Interesting take on Portal 2's ending...

[SnipErlite]

One of the commentary nodes talks about how Valve had to try and put all the different sections of the game together, how they had to make sure that you got to each area in a way that was believable. It ends by asking the player if they can spot the one transition which was completely implausible. I'd say that was the long elevator ride at the ending. Just a guess.

Oh shit, yeah! The 5th or 6th commentary says to go find the impossible section. That's probably it.

 

[Sgt. Dante]

One of the commentary nodes talks about how Valve had to try and put all the different sections of the game together, how they had to make sure that you got to each area in a way that was believable. It ends by asking the player if they can spot the one transition which was completely implausible. I'd say that was the long elevator ride at the ending. Just a guess.

Actually, there's no evidence that there weren't loads of facility between you and the surface, and they've all just fallen away because Wheatley was doing such an incompetent job at taking care of the place.

On the other hand, my opinion for the implausibility is the moon itself. Think about it. When you're hanging out in space, desperately holding on, you tilt your head up... and see the Earth. Think about the angles - the Earth should be directly behind you, enough so that she should see it when she gets hit by the space-sphere and she turns around, not just by looking over the horizon. I think that's what he was referring to because while I can at least attempt to handwave the close-to-the-surface thing, I really have no idea how to handwave this...

Dead easy, did you ever shoot a portal at a sloped wall? the earth would only be directly behind her if the part of the moon she hit was parallel to earth.

Okay, true. But it still shouldn't be where it was unless you hit the moon right near the edge, whereas from what I recall from the ending it was closer to the center than that...

Yeah, but the centre from where we see it might very well be on a slope, one of it's many craters, the angels are impossible to guess from earth so I don't think that this point is as important as you may think it is.

 

[Rough Sausage]

You see hidden in the wheat in the last shot is a button, and you put the companion cube of it, and the wall that was painted to look like a blue sky opens up, and Glady starts singing this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAs1vMymtg

True shit guys. Happened to me once. Just ask Gabe.

Wow, that blew my mind

 

[Karilas]

...Yeah, but the centre from where we see it might very well be on a slope, one of it's many craters, the angels are impossible to guess from earth so I don't think that this point is as important as you may think it is.

I'd totally go with this, with a sprinkling of artistic license.

Looking at everything here, it seems pretty likely that during the fight with Wheatley the AI control room is nearer to the surface, especially since he wanted to get closer to the tests. It is also likely that in the time Chell was passed out after being exposed to A VACUUM that GlaDOS could well have set about remodelling the facility, even shifting the control room way deeper underground. From this point you can believe what you like.

You could go with the happy ending at face value, where Chell is released and left to wander the corn fields for all eternity with only a companion cube for company, which I personally think is a bit mean, or you could take the conspiracy to build for a potential sequel, wherein GlaDOS moved deeper still underground, deep enough to allow a long elevator journey up to a fake outdoor area, designed as part of the supersized chicken farming experiments at Aperture Labs.

I quite like the second option.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

One of the commentary nodes talks about how Valve had to try and put all the different sections of the game together, how they had to make sure that you got to each area in a way that was believable. It ends by asking the player if they can spot the one transition which was completely implausible. I'd say that was the long elevator ride at the ending. Just a guess.

Oh shit, yeah! The 5th or 6th commentary says to go find the impossible section. That's probably it.

Actually I've been corrected. This is the room they meant, apparently:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Linked_portal_door

 

[SnipErlite]

Actually I've been corrected. This is the room they meant, apparently:
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Linked_portal_door

Ah right. That's pretty cool.

 

[Bags159]

This was my guess too. I was expecting a panel to fizzle out revealing that you were in a test chamber designed to look like the outdoors.

Something didn't feel right at any rate.

 

[CrazT]

Pretty sure the final room you wake up in is the same room you and Wheatley planned to escape from (where he and Glados have the transfer)

Regardless, very interesting stuff

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Remember that the entire facility can move.

Wheatley moved his chamber nearer to the surface, maybe so it was easy for him to get outside and see the world, that was his original intentional after all. GLaDOS moved them backunder ground.

In reguards to Chell still being the facility...It's possible. I like to think it isn't though. I'd prefer her to have a happy ending.

 

[MarsProbe]

OK, having actually managed to suss out one of those random achievements on my own (namely Pit Boss), I just noticed something. For those that haven't got to Chapter 9 yet and/or don't know this achievement (or finished the game), this would be a spoiler so:

Spoiler

Before you jump down the bottomless pit (which I guess is what gets you the achievement) you can listen to one of Wheatleys ramblings about what awaits you at the bottom of the pit. One of the things he eventually mentions being down there is a farm, which could be curious, given that the area we see at the very end looks like farmland.

So, what do people think. A simple coincidence, foreshadowing, or just something Valve put in there to have us all madly theorising on internet forums much like this one?