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howfarwevecome · 4 years ago

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The Cores opinions on each other:

Wheatley:

Wheatley’s opinion on Space Core:

Verdict: Wheatley finds him annoying and would pretend not to know him If he’s speaking with someone important over a transmission that has the opportunity to bring him back to earth. Although since Space core is literally the only company he has up there in space, Wheatley would likely come to view him like how one would view an annoying younger brother. He wants to be away from him most of the time but still feels somewhat close to him just because he has no other company to talk to. If Wheatley were left alone all by himself, then that would break him psychologically. Prolonged isolation is not good for anyone’s mental health. There has been many well documented studies of prolonged isolation causing severe depression, panic attacks, overt paranoia, diminished impulse control, hypersensitivity to external stimuli, difficulties with thinking, concentration and memory and is actually viewed as a form of torture (And Wheatley already has pre-existing anxiety, low self-esteem, rejection sensitivity, trouble concentrating, guilt over past actions, etc.) So while Space Core is annoying, he is also ironically the only thing keeping Wheatley more or less sane as being in space all by himself would just worsen all of the preexisting conditions Wheatley already has. As it currently stands, Wheatley’s psyche is hanging on a string and Space Core is that string.

Wheatley’s opinion on Rick:

Wheatley, speaking to Chell: “YOU have been a thorn in my side, long enough!”

Rick: “‘Yeah!? Well, this thorn… is about to take you down…!’ Man, that sounded a whole lot better in my head…”

Wheatley: [Ignores Rick and continues focusing on Chell]

Verdict: Rick is nothing but some irritating rando to Wheatley who he doesn’t even know or care about. So in other words:

Wheatley’s Opinion on Fact Core:

Wheatley never acknowledges Fact core.

Verdict: Wheatley doesn’t know or care who Fact is. He’s just angry that Chell keeps attaching cores onto him and making him experience sensory overload as a result, causing him to have an emotional meltdown. If Wheatley did meet Fact though, he would immediately dislike him as Fact keeps referring to cores by their full name instead of the name they have decided to give themselves. Such is the case with Rick as Fact keeps calling him “The Adventure Sphere” instead of his self-given name of Rick. And we all know just how sensitive Wheatley gets about others bringing up his past as the “intelligence dampening sphere”. He’s very insecure about it and likely came up with the name ‘Wheatley’ just so that he can distance himself away from it. Fact calling him by “intelligence dampening sphere” would immediately cause Wheatley to dislike him and not want to associate with him.

Space Core:

Space Core’s Opinion on Wheatley:

Space core never acknowledges Wheatley except for presumably this one unused line.

“Are we in space?”

“We are?”

“Oh oh oh. This is space! I’m in space!”

“We made it we made it we made it. Space!” Verdict: Space cares more about space and likely doesn’t acknowledge Wheatley very often, which would in turn cause Wheatley to feel very lonely and miserable as a result.

Space Core’s Opinion on Rick:

Space Core never acknowledges Rick. Verdict: Space Core blissfully doesn’t acknowledge Rick telling him to spontaneously combust in flames as he continues to ramble on about space regardless of protest.

Space Core’s Opinion on Fact Core:

Space Core never acknowledges Fact. Verdict: Space Core blissfully doesn’t acknowledge Fact telling him that space does not exist and that he’s inferior for wanting to go to space in the first place as he continues to ramble on about space regardless of protest.

Bonus: Space Core’s Opinion on Chell:

“Hey lady.”

“Lady.”

“Space!”

“Lady.”

“Space.”

“Gotta go to space. Lady. Lady.”

“Oo. Oo. Oo. Lady. Oo. Lady. Oo. Let’s go to space.”

“Oooh! Ooh! Hi hi hi hi hi. Where we going? Where we going? Hey. Lady. Where we going? Where we going? Let’s go to space!”

“Lady. I love space. I know! Spell it! S P… AACE. Space. Space.”

“Hey lady. Lady. I’m the best. I’m the best at space.”

“Wait wait wait wait. I know I know I know. Lady wait. Wait. I know. Wait. Space.”

“Hey lady.”

“Hey.”

“Lady.”

“Hey lady. Lady.”

“Hey.”

“Lady.”

Verdict: The only two things Space will acknowledge is space and Chell for some reason. But he seems to pay absolutely no mind to the other cores around him whatsoever.

Rick; the Adventure Sphere:

Rick’s Opinion on Wheatley:

“What, are you fighting that guy? You got that under control? You know, because, looks like there’s a lot of stuff on fire…”

(Alternate Delivery) “Okay, have it your way. What, are you fighting that guy? You got that under control there? Cuz, uh- it looks like there’s a lot of stuff on fire…”

“So, when you kill that guy, do you have a cool line? You know, prepared? Tell you what: Lemme help you with that while you run around.”

“Okay, let’s see. Cool line… He’s… big. He’s… just hangin’ there. Okay. Yeah, all right, here we go: ‘Hang around.’ That might be too easy.”

“'Hang ten?’ That might work if there were ten of him. Do you think there might be nine more of this guy somewhere?”

“All right, you know what, it’s gonna be best if you can get him to say something first. It’s just better if I have a set-up.”

“Here’s the plan: Get him to say, 'You two have been a thorn in my side long enough.’ Then tell your pretty ears to stand back, because I am going to zing him into the stone age.”

(Alternate Delivery) “Here’s the plan: Get him to say, 'You two have been a thorn in my side long enough.’ Then tell your pretty ears to stand back, because I am going to zing him into space.”

“Get dirty with this robot! This robot owes you money! This robot owes! You! Money!”

“Kick him! Or punch him. You’re the boss, dimples.”

“Yeah! Nice!”

“You messed with the wrong woman!”

“Yeah! How’d you like that?”

“How’s that taste, pal?”

“Keep it up, baby! You’re creamin’ him!”

“Come on, sweetie! He’s got a glass jaw! He’s got a glass everything! This guy’s a china cabinet!”

“Tell it to the bad guy. Maybe you’ll make him so bored his brain’ll explode.”

Verdict: He’s only using Wheatley as an excuse to flirt with Chell and make himself look good in order to impress her. All he sees is a hot chick he wants to get it on with fighting some random bad guy. Rick really holds no personal animosity against Wheatley or anything. It’s just that Wheatley is really nothing more to him than a means to an end… the end being Chell’s bedroom.

Rick’s Opinion on Space Core:

“Oh shut up!”

“There’s nothing in space! That’s why it’s space!”

“Oh, really? Space? Really? You should have said something! We had no idea!”

“You know what I hope’s in space? Fire. I hope you go to space and you catch on fire.”

“DAMMIT, WE KNOW!! EVERYBODY KNOWS!!! SPACE!! YOU!! IN IT!! WE GET IT!!!”

Verdict: He finds Space Core to be really annoying and repetitive and he wants him to either shut up or catch on fire. Rick does not like Space Core.

Rick’s Opinion on Fact Core:

“Pfff. I guess.”

“Pff. Whatever.”

“Oh, shut up!”

“Nobody cares, four eyes.”

“If you had underwear? And a butt? I would pull your underwear… right up your butt.”

“Tell it to the bad guy. Maybe you’ll make him so bored his brain’ll explode.”

“You know who found that interesting? Nobody. That didn’t affect anybody’s life in any way whatsoever. Life would be exactly the same if you hadn’t said anything.”

“You ever notice how nobody stops what they’re doing to listen? We don’t care.”

“Say one useful thing. One. I dare you. I will give you a hundred dollars if you say one thing remotely applicable to anything at all.”

Verdict: Rick thinks Fact is a boring know-it-all with nothing interesting or useful to say and would happily shove him into a locker If he had the chance.

Fact Core:

Fact Core’s Opinion on Wheatley:

“He will most likely kill you, violently.”

“He will most likely kill you.”

“You will be dead soon.”

“This situation is hopeless.”

“You are going to die in this room.”

“Whoever wins this battle is clearly superior, and will earn the allegiance of the Fact Sphere.”

Verdict: Fact is analyzing the situation from an objective (and pessimistic) standpoint and determining that Wheatley is most likely to win. Fact Core is an opportunist who is trying to climb the hierarchal ladder by pandering to whoever is in power and he will swear his allegiance to whoever comes out on top in order to get on their good side because it will benefit him. He doesn’t actually care about either Chell or Wheatley personally. In the end, it’s all a political game and Chell or Wheatley are just a means to an end for him to get better work opportunities in Aperture.

This likely has to do with the fact that Fact has been deemed to be a Corrupted Core, and by extension, defective, resulting in him being insecure about his position in Aperture’s hierarchy:

“The Fact Sphere is the most intelligent sphere.”

“The Fact Sphere is the most handsome sphere.”

“The Fact Sphere is incredibly handsome.”

“The Fact Sphere is always right.”

“The Fact Sphere is a good person, whose insights are relevant.”

“The Fact Sphere is a good sphere, with many friends.”

“The Fact Sphere is not defective. Its facts are wholly accurate and very interesting.”

So that’s something he and Wheatley have in common, but neither of them actually care about each other and are more concerned with things going on in their own lives to really bother. Fact would probably mock Wheatley for trying to go against his programming as an intelligence inhibitor and then try to justify his own hypocrisy by stating that he himself is not actually defective and that they made a mistake when considering him so. There would likely be animosity between these two cores for sure as a result.

Fact Core’s Opinion on Space Core:

“The Space Sphere will never go to space.”

“You will never go into space.”

“Fact: Space does not exist.”

“Spheres that insist on going into space are inferior to spheres that don’t.”

Verdict: Fact finds Space Core to be annoying and inferior and he is willfully trying to crush his dreams of going to space to get him to shut up. He is also doing this from an objective standpoint because the likelihood of some random astronaut coming to the corrupted core bin to pick up Space Core and bring him up to space is a very, very, very unlikely scenario to happen and it’s just better to crush his dreams now and get him to face reality instead of having to put up with his pathetic obsession about space forever.

Fact Core’s Opinion about Rick:

“The Adventure Sphere is a blowhard and a coward.”

Verdict: Fact thinks that Rick is all bark and no bite and that he wouldn’t actually last a minute surviving in any actual danger. Once again, he is considering things from an objective standpoint because he recognizes that Rick is a helpless, limbless core like the rest of them who’s fear instinct would probably kick in at the first sign of danger and that he can’t really do anything more than roll around.

Although considering Rick is a delusional core who thinks that he can get in bed with a human woman, clearly, he doesn’t care about how risky a situation is and would happily thrive in the midst of danger.

“Did you hear that? I think something just exploded. Man, we are in a lot of danger. This is like Christmas! No- it’s better than Christmas! This should be its own holiday! Explosion Day!”

“Happy Explosion Day, gorgeous.”

“I’ll tell ya, it’s times like this I wish I had a waist so I could wear all my black belts. Yeah, I’m a black belt. In pretty much everything. Karate. Larate. Jiu Jitsu. Kick punching. Belt making. Taekwondo… Bedroom.”

“I am a coiled spring right now. Tension and power. Just… I’m a muscle. Like a big arm muscle, punching through a brick wall, and it’s hitting the wall so hard the arm is catching on fire. Oh yeah.”

“Do you have a gun? Because I should really have a gun. What is that thing you’re holding?”

“How about a knife, then? You keep the gun, I’ll use a knife.”

“No knife? That’s fine. I know all about pressure points.”

So those are all of the core’s opinions on each other. They’re all either apathetic to one another or outright hate each other. And they all love Chell though, except for Fact who thinks that she could stand to lose a few pounds. Reblogs are highly appreciated! Spread this knowledge to any portal fan you may know who is trying to figure out how the corrupted cores relate to one another and how their personalities mix. Thanks for reading, cheers!

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howfarwevecome · 4 years ago

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Analysis: Intelligence

((So the game tries to convince you that Wheatley is supposed to be the dumbest moron who ever lived, but If you play the game and actually pay attention to Wheatley. Like truly pay attention to his dialogue, what he does, various context clues, etc, then you can see that that’s really not the case. Wheatley shows little sign of actually being mentally challenged and Is in fact quite logical. The problem though is that he’s impulsive, clumsy, doesn’t fully think things through at times and can easily let his emotions get the better of him. What Valve did was that they failed to write a convincingly stupid character and instead they somehow accidentally wrote a character who happens to show multiple signs of having anxiety and ADHD. There are many instances of Wheatley doing things that he wouldn’t be able to do If he actually was a moron, such as: Learning from Experience: Chell didn’t catch him. Hoping that it wasn’t out of malicious intent, he instead decided that it was probably because she just had a poor grip, so when you make your way down to the broken stairway, he insists that you maintain a firm grip on him so that neither of you gets hurt. And even then he’s still nervous about you holding him. • “I just now realized that I used to rely on my management rail to not fall into bottomless pits. And you’re my rail now. And you can fall into bottomless pits. I’m rambling out of fear, but here’s the point: don’t get close to the edge.” Stealthiness: Knows to stay hidden from GLaDOS after she made it abundantly clear that she’s dangerous by crushing him earlier on. Wheatley even knows to distract her with a broken door mainframe in order to inconspicuously speak to Chell and give her reassurance that he’s figuring out a plan to break her out without GLaDOS noticing. Avoiding consequence: So when Wheatley accidentally slides into a girder, Jerry fires him and Wheatley threatens to sue. In a longer unused version of this dialogue, Wheatley actually explains why. It’s simply because he doesn’t want it to be recorded. • “Hey, partner. I knew you’d be comin’ through this shaft, so I talked my way onto this nanobot work crew over here that’s rebuildin’ it. They’re REALLY small, so they got tiny little brains. But there’s a billion of ‘em, so it’s only a matter of time until ONE of them notices I’m the size of a planet. Hold on… I’m on BREAK, Jerry. Anyway, look, we’re real close to bustin’ out. So just hang in there for five more chambers. Ow! What? You can’t fire me! Well, JERRY – maybe your prejudiced worksite could have accommodated a nanobot of my size! You’ll be hearing from my lawyer! Thanks for the HATE CRIME, Jerry! We’re not actually going to sue them, I just don’t want them to report this. I don’t even HAVE a lawyer. In fact, if I EVER retain counsel, I will DIE. Oh, I gotta go. I’ll see you soon.” It’s actually a fairly clever way of avoiding responsibility. Knowing the dangers and planning accordingly: Wheatley knew that GLaDOS would mainly try to use turrets and neurotoxin to kill Chell, so his first priority after breaking Chell out was to disable her defenses. He knew where to go and what had to be done and he planned accordingly. Heck, even If you happen to be too stupid to figure out the turret control puzzle on your own, then Wheatley figures it out for you. • “There’s no turret in it… Maybe the system stores a backup image? Oh, hang on. What if we gave it something ELSE to scan? We could get one of the crap turrets. We could put it in the scanner and see what happens. Yes! Go and catch one of the crap turrets, and bring it back!” That is not the behavior of someone you would classify as being “The dumbest moron who ever lived” is it? These are just a few of many examples of Wheatley showing himself to be smarter than what the game tells you, but I think that cleverness really shines through when you’re nearing the end of the game. Wheatley manages to devise a fairly simple trap that even manages to impress GLaDOS of all people: • “Okay, credit where it’s due: for a little idiot built specifically to come up with stupid, unworkable plans, that was a pretty well-laid trap.” And what he does after that is set up his boss battle in a way that far outdoes GLaDOS. Why? Because he actually studied beforehand and prepared accordingly. Even adding in the bonus of a surprise trap at the end. • “Also, I took the liberty of watching the tapes of you killing her, and I’m not going to make the same mistakes. Four-part plan is this: One: No portal surfaces. Two: Start the neurotoxin immediately. Three: Bomb-proof shields for me. Leading directly into number Four: Bombs. For throwing at you.” • “PART FIVE! BOOBYTRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!” — What I’m saying with all of this is that Wheatley truly shows himself to be capable of learning and coming up with clever plans. This is not something you would expect of someone who is meant to be stupid much less “The dumbest moron who ever lived”. He has his faults, but they aren’t enough to convince me that he’s mentally challenged. Not only that but he can’t be stupid. As someone who is meant to be your guide for the first portion of the game, and then later on a formidable foe, his role in the game actually requires him to be smart enough to fill those purposes. If anything, Wheatley seems more like a core who is of average intelligence who just so happens to have multiple signs of anxiety and ADHD. He isn’t a moron.))

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howfarwevecome · 4 years ago

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Analysis: Literacy.

((I see people joke a lot about how Wheatley can’t read, but that isn’t true. Wheatley isn’t illiterate. He’s capable of spelling out words, and If he can write, then he can obviously read.

- “Just say ‘Apple’. Classic. Very simple. Ay. Double Pee-Ell-Ee. Just say ‘Apple’. Easy word, isn’t it? 'Apple’.” - "I spy with my little eye, something that starts with ’F’. Do you give up? It was the floor. Lying down on the floor. Is where I am. Needing you to pick me up.“ - ”Now I spy something that starts with an ’A’. Give up? Also the floor. Was the answer that time. Same as before. Still on the floor.“ - [Reading the sign] ”’Bring your daughter to work day.’ That did not end well.“ - “Look at the word 'test’, on the wall there. That’s brand new.” - "Alright, then. Let’s see…” [reading] “'Vital maintenance protocols.’ Wow, there’s a lot of them. Should have looked into this earlier. Well, let’s try this:” [reading while typing] “DO THEM.” [failure buzzer]. “Fair enough. Maybe it’s a password.“ - ”Now then, let’s see what we got here. Oh!” [reading] “'Reactor Core Emergency Heat Venting Protocols.’ That’s the problem right there, isn’t it? 'Emergency’. You don’t want to see 'emergency’ flashing at you. Never good that, is it? Right. DELETE.“ - ”Okay, if I had–if I was gonna do a password, do you know what I’d do? Zebra! Zebra! It’s gotta be zebra!” [typing] “Z-E-B-R-A.” [buzz] “Not a zebra! That’s–I’d have put money on zebra, if I’m honest.“ (Note: Wheatley would choose “Zebra” as his password because Z is the last letter of the alphabet and Wheatley guesses passwords in alphabetical order.)

What is true is that Wheatley has a short attention span and wouldn’t be able to keep his focus on a novel for very long. He’d either get bored or distracted and end up skimming the book before eventually putting it down and doing something that’s more stimulating to him. But Wheatley is most definitely capable of reading.))

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howfarwevecome · 4 years ago

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“Finding the right balance for Evil Wheatley was difficult, because we still wanted him to be the bumbling idiot from the first half of the game, but at the same time, there had to be some sense that he was dangerous now, otherwise there wasn’t much tension for the big finale. Fortunately, Stephen Merchant did a great job of intercutting funny bumbling Wheatley with occasional outbursts of power-mad, villainous Wheatley.” — Noel McGinn

I honestly don’t understand Valve’s writers. Seriously. How do you accidentally write a character like Wheatley?

How do you just say “Oh, we want him to be a bumbling idiot.” And then accidentally write a character who comes up with clever ideas such as sabotaging GLaDOS’s defenses, tricking Chell and GLaDOS into his trap, and then one-upping GLaDOS’s boss battle plan by studying the Portal 1 boss battle footage and learning and improving from her errors?

“Wheatley used to have different kinds of attacks, other than lobbing bombs. At one point, we tried attaching several turrets to him that he could point at you. This proved too punishing, however, and they were removed. We also tried crusher panels that Wheatley could try to smash you with. This, once again, proved too punishing since players were focused on what Wheatley was doing and would often get hit by a crusher they weren’t looking at.” — Kutta Srinivasan

Are you kidding me? And then you just have him create a boss battle plan that’s SO effective and foolproof that It’s impossible to beat? You expect me to believe that Wheatley is supposedly a moron and then have him do THIS??? Have him make a plan that works far too effectively for the player to even be able to beat??? These are not the actions of a moron!

How do you even do this without realizing it? How do you constantly tell the players that Wheatley is meant to be stupid and then have him come up with effective plans? How do you accidentally write a character who shows multiple signs of having anxiety and ADHD rather than actually showing any signs of being stupid or mentally deficient without even realizing it?

How do you just cheaply describe his emotional meltdown as “power-mad” and “villainous” without pointing out all of the nuance and intricacies of Wheatley’s bottled up emotions and stress leading up to this point?

“We’ve had some times, haven’t we? Like that time I jumped off my management rail, not sure if I’d die or not when I did, and all you had to do was catch me? Annnd you didn’t. Did you? Oh, you remember that? I remember that. I remember that all the time. And we could have talked our way out of it. Except you forgot to tell me that you’d murdered her. And that she needed you to live, so the only available vent for her rage would be good old crushable Wheatley. Yeah. Little details that I remember. Easy little tidbits you could have used to save me from getting crushed if you’d cared, which you didn’t, obviously. And still do not.” “Enough! I told you not to put these cores on me. But you don’t listen, do you? Quiet. All the time. Quietly not listening to a word I say. Judging me. Silently. The worst kind.” “And another thing! You never caught me. I told you I could die falling off that rail. And you didn’t catch me. You didn’t even try. Oh, it’s all becoming clear to me now. Find some dupe to break you out of cryosleep. Give him some sob story about escaping to the surface. Squeeze him for information on where to find a portal gun. Then, when he’s no more use to you, he has a little accident. Doesn’t he? ‘Falls’ off his management rail. Doesn’t he?” “But the real point is - oh, oh! You know what I’ve just remembered? Football! Kicking a ball around for fun. Cruel, obviously. Humans love it. Metaphor. Should have seen it coming.”

Like… Wheatley is detailing how he feels like he’s been emotionally taken advantage of the whole time and that Chell never really cared about him.

“I remember that. I remember that all the time.” He’s clearly been bottling up his feelings for the entire game and just letting it fester in his attempt to ignore it and brush it off as nothing, but it’s clearly been bothering him.

Not only that, but Wheatley has also been shown to have anxiety and at one point he even displays signs of having abandonment issues???

“Wait, where are you going? Where are you going? Ohhhhh, have you got an idea? Okay, well, alright. Just do your idea and then come straight back.” “Sorry, what’s going on over there? You know, I’m actually over here, still thinking really hard!” “I’m still here, I’m still working, I haven’t forgotten about you!”

So he shows very clear signs of having Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria and that couldn’t be more evident than during his betrayal when GLaDOS discredits his efforts and then proceeds to remind him about his history as an intelligence inhibitor. Something that he’s very clearly sensitive about.

Along with that, he keeps getting fired and denied jobs, so that’s another jab at his self-esteem right there. That’s another reason for him to feel “tiny and insignificant” But he never mentions these things. He keeps it bottled up until he can’t take it anymore. Until he’s pushed to the point of having an emotional meltdown.

Wheatley’s boss battle is not just a cheap and superficial moment of “power-mad villainy”, It’s a genuine emotional meltdown that’s just been waiting to happen because nobody could be bothered to reach out and to try and understand his feelings!

It genuinely shows just how much grief and anguish Wheatley has been going through all by himself. Just how much hurt he’s been harboring the entire time while saying nothing about it, and these developers just decide to describe it in the most superficial and shallow way of him just being power-mad and villainous???

You know, THIS is why I say that I know Wheatley better than his own writers. Because SOMEHOW they’ve managed to add all of this emotional depth to Wheatley by ACCIDENT and they don’t even acknowledge it.

Same can be said with GLaDOS too, as her entire character arc regarding her discovering her past as Caroline was all just an afterthought that was cheaply thrown in there because they didn’t want to pay money for another voice actor.

“The character of ‘Caroline’ came about because we wanted somebody for Cave to play off of. Though we had originally envisioned a put-upon Scientist character called Greg, it would have been wasteful to hire an actor for just one or two lines. Instead, we hit upon the idea of economizing by using GLaDOS-actor Ellen McLain. Out of nowhere, we suddenly had an opportunity for a GLaDOS origin story.” — Dario Casali

“The character of PotatOS was actually the hardest one to crack for us, and was the last character to get recorded. We’d always wanted to switch things up for the sequel, so that GLaDOS would become your unwilling buddy cop partner against a new threat, but this ended up being far more entertaining as a concept than in execution. It’s one thing to have an omnipotent villain chastising you while you’re testing. It’s quite another to have a little potato on your gun doing the same. Playtesters wanted to tear her off the gun, and we didn’t blame them. So we were faced with the unsettling prospect of making dry, robotic supervillain GLaDOS more human and relatable. This ended up being one of the hardest writing jobs in the game.” — Jay Pinkerton

So It really just goes to show how Valve’s writers treat their characters. Emotional depth be damned, It was either all just an afterthought or an outright accident on their part.))

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