Was the cake a lie? (spoilers)

[Shining Sadist]

I just finished Portal, and was mystified by the ending. I know that it isn't supposed to be clear, but I wanted to know what other people thought.
Was the entire game part of the tests, and GLaDOS knew she was backed up elsewhere? If so, why does she seem so surprised when you show no desire to be incinerated? And why, in the end, was there cake? Or was that cake a lie too?

My theory that there is more to GLaDOS than the cores, and that she seeks freedom from the cores by being destroyed, but only passes the idea with them by making it an experiment to test both the portal gun and its user. This seems to make some sense, as the GLaDOS singing Still Alive is not the one we all know and hate.

The game really is great though, from when I first realized that GLaDOS didn't care at all about my life to the time when I fell into the incinerator with my Weighted Companion Cube, not heroically, but entirely by accident.

[Lord Herman]

The whole thing was masterminded by the Companion Cube. I will say no more.

[Muz]

That's the C-Cube to you, matey. :smallwink:

As for the rest, it's obvious: The cake is the G-man, the spheres you destroy are meant to represent Half Life 1, HL2, HL2 ep 1, and HL2 ep 2, GlaDOS is actually controlled by the Vortigaunts, and the Companion Cube is, in actuality, the storage container for Alyx Vance's soul. Didn't you see the diagram behind the wall on level 15?

[chiasaur11]

That's the C-Cube to you, matey. :smallwink:

As for the rest, it's obvious: The cake is the G-man, the spheres you destroy are meant to represent Half Life 1, HL2, HL2 ep 1, and HL2 ep 2, GlaDOS is actually controlled by the Vortigaunts, and the Companion Cube is, in actuality, the storage container for Alyx Vance's soul. Didn't you see the diagram behind the wall on level 15?

And D0g is Stephan Chow's character from Kung Fu Hustle.

[PirateMonk]

The whole thing was masterminded by the Companion Cube. I will say no more.

Basically my thoughts. That backstabber manipulates you into blowing up GLaDOS and killing yourself, all to steal your cake!

[Lord Herman]

After all, did we ever actually see the companion cube die? It was tossed into the 'incinerator', but we have no way of knowing what happened to it afterward, other than GLaDOS' word - and we can safely assume she was enhancing the truth there.

[Kane]

It didn't die. If you fall in with it, it's perfectly intact, but YOU die.

I guess GLaDOS and maybe you are the only Apperature science devices that can be incinerated.

[Optimystik]

The cake is not a lie, and the companion cube can be saved.

Proof. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5QveX3-1O8)

[Dogmantra]

When GLaDOS breaks down early in the game, she asks in, Portugese, I think, something like "Why do we die?". I actually think there's a lot more to her than a killing machine, and I don't think that she's lying about being Still Alive.

The tests weren't testing the ASHPD: that could be done with robots, I think they were done in order to test Chell. I mean, she was being kept safe from "them" by GLaDOS, though that might be to do with her trying to bargain out of being destroyed.

All I know for sure though, is that Portal's a lot deeper than it first appears. I reckon we'll be seeing Chell and the ASHPD in episode 3.

I wouldn't be surprised if G-Man turned up in the game, actually...

Goshdarn it, now I want to play Portal again! But I'm already booked to spend all day playing Gotcha Force tomorrow!

[Volos]

After all, did we ever actually see the companion cube die? It was tossed into the 'incinerator', but we have no way of knowing what happened to it afterward, other than GLaDOS' word - and we can safely assume she was enhancing the truth there.


...

You killed you companion cube? You know you could have gotten around that really easy. I was able to save my companion cube by summoning up a random cube and tossing it into the fire.

...

Then my companion cube got eaten by the anti-particle field infront of the elevator shaft...

[Shining Sadist]

...

You killed you companion cube? You know you could have gotten around that really easy. I was able to save my companion cube by summoning up a random cube and tossing it into the fire.

...

Then my companion cube got eaten by the anti-particle field infront of the elevator shaft...
I have it for 360, no console.

Also, on listening to the song again, I think the whole thing, right up to the destruction of GLaDOS was part of the test, and I agree that you, not the device are being tested. GLaDOS may have been crazy, but I believe that everything she ever says to you until the end credits is an act, with the possible exception of the neurotoxin, which she may have really wanted to do. Once you actually complete the test, there is cake, as promised, complete with 3 tbsp. rhubarb, on fire, and sediment shaped sediment.

[Keris]

I have it for 360, no console.

You don't need the console. ↓ B A B Y ↓ B A B Y* spawns a Weighted Cube, which you can toss in instead of the Companion Cube. The trick is then figuring out how to manoeuvring the C-Cube past all the Material Emancipation Grids. ↑, ←, ↓, →, ↑, ←, ↓, →, (A/B/X/Y)x2 helps with that.
It's all ultimately pointless, but it can be pleasing to keep hold of your only companion throughout the course, and thwart GLaDOS's experiments.

*Yes, I realise it spells "down baby, down baby". This was probably intended by whoever put the command in there.