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Alice, I Am Your Mother
🕑 Added 2019-09-10 16:00:00 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
We just finished watching Star Trek: Discovery Parts 1&2. And as someone who grew up watching the original (Shatner/Nimoy) series on TV (re-runs! I am not THAT old!), I found it to be a lot of fun in terms of the references made to events, places, and people contained in the original timeline. From the thematic echos of the TV series musical themes to the sound effects from the communicators and transporters... all familiar and comforting.
Having watched so many episodes of so many TV series for so long it's not difficult to become jaded to the tropes. I start yelling them out at the screen 15 minutes into a new series - "he's the hidden bad guy!" "she's not his real daughter!" "this is all just a dream/flashback!" etc.
Discovery unexpectedly delivered lots of classic tropes on fresh platters thanks to some alternate universe magic. I won't get into details here for fear of spoiling the fun for those who've not seen the series... but for writers and those interested in writing the series is worth a watch for the story twists woven across the series and characters.
I bring this up because we're grappling with a couple of our own "trope-ical diseases" (har) as a function of Asylum being a prequel to a sequel set in a time-warpy universe of imagination. We've got to run just to stand still around here!
Here's the message from Omri which came with the Throne Room image I've pasted above. You'll see what I mean...
You said there will be 2 fights with the queen of hearts, the first version of the room can be with Alice losing and this version can be when alice eventually wins!
The monster should be Anger. That's what's consumed The Queen (and Alice's mind where the Queen is represented). We need to integrate blindness and seeing red... as in "blind rage" and "seeing red with anger" as these things actually happen when you're crazy angry.
We'll have two boss fights. First one, Alice gets her butt kicked and her Rabbit taken. She losses because she's angry. Luke Skywalker could have taught her this lesson.
Second time around, she can win. And perhaps because she does something which causes the Queen to go blind with rage and anger. "
the actual monster isn't designed yet, we will get to it eventually.
my only concern is that in AMA you do just that, you fight the queen, twice.
so perhaps in the first boss fight you actually shouldn't fight the queen but fight her "Knave of hearts" and then be Presented to the queen as she captured Bunny.
the second time you go there you fight the large Monster which, again, shouldn't look like the one in AMA.
Yes, we do fight the Queen twice! And there's a reason (trope) for that. It's meant to indicate progress the character has made towards growth and in overcoming obstacles. Without the two-part (or three-part) encounter, we can't see Daniel-son (Karate Kid) get his butt kicked; montage his way to wax-on-wax-off ninja skills; fight the bad guy again; and ultimately win.
If we did go with the Knave of Hearts battle as Omri suggests... we'd still need to include Alice fighting the Queen and losing ... and then fighting the Queen and winning. Fighting the Knave to get to the Queen does not a fight with the Queen make.
As for what that fight looks like - whether or not it replicates the Queen fight we see in AMA - I'm open to suggestions. But I really love tentacles. And it's going to have to be a really good suggestion to get me to give up my tentacles!
What If?
What if Asylum does contain a couple of story elements similar to the elements found in AMA? Is it possible we might damage the quality of the story more by trying to avoid inclusion of those themes than if we kept them and improved on them? "The Last Jedi" comes to mind for some reason...
I'm all for the "use it if it works and improve on it where we can" direction of writing. Having the Queen of Hearts battle Alice using crazy giant tentacles - even if it's similar to what we saw in AMA - doesn't bother me. Imagine how amazing the tentacles will be with today's technology!
Let me know your thoughts on all of this in the comments below.
Speak of The Devil
Darth Bumby.
He's baaaack...
Next Week - Back to Normal
We will resume normal livestream stuff next week. And hopefully everything else "normal" again as well. More on that later this week.
Font Lord Says
A reminder that next month's art print will be...
This will be available to choose if you're doing 3/$35 or you do $75 for this month (which is confusingly paid on October 5th).
He goes on to say...
Backerkit emails should come soon (we're waiting on Backerit) - this is for both the Cheshire Kitten stuff and 3x$35 stuff.
And, YES, you can NOW change your Tier. If you were at $50 for the Cheshire Kitten and you've been successfully charged then you can now safely adjust your Tier.
We do hope that you'll stick around - keeping in mind two things:
That month of $50 counts towards the 3/$35 Tier, so two more months at $35 and you can select an autographed art print.
If you decide to drop down a lower Tier, remember that $5 and above gets you access to our Discord Server so you can chat with our Insane Children and join our Crowd Design Sessions.
Lucky Says
He's a good boy. Thankful for the time we're able to spend with him during these first days in the world.
Much love to you all!
From Shanghai with The Needs of The One,
-American
Comments
I liked the story elements, just FYI.
I believe that the theme in Alice Madness Returns were quite good, especially in: - The doll house. I liked the imagery in the doll house with unborn babies and toys. I liked that the dolls were on an assembly line. I think it was supposed to mean something, but maybe it was just supposed to be creepy (only you know that). - Beast from the East. This level had themes of fairness and military force/invasion. - Deluded Depths. This level had themes of creativity and show business. All these themes should be revisited in the new game! From the first Alice game, the ants with military jackets were awesome, and I liked that the Mad Hatter was obsessed with time. Those are also good themes. By the way, the Time character in the movie "Alice Through the Looking Glass" was a good idea! If you're looking for inspiration for new themes and imagery, I recommend checking out the surrealism art movement (the original artists like Rene Magritte, Salvador Dali and Yves Tanguy). And I also recommend checking out the Art Nouveau movement (artists like Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and architect Antoni Gaudi).
I can dig the fight with the queen having similar elements to the original game. I would be interested in seeing how it would look in this newer era of graphics etc. Also, keep the baby pictures coming X3 he is too cute for words and my baby obsessed toddler absolutely adores him.
Can Janeway be Alice's mum? K thanx.
Sarah Heist
^^^^^^^ all that.
Sarah Heist
I say keep the tentacles! Fight the Queen twice! Plot development in between! QUESTION: how does Shadow Alice fit into this realm/space?
OMG He is such a doll. Congratulations beyond measure. I actually really like the idea of fighting the Queen twice and experiencing both endings.
All sounds great! Ji Ke has a Chaos-filled tale to unfold with him :P I don't remember AMA too much, but I feel that any improved elements from AMA added to AA will only make this game better, seeing how they are future events to unfold.
Rosuav
In AMA, Alice fights the queen and wins, then the *queen* changes, and Alice fights again and wins again. In Asylum, Alice fights the queen and loses, then *Alice* changes, and then Alice fights again and finally wins. It'll be an important distinction. Actually, if anything, it'll feel more like the Jabberwock fight - you cannot possibly beat him the first time. Only, instead of someone else coming in and helping, the Queen herself will take action, and you are defeated.
Your little boy is beautiful <3 And I totally don't mind adding elements from AMA. To be honest, for a while, I thought this game will be an updated, extended version of AMA :D Which I loved a lot more than AMR (excluding some parts which were a lot better in AMR, for example, Queensland, and although I loved the first game's Hatter's domain, the one in AMR also looked really cool, I can't chose, really).
Jay Olsen
I imagine the Queen in some kind of huge, but crumbling prison. A certain trickster tellis Alice that there's something awful she 'ought to kill over there' if she wants things to get better around Wonderland. Alice arrives to find the Queen seemingly imprisoned by meaty root-like tentacles, the Queen provokes her into attacking, constantly taunting her until Alice flies into a rage, destroying the prison and cutting bound tentacles to get at the Queen, unknowingly freeing her by degrees. The rabbit shows up just in time to warn her to stop, but it's too late and the Queen is free, kidnapping the rabbit and warning Alice that if she comes after her, the Rabbit will die. The Queen kicks Alice's butt, then leaves.
Congrats on the baby! He is precious.
Jay Olsen
SUGGESTION: I propose a small, subversive twist on the trope contained within the fight against the Queen. Instead of losing the fight, Through violence and destruction, Alice could appear to win on the surface, but have been lead to perform some task the Queen wanted of her, which also results in Alice losing her rabbit. This would be a more clever way to work in the 'blinded by rage' theme. In the end, as has been discussed for the true final fight, Alice will need to learn on her journey to let go of her pain and rage, and accept things as they are, proceeding with a clearer head, winning the Queen's game by not playing.
So excited for the Kitten!!!! The baby...he's such a beautiful boy!!
