Exploring Portal's Protagonist | Chell | FULL Portal Lore 

Who were Chell's parents?

I love the theory that the reason Chell doesn’t speak isn’t brain damage, but simply because she’s annoyed with everyone.

For those who don't know: Chell's project diorama reveals that the only reason why almost every kid made a potato battery was that Aperture had ordered too many potatoes and told their employees they had to use them that way

1:13 "Most impressively, artificial intelligence." Oh so we're just gonna ignore how they casually pulled off quantum teleportation, the one thing that neither Black Mesa nor an interdimensional Type III civilization couldn't figure out

I love Chell. One of the best examples of characters that show that you don't need to be able to speak to be intelligent.

I've considered that the amount of time Chell was asleep between 1 and 2 might not be as long as supposed. It's something of a contrast I suppose that her room was in bad condition when she woke up for the second time but the artwork by Doug Rattman didn't seem to have been weathered despite being in an area with no ceiling, so I don't think he could have been deceased for that long.

I did feel the ending of portal 2 was closure. It would be cool to bring Chell back for HL3. Great story and vid.

Skyrionn has the ability to make mundane or silly sentences like "The potato grew larger than it should." seem intressting and gripping just by the inflection in his voice.

Let's go; finally a Chell video. Wasn't sure if there would be more Portal videos like this, but I'm GLaD the "dangerous mute lunatic" is getting her cake.

Whoever gave the all clear for that neuro toxin on BRING YOUR CAT TO WORK DAY is a super genius

Cave Johnson doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would bother with any sort of romantic relationship that didn't involve testing something for work. I always figured Chell was just another employee-turned-test subject or possibly one of the homeless people Cave enticed into testing. Love your videos!

It's not out of the realm of possibility that not only is Caroline the mother of chell, but GlaDos didn't really delete Caroline at the end of portal 2 considering the Lyrics of the opera piece that is sung to chell on her way out: Cara bella, cara mia bella! (Beautiful dear, my darling beauty!) Mia bambina, oh ciel! (My little girl, oh heaven!) Che la stima! Che la stima! (How I adore you! How I adore you!) O cara mia, addio! (Oh my dear, farewell!)

My fav theory about Chell is that she was the daughter of Rattman. It’s why he felt the need to save her, his mental illness/trauma from GladOs’ “experiment” caused him to suppress memories.

3:05 if you go to this area in game, you will find a moldy lemon, (mold turns organics to dirt) that should be proof that the game is not supper far in the Future.

2 Games that I need to see 1- Seven war game (Imagine a full combine army on earth) 2 - The day that GLaDOS flooded aperture (Playing with doug or other scientist kinda cool)

GLaDOS: Your entire life has been a- Chell: *n o*

I've never played half life myself, but I can totally imagine chell(if she isn't completely mute) telling everyone in the resistance about how she had gotten her portal gun and what sort of things she had achieved underground. I don't know if there are any portal references in half life but it would be cool to see chell in the half life series, even if it's just a fan game and not an official one. That would be so awesome to be able to play as her and possibly trick the combine with her portals.

as cool as it may sounds that Chell and Gordon meets, there's too many boundaries in the stories for this to happen, but regardless it sorta feel corny for them to unite like some superheroes multiverse crap, the beauty of Valve's universe is that it's franchises could co-exist independently.

glados confirms that Chell was adopted, when Wheatley tries to insult her by using the same insults as glados

these videos are spectacular, the amount of work that must have gone into these is just unimaginable, very good work!

Great vid! Wish we get to know what happens to Chell after she and the companion cube wall into the wheat field. If we got to know more of HL characters years later, why not Chell?

this needs to be the best lore videos on the platform. every video is so well made and it shows you enjoy making them as much as we like watching them.

By reading many psychology books the whole story sounds like a mother that only wanted to be succesful with her work & also to protect her daughter until the same woman (Caroline) became as Glados a toxic character without the knowledge of Chell being her child - a kind of toxic narcisist mother + stuborn daughter reletionship, both victims of the same system... rejection, manipulation, economics. And the end of Portal 2 is like the mother saying "i am gona let you free when i say so", Chell ist strong & smart enough to use every situation to end "mothers" tyranic behaviour, the act of saving her as PotatOs gave Chell the power to escape this tyranic enviroment - as if the narcisist mother has no use of her daughter anymore and let her away without being interrupted any more. Valve hired psychologists to make their games more deep into players mind - so Half-Life is a story of Gordon as a son that finaly do not obey any more any given rules from "dad" and this is Gman as a symbol to the story and Portal is what Chell as daughter to her mother Caroline/Glados. Those ideas work perfectly cause we all physicaly & mentaly exist thru having a mother & a father - that's a duality system.

I loved how Portal games made you feeling clever and intelligent and never dove a lot into Chell as a character so this video cleared a lot of missing links for me concerning the whole story, so tnx and I do now hope that she is included into a future Half life universe, it would be awsome. Tnx again for the videos your channel is amazing, peace my dudes ❤

I love the idea of GLaDOS essentially being Chell’s mother.

Notice how Portal 2 is a little weird? When he threw Wheatly out, it was night time. And not long after that, when she went up the elevator it was daytime. MAGIK For those who are going to comment "Oh she slept for a long time" so that means GLaDOS took a long time to attach herself to the main thing?

I really think that its true that her Parents were Cave Johnsons ans Caroline. In Portal 2 are so much evidence that supports the theory very well. 1. GLaDoS know from the beginning of Portal about Chells parents even she cant remember herself she once was Caroline she felt it that there is something. 2 GLaDoS told her that her real parents gave her up for adoption. How would she know that? Unless Chell's real parents were Cave and Caroline. 3 Over the course of Portal 2, you often hear from Cave Johnson himself how he adores Caroline and she adores him too. At one point he even says "she's beautiful but unfortunately already taken" and laughs very quietly. According to the motto she is my wie. 4. Plus, adoption also makes sense. After Cave Johnson died from the poison of the moonstones, he commissioned Carolin to take over the company and all other projects, including GLaDoS, in his place. Of course, Caroline then gave her daughter Chells up for adoption because she couldn't take care of the company and a child at the same time. 5. The fact that "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" was on the same day as turning on GLaDoS suggests that Chells, as a toddler, still knew who her parents were, Cave and Caroline. Since Caroline was the boss of Aperture, she went there with someone else. Eventually, her memory of her mother may have been erased by the subsequent accident with GLaDoS 6 And probably the biggest clue is the end of Portal 2, more precisely the last songs that are played. The song "Cara Mia" which the turrets play means "My Daughter" and whoever sings it is of course GLaDoS. Following on from the song "Want You gone" comes the line "She was a lot like you, maybe as quiet as heavy but a little Caroline is now in you" here GLaDoS confirms even mor that Caroline was, once like Chells a little bit of her mother is still in her

Erik Wolpaw (one of the writers of Portal 1 and 2) said in an interview that even he doesn't know how much time has passed between Portal 1 and 2, and the reason they didn't say a specific time was because they didn't want to write themselves into a corner, maybe in case they ever work on a Portal 3 or incorporate Chell in a future Half-Life game.

So if GLaDOS was ejected to the car park at the end of Portal 1 then how come we find her in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center in Portal 2?

Heck yeah! I remember watching the whole portal black mesa lore timeline and thought portal deserved a little more comprehensive dive. Glad you got to cover it.

16:50 maybe but in a den in Portal 2 you can hear him rambling

One of the biggest things that really nags at me is the question, "If that project is Chell's, and it was done long before she first became a test subject, why is it still up?" It's always in the back of my mind when I hear people refer to it

I liked the part where the portal gurl (i thimk her name was shell) said "it's portalin' time", then portaled all over the room. Truly the moment of all time. (Oof. I feel like my brain cells just halved their life)

Don't think she was meant to be anything more than a 'shell' for the player but that's why theories like this are fun

Thanks for answering my question with a video!

I personally like the idea of portal taking place back in the 80’s or somethin’ then we could have Chell escape and then become a rebel. I just think that it would be kinda a bit of a missed opportunity to have Chell return to the half life series.

never got far with portal since i just can't think with portals, but with these videos i still feel like i did in a way

portal 2 was my intire child hood playing this game on repeat for weeks

My impression is that GlaDos collected test subjects that didn't want to be test subjects. If you recall in Portal 2, Cave Johnson talks about getting top athletes, then homeless people, then telling employees that they would become tests subjects. Not sure of the source that suggests Chell volunteered to be a test subject. I admit, I have no known of the comics, or external sources from the game. It just makes sense that GlaDos forced the employees of Aperture to become test subjects. Perhaps the file was GlaDos taking data, and not an application.

Thank you for another amazing video... I love all of them

great video my dude, i love sitting before my computer in late times, sip on my tea and watch some lore, lore is the thing that makes games themselves, any huge game that will take off will have a community lore in a month or so, anyways the titles you put on your vids are deep and interesting, i mean like the video about Cave Johnson titled "The Man That Hated Lemons" is mysterious and somewhat causing you to wanna click on it, anyways thanks for the vids, keep makin´ them and i hope you get well soon

In the time from starting and finishing watching the cremator video this was uploaded! Perfect timing ❤

another skyrionn banger, you legend.

Another Great videos of yours which is nice. What i always wondered about Glados and Aperture is how did Glados managed to keep an entire Alien invasion force which took all of earth in 7 hours alongside rouge Xenian animals/lifeforms out of the facility how and WHAT did she have to do it all of it without it being even unscarred? what does she hide? what Anomalous materials what equipment which we havent seen has been used for the defense of the facility? what made the combine retreat? i guess it will be an eternal question since we wont be getting a new title of Portal anytime soon. I like to believe that she unleashed all the full unforseen power of scientific anomalies at the combine Death rays, Erasure storms, Matter manipulation, Time manipulation, Gravity manipulation, throwable black holes you know the deal (i made these things up obviously but in my opinion these things i think Aperture would actually make) and after that no one of the invasion force would have been left alive to tell the tale and Aperture was left alone unharmed. Now of course this is fanmade but it would be a really cool explanation on how Glados kept everything in oder as the entire world went to hell with her domain remaining unharmed for the entire occupation of earth and after that. Anyways enough headcannon what is cannon is that you make amazing videos and your voice is amazing for these videos please keep doing these videos friend :D (Sorry for my bad english)

Chell being the real Caroliune's Daughter does have a nice conflict resonance, with GLaDOS being an A.I. reproduction of Caroline. Where Valve will go with it (if they ever do), remains to be seen. Half-Life: Alyx, coming 13 years after HL2, pt2, shows that Valve is willing to take their time when it comes to their stories.

Keep up the great videos!

Awesome video

I've been binging your videos loll. I think that portal 2 happening so long after HL2 would be perfect for Gordon and chell to work together. We would need some kind of bridge after HL2 EP 2 for Gordon to go back into stasis via G man and for him to be awakened when chell exits aperture in portal 2. Although given epistle 3 that could also be a brand new story after Gordon wakes up so many years later when all of his friends and colleagues have died. Good reason for the 2 of them to find a way to discover who G man is and find him

This is some good lore as always. I have a request for alyx lore

You messed up the order for when Doug Rattman moved chells relaxation vault placement to one. That was after she had already defeated GLaDOS in Portal 1 and she was pulled into the hotel-looking relaxation vault. The facility was now running on reserve power so he needed to so that she wouldn’t run out of life support.

Mel as a portal 3 protagonist with Chell serving as a much more visable rattman type of role (maybe even as a secondary in coop as a semi-sequel like in 2) would be super cool

Wow, great work as always

Heres what i think happened to Chell after Portal 2. After she left the facility with her Companion Cube, she took it on many journeys, fighting headcrabs, zombies, zen creatures and any enemy in her way. After a while she would find herself infront of a small house on the brink of collapse. She was far from Aperture, so she walked into the house to see a figure standing ahead of her. This figure wore a blue suit. It turned around, picked up a suitcase and Chells entire surroundings turned white. This man applauded her for finding him and for all the pain she went through. He explained to her that he had recommended her to his Employers, and they all had agreed she had limitless potential, similar to another person he had hired. Chell had been given a simple decision; either she takes the Quantum Tunneling Device that he had passed her or...she be dropped back in the facility she was found in. Chell would take the Portal gun, and the mysterious man turned the surroundings black, leaving only a small rectangle white. He then told her she would be a great asset and she will be sent out when needed. He picked up his Suitcase and walked into the white rectangle as it turned black. Subject: Chell ■■■■■■■■■ Status: Hired Awaiting Assignment.

Chell looked at the fire like... "Yeaaaaahhh finally some cake.. i like cakes.." "Wait what the fu-"

I feel like portal 3 would take place after the combine were stranded on earth, thats why the earth looks slightly alivevand you see actual living crops and stuff but thats just a small theory

It´s quite late at my place now, but I will watch it tmr!

I've always wondered how Valve would handle the timeline of the Portal games with the Half-Life games. Does Portal, and/ or Portal 2, take place before, during, or after the Combine invasion? Does Chell wake up before, during, or after the invasion for the events of Portal 2? Would love to hear some ideas

I was playing portal 2 earlier and in one of the messages cave mentioned black mesa in the recording about other people stealing the products

I heard a theory that a lot of stuff in Valve games (like the G-man) is vague because Valve themselves don't even know and that's backed up by a Portal 2 commentary node that said something like "Suddenly, had an opportunity for a GlaDOS origin story".

What I like about her character is that she might have been born mute basically without vocal chords but her intelligence even at young age was very high and they knew she could stop Glados Reign Of Terror or more specifically Doug Ratmann. Im curious to know what happened to her after Portal 2 as her whereabouts are unknown. I bet she might have found a man and settled down and have a daughter of her own with her intellect as well :). But Glados is still alive in the facility and Im wondering if she considers Chell to be her potential friend now in a sense after Portal 2. Kinda like how Master Chief and Arbiter became allies and friends over time despite thier rivalry in Halo 2 and 3. Even Arbiter considers Chief to be hos friend now as they both fought together for a common cause and to save the galaxy from the Flood taking over the galaxy.

I dont like these videos but i just cant stop watching, its addictive

damn this was just 2 hours ago?? I just finished Portal the other day and was wanting to learn more about the lore today after I had my cousin play. What timing!!

great vids

i will be infinite years old when portal 3 comes out

It's kinda sad to realize chell kinda let rattmann down. She was able to stop glados for awhile only to end up back in the facility with him dieing to save her, then she and Wheatley revive her, then chel eacapes after allying with glados. The. Glados just goes back to awakening test subjects and testing them to death. But seriously whats up with the cental AI that causes them to go crazy? Glados instantly wanted to kill everyone and wheatly just turned on you.

I do like the mel story game too because that event happened between the main 2 games and her final boss agis looked very similar to GLaDOS but different in the way he was programmed

Could you use Portal with RTX footage to showcase the Portal 1 scenes? I think it would look really nice, similar to how you showcase Black Mesa for Half-Life 1 events.

Hope you feel better soon

I think that portal 2 takes place a few years after half life 2 episode 2, so chell was released from aperture after the resistance defeated the combine

So I remember seeing a moldy lemon in kids project where the giant potato stalk is at. If thousands of years went by that lemon would be dust by now. So I think only a small time went by when chell was sleeping between portal 1 and 2.

Combine guards when?

They could still have chell play a part in the wider half life story. Perhaps the g-man could approach her after the end of portal 2 and offer her a chance to live in a world that's more like the one she remembered but she had to fight hard to earn that and then she accepts his offer he alters the time-line and stops the party escot bot from dragging her back into the facility and allowing her to potentially fall into the hands a north American resistance resistance force I the portal gun could be a huge help to the resistance

Is that how the portal gun normally is at 9:20?

Just realised. If it is CALLED a Lomg term Relaxation, that only implies sleep and given the likely theory that she was there since glados's surprise attack. Thus it would mean that, while the events of portal 2 Definetly takes place after HL2EP2 and beyond possibly (but not by much more) also that portal Also takes place after atleast HL2 or HLA. Why i think it isn't a stasis machine?. Well because It Has to provide life support Meaning that the subject is not in suspended animation Of any kind. While it doesn't realy say How much time had passed between events. It does explain that it is less that 50 years.

i want these to happen if there will be a Half LIFE: Shepard game the intro of the game is that Shepard is still in the helicopter realm and he remembers the times that Gman always visited their headquarters ... and then suddenly he heard the voices of the combine soldiers and something lighted up like a box and this is the vault that was used to imprison G-Man in Half Life: Alyx .. he heard the voices of the combine soldiers like this "it's him! capture him !" , "we need to capture him at any cost", they are capturing G-Man using the vault and those voices are heard by Shepard in the realm and he see a vague images of the combine soldiers capturing G-man .. and after they locked gman in the vault, there was a small crack or small portal where Shepard was.. because of the G-man's capture , the force that keeping Shepard unable to move has been weakened and Shepard was freed and able to move again and then suddenly multiple portals comes out from every direction on the realm where Shepard is being freeze .. and Shepard was just staring at the small portal near him that came out and thought to approach it and he got absorbed by it and he blocked out ..( like what happened to Freeman when the Resonance cascade happened .. the screen blocked out and then teleported to xen). When Shepard woke up, he first saw the big xen crystal next to him .. and surrounded by people wearing tribal clothing as if they were worshiping or praying in front of the big xen crystal .. the small portal that Shepard entered was going to the big Xen crystal that where it was prayed by the tribes .. Shepard was teleported to the continent that looks like Africa with tribes living in a big cave like a big city and the combine forces can't track them .. these tribes are praying together in front of the big xen crystal.. these tribes tamed the half life 1 aliens and the aliens became their helpers to survive.. just like the Bullsquids they made like horses because their legs are strong and because they also run quite fast .. and they also have vortigaunts with them who are also praying in front of the xen crystal.. and when they were all praying altogether, suddenly the big xen crystal lit up and Shepard come out or teleported in there .. they think that Shepard was sent to help them and this will be the adventure of Shepard .. I wil continue the story next time I'm still thinking of what will I add hahahahaha sorry for my bad English xD

Nice

ooooooh damn this is gonna be good

I feel like I've heard of Fluffy the Dragon from North of the Border's channel(wich also from the patreon)

I love the half life series but it feels like I'll die before we get a proper ending

I always found it interesting how when you are escaping in Portal 1 she says "You aren't a good person you know, good people don't end up here"

I still remember when we first made the connections between Portal and Half-Life and people were stoked as hell thinking Half-Life 3 would have been a co op affair with with Chell and Gordon using the portal and gravity guns for combat and puzzles.

18:29 Despite her core being destroyed, I never got how some switches just turned her back on

Just a quick question. If Glados opened a portal to the surface in the first game then how in the second game we see that she is back in her chamber again. How did she move from the surface back underground in her chamber?

I so badly want chells story to be expanded more, but after a decade with no portal things outside of silly joke games, unfortunately I don't think that's ever gonna happen.

"and judging by her hand writing she was about 8-10 years old at the time" Me: wait, is it supposed to get better over the years? 😂 I still write like an 8 year old at 22

i wonder what the next half-life lore will be the ones that you made but not remade like most ,antlions,hunters,strider, and one more i would like to see is ofcourse the hunter chopper cant wait but i do expect the next one to be a remake lore

4:16 I just noticed that there is a trabant on the left and a GAZ-24 Volga on the right. Why are there eastern bloc cars in Michigan?

Portal lore? Oh happy day!

5:15 it sounds more like a fan theory than actual lore, i need a source on that one

I always loved the lore of the Portal games despite the simplicity of the games themselves.

just like gordan freeman chell will never speak

Not sure where you got the idea that the turret opera was orchestrated by GLaDOS. I always gathered that some of the turrets had built their own society around the "animal king" while GLaDOS was "dead", and that GLaDOS had nothing to do with their singing.

the ending songs are so good, makes me cri evrytim

Amazing video ! Out of curiosity will we be getting some left 4 dead lore?😁

This was a triumph

Still waiting for the John Freeman vid, mr Skyrionn.

I would love to see a portal 3 where either Wheatley connected to a Russian satellite, or maybe Gladdos is corrupted and the only fit replacement is Chell, where maybe then it’s more of a level creator type game where we learn of the testing.

7:21 they only ever turned glados on 4 times before bring your cat to work day

24:54 think the combine are gone at this point

i love this channel