Breen was right. "If the transhuman forces are to prove themselves an indispensable augmentation to the Combine Overwatch, they will have to earn the privilege. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that the alternative, if you can call it that, is total extinction – in union with all the other unworthy branches of the species. " The combine successfully invades Earth in 7 hours, and could have easily wiped humanity off the planet. It's either die or live to become one of 'them' and hope to god something big happens to save you before the combine find the secret to in-universe teleportation. What other choice does he have than to buy humanity precious time?
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Did Breen cause genocide on a mass scale? Yes. Is he a villain? Yes. Absolutely. My point is that he's a pawn of a greater evil empire. And without more powerful beings, the humans have no chance.
It still sounds like bootlicking to me. Sure, there's an argument to be made that without him the Combine would have killed everyone. But considering his character, I think that's just what he wants you to think. His goal all along was not to save humanity, but to get more bargaining power over the Combine. They conveniently put him in charge of the entire planet. His speeches would have you believe that his goals are altruistic, but those are nothing but propaganda. Just think if Dr. Vance negotiated the surrender instead. Sure, anyone in that position would need to make difficult choices, but Breen was in it for himself.
I agree. His propaganda is deliberately made to have some truth to them, but bastardized in a way that makes the combine seem reasonable. You are right about Breen wanting us to believe that the combine would eliminate humanity. If they wanted to, the combine could have eliminated humanity. It's not in their interest to do that because humans can build the portal technology they want. It seems like the combine don't really care about humanity or trans-humanity as much as they care about assimilating resources and technology. The person benefiting the most from humans joining the combine is Breen so he can strengthen his grip on humanity. The rest of the combine just wants the technology. Thank you for this discussion! It feels good to get a deeper understanding of half-life 2's story, and I appreciate that a lot.