Who Is Chell? - Analysing Portal's Protagonist

Over the years that the Portal series has existed, many questions have arisen about the nature of Chell and how exactly she ended up in Aperture Science as a Test Subject, with tons of interpretations spread around the Portal fanbase.
In this video, I aim to analyse Chell from the ground up and answer the question - Who is Chell?
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CHAPTERS
0:00 - Intro
1:49 - Analysing Portal
6:57 - Analysing Lab Rat
10:30 - Analysing aperturescience.com
11:39 - Analysing Portal 2
18:22 - Lore Roundup
21:00 - Outro
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Join My Discord! - / discord
Follow My Twitter! - / ossyflawol
Support My Patreon! - / ossyflawol
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Hey everyone, the name's Ossy Flawol!

[@OssyFlawol]

Hey everyone! This video has been in the pipeline for the past 3 months (most of which was on the script alone) and I kinda hope it shows, I genuinely promise my next video projects won't take this long to do, but for someone who has the title of "Portal Lore Master", making a Lore video is ironically genuinely intimidating. *Regarding the Lore Roundup*: You may hear me mention things there that come out of complete nowhere regarding Chell's past, that's stuff where I've attempted to fill in the gaps with my own pieces that I felt most reasonably fit to fill empty voids. This video isn't definitive in any regard and still uses little bits of headcanon, but in that section only! See y'all in the next vid! :)

[@Blaz_Haz_KATZ]

Amazing Portal vid my bro You are my P0RTAL dude 🐱

[@weedpaws]

dude thank you so much for the amount of effort you put into these video. it really shows :) woof

[@Kerrigan-QOB]

HI DORSA

[@RomulaaniYT]

Amazing video, good job!

[@Blutankalpha]

blahaj

[@VS-sf1rt]

Isnt it more reliable to think that Chells father was one of scientists who went "missing" because Aperture started forcing them to participate in tests? So she came looking for him?

[@DropsOfMars]

Exactly what I started thinking. Aperture was already doing some very dubious things before GLaDOS. If she really had no one else, she would be keenly aware if something was wrong with her adoptive father.

[@Sp1cyP3pp3r]

Damn, find your father trope is actually cool

[@Sandfire564]

She may have then lost her memory which is why we see nothing of that original goal in game, chell doesn't know anymore why she's there and just wants to escape

[@thatpersonthatguy]

Not to mention isn’t time traveling a thing in the half life series. Is it too far fetched to think she did? I say yes but then again she’s the main protagonist of not one but two games in the same universe as half-life so.

[@versace6609]

@@thatpersonthatguyit’s not far fetched in the universe she’s in but there’s no evidence she time traveled

[@wolfcl0ck]

See? All you need to find Chell's backstory is Portal 1, Portal 2, and the power of autism.

[@kiwihuman]

By using the Internet, you can upgrade autism to collective autism that multiplies the autism power by the number of autists in the group.

[@iim4xii129]

Aw look at the little brony nonces

[@Eric-lq3kt]

Hey bro

[@ThinkAboutVic]

nah you only need the power of autism, not even the games are needed

[@springmen1922]

Why has autism become like a joke at this point?

[@delaneyelekes8660]

Something I think is overlooked: There's an implied second story going on with Chell they never delve into. How did they come to the conclusion she's stubborn, and why is that a reason to not test on her? Ratman seems to think highly over her too- even prior to Portal 1. She clearly made a name for herself at Aperture, and didn't simply sign up and immediately go into stasis. This lines up with the potato incident- She's chaotic, and intelligent. Does Aperture consider this a dangerous combination? Is there something she may have tried to pull to lead to them considering this a red flag? Could this tie into her reason for signing up as a test subject? Even your theory sorta tries to fill in this gap by claiming she came for some closure or something, to 'get away from life.' But I get the feeling she may have had a different motive and came to Aperture for some unknown, chaotic reason. That she had a goal. We just don't know what.

[@temkin9298]

Mantis people. Vengful, hostile, prying, ex-employee. That's sounds quite like what mantis people had become. Chell is dangerous because she is an active investigating hostile individual. Should there be any test that could be used in their attempt i am quite sure she would do so. Any data gotten would be skewed because she is hostile and unresponsive. Her intelligence also leads tests to fail because she can rebel quite easily with her witt and possibly join the dosen troubling things forgatten by the apeture scince lab. They want people who doesn't ask question, isn't social, isn't too smart, is loud and clear, isn't trying to undermine them.

[@EKPB]

I still prefer the idea that shes daughter of Cave Johnson and Caroline, it matches all too well with what you described, when considering Cave Johnson's personality you can see why Chell is like that

[@more-reasons6655]

​@@EKPB it's my head cannon that she's Cave Johnson's and Carolines daughter too. It explains why the company has a bring your daughter to work day if Johnson wants to honour his blood daughter I also noticed on my most recent playthrough that Cave Johnson has a trophy for creating a potato battery, so perhaps the reason he expects all the daughters of BYDTWD to create a potato battery is to see if any of them recreates his exact experiment to figure out which of the aperture employees daughter is actually his

[@juanausensi499]

It's probable Aperture Science performs physical and psychological tests to test applicants.

[@darkshadow19]

Another conclusion might be that Chell simply at some point started working at Aperture, just like her adoptive dad, becoming a scientist before poo hit the fan. When some of the scientists were forced to be test subjects, she might have been rejected due to her psychological evaluation, which they most likely did for their employees. When her father died, she applied personally and this could have not been ignored, from which we have the applicant form mentioned. Due to her Tenacity, she was put in stasis for later. As GlaDoS was turned on, she quickly went through many test subjects, just to stumble when Ratman updated the list and she awoke Chell.

[@lucifermagne7458]

I never thought Chell was whitewashed. I always thought she became paler because of her LOOOOONG sleep in cryostasis

[@Jrsonicyt-is-weird]

Also probably the brain damage did something too

[@icedqq]

@@Jrsonicyt-is-weirdbrain damage made me white

[@Mr.CubicFrame]

Same here. I thought she was white, but tan in portal 1.

[@jercki72]

yeah, quite a weird remark by the author tbh

[@qwjd8s693pt4kaun]

The video author just casually throwing around words like that I can't imagine him accusing anyone being "blаckwashed"

[@rustkitty]

Ah, the fact that Aperture just shuffled rejected subjects to the back instead of letting them go is the iconic horrifying incompetence we grew to expect from the company!

[@Omega-jg4oq]

They have no mercy for humans, everything is for Science no matter what

[@sandwichboy1268]

Better to use rejected test subjects than no test subjects at all, I imagine they'd say

[@araknidude]

alternatively GLaDOS added the rejected subjects to the back of the line bc she knew she was about to burn through them at a heroic clip

[@EggEnjoyer]

Incompetence? You watch your mouth. Aperture gave us best invention like the portal gun. Meanwhile those knuckle heads over at Black Messa gave us a resonance cascade. Now that’s incompetence

[@error-try-again-later]

Hey, you don't just throw away your spare test dummies!

[@cenattkemper]

Chell giving up on the real world and escaping it by becoming a test subject doesn't jive with her "never give up" mentality. More likely, when her dad died (she has nobody left to file a police report), she wanted to follow in his footsteps as a scientist. However she failed to show sufficient scientific rigor for academia or engineering (she wasn't exactly amazing at potato batteries), and rather than give up she said, "damn it, I'm gonna be part of Aperture anyway!" So she applied to be a test subject.

[@PPedroFernandes]

This is what I thought the conclusion would be when we were getting to the end of the video

[@T--------]

What really makes me doubt that is how obviously horrible aperture is to its test subjects, glados or not, like cave's recordings are constantly talking about things like injecting gasoline into your bloodstream and giving you cancer for like 20 bucks lmao, i mean christ, if a company asks you if anyone would look for you if you went missing you'd start running as fast as you can, you wouldn't willingly go along with any of this unless you just got nothing else or have no reason to live, so yeah she was probably at an especially low point emotionally and/or financially, cause really nothing else would make sense

[@KiiBon]

I'm pretty sure she's definitely Cave's daughter. Calling him "Mr Johnson" doesn't disprove that fact. 1. "Bring your daughter to work day is a perfect opportunity to have her tested." - GLaDOS from Portal 1. No sane parent would listen to it, only Cave is that stupid 2. In the Lab Rat comic, her last name in the files is [Redacted]. Why else would her last name be that if it isn't Johnson? GLaDOS says the same thing in "Want you gone". It could just be a robot thing, but it could be a connection. 3. "Cara Mia Addio" lyrics show, presumably a mother, talking about how Chell is her beautiful baby and how she should stay away from science. This is right after Caroline was deleted and GLaDOS let her go free.

[@higueraft571]

@@KiiBon >Why else would her last name be that if it isn't Johnson? Honestly, there could be several reasons... Say if she was related to another character in the universe? For a random example, say if her last name was Vance or something like that. Or Freeman. (It almost certainly isnt either, especially not Freeman) :V

[@atoth62]

@@KiiBon I can see Chell being Cave's biological daughter that was adopted by an Aperture employee, who was more a parent to her than her own parents.

[@dandyspacedandy]

i don't think chell necessarily _needs_ to be sensitive about being adopted for Glados to try and target her for it. I personally prefer the idea she doesn't let anything glados says get to her because glados has nothing that she cares about other than being an obstacle in her escape.

[@capn_toad]

i've always been OBSESSED with the "good people don't end up here." line. it's been rattling around in my brain since i first played the game. most people kind of gloss over it because there's so much other stuff happening at that time in the game.

[@largeboi4678]

I can imagine it being an SCP kind of thing where aperture at one point used prisoners or something

[@ethanchaotic]

I love Chell so much genuinely, I got chills the first time I read "She never gives up. Ever." I love silent protags with subtle characterization, but Chell really escapes that by having a LOT of characterization, snarky, rude, you can literally cheat the tests by getting yourself stuck, she is incredibly stubborn and was so tenacious she was sent the bottom of the damn list!! She took a bomb to the face and still had it in her to shoot the portal on the moon, hold onto wheatley as tight as possible and escape the icy depths of space, its all incredible

[@vadernation1233]

Silent protagonists lead to the most fun and creative uses of characterization. Doomguy (especially in the 2016 game) has excellent characterization with the way he interacts with the environment and you can read just with his hands what he’s thinking.

[@Normal-Lad]

That ending always gets me the sight of the moon and how the game let's you come to that conclusion on your own , it's such a perfect moment

[@CrashHeadroom]

@@vadernation1233 But they dont... they have lead to what you see here, people adoring a character with NO personality which is technically just an extension of themselves... basically, you are narcissists, you love yourself a little to much which then gets imprinted on to said character. kind of funny really....

[@Flynnisthename]

@@CrashHeadroomThat’s kind of an extremely harsh and baseless accusation of someone having a debilitating mental disorder that is out of their control.

[@DessDragon]

makes sense there'd be more than one bydtwd and that they might keep previous years' winners on display along with current year's submissions

[@tentacledood5784]

It'd also explain why Chell's potato's so much bigger, it had time to root!

[@MechaLeo]

Maybe they gathered every potato battery across several years to stand as a monument as to why that year's potato batteries were banned and they just sat there after GLaDOS poisoned the staff.

[@mattemig5868]

at 14:23 it says that it was the first annual bydtwd

[@piotrek5s170]

@@tentacledood5784 Because it is likely a few hundred years old at the time of portal 2

[@chimkinmayonaise9459]

More like a few thousand

[@ErikRoberts1981]

I’ve had the theory that Chell was adopted by Aperture and “dad” was another employee assigned to take care of her. Maybe Chell never had another option. She was adopted to be a test subject.

[@AurelUrban]

I really like the theory that her dad went missing in aperture and chell signed up to either look for him or find out what happened and how he died. Buuuut I also have a different idea. I think it's very plausible that a major source of test subjects for aperture were prisoners. Perhaps they were promised reduced sentences if they applied, or they simply didnt have a choice. This is something that actually happens in real life and I think it also ties in nicely with glados's line "good people dont end up here". If her dad was already dead at that point, it makes sense why she would have noone looking for her if she was in prison.

[@MorningLightMtn]

There's another possible reason why Chell applied for testing, her adoptive father died as a test subject. We all know that in Cave's last days he started using Aperture employees as test subjects. It's possible that Chell's adoptive father was forced as a test subject and died in one of the more dangerous ones. Glados does insult her by saying no one will care if she disappears, and that would not be an effective jab if her caring adoptive father was still alive when she volunteered. This would be yet another harrowing event in young Chell's life, and would serve to turn her determination into the unrelenting tenacity she has now. This also gives a more likely reason as to why Chell voluntarily became a test subject. She knew her adoptive father died as a test subject, and wanted to volunteer to know why he became a test subject and why he died.

[@Mhancock]

I think this is a big possibility. I also feel like her father could have been one of the scientists working on the borealis and one day he just disappeared. Could have lead to chell to investigate aperture and her big break was getting in as a test subject. It would make sense why she’d be so good at everything, she probably knew what they would do to her and she trained for it.

[@greenfloatingtoad]

If she doesn't know for sure what happened to her father this also explains why she didn't answer the survey question. She doesn't know if any of her family is left because her father just never came home from work one day.

[@rapturesinking9503]

Couldnt her father be Doug Rattmann ? Since he got involved with her and prepared messages all over the place.

[@casuallystalled]

I feel like if he was, he would have tried removing her completely from the list of subjects instead@@rapturesinking9503

[@rohankishibe6433]

This is my headcanon too. I wonder if there's anything out there that would prove it.

[@rustkitty]

The reason Chell refused to answer the essay question could be that her adoptive father had recently died. If so, she signed up out of grief, to get closer to the place that reminded her of her dad and those childhood memories. It's possible she isn't even a loner, and she just refused to answer the question because it tore up recent wounds and whoever compiled the case file misunderstood the context. (possible spin-off hook for a side story featuring a friend of Chell looking for her?)

[@DropsOfMars]

Aperture Science had started testing and experimenting on regular employees, we hear about this in Portal 2. There's a decent chance her father was killed by their tests and Chell isn't there for a reminder, but out of anger. If she really has no support, then the last person who was there for her was taken by Aperture.

[@thebiggestcauldron]

The Resonance Cascade might've made it harder for Chell's friend to find her.

[@mcgfn]

I think the several hundred years between Portal 1 and Portal 2 might ensure Chell is a loner forever

[@rustkitty]

@@mcgfn More like tens of thousands of years, if you take the relaxation chamber's word for it. But there are some contradictory evidence and I don't think a specific time frame has ever been confirmed. But I don't think it's a problem either way. Portal games aren't really known for happy endings.

[@mcgfn]

@@rustkitty I say several hundred years at least because we are never given the actual number we can only estimate the amount of time that has passed

[@roberthill5805]

I just assumed that she was a prisoner slated for execution or was institutionalized indefinitely. Then placed into testing for Aperture's odd experiments. It is fascinating to see more back story on her and the story around her.

[@flamshiz]

it's interesting that she has such a high test order number but such a low subject ID number. she's been around in the system for a long time if an extra thousand people have been added to the list since she was given an ID number

[@rgal]

Hi Dorsa! One thing I would like to note is that there's a problem with assuming that Chell voluntarily applied to be a test subject, and that problem is that Aperture Science is exactly the kind of cynical and tone-deaf corporation that would unironically give their involuntary test subjects surveys with questions like "what made you apply". Of course, it is perfectly in character for Chell to refuse to answer this question, even if she did humor some other questions with an answer.

[@Gonger02]

Yeah you are the expert. Of course you know the personality of a character that doesn't speak or emote.

[@Gamesaucer]

@@Gonger02 my guy, you're literally writing this on a video that goes in depth about her personality. Why are you even here tearing viewers down if you disagree with the entire premise of this video to begin with? Go touch some grass.

[@mrosskne]

What's wrong with asking someone why they applied to your project?

[@necroseus]

@@mrosskne Nothing is wrong with that. The comment said that the company would likely ask this question to "Involuntary test subjects". They may have asked people they legitimately kidnapped "So, what made you apply? :D"

[@kitnal4143]

​@@necroseusit is the sort of humour littered in the franchise. I dig it.

[@henrycgs]

There's a very common saying in Brazil, being that "a Brazilian never gives up". Could be a total coincidence, but Chell being part Brazilian kinda fits with the whole tenacity thing.

[@dzastin0713]

We can also say that she grew up in Liberdade, São Paulo city. Due to her Japanese ancestry also mentioned here.

[@arthurdossantos6826]

She's joined the rank along Samuel Rodrigues and Carlos Oliveira as some of the coolest Brazilian videogame characters

[@shaneypoo2022]

Not very much competition though

[@guillhermeguidao]

She has the "hihi levei vantagem" things, which is she always find some way out and gain advantage

[@user-jc5gy4xk4w]

brazillian here kkk correct afirmation. falta bastante conteúdo de portal aqui no brasil,o que é meio triste considerando a origem da personagem e talz. Pode ser apenas um devaneio,mas acho muito interessante o conhecimento de Ratman sobre Chell.Ele afirma que a escolheu por um palpite e logo em seguida é mostrado uma das características da personalidade de Chell:Teimosia e tenacidade. Considerando a situação da apperture,seria no minimo estranho eles recusarem uma cobaia. Se Chell realmente foi adotada por alguém da apperture,isso talvez explicaria a omissão do seu sobrenome.Sei que havia outros funcionários com filhos,mas não temos evidência de que seus filhos foram usados em testes.O ato de não aceitar Chell como uma cobaia,pode demonstrar o apego de um pai a sua filha.Isso pode ser uma loucura kkkkk,mas aqui vai o meu ponto:Creio que o cientista que pode ter adotado ela é Doug Ratman.Havia diversas cobaias,mais de 1000. O fato dele ter dado atenção a Chell é muito estranho.Ele afirma que foi um palpite.Doug era contra a ativação de glados e,em sua clássica frase,ele afirma que a consciência pode ser ignorada.Perto do final de lab rats,quando Doug vê chell sendo puchada para dentro da apperture novamente,ele se sente culpado e volta para ajudar ela de alguma forma.Ele diz que o motivo dela estar presa lá embaixo é culpa dele.Muitas pessoas atribuem ao fato dele ter selecionado ela em primeiro lugar como cobaia,mas o fato é que mesmo se ele não a tivesse selecionado em primeiro,ela ainda estaria presa na apperture pois estaria aguardando a ordem de teste.A minha dedução do sentimento de culpa de Doug é a seguinte:Doug adota Chell e a cria.O sentimento de culpa descrito em lab rats,não se dá ao fato dele a ter slecionado em primeiro lugar,mas sim ao fato dele a ter adotado como sua filha.Se Doug nunca tivesse adotado Chell,Talvez ela não fosse parar na apperture.Quando vemos Chell na seleção de cobaias,o seu nome não está desconhecido e sim omitido.O que significa que alguém,por decisão própria,não quis informar o seu sobrenome.Não sei exatamen o porque da omissão de seu sobrenome,mas creio que possa ter sido alguma ação de Doug para tentar protege-la; Conhecendo a personalidade de sua filha adotiva e vendo a situação atual da apperture,com praticamente todos os cientistas mortos,exceto ele,Doug não vê outra solução para deter GLADOS além de sua filha.Chell era extremamente teimosa e,mesmo com Doug a proíbido de participar dos testes,ela foi.Não havia ninguém como ela.Ele era incapaz de derrotrar GLADOS por conta de sua esquizofrenia,então sua última jogada é apostar em sua filha adotiva,Chell. Claro que eu posso ter viajado muito kkkkkkkkkkkkkk,mas é só uma teoria de um fan de portal que mora no Brasil. kkk

[@christiaancoetzee1696]

I’d imagine, since “good people don’t come here,” Chell most likely did some kind of crime or something that lead to her being arrested and possibly even have to spend a long time in prison before she was given a chance. Apply as a test subject to Aperture and she doesn’t need to spend the rest of her life in prison.

[@dqc7179]

And aperture doesn't seem like the type of workplace that'd reject you for being a felon

[@theninjamaster67]

​@@dqc7179 Considering it's mentioned in Portal 2 they started using homeless people as test subjects no they wouldn't mind convicts.

[@SAGERUNE]

Just take someone with an incriminating past, have them sign an NDA, dangle the carrot of wealth in front of their face, tell them how important they are to the work. Lol

[@christiaancoetzee1696]

@@SAGERUNE and then insult their weight and lack of parents

[@Otacanthus]

The potato battery board having mr. Johnson and dad as separate individuals has forever changed my view of the portal story

[@seka1nix]

I didn't know Chell was modeled after someone and that she is japanese brazilian. That's pretty cool to me considering I'm also japanese brazilian lol

[@ExistenceUniversity]

I felt the same way when I learned GLaDos was a human trapped in a robot body, oh boy being represented in media sure is something...

[@Mauricio0973]

​@@ExistenceUniversityyou really thought you did something here lmao

[@ExistenceUniversity]

@@Mauricio0973 I told a joke that some people liked, you don't have to like it, it wasn't a homerun smash or nothing, but why you are offended by it is interesting though

[@aiyana6476]

@@ExistenceUniversity lol weird of you to assume they’re offended just bc they didn’t like your dumb joke

[@ExistenceUniversity]

@@aiyana6476 I think you need to check the definition of "offended" as it doesn't necessarily mean the same as "triggered". The fact you replied in the way you did also falls under the definition of being "offended". Offended: to be upset, annoyed, or displeased because of a perceived wrong or insult. You perceived my actions to be wrong, it annoyed you to the point of engaging in argument, aka, offended. Maybe you'd prefer if I asked them and yourself, why does this annoy you?

[@andresbravo2003]

Fun Fact: In The Sims 3: Into the Future EP, There was a Sim Named Chelsea Gateway living in Oasis Landing alongside with her Plumbot roommate Gladys which refers to as Chell and GLaDOS. Just to keep in mind.

[@filval387]

Did they give the last name Gateway because that's basically another way to say portal? That's brillant!

[@TheRabbitPoet]

Oh my god, they were roommates

[@monotromatic2951]

@@TheRabbitPoet 'roommates'

[@roo.pzz4380]

WHATTT LMAO

[@z-beeblebrox]

8:27 one thing to consider regarding the others at the bottom of the list, is that they likely rejected outliers on BOTH sides of the bell curve. So it's entirely possible the others at the bottom of the are there because they uniquely suck, rather than because they're like Chell.

[@johnbadman3340]

I think a more plausable backstory for Chell, between early adulthood and applying to be a test subject at least, is that she had fallen into homelessness and was just desperate. It makes more sense that someone would happily sign away their rights if they were in such a situation, and it also serves as an explanation to why Chell is so stubborn and volatile, homeless life being difficult as it is. It also explains why nobody would come looking for her, as I think her adoptive father would still try to find her if she just quit her job and vanished one day. Maybe he was still working there even, and put her at the bottom of the list hoping he could get her out before she was tested on. We know that Aperture wasn't above testing on the homeless from levels in Portal 2, and I don't see why they would have stopped doing that after that time, Aperture looks a lot newer and shinier in the 00s but it still seems to be struggling financially, especially compared to the funding poured into Black Mesa.

[@thermalops]

It’s a kinda interesting concept tho with some gaps I feel could be filled better. Like perhaps chells father falling victim to cave’s employee mandate to testing, that or he quit as cave also mentioned employee retention fell after that. That in the end could maybe bring chell back to apature rather looking for answers to her missing father or because her father was an aperture test subject. Idk it’s all theory but definitely a very interesting idea

[@OssyFlawol]

There’s a lot you could do to tie in Chell’s adoptive father more to events in the Portal timeline! I chose to play it more safe with what I came up with to fill in the gaps, as I felt it would’ve bloated a section that I was already a little concerned about having in the first place.

I don’t think it’s too wild to think Chell came into Aperture looking to find her “missing” (probably dead) dad. However there’s no good explanation for Doug choosing her to be “the one”. Unless he knows her… you see I don’t think he would be so sure about that if all he had at hand was some goofy files.

[@madladam]

​@@OssyFlawolthe problem with Chell essentially "giving up" on the real world to be a test subject is that her personality is the exact opposite. I saw in another comment a better solution to why she applied, where she wanted to be a scientist in her adoptive father's footsteps but wasn't the most academic or scientific person, but instead of just giving up because she was rejected, she applied to be a test subject because she was *not* going to quit just because she didnt get the job.

[@sandwichboy1268]

tbh I thought the "employee retention" was referring to employees leaving the mortal realm, not just Aperture

[@peeblekitty5780]

@ I figured the explanation for Doug choosing her being "the one" was her outlying tenacity. When asked why he chose her he says "something in her file" (not IQ or athleticism), and the ending shot of the comic is the tenacity report in her file.

[@StarlightNkyra]

Chell immediately after being waken up from stasis: *starts cheating every test by using elaborate tricks and opening doors to the backrooms*

[@DropsOfMars]

_You're not a good person; you know that, right?_

[@windhelmguard5295]

yea i always figured chell was an escaped convict who enrolled as a test subject to drop of the radar for a few months. her backstory and skill set just befit someone who could turn to a life of crime, is great and breaking and entering, as well as breaking out of prison.

[@jamesevans6332]

Steam celebrated its 20th anniversary today, and with it, we now have Valve-endorsed artwork of Chell saying her first confirmed words out loud: "I'm sad, Wheatley, play Despacito".

[@Materiabar]

Finally, an analysis video that isnt just a recap of the games' events. You opened my eyes to some things I hadnt really thought about despite being a Portal fan for a long time. Excelent video, good editing, explanations, and above all does justice to Chell herself.

[@YishaiBarr]

A few issues - Bring your daughter to work day wasn't the day GLaDOS killed everyone. That was bring your Cat to work day. Some other unspecified thing happened during bring your daughter to work day. Also, it mentions that the Daughter's day was the first one and GLaDOS was present. That also doesn't explain why the kids' science projects are still there after all that time, it shouldn't just be standing in the hallway like that for so long. I believe it's fair to say that Portal has some plot holes in it. Also, Chell giving up on life doesn't reflect her tenacious nature as mentioned here by someone else in the comments. And, I'm not sure if this is important, but nothing here hints at Chell being a bad person.

[@Mr.Crawlyo]

Yk in half life 1 gordon has the full power to kill scientists and guards and its almost impossible not too sometimes for Ammo but in half life 2 they never allude to that possibility having an effect on how he was seen by people lmao and they never really say chell is good either, only ratman idolizes her with his art.

[@YishaiBarr]

@@Mr.Crawlyo They say he saw Chell's was stubborn in her file and Gordon was pretty much supported by Gman the whole time.

[@icedqq]

​@@Mr.Crawlyoi think its just that half life 1 isnt necessarily 'canon', and that half life 2 has its own version of half life one that you arent guaranteed to have played the same way. for instance, you can kill eli vance if you want in half life 1, or you can get gman to kill gordon.

[@CaptainJZH]

my favorite part of this is Ossy just becoming increasingly frustrated with fandom misconceptions (and Valve's non-straightforwardness fueling that misconception lol)

[@Mr.Crawlyo]

I dont think chell was white washed i just think she had a texture upgrade and they scanned it in better lighting this just happens sometimes but shes still brazilian japanese in the second game but i could understand why one would think she had a tone change they both look very different next to eachother, but they still have the same features and coloration just in different scan conditons i think

[@sydney5342]

that really was an awesome video! didnt think people would still make portal analyses and theories after 14 year! Really Really great video!

[@lochnessmobster9026]

the only problem, which I don't think necessarily disproves this theory but I think instead shows that maybe Valve didn't think the whole story through, is that the bring your daughter to work day area in portal 2 is likely supposed to be the one from GLaDOS' activation, since Wheatley comments that it "did not end well," and why would they preserve one random science fair from the 80s. Obviously that conflicts with the reference to Mr. Johnson, so it is possible that the thinkgeek cardboard is not meant to be canon, though my personal headcanon is that Aperture was maybe lying and pretending Johnson was still alive after all those years, and that those "orders" to use up all the potatoes came from whoever actually took charge in between him and the activation of GLaDOS. As for chell, its possible she was taken and put in stasis in the wake of GLaDOS takeover, and maybe grew up in Aperture's custody, and perhaps woken up one day and forced to fill out the application, which may also explain her refusal to answer some of the questions. This is all basically fanfiction though.

[@samuraijackoff5354]

Maybe the reason that science fair was kept was because it was some sort of honorary or prized reward thing. And as time went on it served as a way for future kids to try and beat the past winners to get into the recognition table alongside them. Like a trophy room sort of deal. Aperture does feel like the type to keep the same potatoes from the 80s to show off. Then since it had been displayed again to show the new round of kids to try and replicate, it would have been present for the incident. That's what I think at least.

[@sulphurous2656]

The first thing I wondered was if it'd be believable for them to keep display pieces from past events going into the future.

[@VermillionRed]

I mean....in aperture desk job we DO see that cave was put into a computer. I dunno if that games canon tho

[@Xezian]

@@VermillionRed It's not, pretty much everything we know of the mainline Portal universe is incompatible with Aperture desk job, it's an entirely separate universe.

[@AmBush2048]

This is another can of worms; Who was in charge of Aperture during the period between C.J.'s death, and the awakening of GLaDOS? And if they pretended that C.J. was still alive, for what purpose?

[@charmychar390]

I like how everyone is confused on where the piece of carboard from the bring your daughter to work day fits in Chell's story line when they don't bring up the possibility that it's another person named Chell

[@mistycomet9760]

That would be freaking hilarious and valve would have my permanent respect for screwing with theorists' minds like that.

[@peeblekitty5780]

Well yeah, it'd be a pretty bad storytelling move to just-so-happen to have another outlying character with an identical uncommon name.

[@error-try-again-later]

Storytelling has a rule about preserving relevant details. It would be pointless (yet very funny) to have some random side character share the same name as the protagonist.

[@Omega-jg4oq]

I don’t think that’s possible, maybe they could have similar names and after all the original test subject for portal 2 was supposed to be Mell but they cancelled that and brought Chell back

[@more-reasons6655]

Occam's razor, the simplest answer is most likely to be correct If the main character is called Chell and years ago a child called Chell made something. Those two people are 99.99% going to be the same person

[@cherry414]

You have no idea how happy I was seeing a Portal video posted only a few days ago!!

[@SnufflySpy]

This is the first video of yours I've seen, and I love it! Well done

[@DropsOfMars]

I reckon her father may have been killed by the testing at aperture. In Portal 2, it's shown that regular employees started getting tested on and most of those experiments were highly unethical and very dangerous. The "disappearance of her adopted father would be motive to return, and it explains why GLaDOS harps on her adoption and lack of support. GLaDOS KNOWS what happened, and while she wasn't herself responsible for it, uses that information to dig deep at Chell.

[@icarusgaming6269]

This timeline is all well and good, but I don't see why Chell has to apply to be a test subject before GLaDOS' activation. No traces of the incident escaped the labs, so GLaDOS can continue to automatically print and distribute flyers and operate the website, with the only suspicion being what happened to all the scientists who were currently working and living there, who the outside world has now lost contact with. This is the reason I want to flip these two events, because it finalizes the shape of Chell's story in a way that justifies all of our established plot points. Her adoptive father goes missing following activation day, which she did not attend because she's too old. With the one and only person in her life she could rely on now gone, she does the only thing she can think of to infiltrate the labs and find out what happened to him: She applies to be a test subject. No doubt there were many questions raised when Aperture employees stopped checking in and visiting their families, but only Chell had the tenacity to put herself in danger to investigate. It was nearly 20 years after the Resonance Cascade that the Combine invaded and society began to completely break down. While the Earth struggled with ongoing portal storms during this time, protection centers in major cities still had functioning utilities needed to apply for testing such as power and internet

[@DropsOfMars]

An interesting concept-- Black Forest cake in this interpretation could be indication of her allegiance to White Forest, where we find out in HL2:Ep2 about the Borealis, an Aperture owned vessel... an interesting connection. Maybe her Father disappearing was motivation enough, but perhaps she's there for something else as well.

[@TrinityCore60]

No, the combine actually invaded not too long after the Black Mesa Incident; that was just when Gordon showed up. The Combine have been on Earth for a while, likely well over a decade. This doesn’t disprove anything, though; she only had to have applied roughly in the early 2000s.

[@inkheart151]

I have a theory that chell’s experiment was used as a trophy, like a way to show new kids what the old kids did. It was just too big to put behind glass….

[@NathanaelNewton]

Something about your style and the content. I can feel like I could watch this for hours on end.. ❤❤

[@Awesomeness-iz3dh]

You have my undying respect and gratitude for not leaving out Decay when talking about the expansions.

[@tentacledood5784]

Same

[@Awesomeness-iz3dh]

@@resyntax I see it get left out all the time, if not because people don't know about it then because they don't care.

[@aspiradora56]

I can't thank you enough for making your own subtitles so I don't have to use KZbin's automatically generated subtitles (ew). I can perfectly read english but sometimes when it comes to just hearing I have some problems understanding what is being said (my main language is spanish). Thanks for that small, but very helpful detail!

[@OssyFlawol]

Reese Rivers is my caption writer and they do an astounding job every single time!

[@SpringySpring04]

I'm kind of the same way as sometimes people don't talk very clearly or maybe the audio mixing is pretty bad, a problem that plagues especially movies and TV shows and the like. And my native language _is_ English! So I'm always glad to see good subtitles!

[@-bismark]

i always headcanoned that aperture was so desperate for test subjects that they used subjects from prisons, Chell being an inmate and getting picked up by aperture just being happenstance

[@liviwaslost]

They used subjects from prisons and homeless people due to lacking funds.

[@MRAWESOME22]

Brilliantly done. Bravo!

[@krahen7236]

Has anyone thought that maybe Chell escaped bring your daughter to work day (somehow), and came back to Aperture to find her dad? this explains why she didn't answer why she was signing up. it's also possible that her birth father was the Aperture employee, and after he died she was adopted.

[@con7885]

That would make sense if the 7 hour war and combine reign wasn't a factor

[@krahen7236]

@@con7885 did that happen while chell was on the surface, or while she was asleep?

[@monotromatic2951]

@@krahen7236 in Portal 1 GLaDOS says something along the lines of 'whatever's happening out there is much worse than in here.' Portal 1 and 7 hour war happens around the same time. At the end of Portal 1 she returns to stasis which many have theorized to be between 70 - 900+ years from the ending of HL2:EP2.

[@Omega-jg4oq]

What if Doug rattman was the father who adopted her, after all he did everything he could to save Chell and he is the only person to care about Chell

[@monotromatic2951]

@@Omega-jg4oq I do find it an interesting theory, although it doesn't make much sense. Why would Chell not write anything about her adoptive father as a person who would look for her? From the evidence given from the video it seems unlikely. Rattman also doesn't say anything about knowing Chell other than knowing her tenacity could be the key to beating GLaDOS.

[@TheSuperman367]

I've always just assumed the fan theories were canon. It's great having all this info in one place. Also Hi Dorsa!

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

Almost nothing in the Half-Life universe is "canon" and they overwrite things constantly, both via retcon, and by literally patching the game to change the ending in the case of Portal. That's why the fan theories run so wild that eventually fanon morphs and spreads over the Internet so new fans think the fanon IS canon. It figures into the plot in Half-Life: Alyx though. The G-Man creates "forks" in reality. So all these changes we see probably do happen, but in another world...

[@sulphurous2656]

@@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep Never underestimate the western audiences strong desire for a singular canon, video games or otherwise.

[@SioxerNikita]

If you assume fan theories are canon, the word canon is now irrelevant

[@8is]

@@sulphurous2656 Why would you have multiple canons? What's the point of having something canon at that point?

[@Stryfe52]

@@sulphurous2656*Marvel/DC comics with their multiple timelines, alternate universes, and countless reboots*

[@PstrywBerryDraws]

Woah. It's been ages since I'be heard such a super interesting Portal 2 theory

[@hrrawr]

Thank you for a thorough analysis.

[@Xezian]

I still find it really odd how Chell's name was redacted. I think it's more because Valve wanted to maintain her just being Chell, thinking that Chell on its own was iconic enough and didn't wanna ruin that iconography they have established for one of their characters ; as well as potentially wanting to avoid any potential relation to other characters and attempting to maintain her everyman status. But it also ends up having really weird lore implications. There has to be a reason why her last name was redacted, the simplest explanation is she just didn't give it and seeing as how Aperture at one point did become desperate for test subjects they could've allowed her to partake in the tests anyways. My problem with this assumption is there's a clear shift in Aperture's status between the lows of the end of Cave Johnson's career before he died, and the highs it reaches right before the incidents with GLaDOS began. We don't know what caused the financial turn around but it's clear one did happen at some point and brought Aperture back to the top and even surpassing Black Mesa despite Black Mesa's numerous government contracts and seemingly bottomless wells of money as a result of these contracts and its relationship with the US government. Needless to say Aperture was no longer having to scrounge for test subjects, they could've easily offered handsomely for anyone who wanted to sign up to draw in as many participants as possible. I think their astronauts and war hero approach did change due to their tests seeming to change focus from just pushing things to their limit and instead focusing on more average people and wider pools of people to get more results both from their devices and potential psychological experiments (maybe trying to study the human mind and psyche for further information on how to improve GLaDOS's AI and her 'morality issues'? This would also explain why Chell's exceptional tenacity was a reason to not test her as she was an outlier and would've biased test results specifically when it comes to studying the human mind, but otherwise her tenacity should've been all the reason to test her if they were just testing their devices or human ingenuity.). All this to say it seems really odd that Chell specifically had her last name redacted seeing as Aperture was back on top and no longer desperate for test participants, meaning they could've easily rejected her if she simply didn't provide her last name, and makes it seem more likely that someone intentionally redacted her last name. Also the phrasing of redacted while it easily could be a placeholder for any missing name it seems weird they specifically detail redacted instead of something like "name not provide" or similar. It all ends up implying someone at Aperture intentionally removed her last name for whatever reason.

[@Trainguyrom]

Could simply be redacted as its shared with a scientist at the facility, and they redact family names of all test subjects that are related to employees for privacy or bias reasons. When I worked at a bank, they very crudely prevented access to employee accounts by other employees (because the number of places where access is needed to functionally provide banking services vs needed to be restricted for privacy reasons really made the whole thing a mess) so the fact that it just said "redacted" would make perfect sense for a large, relatively old organization with a ton of technical and operational debt like any organization of its size and age would have.

[@LB_]

I think this theory is most interesting because of what GLaDOS says at the start of the game: "Hello and *again* welcome" - what other reason could there be to say "again"?

[@filval387]

I think that's more because "Hello" and "Welcome" are both greetings... So it would be like if she said "Greetings and, again, greetings..."

[@generatoralignmentdevalue]

Probably all the test subjects got a similar welcome when they arrived. GLaDOS is aware that from their point of view, having been in stasis, they just heard someone else tell them hello and welcome to Aperture.

[@DWal32]

probably said "again" because test subjects must have entered an aperture location previously to complete the application process

[@LB_]

Maybe so.

[@SamMaddie2]

@@DWal32 Agreed. I feel like it's similar to Cave's intro in the 40s/50s of "Now, you already met one another on the limo ride over, so let me introduce myself." They have a standardized onboarding process for test subjects. It's changed over the decades, but it's always standardized and involves them meeting and speaking with an Aperture representative (which was exclusively Caroline in the 50s).

[@TR-in9lp]

Hi Dorsa! thanks for the hard work!

[@springy5082]

This is much better than what i was expecting. Keep up the good work, flawol ! Also, hi Dorsa !

[@Mr_Scoopy]

Really good video! However, I have one small question… you say that “Bring your Daughter to Work Day” was the day that GLaDOS eliminated all personnel within the facility. However, the Lab Rat comic heavily implies that GLaDOS’s successful attempt was on “Bring your Cat to Work Day”. I’ve always assumed that the incident on “Bring your Daughter to Work Day” was the inspiration for making the Morality Core, and that the “Bring your Cat to Work Day” incident was the actual day that lead to all of the employees’s deaths. What are your thoughts on this?

[@OssyFlawol]

Bring Your Daughter To Work Day is consistently referred to as *the* event that killed all the Aperture staff, even beyond Lab Rat in lore material such as the Portal 2 Official Guide. Despite that however, the Official Guide also states that those who survived BYDTWD put the Morality Core onto GLaDOS. What I see this as is that BYDTWD was the first strike that killed the majority of the staff, while Bring Your Cat To Work Day was the “finishing blow” if you will. In general BYCTWD actually kind of conflicts with a lot of things, which makes me think that it wasn’t really thought out at all.

[@TrinityCore60]

@@OssyFlawolif it makes any sense, I personally headcanon that Bring your Daughter to Work Day was the first time GLaDOS was turned on. It went only slightly better than one would expect. Plenty died, including some kids. Over the subsequent years, attempt after attempt was made to subdue GLaDOS, none of which was quite successful. Progress seemed to finally be made after the installation of her Morality Core, but despite appearances, the machine was just trying to gain their trust. It unfortunately worked. With most fooled, and under the guise of a Schrödinger’s Cat experiment on Bring your Cat to Work Day, she locked down the facility and finally killed everyone; those she couldn’t kill, she put through the testing tracks. That’s my interpretation.

[@ocelot9496]

Would you mind highlighting the specific pages where Bring Your Cat to Work Day and the Morality Core inspiration is mentioned? I just re-read Lab Rat, but I must have missed it. Is it possible based on the framing that BYCTWD being about cats is one of Ratman's delusions? It can be confusing to keep up with!

[@wulf-dawg8565]

@@ocelot9496It’s page 23. The actual experiment isn’t shown, but the scientists and glados talk about it. I had to thumb through it a few times to find it myself.

[@rafaelhines1178]

​@@OssyFlawolwasn't the Schrödinger's cat experiment that was supposed to happen on bring your cat to work day where glados got the neurotoxin?

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

I love how post-apocalyptic and alien the world of Half-Life 2 is, compared to the mundanity of offices and stations in Half-Life 1. And Half-Life: Alyx blends the two perfectly, and adds in a hefty amount of Xen.

[@user-om6hn3th1y]

Wrong game bro, point is real tho

[@lonely_guacamole]

Technically he's not wrong, because Portal and Half Life are in the same Universe and Portal 1 is between Half Life 1 and 2. When you finish the game, GladOS tells you something talking about the Combine, like "I was protecting you from them" or something along those lines

[@lumpkinnn]

I can't believe it took me this long to find your channel! You're so charming, definitely one of my favorite channels now, at least top 10 :D

[@DrFunk98]

Hi Dorsa. Also this a wonderfully interesting video. I love learning about lore I missed while playing these games.

[@sulphurous2656]

For all the speculation we've had over the years, I'm pretty content with whatever Blue Sky offers insofar as character backstory goes.

[@AlexK-jp9nc]

Blue Sky?

[@Zepumpkineater]

@@AlexK-jp9nc It's a Chell x Human Wheatley fanfic that was very popular in the Portal 2 fandom back in the day.

[@sulphurous2656]

@@AlexK-jp9nc The title of a Portal fanfiction from 2011/2012 which seems to enjoy cult classic status in the fandom since its inception. It is set 4 years after the events of Portal 2 and focuses on the main cast of Wheatley, Chell, GLaDOS, as well as ATLAS and P-Body from the game. As far as I know, people hold it in high esteem for its portrayal of the characters in writing.

[@RowanSkie]

From what I recall, Blue Sky's Chell is her being a pastry delivery girl that was just at the wrong place and the wrong time.

[@legoboy-ox2kx]

​@@RowanSkieWell, she was actually a baker, not just a delivery girl. After she escapes and acclimates to living in Eaden, she becomes a baker due to already being skilled at it, but she doesn't remember why.

[@rackneh]

14:51 Chell's parents could have died when she was young AT aperture science that day. Causing her to to be put up in a foster home as a young child. Decades later she puts herself up as a test subject to find out what happened to her parents the day they rushed her out of the building.

[@hollerncraft]

my personal head canon is that she was one of the children there, and was present for the gassing. the children were spared, and put into suspension and saved for future testing. the application could have been one they filled out at the bring your daughter to work day fair as an activity for them to do, but not to be seriously test subjects, hence the odd nature of the questions.

[@MrOverlordSir]

Most thourough and accurate video for the series, thank you sir.

[@dhl-96]

Amazing video about her backstory!! But, Around 20:32 you say that Chell was woken up because GLaDOS had ran out of the "normal subjects" but I always thought that Chell was the first test subject woken by GLaDOS and before then she had been testing the survivors of BYDTWD

[@rayfields7749]

Yes that was the main point in the cómic. Rattmann chose her to be the first because of her stats.

[@Axodus]

Chell was the first to be woken.

[@Ovandal]

I honestly still believe that Chell was just a homeless orphan applying for money, in the 60's aperture part of portal 2 they mention that Aperture has a preference to homeless people due to their very few connections, it also fits in line with the idea that she has nobody to rely on outside of the facility and has no parents or family to speak of. Honestly after hearing the homeless line i thought it was an open and shut case, suprised you didn't bring it up here

[@Omega-jg4oq]

It’s shocking how sad and tragic her life is.. she is all alone

[@jonintrovertednerd9988]

​@@Omega-jg4oq Hilarious ha ha ha ha. So silly you are upset about it, like, do you even know that she is not a dog?

[@jonintrovertednerd9988]

​@@Omega-jg4oqDog! DOG? DOG DOG BONG KONG STRONG PONG

[@Omega-jg4oq]

@@jonintrovertednerd9988 Batman… wake up and stop taking too much drugs

[@jonintrovertednerd9988]

@@Omega-jg4oq I don't listen to advices from criminal scum.

[@nathangehman7018]

I haven't seen any other Chell analysis videos, but I think this is the correct one

[@Laurapolis]

I think Chell must've been some kind of military or mercenary specialist pre-portal. She has no difficulty navigating mind-bending physical puzzles and her aim/comfort level with that portal gun is immediate. I like imagining Aperture included a "your body will be donated to the advancement of science in the event of your death" clause in some experiment contract, resulting in subjects technically dying but being revived and used in human testing like Chell is.

[@legoboy-ox2kx]

My favorite interpretation is the Blue Sky version. She was just a local baker that Aperture contracted to serve bagels to the staff because the cafeteria was out of service.

[@roo.pzz4380]

what’s with scientists and bagels? Bagels always lead to weird endings for these people

[@uberspaz7484]

I actually had a similar theory when I was playing this game as a kid! One of the coffee cups in the Ratman dens actually says "World's best dad"! It's in the singing turret one, if I recall correctly.

[@Jrsonicyt-is-weird]

Well it doesnt work because chell and ratman seems to be the same age and it seems that he was their after caves death or atleast a bit too young to meet cave before the moon cancer

[@candybeans]

Hi Dorsa! Loved this video.

[@daecatt]

The bring your daughter to work day conundrum is really interesting, and it's hard to tell what Valve really intended. My interpretation is several "first annual" bring your daughter to work days events happened, and if "turning on GLaDOS" was considered a safe event for the last one, it's possible previous ones had similar disastrous events. With each event requiring an evacuation, and the area otherwise being unused, it's possible Chell's display has simply been left there for many years. It's also worth noting that the while the Thinkgeek PotatOS Science Kit display clearly has different text, it must have been created in collaboration with Valve since it's clearly based on a higher resolution version of the display in-game. I'd be surprised if Valve would be willing to collaborate that much and not have a final say on what's written on it.

[@seansharpes4219]

Aperture having multiple “first annual” Bring Your Daughter To Work Day(s) because of repeated disasters just sounds incredibly on brand for aperture. This is now my head cannon.

[@peeblekitty5780]

I saw someone point out that "first annual" could mean that there was a BYDTWD (or even several) before it was planned to be an annual event, and the one in which the neurotoxin incident happened was to be the first _annual_ one. Felt a little cheese-y, but it got around the "Chell being an adult by the events of the games" issue. That said I have to go with sean. This explanation is so perfectly on-brand for Aperture.

[@ilikeminecraf2013]

BRAZIL MENTIONED YOOOOOOO

[@tentacledood5784]

VAI BRASIL!!! :D

[@WinchesterxNL]

I always thought Glados was somehow Chell's mother. That was my interpretation of it all when I played the game years ago. Should really replay it again. It is a good game after all.

[@Father_of_Death]

Caroline was Chell's mother, listen closely to "Cara Mia" When translated it is basically GLaDOS (Caroline) telling Chell to stay away from science.

[@MurphyandMiko]

Thanks again for more juicy portal content! also Hi Dorsa!

[@echoproductions098]

oh crap.. for some reason, your line about "Glados began to use subjets with the rejected stamp" finally made it click in my head: Glados, spurred on by "The Itch" has almost certainly been running test subjects through these same chambers for years and years, one at a time, all of them eventually ending up dead at the bottom of the incinerator untill Chell. before this I guess I just assumed the facility had lain dormant until Chell awoke, but perhaps did Rattman only nudge her to the top of the *reject* list? necessitating Glados to work her way through the entirety of the good candidates?

[@BeyondBaito]

I never thought Chell was white, even in Portal 2. I mean sure fan art draws her that way, but even in Portal 2 she still retains the similar facial structure

[@hruryehejhe5868]

I can’t rlly blame anyone who did assume she was white. You never really see much of the character, and any traits that could be used to try and tell are really low quality. Also for whatever reason they have chell blue eyes even though the person she was based off of had brown eyes. I always thought she was either white or latina until this video.

[@Mr.Crawlyo]

If you look at her in-game model she retains her race I think it's just the promo arts making her look lighter toned than she is, they are using source filmmaker for those and the lighting system can be a little finicky like that

[@rosykindbunny1313]

I read this really good fanfic about how Chell ended up in Aperture called Redemption, and it's written by an ao3 user called Silverstream. It was canon compliant for the most part (not all the time though) and gave new perspectives on so many characters. I can't recommend this fic enough!

[@eviIsister]

my favorite chell headcanon is that she's deaf and the whole time she's fully unaware glados is snarking her

[@Woot100]

I wanna make a sliiiiight correction here-- you've implied her biological parents were somehow terrible people for putting her up for adoption, but there's a lot of reasons they could've done that, realistically speaking. She could've been living in a dangerous household, wherein one parent was so worried for her safety and the other so uncaring that she was placed into the system for her own good. Or even both of her bio parents could've loved her, but been in a low-income situation where they literally couldn't afford to care for her-- given that it's heavily implied she has no support system, I imagine they had no immediate relatives willing to take her in either, in this hypothetical scenario. Or, she could've been the result of a teen pregnancy, and her mother simply tried her best until she literally couldn't anymore. There's room for an interpretation where they didn't love her, sure, but there's also room for a still-rocky childhood where one or more of them **did.** I DON'T wanna get into the incredibly complex politics of the American adoption and foster-care system and all of the extremely varied perspectives people have on it. I'm certainly NOT saying placing a child-- particularly a disabled girl of color --into that system was a 100% innocent decision to make with no immediate consequences. But considering your own point about GLaDOS telling half-truths, there's definitely room for "adopted" to be true and "bio parents didn't love you" to be false. Other than that, I think this analysis is completely amazing and pretty irrefutable! I'm always so exhausted when people assume she was in stasis since she was a little girl, it's such a ridiculous and out-of-pocket assumption that goes beyond even the normal amount of silliness the series allows for. Thank you once again for all of the thought and effort you put into these videos

[@Cynadyde]

I get the sense that at some point Chell loses her adoptive father and screws up her life a little, and applies for testing to let the heat cool.

[@DropsOfMars]

Or... the testing and experimenting Aperture had done on employees could have resulted in her father's death. Maybe she's there for other reasons 🤔

[@Omega-jg4oq]

Oh man.. I feel so bad for Chell, her whole life is tragic.. her parents abandoned her and she was adopted by a random scientist and she ends up being independent and broken and lonely that she doesn’t even want to speak 😢

[@magicalmercy]

Loved the video! Hi Dorsa!

[@windhelmguard5295]

one interpretation i came up with: chell is a loner who doesn't get along well with other people, has received substandard guidance by her guardians, is extremely stubborn, willing to do whatever it takes to get her way, she never gives up, she is described as "a bad person" as well as a "dangerous mute lunatic", she volunteered as a test subject, obfuscating a few facts about herself by choosing not to answer certain questions. all this leads me to believe that chell is an escaped convict. her personality from what we know as well as her backstory would befit someone who could turn to a life of crime to get what they want, as well as someone who has the skills needed to break into places and circumventing security systems, both valuable skills for stealing and for escaping from custody. then consider how her father was an aperture employee, she likely also knows a few of the proceedings and would thus know that enrolling as a test subject would allow her to completely drop off the radar long enough for her case(es) to blow over.

[@Ge0Mancer7]

The other hint at the beginning is GLaDOS saying "Hello, and, AGAIN, welcome back..." suggesting that Chell has been here before

[@EzekEyes]

Wow this is surprisingly well put together and very convincing considering how very true it is that we never seem to get any very obvious information about Chell in Portal

[@Omega-jg4oq]

Most likely because Chell supposed to represent the player but it’s weird that there’s so little information and backstory about her and most people rarely talk about who Chell really is and was

[@Alanlivengood]

Hi Dorsa! Love the video

[@Greendawn-di3dl]

I've never seen any of this and I'm a huge portal fanboy this is amazing work dude

[@themindboggler8055]

The mention of her not being a good person in Portal 1 gave me a thought of Chell being someone who has broken the law and gone to prison. It makes sense to me. At a young age, she was put into an orphanage due to her blood parents not being able to raise her. She was then adopted by a single man who worked at Aperture. Due to his increased workload during the 80s (around the time that cave was dying i think, i haven’t played portal 2 in a while) he neglected his daughter and would get to see less and less of her until one day he never came home. unknown to Chell, he had fallen victim to one of the testing tracks during the time Cave Johnson was making employees undergo testing. Without a parent to guide her, and no one close to her, she became a child thief (or may have started committing other crimes). Surviving for decades until she was eventually caught as a young adult. At this point, GLaDOS is being worked on by scientists at Aperture. While in prison, she was approached by Aperture employees, who had seen that she was an adopted daughter of a previous Aperture employee. They offer to take her to a super secret facility and in return, they can take time off her sentence. Chell accepts this offer as she remembers her dad used to work for them. She is then taken to Aperture where she is to fill out a form to allow her to become a test subject. The scientists realise she is severely undereducated for her age, very shy and barely talks to anyone due to her not having an adult figure during her life, so the scientists help her fill out the form and teach her some basic reading and writing skills. She may also be suffering from some sort of trauma or depression. The scientists seeing this, allow her to mingle with the other employees current children who are working on potato batteries. Chell begins to enjoy the idea of potato batteries and the scientists realise this, and allow her to participate. Due to her enjoying the project, she writes down memories of conversations her dad had with her on her science board about his work from back when he was alive/working at Aperture. Some time later, after the potato battery projects are finished, Chell is put into stasis by the scientists for future testing. GLaDOS tricks the scientists and floods the facility with neurotoxin. This is where the events of portal one would begin. Some minor things to note: -the orange jumpsuit she wears throughout the games is similar to a stereotypical prison attire -we know that during the end of cave’s life, he resorted to homeless people for test subjects, so it’s not entirely out of the question for him to resort to prisoners -Doug Ratman chose Chell as the best subject due to him remembering her as a child when her dad was still alive. He may also know she was a thief and think that her experience living alone for so long would be crucial for surviving the facility and defeating GLaDOS -the reason for her last name being redacted may be due to her blood parents last name not being available, and the scientists not wanting to give her the last name of her deceased father. I typed this on my phone so i apologise for any grammar errors or typos. There are likely things i haven’t considered which may disprove this theory, but i can’t think of anything at the moment. (Also unrelated note, I wrote this comment about 18 hours ago and posted it, but it instead posted the comment on a video i watched over an hour prior. IDK how that works but ok)

[@Cyfrik]

Regarding your last line - If that's an actual bug that's happening, that would explain _so much_ of all the comments I've seen in various places that were very obviously intended for other videos than the ones they're on. I kinda just assumed they were from people who commented after autoplay switched video for them without realizing, but if there's a bug that does it, that also makes sense.

[@themindboggler8055]

@@Cyfrik that’s interesting that its happened more than once. I just assumed it was due to my crap internet somehow.

[@Ridgeneer]

Quality video! My only complaint is that it is woefully missing any mention of Greg. I admit that even a mention of Greg would have stolen Chell’s spotlight due to his importance within the setting, but it feels weird to delve so deep into the story of the portal games without mentioning such a key player. If anybody want to discuss Greg’s complex motivations and the duality of his controversial actions with me, just ask in the comment replies

[@Ridgeneer]

Just to clarify, this is a joke, I would have been immensely surprised if Greg was even referred to indirectly. This video is better off without mentioning him. I’m not joking about discussing Greg though, ask me about Greg Theory

[@aspiradora56]

Who even is Greg

[@aspiradora56]

What is Greg theory

[@Ridgeneer]

@@aspiradora56 Greg is the assistant to Cave Johnson. While Greg was nearly included in Portal 2, he did not make it into the final version of the game, so the advent of Greg into the Half-Life/Portal universe was in the Perpetual Testing Initiative dialogue. It is uncertain if Greg was present in the multiverse that contains the 2 mainline entries in the Portal series. Greg also is featured in the Cave Johnson DOTA announcer pack, as well as the most important entry in Portal lore: the LEGO Dimensions Expansion Pack Greg primarily features as the assistant to Cave Prime of Earth One. This is the Cave who uses ‘chariots’ as a keyword, then adjusts that to saying ‘chariots’ twice in response to a random multiverse Cave’s habit of simply inserting the word into everyday speech. I’m currently at work so I can’t explain in full detail, but I can provide more when I have the time.

[@sulphurous2656]

kek

[@owlgoddess8534]

this is really great, my one disagreement is about the abandonment of the birth parents. i feel like it’s more likely that chell just has no idea what happened to them, and neither does glados, but for the sake of insulting her as hard as possible she takes the most anxiety inducing route, claiming that they flat out abandoned her. also hi dorsa!

[@lloydmartel]

I know u said making characters related to each other isnt the best idea, but I think it'd make sense if Doug was Chell's adoptive father. Theoretically he'd fit in the timeline (its already messy anyways), and it would give him reason to chose Chell instead of those at the bottom bottom of the list, as he'd personally know the true extent of Chell's tenacity. Also this might be obvious, but I think Chell might've CHOSEN to redact her last name as some sort of middle finger to her birth parents. I think it's either that or she just literally doesnt have a last name because perhaps her mother didnt provide it when abandoning Chell.

[@Omega-jg4oq]

That’s what I wanted to say, after all.. Doug is the only person to care about Chell this much and doing anything to save her even if it’s means dying along the way when he could have easily left aperture science for good after being trapped there for years, there’s other thousands human test subjects.. why her specifically? It’s like Doug knows Chell personally that he is confident enough that she would be the one to defeat GLaDOS and also Chell is able to find his Dens or his secret rooms throughout the game.. if GLaDOS wasn’t active and awake.. Chell would have found Doug Rattman along the way in Aperture already

[@Trainguyrom]

@@Omega-jg4oq Doug's verbiage and tone doesn't strike me as adoptive parent. I'd say more likely he's good friends with Chell's adoptive father and got to know her at company events and friend hangouts, plus of course stories from her adoptive father about raising her. You naturally help your friends' kids a little here and there where you can, and Chell probably just knows Doug as "a guy dad knew" so he probably wouldn't come to mind as someone who cares about her

[@Omega-jg4oq]

@@Trainguyrom you’re right but also I doubt there’s going to be a just random Aperture employee that would casually adopt Chell for no reason when everyone is so busy about science just like Cave Johnson, the other employees obviously they would bring their actual daughters so they learn some science stuff as well and maybe he has no kids or he loves Chell that he feels sympathy towards that decided to adopt her and since the bring your daughter to workday is something sort of like a school competition or projects or school event for one day and Chell was just a child she would have some kind of relationship or at least just hanging out with other girls or probably not because she is stubborn, I don’t know there’s a lot of mysteries around Chell that we probably will never know

[@ClokworkGremlin]

I feel like the discrepancy between Chell's name being on the science experiment and applying to be a test subject as an adult is pretty simple: GlaDOS killed everyone on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day. Years later, Chell discovered that Aperture was still operating, and applied to be a test subject for the purpose of avenging her adoptive father's death. Which explains why she's *so* hostile to GlaDOS that she refuses to even speak to her.

[@fatalwaffle1715]

Awesome Video Bro.

[@joshuapersons4833]

Hi Dorsa! Interesting take on Chell's backstory, Ossy!

[@AliensComeback]

One of the best videos I've ever seen! That's a very good theory of her backstory!

[@peggsnbacon]

I never knew about the Mr. Johnson lines in the science fair! Neat how that helps tidy up the timeline.

[@the_tree007]

I bought portal yesterday, you got perfect timing man!

[@user-sv6hv6ym1d]

Good afternoon Dorsa, and have a good rest of the day.

[@thoregrimm6042]

Hi Dorsa! Nice to see some hints in a main video

[@lemonnboyy]

This puts a whole new idea of how chell felt during the part of portal 2 while she was going through the skeleton of the facility

[@austinrichard8046]

The “meat and sentient potatoes” line was really good. Nice job

[@boy_girl_cat_party1824]

Hi Dorsa!!! First time viewer, super excited to be here!

[@Potholet]

The fact rattman has more of a backstory than Chell and he's never been seen in-game

[@Mr.Crawlyo]

I think chells backstory was supposed to be wrote in half life considering the tech she's using the whole game was what the combine were after with the boroealis, they wanted that portal tech for local teleportation and only aperture could do that