Game that initially appears to be a porn VN starring a Perfectly Generic Male Protagonist, except when you get to the "here's how the sex mechanics work" portion of the intro the girl has a Magnitude 10 klutz moment and accidentally kills him, upon which the viewpoint switches to her and the rest of the game is a reverse investigative procedural about trying to cover up the fake lead's death.
(To be clear, while the game's narrative tone is moderately satirical, the non-fakeout lead herself isn't played for laughs, and she's actually pretty traumatised about accidentally killing a random hookup. There's a bad ending if you max out her mental stress meter where she ends up confessing to a murder she technically didn't commit.)
Its really funny reading your posts about the new Game Changer because for once I actually did end up catching this episode (of a show I don't watch) because it was voted for on a livestream site i frequent, but I missed nearly all of it because a user chose this episode to admit in chat that they were going through a gender crisis and all of us were helping them come to terms with being a woman while the episode was playing
First of all, sorry for taking so long to respond. Forgot to take my ADHD meds yesterday and ho boy, did it show.
Second, while that is a completely valid reason for missing the episode... this is also the episode that the most potential to be really confusing to those only half-paying attention. Like, I'm just imagining you looking back at the video after focusing on the chat for so long and being jumpscared by this:
I cannot stress enough that this meme is entirely literal. there's no reference or subtext you don't know. these are simply the objectively most popular works of art from each denomination.
okay i adore this episode and i think i'm just gonna keep adoring so here's a running list of things i love:
guys it got so long i put in a cut for scrolling purposes
catherine mccafferty
catherine's endless joy and fun and want to be good at game changer and how she reacted so positively to being told she was doing good
catherine's little comment about how fun the grant room was and the entire grant room laughing because of the absurdity
i don't have a crush on her to be clear i just like her
zach immediately getting into the dance with sam and ash and nico and when he was alone in the room posing with them all
demi and jacquis' banter about johnny while waiting for pic pong
anna garcia immediately dominating the game and then immediately stopping as soon as she realized she didn't have too
jiavadi constantly winning and getting more drinks and cycling between the tiki room and the main stage
ify and catherine being one room apart while in the big hallway
hannah blatantly flirting with the guard and honestly? i ship it he didn't seem too opposed
the outfits
anna and hannah agreeing that they had crushes on the announcer
zach and demi immediately agreeing
sam saying that it was "my wife"
and anna immediately responding with "I HAVE A CRUSH ON YOUR WIFE"
catherine mccafferty
anna's dead eyed stare once she decided to start losing
catherine frantically running around and trying to tell everyone what-
BECCA SCOTT????
-the game was despite directly before saying she would keep it a secret
becca scott's little look at the camera
catherine sitting in the identical desk chairs and pushing herself around
the nearly identical guys in the nearly identical rooms
everytime that they cut back to the tikki room whenever people were just chilling meanwhile others are going through the game
that part made me both anxious because i didn't want them to miss the game and later calm
anna clocking the infrared cams
"i would like to feel what's on the ground. how's everybody doing? climate wise it's nice and cool in here." - anna
The way everyone immediately trusted catherine's words about the game
i'm doing this out of order by the way if that's not totally clear
anna putting on the hat
the fact that the game in the nearly identical rooms required them to play the game in order to lose the game (FUN AS HELL BY THE WAY, GREAT MECHANICS)
"okay really cool" - catherine
ITS RUSSIAN NESTING DOLLS THE GAME
jiavani constantly returning to the main stage despite being told and clearly knowing that the point of the game was to lose
the moment the game in the tikki room started cause that was the moment i KNEW how fun it would be
when catherine lost in the pic pong and we got that pan of the other rooms
WIN CONDITION???
REALIZING THAT AT THIS POINT WE ARE JUST OVER HALFWAY THROUGH THE EPISODE AND THAT THIS IS NOT IN FACT THE END
HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK IN THE WISE WORDS OF ANGELA GIARRATANA HOLY TITS HOLY TITS (not in reference to anyone's tits, just how exciting the game is)
HAVING TO WIN TO MOVE FORWARD OH THIS GAME KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER
I WISH I WAS PLAYING BUT I DO THINK I'D START GOING A LITTLE MANIC AFTER THE GRANT ROOM
anna's reaction to the grant room
PLUS the grant's chanting in sync with the lights pulsating cause WOW culty
"this is my worst nightmare" - anna
"mine too!" - grant
"no," - grant
"sorry grant" "sorry grant" "excuse me grant" "im sorry grant" "sorry grant" "excuse me grant" "sorry grant"
i just realized i've been maniacally giggling for an unknown amount of time
everything about the grant room
jiavani returning to the main stage clearly with just more and more stuff from the tikki room that i'm realizing he just starting stealing
"my lack of consistency might surprise or upset you" - sam
THE RICE TABLE CLOTH AND THE STING TO GO WITH IT THAT ALMOST BLASTED MY EARDRUMS OUT
"i dunno, dorothy scarecrow" - hannah
the players taking their drinks everywhere with them
"i see fields of green, red roses too," - demi
SOMEHOW CATHERINE AND ANNA ARE GOING BETWEEN THE SAME TWO ROOMS AND NOT RUNNING INTO EACH OTHER??? EDITING IS FUCKING WITH ME
i just wanna see them high five in the hallway
OH SHIT THEY DID
"they're the rooms" "three differences between the rooms?" "yes"
"HI FRIEND"
the music for the final room
catherine finding grant so fast
how many fucking tokens they must have
"sorry guys!" "no, no, hang out!"
GRANT WITH THE PONYTAIL
ify genuinely trying to help anna
the fact that WE DONT KNOW THE WIN CONDITION
the hardcut from serious music and that look on anna's face to "jiavani did the best here's what she had to say" *bleats like a goat*
"they love backdoor piloting things on dropout" - grant "yeah this is the backdoor pilot for '25 grants'" - other grant GRANT LAUGHTER
I LOVE THE GRANT ROOM
some people will love the grant room because they want to be trapped inside of it, i love it because i like thinking about all those actors coming home like "i got a gig but it was fucking weird man" and then being like "oh shit yeah not as weird as that i guess i had a pretty normal day comparatively"
ANNA TAKING PHOTOS OF THE ROOMS
"i need my clothes" "OH ON YOU"
"YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO FIND GRANT, TEN, NIN-" "I got you"
(awkward silence)
the wide on sam
catherine putting her hair up cause getting through the rooms is easy but getting out is hard
DEMI'S HAIR HOW HAVE I NOT MENTIONED IT
"AAAAAGH" "So what you're gonna want to do-"
I LOVE THIS EPISODE
OH SHIT THAT'S HIS JUICE RECIPE FUN
zach figuring out that you need three people in the tikki room to trigger the game
jordan in the massage chair
zach feeding the answer to the guy
"the time will become apparent when you need it" ?????????????????????
"FUU---"
sam being alone on the stage and getting polite little snickers from the crew
okay guys i'm getting frustrated now
this is some lords in black shit
ohhhhh wait guys sam is SUCH a lord in black this is so pokotho coded
SOLVED IT THAT'S GAME CHANGER GAME CHANGER IS POKOTHO
okay actually if you see that in a sperate post by me its cause i decided it was worthy of its own post but know i thought of that here
catherine launching into the grants to find him
i forget that room 4 truly is pitch black
demi and ify going back and forth and back and forth between the rooms endlessly
THIS IS AN INSAELY LONG POST
SAM DOING THE WENIS
demi dragging himself along the floor
"neck game on point"
guys i think i was wrong i think i do have a crush on catherine
being able to hear grant outside of the grant room
everytime we pause on the grant room
jiavani just chilling in the tikki room
the way the people in the blackout room always end up on the floor
oh i haven't mentioned the RICE SING ALONG CAPTIONS????
ify laughing at demi showing back up in the tikki room
hannah immediately panicking when left on her own
demi disassociating during london bridge
"for an hour?" THE GRANTS HAVE BEEN THERE FOR SO LONG i know there are other people but I'M JUST THINKING ABOUT THE GRANTS IM SORRY
there's a word
silence on the stage
ELAINE
IFYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
IT BEING THAT???? THE CHANCES OF SOMEONE SAYING THAT RANDOMLY ARE INSANELY HIGH
ash's makeup
ALL THE GRANTS ON THE MAIN STAGE
okay that was one of the best game changers ever for me personally
immediate top 5 game changer episode btw there’s just so much to love. the slow reveal of the rooms. ify being the first to lose in room 1. catherine mccafferty being the episode’s main character and breakout star. the set design for all of the rooms but ESPECIALLY the spot the difference ones. 25 grants. the friendship(?) between hannah and the bouncer for room 2. demi accidentally plotting his own downfall by saying pop goes the weasel at the same time as hannah. sam trying to fill time while waiting for a player to win their way back up. the pic pong got him. a true fucking delight all the way down and back up again
Thinking about the "mentor apprentice swap au" and I think a fun way to approach it would be to have Tigerpaw/claw still be the one doing most of the assassinations... but it's for Ravencall's sake.
I've always pictured Warrior!Ravenpaw as being something of a Cloak and Dagger type, preferring stealth and subterfuge over direct confrontation, as a result of needing to survive Tigerclaw (or in this au's case, Thistleclaw).
So while publicly, Tigerpaw is annoyed by his mentor's seemingly pacifistic approach, in private where Ravencall's true methods come to light, he actually respects the hell out of his mentor and his willingness to get his paws dirty and skirt around that pesky Code for the greater good to the Clan. In fact, in Tigerpaw's eyes, he's the only one worthy leading the Clan.
Needless to say, once Tigerclaw finally gets caught in the act, Ravencall is horrified at the monster he had a paw in creating.
Oh that would be fun, especially as I would imagine Ravencall's stealth and subterfuge was always genuinely about helping and avoiding conflict and genuine desire for pacifism, but if caught he'd panic and stammer out some excuse to make it seem like he's getting something out of it that Tigerpaw would just take as face value and teach him about lying and stuff while Ravencall is just trying to pass down actual conflict resolution stuff.
This is kinda how I'm picturing Redtails death going down in this theoretical AU
Tigerpaw and Ravencall are at the fight where Ravencall agrees with the retreat but before he runs tries to find Tigerpaw to ensure he gets out as he was too excited and he doesn't want him to be left behind only to see tigerpaw call out to Redtail for help because he got "stuck under a rock" by the water, and then suddenly shove Redtail into the water, where he drowns despite Ravencall rushing to try and get him out.
Ravencall freaks the fuck out and for the sake of his sanity doubles down on this idea that Redtail fell into the water and was not pushed. As he carries his body to camp and looks away guiltily as Tigerpaw talks about how during the retreat Redtail was suddenly shoved into the water by a Riverclan warrior and while Ravencall fought them off it was too late for Redtail who drowned. While Ravencall can't bring himself to actively accuse his own apprentice, of MURDER and forces himself to believe the story, it still heavily changes how he treats Tigerpaw in a lot of ways, and causing him to start isolating Tigerpaw from other apprentices for the safety of the other apprentices.
Just doing a lot of red herring behavior around how he treats Tigerpaw that catches the attention of Lionpaw and Firepaw who are worried about Tigerpaw, Firepaw just in general even though Tigerpaw is a big jerk to him, and Lionpaw because he knows Tigerpaw and he's acting really weird to a concerning degree. Especially as Tigerpaw's story of what exactly happened when Redtail died keeps shifting around because he like 8 moons old and not exactly a master manipulator yet.
Ravencall is having a bad day.
If you want to add onto the angst even more or have Ravencall be ignorant to the murder while still having a witness you can swap Sandpaw and Whitestorm and have Whitepaw instead witness the murder and cover up and be very torn up about it because that's his friend but also there needs to be justice (or depending on the canon you use, that was his fucking dad) especially since Tigerpaw knows he saw and he's getting concerned with how intense Tigerpaw is acting towards him
Really you can go like a million different directions with this, which is why I'm surprised there haven't really been any big mentor apprentice swap aus
You know I'm really surprised I've never seen any like, mentor apprentice swap aus. Like... you take into the wild and instead of graypaw and ravenpaw you have the very stoic Lionpaw with his much more relaxed mentor Graystripe and Tigerpaw who's a bit too fierce with his more anxious and pacifistic mentor of Ravencall.
If you want to go all the way you could also swap bluestar and rusty and adjust the prophecy to match or something, but it's fun either way to think about how the story might change or what kind of choices you could make. Like do you lean in on the old plot and figure out a conspiracy treason plot for Ravencall, or do you add more confusion with Tigerpaw seeming to talk over or ignore his mentor and maybe he's planning something?
I could imagine an opening scene where Rusty is going into the forest and instead of Graypaw he gets jumped by Lionpaw and they fight but instead of stopping because Graypaw got like, bored. Maybe Rusty throws Lionpaw off him to the ground but waits for him to get back up before fighting more and Lionpaw is like "oh! a kittypet with a sense of honor?" and strikes up conversation.
izzy806
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
yousharknotpass
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
amandla
