eaten two ham sandwiches consumes some hay just as casually. He expresses mixed feelings about two other characters, the Lion and the Unicorn: amusement at the fact that they are "fighting for the crown" even though it is his own crown they are fighting over, but at the same time nervousness when the "two great creatures" stand on either side of him. However, given that they, as chesspieces, are protecting him from danger from the red side, there is, as Carroll tells us, "nothing to be done about it". His identity as a king in a game of Chess is revealed all the more when he admits that he can never quite catch up with his spouse, because, like all chess-queens, she moves too fast and for too many squares ahead of him for him to overtake her. Indeed, a more extreme version of this relationship can be seen on the opposite side of the game, in which the Red King remains asleep throughout the whole story, and the Red Queen runs her famous race. Late in the game Although we do not see the White King again, he is placed into check by the Red Knight before the clumsy soldier is defeated by the even-clumsier White Knight. Gardner, in The Annotated Alice has observed that he is also later put into check by the Red Queen, without either side showing any acknowledgment of it. The White Queen, with characteristic stupidity, performs a completely pointless move on her turn. After Alice "takes" the Red Queen and checkmates the inanimate Red King, any potential danger is removed and the game, as well as her dream, comes to an end. In other Media In the anime and manga series Pandora Hearts, the White King seems to have the core of the abyss, with Levi also having some elements. The White King appears in the 1985 made-for-TV adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and is portrayed by Harvey Korman. He and one of his messengers, played by John Stamos, sing to Alice the story of The Lion and the Unicorn. The White King appears in the video game American McGee's Alice and its sequel, Alice: Madness Returns. In the final moments of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland'', Alice says that the Knave married the Red Queen, the two then becoming the White King and Queen. References Lewis Carroll characters Fictional kings Literary characters