Portal 2 can most easily be described as Stockholm syndrome, the video game. Stockholm syndrome is a condition in which a hostage bonds to their captor, and many go through similar symptoms playing the game. You play through the game as Chell, the silent protagonist who is forced through a series of tests, for the amusement of a psychotic AI named GLaDOS (Genetic Life form and Disk Operating System). Who’s only purpose is to see out a multitude of tests, with you as the sole guinea pig of her deceptive trials. GLaDOS was originally designed as a testing overseer, however, she soon started to fail. Doing things such as flooding a testing center with deadly neurotoxin, and as such, had a “personality core” attached to her. The purpose of the …show more content…
She sees the ruin her testing center has become, and immediately gets you back on the testing track. Wheatly abandons you so he can later attempt to save you. You go through quite a bit of game play with GLaDOS narrating your progress. GLaDOS’s dialogue is witty, sarcastic, and extremely passive aggressive. Her comments ring with evil, in the most charming way possible. Its here where the Stockholm syndrome begins to take hold. You laugh as GLaDOS makes jokes at your expense, whether its a comment on your weight, your appearance, or your intelligence, she never fails to make you smile. After a while, Wheatly manages to separate you from GLaDOS, and takes you to several areas to cripple some of GLaDOS’s key systems. It also becomes very clear that without you, Wheatly would be completely and totally out of luck, everything he seems to do ends in failure. Without you to correct his plethora of blunders, he would have no chance to complete anything successfully. However, this isn’t a throwaway detail, when you go to confront GLaDOS, it is revealed that he is one of her original personality cores. Wheatly was designed to slow her down, with a series of thoughts that were all awful ideas. GLaDOS even describes him as, “the product of the greatest minds of a generation working together with the express purpose of building the dumbest moron who ever lived.” And he shows his strong decision making skills, by immediately taking control of the facility, and throwing you, and GLaDOS into a