Thread by @RainbowSquidInk

@_rich_moore Hello, sir. I know that I have raged off on this movie to a near comical degree but taking a much calmer approach to this, taking this as someone who loves WiR and someone who loves world building, character writing and so on....there were a *LOT* of problems with-

-the second movie in how it tried to balance so much, say a lot but in the end wound up twisting so many wonderful things that were made for the first and made them feel completely pointless for the 2nd.

The problem with WiR 2 as a whole is that it does not feel like anything connected to WiR at all. None of the characters really feel like they belong in this world or *connected* (bad dum TISH) to the internet because all the focus was put on other properties so interest wasn't-

-REALLY on the Litwak crew going on another adventure online to find out about how things have changed. WiR is a story who's entire world is focused around gaming and gaming culture. It would have made sense and been AMAZING to see these 30+ year old characters see how-

-their own world, the gaming world, has gone on and changed beyond them sense being in an arcade is like being in a time capsule. They would have NO IDEA, with perhaps the SMALL exception of Calhoun, how games have grown to function online. This was a massive-

-missed opportunity and not just for eye candy but also for a learning experience in some form or another and that's for ALL our heroes, not just Ralph and Vanellope.

The way that WiR characters were pushed to the sidelines was highly disappointing. Felix and Calhoun SHOULD have

-gone on the journey with Ralph and Vanellope, not just so much to have them but to have two character so close to Ralph and Vanellope be witness of what gaming is like as well. Ralph and Vanellope going off alone felt so disconnected because it puts off the feeling that-

-neither of these two are really close to Felix or Calhoun, despite the ending of the first making it look and feel like these four were family. They found so much commonality with each other in the first movie but in the second, we're not even back at square 1. It's like we're-

we've gone BACKWARDS and no one in the arcade but Vanellope and Ralph matter. That's not a community or a team up and frankly, if there was anything boring it was that. There are so many great characters that deserved so much more than what they got and it was disappointing.

And bringing up Vanellope herself, she was awful in the movie. She doesn't come off as a 'strong independent character' or whatever was supposed to be the 'trait' with her. She came off as a user, plain and simple.

She used her title as a mean of being an unlikable jerk to the other characters. she used Ralph as a means of getting the work done for her, and she used her 'i'm bored' excuse to drop everything and leave Sugar Rush. What exactly is Vanellope supposed to be?

I asks this because for the past SIX YEARS, we've been told she's President and a great leader yet we see NONE of that in the movie. She prattles on about being Princess (??) and doesn't step it up to actually help and come back to make Sugar Rush better.

Vanellope is NOT a leader, not at all. She uses everyone around her and seeks constantly approval to how good she is. Ralph is a hero because he was willing to sacrafice his life for her and her game when he didn't have to. Vanellope has done nothing for her game or her people-

-but break and leave it. Is she a leader, a President, a Princess, a friend? She comes off as NONE of these and feels like what Turbo was before he was busted; someone who is only in it for the glory for themselves, not for anyone else.

That's part of the problem WiR 2 has; it abandons EVERYTHING that made the first so enjoyable for SO MANY forced and empty messages. The first one feels like a timeless message story set in a fun world but the second is so dated already and forced in its message that it is NOT-

-FUN nor does it feel like this was even suppoesd to be a WiR movie at all, not with the way the characters are sidelined and treated. This was marketed and sold as a Disney Princess movie which, okay, you want a DP movie then make one. Don't force it into WiR 2 and act as if-

-something was accomplished because it wasn't. People don't love WiR for the Princesses. People LOVE WiR for Ralph, for Felix, for Vanellope, for Calhoun, for the racers, the Nicelanders, the GAMES.

GAMES.

GAMES.

Games and characters are the heart of WiR and that heart was cut out. Seeing Felix, Cahoun and the racers being replaced with PRINCESSES that were so forced and bland was disappointing and seeing Ralph reduced to this quivering yes-man to Vanellope was even more disheartening.

WiR 2 could have been good. I WANTED a sequel. I wanted more chances to see these characters but I also wanted to see them GROW and I mean BEYOND Ralph and Vanellope. I wanted to see more characterization from Felix and Calhoun, the racers to show off their OWN growth, the-

-Nicelanders being funny or any other drama that could have been posed in the arcade. We COULD have had a great adventure tale about the Core 4 going online and seeing how the world has changed, how they have changed but how home is where the heart is and all that.

We COULD have had something like that but in the end, we got so much emptiness and no, nothing new was done with the internet world. I'm old enough to have seen nearly EVERY cartoons take on what the internet would be like if it were a world and honestly? WiR 2 was just-

-coasting on a lot of tropes and old jokes that were dated 10 years ago. There wasn't too much new or unexpected, except for the way I wasn't expecting characters to be thrown to the sideline as they were.

I also wanted to point out this; it's sweet that the idea was that Ralph

-had to learn some fatherly things when it came to his relationship with Vanellope but you choose the wrong path on this one. The lesson wasn't so much about Ralph having 'empty nest syndrom' or whatever it was because Vanellope is clearly not ready to handle ANYTHING on her-

-own at all, not with the way she treats her game and its occupants.

If you wanted a good father/daughter story it should have been one where Ralph realizes that he's letting Vanellope get away with TOO MUCH and he's spoiling her to take a view much like Turbo did before he game

-jumped so instead of babying her, he has to do something a lot of parents do hate doing sometimes and that's being STERN with her and telling her to GROW UP and act like the leader she makes the claims she is. Yes, it would have upset her but seeing the mess she caused would-

-make her realize that not only was she abusing Ralph's trust, power and love but she was making SR miserable by her own hands and justifying why Taffyta and the other racers still weren't her friends. It's not THEIR fault, it's HERS for being so irritating towards them.

In the end, Vanellope WOULD have learned to grow up and have shown she was a better leader than Turbo by finding the part, coming back and then actually making a connecting with the others and not relying on the easy way out of everything to win. With good writing, there-

-could have been ways to put the racers more into the plot with maybe them coming to help her along with Ralph, Felix and Calhoun in the end and Vanellope that SR doesn't run on one racer or alone or that just because she's 'popular' doesn't mean she can treat the others like-

-dirt or that they can't help her. It honestly feels like people writing the movie were avoiding any sort of consequences to Vanellope's actions out of fear. Why? What would have been the problem had Vanellope messed up only to have to fix it and LEARN from it?

THAT'S how you make a strong female character. You don't make one by avoiding pitfalls with them or constantly having them validated. You DO things with a character, not make excuses for them.

I just wanted to end this by saying I still love WiR 1. It's one of my favorite movies and the whole world is amazing and I just wish we could see more of that. But WiR 2 sort of betrays it and the characters for a very weak message. The makings for a great movie were there.

But it feel apart trying to appease the wrong crowd. Buzzfeed and Disney Princess fans don't care about WiR. They don't care about the characters as I have seen so many times. They don't care about Felix or Calhoun or anyone else. So why make this movie for them when they don't-

-care about the world at all. There was an audience waiting for SIX YEARS to see the return of these characters and their adventures and yes, they were highly disappointed. I've had friends tell me, who *LOVED*, Vanellope that they now can't stand her and guess what?

THEY MOVED ON TO LOVING TAFFYTA MORE BECAUSE THEY FEEL MORE CONNECTED TO HER WITH HOW SHE WAS TREATED IN THE SECOND, as small as her bits were.

Vanellope has now become the bully which is NOT something that was meant to happen right?

If there is any more WiR media that comes out, just remember this; games.

People love the games. Not the Princesses, not the online things. The arcade. Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, Calhoun, the racers, the Nicelanders, the bad guys, the games.

These are the heart of WiR.

I still love Wreck-it-Ralph and I hope to see better things from it. The second movie just did not land on what it was trying to say and it came at the cost of disappointing fans who wanted to see more of the characters they loved.

Maybe next time?

~ Ink out 🦑