History Headscratchers / WreckItRalph

What are the implications of PC-gaming and/or modding in this universe?
* Specifically, the main advantages of PC-gaming, [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement without discussing subjectives like graphics or exclusive titles]]: mod support and file-system control. If a PC-user can mod their own games and make backup files, does that mean an amateur programmer might be aware of the game characters? Keep backup files of all of them so they could game-jump in safety while they play a game? Could that apply to arcade and console characters, essentially turning desktops into a game-world tourist trap? What about games with notoriously prolific mod support (StarCraft, STALKER, anything in Bethesda's main series)? HilarityEnsues when the gang jumps into Radiation 18: A Tale of Russian Vikings and find out the Main Character is being run off of a WreckItRalph mod.

* In-universe, how do console and computer video games work? And are characters inside of it alive at all? If they are, what happens when you take CD out of your console?

* What are cutscenes? Are the characters acting, or are they sort of like prerecorded footage? Does Ralph's stump get moved and the Niceland Apartments get built every time someone plays?

* Here's one that's been bugging me. I get the whole thing about dying outside your game killing you, but why is this an issue for Ralph? Ralph shouldn't be able to die, he is never killed in his game! He's thrown off the roof into a mud puddle. Felix doesn't kill him. In fact this shouldn't be an issue for a lot of characters. Protagonists, sure. Mario, Sonic, Felix, but quite a few of these characters wouldn't have a death animation in their code. Nobody dies in kart racers, nobody dies in Street Fighter (Mortal Kombat is a different story), the ghosts in Pac-Man are already dead.
** It has nothing to do with whether or not you can die in your own game.
** My point is they shouldn't (wouldn't even) actually physically be able to die, like Jack Harkness in ''DoctorWho''. They weren't given the ability to die in their code or creation. No death sprites, no death animations, none of that. They were created without the ability to die '''at all'''. Not Ralph, or the racers, or anyone from the Street Fighter guys...any character who doesn't die in his native game shouldn't be able to die at all. And before someone points out this means Turbo shouldn't die, we don't know if death was possible in Turbo Time or not. Some racing/car games do have that ability.
** And my point is your theory just plain does not fit with the stated rules of the setting. Whether or not ''you'' think he should be able to die is irrelevant--according to the setting, he can. The movie is just plain not using the same logic you're coming from.
** Actually the rules are wildly inconsistent. Double-stripe tree branches seem to vanish whenever it's convenient for them, Turbo somehow doesn't die (outside of his game so it would be permanent no less) when he car is T-Boned in Road Blasters, Sonic is hit and loses his rings in Game Central Station and doesn't die (even though there's no reason that should work outside of his game), Felix dies from falling ceiling tiles in one scene, yet survives being right next to a frag blowing him up (and into the marines) in Hero's Duty and being kicked a good 20 feet away by Calhoun (which would have hit him harder than the ceiling tiles). The rules of the setting are actually not very consistent at all. It would actually make '''more''' sense if the characters mentioned above were immortal; if you're not programmed to die, you can't die.
*** The rules are plenty consistent--a car accident is not automatically fatal. Sonic doesn't die if he has rings. Felix dies because debris falling on him is, in that game, an instantly fatal injury, while in Hero's Duty, apparently grenades are not automatic kills. By your interpretation, Ralph also shouldn't have been able to ride on Vanellope's kart (there's no kart riding sprites of Ralph), while Felix would have been incapable of riding Calhoun's hoverboard. In fact, going by the 'character can't do anything they're not programmed and sprited for in their home game' interpretation, nothing in the entire plot would have ever happened.
** ...gonna go [[HumblePie have a snack now.]]
** Sonic's warning doesn't even make sense, because characters appearing outside their own games isn't all ''that'' uncommon. What about characters that appear as GuestFighters, like Link did in the ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries SoulCaliber IV]]''? Or in crossover games like ''VideoGame/MarvelVersusCapcom''? (I think Sonic was pulling their chain.)
*** Those characters are still appearing inside their own games. They might not be part of the overall continuity of that particular game series, but that's different from not being programmed into the game itself. Presumably if, say, Spider-Man was to leave a ''Marvel Versus Capcom'' game and die, he'd die for real. Sonic presumably means "if you die outside of a game that you've been programmed into, you die".
** GuestFighters are coded into their new game (usually with a whole different set of moves and animations) - for this version of the character, the crossover game '''is''' their game. They're intended to be there. Link would be just fine.

** According to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBzNSMdcm2w the fake TV spot for Hero's Duty]], it's "Wreck-It Studios", though it seems to have no connection to Tobikomi and Wreck-It Ralph.

* Okay, so Sonic appears to warn everyone that if they die outside their own games, they die for real? Seriously? What about characters that appear as GuestFighters, like Link did in the ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries SoulCaliber IV]]''? Or in crossover games like ''VideoGame/MarvelVersusCapcom''? (I think Sonic was pulling their chain.)

**** Plus, the movie was almost over.

*** To explain it better, picture a Franchise/DonkeyKong and a MarioBrothers arcade game. While Donkey Kong is a two-player game, it's an alternating one. Which means there only needs to be one "Jumpman" and one "Donkey Kong" in the game. In the case of Mario Brothers, there can be two players at the same time, so there has to be two separate sprites (even though, in this particular case, Luigi, or Player 2, is just a palette swap of Mario, or Player 1). Different sprites equals different characters.

** Well, we never really see the exact procedure that Litwak/the repairmen he brings in go through to try and fix the games. Presumably that would help if there was a simpler/more natural problem, but it might not do much considering the problems that would cause those games to go out of order would be a missing object that is vital to the game's normal execution (Fix-It Felix Jr./Turbotime) or the presence of foreign, malicious code ([=RoadBlasters=]). Because of the way things seem to work in the movie's universe, rebooting the machine probably wouldn't create a fresh "copy" of Ralph/Turbo unless they had returned to the game by then.

* Ralph [[spoiler:tries to make all the Mentos fall into Diet Cola Mountain to set up a beacon. He says one more slam should do it. Then Cybug!Turbo shows up and keeps him from doing it. Ok, but Cybug!Turbo is slamming them pretty hard. Shouldn't that have made them fall in?]]

** Actually the rules are wildly inconsistent. Double-stripe tree branches seem to vanish whenever it's convenient for them, Turbo somehow doesn't die (outside of his game so it would be permanent no less) when he car is T-Boned in Road Blasters, Sonic is hit and loses his rings in the surge protector and doesn't die (even though there's no reason that should work outside of his game), Felix dies from falling ceiling tiles in one scene, yet survives being right next to a frag blowing him up (and into the marines) in Hero's Duty and being kicked a good 20 feet away by Calhoun (which would have hit him harder than the ceiling tiles). The rules of the setting are actually not very consistent at all. It would actually make '''more''' sense if the characters mentioned above were immortal; if you're not programmed to die, you can't die.

* How did Vanellope end up in the "Fungeon," anyway? After Ralph wrecked her cart, she went back into Diet Cola Mountain, through an entrance that only she and Ralph knew about. So how did she get caught?
** Presumably, King Candy had someone watching--or just watched himself--to make sure that Ralph went through with it. Recall that the very next thing we see in that area is Sour Bill sweeping up the cart's remains. Plus she was yelling and screaming--not exactly being a stealth master.
* It's obvious from what we see in the movie that Arcade Characters, just like regular people, need to take a break from work and rest every now and then: they hang out at tappers, or even sleep (Ralph mentions he sleeps in the dump and Vaneloppe made herself a bed in her volcano lair). For the characters in this movie, that is no problem since the Arcade Hall they are in closes at night. But what about Arcades that are open 24/7?

*** Its unlikely that it's a written rule. They call game-jumping going Turbo. Surely Turbo wasn't the first character to do it but he's the first to get his game and another game unplugged. They certainly don't seem to be concerned at all about Q-Bert and the gang deciding to take up residence in Wreck it Ralph at the end of the film. I suspect that in the Wreck it Ralph universe cross overs like Capcom vs whatever and Battletoads and Double Dragon started off as a couple of guys who simply forgot to get home before the arcade opened.