| Insane Children | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Biographical information | |
| Alias | Wild Children[1] |
| Provenance | Wonderland |
| Physical description | |
| Gender | Male and female |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Personal information | |
| Allies | Alice Liddell |
| Enemies | Mad Hatter [AMA] (formerly), Queen of Hearts [AMA] (formerly), Dollmaker [AMR], Doll Girl [AMR] |
| Image gallery (16) | |
The Insane Children have been residents of Wonderland since Alice Liddell went insane. Deeper in madness than Alice, these children have suffered at the hands of many cruel citizens of Wonderland.
History[]
American McGee's Alice[]
The Insane Children appeared in many parts of Wonderland including the Skool[2] and Behind the Looking Glass.[3]
They were completely unstable, possessing multiple personalities and disorders. They would exhibit a series of random actions that resemble the effects of psychological disorders:
- Rapidly swapping between hysterical crying and villainous laughing (Likely based on Bipolar Disorder or Multiple Personality disorder).
- Imitating animals such as a cat or a chicken (Likely inspired by Clinical Lycanthropy)
- Repeatedly punching themselves in the face (Possibly inspired by Alien Hand Disorder)
- Swatting at the air (Likely hallucinating due to Schizophrenia)
- Bends backwards and contorting their spines whiles shrieking unintelligibly.
- Hops in place while clapping with excitement (Possibly based on ADHD and/or Mania)
- Running and screaming with raised arms.
- Rapidly twitching and shaking.
While they appeared disturbing, they were completely harmless. Unfortunately, Alice cannot do anything to help them, despite the fact that they often plead with her to do so.[4] Her conversation with March Hare and Dormouse revealed that the Mad Hatter put these children into his killer machines to patrol his domain.[3]
However, in the Majestic Maze, one of the children helped Alice in advancing to the Queen's palace by following her to a switch that opened the next level, provided that he was found in the maze.[5]
Alice: Madness Returns[]
Throughout the Vale of Tears and the Crockery, Alice saw a small red-headed girl running ahead of her giggling.[6][7]
Alice talking to the dying girl in Hyde Park.
She disappeared until Alice met her again in Hyde Park, before the hallucination of Alice's burning house, bleeding to death. She had been bisected, and the lower part of her body was unseen. With her dying breath, she implored Alice to help the other children. Alice stated that she did not think the children were in danger anymore as the Queen of Hearts had been defeated, which symbolized her failure to recognize and act upon the abuse happening to the orphans she lived with at Houndsditch. Before dying, the little girl told Alice that though their enemies come and go, the new one was far worse than the Queen.[8]
The other Insane Children were in the Dollhouse, with both sexes instead of just the males.[9] While visually disturbing and mangled, they appeared to act quite lucid.[10]
Alice talking to their leader.
Their leader was a scar-faced little girl holding a teddy bear, who told Alice that she was not sane enough to be rejected by the Dollmaker. Their base was a large fort made out of building blocks with the symbolic name of Fort Resistance. They used the location to take shelter from the sinister toys that lurked among the fields of colorful playthings, but in actuality, they were also trying to hide from the Dollmaker,[9] who turned the children into dolls.[11]
When Alice returned to Fort Resistance, she found out that the fort had been conquered. This symbolized the loss of her innocence and that the Insane Children were captured as well as converted into dolls by the Dollmaker, with the exception of the leader, who was found dead near the door with her eyes gouged out.[12] However, the leader was found alive again near the main Looking Glass Railway station.[13]
Appearance[]
American McGee's Alice[]
All insane children are male and majorly seem identical, all sharing a pallid skin tone, a bald/shaven head and wearing nothing but pants. Major differences between them include three possible facial disfigurements; a toothy grin, a wide smile or a half smile, all due to mouth restraints.
Alongside each child wearing either blue, green or brown pants, the children will often each have an accessory or an additional disfigurement on their heads. These include a leather facemasks, large vices on their heads, their skulls opened with exposed brains, and various screws inside their heads.
Alice: Madness Returns[]
The rest of the Insane Children with their leader.
They appeared more disturbing and fewer in number when Alice met them again. The girl Alice saw in the Vale of Tears, the Crockery, and Hyde Park had red hair, blood dripping down her face and her right lower eyelid was stapled. When she met the girl again in Hyde Park, the child's lower body was missing.
Two of the children Alice met in Fort Resistance had their heads cut open, which revealed their brains. Some of the children wore lobotomizing head gear while the leader had a stapled scar around her head. All of them were covered in blood and were wearing asylum clothing.
Trivia[]
An Insane Child dancing.
- These children are possible renditions of fellow patients of Rutledge Asylum who have also been heavily mistreated by staff and patient alike in Rutledge Asylum.
- In Wilson's casebook, Heironymous Q. Wilson mentions "six insane children escaped today", implying this is where they got their name, as Alice would often listen to him.
- It is unknown why all Insane Children in the first game are male, although it could hint that there may have been very few children at Rutledge Asylum and the ones there were boys. This could have changed when Alice moved to the orphanage and was surrounded by girls, resulting in female Insane Children.
- The player can use the Jackbomb to spew flames on any Insane Child. It won't hurt them at all, but they will briefly catch on fire and still carry on their random activities as if nothing had happened.
- In addition to the Jackbomb, the player can smack the Insane Children with the Croquet Mallet, which will briefly electrocute them. Again, this has no effect on their actions.
- In Queen of Hearts Land, one of the Insane Children will follow Alice around, throwing his hands up and screaming at her.
- In Madness Returns, the Insane Children are symbolic of the fellow orphans at Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth that bully Alice about her past, despite the fact their background may have been worse than hers. The only child from Houndsditch that seems to give a clue about Bumby's intentions is a girl in London who recites a rendition of Dollmaker's poem (The Sandman's coming in his train of cars/ with moonbeam windows and with wheels of stars./ So hush my little ones, have no fear / the man in the moon, he is the engineer) while her gaze is fixated on the wall, possibly out of shame or Bumby's mental programming.
- After Alice defeats the first Doll Girl and looks at Fort Resistance, the player can see the Insane Children looking out of the windows. They appear stuck in Figure T's, as they have no animation here.
- If the player looks down at the floor of the Infernal Train's engine just before entering the Train's boiler room, the Insane Children's bodies are floating in the Ruin.
References[]
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