Portal 2's Cut Protagonist | Mel | FULL Portal Lore & Cut Content 

The ending of Mel’s story made me realize (for the first time, somehow) that the story of Half-Life 2 is outside of Aperture. The Combine, war, awful living conditions. There’s so much suffering out there for both Mel and Chell upon exiting Aperture. Kinda sad… 😢

One of the most shocking parts of Half-Life Alyx is so subtle. No audio cues, just incidentally spinning a globe in Alyx's apartment that you could have easily bypassed. A globe which features the entirety of the Americas crossed out by heavy marker scratches. What kind of world did Mel wake up in? Can she even find a way to make contact with anyone else if there isn't another human being in the continent? How long can she breathe that air before suffocating?

Imagine being Mel, going to a shady company that screws you up and leaves you to sleep for a couple decades you wake up. Escape from the facility that tried to kill you and only then do you find out that not only is everyone that you know probably very old or dead but that humanity is now fighting against the alien overlords of earth. Wild escalations.

Trivia: I'm not sure if its related but the name Mel is also associated to Portal's sister series, Half-Life. Here's the deal. There's an urban legend in the U.S. known as Mel's Hole, a purportedly bottomless hole in Washington state near Ellensburg. A guy named Mel Waters called in about it several times to the radio show Coast to Coast AM between 1997 and 2002. Over time the legend took on more details like strange creatures flying out of it at night, animals avoiding it and shafts of light shooting out of it. Coast to Coast AM began to get a reputation as a hub of tall tales and in January of 2008 it got a call from one "Gordon", a self-proclaimed theoretical physicist at an unnamed research facility that was experimenting with some matter of portal technology. While the show's host George Noory embraced the yarn uncritically, Half-Life fans quickly recognized it as sham for obvious reasons. Were the minds behind Portal 2 aware of this when they conceived of Mel for the game? I don't know, maybe; the timing could line up. Or maybe they just wanted something that rhymed with Chell.

Have you played Portal Stories: Mel?

Y'know it'd be really cool to see fanmade mods get covered like Entropy Zero, since you talked about Portal Stories: Mel!

I have something that's very dear to me that people hardly ever talk about, if you're looking for video, Lego dimensions has a portal level with all the original voice actors. It was hell to get it to work with an emulator but the story picks up right where it left off, though there's not MUCH story, I thoroughly enjoyed it and all the references. It was like a love letter to Portal.

I also consider Portal Stories: Mel to be canon, I especially love the intro and style of the 1950s

A star walks into a black hole but doesn't seen phased. The black hole then turns to the star and says, "I don't think you understand the gravity of this situation."

It's rare to see a company NOT taking the opportunity to publish games for profit. Valve really is sitting on a golden opportunity and yet they refuse to take it.

I like to think when Mel escapes she meets the human resistance and helps fight the combine.

Great video as always brother

Love the cut valve content! Valve is my favorite game dev but I wish they made more games with portal and half life universe. Fingers crossed? Great video as always Skyrionn :)

Catching up to your last content, love it. Lo e your voice and tempo

Glad to be here, Glad to watch your videos, Keep it up, Mate!

Another masterpiece of a video it’s worth the wait for your videos

im shocked that you manage to upload such high quality videoss so often, these videos feel almost official, like they're decades old, hope it grows

happy to see that you got over 100k subs now

Im shocked you didnt use any footage of the leaked f stop. But it was a great video..!

Ps:m is, in my opinion, canon. It fits perfectly into the series, tieing in other less alaborated subjects within the games without sacrificing continuity or being to outlandish.

wonderful as always 😌

I'm so happy you posted about this character and the game!!! It's my favorite Portal content besides portal 2. I have drawn so many pictures of it and even got comments from the creators! I hope you exposed this to more people who might not know what it is.

This gives me more ideas now to work with in my projects now

17:11 missed opportunity to have Wheatley and the space sphere make a cameo.

wooo, good job, i love this, great job!

skyrionn fantastic video as always!!, ( i love portal/half life format)

I would love to see the robot uprising story explored, perhaps another Portal Stories. Aperture Desk Job was a welcome return to this universe, however brief.

What a stunning work

Aperture Tag and Portal Stories: Mel are such nice mods.

Wow, I definitely want to check out Portal Stories Mel, it looks super High-quality!

I didn't even know this game existed. I wonder why it wasn't recommended by the Steam algorithm? Thanks for the information. I love the aesthetics of the old Aperture labs. The 70/80's look is so cool.

Honestly i think it would have been better if the music in the background was one of the soundtracks from Portal Stories: Mel.

Thank you for bringing the story. 16:10 True.

1:43 No, she did not! Everyone knows the Party Escort Bot drags her losing-consciousness body back inside Aperture Science. Chell is put into Long-Term Relaxation (as shown in Portal 2: Lab Rat) and wakes up latater as in the first minute of gameplay in Portal 2. She then goes back to sleep for 50,000 years and wakes up, where she meets Wheatley. Chell never escapes Aperture. Alive, anyway. Chell dies when she and Wheatley go to the moon. GLaDOS drags her back inside Aperture and speaks to a dead body for a few minutes, then lowers her to the surface, not before a few turrets sing to her. A Wighted Companion Cube is sent up, right after Chell reaches the surface. Chell is dead, but hey, it was fun while it lasted.

Can't wait to watch this one!

YAY! THANKS SO MUCH FOR DOING THIS! I SO CONSIDER PSM CANON TOO! MEL IS SO UNDERATTED...:( GREAT WORK AS ALWAYS THOUGH. I LVOE ALL THE STORIES OF HER, BUT THE PRISON-GAMES ONE TO ME IS THE MOST UNIQUE. ON THAT NOTE, I WONDER HOW VIRGIL CAME TO BE...I GUESS THATS UP TO SPECULATION HUH? XD! I ALSO COULD NOT FIGURE OUT IF VIRGIL WAS THE ONE WHO WOKE HER, OR IF SHE WAS WOKEN UP BY AN EARTHQUAKE OR SOMETHING, I'M WONDERING HOW LONG THOSE DRUGS STAYED IN HER TBH TOO. IF HE DID WAKE HER, WHY DIDN'T HE DO IT SOONER? MAYBE HE DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS THERE? PLUS I'M SURE IT TAKES FOR EVER TOG O THROUGH TEST SUBJECT LISTS. MAYBE I'M OVERTHINKING THIS? XD! ALSO IDK IF I SHARED THIS INFO, (SO IF I DID PLESE FORGIVE ME AND DISREGARD THIS). BUT JUST A SIDE HINT ON VIRGIL FOR THOSE WHO WANNA KNOW: HE'S VOICED BY "STIG SYDTANGEN" ("DRAGONNOR" ONLINE), HE ALSO VOICED THE PROTAGONISTS "SIMON" FROM WHAT WAS ORGINALLY A HL1 MOD: "CRY OF FEAR" AND "GREY" FROM THE HL2 MOD OF THE SAME NAME AMONG A FEW OTHER CHARACTERS. ALSO GOD I LOVE THE TIE-IN TO PORTAL 2 AT THE END OF PSM, I KIND OF WONDERED IF THERE WAS A CERTAIN REASON (ASIDE FROM THE FACILITY FAILING THAT IS), AS TO WHY THE "RESERVE POWER" RAN OUT. ON THE ENDING THOUGH...POOR MEL...I CAN'T IMAGINE HOW HORRIFYING IT MOST'VE BEEN TO FEEL EVEN MORE ALONE THEN BEFORE...AS AWFUL AS IT IS, I KIND OF LKE THE SOMBER TONE IT GAVE US RATHER THEN HOW P2 ENDING, IT'S A GOOD REVERSE CARD. YOU'VE ACOMPLISHED SOEMTHING BUT...YOUR ALONE, EVERYONE YOU KNOW IS DEAD...I IMAGINE HER EMOTIONS WOULD BE RAGING BY THAT POINT...:( MY PERSONAL HEAD CANON IS...WELL, SINCE THEY'RE TWO "UNKNOWN"/UNDERATTED PROTAGONISTS, MAYBE MEL FINDS ADRIAN SHEPHARD AND THE TWO FORM A BOND OR SOMETHING, BE IT ROMANTIC OR OTHERWISE, AS HE HELPS HER FIGURE THINGS OUT. ON THE NOTE OF THE PS VERSION OF MEL: I'VE SEEN SO MANY FAN-ART OF HER, AND MOST PEOPLE WOULD GIVE HER RED HAIR. SO (ESPEICALLY AFTER LOOKING AT HER TEXTURES), I COULD NOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME FIGURE OUT IF HER HAIR WAS RED, AUBURN OR BROWN LOL! SO THANKS FOR POINTING THAT OUT! SAME GOES FOR HER AGE, SOME PPL SAID SHE'S MIDDLE AGED BUT TBH IDK IF I BELEIVE THAT. I ALSO FORGOT ABOUT THE F-STOP VERSION TBH, SO I'M GLAD U MENTIONED IT, SUCH A SHAME SHE WAS CUT TBH. SAME GOES FOR THE P2 MEL'S, BUT THIS TIME I DIDN'T FORGET 'EM LOL! BUT TBH, I'M SORT OF GLAD WE HAVE THE SECOND GAME AS IS, BUT I AGREE WITH YOU ABOUT THE MULTIVERSE STUFF, NEVER THOUGHT OF IT UNTIL NOW, SO YEA MAYBE THIS ALL DID HAPPEN! PLEASE FORGIVE ANY SPELLING ERRORS OR ANY GRAMMAR MISTAKES IF ANY, AND SORRY IF THIS AS A LONG ESSAY YET AGAIN LOL, JUST HAD TO SHARE MY THOUGHTS, THANKS FOR POSTING SKYRIONN, YOUR DOING THE HALF-LIFE/PORTAL COMMUNITIES PROUD. :D P.S: GOD I WANNA SEE A DOUG RATTMANN GAME SO BAD! I WANNA SEE THAT POOR GUY GET OUT OF THAT HELL HOLE, MAYBE WE COULD PLAY AN EARILER VERSION OF HIM, AT THE START, BEFORE EVERYTHING WENT TO HELL, SO WE CAN SEE HOW HE ESCAPED BEING MURDED SO MANY TIMES. TBH IT MITE BE KIND OF MORE HORROR THEMED GIVEN HIS HALUCINATIONS AND DETATCHMENT(S) FROM REALITY, THATS GOTTA BE TERRIFYING...POOR GUY.

This explains why Portal Stories: Mel felt like a Valve developed game. Thats so cool! In my mind, knowing this makes Portal Stories: Mel even better!

A Portal video? In my recommended? Uploaded only 12 minutes ago? Damn, RU-vid actually did something right for me for once

Portal 2 is one of my most favourite games of all time, and even then... I still wonder how different it could have been if playtesters hadn't kept asking that it be a direct sequel with little innovation

Wasn't Mel cut and replaced by Chell during the Core Hub era of P2s development, which means the story Mel underwent with GLaDOS wouldn't have been similar to the retail version like this video portrays? Other than that I'm content with the fan content tbh. Desolation, Abyss and Catalyst all look promising.

11:30 let's just be glad this wasn't the sleep machine that makes a monster out of the grime in your eyes after just one night. Somehow Neptune just doesn't seem far enough away for that one. :)

somehow i only now noticed to my absolute horror that i don't follow you...... after watching so many of your vids your'e literally doing gods work here , i cant express how great ur vids are , keep it up !!!!

There's so much more I want to see from the Portal/Half-Life universe.

Oh shit! New Skyrionn video and it’s about Portal? Today’s a good day.

This is great

Cool video

I hope you do a video on portal reloaded at some point.

1:56 that one chair that doesn't line up perfectly

been stewing on some ideas regarding a sequel to Portal Stories: Mel, where she runs into a survivor of a Combine Attack, and teams up with them to survive in a Metro: Exodus type environtment outside of City 3. plan is to build a story that sees her return to Apperture to get another protal gun, finding a prototype and using it at the same time Gordon and Alyx travel from the Combine Prototype Portal back into City 17, which interferes with the process causing Alyx and Gordon to arrive later in time as well, and which also relocates Mel from the Apperture labs outside of City 3 and 4 to City 17's outskirts right as the Portal Storm hits that devestates City 17.

man can't wait for portal 3 where they either are on the ship or it explains why there appears to be no combine interference with the entire facility

Portal Stories: Mel is by far my favorite of all the Portal games/mods out there.

what about the current portal 2 mod "F-Stop" is quite fun and uses the camera mechanic

What if mel realizes how much the combine has fucked the world, and goes back into aperture to upload herself into an AI bc there’s no one else in the world nearby, then Chell returns to Aperture one day and finds Mel having been rebooted in glados or sum. portal 3 lol

I knew it ! Entire game always felt like there was something still to discover, Especially with those hidden rooms with the graffiti in them as you go

how can you get so much lore from so little information are you god

Didn't see this one coming, but amzing anyway.

You forgotten about or didn't know that Mel woke up in a damaged relaxation Vault? she listened to Pre-recorded messages and then sucked up on a vacuum tube. then after that she'd Return to the Portal 1 Relaxation Vault like chell woke up there originally and she would complete 12 test chambers and since chamber 13 is broken she would make her way to GLaDOS's Chamber and the pre-recorded messages would trick Mel into reactivating her. Once she Reawakens it's revealed that She lost her memories and doesn't remember what happened in Portal 1 (Probably because chell killed her) and GLaDOS will give you a mission finding cores around the facility and making the place to themselves.. Once she completes these chambers. she would find cores and return to GLaDOS's Hub and then repair GLaDOS

This is why I really wish I could make games. Portal 3, Portal Stories: Mel 2, Portal: Reloaded 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 3, Half-Life 3, Entropy: Zero 3, Opposing Force 2 etc. etc. etc. . . .

The four regions of Valve who created Mel lived in harmony. ...Until the playtester nation attacked.

Portal Stories:Mel is isn't actually free, you need to own Portal 2, but that's probably a given for many that have a steam account.

"Astronaut, War Hero, And/Or Olympian" sounds like Cave is thanking his Patreon tiers

Any chance for a video about the complete story of hl2 beta?

new Skyrion video yippeeeeee!!!

Amazing how a cut character could be revived in a high quality fan game. And even for her end just like Chell, they arrive to a Combine conquered world.

Mel’s first story sounds so cool.

I think you should do a full telling of the Halo series. I really like the way you narrate your videos, it's very calming.

either im getting used to it because i hear it so much or im going insane but the low calm voices on youtube are getting to my head

Ngl I'm curious to see how f stop would play out. The devs were so happy about it, so why not make a spin off that is what f stop was supposed to be, but in an alternate universe?

9:12 im convinced at this point the playtesters were the same ones from the cuphead journalist thing >chance for a new, insane story "how walk? moving hard :C -80 out of 5, i need my nappy" goddamn that is still infinitely above where i see them to be but i *cant* even bring into words how dumb im lead to believe they are every turn for this to be viable >baby shynts pants >valve follows suits, incinerating the previous plans

My theory on why we don't no much about F-stop is because they're still thinking of making it as some sort of spinoff

Imagine a portal sequel without portals, that woulda been crazy.

Funny to see a hungarian tram ( a Ganz UV ) in a game mod taking place presumabely in the remanis of USA. Oh wat, at that time stamp it is far from the Combine's destruction.

Damn it ValvE just count to 3!! If toddlers can do it you can too!

That cut storyline feels loosely similar to the plot of Stray, I wonder if there was any overlap in devs or writers

Why does nobody add the story of Portal prelude to videos when they talk about portal timelines?

My headcanon is that Mel helps Gordon defeat the Combine.

I hope someone tries to make a "Half-Life Stories: Mel." I would love to see that, honestly

Whenever i get a PC i'll download portal stories mel.

Mel's story sounds like Fallout 4 towards the end

when is the TF2 Mercs video coming?

Ah yes, the famous Chel and her sister in law Mel.

Portal stories by most is considered canon? Wasn't Lima Whiskey aka the portion which Chell is after Wheatley betrays her, flooded? In the end, Mel stops the flooding, however and this is a big however, she doesn't... "unflood" Lima Whiskey.

Nice of them to use Virgil as Mel's guide. Nice little nod to the classics.

I WANNA SEE YOU TALK ABOUT AIDEN WALKER. PLEASE I NEED THIS SO BAD.

I know that the voice actor for Wheatley worked on PS:M

Tbh, Should have turned it into a DLC (Or a expansion pack, but that's an old name for it) Even tho there is already a game of it which i haven't finished yet, the concept art and features were pretty cool. But it's great it wasn't the actual release version, cuz it just isn't portal.

We could’ve got a brother of Chell

Portal Stories: Mel would be one of the best Portal 2 mods out there if it wasn't really broken. At least it's got a lot of heart though.

a comment to be early you have found in the wild

Well, it’s a good thing someone was there to take the “eggus” 😂😂😂😂😂

Half-Life and Fallout 4 hold the best fanmade content mods.

I for one would like you to cover portal revolution it's a portal 2 DLC it's free on steam

wait is this the first time the video opens without the Half-Life OST?

Oh, I need to replay mel again?

but we have a fan game portal story s mel

❤

Is portal stories mel an alternate universe

👍

Yoyo

valvue should hire the man who made that game lol