Portal (series)/Characters: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''"Subject is abnormally stubborn. She never gives up. '''[[The Determinator|Ever]]'''. [[Spanner in the Works|DO NOT TEST.]]"''|'''Aperture File''', on Chell}}

 

The silent main character of both games, Chell is an [[The Determinator|incredibly determined]] woman wearing an orange jumpsuit. Her exploits begin when GLaDOS awakens her from stasis to run a series of tests in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center for mysterious reasons.

* [[Badass]]: Just [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX9Sc88qreg look at her moves in this trailer] and try to claim otherwise. Then again, [[Action Survivor|being put through 20 chambers of testing hell]] will make anyone into a chiseled badass.

* [[Determinator]]: ''Pathologically'' so. According to her personnel file (in the ''Lab Rat'' comic), she's way ahead of the bell curve for tenacity. As it turns out, when you're dealing with GLaDOS, cleverness and athleticism are ultimately less important than sheer stubborn refusal to give up.

* [[Guile Hero]]

** [[Word of God]] from writer Erik Wolpaw: "She just chooses not to, what with the robots all being dicks. Why give them the satisfaction?".

** "Why should Aperture Science accept you as a research volunteer, and would anyone file a police report if you went missing? HR Note: Subject refused to answer."

* [[No Last Name Given]]: We can see her personnel file in the ''Lab Rat'' comic, but it just gives her name as "Chell [redacted]."

* [[Overdrawn At the Blood Bank]]: Chell can take tons of turret shots, and leaves ''large'' blood smears on walls when hit in the first game. 5 seconds, and you're okay again, ready to lose another three pints.

* [[Phlebotinum Rebel]]

* [[Progressively Prettier]]: By the looks of her design in the second game, it seems to imply she found some moisturizer, make up, and a hair brush, and fixed those stray gray hairs of hers. Perhaps the Party Escort Bot fixed her up to look good for the party.

* [[Required Secondary Powers|Required Secondary Gadgetry]]: Chell wears a pair of ankle-springs in order to ensure her legs aren't shattered when she comes flying out of a portal. [[Word of God|The commentary bubbles]] indicate early on that the reason was that playtesters complained that Chell could survive falls that would kill [[Half Life|Gordon Freeman]]. Despite the fact that the springs are patently insufficient to protect her, [[Willing Suspension of Disbelief|they stopped the complaints]], so mission accomplished!

** In ''Portal 2'', these have been updated to full shoes called the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX9Sc88qreg Aperture Science Long Fall Boot], a "foot-based suit of armor" that's implied to have some kind of balance system forcing the wearer to land on her feet no matter what. This makes their ability to protect her ''slightly'' more justifiable.

* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: When {{spoiler|Wheatley tells you to do yourself a favor and commit suicide because once you reach his lair he'll definitely kill you}}, you can set up a portal network that throws a mine at his monitor.

** She can smash monitors in almost all the test chambers, and can even get an achievement for doing it eleven times.

* [[Stock Footage]]: The reason the [[Heroic Mime]] character has a voice credit here is because her grunts of pain from the first game are recycled from the female Citizens in ''[[Half Life]]''.

 

 

 

The artificial intelligence that seems to run Aperture Science. GLaDOS portrays herself as a helpful friend to Chell, but soon unveils a oddly sociopathic side to the testing protocols and a cruel side to her personality. As the game goes on, she becomes more and more sadistic, culminating in a violent confrontation as Chell attempts to escape the testing center. Chell apparently destroys GLaDOS, but at the end of the game she is revealed to have a backup memory and Chell is dragged back to Aperture Science. Years later, Chell and Wheatley unintentionally reboot her. Needless to say, she has a bone to pick with her murderer.

 

 

* [[AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle]]: Done by having Ellen McLain imitate a text-to-speech program's inflections.

* [[And I Must Scream]]: According to her, she {{spoiler|was forced to spend the hundreds of years in between the two games watching a recording the two minutes leading up to her destruction over and over and over again, due to her blackbox feature.}}. Of course, it's according to ''her'', [[Unreliable Narrator|a pathological liar.]]

* [[Anthropomorphic Shift]]: An interesting example. Although she's always been based on the human form (on Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus," in fact), the original game's GLaDOS is far less relatable: her head is a grey semi-ellipsoid with a fixed yellow eye, and she doesn't have any body language to speak of. In the sequel she has a lot more emoting to do, so she was given a white, squared-off head (suggesting a certain sternness of jaw) with a much more expressive eye and vastly more human-like body language.

* [[Bad Boss]]: GLaDOS treats her custom robots the same way she treats everyone:

* [[Bad Liar]]: GLaDOS is ''very'' surprised you successfully completed the test, and it shows.

* [[Big OMG]]: {{spoiler|''"Oh. My. God.'' [[Crowning Moment of Funny|It's the bird! Run! I have no plan for this! Abort! Forget your training! RUN!"]]}}

* [[Black Comedy]]: GLaDOS's sense of humor.

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Her personality in the first game was basically [[Lighter and Softer]] version of [[System Shock|SHODAN]]. She grew out of that in the second game.

* [[Cores and Turrets Boss]]

* [[Creepy Monotone]]: Or at least very passive-aggressive. And then when {{spoiler|you destroy the Morality Sphere}} and GLaDOS switches from robotic monotone to an emotive, almost ''seductive'' voice, the contrast is actually ''creepier'' than the robotic monotone that you've been listening to all game. By the second game she has achieved a happy medium between the two, sounding very close to a human with some slight robotic affectation.

* [[Curious as a Monkey]]: Her curiosity sphere.

* [[Cute Machines]]: Her spheres.

* [[Cyber Cyclops]]

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by GLaDOS herself as soon as Wheatley starts trying to copy her insults.

* [[False Reassurance]]: GLaDOS is quite fond of these.

* [[Final Boss]]

* [[For Science!]]: Her primary motivation. Allegedly. She has an odd understanding of what science ''is'', though.

* {{spoiler|[[Geeky Turn On]]: She gets particularly... excited at the end of the co-op campaign when you and your partner find a cache of human test subjects locked in stasis.}}

* [[Genius Loci]]: The entirety of the Enrichment Center is essentially an extension of her body, since she controls and maintains everything.

* {{spoiler|1=[[Heel Face Turn]]: Arguably in the second half of ''Portal 2'' as soon as Wheatley betrays Chell, takes over GLaDOS, and puts her core into a potato. She and Chell [[Enemy Mine|reluctantly team up]], and once the facility is restored, she saves Chell's life and lets her go along with the original [[Companion Cube]] - although she claims it's just because killing Chell is too much trouble.}}

** In the sequel, {{spoiler|her taunting Wheatley after he becomes the central sphere enrages him so much that he puts her into a potato, barely able to function without using up the tiny amount of power it generates. She gets better.}}

* [[Humans Are Special]]: Sort of acknowledged in a cut line from ''Portal 2'':

* [[Ignored Epiphany]]: From ''Portal 2's'' ending:

* [[In Love with Your Carnage]]: Gets especially excited at Cave's maniacal [[When Life Gives You Lemons]] rant, particularly when he talks of burning houses down.

* [[Killer Game Master]]: GLaDOS acts similar to this, throwing difficult scenarios at you, lying in order to confuse and torment you, and live-ammo courses in place of the original courses. When you go [[Off the Rails]], she tries to lasso you back in with lies before resorting to overkill methods.

* {{spoiler|[[Know When to Fold'Em]]: Eventually decides killing Chell is more trouble then it's worth and just lets her go free. At least, she says that's why she's doing it.}}

* [[Lethal Chef]]: The core with the Cake Recipe suggests multiple garnishes including fish-shaped solid waste, [[Shaped Like Itself|sediment-shaped sediment]], two ''needle injectors'', one cup rhubarb ''on fire'', and a blog entry entitled "How to Kill Someone With Your Bare Hands". On a ''chocolate cake''.

* [[Long List]]: One of her personality cores in the first game has the sole function of reciting a long, bizarre cake recipe.

* [[Mean Character, Nice Actor]]: GLaDOS's VA also plays [[Team Fortress 2|The Announcer]] and [[Half Life|The Combine Overwatch]]. But listen to her commentary in the first game. She's so nice! ...She does have a bit of a [[Evil Laugh]], though.

** When confronted on this at a book signing, Ellen jokingly said otherwise.

'''John Patrick Lowre:''' She's only sweet in public. ''(Begins to take off his pants)'' Here, I'll show you the scars. }}

* {{spoiler|[[Mind Hive]]: ''Portal 2'' reveals that she experiences those personality cores as maddening, constantly babbling voices in her mind. After [[The Reveal]], she becomes aware of Caroline's persona within her as "the voice of a conscience [...] ''my'' voice." She finds that even more disturbing.}}

* [[Mission Control Is Off Its Meds]]: Oh, so very much.

* [[Moral Myopia]]: It's okay when ''she'' tries to kill you, but you kill her, it's murder.

* [[Not Quite Dead]]: As if the ending song didn't give it away, GLaDOS is revived in the sequel and ready to conduct several new tests on the player.

* [[Obviously Evil]]: In ''Portal 2''. {{spoiler|At least, it was like that at first.}}

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: With Wheatley in the sequel. GLaDOS is the Blue Oni.

** Their colors are inverted, with Wheatley being blue and GLaDOS being red (well, her optic is yellow, but close enough in the circumstances).

* [[Sarcastic Clapping]]: GLaDOS has an entire processor ''devoted solely to this'', or so she claims.

* [[Shaped Like Itself]]: Her Logic/Intelligence/Knowledge Core, when describing cake garnishes:

** GLaDOS is more or less a female [[2001: A Space Odyssey|HAL 9000]] in the role of [[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream|AM]].

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57lVjxOTr-M Unused dialogue from co-op] involves her talking about a comic strip involving [[Garfield|a certain cat who loves lasagna]].

* [[Stealth Insult]]: Her favorite technique for gradually destroying a test subject's self-esteem.

* [[Time Limit Boss]]: GLaDOS pumps the room with neurotoxin during your fight with her.

* [[Troll]]: She spends a great deal of time saying things designed to anger or demoralize Chell, out of spite.

* [[Tsundere]]: A really, really, ''really'' extreme Type A -- oh, she hates Chell, but there are definite hints that her emotions toward her are considerably more complicated than ''just'' hatred. Many players see it as a case of [[Stalker with a Crush]] or [[My Beloved Smother]], depending on how you interpret her personality and the hints about her background.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: When you try to invoke [[This Is My Side]] <ref>Refers to a [[Dummied Out]] line that still remains in the source files.</ref> ''during the final boss fight'' and spend most of said fighting making petty insults, you're broken. It probably doesn't help that Chell spent the fight ''ripping her mind to pieces and setting them on fire.''

* [[Villainous Rescue]]: {{spoiler|1=At the end of ''Portal 2'', GLaDOS [[Take My Hand|pulls you back]] out of the Moon portal.}}

* [[Visual Pun]] / [[Stealth Pun]]:

** As the effects of GLaDOS's morality core begin to wear off, her monitors display a small pile of screws. {{spoiler|She ''does'' have quite a few screws loose by this point. On top of that, she's about to screw you, and not in [[Cargo Ship|the fun way]].}}

* {{spoiler|[[Was Once a Man|Was Once A Woman]]: She was created to fulfill Cave Johnson's wish to leave Caroline eternally in control of the facility. This [[Gone Horribly Wrong|did not go well]].}}

* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|Why Did It Have To Be Birds?]]: GLaDOS {{spoiler|as a potato}} quickly develops a massive fear of birds.

* [[Worth It]]: Says this about {{spoiler|tricking Wheatly into trying to give a hint about a test chamber, giving him a painful shock.}}

* [[You Are Fat]]: A good amount of her insults towards Chell in the sequel are about her weight. She helpfully informs ATLAS and P-Body that humans are very sensitive about weight variances.

* [[Your Mom]]: In the Peer Review DLC, GLaDOS attempts one of these to turn the robots into killing machines. However, she stops mid-sentence because she finds it too [[Even Evil Has Standards|disgusting]].

 

 

A large, (apparently) inanimate cube with hearts printed on each face. That's it. GLaDOS tries to get Chell to form an emotional attachment to it, then forces her to incinerate it.

 

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: According to some of Rattmann's writings, the cube is violent, dangerous, and also his best friend.

* [[Kill It with Fire]] / [[Murder by Cremation]]: Alas, poor Cube... {{spoiler|Nah. It's okay. Just burnt really badly.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Not Quite Dead|Still Alive.]]}}

 

 

 

A mysterious person who left clues for Chell to find scrawled along the course of the testing center. His identity is never really touched upon in-game, but the promotional [[Viral Marketing|Alternate Reality Game]] to promote ''Portal 2'', as well as the new comic to bridge the gap between the two games, gives us more about him.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: Or rather, A Little More There In The ARG and Comic: He was a programmer at Aperture Science who managed to survive GLaDOS's release of the neurotoxin on account of suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, which allowed him to [[Properly Paranoid|correctly deduce]] that yes, an evil computer was trying to kill everyone (while the other scientists were aware that GLaDOS was violent and unstable, they failed to take the threat seriously enough until it was too late). After being made a test subject, his knowledge and clearances allowed him to manipulate the test chambers and make dens for himself, living in these nooks and plotting his escape.

* [[The Atoner]]: Willingly went back into the facility after he'd gained his freedom, unable to live with knowing he'd used Chell to defeat GLaDOS and then let her be killed when he might have saved her.

* [[Badass Labcoat]]: As seen on [http://www.thinkwithportals.com/comic/#15 Page 15] of the "Lab Rat" comic.

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: The [[Alternate Universe]] Doug Rattman that's CEO of Aperture Science.

* [[Crazy Survivalist]]: As literally as possible. He's clinically insane, so he lived.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: When he's on his medication, he's a match for GLaDOS.

'''Doug:''' '''''Bite me.''''' }}

* [[Disability Superpower]]: When Rattmann is on his schizophrenia meds, his Companion Cube doesn't appear. Without its advice, he seems to be a lot less effective, {{spoiler|eventually causing him to get wounded by a turret.}}

* [[Properly Paranoid]]: It's implied that his paranoid schizophrenia was the key to evading GLaDOS long after all the other employees had been captured. Sane people tend to dismiss thoughts like "What if an insane computer is trying to take over the facility and kill us all?" as crazy, which is something of a survival disadvantage when that's actually what's happening. However, considering GLaDOS had consistently attempted to kill them all within one tenth of a picosecond of being switched on (up from one sixteenth of a picosecond when she was first activated), he might have just been the only one who wasn't [[Too Dumb to Live]].

* [[Prophetic Name]]: A name so convenient, you'd expect him to be a ''[[Spider-Man]]'' villain.

the cake is a lie }}

** In ''Portal 2'', it would seem his obsession changed to being centered around Chell, with vivid detailed murals of her sprawled across walls.

* [[Sanity Has Advantages]]: Inverted.

 

 

 

 

 

* [[Cute Machines]]: Well, until they pepper you full of lead. That doesn't stop them from being so damn adorable.

* [[Enemy Mine]]: {{spoiler|A mild version in 2, after Wheatley takes over the facility, the turrets seem just as eager to shoot at him (or at least his monitors) as they are at Chell.}}

* [[Grotesque Cute]]: Such cute voices. Such infantile dialogue. So polite and apologetic while they [[Dummied Out|dispense product]]. So much [[More Dakka|dakka]]. {{spoiler|1=[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzUT-99w88 AND THEY SING!]}}

* [[King Mook]]: The Animal King turret, a massive, cheetah-patterned turret with a crown used to illustrate what to do in one of many apocalypse scenarios Aperture anticipated. It also plays bass, just because.

* [[Laser Sight]]

** Turrets + Repulsion Gel = massive lulz.

** Carrying a turret into an disintegrating field lets you watch it be disintegrated as it screams "Ow ow ow ow!"

* {{spoiler|[[Villains Out Shopping]]: The turrets make [[Crowning Music of Awesome|such a lovely choir]].}}

 

 

 

* [[The Ghost]]: Was this before the March 3rd update.

* [[Retcon]]: {{spoiler|A major one to the ending of Portal}}

* [[Robo Speak]]: In the one line it has in the game, it probably has the most severe case of [[Robo Speak]] in the entire series.

* [[The Voice]]: {{spoiler|Although it is obviously very close to Chell in the ending, it is actually never seen as it drags her back in-game. No-clipping reveals merely a placeholder box with the text "beens" on it.}}

 

 

 

 

 

 

* [[Adorkable]]

* {{spoiler|[[Affably Evil]]: For an AI-turned-psychotic-junkie trying to murder you, he sure is likeable.}}

* {{spoiler|[[The Atoner]]: Becomes this in the final scene of ''Portal 2''. He's a little too late for that, however.}}

* [[Big Stupid Doodoo Head]]: When he tries to imitate GLaDOS's style of insults, the best he can do is "fatty fatty no-parents."

* [[Blue Eyes|Blue Eye]]

* [[British Accents]]: Wheatley used to have a northern accent due to the placeholder voice clips being done by animator Richard Lord. Valve considered [[Throw It In|keeping the voice]] due to people's positive reaction, but in the end went with [[Stephen Merchant]], best known as the co-creator of ''[[The Office]]'' (UK original). Merchant's accent is a Bristolian one (a more urban version of Westcountry/Rural/Mummerset).

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: He's obviously not the sanest individual in Aperture {{spoiler|and boy, does it show by the end of the game.}}

* [[Comedic Sociopathy]]: "I shouldn't laugh; they do feel pain. Of a sort."

* {{spoiler|1=[[Confusion Fu]]: His unpredictable idiocy and poker face regarding death traps surprises even GLaDOS.}} {{spoiler|1=This makes Wheatley more dangerous when in control of the the Aperture Science mainframe than GLaDOS ever was. He's incapable of controlling such a massive system, he can't be deterred by consequences he's too dumb to foresee, he's [[Too Dumb to Fool]] with clever tricks, and when he manages to stumble upon a genuinely cunning idea by sheer chance, it usually takes you by surprise. This leads to him wrecking much of the complex before Chell and GLaDOS even return from the old labs, and it all goes downhill from there.}}

* [[Cowardly Lion]]: He appears to be afraid of his own body and thinks several actions he can take, such as disengaging from his rail or turning on his flashlight, will kill him (although he does actually try both those things). Also, he's afraid of heights. And birds.

* [[Cute Machines]]: Yes, he is adorable, like the turrets. {{spoiler|Not so much once he takes over the Enrichment Center.}}

** Also, his {{spoiler|[[Villainous Breakdown]] in the final fight}} is very reminiscent of {{spoiler|a jilted lover who's breaking up with his girlfriend}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Drunk with Power]]}}: {{spoiler|And then he starts suffering withdrawal symptoms.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Evil Brit]]}}: {{spoiler|After his [[Face Heel Turn]].}}

* [[Exact Words]]/[[Stealth Pun]]: Valve said that the voice of Wheatley would be provided by, in their words, "Some guy from the office". Originally it really was: the placeholder voice was provided by Valve animator Richard Lord. Then they chose Stephen Merchant, most well known for co-writing and appearing in the UK sitcom ''[[The Office]]''.

* {{spoiler|[[Face Heel Turn]]: It's even referred to as this in the game sound files. It's unclear how much of it was the mainframe's decision though.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Final Boss]]}}

* {{spoiler|1=[[From Nobody to Nightmare]]: He started out as an [[Idiot Ball|intelligence-inhibitor]]. Then he gets plugged into GLaDOS's mainframe, and becomes even more unstable and destructive than she ever was.}}

* {{spoiler|1=[[Heel Face Turn]]: After Wheatley is removed from GLaDOS's body, he feels genuinely sorry. Too bad he's stranded in space now.}}

* [[Idiot Ball]]: A more literal example than usual.

* [[Motor Mouth]]: His utter inability to shut up is one of the highlights of this game. So much so that even if you just sit there for a few minutes, he'll ''still keep talking''.

* [[Oh Crap]]: When he learns of GLaDOS and Chell's history.

* [[Percussive Maintenance]]: Uses this approach to hacking a few times, such as when he attempts a "manual override" of a "docking gate" by slamming Chell's relaxation chamber into it.

* {{spoiler|1=[[Psychopathic Manchild]]: When he starts ranting at GLaDOS and Chell he sounds distinctly like a child throwing a tantrum at an elder.}}

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: With GLaDOS. Wheatley is the Red Oni.

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: {{spoiler|His idea of dealing with an imminent reactor core meltdown caused by his own incompetence is to ''yell at the alarm to shut up.''}}

** [[Too Dumb to Fool]]: {{spoiler|1=AI brains as simple as those of the Frankenturrets short out in response to hearing a simple logical paradox. Wheatley's idiocy prevents him from even noticing it.}}

 

 

 

 

 

The founder of Aperture Science, originally a shower curtain manufacturer before he succumbed to mercury and/or moon rock poisoning. The company's more esoteric inventions came about following Johnson's descent into madness.

* [[Always Second Best]]: Cave Johnson's trophy case contains a number of trophies, certificates, etc. which always show Aperture falling just shy of Black Mesa, with the exception of [[Mundane Made Awesome|Potato Sciences]]. Oh, and he was a great shower curtain salesman. [[Overly Narrow Superlative|The best, in fact.]]

* [[The Artifact]]: Was slated to be a combination of {{spoiler|1=Wheatley's role in going power mad and Caroline's role of having been forced into GLaDOS' body, and the main villain of Portal 2}}. As part of the rewrites that wrote out most of the personality cores and upgraded Wheatley's status, Cave was also rewritten to be simply a recorded voice.

** "He says what we're all thinking!"

* [[Bad Boss]]: His attitude toward anyone except Caroline can be most charitably described as "insensitive".

* [[Brain Uploading]]: Prior to his death, he had his scientists working on this. The jury's out on whether he managed to live that long, {{spoiler|but his assistant Caroline certainly got the treatment}}.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: [Beginning of video] "Cave Johnson here..."

** "Good job, [x]."

** "Cave Johnson, we're done here." [Video ends.]

** "Chariots chariots."

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: His understanding of science is a little off, and the Conversion Gel poisoning certainly didn't help.

* [[For Science!]]: His motivation.

* [[Large Ham]]: See his "Lemons" speech for proof.

* [[Mad Scientist]]: He conceived the portal gun <s>after</s> [[Retcon|before]] being stricken with dementia from <s>mercury</s> [[Retcon|lunar dust]] poisoning. He had previously been developing shower curtains for the military. He also created the Heimlich Countermaneuever and the Take A Wish foundation, which are as pleasant as they sound. Not to mention his complete and blatant disregard for the health and safety of the subjects for the test programs.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: In the casting call for him, he was described as being based on Ted Turner. As presented in the game, he bears more than a passing resemblance to [[Walt Disney]], particularly regarding his recorded announcements (reminiscent of those Disney contributed to the 1964 World's Fair) and his {{spoiler|wish to cheat death by being scanned into a computer -- much as Walt Disney was rumored to have tried to cheat death by being posthumously cryogenically frozen}}.

* [[Obliviously Evil]]: {{spoiler|Given his sincere respect and affection for Caroline, it seems likely that it genuinely just didn't occur to him that forcing involuntary [[Brain Uploading]] on someone is a horrible thing to do to them. The moon rock poisoning may have had something to do with it.}}

* [[Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense]]: He only barely listened to his own scientists and flagrantly disregarded advice from his own accountants on what he could and could not afford to spend money on. Not too surprisingly, his company fell on hard times the further this went on (though it seems to have improved in his absence).

* [[Undying Loyalty]]: His employees followed his every word, no matter how crazy. Anyone else acting like this would have been thrown in jail, possibly murdered.

** Among other things, his illness wasn't apparently due to mercury poisoning, but an allergic reaction to ground-up moonrock gel used to make stable portal-surfaces. He appears to have lived at least until early 1980's. The Portal Gun appears to have been one of Cave's ''first'' inventions at Aperture (since all of his Enrichment Spheres basically require its use, and a poster in the 50s era test chambers depicts a test subject with an enormous early version of the portal gun), rather than an idea he imparted while on his deathbed... although since he was, according to the 'old' timeline, convinced time was going backwards, it could be both.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Listening to his prerecorded messages in order, you can hear his voice getting steadily more angry and deranged over the decades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

* [[Bash Brothers]] / [[Battle Couple]]: Depending on how one views them in terms of gender. They can also choose to [[Man Hug|hug]] [[Robo Ship|each other.]]

* [[Cute Machines]]: Again, like the turrets and Wheatley, they are cute and silly.

* [[Death Is Cheap]]: The two robots are uploaded into a new body whenever they die, as illustrated by the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkATYz_tF-U trailer.] P-body dismisses its destruction (and Atlas's role in it) with a wave of its hand. Then gets him back [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvx5XBS3cwY later]. In fact, they are transported to other test chambers by being disassembled and later reassembled.

** The ''Portal 2'' team say this is a major reason for using robots as the co-op mode characters. They wanted [[The Many Deaths of You|your (many) deaths]] at the hands of badly-planned maneuvers, incompetent or jerky co-players, and just larking about, to be funny and more consequence-free than showing humans being crushed, shot, or falling in acid and so forth.

* [[Electronic Speech Impediment]]: Although their general dialogue is mostly unintelligible, if you listen hard enough you can make out specific word-analogues, such as them saying "Hello" to each other in the intro cinematic.

* [[Fat and Skinny]]

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni|Orange Oni Blue Oni]]: [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]].

** Also illustrated during the introductory cutscene where the two are assembled for the first time. P-body is happy enough to let the robotic arms weld it together, while Atlas is shown anxiously trying to dodge them and escape from the construction area.

** Depending on how you view their personalities in gender terms, it can also be an example of either [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]] or [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]. The fact still stands that P-Body is far more feminine-looking than Atlas, while the trailer mentioned above puts their personalities in a far different manner.

* [[True Companions]]: GLaDOS learns that as much as she tries, she cannot drive them apart and pit them against each other.

 

 

 

Aperture Science's turret assembly lines are less than 100% efficient. These little guys have a few minor faults. Like having been assembled sideways. Or having been loaded with ammo still on the box. Or being completely insane.

 

* [[Body Horror]]: Well, look at it from their point of view. Some of them have no casing. Some of them were put together ''sideways''.

"Shootin' blanks, [[Radio|every time, all the time]]."<br />

"Well, I tried." }}

* [[Evil Laugh]]

* [[Foreshadowing]]: There's a slightly-less defective turret on the [[Kill It with Fire|Turret Redemption Line]] early on, whose main defect seems to be babbling a mix of cryptic Foreshadowing and complete nonsense.

* [[Oh Crap]]: They say this every now and again.

* [[Saying Sound Effects Out Loud]]: On the test-firing range, defective turrets may say "Clackity-clack-clack!" instead of firing (or attempting to fire).

* [[Spontaneous Human Combustion|Spontaneous Robot Combustion]]: One of their many, [[Serial Escalation|many]] design flaws.

* [[Weak Turret Gun]]: "So... we're all supposed to be blind, then, right? It's not just me?"

 

 

 

A hybrid of two turrets and a Weighted Storage Cube.

* [[Body Horror]]: Yes, even purely mechanical robots can apply for this; the merging is crude, and the Frankenturrets' pitiful chirping and terrified reactions when picked up make their miserable state clear. The commentary notes their withdrawing into a cube was initially just to make them be cubical when picked up, but it was so cute they added shaking animations and wide-eyed reactions to the turret to make the player sympathize with their plight.

* [[Cute Machines]]: They're hastily put-together hybrids that {{spoiler|exist primarily to satisfy Wheatley's addiction to testing}}...but ''they're so darn adorable!''

** Near the [[Bottomless Pits]], also, although it might have been a coincidence (they generally default to just lurching straight forward).

* [[Logic Bomb]]: Several of them are fried when a paradox is spoken in their presence. [[Mercy Kill|They probably welcomed it.]] {{spoiler|Note that this implies that they're not only sentient but actually ''smarter than Wheatley'', although that isn't saying much.}}

 

 

 

He likes space. His favorite thing about space is space. He is the best at space.

* [[Jumped At the Call]]: Immediately detaches itself from the mainframe as soon as {{spoiler|it hears Wheatley mention that he and Chell are in space}}, and happily flies off to be where he wants so desperately to be.

** {{spoiler|Some extremely depressing [[Dummied Out]] lines have him subsequently [[Be Careful What You Wish For|freaking out because space is too big and wanting to return to Earth]].}}

* [[Luke, You Are My Father]]: According to the Space Sphere, its father is space.

* [[Motor Mouth]]: Oh my god YES.

* [[No Indoor Voice]]

* [[Cloudcuckoolander|Space Cuckoolander]]

* [[Space Is Noisy]]: Especially with this guy in it.

 

 

 

Stand back, lady. The Adventure Sphere is here to do the job.

* [[The Ace]]: At the very least, in his own mind.

** According to the [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All|Fact Sphere]] he is a blowhard and a coward — so there must be something to him.

* [[Bond One-Liner]]: [[Discussed Trope]].

* [[Dummied Out]]: Had several deleted lines, including some dialogue with the other cores.

 

 

 

The Fact Sphere is the most intelligent and well-mannered of all of the 497,356 personality spheres in Aperture Science Industries. As a result, the Fact Sphere is well-respected by 99.99999% of the population and has many friends. The Fact Sphere would never lie to you.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Keeps spewing history, whether it is accurate, or just plain off.

** [[The Cuckoolander Was Right]]: Some of his ramblings are indeed true. Some.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: One of the false facts is about where one of the spheres will end up.

* [[Good News, Bad News]]: "Cellular phones will ''not'' give you cancer, only hepatitis."

''You are about to get me killed. We will both die because of your negligence. This is a bad plan. You will fail.'' }}

* [[Little-Known Facts]]: Most of his repetoire of trivia includes things like "Humans can survive underwater, but not for very long," and "The square root of rope is string."

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]

* [[Small Name, Big Ego]]: The Fact Sphere is the most intelligent and handsome sphere... according to the Fact Sphere.

 

 

 

An (overly) cheerful AI Construct that regulates the Aperture Science facility and conducts testing in the abscence of GLaDOS. Unlike GLaDOS or the personality cores, he does not appear to be sentient, meaning his lines are pre-recorded and automatically stitched together, like a computerised phone operator.

 

* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: Aperture Science gave him recordings and responses for every eventuality. And we do mean ''every''.

* [[Does Not Understand Sarcasm]]: ''Interpreting vague answer as "yes"''.

* [[False Reassurance]]

* [[For Science!]]: Utterly dedicated to making sure Science gets done, even in the face of [[After the End|"potentially apocalyptic circumstances"]].

* [[Mission Control]]: For the first part of the game.

* [[Robo Speak]]

* [[Say Your Prayers]]

 

 

 

Cave Johnson's personal assistant, described as the backbone of Aperture Science.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander's Minder]]: When Cave gets hot-headed (which is often), Caroline puts him back on task.

* [[Dummied Out]]: The actual {{spoiler|[[Brain Uploading]] scene, mentioned above}}. GLaDOS's dialogue makes it clear enough that it did happen, though; we just don't know for sure ''how'' it happened or how Caroline reacted to it.

* [[For Science!]]: Well, Cave at least said she was passionate about science, and GLaDOS's attitude seems to support the idea that he was right.

* {{spoiler|1=[[Gone Horribly Wrong]]: The plan was to upload Caroline into GLaDOS so that she could run the facility forever. The resulting A.I. personality was considerably less pleasant than human Caroline.}}

* [[Girl Friday]]: To Cave.

* [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]/[[Puss in Boots]]: Cave, at least, believed she was fully capable of doing his job, but she seemed to be perfectly happy as a secretary, which he attributed to extreme modesty.

* [[Morality Pet]]: Cave is generally pleasant to her and holds her in very high esteem, which helps balance the attitude of [[Comedic Sociopathy]] he tends to display otherwise. {{spoiler|In a well-intentioned yet horrifically misplaced show of his appreciation, he orders his scientists to upload her consciousness into an immortal A.I. against her will so that she can take over Aperture after his death}}.

* [[My Master, Right or Wrong]]: Since {{spoiler|1=GLaDOS experiences her persona as a sort of conscience}}, she presumably wasn't a complete sociopath, but she didn't seem to object to the constant stream of blatant ethical violations that characterized Cave's policies for running Aperture.

** {{spoiler|1=On the other hand, if GLaDOS's [[In Love with Your Carnage|reaction to Cave's lemon rant]] is anything to go by, Cave's aggressiveness and willingness to openly express it may have been something she actively liked about him. Of course, it's impossible to tell whether that's just GLaDOS's insanity talking.}}

* [[Origin Story]]: {{spoiler|1=GLaDOS's origin -- she was created in an attempt to achieve immortality through [[Brain Uploading]] for Cave Johnson, but when he died before the project was ready, Caroline was uploaded in his place so that she could run Aperture forever. This [[Gone Horribly Wrong|did not work out well]].}}

* [[Perky Female Minion]]: ''Yes, Sir!''

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Originally Cave's assistant was going to be a put-upon [[Yes-Man]] named Greg. But they didn't have time to get a new voice actor, so it was decided Ellen McLain would do the voice. {{spoiler|1=Once that casting choice was made, the creators wondered why Caroline and GLaDOS had the same voice...}}

* [[Repeat After Me]]: [[Invoked]] with Cave and Caroline's homage to a ''[[Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In|Rowan and Martins Laugh In]]'' routine.

'''Caroline:''' Goodbye, Caroline! }}

* {{spoiler|1=[[Virtual Ghost]]: Some remnant of Caroline's personality still exists within GLaDOS. While GLaDOS claims to delete her, there are some hints that she's still around.}}

 

 

The chief antagonist of the ''Peer-Review'' co-op DLC, who has taken over an older version of GLaDOS's body and is using it wreak havoc.

* [[Early-Bird Cameo]]: {{spoiler|Literally. It's the Bird.}}

* [[Interface Screw]]: Turns the lights off at one point, requiring Atlas and P-Body to use night vision. {{spoiler|Immediately turns the lights back on, blinding them.}}

 

 

{{quote|''"Hold on. (Unintelligible Muttering) Alright, my assistant Greg tells me none of that's true. Got excited.''|'''Cave Johnson''', on Greg}}

 

 

* [[Creepy Child]]: Greg has a daughter who likes to sneak into Cave's office and talk to the test subjects. Cave calls her "Greg's Creepy Daughter".

* [[The Voiceless]]: Sort of. Greg speaks with Cave multiple times in the DLC, but besides some muffled mumbling the player can only hear Cave's side of the conversation.

** Which has naturally caused many players to joke that Greg is actually [[Team Fortress 2|the Pyro]].

 

 

 

* [[Ancient Tradition]]: Cave of Aperture Rituals is presiding over one of these in order to prevent the end of the world. It involves hiring astronauts, war heroes and olympians to make love to a giant bird.

* [[Evil Twin]]: Real!Cave regards a Cave Johnson who argued with him as this, referring to him as Dark!Cave (who calls himself Cave Prime).

* [[Extranormal Institute]]: Aperture Paranormal, an institute dedicated to studying and harnessing magical phenomena.

* [[Genius Loci]]: Planet!Cave.

* [[Insectoid Aliens]]: Mantis!Cave

* [[Only Sane Man]]:

 

== Cut Characters ==

 

'''Betty''' or the '''Gyroscopic Liability Absolver and Disk Operating System''', was a personality core who would appear at the beginning of each test chamber in the original Portal 2, which took place in the past, to rattle off legal jargon in regards to the dangers of testing. Her role was mostly replaced by that of the Announcer.

* [[What Could Have Been]]