Comments on: GLaDOS Followup: She’s Your Venus.

By: Portal 2 and Feminism « Bakka's River

Portal 2 and Feminism « Bakka's River — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:43:43 +0000

[...] is Portal 1 commentary, but I just found these posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed reading them after I played the first game. Argues [...]

By: Senor boombastic

Senor boombastic — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:43:48 +0000

I thought you were right but now after playing portal 2 i think your definitely wrong. although with the information there was when you wrote this i would have thought you were right

By: IainBruu

IainBruu — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:26:30 +0000

Just a thought I had could it be that Chell is the daughter of Freeman and they are both being tested in different ways. Seeing as Freeman starts relatively new at black mesa so he could have been part of aperture before and his daughter is now being tested there in the same way Freeman is being tested to see his potential.

By: northrup

northrup — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 06:23:55 +0000

@onyx: Your interpretation is similar to the concept behind Karen S’jet in the Homeworld series, a young female scientist volunteers to be neurologically connected (apparently permanently) to the core systems of the “Mothership” which you have control over in Homeworld 1 and 2. Her tone of voice in Homeworld, now that I think of it, is similar to GLaDOS’ tone: bleak, austere, almost depressed-sounding. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of the programmers behind Portal played Homeworld at least once.

Both of the visual comparisons to various poses GLaDOS can be interpreted to be in are certainly impressive, at least in my opinion. As stated earlier, it’s like a high-level English class. I think my 12th grade AP Lit. teacher might actually enjoy this game with the apparent symbolic effect.

I recall from somewhere that one of the original GLaDOS designs was *supposed* to resemble an upside-down Venus. Apparently Valve kept that idea.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:44:43 +0000

After reading this I was compelled to load up the game myself and get a look with good ol’ noclip. Then I realized, she actually is a perfect “Venus”, but that the image you have of her superimposed onto the painting is actually from the wrong side and mirrored from how she appears in the game.

If you take the white outer shell that we have been assuming is her back and butt and instead see them as her chest and stomach, you will see that her posture and pose matches the painting exactly (you’ll also see that she has an orange “eye” on this side of her “head”, further backing this up).

I don’t know why Valve oriented her to be facing away from you as you enter her chamber, but it could have been to try to add a little ominousness to the initial encounter. I think that the bondage thing was actually an unintended eerie illusion produced by viewing her form from the back.

(and sorry if this is a double post, it took me a second to realize the comments might not update instantaneously :) )

By: Trevor

Trevor — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:33:24 +0000

After reading this, I had to load the game and noclip myself up to see for myself. Then I noticed that while GLaDOS does actually perfectly resemble Venus, your image of her imposed onto the painting is actually from the wrong side, and mirrored from how she actually appears in the game. If you take the white outer shell peices of her that we assumed to be her back and butt and see that those are actually her chest and stomach, you’ll notice that the arms and body orientation are an exact match to the painting (she also has an orange “eye” on that side of her “head”, further backing this up).

I don’t know why Valve oriented her facing away from you as you enter her chamber, but it could have been to create a more ominous atmosphere for the encounter. As for the bondage thing, I think it’s a very creepy coincidental illusion created by viewing her from behind.

By: nick

nick — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:20:34 +0000

she would kill her self if she was suisidele and shes not crazy shes just mostly machine and veary litte and somewhat of lifeform so shes sefl aware due to that she killled most of the employs with nertoxin beacese she was disend to be the perfect scients yet she fears her creators would get i the way of that and yes she whats to be free but not suiside an A.I. that smart could possably find away to free hersel anoter way aka pormently shut down all her backups and main systems in ordor to finaly stop working so hard with no reward ether my therey or she is INSANE!!!!if a ai can be insane……

By: Kaine

Kaine — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:48:08 +0000

@Sasha
Portal Prelude is not an official Portal expansion. It was not released by Valve, and not endorsed by the company in any way. Therefore, it is not canon.

By: Onyx3173

Onyx3173 — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:42:49 +0000

@32 Rage much?

Since GlaDOS means Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System does that mean that in some way she is genetically created? Ie: hew mind is actually the mind of a human downloaded into a sentient-capable computer or something?

By: Jared

Jared — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:13:51 +0000

I have never played portal.but at the end i have an idea……I think the cake means that Glados didnt die but its her first birthday and she is being reborn….. maybe?yes no?And the weird eyes opening means that there are alot more glados to come and they are all a bit of her waitting to get their chance……at chell i dont know :P