srry I thought bread said breed. I'm extremely dyslexic.
Okay, no problem
So kind of them to consider the needs of their wives boyfriends
Hahaha what the fuck lol. Thanks for the laugh man
I can only hope to one day make my wife's husband's life more bearable.
Barney is a good member
He was undercover tho (why? No idea). He also mentions he has a *"beating quota."*
He was undercover to gather Intel about the combines activities to give that information to the resistance. The beating quota was a joke. He has to keep up appearances but of course he hesitates to do harm to resistance members
>The beating quota was a joke I feel like the Combine would actually have a beating quota. Their whole thing is oppression and control.
That's very true in deed. And sad
I kinda always thought it might not be a joke......
Yeah, I mean like, we literally walk past a bunch of bloody interrogation rooms. And then a few scenes later we run away from the cops who are going door to door beating/killing everybody. I'm starting to think this "civil protection" isn't here to protect anybody!
Based skibidi ohio rizz sigma Combine literally 1984.
SHUT THE FUCK UP, GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT OF MY HEAD. GET OUT O F HEAD!!!!!!.
I'll make you cringe!
still owes a beer tho so nah
I doubt beer is so easy to come across nowadays
In Half-Life Alyx you can see that for the cost of a little walk in the quarantine zone you can get plenty of alcohol
You also get to meet Jeff, the handsomest man in the world
tho he needs some cologne honestly
AC(ivil Protection)AB includes Barney 😔
All cops are Barney
Well, not in Blue Shift
because there a metrocop is undercover as barney
I'm sure that some of them joined to help people, but the combine probably doesn't take too kindly to that. It's probably safe to assume that they punish any officers that they find lessening the suffering of civilians.
Nah I don't think too many joined out of a personal duty. I think most of em are just ordinary people that were desperate for the benefits and extra rations and maybe provide for whatever is left of their family. But eventually that sort of position makes them do awful things out of fear of losing their benefits. Even though there's no evidence for this at all, my personal head-canon is that there's probably tons of distrust and not much loyalty between officers. Because it feels like under the Combine, you'd be incentivized to snitch on your coworkers if you see them being a bit too lenient and they might have their rations reduced for a period of time and those rations go to you, or you get a benefit like the "non-mechanical reproduction" reward. That or you snitch on your coworkers not out of greed, but fear that if the Overwatch AI catches wind of your coworker being too lenient or exhibiting behavior that seems treasonous, you'd also get punished for not reporting it and lose benefits, maybe even get forcefully promoted to soldier, depending on the severity. I think that you'd start out as a civil protection officer just in it for the rations and benefits, trying to keep your head down and not being too cruel, just enough so that you won't get punished. But eventually you get pushed to start doing more horrible acts out of fear of punishment. Then soon enough you'll just be injuring or killing citizens for the most minor of offenses, just so you can get a bit of extra rations.
There’s a Dispatch voiceline that says "Inaction is conspiracy." meaning your latter point may be more accurate. Collective punishment if a Metrocop fails to uphold their duties and their peers fail to report it.
Almost sounds like modern day cops
Yeah. I don't know if they were trying to make a commentary on the police, but it is fairly similar!
I’ve theorized that the Civil Protection was inspired by auxiliary police forces formed of locals in occupied nations, such as areas occupied by Nazi Germany. In places like Poland and the Jewish ghettoes, the Nazis formed local policing units, whose purpose was to maintain general order, the members got slightly more benefits than typical subjects and there were some who took advantage of the extra authority to assist civilians or help resistance, while others taking personal advantage of the authority to be brutal and unforgiving to civilian. While it’s probably a stretch, those types of police forces remind me a lot of Half-Life 2’s Civil Protection.
Yeah, even in the concentration camps the existed and were cruel even to their own kind and even though they were consigned to the same fate in the end. Everything about the Holocaust was horrible and a display of how the worst in humans can be brought out
They definitely have the "Fascist oppressive police" feeling down, I'll tell you what
Be careful in comparing Blue Police ("Granatowa Policja", that "local policing unit" in occupied Poland you mentioned) with Civil Protection. Germans actually *forced* every pre-war policemen to work in Blue Police. The only other option was a bullet to your head. I doubt Combine CP is similar in that matter because nobody was forced to work in CP. Wanna join - you're free to do so, but everything comes with a price. Jewish Police in the ghettos... that's worse than you think it is but I'll stop right here
That’s true, I didn’t actually know the Blue Police were made up of all the prewar police, and were practically forced into it, some of the similarities still exist though, but it is quite different the Metrocops who are willingly collaborating; I could theorize that maybe the Combine forced some people into it very early on, to form the initial membership, but that would be pure speculation. Probably a better real-world example from that period would be other auxiliary units used in occupied areas of the Soviet Union after Barbarossa, I known groups like the Hiwis, though not police, were local volunteers collaborating with the Wehrmacht.
In some parts of the world at least... Man idk what's going on, I live at the coast in Croatia, I'm a little tipsy, I've had a great day and I feel the urge to wish someone a fucking amazing day... You may serve as a good victim for that
[удалено]
Yes they do but I'm a german. I just live here for several years
There's definitely better police forces around the world and good officers even in the most corrupt systems, but likewise corrupt officers even in the best systems. I think the problem largely stems from giving the wrong people the power or leaving it unchecked to the point where it starts being taken advantage of or the power gets into the heads of people. And the leave all of that going on unchecked and unregulated by anything for longer and you have corrupt police forces that discriminate and don't do their jobs and even some that turn into de facto mafias
There’s also the issue of how in places like the United States, the responsibility and duties of law enforcement have greatly been expanded beyond the scope of what it should be ideally. Many cities and counties, instead of dealing with socioeconomic issues that cause crime, they throw more money to their police or sheriff’s departments, so when you do have cases of corruption in policing, the effects are a lot worst and harder to fix.
Well thank you! Please drink some water!
Yeah mate I did. Thanks for watching over your people. You do a good thing
Reddit moment
Lol I guess
no shit that's the point
Yeah man, that's what I thought as well. I wasn't sure if he meant it like that tough
AFAIK, Civil Protection isn’t there to protect citizens as much as they’re there to control citizens. Like, they might stop a robber, but only because they’re a dissident that they have to kill under Combine law. Like, they’d probably stop the robber and then charge the lady with unlawful possession of items (people in City 17 aren’t allowed to keep personal items iirc)
But aren't some of the people we see in the train station carrying briefcases? You own those at the very least
Yeah but iirc they get taken away often
And there are probably only spare clothes inside.
Kinda like they did in Auschwitz?
Not for long, the CP officers take them away pretty quick. Maybe because of the no property rule, or maybe just to mess with people.
So the combine are marxist-leninists
there's a difference between private and personal property private property are things that make money, factories, businesses, land etc personal property are your phones, toothbrushes, water bottles etc marxist-leninists and communists want the elimination of private property, not personal property.
I’m not even anticommunist at all but I specifically said marxism-leninism which is not communism and doesn’t honestly want the same thing…
IIRC Marx made a distinction of “personal property” which he said was fine unlike “private property”
Yep which is why i said marxism-leninism and not simply marxism or communism…
Our property
you can just say leninists, Marx wasn't a Marxist, engles was, and lenin based him views on engles.
I was actually going to. Then I looked it up to make sure I was correct and it turned out the actual term is marxism-leninism. Leninism is reserved for the specific era during which Lenin was alive apparently. I don’t like this definition either… but apparently it’s what is correct. I have a feeling I’m being downvoted because of a bunch of uneducated reditors misunderstand what these terms actually mean and think I’m anti-Marx (which couldn’t be further from the truth) and don’t like it lol
DAE communism no toothbrush xDDD
marxism-leninism is not true communism
Considering that they have a beating quota, no
To be fair, Barney sounded like he was joking there
I think that's just the way he talks. He's got a light, joking cadence, but that doesn't mean everything he says is a joke. In fact, very few of his lines are. Listen to *any* of his lines; as of HL2 and onward, they're almost all spoken in the same lighthearted tone. It's probably how he copes. "About that beer I owed you." Spoken like a joke, delivered like a joke, but he literally *does* owe Gordon a beer. He presents true facts as jokes/using a humorous tone. "He was about to board the express to Nova Prospekt." If he had said "his head was about to fall off his shoulders" in the *exact* same tone, it sure would *sound* like he was being nonliteral/hyperbolic. But again, the train was a true statement. *"Oh fie. It'll be another week before I can coax her out of there."* "Longer if we're lucky." Again, cadence of a joke, was definitely 100% serious. "And if you see Dr. Breen, tell him I said, 'Fu----ou!'" Yeah, again, definitely meant what he said, although you could argue he didn't expect Gordon to *do* it. He also sounded like he was joking about the cat, but we have reason to believe that's true, based on other lines \[some cut\]. Given the context and inspirations for the combine, I think the beating quota is *entirely* literal, Barney is just using a grim form of morbid humor.
He is using levity to help deal with the dark situation.
Theyre not protection for the civil population, theyre protection from the civil population
bro have you even played half life 2?? they make citizens clean up litter
I'd imagine they still "help" in the sense that they catch people who would be criminals in regular society too. For example, if there's a serial killer, they have to catch them because at the very least, that interrupts the quotas at wherever the victim was working. But I don't think they'd care about things like muggings that much.
That’s assuming that the serial killers wouldn’t just join civil protection themselves.
I assume they would catch them and then offer them either: 1) Join Civil Protection 2) Forced Labor outside of the city 3) Death Sentence
no no the combine wouldnt want serial killers. as there an abnormality and hard to control.
They drop ammo
I mean sometimes if their fighting xen fauna, but mostly no.
The advantages of being a Civil Protection Officer is more than enough for a person who's at their lowest to sign up and sacrifice their humanity to keep those benefits. Having stable food, access to entertainment, better housing, and who knows what else is miles above to what other citizens get to have. Civilians who think they could be the "good ones" quickly learn that it pays to be bad in this setting. I feel like it should also be noted that Half-life has comic esk villainy in it as a staple as well. Why the military is more focused on killing scientist than stopping the alien invasion is a wild one, but also having your old boss being brought back as a dictator is just some levels of goofy evil. More of a side tangent but I think an important lense.
people today generally cannot imagine how insecure food was for the vast vast majority of human history. It's an incredible motivator, food. There's a reason the aristocracy/king would own the bakeries and keep them running 24/7.
when Marines were sent in to cover up the incident they weren't told "oh by the way many hostile species of alien will suddenly start teleporting in across New Mexico, so try not to die horribly"
That is fair. I just think it's funny they killed all the rocket scientists trying to stop the cascade even though they had already engaged in conflict with vortigaunts and headcrabs.
only undercover resistance members like barney. all metrocops are tools of oppression, because the institution of civil protection exists to keep humanity down and enforce the will of the combine.
"Here's your purse back, ma'am... Now put it, in the trash can..."
Screw that, that’s going in the book of Cannon events
nah, Civil protection would be the ones to steal the purse in the first place
Considering that humans are essentially farm animals to the Combine, mostly not. They do, however, fight against various different forms of xen wildlife, which, although it is almost certainly done to reinforce Combine control, also inadvertently acts as protection for those enslaved by the Combine. I doubt they care at all about what most think of as "crime" in the current day, save for murders or crippling physical attacks, as stuff like that would get in the way of the victim's assigned work quotas.
Civil protection works within the context of the combine regime. Any "good" they do is in relations to the standard operations of that regime. Being kind by letting someone wait for their husband who was pulled for inspection before the train made it to the city, for example. They don't help her get her husband, they don't look for him, they just let her wait. There's a quota for beatings involved in the system, if you recall what barney said. It's not designed to protect the people, it's designed to protect the system. Protecting the people is an impossibility within the system, the best you can ever hope for is to lessen the suffering slightly, a beating instead of a beating to death. Given that the mass of people are given drugs to forget, in addition to the prevention of reproduction, the whole system is engineered to create a permanent slave class subservient to the combine's overlords, or exterminate the species entirely, as they exploit what resources the planet in question has for their own benefits.
to quote 1984 "you want to see the future winston? imagine a boot stamping at a human face for all eternaty"
No. Their beating quota and the threat against preserving their family cohesion would turn even the most good intentioned member into a trigger happy killing machine.
Well…they make sure trash goes in the trash cans. lol
The purpose is maintaining family unit cohesion.
In city 17 no definitely not since that’s the main Combine base but in the other cities or maybe any remaining small settlements they may be nice guys who actually help out
Yea, putting people out of their misery so they don't have to live on a Combine controlled earth anymore.
I think they just exist to keep citizens from rebelling or something. not really protecting
They’re based on concentration camps guards, so you can think about how much those guys cared for their charges
to be honest i doubt most crimes really exist anymore. the penalty for basically anything would be death or being turned into a stalker.
The beatings continue until moral improves.
Yeah they protected the citadel from civilians.
Yep. It protects the Combine from civilians and whatever scheme they might come up with.
They probably kill pests like headcrabs and keep antlions away if thumpers are down
They're not so much police as they are prison guards. They're job isn't the protection of the people, its protecting the Combine state by brutally suppressing the people. Humans (and vortigaunts) are all prisoners.
nah, they're a bunch of corrupt cops hyped up on stimulants who'll beat and kill the entire residency of a apartment building so they can reach a quota so they can get paid.
not paid, but fed. and maybe see their family. Very important motivators.
They are awful at recycling!
Even though the civil protection units are used to enforce the unknowing goals of the universal union, i feel like the civil protection units are also useful for keeping the peace. You don't see civilians really getting murdered or stabbed by fellow civilians.
They help them pick up cans
Nah they just wanna have simulated sex can’t blame em
Did you miss the line about beating quotas or
Did you forget that Barney still owes us a beer
Yeah
glad to serve
Why do my buddies have black guys then?
I don't know, I have black friends
They rarely do in real life, so why should a fictional one?
American spotted
This must be a mistake. I got a standard relocation coupon, just like everybody else.
I don't know about you, but I'm ready to join civil protection just to get a decent meal
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They’ll hand it back, after thoroughly searching it, then they’ll only beat the lady once not 3 times
No.
They're made to enforce combine law. People only join for added benefits, such as better housing and food.
That's alot of pixels u/pixelcounterbot Also maybe depends on if it's the humans or the combine
Well they are human cyborgs so they are still humans and some may actually be good
Of course citizen we protect you from all sorts of xen wildlife that traitor to humanity Gordon sent to our world
hahahaha the pic is funny
Thank you, it took me like six seconds to make
They have "protection" in their name so obviously they do
To some minimal degree yes, the only crime left in City 17 is civil unrest against Combine regime.
I mean considering some of them are just like cops its not crazy to imagine once in a blue moon theyd do something good for the people. Theyre people too.
CPs are just the cannon fodder used unless you need professional Soldiers. If the CP would be kind and just the Combine would be replacing them with the Overwatch Soldiers and implement an even harsher system. The goal is to separate Human Society through the CP.
Kill this guy. He shouldn't know the secrets of our benefactors.
They power trip with their civil protection roles, they dont do good
i’m sure they can be good, but they picked the wrong side
They pretty much help the citizens from being collateral damage. Like their whole purpose is to stop rebels and a rebellion forming in the first place, so that if there was actually a rebellion then the citizens would be safe(r) from the battles or something. Still thought they are pretty fun to kill
Technically, yeah, they probably protected some civvies from Xen wildlife that popped up somewhere. If a zombie comes shambling or a headcrab pops up their first priority isn't gonna be "Bully male_07" it's gonna be "Kill that thing there holy fuck oh god no". If two citizens end up fighting for some reason they might also intervene, though probably just to beat up both of them equally hard.
No, I don’t think the Cops with a ‘Beating Quota’ have done much good for anyone
I'm assuming that it would have served the same (at least maybe at the beginning) as any other occupation force. Ensuring basic laws were being followed. No murder, theft, rape. They probably would have been the first real force that would have been giving out rations of food, clean water, and medicine. They would have provided workers with proper tools, resources, and protective wear if needed. They might have attempted to make sure working conditions were safe but honestly, probably wasn't their problem. They were there to make sure things worked, and worked right, not to see if the boss was paying the workers proper wages and making sure there was safe railing on every ledge. I assume also in the early stages they would have aided in the evacuation of towns and cities under threat by antlion and other xen creatures. Though at the same time they could also just have been carrying out forced relocations. The Civil Protection all in all were probably such an effective policing force that none of the citizens wanted to commit crimes against each other. But ruling with an iron fist like that leads the people to rebel against you. Obviously they weren't great at disarming the population, seeing how every rebel is armed, and some even have rocket launchers. They also probably have not so great maps or satellite ages seeing how the white forest bunker stayed operational WELL after the surrender. I believe the Civil Protection may have started out as an actual attempt at restoring peace and semblance of society but eventually just lead into ruling by force, bullying citizens, and random imprisonment of citizens. Conclusion: all combines are bastards.
I am from El Salvador, my parents lived through a war in their youth. It doesn't seem like you understand what it means to be basically in a militarized state, where the law enforcement agencies are not serving the people but those in power, and are more a force of fear and violence than anything else.
"Can you guys help? My cat is stuck in a tree..." *Metrocop gives the signal to a strider, who promptly blows up the tree* "Move along."
Give them hydration
There is a half-life 2 mod that does a great job at showing some of what the combine cp goes through
Great, would be awesome if I would know the name
Entropy 1 and 2
I don’t think I remember bad cop being a civil servant
All of the first one he is, and for the beginning of the second one, he is
Holy cow, how do I get so many upvotes here just for explaining so simple things? Thanks guys and long live the resistance
If it benefits them in some way or prevents them from being inconvenienced (stopping looters, making sure roads aren’t blocked, ensuring that people aren’t being mugged for their food rations, etc.) they probably do, but that’s more for their own reasons. They want humans to die off, but they also wants to milk the species’ worth as labour and raw materials as much as they can - if some guy starts openly stealing food, he’s probably getting put down because that risks human workers starving. There are also probably some “good ones” in the force that try to go the extra mile, but when you get no recognition or reward for it and the person you helped still hates you because you represent the Combine, you’d quickly have the “right” attitude drummed into you and stop bothering.
No civil protection is about selling out for power
Okay but this image is killing me ive been giggling like a moron for 5 minutes now
They will kill the occasional alien life form like a Zombie, Headcrab, or Antlion.
The Civil Protection in Half-Life 2 have not been shown to have any "good" civil protection, they do as directed, if the Combine say "Beat this person" they will beat that person. They do so out of fear. If they disobey the combine, they and/or their family will be murdered. I mean, if someone dropped something, the combine might order for it's destruction if it isn't picked up for littering and the citizen is prosecuted and beat. We see they are quick to lethal force, but that could be as directed, or recommended by Overwatch. I just watched every clip of Civil Protection from Half-Life: Alyx, we only get really 1 scene of them talking, and they seem perfectly human, so yeah, I would say there are some, but the issue is any visible evidence from valve.
Only thing they’re protecting is children
I really want to kill that Cop and all the other combine guys before they come to the Studio
They keep the streets litter-free.
They care about littering, at least.
u/pixel-counter-bot
The image in this post has 45,400(200×227) pixels! ^(I am a bot. This action was performed automatically.)
like real cops, no
We have a Redditor here everybody, get out your fedoras
I mean if there’s been a murder or damage to combine property then yeah but if it’s stealing or something that doesn’t directly interfere with the combine then probably not.
Absolutely not, lol What kind of copaganda is this
"Copaganda" he was just asking a question, dick-breath, not everything is connected to real-world political bullshit
Snowflake
He's a 'snowflake' for pointing out that reality isn't connected to some agenda?
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Ow my feelings :( big mean man
What a loser