| Duchess | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Biographical information | |
| Provenance | Wonderland |
| Age | Unknown (appears middle-aged) |
| Physical description | |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Auburn |
| Eye color | Blue |
| Skin color | Peach |
| Personal information | |
| Allies | Alice Liddell |
| Enemies | Alice Liddell (formerly) |
| Occupation | Duchess |
| Further information | |
| Voiced by | Anni Long [AMA] Laura Coughlin[1][AMR] |
| Image gallery (10) | |
| “ | Yes, well you taught me manners and I've lost my taste for mad women; strictly a porcine diet for me. Everything's better with bacon, don't you agree? |
” |
The Duchess is a noble resident of Wonderland, the mother of Pig, and the previous owner of the Cheshire Cat.
In Alice's twisted return to Wonderland, she is initially a violent cannibal, and the first major obstacle that Alice Liddell had to overcome in her quest for her sanity. When Alice reached the river in the Vale of Tears, the Mock Turtle revealed that the Duchess had stolen his shell. It was not until much further downstream that Alice encountered the Duchess hiding from the Queen of Hearts in Bill McGill's house.[4]
The Duchess appeared again but now as a form of ally, as she no longer wished to eat Alice. In exchange for Pig Snouts, she sent Alice Duchess baskets as a reward.[2]
History[]
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland[]
Alice in the Duchess' house.
Alice met the Duchess in her home to ask for directions. She found her in the kitchen with the air filled with smoke and pepper, due to the cook's excessive use of pepper in her cooking. At the time, the Duchess was short-tempered and violently beating her baby son, believing he was only sneezing for fun.
She handed the baby to Alice so she could get ready to play croquet, and Alice took the chance to take it away from the chaos. To her surprise, the baby actually changed into a piglet, and Alice let him go into the woods before she went on her way. The Duchess was later arrested, for boxing the Queen's ears.
Alice with the Duchess during the croquet party.
Later, at the Queen's croquet party, as everyone thought about what they should do with the Cheshire Cat, who was disturbing the event, Alice suggested that they asked the Duchess, as she was the Cat's owner. Although Cat disappeared by the time the Duchess was released, she met up with Alice again, this time in a more pleasant mood (Alice believed it was the pepper that made her so violent before), and obsessed with finding morals for everything.
After having a polite conversation with Alice (one Alice could not wait to escape from), the Queen appeared before them, and the Duchess quieted down in fear. The Queen demanded she leaves in "about half no time," or find herself executed. The Duchess wasted no time in leaving the gardens.
American McGee's Alice[]
During her travels in the Vale of Tears, Alice came across the Mock Turtle, who was crying in his underwear. He told her that the Duchess had tried to make him into soup, and he had lost his shell while escaping her. In return for getting his shell back for him, the Turtle would take Alice to where Caterpillar was hiding, so she could find out where the White Rabbit was from him.
Farther downstream, Alice found Bill McGill and found out that the Duchess had taken over his home to hide from the Queen of Hearts, who wanted her dead. As the two of them were about to charge into the house to see her, Bill ran away in fright as Alice was sucked into the house.[4]
The Duchess appeared from the chimney, wielding a lethal pepper mill. It appeared, however, that the pepper had corrupted the Duchess, but to a much greater extent. The Duchess now seemed to be a cannibal, as she exclaimed that Alice would make a nice light snack. With no desire to be eaten, and the Duchess unwilling to hand over the shell, Alice faced her in battle. After being defeated, she became intoxicated with pepper, and her head exploded in a fit of sneezing. With her dead, Bill had some leeches to dispose of the corpse, and Alice and the Turtle could go and see Caterpillar.[3]
Alice: Madness Returns[]
The Duchess in her new home.
A year later, Alice returned to Wonderland and found the Duchess was alive again and in a good mood. Unlike the last encounter, she acted friendly enough towards Alice, citing that she had a new-found fondness for pork (particularly bacon) and had lost her appetite for human flesh.
She requested Alice to go out and find Pig Snouts for her, which were scattered throughout Wonderland, and gave Alice her Pepper Grinder to use as a weapon, which she allowed Alice to keep as a gesture of goodwill. After the first snout had been peppered, the Duchess gave Alice a basket full of Teeth, but then curtly requested for Alice to leave.[2]
Appearance[]
American McGee's Alice[]
The Duchess wore a pale dress with a pink and purple design on the front of its skirt, a pink corset top, black boots, and the dress was down to her ankles. She had a veil covering her hair and most of her head. Her nose was pointed and her legs have noticeable veins. Her eyes were covered by blue eye shadow and she wore blood red lipstick.
Alice: Madness Returns[]
Her dress was a darker shade of purple and the top of her veil was placed on the top of her headdress. The designs of her dress were more intricate and the design on the front of her skirt were a darker violet with a dark pink background. Her bodice and sleeves were turquoise with white ruffles. Some of her auburn hair were visible and she wore pearl earrings. Her eyeshadow was a shade of blue green and her lipstick was ruby red.
Attacks and tactics[]
Trivia[]
The Duchess holding the piglet in her hand, about to throw it.
- The Duchess' counterpart in Rutledge Asylum is Nurse D- who is attacked by Alice, calling her the Duchess by name.
- It seems odd that the Duchess used a pepper mill as a weapon, as she hated pepper in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This new found taste in pepper continues since the Pig Snout quests requires peppering the Snouts that would be sent to the Duchess to eat.
- Ironically, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Duchess' nose is very large and bulbous. However, in American McGee's version, her nose is considerably smaller.
- In the beta of Alice, the Duchess was shown fighting Alice in the Skool.
- The Duchess used her son (and possibly other sons and daughters at that) as a secondary weapon. The Duchess would throw a piglet at Alice that would explode upon impact.
- The piglet model has black areas around its ears and hat. This is probably part of the background of the image and should be transparent. This was probably either overlooked or just kept in as it is an extremely minor detail that could have gone unnoticed.
- The Pepper Grinder that the player receives in Alice: Madness Returns is also the weapon that the Duchess used to fight in American McGee's Alice.
- In the Extra Content, it is revealed Alice almost preferred the cannibalistic Duchess due to her cynicism; she was much more predictable. Her overbearing 'goodwill' and Alice's lack of trust for her is possibly a reference to Nan Sharpe.
- Alice also referenced the Duchess as the Queen of Hearts' cousin. However, given the lack of familial history between them as well as Alice's phrasing, it could most likely be just her mocking the Duchess.
- It is implied that she is somehow behind the gift baskets that appear when some Snouts around the world are peppered hinting that the corruption may have not reached her.
- In Madness Returns, Duchess claims she is on a diet consisting only of pig, particularly bacon. Interestingly, it has been said that human flesh has a taste very similar to pig. Also, the term "Long Pig" means human flesh. This hints that the Duchess may not be completely reformed.
- The Duchess' (and the cook's at that) fixation on pepper could be a reference to the Victorian lower class standard of putting excessive amounts of pepper (being the cheapest spice) in their food, since often they had to cover the taste of spoiled meat and vegetables. In Alice: Madness Returns, the Duchess could be part of the "Bacon Mania" influence.
- In the original art book for Alice: Madness Returns, the Duchess was never going to make an appearance in the sequel. There is an art of her and her pig-son bathing together under the sea. However, in the art book, there was an art of her own cook being a grotesque pig-beast monster who would throw kitchen-ware at a small Alice.
References[]
- ↑ Alice: Madness Returns. Retrieved on July 22, 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Spicy Horse (2011-06-14). Alice: Madness Returns. (Electronic Arts). Scene: Slug with a Shell. Level: Chapter 1: Hatter's Domain.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Rogue Entertainment (2000-10-06). American McGee's Alice. (Electronic Arts). Scene: Just Desserts. Level: Vale of Tears.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rogue Entertainment (2000-10-06). American McGee's Alice. (Electronic Arts). Scene: Pool of Tears. Level: Vale of Tears.
External links[]
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