My favorite part of Chell's lore is that one of the developers stated that she isn't actually mute, she just is so pissed off all the time in both games that she just refuses to speak

"we do what we must, because we can." is, in retrospect, the most perfect description of aperture science as a whole

Well, there were cut voicelines about how Caroline didn't want to be put into a computer (she was begging him to not do this to her). Johnson litteraly did the same thing to her as he did to the experiments of Apperture: "Throwing science at a wall and see what sticks". I always assumed that she poisoned the scientists with neurotoxin because she was furious. They basically pit her through hell by doing this to her so she took revenge.

As a fun fact about Cave and early Aperture: He didn’t start off with his “throw science at the wall and see what sticks” mentality. He actually did have a specific aim to all that science at first. The Portal Gun actually came from attempts to invent “the next evolution in shower curtains.” They accidentally invented reality-breaking quantum teleportation in the process.

The "This sentence is false" scene, I never noticed the cubes frying themselves. 10+ plays through and it never crossed my mind.

GLaDOS's line,"I have an infinite capacity of knowledge and even I'm not sure what's going on up there" will always give me chills.

One other achievement of Wheatley that I feel like has to be acknowledged and possibly even given genius praise: He not only figured out how to transfer an AI to a potato clock, he got it right on the first try.

Wheatley actually is the smartest person in the Portal series. His plan to use Chell to escape the facility is solid, his plan to disable GLaDOS' offensive capabilities is more effective than anything Aperture's best scientists ever came up with, and his plans to kill Chell indeed would have been foolproof had Chell not reactivated the gel pipes in the deepest cores of Aperture, which he probably didn't know about. Despite GLaDOS' claim that Wheatley was designed to generate terrible ideas, most of his ideas are actually really good, he is just clumsy and ineffective at execution. Really telling as to what Aperture scientists think a "moron" is- someone who has good ideas but is bad at executing them. The exact opposite of Cave Johnson- a man with horrible ideas but is god-tier at executing them.

Actually, I’m pretty sure that the creators confirmed that Chell can talk, but doesn’t because she doesn’t wanna give the robots the satisfaction

There's a comic called Lab Rat which details the events between portal 1&2. The player character was actually picked to awaken by someone who wanted to see GLaDOS defeated. She wasn't picked for her brains or her ability to solve puzzles. She was picked for her tenacity; her refusal to give up. That's one of my favourite details from Valve's expanded canon, and it actually kinda supports this theory, which I really like

One thing that always stuck with me is the Lab's tendency to give disclaimers after the testing begins. From Portal 1's comments about dental fillings emancipating as you're walking through it, to Portal 2's invitations for scientific testing turned 'custodial duty' for failed testing "The Mantis-Human Hybrid". On top of adding to the comedic flair, it goes to show the oversight from the people in charge of the labs. Edit: Coming back Post-Desk job, it's clear to me the incompetency of Aperture was still in full swing while the laboratory was operational. Between the incorrect employee introduction tape, Ammunition flub ups, Grady becoming your liscensed parole officer, and the final reveal of what's become of Cave... It's more and more apparent the scientists intentions become more and more muddled by the AI's they created.

4:40 Cave bought $70M in moon rocks, not $7M He says "The bean counters told me we literally could not afford to buy seven dollars worth of moon rocks, much less seventy million. Bought 'em anyway. Ground 'em up, mixed em into a gel."

I’ll give Wheatley credit where it’s due, in the ending boss fight, he was actually kind of smart with the whole no portalable surfaces, instantly releasing the neurotoxin, boobytrapping the button and all. It was just lucky that the moon was in that specific spot.

"I can't think of single smart or well informed decision Cave Johnson has ever made" In the level editor that take place in diffrent alternate universe (but still canon as a grand Half-Life multiverse), the universe where Cave Johnson bought out Black Mesa had him explain that he stopped the Xen research projects to not risk a Resonance Cascade. Cave despite being a moron, is canonically smarter than every single person in Black Mesa.

My favorite moron in the game is the Fact Sphere with "facts" like: -To make a photocopier, simply photocopy a mirror -William Shakespeare did not exist. His plays were masterminded in 1589 by Francis Bacon, who used an Ouija board to enslave play-writing ghosts. -The Schrödinger's cat paradox outlines a situation in which a cat in a box must be considered, for all intents and purposes, simultaneously alive and dead. Schrödinger created this paradox as a justification for killing cats.

I always thought that the reason the portal gun was never successful was down to the fact that it doesnt work on most surfaces. All this time they might have been testing ways to make it mire viable until accidentally discovering moon rock properties too late. And even when they did discover moon rock is the solution, its not a great one

I think it’s unfair to say that GLaDOS’s violence comes from a place of stupidity. More so her fragmented agonizing memories of getting dumped into a computer against her will.

im surprised cave johnson didnt spend more time developing the combustible lemon. its kind of a shame honestly

just thought i'd throw this out here: $60 in 1950 is equivalent to $694.11 in 2022. cave was literally giving away money worth a ps5 and then some just to test

12:08 "Goodbye Caroline" is a reference to a sitcom that was popular in the 50s. It's a timely pop culture reference, not proof she's a moron!