The Blue Dress
After the 1/14 Crowd Discussion:
In AMA and AMR, the dresses are a symbol of accomplishment. "You made it to the next stage! Here take this!" type of ideals. Every dress has an ability or perk that is sometimes essential in new stages. It's always been like this. To me it feels like her way of tracking her mental progress and assigning the proper tools to deal with the current situation.
When you're insane and in extreme darkness, you hold onto moments. You can't ever let go of those moments. For the Blue Dress to have outlasted the sway of time and events as "Thee Alice Dress", It either had to be the first step of an important cycle, the only good thing she had to hold on to for a very long period, or a totem that reminds the person of their core beliefs.
Saying that it could just be another unlockable dress or she wore it cuz the color reminded her of her sister is very wrong to me. It needs to be introduced as a grand gesture, a symbol of something greater than anything thus far. The very thing that started her on her journey to get out of the madness.
It can't be about someone she lost in the fire cuz when a crazy person experiences violent loss, Anything that reminds them of the loss tends to Trigger episodes even when they're in the denial phase. No one can make progress if they're always stuck in an episode. That concept can't apply to Alice cuz even though you could say wonderland is an episode, she's always actively working to get through it.
I have ideas of how to make the dress such an object, but I need some info on the direction of the story.
Being that she'll be 13 in this game, That's roughly 6 years after the fire, and 5 years into being at the asylum.
In AMA, we see Alice wearing the dress as she lay in the bed at the beginning, throughout the game, and at the end when she's leaving the asylum.
>At this point if we wanted it to be a first step or her very first dress in the cycle, it should have already been one for awhile. Basically meaning she would already need to have it given that she gets new dresses in this game. However, if she already had the dress prior to being 13, I would venture to say that it wouldn't fit her at 18 years old when we see her wearing it in AMA. So I'm at an impasse there. The only way to make it work would be her getting the dress at the literal beginning of this game.
>If we were going for it being the only good thing she had to hold on to, that would be a little easier. A dress she got from someone who helped her after the fire or a hand me down that didn't fit when she got it but does now that she's older. Or Maybe it's the dress inmates get when they leave, which isn't exactly a grand entrance for the legendary blue dress, but does lay the foundation that it's a symbol for being sane. It's not like she can just leave the Asylum and go shopping. The dress is going to have to be there already and given to her in some way.
>For a totem, I honestly don't think it would work too well as a totem. It could really only be displayed on someone in the Asylum for her to see and have access to. That person would then have to give it to her at some point however, No one at the asylum has ever been described as a good person. So why would they give it to her?
We have to remember that the Blue Dress is real, where as all the other dresses are manifestations of her mind. Therefore we have to find a Real way to get it to her in the first place.
I know what some are thinking, if it's real can't we just give it to her? Why does it have to have a documented entrance? The answer: Cuz if it didn't it could have been traded out for other clothing at any time. It wouldn't be the One and Only Blue Dress, it would just be her clothes. It had to mean something in the beginning to give it the future reputation that it has now.
I hope this makes sense. My mind wasn't really cooperating with me today. If you have questions I'm in Discord @never2dark2play #7038
