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Alice and the Chalice of Malice
🕑 Added 2019-08-19 09:22:53 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Here at The Asylum we're heading into another week filled with online madness. We'll start things off with a Crowd Design Session over on Discord. Here's the start time...
And here's a LINK to info on our Discord Server.
We host Crowd Design Sessions there every-other-week. If this is your first month with us on Patreon then you'll need to wait until next month for Discord access to activate. But you can check out previous sessions after we upload them to YouTube.
Goblet Goblins
Omri sent along a render of some enemy designs based on "Cups" from the Tarot Minor Arcana. He was a bit concerned about how similar these are to an image we previously shared (a set of cup sculpture with mouths and legs) - and asked if we might want to get permission from that artist. Here's my feedback to him...
I love these Cups. As for whether or not you need to ask permission... I don't know. The idea of cups with legs isn't original. We had a teapot with legs in A:MR. And if you Google Image Search for "cups with legs" you'll get back tons.
Anyway, I like the cups as enemies ideas. And I like how this is connected to Tarot but also stands (pun, har) on its own ... not being restricted by literal "card form." More of this!
Maybe the tarot theme can be contained by Tarot Cards which are dropped (and collected) when you kill these enemies? Cups drop "cups cards" ?
Into Anger
From this week we'll start our journey into the area of Wonderland defined by "Anger" as a phase in Alice's PTSD. This is a realm ruled by the Queen of Hearts and patrolled by her Card Guard Army.
Our story for this area - so far - is that Alice will fight her way through to a confrontation with The Queen. Alice is captured and The Queen threatens to decapitate White Rabbit unless Alice joins her battle against The Red Queen.
It's at this stage that our narrative will deepen to include the majority of the characters and themes we're wrestling with through to the end of the game. This is where we're set on our path to Mad Hatter and our confrontation with The Red Queen.
On the topic of Cups and Anger - it's been said that "holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die."
Anger is also a messenger because it always has something to tell us. We only become angry in relation to things about which we truly care. That's why it's been said that apathy - not anger - is he opposite of love. Anger is, in many ways, an extension to strong emotions such as love. It contains an energy to act.
We need to explore that energy and what it represents in Alice's journey.
Where is Alice's anger directed? How does it wish to resolve?
We might suggest her anger is directed at the perceived source of her loss. In AMA, Alice directed her anger at herself (along with her guilt) in relation to the fire, her loss, and her inability to save her family.
"Save yourself, Alice!" transformed from a sacrificial plea by a loving parent to a burning scar branded across a child's tender soul.
But anger at oneself contains a mature admission of the role we always play in our own misfortunes. We won't go there again (yet?). She's not yet ready for any of that.
Instead, I suggest we tinker with a more general "anger against the world" theme.
It's no one's fault and it's everybody's fault! The entire system is to blame it all needs to burn. This will play well within the institutional setting of the asylum. And allows us to frame the orderlies, doctors, processes, foundations, society, and world at large as The Enemy.
Even if a fire had not burned down her family we're still dealing with a 13-year-old girl trying to come to grips with the nature of the world - with Order vs. Chaos.
These tantrums aren't subtle or bizarre. Quite common - mundane even... but not to those who suffer them as all children must.
Is that enough for us to pin our story on? A big enough enemy to defeat? We'll see...
Love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Cheshire Kitten Plush Collector Set - Reminder
Lots of you have joined recently to capture the Early Bird Special on the Cheshire Kitten Collector Set. Welcome!
Just a reminder that you must Set Your Tier to the $50 Tier before the end of August 2019. Lots of you (100's) are joining at the $1 Tier. If you leave your Tier at $1 through August it WILL NOT result in you being sent a Cheshire Kitten Set.
If you want the Set - please select the $50 or $75 Tier before the end of August.
If instructions are still unclear then hit THIS LINK to go over and read the explainer.
Meow!
See you all tomorrow!
From Shanghai with (not) Anger,
-American
Comments
Make Nine Inch Nails great again
I loved the Queen of Cups scene in La Danza de la Realitad. Like the "drop of water overflowing the vase" or the teardrop causing a tsunami.
Welcome to our new inmates please do not wreck our asylum now...SUGGESTIONS 1st the goblet goblins: I say give them more of a goblin look, like in madness returns I loved fighting them 2nd to card guards, maybe have goblins in tea armor, 2nd: Anger: maybe have Alice's white rabbit a prisoner to the red queen having her being raged at the queen and personifying (god I fucked that spelling up) as the fire and in the end the red queen saying Alice created her? I do want the card guards to bleed and look more like what they did in the first Alice game
Chaussette
That version of the queen looks disgusting. I love the cups that Omri did, especially how they're strapped to the machine legs, king of reminds me of the straps you would see on a straight jacket. I imagine the machine legs could be similar to the ones that are carrying the heads of Alice's parents (As Omri did them in older artwork).
Bravo!! I like very much where you are heading with the development of this structural themes. Btw, I'd like to input my grain of salt: it's about anger, that most times what actually lies beneath it is grief with the clothes of anger (according to a psycology story) so that justifies the importance of this theme a great deal, maybe you can play around with that. One of my favorite ideas where this takes place revolves around the box demon transformation of the first Alice game, which could (definitely should in my opinion) portray this emotion in two ways: first as an unavoidable possession that can't be actually seen and then as something that merges and changes forms as a physical enemy. These forms could be 4 main stages that later on when defeated merge into 1, which I think would be cool if it strongly resembles the demon box transformation that is a pale image of what it used to be in that point of the story.
Make Nine Inch Nails great again
"Strange that duty has crossroads. Responsiblity can be a labyrinth." The Man Who Laughs
Definitely not Adam Driver
The cups and car guards looks really cool! "Instead, I suggest we tinker with a more general "anger against the world" theme. " I think that's a good idea, it's waymore childish and would fit her age better.
The setting is nice, love the idea of Anger as a theme. I hope we get to see Alice herself always expressing that sort of Anger in this part of the story. I'm neutral towards The Queen's design, as long as we get to see a rendition of either Alice or Lizzie at some point as one of two Queens (maybe both?), like previously mentioned here on Patreon, I'm honestly fine with whatever direction her design takes. The Cup enemies sound fun! Maybe make them a whole tea set? Have the pot, cups, spoons, plates and so on as a whole be one enemy (or maybe a mini-boss of multiple enemies, each corresponding to one theme of the set) that Alice gets to fight against at some point midway through the Anger chapter (I'm thinking somewhere in the castle's garden, in the centre of a hedge maze -and maybe have the crying Alice statue overlooking the "arena"?- waiting for our Alice to jump into the battle. Can't wait for the Cheshire Kitten Set to drop! I'm just slightly worried because my address will change soon and I don't want it getting lost like the Asylumn Tag almost did. I think so far, everything is moving quite nicely, with everything getting done great!
I can see Alice being mad at the world in general. Trying to find someone to blame. Destroying everything in her path not caring who she takes down in her path for (revenge?) I definitely feel that this realm in particular could use alot of Asylum elements in terms if design and layout. I've definitely been looking forward to this. I like the cup enemies but I almost wish it was a creature with the cup chained to it's back like its carrying a burden and spilling hot tea kn his poor back! The card guards need to be less zombieish I do like the fabric over the face tho! That works for me! But no zombies. Is this our final render of the Queen or just what child Alice believes she will appear. Or will she look more like Alice like in Omris first image if her? Love everything so far!!
