Oh, God! I can't unsee it!

Seroth

I always got the impression that GlaDOS wasn't really an AI so much as a piece of software gone a wee bit nutty HAL 9000 style.

SHODAN, maybe. GlaDOS? Naw, GlaDOS is just some buggy computer program.

JonathanStrange

For somebody who wants to die, she sure seems pretty happy to be still alive. Gotta love when people look too hard at something.

This sounds more to me like the author got caught drawing some kinky fan art and tried to come up with a quick explanation.

TRT-X

"I'm not even angry...
I'm being so sincere right now -
Even though you broke my heart,
and killed me.

And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you!"

"(Go ahead and leave me...)
(I think I'd prefer to stay inside...)"

"When I look out there,
it makes me glad I'm not you."

These lyrics contradict the idea that GLaDOS wants to escape the lab, and that she wanted to die. Rather I think she is designed to want people to succeed in the manner Chell did, but also wants to stop them from doing it. Which is the beautiful type of logic you can only find within an A.I.

ItotheCtotheE

the animism applied in his argument is interesting, but i think theres much more evidence that glados does not want anything and that she is in fact working off of a programming script based on the construction of her programmers. the hiccup where she killed the staff of was simply an oversight by her creators which could be simply explained by a self preservation system. the concept that she actually wants to be put to death, however, cannot be explained through programming, it implies that glados is actually capable of feeling sensations and having free rational thought at the same organically intimate level that a living person would. it introduces a super-natural element to something which is completely devoid of any form of magic otherwise.
glados did not build the obstacles that he's suggesting she needs to put chell through in order to kill her, they were constructed by aperture scientists. she has no choice but to put chell through the obstacles, and something that continues working off a script even after everyone else is dead probably doesnt have any intimate feelings of desire, just lines of code.
the woman being hung upside down visual though is extremely evident, and the bondage seems like it might hold some weight, but let's not forget that most people who participate in bondage do so willingly as sadomasochists.
the visual symbol of a girl hanging upside down, if truly intended, should only be interpreted as an allusion. a symbol designed to make a reference to something else culturally significant. rarely are any metaphors or any form of symbolism actually stand to mean that the characters are actually jesus, the virgin mary, president bush, or satan. theyre merely there to draw parallels, but still people like to interpret allusion as the intended truth of an artwork rather than just elements which contribute to the intended effect of the art.

buttpwner

It's an interesting interpretation, and I'm all for looking at things from different points of view...

That said, I'd always seen GLaDOS as having her head the right way up, not upside-down... More like a creepy spider hanging down from a web, staring at you.

V1L3

That's an awesome, creepy and eerily depressing picture all rolled up into one. Ludos good sir.

JarenFace

I think if this theme was intended by Valve for Portal's story, this theory would've surfaced before now. Look, I love Portal, too, but it's not Dostoevsky.

Strangelove

Holy Jesus, Portal really gets those "delve to deeply" cogs going for people. I'm not saying you can't have a good analysis of games, just that Portal is a horrible place to start.

If this guy found a woman in a straight jacket in a rogue AI, that's cool. I'm just wondering where all the articles analyzing MGS characters are. Or how 'bout Virgils (from DMC) quest for power in order to protect, why Dante is stopping him, and how that relates to the human condition. You know, some philosophical musings and shit.

Garro

I'm going to go with a No.

Tiger-Fever

@ServiceMaster: DEATH MOUNTAIN IN NAME ONLY, FOR IT IS NEITHER.

Green-clad Gamer Dude

Its a neat little drawing and interpretation. I think it does get a bit on the fetish-y side for my tastes, but its still pretty cool.

However, Glados only looks that way from that specific angle, and the drawing takes a lot of liberties with what is actually in the image. The figures arms and neck for instance seem contrary to the orientation in the actual image.

Its neat, but there is nothing more here than U R MR GAY.

Lackshmana

Epic facepalm. Stop reading too much into the game and just enjoy it. It's not some psychological thriller, it's a damn puzzler. And a funny one at that.

Aethyr

Nice. I like this stuff. But this doesn't even come close to the EarthBound/ Abortion theory going around.

Green-clad Gamer Dude

Man, I have to play Portal, I feel so damn left out. *cries* I know, I suck. Portal is supposed to be sublime(acording to Yahtzee the all mighty game reviewer)

Blah-Blah-Blah

Seems a lot more probable than the Majora's Mask Moon crashed and made Twilight Princess Hyrule's Death Mountain theory.

ServiceMaster

kotaku is messing with my mind again......

GREY GECKO

...just show me what's on the Borealis

Hopanoe

Yeah thats kinda creepy that I never noticed that....then again I never looked that deeply into portal's main antagonist like that.

ShtickYoMaMa

Um. Wow. I bet that Valve probably didn't even mean to make it that way, but it's amazing what people can make with a given design.

TalAarahk

@Ashurahori: oh man, and then there's the text afterwards, the followup examination of the Still Alive song.

This guy is assuming that the machine wants to die, which is interesting, and there's good evidence for it if you start with the assumption she's being sarcastic, but I don't think she is. I also don't think the cake is a lie. At the end, there's cake! It's just that her promises of giving *you* cake are a lie.

The being not being a lie is key to the whole enterprise. You can't just repeat the mantra--there is *clearly* cake.

deathbunny

Sorta philosophical, in a way...

Krackatoa

wow, i never noticed that resemblance.

DesmondHume

What the?

Candlejack

Great, now I can't unsee it.

TheLastGunslinger

Wow, even though it might be entirely dependent on a very specific angle, the concept is cool, and the fan art is also strangely fascinating, in kind of a morbidly terrifying sort of way. I'd love to see what Justin Cherry could do with an image like that.

MisterSleep

How much more legend can we add to Portal, hasn't it reached epic proportions already?

BassForever

but...but...I dont want to feel sorry for GlaDOS :O

Sandbox_Emperor

That's awesome.

uranutan

@roflwaffles: the cake is so delicious and moist, no man or machine can resist

TheRemedy

And thus, Portal's concept is overthought once again.

Ashurahori

thats great

push eject

i'm not sure if that second pic is hot or not, but it is a neat idea either way, although, i think it is a bit of a stretch

HawaiianActor

Woah, that's eerily similar work there, with the fanart and all. Nice analysis.

thewafflecult

For a second i thought it was another one of those robots turned into cute 10yrold girls thingies. Guess I was too busy (like most I'd assume) trying to beat the clock on this one to see that connection.

muu

Well, that sure can't be a coincidence.

whiteunibrow

Creepiest. Fanart. EVER.

Redface, The Dark Messiah of Justice

Poor GLaDoS.

She'd have a major head rush if she had blood. :(

Atsumi

I bet she does it like a weasel!!!

N3v3r.kNows.b3st.

creepy, i see it now.
Doesn't explain the cake though.

roflwaffles

@warpped655: Nah, you're not missing much. MGS has an okay story, but it's mostly just tired illuminati conspiracy theory junk mixed with Hollywood/out of touch style musings on what it means to be a soldier. And neither DMC nor GoW have any plot worth remembering. Certainly nothing noteworthy anyway. But I think he was only half-serious anyway.

Fonic

@roflwaffles: Dude, isn't it obvious? Cake is the safety word!

Also, you have possibly the best user name ever. Evar.

2NinjasTapedTogether

I had no idea... time to add a new picture to my porn collection.

this_will_be_fun

I have never noticed that.

I was trying to make a GLaDOS character in rock band to commerate the release of "Still Alive." But i never even thought that thing hanging from the celing resembled anything at all.

Still waters run deep.

XWonka

The Cake is still a lie. How do you think they trapped her to be able to put her in that position.

KM91

@Garro: Because those stories even seem as deep. Just complex. Although they are interesting and entertaining just as well, just in a different way then Portal.

Then again... I may have a bit too much bias against MGS and DMC. I only played the first MGS and I don't really like hack and slash style games like DMC or God of War. plus my ignorance of the games story may be leaving me out of something possibly deep.

warpped655

Amazing. the more we look at portal the more we see. Whether valve intended all this, portal is definaltly an interesting exploration of man vs. machine, a subject that heavily weighs on our collective subconcious.

BodyOfTheMany

My wife is DAMNED tired of hearing me talk about Portal in general and GLaDos in particular...

Too bad for her that I am going to force her to read this before we go to bed tonight.

RickBarrs

Okay people, seriously. I'm sure it was a neat game and all, but this is taking the whole fanboy thing a bit far. Enough already.

Fonic

Please read the Max Wagner comment
[www.game-ism.com]
It put *all* in some interesting new light. Like explain all to me. So yes. Se was suffering a multiple personality disorcer inflicted by Aperture Science, and she was triing to stop that.
And Chell could be a clone :I

tei

That's really creepy... and odd that I never noticed that you could see a body-like shape in GLaDOS...

Toprem

lol! Amazing. I wanna go through the game again, just to see it.

IntelSilver

I'd hit GLaDOS...if she was a real female

VeNoMmx

Rule 34 strikes again!

CockroachMan

So they smear cake everywhere...and then what?

excel_excel

I like the article. I think it's impossible not to see some relationship and/or sexual themes in Portal. The game is really about Glados, her emotions, and her relationship to Chell. The article mentions one of the previous designs for Glados had her as a female statue hung upside down, so I think it is not unreasonable to see her final form as meant to be feminine. I also like the idea that she didn't necessarily want to die, she just wanted to be free of the "body" that kept her confined, which brings this whole theory well in line with Still Alive and what not.

Also: That picture is hot.

etho

I'd hit it?

cornpopsicle

@RickBarrs: Just remember that she may get even. =p.

That was a very interesting read. While being intrigued by the game in general, it never ceases to amaze me how many different theories for various elements in the game keep surfacing. While some people seem to be growing weary of them, I have to say that each one has its own level of interest and worthy of the time it takes to read them.

This one, in addition, was just eerie.

DeRangedKaos

@TRT-X: Her 'death' was also a rebirth, as she was freed from her 'binds' by being destroyed.

In fact the end of the game can literally be seen as a rebirth, as GLaDoS is 'ejected' from the womb and brought out into the light.

Which was quite a weird idea as well, a machine being sucked out of an underground base...odd ending actually.

Andrew831

@Mommar: @MisterSleep: Meant more of a reference towards SEVERAL people trying to find hidden meanings and little quirks where there are none. I'm a Kotaku faithful enough to read most of these, and some are really out there. It is a 5 hour game with a very simple premise to it.

@Yuki: I'll give it there are 'connections' But you can make connections to anything if you look hard enough. For example, Crecence is a pirate. He looks like a pirate, he dresses like a pirate. Is he a pirate? Well, as far as we know, no.

This is as far as I'm concerned this connection is major stretch.

huginn

There seem to be two groups in this: one who think we should just take the game at face value and one that imagines all the different possible interpretations to it.

Is it wrong to take something out of Portal other than a song and a the cake meme? Maybe it wasn't Valve's intent for people to look so deep into it's story, but as with all works of art, and I dare one person to not call Portal art, there as many ways to perceive it as there are creative minds.

At the very VERY least it's giving Valve some free ideas on what to do with Portal 2.

I say speculate away!

Andrew831

Because sometimes it's fun to over-analyse things you like, you bunch of repressive freaks.

Campion

@Yuki: Oh hell yeah it means a sexual connections! The picture above isn't even that uncommon of a fetish, the illustrator probably knew what he was drawing or else he's pretty naive.

TalAarahk

Well this just rocks my socks. I like it!

Danj3ris: man of many overlooked ideas.

@etho: Jesus...sexual themes? Oh yes, swarming with them.

Why must humans sexualize everything? Just because she is depicted in a strait jacket does not mean there is a sexual connection. The whole "bondage slave" headline is misleading, at that. Kotaku is the one sexualizing, in case you had not read the actual source article, which makes no mention of such things.

Yuki

@huginn: "Talk about fishing here, this takes the Cake. No Lie."
This is made of win!!!

excel_excel

@huginn: I'm not sure a single game can "jump the shark", 6 months after its release, without really doing anything. I will grant that the logic in the article is a stretch and is probably just an excuse to draw a creepy-ass picture, but if anything it's really just more proof that the internet has run out of original things to talk about. I think we're approaching the realm of the million monkeys on typewriters, and pretty soon we'll find the original ye olde english version of Hamlet in the Kotaku comments for an article on the new EA hit Army of Three Men and a Baby.

MisterSleep

@huginn: Feminism? Deep logic? This is the only theory that is NOT looking too deep. They just looked at the things Glados says, then looked at her physical embodiment, and make fanart to express the theory that she was "trapped". It makes sense, really.

Yuki

@huginn:
Yeah, jumping the shark means you've attempted to continue on long after your story is over. Portal hasn't attempted to do that, we're not up to Portal 14: The Revenge of GlaDOS. This is just another person trying to reason out what the Portal story is all about. You pretty much made no sense there.

Mommar

Why must people analyze Portal so much? Seriously, there's so much speculation for every little detail in the game, from the significance of the main character being female, to picking apart what little phrases there are, to this? *cries* leave Portal alone!

Wolfers

It's official. This game has jumped the shark.

I mean, I can understand the feminism views. I can understand the deep logic views. But now this?

COME ON! It is a puzzle shooter. The main character doesn't talk and there are only a few half life references that loosely assemble a story line.

Talk about fishing here, this takes the Cake. No Lie.

huginn

What's "Portal?"

Eltigro

@Libo: Criminy. I thought the over-the-top analysis was built in to MGS games. That's what I love about them: I don't have to do any deep thinking on my own.

MisterSleep

@Garro: I couldn't find any deep analysations for DMC, but this one for MGS2 goes way too far.

Libo

@huginn: Yeah, gotcha on that. I totally agree -- as clever and entertaining as the game was, there really is only so much you can say about it. The writers are without a doubt extremely talented and intelligent people, but I think at this point all the original meaning and interpretation has been squeezed out of the story. Anything further--like this--starts analyzing the unintentional or subconscious decisions of the writers and designers, which, for a game this short (regardless of quality), gets into the realm of the analysis being more complex than the subject matter can support. I kind of wonder if, at some point, Salinger was just like, "No, Holden Caulfield was just a dick, that's all."

Still, I loved me some Portal, and I hope we do get to the point where we have a game that deserves this depth of analysis. (And no, I don't think Bioshock plays at the same level.)

MisterSleep

@Garro: "You know, some philosophical musings and shit"

LOL Wow so profound! Here darling...have another beer..

NeVeRMoRe666

I'll never see GLaDoS the same way again. ;_;

psychobaka

If this was the intention for Glados in Portal, then I am amazed at the subtlety. It makes me pine for the sequel even more. Man, that kind of character design is just art. There's something really tragic going on with Glados.

Quilt

I can't wait to see the sort of hentai that sprouts from this.

Mustakrakish

Now, THIS is an interesting Portal analysis.

Cyanotic

Rule 34

Ulquiorra

@ChiltonGaines:

Not that I'm saying the people who do so are wrong or stupid or crazy.

ChiltonGaines

@Mustakrakish:

Why can't you? When they get around to making Portal hentai, I don't want to be still alive.

I dunno. Portal was a decent game (watched my brother beat it, played a bit myself). It was a great puzzle, you know, just to play. I couldn't understand the Glados half the time because of the voice. Sometimes it's good to analyze shit, but sometimes it's better to spare yourself the headache. I say, let the people who want to kill themselves over-analyzing do it.

ChiltonGaines

Dont be such a maroon. Portal NEEDS in depth analysis and points of view, regardless of wether it was intended by Valve or not. A a good piece of art has a variety of feelings and emotions, as well as interpretations that can be applied to it. Telling someone "Oh stop looking so deep, its just a game" doesn't help video games move forward as an art medium.

syp

you know, i was too busy trying to save myself from the gas to see the resemblance, but that is SUPER EERIE.

not_tom_brokaw

Very interesting idea behind it. A look into and artists idea of what she could look like given she was human. To bad she is not Human, cool idea though.

ThatsMrOffDutyNinja

I'm surprised people are so weird about the drawing. The artist who made the GlaDOS hanging whatever it is clearly intended for it to be a female form--they say as much in the commentary of the making-of stuff. They started with something generic, and eventually purposely gave it a fragile, feminine form. Considering that it is attached to the ceiling and covered in wires, the next step to bondage is so obvious, I'm surprised anyone had to say it out loud.

Are you telling me that people really don't see that? Obvious symbolism? It doesn't matter if she's meant to literally be an S&M chick or not. The point of symbolism is to evoke a thought or reaction without it being the actual experience of looking at whatever is being symbolized. FFS. Do you think all those people pointing their index fingers upward in old paintings are just stretching, instead of pointing to God?

Is there *any* question in anybody's mind that cortana is Mary and the Master Chief is the Christ who has come not bring peace 'but a sword' (of plasma)?

ok, the last one is probably a bridge too far. But fun!

deathbunny

There can never be enough literary dissection of Portal.

SolInvictus

How did I not notice that before? The concept definitely fits in with GlaDOS' "personality". At times, I almost feel sorry for that bat-shit-insane AI.

Captain Impulse

@ZombiePuppy:

There's this thing I do when I haven't played a game that's been out for awhile....

I don't read articles about the game until I play it!

MaxSteele

Hey, thanks for the spoilers. I hadn't played Portal before.

ZombiePuppy

big words make me giggle :D

but seriously, that is way deep and I totally agree with the concept

hrabbit

That was rather interesting and creepy at the same time.

Good stuff!

Witzbold

@Fonic: it seems you haven't played PORTAL. which means you should shut your pie-hole and play it.

rainofwalrus [XBL]

Looking at glados again, I hope for the sequel they flip her upside down and mount her on a go-kart or something.

Then she can roll around and cleanse the world with her love!

Billkwando

When I played through Portal I got the impression GlaDOS was "preparing" Chell for some sort of battle. Not the battle against GlaDOS, but the battle once she gets out of the facility. It all depends on when exactly in the Half-Life 2 storyline Portal occures, but I have a feeling Chell and the portal gun may be turning up to aid Gordon in future Half-Life installments... Roll on Portal 2!

MrLister

I think it goes too far too, but I do agree with a few things:

The picture seems right on the mark, especially given the commentary.

GlaDOS may well have been trying to get Chell to eliminate her. Maybe not. If not, then she made a massive ridiculous unbelievable series of oversights on the last level. By the look of most of the levels they appear reconfigurable too.

I hadn't put much thought into it, but it definitely sounds like GlaDOS unexpectedly came online somewhere else with all the data she collected from the first experiment, and is now being put to use in research again.

I don't even think the sarcasm angle is that unlikely, but it's not extremely likely either. I'm happy to just call it ambiguous. The rest is analysing it into a mold.

fuchikoma

Looks kind of Star Wars...

cheeseboybeans

Does this remind anyone else of Paul Pope's Escapo cover?

BruzeWayne

One word: Hawt.

Pieman2

@NeVeRMoRe666: Sweet, now I can show off my can flattening skills with my forehead.

@warpped655: Well between DMC 3 4 and 1 I think there's enough for a good analysis. I'm thinking of the entire relationship between Dante and Virgil in all 3 games (2 just, didn't happen).

Anyway, back to my free beer consumption...

Garro

@MisterSleep: Actually now that I think about it she only swings by the "feet" part of her body so it would pretty much look similar all around, nice analysis.

Swizzler121

I still think freeing Eden is more satisfying.

bitwize

Holy crap, I never noticed GlaDOS was a humanoid shape! I must have been too busy trying to kill it/her. Also, that is a weird pic, but I've definitely seen much weirder fanart. Weirder as in I had to scrub my retinas afterwards.

Placentasaurus

I'm I the only one who noticed this the second I first saw GlaDOS in the so-called flesh?

Kardin

Reading through the artist's article you will find out that their interpretation of the GLaDOS model isn't far fetched at all: in fact it is an extrapolation of what the game designers originally intended. Granted, the artist obviously layered on a message and meaning as they see it, but the original concept for the model is exactly as the artist has portrayed it:

"The second time I played through I turned the director commentary on, and got confirmation by way of a description of the things they attempted to make GlaDOS look like as they were making the game. What turned the light bulb on was the line "Botticelli's Venus hanging upside down, but we decided to go with something else and use some feminine lines within the structure." I'm paraphrasing; it's late and I don't feel like booting up the game again to get the quote exactly right. The spirit is there in the paraphrase, though, because I think they went for something much more sinister than a Venus."

I thought it was worth mentioning since so many commenters are saying this artist's interpretation is far-fetched when in fact it's fairly dead on.

mandifesto

As someone who only recently completed this game for the first time, can I mention how much I didn't appreciate seeing this image on Kotaku without any kind of SPOILER warning? I had no idea there even WAS a last boss, let alone what it looked like.

I like where this discussion could go and all, but couldn't you have put the image behind a "MORE" or "WARNING" tag?

PS: I still got the cake.

feitclub

@Billkwando:

I guess that's what I get for making a Tetsuo: Iron Man reference.....

Billkwando

wow...hot? and what kind of person goes this far?

MUDDUM