Why do we love the companion cube?

[Zagzag]

It's because it is the only character in the game that isn't out to harm you. Like Glados said, it will do you no harm.

The first time I played the game I was accidentally killed by the companion cube. I tied to jump onto a platform while holding it and didn't reach it. It hit the top of the platform and fell, landing on top of me and killing me!

 

[nuba km]

I didn't care about the companion cube I just used the cameras in the small room and around the room to make a pile to climbed out of the level and just burned the companion cube.

 

[rainman2203]

Because it talks to me and gives me good suggestions. And because it looks at energy balls of death and is like "NoooOOOO WwwaaAAyyYYY!!!" (Glados voice)

 

[Mcupobob]

Picture this your in a lonely gray and cold world. All alone against a unknown voice that only desires to play with you and cause harm. Companion cube is like Tom Hank's Wilson. We add the personality and character to a object simple to cope with a cold world in which portal has placed us in. The only reason we love companion cube is because it's the only thing we can. Thats my thesis, though I'm a little stoned so I have no idea what I'm talking about. Good day y'all.

 

[standokan]

I love it, I jumped three times into the incinerator alone, then 2 times with it, and then I threw it in by itself, I'm ashamed of myself.

 

[Sixcess]

Because it's memetastic!

Or... a slightly more serious answer... People love the Cube, and the Cake, and Still Alive and all the rest of it because Portal is brilliantly written. Seriously, there's barely a single line that isn't funny, quotable or both, and given that (turrets aside) there's exactly one speaking part in the game that's an amazing achievement.

...and having just committed the first Thou Shalt Not of the Escapist forums (Praise a Portal meme) I'll go for the double and quote Yahtzee as well.

"Sometimes things are popular for a reason. Because they're GOOD."

 

[Netrigan]

I think it has a lot to do with how completely unlovable it is. It's an AI's idea of what love is... and it's so pathetic, it becomes completely endearing.

I think large chunks of the game are like that, like the whole cake thing. That it actually believes that you'd be motivated to carry out all these highly dangerous actions for the promise of cake... there's just something so unbelievably off about that. Had the game simply went for menacing, I think it would have failed. But there's something a bit unnerving (and endearing) about slapping a happy face on something which is actually malevolent.

And it's also interesting how they never really drop the mask. Most games/movies that use this device will have the Killer Clowns or whatever act in a completely psychotic manner in the final act. Even when GLaDOS is trying to kill you, she seems more disappointed that you're going outside the parameters of the experiment than psychotic.

 

[Nuds1000]

the game gives it to you and says it's special, thats all, it's not any different from a regular weighted cube in terms of properties. But the game keeps referring to it, (especially in the hidden survivor rooms) and gives you the impression that's its special for some reason. If you think about it the walls, the turrets, the cameras, and the cubes of aperture science they are all sterile and uniform but then the game introduces a unique cube and you latch onto it. A lot of portal is mystery and dark humor and the companion cube is just another dark joke in this excellent game.

If you wanna get analytical about it I suppose you could say that it's mocking games that arbitrarily give you a love interest who is aggravating and useless. You have to drag this character around keeping them alive just so you can get a stupid kiss in the sunset or some other bullshit like that and you end up hating the person because they are getting in the way of playing the game. While in portal they give you an arbitrary love interest with no back story, no voice, and no gender (no heart beat either) and ask you to use it to block deadly plasma balls and provide dead weight on a button to open a door, so it's funny because it's like telling someone to become companions with a door knob or a spoon.

 

[JaymesFogarty]

I dont really understand the love for the companion cube. I mean it was in the game for what a whole 10 minutes before you destroyed it.

I found that the humour wasn't in the little grey box with hearts on it. The reason, (I'd imagine) most people found it funny, was actually the comments GLaDOS would make. The fact that she lamented it, pathetically convinced that humans could have attachments to objects like that that made it amusing. It's the disconnect between the player thinking, "its a cube," to GLaDOS so obviously failing to make you good friends.

 

[hyker]

I allways liked how valve's portal team treated it

They wanted a "love subplot". They wanted you to develop a liking for someone (or something in this case), then crash it down, and since they couldn't animate a guy and voice it through the entire game, they (because they were creative) just modeled a simple cube, and they made the people to like it by making it important for the gameplay. Therefore, it's a love subplot without any love and any other characters

And also, glados wanted to brake down the character any way she could for some twisted reason (maybe she was bored) and made us like the cube, then make us "kill" it. But it didn't and you know the rest...

 

[Continuity]

Its a symbol, a token love object. Suggestion, the heart image, the need to hang on the the block to progress though the puzzles, the menace of the situation.. all these things come together to produce an attachment.

Edit: i should be clear, not a strong attachment. I chucked it in the furnace without a second thought just like everyone else... however there was something of an attachment, even if only a simple bond of companionship.

 

[Daveeo]

Love? I do not love it... It was quite satisfying burning the shit. Was a pain carrying around that cube.

 

[Dogstile]

I honestly don't know. I messed around when my friend was watching it, declaring how important it was to me, but its not really that important.

I'd prefer an energy bolt any day

 

[Shadowphrin]

I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the game has no excess characters - it's essentially you, a faceless wonder, and a computer. We all have favourite characters in games, and we're told the Cube is our Companion (oh, see what I did there), so we naturally project feelings onto it.

I had no issue burning it though, due to some serious (and later, hilarious, once I'd stopped playing) Stockholm Syndrome issues regarding Glados.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I mean it only features in one stage of the whole game, but you become so attached.

Speak for yourself, I was massively underwhelmed. I mean before I played Portal, every where I'd look I see references to the Companion Cube. Companion Cube this, Companion Cube that. And all the while I'm thinking "WTF is the big deal? It's a pink cube with hearts on it."
So then one day I see Portal on sale on Steam for really cheap (like $2 or something), so I figure I'll give it a shot. And what do I find out? This Companion Cube that everyone's been going on about is only featured in ONE BLOODY LEVEL. WTF??? Well sure GlAdOS offhandedly mentions it at the end to taunt you, but that still doesn't justify it's meme status.

 

[El Poncho]

I wouldn't say I love the companion cube, maybe if I had it for more than 1 level I would.

 

[Dusquad]

It is because we are stuck in an increasingly eerie situation. We are told to love the cube and for that reason we feel the need to destroy it (Yuh know, reverse psychology). We then realize that, for all it is worth, the cube accepts the destruction with no complaint; it does what it can to help and then sacrifices itself so that we may complete our mission...

I am just fucking with you. We love it because IT IS THE COMPANION CUBE. Do not question the love, embrace it. The Cube will never try and stab you...

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I don't love it at all. I thought it was kind of funny, but that's it.

Maybe it's that some people are susceptible to suggestion.

Yeah pretty much this. I reckon Valve actually set out to prove a serious scientific point within the context of a game. Making people attached to what is not just an inanimate object, but an inanimate object that doesn't even exist in reality, and I'm ashamed to say I fell for it.

 

[Smooth Operator]

I love it because it's such a good listener.