#im her
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she has that sadness in her eyes that you only see in alcoholic captains of doomed arctic expeditions
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The Great Thing About HNKNA Being An Otome Game
I had an epiphany a few months ago. I’ve talked before about how many pitfalls HNKNA experiences by nature of it being a dating simulator, and how a lot of the cooler parts of the story and lore are overshadowed by the core romance mechanic and how I’m not a big fan of it, blah blah. But I’ve also seen way too many modern Alice in Wonderland adaptations as a result of my ridiculously long-term Kuni no Alice hyperfixation, and allow me to say that there is one thing that it nails that nothing else can even come close to touching— Alice herself!
The Kuni no Alice series brings about what I think is the best modern interpretation of Alice I’ve yet to see in any media I’ve consumed. She’s quick-witted and brings the attitude, but she cares. Her reactions are realistically absurd and there are few moments throughout everything where she feels out of character or unrelatable. And I think the otome genre is crucial to why that is.
By nature, dating simulators don’t have strong protagonists. They’re supposed to be a blank canvas for the player to project onto to achieve their goals. Am I calling Alice flat? No, quite the opposite. Her story is set in a Victorian-inspired fantasy land with lots of guns and danger and a strict social structure, but it’s intended for a modern audience, and when connection with your protagonist is the key to connection with your story, a modern audience means a modern Alice.
The modern Alice is one of the hardest characters to write.
In most instances of an adapted, cool, edgy Alice in Wonderland, the most insufferable character on screen is, in fact, Alice. This is true of the Disney films, SyFy’s Alice special, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, etc. More often than not, Alice Kingsleigh, Hamilton, whatever you want to call her, is a young adult frustrated by life in an oppressive society who will only accept her if she acts in a hyper-specific way, usually at the risk of being institutionalized should she fail to comply. She argues with her parents, who want her to get married, and all of this turns her into a spiteful girl who is always on the defensive.
It’s insufferable to watch.
The character of Alice is too often portrayed as relentlessly mean, but under the guise of empowerment. The audience is tired of weak-willed women, so the director hunches Alice’s dress up passed her ankles and gives her a sword, an attitude, and an ugly man to kiss without her parents’ involvement. Biologically engineered to shatter every well-known gender role established in Victorian England and basically nothing else, movies and TV deliver their “strong female protagonists” in the form of a curt, unchangingly rude version of Alice whose words and actions are supposed to be justified by her circumstances. And god, does it fucking suck!
You can't connect to this Alice, this armed and ready, sharp-tongued, "curiouser and curiouser" Alice who lives in a world that practically clears a narratively untouchable path to every foot she plans to step on. Personally, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The misunderstood to confused, to disgruntled, to aggressive pipeline is overplayed to the point where the Alice of any and all modern interpretations has become, essentially, the same character, forced to loop the same 6 emotional plot points from now into eternity, no matter how many coats of science fiction you put over it.
(Yes, there is a part of me that understands this comes from the fact that Alice is most often written by money-hungry, corporate studios, led primarily by men, who do not understand feminine audiences, or how they want to see themselves represented in media. I get that. And Alice Liddell is not safe from that. But consider: she's my babygirl.)
Am I saying the character of Alice can't be mean, can't say fuck, can't have a sword? Of course not!!!! Give women swords!!! But I am saying that every time a director phones it in with that "Oh, I know that book" budget and gives a British blondie trust issues, a prophecy, and a quirked up, top hat-wearing sidekick to have unfulfilling sexual tension with, i lose my wings AND my marbles.
Enter: our Alice Liddell.
What do we have with her, really? Well, the protagonist of a mid-shelf otome game, which has sequels out the wazoo, a movie and 2 stage play runs, but still somehow only enough translated media to fill a single Barnes and Noble shopping basket about halfway. Thanks QuinRose.
But for real.
Alice Liddell is written, from the ground up, as an otome protagonist. As such, there are narrative must-haves that she can't shake. She needs to be relatable to the modern young adult, even if she's supposed to reflect the Victorian female experience. This would usually be the Achilles Heel of an adapted protagonist: you, the player, get to watch in horror as your favorite whimsical Main Girl is watered down into a bowl of nothing soup for the sake of projection and selling more copies of a game with eye candy catboys and toxicity glorification.
HOWEVER,
(stay seated girlies don't go yet)
This necessary mundanity that is baked into Alice's character, inseparable from her very being as the taste of weed in a brownie, is what singlehandedly saves this adaptation and makes her objectively the best. Unlike in a lot of cinematic adaptations, she's not meant to be the (failed) vehicle of a "deeper narrative" about the strength and roles of women in society. She doesn't exist for any higher purpose, she isn't the chosen one who will declare "Damn The Man" and force the world to listen.
Alice is a girl doing everything she can. She's experienced profound loss. She's self-deprecating. Snarky. She's been through break ups, gotten even with bullies, cuddled with her cat on a Sunday, everything that doesn't matter. The crux of her character is that she's been burned by life and love, yet she can't truly give up on them. Hers is a story of healing, of adaptation and getting back up when life kicks the shit out of you. No matter how sharply she speaks, Kuni no Alice's Alice almost always acts from a place of concern and love for others. She crucially never wields a weapon, reacting to the violence of Wonderland with that extremely jaded "holy fucking shit, what the fuck?" energy that I think any of us would bring to the table, given the circumstances. She's not her community's """lunatic,""" she's not sailing the high seas sideways, she's not on drugs, or destiny's favorite, or anything like that. She's new in town! She's sick of these people! She just wants to go home and read!
She's you. She's me. She's a clusterfuck of a damaged girl, trying to sort out what matters, find her passion and move forward without letting her past stray too far from memory. She's someone whose self-importance and perception by others is foreign to her. She wants to matter, wants not to be left alone by the people she loves, but god forbid she ever admit it.
QuinRose gives us Alice Liddell, suffering failgirl, not Alice Liddell, conceptual landmark, and that was the best possible route anyone could have taken with this character. Alice is the main character, but she is not a hero, and that's a fucking genius move.
thanks for coming to my ted talk. i love u alice.
#hnkna#heart no kuni no alice#alice in the country of hearts#wonderful wonder world#kazh.txt#ndposting#alice in wonderland#sorry had to milk all the tags i could#i'm the world's biggest alice stan#if i kinned i would kin her#shes me#im her#my baby#spade no kuni no alice#snkna
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Amanda Todhunter’s unhinged recap of Cinder is literally me when I say I love Cinder. When you love Cinder you become Cinder
#linh cinder#kaider#prince kai#the rampion crew#the lunar chronicles#tlc#marissa meyer#amanda todhunter#She is so real for that#I love#i am cinder#GUYS#I AM CINDER#ITS ME#IM HER#KAI IS MY HUSBAND
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Finding out people like Dipper more than Mabel might be my sign to join the Gravity Falls fandom.
Literally the first character I saw myself in and defined me as an individual.
She's everything.
#mabel pines#gravity falls fandom#the kids show id make my personality#shes me#im her#we are one and the same
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Checking the Clockwork/Natalie Ouellette tags: 😋
I already liked every post that had so much as her name: ☹️
#creepypasta#clockwork#clockwork creepypasta#natalie ouellette#please i love her so so so so so much#Clocky is the loml actually#shes me#im her#but also we are the same
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“i am just small bean baby boy <3” so close! you are the reason why I avoid going places in my own town, mourn my youth, and cry myself to sleep. hope that helps!
#rae tag#actuallyabused#sickcore#ventcore#trauma vent#txt#im her#im him#traumacore#ex friends#hurtcore#actuallymentallyill
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shes crazy she eats the milk foam on her cappuccino with a spoon before she even drinks the coffee
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her nipple piercings are showing through her $8 walmart bluey t shirt....
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showed u my knockers, time for u to knock-hers out!!!! ding ding!!!
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me when she sparkle on my twillight til i friendship
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Every mentally ill girl has a blonde era that was followed by every color that was then followed by black or dark brown
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"average person ingests a credit card's worth of plastic a year" factoid actually statistical error gunpla georg who uses a glass file and routinely inhales plastic dust. whatever
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