Understanding Alyx Vance (1/2)

Always thought it was super gnarly how the last thing folks heard from half life for 10+ years was “don’t leave me”

That commentary of how she loved playing Alyx in the end made her not being Alyx in HLA even more upsetting for me. I adore her performance as Alyx, and the new voice actress did a fantastic job. But Merle was that character and was very obviously moved deeply by that character. As a voice actor myself I understand this so much and I hope she gets another chance at Alyx in the future. This video was wonderful by the way, it perfectly describes how well they fleshed out her character and made her not just a badass girlboss that most media uses to represent "strong" women, but she has flaws, ambitions, grief, fears, motivation and she is stubborn even to her own detriment. That is not just a well fleshed out female lead, but a well fleshed out lead in general. Alyx is easily one of my favourite characters in any media of all time.

It's so cute that Alyx views Kleiner as an Uncle.

It really is absurd how convincing Alyx was, considering how old HL2 and its episodes are. Looking forward to part 2 :D

Deadass I get shocked at how much your voice is progressing with each video. Also, I honestly hadn't even realized alyx had been captured until breen revealed her. Not because she wasn't memorable, or wasn't a good character, but because I was too excited about saving the city to pick up on dog's obsession with getting you into the citadel being a sign she was in there.

I remember being around 12 years old and seeing Alyx pick me up off the ground for the first time. Before that, I'd only played games like Call of Duty 1, and GTA 3 (and other random PS1 kids games) The way her face was animated, it was real to me in that moment, and it was right there for me to see every detail. From the very beginning, I knew Half Life 2 was going to stay with me forever.

Your community has brough me a lot of friends. I thank you that you exist. My life literally would be less without your existence <3

The VR mods made me especially happy that I could finally fulfill my dream of giving Alyx a hug 🫂

The hunter attack on ep2 was a BIG DEAL for me, I was scared of those things even towards the end game!

This brought a new light onto Alyx I never saw before, really well done! Kinda makes me sad to think they retconned the ending of ep. 2 as it really changes the growth wanted for Alyx within the story.

I remember playing Half Life 2 EP2 on an Oculus Rift DK2 dev kit back when I was learning how to make games on it. I recall driving along in that little buggy, looking over to Alex who was my passanger and she looked at me with that same look as 21:37. I never felt more immersed in a game :D

There's something about Half Life 2's character animation which feels more alive than a lot of more recent games.

Got to say, the one thing I hated about HL: Alyx was how they essentially retconned the ending of E2. Her losing her dad was horrible, but it was so impactful and important. It felt like it was stolen by the ending being changed. As if nothing impactfully bad could be allowed to happen. It felt cheap and still does when I look back on it, especially since it also made the pain she was going through so very down to earth real. As much as we can relate to her fighting aliens, the pain of losing family, losing your parents is something that all of us either went through or will go through. And wanting for it not to happen is only natural, but her being given a chance to actually do that...? It feels more like fan-fiction than a depiction of what felt like a realistic world. I hate it.

No way, just last night I binged all your HL videos after one popped up on the side, thinking damn I wish she made more, and here it is! Very excited :))

I adore Alyx and this is such a well made video! the community around this game can sometimes really shallow her down and its so nice to finally see someone with a simmilar viewpoint :) <3 great job! ill look foreward to the next upload

I love alyx and Merle Dandridge. I hope she comes back.

chief I think you rambling about how great Alyx is the most hopeless lesbian thing I've seen since me simply existing and I love it

My first time playing HL2 was in VR and it was a wild experience. The oppression penetrates so deep walking around the combine in person

I love how even though I’ve been a fan of the games since they came out, you help me appreciate them more and more with each video

Cool bug facts: alyx my beloved