GLaDOS

The Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, also known as GLaDOS, is a major character of the first-person puzzle Portal franchise, serving as the main antagonist of the first game, and the deuteragonist of Portal 2 following Wheatley's betrayal.

As the overseer and highest of authorities of the Enrichment Center, GLaDOS resides in the Central AI Chamber.

Appearance
In Portal, GLaDOS was stored in a large octagonal chamber within the Enrichment Center, reminiscent of Half-Life's Test Lab C-33/a in Black Mesa's Sector C, where the Anti-Mass Spectrometer is found. In the chamber's small lobby area connected to the rest of the facility with a door and an Emancipation Grill, a Red Phone is located next to four pillars. Under a concealed door, a Rocket Sentry is kept, seemingly for security, and numerous monitor screens line the walls and encircle the Central AI. An Emergency Intelligence Incinerator is also present, and can be opened from a switch located in a small bunker.

The Central AI components are suspended from the ceiling in the center of the chamber, and make up all of the chamber's height:

The topmost component is a large, dark disc attached to walls. It is the start of GLaDOS' generator running below until reaching the Central Core body.

Right underneath is a cylinder with grooves connected to the metal walls with large pipes. The walls are filled with bright rectangular holes. All the cables starting below arrive there.

Under is a smaller barrel-like device covered with panels, and also connected to the walls with large pipes. A few panels are missing and show the circuits underneath.

Then the walls are in concrete from there to the ground, and GLaDOS' four discs are found. The Orange Box Prima Guide states that the discs represent each aspect of the Personality Cores on her, which may mean that one disc is connected to one core, the same going for all the others. Right below the discs is a transparent maintenance platform where the Cake Core is sent during GLaDOS' partial destruction. Two discs from the edges are covered with the Aperture Laboratories logo, the two discs from the middle with GLaDOS' name. The four "pillars" found in the chamber's lobby may also be related to the discs and the Personality Cores.

Under the platform, all the wires seen above start. Four large screens and GLaDOS' "body" are found, attached to a cuboid-like structure, which makes up the end of the generator; on it is found a small sign with on it the words "model: GLaDOS," "code # 081-354-56," and "Aperture Science," as well as a red struck circle, and a red triangle. Under her is another transparent platform, accessed with stairs, then the tiled ground.

GLaDOS' "body" is a piece of delicate hardware constantly swinging (whose swinging speed increases each time a core is destroyed), attached to which are her four Personality Cores that make up the bulk of GLaDOS' character; the Morality Core, a purple core with a rather dilated pupil and two dots installed into GLaDOS to stop her from flooding the Enrichment Center with a deadly neurotoxin; the Curiosity Core, an orange core with an average size pupil and four dots that is insatiably curious about everything around it (it even recognizes Chell as "the lady from the test"); the Cake Core (also known as "Crazy Core" or "Knowledge Core"), a blue core with a very dilated pupil and six dots that gives an interesting cake recipe; and the Emotion Core (also known as "Aggressive Core" or "Anger Core"), a red core with a rather small pupil and eight dots that emits animalistic snarling and shrieks of pure psychotic fury. When looked upon from a certain angle, GLaDOS looks like a woman - with a head, a chest, a large abdomen, and two arms - hanging upside down by her feet, an arm bound around her legs (an effect actually intended by the team). The in game commentary mentions making her to be an inverted version of "The Birth of Venus";[3] however, Game-ism says she looks like she is imprisoned in some sort of bondage or torture posture.[7] GLaDOS is a combination of two systems, the Genetic Lifeform (aka Caroline) and the Disc Operating System. GLaDOS's head is the GL, which manages the DOS, and her body, where the personality cores are attached, is the DOS, which runs the facility.

The larger section above the hanging GLaDOS is the Reactor Core, the energy source of the facility commonly referred to in Portal 2. Without the stabilization from the personality cores, GLaDOS is unable to keep control of the Reactor Core, causing its implosion upward to the surface. After being rebooted by way of the "main breaker room," she can remain stable to reestablish and run the Reactor Core without the assistance of Personality Cores.

When Chell detaches all of GLaDOS' Cores, the Cores are all sent to a different location, making it harder and harder for Chell to catch them. While being in these locations, they appear to be still linked to GLaDOS somehow with a greenish, semi-transparent beam/thread. It is only when grabbed by Chell and destroyed in the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator that their effect on GLaDOS stops.

Personality
GLaDOS' personality core defines her as being a clandestine, surreptitious, manipulative, revenge-obsessed test master. She speaks in an extremely cold monotone and does not display any emotion, at least towards Chell, and remains incredibly calm throughout most of her appearances. A rare example of when GLaDOS would display emotion was when she was removed from her body and replaced with Wheatley, which prompted her to scream out in pain. Another occasion is when she was left verbally frustrated when Wheatley gave an incorrect answer to her paradox. GLaDOS has many passions, such as singing opera (which is a nod to the actress who plays her), baking cakes, and a love for science.

Her only purpose in "life" was to force people to complete her tests and then get results. GLaDOS promises to free the captive if they complete all of her tests; however, this took an estimate of sixty years, she either didn't realize or didn't care that the captive would be dead when they were completed. GLaDOS was an emotional sadist and a torturous psychological abuser, after imprisoning Chell in her tests she continues to mock her with cold, disturbing facts and dry cutting insults. GLaDOS continuously insults Chell over being on a orphan and friendless, and insinuates that she is fat. GLaDOS gives facts she describes as interesting, but uses to jab her captive, such as saying that Chell is breathing the same air the rest of her life or even just flatly saying, "I hate you."

Although GLaDOS was only passionate and temperamental about completing her tests at first, as Chell began to defy her, GLaDOS's insane, deceiving, and narcissistic nature slowly began to develop, focusing all of her near-omnipotent control over the Aperture Science Enrichment Center to either torment or kill Chell. GLaDOS had a tendency to frequently lie about her current emotional state, and she would never admit when she was frustrated or angry.

However, when she was overthrown by Chell and the power-crazed Wheatley, her personality began to divert. First, when Wheatley tried to give himself credit for deposing her, she immediately told him that he had done nothing to accomplish that (which was false, as Wheatley had, in fact, performed some behind-the-scenes sabotage to help Chell defeat her), and that Chell had done all the work (though in saying this, she unintentionally drove Wheatley into betraying Chell). After she had been turned into a potato, she developed ornithophobia, a crippling fear of birds, after nearly being eaten by one, and became a more compassionate, optimistic, and kinder person after discovering that her mind was created using Cave Johnson's (who was the CEO of Aperture Science) assistant, Caroline. GLaDOS (or POTaTOS) was able to bury the hatchet, if not for a personal goal, and helped Chell defeat Wheatley so she could return her to her body and control Aperture Science once again, and in return, GLaDOS would free Chell. She even defended Chell to Wheatley when he, like GLaDOS before him, insulted Chell over being adopted.

When Wheatley was defeated and GLaDOS was returned to her original body, she returned to her malevolent, cynical, evil self when she deleted Caroline's program from her mind. However, she did not kill Chell and fulfilled her deal by releasing her from the Aperature Science Enrichment Center (although she claims that this is because Chell is simply too hard to kill) and coldly warns her to never come back.

Trivia

 * Caroline, the woman whose mind became the basis of GLaDOS and personal assistant of Aperture Science, is theorized by many to possibly the mother of Chell (the father likely being Cave Johnson himself):
 * At the end of the game, during the "Turret Opera", the lyrics translated into English basically say, in short: "Farewell, my daughter. Stay away from science."
 * 40 potato batteries and a baking soda volcano project made by children can be found in the depths of Aperture as remnants of a "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day". One of these projects features a potato that has since then grown through the roof; Chell's name is on it, indicating that she had a connection to the facility as a child.
 * GLaDOS has read the entire literary canon of the human race, including Machiavelli.
 * The fact Caroline's mind is the basis of GLaDOS constantly makes people think that her entire self became what GLaDOS is, but that is wrong: the GLaDOS artificial intelligence only has Caroline's mind's way of responding to situations (it can be seen as an example when she first listen to Cave Johnson's voice in Portal 2, both she and the recorded voice of Caroline say "Good morning, Mr. Johnson").
 * GLaDOS is never referred to by name in either the first or second Portal game. Only "she" and "her", particularly by Wheatley.
 * In LEGO Dimensions, GLaDOS speaks Wheatley's name for the first time.
 * WatchMojo.com listed GLaDOS as #2 on their Top 10 Video Game Villains list.