Not in wrath
The Reaper came today
An angel visited
this gray path
And took the cube away"
The Death of the Weighted Companion Cube became a pop culture phenomena the moment the very first person reached level 17. I have only eve known one person that on their first time through the game had no hesitation as they incinerated their Companion Cube. I watched my friends do everything that they could to save the Companion Cube. The Companion Cube lives in the hearts of those who played Portal and will always be one of the saddest memories in a video game.
The Weight Companion Cube won "best sidekick" by GameSpy in the 2007 awards.
This is a video on the love affair that is the Weighted Companion Cube. The Portal writers created a dialogue with GLaDOS that without realizing it you as the player begin to fall in love with your Weighted Companion Cube, just as all the others did.
"We had a long level called Box Marathon; we wanted players to bring this box with them from the beginning to the end. But people would forget about the box, so we added dialogue, applied the heart to the cube, and continued to up the ante until people became attached to the box. Later on, we added the incineration idea. The artistic expression grew from the gameplay."
“ A couple of people jumped into the incinerator themselves rather than kill the Cube.”
“One person said that it was harder for them to incinerate the Companion Cube than it was to kill a Little Sister. Oh, god -- what have we done?”
Here is what GLaDOS has to say:
"The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Weighted Companion Cube will never threaten to stab you and, in fact, cannot speak."
"The Enrichment Center reminds you that the Companion Cube cannot speak. In the event that the Companion Cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice."
"If the Weighted Companion Cube could speak – and the Enrichment Center takes this opportunity to remind you that it cannot – it would tell you to go on without it, because it would rather die in a fire than become a burden to you."
"The symptoms most commonly produced by Enrichment Center testing are superstition, perceiving inanimate objects as "alive", and hallucinations."
"State and local statutory regulations prohibit it from simply remaining here, alone and companionless. You must euthanize it."
"Although the euthanizing process is remarkably painful, 8 out of 10 Aperture Science engineers believe that the Companion Cube is most likely incapable of feeling much pain."
"You euthanized your faithful Companion Cube more quickly than any test subject on record. Congratulations."
If you would like your own Weighted Companion Cube please click here.
