Alyx Vance

"When I plucked her from Black Mesa, I acted in the face of objections that she was a mere child and of no practical use to anyone. I have learned to ignore such naysayers when quelling them was out of the question."

- G-Man

Alyx Vance is one of the main protagonists of Half-Life 2, Episode One and Episode Two. She is portrayed as a woman in her early to mid twenties, and is a prominent figure in the Resistance against the rule of the Combine Empire.

Background
Alyx, like many of the human leaders of the Resistance based at Black Mesa East, is a former resident of the original Black Mesa Research Facility. She is the daughter of Dr. Eli Vance, a scientist from Black Mesa, who appeared briefly in the original Half-Life.

Alyx's mother, Azian Vance, is never encountered in-game, but can be seen in a family photograph in Black Mesa East. Azian lived in the facility's dormitories with Alyx, but died during the Black Mesa Incident.

Half-Life 2


Alyx is arguably the most important character in Half-Life 2, as she helps Gordon Freeman more frequently and directly than any other character. Her first appearance is in the first chapter of the game, Point Insertion, in a scene where Gordon has been intercepted by Civil Protection units while he is still an unarmed civilian. Alyx rushes in the room and apparently takes down the CPs by herself (although this is not explicitly shown on-screen). Subsequently, she escorts Gordon to Kleiner's Lab, there they meet up with Barney and Kleiner. After Gordon puts on his Hev suit, they enter the teleportation room to be teleported to Eli Vance's lab in Black Mesa East. However, the two unintentionally part ways after Kleiner's teleportation device malfunctions, forcing Gordon to continue through City 17 on his own.

When Gordon finally arrives in Black Mesa East, he is welcomed by Alyx and her father, Eli Vance. Later, in Black Mesa East, she gives Gordon a gravity gun and demonstrates its use. Also, during this chapter, Alyx is shown having a heated argument with Dr. Judith Mossman, a hostility that appears justified as Mossman is revealed a traitor in the chapter titled Entanglement, where Gordon helps Alyx search Nova Prospekt for her captured father.

She fights alongside Gordon through a section of City 17 during the armed uprising in Anticitizen One, and provides indirect assistance to Gordon during the final confrontation with Dr. Breen in the final areas of the Citadel in Dark Energy. Also, Alyx seems to have made peace with Dr. Mossman after seeing her turn on Dr. Breen and release Gordon Freeman, Eli and Alyx herself from their imprisonment.

In the ending scene of Half-Life 2, Alyx is with Gordon Freeman at the time of the dark energy explosion. While the G-Man saves Gordon from the enormous blast, Alyx is apparently left behind, frozen in time with one arm shielding her eyes.

Half-Life 2: Episode One
Alyx manages to survive, being rescued by Vortigaunts, who also free Gordon from the influence of his "employer", the G-Man; after being teleported away to just outside the Citadel and briefly revisiting it, Alyx and Gordon stick together for most of Episode One, finally getting to the exit from City 17 and jumping on the last resistance train wagon heading out of the City just as the Citadel explodes.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Alyx appears in Episode Two throughout the game, and is almost always with the player. She once again rescues Gordon at the beginning of the game by using the gravity gun to free him from the remains of a crashed train, which fell off a bridge that was destroyed because of the citadel explosion at the end of Episode One.

At one point, she is severely injured by a Hunter, but is later healed by several Vortigaunts with the player's assistance. The only reason she is alive is because Gordon and a specific Vortigaunt stole the antlion extract from the antlion guardian. During the process of reviving her. The G-man interrupts and informs Gordon that the reason Alyx was alive during Half-Life 2 and it's expansions is because he "plucked" her from Black Mesa before the "resonance cascade" destroyed the facility, ignoring the orders from his superiors that she was a mere child and of no practical use. He tells Gordon to escort her to White Forest safely then tells Alyx to relay the words "prepare for unforeseen consequences. She then accompanies the player on their journey to get to White Forest, a large resistance base. Throughout the journey, she helps the player at many points, including providing sniping support for the player using a mounted Combine sniper rifle (this is the first time such a weapon can be seen by the player) as he makes his way through a zombie-infested industrial complex under a bridge.

Weapons
In Half-Life 2 and most of Episode One, Alyx is seen with her unique weapon, an automatic pistol, known simply as "Alyx's Gun" (from its entity name, ). This gun is not available to Freeman, although the player can obtain it via the cheat console, and it is also an available weapon to the player in some mods. However, late in Episode One, Alyx grabs a shotgun (identical to the one available to the player, which resembles a Franchi SPAS-12) and wields it throughout the hospital in Chapter 4. In both Half-Life 2 episodes, she also uses an Overwatch sniper rifle, although she is not actually seen when sniping (neither are Overwatch Snipers), and twice in the game she uses mounted Combine machine guns to provide cover fire for Gordon.

Personality and skills
Alyx is a skilled hacker, she is able to operate and manipulate Combine based-objects such as turrets with the help of her gear. Alyx wields an electronic multitool, which she utilizes in order to perform a variety of tasks, such as bypassing security systems and opening locked doors. In Episode One she also uses it to re-program rollermines to attack Combine troops and Stalkers. She is also very proficient with a pistol and in unarmed combat, and helps fight alongside Gordon briefly during both Entanglement and Anticitizen One in Half-Life 2. In Episode One, Alyx accompanies the player for most of the game and demonstrates fighting skills previously unseen, such as using shotguns and kicking a headcrab zombie in a fight.

Despite Alyx's friendly nature she shows some hostility towards Dr. Mossman because of Mossman's somewhat patronizing attitude towards her, as well as Mossman's interest in her father. At the end of Half-Life 2, this hostility has seemingly vanished, when Dr. Mossman helps to free Alyx and her father from the clutches of Dr. Breen.

Alyx also has a good sense of humour, as evidenced by the jokes she makes about various things, including the Combine and Gordon's silence ("Man of few words, huh?"). An example of this can be seen in the Lowlife chapter of Episode One, where she and the player navigate a series of zombie infested tunnels. During lulls in combat she makes noises like a zombie to scare the player, upon finding out it's her she will say "Hah, gotcha!". She tries to make another joke shortly after when entering a Combine Troop Train. She spots a dead Combine trooper with a headcrab where it's head should be. She tries to be funny, naming it a "Zombine". She quickly gets serious again when she looks at Gordon's face ("Get it? Zombine?  Ha ha ha... ooookay.").

Relationship with Gordon Freeman
Although Alyx was a child at the time of the Black Mesa Incident (at which point Gordon was 27 years old ), Gordon's almost two decades long stasis after Half-Life has more or less erased any age gap between the two.

At several points during Half-Life 2 (as well as in Episode One and Episode Two), it is suggested that there is a growing relationship developing between her and Gordon.

Half-Life 2

 * Alyx' father, Eli Vance's, comment when the three meet up for the first time in Black Mesa East. This is followed by a moment of awkward silence, and is also the first time such a relationship is mentioned in-game.
 * The chapter Entanglement contains several scenes, mainly when the couple are forced to part ways for some reason, with Alyx becoming pensive with worry and telling Gordon to be careful.

Half-Life 2: Episode One
Continuing this theme, Episode One contains several situations where this relationship is developed:
 * In the first chapter, Dog finds Gordon under a pile of rubble, and Alyx rushes at him and ardently embraces him, telling him how worried she was about him. However, she soon recovers her wits, acts embarrassed and changes the subject to more pressing concerns.
 * Like the Dark Energy elevator scenes in the previous game, Direct Intervention contains at least one scene with Gordon going down an elevator and Alyx telling him to "hurry back".
 * Additionally, a developer commentary given during this scene, verifies that a Gordon/Alyx relationship was indeed intended.
 * In the chapter Lowlife, when forced to go through sewage-like sludge, Alyx comments on Gordon's H.E.V. suit and jokingly asks "got room for two in there?".
 * In Urban Flight, having bridged a gap between two ruins (and given Gordon his trademark Crowbar) Barney Calhoun additionally implies that Gordon is fortunate to travel alongside Alyx.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Their possible relationship is hinted even more obviously in Episode Two:
 * In order to resurrect Alyx after a near-fatal attack by a Hunter, Gordon participates in a Vortigaunt ritual wherein his life is "weaved" with hers in a pact that might resemble a marriage (or a Vortigaunt variation) somewhat. After being informed as to the intense struggles Gordon went through to retrieve the antlion larval extract (which was essential to the ritual,) Alyx replies "Yep, that's Gordon."
 * After the previous highlighted scene, the Vortigaunt, Gordon and a weakened Alyx enter an elevator. Alyx asks Gordon to stand "next to her". This implicates that Alyx feels safer when he is near to her, at least when she was in her dizzy state.
 * In a sequence where Gordon must go ahead in order to clear out a Combine fortification, he jumps down a gap, leaving Alyx with some rebels above. The last thing heard is one of the rebels asking Alyx "So... Is he your boyfriend?"' - However, her answer cannot be heard.
 * In his most obvious comment her father jokes about that everyone should "do their part", playing off of Dr. Kleiner's speech to the public, along with expressing his desire for grandkids.

Behind the scenes

 * Actress Merle Dandridge provides Alyx's voice, while her face and body are modeled after Jamil Mullen. At the beginning of Episode One, Alyx gains a small scar above her right eyebrow; presumably inflicted from the blast of Half-Life 2 and having been dug "out of the rubble".


 * In the early stages of production, Eli and Alyx Vance had no relation, and she was the daughter of Captain Vance, leader of the Conscripts.


 * She had also a slightly different appearance: red hair (she still has a thin streak of red), a green jacket and a blue-green bodysuit. At one point, giving her braces was also an option.


 * Also, she was originally to carry a socket wrench that she could have used as a basic weapon, just like the crowbar for Gordon or the pipe wrench for Shephard.


 * Alyx was also to own a pet alien named "Skitch" (also known as "Snitch"), while Dog was just a rough idea and belonged to Eli (Maxwell and this stage) only. It had long "hypodermic teeth" that could apparently kill . It was merged with Dog for redundancy issues.

Trivia

 * Unlike other games that feature extremely vulnerable mission-critical characters, Half-Life 2 gives Alyx the ability to absorb a large amount of damage before death (due to the fact that her health regenerates extremely rapidly). It is still possible for her to die during combat however, and at several points the player is required to protect her from taking damage. Her death will result in a black screen fade and failure message, then game will reload from a previous checkpoint.


 * While it is possible for Gordon Freeman to fire on friendly characters, this causes no visible reactions and it appears that it is impossible to injure Alyx even indirectly with the Gravity Gun. This applies for all "friendly" characters. This is a switch from Half-Life, in which any and all characters (except the G-Man) could be easily killed by the player. It is mentioned in Half Life 2: Raising the Bar that friendly characters could be killed at one point, but this was removed because an NPC needed for an important trigger could be killed.


 * Just before Alyx and Gordon meet with Barney, a rebel asks Alyx if she is Kleiner's daughter and she sarcastically claims that she is the daughter of Odessa Cubbage, mirroring somehow the early stages of Half-Life 2’s production when she was to be the daughter of another military man, Captain Vance.


 * Alyx is referred to in Overwatch announcements as the "Vance Subprime."