Consoling Couple
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| Consoling Couple | |
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Human |
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Male/Female |
| Hair color |
Brown |
| Eye color |
Brown |
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The Consoling Couple is a couple of husband and wife[1] seen through the Half-Life 2 games story arc. In the first chapter of Half-Life 2, Point Insertion, a man sitting on a couch can be seen embracing a woman while she weeps over their grim situation. They appear in Half-Life 2, Episode One, and Episode Two at least once per game. They have been confirmed to be the same characters each time.[2]
Contents
Appearances[edit]
Half-Life 2[edit]
Gordon passes by them while going through the apartments in Point Insertion, just before the Civil Protection raid (map d1_trainstation_03).
They later appear in a different apartment in Anticitizen One, near the drawbridges, in Resistance attire. The man now sports a goatee (map d3_c17_06b).
Half-Life 2: Episode One[edit]
They can be seen, again in Resistance attire, on the ground floor of the building where Barney is met. However, this time the woman is not as upset and they can be heard making sarcastic remarks about Isaac Kleiner and Lamarr, Odessa Cubbage, the Resistance, and their current plight in general, such as missing the Combine or the Breencasts (map ep1_c17_02b).
Half-Life 2: Episode Two[edit]
Two skeletons can be found slumped in a similar pose on a couch in the Outlands, near the Autogun outpost. This sighting is only an Easter egg as they are seen alive later in the game (map ep2_outland_09).
When first going to visit Uriah at White Forest, the couple appears to have managed to leave City 17 alive, as it is seen through Eli's / Kleiner's office window (map ep2_outland_11).
Behind the scenes[edit]
The name "Consoling Couple" appears as the name of the "logic_choreographed_scene" script used by the NPCs, cits_consoling_couple.
According to Marc Laidlaw, the Consoling Couple was included in the game as a reference to the cameo characters Honey and Darling from the Legend of Zelda video games Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, because he liked the idea of self-contained characters "caught in a loop", indifferent to the player's actions and the main plot and adding the sense that the world continues beyond the boundary of the map, and that, in the case of Half-Life 2, not all the stories began on day one or will end with the final battle. At the start of Half-Life 2, the Consoling Couple deepens the sense of tragedy, and the horrible state of the world; the second time they are seen, they are intended as a joke, as their behavior has not changed despite the fact that they are in the center of an ongoing war.[2]
Gallery[edit]
Another view of the first Half-Life 2 appearance.
Ditto.
Second Half-Life 2 appearance.
Near Barney's post.
As skeletons near the Autogun outpost.
At White Forest.
List of appearances[edit]
- Half-Life 2 (First appearance)
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
References[edit]
- ↑ Half-Life 2 subtitle file
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The Hypermodern Muse" on Marc Laidlaw's official blog
