History Characters / Portal

* RousingSpeech: "This robot. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Owes! You! Money!!"]]

->Voiced by: Creator/EllenMcLain (English), Elena Kharitonov (Russian)

->Voiced by: Creator/EllenMcLain (English), Elena Kharitonov (Russian)

->Voiced by: Creator/NolanNorth and Creator/EllenMcLain (English), Sergey Bekasov and Elena Kharitonov (Russian)

->Voiced by: Creator/EllenMcLain (English), Elena Kharitonov (Russian)

* {{Determinator}}: Not himelf, but he seems to think Edmund Hillary was:

* ForScience: His motivation.

* MadScientist: He conceived the portal gun [[strike:after]] [[RetCon before]] being stricken with dementia from [[RetCon lunar dust]] poisoning. He had previously been developing shower curtains for the military. He also created the Counter-Heimlich Maneuever 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.

* RedOniBlueOni: Compared to [=GLaDOS=], whose robotic voice and SoftSpokenSadist demeanor make a Blue oni, Wheatley is the energetic [[spoiler:then [[HammyVillain hammy]]]] Red oni. Ironically, he's the one associated with blue.

* DummiedOut: A folder hidden with the game files notes at one point he would have successfully uploaded his mind into a CompanionCube and would be begging for Chell and [=GLaDOS=] to [[MercyKill unplug him]] so he can end his eternal torment of being stuck in a machine [[AndIMustScream forever bored and lonely]].

* DummiedOut: Several of his lines are unused in the final game. [[spoiler:Including a few of him [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor regretting his desire to go into space]] when he finally gets there.]]

* DummiedOut: Had several deleted lines, including some dialogue with the other cores.

* DummiedOut: [[spoiler:The scene where she was uploaded into [=GLaDOS=]]]. [=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.

* RedOniBlueOni: Compared the energetic and later very hammy Wheatley's Red oni in the sequel, [=GLaDOS=] is the [[AccentUponTheWrongSyllable robotic sounding]] and SoftSppokenSadist Blue oni. Funnily enough, she's associated with orange, a color associated with energetic people.

* RedOniBlueOni: With the energetic and later very hammy Wheatley in the sequel. [=GLaDOS=] is the Blue Oni. Funnily enough Wheatley is the one associated with blue.

%%* RedOniBlueOni: With [=GLaDOS=]. Wheatley is the Red Oni.

* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: While GLaDOS is generally well-known to be an [[AIIsACrapshoot unhinged caretaker of Aperture]], she genuinely acts with a '''real purpose'''[[spoiler: , unlike Wheatley, which makes things [[FromBadToWorse SOOOO much worse than when GLaDOS was in charge of Aperture.]]]]

* LethalChef: The core with the Cake Recipe suggests multiple garnishes including fish-shaped solid waste, [[ShapedLikeItself 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''.

* DisabilitySuperpower: 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.]]

* TheVoice: 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 "beans" on it. Ironically, in the Lab Rat comic, the robot becomes TheVoiceless, as it is revealed for the first time, but has no dialogue.

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler:Becomes an egomaniac after being plugged into [=GLaDOS=]'s mainframe. That thing is apparently quite the power high]].

* AffablyEvil: For an [[spoiler:AI-turned-psychotic-junkie trying to murder you,]] he sure is likable.

** "Fact: Space does not exist."

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Her face and body model had a Brazilian father and a Japanese mother, but the character Chel's ethnic background, like almost everything about her, is unknown.

* AmbiguouslyBrown: Her face and body model had a Brazilian father and a Japanese mother.

* AdoptionDiss: Brings up the player character (allegedly) being adopted as an insult repeatedly. In the second game she continues to do this. On one occasion she actually defends Chell when [[spoiler:Wheatly insults her with this,]] only to to later give her another diss later.

->Voiced by Creator/EllenMcLain

->Voiced by Creator/EllenMcLain

->Voiced by Creator/StephenMerchant

->Voiced by Creator/JKSimmons

->Voiced by Creator/NolanNorth and Creator/EllenMcLain

->Voiced by Creator/NolanNorth

->Voiced by Creator/NolanNorth

->Voiced by Creator/NolanNorth

->Voiced by Joe Michaels

->Voiced by Creator/EllenMcLain

** [[spoiler:During his tests, there is always some way you can destroy his monitors. He doesn't mind at first, but it quickly gets on nerves once you break more.]]

* SanitySlippage: Due to being stuck in the lab after [=GLaDOS=] goes beserk, he can't refill his medication. Hence, he appears quite sane during the past segments of the Lab Rat Comic. Compare that to his scribblings in the first game, and his basic appearance in the present comic segments.
* SkewedPriorities: "The cake is a lie" is supposed to be a [[BlackComedy darkly humourous warning]] that [=GLaDOs=] is not to be trusted. A contributor to the comedy side comes from Rattmann apparently worrying more about [=GLaDOs=] witholding cake from Chell than the AI trying to murder her.

* {{Adorkable}}: He's a stuttering, not too smart bit of adorable technology.

* NonPlayerCompanion: He takes this role near the start and middle of the game.

** With the turrets, at least, this is possibly {{justified}}: Aperture Turrets "fire the whole bullet" via a spring launcher, which is most likely less damaging then being shot by a normal bullet. But then again, getting shot does leave blood spatters on the walls behind her.

* ProgressivelyPrettier: [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110426214052/half-life/en/images/5/59/Chell_daydreamin.jpg In the first game]], she was disheveled, had visible gray in her hair and dead skin on her face and lips, and looked rather worn out. [[http://media.steampowered.com/apps/portal2/comic/part1/p00.jpg The Lab Rat interquel comic]] portrays her as much more conventionally attractive, with neater hair and smoother features; this change carries over to ''Portal 2'', where she looks [[http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/File:Chell_Portal.png like this]].
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Although [[MysteriousPast Chell's origins are unknown]], her name on one of the science fair projects seems to indicate that she was most likely born sometime in the 1980s and was probably in her 20s during the events of the first ''Portal''. Following the explosion which killed [=GLaDOS=], Chell is placed in a stasis chamber with an indefinite wake-up time. The backstory for ''Portal 2'' would suggest the game takes place in another epoch, perhaps as much as 50,000 years later.
* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Chell wears a pair of ankle-springs in order to ensure her legs aren't shattered when she comes flying out of a portal. [[WordOfGod The commentary bubbles]] indicate early on that the reason was that playtesters complained that Chell could survive falls that would kill [[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman]]. Despite the fact that the springs are patently insufficient to protect her, [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief they stopped the complaints]], so mission accomplished!
** In ''Portal 2'', these have been updated to full shoes called the [[https://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.

* AdoptionDiss: Brings up the player character (allegedly) being adopted as an insult repeatedly. In the second game she continues to do this. On one occasion she actually defends Chell when [[spoiler: Wheatly insults her with this,]] only to to later give her another diss later.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Did she delete Caroline or was she lying? There's evidence for both theories.]]

* AntiHero: In ''Portal 2''. She's still evil, but this time, [[spoiler: she's on Chell's side.]]
* AxCrazy: If slaughtering the majority of Aperture Science on ''bring-your-daughter-to-work-day'' within less than a picosecond of activation is any indication.

* BigBad: The A.I. controlling the entire facility and responsible for all of the tests that Chell is forced to go through. [[spoiler: She loses this position to Wheatly halfway through the second game after he is plugged into the mainframe, which is revealed to have a corrupting influence.]]

* DyingVocalChange: [[spoiler: Already suffering from the occasional ElectronicSpeechImpediment, destroying her personality cores causes her to slip into HeliumSpeech, leaving her chattering like a chipmunk for the next few seconds before exploding.]]

* GeekyTurnOn: [[spoiler: 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.]]

* {{Irony}}: While [=GLaDOS=] calls out Chell with a YouMonster line, she [[spoiler: proceeds squeezing Wheatley to near-death and throws his seeming carcass out of Chell's sight]] like her regular days with her test subjects.

* LiteralTransformativeExperience: [[spoiler: Transformed into a potato battery when Wheatley takes over the Enrichment Center halfway through the game. Following a long HumiliationConga featuring bird attacks, electrical malfunctions, and being forced to team up with Chell, it looks as though the ex-Big Bad is actually becoming a better person, especially once her past is revealed and confronted. And then it's subverted all to hell once [=GLaDOS=] reclaims her position as an all-powerful supercomputer: having worked out where her compassion resides in her brain, she deletes it and goes right back to being the snarky, heartless psychopath she's always been... or so it seems.]]

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

** [[spoiler: In the ''Art Therapy'' downloadable content, she winds up adopting some baby birds that were abandoned by their mother... although it's so she can turn them into killing machines.]]

** Makes a return [[spoiler: in the Peer Review DLC for co-op mode. The facility is being "controlled" by the same bird that antagonized Wheatley and [=GLaDOS=] previously.]]

* EnemyMine: A mild version in ''2'', after[[spoiler: 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.]]

* AGodAmI: [[spoiler: Becomes an egomaniac after being plugged into [=GLaDOS=]'s mainframe. That thing is apparently quite the power high]].

* ArtificialStupidity: [[spoiler: Oddly enough, an ''intentional'' in-universe example. His sole reason of existing is to consistently give [=GLaDOS=] stupid ideas and make bad decisions. However, it's PlayedWith, as despite literally being designed to be an idiot, he's a surprisingly competent and intelligent villain when actually trying to kill Chell.]]

** [[spoiler: During his tests, there is always some way you can destroy his monitors. He doesn't mind at first, but it quickly gets on nerves once you break more.]]

* BondVillainStupidity: [[spoiler: After he springs his trap, he could have easily dropped you into the bottomless pit, for example, by not putting those other faith plates there, or not switching on the tractor beam. Instead, he navigates you to that platform where you can escape. With this, he also gets you closer to his lair.]] This is somewhat justified, though: he already ''tried'' knocking you into a bottomless pit, and thanks to your Long-Fall Boots it didn't stick.

* ConfusionFu: [[spoiler: His unpredictable idiocy and poker face regarding death traps surprises even [=GLaDOS=]. 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 TooDumbToFool 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.]]

* DisneyDeath: Shortly after [[spoiler: [=GLaDOS=] is reactivated, she crushes Wheatley between her ceiling-suspended claws. He gets better about three test chambers later.]]

* FromNobodyToNightmare: He started out as [[spoiler: an [[IdiotBall intelligence-inhibitor]]. Then he gets plugged into [=GLaDOS=]'s mainframe, and becomes even more unstable and destructive than she ever was.]]

* IdiotBall: As a personality core, he's spherical and he was built to [[spoiler: make [=GLaDOS=] dumber. He also grabs onto one after going insane; he informs you that he won't make the mistakes [=GLaDOS=] did, having made all surfaces in his lair unsuitable for applying portals. He has also rerouted three gel tubes into his room, including one that supplies Conversion Gel allowing you to apply portals in his room. This alone wouldn't be so bad, but he also doesn't bother to wait for the neurotoxin to kill you -- he throws bombs too, breaking the tube and providing you access to the Gels.]]

* KickTheDog: [[spoiler: During the final battle, he taunts Chell that he expected her to die obtaining the portal gun, and that she wasn't the first person he had sent after it; she was just the one who survived the longest.]]
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: One of the dumbest beings in existence, but convinced he's brilliant. [[spoiler: Not played up too much during the first half, but gets much worse when he's plugged into [=GLaDOS=]'s mainframe. He seems to be over-compensating for the knowledge that he was specifically designed to be a moron.]] More understandably, he is unaware of [=GLaDOS=] and Chell's history while forming his escape plans.

* TheParanoiac: [[spoiler: After attaching Rick and should the phase drag on, Wheatley's SanitySlippage will start to accelerate to the point where he becomes this, believing Chell has been conspiring against him from the start.]]
--->'''Wheatley:''' And another thing! [[spoiler: You never caught me. I told you I could die falling off that rail. And you didn't catch me. You didn't even try. Oh, it's all becoming clear to me now. Find some dupe to break you out of cryosleep. Give him some sob story about escaping to the surface. Squeeze him for information on where to find a portal gun. Then, when he's no more use to you, he has a little accident. Doesn't he? "Falls" off his management rail. Doesn't he? You're in this together, aren't you? You've been playing me the whole time! Both of you! First you make me think you're brain damaged! Then you convince me you're sworn enemies with your [[EnemyMine best friend over here!]] [[SelfServingMemory Then, then, when I reluctantly assume the responsibility of running the place, you conveniently decide to run off together. Just when I need you the most.]]]]
** It even extends to [[spoiler: him coming to the incorrect assumption that there's nothing wrong with Aperture.]]
--->'''Wheatley:''' [[spoiler: I'll bet there isn't even a problem with the facility, is there? I'll bet there's no such thing as a "reactor core". I'll bet that's not even fire coming out of the walls, is it? It's just cleverly placed lights and papier mache, I'll bet that's all it is.]]

* PsychopathicManchild: When he starts [[spoiler: ranting at [=GLaDOS=] and Chell he sounds distinctly like a child throwing a tantrum at an elder.]]

* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler: After being hooked up to the Central Core, Wheatley's mental state degrades almost ''instantly.'']]
* SelfServingMemory: [[spoiler: After his FaceHeelTurn, he'll constantly go on tangents about Chell's selfishness for putting him at risk when they were working together against [=GLaDOS=], conveniently forgetting the many times Chell saved Wheatley's life because of his own stupid mistakes putting them in danger.]]

* StupidityInducingAttack: Built to be one [[spoiler: against [=GLaDOS=].]]

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler: Wheatley really starts to panic after Chell escapes his "surprise". He also gets continually more aggressive and paranoid-delusional during the final battle.]]

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: His original plan seems to have been simply to escape from the deteriorating facility, but [[spoiler: once he takes over [=GLaDOS=]'s role as master of Aperture, he almost immediately becomes paranoid, vengeful, and obsessed with running experiments.]]

* AffablyEvil: He's a cheerful, pleasant, likable guy, but still puts his employees and test subjects in mortal danger for the sake of science and thinks little of it. However, this status is debateable thanks to HanlonsRazor; it's tricky to tell if Cave is actively malicious or just passively ignorant, and which one is the best explanation of why he treats people like he does.

* AndAnotherThing: The Pre-recorded Messages are full of these. Apparently the test chambers aren't quite deadly ''enough''. Cave casually mentions to each "control group" that he's been covertly experimenting on their bodies since before the tour began: such as injecting their coffee with radium, or implanting a crude computer chip in their forehead which may overheat and explode.

** Perpetual Testing features a Cave who did indeed upload himself into a computer. He takes ''slightly'' longer to go murderously insane than [=GLaDOS=], [[spoiler: although we never learn what exactly he did to Greg and the boys.]]

* CannedOrdersOverLoudspeaker: Aperture scientists never get a moment's peace. In fact, the reason there are so many Cave Johnson Pre-recorded Messages is because his workers pleaded with him to stop barking at them over the intercom all day. Cave responded by recording even ''more'' messages.

* MissingStepsPlan: To the end, Cave kept throwing nonexistent money at increasingly-harebrained projects ''guaranteed'' to dig his company out of the hole. It's hard not to root for someone whose buying habits make Creator/NicolasCage look like [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Ebeneezer Scrooge]] and who advocates mixing together moon rocks to see what happens when his çompany was already broke. Unfortunately for Cave, moon rocks are poisonous. Ever the optimist, he hopes to somehow reverse-engineer Aperture's astronomically expensive moon paste to see if it can leech cosmic radiation from one's bones. (Nope.)

* ForScience: Utterly dedicated to making sure Science gets done, even in the face of [[AfterTheEnd "potentially apocalyptic circumstances"]].
* MissionControl: For the first part of the game. He’s still around when [=GLaDOS=] gets reactivated and also when [[spoiler:Wheatley takes over]], but not nearly as much as before.

* FateWorseThanDeath: She did not want to be [[spoiler: uploaded into an A.I. from the start. And now she's not only stuck in there, she's -- in a sense -- immortal.]] At least until the end of the game, when she [[spoiler: gets deleted by [=GLaDOS=]]].

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Originally Cave's assistant was going to be a put-upon YesMan 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: Once that casting choice was made, the creators wondered why Caroline and [=GLaDOS=] had the same voice...]]

* SatelliteCharacter: As Cave Johnson's right hand woman she is there to play off of him. [[spoiler: As [=GLaDOS=]'s original persona she provides her OriginStory.]]

* YesMan: She tends to agree with everything Cave says and goes along with what he does [[spoiler: with the exception of being put into [=GLaDOS=]]]. This is lampshaded in Theatre/Portal2TheUnauthorizedMusical when Cave asked her if she was yes-manning him.

** There's also an attack by killer ants attempting to commander the nations's sugar supplies at Fort Sugar Knox in Kentucky, leading to a huge firefight. [[spoiler: Though it turns out to just be a movie Cave Prime was watching.]]

** Warden!Cave had to tell his prisoners that the [[AirVentEscape air ducts were not an escape route]], but how they ventilate the facility. [[spoiler: When he's shived after a power outage shut off the forcefield doors, he laments how actual doors would have been much better]].

** [[TomatoSurprise Cave Prime]] has a moment of this, [[spoiler: when he listens to Greg and [[ForWantOfANail cancels the [=GLaDOS=] project]] after [=CaveDOS=] goes insane]].

* WhamLine: After the [=CaveDOS=] arc, [[spoiler: who we were '''led''' to believe was]] Cave Prime says the following:
--> "Whoa! Chariots chariots. For some reason, some of the audio was bleeding through in this universe. Don't know if you were catching the subtext there, but that computer Cave is crazy. So: [[spoiler: Greg was right. [[ForWantOfANail As of now]], [[RetGone we are cancelling the]] [[SelfDemonstrating/GLaDOS genetic lifeform disk operating system initiative]].]]"

* PunnyName: Betty's title: the Gyroscopic Liability Absolver and Disk Operating System. Look at the first letter of each word. [[spoiler: It's [=GLAaDOS=].]]