withoutsiin replied to your post:can i just. it always kills me how concerned alice...
i?? always thought abt this a lot actually. not for. Pain reasons necessarily but. bc it. was interesting to me. how. not once during the tea party scene does alice look angry just. hurt and upset and disappointed and!!! concerned but. never angry till. hatter like. takes chloe lmao
oh yes. this too. i think alice is angry during this scene ( who wouldn’t be ? & there’s the line from the early previews when she attempts, irately, to defend herself: “well if i’m not the greatest mother, or teacher, or wife––––or ex-wife––––it isn’t for lack of trying!” ) but it’s swamped out by how much this all hurts her.
this is, after all, hatter––––who has, for twenty years, had a front row seat to every insecurity, every fear, every heartbreak, every betrayal, every doubt, every twist of pain. hatter knows exactly which targets to aim for, which buttons to press, to cause the maximum amount of pain.
it’s also this very thing that contributes to the chloe miscalculation; alice folds at the tea party, comes, i think, very close to breaking completely–––would have if jack hadn’t interrupted. generalizing that behavior & alice’s inability to fight back in that situation to all situations was hatter’s first Big mistake w/r/t alice. ( & it’s important, i think, that taking chloe is morris’s idea rather than hatter’s. hatter goes along with it because she trusts him absolutely, & at first blush it’s a good plan––––but i really don’t think hatter would’ve arrived at “kidnap chloe to hurt & control alice” on her own if morris hadn’t suggested it. she knows alice is better at defending others than defending herself. )
