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Tear Jerker / Wreck-It Ralph

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Roger Ebert once said that Video Games were not art to him. Never mind the gaming community's backlash, this is what will make anyone with that idea change his or her mind. Because, just as Toy Story did with toys, Wreck-It Ralph will do with Video Games: showing the heart that lies within such things.

And given this is Disney we're talking about, the task will be accomplished in the most gut-wrenching of ways.

Oh, and it's directed by Rich "Jurassic Bark" Moore. Bottom-line if you don't know what that means: You will cry. So prepare your tissues.

Final important note: As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.


The Film

  • It all starts with a main character who was literally designed to be "the bad guy" of his story, something he eventually realizes isn't much fun.

  • The entirety of Ralph's monologue at the Bad-Anon meeting. He just sounds so miserable and exhausted, as anyone in his shoesnote  would surely feel.
    Ralph: My name's Ralph, and I'm a bad guy. Uh, let's see...I'm nine feet tall, I weigh six hundred and forty three pounds, got a little bit of a temper on me,note  my passion bubbles very near the surface, I guess, not gonna lie. Anyhoo, what else? Uh, I'm a wrecker. I wreck things, professionally.note  I mean, I'm very good at what I do. Probably the best I know. Thing is, fixing's the name of the game. Literally. Fix-It Felix Jr.note  So, yeah, naturally, the guy with the name Fix-It Felix is the good guy. He's nice enough as good guys go. Definitely fixes stuff really well. But, uh, if you've got a magic hammer from your father, how hard can it be? If he were a regular contractor, carpenter guy, I guarantee you, he would not be able to fix the damage that I do as quickly. And when Felix does a good job, he gets a medal. But, are there medals for wrecking stuff really well? To that, I say, "Ha!" And no, there aren't. For thirty years I've been doing this, and I have seen a lot of other games come and go. Kinda sad. The thing about those guys at Asteroids? Boom, gone. Centipede? Who knows where that guy is, you know? Look, a steady arcade gig is nothing to sneeze at, I'm very lucky. It's just, I gotta say, it becomes kinda hard to love your job when no one else seems to like you for doing it. [...] I don't know...maybe I wouldn't be feeling this way if things were different after work. But...it is what it is, you know. Felix and the Nicelanders go hang out in their homes...which he's just fixed and everyone, you know...They go to their homes, I go to mine, which just so happens to be...a dump. And when I say a dump, I don't mean, like, a shabby place. I mean, an actual dump, where the garbage goes...and a bunch of bricks and...smashed building parts; that's...that's what I call home. I guess I can't bellyache too much; I've got my bricks, I've got my stump...it looks uncomfortable, it's actually fine. I-I'm good. But, if I'm really honest with myself...I see Felix up there, getting patted on the back, people giving him pie and thanking him and so happy to see him all the time... Sometimes I think, "Man...it sure must be nice being the good guy."
    • During it, we get a glimpse of how the inner world of Fix-It Felix Jr. looks. All the Nicelanders go inside the front apartment entrance to relax after another hard day of work and are greeted by Felix at the door. Ralph picks himself up, covered in mud, and walks past them... right in time for the last tenant to rush in frightened, and for Gene to give him an angry glance before shutting the door behind him. This has been happening in that game every single day for 30 years at least!
    • After giving his introduction, it's mentioned that this is the first time Ralph has attended Bad Anon and when he's asked why he finally decided to come he initially tries to claim he didn't have any particular reason before offhandedly mentioning that today happens to be the 30th anniversary of his game. Reading between the lines it's obvious that the real reason he came to Bad Anon was so he didn't have to spend his anniversary alone.
  • Seeing that Q*bert and his crew are now homeless and starving, as a result of their game being unplugged. Though Ralph giving them cherries from the Pac-Man game helps somewhat.
    • Extra heart-wrenching when you remember that Ralph lives on a pile of bricks in a dump in his own game, and likely doesn't have that much access to decent food himself. Sharing the cherries with the Q*bert characters shows that he really is a good, selfless person.
    • While not seen in the movie, the Trailer shows an alternate scene where a blue dragon hanging around the Q*Bert group is seen holding a sign saying "Will NPC in FPS for Food!!" Considering the fact that game characters can DIE outside of their home games, it shows exactly how desperate the little guy is to brave gunfire as a player characters' target; just get something for his friends to eat.
      • Ralph not having access to food may be why he snuck out the cherries from Pac-Man because hey, free food lying around. No one's going to stop him (except the Surge Protector).
      • When Ralph walks into the penthouse and hears about the cake, he says he's never had cake before because no one throws it away—which suggests most of the food he gets is possibly scavenged from garbage cans.
    • The second trailer reveals that he uses a pile of bricks as a bed cover!
      • Ralph says, "But it's actually fine." It's like he's such a humble and good-natured guy that he really just doesn't like to complain. His speech at the Badanon meeting is so reserved and restrained when, considering what he's been putting up with for thirty years, he has EVERY right to be thoroughly pissed off. He's such a Nice Guy that he doesn't even like to complain about sleeping under a pile of bricks. And that's just sad.
      • Also think about where that pile of bricks comes from. It's all the bricks he slammed out of the building over the 30 years. It's a constant reminder about what his role in the game is.
      • Also, he's using the tree stump as a back rest. The same tree stump he gets booted out of at the beginning of the game.

  • This article gives a rather depressingly realistic perspective on Vanellope's life:
    Hunter Daniels: "Vanellope's status as a glitch and her various digital malfunctions place her as a very, very sad character indeed. She spends her nights hiding out in the unfinished track for her unfinished level, cuddling up with candy wrappers as her blankets as she dreams about the day that she’ll finally get to race. She's like a physically disabled and orphaned undocumented ten-year old with delusions of grandeur. So, you know, not your typical Disney heroine."
    • Vanellope even says, "Everyone says I'm a mistake." With that, she turns from simply an annoying brat to a lost little girl in a world that despises her for simply existing and desperately needs help.
    • Vanellope is Plucky Girl personified, even before Ralph shows up. Imagine being trapped all alone in a world where everyone ignores or belittles you because of a condition that you have. Yet when we first see her she's no weeping mess. She confronts a guy twenty times her size and she's not intimidated in the slightest. She fends for herself and manages to survive as a Street Urchin, outwitting King Candy and his idiot guards whenever they try to capture her. She'll also do anything to achieve her dream of racing, against the will of an entire kingdom. Can we give this kid a freaking round of applause?
      • The part where she wraps herself up in discarded candy wrappers, smiling all the while, shows how alone and defenseless she really was. Ralph picks up on it instantly and probably feels like a jackass at that point. Sure he's shunned in his game, but at the most the Nicelanders just avoid him and he at least has the ability to leave. What's more, at the time, he didn't know Vanellope was a crucial part of the game too and figured as a minor character, nothing would be lost if she did leave. Vanellope is in a world where the inhabitants treat her like a Class-A criminal and will actually harm her.
    • If you thought that Vanellope's backstory couldn't get any more tragic, read this: it's all a lie. King Candy is really an old video game character named Turbo whose Attention Whore status destroyed two games in the past and is the reason why others freaked out about Ralph "going Turbo". Turbo/King Candy manipulated the game code by making Vanellope a glitch, locking away everyone's memories about her and rigging the entire system to ensure that he always stays number 1 and Vanellope never has a chance to do what she was created to do, to race. Princess Vanellope was supposed to be the main character of Sugar Rush. She was supposed to live in the big fancy castle and have everyone else love and adore her. And instead she's a despised outcast sleeping under discarded candy wrappers in an abandoned bonus level because of the greed and powerlust of one corrupt old monster... and because if she ever was allowed to cross the finish line just once, the game program would reset and return her to her rightful place.
      • According to the game trailer, Sugar Rush came out in 1997. Assuming the movie takes place in 2012 (i.e. the year it came out), that means Vanellope has been living this way for fifteen years. Ouch.
    • Unlike the other three protagonists, she has no one. Felix is a well-respected "good guy" among his game. Calhoun has her soldiers to keep company. Ralph has other "bad guys." Vanellope can't go out of her game to befriend others. Meaning she is forced to be in the same world as her tormentors.
      • Also meaning that it's only because her world happens to be built out of edible materials that she hasn't starved to death. She can't even beg for cherries in the transit station like Qbert.
      • This also adds way more emotional weight to the "you're my hero" medal she bestowed upon Ralph just moments before he smashed her racing cart. Imagine being alone throughout your entire life, ever since the game got plugged in, and being treated with immense scorn; you finally meet someone who's willing to stick up for you and help you achieve your dreams. That is why Ralph meant so much to Vanellope, and why she called him "her hero" - because Ralph was the first person in god knows how long to actually support her after living alone for years in the gutter. And that's why it especially hurts mere moments later when Ralph smashed her cart into little pieces.
  • Sergeant Calhoun's tragic backstory. Her fiance was eaten by a Cy-Bug at the altar on their wedding day because she forgot to do a perimeter check.
    • It might even be worse than this: Unless this actually takes place in flashback in a cutscene in the game, it's just a memory the game developers programmed into the character.
      • If it does take place in a cutscene, then she has to relive her fiance's death every time someone plays the game.
      • Moreover, since cutscenes in arcade games are usually part of its Attract Mode, looping whenever a game isn't in play, it's also possible that Calhoun has to relive said death, or at least have it on display, even when the game's not in action.
    • It gets worse. Calhoun has flashbacks of several dates with her betrothed!
      • The minigun part of her flashback does not at all lessen the tearjerker value. Look at the pain in her eyes! It may have come off as a little funny and tragic in the movie, but her eyes. At no other point do we see her that frightened.
      • This was after Felix accidentally set her off by calling her a "dynamite gal". He was trying to be kind... but being called by her betrothed's Affectionate Nickname for her made her Freak Out.
    • Also, remember what happens to things Cy-Bugs eat. They are assimilated. She knows this. So not only did she watch her fiance die, but she has to kill him again.
    • It gets worse. Calhoun has Medium Awareness. She knows this is a game. Brad likely didn't even exist outside of her memories/cutscenes, and her wedding-that-should've-been didn't technically happen... and she knows this. But she still gets all the PTSD that would come from having been through such a traumatic event. Even when everything's fine, and she understands that on a logical level, she has a flashback to what happened. She just can't help it. Anyone who's ever had an anxiety attack set off by a seemingly innocuous thing (or, worse, an anxiety attack where they're not sure what triggered it) can probably relate.
  • Ralph tries to get into his game's 30th anniversary party, but gets a door slammed in his face. In fact, him not being invited at all to the celebration of a game where he is one of the main characters is unbelievably stupid and disgusting. What's worse is that it's Felix's party, so Felix, afraid of being shunned by the NiceLanders for inviting Ralph to the party, caved into the others into not inviting Ralph.
    • Felix seems to consider Ralph a friend, so not inviting him might have seemed like the best option, given how Gene seems to hate Ralph and how easily the crowd follows Gene. Between Gene's attitude and Ralph's self-admitted temper, Felix was not in a good position. Note how hurriedly he assures the Nicelanders that he's okay when Ralph accidentally crushes him.
    • The whole scene with the anniversary cake (and the horrible, insulting little figurine they made of poor Ralph.)
    Gene: You're just the bad guy who wrecks the building!
    Ralph: No. I'm not.
    Gene: Yes, you are!
    Ralph: No, I'M NOT! (smashes the cake, shocking everyone)
    • What makes this worse is that Ralph seems to genuinely like the cake at first... but then notices he doesn't seem to be anywhere on top of it with the others. Then the camera pans down and he sees the figurine at the bottom in the mud pit where he usually lands after someone finishes a stage. His reaction is pretty understandable yet the others (including Felix) don't seem to understand his displeasure with this.
    • Also, the face Ralph makes when he realizes he really destroyed the cake. After saying he's more than just the guy who wrecks the building, he smashes the cake, which was designed like the building. Ralph's just trying to let go of his bad guy persona and be accepted, but he just can't get away from what he's supposed to be and how the world sees him.
    • After Ralph leaves, you can see Mary dejected over her destroyed cake as Felix tries to comfort her.
  • Ralph's game has an automatic intro which appears when the game isn't played. It shows how his home is destroyed to make place for the Niceland Appartment. If anything happening on screen is the characters playing roles, this means that Ralph has to relive his backstory over and over. We cut to inside the game and there's a brief shot of one of the bulldozers pushing away some bricks.

  • The second trailer has "Some Nights" by Fun playing during the dramatic moments. It really moves you... even before you see the actual movie!

  • Ralph walks through the Game Central Station, munching on some cherries and minding his own business... while a bunch of other video game characters jump out of his way like he's the coming apocalypse. "Bad guy coming!" God, imagine how that feels.
    • Doubles as a moment of Fridge Brilliance. Some characters are programmed to take damage when they come into contact with "bad guy" characters. So for some of them, he is an apocalypse, doubly so since they're all outside their games.

  • In a blink-and-you-miss-it moment from this faux-90s commercial for Sugar Rush at Litwak's, about 10 seconds, the player chooses a character. The cursor goes over Vanellope and she gets excited and starts winding up for a celebratory jump...but then it moves on to Snowanna and Taffyta.

  • Once he gets to Sugar Rush, Vanellope steals his medal, and later on inadvertently destroyed. Ralph does not take this well, to put it lightly. It's a bit narmy and maybe hilarious to some until you really consider his situation. After a life of neglect from being a bad guy and finally doing the impossible and proving a bad guy can get a medal, he LOSES it before he can show anybody he knows. This was probably his only chance to get a medal the hard way, and now he's just back to face a life of utter torment. It's the dream of several people to be worth something, and even more people have given up on it already.
    • During the scene where Vanellope actually takes the medal from him, Ralph seems to be on the verge of tears as he helplessly tries to explain his situation and get it back from her. You really have to feel bad for the damn guy.
    Ralph: That’s why I was climbing the tree, it’s mine! (his voice cracking) It’s my- It’s precious to me! W- That thing, it’s my- It’s my ticket to a better life—!

  • Ralph bitterly saying 'We are not friends" to Vanellope when she offers to make a deal with him was pretty sad to hear, especially for those who already know what their friendship will mean to both of them later on in the movie.

  • After hearing King Candy's explanation (which later proves to be a deception) about the danger Vanellope could possibly bring to herself and the rest of their world by being a glitch, Ralph, wanting what's best for her, forces himself to demolish the car he helped her build which brought them together.
    • Worse, it avoids the cliche of having Vanellope speed off in a rage when she thinks Ralph is just selling her out for his medal. He forces her to stay where she is until he tells her exactly why he's doing this and only destroys her cart as a last resort when she still won't listen to him. And the look on his face shows how much he hates doing what he believes he has to do.
    • But, there's more: this all immediately follows Vanellope giving Ralph a medal she made herself out of a cookie with the words "You're my hero" written on the back in icing. He may be trying to keep her safe, but he's also hurting the one person who saw him as more than a villain. It even makes the quote below the picture above even more heartbreaking.
    • For added Fridge Sadness: destroying Vanellope's car is exactly what the other racers did earlier in the film. So not only did Ralph betray Vanellope's trust, now she thinks he's just like everyone else who was ever mean to her.
    • Then there's Ralph's efforts to let her down gently and try to simply talk her out of racing, which she just laughs off as an annoying joke. But once she realizes he's being serious, it hits her like a ton of bricks: she glitches and stands up perfectly straight in shock, at a loss for words.
    • The agonizing way Vanellope cries as she's Forced to Watch Ralph wreck her car. Sarah Silverman genuinely (and jarringly) sounds like a poor little girl whose heart is breaking over the thing she loves most, and she does a GREAT job at that.
    • We find out through this that the "glitching" is at least partially related to Vanellope's emotional state. After Ralph destroys her car, she is so devastated that she glitches off the tree Ralph hung her on into a heap on the ground.
    • King Candy's line about "heroes [having] to make the tough choices" makes the whole thing even more painful, especially after we find out that King Candy/Turbo was goading him on to advance his plan.
    • This scene especially hits hard for those who have been either grounded or scolded by either their parents or teachers in real life. Ralph in this scene is that of an enraged father finding out his daughter has or is about to fatally put herself in danger by breaking the rules, and no matter how immoral his punishment may be, still goes through with it to ensure her own safety. Vanellope's tearful and heartbreaking reaction to being disciplined is exactly how we'd all feel if we were to be on the receiving end of retribution in the real world.
  • Ralph's near-Heroic Sacrifice by divebombing head first into the Mentos, planning to be boiled alive in Diet Cola Hot Springs, all while stating the Bad-Anon Affirmation and looking at Vanellope's message of "You're my Hero" as he whispers the last line.
    Ralph: I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be... than me.
    • To drive it even further, it's quite likely that this moment is the first time in his life that he's ever truly believed those words.
    • The track that plays underneath this moment, here, with a sweeping chorus, makes this a severe tear-jerker to many!!
    • What really clinches it is Ralph looking at the medal Vanellope made for him while he falls. Take note that his fist was faltering as he fell even as he recited his Bad-Anon Mantra. His whole body language was expressing the terrible fear he was attempting to suppress with the mantra. It was him looking at the medal that gave him the strength to recite the rest of the mantra resolutely and hold himself with determination.
    • Take a real close look at these two screenshots. For just a second as he falls, Ralph opens his eyes to look at the medal one last time- it is the last thing he expects to see before his Permadeath. And then he closes his eyes again and he smiles. He just smiles.
    • The moment that leads to this decision is equally worthy of tears. The Cy-Bug-revived Turbo grabs Ralph and flies with him up in the air, grabs his head and yanks it in the direction of where Vanellope is along with Felix and Calhoun, and proceeds to tell him to watch while Vanellope gets eaten by the Cy-Bugs.
    • To wit, at this point all the Sugar Rushers have been evacuated. Only Van, Felix, and Calhoun are there to witness his act and it's debatable how much longer Felix and Calhoun could stay in/near the threshold of the plug. Meaning that his sacrifice would not be known to anyone but a handful. And he doesn't care; a far cry from the start of the movie where he wanted that public recognition.
      • Except Felix probably had no intention to escape. Ralph was essentially committing suicide, so it would be impossible to save Fix-It Felix Jr. from getting unplugged. The Nicelanders would all be able to evacuate to Game Central Station, but his new friends were in danger. Felix grabs his trusty hammer and holds his ground, as if he's preparing to put himself between Calhoun, Vanellope, and the Cy-Bugs.
    • A bit of Fridge Brilliance and extra tearjerker, Ralph is reciting the creed to comfort himself in the wake of his impending death. Look at his face as he's reciting it: he's trying to keep from breaking down.
      • Look at Ralph's face when he finds out he can't bring Vanellope through the exit. It is eating him up inside something awful at the prospect of leaving her behind, even as she entreats him to.
      • Even worse: Not only is Ralph forced to leave Vanellope behind, but he probably can't escape the fact that this was all his fault, and that if he didn't senselessly put the arcade in danger just for that stinking medal, none of this would have happened.

  • During the finale while Calhoun and Felix are trying to evacuate the residents of Sugar Rush due to the Cy Bug invasion, Ralph desperately tries to take Vanellope with him but her glitching doesn't allow her to follow. Vanellope then proceeds to tell Ralph, "It's okay. Just go. Go without me." Cue the waterworks.
    • Calhoun and Felix both gradually back into the portal as they helplessly hold Vanellope's hands to prevent her from running toward Ralph. They lose grip of her as soon as they are through the portal.
      • Fridge Brilliance makes this detail bad in a different way: Not only are they holding her back, but they're trying to comfort her, a little girl that they barely know. They might not even realize she's a glitch until they make it through the barrier and she doesn't. Imagine being two good-hearted people, especially a chivalrous goof like Felix, and being stuck in that situation.
    • Just an Imagine Spot of poor Vanellope begging and pleading for someone to help her as Sugar Rush disappears behind her is terrible. No one should have to go through that.
    • Also, note that how she does, "It's okay. Just go. Go without me" aren't spoken in a manner typical to the situation in a movie. It isn't anxious. It's soft. It's calm. It's the voice of someone at peace with the situation. With dying as long as someone they love is safe. She's a 9-year-old girl facing a death in a literal Apocalypse and she's somehow okay with it. That's how much torment she's been through. That's how much it meant to her that Ralph was her friend.
    • This may count as Fridge Brilliance, but remember how in the Imagine Spot Vanellope was shown screaming and panicking while the world around her was collapsing? Yeah, when it actually did happen, Vanellope didn't react like that at all. She was perfectly calm, willing to stay behind so that her beloved friend could escape safely. Conclusion: this girl is much stronger than everyone perceives her to be. Truly a case of Underestimating Badassery.
      • Fridge Brilliance in another way as well. King Candy probably did try to persuade her not to race at some point, with the same story he told Ralph about it being for her own good, but, as Candy told Ralph, she would not listen. Why? Because racing is in her code, that is, in her soul. She knows that racing may kill her, but she is willing to die to do it. That's why Ralph's willingness to sacrifice his own life at the end is so important to his character development: he finally has something that he is willing to die for.

  • The other racers breaking Vanellope's kart while mocking her as she helplessly tells them to stop.note 
    • The scene where Taffyta and the other racers bully Vanellope and destroy her car is devastating on its own, but what finally pushes Ralph over the edge and prompts him to run over, screaming, "LEAVE HER ALONE!"? Seeing Vanellope get shoved in the (chocolate) mud. Considering he gets tossed in the mud every single day in his own game, it makes sense that seeing it happen to someone else, even a bratty kid he doesn't like (at least at that point), would really upset him.
      • Even worse: they're making fun of her the same way a bully makes fun of someone with a physical or mental disability, i.e. sarcastically mimicking it.

  • When Vanellope gets sent to prison, we see chains and cuffs everywhere, one on her waist, two on her wrists, her ankles... she is chained down like a wild animal and it hurts.
    • The room was filled with colorful imagery and the words "You have been a bad girl." on the walls. Odds are if King Candy/Turbo had managed to find her sooner that would have probably been her new home until the game was inevitably unplugged.

  • As if the scene where Ralph wrecks Vanellope's car wasn't enough tearjerking, soon afterwards Ralph returns back home to "Fix-it Felix Jr." where, to his surprise, finds Gene inside of the Penthouse, who has just finished packing up and getting ready to leave the game before it gets unplugged the next day. Ralph came home expecting a warm welcome by the Nicelanders after winning a medal, but instead learns about the bad news from his own rival, who by this point has completely given up on Ralph. To top it all off, all Gene did after telling Ralph what happened was give him the keys to the Penthouse as promised. Then he leaves Ralph all alone in the Penthouse.
    Ralph: I was just tired of living alone in the garbage!
    • You could read that as Gene telling him to live in the penthouse and then die when it gets unplugged, which is actually sort of chilling.
    • The line also feels like Gene is rubbing in how poorly the Nicelanders treat Ralph while still foisting all of the blame for the situation onto him, ignoring how the whole mess could have been avoided if they hadn't treated Ralph like dirt all that time for no good reason. Alternatively, Gene does know that it's all largely his fault. But after being mean to Ralph for so long, it's just easier for him to pin the blame on the "bad guy" than to blame himself. Either way, it's sad.
    • You can even see the utter shock and heartbreak on Ralph's face when he notices the "Out of Order" notice obscuring the window to the rest of the arcade. All that Ralph truly wanted was to overcome his envy, and actually be loved and supported for once (he was, after all, an absolutely integral part to the game just as much as the Nicelanders and Felix were, so he had every right to feel upset that he wasn't getting as much appreciation compared to his contemporaries). The look on Ralph's face just shows he knew he went too far to achieve his biggest desire; he genuinely did not want to drive everyone away from him like this, and knew the blame solely rested on him for giving in to his ill-fated promise.

  • The retro commercial for "Fix-It Felix Jr." says Ralph loves living up to his Wreck-It name. Compare that to where he is 30 years later.

  • The quick gag of Felix saying that Ralph sometimes falls asleep in the bar "Tappers." Through a darker lens it could be that he drinks a lot some days.

  • The moment where Felix is imprisoned in the "fungeon." It hurts to see Felix mad and upset when we typically see him as an happy, acclaimed hero/winner. He now had to experience the same torment Ralph faced at the beginning of the movie the hard way - left in the garbage, and treated like a wanted criminal. And all of this adds on the stress he was ALSO feeling when he had to deal with finding Ralph and fixing the damage he had caused.

  • When Vanellope shows Ralph where she's been living in over the years.
    Vanellope: Welcome to my home! I sleep in these candy wrappers and I bundle myself up like a little homeless lady...
    • The heartbroken look on Ralph's face the moment he realizes his and Vanellope's plights are similar.
    Ralph: (stunned) By yourself? ... With all this garbage around you?
    Vanellope: Well, yeah. I mean, everyone here says I'm just a mistake and that I wasn't even supposed to exist. What do you expect?

  • Ralph and Vanellope's farewell at the end after saving Sugar Rush. It's also heartwarming, but you can see Vanellope's eyes welling up with tears as she's telling Ralph he could stay in Sugar Rush where he'd be appreciated.
    • Swings to heartwarming right before the end credits when you realize that the appreciation given to him by Vanellope is the catalyst that gives him a new lease on life, and allows him to play his role with the same enthusiasm he did when the game was plugged in.

  • Turbo/King Candy's death. Yes, he deserved it, but you gotta admit that the recurring cheery theme as he reaches the coke volcano sounds like a farewell to one of the best Disney villains ever made.

  • The scene near the end where Vanellope, who has regained her status as the game's princess, makes all the other racers who tormented her earlier break down in tears after decreeing that they be executed seems to come off as a bit cruel and mean-spirited. Sure, she revealed that she was just joking about it moments later, and, to be fair, the other racers KINDA deserved it, but during that brief moment where they bawl their eyes out...that's kind of debatable.

  • The fact that Bad-Anon even needs to exist. A bunch of video game bad guys meet up every week to work through their issues with their jobs. It makes you wonder if Ralph's situation is really so unique...
    • Some of the other bad guys should have definite issues. Think of Bowser, Clyde and M. Bison, three other bad guys who've been plugged in for years. Wreck-It Ralph may be programmed to commit an astounding amount of property damage, but Bowser has to kidnap a princess and enslave a kingdom, Clyde and his siblings have to constantly hunt and try to kill what is to them a ravenous predator while simultaneously living in fear that they'll get eaten by said predator should it touch a Power Pellet and charge back, and M. Bison is a murderer and terrorist leader. These guys have to be screwed up with that kind of reality. Those jobs have to be rough on the mind. The only thing Bowser, Clyde, and M. Bison have over Ralph is that they have henchmen (or in Clyde's case, a family) who in-game they have the respect of, and they've also been going to Bad Anon for years. Ralph is all alone in the world of Fix-it Felix Jr. and it took him being plugged in 30 years to finally join Bad Anon.
    • Dr. Eggman looks particularly distraught during the meeting, especially during the oath. It's a background element, but it's still rather harrowing to see Ivo Robotnik of all people looking like he's genuinely depressed over his life.
    • Adding to this, just think of any villain from a video game. If you believe in this continuity, that character is actually a decent person who has to act evil. The worse the villain is in game, the more emotional problems similar to Ralph's they probably have.

  • Imagine for a moment that Vanellope hadn't saved Ralph and he had died in the cola volcano. All the Bad-Anon members would ever know of what happened would be that despite their attempts to help him, Ralph went Turbo and ended up getting himself killed. They would probably feel somewhat guilty that they weren't able to help him with his problems when he came to them for help coping with his life. They would never know that the bad guy creed they taught him gave him the courage to save an entire game world and comforted him as he fell to his doom. They would never know how much their support helped him in the most important moment of his life. They would inevitably find out Ralph sacrificed himself from Felix but he was too far away to hear the Bad Anon affirmation and wouldn't have recognized it anyways.
    • With Ralph gone, Fix-it Felix Jr. would be unplugged. The Nicelanders and Felix would be all homeless, begging next to Q*Bert and Co., instead of Ralph and Felix taking Q*Bert in.

  • Save some tissues for the very final note of the film, after Ralph has finished describing how things have improved for him and his friends. He's found happiness at last, but where does it come from? What does he consider the best thing about his new life? The moment when, lifted up at the end of each game, he can see across the room outside to where kids are playing Sugar Rush. His voice when he describes how "I can see Vanellope racing... the kid's a natural... and the players love her... just like I knew they would..." is so full of pure love and pride and happiness, and the delivery sounds so natural, like he's just thinking aloud, feeling it more than saying it. He went on this dangerous quest searching for a better life for himself, and although, when you think about it, things haven't improved that much for him, he knows things will be so much better for the little girl he cares about, and that's all he needs to be happy — knowing that his friend is safe and happy now. It sounds just like a father who had a hard life glad that his daughter will have a better life than he did. He no longer cares about fame and popularity and having cheering fans who want to give him rewards; he's happy just to have made a difference in one person's life.
    Ralph: Turns out I don't need a medal to tell me I'm a good guy. Because if that little kid likes me, how bad can I be?

  • As for the other game characters in TurboTime, it's unknown what happened to them after the game was unplugged courtesy of Turbo's actions. It is possible they were either rendered homeless like Q*bert and stranded in Game Central Station, or worse, they were all killed when they all couldn't evacuate their game in time. Since no one sees them in Game Central Station, it's very likely they were killed (although they could have been in some other places we are never shown onscreen but still homeless).
    • Not to mention the RoadBlasters characters, who not only had their game unplugged as well, but whom Turbo deliberately murdered by running them off the road out of pure envy and spite. And they wouldn't even have known who the grinning white-faced maniac driver was before they, along with the rest of their world, ended.

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