Kacie (The Incredible World of Riddles)

Kacie is a fictional character created by Ashley Maverick, who serves as the main protagonist of the Incredible World of Riddles media franchise. One of the several children who knows about the existence of Riddle World, she is a selfless and daring individual who stops at nothing to protect her friends and family in both Earth and the fantasy planet she regularly visits. At one point, she is declared the de facto queen of Riddle World. Since her first appearance in 1989, she has became an iconic character in Kuboian media known for her adventurous and quirky personality. In 1997, Kacie became the first fictional character to be included in the Kunning Hall of Fame.

Kacie has been voiced by Ashley Maverick in all of her mainstream appearances, including all specials and episodes, spin-off series and video game appearances. In some non-canon appearances, such as local live shows and "meet and greets" where Maverick is unavailable, she is potrayed by other actresses.

Development
When making human characters for The Incredible World of Riddles in 1987, Ashkey Maverick and Harlow Morrison decided to create two girls and two boys. Kacie's character design was the first one to be drawn by Maverick, who took inspiration for the character from a photograph of her as a nine year-old sitting on a swing. She decided to draw the character the round black ovals as eyes, intending to give her green eyes much like Maverick's herself in a future mockup of her design. However, she ultimately decided to keep the "black bead eyes" and give them to most of the franchise's other characters because they were easier to draw and the production team thought they were appealing.

As Maverick was unimpressed with the way female characters were potrayed in film at the time, she decided to depict Kacie as very brave and heroic without making her a "tomboy". She also gave her quirks such as having a bit appetite and occasionally getting distracted in thoughts to avoid making the character unrealistically flawless. At one point, Kacie was going to be a princess who was the daughter of the king of Riddle World. Ultimately, Maverick chose to make her an "Earth dweller" to make her more relatable to children. Maverick produced a pilot short in 1987, simply called "Test Cartoon", which featured Kacie traversing through Riddle World fighting enemies with a wand.

It is often speculated that The Incredible World of Riddles was inspired and based off the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and that Kacie was based off Dorothy Gale. Maverick has denied this - insisting she was instead based off a multitude of other fictional characters, including Alice from the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Mario from the Mario video game franchise and Miss Simple from the children's television series Spade Castle. She also cites Kacie as being inspired by a younger version of Maverick herself.

Character biography
In the franchise's first special, The Golden Key, Kacie reveals that shortly prior to the special, she found out about Riddle World by complete accident after finding a Riddle Gem in her garden. She ended up teleporting to the planet after rubbing it. She eventually befriends the other children who found ways to the planet; Onita, Paddy and Tenet, as well as Mr. Riddles and the other inhabitants of Riddle World.

In The Golden Key, Mr. Riddles finds an abandoned castle which is fully open except for a singular room on the ground floor which is completely locked. Whilst exploring Riddle World, Kacie and the others try to find the key that opens the locked door but can't. After giving up, Kacie manages to open the door by simply laying her hand on it. The door leads to a basement containing only a magical wand which Mr. Riddles used to defeat Riddle World's previous ruler, the Diamond King.

In Kacie and Tenet's Grand Adventure, Mr. Riddles tries to use the wand but realises he can no longer use its magic. Upon giving it to Kacie, however, the wand starts glowing a golden colour and its powers are restored. Meanwhile, an evil creature lurking in Riddle World, Synther, discovers that Kacie has restored the wand's powers. In order to test how powerful the wand is and how capable Kacie is, Synther hires a spinning top creatured called Popsicle to kidnap Tenet, who Kacie has bonded with the most, so he can lure her into a trap. After finding Synther's hideout, defetaing Popsicle and rescuing Tenet, Synther absorbs the power of the wand and uses his powers to slowly drain all of the life out of Riddle World. Kacie and Tenet, the only two who are unaffected by Synther's schemes due to the power of the wand, eventually confront the baddie and defeat him. Kacie agrees to let a now-normalised Synther flee, who falsely promises to give up on his villainy.

Kacie has two more heroic stunts in The Test of Time, where she helps Paddy to restore time in Riddle World after the Great Tic Toc Clock malfunctions, and in The Fright Before Christmas, where she confronts Yowie after he tries to destroy Riddle World with one the Diamond King's Magic Diamonds.