Chell

"You've been wrong about every single thing you've ever done, including this thing. You're not smart. You're not a scientist. You're not a doctor. You're not even a full-time employee! Where did your life go so wrong?"

- GLaDOS

Chell is the esoteric, silent protagonist of Portal and Portal 2.

Background
Although Chell's origins are unknown, she was most definitely among the people present during GLaDOS's activation in 200-, as GLaDOS locked down the facility after her activation, letting none escape, or be let in from the outside.

Portal
Over 20 years after GLaDOS' takeover of Aperture Laboratories, Chell is awaken from some sort of stasis pod in a Relaxation Vault by GLaDOS, who speaks to her as if she is just a mandatory Test Subject. Chell is released from the Vault through a portal, and begins to progress through a series of Test Chambers, which are showing signs of decay and neglect, and GLaDOS showing signs of instability. By Test Chamber 02, Chell acquires the first model of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, which can only shoot blue portals. The gun is further upgraded to create both blue and orange portals in Test Chamber 11. Throughout the test, GLaDOS continues to act like everything is perfectly mandatory, giving apparently scripted responses. Despite this, she lets slip several phrases to suggest otherwise, and malfunctions in the middle of sentences. She also continuously promises cake and grief counseling at the conclusion of the test.



When Chell eventually makes it to Test Chamber 16, GLaDOS informs her that the appropriate chamber has been replaced with a live fire course designed for Military Androids, simply wishing Chell the best of luck and letting her into the chamber, where she is met with Sentry Guns for the first time. It is in this chamber that Chell discovers a hidden alcove in the wall, where desperate messages were scribbled on the walls by former Aperture employee Doug Rattmann, who seemed to have gone slightly mad while being trapped in the facility. The most prominent message, "the cake is a lie", is written several times. Chell proceeds to the next chamber, where GLaDOS introduces her to the Companion Cube, which Chell must carry through the chamber. She once again finds messages from Rattmann, who became insanely attached to his Companion Cube, and grieved over its "death". At the end of the chamber, Chell's Cube meets the same fate, where she is forced to incinerate it in order to proceed.



At the conclusion of the test, Chell travels on an Aperture Science Unstationary Scaffold away from the final Test Chamber. But instead of the constantly promised cake, the young woman is met with an incinerator. Using the ASHPD, she narrowly escapes certain death, and journeys through the abandoned maintenance areas, despite discouragement from GLaDOS. Throughout the decaying and neglected maintenance areas, Chell finds that Rattmann has been roaming around the facility for some time, with hints and scribblings guiding her along the right path. After constant admonishment from GLaDOS and a massive Sentry Gun ambush, Chell finally finds herself in GLaDOS' main control room, where the A.I. has been sitting alone for over twenty years. GLaDOS attempts to deploy a "surprise" to eliminate Chell, but ends up accidentally detaching her Morality Core, which Chell promptly incinerates.



GLaDOS, now free of her morality, begins to flood the Enrichment Center with neurotoxins, which she once did to kill the Aperture employees she held captive (resulting in her Morality Core being added in the first place). GLaDOS notes that the Morality Core must have had some ancillary responsibilities, and that she cannot shut off the Rocket Sentry in her control room. Chell uses this to her advantage, and uses portals to redirect the rockets back at GLaDOS, detaching and incinerating her Personality Cores one by one. Before the neurotoxins can kill her, Chell destroys GLaDOS who is apparently sucked through a portal to the outside with parts of her generator. Chell is also dragged with her, and she ends up among GLaDOS' remains on the parking lot in front of the Aperture labs entrance, only to be taken back inside into stasis by the Party Escort Bot.

Despite her apparent destruction, only a part of her was destroyed. GLaDOS reactivates a room full of Personality Cores and re-captures Aperture Laboratories, filing a letter to Chell, telling her that she is still alive and "not angry" with her, but not before extinguishing a candle on the cake, which was not a lie after all.

Portal 2


Hundreds of years after GLaDOS' partial destruction, Chell is awakened from stasis by Wheatley, a Personality Core who has become concerned with the state of the facility, and convinces Chell to escape with him. Chell agrees, and they set out through the maintenance areas, which along the rest of the facility, are in decaying ruin, overrun with nature. After reaching an elevator, Wheatley attempts to activate it, but it is on override and starts descending. Before Wheatley can stop it, they reach the bottom, where can be found the remains of GLaDOS' chamber. GLaDOS awakens, and is quick to accuse Chell of murdering her years ago. Chell is then forced back into the testing area, where she must complete more tests.

Appearance
Chell appears to be in her late 20s or early 30s, and of mixed ancestry or possibly Latin descent (Chell's face and body model, Alésia Glidewell, is of Brazilian and Japanese ancestry). Throughout the game she wears an orange jumpsuit and is barefoot. She has a ponytail and mild "bed hair" from sleeping in a stasis pod for an unknown period of time, and Advanced Knee Replacement prosthesis attached to her legs.

Personality and skills


Based on her success in the Test Chambers and subsequent escape, it can be surmised that Chell is highly determined and a quick, inventive thinker. Other than that, little is known about her personality and background. All further information about her comes from comments by GLaDOS, who is by no means a reliable source of information, since she seems to often lie to Chell to make her feel guilty about her actions. For instance, according to GLaDOS, Chell's personnel file says she was adopted and is "unlikable" in character.

Chell was in the Aperture Laboratories at the time of GLaDOS' takeover, meaning she had some business there. This is supported when GLaDOS angrily tells her "You're not smart. You're not a scientist. You're not a doctor. You're not even a full-time employee!", suggesting she had some sort of part-time job at Aperture. However, frequent mention of the Aperture Science first-annual-bring-your-daughter-to-work-day, which occurred on the day of GLaDOS' takeover, suggests that Chell was an employees' daughter, who was captured for GLaDOS' permanent testing cycle. Unless, of course, GLaDOS is lying again.

In an apparent attempt to convince Chell not to kill her, GLaDOS tells her, "I have your brain scanned and permanently backed up in case something terrible happens to you." Later, in a fit of anger, she claims to have deleted this backup, adding, "The part of you that could have survived indefinitely is gone. I just struck you from the permanent record. Your entire life has been a mathematical error... a mathematical error I'm about to correct." It is currently unknown why GLaDOS might have done this (fan speculation often points at Chell being a clone or an android), and whether it might be a hint about Chell's origins. On the other hand, the whole idea might well be a complete fabrication, like many of GLaDOS' other statements.

As a Test Subject, Chell also is fitted with Advanced Knee Replacement, small spring devices on her legs that assist her jumping and walking skills and allow her to fall great distances without being hurt.

Behind the scenes

 * The heel springs were originally created for the Combine Assassin, cut from Half-Life 2. They were reused as the Advanced Knee Replacement for Portal due to disbelief by playtesters that Chell could survive the drops she was subject to, particularly those that involved falling recursively through portals.


 * Chell's real life reference model is Alésia Glidewell. She also served as the base for the original model of Left 4 Dead's Zoey.


 * It has been stated by Gabe Newell in an October 2007 interview that Chell has importance in the overall Half-Life universe, and will eventually have a fairly significant relationship with some of the other characters that we are already familiar with.


 * "Chell" may be derived from "Chelle", which is the diminutive of "Michelle".

Trivia

 * Judging by the fact that Chell passes through the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grid every time she goes in an elevator, she may have little to no teeth, since the Material Emancipation Grid emancipates tooth enamel and teeth, among others, in semi-rare cases.


 * It is possible Chell is Test Subject 234, since her stasis bed bears the same number. It was however never confirmed.

List of appearances

 * Portal
 * Portal ARG
 * Portal 2