The Red Phone

So yeah, the whole speculation of what Glados might or might not be has made me want to find out more. I decided to play the a few stages of Portal again with developer commentary and see if I could fish out more stuff to form a better picture.

It's 3.25am now and here I am rambling on about Portal.

The above screenie was taken in the boss room, where you actually fight Glados. Here, you find a red phone, lines cut (as with all phones in the half-life universe). Looking at this from a cold war perspective, it brings to mind the film 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb. The film was about a rogue unit in the US armed forces, isolating itself and fabricating an attack from the Soviets - very cold waresque. In the film, this rogue unit, convinced the entire US government that it was being threatened and it must retaliate. Of course, to the unaware Soviets, this actually seemed like the US was making the first move. There are plenty of other movies/games that people in power pick up red phones to make The Call, but this is a classic scenario of a rogue unit creating information blackout.

How this relates to Glados is perhaps seen in a supercomputer gaining sentience and the inability for its creators to control it. Perhaps, what initially began as an artificial intelligence simulation, eventually developed itself and learnt self-awareness. Self awareness would perhaps suggest that Glados began asking herself questions and eventually gain control over her personality. The way I see it is that Glados didn't develop her own character. In fact, by all the modules attached to her which determines her mood, I'd go as far as to say, her characters were developed for her (you know the little orbs attached to her) but once she gained consciousness, she actually chose who she wanted to be. She developed choice.

In a way, this makes sense to why Glados is speculated to have been "trapped". As Mut asked in the shoutbox, "who trapped her?" It's probably safe to speculate that it's Aperture Science of course. Remember, Aperture Science and Black Mesa are/were competing laboratories and an operating system such as Glados would have to have been sealed off from civilization in complete isolation and secrecy. Glados, would not have known anything apart from the confines of her facility.

Other commentary that has led me to believe that Glados chose her own path is the comments given by the voice behind Glados. Ellen Mclaine, the voice, comments that when she was doing the recording for Glados, the producers often cued her to have tonality in her voice. Glados was sarcastic, angry, desperate and sometimes even sad. Mostly negative emotions from what I see. That's probably how she decided to govern Chell (you), play god of her own little world. How would you feel if you were all locked up and left with nothing but Lego or PlayDoh? You'd be talking to your creations too balls.

I'm guessing you'll feel powerful and satisfied when you can determine the life and death of your underlings. To find betterment in yourself, make it seem like you can advance in some way since all you have known is what people have told you within your confines. In a way, You'd probably want to create and share your thoughts through governance. But then, eventually, your creations dig deeper and begin to ask questions will see things differently. As a developer commented in-game, after escaping from the fires in Room 19, Chell starts to get a feel of what it is behind the scenes, it feels like you're cheating the system.

Cheating the system sentient computers and stuff, this brings to mind The Matrix and to some degree, I-Robot. It isn't a new concept, but certainly an interesting one. With regard to the bondage girl, the very last developer commentary in-game points out the development process of Glados' appearance. It was mentioned that some of the early ideas for Glados was a giant brain with wires hooked up and an upside down "Venus" depicted by Sandro Botticelli in the 1480ish painting, "Birth of Venus". I'm somehow guessing they went for both options and stylised it up alittle.

But yeah, if Botticelli's Venus was referenced, then that opens a whole new can of worms. One major reference is the enclosure Glados is in amongst all those TV screens and wires, and how that relates to the sea-shell in Birth of Venus. If my first year art history knowledge serves me correctly, sea shells in classical art often refer to a woman's genitalia. So the way the TV screens and all fan out with the wires could be seen as portraying Glados in a comfortable spot, naked and bare. The curves all over Aperture Science machinery and assets also suggest that there has been some more delicate and female influence. And then there's the cake, perhaps a minor sexist reference that the cake is "home baked" by a motherly figure. But I'd like to look at it from another angle. Notice how the Aperture Science test lab is polished, spotless and sparkling from the front, yet it's rusty, raw and unkempt with toxic juices flowing backstage? Could this perhaps be the "cake" as in make-up that is commonly associated with covering up flaws to look beautiful on the surface? Just a thought (Mut don't kill me for this, please).

Anyway, that's my take on Glados so far.