Ever notice how Wheatley just has this constant blind faith in the scientists regardless of how badly they treat him? He always listens to them, even when they’re not using his fear of death against him.



The scientists are roboticists. They’re trained professionals and If anyone should know about Wheatley’s functions it’s them. So when they lie to him that doing certain things will kill him, he’s gonna believe it.



It’s like how you have faith in your doctor when they give you your medical diagnostic. They’re trained professionals so they should know what they’re doing. You wouldn’t know if your doctor was lying to you and this is the same case with Wheatley being unaware of the scientists lying to him. Especially about something that he perceives to be life or death.



But Wheatley’s blind faith in the scientists goes much deeper than that.



When you’re riding in the tube, Wheatley says this:

“Woooo! Haha! I KNEW this would be fun. They told me it wasn’t fun at all, so they say “It’s not fun at all.” and I- I BELIEVED ‘em! I don’t know why I ever thought so myself. Ah! But I’m loving this! Whale of a time!”

Wheatley believes the scientists when they tell him that riding the tubes isn’t fun. Something that should be purely subjective. They don’t tell him that riding the tubes is gonna kill him. They say that it won’t be fun and Wheatley believes them. He has so much faith in the scientists that he just believes anything they tell him.

And I don’t think this has to do with sheer gullibility. Wheatley’s faith in the scientists seems to be indicative of him wanting their approval. He clearly has respect for them If he’s willing to believe their every word and he sees them as figures of authority.

The scientists created Wheatley and they hold authority over all the other robots in Aperture. They dictate the rules and decides everyone else’s fate… including their worth.

It’s clear that Wheatley felt somewhat of an attachment to the scientists since he truly believed that they had his best interest in mind whenever they warned him about what would and wouldn’t kill him. However, they still treated him in a way that caused him to develop insecurities about himself, leading to him having a low self esteem.

After you finish Test Chamber 18, Wheatley meets up with you to keep you updated on his plans to help you escape.

He bumps into a girder and gets fired by Jerry before threatening to sue him for a hate crime. Now, in a longer unused version of this quote, he says this:

“Hey, partner. I knew you’d be comin’ through this shaft, so I talked my way onto this nanobot work crew over here that’s rebuildin’ it. They’re REALLY small, so they got tiny little brains. But there’s a billion of 'em, so it’s only a matter of time until ONE of them notices I’m the size of a planet. Hold on… I’m on BREAK, Jerry. Anyway, look, we’re real close to bustin’ out. So just hang in there for five more chambers. Ow! What? You can’t fire me! Well, JERRY – maybe your prejudiced worksite could have accommodated a nanobot of my size! You’ll be hearing from my lawyer! Thanks for the HATE CRIME, Jerry! We’re not actually going to sue them, I just don’t want them to report this. I don’t even HAVE a lawyer. In fact, if I EVER retain counsel, I will DIE. Oh, I gotta go. I’ll see you soon.”

Now Wheatley thinks that he will die if he ever retains any legal counsel, and with the ongoing pattern of Wheatley thinking that certain things will kill him because of what the scientists told him, it can be inferred that the scientists also told him that he would die if he tried to retain any legal counsel.



Now, why would the scientists tell him that? Well, these are Aperture employees who don’t want to get involved with the law as we all know.

If Wheatley tried to sue them, then they would obviously use his fear of death against him to get him to not press charges.



Another interesting thing of note is that Wheatley specifically chooses to accuse Jerry of engaging in a hate crime. Now if at some point in his past he learned that he COULD sue someone for a hate crime, then he would obviously use that same tactic on Jerry.



Because that’s the thing about Wheatley. He learns, and when he learns, he utilizes that newfound knowledge for things in the future. Like how he was checking up on Chell from behind the panels all throughout Chapters 2-4, picking up vital information that he would use against GLaDOS once he broke Chell out of the testing track, such as learning the extent of their rivalry, GLaDOS’s defensive use of turrets and neurotoxin and just how much of a manipulative liar GLaDOS tends to be.



Or how he studied GLaDOS’s Portal 1 boss battle footage before preparing for his own.

“Also, I took the liberty of watching the tapes of you killing her, and I’m not going to make the same mistakes. Four part plan is this: One: No portal surfaces. Two: Start the neurotoxin immediately. Three: Bomb-proof shields for me. Leading directly into number Four: Bombs. For throwing at you. You know what, this plan is so good, I’m going to give you a sporting chance and turn off the neurotoxin. I’m joking. Of course. Goodbye.”





So Wheatley tends to utilize his past knowledge of things in the future.



I feel like at some point in the past he learned that he could sue someone for a hate crime. But why would he try to sue someone for that? Well, Wheatley often feels like he’s being treated unfairly on the basis of his role as an “intelligence dampening sphere.” Simply thinking about it brings him a great deal of emotional pain and he likely named himself Wheatley just because he didn’t want to be known as that.



If at some point he felt like he was being mistreated for something he had no control over, learning that he could sue for a hate crime must have been like a dream come true to him. Although of course, it wouldn’t work out since the scientists told him that he would die if he ever tried to retain any legal counsel, which… probably wasn’t a lie so much as it was a threat.



Wheatley must have been very frustrated to have wanted to risk it all in order to sue the very people he looks up to.

I honestly find it fascinating though, to see how different characters deal with the abuse from the scientists.

GLaDOS takes the path of most resistance and tries to kill them with every chance she gets, acting assertively and in control, like Caroline (and Cave) who took crap from no one:

Cave Johnson : “All right, I’ve been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don’t make lemonade.”

: “All right, I’ve been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don’t make lemonade.” GLaDOS : “Yeah!”

: “Yeah!” Cave Johnson : “Make life take the lemons back!”

: “Make life take the lemons back!” GLaDOS : “Yeah!”

: “Yeah!” Cave Johnson : “Get mad!”

: “Get mad!” GLaDOS : “Yeah!!”

: “Yeah!!” Cave Johnson : “I don’t want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?!”

: “I don’t want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?!” GLaDOS : "Yeah, take the lemons!”

: "Yeah, take the lemons!” Cave Johnson : "Demand to see life’s manager!”

: "Demand to see life’s manager!” GLaDOS : “Yeah!”

: “Yeah!” Cave Johnson : “Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am?! I’m the man who’s going to burn your house down! With the lemons!”

: “Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am?! I’m the man who’s going to burn your house down! With the lemons!” GLaDOS : "Oh, I like this guy.”

: "Oh, I like this guy.” Cave Johnson : “I’m going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!!!“

: “I’m going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!!!“ GLaDOS: "BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN!!! Burning people! He says what we’re all thinking!”





GLaDOS: "I know things look bleak, but that crazy man down there was right. Let’s not take these lemons! We are going to march right back upstairs and MAKE him put me back in my body! […] let’s get mad! If we’re going to explode, let’s at least explode with some dignity!“

She knows she’s in charge and that she’s not going to allow anyone to take advantage of her.

Wheatley, on the other hand, tends to often take the path of least resistance and tries to earn the scientist’s approval. Always listening to them with this blind faith and only deciding to lash out with a lawsuit against them when he’s at his limit of being treated unfairly.

Wheatley more commonly tends to be a pushover. He’s timid and incapable of standing up to anyone who’s bigger than him or who holds more power over him. He even allows himself to get talked down to by a potato.





Wheatley : "Alright. So that last test was… seriously disappointing. Apparently being civil isn’t motivating you. So let’s try things Her way… fatty. Adopted fatty. Fatty fatty no-parents.”

: "Alright. So that last test was… seriously disappointing. Apparently being civil isn’t motivating you. So let’s try things Her way… fatty. Adopted fatty. Fatty fatty no-parents.” GLaDOS : "And…?“

: "And…?“ Wheatley : “What?”

: “What?” GLaDOS : "What, exactly, is wrong with being adopted?”

: "What, exactly, is wrong with being adopted?” Wheatley: "What -what’s wrong with being adopted? Uh-um. Well…um… lack of parents, number one, so… uh… and also… nothing, but- well, some of my best friends actually are orphans… But…“





He immediately backs down after GLaDOS hypocritically calls him out on behavior that he learned from her. He could have called her out on her hypocrisy, but no. Wheatley is not assertive. He’s insecure, emotionally fragile and displays obvious signs of having anxiety. He can barely stand up for himself and gets easily taken advantage of by others.

And he realizes this. He realizes how easily others take advantage of him which leaves him feeling frustrated. Especially when he feels like he’s not even being appreciated. All of this built-up frustration over being treated unfairly explains these lines of his:





Wheatley : "I did this! Tiny little Wheatley did this! ”

: "I did this! ” GLaDOS : "You didn’t do anything… She did all the work.“

: "You didn’t do anything… She did all the work.“ Wheatley: "Oh really. That’s what the two of you think, is it? Well, maybe it’s time I did something then. And don’t think I’m not onto you too, lady. You know what you are? Selfish. I’ve done nothing but sacrifice to get us here! What have you sacrificed? NOTHING. Zero. All you’ve done is BOSS ME AROUND. Well, NOW who’s the boss? Who’s the boss? It’s me!”





In which Wheatley is clearly projecting all of the frustrations from being taken advantage of that he built up over the years onto Chell.

He wishes that he could say these things to the scientists but they’re all gone so he’s taking out his misplaced frustration out on Chell who he assumes agrees with GLaDOS over the assertion that he did nothing to help out and that Chell actually did all of the work. Despite the fact that 1. Wheatley came up with the plan to disable GLaDOS’s defenses in the first place and 2. GLaDOS didn’t actually see any of what was going on behind the scenes.

This frustration continues to persist until the end of the game when Wheatley says these things:





Wheatley : “We’ve had some times, haven’t we? Like that time I jumped off my management rail, not sure if I’d die or not when I did, and all you had to do was catch me? Annnd you didn’t. Did you? Oh, you remember that? I remember that. I remember that all the time.”

: “We’ve had some times, haven’t we? Like that time I jumped off my management rail, not sure if I’d die or not when I did, and all you had to do was catch me? Annnd you didn’t. Did you? Oh, you remember that? I remember that. I remember that all the time.” Wheatley : “And we could have talked our way out of it. Except you forgot to tell me that you’d murdered her. And that she needed you to live, so the only available vent for her rage would be good old crushable Wheatley. Yeah. Little details that I remember. Easy little tidbits you could have used to save me from getting crushed if you’d cared, which you didn’t, obviously. And still do not. ”

: “And we could have talked our way out of it. Except you forgot to tell me that you’d murdered her. And that she needed you to live, ” Wheatley : “Enough! I told you not to put these cores on me. But you don’t listen, do you? Quiet. All the time. Quietly not listening to a word I say. Judging me. Silently. The worst kind. ”

: “Enough! I told you not to put these cores on me. ” Wheatley : “And another thing! You never caught me. I told you I could die falling off that rail. And you didn’t catch me. You didn’t even try. Oh, it’s all becoming clear to me now. Find some dupe to break you out of cryosleep. Give him some sob story about escaping to the surface. Squeeze him for information on where to find a portal gun.”

: “And another thing! Oh, it’s all becoming clear to me now. Find some dupe to break you out of cryosleep. Give him some sob story about escaping to the surface. Squeeze him for information on where to find a portal gun.” Wheatley : “ Then, when he’s no more use to you, he has a little accident. Doesn’t he? 'Falls’ off his management rail. Doesn’t he? ”

: “ ” Wheatley : “You’re in this together, aren’t you? You’ve been playing me the whole time! Both of you! First, you make me think you’re brain damaged! Then you convince me you’re sworn enemies with your best friend over here! ”

: “You’re in this together, aren’t you? You’ve been playing me the whole time! Both of you! ” Wheatley : “ I’ll bet there isn’t even a problem with the facility, is there? I’ll bet there’s no such thing as a 'reactor core’. I’ll bet that’s not even fire coming out of the walls, is it? It’s just cleverly placed lights and papier mache, I’ll bet that’s all it is. ”

: “ ” Wheatley : “All those pieces of the ceiling that keep falling out? Probably actual pieces of the ceiling, I’ll bet. That looked real. But it doesn’t signify anything, is my point.”

: “All those pieces of the ceiling that keep falling out? Probably actual pieces of the ceiling, I’ll bet. That looked real. But it doesn’t signify anything, is my point.” Wheatley: “But the real point is - oh, oh! You know what I’ve just remembered? Football! Kicking a ball around for fun. Cruel, obviously. Humans love it. Metaphor. Should have seen it coming.”



After essentially experiencing sensory overload from the corrupted cores leaving him to feel emotionally overwhelmed and at his limit, Wheatley starts doubting reality itself. Because the scientists have lied to him about so many things, so who’s to say everything else isn’t a lie as well? A lot of Wheatley’s issues stem from his childhood as he projects his frustrations over the scientists onto Chell.



I think throughout the course of the game, Wheatley learned how to trust less in others, because people will only ever lie to you and take you for granted. And by the end of it, when he’s in space, he’s just lost and unsure of absolutely everything. He recognizes his wrongdoings and apologizes for it, but his experience will likely make him wary of putting his trust in anyone ever again.

So you can see how Wheatley has long harboured this frustration of being taken advantage of and lied to for his entire life. And since he is far too timid to stand up to himself or speak out, he’s been bottling up these frustrations for YEARS. Which is seriously not good for his mental health.



So If you take Wheatley’s history of being treated poorly and his methods of coping with his issues into account, a lot of his behavior in Portal 2 suddenly starts to make a lot of sense. Because anyone who has gone through what he’s gone through would inevitably be likely to act the same way he did.



Wheatley is a prime example of a mental health issue left unchecked and It honestly disappoints me how the developers seemingly added all of this depth to him by accident while cheaply describing him as some sort of goofy idiot in interviews. There’s clearly so much more to Wheatley than what they let on If you pay attention, and I would honestly love to have Valve hire me on to expand Wheatley’s lore a bit. Because all of this explains far too much of his behavior to simply be left to fan interpretation alone.