GLaDOS

""I'd just like to point out that you were given every opportunity to succeed. There was even going to be a party for you. A big party that all your friends were invited to. I invited your best friend the Companion Cube. Of course, he couldn't come because you murdered him. All your other friends couldn't come either because you don't have any other friends. Because of how unlikeable you are. It says so here in your personnel file: Unlikeable. Liked by no one. A bitter, unlikeable loner whose passing shall not be mourned. 'Shall not be mourned.' That's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official. It also says you were adopted. So that's funny, too.""

GLaDOS is the passive-agressive, cake-obsessed villain of the computer game Portal. She exists to see how experimental technology is handled at the hands of test subjects. As the game progresses, she increasingly becomes more and more insane; trying to kill the player many times by means of a fire pit and putting them in a "live fire course, designed for military androids" because the current testing room was undergoing "maintenance". She also psychologicly abuses the player in many cases. One example of this is found in the infamous "companion cube" incident, where she says you must "euthanize" your companion cube, which is a very helpful object that you take with you throughout the 17th level, characterized by the pink heart design on its sides. Many players get very, very attached to this cube. When a player finally incinerates it (you can't move on in the game if you don't), GLaDOS congratulates you on the fact that you incinerate your companion cube "faster than any other test subject on record". This is only one of many times GLaDOS psychologicly abuses the player, but this particular one is more well-known.

It should also be noted that GLaDOS lies frequently throughout the entire game. She promises cake that you never recieve, says she won't monitor certain levels when she does and even admits it, lies about lying (she says that "We can no longer lie to you" when she continues to lie), and claims that a certain test chamber is "impossible" when it is not.

To give the illusion of more people monitoring the facility, GLaDOS uses the pronoun "we" instead of "I" frequently before the escape leading up to the final battle.

Origin
GLaDOS' origin is gradually revealed in the later stages of the game. An abandoned slideshow presentation in a meeting room shows GLaDOS was developed by Aperture Science Laboratories Inc. as a method of de-icing fuel lines in direct competition with a similar project by Black Mesa Research facility. GLaDOS is described as not only being a fuel line de-icer, but being fully-functional and "arguably alive." GLaDOS is, however, much more than a fuel line de-icer. The AI is installed as the Enrichment Center's central control computer. GLaDOS's core is mounted in a large, sealed chamber alongside control consoles and an incinerator. The core hangs from the ceiling surrounded by video screens that show random and relevant images. The core swings continuously, dislodging one of the modules in the final level. There are no clear speakers or units which create GLaDOS' voice, though it is present throughout the facility. During the final battle, GLaDOS reveals it is the source of the facility's abandoned state; GLaDOS flooded the Enrichment Center with a fatal neurotoxin, presumably killing several scientists, just before its Morality Module was installed. Since the Module had been installed, it can be assumed that the release happened as the Module was being installed, forcing the scientists to abandon the facility.

The Cake
Motivation. How would running through test areas with a portal gun benefit the guinea pig? You are promised that if you accomplish your task, that there will be grief counseling, followed by a party, and that there will be cake at said party. However, there are several theories about the cake.

1) It's a lie, as written several times on one of the walls. (This is where the common internet phrase "The cake is a lie" comes from).

2) There is a cake shown at the end of the game, but whether it is THE cake is in question.

3) That YOU are the cake; at one point in the game, GLaDOS says "You will be baked, and then there will be cake.", supporting this theory. However, she could also be referring to the point where the test subject (you) are to be dropped in a pit of fire at the end of the 'experiment'.

4) That it is a prank, because the contents of the cake are, according to her information core;

''One 18.25 ounce package chocolate cake mix, 1 can prepared coconut pecan frosting, 3/4 cup vegetable oil, 4 large eggs, 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 3/4 cup butter or margarine, 1 2/3 cup granulated sugar, 2 cups all-purpose flour. Don't forget garnishes such as: Fish shaped crackers, Fish shaped candies, Fish shaped solid waste, Fish shaped dirt, Fish shaped ethyl benzene, Pull and peel licorice, Fish shaped volatile organic compounds and sediment shaped sediment. Candy coated peanut butter pieces, shaped like fish. 1 cup lemon juice. Alpha resins. Unsaturated polyester resin. Fiberglass surface resins And volatile milk impoundments. 9 large egg yolks. 12 medium geosynthetic membranes. 1 cup granulated sugar. An entry called 'how to kill someone with your bare hands'. 2 cups rhubarb, sliced. 2/3 cups granulated rhubarb. 1 tbsp all-purpose rhubarb. 3 tbsp rhubarb, on fire. 1 large rhubarb. 1 cross borehole electro-magnetic imaging rhubarb. 2 tbsp rhubarb juice. Adjustable aluminum head positioner. Slaughter electric needle injector. Cordless electric needle injector. Injector needle driver. Injector needle gun. Cranial caps. And it contains proven preservatives, deep penetration agents, and gas and odor control chemicals; that will deodorize and preserve putrid tissue.''

Of course, this could also be due to GLaDOS losing her mind piece by piece.

5) That it is a metaphor for an unobtainable freedom from GLaDOS's experiment.

The truth behind the cake may never be known.

The Battle
Once you go off course, you find the room GLaDOS is in. After a short conversation, a piece of her falls out. When you put this piece into the incinerator, GLaDOS's voice becomes darker and more ominous, and she tells you that she suddenly remembers that the Morality core was installed after she flooded the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin to force her to stop. Immediately, she starts to flood the room with said neurotoxin and the boss battle begins. During the battle, the large screens in the room display a clock counting down 6 minutes until the room completely fills with neurotoxin. Also, two rocket turrets, which GLaDOS appearently cannot shut off because the Morality core apparently had some "ancillary responsibilities", appear on the floor and shoot laser-guided rockets at you.

To defeat GLaDOS, Chell (the player) must use her portal gun to redirect the rockets at GLaDOS (making her remaining three cores fall off one at a time) within the 6-minute time limit. Chell can then drop the cores into the nearby (and very convenient) Emergency Intelligence Incinerator. The three cores which you have to destroy (not counting the fourth "morality" core) are Curiosity, Info and Anger. As you incinerate these cores, GLaDOS's insults gradually become more childish and harsh. She also loses some of her logic, stating that "two plus two is... ten" and correcting herself with "in base four, I'M FINE!".

Once you manage to beat her, GLaDOS rises through the roof as she breaks apart. Chell, after being sucked up with her, lands in the parking lot of the Aperture Science facilities, where burning peices of GLaDOS fall from the sky. Please note that in the recently revised ending, made by VALVe in preparation for Portal 2 (the upcoming sequal to Portal), you are dragged away by a party associate robot back into the facility. This clash can be seen in the video below, but the revised ending cannot.

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Still Alive
At the very end of the game, after you see "the cake" surrounded by personality cores and the Companion Cube, GLaDOS sings a little song called "Still Alive" as the credits roll. The song was made by JoCo (Jonathan Coultan) specificly for the game and sung by Ellen Mclain, the talented voice actor of GLaDOS, the turrets, and the Info and Curiosity cores.

NOTE: The chords of this song are on JoCo's blog.

Here are the lyrics:

This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. Aperture Science We do what we must Because we can. For the good of all of us. Except the ones who are dead. But there's no sense crying over every mistake, You just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake. And the science gets done, And you make a neat gun, For the people who are still alive. 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. Now these points of data make a beautiful line. And we're out of beta We're releasing on time. So I'm GLaD I got burned, Think of all the things we learned, For the people who are still alive. Go ahead and leave me. I think I prefer to stay inside. Maybe you'll find someone else to help you. Maybe Black Mesa THAT WAS A JOKE, HAHA. FAT CHANCE. Anyway, this cake is great, It's so delicious and moist. Look at me still talking When there's Science to do. When I look out there, it makes me GLaD I'm not you. I've experiments to run, There is research to be done, On the people who are still alive. And believe me I am still alive. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive. I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive. While you're dying I'll be still alive. And when you're dead I will be still alive. STILL ALIVE Still Alive... thumb|300px|right

Portal 2
GLaDOS returns in Portal 2, which is believed to take place about a century after Portal. At the start of the game, she is still dead after being destroyed at the end of the first one, but later is accidentally reactivated. The newly reactivated GLaDOS destroys Chell's new robot friend Wheatley and proceeds to take revenge on her by making her endure the hardest and most painful tests she can come up with indefinitely. Eventually, Wheatley appears again and with his help Chell reaches GLaDOS' chamber again and uses an override system to replace her with Wheatley as the controller of the facility.

Just then, however, Wheatley betrays Chell and reveals his true nature as an AI programmed to make poor decisions which the scientists once installed into GLaDOS to slow down her advancement, and drops both Chell and GLaDOS, now trapped inside a potato battery, down an extremely deep shaft and forces them to continue running tests to satisfy his new urge for testing. During one portion of the game following this, the player is guided by the voice of Cave Johnson, the founder of Aperture Science, and through these recordings it is revealed that Johnson intended to copy his personality into a computer to gain immortality and continue watching over the experiments after his death, but died before this technology could be completed due to exposure to poisonous moon rocks used to make the portals, and had the responsibility of becoming the facility's computer to his loyal secretary Caroline, whose mind was used in creating GLaDOS.

Eventually, Chell reaches Wheatley and destroys him with the help of GLaDOS, who has now become her friend after discovering her true self, echoing the confrontation earlier in the game. However after being reinstalled, GLaDOS abruptly deletes her program of Caroline's loving personality, becoming a cold, evil machine once again. Luckily, she still lets Chell go because she has decided that Chell's presence has been the cause of all her troubles since the first Portal game, and releases her into the deserted outside world, and as a final act of indifference, tosses up the Companion Cube for her as well.