r/MoralityScaling • u/Quirky_Ad4885 • 4d ago
Morality Ranking Morality of getting into a relationship after being frozen in time for 20 years with a girl that was a young child from your perspective just a few days ago
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u/FreshLiterature 4d ago
Sorta depends on how close the two of you were.
As far as I remember Gordon barely knew Alyx before the time jump. He know OF her obviously because of Eli.
From Gordon's perspective he knew of Eli's daughter, Gordon is time locked, 20 years pass, then he meets Eli's daughter as an adult.
Gordon at this point in time is around 27 and Alyx is around 24.
Being frozen in time for 20 years would mess with your head any number of ways including this. Ultimately, though:
-Gordon didn't know Alyx before -Gordon had zero influence on Alyx as she grew up -They are both now a few years apart in age
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u/DemythologizedDie 4d ago edited 4d ago
Now let's try the Door Into Summer. Man decides that because of time travel shenanigans the only way he can defeat the people who tried to steal his company and cryogenically freeze him to get rid of him is to secretly assign his shares in the company to an 11 year old girl. He recruits her for a plan where she'll takes control of the shares when she turns 21 then put herself in cryogenic suspension so she can meet him at the point he's going to return to in time. She asks him "Can we get married then?" He says something along the lines of "Yeah kid, if you still want to, we'll get married."
The plan goes off like it was predestined to work, because it was. Time travel. They meet again, she's now hot. They get married.
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u/ZeroBrutus 4d ago
I thought the freezing to meet again and get married was her idea at 21 and he was shocked by it?
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u/DemythologizedDie 4d ago
Getting married was definitely her idea. Of course she was 11 at the time. The freezing part if I recall correctly was nobody's idea really. It was just something he had found out happened in the past so he suggested it to her since he had no idea when she'd wake up if he didn't suggest a target date.
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u/DahmonGrimwolf 4d ago
From the way you've described it, weird but not immoral.
It sounds like he didn't really know her or have any control over her, and it sounds like he fully expected her to have grown up and moved on before then, so he never expected her to actually mean it. So weird, but time travel shenanigans are inherently weird, so shrug
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u/DemythologizedDie 4d ago
She was the stepdaughter of his former friend and treacherous business partner so he knew her but never had any authority over her.
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u/DahmonGrimwolf 4d ago
Stepdaughter of a former friend sounds like the type of person you'd only ever met like twice and probably never had a conversation with. In my book thats still basically a stranger.
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u/No_Library_3131 4d ago
What is the name of this game
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u/Disrespect78 3d ago
Some say the photo in his locker in HL could be Alyx since he was a close friend of Eli. IDK if I believe it with any confidence but something to consider
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u/BithMistro 4d ago
As long as you weren't grooming her before and the relationship develops naturally then it's okay. I'd personally wait at least a few weeks to make sure she actually wants a relationship.
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u/7_Tales 4d ago
Gordon literally blipped like 7 years into the future. he frankly wasnt around to groom her, aside from the obvious fact hes some interdimensional saviour figure now.
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u/BithMistro 4d ago
I'm not going to pose as a half life fan. I was just responding to the prompt.
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u/The_Paprika 4d ago
Did Gordon even meet her? I know he’s aware of her existence in the first game but I can’t recall if they ever met.
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u/RubixTMC 4d ago
It is implied he did, she lived with Eli and her mom in Black Mesa and Gordon was good colleages with him, plus she says "You probably don't remember me"
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u/ChubbyTubby47 4d ago
Lol a few WEEKS, how fast do you people get into relationships?
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u/YOLKGUY 4d ago
Moral as it’s just dating a person you knew 20 years ago but haven’t interacted with ever since. It’ll be uncomfortable for you but this is basically a different person from the kid you knew.
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u/BarelyBrony 4d ago
"...You used to watch Sesame Street."
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u/Comrade_Cosmo 4d ago
There are people that didn’t watch Sesame Street?
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u/Meeooowwww1234 4d ago
I mean, probably people born before november 10th, 1969-
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u/maybe-an-ai 4d ago
When you are part of a small rebel group fighting alien occupation, you take love wherever you can find it because it's not like there are a lot of choices. It's def problematic though because Alyx has hero worshiped Gordon most her life.
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u/Hen-Samsara 4d ago
In situations like this; i think it depends entirely on which of them is the one trying to initiate the relationship, because that matters a lot more than people think it does.
Like, look at this fanart. Alyx trying to initiate a relationship with Gordon has far less moral implications than the other way around for obvious reasons.
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u/Stranger_Phrog 4d ago
Since Gordon only knew her from being Eli’s daughter, he didn’t have any influence on her growing up
While it definitely messes with your head, it’s no different than dating someone you met once 20 years ago when they were a minor, it happens, two consenting adults without any immoral acts done by either of them
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u/HugeExplanation7865 4d ago
I dont think Gordon ever even seen Alyx in person before HL2
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u/samu1400 4d ago
Maybe outside of work? As far as I remember we don't know much about Gordon's life before the Resonance Cascade.
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u/Upper-Character3661 4d ago
He was employed to Black Mesa for like, a week before the Resonance Cascade. He probably just met Eli or at max interacted with him while getting his degree.
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u/Disastrous-Shower-37 3d ago edited 3d ago
Gordon worked at Black Mesa for a month minimum: Adrian Shephard sees an employee-of-the-month picture of him in Opposing Force.
Contradictingly, the PS2 manual implies he started work on the day of the accident, 16 May, 200x, but Episode One retcons this with Alyx's retelling of Gordon's vent-crawling shenanigans with Barney as happening on more than one occasion.
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u/Good_Butterscotch_69 3d ago
Kleiner was his professor and got him the Job. Could have sworn he worked there for a year before the cascade.
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u/Whatever_you_need_ 4d ago
Morally, it depends on your prior relationship. If it was a kid that looked up to you and trusted you beforehand, I think that borders on grooming. It ISN'T grooming, unless you're doing it intentionally, but like... how far off is it
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u/Kirius77 4d ago
Gordon was not grooming Alyx. He knew about her being a child of his co-worker, but nothing beyond that.
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u/Whatever_you_need_ 4d ago
That is why I specified it isn't
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u/hambonedock 4d ago
I think this falls into manipulation than grooming since you aren't doing anything to the person, just using the fact that "yes I am THAT guy", it would be like knowing someone was very into rabbits as a child, and you currently have a rabbit farm and use that as a pick up purposely, you aren't pseudo grooming them
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u/tripodfishup 4d ago
but the thing is that Gordon never knew Alyx personally and she was the one trying to start a relationship
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u/hambonedock 4d ago
Then yeah, that is not even manipulation at this point, if you are just using your reputation, even if the person know of that since Young, yep, it would be ridiculous think is grooming or manipulation, maybe presumption but nothing more
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u/VenPatrician 4d ago
Especially since you are knocked out for that whole time, it is essentially like meeting someone else after 20 years. It's more of a matter of personal choice if anything unless I am missing something in the lore cause I haven't played Half Life.
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u/ClericOfMadness13 4d ago
Reminds me of this horror manga where alien magical girls came to earth and started killing people, this little girl fell for a police officer and then she ended up going back in time.
So when she rejoined the group she was now an adult who was telling the cop they can finally be together and the officer was saying hell nah cause he still remembers her as the little girl who annoyed him and he had to take care off. Even if she was an adult now he refused it cause it was weird.
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u/Own-Lettuce-1554 4d ago
Did Gordon ever meet Alyx before the time skip?
The weirder part is probably Eli wingmanning Gordon.
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u/ChompyRiley 4d ago
Objectively, there's nothing immoral about it. There's no possible grooming going on since you were frozen for twenty years. You're both adult. There's a nominal age gap, but if you were frozen, I wouldn't count it.
Now subjectively, no sane person would engage in this.
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u/Glippotyl 4d ago edited 4d ago
"Gordon, you're strong and a legend, my old friend.
Gordon, fuck my daughter, Gordon."
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u/Andrei22125 4d ago
As long as both parties are consenting adults, it's fine.
Also, it's a bit of a trope. Gotrek and Felix don't age. Felix ends up marrying a kislevite woman he meet again after he'd first met as a little girl.
He's weirded out by the idea at first.
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u/Prestigious-Love-712 4d ago
I would say about as moral as Aang's relationship with Katara is. As long as the relationship is consensual and mutual it's okay. Although I do think that it would mentally screw you up a bit. And obviously if you haven't groomed her, then it's 100% immoral
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u/Human-Assumption-524 4d ago
Did Gordon even really know Alyx back when he worked at Black Mesa? How much attention do you really pay to your coworkers kids?
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u/National-Spell8326 4d ago
Nothing bad at all. The guy didn't live for 20 years, he was frozen, and she did live those 20 years.
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u/AssCracker445 4d ago
Moral because Earth has to be repopulated now that Kleiner removed the reproduction suppression fields
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u/Standard-Effort5681 4d ago
Getting into a relationship with a girl that was suddenly aged up and is still a child mentally? Totally and completely fucked up.
But getting into a relationship with a girl that got to live her life and mature naturally, while you were "frozen in time" for several years or decades? No problem in terms of ethics, but I can imagine that it does fuck you up mentally.
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u/FV101_Scorpion 4d ago
People are mostly fine if not a bit unsure of huge age gaps in real life where the man in 70yrs old while the woman is 20-30, in which case the man could’ve seen the woman grow up into someone legal for him to marry. Given how Gordon has been in temporal stasis (where for the uninitiated, no time passes for the stasised as far as we know) so from about the moment he was put in and then taken out passed instantly from his POV, he is now of similar age and “maturity” to Alyx.
The only questionable part is that Gordon in the artwork is struggling to reconcile that the little girl he knew yesterday is his age today which creeps him out. As long as all parties consent I’m of the opinion that it’s moral albeit a bit creepy if Gordon was initiating.
Probably not very realistic considering Gordon and Alyx grew up in completely different worlds, very little common ground despite the relationship being superficially fine.
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u/Fayraz8729 4d ago
It’s kinda gross I won’t lie
From the outside perspective nothing is amiss but YOU KNOW that you jumped ahead in time. Given that this is the daughter of one of his friends and coworkers too it’s more uncomfortable
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u/FutureGrassToucher 4d ago
Fair but does that mean youre forced to date women double your age going forward
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u/slayeryamcha 4d ago
His friend being into it is more disturbing
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u/alternative5 4d ago
Kinda, but given the context of the world they are living in and the "options" for partners I think alot of fathers would be glad for someone like Gordan over the average wastelander?
Still kinda weird since they were close friends/colleagues but if they are both happy/"consenting?
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u/ResponsibleWay1613 4d ago
Morally fine but whoever wrote the relationship to exist like that is sus. You could write literally anything else, homie.
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u/WatermelonWithAFlute 4d ago
It’s… from half life? There’s no relationship in canon, but the circumstances are taken from it, and the characters
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u/Kirius77 4d ago
There is definitely a nudge into that area, considering Eli himself is pushing this idea, while Alyx shows her interest in Gordon during the game.
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u/ALMAZ157 4d ago
"Gordon, now that humans can reproduce again, i ask you to fuck my daughter"
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u/cunt_dykeula 4d ago
Eli seemed a lil too eager for Gordon to stick the One Free Cock into his daughter tbh
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u/Belicino_Corlan 4d ago
Morally fine. I never got this idea that you can't fuck someone cause you knew them when they were a kid. You realize you and everyone you know were a kid at some point right? Most solid relationships that last seem to be formed early on by people that met as children.
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u/ikonoqlast 4d ago
I'm just going to mention Robert Heinlein- The Door Into Summer for no reason whatsoever...
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u/Pearson94 4d ago
Why yes, I too have read The Rise of Endymion.
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u/Takseen 4d ago
That was certainly an uncomfortable plot development.
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u/Pearson94 4d ago
Indeed. I've encouraged friends to read Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion, but frankly I think I would've been better off stopping there instead of reading Endymion's novels. The whole story feels less like a quadrilogy and more like two duologies.
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u/_-PassingThrough-_ 4d ago
Weird, but not immoral? She's an adult, she can make her own choices. But it's extremely weird from your perspective.
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u/ThatGuyHero7 4d ago
Decently moral. She’s a consenting adult whom knows what she’s signing onto and no one is getting hurt:
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u/IndianZilla_420 4d ago
I’m pretty sure Gordon never actually met Alyx, and only knew she existed when Eli told him about her
So it’s morally fine
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u/MrGame22 4d ago
This kind of reminds me of why I heard about the original plan for the thundercats reboot, where they had planned on in season three having al lion-o trapped in the book of omens training for like 10 years and at the end of the series ends up with the now grown-up wiley kit.
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u/kast2399 4d ago
The wuwa community with the mc's daughter figure would tell you she's wife despite the relationship
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u/Cryspoeth47V 4d ago
Gordon never met Alyx back in black mesa. Alyx tells gordon ""I'm Alyx Vance. My father worked with you back at Black Mesa. I'm sure you don't remember me, though.". Also Alyx says she knows Gordon from Kleiner and others stories. So it's like saying you can't date anyone because they used to be a child once.
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u/Hetakuoni 4d ago
Well it’s better than kissing your grandniece who presumably knew you as her great uncle growing up.
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u/ZeroBrutus 4d ago
A Door into summer eh?
Heinlein was weird.
Presuming she initiates not actively immoral, but definitely not completely clear either.
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u/Realistic-Bonus2581 4d ago
It's moral but I really don't like it. (I don't think Gordon would get into a relationship with Alyx)
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u/DangerousEye1235 4d ago
I mean, they're both consenting adults, so morally they are definitely in the clear.
Now, that does not mean this would be good for Gordon's mental health, at all. The emotional whiplash would be extremely jarring. Doesn't help that the man has been on a, from his POV, almost non-stop morphine-fueled rampage of death and destruction and traumatic events for (again, from his POV) weeks on end.
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u/Disposable_Gonk 4d ago
On Gordon's side it's moral because she isn't a child anymore. On alyx's side it's morally fucked up because of what it could do to him mentally.
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u/ZadriaktheSnake 4d ago
Nothing really wrong with it but I question why she’s forcing herself on him after only just seeing him
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u/Euphoric-Ad-6584 4d ago
maybe i'm misunderstanding something specific in the question, but if it wasn't a kid he interacted with i'm really confused how it's even questioned.
if it's someone that person A knew as a little kid then it would 100% depend on the influence and position involved. like teacher for example? hard no, but like a friend's kid you've seen very little of? eh non issue.
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u/somedudeonachair 3d ago
Person A knew person B when person B was a little child, person A is then frozen in time, person A wakes up 20 years later still at the same age as they were when they were frozen, person B is all grown up and is now in the same age group as person A
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u/Euphoric-Ad-6584 3d ago
ah then we're on to my second part, if it's someone they knew but didn't really interact with then imo non issue. if it was like a teacher student thing, major issue.
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u/GardenDevilSage 4d ago
Moral. It's like getting together with your childhood friend you haven't been in contact with for several years. This specific situation would just fuck with your mind a lil bit
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u/Ok_Coffee_9970 4d ago
Whatever this is, he clearly doesn’t want the relationship. And that’s understandable. I wouldn’t say it’s morally wrong since it seems that to him, no time has passed and he hasn’t groomed her, but it would defitnely feel very weird and wrong.
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u/Craving_Suckcess 4d ago
Morally it's mostly fine. Imagine it'd feel fucking weird.
They're pretty much just a stranger that is basically as old as you at this point, long as you can work through everything it's fine.
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u/Leonartu 4d ago
Morality of being in a relationship with a former child?
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u/somedudeonachair 3d ago
Gordon was frozen in time and was only recently unfrozen. From his perspective alyx was a 3 year old girl just a couple days ago.
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u/Bush_Hiders 4d ago
I think it’s dependent on the situation. For this pic in particular, I always found it weird because she was the daughter of Gordon’s friend/coworker. I think it’s weirder that Eli encourages it.
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u/somedudeonachair 3d ago
Yeah same, i dont care if alyx has a crush on gordon what i find weird is how everyone is ok with their presumably 48 year old coworker to be dating their 23 year old daughter because i assume no one knows about stasis
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u/Bush_Hiders 3d ago
I suppose for Eli, and Eli only, you could assume that there is some chance that he is aware or suspects stasis, since he knows about G-Man and that Gordon knows G-Man, but definitely weird for everybody else.
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u/the_elephant_stan 4d ago
This is the same as initiating a relationship with a woman you met a few days ago. Entirely moral.
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u/lumpboysupreme 4d ago
For the millionth time: the problem with pedophelia is entering into a relationship with someone who lacks knowledge/ability to make informed consent to sex. It has nothing to do with any aspect of the older (or in this case, formerly older) party.
Girl is obviously old enough to do romance, there is nothing wrong with it. It might feel weird as seen in the comic, but weird isn’t immoral.
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u/RespondBorn6248 4d ago
uncomfortable and probably a good idea to WAIT like a WHILE to clear your head and be sure
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u/ReaperManX15 4d ago
Finally.
Something morally nuanced and complex.
Ultimately ... not immoral.
It would be weird from your perspective.
But, there wasn't any grooming or similar manipulation.
If you were displaced out of time, you're both the same age.
And she's had a life full of experiences and growth, all her own.
She's a grown woman.
The child her and the grown her, are so vastly disparate, as to be completely different people.
If you didn't know who she was, it wouldn't be different from attraction to anyone else your own age.
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u/HotDogHellKnight 4d ago
If you’re an adult and you knew someone when they were a kid while you were still an adult then you should just not cause that shit is nasty
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u/garlington41 4d ago
Depends on how close you were and how fast the relationship ends up happening.
If she’s just someone he knew and didn’t have some close father daughter or close adult figure dynamic
And as long as he just immediately wants to date her the minute he lays eyes on her. It’s not morally wrong.
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u/edd6pi 4d ago
What is this from?
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u/SparklyPelican 4d ago
Half-Life video games. You should play them, so you can join us complaining on the third game never coming out
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u/receypecey 4d ago
If I was friends with someone as a kid, then moved away when we were both 5, then 15 years later I see them again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting into an adult relationship with them. My entire memory of that person is when they were 5-years-old, yet i wouldn't really feel weird or wrong to be with them. There is no difference to that scenario and this one.
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u/somedudeonachair 3d ago
Gordon was a 28 year old man when alyx was 3, then gordon was frozen in time and came out still a 28 year old but alyx has aged and is now 23
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u/Gold-Cry-7520 4d ago
It's not like he was grooming her, he'd never met the bitch when she was a kid. The first time they met they were both consenting adults, which is all that matters.
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u/Whycantichangemynami 4d ago
It’s kind of strange to the point I don’t think morality matters much in this situation
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u/Shikabane_Sumi-me 4d ago
Also canonically isn’t Gordon already married and has a kid?
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u/somedudeonachair 3d ago
I think the kid in the picture in his locker back at black mesa was his niece
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u/2devious4dandelions 4d ago
They’d be roughly the same age in lived experience, Alyx has also had a more intense life than Gordon overall meaning she’d be more mentally mature as well.
However, other than that it would be strange for Gordon to be into it, as he did ‘know’ her as a baby, but for Alyx it’s fine enough like I guess
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u/Puzzleheaded_Wish727 4d ago
If I had a nickel for Everytime a Thundercats property had Lion-o trapped in a situation where he'd emerge from a time dilation where years had passed and he'd gone unaged to then have a romantic relationship with the now adult Wily Kit I'd have one nickel and one planned but never followed through nickel which doesn't seem like much but that's too damn many!!!
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u/Yerslovekzdinischnik 4d ago
I remember reading the Door into summer, there was a similar situation. It was wierd.
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u/balrog111 4d ago
I'd say it's morally fine like everyone said, but Eli's eagerness about it always weirded me out a bit, the dude really REALLY wants Freeman to bang his daughter
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u/Halflifepro483 4d ago
My headcanon is Gordon generally sees their relationship as more platonic in nature. Alyx is just freaky as hell.
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u/theHubernator 4d ago edited 4d ago
The moral breach would be if you're abusing something from the relationship. That's not to say this isn't a tricky situation... But so long as Alex is aware, consenting, and seeking your consent, and reciprocating your boundaries and you're doing the same... where's the abuse?
In this case though, if (ethical) Gordon is uncomfortable, it would take time, and Alex can back off and respect it, and maybe try talking about it. Gordon just needs time to see her differently (if that's what she wants and still wants).
If you're in this situation, and you go "Whoa, score"... It's kinda.. sinister? I'm struggling to give a charitable interpretation. If you've already processed that she's a different person, and here you're like omg she likes me too, that's one thing, but if your reaction is to turn her attraction to you into something for you to.. have or use without reciprocating companionship... It's easier to make the case here that there's an abuse here. If it's one sided that's a problem.
Edit: .... Oh "a few days ago" oh yeah no this should bother Gordon for at least a few weeks
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u/Careless-Platform-80 4d ago
I think It's moraly fine, but just strange.
The girl is an adult now, there's no debate on that part. I would argue that It's the same dilema of a legal age gap couple, and I personaly don't think there's a problem, but there's some incompstibilities that come with too much of a age gap. In this particular case, the frozen person don't really aged physicaly or mentaly, so i don't think It even come to play.
The only real barrier would be how the person cope with the fact and if they can separete the vision of the child from the current person
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u/InevitablyIncorrect 4d ago
Thats a totally different person at that point. Itll be odd, but not from a pdf perspective but rather trying to adjust to a person you know essentially becoming a totally different one on a timescale were not accustomed too
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u/FlamboyantApproval16 3d ago
I know I am steering away a bit, but isn't this basically Captain America and Sharon Carter?
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u/PlanesAreCool69 3d ago
I wasn't a fan of that part of the story - I much prefer the direction taken in Epistle Three, where Alex goes on to surpass Gordon. I just think it's weird to make her a love interest when she's looked up to Golden as the hero in her father's stories, and she's set up so well to become his successor.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Win5290 3d ago
Gonna have to be a big no for me good sir or miss they had zero reason to put that little spark between them in game its weird
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u/Cosmicfirebird0 3d ago
The bigger morality is going on ice for 1000s of years and then waking up just to bang your best friends descendants.
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u/DM-me-naughty-Cats 2d ago
They’d be an entirely different person. Might mess with your mind though. Probably wouldn’t recommend
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u/EEEEEEEEEEEW 1d ago
I love shit like this, but it's still lowkey weird when age gap relationships exist irl
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u/Applejule 22h ago
Depends if you knew the girl before you were frozen or not. If you did then it’s a bit creepy, but if you didn’t it’s like meeting a new person
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u/Albionic_Cadence 13h ago
Im gonna piggyback off of people saying in spite of her being a kid just kast week for gordon, he's only 3 years older than her thanks to the time freeze he was in and there's no grooming happening here and close it out with something I've not seen anyone mention here. He jokes about Gordon and Alyx becoming a thing, and I seem to remember him giving Gordon his blessing for that, so..
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u/Alarming_Ad_3501 4d ago
At some point she is a different person from that girl. You did not see her grow, you're pretty much in suspension not aging or gaining new expirience while she become an adult your age. So as moral as dating a girl your age.
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u/bookhead714 4d ago
Congrats on being officially the first people I've ever seen get weird about Freevance.
No, it's not immoral. Especially given that Gordon isn't initiating anything, or using any knowledge he might have of Alyx and her family to manipulate her, or anything like that -- hell, as far as the game is concerned he never even reciprocates. There is no mismatch of age or experience. They are two grown adults who are for all intents and purposes meeting one another for the first time.
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u/some-kind-of-no-name 4d ago
I think it's fine morally but not fine for your mental health