Sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I've been trying to edit a chapter a day in my book, work has been crazy, and now to top it all off, I've managed to come down with a cold and Pink Eye at the same time. Right now, that all seems to be under control. I'm on Chapter 37 of 41 in my editing, and once this second draft is done, the third one shouldn't take very long.

Well, I've had some more time to think about Wreck-It Ralph. While I maintain that it's a great movie, there is one little part of it that I kind of have to take issue with. This requires a bit of setup though.

- SPOILERS -

The synopsis for the movie is that Wreck-It Ralph is the bad guy in an archade video game called "Fix-It Felix Jr." (and no, they never say what or where the regular, original version of "Fix-It Felix" is). The twist is that Ralph's not really bad; wrecking stuff is just his job in the game, and there's an understanding in the video game community that it's good for games to have a designated "bad guy." However, on "Fix-It Felix Jr.'s" 30th anniversary, all the other characters throw a party but don't invite Ralph. He ends up crashing the party and getting into a big argument with is gamemates, and they all make it clear that they resent him for being the "bad guy" and don't respect how pivotal he is to the game.

Long story short, Ralph sneaks into some other games to prove how heroic and admirable he can be, he ends up really making a mess of things there, "Fix-It Felix Jr." is deemed out of order because there's no more bad guy to fight, and Ralph comes home to find all of his gamemates packing to leave. As he tries to apologize and explain his actions, one of the side characters chews him out for only thinking about himself and for not appreciating what a good thing he had in the beginning, and the movie indicates that this character is right.

That's what I kind of have to take issue with.

I'm failing to see the "good thing" that Ralph had in the beginning. There was no silver lining to his life; the other characters were genuinely taking him for granted. They didn't appreciate at all how important he was when they should have, and they literally treated him like garbage. And yet the movie's trying to tell us now that he's entirely the one in the wrong. To be fair, I do think that Ralph behaved selfishly in the other video games, but most of the really bad stuff was done unknowingly or because of a misunderstanding. Plus, I never got the sense that anyone in "Fix-It Felix Jr." knew about the things that he did in those other games. So what are they mad about? That he got tired of poor treatment that he didn't deserve and they found out the hard way that he had a point?

To be fair again, the actual character Fix-It Felix has an epiphany where he realizes how unfair everyone's been to Ralph, and the side characters do show their appreciation at the very end of the movie. I just really don't think Ralph's guilt or the resentment we're supposed to have for him in the chewing-out scene was merited.

I might need to see the movie again to make sure I have all my facts straight. That shouldn't be too much of a chore since I still like it.