The Underground
The Underground is a video series animated by Gleb Lvov and formerly produced by Machinima. In it, there is a core called the Interview Core who started a talk-show where "the rejected are respected and the best-case has no place." It takes place in two forgotten locations within Aperture Science. Currently, there are six released episodes, and features a cast consisting of new cores, a turret band, the Mainframe and the Party Escort Bot.
The Cast
| Character | Gender | Voiced by | First Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interview Core | Male | Andrew Walker | Paranoia Core |
| Anthony | Male | Mitchell McLeod | Paranoia Core |
| Paranoia Core | Female | Jennifer Tonna | Paranoia Core |
| Protocol Core | Male | Mitchell McLeod | Protocol Core |
| Elite Core | Male | Peter Bird | Elite Core |
| Ambition Core | Male | Michael Ferretti | Ambition Core |
| Ego Core | Male | Sean Oxspring | Ego Core |
| The Mainframe | Male | Harry Callaghan | Protocol Core |
| Blue | Male | Matthew Kowalewski | Friendship Cores |
| Yellow | Male | Pat Boivin | Friendship Cores |
| Party Escort Bot | #UNKNOWN# | Sound Files used from Portal | Elite Core |
Interview Core
| “ | Don't flatter yourself, you never were a functioning part of anything.
— Ego Core describing the Interview Core
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” |
The Interview Core is a corrupted personality core who appears in all episodes of the series. He escaped incineration by GLaDOS and somehow found himself on a table, setting the literal stage for the talk-show. As the host of The Underground, the Interview Core is responsible for interviewing his guests and giving answers to his (possibly empty) audience. In the sixth episode, he uses his Therapeutic Voice Processor to guide two cores through couples therapy.
Anthony (and The Band)
| “ | Why don't we ever get anyone more intelligent, introspective. Someone like... me! I think it's because of you. Yeah, you're just driving them all away with all your sulking.
— Interview Core to Anthony about the lack of good guests
|
” |
Anthony and The Fritz Brothers Band is a trio of turrets, two of which are defective. Anthony is portrayed with a much more deeper voice than normal turrets. Anthony was to wed a turret named Alice, but was rejected in favor of a regular, fully functional, turret.
Paranoia Core
| “ | This is android hell, isn't it? I knew it, I knew it was real!
— Paranoia Core
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” |
The Paranoia Core is a corrupted personality core who appears in the first episode of the series. She is suspicious of all things, and speaks like the stereotypical conspiracy theorist, saying that it knows of "secret walls [being built] in the dead of night in secret to house all the secret boxes that contain files of all the secret rooms where all the real secrets are being kept."
Some time after the first episode, the Paranoia Core is fitted to a new frame and, in effect, "becomes" the Party Escort Bot from Portal.
Protocol Core
| “ | I'm not defective, I'm special.
— Protocol Core
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” |
The Protocol Core is a corrupted personality core who appears in the second episode of the series. He is very knowledgeable about all Enrichment Center policies and was "hand"-picked by GLaDOS to enforce "all of her wonderful regulations." The Protocol Core is under the idea that it was created to be perfect, and as such, denies being corrupted despite being in placed into an Emergency Intelligence Incinerator prior to the episode.
After the interview, he is brought before the Mainframe and disappears into a shaft underneath it.
Ambition Core
| “ | You think the fact that I don't have hands is gonna keep me from flipping you the bird? Check that out! I'm flipping you a whole damn ostrich!
— Ambition Core
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” |
The Ambition Core is a corrupted personality core who appears in the fourth episode of the series.
After the interview, he is attached to The Mainframe.
Ego Core
| “ | It's not every day Aperture builds a core like me. Perfect! Inside and out.
— Ego Core
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” |
The Ego Core, or Onathan, is a corrupted personality core who appears in the fifth episode of the series. Before the events of The Underground, he worked with the Interview Core processing test subjects. Onathan describes himself as more intelligent and superior to the other cores, but is quite narcissistic.After the interview, he was attached to the Mainframe, as the Mainframe "could use an ego boost".
Friendship Cores
| “ | Me and dumbass here are "friendship cores". We were designed to simulate trust or something stupid like that.
— Yellow about Blue
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” |
The two friendship cores, Yellow and Blue are two fused cores. During the interview, it is shown that Yellow hates Blue for his stupidity. The two argue over their situation until the Interview core uses his Therapeutic Voice Processor and heads a couples therapy for the two. During the ending, the two are separated.
The Mainframe
| “ | Hm. I don't like him.
— The Mainframe about the Protocol Core
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” |
The Mainframe is a somewhat enigmatic character in the series. After each interview, the cores are sent to him. Anything the Mainframe dislikes, from cores to sitcoms, go down a trapdoor controlled by him. The cores the Mainframe accepts are attached to him, in a manner not unlike GLaDOS and her cores.
Gallery
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Trivia
- The Underground is written by Gleb Lvov, Mitchell McLeod, and Andrew Walker.
- Anthony's 'arm' falls off while performing a rimshot, which plays a role in a set of gags in the second episode.
- Anthony is later knocked to the ground by the Ambition core.
- The Paranoia Core mentions several aspects of Old Aperture's tests, such as mantis men and test-related tumors.
- The Paranoia Core is an interpretation of a cut personality core from Portal 2. While non-canon to the Portal universe, this core also makes an appearance in the game Poker Night 2 as GLaDOS' bounty prize item; in this appearance, it is identical in appearance to Wheatley.
- The first five episodes of The Underground have been released within a short time of each other in July 2011. The sixth episode was released in late September 2013.