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[Bathtub Fart]

Linked below is an interview with Merle Dandridge, the iconic voice actor of Alyx Vance. Her voice is a powerful role in one of the most important video game franchises, yet for some reason Valve has re-cast her voice in the upcoming game Half Life Alyx. According to Tyler (Valve News Network), he was told by insiders that she was recast as early as this week. What's even more curious is Merle wasn't even informed as to why they made this decision. I find this incredibly disappointing and frankly a bit gut wrenching. She was such a strong and important character and I honestly can't accept a different voice. You can tell by the end of the interview that Tyler and Merle are crushed, but she's very gracious about this whole thing (which just solidifies her as the proper Alyx in my mind).

Interview:

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Probably to save money, and then when this VR experiment succeeds and Valve makes half Life 3 (proper) in VR, they can bring her back and say "see?!? We listen to the fans".

 

[Sygma]

Probably because its a prequel to half life 2 and they needed to have an according tone to the character ?

 

[PooBone]

I noticed that Eli has a different voice actor as well.

Shame.

 

[Holammer]

We all know why she can't do the voice, in the current political climate there's no way they can have a white person voicing a PoC. Dumping the old voice actress is easier than getting dragged through the mud on Twitter, ResetEra, Kotaku and such. Remember the fallout following 'The Problem with Apu'? Valve really don't want any of that.
Expect the hiring of the new voice actress and her ethnicity to be part of the HL:A's marketing, just like Blizzard did with Overwatch to score brownie points because they hired ethnically and age appropriate voice actors for every character.

*copypasta of what I commented on the VNN video

 

[rofif]

I noticed that Eli has a different voice actor as well.

Shame.

Because he is dead

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

I noticed that Eli has a different voice actor as well.

Shame.

Pretty sure Eli's voice actor is dead.

 

[Alexios]

It's been so many years it's not mysterious. They probably just went through casting from scratch and it didn't come to her or her agent's attention. New Alyx sounds fine. Old Alyx sounded fine. No reason to make this some sort of scandal. But that's VNN clickbait, dude once a year or less gets legit info you can sum up in 3 words and "huh, neat, I guess, but you could have guessed it" reactions and stretches it to 10 minute bullshit theories that somehow show Valve in a bad light (why the f are you doing a VNN if they're so bad, expand to shit you like dude), same as the "leaks" about how the game wasn't at the game awards because they didn't have free locomotion ready to show and somehow at the last minute they realized it would look bad compared to janky ass Boneworks (that VNN claims sources say Alyx copies, lol). A week later (they had the game days before to produce it) we get the Tested video with free locomotion at various points, lol. Attention seeking troll.

 

[12Goblins]

We all know why she can't do the voice, in the current political climate there's no way they can have a white person voicing a PoC. Dumping the old voice actress is easier than getting dragged through the mud on Twitter, ResetEra, Kotaku and such. Remember the fallout following 'The Problem with Apu'? Valve really don't want any of that.
Expect the hiring of the new voice actress and her ethnicity to be part of the HL:A's marketing, just like Blizzard did with Overwatch to score brownie points because they hired ethnically and age appropriate voice actors for every character.

*copypasta of what I commented on the VNN video

Yeah I have a feeling if the original actress is white that it could stir some negative controversy and a lot is on the line for valve here.

 

[Spukc]

Dude game is old dont worry

 

[Holammer]

Yeah I have a feeling if the original actress is white that it could stir some negative controversy and a lot is on the line for valve here.

She's not really white, but she's "passing". That's bad enough.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Yeah I have a feeling if the original actress is white that it could stir some negative controversy and a lot is on the line for valve here.

 

[Spukc]

UH-OH

they should recast alyx with her

 

[12Goblins]

oh ._.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Alyx's mom appears to be of at least partially Asian descent. If it were a representation thing Ozioma is no better of a choice than Dandridge. Alyx was modeled after Jamil Mullen anyhow.

I wonder what the rule is for audio books? Do you match the race of the author or of the protagonist---if there is one?

If Jim Henson were alive and made the Muppets today would all of them have to be white dudes?

 

[DeepEnigma]

Alyx's mom appears to be of at least partially Asian descent. If it were a representation thing Ozioma is no better of a choice than Dandridge. Alyx was modeled after Jamil Mullen anyhow.

I wonder what the rule is for audio books? Do you match the race of the author or of the protagonist---if there is one?

If Jim Henson were alive and made the Muppets today would all of them have to be white dudes?

Well, Dandridge one was born in Japan.

 

[Romulus]

Lol, and in the release trailer, I don't remember anyone bringing up the voice being different after dozens of pages in that thread.

It was fine when we didn't know better but let's get outraged now.

 

[Bathtub Fart]

,

 

[Romulus]

Not true. People immediately pointed out that you can hear both, the new and original.

No one's outraged, just disappointed. Pipe down.

Where? I was in the initial thread on gaf, if it was mentioned to be a different voice, it was very rare if it all. The overwhelming majority would have never known.

Anyway, you called this news "gut wretching" lmao not me. Pipe down yourself.

 

[Bathtub Fart]

Where? I was in the initial thread on gaf, if it was mentioned to be a different voice, it was very rare if it all. The overwhelming majority would have never known.

Anyway, you called this news "gut wretching" lmao not me. Pipe down yourself.

Yeah cuz we have an emotional attachment to the character and it sucks. You're just being an asshole for the sake of it. Sheesh.

A lot of people noticed. You clearly didn't. Congrats. People noticed in YouTube comments as well.

 

[Hendrick's]

It's fine, because nobody plays VR anyway.

 

[Reon]

The original voice actress for Alyx Vance never played the games nor did she have a good idea as to what they were about, I don't have much sympathy

 

[Stitch]

According to Tyler (Valve News Network), he was told by insiders that she was recast as early as this week.

What!? We knew that she was recast since the trailer reveal.

 

[kraspkibble]

Not really a problem.

 

[Thaedolus]

What!? We knew that she was recast since the trailer reveal.

The quoted sentence doesn't even make sense...as recently as this week? Like she just got shitcanned? As early as this week is weird to say because, presumably, the game is late in development.

 

[Bathtub Fart]

The quoted sentence doesn't even make sense...as recently as this week? Like she just got shitcanned? As early as this week is weird to say because, presumably, the game is late in development.

Watch the video. I didn't state it well. Apparently the game was using her up until the recent week, according to insiders playing it. No word from valve why. Just makes us fans sad.

 

[Romulus]

Yeah cuz we have an emotional attachment to the character and it sucks. You're just being an asshole for the sake of it. Sheesh.

A lot of people noticed. You clearly didn't. Congrats. People noticed in YouTube comments as well.

"Alot of people.' Okay Trump.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

While this sucks for the actress...she got paid for her troubles. Its not like she did all this work and they told her last minute "we dont need you" and you dont get shit. Its their property and they can chose to do whatever they like and how they want to represent their product. Same as Kojima removing David Hayter, except in that case David was known as Snake for 15+ years. There hasnt been anything HL lore related in 15 years.

The way she talks is as if she got betrayed. She hasn't done anything HL related in 15 years and all of a sudden it's a big deal.