Alice Madness Returns-The Eyepot: NPC Analysis
So here’s a question: how can an NPC perfectly represent the aesthetic and philosophical goal of a videogame?
The answer, like the answer to many questions, is complicated, but the simplest answer is to give them a burning red eye and the ability to shoot boiling hot tea.
It’s not that complicated.
It’s also a tragedy that so many videogame developers never learn this lesson.
In the videogame Alice: Madness Returns there are a number of enemy non-playable characters(npcs) that are visually distinct and challenging in unique ways. Whether it’s the Bolterflies, Menacing Ruins, Samurai Wasps, Cannon crabs, or Card Guards(and mercy if reading that list isn’t a flipping tongue twister) each enemy is beautifully designed both from an aesthetic perspective, but also from the perspective of gameplay. While researching for this essay I found a website online that lists all of the NPCs in the game along with images, and just scrolling through it I have to be honest and admit I marveled at how beautiful each enemy design was. Every one of these characters challenges the player to use different combat and movement strategies to survive encounters. Likewise just about every enemy in the game is employed in specific locations to heighten dramatic effects both within the narrative as well as general gameplay.
Seriously, Alice: Madness Returns is a videogame that shows a frightening level of detail when it comes to npc placement within level design.
Thinking about which npc to write an essay about first was easy.
I thought of the Executioner.
Possibly one of the greatest unbeatable stalker villains after Mr. X or Pyramid Head, The Executioner dwarfs Alice and endlessly chases her while swinging his scythe and screaming. Every sequence the character is in is a heart-pounding beat of madness that is as nerve-wracking as it is unironically awesome. His design is gorgeous, right down to the maggots crawling out of his skull, and the rhetorical significance of Alice fleeing a giant masculine terror that wants to eviscerate her body is brilliant. Simply put, the Executioner is the raddest dude.
Having written all that, I decided instead to write the rest of the essay about Eyepots.
Because, honestly, I thought it’d be fun.
Game cover art provided by Moby Games.
The first real chapter of Alice: Madness Returns takes place in Hatter’s Domain. For clarification, the first level in Wonderland that Alice visits is called the Veil of Tears, but this realm is basically a “First Level” that helps provide players general training and opportunity to learn the controls. Since there’s only a few enemies, and most of them are easily and quickly defeated it makes more sense to write about Hatter’s Domain. This level from a narrative standpoint introduces the chaos and degradation of Wonderland that is taking place, and also offers the player the first real combat challenges. There’s several small enemies like Madcaps which are small Mad Hatters armed with forks, butter knives, and plates for armor, along with several Insidious Ruin (vaguely humanoid globs of black corruption punctuated with pipes on their backs and dolls heads because my nightmares weren’t vivid enough(thanks for that American McGee). Once Alice fights her way into the bowels of Hatter’s factory she will encounter a new enemy npc that, by coincidence, happens to be the subject of this essay, the Eyepot.
Eyepots are, simply put, teapots.
But they have eyes.
And legs.
And they’re made of metal.
And they want to kill Alice.
And they never respond to memes I text them(they’ll tell me later that they looked at it and laughed but I know they didn’t actually laugh).
My pathetic attempts at humor aside, Eyepots become a frequently occurring enemy in Alice: Madness Returns, and their visual appearance is a perfect example of how narrative structure can and should inform how enemy npcs are designed. Honestly, given the fact that the Hatter’s Domain is already a Steampunk masterpiece, I should have seen the Eyepot coming. And given how much hot-tea content surrounds the aesthetic of Alice in Wonderland, an enemy npc that’s literally a sentient tea-pot makes absolute sense. The character originally appeared in promotional material for Alice: Madness Returns, alongside character designs for other figures like the Mad Hatter who wound up looking nothing like they would in the final product.
There’s probably a lesson there about the organic changes that take place in artistic productions, but, that’s for another essay and another writer. And until this website gets backers on Patreon management can only afford me.
Eyepots are tea-pots with a large red eye on one side of their body, which of course by the ancient laws of videogames is their weak spot. The pot is affixed to a small platform which has three jointed legs that end with sharp claws that resemble fire pokers. The body itself is a mish-mash of random pieces of metal, gears, and scrap making it look like this enemy was hastily assembled together by parts that were abandoned during some manufacturing process. And given the fact Hatter’s Domain is literally a manufacturing depot that makes perfect sense. The atmosphere of Hatter’s Domain is a realm of industry, metal, fire, and piles of scrap tucked away into corners and quickly forgotten.
And this last element gives me a great insight into why Eyepots exist narratively.
One of the recurring thematic elements of Alice: Madness Returns is industrialization and how that system exploits people. Whether it’s the Dodos in Hatter’s domain, the origami ants in Caterpillars Realm, or the oysters in the Walrus and the Carpenter’s stage show, Alice is continually observing weak people being exploited, tortured, and killed for the sake of another person’s benefit and/or entertainment. Enemy npcs further reflect this because their design and role within the levels are designed to reinforce the recurring theme of exploitation.
To wit.
Each level has a central antagonist, and in Hatter’s Domain that would be the Dormouse and the March Hare who are using Hatter’s factory (and his literal arms and legs) to build the train that will destroy Wonderland. As Alice navigates the battles and platforming players will observe dodos in cages and wheels, their bodies riddled with metal, screws going through their eyes, and sometimes their corpses hanging upside down either waiting to be eaten or refitted with new parts so the manufacturing can continue.
Somebody really needs to write and then record a six-hour Marxian examination of this game and then load it on YouTube.
Just saying.
Graduate students, work on that while I get back on topic.
Eyepots, from a purely narrative perspective, are elements incorporated in-level to explore the theme of how bad actors manipulate people for their own selfish goals, desires, and machinations. They demonstrate that even the scrap left over from the ruination of a system can still be used to further malevolent goals. And their sheer physical presence provides insight into how barriers to challenge corrupt power can be quickly snuffed out.
That’s an excellent segway into gameplay, if I may say so myself.
The first interaction Alice has with the Eyepot is within Hatter’s factory and the character watches this creature crawl down a thick industrial chain before landing on the ground and slamming its legs into the earth like a bull ready to charge.
The message is clear, this pot came to kick butt and brew Earl Grey, and it’s all out of Earl Grey.
In terms of combat Eyepots are not terribly difficult. But, having said that, Eyepots become monstrously frustrating. The reason is because they rarely attack alone.
Whenever Alice enters a room where an Eyepot is present the enemy is accompanied by several Insidious Ruins or Madcaps. These smaller enemies blitzkrieg Alice, effectively boxing the player in. Like Goombas in Super Mario Bros these smaller enemies are not a real threat because they’re easy to dispatch, the challenge they pose is that their sheer physical presence creates obstacles that distract players thus allowing mistakes to take place, or large enemies to swoop in. Eyepots will charge Alice, launching their sharp metal claws at her and draining her health(represented as a series of roses) if they land their attacks. If Alice is not close, their AI will trigger a different strategy and they will stay back and fire a projectile of hot tea. These attacks can become frustrating because if I’m fighting multiple smaller enemies, I can quickly lose sight of the Eyepot and won’t be able to dodge these long range attacks. Likewise if I’m navigating Alice in a room that involves lots of platform jumping, Eyepots can and will attack steadily draining my health if I’m not careful or paying attention.
Thinking about Eyepots, one of the best comparable enemy NPCs in videogames is Chuck from Super Mario World. Like Eyepots, Chuck can pose a threat to Mario from close range or long distance. Chuck can pitch baseballs towards Mario from far away forcing Mario to duck or jump, and often these pitches are taking place in relation to small enemies like shell-less Koopa’s. If I get too close to Chuck or jump on him, the long range attacks will cease and he will begin to charge at me using the full front of his physical prowess against me.
When I write about motion in videogames, barriers become important because a barrier is, ultimately, just a challenge. The aesthetic goal of a barrier is to get the player to consider the barrier and then think creatively and analytically how best to overcome it or circumnavigate it.
Eyepots require the player to master several controls, mostly the dodging mechanic, which for Alice is turning into a small swarm of butterflies and strafing out of the way. Likewise Alice has her pepper-grinder and her vorpal blade and the way to defeat Eyepots is to shoot it’s eye, paralyze it, and then stab it’s eye until it is defeated. Players will learn after the first battle with the Eyepot that balancing movement, careful targeting, and then precision strikes, will result in victory. That strategy will continue throughout the rest of the playthrough of the game.
I always ask myself when I’m considering enemy npcs in videogames: how does the character strengthen the aesthetic and/or the gameplay. When thinking about Eyepots there isn’t any doubt in my mind. The character is a perfect encapsulation of everything that Alice: Madness Returns is trying to accomplish aesthetically and philosophically. They provide a substantive challenge to the fighting mechanics of the game without ever becoming monstrously difficult. Their visual design furthers my immersion into the dark steampunk realm of Alice’s changing wonderland. And finally they remind me that Alice: Madness Returns is a videogame that explores the themes of exploitation and pain.
There’s really nothing else to say dude, except that Eyepots rule. They’re wonderful enemy npcs that are fun to fight, and decades later they still hold up as a wonderful design element in one of the greatest videogames ever made.
Actually, there is one more thing to say, and, I need to reemphasize this: Eyepots are literally teapots with eyes that stab me or shoot bubbles of hot tea at me. Like, come on. You can’t tell me that isn’t cool.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
6.16.2025
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