ARGH, does anyone else still get the Portal song stuck in their head? If not, feel free to see the video after the jump and see if it buries itself in there for you too. Game play, addictive music, the awesomeness of portals to pop in and out of… put that all aside. Kotaku pointed out this insightful analysis (and imagery!) over at Game-ism… where he (with the enlightening assistance of his wife) visually analyzes GlaDOS in Portal, and as even you can see in the images, she’s pretty much tied up and hanging upside down taunting you endless throughout the game… until you “free” her… and he ventures into theories that you are being trained to accomplish her assisted suicide?

The second time I played through I turned the director commentary on, and got confirmation by way of a description of the things they attempted to make GlaDOS look like as they were making the game. What turned the light bulb on was the line “Botticelli’s Venus hanging upside down, but we decided to go with something else and use some feminine lines within the structure.” I’m paraphrasing; it’s late and I don’t feel like booting up the game again to get the quote exactly right. The spirit is there in the paraphrase, though, because I think they went for something much more sinister than a Venus.

In a follow up post, he even completely dissects the SONG lyrics! Using this to further back up the assisted suicide concept. I feel silly, but beyond gameplay, its fascinating to see the artists rendering of how he views her, as well as reading all of this analysis of what is so easy to just play and ignore.

Portal ending credits and closing song by Jonathan Coulton embedded after the jump for your viewing pleasure.

Tags: art - music - video - video game