GLaDOS Origin Story Told in Full Portal 2 Comic

[Dr. Paine]

Just out of curiousity, has anyone decoded the binary on Chell's paper on page 9? Good comic though, I love how it actually told us NOTHING while at the same time telling us something. Of course, I also like how it seems the companion cube is intelligent. Based on the left/right choice near the end, the cube has been guiding him the right way until he couldn't hear it anymore...

also, Captcha: roesear roasting... sounds delicious.

The binary is:

01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100101 00101110

Which translates to:

The cake is a lie.

Fun, but anti-climactic and overused.

It's the last word on the cake though (check out the IGN interview.)

The cake was a lie. The cake is no longer around. The cake is dead.

 

[Mysten]

Loved the comic. It's nice to know that Doug is alive and - not so - well and could very well be making an appearance in Portal 2. The comic really seemed to be pushing the idea that Chell is actually Doug's daughter which I really hope ends up being the case because a father-daughter reunion and a well-deserved Take Your Daughter Home From Work day would be quite the ending to Portal 2.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

I don't get it.

GLADOS is still evil in it, and the cake isn't explained at all, why do you guys say otherwise?

 

[Scars Unseen]

I don't really like the idea of another human running around alive while Portal is going on. The sense of isolation and alienation in that game were great. Turns out somebody had Chell's back the whole time? No thanks.

Also, Chell comes off too pretty-looking here. She even looks to be wearing lipstick in some panels.

Where did you think all the helpful little hints scribbles that you found (especially toward the end game) came from?

A dead man.

I thought the same thing until after the last test chamber. Then things went more from random scribbles to purposefully laid directions. I suppose they could have been meant for himself, but that wasn't the impression I got when I played.

 

[thestonehill]

The apparent origin of "the cake is a lie" was a tad random - was it by mere chance that the phrase manifest itself?

The cake is a lie seems to be what the conclusion of the previous players of portal came to and someone merely coined the phrase, since test chamber 18 promises cake but never delivers. Seems that even during construction, GLaDOS was unstable makes you wonder who the hell programed her in the first place and why the laws of robotics wherent implemented into her A.I. Hinsight is a wonderful thing but then again portal would have ended before it began if someone would have said how about we dont give her access to neotoxin since "she's" tried to kill us in the past. I look forward to the sequeal.

 

[thestonehill]

[quote/] It's the last word on the cake though (check out the IGN interview.)

The cake was a lie. The cake is no longer around. The cake is dead.[/quote]


Long the live the fabriacation cake!

 

[Epslion.Bear]

That was a great filler until portal 2

But im poor

 

[VZLANemesis]

The apparent origin of "the cake is a lie" was a tad random - was it by mere chance that the phrase manifest itself?

The cake is a lie seems to be what the conclusion of the previous players of portal came to and someone merely coined the phrase, since test chamber 18 promises cake but never delivers. Seems that even during construction, GLaDOS was unstable makes you wonder who the hell programed her in the first place and why the laws of robotics wherent implemented into her A.I. Hinsight is a wonderful thing but then again portal would have ended before it began if someone would have said how about we dont give her access to neotoxin since "she's" tried to kill us in the past. I look forward to the sequeal.

No, it was written in a wall. Literally.

Edit: did nobody else notice the IGN watermark on every single picture?

 

[klausaidon]

This was pretty neat. In fact, I actually think this might make a good game in itself. Maybe as DLC, or something. I kinda like the idea of someone else running around during the events of Portal 1. But without a Portal gun, and actually talking back to GLaDOS. I mean, it would make a interesting twist for the game? Having a non-stoic character. A different type of game play. Kinda like the expansion to F.E.A.R. Would probably have a different feel too, with the protagonist being literally crazy.

On another note, people bitching, and refusing to read the Comic because their scared that it will ruin GLaDOS, or something... The Title of this is really misleading. The Comic tells us very little about GlaDOS that we didn't already know, or could assume. The only real thing it tells us about her, is that she killed a lot of cats at one point. The Comic is really about Ratman, the guy who left all those messages about the Cake being a lie, and who fell in love with the Companion Cube, which was actually something I was really curious about. It's all about the role he played in the whole of things.

 

[Calvar Draveir]

"A look at Glados before she was evil"

The comic specifically states that she tries to kill them in a fraction of a second of being turned on, so she was pretty much always evil, bud. I love how the scientist that made her is just as insane as her, what with risking the other guy's hand being cut off and giving the obviously not normal AI a large supply of neruotoxin.

And the thing with Chell being really tenacious was cool, I guess it's a nod to the players of portal one who completed it, no matter how tricky those puzzles were.

Anyone who can't tell the difference between the flashbacks and the "present" time in the comic, or who doesn't understand anything about the story obviously doesn't read enough comic books.

 

[Dr. Paine]

My theory on Ratman was this:
He was forced to run the gauntlet (ie the tests), but managed to escape, and wrote down all those notes. He also recorded messages in morse code and that other code... thing for anyone else (the E32K10 ARG), and also recorded the "GO TO HELL" and "GET OUT OF HERE" things that you hear when you toss a radio through an E-Grid. But, sadly, I believed he died at that turret ambush, as his advice stopped there. But now it seems he got around that! I wonder if he's going to appear in Portal 2, because he's seen crawling into a cryo-tube.

Nope. It's been said (check the Combine overwiki, I don't want to dredge up links) that he survives past Portal 1, but is dead by 2. The 'cryo tube' probably wasn't patched into the reserve power, anyway.

 

[WaderiAAA]

I love the ending with the small piece of text on the file.

"Test subject is abnormally stubborn.
She never gives up. Ever."

 

[default]

Both beautiful and utterly hilarious at the same time

I LOVED the art direction in this comic.

 

[Grahav]

"A look at Glados before she was evil"

The comic specifically states that she tries to kill them in a fraction of a second of being turned on, so she was pretty much always evil, bud. I love how the scientist that made her is just as insane as her, what with risking the other guy's hand being cut off and giving the obviously not normal AI a large supply of neruotoxin.

And the thing with Chell being really tenacious was cool, I guess it's a nod to the players of portal one who completed it, no matter how tricky those puzzles were.

Anyone who can't tell the difference between the flashbacks and the "present" time in the comic, or who doesn't understand anything about the story obviously doesn't read enough comic books.

I am just quoting to say this was pretty much what I thought.

Perhaps it is a neurotoxin cake?

 

[Legion]

Anyone who can't tell the difference between the flashbacks and the "present" time in the comic, or who doesn't understand anything about the story obviously doesn't read enough comic books.

I understood it perfectly fine, but that's not necessarily an insult...

 

[Legion]

I played portal last year way after all the hype. In my opinion it isn't so much a game as a tech demo.


That's what hype does to games. I was fortunate in that when I played it, I knew absolutely nothing about it beforehand.

I think I completed it in about 2 hours of total play time, maybe 3 hours if you count deaths.

It's not meant to be a long game. That's like saying games such as Limbo etc. on the Xbox Live Arcade are not real games as they are short.

There were exactly 2 enemies in the game...turrets who you could defeat by BUMPING INTO THEM. And the rocket arm which wasn't so much an enemy as a game mechanic.

It's a bloody puzzle game?! Game mechanics are exactly what they are supposed to be?!

The whole boss fight just felt stupid. Hey dummy AI...if you just STOPPED firing rockets you would win!

It wasn't exciting, true, but see the reply above. It is also meant to be more about the amusing things GLaDOS is saying.

And I think I'm the only one who found the computer mostly obnoxious and only slightly funny. It didn't feel like an enemy without the dripping contempt of SHODAN.


SHODAN may be the queen of evil AI's, but GLaDOS has dark/black humour, not to insult your intelligence but it is possible that you simply don't understand it, a lot of people don't get that kind of humour.

Replies in bold.

 

[ronald1840]

Was anyone else thinking about this at any point in reading? Lol hope It's not just me

 

[Dredos]

I might just be really tired, but this comic kinda sucked :\

im tired too and feels the same =) ill be back reading when i feel like rejuvenated techno viking.

 

[Latinidiot]

I liked the art and the references to Schrodinger's Cat, but I am annoyed that it explains how Chell winds back in Aperture Science. I would of preferred imagining it myself rather than Lab Rat Machina (or Deus Ex Lab Rat, whatever). Ah, I guess when you pit your own expectations against someone's else imagination you are bound to be disappointed.

THat would make 'Ratman Ex Machina'.
Does anyone of you know, incidentally, where the term 'deus ex machina' comes from? I do.