Is Chell the new Samus?

[castlewise]

Called it in april http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/7.276815.10758701

Although to be honest it was just that in the "Boots" video she has the same sort of "land on one knee" move that Samus uses.

There might be more too it. Its hard to tell with no actual dialog, but I was always struck by the tenaciousness of the two characters. There are certainly a lot of differences, but ever since Samus was "retuned" by Team Ninja I think there is a bit of an opening for "new iconic silent female protagonist" and Chell does fit the bill.

 

[mew4ever23]

-snip-

...

So a tree must be a pretty strong character huh?

Way to miss the point completely. ACTIONS define a character when they have no voice.

 

[Cheesus333]

Spoiler: Spoilers herein. Possibly

Chell and Samus:
Orphaned after a tragic disaster
Female, young (early twenties, presumably)
Only ever use one gun, which is different to conventional guns
Stubborn and resilient in the face of danger
Mute
'Loner' nature


Chell:
Solves puzzles
Foster daughter of a lab technician
Only ever interacts with robots


Samus:
Interstellar Bounty Hunter with a military background
Raised by alien bird creatures
Genetically modified for better performance
Adaptable, modifiable space suit
Kills alien dragons, parasites and pirates on a regular basis

I can see where you're coming from, but... no. Chell and Samus are different people. Very different.

EDIT: Edited for possible spoilers.

 

[Addicted Muffin]

Where chell will never replace her, I think she will deffinently take a place among the top. She has done what Samus has done, proving herself to be a powerful women, unlike Samus, without a super suit or a blaster rifle. All she had was a portal gun...now with potatoes. Chell will never replace Samus, Chell is Ina league of her own.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

ITT:

Reading too deeply into characters

Besides...you can't really have a new Samus...because Samus is still around. One game ain't gonna kill her.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

no, not by a long shot. Chell has NO characterization so it isn't really fair to say she has anything even remotely resembling character traits. She's a female Gordon Freeman, a player proxy.

 

[mjc0961]

She even bares Samus' trait for arm mounted guns.

The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, as stated in its title, is handheld. Not arm mounted.

Also, sure. Chell can be the new Samus, in that the fact that she's female means absolutely nothing when you really think about it. Chell gets more characterization in that comic than in either of the games, but not enough that you couldn't replace her female character model with any other male or female model and see no change in the character at all. Yes, you can pull that "actions define a character" cop-out if you want, but still: put any other male character in Chell's place and have him do the same actions, and he's the same character as her aside from gender.

ITT:

Reading too deeply into characters

In other words, this.

 

[jamesworkshop]

It makes me wonder about people who think the best female characters are silent, it has some quite creepy implications..

No I don't think Chell is the new Samus, she is not groundbreaking in anyway and does not have an arm mounted weapon, nor a life of her own choice, we have no expressed idea of either opinions, feeling or desires, in short she is as much characterised as the Doom Marine

 

[smudgey]

That's probably why Other M was going to fail, because fan projected personalities of characters just won't be the same as the developer's rendition.

Other M didn't fail because they added personality (The devs already gave Samus personality in Fusion. She talked an awful lot in that, but still actually managed to seem pretty strong and independent). Other M failed because the developers intentionally changed Samus into a whiny and subservient character.

OT: No, Chell is not comparable to Samus. At least not until she starts blowing up every second planet she sets foot on.....

 

[TJF588]

Without reading anything in this topic, my first response was: Ehhh, not reeally.

Probably between perspective and arsenal. Samus is always in view, and we can see how much cooler and endowed she is than us. Especially with a Hi-Jump Boots'd, Gravity Jumping Screw Attack. Chell, however, is more of us as gamers. We've got the FPS avatar of a gun (though we can see our avatar if we wanna), and she jumps about the same height, with her only benefits being her footwear (or calf/knee-wear, I guess) and tenacity. And resilience to moon dust.

Samus has a different characterization to Chell just based on ability. Yeah, they both don't blahblah much (Chell AT ALL), and they're both girls, but Samus is more more of an icon than Chell. Heck, I'd say that, the Portal endings aside, it's the portal gun that's more analogous to Samus's position in a player's mind.

...Now I want to see a personification (a good one, please) of the ASHPD.

 

[castlewise]

[
You can only gather that she can stand her own in a hostile environment. So can any soldier. It doesn't tell more than that, and you're trying to read into it too much. We know she's a bounty hunter... why? Fuck if I know.

I depends on how much you look for the lore. Things like the Portal 2 comic or old school manuals often times had that kind of stuff hidden in there. For example I know that Samus' parents were killed and that she was raised by the Chozo (the bird folks who made the suit and the powerup) and that the Space Pirates killed all the Chozo and that she became a bounty hunter, at least in part, to hunt them down. Its just stuff gleaned from the intro and outro credits of the games, the manuals, the scans and logs in the Prime games. There is a lot there even if nobody says it.

However, to be fair, the previous paragraph may serve as an example of "reading too much into things" so take it all with a huge grain of salt.

 

[gizmo2300]

Well Isn't it stated at the VERY BEGINNING of Portal 2 that Chell doesn't choose not to talk but actually can't because of Brain Damage making her jump instead? This isn't meant as an insult, I'm just considering the scenario that she would probably talk if she actually could. While with Samus it seems more of a "No nonsense" type of thing.

 

[castlewise]

Well Isn't it stated at the VERY BEGINNING of Portal 2 that Chell doesn't choose not to talk but actually can't because of Brain Damage making her jump instead? This isn't meant as an insult, I'm just considering the scenario that she would probably talk if she actually could. While with Samus it seems more of a "No nonsense" type of thing.

yeah. I never knew if they were joking about the brain damage thing, or if they were serious. They leave it very vague. I love it

 

[The Youth Counselor]

snip

Spoiler tags pronto!

Why does she have to be a "Samus"? Why can't she just be another mute, female protagonist? Just like Gordon Freeman isn't "the new Link," Chell isn't the new Samus.

Besides being strong,[footnote]Every protagonist is strong in the way you describe. Otherwise, they wouldn't be the protagonists.[/footnote]

Dammit, I had just successfully repressed "Other N" until you made me think of it again. The game I shall not name would beg to differ.

Outside of the fiction, Chell doesn't share Samus' "It was a woman the whole time!" twist,

I kid you not, I have three friends who played through the entirety of Portal loved the game, and only found out in conversation after completion that the player character is a woman. I guess some pay attention better than others, but it was a complete surprise to them.

 

[smudgey]

Oh I got your point, it's just a bad point. Samus doesn't do anything besides shoot, jump, and utilize the morph ball.

You can only gather that she can stand her own in a hostile environment. So can any soldier. It doesn't tell more than that, and you're trying to read into it too much. We know she's a bounty hunter... why? Fuck if I know.

Metroid Fusion actually told us a bit about Samus, and there was a reference to her upbringing at the end of Zero Mission. Why does everyone think Samus didn't have character before Other M when she quite clearly did?

 

[Denamic]

Maybe in 10 years some studio other than Valve will snap up the rights to Portal and turn her into a sexed up tween.

Because a jumpsuit and tank-top is basically the same as a chainmail bikini.

 

[Andsre]

Chell:
Solves puzzles
Foster daughter of a lab technician
Only ever interacts with robots

Where did you get that from? It's been hinted that she is the daughter of one, yes, but I've never heard anything about her being in foster care.

 

[Amondren]

why did you call it Portal: Still Alive? It's called Portal, that's it.

Anyway, Chell is not samus, she has a puzzle solving gun that shoots holes, and she beat up a bunch of robots. Samus committed genocide about eight or nine times. Chell is not Samus, if she had a 20 year or so long legacy she might be on par, but it's not like her actions make her seem less feminine and any more badass than a puzzle solver to me.

Still alive in the Xbox live version

 

[Cheesus333]

Chell:
Solves puzzles
Foster daughter of a lab technician
Only ever interacts with robots

Where did you get that from? It's been hinted that she is the daughter of one, yes, but I've never heard anything about her being in foster care.

I seem to remember reading it somewhere on her page on the Combine Overwiki [http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Chell], but I may be mistaken. The link's there, anyway, so I suppose we'll see.

She's definitely either the daughter or adopted daughter of one of the employees, though, as -

Spoiler: Potential minor spoilers

Her name is on one of the science projects in the 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day' array

 

[t3hmaniac]

Both have an uncanny amount of determination which allows them both to do stuff that would otherwise be considered impossible (end of Portal 2 Boss Fight/Metroid Prime 3) but like people have pointed out, the difference between a Valve first person protagonist and a Nintendo silent protagonist is that the Valve guys don't get any say in the matter at all and it can be argued that both Gordan and Chell fight more for survival than anything. Mario and Samus both put themselves voluntarily into danger, Link does similar although the whole Destiny thing confuses matters.