History YMMV / Portal2

* CargoShip:
** Chell/Wheatley is growing increasingly popular. Most of the fics based off of it either involve Wheatley sometime AfterTheEnd, [[spoiler: desperate to apologize to Chell for what he did]] and suddenly finding a means to do so, or Human!Wheatley, typically based off of Creator/StephenMerchant.
** The [=GLaDOS=]/Chell ship (which was already popular after the first game) is still going strong here.
** The cores are often shipped with each other. Space Core/Curiosity Core ("Spaciosity") or its rival Fact Core/Curiosity Core ("Factiosity") have become quite popular, as has Fact Core/Adventure Core ("Factventure").
** [=GLaDOS=] is also often shipped with [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 The Sniper of TF2 fame.]] The gag for it being that their voice actors are married in real life.

* RoboShip: The two cooperative mode robots were being shipped together by [[FanArt fan-artists]] before we ever saw videos of them. Images like [[http://portalwiki.asshatter.org/images/c/ca/GI_58_bots.jpg this]] helped.

* MisaimedMarketing: The advertising, tie ins, and just about everything heavily tout Co-op, yet what is this huge page about? Not to mention according to [[http://kotaku.com/5817539/the-state-and-stats-of-the-portal-2-gamer this]], only about half of PC ''Portal 2'' players even start co-op, and only a fourth finish.

*** The exact nature of his stupidity. Is his ability to come up with decently clever plans because they will result in the dumbest outcome, the facility exploding? Or is he just another Aperture Science invention that doesn't work the way it is supposed?

*** There may be some truth to this because in a alternate reality Cave Johnson buys Black Mesa and the first thing he dose is shut down there plans to make a Resonance Cascade and tells them that he has enough common sense to know it will end the world.

** Virtually ''everybody'' assumes that [[HeroicMime Chell]] is the daughter of Aperture's founder Cave Johnson and his secretary Caroline. There is evidence to suggest she was the daughter of ''someone'' at Aperture (her apparent signature appears on a children's science project in the 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day' display) and the assumption is sort of understandable since Cave and Caroline are the only other human characters named in-game and [[spoiler: SelfDemonstrating/GLaDOS, who has Caroline's mind inside her, is obsessed with Chell to an almost mother-like degree]], but nowhere does it imply she was anything near as important as ''the daughter of the founder''. Plus, Cave Johnson died in the early 1980s and was already [[https://i1.theportalwiki.net/img/7/78/Cave_Johnson_Painting_2.png an old man]] at that point (he looked like [[http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR1St-hilbYCDv9ozHZgfB2kbfPRdp8DoT2ZUjaFIUzChkRUtq7 this]] circa 1943). In the first game, Chell looks like she could maybe be a young-looking forty-something at oldest, and in the higher-quality graphics of the second she doesn't look a day over 30. Cave ''could'' have [[MadScientist invented something]] to keep his daughter young or himself and Caroline fertile, and he's crazy enough to force people to spend years in stasis or something, but you still have to be ''really trying'' to interpret him as Chell's father to make it work.

** In the "Valentine's Day Gift Buying" promotional trailer, when the girlfriend eats the chocolate her boyfriend got her, she gets an allergic reaction and a swollen head followed by the sound of an off-screen explosion. Did her head explode, or was she so mad at her boyfriend she literally "blew up" at him?

** In the "Valentine's Day Gift Buying" promotional trailer, when the girlfriend eats the chocolate her boyfriend got her, she gets an allergic reaction and a swollen head followed by the sound of an off-screen explosion. Did her head explode, or was she so mad at her boyfriend she "blew up" at him?

* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: In the "Valentine's Day Gift Buying" promotional trailer, when the girlfriend eats the chocolate her boyfriend got her, she gets an allergic reaction and a swollen head followed by the sound of an off-screen explosion. Did her head explode, or was she so mad at her boyfriend she "blew up" at him?

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome:
** Muppeteer Karen Prell did an ''incredible'' job of giving Wheatley so many facial expressions--and he's just a robotic eyeball!
** The destruction of your "hotel room" in the opening. Check out the commentary bubble after the scene and see just how much work was put into the one sequence; ''nearly nine months' worth of effort.''

* ViewerGenderConfusion: [[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-10-portal-2-how-valve-opened-up-portal-2?page=2 According to]] WordOfStPaul, P-Body- A.K.A. Orange -[[FemBot is actually female]]. And if you look closely, [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics you can actually see some femininity in her design]]. Despite this, most fans refer to her as male. Not helping is that [[CrossdressingVoices she]] and ATLAS are both voiced by Creator/DeeBradleyBaker (albeit her voice is higher-pitched) ''and'' players can [[GirlsWithMustaches customize her with two different mustaches]] (possibly implying she was meant to be male at one point).

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Creator/StephenMerchant has been getting some of the biggest kudos of his acting career for his performance as Wheatley; everyone expected his character to be [[TypeCasting a one-trick pony]] but, in typical Creator/{{Valve|Software}} grand fashion, he shattered everyone's expectations. Merchant himself has described playing Wheatley as [[http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2011/05/12/stephen-merchant-wheatley-portal-2-portal-3/ some of the most challenging and exhausting work he's ever done]], and initially had no interest in doing it again, but has admitted that all the acclaim the game has received has softened his stance on that.

*** Did she really [[spoiler:delete part or all of Caroline]]? If she did, was it just a matter of [[spoiler:deleting Caroline's memories, or did she murder an actual consciousness? Or was it not a murder but a MercyKill]]?

%%* TheTetrisEffect: [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/when-video-games-get-stuck-in-your-head/ This (NSFW) article]] at Website/{{Cracked}} sums it up rather nicely.

* EvenBetterSequel: In the first game, the most emotional sequence besides the boss battle is [[spoiler: dropping a box down a hole.]] In ''Portal 2''? We've got so many characters introduced and developed, that it's practically a different world entirely.

** One thing Computer!Cave Johnson does to try and stave off boredom is to add [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} ghost-busting]] to every work of fiction on Earth. Come 2015, we get to see the Ghostbusters themselves ([[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters and many others]]) visit Aperture Science [[spoiler: and even work alongside [=GLaDOS=]]] in ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions''.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: The game proper doesn't make much use of the Frankenturrets in terms of boxes with legs. Some community made levels have explored this idea.

** [[ActorAllusion Meow.]] [[Creator/JKSimmons Meow meow-meow meow, meow.]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}} Meow meow meow meow meow.]] Meow.

* LesYay: The FoeYay is obvious and lampshaded. Chell is female, and [=GLaDOS=] at least sounds that way.

* ItWasHisSled: The fact that [[spoiler: Wheatley betrays Chell]] is widely known. Also, the ending about [[spoiler: [[RecycledInSpace the SPAAACE!!!]]]] is pretty famous no less.