Shadow Alice
Shadow Alice won't back down, is looking for a fight, and is probably a bit deranged.
What is the "shadow self" is to Alice?
This is the aspect of our personality which we deny, which frightens us, which we hide from ourselves and from others. It's the dark side of us which we heard whispering in our ear to harm other people (for harming us), to lie (because no one will find out)... but the main thing is that this is the side of us we are embarrassed to admit to ourselves or other people exists. We tell ourselves we are nice, honest, pure, and sweet... and we hope other people see us that way as well. But then we have dark thoughts related to life - to power, violence, sex, etc. Those thoughts, that side of us we don't want to face or admit, is our shadow self. Many psychologists and therapists believe that we are not whole or complete until we face our shadow self and accept it. To be complete we must integrate the shadow self. In some cases that might also mean allowing some of the shadow self's impulses to be expressed. Maybe you're always nice at work... but on the inside, you want to yell at other people for being lazy and worthless. Embracing the shadow self would mean you stop pretending to be nice - you stop worrying about hiding the shadow self - and you raise your voice, yell, and show emotion when others are being lazy and worthless at work. For Alice... she's a 13-year-old girl who has always viewed herself as sweet, innocent, harmless, and good. But like all children who are transitioning to adults, she's having confusing thoughts about life, existence, morality, mortality, sexuality, and other topics. She's barely aware of some of the darker questions of existence... she's in no way prepared spiritually, intellectually, or physically to answer them. After the violent and horrible death of her family, she's forced to confront Chaos. She's forced to confront the painful nature of reality - one in which people she loved died screaming in a fire while she was unable to do anything to save them.
Shadow Alice comes from a place ruled by Chaos. She's not bothered by the family's death. Their death is her freedom. She can spread her wings now - take control and exert her desires and will on Alice's psyche. All of Alice's dark impulses can be set loose - without parents, there are no rules, no chores, no school, no manners, no concept of acceptable behavior. Shadow Alice is the rawest form of every teenage kid angry at the world and no longer worried about consequences. She can say, do, and be anything she wants - even if that path is short, violent, and ultimately pointless. These two sides of Alice's personality will have to merge if she's going to move forward, survive the asylum, and be ready for the coming battle. Shadow Alice has nothing on normal Alice's logic, reason, and rationality. But normal Alice wouldn't stand a chance in a fistfight with Shadow Alice. If either one of them "wins" alone they both lose. If they are able to merge their best elements and discard the worst - then she has a chance.
Might as well get this discussion started with a whole wall of text! As good as the art is and as much as I like the concept of Shadow Alice, I really dislike the idea of making tentacles part of the "look" for Shadow Alice, and it is the design exploration that I most dislike out of anything done so far for “Asylum”. There are a few reasons why I don't like the tentacles here. Firstly, after two games, it's been established that the red tentacle motif is part of the Red Queen’s design language. To give Shadow Alice the same visual signature will make her read as being the same character or someone indistinct from the Queen. Now while it was suggested in one of the livestreams that perhaps there could be some connection between Shadow Alice and the Queen (perhaps the latter as a remnant of the former or created by), I think that would do a disservice to both characters, cheapening the Queen as both her own unique villain and as an interpretation of the character from the original books, and leaving people to just think Shadow Alice is the Red Queen throughout the game and not a fragment of Alice herself. Perhaps Shadow Alice can be responsible for the Queen’s current form in some way, but any interpretation of the Queen where she’s just a remnant of Shadow Alice doesn’t really add much of value to the story for what it takes away. Additionally, from another angle, the tentacle motif makes Shadow Alice an enemy we’ve already fought and encountered twice before…so how is she in any way unique? We’ve already gone through variations on this theme twice before, so what are we gaining by doing it again? Especially given that even the first design draft has the “Blur” movement which already makes Shadow Alice stand out from other enemy designs used so far. I think that idea should be built off of (and perhaps new ideas explored as well) and some new powered up form should be found that steps away from the red tentacles. In short, Shadow Alice should be unique and distinct, an antagonist in her own right who doesn’t come across as a repetition of one that already exists, one that has her own unique visual calling card that makes her iconic on her own without cribbing the look of someone else.