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Wheatley (Portal)
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Wheatley (Portal)
Wheatley is a fictional artificial intelligence from the Portal franchise, first introduced in the 2011 video game Portal 2. He is voiced by British comedian and writer Stephen Merchant, and created in part by Portal 2's designer Erik Wolpaw.
In the Portal narrative, Wheatley is one of several spherical "personality cores" developed to restrain GLaDOS, the main artificial intelligence that operates the Aperture Science facility, from becoming rampant, though Wheatley is later revealed to have been built to act as an "intelligence dampener" towards GLaDOS to hamper her capability for thought. Initially serving as a comedic foil and guide to the player-character Chell during the first half of Portal 2, Wheatley becomes the main antagonist of the second half as he takes GLaDOS's place and wreaks havoc on the facility before Chell and GLaDOS cooperate to stop him.
Since his appearance in Portal 2, Wheatley has received positive reception from critics. Merchant has been praised for his portrayal by critics who cited his fast-talking dialogue. Wheatley has also been described as a contrast to GLaDOS's "slower-speaking and more deliberate" personality.
The player-character Chell is introduced to Wheatley in Portal 2 when he revives her from her cryonic hibernation so they can both escape the deteriorating Aperture Science facility. Using a Portal Gun, Chell solves various puzzle tests until they accidentally revive the series' antagonist GLaDOS, who discards Wheatley while taking Chell to do tests. Wheatley eventually finds her and helps her escape, sabotaging GLaDOS' weaponry so they could defeat her. Chell initiates a core transfer, causing GLaDOS to be swapped with Wheatley, giving him control of the facility, which goes to his head, causing him to turn GLaDOS into a potato battery and send her and Chell into the facility's underbelly. He begins to change things, resulting in the facility falling apart. When they reencounter him, he forces them to do testing until he discovers robotic testing replacements, at which point he tries, unsuccessfully, to kill them. They eventually make their way to his lair, where they succeed in attaching corrupted cores to him to force a core transfer despite his efforts. He attempts to prevent this by boobytrapping a stalemate button, but Chell is able to remove him by putting a portal on the moon, causing him to be sucked out into space and letting GLaDOS retake the facility. After the credits, he is seen in space, expressing regret for his behavior.
Outside of the Portal series, Wheatley has appeared in several games in various capacities. An official plug-in created by Valve for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim features Wheatley floating around the Skills Menu. He also appears in Valve's multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 as an item, where actor Stephen Merchant reprises his role as Wheatley.[citation needed] In Rocket League, he appears as an antenna customization option for the player's car.[citation needed] He later appears as a non-playable character in Lego Dimensions, with Stephen Merchant once again reprising his role. In the main story campaign, he appears in Aperture Science and occasionally aids Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle in escaping and surviving GLaDOS's traps. In the bonus Portal-themed stage, Wheatley is now able to move and levitate under his own power; he is reunited with Chell and accompanies her through GLaDOS's new test chambers, expressing remorse for his previous actions and trying to ingratiate himself with Chell. He also appears in the Portal 2 adventure world, caring for a group of Frankenturrets and offering the player various sidequests.[citation needed]
Wheatley's role in the series was originally meant to be fulfilled by multiple different "personality cores" that the player would meet throughout the game. This was changed to be Wheatley, a single personality core, out of the belief that player never got to really learn about the multiple robots. Wheatley was designed with the purpose of making a character who "you’d be seeing a lot". Erik Wolpaw added that Wheatley served as an "offset" of GLaDOS; while her voice is "slower-speaking and more deliberate", Wheatley is a "frantic person", which Erik says is performed well by Merchant due to being able to relay information quickly in his speech. Wheatley is one of several personality cores created for GLaDOS; specifically, he was designed by the Aperture scientists as an "Intelligence Dampening Sphere" (or, as GLaDOS puts it, "the dumbest moron who ever lived") as a means to hamper GLaDOS's decision-making processes by injecting poor judgment into her routines.[citation needed]
Voice actor Stephen Merchant was chosen for the role both because the designers were fans of British comedy and because of Merchant's role in the television series Extras and his podcasts. Wheatley's characterisation was always designed with a British voice in mind. While they were writing Wheatley's dialogue, they had Merchant "in their heads" as a result of watching Extras, though at the time they did not consider pursuing him for the role because they did not think that they would be able to cast him. They were instead considering Richard Ayoade, up until they went to Merchant's agents.
Wheatley was designed with the intention of writing a video game character who spoke informally, which Wolpaw stated gave the sensation that the events were really happening, something players do not often see in video games. He also stated that sidekicks in video games have never "sounded as if they were just making things up as you go along". While they later discovered that Merchant was famous in the United Kingdom, they noted that he was not chosen for his fame. Wolpaw noted that Merchant was the most famous actor that they had featured in one of their games. While they wrote a script for Wheatley, Merchant had an "improvisational style" that they let him employ in the dialogue. Merchant also spoke some of the written dialogue in a way that seemed improvisational, such as in the "reading and repetition of words". This was one of the qualities that made them want to cast Merchant.
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Wheatley (Portal)
Wheatley is a fictional artificial intelligence from the Portal franchise, first introduced in the 2011 video game Portal 2. He is voiced by British comedian and writer Stephen Merchant, and created in part by Portal 2's designer Erik Wolpaw.
In the Portal narrative, Wheatley is one of several spherical "personality cores" developed to restrain GLaDOS, the main artificial intelligence that operates the Aperture Science facility, from becoming rampant, though Wheatley is later revealed to have been built to act as an "intelligence dampener" towards GLaDOS to hamper her capability for thought. Initially serving as a comedic foil and guide to the player-character Chell during the first half of Portal 2, Wheatley becomes the main antagonist of the second half as he takes GLaDOS's place and wreaks havoc on the facility before Chell and GLaDOS cooperate to stop him.
Since his appearance in Portal 2, Wheatley has received positive reception from critics. Merchant has been praised for his portrayal by critics who cited his fast-talking dialogue. Wheatley has also been described as a contrast to GLaDOS's "slower-speaking and more deliberate" personality.
The player-character Chell is introduced to Wheatley in Portal 2 when he revives her from her cryonic hibernation so they can both escape the deteriorating Aperture Science facility. Using a Portal Gun, Chell solves various puzzle tests until they accidentally revive the series' antagonist GLaDOS, who discards Wheatley while taking Chell to do tests. Wheatley eventually finds her and helps her escape, sabotaging GLaDOS' weaponry so they could defeat her. Chell initiates a core transfer, causing GLaDOS to be swapped with Wheatley, giving him control of the facility, which goes to his head, causing him to turn GLaDOS into a potato battery and send her and Chell into the facility's underbelly. He begins to change things, resulting in the facility falling apart. When they reencounter him, he forces them to do testing until he discovers robotic testing replacements, at which point he tries, unsuccessfully, to kill them. They eventually make their way to his lair, where they succeed in attaching corrupted cores to him to force a core transfer despite his efforts. He attempts to prevent this by boobytrapping a stalemate button, but Chell is able to remove him by putting a portal on the moon, causing him to be sucked out into space and letting GLaDOS retake the facility. After the credits, he is seen in space, expressing regret for his behavior.
Outside of the Portal series, Wheatley has appeared in several games in various capacities. An official plug-in created by Valve for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim features Wheatley floating around the Skills Menu. He also appears in Valve's multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2 as an item, where actor Stephen Merchant reprises his role as Wheatley.[citation needed] In Rocket League, he appears as an antenna customization option for the player's car.[citation needed] He later appears as a non-playable character in Lego Dimensions, with Stephen Merchant once again reprising his role. In the main story campaign, he appears in Aperture Science and occasionally aids Batman, Gandalf and Wyldstyle in escaping and surviving GLaDOS's traps. In the bonus Portal-themed stage, Wheatley is now able to move and levitate under his own power; he is reunited with Chell and accompanies her through GLaDOS's new test chambers, expressing remorse for his previous actions and trying to ingratiate himself with Chell. He also appears in the Portal 2 adventure world, caring for a group of Frankenturrets and offering the player various sidequests.[citation needed]
Wheatley's role in the series was originally meant to be fulfilled by multiple different "personality cores" that the player would meet throughout the game. This was changed to be Wheatley, a single personality core, out of the belief that player never got to really learn about the multiple robots. Wheatley was designed with the purpose of making a character who "you’d be seeing a lot". Erik Wolpaw added that Wheatley served as an "offset" of GLaDOS; while her voice is "slower-speaking and more deliberate", Wheatley is a "frantic person", which Erik says is performed well by Merchant due to being able to relay information quickly in his speech. Wheatley is one of several personality cores created for GLaDOS; specifically, he was designed by the Aperture scientists as an "Intelligence Dampening Sphere" (or, as GLaDOS puts it, "the dumbest moron who ever lived") as a means to hamper GLaDOS's decision-making processes by injecting poor judgment into her routines.[citation needed]
Voice actor Stephen Merchant was chosen for the role both because the designers were fans of British comedy and because of Merchant's role in the television series Extras and his podcasts. Wheatley's characterisation was always designed with a British voice in mind. While they were writing Wheatley's dialogue, they had Merchant "in their heads" as a result of watching Extras, though at the time they did not consider pursuing him for the role because they did not think that they would be able to cast him. They were instead considering Richard Ayoade, up until they went to Merchant's agents.
Wheatley was designed with the intention of writing a video game character who spoke informally, which Wolpaw stated gave the sensation that the events were really happening, something players do not often see in video games. He also stated that sidekicks in video games have never "sounded as if they were just making things up as you go along". While they later discovered that Merchant was famous in the United Kingdom, they noted that he was not chosen for his fame. Wolpaw noted that Merchant was the most famous actor that they had featured in one of their games. While they wrote a script for Wheatley, Merchant had an "improvisational style" that they let him employ in the dialogue. Merchant also spoke some of the written dialogue in a way that seemed improvisational, such as in the "reading and repetition of words". This was one of the qualities that made them want to cast Merchant.