About Atlas And P-bodys Personalities:

About Atlas and P-body’s Personalities:

((Here’s the second part to my analysis about Atlas and P-body. If you haven’t read the first one, I highly recommend you read it, but If you haven’t then here’s the TL;DR: - Atlas and P-body canonically have genders as stated by the developers. Atlas is male and P-body is female. - They behave like siblings towards each other and GLaDOS treats them like her two disappointing children. - GLaDOS favors P-body over Atlas because Atlas reminds her of Wheatley. - GLaDOS got paranoid about the two becoming close because Chell and Wheatley were close and tried to take her down, so she attempts to split them apart before realizing that they’re too simpleminded to attempt to do what Chell and Wheatley did and stops trying to break their companionship. And with that out of the way, onto the analysis: When Atlas is first activated, you can see that he’s rather apprehensive and socially awkward

As opposed to P-body who is more social and open to trying new things.

So typically when it comes to new things, Atlas will first look to P-body for affirmation before doing something since she seems to be the more extroverted out of the two.

Although once Atlas gets comfortable with someone, then he becomes a lot more social and affectionate with them as is the case with many shy and socially awkward people.

But typically he’s a lot more introverted and shy when it comes to meeting new people

However, when the people he cares about are in danger, he’s willing to put his life on the line in order to save them and step up to the challenge.

And since P-body is the more social of the two, she’s more prone to taking on in-group behavior. Especially from the “leader of the pack” which is GLaDOS. So since GLaDOS is freaking out about the bird, P-body also begins to fear the bird as well. It’s like… say a child falls down on the floor and their parent begins panicking and nervously asking them if they’re okay or if they’re hurt. The child will begin to panic because the parent is panicking, so they think it’s serious. While If the parent doesn’t panic, then the kid doesn’t freak out as much because the authority in the room doesn’t really consider it a big deal. That’s the thing about Atlas and P-body, is that they’re basically impressionable children. Atlas looks towards P-body for affirmation because he associates her with confidence and approachability, and P-body looks towards GLaDOS for affirmation because she’s the authority. Anyway, despite GLaDOS’s panicking, Atlas bravely approaches the bird.

While P-body freaks out. Seriously, GLaDOS freaking out does not make her any less nervous about the situation, but since Atlas has decided to take on the bird, she has no choice but to fight back, albiet reluctantly.

GLaDOS: “Oh God! We’ve lost! It’s over!” And then P-body stops panicking for a moment as she notices a switch and exiles the bird.

To which GLaDOS is happy. I find it interesting, actually how GLaDOS gives credit to both of them rather than just to P-body. She says: “That was close… Nice hussle, killing machines.” She seems genuinely pleased with the fact that they got rid of that bird and you can see that Atlas is also pretty proud of himself to have impressed GLaDOS when normally she just picks on him.

It seems like he just wants to earn her approval at the end of the day. I mean, look how quick he is to act once GLaDOS starts freaking out about the bird’s eggs and how he stops when she tells him to stop: “Oh my God, she’s gestating a clone army! Smash them! Smash them and stomp them and…! Wait… I have a better idea.”

It really seems like Atlas just wants to earn mama GLaDOS’s approval at the end of the day, while P-body is more fortunate to have it. Although P-body is a lot more grossed out and squeamish at having to smash enemies while Atlas is more than willing to do some dirty work in order to earn GLaDOS’s love. It’s quite the interesting family dynamic they have. To end it off, here are their descriptions for the official Aperture Science Collaborative Disposition Test:

I think Atlas has evolved a lot since he was first activated. Before he was pretty cowardly and apprehensive, but now that he’s solved a bunch of test chambers, he’s a lot more willing to step up to the challenge and put himself in danger. Although he’s still pretty shy and apprehensive when it comes to socializing with strangers. While P-body now tends to analyze things more closely, although she’s still the more social out of the two.))