A Plural Reading On Masquerade and Alice
Here it is my long winded write up about Masquerade and Alice. Despite the nature of the show these two characters are a rather unique and thoughtful depiction of a plural system.
Of course before I begin I would like to preface that this is a fictional cartoon created in 2009, where disorders like D.I.D and OSDD / plurality as a whole were less understood. With some critics questioning the diagnosis in of itself during that decade. I am not saying Alice / Masquerade is a 1 to 1 real life depiction of D.I.D as they live in a fantasy setting. However their narrative works in a way that truly does mimics symptoms of a D.I.D system and in my opinion is one of the better “system representations” of that era in terms of children’s entertainment.
If you were a kid watching Bakugan Battle Brawlers live on CN the reveal of Alice being Masquerade was shocking for most, if you were a highly traumatized child like myself not only was the reveal shocking but it also gave a sense of familiarity, a sort of vindicated feeling. It hit deeply to the core as I personally could find myself resonating with Alice, and her unawareness of everything that happened to her own body. Her disdain and unawareness of “her own actions”.
Sooo Let us truly get into the Meat and Potatoes of this analysis
1. Alice and Masquerade despite sharing a body have gaps in memory with each other.
Alice has no recollection of Masquerades actions or the events that go down when he is fronting. While it’s true that Masquerade uses Alice’s memories to help with his evil plans and explicitly says “I know everything about you” he never on-screen seems to directly recall all those events, perhaps it’s because Alice’s memories aren’t of importance to him emotionally. He does not view himself present in these moments. He instead is using Alice’s body and what the brain stores as leverage for his plans. Alice herself is completely unaware of him but knows something is wrong with her. It’s her body after all! When the reveal happens she becomes aware of what happened- she says I remember everything now, this is because Masquerade willingly allowed her power in this moment. He was withholding this information but now that he’s concluded his journey he has no reason to continue to hide the truth from her anymore, allowing her access to these memories.
2. Alice after switching is exhausted / looks very spaced out. Masquerade fronts before the mask is even on, the mask represents a physical switch.
When Masquerade switches and lets Alice front again she seems confused, out of it, and in some cases she completely blacks out-not to mention her deep empty dissociative stare she has. She has also been seen blinking quite a lot after switching which is a common occurrence when switching for some systems like myself. Rapid blinking or drooping eyelids often act as a non-verbal "switch," indicating that the brain is rapidly altering states of awareness to protect the individual from overwhelming feelings. There are other signs to mention: It rarely occurs in a vacuum. It is often accompanied by a trance-like stare, changes in posture, facial twitching, or sudden confusion. We can accurately say Alice experiences trance-like states, and extreme confusion.
3. They have shared headspace together
This one is quite obvious, the bright field accompanied by the big oak tree acts as an inner world for the two of them, where they can directly communicate with one another.
Headspace’s or inner spaces are internal visualizations where alters “go” when they aren’t fronting. Headspace’s exists for alters to have communication among eachother. Not all systems have a headspace.
I could be pushing this one here since The Doom Dimension is a real place in the context of the universe but the Doom Dimension fight between Alice and Masquerade was pretty reminiscent of inner headspace conflict to me. This one is kindaaaa a reach, but when Masquerade comes back from the Doom Dimension we see Alice in a white headspace for a moment before coming back to reality- representing a switch
4. Masquerade exists to protect Alice, while also taking on the system role of a prosecutor
Despite his evil nature Masquerade truly exists to fill in the gaps for Alice, one that could both act as a protector and prosecutor. Alice is a deeply insecure girl, she doesn’t seem to carry much confidence inside of her, a girl who feels she must be docile. She was also forced to grow up very young as it COULD be implied that her parents died / are not present in her life. Who raised her? Who was there for her before Doctor Michael? Has he always been her sole caregiver?The several months inbetween Michaels disappearance… She was just alone??? These insecurities and negative thoughts are amplified by the energy of the Silent Core, the blast of severe pure energy from Michaels portal acting as a catalyst for Masquerade beginnings, thus creating the identity of Masquerade. An all powerful boy who wants to win, who can’t bear the idea of losing or being a loser, much like how Alice feels. It’s a defense mechanism, born from her inability to feel confident in herself, however his ego is amplified and enabled by his Grandfathers alter ego Hal-G and Naga himself who is brainwashing him to doing his bidding.
D.I.D is a disorder primarily caused by severe, repeated trauma and overwhelming stress during early childhood and / or it can develop as a survival mechanism in response to severe coercive control experienced in cults, human trafficking, or abusive domestic environments. Brainwashing is a form of coercive control.
Masquerade realizes the danger of his situation and the consequences of the world being destroyed and ruled over, but he is being treated exactly the way he wanted to be treated. Respected as a man, respected as a strong willed warrior who could never crack, walls higher than his hair. He has built up this strong opposite identity to Alice to fill in the gaps for her. To fill in for what she herself lacks. It isn’t until the fight with Dan that he realizes that his life does not need to be like this, that he can choose to enjoy the game for what it is- and therefore LIFE ITSELF but before accepting the hand of friendship he continues to isolate while choosing to allow Alice agency in her body once more.
We don’t know what Doctor Michael is like honestly, but I think we could try to use context clues here to piece together an abusive and or non-ideal family situation, one that is being fueled by the Silent Core. I think she unfortunately has seen a lot— what I’m saying is Alice is traumatized, and probably deeply from a young age. I know Masquerade was born from the Silent Cores influence but I like to think Masquerade was something brewing inside Alice for a long time (entering headcanon territory tbh) I think he was there longer than we as the viewers initially think but that negative blast from Naga really allowed him to fully realize himself as a person and go through with a plan that would mark his name in history, to have ultimate power over everyone who has ever hurt the body, to destroy the thing that made him a freak in the first place (bakugan). It’s a lot??!!
Masquerade has explicitly said to Alice “you need me.” Implying that YEA, somewhere inside Alice feels she needs him to feel confident, to be a valuable player, to be a person even. This is such a real plural experience… Masquerade TRIES to protect the body he inhabits but because he was born from hatred he goes about it in the most dramatic and heinous way possible.
5. Masquerade still lives in Alice’s shadow
I haven’t actually gotten to the later episodes of New Vestroia where Alice brawls but I have seen clips, and surprise surprise— Masquerade lives within her still! We literally see their voices and appearances overlap one another while they fight Shadow which makes me think about Masquerade co-fronting with Alice while they battle. Let’s ignore the fact that Spin Master was out to tarnish the name of their female characters for a moment and just focus on what’s going on inside of Alice. He clearly still acts as a guiding voice for her, a motivator in some sense… Furthering my belief that Masquerade went from a prosecutor role to a protective role within their system.
And that’s all I got! I would love to say more but considering that Alice and Masquerade by extension become irrelevant characters after s2 I cannot write much else. Spin Master you truly done it, made the most plural coded cartoon characters on the planet and then got too scared of what they created so they tarnished her reputation and proceeded to never use her or Masquerade again. Womp womppp…
At the end of the day, Masquerade and Alice will always remain significant to me and my own plural journey, I’ll never forget feeling seen by them as a kid who was struggling with dissociation and an unstable sense of self.
I hope this was an enjoyable read and that maybe you as the reader learnt something or at least can understand where I am coming from in my belief that the two of them are plural coded characters.
