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In Portal, we are promised cake and a party at the end of our tests. However;

we soon discover that the cake is a lie.

Then, at the final scene;

there really is a cake (and my companion cube is waiting for me).

What's the meaning of this? Was GLADOS not deceiving me? Her comments seem to suggest that;

...she had the intention of killing me. Was the cake for us (player) and not for the character in the game?

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    If you note the cake doesn't seem to be the one her Cake Sphere describes...there aren't nearly enough injector need guns and not enough rhubarbs or fish shaped solid waste.
    – Zelda
    Commented Jan 20, 2013 at 22:45
  • You can actually get to the room with the cake, but it's tricky. My guess is that GLaDOS made that cake for herself and had no intention of sharing it.
    – Brian
    Commented May 3, 2013 at 16:46

2 Answers 2

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This type of scene is called a "stinger".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-credits_scene#Post-credit_scenes_in_video_games

In this case, the use of the stinger is to demonstrate that GLaDOS is definitely

Still Alive (since the cores are waking up).

The fact that a cake happens to be nearby is just a joke.

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    But is it a joke for the player or for the character?
    – JNat ♦
    Commented Jan 20, 2013 at 19:15
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    @JNat As logicians say, "yes."
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Jan 20, 2013 at 19:52
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GLaDOS is a psychopathic monster, and always intends to kill you. If you don't

escape the incinerator, or you fail to shut her down during the neurotoxin sequence, you die. She never has any intent to give you the cake or the party - these are just things she uses to entice you.

At the end, you can see that she could have made good on her promises, even though there is no outcome in the game where she does.

With regards to the cube, however (Portal 2 spoiler):

She really does have your cube, and she returns it to you in Portal 2 when she ejects you from the testing facility.

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    I just finished Portal 2, and only now did I realize that your comment regarding the companion cube was, indeed, the last scene. Good thing you added the spoiler markup. :)
    – JNat ♦
    Commented Jan 23, 2013 at 1:14

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