this is stuff you like and we're
probably going to do a couple of
episodes on the portal series because
there's just so much good stuff in there
but let's start here:
GLaDOS is basically my favorite
antagonist ever. Our protagonist in
Portal and Portal 2: Valve's vaguely
first-person shoote-esque puzzle games is
Chell, who does not speak and wears an
orange jumpsuit and maybe also a tank top.
You catch glimpses of this body
you're controlling when portals align as
it were but generally you're just a
portal gun hovering in midair; a shell you
can inhabit so to speak
Chell shell I see what you did there. This
is pretty standard FPS stuff: tabula
rasa blank slate person onto whom you can
project your own personality etc etc
depending on the game though it can be a
little bit weird when everyone else in
your environment is talking and you're
supposed to be responding: why so silent?
In Portal however there's no good
reason for you to speak and indeed word
of god is that Chell refuses to give
GLaDOS the satisfaction of opening her
mouth. Because in the original portal
there's only really one proper speaking
character: the turrets are mindless
machines who speak sweet-voiced
catchphrases while they try to kill you
Chell's mystery helper is visible only in
the environment (and portal's use of
environmental storytelling is excellent
but topic of another day perhaps) and
Chell of course is there and she's you
but she is silent your antagonist though
is a whole other kettle of fish. Enter GLaDOS
the artificial intelligence who
wants to test, for science.
I love her so much. in the first Portal game
you don't learn much about GLaDOS or Chell
but there is enough to keep you
interested and many of the things that
you might wonder like who wrote that stuff
on the walls? for example are answered in
the interstitial comic which is also
excellent. And while in Portal 2 they go
much deeper i still love GLaDOS in the
original. and the reason GLaDOS is one
of my favorite antagonists ever is
because she's just so interesting
she is truly deeply amoral intelligent
witty spiteful completely off the rails
but then also especially in the sequel
sympathetic and
this isn't an immediate process but when
you see her at the end of Portal when you
actually get into something that has a
real hard time limit her design is oddly
vulnerable she looks like a bound woman
hanging from the ceiling and that is not
a coincidence
and if you don't get that or you don't
notice that that's fine but then you get
to the portal 2 and you find out the
truth. which is to say her name is
Caroline. Or at least part of her is
Caroline, Cave Johnson's
assistant in old aperture. when you
first play Portal GLaDOS initially strikes you as just
kind of odd. It starts out quite subtle
but that creeping sense of
unease tends to grow as you go through the
game and then she tries to kill you but
even before that if you're taking the
time to explore the testing environment
really thoroughly there are clues that
everything is not quite as it seems
because GLaDOS starts out kind of...off, but
subtly and then just gets more and more
off kilter and in addition to the
physical threats of you know her trying
to kill you both
in the tests and then very very
obviously there's also the emotional
manipulation, and frankly the emotional
manipulation is the best part because
the reason that i love Portal so much
is that it's fun but it's also funny
GLaDOS is funny and listening to her
trying to rag on Chell for being fat or
adopted or an unlikable person is
hilarious because GLaDOS has no idea how
to push your buttons but she's trying to
do it anyway and it's funny but it's
also sad
there was a fan theory at one point that Chell was
actually a clone and that GLaDOS kept putting her
through the tests over and over and
over because she wanted to be killed and
even if it's not true it's still really
plausible and so kind of heart string
tugging. Now portal two is much longer
and more involved than the original,
it contains a whole other character in
Wheatley and a whole new dynamic between
him and Chell and GLaDOS. GLaDOS is still
a homicidal artificial intelligence who
wants to test
and it really shouldn't be possible to
make her as sympathetic as they do but
they manage it and not just by bringing her
low as a potato. Prometheus stole fire
from the gods and birds pecked at him too.
I really like depth in my video game world
and i love the mythology layers that
they have in Portal 2 especially. And there are many
Greek mythology references in Portal 2
but i think i'm going to call in
some help for that one. We'll get there. Portal 2
gives GLaDOS her own character arc
where she's brought low learns the truth
about herself, is restored to her former
glory, and then she lets Chell go, so maybe
Caroline isn't totally gone after all?
oh it's so good! Let me sum it up like
this: really truly awesome complex
sympathetic villains are a joy to find a
female coded one is doubly so. To find
her in a puzzle based game with witty
dialogue and Greek mythology references
and clever environmental storytelling
Triply so. Man I love portal so much. When's
the next one coming out?
Oh well. Thanks for watching anyway if
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regardless i hope you enjoyed and I'll
see you next time!