Anti-Extremism Game Accidentally Spawns Far-Right ‘Cute Goth E-Girl’ Meme

Pathways, a “bespoke interactive learning” game developed in collaboration with the “political literacy” platform Shout Out UK and funded by the British government, has inadvertently spawned a “cute goth e-girl” meme. The game was meant to fight anti-immigrant extremism, but now its character has been turned into a pro-right-wing symbol.

Developed by the Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire council in collaboration with Shout Out UK, Pathways is a barebones visual novel web game that puts you in the shoes of Charlie, a college-aged boy or girl who has a terrible habit of running into bizarre political radicalization scenarios. It’s being touted as a tool that teachers can use to combat the “promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance.”

The "worst" ending btw #Amelia #Pathways pic.twitter.com/v7kZ3N9oMi

— Bee CrayZee (@Bee_CrayZee) January 12, 2026

The level-headed critique of Pathways is that its content and choices are sparse. The idea that a minute-long PowerPoint slideshow-style narrative could fully address extremism and radicalization is laughable, but the railroaded, overly domineering choices will doubtlessly also come off as ham-fisted to the same people it’s meant to reach.

Instead, it’s the online right that’s propelled Pathways into memedom. The result has been the sudden influx of AI-generated “cute goth e-girl” fan-art (if you can call it “art”) in some corners of the internet, based on Amelia, Pathways’ racist, yet alternatively-styled, antagonist.

She’s exploded in popularity on alt-right leaning subreddits like r/Asmongold, who immediately saw a vision of their perfect woman in Amelia. As a result, the meme spread to X. Since then, users have been making Grok work overtime, generating hundreds of Amelia images for the platform’s far-right crowd to enjoy.

Some of the blame here lies with whoever designed Pathways’ artwork. Making a goth-adjacent female racist be the only character in your game with a distinctive design, and then having them become more attached to the protagonist if they choose to support anti-immigration ideas and policies, was certainly a choice. I can’t help but feel that whoever designed Amelia has clearly never met a teenager before. That being said, the Reze/Amelia meme on the r/Chainsawfolk subreddit is very, very funny.