(Spoilers about Portal blah blah blah like you care)
Merlynn wrote:
What's really funny is when you apply your Junior G-Man sleuthing skills.
Consider this: Your character awakens in the testing facility. No memories of who she is or how she got there. If you look in a portal at yourself,you'll notice the odd devices on your legs. This,obviously,is what makes it so you don't die from fall damage. And,further,consider that your character can recover from ANY damage she sustains provided she doesn't take too much and is given a little time.
Consider also: The "hints" and "secret areas" you find on the testing course. Even above and beyond the scope of the "official" course. Think about it. The rest of the course is spotless while the "behind the scenes" areas are in varying states of decay. Obviously,GlaDOS CAN clean up the course. But she leaves these clues. Why? Further,the very existence of the clues themselves prove SOMEONE ran the exact same route you are. What happened to them? Why,and in some cases,how,did they go back and leave these clues? Frankly,if GLaDOS had escapes before,why didn't she take steps to prevent them in future? If she really wanted to kill you,wouldn't she have made the whole incinerator room you were supposed to burn to death in portal proof? And where were the bodies? There's plenty of blood,but no bodies. Not in the secret areas,not in the observation areas,nothing. Not even limbs or crawled up in a crawl space.
Further,consider: In the ending song,she talks about how you broke her heart and acts like she's filling out a testing report. Further,she mentions more tests,on "the people who are still alive",and that she's "still alive". She mentions asking Black Mesa for help,even though she claims it's a joke. Why would you leaving "break her heart",especially since she's been trying to kill you for almost the whole game?
My conclusion: The whole thing WAS a test. But they weren't testing the gun. They were testing YOU. Your character was altered to become a "super soldier" after the Black Mesa incident brought about the invasion from Xen. With the Combine winning the war,the scientists at Aperture Science realized they had to do something. So,combining their portal gun with a test subject who was made to withstand falls from great height (the most common hazard with portals) and to recover from any damage,they laid the ground work for the ultimate infiltration specialist. You. Setting GLaDOS to oversee the work on subject,followed by testing,they then abandoned the lab and went into hiding as best they could.
When your character is completed and awakens,GLaDOS runs the test. Complete with a twist,finding out if you can "make it on your own",and the final test,GLaDOS herself. Or so she'd have you THINK! The truth is,what you fought was a mock up. The whole test was rigged from the start. And it tested everything. You're landing ability. Your problem solving skills. You ability to make maximum use of the all the portal gun's abilities. And your ability to regenerate. Even from a state of seeming death. That's right. Your character CAN'T die. GLaDOS couldn't kill you if she wanted to. Not permenantly,away. When you "died" in the game,your body was just pulled to a safe zone where it regenerated. You were never in any real danger.
And this is what broke GLaDOS' heart. She wasn't an insane lesbian computer. She was a mother who had to be very hard on her daughter and then let her go out into the big bad world to make her own way. Which is hard for any parent to do. Most just don't have to use a rocket launcher when it comes up.
Thanks for reading.
