Reviewer: Avid Reader Signed
Date: June 22 2021
Title: Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Trial Episode
"[...]and an easy-to-frighten DoorMouse." - Whilst a "DoorMouse" instead of a "Dormouse" is probably something Carroll would've written, I think it's a typo on your end.
"Alice reached out with the greatest of ease and snachted the stack of cards[...]" - As I checked myself on how "snatched" is actually written with the help of Google Translate(which in my opinion is a better spelling checking tool than an actual translator) I learned that "snachted" appearantly is a dutch word.
Interesting idea to bring in a lot of the most iconic scenes of Disney's Movie Iteration(without any Sizechanging) into this chapter by having Alice recalling them.
I am a little sad that the "Why is Rule 42 the oldest in the book instead of Rule 1?" exchange between Alice and the King of Hearts wasn't in this.
Is it just Beautification though? Isn't more in the Ballpark of Age Progression? Alice is about seven years old after all. (Her Age is actually never stated in the book but she declares her own age as "seven and a half years" old in the sequel.
"He could tell as much from the swell of both her bosom and her posterior, as well as how her waistline shrunk somewhat and her legs transformed to be both thick and yet surprisingly long to make them have perfect proportionality. It was like she had runway model legs now. Her entire body seemed to mature by a few years, making her have the appearance of a girl now in her late teens or early twenties rather than someone who was in her early teenage years." - So you did acknowledge her apparent age increase even if not right away.
"I'll have you returned with a snap of my fingers and you'll be at home with your family once more." - It might be a foolish question but does the Cheshire Cat have fingers to snap with?
"[...]if she wanted to be loved by the people and feared or hated by them,[...] - I think this sentence is missing a crucial "not"...
Interesting twist at the end. It fits the end of Through the Looking-Glass (Alice the Red Queen) quite well. Was that intentional?
As how much the Cheshire Cat changed: I wonder if the Giant Stature of Great Britian's Royal Family is a unique trait of something shared by all nobles. That at least would be a more reasonable foundation of being considered a noble than a simple "my family is better than yours" as it seemed to be back when it was of huge significance.
A surprising and great end for this series of one-shots. A perfect rating from my side. I am looking forward for what you will do next whatever it may be.
I have a (series of closely related) question(s) though:
How do the giant nobles live? Have they equally giant Maids and Butlers? Or are they expected to do the heavy lifting themselves as, though they're probably more than capable, seems unbecoming of such a status.
As you can probably tell I am quite intrigued by the vastly different world you gave us a glimpse of in the end. ^^'
Author's Response: Wow...that's a lot of questions and analysis. Here goes my attempt at explanation:
-On the Beautification, I decided to have Alice more physically appealing into some sort of sex goddess without being overly explicit or enter into R-rated territory. I suppose her transformation could be seen as age progression, at least in the physical sense of the concept. Her body was meant to be that of someone in her late teens or twenties, with all of the potential physical allure that could come with it.
-In the 1951 Disney film, the Cheshire Cat appears to have hands for paws, so he does have fingers from what I recall (albeit, short stubby ones - but fingers all the same).
-Once again, I know I made some typos here and there. Much as I try to be cognizant of them, a few seem to get through the cracks despite my best efforts.
-Sorry I didn't include the Rule 42 dialogue between Alice and the King of Hearts. My mind was anchored to the original Disney script when I was typing out that part in the story.
-As for the part where Alice returns home, I was trying to find a way where she becomes a giant in her original world. I considered maybe she got ahold of the mushroom or the cookies in some way and ate them, or some kind of wormhole opened up between her world and Wonderland. In the end, I decided to have the Cheshire Cat pull off a neat trick and send her back home some way. He can teleport on a whim it seems, so that adds mystery to how far his abilities go, at least in my opinion. I also decided to have Alice be royalty in her newly modified world since to me, she has princess-like qualities already. So I ended up having her family be royalty to make things normal from their perspective. To give partial credit for the inspiration, I thought of the story "Children of Vandan" by Malaka and decided to make Alice and her sister be giant princesses. At the time, it seemed an alluring concept when I was typing it out.
-Finally, as for the world I ended up creating, I decided to cut it off where Alice entered her new home. I first thought of her living in a castle like royalty of old, but Buckingham Palace would prove too small for her to reside in, so either an entirely new castle would have to be created, or something like a more commonplace residence on a larger scale. Since I made Alice's family royalty, I opted for a mansion as a happy middleground solution. I considered introducing Alice's mother, but then the chapter would have ended up becoming far longer than I had intended it to be. On the topic of servants, if it were up to me, I would have them be normal sized personally, for in the world I created, only royals and nobles would be giants, but again that's a purely hypothetical pondering and my personal choice. I'm sure I've left people with a LOT of questions about Alice's revised world, but sadly I'm going to leave that up for speculation.
I'm glad you've enjoyed this chapter and the project in its entirety. Hopefully my next work will be just as intriguing and entertaining. Until then...