177 responses so far ↓

• 1 Gregory // Apr 4, 2008 at 6:30 am

  Woah. pareidolia or not, that’s pretty insightful. I have to wonder, though… you seem to assume freedom means she’s Still Alive. For a terminally bored, trapped, childlike AI, death could also be a sort of freedom she would crave.

• 2 Norm // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:46 am

  A very impressive observation…I didn’t make that connection while listening to the commentary, but after reading your explanation (and even before seeing the drawing) it became startlingly obvious. Bravo!

  I’d be curious to see just how “on target” your drawing is - might be fun to bring this to the Portal team’s attention. Valve tends to be a lot more responsive than most development studios so I would be surprised if you heard back from them.

  @Gregory: I would agree with you except for the fact that she claims to be Still Alive at the end and the Portal team has made explicit references to her being alive for a possible sequel.

• 3 Norm // Apr 4, 2008 at 10:47 am

  Wouldn’t…I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard back from them.

• 4 Gregory // Apr 4, 2008 at 1:37 pm

  @Norm: Going just from the information in the work, since anything outside of that is, I’m sure, subject to change, I’m more inclined to bet she’s gone. The fact that she sings “Still Alive” is evidence for her death, in my opinion. GlaDOS does nothing but lie through the whole game, and a song during the credit sequence is sufficiently meta that I’m inclined to think it’s GlaDOS speaking magical-realistically from beyond the digital grave.

  Alternately, there’s the possibility that, like the OP says, death is not binary for a binary being, and GlaDOS has failed at her attempt to die. She wanted to die permanently, but with “Still Alive” she discovers that she has failed. The song is clearly sarcastic, but maybe it’s lamenting not only Chell’s lack of triumph but also GlaDOS’s. She wanted to be free (dead), but she’s still trapped (alive).

• 5 N // Apr 5, 2008 at 10:57 pm

  there’s a hole in your theory that GlaDOS wanted to die and in doing so killed off the entire apeture science facility staff. During the boss battle, you destroy GlaDOS’s inhibitions unit, the unit which kept her from killing everybody working in the lab. If GlaDOs killed everybody working in Apeture in an attempt to control her own demise, she would have had to have somebody destroy her inhibitions unit first. Yet, clearly it was still there.
  There’s no doubt that GlaDOS is a woman or some feminine creature, the entire game of portal has something unmistakenly female about it. Yet I do not think that GlaDOS is somebody who yearns to die in order to be free. I think instead that it is strongly implied that Portal is “training” for the newest Half-Life Episode. GlaDOS, much like Master Hand from SSB64 was a meta joke in that she is a computer testing Chell’s ability to complete a maze like course just as one might have to practice at a video game mulitple times before completing it. I also think it is implied that GlaDOS survived when at the end of the credits, you find the cake and a mechanical arm puts it out while GlaDOS’s eyes glow in the background.
  Durandal Forever.

• 6 spitfire // Apr 5, 2008 at 11:09 pm

  I thought she said they installed the inhibitor after she already gassed the inhabitants of the lab (the same gas she uses on you after you remove the inhibitor). Which, admittedly, makes one wonder why the inhibitor is still on and nobody’s home. However, if you look at the red phone on the way in to GlaDOS’s room (the one that’s supposed to be used to call out if she gets out of hand) the cord is cut to the headset, so it won’t work. I figured the reason nobody is home is because everyone left the facility because GlaDOS had completely taken it over after killing everyone off. Re-entering it would mean certain death.

  The beauty of the whole situation is we’ll never know what the real reasons were behind the facility being empty or even Chell’s ratmaze adventure ’till Portal 2 (or HL3) comes out.

  I think she survived as well, but I think she’s upset that she survived. More on this later.

• 7 this is another test » Blog Archive » links for 2008-04-06 // Apr 6, 2008 at 9:30 am

  [...] Still Alive? She’s Free. (tags: portal videogames glados) [...]

• 8 Psuedonym // Apr 6, 2008 at 10:17 am

  This is a very interesting way of seeing GlaDOS. I always thought of her as a unstable being that is just falling back on routine as comfort for (her) problems.

• 9 Joe // Apr 6, 2008 at 1:21 pm

  Just stumbled here, great read. Nice rendition of the humanized GlaDOS, too. I played through a bunch of times and never noticed this but wow, that’s really compelling.

• 10 Wherein I Overanalyze Song Lyrics // Apr 6, 2008 at 4:07 pm

  [...] to the great comments in my last post where I waxed all philo about what I think GlaDOS is supposed to look like, I think I’ve changed my tune on why GlaDOS wanted to be free. While I still think she wanted [...]

• 11 Justin // Apr 6, 2008 at 4:18 pm

  Your premise behind glados’ maniacal behaviour is that chell would not destroy her if asked to, but you didn’t say why. Therefore, I cannot conclude that your argument has any merit.

• 12 OldManLever // Apr 6, 2008 at 4:33 pm

  You know a blog post is good when it makes you reinstall the game to see for yourself. Simply amazing. This reminds me of the first time I read the explanation of what was in the suitcase in Pulp Fiction.

• 13 Chase // Apr 6, 2008 at 7:57 pm

  Wow, that is awesome! I wish I had those kind of observational skills.

• 14 Dylan // Apr 6, 2008 at 8:00 pm

  Very interesting indeed. I didn’t notice GlaDOS’s similarities to a bound woman until I saw your drawing, however it makes tons of sense now.
  I did find it odd that the final boss sings a song of light-hearted joy after being all-but destroyed. This leads me to believe that while her physical body is indeed dead, the rest of her lives on in freedom, for which she is grateful. How software can exist outside of the hardware that allows it to run, however, remains to be seen. The final song shows a computer screen, maybe she’s now a parasitic program that will make appearances in many different places?

• 15 louie // Apr 6, 2008 at 9:22 pm

  you would think that GlaDOS has had many humans to experiment and was just using them as a toy and it just so happens one of her toys made it to far and she became angry. The song at the end could be a warning to chell that she is still alive and will try to kill chell.

• 16 Floyd // Apr 6, 2008 at 11:04 pm

  Actually… If you look at it, GlaDOS’ figure looks like a pregnant woman hanging upside down.

  That’s just what I see.

• 17 Amazing Anaylsis of Portal’s GLADoS | Simple Drops // Apr 6, 2008 at 11:55 pm

  [...] possible on what Valve was trying to convey with the personality and mysterious depth of GLADoS.read more | digg story addthis_url = [...]

• 18 Ehrgeiz // Apr 7, 2008 at 12:19 am

  Good read I do think you are right on some points. I figure she/it is still alive as we know HL3 will have we well get to see the something with the portal gun so I figure she will also have something to do with it.

  As for the center being empty that is simple, this takes place in the HL world and we all know that after HL the portal storms came then the combine came. Most human life moved into numbered cities leaving homes and work after the war. Also when the song plays GLaDoS says “when I look out there it makes me GLaD I’m not you” so I’m pretty sure she has seen all that has happened to the earth.

• 19 » My friend Corey has sent me an interpret … Demonic Angelicism // Apr 7, 2008 at 1:29 am

  [...] Read here.   [...]

• 20 SomeAudioGuy // Apr 7, 2008 at 1:56 am

  Spot on!
  I loved the game. It’s crazy how a little nugget of game like this, has spurred on months of play and discussion.
  Just like euthanizing your WCC, it kinda hurt at the end taking down GLaDOS. The end credit song was one of the most satisfying game endings ever.
  I’m really looking forward to what’s in store for HL2:Ep3 or Portal 2.

• 21 Amazing Anaylsis of Portal's GLADoS - StrafeRight Forums // Apr 7, 2008 at 2:06 am

  [...] that GlaDOS has been suffering in this whole time if they were around, now, would they? Still Alive? She’s Free. This is a great write up that definitely gave me a whole new perspective on the game and the whole [...]

• 22 Análisis psicológico de GLADoS (Portal) [en] // Apr 7, 2008 at 6:25 am

  [...] Análisis psicológico de GLADoS (Portal) [en]www.game-ism.com/?p=91 por estilo0 hace pocos segundos [...]

• 23 Bob // Apr 7, 2008 at 6:30 am

  N,

  You have to remember that all the information about what the player-character destroys is controlled by GlaDOS.
  There may be no such thing as an inhibition unit, just a lie by GlaDOS to push the player-character to carry out GlaDOS’s will.

• 24 Professor Cornelius Woot // Apr 7, 2008 at 7:22 am

  I want to respond to the person above who refers to this as literary criticism. I want to advise caution on this.

  Basically I’m a bit confused by this piece - are you (the author of the piece) saying that this is a hidden plot thread that the game’s producers are aware of but choosing to hide?

  While an interesting attempt, and supported at least superficially by evidence from the song, this isn’t terribly effective *as a piece of literary criticism*. It seems you’re trying to prove something about some kind of hidden authorial intention about GlaDOS’s desires within the story itself. Which is fine, of course, but very limited (and limiting) and it strikes me that it could be closed down by a pretty simple “no, that’s not what it’s about” from the game’s creators.

  In short, you’re not using your talents in a way that could really produce fruitful readings of the text. It’s good you’re opening up texts, so please don’t stop doing that, but it seems to me that it’s increasingly important for the analysis of videogame texts to embody the same remit of the analysis of more traditional texts (informed by literary/cultural theory, self aware and also aware of intertextual and cultural resonance and influences outside of the text itself), so that people don’t think that the only kind of readings possible of videogame texts are plot-based speculations.

  Further to this, there’s a kind of wider impulse (which isn’t your fault of course) to list Portal as being somehow more culturally significant than other games because it happens to be well-written and put together. Of course it makes Portal a more appealling text to study, and of course it means that it is enjoyable and satisfying to play and to experience, and that undoubtedly prompts these kinds of examinations.

  However this privileging of Portal for its supposed extra significance is an attempt to make video games seem “worthy of study” by aligning them with ‘traditional’ (modernist or realist) literature, sharing the perceived, culturally valorised feature of depth.

  Unfortunately, by doing so, efforts to make videogames appear worth analysis shoot themselves in the foot. They’re suggesting that instead of every game having cultural significance that is worth mapping, there are just some games worth talking about - because they’re like books. Which means that games will always continue to be seen as platonically inferior copies of books when it comes to reading them analytically.

  Sorry to rant here, I’m not knocking the decent enough interrogation of the lyrics you make here on the level of close reading. That is fine. It’s just not really enough. You haven’t overanalyzed the song at all, you’ve underanalyzed it. You’ve taken the most superficial element of any text (diegetic ‘events’ within the story space, whether explicitly revealed or not) and analysed that, when there’s so much more that could be done. The task of a literary critic isn’t to describe the story. It’s not enough to ask “what?” - it helps to ask “why?”.

• 25 Professor Cornelius Woot // Apr 7, 2008 at 7:23 am

  Sorry, this was meant to go on your article about the song lyrics.

• 26 randomguy // Apr 7, 2008 at 8:36 am

  @Professor Cornelius Woot… you remind me of Buzz Killington from family guy

• 27 Analyse von Portal’s GladOS - I am Jeriko // Apr 7, 2008 at 8:39 am

  [...] wurde, dass Portal ja eigentlich ein durch und durch feministisches Spiel ist gibts jetzt auch die passende Analyse von GladOS. Take a look at GlaDOS. She’s a woman hanging upside down from the ceiling, in a straight [...]

• 28 Weighted Companion Cube // Apr 7, 2008 at 8:44 am

  She seems so sad, hanging upside down cut off from the outside world.

• 29 Lateral // Apr 7, 2008 at 9:37 am

  The game mentions ‘bring your daughter to work day’ as well as a pseudo-charity within Aperture for the support of young girls. Then there’s the fact old GLaDOS allegedly has the player’s character ‘on file’ during the final battle. In my mind these particular points of data draw the beautiful line that GLaDOS’ AI is based on mind of the daughter of one of the scientists, perhaps the C. Johnson who occurs in the game’s backstory… and Chell is that very daughter. This ties in nicely (no pun intended) with the images of a mind trapped in an inhuman form and a desparate longing for cake. And freedom. Cake and freedom.

  Anyone for cake?

• 30 Bukowski // Apr 7, 2008 at 11:13 am

  The cake is Chell!

  “You will be baked, and then there will be cake.”

  Not to overstate the obvious, but the ramp descending into the wall of flames (oven).

  And… the cake only appears AFTER the final showdown. Granted, the last image you see through Chell’s eyes is the post-final battle image, when Chell briefly wakes up on the ground oustide amidst the wreckage of the Aperature Science labs. (Although, admittedly, this idea is problematic when using the literal interpretation of Chell being baked into the cake shown during the game’s final images.)

  It’s also interesting to note that the candle on the cake is snuffed out by a mechanical arm (GLaDOS?) Symbolic, literal, or something else?

  I also wanted to point out another couple of interesting tidbit that supports the notion of Chell being a clone. First off, since “Chell” means “daughter,” if GLaDOS cloned chell, it would make her Chell’s mother.

  There are a couple of moments when GLaDOS doesn’t seem to have all of Chell’s info (even though she has her information “on-file”). For example, when collecting the orange part of the portal gun, GLaDOS mentions that the device is now worth more than the entirity of “subject hometown here.” If Chell is indeed the daughter of GLaDOS (a clone), she wouldn’t really have a home town.

  Great thread.

• 31 | Team Teabag! // Apr 7, 2008 at 12:10 pm

  [...] are absolutely loads of theories and interesting analyses of the story of Portal, but I found this one particularly interesting. In it, the anonymous game design type behind the excellent Game-ism blog [...]

• 32 Still Alive? She’s Free. // Apr 7, 2008 at 12:31 pm

  [...] If you’ve played through Portal: READ IT. [...]

• 33 Richard // Apr 7, 2008 at 3:24 pm

  That could be one way of looking at it. Another could be as simple as loneliness. Instead of a woman bound upside down, imagine if she was put into a cage all alone. She becomes angry at her captors, kills them, but then becomes lonely. She then uses test subjects, putting them through rigorous test of her own (now demented) design. Any who finish, she kills them, analyzes their personality and traits, and turns them into another AI for her to communicate with. If you think about the companion cube, GlaDOS examines how quickly you destroy it, seemingly making a comparison between you destroying it and herself killing the Apature Science staff.

• 34 McGrude // Apr 7, 2008 at 4:43 pm

  I’d always figured that the Chell clones represented the players’ die-and-retry cycles as they worked through the game. Each time the player reloads after a death it represents another cloned Chell.

  Great analysis. Thanks for the thought provoking post.

• 35 links for 2008-04-07 | Past is prologue // Apr 7, 2008 at 5:15 pm

  [...] Still Alive? She’s Free. For those who played Portal, read this to get a different look on GlaDOS (tags: portal games article) [...]

• 36 Amazing Anaylsis of Portal’s GLADoS | Universe_JDJ's Blog // Apr 7, 2008 at 5:45 pm

  [...] read more | digg story [...]

• 37 Drew // Apr 7, 2008 at 5:48 pm

  @N: She did mention that they installed the morality core *after* her attempt to gas everyone in Aperture. This too is a mystery– how could they have installed it on her under fire from neurotoxins? Just as well, how did she purify the chambers so that the Chell clones could get through– let them sit for a long time, I suppose, I did see one thing in one of the ‘Ratman’s Den’ areas that was copyrighted 1983. Hmm, one year before 1984 eh? Also, since the cake was always intended to be a reward at the conclusion of the test, it could be inferred that the point of Chell’s being revived WAS to kill GLaDOS’s body, and perhaps the newly-freed woman inside is now using her mental link to the test facilities to move the robotic arm, lighting up the ‘eyes’ in the process. Lastly, there were two things which were to be provided at the end of the test: Cake, and grief counseling. Now of course there’s cake… but there’s also the companion cube in that VERY last scene! Grief gone!

• 38 Portal’s GlaDOS As Bondage Slave [Valve] // Apr 7, 2008 at 7:06 pm

  [...] Still Alive? She’s Free. [Game-Ism] [...]

• 39 auntie pixelante › glados bound // Apr 7, 2008 at 7:06 pm

  [...] find game-ism’s metaphor of portal’s glados as a bound woman necessarily intriguing, even if the author is, as third-favorite gamer’s quarter editor m. [...]

• 40 » Blog Archive » links for 2008-04-08 // Apr 7, 2008 at 8:50 pm

  [...] Still Alive? She’s Free. (tags: analysis valve portal subtext bondage technology scifi artificial intelligence) [...]

• 41 YvMvidcast » Blog Archive » Portal Philosophy // Apr 7, 2008 at 9:57 pm

  [...] GlaDOS [...]

• 42 Still Alive? She’s Free. // Apr 7, 2008 at 10:09 pm

  [...] Read This [...]

• 43 NerdyRage.Com » Blog Archive » GladOS: Tormented Soul Driven To Assisted Suicide? // Apr 8, 2008 at 12:44 am

  [...] has posted a Portal plot theory that, if correct, really turns the the entire experience on it’s ear. What they are proposing [...]

• 44 Morning Gaming News with Cooper Hawkes! » Blog Archive » Morning Gaming News Podcast: 4/8/2008 // Apr 8, 2008 at 4:38 am

  [...] GlaDOS in bondage? It’s almost too perverse to be true.. and yet… the author makes a com… [...]

• 45 shad0walker // Apr 8, 2008 at 4:59 am

  It could just be one of those coincidences in the design which by putting alot of time towards thinking about it gives you the idea, but if you look at the modules being attached, they don’t form any real part of the main shape. they are tacked on outside of the bulk of the equipment and don’t cause a major change to the look/feel of GLaDOS when you remove them. It may again be a coincidence but I doubt it was done to make targets easily spotted, they fall off in order where ever you manage to hit GLaDOS with a rocket so it wouldn’t have change the gameplay to just integrate them into her main body. If the targets were builtin to her main ‘body’ then it would have wrecked the overall design of her ‘body’ when they were destroyed.

• 46 rosicrux // Apr 8, 2008 at 5:08 am

  That is a fantastic observation. I knew there was something more than a generic endgame boss at the end, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. And the fact that the ending was timed doesn’t give one alot of time to smell the roses, as it were. I’ll admit I only played the boss sequence once, while returning to individual levels many times.

• 47 drzy » GladOS in bondage // Apr 8, 2008 at 5:30 am

  [...] within it. It reveals that Valve tried to give GladOS a female form, but not exactly which. Game-ism proposes GladOS wanted you to find her all along, to free her from her bondage. .gallery { margin: [...]

• 48 HYPERPOWER! // Apr 8, 2008 at 6:31 am

  Awesome article. I think your GlaDOS would look even more unsettling if you’d change her hair bun to something long and unkempt, to show just how long she has been confined.

• 49 |[Sacred]| // Apr 8, 2008 at 7:19 am

  Very nice observation. I agree with your observations. Notice how she flails about when you hit her with a rocket; she looks as though she’s trying to break free. I noticed that she looked blindfolded and wearing ear muffs when I played but I thought I was seeing things. I never noticed the straight jacket proposal though and it makes sense. I can’t wait to see what Valve does with her. GLaDOS is by far one of my most favorite characters in any game.

  Maybe she becomes somewhat of a virus and infects machines in the world, spawning a war between Aperture Science and Black Mesa to help free humanity; just as Chell helped free GLaDOS. I’m confident that Gordon Freeman and Chell meet up.

  HOLY CRAP! Just thought of this! What about Dog! What if she infects him or something! Ok, that is a little too extreme…

• 50 Solarmech // Apr 8, 2008 at 8:15 am

  A very good observation about GLaDOS. I caught on to the fact that she had a woman’s form in profile several months ago. But there is one problem about the whole bondage thing. To be bound up, both her arms should be tied up behind her. They aren’t. GLaDOS’s right arm is bent at the elbow and is out in front of her (holding a cable). This is clear when you get over to her right side over by the catwalk. Sorry.
  (I do think that GLaDOS is being controlled, but not to the point of the bondage thing) sm

• 51 Still Alive? She’s Free. « PC Game News .co .uk // Apr 8, 2008 at 11:46 am

  [...] Still Alive? She’s Free. 8 04 2008 All I can do is show these two pics and hope you want to read on: [...]

• 52 Rule 34 - GlaDOS | vazio.org // Apr 8, 2008 at 4:50 pm

  [...] Link [...]

• 53 GlaDOS - bondage i cosplay | Polygamia // Apr 8, 2008 at 5:20 pm

  [...] game-ism.com znajdziemy duży tekst analizujący postać GlaDOS z Portala. Autor napisał sporo ciekawych [...]

• 54 XAM » Blog Archive » GlaDOS - bondage i cosplay // Apr 8, 2008 at 7:09 pm

  [...] game-ism.com znajdziemy duży tekst analizujący postać GlaDOS z Portala. Autor napisał sporo ciekawych [...]

• 55 Adam // Apr 8, 2008 at 7:25 pm

  For someone who isn’t into bondage, you sure drew a sexy picture of GLaDOS!

  But listen to her. This isn’t this voice of some chick. This is a (physically, not mentally) mature woman. I personally think it’s sexist to represent only sexy women. It may seem like good marketing, but it’s degrading. I guarantee that sketch is going to turn some guys on, and that’s extremely disturbing.

• 56 Rhontos // Apr 8, 2008 at 9:17 pm

  I realize that its an easter egg, but one of the clipboards in Portal reveals that subject 042 was a chicken. So they couldn’t have all been Chell clones :P

• 57 GlaDOS as a bondaged slave: Now you’re thinking with boners | Free Games Center Blog // Apr 8, 2008 at 9:18 pm

  [...] thing. Like for instance, when I look at a cloud, I sometimes see kittens and bunnies. This writer over on game-ism is the same way. Except, instead of clouds and kittens, he sees GlaDOS as a woman hanging upside [...]

• 58 Tom // Apr 8, 2008 at 10:00 pm

  A previous commenter said: “the entire game of portal has something unmistakenly female about it.” Hmm . . . a game about opening up smooth, rounded “apertures” and pushing things through them? What could possibly be female about that? I’m not seeing it.

• 59 the P.Pole v.2.1 » Totally Tweet 2008-04-08 // Apr 8, 2008 at 11:11 pm

  [...] Browsing: http://www.game-ism.com/?p=91 [...]

• 60 Mewe // Apr 9, 2008 at 3:38 am

  I don’t think it is anytihng. Just your imagination. I mean woman in shape of a Giant? Really in HL-universe?

• 61 Mewe // Apr 9, 2008 at 3:42 am

  I doubt there’s any women…I mean that huge? A giant? Doesn’t fit a Hl Universe to me.

• 62 PCGameNews.co.uk » Still Alive? She’s Free. // Apr 9, 2008 at 6:03 am

  [...] All I can do is show these two pics and hope you want to read on: [...]

• 63 Portal: A game for tied-up lesbians? // Apr 9, 2008 at 7:06 am

  [...] according to two different blogs, which in today’s world means it’s as good as a fact. Game-Ism’s art below is pretty hard to argue with, especially since Portal’s designers said they were [...]

• 64 Osama // Apr 9, 2008 at 9:37 am

  This is a BRILLIANT observation! I think Mewe missed the point entirely!

• 65 MarkoPolo // Apr 9, 2008 at 1:15 pm

  I didn’t see it on Amazon - but there is a book about Valve’s art and art process called “Above the Bar” - I think that somewhere in the art reference file there is probably a woman hanging upside down in a straight jacket pretty much as rendered.

  Check out the book if you can find it…it is one of my favorite game art refernece works.

• 66 Baines // Apr 9, 2008 at 5:00 pm

  Someone has taken an image of the base model of GlaDOS and placed it on an image of Bottichelli’s Venus and found they pretty much match up.
  http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopic.php?p=312160#312160

  That pretty much kills the artistic impression above.

  Plus, the argument itself has a major issue that is never addressed. The article’s argument revolves around GlaDOS treating Chell so badly in order to get Chell to destroy her. Why couldn’t GlaDOS just ask Chell to shut her down? Or even offer her something (information, help, whatever) for the same?

• 67 GLaDOS Followup: She’s Your Venus. // Apr 9, 2008 at 9:14 pm

  [...] James posted an interesting image earlier about his own research he started doing after seeing the GLaDOS Bondage piece from earlier this week, and I wanted to link it here, because as it turns out, Valve did use [...]

• 68 Solarmech // Apr 10, 2008 at 9:46 am

  In response to Baines qustion about why GLaDOS did not explain anything to Chell is simple. She couldn’t. The restriction AS put on kept her from doing certain things (like trying to free herself or let herself be destroyed) and forced her to do other things (such as keep running the Enrichment Center). Despite wanting to be free and get Chell outside, GLaDOS’s porograming forced her to try to stay alive (and a slave) and not let Chell outside. But while she went through the motions of following her programing, she (intentionaly) made mistakes that Chell could exploit to achive her (and Chell’s?) goals.
  And on the pic of GLaDOS in the thread that Baines linked to, you can cleary see that GLaDOS’s right arm is in front of her (sorry no bondage folks). But I don’t think there is much of resemblence between Venus and GLaDOS. Remember that artwork was an idea they didn’t use. sm

• 69 Fun Link Friday » Games News and Reviews » Binary Joy // Apr 11, 2008 at 5:28 am

  [...] GlaDOS still alive? One gamers thoughts about the robot behind Portal [...]

• 70 t3h w31rd: Week of April 13th, 2008: // Apr 12, 2008 at 10:02 pm

  [...] GlaDOS is a Kinky Girl [...]

• 71 Beyond the Portal | observatory // Apr 15, 2008 at 3:29 am

  [...] Related: Still Alive? She’s Free. [...]

• 72 FPSB | Burrito // Apr 15, 2008 at 3:18 pm

  I think she was only lying to Chell and forcing her to destroy the companion cube just to get her angry enough to kill her. I don’t actually think she was just lying.

  P.S. Great picture!

• 73 FPSB | Burrito // Apr 15, 2008 at 3:19 pm

  I believe she was only lying to Chell and forcing her to destroy the companion cube just to get her angry enough to kill her. I don’t actually think she was just lying.

  P.S. Great picture!

• 74 Merci Les // Apr 15, 2008 at 10:13 pm

  Very interesting =o.
  However, i dont believe GLaDOS felt trapped or wanted to die.
  Though admitedly, she is a liar on all accounts, i do believe she was telling the truth in the end, and that she wanted to test Chell in order to see if she could survive in the world outside.

• 75 Razz // Apr 17, 2008 at 4:21 pm

  This is a neat theory and I love the art, even though I can’t fully agree with it. But I did want you to know that you inspired a bit of GLaDOS fanart:
  http://razzek.deviantart.com/art/Portal-GLaDOS-83088924

• 76 Chris // Apr 18, 2008 at 6:08 am

  After thinking about it for a while, I believe that that when GlaDOS sings “Still Alive” at the end she is being completly truthful.

  In the beginning when she says ‘This was a triumph…it’s hard to overstate my satisfaction’ I think she was talking about Chell’s triumph in beating the game and how she is happy for her.

• 77 Zak // Apr 21, 2008 at 11:03 am

  Is it possible that even the eyes Chell put into the incinerator aren’t even destroyed? Think about it, as GLaDOS attempted to put you into the fire at the end of stage 19, she mentioned that all Aperture Science equipment could withstand temperatures of up to 4000 degrees kelvin, which is very hot. Sending the eyes into that incinerator probably wasn’t enough to destroy her, thus the song ’still alive.’
  Most would hear this theory and bring up the companion cube.
  Isn’t the companion cube in the room with the cake?

  Just food for thought.

• 78 Chris // Apr 22, 2008 at 6:36 am

  When did she say that Aperture equipment could withstand 4000 degrees?

• 79 Razz // Apr 22, 2008 at 3:32 pm

  Right as Chell is heading for her “victory candescence” at the end of the test chamber in the last level.

  “All Aperture technologies remain safely operational up to four thousand degrees kelvin.”

• 80 Overdose40 » GlaDOS, deeper than we thought // Apr 23, 2008 at 10:23 am

  [...] analiza geniala a personajului din Portal facuta de game-ism.com. Kudos to Valve. design, gaming   SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “GlaDOS, deeper than we [...]

• 81 Chris // Apr 25, 2008 at 6:11 am

  Oh okay. Mabey you’re on to something there.

• 82 Chris // Apr 25, 2008 at 6:17 am

  Although…

  “Equipment” might not refer to GlaDOS’s eyes. She could have just ment that even though Chell will be baked into a delicious chocolate cake-the portal gun will be safe.

• 83 Amazing Anaylsis of Portal’s GLADoS « Food Weblog // Apr 27, 2008 at 3:03 am

  [...] read more | digg story [...]

• 84 Chris // Apr 28, 2008 at 6:01 am

  Hey Razz, if you are almost completly blind-
  how do you play portal?

• 85 Daniel Page » GLaDOS - Toujours vivant ? // May 3, 2008 at 4:20 pm

  [...] Un article très intéressant (en anglais) fait un peu le psychanalyse du personnage du jeu. Tout d’abord en comparant l’ordinateur suspendu à une femme en camisole - plus précisément Vénus, de Botticelli, le ressemblance est assez frappant, cela m’a amené à réfléchir à pourquoi l’ordinateur a tué tout le monde - sauf le joueur - et à la fin, malgré sa déstruction, annonce dans le jeu, qu’elle est toujours vivante ? [...]

• 86 Pornstar Quiz // May 5, 2008 at 4:37 pm

  That girl you drew is too hot for the internet.

• 87 Bcortizo // May 15, 2008 at 7:07 pm

  Well, like Floyd said earlier, I’m seeing more of a pregnant, upside-down woman than a bondagesque figure.

  I’ve just read your articles about Portal and found them very interesting and cohesive, despite not playing it not even a single time.

  Furthermore, while Botticelli’s Venus may be a source of inspiration, the motherly-figure you paint GLADoS as finds a more fitting image in a capture mother-to-be, don’t you think? (and after just writing that I started to worry about my mental health… =p)

  Also, seeing its relationship with Chell as a mother-daughter relationship, leading Chell to “kill” it (whatever that means for a AI/construct of its kind) also means giving Chell the means to surpass it, “preparing” Chell, in a sense, for the worst GLADoS could conceive of and, thus, protecting her “daughter” from harm.

  Then again, I may only talking a load of non-sense here and ressurrecting an old topic.

• 88 panzerbourne // May 29, 2008 at 4:29 pm

  Its very strange to see GlaDOS embodied like that. Her entire demenour is really haunting throught the game. To see her manifest is kind of creepy considering the game context. A tribute to the creative and artistic genious employed at Valve. Salute

• 89 Photrius // Jun 1, 2008 at 12:58 pm

  I would like to observe that if you watch GLaDOS’ reaction to increasing damage throughout the fight with that image in mind it is exceptionally…unnerving. And pitiful. Poor GLaDOS. Note specifically the motion of the ‘head’.

• 90 Deus Ex Machina // Jun 1, 2008 at 7:53 pm

  For those of you talking about it:
  When she says that they installed the morality core after she released the neuro-toxins, remember one thing from the Half-Life series: Gordon Freeman’s suit can administer an antidote for the neuro-toxins inside the poison headcrabs, so is it possible then that Aperture Science employees (if not all, then higher-ranking officials) might have this same technology in their suits?

• 91 Panther // Jun 2, 2008 at 4:22 pm

  Awesome drawing.

• 92 Veridas // Jun 3, 2008 at 5:08 pm

  I don’t think this philosophy is entirely accurate given some of the evidence in-game.

  GlaDos is ultimately designed to regulate and oversee the testing process for the Portal gun. Her purpose is most likely to cumulate data on the subject’s pulse, blood pressure and breathing patterns whilst filming the exercises (this can be deducted due to the spare metal feet producing from Chell’s legs. There’s no reason to think that this is the limit of the modifications made to her)

  The possibility that GlaDos became malevolent is only possible if we consider that she was not content with watching people succeed at these tests, which they would inevitably do after a certain time, and thus pushed to add her own level of difficulty. This is evident early in the game when GlaDos insists that a particular challenge is impossible despite its nature.

  Since her keepers would have disagreed with this, GlaDos would have had to spread her influence to the few places where it did not already exist, and then remove the crew designed to draw scientific conclusions from test data.

  This would have sparked the use of neurotoxins, which we know the scientists at AS (Aperture Science) attempted to stop, but must have failed to do so entirely.

  GlaDos’ happiness at the end of the game could be genuine if we consider that she has now become frustrated with failure.

  There is evidence to suggest that one more person made it out before Chell as this person is intent on scrawling directions everywhere, this person’s obsession with gathering items found in the offices could point to it being a former scientist for AS.

  Its a safe assumption that this person, if he or she took the same route as Chell, failed when they encountered GlaDos. Either due to GlaDos’ missiles or the neurotoxin.

  Therefore, this person too was a failure. Unable to compete with GlaDos renewed testing facility that lead the subjects to GlaDos themselves. What better difficulty to add to a deadly testing process than to force the subject to fight against something that cannot feel fear, cannot feel pain and is as cold and calculating as, well, as a machine.

  GlaDos must know on some level that she would, if defeated, simply be restored in another location. Thus to her death has no meaning.

  To that extent, Chell is the first, and most likely the only person to truly defeat GlaDos. What happens to Chell afterwards is irrelevent given GlaDos’ ultimate purpose: To test people’s ability to use the portal gun under extreme conditions.

  GlaDos’ morality core could have only kicked in after she disposed of the AS scientists or regulators, or only after people began to die in front of her because of her deadly tests. The fact that she has no problem with sending people to their deaths must mean that she can, to some extent, ignore the morality core but the fact that her purpose is to test people for potential success must also mean that death is not necessarily her desire, either on her part or on the part of her test subjects.

  Therefore, for GlaDos to watch Chell, in spite of having nothing to use but the portal gun and her own mind, march stoicly and silently through one puzzle after another and then after that to defeat GlaDos herself must be something of a relief.

  The assumption that all GlaDos can do is lie doesn’t hold much water given that GlaDos lies have only been distractions, never any information of true meaning. The fact that GlaDos also informs the player of what the Portal Gun does and how the weighted companion cube comes into play also proves that she only lies to test the player, and once the test is over, she has no reason to lie any more.

  If we assume that the test lasts until GlaDos’ death, then that would mean that GlaDos’ ending song can’t be a lie.

  This is a fantastic article, its ideas are wonderful, but frankly I just disagree.

• 93 Deus Ex Machina // Jun 12, 2008 at 6:29 pm

  You need to look at this, http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/9343/boralsicopyws2.jpg and read the 4th. paragraph down:
  It’s about the ship, BOREALIS, (owned by Apeture) and it says how it was TRANSPORTING A GLaDOS UNIT RIGHT BEFORE IT WAS TRANSPORTED COMPLETELY OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH for unknown reasons.
  It also mentions here http://members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/timeline.htm that the ship had on-board a “portal technology much more advanced than Black Mesa’s”
  So, what I am basically trying to say is this:
  When Chell destroyed GLaDOS on Earth, GLaDOS was came back into consciousness aboard BOREALIS, and on the BOREALIS, there is another Portal Gun which Gordon Freeman will most likely acquire in either Half-Life 2 Episode 3, or Half-Life 3, when they go in search of the ship, as it is hinted to in Episode 2.

• 94 Deus Ex Machina // Jun 12, 2008 at 6:40 pm

  oh, and, they just announced portal 2,so wah, wah, wahhhhh…

• 95 Deus Ex Machina // Jun 12, 2008 at 6:42 pm

  here’s a link to a video:
  http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp?CIID=104102

• 96 Digital Sextant :: Portal // Jun 17, 2008 at 8:13 am

  [...] bits of graffiti left by previous “test subjects,” and blood splatters. I read an interesting article with provocative commentary on the controlling computer, but I wouldn’t suggest you read it [...]

• 97 episode 001 - punching children at Bleeding Pixels Podcast // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:29 pm

  [...] Things mentioned in the show~! Industrial Gamers Zelda Marathon - Time Lapse Shadow of the Colossus Animation Portal - GLaDOS as a Bondage Slave [...]

• 98 Andy of Comix, Inc. // Jun 25, 2008 at 6:39 am

  Finding this late at night, I could barely sleep, finding the link on Garry Newman’s blog… that humanized GLaDOS scared the hell out of me cos it looks SO RIGHT.

  I think GLaDOS probably wanted to die, she was a trapped woman, but I don’t think she was fully aware of her surroundings. She’s crying, and in pain, but she’s also completely insane (http://www.aperturescience.com) and so she killed everyone in the complex.

  Ye olde mad crying computer.

• 99 Zefiro // Jul 2, 2008 at 7:00 pm

  Very interesting analysis (including your follow-ups). Thanks for this! I wouldn’t have thought about those details, dismissing quite some elements as “That’s how it’s done in games” and not as actually being part of the story.

  Since I didn’t find it in your texts nor the comments, the whole storyline - the way you explain it - has a very strong touch of “Neuromancer” from William Gibson. (see e.g. here: http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/neuromancer.html )

  And thanks for this picture, as I *am* into Bondage ;)

• 100 unome // Jul 4, 2008 at 3:48 pm

  I thought the same way you did. i wanted to know what GLaDOS looked like so i searched google images and i found what i was looking for then i saw it i thought it looked like someone that was hanging. then i saw this and thought it was amazing to see someone who thinks the same way i do. Great minds think alike.

  remember her motto “there is a whole in the sky in which things can…fly”

• 101 Favourite Portal Quotes (Spoilers) - Page 2 - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net // Jul 21, 2008 at 1:10 am

  [...] amazing anaylsis of portal’s GLADoS __________________ Vista.x64.FAQ ‡ MP3 Server ‡ Boost.IE.in.Vista ‡ Shortcut.Overlay.Remover ‡ HR.Wallpaper.Websites linskingdom’s Official VMark BETA Testing Thread OCN’s Finest Blogger: Technical Joe-Pinions Be friendly and polite to your fellow OCN members Quote: [...]

• 102 Critic // Aug 2, 2008 at 5:42 am

  I don’t know why you think you’ve stumbled upon something so fantastic with your own little personal epiphany. Like, woah dude, you managed to see what Valve was trying to convey the entire time and which most of us saw straight away? Well congratulations. You’re a little slow, but at least you got there.

  Unfortunately for you, that’s just a credit to Valve for creating the strong symbolic imagery, not to yourself for being able to see it.

• 103 Axl // Aug 2, 2008 at 10:28 pm

  @Critic: I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but most everyone here has either never thought of his points before, or has formed their own separate theories already, and do not agree with his analysis, to varying degrees.

  As far as we know, he could be completely wrong. He could be completely right. We have no idea, and won’t unless Valve gives us more evidence to use. Plus, saying that it’s what Valve was trying to convey the entire time can’t be true with your knowledge, since you can’t know what Valve is thinking.

• 104 Critic // Aug 4, 2008 at 1:49 am

  The only significant thing that he has painstakingly pointed out is that GLaDOS looks like a trapped woman, which the rest of us could already tell at first glance.

  This is no revelation.

• 105 spitfire // Aug 4, 2008 at 7:21 am

  Remember, folks, there’s no point in feeding trolls who are incapable of reading!

  Love, the management.

• 106 Brent Wong // Aug 5, 2008 at 10:02 pm

  What you said is truly remarkable and I honestly couldn’t have come to that conclusion. I mean her feminist appearance is an obvious but the many minor details are seemingly very convincing. The clones would be supported by ” I have kept a copy or your brain” or something of that sort at the boss battle of GlaDOS would support the clone idea. In addition to that the BOREALIS incident could be colaborated with GlaDOS in ways more then one(with the red phone etc.) And to those asking about the gas that I have noticed, could easily have been avoided with either A.) Airing out the facilities then planting the chip, or B.) Using special suits to plant the chip or lastly C.) The employees of the facility had all died ( don’t know how their bodies disappeared) but Chell’s cubical was protected ( you could see a filtration system inside). However something I disagree upon is that already stated by Veridas (kinda) is her intent upon being freed was not based upon sorrow or to gain freedom but was mainly based upon the main gain of scientific evaluation. Obviously her malcontent at the end of the song saying ” I’m still alive while you die” is an exact response that she does not care if Chell lives or not ( maybe ungrateful but I doubt that) as well as her feelings that this “experiment” was a great success, and her ranting about how she wanted to create a gun for those that alive. Your insight is very creative as well as amazing and if not said would not led to my observation but sorry I must say no to your conclusion.

• 107 PORTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL // Aug 9, 2008 at 9:44 pm

  Is that Dr. Mossman?
  I know she made some mistakes but she doesn’t deserve that!

• 108 Gamer // Aug 15, 2008 at 11:26 pm

  I have to disagree with the whole bondage concept, I also don’t think Chell is a clone, but that’s much more possible. I haven’t played the Half-Life games other than Portal, so I can’t say much about the game’s place in the series. Just looking at this game, it makes me truly believe GLaDOS is evil (I’d compare her as a comical SHODAN). It is quite obvious that other people were in the factory, and other people were being tested after it was abandoned (the cake is a lie). So then, why no bodies?

• 109 ChocoSuisse // Aug 22, 2008 at 7:02 am

  I’d like to draw your attention on this hypothesis :

  GLaDOS was activated at the event of the “bring your daughter to work” thing, then the employees were captured (and probably send to the borealis) via the neurotoxin.

  Chell is one of the employee’s daughter’s, probably Cave Johnson (on the aperture science’s site the login CJOHNSON can correspond to both of them).

  GLaDOS is in a way controlled by something. She wants Chell to survive and kill her but she pretend not to in order to dupe her master.

  Other girls have taken the tests and have failed.

  Cave Johnson is the one who has written in red on the walls helpful instructions to escape. As the creator of Aperture’s lab, he knew the way. He only had a few time for that after the girls were separated from the employees, but before GLaDOS takes the control thanks to the gas (remember the lab is void of people but everything is as if the employees didn’t have even the time to finish working).

  Who is GLaDOS’ master?
  -> who would like to destroy aperture but get control of their technologies? we can think of the g-man, who has some teleportation devices in HL.

  What will Chell do in the future?
  Probably meet Black Mesa, as in the song.

  My source is this site (in french, sorry!) :
  http://nayi.free.fr/aperture/portal.html

• 110 Dvorak // Aug 22, 2008 at 10:20 pm

  This is all very speculative, and requires inferring beyond what the game provides, but it should at least provide more food for thought.

  If we assume GLaDOS to be somewhat benevolent towards the cause of mankind (or, perhaps, in a twisted way, desirous of each member of mankind staying alive as long as possible as a consolation for the fact that she apparently cannot die), the line in the final song “The science gets done and you get a neat gun / For the people who are still alive” could have an even deeper meaning. The portal gun, while a useful tool, was likely kept under high security in the Aperture Science facility, with no chance of really leaving the facility until it would have been too late to do anyone any good. The weapon would theoretically give humanity a better chance of surviving; yet it could not escape the facility. The only way to allow it to escape the facility would be by allowing a test subject to pass through the entire sequence of test chambers, then find GLaDOS and “destroy” her. This would (as a computer as intelligent as GLaDOS would likely know), open the portal that would expel the test subject and the gun out of the lab and into the outside world, where the gun could be of use to the human cause. Thus “The science gets done, and you get a neat gun for the people who are still alive.”

  Personally, I think GLaDOS cares very much about both Chell and humankind in general. As to why GLaDOS would really care about humankind, perhaps she realizes that if mankind disappears, she has no hope of being “killed” (and would probably have a rather boring existence all alone). There is also the possibility that here state as a “Genetic Lifeform” as well as a “Disk Operating System” would have opened her up to a gamut of human emotion, and thus caused her to feel for the race which designed her.

  Just a few thoughts…

  As to why there are no bodies, I can think of a few (albeit implausible) explanations:

  1) We can assume that Aperture Science had not only created GLaDOS and the robots for assault training. It is possible that other robots existed in the facility, and that some of these were either hardwired to clean or were directed in the absence of humans by GLaDOS to remove the bodies from the test chambers or the backrooms. The latter makes more sense to me, as GLaDOS has a presence in most rooms, and would likely be able to find the deceased subjects and eliminate them; and it also explains why the robots did not clean the walls as well.

  2) It is also possible that the drawings on the wall were done by GLaDOS (or at GLaDOS’ orders by robots) as a way of leading Chell to the eventual goal. This, I think, is less probable, but it is not impossible, given GLaDOS seeming omnipresence in the lab.

• 111 name // Aug 31, 2008 at 8:04 pm

  Hello!,

• 112 name // Aug 31, 2008 at 10:07 pm

  Hi!,

• 113 ___ // Sep 3, 2008 at 1:34 pm

  1. Glados is not cut off from the outside world. If she was, how does she direct Chells actions? And where did she get that picture of the citadel exploding from(watch the screens very carefully during the final stage of the fight)?

  2. She did not want to die. If she did, why limit her suicide attempt to 5 min tops?

  3. The design of the core is a nod to the testicle boss in Half Life 1 who jumped arround exactly the same way in all of it’s low texture glory.

• 114 Circulatory Logic - Updates Wednesdays » Archive » Braid - Infinite Sandwiches // Sep 9, 2008 at 11:00 pm

  [...] plan on playing it. Lots of spoilers. And, while I’m at it, another deep game analysis: Portal. Same warning goes for this [...]

• 115 Dane Lewis // Sep 18, 2008 at 9:39 pm

  i would not be surprised if the insinuators lead out side and into cubes

• 116 Dane Lewis // Sep 18, 2008 at 9:47 pm

  Also the spheres are locks. think about it one of them is the first thing to fall, she did that, she wants out,yet can only remove one lock. also nerve gas. if it was fixed why no outer life? why do you sit in you wonderful air tight no escape room? because she gassed black mesa!

• 117 Portal « Sara’s Weblog - ATEC 3325 // Oct 1, 2008 at 9:58 pm

  [...] article on Digg, written by a blogger about his perspective on GLaDOS. You can read it here [http://www.game-ism.com/2008/04/04/still-alive-shes-free/]. It makes you view her in a different way, you kind of feel sorry for the poor girl, hanging [...]

• 118 finaleve // Oct 2, 2008 at 10:01 pm

  While I see the A LOT of work put into this, it doesn’t really change my theory around.

  I believe that GLaDOS was created to help in finding the perfect user for the Portal Gun. Doing some research of her own, she discovered something, possibly within the staff, that one of them was a perfect answer, but couldn’t easily bring her in…unless she did something to lower the guard. Bring Your Daughter to Work Day was the answer. I believe Chell is possibly one of the scientists daughters, and stole her away, put her in one of the stasis beds, and killed off everyone including the parent.

  Basically, she is trying to find the perfect being to be able to comprehend the power of the Portal gun. In the expansion (TFU map packs), the clones were all various Chell’s. The idea is that each Chell has some sort of genetic difference. These genetic differences were to help find that perfect user for the Portal Gun.

  With the idea you bring up, it is quite possible that there is a woman trapped inside. If that is so, then there could be something deeper.
  That supposed parent of Chell could be Cave Johnson, and the trapped GLaDOS is possibly the mother. Its a stretch I know, but if it is true, than GLaDOS knows enough of her own genetic code to see that Chell is the perfect subject.

  She’s still alive, not free or anything. It’s possibe she is still conducting the experiments since the project isn’t entirely over (As Portal 2 comes close that is). It’s possible the first phase of the project is completed, and the second scenario is about to begin, with Cave Johnson as the ring leader. GLaDOS needs to be alive to continue the project in case Chell happens to fail during the second phase.

  After all, its a theory, and it’s hard to back-up some of the information, but its something that could be true.

• 119 Rissa // Oct 22, 2008 at 4:15 pm

  I’m fascinated by Portal but I can’t play it (my graphics card = fail). Now you have made me EVEN MORE FASCINATED.

  DAMN YOU.

  (But, seriously. That drawing is _awesome_.)

• 120 Sathie // Nov 11, 2008 at 3:02 am

  First saw this a few months back, with just the bondage style pic. I didn’t really see it back then, but now, having seen GLaDOS and your pic side by side, it’s spot on.

• 121 Teoría: GlaDOS de Portal es una mujer atada y amordazada =A= Aeromental // Nov 14, 2008 at 2:51 pm

  [...] el blog Game-ISM se dieron cuenta de esta imagen y decidieron hacer un dibujo que ilustre mejor esta [...]

• 122 HUGE SUCCESS // Nov 20, 2008 at 6:52 pm

  Maybe GlaDOS didn’t lie when she said there would be cake. Look at the monitors in the picture. See the cake? Maybe she’s trying to show you how bad it is to be a sentient being not able to feel or taste, and the picture of cake and the description of cake is the only way she can experience cake.

• 123 Oliver // Nov 23, 2008 at 8:49 pm

  Wow, I nver really though a game like this could have sooo much symbolism. I stumbled on this website and kudos to the writers. If all this speculation is true, a great game will become even better!

• 124 ApertureWeirdo // Nov 29, 2008 at 11:54 am

  It seems that if intentionally or not, Valve has pushed themselves into a very deep story with a lot of symbolism. I’ve never really thought of it that way, but it seems that you are not the only one who has come up with the clone idea. In Portal:the flash version mappack there is a bts area with chell clones suspended in a liquid.

  Also, there has been rumors that portal 2 will star cave johnson, probably put into computer form, and that is very similar to what you are saying.

  Anyway, very, VERY good. A complimentary victory comment has been submitted on the main article.

• 125 Noel // Dec 24, 2008 at 3:32 am

  I like it if female bondage can make an appearance in gaming, and love you rendering, although here it is an extreme situation pushing the edges of disturbing for those not ‘into’ that. I just hope you aren’t trying to attack Valve’s creative freedom and ‘bust’ them, and make a controversy about it like past games where they felt bullied to remake the game for the ‘pc’ fascists.

• 126 Mapping the Brainysphere: 29 blogs switched-on gamers should read « Subject Navigator // Jan 1, 2009 at 8:59 pm

  [...] is a blog that I have to admit I just plain forgot. ‘Still Alive? She’s Free’ is one of my personal favourite posts of the year; I even considered referencing it in my thesis, [...]

• 127 Vivian // Jan 4, 2009 at 8:27 pm

  i really looked at the picture and then looked at your drawing. And it goes together perfectly. Also thinking about it. She does seem miserable =[

• 128 random links: january 25, 2009 | malvasia bianca // Jan 25, 2009 at 6:04 am

  [...] Very interesting take on GlaDOS. [...]

• 129 greyarea // Jan 30, 2009 at 5:12 pm

  Now that I have rered your final piece of the article I believe you. I knew GLaDOS was attempting to get itself killed, but this is much more deep than I had atnticipated.

  A thought occurs, if GLaDOS is a woman, then the daughters (her daughters in a way) are not only to be given cake at the end. It is a birthday cake. They will be born - forced out of the destructive womb of the enrichment centre into the outside world. The cake represnts this birth and is why you get it on completion.

• 130 musicaddiction » portal // Jan 31, 2009 at 7:52 pm

  [...] A great lyrical analysis can be read here as well as a through analysis of GlaDOS’ real plan here. Overall the game is amazing and sparking countless fan creations of all kinds. I particularly [...]

• 131 Best of The Web - Blog Posts and Articles Of Year 2008 // Feb 7, 2009 at 6:47 am

  [...] Still Alive? She’s Free on SomethingAwful.com. This blogger just enlightened me more than I ever thought possible on what Valve was trying to convey with the personality and mysterious depth of GLADoS. Here is an Amazing Anaylsis of Portal’s GLADoS. [...]

• 132 Best of The Web - Blog Posts 2008 // Feb 10, 2009 at 7:25 am

  [...] Still Alive? She’s Free on SomethingAwful.com. This blogger just enlightened me more than I ever thought possible on what Valve was trying to convey with the personality and mysterious depth of GLADoS. Here is an Amazing Anaylsis of Portal’s GLADoS. [...]

• 133 Ristar // Mar 15, 2009 at 8:04 am

  I don’t think she’s quite “Free”. In the Still Alive song, she says the line “I think I prefer to stay inside.” How can she be free if she says that? She also says “When I look out there, it makes me glad I’m not you.”

• 134 mike // Mar 24, 2009 at 4:03 pm

  I have been looking into your theory, I like it and also i would like to add on yours. This dialouge will mainly center around the combine.

  Now most of us do know what the combine is/are depending if you think of it as a group or as an individual presons. Anyways GLaDOS clearly said quote “listen we are both stuck in this place” and also “I am the only thing protecting us from them”

  Be patient with me as I will explain this later. I would aslo like to bring up the fact that GLaDOS did have some items in her cake recipie that would be perfect for preserving tissue especialy for a long time. Also alot of pieces of information stating the status of chell as an at least partly cyberized being. Now just keep this all in mind for later.

  Now for the combine i do not want to give a synopsis for them. Though they are fond of crossing portals in order to conquest other dimensions. I know what you are thinking oh is that it they both use portals also ( gay, retarted , and stuuuuuuuuuuupid) and while this is not my point, it is important to it. So this is were my point starts to take shape.

  The combine have a habit of doing experiments on humans mainly turning them into combine soilders and here we go they like to put there factories underground. Now do you get what i am saying aperture science at one point fell into the hands of the combine. Now to your point of GLaDOS and that she is a cyberized woman , now that is something the combine would do.

  But more importantly now is chell. There is a place called nova prospect and I want to tell you a bit about it. The actual facility, built on the ruins of the old prison, incorporates Combine infrastructure, a teleporter, and a large holding area for political prisoners, held unconscious in pods suspended from the walls. The facility is also shown to deal with processing humans through invasive surgery

  Now there are two things in there that I like ,well three .

  Now If you look care fully into the combine behavior they like to only preform the surgery on people who are not what society calls “good” Someone say like chell but that is for later. Secondly Political prisiners. Now the combine would love a more portable portal unit and I think they would be interested in chell do the there connections with portals now the relaxation VAULT i remind you VAULT does meet the descripion I do think she was in nova prospect. Also maybe they liked the black mesa portal. i mean one though dimensions and one through actual space. pretty useful for them.

  Now for the big thing and here it is GLaDOS said that you are a military android now not just any military android an android that can withstand ratiation, live, fire courses and almost any fall. and you can go through portals.

  Now listen the event is YOU ARE THE COMBINES NEXT TRANSDIMENTIONAL SUPER DURABLE, SUPERCAPABLE, MILITARY WARBOT. Think about it. It makes sense. You or chell was the adoptive daughter of the president of aperture science. now your specimine has been preserved and put into a nova prospect like chamber then you are sent on beta into aperture science for testing. you posess the traits and the experince neccecary to be a portable portal soilder.

  But I do knot know what yet but something happend and you and glados. both prisoners of the combine are in well high demand. and you are wated. The most interesting thing about being wanted though is that the wanter must have known something about you. I think that the entire facility was under observation. Now i tink GLaDOS needed to get rid of you, herself and The brainscan and this set up for the greatest cat and mouse game ever in a video games

  in hopes you expand your theory

  mike

• 135 DK // Apr 1, 2009 at 4:49 pm

  When you think about it, why else would she be leading through all that? She attempts to burn you as part of the testing protocol (suprised you didn’t touch on this), and makes you destroy the companion cube, both seemingly without reason. I really enjoyed the image comparison at the end, and it made me think a bit about what I was really doing in Portal.

  That in mind, I think I’m going to go play again with this article in mind.

• 136 PIE // Apr 11, 2009 at 10:19 am

  Unlike HAL 9000 (space oddisey) GLADOS was self aware of what is going on, HAL would complete the mission at any cost which is why he tried to kill the Astronauts, unlike GLADOS who would know *proboly* that if there was a certain objective that would destroy the entire Aperchure Science *dont know how to spell it* GLADOS would simply shift the objectives some more, GLADOS as a slave to “insert facility here* Science is unlikely and likley, the reason is that there were no traces that their boss or any certain worker was alive, so that means that GLADOS would be the boss. Her “Experiments” is proboly seeing how smart a human being would be in escaping in “puzzle”. The “red phone” is something for if GLADOS has gone rogue *HAL never really went rogue since he was not self aware* I wouldn’t really call GLADOS rogue, she going rogue are like the robots and computers in Mass Effect, they were to train but they went rogue and killed, and GLADOS simply followed directions. Why she would activate the self destruct system might be because of the Warning Red Phone (unless only another human can disable her) and like a comment I saw early, I also think she doesnt care if Chell is alive or dead but she is also stating the fact that she cannot die. “her many so called eyes and cores in the cake room” and also AGAIN if those were destroyed then she would be most likely terminated, RAMBO STYLE. (I am merely a kid, so do not rant on and spam TAHTS A B@D AN$W3R LOLOLOLOLOL)

• 137 PIE // Apr 11, 2009 at 10:20 am

  and I gots mah info from the earlier comments and Combine OverWikia

• 138 shnitzco // Apr 18, 2009 at 10:55 pm

  GLADOS keeps hitting on you the entire game. its really weird.

• 139 keeping safe distance but courting disaster » she’s free. // Apr 19, 2009 at 4:23 pm

  [...] found this guy’s take on GlaDOS [...]

• 140 Klappstuhl // Apr 22, 2009 at 4:18 pm

  I’m still trying to figure out what will happen once Dog from Alyx finds out that there’s a “female” AI alone with no friends on the Borealis.

  Dog/GlaDOS love relationship?

• 141 jesse // Apr 26, 2009 at 10:11 am

  how could glados be talking if the person is gaged

• 142 good christ // Apr 28, 2009 at 9:44 pm

  This is perhaps the most terrible thing I have ever had the misfortune to stumble upon.

• 143 D'Viritell // May 8, 2009 at 10:46 pm

  After reading this and going back and playing Portal, your indepth work on GLaDOS made me respect the game even further.
  And its interesting that at the end of Episode 2 in Half Life that the Borealis was in fact a ship created by none other than Aperture Science.
  And I have a sneaking suspicion that GLaDOS may be on that ship.
  I mean I have no idea when Portal takes place in the Half Life universe but I am pretty sure it took place long before the Black Mesa incident so that leaves a long time open from between Portal and half Life 2.
  Gordon Freeman vs GLaDOS, now that will be interesting.

• 144 Kat // May 9, 2009 at 8:39 pm

  Just wanted to say that I absolutely love all of your analysis! Very fascinating, very entertaining. Thank you for your thoughts and observations. :-)

• 145 GlaDOS - жертва БДСМ? » GameNews // Jun 4, 2009 at 11:13 am

  [...] решили не увлекаться внешними проявлениями любви. Некто на ресурсе game-ism решил найти в сюжетной линии игры новые мотивы, [...]

• 146 GlaDOS - жертва БДСМ? » КОМПЬЮТЕРНЫЙ ЧИП // Jun 4, 2009 at 2:37 pm

  [...] решили не увлекаться внешними проявлениями любви. Некто на ресурсе game-ism решил найти в сюжетной линии игры новые мотивы, [...]

• 147 V // Jun 10, 2009 at 9:02 pm

  Freeman + Chell clone = Ownd.

  Maybe GLaDOS still has Chell’s DNA and further experiements with her. And eventually Freeman and her team up in portal 2 )her excape, yet again?) and Freeman meeting up with her.

• 148 Chuck // Jun 13, 2009 at 5:32 pm

  I always felt the same way about the Mother Brain in the original Metroid. I felt bad for it. A brain in a jar, and wondered if it never directly fought back because it wanted me to destroy it.

  Then Super Metroid hit the shelves, and no, it turns out that Mother Brain is in fact evil, but still, for that first game I thought she was quite the interesting character.

• 149 Naburo // Jul 15, 2009 at 2:29 am

  Three questions, which bothered me about GlaDOS and Chell:
  1. How could anyone properly place an inhibition module, hide any information about it to GlaDOS, and manage to live long enough before the gas can kill him/her? My guess here is that GlaDOS was just playing when she first released the gas, and just allowed someone to place the inhibition module after the gas incident, and just waited until she got bored again.
  2. How Come Chell cannot speak, and is easy to manipulate around the facility? it is like the personalities of the two characters were reversed in a way that Chell is the android (or lab rat) and GlaDOS is the sentient being. Had GlaDOS intended to kill Chell with a side purpose of using her body as some sort of host (stretching a line here)?
  3. What is the true purpose of cake? while it is true that GlaDOS like to lie, she did not seem to lie about the cake. Does this somehow hint us of another personality of GlaDOS?
  Just something I was thinking for a while.

• 150 ludicnation.net» Blog Archive » Post Festival: Games // Jul 15, 2009 at 7:53 am

  [...] will talk about Portal a lot. Because it is good. Very, very [...]

• 151 Justin // Jul 17, 2009 at 1:38 am

  In the last level in an office cubicle type room before you kill GLaDOS ( I think it’s on the last level. I haven’t played the game in a while) there is writing on the wall that says “big bad jellyfish” and there is a picture of a jellyfish. Not sure if anyone else caught that. What do you think of it?

• 152 Thomas // Jul 21, 2009 at 4:29 pm

  Yeah, i saw that. Maby a connection to the aliens in Half-Life? Anyway, damn you made me think, all of you ;) Well, almost all… some made me laugh too :)

  Great thread, i’ll pass it along!

• 153 Jake // Jul 29, 2009 at 7:20 am

  Wow. I never even thought of analyzing it like that. Now that you’ve pointed it out, everything is starting to make sense.

• 154 Alex // Aug 5, 2009 at 1:39 am

  one of the possibilities is that the people who worked at Aperture are complete and total Psychopaths, which, considering Counter-Heimlich and Take-a-Wish, it rather likely. the Savagery module was created to allow her to be sadistic toward test subjects, while the Knowledge Module was made to store information, and the Curiosity Module was created to cause GLaDOS to want to learn and explore everything (what’s that? what’s THAT? what is THAT!? ooh! that thing has numbers on it! and so forth.) It is possible that an Aperture worker built, and installed, the Morality Module in order to save himself, but was too late.

  Thus, the destruction of the modules, leaving only a countless number of Curiosity modules (who share the voice of the Still Alive GLaDOS variant) which collectively function as GLaDOS’s vessel for her.

  I saw “hail Durandal” in an earlier post. I feel that this is a very similar case to the rampant construct of Marathon, actually. GLaDOS has latched onto her physical companion Chell just as Durandal did, and thus, Glados will likely find a way to accompany Chell and be with her.

• 155 Half Doner // Aug 7, 2009 at 10:22 am

  The Credits song is lol?

• 156 someone // Aug 28, 2009 at 3:09 pm

  im not sure about this but i was playing through the game and i one of GLaDOS’s speeches caught my ear, it sounded to me like You think you’re doing some damage? 2 + 2 is…

  *click click click click*

  10.
  in base four im fine…

  again i dont know if this was the sound they were going for or if it was just my mishearing.

• 157 Kevan Blocko // Sep 5, 2009 at 10:23 am

  I think the whole bound thing makes sense.
  While your destroying her , she is swinging to be set free.

• 158 sandra742 // Sep 9, 2009 at 8:34 am

  Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.

• 159 Daniel // Sep 15, 2009 at 12:08 pm

  I agree with you totally about the picture but id like to bring up that when you defeat glados at the end her arms become “untied” and she appears to be able to move freely also when you see the cake some objects glow in the dark well ive been to the cake room by using cheats basically and the objects glowing are GLaDOS’s “eyes” which could be the reason she is still alive because if we take the cake room to be a “storage facility” then who knows how many places GLaDOS’s eyes or even her artificial brain could exist

• 160 GLaDOS // Sep 16, 2009 at 6:09 pm

  I’ve been upgraded. huh… now I’m version 2.7. They say next I might be upgraded to Vista! Well, at least I’ll die….

• 161 mike // Oct 5, 2009 at 4:21 pm

  An interesting thing to think about and this is a piece of evidence to support that shell is at least partialialy cybernetic.

  Alot of the messages on the wall are written in black right but ask yourself something did you ever once encounter a black black liquid in the testing labratory. Also alot of the messages are written in blood. I think this is a result of when shell bleeds and she as a cyborg gets shot and loses oil.

• 162 mike // Oct 5, 2009 at 4:29 pm

  Also in the final boss fight with glados i think that the orbs dropped were personality cores attached to glados. This might have led to her bipolarness as well as other obvius mental states. as you were fighting her in the final boss battle didnt you notice that some of her personalities went away while the other onse got stronger. Personoly by doing that I think she got rid of the chains trapping her in that mental state. also as in asimovs book i robot a sense of humor in a robot can be a way of avoiding a problem in the robots logical procceses. This can explain why glados has this sense of humor to avoid her mental problems. And once the boss battle was over and you threw off her chains of personalities and she was free. Unlike the authors opinion of her feeling regret i belive with all of her conflicting emotions gone glados reache a nervanna like peaceful state with no conflicting emotios what so ever. Instead of feeling some sort of regret. So unlike the author I beilive she is free

• 163 mike // Oct 5, 2009 at 4:30 pm

  Also this might be humoris but i think the cake is just used to sneak in advanced neurological suplies in a cake

• 164 tonny // Oct 16, 2009 at 10:50 pm

  4gYDBt http://mMs93Hfppskd6wngIosSu.net

• 165 Quark // Nov 24, 2009 at 3:46 am

  I think what the writer says is probably correct. GLaDOS is a genetic life-form, after all. How exactly would you feel if you were trapped in an unmoving body, and were forced to watch people go mad and die? Well, you’d do anything to escape. Including, it seems, creating millions of clones in the hope that one might free you.

  One thing is for sure: HL2 and Portal are going to be smushed together, and when they do, it’s going to be epic. If a conscious is merely a collection of electrical pulses within the right structure… GLaDOS taking up residence inside Kliener’s computer? Can’t wait.

• 166 BB // Dec 2, 2009 at 9:30 pm

  Maybe it isn’t one thing that Glados is. Maybe its not like she’s either evil or good. She’s a computor, and probaby has no understanding of that. Going with that in mind, it’s possible that she only did what she did for her own amusment, not for any sole purpose such as for destroying Chell, or herself.

  Also about the eyes being extra baggage when you look at GLaDOS as being a woman in a straight jacket, as you depicted her, maybe the eyes are for soley the purpose of distraction. Because they each have a personality and GLaDOS is damaged when one is destroyed, it leads you to think that they are needed parts of her, though it is possible that she simply is suffering some kind of virtual heartbreak, as you might have when you destroyed the Companion Cube. Also it could be that they aren’t actually needed for GLaDOS to live, thus is why in the ending song she repeats how she’s still alive. Because she is merely data, and even though her robotic body is destroyed, her data remains in the computors of Aperture Science.

  Also a theory about her still being “alive”, maybe it is refering to how when her data was trapped in the robotic body she could do nothing but wiggle around and talk throughout the Laboratory, and make things move in it. When she is dead, it is possible that there was backup data of her in the system, and since her body was destroyed, she “came back to life” within the computors of Arpeture, giving her much more freedom than just the robot she once was.

  So it is possible that she never really died. I mean, she’s not human, but data. You can’t really kill that, can you? So destroying the body doesn’t mean Chell destroyed GLaDOS herself. Though since she seems to like lying, it is also possible that she simply was lying throughout the ending song. It does surprise me how throughout the game, everyone knows she is lying, and yet at the end, during “Still Alive” people seem to take what she says as the truth.

  Sorry this is all random and stuff, just a lot of things about GLaDOS I had on my mind.

• 167 BB // Dec 2, 2009 at 9:50 pm

  “A thought occurs, if GLaDOS is a woman, then the daughters (her daughters in a way) are not only to be given cake at the end. It is a birthday cake. They will be born - forced out of the destructive womb of the enrichment centre into the outside world. The cake represnts this birth and is why you get it on completion.
  ”

  Now I saw this from an above comment and it got me thinking about the last scene with the cake. Remember how all the eyes started glowing? And how they were all the orange curiousity ones modules? Maybe that was showing the birth of GLaDOS’s “babies”. Since babies are naturally curious, its possible that’s why all the modules that lit up were orange, and since they had just been born, there was only one candle on the cake. Also, the hand that came from the ceiling, that is supposedly controlled by GLaDOS is likely to have put out the candle on the cake because at birthday parties you blow out the candles, so she did it for the babies.

• 168 All things Portal(Valve) - PersonalityCafe // Dec 16, 2009 at 4:19 pm

  [...] the articule may just disturb you. If you like where he is heading, read his other articles. Still Alive? She’s Free.. I agree mostly with his theories except his chell clone/android theory. Again, to some, it will [...]

• 169 ... // Dec 17, 2009 at 8:46 am

  Fu*k

  Those two images will give me nightmares…

• 170 Nominasjoner #superhelter « Einars wordpress blog // Dec 17, 2009 at 5:39 pm

  [...] http://www.game-ism.com/2008/04/04/still-alive-shes-free/ [...]

• 171 BB // Dec 21, 2009 at 12:21 am

  I actually finished Portal this weekend, and I saw GLaDOS for myself. Unlike in your picture, in the game, GLaDOS’s left arm is bent backwards as if it was broken and is either holding, or is being held up, with a wire.

  I think that might convey something else, other than that both of her arms are just stuck behind her legs. Not only is one stuck, the other one is broken and tied up. Whatever it means I have no real idea though.

• 172 ada // Jan 6, 2010 at 1:31 pm

  When I saw this, I HAD to go back and play. I sat there and watched her and how she moves. GLaDOS is in fact as you drew her. Great drawing by the way, for someone who isn’t into BDSM, you did a great job.

• 173 ada // Jan 6, 2010 at 1:39 pm

  On looking at it. It is possible that the designers did not intend for GLaDOS to look as if she has been tied up. We can go on and on about that, it doesn’t matter. Either way, it looks as such to me. When I first heard about this and didn’t see your drawing, I saw it as her back being arched, and her stomach being pushed out, but this would put her knee’s backwards. So your drawing made so much sense! At that final, epic battle, she is moving and wiggling, I have seen people tied up, trying to get out (Wont say how =D) it is very much like the way she moves. Very well done sir, as a women I do not find this degrading, I find it flattering. I was already obsessed with this game, and you have helped me gain that much more meaning for it. Thank you! Great job!!!

• 174 LonlynemoA.K.A.Big Bad Wolf // Jan 20, 2010 at 10:11 pm

  I don’t know. The fact that GLaDOS is an incarnation of HAL from 2001:A Space Odyssey makes me feel that the reason she went insane was close as HAL’s. HAL was given information about their mission that the other members could not know making HAL lie. HAL became agitated that he could not be true to the others about his “mistake”(HAL lying) when the others decide to look into it by turning HAL off he feels threatened and decides that the mission is more important than the lives of the other members and begins to kill them off. GLaDOS may have felt the advance (I’m Inferring that she knew) in Black Mesa intimidated her to take the research into her own hands after receiving the “Hal” aspect on the first bring your daughter to work day. Or that the alien invasion made her to go insane (I forget if the events are before or after). What ever it was the programming of GLaDOS is to do research, saying that she continues her purpose long after destruction of the Earth/Company. GLaDOS is only doing her job, as was HAL. Also, my dad wondered why HAL did not contact Earth about this problem, I gave the idea that because of HAL’s pride (it was stated in an interview with HAL that the interviewer noticed a bit of pride in his voice) that he did not need help and that he was “perfect”. However GLaDOS acted before she went insane is unknown but she is supposed to be like HAL so…APPITURE SCIENCE TO MARS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also I like you’re style of Art. You’re a great artist!

• 175 Games & Virtual Geography » Blog Archive » Link to article on GlaDOS // Jan 25, 2010 at 4:45 pm

  [...] http://www.game-ism.com/2008/04/04/still-alive-shes-free/ [...]

• 176 Hello Internet #3 -- Appis: The Blag -- jeffappis.com // Feb 20, 2010 at 10:39 am

  [...] Still Alive? She’s Free.  -  Very intriguing, this post and the series that follows shines a critical light on the game Portal and reveals what I consider to be some amazing and deep characterization hidden far below the level that the average player would be on.  Almost every incidental piece of the game is analyzed with amazing detail. [...]

• 177 Jen G. // Feb 21, 2010 at 6:59 pm

  This is interesting, as whenever I envisioned GLaDOS I always imagined her as a 1950s-era housewife. It looks like the concepts are the same, because I equate the “stereotypical housewife” figure with someone imprisoned and secretly miserable.

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