The GLaDOS Design You Don't Remember - Portal

Today, I ramble for about 11 minutes about a design for GLaDOS I deeply adore that only appears in a 2 minute long cutscene in Portal 2's introductory moments, mainly about it's design and lore implications.

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Hey everyone, the name's Ossy Flawol!

[OssyFlawol]

Happy 12 years of Portal 2!

This is my first video that has me using Premiere Pro to edit. As much as I love Vegas Pro 13, it straight up started falling apart near the end of production of my documentary on Portal: The Flash Version and I knew that my editing style was no longer compatible with it, so this video served as a good learning experience to learn Premiere :)

[bshap]

5:52 I believe the reason they break up the model like that is probably due to how complex it is. I actually took a few minutes to add together the total poly-count and number of bones.
New GLaDOS has 43 bones, and a poly-count of 28, 280.
Wake-up GLaDOS, with all parts combined (including cables), has 205 bones, and a poly-count of 66, 057.
So instead of having one MASSIVE file that could potentially crash Hammer if you tried to load it in, they break it up into individual parts. The same is done for models that have pre-simulated destruction, such as the relaxation chamber in the beginning of the game.

[d.riell]

2:12 wheatley's little scream as he disappears omg

[wolfclck]

I always felt as though the clear and obviously different chasis between the wakeup sequence and later section when you confront her was entirely intentional, as it shows her JUST coming back versus her at full power again, and I imagine that this is an intended effect as well.

[craftykit]

Starting off saying the way you just make wheatley disappear, and have him scream, is hilarious
Now, i want to say I think the idea of GLaDoS having been coiled up when you encounter her is super cool, it would suit her very well considering her movements and appearance are already very serpentine. It could also be interpreted as a kind of defensive curl, reflecting how she’s heavily damaged and not at her prime power

[nachus]

2:12 Wheatley gets banished to the shadow realm

[kodak]

It's also weird how in Portal 1 she's seen outside the facility completely detached from her wiring, I always thought that this new design is just a backup chassis in the case of the Original's destruction. And this is kinda supported by the fact that in a COOP ending we can see a chassis that sort of resembles GLaDOS but with a computer in the place of her head. This explanation may not be accurate but to me this seems like the most logical

[Zory]

I always thought of the obvious design changes between portal 1 and 2 as something just done for game design because it doesn't make sense canonically. Like, if nobody has touched the facility since you killed her, why would the design of the doors and cubes be different than portal 1? but it's interesting that wakeup glados has some elements of original glados, I don't think I ever noticed.

[themikead]

I think there actually is a good explanation for how her head ended up as it did. Obviously when portal 1 ended both chell and glados were on the surface, particularly glados was not in a great state. However as we know some of the facility is still functioning as there is a robot that drags chell back into the facility right at the end. A very easy explanation is that the same robot also dragged glados' core back into the facility and as it was in a damaged state it was probably rebuilt in one of the personality core production areas and then dropped off where it should be in her annex, however as we see her put herself back together it probably wasnt in the capabilities of the other robots to actually fully recontrustruct her so she was just left on the floor. So when she wakes up she's in a half built state and rebuilds herself with her superior access to the facilities and obviously higher intelligence than most of the machines in aperture.

[Wyte_Knight]

I'll be honest, excepted the fact that she actually looks broken, I didn't know that they were two differnet GLaDOS models in Portal2. But now that I know, I must admit that my heart is torn about which one do I like the most. On one hand, having a broken model that links much better than I could have imagined with its previous model is just ultra cool. But more importantly, I remember the first time I saw Broken GLaDOS. I have always loved GLaDOS, from my discovery of Portal 1 to today, she remains a character that I adore immensely.

In Portal 1, she was obviously much more of an antagonist than in 2, but there was something that emanated from her. Yes, she is funny. But more importantly, she is... Cute? When you start from the principle that she is designed for one thing and is buggy, there is something that makes her a bit childlike? Like a 3-year-old niece who is a bit foolish and likes to tap your leg at family gatherings just for fun. As if that niece suddenly had phenomenal intelligence, almost limitless resources in her environment, and a clear and precise objective. But she was still foolish enough to tap your leg repeatedly.
That kind of cuteness.

And seeing her in that state at the beginning of Portal 2, when I hadn't seen any trailers or screenshots announcing the game (I always do that for games I'm really looking forward to, I don't read or watch anything about them so as not to spoil anything, or get too hyped and then be disappointed by the downgrades)... I don't know, it made me feel something. Almost sad. But also happy to see her again after all this time.

Then, the rest of the game was just as emotional. Her awakening, the tests again, her new absolutely sublime model, emphasizing her femininity much more and almost "standing" upright at all times, while obviously being much more expressive, then the potato phase, so many emotions.

All this to say that I think I would have a hard time choosing a favorite model. Yes, the one from P1 is less "interesting" than the one from P2, let's be honest, it is much less like GLaDOS as a character. But I still love it with all my heart. Just like the Wake Up Model is absolutely perfect as it represents the hardness of what she went through, her destruction, and later we learn that she experienced her death over and over again...

And yes, the "final" model is absolutely graceful and beautiful. But even if I can find the latter more beautiful than the others, I do not prefer it. I think what I prefer, deep down, is the fact that the model evolved along with the character. That it changed, as GLaDOS changed, grew. What I prefer is that they did that well enough to make GLaDOS come alive. It's just crazy.

Yes, I just wanted to ramble about a character that I like so much ahah. Thanks Ossy, that was refreshing.

[saygoodbye-sfm]

After all these years someone just posted an enhanced all in one model of wake up glados to the sfm workshop, they even credited you for inspiration

[Deadlierquill]

When I think about glados I think about portal 2 glados I actually forgot completely about the portal 1 design

[PstrywBerryVids]

Something I think that's really funny about her Wakeup Design is that she doesn't technically have an eye: She has a sprite floating inside her eye socket that looks completely different to what her eye looks like in the rest of the game

[xavier_Astraeus]

Wakeup GLaDOS is one of my favourite designs, idk the little dangly bit from the original Portal 1, GLaDOS’s body moving around like a ragdoll when waking up. It’s just very cool to me, i don’t know, maybe I just like ragdolls and broken machinery.

[Anvil]

So you're telling me that when you find Glados dead on the ground she's actually T-posing at you?

[obi]

actually, i DO remember that design and was sorta pissed to find out that portal rtx takes elements from portal 2 glados' fixed design, rather than the broken one.

[shaqnyiro]

The thing is, I never realised that her wakeup design is any different from her later design, with the exception of the dust and dirt. I always assumed it was the same model just with different textures.

[joltz..]

To add more to why GLADoS looks different is a line she says after she drops you.
"Here we are. The Incinerator Room. Be careful not to trip over any parts of me that didn't get completely burned when you threw them down here."
Any parts of her portal 1 design that didn't appear on her wakeup design were just incinerated, or left in the surface.
Also, here's another thing to notice.
The glados chamber has 3-4 different designs in Portal 2. Wrecked Portal 1 version, Stalemate button version, THE LAYER design, and the ending design.

[TheSodaWave]

I actually never saw Glados 1 desing until this video. I thought it was the same model than Portal 2.

Portal 1 doesn't really give you time to see Glados in detail, no cinematic and it's the final boss, so you are probably more focused in the battle than her model itself.

[the_arrachnid]

2:12
Chell: fall
Weatley: *AH*- *dissappears*