Alice

Alice is an antagonist in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and is the leader of the Vanguard's combat unit.

Story
Although she appears to be a pure and innocent girl, Alice is actually very selfish and mean-spirited. Marta describes her as a sadist. Decus, leader of the Vanguard's espionage division, has sworn his eternal love for her, even though he is handsome enough to have other options. Alice uses a machine, that runs on Exspheres, to brainwash monsters to do her bidding. The difference between her use of monsters and Emil Castagnier use of monsters is that Alice does not personally care for the monsters she employs, even rigging one with a bomb, so that when its defeated, it would blow up, killing anyone in an unknown area. Alice is so heartless that she has stooped to such deeds as abusing her power to make her subordinates form chairs from their bodies when she becomes tired. She fights with a Toy Rapier and is able to use magic since she is a half-elf, and is also from Hima. She has an extreme hatred of Marta Lualdi for her dependence on others, despite being her leader's daughter, and is willing to go to long lengths to try to kill her, from delaying her search of Centurion Cores to even threatening to destroy Meltokio with her monsters in a battle against the party.

Her first appearance in the game is in Chapter 2, where she is seen in Asgard, looking for Collete Brunel, and makes Hawk, and two of her monsters attack the party. She then attacks in the same Chapter in the Dynasty Ruins, and the ensuing battle is just like the one with Hawk, except with her in his place. In Chapter 4, she appears again, where in the Temple of Ice she and Decus appears and tries to attack the party, only for Sheena Fujibayashi to summon Celsius to throw an ice wall at them, allowing them to escape. In early Chapter 5, when the party are searching for Glacies's core that they located to have been bought by a Meltokian noble, Alice attacks them with two of her monsters, and after their defeat, one of them is rigged to explode with a collar bomb, so that when it was defeated it would explode, and gets away, and only when Tenebrae leads the monster into the air does it prevent the monster blowing most of Meltokio up. She later appears at the Vanguard's base Cape Fortress, where she attempts to stop their escape, only to realise defeat when she is surrounded by most of the Heroes of World Regeneration, Emil and Marta, and only a well timed distraction from Decus's and her monster does she manage to escape. In Chapter 6 she appears when she along with the rest of the Vanguard took over Altamira, and threatened to blow up the city with rigged bombs set around it unless they surrender a falsely accused "kidnapped" Marta. The party manage to get rid of the detonator and turn of the power in the city, allowing everyone to escape, making Alice attempt to stop their escape, only for Presea Combatir to strike her and allow them to escape. In Chapter 7, she tricks Marta and Emil into thinking she needs their help in saving an insane Decus, because of his use of Solum's core. She then sends Marta down a trap hole straight to her father, and locks Emil with Decus, and only the Eau de Seduction bringing back Decus to his senses and Collete tripping into them with Zelos does Emil manage to make out of their alive. She escapes with a now sane Decus after Brute was defeated.

In Chapter 8, the last, she and Decus are fought at the Ginnugagap after the Heroes of World Regeneration were trapped because of the Derris Emblem, and were transported further in, and must be fought before Emil a.k.a Ratatosk can save them. The dialogue before the battle she explains how she was "sane" around the Centurion Cores despite their negative effects, and how she hates Marta for her dependence and that it was her reason for wanting to try and kill her so many times. She even was staying close to Richter for the purpose of leading Marta to eventually fight her, and to complete a deal with Richter to harness demon's powers. During the battle, the party talks to both of them about why they're doing this, Alice doing it for power, and Decus because of his devotion to her. After her final battle, when she is defeated with Emil and Marta Lualdi, Alice tries to kill Marta, whom she hates for her dependence on others, and Emil retaliates. At the last moment, a weakened Decus takes the blow to his back. Just before he dies he tells Alice he loves her. Then Alice realizes that she loves him too, and in anger she beats Emil with her Rapier, but Tenebrae knocks her down. She then gets up and grabs Decus's sword. Alice knocks Emil down with the sword, but before Alice can make the final blow, Marta goes behind her and then strikes her back, fatally wounding her. She then lies next to Decus, telling him that they'll be together again soon. She then dies, causing Emil to wonder whether killing them was right.

In a sidequest, that starts in Chapter 2, before the battle in the Dynasty Ruins and after you meet her at Palmacosta in Luin, where it is hinted she is a Half-Elf, in Chapter 4 before the events in the Temple of Ice near Iselia's school where a fellow orphan proves she's a Half-Elf, after the events in the Temple of Ice where she explains at the Iselia Human Ranch she needs her Exspheres to control her monsters and how she could only trust herself because she is a Half-Elf, not even trusting Decus despite his obviously high amount of devotion, since she thinks he could betray her at any moment. In Chapter 5, before entering the Temple of Lightning and after Emil wakes up at the Meltokio inn after collapsing at the Temple of Earth, at the Meltokio square just behind the Meltokio castle and Noble's homes, she is seen attacking a Church priest and helps a Sylvaranti woman treat her grandson by letting her give the Flanoir doctors her name, Alice of the Vanguard. She would of attacked the party had not Decus flipped out at the priest for calling Alice a "filthy girl", and him only stopping when Alice directly says to stop and leaves. In Chapter 8 when Lloyd joins the party and before the events at the Martel Temple, in Palmacosta she explains how she wants to use her power for herself, and calls everyone hypocrites for telling her to use her powers for good, saying she can only change the world around her if she changes the world and will give misfortune back to the world if its going to give it to her.

Trivia

 * With certain hacks, it is possible to place Alice in the party, which might bring up theories she was intended to join the party in the original script of the game or this was a easter egg for those with hacking devices, or the Action Replay. The same is for Decus instead of Emil.
 * Three of the monsters that Alice uses in battle, Porthos, Athos, and Aramis, are the names of the main three musketeers in the book The Three Musketeers.
 * When Alice took on Hawk and beat him, she actually made scars on his back that read "Alice's Pet".
 * Alice's attacks are all named after famous literary works. (e.g. The Red and the Black is a historical French novel, A Season in Hell is a French poem etc.)
 * She is one of the many villains in the Symphonia games that is also a Half-Elf.
 * She says she hates her dependence on others, the irony of which is that she is never though alone, and never has her monsters fight alone either.