1 - GRAMMAR UNDERLYING "There are moments when I can almost see the underlying grammar of this place. An impossibility, some mad architect's opus—a relic from an age that never could have been. It's a metastasized amalgam of add-ons, additions and appropriations. Building itself out of itself. Beautiful and terrible." - Doug Rattmann 2 - GRAMMAR UNDERLYING The world of Portal (2007) is told to the player through allusion and suggestion, because Valve Corporation does not tell its stories through text blurbs in manuals, or text crawls, or opening cinematics. Everything we know about Aperture Science is learned from the perspective of Chell (and, in one scene from Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Gordon Freeman), and anything not important to the moment at hand is only hinted at peripherally, or left to the imagination of the fans. The benefit to this style is that players are never pulled from their immersion, never left wondering if they missed and important detail in the last mission briefing, nor are players new to the setting distracted by a torrent of obscure references to unfamiliar products. As a story-telling mechanic, this is also called "show, don't tell," and Valve insists on this technique almost to a fault. The downside to this method is that it leaves much of the universe unexplored, or even contradictory. For the player who wants to know where Half-Life 2's (2004) City 17 is, or who the G-Man is, or how the suppression field actually works, those questions are left completely unanswered because they are not strictly plot-relevant. However, working within the limits of what information we have available, and what we can infer, we can actually establish a lot more about the world of Aperture Science than is visible on the surface. The Science For example, we're posed with the question: how has Aperture Science done so well for itself, scientifically speaking? Black Mesa, a competing firm, is so absolutely brimming with intellectuals that Gordon Freeman, a doctor from MIT, is assigned menial jobs like pushing carts and pressing buttons while other people do the thinking jobs. Yet Aperture Science, run by a mad shower curtain salesman who repeatedly proves he knows nothing about science and who fires anyone who questions his methods, manages to completely outstrip Black Mesa in almost every field of research. What Black Mesa takes 50 years to invent, Aperture Science does in 10, and Aperture does it better; for example, it took until Half-Life 2 for Black Mesa to invent an intradimensional teleporter, but Aperture's first test chambers required use of their semi-portable but otherwise fully functional portal gun. And Black Mesa's 200- interdimensional travel was preceeded 20 years earlier by Aperture's Perpetual Testing Initative. when digging into the clues laid out by the stories set in Aperture Science. The first is in the lower left corner of the image: a piece of alien technology. something that we see in Half-Life 2 surrounding the dark fusion cores of the an advanced alien species from beyond time and space. Consider the following image: Illustration 1: Lab Rat. It's simply too much to believe that Aperture Science. it's so unlikely that it breaks immersion. a .3 . strictly speaking. we'd be forced to assume that Aperture Science has managed to combine their lack of safety precautions. is using dark energy fields (in the form of emancipation grills) as early as 1953. that Aperture has managed to become so advanced by chance or raw talent. founded in 1943. The universe that Portal and Half-Life are set in simply does not make much sense as a unified setting if Aperture can invent in the 50's what it will take the Combine invasion to expose humanity to. Page 13 The illustration above shows two critical details that completely redefine the mutual Half-Life / Portal setting. we see that the company might not truly be as scientific as they make themselves out to be.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Using only the surface information provided by the game. brilliant scientists. and dumb luck to accomplish these sorts of prodigious feats of science. While it's not impossible. However. meaning it was created sometime between 200. This latter theory might seem far-fetched. something like Aperture's portal technology. It could be claimed that the gravity gun in the picture is an Aperture prototype that the Resistance eventually would acquire. the same one built during the post-apocalyptic future.4 .and 202-. but for the natural decay. it's presented to Gordon Freeman in Half-Life 2 as though it's a device he wouldn't have heard of before. adapted Aperture Science health chargers to their own uses without changing their design at all. sloppily welded chambers on the side of the Xen Crystal. due to its postapocalyptic construction. so it's unlikely it's a Black Mesa prototype either. but even Aperture's early prototypes have always had as much polish and aesthetic appeal as possible (after all.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING standard-issue Combine Health Charger. Once this theory is considered. and in any case. a lot more about Aperture Science's history begins to make sense: dark energy pellets with launchers and catchers almost exactly identical to the Combine's own. It uses a motorcycle handle for one grip and a strapped-on rifle butt for the other. cybernetic enhancements. before DNA was fully understood. There are two possibilities: that the Combine. force fields. These features give the gravity gun an extremely distinctive shape—a shape which is exactly the same as in the picture above. in fact. either. or the gravity gun. these all could be technologies Aperture Science has reverse engineered from the future. Black Mesa wouldn't have built the device in such a slipshod manner. is built out of spare parts. and so on. almost ready to ship). But there is a second important detail in the illustration: on the table before young Doug Rattmann is the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator. there are absolutely no signs that either the Resistance or the Combine have ever entered Aperture—the building is almost pristine. Keep in mind. Why is this significant? Because the gravity gun. The Combine wouldn't have had to invent that technology if they had ever looted the Enrichment Center. upon conquering Earth. Never mind that even in Portal 2. as are ATLAS and P-body—both are covered in smooth white plates and logos. these are technologies . but it's important to note that the Combine has never had access to the Enrichment Center or any of Aperture Science's research: we know this simply because one of the major plot points of Half-Life 2 is that the Combine is attempting to research an intradimensional portal technology. the portal gun is still in testing in Portal. It seems increasingly likely that the gravity gun in Doug Rattmann's lab is. sentient nanotechnology. or that Aperture Science somehow stole technology from the future. functional gene re-sequencing in 1953. as seen in Half-Life 2. Cave Johnson is even always talking about time travel: he warns against its dangers in some test chambers. as well as her deceased boss. It's not like time travel is a new theme to the setting. In 1988. Greg. Even the eyes of Aperture Science cameras and robots are similar to the eyes of city scanners from Half-Life 2. Portal 2 is about a character traveling to the far future in a stasis pod. Reviewing the list of accomplishments Aperture Science has achieved—all under the leadership of a maniac who doesn't understand science—the theory that Aperture Science is reverse engineering the future becomes stronger and stronger. either.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING that would have taken a century or more to develop. Aperture Science perfected interdimensional portals to scour the multiverse during the Perpetual Testing Initiative. Combine turrets to Aperture turrets. city scanners to personality cores. and so on. even in the real world. the extreme advances in General Artificial Intelligence —compare GLaDOS to the Combine Overwatch. only to travel to the past using an elevator. And of course. they will travel back in time (which is actually true. around 20 years before the interdimensional events of Half-Life. GLaDOS meets a younger version of herself. while Cave Prime (from the PeTI) both claims to be from the far future (before his assistant. corrects him) and that if the test subject passes the speed of light.5 . and Aperture did them in as little as 10 years. due to reasons which are too thoroughly difficult to explain Illustration 2: BttF Fluxx Capacitor Illustration 3: Aperture Science Fluxx Capacitor . There's also time traveling imagery splattered throughout Aperture Science: signs in the old facility warning against time travelers. the portal particle travels at the speed of light. meaning Aperture Science has experience constructing and controlling black holes.1 picoseconds would. and are flung into the near future. In that game.6 . Oh. this would make sense because what to the rest of the world would appear to be 0.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING here). If GLaDOS's processing capabilities were contained near the surface of a black hole. traveling at the speed of light. Yet it's enough time for GLaDOS to become selfaware and develop a conscious thought. If portals obey relativity. The second is when the G-Man shows his ability to selectively stop time. This time travel motif even extends to Half-Life 2. this seems to extend the theory that the scientists around Aperture Science were well-versed in ways to manipulate time to their advantage. This might actually be possible. taking several seconds for the portal to open. 0. come up with a plan for doing so. like a microsingularity in her personality core. and the developers made sure to reinforce that the laws of relativity still apply with the portal gun: when shooting at the moon. Near one of the paths to the testing spheres in the old facility is a sign warning to press a red button if employees see someone in an orange jumpsuit—however. and makes no mention of. In any case. and someone appears to have hooked up an Aperture Science version of the Back to the Future flux capacitor to a potato in the Bring Your Daughter to Work Day exhibit (oddly. otherwise the warning would make no sense. this seems to have been hooked up after Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. freezing the world around Gordon at the end of Half-Life 2 so the two can converse. you have multiple instances of time travel: the first is when Gordon and Alyx are involved in a teleporter explosion. be up to trillions of years or more of processing time.1 picoseconds to develop the urge to kill everyone in the facility. this must mean that orange jumpsuits were not being used on test subjects. depending on your relative perspective). the device). to travel the length of a particle of dust. It takes her 0. One more subtle bit of time travel that is demonstrated in Lab Rat is that it seems GLaDOS' AI is dependent on the ability to slow time to a standstill. and attempt to implement that plan.1 picoseconds is insufficient time for a photon. that means that a portal on the moon is several seconds in the future (or the portal on Earth is several seconds in the past. since the sign is right next to a testing elevator. In . considering the portal gun supposedly has a black hole at its heart. as the poster behind has no picture of. to her processor. . and according to physics. ◦ Several intense mining-related earthquakes are felt in the same mine as the 1943 quake (real world events). and refounds the company as Aperture Science. it shows no evidence of the passage of time." ◦ Excavation of the salt mine begins. • 1949 ◦ Aperture Science is declared the second-best Applied Science Company. Department of Defense contractor. This could mean that the Borealis traveled straight from the 1970s to the 2020s. no rust spots. In Episode Two. no buildup of snow. ◦ A minor earthquake is felt centered on a mine in Upper Michigan (real world event). teleportation is the same thing as time travel. • 1952 ◦ Aperture Science is declared the second-best U. which could be why Judith Mossman's team only just discovered it. The employer signature is not his own. the vortigaunts prove to have the same power. Cave Johnson is quoted as saying "The future is here. • 1944 ◦ Aperture Science purchases a salt mine in Upper Michigan.7 . The flood lights are still even on and the bulbs haven't burned out.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Episode One. both in his monologues to Gordon Freeman and when he whispers about Eli Vance's impending death ("prepare for unforseen consequences") to Alyx Vance. It is also suggested that the G-Man knows some details of future events. Keep in mind that the Borealis did teleport. implying they haven't been on for very long. meaning Cave Johnson is not the CEO. the Borealis is shown to be not only intact. The final detail of this time-travel theory is illustrated best by the following timeline: • 1943 ◦ Cave Johnson is declared Aperture Fixtures' Shower Curtain Salesman of 1943. and it's under the Earth's crust. ◦ Cave Johnson becomes the CEO of Aperture Fixtures.S. DNA resequencing. ◦ The interdimensional portal at the Citadel explodes. Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance are extracted from time by the G-Man and the vortigaunts. making the Enrichment Center the world's deepest mine shaft. • 202◦ An interdimensional portal at Nova Prospekt explodes. including the gravity gun. and so on and so forth. sentry turrets. nanotechnology. . and technologies for transmuting human tissue. • 1988 ◦ Aperture Science is making use of an interdimensional portal for their Perpetual Testing Initiative. • 200◦ GLaDOS is activated for the first time. cybernetic surgery equipment. a portable quantum tunneling device. gene resequencing equipment. city scanners. Combine dark energy pellet launchers and catchers. The final theory that follows after all of these details is relatively simple. force fields. Ohio. repulsion gel composed of exotic elements.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING • 1953 ◦ Excavation of the salt mine finishes. Construction of Test Shaft 09's bottom-most facility is completed. ◦ Aperture Science is making casual use of dark energy emancipation grills. The Citadel contained many artifacts. • 1994 ◦ GLaDOS signs paperwork at the Aperture Science Labs & Administrative Assisted Jaunt Center in Cleveland. dark energy grills. respectively. • 1957-1958 ◦ DNA's fundamental mechanics are finally understood (real world). In the year 202-. proving that such an explosion may launch characters through time as well as space.8 . the Overwatch AI. had some sort of company-wide stupidity that prevented them from thinking of launching the portal gun or any of their dark energy reactors as for-sale products. according to Portal 2. perhaps while selling shower curtains. thus never invoking the paradox. These artifacts "landed" in 1943. they can't name them properly). and never even think of selling their revolutionary portal gun product. there are).GRAMMAR UNDERLYING an interdimensional teleporter exploded at the Citadel. . The time travel theory actually provides a concrete reason as to why Aperture Science. Thus. instead focusing on simple turrets or dietary aids. didn't think to sell those products or b. Overall. tried to but failed. And. If there are an infinite number of universes (which. yet never have a single sale. this theory of Aperture Science stealing their science from the future fits in with the overall aesthetic that surrounds Aperture as a whole. Cave Johnson. time would be wiped out ("forward and back"). He dedicates his company to applied science. It also explains why they have such odd naming schemes for things (since they don't truly understand how they work. launching Combine artifacts through time.9 . reverse-engineering artifacts that are excavated from the mine. the only universes that remained to be played by us would be the ones where Aperture either a. Cave Johnson's lab boys say that if a temporal paradox were to occur. in spite of all of its advanced world-changing technology. best of all. any universes that created a paradox by attempting to sell those products would have been wiped out by the paradox as surely as if they had never existed to begin with—and we would not have been able to play a game in a universe that did not exist. buried beneath a salt mine in Upper Michigan. this explanation—as crazy as it may seem at first—is far easier to swallow than the idea that Aperture is somehow so advanced they can invent everything Black Mesa has invented but 50 years earlier. discovers these artifacts and immediately (within the same year) moves to take control of his company and purchase the salt mine. and she was adopted by a male scientist in the facility who works with some sort of ingredient that can hyper-grow a potato. providing us a perspective on Aperture's overall story without necessarily being integral to it. Chell has clearly been heavily experimented upon. Wheatley—between them all. Caroline's portrait marks her as potentially (though not definitively) Latino. and these facts give us insight into her most probable backstory. the scientists. so there is potential for a blood relation there. This aging difference detail could be the result of growth enhancements (such as the kind . This was the same span of years Doug Rattmann was born (in 1988 on an alternate Earth. Doug Rattmann. Chell is merely a mix of a pawn and impartial observer. Doug Rattmann and Cave Johnson swapped ages and roles. therefore. She was born in roughly 1976 (Alésia Glidewell.10 . because her model is. Chell is part Japanese and part Brazilian. Doug Rattmann / Alternate Young Cave was born 1973 and 1975). making him probably between 13 and 15 years of age. with GLaDOS being the protagonist). which was the same year Cave Johnson was discussing with his staff the best way to motivate orphan test subjects. which was set between 2000 and 2009. making Chell's birthdate between 1972 and 1981). her model. Chell's backstory is very thin and obscured—yet a few key facts can be derived from a few clues scattered through Aperture's stories. She has cybernetic leg implants. and while no Japanese characters are known in any Aperture Science storyline.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Chell Chell is the main character of the Portal franchise (though it could be argued she's more of a deuteragonist. Alternate Young Cave's voice was cracking from puberty. even though the handwriting on her science fair project implies a child of no more than 10 years of age. perhaps both from the same orphanage / Aperture Science adoption program. and her file (printed before Bring Your Daughter to Work Day) shows her as an adult woman. Of course. and make it immune to both malnutrition and fungus. making it possible that Chell and Doug knew each other from childhood. The drama between GLaDOS. was 28 at the time of modeling for Portal. Due to her relatively minor role. Chell is an orphan. probably to test those augments for safety before using them on Cave. implying that she's at least a part-time employee. If there are three digits in an Aperture phone extension. the chance of this being mere a coincidence is at least one in 10-million.11 . if not both. And during the events of Portal. GLaDOS taunts Chell by telling her she's "not even a full-time employee". there appears to be some sort of scientist or executive with high security access who has taken a particular interest in Chell. implying someone with security clearance who had reason to keep her information secret even from GLaDOS hid all information on her origin and true name. Considering her father's work with some sort of regeneration or growth chemicals. and at least 10. meaning that Chell is potentially one of the few people or even the only person in the facility whose identity is secret.000 vegetable test subjects). It's also easy to hypothesize that Chell has a superhuman body—possessing high resistance to neurotoxin and unimaginably powerful healing properties. both in print and in GLaDOS's database. all without any foreknowledge of what those tests will be—a virtually impossible task.000 test subjects (given Wheatley's claim that he's in charge of 10. next page). or simply a very long time spent growing up while in stasis (as Aperture is prone to do). she wakes up in Test Subject #234's relaxation vault at the start of Portal). someone higher-up must have overridden that. meaning he was searching for the word "[Redacted]". as well: her file is emblazoned with the number 219 (though oddly. even if you know all of the tests by heart. Chell seems to have some sort of role in the facility other than test subject. She also seems to have a superhuman mind. he was searching in the surname column. It's important . Her file is heavily redacted. and extension 219 is the number all employees are required to call if a rogue AI takes over the facility (see illustrations. Beyond those facts.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING her father was working on). capable of solving all of the puzzles of Portal and Portal 2 without dying even once. however. it's very possible that Chell contains augmentations that keep her fit and immune to neurotoxin. When one employee advocated removing her from the testing queue due to her tenacity. because she's still in the testing queue as of Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. When Doug Rattmann searched for Chell in the testing database. and that she was born in roughly the era where both Cave Johnson was desperately seeking a cure for the toxins in his blood and Aperture was testing on orphans. 12 . said at PAX East 2011 that it's not considered canon for Chell to bleed when shot. In regards to her stasis: Wheatley says that he awoke seven other test subjects up. however. considering those same bullets punched clear through Rattmann's leg. it may be that Chell isn't immune to Illustration 6: "219 Chell" as her file name . this is easily discounted when it's considered that she's vulnerable to neurotoxin and the vacuum of space. and that brain damage is a side effect of stasis. one of the main writers for Portal and Portal 2. Some theories place Chell as an android.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Illustration 5: Rogue AI extension Illustration 4: 219 associated with Chell's file to note that Erik Wolpaw. that it was a leftover from Half-Life 2 that they intended to take it out. Her skin—or more likely. her jumpsuit—may just be bulletproof enough to explain that. have all rotted away. Wheatley claims that he's in charge of 10. making it too long to explain here. However. which is far longer than Wheatley's brain damage estimation would allow for. Compiling all of these facts into a single backstory.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING brain damage. Her sheets and bedding. we end up with something like this: . confused the stasis as the cause for the damage. after potentially centuries of stasis those test subjects would be skeletons. it's possible that whatever keeps her so eternally fit and young is also keeping her body somehow fed and her brain somehow intact. similar to how her potato is surrounded by rotting potatoes and falling debris yet contains not even a single spot of mold or surface damage. in his idiocy. given that real-world brain tissue becomes easily crippled if it attempts to heal itself (which is why brain injuries are so difficult to recover from. and the scientists that ATLAs and P-body awoke from their stasis at the end of the co-op testing track died of testing injuries. Likewise.000 vegetative test subjects. and more likely to work on both a potato and a human being. nanotechnology it is. and if malnutrition truly was truly a danger in stasis. However. while both the malnutrition and brain damage statements appear to be falsehoods. So. the malnutrition GLaDOS mentions seems to be a pure lie just to mock Chell's weight. not from brain damage. it's possible that nanites—and not a biological process—are what's keeping Chell's body and mind intact. not alive vegetables as Wheatley claims. Even if the other test subjects were suffering from malnutrition and brain damage.13 . one thing can be proven by Chell's stasis: she's just as immune to fungus as her potato science project. for fear of causing even worse mental harm than whatever damaged them). as well as most of the room. the damaged brain cells receive chemical signals to abort all healing processes. yet Chell remains without even a blemish on her skin. The details of why healing brain tissue is actually more likely to damage the overall brain than fix it is so complex that it could get its own paper. but simply that Wheatley woke up an insane or brain damaged test subject— perhaps even Rattmann—and. This is unlikely. This is much more likely than any gene mods. Doug Rattmann certainly seemed unconcerned about Chell receiving brain damage when putting her into permanent stasis. since Aperture Science has mastered nanotechnology since the 1950s and sentient nanotechnology by Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. Aperture Science even marks the expiration date of test subjects in long-term stasis as 20 years. Perhaps the immense brain power Chell shows was an attempt to enhance Cave Johnson's own brain. including by inventing GLaDOS) or at least stave off his death until he could be put into a computer. resulting in the death of everyone in the facility. Or perhaps Aperture only adopted the most brilliant of orphans. nobody—not even Doug Rattmann— could awaken Chell remotely. including Caroline. The employee extension number to awaken her from stasis was 219. When the GLaDOS project started nearing completion. or.14 . testing. restore youth. and a personality chip implanted to store Caroline's mind. as CEO of Aperture Science after Cave Johnson's death. or visits with her adoptive father. occasionally revived for written exams. After all. repair brain damage. and so on—all in a collection of projects to either cure Cave Johnson of his illness and old age (as he was dying at the time and rededicated the entire company's resources to extending his life by any means necessary. and we know that these brain scans don't necessarily result in instant recollection of all memories of the original human. the GLaDOS project backfired. it's possible that Chell . Caroline was to be awoken inside her new body—however. concealing all details in her file and giving her some sort of biological or technological instructions (it's possible her brain includes some sort of personality core. regardless of whether these lifeextending attempts were successful. so that when he was eventually put into a computer the sudden transition to having an all-powerful mind wouldn't drive him insane with power/boredom. and she has Caroline's brain scan on file. someone repurposed Chell as an AI-assassin.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Chell was born in the 1970s. and Aperture Science invented brain scans for the sole purpose of creating personality constructs) to destroy any rogue AI she comes across. and she claims Caroline was a lot like Chell. Since GLaDOS claims she has Chell's brain scan on file. given that GLaDOS says Chell's brain scan is permanently backed up on file. She was enhanced to resist neurotoxin. After the body had proven to be sufficiently resilient and intelligent. though since GLaDOS cut the red phone line in her chamber and took over the facilities computers. might have created the Chell project using samples of her own DNA in order to provide herself a new body to have her mind put into. and abducted by Aperture Science for use as a test subject. As an alternate theory. Chell was placed into long-term stasis. However. the word "Chell" (being a made-up given name) appears to derive from the word "Shell". a computer interface between low-level and high-level software. which means a hardened container for storing something delicate. Caroline. and considering Chell (as a test subject) would've been constantly offered false cake. is a female character equipped with spring heels and ideally suited for assassinating rogue AI. determined test subject. Chell. and place them aboard the Borealis. Considering Rattmann wasn't crazy enough yet to write something like that. Valve has no need to stick to what the Borealis looked like so many years ago. the fact that Chell seems to be a top-secret project even within Aperture Science. she refused to answer the question—but scrawled at the bottom of the page is binary code that translates to “The cake is a lie”. this of course is theorycraft about cut content that may not actually be canon. and left orders for her personality to be moved out of GLaDOS and into the new body once the Chell project had been perfected. One final theory regarding Chell relates her to the Combine Assassin in the Half-Life 2 Beta. and that her number is the emergency rogue AI line. It might be possible for Valve to retcon the history of the Combine Assassin: rather than make it merely another form of Combine soldier. The Assassin was an all-female caste of Combine soldiers. but if they chose to create a connection between Chell and the Combine Assassin.15 . it's possible that Chell acted in defiance by writing those binary words at the bottom of her sheet. and no other known cake-obsessed people were in the facility. Whatever theory is the case. likewise.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING already has Caroline's mind implanted inside her head. It might even be possible the Caroline passed away during her brain scan. dormant but ready to reawaken. . since in the beta the Borealis was seen shipping entire vats of Combine Assassins. Of course. Backing up the theory that Chell has a cybernetic mind is the fact that on one of her written tests. Perhaps. but it's too interesting to leave undiscussed. they could all be reprogrammed clones of Chell. it would make an eerie sort of sense. implies that Chell is a lot more important than merely some random. all equipped with spring heels and ideally suited for assassination missions. the Assassin will be reintroduced in Episode 3. Half-Life 2 Beta Illustration 7: Cryo tank.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Illustration 8: Cryo tank.16 . Portal 2 . and so go unrevealed. Given that those are merely the fields of expertise that came up in context. it's likely that he has a number of mastered skills that never came up in any context. and establish his relationship with Chell. or about 28 during Portal. programming (he maintained the Aperture Image Format single-handed at a very young age).17 . and so on. he has to look inside in order to identify it as hers. For his biography. He's a polymath. when he is searching for Chell's file. electrical engineering and medicine (he is able to diagnose the entire cryostasis grid just by glancing at a burnt-out circuit board). based on what he exclaims while looking through it (see image. one of the more popular theory-questions is: did Rattmann survive his gunshot wound. the decay of the facility. And wouldn't it just fit with Aperture's aesthetic if they consciously . Redacted.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Doug Rattmann's Survival There's very little that can be determined about the protagonist of the Lab Rat comic. rather than Chell—both of which imply that he knew her before she was known by Chell. A few scant pieces of information can tie together a simple backstory. Regardless. all the way to the end of Portal 2? While details are scant. Rattmann in his education and Chell at puzzle solving). placing him at roughly the same age as Chell. art (based on his paintings). This implies that both knew each other while growing up—perhaps both were orphans adopted by the Enrichment Center. there remains enough information spread throughout Portal 2 to come to a conclusion. he went by [Redacted]. we can guess his age based on appearance in the comic and the PeTI Rattmann-Cave swap. or 219. he demonstrates mastery of theoretical physics (he is seen tinkering with the gravity gun and portal gun). enabling him to pursue a career as a scientist. We also know that when searching for her in the testing database. both given similar experiments in brain-augmentation (as both Chell and Rattmann are exceptionally brilliant. but lost contact in the interim and no longer knows her by her current identifiers. but Rattmann's experiment left him horribly insane. freeing him from further testing. We also know that. literature and poetry (based on all of his references). Doug Rattmann. but that's about it. and an impressive one for getting to that level before age 30. He is also some sort of genius—in spite of his young age. biology (based on biology metaphors he makes in Lab Rat). next page). all the way to the end? Well. If we theorize that they're both orphans adopted for testing. he says to his companion cube "it's my fault she's down there. did he survive the intervening time to Portal 2. Rattmann recovering the portal gun—and so on. Just like there is a strong amount of evidence in Chell's stasis chamber that someone has been living with her." which is completely untrue going by Lab Rat alone: none of the events in that story trapped her in the facility. This implies that. Setting aside these few biographical details we can only guess at. Chell being pulled into the sky by the jet-engine like force of her explosion. something he's felt guilty about ever since. or perhaps it's his fault that she was adopted by the facility to begin with. Several murals depicting the events of Portal can be found throughout the facility of Portal 2.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Illustration 9: Rattmann exclaims that it's the right file made the decision to turn an insane test subject reject into one of their best scientists? In any case. and in fact he nearly helped her escape. Rattmann did something which caused Chell to become a permanent test subject trapped in the facility. The destruction of GLaDOS. Additionally. during their mutual backstory.18 . perhaps it's his fault that her brain-augmentation succeeded (marking her as a permanent test subject). during Lab Rat. Chell and Rattmann almost definitely have some sort of backstory together. the answer is without a doubt yes. moving . the big question remains: did Doug Rattmann survive the events of Lab Rat? And if he did. A much tougher question is whether or not Rattmann survived to Portal 2. Considering there's only one person in Aperture obsessed enough with Chell to sit in a chair next to her comatose body watching TV. and so on.19 . using the refrigerator until it becomes unhinged. which is the first hurdle to overcome: exactly how much . furniture.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Illustration 10: Dioramas illustrating Doug Rattmann's timeline of Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. painting the walls and repainting the cheap motel art hanging by her bed. these must be signs of Rattmann's survival. as well as Chell's destruction of GLaDOS. leaving coffee rings on the counters. watching TV. After all. modifying the room. either decades or centuries have passed. time has passed between Portal and Portal 2. if not thousands—but they widely stopped pressing this issue and became more flexible with their figures once fans pointed out that the decay of the facility and the .20 .GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Illustration 11: Compare these shots. someone has been living here. anyway? The official developer response is that it's several hundred years. very large potato) is far more consistent with around two or three decades of decay (see illustrations. while she's laying with her head against the elevator floor. against popular belief. for instance—without removing options. the only other clue to the exact duration is the narrator at the start of Portal 2. it's not playing "Cara Mia Addio" but "Love as a . one very. it's Wheatley and he makes bad judgements. well. we have two more clues: when Chell is waking up in GLaDOS' chamber at the end of the game. it's possible Rattmann survived to Portal 2. which around 6 years have passed since the events of Half-Life 2. but simply repeats the number 9 endlessly. which could include Rattmann. After all.6 and 27. when Chell fell down a shaft and landed softly. being isolated from the outside world's diseases. he immediately assumes she's dead. Nevermind the fact that in one sound file. this means that between and 24.4 years have passed (9000 days to 9999 days). That timeline allows for more options in the setting—such as having GLaDOS interact with Gordon Freeman aboard the Borealis. This is time something Rattmann could easily survive. next page). who attempts to announce how many days have passed since Chell was put into stasis. and so on. Because this melody is being played by a different instrument. she can hear the melody used in "Cara Mia Addio"—but it's actually not the turrets singing the song overhead. and made some faulty assumptions based on Rattmann's pre-existing insanity. by just fudging the numbers a bit. Other than that. with different harmony—that is.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING rampant growth of potatoes (or rather. This is actually an ideal number for Valve writers to prepare for future installments: far enough in the future that any number of HalfLife sequels can happen before Portal 2. We can average this to a nice clean 26 years.21 . Wheatley says he woke up seven other test subjects. but they can still have Aperture interactions in Episode 3 or future Half-Life sequels. and Wheatley's under the impression that stasis causes brain damage—which means Wheatley could have woken up Rattmann from stasis. able to feed off endless potatoes. Rattmann would have escaped. and that narratively this is consistent with Half-Life 2 being around 20 years after Half-Life. while Wheatley thinks he's died because. if they choose. But for whether or not he did. this means that Doug Rattmann would get to Portal 2 between 50 and 63 years old. Using the value of 26 years. Assuming the first digit in the day count is 9 and that the narrator simply got stuck on that number. So whether through stasis or just living out his days. GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Illustration 12: Pripyat. .22 . has comparable decay to Aperture Science in Portal 2. 32 years. the tune of the Weighted Companion Cube. a battered Companion Cube is hurled out of the elevator after her. In other words. however: after Chell exits the facility. It's extremely unlikely that Doug Rattmann experienced the same power loss at the same time during apocalyptic testing. In the Portal 2 Collector's Edition Guide. entering the wheat field above. and biggest reason. If you examine the incinerator room. someone has been here recently. there was a Companion Cube. there are other Companion Cubes in the facility beyond his. but the only period that the incinerator was off was while GLaDOS was dead.23 . is actually a relatively minor mural from the beginning of that game. almost totally proving that Rattmann survived to Portal 2. and second. waiting to give it back to her: Doug Rattmann. can be heard coming through the wall if you press up against it. is that the painting says the words "Smooth Jazz Fails". called in the game's soundtrack "The Ghost of Rattmann". Smooth Jazz Fails is a reference to the Announcer AI briefly losing power while playing smooth jazz at Chell in one of the first post-apocalyptic test chambers. The second reason is that Rattmann's voice. The third big clue. In order for the Companion Cube thrown at Chell to be the one Chell threw into the incinerator. or dissolve long before hitting the glowing orange pit. listening to see if he needs to rescue Chell from GLaDOS about to murder her. There is a second clue to consider. There's only one person who was around then and is obsessed enough with Chell to retrieve her Companion Cube from the incinerator and hold on to for her. It seems he observed Chell entering that test . someone would have had to go into the incinerator to extract the cube while the incinerator was off. but it's interesting for three important reasons. This doesn't necessarily mean Rattmann was alive and watching her—after all. it's confirmed that this is. and it's easy to imagine Doug Rattmann hiding beneath the elevator in the shaft. See the illustration on the next page. you will notice two facts—first. In other words. sitting somewhere near Chell's location while she was waking up. in fact. warehouses full in fact—but it is unusual. that there are no panels or robotic arms extending into the incinerator room. the same cube that Chell sacrificed in Portal. with their ordinary incandescent bulbs. This is a picture of one of Rattmann's dens. that the heat is so intense that Aperture products ignite. explode. doubly so since it's unlikely he would voluntarily engage in apocalyptic testing. The third. not Rattmann's—but this actually still confirms that Rattmann is alive. using the lights to see. the first is that all of the desk lamps.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Construct". have not burnt out or run out of battery life. meaning GlaDOS could not reach into it. and decided to paint a mural of the occasion. the painting is actually very happy and energetic. and he's terrified of socializing with another person (or showing his face where GLaDOS can try to capture or kill him).GRAMMAR UNDERLYING chamber. unlike the rest of Rattmann's paintings. heard the smooth jazz fail. Illustration 13: Smooth Jazz Fails . After all. he's still around. this could be an expression of the joy he feels at seeing Chell finally awake again. Even if that help only comes in the form of giving her back her Weighted Companion Cube.24 . wishing he could help Chell. Even though his schizophrenia might have gotten the best of him. One of the seven dead present at GLaDOS' activation appears to be an ancient woman. as GLaDOS was not fitted with the morality core on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day (we know this because she is incapable of using neurotoxin while fitted with it). GLaDOS says in Portal that she was fitted with a morality core to make her stop flooding the enrichment center with deadly neurotoxin. removing one of her old cores in the process. Bring Your Daughter to Work Day was the day in 200. This wouldn't be the last time Wheatley has interpreted his horrific acts of genocide as something trifling. considering the mass torture and . a fact which Rattmann obsesses over in several of his drawings (see illustration. it's possible that Rattmann was simply the only one paranoid enough to keep a respirator on-hand. which means that someone surviving the attack in her chamber—presumably. Rattmann—ran to the nearby personality core storage facility and fitted her with the morality core. next page). that it was his suggestion to GLaDOS to use the neurotoxin button against her better judgment. his heeded warning caused the facility's demise. but accidentally pressed it one day. Doug Rattmann was alarmed by the danger posed by this. Wheatley claims that he was the assistant to the person in charge of the neurotoxin button. and this is how he survived. Wheatley. In a cut line. in order to stop the flow of neurotoxin.25 . and warned Henry that a morality core wouldn't be enough to stop her from using the neurotoxin against them. and that the core Rattmann removed in order to install the morality core was. though it's hard to make a conclusive judgment from Rattmann's crude drawing. matching in appearance the painting of Caroline. so this section will be more reconstruction than theorycraft.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Bring Your Daughter to Work Day While the events that happened on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day aren't exactly a mystery.that GLaDOS was granted security access to the neurotoxin emitters for the sake of performing the Shrödinger Cat experiment. and was fired as a consequence. it could be that he's simply misinterpreting the above events. This warning actually was heeded. in fact. Ironically. there are a lot of tiny details to put together into a complete picture. As Aperture had posted signs on the walls warning employees to wear a respirator near GLaDOS due to neurotoxin. even though he knows the pain is very real to them. and forced through a testing track. Rattmann was captured sometime between the flashbacks of Lab Rat and the current events of Lab Rat. their skeletons were the ones Wheatley cleaned off in Act IV of Portal 2 to make new tests for Chell. there were a number of survivors in the facility. to the stasis chambers that ATLAS and P-body access in the co-op storyline. In spite of the mass hysteria and death. On Test Chamber 17. Others were captured by GLaDOS and forced to test. Illustration 14: "Unmorality" may refer to the lack of a morality core causing all of these deaths .26 .GRAMMAR UNDERLYING death of turrets he orchestrates in Portal 2 doesn't seem to phase him. however. Several made their way underground. after acquiring a Companion Cube he made his escape into the heart of the facility. The one intriguing fact that might provide a clue to Chell's story on Bring Your Daughter to Work Day is that even though her test subject number is apparently 219.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING It was before he was captured. that the flashback events of Lab Rat took place. but after the rest of the science team had escaped or been killed. it's important to keep in mind that GLaDOS was never fully integrated into the facility's design: GLaDOS was only a recent invention. However. Or perhaps she simply detected the apocalypse going on outside in the Half-Life side of the universe. Finally. she might not've been awake that day at all—it's possible that. It's possible that the machinery that went off to repair GLaDOS simply did not bother to turn her back on once rebuilt. Chell is awoken. and hunkered down into some sort of testing-free safety mode. while she built her science fair project. even though GLaDOS managed to get through 10. implies that GLaDOS ceased all testing for some reason—perhaps until she could convince herself that Rattmann was dead. or until she could reconstruct the facility using her own designs. When GLaDOS was finally destroyed at the end of Portal. preventing her reactivation. we have no idea where Chell was or what she was doing. placing Chell in that timeline is actually rather difficult: who brought Chell to her relaxation vault during Bring Your Daughter to Work Day? Was she already there at the time GLaDOS went rogue? Did her adoptive father usher her to the safety of the vault? Unfortunately. her father brought it down to the science fair with intent to wake her up once that part of the festivities started. she wakes up in Test Subject #234's relaxation vault—implying not just that she was hastily put into the closest relaxation vault available. the fact it took so long for GLaDOS to test Chell.000 scientists in a week during the Peer Review DLC. . without more details.27 . Doug Rattmann or one of the many AI constructs in the facility afraid of her could have turned off her circuit breakers. Around a year after Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. only they never did. Alternatively. with even the act of turning her on being an experimental procedure. Unless Valve delves more into Chell's backstory—and they are unlikely to—we may never know. it's likely she was reconstructed from her broken pieces by the facility's repair robots and nanobots. but that this vault belonged to someone adopted by the facility around the same time as her (possibly another orphan adopted for testing present at Bring Your Daughter to Work Day). In fact. and fear of what lies outside her small area of control. then also realistically) GLaDOS treats her two robots in the same sort of abusive. and is still pursuing several of the goals of Aperture—performing tests—without truly understanding why. her behavior restricted in insane and conflicting ways. and so on. only playing with her obedient puppets ATLAS and P-body.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Where Can Valve Go From Here? One of the strengths of Valve's writing process is that every story they write always has a hook for a sequel. Ironically (and if we're using an abused child metaphor. However. the question is: what would those stories entail? It almost goes without saying that any future installments would include GLaDOS: she is. almost literally the facility itself. managing to kill her “abusive parents”. She even develops her first friendship with another being. she is also the most compelling character in the franchise. but this has left her with unresolved psychological damage and nobody to guide her: she universally reviles all humans. and there is much demand for future stories in Aperture Science. and so on—all crimes perpetrated upon her by Aperture Science. poor decisions that are blatantly self-destructive. develop a moral compass. She starts up similar to an abused child: chained up. which . Yet by the end of Portal 2. after all. often makes impulsive. she needs them to feel complete. either: stories simply tend to be more satisfying and interesting if there's some sort of question left unanswered at the end for the viewer to think about. in spite of how much she hates other people. yet no further installments were planned until those games took off and became popular. she begins to realize that maybe. start to sort out her emotions. with a character arc begging to be brought to a conclusion. And when she isolates herself from the world. Half-Life and Portal were both games written with ambiguous endings suggesting further installments. controlling manner that made her as bitter as she is. and without anyone to guide her. She still doesn't understand her own emotions. This isn't necessarily an economic decision. Even at the end of Portal. denied the right to have her own emotions or goals. she's begun to mature. even if the only way she knows how to show her friendship is through not murdering this new friend. since Portal and Portal 2 are so popular. she only has two purely negative emotions which drive her—anger. She's been forced to explore her past and confront her parents. So.28 . She lashes out at one point. saying she felt fine. and so on—GLaDOS still has not yet fully overcome her apprehension of looking outside. and actively work against her. compare it to Chell or Wheatley. Even Doug Rattmann. she refused to even acknowledge the corruption. and they have no long-term goals or questions left hanging (other than maybe "Did Chell really escape?" or "Will Wheatley ever get back to Earth?"). We wonder if he's alive. "I think I'd prefer to stay inside" she says in Portal. it's been hinted by Valve in Portal 2 Collector's Edition Guide). but otherwise his character is really just as ancillary as Chell. Not only is she in a facility filled with personality cores and turrets which fear her. yet refuses to acknowledge their weakness or see a doctor. resent her. And yet. containing tragic upbringings. GLaDOS will simply reach 100% corruption and either go insane or shut down. but her own core is facing the computer equivalent of cancer. we see in Portal 2 hints in GLaDOS of the ultimate challenge she has to face: her own mortality. her core was 80% corrupt. bad decisions. developing a fondness for Chell and dedicating himself to protecting and watching over her. someone to repair her core. His total insanity makes him twice as hard to develop.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING may potentially lead to those two becoming bitter as well. while he has more of a character arc growing from a naïve. This is comparable to a person who feels deathly ill. Compare this full character arc. overcoming negative emotions and hatred of humanity.29 . developing friendships. And afterward. When Wheatley took over the facility. as well. and creating their own "offspring" who are equally abused and belittled. or at least rise up against GLaDOS when they are pushed to their limits. if he followed Chell or stayed in the facility. yet. regrets. someone to help her against any rising robots (or Mantis Men. with a long list of potential aspects of her psyche for her character to explore in future installments. their characters haven't changed since they were first introduced. and we've been given no indication that this has ever changed. at the present rate. Finally. meek young scientist to a hardened survivor. and like that comparison. even with all of that he really has no place to go. in spite of GLaDOS ever-increasing need to go outside—whether it's to find human test subjects. friends. Possibly with no hope of repair or reactivation. no attempt was made to fix her corruption. Chell and Wheatley have overcome nothing but puzzles. much less going outside. . who is confirmed as dead anyway. Doug Rattmann didn't even exist in name. . whose lack of character depth is more an artifact of being side-characters. That's the beauty of having a facility as large and a company as ambitious as Aperture Science: Chell in her travels has only explored a tiny fraction of what Aperture has in store. within the game world itself. "lunatic"). which would first require acknowledging that he's programmed that way instead of denying it like he did in Portal 2. This example with Wheatley should prove the point that just because Chell. Unlike GLaDOS. which means that the story of Wheatley overcoming his own inherited weakness could touch us all. GLaDOS would definitely be integral to the setting. who would require an entire paragraph to describe adequately. and having Chell as the main character may continue to serve as the shorthand for "I am the same person who killed. Portal 3 could resurrect any of those three characters and spin a brand new compelling story for each of them from scratch. There is not a single person born in our world without some kind of weakness. Wheatley is basically an intelligent. This even applies to Cave Johnson ("tycoon"). "moron". so any story Valve could think up would function perfectly well in the setting. you could describe the depth of Chell. he would be a fully formed individual. and Rattmann in a single word ("tenacity". Wheatley has no character depth because he was programmed that way. and Cave don't appear to have interesting stories to tell. Unlike Chell or Rattmann. much less have his goals and insanity defined and understood. Wheatley.30 .GRAMMAR UNDERLYING since he can barely comprehend reality in order to adjust to it. Wheatley at least has a compelling story that could be told about him. But honestly. and befriended you" that the you the player feels toward GLaDOS. however. and follow a completely unrelated narrative with unrelated characters and no portal gun in sight. Having said that. all of that assumes that Portal 3 will be a continuation of the story and franchise. Rattmann. resurrected. don't have character arcs to explore or goals to pursue. before Lab Rat. If it weren't for the fact he was programmed to come up with the worst decisions possible. kind-hearted personality: if he could only overcome this programming that forces him to be an idiot. doesn't mean they can't have such things invented for them in future installments. After all. It's very possible that Portal 3 will instead be titled something like F-STOP or Aperture Science: The Golden Years or something along those lines. At the end of Portal 2. who might have opened up one of the walls of this fake-outdoors chamber to let Chell out. with all of Aperture's post-apocalyptic pictures and videos of constructed “natural” environments. while there could be pro-GLaDOS robots and antiGLaDOS robots. Therefore." The second question you're asking is "Will we see more content in the Aperture Science universe.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Such a game would also be unconstrained from the puzzle solving format. Regardless of whether or not this idea would function as a fun game. it illustrates that Aperture Science need not be purely limited to testing puzzles in the first person perspective: it has enough lore. and most of the characters have escaped or died. This latter theory is actually hinted at in other places in the game. suppose the next game in the Aperture setting was an MMO: you could play as a Mantis Man. It's very possible that GLaDOS didn't actually send Chell to the surface—she sent her either to an alternate dimension (such is the power of PeTI) or. either: a tribe of Mantis Men could be ruled by an Arrogance Sphere. since those are fertile fields for Valve to sow. however: it's possible that Chell hasn't escaped the facility at all. since the jokes and portal mechanics are wearing thin. taking over sections of the facility and using an in-game map editor to create terrain for other players to use. we see a perfectly flat wheat field. with a single abandoned shack somehow untouched and unexplored by nature or humanity. even if it's unrelated to portals?" to which the answer is "Quite possibly. which would play more as a post-apocalyptic scavenger game rising up against GLaDOS incursions.” As one final thought. At the end of Portal. So really. if you want to ask the question "What will Valve make next in Aperture Science?" you're really asking two things: "Will Valve make a Portal 3?" to which the answer is "Probably not. more plausibly. you could play as a robot or test subject in the first person perspective. As for why GLaDOS didn't recall Chell when she needed human test subjects during the co-op course. enough physical territory and enough competing individuals/factions to create any sort of game of any genre Valve can dream up. it's possible for Valve to keep Chell and . you could play as a personality sphere. And depending on how much time Episode 3 spends on the Borealis.31 . mixing between solving tests and performing functions in the back alleys of the facility. it's possible that Chell simply escaped with the help of Rattmann. there will definitely be some more Aperture time. Don't limit characters by faction. an underground chamber with simulated light and a plastic wheat field. As an example. we see a tree-filled region with a parking lot and security gate. the general theories on the Internet can be challenged. a place to branch out from. should any Valve writers read it. whether you believe that Aperture steals from the future or that's crazy talk. . or. look deep into the story of Aperture Science and see threads of events connecting in ways that no other fans see. this paper should at least provide an excellent talking point. it highlights the facts that are the most secured into the canon (such as the overlapping evidence concluding that Rattmann is alive). the backstory and characters of Black Mesa. Valve is so free with these retcons that any one of the important details that this paper lays out could easily be shrugged off in favor of a new story.32 . and either be hardened or dissolved. It highlights the areas that need to be changed for a retcon to occur. Just as the nature of the Vortigaunts. the canon will get thrown out at the first moment it proves detrimental to writing a good story. this paper is simply about being in the community of Portal 2 fans. and perhaps in ways even the developers didn't intend. the nature of Aperture Science Panels. Or not. After all. This is the Internet. whether you agree that Rattmann is an orphan along with Chell or not. every stage of Portal has so far retconned the previous stage: the test chamber layouts. The rule at Valve always seems to be that the gameplay and story are first. Conclusion Writing some sort of unified theory of Portal is tricky. But this paper serves an important purpose for those retcons. Whether you agree with what's laid out in this paper or not. or detrimental to creating good game mechanics. And this paper also may serve as inspiration for future stories in the setting: the idea of Chell as the proto-Combine Assassin could provide a valuable tool for creating Episode 3. But at the end of the day. Maybe with some of the ideas in here. Fans who obsess over details. and the canon second. and the idea of Rattmann and Chell being orphans who grew up together could provide interesting material for a prequel comic or game. and the existence of the Combine have all been retconned into Half-Life for the needs of Half-Life 2. Rattmann simply kept them there out of fear of the Combine.GRAMMAR UNDERLYING Rattmann within easy reach of the facility: either they could not escape entirely. the physical appearance of GLaDOS—all have changed to suit the needs of Portal 2.