Alice: Madness Returns/Fridge

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Fridge Brilliance

  • You'll probably scratch your head in bewilderment the first time you try to jump over a column of fire and get scorched to high hell. However, Alice was in a house fire and got burned badly. She'd know how Convection, Schmonvection works, and Wonderland reflects that.
    • You might wonder why the Hatter is so mad as to force a tea party when his realm is falling to pieces around him. Then you might rememeber Jabberwock's accusations against Alice in the first game, and it makes more sense.
    • Then there's the fact that the game dodges giving you a proper boss fight until the end. When you realize the game's arc words, "What have you done?" and the answer nothing at all against the man that raped your sister, killed your family and pimps your bedmates, it begins to make sense. Alice finally gets a boss fight against the Dollmaker around the same time she actually phsyically stands up to and defeats its counterpart (Bumby). While all of the first game and most of the second take place in her mind as she battles demons of her own devising, this represents the first time we see Alice's determination and confidence from Wonderland bleed over into London. And bleed over it does, into Londonland. It's actually a fairly optimistic ending.
  • It may take a playthrough or two, but sharp-eyed players may notice that landscapes in the Victorian "real world" seem to inspire the landscapes of Wonderland, some subtley, others blatantly: the horizon of smog-belching factory chimneys (as seen from the top of Nurse Witless' house) inspires the Mad Hatter's Domain; the ice-cold warehouse inspires Tundraful; the docks are a pretty obvious influence on the Deluded Depths, with the Mangled Mermaid's prostitutes becoming the dancers at the Carpenter's Theatre; Radcliffe's oriental themed house is downright blatant in shaping the Mysterious East; the police station almost automatically gives way to the dungeons of the Red Queen's palace. Of course, the last few levels surprise the player by reversing the whole equation; after being transformed into a doll in the Dollmaker's lair, Alice awakens to find herself right outside Dr Bumby's house, which inspired the Dollhouse. But, an interesting thing to notice is that Vale of Tears has no real equivalent in the real world; it's part of the original Wonderland, mostly uncorrupted by the Ruin and Dr Bumby's brainwashing, at least until it becomes the Vale of Doom... and fittingly, when Alice finally destroys the Dollmaker and kills Bumby, the landscape of the Vale of Tears dominates the merged Wonderland and London.
  • The visual difference between Reality Alice and Wonderland Alice may initially be of how she chooses to perceive herself as, but in the case of her hair, once you've gone through the Madness Returns storybook prequel, it reveals what happened to her hair anyway.
  • The reason the Big Bad manifests itself as a train; it's actually a train of thought, specifically the one Dr. Bumby's implanting in Alice's head to Mind Wipe her and turn her into his corrupt whore.
  • Why the Jabberwock isn't back for this game unlike the Queen? Because the Train made his presence useless, just like in the Queen's case.
    • Also, the Train is trying to destroy Alice's memories of the fire. As it represents her guilt about the fire, the Jabberwock might have been killed by the Train before the game began.
    • In one of the first three trailers, Alice is talking to Dr. Bumby, and he says "Alice, tell me of your Wonderland", and then she opens her mouth and blood and teeth fall out. In dream interpretation, your teeth falling out indicate that the words you're saying should have stayed in your mouth.
    • The black sludge of the Ruined enemies and the Dollmaker could actually be coal of some sort: it can burn Alice, hardens in a brittle substance when the enemies are killed and it's related to trains.... and the story does take place in Industrial Revolution London.
      • It is hinted to be at least partially inspired by the flammable chemicals used in her father's photography, but it is more likely something a train would spew.

Fridge Horror

  • In the final chapter, it's increasingly difficult to tell just how much of it is happening in reality and how much is just in Alice's head, right up to the end where Alice seems to transform into her Wonderland self, pushes Bumby in front of a train, and steps out of the railway station to find London merged with a happier, cheerier Wonderland. For all we know, the entire final act may just be a fantasy, as Alice has finally lost all grip on reality, unable to ever leave Wonderland.
  • In the earlier parts of the game, Alice demonstrates a noted apathy towards the suffering of others in Wonderland, making her a bit of a Jerkass Hero. Much as she blocked out the suffering of her sister and did nothing to stop the suffering of the brainwashed children around her. As with all of Wonderland, her attitudes have a definite Reality Subtext.