Line #4 WebVideo/HalfLifeAlyxButTheGnomeIsTooAware


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maxresdefault_2156.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:'''''HA HE!''''']]
3
4	''Pick me up.''
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6	All Wayne wanted to do was play ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' and earn the [[SelfImposedChallenge Garden Gnome achievement]]. How hard could it actually be? Well, when the normally inanimate Gnome Chompski begins speaking on his own, what's supposed to be a regular challenge run gets flipped on it's head...
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8	''Half-Life: Alyx but the Gnome is Too Aware'' [[note]]also referred to as ''Half-Life: Alyx Living Gnome Saga'' in the series' edited [=YouTube=] playlist, and originally released under the title "Half-Life: Alyx but the Gnome is ALIVE"[[/note]] is a roleplay {{Machinima}} series by [[WebVideo/WayneRadioTv WayneRadioTV]] and Radio TV Solutions, the same group behind ''WebVideo/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware'', which has a similar premise. This time around, it's only Wayne (though still joined on occasion by his friend and fellow Radio TV Solutions member Baaulp) doing a playthrough of ''Half-Life: Alyx'' only to be surprised by the Gnome he must carry throughout the game becoming sentient, talking to him and making various outlandish requests as Wayne tries to juggle taking care of the Gnome, his meters as well as himself.
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10	The first Act was streamed on November 12th, 2021 and after a long delay, the finale would be streamed on February 4th, 2023. Like ''HLVRAI'' before it, Wayne has also been working on edited, compiled video versions of the Acts on his [=YouTube=] channel, with the first edited part being released on November 25th 2021 and the final edited part being released on October 12th 2023.
11	----
12	!!My trope meter is dangerously low!
13	* AbhorrentAdmirer: [[spoiler:The Blue Gnome]] has a perverse obsession with Wayne, while the latter finds his advances horrifying and repulsive.
14	* AddledAddict: The Gnome enjoys smoking [[FantasticDrug resin]], and has expressed interest in injecting heroin needles. His sanity readily reflects this.
15	* ArbitrarySkepticism: Baaulp refuses to believe the Gnome is self-aware, and insists that it is just a collection of pre-recorded lines. [[ImplausibleDeniability Even as it is threatening Baaulp specifically with physical harm.]]
16	* BottleEpisode: Intended to bridge the hiatus between ''Half-Life: VR'' and its sequel, this series eschews the custom assets and scripted plot-beats from its sister series, focusing instead on an unmodified playthrough of ''VideoGame/HalfLifeAlyx'' while Wayne riffs with his friends over [[SyntheticVoiceActor text-to-speech]] [[spoiler:until the final act, that is.]]
17	* CerebusSyndrome: Paralleling ''Half-Life: VR'', the series leans more into ExistentialHorror [[HorrorComedy Comedy]] as it goes on. By Act 3, the Gnome's bullying becomes more personal, and starts incorporating RealityWarper elements. [[spoiler:And this is to say nothing about the [[HumanoidAbomination New Contestant]]. The finale drives this to higher levels in the Vault as it's revealed that ''Half-Life'' is an alien entity that Valve decided to sell, much to Gabe Newell's regret.]]
18	* CharacterCatchphrase: The Gnome frequently cries "STOP!" and "YOU HAVE FAILED THE CHALLENGE!" in response to basically anything Wayne does.
19	* ChekhovsGun: Gordon figures out in "Jeff" that the Gnome will die if crushed in a trash compactor, but he restarts the game because he still wants to finish the challenge. [[spoiler:He doesn't have such qualms, however, about killing the Blue Gnome in the second trash compactor; the Gnome mentions this at the start of Act 4 Part 2.]]
20	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The Gnome will not waste an opportunity to sell Gordon out to their enemies, usually over the most [[EvilIsPetty petty]] or [[InsaneTrollLogic nonsensical reasons]]. Usually, he's the one to [[LaserGuidedKarma suffer]] for this.
21	* EldritchLocation: [[spoiler: The White Forest, a forest of white trees that appears in the virtual world where the Gnome seems to have RealityWarper powers. He grows to an enormous size and chases Wayne through it before cornering him and using his powers to steal Wayne's place in reality, transforming him into an inanimate Gnome in the process.]]
22	* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: The Gnome's AI-generated voice has quite a few quirks to it, which the subtitles render as a FunetikAksent. When the program is especially overwhelmed, it can come out as InelegantBlubbering or [[EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped nothing but question marks]].
23	* EnforcedPlug: Parodied by the Gnome periodically giving shout-outs to various real-life companies and brands as "sponsors". For example, [[spoiler:when he usurps Wayne's place as streamer near the end of the final part, this includes replacing one of his stream alerts with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Robin Red Robin]] jingle]].
24	* FakeOutFadeOut: [[spoiler: In the finale during the Gnome's HostileShowTakeover, it's revealed he and Wayne swapped places. The camera dramatically zooms in on gnome!Wayne as it fades to black... and then immediately cuts back to the gnome shrugging it off and continuing ''Half-Life 2''.]]
25	* FreezeFrameBonus: In Act 4 Part 1's highlight video, the Mastercard logo's text is briefly replaced by "Balls are touching".
26	* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler:When Wayne enters the Vault, the Gnome declares that he has failed the challenge and attacks him. He spawns in a wooden hallway, but he quits the game, taking off the headset. He then hears music coming from a nearby room, and ends up in the hallway again. At the end of the hallway, the Gnome invites him to watch a Peppa Pig movie which starts to talk about cryptic subjects, before turning into a forest clearing. Wayne runs in at the Gnome's behest, only for the Gnome to manifest in real life, playing ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' (which features [[AndIMustScream Wayne as a gnome]].) The Gnome realizes that doing such a thing to Wayne only ruined himself, so he sings "If I Can't Be Yours" before disappearing and bringing Wayne back at a beach, with only a framed picture of himself reading "Goodbye Gordon" beside him.]]
27	* TheGhost: [[spoiler: Gabe Newell's final commentary node makes mention of a mysterious man making contact with Valve Software during development of Episode Two. Subsequently, Peppa Pig's monologue makes mention of someone she only refers to as "Her" that Wayne will meet soon. Whether these two characters will remain unseen, [[SequelHook be saved for a later series]], or are just part of the MindScrew of the finale are unknown.]]
28	* GoshDangItToHeck: Invoked; once [[spoiler:the Blue Gnome]] makes its appearance, Wayne insists on self censoring anything that could be taken as a sexual innuendo, to avoid making it appear again.
29	* HellIsThatNoise: The Gnome often emits a horrible discordant wail, which it insists is [[DreadfulMusician singing]]. [[spoiler:It eventually improves its technique.]]
30	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Surprisingly, the Gnome himself pulls this at the end by donning Wayne's Valve Index to trade realities with him again. According to Gabe's commentary The Gnome will no longer spawn in ''Half-Life: Alyx'' for Wayne so barring a miracle it's a permanent goodbye.]]
31	* IAmNotSpock: The Gnome insists on referring to Wayne as Gordon, believing him to be the protagonist from ''HL:VRAI''. [[BecomingTheMask Eventually, Wayne stops correcting him.]] [[invoked]]
32	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Half the Gnome's dialogue is just him disagreeing with himself. He explains that he has [[SplitPersonalityTeam multiple brains]], which each need to wait their turn to answer Gordon.
33	* ImplausibleDeniability: As part of the {{Kayfabe}}, Baaulp continues asserting that the Gnome just a mod with a bunch of pre-recorded voice lines, even as the Gnome makes several specific threats towards him.
34	* InelegantBlubbering: The Gnome's garbled speech is rendered as "sobbing", which he does when he's too upset. Or excited. Or bored. Or...
35	* InterfaceScrew: As the Gnome's meters become more intrusive, Wayne sometimes bumps or breaks them while moving in VR.
36	* {{Kayfabe}}: Just like ''HLVRAI'' was treated as if it was a genuine VR port of the first ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' with self-aware AI, the Gnome is treated as if it's simply just a very advanced mod [[spoiler: until the final stream, where the pretense is gradually dropped.]]
37	* KilledOffForReal: Trash compactors, as it turns out, can kill a Gnome permanently, as Wayne finds out when he tosses the Gnome into the compactor used to kill [[spoiler:The New Contestant]], but he reloads the save so as to continue the challenge. [[spoiler:He also uses it against the Blue Gnome to stop him from popping up any further.]]
38	* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: [[spoiler:The Blue Gnome makes his debut in the final act. The Gabe Newell commentary also starts appearing, but the Gnome claims to have made them. It's very heavily implied, however, that the commentary node in the Vault was by the real Gabe Newell himself.]]
39	* LovableSexManiac: By a certain measure of "[[LaughablyEvil lovable]]"; the Gnome is a serial polygamist, with multiple girlfriends and a husband, none of which know about each other. This is notably ''[[DefiedTrope not]]'' a feature of [[BlueAndOrangeMorality gnome culture]], he's just shamelessly cheating on all his partners.
40	** Notably {{Averted}} with [[spoiler:the Blue Gnome, who is unfailingly polite and friendly to Wayne but is ''insufferably'' sexual towards him. Wayne's horrified reactions to just ''hearing'' the Blue Gnome make it clear his advances are unwelcome.]]
41	* ALighterShadeOfBlack: The Gnome is an annoying thing that Wayne has to constantly keep in check, but [[spoiler:the Blue Gnome actively ''hurts'' Wayne if he holds it, so he ignores his pleas to go with him and not the red Gnome. Eventually, Wayne starts arguing in genuine favor of the Red Gnome against the Blue Gnome. Both Alex Trebek/The Voice and Gabe Newell make it clear that the blue gnome is an aberration, with the former warning Wayne that it still exists and to watch out, and the latter commenting that the Blue Gnome is not supposed to be in the game at all.]]
42	* MoodWhiplash: [[spoiler: Gabe Newell's Infodump about Half-Life's origins, and his pleas for Wayne to not progress any further through the final level]] are immediately followed up by [[spoiler: him announcing Valve's "newest game" Poop: The Power of Pee and how it's intentionally terrible.]]
43	* MisaimedRealism: [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]]. The Gnome has dozens of StatMeters, from a [[WizardNeedsFoodBadly hunger meter]] to a [[MustHaveNicotine cigarette meter]], all of which are constantly draining. He even has a [[ShapedLikeItself meter meter]]. [[invoked]]
44	* MustHaveNicotine: One of the Gnome's many meters is a "Cigarette Meter," requiring him to smoke often.
45	* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Gabe regrets creating ''Half-Life'', or rather, releasing it to humanity, and created the commentary nodes as an admission of guilt of sorts for the first person to play through the Gnome Challenge. He begs to whomever completes the Gnome Challenge to not go to the ending of the game.]]
46	* OrwellianRetcon: In the original streams, The Gnome's voice was briefly replaced by an AI text-to-speech version of [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Homestar Runner's]]. The condensed highlights replaced all instances of "Gnomestar's" voice with the original Gnome with rerecorded lines, and even went so far as to censor the chat in order to "keep [him] contained".
47	* OverlyLongGag: The gnome shows off its improved singing skills by singing the entire ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' theme. And then "[[VideoGame/{{Fortnite}} Chug Jug With You]]".
48	* RecursiveCanon: A bizarre case. The series begins as a stream between Wayne and Baaulp, seemingly not reprising their roles from ''Half Life: VR''. Nonetheless, the Gnome insists on referring to Wayne as [[IAmNotSpock "Gordon"]], even though Gordon isn't even the PlayerCharacter of the game. Wayne gives up on correcting him eventually, and starts answering to "Gordon". [[invoked]]
49	* RefugeeFromTVLand: At the end of the final stream, [[spoiler:the Gnome enters the real world and takes over Wayne's Twitch channel]].
50	* ShoutOut:
51	** The last stream features end credits that spin up the screen in the shape of a helix, exactly like the credits to ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion The End of Evangelion]]''. Very fitting, [[GainaxEnding considering how the stream itself ends]].
52	** At one point in the Final Act, The Gnome claims that he can speak Dutch. When Wayne asks him to demonstrate, he mentions someone named Arthur, and says that they'll be set for life after "One big score", a clear reference to [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2 Dutch van der Linde]].
53	* SignatureLaugh: The Gnome has a distinctive laugh, often transcribed as "HA HE!"
54	* StylisticSuck: [[spoiler:The Gnome's livestream at the end of the final act after he escapes into the real world. He's not very good at it, he regularly uses cheats, and the copy of Half-Life 2 he's playing is very, very broken. He doesn't even get through the first chapter before he gives up.]]
55	* SubvertedKidsShow: [[spoiler: What watching ''[[WesternAnimation/PeppaPig Peppa Pig]]'' ultimately meant to the gnome. Starting out as a StylisticSuck slideshow (credited to Gordon no less), then an edited episode with added [[BloodierAndGorier blood and violence]]... and then Peppa starts talking to Wayne directly.]]
56	* TooKinkyToTorture: [[spoiler:Wayne initially tries to dispatch the Blue Gnome by shooting him, until it turns out that the Blue Gnome actually enjoys being hit with his "hot load". Even when he meets his true end in the trash compactor, his screams sound rather... delighted.]]
57	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Foo Berries, a brand of berries licensed by the Music/FooFighters. How a band can have its own line of berries is never explained.
58	* {{Troll}}: The Gnome, full stop. He has no reason to antagonize Gordon as much as he does, often to his own detriment, except that [[ItAmusedMe he finds it funny]].
59	* VagueAge: The Gnome initially claims to be 4 ([[UnitConfusion though he never specifies "years"]]), but when called out for his TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior, he amends his story to say that, [[OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope for legal purposes]], he's 37. Not helping is that he has traits fitting both ages: he wants to eat candy and watch ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'', but also has a girlfriend, smokes cigarettes, and drinks liquor.
60	* VitriolicBestBuds: Wayne and the Gnome's relationship, which alternates between expressing care and affection for each other to hurling insults.
61	* WasItReallyWorthIt: [[spoiler: After the Gnome betrays Wayne and steals his place in the real world, he quickly comes to find streaming isn't as fun as he expected (he's also not very good at it, is playing a rather broken version of ''Half-Life 2'' and repeatedly uses cheats) and goes into a full MyGodWhatHaveIDone breakdown after he finds Wayne transformed into a completely inanimate and unable to speak Gnome and carries him around for a while. This leads to him reflecting on the new life he'd stolen and realizing he has to swap places with Wayne once again.]]
62	* WhamEpisode: The finale [[spoiler:reveals many things about ''Half-Life'', namely that Valve didn't create it and they simply got their hands on it, releasing it as their own property for profit. Gabe Newell hid commentary nodes in the Gnome Challenge for the first person to complete it to confide in his part in all of it. Then there's the ending, which is detailed in GainaxEnding above.]]
63	* WhamLine: [[spoiler: From the final commentary node in the Vault, and a part of a Wham Monologue, really:]]
64	-> [[spoiler: '''Gabe Newell:''' Half-Life... Half-Life is ''not'' what it seems. These games should ''never'' be played by mankind.]]
65	* WhamShot: [[spoiler: Wayne attempts to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere end the stream]] after entering the Vault, but as he takes off the headset it transitions to a first-person live-action sequence of his room...''with the game's HUD still visible in his point of view.'']]
66	* WoundedGazelleGambit: [[spoiler: The Gnome acts as if his memories are being taken from him and that he's being tortured in order to lure Wayne to the chamber the G-Man is usually in to pull him into the [[EldritchLocation White Forest]] and steal his place in reality.]]
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68	->[[BrickJoke Put me down.]]

Context WebVideo / HalfLifeAlyxButTheGnomeIsTooAware