History Headscratchers / Portal

*** I would love to believe that, but I've seen far, far worse than this and the author was dead serious. Among them, someone who claimed Joss Whedon constantly raped his wife. Because he made Firefly. So...if it's not supposed to be taken seriously, it's still fucktarded. If it is...It's just proof that radical belief in anything can reduce any sane person into a giant mass of stupidity and...and...twatiness. Yes. Twatiness.
** It's a knock at an (actually very reasonable, well thought out and illuminating) feminist essay that talks about Portal as a feminist take on the shooter genre. Or at least, an examination of how portal differed from the typical hetero-masculinist shooter game.
*** I dunno. It seems kind of dumb to me. I mean, to start off, Portal ''isn't'' a First-Person Shooter game. It's a First-Person ''Puzzle'' game, which happens to be made on a game engine originally designed for making FPS games. That invalidates the thesis right there. ''Then'' you get into all this Freudian bullcrap about guns being "phallic symbols" and all that rot. By that logic, just about ''anything'' that incorporates a cylinder into its design is a "phallic symbol". For example, how about a table leg? Or a can of mace? Or, hell, a fire extinguisher? My table lamp has a cylindrical neck; does that make it a symbol of a society dominated by men? No! It just makes it a practical, simply-designed table lamp. Cylinders are pervasive in all manner of objects we encounter in daily life, and that's because it's a shape that, geometrically speaking, is very dependable and has a wide range of versatility. Chell's gender doesn't matter. She has no lines, anyway, and no personality except for what the player decides she has. "Chell" is, simply, just a placeholder for the player themselves; the game is in the first person because third-person games are more detached from the player, but the plot of Portal is meant to be felt personally, viscerally. Would killing the Companion Cube have been so heart-wrenching if it was done from a third-person perspective? No. It wouldn't. (... In addition, the first-person viewpoint probably comes from the fact that that is, you know, what the engine is made and best-equipped for. No need to complicate things with external cameras when you're already abusing your physics engine in a million other ways.)

** If you pay attention to the second game, there ARE in fact two portal guns, and everything indicates Chell simply discarded the other, as in the second game you find the single-portal gun in the same general area you picked up the dual-portal gun, after GLaDOS is revived, you can actually see Chell dropping the first gun, and then GLaDOS throws her into the old incinerator to recover the dual-portal gun.

** When Wheatley was smashing Chell's room into things during The Courtesy Call chapter, I got nauseated and had to sit down. I'd never been standing for that part before so it had never happened before. While playing, sometimes I tip my head up when I move the camera up. That feels weird, too.

** When Wheatley was smashing Chell's room into things during The Courtesy Call chapter, I got nauseated and had to sit down.

** When Wheatley was moving Chell's room around and smashing things during The Courtesy Call chapter, I got a bit nauseated and had to sit down.

** I think if that bugs you, it's kinda your problem, not a problem with the game or the fanbase. A big part of the appeal of the game is that the minimalist setting left a lot open to player interpretation, and gamers have fun coming up with wacky theories. Maybe you're right and GlaDOS is just an insane, childish sociopath who - like a toddler - alternates between affection and hostility. Maybe [=GLaDOS=] is, in her own way, [[BatmanGambit a genius at psychological manipulation]], and getting Chell to [[spoiler: destroy the chassis and the lab in order to set them both free (or whatever twisted goal [=GLaDOS=] was trying to accomplish]] really ''was'' her plan all along. Not ''everything'' [=GLaDOS=] tells you is a lie, and when one mixes truth and falsehood like that, it becomes difficult to tell which is which. [[TakeAThirdOption Or maybe she's both]], and is both brilliant and insane (like the {{Joker}}), wanting to both keep Chell around for the great fun they have while simultaneously trying to murder her and improvising new tactics when Chell goes off the rails while laughing off the obvious failure.

** Portal wasn't originally going to have a sequel. Even Valve was surprised by how well it was received.

** I think somebody's confused 'intended by [=GLaDOS=]' with 'intended by the developers'. Seriously, if you play enough games it starts to become reeeeally obvious that some mysterious force wants the player character to succeed. Sure, it could be interpreted as the antagonist, if you wanted to be that paranoid, but it's far more likely the designers. By my reading, [=GLaDOS=] just isn't smart enough to pull the gambit she/everyone here, for some reason claims she's pulling. I mean, that's half Portal's hilarity, that your antagonist so bad at everything, including convincing you she's not an antagonist.
** Play [=Half-Life=], I'm not entirely unconvinced it's not required to have at least ONE room of death in your company to be standards compliant (bottomless pit box smashing room anyone?).

* Why are the oldest parts of the lab the furthest underground? If you are building an underground facility, wouldn't you dig down when you needed more space, thus putting the newer parts the furthest down? Even ignoring the fact that keeping large testing areas that are no longer in use around instead of repurposing the space doesn't make any sense, why did aperture science build the first labs so deep underground and then move up?

*** It's the idea that you really ''don't'' know what's going on that catches most people. Sure, there's some sort of computer who wants you dead for no apparent reason. And there's also several secret rooms where people write on the walls in blood and worship the inanimate objects in the room. And there's hints throughout the game that [=GLaDOS=] is not everything she appears, and connections to the Half Life universe, and why exactly did you wake up in a pod deep within a research facility? And why is that music so prolific through the whole game? Did the music drive the AI crazy? Where is everybody? What year is it? Who am I? WHAT IS GOING ON?! Soyeah...

** I think if that bugs you, it's kinda your problem, not a problem with the game or the fanbase. A big part of the appeal of the game is that the minimalist setting left a lot open to player interpretation, and gamers have fun coming up with wacky theories. Maybe you're right and GlaDOS is just an insane, childish sociopath who - like a toddler - alternates between affection and hostility. Maybe GLaDOS is, in her own way, [[BatmanGambit a genius at psychological manipulation]], and getting Chell to [[spoiler: destroy the chassis and the lab in order to set them both free (or whatever twisted goal GLaDOS was trying to accomplish]] really ''was'' her plan all along. Not ''everything'' GlaDOS tells you is a lie, and when one mixes truth and falsehood like that, it becomes difficult to tell which is which. [[TakeAThirdOption Or maybe she's both]], and is both brilliant and insane (like the {{Joker}}), wanting to both keep Chell around for the great fun they have while simultaneously trying to murder her and improvising new tactics when Chell goes off the rails while laughing off the obvious failure.
** Though personally, I think that considering [[MadScientist who]] ''made'' GlaDOS, she would be equal parts genius-level brilliance and sociopathic insanity. From a meta perspective, it's fun for the audience to keep guessing, and it generates a lot of word-of-mouth buzz about the game.

** Assuming that the ASPHD is an improvement of the Aperture Science Quantum Tunneling Device, it uses quantum tunneling, not entanglement. However, according to Judith Mossman in Half Life 2, the resistance teleporters work using quantum entanglement. Basically, Aperture Science-quantum tunneling;Black Mesa-quantum entanglement. Combine- String based.

** On the other hand, ''this'' female player is usually quite fine (until she watches speedrun of this game, but that's a whole other ballpark). What bugs me is how I can be all right with Portal, but VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy plays ping-pong with my brain.

*** This hacking of proprioception is actually extremely common for players of the game ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'', another First Person game in which you fly through the air and can see your arms and legs. It doesn't help that both VideoGame/{{Portal}} and ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge'' also come with a bamboozling barrage of bright colors in an otherwise monochromatic setting, adding to your disorientation.

** [[spoiler:The cube proves to be Still Alive at the very end of Portal 2.]]

*** The emancipation grills actually probably dont work on personality constructs (otherwise [[spoiler:[=PotatOS=]]] would've been fizzled several times over in Portal 2). It seems likely the "Emergency ''Intelligence'' Incinerators" are specifically to destroy personality constructs and GLaDOS just decided to use it for the cube.
*** Ah, but you can emancipate turrets, which have been shown to exhibit some sort of personality. The Emancipation Grills only emancipate unauthorized equipment that passes through it, so GLaDOS presumably "authorized" herself as a safety precaution.
*** Perhaps the one in GLaDOS' chamber was turned to 4,001 degrees Kelvin while the one in Testchamber 17 wasnt on at full temperature.
*** I don't know if this information is helpful at this point, but in Portal 2 [[spoiler: one of the ways GLaDOS plans to torture Wheatley is by forcing him to spend a year in the incinerator]]. I'm pretty sure none of the incinerators are capable of actually destroying Aperture tech. [[NightmareFuel God knows what that means for the cores you incinerated in the first Portal.]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero You monster.]]

** There probably are alarms, but there's no reason to tell the test subject that they've been activated. GLaDOS is obviously watching all the test areas all of the time, and has limited knowledge of what's happening behind the scenes. She knows enough to turn on pistons, activate rocket launchers and drop turrets.
** Alternatively, there are alarms, but they're maintained by GLaDOS like everything else in the facility. She just saw no reason to activate them, since there was nobody around to alert after she killed all the staff.

[[folder:What GLaDOS tests]]

** She really isn't testing. She's just playing puppet master and toying with test subjects for amusement before killing them. Also she stated that her body emits a euphoric sensation every time a test is completed, but over time she has grown immune to the feeling. So she sort of became driven mad from her addiction to fun times with science.

** At one point in Portal 2, [=GLaDOS=] explains that it didn't matter to her that she became immune to the euphoria because she "was in it for the science".

** Tiptoeing into WildMassGuessing territory here, but GLaDOS happens to have the same voice as her human counterpart. Maybe Wheatley is based off a human who happened to have a British accent? The only established method in this universe to make an AI as sophisticated as Wheatley is to start with a human, and the scientists can't have had a great deal of time on their hands.

When the roof of Weatley's chamber collapses, you can see the sky and the Moon through it. Apparently the chamber is on the surface or near it (the ceiling is high, sure, but not that high). Yet after Glados lets you go, you have to take a lift and go multiple floors up, and when you finally emerge, there are no structures on the ground. So, where was that chamber?

** Any reason why Glados would suddenly move it many stores underground before releasing Chell? Besided, the final landscape doesn't look like any whatsoever large facility had ever been there.

Why does everyone seem to think that Chell was in suspension for centuries, when the evidence we have from the first chapter, Courtesy Call, only suggests a few decades?

* Nobody said that Portal and Portal 2 happen on the same universe as the PTI's "Earth 1".
** [[spoiler:Confirmed.]] After pulling you out of Computer!Cave's universe, [[spoiler:Earth-1 Cave has the GLaDOS project scrapped.]]

* I know the gameplay reason for this, but why was the firepit trap so easily escapable with portal-walls and a convenient ledge up ahead? In the second game, even [[spoiler: an idiot was smart enough to make his deathtrap non-portalable (though he didn't account for the conversion gel)]]. So, barring any interpretations that the firepit was part of the test, is it just sheer laziness on GLaDOS' part or what?
** Because it was unexpected. Most test subjects would just lay down and die in the face of danger like that, but Chell was different. Chell was never supposed to be tested(because she was such a {{Determinator}}) so GLaDOS would never expect a test subject would even try to escape.

[[folder: GLaDOS And Her Strange Wording]]
* Perhaps this is just GLaDOS being GLaDOS, but during the "You Monster!" scene in the beginning of Portal 2, why does she tell Chell "We both said a lot of things you're going to regret"? Chell doesn't talk!

** I personally think Wheatley's name itself foreshadows the ending. [[spoiler:After the Turret Opera, GLaDOS lets you out into a wheat field. Wheatley's name means "wheat field".]]

* If all Aperture Science products can withstand temperatures up to 4000 Kelvin (as we see a radio and the Companion Cube do), how does dropping GlaDOS's detached cores into the incinerator achieve anything?

** Agreed, this occurred to me too at some point. If they were making a movie they would have Chell react realistically to the neurotoxin, because it would make the scene way more tense and dramatic ("Holy crap she can barely move, oh c'mon the Anger Sphere is only inches away from the incinerator! AAHHH there's only 10 seconds left!! YOU CAN DO IT CHELL!!"). But Portal is a game, not real life or a film. You wouldn't be able to defeat [=GLaDOS=] if the neurotoxin affected Chell the way it affects people in real life. You'd be vomiting, crapping yourself, your eyes would be watering constantly, and at some point you'd be incapable of movement and would lose consciousness and go into convulsions. I repeat: It's a game. There are a LOT of unrealistic depictions of how things would affect Chell's body. For example, while the heel-springs stopped the testers' complaints that she wasn't sustaining damage from falls, in real life they wouldn't be anywhere near sufficient protection. Another example is that Chell is often launched great distances through portals, and just HAPPENS to always land on her feet (gravity pays her the rare courtesy of always reorienting her so that her feet are pointing down and her head pointing up if she passes through a portal feet-first), while in reality she could end up landing on her shoulder, on her back, on her sides, on her head, and seriously injure herself. Or she could miss her target and collide painfully with something. She has zero protective gear, she's not even wearing anything on her feet. And yet another example is that unless you're super-amazing at this game, Chell gets shot several times by turrets, and yet doesn't bleed to death and is still able to complete the rest of the chambers despite the massive pain the bullet wounds should be causing. Then when she's escaping the fire pit, she definitely comes close enough to the flames to suffer some burns, or at least have her clothes catch fire. Plus in real life someone doing these tests might conceivably take way longer than the game takes, and in that time would need to eat, drink, and go to the bathroom. Then there's all the crap she's exposed to in Portal 2, which I could make a list of, but won't because this bullet point is long enough. When you're designing a game you really don't have the option of having the player be realistic biologically.

** There's at least 2 different tropes which apply to this. They are called ExactTimeToFailure and CriticalExistenceFailure You would do well to get used to them. The second one, at any rate, is pretty well ubiquitous in video games, and the first one is a good dramatic tool. That's all there is to it.

*** That's actually pretty likely, as in Portal 2, [[spoiler: at the beginning of the fight with Wheatley,]] the Announcer says "Neurotoxin level at capacity in five minutes." That wording suggests that the neurotoxin does, in fact, take a few minutes to fill the room.

** Or, the "water" ''did'' damage Chell's feet, albeit slowly. That's why in the second game you switch to the LongFall boots, which must double as prosthetics.

*** No, you didn't have the boots in the first game. You had knee implants. You can see that you are barefoot with a little portal work, with the heel springs coming out of your calf. It was mentioned somewhere that the original springs were trashed when the party associate dragged Chell away, and were replaced with the boots.

*** This hacking of proprioception is actually extremely common for players of the game MirrorsEdge, another First Person game in which you fly through the air and can see your arms and legs. It doesn't help that both VideoGame/{{Portal}} and MirrorsEdge also come with a bamboozling barrage of bright colors in an otherwise monochromatic setting, adding to your disorientation.

*** She said so herself in-game that she wanted you to[[spoiler:She was using reverse psychology to get you to destroy her morality core and allow her to kill you]]

*** Alternatiely, you could ask ProblemSleuth

*** Red Dwarf or {{Futurama}}'s Robot Hell, either-or.

** We also now know that it can be used to [[spoiler: travel to the ''Moon''.]] Which means that if the portal gun was successfully merchandised, anyone could [[travel to the Moon]] at any time, in seconds, and at next to no cost. Tell me how that would not be useful. Also, as shown in the very first scene in Portal, you can easily enter or leave a doorless room, as long as you have (and can control) one of those pieces of equipment that can create a portal on itself, and another one outside. You could make a room highly secure in this way, since you could make it as secure as a [[PanicRoom panic room]] without the vulnerability of a door. You could keep someone out or trap someone inside, and if they can't control the portals, they can't get in or out.