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 hosts a talk-show where "the rejected are respected and the best-case has no place." It takes place in two forgotten locations within the Aperture Laboratories. Currently, there are nine released episodes, and features a cast consisting of new cores, a turret band, the Mainframe, the Party Escort Bot and several others.
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 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. He also has a Therapeutic Voice Processor, which he uses 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
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” |
Anthony and The Fritz Brothers Band is a trio of turrets, two of which are defective. Anthony often faces issues with his defectiveness, such as falling apart during a rimshot or having trouble with romantic interests.
Paranoia Core
This is about a character in The Underground. For the bounty prize item in Poker Night 2, see Cores.
| “ | This is hell, isn't it? It's 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 a 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
| “ | ” |
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? Yeah! 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. He has a very ardent demeanor, which he displays to everyone, including the incinerator. He tried to take over the show until he realized Anthony's incompetence.
After the interview, he was attached to The Mainframe.
Ego Core
| “ | It's not every day Aperture builds a core like me. Perfect! Inside and out.
— Ego Core
|
” |
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. He describes himself as more intelligent and superior to the other cores, but is all the while overly egotistical. After the interview, he was attached to the Mainframe.
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 cores who appear in the sixth episode of the series. The two cores were fused after both being smashed together by a crusher due to Blue's antics. After this, Blue was constantly berated by his partner due to his stupidity and resulted in a fight during the show. They were put through a couples therapy session by the Interview Core. Afterwards, they were separated while being taken by the claw.
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 coresand also his first sketches of GLaDOS.
Gallery
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Transcripts
- Episode 1: Paranoia Core
- Episode 2: Protocol Core
- Episode 3: Elite Core
- Episode 4: Ambition Core
- Episode 5: Ego Core
- Episode 6: Friendship Cores
Trivia
- The Underground is written by Gleb Lvov, Mitchell McLeod, and Andrew Walker.
- 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.
- The first five episodes of The Underground were released within a short time of each other in July 2011. The sixth episode was released in late September 2013. Since its release, Gleb's YouTube channel was shut down, canceling the series as a whole for a time. However, the series has since been revived on Gleb's new channel burgerscum during early 2021.
- The Mainframe is based on an early concept art of GLaDOS.