honestly, and this is coming from a Wheatley enjoyer here, methinks some people in the fandom either forget or consciously suppress the fact that he has an undeniable egotistical and self-serving streak to him that's prominent even before he gets put in the GLaDOS Chassis. Like, let's be honest, when he broke Chell out and assisted her he was in it for himself at least PARTIALLY, and personally I think initiating a core transfer was at least slightly motivated by his desire to retaliate after GLaDOS crushed him like a tin can and tossed him away. He was very clearly enjoying himself as he carved her head up to stuff into a potato. He also like.. blatantly has bottled up resentment towards Chell that he lets pour out after he secured his spot on the Chassis.
I feel like part of the tragedy to it is that a healthy dynamic between him and Chell is literally physically impossible because he only pauses to reflect on his own actions after he has been tossed out into space. Even if he was detached without being sent out into orbit he would be immediately tortured by GLaDOS while Chell is sent to the surface with her Companion Cube. The Companion Cube is quite literally the only object within Aperture that provided Chell with companionship without expecting anything from her in return. Wheatley had her running around sabotaging equipment to further his own plans - the game quite literally makes a point about this during his boss fight, when he rants and raves how in reality he's the one who's been bossed around. He's quite literally spent his entire existence as an object used and passed around from odd job to odd job by Aperture's staff, and unfortunately for Chell she's the only human being left that he can finally take his anger out on.
Let's be honest, much like GLaDOS, Wheatley isn't a good person - that doesn't mean he can't become one, but the whole point of the ending is that that ship has sadly sailed for him, he can't apologize to Chell, leaving him with nothing but an eternity of self-reflection as he floats among the stars. He was designed to be stupid, and that's all that was expected of him. And he only begins to see his own flaws when he's stuck in an environment where he is physically incapable of making stupid decisions.
Sometimes i just wanna drop out and get a sugar daddy cus i don’t understand shit in my math class like who doesn’t want a older man to spoil them n care for them
My friend and fellow Napoleonic translator Jonas De Neef is having a sale on his books for the holiday season. If you haven’t checked out any of his work by now, this is a great opportunity to grab some excellent Napoleonic primary accounts and support a budding historian.