GLaDOS
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| “ | Okay, look: We both said a lot of things that you're going to regret, but I think we can put our differences behind us; for science... you monster.
— GLaDOS
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” |
GLaDOS, known in full as the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, is the Central Core designed to control, guide, and oversee the Aperture Science computer-aided Enrichment Center. With the ability to shift and move facilities and various chambers, she is able to achieve a seamless and almost infinite testing design.
She is the antagonist of Portal and the first half of the single-player campaign in Portal 2. In the later half, she briefly becomes a deuteragonist. In the game's cooperative campaign, GLaDOS is the testing supervisor of Atlas and P-body.
Biography
GlaDOS was a creation of Aperture Science, a personality core designed exactly to be fitted as a central computer mainframe. The project began under the oversight of Cave Johnson over the company, and was an attempt to create a fully functional, advanced artificial intelligence which was originally intended to be occupied by Johnson as one of his attempts to cheat death. After it became apparent to Johnson that he may die of moon rock poisoning before development on GLaDOS would be completed, Johnson motioned for the personality core to be based on Caroline instead, where she then ultimately became GLaDOS herself.
After a decade's worth of hard work, GLaDOS was officially activated in 1998, as part of one of the many events during the company's "Bring Your Daughter to Work" day. Since she is able to take control of the entire building, GLaDOS began killing most of its inhabitants by flooding the Enrichment Center with neurotoxin. However, only few if not only one of the staff such as Doug Rattmann had survived her attacks. The destruction of the company also coincided with an invasion of Earth, which had occurred two days after at Aperture's rival company, Black Mesa. This ultimately led to the negligence of the outside world from realizing Aperture's fate, as all attention had been diverted to Black Mesa and the aforementioned invasion.
As Doug Rattmann was able to evade her previous attacks, he sneaks into several departments and begin tampering with the test subject roster, rearranging Chell to the top of the list as Test Subject #1 instead. Since then, he has went into hiding as there was no possible escape from the Enrichment Center after the lockdown initiated by GLaDOS.
Now beginning the events of Portal, GLaDOS continues to operate the company and at some time-frame, awakens Chell for mandatory testing. After putting Chell through a number of tests with the Handheld Portal Device, Chell was able to escape her attempt to incinerate her at the conclusion of Test Chamber 19. From there, Chell makes her way throughout the Enrichment Center to escape, only to find that the only way she could was to confront GLaDOS in her chamber, a conflict which Chell won. During the conflict, GLaDOS was heavily damaged, and remained in a dormant status for an unspecified amount of time, during which the facility degraded.
Beginning the major events of Portal 2, she was eventually reactivated through the accidental efforts of Wheatley and Chell, the latter of whom was also trapped in the building following GLaDOS' defeat. As revenge, GLaDOS returned Chell to the facility's science experiments, and makes various taunts in hopes to crush her morale. With the help of Wheatley, Chell was able to escape from GLaDOS' testing tracks and went through the facility to sabotage her vital strategy components, such as the production of neurotoxin. Finally reaching her newly rebuilt chamber, they were then able to defeat GLaDOS together, replacing her with Wheatley as the facility's overseer. Wheatley, intimidated by GLaDOS' response to how useless he is, traps GLaDOS in a potato battery and throws her into the depths of the Enrichment Center alongside Chell.
After Wheatley became corrupted by his new position and power, GLaDOS and Chell worked together, initially as unwilling partners, to restore control over the facility. (which further degraded and corrupted under the influence of Wheatley, to the point where the facility's reactor core will undergo a meltdown.) Their attempts were eventually successful, resulting in the exile of Wheatley to outer space and the reconciliation between Chell and GLaDOS. Shen then expelled Chell from the facility in order to avoid further trouble to her control.
Abilities and Traits
As the overseer and operator of the facility, GLaDOS is seemingly omnipotent, able to reconfigure rooms and carry out actions at her will. She monitors the facility and its test chambers through cameras mounted on walls. She also mentions that she cannot resist thinking of paradoxes if one would happen to be brought up. GLaDOS had displayed little to no emotion within her voice tone in the first half of Portal, due to being bound by the consciousness of other personality cores attached onto her for the sole purpose of restricting her control. She then becomes increasingly more agitated and is portrayed as intimidating near the end of the game. In Portal 2, she becomes extremely bitter after the events of Portal, frequently insulting Chell until the very end - where she realizes that Chell was "all along [her] best friend".
GLaDOS' consciousness had been controlled by personality cores throughout the events of Portal. If the cores are removed, the traits and morals which the cores contain would be permanently detached from GLaDOS as well, causing her to fall back to her actual consciousness and her own voice tone.
Development and Acting
GLaDOS is voiced by Ellen McLain.
Gallery
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Trivia
- Ellen McLain, the actress that provides the voice of GLaDOS, also provides the voice for the Administrator in Team Fortress 2 and the Combine Overwatch in the Half-Life series. This makes Ellen McLain the only voice present in every game included in the The Orange Box.
- During the development of Portal 2, playtesters complained that GLaDOS was "too mean", and it was concluded that some of her dialogue was too extreme. Due to this, elements of her dialogue were reworked, which resulted in the creation of a more amicable, passive-aggressive personality for GLaDOS.
See also
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