Nov 06, 2019 Alice Madness Returns Carpenter By Sprinklingunicorns On Deviantart Madness By Silver Chan Black Butler And Alice Returns The World Beyond Advanced Role Play Charries Showing 1 22 Of.
Alice: Madness Returns is the sequel to the third person action-adventure game American McGee's Alice.
Alice[edit]
- My Wonderland is shattered. It's dead to me.
- Another day, a different dream perhaps.
- Is it mad to pray for better hallucinations?
- I know what's real!
- I know I'm guilty of something, but punishment hardly ever suits the victims of a crime.
- Who set that bloody train in motion? Where has it come from?
- You've used me and abused me, but you will not destroy me!
- It's not a dream. It's a...memory. And it makes me sick!
- Wonderland has become quite strange. How is one to find her way?
- This is good for me. I'm not insane! I didn't kill my family. I am fine. I'm not mad. I am innocent, I mean, not guilty!
- I've not come back here looking for a fight.
- I want to forget! Who would choose to be alone, imprisoned by their broken memories? [bitter]
- I know their pain. I would assist. But is sanity required for the job?
- Blasted Cat!
Cheshire Cat[edit]
- Puurrfect. When you're not on edge, you're taking up too much space.
- Threats, promises and good intentions don't amount to action.
- Every picture tells a story. Sometimes we don't like the ending. Sometimes we don't understand it.
- Ah, Alice. We can't go home again. No surprise really. Only a very few find the way, and most of them don't recognize it when they do. Delusions, too, die hard with memory. Only the savage regard the endurance of pain as the measure of worth. Forgetting pain is convenient, remembering it: agonizing. But recovering the truth is worth the suffering and our Wonderland, though damaged, is safe in memory... for now.
- Abandon that hope! A new law reigns in this wonderland Alice, it's very rough justice all around. We're at risk here. You, be on your guard.
- A secret is only a secret when it is unspoken to another.
- Different denotes neither bad nor good, but it certainly means not the same.
- Only the insane equate pain with success.
- Only fools believe that suffering is just wages for being different.
- Every adventure requires a first step. Trite, but true, even here.
- The uninformed must improve their deficit, or die
- Only a few find the way, some don't recognize it when they do - some... don't ever want to.
- Haste makes waste, so I rarely hurry. But if a ferret were about to dart up my dress, I'd run.
- A reflection sometimes exposes more reality than the object it echoes.
Mad Hatter[edit]
- The world is upside-down, Alice. Inmates run the asylum - no offence - and worst of all... I'm left tea-less!
- The insolence, the arrogance the execrable table manners! They are destroyers of Wonderland! Defilers! Denuders! Derangers! Delightful...
- The law is just. Just a whisper away. Who knows how to measure rules? With a ruler! Cruel rules.
- Everything's a nail, is it, Miss Hammerhead? First it was your search, freighted with fear and fragmented memories. Now it's the train! Never time for tea. While your brain's on holiday, we're ruined! Now we're all mad here and that's a good excuse for going to hell in a teapot, but not for forgetting what your senses saw.
- Forgetting's just forgetting, except when it's not. Then they call it something else. I'd like to forget what you did. I've tried, but I can't.
The Queen of Hearts[edit]
- A good guest does not overstay, a perfect guest stays home!
- The train is trying to destroy all evidence of your past and especially the fire. Now, who would want that? Who benefits from your madness?
- There is no method in this madness!
- Authority must be obeyed, or it must be overthrown!
- What you claim not to know is merely what you've denied. You've recaptured your vagrant memories. What are you doing with them?
- You shouldn't ask questions you know the answer to, it's not polite.
- Make your survival mean something, or we are all doomed!
- I may survive here, but you're finished!
- You don't know your own mind!
Dr Bumby[edit]
- Memory is more often a curse than a blessing.
- The cost of forgetting is high.
- The past must be paid for.
- A flower's purpose is simple and immutable. Human purpose is fickle because it is a slave to memory. Memories must be strictly managed, Alice. Unproductive ones must be eliminated.
Other[edit]
- Nurse Witless: Still a mess, no surprise. Her kin roasted like chestnuts right before her eyes. Ten years in Rutledge Asylum wasted everyone's time! Dr Bumby won't do better. Still hauling out her questions: the fire, her memory. I deserve consideration, don't I? Who found her her new clothes? Who got her a place at Bumby's? Where she'd be without me? On the street, selling her backside! Likes my pigeons, though. She's doled out the odd pound or two. But I know what's worth more than that! Kept her secret, haven't I? Heard her say 'All died on my account, I couldn't save you!' I've told her my silence is for sale, cheap! I'm a good sort, really, not like her nanny, that uppity whore! Or that lawyer fellow Radcliffe [who] took her stupid rabbit! Need money... warned her I'd tell the coppers if she didn't make a 'donation' to my upkeep. She yells and goes off her head. Days she can't remember her name, what I heard.
- Dr Bumby: Come, Alice, am I not to be as much honoured and obeyed as the Queen? Is that asking too much? I want what she wanted. Give yourself over to that: trade the tentacles for the train. It's altogether a better ride. It's that or back to Rutledge!
- Nurse Witless: Never a kind word or reward for services rendered! Don't I deserve a bit of luck? Don't piss on what's right and owing to me, I say! Brought you out of the asylum, now you'll go back of your own accord!
- Nanny: I told your mother, dear. You're a distant and stubborn child, too content in her own world. Young women need to leave their wonderlands. The real world is not so 'wonderful'. You'll need to grow up. Perhaps some more time in 'care'?
- Radcliffe: You look decent enough. But appearances deceive: I know you for an unstable and violent person! I can't say I'm surprised you've been incarcerated in the asylum again. A long stay under supervision would serve you right!
- Dr. Wilson: 'Flight or Fight' implies a permanent choice. But 'flight' often just means putting the fight off to another day. Choose your battles wisely, Alice.
- Walrus' Poem:
- Sword and crown are worthless here,
- I invite everyone to dance
- Labourers, lawyers, church and gown all make their little prance.
- This life is full of random death
- And heaps of grief and shame,
- So few are soothed by 'accident'
- You want someone to blame.
- Fire, plague or strange disease,
- Drowned, murdered or, if you please,
- A long fall down the basement stairs
- None are expected, no one cares.
- I often must work very hard
- Sweat running down my skin,
- After the dance I then must rest
- And the eating can begin.
Dialogue[edit]
- Alice: At least the place I've landed is somewhat familiar
- Cheshire Cat: [Suddenly materializing] About time, too, Alice.
- Alice: Blasted cat! Don't try to bully me. I'm very much on edge!
- Cheshire Cat: Purrfect. When you're not on edge, you're taking up too much space.
- Alice: You are no help at all!
- Cheshire Cat: But you know I can be.
- Alice: I'll frighten myself when necessary, thanks very much. I was hoping to escape all that!
- Cheshire Cat: Abandon that hope! A new law reigns in 'this' Wonderland, Alice, it's very rough justice all round. We're at risk here, you be on your guard!
- Duchess: Ah it's you again, Alice. You may approach.
- Alice: Why would I do that? You want to eat me!
- Duchess: Yes, well you taught me manners and I've lost my taste for mad women; strictly a porcine diet for me. Everything is better with bacon, don't you agree? Of course you do. Now, there are pig snots scattered about. I heard a few behind the house; go fetch them for me. But take care of the pests that block your way. Pepper them up if they do. They need spice and you're just the dish -- ehm -- girl to season them for me. You'll find that grinder serviceable.
- Alice: Why not season your own pig parts?
- Duchess: Matters of priorities! My Alabaster skin needs protection from the disgusting creatures running amok amidst the environs. But one gets peckish! Look, all you have to do is listen for the oink, then shoot the snout! You may like the results. I certainly will.
- Alice: The Hatter's Domain, almost as I remember it!
- Cheshire Cat: Appearances, as you know better than most, can be deceiving, Alice. Much has changed since your last visit.
- Alice: Dr Bumby says change is 'constructive', that 'different' is good.
- Cheshire Cat: Different denotes neither 'bad' nor 'good', but it certainly means not the same! Find the Hatter, Alice. He knows more about 'different' than you.
- Alice: But does he know more about the difference between bad and good?
- Cheshire Cat: [noticing the Bolterflies attacking] Making friends, Alice? You're as randomly lethal and entirely confused as you ever were.
- Alice: I've managed without you so far, Cat. Return to whatever hovel's home to you, I'll call if I need you.
- Cheshire Cat: Predictably rash. It's not a question of 'if', Alice, it's 'when'. Now hold on, and as they say, 'shut up'! [he disappears]
- Alice: So typical.
- Mock Turtle: You'd better come aboard, Alice. We're doomed, of course!
- Alice: What? There's no hope, then?
- Mock Turtle: Oh, there's an infinite amount of hope, but not for us!
- Mock Turtle: Confounded beasts, they want my ship!
- Alice: I think you're more to their taste.
- Mock Turtle: [outraged] Never! We're almost relatives!
- Alice: You're related to soup, Admiral.
- Caterpillar: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!
- Alice: A single step off London Bridge could end my journey...
- Caterpillar: Failure as your epitaph? I'd hoped you were more courageous!
- Alice: I've come all this way to find a simulacrum?!
- Caterpillar: If I had the time, I'd detail how often you prefer dealing with illusions rather than the real thing. Problems you refuse to deal with don't exist! You deny reality!
- Alice: That's not right! I know what's real!
- Caterpillar: No! You allow others to tell you what isn't real.
- Alice: My memories are shattered! This wicked train has ruined nearly all I can recall and Wonderland will perish completely as I lose my mind. So much has changed... I can't help Wonderland if I can't help myself!
- Caterpillar: Much has changed, but you've got it backwards: save Wonderland and you may save yourself! The Carpenter was on to something, but he was hiding from the real. Your goal is to accept it!
- Alice: Where should I go, then? What should I do?
- Caterpillar: The Queen must be served, Alice. The Queen, in all her guises, must always be served.
- Alice: How can she stem this growing corruption or assist my search? What does she know that I don't?
- Caterpillar: She is someone you once knew and loved. Time changes us all.
- Alice: Not all change is good!
- Caterpillar: Remember that when you find the Queen!
- Cheshire Cat: Back to admire your handiwork? Returning to the scene of the crime?
- Alice: It had to be done, Cat, you said so yourself! 'You and this Red Queen cannot both survive. She is a cancer in your body. Excise her or perish!'
- Cheshire Cat: Well, she was the face of evil in the heart of darkness...
- Alice: She didn't treat you too well last time, lost your head as I recall!
- Cheshire Cat: She was completely deranged. You picked up her crown, but now you've put it down. You must speak to her; what's left of her, anyway.
- Alice: The Red Kingdom's in ruins, but you're no better off!
- White King: When you defeated her, I tried to reclaim the castle, but I was set upon by her monstrosities. The malignant royal bitch still reigns.
- Alice: I'm here to petition her. I must get inside.
- White King: The only way in is through me. Sacrifices must be made.
- Alice: Those who say so usually mean 'they should be made by others'.
- White King: Cynicism is a disease! It can be cured. Once inside, beware of the outsized killer who patrols her domain. Never confront him; he is invincible. Now cut me loose: I'll show you the meaning of 'sacrifice'!
- Alice: [to the Queen] I was expecting someone else!
- Queen of Hearts: You don't know your own mind!
- Alice: It's nearly a complete stranger!
- Queen of Hearts: What you claim not to know is merely what you've denied. You've recaptured your vagrant memories: what are you doing with them?! You once rejected my attempts to control our lives forcefully, but now you've allowed another to succeed in my role!
- Alice: I won't miss your tentacles.
- Queen of Hearts: [infuriated] You'd prefer the hot stinking breath and unyielding attentions of a potent, unreasoning, unfeeling hellraiser?! I don't think so!
- Alice: Can you give me more than a warning? Caterpillar said you might help!
- Queen of Hearts: I'd need a better reason to respond than what's currently on offer!
- Alice: If you don't, we're all doomed!
- Queen of Hearts: Not doomed. Forgotten! I may survive here, but you're finished! You see the pattern of destruction, I know you do! The train is trying to destroy all evidence of your past and especially the fire. Now, who would want that? Who benefits from your madness?!
- Alice: The destruction of Wonderland... is the destruction of me?!
- Queen of Hearts: Indeed! And vice versa!
- Alice: I've set it in motion, I can derail it. This is good for me! I'm not insane! I didn't kill my family. I am fine. I'm not mad, I'm innocent - I mean, not guilty! [sees the tentacles wrapping around her] What's happening, what are you doing?!
- Queen of Hearts: The train must be stopped, but there's more to do. Your view conceals a tragedy. The whole truth you 'claim' to seek eludes you because you won't look at what's around you! [swallows Alice; Inside Alice's memories] There is no method in this madness!
- Dr Wilson: My professional opinion? Madness is often a treatable disease, though perhaps not in this case.
- Queen of Hearts: Authority must be obeyed, or it must be overthrown!
- Nurse Witless: 'Cruel to be kind', that's my technique as they say, but she's as mad as a hatter, poor dearie!
- Dr Bumby: Worst is over, and over, and over. Forget it, Alice - forget it!
- Insane Child: The unstable are more than merely mad: they have 'other parts'. The Dollmaker will deprive them of what remains of their deranged souls. They need care!
- Alice: I know their pain. I would assist, but is sanity required for the job?
- Insane Child: A limited quantity. You're not mad enough to be rejected. You're like them, of them in a way, but not them. I should say 'not us', for I'm them, but you are on your way. The way is clearly marked.
- Alice: I believe I know that way and I'd rather not travel further along it.
- Alice: My Lizzie... What is this train's destination?
- Queen of Hearts: Madness and Destruction. You shouldn't ask the questions you know the answers to, it's not polite. And that noise wasn't Lizzie talking in her sleep.
- Alice: Oh no... Poor Lizzie!
- Queen of Hearts: And there are no centaurs in Oxford. Make your survival mean something or we are all doomed!
- Caterpillar: Come to receive your punishment then?
- Alice: I know I'm guilty of something, but punishment never suits the victims of the crime.
- Caterpillar: Abuse is a crime the strong visit on the weak, and you're right, abusers are insufficiently punished for the damage they do. Those who witness abuse without seeking retribution for the harmed pay a penalty. Your own pain mitigates your failure to act earlier, but you may not yet have paid enough for witnessing the pain of others...
- Alice: Is there really so little hope?
- Cheshire Cat: There is even less. And if fear paralyzes you... we're lost.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/AliceMadnessReturns
Go To
The general consensus from playing this game is that all of the 'Wonderland' segments (I.E most of the game) is in her head. That might not entirely be the case. Why does Bumby see Alice in her blue dress before he is killed? Because her 'Persona', which previously only existed inside of her psyche, has now has now emerged. Instead of common psychic powers, she can manifest weapons out of thin air, transform her body into blue monarchs, etc.- Then again, Bumby may not be seeing Alice as she appears to us, since generally what we see is what Alice sees. He could have just been surprised at the Death Glare she gave him and the fact that she was standing up to him at all, but still only seeing her as the real world Alice.
- Now that you mention it...if she gain her Wonderland powers in real life, then why didn't she use her vorpal blade, pepper grinder, hobby horse, or all of the above? Maybe she figured she wouldn't need to use any of those things. Or maybe she wanted him to die by train. It's not entirely clear...
- American McGee'scommentary seems to support the original argument.
Advertisement:
When Alice actually recovers a bit, symbolized by destroying the 'corrupt' Queen, it is marked not by the Queen's destruction, but her purification into a new form-what a shadow is supposed to be, rather then the cancerous growth that destroyed Alice's psyche. She's not friendly, by any estimation, but that's normal' the shadow very much is an Enemy Within, helping one define one's identity by being what one wishes to avoid. It also serves as a catalyst of evolution-the drive to be more than one's flaws.
Advertisement:
Thus, when Bumby attempts to turn Alice back into a pliable wreck, the new, psychologically healthy Queen fights back, as the Train threatens the dissolution of the psyche-something that the shadow is supposed to prevent.
Alice Madness Returns Carpenter Fanfic
That's why he has that peg leg instead and why he's trying his best to keep him away from the Wonderland and feed him the inhabitants of Deluded Depths.
Lizzie is angry against Bumby for raping and killing her, and possesses her still-alive younger sister Alice to get her revenge against Bumby. It is clearly evident as the Queen of Hearts herself has the appearance of Lizzie. After her death, Lizzie has become angry and bitter with the knowledge of what happened to her, as well as the threat Alice is facing.
Advertisement:
The Queen of Hearts gets angry at Alice and scolds her when Alice is unclear about things, asks her questions or tries to insist that she is not insane. The Queen criticizes Alice by saying 'You don't know your own mind' as well as Alice's denial, 'What you claim not to know is only what you've denied'. When Bumby tries to make Alice forget her memories, and after Alice has collected them back, the Queen asks 'What are you doing with them?' She also gets angry at the thought of Alice being defeated by Bumby and asscociates him with unpleasant terms 'You'd prefer the hot, stinking, breath and unyielding attention of a potent, unreasoning, unfeeling hell-raiser? I don't think so.' she reminds Alice of the train and what it is trying to do, especially that it is destorying her memories, of the fire in particular. When Alice insists that she is not mad and not guilty, she says, 'The truth you claim to seek eludes you because you won't look at what's around you!', angry that Alice cannot figure it out that Bumby is the cause of her madness. And before Alice's encounter with Bumby, when she asks the Queen what the Infernal Train's destination is, she says 'madness and destruction.' hinting that if Alice should be defeated by Bumby then Alice is doomed to insanity and physical decay due to her fate as a prostitute. She continues with 'You shouldn't ask questions you know the answers to, it's not polite. And that noise wasn't Lizzie talking in her sleep.', again agitated that Alice would ask questions to things that are obvious to Lizzie, that this is all Bumby's fault, and venomously reveals the truth of her own fate to Alice.
Alice, satisfyingly horrified, overcomes her fear of Bumby and escapes of his control to gather enought courage in real life to kill Bumby by pushing him across the train track, hence avenging Lizzie.
- According to the art book, the Queen's face is supposed to be young Alice, not Lizzie. Lizzie was several years older than Alice, presumably a teenager at the point of her death, not a little girl. The Queen appears to be the part of Alice that isn't in denial about what happened in that faithful night this time round.
A girl (with long hair and not lacking at all in the beauty department) struggles to regain control over her world, destroys monsters and overcomes daunting obstacles while wearing a dress, ribbons, stockings, gloves, a necklace and an apron. What does she fight with? A knife, a pepper grinder, a teapot (items used in cooking), a clockword rabbit, a hobby horse (toys and hence taking care of children) and dodges with a parasol. She manages to triumph over a man, regain control of her world and herself, avoid a fate as a prostitute by bringing the man (who is a rapist and a pimp) to justice by killing him and avenging her family and unfortunate previously-raped sister. Doesn't that just sound feminisitic?
- Victorian London was not a pleasant place for a vulnerable teenage girl like Alice. It isn't too feministic with the prostitution and rape because it's Truth in Television. The knife is, well, a knife; the Pepper grinder is an allusion to the pepper mad cook of the Duchess and the teapot references the Hatter's tea party.
Alice Madness Returns Wiki
-esque.- I always thought this was the intention in the first place.
- As for caterpillar, he serves as the wise hermit but there's reason on the basis of suspicion that he's working for/with Cheshire.
- Let's not forget in Queensland that eat me cake conveniently sitting on a table. Who left the executioner's weaksauce weakness there in the first place? The Red Queen wouldn't've left it there, unless...
- Well, the Cheshire Cat is infamous for useless - I'm sorry - cryptic advice but also for being Alice's best friend and moral support. It would make sense for him to use his teleportation to help her in small ways. Not to mention that he is just as terrified of the Train as everyone else and has a sense of self preservation, him leaving the cake might not be that far off.
The start of chapter 5 wasn't a flashback. Alice ended up back in the asylum, possibly as Bumby realized how bad a job he was doing of making her forget and didn't want her to tell anyone what he was doing. She was either lobotomized (hence why she was bald for that segment?) or just having another one of her Wonderland hallucinations (but one that carried over to the 'real world'). So, she remembered what happened to her family, sussed out that Bumby was pimping the orphanage kids, and avenged Lizzie, but justice was never served in reality; the 'doctor' is going to carry on with what he was doing and Alice is going to be incarcerated in Rutledge for gods know how long. How's that for a Downer Ending, eh?- I would have to disagree. The alicewiki page for this suggests that Alice's father wrote the stories for her. Lewis Carroll is never mentioned in-game. If you want to go based on history Lewis was the Liddell family friend for a few years leading up to the fire. The problem lies with the fact that the year before the fire based on a few missing pages in Lewis's diaries that something happened to make the Carroll-Liddell friendship to become unstable. The friendship became distant and then nonexistent. Besides I would think he would've stepped in as Alice's legal guardian thus avoiding Bumby completely. No, if the White Knight does appear he would be... someone else completely different.
- She had been suffering horrible times since her house was burnt down. She didn't has anybody to take care of her, nor an uncle or aunt, nor grandparents. She have to ressort to Wonderland, because the world has been so harsh to her for ten years, more than half her life. If this story is going to have a happy end, it must have a Real World Person that cares about her. And I say Person, not a Complete Monster! I would be glad to see Lewis, as a white knight, helping her.
- The whole story seems to make more sense if you bring this monster to the equation. She spent her whole life in an asylum, so her only memories and experiences would be her happy infancy with her parents and the horrible time with the psiquiatrists, who commited her to tortures. In the last episodes, there are sexual themes that only a Complete Monster could have put in a child's mind.
- Her mind was already shattered. She just added another layer of delusion on top of what was already going on there - Bumby was the only person who managed to get close to her to let her open up a little, and then proceeded to poke around in her mind. Regardless of his intention, at that point, Alice's mental defense kicks in - he's in her mind, doing things, he doesn't belong there, there's no way he's anything other than a monster according to her broken psyche. And seeing as we're in Victorian times, times of public sexual repression that often resulted in private debauchery, those scenes and themes aren't something a child couldn't have stumbled upon, so the images might have been there from before. Needless to say, this interpretation is so downright depressing and horrible that it needs to be killed with fire.
Hatter's Domain: This could either go in one of three ways. If the boss fight does happens, it would be a simple arena fight with the boss at the center of platform rings, with Alice firing the Pepper Grinder into various targets in order to overloads its systems and causing damage. Overall a slightly more complicated and far easier version of the final boss from the previous game. The second would be the boss trying to smash you while on a single square platform, with you attack both target and the robot's hands. Basically an easier and FAR less creepy version of the final of this game. The third way is exactly like in the final product, probably for laughs. No matter the direction, all three battles end with Hatter finishing off the boss with a giant tea pot.
Deluded Depths: You'll be obviously fighting against the Walrus in this fight, commencing before the scene in the final game when the train comes in. While mostly immobile, only capable of shuffling around, he's able to jump very high and perform powerful bellyflops on top of you and be able to spin around in a ball to flatten you. The only way to actually damage the walrus at this stage is with either the hobby horse or the teapot since his blubber protects him from anything else. The way to achieve maximum damage is to get him stunned or distracted. TO stun him, Alice must hit him with the hobby horse while he's rolling or planting a bomb under him while he's bellyflopping. The former is higher risk but deals more damage while the latter is safer but wields less damage since he's normally immune to bombs. The fight will play out on the stage, with the audience tossing in health items for Alice and occasionally garbage to temporary stun or distract him. Walrus would also be distracted by trying to eat the oyster performers and/or any audience members that somehow wide up on stage. Eating causes him to regain health, so Alice would need to lay on the hurt before he can regain the health lost. Once you defeat Walrus, the game would then saw Alice about to deliver the killing blow when the Train finally arrives.
Oriental Grove: After you enter the Caterpillar's inner chamber, the Wasp Shogun enters the chamber, demanding audience with the Caterpillar. He explains that his own homeland, including his Queen, was previously destroyed by the Infernal Train and he invaded the paper ant realm as basically his peoples' new home. He seeks the Caterpillar to find out how to stave off the train. The Caterpillar refuses to give the Shogun any answers, stating they are for Alice only. Angered, the shogun challenges Alice to a sword duel and Alice, begrudingly, accepts. In this fight, the ONLY weapon Alice can use is the Vorpal Blade, since this is supposed be a sword duel and the Vorpal Blade is the only weapon Alice has that's a blade. If she uses anything else, the Shogun kills her INSTANTLY. The battle then ends with the Shogun battered and beaten, and knowing there's no way he can help his people, perform hara kiri and kills himself. Alice doesn't give a damn and then converses with Caterpillar.
Queensland: When you enter the throne room, the Queen tries one more time to get rid of Alice, seeing herself as the one who would ultimately save Wonderland. You then fight a skeletal, decaying version of the Queen's true form from the previous game, showing how much influence she had lost in the time between games. The fact that the Queen is quite a distance away from Alice, the only way to damage the Queen is with projectile weapon entirely. Since this is merely a decayed undead version of the Queen, this fight will be MUCH easier than the first game. After defeating her, the Queen yields and the rest of the cutscene plays out like in the final game.
The Dollhouse: Like in the final game, there is no boss for this chapter. Considering the somber mood, the creepy atmosphere, and the increasingly unsettling imagery, an actual boss would seem completely pointless.
An observant player may notice that some numbers are found on more than one child, even in the same room. This leads me to believe that the purpose of the plaques is to rate them. Whether Bumby rates them himself or gets 'customer feedback'...
- The plaques weren't used as a rating system. There's an animation sequence that shows after Alice has went through the dollhouse section, (as she's starting to piece what's really happening together) of the kids going through a factory line and having the plaques placed on them. When this is being done, the numbers are chronological in order as each new doll/child comes through. Also, if you walk through the Wayward Youth orphanage center you see that no number is repeated and in a sequence.
I know it may seem like it: The Cheshire Cat tells her to find the Hatter, who points her to the Mock Turtle, who directs her to see the Carpenter (albeit ostensibly for entertainment), who has her looking for the Caterpillar, who has her heading in the direction of the Queen, who pretty much tells her she has much to do, and swallows her. And all along the way and thereafter, she have to fight Ruin and other evils, like the Daimyo Wasps. Seems like it would be better in some ways just to go to the Queen (if she didn't need those weapons and want those upgrades both weapon and health, that is).
But wait, this isn't reality, this is taking place in Alice's head. It follows that, under the guise of sending Alice to someone more helpful — or entertaining — these manifestation's of the parts of Alice's psyche are sending her around to parts of her mind that are particularly infested with Ruin in order to expel it and therefore, perhaps, bring her that much closer to sanity.
It's... hard to say if it worked at some point after the end of the game, but that makes the most sense to me as the intent.
- The whole journey could be to get Alice to collect all the memory pieces. While the Caterpillar and the Queen know what's going on, Alice won't believe them if they told her straight that her own doctor is the one who killed her family and raped his sister, or that he's pimping brainwashed children. They're her subconcious, they're by nature inclined to being criptic, surely the naked truth would have caused Alice's mind to collapse. Alice needed to collect all those memories first in order to remember her sister's past with Bumby, his own thoughts about what he was doing and some other memories of others to understand and fill minor holes (like Radcliff saying he would burn an awful hat if he ever gets one to destroy the evidence).
Around the parts of the dress where it's thinner (her left arm for example has a thin strand) it looks like it's flowing seamlessly into her skin. It's not actually a dress, it's all her.
Think about it: she's able to travel within a mental world that's all inside her own head, upon which her own clothes change into something more fantastical and reality defying, and she can even access weapons she does not carry over into the real world.
Maybe Alice is actually a Phantom Thief of Hearts without even being aware of it. The reason she never manifests a Persona or a mask representing that is because Wonderland is really her own Palace, and her distorted desires is her own Survivor's Guilt (from the first game) and later denying the truth of whats going on around her (the second game). She still has the clothes and fantastic abilities because she has the potential to have a Persona, like Haru did.
Her Cognitions are reliably distorted by her own insanity and childishness. The Griffin could be how she sees her Father, The Mad Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse as her father's friends, the Cheshire Cat as Diana (her own cat), The Duchess as Pris Witless, the Orderlies as Tweedledee and Dum, the Caterpillar as Mr. Radcliffe, the Carpenter as Nan Sharp and the Walrus as Jack Splatter, and possibly the White Rabbit to Lizzie. The Jabberwock is a Cognition of her own Family in general, that symbolizes her survivor's guilt much like Futaba's cognition of Wakaba did so as well.
Her Shadow, the ruler of said Palace, is none other than the Queen of Hearts. The Cheshire Cat does somewhat allude that they're connected, being 'two parts of the same whole', and the Queen says in the first game 'If you destroy me, you destroy yourself!'
As Alice goes through the place the first time, she rids herself of her distorted desires to not face reality and defeats her own Shadow (but not killing it completely as the sequel shows), removing most of her own insanity. The second time around, it starts reappearing partially because of her distorted desire to not see the truth (who killed her family, what's going on around her and whatnot). The Queen of Hearts is even helpful in the latter, trying to get Alice to confront the root of the problem. This somewhat mirror's Futaba's situation, whose Shadow is her repressed positive traits.
When she does start realizing the truth, she stops going into her own Palace and goes into Dr. Bumby's Palace, the Dollhouse. There, she kills the Dollmaker, who is Bumby's Shadow, which means she kills Bumby as well via Mental Shutdown and throwing him into an oncoming train.