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“ | Everything's a nail, is it, Miss Hammerhead? First it was your search, freighted with fear and fragmented memories. Now it's the train! Never time for tea. While your brain's on holiday, we're out ruined! Now we're all mad here and that's a good excuse for going to hell in a teapot, but not for forgetting what your senses saw. Forgetting is just forgetting, except when it's not. Then they call it something else. I'd like to forget what you did. I tried, but I can't. | „ |
~ Mad Hatter to Alice |
“ | Bad timing. Pity. Reliable help is so hard to find these days. Come in my dear; you're just in time for tea! | „ |
~ The Mad Hatter |
Mad Hatter is antagonist a of the Alice video game series created by American McGee, which is an adaptation of the classic Lewis Carroll novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it sequel Alice Through the Looking-Glass.
He remains a fanatic of time, but is no longer the tea party-loving hatter that he was during Alice's last visit to Wonderland. He is now a psychopath, quite literally gone "mad" and obsessed with time and clockworks, considering himself to be a genius. He invents mechanical devices known as Automatons, which are often evidently using the bodies of living organisms for the base of his inventions, as he plans to do to all of Wonderland's inhabitants.
His victims include the March Hare, the Dormouse and countless Insane Children taken from the Hatter's Asylum; the Hatter himself is also mostly mechanical. He has built a machine for turning people into machines (the automatons that patrol the asylum and other parts of Wonderland). He also had a back up experiment with Gryphon but wasn't able to finish him in time
Appearance[]
Like most of the Wonderland creatures, the Mad Hatter's physical appearance has drastically changed from Alice's, first trip to Wonderland. He is now green-skinned and wears what looks like a loosened straightjacket that has a large gear protruding out of his back. He wields a cane and his hat has changed, being taller and covered in astrological symbols. The Hatter resides in a giant glass clock container, his laboratory and a warped version of Rutledge Asylum hidden underneath where the Tweedles, and the Hatter's victims, lurk.
History[]
American McGee's Alice[]
While Alice and the White Rabbit were seeking out the Caterpillar in Wonderland Woods, the Mad Hatter killed the White Rabbit, crushing him flat beneath his foot, as Alice and he were a small size at the time. Alice, after killing the Red King, was then kidnapped by the Mad Hatter, who she confronted in his hideout and killed, his head exploding due to his mechanical body malfunctioning. Even though it was not revealed in the game, the Deadtime Watch Alice discovers after killing the Mad Hatter is a recalibrated version of the White Rabbit's pocket watch. The Mad Hatter is also presumably responsible for having repaired the Jabberwock by replacing body parts with metal and machinery, having been left drastically disfigured by the Vorpal Blade. The Hatter is referenced to in the casebook of Dr. Heironymous Q. Wilson Alice's doctor. The asylum's superintendent is described with similar traits as the Hatter and his two nephews are orderlies who torment Alice - a reference to the Hatter's henchmen, the Tweedles. He is revived when Alice regains her sanity, apparently regaining his own as well or at least enough to return to his harmless former ways.
Alice: Madness Returns[]
The Mad Hatter returns in the sequel, his steampunk empire now ruled by the March Hare and Dormouse. Alice finds him in pieces, and collects his missing limbs in return for his aid in finding out what the March Hare and Dormouse are up to.
The two discover the Infernal Train as it leaves the factory, the Mad Hatter angrily killing his old friends only to have a change of heart and attempts to revive them. He and his friends seemingly perish when the factory collapses around them. The Hatter reappears, however, near the ending of the game, aboard the Infernal Train, where he scolds Alice for the darkness and ruin she let onto Wonderland.
Personality[]
The Mad Hatter is "mad" and obsessed with time and clockworks. He considers himself to be a genius and invents mechanical devices. He also enjoys drinking tea. Once Alice meets him again in the first game American McGee's Alice he no longer bears any empathy for others, and has descended further into his madness. Once Alice's friend, he is now her enemy. It is possible that his new hostility resulted from the experiments he performed on himself. Its possible he wanted to become a mechanical being in order to endure the Queen of Heart's harsher Wonderland, but it had personality-changing side effects.
When Alice and the Hatter meet again in the sequel Alice: Madness Returns the Hatter's personality seems to have reverted to resemble that of his very first meeting with Alice. (For the most part) He is now civil towards her and begs for her help, as his previous victims the March Hare and Dormouse are now his sadistic dictators. At the end of Hatters Domain after the deaths of his former friends he is noticeably saddened saying all he wanted was another tea party with his friends.