Do you have a source on it being confirmed by the devs? It seems like there was a popular blog post (and a follow-up) which popularized the theory—and I think it’s a totally reasonable theory—but I couldn’t find any explicit dev commentary on bondage. This is the commentary from Portal 1 that’s referenced in the blog post:
GLaDOS, the rogue disk operating system that now runs Aperture Science, went through a bunch of design iterations. Earlier versions included a floating brain, a sprawling, spidery mechanism, and an upside-down version of Botticelli’s Rise of Venus built out of robot parts and wire. Eventually, we settled on a huge mechanical device with a delicate robotic figure dangling out of it, which successfully conveys both GLaDOS’s raw power and her femininity.
I didn’t turn up any related interviews, and when I looked through the Portal 2 commentary I couldn’t find anything relevant, although I was working off of a YouTube auto transcript rather than the actual text, so I could have verily easily missed something.
Huh, I thought that was one of those easily accessible answer type things, but I guess it’s not. Probably heard it on some Portal lore dump video once and my brain was just like “yeah, that seems right” and never investigated further.
Especially because the themes of bondage (Chell and GlaDos, GlaDos and Cave) are so prevalent in 2 where they really pushed her design to more resemble shibari.
This was actually confirmed by the devs, she’s modeled after a bound woman because her whole story is about how she is a play for Cave Johnson.
They also probably just thought it was hot
Do you have a source on it being confirmed by the devs? It seems like there was a popular blog post (and a follow-up) which popularized the theory—and I think it’s a totally reasonable theory—but I couldn’t find any explicit dev commentary on bondage. This is the commentary from Portal 1 that’s referenced in the blog post:
I didn’t turn up any related interviews, and when I looked through the Portal 2 commentary I couldn’t find anything relevant, although I was working off of a YouTube auto transcript rather than the actual text, so I could have verily easily missed something.
Huh, I thought that was one of those easily accessible answer type things, but I guess it’s not. Probably heard it on some Portal lore dump video once and my brain was just like “yeah, that seems right” and never investigated further.
Especially because the themes of bondage (Chell and GlaDos, GlaDos and Cave) are so prevalent in 2 where they really pushed her design to more resemble shibari.