91 responses so far ↓

• 1 Gregory // Apr 14, 2008 at 4:56 am

  I’m unconvinced that Chell is an android. For one thing, she wouldn’t technically be a clone then, just a copy, and I like the clone theory. Second, she bleeds, eliminates (if we believe there’s any purpose to the toilet in her cell), eats (assuming the BEANS and such in the hidden rooms are for her), and can be killed by goo and poison gas.

  And if she is a combat android, she’s a lousy combat android. She’s a combat android that’s less useful than a regular person wearing a bit of body armor and shoes. She has no action kung-fu grip. I think that the android course was actually prepared for combat androids, and that GLaDOS either sent Chell there unplanned or, more likely, to get her shot at by turrets.

• 2 Lee Thompson // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:03 am

  some interesting points, looking forward to the next section

• 3 Connor Graham // Apr 14, 2008 at 8:13 am

  I disagree entirely. Chell is not an android.
  “Due to mandatory scheduled maintenance, the
  APPROPRIATE CHAMBER for this testing sequence is currently UNAVAILABLE.” This seems to me like clear proof that the Android chamber (test chamber 16), and along with it, the “Well done, Android,” line at the end are NOT a correct part of the test. If she was an android, why would the hibernation cocoon in the relaxation vault have to be connected to air supply tubes?

• 4 Wendy // Apr 14, 2008 at 8:17 am

  Interesting read, the one thing I would point out when considering anything to do with portal is Glados is a known lier, so sadly you can’t tell when to trust her comments. Even the comments that might be slip ups are hard to trust, because Glados is damaged and clever. Still it’s fun to see this kind of thought put into portal.

• 5 Connor Graham // Apr 14, 2008 at 8:17 am

  In addition, the handwriting is the same in every chamber because it is likely that only one person has ever previously escaped from the test chambers (and into the hide-outs). This could also be proof that the people that inhabited each hideout were clones, though I would say probably not clones of Chell. If you listen to the developer commentary, they refer to the person who left behind the hide-outs as “the rat-man” (this may not be 100%–I’m basing this on my memory of the commentary from months ago). If it was intended to be clones of Chell, it would have to be the rat-woman.

• 6 Ed Borden // Apr 14, 2008 at 8:37 am

  I have to say that I agree with the other comments here, although I thoroughly am enjoying your Portal articles and don’t think you should change a thing. I agree that Portal has an awesome, compelling story, but I actually think the majority of what makes it intriguing is the amount of stuff that is deliberately left out. The problem is that outside of the “game world” I’ve read too much from Valve that points to much of the story being purposely undeveloped. So, while it’s fun to speculate on what “could” be, I have a bad feeling we’ll all be generally unsatisfied in the end :)

• 7 Jake // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:06 am

  I disagree on the andriod issue. There are several points to make which shoot holes in that theory, though, not nessicarily, the clone theory. The majority of levels are in good repair. Several are not, specifically 16 and later. And, the only time se see tools is in 16. I beleive that, 16 is more around the point of showing that GLaDOS cannot infact repair the facility that she is a part of. Its allways been my oppinion that 16 was being repaired when she decided to nerve-gas the place.

  Also, one point no-one seems to notice is that PEOPLE survived the Nerve-gas. If I remember right, its been a while so forgive me. But She declares that the module used to inhibit the release of nerve gas was added AFTER she tried to kill everyone that lived. One last important (possibly Conspiricy theory crazy) idea. Maybe GLaDOS wasn’t trying to get Chell to kill her, maybe she was designing the Chell frame into one that GLaDOS could inhabit. So she could be free.

• 8 Connor Graham // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:13 am

  Jake, about the nerve-gas survivors: not necessarily true. it’s possible, and even likely, they installed the morality core AS they were dying, and passed away shortly after.

• 9 Michael Nelson // Apr 14, 2008 at 1:06 pm

  Whoa there, Connor! While that’s just as valid as any other theory around here, it raises a few more questions. If the ASL was being flooded with a deadly neurotoxin, would your first instinct be to somehow conjure supercomputer parts in a moments notice to fix the problem? Mind you, Shell only has about five minutes before she’s overtaken by it (GLaDOS says she’s only “warming them up” but you can see the gas pouring in), so an average human, even in a chemical suit, wouldn’t likely have the kind of time to to build and install such a device. If they had any real time at all, I bet they’d use common super-science sense and try to escape.

  Unless, of course, the morality core was already constructed and they just decided not to install unless there was an emergency (due to it possibly hampering GLaDOS too much), but that’s something else altogether :p.

• 10 Kris // Apr 14, 2008 at 1:34 pm

  Um… Neurotoxin…

  Surely that wouldn’t affect an android?

• 11 spitfire // Apr 14, 2008 at 1:39 pm

  The term android has several meanings. Some of them mean a strictly robotic nature, others can mean a bio-engineered artificial human.

  For instance, the replicants in the movie Blade Runner are called androids in the original novel the movie was based on: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android

• 12 Polecat // Apr 14, 2008 at 2:22 pm

  Okay, I was with you for a long while on this one… save your last conjecture about Chell being an android. I can believe she might be a clone, but an android? That seems a stretched in the logic department for me. More, your arguements about going through the live fire course would implicate, if GlaDOS is trying to commit a sort of assisted suicided, a far simpler reason: GlaDOS needed Chell to know how to handle the turrets. Since GlaDOS on defenses seemed largely out of her control, she needed Chell to have experiance with the Turrets _BEFORE_ being let loose into the back chambers where they were far more frequent, and even had traps set up to get her.

  Also, the comment about the “things” on her feet is explained in the commentary track. They had designed a lot of long falls and jumps for Chell in the game, and the play testers kept noting no HUMAN could survive those falls. Thus the folks who did portal added those odd sping things to her legs. If you look, they’re shackled on just between the calf muscle and the knee, and the pants are rolled up to that point. The lack of shoes, while troublesome, isn’t as bad when you look at the simple fact that no shoes were provided, thus Chell wasn’t given a CHOICE in that matter.

  However one thing sticks out to bug me about the whole “assisted suicide” theory for GlaDOS, and it was pointed out by the previous entries. The “Deadly Neurotoxin”. Huh? Why would GlaDOS, after getting that morality core finally destroyed by Chell (which one must admit was at least a secondary goal of GlaDOS, even if she couldn’t outright say it) attempt to flood the area with the Neurotoxin and there-by DESTROY any chance f being killed? If she flooded the entire place with the “Deadly Neurotoxin”, how would the next clone be ready to go if this one failed in the “final battle”?

  - Polecat

• 13 kost // Apr 14, 2008 at 4:58 pm

  An important point about the writings:

  In an interview of Portal’s creators, when asked about the writings on the walls, they mentioned “The Rat”, another test subject who went through the course.. they said that some of the writings (notice that there are 2 colors to the writings, probably by seperate people) were done by him. they even said you would meet him at mid chamber 19 in the beta tests, but they excluded him in the end to make the “lonely” feeling complete..

  So that’s a fact that at least one more test subject went through the course.. (if we believe the people that MADE the game)

  Further more, the beans and radios (and even the login info) are, at least to me, indicators that while GlaDOS was starting to go crazy, some of the scientists in the facility broke into the course to try to get to GlaDOS, and SHUT HER DOWN.. didn’t she want to die? why didn’t she let them kill her then?

• 14 kost // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:01 pm

  And just as a question to you all:

  I still didn’t figure out how 1 thing fits in ANY theory – when you come to GlaDOS, you pass on a glass bridge, where you can see the size of the “empty room” surrounding the “GlaDOS” room..

  Why THAT big of an “empty room”? What for?

• 15 kost // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:14 pm

  thanks Jake, sorry i missed your comment -
  “Also, one point no-one seems to notice is that PEOPLE survived the Nerve-gas. If I remember right, its been a while so forgive me. But She declares that the module used to inhibit the release of nerve gas was added AFTER she tried to kill everyone that lived.”

  that supports the theory that the scientists (or maybe even engineers) were in the course (probably broke in) and they even got up to GlaDOS (and installed the core)… meaning that all the tools/food/radio things could be theirs’

• 16 Necronner // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:28 pm

  Ok, Ive read through this, and I think you are missing some things.

  One:

  “Hello, and again, welcome to the Aperture Science Computer Aided Enrichment Center.”

  The testing area is not the Enrichment Center, instead the whole COMPLEX they are in is the Enrichment Center. Being that GLaDOS runs the whole place, I would think it natural that she also greet people entering the Enrichment Center. When Chell originally entered the complex it probably said;

  “Hello, welcome to the Aperture Science Computer Aided Enrichment Center.”

  After she woke up, she repeated the line adding “and again” to show she already said this too her some time before.

  Two:

  “Remember, Take Your Daughter to Work Day is the perfect time to have her tested.”

  I believe that when GLaDOS finally took over the whole center and captured test subjects it was on “Take Your Daughter to Work Day” that explains why Chell was there. She is not an android, instead she was someones daughter that got caught up in the ‘takeover’, the springs on her heals do not look grafted on, not part of her original body, and tell me, why would they make android that can only take a few shots before dying? “Well we want them to be able to take out the robots and then study the technology themselves then send a better more resistant version after us”? I dont think so.

  That statement about an unsatisfactory mark, fallowed by death? It was more of a reason NOT to touch the floor, its like “Whats the correct procedure when stepping on a land mind. Answer: fling yourself 100 feet in the air and scatter yourself over a 1 mile radius” its just another way of saying you touch it you die.

  As for the handwriting, this link will clear that up:

  http://kotaku.com/359961/portal-devs-reveal-the-glados-that-never-was-inspiration-behind-weighted-companion-cube

  if you do not wish to look at it, this is the part that I want to direct your attention.

  “The Portal team’s limited resources also forced them to “trim the narrative fat” elsewhere. Swift talked about a proposed scene involving “The Rat Man” the fellow escaped test subject whose writing and sketches appear in the game’s later levels.”

  There IS another person lurking in the testing areas. My belief is that he got to the last chamber with all the turrets and unfortuneatly couldn’t get out without the turrets blasting him to death. This also goes against “Chell and Android” why have another guy running around the test chamber, when Chell could just run it over and over and over again.

  Then you talk about the course with the turrets, the ending is NOT to say that you are an android, even if its not GLaDOS F***ing with you and it is a real android course, that ending line could be a prerecorded message for when an Android finished the level.

  I do hope that valve team that made portal will finally tell us if Chell is an Android. I say no but I could be wrong.

  For one thing, being an android kind of takes the, darkness, out of the game.

  I also believe that you are kind of wrong about how you see GLaDOS, contact me if you want my opinion on how I see her. Yes she is haning, but I think you are seeing her in the wrong way, she isn’t chained and gagged, shes in control and taunting you from on high.

• 17 spitfire // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:58 pm

  The problem with literature and film, is that if it isn’t shown, hinted or suggested, it didn’t happen. To say that “Ratman exists” because they toyed with the possibility that he would have written those messages is not accurate, just as GLaDOS is not a clear cube, nor is she a chase scene, as they originally intended.

  The game shipped with no ratman. Ergo, he does not exist at this time, and I am extrapolating a narrative I see (intended or not by the developers) based on the events that unfold before the player.

  There is evidence that someone ran the test course previous to Chell. There is no evidence in game to suggest that the individual was not Chell. :)

• 18 Necronner // Apr 15, 2008 at 3:02 pm

  But thats just it, the creators ‘trimmed the fat’ and couldn’t include ratman, he was supposed to be in the game and even though it may have not happened in game.

  To fallow your logic, Eli Vance was never in Black Mesa, even though Half Life 2 says he was in there, because he was never in Half Life 1.

• 19 Razz // Apr 17, 2008 at 4:14 pm

  I love reading all your theories about “Portal”, but I can’t help but think that they’re too complicated to be the real story. It might just be me, but I thought the back story was pretty simple, cut and dry (though there are some questions left unanswered that make for lots of fun speculation). A lot of the evidence you list to support the theory of Chell being an android or clone (that I read; very work-dead at present) implied to me that she was a part-time employee (likely on the janitorial staff) and that the people who designed the ASCAEC had motives that were, from the beginning, much darker than they wanted anyone to believe (I just can’t really believe that GLaDOS built an incinerator onto the end of a test chamber; it looks far too man-made and everything we see of her in the game suggests that she cannot physically manipulate her surroundings in any extreme way).

  Regardless, “Portal” is constructed such that all of us players can make up our own stories behind it, which is half the fun right there.

• 20 Jason Anderson // Apr 22, 2008 at 10:53 pm

  I agree with everything except the android thing.

• 21 David // Apr 26, 2008 at 4:36 am

  A friend pointed me at this and I think it’s a lot of fun. However, a couple points.

  As with everyone else (it seems), I disagree on the android thing. Clone, definitely. Android, doesn’t make sense. During the commentary there’s even a mention that the jump things were meant more to be shock absorbers to allow for a rationalization of the fact that the character can fall from incredible distances and not suffer harm because of it.

  For my second point, I think with what you’ve talked about and with the clone idea, it strikes me as very similar to the scenes in “Resident Evil: Extinction” where the clones of Alice have to run the gauntlet of tests to see if she can perform like the real Alice. It takes a while, but eventually it does happen.

• 22 MemBrain01 // May 17, 2008 at 11:20 am

  Dude but sorry, this is too whacky. It seemed to me, while reading, that you simply don’t have any humor. You are indeed *over*stretching the content of the game. While on a much, *much* more shallow (but nonetheless interesting) level there is more hidden than we first realize, and i even agree that to some extent your ideas cover it, it’s not as deep, complicated, and as i believe, overlapping with what you are trying to show. I was very excited about your earlier texts about GLaDOS appearing like a woman trying to free herself, but this text (Clone, Cube, Construct Part 1) is just way off the track.

• 23 MemBrain01 // May 17, 2008 at 11:31 am

  I’m going to back up a little what i’ve said with quotes:

  “Again, while hilarious, there seems to be a clue here, and that is that GLaDOS is more concerned about the performance evaluation than you dying.”

  Yes, this is *obvious*, but only for the joke of it; i seriously don’t believe there is an even deeper meaning of why she is “more concerned” (<- this really stretches it too far) about your record than your death. It’s simply funny, that’s it.

  Next:

  “You are a military grade android.”

  This one you are just making up. There is _nothing_ to support the fact that you are a military grade android; what you are in fact creating is a circle or “backreference” (sorry I lack the proper english word for this construct): You *assume* that she is an android, so that GLaDOS statement makes sense, but the other way around there is really no obvious connection, not by far. Again, it’s only for the funniness of the statement. (“You have jump springs growing out of the back of your legs with some kind of bionic attachment joint holding them in place.” *Growing* out of the back? Where’d you get that from?)

  (As a sidenote: If you believe that by intentionally overstretching the text you think you’ll make the coin drop on heads or tails: It’s a really, really bad mechanism. You should instead make your ideas up independently of the game, then stick as close to the game as possible, without free interpretations, and then see if the game backs your theories up, and *not* mix your theories and game content as you are doing now. Bad, bad, bad!)

  Continues in comments to Part 2.

• 24 Drenks // May 24, 2008 at 8:36 pm

  GlaDOS says that the *appropriate* testing chamber was unavailable. This means that the course for androids is inappropriate, meaning Chell is not an android.

  Also, the Valve commentaries state that Chell is wearing footgear that lets her fall from any height, not that it is implanted/part of her.

• 25 kormyen // May 28, 2008 at 6:37 pm

  As others have said I am unconvinced of Chell being an andriod theory. I don’t believe the foot springs to be implanted, to me they look quite attached on, not internal – as the commentary does say they were simply added because playtesters wondered why they wernt being hurt by the huge falls as they do in HL.

  I am however surprised at your cjohnson theory, very interesting :D

  I will continue to read the next parts… ^-^

  `kormyen

• 26 Dozer // Jun 5, 2008 at 5:45 pm

  The Valve commentary states that the heel-springs were added because
  a) they didn’t want fall-damage
  b) play-testers didn’t understand why there wasn’t fall-damage
  c) adding the heel-springs ‘explains’ why there is no fall-damage, in some mysterious way, and stops the playtesters asking.

• 27 Axion // Jun 13, 2008 at 2:35 pm

  Glados seems to try to take advantage of, what she believes are human weaknesses (Motivating her, offering cake, and trying to hurt her feelings/self esteem later in the game.

• 28 Cable // Jun 13, 2008 at 10:51 pm

  I cannot believe that anybody can think of this.

  The ‘Android’ bit, GLaDOS is referring to the Turrets as Androids. Not the player. Wikipedia (not the best resourse but it is a start) says that a rough translation of the original greek word andeides “Man, of the species; alike”. Which means that it is attempting to be like human. Which you can tell from the Turrets voices are trying to be human-like (although far from the process).

  I also believe that they were working on a rough AI on the Turrets, because GLaDOS tells them “Well done, android. The Enrichment Center reminds you that android hell is a real place where you will be sent at the first sign of defiance.” GLaDOS needs to tell this to insert Religon into their lives, to help keep in control and for them to have meaning. (think about this comment and apply it to regular religons and you will know what I am talking about)

  So my point in summary. When GLaDOS says ‘Android’ she means ‘turret’. All the extra stuff is for people who look too deeply into context.

• 29 shannon // Jun 15, 2008 at 3:48 pm

  Androids do not like cake. It is a proven, irrefutable fact. Fact. Says so right here. “Androids do not like cake.” And they don’t need grief counseling either.

  Chell is a person. A resolute, cake-eating, technologically-toe-enhanced human. Probably in need of counseling at this point.

  But she’s not an android. :)

• 30 Andy of Comix, Inc. // Jun 25, 2008 at 3:46 pm

  The cube was thrown in so players wouldn’t ignore it through Test Chamber 17 and consequently get smashed by the energy ball. :P

• 31 Daniel // Jun 30, 2008 at 11:00 pm

  I do not think Chell is an android, especially because when I saw all the developer commentary they said she wasn’t. The things on her knees are to make the long drops with out injury believable.

• 32 Gashel // Jul 2, 2008 at 10:34 pm

  Terry. Yes you Terry Wagar. We know you are here. We know so much now.
  This time we will succeed. No more games Terry. No more spying on Joan and I.
  No poison this time, this time it will be quick and easy. Framing you as a pedo
  was small compared to what we have planned.

• 33 Yay, an ARG Visited! // Jul 3, 2008 at 12:12 pm

  [...] comment in question was posted by one “Gashel,” who uses the email addy gashelandjoan@rocketmail.com. The [...]

• 34 Chris Tonks // Jul 9, 2008 at 3:20 am

  We know Chell isn’t an android because of what Kim Swift said in this interview: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2007/11/01/rps-interview-portals-kim-swift-and-jeep-barrett/

  ‘Well, as far as the android thing goes, that was a joke.’

  Simple as that.

• 35 Drasken // Jul 16, 2008 at 3:39 pm

  I have to say that once I beat the game I went back and actually looked at the game from the perspective of the content instead the mindset of,”Yay solve puzzles!” I came to the conclusion that Chell is a clone. The first emotionally charged word in the game is the word, “detention” when referring to your stay in your pod.That was a red flag for me that something wasn’t aright. I figured that all the clues in the latter part of the game were in fact written by Chell to help her make it farther each time. Maybe something happens after 90-100 days. Or maybe her first existence was placed there with prior knowledge of what was going on so to retain any knowledge Chell wrote important information such as the logon information down. Even though the evidence supports that the writer on the walls went crazy. Think of the movie Memento. I don’t believe that Chell is an android. The biggest clue to Chell being a clone at least is the way that GlaDOS talks to Chell during the fight to destroy GlaDOS. She says that even if Chell dies she has a back up scan of her brain in GlaDOS’ memory banks. She also threatens and says that she deletes the scan so Chell really is going to die. GlaDOS also says that Chell isn’t even a FULL-time employee. The ratman may even be Chell’s father! BTW I don’t put too much faith in finding definitives in a commentary track. They have to avoid ruining any story progression for further Portal installments. I apologize for any grammatical/spelling errors I tend to let my brain run ahead of my hands.

• 36 Drasken // Jul 16, 2008 at 3:42 pm

  I apologize for this also but I completely forgot to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the article. : )

• 37 Myk // Jul 31, 2008 at 5:43 pm

  I don’t Know if this has been brought up already, but just saying Chell’s name could be a clue to her nature as an android/clone/cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton. ‘Chell’ may actually be a typo of ‘Shell’, implying that there indeed have been many versions of her before and she is just the most recently activated model.
  Maybe even a shell for GlaDOS once she’s free from imprisonment?

• 38 Tstek // Aug 1, 2008 at 6:59 pm

  Chell is neither an android nor a clone.

  I and most people I have spoken to believe that she is the daughter of a aperture science employee, brought to the lab at aperture science’s bring your daughter to work day, and probably some time ago. this is proven when GLaDOS states that “the world has changed since you last left the building”, meaning that she probably has some memory of being outside, but the “bring your daughter to work day” in question was before the incident at black mesa, and now it is sometime after the portal storm has started, between HL1 and HL2 most likely.

  The answer to what she is being tested for is quite obvious since she is moving through a set of test chambers.

• 39 zackey // Aug 21, 2008 at 7:02 am

  The Imprisoned GLaDOS makes sence, the position GLaDOS is in you can see the bodey-head-even the arms tied behind the back! I also founed something! i made a vidio of me beating GLaDOS, my freind played it backwards- when fighting her she makes a noise and says that is how stuppid you sound! backwards the noise makes out- FREE ME, if I’m not mistake, that means get me out of here! and she’s telling chell that right when chell is standing right in front of GLaDOS! The perfect time to tell…

• 40 zk // Aug 21, 2008 at 7:15 am

  Also when you die, she brings you back! whys that? whys she give chell instructions?

• 41 Rozbd // Aug 26, 2008 at 12:10 pm

  I do belive Chell was a clone,but a human clone,no an android there are many proves that shes not an android (some already pointed).

  About the “Hello, AND AGAIN, welcome…” part, there is another explanation: GLaDOS already talked to Chell before she went into her hibernation state.

• 42 Adam Messinger // Sep 2, 2008 at 4:44 am

  I think there’s been some confusion over terminology here. Chell is obviously at least partially biological, but android is a word for a robot that looks like a human.

  The proper word for Chell would be cyborg — a creature with both natural and robotic parts. That would simultaneously explain things like her vulnerability to the neurotoxin, need for a toilet in her cell, augmented legs, and ability to heal after taking several rounds form a sentry.

  Aside from that one nitpick, I’m really enjoying your articles about Portal. The game left me with a lot to think about, and I’m glad to see I’m not the only one. :-)

• 43 Ken // Oct 2, 2008 at 2:49 am

  Ok another clone thing.In the part of the game when you play with the lovable companion cube.Galodos Relays that the companion cube does not talk.If it does don’t listen to what is tells you.I dragged that thing everyone hopping for it to say something.It remained silent,another thing sead before that the testing caused mental problems.An android cant have mental problems can it? Maybe one of the testers..like (the rat man) Loved the companion cube so much that he imagined it with a voice and as to make it a small shrine in the hidden room.With the companion cube pasted over pictures that might of been some Key workers in ASL.I tried to read what was written on the walls but it was too sloppy.Some of it i could read.Like how the previous owner of the cube didn’t want it to die.The game makers sead they made the cube with a personality.Why doesn’t it talk then silent type?Anyways Chell is not an Android.Mabey behind one of those unopanable doors is a room full of clones lol.

• 44 Lu Wolf // Oct 2, 2008 at 2:26 pm

  GLaDOS tells Chell that all Aperture Science technology works at up to 4000 degrees K. Why would she die when she falls into a fire then?

• 45 organelle // Oct 22, 2008 at 11:07 pm

  It’s interesting to note that, in ‘reality’ there is only really a single author/artist. For this reason, metapatterns are implicit in all human creation, and any attempt at deconstruction (such as this one) begins to uncover them. It is extremely unlikely that the ‘authors’ of the game were aware of all the detail uncovered here, nonetheless, much of the detail and interpretation fits very well — this is usually the case when we get down into the level where metapatterns implicit in the human psyche are excavated and brought forth into the relative ‘daylight’ of conscious awareness. Fascinating stuff.

• 46 Bob // Nov 1, 2008 at 12:35 am

  According to the history on Aperture Science wasn’t GLaDOS activated on the first annual “bring your daughter to work day”? That’s probably all its a reference to, maybe she still thinks its that day. It’s just, you know, a joke.

• 47 Jequita // Nov 9, 2008 at 1:07 am

  She is a clone. =]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs6QEuaeKYs

  I am pretty sure this is real. ;)

• 48 GLaDOS // Nov 15, 2008 at 6:04 pm

  You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t you people know ANYTHING??? Fine. You can go ahead and say what you think, but I’m telling you: you are FAR from being wrong.

• 49 SelphieFairy // Nov 18, 2008 at 12:22 am

  The footage in the youtube link is from a mappack that you can download and it is not in the original game.

• 50 Mishi // Nov 21, 2008 at 10:20 am

  @ GLaDOS:

  Don’t you mean “FAR from the truth?” Far from being wrong implies that they’re right.

  @Jequita: What’s Portal TFV? In another portal video by the same guy, he says that the scene in this other video was from a map-pack by a group of people called ‘WeCreateStuff’. I don’t really know much about them, but isn’t in possible that that clone-scene is non-canon?

  To continue the discussion: I always figured that most of what GLaDOS said in the final battle, specifically the ‘brainscan’ comments, were just bluffs, because of the way she says it: “Don’t believe me? Here, I’ll put you on: “Helloo!” SEE?! THAT’S YOU! That’s how DUMB you sound!”

• 51 Midnight Moons // Dec 3, 2008 at 6:08 pm

  On that android thing.. I think it might be in the same kind of cyborg type issue with Wolverine from X-men. Metal skeletal structure (and those springs) with human flesh, blood and organs all wrapped around it. Maybe wiring instead of neurons… with Chell though.

• 52 John Gines // Dec 8, 2008 at 9:37 am

  Yeah, Android and Robot are different things, no one said she was 100% synthetic

• 53 Mia // Dec 12, 2008 at 6:57 pm

  If you want to know what really happened, go to

  http://www.portalmania.cake .

  It will anwer all of your questions.

• 54 Mia // Dec 12, 2008 at 6:58 pm

  oh wait…
  here’s the link that works:

  http://ide.synthasite.com/sites/D79a/D166/D02c/De31/U8a4986ca1dfd203c011e13ec20661a97/8a4986cb1dfd2017011e13efd9da4d28/index.php

  I know it’s kind of long…

• 55 GLaDOS // Dec 12, 2008 at 7:14 pm

  Don’t correct me. I know what I said.
  Oh, and you might want to check up on your grammar, “Mishi”.

• 56 PortalFreak // Dec 21, 2008 at 11:01 am

  Alright, you have made MANY mistakes in this. First of all: “Besides the implications of the meanings behind Chell (namely that it is another term for a sheep), we learn throughout the game that she is certainly not human. She is, in fact, an android (GLaDOS indirectly tells us as such later), and has been modified with bionic jump boot implants.” Okay, those are not bionic jump boot implants. They are simply implants that allow Chell (who is human) to fall and land without being hurt. And if Chell was, in fact, an android or a clone, How come during the (short) duration of the game, we never see one cloning facility or android part making facility. Chell may have possibly have been one of the surviving scientists who, after installing the Morality Core, would have been tortured by GLaDOS for the pain the scientist put through her. Now, another mistake the author has made was this: “Again, on the surface, the player has a laugh at this and thinks “oh that wacky AI making these crazy mistakes!” When in reality, she has just hidden a larger truth: You are a military grade android. This course has been designed to test the latest and greatest version of you, Chell, who has by this iteration been upgraded to the status of a military android. You have jump springs growing out of the back of your legs with some kind of bionic attachment joint holding them in place. You can handle a radioactive portal gun with no ill side effects, and you don’t need shoes, for crying out loud. Raise your hand if you’re a human and would even think of running that course without shoes.” Now, if Chell was “military grade” as you say, wouldn’t Aperture Science have just saudered the gun onto her arm? Because clearly you can see Chell HOLDING the portal gun, not have it implanted onto her arm. (Yes, I said HER) She can handle a radioactive Portal Gun without any side effects because it isn’t radioactive as far as we know. All we know is that it is a PORTAL GUN. Now the “You have jump springs growing out of the back of your legs with some kind of bionic attachment joint holding them in place.” statement you made is false. If you have done any research before writing these long pages of false information, you would know that those heel springs were put in there by Valve as IMPLANTS ON HER LEGS because of beta testers not knowing why Chell could fall without injury.Now, if Chell was a military grade android, she would obviously not BLEED, be hurt by TURRET SHOTS, and DIE. The running through the chambers without shoes refers back to my torture comment. I would obviously run through the chamber if my life depended on it. I rest my case, until the next article…..

• 57 pandamanta // Dec 30, 2008 at 5:52 pm

  I saw a video (probably just a modded version) where there was a room full of Chell clones in tubes. They could have put the jump-springs on before the game starts when you wake up in the stasis bed. I believe the springs aren’t built in the clones, but I do support your clone theory here!

• 58 greyarea // Jan 30, 2009 at 4:53 pm

  I disagree with the opening line being used to tell the protagonist they are a clone. “Hello, and again, welcome…” is a literary device. You encounter openings like this in books as well, to indicate that the story you are beginning is actually some way in from the beginning of the entire sequence of events. I prefer to think that Chell is a mind-wiped employee’s daughter, captured on “Take your daughter to work day” and suspended until such time as GLaDOS ran out of other test subjects.
  In this way, “Hello, and again…” only indicates that GLaDOS knows you, but not necessarily that you should remember it.

  True you have issues of the hand writing and so on, but I’m choosing to think of them as parts of the development of the game, and not of the story.

• 59 Monicro1 // Mar 8, 2009 at 1:55 am

  I mainly agree with the whole thing, but I dissagree with the “proof” that Chell is an android. Remember that she said that the turret room was designed for military androids? I think that it was a recorded message that plays whenever someone steps through the vaporization field.

• 60 DK // Apr 1, 2009 at 4:53 pm

  “Your specimen has been processed.”

  Huh.

• 61 ApertureRox // Apr 18, 2009 at 11:31 pm

  As I said on the last article, well done.

  I agree with most of that, and to the people saying that she isn’t an android JUST because she bleeds, well the cylons on battlestar galactica did and they were robots (the newew one that was on SciFi; I saw it with my friend awhile back and it wasn’t that bad).

  And to other people saying they disagree because of the words: the way I look at it, it’s just a matter of interpretation. If you look at it this way, you see one thing and if you look at it that way, you see another.

  lol i just got on looking for GLaDOS pics and read them because the picture looked funny.

• 62 Kausill // Jun 19, 2009 at 11:00 pm

  I always thought it was “And remember, bring your daughter to work day was the perfect time to have protested”. lol

• 63 Courtney // Jun 20, 2009 at 7:27 pm

  I know I’m late to the party, but I wanted to throw in my 2c. I agree that GladOS wanted to be killed. But I disagree with your analysis of GladOS’s lines. In order to give Chell sufficient motivation to kill her, she had to create a slow psychological evolution to the idea. It started by creating an illusion of a mindless robot controlling the ASL, hence the “SUBJECT-NAME HERE” lines, inappropriate announcements (“Take your daughter to work day” and jumbled Spanish lines. These are designed to make you think it’s a broken announcement system. OK – so now you view GladOS as a pure machine. Remember, the malfunctioning and bizarre statements start decreasing as you get closer to GladOS. Now that you’ve accepted she is a machine, she will start becoming more and more competent at your misery, ultimately tormenting you into killing her, by putting you into an admittedly lethal-for-humans test chamber, making you kill a companion cube, and finally, threatening your life with neurotoxin.

  I also believe that GladOS went off on Take Your Daughter to Work day, was going to have some module tested that day, and that announcement was repeated from the day she killed everyone. The to have you tested” part refers to GladOS herself. Again, it’s a crafted malfunction to convince you she’s just a machine. Needless to say, I don’t believe Chell is an android. She only mentioned the line to scare Chell (and the player) so they would start to realize how much danger GladOS is willing to put them in.

• 64 Thezza // Aug 27, 2009 at 5:12 pm

  all good. like the bondaged woman idea. what whas that terry wager thing about? wats an ARG?

• 65 Jeffey // Oct 4, 2009 at 6:22 pm

  to Gregory // Apr 14, 2008 at 4:56 am
  You state that you do not believe that she is an android.
  I think referring to the Borgs in Star Trek is enough. If you imagine her as a bionic android based on living tissue it makes sense. As living tissue grows by itself and the human organs are a easy way of keeping something going it is fairly reasonable.
  Even though the human body is quite complicated it is easier to modify it then to build a whole android, as such a thing would need the whole of GladOS would be needed to be compressed into such a tiny body to have a full sized AI.
  but you may say ” but she’s an android she doesn’t need food”
  think about it. Food is a pretty available thing, you can disguise better and if you now are a bionic android you need to keep your cells alive.
  and cells also need oxygen to live so hence the gas is deadly.
  And The bionic android theory is also backed up by the blood.
  And even with ankle springs you would die, Lets assume she reaches terminal velocity (240 km/h) , she weighs 65kg and she lands that means she has an impact force of 15600 kg.
  that power would be distributed over a time of about 50 milliseconds. so 312kg/ms that is about the same force as having a mini copper dropped onto you.
  So she has to have some kind of reinforcement of both her flesh and her skeleton, so basically she need to have some kind of mesh bound into her flesh and have a skeleton made of some kind of artificial bone made of some highly flexible but strong material (i.a.w. some kind of super alloy as it also has to be lightweight). It also needs to be able to contain bone marrow without killing it. But that would become heavy so she also needs some kind of enhanced muscles.
  And to be able to take such a strain all her cells need to have a stronger membrane and stronger bond between them to avoid rupturing when she is injured or landing.

• 66 Jeffey // Oct 5, 2009 at 8:13 am

  The theory of being either human or a bionic android is further backed up by reading the charts that you can find in the game.
  one shows a picture of how the leg device is installed, it is a human skeleton leg with the mounting done between the two joints in the legs. But that would prove to be fatal if she were a human as a humans bones would shatter when handling such a force.
  Furthermore there is another chart which shows the subject as a human skeleton the id of the victim is 234. (sidenote: one also has a ostrich as a test candidate #42) And the ostrich one has FAILED stamped on it which leads me to believe that 234 is still alive, that means that either you or Rat Man is 234)

• 67 stillalive0013 // Nov 4, 2009 at 2:21 pm

  hey micheal nelson, i know this is a long way down the list to reply to comment number 9 but hear me out- can i point out one thing about your morality core problem, mabe the APL personnel had already made the core and knew what it was supposed to do. but, before they had a chance to fit it GLaDOS found out they were trying to keep her under control and flooded to ASL with neurotoxin gas.

  Besides at the end of the game you have a good 6-10 minutes (i dont know the exact time) to disconnect THREE cores and destroy them before the nurotoxin gets deadly.

  So, they would have enough time to fit ONE morality core if it was all ready to be connected.

• 68 Brett // Nov 25, 2009 at 12:44 am

  Isn’t it possible that GLaDOS released the gas and killed EVERYONE at the ASCAEC, then additional Aperture Science personnel from another facility created and installed the Morality Core and resumed normal operations? Presumably there are other Aperture Science facilities; at least the Borealis referenced at the end of HL2: Episode 2. When the invasion occurred the facility staff entered hibernation to try and wait it out. The years between the invasion and the “present” let GLaDOS gain more control over the facility and start “testing” hibernating personnel. Given that the course only takes 2-3 hours to finish (with a fiery death), it would only take 5-6 weeks for them all to either die or kill GLaDOS. After running out of test subjects, GLaDOS then started cloning the best one or ones and having them run through again and again.

• 69 Nerd42 // Dec 2, 2009 at 12:30 pm

  GlaDoS’s mind works in multiple levels At the highest level, GlaDoS has total control over everything that goes on in Aperture Science – and I mean everything. On a lower level, we have the appearance of emotions and dying and so forth designed to get a set of responses from the test subjects but never the “real” GlaDoS

• 70 Matt // Dec 8, 2009 at 10:13 pm

  This may have already been covered but c johnson is the rat man. c johnson was the founder of Apeture science labs, he got mercurey poisoning and was put into suspended animation until a kidney downer could be found. the lines about bringing your daughter to work and having her tested is in reference to a program founded to discover an appropriate match. Chell would have donated a kidney from which c johnson would have been revived and run through the training course or escaped confinement. Chell and multiple other copies of her would have been cloned from the dna in the kidney.

• 71 sean // Jan 6, 2010 at 4:54 pm

  i think it makes sense. there is a door that you can walk through (and if not an android, a clone) and see chell in a bunch of confined cells covered with orange glass. she’s sitting there with a blank statement. i don’t know if it’s real, or fake, but i’ve seen it

• 72 Joel Hodgson // Jan 13, 2010 at 3:59 pm

  @Brett, @Nerd42

  I was actually coming in here to say something like that.

  Idea: This is a meta-test. There are actually people outside of the “Enrichment Center” who are running the test. Therefore we could construe a situation where GLaDOS didn’t go insane, but just the “test” version of her–the actor that they created in the Enrichment Center. Maybe it’s a test for something else, to see if you’re capable of doing X job once it’s over. Neurotoxins are knockout gas. Turrets could theoretically shoot tranquilizer darts–strong enough to penetrate and throw blood on the wall, and then after too many (they’re not very strong tranquilizers) you “die”, which, in truth, they just revive you with “peptic salve and adrenaline” and place you back. It even explains how you start in the save-points, (yes, save points are generally ignored in games, but it makes sense. Maybe you’re a human fitted with an HUD? You could explain EVERY aspect of the game as a test in and of itself.

  And the end of the GLaDOS battle, with the portal? Induced hallucination.

  They’re testing you psychologically. But you wonder, what person would play with someone’s psyche as if it’s a game? *cough* G-Man *cough*

  ~Joel

• 73 Factual Orc // Jan 17, 2010 at 5:22 pm

  I’m not sure if anyone else here has mentioned this as I am, quite frankly, too lazy to read through all of the comments but I have a quote from Wikipedia that might be of interest to you:

  “work on GLaDOS was completed and the untested AI was activated during the company’s first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work day. The record ends at that point on a positive note.”

  For any further explanation just visit the site at
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)

• 74 Baz // Jan 23, 2010 at 10:05 pm

  I’m not entirely sure if I agree with your points over the bring your daughter to work day line…

  From ApertureScience.com, in the notes file, it says “Several Years Later – The untested AI is activated for the first time as one of the planned activities on Aperture’s first annual bring-your-daughter-to-work day.”

  Bring-your-daughter-to-work day is essentially the beginning on GLaDOS’ imprisonment so maybe it is merely a reflection upon that?

  Rueing the day it all began or something along those lines.

  Also, for the previous test runners and the marks upon the wall, it is somewhere said to be the ‘Rat Man’, though what that alludes to I haven’t a clue.

• 75 TimeSage // Feb 9, 2010 at 12:50 am

  The Take your Daughter To Work day thing… Glados was first Activated on that day. IT’d be a signifigent day for her so she’d likely want to mention it.

• 76 C(hell)JOHNSON // Feb 15, 2010 at 6:44 pm

  I agree with the idea, also the game takes place in the future, who is to say that GLaDOS’s definition of android doesn’t mean a biologically engineered cyborg.

• 77 Jin // Feb 21, 2010 at 7:38 am

  @timesage

  How do you know?
  I think that Chell can be an android. Androids can bleed right?
  And maybe this android has lungs, a reason for her dieing from the gas.

• 78 Aperture Science Business Magnet // Mar 7, 2010 at 9:15 am

  Just to everyone:

  I’ve read many comments on Chell being not an android, and I’ll give one fact from Valve:

  Portal 2 is set 100 years after Portal, and it features Chell.

  That should mark a period.

• 79 Aperture Science Business Magnet // Mar 26, 2010 at 7:04 am

  And also, the Wall Scribbler, which in your theory is a previous Chell clone, was identified as Doug Rattmann, a former Aperture Science programmer who made the “Aperture Image Format”.

• 80 housemdfan // Mar 26, 2010 at 12:08 pm

  Maybe you messed up with the android thing… I think the word you are looking it´s cyborg, because of the things atached to her legs, but they are more like a prosthesis and someone with a artificial limb it´s not a cyborg…

  But I support the clone theory…

  Also I think maybe Doug Rattmann it´s Cave Johnson’s alias after he turned insane, or he just stole his admin username and password :p

• 81 housemdfan // Mar 26, 2010 at 12:16 pm

  @77 some androids can bleed, but they have their propose, like an android for medicine than surgeons use to practice, why an fighting android would bleed, that´s does´t make any sense…

  Also she takes a few shots to being dead, like an human, not a robot… did you watch terminator? xP

  @78 portal 2 features chell because she was put into stasis, like gordon freeman in half-life, so she was not aging until she awaken…

• 82 S // Mar 27, 2010 at 11:55 am

  Another line from GLaDOS which, while hilarious on the surface, clues the player in to Chell’s cloned nature is the line

  Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck!

  Again, while hilarious, there seems to be a clue here, and that is that GLaDOS is more concerned about the performance evaluation than you dying. She is letting you know that you should already know how to beat this section of the course, and if you fail, will mark it as an error on your testing record. Death seems to be of little, if not lesser, consequence. Probably because she will simply reactivate another clone of Chell and download the latest brainscan of Chell’s last run through the course.

  ===

  I don’t know how you came to this conclusion from the line. You have to remember that this is a game, and this line is basically nothing more than, “By the way, player? Don’t touch the floor, or it’s game over.”

  There is nothing IN THAT LINE at all to suggest that you, as the avatar have run, or even seen that particular testing chamber before.

• 83 mangycheshire // Apr 2, 2010 at 11:55 am

  After reading through this I fully support the augmented clone argument because as stated above, the incinerator at the end of the course was not created by GLaDOS. It couldn’t have been. However… the jump assist implants allowed her to bypass the incinerator, given Chell doesn’t have the survival instincts of a Lemming. (The game, not the animal. :P) The live fire course seems to be something that would be required to bypass the room with all the turrets and therefor she would give Chell a taste of fighting them before pitting her against them in a point of no return scenario so close to the objective. I agree that GLaDOS wanted to die but not for the reason of slavery. Every being seeks purpose. However, notice the insanity core was the last one to come off, overriding all the others. I think her purpose was to remove the defective component in herself and she’s quite pleased with the results. If the backups of GLaDOS are indeed at another facility, then it makes sense that the cake and the companion cube are provided as Chell’s thank you when she finally arrives as GLaDOS fully expects. The candle is put out, the backups come online and we wait for the sequel. My two cents after reading much about the topic.

• 84 Zuriel Seven // May 10, 2010 at 12:14 pm

  It may be worth considering that what GLaDOS pronounces as “Chell” might be the clone’s designation [ CLONE: 7734] which can be read from GLaDOS’ suspended and inverted position (especially on a calculator LCD screen).

  Ever tried it?

• 85 arceus321 // May 15, 2010 at 6:21 am

  I think chell is android,clone,and millitary android because in the last boss FIGHT you can die from the nurotoxon but come back so that tells me that glados just makes another clone and gives it the same brain scan as the first.Also it could be a millitary android because whan you think about it,you fight by makeing the enemys attacks shoot back at them with portals.

• 86 Dante Telvante // May 15, 2010 at 11:54 am

  You’re all forgetting the fact that an android in some cases is the closest robotic resemblance to a human. Meaning advanced creations of andriods can eat, sleep, and breathe like a normal human being. And for all manner purposes can bleed if infused with the proper organic components. The only reason I think Chell gets shot up so easily is because think about it: If you were an android based off a perfectly normal human girl you’d get the shit shot out of you too.

• 87 Gnome // May 18, 2010 at 2:48 pm

  Also to note, the definition of Andriod, is a synthetic life-form. So technically, even if she was a clone, as long as she was breathing, she would not be an android. This author is clueless.

• 88 spitfire // May 18, 2010 at 2:50 pm

  Hey, I at least know how to spell Android. I can’t be *that* clueless.

• 89 Claudio Pacciarini // May 30, 2010 at 11:24 pm

  To me Chell is clearly an android. In the end, Chell is taken into a room full of other ball-cameras; those could be the droids before Chell.

  Thanks to the author of this site for the excellent analysis.

• 90 A Sustained Gravitas Deficiency « Various Varieties of Things // Jun 24, 2010 at 3:29 pm

  [...] characters like Halo‘s Cortana, Red Dwarf‘s Holly, Ender’s Game‘s Jane, Portal‘s GLaDOS, and I’d probably add System Shock‘s SHODAN to that list if I was brave enough to play [...]

• 91 Reckless // Jul 18, 2010 at 3:43 am

  I really don’t buy Chell being an android.
  -Why does Chell have leg braces, surely android legs could be toughened up without adding bits?
  -You stated later on in part 3 that GlaDOS wanted Chell to know how to deal with the rocket turret in -GLaDOSs chamber hence the rocket turrets earlier in the game. However rocket turrets are an instant kill as I recall, so enter the machine gun turrets which Chell can take a few hits from before dying. The test course had no turrets so the solution was to diverting Chell through the androids course which did.
  -Other have already said, there was a toilet in the starting room, supplies in the ratmans hideouts, Chell bled
  -Why would GLaDOS go to the trouble of training up multiples of Chell over and over again if she could just fire up a military grade killing machine? I doubt a “military android” would have any trouble getting to GLaDOS.

  Also reading your article got me thinking.
  In one of the early levels GLaDOS out right tells Chell that “the next test is impossible” when in fact it isn’t and after passing this level she congratulates Chell.
  Also the part where she admits to lying to Chell and counts down to when she will start telling the truth but stops before she finished it.
  This tells me that A) she wants Chell to know that she will lie to her and Chell shouldn’t believe everything GLaDOS says and B) She is encouraging Chell to disobey her instructions. Both of which fit your theory.

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