Possible explanation of the HECU Marines psychotic behavior: The reasoning behind why many of the HECU Marines display psychotic behavior, may be due to the Gman negotiating terms with the US Military officials, to allow Section 8’s (personnel mentally unfit and discharged from service) into the Special Forces Unit. We can see this from the training boot camp level in OP4, as Adrian Shephard spots the Gman in a building from the courtyard with a base commander, having been one of many hand selected Marines from Force Recon to join with the HECU and its advanced training program. It’s a stark contrast to some of the level-headed members of the HECU such as Shephard and his team, who were shown to exercise restraint to captured Black Mesa Scientists in OP4, during the last evacuation effort of the remaining Marines that were able to get out of Black Mesa.
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1. That seems ablest 2. Shephard's team is still programmed to target scientists, and the only ones who aren't killed on sight are the ones being rounded up for information who will presumably be killed after 3. Soldiers committing war crimes with little question isn't that farfetched. Soldiers do that. Gman's only known intervention with the HECU is getting Shephard bumped up the training list, and there's not really any reason to believe he was more involved than that.
Shephard’s team being programmed to do so is a game mechanic, not a scripted sequence that can be counted as LORE. You would have to lead a teammate into an area where a scientist would be to have that occur, if they weren’t already killed by an enemy Black Ops NPC.
Also there’s still some conflicting information to saying that Shephard would’ve complied with the order. This is partly because he has been helped the most by the scientists, who again wouldn’t be helping Shephard if they did not trust him or his actions. Of course there are players who choose to go on a killing spree, but the story sequences remain intact.
My main point was that it seems really insensitive to say that the military are killing civilians relentlessly because the GMan made the HECU use mentally ill people. We get insight into their state of mind in On a Rail which is built on a little in Opposing Force.
They accuse Freeman of sabotage and get twisted in their own web of rumors and hate to convince themselves they're justified and they do question their orders, though not enough to stop acting on them. They're just as healthy as any other soldiers. They follow orders and they kill people. That's what soldiers do.
They aren’t soldiers, they are Marines. There is a difference, Gearbox made a script error with calling them soldiers. But this is just a possibility, nothing is really explained at this point.
The difference isn't really relevant here. Again, my main point here is that it's insensitive to say (especially with no actual evidence) that the soldiers are mentally ill just because they're following their orders to kill civilians. Killing people is really the whole point of the military.
I disagree because I come from a military family, the whole point is not to kill people, its primary purpose is to provide defense for the people within a territory. Killing is a unfortunate function that comes along with it, but it’s not the entire point. What the HECU did was beyond illegal especially because also it acted against it’s own civilian population. Federal Officials can and will be arrested for military crimes against US Civilians.
I could go on about why that is incorrect, but this is a Half-Life community and I don't want to start anything.
Being mentally unfit for the military doesn't make you mentally ill. A person could be unable to handle the stress from PT and potentially let go. Probably a bad choice of word but still.
He literally called their behavior psychotic.
Someone posted this on twitter and I thought it was fake but my god you are actually real.
Haha well I must say, I love the compliment! Who posted this on Twitter?
I don't see it reasonable as to why would the GMan would just magically convince some military officials about letting mentally unstable personnel inside a Special Operations unit, as it is dangerous for both civilians and soldiers. As seen in Opposing Force he could just do it under the official's noses by just forcing someone who's considered "unfit" and send them down into HECU.
I think you may need to re-read your statement there about it being dangerous for civilians and Marines. Lots of civilians and Marines died during the Black Mesa Incident, so I’m pretty sure safety was the least of his concerns. The reason being for my “possible” post is because lots of those unfit Marines were small pawns, expendable, and served a means to an end. He preserved the smart ones and individuals with limitless potential like Gordon and Adrian, either to fulfill a greater plan and/or to keep them out of the action, since he probably can’t simply just kill them for whatever reason acting on his own instinct despite what the Employers say.
So the "smart" ones got sent to fight in the 7HW, while the rest were cannon fodder, as if he was preserving them for the eventual fight against the Combine. Well thanks for this information.