Introduction, Rules, and Notes. (Updated)
(Update: Oddly, in a world of Fan Fiction where even the most bizarre ideas can find an audience, someone had called me out on a technical thing. Now, I read, and looked up, and researched facts for quite some time. Since some of my notes and questions could be spoilers for the story as well as the movie, I will put them at the END of this introduction chapter. But I will address the three things I found it hard to explain away. Really, don't scroll down too far if you don't want story spoilers.)
Good morning, everyone. For those who want to go straight to the story, go ahead. This is my backstory about bits that have been haunting me for over a year. I've written before, but not for Wreck-It Ralph.
Before anything else, I want to set the timeframe for this story. The entire story in the movie happened within two days. Now, at the end, we have the reset of Sugar Rush, the race to get everyone back to their games before opening time, and then the follow up by Ralph, where he explains life afterwards. I think there is so much unsaid, unfelt, and unanswered. This story is after Ralph, Felix, and Tamora leave Sugar Rush, and up to seconds before Felix and Tamora's wedding.
First, the movie was amazing on several levels. Then, I have read many, many excellent stories by the fans here and elsewhere. But, I had many things I wondered about over the times I watched it. In a way, I felt somewhat cheated at the ending. There was so much more to tell, personal feelings left unsaid, and I just wanted more. After reading many studio notes about the years of development, story and character changes, and plots that were redone several times, I wanted to see and feel other things.
But... What were my rules? Where could I go? How far could I go?
My first law was not to rebuild the world of WIR by magic. Many good stories here use software upgrades, new characters, new games or not-real games, or even humans. I wanted to stay within the world as the movie showed us. But there's the world, the game world, and the 'background' world, where things like the trains and Game Central live as real as downtown Chicago.
The programming of the characters gives us worlds, but can be limiting. How deep does emotion go? How does a character deal with new feelings? How much does a character understand 'life'? In a world where you can die twenty times a day, does that really register? And what about love? In the movie, only one person was programmed to love, and that only as background for the character. Even Tamora hasn't 'lived' real love. And people like Ralph and Felix, the product of a much simpler time... how much could they get past the programmed-in emotions they were... well... born with.
Not to spoil anything, but the studio changes frustrated me. In the movie, we see Vanellope's picture on the console. She looks a bit older... longer arms, and a more proportioned head. I feel that was how she was originally. I believe that once the character evolved into the nine year old body we see, the studio was worried about being labeled as perverts, so the relationship had to evolve, too. I think that Calhoun and Felix's relationship was added because of the 'Romance Law'. But seriously... did you watch Mulan? The Little Mermaid? Tangled? Go back to almost any Disney film and you see what I mean. Boy meets girl, boy and girl fight, boy and girl go on world-saving adventure, boy and girl fall in love, get married, etc. It's a story so standard that it only stands out in its absence.
So... perception versus reality. But what does the visual appearance or elapsed time (such as a huge yellow dot, a dragon, or a little girl) truly mean when you are born fully formed, and knowing everything you do in life on day one?
If you stuck with this, and understand me, thank you. Continue to the first chapter, which I call Dreams.
(UPDATE:
Every movie has a point or so where everything doesn't exactly fit together. This does not make a movie bad by any means. Sometimes by editing, sometimes time limits means a scene is deleted, leaving a hole, and sometimes, something happens "just because". Sometimes it's a glaring omission, and sometimes nobody notices. Sometimes a glitch gets through.
My absolute favorite of all these scenes was in Star Wars. At the end of 'A New Hope', after the Death Star is destroyed, the fighters return to base. Everyone is laughing and cheering. As Luke is getting out of his X-Wing, Leia runs up. Luke calls to her; "Carrie!" He accidently uses her real name instead of her character name. Nobody in the studio ever caught it, and that was on the released version. Now that was an accident.
Now, here in Fan Fiction world, we of course want our readers to enjoy the story. I made the claim that I wanted to follow the world of the movie as close as possible. I wanted to only use anything that was in the movie. There are a few things in the movie that were not addressed, and I cannot 'legally' explain. Since I can't, I have the right of all Fan Fiction writers to interpret them any darned way I want. They are:
-Several times we are reminded that if Vanellope crosses the finish line, she will no longer be a glitch. She will become a real racer. But after she becomes Princess/President, she can still do this.
-The trains. We never see the Sugar Rush train. Since nobody seems to recognize anyone outside the game, I personally assume that Turbo hid or disabled the train to prevent anyone sniffing around and discovering what he did. That's why he was the only one who knew who Ralph was. But since the 'tracks' are the power cords, I would think you couldn't walk them… that the trains were required. So in the movie, Ralph enters Sugar Rush in the escape pod. Calhoun and Felix are on her cruiser. So far so good. But later, Ralph leaves the game to return home with his medal, and then returns to Sugar Rush. We never see how. I cannot logically resolve this. Since Ralph had been a reputed Bad Guy for 15 years before Sugar Rush was plugged in, other racers would have talked, and knew everyone if they had been like all the other characters in the arcade, visiting around.
-This is the hardest. Vanellope knew nothing of outside the arcade. Never having raced, she was never picked as an Avatar, and never on the screen. Unlike Fix-it Felix, and Tapper, etc., Sugar Rush and Hero's duty don't have screens the same way. In Sugar Rush, the little floating cameramen fly around. Important race shots are shown on the one monitor at the stands. This is where Felix and Ralph watch Turbo try to kill Vanellope. That must be one fast cameraman… or camera-marshmallow.
So it is my personal belief that the racers picked for that day's Avatars are just standing in front of a camera to display on the screen. Nowhere in Sugar Rush does there seem to be any way to watch a player directly.
So how, at the end, does Vanellope look at, and wave to Ralph? If all the racers had seen the arcade for 15 years, they would most likely have had more worldly knowledge than they did. I can't explain it, so I just deal. Turbo went to great lengths to keep his world private.
-I also make a statement in here that I pictured Vanellope a bit older in the original concept. Someone went to great pains to point out the Wreck-it Ralph Concept Art book, showing the evolution of the characters. Saw it at the book store. Good, but you didn't go back nearly far enough. I will quote:
"The concept of Wreck-It Ralph was first developed at Disney in the late 1980s, under the working title High Score. Since then, it was redeveloped and reconsidered several times: In the late 1990s, it took on the working title Joe Jump, then in the mid-2000s as Reboot Ralph."
Long before there was art beyond basic storyboards, according to the original writers, one of which I believe is deceased now, there were several things considered. Even the President thing was a later change. At one point it wasn't going to be a Princess story, but other ideas weren't credible, because of King Candy, the castle, etc. Several different romantic angles were considered. Calhoun was a later character to the cast.
How much of the history is true? Who knows? According to Disney themselves, it took twenty-three years to bring us Wreck-it Ralph from start to finish. From a sheaf of paper notes to this masterpiece. Notice that a few of the games referenced or seen in Litwak's arcade didn't even exist in the late '80s. I appreciate them sticking with it.
*Technical: I know about the major rules about using commas and semicolons when breaking up conversations. I mangle those rules often. I get them mixed up. Sorry 'bout that.
*Legal: I do not own any rights to any of the characters portrayed here. All characters of Wreck-it Ralph are fully owned by the Disney Corporation, or legally licensed from other companies for this movie. I am not associated with the Disney Corporation in any way, but if asked, would gladly work for them. Really, I love the guys. And I couldn't do any worse than Planes.
*Summary: So to those who enjoy the story, thank you kindly. To those who would pick it apart under a microscope to start an argument, who cares? I have fun, I hope you do, too. So there.
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