Caution! This post on Portal 2 CONTAINS SPOILERS! However, even if you have not played the game and just want to read more about it regardless of spoilers then by all means go on ahead :) (although watching a "Let's Play" Video of both Portal 1 and 2 would help you to familiarize yourself with it).
As I said in my first part of my Portal 2 Review the story is, when you actually look closely at it, amazing. It's hard to notice it in Portal 1, as the story is mostly in the scenery. Portal 1 makes you feel that you're waking up in a story almost at the end and that you're rushing to the finish. But, again, the story seems more to do about the world you're in rather than Chell...or so it seems until Portal 2.
So I figure I should put out my base theory about Chell and Glados right out at the very beginning. Glados is Caroline and Chell is Caroline's (Glados') daughter, and her father is Cave Johnson (this might be altered somewhat to say that Chell is Caroline...but I prefer above idea better). Also keep in mind this story assumes that the crazy scientist guy who writes all the stuff on the wall is not related to Chell and is just a crazy smart guy...although I suppose it could be Cave Johnson...which would also make sense for why Rat Man is still alive and cares so much about Chell...
How is this possible? Well to completely answer this question I have to start with Portal 1 and then tell a story. Frist, we have to answer why Chell starts in such an odd situation in Portal 2. Think for a moment: EVERYONE in the Aperture Labs has been killed by a neurotoxin...Except Chell. Why is Chell spared? I'm sure Glados could have circumvented whatever safe guards might have been in place around Chell (or maybe Caroline put them in place herself?) or could have found some way to kill Chell while she was sleeping. On to the next bit of information...Glados makes repeated pokes at the fact that Chell is adopted or has been given away. But notice that even in Portal 1 there is that brief mention of "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day." So by themselves (And even in combination) in Portal 1 these two bits of information do not mean much...until you add them to the bits revealed in Portal 2.
Now things get a bit tricky...So first off there is early on that mention of Wheatley's about "Bring Your Daughter..." where he says it was a bad day...that everyone was killed (which is obvious otherwise the experiments would have been taken down). So if Chell was Caroline's daughter then obviously she would have been taken on that work day. Next...I think Wheatley also talks about Chell being adopted which is odd that this continually is brought up.
Fast Forward a bit to when Glados is woken up. So now we have Glados talking about you're being adopted still, in addition to talking about your weight. I don't know about you, but for some reason this really seems like something a terror of a mother would do to her kid...X3 of course I might be wrong. So gradually you continue on until you reach Aperture's lower levels you come into contact with Aperture's earlier story and learn about Cave Johnson and Caroline. During this it is all but said that Caroline becomes Glados (Cave Johnson's last request is that if he should die, then Caroline would be put into a computer to run Aperture). Now...again up to this point it is entirely believable that Chell is just a test subject...Glados is still Caroline but there is no connection. But then you get to the absolute end of the game where Glados is talking to you before sending you off to the surface. She keeps talking about how she needed your help and that now she knew where Caroline existed but with your help she could now delete it. Also she said that at first she wanted you dead, but now just want's you to leave. This to me is very odd...and to me resembles a huge conflict between the Caroline part and the Glados part. Maybe Chell was a living form of conscience restriction on Glados and that as long as she was there Glados could not do what she wanted. But now with Chell simply 'gone' Glados has found the easier path. And Glados triumphs over the Caroline part....or does she?
Now jump ahead to the turret opera song as you ride up the elevator. Sounds nice, no? Well I did a bit of searching to find the English translation and that's when I knew (for myself at least) that Caroline was Chell's mother...The song keeps on saying things like, "My Dear Chell..." and such, even repeating at the very end 'My darling, My dear, My darling..." Could Caroline still be somewhere in Glados' mind? Maybe it's a bleedthrough that comes out in the turret's song? Maybe Glados has put the Caroline part of herself into the turrets?
Fast forward just a bit more to the ending song. Chronology-wise this actually was the part that first sparked my many questions about Portal 2. The song itself seems an odd fit for the Portal story, especially after the song "Still Alive." I listened to the words over and over, each time feeling that something was strange about it. Now I believe I know what that is. This song, to me, sounds like something a mother would say to a kid...but if that mother was still suffering internal conflict about being a mother and being a scientist (etc). I know it's a off the wall thought, but the song really does seem sad, but happy...conflicted. "You want your freedom, Take it, It's what I'm counting on." and, "You're someone else's problem now, that's what I'm counting on."
So...there you go! There are probably major holes that I'm missing here but still...this seems to make an odd sort of sense that falls in line with the Portal story...Why Chell? Why is she so important and why does Glados have such a fixation on her? Why out of all the test subjects in Portal 2 is Chell still alive and not a complete vegetable (you still jump to say you like apples....). It seems as though everything revolves around your relationship to Glados and Aperture Labs...Why would Portal 2 put you through the backstory of Aperture? I mean the obvious answer is to just tell more about Glados...but why would this be done? I refuse to believe that this is simply another case of 'background story' and that there is something more going on...
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