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| Fix-It Felix receives a medal at the end of the game. All the Nicelanders are smiling, and Ralph looks unhappy. Image source. |
[content note: spoilers for the Disney movie "Wreck-It Ralph"]
The movie "Wreck-It Ralph" (2012) is about a video game character named Wreck-It Ralph, from the fictional video game "Fix-It Felix Jr." Ralph's role in the game is to be the "bad guy" who wrecks the building, and then the "good guy", Fix-It Felix Jr, comes and fixes the building. Ralph isn't actually "bad"; that's just the role he has to play in the video game. Ralph is unhappy because none of the other characters in the game appreciate him. They make him live in a dump, while they all have parties without him in the apartment building. They don't want to have anything to do with him, because he's "the bad guy." Ralph decides to leave his game and prove he can be more than just "the bad guy", and, well, that's what the movie is about.
I want to talk about Fix-It Felix, though. I LOVE Fix-It Felix. He is my favorite character from this movie, and Sergeant Calhoun is my second-favorite. I love him because he's so innocent and very much wants to work hard and do what's right. And his character is really exactly what you would get if the hero from a simple fixing-the-building video game came to life. (And I love Calhoun because she's exactly the character from a typical arcade first-person-shooter set in some post-apocalyptic world.)
But Felix lives in a society (in his video game) where he is on the top and Ralph is on the bottom. Ralph suffers, while Felix gets medals and admiration from the Nicelanders (the other characters in the game). Felix has privilege. And it's not Felix's fault that Ralph is treated unjustly- no one blames him for it in the movie- but since he's at the top, shouldn't he do something about it?
Here's how Ralph describes Felix, at the beginning of the movie:
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 got a magic hammer from your father, how hard can it be? If he was a regular contractor, carpenter guy, I guarantee you, you will not be able to fix the damage that I do as quickly.
Ralph says this at the "Bad Anon" meeting, a gathering of video game "bad guys" learning to accept themselves for who they are. Notice how he describes Felix- "He's nice enough as good guys go." Like, there's nothing wrong with Felix personally, but they all know that as a good guy, Felix won't understand how Ralph feels.
And yes, Felix fixes the building using the magic hammer from his father. He was born into this role. That's just the way it is. And there's nothing wrong with that. But he should realize that not everyone had the opportunities that he had. Felix might say "I worked hard fixing the building, I deserve to have these medals and recognition"- and yes, I agree with that. He did work hard, and he deserves those things. But you can't stop there- Ralph also deserves those things. Plenty of other people work hard too, but they don't get the same rewards that Felix gets, because of the role they happen to be programmed for, in their video game.
At the beginning of the movie, there's a scene where Ralph shows up uninvited to the party that Felix and the Nicelanders are having. And Felix is polite to Ralph, even brings him into the party because it seems like the polite thing to do- despite the fact that Felix is obviously uncomfortable with Ralph being there. When Ralph gets into an argument with Gene (one of the Nicelanders), Felix tries to diffuse it. He's nice and just wants everyone to get along.
Gene is the one who's actively being mean to Ralph. He says:
If you won a medal, we’d let you live up here in the penthouse! But it will never happen, because you’re just the bad guy who wrecks the building.
(Gene does have a point though, because Ralph does smash the cake at the party.)
Felix isn't mean like that. He tries to be nice to everyone. But he's at the top of their society, and he doesn't question that. He was born into a system and taught that this is how things work: He needs to work hard and fix the building, and then he will be rewarded with medals and pie, and that's the way it is. He doesn't think about the fact that other people haven't been given the opportunities he has. He doesn't think about the fact that society treats Ralph unfairly and makes him live alone in a dump, even though Ralph is just doing the job he needs to do in their game.
Felix just goes along with it. He himself never treats Ralph badly... but I would say he's complicit. Because if you're in that position, you should eventually realize that other people have it worse than you- even though your whole society is structured to prevent you from realizing that. At some point, though, you're complicit, because you should have realized it and taken action to change it.
Anyway, when Ralph goes missing and the Nicelanders discover that their video game doesn't work without him, Felix goes to look for him. Of course he does- he's a good guy, and he feels a responsibility to always fix things that go wrong. When he and Sergeant Calhoun discover that Ralph accidentally brought a dangerous cy-bug into the video game "Sugar Rush", Felix insists on going with Calhoun, even though she warns him it's dangerous. (And she clearly has seen a lot more danger than he has; it's very entertaining how dark and terrifying the language is that she uses to describe what will happen if they don't catch that cy-bug, while Felix is so innocent and polite, calling her "ma'am" and using fake expletives like "I don't have to do boo. Forgive my potty-mouth.") Of course he insists he has to go with her- he's a good guy, and he feels a responsibility to solve the problem that Ralph caused, because those are the roles they always play in their game.
Anyway, here's the scene where Felix finally gets it. He's been put in the jail in the "Sugar Rush" game, and Ralph comes to break him out and ask for his help:
In the clip above, Felix says:
No, Ralph! You don't know what it's like to be rejected and treated like a criminal.
And Ralph tells him,
Yes, I do. That's every day of my life.
And Felix finally gets it.
It's not Felix's fault he was programmed to be the good guy and Ralph was programmed to be the bad guy. It's not a bad thing that he received a magic hammer from his father. It's not his fault that his hard work fixing the building leads to winning medals and being admired by everyone, while Ralph's hard work only gets him rejected and ostracized. Felix is a good person. He's never mean to Ralph in their one-on-one interactions. He tries to be nice to everyone and to do what's right. But he lives in this system that puts him on the top and Ralph on the bottom, and he doesn't see anything wrong with it- not til he's the one that ends up thrown in jail unjustly.
Felix just goes along with it, very naive and innocent and totally buying into this lie that his society tells- "if you work hard, you will get a medal"- without realizing that's not how it works for Ralph. The lie "Ralph deserves to live in the dump because he's the bad guy." Felix is a good person, and none of this is because of anything he did wrong- but at some point, he should have been able to get a glimpse of what life is really like for Ralph, and realize that they don't live in a just society. And vow to change it.
For all the years that he just accepted the way society treated him and Ralph, he was complicit.
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