So in Portal 2 there is a potato science fair display with Chell’s name on it. Looks like it was made by someone 10-12 and that was on the infamous BYDTWD. Now that suggest that not only did one of Chell’s parents work at Aperture Science but she was there when everyone died. The comic “Lab Rat” shows Chell as an adult and that Ratman chose her be first choice to be un-thawed because of her “tenacity”. I’ve read that the comic is considered for all intents and purposes cannon. Do you think Valve just put that name in the display to mess with us? Do you think cloning could explain this? Just curious.
Yeah, Chell’s background is really freaking vaque/open to interpretation. Theories like Chell being Caroline’s daughter require MASSIVE timeline fucks. As for the potato project with her name on it, maybe it is a trolling. I used to like believing she was just an employee who was present during the GLaDOS Takeover (part-time, of course) helps me identify.
I really don’t like all this weird specificity to Chell’s past. It contributes nothing to the story, and making the player discover something about their character’s past identity makes all the well-established self-identification dissipate. (See, BioShock)
‘What, she’s a clone with similar intelligence to a child? I can no longer identify with her on any real mental level…’
Gordon Freeman was a great character to play as. He has no secret past, just an easy-to-get-to-know 27 year old MIT grad from Seattle, discovering everything as the player does, and at least his identity isn’t under attack. I feel like I can trust myself to play as him, if you know what I mean…
Lazy writing, that is. Of course, that was hardly the only level on which Portal 2 disappointed me…
wait dosnt Chell being Caroline daughter make the most sense in the timeline? I saw someone put a exact timeline on steam forums and it all made sense ;f
I really don’t believe much in the Chell is Caroline’s daughter. I mean, there is no evidence really to think this. Plus Caroline died in what? 85-86 or earlier? Chell needs to be around 10-12 years old at the time of the BYDTWD which should have taken place around 2001-2003 (A few days before the resonance cascade widely believed to take place 2003). That means Chell needed to have been born around 91’ or so or am I missing something. I know I’m making some assumptions there with the years but even if the resonance cascade took place in 1998 the dates are still off.
but how do you know when she died ? We know cave probly dies in 83-84, but we dont know when she was integrated into glados ;f So if Chell was 10-13 in 1998 when galdos took over, she would be around 25 in 2010ish when portal more or lase takes place ;f
I think she was a daughter of someone who worked at Aperture, doesn’t have to be anyone special, in fact it works better if she’s the daughter of someone special.
There’s two things I’ve inferred about who she is.
- She is someone’s daughter who worked there and was there at BYDTWD (pretty sure that’s obvious I think, because your ‘experiment’ is there along with others)
and 2) She’s brain damaged. Seriously.
It makes perfect sense in my mind. She can’t speak, she was in the facility on BYDTWD however wasn’t around when everyone got killed by GLaDOS which was between portal 1 and BYDTWD.
I think that Chell was put in that room and then put to sleep. She was… special? brain damaged? however you want to say it she wasn’t an ideal candidate for testing.
SO GLaDOS put her to sleep, not wanting to simply kill her but not wanting her to test. Then, when she had run out of OTHER people to test (them all having died in the process) she goes to her last resort. Chell.
She then goes on to over-come all of GLaDOS’ tests because they were designed for people who thought differently then she did, the taunts never worked on her because she was special and neither did the promise of cake etc.
Though, after Portal 2, I would be happiest if Chell was left alone forever now. No adding info to her past, no modifying her etc. The only time she should be referenced is if Portal 3 mentions ‘someone’ who used to test in the facility, but every player will know who it was. (Chell can’t be used outside the facility because the Portal gun doesn’t work unless the surface is coated in moon dust)
She wasn’t ideal for testing because, as it said in the comic, she is “abnormally stubborn”. Not because she was brain damaged. And she is not the last resort for testing, as the comic also shows she had been moved to first in the list by Rattman
Yeah, even though parts of GLaDOS were created in the early 80s I guess the Genetic Lifeform component wasn’t created until 1996 or so.
they started working on glados when cave was still alive, so caroline had to be integrated a lot later.
Anyway, all this implies that Chell ha s a brain of a 10yo, since that was her age when she was put into that thingy, or that there is something off with the bydtwd date, and it had to happen 10 year before what we think;f
Listen to the goddamn turret opera in the end. The lyric mean “My dear child, Chell. Why won’t you get away from science.”
yeah everybody knows that, but that dosnt fix the timeline at all.
But, we do not know how long after GLaDOS’s startup Labrat takes place.
We do not know if testing has started or not yet.
All Rattman does it put chell at the top of the list.
This does not mean there weren’t previously OTHER people on the list, who were removed because they were tested.
In fact, the time between GLaDOS startup and Labrat could just be the perfect timeframe for
a) All the other dead test subjects (Re: GLaDOS’s Test chambers kept as ‘mementos’
b) Chell to age from the maybe 10-12 year old to the adult we see in Portal 1/2
I thought Chell was a test subject-part time but-then she’s an employe-but then she made a potat-and then she was a cl-but also a- and then-wha-wai-hu-UAAGAAAHHHH!!! DOES NOT COMPUTE!! DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!
I’ve ALWAYS figured she was the daughter of a employee. Ever since the bring your daughter to work day and other stuff was mentioned. And really, we have know idea when she was “frozen”. As implied by her waking up in Portal 2 after 300 years, aging is halted during your sleep. This suggests that she did not age between being frozen and waking up in Portal 1. Perhaps she was raised in the facility until the age of 20 something and then frozen for only a year or two. That may seem a little complex, but it’s an explanation that doesn’t involve her being a 12 year old in a 20 year old’s body.
And pdgeorge, she isn’t brain damaged. Valve main characters never talk. Wheatley mentions brain damage and her not being able to talk, but that’s probably just to dispel any confusion like there is in Half-Life 1 and 2 where people have completely normal but one sided conversions with you.
I know Valve characters don’t talk, I just think that there isn’t any reason that they can’t use the fact she doesn’t talk for her own reasons as a character. So that she is someone more then just ‘valve female character used in Portal’
I’m pretty sure Wheatley saying it is meant to be a joke about the fact she doesn’t talk (oh… well… you don’t/can’t talk, well, don’t worry, you’re going to do just fine! Even if there might be something wrong in your head) but even still, it doesn’t mean there can’t be a reason she doesn’t talk.
Pointless post: I read on TVTropes that one of the wild mass guesses about why Chell doesn’t talk is because the emancipation grid left her toothless and she’ll get embarrassed if she opens her mouth.
“Mystery” solved.
The real reason why she, Gordon and all the other main characters of games by Valve is because it would break the rope between the player and the character which is crucial for a fps game.
Just if you had to know the truth, people tend to be very sarcastic in these forums. 
Yes, that’s the reason in planet reality (i.e. where all of us live), but there’s no reason they can’t have a different explanation within the realms of the narrative itself.
Just a thought, but if Caroline did die in say late 80s to the early 90s, we can assume she was probably in her 80s. Now I’m no expert on the human body, but I belive up to a certain point women can no longer become pregnant. So this would be that either Chell isn’t her daughter (which is what I believe), or Chell could bein her mid to late 30s, which doesn’t seem very likely. While I’m open to other opinions, I just think the fact that Chell was 10-12 years old is very unlikely. Also if someone could possibly post a picture of the sign that says Chell’s name that would be appreciated.
Caroline and Cave were about as white as can be. Look at Chell’s facial features from either game and tell me she’s 100% white.
She’s the adopted daughter of a former Aperture employee. She stuck around for testing after the neurotoxin shit for some unimportant reason.
if you think glados is her biological or even adopted mother, you’re dumb as hell, and you probably think Gman is Gordon from the future.