GLaDOS Followup: She’s Your Venus.

April 9th, 2008 · 13 Comments

Commenter Harvey 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 Botticelli’s Venus as their inspiration (as the director’s commentary stated) for GLaDOS. It’s just really tough to see.

You have to get up by her “feet” and look down at her “face” to see it. Harvey convinced someone to unpack her model and looked at it from multiple views in a 3D modelling ap, and then put together this comparison. This is her default pose, evidently.

She just needs some hair.

This was some awesome detective work on Harvey’s part, and it certainly lays aside any claims of pareidolia people trot out when they like to show off their triple-word-score vocabulary but refuse to use their eyeballs. And despite some folks’ poor attempts at reasoning to the contrary, this actually validates my original hypothesis that GLaDOS wanted to be free.

You see, the name of that painting up there? The full name of it is The Birth of Venus. Birth is certainly freedom from the womb, non? More amazing symbolism from the Valve folks.

Moreover, it’s possible for an object to be modeled differently from two different positions so that the image has a different visual interpretation depending on how it’s viewed. The concept has been around as long as people have been making sculptures, but is easiest to describe in this Penny Arcade comic. I don’t think it’s difficult to see that while the front-on views look the same, the Venus standing on that clamshell certainly isn’t bent at the knees at a 90 degree angle nor is she hunching over so far that she can touch the back of her knees. Venus’s extended arm isn’t bending the wrong way, either (as GLaDOS’s does in the side view).

So I still think it’s possible that she was trapped in that position, and I’m still thinking she wanted to die (I’ve got another followup critique I’m working on, but I’m trying not to post about Portal like crazy right now if you can believe that) . I’m not saying I’m right. Far from it. I’m not even saying anyone has to see it my way. I’m saying that what I still see in GLaDOS is a woman uncomfortably hanging from the ceiling who has conducted Chell to end her life.

I’ll post a final critique later, to the delight and disdain of the internets.

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Tags: art · critique

13 responses so far ↓

1 Still Alive? She’s Free. // Apr 9, 2008 at 9:53 pm

[...] Update2: Looks like she really is Botticelli’s Venus. [...]
2 kost // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Confirmation and Clarification:

It has been 99% percent confirmed that EP3 will happen on the Borialis - which as you know is an Aperture Labs’ “Mobile Lab” as I call it.

Now what does all the science for Aperture Labs? GlaDOS of course.. so it is very probable that there are at least backups of her there (the backup theory was mine all along)

NOW - as soon as you mentioned that the song was done by one of the backups turning up to realize it’s alive.. So the song was probably sang by the Borialis’s GlaDOS.

some more little facts that can confirm that - the combine are really eager to get (or by another theory (the new, orange eyed, soldiers and the spheres in the end of HL2 which are the same as the ones used inside Portal) they already got) some of the old Aperture technologies. - Well that means that means that inspire of GlaDOS’s attemps with the poison gas, she was enslaved by something else (or close to being enslaved) so she wants to be free (die or otherwise).

And the last and most random reference - at the end of EP2 just before Ali died, he said that you should destroy what ever is on the Borialis.. could he possibly know about GlaDOS and wants for her death as well?
3 kost // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:28 pm

A comment in the other post:
“…the biblical meaning of the name Chell..
…From the page:
“Meaning Ewe, little lamb, daughter.”

A little more discrete then naming her “Dolly”, eh?”

I would go more with the “daughter” thing - “bring your daughter to work day” anyone?

I think that GlaDOS maybe thinks of Chell as her baby girl that can help mommy get free (and yes of course that means enslaving her daughter as a lamb.. so both meanings fit that characterization)
4 Pijama // Apr 10, 2008 at 6:39 pm

I am beginning to suspect you are going to keep milking thousands of pageviews from GLaDOS only, mate.

Good post.
5 Fourd // Apr 11, 2008 at 7:36 am

@kost: plus there’s the “donate one or all of your vital organs” thing to back up the cloning idea.
6 StasZ // Apr 11, 2008 at 8:25 am

You’re articles are great.

I’ve never even had the nearest thought that Portal’s story (Especially the characters Chell and GLaDOS) could be so deep.

I only thought of it as a cheap spin-off story to fit in with the Half-Life franchise but now it is changed.
7 Black Phoenix // Apr 12, 2008 at 7:20 am

Hello. I love your articles, they changed my view on the game.

Recently I played through game again, and through the final ending, and noticed one very weird thing.

There are some strange creatures/particles/debris? flying around GLaDOS when she is “collapsing” (More weird stuff: effect/sprite is called “whatisthis.vtf”, it’s in corner of image for comparsion):
http://upload.d2k5.com/users/Black%20Phoenix/files/a1.jpg
Closer:
http://upload.d2k5.com/users/Black%20Phoenix/files/a2.jpg

What the hell? What are those things?
8 Rumface // Apr 16, 2008 at 7:50 am

If you’ve played the Missing information version of borialis. A Large metal structure dominates one of the rooms for seemingly no reason, and music plays in a sort of “Shocked” tone. Maybe this could be what’s mentioned. Take a look. I don’t condone downloading missing information mod as it’s BAD BAD beta leak.
9 Jonathan // May 14, 2008 at 7:40 pm

I think you’re insane.

That image doesn’t look much like the venus and there’s a whole bunch of objects you could arbitrarily twist into that pose if you really want to.

You’re “GLaDOS is a woman in bondage” imagery on the other hand made much more sense.

Though I don’t think GLaDOS is quite as sarcastic and bitter as you seem to think. e.g. you said that when GLaDOS sang:

“I’ve experiments to run, there is research to be done
On the people who are still alive”

it meant:
“Another exhaustive reference to her servitude to the people who have her enslaved.”

but it doesn’t mean that - you missed the word “On”. she’s not experimenting with or for people, she’s experimenting ON people.

She’s not bitter and suicidal - she’s two-faced.

She loves science, and this was all one big experiment to see how much potential Chell (and her predecessors) possess, just like how in half life it’s all about the potential in Gordon Freeman.

Glados’s sarcasm stems not from spite but from duality - on the one hand her experiment has succeeded, but on the other hand part of the experiment was trying to kill Chell and she was so enjoying that part…

Yes she’s resentful to Chell for escaping, but at the same time she’s glad the experiment succeeded. You see she’s not sane, so something simple like bitterness can’t explain it all.
10 Terry Biel // May 15, 2008 at 6:07 am

And lest we forget: “To be born again, first you have to die.”
11 Lexie Miles // May 22, 2008 at 5:31 pm

AMAZING! simply amazing! i will so totally look at the game in a new way. The woman in bondage thing makes WAY too much sence. Though i noticed it too. I also notices, upon reaching Glados, she seems somewhat desprate for a friend. Perhaps she just wanted someone to talk to as well?
12 Jon // Jun 10, 2008 at 2:00 pm

i hate this picture. i find the one where she is in bondage hanging (alone) is way better than this one

(just my opinion)
13 Fredrik Svanberg // Jun 23, 2008 at 6:56 am

I don’t know if anyone’s noticed but there must be some connection between Chell = Shell and possibly Botticelli too.