Mel

Model and texture of Mel found in Portal 2 game files.

Mel is a placeholder texture replacement for Chell, intended to be used as a Co-op partner in Portal 2 alongside Chell. She appears as a blonde haired, blue eyed woman in a light blue jumpsuit with a fairer skin tone than that of Chell. In the later stages of Portal 2's development cycle, she was scrapped in favour of the Co-op bots, Atlas and P-Body.

Removal

Mel's removal from the game came about due to play-tester's reluctance to experiment within Co-op puzzles, due to the consequence of dying; the destruction of the Co-op bots at the end of each chapter, and the disassembly at the end of each chamber, helped tackle this issue. In addition, this helped create an in-universe excuse for the constant respawning of Co-op players.

Trivia

• Although the human Co-op concept was scrapped, several GLaDOS voice lines making reference to the women's weight were re-used as part of the robot Co-op campaign for comedic effect.
• Her texture is a skin group of the old Portal Chell model, which is present and separate from the Portal 2 Chell model in the Portal 2 game files, however it lacks any animation.