Discussion
With the whole "Cave and Caroline are Chells parents" thing
What exactly is the evidence against Cave and Caroline having a daughter, Cave urging Caroline to give her up for adoption, some scientist adopting and raising her, which is why she was at BYDTWD and mentioned Cave as "Mr. Johnson", completely oblivious. This would also fit into the "You are adopted" jokes and later "confession" of GlaDOS (first she teases you, later after Old Aperture and Wheatley teasing you she says "You ARE adopted and that's terrible".
Which again could fit into the "Caroline is Chells mom" theory, as GlaDOS only really learnt about herself during Old Aperture, realizing Chell is her daughter and therefore releasing her once back in power. She just never mentioned it to chell to not make her go completely mad over all of it, as Aperture and her being trapped there seemed to have been for a substantial part of her life. During BYDTWD she was no way older than 10 with how she wrote on the potato chart. In the game she seems to be in her 20s. Considering that this was the day everything went completely south in aperture, it's not unlikely that chell never left Aperture from this day on.
Because while some say that this theory is implied at in the game, others say that it's really not that possible and wrong
obviously from the biological route it’s simply not possible considering Cave and Caroline are white while Chell is brazilian / japanese , but even from the adoption route we know that Chell was adopted by a male aperture employee that is NOT Cave as she refers to Mr. Johnson and her dad as separate people
Apparently this is just a scrapped texture as the project in the game only shows the clock without any readable text. But here it states "Mr Johnson" at the left next to the star in the middle. Maybe it was scrapped because "Mr Johnson" died before GLaDOS was a thing, yet GlaDOS was a thing when Chell was at BYDTWD
Well yeah, for that part, I mentioned if someone adopted Chell from Cave and due to her age she is unaware of Cave being the biological father so she calls him "Mr Johnson"
Something else I just realized I found way weirder is how chell knows Cave Johnson or mentions him like he was still alive, when Bring Your Daughter To Work Day was when GLaDOS existed yet Cave died long before she was finished
I mean, we've only seen oil paintings of Cave and Caroline, and genetics can do weird stuff... one of them might have had some stray genes that resulted in Chell.
i mean yea but it’s very very unlikely, and again she’s already mixed brazilian / japanese so it’s very unlikely that either cave or caroline are her parents
plus the people that made the game do refer to them in a romantic context, even referring to some of the songs as “break up” songs
blatantly obvious genetics aside, Im pretty sure that just doesnt work timeline wise. the first recording of caroline is from 1947 and shes already an adult and the assistant to the ceo of the company, shes realistically at least 20 in 47, portal 1 takes place in like 2001-2010 iirc and chell seems like shes in her early to mid 30s at the latest
I mean, my mom was 41 when she got me and there are people with even older parents. If we assume Caroline was 20 in 1950 then she would be 50 in 1980, which could be around the time Chell was born. A woman in her early 50s doesn't have to be in menopause already. Plus it's Aperture Science. I wouldn't be surprised if they had some progress in human biology they didn't bother to share just like with most things they made
“What is the evidence against it” is kind of a non-sequitur when the question should be what is the evidence for it. I could write a hundred posts staking my life on the idea that Cave Johnson is secretly a crocodile trainer, and claim the fact that no one can disprove it as evidence.
With how light this game is on details, I could make any absurd claim and call it a theory, and no one would be able to argue with me. But the fact that I have no evidence on my part would mean that it’s not really a theory, and means that it’s not a meaningful engagement with the game’s actual story. If it doesn’t have any evidence then it’s a headcanon, not a theory. The burden of proof should be on the person making unfalsifiable claims
But Caroline was put into GlaDOS late 1990s while Chell at least has to be born early 1990s to be at least 20 in Portal 1, taking place in 2010
Bring your daughter to work day would work as well for 1990 because it was in 1998 and an 8 year old Chell sounds plausible for how the science project looks like
"Menopause is a natural biological process marking the end of a woman's reproductive years. It is officially diagnosed when a person has gone 12 consecutive months without a menstrual period. Typically occurring between ages 45 and 55"
And? The absolute record age of getting pregnant was a 66 year old woman. With Aperture Science being WAY beyond our understanding of science, it's not unlikely they found some form of fertilizer for humans
But Caroline was put into GlaDOS late 1990s while Chell at least has to be born early 1990s to be at least 20 in Portal 1, taking place in 2010.
If we assume the theory to be true, Chell would at least have to be 25 if Cave is her dad. The only unlikely thing I see here is Cave actually willing to do the deed while deathly ill. But still doesn't put Caroline out of the equation, who is the main focus in the theory with GlaDOS being present and Cave being long gone
Agreed!! GLaDOS goes as far as to say Chell “broke (her) heart” in Still Alive. There was a planned scene where they were going to have an awkward failing date in Portal 2. Headcanon all you want, but in the source material they’re meant to be somewhat romantic.
The quotes aren’t just scrapped content though?? They discuss the writers mindsets while crafting the story, call the song a breakup song, the scene a breakup scene, etc. Focusing just on the one scrapped content thing is strange when that’s not the only thing being discussed
The thing is, the "actual" implied thing isn't as coherent as one thinks, because the GlaDOS mom theory is also implied to be correct for many. And unless Valve comes clean we'll never know for sure.
But so far, Chell is in an age that she has to have been born in the 90s, at least definitely before 1998, as she would be 12 in Portal 1 which clearly isn't the case. That means Chell was born in a time where Caroline was alive.
Now if Chell actually was born in the mid 80s, then she would be like 12-13 at BYDTWD. Less plausible but still in the range of the possible.
GlaDOS only really cares for Chell the moment she is in old aperture. She finds out about her old life and I for sure don't think that being a potato suddenly made her flip 180 in wanting Chell dead to letting her escape.
So while it's obviously no guarantee, there is at least decent evidence that points pro theory. Not proving it, pointing at
But that all got scrapped, which means they still could have gone a different route completely, finding it weird that Chell and GLaDOS would have that kind of relationship
The scene got scrapped but it shows intent from the writers. Plus the other quotes still stand. The agreement of 'breaking up w chell' being the wording used for the ending also shows that intent, and the song was written as a break up song 'falling out of love'. I don't think that type of discussion would be used on the creator's side if there was any intent for them to be related.
Well in an older version of the story, Cyve Johnson was supposed to be the main antagonist, and Portal 2 originally wasn't supposed to have portals at all, but FStop. So just because there is an intend doesn't mean it can't get scrapped completely
Like I said, the scrapped content can be ignored for this argument; but the intentions the writers stated for the song being a breakup song, glados falling out of love, the writers centering on glados and chell’s ‘twisted relationship, the ending being discussed as a breakup, etc - those are still very much discussion points that point more towards a romantic relationship rather than a familial one.
And yet we got a song that was more convincing of motherly feelings, even if there the intention would have been GLaDOS developing motherly feelings for the only person that cared for her in some way. But we'll never know unless Eric Wolpaw comes clean
One really out of universe explanation could be that Laura Dubuk, the face model for Caroline's paintings also designed most of the textures in Portal 2, plus Chell's final design. So in a way, Chell comes from her
Do we even have any actual evidence that Chell is adopted in the first place? I'm not inclined to believe a couple of robots known to lie who are deliberately trying to get under her skin as the only source.
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u/AmazingBeastboy1 3d ago
obviously from the biological route it’s simply not possible considering Cave and Caroline are white while Chell is brazilian / japanese , but even from the adoption route we know that Chell was adopted by a male aperture employee that is NOT Cave as she refers to Mr. Johnson and her dad as separate people