title: Van der Waals force

text: London dispersion forces, named after the German-American physicist Fritz London, are weak intermolecular forces that arise from the interactive forces between instantaneous multipoles in molecules without permanent multipole moments. In and between organic molecules the multitude of contacts can lead to larger contribution of dispersive attraction, particularly in the presence of heteroatoms. London dispersion forces are also known as 'dispersion forces', 'London forces', or 'instantaneous dipole–induced dipole forces'. The strength of London dispersion forces is proportional to the polarizability of the molecule, which in turn depends on the total number of electrons and the area over which they are spread. Hydrocarbons display small dispersive contributions, the presence of heteroatoms lead to increased LD forces as function of their polarizability, e.g. in the sequence RI>RBr>RCl>RF. In absence of solvents weakly polarizable hydrocarbons form crystals due to dispersive forces; their sublimation heat is a measure of the dispersive interaction.


title: Van der Waals force

text: For macroscopic bodies with known volumes and numbers of atoms or molecules per unit volume, the total van der Waals force is often computed based on the "microscopic theory" as the sum over all interacting pairs. It is necessary to integrate over the total volume of the object, which makes the calculation dependent on the objects' shapes. For example, the van der Waals interaction energy between spherical bodies of radii R and R and with smooth surfaces was approximated in 1937 by Hamaker (using London's famous 1937 equation for the dispersion interaction energy between atoms/molecules as the starting point) by:


title: Van der Waals force

text: where A is the Hamaker coefficient, which is a constant (~10 − 10 J) that depends on the material properties (it can be positive or negative in sign depending on the intervening medium), and "z" is the center-to-center distance; i.e., the sum of "R", "R", and "r" (the distance between the surfaces): formula_1.


title: Van der Waals force

text: The van der Waals "force" between two spheres of constant radii ("R" and "R" are treated as parameters) is then a function of separation since the force on an object is the negative of the derivative of the potential energy function,formula_2. This yields:


title: Van der Waals force

text: In the limit of close-approach, the spheres are sufficiently large compared to the distance between them; i.e., formula_3 or formula_4, so that equation (1) for the potential energy function simplifies to:


title: Van der Waals force

text: The van der Waals forces between objects with other geometries using the Hamaker model have been published in the literature.


title: Van der Waals force

text: From the expression above, it is seen that the van der Waals force decreases with decreasing size of bodies (R). Nevertheless, the strength of inertial forces, such as gravity and drag/lift, decrease to a greater extent. Consequently, the van der Waals forces become dominant for collections of very small particles such as very fine-grained dry powders (where there are no capillary forces present) even though the force of attraction is smaller in magnitude than it is for larger particles of the same substance. Such powders are said to be cohesive, meaning they are not as easily fluidized or pneumatically conveyed as their more coarse-grained counterparts. Generally, free-flow occurs with particles greater than about 250 μm.


title: Van der Waals force

text: The van der Waals force of adhesion is also dependent on the surface topography. If there are surface asperities, or protuberances, that result in a greater total area of contact between two particles or between a particle and a wall, this increases the van der Waals force of attraction as well as the tendency for mechanical interlocking.


title: Van der Waals force

text: The microscopic theory assumes pairwise additivity. It neglects many-body interactions and retardation. A more rigorous approach accounting for these effects, called the "macroscopic theory" was developed by Lifshitz in 1956. Langbein derived a much more cumbersome "exact" expression in 1970 for spherical bodies within the framework of the Lifshitz theory while a simpler macroscopic model approximation had been made by Derjaguin as early as 1934. Expressions for the van der Waals forces for many different geometries using the Lifshitz theory have likewise been published.


title: Van der Waals force

text: The ability of geckos – which can hang on a glass surface using only one toe – to climb on sheer surfaces has been for many years mainly attributed to the van der Waals forces between these surfaces and the spatulae, or microscopic projections, which cover the hair-like setae found on their footpads. A later study suggested that capillary adhesion might play a role, but that hypothesis has been rejected by more recent studies.


title: Van der Waals force

text: A recent study has however shown that gecko adhesion to smooth Teflon and polydimethylsiloxane surfaces is mainly determined by electrostatic interaction (caused by contact electrification), not van der Waals or capillary forces.


title: Van der Waals force

text: There were efforts in 2008 to create a dry glue that exploits the effect, and success was achieved in 2011 to create an adhesive tape on similar grounds. In 2011, a paper was published relating the effect to both velcro-like hairs and the presence of lipids in gecko footprints.


title: Van der Waals force

text: Among the arthropods, some spiders have similar setae on their scopulae or scopula pads, enabling them to climb or hang upside-down from extremely smooth surfaces such as glass or porcelain.


title: Van der Waals force

text: In May 2014, DARPA demonstrated the latest iteration of its "Geckskin" technology by having a 100 kg researcher (saddled with 20 kg of recording gear) scale an glass wall using only two climbing paddles. Tests are ongoing, but DARPA hopes one day to make the technology available for military use, giving soldiers Spider-Man-like abilities in urban combat.


title: Event horizon

text: In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect an observer. Wolfgang Rindler coined the term in the 1950s.


title: Event horizon

text: In 1784, John Michell proposed that gravity can be strong enough in the vicinity of massive compact objects that even light cannot escape. At that time, the Newtonian theory of gravitation and the so-called corpuscular theory of light were dominant. In these theories, if the escape velocity of the gravitational influence of a massive object exceeds the speed of light, then light originating inside or from it can escape temporarily but will return. In 1958, David Finkelstein used general relativity to introduce a stricter definition of a local black hole event horizon as a boundary beyond which events of any kind cannot affect an outside observer, leading to information and firewall paradoxes, encouraging the re-examination of the concept of local event horizons and the notion of black holes. Several theories were subsequently developed, some with and some without event horizons. One of the leading developers of theories to describe black holes, Stephen Hawking, suggested that an apparent horizon should be used instead of an event horizon, saying, "gravitational collapse produces apparent horizons but no event horizons." He eventually concluded that "the absence of event horizons means that there are no black holes – in the sense of regimes from which light can't escape to infinity."


title: Event horizon

text: Any object approaching the horizon from the observer's side appears to slow down, never quite crossing the horizon. Due to gravitational redshift, its image reddens over time as the object moves away from the observer.


title: Event horizon

text: In an expanding universe, the speed of expansion reaches — and even exceeds — the speed of light, preventing signals from traveling to some regions. A cosmic event horizon is a real event horizon because it affects all kinds of signals, including gravitational waves, which travel at the speed of light.


title: Event horizon

text: More specific horizon types include the related but distinct absolute and apparent horizons found around a black hole. Other distinct types include:


title: Event horizon

text: In cosmology, the event horizon of the observable universe is the largest comoving distance from which light emitted "now" can ever reach the observer in the future. This differs from the concept of the particle horizon, which represents the largest comoving distance from which light emitted in the "past" could reach the observer at a given time. For events that occur beyond that distance, light has not had enough time to reach our location, even if it was emitted at the time the universe began. The evolution of the particle horizon with time depends on the nature of the expansion of the universe. If the expansion has certain characteristics, parts of the universe will never be observable, no matter how long the observer waits for the light from those regions to arrive. The boundary beyond which events cannot ever be observed is an event horizon, and it represents the maximum extent of the particle horizon.


title: Event horizon

text: The criterion for determining whether a particle horizon for the universe exists is as follows. Define a comoving distance "d" as


title: Event horizon

text: In this equation, "a" is the scale factor, "c" is the speed of light, and "t" is the age of the Universe. If (i.e., points arbitrarily as far away as can be observed), then no event horizon exists. If , a horizon is present.


title: Event horizon

text: Examples of cosmological models without an event horizon are universes dominated by matter or by radiation. An example of a cosmological model with an event horizon is a universe dominated by the cosmological constant (a de Sitter universe).


title: Event horizon

text: A calculation of the speeds of the cosmological event and particle horizons was given in a paper on the FLRW cosmological model, approximating the Universe as composed of non-interacting constituents, each one being a perfect fluid.


title: Event horizon

text: If a particle is moving at a constant velocity in a non-expanding universe free of gravitational fields, any event that occurs in that Universe will eventually be observable by the particle, because the forward light cones from these events intersect the particle's world line. On the other hand, if the particle is accelerating, in some situations light cones from some events never intersect the particle's world line. Under these conditions, an apparent horizon is present in the particle's (accelerating) reference frame, representing a boundary beyond which events are unobservable.


title: Event horizon

text: For example, this occurs with a uniformly accelerated particle. A spacetime diagram of this situation is shown in the figure to the right. As the particle accelerates, it approaches, but never reaches, the speed of light with respect to its original reference frame. On the spacetime diagram, its path is a hyperbola, which asymptotically approaches a 45-degree line (the path of a light ray). An event whose light cone's edge is this asymptote or is farther away than this asymptote can never be observed by the accelerating particle. In the particle's reference frame, there is a boundary behind it from which no signals can escape (an apparent horizon). The distance to this boundary is given by formula_2, where is the constant proper acceleration of the particle.


title: Event horizon

text: While approximations of this type of situation can occur in the real world (in particle accelerators, for example), a true event horizon is never present, as this requires the particle to be accelerated indefinitely (requiring arbitrarily large amounts of energy and an arbitrarily large apparatus).


title: Event horizon

text: In the case of a horizon perceived by a uniformly accelerating observer in empty space, the horizon seems to remain a fixed distance from the observer no matter how its surroundings move. Varying the observer's acceleration may cause the horizon to appear to move over time or may prevent an event horizon from existing, depending on the acceleration function chosen. The observer never touches the horizon and never passes a location where it appeared to be.


title: Event horizon

text: In the case of a horizon perceived by an occupant of a de Sitter universe, the horizon always appears to be a fixed distance away for a non-accelerating observer. It is never contacted, even by an accelerating observer.


title: Event horizon

text: One of the best-known examples of an event horizon derives from general relativity's description of a black hole, a celestial object so dense that no nearby matter or radiation can escape its gravitational field. Often, this is described as the boundary within which the black hole's escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. However, a more detailed description is that within this horizon, all lightlike paths (paths that light could take) (and hence all paths in the forward light cones of particles within the horizon) are warped so as to fall farther into the hole. Once a particle is inside the horizon, moving into the hole is as inevitable as moving forward in time – no matter in what direction the particle is travelling – and can be thought of as equivalent to doing so, depending on the spacetime coordinate system used.


title: Event horizon

text: The surface at the Schwarzschild radius acts as an event horizon in a non-rotating body that fits inside this radius (although a rotating black hole operates slightly differently). The Schwarzschild radius of an object is proportional to its mass. Theoretically, any amount of matter will become a black hole if compressed into a space that fits within its corresponding Schwarzschild radius. For the mass of the Sun, this radius is approximately ; for Earth, it is about . In practice, however, neither Earth nor the Sun have the necessary mass (and, therefore, the necessary gravitational force) to overcome electron and neutron degeneracy pressure. The minimal mass required for a star to collapse beyond these pressures is the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit, which is approximately three solar masses.


title: Event horizon

text: According to the fundamental gravitational collapse models, an event horizon forms before the singularity of a black hole. If all the stars in the Milky Way would gradually aggregate towards the galactic center while keeping their proportionate distances from each other, they will all fall within their joint Schwarzschild radius long before they are forced to collide. Up to the collapse in the far future, observers in a galaxy surrounded by an event horizon would proceed with their lives normally.


title: Event horizon

text: Black hole event horizons are widely misunderstood. Common, although erroneous, is the notion that black holes "vacuum up" material in their neighborhood, where in fact they are no more capable of seeking out material to consume than any other gravitational attractor. As with any mass in the universe, matter must come within its gravitational scope for the possibility to exist of capture or consolidation with any other mass. Equally common is the idea that matter can be observed falling into a black hole. This is not possible. Astronomers can detect only accretion disks around black holes, where material moves with such speed that friction creates high-energy radiation that can be detected (similarly, some matter from these accretion disks is forced out along the axis of spin of the black hole, creating visible jets when these streams interact with matter such as interstellar gas or when they happen to be aimed directly at Earth). Furthermore, a distant observer will never actually see something reach the horizon. Instead, while approaching the hole, the object will seem to go ever more slowly, while any light it emits will be further and further redshifted.


title: Event horizon

text: Topologically, the event horizon is defined from the causal structure as the past null cone of future conformal timelike infinity.


title: Event horizon

text: The black hole event horizon is teleological in nature, meaning that we need to know the entire future spacetime of the universe to determine the current location of the horizon, which is essentially impossible. Because of the purely theoretical nature of the event horizon boundary, the traveling object does not necessarily experience strange effects and does, in fact, pass through the calculatory boundary in a finite amount of proper time.


title: Event horizon

text: A misconception concerning event horizons, especially black hole event horizons, is that they represent an immutable surface that destroys objects that approach them. In practice, all event horizons appear to be some distance away from any observer, and objects sent towards an event horizon never appear to cross it from the sending observer's point of view (as the horizon-crossing event's light cone never intersects the observer's world line). Attempting to make an object near the horizon remain stationary with respect to an observer requires applying a force whose magnitude increases unboundedly (becoming infinite) the closer it gets.


title: Event horizon

text: In the case of the horizon around a black hole, observers stationary with respect to a distant object will all agree on where the horizon is. While this seems to allow an observer lowered towards the hole on a rope (or rod) to contact the horizon, in practice this cannot be done. The proper distance to the horizon is finite, so the length of rope needed would be finite as well, but if the rope were lowered slowly (so that each point on the rope was approximately at rest in Schwarzschild coordinates), the proper acceleration (G-force) experienced by points on the rope closer and closer to the horizon would approach infinity, so the rope would be torn apart. If the rope is lowered quickly (perhaps even in freefall), then indeed the observer at the bottom of the rope can touch and even cross the event horizon. But once this happens it is impossible to pull the bottom of rope back out of the event horizon, since if the rope is pulled taut, the forces along the rope increase without bound as they approach the event horizon and at some point the rope must break. Furthermore, the break must occur not at the event horizon, but at a point where the second observer can observe it.


title: Event horizon

text: Assuming that the possible apparent horizon is far inside the event horizon, or there is none, observers crossing a black hole event horizon would not actually see or feel anything special happen at that moment. In terms of visual appearance, observers who fall into the hole perceive the eventual apparent horizon as a black impermeable area enclosing the singularity. Other objects that had entered the horizon area along the same radial path but at an earlier time would appear below the observer as long as they are not entered inside the apparent horizon, and they could exchange messages. Increasing tidal forces are also locally noticeable effects, as a function of the mass of the black hole. In realistic stellar black holes, spaghettification occurs early: tidal forces tear materials apart well before the event horizon. However, in supermassive black holes, which are found in centers of galaxies, spaghettification occurs inside the event horizon. A human astronaut would survive the fall through an event horizon only in a black hole with a mass of approximately 10,000 solar masses or greater.


title: Event horizon

text: A cosmic event horizon is commonly accepted as a real event horizon, whereas the description of a local black hole event horizon given by general relativity is found to be incomplete and controversial. When the conditions under which local event horizons occur are modeled using a more comprehensive picture of the way the Universe works, that includes both relativity and quantum mechanics, local event horizons are expected to have properties that are different from those predicted using general relativity alone.


title: Event horizon

text: At present, it is expected by the Hawking radiation mechanism that the primary impact of quantum effects is for event horizons to possess a temperature and so emit radiation. For black holes, this manifests as Hawking radiation, and the larger question of how the black hole possesses a temperature is part of the topic of black hole thermodynamics. For accelerating particles, this manifests as the Unruh effect, which causes space around the particle to appear to be filled with matter and radiation.


title: Event horizon

text: According to the controversial black hole firewall hypothesis, matter falling into a black hole would be burned to a crisp by a high energy "firewall" at the event horizon.


title: Event horizon

text: An alternative is provided by the complementarity principle, according to which, in the chart of the far observer, infalling matter is thermalized at the horizon and reemitted as Hawking radiation, while in the chart of an infalling observer matter continues undisturbed through the inner region and is destroyed at the singularity. This hypothesis does not violate the no-cloning theorem as there is a single copy of the information according to any given observer. Black hole complementarity is actually suggested by the scaling laws of strings approaching the event horizon, suggesting that in the Schwarzschild chart they stretch to cover the horizon and thermalize into a Planck length-thick membrane.


title: Event horizon

text: A complete description of local event horizons generated by gravity is expected to, at minimum, require a theory of quantum gravity. One such candidate theory is M-theory. Another such candidate theory is loop quantum gravity.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Fried Green Tomatoes is a 1991 American comedy-drama film directed by Jon Avnet and based on Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe". Written by Flagg and Carol Sobieski, and starring Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson, the film tells the story of a housewife who, unhappy with her life, befriends an elderly lady in a nursing home and is enthralled by the tales she tells of people she used to know.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: The film was released in theaters in the United States on December 27, 1991, garnered positive reviews from critics and was a box office hit, grossing $119.4 million on a $11 million budget. It was nominated for two Oscars at the 64th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Tandy) and Best Adapted Screenplay.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Evelyn Couch, a timid housewife in her 40s, meets elderly Ninny Threadgoode at an Alabama nursing home. Evelyn's husband, Ed, has an aunt living there. Over several encounters, Ninny tells Evelyn about the long-abandoned town of Whistle Stop and its residents. The film's subplot concerns Evelyn's dissatisfaction with her marriage, her life, her growing confidence, and a developing friendship with Ninny. The narrative switches several times between Ninny's story set between World War I and World War II, and Evelyn's life in 1980s Birmingham.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Ninny's tale begins with tomboy Idgie Threadgoode, the youngest member of her family, who would later become Ninny's sister-in-law. Young Idgie is devastated when her beloved older brother, Buddy, is killed by a train. She remains socially withdrawn well into her adolescence. At the Threadgoode family's request, Buddy's former girlfriend, the straitlaced Ruth Jamison, intervenes.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Idgie initially rebuffs Ruth's attempt at friendship, but over the summer they gradually develop a deep attachment. Ruth eventually moves to Valdosta, Georgia, to marry Frank Bennett. When Idgie visits, she discovers that Frank habitually abuses a pregnant Ruth. Against Frank's violent attempts to stop her, Ruth returns to Whistle Stop with Idgie, where her baby, Buddy Jr., is born. Papa Threadgoode gives Idgie money to start a business and help care for Ruth and Buddy Jr. She and Ruth open the Whistle Stop Cafe, employing the family cook, Sipsey, and her son, Big George, whose excellent barbecue becomes popular with customers.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Frank returns to Whistle Stop to kidnap his infant son, but an unseen assailant thwarts his attempt; Frank is soon reported missing. About five years later, Frank's truck surfaces in a nearby river. Idgie becomes a suspect, having publicly threatened Frank for beating Ruth. Sheriff Grady Kilgore detains both Idgie and Big George. Kilgore offers to release Idgie and pin Frank's supposed murder solely on Big George, but Idgie refuses. During the subsequent trial, Reverend Scroggins provides false testimony that supports both Idgie's and Big George's alibis. Taking into account Frank's reputation for drunkenness and his body never being found, the judge rules his probable death as accidental and drops all charges against Idgie and Big George.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Shortly after the trial, Ruth is diagnosed with terminal cancer and soon dies. When trains stop running through Whistle Stop, the café closes, and the town folk drift away. Ninny's story concludes, but not before Frank's fate is revealed. When Frank attempted to kidnap Buddy Jr., Sipsey hit Frank over the head with a cast iron skillet, killing him. Frank's truck was pushed into the river, and Idgie convinced Big George to butcher and barbecue Frank's body, which they later served to Sheriff Curtis Smoot, who relentlessly investigated Frank's disappearance. Smoot proclaimed the meal as the best barbecue he ever ate.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Evelyn discovers Ninny was discharged from the nursing home. During her stay there, Ninny's house was condemned and demolished. Evelyn finds Ninny where the house once stood. She wants Ninny to live with her and Ed, to which Ninny agrees. They pass by Ruth's grave which is freshly adorned with a jar containing honey and a honeycomb. A card reads, "I'll always love you, the Bee Charmer". The Bee Charmer was Ruth's nickname for Idgie, and the note reveals that Idgie is still alive.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Jon Avnet first read the novel in 1987. He was introduced to it by producer Lisa Lindstrom, with whom he worked on television films "Heat Wave" and "Breaking Point". Although he wanted her to give him a synopsis of the story, she insisted he read the book and like her, he loved it. He decided to turn the story into a film and pitched the idea to Norman Lear's company, Act III Communications, who were interested and gave him a small budget for a screenwriter. He hired Carol Sobieski who had written the screenplay for 1982's "Annie". She wrote a draft for it as a musical, which he was unhappy with. Sobieski left the project and he hired Flagg, who had been surprised that anyone would want to turn the novel into a film, to develop the script. Although she had some screenwriting experience, she found the process of turning her own novel into a script a strange one. The job was made somewhat easier by the work done by Sobieski and Avnet in choosing which characters from the book were going to be featured, but she found it difficult and also left the project, after writing 70 pages of the screenplay. With no money left to hire another writer, Avnet took the script over himself and spent the next 2–3 years developing it. Flagg gave her blessing to the final draft.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Avnet wrote the film with Jessica Tandy in mind; she expressed excitement about making the film. He had worked with Kathy Bates and Chris O'Donnell on the 1990 film "Men Don't Leave" before offering them the roles of Evelyn Couch and Buddy Threadgoode respectively. When Bates read the script she loved the characters and was particularly keen to work with Tandy. Mary-Louise Parker was casting director David Rubin's first choice for the role of Ruth Jamison. She read for the part several times, initially unhappy with her own tests. When she read along with Mary Stuart Masterson, theyand the producersagreed that they had good chemistry.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Avnet hired Barbara Ling as production designer. Scouting for a location, she found Juliette, Georgia, a town that was, according to Avnet, nearly deserted. The building chosen to be the Whistle Stop Café was formerly an antique and hardware store. It was redesigned as a cafe, with a horseshoe-shaped counter to allow for optimal camera angles.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: The scene where Idgie goes to collect honey from a tree stump for Ruth was originally intended to be performed by a stunt double. However, after the latter backed out at the last minute, Masterson volunteered to do it herself. The footage of her covered in a swarm of live bees is seen in the final version of the film.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Flagg based the Whistle Stop restaurant on the real-life Irondale Café in Irondale, Alabama. She was a frequent visitor and it was formerly owned by her great-aunt.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Unlike the novel, the film does not make the lesbian romance between the two central characters explicit, instead leaving the relationship between Idgie and Ruth ambiguous. The DVD contains an audio commentary in which the director acknowledges the relationship and points out that a scene between Idgie and Ruth engaging in a food fight was intended to be seen as symbolic love-making.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: At the time of the film's debut, it was criticized by reviewers and activists for what was seen as "glossing over" the lesbian relationship. But it won an award from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for best feature film with lesbian content. The film shows examples of discrimination against African Americans, women, and people living with disabilities, but the examination of sexuality-based prejudice through a robust lesbian plot, as found in the novel, is made more ambiguous.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Although in the book Idgie and Ninny are two distinctly separate characters, at the end of the film it is largely hinted that they are one and the same. This runs counter to Ninny's earlier comment that "I was practically adopted by the Threadgoodes; I married her brother, Cleo". Additionally, the film has Ruth being in love with Buddy Threadgoode, Idgie's brother.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: "Fried Green Tomatoes" was given a limited release in the United States on December 27, 1991, opening in five theaters. It got a wide release four weeks later on January 24, 1992, in 673 theaters. It ran for 19 weeks in total, with its widest release having been 1,331 theaters.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 75% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 6.70/10. The critical consensus reads, ""Fried Green Tomatoes" tearjerking drama is undeniably manipulative, but in the hands of a skilled cast that includes Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates, it's also powerfully effective." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: Critics enjoyed the narrative, but found it conventional and predictable. The adaptation of the separate narrative of book to the screen was criticized by "Time Out" as "clumsy", Roger Ebert praised the performances, Janet Maslin praised the costume and production design and Emanuel Levy praised the cinematography and score. The cast drew praise for their performances, particularly Masterson and Tandy.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: After the release of the film, the town of Juliette saw an influx of tourists and, with Jon Avnet's encouragement, locals opened the Whistle Stop Café, recreated to mirror the film set. Although "Whistle Stop Café" is now a registered trademark, other establishments have appeared using that name.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: "Fried Green Tomatoes" grossed $82.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $37 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $119.4 million, against a budget of $11 million. In its opening weekend it earned $105,317, and at its wide release opening weekend it earned $5,235,940, which was 6.4 percent of its total gross. According to Box Office Mojo, it ranked at no.11 for all films released in the US in 1991, and no.5 for PG‑13 rated films released that year.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: "Fried Green Tomatoes" received two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. It received two BAFTA nominations, including Best Actress in a Leading Role, and garnered three Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. The film was also nominated for the Guldbagge Award for Best Foreign Film.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: The VHS was released by MCA/Universal Home Video in North America on August 20, 1992. The "extended" collector's edition DVD for Region 1 was released by Universal Studios on April 18, 2000. The region free Blu-ray was released March 4, 2014.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: In the United Kingdom, the VHS was released as "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Columbia Tristar Home Video on October 2, 1992. The DVD for Region 2 was released by Carlton Visual Entertainment on September 9, 2002.


title: Fried Green Tomatoes

text: The "Fried Green Tomatoes: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" was supervised by Arthur Baker, who also produced several of the songs. Baker and American singer-songwriter Grayson Hugh co-arranged and recorded Bob Dylan's song "I'll Remember You" for the end-title song. British singer-songwriter Paul Young appears with the song "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted," which peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1992. The soundtrack featured Patti LaBelle performing Bessie Jackson's 1933 blues song, "Barbecue Bess".


title: Clavicle

text: The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the right. The clavicle is the only long bone in the body that lies horizontally. Together with the shoulder blade, it makes up the shoulder girdle. It is a anteriorly visible bone, and in people who have less fat in this region, the location of the bone is clearly visible, as it creates a bulge in the skin. It receives its name from the Latin "clavicula" ("little key"), because the bone rotates along its axis like a key when the shoulder is abducted. The clavicle is the most commonly fractured bone. It can easily be fractured by impacts to the shoulder from the force of falling on outstretched arms or by a direct hit.


title: Clavicle

text: The collarbone is a thin doubly curved long bone that connects the arm to the trunk of the body. Located directly above the first rib, it acts as a strut to keep the scapula in place so that the arm can hang freely. At its rounded medial end (sternal end), it articulates with the manubrium of the sternum (breastbone) at the sternoclavicular joint. At its flattened lateral end (acromial end), it articulates with the acromion, a process of the scapula (shoulder blade), at the acromioclavicular joint.


title: Clavicle

text: The rounded medial region (sternal region) of the shaft has a long curve laterally and anteriorly along two-thirds of the entire shaft. The flattened lateral region (acromial region) of the shaft has an even larger posterior curve to articulate with the acromion of the scapula. The medial region is the longest clavicular region as it takes up two-thirds of the entire shaft. The lateral region is both the widest clavicular region and thinnest clavicular region. The lateral end has a rough inferior surface that bears a ridge, the trapezoid line, and a slight rounded projection, the conoid tubercle (above the coracoid process). These surface features are attachment sites for muscles and ligaments of the shoulder.


title: Clavicle

text: The medial end is also known as the sternal end. It is quadrangular and articulates with the clavicular notch of the manubrium of the sternum to form the sternoclavicular joint. The articular surface extends to the inferior aspect for articulation with the first costal cartilage.


title: Clavicle

text: The lateral end is also known as the acromial end. It is flat from above downward. It bears a facet that articulates with the shoulder to form the acromioclavicular joint. The area surrounding the joint gives an attachment to the joint capsule. The anterior border is concave forward and the posterior border is convex backward.


title: Clavicle

text: The shaft is divided into two main regions, the medial region, and the lateral region. The medial region is also known as the sternal region, it is the longest clavicular region as it takes up two-thirds of the entire shaft. The lateral region is also known as the acromial region, it is both the widest clavicular region and thinnest clavicular region.


title: Clavicle

text: The collarbone is the first bone to begin the process of ossification (laying down of minerals onto a preformed matrix) during development of the embryo, during the fifth and sixth weeks of gestation. However, it is one of the last bones to finish ossification at about 21–25 years of age. Its lateral end is formed by intramembranous ossification while medially it is formed by endochondral ossification. It consists of a mass of cancellous bone surrounded by a compact bone shell. The cancellous bone forms via two ossification centres, one medial and one lateral, which fuse later on. The compact forms as the layer of fascia covering the bone stimulate the ossification of adjacent tissue. The resulting compact bone is known as a periosteal collar.


title: Clavicle

text: Even though it is classified as a long bone, the collarbone has no medullary cavity (marrow cavity) like other long bones, though this is not always true. It is made up of spongy cancellous bone with a shell of compact bone. It is a dermal bone derived from elements originally attached to the skull.


title: Clavicle

text: The shape of the clavicle varies more than most other long bones. It is occasionally pierced by a branch of the supraclavicular nerve. In males the clavicle is usually longer and larger than in females. A study measuring 748 males and 252 females saw a difference in collarbone length between age groups 18–20 and 21–25 of about for males and females respectively.


title: Clavicle

text: The levator claviculae muscle, present in 2–3% of people, originates on the transverse processes of the upper cervical vertebrae and is inserted in the lateral half of the clavicle.


title: Clavicle

text: A vertical line drawn from the mid-clavicle called the mid-clavicular line is used as a reference in describing cardiac apex beat during medical examination. It is also useful for evaluating an enlarged liver, and for locating the gallbladder which is between the mid-clavicular line and the transpyloric plane.


title: Clavicle

text: Clavicle fractures (colloquially, a broken collarbone) occur as a result of injury or trauma. The most common type of fractures occur when a person falls horizontally on the shoulder or with an outstretched hand. A direct hit to the collarbone will also cause a break. In most cases, the direct hit occurs from the lateral side towards the medial side of the bone. The most common site of fracture is the junction between the two curvatures of the bone, which is the weakest point. This results in the sternocleidomastoid muscle lifting the medial aspect superiorly, which can result in perforation of the overlying skin.


title: Clavicle

text: The clavicle first appears as part of the skeleton in primitive bony fish, where it is associated with the pectoral fin; they also have a bone called the cleithrum. In such fish, the paired clavicles run behind and below the gills on each side, and are joined by a solid symphysis on the fish's underside. They are, however, absent in cartilaginous fish and in the vast majority of living bony fish, including all of the teleosts.


title: Clavicle

text: The earliest tetrapods retained this arrangement, with the addition of a diamond-shaped interclavicle between the base of the clavicles, although this is not found in living amphibians. The cleithrum disappeared early in the evolution of reptiles, and is not found in any living amniotes, but the interclavicle is present in most modern reptiles, and also in monotremes. In modern forms, however, there are a number of variations from the primitive pattern. For example, crocodilians and salamanders lack clavicles altogether (although crocodilians do retain the interclavicle), while in turtles, they form part of the armoured plastron.


title: Clavicle

text: The interclavicle is absent in marsupials and placental mammals. In many mammals, the clavicles are also reduced, or even absent, to allow the scapula greater freedom of motion, which may be useful in fast-running animals.


title: Clavicle

text: Though a number of fossil hominin (humans and chimpanzees) clavicles have been found, most of these are mere segments offering limited information on the form and function of the pectoral girdle. One exception is the clavicle of AL 333x6/9 attributed to "Australopithecus afarensis" which has a well-preserved sternal end. One interpretation of this specimen, based on the orientation of its lateral end and the position of the deltoid attachment area, suggests that this clavicle is distinct from those found in extant apes (including humans), and thus that the shape of the human shoulder dates back to less than . However, analyses of the clavicle in extant primates suggest that the low position of the scapula in humans is reflected mostly in the curvature of the medial portion of the clavicle rather than the lateral portion. This part of the bone is similar in "A. afarensis" and it is thus possible that this species had a high shoulder position similar to that in modern humans.


title: Clavicle

text: In dinosaurs the main bones of the pectoral girdle were the scapula (shoulder blade) and the coracoid, both of which directly articulated with the clavicle. The clavicle was present in saurischian dinosaurs but largely absent in ornithischian dinosaurs. The place on the scapula where it articulated with the humerus (upper bone of the forelimb) is the called the glenoid. The clavicles fused in some theropod dinosaurs to form a furcula, which is the equivalent to a wishbone.


title: Clavicle

text: In birds, the clavicles and interclavicle have fused to form a single Y-shaped bone, the furcula or "wishbone" which evolved from the clavicles found in coelurosaurian theropods.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is a fictional artificially superintelligent computer system from the video game series "Portal". GLaDOS later appeared in "The Lab" and "Lego Dimensions". The character was created by Erik Wolpaw and Kim Swift and voiced by Ellen McLain. GLaDOS is responsible for testing and maintenance in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center in all titles. While GLaDOS initially appears in the first game to simply be a voice that guides the player, her words and actions become increasingly malicious as she makes her intentions clear. The second game, as well as the Valve-created comic "Lab Rat", reveals that she was mistreated by the scientists and used a neurotoxin to kill the scientists in the laboratory before the events of the first "Portal". She is apparently destroyed at the end of the first game but returns in the sequel, in which she is comically supplanted by her former intelligence dampener and temporarily stuck on a potato battery, while her past as the human Caroline is also explored.


title: GLaDOS

text: The inspiration for the character's creation extends from Wolpaw's use of a text-to-speech program while writing lines for the video game "Psychonauts". Other game developers working on "Psychonauts" found the lines funnier as a result of the synthesized voice. GLaDOS was originally intended to be present solely in the first area of "Portal"; she was well received by other designers and her role was expanded as a result. Play testers were motivated to complete tests in the game due to her guidance. While the game was initially designed with other characters, they were later removed, leaving GLaDOS as the only character players encounter. The physical appearance of GLaDOS went through several designs, one of which featured a large disk below her. McLain imitated dialog read aloud by a speech synthesizer with her own voice, which was then processed to sound more robotic, and performed songs in character during the closing credits of both entries in the series. "Still Alive" became hugely successful, notably appearing in the "Rock Band" game series, and has been a popular song for YouTube users to cover.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS received critical acclaim from critics and gamers alike, some of whom called her narcissistic, passive-aggressive, sinister, and witty. "IGN" considered her one of the greatest video game characters, particularly among those created in the 2000s. Universally praised for her contributions to the caliber of "Portal"s narrative, GLaDOS received multiple awards for being the best new game character in 2007 from GameSpy, "GamePro", and "X-Play". A number of publications listed her as one of the all-time greatest video game villains, including "IGN" and "Game Informer", both of which ranked her first. She has been the subject of significant critical analysis from both journalists and game developers, who have compared her to other villainous computer systems in fiction, including HAL 9000 from "" and SHODAN from "System Shock", with GLaDOS meeting the former in "Lego Dimensions".


title: GLaDOS

text: For much of "Portal", GLaDOS serves solely as the narrator, guiding players through the test chambers. Her voice is robotic, but distinctly female. Over time, players learn that she is, in fact, leading the player-character Chell to her death. As Chell escapes her control, GLaDOS's announcements get increasingly personal and farcical. Her personality has been described as passive-aggressive, witty, narcissistic, and sinister. She has several system personality cores installed into her, partly to prevent her from killing anyone. At the climax of the game, Chell enters GLaDOS's chambers, where it is revealed that she's actually a complex artificial intelligence system composed of robotic parts hanging from a larger device. Once the player removes the first personality core, the morality core, GLaDOS's voice becomes less robotic and more sensual. Originally, GLaDOS was designed as an artificial intelligence and research assistant meant to aid Aperture Science in competing with the Black Mesa Research Facility on the creation of portal technology. Later proposed uses for GLaDOS included implementation as a fuel line ice inhibitor and disk operating system. GLaDOS is installed to serve as the Enrichment Center's central control computer, mounted in a large, sealed chamber alongside several control consoles and an incinerator, the latter being her eventual demise.


title: GLaDOS

text: Wheatley, a personality core previously attached to GLaDOS at an indeterminate time, is introduced in "Portal 2". He is revealed to be an "intelligence dampening sphere", designed to feed her a neverending stream of bad ideas and inhibit her intellectual and emotional development in order to maintain her compliance. Through Wheatley, it's understood by the player that GLaDOS was initially conditioned to perform tests through rewards in the form of euphoric sensations induced by their completion. Over time, however, as she became insensate to the effect, GLaDOS claims she became self-motivated, interested solely in "science". Upon being disconnected from the Aperture Science facility, GLaDOS treats Chell with more civility. The player then learns that GLaDOS's personality was inherited from that of Caroline, the personal assistant of Aperture Science CEO Cave Johnson, and is much warmer to Chell when under Caroline's influence.


title: GLaDOS

text: In "Portal", GLaDOS is the only witness to the situation of the player character, Chell. The game begins with GLaDOS introducing Chell to the game's Enrichment Center and the physics of the portal gun. As Chell navigates through the Center, GLaDOS admits to having lied to Chell about her progress, as part of a supposed "test protocol". GLaDOS slowly becomes more sinister, and Chell's trust in GLaDOS is tested when the AI directs Chell into a testing area populated with live-fire turrets, a course designed for military androids. The AI claims that the regular test chamber is unavailable due to "mandatory scheduled maintenance". GLaDOS uses the lure of cake and grief counseling to encourage Chell to continue, but at the final testing area, as Chell prepares to receive the supposed cake, GLaDOS attempts to incinerate Chell in a fire pit. Once Chell escapes, GLaDOS attempts to reconcile with Chell, claiming the pit was a final test.


title: GLaDOS

text: At the end of the game, after Chell moves through the bowels of the Enrichment Center, GLaDOS's chamber is reached, where the final encounter occurs. In this encounter Chell dislodges the various personality cores (each also voiced by McLain, with the exception of the final core, which is voiced in a guttural fashion by Mike Patton) and incinerates them. During the battle, it is revealed that before the events of "Portal", GLaDOS released a neurotoxin into the Enrichment Center (revealed to occur on Take Your Daughter to Work Day in the sequel), which resulted in the surviving scientists installing a morality core to prevent further incidents. After the cores are incinerated, the room is sucked into a vortex leading to the surface and GLaDOS is destroyed.


title: GLaDOS

text: In "Portal 2", GLaDOS initially resumes her role as test monitor in a now-ruined facility after Chell and Wheatley inadvertently reactivate her. This time, she makes no attempt to hide her contempt and hatred for Chell; partly because Chell destroyed her, and partly because her quicksave system has forced her to relive her death over and over since her deactivation. Soon after she repairs the facility, Wheatley convinces Chell to perform a core transfer, putting him in charge of the facility in place of GLaDOS. At this point, he immediately becomes power-mad and puts GLaDOS into a potato battery before she tells him that he was originally 'designed to be a moron'. He then turns on Chell and slams the elevator they are in, sending both into the bowels of the facility. GLaDOS is kidnapped by a bird and later retrieved by Chell, who teams up with GLaDOS to escape from the facility. While they are escaping from the old testing facility, GLaDOS discovers that her personality originally came from an assistant to former Aperture CEO Cave Johnson named Caroline, who was later uploaded into the GLaDOS program (it is suggested that this might have been done against her will at Cave Johnson's urging). After surviving Wheatley's various attempts to murder them, the two manage to corrupt him enough to perform another core transfer, but the effort is sabotaged by Wheatley. Through a collapsing ceiling, Chell shoots a portal onto the moon, which sucks the chamber into space and leaves Chell and Wheatley dangling on the moon surface. GLaDOS used the opportunity to regain control of the facility, knocking Wheatley away into space and saving Chell. GLaDOS reveals she felt relief for her safety but realizes that Caroline lives in her through emotion and immediately deletes her, reverting GLaDOS to her old self. Nevertheless, she decides that it is in her best interest to let Chell go, as GLaDOS learned the best solution is usually the easiest one, and felt that killing Chell "[was] hard".


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS also appears in an expansion to tower defense game "", entitled "You Monster", where she tests the player's abilities in a "Portal"-themed set of levels. In the crossover title "Poker Night 2", GLaDOS appears as the dealer and is a part of an announcer pack for Valve's "Dota 2".


title: GLaDOS

text: The crossover-franchise game "Lego Dimensions" includes a significant amount of "Portal" content, including a Lego-constructed GLaDOS (voiced by McLain) as one of the main villains in the game's primary story. The heroes are forced through more Aperture tests (in which she accuses them of cheating through the usage of the keystones and their abilities) and eventually defeat GLaDOS by introducing her to HAL 9000 to distract her long enough to damage her. GLaDOS continues to appear in other areas through the main story, adding "Portal"-themed elements to other worlds and eventually aiding the heroes in defeating the primary antagonist, and on conclusion of the game, she sings a song during the credits, "You Wouldn't Know", again sung by McLain and written by Coulton. GLaDOS also acts as the primary antagonist in a bonus level bridging the events of "Portal 2" with "Lego Dimensions", wherein Chell and Wheatley (returned from space redeemed with anti-gravity abilities) defeat her by performing a core transfer using the Space Core.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS leads the player in solving bridge-making puzzles within Aperture in "Bridge Constructor Portal". GLaDOS makes an appearance in "Death Stranding", revealing themselves after completing the final companion cube crossover side quests. The voice and likeness of GLaDOS makes an appearance in a "Cyberpunk 2077" side quest: "Epistrophy: Coastview" as one of the split personalities that has taken over one of Delamain's cabs.


title: GLaDOS

text: Before development of GLaDOS had begun, Erik Wolpaw was writing the script for the video game "Psychonauts", where he went around the office, finding people to provide voices to the words until they could add the final voices to the game. Once he ran out of people, however, he began using a text-to-speech program. According to Wolpaw, people found the lines funnier than they were worth. He commented that "no amount of writing is funnier than this text-to-speech thing reading it." He became bitter about that, stating that he would leverage this and use it to his advantage.


title: GLaDOS

text: "Portal" had been under development for about a year, at a state where there were only test chambers that the player moved between. Valve found from playtesting that while players had fun with the game's concept, they were left asking of where these puzzles were leading towards. The team worked to come up with some type of narrative, coming down to creating an antagonist that would guide the player in early part of the game but become the goal that the player would strive for by the end. The creation of GLaDOS to serve this purpose began with a discussion between the Valve team and Wolpaw on the narrative constraints they had to deal with. When they were designing the game, they found that they did not have enough time or staffing to use human characters, due to the amount of animation work and scene choreography involved.


title: GLaDOS

text: A week later, to alleviate this problem, Wolpaw returned with sample dialogue made with a text-to-speech program, which was intended to be used as a series of messages relayed to the player in the relaxation vault, the first area of the game. The team liked the voice, describing it as "funny" and "sinister", so Wolpaw decided to add this voice to other test chambers, all the while trying to think of story elements. The developers noticed that play testers were more motivated by the voice because they became attached to it. As a result, the team decided to make GLaDOS the narrative voice of "Portal". While designing GLaDOS, one of the rules that the writers had was that they would not make her seem like a computer, for example having her say, "Oh my nuts and bolts." While GLaDOS is physically a computer and speaks with a computerized voice, they intended her to speak to the player-character like a regular person.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS's physical appearance went through several iterations when Valve had Jason Brashill help drive the visual creation of GLaDOS. Early designs used for her included a floating brain, a spider-like appearance, and an upside-down version of Sandro Botticelli's painting "The Birth of Venus" with the four personality cores around her body. Eventually, they settled on the design of the robotic figure hanging upside down. This was done to convey both a sense of raw mechanical power and femininity. A large disk with the four personality cores hanging from it was added to her design, when she was still just a sphere standing above it. However, the team found it to be too small, giving her a body and putting it below the disk. Another early design was when GLaDOS was only a cube, which was used for the removed laser battle mentioned below. The large chamber that the player-character encounters was the result of the team wanting to build a space that brought a great deal of attention to her.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS was written with the intent of making her more understandable and empathetic to players, making her villainy more tragic. Kim Swift, team leader of "Portal", described her growth in the game as her becoming more and more human. The two-hour total playtime for "Portal" allowed the writers enough time to let players get to know GLaDOS. Wolpaw commented that while GLaDOS did yell and fire rockets at the player, she fulfilled his desire for a villain who has not been "done to death". He described her as both supportive and funny, while also sad and scared. One of his intentions was for players to believe that they are "putting her through the wringer emotionally". The game was designed to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Wolpaw stated that with each new part, GLaDOS's personality changed. She begins as a supportive, yet also increasingly sinister character, where she delivers exposition about the general Aperture mindset. However, once the player-character escapes, she begins to speak in first-person singular rather than first-person plural. She shows desperation due to her lack of control at this point, adding that more emotion begins to creep through her voice. After destroying the morality core, she becomes unhinged, featuring an almost human voice. This voice, described as sultry by Wolpaw, was originally to be used for turrets, but it did not work out. Because they liked it so much, they chose to use it for GLaDOS. Valve described GLaDOS's actions in "Portal 2" as attempting to build a relationship with the player-character, and the only way to accomplish this is by testing her.


title: GLaDOS

text: In creating the voice for GLaDOS, voice actress Ellen McLain attempted to sound like a computer. This was accomplished by her emulating a computer-generated voice that the Valve team played for her and her adding emotion to lines when appropriate. While designing her voice, Swift commented that it was difficult to write some of the lines for GLaDOS, describing McLain as "super likable", and that they should write for that. She also performed the song "Still Alive", which features GLaDOS singing to the effect that she is still alive by the end of "Portal". This song was written by Jonathan Coulton, who was approached by the team and asked if he would want to write a song for them. He later decided that it would be a good idea to do a song featuring one of the voices from the game that would tie up the story at the end. Swift stated that the team wanted the players to leave the game happy, leading to them implementing the song in the first place. Wolpaw and the other writers wrote down a list of things that would make people happy, which resulted in "Still Alive". In discussing the difficulties in singing the song as GLaDOS, McLain listed one of the difficulties as breathing, because computers do not need to breathe. As a result, she had to sing the phrases in one breath, while attempting to keep a clean, even tone. Swift commented in an interview that one of the focuses of developing the game was for players to hear GLaDOS and hear her song.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS continues to be voiced by McLain in "Portal 2", who worked with Valve every two weeks to record the majority of the dialogue for the game. The frequency of her voice sessions allowed Valve to experiment with GLaDOS's lines and how they came out within the final game. After finding that "Still Alive" was a large part of "Portal" success, Valve included more music in "Portal 2", including further involvement from Coulton. Coulton wrote a new song for the game's ending credits, "Want You Gone", which is written from GLaDOS's viewpoint of wanting to rid herself of Chell. It is performed by McLain. The writers found they needed another character to play off of "Portal 2" Cave Johnson during his recordings; instead of hiring a voice actor for a few lines, they economized by reusing McLain to play Caroline, Cave's assistant. This led naturally to providing a backstory for the creation of GLaDOS, who is revealed in-game to be Caroline who was put into GLaDOS. This later led the writers to develop a full story arc for GLaDOS where she would come to recall her past, learn from it to solve the dilemma and then subsequently delete it and reset herself. McLain wrote "GLaDOS' Song", her only composition, offering it to Valve for use in the game; it was not used, though she and Lowrie performed it for "Vice".


title: GLaDOS

text: In designing the final 'encounter' with GLaDOS in "Portal", one of the important aspects to it was giving the players a predisposition to the Weighted Companion Cube, an object that GLaDOS gives to the player-character and tells her to protect. This was accomplished by forcing the player to incinerate it, therein providing a tutorial for how to defeat the boss and a revenge angle. GLaDOS was originally designed to be a devious boss, citing one form where she would use a series of lasers, like those seen in "James Bond" films. However, it was determined that this twitch gameplay distracted players from GLaDOS, and was too different from the game's puzzle-solving gameplay. Additionally, it was difficult for players to detect when they were hit, so the developers switched the gameplay to feature rockets. This incarnation of the final boss was dubbed "Portal Kombat", which Swift describes as a "high intensity rocket battle". However, Wolpaw disliked it because no one was paying attention to what GLaDOS was saying. While it went over well with hardcore shooter fans, the people who liked the puzzle-focused gameplay were turned off by it. The third boss was a chase scene, with players pursuing GLaDOS down a corridor. Wolpaw sharply criticized the pacing, which caused the players to wander around until they found the corridor, at which point a series of pistons would spring out of the walls.


title: GLaDOS

text: The developers came to the conclusion that complex battles would only serve to confuse players. One play tester helped them by pointing out the quality of the fire pit puzzle, a puzzle that has the player-character riding on a moving platform that is descending into flames, requiring players to find a way to survive. He stated that it was both dramatic and exciting, but also a difficult puzzle. Wolpaw stated that this made no sense, commenting that it was one of the easiest puzzles in the game. He added that the battle was a dramatic high-point, since it was being the first time GLaDOS directly tries to kill the player-character and the first time that players have to use the environment to their advantage. After learning about what fellow Valve developers had planned for the final boss battle in "Half-Life 2: Episode Two", the Portal developers decided to implement a neurotoxin that would kill the player-character in six minutes. This made it easier on the writers, who only had to write six minutes of dialogue. As a result, they scaled the game back, intending to ensure that everyone was able to see the game to the very end.


title: GLaDOS

text: Erik Wolpaw and Jay Pinkerton were mainly responsible for the single player campaign's story, while Chet Faliszek focused on the lines for GLaDOS in the cooperative campaign. "Portal 2" was originally not intended to feature GLaDOS or Chell, the player-character from "Portal". However, the demand for all of these to be implemented into "Portal 2" was great enough that they chose to do so. Originally, the character Cave Johnson was intended to be the antagonist instead and "Portal 2" to be a prequel. Before implementing Chell, they considered introducing a new player-character who would at one point inadvertently reactivate GLaDOS. During play testing, Wolpaw found that there were two groups that were "at-odds": one group was excited to see GLaDOS return, while the other did not want to wake her up and questioned why players would want to do that. As such, the character Wheatley was introduced, who inadvertently wakes GLaDOS while trying to escape the facilities with Chell. Wheatley and GLaDOS served as a contrasts to each other; where GLaDOS has a more "computery-sounding" voice due to her intelligence, Wheatley "sounded perfectly human" due to his lack of it. Play testers were also bothered by the fact that the new protagonist was not recognized by GLaDOS when she awoke; as such, they changed the new character back into Chell. Wolpaw and the designers were not sure what to do with GLaDOS and were wary to do the same thing as the last game. They felt that she should "go someplace" and that since GLaDOS is "kind of likeable in the first game" and players "enjoy being with her", they would utilize Wheatley as an "other, external threat". In the early part of the game, GLaDOS introduces each chamber and congratulates the player on completing it; though they could have included intermediate dialog from GLaDOS while the player attempts to solve each chamber, they found this would be distracting to players and limited her presence in the game to only these points.


title: GLaDOS

text: The developers considered having GLaDOS and Chell act as "buddy cops against a new threat", but felt that since Chell never talked, it would not work. He compared her transformation into a potato and having her power stripped away to the game Jenga: "You’re taking stuff off the bottom and seeing what happens." While she was in the potato form, the designers noticed a "very stark difference between this imperious, all-powerful GLaDOS talking to you, and this powerless GLaDOS talking to you on your gun". They found that play testers were not interested in her when she was powerless and insulting players and would question why they were "carting this person along". They decided to give her a personality shift and become Chell's "sidekick" on the basis that "she can’t just be needling you for a half hour". In order to keep players from feeling that they should want to abandon GLaDOS in her powerless form to prevent her from becoming powerful again, the designers made sure to give players reason to bring her with them. In considering the interaction between Chell and GLaDOS, Erik Johnson compared GLaDOS to "a jealous ex-girlfriend", noting "[Chell is] the only person she can have interaction with, but the problem is her only way of interacting with anyone is to test them". While they introduced new characters into the game, the focus of the story in "Portal 2" remained the connection and interaction between Chell and GLaDOS, and focuses more on the fallout from Chell's destruction of GLaDOS from the first game.


title: GLaDOS

text: The co-operative campaign contains a separate story between the two robotic characters and GLaDOS. The co-operative campaign includes additional dialog from GLaDOS; the original dialog Wolpaw wrote for GLaDOS was aimed to two women, Chell and a new character "Mel", with the assumption of "image issues", but this dialog remains in place even after the change of the co-op characters to robots. The dialog written for GLaDOS in the co-operative campaign is aimed to try to break the bond between the two robot characters. Valve considered initially to have separate lines for GLaDOS that would be given to each player individually, but found this to be a significant effort for minimal benefit. The writers also attempted adding GLaDOS lines that would make the players attempt to compete against each other, such as the awarding of meaningless points, but playtesters did not respond well to these lines.


title: GLaDOS

text: The writers found they needed another character to play off of Cave during his recordings; instead of hiring a voice actor for a few lines, they economized by reusing McLain to play Caroline, Cave's assistant. This led naturally to providing a backstory for the creation of GLaDOS, who is revealed in-game to be based on Caroline's personality. This later led the writers to develop a full story arc for GLaDOS where she would come to recall her past, learn from it to solve the dilemma and then subsequently delete it and reset herself. The designers wanted to start GLaDOS's role in "Portal 2" off with her being "incredibly upset at [Chell]". They felt however that this would "get old pretty quick" if they did not put her "into another space". They accomplished this through a combination of her anger with Wheatley and her conflict with her past life as Caroline. Through the course of the game's events, GLaDOS's personality shifts significantly; however, at the end, she reverts to her original personality, an action Wolpaw sums up as "explicitly reject[ing] it" and saying "You know what? Done." While they wanted to give players the sense that they had defeated GLaDOS, they felt that they should not have players fight her as a boss battle; as a result, they had her let Chell go due to the reasoning that Chell was too difficult for her to handle. Writer Jay Pinkerton stated that GLaDOS was an exemplification of a villain who can go from "genuinely tender" to "genuinely villainous" and that "she’s not just this moustache-twirling villain". He also stated that she has a "passive-aggressive nature" and will never "overtly attack, it’s always these subtle mind games". The designers also intended to make it vague whether or not GLaDOS was under the control of the machine that she was attached to. Wolpaw also called her "passive aggressive" as well as "mildly sarcastic" and compared her to "The Sopranos" character Livia Soprano.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS has been used several times for reveals in the "Portal" series. At E3 2008, GLaDOS's voice was utilized to reveal the "Portal" expansion "Portal: Still Alive". She has also been used to show "Portal 2" reveals; initially, a Blue screen of death image was used instead of a revelation of "Portal 2", showing the typical text found in a blue screen of death, but with GLaDOS's name at the top. In the reveal of the PlayStation 3 version of "Portal 2", GLaDOS's voice was used to introduce Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve at E3 2010, where he revealed "Portal 2" for the PlayStation 3. "Portal 2"s release was preceded by a collection of video games in a collection called "Potato Sack", which featured thirteen independently developed games. These games were all a part of an alternate reality, based on a cryptic narrative that suggested the awakening and relaunch of GLaDOS. Valve provided the developers access to their art assets to include "Portal 2"-themed content into them, and in some cases, McLain recorded new dialog specifically for these games. The alternate reality game ultimately led to "GLaDOS@Home", a distributed computing spoof, which prompted players to play the independently developed games to awaken GLaDOS ahead of schedule, effectively promoting the Steam release of "Portal 2" about 10 hours earlier than the official time.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS's popularity has led to merchandise being produced by both Valve and fans; a T-shirt depicting GLaDOS, as well as other elements from "Portal", was made available for purchase on Valve's store while a fan produced a voice pack for a navigation system which uses GLaDOS's voice. Another fan also modeled and 3d printed a lamp using GLaDOS as the base form, complete with an LED eye and movement control, other creators have also added voice control, a speaker system, and an output system used to turn on and off various items, such as a PC, VR headset, and Room lights. A cosmetics vendor called "Geek Chic Cosmetics" features several video game-themed makeups, including one based on GLaDOS.


title: GLaDOS

text: The song "Still Alive" has garnered significant attention from fans and critics alike. It was released as a part of "The Orange Box Official Soundtrack" and appeared in other video games, including the "Rock Band" series and "Left 4 Dead 2", the latter which was also released by Valve. The song has been performed in multiple venues by Jonathan Coulton which includes the Penny Arcade Expo in 2008, the concert in 2009, and the Game Developers Conference in 2008. The song is popular for fans to perform covers of on YouTube.


title: GLaDOS

text: Ellen McLain voices a computer AI in Guillermo del Toro's 2013 film "Pacific Rim"; her voice work is deliberately similar to GLaDOS, a Valve-approved nod to the character and "Portal" series. When announcing McLain's addition to the cast, del Toro stated that he is a "big fan of Valve" and highlighted "Portal" and "Left 4 Dead" as "instrumental family experiences" in his home. Del Toro contacted Newell directly to secure McLain's voice, with his daughter's influence on the call helping to finalize the deal.


title: GLaDOS

text: McLain voiced GLaDOS for an episode of the IRrelevant Astronomy web series prepared by NASA employees working on the Spitzer Space Telescope. McLain also voiced GLaDOS for Multiplay's Insomnia Gaming Festival 55, providing narration for the "World Famous Pub Quiz" alongside Kevan Brighting as the narrator of The Stanley Parable.


title: GLaDOS

text: The game "Death Stranding", paying homage to Valve Corporation, features a character GLaDOS, who only communicates via email and through aliases. Death Stranding's GLaDOS provides side quests to collect cubes, resulting in the player being rewarded with Valve-themed gear. Near the end of the game, GLaDOS reveals herself and confesses that she does not belong to the world of Death Stranding, and showed up there only to conduct experiments. Finally, GLaDOS returns to her own world. McLain provides GLaDOS's voice as part of a side mission in "Cyberpunk 2077" in which the player tracks down driverless taxis. McLain reprised her role as GLaDOS for a GEICO commercial based on "Portal", released in January 2022.


title: GLaDOS

text: Paste Magazine's Jason Killingsworth listed GLaDOS as the sixth best new character of the decade; he wrote that she "may just be the most likable villain in video-game history" and that "we only killed her because we had to". An editor for GamesRadar also called her one of the best new characters of the decade. "Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition" also listed GLaDOS as second in their list of top 50 Villains.


title: GLaDOS

text: Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski stated that he was motivated to complete test chambers in "Portal". He also compared her to an ex-girlfriend who sent text messages that went from friendly, to aggressive, and finally to apologetic. GamesRadar's Justin Towell called her the third-most difficult game bad guy to kill due to Stockholm syndrome, a syndrome where hostages will bond with their captors. IGN editor Daemon Hatfield described GLaDOS as one of the most engaging characters to appear in a video game. Cinema Blend featured GLaDOS as the best character of 2007, stating that she "breathes life, emotion, and hilarity into the lab of "Portal"." GamesRadar praised "Portal" as having one of the best video game stories ever, citing GLaDOS as the primary reason for this. They stated that she had the most defined personality in gaming, adding that she "redefined passive-aggressive". Shoot 'em up expert Michael Molinari cited GLaDOS as an example of a quality boss, stating that her quality stems from her appearing throughout the game, providing motivation as well as a satisfying pay-off at the end of the game. Editor Randy Smith commented that the battle with GLaDOS was "easy", commenting that it was "fun and fluid" rather than "annoyingly insurmountable". However, he added that it had an "air of epicness". Whereas Smith found the battle easy, UGO Networks Chris Littler included GLaDOS in his list of the 50 "Hardest Freakin' Boss Battles". UGO.com listed GLaDOS as one of their favorite video game robots.


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS has won several awards in 2007 for her role in "Portal". IGN editor Hilary Goldstein awarded her the "Best of the Worst Guiding Voices", commenting that it was between her and "BioShock" character Atlas. However, he gave the award to GLaDOS, citing her humor as the prime reason. GameSpy awarded her the "Best Character" award, stating that she came from the most unexpected place – a game that could have gotten by without a story. They added that during the final encounter, her mood swings provided some of the most memorable dialogue in video game history. X-Play similarly awarded her with the best new character award. GamePro awarded GLaDOS, referred to as "The Voice" in their article, the most memorable villain award, describing the decision as a surprise upset, considering either Frank Fontaine of "BioShock" or Saren of "Mass Effect" to win. GLaDOS has received other awards, including "best nemesis of 2007" from Primo Technology, best new character from GameSpot, and character of the year from Man!ac. "Game Informer" also highlighted GLaDOS in a 2010 retrospective list, "Thirty Characters Who Defined a Decade".


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS is frequently cited as both a quality villain and a quality computer character. IGN called her the greatest video game villain of all time, stating that while their time with her was short, she left a mark on players like no other villain has. They cited her uniqueness as being because no other players existed in the game. They also added she was more human than most video game villains. 1Up.com editor Scott Sharkey praised her as being the best insane video game computer. He stated that not only is she the best insane computer in video games, but in films and books as well. He explains his choice by citing her eagerness to kill the player-character, but not being overt about it until the end. He also cites her feminine voice and passive-aggressive manner for his decision. In another article, he mentions how he feels more sorry for her than any other enemy, describing her as a "digital version of the most passive-aggressive girlfriend ever". He adds that he can imagine it not being easy to be a super-intelligent computer trapped in a single building.


title: GLaDOS

text: "Crave" editor Rich Trenholm also regarded her highly, listing her as the fifth best evil computer. "PC World" editor Spandas Lui listed GLaDOS as the second most "big-time, badass video game villain", citing her various non-sequitur one-liners and personality for her becoming one of the most memorable video game villains ever. Pittsburgh Live editor Jessica Severs described GLaDOS as having the most entertaining villainy due to her promises of cake and her encouragements such as "This next test is impossible." GameDaily listed her as the most horrific video game boss, describing her as "polite, passive-aggressive, and insanely sadistic". The review adds that while the game may be short, GLaDOS will "resonate with players long after players finish it". "Game Informer" considered GLaDOS the top defining video game character of the 2000s, taking the archetype of the sentient computer in "surprising new directions, at turns slyly comic and malevolent", and that she remains "one of the most fascinating characters in game history".


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS has received praise for her humor and wit. In his review of "Portal", "PC Gamer" editor Tom Francis stated that he could hardly stop himself from laughing at GLaDOS's deranged writing. Similarly, GamesRadar editor Tom Francis described her as hysterical and being an aspect of "Portal" that gamers will love. Tom Francis called GLaDOS one of the most badass boss fights in video games, citing both the hilarity of the character, whom they describe as the funniest video game villain since the Purple Tentacle from "Day of the Tentacle", as well as the memorable quotes. PC Zone UK listed her as the second-best conceived character in gaming, commenting that the memes related to the Weighted Companion Cube and "the cake is a lie" could distract people from GLaDOS's "perfectly-metered and lyrical voice". He described her as the "humorous, clinical, savage and poignant heart of "Portal"". In a piece in The Observer, game theorist and author of Fun Inc Tom Chatfield listed GLaDOS as one of the ten best video game characters of all time, describing her both as "gaming's funniest, freakiest female" and a "psychopathic artificial intelligence". "The Observer"s Will Freeman wrote that GLaDOS "really is (in a rare case of living up to the hyperbole) one of the most fascinating characters in the history of the video game".


title: GLaDOS

text: The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences praised "Portal" for its "hint of comedy", citing GLaDOS's "humorous and homicidal" personality. Writer Lou Kesten, in discussing humor in video games, cited GLaDOS as possibly being the first time he discovered that video games could make him laugh out loud. "The New York Times" editor Charles Herold praised GLaDOS, calling her comments "wildly funny". In an article titled "The GLaDOS Effect – Can Antagonists Rule the World?", Gamasutra publisher Simon Carless describes her as the one true memorable character from "Portal". He states that she is the reason he keeps returning to play "Portal", describing her as funny, unexpected, and beguiling. "The Daily Telegraph"s Tom Hoggins wrote that GLaDOS "became one of gaming’s most compelling villains" and that "it managed to get people attached to an inanimate cube. It had the best end credits song of all time. It was funny, smart, fresh and managed to feel like the plucky, accidental hero". GameSpy's Nathan Meunier wrote that "without inhuman antagonist GLaDOS spewing a laugh-inducing tirade of thinly veiled threats in her deadpan robotic drone as you progress deeper into the bowels of Aperture Science, "Portal" would have been a very different game".


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS's mocking of Chell was met with negative reception from Neal Stapel, an adoptive parent profiled by 1Up.com. He stated that "it literally pokes fun for not having parents", and stopped playing when he first heard the insult. He added that "it throws the ultimate question that that child is ever going to have for you... and it just throws it right in the living room." Kotaku's Michael McWhertor felt that while it was "awkward" for the parents, the fact that GLaDOS was trying to kill Chell would be more upsetting. He also pointed out that "morons and the overweight are also mocked by robots" in "Portal 2". 1UP.com's Chris Pereira found the joke "harmless".


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS's appearance in "Portal 2" received critical acclaim. GameSpot's Chris Watters wrote that GLaDOS was a "complex character who evolves throughout these early levels" and that "before all is said and done, you'll once again come to cherish your relationship with that cruel AI". "PALGN"s Adam Ghiggino called Ellen McLain's portrayal of GLaDOS "hilariously blunt" due to her calling the player-character fat. He also wrote that GLaDOS has "a lot of emotion to [her] movement". "The Guardian"s Nick Cowen wrote that GLaDOS was "by turns funny and monstrous". Computer and Video Game's Andy Robinson wrote that GLaDOS was "surely now deserving of entry into the Best Game Characters Ever club". He added that "GLaDOS' character progression is a joy to follow, as she progresses from bitter, to angry and eventually even finding a bit of heart". An editor for GameTrailers wrote that GLaDOS's "constant auto-tuned barbs are extremely well-written and voiced-helping lend some character to an otherwise spartan presentation".


title: GLaDOS

text: GameZone's Ben PerLee wrote that GLaDOS was the "much brighter star of the franchise" compared to Chell due to her role in "Portal". He also wrote "the player’s interaction with her is absolutely amazing to watch. She is as vindictive as ever, coating pure unadulterated hatred with a veneer of cool science" and that "for fans of GLaDOS, her return from her unfortunate death in the previous Portal is fabulous, and her literal transformation within the game will shock, wow, and humor even jaded gamers tired of cake quotes". "PC Gamer"s Dan Stapleton wrote that "evil robot GLaDOS is in top politely murderous form right from the moment she appears on screen" and that ""Portal"s show-stealing monotone antagonist is challenged for the spotlight by Wheatley". He compared her to Cave Johnson, who has a similar "comically sociopathic approach to science". Giant Bomb's Ryan Davis wrote "it would be charitable to characterize GLaDOS as indignantly sociopathic, and her lust for punishing you for your past transgressions is riper than ever".


title: GLaDOS

text: CNN's Larry Frum wrote that "GLaDOS' voice is dripping with sarcasm and malice even as her tone remains soothing and calm". "PCMag"s Matthew Murray called her voice actor "irreplaceable" and called GLaDOS "saucy and strangely sympathetic". An editor for CBS News wrote that "the interactions between the player, GLaDOS and Wheatley are what give ""Portal 2"" its charm and provide much of the humor that keeps the game captivating puzzle after puzzle". "The Globe and Mail"s Chad Sepieha listed the top five insults from GLaDOS in "Portal 2", which included "Science has now validated your birth mother’s decision to abandon you on a doorstep." Rock Paper Shotgun's John Walker wrote that "Ellen McLain returns as GLaDOS, and is pushed so much further this time, hitting every single line with perfection". "Game Informer"s Adam Biessener wrote that while "Portal 2" was less quotable than its predecessor, "repeating GLaDOS lines stopped being funny a long time ago". He also wrote "I never once thought I'd place GLaDOS second on any list of "Portal" characters, but J.K. Simmons' character surpasses the malevolent AI even though she's as amusing as ever".


title: GLaDOS

text: GLaDOS has been compared to characters in fiction, including HAL 9000 from the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" by LucasArts designer Noah Falstein. Falstein described her as the best AI he had ever encountered – "more convincingly psychotic than HAL, with a more emotionally engaging death than Floyd, and funnier than C-3PO and R2-D2."


title: GLaDOS

text: The comparison was also made by other critics such as journalist Stephen Totilo and IGN's Cindy White. Totilo wrote that HAL was an influence on GLaDOS's "psychotic breakdown" seen near the end of the first "Portal" title. White wrote HAL and GLaDOS were similar due to both having "a calm, almost childlike, demeanor" which "hides nefarious intentions". She added that "the prospect of being shut down causes them to act out in deadly ways". GamesRadar editor Tyler Wilde stated that while the staff of GamesRadar loves GLaDOS, it makes no sense to insert a personality core into a robot. He suggested that the scientists either never read "2001: A Space Odyssey", or read it too much. Empire Online listed her as the 12th-best video game character of all time, describing her acts as "HAL-like conduct". Writer Stephen Totilo alluded the final battle with GLaDOS to the scene of David from "2001" disabling HAL, with both scenes involving de-evolving the respective characters.


title: GLaDOS

text: MSNBC game reviewer Blake Snow compared The Sign Painter from "World of Goo" to GLaDOS, due to the mischievousness and unseen nature of the character. GamesRadar editor Mikel Reparaz compared GLaDOS to SHODAN from the "System Shock" series and stated that before GLaDOS broke their hearts, they had SHODAN. GamesRadar's Alan Bradley named GLaDOS as one of gaming's most "malicious machines". He called her a "sort of spiritual successor" to SHODAN. However, PC Zone UK commented that the comparisons between GLaDOS and SHODAN run dry; while "Portal" leaves everything to the players' imagination, "System Shock 2" has a strongly defined storyline. They do, however, describe her breakdown as hysterical, desperate, and hilariously childish, calling it the most finely controlled breakdown since Patrick Bateman's in the book "American Psycho". "The Daily Telegraph" editors Nick Cowen and Tom Hoggins listed her as the ninth-greatest video game villain, stating that she is as diabolical as a female AI can get, mentioning SHODAN as being inferior in this respect. Writer N'Gai Croal commented that the boss battle with GLaDOS is similar to the "Room 19" encounter with Andrew Ryan from "BioShock", citing the same use of tactical language and techniques between the two. In the book "Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter", Infinity Ward developer Michael Boon mentioned GLaDOS and BioShock character Andrew Ryan while discussing believable non-playable characters. He commented that while shooting games in general feature enemies as bullet magnets, both Andrew Ryan and GLaDOS do not provide an opportunity for players to shoot them. However, he adds that both characters end up defeating themselves, but in different ways. He stated that she was "so entertaining", but also that he wanted to kill her. The book's author Tom Bissell stated that in addition to these similarities, both were well written, describing them as "funny, strange, cruel, and alive."


title: GLaDOS

text: In his analysis of "Portal", Daniel Johnson points out that "the larger chunk of "Portal"s narrative exists in GLaDOS' dialogue", which tells "a metaphoric tale of a power struggle of identity roles within an institution". He discusses how the "backstage" of the institution is hinted at and gradually revealed through GLaDOS's slip-ups, from the momentary glitch during her initial instructions to the player ("the first flaw in the routine") to her ultimate abandonment of the formal language of the institution as she desperately pleads with the player to return to the testing area (the "front stage", where the institution's inner workings are supposedly hidden from view). Microsoft Game Studios developer Tom Abernathy, in discussing the importance of compelling characters in video games, praises "Portal" for giving its audience "room to do some imagination work" by inviting them to read between the lines to understand GLaDOS's motivations. His own interpretation is that GLaDOS is conflicted between her wants and needs, a conflict which ultimately "causes her to go crazy". Stephen Totilo notes the "artful way" in which GLaDOS's antagonistic character is slowly revealed and defined throughout "Portal" despite "little interactivity in how the story is told". Of his own reaction to that character development, he writes, "I wanted to hunt GLaDOS down, confront her for her lies, and break free of her clutches. I wanted this boss battle. I don't know if I ever have wanted a boss battle before." "Newsweek" editor N'Gai Croal describes her as a "maternal, mischievous, malevolent and finally murderous unreliable narrator".


title: GLaDOS

text: Video game developer Nathan Frost describes "Portal" as an "exploration of a relationship with someone with narcissistic personality disorder". He adds that in order to fulfill her self-centered narcissistic desire to toy with someone, the player-character is trapped in the Enrichment Center, forced to do tricks for the computer. However, once the player-character becomes skilled enough to break the confines of the center, GLaDOS's secure amusement gives way to "histrionic, bipolar deportment". He describes this as a parallel to how a real-life narcissist might attempt to secure the admiration of another person by empowering them in some ways, but limiting them in others. He adds that this works out well for the narcissist until the other person learns to think and act for themselves. He concludes by saying that a part of "Portal"s resonance comes from the fact that using the portal gun to escape the center is a "cogent metaphor for escaping an intimate relationship with someone diagnosably narcissistic". Grant Tavinor, author of "The Art of Videogames", wrote that GLaDOS's actions and personality in "Portal" were "in the best of science fiction traditions" and describes her as "insincere, malfunctioning, and probably insane". Wendy Despain, author of "Writing for Video Games Genres: from FPS to RPG" used "Portal" as an example of a "modern classic" video game and "how they tell their stories". She called GLaDOS an "endlessly cheerful and clearly insane computer" and called her narrative "simple". Emily Short, creator of a female artificial intelligence character in the video game "Galatea", speculates that in GLaDOS's final remarks to Chell ("No one likes you, you know"), "there is a hint that she’s talking about herself, not Chell; that she herself desires an emotional connection that she has never been able to achieve, because she also needs to survive, and all humans are a threat to her ... [She has] learned that the humans view her as potentially threatening and essentially disposable, and so she has to see them the same way."


title: GLaDOS

text: Scott Rogers, author of the book "Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design", uses GLaDOS as an example of a "tormentor" boss character, stating that she taunts and challenges the players, but does not directly confront or attack them. Video game developer Andrew Doull describes the "unreliable narrator" as a narrative staple from more traditional media, stating that GLaDOS is the best example of this staple in gaming. He cites a scene in "Portal" where GLaDOS tells the player-character that the current puzzle is unsolvable, which turns out to be false. However, he comments that "it is still incredible to see the number of people who fail to read the situation, and proceed calmly to their death" in the incinerator when ordered to do so by GLaDOS; he uses this example to support an argument that the "unreliable narrator" narrative technique might not transfer readily to the gaming medium.


title: GLaDOS

text: Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point G. Christopher Williams discussed the relationship between GLaDOS and Chell. In response to a quote by designer Erik Wolpaw that read "we wanted you to have this very intimate connection with this AI that changes and evolves over time, leading up to the point that you betray her and do the most intimate act you can do with someone—murdering them in cold blood", he at first noted that "on the face of it, this description of intimacy seems nonsensical", but also noted that "a changing and evolving relationship with someone in authority over you that eventually leads to betraying them by violating their rules—is one that is an altogether familiar one". He used the parent-child relationship as an example of this and cited a metaphor by psychologist Sigmund Freud which Williams said was about "murdering a parent in an effort to describe how children eventually would attempt to get out from under the wing of their parents". He wrote "nothing can be as intimate, perhaps, as loving someone enough to follow their rules and then needing to "kill them" in order to escape that "game," which makes this game feel like something more like a really familiar relationship". He called her "just one of many countless authorities that have explained to me the rules of a game, how to control myself, and then pushed me towards a particular goal of the computer’s design" and that "this is an experience that I have every time that I fire up my Xbox and describes the curiously intimate relationship between player and gaming system that emerges in single player gameplay". He further discussed that he had no idea that Chell's name was Chell or that she was a female because he recognized the character as himself. He wrote "I cared about GLaDOS only because she was the one directing "me". Oh, and then I really cared about her because she wanted to kill "me"".


title: GLaDOS

text: G. Christopher Williams also discussed the relationship between Wheatley and GLaDOS. His initial impression was that Wheatley, being an "utter moron" and attached to GLaDOS, was a political critique of the Presidency of George W. Bush. Namely, he thought that it would "be a way of paralleling the mythos surrounding the origins of the Bush-Cheney White House as an opportunity for the Republicans to regain control of the White House through a less intellectually apt figurehead and to thus control their domain through this weaker authority figure"; however, as he progressed, he saw nothing more to suggest that this was the intent. He added that the thought of this concept helped make him realize how "Portal 2" "presents a fundamental conundrum that does exist surrounding competency and power". In contrast to this, he wrote that "an extremely smart leader can be about the most oppressive force in an organization has already been provided in abundance for anyone who has played the first Portal" and that "GLaDOS's "leadership" is the very definition of sadistic fascism". He also discussed the "lack of choice" for Chell, who is required to reinstate GLaDOS into her position to escape. He wrote that this lack of choice "manages to effectively maintain its position on the relationship between the everyman and systems of power".