"Lab Rat" DESTROYED Me | PORTAL Comic Readalong
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Hahahahha I'm still crying
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Remember, in the first game, one of the things GLaDOS says is "the enrichment center would like to remind you that the Weighted Companion Cube is not sentient, and in fact, cannot speak. Please disregard anything it says to you." It's kinda like how every warning label has a story behind it. Apparently GLaDOS thinks that humans need to be told that.
Oddly enough, in 2, she says “they ARE sentient, of course.” Them being sentient or not seems to be one of her manipulative tactics
7:45 the purple one was the morality core they installed after she flooded the enrichment centre with a deadly neurotoxin to make her stop flooding the enrichment centre with a deadly neurotoxin
I love this comic so much. As someone who also suffers from psychosis like Doug Rattman, the linework and messiness and warping of the artwork feels very true to my experience. It feels good to have your experiences seen, even if it's not always happy.
It's an incredible comic. The artstyle is based off a lot of the artworks done by people with schizophrenia or alzheimers.
What's especially great is how the art gets cleaner and more realistic as his pills take effect, and then gets more warped again when they wear off
I think the best thing about it is that Doug is a good guy. Too many fictional stories have these kinds of characters as serial killers. *cough* Batman *cough*
Valve folks have definitely hinted that his fate is ambiguous for a reason. They could bring him into something if it really made sense and have him survive in the tube or if he passed away then it’s a beautiful end.
Maybe he went to work for black mesa
Can I give s special nod to the artwork here? I'm not 100% familiar with the lore of Portal (having only played it a few times in co-op) but the scientist here being illustrated in his rugged, graffiti Picasso shows a very distorted work he faces VS the near perfect illustration of the woman. It's almost like his world only becomes perfect or he sees perfection in that woman, so much so he has to capture her beauty in a painting. It's... freaking brilliant.
OMG. Thank you for this. 😭
if you look carefully even the FRAMES of the panels where hes in full episodic pyschosis are rugged vs the sharp smaller clean ones where hes medicated in the flashback
its amazing
The changing art styles also add a lot of flare, reflecting his mental state. It’s honestly the best representation I’ve seen of how it feels and how I view myself and others, as someone with psychosis
Now you know why I squealed internally when you commented on Chell's tenacity previously ^^
I did!?!? I'll have to go back and rewatch 😂
“Your box is broken. And has schizophrenia” 😭😭😭
a ittle fun fact: Doug Rattman was planned to be a part of the actual game (portal 2) orginally you could collect "Rattman Discs" around and you could play them in some areas belonged to Rattman and watch them. Even though this feature is removed, you can still see some tables with a computer on them and disc players around that origninally belonged Rattman. These places are simply called "Rattman hideouts"
If I'm correct the binary says "The cake is a lie"... Fitting🤣🤣
I should've known 😂
Such a great comic, and great interpretation.
I love the multiple callbacks to schrodinger's cat, including Chell being both alive and dead until "someone opens the box" to start portal 2.
I also love the play between the Antipsychotics, and the scenario he is actually in.
Once you finish the 2nd game there are so many other lore connections here we can discuss.
Ps. I am pretty sure that the main character (an Aperture employee) in the comic is Doug Rattmann, and the Doug in the spreadsheet is just another test subject listed above Chell (I think)
God I love portal. I am 17 currently and I am 100% going to get a companion cube tattoo in the next 12 months. To me its a symbol of resilience and coping through isolation/loneliness/depression.
The idea of _being in a chamber isolated from any other human beings, finding your only sense of comfort or escape from loneliness in a metal cube, then realizing the only way onwards/upwards is to leave it_ feels very meaningful to me.
I see a lot of myself in Doug and Chell and I'd love to elaborate but I'll save that for my therapist.
That’s a great idea actually. I’ve been wanting a portal tattoo and the companion cube is a good subject for one. Lot of cute and simple things you can do with designs
not sure if this is canon or not. But i think chell Can speak, but just simply chooses to not give any of robots the satisfaction of eliciting a response from her. I think this came from a dev, but im not sure, Her high tenacity is why she does this i think. Also Dougs name is Doug Rattman, hence the name of the comic.
rattman himself, even with little we know on the guy is knowledgeble in a lotta stuff it seems. One of my favorite characters in the franchise (Im counting that within both portal and half life since those exist in the same universe)
I looooove that theory, and might make it my headcanon.
The Valve devs have occasionally been poking a little fun at their "silent protagonists" in an era of gaming, where this is no longer the norm and every character is voiced. They did it in _Half-Life 2_ and here in _Portal 2._ The idea that Chell is perfectly capable of speaking, but is simply _refusing_ to engage with this coterie of insane robots that she finds herself caught up with, comes from a dev speaking on the commentary track, who said that this was their personal head-canon for why she's silent. That quote, although it's not officially canon, seems to resonate with a lot of people - which may be the reason why it was included in the commentaries.
@@MegMage There are plenty, plenty of Doug Rattman Easter eggs in the game, including one really hidden one with audio, and also a secret Turret song called “Turret wife”. Please look them up and listen to them, also watch the trailers for Portal 2 that show Chell using her new boots!!
PS: when you hear mention of a “bring your daughter to work day” , look at the name tags on the science projects. :)
@@MegMagei think its actually canon though. Cuz like, in portal 2 you were meant to speak (wont say when because spoilers) but it got scrapped and instead they later said the same thing like the comment did.
Naah. Chell is just a specieist (or maybe carbonist). She obviously thinks robots are not alive, so they are not worth speaking to. /s
"Exile.... it takes your mind.. again.
Vilify.. dont even try."
Exile, vilify and the video along with it are great visual summaries of the comic.
Now we need her to play half life 💀
Please! It's a must play 🙏
loving your playthrough of the portal series so far. there is 1 hidden area that i REALLY hope you find. it's kind of hard to find so here is a HINT: Sus turret
I don't think I'll forget "sus turret" 😂😂😂 thank you!
@@MegMage for anybody wondering. yes she missed it.
This was actually a pretty cool comic. Even though I love when you did your comic talks, I actually think I might prefer more of these comic read alongs if possible. Plus I love getting your raw emotional thoughts during and after. But this was really great!
Yes!! thank you Heroes! I would love to do more even if it's just for Patreon/Members.
I really appreciate your playthrough here. Well done. EDIT: 26:45 Preach, sister. Right there with ya.
Hello Meg hope you're doing well :) Seeing you reading the comic and also playing the games reminded me of the early 2010's internet culture, I Have a lot of nostalgia for that time because of how game parodies online were really huge on youtube and other humour sites, Still Alive and Portal were at the Forefront of these parodies along with Memes which were something that was at its infancy and starting to get popular. Watching your walkthrough gave me memories of the first time i played these games during my teenage years and i couldn't be more happy to see someone in 2024 experiencing a game so beloved and unique when it launched that left people wanting sequels for years and years.
I love how you got hooked on the comic, you interpreted it beautifully!
Thanks to you I saw this coming. Didn't know it existed. It made me very emotional too 😭
Your explanation was so excellent
Edit: subbed
I'm glad you found this, happy to have helped point you in the right direction for this comic (though I'm sure many others did too)!
Now you know who made all those secret hiding places in the test chambers through the games!
Chills boots are called the Aperture Science Long Fall boots. they are a specialty boot that is used to negative the fall damage from the momentum retained when passing through a portal
37:00 Great reading of the comic.. probably the best reading I'm seen for it. I also loved how you went backwards through the comic and put so much thought into it.
1000% I just encountered Meg yesterday through searching portal playthroughs, and I absolutely love all her thoughts and reactions so far to the things in the game that are also meaningful to me.
I think the idea of tenacity also heavily applies to gamers. Most games you will fail over and over again or spend a while racking your brain trying to solve something but in the end find the solution or develop the skill to carry on. It applies elsewhere in life too but considering this is from a game series it fits very well.
Oh my gosh for being a silly little comic Lab Rat is deep!
An amazing interpretation & great read of this comic.
This is really great for you reading this from the Portal
comic and you did really awesome thank you Meg and
have a wonderful Thursday.💞🐕🐩💞
SO GLADos you have found this. For all I thought I knew about the lore (the Walkthroughs , the mods and more) , this is the newest piece of the puzzle for me. And I LOVED it.
If you can find Portal Stories MEL and Revolution (this year's mod) , they are essential extra pieces
"you can always ignore your conscience"
When I read that I got chills... Because I know I ignored my conscience a few times.
Tenacity is a running theme with Valve protagonists
After you finish the game, you should take a look at all the "Extras", which are mostly hilarious short videos.
This comic is just perfect! Such a beautiful contextualisation!
You may remember that secret room in the first game that had a lot of Companion Cube's pictures with hearts all over it, it really shows how much Rattman cared for it
The lesson we learned is that you don't need to be the most athletic and or the smartest... Just be stubborn, like me 😂
Absolutely loved your Arkham playthroughs but when I saw you were doing Portal...
...I'm in sheer anticipation of your next playthrough
The scientists had to give glados the neurotoxin. AI is only as dangerous as what we entrust it with.
I love portal and didn't know this comic existed lol
This might be way too deep for a youtube comment but I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts and especially your feelings
I had a very rough day of struggling to accept a lot of uncomfortable emotions and to then see this kind of honest expression being normalized made me feel a bit more calm and less 'crazy'
All we have is eachother 💚
Hope you enjoy the rest of Portal 2! I'll be sticking around to watch
To answer a few of your questions at the end...
The spheres /conscience /ai stuff will become more clear later in 2
The binary at the bottom of Chell's questionnaire is "the cake is a lie"
That's what i really like about portal, you can draw your own interpretation about the story and relate it to your own life. One of my favorite games ever!
I’m confused why he had Caroline uploaded, and not _himself._
He died before aperture could finish researching artificial consciousness
0:00 I'm ready for the Lab Rat!
You should watch "Exile, Vilify" by The National (Portal 2 Music Video)" now, it's a music video that shows all of this with stop motion animation.
the personality constructs were created to make GLaDOS less deadly, hence the Morality core. And the Cake core's influence on her is obvious 😂
Tenacity..
Nice Video.
❤
fortnite has a LOT of lore, react to a recap of it maybe (there's also marvel and dc comics)
:,)
Synthetic PictureHaus made a video based in the Lab Rat comic
watch?v=539oNONcCrI