posted
Regarding the Rat Man, his story is detailed in a free webcomic released a few weeks back, titled "Lab Rat." It's quite a nice little addition to the canon.
quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: I wasn't sure what to make of the end song and the discrepancy there. I'm not sure how much stock to put in the song. I thought "Still Alive" heavily implied that you didn't kill GlaDOS at all - she just restored from a backup, and that it was possible that "killing her" was part of the test in the first place. (I kinda preferred that ambiguity to the specifies they get into in Portal 2)
The discrepancy is almost certainly intentional. Both "Still Alive" and "Want You Gone" are deep in unreliable narrator territory (as is GLaDOS's monologue leading up to your release into the cornfield). Remember: this is GLaDOS we're talking about. There really aren't any narrators less reliable.
As for "killing GLaDOS" being part of the test, I never got the sense that they were being ambiguous about that at all in Portal 1. GLaDOS makes cheerful noises during the song about huge successes, but it's so over the top that it seemed obvious (to me, at least) that she's being her usual passive aggressive, egomaniacal self. You escaped? You killed me? Well... that was the plan all along! You monster.
The idea that killing GLaDOS is somehow the "final test" just seems completely at odds with the dialogue during the final third of Portal 1, and IMO would kill a lot of what makes GLaDOS's character development in that part interesting and compelling.
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I think Portal 1 implies strongly that you've merely inconvenienced GLaDOS. "Broke my heart and killed me and tore me to pieces and threw every piece into a fire" to me - since it was being sung by GLaDOS after it's revealed that she has lots of spare personality cores - means she's blaming you for what you THOUGHT you were doing. But I think they strongly indicated she'd be back up and running soon enough: "I'm doing SCIENCE and I'm still alive" could be a lie, but the scene with the spare personality cores and the candle-snuffing robotic arm tells us that there's truth to what she is saying. That's how I interpreted it anyway.
Portal 2 seems to indicate that she's been dormant/offline the whole time since the final encounter in Portal 1. Not cheerfully doing SCIENCE but seething in solitary confinement.
I'm not sure whether the two are meant to be compatible/consistent with each other, or if they just decided to live with an inconsistency for the sake of some really heightened resentment from GLaDOS.
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: I wasn't sure what to make of the end song and the discrepancy there. I'm not sure how much stock to put in the song. I thought "Still Alive" heavily implied that you didn't kill GlaDOS at all - she just restored from a backup, and that it was possible that "killing her" was part of the test in the first place. (I kinda preferred that ambiguity to the specifies they get into in Portal 2)
posted
Look, basically we cannot trust anything Glados says, ever, for sure. That's often true in stories but ESPECIALLY true of her.
Did anyone find the hidden area with turrets singing? I had thought it was a radio, even though I saw the turrets-only later on YouTube did I learn the strange, interesting music was turrets:)
Also, apparently the turret song at the end-I didn't know this until just know-is opera, and VERY evocative-it does lend some weight to the idea that perhaps Caroline isn't as gone as Glados suggested. Actually it occurs to me that Glados, in her song, might be referring to the friend that's leaving...she might be talking TO Caroline and referring to Chell, OR vice versa. Or completely crazy-lying.
Chell not being dead is a pretty good pointer to that, too. Of course come Portal 3, we may just get retconned again.
quote:Originally posted by Rakeesh: Did anyone find the hidden area with turrets singing?
Is there one besides the scene that's part of the ending? If there is a hidden room, I'm surprised there isn't an achievement for it (there was an achievement for finding the Borealis, for example).
ETA: Yes, apparently there is. And it's accessible in a manner that I should have attempted. I'm ashamed I missed that.
posted
I wish there was a way to restart a level without restarting the chapter. I keep accidentally progressing beyond places where I wanted to look over a room more carefully. (Am I missing an obvious way to do this?)
quote:Originally posted by Rakeesh: Also, apparently the turret song at the end-I didn't know this until just know-is opera, and VERY evocative-it does lend some weight to the idea that perhaps Caroline isn't as gone as Glados suggested. Actually it occurs to me that Glados, in her song, might be referring to the friend that's leaving...she might be talking TO Caroline and referring to Chell, OR vice versa. Or completely crazy-lying.
posted
That's what I meant, the lyrics-translated. It sounds moving too, but the lyrics translated are surprising.
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posted
Adventure Sphere: "Yeah! Nice! You messed with the wrong woman! Yeah, how'dya like that?! How's that taste, pall?! Duck and weave, duck and weave!
...
This guy's got a glass jaw...this guy's got a glass everything! He's a china cabinet!"
(Man, as usual, I could go on, but it's best to just go and listen:) )
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
My favorite is the Fact Sphere: "Shrodinger created his paradox as an excuse for killing cats."
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