Arne Magnusson

From Combine OverWiki, the English Half-Life Wikia

Arne Magnusson is the Resistance leader of White Forest. He is a grey-haired stocky Caucasian man who looks to be in his early sixties. He is a former member of the Black Mesa Science Team and one of the few survivors of the Black Mesa Incident, and an important orchestrator of the Resistance. He is voiced by John Aylward.

[edit] Characteristics

Arne Magnusson has a fussy, petulant nature. He makes constant complaints about the completion of his satellite rocket, an object that he dotes upon. Verbose, egotistical and authoritarian, Magnusson thinks highly both of himself and his inventions, to the point of naming them after himself. He finds shows of emotion distasteful, particularly when he feels it comes at the cost of industry. He despises Isaac Kleiner's pet Headcrab Lamarr. Magnusson is not, however, without a softer side; he grudgingly thanks Gordon Freeman for saving his rocket during the events of Episode 2, and his joy at the rocket's successful launch is palpable. His dedication to the resistance comes above all else.

[edit] History

Before the Black Mesa Incident, Magnusson worked at Black Mesa as a scientist. His personality made him clash with many other members of the Science Team and thus he developed grudges against some prominent members of it. Arne used to compete for grant money with Isaac Kleiner, and took grievance with Gordon Freeman when the latter destroyed his microwave casserole (this can be done in the opening level of Half-Life). He was one of the few survivors of the Black Mesa Incident, and after the Combine invasion he came to head a major Resistance base, White Forest, and used his scientific expertise to make technological advances to aid the Resistance. Most notable amongst these were the rocket he constructed to tap into the old Black Mesa/Xen satellite array and the Magnusson Device, a deadly anti-Strider weapon(a.k.a. the Strider Buster).

He was aided in these endeavours by a Vortigaunt, whom he named Uriah. The regard the Vortigaunts hold Magnusson in has led to his mannerisms spreading throughout their hive consciousness.

[edit] Trivia

• Magnusson was introduced in Episode 2. His character and temperament were designed to counter the cosy relationships between Alyx Vance, Eli Vance and Isaac Kleiner.

• Considering his name, he is probably Swedish or have Swedish ancestors.

• In a February 2008 interview posted on ComputerAndVideoGames, Marc Laidlaw explained why Valve felt the need for a new character:

  "In early drafts of the episode, Eli and Kleiner had warmed up White Forest all by themselves, somehow, in the brief time after fleeing City 17. This seemed ridiculous, so we developed a backstory in which Black Mesa had acquired an extremely cheap Cold War bunker and developed some projects in response to budgetary and oversight problems associated with basing all work in North America. Again, all the explanatory matter bogged down the game, so we ditched it. There may still be some old lines hanging around in the .wav files, but I haven't looked..."