Glados <3 Chell ? (spoilers)

[castlewise]

Yes, but its actually a little more twisted than that. Major spoilers ahead! The relationship between Glados and Chell is actually 1 part family and 1 part lover. So there really is a kind of Oedipus thing going on.

Glados is Chell's Mother: Ok, this isn't technically true. But there is a lot of evidence that Caroline was Chell's mother and Caroline did/does make up a significant portion of Glados personality. Its clear from the ending sequence that Caroline was a part of Glados (before she was deleted.) We know that Chell was the daughter of a Aperture science employee because you can see her name on one of the "Potato Battery" science projects. And if you translate the final opera from Italian it says "Dear, beautiful, my dear, beautiful little girl, oh Chell". A caveat is that Chell may be Caroline (and Cave's?) adopted daughter.

Glados is Chell's Lover: Ok, not technically true either, but a lot of the right aspects are there. I think the key is that they set up "testing" as kind of a sexual drive for Glados. Think about Wheatly's reactions the first couple of times you complete the tests in the third act. Glados claims you build up a tolerance to that (just like real life!) but the fact remains she needs to test you to find relief and release. This need drives a lot of her passive aggressive behavior throughout the game, as well as her selfishness and her possessive behavior towards Chell. I also think the ending is telling. She doesn't kill you and you don't kill her, because either of those things would be a continuation of your "relationship". Instead she breaks up with you. Your relationship ends and you go your separate ways.

Edit:
Glados is Chells' Enemy: This is certainly true, but it adds a nice wrinkle. Glados hates humans and Chell in particular. Her behavior is antagonistic and murderous. But the COOP story shows that she also needs humans to fulfill her function. This just makes the other two aspects of your relationship even spicier .

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Interesting take on the Lover side. I'm firmly in the camp that Caroline and Chell--and possibly Cave--were once a family, either blood or not. Too many little hints point to that, and Valve likes making players put things to together to get the whole story.
And I don't think GLaDOS really deleted Caroline. During the song, one of the lines says that Caroline is her only friend in there with her now. There's another line that, while GLaDOS sings it (it has something to do with her saying how she misses or loves Chell, I forget), the text on the screen says "redacted" or whatever, meaning she doesn't want to admit what she just said.
What I want to know is what drove GLaDOS--who had Caroline's loving personality in her--to become a crazy murdering robot. What went wrong?

 

[Woodsey]

I dunno, that seems like a theory you'd used to kick-off some Rule 34 fan-fiction.

I get what you're saying, but it feels like a bit of a theory for the sake of having a theory (and even then its just a loose metaphor - certainly not in the same vein as Chell being Caroline's daughter).

 

[Megacherv]

Interesting take on the Lover side. I'm firmly in the camp that Caroline and Chell--and possibly Cave--were once a family, either blood or not. Too many little hints point to that, and Valve likes making players put things to together to get the whole story.
And I don't think GLaDOS really deleted Caroline. During the song, one of the lines says that Caroline is her only friend in there with her now. There's another line that, while GLaDOS sings it (it has something to do with her saying how she misses or loves Chell, I forget), the text on the screen says "redacted" or whatever, meaning she doesn't want to admit what she just said.
What I want to know is what drove GLaDOS--who had Caroline's loving personality in her--to become a crazy murdering robot. What went wrong?

Well, what would any sentient self-aware AI do in a science institute filled with ways to kill everyone inside?

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Interesting take on the Lover side. I'm firmly in the camp that Caroline and Chell--and possibly Cave--were once a family, either blood or not. Too many little hints point to that, and Valve likes making players put things to together to get the whole story.
And I don't think GLaDOS really deleted Caroline. During the song, one of the lines says that Caroline is her only friend in there with her now. There's another line that, while GLaDOS sings it (it has something to do with her saying how she misses or loves Chell, I forget), the text on the screen says "redacted" or whatever, meaning she doesn't want to admit what she just said.
What I want to know is what drove GLaDOS--who had Caroline's loving personality in her--to become a crazy murdering robot. What went wrong?

In Cave Johnson's last message he mentions making Caroline head of Aperture Science via AI if he doesn't survive long enough to have his mind transfered. Obviously we know she becomes GLaDOS, whether Cave died or not. This is the bit I find intruiging.

"If I don't make it I want Caroline to be head of the company. She'll say not but don't listen, she's too modest. Force her if you have to." *paraphrasing*

My guess; Caroline was forced into becoming GLaDOS against her will. It was lightly a painful and traumatic experience. Even if she can't remember who she was originally she still needs to extract revenge on everyone in the facility who did this to her.

Her murderous tendacies after that? A combination of a logical mind, feelings of injustice still burning inside her and maybe a little bitchiness from when she was alive.

 

[Yal]

Caroline was a working woman in the 50s. Chell was a schoolage girl in the 90s. The only relationship I would buy is grandmother, and that supposes an entire generation we have no hint at.

I really don't know what to think of GLaDOS's feelings for Chell, but I wouldn't call it love. Some kind of bonding over the course of the Portal 2 events, yielding grudging respect and little fondness, maybe.

 

[Ekonk]

I haven't seen anything to suggest that Caroline is Chells mother, to be honest.

 

[LostCrusader]

Interesting take on the Lover side. I'm firmly in the camp that Caroline and Chell--and possibly Cave--were once a family, either blood or not. Too many little hints point to that, and Valve likes making players put things to together to get the whole story.
And I don't think GLaDOS really deleted Caroline. During the song, one of the lines says that Caroline is her only friend in there with her now. There's another line that, while GLaDOS sings it (it has something to do with her saying how she misses or loves Chell, I forget), the text on the screen says "redacted" or whatever, meaning she doesn't want to admit what she just said.
What I want to know is what drove GLaDOS--who had Caroline's loving personality in her--to become a crazy murdering robot. What went wrong?

Pretty sure the redacted was her saying she would miss Chell.

 

[Freechoice]

In Cave Johnson's last message he mentions making Caroline head of Aperture Science via AI if he doesn't survive long enough to have his mind transfered. Obviously we know she becomes GLaDOS, whether Cave died or not. This is the bit I find intruiging.

"If I don't make it I want Caroline to be head of the company. She'll say not but don't listen, she's too modest. Force her if you have to." *paraphrasing*

My guess; Caroline was forced into becoming GLaDOS against her will. It was lightly a painful and traumatic experience. Even if she can't remember who she was originally she still needs to extract revenge on everyone in the facility who did this to her.

This.

When Cave finished the complete lemons rant, GLaDOS addressed him as sir out of what is ostensibly respect, but it finished on such a note that Caroline wouldn't have been out of place saying it. We can pretty much say with complete certainty that GLaDOS's personality originated with Caroline.

Here's an excerpt from the Combine OverWiki on POTaDOS.
"During their progress through Aperture Science Innovators, she witnesses pre-recorded messages of Cave Johnson, which cause her to slowly recall her origins as Caroline before such memories were suppressed later on."

I would imagine that Caroline was only the basis for GLaDOS' personality as the DOS part of GLaDOS existed prior to Cave's death and the completion of the technology needed to integrate a mind with a computer. This might indicate a kind of induced psychopathy from Caroline's persona if she was forced to upload her brain. An imprint within GLaDOS such as this would likely have created inclinations toward misanthropy. Couple this with the drive to beat Black Mesa to portal technology and the testing system built into her that was basically a euphoric drug with diminishing returns designed to keep her testing and you have a genuinely fucked up artificial personality.

Personally, I believe that GLaDOS is aware that Chell is, by the farthest stretch of a definition, her daughter and does not know how to properly react to it. It's a programming limitation, basically. Because she does not have a file with a .love extension, she tries to fulfill her desire to test and eliminate Chell, killing two testing robots with one potato.

Besides, why would the song refer to a lover as a beautiful child?

 

[mireko]

There's a lot of suggestion for that, yeah.

Both "Still Alive" and "Want you Gone" sound like breakup songs too, which helps.

[sub]Where does it say she's her daughter?[/sub]

 

[Yal]

I think "Want You Gone" is GLaDOS singing to Caroline as much as Chell, particularly starting from the "Goodbye my only friend" verse. The line is "When I delete you maybe I'll stop feeling so bad", which makes a lot more sense directed at Caroline. Chronologically, that would imply the song is sung while Chell is passed out, before Caroline is erased, while GLaDOS is deciding what to do with both of them.

 

[Laughing Man]

I am sticking with my ghost in the shell idea. That Caroline is not a fundamental part of Glados but is a rouge program that has come about as a result of uploading and storage of the real Caroline's personality at some point in the past. Through time it has gone on to infect various aspects of the Aperture AI including Glados herself. However the overall power and drive of being in control of the facility meant that Glados was more focused on testing and science then she was on what ever influence the rouge Caroline code had over her. Once the power was taken away in the form of Spudos, she became more susceptible to Caroline's influence.

The very last scene, Glados says that when she saved you it taught her an even more important lesson 'where Caroline lives in my brain' at which point she deletes the Caroline code. That line at the end suggests that Caroline was an annoyance, a rouge bit of code that Glados now restored to power could finally get rid of before going on.

I may even consider that given Glados previous cunning and duplicitous actions in the past the Caroline code may be what caused her to go insane, to kill everyone in the facility and then lie and cheat to try and kill Chell. Imagine being this super genius but having the mind of an ordinary person always in there somewhere just bugging you annoying you and never being able to get rid of it. I say this because once Caroline is deleted Glados turns round and actually makes good on her deal, she considers how much of a pain you are and lets you go free. Something I could not see the old Glados doing.

 

[Phishfood]

There is definately a relationship between Cave and Caroline, no question there. Its entirely possible that Chell is their daughter and hence glados has feelings for her. Its messy though.

The potato battery thing confused me somewhat. Chell the protagonist is clearly an adult. There is also a poster believed to be chell next to a robot boss, wearing a lab coat. Combine this with Cave's speech saying testing is now mandatory for all employees, I'm thinking Chell was a scientist at Appeture.

But I can't figure out that with the potato battery from bring your daughter to work day. What, that potato got left out for...a decade? while Chell went from child to adult? Thats even before we count the 9999999 that Chell was in long term relaxation between Portal 1 and 2. On the other hand, how can it not be Chell? how many people called Chell can there be?

My brain hurts thinking about portal.

 

[Hitman Dread]

"Dear, beautiful, my dear, beautiful daughter, Chell, that's too bad, that's too bad, well, My dear, Good bye"

"My Baby dear, why don't you stay (run) far, so far, away from science?"

"Baby, baby my daughter, ah my beautiful, ah my dear, my dear, my child, my dear, my dear..."

The turret's song at the end of the game, translated. If GlaDoS/Caroline isn't her mother, then I have no idea what this song's doing there.

Because the game is about postmortem depression.

The symptoms of "test withdraw" as described by Glados are all similar to the biological behavior that triggers many mother-child murders and suicides every year.

There is definately a relationship between Cave and Caroline, no question there. Its entirely possible that Chell is their daughter and hence glados has feelings for her. Its messy though.

The potato battery thing confused me somewhat. Chell the protagonist is clearly an adult. There is also a poster believed to be chell next to a robot boss, wearing a lab coat. Combine this with Cave's speech saying testing is now mandatory for all employees, I'm thinking Chell was a scientist at Appeture.

But I can't figure out that with the potato battery from bring your daughter to work day. What, that potato got left out for...a decade? while Chell went from child to adult? Thats even before we count the 9999999 that Chell was in long term relaxation between Portal 1 and 2. On the other hand, how can it not be Chell? how many people called Chell can there be?

My brain hurts thinking about portal.

I think you are over complicating this a bit by looking at the conclusion and THEN the evidence. Let's back up and look at the evidence the game presents us with.

1. Once deleting Caroline, Glados has no quarell with Chell, and escorts her out of the facility.
2. It is heavily implied that Caroline and Cave had something between them.
3. There is a poster that bears resembelnce to Chell in the old forgotten sections of the facility.
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/508110-portal-2-windows-screenshot-isn-t-that-chell-herself-on-the.png
4. A "Bring Your Daughter To Work Day" poster has Chell's potatoe project.
5. One or both of Chell's parents may have abandoned her at one time, or died, leaving her an orphan.
6. Chell's life is far from successful, leaving her to return to the test facility in search of a job, only to become a test subject.
7. Chell's parents being a scientist at App is also mentioned breifly in Portal 1, "You [number] must be the proud product of [number].

and from the comic:
7. Chell's last name has been auspiciously removed from the database.
8. Chell was not a scientist, and had been interviewed specifically for testing.
9. One of the days the deadly nerotoxin was released was the bring your daughter to work day.

From this I draw one of two possible conclusions:
1. Chell is the legitimation or ill-legitimation son of Cave Johnson with the employee on the poster. Based on the section that you find the poster, it is obvious that Chell was not a scientist during this era. This is where Glados's scorn for Chell comes from.

2. Chell came back for some reason, knowing this place was where she either lost her parents or spent the only time she did with them.

 

[cl20]

what about the often referred to "bring your daughter at work day".

 

[Phishfood]

I think you are over complicating this a bit by looking at the conclusion and THEN the evidence. Let's back up and look at the evidence the game presents us with.

1. Once deleting Caroline, Glados has no quarell with Chell, and escorts her out of the facility.
2. It is heavily implied that Caroline and Cave had something between them.
3. There is a poster that bears resembelnce to Chell in the old forgotten sections of the facility.
http://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/508110-portal-2-windows-screenshot-isn-t-that-chell-herself-on-the.png
4. A "Bring Your Daughter To Work Day" poster has Chell's potatoe project.
5. One or both of Chell's parents may have abandoned her at one time, or died, leaving her an orphan.
6. Chell's life is far from successful, leaving her to return to the test facility in search of a job, only to become a test subject.
7. Chell's parents being a scientist at App is also mentioned breifly in Portal 1, "You [number] must be the proud product of [number].

and from the comic:
7. Chell's last name has been auspiciously removed from the database.
8. Chell was not a scientist, and had been interviewed specifically for testing.
9. One of the days the deadly nerotoxin was released was the bring your daughter to work day.

From this I draw one of two possible conclusions:
1. Chell is the legitimation or ill-legitimation son of Cave Johnson with the employee on the poster. Based on the section that you find the poster, it is obvious that Chell was not a scientist during this era. This is where Glados's scorn for Chell comes from.

2. Chell came back for some reason, knowing this place was where she either lost her parents or spent the only time she did with them.

All reasonable.

What I can't get my head round is the timeline between Chell making potato battery, Appeture being abandoned to the point of leaving a potato battery lying around, Chell becoming an adult, Chell becoming a test subject.

Actually....from the comic Chell was not in appeture as a test subject. Chell was an employee specifically tagged as NOT TO BE TESTED.