The scene where Ralph meets King Candy for the first time is one of the most interesting ones on a rewatch because you already know who King Candy is pretending Not to be. The way Ralph behaves is interesting too. (I’m studying these little 1kb game characters under a microscope)
Below the cut is a LONG scene/character analysis (~6min read?)
First off. King Candy’s mere Entrance in this scene already characterizes him a ton and he hasn’t even said anything yet. He speeds obnoxiously around Ralph in his little go-kart BLARING HIS HORN. This immediately gives off the impression of: Very in your face. Very full of himself. And Very Annoying About It. (sir.. your Turbo is showing)
BUT THE DIALOGUE. JUST THIS SINGLE INTERACTION:
(Ralph Face Reveal While Screaming)
“Milk my duds! it’s Wreck-it Ralph??”
“Yeah...? And who are you, the guy who makes the donuts?”
“Hoohoo, please- No! I’m King Candy!”
I love this interaction because King Candy INSTANTLY knows who Ralph is. And from Ralph’s perspective that’s… weird.
Ralph is probably a little confused. Given how he answers “yeah?” He doesn’t just straight up ask “How do you know who I am” because he’s currently being interrogated (Probably Not a Good Time) Also that recognition is something he rarely receives in the first place, so why from this guy…? So instead he asks: Well who are you supposed to be?
WELL FIRST OF ALL. HE KNOWS WHO RALPH IS BECAUSE TURBO’S GAME CABINET SAT NEXT TO HIS FOR YEARS. Which is why King Candy is so surprised - he’s probably seeing him for the first time in decades.
“Hoohoo, please- No! I’m King Candy!”
I also love how he nervously laughs at first before responding with “No!” In that particular way- simply laughing it off before being Rather Quick to reject Ralph’s proposal that he could possibly be someone else. Interesting .
But it’s the way he says “I’m King Candy!” That carries so much implication. His pose and smile, the perfect inflection in his voice- it’s theatrical, it’s like he’s rehearsed it. It’s almost like he’s trying to convince Ralph that he’s really who he says he is with the best performance possible. He’s been doing that for years and by this point he’s totally mastered it. Nobody suspects a thing. (For now……)
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Skipping forward a little, Ralph explains that he got a medal from Hero's Duty.
"Your medal? (giggles) Bad guys don't win medals!"
"Well, this one did. I earned it over in... Hero's Duty"
"You game-jumped?? Ralph... You're not going Turbo, are you?"
"What? No no no no no..."
"Because i-if you think you can come in here- (laughs nervously) to MY kingdom, and take over MY GAME, YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!"
THERE IS A LOT TO UNPACK HERE.
First off we'll focus on Ralph. The way he admits it... He knows it sounds bad. He breaks eye contact and hesitates before saying "Hero's Duty." Probably because he knows what King Candy is gonna retort with. But he still says "I earned it" not only because he doesn't want to incriminate himself, but because he believes it. He did earn it... right? And then Ralph tries to brush off the suggestion that he's going Turbo before being interrupted by King candy's rampant tantrum. (WHICH I WILL GET TO.)
At this point, Ralph is becoming less confident that he earned his medal because he's in denial about “going Turbo.” His confidence wavers here especially because he's in the presence of this apparent authority figure whose trying to guilt and incriminate him. (And this is a situation he's already all too familiar with- think of how Surge Protector always halts him when going into games just because he's a bad guy.)
But there's still one major thing keeping this denial intact: He wants to hold onto the fact he deserves his medal so bad. Others have hurt him for so long, he thinks getting that medal alone means he'll finally be respected, praised, and loved.
"Is it Turbo to want a friend? Or a medal? Or a piece of pie every once in a while? Is it Turbo to want more out of life?"
(I know that’s literally the Conflict of the Movie. BUT ITS WORTH MENTIONING OKAY I LOVE RALPH’S CHARACTER LEAVE ME ALONE)
I think the fact you can gather all this info just from the way he's portrayed during this SINGLE INTERACTION- its amazing. Amazing character writing is when when nearly every action a character does reinforces their motivations or personality and you're able to SEE IT!!
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Now to focus on King Candy again… this FUCKER‼️
First off, him mentioning Turbo Isn’t even that suspicious at this point in the film… well… at first glance at least.
At first it seems like everyone knows who Turbo is. Ralph is questioned at Bad-Anon, Q*bert tells Felix and the nicelanders freak out- everyone who’s been around for a while knows who this guy is. But if you think about it… isn’t Sugar Rush a newer game? Not as new as Hero’s Duty, but it’s still a little odd that King Candy would know who Turbo is ON TOP of knowing Ralph. Just a little.
"You game-jumped?? Ralph... You're not going Turbo, are you?"
Ok but Seriously. That Part. The pure irony of King candy saying THAT a threat against Ralph in an attempt to incriminate him. The way he says it too... He breaks eye contact and glances to the floor like it’s something forbidden to even mention. His accompanied hand movements too (and King Candy speaks with his hands A Lot) they move like he’s describing a ghost story. He’s obviously trying to scare Ralph… trying to scare him into admitting something.
This is... a lot. Maybe even some level of self projecting...? Cuz MAN. that is too deep for me to even start getting into
But the fact that his OWN NAME (a SECRET IDENTITY MIND YOU) has become so infamous that now HE’S WEAPONIZING IT?!? IS INSANE??? Can you Imagine his thought process. Like how far gone into the deep end is he.
(SORRY FOR NOT USING MY OWN WORDS. BUT I JUST ADORE HOW @simpingforcys PUT IT HERE. …..)
THIS. this is so good. And the way King Candy eludes to “Turbo” as some kind of monster. Could that be offering him like. A Brief moment of catharsis. Or fuel some twisted sense of pride. What the FUCK is going on in this SICKO’S HEAD !!!!! I NEED TO KNOW!!!!
"Because i-if you think you can come in here- (laughs nervously) to MY kingdom, and take over MY GAME, YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!"
SECOND!!!!!! King Candy gets SO defensive SO FAST. That man jumps to conclusions IMMEDIATELY!!! He essentially throws a tantrum while stepping closer to Ralph, stumbling over his words and giggling nervously. The mere thought of there being ANY threat of someone else taking over "his game" riles him up SO BAD.
This is the same EXACT SAME TEMPER that made him storm into Roadblasters as Turbo years ago, because he saw Roadblasters as a direct threat to his own game's popularity - HIS popularity!!!! Because getting exposure- infamous or otherwise- is the ONLY thing that drives him. (Pun intended. Sorry.)
And the way he repeats “MY” kingdom “MY” game… mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine. Are you done with your tantrum old man.
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Wow. Anyways I think that’s enough for now. And that was in response to only a minute of content. (Oh dear.)
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it's easy to read the situation between li tongguang, ruyi, and yuanzhou as a love triangle on a superficial level, but looking even one step further, it's clear that there's no triangle about it. li tongguang is obsessed with ren xin; ning yuanzhou is devoted to ren ruyi. ltg's obsession is fervent and all consuming, but it's not devotion. like ruyi herself notes, his feelings to her are on the basis of her as a mother figure in his life, as a replacement for what he never received from his mother. is there an element of romantic/sexual love/desire to it? maybe. more likely he's deluded himself into thinking that, because the truth is, it's doubtful that ltg even understands what love is (platonic, filial, familial, romantic, all of the above, etc), because he has no basis for understanding. ruyi's teachings and actions towards him are the closest thing he has to hold up as an example. what he wants is ren xin, is a replica of the master he had. he doesn't want ruyi, because he doesn't actually care about ruyi. therefore, he doesn't care if she's sad, angry, mad; he just can't bear her 'abandoning' him. we saw this way back when she first meet and left him, both at thirteen and seventeen. although he distrusts her first, she saves his life and cares for him in the way no one else has, hence her first being raised on a platform in his mind. when she leaves for good, ending their master-disciple relationship/training, even though it's for official business and she's not abandoning him, in his mind that's exactly what it is. so now that she's in his life again, he won't let her leave again. he was powerless before, a child with no proper name, but now he's a recognized member of the imperial family, a man who can meet her as 'equals' (even when that's far from the truth). as a child, he could only cling to her legs and beg her, but now he has the power to keep her by his side. it's telling that when he finally gets confirmation of her identity, it's not ning yuanzhou he seeks to harm (even though he detests him and their relationship), but yang ying. yang ying is ruyi's new disciple, and as ltg doesn't know she's a woman, he only sees her as his direct replacement.
ning yuanzhou, on the other hand, is devoted to ruyi. he wants to build a new life and future with her, instead of slotting her into a spot in the life he already has. he's someone who accompanies her on walks and makes her midnight snacks, who holds her when she needs to be held and lets her go when she needs to do things on her own. when she speaks her mind, he listens, even when it makes him discontent/it's not what he wanted/wants to hear. he sees her unabashedly as his equal, and though he acknowledges her skills and abilities, or points out her naivety, he never does it to belittle her; to him, she is his peer, deserving of the highest honor and respect. he trusts her to have his back, and she has come to trust him to have her. he did what she might have thought no man would ever do: he proved himself reliable, so she came to rely on him. yuanzhou gives her freedom and autonomy as both ren ruyi and ren xin. of course they run into problems, but they both learn and grow from them, as individuals and as a couple. yuanzhou's belief in her is unwavering, but adaptable, whereas ltg's is unwavering, but frozen in time, disallowing for any new information to be presented. yuanzhou works with ruyi to accept the changes thrown her way; he seeks the core behind her actions in order to better understand her. li tongguang cannot accept the changes in ruyi's character, because they run contrary to the master he has on a pedestal in his mind.
what li tongguang wants is to return to the past, but yuanzhou offers ruyi the promise of a future, even one that might never come to fruition. there's no triangle about it.
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Chris talking about his synaesthesia and seeing the colour of music
a snippet of an interview Chris did with a German ESC channel about a month ago, translated from German into English (because I thought it was pretty fascinating what Chris had to say, and hoped you all would enjoy reading about it as well)
Benny: Chris, you are a synaesthete. What does Blood and Glitter look like to you? And is there a Eurovision song that looks particularly noticable?
Chris: So, you know … Synaesthesia is the connection of senses that normally do not belong together, right? Someone who can taste colours, for example. So they are seeing a colour and are having a certain taste in their mouth. In my case it's the ear that is connected to the eye, and it only works in this direction. So when I'm hearing a certain note, I see a specific colour.
You can picture it like an instagram filter, when everything gets colourised in a certain way, and all contours seem to be glowing in that colour. A little bit like a real-time light show. I'm pretty good at repressing it, though, and it also doesn't happen when I'm tired and the brain is trying to save resources. But when I allow it to happen then I'm seeing this aura. It has nothing to do with how a song feels to me, though, so the colour is not determined by the feeling that I have. It's really just a physical thing. Sounds are wave lengths. So you have twelve semitones, and then everything repeats itself, twice as high, twice as deep, and so on. So these wave lengths are all connected to a certain colour. C, for example, always has a blue shade to me, and when it goes deeper, to an A, it becomes purple. So, Blood and Glitter is written in A minor, and especially with the guitar riff in the beginning, everything gets stained in a purple tone. So it's not blood and gold at all, if we would consider gold to be a proper colour.
Now the thing is, it's important to me that our lightshow matches the colours that I'm seeing, and I can work quite well with red and purple. If it's too complementary, like red and green for example, that doesn't work well for me. Or if a song goes too far into the direction of green, then I'm having trouble handling it, unless the song symbolises a certain inner conflict, because I simply don't like green as a light colour. Even though I quite like it as the colour of the forest, where it is more muted.
It's getting pretty nerdy here, as you may notice. So the thing is that the clearer the information is, the more distinct will be the colour that I'm seeing. When I'm hearing simply a pure sinusoidal tone, then the colour is very clear. When more harmonies come together, everything will get muddier. Like when you mix all colours together and it becomes brown – or white when you're mixing light. That's also one of the reasons why I rarely like jazz when it becomes too atonal. Because with all those different sevenths and ninths in jazz chords you have a lot of friction, and then it just becomes very muddy and cold colour-wise, like there's no clear colour information anymore, and it's all just grey. So I cannot really feel jazz emotionally. Or when you have a song with a lot of harmonies and transpositions, then it can also change during one song.
But with the other Eurovision songs I haven't really paid any attention to their colours yet, because it is something that is so normal to me that I'm not analysing it really. I won't be thinking: Oh, it's getting blue now! It's just as normal to me as when you open your mouth and there is sound coming out of it, I also wouldn't be paying any attention to that.
Peter: What about classical music?
Chris: Well, when you're talking about the proper classical period here – also including the Romantic, the neoclassical or the baroque era, so everything that is harmoniously precise, and which works diatonically in major and minor keys – here it is quite similar to pop music, it's very comprehensible. When it gets too modern however, like the Schoenberg school, twelve-tone technique, all that, or the whole expressionism, then it's just like jazz with classical instruments, so that also doesn't work for me. Because then the colours are just jarring, you know? It's not only weird for the ear, it's also hurting the eye. But I do love classical music. I listen to a lot of classical music, I love movie scores, the cello was my first instrument, and I'm still playing it. I have basically made classical music before I even knew that something like pop music existed.
Benny: What a fascinating topic, really! We could probably fill a whole show with that if we wanted. Thank you for the answer.
Chris: Oh, sorry, if I may nerd around some more, just one thing. When I'm listening to a certain symphony or whatever, and I feel like the colour-mood does not match what I'm hearing, then I have this here in the whole house [takes a remote control] … all the light bulbs are connected with this Philips hue system, so whatever lamp I need to change, I can adjust it, until I feel like this matches the music that I'm currently listening to better.
Benny: So today the mood goes more into the direction of pink?
Chris: For me it's red, maybe the screen messes it up. But that was really just because of Blood and Glitter, that made me go: Let's do a red light show today.
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