History Characters / Portal2

* BeyondRedemption: [[spoiler:Considering [[BigBad [=GLaDOS=]]] sends him into space rather than letting him fix his mistakes, it's quite clear he considers his villainy too much for him to be redeemed of his evil deeds throughout the events of ''Portal 2'', and that is not accounting for how much more lethal of an ArchEnemy he is compared to her. This turns out to be an InformedFlaw in TheStinger because he does apologize for what he did, but only to himself, as he's eternally stranded in space.]]

[[folder:Cave Johnson]]
[[quoteright:255:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portal_Cave_Johnson_2626.png]]

->''"Welcome, gentlemen, to Aperture Science. Astronauts, war heroes, Olympians... you're here because we want the best, and you are it. So! Who is ready to make some science?"''
->Voiced by: Creator/JKSimmons (English), Mikhail Georgiou (Russian)

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.

* AchievementsInIgnorance: He wanted to make diet pudding; he made repulsion gel instead. He wanted to make a fuel injection system de-icer; he got a psychotic AI instead. Even the name of his company--a synonym for "Portal"--refers to his original line of shower curtains.
* 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 debatable 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.
* AllThereInTheManual: Johnson and Aperture Science's history are mentioned only in supplemental material until ''Portal 2'', though said supplementary material has been made non-canon for the most part due to the major RetCon.
* AlwaysSecondBest: 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 [[MundaneMadeAwesome Potato Sciences]]. Oh, and he was a great shower curtain salesman. [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative The best, in fact.]]
* 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.
-->"If you meet yourself on the testing track, don't make eye contact. Lab boys tell me [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet that'll wipe out time.]] Entirely. Forward and backward! So do both of yourselves a favor and just let that handsome devil go about his business."
* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:VideoGame/ApertureDeskJob reveals that this is his ultimate fate: uploaded into a giant robotic replica of his own head, with no body and no connection to the facility, completely incapable of moving or dying. When you meet him, he begs you for help dying.]]
* TheArtifact: Was slated to be a combination of [[spoiler: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. However, his original role did end up being used as the basis for [=CaveDOS=] in the Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC.
* BadBoss:
** He was incredibly dismissive of anyone who tried impose any type of limits on his dangerous and expensive style of research. He mocked scientists who showed concern over the test subjects and fired them whenever they complained about the unsafe nature of the company. He also insulted his accountants as "bean counters" when they tried to point out his experiments were running the company into the ground.
** He had sociopathic levels of unconcern towards the test subjects he placed in life threatening situations and experimented on without their knowledge or consent. Similarly, when they had to start cheaply hiring poor and homeless people after the company nearly went bankrupt, he was nothing but hateful and condescending towards them. He later tried to make testing mandatory for all employees resulting in most of his workforce leaving en masse.
** In ''VideoGame/ApertureDeskJob'', he speaks glowingly towards new scientists joining the company in his welcome recordings but towards the regular rank and file he's bluntly uncaring and threatens to fire them on their first mistake.
* BadNewsInAGoodWay: "The average human male is about sixty percent water. Far as we're concerned, that's a little extravagant."
** Some of the control groups of the 1950s fared better than others. The athletes who did ''not'' rush to volunteer for injection with praying mantis DNA have an easier assignment to complete: a shooting gallery vs. dozens of gnarly Praying Mantis-Men. "Pick up a rifle and follow the yellow line. [[CannonFodder You'll know when the test starts."]]
* BadNewsIrrelevantNews: Pretty much any time Cave warns the test subjects that the next room "might" make them bleed gasoline, defecate coal, or teleport every part of their bodies besides their skin. On the plus side, if Aperture can extract some commercial spin-offs from their deaths, "they're gonna have to invent a new type of Nobel Prize to give us", so take heart, astronaut/war hero/Olympian/hobo.
* BrainUploading: 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]].
** 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.]]
** ''VideoGame/ApertureDeskJob'' confirms that [[spoiler: he successfully uploaded his brain into a computer -- one that's the size of a room and shaped like his head.]]
* BunglingInventor: Nothing his company invented fulfilled the purpose it was intended for, and some of the leaps of logic between what the inventions were supposed to do and what they ''actually'' do are achievements all by themselves. Most of them have obvious practical applications that would be incredibly useful, but Aperture would always insist on marketing them for some other purpose for which they were completely unsuited. It seems he would order his scientists to invent a thing and then they'd do it, even if it took bending the laws of space and time into a pretzel.
* 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''.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: His understanding of science is a little off, and the Conversion Gel poisoning certainly didn't help.
* ComedicSociopathy: It's said that a corporate culture is shaped by its leader. If that leader is completely out of his tree, then you get Aperture Science.
* CommanderContrarian: Rather ironic for somebody who devoted his vast fortune to science, he has little patience for "eggheads" and their mortality rate charts. Cave never misses an opportunity to mock them over the loudspeaker, claiming they wouldn't know adventure if it "snapped their little pink bras", then ends up re-wording what they just said [[GladIThoughtOfIt so it becomes his idea.]]
* ComplexityAddiction: $70,000,000 for moon rocks. 70 million he could have saved by, say, firing a portal gun at the moon and sending that group of astronauts to go mine some. This isn't a plot hole; this is ''entirely in-character'' for Cave.
* CompositeCharacter: He's a mixture of [=GLaDOS=] (devoted to SCIENCE!) and Wheatley (clueless imbecile), which is why the Chell/Wheatley alliance reminds [=GLaDOS=] of happier times.
* {{Crossover}}: According to ''VideoGame/PokerNight2'', he worked with [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers Dr. Jonas Venture]] at some point.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: The portal gun is just one of numerous inventions Aperture Science made that could revolutionize human civilization. A pity that Cave (and seemingly most of his scientists) were more interested in keeping those inventions to themselves and using them to research further scientific breakthroughs, or were so detached from reality they didn't realize the potential of what they had created.
* DareToBeBadass: The following speech has followed in the footsteps of "TheCakeIsALie" to {{Memetic Mutation}}dom:
--> "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! ''Get mad!'' I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?! Demand to see life's manager! Make life ''rue'' the day it thought it could give ''Cave Johnson lemons''! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! I'm the man who's gonna ''burn'' your house down! ''WITH THE LEMONS!'' I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a ''combustible'' lemon that ''BURNS YOUR HOUSE DOWN!''"
* DeathByIrony: Much like [=GLaDOS=], Cave found himself at a loose end after running out of test subjects and had to improvise. Unlike [=GLaDOS=], he was not impervious to poison, and probably succumbed to respiratory and renal failure from inhaling too much moon dust. His death isn't confirmed, though.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Holds fast to a "shoot from the hip", All-American philosophy which takes him far...but breaks down when he attempts to apply it to science.
* DirtyCoward: [[invoked]] A line from a DummiedOut conversation with Cave claims that the actual reason for [[spoiler:turning Caroline into [=GLaDOS=]]] was because he thought it was too dangerous for the first trial to be done on himself. This is coming from a man who fired someone for ''asking'' why everything was dangerous.
* EurekaMoment: While dying of lunar radiation poisoning, Cave gives his last directive: invent brain-mapping and artificial intelligence in a last-ditch effort to prolong his own life. A somber Cave ruminates that Aperture should have been focusing its energies on A.I. way back in the fifties.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: He's not so much "evil" as "thinks ethics are for wimps", but Greg's daughter creeps him ''right the hell out''.
-->"I'm sorry, Greg, but there is something wrong with that kid!"
* EvilSoundsDeep: A given considering he's voiced by Creator/JKSimmons.
* ForScience: As he puts it, "Science isn't about ''why''; it's about ''why not''?!"
* GoodOlBoy: A parody of the modern-day American industrialist, with a distinctive midwest twang.
* HanlonsRazor: Based upon Cave Johnson's reasoning for his treatment of other humans it's difficult to tell if he's amoral, immoral or just nuts. Embracing willful ignorance like he does in the belief that all scientific discovery occurs by accident, which would be hindered by competence, is clearly not the reasoning of a healthy mind, but does his deliberate stupidity make him more evil or does such a belief make him more stupid? We may never know for sure.
-->'''Johnson''': Good enough for science...but not ''Aperture'' Science!
* HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee: Specifically in 1968, to account for what happened to the astronauts that went "missing" after volunteering to test for him. Cave's legal bills for defending himself eventually drive the company nearly bankrupt by the mid-seventies. Black Mesa capitalizes on the situation and their own sterling reputation to pirate Cave's goods (or so he claims).
* HotBloodedSideburns: 70's Cave had thinning hair, but an impressive set of mutton chops to go with his [[{{Pornstache}} 'stache.]]
* ICannotSelfTerminate: [[spoiler:In VideoGame/ApertureDeskJob, he asks the player for help dying.]]
* IRejectYourReality: Placed greater value on positive thinking than on "bean counters" and their jars of red ink.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Implied to have succumbed to this. The only thing ever said about his condition (by his own admission) was that moon dust, [[ChekhovsLecture despite being a great portal conductor]], is incredibly poisonous, and that Cave was "deathly ill" as a result of tampering with Conversion Gel.
* KillThePoor: He is plainly resentful of having to equip homeless bums with bleeding-edge technology, but alas: budget cuts. Aperture also promises to "scoop out" any cancerous growths that sprout on their internal organs free of charge--further antagonizing poor Cave, who grumbles that the winos ought to be ''paying him''.
* LargeHam: See his "Lemons" speech for proof.
* LaserGuidedKarma: His pre-recorded messages during the 1950's make very clear that he is aware of the potential dangers surrounding the Repulsion Gel, but exposes it to test subjects anyway. He later becomes terminally ill after exposing himself to moon rocks in the process of making Conversion Gel.
* LethalChef: Aperture's first attempt at diet pudding foodstuffs was a mixture of fiberglass insulation(!), which in itself was mostly non-toxic, except that it coated the intestines and forced still-intact food to erupt from the customer's digestive tract. For obvious reasons, this product was pulled from the shelves and re-branded as Propulsion Gel. The company's second attempt resulted in Repulsion Gel, a pudding which caused food to bounce off the dieter's stomach lining. Astonishingly, even after bathing himself in lethal moon dust, Cave still proposes mixing it into an gel to counteract the poison. Hair of the dog?
* LifesavingMisfortune: [[spoiler: The toilet tester simply has to shoot his giant clay head. Simple, right? Turns out the clay is layered over bulletproof metal. Okay, he's plugged into a wall socket. Just unplug him. Except it turns out he has backup power, and survives that too. Then the floor caves in under his giant metal head, sending him hurtling far down into the deeper parts of Aperture... while being infinitely powered by a generator the Mantis people made. Now there's even less chance someone finds him and puts him out of his misery.]]
* 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 Heimlich Counter-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.
** Some of the fluff material from ''Portal 1'' claims that Johnson figured out portal technology but was so insane by that point he ignored it because it wouldn't be very useful for military-grade shower curtains. Although it's evident by ''Portal 2'' that that has been {{retcon}}ned, as the portal technology turns out to be very prominent [[spoiler:as seen when being thrown down into Old Aperture]].
* MeanBoss: His attitude toward anyone except Greg and Caroline can be most charitably described as "insensitive", to the point that just sitting on a chair in Aperture's lobby will give you testicular cancer. Good news, though, the test chambers are built entirely out of asbestos, [[SkewedPriorities to keep out the rats.]]
-->"The bean counters said I couldn't fire a man just for being in a wheelchair. Did it anyway. [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Ramps are expensive!]]"
** Additionally, [[spoiler:once Cave made up his mind about [[BrainUploading putting Caroline's mind in a computer]], he instructed his employees to not take no for an answer.]]
* 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 company 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.)
* NeverMyFault: What ultimately destroyed Aperture was Johnson's refusal to accept how his own insane decisions were ruining things. As memetastic as his "Lemons speech" is, it's ultimately the ranting of a man who still refuses to accept that all that's happening to him is the fallout of his own terrible ideas and insanity. Granted, he ''is'' insane, so he may genuinely be too crazy and/or stupid to realize his own fault in the matter.
* NiceToTheWaiter: He does genuinely like and appreciate his secretary, Caroline.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In the casting call for him, he was described as being based on two redneck billionaires, Ted Turner and Ross Perot. As presented in the game, he bears more than a passing resemblance to Creator/WaltDisney, 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]]. As an eccentric mid-twentieth-century tycoon who was HauledBeforeASenateSubcommittee about one of his projects and suffered a mental and physical breakdown late in life, he also [[HowardHughesHomage resembles Howard Hughes]].
* ObliviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:Given his sincere respect and affection for Caroline, it seems likely that it genuinely just didn't occur to him that forcing involuntary BrainUploading on someone is a horrible thing to do to them. The moon rock poisoning may have had something to do with it.]]
* OurFounder: We see a time-lapse progression of his illness in the corporate portraits.
* PetTheDog: He may be a ComedicSociopath who has sent countless people to their deaths through irresponsible use of his inventions and inhumane testing procedures, but he [[NiceToTheWaiter treats his secretary with profound respect]]. [[spoiler:Even his decision to upload her mind into a robot against her will seems to have been motivated by the sincere conviction that she deserved to be in charge of Aperture forever, combined with total obliviousness to what she actually wanted.]]
* PointyHairedBoss: His leadership style, complete with [[WeHaveReserves total disregard for the safety and well-being of his subordinates]], fits the trope like a glove.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: It's no surprise that the rich mogul has nothing but contempt towards the poor, performing inhumane experiments on the homeless and poor people and voicing his hatred towards them as he did so. What is surprising for a ''science'' mogul is his [[RichInDollarsPoorInSense anti-intellectualism]], accusing his own scientists of being namby-pamby losers who's safety concerns are dismissed, if not grounds for unlawful termination.
* PopularSayingBut: His lemon rant.
* PosthumousCharacter: Via prerecorded messages.
* PowerBornOfMadness: How else can you create a device which holds a miniature black hole, and can warp all laws of space-time (at least enough to create two portals)?
* ProfessorGuineaPig: He announces his intention to "pour" his brain into a newfangled artificial intelligence, though he predicts that he will die before the prototype shell is completed. Probably inevitable as he spent most of the 50's burning through professional test subjects like elite military members and Olympic athletes, then spent most of the 70's luring vagrants off the streets by promising them $60 for their troubles, to finally in the 90's sacrificing his own employees by making test participation mandatory.
* ReadTheFinePrint: The Aperture Science signed release form is, by his own admission, "a phonebook" which nobody entirely reads.
* RetCon: The "official" timeline of Aperture Science on the website when the first game was released doesn't quite jive with Cave's speeches.
** Among other things, his illness wasn't apparently due to mercury poisoning, but lunar dust poisoning (probably silicosis). 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 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.
** Another possibility courtesy of the Perpetual Testing Initiative--we were originally looking at the backstory of another universe's Cave.
* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Deconstructed. 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.
* RichesToRags: Listening to his prerecorded messages in order, you can hear his voice getting steadily more frustrated and disenchanted with his work over the decades.
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Not so much by the time Chell comes in what's likely a couple ten-to-hundred years later, but at the time, Cave prepared a ''lot'' of pre-recorded messages over the intercom that account for any questions or concerns test subjects would have, like if they were to cheat their way into a test chamber to save travel time, haven't noticed that they now have testicular cancer when offered an opportunity to experiment with tumors, cut themselves and noticed that they're bleeding gasoline, or happened to be taking too long walking between testing areas.
* UndyingLoyalty: His employees followed his every word, no matter how crazy or dangerous the inventions were. Anyone else acting like this would have been thrown in jail, possibly murdered. Even [[spoiler:Caroline]] seems to have some of this -- even after [[spoiler:he inflicted involuntary BrainUploading on her, she still seems to hold some affection for him, if [=GLaDOS=]'s response to his final prerecorded message is anything to go by]].
-->'''[=GLaDOS=]''': [[spoiler:(sadly) '''Goodbye, sir.''']]
* {{Unperson}}: Since most of his patents were appropriated by Black Mesa (due to corporate espionage and poor management on Cave's part), the company's biggest claim to fame is their "participation" in the 1968 Senate Hearings on missing astronauts.
* VillainousLegacy: He's the presumably long-deceased madman who, more or less, created everything connected to Aperture, including [=GLaDOS=].
* WhenLifeGivesYouLemons: His famous, memetic rant is listed above.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler: He asks for Grady and the toilet tester to kill him [[ItMakesSenseInContext by shooting his giant head with their toilet]]. No matter what they try, though, he survives, falling into the same position as before the two came in once he becomes powered by the Mantis peoples' energy generator.]]
* WrongParachuteGag: One of Cave's messages admits that, in his zeal, the scientific control for the Repulsion Gel was blue paint, meaning he was flinging some of his volunteers down an empty shaft.
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: His attitude toward Caroline, whom he considered too modest to fully appreciate her own abilities. In context this is [[GoneHorriblyWrong less heartwarming than it sounds]].

[[folder:Atlas and P-body]]
[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portal_Atlas_and_P-body_7012.png]]
->Both voiced by Creator/DeeBradleyBaker

Two robots -- one adapted from a personality sphere (Atlas), the other from a turret (P-body) -- created by [=GLaDOS=] to run tests in the Enrichment Center. Atlas is assumed to be of masculine personality, and P-body to be feminine.

* AmbiguousGender: Considering they're robots, they more than likely don't have any, but where Atlas is considered male by most, P-body is feminine and has a Turret body as its base, all Turrets being feminine (bar Defectives), but people are still divided on if it has a female personality or just a feminine but still male one. Not helping matters is that [=GLaDOS=] doesn't refer to either by third-person pronouns, referring to them as "You," "Blue" or "Orange."
* BashBrothers: Or perhaps BattleCouple depending on how one views them in terms of gender. They can also choose to [[ManHug hug]] [[RoboShip each other.]]
* BrainUploading: It's implied that their personalities are recorded for easier reinsertion into new robotic bodies whenever they "die".
* CuteMachines: Again, like the turrets and Wheatley, they are cute and silly. One launch TV ad shows them playing around with the portal gun and giggling like children before [=GLaDOS=] shows up and puts them to work testing.
* DeathIsCheap: The two robots are uploaded into a new body whenever they die, as illustrated by the [[https://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 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvx5XBS3cwY later]]. In fact, they are transported to other test chambers by being disassembled and later reassembled. This is also how they "leave" the old Aperture facilities due to them lacking an exit like the modern ones, so [=GLaDOS=] blows them up once their jobs down there are done.
-->'''[=GLaDOS=]:''' '''Don't disappoint me -- or [[FateWorseThanDeath I'll make you]] ''[[FateWorseThanDeath wish]]'' [[FateWorseThanDeath you could die.]]'''
** The ''Portal 2'' team say this is a major reason for using robots as the co-op mode characters. They wanted [[TheManyDeathsOfYou 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.
** As the tests go on, [=GLaDOS=] actually starts getting disappointed with this, as watching her lab rats ultimately make a mistake and die is the only satisfaction she gets out of the job.
* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: 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.
* FatAndSkinny: Atlas is short, round and bulky. P-body is tall and lean.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: When Atlas yanks P-body's turret body out of its frame for a giggle, P-body picks it up and gives him a solid crack upside the head with it.
* GoneHorriblyRight: [=GLaDOS=] created the pair to be the ideal test subjects. They are... and so she subsequently gets bored with them when their immortality means that she can't derive any pleasure from their lethal failures.
* IronicName: Atlas is the shorter, round one whose body is actually pea-shaped. P-body is the taller, skinnier one.
* NotSoStoic: Atlas tends to be the more reserved one in everything he does -- except for when either initiates a hug.
* RedOniBlueOni: 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.
-->'''P-body:''' ''[cheerfully waving to Atlas]'' '''Hi!'''\\
'''Atlas:''' ''[nervous]'' '''...Hello?'''
** Depending on how you view their personalities in gender terms, it can also be an example of either TomboyAndGirlyGirl or SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan. 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.
* TrueCompanions: [=GLaDOS=] learns that as much as she tries, she cannot drive them apart and pit them against each other.
* VitriolicBestBuds: You kind of get this impression from them when you are capable of [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential killing your friend with the pop of a portal]], as well as using the gesture feature to both [[JerkAss laugh at them]] and engage in slapstick.
** The devs specifically made the two to turn an outright emnity into this, as deaths (intentional or not) would be less disturbing with a pair of robots than a pair of humans, being more of an explosive slap on the wrist that can easily be recouperated from.

[[folder:Defective Turrets]]
[[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portal_Defective_Turret_5389.png]]
->Voiced by: Creator/NolanNorth and Creator/EllenMcLain (English), Sergey Bekasov and Elena Kharitonova (Russian)

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 in the box. Or being completely insane.

* AndIMustScream: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]--they're all ''aware'' of the fact that they're defective, but powerless to do anything about it, so they know they're doomed for destruction. It doesn't seem to bother them all that much, though, so just how much agony they're in is unknown.
* BodyHorror: Well, look at it from their point of view. Some of them have no casing. Some of them were put together ''sideways''.
** They're fairly upbeat about it though.
--->"Oh no, I'm one of the bad ones aren't I?"\\
"Shootin' blanks, [[{{Radio}} every time, all the time]]."\\
"Well, I tried."
* EvilLaugh: Whichever defective turret you designate as the new template for quality control will indulge in a chuckle whenever one of its brethren passes or when one of the functional turrets gets thrown out.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: There's a slightly-less defective turret on the [[KillItWithFire Turret Redemption Line]] early on, whose main defect seems to be babbling a mix of cryptic {{Foreshadowing}} and complete nonsense.
-->'''Oracle Turret''': Her name is Caroline. Get mad, don't make lemonade. The answer is beneath us. It won't be enough. [[Myth/GreekMythology Prometheus]] was punished by the gods for giving the gift of knowledge to man. He was cast into the bowels of the earth and pecked by birds.
* {{Harmless Villain}}s: They're so enthusiastic... if only they could actually attack.
-->"Hey lady, do me a favor. Tell 'em I killed you."
* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: As [=GlaDOS=] [[spoiler:and later Wheatley]] eventually learn, some of them lack any ammo.
* OhCrap: Defective turrets occasionally let out a resigned "Crap" after failing the voice response test.
* OneGenderRace: Downplayed; unlike the regular turrets, most of the defective turrets speak in masculine voices. The Oracle Turret, which is physically sound but expresses pacifistic behaviour and prophetic ramblings, speaks in a normal Turret voice.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: The Turret Redemption Line, [[LiteralMetaphor as a literal example.]]
* SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud: On the test-firing range, defective turrets may say "Clackity-clack-clack!" instead of firing (or attempting to fire).
--> "Uhhhh... Blam! Blam blam blam! [[BlatantLies I'm not defective!]]"
* SpontaneousHumanCombustion: One of their many, [[SerialEscalation many]] design flaws is that they tend to explode.
* WeakTurretGun: "So... we're all supposed to be blind, then, right? It's not just me?"

[[folder:Frankenturrets]]
[[quoteright:247:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portal_Frankenturret_9069.png]]

A hybrid of two turrets and a Weighted Storage Cube.

* AndIMustScream: They are unable to move, save for having to attempt to hop forward, they are permanently stuck together, and they can't even so much as fire at you anymore. It really makes [[spoiler:Wheatley]] appear to be even worse when you think about the fact [[spoiler:that he ''made these things himself''.]]
* BodyHorror: 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.
* CuteMachines: They're hastily put-together hybrids that [[spoiler:exist primarily to satisfy Wheatley's addiction to testing]]...but ''they're so darn adorable!''
* DrivenToSuicide: They're not really capable of steering, but if they're pointed at an Emancipation Grill, bottomless pit or anything else that would kill them if they approached it, they'll lurch their way right to their own deaths.
* LogicBomb: Several of them are fried when a paradox is spoken in their presence. [[MercyKill 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.]]
* MercyKill: The poor things look like they are just telling you "Throw us into the incinerator, '''PLEASE'''." This ends up happening to them via a LogicBomb.

[[folder:Space Sphere]]
[[quoteright:251:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portal_Space_Core_565.png]]

->''"Better buy a telescope. Wanna see me? Buy a telescope. Gonna be in space."''
->Voiced by: Creator/NolanNorth (English), Sergey Bekasov (Russian)

He likes space. His favorite thing about space is space. He's gonna go to space. He's the best at space. [[SelfDemonstrating/SpaceCore He has his own page]]...in SPAAAAAACE!

* BrokenRecord: Space. Space. Wanna go to space.
* CloudCuckoolander: His unhealthy obsession with space certainly qualifies him as one.
* CuteMachines: Very adorable, thanks to his chipper voice and fascination with space.
* DesperatePleaForHome: [[invoked]] DummiedOut lines features the Space Core belatedly regretting its wish to go to space [[spoiler: during the epilogue of the game, which sees it accidentally catapulted through a portal leading to the Moon, ultimately leaving it [[AndIMustScream stuck orbiting Wheatley in deep space for all eternity]].]] Most of these lines consist of the Space Core [[MadnessMantra repeatedly muttering]] "wanna go home."
* {{Fanboy}}: He's ''very'' hyper and excited about space.
* IncomingHam: Space? SPACE?? '''''SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!'''''
* IntercontinuityCrossover: Via a mod collaboration between Valve and Bethesda, it crash-lands in central [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]] after an indeterminate length of time and gets picked up by the Dovahkiin. Wheatley ended up in orbit of Tamriel's skies. It's even possible to have a giant [[HomeRunHitter send the core back into space with a swing of his club]].
* JumpedAtTheCall:
** 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.
** [[invoked]] [[spoiler:Some extremely depressing DummiedOut lines have him subsequently [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor freaking out because space is too big and wanting to return to Earth]].]]
** And thanks to an official Valve release, we know where he ends up: [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Nirn!]]
* LukeYouAreMyFather: According to the Space Sphere, its father is space.
* MotorMouth: To call him chatty would be an understatement. He will not shut up about space.
* NoIndoorVoice
--> '''''"SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!"'''''
* SpaceIsNoisy: He's clearly audible even in space.
* SpaceX: '''Everything''', but especially "space cops" and "space jail".
* StealthPun: He is very silly and obsessed with space. In other words, he is "spacy".
* {{Squee}}: He's overjoyed when he gets sucked into actual space in the finale.
* TalkativeLoon: He never shuts up about space.
* VerbalTic: As part of his hyperactive way of speaking, he tends to repeat the same words several times like "hey, hey, hey," "hey lady, hey lady, hey lady," "wait, I know, wait, I know," etc.
* WellDoneSonGuy: It seems to believe that space is its father.
--> "Dad? I'm in space. (deeper voice) I'm proud of you, son."\\
"Dad, are you space? (deeper voice) Yes. Now we are a family again."

[[folder:Rick the Adventure Sphere]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portal_Adventure_Core_3679.png]]

->''"I don't wanna scare ya, but I'm an Adventure Sphere. Designed for danger. So, why don't you go ahead and have yourself a little lady break, and I'll just take it from here."''
->Voiced by: Creator/NolanNorth (English), Mikhail Georgiou (Russian)

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

* TheAce: At the very least, in his own mind. According to the [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Fact Sphere]], he's a blowhard and a coward -- so there must be something to him.
%%* BondOneLiner: DiscussedTrope.
* ChivalrousPervert: Yeah, he's a black belt. In pretty much everything. Karate. [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Jarate]]. Jiu Jitsu. Kick punching. Belt making. Taekwondo. ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGxj3cxYWYY Bedroom.]]'' Not to mention he thinks the [[MaleGaze view]] is great from where you're carrying him.
* ClintSquint: Humorously suggested by his eye slit.
* EatingTheEyeCandy: "Gotta say the view's mighty nice from right here." [while he's being carried facing Chell]
* FastRoping: When Rick first appears on the scene, he's swinging from side to side on a wire, in a manner not unlike a swashbuckling hero come to the rescue.
* GentlemanAdventurer: Being spherical and limbless doesn't stand in the way of ADVENTURE!
* HandsomeLech: Well, he ''sounds'' handsome, and he can't get enough of Chell.
* ILoveTheDead: "All right, your funeral. Your beautiful lady-corpse open casket funeral."
* InterspeciesRomance: He immediately takes a liking to Chell.
* JumpedAtTheCall: "Quick! What's the situation!?"
%% * LargeHam:
* PreMortemOneLiner: If you give him long enough to think, he'll brainstorm a few and come up with one for the end of the final boss fight. He admits it sounded better in his head after the delivery.
* RousingSpeech: "This robot. '''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Owes! You! Money!!]]'''"
* ShoutOut: Possibly to another [[TestosteronePoisoning Testosterone-Poisoned]] LargeHam in [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 another one of Valve's titles]].
* StayInTheKitchen: He doesn't seem to be used to women taking active roles in adventure or relationships.
%% * TestosteronePoisoning:
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:Pulled into space long before both Wheatley and Space Sphere, and never appears in the ending cutscene.]]

[[folder:Fact Sphere]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portal_Fact_Core_3855.png]]

->''"[[BlatantLies The Fact Sphere is not defective. Its facts are wholly accurate and very interesting.]]"''
->Voiced by: Creator/NolanNorth (English), Vitaly Petrov (Russian)

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.

* BlatantLies: He believes UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln did everything important while he was sleepwalking, and Schrodinger just wanted a reason to kill cats.
** [[JerkAss "Fact: Space does not exist."]]
* CloudCuckoolander: Keeps spewing history, whether it is accurate, or just plain off.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Some of his ramblings are indeed true.
* {{Determinator}}: Not himself, but he seems to think Edmund Hillary was:
--> "Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mount Everest, did so accidentally while chasing a bird."
* DistinctionWithoutADifference: "89% of magic tricks are not magic. Technically, they are sorcery."
* {{Foreshadowing}}: One of the false facts is about where one of the spheres will end up.
* GoodNewsBadNews: "Cellular phones will ''not'' give you cancer, only hepatitis."
* IFightForTheStrongestSide:
--> ''Whoever wins this battle is clearly superior, and will earn the allegiance of the Fact Sphere.''
* InsufferableImbecile: Not the nicest of Cores, to say the least, because it is so smug about its facts and intelligence. Paradoxically, it just might be the dumbest.
* {{Jerkass}}: One of his "facts" is that space does not exist, seemingly to spite the Space Core. He also is not shy about saying that the Adventure Core is a blowhard and a coward, or that Chell is fat.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll
--> "The Fact Sphere is not defective. Its facts are wholly accurate and very interesting."
* LittleKnownFacts: Most of his repertoire of trivia includes things like "Humans can survive underwater, but not for very long," and "The square root of rope is string."
* LongList: He says "12" and "pens" multiple times before launching into a list of random fruits and vegetables.
** This is a BrickJoke to the Co-Op mode. After completing tests in co-op, [=GLaDOS=] will occasionally congratulate one player while telling the other player to memorize a random list. This is one of those lists.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Sees himself as the most intelligent and handsome sphere.
* TalkativeLoon: Just like the Cake and Curiosity Cores from the original game, this Sphere incessantly babbles random -- and bizarre -- facts.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Everytime he praises himself, he refers to himself as ''The Fact Sphere''
* YouAreFat: One of his lines to Chell is, "You could stand to lose a few pounds."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Announcer]]

->''"Hello, and again, welcome to the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. We are currently experiencing technical difficulties due to circumstances of potentially apocalyptic significance beyond our control. However, thanks to Emergency Testing Protocols, testing can continue. These pre-recorded messages will provide instructional and motivational support, so that science can still be done, even in the event of environmental, social, economic, or structural collapse."''
->Voiced by: Joe Michaels (English), Vitaly Petrov (Russian)

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.
----

[[folder:Caroline]]
[[quoteright:187:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Portal_Caroline_3563.png]]

->''"Yes sir, Mister Johnson!"''
->Voiced by: Creator/EllenMcLain (English), Elena Kharitonova (Russian)

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

[[folder:The Bird]]
A bird that has made a home for itself in the halls of Aperture's Enrichment Center.

* BigBadEnsemble: Strictly speaking, ''yes''. The bird is a secondary antagonist in the main campaign, though obviously [=GLaDOS=] and [[spoiler:Wheatley]] are bigger threats.
* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:The antagonist taking over the facility in the ''Peer Review'', causing chaos and ruffling [=GLaDOS=]'s cool is... the bird, inadvertently building her nest on a crucial keyboard.]]
* FeatheredFiend: At least from [=GLaDOS=]'s perspective. The time she spent [[spoiler:in a potato]] pecked by this very bird definitely had some after-effect on her psyche.
* InterfaceScrew: [[spoiler:Turns the lights off at one point, requiring Atlas and P-body to use night vision. Immediately turns the lights back on, blinding them.]]
* MamaBear: As to be expected of a bird, threatening her nest or eggs causes her to attack.
* ObliviouslyEvil: [[spoiler:Building a nest on top of a keyboard that happens to be an old version of [=GLaDOS=]'s body, and thus has a degree of control over Aperture, causes chaos. Then it starts to peck away at the keys...]]
* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler:After Atlas and P-body shoo her away, she leaves her eggs behind in her nest, which are later taken in and hatched in an incubation chamber by [=GLaDOS=]]].
* TheUnfought: [[spoiler:After the final puzzle in ''Peer Review'', the bots drive it away in a cutscene.]]
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: [=GLaDOS=] is so terrified of it that the mere ''thought'' of its presence causes her to have a panic attack.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Greg]]
-> ''"Hold on. [unintelligible muttering] Alright, my assistant Greg tells me none of that's true. Got excited.''
--> '''Cave Johnson''', on Greg

Greg is Cave Johnson's put-upon assistant, introduced in The Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC. He never directly appears or speaks, but most of the new test chamber dialogue involves Cave being corrected by Greg about various logical fallacies Cave believes in (such as confusing alternate universes with time travel). According to Cave, Greg was responsible for coming up with the idea for the Perpetual Testing Initiative.
----

* {{Jerkass}}: One of his "facts" is that space does not exist, seemingly to spite the Space Core.

* LethallyStupid: Not so much when he's still on your side, but when he becomes corrupted by the mainframe his idiocy and clumsiness makes him ''incredibly'' dangerous to be anywhere near. Contrasting [=GLaDOS=] who tried to keep most of the facility intact when trying to kill Chell, Wheatley truly does not notice or care all the havoc he's causing on purpose or on accident, smashing entire rooms together, taking down catwalks and vital support beams both on purpose and on accident and worst of all, intentionally ignoring all nuclear reactor saftey protocols thinking it's no big deal, putting himself and everyone else at risk of dying in a massive explosion. Its his complete lack of regard for preservation and cunning in favor of brute force that brings him closer to killing Chell than [=GLaDOS=] ever did.

* VillainWantsMercy: [[spoiler:Before he is sucked into the cold vacuum of space, he pleads to Chell to grab him and don't let him go. It doesn't works.]]

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Wheatley is launched into orbit at the end of the game, left drifting in the depths of space for an unknown amount of time, and regretting every bit of harm he caused.]]

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Wheatley is launched into orbit at the end of the game, left drifting in the depths of space for an unknown amount of time, and regretting every bit of harm he caused.]]

* HumansAreSmelly: Wheatley's open in his lack of regard for the "smelly humans" trapped in the relaxation chambers. However, this probably stems more from Wheatley's resentment at being passed over for promotion, rather than animus toward people. (Realizing his mistake, [[InsultFriendlyFire he mumbles an apology to Chell.]])