SUPASOAKA

500 hands in 5 days 💀 ! feel free to use them for reference ❤️

Half-Life: Alyx but the Gnome is ALIVE is OUT NOW!

A “gnome run” is a phenomenon that exists within a handful of Valve titles. Unlike a normal playthrough, the player must collect a small garden gnome at the start of the run, referred to as “Gnome Chompski”, and carry him to the end of the game. This run can be completed in Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Half-Life: Alyx. 1.5% of Alyx players have successfully completed a “gnome run”, granting them the achievement “Gnome Vault of My Own”.

In an interview shortly after Alyx’s SDK release in 2020, Gabe Newell requested that the modding community avoid tampering with files pertaining to the “gnome run” claiming that “certain modifications may make completing the challenge next to impossible, and render the achievement unobtainable”. As players speculated on his words, rumors sprung forth that there is a special version of the “gnome run” that can only be accessed via the modification of said files. Exactly what must be done to the game to access this “Gnome Edition” of Half-Life: Alyx is not known.

Some tried to find the truth of the “Gnome Edition”, but all documented attempts led to dead ends or bricked games. The “Gnome Edition” was dismissed as mere myth hyped up by overzealous fans. On June 1st, 2021, twitch streamer ‘wayneradiotv’ was linked by a follower to a workshop page for a newly uploaded mod for Half-Life: Alyx. He installed it, hoping to make the stream of his “gnome run” more interesting. He was not aware of the myth, but that didn’t matter anymore. The following footage is documentation of the “Gnome Edition’s” existence and what its discovery unleashed into the world. Witness the beginning of the tale of the GNOME EDITION.

Clothes exchange

Thanks for the question! Murdoc is a promising character in terms of romance, at least in my canon cause we only got to see a smidge of it in official canon, it was a long time ago and we mos def shouldn't expect anything else in the future, RIP. Anyway, I don't want to be cynical. To fully answer your question we have to understand how Murdoc ended up being the way he is, and what we can do about it.

I think the majority of Murdoc's personal life issues stem from the fact he was raised in a house where no one truly loved him. Sebastian was a horrible parent who slept around with many different women so that gives me an impression there was a conveyor belt of stepmoms for Murdoc, none of which probably cared about him either. This kinda explains why he's still single; he never really learned how to form genuine emotional connections, because the only role model he had was the miserable father who struggled to figure out his own life. So it's not that Murdoc lost faith in relationships – he never had any to begin with.

But, this does not mean he's a heartless monster with no feelings. Murdoc is narcissistic, which means he has feelings but no healthy way of expressing them even if he wants to. He's the chip-on-the-shoulder bad boy who gets in trouble trying desperately to get attention that he never received from adults as a kid. Except those adults are long gone, and he's the adult now. Narcissism is a vicious cycle, it's always one step forward two steps back, and basically the only way to snap out of it is to gain self-awareness, so he would be able to catch on his own bullshit and nip it in the bud before he hurts somebody. In my canon he made a conscious decision to change, but hey, easier said than done. Not only you need a good therapist, there's a huge amount of personal work, you have to do journaling, you have to request feedback, you need emotional support.

Murdoc’s Previous Bands’ Names

Personal Favs:

yeah a lot of thoughts. It’s like has anyone had a dad who was an interesting person or friend who you looked up to but a really really bad dad. it’s sort of like that but so much more complicated. I’m putting it below the read more line because I wrote way too much.

Good to see 2D knows about Cyborg now. Wonder who finally told him?

We maybe got at least real one answer? Murdoc is in a coma! And that’s how 2D was able to use his room and piano to film the Sleeping Powder video. However…

If Murdoc is in a coma idg how 2D would be locked in his room, let along for an entire week. 2D was also at Demon Dayz fest which was less than a week ago. And on top of all of that, they live with Noodle and Russel who would have probably let 2D out by now. AND EVEN IF THEY AREN’T HOME 2D obviously has a phone and/or a computer with him to get in contact with them to tell them he needs help. It also doesn’t even look like 2D’s room has a door. This is so annoying. 

Wait..and also 2D filmed Sleeping Powder before Demon Dayz and he said Murdoc was in a coma due to “too much sun at Demon Dayz” so disregard the second bullet point. We have no answers.

I’m not trying to sound like humorless curmudgeon here but this formula of 2D misunderstanding a question is getting annoying and old, even taking into account that there were a lot of questions to answer and that they can’t type out paragraph answer to everything. I also understand that he does this sometimes and yes, it’s funny, but when you have him confusing things like “Wales” and “whales” it’s getting to be too much. 2D knows what whales are, they’ve been his biggest fear for the duration of the story so why they can’t just let him give a clear answer on a question like that is mind-boggling. 

I feel the same way about the “Shrek 2″ answer. He like, loves horror movies. He listed a few paragraphs worth of them in ROTO. The 2D of previous phases can answer these questions. And honestly, I’m trying to say I or any fan could do this better, none of us are perfect but I also completely understand the complaint that 2D isn’t as thoughtful this phase. It really showed on this AMA and it was very frustrating (still love mocap 2D though).

He also regurgitated the same answer that we’ve seen like..2-3 times now if you’ve been following the interviews about Murdoc being into S&M. I hate that they’re making me feel like I’mm being too hard on what are genuinely really fun ways to connect with the band provided by the Gorillaz team.

What you're describing is one of the patterns in Murdoc's behavior that drew me to him way back in the very beginning. He communicates so much more through his actions than his words, or even what the narration (i.e. descriptions of him in magazines, interviews etc) tells you. I can always tell how closely a person is analyzing him by whether they truly believe he's paragon of self-esteem and self confidence. Yes, he says he is, but if you actually look at how he acts, you see that he's a very lonely and insecure little man. He's kinda pathetic too, though on a brighter note, he's also more thoughtful that he'll have you think.

I try to stop myself from talking about the bass, but you know what? It's probably been at least a year since I've talked about the bass, so I'm gonna talk about the bass. Do you ever notice how soft most (all?) of the bass lines in Gorillaz music are? I don' think this was done on purpose, but I *do* think it adds an extra layer to Murdoc's character.

Murdoc:

“Well, you can’t get what you want,

There was a new interview that came out today in the Italian version of Rolling Stone and basically all I did was control + F for Murdoc’s name and then enter the related text into Google translate.

It would be really easy to write this off as Murdoc being his usual self-involved self. “The pain caused by my absence” is very eye-roll worthy considering what the band said about him while he was gone. HOWEVER thanks to the 2Doc fans here on Tungle dot com we know from 2D’s journal that Souk Eye is about Murdoc and from Damon’s interview (also and Italian interview) that Souk Eye is a love song. So. Make Of That What You Will. (I personally, still don’t think Murdoc fully gets it, like I think there’s a part of him that is v self-aware of how ridiculous he sounds and doesn’t take what he himself is saying seriously but he is, whether they intended it or not, kinda sorta telling the truth here. Dayum.)

This is cute. I want to believe. You could read this a few ways - as Murdoc trying to pass off him being the entire drink and 2D being the garnish as “perfectly balanced” or in a self-deprecating way - i.e. Murdoc acknowledging his drinking problem and being like, “ofc I’m all the alcohol.” Or it could be a bit of both. We also know from phase 4 interviews that 2D does a lot more to help Murdoc than vice versa.

This is also cute and I sort of want to believe? I’m a big fan of the cocky part of 2D’s personality and would personally much rather see more discussion of them trying to share the leadership role, but I can also see how Murdoc being gone may have just like, completely thrown the group dynamic into a weird limbo. Too bad we never got to SEE this. Oh well.

But he is trying. Having Russel acknowledge this is really significant because usually we’re left to rely on either 2D or Murdoc’s word and people tend to doubt them. I don’t exactly expect (or want) Murdoc to be on an exclusively  upward trajectory (recovery is not a linear process) but I like to believe his heart is in the right place this time.

The first thing I notice here is that Murdoc is claiming that his covid-19 routine involved starting his day at 9am. If what he’s saying is true then that’s like, pretty significant that he’s waking up at a healthy hour to start his day. I know we’ve gotten glimpses of Murdoc being serious about work ethic but idk, this seems like more than he’s ever done (that I can remember), especially since they aren’t on a strict schedule to promote an album or anything. It’s still possible he isn’t sleeping at all and 9am is just the time that he decides to get out of bed, but it’s nice to think that he might be getting a restful sleep. The fact that he even has a schedule in the first place, one that involves a kale smoothie and a Marie Kondo-ing his living space among other things (he’s still doing zumbba!!) is sweet and supportive of the hc that he’s making steps here and there to take care of himself more :’). Murdoc, if you’re actually following through with this schedule every day you’re out-self-caring me and many of my friends! Lmao.

I’m also not going leave this answer without noting the scheduled bonding time with 2D. The image of them building a Tower of London fort out of toilet paper rolls is also really…endearing. Why can’t this be the show/plot?

Why can’t this be the show/plot????

Something about these answers makes me feel like Ed saw those leaked G-bite scripts from the Plastic Beach zine and made a concerted effort to out-cute Cassie.This is stiff competition. (I also like the idea of Russel being a sore loser).