Recap / Invader Zim S 1 E 23 Game Slave 2

The sequel to Gaz's favorite video game goes on sale tonight at midnight and she has to get a copy of it. Unfortunately, her father forces her to be accompanied by Dib, who won't leave until tonight's episode of Mysterious Mysteries is over, and by the time they get there, the line for the video game store wraps around the mall. Gaz manages to shake off Dib, but then spends the next several hours in line listening to an obnoxious gamer named Iggins go on about what an amazing gamer he is.

By the time Gaz's turn comes, the game has already sold out and won't get another shipment for a month. Iggins, however, manages to snag a reserved copy by claiming to be the person it was reserved for. Enraged by having what's rightfully hers snatched out from under her nose, Gaz stalks Iggins and psychologically tortures him until he gives the game up. Meanwhile, Dib gets lost in the mall's parking garage.

Tropes

• A Day in the Limelight: For Gaz, despite she gets limited screen time and most of the attention falls on Iggins.
• Author Appeal: Jhonen Vasquez has said that this episode and others involving video games are his own love letter to the medium.
• Berserk Button: Do not keep Gaz from her video games and definitely don't deny her the opportunity to get the last copy of a new game.
• Determinator: The last copy of Game Slave 2 belongs to Gaz. It doesn't matter if it technically doesn't even belong to the person who has it (he falsely claimed to be the person it was reserved for), or that it's just a video game. She will force Iggins to give his copy up because it's her's. It just is.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Gaz systematically stalks and terrorizes Iggins into giving up his copy of Game Slave 2.
• Everybody Has Standards: Despite having skewed priorities, Gaz doesn't go too far in some aspects.
  • While Gaz is understandably furious that she arrived late to buy a Game Slave 2 because Dib wanted to finish watching Mysterious Mysteries^note As their father had said that he didn't want her to be going out on her own at night., instead of taking it out on him, she merely distracts him by telling him that there's a Chupacabra in the nearby parking lot. The worst he gets out of it is getting lost, bumping into some harmless “rat people,” and wanders off in the street in confusion at the end of the episode.
  • Despite how abrasive her strategies were towards getting her Game Slave 2 from Iggins, it should be noted that she didn't outright steal it from him. Before he left the mall, she offers to pay him back for the game before he blows her off. And while they're both in the battery store elevator, she warns him once more to give her the game while having the money in her hand to pay him.
    Gaz: (Angrily) That one is rightfully mine! I'll buy it from you but there's no way you're keeping it, not without invoking my wrath anyhow!
    Iggins: (Oblivious) You know, you need help.
• Failed a Spot Check: In his haste to get away from the rat people, Dib somehow misses the exit door that was right behind him.
  • For that matter, the rat people themselves for claiming there’s “no way out” despite the exit being right in front of them. You can’t even explain this as them having gone mad from being trapped down there for so long, as that STILL would’ve required them to not see the exit long enough for them to deteriorate into rat people in the first place.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: After surrendering the game to Gaz, Iggins very well could have just stepped out of the elevator before the rope snapped and it plummeted downward. Instead, he spent all of this precious time to rant about how no matter what Gaz does, she will never be a better gamer than him. Gaz may have defeated him, but his own ego finished him off.
• If I Can't Have You…: Gaz is willing to let both her and Iggins die in a hundred-story elevator drop if he doesn't give over his video game.
• Killed Off for Real: Averted. Iggins was meant to die when the elevator crash at the end, but Executive Meddling said no, so the crew tacked on a silly ending where he bursts out of the wreckage and strikes a victorious pose.
• Motor Mouth: Iggins talks a lot. Mostly about himself and what a great gamer he is.
• Out of Focus: The second episode not to feature Zim and the first in which he isn't even mentioned.
• Shout-Out: One of the rat people tells Dib, "I was once a man!"
  Dib: But, you're a woman.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Iggins will take any and every opportunity to gush about how he's the best gamer there is.
• Skewed Priorities: Both Iggins and Gaz. Iggins is willing to let some creepy girl stalk and torture him if it means holding onto his video game and Gaz is willing to let both of them die if he doesn't.
  • A smaller case with Dib when he encounters the rat people, immediately going from expressing shock to simply asking if they know where the exit is.