The Queen
"Too little, too late, I dare say that's checkmate!"
—The Queen, Death Screen
The Queen is a boss making her appearance in the DLC. She is fought in The King's Leap in Inkwell Isle Four as the final opponent. Cuphead and company fight her in what seems to be the Throne Room of the castle. She appears to be the wife of the King of Games.
Description
Appearance
The Queen has a red and blue long-sleeved dress patterned with diamonds. She also has yellow skin and a floating head and lanky arms with a scepter with blue and pink jewels on the top. She wears lipstick, diamond earrings, and a royal crown with the same blue and pink jewels on her scepter. Her ruffle collar, crown and the tall cylindrical body make her look like a queen chess piece.
The mice who are manning the cannons whose projectiles she is weak to wear green Robin Hood-like outfits.
Intro
The Queen is seen counting her money on an adding machine, then suddenly spots the player(s) and flips the table, sending coins flying.
Battle
The Queen moves around in the background, summoning a stack of lion statues that quickly move across the arena by smashing her sceptre on the ground. Parrying them will end the attack. Hitpoints = 8
After a hit, she can start attacking by taking out two delicate egg-shaped, wig-wearing containers that rain down gemstones onto the arena. Hitpoints = 48
After the sixth hit, a new phase commences; the Queen now rains down gem stones for a significantly longer period of time. Hitpoints = 24
In order to damage the Queen, the player(s) must parry the fuse of the nearby cannons to shoot cannonballs at her. Only the cannon with the lit fuse will only shoot out the cannonballs. The cannons also will move so you must wait for the right time to fire the cannon, otherwise you'll miss the shot. The Queen only takes damage if she gets shot in the face. Hitting any other part of her body counts as missing her.
Once defeated, the Queen collapses as she summons a fainting couch to cushion her fall. Upon landing, her head falls off her body and spins at the end of her scepter as the mice celebrate.
The Queen goes down in eight hits in single-player mode and ten in co-op mode.
Gallery
Exterior
Saltbaker playing checkers with the king & queen in the end credits
Trivia
- The Queen's death quote mentions checkmate which references how in chess, the Queen piece is the most powerful and often causes a checkmate when it is not removed or when a pawn is promoted to it.
- The music in her stage is the only one in The King's Leap that isn't a version of "Bourree on the Board". The choir in the song will sing "Queen of games!" Rather than "King of games!".
- Since she attacks from the background, the Queen is the only Champion whose body cannot be touched by Cuphead and company at all.
- The egg-shaped containers that the Queen takes out when she uses her gemstone-throwing attack during her boss fight are representations of Fabergé eggs, since they are well known for their delicate, jeweled designs.
- Similar to Baroness Von Bon Bon, the Queen has a disembodied head in homage to the line "Off with their head" by the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland.
- In this case, it's slightly ironic in that the Queen represents the chess piece, and that Lewis Carrol's sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, involves Alice traversing a chess board and encountering both Queens on the board as she travels to become a queen herself.