1. Half-life 2 Synergy

For The Orange Box on the PlayStation 3, a GameFAQs message board topic titled 'Half-Life 2: Our Benefactors Freeze Glitch'.

So there have been a lot of theories on the G-Man from half life and half life 2. Given his mysterious nature, people have theorized he could be things from god to future Gordon. Here is my theory. I think he is a rebellious member of the combine, formerly ranking high in the Combine hierarchy. First let me explain my general theory:

The General Theory

The G-Man has decided to go against the Combine social order that he was a part of (He was part of the ruling races). For whatever reason he decided that getting the humans involved in the empire was the best way to tear it apart. So he initiates the Resonance Cascade (There are a lot of theories about how/why he did that, and it was confirmed in episode 2). Wanted to trouble the Combine as much as possible, he takes attention to Gordon, who is considerably good at messing up, well... everything. Thus he puts Gordon in stasis to be used later. When he finds the right time, he pulls Gordon out again to be a nuisance to the Combine. We don't know why the G-Man decided to go against his civilization or exactly how important he was, but I have theories on that to. To get to those, however, first I need to explain my proof.

The Proof

Lets start from the beginning. What is the G-Man? Whatever race he is, he is part of the race that is the ruling class of the combine, NOT a slave to anyone. He is part of the races that make up the 'Benefactors' as mentioned in HL2. Of course, he goes against the Benefactors over the series of the games. Why do we know he isn't a slave? Well he doesn't resemble one. This is explained in the next paragraph.

The G-Man knew that opening the Resonance Cascade to Xen would cause the oppressed races there to jump to the chance to Earth. How did he know this? Here's another theory, he owned The Nihilanth (end boss of HL1) as a slave. In the slave-master society of the Combine, someone owns a sentient slave who, in proxy, owns the lower races. How do we know the Nihilanth is a slave? Well lets look at how the Combine like to control people. The stalkers of Half-Life 2 are rebellious humans who have had their limbs removed and minds controlled. Lets look at the Nihilanth, his limbs are stubby and considerably smaller than his body and he has a similar pale 'Tortured' complexion that the stalkers have. So what does this imply? The Nihilanth was a rebellious creature who was defeated and created a slave by the combine. He was given to the G-Man as a slave (Xen was his 'plantation'). The G-Man knew that, if he opened a portal to Xen, the disloyal Nihilanth would try again to liberate himself and his lower races. That's how the G-Man knew that opening a portal to specifically Xen would cause the most hysteria among not only the humans, but the Combine (remember he is doing this all to be a pain in the Combine's butt).

So we know how the G-Man knew that this would work, but how does he have the power? What are his capabilities as one of the races that rule the Combine? Well, he is very smart. He perfectly understands portal technology and how to imitate human behavior. But how capable is he in combat? Well he couldn't take the entire Combine by himself, probably. That's why he got the humans involved, because he believes 'he right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world'. Maybe his intentions are just to harass the Combine, to be a pain in their big plans. But why would he want to do this? This is where we get to the...

G-Man's inner intentions and the expanded theory

So we know that the G-Man is a rebellious combine, but why? Now here is where it gets closer to my personal opinion, but here it is. The G-Man is a crazy anarchist. In that way he is much like the joker. He just wants to see the Combine world burn. So why do I think this?

Half-life 2 Synergy

• He talks like a madman (he definitely doesn't speak right, and he always speaks in an eerie tone)

• He isn't necessarily on the human's side (remember he started the Resonance Cascade, enslaving the human race)

• While he could engage personally in the fighting of the Combine, he just watches, using Gordon as a proxy. Not very efficient, but sounds like something an insane criminal would do.

TL;DR The G-Man is a rogue Combine who decided to harass his own civilization because... well why not have some fun when your a crazy space being (like literally... he's insane). Knowing that The Nihilanth would try to escape from slavery if a portal was opened from Xen, the G-Man sets up the Resonance Cascade. Besides hurting the humans, this also hurts the Combine, as they now have to deal with all of these escaped slaves. The G-Man also sets up the events of HL2 to continue to be a pain to the Combine. All he wants is to be an annoyance to the Combine, to go against his society because he is a crazy anarchist. Even if he knows he can't take out the entire empire, he still can show his crazy ideology by messing up the Combine in one small area of the Combine civilization.